Goals

I went to make a food post today and when i was almost finished...it all disappeared.

I took this as a sign that today, i needed to write something else, something that was on my mind, I just hadn't fully committed to posting it on the blog...until now.

I want to make a post about goals.

Because currently the waistband of my pants cuts off circulation when I sit down. And I refuse to buy bigger pants.

It isn’t about WHAT I am eating—that is pretty healthy for the most part.  It’s about HOW MUCH I am eating—it’s too much (for my slowing-metabolism-entering-my-30's body).  And I’m eating late in the evenings (8/8:30p) from late nights of work.

So that's my first goal--try to eat a little less. 

My second goal is about increasing my exercise.  Because although my extra jobs are helping me to accomplish $financial$ goals, they also restrict my time for working on my fitness goals. And that has gone by the way-side for some time now.

I had been on the prowl for a bike ever since I went for some practice rides on Megan’s bike for a relay triathlon that we were too late to sign up for (tragic). So, I did some research.

So, I did some research. I could have gotten a bike (cycling/hybrid) at a decent price from Walmart, but I didn’t feel “all about” that game plan. So, I turned to craigslist--- a few weeks later, I saw this beauty

and knew it needed to be mine. So I bought it.

I went for two bike rides this weekend (about 4 miles each, I think). I need to buy a bike computer so that I can keep an accurate account of my distances and times for future rides.  And I bike rack so I can strap this baby to the car and take it with me to various places.

I’m excited to have another way to exercise. I think my current relationship with exercise requires variety in order for me to get into a routine with it.  Trying to do the same thing worked for me in college, but now it gets me bored. I need to mix-it up in order to stick with it. So far, I plan to:

1) finish using up my yoga groupon,

2) continue walking bella in the evenings (our long route is one mile, when it happens),

3) ride my new bike,

 4) and incorporate some Jillian Michael dvd’s in the mix (because I see results FAST when I use those.)

I know I won't get to workout EVERY day, but I would like to aim to get in some physical fitness at least a few days a week. 

That's all I got for now. Happy Monday.

Raime

Cook-apoolza Sunday Red Stick Style!

Sorry Raimster for stealing your title, but obviously great minds were thinking alike...and in unrelated news, we both decided to spend Sunday cooking.  ;)

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of my recent endeavors.  So fire up the ol' imagination and let's get started!

I have been struggling in recent months to be creative with meals, while adhering to the busy lifestyle of a fun-sized accountant.  I want healthy, home cooked meals filled with variety and a dash of intrigue.  And I want it to be fully cooked and ready on my TV tray with my most recent Criminal Minds DVD queued to where I left off as soon as I walk in the door from a long day at work.  No amount of hallucinogenic drugs will help here, so I've been trying to find some other means of obtaining my goal.  My slow cooker is most certainly a God-send, but even that is beginning to become a little redundant.

So I was excited to pick up a recent Rachael Ray magazine that boasted "One Day, 20 meals!"   http://www.rachaelraymag.com/food-how-to/grocery-shopping-tips/one-month-of-make-ahead-meals.  BINGO!  I decided to give the woman I normally have to watch on MUTE a chance.  The article called for a day of making meal "building blocks" and then it followed with 20 recipes that built upon these building blocks.  I made three of the five recipes, Laura style of course,  -- pulled chicken, roasted vegetables (red bell peppers, onions, and butternut squash) and some rice pilaf (rice, chicken stock, peas, bay leaves) and I will use those to concoct the following recipes during the next couple of weeks:

Spanish Rice with Shrimp
Butternut Squash and Spinach Strata
Veggie flat breads with Hummus
Chicken Fried Rice
Chicken Lime Soup

I also bought a cantaloupe because I've been dying to try a cantaloupe smoothie.  Today was the day!  I liked it, but it definitely needs some tweaking.  I used about half a cup of cantaloupe, a container of Greek yogurt, a fourth cup of 1% milk, and about a tsp. of honey.  Less yogurt, more honey, maybe a sprinkle of granola.  The melon was already a tad bit tangy so the yogurt threw it over the tang-edge.  I still ate it though...Momma don't miss meals much.

I also have plans to make some rosemary walnuts for snacking!  I don't know why that required an exclamation point, but it just felt right. 

So, in summary, I had a goal, I put a plan in motion, and I am feeling confident that I'll have some nice pictures soon!

Oh, also I have two more big sweet potatoes that keep begging me to introduce them to my new mandolin.  I thought that I was out of the woods after I finished the first "chip" test, but I was shocked to discover that it was only the dress rehearsal to the real test --- putting the sucker back together after washing it!  The cuts on my hands have healed nicely, so I think the sweet potatoes will get their wish pretty soon :)

Cheers!

Cook-apalooza Sunday

Before I tell you about my successes, let's review my recent failures:

1)   Kale chips.  Their crispy, melt-in-your-mouth texture transformed into ass-taste on my tongue that lasted several minutes after the chip had been consumed. I kept going back to the stove, plucking another one from the pan into my mouth, only to hate myself after each and every bite.  I tried. I tried hard to love you kale chips.  But you didn’t love me back.

2)   Pho.  I was convinced I would like this because it involved broth and noodles and sriracha.  However, it seems to me that is just a variation on ramen noodles. What’s the big deal?

3)    At home hair color. When I got my haircut last weekend, my stylist was trying to convince me to go for a “chocolate brown”. I confessed that I had a box of l’oreal in my bathroom closet the exact shade of my natural hair color and I only wanted to use it to cover my gray. Turns out, L’oreal’s “light beige brown” translates to “dark reddish brown” on my head.  That box lied to me.  It lied hard core. Lucky for that box, I kind of like it.  Plus, it will simply and easily wash out in 28 shampoos. (Unless that’s a lie too.)

And now, for the successes:

All of the following recipes were made to utilize aging produce in my fridge.  Sometimes that's how the best recipes are made. With a little love, and a lot of desperation to not waste food.

1) Roasted Tomato and Corn Soup. (the hands-down WINNER of the day)

I had a carton of grape tomatoes and a fresh ear of corn about to perish in the fridge.  Solution? This soup from edibleperspective.com

 ooohhhh MAMA!!! I'm in love with this soup! You MUST make this. NOW.

2) Roasted Broccoli and Sautéed Leek Soup

Leek about to wilt in the fridge?  Bag of broccoli about to frost over with freezer burn?  The last bit of goat cheese crumbles waiting for a cause worth dieing for? Make this: 

Roast broccoli and garlic and saute leeks simultaneously.  Add broccoli and garlic to pot of leeks. Add almond milk and broth until desired consistency. Immersion blend. top with goat cheese crumbles, salt and pepper.

3) Split pea soup

Sorry, no photo for this one.  I'm going to try to think of an interesting add-in/topping to make this blog-worthy.  Right now it's just your average split pea soup.

I sense a theme here.  I think i have developed an obsession with immersion blended soups. I’m a crazy girl with an electric mixing stick.

Veggie and Bean Stuffed Bell Peppers

I think I forgot to tell you about this...

It's so yummy, and so simple, I must share. (the best part--no deadly mandolin blade required)

I got it from here at neverhomemaker.com

I used red bell peppers instead of green because I like their taste better.

Check out the food glory:

I picked this recipe because it was simple, and because it had both beans AND veggies in it.  However, I was a bit skeptical about the flavor.  I thought it would be "just okay", but it was DELICIOUS. Totally a repeat recipe.

Simple AND delicious...sign me up.

And So it Begins...Again...

I am finally starting to get back into my cooking routine!  This summer has proven difficult for meal planning and kitchen experimentations of all kinds...if I were a killer whale, my big fin would be flopped over right now.  That's a really sad analogy :( 

Moving on:  Not wanting to crash and burn, I've been easing back into culinary activities very slowly.  Or I'm lazy.  Whatever. 

My first stop-- a spicy peach smoothie!

This thing was soooooooo good!  I cut up one GINORMOUS fresh white peach along with a couple of ice cubes, some light unsweetened soy milk, french vanilla protein powder, and for the spicy kicker --- some jalapeno simple syrup that I made for our latest beach excursion.  It was FABULOUS!  Sweet and refreshing and then punched you in that little dangly thing in the back of your mouth on the way down...LOVED IT :)

Then, an unexpected event occurred.  I turned 30!  Okay it was expected.  But what was not expected was that I reached 30 with all of my fingers and toes attached!  I have legit problems with keeping those phalanges healthy and with a constant blood supply.  Chef knives, doors, filing cabinets, walls, baseballs, my brother's shin...if we were on Jeopardy, the question would be "What form of torture does Laura typically choose for self-mutilation of the hands and feet?"  So, what's the best way to celebrate this unexpected accomplishment you ask?  Receive a freaking bougie mandolin from RAIME!!  YEAH!!!  I had been wanting one for so long, but I was actually kind of scared of hurting myself...even with a cut resistant glove and the safety guard attachment.  But I'm 30 now.  It's time to act like a grown-up. 

I only almost cut myself once, which is definitely a sign of maturity, in my opinion.  And it was in the R&D phase of figuring out how to work it so it doesn't even count.  No, it doesn't!  I've decided that I am going to lobby that all merchandise capable of decapitation should include an instruction manual that consists of more than 5 pictures on how to operate said machinery of death.  The first couple of pictures were fine.  "This is a mandolin.  It's cuts things.  It makes you happy.  Note the happy person in picture 3--that's you!"  But they needed to insert a few more in between the step of picking the food up off of the counter with the intent of slicing, and then the picture of the finished product.  Like "Here's me wondering how to make the legs of the mandolin pop out so it's sitting at an angle.  Nope, that's not it.  How about this piece....got it!" and then "Sticking the food on the safety guard device is not as intuitive as you would suspect.  No, your Master's degree and CPA will not help you here." followed by "WOAH that blade REALLY is SHARP!!!  GEEZ!!  Do I need a parent to supervise me?" and then "Huh, I wanted to make a chip, not a shard of tissue paper.  Where is the chip setting?"

It was scary.  And daunting.  I was frightened the whole time.  But, I did it! 

I sliced up a sweet potato, brushed a little bit of canola oil onto the slices and then sprinkled with a smidgen of sea salt.  I put them in the oven at 375 and baked for 12 minutes, then flipped them, re-oiled and salted, and then baked for another 8 minutes.  Considering the fact that they were not charred black, nor covered in my blood, I think it was a success.  I will, however, definitely need to tweak my technique in order to obtain crispy chips that don't have burn freckles.

It felt awesome to be cooking again on a Monday while watching TV and hanging out with Skeeter.  I'm so ready to get back into the regular habit of cooking/freezing/sharing/sending texts of pictures/and BLOGGING dangit!  It really is fun and rewarding.

I type this post while enjoying a bowl of sweet potato and black bean slow cooker chili that I made a few weeks ago and froze for future delights.  It tastes deliciously sweet and spicy!  I've included a cup of Red Dye #40 to wash it down :)  Until next time...

Forever Crazy Yours,
Laura

A Tale of Two Veggies

First, there is Cauliflower:

I followed this recipe. I used my immersion blender to make it creamy--it seemed weird to leave to cauliflower in huge chunks (which is what the recipe said to do). But, in typical fashion, if I don't like something, or it sounds more complicated than it needs to be, I Raime-fy it.  Enter emmersion blender. Problem solved.

 Cauliflower is one of those weird vegetables that I have a hard time incorporating into my diet, other than the typical "California blend" of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots.  So, it was a nice change of pace to enjoy this veggie in a creamy soup.  I went light on the cheese to try to keep it in a healthy range. It surprised me just how much I liked this. Definitely a recipe worth repeating.



Next up...KALE.

My dark green lover.

This was my first rendez-vous with kale, and boy did we enjoy ourselves!

I loosely followed this recipe from neverhomemaker.com.  I didn't have all those spices on hand, so I used my own little blend of: 
smoked paprika
cumin
curry powder
and just a touch a tumeric.

Raime-fication: if you don't have it, and can't foresee a reason to have it for future uses, just use what you DO have. 

 serve this lentil bowl solo, or with a side of pita bread or naan for dipping/scooping pleasure.


And lastly, Mac and Greens.  I LOVE mac and cheese, but I could stand to decrease the fat and calories, so I was inspired when I spotted this recipe from katheatsrealfood.com.

Raime-fied Kale version:

Mac and Greens

Ingredients:
two cups brown rice elbow macaroni noodles
kale
1/3 cooked sweet potato (more if you like the sweetness to temper the bitterness of kale)
parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Simultaneously: boil brown rice pasta, steam chopped kale, and cook sweet potato in microwave for 5-7 minutes. (I like multitasking). Then, food process kale and sweet potato until it's like a chunky pesto. Mix with drained noodles. Add Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste.

So easy. So green. and sooo good. 

Spinach

As a child, i didn't care to eat spinach. Of course, the only way that I knew spinach to be was in the form of a block, frozen, cooked down to a shrivel.

As an adult, I discovered my love of fresh spinach in salads. And more recently I began to wonder what more creative ways i could incorporate spinach into my meals.

Here's what I came up with:

I followed this recipe for spinach soup (I omitted the croutons). 

And I have also been a fan of chopping up spinach and adding it to almost any dish.  Last night, I added it to the 15 bean stew that I made over the weekend:

I also like to use fresh spinach:

• as a lettuce substitute in tacos
• as the base for a salad
• as an add-in for pasta salad

What ways do you use spinach?

Black bean enchiladas

This is an original recipe by me. Recipes by Raime (lol)

Normally I am VERY recipe-dependent.  I need a paper with a list of ingredients and directions to tell me how to cook something. 

But this time, the creative mood struck me by surprise.  

I had been thinking of making enchiladas for a couple of weeks now. I even had it on my list of "recipes to make" on the list app on my phone (yes, I am a nerd).  

But I didn't feel like making chicken enchiladas, and although I love cheese, I wanted something more healthy than cheese-stuffed enchiladas.  I had a boat-load of black bean cans in my pantry that were begging to be used, and that's when i came up with this:

 Black bean enchiladas

one can black beans (drained and rinsed)
one can diced tomatoes
1/4 to 1/3 of a large onion, diced small
one small can diced green chilis
1 tsp cumin
8-10 small corn tortillas
shredded cheese for topping


Preheat oven on Broil.
Combine black beans, onion, green chilis, cumin, and 1/2 can diced tomatoes (drained).
Take 1/3 of that mixture and pulse in a food processor until smooth
Take another 1/3 of the mixture and pulse in food processor just until chunky
Leave the last 1/3 of the mixture as-is (whole).  combine all three.
Fill tortillas with mixture, roll, place seam-down in a casserole dish sprayed with oil.
Broil for 5-7 minutes or until tortillas are slightly golden brown on top.
Cover with salsa (or the remainder of the drained diced tomatoes) and some shredded cheese and bake just until cheese is melted.

Filling mixture (the cumin really adds something special to the flavor of this):

Little enchilada babies ready to be broiled:

cheesy, fiber-y glory:

 I'm not gonna lie---this was REALLY GOOD.  I'm rather proud of this recipe.  It tastes great, it is vegetarian, and it is full of protein and fiber so it will satisfy even a meat-eater's hunger.

homemade granola, photo fail

I had a photo fail today.  For some weird reason, I couldn't get my pics to load.  So, you will just have to use your imagination for now.  Sorry about that.

Made some homemade granola last night.  I was inspired by this granola recipe by Ina Garten.  Of course, I made some tweeks to it to make it "Raime-fied" though.

My version for homemade granola is:

2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup sliced almonds
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 to 1 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp cinnamon1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

Directions: Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix.  Then add oil and honey and stir until fully dispersed throughout the mixture.  Spread evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for 20-ish minutes, stirring at least once during the bake time.  Let cool.


For variety, I am considering the following add-ins for next time:
cocoa powder (I heart chocolate)
sunflower seeds
pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
pumpkin spice (for fall/seasonal flavor)
dried apples
chocolate chips (after it has cooled off, of course)

Nom nom nom. mmmm granola. 

Carb-less Pizza...oh, yeah.

I did it again...

Homemade Reese's cups. 

But this time i used Mara Natha almond butter, and i mixed some dark-chocolate chips in with the semisweet chips.  I dare say this version is better. (sorry about my shadow on that picture--photography is not my strong suit. I'm still a work in progress).

And another little creation that I am mighty proud of is this:

It's a portabella pizza.  Thats right...the portabella mushroom cap IS the crust. Amazing...I know.

I suppose it isn't completely carb-free, but it does not have the typical carbohydrate crust...so that's why i'm calling it a carb-less pizza.

The inspiration came from this recipe from the foodblog Oh She Glows. She made a vegan cheese sauce, but i was in the mood for real cheese. So I did it..oh yes I did.

Just top each mushroom cap (belly-side up) with:
marinara sauce
mozzerella cheese
red bell peppers, red onions, etc (the topping of your choice)
then broil for about 10 minutes until cheese is ooey-gooey melty and slightly golden.

After baking, i topped mine with some fresh basil and a sprinkle of parm.

Sooooo good and veggie-licious.


I will post more later when my brain is working. Sinus congestion is taking over me.  Someday soon, I fear I will cease to be human and just transform into a giant ball of mucus. Gross...I know.
 Raime

Food! Glorious Foooood!

When I was in between 5th and 6th grade, I was in a summer production of Oliver Twist.  I had a small solo during the "Food!  Glorious Food!" number.  My verse was "What is it we dream about?  What brings on a sigh?"  I think I was labeled "Orphan #2" in the program.  The point of being....even back then, I normally lived a "Food-themed" life.  But I digress.

I have not been able to venture far out into the world of culinary experiments lately.  In an effort to avoid eating vodka and fried chicken 7 nights a week, I've tried to stick with things that were easy to cook, and didn't require lots of preparation.

Southside was selling 10 pound bags of potatoes for $0.99.  How could you not buy that?  What else can you buy 10 pounds of for less than a dollar (excluding tax) (unless you live in a sales tax free zone) (or you steal it, which is not advocated by this blog at all so don't even go there)  I had visions of hash browns (I SAID I DIDN'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!), creamless thick soups, and other potato things that aren't worth listing.  Just google on your own time.

But all I've really gotten around to doing was this:

Chicken and potatoes with roasted cream sauce.  It was pretty good.  For chicken and potatoes.

Also, that night involved a turtle and a flip flop.  As a creativity exercise, create a caption for this picture.

I cut up enough chicken that night in order to not have to do it again the next night.  I had a mad hankering for some silver noodles, so I browned the chicken, cooked silver noodles, stir fried some veggies, and mixed in some teriyaki sauce.  FREAKING delicious.

I also cooked for my under-the-weather coworker again, with the help of another coworker.  I think I'm ready for iron chef.  All those years of being a bossy oldest child have really honed my skills of telling people what to do. 

We went to Fresh Market and picked out some veggies that looked good.  Beets, green beans, mushrooms, squash, and bell peppers all made the cut.

They were roasted up with some herbs and olive oil and they were perfect.

For the main dish, we made a meatloaf...with a secret.  It was also full of vegetables.  I processed garlic, onions, celery, green onions, bell peppers, squash, and zucchini and squeezed all of the water out of them.  They met up and had a party with some lean ground sirloin, eggs, and milk-soaked saltines.  The phrase "milk-soaked", while completely accurate, is also completely revolting.  A thousand apologies.

Back to the task at hand...Meatloaf.  Now that I have milk-soaked on the brain, I can't describe the meatloaf without gagging.  I can tell you that it was deceptively delicious.  You really couldn't tell that it was full of vegetables.  These other words may or may not apply:

Moist
Purple
Juicy
Flavorful
Skeeter

There, I was able to get the message out without feeling as though I were writing an adult novel or a grindhouse script.  We need a distraction.....Oh look!  Below is a picture!

So Beautiful!

To finish off the past few weeks, we just recently celebrated a lovely Father's Day.  My family came over to my condo and we grilled steaks that were served with a drizzled garlic butter and to accompany it, asparagus risotto and caprese salad.  My Mom is a bit obsessed with risotto now.  I'm not going to complain.  It was really easy to make and completely sinful to eat.

My Daddy left me with a bit of steak for the week, so last night I low-carbed it and made a salad.

And then I ate two cookies.  oops.

Ciao!

Nutritional Yeast

So, among the foodblogs that i read (Peas and Thank You, and Love veggies and yoga are my current favorites) there was a lot of mentioning about "nutritional yeast".  I was curious. I never heard of the stuff before, but apparently, it is yeast that is grown purely for it's nutritional value (do NOT confuse it with brewer's yeast--they are two totally different animals). It contains a lot of B vitamins, especially B12, which is really good for people eating a vegan/vegetarian diet because a plant based diet can be lacking in B12. Additionally, it is Gluten free, loaded with protein, and has lots of amino acids. All around, it's a pretty rockin supplement.

So, I went to wholefoods and picked up a tub ($13):

And then i needed something to put the nutritional yeast in, so i found this recipe and decided just to make the peanut butter cup portion.

Sooooo easy.  just mix nutritional yeast with natural peanut butter:

 put a spoonful of melted chocolate chips at bottom of muffin cup, add spoonful of peanut butter mixture, then top with more melted chocolate.  freeze until set. 

Dessert. Packed with protein, B12, and amino acids. I'm in heaven.

As if i needed a reason to eat more chocolate.

Raime

Spaghetti Squash and Peanut Sauce (but not together--that would be gross)

so, i already told you (laura) about these, but i figured i would add them to the blog, because, well, thats the point.

First...spaghetti squash.  I never ate it before in my life, but heard people talk about how it makes for healthy substitute for noodles. So, after googling "how to cook a spaghetti squash" my options were to boil it whole for 20-30 minutes, or bake it whole (or halved) for 1.5 hours.  Momma was hungry, so boiling was chosen for the sake of time.
  After boiling it, i halved it lengthwise, removed the seeds, the took a fork to the flesh and this happened:

Sorry for the bad lighting. Actually, sorry for posting that photo--that's just a terrible shot altogether and I myself am repulsed right now looking at it. I can't imagine what you're thinking.  But keep reading...it gets better i promise!

I added jar marinara sauce (bertolli), pepper and salt, Parmesan cheese, and fresh basil.
And BEHOLD:

 Looks good enough to eat, right?

Here's a close-up of my "noodles"

The texture is somewhat different from regular noodles; however, I LOVED this dish and would repeat it any day of the week.

And lastly, here was my Laura-tribute dinner (she taught me this recipe):

Chicken, greenbeans, peanut sauce served over rice noodles.

Peanut sauce
peanut butter
soy sauce
garlic
ginger
sesame oil
Sriracha or chili flakes (optional) add water until desired thickness/thinness is achieved.



**This sauce turned out great and i ended up using about twice the amount of peanut butter as soy sauce (about 1/2 cup peanut butter to 1/4 cup soy sauce). Then I add smaller amounts of everything else (1-2 tsp or less).

That's all i got for now.



Raime

Variation on a theme

Normally I am a creature of habit when it comes to food. I have the meals that I like and I stick to them, mostly out of simplicity and convenience because I work a lot and don't have much time to meal plan. However, this week I kind of surprised myself by making a few new things (nothing radical, just a little different from the same ole same ole).


A variation on my theme of adding fruit to my salads:

blueberries, cucumber, grape tomatoes, mixed baby greens, chopped pecans, goat cheese, balsamic vinaigrette.  mmmm tasty.



And for snackage:

sliced bananas, cinnamon, sliced almonds, few drops of honey.


And for supper:

I think I have mentioned before that I heart chickpeas. So, when I remembered that I had one lonely can of chickpeas in the pantry, just sitting and waiting to be used, I knew I would want to try something new with them. So, this is what I made for supper:

Chickpea stew


Summer Squash
onions
bellpepper
one small seeded jalepeno (optional--I had one in the fridge that needed to be used pronto)
vegetable broth
can of petite diced tomatoes
can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed of course)
1/2 teaspoon of curry powder
salt and pepper 
add cornstarch as desired for thickness
basil (topping)

Saute first four ingredients until clear and soft. Then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.
Top with fresh cut basil.

I got the idea for this recipe from my current favorite foodblog PeasandThankYou. She did a chickpea and dumpling recipe (a vegan version of chicken and dumplings). I didn't have all the ingredients to make her version, so I made my own using stuff I already had in my fridge and pantry. I thoroughly enjoyed my two bowlfuls of this soup/stew, and I am looking forward to polishing off the leftovers tonight.

Raime