Quinoa and Corn Chips

Fine, fine, I'll make the Roman Style Chicken already!

2012-01-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

Every time I've gone to the Food Network website in the last month (which is pretty often), I've seen the same recipe featured: Giada DeLaurentis' Roman Style Chicken. It's appeared on all sorts of lists: healthy meals to kick off the new year, one-skillet meals, reviewers' favorite meals...

So, after seeing it featured for the zillionth time the other day, I just had to make it. A quick read through of the ingredients told me I'd like it. I've determined that you really can't go wrong with a recipe that includes garlic, white wine, and capers.

After making it, I have to agree with the reviewers that it's definitely a keeper. It's simple to prepare (and a lot of the prep can be done ahead, which I LOVE), it's healthy, and it's sure to please almost any palate. My kids have an aversion to bell peppers, but they still enjoyed the taste of the chicken and sauce. I served it over couscous, but it would also be good with some cappellini or my personal favorite: crusty bread. Just make sure you include some sort of starch to sop up the delicious, flavorful sauce, which is the best part of the dish.

Turkey leftovers: BLT turkey sandwich with herbed mayonnaise

2011-12-30T18:05:00.000-08:00

I know this post is a little late to be useful this holiday season, but hopefully it will serve as inspiration the next time you make a giant roast turkey (or any meat for that matter) and have lots of leftovers.

It had been a while since I made turkey. I've been fortune to skip Thanksgiving cooking duties the last few years, and the last few Christmases I've gone off the grid, experimenting with short ribs, pork loin and other non-traditional meats.

But since I can never resist experimenting a little, I decided to make a stuffed turkey breast instead of a whole turkey. I stuffed it with herbs and bacon, and it was delicious and very tender. (I promise to share that recipe next time a holiday rolls around).

The butcher claimed I needed at least a 6-7 lb breast for 5-6 people, but we were left with a ton of leftovers. And since one of my new years resolutions is to avoid wasting food, I needed to find a use for them. I have a million food magazines with a million ideas for turkey leftovers, but none of them inspired me. Most involved chopping up the turkey and creating some sort of casserole with leftover mashed potatoes and/or or cranberry sauce. Blech.

Since the turkey already had an herb-y taste, I wanted to keep the flavor profile the same. So I bought some yummy ciabatta rolls and made a BLT type sandwich with herbed mayo. It was SO good, and it didn't scream "leftovers" the way that some other recipes do. Plus it was easy. Here's what was in it:

Ingredients

Ciabatta rolls
Arugula
Thinly sliced tomato
Sliced avocado
Bacon, nuked until crisp
Slices of leftover turkey
Herbed mayo (simply chop up whatever herb or herbs you have on hand and whisk together with a little mayo. I used sage, but plenty of other ones would work...thyme, oregano, tarragon...)

Directions

Slice the ciabatta rolls in half and tear out some of the inner bread to make it more light. Spritz with olive oil and broil for a few minutes until crispy. Spread a thin layer of the herbed mayo on both sides of the bread. Layer on the other ingredients. Close the bread and either cook in a panini press, or just push down hard with your hands until it flattens out a little bit (what I like to call the lazy girl's panini).

I really looooove making gourmet sandwiches at home--it's such an easy, satisfying meal. Ever since I've discovered the ciabatta roll, I've been hooked. I know it's not the healthiest grain in the world, but it freezes really well, so it's easy to stock up in the freezer and have them on hand as a vehicle for leftovers, eggs, last minute guests, or just about anything you can think of.

Happy New Year!

A home cook tackles chef Jonathan Waxman's famous roast chicken & salsa verde...and wins!!!

2011-11-24T19:01:00.001-08:00

A recent issue of Food and Wine Magazine featured some of our country's most famous chefs and their signature dishes. The one that immediately caught my eye was Jonathan Waxman's Roast Chicken with Salsa Verde (aka: pollo al forno), which is a staple at his NYC restaurant, Barbuto. The main thing I liked about it was its simplicity. The actual chicken requires no marinating or complicated sauces...you basically just cut it up, stick it in a pan, and stick it in the oven. The second thing I loved was the salsa verde. Having eaten at one too many Tex-Mex restaurants, when I think of "salsa verde," I immediately think of a concoction of tomatillos, cilantro, onion, and green chiles. So I was surprised to see Waxman's Italian salsa verde, which is a mixture of fresh herbs, capers, arugula, garlic, lemon juice, and some other yummy stuff.

What daunted me most about the recipe was the idea of cooking a whole chicken. Now I've cooked plenty of chicken in my life, but only one part at a time: breasts, legs or thighs...all pre-cut, nicely arranged in pretty little rows inside a neatly wrapped package. But a whole chicken? With all its weird innards, bones, and ligaments? It scares me.

What gave me the courage to try it was this youtube video I found of Jonathan Waxman himself cooking the aforementioned chicken. As soon as I watched the video, I couldn't NOT cook the chicken. Watch it yourself and tell me you don't feel the same way.

Everything about the video--the music, the fresh herbs strewn on the cutting board, the flickering flame inside the oven, Waxman's laid back "anyone can do this" vibe--inspired me. Again, I challenge anyone to watch that video and NOT want to make that chicken. So I went to the store, bought the freshest whole chicken I could find, and set to work.

If someone had been in my kitchen, the video of me trying to prep the chicken might have become a youtube sensation of its own. See, the part where Jonny (I feel like I can call him that since I've made his chicken) takes his scissors and neatly cuts through the chicken's back like he's cutting a piece of tissue paper? Well when I did that, it looked like I was trying to chop down a tree with a pair of pruning shears. And that part where Jonny takes his hands and, with one slight shove, cracks the chicken's spine in two? Well I literally had to climb on top of the chicken, mount it, and bounce up and down until I got it to crack. But the point is, I DID it. It wasn't as pretty, but I guarantee the end result was just as tasty.

As for the salsa verde, it's pretty foolproof. If you don't have the same herbs he recommends (parsley, mint, tarragon, and rosemary), you can substitute or omit at will. In fact, the printed version of his recipe apparently uses different herbs than he does in the video. You can find the print version here. I used basil instead of mint, and it turned out awesome. I don't think you can go wrong. Since he didn't give measurements in the video, I just eyeballed the amount he used and aimed for the same amount.

After talking this dish up so much (I texted my husband something along the lines of: "BTW, when you get home tonight, you will be transported to Manhattan's West Village, where you will eat the signature dish of a Top Chef Master. It's a $19 dish!"), I was a little nervous about actually serving it. But it totally lived up to the hype. It's a simple dish, yet it tastes totally upscale. It's comfort food, yet its healthy. It's something the whole family will enjoy eating. And the leftovers can be made into an excellent soup (but that's another whole post...one I'll hopefully get to one of these days).

The bottom line is: watch the video, make the chicken. You won't regret it!

Buffalo Chicken Salad (aka: How to satisfy your chicken wing craving without guilt)

2011-11-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was sitting on the couch while my girls were taking a nap, wondering whether I could come up with a buffalo chicken recipe that would actually be healthy. See, I love me some really crispy, spicy chicken wings, but the main reason I crave them is the buffalo sauce. And buffalo sauce itself isn't unhealthy--it's just some vinegar and chili peppers. It only becomes unhealthy when you combine it with tons of butter, a deep fryer, ranch dressing, or mounds of cheese (as in my favorite recipe for buffalo chicken dip).

As I was sitting there pondering potential recipe ideas, I heard a voice say: "Buffalo chicken salad." God? I thought, looking upward. Then I realized that the voice belonged to Ellie Krieger, who was speaking to me from the TV. Well she wasn't actually speaking to ME, but it felt that way. It was as if she'd read my mind.

Ellie is known for putting healthy spins on traditionally unhealthy dishes, so I was excited to see what she whipped up. The trick to her salad was to make her own blue cheese dressing, which uses fat free yogurt as a base in place of tons of mayonnaise. She also used plain chicken breasts doused in buffalo sauce and broiled in the oven.

I made the recipe ASAP, and it turned out great! Here is a link to the recipe on the Food Network site.

A few things I did differently:

1) Instead of spending money on buttermilk for one recipe, I created my own using vinegar and milk. To do this, just place 1 tbsp of white vinegar in a 1-cup measuring cup. Fill the cup to the top with milk. Let stand for 5 minutes: Voila! You've got buttermilk!

2) To boost the flavor of the dressing, I added about half a packet of dry ranch dressing mix in place of the sugar.

3) Instead of using just romaine hearts, I used a mix of romaine hearts and a darker leafier green (to boost the nutrients)

Also, unless you're partial to a certain buffalo sauce, I definitely recommend using Frank's Red Hot. It has great flavor that can't be beat (in my humble opinion). This is a recipe I will be making again and again. It's great for a light weeknight dinner or for entertaining. Your guests will love you when you tell them that it's guilt free.

Spaghetti carbonara, the healthy version (with a mystery ingredient)

2011-10-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

"Ewwwww! What's that for?" my husband said as I tried (unsuccessfully) to bury a tiny tin of anchovies into the bag of groceries I was packing for our family getaway to the mountains.

"Don't worry about it," I said dismissively. But he wouldn't let up. "You're not cooking something with those, are you?" he said, his face contorted just like our three-year-old's when I try to serve her anything resembling a vegetable that's not a pea or a carrot.

"You'll like it!" I yelled. I tend to get a little testy when people complain about food they haven't even tried...just ask my kids.

Trust me, I don't like anchovies either. I'm not ordering them up on pizza or popping them in my mouth right out of the can. But in my adventures in cooking, I've learned that a teeny weeny bit of anchovy can add some yummy brininess to a dish without making it taste fishy. And when my husband finally tasted the end result: "Spaghetti with Anchovy Carbonara," he admitted he'd judged the little fishies too hastily. My four-year-old even declared it delicious and polished off her whole bowl!

Spaghetti carbonara is one of those dishes that always pops up on "guilty pleasure" or "comfort food" shows." Traditionally it's made with pasta, bacon and lots of egg yolks and cheese, so it's pretty much a giant bowl of cholesterol problems waiting to happen.

In a recent issue of Food & Wine magazine, I came across a recipe for carbonara that actually looked healthy, not to mention tasty and simple to prepare. I tore it out and took it along on my family's weekend in Flagstaff, where we were planning to spend our time snuggled up in front of a fire, cooking and eating a lot. I wanted to make something that would be comforting, warm, and filling. This fit the bill. The sauce is made up of some herbs, garlic, lemon zest, a few egg yolks, and - yes - some anchovies. But they dissolve! So you really can't even see them. And the best part was that it was done in under 30 minutes.

Try it - you'll like it! If you like caesar salad, you'll like this pasta. If you don't, you're free to leave me nasty comments.

Spaghetti with Anchovy Carbonara (from Food & Wine magazine, April 2011)

**I recommend doubling the ingredients for the sauce. There was just enough to coat the pasta, but I definitely could have used more.

12 oz spaghetti (I used whole wheat)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 large garlic cloves, chopped

One 2-oz can flat anchovies, drained and chopped

a pinch of crushed red pepper (I left this out because of the kiddies)

1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tbsp chopped oregano

1/4 cup chopped flat leave parsley

2 large egg yolks

salt and freshly ground pepper

1. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain the pasta reserving 1/2 cup (I say 1 cup) of the cooking water.

2. In a large, deep skillet, heat the oil with the garlic and anchovies and cook over moderately high heat until the anchovies have dissolved, about 2 minutes. Add the red pepper, zest, oregano and parsley, then add the pasta and toss to coat. Remove from heat.

3. In a small bowl, whisk the yolks with the reserved cooking water and add to the pasta. Cook over low heat, tossing until the pasta is coated in a creamy sauce, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Fall food: tortellini soup

2011-09-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year when I've been known to fly into a rage at the mailbox. Why? Because my food magazines start arriving, chock full of gorgeous, fall-inspired stews, soups, and hearty dishes meant to nourish the belly and the soul on those crisp fall nights when you can't quite shake off the chill. And there I am, dripping sweat from walking to said mailbox in the 100+ degree temps, unable to fathom sitting down to a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup any time soon.

Well this year, I'm going to take on a new attitude and pretend that it's fall, despite what the thermostat says. I'm even feeling grateful for my hot, but mostly harmless weather in light of all of my east coast friends who have been inundated with rain, floods, and other unpleasant weather events over the last few weeks.

Interestingly enough, the recipe I found most exciting in my newest Food Network magazine was part of an ad by Sam's Club. Not only did it look tasty and family-friendly, but I noticed that I already had most of the ingredients on hand; the ones I was lacking were easily substituted or omitted. I whipped it up this afternoon while the girls were eating lunch, and having already tested out a bowl, I can vouch for it being yummy as well as simple and quick to make. And if it were raining outside, or I was looking at colored leaves instead of a cactus, it would probably make me feel warm, fuzzy, and fall-ish too.

Tortellini soup (adapted from Sam's Club ad in Food Network magazine)

1 lb ground beef
3 tbsp Italian Seasoning (I didn't have any Italian Seasoning on hand, so I used some Mrs. Dash (spicy), and some oregano)
1 tbsp paprika (I used smoked paprika because I love it)
salt
pepper
1/2 cup onion, diced
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes)
1 can corn, drained (I omitted this because I'm not a huge fan of corn in soups)
2 cans (14 oz each) chicken broth
2 cups water
1 tbsp garlic, minced
4 cups baby spinach
1 cup carrots, sliced
Several handfuls of tortellini or pasta of choice (I wanted to use tortellini, but was too lazy to go to the store, so I just used elbow noodles. Tasted great, but not as pretty as the tortellini would've been)
1 cup Italian blend cheese, or parmesan, for topping (optional)

Preparation:

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef and onions, stirring in the seasoning, paprika, and a few hearty dashes of salt and pepper. Once the beef is almost fully cooked, drain the mixture and transfer to a large pot.

In the pot, combine the beef mixture with the tomatoes, corn, chicken broth, water, garlic, spinach and carrots. Bring to a boil. Add pasta and boil until pasta is cooked. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Taste and add additional salt, pepper, and seasonings until you're satisfied with the flavor.

Top each bowl with cheese, if you so desire. And, as always, I recommend serving with a nice big chunk of crusty bread.

How to eat spinach like Popeye without really trying

2011-09-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, I posted about my unfortunate waste of a package of organic baby spinach. Since then, I've put in a concerted effort not to repeat my mistake. The result has been kind of surprising: I find it's pretty easy to get through a pack of spinach in a matter of days. And here's the kicker - I don't even like spinach that much!

When I started this blog, one of my goals was to learn to eat veggies and other healthy foods in ways that were truly enjoyable...no nose-holding or grimacing; no bribing myself (or my kids) with treats as a reward for choking down some stinky vegetable in the name of a well-balanced diet. In this vein, I have sought out ways to genuinely like eating spinach, and I can proudly say that my relationship with this nutrient-dense little leaf has reached new heights. I no longer buy a package of spinach because I feel obligated, but because I've found so many yummy and easy ways to incorporate it into my diet. Here they are:

1) Pile it (I mean REALLY pile it) on a sandwich.

I got this idea when I ordered a turkey avocado sandwich from my gym's cafe. It was served on ciabatta bread, and simply heaped with spinach. At first I thought it was too much. But then I took a bite...and I hardly even noticed it was there. In fact, it really added to the sandwich - gave it a little crunchy texture and some moisture, since spinach is so water-dense. From now on when I make a turkey sandwich, I don't just slap a sad little lettuce leaf on there; I go crazy with the spinach. It's like having a sandwich and salad all in one.

Another little tip: If you are like me and looooove a good crusty bread, but are trying to avoid white bread and the carb overload that comes along with it, ciabatta rolls are a good choice. They're light and airy, not super heavy. And what I usually do is slice it in half, then pull out chunks from the inside of each half so it's mostly just the outer crust that's left. Then I broil it in the oven for a few minutes to give it some added crunch. It's all the pleasure of crusty bread without all the calories.

2) Throw it in a smoothie.

Spinach has become a regular ingredient in my smoothies, both for myself and for my girls. If you make a dark smoothie and can't actually see the spinach, you'll never guess it's in there. I promise. I know a lot of people will be skeptical about this, but it's true. Here's one of my favorite concoctions: blueberries, strawberries, pomegranate juice, spinach, banana, yogurt, and enough ice to make it cold (if you're not using frozen fruit). It's a perfect way to get your veggies, fruits and protein all in one.

3) Saute with garlic and serve with ravioli or tortellini.

I've never really been into sautéed spinach as a side dish. Just picking up a forkful of spinach and eating it doesn't appeal to me (although I'm hoping some day it will). However, picking up a forkful that contains spinach and some yummy pasta is super appealing. Ever since I've discovered this, I no longer feel like I need to eat a salad alongside my pasta. Instead I do this: heat some olive oil and chopped garlic in a pan on medium-low. Add a lot of spinach (you'll be amazed how small it gets when it wilts) and slowly stir until it starts to wilt. Add a few dashes of lemon juice and some white wine (if you prefer). Season with salt. Serve underneath a few raviolis or some tortellini. Now you can turn your bag of Costco ravioli (we all have one, right?) into a well-rounded, semi-homemade dinner.

4) Chop up and add to soups, sauces, and eggs.

As I mentioned above, what seems like lot of spinach turns into a teeny tiny bit of spinach when it's cooked. And I find the taste of it to be fairly innocuous when paired with something else. I love stirring some into scrambled eggs, especially when you add some smoked salmon. I also throw it into jarred pasta sauce when I'm heating it on the stove. Pre-made soups are another great chance to add some spinach in your life.

Here's to no more spinach in the garbage!

Refreshing, and pretty too!

2011-08-23T12:27:00.000-07:00

Creating little bits of restaurant-style luxury at home can be really simple to do. It requires nothing more than a carefully drizzled sauce, a piece of bread stuck under the broiler until it's crispy and warm, or some fresh herbs stirred into a canned soup or mayonnaise.

Recently I have been finding ways to spruce up the most basic thing in the world: water. I feel like I am constantly trying to drink more water, and constantly falling short. I know why I should be drinking it: it's one of the simplest and cheapest things we can do to provide a ton of benefits, including weight loss, increased energy, elimination of toxins, nice skin, etc. But knowing what to do and actually doing it are vastly different things.

Part of my problem is that I get bored with plain old H2O, and another issue is that I simply forget. It sounds dumb, but unless I'm dying of thirst or there's a glass in front of my face, it doesn't always occur to me to drink. In that vein...I am super excited about my new little discovery: infused water.

During a recent vacation to California, my husband and I stayed at a lovely Marriott in Marina del Rey. Every time we entered the lobby, we were met with a big glass water dispenser filled with infused water--a different flavor every day. It was ice cold, just a teeny bit sweet, and super refreshing. I kept finding myself going back to that water thingy again and again, suddenly excited about hydrating myself. It was partly because it was yummy and fancy, and partly because it was just there. You couldn't walk by it without pouring yourself some, and that--for me--seemed to be the key to the whole thing.

So as soon as we returned to AZ, I went out and purchased myself one of those lovely glass water dispensers (mine was $19.99 at Home Goods, but they can be found just about anywhere that sells kitchen supplies). I filled it up with some filtered water, lemon slices and cucumber slices, and I was suddenly transported back to the Marriott...except that instead of boats gliding through the water, my view was of a living room filled with Barbies and puzzle pieces.

Because the water dispenser sits on my kitchen counter, I am reminded all day long to keep drinking. And I have been having fun experimenting with different flavor combinations. Here are some I've tried out so far:

Cantaloupe & fresh mint
Watermelon & fresh mint
Lemon & fresh rosemary

And some I intend to try...

Strawberry & fresh basil
Lemon & orange

The possibilities are endless! And you don't need much to give it flavor--just a handful of fruit and/or a few sprigs of herbs. There's nothing wrong with just lemon either; it'll still look pretty on your counter and remind you to drink up. Cheers!

The best smell in the world

2011-08-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

Is there anything better than walking into a house and smelling something delicious cooking? It may sound a little June Cleaver-y, but I feel all warm and fuzzy inside when my husband, my girls, or a guest walks into my kitchen and says "Something smells great in here!"

Plenty of foods can inspire that sentiment...cookies in the oven...pasta sauce bubbling on the stove. But of all of the food scents out there, nothing does it for me like the smell of garlic, olive oil, and white wine simmering together. It transports me to my happy place, where I'm sitting on a lovely deck overlooking Napa Valley vineyards, a cool glass of chardonnay in hand, reading a cooking magazine while soft jazz plays in the background.

Any time I see a recipe that involves simmering garlic in white wine, I know it's going to be a winner. And when you throw in some shrimp, tomatoes, lemon zest, and fresh parsley, it would be pretty impossible to go wrong.

This recipe was largely inspired by Ina Garten's "Roasted shrimp with feta," but since I omitted quite a few things, and adjusted the presentation, I thought I'd rewrite my version of the recipe here. I went for a simpler approach, eliminating things like Pernod (who has Pernod on hand?) and fennel, and forgoing the breadcrumb topping in favor of serving the dish alongside my favorite thing in the world: crusty bread.

"Roasted shrimp with feta" (or, as I like to call it: "Roasted shrimp in garlic, tomato and white wine broth") Recipe semi-stolen from Ina Garten.

Ingredients:

Several tbsps of good olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 can diced tomatoes (or use fresh)
2 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 lbs shrimp (peeled and deveined, with tails on)
5 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp minced Italian parsley
2 lemons (plus the zest from one of them)

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet that can be safely transferred to the oven. Add the garlic and saute over medium-low heat for one minute. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the liquid is reduced. Add the tomatoes with liquid, tomato paste, and oregano. Add salt & pepper to taste. Simmer over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Arrange the shrimp, tails up, in one layer over the tomato mixture in the skillet.* Scatter the feta evenly on top. In a small bowl, combine the lemon zest and parsley with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Sprinkle over the shrimp. Bake for 15 minutes, until the shrimp are opaque and tender. Remove from oven and sprinkle the juice of one lemon on top.

*I have to admit that I struggled with the whole "arranging the shrimp artfully" thing. My shrimp didn't really stand up in the pan...they kind of just fell over on top of one another. So when I removed the dish from the oven, I ended up dumping everything into a big bowl and serving it like that. I actually think it came out kind of better that way, since we could just dish the shrimp and tomato mixture into individual bowls, and then sop up the juices with that crusty bread I was talking about earlier.

Next time I make this, I might leave out the oven altogether, and just saute the shrimp right in the pan. I think the only real reason to bake it was to brown the breadcrumbs, but since the breadcrumbs are excluded in my version, the oven is probably unnecessary.

No matter how you end up cooking the shrimp, you can't really go wrong with this recipe. It's great for entertaining, and--like so many of my favorite recipes--it can work as either an appetizer or a light dinner. It could also be served over pasta if you're looking for a heftier meal. And it would work perfectly fine without the feta, if you don't feel like buying it, or want to go dairy-free.

Chicken and white bean chili

2011-07-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

My poor mom...her cooking has taken a lot of ribbing over the years. It wasn't that she was incompetent in the kitchen, just that she sometimes had a knack for picking recipes that were born to be failures (mini franks simmered in grape jelly, for example), or making the same things over and over until we begged for mercy (like the 3-month chicken finger fest that occurred sometime during 1996).

Like a fine wine, however, her cooking has gotten much better with age. And the other night she made a yummy and very blog-worthy chicken chili recipe, which she had clipped from the pages of the local PA newspaper. Everyone at the table declared it "really good." I think the word "delicious" might have even been thrown around.

The nice thing about this chili is that you can adjust the seasonings to suit your heat tolerance; if you aren't into spicy foods or want to make it kid-friendly, then eliminate the cayenne. If you want to spice it up, you can throw in some diced jalapenos, add more cayenne and cumin, and use pepper jack cheese instead of regular Monterey Jack.

Here's the recipe: (adapted from the Harrisburg Patriot News)

Chicken and white bean chili

2 (20 oz) cans cannellini beans (sometimes known as white kidney beans)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 pounds chicken, diced into small cubes
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 14 oz can chicken broth
1 4 oz can green chiles, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp chopped cilantro
1/8 tsp cayenne
2 green onions, sliced
monterey jack cheese, shredded

Drain one can cannellini beans and set aside, but save the liquid.

Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Add chicken and onion and cook for 4 or 5 minutes. Stir in broth, green chiles, and spices. Simmer 15 minutes.

Stir in the drained beans and the can of undrained beans. Simmer 5 minutes (If you want, you can mash some beans to help thicken the chili.)**

Ladle into bowls, garnish with green onion and cheese

**Note: We also ended up adding some cornstarch to thicken the chili at the end.

Thanks, mom! I promise not to tease you about your cooking anymore...at least not for a while. :)

Light meal for a hot summer day

2011-06-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

It is 114 degrees today in Arizona. 114 DEGREES!!! It's one of those days when you don't want to leave house, or even the couch. And the idea of firing up the oven, grill, or even microwave seems completely out of the question.

I suppose the plus side to these types of evenings is that they curb my appetite and actually make me crave cool, crisp veggies. So I turn to one of my favorite meals: the hummus platter.

Hummus is nothing new in our house...we've been dipping pita chips in it for years. But recently I've noticed restaurants serving a "kicked up" version of the standard "hummus & chips." They serve a nice dollop of hummus over top some greens, sprinkled with feta cheese, and accompanied by thin slices of tomato, cucumber, and warm triangles of pita bread. It's super-simple to replicate at home, and so I did. You simply slather the pita bread with some hummus & feta, and then top with cucumber and tomato, and some greens...sort of like a hummus pizza.

It is the perfect light meal or lunch on a hot summer days. And since there's many more of those hot days ahead for us, I have a feeling this will be gracing our table on a regular basis.

Shrimp and avocado tostadas & pulled pork tacos with fennel slaw

2011-06-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have quite a few strengths as a cook, but timing is not one of them. I am at my best when I am making a dish that I can ease into, adjusting seasonings as I go, hovering and poking to test doneness. Or I enjoy things that I can make ahead and either serve cold, room temperature or reheated.

Meals that need to be carefully orchestrated, with several components being finished at exactly the same time, really stress me out. Take, for example, my husband's father's day request: surf and turf. There's nothing spectacularly difficult about this dish...no fancy ingredients or complex preparations. But the simple fact that I had to serve a perfectly cooked filet, perfectly cooked lobster tail, roasted potatoes, and broccoli, all steaming hot, ALL AT THE SAME TIME... Well, it gave me an anxiety attack. Yet, I managed to pull it off:

Anyway, the point of this post wasn't to brag about my surf and turf (although my husband did say it was delicious), it was to talk about the type of dish I prefer to make. The first is Shrimp and Avocado Tostadas. This dish makes a perfect appetizer, lunch, or light dinner. It's served cold or room temperature which means it's great to make ahead or to serve on a hot summer night. Here's how to make it:

Shrimp and Avocado Tostadas

Ingredients:

1 lb shrimp, cooked, peeled, deveined, and chopped
1 or 2 limes
1 or 2 ripe avocados, chopped
a few handfuls of grape tomatoes or small cherry tomatoes, halved
minced red onion
chopped cilantro
salt

Directions:

Once the shrimp have cooled, mix them in a bowl with the avocado and tomato. Squeeze in some lime juice. Add the onion, cilantro, and salt to taste. Mix together gently and serve atop crispy tortillas, or with tortilla chips. **If you want to make this a "make ahead" dish, wait to chop and add the avocado until just before you're ready to serve; otherwise it will turn brown.

The second dish I have to recommend is Melissa D'Arabian's "Pulled Pork Tacos with Fennel Slaw." This dish is definitely a bit labor-intensive, and has quite a few ingredients. But, it is a delicious recipe, and a perfect thing to make on a leisurely weekend afternoon. The pork cooks for three hours, so you can make it at lunch time, shred the pork in the late afternoon, and have it sitting on the stove ready to serve at dinner time and/or when your guests arrive. Click above for Melissa's recipe. I followed it pretty much exactly, except that I left out the sour cream and parmesan to make it dairy-free.

Chopped brussels sprouts salad with bacon

2011-06-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

In my quest to eat more veggies, I've come up with a simple but effective little trick: chop them up! I can enjoy eating almost anything if it is chopped up small enough and mixed with other tasty foods. So if I'm not a fan of a particular vegetable, or clueless about what to do with it, I start mincing away. Take brussels sprouts, for example. The thought of gnawing away on a big old sprout kind of makes me want to throw up. But when they are chopped up, seasoned with some lemon juice, parmesan cheese and bacon, and thrown into a salad: Deliciousness! (A while back, I posted another great chopped brussels sprouts recipe, which is a great warm alternative to this one.)

I got the inspiration for this salad from The Arrogant Butcher, a restaurant in downtown Phoenix. My friend ordered their brussels sprouts salad, and I helped myself to several forkfuls (yes, I'm rude like that). We both were surprised by how yummy it was, and I kept thinking about it for days afterward. I remembered the main flavors, and so I experimented with making one of my own. I have to admit that while my salad recipe is an original creation, the dressing is not. The one I repeatedly turn to is Lucini's "Bold Parmesan and Garlic," but I'm sure any slightly creamy, garlicky, parmesan cheesy dressing would do.

Chopped Brussels Sprouts Salad with Bacon

Ingredients:

Brussels sprouts, chopped (I use about 3-4 per person)
Bacon (I use about 1 strip per person)
Lemon
Parmesan cheese (the kind you grate yourself is the best, but any old kind will work)
Olive oil
Salt
Baby spinach, chopped
Romaine hearts, chopped

Good dressing (see photo)

Directions:

Cook the bacon until crisp (I just use the microwave method). Let cool and crumble.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and lightly saute the chopped brussels sprouts until they're slightly tender, but not super soft (you want them to still have some crunch). Squeeze in some fresh lemon juice, and add some salt and a few sprinkles of parmesan cheese.

Take the brussels sprouts off the heat and let them cool. Then toss them together with the bacon, spinach and romaine. Add dressing and top off with some more parmesan if you wish.

Lame blog post, awesome recipe

2011-05-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

I'm in between vacations, so I don't have time to write a proper blog post. But I did want to take a few minutes to share this awesome recipe I made last night, which I stole from another blogger, who stole it from Food & Wine Magazine.

The recipe is for chicken breasts marinated in a yummy mustard sauce and then coated with crushed hard pretzels (I used Snyders). Everyone, including the kids, gobbled it up so it is definitely something I will make again and again!

You can find the blog post here and the recipe here.

Warm goat cheese salad (aka: an easy way to make a regular salad look & taste fancy)

2011-05-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

I've been having some fun with salads lately. Two of my latest inventions, which I will be posting soon, include a chopped brussels sprouts, spinach, and bacon salad, and a smoked salmon and corn nut salad (I know you'll be on the edge of your seat waiting for that one).

There are just so many interesting combinations of ingredients that can go into a salad, and yet we continue to eat the same old tried and true bland salads: lettuce, tomato, carrot, cucumber, croutons, balsamiccccccca8979wjrl;l...

Sorry, I just fell asleep on the keyboard because that salad makes me so bored.

This little trick I learned from Ina Garten is super-easy, but in a matter of minutes it turns a boring old "greens and vinaigrette" salad into a decadent gourmet treat. You simply pan fry a little disc of goat cheese and slap it on top. That's it! Unless you hate goat cheese, I promise this will turn your salad from the "Let's get it over with" course to the "Can I have seconds, please?" course.

Here's how to do it in a simple 4-step process:

Step 1: Toss some baby greens of your choice with a tangy vinaigrette of your choice. I prefer this homemade version: Whisk together some champagne vinaigrette, a few squeezes of lemon juice, salt, a dollop of good dijon mustard, and EVOO. Place the dressed greens on individual salad plates so that they will be ready for the addition of the goat cheese.

Step 2: Take a log of goat cheese and slice it into rounds using a piece of string or unflavored dental floss (In the interest of full disclosure, I actually used minty dental floss to do this once and I promise it didn't make the goat cheese taste minty).

Step 3: Fill one shallow dish with some egg whites, and another shallow dish with some panko bread crumbs. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a saute pan. Dip both sides of each goat cheese round into the egg, then the panko, then pan fry until the breadcrumbs are golden brown and crisp. Using a spatula, plop the goat cheese rounds directly onto the salad.

Step 4: Eat!

Spring has sprung! Smoked salmon bruschetta

2011-04-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

I seem to be incapable of finding the right cooking vs. blogging balance. When I'm cooking a lot I can't find the time to write about what I'm cooking, and when I do have the time to blog it usually means I'm eating frozen pizza (just kidding...sort of).

Anyway, our April house guests, combined with the warm weather, brought out the inner healthy chef in me. I've made a bunch of great new dishes which I will be sharing in the coming weeks. (And to the people who faithfully read my blog--all three of you--I promise to post more often so that you can continue to be inspired by the delicious concoctions I create).

The first is a recipe I found in my trusty Food Network magazine, which caught my eye because 1) it's pretty to look at, 2) it's easy to make ahead, and 3) it works as either an appetizer or a light lunch. It's also delicious! The actual name of the recipe is "Smoked Salmon Rillettes with Tomato Salad," but I didn't know what in the heck a "rillette" was so I called it bruschetta. (OK, so I just looked it up and "rillette" is similar to a pate, which I like to eloquently describe as "mashed up meat mixed with other stuff." Actually, when you look at this recipe you'll see my description is pretty dead on. If all else fails, I might apply for a writing job with the Oxford Dictionary!)

Smoked Salmon Rillettes with Tomato Salad (courtesy of foodnetwork.com)
(otherwise known as Smoked Salmon Bruschetta)

Ingredients

For the salmon:

1 shallot, minced

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 pound salmon fillet, skin removed, cut into 4 pieces

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons dry white wine

1/4 pound smoked salmon

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened ***I used mayo to make it dairy-free

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

For the salad:

1 pound grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Kosher salt

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup heavy cream ***I left the cream out to make it dairy-free

2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Freshly ground pepper

Sliced crusty bread, for serving ***I drizzled the bread with EVOO and toasted under the broiler before topping with the salmon spread & tomatoes

Directions:

Prepare the salmon: Cook the shallot with the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, 2 to 3 minutes. Season the salmon with salt and pepper; add to the skillet. Add the wine, cover and cook over low heat until opaque, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer the salmon to a plate and let the pan juices simmer, 2 minutes. Let cool.

Pulse the smoked salmon and butter in a food processor to make a coarse paste. Flake in the cooked salmon; add the pan juices, lemon juice, nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Pulse until incorporated. Spoon into a bowl, cover and chill at least 1 hour.

Make the salad: Toss the tomatoes, sugar and a pinch of salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the vinegar, mustard and 1/2 teaspoon salt, then whisk in the olive oil. Whisk in the cream, tarragon and chives. Toss in the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Serve with the salmon rillettes and bread.

Penne with peppers, pesto & sausage

2011-04-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

There are so many evenings when I find myself staring helplessly into the refrigerator at 5:00 pm, wondering if it's possible to concoct anything remotely healthy, tasty, and quick out of what's in there. Sometimes I give up, shut the door, and pray there's something in the freezer. Other times, inspiration hits and I come up with a way to transform some odds and ends...a leftover bell pepper that's starting to get wrinkly...some chicken basil sausage from the local butcher...into a meal that seems like it was well thought out and carefully planned.

That happened the other night with this dish. It's nothing fancy or super original, but it was tasty, full of veggies, and quick and easy to prepare. Best of all, it only required six ingredients.

Penne with Peppers, Pesto & Sausage

Ingredients:

extra-virgin olive oil

2 bell peppers (any combo of red, yellow and/or green works), seeded and thinly sliced

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

approx 1/2 lb of Italian-flavored sausage (I prefer chicken sausage since it's less greasy)

pesto (store bought or homemade)

penne pasta (or any other pasta of your liking)

Directions:

In a large skillet, saute the sliced onion and peppers in olive oil over medium-low heat for several minutes until tender. In the meantime, boil the water for the penne pasta. After the veggies are tender, remove the casing from the sausage and crumble the sausage into a pan; cook until no longer pink. When the pasta is done cooking, toss it with the pepper/sausage mixture. Add several healthy dollops of pesto and stir.

Roasted beet chopped salad with citrus vinaigrette

2011-03-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

Up until a few years ago, I had a serious aversion to beets. If anyone even asked me to try one, I would scrunch up my nose like a whiny little kid and yell "Ewwwwww...gross!"

Then everything changed. My husband and I were at an elegant restaurant, celebrating a birthday, and I couldn't help but notice a gorgeous concoction being delivered to the table next to us. "What is that?" I asked the waiter as he passed by. "It's our roasted beet salad," he replied. "It's one of our best dishes."

"Beets? Yuck!" screamed the voice inside my head. But then the rational adult voice stepped in, reasoning that if I was ever going to learn to like beets, this would be my chance. I ordered it.

When it arrived at the table, I spent a few minutes admiring it before I dug in. It was so artfully arranged: a perfectly round bed of goat cheese, topped with thin slivers of beets, standing on end and wrapped around each other to look almost like a tulip with a hollowed out middle. In the middle was some frisee lettuce dressed with a tangy orange vinaigrette. All three components of the dish complemented each other perfectly. The sweetness of the beets (which is what I don't like) was tamed by the tartness of the dressing and the sour tanginess of the goat cheese. I know I ordered some sort of expensive entree that night, too, but all I remember about the restaurant was that beet salad.

I've yet to replicate the exact salad I had that night, but I've come up with a similar, easier version. Aside from the flavors and the health benefits, the great thing about this dish is that it's beautiful to look at. As they always say, "We eat with our eyes first."

Ingredients:

2-3 roasted red beets* diced into small cubes
1 cucumber, diced into small cubes
2 handfuls of greens, chopped (I used spring mix lettuce, but you could experiment with almost any type of green)
crumbled goat cheese
shelled, chopped pistachios (if you want extra crunch, toast the pistachios in a dry pan before adding them to the salad)
Citrus vinaigrette (below)

*To roast the beets, wrap them in aluminum foil and roast in the oven at 375 degrees until tender (usually takes about an hour). Peel them after they've been roasted.

For the vinaigrette: Combine several splashes of champagne vinegar and orange juice in a bowl. Add salt, a few squeezes of fresh lemon juice, and a dollop of dijon mustard. Whisk in some olive oil until it forms a nice consistency. Adjust ingredients/seasonings to taste. You want it to have some bite, but not be overly vinegary.

Combine all of the salad ingredients in a bowl, except the pistachios. Add just enough vinaigrette to lightly coat. To serve fancy restaurant style: fill a small cup or glass with several scoops of salad, place a plate on top, and overturn. Lift up the cup and...voila! Sprinkle the chopped pistachios on top.

A Laos-y Feast: chicken baguette sandwiches with hot chile-garlic sauce, and turkey lemongrass lettuce wraps

2011-03-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

When I lived in Los Angeles I had a ritual of ordering Thai yellow curry and Tom Yum soup every Sunday exactly at 5:00, when the Thai place down the street opened its doors. Even though that was years ago, I still find myself craving spicy Asian cuisine on Sunday afternoons.

This past Sunday, I decided to get exotic after reading an article in February's Food and Wine Magazine about the cuisine of Laos. I don't know much about Laos, but since it's wedged in between Thailand, Vietnam, and China, I figured the food there must be good. Almost all of the dishes in the article used a combination of some of my favorite ingredients, including lemongrass, cilantro, chiles, shallots, fresh lime juice, and garlic. The photos of the food and scenery were equally gorgeous, and while my weed-filled backyard doesn't quite compare to the plateaus, floodplains and thatched homes in Laos, I figured I could at least attempt to replicate some of the foods in the article.

Despite what the title may connote (I'm just a sucker for bad puns), this was actually a delicious meal. The first recipe I made was called "Ground Turkey Laap," which is a Laos-y name for lettuce wraps. These differ from the type of lettuce wraps you'd find at a Chinese restaurant (or the Cheesecake Factory for that matter) in that the sauce is herbal and fresh-tasting instead of covered in a sweet soy glaze. The laap was pretty simple to make, except for tracking down lemongrass. Usually it will be in the same area as the herbs, but not all grocery stores carry it. Even Whole Foods only had a few stalks which were shoved in an unlabeled bin.

Using lemongrass was an exciting experiment for me because I've never used it before, and it scared me a little. Turns out lemongrass isn't scary at all. If you want to use it to flavor soups or curries, you can chop up the stalk and let it simmer in the broth--just make sure you remove it before eating. The other way to use lemongrass is to peel the tough outer leaves until you find the tender white core in the middle (about the same diameter as a thin straw). Then you can finely chop or puree that core and mix it into just about anything.

Here is the recipe for Ground Turkey Laap (courtesy of Food and Wine). It makes a great appetizer or a light lunch; it's easy to store and reheat later too.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp long-grain white rice
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb ground turkey
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp chicken stock
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp Asian fish sauce
salt & pepper
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 large stalks of lemongrass--tender inner core only, minced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 medium shallot, thinly sliced and separated into rings
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped mint
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
small romaine or Belgian endive leaves, for serving

Directions:

In a small skillet, toast the rice over high heat, shaking the skillet a few times, until the rice is golden brown. Transfer to a spice grinder (or coffee grinder) and let cool completely. Grind the rice into a fine powder.

In a large skillet, heat the oil and cook the turkey over medium heat, breaking up the meat evenly, until no pink remains. Add the stock and cook, stirring, until bubbling. Remove from heat and stir in fish sauce. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the lime juice. Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in the lemongrass, scallions, shallots, cilantro, mint, crushed red pepper, and rice powder.

Arrange the lettuce leaves on a platter, and spoon the turkey mixture on top.

Lao-Style Chicken Baguette Sandwiches (courtesy of Food and Wine Magazine)

While my husband and his friend lapped up the laap (see - I can't help myself!), I got to work on the main course: the baguette sandwiches. Food and Wine named this dish "Lao-Style Chicken Baguette Sandwiches with Watercress," but unfortunately I wasn't able to find any watercress. I just used plain old green leaf lettuce, which worked perfectly fine.

At first glance this looks like any old chicken sandwich: sliced chicken breast, tomato, carrot, mayo and lettuce on a baguette...the key ingredient that makes it Laos-y is the chile-garlic sauce. I have to admit, I was tempted to just buy the jar of chile-garlic sauce I saw at the store when I was hunting down the ingredients for my recipe. But I decided to take on the challenge of making an Asian condiment on my own. I'm really glad I did--the sauce was definitely a little labor intensive, but the flavors were well worth the work.

Chile-Garlic Sauce

1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large shallot, thinly sliced and separated into rings
3 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 1/2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
1/4 cup Korean coarse red pepper powder*
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tbsp Asian fish sauce

*I couldn't find Korean coarse red pepper powder at the store, so I found the closest thing to it: some sort of Indonesian chile powder. If you live near an Asian grocery store, you could probably find the Korean stuff there. But my substitute seemed to work perfectly fine so you can also experiment with any other type of powdered chiles or red peppers.

In a small skillet, heat 1/4 cup, plus 2 tbsp of oil. Add the shallot rings and cook over moderate heat, stirring a few times, until golden brown and crisp. With a slotted spoon, transfer shallot rings to a bowl. Add the garlic to the oil, and cook over moderately low heat until golden. Transfer the garlic to the bowl. Add the ginger to the skillet and cook until fragrant, about 2 minute. Add red pepper powder and sugar and cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Scrape the sauce into the bowl. Stir in the fish sauce and the remaining tbsp of oil.

To make the sandwiches:

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper, and saute in some oil until no longer pink inside. Let rest on a cutting board for a few minutes; then slice crosswise into 1/4 inch strips.

Spread the chile-garlic sauce on both halves of a sliced baguette. (How much you slather on will depend on your tolerance for spice). Then spread mayo on top of the chile-garlic sauce. Add a layer of chicken, thinly sliced tomato, lettuce, and shredded carrot, and close the sandwich. Enjoy!

Make sure you use the best, freshest baguette you can find...as my husband loves to say: A sandwich is only as good as the quality of the bread.

Family dinner success: herb-crusted chicken cutlets

2011-03-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

One of the only times I really lament having to make dairy-free family dinners is when I think about chicken parmesan. There's just something so delicious and soul-satisfying about that dish...especially when it's homemade. I've done dairy-free spaghetti and meatballs, even dairy-free pesto, but I thought it would be impossible to attempt chicken parmesan without the parmesan.

Then I stumbled across this recipe from Rachel Ray. I immediately printed it out and ran to the grocery store. It was one of those recipes that I knew would be a crowd pleaser, and it was indeed. The trick that makes the chicken extra tasty is that you make your own breadcrumbs out of a toasted baguette. It definitely makes the dish worlds better than it would have been with boxed breadcrumbs.

I didn't read the recipe thoroughly, and accidentally processed the bread in the food processor before toasting it. But when I figured out my mistake I just went ahead and stuck the breadcrumbs in a pan and toasted them that way, stirring them a few times until they were evenly browned. Personally I think this is a case of a "mistake gone right" because it meant that all of the bread was evenly toasted and extra-crunchy.

Here is my version of Rachel's recipe, with a few minor modifications, and a little more user-friendly (in my humble opinion)

Chicken Cutlets with Herbs (adapted from Rachel Ray)

Ingredients:

1/2 loaf of baguette bread (day old is fine)
4 chicken breasts, cut in half crosswise if they are thick, pounded until 1/4 inch thick
salt and freshly ground pepper
all-purpose flour, for dredging
1 large egg
several sprigs fresh thyme, leaves finely chopped
2 to 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
handful of fresh chives, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
olive oil, for sauteing cutlets

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Tear baguette into pieces and put in a food processor. Pulse until ground into breadcrumbs. Place the breadcrumbs on a shallow pan/cookie sheet. Toast in the oven until deep golden brown. When they are toasted, pour into a shallow dish and add the herbs, poultry seasoning, and some salt (how much salt you use should depend on whether or not your poultry seasoning contains salt).

Put flour into a shallow dish. In a separate shallow dish, beat the egg with a little water. Create an "assembly line" of dishes next to the stove: flour, egg, then seasoned breadcrumbs.

Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken in the flour, then coat in egg, then coat in breadcrumbs. Saute in the pan until golden and cooked through, 3-4 minutes on each side. You may need to add more oil when you flip the chicken...don't be stingy with the oil, as that's what will give the chicken a nice golden crust.

I served the chicken alongside a simple salad of red lettuce, cucumbers, tomato and avocado. It would be equally good served over pasta. The other nice thing about this recipe is that it's a great way to use up a day-old baguette and whatever herbs you happen to have on hand or in your garden. The rosemary was key (and I loooove rosemary), but I'm sure the thyme and chives could be swapped with something else without changing the flavor too dramatically.

This definitely will be made time and time again in my house.

Fun with pizza dough

2011-02-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

Lately I haven't been feeling very creative when it comes to cooking. The theme of our nightly dinners has been "same old, same old." I think it's because winter produce leaves me a little cold...get it? :)

In order to put some fire back in the kitchen, I decided to have a "make your own pizza" party...something fun for the kids and grown-ups too. Nowadays it's easy to find fresh refrigerated pizza dough at almost any store, and it's a great way to use up leftovers.

The girlies topped their pizzas with the usual: pepperoni, sliced peppers, and pesto. But I decided to get a little fancy for the adult pizza. After scavenging through the fridge, I went with a combination of sliced red onion, smoked salmon, capers, goat cheese, and a hearty drizzle of olive oil. When it came out of the oven, I drizzled it with a little more olive oil, and added a few dollops of sour cream and some chopped arugula. It was really good, and the greens eliminated the need for the obligatory salad we usually eat with our pizza.

Second-best stromboli

2011-02-15T10:41:00.000-08:00

Hopefully my husband will never end up on death row, but if he does become an ax murderer, at least he won't have to waste any time deliberating about his last meal. He has already decided that it will be stromboli from Your Place (known as "YP" among the locals) in Hershey, PA.

Since we live thousands of miles from YP, I've done my best to replicate his favorite stromboli at home. My husband does love my stromboli, but I've come to accept it will never be quite as good as the YP version--primarily because I've failed to achieve the perfect crispy, yet chewy dough texture. It would probably help if I had a wood-fired oven in my house.

So here is my own take on stromboli. I call it "second best stromboli" since that's basically what it is:

Ingredients:

1 lb pizza dough (I've tried pre-made from a store, frozen, refrigerated, good old Pillsbury, and homemade...they all turn out about the same)
approx 1/2 lb sliced ham
approx 1/2 lb sliced salami
approx 1/2 lb sliced provolone
fresh basil
1 egg, beaten
mustard (I prefer Dijonnaise)
tomato sauce or pizza sauce (for dipping - optional)

Preheat oven to 375. On a slightly floured surface, roll out dough into about a 16 x 10 rectangle. Spread a thin layer of mustard on the dough and top with basil leaves. Then add one layer each of the ham, salami, and provolone, leaving a one-inch border on the edges. Spread the mustard and basil on top of the provolone, and add another layer of meats and cheeses.

Fold the sides of the dough into the center and pinch the dough to seal. Pinch the ends of the dough and fold under. Brush the stromboli with the beaten egg, and cut about 5 shallow slits crosswise on the top of the dough (this is an important step - I once forgot to "vent" the stromboli, and it made the inside steam and turned the dough to mush).

Gently move the stromboli to a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

Serve with pizza sauce on the side for dipping.

Welcome home brunch: Grilled cheese & tomato soup eggs benedict with rosemary hash browns

2011-01-23T10:49:00.000-08:00

My husband just returned from a week-long trip, which felt more like a month-long trip. Before I had kids, I didn't mind his work-related travels. Of course I missed him, but I made the most of his absence by catching up on girly movies he'd never watch in a million years, reading books, going shopping with girlfriends, and letting out my inner slob. Now that I have kids, those work trips are brutal. Aside from the fact that I miss having my husband around, I miss having some relief from all the girls' fights, potty trips, endless requests for food/drink/stories/etc. And the girls are tired of me, I'm sure.

Needless to say, we were all really happy to have daddy back home today. To welcome him home, I decided to make a dish I've been pondering for months. I first came up with this idea over the summer, but I never got around to trying it out. Today seemed like the perfect occasion.

The idea was this: to put a twist on eggs benedict by making a version that incorporates everyone's favorite lunch: grilled cheese and tomato soup.

I had a gut feeling it would turn out really yummy, and luckily I was right. The nice thing about this version is that it eliminates the need for hollandaise sauce, which saves some calories and labor as well. And it only involves five main ingredients. Here's what you need:

Grilled cheese & tomato soup eggs benedict

English muffins (go for the plain old white or sourdough kind)
sharp cheddar cheese, sliced
eggs
canadian bacon
creamy tomato soup (I used my favorite standby: Pacific Foods Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup)
chopped italian parsley for garnish (optional)

Heat 3 inches of water in a pot or deep skillet to prepare for poaching the eggs (If you haven't poached eggs before I recommend doing some googling to find out how).

Pour the soup into a saucepan and heat until warm.

Saute the canadian bacon in a skillet until heated through and slightly browned. Turn to low to keep warm.

Turn the broiler to high. Toast the english muffins in the toaster, then place on a cookie sheet and put the sliced cheddar on top. Place under the broiler until the cheese melts and starts to bubble.

Once the egg water is at the right temp (hot, but not quite boiling), poach the eggs for 3 minutes.

Place the cheesy english muffins on a plate. Top each one with a slice of canadian bacon, then a poached egg. Ladle some of the tomato soup over the top of the eggs, and sprinkle with parsley to garnish.

Rosemary hash browns

No breakfast or brunch feels complete to me without some sort of potato dish on the side. So I whipped up these quick rosemary potato hash browns. Just saute some chopped onion in a pan for about five minutes, then add diced potato and finely diced rosemary. Saute until the potatoes are tender, stirring frequently and scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken and rice with spicy tomatillo and Mexican squash sauce (and homemade guacamole)

2011-01-12T13:18:00.000-08:00

I always get excited when something I cook turns out well, but I get particularly giddy when it's something I invented myself. It's been a while since I got experimental in the kitchen, so the other night I decided to get a little crazy with my newest batch of veggies from Bountiful Baskets.

My basket contained a mystery ingredient I'd never cooked with before. It was gray squash (also known as Mexican squash). Through a Google search, I learned that it's kind of like zucchini, but tastes better and doesn't get quite as mushy when cooked. That sounded promising.

Since it was nicknamed Mexican squash, I figured I'd use it in a Mexican-inspired meal. I had a bunch of tomatillos, some jalapenos, tomatoes, and onions, so I decided to do some chopping, roasting and pureeing to create a tangy, spicy sauce to serve over chicken and rice. It also gave me a chance to work on my new chopping techniques courtesy of the Knife Skills class I took at Sur la Table (highly recommended, by the way).

Feeling extra creative, I decided to make my own Mexican rice instead of using the boxed pre-seasoned stuff. And I also made some fresh guacamole with the avocados in my basket.

Chicken and sauce:

canola or olive oil
8 tomatillos
1-3 jalapenos (taste them to see how spicy they are before deciding how many to use)
1 small onion, chopped
2 gray/Mexican squash, chopped into smallish cubes
1 or 2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 large tomatoes, diced (or substitute canned tomato)

about 1 cup of chicken broth

salt

tomato paste
a handful of chopped cilantro

Chicken breasts, pounded thin

Peel the papery skin off of the tomatillos, and rinse them. Roast the tomatillos and jalapenos under the broiler until the skin starts to blister and turn black; flip over so both sides are roasted. Puree the roasted tomatillos and jalapenos in a blender or food processor until fairly smooth. Set aside.

Saute the diced onions, garlic and squash in some oil for several minutes, until tender. Transfer to a large sauce pan/soup pot. Add the tomatillo and jalapeno mixture to the pot. Pour in the chicken broth and add the tomatoes. Simmer for a few minutes, and add salt to taste. If it's too tangy, add some tomato paste to sweeten it a little bit. You can also add some more chicken broth if it's too thick. If it's too runny, let it simmer for a while until it reduces down.

While the sauce is simmering, heat some oil in a saute pan. Season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Saute, turning once, until no longer pink. Serve the chicken over the rice, and ladle the sauce on top. Guacamole can be served on the side, or mixed in with the dish.

Rice:

I followed this recipe, substituting cilantro for the parsley. I also used canned diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce.

Guacamole:

If I have really pretty, perfectly ripe avocados, I keep the guacamole simple: mashed avocados, freshly squeezed lime juice, salt, chopped cilantro, and possibly some chopped tomatoes.

Herb-marinated pork tenderloin

2011-01-04T13:40:00.001-08:00

December was a month filled with many fun things, but exciting, nutritious new recipes were not among those things. Due to the chaos of the holidays, a lot of convenient, no-frills meals were consumed at my house. Now that it's a new year, I'm eager to restock my fridge with fresh foods and get back into the kitchen.

My Christmas day meal was quite delish, but last night I made a pork tenderloin that I believe trumped my Christmas version, and was a lot less difficult. It was a completely last-minute meal--I had learned less than 24 hours earlier that my good friend Jessica would be coming into town for one night on a business trip, and I wanted to make us a great dinner. Without time to get to the store, I had to make due with what I had on hand.

Luckily, I had purchased a nice piece of pork tenderloin at Whole Foods on Sunday for no real reason other than that it looked pretty in the display case. But what to do with it? A quick search of pork tenderloin recipes on the Food Network website turned up a winner by Ina Garten (click here for the recipe). Not only was it rated 5 stars, but it used ingredients that I happened to have on hand. It helps that I have a lemon tree and a rosemary bush in my backyard!

I plucked six juicy, ripe lemons from the tree, pulled off a couple stems of rosemary, and got to work creating the marinade. I only had the chance to marinate the pork for a little over two hours instead of the recommended three, but it was so flavorful I can't imagine that an extra hour would have made a difference.

I served the pork alongside some corn (from the freezer), a spinach salad with pears and gorgonzola (the same one I made at Christmas, minus the pomegranate seeds), and some crusty whole wheat rolls (Alexia's frozen rolls, which are great to have on hand). The meat was super-moist, and SUPER-flavorful. I always find it so hard to make meats that are truly infused with flavor from the inside out, but this recipe was a home run.

I do think there were several contributing factors to why it was so good: 1) high quality meat, and 2) freshly picked and perfectly ripe lemons & rosemary). But I bet that even regular old pork chops and dried rosemary would taste great in this marinade. I'm sure I will be trying it out in several different incarnations over the years--especially since my girls even gobbled up this meat, and getting them to eat meat is one of my biggest challenges in life.

Now, to further inspire me in 2011, I am headed to a knife skills course at Sur La Table. Hopefully I won't maim anyone or chop off one of my fingers.

Holiday food, Part 2

2010-12-24T15:18:00.000-08:00

I hoped to have my Christmas dinner menu planned out weeks ago, but I only finalized it yesterday. After many lists, several runs to several grocery stores, and way too much time spent watching the Food Network, here's what I will be serving tomorrow:

Pear and Pomegranate Salad with Gorgonzola and Champagne Vinaigrette (from Guy Fieri)

Brined Pork Loin with Molasses-Mustard Glaze (from Bobby Flay)

Brussels Sprouts with Lemon, Mushrooms, and Parmesan Cheese

Good ole' mashed potatoes (no fancy recipe here...just some yukon golds mixed with lots of butter and salt)

Wish me luck! The pork loin looks like it will be challenging, but with almost 40 people giving it 5 stars, and my favorite celebrity chef as the mastermind, I feel like I can't go wrong.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!! Hoping nothing gets burnt, and a good time is had by all.

XOXOXOXO

Holiday food, Part 1 (Christmas Eve Crab Dip)

2010-12-12T13:29:00.001-08:00

Now that the majority of my shopping is finished, and the decorations hung, I get to turn my attention to one of my favorite things about the holidays: food, of course.

I've been known to break the cardinal rule about cooking for the holidays, which is "cook what you know." Instead, I like to use the holidays as a time to experiment a little--usually with fancy cuts of meat or dishes that require long cooking times; things that I wouldn't bother attempting if it weren't a special occasion. Since my holiday guests are my husband, my kids, and my parents, I have a pretty forgiving audience if one of my experiments flops.

Last year I attempted short ribs for the main meal, and while they weren't bad, they weren't amazing either. This year, I'm still up in the air about what I will serve for the main course. But one thing I am absolutely sure about is that my Christmas Eve jalapeno crab dip will be in the oven the night before. OK, so it's not really mine...it's Emeril's. But I've made it so often it feels like mine.

Since this dip is pretty decadent, and pretty expensive to make (especially if you buy lump crabmeat from the seafood counter instead of the canned fish aisle), I only make this on Christmas Eve, which just adds to the specialness. The thing that's a bummer is that my daughter can't eat it, so eventually I'm going to have to come up with a new Christmas Eve tradition that's dairy- and shellfish-free. But for as long as she's perfectly happy with a candy cane and a gingerbread cookie, I will continue serving up this cheesy, spicy deliciousness.

Hot Jalapeno Crab Dip (adapted from Emeril Lagasse, and The Food Network)

Ingredients

1 pound lump crabmeat, picked over for shells and cartilage
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped pickled jalapenos
1/4 pound Monterey Jack cheese with jalapenos, grated
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated
Crusty bread

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the crabmeat, garlic, jalapenos, Monterey Jack, Worcestershire, hot sauce, salt, and mayonnaise in a medium-size mixing bowl. Toss gently to mix. Spoon the mixture into a medium-size baking dish. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese evenly on the top of the crabmeat mixture. Bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes. Serve atop slices of fresh, crusty bread.

A great gift to give or receive

2010-12-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

If you're stumped about what to give for Christmas, or what to put on your own wish list, I have an idea for you: a quality chef's knife.

I got one for my birthday last year, and it really changed the way I approached cooking. Suddenly chopping vegetables was fun instead of tedious. Gone were the days of sawing and hacking my way through meal preparations; now my knife was gliding through onions, peppers, and potatoes with a satisfying whoosh and a crunch. I still could use some help with my technique (and I hear there are great classes available to help with that), but I'm no longer shying away from recipes that require a lot of chopping.

One of the reasons it took me so long to get a great knife was that I felt I would need to invest in a whole chopping block of cutlery. But most great cooks and chefs will tell you that you don't need a whole arsenal of knives - only one great chef's knife, and perhaps a few specialty knives such as a paring knife or serrated bread knife.

A great chef's knife will cost around $100, maybe a little less or a little more. The one I have is a Global 8" chef's knife, and I love it. Any food store like Williams-Sonoma or Sur la Table will have a good selection. It makes a great gift because it's something anyone who likes to cook will appreciate, but most will hesitate to spend money on it for themselves. And it's a worthwhile investment because it should last forever if properly cared for.

Happy chopping everyone!

My favorite "I really need some greens" salad

2010-12-01T19:12:00.001-08:00

I recently had the good fortune of traveling to Costa Rica for a friend's wedding (which is why I've been so neglectful of my poor blog). It was an amazing trip, but I don't think I ate a vegetable for five days, unless you count salsa. Between snickers bars at the airport, breakfast croissants heaped with cheese, bacon and eggs, and mountain-sized piles of rice, beans, and chicken, I wasn't exactly doing my best to eat healthy, well-rounded meals. Hey - that's what vacation's about, right?

So when I returned home, I found myself craving a giant bowl of greens. Enter my favorite salad: the arugula & spinach cobb salad. I love this salad because it contains good healthy greens (arugula and spinach vs. iceberg), as well as some decadent ingredients (bacon and avocado) that make it feel like a meal instead of a side dish. It's a good way to detox from decadent eating without getting too crazy on the healthy stuff.

This cobb salad can take on different forms, depending on what you have on hand. Here is a breakdown of what a typical "I really need some greens" cobb salad consists of:

Must haves:

Lots of baby arugula
Bacon, cooked well-done and crumbled.
Chopped avocado
Chopped hard-boiled eggs

Might haves:

Chopped tomato
Baby spinach
Sliced red onion
Meat/seafood such as turkey, chicken or shrimp

Dressing:

Some champagne vinegar
A few squeezes of fresh lemon juice
A healthy teaspoon of dijon (I always use Grey Poupon)
Some sprinkles of salt
Some dashes of pepper
Good olive oil

*I believe the correct ratio is 1 part vinegar to 2 parts EVOO. Whisk it all together and adjust ingredients to taste. It's OK if it tastes pretty tart - it just means you'll need less of it.

After eating this salad, I feel ready to face the world, and the gym, again. With Christmas approaching, I plan to fit this salad into heavy rotation over the next few weeks.

Sunday supper: Pasta e fagioli

2010-11-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

For some people, "Sunday suppers" are big affairs...lots of boisterous family conversation, potluck dishes lining lace tablecloths in grandparents' houses, and old family recipes being prepared lovingly for the thousandth time.

I admit I love the idea of a traditional Sunday dinner. But since there are only four of us in our house, and most of our relatives are a 5-hour plane ride away, I can't muster up the energy to make it a big thing. Instead I've come up with a new take on Sunday supper. I call it Sunday Supper Soup.

I'm not talking about cracking open a can of Campbell's chicken noodle. I'm talking about a made-from-scratch, simmering-on-the-stove-for-hours, seasoning-and-tasting-until-it's-just-right kind of soup. There's just something about Sunday afternoons that inspires that kind of cooking; especially now that the weather has cooled down.

Last Sunday, I was really excited to try out a recipe for Pasta e Fagioli that I found on The Foodinista's website. When I saw it was her father's recipe and required a lot of pureeing, seasoning, and tasting, I knew it would be perfect for Sunday Supper Soup.

I did spend quite a bit of time laboring over this soup. It requires some TLC, not because the recipe is difficult but because there are a few different steps; it's not the kind of soup that just requires you to dump a bunch of stuff into a pot and bring it to a boil (although those can be great too). The thing is, the TLC pays off. This soup tastes rich and nourishing in a way that none of those "throw stuff in a pot" soups can. My husband actually declared it to be one of the best things I've ever made. And I've made a lot of great stuff, let me tell you.

I've never made pasta e fagioli before, so I can't compare this recipe to any others. But I really can't imagine finding a better one. I do agree with The Foodinista that it can get a little thick, but adding a little more broth or water will fix that right up. And, of course, like any quality soup, this needs to be served alongside a big chunk of crusty bread.

Better late than never

2010-11-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

For years I've been reading article after article, blog post after blog post, tip after tip about meal planning. It's the best way to save money! It will eliminate stress from your life! You won't yell at your kids as much during dinner time! It will make you thinner, richer, and more beautiful! (well, maybe not that last one, although it makes a skewed kind of sense if you think about it).

Anyway, the point is that meal planning is heavily touted. And for good reason - if you plan out a week's worth of meals, go shopping for all the ingredients you need, and prepare as much as you can ahead of time, you won't have to drive yourself crazy figuring out what to make for dinner, or make last-minute grocery runs at 5:00 when everyone else in their mother is at the store.

Despite completely agreeing with the logic behind meal planning, however, I can never bring myself to do it. What scares me away is that big chunk of time I need to dedicate to planning the meals, writing out the super-long grocery list, and making one big grocery trip. I do have an excuse in that I rarely get the chance to go to the store alone, and buying more than 15 things with the girls in tow causes me endless stress, which would negate the positive effects of meal planning.

So what I've decided to do is meal planning lite. Instead of planning 5 nights worth of dinners, I will plan two fairly nice, elaborate dinners each week (ideally things that can be reheated and eaten as leftovers), and then fly by the seat of my pants for the rest of the nights.

This week I am planning ahead to make Pasta e Fagioli (courtesy of The Foodinista), and Salmon with Lentils. To prepare, I've pre-chopped all of the ingredients and put them into bowls. Then when it comes time to cook, I can simply dump the ingredients into the saute pan or pot instead of frantically chopping my onion while the garlic burns in the pan.

I feel less stressed already...and I bet by the end of the week my crow's feet will have diminished substantially.

PS - I'll post the results of my two experimental dishes to let you know how they turned out.

Soup to stave off the sickies

2010-11-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

As I walked into Whole Foods, filled with self-pity for all the sniffling, sneezing, and phlegm-expelling I'd been doing over the last week, a little pamphlet by the front door caught my eye. I saw the words "COLD, "FLU," then..."Better Than Chicken Soup!" I immediately grabbed the pamphlet and flipped through it--praying for a recipe or a remedy that would help me out.

Given the sorry state of my health at the time, if they had recommended boiling crocodile chunks and pureeing them with liverwurst I probably would have tried it. But the recipe for a comforting, semi-spicy miso broth soup made from a variety of immunity-boosting ingredients actually sounded good. I grabbed all of the ingredients I needed and headed home to whip up a giant pot of the stuff. Wow, was it good. It wasn't good in the same decadent way that buffalo chicken dip with Tostitos scoops is good. It was good in that homey, nourishing, delicious, "I know this is really good for me, but it actually tastes great too" way. I don't even like two of the ingredients (butternut squash and kale), but I liked them in this soup.

Here's the recipe (courtesy of Whole Foods):

1 small yellow onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, sliced

4 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth (I used chicken)

1 tsp ground turmeric

8 fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced

1 1/2 cups julienned fresh kale

1 cup cubed butternut squash

2 tbsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)*

6 thin slices astragalus root (optional)**

Juice of 1 fresh lemon

1 tsp miso paste

*Instead of cayenne pepper, I used a few squirts of sriracha, an Asian hot sauce that looks like this:

**I had no idea what astragalus root was, and neither did the guy working in the Whole Foods produce section, so I left it out.

In a large pot over medium-high heat, cook onion and garlic in 2 tbsp broth, stirring occasionally, until tender and most of the broth has evaporated, about 3 minutes. Add a splash of broth if needed to keep onion from sticking, then stir in turmeric and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are tender, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in remaining broth, kale, squash, ginger, cayenne and astragalus. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then add lemon juice and miso (adding more miso when still very hot will diminish it's probiotic benefits). Cover and let sit 5 minutes before serving.

I was so excited when this soup turned out great. It's the type of soup I can imagine making over and over again throughout the years. I can picture my kids away at college in 15 years, telling their roommates "My mom made this AMAZING soup whenever we were sick, and it made us feel a million times better. It was like magic!"

I should point out, this soup is actually intended to prevent illness, rather than cure it. So even if you're feeling great, you might want to start eating some so you can keep feeling that way.

Wishing everyone a healthy flu season!

Football food

2010-10-22T14:12:00.001-07:00

Despite my husband's best attempts to get me interested in football, I really could not care less about the sport. What I do like, however, is football food. I can't pinpoint exactly what makes a food a football food, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about...something with a lot of flavor, a healthy amount of fat, that pairs well with beer, and begs to be eaten either outside at a tailgate party or in the company of loud men pumping their fists at the TV screen.

If you're a football fan, or simply love the atmosphere of football, then I have some recipes for you. Unfortunately they're not mine, but they are two of the greatest recipes I've made over the last few years. These are recipes that you print out and laminate for safekeeping. And keep extra copies in your purse because everyone who tastes these dishes will want to know how to make them.

#1: Buffalo Chicken Dip (click for recipe)

This recipe was passed along to me by my good friend Ange. She brought it to a potluck BBQ and everyone stood over the dish like vultures until it was gone. I then took it to a New Year's Eve party, where everyone stood over the dish like vultures until it was gone. This is seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life. And one of the most fattening. So I highly recommend making it for a group function - to be left alone with an entire 9x13 pan of this stuff will surely spell disaster.

The recipe in the link is almost identical to the one Ange sent me except hers called for a full cup of Frank's hot sauce and two cups of cheddar. I also recommend using freshly cooked chicken breast or rotisserie chicken vs. the canned stuff.

And finally, it should definitely be served with Tostitos scoops instead of crackers.

#2: Sloppy Bombay Joes (click for recipe)

If you watched The Next Food Network Star this past season, then you know who Aarti Sequeira is and what her food is about. For those who didn't watch, Aarti is an Indian gal who puts an Indian spin on classic American dishes. I've only made one of her recipes so far, but it is by far the best thing I've made in a while. I knew it had to be after I saw it received a 5 star rating with 571 reviews on the food network site. Originally I wasn't even going to post about it since everyone and their brother already has; but since it was so delicious, I had to jump on the bandwagon and give it its well-deserved 572nd thumbs up. (note: I followed this recipe exactly, but left out the half and half to make it dairy-free. I can't imagine it would be any better with the half and half.)

And I almost forgot - I recently made a beverage that would perfectly complement both of these dishes on a crisp fall evening: The pumpkin bomb (recipe courtesy of Southwest Airlines in-flight magazine). To make this delicious fall-inspired drink, you dip the rim of a pint glass into some honey, and then into a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Pour 1 ounce of Goldschlager into the glass, then pour in 15 ounces of Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale (or any pumpkin beer you happen to find).

Now if only we had some fall weather around these parts...

Perfect panini

2010-10-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

Preface: As I was writing this post, I kept typing "paninis," which caused a little red line to pop up under the word, indicating it was misspelled. A quick Google search turned up a few debates about the plural of "panini." It turns out the word "panini" IS actually plural. And although it's never used, "panino" is the word that indicates one singular panini. While I can't bring myself to use the word panino, I will oblige the true Italians out there by using "panini" to indicate one or more sandwiches.

Ahhh...panini. So simple, yet so luxurious. For years, I thought of panini as something only to be ordered in restaurants during leisurely weekend lunches with friends. Then, when my days of leisurely weekend lunches with friends no longer existed, I decided to start making them myself.

Two years ago I requested a panini maker for Christmas, and it has become one of my most beloved kitchen gadgets. Panini elevate the sandwich to an art form, transforming it from lunchbox staple into a hot, deeply satisfying meal. They make the perfect weekend lunch, and are also great for entertaining. I love making a variety of different panini at once, and then cutting them into small pieces so that everyone can sample more than one type at a time.

You don't have to have a panini maker to make panini. A George Foreman grill will work, or you can just get a panini press, which is a heavy iron lid with ridges on the bottom. Here's an example. I have the Cuisinart Griddler, which is awesome because it "triples" as a panini maker, griddle, and regular indoor grill.

I've done quite a bit of panini experimenting over the years. I can't say there have been too many failures (what can taste bad sandwiched between hot crusty slabs of artisan bread?), but there have definitely been a few standouts. So today I present to you my top five favorite panini concoctions.

Before I list the ingredients, I've got to talk about the bread. My favorite bread to use is ciabatta bread. But because it's so thick, you should pick the excess bread out of the middle after you slice it. My second favorite panini bread is sourdough. I'm sure there are other breads out there that would work too (focaccia comes to mind), but these two are tried and true.

1) Caprese panini: Spread pesto on the bread, then add thinly sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil leaves. You can also add some prosciutto if you'd like.

2) Turkey & sundried tomato panini: Mix mayonnaise with some pesto and spread on bread. Add turkey lunchmeat, provolone cheese, and a few sundried tomatoes. You can also substitute roasted red peppers for the sundried tomatoes.

3) Chicken, brie & sage panini: Pound an uncooked chicken breast until thin, saute in a frying pan until no longer pink, and then slice horizontally to create a thin slice of breast. Cover one half of the bread with slices of brie (or you can slather with the spreadable kind of brie) place the chicken on top of the brie, and lay several fresh sage leaves over the chicken.

4) Fig, manchego, and arugula panini: Spread the bread with a fig spread (it's kind of like a jam). Top with slices of manchego cheese, some prosciutto, and some arugula.

5) Ham & cheddar panini: Spread the bread with a mixture of mayo and dijon mustard. Top with sliced cheddar cheese and smoked ham.

To make the paninis, just brush the top and bottom of the sandwich with olive oil (or you can coat the griddle/pan with olive oil. Press the top of the machine (or panini press) down as hard as you can for about 30 seconds. Then let it cook until you see those golden brown lines in the bread. Slice and enjoy!

Noodles & meatballs!!

2010-09-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is exactly what my daughters both scream whenever I ask them what they want to eat for dinner. I have to say, I owe a lot of my sanity to noodles and meatballs. It's not the most creative meal in the world, but it's something that my whole family likes, and it fills everybody up so that nobody's nosing through the snack shelf an hour after dinner ends.

Over the last few months, I have started making my own meatballs from scratch. First, it allows me to ensure that they are dairy-free (many store bought and restaurant meatballs contain parmesan cheese). Second, I like using high quality ground beef in my meatballs since my girls eat them so often and so voraciously. Third, I find it to be kind of satisfying. It just feels good to contribute something rustic and homemade to this standby pantry meal.

My earliest attempts at meatball-making were not 100% successful. Sometimes they were too dry, sometimes too mushy, sometimes bland, sometimes overly salty. But, having recently produced two deliciously tasty, perfectly textured batches of meatballs in a row, I feel like I've mastered the process. Here's how I make them:

Alyssa's Delicious Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground beef
2 eggs
a few spoonfuls of pesto (I use a dairy-free pesto, but any pesto will work fine)
a few generous dashes of salt
a few generous dashes of oregano
just enough breadcrumbs so that you can form the mixture into a ball and it stays that way
1-2 jars of marinara sauce

Cooking process:

Using your hands, mush everything together until it's well-mixed. I liked to start with a small amount of breadcrumbs, and then keep adding until the consistency is just right. You can always add more breadcrumbs, but you can't take them away if you put in too much.

Form the meat mixture into balls as small or large as you want. I've had the best luck with balls about 1.5 inches in diameter. Drizzle some oil in a large skillet until it thinly coats the bottom. Once the oil is starting to get hot, place the meatballs in the skillet, leaving some room between them. (Even if you have a really big skillet, you will probably need to cook these in two batches.) After a few minutes, turn the meatballs with some tongs. Keep flipping/turning them around until they are browned all over.

Transfer all of the meatballs to a pot. Pour the marinara sauce over the meatballs and simmer until the meatballs are cooked all the way through. Serve over the noodles of your choice. For us, that's usually macaroni (girls) and cappellini (adults).

And if you don't have any dairy issues, this recipe can always enhanced by a generous handful of parmesan cheese.

Processed with love

2010-09-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

Over the last few years, I've done a pretty good job of cutting down on processed and pre-prepared foods. I can proudly say I haven't had a Lean Pocket in probably three years (I used to eat one for lunch almost every day), and I no longer buy "crack snacks" (Doritos, Cheez-its, Pringles, and the like).

But while it sounds lovely to eat only whole foods and make everything from scratch, I am not cut out for that. Sometimes I don't have time to cook; sometimes I don't have proper ingredients to cook with; and sometimes I just don't feel like cooking. So, I've struck a compromise with myself - I try to seek out prepared foods that are made with excellent, natural ingredients and infused with love. Yes, I do believe processed foods can be made with love.

Take "Full of Life" Flatbread Pizza for example. I discovered these little gems in the frozen pizza section of Whole Foods. There was something about the picture on the front that just drew me in. Then I started reading all the verbiage on the box. I mean, there are words covering the front, sides and back of this box. And the print is small. I finally just threw the thing into my cart and decided to read the rest at home, so that it didn't melt while I stood there reading.

I saved my little individual-sized pizza for a night when my husband wasn't home. I waited until the kids were in bed, poured a nice glass of Cabernet, and commenced my reading while the pizza cooked in the oven. Here are just a few of the things printed on this lovely little box:

"Handcrafted using locally sourced ingredients"

"Each week we shop at farmers markets and talk with growers, farmers, ranchers, and artisan food producers, so that we can offer diners the freshest seasonal ingredients possible."

"All of our Flatbread Pizzas are produced by hand in small batches."

"When people deeply care for what they are doing a nourishing environment exists that benefits us all."

The list of ingredients reads like a recipe, with no artificial substances in sight. They even list the source of many ingredients, such as "Santa Barbara County Red Wine," and "Los Alamos Extra Virgin Olive Oil."

And then there's my favorite part. On the back of the box is an entire paragraph dedicated to McFadden Farm, the farm that grows the organic herbs used on all of their flatbread pizzas. Guinness McFadden is the name of the man who runs this farm, which is described as a "quiet, pastoral place...a feast for the senses and soul." According to the box, Guinness started the farm after ten years as a Naval officer and a stint at Stanford business school. So now I know more about the man who grew the herbs on my pizza than I know about the moms I encounter during preschool drop-off three times a week.

My Full of Life flatbread pizza was not only delicious (I bought the mushroom with caramelized onions & tomatoes), it was healthy. As I ate my pizza, I wasn't thinking about what a slacker I was for making a frozen pizza for dinner. I was savoring each bite of the crispy vita-grain flour crust and Three Sisters Serena Cheese. And wondering what ole' Guinness was up to. Perhaps he was milling through his fields, pausing now and then to sample a bit of marjoram or oregano. I kind of want to hang out with that guy. How can you not want to hang out with someone named Guinness McFadden?

I sometimes get bitter about the greed and corruption of food industry. There are so many companies out there making a fortune off of disgusting "food products," trying to convince us that we're better off eating a bright pink fluffy thing because it's been injected with some omega-3 acids than eating an apple. But then I discover these little companies out there who are doing the right thing in terms of ingredients and preparation, AND producing delicious food in the process. And I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I will leave you with one more quote from Full of Life:

"This Flatbread Pizza is the direct result of a great desire to feed, nourish, and share the good will, pride, integrity of all of the many people who make baking these breads possible... ...from our hearth to your table, this Flatbread Pizza is our small reflection that to eat good food is to be Full of Life!"

Now that's love.

One dish fish

2010-09-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

You've gotta love one-dish meals. First, clean-up is easy. Second, it's easy on the brain since you're not required to think up a complete meal with complimentary side dishes. Third, you don't have to perfectly time the different components of the meal (how annoying is it when your meat is steaming hot and ready to serve, but the potatoes are still hard as rocks?).

The problem I have with most one-dish recipes is that they almost always contain cheese or cream of some sort, which means I can't serve them to my whole family. And in this same vein, many one-dish meals are also supremely unhealthy (like the zillion casserole recipes that call for "cream of something" soup).

So I thought it was too good to be true when I saw *this* recipe for Tilapia with Hash Browns in my Food Network Magazine. It had the yum factor (hash browns), the healthy factor (fish & veggies), AND it was dairy-free!

I followed the recipe exactly, except for two things. I didn't add the garlic to the hash browns, since I was going to serve it to my semi-garlic-averse kids. And I only used a little bit of chopped olives because I pretty much hate olives. Get this - I really wish I had used more olives because the olives were my favorite part about the dish! I used manzanillo olives, and they were fantastic - they added a nice briny freshness to the dish, and as I was eating it I kept cursing myself for not putting in the full amount. So next time I'll know...

My girls ate at least 1/2 to 3/4 of the serving I gave them, which was more than I was banking on. I don't know if I would label it as kid-friendly for the 4 and under set, but older children should like it for sure. I mean, it has hash browns in it! And I recommend over-browning the hash browns a little bit to make them extra crispy.

Homemade soft pretzels & cinnamon-apple breakfast pizza

2010-08-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

As usual, my two most recent cooking adventures were inspired by my never-ending quest to get keep my girls full for more than 30 minutes. I swear they have tapeworms! The other day, they each ate scrambled eggs, two slabs of bacon, half a bagel, and a bowl of fruit for breakfast, and they still claimed they were starving about 45 minutes later. Sigh.

I came up with the idea for breakfast pizza when I was standing in front of my open fridge, a perplexed look on my face, wondering what to do with the pathetic contents of the shelves (which happened to include a few apples and some whole wheat flatbread). I am constantly trying to think up inventive breakfasts that the girls will actually eat, especially now that Sydney has started preschool and can't snack all morning long like she sometimes does at home.

To make the "pizza," I cored, peeled and sliced the apples, then cooked them in a saute pan over low heat, using Earth's Balance Buttery Spread (non-dairy butter alternative). I added a little brown sugar and some cinnamon. Then, when the apples were soft, I threw in some quick-cooking oats and water (I based the measurements on the oat package). Then I cooked the apples and oats for about 5 more minutes, or until the oats were soft.

I spread the apple/oat concoction onto some flatbread, which had been lightly brushed with the Earth's Best Buttery Spread. Then I stuck it into the oven at 350 until the flatbread was crisp.

Verdict: My girls ate it all up and declared it "yummy." Personally, I thought the flatbread was a little dry. If I did it over again, I would probably use actual whole wheat pizza dough instead of the flatbread.

Now onto the soft pretzels. I can't take credit for these - I used Alton Brown's recipe, simply because it was the first one that popped up when I googled "homemade soft pretzels." I don't know why I felt inspired to make soft pretzels. I guess I was thinking it would be a fun "mommy and me" cooking activity with the girls. But, as those things usually go, I basically did everything myself while yelling at the girls not to get raw dough stuck in the carpet.

I followed Alton's recipe exactly, and the pretzels turned out pretty well. They weren't quite as chewy as I like, but I am convinced that has to do with the tap water in Arizona rather than my baking skills. Seriously - I saw a show on the Food Network that explained the reason NY bagels and pizza are so good is because the New York tap water gives the bread that chewy-yet-crisp texture. So that's my excuse from now on when I fail to make amazing bread products.

If I make soft pretzels again, I may try a whole wheat version to make it a little healthier. Or I could really get creative and combine my two endeavors to create apple cinnamon whole wheat breakfast pretzels!

Mango and wax bean smoothie (yes, I'm serious)

2010-08-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

Almost every time I pick up my bountiful basket, I discover some sort of unique vegetable or fruit that I've never cooked with before. This past week it was wax beans. Wax beans are really just green beans that are yellow; and as far as I can tell, they don't taste much different.

At first, I thought I would steam or saute the wax beans and serve them as a side dish - just like regular old green beans. Then, while whipping up a delicious mango smoothie for an afternoon snack, I got an idea. Given the title of my post, I'm sure it's not hard to figure out what that idea was.

I thought the mango/wax bean combo might work for two reasons: 1) since the wax beans are pale yellow, they wouldn't turn the smoothie a strange color, and 2) the sweetness of the mango and banana would counteract any strange flavoring that the beans added.

Although I was anticipating a decent result, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the wax beans actually made the smoothie...wait for it...better! The beans gave it kind of a fresh, herbal taste and cut some of the super-sweet fruitiness. If you don't believe me when I say it was good, here is a quote from my husband: "I would never guess there were vegetables in here if you hadn't told me." He even described it as "delicious." And my kids loved it too!

I can honestly say I might buy wax beans from now on for the sole purpose of adding them to smoothies. I'm sure plain old green beans would work too, but they would throw off the coloring.

Here's what I threw in the blender:

2 ripe mangos, peeled and chopped
1 banana
2 handfuls of uncooked wax beans, ends trimmed
a few splashes of OJ
enough yogurt to make it creamy*
ice

*To make the smoothie non-dairy, I used So Delicious cultured coconut milk yogurt in strawberry. I am so grateful for the new So Delicious line of non-dairy products because they use coconut milk instead of soy. Coconut milk not only tastes sweeter and creamier than soy milk, but it's safer for people with dairy allergies since many of them are allergic to soy as well.

TIP: Since making smoothies can be a pain (all the peeling, chopping, washing, blending, etc), I've started making up a big batch of smoothie mixture without ice, and storing it in a sealable container in the fridge. Then when I want to make a smoothie later in the week, I can just pour some of the smoothie mix into the blender or Magic Bullet, add some ice, and I'm done!

Good gazpacho (if you like gazpacho, that is)

2010-08-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

I really, really want to like gazpacho. It's full of healthy veggies, cool and refreshing, and pretty to look at. But every time I read a gazpacho recipe, my first and only thought is "yuck." It just seems wrong for soup to be cold.

Then I read a post about gazpacho at the Foodinista blog (you can find the post here), and I just felt I had to make it. The way she spoke about gazpacho was so passionate and inspiring, and when I clicked through to the original recipe by renowned chef Jose Andres (where it's poetically named Andalucian Cold Tomato Soup), I was sold. I pictured a beautiful glass pitcher in my fridge, filled to the brim with fresh gazpacho, and me going back again and again to pour myself delicious bowl after delicious bowl, pumping my body full of antioxidants, lycopene, and other vegetabley goodness.

So I went to Whole Foods and bought all of the ingredients, except for oloroso sherry. I couldn't find it, and figured that regular old sherry would do. Plus since I wasn't sure if I would like it, I didn't want to spring for some expensive bottle of sherry that would rot in my cabinet.

I followed the recipe precisely, but instead of making croutons, I toasted some baguette slices and topped them with a parmesan tapenade (store bought).

The best way I can describe how I felt about it was "eh." I could tell it was good gazpacho, but I think I am just never going to love gazpacho - no matter how good it is. It was kind of like that time my husband and I went to a highly rated Mexican restaurant and waited two hours to try their world famous mole, only to practically gag on it. Apparently what we'd thought was good mole (from our favorite hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that probably poured their mole out of a can), was nothing like true, authentic mole. And I guess we hate true, authentic mole.

The moral of the story is...if you like gazpacho, this recipe is worth trying out. If you don't like it, I don't think this recipe will win you over. Alas, my quest for the perfect cool lunch on a blazing hot day will have to continue.

P.S. The cheesy baguette was really good, though. And the gazpacho makes a nice dip for it. :)

Tuna steaks, heirloom tomato salad, and herbed green beans & potatoes

2010-07-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

I have a love/hate relationship with food magazines. I get so excited when I see a new one on the newsstand or in my mailbox, with its glossy cover photos of delectable and artfully arranged dishes, and promises of “easy, fresh meals in under 20 minutes” or “10 spinach dishes you are guaranteed to love.” But inevitably I end up dog-earing maybe one recipe out of 100, and never get around to making that recipe anyway.

That changed when I picked up the August issue of Food & Wine magazine last week. About 90% of the recipes look amazing to me, and while they’re a little fancier than what I might whip up on a typical weeknight, they all use easy-to-find ingredients and simple cooking techniques. The recipes contain a lot of fresh summer produce, and the dishes seem light without being “lite” (ie: healthy, but bland and unsatisfying). I don’t know whether Food & Wine is always this good, or I just happened across a particularly great issue, but I plan on subscribing to find out.

I decided to use three of the recipes in a belated birthday dinner I made for my sis-in-law, Lauren, this past weekend. Usually I hesitate to make untested recipes for a special occasion dinner, but I just had a hunch that these would all turn out great.

Here’s what was on the menu:

Mustard-Seared Tuna with Shallot Cream
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/mustard-seared-tuna-with-shallot-cream

Potato Salad with Green Beans and Salsa Verde
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/potato-salad-with-green-beans-and-salsa-verde

Tomato Salad with Bacon, Blue Cheese and Basil
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/tomato-salad-with-bacon-blue-cheese-and-basil

I pretty much followed the recipes exactly, and everything was delicious. For the tomato salad I used heirloom tomatoes from a local farmer’s market, just to give it a little more exciting color. I was always scared of heirloom tomatoes until I realized they’re not really any different from regular tomatoes with the exception of their color.

Making all three of these dishes was fairly labor intensive, and it was only possible because I had four people to entertain my wild children while I chopped, pureed, roasted, and sautéed. But each dish on its own would not be overwhelming at all.

So if you come across the August issue of Food & Wine, I highly recommend picking it up. Or just poke around on their website – I think they post almost all of their recipes online.

Farmer's market potato salad

2010-07-15T06:40:00.000-07:00

My daughters and I are spending our third consecutive July in Pennsylvania, enjoying visits with grandparents and friends, and indulging in local treats (fresh-from-the-factory Hershey chocolate and Yuengling Lager, just to name a few).

Growing up, I took for granted the abundant fresh summer produce, roadside stands, berry-picking farms, and endless green corn fields in PA. Now, after several years in the land of tumblweeds and cacti, I have renewed appreciation for the lush greenery and farmscapes here.

The other day we went to Roots market, an enormous farmer's market where you can find local baked goods, every type of produce imaginable, local delicacies and meats, and kitchy crafts. Since the girls were with us, I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted scoping everything out, but I did come home with a fair amount of goodies (including some of those ruby red radishes - how could I not buy those?)

I didn't have a plan while I was shopping, but when I got home and sorted everything out, I realized I had the fixins for a nice homemade potato salad. Here's what I used:

Small red-skinned potatoes
celery
fresh dill
green onion
hardboiled egg(s)
dijon mustard (I usually use Grey Poupon, but any dijon will do)
mayo
olive oil
salt and pepper
lemon

I usually boil the potatoes when making potato salad, but this time I decided to roast them. I chopped up the potatoes into bite sized pieces (leaving the skin on), drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper, and baked them in a baking dish at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until they were easily poked with a fork. After they cooled, I put them in a bowl with some chopped green onion, celery, dill, and hardboiled egg. Then I stirred together some mayo and dijon, and added a few squeezes of lemon juice. Depending on how much you salted the potatoes, you might want to add some salt too. Stir together and enjoy! You can add as much or as little dressing as you like - I probably put a little too much on...it would have tasted just as good with less.

Popsicles re-invented

2010-07-06T18:30:00.001-07:00

Until a few days ago, I thought of popsicles merely as a kids' summertime treat - basically just colored sugar water that tastes really good when it's hot outside.

Then I came across two popsicle recipes that will forever change the way I look at popsicles. One is basically a cocktail on a stick; the other is an innovative way to get your kids (or yourself) to eat a healthy breakfast or snack.

Considering that it's going to be 110 degrees for the foreseeable future in Arizona, I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time experimenting with new recipes for popsicles. In the meantime, here are the two I was inspired by:

1)Watermelon vodka popsicles with fresh mint

When I saw Giada DeLaurentis make *these* watermelon vodka popsicles on her show, I just had to try them. Unfortunately I decided to make them for a BBQ we were attending later that day, failing to notice the part of the recipe where it says they need to freeze at least 10 hours or overnight. Oops.

So we didn't have watermelon vodka popsicles that day, but we did have watermelon vodka slush, which was probably just as good. And when I stirred some of the slush into the lemonade/citrus vodka drink my friend had made...heaven! My husband wasn't a fan of the mint, but it probably can be eliminated or maybe replaced with a tamer herb - like basil?? I'm thinking some cucumber could even be thrown in to cut the sweetness.

2) Breakfast popsicles

A few days ago, I stumbled across *this* blog post about serving popsicles for breakfast. After my recent breakfast cookie experiment, I was excited to find another fun way to serve healthy foods for breakfast.

I haven't had a chance to make these yet, but my mind has been swimming with possibilities - especially since I recently discovered an amazing non-dairy beverage that tastes like drinkable strawberry yogurt and would probably be perfect in this recipe.

To further my excitement about popsicles, I saw *this* awesome popsicle mold on the front of the Williams-Sonoma catalog. Basically you keep it in the freezer, and it will freeze a popsicle in 7 minutes. So that would eliminate the whole "oops - I forgot to wait 10 hours" thing. It's a little pricey at $50, but if my popsicle obsession becomes full-blown, I may just have to spring for one.

Food blogs r fun

2010-06-30T16:36:00.001-07:00

A few years ago I had what I thought was a brilliant and original idea: What if there was a website where people could post and talk about recipes they had actually made themselves, and give their own take on what worked and what didn't? I dreamt of a website where cooks could learn from and laugh at each other's culinary successes and disasters.

Little did I know that I'm completely unoriginal, as this was already being done by tons of food bloggers. (I blame the kids for making me totally out of date when it comes to technology and modern life). Obviously I'm a little late to the table in terms of the food blogging world, but I'm quickly learning how great it is. Aside from the fun I've had writing my own blog, I've discovered lots of other food blogs that are informative, fun, and give me a new perspective on food and what other people like to cook and eat.

As much as I love the Food Network and other food-focused television shows, magazines, etc, it's hard to identify with a lot of those cooks. Even the so-called "relatable" ones scare me a little. I mean, how is it possible for Melissa D'Arabian to have four pre-schoolers at home and cook meals like she does all.the.time? How is it possible that everything Rachel Ray makes tastes so good that she has to moan orgasmically after every bite?

I love learning and talking about food with non-perfect people who simply love to cook and eat - people who are cooking with kids clinging to their legs and whining, who burn the chicken, scrape off the burnt parts and eat it anyway, and who can find equal amounts of joy in an amazing 5-star restaurant meal, some processed crappy food that tastes really good, childhood favorite comfort foods, and an organic salad made with seasonal, local veggies.

In my effort to keep up with the times, I've created a blogroll on the righthand side with links to some of my favorite newly discovered food blogs. I look forward to updating it as I find more and more.

Fish tacos

2010-06-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

While living in LA, I came to really love fish tacos. I can't think of anything better to eat on a warm summer day, washed down with an icy cold margarita. Over the years, I've had many variations of fish tacos using different types of fish, different seasonings, different toppings, and different preparations (usually grilled or battered & fried). To create my own recipe, I combined the things I liked best about every fish taco I'd ever eaten. My favorite part about my version is that it has the crunchy satisfaction of the fried fish without the guilt.

This recipe can easily be used for regular fish tacos, or "deconstructed" fish tacos - a spin I created in honor of Top Chef.

Here's what you'll need:

For the fish:

Firm white fish (I have the best results with mahi mahi)

seasoning (more on that below)

panko bread crumbs

olive oil

For the slaw:

red & green cabbage

mayonnaise (you can sub in light mayo if you're watching calories/fat)

hot sauce

cilantro

fresh lime juice

salt

chipotle pepper (optional)

sour cream (optional)

For the toppings:

diced tomato

diced red onion

chopped cilantro

sliced avocado

For the wrapping:

Fairly large flour tortillas

Directions:

I start out by chopping everything for the slaw and toppings. To make the slaw, I chop the red and green cabbage into thin ribbons. Then I create the "magic white sauce." The magic white sauce doesn't always have to be the same - it's something you can play with based on your own taste preferences.

I start with a base of mayonnaise, then add lime juice until it's a thinner consistency. Then I add a few dashes of hot sauce, some chopped cilantro, and some salt. You can play with it as much as you want until it tastes good to you. If I'm not making it for my dairy-allergic daughter, I sometimes add sour cream for extra bite. And if you love chipotle peppers, you'll love them in this dish...just chop one or two and throw them in. Toss a few spoonfuls of the sauce with the shredded cabbage and set aside.

*Tip: reserve some extra white sauce for topping.

For the toppings, I chop up some tomato, red onion, and cilantro and mix them together in a bowl. Then I slice some avocado.

Now it's time to cook the fish. I cut fillets of mahi mahi into strips and dredge in Simply Organics Fish Taco seasoning. If you can find this at a store (it comes in a paper packet, like taco seasonings), I highly recommend it. If you can't find it, you can substitute regular taco seasoning or other southwestern seasoning. Or if you're really ambitious, you can make your own. Here are the main spices in the Simply Organics seasoning: paprika, garlic, sea salt, red chili flakes, dried onion, cilantro, cumin, black pepper, coriander. I'm sure if you doused the fish in just a few of those seasonings and some salt and pepper, it would still taste great.

Let the fish marinate in the spices for a few minutes, then roll in panko breadcrumbs. Saute the fish sticks in olive oil until they flake with a fork.

To assemble regular tacos: Spread the cabbage slaw on a flour tortilla, top with fish, then with tomato mixture and avocado. Add some hot sauce if you like, and some leftover white sauce.

To create a "deconstructed fish taco:" Instead of cutting the mahi mahi into strips before cooking, leave them as whole filets. Prepare the fish the same way as described above - dredge in seasoning, then coat in panko and saute. After the fish is cooked, mound a bed of the cabbage slaw on a plate, top with the fish filet, and top the filet with the tomato mixture and avocado. Drizzle leftover white sauce over the top and sprinkle crushed tortilla chips over the whole dish.

Pour yourself a margarita or a glass of white wine and prepare to impress all your friends!

Christmas in June...ie: the "Top Chef" premiere

2010-06-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

I am scaring myself a little bit with how excited I am that the new season of Top Chef is premiering tonight. I told my husband it that it is my equivalent of the Super Bowl, or the start of a new sports season. Then he was scared too.

I love Top Chef for many reasons, but primarily because it doesn't dumb down the food. When I first started watching it, I had no clue what they were talking about 50% of the time. Sabayon? Buerre Blanc? Sous Vide?

Now I feel much more confident in my foodie-ism; in fact when we went out to dinner at a fancy shmancy restaurant the other night, I impressed myself and my husband by 1: knowing what ramps were (they're kind of like a green onion), and 2: knowing how to pronounce turbot (it's tur-boh, not tur-bot). I had only Top Chef to thank.

Food snobbery aside, the show has taught me some really valuable lessons about cooking. Here are just a few of them:

1) using the right amount of salt is really, really important and can make or break virtually any dish

2) if you use high quality, fresh ingredients, you can keep your cooking super-simple and it will still taste great

3) a simple piece of meat or fish cooked perfectly (not overdone, not too raw), will beat out an elaborately seasoned/marinated dish every time

In honor of Top Chef and their love of "deconstructing" popular dishes, I will soon be posting my Top Chef-inspired recipe: Deconstructed fish tacos. It's so amazing I'm a little leery of posting it, but it's too good not to share.

FYI: Top Chef premieres on Bravo tonight at 9/8 central! If you haven't watched it before, you must give it a try.

Cookies for breakfast

2010-06-15T13:26:00.001-07:00

Lately I've been having a heck of a time getting my girls to eat breakfast. They turn up their noses at waffles, they're currently in an anti-cereal phase, and they never take more than 5 bites of oatmeal. Sydney loves muffins and pancakes, Brynn doesn't like either one (strange child). They love french toast, but as much as I'd love to be all June Cleaver-y and make homemade french toast every morning, I'm just not cut out for that.

Usually their breakfast consists of a few bites of something grain-y and some fruit. It's annoying when they don't eat a good, substantial breakfast because it means they beg for snacks all morning long.

So the other day I decided to try something new - breakfast cookies. I was inspired by Erin Baker's breakfast cookies, which I saw in a local health food store. My girls looooove cookies, so I thought maybe this would be a way to get them to eat something a little more substantial in the a.m.

There aren't any mystery ingredients that make a cookie a breakfast cookie, as opposed to a regular cookie. I basically just tried to make a cookie that was more nutritious and less sugary & fatty than a regular cookie.

I started with a basic oatmeal-raisin cookie recipe that was on the back of a giant bag of oats I bought at Costco. You could make these same modifications to any tried and true cookie recipes that you have on hand:

1) To reduce the sugar, I swapped out 1/2 cup of sugar for 1/2 cup of applesauce.

2) To add some additional whole grains, I substituted half of the flour with whole wheat flour.

3) To boost the protein, I added sliced almonds.

4) I also threw in a few tablespoons of oat bran since I happened to have some in my pantry.

I wouldn't call these cookies a smashing success, but definitely a success. The first morning, the girls both ate two of them - and they stayed full much longer than normal. I ate two as an afternoon snack, and also felt satisfied until dinner. By day three of the breakfast cookie experiment, however, the cookies were losing their luster. I froze the leftovers and will see what happens when I thaw a few out next week.

I plan to continue experimenting with ingredients to see how much healthy stuff I can get in there while still keeping them tasty. Here are just a few ideas for what could be put into the cookies:

shredded coconut
shredded carrot
pureed banana
pureed apple/applesauce
raisins
dried cranberries
dried blueberries
any type of nut or nut butter
molasses
flax seed
wheat germ
And of course...cooked quinoa

And the winner is...

2010-06-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Jackie for being the lucky winner of the Bittman cookbook...I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! And thanks for all the great suggestions re: other food blogs - I can't wait to check them out.

My favorite summer dish

2010-06-07T20:12:00.001-07:00

I know it's not officially summer until the 21st, but I officially declare it summer when the temp has been over 100 degrees for three straight days. Since that milestone was reached in Phoenix this past weekend, I busted out my favorite summer recipe - one I'm sure I'll be making at least twice a month for the foreseeable future.

I can't take credit for the recipe - it belongs to my favorite chef in the universe, Bobby Flay. But it's very unBobbylike in that there are no chipotle peppers or other southwestern flavors. This dish is the perfect summer dish because it's really simple, fresh, mild yet flavorful, and light yet satisfying. It's Chicken Paillard with Arugula (paillard is just a fancy name for chicken breast that's been pounded really thin). And you can find the recipe here.

I promise that once you try it you'll make it over and over again. The great thing about this dish is that it's easy enough for a weeknight meal, but fancy enough for guests.

Although I usually make at least one significant change to recipes I find, this is one of the few recipes that I haven't really modified. The only change I've made is to add some shaved parmesan cheese at the end. You can also substitute the olive oil/vinegar mixture with some balsamic vinaigrette if you're so inclined.

And if you're looking for a carb-y side dish to round out the meal, I would suggest some homemade potato salad, corn on the cob, or crusty bread. It's healthy, fresh, summery perfection on a plate.

Review (and Giveaway!) of Mark Bittman's "Kitchen Express"

2010-05-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I made it a goal to stop relying so heavily on cookbooks and step-by-step recipes, and instead learn to cook a little more intuitively and creatively. It was a little scary at first, but I was surprised by how much I already knew about ingredients and cooking techniques. And it felt SO much nicer to cook without turning around every 2 minutes to look at a recipe, or to have my onions burn while I frantically opened every drawer in the kitchen looking for a tablespoon.

I think that for most of us who've been cooking for a few years or more, recipes have become a crutch - and while it's disconcerting when that crutch is first yanked away, you'll soon be surprised at how well you can do on your own.

The most important lesson for me in this whole process has been learning to actually taste my food as I cook it, instead of blindly following a recipe and then hoping it tastes good at the end. When you're constantly tasting your food and the ingredients you put into it, you'll notice how each ingredient changes the flavor or consistency of the dish, and you'll learn something new with every dish you prepare. (Just beware - the first time you taste fish sauce on its own...yikes!)

Ditching the recipes has helped me feel more confident in the kitchen, and it's also saved me a lot of money since I've become better at using what I already have instead of buying ingredients specifically for a recipe. I still use recipes once in a while - but now I look at them for ideas and inspiration instead of as an instruction guide. So when I discovered Mark Bittman's new book, Kitchen Express (404 Seasonal Recipes You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less) which is sort of an anti-cookbook cookbook, I thought it was fantastic. Here's what I love about it:

1) It focuses on seasonal foods, and is divided into four sections: winter, spring, summer, and fall.

2) It doesn't include any specific measurements (ie: 1 tbsp of minced ginger). Instead, each recipe is about one paragraph long, written in sentence form, with simple instructions. If you've never cooked before, this probably wouldn't be your cup of tea, but for fairly seasoned cooks who have a concept of how much salt and garlic should be added to a dish, it's great.

3) There are lots of suggestions for foods, herbs, and seasonings that you can swap in or out depending on what you have available. I think this is perfect for beginning recipe-ditchers, because it shows you that you don't have to have every single ingredient to make a recipe. Obviously if you want to make balsamic glazed chicken and you don't have balsamic vinegar or chicken, that will be problematic. But if you're lacking that little bit of fresh parsley that is tossed in at the end, it's no biggie.

4) The dishes look really tasty, and are really simple - no long lists of ingredients or complex cooking techniques.

5) In the front and back of the book, there are lots of categories and menu suggestions that help you quickly find what you're looking for. An example category is "The Easiest of the Easiest," "Recipes that Barely Disturb the Kitchen," and "Finger Foods for All Occasions." Menu suggestions include "Weeknight Dinner Party" (do people really have those?) and "Kids' Night."

I highly recommend this cookbook for anyone who's interested in breaking away from their slavery to recipes. It's a good jumping off point and will help you feel more confident (and creative) in the kitchen. And it will also help take the guesswork out of which foods are seasonal at any given time.

PS - I'm not being paid by anyone to promote this book...I just bought it myself and thought it was really great.

I'm going to be giving away one copy of this cookbook to a lucky reader.

HOW TO ENTER:

Post a comment below mentioning your favorite food blog. No, it doesn't have to be mine. :) I've been really interested in reading other people's food blogs, but I haven't had the time to browse around lately, so I'd love to get some suggestions.

Be sure to include your email address, or if you're uncomfortable posting your email address, include your first name, last initial, City & State (ie: Alicia M. Salt Lake City, UT) in the comment. I will be either emailing the winner or posting the winner's name (if no email is included) Sunday, June 13th at 6:00 pm Pacific time.

Bonus entries:

A) If you subscribe to my blog or become a follower on Google, you can leave an additional entry telling me you've done so.

B) If you post a link to this giveaway on your own blog or website, you can leave an additional comment as well. Please include the link in the comment field.

On Sunday the 13th, I will go to Random.org and have a random number chosen to select the winner.

Good luck!

Yummy yam muffins (and I hate yams)

2010-05-16T15:32:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday I got a 3-lb bag of organic yams in my bountiful basket. I really dislike yams. I don't care if they're made into french fries or covered in marshmallows, I just don't like the taste.

Yet I couldn't bring myself to throw away this big bag of perfectly good yams. So, unable to pawn them off on my friends, I vowed to find a way to use them.

I turned to my favorite pumpkin muffin recipe, figuring that yams could probably be substituted for the pumpkin without changing the flavor too much. Although I knew it could potentially be disastrous, I reasoned that even if the muffins were disgusting, I could learn from the experiment and use my blog to warn others away from making yam muffins.

What I didn't anticipate is that using yams instead of pumpkin would make the muffins 10 times more delicious. I'm not exaggerating when I say that these are probably the best muffins I've ever had.

I have to give Alton Brown a big dose of credit - the basic recipe behind the muffins is his, and it produces super, super moist muffins. Here's the original Alton Brown recipe (courtesy of Foodnetwork.com) along with my notes & yam adaptation:

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

• 3 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3 cups shredded fresh pumpkin (When I make pumpkin muffins, I substitute one can of pureed pumpkin for the fresh pumpkin. For the yam muffins, I used three cups of cooked, mashed yams....I just nuked the yams in the microwave, cut them in half, and scooped the cooked mushy part out).

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.

In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla. Combine both mixtures and fold in the pumpkin (or yams). Once the ingredients are all incorporated, pour into two muffin pans.

Bake at 325 degrees F., for 30 minutes.

P.S. - You can freeze these muffins and enjoy them all week (or month) long. I throw them in a freezer bag as soon as they cool to keep them as fresh as possible. To thaw them out just pop one in the microwave for about 15 seconds.

P.P.S - I am heading on vacation for the next week....I will be back in 10 days or so with a new post and an exciting giveaway!

Spicy (or not) soba noodles with shrimp & veggies

2010-05-10T20:00:00.001-07:00

One thing I love about Asian cooking is that it brings out the best in veggies. I never eat broccoli with as much enthusiasm as I do when it's doused in black bean or kung pao sauce. I gobble up green and red peppers, snap peas, and bamboo shoots when they're coated in Thai curry. And I have never met a spinach dish I love more than an Indian saag.

I'm sure there are veggie purists who would turn up their noses at this proclamation - arguing that the sauces mask the true vegetable flavors and destroy the natural deliciousness of the vegetables themselves. But as someone who is still working up to loving veggies for veggies' sake, I am doing what I can to make them super-tasty so that I'll actually eat them instead of pushing them around my plate like a 5-year-old.

Last night I impressed myself with my take on Asian soba noodles. We've had Asian noodle dishes often (usually courtesy of P.F. Chang's or Pei Wei Asian Diner), but this was my first attempt at making them at home. And I can't believe it's taken me this long!

The dish I made was really simple, using almost exclusively pantry ingredients with the exception of some shrimp, green onion, veggies and, perhaps, ginger. Here's what I did:

1) Boil some soba noodles until soft, but al dente. Drain.

2) Chop up some green onion (I used mostly the green part), and some veggies of choice. Some thinly sliced or julienned carrots work best in my opinion, but you could also do broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, or whatever you prefer best in Asian dishes.

3) Create a sauce out of soy sauce, rice vinegar, freshly grated ginger, sesame oil, and hot chili oil. The hot chili oil was something I just picked up for fun at the grocery store the other day. Like all the other ingredients in the sauce (except the ginger), it can be found in the Asian food aisle of almost any grocery store. If you don't like spiciness, or you want to make a kid-friendly version, just leave out the chili oil.

To create the sauce, I started with a few splashes of each ingredient I mentioned, with some extra splashes of soy sauce. From that point, I just tasted it and fiddled with it until it had the right balance of spice/saltiness/acidity.

4) Cook shrimp (or other protein if you prefer), and veggies in frying pan with a little canola oil. Add sauce and let it absorb into the shrimp and veggies. Then add the cooked noodles and stir everything together until it's hot and evenly coated with sauce. Enjoy!

Now that I know how simple this is, I will be making versions of this dish at home much more often. It's just so much better than take-out in that I can control the amount of oil/sodium, make sure I'm using quality meats/seafood, and also add a lot more vegetables than a typical restaurant portion would include.

Semi-homemade restaurant-quality Thai curry

2010-04-30T13:43:00.001-07:00

I loooooooooove Thai food. If I could eat it every day, I would. While I've yet to meet a Thai dish I don't like, I am partial to curries, especially the green and yellow curries. They are the ultimate comfort food - warm, spicy and soupy, yet fresh-tasting.

I was always scared off from cooking Thai curries myself because of the quantity and rarity of ingredients involved (how many grocery stores stock galangal?). I've tried a few different store bought sauces, but none of them could compare to the restaurant sauces in terms of spice level and overall flavor.

Then I discovered Thai Kitchen's curry pastes - these cute little 4-inch jars that contain all of those unusual, but amazing Thai chiles and herbs that make curries taste delicious, smashed into a flavorful paste. They come in green and red (sadly there's no yellow), and both are delicious. Each one comes with a recipe on the jar, which just involves mixing the paste with a few ingredients which are readily available in the Asian food section of any major grocery store: fish sauce, coconut milk, canned bamboo shoots, and brown sugar.

Add some cooked chicken or shrimp, some veggies if you like, and steamed rice and you've got an amazing meal. The veggies that pair best with the curries are sliced red or green peppers, cooked onions, peas, and zucchini.

The nice part about making curry this way is that it's simple, but you can adjust the spice/sweet/salt level yourself to make it taste perfect. If it's too salty/spicy, add a little more brown sugar or coconut milk. If it needs more salt/tang, add some more fish sauce. If it needs more heat, add more of the curry paste.

To add extra flavor or flair, I also recommend adding some chopped cilantro at the end, or some Thai basil (which I love, but have a really hard time finding). I also think it's worth the extra step to serve it with Jasmine rice versus plain old Uncle Ben's. So yummy!

Fancy French scallop dish that's really, really easy

2010-04-19T20:40:00.001-07:00

Any dish that requires me to speak in a foreign accent scares me. So when Ina Garten (ie: The Barefoot Contessa) said she was going to be making scallops provencal on her Food Network show, I almost changed the channel. But that would have required me to remove my butt from the couch and fetch the remote during my vegetation period (ie: the 30-45 minutes when the girls are both napping at the same time); thus I decided to just lie still and watch it. And I'm so glad I did.

After watching her make this elegant scallop dish in a matter of minutes, without any complicated techniques or ingredients, I thought "Heck, I could do that!" And that I did...in fact, it was so easy & good, I made it twice in two weeks.

The thing that appealed to me about this recipe was that it uses really simple ingredients, most of which I already had on hand: scallops, butter, white wine, shallots, garlic, flour, a lemon, and some fresh parsley.

And the only kitchen gadgets required were a pan and some tongs. See - I told you it was easy! You can find the recipe by clicking here.

The more I learn about cooking, the more I discover that truly good food can be really, really simple. I've also learned that you can never go wrong mixing butter, white wine, garlic and lemon...so many great seafood dishes start with these basic ingredients!

P.S. For a side dish I made parmesan smashed potatoes, which are also extremely easy. You boil some red-skinned potatoes until they're soft. Then smash them with a fork (keep the skins on) and add some extra-virgin olive oil, parmesan cheese, and salt. Just keep smashing and tasting until it seems right.

It would also taste amazing over pasta!

The perfect piece of toast

2010-04-08T13:53:00.001-07:00

Most of the time, I end up cringing when I read the list of ingredients in prepared and/or processed foods - sometimes even the "healthy" and organic ones. But as much as I love to cook, it's just not feasible for me to make everything from scratch all the time. Plus, I still haven't developed a taste for all of the foods I *should* be eating (white rice is still a staple in my life).

So when I do come across a food that's super-convenient, healthy, all-natural, and (most importantly) tasty, I do a little happy dance. My most recent discovery was Food for Life's Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin bread, which is made from 100% sprouted whole grains. Here's what's in it:

Organic sprouted wheat
Filtered water
Organic raisins
Organic sprouted barley
Organic sprouted millet
Organic malted barley
Organic sprouted lentils
Organic sprouted soybeans
Organic sprouted spelt
Fresh yeast
Organic wheat gluten
Sea salt
Organic cinnamon

That's it!

I've shied away from using totally 100% whole grain breads for sandwiches because I find them a little too dry and dense. But for some toast to go with a little butter and my a.m. coffee, this bread is perfect. If you're looking for a little extra protein, you could spread it with peanut butter or cream cheese. I also think it would taste delicious made into french toast.

Since this bread isn't filled with preservatives like normal breads, I keep it in the freezer and just pull off a slice and pop it in the toaster without even thawing it out first...it works great!

I know that Ezekiel breads might not be available everywhere, but probably just about any grocery store will have a form of 100% whole grain cinnamon raisin bread. Mainstream stores usually have a "natural foods" section that carries different breads than you'd find in the typical bread aisle. This bread is also often sold frozen since it doesn't have the shelf-life of other breads. The Food for Life website has a "where to buy" feature where you can type in a zip code and find any local retailers near you. You can access their website by clicking here.

Ways to save money on healthy foods, Part 3

2010-03-29T12:35:00.001-07:00

I recently read an article about a group of people who call themselves "preppers." They are dedicated to being prepared for just about anything. I'm not talking about having a few Costco-size cases of toilet paper and soup in the garage...I'm talking about dedicating entire rooms, basements and sheds to stockpiling a year or more's worth of food and other goods in case of emergency, natural disaster, etc.

Based on what I read, I guess I could call myself an anti-prepper. Not because I dislike preppers (although the gun-toting ones scare me a little), but because I've recently made it a goal to keep my refrigerator and my pantry as bare as possible. Why? Because because it keeps me from wasting food, and consequently saves me a lot of money.

I do buy food regularly and my family eats a LOT. But I've made it a point to try and use up what I have before buying more - and I think it's really helped cut costs. Before I adopted the "bare is better" approach, I was constantly discovering food that I'd forgotten about until it had wilted or grown fuzz; or noticing that I had 7 jars of mustard, but no ketchup; or opening a brand new jar of pasta sauce when I had already had a 3/4 full one in the fridge. Out of frustration with my disorganization, and a desire to stretch my food dollars, I decided to get organized. As a result, I no longer waste money on products I already have, or throw away perfectly good food that I would have eaten if only I'd noticed it in time.

Here are some of the steps I've taken to de-clutter my fridge and pantry.

1) Cut down on condiments and/or relocate them.

It's amazing how full a refrigerator can look without having any "real" food in it. For some reason, people have a really hard time parting with something in a jar - even if it's some strange sauce they bought ages ago and didn't like that much. Go through the fridge and take a tough love approach with all those bottles of salad dressing, sauces, and other assorted things. Even better - if you happen to have a second fridge in the garage or basement, move all of your lesser-used condiments to that fridge to free up your main fridge for fresh foods.

2) Take frequent inventory.

Once the fridge and pantry are organized and de-cluttered, it's easy to look in and quickly assess what you have a lot of and what you need more of. And when you can plan meals around the foods you already have in abundance, it means less things you'll need to buy at the store (and consequently less money you'll need to spend). Right now I happen to have a lot of parmesan cheese and eggs. So maybe I'll make some sort of cheesy frittata for brunch over Easter weekend.

3) Use up what you have before you buy more.

Instead of making lots of little trips to the grocery store throughout the week, I've started making one or two really big trips once every 1-2 weeks. Then I try to be as creative as I can with the stuff I bought in order to make it last as long as possible. This sometimes gets frustrating, but most of the time it's kind of fun. It forces me to think outside the box.

One way I've been able to get innovative is by making lots of what I call "blank canvas" foods. These are dishes that can be changed up easily, so you can add in whatever ingredients or leftovers you happen to have on hand. Here are my favorite blank canvas foods:

Pancakes -

Almost anything sweet and/or nutty can be thrown into pancake batter. Smash up some overripe bananas, use up the last bits of applesauce, or toss in too-soft blueberries or crushed nuts. The other day, I even crushed up some stale gingersnaps in a batch of pancakes and they turned out great! Now I'm contemplating using our leftover peanut butter girl scout cookies to make some peanut butter banana pancakes...yum!

Eggs -

Just about any cooked veggie, meat or cheese can be added to eggs and made into frittatas, omelets, scrambled eggs, or breakfast burritos.

Pizza -

Since Sydney can't have cheese, we often make our own pizzas at home using store bought frozen or refrigerated dough. For toppings, I'll chop up leftover meatballs, sausage, veggies, or even deli meats.

Pasta -

Leftover broccoli and sliced up deli meats can be mixed into pasta salad...leftover noodles can be tossed with tuna salad. Or a simple cappellini can be mixed with some steamed shrimp, olive oil, white wine, lemon, salt, and parmesan for an easy dinner that tastes elegant.

4) Plan weekly meals around "families" of ingredients.

For me, one key to saving money has been focusing less on following exact recipes and instead creating my own simplistic (but tasty) meals. The problem with using recipes is that you often end up buying ingredients specific to that recipe, and then only using a portion of those ingredients and wasting the rest. I have bottles of spices in my pantry that probably cost $5 and that I only ever used in one dish.

To avoid this, I try to buy ingredients that go together and then use them in several different dishes throughout the week. For instance: if I buy tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, garlic and onions, I can use those ingredients in homemade pizzas, a caprese salad, bruschetta, pasta, or pasta salad.

If I buy tomatoes, cilantro, onions, garlic, peppers, and shredded cheddar cheese, I can use that in a variety of mexican-themed meals throughout the week.

I still waste food from time to time - it's inevitable. But I've definitely limited my wastefulness quite a bit. Now I rarely throw out food unless it's one of my cooking experiments gone bad, or an overabundance of red beets from one of my bountiful baskets. Being less wasteful feels good on three counts: I get to be creative, I'm saving money, and I'm being "green." I just won't be the one to turn to if disaster strikes...hopefully one of my neighbors is a prepper!

A crock pot story...one success, one disaster

2010-03-22T19:57:00.001-07:00

Apparently I take the crock pot mantra "set it and forget it" a little too literally.

Since my mornings are usually bedlam, I really like making crock pot meals in the afternoon, so that they will be done around 8:00 pm, and I can just put them in the fridge for the next day. Well, at least three times in the last two months I have put something in the crock pot in the afternoon and completely forgotten about it until I wake up half-delirious at 2:00 am, smell something cooking, and rush downstairs to find a shriveled mess in my crock pot. My newest mess was my crock pot green beans, which I posted a photo of.

To make crock pot green beans, I trim the ends off of a bunch of fresh green beans and put them in a crock pot, cover with a mixture of chicken broth and water, and throw in one or two ham hocks. Then I set it on low until the green beans reach that super soft texture - kind of like canned green beans. Although I shouldn't, I sometimes throw in some extra salt to taste. I LOVE salt. If you cook them this way for 6-7 hours instead of 14, they turn out really good. I like to make a big giant batch to serve throughout the week as a side dish - my girls love them! Unfortunately, I turned my plump, juicy and flavorful green beans into green bean jerky.

After my latest crock pot misfortune, part of me wanted to just throw in the towel on the whole crock pot endeavor and go out and bury the damn thing in the back yard. But, inspired by a recipe in my newest issue of Food Network magazine, I decided to try, try again. The recipe was for "Beer Braised Chicken" which is basically a stew made up of boneless chicken thighs and potatoes in a yummy broth. It doesn't say to use a crock pot in the recipe, but it screamed "crock pot recipe" when I read it, so I chose to use one. You can find the recipe by clicking here.

As usual, I added/changed some things in the recipe. First, to compensate for my green bean mess from the other night, I added some fresh green beans in with the potatoes. The beer I used was Dos Equis Amber (since that was in our fridge). I just used one bottle of beer, then added a combo of water and chicken broth until the chicken, potatoes, and green beans were covered with liquid. On top of what the recipe called for, I added some extra dijon mustard, salt, and pepper to taste...until it was really yummy and savory. I also used plain old dried thyme from my pantry that's about 10 years old, and completely skipped the onions and the parsley.

I must say, this dish was really, really good. It definitely has that comfort food vibe, and would probably have been even more enjoyable were it a little chilly outside instead of 79 degrees. I love having a meat, carb, and veggie in one dish - it just makes life so much easier.

So, do you think they might consider adding "A crock pot story" to the TLC line-up?

Pepper-seared Asian salmon over napa cabbage

2010-03-15T21:13:00.001-07:00

Years ago I found a recipe for "marinated salmon seared in a pepper crust" on the Food Network website. It was amazing the first time I made it, and it continues to be amazing every time I make it. It tastes complicated, but it's really easy. The only catch is that the searing process almost always makes the fire alarm go off. For this reason, whenever I make it I have my husband standing by with a dish towel, ready to start fanning the alarm as soon as the smoke starts billowing out of the pan.

Here is the original recipe...more accurately, it's my interpretation of the original recipe. Actually, I feel quite confident calling this recipe my own because I've made so many alterations to it over the years.

RECIPE:

Grind a whole bunch of black pepper onto a plate. If you start to get carpal tunnel, then you can add in some plain old pre-ground black pepper.

In a large sealable plastic bag (or a bowl), combine the following ingredients:

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
a pinch of grated fresh ginger

(This is about enough marinade for two salmon filets...if you're going to make more, just double it. My best advice is to make more than you think you'll need because it serves as a sauce at the end.)

Place salmon fillets into the bag with the marinade, seal, and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes. Remove the salmon from the bag, pat dry, and press the pepper onto both sides of each salmon filet until its thoroughly coated. *Keep the marinade!*

In a heavy skillet, heat the oil until it is hot but not smoking. Saute the salmon for a few minutes on each side, or until it flakes with a fork. Put on a plate and drizzle with the leftover marinade.

Now, for the addendum...

In my newest bountiful basket, I opted for the "Asian Pack," which was a bag of ingredients typically used in Asian cooking. I got some snap peas, mushrooms, bok choy, ginger, cilantro, garlic, and a mystery green. After hunting around at the grocery store, I was later able to identify the mystery green as napa cabbage.

Napa cabbage isn't all that strange an ingredient, but I can honestly say I've never cooked with it or purchased it before. But since I had one in my fridge, I thought I would chop it and saute it to serve with my favorite salmon.

So after the salmon was done cooking and removed onto a separate plate, I put some chopped napa cabbage in the saute pan, and tossed it with some of the leftover marinade. I only sauteed it for a minute or so...just until it had a chance to absorb the marinade, but hadn't yet become limp. Then I made a bed of the cabbage on the plate, put the salmon on top, and poured the rest of the marinade over the whole concoction.

It was so good, I am pretty sure I will never make this salmon without the napa cabbage again. To me, it's the perfect sauteed green because it doesn't really wilt - it's more like a warm crispy salad. And it doesn't have that really green, health-foody taste like kale, chard, and spinach have. Trust me - I usually hate sauteed greens, and this was truly delicious!

The best salmon recipe ever

2010-03-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

My apologies - I have been slacking on my blogging lately, partly because I've been transitioning from a PC to a Mac, and partly because life has just generally been chaotic. And now I'm going on vacation to Cabo for a few days...yippee!!!

But I've been meaning to post about my favorite salmon recipe...I've eaten a lot of salmon in my life, and this recipe is easy and the best I've ever had by far! I made it the other night and I was licking the plate clean. And I also recently discovered a way to combine it with sauteed greens (my health food nemesis), and it still tastes amazing. So I promise I will post this recipe when I return from vacay...refreshed, full of margaritas, and hopefully inspired by the local Mexican cuisine.

XOXOXOXOXO

Kale chips rock!

2010-02-16T12:49:00.001-08:00

Kale is one of those foods I've been hesitant to embrace. I know it's really, really good for you, but there's something about the texture of cooked greens that turns me off. I love salads, and I don't mind some cooked greens thrown into an omelet or sauce, but I don't like a pile of cooked greens on my plate no matter how well it is seasoned or what it is paired with.

So I was intrigued when I came across a recipe for kale chips. Basically all you do is tear off bite size pieces of kale leaves (don't include the stems), spritz or drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with some salt, and bake in the oven for a few minutes, until they turn crispy and the edges just barely start to brown.

I was skeptical, but since I got some kale in my bountiful basket this week, I decided to give it a try. And it honestly was good. The texture is really light and crispy. It almost melts in your mouth. The kale flavor isn't completely eradicated, but it takes on a kind of nuttiness that makes it much more palatable than when it's eaten raw.

The best part of my little experiment was that my girls loved it! I told them I made "green chips" and set a bowl outside where they were playing. A few minutes later, that bowl was empty.

I'm so excited I found a way to enjoy a really healthy food, and it's SO easy. The only confusion came from figuring out what temp to cook them at. When I googled "kale chips" I found a bunch of recipes that were all basically the same - but some said to cook them at 400 degrees for 5 minutes, and others said to cook around 200 degrees for 25-30 minutes. I split the two down the middle and roasted them at around 325 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. I don't think it matters which way you do it - the key is to keep an eye on it until you see the edges of the leaves start to curl and brown.

Crockpot pork chile verde

2010-02-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

I don't know what made me happier - finding a way to use up a big portion of my "bountiful basket" offerings from last week, successfully replicating one of my favorite Mexican dishes, or the fact that I made this dish in my crock pot. I LOVE the idea of crock pot meals because there's nothing I hate more than trying to get dinner together when I'm exhausted, hungry, and uninspired, and two little munchkins are nipping at my heels. Oh, and a fourth thing that made me happy was that I tried something new - roasting peppers & garlic. It's totally easy, but for some reason I'd never done it before and therefore it seemed kind of scary.

So here's how I made the chile verde...

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds of pork butt (I think it's actually pork shoulder, but for some reason it's called pork butt.) Trim off any excess fat and cut into ice-cube size chunks

8 tomatillos, with the papery husks peeled off

5 anaheim chiles

5-6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

2 jalapeno peppers

1/2 onion, diced

1 can vegetable stock

salt

Put the tomatillos, chiles, jalapeno peppers and garlic cloves in a baking dish, spritz with olive oil, and place in the oven under the broiler. Turn them occasionally until the skins have kind of blistered and turned brown on all sides. (Since my broiler kind of heats unevenly, I removed things one by one as they became perfectly roasted. And I removed the garlic first, since I read that it can become bitter if it gets too browned).

Place all of the roasted stuff into a food processor or blender and puree. It doesn't have to be super-smooth, just evenly blended. Then pour the mixture into a crockpot set on high. Add the vegetable stock (you can use chicken stock too...I just happened to have the veggie stock on hand).

Dredge the pork butt chunks (OK, that just sounds wrong) in some flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Saute in a pan until browned on all sides, but not cooked through. Then add to the mixture in the crockpot. Saute onion in the pan until soft, then add the onion to the crock pot too.

Once the crockpot contents become pretty hot, turn to "low" and cook a few hours until the pork is nice and tender. Season with salt to taste.

Disclaimer: I lucked out in that my chile verde came out with the perfect amount of heat - nice and spicy, but not insanely spicy. I know jalapenos can vary in intensity, so you might want to test your jalapenos before you put them in, just to see how hot they are. If your chile's too hot, try adding some additional stock or pureed anaheim chiles to tame it. If it's too mild, you can always add some extra jalapenos.

Saving money on healthy foods: Part 2

2010-02-02T20:16:00.001-08:00

When it comes to saving money, nothing beats buying directly from the source. With material goods, this usually means you have to buy a large volume of items at a "wholesale" price. With food, however, there are several ways you can buy directly from the farm without having to order crates of eggs or 20 pounds of beef.

The obvious way to do this is through farmer's markets. I grew up in a Pennsylvania town surrounded by farms, where there were tons of roadside produce markets offering up fresh sweet corn, juicy tomatoes, peaches, melons, and all other kinds of delicious summer veggies and fruits. When I lived in Los Angeles, I frequented weekend farmer's markets that went on for blocks and were every bit as much as "scene" as the nightclubs (once I saw Marilyn Manson there!).

Unfortunately, here in Arizona the farmer's market fare is a little lackluster, seeing as how it's the desert and all. But I've found some other ways to buy farm-fresh foods at a low cost with minimal inconvenience.

CSAs are Community Supported Agriculture groups. Basically, you pay a monthly or weekly fee to a local farm, and then pick up a basket of produce from said farm on a monthly or weekly basis. There are several great things about joining a CSA. 1) You are supporting a local farm; 2) You are guaranteed fresh, seasonal produce; 3) You are exposed to new foods you might not necessarily have purchased yourself. The only con is that you can't control what you get. It's possible you'll end up with a huge bag of beets and kale; so if you hate beets and kale, you're kind of screwed. But most CSA farms will provide you with a list of the veggies & fruits they grow, so you won't be completely shocked by what you end up with.

If you're interested in joining a CSA, or just want some more info, you can look up the participating farms in your area at this website: www.localharvest.org.

If you have the fortune of living in Arizona, Idaho, Utah or Washington, you may have a "Bountiful Baskets" co-op in your area. This is a group of volunteers who buys directly from the same suppliers that service grocery stores and restaurants and then pass the savings along to the participants. Much like a CSA, you pay a weekly fee and then go pick up your "surprise" basket each Saturday. You can do it as often or as rarely as you like, so there's no ongoing commitment. Also, you can choose between conventional or organic produce.

I've been meaning to do this for weeks, but kept balking at the pick-up time (7:00 am Saturday). I finally went for it this last week, though, and I'm so glad I did! Here is what I got for $30:

Organic produce:

6 oranges
6 red-skinned potatoes
3 mangoes
6 red anjou pears
1 cucumber
1 head of romaine lettuce
9 kiwis
10 apples
1 bunch of celery
1 turnip
1 head of broccoli
9 roma tomatoes
1 bag of onions

I also got a "mexican pack" containing:

3 avocados
10 key limes
10 tomatillos
2 onions
1 bunch of cilantro
4 jalapenos
6 anaheim chilis
1 head of garlic
1 pack of flour tortillas

ALL of that for $30!! I was really amazed and excited. Aside from the fact that I scored a great deal on all that produce, I felt inspired by some of the unusual foods I got. I've already tried two experimental dishes - one a success, the other a failure. I will post the recipe for my success (pork chile verde) soon, along with my other experiments. I am challenging myself to use everything in the basket before it goes bad, so I'm sure it will result in some interesting meals.

An ode to pesto

2010-01-27T19:35:00.001-08:00

Pesto is a fairly new addition to our eating repertoire, yet it's recently come to be a staple in our house. It's just such an easy and nutritious way to add flavor to food - it tastes really fresh and flavorful, and it's full of good stuff (there are different ways to make it, but traditional ingredients include fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese).

I've started making my own so that I can leave out the cheese and make a dairy-free version, but I've had tons of delicious store-made pesto as well. Anyway, since we've been eating so much pesto lately, I thought I'd dedicate a post to it. Here are just some of the ways I've used it recently.

1) Mixed with pasta, either hot or cold.

2) Mixed with mayo and spread on sandwiches. One of my favorites is a panini made with turkey, pesto mayo, and tomato on sourdough bread).

3) To season a caprese salad (Spread pesto on top of a sliced tomato and top with fresh mozzarella and balsamic vinaigrette)

4) In meatballs (I mix ground beef or ground turkey with one egg, some breadcrumbs, and some pesto)

5) My pesto, chicken & sausage-stuffed shells I posted about here

6) "Linda's pesto cod"

My mother-in-law is visiting and she made a delicious pesto-topped cod dish the other night. I made her cough up the recipe, and here it is....I love how simple it is, and it tastes fantastic!

sprinkle cod fillets with salt & pepper
spread pesto on top of each fillet
sprinkle chopped pistachios on top of the pesto

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes

7) Spread on bruschetta or pizza. Sadly, I learned the hard way that pesto is sometimes made with walnuts. My poor step-father-in-law (is that a term?) is currently lying in bed sick because the Trader Joe's pesto, mozzarella & tomato flatbread I made for dinner contained walnuts, which he is allergic to. Sorry Mike!!

Stuffed shells with chicken, sausage, spinach and pesto (dairy-free!)

2010-01-13T19:39:00.000-08:00

I am constantly on the lookout for pasta dishes that my whole family will enjoy, which means they have to be dairy-free, mushroom-free (my husband hates mushrooms), and delicious. Since pasta is almost always paired with cheese, it's been tough. I am constantly seeing great, easy recipes for pasta meals, but they always, ALWAYS contain cheese. So, out of frustration and determination, I decided to invent one of my own...and thankfully it was a success!

I was inspired by a bag of jumbo pasta shells I recently bought at the store. I know stuffed shells are traditionally filled with lots of cheese, but I decided to stuff them with meat and veggies instead.

Here's what I stuffed my shells with:

1 link of chicken sausage (I chose chicken basil sausage from our local natural foods grocer since it contains traditional Italian seasonings). Slice open the casing and mix the sausage with...

1/2 pound of ground chicken. Mix the chicken and chicken sausage together in a pan and cook until no longer pink.

Put the cooked chicken & sausage mixture into a bowl and mix with a few spoonfuls of pesto (pre-made pesto is fine if you don't have dairy issues, but I made my own dairy-free version which contained fresh basil, garlic, lemon juice, pine nuts, olive oil, and salt).

Then add some chopped spinach (either fresh or frozen would be fine...I used frozen, which I thawed and squeezed to get out the excess water).

Finally, add 1 beaten egg (to help bind the ingredients).

Boil the shells until they are "al dente," then stuff them with the mixture. Coat the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan with marinara sauce. Then place the shells side by side in the pan, filling side up. Spoon some more marinara over the top of the shells. Cover the pan with foil and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes. If you want to add cheese, you can uncover the pan and sprinkle some mozzarella cheese over the top, then bake for a few extra minutes unti the cheese melts.

I have to say, although I did add cheese to a portion of this dish, it was still delicious without it. And Sydney loved that the shells were kind of like pasta tacos, which she could pick up and eat.

At least now I can add a little variation to the meatballs, marinara & noodles that we eat so often. And soon I will dedicate a special post to dairy-free pesto, which can be used in so many different ways to add flavor to dishes without adding cheese.

The perfect winter lunch

2010-01-10T19:50:00.000-08:00

Is anything more comforting and delicious on a chilly day than a steaming bowl of creamy tomato soup and a crusty grilled cheese sandwich?

This meal is pretty simple to make, but I've discovered an even simpler version that tastes fantastic: Pacific Natural Foods Organic Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup paired with Archer Farms (at Target) Cheddar Sourdough Twists.

My love for this lunch is fourfold: 1) It's inexpensive; 2) It's easy; 3) It's nourishing; and 4) It's delicious.

If you haven't tried Pacific soups, you must. Aside from the fact that they are all-natural and taste great, I love how they come in a box with a screw cap. I know, I know...opening a can should not be a big deal, but it always takes me 10 minutes to find the can opener, then I can't get it latched on the can correctly, and then I hate having to fish for the lid after it falls into the soup and gets all goopy. (Yes, I'm a little diva-ish when it comes to opening cans.) I also like the box version because I can pour out exactly how much I want.

This particular flavor of Pacific soup is really creamy (it contains milk), but 1 cup only has 110 calories and 2 grams of fat. And yet another great thing about it is that it's currently sold at Costco in a 6-pack box. Or it can be found in natural food stores, or the natural foods section of regular grocery stores.

And now for the cheddar twists...

Anyone who likes grilled cheese knows that the best part of the grilled cheese is where the cheese has oozed out and gotten all burnt and crusty around the edges of the bread. So imagine that someone has grilled about 20 cheddar cheese sandwiches on sourdough bread, and then trimmed off all those deliciously burnt crusty edges, baked them into crunchy breadsticks and put them in a box. That is what you will find when you try Archer Farms Cheddar Sourdough Twists. You can dip them in the soup, or crumble them into the soup. Or, like me, do both and then eat about 5 more after the soup is gone. SO good.

I've eaten this lunch so often lately, I'm almost getting sick of it. But since "winter" here is so fleeting (It's currently 69 degrees), I need to indulge in delicious soups while I can.

My mindfully eaten dinner

2010-01-07T20:27:00.001-08:00

The term "mindful eating" has been on my radar lately - it's cropped up here and there in articles I've read, and there are some new books out on the topic. Basically, eating mindfully means you are paying attention to what you eat. Instead of shoving food in your mouth while you stand at the counter sorting through mail, you sit down at a table and savor each bite, paying attention to the flavors you're experiencing and your level of hunger/fullness.

I'm very guilty of being a non-mindful eater. I am usually shoveling bites of food into my mouth while I focus on catering to the girls. Even when I take the time to make myself a good healthy meal, I rarely sit down and actually savor it. Instead I try to wolf it down in between requests for more water, crackers, meatballs, grapes, picking up a dropped fork, wiping off a slimy hand, etc.

In fact, I think part of the reason I love chocolate so much is that it is some of the only mindful eating I do. When the girls are taking naps and I have peace, I will brew some coffee and break off some chunks of a decadent Golden Almond bar, and I am in heaven. Sure, a Golden Almond would taste good under any circumstances, but it tastes extra good when I am lying on the couch in silence and savoring each bite.

Tonight, I was about to mindlessly eat my dinner. My husband had cooked a Trader Joe's flatbread in the oven and it was sitting half-cooled on the counter when I came down from putting Brynn to bed. I picked up a piece and took a bite...it was really good, but not as good as it would have been were it not lukewarm. Part of me wanted to just chow it down because I was hungry and wanted to get on with my night, but then a little voice in me said STOP!

I realized that I was about to eat something really tasty, and I wanted to truly enjoy it. So instead of standing over the kitchen island eating lukewarm flatbread, I decided to take an extra 5 minutes to re-crisp the flatbread. And then I made a salad and put it on a nice plate. I sat down at the table, poured a glass of wine, and savored my food. And it was damn good.

By the way, the flatbread I had was Trader Joe's French Style Flat Bread with Ham, Caramalized Onions & Gruyere Cheese. If you have the fortune of living near a Trader Joe's, you should buy it for sure. If not, I'm sure it's pretty easy to make. Aside from the crust, the only ingredients on the flatbread are creme fraiche, ham, caramelized onions, and gruyere cheese.

My new year's resolution

2010-01-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe the holidays are over! As usual, it was a blur, but a happy blur. I hope everyone else's blur was happy as well.

And now that the decorations are packed away, the boxes of chocolates are empty, and those perfectly wrapped new toys are happily strewn across the floor, I'm ready to make a few resolutions. Actually just one.

I've always strived to be an educated consumer. I like to read reviews, talk to people about things they like/dislike, and comparison shop to ensure I'm getting the best products for the best price. Quality has always mattered to me, too. I'm willing to pay more for an item if I truly love it, it works better than its competitors, or I believe it's going to last.

Up until recently I hadn't applied this way of thinking to food. I wouldn't necessarily buy junk, but I definitely didn't always put quality first. And when I did, it was usually the stuff I was buying for the kids. I had no problem feeding them organic cheese while I ate the block of supermarket cheddar I bought for $1.50 on sale.

Another thing that has tripped me up was trusting that "name brand" foods would be of decent quality. After spending a lot of time reading and researching about food, I've come to find out that name brand foods are often the least quality items one can buy, not only in terms of the junk factor, but in terms of how food is prepared, crops are grown, animals are raised & butchered, our environment is affected, etc. Not all chicken breasts, soybeans, and frozen pizzas are created equal.

A few weeks ago I watched Food, Inc. - a movie about the food industry which has recently come out on DVD. If you're interested in learning more about where your food comes from, particularly within the meat & poultry industry, I highly recommend it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss when it comes to food, but I think it's important to know what we're actually eating. This film didn't tell me a ton I hadn't already discovered through my own reading, but it did further my resolve to really invest in quality foods...not just sometimes, but all of the time.

Because when I buy crappy foods, I'm not only cheating myself out of a healthier choice, I'm also feeding the corporate beasts that are profiting from our ignorance while I could be bolstering those companies that are doing the right thing. (OK, I'm not a bonafide conspiracy theorist yet, but I'm slowly becoming one).

As the movie Food, Inc. points out at the end, unlike other political or societal issues where we feel like we have no say, when it comes to food we essentially get to "vote" our opinions every time we walk through the checkout lane or sit down to eat. So this new year, I am resolving to eat better and buy better. I would like to add that I won't be eating any more fast food, but I know that's probably impossible. Instead, I'll resolve to skip the meat products and stick to what I love most about fast food: the french fries! They might be high in fat, but at least I won't be subjecting myself to any (spoiler alert!) meat filler cleansed with ammonia.

Happy 2010!!

A chickpea and spinach dish my whole family liked

2009-12-15T12:41:00.001-08:00

With the madness of the holidays, the crazy travel/work schedule of my husband, and the general chaos that is my life, I've been eating pretty poorly lately. I've had lots of restaurant food, leftover nuggets, and pretzels & cheese dinners, and it's starting to take a toll on my soul, if not my health.

So the other night I decided to try out a recipe I saw in my Experience Life magazine (it's a magazine I get free with my gym membership, and they always have great healthy recipes in there...it's also available online so anyone can read it).

The recipe was called Lemony Spiced Chickpeas with Spinach, and you can find it here (scroll all the way to the bottom). It's really easy to make...you just saute some garbanzo beans with some onions, add some spices and lemon juice, and then add in some fresh spinach until it wilts. When I saw the combination of cumin and chickpeas I was sold.

I made it for my husband and I after the kids had already eaten, because I was pretty convinced the girls would hate it. But shockingly, my husband loved it and the kids, who hovered near us until we shared with them, were soon begging for more chickpeas like they were gumdrops.

The only flaw to this meal is that it doesn't really stand on its own as a full dinner unless you're aiming to eat really light. But it could easily serve as a great side dish to some chicken, fish, etc. I think the other recipes in the link look great, too. Hopefully I'll get to try them all out soon.

Chipotle: My new favorite restaurant

2009-12-10T05:44:00.001-08:00

Over the last few years I've developed a real disdain for kids' menus. Aside from the fact that they rarely offer any healthy options, pretty much every meal has dairy as a main component -- mac & cheese, pizza, and grilled cheese are the obvious ones, but even chicken nuggets often have milk in the breading, and many pasta sauces contain parmesan cheese.

Since my girls aren't big hamburger fans, eating out with them usually means one thing: hot dogs & french fries. It's one of the only restaurant meals Sydney can eat, and one of the only restaurant foods Brynn will eat. (Actually, Brynn loves mac & cheese and pizza but I feel bad ordering it for her when Sydney can't have any).

I know the occasional hot dog & fries combo isn't going to kill anyone, but I've always thought it would be nice to leave a restaurant feeling like I've nourished my kids instead of just filling them up with grease, salt & unnamed animal parts.

Enter Chipotle! We stopped in there the other day after a particularly horrendous trip to the pediatric dentist. I'd been meaning to check it out after reading about their "Food With Integrity" philosophy. A blurb from their site says: "The hallmarks of Food With Integrity include things like unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal."

That's pretty darn impressive for a fast food restaurant, and I hope it's a trend that continues!

Anyway, while I was expecting to just order from the regular menu, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they've added a kids menu, at least at the location we went to. For $3, I got Brynn a cheese quesadilla with a side of rice, beans, and tortilla chips, and a little carton of organic milk. The quesadilla was made by just putting some shredded cheese on a tortilla and pressing it in a big panini-style machine - it wasn't the least bit greasy.

For $4 I got Sydney a "build your own" taco kit with two flour tortillas, guacamole, corn salsa, and pinto beans (you can choose either a meat or guacamole as the "main" ingredient), as well as an apple juice. Both of the meals came with a small baggie of tortilla chips too.

It's nice to know we now have a restaurant to go to where a) the food comes quickly, b) both girls can eat foods they enjoy, and c) I don't have to feel the least bit guilty about what they're eating. I give a big thumbs up to Chipotle!!

Spaghetti squash ain't foolin' my kids

2009-12-07T19:48:00.001-08:00

If you ask either of my girls what their favorite food is, they will say without hesitation: NOODLES!

Macaroni, rotini, spaghetti, penne, egg noodles...you name it, if it's a noodle, they will devour it. So I was really excited to try out spaghetti squash, which--as its name suggests--is basically a squash version of a noodle. I thought this would be a fantastic way to introduce a new veggie while capitalizing on the girls' favorite food.

"Mom, what's that?" Sydney asked as she watched me spend 5 minutes trying to sever the spaghetti squash with the biggest, sharpest knife we own (those suckers are hard to cut).

"It's a spaghetti squash. It has noodles inside."

"Mom, I don't like squash."

"You've never had this kind of squash before. This kind has noodles in it!! It's super yummy!!!!" I said in the fake-est cheeriest voice ever.

After cooking the squash as directed by the little sticker that was affixed to it when I bought it, I mixed it with some pasta sauce. I put it on my girls' plates, slid it over to them, and then watched their faces turn into a grimace within five seconds of the first bite. Almost in unison, they both shoved their plates toward me and exclaimed "Yuck!"

I tried some myself. While I wouldn't label it as "yuck," it definitely wasn't interchangeable with a noodle. It's crunchier and, well, squash-ier. I'm sure some parmesan cheese would have improved it a little, but I left it off so that Sydney could eat it. If anyone has tips on better ways to enjoy spaghetti squash, I'd love to hear them! I almost think it would have been a better idea not to compare it to a noodle and instead, just call a squash a squash.

My spaghetti & marinara makeover

2009-12-03T13:28:00.001-08:00

During the 6 years my husband and I lived child-free in Los Angeles, we ate out A LOT. I mean A LOT. And chances were, if we weren't eating out, we were ordering in.

I viewed home cooking as a necessary evil in between restaurant visits or deliveries, and consequently my home-cooked meals were pretty uninspired...spaghetti and marinara, a baked potato, salad and pre-packaged marinated chicken breast, or Rice-a-Roni and a chunk of grilled meat. (Now, there were times I actually cooked delicious meals from scratch, but those times were few and far between.)

When life changed (ie: kids entered the picture), and home cooking became a plain old necessity instead of a necessary evil, it was a tough period of adjustment. All those years we spent navigating LA's dynamic restaurant scene had made me into kind of a food snob. I was no longer satisfied by a chunk of grilled chicken and some microwaved peas. If I was going to have to give up my yellowtail-jalapeno sushi rolls and grilled calamari with lemon zest and butter, I would learn to make food at home that satisfied those same cravings. I wanted my meals to have pizzazz.

One way I've been able to add a little gourmet restaurant flair into my life is by making over some of the basic "out of the pantry" meals I've been eating my entire life. One dish that recently received a makeover was our standby spaghetti and marinara.

For us, "pasta night" used to mean nuking Ragu or Classico sauce and pouring it over some cappellini or penne. It was tasty enough, but vaguely depressing. I really, really wanted to be able to make a fresh homemade sauce, but the idea of it terrified me. I thought making your own pasta sauce was a task only to be undertaken by Italians with a secret family recipe that had been handed down four generations.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I caught a segment on a Food Network show featuring Wolfgang Puck's signature pasta sauce. The ingredients weren't scary, and the whole process took about 10 minutes. I didn't get a chance to take down his recipe exactly, but I remembered the basic ideas behind it, so one day I gave it a shot. We haven't gone back to Ragu or Classico since.

I've grouped the ingredients into two categories: "definite" and "maybe." The "definite" ingredients are ones you should definitely use, and the "maybe" ingredients are optional...depending on your taste.

Definite ingredients:

Fresh tomatoes, diced
Good extra virgin olive oil
Some minced garlic
Some decent dry white wine
Salt
Grated parmesan cheese

Maybe ingredients:

Oregano
Fresh chopped basil
Pesto

Basically you chop up a few tomatoes and cook them in EVOO on medium-low heat until they start to wilt. Add some garlic and cook a little more. Add a little white wine and some salt. Then taste it and add a little more of whatever you think it needs more of. Also add any of the "maybe ingredients" that appeal to you...or all of them. Then when it tastes pretty good, pour it over the cooked pasta of your choice and mix in a few handfuls of parmesan cheese.

This sauce is a little more delicate than your typical jarred sauce, but it's still really flavorful...especially if you're liberal with the salt and parmesan cheese. I didn't include any measurements because I just kind of add things in small amounts until it tastes right. Plus, standing over the sauce, adding a splash of this and a dash of that, makes me feel a little more like a fourth generation Italian with a secret family recipe.

Ways to save money on healthy foods, Part 1

2009-11-30T20:36:00.001-08:00

I am a person who loves a great deal. Nothing gets my heart pumping like scoring a quality item for a bargain, and I am constantly scouring websites, blogs, newspapers, and coupon circulars to make sure I get the best price on whatever it is that I need (or want) to buy. Some of my recent successes include $25 worth of cold & flu meds for $2, $140 worth of wine for $50, and a pack of 40 diapers for $3.

I am also a person who goes to Whole Foods and easily blows $100 on two measly bags of groceries such as frozen organic flax waffles, dairy-free pesto, and Kefir probiotic smoothies.

This may seem incongruous to some, but the unfortunate fact is that there are rarely great deals to be had on healthy, natural and/or organic foods. Sure, you might stumble across a sale here and there at your local health food store, but it's nothing like you'd find in the mainstream stores with their coupon doubling, BOGO promotions, and rewards cards. Technically that's a good thing - it shows that the companies and farms producing the good stuff aren't willing to cheapen their products (and thereby cheapen their prices). However, it sure hurts when that $100 tab rings up and you've only got 3 meals worth of food to show for it.

So what's a deal-loving, trying-to-eat-healthy gal to do? Well, I'd love to offer up a secret website or coupon code that can get you a year's worth of organic produce for $10 a month. But unfortunately there's no such thing. What I can offer, though, is what I've learned over the past few years about the best ways to save money on groceries without compromising on quality. Here is tip #1:

Know what things should cost

Grocery stores are fantastic at making things look like a great deal when they are anything but. They are counting on the fact that people will be lured by the big displays, overuse of exclamation points, and words like "savings!" "sale!" and "bargain!" and not pay attention to the fact that they're only saving 15 cents off the regular price. Even the crunchy, natural foods stores are guilty of this.

If you don't know whether a carton of OJ should cost $2 or $5, you're not only susceptible to grocery stores' slick advertising ploys, but you're also less likely to notice a truly great bargain. The other day I saw a huge sign touting "$3.49 Calcium-enriched Orange Juice! Price Reduced!" at my local grocery store. Because I know that I can get this same OJ at a different store for $2.49 every day, I didn't bother buying any there. On the flip side, when I see my favorite OJ selling for $1.99 a carton, I know that it really is a good price, and I stock up.

It is especially helpful to pay attention to produce costs since they can vary so much depending on region and season. In Arizona, an avocado can cost anywhere from 75 cents to $2.50 depending where and when you buy it. Knowing this, I've set a rule that I won't ever spend more than $1.25 on an avocado unless I absolutely have to, and I make sure to stock up when they are at the low end (guacamole...yum!).

To increase your "price awareness," write down a list of 15 or 20 food items you regularly stock in your house...snack foods, bread, fruits, cereals, frozen foods, meats, etc. Now, see if you can name the average price of each item. If you can't, make sure you pay attention to what it costs the next time you go to the store. Once you've done some research to find out the average prices for the foods you buy, do some comparison shopping at your local stores. I've discovered some great deals on certain organic foods at Target and Costco. For instance, my daughter's favorite burritos (Amy's Organic Non-Dairy Burritos) are regularly priced at $2.24 each at SuperTarget, whereas they're about $3.50 a piece at Whole Foods and other grocery stores. Clif Kids Zbars (snack bars that are dairy free) are also way cheaper at Target than at the natural foods stores and mainstream grocery stores.

I also recently found a 6-pack of Amy's Individual Organic Vegetarian Frozen Lasagnas at Costco for around $13. (These are delicious BTW, and are my go-to meal when I'm eating solo). At a cost of around $2.25 each, that's a fantastic deal since they're usually $5 a pop at the grocery store.

Becoming savvy about prices helps you know when to stock up and when to hold off. It also helps you determine when a sale is truly worthwhile and when it's just a gimmick.

(CLOSED) Giveaway: A free Zhu Zhu pet (Chunk) in time for the holidays

2009-11-28T13:07:00.000-08:00

And the winner is...Kathleen (comment 44)! I've attached a pic of the winning number that came up on Random.org, just in case anyone wonders how I came up with it.

Congrats Kathleen! I hope your hamster serves you well.

Thanks so much to everyone who commented - I loved hearing all the interesting, healthy foods everyone's been eating...lots of great ideas and there are some things I definitely want to try.

A few months ago, my good friend Ange tipped me off to the toys that were to become the rage of Christmas 2009: Zhu Zhu Pets. I hadn't yet heard of them, as my daughters are thankfully still too young to care what is under their Christmas tree. (In fact, Sydney's only request is that Santa NOT come into our house this year because she thinks he's scary. So we're writing him a letter to ask that he kindly leave the toys in a bag in the backyard.)

Anyway, after learning about the Zhu Zhu Pets, I snagged a few of the little hamsters at Toys R Us while I was there shopping for a birthday gift. At that time, a mere 6-7 weeks ago, you could actually wander into a Toys R Us at a normal time of day and buy a Zhu Zhu Pet without having to bribe or trample anyone. I know...crazy, right?

As Christmas nears and my daughters still don't give a hoot about whether or not they own a Zhu Zhu pet, I've found myself in a quandry about what to do with the three I possess. Do I give them to the girls anyway, since they are pretty darn cute and they'd probably enjoy playing with them? Do I sell them on ebay or craigslist at a 400% mark-up? Do I donate them to some charity for disadvantaged kids?

I decided that I will give two of them to the girls, and give the third away on my blog. It might not be the world's most charitable act, but hopefully it will mean one less parent having to wait in line at a ridiculous time of night or beat down some poor old lady just to make their kids happy on Christmas morning.

So here's how you can win this little guy:

HOW TO ENTER:

Post a comment below briefly describing the most delicious nutritious food you've eaten recently. It can be something as simple as a crunchy Fuji apple, or as complex as a side dish of steamed, marinated haricot verts at some fancy-shmancy restaurant.

Be sure to include your email address, or if you're uncomfortable posting your email address, include your first name, last initial, City & State (ie: Alicia M. Salt Lake City, UT) in the comment. I will be either emailing the winner or posting the winner's name (if no email is included) next Saturday, 12/5 at 8:00 am Arizona time (I think it's Mountain?? Not sure because we don't do daylight savings).

Bonus entries:

A) If you subscribe to my blog or become a follower on Google, you can leave an additional entry telling me you've done so.

B) If you post a link to this giveaway on your own blog or website, you can leave an additional comment as well. Please include the link in the comment field.

Next Saturday morning, I will go to Random.org and have a random number chosen to select the winner. And I promise the winner will receive his/her Zhu Zhu pet in time for Christmas!

A brussels sprouts dish I actually ate three helpings of

2009-11-27T09:35:00.001-08:00

If you'd asked me yesterday morning how I felt about brussels sprouts, I would have said I absolutely hate them. If you'd asked me at 5:00 pm yesterday how I felt about brussels sprouts, I would have said they are my new favorite vegetable.

About two months ago, I clipped a brussels sprouts recipe out of the local newspaper. It was the only time I'd read a brussels sprouts recipe that looked like it might actually taste good. Each week since then, I've intended to make that recipe, and each week I have failed to do so - either because I didn't have time, didn't have the right ingredients, didn't have time to get the right ingredients, etc.

So I was delighted when I went to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, and discovered she had clipped the exact same recipe and actually made it! And then I was even more delighted to discover that it was fantastic! Seriously, I ate three helpings and I probably would have had more, except that I was starting to get embarrassed by my brussels sprouts consumption.

So if anyone is looking for a holiday side dish, or just a regular weeknight side dish, you must try this out! The recipe comes from the Chandler Tribune and was created by Scottsdale, AZ resident Cheryl Korwin.

"Cheryl's Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Lemon"

Ingredients:

1 sweet yellow onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 pints fresh Brussels sprouts, shredded by finely slicing with a knife
1 large lemon (juice and zest)
4 tbsp butter
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:

Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until soft (about 5 minutes). Add garlic and mushrooms, and cook for about 1 minute. Add the shredded Brussels sprouts, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until sprouts are just tender (about 15 minutes). Add 1 tbsp of lemon zest and 3 tbsp of lemon juice. Also add salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir in the parmesan cheese.

Delicious!!!!

Everything's better with bacon

2009-11-22T19:33:00.001-08:00

That's Better - Bacon!
Originally uploaded by unprose

Lately my girls have become SO picky. The realistic side of me knew it was coming, but the idealistic side was hoping we would skip that whole "picky toddler" phase due to my diligence in feeding them diverse foods from the time they first started solids. Alas, I have to admit defeat. While the girls used to beg for peas, happily chomp on roasted beets and joyfully scarf down whole grain muffins, suddenly they're those stereotypical kids who love something one week, hate it the next. Brynn even turned down a cookie today with an emphatic "Yuck!"

Although many of my meals have been rejected lately, I enjoyed some success last night in getting my girls to not only eat green beans, but devour them and even ask for seconds! How? By sauteeing them in bacon fat.

I cooked two pieces of bacon in a skillet, pulled them out once they had shed a fair amount of grease, and then added a few handfuls of fresh green beans. I sprinkled on a little bit of salt to taste, but the bacon fat provided a good amount of flavor & saltiness on its own.

So it wasn't the healthiest side dish in the world...but it got my girls excited about eating greens. Now I am looking forward to combining bacon with some other greens - I see a kale & bacon experiment in my near future.

5 things I wish I would have done with my baby spinach, instead of what I actually did with it

2009-11-17T19:48:00.001-08:00

It drives me crazy when I buy food and never get around to using it before it goes bad. I've gotten much better about this than I used to be, but once in a while due to poor meal planning, an overstuffed fridge, or plain old forgetfulness, I end up having to throw away something I never even opened. Tonight, I just emptied a brand new container of pre-washed, organic baby spinach into my garbage disposal because it was turning brown and smelled like socks.

So in order to avoid having my spinach purchase be a total waste , I am listing five things I could have done with it during the 9 days it sat unopened in my fridge. And maybe by doing so, I will help prevent this same thing from happening to another innocent batch of spinach out there:

1) make a delicious baby spinach salad with any number of add-ins...hard-boiled eggs & bacon come to mind, as do pomegranate seeds and gorgonzola cheese

2) blend it with some lemon juice, olive oil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and a few other ingredients to make a homemade pesto

3) wilt it down and throw it into an omelet

4) chop it up and stir it into pasta sauce

5) layer it with tomatoes and meats and other goodies in a panini sandwich.

Pretty good ideas, huh? If only I had used them...

What "healthy" means to me

2009-11-14T12:44:00.000-08:00

I realize I've used the word "healthy" a lot in my blog posts, yet I haven't really described what I mean when I use it. "Healthy" can mean different things to different people, especially as it pertains to food.

My own interpretation of the word has changed a lot over the years. In my teenage years and early 20's, "healthy" meant fat-free; I considered healthy foods to be plain bagels with jelly, pretzels, Saltine crackers, pasta with marinara, salad with fat-free dressing, and Twizzlers.

When I went to college, I was determined to avoid gaining the "Freshmen 15," and as a preventive measure I stuck to the high carb/low fat diet that was all the rage at the time. I ate virtually no fruits and vegetables, and considered Coca-Cola a health food since it didn't have any fat. And guess what - I gained at least 15 pounds during this period of so-called "healthy" eating.

After I caught on to the scam of the high-carb/low-fat diet craze, I redefined "healthy" to be synonymous with deprivation. Eating healthy meant constant vigilance regarding your diet: banning sauces and salad dressings to "the side;" starving yourself for a day because you overindulged the day before; always turning down dessert. Since healthy eating in those terms didn't really appeal to me, I chose to eat what I wanted and exercise to make up for my bad eating habits. I figured that my margaritas, burritos, and pizza wouldn't catch up to me as long as I was hiking and yoga-ing with regularity. It worked...but those things do tend to work when you're 25 years old.

Now I define healthy foods as whole foods (ie: foods in their natural form, that haven't been processed, dyed, bleached, etc.). I don't worry much about fats unless they're trans fats, and I don't count calories. Basically, if I eat a meal that contains components of at least three food groups, and it doesn't contain preservatives, artificial flavorings, artificial colorings, or chemicals, I feel good about it.

But I also have a life that doesn't always allow for the meals I wish I could eat. In a perfect world, I would have a personal chef who would steam artichokes and broccoli for me, and cook me delicious meals of seasonal, local foods. Since I don't live in a perfect world, I start many days off with good intentions (I think I'll make grilled Tilapia and sauteed asparagus for dinner tonight) and end them with yet another frozen pizza.

Taking care of two little ones and trying to constantly cook fresh, nutritious meals around the clock just doesn't really go hand in hand. Even before I had kids, I found it nearly impossible to find the time and energy to grocery shop and cook the way I wanted to.

Therefore, I've come to view "healthy" as an attitude as much as a diet regimen. To me, healthy means trying your best to eat well, but not beating yourself up if you can't. It means eating a burger and fries from In-N-Out for lunch without feeling guilty, but then eating fruits and veggies later to compensate. It means cooking "from scratch" pancakes for breakfast one morning, and throwing a handful of dry Cheerios in a bowl the next. And it means only eating foods that you enjoy, but trying hard to find ways to enjoy foods you know are really good for you.

Banana Quinoa Bread (it's realllly good, I promise)

2009-11-13T14:26:00.001-08:00

In continuing my quest to find ways to eat quinoa and actually enjoy it, I decided to try adding it to my favorite banana bread recipe. I got the idea from my box of Trader Joe's quinoa, which says "truly versatile, it can be used in soups, salads, breads, puddings or as a breakfast cereal."

Usually I make this banana bread recipe exactly as written, except I substitute the butter with a vegan "buttery spread" which is dairy-free. It is seriously the most amazing banana bread in the world. Since it's so heavy on the banana, it is super-moist and also sweet without a ton of sugar.

I wasn't entirely sure how to go about modifying the recipe to add the quinoa, so I basically winged it. But I must say I am very proud of the results. This time I used only 2 cups of banana instead of 2 1/3. Then I added about 1 1/2 cups of cooked quinoa to the banana mixture (I eyeballed it, so my measurements aren't completely accurate). Then I added the flour mixture, but not the whole thing. I just kept stirring it in until the batter was about the same texture as thick oatmeal. I baked it as directed, and it turned out perfect! If I didn't have a husband who hates walnuts, I would have added some chopped walnuts too, which I think would've made it even better.

Now I can eat my banana bread for breakfast or a snack and feel like I'm getting some protein & other nutrients as well. And the best part is the girls love it too - win, win for me! I needed a successful experiment after I spent 15 minutes last night cleaning discarded sweet potato raviolis off the floor (needless to say, it wasn't a hit).

Just a spoonful of chocolate helps the healthy stuff go down

2009-11-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

I hate 3:00 pm. Even if I slept great the night before, ate well, exercised, and showered, I always feel sluggish and crappy at 3:00 pm. What makes it worse is that this is usually the time the girls get up from their naps and are pretty cranky themselves.

This used to be the time of day when I would head for the chocolate. Thanks to our relatives and friends in our hometown of Hershey, PA (many of whom work for the Hershey Company), we were always in constant supply of chocolate. And consequently my coffee table was in constant supply of Hershey Kiss wrappers, carefully rolled into a tight ball to conceal how many had actually been consumed.

Although I've managed to kick the Kiss habit, 3:00 pm is still my worst time of day in terms of cravings. I just can't seem to bring myself to bite into an apple or carrot with the same enthusiasm I might have at 10:00 am or 1:00 pm. So I've decided that instead of conquering the chocolate monster, I will simply try to tame him.

The best solution I came up with is trail mix. My current favorite is a blend of peanuts, almonds, raisins, dried cranberries, and M&Ms. It satisfies my need for sweets, and it also succeeds in keeping me full until dinner time. As an added bonus, nuts contain healthy Omega 3 fats, so it's technically brain food. Sometimes I buy the trail mix ready-made, and sometimes I make my own. I actually prefer making my own since I can experiment with the ingredients. I've found that just about any trail mix tastes delicious with some M&Ms thrown in, so I plan to keep experimenting to see how healthy I can get it while still keeping it crave-able.

I also recently made a chocolatey pancake concoction that was a big hit with the girls. I started with the Hungry Jack Whole Wheat Blends pancake mix, then added some milled flax seed, smashed banana, chopped walnuts, wheat germ, and some mini chocolate chips. (I've discovered that Sydney can tolerate semi-sweet chocolate chips since they only contain milk fat and not the milk protein).

Sydney was so excited that she was able to eat something with chocolate in it, she thought she had died and gone to heaven. I actually ate these pancakes too, and thought they were delicious. Brynn yelled "yuck" and threw it on the floor. But it wasn't because of the healthy stuff - the crazy child doesn't like chocolate!

The nice thing about chocolate is that a little goes a long way. I find my chocolate fix is just as easily satisfied by something that contains a little chocolate than by an entire bar of chocolate. Well, almost. Nothing will ever beat a Snickers bar...but hey, it has peanuts, so at least it's a source of protein.

Carbs: Brown vs White

2009-11-08T10:57:00.001-08:00

I grew up on Maier's Italian Bread, a sandwich bread so white and fluffy that you could gently poke it with a finger and leave a permanent dent. I still have fond memories of that bread, toasted and buttered, smeared with crunchy peanut butter and Smuckers strawberry preserves, or topped with delicious smoked turkey and Dijonnaise. I sneered at people in restaurants who ordered their sandwiches on whole wheat bread, figuring they were health nuts or gluttons for punishment, or both.

My husband was actually the one who got me to conquer my hatred of brown bread. He was going through one of his random health kicks (which usually occur about once a year and last about two weeks) when he declared that he would no longer eat his sandwiches on white bread. Begrudgingly I bought a loaf of the brown stuff. We started with the "fake" whole wheat bread - the beige kind that is mostly refined flour with a little bit of the good stuff thrown back in. Then when I learned to look for "whole wheat flour" as the first ingredient, we graduated to the hard stuff. Now I actually prefer the thicker texture and taste of whole grain bread to the fluffiness of the refined white bread. (Except in the case of crusty breads - nothing beats a crusty loaf of bread slathered with butter or dipped in olive oil, and unless I develop a disease that is only cured by banning crusty bread I will continue to eat it for the rest of my life...in moderation, of course.)

Although I made the conversion to whole wheat bread years ago, I've been slow to embrace other whole grain carbohydrates, specifically brown rice & whole wheat pasta. I feed whole grain pasta to my kids all the time, but I rarely make it for myself.

First, I had to ask myself - is it really worth it? If you compare the nutrition information on brown vs. white foods, it's not that much different, especially if you're just looking at fat and calories. But since one of my main concerns is my constantly lagging energy, I do see a valid reason to choose whole grain over refined. Whole grains take longer to digest and contain more fiber; as a result, they keep you fuller longer and help you avoid the "crash" that comes from eating refined carbs. That "crash" is probably my biggest roadblock to healthy eating - when I get that sudden ravenous, shaky feeling, any healthy intentions I had go right out the window and I'm shoving aside my yogurt and busting open the box of Snyder's pretzels.

Another area where the brown stuff wins is in the vitamins and minerals. One might argue - why not just eat the white stuff and take a multi-vitamin? Well, I guess you can. Except some health experts maintain that there's no way to truly know how the body processes and absorbs naturally-occurring vitamins & minerals vs. supplements. I'm not a scientist, but my gut tells me that it's probably better to eat something in its natural form than to eat something that's been stripped of its nutrients by machines and then injected with a weakened form of those same nutrients.

My personal answer to whether or not it's worth it to go for the grains is this: Sometimes. I don't foresee a time in my near future where I'll be ordering my Thai curry with brown rice, or asking for my penne, sausage & vodka sauce to be made with whole grain pasta. But I do feel that it's important that the majority of my carbohydrate intake be whole grain. I've even found some instances where whole grains can be substituted for refined grains without sacrificing flavor at all.

If you're having trouble finding true enjoyment in whole grains, start with the sweet stuff. Whole grain cereals, muffins, and snack bars taste pretty good. You can also make french toast with whole grain bread (my kids' favorite). When it comes to snack foods, Triscuits is a good whole grain option, as are many other crackers.

I've found that whole grain pasta seems to work best in dishes which maximize earthy flavors, such as those containing onions and mushrooms. For example, I made this recipe from Rachel Ray, which worked well. And while I tend to go for the white stuff when I use tomato-based sauces, my kids gobble up whole wheat rotini, marinara and meatballs like it's the best thing ever.

As for the rice, I can't quite bring myself to pair brown rice with curries or other spicy foods. But I've had success with this chicken salad recipe. I have also used brown rice to make stuffed peppers with tasty results. I've been meaning to pair it with swedish meatballs because I think the flavors would complement each other, but I haven't had time to try it out yet.

So the answer to whether to eat brown or white doesn't need to be black or white. I think as long as you make sure a healthy portion of your carbs are brown, there's room to enjoy the white stuff too.

Halloween candy is the devil!

2009-11-04T15:17:00.001-08:00

I just dumped all of my daughter's Halloween candy into the garbage. She doesn't care in the least since she can't eat any of it anyway (due to her dairy allergy). I, on the other hand, keep opening the trash can lid and questioning my sanity. Some of my favorites are in there...Peanut M&Ms, Reese's peanut butter cups, Snickers, Raisinets...mmmmmmmmmmmm

I simply lack the willpower to have that candy in the house and not eat some every single day. And I know it wouldn't kill me to eat a mini packet of M&Ms each afternoon, but the problem is that it easily turns into two, and then I toss in a bite-size snickers because, well, it's only a bite, right?

So in keeping with the lessons I learned from my detox program, I am eliminating the tempting junk foods from my kitchen. Now I'm about to go throw a dirty diaper on top of the candy in the trash so that I don't try to dig it out in a few hours. :)

A healthy alternative for cheesecake lovers

2009-11-02T11:47:00.001-08:00

I usually cringe whenever I read about healthy alternatives to decadent foods and desserts. It's always something like: "If you're really craving a brownie, try eating a rice cake with a little unsweetened cocoa sprinkled on top!" Sorry, but that's just not going to cut it for me.

Recently, however, I found a yogurt that really did beg for a comparison to cheesecake. No, it doesn't taste exactly like cheesecake, but it definitely has a lot of the same characteristics.

And it's not one of those "desserts masquerading as yogurt" either. You know what I mean...those caramel chocolatey sugar-filled mousse yogurts that have no real nutritional value. In fact, this particular yogurt has 10 grams of protein, 2.5 grams of fat, 130 calories, 17 grams of sugar and all natural ingredients. (If you need something to compare it to, regular Yoplait has 27 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein, and 170 calories, not to mention artificial flavors and colors.)

I recently began eating greek yogurt just to try something new. I'd heard good things about it, namely its thick, super-creamy texture and high protein content. I've tried a few different varieties over the past few months, but my favorite by far is FAGE Total 2% yogurt.

This yogurt is unique in that it comes with two compartments: the main compartment contains the plain flavored greek yogurt, and the little side compartment contains a fruit topping that you can mix in. It comes in strawberry, peach, honey, and cherry varieties; my personal preference is the cherry because it adds to the cheesecakeyness.

There is a trick to eating this yogurt: the key is rationing the fruit filling so that there's enough to combine with each bite of the yogurt. If you get too filling-happy on the first few bites, you'll end up with a pile of unflavored yogurt at the end, which is kind of a bummer. Oh, and I also recommend using a baby spoon because it helps you get every last bit of the fruit filling out of the small compartment.

This yogurt has become my lunchtime or afternoon treat. My favorite time to eat it is when the girls are napping, so I can sprawl out on the couch and devote my energy to getting the perfect cherry-to-yogurt ratio on each spoonful.

Look for it next time you're in the yogurt section of the grocery store. I can find it in almost all health/natural grocery stores I go to, as well as some mainstream grocery stores. If you are desperately jonesing for the double fudge snickers cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory, this probably isn't going to fulfill your craving, but if you just want a healthy snack that doesn't scream "healthy" then I definitely recommend the Fage.

PS: make sure you check the label - there's a "classic" version that has a lot more fat than the 2% kind (12 grams vs. 2.5). If you're not concerned about fat it's no biggie, but just wanted to give a heads-up to those who are.

Perfect pairing: salmon & potatoes

2009-10-29T19:20:00.001-07:00

Omega-3s are all the rage these days. Of course, we all know that today's wonder food might be tomorrow's poison, but in the meantime I am doing my best to up my Omega-3 intake.

Salmon is a fantastic source of Omega-3s, and it's also something I happen to love. I am particularly partial to smoked salmon since it satisfies my "salt tooth" and doesn't require any preparation, except to cut open the package. Another favorite of mine is canned salmon. Like smoked salmon, it's convenient, and it is also affordable and typically wild caught (If you want to read up on wild caught salmon vs. farm raised, I found an informative post here)

One of my fondest salmon memories is of an appetizer I had at Spago (a Wolfgang Puck restaurant) at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. My husband and I were enjoying a romantic dinner, and we ordered a salmon appetizer to start. I don't remember every detail about the dish, but I remember it was composed of a small, crispy potato pancake topped with a slice of lox and a dollop of a sour cream-based sauce.

I thought about that dish long after I'd eaten it. What was so appealing about it was the blend of those three different, but complementary flavors and textures - the crispiness, saltiness and slight greasiness of the fried potato, that distinct smoked salmon flavor & smoothness, and the creamy tang of the sour cream.

Feeling adventurous one night, I tried to replicate it. It actually came out quite close, although my potato pancake wasn't as crispy as Wolfgang's...probably because I used a skillet instead of a fryer. Since then, I've concocted a few other versions of the salmon and potato theme.

Here are some of my favorites:

Appetizer:

Chop some lox and put it in a bowl. Add some chopped green onion, some capers, and a few squirts of lemon juice. Put a spoonful of the mixture on top of a sturdy, decent sized potato chip (I like Ruffles) and top with a small dollop of sour cream.

Breakfast:

Fry up some shredded potatoes in a skillet (I like the convenience of the bagged frozen hashbrowns, but you can also shred Russet potatoes). Once they're browned and slightly cooled, put them in a bowl and mix in some drained canned salmon and possibly some chopped onions and/or spinach (I buy the frozen chopped spinach, thaw in the microwave, and squeeze out as much water as I can).

Add as many beaten eggs as you'd like, and some salt and pepper. Pour the concoction into a skillet and cook into an omelet. Or, you can make scrambled eggs and then add the mixture at the end and you'll have a salmon, potato, and spinach egg hash. The key is having the potatoes IN the egg mixture instead of on the side - it's delicious!

Kid friendly:

Use the same ingredients in the post above, but add just enough egg to hold the ingredients together. Form into patties and cook in a skillet. This has become a favorite at our house - I love that it's an "all in one" healthy meal that contains a vegetable, carb, and protein. These also freeze pretty well if you want to make a big batch.

No milk, no problem

2009-10-26T20:17:00.001-07:00

One of my goals for this blog is to reach out to other people who are dealing with dairy allergies or intolerances. I don’t want to focus exclusively on it because there are too many foods I love that contain dairy (especially cheese…yum!), but I do hope to eventually become a resource for those who are forced into, or choose, a dairy-free life. I plan to give tips on great dairy-free products, ordering at restaurants, modifying recipes to make favorite foods dairy-free, and talking to kids about why they can’t have cake and ice cream at their friends’ birthday parties.

When my daughter Sydney was six months old, I gave her milk-based formula for the first time. Within minutes, hives started sprouting up around her lips and chin. I thought maybe it was related to the nipple on the sippy cup, possibly a latex allergy. But within 15 minutes, her entire body was covered in hives. She threw up about an hour later, and threw up at least two more times after that. When she was tested by an allergist, it was confirmed that she had an allergy to cow’s milk.

I was instructed to remove all traces of dairy from her diet. This meant that I would not only have to avoid the obvious, like milk, cheese and yogurt, but I would also have to start decoding labels, looking for words like “whey” and “casein” and “curds.” I have to say, all of my label-reading has taught me a LOT. Even after 2.5 years, I am still continually surprised by which foods do or do not contain dairy. Here are just some of the foods that have confounded me.

Oreo cookies are dairy-free.
Many pre-made cake frostings are dairy-free.
Many taco seasonings contain dairy.
Almost everything on the menu at Chik-Fila except the fruit cup & waffle fries contains dairy.
The roasted turkey at Boston Market contains dairy.
Some pre-packaged cinnamon buns are dairy-free.
Some canned chicken noodle soup contains dairy.

I could go on and on…

Unfortunately there is no cure for a milk allergy, except hopefully time. There are varying statistics about when and how many children outgrow their allergies. Here is a recent statistic I found, based on a study of 800 children with milk allergies:

• 19% outgrew it by age 4
• 42% outgrew it by age 8
• 64% outgrew it by age 12
• 79% outgrew it by age 16

When Sydney’s allergy was first diagnosed, I was hoping she’d be part of the group that outgrew her allergy early. Sydney just turned three, and her allergy is still going strong. Just the other day, she accidentally grabbed her sister’s milk-filled sippy cup and took a swig. She immediately spit it out, and then spent the next 10 minutes scratching her tongue. She was even licking the couch at one point to try to get the itchy tongue feeling to stop.

While I still hope she outgrows it relatively soon, it’s become part of life for us. I call her allergy a blessing and a curse: a curse because it’s inconvenient; a blessing because it has forced me to look closer at the foods my kids eat, and also forced me to be creative in the kitchen.

One thing I’ve discovered is that almost any dish that is not primarily reliant upon cheese as its main ingredient can be made into a dairy-free version. So life without dairy is definitely not void of pleasure. If you need reassurance of this, check out the cake I just made for Sydney’s birthday (shameless self-congratulating, I know….but I slaved over that thing for 4 hours, so I need to pat myself on the back a little).

So if you know anyone who has kids with dairy allergies, or is allergic to dairy themselves, please send them my way. I'd love to trade ideas & tips, and would also be happy to guide anyone who is new to this and overwhelmed.

Spice up your salad

2009-10-23T12:24:00.001-07:00

I grew up eating the same salad time and time again: iceberg lettuce, chopped carrots, tomatoes, and cucumber, Bacos, and Italian dressing. It was good, just not terribly exciting. Salad was never a meal in and of itself...it was the vegetable side dish, sitting in its little wooden brown bowl in the upper right hand corner of my place setting.

As I got older, I loved trying out new, interesting salads at restaurants, but my "at home" salad got even more boring. Usually it consists of bagged mixed baby greens, balsamic vinaigrette, and yes - still Bacos. (I know Bacos don't even come close to resembling real food, but I figure a tablespoon here and there isn't going to kill me. Nothing beats that salty crunch!)

There's no reason my salads should be so lame, and so I'm making it my goal to break out of my salad rut. One of the salads I love to make is an Italian chopped salad. I based my version on one I used to order all the time at the Pasta Factory, a homey little Italian restaurant by our old apartment in Marina del Rey, CA. After we moved to Phoenix, I craved that salad constantly and so one day I set out to make it. I was quite pleased that it tasted almost exactly like I remembered. Here's what's in it:

Romaine lettuce & hearts, chopped up. Make sure the lettuce is really fresh and crisp. I like to chop it into thin ribbons and then cut the ribbons into 1/2 inch pieces.

Garbanzo beans (I use the canned kind...drained & rinsed)

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Diced tomatoes

Chopped salami (I like to order it from the deli and ask them to slice it thick. Then you can chop it into little cubes.)

Cardini's Italian Dressing (You can use any Italian dressing, but I find Cardini's to be the closest to the dressing I had at the restaurant. I also like that it's emulsified and a little thicker than other Italian dressings, so it coats the lettuce nicely. Oh, and it's dairy free! You should be able to find Cardini dressings in most large grocery stores or health food stores.)

Just mix it all together. You can add as much of each ingredient as you like. I just eyeball it until it looks like there's a good blend of ingredients; ie.: you can easily get a forkful that contains a little bit of everything.

At the restaurant, they always served this alongside a piping hot, crusty loaf of Italian bread and garlic-infused olive oil. In keeping with tradition, I HAVE to eat crusty bread with this salad. I recommend you do the same. :)

Lessons learned from my detox experiment

2009-10-20T20:10:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday at approximately 2:00 pm, I threw in the towel on the whole juice fasting thing. I was getting nauseous from the bitter juice, and weak from hunger. And I needed energy, as I was looking at another 5+ hours of taking care of the girls on my own. I felt pretty guilty about it, but then I remembered why I started this whole blog in the first place. The way to make healthy changes in my eating habits is to find healthy dishes and whole foods that are truly pleasurable. So choking down "gross juice" (which is what Sydney started calling it after she saw me grimacing with each sip) in the name of health goes against pretty much everything I believe in.

I expected that when I was finally done with this program, I would immediately jump on the couch and surround myself with loaves of crusty bread, bars of chocolate, and gallons of wine, eager to make up for lost carbohydrates, sugars, and alcohol. But instead, I found myself craving a carrot. That bright orange, crunchy fresh carrot in the fridge was calling my name louder than the bags of pretzels and crackers that had been shoved to the back of the pantry. I don't know whether it was the effects of drinking gross juice all day or what, but that carrot was the tastiest thing I've eaten in a long time. After I ate the carrot, I ate some avocado, with just a little salt sprinkled on top. I found myself savoring each creamy bite and noticing how delicious that plain old avocado tasted all by itself.

So this got me thinking. Although my liver wasn't fully detoxified, I did manage to dump a few bad habits and pick up a few good ones during my 8 days of eating under the program rules. Here's what I learned:

1) Most bad eating habits are actually bad shopping habits.

When my pantry is stocked with a ton of yummy processed snack foods, it makes sense that I'm going to gravitate toward those when I'm running on zero energy and/or time. When those foods aren't there, and instead I have a refrigerator full of fresh fruit, guess what I'm going to eat? I admit, on Day1 when I had to choose an apple over Wheat Thins for my mid-morning snack, I wasn't happy about it. But after a few days, I started to look forward to that apple. By the end of only eight days, the salty snacks I was used to had lost a lot of their appeal. In fact, even though I'm not doing the detox anymore, I am still eating a ton more fruits and veggies than I was before.

If you want to stop eating something, just stop buying it. Likewise, if you want to start eating better, make sure you are always stocked with fresh fruits, veggies & other healthy treats so that you're not resorting to eating junk just because you're out of the good stuff.

2) It's worth it to invest in high quality, in-season fruits and vegetables.

I think part of the reason I took such pleasure in the carrot & avocado I ate the other day was that they were both perfectly ripe and fresh. The carrot was bright orange, moist and crunchy; the avocado was a perfect color and texture - not too mushy, not too firm.

Many times I've opened my fridge with good intentions, but become turned off by the bag of shriveled, white-ish baby carrots I find at the bottom of the veggie drawer. Or the browning bagged lettuce. Or the apple that's too soft or tart or both.

Now I plan to take my time in the produce section to ensure that I'm buying the best of what's available. It might not always be the cheapest choice, but it's better to invest in something I'm actually going to eat than in something I'm going to throw away a week later.

3) Sugar is in a LOT of things, even foods that aren't sweet.

When the plan told me to cut out sugar and artificial sweeteners, I didn't think it would be too hard. I don't have a huge sweet tooth to begin with, so I figured aside from my nightly chocolate and occasional snack bars, I would be OK. Well it turns out that sugar is in almost any processed food you can find, like cereal, crackers, soups, salad dressing, pasta sauce and even mayonnaise.

Sometimes sugar is essential to the flavor of a certain food, but other times it's really not. For instance, when I dipped my banana into unsweetened peanut butter, I didn't notice a difference because of the natural sweetness of the banana. I also found a cereal that was sweetened with pear juice instead of sugar, and it has now become one of my favorite cereals.

I certainly don't think a little sugar here and there will hurt anyone, but I do think that avoiding sugar in my diet is going to help me to lose weight and be healthier overall. I also think it will help me to have more energy, since I won't suffer any sugar crashes like I used to after my afternoon Coke break.

4) Drinking more water is as easy as having a glass nearby at all times.

One of the rules of the program was that I was supposed to drink 1/2 my body weight in ounces of water each day. I already drink a pretty decent amount of water, but this past week I was actually conscious of how much I was drinking. And that little voice in my head saying "remember to drink water" was all it took for me to up my intake. The other thing that helped was making sure it was always available...this meant always having a full bottle in my diaper bag and glasses stashed throughout the house at my most frequented "stations," like the computer desk, the kitchen island, my bedside table, and the side table beside the couch. Whenever I noticed one of these glasses, I drank a few sips. It was as simple as that.

I actually used to hate the taste of water. Throughout my college years and many years beyond, the only beverages that ever passed my lips were coffee, Coke, iced tea, hot tea, and alcohol. The only time I drank water was while exercising, and even then I'd usually only finish 1/3 of the bottle.

Somewhere along the line that changed, although I don't entirely remember why or how. I do remember that for a long time I could only stomach bottled water. Then I made the shift to plain old filtered fridge water. My point in sharing this is that water-haters can be reformed. And it really is worth it to try...when I am drinking a lot of water, I feel more energetic, my skin isn't as dry, and I'm not waking up in the middle of the night feeling parched.

So as a whole, I'm really glad I tried the detox program. It didn't drastically alter my life, but it has kickstarted what I hope is going to be a healthier way of eating that will last indefinitely.

The poor (and busy) man's (or woman's) gourmet lunch

2009-10-20T12:59:00.001-07:00

Caprese Salad
Originally uploaded by Kitchen Mouse

Poor lunch - it's the meal that usually gets shafted the most. It's the meal many people eat sitting at their desks, in their cars, or hunched over a kitchen island, trying to shove in as many bites as they can before they're asked to slice more apple or get more turkey for the kids (that last one would be me).

My lunches have traditionally been bland or unhealthy or both: a turkey sandwich with mustard on whole wheat bread (blah); Chik Fila chicken nuggets (man are those good!); or some greek yogurt (a healthy choice but doesn't fill me up for very long). Usually I end up snacking on random bites of random foods for the better part of the afternoon until I'm finally full. This not only gets tiring, but I ultimately end up reaching for some sort of unhealthy snack because I've run out of other options.

Lately I've been trying to put more effort into lunch. It can be a hassle on days we're running from one place to the next, but I feel so much better when I've eaten a meal instead of various handfuls of this and that. One thing I've begun making with some regularity is a caprese salad.

All it consists of is a slice (or two or three) of tomato, topped with a slice of fresh mozzarella (the kind that comes floating in water), topped with a big slice of basil. I drizzle mine with my favorite balsamic vinaigrette. You can also just use olive oil & balsamic vinegar. And sometimes if I am needing some extra greens, I put a bed of baby lettuce underneath in order to make it more substantial.

It's so simple to assemble; it's impossible to mess up; and it can be ready in 30 seconds. It brings a little gourmet, restaurant flair to that under-appreciated mid-day meal.

It's fasting day, and it's really rough.

2009-10-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

So today is the 1-day juice fast portion of my liver detox program. I was actually kind of looking forward to this day for the sole reason that I wouldn't have to think about food for 24 hours. It's been tough trying to make sure I am eating all the right things, so drinking juice & water should seem like a welcome relief. Except for two problems...1) I'm hungry, and 2) the juice is disgusting.

The juice is made of 100% unsweetened cranberry juice diluted with water, with some freshly squeezed orange juice, lemon juice, and spices added. I also sweetened it with Stevia, which tastes like minty Robitussin. It didn't smell bad while I was cooking it up - it kind of reminded me of the mulled wine I made one time over the holidays. But this morning when I took my first sip, I almost gagged. If the juice wasn't bad enough on its own, I was instructed to stir 3 tbsp of milled flax seeds into my first cup. So basically it was like drinking a cup of sour mix with some dirt thrown in. The photo is of the actual juice - notice the chunks? Blech.

The flax/juice combo was so disgusting, I had to pour it down the drain after about 5 sips. But I still resolved to complete my 24-hour juice fast. After chugging a glass of water to get the taste out of my mouth, I filled a cup with ice and tried the cranberry concoction plain. It was still disgusting. I reasoned that maybe it would taste better when I was truly, truly hungry and willing to eat or drink anything just to get some calories. Well it's noon, I am officially starving, and the juice still tastes horrible. I think I've only had about 8 oz and I'm supposed to have 72 by day's end.

So this is the conversation I've been having with my liver over the last 5 hours:

Me: Why am I doing this to myself? I am a reasonably healthy person. It's not like I NEED to detox my liver...I'm just trying to be healthier. Surely, there are better ways.

Liver: Really? You can't last ONE freaking day? You're pathetic. You're a quitter.

Me: But I'm not a quitter. I lasted 7 days without bread, rice, crackers, chocolate, coffee or wine (OK, I cheated on the wine 2 or 3 times, but I only had 1/2 a glass!) I've roasted beets, and steamed artichokes, and eaten large carrots like a bunny. You can't call me a quitter.

Liver: First of all, it was at least 3/4 glass and I'm sure it was 3 or 4 times, not 2 or 3. Secondly, that was just the warm-up to the detox. This is game time! Yes, I've enjoyed the benefits of your healthier eating choices, but this is my time to really shine. I'm about to start flushing impurities out of your system. Do you really want to halt that?

Me: (Sigh) No, I don't. But this cranberry juice is so freaking gross!

Liver: Try watering it down a little more. Hang in there, please! I will thank you later.

Me: Fine, I'll try watering it down. I'll give it two more hours. If I'm still this grossed out, I am opening a bag of chips.