Food For Thought

Stop the Presses

2012-01-30T11:04:00.000-06:00

I've lost that lovin' feelin', folks. This blog was definitely fun for a time, but it seems to have run its course. I won't be taking it offline or shutting it down, but don't expect any new content unless the spirit hits me just right. I hope you've enjoyed my posts. I know I've enjoyed your comments and the community this blog has surrounded me with. Feel free to keep using my blog as a recipe book - the search option couldn't be easier!

LongHorn Love

2012-01-09T09:30:00.002-06:00

For our anniversary this year, Jake & I decided to head to LongHorn Steakhouse to celebrate. We deliberated for quite awhile, took a couple recommendations, looked up menus and pricing online, and then just went with what sounded good. It didn't hurt that I had a coupon either, though that wasn't a major factor.

LongHorn is new to Omaha. The location we visited is on 144th, just south of West Center but they're opening one on Dodge near 76th St. And I believe there is one in Council Bluffs now as well.

Jake had decided to go with the Prime Rib well before we had arrived. Apparently he loves Prime Rib and due to his new low fat / low cholesterol diet restrictions, he's limited on his consumption of this fine food. That and our pocketbook. His meat filled the whole plate and weighed a pound. Yes, a whole pound. And he loved it!

I was looking forward to a new, limited time entree special: their *Lobster Stuffed Flo's Filet. It was a 7 oz. filet - described on their website as their "guests' favorite" and their "most tender cut of beef" - stuffed in the center with a creamy lobster filling and topped with a small Lobster tail and garlic butter sauce. The steak was fork tender and perfectly prepared. The filling was fine, but mostly just tasted like a creamy, cheesy blend without much lobster flavor. The garlic butter sauce complemented the dish perfectly but wasn't overpowering. Some such sauces are a bit flavorless, though, and I felt this one was spot on. The small lobster tail on top was the best part of the meal, though. I wished I could have ordered an entire lobster. I decided right then & there that an entire lobster is on my dream eating wish list.

The meal came with salads and sides, all of which were good. Jake ordered mashed potatoes with his, even though they didn't come with gravy or a sauce, which is almost unheard of for him. But he really liked them. They were creamy and flavorful, he said, though he couldn't really pinpoint any exact seasonings.

Our anniversary is on January 2nd and we actually celebrated it on the exact day this year, which almost never happens for us due to holiday festivities. And Jake said yesterday that he's ready to go back to LongHorn for more Prime Rib. So I guess that's a positive review!

*The Lobster Stuffed Filet is no longer available.

www.longhornsteakhouse.com

Dipping Pretzels is Awful

2011-12-19T12:42:00.001-06:00

I think the title says it all, but let me spell it all out for you in detail.

A couple years ago I got a hair up my butt (pretty picture, huh?!) to make cookies for friends, family & neighbors. I made loads of cookies of all different kinds. One of the kinds was pretzels dipped in almond bark.

I was inspired to do this cookie making by attending a "cookie making party" a friend of mine was having. Let me tell you, it is much different when you have 15 sets of hands making cookies than when you have 1 set. MUCH different.

But when friends & family actually indulged in said cookies, I got a pretty strong response regarding the dipped pretzels. Apparently they are a favorite of both my husband and my brother. All the other cookies were fine, but those were gobbled up the fastest.

Last year I never got the cookie making bug. At all. There were no cookies at the Christian house other than the few that trickled in as gifts from others.

This year, I decided to make a few kinds, but keep it pretty small. One kind I determined would be the dipped pretzels. As Jake is now gluten free, I'd stumbled upon a decent sale a couple months ago on gluten free pretzels and saved them just for this purpose. And then I bought regular pretzels since the gluten free pretzels must be made out of gold for how much they cost. No way am I serving those to just anybody!

And last Monday I set about making cookies. I spent all morning on my "few" kinds of cookies. And this is what I determined: dipping pretzels is THE most tedious, awful part of it all. I absolutely abhor it. I did a few of both regular and gluten free, then used the rest of the melted almond bark to dip some Oreo ball cookies (mash up a whole package of Oreos, mix with softened cream cheese, roll into balls and dip into melted almond bark = amazingness).

Since I had many more pretzels to use up, I bought more almond bark and decided that either Jake would have to help me so he'd know how much it sucks to make them & truly appreciate me more than ever OR we'd have to figure out something entirely new. I chose option B.

I chose to make Pretzel Bark instead. I melted the almond bark, spread it out onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and then dropped the pretzels and a few holiday M&M's in. I pressed the pretzels down to really "set". Then I let it cool for several hours and broke it up into pieces.

I don't really have large cookie sheets without sides, so it was hard for me to spread the melted almond bark out real thin. The bark ended up being rather thick in spots. This might be a problem for people that want more pretzel than bark, but my husband was pretty excited about it.

Another way to use up pretzels is Pretzel Turtles: line a cookie sheet with tin foil, spread out pretzels, place an unwrapped Rolo candy on each pretzel, bake at 250 degrees for 2-3 minutes (just til the candy is soft), then remove from the oven and press a pecan half onto each candy. They look just like little turtles, especially if you use the round pretzels! But I like to use the waffle shaped pretzels - better surface area coverage.

Since Jake doesn't like caramel that much, we tried miniature Reese's peanut butter cups this year and replaced the pecan halves with holiday M&M's. THIS WAS NOT ENTIRELY SUCCESSFUL. The PB cups were MUCH more expensive - you don't get nearly as many for the money - and a bit too large for the pretzels. And the chocolate melts way too much but the peanut butter doesn't get soft at all really. They looked really messy too. Kind of like melted ice cream sundaes. But they tasted pretty good. Just way too expensive for the payoff.

Do you have any tedious holiday recipes that others just love? Do you give into the pressure to please them? Or have you found a great shortcut instead?

Happy Holidays, all!

Here's to New Traditions!

2011-11-29T14:53:00.001-06:00

My family has some pretty serious holiday food traditions. I've mentioned that before. And the hubs has a fairly strict view of Thanksgiving fare. So serious that I finally had to nail down what exactly is essential to him, since it's apparently his favorite meal AND he takes it so seriously. The result? Turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, Stovetop stuffing (NOT homemade) and pumpkin pie with whipped topping. Though now that he's gluten-free, he does enjoy pumpkin pie bars, which are basically pumpkin pie without the crust. And evidently, he's never been a big crust fan anyway.

This year, we all gathered at my brother's home for a family Thanksgiving affair. Beautiful weather, an abundance of food, a brand spanking new baby and a great-grandmother rounded out the day. It was exactly what Thanksgiving is about.

And to top it off, those of us that are not of the crazy persuasion (i.e. those of us that love coconut with an everlasting love) enjoyed my brother's perfectly crafted homemade Coconut Meringue Pie. He made one last year, but that was when he lived far, far away in a land called Illinois. Now he's able to grace us with his presence. And he's perfected the crafting of a fine meringue, something yours truly has not yet attempted. But not only that. He used an actual coconut for his Coconut Meringue Pie. You know, one of those brown hairy things that look like a rock? Yep, that. And apparently he broke a knife in the process.

I guess this pie called for unsweetened coconut flakes in the pie filling. And after looking at a couple stores and not finding unsweetened coconut flakes, my brother decided he'd give the real deal a go. Me, I'd just grab a bag of the sweetened stuff & call it good, knowing that it's PIE afterall. But I'm not a glutton for punishment. Just pie.

It was great, though. And totally worth the effort of drilling a hole in the coconut, draining the milk, peeling the coconut, putting it in the food processor, and then actually making the PIE. (His super awesome wife made a homemade crust for him too. SERIOUSLY, people! They need a show of their own.)

Since this is the second year Matt's made this pie for Thanksgiving, I officially declare it a tradition. You're welcome, Smith family. You're welcome. (Make a note, Matt!)

After the Smith family affair, we stopped by my husband's relatives to say hello & goodbye. And in the meantime, we learned that Jake's aunt Marti (she's been noted highly on this here blog before) had a bag of unsweetened coconut flakes in her pantry that she'd apparently procured at the Supersaver store just down the street. My brother was super happy to learn of this the next day.

We extended our Thanksgiving celebrations to the following day, not with crazy shopping but with sushi. As it should be. Jake & I joined a couple of friends, my two younger brothers, their wives, and one sister-in-law's parents and brother at Hiro, our fave sushi joint for happy hour sushi on Friday night at 10pm. LOTS of sushi was had by all. And we declared the newest family holiday tradition to be Black Friday Sushi. So you'll know where to find us next year. Our table is open to all!

Lemon VS. Lime

2011-11-10T13:40:00.001-06:00

The debate has been raging in the Christian household for some time now. ("Raging" *might* be overstating it a bit for effect. Might.) I think it started when my helpful younger brother stated his preference for lime juice over lemon juice in cooking. And my ever faithful husband hopped on that bandwagon with glee.

I don't mind lime juice. I simply prefer the lemon variety. It's slightly less tart & pungent. More soothing and discreet. There - with a kick - but not a kick AND a punch. Know-what-I-mean?

Not to mention that lime juice is infinitely more expensive than lemon. I can find multiple generic varieties of lemon juice on the market. Not so much with lime. And for MORE money, I can be the proud owner of a SMALLER bottle of lime juice. What a deal!

My favorite Skinny Taste Black Bean Corn Salad calls for fresh lime juice. Newsflash: I prefer it with lemon juice. And the kind out of the bottle in my fridge works just fine, thanks. (I know, this pretty much knocks me out of the "Foodie of the Year" award running, but I can deal with it, so join me, won't you?)

We've been eating lots of fish lately & a preferred method of preparation is to drizzle the fish with olive oil & lime juice, sprinkle with some salt & pepper (and maybe some garlic salt or powder) and bake it at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Top it with chopped avocado (sprinkled with a bit of garlic salt) after baking for added panache. I would be more than happy to substitute lemon juice for the lime juice, but I think I might be met with a revolt.

What's the verdict in your household: lemon or lime?

Best Cheese Curd in Wisconsin

2011-11-01T13:40:00.001-05:00

Growing up we had white cheddar cheese curds fromthe Kalona, Iowa,cheese factory in Amish country. Ourparents taught us that the freshest cheese curds squeak when you bite intothem. And the field trips to the cheesefactory in grade school taught me that cheese making is kinda gross to look atbut definitely delicious. MarkChitwood’s recent blog post reminded me of my innate love of cheese curds.

http://www.markchitwood.com/2011/10/best-cheese-curd-in-wisconsin.html

While in WI this fall Iwent to the Vernon County Fair. This fair has been going strong for 150 years.Though, this was my first time.

I love county fairs. The people are amazing. There are barn animals everywhere.Fried food. Need I say more.

The Westby Dairy is by far my favorite place to buy cheese curd in the world.Every time I am in SW Wisconsin I go to thisdairy.

Well they had the curd mobile at the fair. I kid you not - there was always aline. Always. All they have there is Curd or Fried Curd and shakes. YUM YUM. Ifyou love cheese - and I know you do - find your way to Westby, WIand go the this dairy. You cannot miss it - right on the main drag.

(Reposted with permission. To learn more about great photography, visitMark’s blog regularly: www.markchitwood.com)

Starbucks' Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

2011-10-26T12:00:00.002-05:00

The days are turning cooler on a more regular basis. This leads me to crave a hot drink in my hand. A yummy, sweet, flavorful drink.

So my drink of choice lately has definitely been the new Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate at Starbucks. I'm not a huge fan of coffee. I like it moderately, but a lot of times I find it much too bitter for my tastes. Thus, hot chocolate.

The first time I ordered this particular beverage, I didn't notice much - if any - of a difference with the "Salted Caramel". But I think if you drink it with the lid on, I find that you miss out on the specialness of the salt. (And it takes too long for the drink to cool down enough for me to actually drink it!) So since I've been removing the lid, it's been much more noticeable. The "salted" part anyway. I'm still not sure the "caramel" part is strong enough.

I'm intrigued with the balance of sweet to savory in my diet. Just the right amount of salt brings out the full flavor of the chocolate, something I've known about in cooking for some time. (Hello, Wendy's fries dipped in a frosty!!) It's this kind of "science" of food that I find most interesting of late. How cooking & baking are really just chemistry, but a kind that I enjoy much more than anything I worked on in a high school lab!

I am trying to cut down on my sugar/caloric intake most days. So this particular drink is a special treat! Though I do order it "nonfat, no whip", which helps a bit. And I don't miss those extra calories one bit. The froth on top is just as yummy without the added "whip".

Have you tried the new Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate or Mochas at Starbucks? What's your favorite new food combo?

Homemade Yogurt

2011-10-04T13:56:00.000-05:00

A fabulous fellow blogger recently posted about making homemade yogurt and said I could repost for y'all here. I'm going to try it myself very soon. I promise. I hope. Enjoy!!

http://ifthesewallsspoke.blogspot.com/2011/09/homemade-yogurt-instructions.html

So first of all, this was not my idea. I didn't even know it was possible to make yogurt at home without a yogurt maker (which would make enough to last about one DAY over here), or at least a lot of jars, temperature checks, storage space, blah blah blah. I had looked into it, and thought it was way too time consuming and tedious for me to mess with (for instance, a very long tutorial on this site here). Then, my friend Robyn, sent me this link: here. Robyn is a lot smarter than me, and a lot more kitchen savvy. Plus, she likes to make stuff from scratch and she's thrifty. See why I like her? All my good recipes started from her, somewhere along the line!

Anyway! I finally sucked it up and tried it, and it worked. Glory, Glory, Halleluiah! She and I were both skeptical, because it was that easy. So, I sucked it up again, and read thru the long, boring, tedious instructions on the first site. Just to make myself feel better, I thought I'd better check temps and make sure I wasn't going to kill us all with rotten homemade dairy products. Turns out, to start you only need to remember a few things, and once you've got a system, you won't have to check temps ever again.

I have a big crock pot, I don't know what size. I'm guessing it's between 6-8qts. I should go fill it up right now and check, but I'm too lazy. Laziness is what got me to this recipe in the first place, so think whatever you want about that! Anyway, this is what I use.

Big crock-pot, milk, starter yogurt.

This is the yogurt I used for my starter. This 6oz of yogurt costs $1 and contains 6 different strains of bacteria. I thought, if I'm going to make my own, I may as well make some really good yogurt, right? Once you've got your batches going, you don't have to buy another starter, you save back some of your own, and use that. For every 8 cups of milk you use, you'll need 1/2 cup yogurt (4oz, for all of you who are math-challenged like me).

Start by pouring 8 cups of milk into the crock-pot, set it on LOW, and leave it for 2.5 hours. I discovered that mine cooks hotter than some, maybe because it's bigger? Your goal is to get the milk to 185*. I caught mine at 189* after 2 hours, so I wrote that down, and will never check the temp again for that step.

Then, turn off (or unplug, if the knob fell off six years ago) and leave it for another 2.5 to 3 hours. Again, you will just have to check temps and see how long it takes...your goal is to get the milk back down to around 110*. Some people put it in the fridge to make it go faster, take the crock out of the warmer, put it outside...whatever. I'm lazy! So, I just unplugged mine, and left it sitting on the counter, and it took about 2.5 hours. This is where other recipes get crazy with pouring into individual jars, setting up warm baths, packing hot water in coolers...too much work for me.

Once you're at about 110* remove about 1/2 cup warm milk and mix with your 1/2 cup starter yogurt. I say mix, but I actually kind of fold gently. Then, pour the starter + milk back into the crock.

Wrap the crock-pot (which now contains milk + starter, at about 110*) in heavy towels, and let it sit. This is when the starter is going to make yogurt out of all that warm milk, and your goal is to keep everything warm while it's doing it's thing. Since we like our house pretty cool, I decided to warm up my oven to 200*, then turned it off, then shoved that whole mess into the oven and shut it. I figure it keeps the heat in a little better, plus it's out of the way. Then I unplug my oven so I don't forget it's in there :)

That. Is. It. You can let it sit anywhere between 4 and 24 hours. I've been letting mine go between 6 and 8 hours, and think the consistency and sweetness are great. Plus, since I'm not checking the temp or keeping it heated, I figure 6-8 hours is probably the max I should go. However, this last batch went closer to 13 hours, because I forgot about it...and it was fine. It did have more whey on the top, which is OK. There are all kinds of sites with info about the length of time you should let it incubate...like this one, if you care and aren't as lazy as I am :)

I store mine in quart containers, in the fridge. We go through it so fast, I can't imagine it would do me any good to freeze it, but you can freeze yogurt!

THICK! And, cheap. Holy thrifty goodness. I owe Robyn $$ for getting me ~~obsessed~~ started. With a $3 gallon of milk, you can make 6oz of that expensive yogurt for $0.15. For real? Let me check my math again... YES. FIFTEEN CENTS vs. $1? I am in. Just don't forget to save some back to use as a starter for your next batch, otherwise you'll have to add another dollar... :)

And yes, I'll probably stand a utensil up in the yogurt every time I make it, just because I'm so amazed that it's so thick and it worked! Every time I open that container I feel like I'm cheating the system. Take that, suckas! We've been adding pureed fruit or homemade jam to ours, and making parfaits. Anything tastes better when you call it a parfait!

If you want to copy and paste, here's the quick version:

Heat 8 cups milk to 185* in crock-pot (approx. 2.5 hours)

Turn off and cool milk to around 110*

mix 1/2 cup starter yogurt with 1/2 cup warm milk-then add back into crock-pot

Cover, wrap, and let sit 4-24 hours

Viola!

Out of Gas

2011-09-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

For my faithful readers and staunch supporters (yes, Judy - you!!):

I have had a hard time with the idea of blogging lately. I've simply run out of ideas, motivation, etc. I'm not entirely sure why, but it probably stems from the fact that I haven't really been "cooking" much lately. I do make meals. But they rarely start with much of a recipe. They're mostly just "fish" or "chicken" with veggies or rice. And I rotate the fish and/or chicken. Sometimes I even throw in some pork or a different kind of fish. Wild, I know!

So I'll try to work up some blogging steam and in the meantime, I'm just enjoying this perfect place that food has in my life: fuel to keep me going (tasty, tasty fuel) but not something that overwhelms my every waking thought.

Aunt Marti's Tailgate Time

2011-09-06T09:44:00.000-05:00

Recently Jake’s aunt added me to an email list she has for sending out recipes on a regular basis. Hallelujah!! What a fabulous idea, right?! The first email was all about some great tailgating recipes she has, so I thought I’d share it with you all since this is the perfect time to start gearing up for just such an occasion. I even have a friend who told me recently that his wife is about to be quite lonely due to the approaching football season schedule – apparently for four months he will be preoccupied with the sport. Here’s to feeding him & trying to keep him happy!

Hello {friends}........time to start again with the recipes of the week.....since summer is nearing to a close and FOOTBALL is upon us I thought for the next few weeks I would share some great grill and tailgate food.......here are 2 recipes that are cheap and sure to please.......hope you ENJOY the recipes........

BEER BRATS

1 dozen brats
Enough beer of your choice to cover......lager is good
1 large sweet onion, sliced
1/2 stick of REAL butter

Put the brats in a dutch oven with the onions and butter, cover the brats with beer and bring to a boil reduce to simmer and simmer till the brats are cooked. Remove the brats from pan and set aside the beer mixture. Grill the brats till golden brown and then return to the beer mixture on warm till ready to serve. Serve on your best buns with sauerkraut, onions, green peppers and your choice of condiment..........can't beat them.........

GRILLED SAUSAGE with SPICY SAUCE

Soak wooden skewers in water about 20 minutes.

2 pounds of good quality kielbasa or other smoked sausage.... cut into bite-sized chunks
red onion or green pepper
3/4 cup of ketchup
3/4 cup spicy brown mustard
1 TB. hot sauce

Preheat Grill to med.....Thread the sausage onto the skewers using a chunk of onion or green pepper to separate them. Grill till slightly crisp about 3-4 minutes on each side.....mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and serve the sausage with.

I know – Jake has the best aunt ever, right?! We are more than lucky to sit at her table from time to time. I plan to pass on many of her other fantastic tips, so be vigilant, friends!

My New Best Cooking Ally

2011-08-30T08:37:00.000-05:00

For the past few months, I’ve come to a new appreciation for Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix. It is one of the few gluten-free, low fat / cholesterol cooking aids I was already familiar with, was cheap enough to stockpile, and could find lots of uses for. Lately I’ve come to utilize it quite a bit. It finds it’s way into several recipes, sometimes as a substitute for something else, sometimes as a brand new experiment.

I have a deep & abiding love for shortcuts in cooking. I don’t love to make stuff from scratch, simply because I’m lazy & it takes lots and lots of time, preparation and ingredients that aren’t always easy to just keep on hand. Something like Onion Soup Mix comes in very, very handy then. I can stockpile it in my pantry & it keeps for a very long time. Also, it’s pretty cheap as far as gluten-free products go. (Only the Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix is gluten free, not their other soup mix options, FYI.)

Here are a few easy recipes that I’ve prepared quite a bit lately using my new food pal:

Chicken, Onion & Potato Bake

2-4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

4 large red potatoes, cut into bitesize chunks

1 medium onion

1 pkg Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix

3 T water

Mix everything in a large Ziploc bag and shake to coat. Spread in a shallow baking pan (I use my round stoneware baker). Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.

Onion Chicken

2-4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

1/3 C Miracle Whip (we use Light)

1 pkg Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix

Breadcrumbs*

Mix Miracle Whip & soup mix. Spread onto chicken breasts and top with breadcrumbs, if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.

*I’ve been substituting Rice Chex crumbs for breadcrumbs and love the crunch. Jake is not a fan, so we just leave them off for him, which he likes fine.

Onion Roasted Potatoes

1 pkg Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix

¼ C olive or canola oil

2 lbs potatoes, washed & cubed (red potatoes work the best)

In a large bowl, add all ingredients and toss until potatoes are evenly coated. Spread potatoes in a shallow baking pan. Bake for 40 minutes at 450 degrees or until tender and golden brown, stirring once midway through.

Quick Onion Rice Pilaf

1 ½ C Minute Rice

1 ½ C chicken broth

1 pkg Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix

Mix all ingredients together in a 2 quart microwave safe dish. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Stir and let rest for 1-2 minutes. (This can be made with regular long grain rice: 1 C rice, 2 C chicken broth, 1 pkg soup mix. Cook as regular white rice.)

A Perfect Saturday Morning

2011-08-20T08:55:00.002-05:00

A few Saturdays this summer have been spent just the way I like them: meet up with my friend Erin to head to the farmer's market and snag a cinnamon roll at Bliss Bakery afterward. I haven't gotten to experience this routine nearly as much as I'd have liked to. I can't believe it is already mid August!!

But Erin & I have both been anxiously awaiting the farmer's market's fruit season and it is upon us FINALLY. She and I have each gotten some good finds in the meantime, though we've both been extremely busy this summer so our farmer's market runs have been sparse to say the least. Anyway, now we're finally coming together again and I'm certain we're going to find an abundance of the fruit of our labors. (Get the fruit pun?!)

This is our routine: we find a parking space, if there is one to be had - avoiding the pay garage if at all possible, though it's not always possible. Then we start at the end of the market near 10th & Jackson and work our way through, going counter clockwise. We check out all the booths before we make a purchase. We like to know what each other is looking for so we can both be scouting the best product for the best price. After we've made the circuit, we go back to the booths that we've selected as our top contenders.

My favorite farmer's market finds: cucumbers, tomatoes (if I can't get them through family & friends, which is indeed the case this year due to our weird, tomato-unfriendly weather patterns), zucchini (same exception applies), summer squash, melons - especially black diamond - and pork burgers. Yep, pork burgers. They are cheap & delicious. And I grew up on them. (Jake's not as big a fan, though I've turned several friends and their families onto them as well.)

After we've made all the purchases we can stand or spent all our cash, we head over to Bliss Bakery on 11th & Jones, one block south of the market area. We purchase our enormous cinnamon rolls, sometimes splitting one due to the massive proportions. Erin usually takes one home to her hubby too, though my hubby's gluten free diet doesn't allow them and I don't want to tempt him. Those rolls would definitely send him over the edge.

Today I'm making an exception to that rule. Today our husbands and a few extended family members (my brother's wedding was yesterday - CONGRATS TO ALEX & KRISTINA SMITH!!! - so we have extra family still in town who are also lovers of Bliss) are joining us. So I'm allowing him at least one of the gooey, delicious rolls to enjoy & savor. It might be his last one for awhile.

What's your perfect Saturday morning activity?

Fish Faves

2011-08-16T14:00:00.000-05:00

We've been eating a lot of fish lately. We both love seafood (refer to my first posts!!). And fish fits well with Jake's (and thus, my) new diet restrictions. Mostly I've been buying tilapia and salmon fillets, prepackaged in frozen, single serve portions. At Aldi I can buy a bag of about 6 fillets of either tilapia, flounder or salmon for $5-6. I tried the flounder and Jake thought it was fine, but I wasn't a big fan.

My favorite way to cook the fish is to bake it in my round stoneware baker (a pan with sides) at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. I usually season it with salt & pepper, maybe some olive oil and lime juice or some dijon mustard and honey. If I use the olive oil & lime juice, we love to cut up avocado to top it with after it's done baking. This is a fast, delicious, nutritious protein and goes well with rice pilaf and a veggie. Most often we pair it with two kinds of veggies. Usually this makes a really colorful plate, which I really enjoy.

Do you like fish? How do you like to prepare it?

Cupcake Wars: Bliss Bakery

2011-08-04T09:21:00.000-05:00

Two nights ago, we met several of our pals downtown at Bliss Bakery / Aroma’s Coffeehouse to watch Autumn (owner, proprietor & all around amazing person) & Kacie (baker extradonnaire) compete on Cupcake Wars, a reality program on the Food Network.

It was a fun-filled, armpit-to-armpit crowd downtown. (Well, maybe not THAT crowded, but pretty close.) Several large TVs and a huge screen with projector aided us all in watching our favorite hometown bakers work their magic.

Having never watched the show before, I didn’t really know what to expect, other than from some snippets I’d heard here & there. So I knew Miss USA was going to be a guest judge and that the contest was geared in that general direction. Apparently our reigning Miss USA is from Middle Eastern descent, so the first round was a challenge to make a cupcake that included at least 3 of a variety of ingredients hailing from that region: honey, cloves, orange, pistachios, rosewater, etc. (Let’s be honest – I wasn’t intent on memorizing all those ingredients. I was focused on more important matters, like how beautiful my two gals looked!) The four challengers and their assistants took off, having a limited amount of time to create a fabulous cupcake.

Autumn & Kacie owned that challenge! Their cupcake was a pistachio cupcake with a honey cream cheese frosting and topped with sugared orange zest and a sliver of pistachio brittle. Some of the others succeeded as well, though I’d have to say Autumn’s was on top. One of the contestants was eliminated, and it wasn’t Autumn!

2^nd Round: create 3 cupcakes with the “classic Americana” or “pageant” theme. Autumn & Kacie came up with a lemonade cupcake filled with lemon curd & topped with a super cute straw, a chocolate beer cupcake topped with salted peanut butter frosting and caramel corn reminiscent of American’s favorite pastime (baseball, for those of you who are sports-challenged like myself), and an apple pie cupcake topped with a dried apple slice and a cheddar cheese crisp to represent how it is served in the south (the cheese creates a yummy chewiness that’s perfection!).

Unfortunately, our girls didn’t pass the 2^nd round. (There are 3 rounds.) Autumn and Kacie exhibited amazing grace under pressure, whereas I’m sure I would have been alternately sweating, swearing and crying! Watching the show with a crowd of supporters was definitely the way to go – lots of cheering and booing, in all the appropriate places.

They sold boxes of the 4 cupcakes they made on the show for $13 after the viewing, which was a perfect treat for those of us who had watched. The cupcakes were all amazing, but my favorite was definitely the pistachio one from the first round. I hope they make that a regular menu item!

Sugar Free Summer Time Goodness

2011-08-02T08:51:00.000-05:00

Remember that last post I wrote about how I’m supposed to give up snacks if I want to lose weight? Well, I DO want to lose weight. So, with the help of my sugar-free strawberry shortcake gum and sugar free popsicles, I’m fighting the good fight against my sweet tooth. Most days.

It’s really the sugar free popsicles that do the trick. They are cold, sweet nectar on hot summer days. I get the Popsicle brand with the grape, cherry & orange flavors. They are 15 calories each and I can suck down 2 a day with no worries or cares.

I know, you’re thinking, “Hasn’t this chick written about these popsicles before?!” And yes. Yes, I have. And I will probably do so again. Because they are just that good.

And yes. I did just write in the last post that I don’t like “diet” versions of things, which usually contain some sort of artificial sweetener. And yes, these popsicles do contain an artificial sweetener. But I don’t taste it AT ALL!

So go out & grab yourself a box and thank me later.

Sweet Tea Goodness

2011-07-28T09:24:00.000-05:00

I gave up soda. I know, I know – I’m the Dr. Pepper queen. But I had a little convo with my doc a few weeks ago and he suggested that if I was serious about losing weight (something he didn’t seem to think I really needed – I LOVE him!!! But seriously, I do need to lose some; I’m not sure what he was seeing but I’ll be wearing that outfit every other day til I DIE – he also said he thought I had nice hair & that I looked young. Best. Doctor. EVER) I needed to exercise regularly and cut out soda, snacks, etc. Portion control is a biggie as well. And walking my dog doesn’t count as “exercise”. Apparently I need to get on that honking machine we keep in our basement that’s called an elliptical and do some intervals for 30-45 minutes 3 to 5 times a week. Yes, sir!

So yeah. I’ve done some of that, some of the time. But the thing I have really done is give up soda. I haven’t touched it for almost 4 weeks. And I haven’t missed it too much either. (We had pizza and that was hard. Because pizza & soda GO together. I’m pretty sure I’ve never eaten pizza without soda in my entire life. So I made Jake stop & get me a sweet tea, at least. Because I thought I would puke up the pizza if I had to wash it down with water. Gross!) I went cold turkey, just like Jake did this winter. He feels like if he has even one, he’ll fall off the wagon. I decided I’m probably the same way. So we have the occasional Koolaid (though even that has decreased dramatically) and Crystal Light (for him, not so much for me).

But sweet tea. Oh, sweet tea goodness! I almost bought a gallon of it at the store, but then decided that I was probably missing the point of giving up soda if I just replaced it with sweet tea. So I have sweet tea every now & then, but not as regularly as I was indulging in soda. My body and my pocketbook thank me. (Work days were especially hard for me with soda. Almost as soon as I would sit down at my desk, I would start craving that Dr. Pepper sweetness. Thankfully, it’s really not been a problem! This last week I started missing soda more, though.)

Let me rank my fave sweet teas for you:

Famous Dave’s – sweet but not too sweet. Light & refreshing. Keep ‘em coming!
Lipton’s PureLeaf sweetened iced tea – sweeter than Dave’s but still not too sweet. Avoid the “extra sweet” version, though! (The one I like comes in a glass bottle with a metal lid and has a blue band around the label, pictured below. I think the glass bottle & metal lid makes it colder & thus, taste better.)
McDonald’s – somewhat too sweet and they always overload the ice, even when I order it with “light ice”, something they have a key for but apparently don’t pay any attention to. And I think their tea is maybe too strong or bitter sometimes. But how can you beat $1 large sweet teas in the hot, hot summer?! (Someone suggested I order it “half cut” –something else they actually have a button for: half sweet / half unsweetened - to cut the sweetness & I tried it. It was much better but they don’t really mix it well so you end up with really sweet on the bottom & not at all sweet at the top. Shaking it up yourself helps but if they’ve loaded it with ice, it doesn’t work all that well.)

I’m not a huge fan of flavored sweet teas. And I’ve never liked “diet” drinks of any kind, though there are some I can stand more than others. Regular tea is fine, but sweet tea is even better.

Do you like sweet tea? If so, what’s your favorite? Have you ever made it yourself?

One Wild Girls Night Out (but not for the reason you may think) / Ingredient restaurant review

2011-07-26T09:11:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago one of our friends came into town to visit. She and her husband were a part of our small group many moons ago. Back when our small group was a different small group than the current one. So a couple of us from that group went out to meet said friend (Sarah) for dinner, along with one of Sarah’s old co-workers, who we’d met before as well. Ingredient restaurant in midtown was chosen for our dining pleasure for a variety of reasons. First, because this was during the College World Series and far away enough from downtown to avoid the traffic onslaught but still have a fun, urban vibe. (And free parking!) Second, because it is decently priced compared to some of the other options in midtown. And we’d all heard good things about it but never actually gone ourselves.

Since leaving our small group, Sarah has moved a couple times (her man works for Kiewit, which moves their people around a TON) and had a baby. Levi is now a year and a half old and busy, busy. Since he'd be joining us, that was a factor as well.

Never having been to Ingredient before, I was unaware that it wasn’t a regular “wait staff” restaurant. Instead, it’s more like Panera Bread, where you read the menu on the wall, follow the line to order, place your order and sit down with a corresponding number flag to your order number. (They actually expressly tell you on their signage not to sit down before ordering. We disobeyed, waiting for everyone to arrive before placing our orders. But it wasn’t busy enough to cause a ruckus.) That was a nice surprise, actually. And with a busy little guy to entertain, it was nice that the setting was a bit more casual.

Ordering was hard. They have a LARGE menu, with soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, and pizzas. And everything sounded really good. I finally settled on a pizza. The Wild Mushroom Pizza: wild mushrooms, fresh herbs, caramelized onions, alfredo sauce and brie cheese. It was rich and delicious, though I decided I’m not a huge fan of brie. It was good that there wasn’t much of that on the pizza.

Prior to our rendezvous, it had been recommended to us that the One Pacific Place location (where California Pizza Kitchen vacated) was superior to the midtown location in terms of service. Having never been to either, I didn’t really think it would matter much to me. And it didn’t. I wouldn’t say the service was great or bad, just adequate. The clientele was interesting, though. Levi kept running around, since he’d been cooped up in a car for 5+ hours that day. And one man in particular felt a bit creepy to those of us watching. He seemed all too keen on Levi, talking baby talk to him and waving him over regularly. We kept a good eye on Levi and all was fine.

And then. We’d started to notice the dark clouds headed our way from the west. And one friend decided she might start to head home. There’d been a brief discussion about the impending thunderstorm warnings earlier in the day, but we dismissed them when the forecasters didn’t seem to be too concerned. But just as she was starting to get ready to leave, a friend of hers from further out west texted about the storm heading our way. This friend was already in a shelter situation with her fellow apartment complex dwellers. And to top it off, the restaurant manager (a young woman about 24 maybe?) came out & made the announcement that a storm was coming and we needed to seek shelter either in their cooler or in the gym across the street. As we started to head to the gym, she announced that it was too late (literally about 30 seconds after her first announcement) and that we needed to proceed to their cooler. I made the comment to my group that the “cooler” was actually a freezer and started to put my sweater on. Others from my group weren’t sure my statement was accurate, until we got to the cooler.

As we filed in – standing shoulder to shoulder, single file, pushing all the way to the back with meat & other food stacked ceiling on high both sides – our group somehow got a bit separated and other people were intermingled with us. Apparently an older woman toward the back had a small radio and we were all anxious to hear what storm accounts it held. Unfortunately, a cooler in the middle of a restaurant during a storm doesn’t get great reception. Neither do cell phones. Just an FYI. 'Cuz I'm helpful like that.

The manager announced that if people were more comfortable heading to their cars in the parking garage, they could do so. Or a room somewhere in the parking garage. Since one of us – not me – was parked in the attached garage, we decided we’d rather make a break for that than be crowded in the cooler armpit to armpit with strangers for any longer. The manager wasn’t too keen on us going and told us that if we wanted back in, to just bang on the back door (the door we were exiting) really hard and they’d open up for us.

We got to the car in the garage & decided to move it a bit farther into the interior. The winds were pretty strong and the sky was quite dark. And it was raining pretty heavily. We turned on the car radio and engaged in quite a bit of texting with our storm watcher loved ones. We sat there for awhile, just reveling in the moment and the experience we’d all just had. Finally, we all decided we were in the clear. We ran through the rain to our various cars and headed home.

I forgot my leftover pizza box on the table in the restaurant. Which was disappointing, but not the end of the world. I liked the pizza fine, but I'm not sure I'd order it again. It was so rich that it was on the verge of being too rich.

I will definitely try Ingredient again. They have fresh food and decent prices. I am cheap these days, so not having to tip is always a bonus. They also offer many gluten-free options on their menu, which is a rarity. Oh, and my baker friend makes their gluten-free sweets. I have to support that!

http://www.ingredientrestaurant.com/

Texas Roadhouse: Not Jake’s Kind of Joint

2011-07-21T08:50:00.000-05:00

“Texas Roadhouse's hand-cut steaks, fresh-baked bread, fall-off-the-bone ribs, and made-from-scratch sides will keep you smiling. With ice cold beer and legendary margaritas — what more could you ask for?”

I’ll tell you what: the ability to call ahead as advertised and actually be seated in a timely manner without a whole lot of run-around.

We gathered at Texas Roadhouse for my nephew’s 11^th birthday. His choice, due to the famed ride on a saddle & wearing of a “hat” (a headband with two braids coming off it – for a BOY?!) while being “serenaded” by the surrounding wait staff and other customers. An 11-year-old’s dream.

But standing around in elbow-room-only waiting areas for half an hour was not anyone's dream. The fact that my sister-in-law called ahead for her party of 10, but was told only upon arrival that they wouldn’t seat the party until everyone had arrived was not a dream. The fact that we have a “better late than never” family mentality about punctuality didn’t help. (I was about 5 minutes late. My brother was more like 20 minutes late. My husband strolled in a half hour past, but that was expected due to a prior engagement. That was actually earlier than I’d anticipated his arrival.)

Finally my sister-in-law had enough of the waiting around endlessly and inquired about the table again. She didn’t even have to lie about the whole party having arrived - since they didn’t ask - and we were escorted to our table.

I suppose the one small enchantment to waiting around forever is that the Roadhouse provides you with ample peanuts for your munching consumption. And you can just throw the shells on the floor. Which seems to be quite a walking hazard to me – especially for the multitudes of older folks that seemed to be frequenting the joint – but I’m no Department of Sanitation judge.

Thankfully the servers bring rolls with them as they guide you to your table, so there is no waiting around for bread. And normally I wouldn’t give two rips about rolls, but these rolls are indeed special. Soft, chewy & sweet, they are just about the best bread item around. Not to mention the cinnamon butter that accompanies them. (Is that melted butter on top of the roll? Yes. Does that mean I shouldn’t spread more butter – mixed with delicious cinnamon – on top of the already buttered roll? NO.) And our table was doused with baskets of rolls. Score one for the Roadhouse.

Since one Texas Roadhouse location is not too far down the road from our church (StoneBridge Christian Church – shameless plug!), they often drop off samples of rolls on Sunday mornings, sweetly enticing church goers to their eatery. Smart, I say! (It should be noted that the particular location we visited for this birthday bash was the Shadowlake franchise, though.)

When we finally got around to ordering our food, our waitress was abrupt but helpful and available. That’s pretty much all I ask. Friendly is nice, but professional works!

I ordered a 6 oz. sirloin ($9.95), cooked medium-well according to their menu’s directions (some pink); I deem this a normal “medium” but it arrived to my specifications so I was happy. It was small, but probably the perfect portion for my size. And it was delicious.

Along with the main course came a side salad (decent – chopped hard-boiled eggs was a nice surprise) and loaded sweet potato. Heaven. I love this treat. Like a little pile of Thanksgiving right there on my plate. See the picture below & tell me if your mouth doesn’t start watering?! (Note that my potato wasn’t dripping with as much of whatever that is, but it was still darn good and topped with toasted marshmallows. Ignore the rest of that dish; I just needed a good shot of the sweet potato.)

Jake ordered boneless pork chops, which turned out to be somewhat dry but paired with the accompanying peppercorn sauce were quite edible. But the best thing by far on his plate was his side order of sautéed mushrooms. I will never order a side salad again! (The picture indicates how small a serving you receive, but they were piled fairly high in that small dish and the taste outweighs the size. I think you can even see the carmelized garlic edges. Mmm…)

When most of us had finished our food and were sitting around chatting and waiting for the birthday bash to begin, my husband leaned over to me and whispered, “I don’t think this is my kind of place.” It was at that moment that I noticed the loud country music (and not the classic kind he’s amenable to) and the wait staff line dancing around the corner. Not his kind of place indeed.

http://www.texasroadhouse.com/

I Need a Food Processor

2011-07-19T09:50:00.000-05:00

I’ve never desired a food processor. I’ve always thought of them as very optional. I didn’t want another piece of kitchen equipment I just stored but rarely, if ever, used. I didn’t even get a blender until after about 7 years of marriage. And that was just because I desired to make my own homemade Orange Julius beverages. (Hats off to Stacy Hatten for that recipe! Not quite like the real thing but wonderful when we lived in Cincinnati and the nearest Orange Julius was HOURS away.)

Lately, though, I’ve been thinking it might be time to procure one. A food processor, that is. If you read my last posts, you know that I’ve been using my blender in place of a food processor for some recipes. And it’s been a bit hard on my blender, which got more use recently from our live-in, soon-to-be missionary housemate for a few months. (She was on some smoothie diet.) We drug it up from downstairs for her, dusted it off and made a place for it on the counter. So I finally had no excuses and set about making some of the recipes I’d stalled on.

But using a blender in place of a food processor is tricky business. And at times the blender has smelled pretty hot, like in an-about-to-catch-on-fire kind of way. (Thank you, frozen banana ‘ice cream’!) I don’t blame it.

When I used it to make the fudgy snow balls, it was really difficult to get the batter out of the blender in order to roll it into balls. Sticky stuff and all stuck around the blade. And I still had to mix it up a bit afterward.

So, I’m in the market for a small food processor. I’m thinking something that’s about 3 cups, no larger. I don’t want a huge contraption I have to store. And the 1.5 cup mini seems a little on the small side for some projects. I saw an Oster brand version at Walmart for about $20 for the 3 cup size that seems like a good option. Might be a good addition to my gift wish list for birthday or Christmas, though I might not be able to wait that long. Fresh salsa is calling my name.

Do you have a food processor? If so, do you use it? What size/brand is it?

Inspiration

2011-07-12T10:44:00.000-05:00

Life has been more than a little crazy lately. Maybe you've noticed, due to the lack of regular posting on this here blog, something that hasn't happened much for me. So here is my heartfelt apology for that, dear readers! I don't mean to be slacking on you.

But I've felt a lack of inspiration for cooking especially, but for many things in life lately. So that makes it difficult to write posts for a food blog, huh?!

I have had SOME inspiration, though. From a variety of places. I'll highlight a couple for you.

MasterChef: This little Fox TV reality show is full of amateur chefs competing for the adoration of 3 self-proclaimed food gurus. It's intriguing, mouth-watering fun. Gordon Ramsey seen here is much less the raving food nazi as seen on Hell's Kitchen, and much more a nurturing (though heavy-handed) mentor. The challenges are difficult, the contestants are crazy, and the food is varied. But every episode includes at least one dish that makes me want to break out the pots & pans. This is the 2nd season of this show. I previously wrote about stumbling upon the first season last summer.

Cooking with friends. I arrived home yesterday after a weekend visiting friends in Clear Lake, Iowa. I always enjoy my visits there. It's such a nice quaint town. And the McGinnis's always inspire me to create new dishes and add more flavor to my life through cooking. Top offerings this visit included amazing chicken enchiladas with a poblano pepper / tomatillo cream sauce and Amy's melt-in-my-mouth Magic Cookie bars, which I believe I ate my weight in. They are also a gluten-free family, so it's nice to be able to bring home recipes for things I can actually make. Though I'll have to modify some of it to be low fat / no cheese. And Jake doesn't like coconut, so those bars are all for me!! I'm already planning to take them to the 2012 Smith Family Vacation. See the recipes for these dishes below.

Magic Cookie Bars
2 C Crushed GF Rice Cereal (about 3.25 cups before crushing)
½ C Margarine
3 T sugar
1 C. Chopped Nuts
1 C. Chocolate chips
1 ½ C. flaked cocnuts
1 Can Eagle Brand Sweetened condensed milk

Combine crushed cereal, margarine and sugar. Press into 9x13 pan. Sprinkle nuts over crust, then scatter chips over nuts, coconut over chips, sweetened condensed milk over cocnut. Bake bars in 350 oven for 25 minutes or until edges turn light brown. Cool and cut into bars.

Tomatillo Enchiladas
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 pound tomatillos (papery skins removed) chopped
1 white onion, chopped
1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped (can also use a green pepper or anahiem as well)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3/4 tsp cumin
Salt and pepper
1 cup heavy cream
2-2 1/2 pound rotisserie chicken, shredded (or the equivelent in frozen chicken)
14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/4 cup monterey jack
8 6 inch corn tortillas (more if needed)

Heat oven to 400 F. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the tomatillos, onion, poblano, garlic cum, and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to food processor, add cream and puree. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, tomatoes, 1 cup of cheese 1/2 cup of tomatillos sauce and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Warm the tortillas according to the package directions. Spread 1 cup of the reamining sauce in a 9x13 pan. Roll the chicken mixture in the tortillas and place them in the dish, seam side down. Top with remaining sauce and cheese. Bake until beginning to brown, 10 to 15 minutes.

What inspires you to cook?

Chicken McNuggets & Sweet ‘N Sour Sauce

2011-07-05T09:26:00.000-05:00

I’m a big, lifelong fan of McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets. They are the first, the premiere, everything else is a less-than-adequate copycat.

I’ve never liked bread. So growing up, eating at fast food joints with my family was almost pure torture. I didn’t want a burger with a bun! Yuck. So when McDonald’s came out with Chicken McNuggets, I’d found my fast food savior.

Not only do you get to bypass the bun, but these nuggets are also coated in batter, not breading. Hallelujah! (Cue the choir.) Everyone knows batter trumps breading.

And Sweet ‘N Sour Sauce is a Chicken McNugget's perfect mate. In fact, I’ve never once tried another dipping sauce at McDonald’s for their nuggets. Why would I?! Sweet ‘N Sour Sauce is sweet and tangy, delightful for both your nuggets and your fries. (A 4-piece Chicken McNugget Happy Meal with fries and a Coke makes the perfect portion of fast food for this gal. The fact that I’m about as tall as a 5^th grader makes that more so. And the price – just over $3 – ain’t bad either!)

McDonald’s has come out with new dipping sauces. And I was briefly tempted to try one. Maybe the Sweet Chili. But then I remembered that Sweet ‘N Sour is an original and why mess with perfection?! Not even a new sauce promotion shall sway me from my devotion to this pairing.

Soon I may have to write a whole post on why it seems I have a McDonald’s problem. I mean, this is not my first - and not even my second - post mentioning the fast food kingdom’s ruling potentate. (And, yes, thank you to Google for “potentate”! I knew there was a more noteworthy synonym for "ruler"!)

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html

Food & the Purpose of Life

2011-06-30T10:15:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I live my life in a perpetual state of wondering what the next meal holds. Most times when we have visitors at my house I spend almost the entire time prepping for a meal, making a meal, doing dishes from the meal, etc.

Sometimes life feels like it revolves around the simple act of eating. (I know my friend Becki can relate to this but in a much more real way as she helps her young daughter learn how to eat: “Now that we are home, we are keeping up the schedule of 3 meals and 3 snacks a day (eating every 2-3 hours) with each feeding session lasting ideally 20-30 minutes, but right now sometimes up to an hour since Aubrey is a slow eater. This is pretty intense, as you can imagine, and makes me feel some days like all we are doing is making meals, eating, cleaning up, and then starting all over again. In addition to her meals, we are currently feeding her 6 ounces of blenderized diet daily to supplement what she is taking by mouth. If you are wondering, blenderized diet is just what it sounds like – several different foods blended up in the blender and then syringed through her g-tube. This 6 ounces of blenderized diet replaces the 32 ounces of formula that she was receiving daily before we left for Seattle, so you can see from this alone that she has come a long way in how much she is eating.” Read more here: http://www.thelehmers.com/2011/06/seattle-recap/)

But when I read a book, watch a movie or television show, very little of the lives of the characters are spent eating. (The exceptions to this rule are cooking shows, The Food Network, and the movie “Julie & Julia”, based on the life of a blogger as she cooks through Julia Child’s premiere cookbook.)

So I’ve pondered at various times why it is that so much of my life is taken up with the thought of food. And that maybe I’m missing the real plot of life as I’m focused on the food.

These queries sort of shake me. I don’t want to miss what’s important. And I don’t want to make food more important than it should be. But I do enjoy food. Do I enjoy it too much? Should I enjoy it less? Should I appreciate it for what it is? But when I go fresher & healthier with my food, the more time it consumes in my life, proportionately. Because it takes more time to select the right food. (Not to mention GROW it, but I’m still not quite there.) And to prepare it.

This leaves me in a conundrum. I like the idea of not worrying about where my next meal comes from (and let’s be honest – I don’t WORRY about it like some have to worry about it; I know there will BE a next meal - I just don’t know whether it will be at home or out somewhere). I don’t want FOOD to consume my life. I want it to be in its rightful place in my life. But just what place that is I’m still figuring out.

And then I ponder the idea that perhaps if my life is a book and I’m writing the plot (thanks, Donald Miller, for inspiring me to desire to “write a better story with my life”!), then maybe MY book is not a mystery, action-adventure, comedy or romance. Perhaps MY book is more of a family cookbook collection, filled with recipes and stories about how food has been a tool that’s brought me closer to loved ones. And maybe that’s exactly what MY book should be.

I’m still wrestling with all this. I probably will for a very long time, if not forever. Because I desire to be what God created me to be and live a balanced life in his name, giving him the glory. But if God created me to be a cookbook, I don’t want to be striving to be a suspenseful thriller. (That sounds too stressful anyway!)

Ideas? Helpful input that’s put you on the right path?

Eye Drooling

2011-06-20T08:28:00.000-05:00

Have you ever ordered something at a restaurant just because the picture of it on the menu convinced you it would be the most fabulous thing you’d ever closed your lips around? Have you ever made a dinner that just looked amazing on your plate, regardless of what it tasted like? (Though hopefully it tasted good as well.)

The other day I made lunch and I commented to my husband that the plate full of food looked nice, regardless of what it tasted like. I said it looked “appetizing”. He argued with me that it looked “appealing”. I countered that the two were synonyms. He clarified that regardless of how tasty it seemed, the colors themselves were actually attractive and appealing.

I think most of us just dump our food on our plates and chow down, rarely considering the “art” of plating a dish. We tend to not even consider the flavors in our mouth when we chew either. We just insert, swallow, repeat.

How sad to miss all that God has given us in this area! He created so many foods and flavors to entice us. And we are too distracted to pay attention to this.

But when a simple meal of varied colors and textures comes together on my plate, I sometimes have the rare presence of mind to take the moment and appreciate these small pleasures.

All it took was a piece of flounder topped with mandarin oranges (see recipe here: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2010/07/orange-honey-tilapia-slow-cooker-recipe.html but I had flounder that day so I substituted that for the tilapia), a side of gluten-free garlic primavera risotto (Jake LOVES: http://www.glutensolutions.com/gluten-free-products-and-manufacturer/lundberg/lundberg-gluten-free---risotto-rstd-garlic-primavera.html) as well as frozen peas (with a little light butter).

Visually pleasing and tasty as well. (I should note that the first time Jake & I tried this fish recipe, we were a bit “iffy” about it. Cooked mandarin oranges have a bit of a mushy texture. But I quickly came to really like the mix of flavors and overcame the texture of the oranges.) As usual, I should have taken a picture!

I would say that some of the food on our Mexico vacation fit this idea of visually appealing, especially the dishes at the French restaurant. They took care with plating, like a 5 star eatery should.

I definitely think visual appeal makes the meal better. I think more about the foods I pair together when I prepare meals now. There have been times that I’ve made all “gold” meals (chicken coated in cornmeal, side of chicken rice mix and corn!) and awhile back I had a very “green” meal (fish topped with avocado, green beans and broccoli). Even if the food tastes good, I don’t enjoy those meals as much. (Carrots would have been much better than the broccoli on that plate!)

What’s your favorite “visually appealing” meal? Or least?! Is there something that never really looks appealing but always tastes good? Vice versa? (I always used to think oyster soup looked appealing – like potato soup – but have tried it enough to know that it’s simply NOT.)

Family Vacation

2011-06-17T12:13:00.000-05:00

My extended immediate family (dad, siblings, in-laws, niece & nephews) meet up every year for a family vacation. This started 5 years ago when Jake & I moved back to the Omaha area, though that was just a coincidence. My mom had finally decided to make her dream of a family vacation happen, reserving some cabins at Nebraska’s Mahoney State Park and hoping people would show up. We did. (Most of us anyway – my niece was born just days after, so her parents were stuck at home on doctor’s orders since it was 2 ½ hours away.) My parents paid the cabin rental so the rest of us took care of the food costs. We planned the meals, shopped, prepared & cooked. (And by “we” I mean my sister-in-law & I.) Of course, my mom couldn’t resist bringing treats. Her homemade “hostess” cupcakes were always yummy and the rice krispie treats were devoured within hours.

Growing up, we almost always took a family vacation during the summer. Usually to Colorado. My dad has a lifelong love affair with the mountains. Which he has gladly passed down to all of us. One of my mom’s favorite things was to have all of us back together. Holidays, birthdays, whatever. So planning a family vacation was pretty high on her to-do list. When we all got older and busier, that was much harder to make happen. But she did it.

Unfortunately, that was the only year my mom was around for family vacation, as that winter she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away in early spring. Family vacation was just months after that, so it was pretty hard when we all got together, knowing she would have loved to have been there. And I think we maybe did it mostly for her that year – knowing she’d have liked it. And then we did it the next year because it was good to get together. And then we kept doing it because it became important to each of us. One of my brothers even mentioned recently that it was a priority for him and his wife because family vacation is one of the few times a year they get to see everyone. Hurrah for family time!

But then comes the planning. And when you have as many people to accommodate as we do (schedules, sleeping arrangements, locales, budgets) it can be tricky. After the first few years, Dad quit paying for the cabin rentals himself (pricey!) so now we all chip in for rentals and for food. (We find that renting cabins is still much cheaper than hotels, though. And you can prepare your own food, which also cuts down on the cost.) Finding a location that has cabins large enough for our crowd is tricky. Finding one that’s cost effective and a midpoint between all of us is a nightmare.

Planning meals is still mostly up to my sister-in-law and me. I think because we’re the “planners” in the family, for the most part. Not that we don’t want everyone to have a say, because we surely do. Anywho, coming up with easy, inexpensive and fun meals that delight all palates young & old and in between can be a challenge. Normally we have pretty good cooking facilities, though last year’s left a little something to be desired: crockpot, microwave, dorm fridge & outdoor grill only. Thankfully, this year we have more of our standard: full range, fridge, utensils & pans are all supplied.

And now we have a gluten-free and low cholesterol issue on our hands, in addition to diabetes. Thankfully, camping normally means grilling and there’s lots to grill on our diet list. But that doesn’t always fit “inexpensive” and sometimes isn’t always “easy” (grilling a tenderloin can take awhile & charcoal is finicky).

I definitely have specific ideas of what kinds of food are “camping” foods. (Definitely “hobo burgers”: aluminum foil packets with burger patties, potato, carrot & onion chunks with seasoning. Hot dogs. Steaks & baked potatoes.) And so does everyone else. Sometimes those ideas don’t match up. Also, when you have so many people, how do you plan for the food? Does one person shop and you split the cost? Or does every family plan a meal & cook for everyone else?

As in the past, we are having one person shop & then splitting the cost. This year our list of meals includes gluten free pasta with turkey Italian sausage, chicken or beef tacos (with corn shells), breakfast casseroles (one with bread, one with hashbrowns and eggbeaters), salads & sandwiches and a cheat night: my sister-in-law’s crockpot meatballs over rice. (The meatballs are not gluten free, though we can get turkey ones to cut down on cholesterol/fat issues.) My husband is pretty happy to cheat for those, though.

Does your family do yearly vacations? Do you have trouble accommodating different tastes & budgets? Who’s in charge of the planning?

Ladies Who Lunch

2011-06-15T08:33:00.000-05:00

At the time of this writing, I just got back from lunch with my gal pals. The three of us try to schedule lunches regularly, though how often we are actually able to make a lunch date happen definitely varies. But inevitably, at the end of lunch, at least one of us says something to the effect of “we need to do this more often” which is always echoed by the rest of us and heartily agreed upon. However, life gets in the way. Last winter we had to reschedule / postpone our lunch dates several times in a row due to illness, weather, etc.

I still remember the time we got together and laughed so hard we all cried. (One of us is a fantastic story teller with fantastic stories to tell. And it’s not me.) And I remember the time we had a really heartfelt conversation about our spousal relationships. And the times they let me talk about losing my mom. And we almost always discuss the joys and trials of parenting, since they’re both moms of young ones. I soak in their wisdom, experience, laughter and love. I revel in their ability to take care of their offspring better than I am able to care for just myself!

We’ve gone out, we’ve stayed in, we’ve potlucked. But mostly we converse. We don’t get together for the food, though we generally enjoy that as well. One has not tried a lot of ethnic and diverse foods and we enjoy sharing those with her. (Or maybe it’s testing / pushing her!) Sometimes it’s successful. Ha!

Today we held each other up, encouraged one another, laughed, cried and paused to admit that sometimes life experiences are the best teachers of compassion and humility, though we also grieved that those lessons are most often taught through difficulties.

I always look forward to our girls day out lunches. I can’t wait until the next one, even though it might be awhile.

Do you have some favorite meal companions? (Other than the obvious immediate family members, so for some those individuals are not favorites!)

Online Food Journal

2011-06-13T08:25:00.000-05:00

Recently I decided to start tracking my daily food intake. I’ve heard before that this is one of the steps you can take to become a healthier eater. Just seeing in print what all you put into your mouth on a daily basis can be a big reality check for some people. Or maybe what you don’t put into your mouth too.

A friend of mine agreed to be a kind of accountability partner for me with this. I figured that we could start our very own “weight watchers” kind of thing. I mean, it probably started out small with just a group of friends getting together on a weekly basis to chart their progress & encourage each other. So why should I have to shill out buku bucks for that?

But she lives 4 hours from me. So a face-to-face weekly check-in wouldn’t work. Riffing off of what Weight Watchers Online provides for people, she created a Google Docs spreadsheet for us to log our daily food journals into. We also log any exercise we do, what we think went well that day and what we can improve on.

Because I’m not always at my computer, I keep my food log in a small notebook on my counter & take it to work with me as well. Then I update the spreadsheet when I can. Lately it’s been once a week. Then we can look back over our eating habits as a whole and make some connections.

After we started this, I also read that jotting down what you’re thinking / feeling / doing when you decide to eat is also helpful in targeting eating "triggers". Like if you’re actually hungry or just bored or sad or it’s “dinner time”, etc. I think that would probably be helpful too.

So far I haven’t been too astounded at my overall eating habits. And some days are better than others, of course. I do tend to skip meals more than I’d probably guessed, though, substituting mostly just crap calories for solid meals (i.e. popcorn & cheese slices for lunch). And my water intake fluctuations wildly from day to day. It’s interesting that it doesn’t normally go from horrible to great, though. Usually it slides from horrible to less horrible to better to great and then back down gradually as well. And when my water intake is worse, my grape koolaid intake increases and vice versa. Not unexpected, but interesting to see down on paper.

Have you ever kept a food journal? If so, did you find it helpful in your quest to be healthier?

Family Dinner

2011-06-10T09:34:00.000-05:00

I recently read a blog by a harried mother of 4 young children in which she confessed her hatred of family dinner time. Mostly because her children are at difficult ages and this particular time of day stresses her out to the max. That caused me to reflect on how I feel about family dinners.

For us, “family dinner” is what we call the meal every other Monday night when my husband and I get together with my dad, the two brothers who live locally, and their families. (Yes, my dad lives 3 hours away. And yes, he still comes every other Monday night for family dinner. And yes, he’s awesome like that.)

We started these family dinners 5 years ago when Jake & I moved back to Nebraska from living 5 years in Cincinnati. (Can I really have lived in Omaha now as long as I lived in Cincinnati?!) At that time, all my siblings with the exception of my sister lived in the area, so we all got together at my oldest brother’s house every Monday night.

Time moves on, as did one brother. So that left the rest of us, which was still a pretty sizable group. But after awhile Jake started working at a church across town, we bought a house pretty far away from where we’d been and life filled up a bit more. Nephews got older and had more activities. My mother passed away, so my dad began to visit us more. So family dinners were scaled back from every week to every other week and my dad began to join us regularly.

At first, my sister-in-law mostly prepared the meals & I helped out with a side or dessert. Now, the meal prep is divided more evenly and almost everyone shares in bringing something, even Dad. There are some special diet issues and everyone is good about adhering to them. (Though my nephews still taunt Jake about cheese on a fairly constant basis thanks to their dad’s encouragement. Brian loves cheese even more than the normal person, so to him, that’s just about the worst thing to dislike EVER. I can't say I disagree.)

Sometimes family dinners are a pain. They’re all the way across town, we’re busy, they’re busy, etc. It’s hard to prepare a meal for everyone that all will like, it’s expensive to make food for that many people, it’s hard to keep it hot on the long drive, etc. But we always have a good time. And if we don’t make the effort to get together regularly, we could very easily end up not seeing each other at all. Which would be a tragedy.

When Jake & I lived in Cincinnati, our nephews didn’t know us at all. We loved them, but weren’t really a part of their lives. Because of “family dinner”, they know us. And I like to think they like us. I wouldn’t give it up.

Roja Mexican Grill

2011-06-08T09:34:00.000-05:00

Recently we went to the newer downtown Omaha Roja site for a Smith family birthday celebration. Even my Grandma Smith joined us! I’m sure this was not her kind of dinner joint. She had trouble choosing an item off the menu to suit, though she did settle on a chicken salad with some kind of cilantro ranch dressing. It probably wasn’t her favorite meal, but she managed. For the record, my dad doesn’t love Mexican either, but I don’t think he had quite as bad a time with the menu as Grandma did. He just indicated that his favorite Mexican dish is fried ice cream. I hear that! (Though I love much more than just that in the way of Mexican food.)

Overall, I find Roja to be a decent Americanized Mexican restaurant. A bit over-priced but for what I order, pretty delicious. I’ve only ever ordered one thing, though. The shrimp & crab enchiladas. I’ve been 3 times to Roja (twice at the west location on 168^th & Center and now once downtown at 12^th & Harney). The first two times were relatively close together but it’d been quite awhile since I’d been. So the menu had changed quite a bit. But I still found the shrimp & crab enchiladas to be what drew my eye. This time I had a choice of sauce toppings, which I didn’t remember being the case prior (though I could just be suffering from mid-old age memory loss too). I selected the green chile deluxe sauce. The descriptions of the sauces on the inside of the menu suggested this sauce to be creamy, which was what I remembered from the times I’d ordered this dish before, so that’s what my gut told me to go with. And once again, my gut was right.

The food took quite awhile to arrive, though I will concede that our party was on the large side. But our waitress was something else. Clearly she was peeved at something when we arrived and decided to take it out on us. She sniped at us a couple times and when she received blank stares and short responses in return, I think she must have understood that her future financial reward was severely dwindling and she turned on the charm a bit more thereafter. It was a noticeable difference, almost laughable.

Other than our waitress, the service was great. The manager and hostess were helpful and pleasant. The manager refilled our water glasses a couple different times himself. And our waitress improved, though she was mostly scarce after we got our food.

I must say that the chips & salsa at Roja are good. I’m not sure I’d “rave” but they’re some of the best around Omaha probably. The chips are greasy good & salty. I ate some of them plain, which is not something I normally do at Mexican restaurants. And the salsa, though it clearly has cilantro minced into it, doesn’t have that overwhelming bitter cilantro flavor that haunts me. It was fresh and just the right consistency.

The enchiladas were exactly what I recalled. Creamy, delicious, with just a hint of spice in the seafood mixture. I love that they use corn tortillas for their enchiladas, of course. And it worked well for Jake too (corn tortillas are gluten-free). I ordered mine without the side of beans, so I received an extra portion of rice, which was perfect for me. The two enchiladas, along with the rice, and the amount of chips & salsa I consumed waiting for my food to arrive, filled me up.

The enchiladas were about mid-range in price for their menu items, coming in at $11.99. Not extravagant, but not a steal by any means.

I do like the atmosphere at Roja. I enjoy the shrimp & crab enchiladas and chips & salsa. I probably won’t be going out of my way to go there, but I also won’t make you twist my arm too hard either.

One nice note about the downtown location: the parking in the nearby garage is free for 3 hours with a paid receipt. No more driving around the Old Market searching for an open parking space!

http://rojagrill.com/

Red Mango

2011-06-06T08:11:00.000-05:00

I’ve written about Red Mango briefly before, but decided it was high time to devote a whole post to it. If you haven’t ventured there, Red Mango is a frozen yogurt delight. Now, if you don’t like yogurt, you might not like Red Mango. Because it tastes more “yogurty” than most frozen yogurts – a tang on the tongue. They apparently are more “natural” and “healthy” than say, TCBY, who I can only guess is “the other guys” mentioned on their comparison poster. My husband is just such a person that does not love yogurt and thus was not impressed with the samples he grabbed at Red Mango. So he decided to sit that one out.

I like that you can grab a little sample cup & go to town on their wall of flavors. And after you’ve selected your choice of the moment, you can grab a (HUGE) cup and fill ‘er up! Since you pay by the weight of the cup, I’m not surprised that there are no teeny cups to be found (other than the sample cups, of course). I did not see the price he paid, but the gentleman in front of me had to have shelled out a pretty penny, for his cup overfloweth with fro-yo & toppings (including granola, which isn't light weight stuff)!

The first time I tried Red Mango I selected their Mojito flava. And it was AWESOME. I topped it with fresh strawberries and paid about $2 for my conservative portion. (My husband was delighted when it came time to pay.) It did not disappoint. I sucked down every spoonful before the rest of my party even sat down.

This last visit was to a different location and was several months later. So Mojito was no longer in season. (Huh?! Isn’t spring/summer a more appropriate Mojito time than February?)

I grabbed some sample cups and went to town. I tried the new Raspberry Cheesecake flavor. Much more raspberry than cheesecake and not too bad, but not quite my style. As soon as I eyed the Coconut, I knew I’d found a winner. And that it was. I topped it with fresh pineapple and again found that I was within the $2 range at the checkout. Hurray for knowing that almost as soon as I’d pulled down the fro-yo lever, it was time to release (apparently the ticket to a conservative portion).

It should be noted that Red Mango has a variety of toppings other than fresh fruit. Coconut, nuts, cereals like Fruity Pebbles & Cocoa Pebbles, sprinkles, chocolate sauces, candies and more are all among the options you can choose from. Even some kind of super-healthy looking granola mixture that I previously mentioned above, which I was somewhat tempted to try. I’m sure it’s super-fab in their parfaits. But the fresh fruit always looks pretty inviting there – I’m not one for mushy, jam-coated fruits that are often used for fruity ice cream toppings. But these are just fresh fruit chunks, whole and unadulterated. Kiwi, mango, strawberry, pineapple & more. (And a sign that denotes the availability of banana on request – I’m sure they don’t want old slimy brown banana slices sitting out.)

One of the first things you see when you walk into Red Mango is that their fro-yo is nonfat, contains pro-biotics and has no artificial stuff (like “the other guys”). The friend I went with deemed the existence of pro-biotics in her fro-yo as unappetizing. I’m not put off by it, though, and decided that as long as it tastes good, I’m all for it being better for me as well!

Red Mango is always a good choice for gluten-free peeps, FYI. And they do have non-dairy fruit smoothies for those that can’t abide dairy.

Another location is opening soon in Omaha. I can’t wait to check it out! I plan to sign up for their “club mango” soon as well, so I can starting earning me some free fro-yo.

http://www.redmangousa.com/default.html

Sam & Louie’s New York Pizzeria

2011-06-03T13:24:00.000-05:00

We had company for Memorial Day weekend and they happened to be gluten-free as well. One of the requests made was that we go out to eat for one meal over the weekend. Omaha offers quite a few options for the gluten-free crowd and Jake had just experienced Sam & Louie’s gluten-free pizza the week prior and liked it quite a bit. This is pretty exceptional, since he never really loved Sam & Louie’s before he was gluten-free. (I’ve always liked it fine and normally got their lunch deal with a slice of pizza, a salad & a soda. Good for lunch with the girls!) We decided to try it out with our friends. But apparently the location near us had closed, so we were on a wild goose-chase to find the next nearest location. Not until we’d arrived at the one off 156^th & Dodge did we remember there was one at 120^th & Blondo. Oh, well.

One drawback is the price: they only sell 10-inch gluten-free pizzas – 6 slices – for $10.49 for a cheese pizza. They have several specialty options for $15.39, again for a 10-inch / 6-slice pie.

Now, one thing we’ve pretty much gotten used to: gluten-free is generally more expensive. So that’s not a huge deal at this point, especially since we’ve cut down on eating out. But still, that’s not a great deal.

However, the pizza is good. Sometimes with gluten-free you get weird textures or tastes due to the different flour substitutions. But this crust was a nice crispy thin crust, no weirdness to be had.

Jake had ordered the BBQ chicken pizza: “tangy barbeque sauce, smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, grilled chicken, red bell peppers, and mozzarella cheese” (minus the cheddar, of course). Which is a better option for him than say, pepperoni (cholesterol & all), though he was hard-pressed to give up the bacon. And he liked it a lot so when we went back with our friends, we ordered it (again, without the cheddar) and a Hawaiian Luau: “Canadian bacon, pineapple, red bell peppers, bacon and mozzarella cheese”. Apparently we had something for bacon, red bell peppers and slightly sweet (the bbq sauce was on the sweet side as was the pineapple, of course).

It seemed to take quite awhile for us to get our food. Our server was pretty nice; maybe a little overly chatty but just generally in a decent mood & probably an extrovert by nature. Since I tend to be more of an introvert these days, those weird extroverts throw me a bit sometimes. Anyway, when it arrived it was piping hot. And pretty delicious.

(A pic of the BBQ Chicken from their website. I’m sure this is the regular variety, but the gluten-free looks pretty much the same.)

Overall, this was a very good dining experience for us. I would definitely recommend Sam & Louie’s to my gluten-free friends. But I like the regular stuff too. Jake & I decided we could easily go there for an $11 one-topper (not bacon or pepperoni, of course, due to the fat/cholesterol issue but maybe grilled chicken, Canadian bacon, etc) to take home and have with a side salad or something. It’s no $11 large Godfather’s pizza that fed us for 2 days, but its MUCH better than no pizza at all.

http://samandlouiesnyp.com/

Off Topic But On My Mind: Zenni Optical

2011-05-27T13:16:00.000-05:00

Periodically I have *important* thoughts on subjects other than food. (Shocking!) Thus this – and probably future – posts.

I recently ordered two new pairs of eyeglasses from a website. That statement alone is nothing short of miraculous. I do not buy items online very often. I am loathe to buy shoes online due to the wide-ranging variance in manufacture’s shoe sizes. Same for most clothing items. Another great drawback is the return/refund issue. Thus, Target is almost my lone purveyor of online goods due to the ease of return in-store, if necessary. Oh, and I don’t like to pay more for shipping. There’s that too.

However, a few months back there was a post on a blog I follow (Money Saving Mom: http://moneysavingmom.com/) about how she had discovered Zenni Optical and had a good experience with it. Basically Zenni has a wide range of frames to choose from, starting at about $6.95. You can digitally upload a glasses-free, front-facing picture of yourself so that you can “try on” the frames. (It’s pretty technical and specific so that made me feel pretty good, actually.)

I was in the market for some new eyeglasses & I’m always game for a good deal. The last time I bought glasses I went to America’s Best because they had a deal for 2 pairs of glasses & an eye exam for $69.99. HOWEVER, that included basic plastic lenses and this near-sighted gal needs a higher quality lens to avoid the bottle-cap mishap just waiting to happen. So I ended up paying over $200. Which was still a pretty good deal for 2 pairs of new glasses. But then I only ended up ever wearing one pair.

I learned my lesson and only sought out plastic frames for my new pairs, knowing that though I like the look of metal frames, I will not wear them in the end. And I limited my frame search to those in the lower price ranges. If I was waffling between two similar choices, I just went with the cheaper option. I loaded my “cart” with several choices and then involved my optician sister in the process. (She would not normally recommend such things, probably, but she knows my cheapskate ways & lack of funds for such frivolous items such as EYEWARE. Please note the heavily dripping sarcasm.)

She helped me select two good options. Then I went to a brand new eye place offering an eye exam for $29.99 (glasses prescription only). I graciously skirted the sales people there & went home to enter my prescription online, selected my lenses (again, with my sister’s help – I found this step to be more challenging, again because of my prescription strength & not knowing if one lens width would be worth the price difference, etc), breathed deeply and hit “submit order”. It took a couple weeks for manufacturing and delivery, but the magical day arrived.

I received two complete pairs of eyeglasses, along with a specific clip-on set of sunglass lenses for each pair (at just $3.95 each), all for under $110 shipped. And I like them. They’re definitely worth the price I paid. I could probably go to Walmart and get them “fitted” for free (or take a trip to see Sis) but since I go with plastic frames, sometimes that just makes them sit more askew anyway. (My sister will probably have a fit when she sees how they sit on my face, but I never see what she sees.)

If you have a relatively easy prescription, I would definitely give Zenni Optical a try!

http://www.zennioptical.com/

What kind of cook are you?

2011-05-25T08:15:00.000-05:00

I honestly can’t remember if I’ve talked about this subject before, but I think I’ve at least dropped a mention a time or two about it. Nevertheless, recently I was thinking again about what kind of cook I am. I have always been the kind of cook that measures things out, sticks to a recipe, etc. I have to master a recipe by making it literally hundreds of times before I dare to deter from it even a little. And whenever I would ask my dear mother for a recipe of hers and she would say something like “a little mustard” I would interrogate her about how much EXACTLY “a little mustard” was to her. Because “a little mustard” to her might be very different from “a little mustard” to me!

And yet. The other day I had thawed some tilapia for lunch. And I didn’t really have an exact plan for it at all. (In fact, I usually make an exact meal list – with exact recipes – and then make my grocery shopping list from that, but this time I just wrote in meals like “chicken” or “tilapia” on my calendar instead of “Garlic Chicken Stir-Fry” or “Crockpot Mandarin Tilapia”. We’re going off the map here!) So I found myself drizzling olive oil over the tilapia, then some Dijon mustard, then some honey. Those were the basic ingredients for another recipe I’d done before and I thought they’d be good with the tilapia and that those flavors would mix well with the side dishes I’d decided on as well. But I was just pouring & spreading, friends! No measuring. No recipe. WILD!

I confess that there is another dish I make that I have mastered enough not to measure things out. Chicken salad – like the mayonnaise kind. I usually shortcut it & use canned chicken breast, add in something for crunch like chopped jicama or water chestnuts & then just add spoonfuls of mayo until I get it to the right consistency. I also normally add in Tastefully Simple’s Bacon Bacon seasoning and/or garlic salt or powder for flavor. (Sadly, Bacon Bacon is not on our gluten-free friendly list. Boo! It is vegetarian, however. Ironic?)

Recently a friend asked me for my chicken salad recipe for a party she was hosting & I gave her the gist. And she said she “should have known I was that kind of cook”, the kind that doesn’t measure & just adds “a little of this & a little of that”. You know the kind. I have several friends & relatives that are that kind. Maybe you’re that kind! I’m NOT that kind normally, so that’s the real kicker!!

But it seems I’m more & more able to venture beyond a recipe and discover ingredients that naturally compliment each other. To be honest, that’s one of the main attractions to culinary school: learning the art of complimentary flavors. Some day I might even BE that kind of cook on a normal basis. Today is not that day. But maybe some day…

Book Study (Repost)

2011-05-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

Stef blogs at http://onthejourneywithmae.blogspot.com/ about all life’s issues, but this particular post, originally published on May 17^th, fits my blog’s intentions so well that I requested a repost here.

I am embarking on a book study with some wonderful ladies-- "God's Girls" so we've come to call ourselves-- at work. We are studying through the book "Made to Crave: Satisfying your deepest desire with God, not food" by Lysa Terkeurst. My initial thought was that this would be interesting at best, but it has hit home much closer than I anticipated. How often do I run to food for comfort, as a reward, when I feel joy or experience stress, when I am sad, happy or bored? Painfully, more often than I'd like. The issue at hand isn't my pant size, but my heart condition. And one is growing and the other isn't, if you get my drift.

God never intended we love anything more than we love him.

Interesting! I particularly related to the story in Matthew 19, where a rich young man comes to see Jesus and explains that he is following all the rules but recognizes something is missing. "All of these (rules) I have kept", he says to Jesus. "What do I still lack?" Jesus responds by telling him to sell all his possessions to the poor. And the man goes away... sad... because he doesn't want to give up the ONE thing that consumes him.

In other words-- Jesus wants us to give up the one thing we crave more than Him.

What is it for you? What do you crave more than God? Is it food? Appreciation? Comfort? Money? Pleasing others? Clothes? Home decor? Well behaved kids? A well taken care of house? Exercise? Being well respected at work? Approval from peers? Appearance?

As I prepare for our book study, does anyone have an idea about how we can "reward" ourselves without food? This might show you how far gone I am. I can't imagine rewarding myself with a pedicure or new shirt, because then aren't I trading one craving for another? Is the answer here that I should pray to be content celebrating with God and not "rewarding" myself on this green Earth? Can I reward myself with a new iTunes download if it's Christian music? This is me, calling out for help :) Would love to hear from you on this one.

The other thing I have been thinking honestly about is all my excuses for not eating more healthy and maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle. Things like:
* It's not that bad the way it is.
* I should learn to love myself the way I am
* It's my age
* It's my metabolism
* It's my genetics
* Surely it's not Runza, hamburgers and fries and chips!
* This is a bad time to start a new healthy lifestyle-- I'm pregnant.
* This is a bad time to start a new healthy lifestyle-- I have small kids.
* I have the rest of my life to be healthy
* I should focus more on Dekker/raising kids for this season of life

I am putting together that the most important thing I can do to be the Mom, friend, wife, daughter, employee, that I can be is to love God more. And to love God more, I need to surrender the things that I crave more than Him.

I hate to write this publicly. Next time you see me saddled up to the salsa at La Mesa just know I'm a work in progress, okay.

Bless you all.

On the journey,
Stef

Alpine Inn

2011-05-20T15:36:00.000-05:00

The first time I ever experienced the joy that is Alpine Inn was almost 5 years ago on a trip my husband and I took out to visit some friends in the Black Hills of South Dakota. They took us to the tiny, tiny town of Hill City, SD, which is just a great tourist trap kind of place. The main street is littered with small shops made just for people who have to waste some time while they wait for a table at Alpine Inn. And wait you will! I think we waited over an hour and a half that time & there were just 4 of us.

So when Leslie, my co-leader for our Week of Ministry trip, suggested that we go to Alpine Inn with the group on Friday night – after a fun “free” day spent seeing the sights – I lept at the chance. It had been too, too long.

The great thing about Alpine Inn is that you have two evening meal menu options: big steak or little steak. Both are fillets wrapped in bacon and grilled to your own preference of perfection (mine = medium). Either comes with a lettuce wedge drowned in homemade ranch, a baked potato with butter & sour cream (on the side, so you can choose) and Texas toast (bleh – I gave mine away). And these menu items are delish. A perfect American meal concoction. I love the sheer simplicity of ordering from this evening menu. (And it’s possible that a full day of hiking around in the Black Hills promoted a healthier appetite which in turn made the food taste even better. I highly recommend that routine! Hike, eat steak.)

But then. Oh, after you eat your heart’s content of this wonderful kind of comfort food, they top it off with a 15-item homemade dessert menu. Heavens, this is a hard decision! 5 years ago I went with the Tiramisu. It was good, but not my absolute fave. (It is the only item on the menu that warns you of the alcohol content since the pound cake is drenched in a couple kinds of liquor. So that’s fun!) So this time I wanted to try a different option, but which one?! I vacillated between several options for awhile: the Napolean (a local-recommended filled French pastry), the bread pudding (yes, I do love bread in THIS form – especially when it says right on the menu that raisins & nuts are absent!), the German white chocolate mousse and the German chocolate Belgian waffle. Go to the website & read the dessert menu and you’ll see what a hard choice was before me.

Eventually I chose the bread pudding and when the kind waitress asked if I wanted it a la mode, who says no to that?! So, yes, please cover my homemade-caramel-sauce-drenched dessert in ice cream to cut the sweetness!!

And it was good. So, so good.

But I think I’ll have to go back and try some of those other options soon. Very soon. It’s worth the 9 hour trip it’ll take me!

Oh, and by the way: they let our group of 18 bypass that hours-long-wait when we called ahead and were told that either we should arrive by 5:00pm when it opened (the lounge opens at 4:00pm so you can start lining up) or we could come at their next available opening for a group that large – 7:30pm. We were there bright & early! But otherwise, no reservations. So come early or shop around while you wait!

http://www.alpineinnhillcity.com/

The Firehouse

2011-05-18T09:30:00.000-05:00

One of the recommended places to eat in Rapid City, SD, is The Firehouse. It’s a local place in downtown Rapid and it offers a wide variety of menu choices. We blessed The Firehouse with our presence one noontime day when we wanted to be a blessing to the family whose house we’d worked on all week. Us girls took the chicks in the family to The Firehouse while the boys took the boys to Sanford’s, which is apparently all meat-based and thus, very manly. Ha! Anyway, there were about 7 of us females, including a very mature 6 year old who was alternately shy & entertaining.

I think everyone ordered something different. The menu had burgers, salads, fish & chips, country fried steak, shepherd’s pie, pasta and more. I was feeling fairly loaded down from all the meat & potatoes I’d consumed that week so I ordered an oriental chicken salad, the lunch-size. Man. When it came I had trouble keeping it all in the bowl. It was overflowing. And it was just what I needed. Lots of yummy chicken (REAL chicken, not the weird chicken-like bits you sometimes find in salads & wraps), veggies, crisp light rice noodles for a crunch, all topped with a light oriental vinaigrette. Perfect.

Others enjoyed their fried meat goodness, pizza rolls and French fries. We all got what we wanted.

And to top it off we ordered a couple desserts to share. Two girls specifically wanted cheesecake, which I think they guarded with their lives when it came. Which was fine with the rest of us since we all had a HUGE piece of chocolate cake to consume. It was called the “Stop Drop and Roll”. It was like a massive slice of an industrial-size Swiss Cake Roll. And it was AMAZING. No one was disappointed. The whipped cream filling was light and creamy, not too heavy at all. And the cake was rich & chocolatey but not too dense. Perfection.

Can you see the sheer joy that I guarantee was reflected on all our faces?!

The prices were about average for the sit-down type venues like Applebees. All right around $10. Some over, some under.

But I’d definitely recommend saving room for dessert.

http://www.firehousebrewing.com

Blessed By Black Hills Hospitality

2011-05-16T09:16:00.000-05:00

So now is the first chance I’ve gotten (or taken) to write a bit about the trip I took to Rapid City with 10 college students and one other wonderful sponsor. I wrote once before - quite awhile ago - about how I see hospitality as an actual ministry and spiritual gift. Our trip is a great example of that.

We’d originally planned out the trip: lodging, transportation, food, etc and then figured out what to charge each student based on those costs. The students anteed up and we took off. Upon arrival we found that our host families were prepared to offer us meals throughout the week. Add to that our amazement when the woman whose basement we helped finish (aka drywall, mud & tape) provided lunch for us two days in a row! I mean, you know my lack of love for bread & we were going to be having the most basic of deli sandwiches for 4 days in a row and instead we had sloppy joes and massive hamburgers (minus the bun for me).

Because our basic needs were provided for in truly abundant ways, we were able to bless others more than we’d even planned for. It was truly a wonderful experience. And instead of coming back after a long day of manual labor and having to prepare food for 20 we were able to really relax and enjoy ourselves since someone else tapped into their God-given love of cooking for us. Win-win, people!

Here’s a big, ‘ole shout-out to Mary & Larry & Kelly & Jessica & Sandee & Bruce for your amazing show of hospitality as well as delicious food! (These people can COOK!)

More on our trip's food offerings to come.

Guest Post: Amy’s Black Bean Brownies

2011-05-13T14:01:00.000-05:00

Amy is a fellow gluten-free friend and food aficionado as well as all around amazing person. She has guest posted before & I plan to have her continue that tradition as much as humanly possible.

Late last year I noticed one of my friends posted on Facebook that she had just made black bean brownies.

Ewwwhat?

Black beans and chocolate? What’s next? Turnips and cupcakes?

Hot pink and magenta?

Liz Lemon and sandals?

I quickly buried my encounter with the notion of vegetables parading around as dessert and moved on with my life.

However, a few weeks ago, the “Vegetables for a Sweeter Tomorrow” coalition found me.

I was scouring the internet for flourless dessert possibilities and I came across a recipe for black bean brownies. I reluctantly opened the webpage and after reading a few reviews for the recipe I decided to jump headfirst into this batcrap craziness that will now be know as “dessertable”. Maybe that’s not the best word mash-up…but “vegetessert” doesn’t sound much better. Should I just use the first syllable of the word…I digress.

I stirred up all the ingredients in a bowl and just as I was about to pour the batter into the pan I decided to taste this wild concoction. To my surprise the batter was not too much different from “normal” brownie batter. And the finished product was pretty amazing. I’m a big fan of fudgy brownies and these are some of the best ones I’ve ever had.

A few days later I decided to try a variation on the recipe; I added a coconut topping.

Uh-mazing. Yes, I did just say that.

I have had a really fun time “tricking” my friends with these brownies. I usually wait until they’ve eaten at least one and then I stand up with my megaphone and proudly announce they were made with black beans.

I will say that every now and then you do notice a bit of the black bean texture; however, I usually don’t notice it with the coconut topping added.

Without further babble, I present the brownie recipe—the original and my variation.

Enjoy!

Flourless Brownies
(from www.lynnskitchenadventures.com)
* 1- 15 ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
* 3 eggs
* 1/3 cup butter, melted
* 1/4 cup cocoa
* 2 teaspoons vanilla
* 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor or blender puree the black beans, eggs, butter, cocoa, vanilla, and sugar until smooth.
Stir chocolate chips into the batter and spread into a greased 8×8 pan.
Bake for 30-33 minutes.

Flourless Brownies with Coconut Frosting
I took out a little bit of the butter and used 2 eggs and 1 egg white in this variation. I couldn’t tell a difference in the recipe. Any nutritional value that was increased was quickly depleted after I added the coconut topping.
* 1- 15 ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
* 2 eggs + 1 egg white
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 1/4 cup cocoa (4 tablespoons)
* 2.5 teaspoons vanilla
* 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar (10 Table spoons)
* 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor or blender puree the black beans, eggs, butter, cocoa, vanilla, and sugar until smooth.
Stir chocolate chips into the batter and spread into a greased 8×8 or 11x7 pan.
Bake for 30-33 minutes.

Coconut Frosting
(taken from www.meals.com)
2 cups flaked coconut
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/4 cup NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

COMBINE coconut, brown sugar, butter and evaporated milk in medium bowl. Spread over cooled brownies. Broil 4 inches from heat for 3 to 4 minutes or until golden brown.

Campaigning for Restaurants

2011-05-11T10:35:00.000-05:00

Recently I’ve had a couple conversations with different friends that have sparked an idea in my noggin. What restaurant are you so intent on having in your area that you would consider opening a franchise? Is there an eatery on your list that lights up your life enough to the point you would research the possibility of opening a franchise in your town?

Some background: my first conversation was with a friend who also used to call the great city of Cincinnati home at one time. (I’m not sure he would attest to it’s “greatness”, though, but since this is MY blog & I deem it great, then great it is!) While there, he also was blessed to discover Penn Station.

I believe I’ve paraded the fine attributes of Penn Station to you, my loyal readers, but if not, then let me do so now. It’s a philly cheesesteak kind of place, but they do so much more than that. My fave was the Chicken Teriyaki sandwich (yes, on bread!) in the form of a kids meal: great portion-perfect size sandwich with chicken, mushrooms, onions, cheese & teriyaki sauce all fresh & chopped up together on the grill & laden onto chewy grilled bread with a side of freshly made real potato fries, topped off with homemade lemonade. A-Mazing!

Anyway, my friend moved to the great wild west and wanted to bring those flavors with. Unfortunately, Penn Station has no desire to branch out that far. How does he know? He called the home office, just to see. Incredible.

The second conversation was with a co-worker who is an avid lover of Chic-Fil-A. As anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, we’re fans of poultry, so you know I’d be all for establishing a Chic-Fil-A venue in my hometown. That’s tasty stuff, y’all. It just so happens that there IS such a venue afterall, though it’s not available to the public. Just to the good people of Mutual of Omaha. Seriously. It’s in their company’s foodcourt. But even when you call the number of the branch inside their foodcourt, you simply get a recording that puts an end to any hope you, NOT a Mutual of Omaha employee, had of somehow coercing the kind person on the other end to give up some of that greasy poultry goodness. Anyway, my co-worker has lived in areas where Chic-Fil-A is readily available and thus knows what is missing when it’s not (available, that is). He’s checked it out, but apparently Chic-Fil-A’s priority for establishing franchises does not include our area right now. Bummer.

I love that people I know are so invested in their favorite places that they’ll take the steps to check out the possibility of getting one in their area. I really do love that. I’m pretty sure I never, ever want to get into the restaurant business so there’s no place I’d take that step for. But if any of you out there are wanting to open a Cosi, McAlister’s Deli, or Souplantation / Sweet Tomatoes, I’d totally back you. I’ll be your campaign manager and first/best customer!!

Mediterranean Flavor

2011-05-09T10:34:00.000-05:00

I'm back! More on trip food later but now to finish up my Mediterranean theme of late. I promise this is the last one (for awhile). Just thought I’d wrap up with this quick note about the unique blend of flavors that go into Mediterranean fare.

I think the biggest identifier of Mediterranean tastes is “tang”. I would say the mixture of a vinegar or citrus bite and the smooth lightness of olive oil is probably the key to Mediterranean food. That’s usually present in salads, of course. But “Greek” potatoes have that flare. And chicken dishes are usually accompanied by that as well.

Our favorite homemade Mediterranean dish is “Mediterranean Chicken”. Partially because it’s so dang easy. And partially because it just WORKS. The first time I made it I was really surprised at how tasty it was because there were no other seasonings besides salt & pepper. But I think everything just comes together well. I usually serve this dish with a rice pilaf of some kind, but potatoes would be good as an accompaniment too.

Mediterranean Chicken

2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 small can sliced olives, drained

1 small jar capers, drained

1 pint grape tomatoes

Salt & pepper

3 T olive oil

Sprinkle chicken with salt & pepper. Cook chicken in olive oil in skillet on medium heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. Add olives, capers & tomatoes. Transfer to preheated oven (425 degrees) for 10-14 minutes or til juices run clear. (If skillet is not oven-safe, transfer food to a baking pan.)

I usually don’t enjoy cooked tomatoes like this at all, but these are just roasted til warm & juicy inside. Jake doesn’t care as much for the tomatoes but he loves the flavor they add and raves about this dish for the rest of it.

Time Out

2011-04-30T22:47:00.000-05:00

I'm leaving butt-early tomorrow morning (yes, that's a very exact time) for a week-long trip out to Rapid City, South Dakota, with 11 college students and 1 other sponsor. Pray for us. We will be doing manual labor kinds of things for various people / organizations out that way and hopefully get to see some rock hard presidential faces as well. Because of this venture, I will be MIA on posting this week. I know, I know. You'll cry yourselves to sleep every night, waiting on the verge for my next post. And I promise that without a doubt, that post will come no sooner than Monday, May 9th. Now, the exact time of the post is still in question. But I can't reveal ALL my secrets! In any case, I plan to come back with a vengeance, an arsenal of food happenings under my belt from the week. Prepare yourselves.

Hummus is Yummus! (Groan)

2011-04-29T09:58:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the complete & utter lameness of the title but I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.

Since the new diet regime change, Jake has enjoyed hummus on a very regular basis. Eaten with tortilla chips (pita chips have gluten), it is a protein-rich, good-fat, filling snack. Made from ground up chick peas, it doesn’t sound very appetizing, but I promise you it’s worth a try. Dairy free, gluten-free deliciousness.

Not all hummus is equal. We definitely prefer the Sabra brand to Athenos. And Walmart’s brand is somewhere in between. Of course, fresh would be best. We’ve heard that Whole Foods will make it fresh for you, but we have yet to try that. Something about that darn exploding grocery budget…

A few years ago, we visited some friends in Minneapolis and they took us to an ethnic food court. It was so hard to choose what to eat because it all looked so amazing. I remember getting fresh hummus from a Greek vendor there. It was creamy and tangy. I sometimes still think (dream) about it. I’m sure it wouldn’t live up to my expectations now, because I’ve really built it up in my mind. But I guess I’m willing to take that risk! Some day we’ll venture back, if possible. I should have stocked up. Little did I know what I’d be missing for years to come.

Jake’s favorite hummus experience was at a Mediterranean spot here in Omaha. We took some friends to El Basha for dinner and we ordered some hummus as an appetizer. It came with pita bread wedges for dipping and in the center of the hummus was some olive oil and maybe garlic or herbs. He just loved it. I remember it being good as well, though not as good as my elusive experience in Minnesota. But nothing is. Ha!

If you’re on a budget and hummus is what you’re craving, go for Sabra’s Roasted Garlic Hummus. It’s pretty darn amazing. We like the little pool of garlic in the middle an awful lot. At Walmart you’ll pay about $3 for a tub. (You can pick up a bag of $.99 tortilla chips to go with, but be warned – they aren’t great chips. We prefer Aldi’s tortilla chips, though they have upped their price to $1.19 a bag. I think the extra $.20 is worth it!)

Baklava

2011-04-27T14:08:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in my previous post that I could write a whole post about this sweet treat, baklava. So here goes.

I do love this flaky, gooey confection. The first time I ever remember having it was at Fifth Third Bank (DUMBEST name for a bank EVER) when my team lead made everyone cookie plates for Christmas and baklava was one of the treats on everyone's plate.

I’ve heard it’s made by buttering sheets & sheets of phyllo dough and layering those with a honey / chopped pecan mixture. The result is deliciousness! I would never have the inclination / patience to produce such a treat, but I’m glad there are people out there that do.

One of my favorite places to procure baklava is the farmer’s market in downtown Omaha. You can get a huge piece, sometimes half dipped in chocolate (YUM) for just a few dollars. And if you play your cards right, that can last you awhile. Or even be shared and STILL last you awhile! And yes, I realize this may not be the exact definition of farmer’s market produce, but I just simply don’t care.

As I said previously, Jim & Jenny’s Greek restaurant also produces good baklava. And Feta’s, sadly, does not. I didn’t care for the abundance of cinnamon that was prevalent in theirs.

One of the easiest little mini treats I make is Baklava Cups. The same basic flavors of baklava but in a much less time-consuming form!

Baklava Cups

1 pkg frozen mini fillo shells (15 shells in a pkg)

2/3 C chopped mixed nuts (preferably Pistachio or Pecan Lover’s Mix)

¼ C honey

1 tsp water

Fill frozen shells with nuts. Place on a baking sheet (with sides) and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Mix the honey and water. Pour evenly into shells. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Ethnic Picnic: Mediterranean

2011-04-25T09:18:00.000-05:00

You know those gyro places in mall food courts? They never appealed to me. I never once had a gyro in all my life until I moved to Cincinnati. Probably the thick pita bread wrapped around mystery meat deterred me. Probably.

But then. Oh, then we discovered Sebastian’s. A literal hole-in-the-wall kind of place. Same color theme & decorations since the 70’s (hello, orange & turquoise). Same owner & operator all those years - Alex. That guy was the littlest old spunky Greek guy. And generous. One time I came in with my husband and a few other friends but wasn’t very hungry so I didn’t order anything but fries, I think. (We’ll get to the fries in a minute.) So out of the overflowing goodness of his grandfatherly heart, he brought me a small basket of gyro meat because he thought I should have more than fries. A girl’s gotta eat. I love that kind of man. Hard working, generous, caring. The kind that still closes his restaurant and takes his entire family “home” to Greece for a month in August.

And yes, the fries are amazing. I have yet to find such tasty fries. Thick-cut steak fries seasoned with heaven-knows-what to salty perfection. And periodically dipped in the creamy, tangy, runny cucumber sauce made a nice combo. (I know there’s a real ethnic name for the sauce, but you all know what I mean when I say that.) Sebastian’s is great, fast food Greek fare and thus has a loyal local following. At times the lunch rush is standing room only, so beware and be early.

I love that Sebastian’s has a website. This was actually quite a shocker to me since I didn’t expect it at all. And the site has lots of great educational info and pics of the food, Alex and Sebastian’s. (So you can really see what I mean about the hole-in-the-wall and the friendly proprietor!) See below for website info.

I’m somewhat ambivalent about the lamb bologna that is gyro (pronounced “year-oh” for those Greek challenged of you out there) meat. It’s neither disgusting nor mouth-watering to me. I can eat it. But I know that wouldn’t be the first thing on my mind if I had to order my last meal on earth. And I tend to think it’s pretty much the same wherever you go. Like there’s some kind of gyro meat production shop that makes it for everyone. What do I know? Maybe there is! What I do know is that I absolutely can’t stand lamb. I’ve tried it more than a few times and every time I find a nasty after taste. Not so with this lamb bologna (usually mixed with beef & spices).

In Omaha, we’ve found a couple of Greek places that suit us. Jim & Jenny’s (90^th & Maple) is a more sit-down type of place, with waitresses and full course Greek cuisine. (And the prices to go with all that.) My brother loves one of the appetizers called Saganaki Opa, which is basically melted cheese that you put on pita bread. It’s flamed tableside, so that’s fun & fire will probably always be a draw for my brother. (Jake, of course, hates this dish. And it is fairly strong cheese. But I like it. Plain, without the pita bread, of course.) One of my favorite menu items at this venue is the Athenian salad. There is no lettuce in this salad, just big chunks of veggies and Feta cheese, marinated in a vinaigrette dressing. Yum. I usually add chicken. The baklava is amazing there as well. (I think I’ll have to do a whole post just on baklava, so look for that.)

I did try The Greek Isles once, but wasn’t very impressed. For one thing, their Athenian salad is basically the opposite of what Jim & Jenny’s is – a finely chopped salad with mostly lettuce. Very disappointing. And for the price I didn’t think the food was really worth it. But I know some people really love it.

Recently, I tried Feta’s with a couple friends. This is more the fast-food kind of Greek too, but done pretty well. I got a kids-size gyro and Greek potatoes (kind of a tangy roasted potato with herbs & spices rubbed on). The food was standard and didn’t disappoint. Their cucumber sauce is thicker and a little less tangy than some, which was okay by me. Their baklava wasn’t my favorite. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed cinnamon in baklava before (maybe it’s always there & I just haven’t noticed but I sort of doubt it). And theirs was over-the-top cinnamon-y. Meh. But we split a cream cheese dessert that was wrapped in puffed pastry and topped with mounds of messy powdered sugar and that was tasty. Not as heavy as we’d expected and since the cream cheese filling wasn’t overly sweet, the powdered sugar complemented nicely.

If you’re in Omaha and you’re in the market for a quick, cheap Greek experience, I recommend Feta’s. If you’re looking for authentic and have some pad to your wallet, go straight for Jim & Jenny’s. (And enjoy the Greek restaurant atmosphere straight out of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.) I should note that the fries are fine at both places, but NOTHING compared to Sebastian’s. He’s ruined me on Greek fries for all time. (By being so good. That needs to be clear.)

http://www.sebastiansgyros.com

http://www.jimandjennies.com/

http://www.fetasgyros.com/

Happy Easter & a fun recipe

2011-04-22T10:18:00.000-05:00

I hope you all have a great Easter weekend with your friends, family or whoever you want to spend time with (maybe just yourself!). In honor of this weekend, I'm reposting the Cadbury Creme Eggs recipe my father-in-law sent me awhile back amongst many other fun recipes. Enjoy! (And let me know if you make these & they work out.)

Cadbury Eggs

1/2 cups light corn syrup

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 teas. vanilla

1/4 teas. salt

3 cups powdered sugar

4 drops yellow food coloring

2 drops red food coloring

1 − 12 oz. bag milk chocolate chips

2 Tbls. shortening

Combine corn syrup, butter, vanilla and salt in large bowl. Beat well with

electric mixer. Add sugar, one cup at a time, mixing by hand after each

addition. Remove about 1/3 of the mix and place in small bowl. Add yellow &

red coloring and stir. Cover both mixes and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

When mixes are firm, roll a small ball from the orange filling and wrap

around it a portion of the white filling that is twice that size. Form into

the shape of an egg and place onto a cookie sheet that has been brushed with

shortening. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Refrigerate 3−4 hrs. Combine

chocolate chips with shortening in glass bowl. Microwave on high for 1

minute. Then stir and microwave another minute. Use a fork to dip each

center into the chocolate. Place candy onto wax paper to dry. After 1−2

hours of chilling, dip each candy one more time and chill.

Eileen’s

2011-04-21T09:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, Micaela, here you are. Here’s your post about Eileen’s, as requested!

Eileen’s Cookies is a chain of stores around here (Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma). There are several in our area. I first discovered this dame when I worked at Alegent Health, just after moving back to Omaha. (I say “back” though I have never actually lived here before. But you probably already know that.) Someone in the office brought them in and I was hooked! I bought a couple dozen as office treats on my birthday. Reminiscent of bringing birthday treats to school for your classmates.

There are lots & lots of varieties of cookies at Eileen’s. My favorite will always be the classic Monster Oatmeal cookie. What can beat a dense, chewy, M&M-filled, handheld treat like that?! Nothing. I can assure you.

However, if you continue to assert a desire for something other than pure perfection, there are several other options available to you. (Though completely unnecessary. Can you tell how I feel about this yet?!)

Chocolate Chip
Chocolate Chocolate Chip with Walnuts
M&M
Monster Oatmeal
Oatmeal Raisin
Oatmeal Scotchies
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip
Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
Snickerdoodle
Sugar
Macadamia Nuts with White Chocolate Chips

What? So I’m biased. Sue me. No, wait. That’s what you read this blog for! My own personal bias. So there it is. And I think even Eileen agrees with me. I mean, on the picture you can see that the Monster Oatmeal is singled out.

For a sweet treat, you can’t beat Eileen’s. However, your pocketbook will feel lighter after. I mean, cookies are pretty cheap to make. But I don’t make Monster Oatmeal cookies (even though I probably could), so there’s that. And the cookies are a better deal when bought in a dozen pack. These are smaller than the ones sold singly. So I usually buy an extra special single for myself when I buy a pack. That’s how I roll.

They also do special decorated cookies and giant decorated cookies for special occasions.

And did I mention that my nephew won a coloring contest at Eileen’s a few years back because his extra awesome aunt picked up a page for the budding young artist? Eileen’s was already tops in my book but that sent me over the edge.

To top it off, Eileen is a real, live homegrown Nebraska gal. How fun is that?

http://www.eileenscookies.com/

Freezer Cooking Swap

2011-04-18T09:02:00.000-05:00

Recently my friend & fellow blogger Kayla wrote about a “freezer cooking swap” she participates in. Who’s in with me?! Seriously, I want to set this thing up!

http://ourmixedblessings.blogspot.com/2011/03/freezer-cooking-swap.html

Again, per my friend, R's request, a post regarding time savers and practical tips for busy moms and wives-

Actually, my friend, R, is behind this post literally. R and I used to work together at the same school. And we used to share a lunchtime. So often we'd be in the teacher's lounge, eating whatever we managed to rescue from the refrigerator. At that time, R would often pack items that came from a freezer cooking swap that she participated in, one that was located in another town. The low down was as follows:
1. You are assigned one recipe to purchase groceries for and then prepare.
2. You assemble one recipe for every person who is doing the swap.
3. You show up the day of your swap with your food, give the other participants the dish you have prepared, and then have those participants each give you a dish they have prepared.
4. All of it is frozen and ready to thaw out and use as needed.

After a couple years, I told R that I would be really interested in doing a group like that if there was enough interest in the local area. So this fall, R took organized a group. It's a bit more detailed than the description I posted above.
1. Each month, those who have indicated an interest in the group receive an email from R asking if they are going to participate. In our group, the numbers fluctuate each month. For me, doing it every other months is about right. Others do it every month or only occassionally. New members are always welcome.
2. After everyone responds, R assigns each person a recipe. The recipes come from her previous experience so hopefully they are yummy. She also tells you the names of the other participants and their dish.
3. You have about 3 weeks to purchase your ingredients and assemble your dish. You need to know amount you spent on all of your groceries. You also need to label the meals with the title of the recipe. Since you know the names of the other participants for the month, you should also label the meals with their names. (ie a name on each meal)
4. About a week prior to the exchange, R sends out another email asking for the total amount you spent and reminding you of the date and time.
5. Everyone responds to R with the total they spent and she then averages the totals so that she knows what the cost per participant was. R then figures out if your total was more or less than the average cost per participant and emails you telling you if you spent more or less than the average cost. If you spent less, you are asked to bring the difference, in cash, to the exchange. If you spent more, when you get to the exchange, you will receive the difference back.
6. On the day of the exchange, you show up and divy out your items. Since you've put names on each meal, passing out is very easy. It usually takes 15 minutes or less to pass out food, pack yours up and then pay in or get back money based on what the average cost was.

That is it. So simple. Since you are given a choice of meal size when you sign up, smaller families are given the option of having the recipe (which might do a 9 x 13) put into two smaller portions. I usually walk away with 12-14 freezer meals since mine are divided like this. I only personally know two other people in the group; the others are friend of a friend type acquaintances. Such a blessing to have it in your freezer so you can pull something out in the morning or pass a meal onto a sick friend. I can also see the ministry possibilities if a small group were created in a church setting. Wouldn't it be awesome if instead of making the exact number of meals for each participant, each person made an extra and then the entire group donated those extras to a single mom that you thought might enjoy a break from cooki

I’m the Office Food Girl

2011-04-15T09:54:00.000-05:00

When we lived in Cincinnati (I bet you’d love to never hear/see/read that phrase from me again – too bad!) I worked in the undergraduate admissions office for Cincinnati Christian University. One of my more significant roles in that office was that of catering coordinator. This was an unofficial title, of course. But whenever we had an event that required food, I was in charge. Even if this was a staff lunch. Sometimes we had events with over one hundred people involved. Sometimes it was just 5 of us. But regardless, calling in the order & (usually) picking up the food quickly became my responsibility.

I don’t remember how this task fell to me exactly. And I remember sweating it out the first few times I did it. I’d never ordered food for people before, not even for my wedding. We had cake & punch & a few other hors d’oeuvres, for crying out loud! My mother took care of all that!! (Bless her.) Needless to say, it was nerve-wracking. What if I ordered way too little & we ran out of food?! What if I ordered way too much & wasted a bunch of food and the college’s money?! What if I ordered something wrong and it was gross?! What if I order it perfectly & it’s still gross?! What if I order it for too early & it gets cold?! What if I order it too late & people are waiting around for it?! I think you see my dilemma. All of them.

However, I soon settled into a pretty regular routine. Mostly I ordered pizza. And I figured out the equation of how many pizzas for how many people (2.5 people to 1 large LaRosa’s pizza). Sometimes I’d throw in some pasta & salad. Every now & then we went wacky and did something totally different, but not very often. When it was just my office staff I was ordering for, I mostly just needed to remember a few basic things, like my boss wanted low fat dressing with his salad, not the regular stuff. Simple things, though when you get 5 or so orders going, people on the other end can get confused, so you have to be organized and on top of it.

When we moved to Omaha, I took a job as an assistant to an executive with a health care organization. I often ordered catering for lunch meetings, large and small. I was glad CCU prepared me for it. The ordering was usually pretty involved, though. No pizzas for the bigwigs! Shrimp salads, meats and fancy sides, etc. The centralized kitchen prepared it all, brought it & set it up. So all I had to do was put the order in on time for the right stuff (sometimes tricky – I still remember the lady who didn’t eat poultry! Weird.) and make sure it was set up in the right room at the right time.

In my current position I very rarely have to order food for catering. I’m still the one that goes & picks it up a lot of the times, but that’s not too challenging. And we often order from Famous Dave’s, so YUM.

One of the best parts of being a wedding coordinator for my church currently is that people rarely have receptions at the church any more, so I don’t have to deal with food at all. I think that’s the most dangerous part of weddings besides the brides. Ha!

One thing I know: I never, ever want to be a caterer. Way too much stress & pressure. No, thanks. I’ll feed those that can fit around my table and that’s good enough for me.

Have you ever ordered catering for a crowd, large or small?

Lower Fat, Gluten Free Desserts

2011-04-13T08:48:00.000-05:00

Some of you are probably so sick of hearing about our recent food changes. I know I am. Anyway, in case you’re not, here are some of our favorite desserts that fall into the lower fat, gluten free category. Most are old faves, slightly revamped. We now use Blue Bonnet Light Margarine for anything that says “butter” below. And understand that you can purchase gluten-free oats for some of the recipes below, though we do not since Jake’s intolerance doesn’t bother him with oats. (Technically oats are already gluten free, but most are processed by the same equipment that processes flour – which is NOT gluten free – so people who have a higher intolerance or Celiacs disease or a wheat allergy would need to procure oats that are specifically labeled as gluten free to avoid any issues.)

We’ve also loved Betty Crocker’s Gluten Free Devil’s Food Cake Mix, both as cake & as cupcakes. The brownie mix was good & fudgy too, though it wasn't necessarily our favorite thing ever. Didn't top our list, but we'd definitely have them again. We haven’t tried the other Betty Crocker Gluten Free mixes yet (yellow cake & chocolate chip cookie), but we’ve heard good things. Beware that it will cost you an arm & a leg for a small box that makes 8x8 pan, but it’s still nice to have that option!

No Bake Cookies

2 C sugar

½ C butter

½ C milk

3 C oats (we use quick-oats)

5 T cocoa powder

1 T vanilla

Bring sugar, butter & milk to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add in remaining ingredients. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper to cool. (I use a cookie scoop.) Cool completely.

*With low fat margarine, these will still be somewhat sticky/gooey. With regular butter or margarine, these will firm up more if you let the sugar mixture cook for the entire 2 minutes and then let them cool completely, which will take several hours.

**Lots of recipes for No Bake Cookies include peanut butter, but I prefer them without.

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

1 C brown sugar

¼ C honey

¾ C butter

1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 C oats (quick oats work the best in my experience)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter/marg in microwave, then stir in brown sugar. Add remaining ingredients, chocolate chips last to prevent melting. Stir well until evenly coated. Press firmly in an even layer in 9x13 or slightly smaller bar pan. Bake for 25-30 min. until golden brown. Cool for 30 min. and cut into bars.

*I have been adding in about a ½ C chopped pecans lately for some “good fat”.

Scotcheroos

1 C sugar

1 C light corn syrup

1 C peanut butter (I use Jiff or Skippy Natural)

6 C rice chex cereal (rice krispies have malt flavoring, which has gluten)

1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 C butterscotch chips

Add sugar & corn syrup to a large pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat immediately and stir in peanut butter until smooth. Add rice chex and coat completely. Spread evenly into a 9x13 pan coated with cooking spray. In a small saucepan, melt chocolate & butterscotch chips together over low heat, stirring constantly. Spread over chex mix in pan and let cool. Cut into bars.

“Crispix” Sticky Snack Mix

6 C rice chex cereal

½ C slivered or sliced almonds

½ C butter

½ C brown sugar

2 T light corn syrup

Bring butter, brown sugar & corn syrup to a boil in a large pot. Cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add cereal & nuts until well coated. Spread mixture onto wax paper to cool.

*I’ve invested in mounds of boxes of rice chex cereal since it’s gluten-free, but I know corn chex cereal is as well, so you could still have the “Crispix” experience by combining both if you wish.

Carmel Corn

½ C unpopped popcorn

½ C brown sugar

4 T butter

2 T light corn syrup

1/8 tsp baking soda

Pop popcorn & separate out any unpopped kernels. In small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar & corn syrup and bring to a boil. Remove from heat & stir in baking soda, whisking mixture while it foams. Pour carmel over popcorn and toss to coat.

Fruity Rice Krispies

6 C Fruity Pebbles cereal

3 T butter

10.5 oz pkg mini marshmallows.

Melt butter & marshmallows in large pan, stirring til smooth. Remove from heat & add cereal. Mix well. Press into 9x13 pan coated with cooking spray. Let cool & cut into bars.

*Fruity Pebbles & Cocoa Pebbles are gluten-free. The Aldi generic fruity pebbles weren’t nearly as fruity. We’ve discovered that Fruity Pebbles are really yummy & flavorful in this treat!

I tried regular Rice Krispie treats with Rice Chex once but it wasn't our favorite. The marshmallow mostly pooled at the bottom, which wasn't so great. You can buy gluten free rice krispies but they are SUPER expensive.

McD’s Fruit & Maple Oatmeal

2011-04-11T11:48:00.000-05:00

I recently procured some coupons for free orders of McDonald’s new Fruit & Maple Oatmeal. Since I had absolutely nothing to lose, I tried it. I simply LOVE getting something for free. I know most people end up ordering something else along with their free entrée which is why the institutions offering coupons continue to offer them, but I’ve made a concerted effort to not do so. I don’t want using coupons to end up costing me MORE in the end.

I picked up my breakfast drive-through style & headed to work, about 5 minutes away. Of course, by the time I actually got settled in to consume my order, it had sat around for at least 10 minutes. So I was wary. I do not love cooked fruit, people. Blech. So I figured that the “crisp red & green apples” were probably not so crisp any more. I was not excited.

However, I found a pleasant surprise in my cup: my apples were still very crisp! Yay! I swirled the fruit around, mixing it well into my oatmeal so I could get a tasty treat in every bite.

I’m not a fan of raisins. I think that’s been noted enough before. And this was no exception. I would be more than happy to have the “golden” raisins removed. But I endured them. And the cranberries were nice. I don’t know why I like dried cranberries but not raisins, but alas, the mouth wants what the mouth wants and it wants dried cranberries and not raisins.

The oatmeal itself was fine. It’s oatmeal. It’s not flashy or fancy. It tastes slightly sweet but not overly so. Its texture is as gooey & slimy as normal oatmeal usually is. If you don’t like other oatmeal, you won’t like this one either. But if you don’t mind oatmeal in general, I think you’ll like this one. The ratio of fruit to oatmeal is perfection. Lots of fruit in every bite!

And the portion is great. I’ve now tried it twice and I finished it both times, feeling satisfied but not stuffed. And it’s held me over til lunch better than a lot of other breakfasts do.

So, thumbs up, McDonald’s Fruit & Maple Oatmeal! You’re all right in my book. But when my free coupons run out, I’m not sure I’ll pay for you any time soon.

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/full_menu/breakfast/fruit_maple_oatmeal.html

Boys & Food (Part 2 of Food-Related Gender Posts)

2011-04-08T11:39:00.000-05:00

After thinking about how girls seem to be intrinsically linked to food in a way boys are not (see previous post on Girls & Food), I realized that was completely untrue. Most celebrity chefs are men. Not all, but a good majority. A lot of popular cooking shows highlight men. The cooking challenge shows are dominated by men. “Man vs. Food” is a very manly show. I seriously doubt a woman would succeed as the host of that show. (Because I think we, as a culture, would have a difficult time accepting a woman in that role, not that I think there aren’t lots of women out there that could actually accomplish the challenges.) And no woman is ever paired with Adam as an eating challenge partner or as a competitive eater (that I’ve seen, though I haven’t completed my watching of the series yet). Yet the predominant view of our culture still places women in the kitchen at home.

So why is that? Why are men hailed as “manly” if they succeed in the competitive world of professional cooking, but emasculated by their peers if they succeed in doing so in their own home? Why is it that I am constantly (pleasantly) surprised to find out a husband is as much of a cook in the home as the wife?

Is it that I am prejudiced? Conditioned? Stupid?

How can food be so controversial?

All I can say is that my husband has been convinced on more than one occasion that I have some innate ability with cooking that he does not possess. I try to remind him that he was there at the start of my cooking ventures, when I called my mom every other day for help. I’ve simply invested more time & effort into learning and doing in that area than he has. Much as he has invested (a lot) more time & energy into learning about music than I have. He has more interest in music than I do. And I have more interest in cooking than he does, mostly because I want to eat well. And in order to do so, I need to cook well. Because we cannot afford to eat out continuously. And since I’ve invested in cooking, Jake simply does not have to. If he wanted to, that’d be great. But he does not want to & has not HAD to, so he does not have the knowledge. But innate it is not. In either of us.

I’m sure there are some men & women that have an innate ability in the kitchen, whether it’s the kitchen in their home or in their restaurant. Just as some people have innate talents in other areas. But I do not think that just because you’re a man or a woman means you are born with this gift. I think for most of us it comes out of necessity. And then for some others of us, it becomes more enjoyable. That’s my position at this point.

Girls & Food (Part 1 of Food-Related Gender Posts)

2011-04-06T09:01:00.000-05:00

A thought struck me the other day: what is innate in (most) little girls that makes them act out “tea parties” with their friends & stuff animals? And why is that trait missing in most little boys? Lots of little girls get play kitchens & the complimentary accessories for toys. Do girls naturally have an affinity for high end food? Or any food, for that matter?

Our society is probably coming closer to an equalizing point in this area, but studies still show that more girls than boys have eating disorders and anxiety about body image. All of this is in direct relation to food. I think most of us would agree that the stereotype of “emotional eating” is linked closer to girls than boys. Recently on an episode of the TV show “Greek”, one of the female characters taught a male character how to cope with a breakup by eating a whole carton of ice cream with a spoon. I’ve seen this play out on many TV shows and movies, where the female characters soothe themselves with ice cream. Rarely (if ever) have I seen a male character do so. Usually men in entertainment are depicted as coping with a breakup by going to a strip club or some other such nonsense. (As much nonsense as a girl actually eating a whole container of ice cream – I’ve NEVER done this. Though I could be alone in that, I doubt it.)

And I’m sure you’ve heard your boyfriend / husband / brother / father / co-worker / boss espouse that a particular restaurant (Panera Bread, perhaps) is a “chick” restaurant. I’m not certain what traits these eateries possess that make them so, but I do understand what they’re saying. I don’t agree that this has to be the case, but I get it.

But to all this, I ask “Why?”

Overeating, Crazy Diets & The Constant Battle for Moderation

2011-04-04T09:12:00.002-05:00

Recently a friend & I had a quick discussion concerning her efforts with Weight Watchers, training to run a half marathon and her concern with overeating. She said she’d read something about Overeaters Anonymous and thought maybe she should be attending that group. I disagreed. No doubt we all have our moments when we can probably be classified as an overeater. (Um, yes, I made 24 cupcakes and ate most of them in one weekend with a little help from my sister. But mostly me. I just couldn’t stop for some reason.) But really, I think it’s just that for most of us: moments of overeating. A good friend encouraged me not long ago to not be too hard on myself in the area of eating & discipline. I extend that exhortation to all of you as well!

On the other side of things, another friend was telling me about a new diet she was on that is apparently all the rage. I even saw a brief snippet about it on Dr. Oz. Evidently you either take injections or pills of some kind of hormone that pregnant women naturally secrete and this hormone helps you lose weight. Oh, and also limiting yourself to 500 calories a day, eating from a VERY selective list of ingredients (NO fats or oils of any kind at all, only a handful of lean proteins, fewer fruits and a bit longer list of veggies including lettuce, spinach, radishes, etc).

People can lose up to 1 lb. per day for 40 days on this diet, which is pretty impressive. But then they also might lose their hair and develop certain kinds of cancer, so there’s definitely a bit of a downside. Geesh. I know my friend was under the supervision of a doctor while she was on this diet, but then a different doctor that she really trusts was adamantly against it, so she stopped. It’s a hard call to make when you really want – or even need – to lose weight. For those of us that get a significant amount of motivation from seeing the number on the scale go down that quickly, it would be hard to give up such a fix.

HOWEVER. I am pretty skeptical of any diet that extreme. More than likely, you will gain back any weight you lost and probably even more. Because you can’t maintain that kind of eating plan forever. In fact, it’s not designed to be a forever fix. This diet has specific instructions for maintenance stages and so on. But most people eventually go back to familiar eating patterns.

Which is what is so hard about this whole overeating issue. Because you can’t simply stop eating, like you could stop drinking alcohol if you were an alcoholic. No, people need food to live. So teaching ourselves moderation and discipline is not only key, but it’s essential. If you don’t learn moderation & discipline in eating, you eventually die of any number of health-related causes. Heart disease, obesity, some cancers, diabetes, etc can be avoided by most of us if we learn moderation & discipline in our diets. And by “diets” I mean “eating plan”, not something temporary but something we maintain forever. A total, permanent, eating lifestyle.

What’s the one thing that’s helped you most to learn moderation & discipline with eating? What did you try that failed completely?

Chicken Stretching

2011-04-01T08:24:00.000-05:00

Every two weeks I buy a bag of individually frozen chicken breasts, usually from Aldi. At that store a 3 lb. bag costs me $5.49. That’s the best deal I’ve found by far. Compare that to Walmart’s 2.5 lb. bag at $6.99.

Normally there are 5-6 good/decent-sized chicken breasts in that bag. That means I can either get three 2-person one-breast-each meals or six one-breast-cut-up meals. Usually we have a mixture of each of those options, resulting in about 4-5 meals per bag. Not a bad deal all around!

Since chicken breasts are one of the main protein options on our new gluten-free, low fat, low cholesterol eating plan, we are frequent eaters of this ingredient. (We were even before those recent changes, though.) Of course, we’re still on a fairly tight grocery budget, so that always factors into things as well. (When will ever NOT be on a tight budget, I ask?!) I like to stretch that chicken as far as it will go.

Here are some of our preferred chicken dishes nowadays:

-Chicken & Rice: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, rice (either 1 cup long-grain or 2 cups Minute depending on how much time I’ve got), can of low fat cream soup (if going gluten-free, there are recipes to make your own cream of mushroom soup - http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/05/homemade-cream-of-mushroom-soup.html - or even Walmart has a version you can substitute that’s only $1.50 for a box), 1 cup water (unless using the gluten-free box kind, which is not condensed).

-Chicken, Onion & Potato Bake: one chicken breast per person, potatoes cut into chunks, onion cut into wedges, onion soup mix (Lipton’s is gluten free!), 3 T water. Mix it all together & bake. Easy, low fat, gluten free & delish.

-Salsa Chicken: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, jar of salsa, served over rice. (I used to add a dollop of sour cream but we forgo that with the new diet plan & we haven’t missed it!)

-Chicken Pasta: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, jar of pasta sauce, gluten free pasta. (We’ve only tried Quinoa brand’s Veggie Curls pasta, but we’ve LOVED it!! Can’t tell a difference at all. We haven’t heard great things about Tinkyada Brown Rice pasta options, though.)

-Onion Chicken: one chicken breast per person, pkg onion soup mix, 1/3 cup Miracle Whip, breadcrumbs (yes, you can get gluten free ones, though we haven’t tried them yet.) Mix the soup mix & Miracle Whip, spread onto the chicken breasts, top with breadcrumbs & bake. Yum.

-Chicken Marsala: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, 1 pkg fresh mushrooms, 2 cloves fresh pressed garlic, ½ cup Marsala wine, 1 T lemon juice, served over rice. We used to serve it over Uncle Ben’s Long Grain & Wild Rice mix, which is tasty, but since that’s not gluten free, we now do regular rice or a gluten-free rice mix. Trader Joe’s has a Basmati & Wild Rice mix that we’ve tried & it’d be great with it or you can use just plain rice too.

-Italian Chicken: one frozen chicken breast per person, 1 bottle of Italian dressing. Marinate in fridge for 2-3 days as chicken thaws. Grill, bake or broil.

-Poppyseed Chicken Stir-fry: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, ¾ cup creamy poppyseed dressing (we like Kraft’s), 2 cloves fresh pressed garlic, ½ tsp ginger, ½ T dried basil, served over rice or in salad with baby spinach, diced cucumber, red peppers & broccoli slaw mix.

Waffles and...

2011-03-30T08:56:00.000-05:00

Recently our small group said farewell to one of our members due to a move and for the send-off party we indulged in one of her favorite treats: waffles & ice cream. I knew this to be one of her faves since that is what she served the very first time she hosted small group a few years ago. I’d heard of people having waffles & ice cream as a dessert from watching a fun little cooking show called “The Take Home Chef” on TLC. But this was a new experience for several individuals in our small group. They were slightly mystified at the prospect of putting these two treats together.

But no one was disappointed. Everyone loved the combo. What’s not to like?! We topped the waffles with vanilla bean ice cream (fat free vanilla for Jake, poor guy) and then chocolate and/or caramal syrup & sprinkles, if desired.

I made a somewhat half-hearted attempt to procure a waffle iron for the event, but came up short so we just went the route of Eggo. Which was fast & fine. I did get a new toaster for the occasion, spending a whopping $7 on it. Our old one was just that – OLD. Seriously, it was probably from the Reagan era. We don’t have a lot of use for such things at our house, what with my dislike of bread and all. (Cook’s choice, people.) We do enjoy our BLT’s on toasted bread, so in the summer when we have garden fresh tomatoes (from someone else’s garden, of course) we do whip out the old hunk of metal. But lately it’s been somewhat lacking – it either burns or doesn’t toast hardly at all. So goodbye, ‘ole pal! Hello, new hunk of junk. (I mean, if it cost under $7, it can’t be all that great, but I don’t require a lot of it.)

Another interesting waffle combo: waffles & chicken. This is apparently a southern fave and has been a featured menu item on Man v. Food quite a bit at various restaurants. The "chicken" part is usually some form of fried chicken or chicken strips. My brother recently mentioned on Facebook that he was attempting a try at this pairing. I don’t care too much either way about this idea, but Jake is pretty astounded that people would combine the two on one plate. We’ve yet to try it, but again, I’m not opposed. But I don’t think it will make my top 10 dishes to try either.

What’s your take? What would you like to eat your waffles with?

Cincinnati Chili

2011-03-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

To my actual Cincinnati peeps, I apologize for dubbing this food “Cincinnati chili”. But that is how most of the rest of the world refers to it (and yes, I’m sure it’s world renowned). I am aware we just call it “Skyline”.

I guess this is the month where I’m feeling nostalgic for Cincinnati hot spots. First Thai Café, now Skyline.

For those unfamiliar with this special “treat”, Cincinnati chili is very different from the kind of chili most of the rest of us grew up with. For starters, it’s thin & runny and you put it over spaghetti and top it with an actual mound of shredded cheddar cheese. And you don’t eat it with a spoon. Not to mention that the taste is far from the Tex-Mex chili you find elsewhere. Since the recipe is “secret” I can’t be certain how the original really is made, though it is widely known that cocoa powder & cinnamon are common ingredients. So yeah, it’s different.

My first introduction to Cincinnati chili was when Jake & I were visiting the city for a wedding about a year before we actually moved there. And I wasn’t impressed by this particular "delicacy". It wasn’t very appealing in either appearance or taste. The fact that it was so popular astounded me. (Much as the prevalence of cilantro astounds me.)

The originator of this distinctive dish is Skyline Chili. It’s the first, the best. (They actually tore down the original location when we lived in the Nati, which was near to where we lived & worked.) There are many copycats (hello, Gold Star). But in the city of Cincinnati, no other restaurant is as popular as Skyline. Not even McDonald’s. Let that marinate for a moment.

The price is right. You can get a full meal for under $5 at Skyline. (Unless inflation & the economy have jacked that up.) And it’s a sit-down place, though it’s quick. You have a range of menu options, from the aforementioned spaghetti (aka a “3 way” or make it a 4 or 5 way with onions and/or beans) to chili dogs or even a Greek salad. This makes it a staple for every high school / college kid and family in the tri-state area. Sure, it’s a greasy spoon of a restaurant. It doesn’t try to pretend that it’s anything but.

And for almost 3 years, I spent every midday Monday at my local Skyline. I got to know the waitresses by name. I probably ordered just about everything on the menu that doesn’t come with the chili (not a lot of options in that category, by the way). I enjoyed being a “regular” with my co-workers for our Monday ritual lunch before staff meeting time.

But I never “got” what the fuss was about. I just figured it was because I didn’t grow up on it. Sure, there were transplant people like me who enjoyed it, but I guess I lumped them in with the “cilantro” people of the world too. And bread people. I’m not denying I can be picky. And Skyline just wasn’t my cup of tea. I missed several restaurants when we moved away, but Skyline wasn’t one of them. We visited a couple times and made our list of all the restaurant musts & Skyline didn’t make the cut for either of us.

And then. A couple years ago we went back for a wedding and the couple served Skyline as their main course. Real Skyline, not some homemade version that someone cooked up to copycat. They had it catered in. And I loved it. What?! Where did that come from??!!

And now, every so often I sort of crave it. But not the kind of craving that won’t go away & MUST be satisfied. Just a fleeting thought. Still, I’m baffled by this. I’m sure I could get one of my friends to send me a can (yes, they sell it canned in the grocery stores, as well as frozen meals, & people use it to make a popular dip: chili spread on top of cream cheese & then topped with shredded cheddar, served with tortilla chips – that’s YUM, people!). But I’m not that desperate. Yet.

Have you tried Cincinnati chili? Love it or hate it? Indifferent?

http://www.skylinechili.com/

Easter Candy

2011-03-23T09:16:00.000-05:00

Easter is the very best time for candy. I feel like a bit of a broken record here, knowing I’ve proclaimed this many times for many people. But I just can’t say enough about it. Here’s a “best of” for my Easter candy basket:

-Cadbury Crème Eggs. Doesn’t get better than this gooey, rich treat. ‘Nuff said.

-Starburst jelly beans. These flavors beat all others. Even Jelly Bellies take a backseat to these at Easter time. (I think they are available year round now, but I will always associate them with Easter candy since that was their original debut.)

-Lifesavers Pastels. The cotton candy flavor is gone in a flash when I’m around!

-SweeTarts Ducks, Chicks & Bunnies. I don’t normally get too excited about SweeTarts but these little critters make me very, very happy. They are super sweet, mouth watering (from the tang) and just dissolve into a million little taste explosions.

-Reese’s Mini Eggs. I know some prefer the giant eggs that come in a single package. But I much prefer the mini ones. Their ratio of chocolate to peanut butter (which seems much creamier in the mini egg than normal, which is great) is better. More chocolate means more happy.

I know some of you will be extremely disappointed by the lack of a Peeps reference here. And although I’m not at all opposed to the squishy sweet goodness of a Peep, in whatever form it may take, they’re just not that high on my list either.

Picky Eaters

2011-03-21T09:01:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to devote an entire post to this highest of my pet peeves. And though most of you are probably chuckling to yourselves about the irony of ME being so bothered by picky eaters (ME who hates bread!), you should know that I don’t mean what you think I mean. I’m not talking about people who don’t like mushrooms, or broccoli, or all vegetables for that matter. I couldn’t care less about individual people’s little preferences or tastes. I mean, I’m married to the cheese hater, for crying out loud! I’m used to that.

What bothers me most is the kind of picky eater that can’t tell you what they don’t like. They don’t have a whole list of ingredients you should stay away from. And they don’t react overly poorly to something they don’t really like. But they also don’t react hardly at all when they DO like something. Which is UNNERVING.

To top it off, this kind of picky eater will sometimes even like the same dish that they really didn’t care for the first time around. Like it so much that they profusely praise it, much to your (the cook of said dish) surprise since they didn’t seem too enthused prior. Like it so much that you make an effort to make it again for them. But the third time doesn’t turn out to be a charm. Instead, they’re back to indifference, or worse – they really dislike it & are confused as to why. Did you, the cook, use the same exact ingredients?! Did you add the exact same amount of love or loathe? Did you stand on your head in a jumpsuit & repeat the exact same mantra at the exact same time in the exact same language?! In a nutshell, there is absolutely no earthly reason for the differing reactions. And perhaps they know it themselves but just aren’t willing to admit it out loud. Or perhaps they are entirely clueless. Ding, ding, ding!!!

In my years of catering to this kind of picky eater, I’ve come to some conclusions. Sometimes the differing reactions are due to nothing more than the fluctuations in appetite of the eater. When they are hungry, food tastes infinitely better than when they are simply not as famished. Because you – the cook – have absolutely no control over the state of the eater’s appetite (since, let’s be honest, this eater is not a regular feaster of your fare; no such eater would exist in your home but is just a passing guest from time to time), this is something you will never be totally prepared for. Though offering appetizers or 5 course meals should be avoided at all costs, of course.

One of my favorite quips from this kind of picky eater is the side compliment. This eater will tell you what a wonderful cook their son/wife/friend/co-worker thinks you are. This is a nice thing to hear, of course. Until you realize that you’ve never heard a compliment from THEM. They couldn’t give two rips about your cooking. But their “somebody else” thinks you’re tops. Hoo-hah.

Have you run into this? Is it as infuriating to you as it is to me?! Or is it just me? Probably just me…

Update on Quitting

2011-03-18T09:28:00.002-05:00

Well, folks. It hasn’t been going well. I’m a slave to sweets. I was going solid on my “no sweets for a month” quest for almost an entire week and then I hit a wall. A wall made of sugar. And I ate it. I thought maybe if I just let myself have one cheat day every week, I could endure. This is craziness, of course, but when you’re a slave to a substance, you aren’t capable of thinking clearly about it. You tend to rationalize. A lot. I was just sorry I’d made this “no sweets” proclamation public. I thought I’d learned my lesson in that area. Apparently not.

Anyway, I’ve fallen off the wagon. Hard. And have about one pinky toe still on it. For a good two weeks I stayed away from soda completely, which is definitely my biggest sweet vice. But then I thought I’d give myself a cheat day. Ha! Seriously, it’s become apparent to me that cheat days are the gateway drug. They don’t help you endure. They help you fall flat on your face.

Did you know that you can screw your body up so much by feeding it so much sugar on a regular basis that when you stop the sugar rush it will protest by squeezing your brain until it hurts like caffeine withdrawal?! I didn’t!! But NOW I do! I’d always associated those headaches with quitting caffeine. Now I know it’s not just caffeine that my body craves. Plain ‘ole sugar will do.

So I’m still working on the whole discipline thing. I used to be able to go months at a time without something (aka Lent and the times I gave up chocolate, then ice cream, then sugar). But I guess when I hit 30 my body decided it can no longer do without. It just retains. And screams and screeches until I give in. Since going cold turkey doesn’t work for me now, I guess I’ll have to learn moderation? This learning stuff is hard.

But a BIG, FAT “THANK YOU” to those of you out there that have been encouraging me along the way!!!!! I am so honored that you take the time to read my silly words and respond!! And a little dismayed when I disappoint you.

Food Pet Peeves

2011-03-16T08:24:00.001-05:00

We all have them. Food pet peeves. Little quirks, faux pas & idiosyncrasies that OTHER people do in regard to food & eating that irritate us to the very core. Surely we do not possess any such annoying traits ourselves!!

Near the top of my little food pet peeves list is picky eaters. And not picky in the way you would normally assume. But more on that in the next post. That one deserves it’s very own little acknowledgment.

Other food pet peeves:

-Trying to sneak/hide an ingredient in a dish. My mother constantly did this to my husband early on in our relationship. She couldn’t quite grasp his hatred of cheese. And she knew he tolerated mozzarella fine. So she’d take advantage of his good nature & innocence, trading white cheddar for mozzarella and trying to play it off. Jake got wise to her trickery, though. And to this day, whenever he’s unsure of a dish’s ingredients (no matter the cook), he lets me take a bite first, then inquires with plaintive eyes and waits for my nod. I know the cheese thing is hard, friends, and probably when you hear that Jake hates cheese the only recipes that you can think of contain loads & loads of melty, cheesy goodness. But it’s just provoking my husband to give the “I’m just not that hungry” response at some point in the dinner. Pizza, folks. Just order a pizza & we’ll all be fine. As long as it only has mozzarella on it! Otherwise we might have to grate anchovies into the next meal we drop off at your door. Just sayin’. (And, yes, cream cheese counts as cheese.)

-Spouting off how many calories / carbs / fat grams are in every. single. menu item. I get it. You’re health conscious. Much more than me. You win!! However, I probably have better taste. And am enjoying my food more than you are. Just sayin’.

-Hidden ingredients. Can’t food just be made of real ingredients & not weird chemical concoctions? Just what is “autolyzed yeast extract” anyway? And why do I need it in my rice pilaf mix? I have a friend whose adolescent daughter has started helping her grocery shop & if a product has any ingredient that she doesn’t understand or recognize, they put it back on the shelf. I promise you, that will cut out a whole lot of stuff from your pantry! One of my favorite things is looking on a package of frozen vegetables and seeing under the ingredients list just “green beans”. Or “corn”. Nothing else. Awesome. Does that make anyone else a little sad, though? That it’s awesome? That it’s a surprise at all?!

I’m sure there are many, many more. What are some of your food pet peeves?

Girl Scout Cookies

2011-03-11T08:20:00.000-06:00

Is there anything better than the sweet taste of youthful independence in the springtime?

What?! Isn’t that what you taste when you bite into the delectable delight of a Peanut Butter Pattie / Tagalong? The traditional crispness of a Thin Mint? The gooey goodness of a Caramel DeLite / Samoa?

First, why are there different names for the cookies based on what region you’re in? I remember one year in Cincinnati we ordered some cookies from a friend in Ohio and they were called one name and then some more from a friend nearer to Indiana (Cincinnati is right on the border between Indiana, Ohio & Kentucky) and they were called another. Except for Thin Mints, of course. Those remain the same for all regions, all time.

People generally have their favorites. And their absolute top favorite is generally NOT Thin Mints. However, like myself, most people still generally order Thin Mints in addition to everything else, making them the most popular in terms of ordering.

But I would not die for a Thin Mint. I might sell my left arm for a Caramel Delite / Samoa, though. That chewy toasted coconut, gooey caramel, sweet chocolate & crunchy cookie satisfies in a way almost nothing else can. I long for them. I devour them. I buy the Edy’s brand ice cream that incorporates them. And I know they’re popular. People who generally don’t care for coconut have found a deep profound love for them.

My husband is a Peanut Butter Pattie / Tagalong man, though. And this works quite well for us. I have no desire to spend calories on his cookies and the same goes for him with mine.

We used to order a box of Caramel Delites / Samoas for me, a box of Peanut Butter Patties / Tagalongs for him and a box of Thin Mints to share. Due to cutbacks in the finances, the Thin Mints are a thing of the past. And we find we don’t miss them. They were always the last to go anyway. (Isn’t this always the case with Thin Mints?! Why do we all bother if we’re not that crazy about them?)

In recent years I’ve ventured out into other options, only to find them lacking in comparison to our faves.

You’ll rarely see such devotion as that from a person to their favorite Girl Scout Cookie. Why do they provoke such strong responses from us? Is it that they’re only available for a limited time? Is it that it’s a strong national tradition? Is it that we can taste the investment we're making in our country's youth? Is it that they’re SO incredibly delicious?