Back to the kitchen

I have to admit something. I'm cooking. It's not often. Just a few dinners a week. But I'm doing it. Sometimes I can just pile all the ingredients up on the counter and stand in one place to do the prep work. Sometimes I use my scooter to zoom around. Sometimes -- I even walk a few feet in my boot (Shhh, my doc visit isn't until Wednesday).

I don't look entirely like Igor, so you know... I think I'm healing. (But I promise I don't walk on it barefooted -- ouch. This foot needs some structure and support!)

Anyway, not everything that I've been making has been good. But I just made something on Saturday that I love. So I'm sharing it with you. But you have to jump over to my poor food blog that went dormant when I got my surgery done. There will be many, many more entries there now that I'm getting my foot back and because I'm preparing for, not just one, but, two family holiday celebrations at my house this year.

Because it looks like (if we sell our house next spring) that we'll be relocating to San José next summer, I wanted to get the most out of a house that we built for visitors before we move into a much smaller house that probably will not have an extra bedroom. (Hey, a 1,600 square foot 3-bedroom house with two baths in San José will run you approximately $750,000-900,000.) Anyway, my family is coming for Thanksgiving and MacTroll's family is coming at Christmas.

And I'm so excited to be back making new recipes. I know, people who hate to cook or bake think I'm crazy that I don't usually make the same thing twice. But I like the exploration. Dining options are kind of limited in our little cozy town, so it's nice to try out new things.

White versus Color

In the last 24 hours, I've cooked two new recipes that I've really liked, which reminds me I need to enter them into my Lose it app. (I'm running a little bit behind today.)

The first is an Egg and Veggie Salad with Dill Green Goddess Dressing from the Vegetarian Times (July/August). It takes  only 30 minutes to make and looks like a million bucks when you finish. The only troubles I had with it are 1) I couldn't find anywhere in town that carries the orange cauliflower and 2) Meijer used to carry small bags of only purple potatoes last November, but now the only ones I could find were mixed medley ones at Schnuck's (I looked at the three stores I mostly shop at Meijer in Urbana, Schnuck's in Savoy and the Common Ground Food Coop in Urbana)

But it was worth it.

The second I made for breakfast this morning. It's a vegetarian Biscuits and Gravy recipe (April/May 2012 Vegetarian Times) that is also gluten-free. It serves 8 (be careful, I'm pretty sure I had two servings and therefore do not get to eat lunch -- but I'm still full from eating at 9 a.m., so that also speaks to the hardiness of the meal.)

I have always stayed away from traditional biscuits and gravy because -- well, it looks like milk and cereal vomit. And truth be told... this doesn't look any different, except it's not greasy, and if you make it yourself with butter, potato starch and garbanzo flour and milk you get why it's that ugly color. But at the same time, it's better if you just don't think about it too much. It's supposed to take 30 minutes or fewer, but for me having to get out anything that has to chop stuff up (food processor/blender, etc.) takes me 10 minutes because I use them so few for meals that I forget how to put them together! So I'd guess it took me more like 45-50 minutes.

X-man decided he wouldn't try either. I put the vegetables from the salad on his plate without mixing them up and gave him ranch in a small bowl to dip to try to entice him. But it was a no go. He did try one of the radishes because he said he liked them when he tried them in kindergarten. But he told me they had to be sliced not quartered. I told him tough...

So, if my kid looks like he's losing weight lately and I'm not, it's because he's choosing not to eat what I'm making, even when I do "X-man friendly sides" like corn on the cob or strawberries as his side dishes. He wouldn't even try the biscuits...

New Recipes

I've tried two new things this weekend including a vegetable side dish from Vegetarian Times called Spring Leek with Polenta and Goat Cheese and a main dish from Eating Well magazine called Spring Pizza.

Both take less than 30 minutes to make, which is awesome.

Here's a photo of the pizza. I used the new pan that I got when I hosted a Pampered Chef party for Tiffany Despain last weekend. It was perfect!

The recipe for the Spring Leek with Polenta and Goat Cheese follows, since it's not online:

1 tbsp olive oil
3 med. leeks, trimmed, halved and chopped (6 cups)
1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced (1 cup)
2 Tbs. minced fresh thyme, divided
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
3 cloves garlic, minced (1 tbsp)
1 16 oz tube prepared polenta, cut into 12 slices
2 oz crumbled aged chèvre (1/2 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Heat oil in ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add leeks, bell pepper, 1 tbs. thyme, and red pepper flakes. Sauté for 10 minutes. Stir in broth and garlic.
2. Arrange polenta slices over leek mixture in skillet; top with crumbled chèvre and remaining 1 tbs. thyme. Bake 10 minutes or until chèvre softens.

Serves 4: Per serving (1 cup hash, 4 oz polenta, and 2 tbs cheese) 257 calories, 8 g protein, 8 g total fat, 40 g carb, 11 mg cholesterol, 470 mg sodium, 4g fiber, 7 g sugars.

Dinner Bell

I made a curry tonight from Vegetarian Times. I was supposed to use yellow curry, but I went to three different stores and could only find red or green... and I had red at home, so I decided to just suck it up and use it. Plus, it was very good on a warm night. If you want, you can cook some rice and add it to the soup to make it more dense, but I just used the vegetables, figuring there was enough starch in the potatoes.

1 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled and cubed (2.5 cups)
3 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 inch thick half moons (1.5 cups)
1/2 lb green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tbs. coconut oil
1 med onion, chopped (1.25 cups)
1 clove garlic, minced (1 tsp)
2.5 tbs. yellow curry paste (again, I used red)
1 tbs. cashew butter (you can get this at the Coop in the self serve containers so you don't have to pay a mint for a whole freaking jar), especially, since you only need such a small amount. But it's not peanuts!
1 13.5 oz can of light coconut milk
1 tsp sugar
1 red bell pepper, diced (1 cup)
2 tbs. thinly sliced basil leaves
1 tbs. lime juice

Boil a large pot of salted water. Cook potatoes for 7 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the water. Put in carrots and boil them for 10 minutes. Repeat removal with slotted spoon. Add green beans and cook for 5 minutes. Remove them with slotted spoon.

In a large pot heat coconut oil. Add onion and cook for 7 minutes (or until starting to brown). Stir in garlic, curry paste and cashew butter and cook for 1 minute. Pour in coconut milk, 1/2 cup of water and sugar. Simmer.

Add potatoes, carrots and bell pepper and simmer for 10 minutes until bell peppers soften. Add green beans and basil and cook for 2 more minutes. Stir in lime juice and serve.

1-cup serving is 240 calories, 4 grams of protein, 13 grams of total fat, 5 grams of fiber, no cholesterol and 316 mg of sodium.

And it tasted good to MacTroll and I, but X-man isn't into soups, so he just ate grapes and crescent rolls. Nice, right?

Winter Cooking in the -- Spring?

Yes, I know that Mother Nature has been, um, asleep at the wheel this winter after dishing out last winter's craziness. There hasn't been any sledding or building snowmen or shoveling. Don't tell my cooking magazines that because they've still been dutifully sending me winter-focused recipes including soups and chili. And this week I've made two that are actually worth a damn, so I'm sharing them with you. Yes, they're both vegetarian, but they're filling. So, you know, if you're freezing while it's 56 degrees and sunny on February whatever this week... give one of these a try.

Both are dump and stirs into big pots. They take 25 minutes to prep and around 40 minutes to cook.

Quinoa and Roasted Pepper Chili 

White Bean and Hominy Chili (If you're looking for the Fields Roast Mexican Chipotle Sausage, I know they carry it at the Coop. And yes, this one has some spice to it!).

Sleeping and Eating

I have been getting sleep in very short amounts lately. About five days ago, my back and hips started to go sore but only at night when I'm lying down. It felt like when I was 7 months pregnant and had to use my upper body to pull myself into a seated position to get out of bed. Once I'm up I'm fine...

So I called the chiropractor yesterday and he got me in at 3:15 p.m. today. And holy hell, was I all out of whack. I haven't been to the chiropractor in two years. Ever since he did some great work on my foot and general back issue work. My insurance only pays, really, for medical needs. They anticipate something should be fixed in five sessions -- and if it's not, it comes out of my pocket.

What's funny is that Dr. Gray put me in the same position that I've been trying to adjust myself all week. Get to the end of the bed, bend your top leg and then put pressure on the back side to get everything all lined up because as it is now, I have undue stress on my SI joint, which is what is causing the night time pain. I couldn't get it to go back in place tonight, but he sure did. Then I got "lasered."

I made two more recipes tonight. One is a side dish that is nothing to write home about, so I won't bother you with that one. But I made something else called a Tortilla Lasagna tonight, which uses toasted tortillas in place of lasagna noodles, and obviously the tomato and cheese mixture is more southwestern than Italian.

Just as a warning, mine did NOT look as pretty as the photo with the recipe was. It was really more like a casserole, so I scooped it out. I also used zucchini... because I didn't have time to hunt down a chayote.

And that's all about all I have in me. I wish I would have gotten in a run before going to the chiropractor, but it didn't work that way, and now my body is too sore. So, I'll have to try tomorrow in my circuit class to glue it all together. That's at 7:30 a.m., and I have to admit, I'm eyeing the clock, wondering if I took the Aleve for my back now, if I could sleep for the next 12 hours, and then just drive like a bat out of hell to Kari's for my morning workout.

Cooking with Loosey

When I first decided to delete my account on Facebook, I had some withdrawal. But now that it's been over two months, I don't miss it at all.

However, the folks that were my Facebook friends have run into me from time to time and actually told me things they missed about my posts. Apparently, I was was humorous. (That was very sweet of them to say). I also apparently inspired them in the kitchen. So they missed my recipes.

So, I'm going to post a couple here. Both of them are vegetarian, but not vegan.

The first is a deliriously easy soup for anyone who likes mushrooms. Its from this month's issue of Vegetarian Times.

Mushroom and Pappardelle Soup with Gremolata

If you're like me, you said. "Um, I have no idea what pappardelle and Gremolata are." The truth is that the picture of the food lead me to the recipe. (I loathe cookbooks without photos. Really, what's the point unless you can see the awesome goodies in front of you. I mean, don't laugh, but I kind of want to know what it's supposed to look like, so I can tell if I'm way off or not. So, Moosehead, you and I never got along... for only this reason.) Anyway, if you click on the recipe above, you'll see the photo. It looks like a semi-creamy soup with wide noodles, mushrooms and green beans.

The beauty of this recipe is that after you sauté the mushrooms and onions, everything else is a dump and stir. That's my kind of weeknight brain power, and the whole thing takes 35 minutes or so to prepare.

As it turns out, Pappardelle are wide fettucini noodles. I couldn't find them at Schnuck's. So, I googled substitutions and ended up using the Extra Broad No Yolks noodles. I also didn't have time to run to Meijer to get the Cremini mushrooms, so I used sliced baby bellas and they were fine. I had also never used mascarpone cheese in anything, but it was in the snooty cheese section by the Deli. And it made a nice non-heavy cream base with the soup.

And a Gremolata is a "chopped herb condiment" according to Wikipedia that you use like a garnish on top of the soup before you serve it.

I'm a big fan of pho. So I devoured this like I was devouring a mega bowl of the weekend vegan pho at Xinh Xinh Café in Urbana. Now it's literally swishing around in my round, happy belly.

Nutritionally, each 1 1/3 cup bowl has around 216 calories, 4 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. Not too bad. But I'll admit I had two of them. :-)

The other dinner is from the cookbook Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. I ordered it online from Amazon (via London) to get a copy earlier than the one that was released in the states. I was hesitant to start with it because it is MUCH more complicated than anything I've done before. I usually stay away from any ingredient lists that require over 12 things... and I also usually require that I already have at least 7 of those things in my kitchen. For example -- salt. Not a worry.

But this one I went out on a limb for. And it was worth every moment of prep work, but I'd recommend you do it on a Sunday. Oh, and practice your pancake flipping...

Bánh xeo (Vietnamese pancakes)

1 1/3 cups rice flour
1 small egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 3/4 cups coconut milk
a little bit of sunflower oil (I used safflower)

Sauce
2 1/2 tbsp lime juice
1 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce (sweet/kecap manis, if you can find it -- I didn't so I used regular)
2 tsp grated fresh ginger (I am a believer in those pre-minced bottles of herbs for stuff like this)
1 fresh red chile, finely chopped
1 garlic clover, crushed
1/2 tsp salt

Filling
1 large carrot, peeled
1 daikon radish, peeled (they were out at the Savoy Schnuck's and Meijer when I went, but the ones I found in Urbana were HUGE, and you only need a small one, so I substituted parsnip)
4 green onions
1 fresh green chile
1 1/2 cup snow peas
1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
2/3 cup basil leaves
1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup enoki mushrooms

Blend the rice flour, egg, salt and turmeric in a large bowl. Slowly add the coconut milk, whisk it well to get rid of the lumps. The batter should be thin, so add more milk, if you need too. The batter will thicken while it sits, just so you're prepared to add a little more.

For the sauce, just whisk together all of the ingredients. If you don't like spicy, feel free to skip the chile.

For the filling, shred the carrot and root vegetable of your choice thinly. I used the large end of my grater. Slice the green onions on an angle and make the chile and the snow peas into long strips. Set aside all the vegetables with the herb leaves and mushrooms.

Heat up the oil in the 9" pan. This makes four servings, so you can use a measuring cup to divide if it makes it easier. Once the underside is brown, flip it over to cook the other side. Keep them warm while you do the remaining 3 pancakes.

To serve, put one pancake on each plate and fill with vegetable mixture, herbs and mushrooms. Drizzle the sauce on top of the vegetables and fold the pancake over like an omelet. Put some more sauce on top and serve.

Ta-daahhhh

And that's what's been cooking in my kitchen this week.

Well, Tonight was a First

For Christmas my sister gave MacTroll a book called Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat. She also gave us 3 lbs. of frozen rabbit, which is really just one rabbit.

It's been sitting in my freezer while I worked on what to make with it. So tonight, I made Rabbit a la Moutard. I took my bunny out of the freezer and defrosted it, and then I started to cut it into the required number of pieces.

Here's the thing about rabbit (and yes, you can thank me for not taking photos), its muscles are mainly leg and back. There's no meaty breast like a chicken. Now, I've cut apart bone-in birds before. Mostly turkeys and chickens. I've seen the giant pieces of cow and pigs. But I've never really been to a pig roast before. All of my meat is delivered to me by the butchers, store keepers or giant conglomerate producers in a post butchered state. I even request my trout to come headless and tail-less as much as possible.

But I had a problem cutting apart the bunny. When I told MacTroll why, he nodded and then he suddenly left the room for a phone call for work. Leaving me with my problem.

This was my problem -- the little bunny body looked an awful lot like a cat body. We used to call Looseyfur the cat, Bunny soft. We say the same thing to our cat Clawdio. Pulling the legs that were tucked into the chest cavity out almost made me vomit. Seeing the little heart and the liver didn't do me any favors either.

I shut my eyes and told myself to stop making the bunny into my pets. Then I cut it apart and spent two hours on that recipe.

MacTroll ate it and said he had a hard time telling it wasn't chicken. I couldn't eat it for many reasons, so I had my prepared meal from the cupboard. But if I couldn't eat it, I didn't feel right giving it to X-man. So, he got a turkey hot dog, which I have no problem with because it doesn't look like a fuzzy bunny cat thing, Dr. Praeger's sweet potato shapes and some applesauce. He gave the thumbs down to Dr. Praeger's.

After dinner, I thought about my reaction to meat looking like the actual animal it came from and like an animal it merely resembled. I have cooked lots of meat -- a lot, but I've never gotten the urge to vomit before when cooking. So I have to ask myself, why it registers with the bunny, but I could give a shit about birds, cows and pigs? If I had a connection to any of those animals, would I immediately jump into a vegetarian lifestyle?

Is this when a person starts to realize she might perpetually have been living in a state of denial? Or does she just write off that particular kind of meat?

That said, there was a much cuter bunny-related news. X-man's class had their egg hunt today. :-)

In the Groove

Last month, I put up this post about managing my health a bit better. I'd been resisting paying attention to what and how much I'd been eating because I guess I was feeling a large amount of self pity and jealousy. For the last month, I've been slowly putting everything back together again. I started cooking 4-5 nights a week. I banned any store-bought snack badness from our house. Any desserts that do come into the house, I make by scratch from Cooking Light or Clean Eating Magazines. And I managed to keep myself from gorging on them by either throwing them away OR by handing them out to others.

This week, I started cutting out all the calories that had randomly creeped into my diet. I cook without my overdose of binging in the name of "tasting." That means when I make a warm chocolate pudding for the boys from CL I didn't take a taste of it when it was made. I didn't steal one chocolate chip. I avoided the trigger without expelling the food from the house. It's not that I wasn't tempted. It's not like I didn't think, "I can have one. It won't hurt"a few million times. But the follow up sentence in my mind was, "Yes, it will. You know it will. Have a tangerine."

So I ate a tangerine. And honestly, the last set of clementines I got kind of sucked, but these are perfect. I've also stopped grabbing extra food off of X-man's plate. Funny how I fought to get rid of that habit only to have it creep back up on me again.

I also have gone one week with only having one diet soda. This is a giant thing. I've switched over to either doing a protein shake or smoothie, low-calorie Crystal Light or just ice water.

I've been reading books on vegan and vegetarian lifestyles. I'm researching. But I haven't made any decisions, yet. The near-vegan approach is looking quite appealing, however.

My next step is to get rid of eating out. I'd fallen off the wagon and was doing it 2-3 times a week because of the convenience and my exhaustion. I need to prepare for my situation better, so I've been working on it. And I'm kind of proud of myself. X-man asked to eat at El Toro for lunch today. I sent the boys by themselves and stayed home.

I had been falling back into the gap of American food culture. Now I'm kind of climbing my way out of the hole again. The goal is to avoid the gap in the future by making choices that are best for my body and brain. I started to think that it wasn't fair that I couldn't eat what other people ate. I rebelled in giant ways. Now, after five days of monitoring and recording after weeks of preparing and making small changes, I feel like I'm back in charge of my body. This is a really nice feeling, but talk to me at the end of May and we'll see how I'm doing.

Of course, last night my husband took to watching Julia Child in bed on the iPad and is drooling at her recipes with 2 cups of sugar and heavy cream... :-) But I don't feel deprived, and he got double chocolate pudding for dessert last night, so he probably shouldn't feel deprived either.

As for tonight, I'm trying a veggie and chickpea curry in the slow cooker. We're headed out to the Rotary Family Day at the Savoy Recreation Center at 2 p.m. So, it'll be nice to have dinner pretty much ready to go when we get home around 4 p.m. (I just have to make the boys some rice.)

The Excitement of Thanksgiving: Variety

Last year, I hosted a group of folks at my house for Thanksgiving. It was nice because I was recently "out of the box" with Weight Management, so I could figure out the calories and the contents of everything going into my mouth.

My plate looked like this:

This year, it's just the three of us. And I realized the problem with holidays isn't so much the content of the food as it is. The problem is that I want to try everything on the Buffet. I don't eat at Buffets a lot, but I gander that this is always the problem. You put a mess of appetizing food in front of people's faces and even if you just use a 1/4 cup scoop of everything, you've got a mess of calories on your plate.

Since it's just the three of us, I limited the menu, but added dessert, which has become a rarity in this house due to our inability to have just one scoop or one slice of something.

So, on the menu is Pork Tenderoin Agrodolce, Citrus Green Beans with Pine Nuts, Spinach Salad, reduced fat crescent rolls and a Chocolate Walnut Tart.

The total caloric value should be high, twice what a normal meal for us would be, at a bit over 700 calories due to the dessert. But I feel like we're eating well without stuffing ourselves full because our brains tell us to try the 20 different items at the buffet. We're also meeting the 2 vegetables/fruit at each meal requirement that I'm trying to pass at home. We're at the 75% mark. Sometimes, I just get lazy...

Here's a photo of tonight's dinner:

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. We're heading out to see Tangled at 5:20 p.m. at the Savoy 16 today. X-man is totally looking forward to it.

How It Works in My House

I made Three-Pepper Cilantro Fajitas tonight. Here's how it went:

A) I forgot to put in the cilantro.
B) My child insisted that the bell peppers were spicy, spit it out, and announced he was making his own dinner and went to the cupboard for bread and peanut butter.
C) My husband ate the meatless concoction. Then he went back for seconds, microwaving leftover pork in a styrofoam container to add to his dinner.
D) When I informed him that he shouldn't do that because it releases all of the cancer-causing chemicals in the styrofoam into his dinner and isn't at all microwaveable safe. He looks flabbergasted. He looks at the bottom of the styrofoam in disbelief and then starts to add the pork to his dinner regardless of my warnings. So I have to go look it up on the Internet to prove I'm not the moron.
E) Meanwhile, while this debate is going on, my son is STILL complaining, as he eats his PB sandwich that he doesn't like peppers. No kids like peppers. In fact, next time I should just not buy peppers at the store at all, he doesn't care if Daddy and Mommy like peppers... on and on and on.
F) My husband noticing me getting irate, sighs, and takes the pork off the plate and announces that his leftover meat will be going into the garbage.
G) My son eats 4 bites of the sandwich and nothing else, except the 12 Tostitoes I put on his plate. Still grumbling.

So, if you, too want to enjoy this memorable dining experience with your nearly carnivore spouse and super star complaining child... here's the recipe.

Three Pepper Cilantro Fajitas
1/3 cup each sliced red, yellow and orange bell peppers
1 small onion sliced
Pam cooking spray (or 1 tbsp olive oil)
1/2 cup canned low-fat refried beans
2 whole wheat tortillas
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Make it: Sauté peppers and onion in cooking spray (oil) for 8 minutes, or until tender. Warm refried beans in microwave per instructions; spread on tortillas. Top with vegetables and cilantro.

It takes 10 minutes to make. MacTroll said it was "fine." I gave him some habanero from the garden to add to it, but he refrained.

Life: Love it or leave it.

Check, check and check!

Tomorrow, I'm taking my tri bike into a local bike shop to get them to look at it. They're going to set it up for me and fit me to it, which will be nice. Today, I road my Schwinn to weigh in and back. It's very comfortable, but not very speedy. I realized when I got there I had left my bike lock at home. Oh well. It was still there when I got back. :-)


I've been making a string of new dishes this week. Sunday was a bulgur salad as a side to a sweet vermouth ham. Tonight was Potato Gnocchi with a lemon/lime/shallot sauté over it and a white and green asparagus salad as a side. Tomorrow is Ma Po Tofu over brown rice. It has sirloin on it, which I find to be an interesting combination. So, we'll see how that goes. Then I'm done cooking for the rest of the week, which is fine, because we'll have some leftovers for lunches and such. 


The truth is that since I started cooking a month before maintenance (August 2009) I've only made 6 dishes twice. That means the 3-4 times I've been cooking dinner each week for the last 7 months, I've made something new pretty much every time. I've liked a lot of what I've made, but I'm still waiting for recipes to blow my doors off. 


Mmmm, casual cooking is a bit like casual sex in that way, I guess. But then again, how would I know that? Oh wait, I watch Grey's Anatomy...

The Weight of Bread

The television show Friends came on when I was a freshman in college. On Thursday nights the entire dorm would gather in rooms to watch the show. And I remember as the Monica storyline began to go down the "Monica used to be fat" road, I cringed. And then the next shot was Courtney Cox in a "fat outfit." Sigh. 


But what struck me as even more strange was that Monica was a chef. I wondered how a fat person even begins to go down the line of controlling the thing they've had an addiction and emotional attachment to enough to spend all day in the kitchen. Even in the last few seasons, Monica never was able to conquer that hard-wired food drive, but being the uber control freak she became (and I often wonder if this was a result of losing the weight) I think being in control of the food (and the exercise) helped her get to the point where she could somehow find some kind of balance, even if it made her crazy neurotic.


I've been cooking a lot in the last several months. When I had to stop to go back in the box for six weeks, it really freaked me out. Cooking has become therapeutic. I like to research what I make, plan meals and create them. Sure, I'm no Remy from Ratatouille, but I like the consistency. Maybe some day I'll get creative enough to figure out what will taste good together without needing a recipe. But I now understand Monica's career choice.


When I got back out of the box, I started baking bread. Mostly because MacTroll won't eat the low-calorie sliced bread that I bring home. I thought it would be cheaper. And it is in a way, but it's not any better for him. My problem is that as I experiment trying to find a lower calorie, higher fiber bakery bread that he'll willingly consume -- I've been watching my good bread (that he won't willingly consume because it's brown) go to waste -- and so I use it on my sandwiches or with my soup. But truthfully things with flour in them are a trigger food. I need less bread in the house, not more. 


So what to do? I have a husband who is a sandwich freak. And usually my response is, "He lives out of this house two weeks a month, he can get sandwiches out there..." But at the same time, white bread isn't on his recommended food list, but he's a big boy that makes his own choices. 


Do I just buy what fits into my list and disregard the pleading for white bread? I mean, we're already starting to get used to having less food around the house due to the change in our budget. Is it wrong to also use the budget to not buy anything on a regular basis that doesn't have a food is fuel mentality?


Because the truth is, I don't really believe that. I love my cooking. It's a passion. But maybe I can use that power for some kind of good moderation? Any ideas?


As for now, just so you know, MacTroll is Joey in that clip above. :-)

The Issue is Organic

Last summer I got a vegetable garden up and going. It was some work and some expense, but it felt good to get out and get my hands dirty. I just planned out the garden for this summer based on what worked and what didn't. And -- although this might start an argument with my son -- I didn't cater to his whims about what he'd like to see in the garden because outside of the cherry tomatoes and pumpkins, he didn't want anything to do with eating any of it. Oy.

But there are choices when you're buying seeds or plants. Do you get those that come in packages labeled organic and pay more for them? Or do you save a little money and figure I'm not putting any chemicals on them... can't that be good enough?

Last night several girlfriends and I attended a free class on how to eat organic on a budget. Healthy organic. It is held every month at our local coop. And the information was very good. It was also nice that the manager of the coop who taught the class lives and eats the way teaches... with a full-time job, a pre-schooler and a husband who works full-time, i.e. she gets the bonus of convenience. Lately since I've restricted the budget, I've automatically started using Sunday as my day to pre-make some foods to get us through the week. It's when I bake bread or a make a snack. Turns out our instructor uses her weekend for that, too. She also gave us some skills on organizing to prepare multiple meals and track what goes in and out of the freezer.

And when she says on a budget, she means that each of the meals she gave us recipes for are able to be purchased in the coop (using a lot of bulk elements) for less than $2.10 a serving. A lot of it is made up of beans and grains. And she discussed different ways to prepare beans so that they don't have to soak.

I'll be using three of her meals during the week of March 5-11th. We'll see how they go. Most of the recipes were vegetarian, but are are also meat friendly -- or vegan friendly depending on which way you want to alter them. Overall, I'm really glad I went because since starting our new household budget a month ago, by shopping at traditional grocery stores I've had to let go a lot of the organic eating we were doing. Milk was a big one that I cut out. As X-man's milk consumption has gone through the roof in the last 8 weeks, the days of water or watered down juice are few and far between. And I can't pay $4-6 per gallon each week for two gallons for organic skim milk. That would be 8-12 percent of my overall weekly grocery budget for four people. I also used to buy the smart chicken and the high-end cage-free, organic eggs. Now I buy regular Tyson chicken breasts and the lower-end grass fed Eggland's Best (usually with a coupon)... particularly since I recently learned that cage-free could mean anything. In my heart, I know that eating with a whole foods approach is better for my family and the environment. And if there's a way to make it convenient that's all the better.

But it does take a crazy amount of planning. Guess it's a good thing I like that part of my domestic goddess status, right? It's a learning curve, so hopefully by the end of the summer I'll have a better plan and approach it with less fear and intimidation. And see about volunteering at the coop...

Unsettling cooking adventures

I'm in the box, which means I can only eat foods provided by HMR (my weight management program) or fruits and vegetables. I found a recipe from cooking light that makes spaghetti squash with a cilantro edemame pesto. It's all veggie based. Cilantro, garlic, veggie broth, edemame, salt and pepper. You cook the spaghetti squash (which looks like noodles when it's cooked) and then you toss it with the pesto.

It looked vibrant. It tasted -- okay. Nothing special. Certainly not as good as the spaghetti squash recipe I made with the low fat ricotta and tomato sauce. But it was in the box. Three servings of vegetables in a plate. No gluten. No dairy. No real fat. 233 calories per 1.5 cups of squash and 1/2 cup of pesto.

But now both Joel and I feel nauseated. And a few times I've wondered if it's coming back up. Seriously, it was all vegetables. So what gives? Do we just have a virus that is hitting at the same time, or is it how our bodies are responding to the food?

Yuck. Either way, it's a "perfect food" that I won't be making again. Live and learn, right?

For the lovely Andrina

My friend Dri and I were chatting the other day. We were thinking maybe the two of us needed a Dri and Loosey do the U.K. trip next summer. I've never been, and well, she was born there and went to University there, so... I'd have an instant guide. 

She was reading my blog during our chat and in the middle she stumbled across some items I've been cooking. One of them was Chicken & Corn Chowder from Williams & Sonoma's "Weeknight" cookbook (pretty much a bunch of recipes you can make in 30 minutes or less). 

She asked if it was low fat and I laughed. But then I finally made the sucker tonight, and learned that she can poke me in the nose the next time she sees me, because just by being me, I managed to make it "lower fat" than the original recipe. It was good enough for me to post, even if X-man only ate the pre-requisite five spoonfuls in order to get more fruit snacks. 

So here it is... I'll put the original ingredients in brackets next to the ones I used, in case there are any purists out there.

Ingredients

Turkey bacon (4 slices, chopped) [4 slices regular bacon]

Red bell pepper, 1 large, seeded and chopped

Frozen or fresh corn kernels (4 cups/1.5 pounds)

Yukon Gold Potatoes (3/4 pound, cut into 1/2-inch chunks)

Vegetable broth (3 cups) [3 cups Chicken broth]

Dry white wine (1/2 cup or 4 oz)

Skinless, boneless, chicken thighs (3/4 lb, cut into 1/2 inch chunks)

Green onions (6, white and pale green parts thinly sliced)

Fresh thyme (3 tablespoons, minced)

Fat Free Half-and-half (2.5 cups or 20 oz) [Real Half-in-half, 20 oz]

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. In a deep saucepan over medium heat, fry the bacon until crisp (5 min). Transfer onto paper towels when done and pour out any drippings.

2. Add the pepper, corn and potatoes to the same saucepan. Cook, stirring frequently, until the peppers are just softened and the corn and potatoes are lightly tinged with gold, 4-5 minutes.

Add the broth and the wine, bring to a boil and cover. Cook until potatoes are almost tender, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken and cook, covered until it is opaque throughout, 5-7 minutes.

3. Stir in the green onions, thyme and half and half. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered until heated through (around 3 minutes). Season with salt and pepper, then ladle the chowder into the bowls and sprinkle the bacon on top.

Serves 4. Supposedly takes 30 minutes, but with a toddler underfoot it took 50 minutes.

It's Not Personal

So tonight I made dinner. I made two new items.

One was a pasta, that would probably play better in the summer, but I had fresh basil and tomatoes from the garden, so I decided to use them.

The pasta "sauce" was made up of chopped tomatoes, basil and garlic while mixed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then I added toasted pine nuts and cubed mozzarella. When the farfalle noodles were done, I added them to the pasta with some of Mactroll's favorite (proscuitto ham) and tossed them (recipe from Williams & Sonoma). 

Then as a side, I took MacTroll's lead on how to get him to each green vegetables. I roasted brussel sprouts covered in oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and bacon. Seriously. Then I sprinkled on grated parmesan (Recipe from the Stonewall Kitchen).

We sat down to dinner. MacTroll devoured the pasta happily, but swallowed one leaf of brussel sprout and dumped the rest on my plate.

Next time I can make all of this stuff sans meat and be a bit healthier. 

X-man wouldn't even sit with us. He had nothing but 2 cups of chocolate milk. 

I know I'm a much better baker than cook. But I'm not bad. I 'm really not. In fact, I'm slightly above average. I have no passion for it. But it bewilders me when I make an effort at something new and the boys freak out about trying new things. I mean, X-man I understand, he's 2. But I've seen MacTroll (in photos) eat tiny crabs whole and I've heard him talk about eating fish that were still so raw that they were still flipping in his mouth after some Japanese Chef cut off its head and sliced off the scales. 

So, I don't know what made him so freaked out about vegetables. He claims he never enjoyed them when his mother cooked them. But to have traveled around the world and eat stuff he couldn't even identify and still freak out over vegetables is just weird. 

Tomorrow, we're eating out at Flesor's for lunch with the playgroup, and then we're going out for tapas for Joel's birthday at Radio Maria's. Saturday though, I'm making chicken corn chowder for dinner.