Frugal Healthy Simple

Falafel and Homemade French Fries

2012-01-26T07:25:00.000-08:00

The falafel was my fave recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, with a small adjustment - I didn't feel like going into the dark to see if I have fresh parsley still living, so I used dried.

And I sliced up potatoes and made homemade oven fries.

Vegan meal, at least until I dipped the fries in ranch.

There's a distinct lack of green on the plate, but I did have cole slaw for lunch and sugar snap peas for lunch also. It was a really long day yesterday, culminating with my work computer getting a virus. So I left with no email account and no computer. I ended up going back in for 2 hours using someone else's computer, but I only had access to about 1/2 of the programs that I needed.

Chickpea Curry (Aarti Party) and...when you have energy - GO FOR IT

2012-01-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

So, I taped an episode of Aarti Party this weekend and enjoyed watching her make Chickpea and Artichoke Masala. I was inspired and bought artichokes and dried chickpeas to make on Sunday. Except I didn't have the energy on Sunday, and went to a friend's house for dinner. So I postponed it to Monday. It was very easy. I love Indian food and was happy to see an Indian show on the Food Network.

The only things that I changed were: I used a can of tomatoes (it's not tomato season), used lemon juice instead of lime juice, and I omitted the yogurt (making it vegan). Not because I wanted to make it vegan, but because I took my plain yogurt to work, and I didn't think that vanilla would taste right. With the beans, tomatoes, and vegetables, it's a pretty frugal meal for sure.

I did, however, take the time to cook up a pound of chickpeas on Sunday. I used to be in the habit of cooking a pound of beans a week. According to the USDA, they're good for you! (1/2 cup a day is recommended!) When I was doing the paleo/primal thing, I gave up beans. I still try to avoid them at lunch (too many carbs), but I just love beans. And chickpeas are versatile. I used some in the masala, then I used some in falafel. I froze the rest. I probably should have saved the cooking water for some chickpea gravy ala Cook for Good or Wildly Affordable Organic (I can't remember where I read it, but I'm pretty sure it was from Linda Watson!), but I didn't.

I was also supposed to make Cole Slaw on Sunday for Monday's dinner, but didn't have the energy for that either. So I made it last night (with much help from spouse) and we ate it tonight. Plus lunch tomorrow. And the next day. I rounded out tonight's dinner with more potato and kale soup and some baked chicken fingers from TJ's.

After all that dinner tonight though, I had some energy. So while my family was occupied with finding a camera for my son's photography class tomorrow (I know, he's 5. Weird. Maybe soon he'll be taking my food photos. Nowhere to go but up!) - I got busy making the falafel in the food processor. It will be nice and cold and ready to shape for dinner tomorrow. And that's my lesson - when you've got the energy, go with it! 'Cuz you never know when you'll get home without even the desire to face the microwave, much less the food processor, knife, or stove.

We ate the last of the bagels today for breakfast, so here's to hoping my energy stays high enough to throw some bread into the bread machine.

Oh, and Friday night's dinner, I made nachos.

Potato and Greens Soup - CSA and a Fridge on the Fritz

2012-01-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

Our fridge has been on the fritz. I noticed on Thursday that the milk just didn't seem cold. So I mentioned it to my spouse. He vacuumed out the coils and all, checked various parts of the fridge, but it still didn't seem quite right. So Friday, we called the Sears repairman. It's a 10 year old Kenmore fridge. I was starting to think that I might have to bring home my mini-fridge from the office.

Spouse met the fridge guy at home, and he diagnosed the problem. It cost us 70 bucks for the diagnosis. The fan in the freezer was not running. I guess the way the fridge works is that there's a fan in the freezer that blows cold air into the fridge, but the fan had stopped running. He tapped it and it started again, but noted that it probably needed replacing. The cost for the part would be $90, and labor would be $200. But he told my husband that there's a local store that would sell the part for $60, and all he had to do is remove four screws and plug the thing in. So, being engineers, that's what we decided to do. But oops, they aren't open on the weekend, so we've been spending our weekend constantly checking on the fridge. It's gone out at least one more time. Thank you Sears repair guy for the money-saving tip.

This week from the CSA we got organic Yukon Gold potatoes and a bag of mixed "stir-fry greens". This is a mix of dark leafies. There's a few kinds of kale, and what looks like cabbage and radiccio, maybe some dandelion greens too. I felt inspired to make soup based on a BBC show I watched on line, that was linked from this post of a blog that I really enjoy. Turns out that soup makes you feel fuller longer. And I've been loving my Blendtec since I got it for my birthday a couple of years ago. I also have an immersion blender that I use for slightly chunkier soups.

I also pulled out my cookbook from Nikki and David Goldbeck called American Wholefoods Cuisine, and found a recipe for "Potato and Greens Soup". I used their recommendations on how long to cook the soup with just the potatoes and after you add the greens.

It was quite delicious, but needed a tad more salt. I always under-salt my soup and need to add more later. You can use water or vegetable stock instead. I roasted two chickens of chicken parts last weekend, and saved all of the bones in the freezer. So, step 1 of the soup yesterday was to make the stock.

Potato and Greens Soup
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, pressed
About 6-8 cups chicken stock (I just eyeballed it until it looked right)
1.5 lb potatoes, diced (I left on the peels because they are nutritious and were organic)
1 bag or 1 bunch greens
1/2 to 1 tsp oregano
1/2 to 1 tsp marjoram
pinch fresh rosemary ('cuz we had it)
1 cup shredded cheese (I used an Italian blend)
S&P to taste

Saute the onion in olive oil in a pot until soft. Add the garlic and saute one more minute. Add the chicken stock and potatoes, bring to a boil. Add the oregano and marjoram. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered, 15 minutes.

Meanwhile wash the greens and remove tough stems. Remove cover on soup when potatoes have been cooked 15 minutes and add the greens. Cover again and cook 15 minutes. Add the rosemary.

Move the soup to a clean, cool stockpot. I find that when I want to puree the soup in the blender, I need two pots, and I need to cool the soup. So I first move the soup to a cool pot (in this case, the one I had the stock in), and then after it cools about 5 minutes, I puree it in batches in the blender. Then I move the pureed soup back to the original pot. Makes more dishes, but it easier.

Once the soup is pureed, return to low heat and add the cheese, S&P. Delicious!

I made bagels!

2012-01-21T18:08:00.000-08:00

And burritos. The burrito filling:

Pinto beans (cooked from dried), onions, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, corn, rice, cumin, oregano, chili powder, S&P. This was dinner on Thursday and Friday, lunch today, and probably lunch tomorrow.

The bagels came from this recipe using the bread machine. I was inspired by my neighbor who made them for her hubby's birthday a couple of weeks ago. They were pretty easy! And only about 13 cents per bagel. Can't wait to have one for breakfast. I topped mine with sesame seeds and coarse sea salt.

Ginger Glazed Carrots and Turnips, and Leftover Brisket

2012-01-17T18:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, the brisket was MUCH better on day 2. That's probably why the recipe suggests you make it the day before. Softer, not chewy, flavorful. Yum. Maybe I'll try it again sometime. It was delicious over brown rice.

I used this recipe from smitten kitchen. My brisket was only about 1.75 lbs, so I edited it. And I didn't have chili sauce so I used a little salsa.

I also made ginger glazed carrots and turnips. I got this bunch of teeny tiny baby turnips from the CSA, and thought they would go well with the rest of our carrots.

Tomorrow is Wednesday. Last Thursday was our first pick up day of our CSA. All we have left is a lemon and some lettuce. Good thing pick-up day is coming the day after.

Chicken Spaghetti Squash Parmesan, and my first brisket

2012-01-16T19:36:00.000-08:00

Chicken Parm

Last night's dinner was chicken parmesan. Now, I've made versions of this from scratch before. As in, debone the chicken breasts, pound them out, bread them, fry them, make the marinara sauce, etc. etc.

This was not that kind of chicken parmesan. I did use spaghetti squash instead of pasta and had to roast the squash. It was good, but the only pesto I have left in the freezer is arugula pesto, and it wasn't as good as basil pesto would be.

Spaghetti squash chicken parm
1 spaghetti squash
16 oz marinara
olive oil
1 small onion
10 oz sliced mushrooms
2 cubes frozen pesto
4 cloves garlic
mozzarella and parmesan cheese
frozen breaded chicken tenders (From TJ's)

Slice the squash in half and scoop out seeds. Place face down in a pan coated with cooking spray. Roast 1 hour at 375F. Let cool. Remove strings with a fork.

Saute onion and mushroom in oil. Add squash strands. Add pesto and combine well.

Spray a 9x9 pan with cooking spray. Layer veggie mixture out. Place chicken tenders on top. Top with marinara and the cheeses.

Bake covered at 350F for 15 min. Increase to 375F, remove foil, and bake for 15-25 more min. Delish!

I roasted the seeds!

Brisket

I also bought my first brisket at the farmer's market. I found a decent crockpot recipe. And...we didn't like it. The sauce was good, but the brisket was way too fatty and chewy. So, maybe we screwed it up (spouse did it today - he had the day off). How can you screw up a crockpot recipe? Anyway, next time I just go with pot roast.

We also steamed up some baby kale and cabbage leaves and I made a cream sauce with milk, parm, cream cheese, garlic powder, and lemon juice. I don't have a final photo, but THAT was great.

Dijon-Glazed Salmon and Steamed broccoli

2012-01-15T18:27:00.000-08:00

Simple as simple can be.

I found a piece of salmon in the freezer. It was free from the neighbor, which means it's probably been there for 6 months. But we sealed it up with the FoodSaver, so I'm sure it was fine.

Line a pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Place the salmon in the pan and S&P.

I glazed it with: 1/4 c unpacked brown sugar, 2 Tbsp dijon mustard, and a sprinkle of dried dill.

Bake at 375 for 30-40 min. 40 was about right. Most salmon recipes call for "broiling", but my smoke alarm goes off at anything above 450F. It's always been that way. So I don't broil. I found the alternative of baking in allrecipes (one of the comments on the recipe).

It was delicious.

The broccoli was micro-steamed, tossed with S&P, olive oil, and parmesan.

Simple. Delicious.

Banana Muffins

2012-01-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

I searched this blog for this recipe this morning (my banana bread recipe), and couldn't find it. Kinda crazy!! How did I go 4 years without posting it? It's basically a recipe from one of my cookbooks that I healthified.

I generally healthify a dish by cutting the sugar to 1/3 to 1/2 of the original recipe, replacing some of the fat, and subbing whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour.

My kid complains about nuts, so I left them out. Usually I make bread, but I was feeling like muffins today, and they bake in less than half the time.

Banana Muffins
1.5 c. all purpose flour: 0.31
1 c. whole wheat flour: 0.20
1 tsp baking soda: 0.05
1 tsp salt: 0.01
1 c chopped walnuts (optional). Other options: chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, coconut: 0.50
1/2 c. sugar: 0.09
3 T canola oil: 0.15
2 eggs: 0.63
3 mashed ripe bananas: 0.57
1/3 c. milk: 0.14
1 tsp vanilla: 0.15
1/4 c. organic natural applesauce (unsweetened): 0.37

Total: $3.17 for 20 muffins, or $0.16 per muffin. Two for a nice breakfast, one for a snack, yummy!

I made one pan with a few chocolate and peanut butter chips, and the other pan with coconut and chopped macadamia nuts.

Chicken and Rice

2012-01-12T21:17:00.000-08:00

I was originally going to make chicken fried rice. But I didn't have the energy to make the rice ahead of time (and it's much better if you do). And I also didn't feel like dirtying another dish.

So I made the chicken and rice all in the rice cooker. And except for the fact that I added the peas too soon (and they got gray), it was very good.

Chicken and Rice in the Rice cooker:
1 cup brown rice
2 cups water
1/3 to 1/2 cup leftover pan juices from roasting the chickens (see note below)
1 cup frozen peas
2 large carrots, chopped
1 chicken breast, chopped
1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

Note: The Fine Cooking recipe for citrus roasted chicken recommended saving the pan juices to use as flavoring later. I saved about a cup of it. 1/3 was chicken fat that solidified in the fridge. I skimmed off most of the fat, leaving about 1-2 Tbsp. I put that and the rest of the pan juices that had also solidified into the rice cooker.

Into the rice cooker: brown rice, water, pan juices. Press go.

About 15 minutes before it should be done (45 min later), add diced chicken and carrots and stir. I also added the peas, but I'd recommend adding them even later. When the rice cooker is done, stir well and eat!

Top with a little soy sauce.

Chicken and bean burritos

2012-01-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

I have been ON FIRE this week. After cooking up that chicken on Sunday (well, 2 chickens) I've been morphing those babies into many meals, including chicken burritos, chicken sandwiches, chicken and potatoes, chicken salad...

One night was chicken and bean burritos. I made a pot of pintos last week and used some in a sausage and bean crockpot extravaganza. The remaining pintos went into the freezer, destined for these burritos.

The filling contained:
1 chicken breast, cut up
3-4 cups pintos
1/3 bag frozen peppers and onion
some salsa
garlic powder
S&P

As usual for me, it's all about the toppings. Now, you can't see the toppings here (they aren't on here yet), but I had shredded local cheddar, sour cream, salsa, and some fabulous guacamole (the avos are really good this year...so creamy).

We had broccoli on the side, but after the burritos, I wasn't hungry so I took it for lunch.

Sausage and Pepper sandwiches

2012-01-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, you don't feel like cooking. And this is a great meal for those nights. I forgot to take a picture though. Ingredients:

Chicken/turkey pesto sausage, sliced
1/3 bag frozen peppers/onions
1/3 24-oz jar marinara sauce
Hot dog buns
mozzarella

Saute the sausage and veggies in oil until done. Add the marinara and warm through. Scoop onto hoagie rolls. Top with mozzarella. Bake until the cheese melts.

We had this with the last of the cauliflower and kale soup.

Now if I only could open the marinara jar. Man, I'm getting weak in my old age.

Fine Cooking - Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread and Roast Chicken

2012-01-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

So, I started getting Fine Cooking by subscription recently. My son's school was selling magazines, and this is one that I will buy whenever traveling for airplane reading. I get good tips and recipes, including ginger-glazed carrots, that stay in my repertoire.

This month was no exception. They had a good article on roast chicken (I know, me? roast chicken?). And on how you can roast two chickens and eat for a week. It used to be that one chicken lasted us two weeks, but we were mostly vegetarian then. Now we are three people, and I've learned that it's easier to maintain my weight if I eat more meat, because I get less hungry. Too many carbs = hunger for me.

The recipe this month was for citrus roasted chicken. I did not buy two whole chickens and break them down myself as recommended. I did not buy two cut-up chickens from the farmer's market, at $23 each. I did buy two cut-up kosher chickens from Trader Joe's, at $10 each. Sometimes, you compromise.

I edited the recipe a bit. I generally don't buy whole lemons - my neighbor has a tree. In season, I pick 'em (with his permission), and then zest and juice them and freeze both in ice cube trays. So, I used 4 cubes of juice/zest. I didn't use oranges - I subbed our tangerines from our tree out back. I also didn't read the recipe until 2:30 pm, so the chicken didn't get the recommended 6-12 hours of marinating (only got two). I also edited the cooking temp/time for my oven, and for the fact that I forgot to reduce the temp. It was still quite tasty.

Citrus roasted chicken
2 chickens, cut into 8 pieces each (legs, wings, thighs, breasts)
4 Tbsp olive oil
4 cubes of lemon juice/zest (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup)
3 tangerines. Zest and juice two and slice the third.
8 cloves garlic, pressed
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
S&P to taste

Mix the lemon juice, tangerine juice and zest, garlic, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and honey.

Place the olive oil in a roasting pan large enough for all the chicken to lay without overlapping (I use my turkey roaster). Swirl it around. Place the chicken in the pan. Pour over the marinade. Cover with plastic and refrigerate up to 12 hours, but two will do if that's what you've got. Or 1/2 hour. I don't know.

Preheat oven to 425F. When ready, turn chicken to skin side up and add salt and pepper. Roast for 45 mins at 425F. The skin is supposed to get brown. Mine didn't really, and that's with doubling the recommended time at 425F. Reduce heat to 375F and cook 15 more minutes. My oven is low and slow, so I always need to up the recommended baking/cooking time. Just saying. YMMV.

I served this with fried potatoes and kale chips. Gotta have the messy kale chips the night before the cleaning person comes.

The leftovers are destined for chicken salad sandwiches, chicken and bean burritos, and maybe some chicken fried rice. I saved some of the pan juices. They recommend risotto, but I'll probably go with the fried rice.

I also started the day by trying out cinnamon raisin swirl bread from the same issue. Again, my house is on the cool side, so even with extra time on the stove top with the stove on warm, it didn't quite rise like I wanted it to, so the bread is a little bit dense. But still delicious. Should freeze a loaf so it doesn't go bad.

The recipe calls for using the stand mixer, so it really wasn't that hard. I started at 7 am and was done at 11 am. Next time I might try the bread machine though.

Pizza, Soup, and Hummus, Oh My! and Cupcake Wars

2012-01-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

And cupcakes. Let me explain first about the cupcakes. Last weekend (the long holiday weekend), I vegged on the couch a bit and watched Food Network. And I came upon Cupcake Wars. Now, I do like my food TV and competitive shows. I like Anthony Bourdain. I faithfully tape Top Chef. I enjoy a good episode of Chopped. When I was on maternity leave 6 years ago (almost), I watched a lot of food TV while nursing my son (my husband ate like a king during those 3 months, and I watched so much that it was over a year before they showed an episode of Barefoot Contessa, Giada, or Rachael that I HADN'T seen.)

But these "challenges" and "wars" - not really into it so much. Maybe it's because I'm not really into dessert. But we caught the start of an episode, and lo and behold, one of the contestants was from Santa Barbara! We have more than one cupcake shop in town, but Crushcakes Cupcakery is one we drive by weekly. It's in downtown and on the way to the farmer's market on Saturdays.

I enjoyed watching the show and so did my son (probably had something to do with it being cupcakes). The editing on the show isn't that great. I've seen 4 or 5 episodes so far, and it's pretty clear very early who is going to win. Thus far, it's always been the "pretty girl" (young and pretty, and I'm not exaggerating), and she gets a lot of air time. So alas, our local girl came in 2nd (for the THIRD time).

Yesterday, we (I) decided to stop at the shop after our grocery shopping. Spouse picked vanilla (not lemon, who knew?) Kiddo picked "peace" because he liked the frosting. Mommy picked peanut butter cup.

We waited until after lunch and after a trip to the park to try out my son's new bike to eat them (and did that while watching another episode). I am pretty amazed at the combinations of flavors they come up with and the decorations. I'm pretty sure the contestants know the "theme" before the go (such as poker or surfing), so that they can take the decorations they need and design a final display.

The cupcakes were pretty good, but were $3 each, so they are a treat for sure.

On the home front yesterday, I decided to make hummus. I've had the ingredients forever, including an unopened jar of tahini, and have just been lazy and have been buying it. I use the Cook's Illustrated method, which basically involves putting the water-based items in the food processor first (chickpeas, lemon, water, garlic, spices) and puree'ing them pretty fine, and drizzling in the olive oil/tahini mixture later. Makes it really smooth.

How come the hardest part about making hummus is the 10 minutes that it takes to stir in the oil in the tahini jar??

Next up: Creamy cauliflower kale soup

I saw this recipe in my MIL's Martha Stewart Living magazine, and basically bought the magazine to try it out. It is vegan, and tasted pretty good. However, it uses water as a base. So it could have used a little more seasoning. Maybe extra salt, or some homemade stock. I'll make it again, but with stock next time. It's cauliflower, kale, garlic, onion, water, salt, pepper, and dill. Pretty simple. If you use the blender, it gets really creamy and frothy. And we love soup in this house!

And finally: Pizza

You know me, I love pizza. And I had some time, so I fired up the bread machine. The bread machine makes it so easy. To make the dough the way I like it, it still takes a couple of hours. The bread machine only runs for 45 minutes, but there is a little bit of kneading, resting, shaping, resting, par-baking...much of this isn't necessary, but it's what works with my oven and pans.

This is our standard pie, with sauteed onions, pesto, cheese, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes. Eaten with ranch and sriracha of course!

Potato burritos and Kabocha

2012-01-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

It's the squash time of year again! Last year, I finally tried kabocha squash, after reading about it all over various blogs. I'm a butternut kind of girl (and delicata). Well, kabocha is delicious! Maybe even a little better than butternut.

So at the market last weekend (farmer's market), I bought one. Last night I simply cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, and sliced it (okay, that's a pain). Salt, pepper, olive oil, roast it 30 min at 400F.

I served this with potato, onion, and cheese burritos. The CSA starts up next week, so by Thursday we're running low on veggies. I fried up some onions and potatoes and shredded cheese. I had two HUGE avocados for guacamole. And that, my friends, was dinner. I forgot to take pics at the beginning. Oops!

4 + years!

2012-01-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

Wow, this blog is over 4 years old. Looks like my first post was mid-December 2007. It slipped my mind this year due to travel and family tragedy. But, happy belated anniversary to my blog!

My crazy cooking weekend.

2012-01-03T18:09:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a weekend like this in a VERY long time. But here goes:

Saturday:
Bagel-egg-cheese sandwich for breakfast
Brownies (from a box)
Sweet potato appetizers

Sunday:
scrambled eggs
scones (from a package)
sausage and leftover pasta for lunch
aloo gobi
salad
multigrain bread (bread machine) - it was a little small and dense, probably the flour is old. Haven't been baking much lately.
pinto beans (from dried) - to be used in crockpot sausage and beans on Tuesday

Monday:
salmon noodle casserole

A $5 solution to a $200 bathroom problem

2012-01-02T16:04:00.000-08:00

So, we have an old-ish house (1947), and only one bathroom. The bathroom was remodeled some time in the 80's or 90's we think. It was done mostly tastefully, if a bit retro. It's black and white (which I love). The tile is getting old and cracked in places. The toilet and pedestal sink are black.
But we can live with all this. The only work we've really done since moving in is to remove the wall heater (a fire trap), install a light/vent/heater, replace some fixtures, and paint.

We've had a problem with the medicine cabinet, however. It's a recessed cabinet coated in some kind of enamel. And 7 years of my husband's shaving cream has chipped and scratched the heck out of it - the enamel is basically completely gone on the bottom shelf, and it's rusting.

So we've talked about replacing it with a wall-mounted wood one one, trimmed in black. We know exactly what we want it to look like - my friend Beth in San Francisco redid her bathroom, and I said "this is EXACTLY what I've been wanting to do to mine!" Right down to the sink on a furniture-type cabinet. (While the pedestal sink is fine for me, someone who does not wear makeup, it would be less practical for others. And more storage would be nice.)

We've hemmed and hawed and delayed doing anything. Part of me doesn't want to replace the medicine cabinet until we are ready to replace the sink, for placement (my husband says it's fine). We also couldn't agree on the cabinet. I want a certain one, and we didn't find one with a cursory look online. I like the LOOK of this one, but I'd prefer one with three doors. This one is $200. Inertia, and life of full time work with a child, is a powerful force towards doing nothing. Not to mention, we really should re-tile the bathroom because of the cracked tiles. The problem with that is that we only have one bathroom. And then your "let's replace the medicine cabinet" turns into a "let's remodel the bathroom". While I have utmost confidence in our abilities at DIY'ers, that would take time, and I'm not sure how long I want to be showering at the gym or at work.

In any event, we enjoyed our New Year's Day with a swim at the Y, then came home and I prepared lunch (leftovers). I started smelling a god-awful smell, and eventually traced it to the bathroom and a can of spray paint. My spouse shut the door, opened some windows, and pulled out the fan.

And here is the end result. Not the neatest job in the world, but it's no longer cracked and peeling, and all for the cost of a can of spray paint. Now it should last at least 5 more years.

Edited to add: it was actually "free" because my husband used a can of spray paint we already had, and used to make our son's halloween costume a few years ago.

Sweet Potato Appetizers

2012-01-01T15:48:00.000-08:00

So, I had some leftover sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's. Come to think of it, I have a few still, but they expired yesterday. Should compost those. We were headed to our friends and neighbors' house for NYE, so I googled "Sweet potato appetizer". And I found this recipe. I already had a package of crescent rolls and was about to head out for my walk to the farmer's market and trip to the grocery store. So I picked up some more crescents at Trader Joe's.

I liberally adjusted this recipe because I only had about 40 minutes, a few items, and I was tired. Had a SPLITTING headache most of the day, and napped to recover.

Sweet potato appetizers: (makes 16)
1-2 cups diced sweet potato
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
sharp cheddar cheese
2 packages cresent rolls
Saute the onion in olive oil a few minutes until softening. Add the diced sweet potato (I diced this very fine, 1/2 inch x 1/4 inch pieces). I cooked this about 10 minutes on low-medium, covered, then increased the heat to brown the pieces a bit. Salt and pepper to taste.
When the filling is ready, open the crescent packages. Break into 4 pieces. Press the diagonal seams so that you have 4 rectangles. Cut each in half crosswise and press out to 4 inch square. Spoon filling into each square. Place a thin slice of cheddar on top. Fold up the corners and twist into a little "purse".
Bake about 15 min at 350F. Enjoy!

Meal Plan

2011-12-29T19:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not quite in the swing of things yet, but I am cooking. I keep forgetting to take pictures. But really, how many pictures of roasted chicken on a bed of veggies can a girl take?

We arrived home late Monday night (I walked in the door at 11:30 pm and was asleep on the couch at 11:35), and I did the grocery run on Tuesday. No farmer's market, the CSA doesn't start until the 12th of January, so I made do with Trader Joe's.

I got a kindle for Christmas and read a good book by Mark Bittman about cooking and food, and I don't remember what it was called. It was pretty anti-processed food. I have to admit, I've been hitting up the pre-prepared foods more lately, but nobody is perfect. So I endeavored to cook more this week.

Tuesday lunch: cantaloupe, pork tamales (they were at the tasting station at TJ's, and son begged for them), snap peas with hummus.
Tuesday dinner: baked breaded chicken (from TJ's). Carrot-ginger soup (my son's favorite).
Weds lunch: salad with apples, leftover chicken, sharp cheddar, macadamia nuts, and raspberry vinaigrette. Spouse was home sick and had PB&J.
Weds dinner: pasta with pesto (from a jar) and broccoli mixed with sauteed onions and sausage. Now, this felt like cooking, even though I didn't make the sausage or the pesto. But I did overcook the pasta and broccoli a bit (not quite at the top of my game), so the pasta got mushy and the broccoli fell apart. Family loved it, tasted good, but not photo worthy!
Thursday lunch: my spouse's salad lunch from the day before. He was home sick again.
Thursday dinner: baked organic chicken legs on a bed of potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions. Carrot soup.
Friday lunch: leftover chicken and veggies, snap peas
Friday dinner: leftover pasta with broccoli and sausage
Saturday lunch: more of the pork tamales
Saturday dinner: NYE with friends, potluck style. I'll probably make something with potatoes and sweet potatoes. Not sure what.

Time to go grocery shopping

2011-12-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

We are back from our 11 day trip back east to visit family over the holidays. Our fridge is empty except for some take-out boxes from our house-sitter.

It was a very sad trip - my mother passed away the day after I arrived. I didn't cook a lick. I ate a lot of bad food the first half (people bring food when someone dies, and it's not vegetables). I mourned with my step-dad and siblings. I got pampered by my mother-in-law during the second half. My father died on Christmas Eve 4 years ago, so I can officially say that the holidays sometimes really suck rocks.

And now it's back to the real world.

Meatloaf

2011-12-11T21:34:00.001-08:00

Last weekend, I bought ground beef at the farmer's market (Rancho San Julian), and my husband made meatballs. But one lb of beef doesn't make a lot of meatballs, especially when you are me and you are trying to eat paleo for lunch (any kind of grain whatsoever at lunch makes me fall asleep an hour later, which is when my boss wants to discuss projects and strategy. Yawning is not an option.)
So this week, I bought 2 lbs and made meatloaf. I was inspired by an episode of Diners Drive-Ins and Dives that I happened to catch - where an Italian place made meatballs with sofrito. It made me realize that I could add cooked celery to my meatloaf (I never can finish up my celery). I really like the "Triple D" show. As much as the food is usually over-the-top in calorie counts, the restaurants featured really do make their food from scratch, and that is inspiring.

So I found this recipe. Made it a little larger because of the 2lbs of beef. And there are enough leftovers to last most of the week. We served it with the last of the Thanksgiving cornbread stuffing (don't worry, it was in the freezer), some TJ's vegetable samosas, and roasted broccoli. Delish!

Roast chicken and vegetables

2011-12-05T18:26:00.001-08:00

It looks a lot like what we had for Thanksgiving, except with chicken parts. The veggies were sweet potatoes, onions, and carrots. Served with broccoli. I wasn't hungry, so I ate it later, cold. Had it for lunch today too.

Sandwiches!

2011-11-27T07:10:00.001-08:00

No turkey sandwiches here...you actually need a turkey. But I did make chicken sandwiches for lunch the day after Thanskgiving. This one had mayo, chicken, aged gouda, avocado, and fresh sliced tomatoes. YUMMY.

I also have been on a bagel kick (sadly, a 6 pack only lasts 2 days with 3 people). I had bagels with cream cheese and MORE tomatoes.

These are my garden tomatoes. I realize that it's November, but apparently our tomato plants don't realize it yet. The beauty of So Cal!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T02:12:00.001-08:00

We had a low-key chill Thanksgiving. With a cold, I just wasn't feeling up to being social, since our first set of plans fell through. I declined other invitations so that I could nap. We ended up watching way too much TV: Madagascar, then back-to-back Willy Wonkas (both versions).
Our dinner was simple, but still not ready on time (1/2 hour late). Figures. We did my favorite Ina Garten chicken recipe on a bed of vegetables. I'm going to say it: how come the chickens at the farmer's market don't come with giblets anymore??
We started by chopping onions, carrots, yukon potatoes, and sweet potatoes and putting them in our roasting pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Then you put the chicken on top and roast 1.5 to 1.75 hours. Remove chicken, and let rest before carving. The veggies get all caramely and delicious.

My husband made his grandpa's famous cornbread stuffing. (It was missing something this year. We aren't sure what.)

We weren't feeling up to homemade rolls, so pillsbury to the rescue!

Here's my plate before:

And here's my plate after:

I just wasn't that hungry. Of course, I passed out at 8 pm, woke up at 1 am. I've been awake for an hour, so I finished off my plate with a glass of milk, and I'm hoping it will put me to sleep soon. Ugh.

Quick and Sick Lunch

2011-11-23T11:52:00.001-08:00

So what do you eat when you are home sick, and have been sick for more than a month? Good question! I finally kicked the bronchitis and came down with a cold. My boss essentially ordered me to take today off. In fact, I even went home early yesterday. I missed my company's status update, which apparently also included the fact that I won an award, missed out on free Indian food, and have to wait until Monday to get a $25 grocery store gift card given to all employees.

I don't feel too bad about missing it (except for the excitement of winning an award, which I found out when my engineer congratulated me by email). I got home, put on sweatpants, and immediately fell asleep for 2 hours, sitting upright on the couch.

I spent the rest of the day tired, and spouse and I had tickets to see Blue Man Group. We even hired a babysitter for the first time! (Yes my son is 5.5. Sad. We've swapped with friends, hired a nanny for a week - but she's not local during the school year, but that's it.) It was an awesome show, but I almost fell asleep during it. I woke up at 3 am again...this insomnia is killing me.

For my day off, I sent my kid off to day care anyway (such a bad mom thing to do, but I am going to pull the "sick" card here). Got some grocery shopping done and now I'm about to take a nap.
So this was my lunch today after my trip to TJ's. Annie's Teriyaki noodles, with extra frozen veggies tossed in, and a couple of tangerines from our tree. The tree is laden this year. I don't buy much fruit now, I just go outside and start picking!

Later folks. Turkey day is tomorrow. We aren't hosting this year, nor are we going anywhere. A couple of coworkers kindly invited us over, but with my sickness, I really just need to be somewhere where I can nap on demand.

Grass fed Tri tip

2011-11-20T06:12:00.001-08:00

I seem to be on a once-a-week trend of posting. Considering my bronchitis and lack of sleep, I think that's to be expected. Luckily, I do have a general menu plan, so I can be brutally honest about what's cookin' in the FHS household.
Last Sunday was tri-tip. My friend Kelly is my source - she is 100% paloe/Atkins, and she and her hubby buy it in bulk. That means I get some too at a bargain $8 a lb. Each package usually has about 3.5 lbs and two small tri-tips. This is easily enough meat for us to eat all week. (Truly, it's more than we would normally eat.)
This week's menu started with tri-tip, rice with veggies from the CSA, and kale chips.

The rest of the week involved more tri-tip and rice, skillet pasta (with or without the meat), burritos, more tri-tip with salad...you see the trend here. Thursday night I made more rice and quinoa to go with the meat for lunch on Friday while I was cooking a dinner of chicken, salad, and cornbread.

Friday night was pizza (ordered in). Saturday lunch was a friend's birthday party, where we ended up with leftovers. And Saturday night was pizza. So, the illness means we are cooking less for sure. I just haven't been feeling like eating vegetables either.

On that note, the CSA is over for the year. They extended the season for four weeks, but since we'll be gone that last week, we didn't sign up. We do need to sign up for next year though. I should check on that. So my haul at the farmer's market was larger to make up for it.

This year we're not having turkey (long story), but I am roasting a chicken on a bed of delicious root vegetables.

Poor hubby. He was supposed to play tennis today for the first time in weeks. I awoke at about 5 am to a tinkling sound of rain. No tennis for him. We've both been slacking on our workouts. With the inability to breathe, I haven't been swimming in four weeks. My exercise involves 2 days a week at the gym, 30 mins elliptical, 15 min weights. And one day walking 2-3 miles on the weekend. It's gotta be enough to keep me going until I am healthy again.

A brief week in pictures

2011-11-13T06:09:00.001-08:00

The blog has been winding down lately, as I'm sure you've noticed. There are a few reasons for this: work craziness (I now have four people working for me, and it's crunch time), husband traveling, and bronchitis. Yay for me. I find myself passing out between 8 and 8:30 in the evening (many times before my child), waking up at 1 am with insomnia for a couple of hours, and then awaking again at 4 or 5 in the morning. Lovely.
So my energy level isn't that great, and the whole family is ready for the bronchitis to be over. Here's a bit of what's been going on:

Last weekend a really great friend of ours came by for a visit. He was in our wedding, and my hubby was his best man. He's from Santa Fe, and he was on a business trip in San Francisco, so he swung by for a weekend. His wife wasn't able to make it. We had such a great time. You know how you've got old friends (we've known him for...19 and 21 years I think) who, no matter how long you've been apart, you go back seamlessly into a great fun relationship? Yeah, it's one of those. He's a vegetarian, so we did a combo of cooking and eating out while he was here.
Friday night (I had the day off): homemade pizza
Saturday morning: eggs and toast
Saturday lunch: farmer's market, went wine tasting, ate sandwiches at a great deli
Sunday dinner: made black bean burritos and kale chips
Sunday breakfast: out (we love breakfast out). Tried a new place. It was "meh".
Sunday lunch: veggie burgers
Sunday dinner: skillet spaghetti and salad
Monday breakfast: scones. See below...
Read more »

Beef Stew-fry

2011-11-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

That is not a typo. We got a LOT of greens last week from the farm. And I didn't even eat all of them yet. Hopefully the tatsoi is still good. But we had a big bag of "braising greens" and some mizuna from the week before.

My son doesn't like "stir-fry", so I made a stir-fry in the stew pot and called it stew. It has local grassfed beef, greens, onions, peppers, tomato, a soy-sesame sauce, with some of our home canned tangerine marmalade to give it some sweetness. It's almost paleo (except for the marmalade), and it was tasty. I made it last Thursday and have a teeny bit left for lunch tomorrow.

On the health front, I still have an awful cough...I think I may have bronchitis. So I will be heading to the doctor's office tomorrow and see what they can do for me. Ugh. I get winded just trying to walk more than a mile (I still do it), and I am coughing up lots of phlegm. It's been 2 weeks!

The beef, onion, and peppers

The braising greens (kale, chard, etc)

The finished product

I didn't really cook this weekend.

2011-10-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

Monday, I started feeling somewhat sick. Chills all day, so I went to bed early. Then I started sweating at night. I then had a sore throat most of the week. But just the hint of one. I figured, this isn't so bad.

But of course the weekend hits and I go down hard.

I made it through Friday night's YMCA Halloween party just fine. But there was a long line for food, and about 30 minutes into it, we ditched it to get burritos.
Saturday was my son's school's Fall Festival. I volunteered for food prep. Which I figured was a bad idea since I was sick. So I made my husband go instead. I ended up working a booth for 45 mins, chasing tennis balls and picking up milk bottles. In the 80C heat, wearing jeans, with no water. Then my replacement did not show up. So my neighbor and friend wandered around and begged people to take over for me. Then I got food and water and felt much better.

The kiddo caught my cold, and he fell asleep on my lap during a drum performance.

I spent much of the night coughing. Spouse was smart and slept on the sofabed. Kid crawled into his spot. Where the two of us proceeded to cough on and off during the night. I have been suffering from insomnia a lot lately, and was up for 2 hours in the night. I did get to sleep in until 7 am though.

On to Sunday. I have probably been drinking gallons of hot tea and orange juice from our tree that I defrosted. I had a little boat trip scheduled with my triathlon team. We didn't feel like passing our sick child onto our friends, so I went alone and spouse stayed home.
Being a good wife/mom, I did make split pea soup before I left. Spouse burned it on reheating (it's really easy to do...so now it tastes...smoky.) I ate on the boat, chicken, rice, beans, and tortillas. And a couple of sodas (HFCS, ugh), but wasn't feeling like alcohol with a cold.

But that's all I've cooked this weekend. And tomorrow is a potluck at the neighbor's before trick or treating. We'll be taking salad.

The Life of a Chicken

2011-10-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

No, not really. Just the progression of a chicken.

Step 1: chop vegetables. Here we have delicata squash, sweet potato, onion, bell pepper, broccoli, carrot. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, put in a roasting dish.

Steps 2-4: Stuff a chicken with lemon, thyme, rosemary, and garlic. Salt, pepper, and butter the outside. Place on top of vegetables and roast.

Step 5: Carve pumpkins with your family (and roast the seeds!)

Step 6: Take the chicken out of the oven and admire.

Step 7: Enjoy! With Kale chips! But feel bad that you bought a free range chicken that was fed corn and soy feed. Not fit for chickens.

Step 8: Throw the carcass (along with a second one from another chicken made elsewhere...maybe Costco) with some bay leaf into the crockpot and let it cook on low all night to make stock. I got about 14 cups of stock.

Step 9: Make a big pot of cream of broccoli soup from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook with your chicken stock (you'll still have some stock leftover).

Step 10: Enjoy your soup with some chicken tacos from leftover chicken. That's home-canned salsa on there.

Step 11: A couple of days later, think: "oh crap, what are we going to eat for lunch, we are out of vegetables, and soup does not travel well by bicycle". Throw some brown rice into the rice cooker with 2 cups of chicken stock. When done, add in a can of black beans, the last bits of freezer bags of corn and peppers, some cumin, garlic powder, salsa, and oregano, fresh cilantro, and the last of the chicken. Enjoy for lunch for 3 days. Store in the rice cooker pot to decrease dish washing.

Step 12: Remind yourself that you still have 6-8 cups of stock in the freezer. Take a deep breath and realize that you aren't cooking at all for dinner this weekend due to various events. Start planning daytime cooking anyway so you don't starve next week.

Macaroni and Cheese Week...and...when life gets in the way

2011-10-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

You know how you sometimes have those weeks that are SO busy you cannot even think of blogging? Well, this week was like that. Who am I kidding. Every week is kinda like that. This was no exception. But I remembered to take pictures!

So what I have for you, my friends, is not recipes. It is photos and descriptions, so you can see what is seasonal and delicious in Southern California in October.
Scrambled egg with chicken and homemade salsa and cheese, with Martha Stewart's Soda Biscuits on the side (this was breakfast):

Stir-fry

2011-10-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

I did make the promised stir-fry this week, using up the leftover veggies from the friend's kid's birthday party. It was fast, easy, and delicious.

We also had roast chicken (from Costco), salad, and lots of chili and lasagna to eat this week. On Friday, we went out for pizza and to test out our Axxess card (local discount card). We tried a new pizza place, and the pizza was soggy and greasy. Won't be going back there!

Weekly Plan and What I'm Using UP

2011-10-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a good day for free food. We went to a birthday party at the zoo. There was too much food. The party-throwers were prepared with Ziploc bags and tupperware and send people home with food. At times in the past, I would have felt weird about taking food from a casual friend's party. Once you have a kid's party and are left with sandwiches for 20, you get over that. So we came home with small sandwiches, melon, raw vegetables, and cheese. The sandwiches will be gone by lunch time, the melon will be great for snacking, the vegetables are destined for a stir-fry and the cheese will end up somewhere I am sure. A lot of different places likely.
Saturday's lunch was the last of the CSA lettuces, canned beets, blue cheese, sliced turkey, toasted walnuts, CSA pomegranate seeds, and an avocado from my boss's tree.

I feel so spoiled

2011-10-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

So, this Friday was a little different than most. My husband decided to take 1/2 day off to hang out with our son after kindergarten (we are trying to do this more often). I told him Thursday night "You are responsible for dinner." Now, I wasn't specific. But grilled cheese sandwiches or ordering in would have been fine with me.
I used the opportunity to work a little bit late - I find it incredibly stressful to rush out of the office early every day, then pick up the kids, go home, and cook dinner. Actually having the time to plan out my work and the work of my employees is sometimes a luxury.

In any event, I got home and I smelled...lasagna. Lasagna is my husband's specialty. He took our son grocery shopping, and actually made two trays. He gave one to our neighbors, and they traded us some homemade rolls (my son ate 3 rolls).

On TOP of that, he did a really good job using up items in our fridge and pantry (which isn't normally how he cooks). He used some of our onions, all of the cherry tomatoes (I have SUCH a hard time using these up), some red bell peppers, and carrots. He also added the last of the grass fed beef and some bison sausage. I was SO impressed and it was crazy delicious. I ate WAY too much.

So that's what we'll be eating for dinner tonight too. I think my "use it up" for the weekend will be to use the found tri-tip and more sausage and some dried beans and canned tomatoes and frozen peppers (mild and hot) to make chili.

Pantry/Freezer meals, week 1

2011-10-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

I made a serious effort to eat foods out of my freezer(s) this week. My small freezer in the laundry room doesn't have much in it. Some popsicles, some bread, a steak, and a piece of liver I bought at the farmer's market. And a bunch of chicken stock.

The above-the-fridge freezer is a different story. Bread crumbs, frozen fruit, frozen veggies, bread heels, and some unidentifed items wrapped in foil (turns out, these were pancakes and cooked tri-tip, but not together).

My pantry is not much better, with rice and pasta and beans and things that I stopped eating when I went low-carb. I've kind of drifted away from the low-carb thing, and I'm actually not feeling all that healthy about it. Ah well, it's a process.

Last weekend I made another loaf of no-knead bread. This time it was rye bread. I used up some rye flour and caraway seeds from the pantry (well, I didn't "use them up"). The Cook's Illustrated bread recipe calls for beer. I found one dusty beer a few weeks ago in the laundry room, and have been using it for the no-knead breads. I just stick a wine cork in it and put it back in the fridge.

It's clean out the freezer week

2011-10-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

I am feeling overwhelmed with life in general, and the inability to find stuff in the freezer is a big part of that. I wonder how long I could eat without shopping? I didn't make it to the farmer's market this weekend (elected to walk with my friends instead).
So what's on the menu from the freezer?
Sunday, we grilled up the last two chicken breasts, and used them for burritos and salads. We also grilled some sausage...

which will be served with leftover pasta from the freezer. I put that in there...probably before our last vacation, which would be ... June? Don't judge. I mean, it was frozen solid, so it's probably okay. Maybe not terribly tasty but...

I also defrosted homemade refried beans (see the burrito part, above). And a few tortillas for the boys.

I also made homemade no-knead rye bread, and will be serving that with homemade leftover caponata, from the freezer.

I did add to the freezer this weekend - I made chicken stock from last week's chicken. I also roasted a bunch of red peppers and a couple of poblanos, and put them in the freezer too. Oops...one step forward, two steps back.

Other things I'd really like to get taken care of:
make bread crumbs from the bread heels
make something with all those frozen bananas
make beef stock from that steak bone I've got in there
use up more of the frozen vegetables, to make sure there's not too much lurking in the back

I think it's time to just refuse to buy any frozen food until I get through everything that's in there. Same with the pantry. Okay, clean out the pantry challenge. Who's with me? (I am saved somewhat by my weekly CSA...)

Crockpot Pot Roast

2011-10-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

This was pretty good. I was looking for a good thing to do in the crockpot, that would provide plenty of leftovers during the week. Cooking after a full day of work is a bit much these days, when I'd rather spend my time playing with my kid or helping him with his homework.

I stretched this meal even further by adding a can of Dinty Moore beef stew later in the week, and also some canned beans. I had the stew for our camping trip, and it never got eaten.

Read more »

Roast Chicken and Vegetables

2011-09-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

This is, perhaps, my favorite meal ever. Ina Garten is pretty awesome, and this recipe never steers me wrong. Since I am doing the "Primal 30 day challenge" (albeit badly at times...I cannot seem to give up the bread or beans 100% - maybe 90%), I thought it would be a good choice. One of the carbohydrate heavy vegetables that are recommended in moderation in the Primal plan are sweet potatoes and winter squash.

Well, it's sweet potato season, so I thought I'd give that a try. I don't think I've ever seen them at our local farmer's market. Potatoes must not grow well here. But after scouring the big market on Saturday, I found one guy in the last aisle with sweet potatoes.

So I followed Ina's recipe here, and for the vegetables, I used a bed of sweet potatoes, onions, and carrots. I was disappointed that the particular chicken vendor I chose at the market has stopped giving the giblets with the chicken. The livers are my favorite part. Next time I'll try the other person (we get our turkey there for Thanksgiving).

I roasted two chickens, which is just as easy as one. My neighbor has a lemon tree and wasn't home (and lest you think I am a thief, has told us many-a-time to help ourselves). I kept one chicken for dinner and leftovers and sent one over to the neighbors' (a different neighbor). We both have kids, and we both have two working parents, and we both know what a chore cooking every night can be. I got soup in return. :)
The best part about this recipe is that the chicken fat and butter run down the chicken while it roasts and coats the vegetables. They get all carmel-y and fatty and delicious. Best is that there are leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, and maybe another lunch after that.

Roast Vegetable Soup and an Omelet

2011-09-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the fuzzy photo on the soup - whoops! I made this soup again this week...still tasty! Although I went a little overboard on the celery. So this recipe has the CORRECT amount of celery.

Read more »

A couple of meal pictures

2011-09-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday's breakfast: apple with almond butter, cheese, summer sausage.

Last night's dinner, mostly Primal, pork, cheese, sauteed onions and peppers, sour cream (all in lettuce wraps) turnips and turnip greens with bacon, avocado, and some cooked beans. The beans aren't "primal/paleo".

Tonight's dinner: kale chips and salmon. I also made a veggie dip with roasted veggies and ate it with carrot sticks. I also had a few tortilla chips and potato chips. I have PMS. I am trying this primal/lower carb thing. But sometimes you just shouldn't fight PMS. It was so bad today, that a coworker had to take me out for a walk and another one (both women) had a chocolate bar for me when I got back.

On a plus note, I've lost between 11 and 12 lbs, only 3 or 4 to go until my goal.

Menu Plan Tuesday

2011-09-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

As I was eating my lunch today, my coworker (who visits my blog) asked if I was going to blog about it. I said "no", mostly because I've been busy and didn't remember to take pictures. Oops. But the food was pretty good, so I decided to do a "menu plan" list, so you can get an idea of what I've been eating and feeding my family. This heavily features food from my CSA and farmer's market. My family and I eat the same stuff, but I've been cutting the carbs, so I just leave the grains out.

Sunday (had friends over): Baked chicken pieces (farmer's market), pasta with marinara and roasted vegetable puree (cherry tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onion), and salad with avocado, carrots, radishes, walnuts, and dried cranberries.
Monday: ground beef (local) stir-fry with broccoli, onion, and red bell pepper. The veggies were fresh from the farmer's market or CSA. Family had this with brown rice. The sauce was rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and fresh orange juice.
Tuesday: baked chicken (Trader Joe's), and steamed cauliflower with homemade cheese sauce. I used some of the sharp colby/jack cheese from the farmer's market in this.
Wednesday: Bean burritos with pork, radishes (CSA) and a side of turnips and turnip greens (CSA) sauteed with bacon. The dry beans are cooking right now. I will leave off the tortilla and just eat the filling.
Thursday: roasted veg dip (CSA - cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, peppers) with carrot sticks to dip in it (and tortilla chips for the family), and salmon, and kale chips.
Friday: leftover burritos and roasted vegetable soup (tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrots, and peppers). I made this soup last weekend - kinda winged it- (see, I've been slacking, no recipe and no pic!) and it was AWESOME. To pull this off I will have to roast the vegetables on Thursday night.
Saturday: Not gonna be at home...my friend is getting MARRIED!! At my CSA farm!! :) We're taking cookies for their dessert table. And a gift. Probably something related to composting.

Meatballs

2011-09-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Yummy. I'm not going to bother posting this recipe - it's from Betty Crocker. An oldie but a goodie. I used local, grassfed, free-range beef that was on sale at Whole Foods awhile back. Part of my attempt to get more fat in my diet.

Rosemary Olive No Knead Bread

2011-09-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

This recipe originally comes from Cook's Illustrated and I love it. It's so easy. But you have to remember to mix the dough up a day before you are going to bake it, that's the only problem. I also experimented a lot with my pot and my oven and have adjusted the baking temperatures and times to work for me.

Today I said "no"

2011-09-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

I am a yes-man (or woman). No, not really. I am much better at saying no than my mother, for example. But I tend to bite off a lot. It's a type-A engineer thing.

Today, I had planned on going to the first PTA meeting for my son's school. What's wrong with that? Nothing, right? Except, in the last year, I've found myself the group leader for my quilting group, a manager, a triathlon-doer, and a person doing a host of other things. That all make me really really tired.

Today, after trying to leave work on time, then remembering that I have to pick up the CSA veggies first, I picked up the veggies and then... I got on the freeway and...stopped. In traffic. Because of an accident. As I sat in traffic, pissed off...sat in traffic that took me an extra 20 minutes to pick up my kid. I started thinking. "How did I get here?" I used to be happy. I used to work 30 hours a week, pick up my kid early, go to the park, cook a leisurely dinner. And here I was...running late, ticked off about an accident, thinking about getting home, cooking dinner, and getting to the 1.5 hour PTA meeting by 6 pm.

And I decided to say "no". I picked up my kid and went home. I put away the veggies, then succumbed to my child's desire to play chess. He just started playing last night. Daddy wins. He beat me 2x. I decided that I did not need to spend 1.5 hours in a PTA meeting. Now, maybe it wouldn't be that bad. I go to the quilting meetings, and man, some of those women can go on and on about stuff when you just want to say "get to the point". (One reason why I don't go to the meetings.) I would, in fact, love to be involved in the PTA. To support our local public school, to sell Axxess books to raise money (while I'm not really into coupons for various meals out and things, many of my coworkers are.) But. I just know that if I go, I will be roped into more things that I don't have time for.

So maybe I didn't say "no" to anyone but myself. But it's time I start. Why DID I go back to full time? I pretty much spend 90% of my life pissed off. Mad at people at work who waste my time. Mad at traffic. Tired of cooking and packing lunches. I mean really. I have a food blog. I love food. Can you believe I'm so tired that I am tired of cooking? I used to take so much joy in cooking and quilting.
So. What's next? I don't know. We'll just have to see.

Good Calories, Bad Calories

2011-09-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Good Calories, Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes. I'd heard a lot about it. Now, I have a lot of vegan cookbooks. I've been eating mostly vegetarian for years, and have been on the low-fat train for decades. However, I like to keep my options open. I visit Mark's Daily Apple and recently borrowed The Primal Blueprint from the library.
While I don't think carbohydrates are evil, and I wonder about the sense it makes to eat like a caveman when cavemen didn't live very long, it got me thinking. The two sides are so polar. Both have studies that support their views and both are very vocal (The China Study, and some of Atkins' work). And you've got followers in both camps that say they've never felt better, been healthier, or been able to maintain their weights easily. Of course, that's probably easy when you are eliminating entire food groups. And both sides really emphasize lots of fresh fruits and veggies and real food. I read lots of vegan blogs. However, I've got some friends who have had much success on a health standpoint by going low-carb.
I'm not sure I could ever give up my grains, but I have been cutting back. And the last several days, I have been increasing my fat intake. (It's that Good Calories, Bad Calories thing again.) That whole low-fat diet thing? Total hoax. No definitive studies that ACTUALLY link a high-fat diet to cardiovascular disease. At least, I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book, and that's still the case.

Today I woke up with a killer hangover. Gave blood last week, then had 3 glasses of wine = not a good mix. For breakfast, I ate high fat (remembering what worked during my college days). 2 eggs, a piece of toast with butter, and cheese. I wasn't hungry for 6 hours, when usually I need to eat every 3 hours. I decided to continue the trend for lunch, and got a Cobb salad. Only 440 calories (Trader Joe's), but a lot of fat. Again, did not need an afternoon snack.
Dinner was a slice of homemade pizza and some broccoli. All in all, I haven't been hungry today, and I only ate 32 points. Which is pretty low for me.
So, I'm going to be testing out this higher-fat thing for a bit longer. See how it works out for me. Nuts, avocados, seeds, eggs, meats...if it helps me maintain my weight without hunger, it can only be a good thing.
Have you read Good Calories, Bad Calories or The Primal Blueprint? Any thoughts?

Tomatillo Salsa

2011-09-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

Yep, we got tomatillos from the farm. I made the salsa recipe that came with them, adjusted by what I had. For example: no hot peppers because we didn't have them, and I don't want to burn my kid's mouth. It's sweet and tasty. But I'd prefer more heat.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
1 lb tomatillos
1 anaheim chili
1 sweet pepper
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
oil for pan
juice of one lime
Remove the husks from the tomatillos. Peel the onion, cut in half, and cut each half into quarters.
Place all veggies on a parchment lined rimmed baking sheet. Toss with oil. Roast at 350F for about an hour. Let the veggies cool.
Squeeze the garlic out of the skins. Remove the stems and seeds from the peppers. Place all veggies in the food processor and pulse until desired consistency. Add S&P and juice of the lime. And cilantro, if you've got it, but I didn't.

Holy Mackeral

2011-09-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

So, my coworker likes to fish off a local pier. And he catches a lot of mackeral. And he gave me a bag, when I said I like fish. "Are you sure you like mackeral? It's fishy." Dude, I don't care. Isn't fish supposed to be fishy?

Fruit - smoothie and juice

2011-09-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Man, this was a good smoothie. Blueberries, strawberries, banana, milk, and Amazing Grass. Yum.
Read more »

Bread calculations

2011-09-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

Remember that delicious bread? Still delicious. Here's the math:

1.25 cups 7-grain cereal: 0.39
2.5 cups boiling water
3 cups all-purpose flour: 0.56
1.5 cups whole wheat flour: 0.28
4 T. honey: 0.75
4 T. butter: 0.25
2.5 tsp yeast: 0.05
1 T salt: 0.01
3/4 c. sunflower seeds: 0.75
1/2 c. oats: 0.10
Total: $3.14 for two loaves of bread. Can't beat that!

Multi Grain Sandwich Bread

2011-09-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to try this recipe for a very long time, ever since I found it in my issue of Cook's Illustrated. And I never did.
And for a couple of years, my friend Jean would bring this delicious multi grain bread to our quilting potlucks. Yummy.

This year, I asked her for the recipe, and lo and behold, they were the same. I aimed to try to make it two weeks ago, but life (triathlon, husband traveling) got in the way.
So Friday, I took a day off work to be mom, and I used the morning while my son was at kindergarten to try it out.

Wow, it is so delicious. A multi-step process, but still pretty easy. My loaves didn't rise quite as much as I'd have liked, but I was pressed for time to pick up my child from school. I baked them early.
This recipe is a definite keeper.

I am no longer overweight

2011-09-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

My official weigh in isn't until Monday, but the last several days' weights have been below 139 (which corresponds to a BMI of 25).

Yay for me! And yay for Weight Watchers! I was overweight for about 6 months (since mid-March).

Even with my husband's travel, I've managed to stay on plan and stay off the chocolate. 5 more lbs to go! I am having to dig through my drawers to find shorts/crop pants that don't fall off. I still have a pair or two that are too small. (They may never fit, since your hips widen as you age. If I hit my goal weight and they don't fit, they get donated.)

Weight watchers isn't magical, it's just counting. Being aware of everything that you put into your mouth. But I do have some tips that I think have helped me out.

1. Plan everything ahead. This means the night before at least. This also prevents you from wasting food. Sadly, my husband was out of town this week and I lost TWO beautiful heirloom tomatoes from the CSA to mold because I just couldn't eat them fast enough. I'm still bummed. That's food and money right down the drain. Or in the compost.

2. Use all of your points. For me, that's 29 per day. I also get 7 flex points (on average) per day, and I've been earning 3-9 activity points per day (though that goes down when spouse travels, and will also decrease now that my triathlon training has ended). I make sure that I have AT LEAST 30 points of food, and if I am doing a hard workout that day (biking to work or running), then I have at least 34 points per day. I generally eat all of my regular points and the flex points. And some of the activity points.

3. Unless you have a get-together planned. This goes without saying, but if you are going to a party or potluck where the food is unknown, plan for low points the rest of the day. Those things always get out of hand. I generally plan around it if possible (eat before I go). Or make sure there is a lot of salad available to eat. I let myself choose one or two higher-calorie items to indulge in. Last night, at the CSA potluck, I chose red wine and tri-tip. I passed on the pasta. Tonight, I will probably also choose red wine and tri-tip :) and pass on the bread.

4. Don't be afraid to eat weird foods for breakfast. One of the ways that I've been able to "use up" yummy foods like tomatoes or apple crisp is simply to eat them for breakfast. I made apple crisp this week with lower amounts of butter, sugar, and oats, and walnuts. Topped with some yogurt, and it makes a fine breakfast. I've also been eating tomato sandwiches for breakfast. Just not fast enough. These choices allowed me to have a "dessert-like" or "appetizer-like" food, without adding a dessert or an appetizer to my meals.

5. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Why is this number 5 and not number 1? Because it's obvious. I generally get 3 fruits and 4-7 servings of vegetables per day. Your body needs the nutrients. I've seen people fail on losing weight before, and it's often lack of portion control or lack of vegetables.

6. Give up the bad food. Fried food. Dessert. White bread. These things are okay to eat now and then, once in awhile. "Once in awhile" is once a week, (or once a month!) not every day.

7. Don't snack at night. This is just an easy habit to get into. And a hard habit to get out of. It's such a mental thing to desire something right before bed. Then you eat something one night, the next night, then you get used to it. To avoid this, I drink water before bed. And I try to make myself a delicious dinner with something really satisfying. It may be nuts and avocado on a salad, or a grilled cheese sandwich, or a delicious small potato with real butter. It has to satisfy me physically AND emotionally.

The other thing that I have been doing is try to watch my carb intake. Now, when husband is out of town, I just eat what I feel like (pasta, bread), and count the points. It's too stressful to do otherwise. But when he's IN town, I take extra time for cooking and prepping, and tend to do more Hugh Jass salads with some protein for at least one meal per day. They are more work to prepare, though, with the washing, chopping, etc.

Roasted Summer Vegetable Pasta

2011-09-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I've made this so much the last few weeks that I thought I'd share the recipe.

Roasted Summer Vegetable Pasta
1 lb whole wheat pasta (I like penne): 1.39
1 pint cherry tomatoes: 3.00
1 onion, chopped into large chunks: 0.60
4 cloves garlic, whole unpeeled: 0.25
1 oz shredded gouda: 0.70
1 oz grated parmesan: 0.40
1 Tbsp olive oil: 0.10
4 oz soft goat cheese: 0.80
S&P to taste
Total: $7.24 for 8 servings, $0.91 per serving

"extras": diced canned tomatoes, fresh basil, dried basil and oregano, cooked chicken or pepperoni (none of these are necessary, but if you've got 'em, throw them in)

Preheat oven to 400F. On a baking sheet (I line mine with parchment), place the cherry tomatoes, onion, and garlic in a layer. Spray with cooking spray or toss with some olive oil. Salt and Pepper to taste. Roast, stirring once, 20-40 mins (this will depend on your desired level of doneness). Let the vegetables cool. Squeeze the garlic out of the skins. You can either leave the vegetables whole or puree them into a sauce. I've done both. I prefer whole, but my son will pick some of the things out, so pureeing prevents that.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Save a cup or so of the pasta water before draining.

Toss the pasta back into the pot with the vegetables. Add the cheeses and stir well. Add enough pasta water to get desired consistency. I usually have the heat on low at this point. Add more S&P to taste and any other extras you want in there.

This is quick, relatively easy, and makes 8 servings. That's 3 days of meals for us, more if spouse is traveling. Sometimes I eat this with a salad, and sometimes I top with a cooked vegetable. Broccoli is pretty good, as are green beans, peas, and carrots.

Single Mom Food

2011-08-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

Yep, several days as a single parent again. What with getting up, trying to work out, making breakfast, packing lunches, cooking dinner, doing dishes 2x a day, giving my son a bath, taking out the recycling, doing puzzles, reading books, playing with legos, dropoff and pickup at school...I'm beat.

I made a whole pound of whole wheat pasta with roasted vegetables, cheeses, and tomatoes on Saturday, and have been eating it for lunch and/or dinner every day this week. Sometimes with salsa and avocado, sometimes with frozen or fresh veggies mixed in. We got corn from the CSA yesterday, and I couldn't face washing lettuce, so carrot sticks it was.

Post race meal

2011-08-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Turkey sandwich, melon, and I already ate the green beans.

Pre race meal was toast with peanut butter and banana.

Time was 1:02:58, a full 45 sec. faster than last year. Splits aren't up yet, but I can tell you I lost time on the bike-run transition. My spot on the rack was taken, I knocked someone else's bike off while trying to squeeze mine back in, then had to put theirs back on, and mine back on, all the while trying to ignore my coworker yelling my name from the sidelines.

Updated to add splits:

Swim: 1:05 faster than last time! Next year: try to break 14:00 mins (this year was 14:13).

T1: 30 secs faster, even getting on the Vibrams. Not sure if I can break 3 min getting those on.

Bike: 32 secs slower than last year. Short of getting a road bike instead of a mountain bike, or getting pedals with the straps on top, not sure what I can do here. Not interested in spending $600-1000 on a bike to get faster here. I mostly use my bike to ride to work.

T2: 5 sec faster, even with the problem getting my spot back.

Run: 23 sec slower. Last year, I'd just come off a half marathon. This year, I had a side stitch and kinda felt like puking for half the run. I was a hair slower than a 10 min mile.

First day of kindergarten

2011-08-25T20:28:00.001-07:00

sniff sniff

The ABC's of me

2011-08-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

This has been going around, and I think it's fun. So I decided to do it.

The ABC’s of Me:
A. Age: 40-something.
B. Bed size: Queen.
C. Chore you dislike: Cleaning
D. Dogs: None.
E. Essential start to your day: Tea
F. Favorite colors: teal, purple
G. Gold or silver: Gold.
H. Height: 5’3’’ on my tiptoes
I. Instruments you play(ed): Clarinet, for a few months in elementary school.
J. Job title: engineering manager/senior engineer/mom/chief cook and bottle washer.
K. Kids: One
L. Live: Central Coast Cali
M. Mom’s name: Mom
N. Nicknames: Eminem. Or M&M.
O. Overnight hospital stays: Two, surgery when a kid and then I had a kid.
P. Pet peeves: Poor grammar and people who text when driving.
Q. Quote from a movie: "Son, you're in a heap of trouble" - Cars
R. Righty or lefty: Righty.
S. Siblings: Eight, yep, eight of 'em. I'm 8 of 9.
T. Time you wake up: Between 5 and 5:30 am.
U. Underwear: Yes.
V. Vegetables you don’t like: Fennel.
W. What makes you run late: My child.
X. X-rays you’ve had: Bunch of 'em. Mostly for my teeth.
Y. Yummy food you make: Just about anything. But I am the queen of appetizers and salads.
Z. Zoo animal you like: eh...we go to the zoo to ride the train. I guess I like the penguins.

A Week in Pictures - the "Free Food" Edition.

2011-08-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

It can be overwhelming sometimes, but a key to frugal cooking is to not say no to free food (unless it's terribly unhealthy food. I mean, I say no to cookies and brownies all the time). This holds true even if preserving the food is a lot of work. But friends know I am willing to take free food so it won't be wasted. Case in point: my neighbor gives me free fish (missed out this week, we weren't home when he called). My engineer also goes fishing, and gave me a huge bag of mackerel. Need to figure out how to cook that. I think that will be a project for the long weekend. Maybe grill it.

This week in free food:

My boss brought in a big bushel of apples from his orchard. After a couple of days of letting other people have their fill, I took a huge bag home. Made homemade crockpot cinnamon-applesauce.

Totally unrelated to food, but my son had a fever/cough this week, and we spent 2 days at home. Our method when this happens is that my spouse and I split the day. We basically look at our schedules and see who can be at home when (with meetings, etc.) Of course, when he's traveling, it's all me.

Our farm had an "all the early girl tomatoes you can pick" day. Bring a friend, bring water, go nuts. My son was sick that day. So I sent my husband and said "3 or 4 lbs". He forgot about that and came home with 30 lbs. We did give some away to friends, but decided to do some canning. Thursday after work, we made salsa.

Canning is a lot of work. Not so much the CANNING part, which does require a big canning pot of boiling water and a smaller pot to keep the jars warm, but the blanching, peeling, chopping, and seeding of tomatoes. Chopping peppers and onions is easier. Lotta work for 6 pints (about 4 hrs, but not steady work). Doing something like this at the end of a work day is pretty tough, and I would not have been able to do it without the spouse. I cooked dinner that night too.

A random breakfast photo. After the night of canning, I was too tired to prep my overnight oats. So instead, for breakfast the next day: yogurt, banana, Love Grown foods granola, and some peanuts.

Saturday, in between triathlon training and my annual quilter's potluck, we canned spaghetti sauce. Again, lotta work to chop and simmer the veggies, but the actual canning part is pretty fast. Spouse does the canning part (cleaning the jars, filling them, putting them in the big pot).

And now the tomatoes are all gone.

Gotta go find a missing lego...

A variety of meals

2011-08-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

I had every intention of blogging about each of these separately, and including tallies and all. But life (sick child, work, triathlon training) gets in the way sometimes. So, it's one big post while my sick kid naps on the couch.

Salad with deli turkey meat.

Fried organic potatoes and onion (fried in a little olive oil and coconut oil)

Carrot soup with ginger (DEELICIOUS - leftovers tonight). Organic carrots are 79 cents a pound. Add onion, garlic, ginger, stock, a pinch of sugar, salt, and pepper...can't go wrong with this one.

Whole wheat penne with roasted peppers, roasted cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic, plus a "sauce" of goat cheese, gouda, parmesan, and the cooking water. Topped with avocado. More leftovers tonight.

Smoothie-in-a-bowl: strawberries, banana, and milk, topped with Lovegrown foods granola that I won from Biz's giveaway.

Stir-fry: local free range beef (Rancho San Julian) with frozen veggie stir-fry mix from Costco. Plus green onion, garlic, and ginger, a little sesame oil-soy sauce-rice vinegar. And sriracha on top (natch!). Over a bit of brown rice.

Overnight Oats

2011-08-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have to thank Kalli for reminding me of how much I like these. With the new diet, I am always looking for simple, easy, and healthy breakfasts. Ones that I can eat day after day, knowing exactly how many points they will set me back (8).
I’ve eaten them so much the last two weeks, I think I may turn into a chia banana. Ooh. I am almost out of chia seeds.

Overnight oats: (for one). In a bowl, mix:
1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats: $0.08
1 Tbsp chia seeds: 0.10 (I don’t actually remember what I paid for these)
1 banana, diced: 0.19
1/3 cup plain yogurt: 0.26
½ cup plain milk: 0.21
Sprinkle of cinnamon: 0.05
Pinch salt
Let sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning, stir in
1 Tbsp sunflower seed butter (or other nut butter): 0.12 for sunflower seed butter, the others in my fridge are cheaper
Total: $1.01 for a nice big bowl.

Viva La Fiesta!

2011-08-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ah Fiesta time. That 5-day period where tourists descend on Santa Barbara. To enjoy the scenery, watch the traditional dancing, eat the amazing food, and get drunk off their asses.

I’m not really into fiesta. I’d like to be. It’s not like I’m AGAINST festivals. I like festivals! But, they can be expensive money sinks and the food is not that healthy. If the only festival in the area was fiesta, I would go and happily enjoy it. But. We’ve got the French Festival, the Greek Festival, the Lemon Festival, the Avocado festival, I Madonnari. Plus the Santa Barbara fair and expo, Earth Day. All with some sort of rides and carnival foods and opportunity to buy stuff.

I enjoy the lemon festival’s $5 (last-year’s) t-shirts. I also enjoy a lemon beer, or lemon ice cream. All of the festivals sell some pretty good lemonade. I got great vegan food at Earth Day. But it’s not cheap. My spouse and child enjoyed Fiesta on Friday. They bought a fried doughy treat and spent $30 on an all-day ride pass. Which can be worth it, as the rides are $2 to $5 each. My son is still too short for many of the rides. In the past, I have loved watching the dancing at the Mission or the Courthouse (free), sitting on a blanket and eating our snacks.

This year, I just wasn’t feeling it. I’ve been trying to lose some weight, and deep-fried Mexican food is not the way to get there. There are several options during fiesta –a few locations, various booths run by different school and community groups. The best food, my local friends tell me, is at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Which isn’t really part of the official fiesta festivities, it just happens to be well-timed to align with fiesta. I’ve been there before, and the food is indeed good. I met friends for lunch there Saturday. The lunch was late (1:45 pm) because of their son’s late nap. As I’d done my triathlon training in the morning (including getting my ass whomped by two 5 foot waves while trying to exit the ocean – yeah, that was effing scary), I was pretty much ravenous at noon. So, while I could have found healthy options, such as chicken soft tacos (tortillas, chicken, onion, cilantro, hot sauce), I had to pass. I’d already eaten lunch. I did enjoy a soda and a chat with my friends though.

Most of the fiesta food is fried and salty. There’s always room in a diet for a little bit of that. But I try to avoid it. Especially since Saturday is only 2 days before my weigh in. And we know what happens when I eat salty food. Anyway: Taquitos (fried). Tostadas (fried tortillas). Hard tacos (fried). Sopes with lots of heavy meats, sour cream, and cheese. Churros (fried and covered in sugar). Ah…luckily for me I wasn’t hungry. I bought the soda, a churro to take home for the family, and a few fiesta eggs (might have to learn to make those myself).
Sunday, however, I decided to re-create a healthified tostada. I think the tostadas at the church were $3 or $4 each. Here are mine:

Tostadas: To make two

Fat free refried beans: pinto beans, garlic, onion, pureed in the food processor until desired consistency. Dried pintos are $0.79 a pound, and you get about 6 cups cooked per pound. Half a cup of cooked beans would be about 7 cents. I microwaved some onion and garlic to go in there, but I needed to add more salt or spice.
Cooked chicken: I cooked a whole chicken or two from the farmer’s market. A whole chicken is $12. I get about 4 cups of cooked chicken for this. Half a cup of cooked chicken is then $1.50
Pico de gallo: tomatoes, onions, cilantro: $0.30 per half cup. Or less.
Avocado: $1 each, 1/3 of an avo for two tostadas. There's no magic in the amount. There are 3 of us in the family.
Lettuce: $0.10 a cup
Salsa: My favorite is $0.37 for 2 Tbsp. You don’t really need it with the pico.
Tortillas: Two small are $0.17. The key here is to spray with cooking spray and bake until crispy, so they are not fried. A little chili powder and cumin can spice them up.
Sour cream: 2 Tbsp of light comes out to $0.11
Cheese: I avoided this for me, but for the family, ½ ounce of cheddar is 6 cents. But I didn't feel like shredding it, so we skipped it.

Total for two tostadas: $3.01, or half the price of buying them at Fiesta. Maybe less even. And certainly healthier. And at fiesta, you wouldn’t get the avocado. Mine were not very authentic, I'm sure. The beans could have been better - I did not fry them up in oil, which really deepens the flavor. I was feeling lazy. But I was happy with the result.

Fiesta eggs: These are eggs with a hole cut on the bottom. Egg removed, cleaned, dried, and painted. Then they are filled with confetti, and closed up with some tissue paper. You break one on someone’s head while saying “Viva La Fiesta!”, and they get confetti in their hair and on their clothes. I guess you have to be there. You can buy them for 3 or 4 for $1.

Daily Weight Tracking

2011-08-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Biz had a disappointing weigh in at Weight Watchers, and she was looking for some cheerleading. I was happy to oblige. One of the tips that I gave her was to weigh yourself every day. I know that WW discourages this so that you don't get "obsessed". But as an engineer, I prefer to have knowledge...knowledge of how my weight fluctuates day to day NORMALLY.

My weight fluctuates over the course of a month, but it also changes depending on what I eat. If I eat processed for or other overly salty food (meals out or pickles, for example), then I will retain water. This was no more true than my first weigh in on WW online two weeks ago, where I'd gained weight from the week before. The day before the weigh in I'd gone to two parties. There were tacos, chips and bean dip, bacon wrapped water chestnuts...and even though I stayed within my weekly points and didn't use any of my 41 activity points for the week, I gained. And the weight stayed high for 3 days.

By getting on the scale daily, I can see not only how sodium affects my weight - which both lets me relax about the gains AND reminds me to be careful about sodium - BUT I can also see that my weight fluctuates for no obvious reasons. It's the overall downward trend that matters.

So here's a graph of my weight for the last 3 weeks, since I started counting my points again. Peaks and valleys, but with an overall downward trend. For fun, I am saving a copy of my daily meals and exercise in a folder in my computer, so someday I can look back and see what was successful and what was not.

Today's Topic: Weight loss, and how thin is too thin?

2011-08-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

I got some very nice comments about my weight loss on my blog. Thank you. :) I am happy that the scale is going in the right direction finally - I've always had success with Weight Watchers in the past. But the first time I lost weight (57 lbs) in 2002 the plan was different than it was in 2008 (when I lost the baby weight). And it's different again now. So it always makes me nervous, especially as I get older.

I even updated my "goal weight" from 128 (where it's been FOREVER) to a more realistic 132 lbs - where I can maintain it pretty easily, once I get there. You see, my husband and a couple of friends think <130 is "too thin".

What is "too thin"? Well, that will depend on the person. For each individual, I recommend looking up a BMI chart and/or height weight chart for your height - and be totally honest about your "frame". There are many ways to figure out your frame size. One way is to look at the size of your elbow or wrist. Here's the problem: I've got small bones. But a big butt and thighs. The size of my wrist says nothing about the massive muscles I'm toting around. For that reason, I put myself in "medium" frame.

And then be honest about your age. People gain weight as they age. Until recently, it was thought that this is bad for you. However, recent studies note that your hips get wider as you age - your actual bones (true for men and women), so you almost cannot avoid gaining weight due to that alone.
If you are at a healthy weight for your height and frame, and you are fit, try to avoid hitting that magic "number". It may be a number you had at 18 (and now you're 40). It may be a number that your best friend has (YOU ARE NOT YOUR BEST FRIEND). It may be that elusive number that you never saw. Is that number a healthy number for you? If not, don't do it. Is it those jeans you used to wear that don't fit? (Remember, your hips get wider as you age! You may never see those jeans again!)

Now, there are a lot of people, as you lose weight, who will tell you that you are getting "too thin". I experienced that when I lost the 57 lbs in 2002. I find that these people fall into four categories:

1. The overweight people who are jealous of you for losing weight. (I didn't know any of these people. I was the fat one. But I've BEEN one of those people.)
2. The thin people who look at you as the "fat friend" and feel threatened that you are no longer that person.
3. The friends who are just USED to you looking a certain way.
4. The close family/friends who really think you are getting too thin. Like, my friends who point out that I am starting to look a little too gaunt as I get to 130 lbs.

I didn't always have the "gauntness" problem - it has happened as I have gotten older. Less plumpness in the cheeks. The trimmer the face, the older I look. I guess I'd prefer to be 41 and look 30-something at 132 lbs than be 41 and look 41 at 128 lbs.

So, if you are trying to lose weight, and someone tells you are getting "too thin", consider the source. And if a friend is trying to lose weight, and you are thinking of telling them that they are getting "too thin", think FIRST about why you think that. THEN, if it's REALLY because they are getting too thin, and NOT because of any other reason, go ahead and say it. Nicely. Gently. With a smile. And if they disagree with you, drop it.

(For a little while anyway...if there's a risk of an eating disorder - bring it up again!)

Big salad with marinated portobello mushrooms and skillet pasta

2011-08-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

What can I say, I saw a couple of beautiful large portobello mushrooms at the store, and I bought two. I followed the recipe to roast the mushrooms in Veganomicon, and made a big salad. That was our dinner two nights in a row. Walnuts, goat cheese (naturally, this was not on the Veganomicon recipe), avocado, white beans, cucumber...on top of spinach and romaine.

Skillet pasta (with another salad) on another day:

Onions, peppers, collard greens, garlic, spices, marinara sauce, pasta, water. One pot. Done quickly, except for the chopping. If you want a "go to" meal on a night that you get home late, have to cook dinner, deal with a child, and get ready quickly after dinner to go to the pool at the Y, this is it. (On that note...time to go to the Y).

Oh, and I made my spouse lemon cupcakes from scratch. His birthday is this week. He had to make his own frosting. Recipe was from Vegan with a Vengeance, but I used regular milk (it's what I had), so they aren't vegan. Nice and lemony though.

On another note...week 1 on Weight Watchers on line, and I gained a pound. This week, I lost 3.8 lbs. Just goes to tell you that eating too much sodium the day before your weigh in will mess you up for a few days. Only 11 more lbs to go.

Enchiladas

2011-07-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today felt like an Enchilada day. Actually, yesterday, when I took the meat out of the freezer to defrost, felt like an enchilada day.

Boy it was a lot of work and a lot of dishes. I cooked the beans from dried. I also made an avocado/yogurt/sour cream/lime/cilantro sauce to cut the heat. I used El Pato, and it was spicy.

Silly Little Goals

2011-07-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer, when Biz started her summer fitness "101 days of summer" challenge, I thought about signing up. Really I did. But with full time job, kid, husband who travels...I decided to pass.

But I secretly had a goal.

It all starts in January. My niece started a group called "Club 365". The goal: we would aim to get 365 miles of exercise in this year. I know that's only a mile a day. Well, for some people the goal was probably to work out 365 days (depends on your level!) I jumped into that head first and kept on going. The group has petered out a bit. There appear to be only 8 people of the original 50 still tracking their miles. And to give my niece credit, she's pretty pregnant now.

It did not require "running" or "walking". There are basic running and walking miles, and a conversion for other activities. I basically consider approximately 10 minutes of any kind of cardio to be a mile. So my 45 min bike ride to work? 4 miles. An 800 - 1000 yd swim? 3 to 3.5 miles.

So in June, I made a goal to hit 90 miles. That's 3 miles a day. Until that month, I had gotten from 55 to 80 miles. Well, I didn't even come close - only 72 miles. Partly because that included a week in Arizona. And it was hot.

Well, it's July, and I decided to try again. This month, triathlon training helps, as Saturdays I easily get in 7 miles or so, so I can afford to skip a day. And I made it! What's even better, I SMASHED it!

Already, with still two days to go (one of which a Saturday), I passed 100 miles this morning with my little Level 1 of 30 day shred (which I count as 2 miles, by the way). Yay for me!

Now it's off to shower.

I am a WINNER!

2011-07-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

I won a giveaway at Love Veggies and Yoga last week. A great little collection of natural personal care items...They came in the mail today!
Tom's Deodorant (Tom's business started in 1970, a great year)
Tom's toothpaste
Tom's bar soap
Badger after sun balm (I am religious about sunscreen, but things do happen)
Dr. Hauschka Melissa day cream which should reduce the appearance of blemishes. I need that!

And coupons for FREE Stonyfield farms frozen yogurt on a stick! Can't wait to try these out. Also coupons for free juice.

Thank you Averie!

Weekend Eats Plus Around the Homestead

2011-07-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

I had some nice open-faced sandwiches for lunch yesterday with fruit (yes, those are organic CSA tomatoes, the first of the season...so delicous!)

I made granola for the family...spouse and child have been eating a LOT of yogurt and granola for breakfast. Like Kalli, I have been concerned about the amount of sugar found in everything. My son really likes the vanilla yogurt. I used to buy the plain, and I'm not quite sure how he got onto the vanilla. It's organic, no HFCS, but still sweet. So my spouse and I - at the same time and unbeknowst to each other - starting stirring half and half plain and vanilla yogurt (maybe even more plain). And he hasn't noticed the difference.

Usually, we crumble on a Nature Valley oats and honey granola bar (spouse's snack of choice). Made from real ingredients, but it's still...sweet.
I make my own granola. I usually put a little bit of sugar in there - much less than most recipes call for. I found a recipe years ago for granola with NO added sugar in The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs. I've always wanted to try it. Well, today was the day. I edited it a bit...granola is one of those things that you can heavily adjust.

Granola:
4 cups oats
1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup wheat germ
pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Wet stuff: Put in food processor until smooth
2 bananas - either frozen and defrosted, or fresh
1/3 to 1/2 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup hot water
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp olive oil
The dates and bananas add just enough sweetness to the granola. I'm not sure you can even taste the maple syrup. I mostly put it in there in case my spouse asked if there was anything sugar-like in there (in case it wasn't sweet enough). Anyway, I just gave the bowl to my son and it's empty.

Around the homestead:
We have bluebirds!

On Gardening: Last year, we built a self watering container and planted squash (butternut, delicata). It was a dismal failure. We only got a few squash and they were tiny. We ended up composting them. We really need to turn our compost. But we can't. See why:

Yep, a delicata plant started growing from our compost and has given us a single delicata squash.

This year, we decided to go with tomatoes in the self-watering container. They are MUCH more successful. The plants are taller than me (there are 3 in there) and almost taller than my husband. And I'm not sure how to hold up that front plant.

CSA Haul!

2011-07-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

Last week on on the thin side, this week was NOT!

1 basket strawberries
4 plums
3 avocados
1 head romaine
0.3 lbs lettuce mix
2 cucumbers
1 lb zucchini
1 bunch onions
1 bunch fava greens
2 lbs tomatoes

Looking forward to chopping and eating lots of salad! I think I'm going to have an open-faced egg and tomato sandwich for breakfast.

All About the Grill

2011-07-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

That's tonight's dinner. I defrosted some grass-fed tri-tip and decided today was a good day for the grill. I also took a couple of onions and 2 lbs of zucchini and give them the same treatment.

We don't have a lot of experience grilling meat, and yes, the tri-tip was a tiny bit overcooked (still figuring out the meat thing AND the grass-fed thing. Most recipes are written for grain-fed meat.)

The marinade was pretty simple. I have a Williams Sonoma grilling cookbook that I received as a birthday gift from my great neighbor. I didn't have the beer it called for, so I used red wine vinegar.

Read more »

Joined a new gym

2011-07-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a history of my gym membership:
1992: joined a community center in Arlington VA (former middle school): $45 a year. Hours were short, but it was cheap,
1993: joined a fancy gym near work in DC that was subsidized by the Navy ($250 a year). Pool, sauna, towel service, classes, racquetball, volleyball, basketball...you know, very nice.
1997: moved to Cali and joined Gold's Gym: $50/month (for two). No pool.
2006ish: Gold's bought by Spectrum, which is a little bit fancier (the towel service was added), and we were up to $100/month (for two). Still no pool. I didn't know how to swim, so I didn't care. A spin room and a fitness room, so many choices in classes.
2008: got talked into leaving Spectrum (after 11 years) for relatively new 24-hour fitness. Small pool (2 lanes, 12.5 yds long.) I still don't care, because I still can't swim. Only one fitness room, shared. So only one class at a time. No classes on Tuesday/Thursday mornings. Pre-pay $1200 for 3 years, 400/year, or $33.33 a month.
May 2011: renewed our membership for $99/year each, or $16.50 a month. But now, I know how to swim. Do you know how many gazillon laps you need to swim in a 12.5 yd pool when you want to swim 700-1000 yds? A lot. Too many to count.

July 2011: Joined the YMCA. 25 yd, 6 lane pool - with ACCESS for KIDS SWIM (24 hour fitness does not have that). Many classes, spin room, 3 fitness class rooms, free child care, parent's night out, summer camp, evening child care, swim lessons, soccer and T-ball, family camping trips. $99/month. I really fought joining for awhile. Especially at $99 a month. But boy, it hasn't even been a week, and we've used it a LOT. I think the amount of activities that we will be getting will make up for it.

Case in point: swim lessons. We have paid anywhere from $18 to $35 for a 20 min swim lesson. The Y swim lessons for members are $37.50 for 5 weeks, or $7.50 per lesson ($50 discount for being members).

Another case in point: Parent's night out. We don't have a babysitter. We occasionally swap child care with other families, but that can be difficult. Parent's night out is $20 for 5 hours, and includes snacks, pizza, games, and a movie.

When my husband travels, I am unable to get to the gym. It is also difficult for me to work out in the morning (tired, and my son wakes up too early). I traveled this week, and my kid was "let's go to the gym!" So spouse got to do a swim class and take him swimming on the first day, and work out for an hour on the second day. I think I can get used to this.

Have you ever changed your gym or your exercise habits to fit a new life or lifestyle? It was time for me to embrace parenthood and become a joiner.

Know when to say "when"

2011-07-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

I'm all about free entertainment. In the summer, we have these great Thursday night "concerts in the park", where families put down blankets, bring picnics (or order pizza), and listen to music while the kiddos dance and play. Now, they aren't "free" in the sense that - the performers get paid, and they pay for them by collecting donations. But it is a really nice and cheap entertainment.

They are a bit of work...packing up the stuff, getting there, laying out the blanket, cleaning up. But they are fun. I hate to miss them.

But here we are. It's Thursday. I was in San Fran for business on Tues/Weds. I haven't traveled for work in 5 years. It was a great and very useful conference trip. However, it means that I haven't slept much this week (insomnia and sleeping in a strange hotel bed). Last night I got home late (flight delay), and it was my 15th anniversary (happy anniversary sweetie!), so I stayed up an extra 1/2 hour to get caught up on what I missed and reminisce. So I'm beat.

So we're not going. I just want to eat dinner and pass out at 8 pm. So part of having a full, happy life is - knowing when to make the extra effort "I know I'll enjoy it once I get there" and knowing when not "man, I just want to pass out!"

When.

First Ocean Swim of the Season

2011-07-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

Today was the first ocean swim of my triathlon training this season. Some observations:

1. I've gained at least 10 lbs since last year. I can feel it in the wetsuit. But I can at least still zip it up.
2. The ocean is 5-6 degrees warmer than it ever got last year. Last year? Never above 60. This year? 65. You wouldn't think it would make that much of a difference, but it does. My feet froze like crazy last year, and today, they never got numb.
3. I am much more comfortable in the water. I am swimming with the "intermediate" group, not the beginner group. But I am still slow, so I tend to be the last person out of the water. Apparently, I'm a LITTLE bit faster though. Somebody ran into me, then passed me, then proceeded to zig zag in front of me and stop in front of me. Until I decided to stop and bob awhile and let her get ahead. On the last round, I was way in the back and had my own personal lifeguard in a kayak. I got some good swim tips from him though. "You are putting your arm in flat, try to go in at an angle so you immediately get forward momentum." Good stuff.
4. The ocean does wonderful things to my hair. Nice and soft.
5. The beach does awful things to my feet. Case in point: (you should see my socks...trashed!)

Yes, we have naturally occurring tar on our shores. Peanut butter takes care of it. I feel kinda sorry for the cleaning lady on Monday though.

Summary for the day:
1100 yd ocean swim
12 mile bike ride (I'm a little saddle sore).

I was very excited about all of the ocean swim and workout options this week...then I remembered that I'm going on a business trip so...can't do any of it. Ah well, next week!

Green beans! Zucchini frittata! Plus some other stuff.

2011-07-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

I found a couple of old photos on my camera. A stir fry (who me?) and banana nut muffins. They were good pics, so I thought I'd share.

Earlier this week I got some fresh green beans from the CSA and did a healthified version of my husband's aunt's green beans with onions and butter.

I steamed the beans, sauteed the onions in grapeseed oil. Then I added the green beans and salt and pepper to the pan to get the beans a little carmely. Then I added a tbsp of butter. REALLY good.

And apparently I made banana muffins. Sometime awhile ago.

But the real star is the frittata. We got...um...2.5 lbs of zucchini this week from the farm. I was looking for a recipe that would travel well to the summer "concerts in the park" series. Every Thursday in the summer, there's a free concert in a local park (though they do solicit donations). People put down blankets and bring picnics. Today was a country-Cajun style band. Really good. And there is a GREAT park for the kiddos to run around in. We did that too. My son's little friend didn't show, so he was sad.

I decided to go for a frittata. So last night, before I went to my boss's farewell happy hour (while my son crashed on the couch), I shredded zukes and chopped onions and sauteed them down.

After the happy hour, I made the frittata and burned the crap out of my arm on the inside of the door of the 400F oven. Ouch. Nice big welt/bruise. Did I mention I have PMS? Probably not helping. Anyway, the frittata is delicious and tasted awesome lukewarm (just micro'd a bit before we left home) at the park. You have an unending array of choices for this frittata (tomatoes, spinach, corn, broccoli, leftovers...)

Zucchini frittata
1+ lbs zucchini, shredded: 0.80
1 small onion, chopped: 0.25
1 Tbsp oil: 0.04
s&p to taste

1 Tbsp dijon: 0.03
6 eggs: 1.50
1/2 cup milk: 0.17
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (or mozzarella or cheddar): 0.63

1 "babybel" round cheese, chopped: 0.50 (it was the most available cheese in my fridge)
fresh chopped herbs: rosemary and chives were all that survived our week away
handful of bread crumbs
s&p to taste

Total: $3.42 for about 4 generous servings, or even more appetizer servings. $0.86 per serving.

Saute the onions and zucchini in the oil with the S&P until soft and until they have given up most of their water.

Whisk the eggs, milk, parmesan, dijon, S&P in a bowl.

Spray a small pan (7x10? 8x10?) with cooking spray or grease. Spread the zucchini/onion mixture on the bottom. Put the sliced cheese on top. Sprinkle on the chopped herbs. Sprinkle on the breadcrumbs. Pour the egg mixture on top.

Bake at 400F for about 20 to 25 min, until nicely browned.

Baked Fish and Focaccia

2011-07-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling like making bread. It sort of relaxes me, which doesn't make a WHOLE lot of sense, because I use the bread machine more than half the time (so, not a lot of kneading). Today I didn't get started in time to do anything other than focaccia. I used the recipe in my bread machine cookbook, but tried to bake it per Wildly Affordable Organic by Linda Watson. It was pretty good, but I needed more olive oil on the top (another tablespoon at least - I only used one), and I ended up baking it at 425F for 20 mins.

I also defrosted some white fish (don't remember what kind) and made a marinade similar to the ones in Bikini bootcamp.

Baked White Fish fillets:
three 5 or 6 oz white fish fillets: uh...$5? I don't remember.

marinade:
1.5 Tbsp olive oil: 0.16
juice of 3 limes: 0.75
juice and zest of 1 very small orange from my tree
1 clove garlic, pressed: 0.05
1.5 Tbsp soy sauce: 0.09
S&P to taste
Total: $6.05 for 3 fillets, or $2.02 per serving.

Mix the marinade ingredients and marinate the fish for 2 hours. Bake at 425F for about 20 min.

Focaccia:
2 c. whole wheat flour: 0.41
1 3/8 c. bread flour: 0.28
2 Tbsp sugar: 0.05
2 Tbsp dry milk: 0.10
2 tsp salt: 0.02
2 Tbsp olive oil: 0.22
1 3/8 c. water
2 tsp yeast: 0.05

extra flour for kneading: 0.10

Topping:
one clove garlic: 0.05
2 Tbsp olive oil: 0.22
dried basil: 0.02
coarse salt

Total: $1.49 for a very large piece of focaccia. Probably 16 servings. $0.09 per serving.

Place ingredients in bread machine pan in order given. Use "pizza" setting. Knead on a floured surface until it springs back at the touch. Roll/press out like pizza dough onto a piece of parchment paper coated with cooking spray. Use the end of a wooden spoon to poke holes in the bread every 2 inches. Cover with a towel and allow to raise until doubled (20 to 60 min).

Saute garlic in olive oil for 30 sec and let cool. When bread is raised, brush the bread with the oil using a brush or your fingers. Sprinkle with basil and salt.

Slide the parchment paper onto the pre-heated pizza stone using a rimless cookie sheet. Or, just bake it on a cookie sheet. I baked at 425F for about 20 mins. One recipe said 450F for 8 mins, the other said 340F for 25-30 min.

I served this all with a green salad with tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and goat cheese (balsamic dressing), and some "Texas caviar" from Costco.

Post-Brick workout meals

2011-07-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my second "brick" workout in triathlon training. We swam and run, as we did 2 weeks ago (I missed the swim/bike on my birthday). The first week, I went from training to my company picnic, where I ate everything in sight.

This week, during the cooldown, the coach gave us his standard lecture on how to eat healthfully and fuel your body, and don't go crazy with the post workout carbs. "The chips look good, don't do it!" Last year's coach wasn't nearly so militant.

So I tried to think of foods that I would like and that would fuel me for the rest of my day. The brick was a 750 yd pool swim and a 40-minute run. It was really hot out, and I was feeling both the heat and my knee on the run. So my run/walk was about 3.7 miles in 45 minutes. I ran 10 minutes, walked a minute, but then the frequency and length of the walking bits increased as the time went on. On the other hand, no sciatica pain today. (I wonder if it is the swim? If it is, I will only run after swimming from now on. Promise.)

Read more »

Camping Review!

2011-07-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

We had a great time, if a little bit of a hot time. We had a lot of packaged food and too much McDonalds, but also managed to get some produce in by stopping at the grocery store a couple of times. My son ate an entire cantaloupe as a snack one after noon.

Here are some photos from our trip!

Our campsite at Mather Campground

Dinner night #1

My birthday wine

The Grand Canyon

Me and Kiddo on hike along the rim. I have hat head.

Lake Powell from the Utah side

Trip down Colorado River from Page

Doesn't everyone paint their toenails on vacation?

41!

2011-06-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hello folks.

I'm in the midst of a driving tour vacation of Arizona. (Note: it's hot here. Like, 113 degrees hot.)

We've seen the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Page (AWESOME calm rafting trip down the Colorado River www.raftthecanyon.com), Phoenix, and later today: Tucson.

I've eaten WAY too many cup-o-noodles and McDonald's, but also a fair number of KIND bars and apples. Hampton Inn and Suites (3 of our nights are there) have a decent breakfast with nice fresh fruit.

I like when my vacations mix camping (cheap, quiet, lots of stars) with hotels (cooler, showers, gyms, and pools).

OH and I celebrated my 41st birthday with my boys while camping in the Grand Canyon. Mather campground was the first place I ever camped as an adult, with my spouse, probably 12-13 years ago. And? It's still my favorite place to camp. Shade, trees, good amount of space between campsites.

Off to take a shower and get ready to visit family in Tucson, where it's only 107.

Cole Slaw and Black Bean Soup

2011-06-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

I made up some black bean soup a couple of weeks ago when my spouse was traveling. We ate quite a bit of it while he was gone, but did not finish it. Then, I got sick. And well, after it comes back up, it kinda sours you on it for awhile. Into the freezer it went.

It's still good though. It's a crockpot recipe from 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes. These crockpot recipes aren't easy in the "dump everything in a pot" kind of way. To get good flavor from vegetarian recipes, it helps to develop flavor by sauteing vegetables and "blooming" the spices. Still, it only required chopping vegetables and sauteing them one night, and tossing everything in the pot the next day. I used canned black beans (I am using a lot of shortcuts now that the spouse travels 2x a month).

I also made some cole slaw with leftover napa cabbage and carrots. It needed more oomph than I gave it. I added peanuts and a lime-rice vinegar dressing. But I think fresh onion or garlic would have helped. Or sesame.

Here's an estimate of the cost of the soup: Since I followed the recipe to the letter, I won't be reproducing the amounts or instructions.

Black Bean Soup
canola oil: 0.05
onions: 0.50
celery: 0.10
carrots: 0.10
garlic: 0.10
thyme: 0.15
cumin seeds: 0.20
oregano: 0.15
salt
black pepper
cayenne: 0.05
vegetable bouillon: 0.76
black beans: 1.38
tomato paste: 0.08
water
Total: $3.62 for about 12 cups, or $0.30 per cup.

Camping the Frugal Healthy Simple Way

2011-06-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

We've just started to go camping in the last year with our son (now 5). It's something that my husband did a lot of growing up. Me, not so much. Unless you count borrowing a tent and pitching it in the back yard, or driving to Presque Isle state park for a couple of nights.

The advantage to camping is that it can definitely save you money. Campsites for tent campers can be anywhere from free to $40 a night (in my limited experience). A lot cheaper than most hotels. Now of course, amenities vary (some have no running water anywhere).

About half the time that we've gone camping, it's been at Joshua Tree with our GREAT neighbors, who have a camping van. Having access to a fridge helps with the food issue, and allows you to have a more "normal" diet while camping. If you are limited to a cooler, then eating good food while camping is something that takes practice, and knowledge of where you are staying. Case in point: on our last Joshua Tree trip, I made oatmeal. It was not very successful. The people at the campsite next door made blueberry muffin bread on an open fire in a dutch oven. Which...seems a lot more advanced than my camping abilities.

We did take a cooler, which is about 20 years old. Let me tell ya, it's starting to smell a little funky. For our upcoming camping trip (Grand Canyon!) we bought a new cooler. Turns out it's rated to keep the ice frozen for 3 days in 90 degree weather. I guess there have been quite a few engineering advances in the last 20 years or so when it comes to cooler technology.

It is very possible to make delicious and healthy food while camping. With a cooler and a grocery store, you can have fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, rice - a wide variety of healthy foods. Of course, all of this takes prep and the ability to wash dishes - the ability to do this while tent camping will vary on where you are staying. Some places have running water, some have "dish washing stations", others have nothing.

As a newbie camper, I've decided that on this next trip, we will be forsaking some of the "healthy" for the "simple". I suppose as time goes on, I will get better at this. I am aiming for things that can be eaten raw, heated on a fire, or cooked with just water.

Here's a picture of a few of the things that I am taking on this trip. Yeah, I know, the noodles have MSG. I lecture coworkers on the evils of MSG. But we're camping. And we don't do that very often. And they were only $0.33 each. Lunches will be PB&J sandwiches (still need to buy bread). Breakfast...nuts, granola bars, maybe some muffins. Maybe I should bake some blueberry muffins before we go. We are only camping for 2-3 days and staying in hotels for the other nights on this trip. The advantage to the "just add water" meals, though, is that you can make them using the coffee pot in a hotel room. Or using your hot pot. Any way to save money on a vacation can only help. Gas prices being what they are, I expect the gas alone to cost about $350 on this trip.

As far as fresh foods go, we've got carrots and apples - both are very tasty and they travel incredibly well. I may take some oranges also.

My new shoes

2011-06-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to me...

B. R. A. T. (Y)

2011-06-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

Haven't been posting much this week. We've been eating black bean soup. My spouse was on another business trip this week. So, single parent, extraordinarily stressful week at work, and my boss just announced that he's quitting. Greeeaaaat. (that's sarcasm). I don't know if it was stress, or food poisoning, or something else, but I spent some time yesterday morning praying to the porcelain god (first time in 4.5 years). And most certainly stayed home from work. And I think I'm done with the black bean soup for awhile.

Today, I am weak, and am on the BRAT (Y) diet. Bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. With some yogurt. Thus far, it's mostly bananas, applesauce, saltines, and gatorade.

On a plus note, I signed up for the Moms in Motion triathlon training team today. Did NOT stay for the workout, but, yay me! Lots of swimming and biking in my future. Running or walking? Time will tell.

A Day in the Life

2011-06-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

Not a lot of food this week. We've been eating, but I haven't been taking too many pictures. Last night was crock pot black bean soup...very good!

I was realizing something the other day. I've always known that I'm the only female in my group at work (that's pretty obvious), but also I realized that I'm the only parent.

That makes it difficult on occasion...less understanding. I think *most* of my coworkers are understanding, but sometimes I still get looks and comments.

So, a day in my life on Tuesday, after I left work.

Leave work at 4:35 pm.
Go to Fairview Gardens to pick up my veggies.
Go to pick up my son from school.
Go to the grocery store.
Go home.
Cook dinner. (sauteed veggie hash and leftover pizza)
Put the veggies away.
Put the groceries away.
Eat dinner.
Do dinner dishes.
Make and pack my lunch.
Take out the compost.
Take out the recycling.
Start cooking for Weds night's dinner (chopping and sauteing veggies for the soup)
Put the soup veggies in the fridge.
Do the dishes from that.
Give my son a bath.
Brush/floss his teeth.
Read him a story.
Brush my teeth.
Pass out on my bed in exhaustion.

And the mornings are up, short workout, breakfast, breakfast dishes, get son dressed and fed, play, take him to school.

It's a far cry from olden days, when I may have been working 10 hours instead of 8, but I also could sit my butt down on the couch and have a beer and watch TV if I wanted. Or go to the gym. Or go for a walk. Or read a book.

1.2 pounds

2011-06-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

If I'd followed the book exactly (i.e., if I'd had 8 hours a day to devote to cooking and exercise), I *could* have lost 4 to 10 pounds in 2 weeks, according to the book.

Ah well, 1.2 is better than zero! I'll take it.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to get out of bed

2011-06-06T19:06:00.000-07:00

Nothing went right at work today.
I didn't take enough food, so I ended up going and grabbing a burrito after eating my apple, banana, yogurt, pineapple, and salad and STILL being hungry. Hungry Marcia = cranky Marcia.

And then I got home to a broken door and a broken computer. Yep, my dead bolt is broken. I can't even get the key in the lock.

Sheesh.

Bikini Bootcamp Roundup of Recipes

2011-06-04T17:27:00.000-07:00

I won't know how much weight I lost until Monday. Probably not much. That's the thing about these plans. You gotta follow them. And PMS doesn't help. Here's a round up of the recipes I've tried, and the ones I haven't gotten to yet. In case you are interested in testing out the book:

What I've tried:
Breakfasts:
Banana smoothie
Banana yogurt parfait
Blueberry smoothie
Huevos Mexicana
Mango yogurt parfait
Scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms

Salads:
Amansala salad with ginger-sesame dressing - this is so so good, I've eaten it 5 times at least in 2 weeks
Chicken taco salad: good
Chopped vegetable and chickpea salad with citrus dressing: very filling and good
Spinach and chickpea salad with orange dressing: YUMMY
White bean and tuna salad: this was just okay. Very filling though

Soups:
Broccoli soup: very good and very easy to make
Carrot ginger soup: very easy and my absolute favorite so far
Mushroom spinach soup: delish. Hubby doesn't like greens in soup
Tortilla-less tortilla soup: meh. Probably I made it wrong. I heavily adjusted it.
White bean and roasted tomato soup: my hubby's and kid's favorite

Mains:
Chicken fajitas: good, but they are fajitas. Pretty basic
Chicken stir-fry over napa cabbage: yum!
Fish kebabs: I heavily edited this, but it was still yummy

I also made a fair number of dressings, marinades, and smoothies

What I haven't tried:
Asian chicken lettuce wraps with peanuts
Black bean salad
Couscous salad with mint, raisins, and almonds
Crunchy chicken salad with raisins and apples
Jicama, black bean, and avocado salad
Mango chicken salad
Soba noodle salad with chicken
Curried spinach salad with papaya and pumpkin seeds
Black bean soup
Butternut squash soup (it's not the season, and I have a good recipe already)
Cauliflower soup
Clear chicken soup with lime and avocado
Gazpacho (just not into cold soups)
Lentil soup
Sopa de lima
Spicy Mexican vegetable soup
Zucchini soup
Chicken curry with veggies on couscous
Chicken enchiladas
Fish tacos in lettuce wraps
Grilled fish with mango salsa
Grilled fish with radish and cucumber salad
Ginger shrimp with zucchini
Steamed fish over soba noodles
Steamed fish with tomatoes, peppers and onions
Vegetable fajitas
Any desserts

Therefore, I have many more recipes to try, when I get the energy.

Banana Soft Serve - I finally tried it! And more bootcamp food.

2011-05-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

You know, this stuff has been all over the blog-o-sphere for at least a year now. And I've been meaning to try it. Really. But, I've never had time or the urge. But I found myself with 9 frozen bananas, so this week was the week. Besides, I never was the "cool kid", so I should continue the trend and adopt the latest thing - years later.

My husband was doubtful. After about a minute, he suggested the Blendtec instead of the food processor. I said "no, the blog I read said that the Vitamix didn't work well". Then, a minute into it, he said "this is not going to work." I said "it takes 5 minutes!" I followed the directions from Gena, but also checked out Averie for advice too. It worked. Here's what it looks like before the toppings.

Well, darned if it didn't work, and it was delicious. I topped mine with a crumbled cookie and some chocolate syrup. Spouse liked it, kid ate half and THEN said he didn't like it.

More bikini bootcamp recipes: Roasted tomato and white bean soup:

Baked tilapia with vegetable hash. (This is heavily adapted. Original recipe called for grilled tilapia with vegetables on skewers. This was easier.)

Scrambled egg with spinach, mushroom, onion, tomato (and I snuck in goat cheese)

Spinach salad with nuts, chickpeas, some other yummy stuff, with an orange dressing.

Note to self: if you are going to take a day off of the "diet" and eat a slice of sodium-filled pizza, do not do it the night before your weekly "weigh-in", because then all it does is depress you and make you feel like a failure for only losing 0.2 lbs. When in reality, you probably lost 2 lbs and are carrying around extra water.

Bikini Bootcamp

2011-05-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sounds strange, I know, but bear with me. On a recent whirlwind trip to DC (I do owe an update on that, don't I??), I found this gem of a book. We were staying with great old friends, and my friend had this book and has used it a couple of times. She said while she had difficulty following it to the letter, she really felt AMAZING each time she used it and it did work.

What drew me to the book originally was the recipes. I (of course) perused the book at her house (specifically, the recipes section), and it was enough to sell me on the book. When I got home, I hit up Amazon.

I was sufficiently warned about the amount of work to do all of the exercise and all of the chopping. But, you know, I already exercise. And I already cook a lot. I am accustomed to chopping. I figured, what's the big deal? No problem!

Wow. Was I wrong. It's partly that the recipes are cooked from scratch (naturally). Some of them require several steps - one soup recipe calls for 3 different steps that take 2.5 hours total. Not exactly do-able on a weeknight.

Read more »

Green dinner

2011-05-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

Salad with beets and goat cheese

Fava bean and sauteed zucchini spread with cilantro

On bread

With guacamole and snap peas (those 2 pics were fuzzy, so just picture them in your mind)s

Links and Quotes of the week

2011-05-20T06:12:00.000-07:00

The email from Mark's Daily Apple this week had this quote: "Make your easy workouts longer and easier, and your hard workouts shorter and harder. " I love this philosophy!

Tips for staying fit on vacation by Weight Watchers. I have used most of these tips: Staying Fit on Vacay

Nice graphic on activity (via Mark's Daily Apple). Scary stuff. I sit way too much!

Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins

2011-05-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

On our camping trip, my neighbor brought along some buttermilk oatmeal muffins. I was dying to try them, so I bought buttermilk. When I got the recipe, I realized that they require steel cut oats (which I don't have) and 8 hours of soaking time (which I also didn't have). So, google and allrecipes became my best friend.

I found this recipe and adjusted it a bit. First, I doubled it. Then, I used half the amount of oil (olive, because that's what I had), and added 4 oz of berry flavored applesauce. Then I sprinkled in some cinnamon and added brown sugar. Also, I didn't have 1 full cup of brown sugar, so I only used 1/2 (I always cut the sugar anyway).

These were nice and delicious and simple. And they made 22 muffins. Next time, I might try to add grated carrots or apple. Why not?

Read more »

The Denver Airport has pretty healthy food.

2011-05-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

If you are ever there, you will be able to go to Itza and get an Itza wrap filled with delicious veggies on a whole wheat wrap! And you can find fresh fruit too.

You will pay an arm and a leg for it.

Of course, there's also McDonalds.

We had both.

A recap of our whirlwind weekend trip to DC (hubby's there for 1.5 weeks, so we went out for the weekend) to follow. It wasn't frugal! (Well, except for flying on frequent flyer miles, but even that wasn't particularly frugal, since the last-minute booking meant it cost 100,000 miles for two tickets.)

I got a new plate!

2011-05-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

Leftover mother's day vegetables on one side, with the leftover chicken added to a stir-fry on the other side.

Big salad

2011-05-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

I probably should have put it in a nice bowl or on a plate. But I'm a single parent. I ate it right out of the big bowl.

Buttermilk Rosemary Cheese Scones

2011-05-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

So, remember that buttermilk? Yeah, I had extra. So I googled to find a recipe that was easy to make that hopefully would freeze well, as my spouse is out of town. I found a basic scone recipe, and adjusted it (basically, added cheese and rosemary).

It was another good task that I could do with my boy. I have to say, though, I must not have shaken the buttermilk enough, because the bottom was really really thick. No wonder it seemed runny when I made the muffins.

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Mother's Day

2011-05-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

Not a big post today, just some pics: Breakfast (made by my honey) pancakes with strawberries.

Dinner: we made together: roasted chicken (Ina Garten's recipe) in a bed of root vegetables (that soak up all the chicken flavor), steamed green beans.

Links!

2011-05-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

Just a few good ones this week:

Is sugar toxic?

10-primal-meals-in-15-minutes-or-less I'm not primal, but I think about it. But then, I think about going vegan too. So. These recipes look good and easy.

Raincoast crisps - or "why I should never go to the foo foo grocery store hungry". I did go on Amazon to see the price there...same as the foo foo store. $7.99 per box. But they are goooood. But $0.22 per cracker. Now I did find this recipe to make your own version. I bought the fig and olive version, by the way. I found this version and this version too. But I've never made my own crackers, and I will probably be lazy and just buy these when I'm really really craving them.

Annual Grocery Expenditures

2011-05-08T18:03:00.000-07:00

Somewhere on this blog, I posted an annual summary of my grocery expenditures from 2000 to 2008. Darned if I could find it. But luckily, the combination of my spouse's and my organizational habits mean I found the original file.

So I've updated it. What have I learned? Well, in 2009 I made an effort to have alternating months of $160 and $320 a month (not including the CSA). I lasted through September, but that had an amazing effect on my bill. My typical annual bill was $4800/ year, that year was $4200.

In 2010, I made no such attempt, and it showed. We were back to normal, plus a few hundred - likely due to increasing costs.

Read more »

Homemade Tomato Soup and Cooking with Kids

2011-05-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

I know that lots of moms talk about cooking with kids, and how great it is. I haven't done it much. When my husband cooks with our son, it's usually a child-led "experiment" "let's add this!"

I tend to want to get the cooking done as quickly as possible. So I try to put him off from "I want to play!" by cooking dinner. It's painful. Cooking, playing, and exercising have turned into major chores to me lately, and it's stressful. So I've decided to change that. I've been biking to work more, and walking places on the weekend (parties, the park) - incorporating exercise into my day. It makes it more relaxing and fun.

Read more »

Chard Pizza

2011-04-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

I used the recipe here as an inspiration. I found it because I got chard this week, but felt like pizza and googled "chard pizza", and...voila!

I made my standard pizza dough in the bread machine the night before. Even bread machine crusts take about 1 hr 45 min with the mixing, rising, resting, shaping, par-baking...which is not do-able after work and before dinner. I wish it were, but not so much. But I planned ahead, which is uncommon these days mid-week.

Yet another stir-fry

2011-04-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

The Costco stir-fry frozen vegetables are a working mother's best friend. Paired with cooked brown rice, and either sauteed tofu, fried eggs, or leftover meat, it's perfect and easy. But can use 3 pots (for the rice, the stir-fry, and the eggs). This day, I sliced up two large kohlrabis and added those to the mix. I also added diced oranges from our tree, and the sauce included some homemade orange marmalade. Give it a little tang.

The only problem I have is that to get it to cook just right, you have to use just the right amount of veggies. Which is perfect for dinner, but leaves no leftovers. So, if I want leftovers for lunch, I have to cook more veggies after dinner. Which only takes about 5 minutes. But still.