Category Archives: Recipes
I have a crush on a monster
Hey, anybody heard of this little website called Pinterest?! It’s this new super-cool place to post interesting waste your time!! Like we needed any more of those eh? And guess what? I’m totally on it.
Well, one day browsing Pinterest, I finally gave in and started a board on fitness and healthy eating. [Can I just say, there is so many food pinners out there that I've had to stop going on Pinterest past 7pm so I don't get the munchies!] It’s quite sad that ‘pinning’ exercises doesn’t actually burn calories, in fact I belive there’s a pin about it.
In my feverish ‘surfing’ and ‘pinning’ and ‘liking’….[what have we made of our lives?] I stumbled upon a wickedly green looking smoothie. My life was about to change drastically.
I have never been much of a smoothie person as I can see the epic amounts of hidden calories in them. I never thought they were worth it. Now pile a heap of whipping cream on top of a double cappuccino and you’re talking my language. But I digress.
I was introduced to “The Monster Smoothie”. I also started following Iowa Girl Eats, she’s got awesome posts all the time. Check her out!
Now I did it her way first, I promise, and it was oh so good. It was, however, 350 calories. I knew I could cut it back and save the nutrition and flavor. Here’s my modified version that has served as my breakfast for the past two and a half weeks.
Monster Smoothie:
- 3/4 c Fat Free Liberty Greek Style Yogurt with Honey – 140 calories
- 1/2 Banana, frozen in slices – 53 calories
- 4 c Spinach – 28 calories
- 1 tsp Kraft Smooth Peanut Butter – 27 calories
- 1 c of water, give or take – 0 calories
Put everything in the blender, hit ‘liquefy’ and watch. Add more water if needed. 248 Calories total.
I’ve been playing around with this a bit. This morning TF asked for a smoothie too and I know he likes blueberries so I added a cup of frozen berries. I ran out of spinach yesterday so I added a couple teaspoons of Greens Plus powder. I threw 1/2 an avocado in the other day – super silky texture! And usually I have the portioned out yogurt, so I freeze those as well.
I have become the monster.
Enjoy your week, and check out Iowa Girl!
Peace out homes.
Moi xoxo
Gaining, gaining, gained.
For just a second I believed this would be an “okay” for me meal since there was no cream in it. Then I added the butter. Oh and since I’ve come out of the closet about stealing people’s pics – this one is from PW and all ya have to do is click away 
. Also, the reason I attempted this meal in the first place was becuase of TBF. I asked him what I should do with the left over ham instead of Pea Soup, he said Carbonara because “I think it’s a white sauce and ham cubes” Oh hunny… it isn’t.
What TBF and I ate on Wednesday Night or
Fettuccini Carobonara
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1/2 lb bacon cubed
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1/2 lb ham cubed
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1 large white onion minced
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8-12 cloves garlic chopped (It will be okay, I promise.)
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1 cup white wine
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1 cup chicken stock
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4 eggs
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1 1/2 cups shredded parmasean
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salt n peppa
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parsley
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1 lb fettuccini
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Open the wine and have a glass
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Fry up the bacon and ham be sure to not over cook or burn. Remove from pan while leaving the grease behind.
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Fry up the onion for a minute or so then add the garlic, if there’s not too too much grease throw the white wine in and reduce. Add Chicken stock and then the pig back in, simmer.
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Make sure your pasta’s boiling away, fettuccini takes a while and you want to place it directly from the water into what happens next.
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In a large LARGE bowl whisk the eggs with the parmasean, salt and pepper, and a bunch (your choice) of chopped parsley. Quickly add the pasta mixing all the while and then throw on the meat and onions and the butter. Toss to combine, try not to drool.
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Stay away from the scale for 7 days.
Ar riv war
Moi xoxo
One Fish, Two Fish, Three Fish… Broccoli
Not My Photo... I Got It From: http://dexteryarbrough1.wordpress.com
I am going to start this bad boy off by saying this: I am in no way a photographer. I do not own a camera, I do not have an understanding of either composition or light, and I use instagram unabashedly. Therefore; while I enjoy cooking and posting recipes online I shy away from those yellowish cast, out of focus pictures.
In fact, true confessions moment here: usually I just Google what I’ve made and take a photo someone else lovingly created. Today however, as I made up this recipe, there is no physical evidence except the lovely warm feeling of fullness in my tummy. You will have to use your imagination.
Once again I found myself wanting to make something and not having: a) the ingredients, b) the time, or c) the recipe. I winged it (wing it?) anyway.
Here’s the Dr. Seuss Fish Chowder
- Filet of Steel head
- Filet of Halibut
- Filet of Ahi Tuna (please don’t sacrifice any Ahi on my account, go get a good salmon instead. I had to use the tuna or it was caputskis.)
- 2 1/2 cups left over barley from yesterday (already cooked)
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups milk
- 1 small head of broccoli, separated into small little bite sized trees.
- 2 Tb butter
- 1 small yellow onion, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 carrot, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tsp fresh chopped ginger
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 can creamed corn
- dash of this dash of that maybe a bay leaf or two
- Chop the fish into cubes, boil in the 3 cups water for about ten minutes. While that is happening fry the cubed carrot in the butter.
- Add the water from the fish to the carrot and butter, dump in the minced onion, minced garlic, and minced/chopped ginger. Let bubble for about five min.
- Throw everything back into the large pot with the fish sitting in it, add the milk, barley, creamed corn, spices, and anything else I forgot to mention. (Right! The broccoli.) Simmer for about an hour – or until you get back from working at the theatre hoping your house doesn’t burn down in the process, you love your dog after all… he’d better not eat that chowder!
Agua Descarado
I have not now nor shall I ever receive endorsement of any kind from the ‘flat belly diet’; I have never even read up on it. I can say with some certainty that by drinking water I shall not suddenly have a flat belly, no matter how many slices of lemon you put in it. I do confess to enjoying something called Sassy Water, which I found here on this blog.
Reading the recipe I knew it would be a winner in my books. What can be better than cool refreshing water? Oh just toss some veggies and or fruit in it. Bingo! I’m hoping you can’t tell how hard I’ve been trying to not drink red wine. ah hem. Here’s the recipe.
SASSY WATER
(That’s a stupid name so from now on I shall call it Agua Descarado, or Shameless Water.)
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1 Medium Lemon: washed and sliced.
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1 Medium Cucumber: washed, peeled, and sliced.
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12 Mint Leaves
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1 tsp freshly grated Ginger
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A pitcher of water, roughly 8 cups
Combine all ingredients in the pitcher of water. Place in fridge over night. Drink!
Pita! Pita!
[Warning, this post has little to do with Pitas, it's mostly about chicken.]
I’ve written about them before, and I’ll write about them again. Two “thems” in fact. I read a bunch of cool blogs, two of which are The Pioneer Woman, and The Inn at the Crossroads. I follow those blogs voraciously for one incredibly important reason – the food.
I have been looking for a good flatbread recipe for a while so when The Inn came out with their post on Dornish food, I quickly copied the recipe into my ever handy journal. I’ll write about that later though as the first experiment was ok, and the second is in progress.
Last night I was surfing the internet for a chicken recipe that sounded fun and *pop* Pioneer woman just posted about one! I was ready. I don’t know if this happens to you, but it happens to me all the time. I read a recipe, I get inspired, I have none of the ingredients, I cook it anyway. So after I realized I did not have any peach preserves, BBQ sauce, Whiskey of any sort, white onion, or Worcestershire sauce, I did not fear! Lo because I had oil, butter, and most importantly – chicken.
Read the Pioneer Woman’s recipe. It looks good, I’m sure it tastes good, but this is what I made last night.
“Stubborn” Chicken
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3 Chicken thigh/drumstick big leg pieces
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1/2 red onion
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Sherry
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Balsamic vinegar
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Soy sauce
- Garlic
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Butter
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Oil
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Cranberry Jalapeno Jelly
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Salt and Pepper
In my large cast iron saucepan I heated oil and melted butter and browned up my largish chicken pieces just like the P-Woman.
I chopped the red onion, and squished the garlic and after removing the chicken added it to the left over fat in the pan. ( I did not throw away half, I don’t care that my thighs are growing faster than the weeds in my garden.)
I added a couple glugs of sherry, a dash of soy, a glug of balsamic and a jar of my home-made Cranberry Jalepeno Jelly, and a cup of water.
I brought it all to a quiet boil and threw the chicken back in covered it with an oven proof lid and fired into a pre-heated oven at 350° and baked it for an hour and a half.
Voila! Just like hers, I’m sure of it.
Moi xoxo
Good morning, afternoon!
This is me:
So here’s an amazing, jfeldt tested, Pioneer Woman recipe for Iced Coffee.
Ingredients
- 1 pound Ground Coffee (good, Rich Roast)
- 8 quarts Cold Water
- Half-and-half (healthy Splash Per Serving)
- Sweetened Condensed Milk (2-3 Tablespoons Per Serving)
- Note: Can Use Skim Milk, 2% Milk, Whole Milk, Sugar, Artificial Sweeteners, Syrups…adapt To Your Liking!
Preparation Instructions
(Adapted from Imbibe Magazine)
In a large container, mix ground coffee with water. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature eight hours or overnight.
Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth and set over a pitcher or other container. Pour coffee/water mixture through the strainer, allowing all liquid to run through. Discard grounds.
Place coffee liquid in the fridge and allow to cool. Use as needed.
To make iced coffee, pack a glass full of ice cubes. Fill glass 2/3 full with coffee liquid. Add healthy splash of half-and-half. Add 2-3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (can use plain sugar instead) and stir to combine. Taste and adjust half-and-half and/or sweetened condensed milk as needed.
In my haste to make this yesterday, I forgot a slightly important ingredient. I must have been flustered after trying to find shops open on a bank holiday that were willing to sell me a bowl large enough to fit 32 cups of water. I gave up, halved the recipe, and went with 16. I completely forgot to make ice. So This morning, I am enjoying a lovely Cold Coffee, Vietnamese style.
I love you all, see how agreeable a gluttonous amount of snooze gets me?
Moi xoxo
Lunch
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 to 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 3/4 Cups frozen peas
- 1 avocado
- 1 Cup water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1tsp cayenne pepper
- Put the chopped onion and garlic in the bottom of a sauce pan and cover with water. Place frozen peas in the vegetable steamer and place above the onion and garlic in water. Bring to a boil until peas are cooked.
- Add all to blender with the avocado and 1 cup of water, pulse until liquefied. (May need to do in batches.)
- Pour into saucepan and add salt, pepper, cayenne, and lemon juice. Stir constantly until just boiling. Serve warm.
This is the greatest pea soup I have ever had. For those interested, the whole recipe is 15 weight watchers points.
Serves up to 4.
Moi xoxo
Masked Offender!
Not really, but Oh I love Mary Kay’s revitalizing mask after a long hard weekend of camping.
How do you get your hair to do that you ask? Easy! Just add: 4 parts salted sea air, 3 parts salted driftwood smoke, 1 part toque, 2 part headband (notice the bangs? oh ya.), and bake in the sun for four days. During baking take two breaks for intense steaming by sauna. Voila!
Sent from my iPhone
Cookies and Communication
Fern could use some communication skills. Sure it’s a kid’s storey, (Charlotte’s Web), but really crying and screaming doesn’t get you a baby pig in real life. Believe me, I’ve tried, all it ever got me was – “Jessica, we can do this the fun way, or the not so fun way.” I once took a communication course, I had to, it was part of a larger academic thing I was once shooting for. I tried to incorporate the lessons I learned into every day conversations…. Sort of like
When you do/act (like a total moron)
This causes me to feel (like you are a total moron)
It is my intention to (not hang around a moron)
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1 1/2 C Flour
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3/4 C Sugar
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1 tsp Baking Soda
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1 tsp Cinnamon
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1/2 tsp Salt
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1 Egg, slightly beaten.
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1/2 C Oil
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1/4 C Milk
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1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
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1 tsp Vanilla Extract
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1 C Shredded Zucchini
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1/4 C Chocolate Chips
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1/4 C Raisins
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1/8 C Sunflower Seeds
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1/8 C Pumpkin Seeds
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Combine dry ingredients in a bowl except the Chocolate Chips, Seeds, or Raisins.
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Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl except the zucchini.
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Mix the wet into the dry until well Incorporated. Add the Chocolate Chips, Seeds, Raisins, and Zucchini. Do not mix more than necessary. The mixture should be fairly skookum, like a thick muffin recipe..[It sort of is a muffin recipe rebooted.]
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Pre-heat your oven to 350°
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Scoop mixture with an ice cream scoop, spacing them far apart on a cookie sheet. (On a standard sized cookie sheet I place four mounds well apart from each other or the sides of the sheet.)
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Bake for 15-25 min, watch carefully, turn your cookie sheet once in the baking cycle to ensure even baking. When a tester comes out clean they are done.
Food For Thought
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| Taken from “The Inn at the Crossroads” blog. |
After getting over the initial shock that “A Dance With Dragons” is finished, and about to hit the shelves around July, I started to peruse George R. R.’s website. I remembered he had a funny “notablog” so I stopped off there first, and followed a link he posted to an absolutely kick ass blog here. These ladies are actually making recipes and cooking the dishes they find in A Song of Ice and Fire series! Amazing, wonderful, exciting.
There are several recipes I want to try out, not the lease of which “Winter Cakes”, but I was suddenly reminded of finding a recipe for “Spice Soup” which is featured in Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. I have looked and looked but it seems Mr. Goodkind has written a new book, also expected in July 2011 so his old site is down. However, I have a copy of the recipe and I have made it often, I love it.
First, lightly brown some hot peppers in oil. (The little dried red peppers, often used in oriental cooking.) Be careful not to cook them too long, or the soup will be really spicy. After they’re browned, take them out. Be sure to get all the seeds, too. I like to break up the peppers and put them in a vertical handled strainer and then lower that into the hot oil. After they brown this makes it easy to take them out. (You could also cook the peppers in a small pan and then pour the oil into a big soup pot through a small strainer, if it’s easier for you.) (All the following ingredients should be cut up into bite size pieces.) Sauté 2 onions, and then mushrooms (about equal to the onions) in the oil.
After the onions and mushrooms are sautéed, add the following:
4 or 5 potatoes
3 carrots
celery
1 small zucchini
1 package frozen corn (or 1 can)
1/2 head of cabbage
2-15 oz cans of tomatoes (or 1 large one)
chicken soup base
dry parsley, crushed
fill the pot with water so that it generously covers everything. After bringing it to a boil, cover and let it simmer until the vegetables are all cooked. It takes some time for the potatoes to cook. Add water as it evaporates. I like to let the soup simmer all day. It not only makes the house smell wonderful, but it gets better the longer it cooks. With chunks of fresh bread, it makes a hearty meal, especially on a cold day sitting by a crackling fire. Enjoy. All best wishes.
Whole recipe is roughly 30 weight watcher’s points depending on how true you stay to the ingredients. Substitute out the canned corn for fresh, and use less tomato and potato to decrease the points value substantionly.
