Dinner and a movie

Last night my bff and I went to see a movie, ah what a change.  I planned ahead accordingly for dinner doing pulled pork bbq sandwiches which we snuck into cinema shhhh, it also made for an easy meal for the boys.  Have to say I enjoyed Alice and I do have a lot of respect for Johnny Depp I really do, he's such a great artist.  I used boneless pork ribs which I put into the slow cooker with half a carton of beef stock, cooked those for about 5 hours on low and 1 hour on high.  I then pulled apart the ribs with 2 forks and added a jug of bbq sauce, put that back onto a low simmer.  There was plenty left for lunch for everyone today so happy with that plan.

Tonight's dinner was a raving success with both my husband and girls.  I made a pineapple jerk chicken with brown rice.  Rather than using a bottle jerk sauce I did make my own, and was surprisingly good and not too spicy.  For once I made perfect brown rice in a saucepan too!  Cup of rice to 1.5 cups of water, then bring to the boil uncovered, cover and turn down to a simmer for 20 min, then turn off the heat leave covered for another 10 minutes or up to 20.  I have to confess it was perfect.  Knowing that rice would take that long I allowed time before starting the rest of the course and had it all timed down to a tea.  Definitely one to remember for the future. 

Canned tuna...

Lunch was a relatively healthy salad with bean and canned tuna, and I've decided canned tuna just don't taste that good.  The texture is blah and the taste is I dunno somewhere else.  Any one else feel the same way?  The salad wasn't bad and I didn't mind the beans but the tuna...yuck.

I will finish the can but after that no more canned tuna for this lady.  Been thinking about our trip in May to Demming, NM got to start finding hotels and things soon for our stay.  Still trying to get my head around the drive there tho....do I pre book or do we wing it with some hotel choices and the same with the way back.  I still have to think about it but I think finding a hotel in Demming is gonna be a good start.

Go Fish...

Armed with the knowledge that red snapper should have been on special today at the grocery store I had planned my menu for tonight's dinner accordingly only on reaching the fish counter to find they had none at all and they weren't sure what happened to the red snapper.  That meant a quick rethink on the fish of the day so I opted for a nice looking halibut steak and then spent about 5 minutes looking for inspiration partly on the shelves and partly racking my brain.  I figured I could probably adapt my original plan for red snapper for halibut as the worst case scenario.  Then we entered the produce section and my eye lit upon some very nice looking lemongrass...which was snatched up in my mitt.  I then spent a good part of the afternoon trying to come up with a recipe idea when I found something with coconut milk and lemongrass.  Hmm only snag I have no coconut milk so I replaced the milk with chicken stock as I really didn't have a lot of alternatives.  Going to serve the whole meal up with brown rice and some steamed green beans.

I did decide to cook some chicken also in pockets for the girls and James although I plan on trying the girls with some of the fish to see how they like it.  I feel a little like I've winged it tonight and I really wish I had had some coconut milk although I'm sure my body will thank me for the lower calorie count.

Just as a quick follow up...this meal was delicious!  The girls enjoyed both the fish and meat version and even James wasn't too adverse to the fish.  The broth was a fine substitute.  My only little complaint as it were was the insipid looking chicken which could easily be rectified by a quick sear in the pan, but all in all a great low fat meal.  Oh and I dressed up the green beans with a little balsamic drizzle.

Round two for chickpea patties

Time to use up some chickpeas for lunch, this is round 2 for my chick pea patties I hated them the last time round so I've switched gears gone to Rachael and found a new recipe...http://www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-index/lunch-recipes/Vegetarian-Chickpea-Burgers now of course I'm not doing the cheese and I've made the yogurt and lemon dressing again.  Hmm better except of I didn't measure so they are a tiny bit too wet...but better.

Burgers, salad and sweet potatoes

Alright I know I'm supposed to be eating more healthily but I'm just trying to use up some stuff in the freezer.  The burgers weren't all that fancy as I tried to make them kid friendly and not too spicy, we did also have whole wheat buns and I served that with baked sweet potato chips and some lettuce with just a balsamic drizzle for dressing, held off on the mayo but did use a little ketchup.  The meal overall certainly could have been worse and with both the girls enjoying dinner James ended up with 2 burgers and I just had the one, and I only let him have a single bun.

Tonight's dinner will be pizza!  Oh yes I did, although I think I'm going to take a walk to the store this morning for a few more veggies to put on mine, James will have pepperoni on his but I'm more limited by what is in the fridge (not a lot) and I really need some mushrooms or something to put on mine.  To save calories on the crust I'm using whole wheat pitas as the base and a salt free tomato sauce.  I'm definitely thinking mushrooms, hmm pepper olives...oh yeah that sounds delicious.  I'll em mix something up for the girls hehe will be their first taste of pizza.  And of course there will be salad on the side for the green effects.

Finally received next months Rachael Ray magazine, I have to admit I was getting worried hehe.  The cover claims healthy recipes, still have yet to stick my nose under the cover but will make an attempt later today.  I am also thinking Monday will have to be a one pot slow cook meal and will call Debbie to see if we can do a movie this week, the boys so owe us a night out dammit!  Fish tomorrow night (I can't wait!), I'm attempting to put fish on the menu at least once a week.  The salmon wasn't so much of a hit with the little ladies so moving onto something else...

Oh ordered a new turntable for my spices in the cupboard.  Still need some kind of shelving to put spices on as well but as my current one is on it's last legs...(I'm waiting for it to collapse).  Mind you I've had this one for awhile now I think I bought it when we still lived in Livermore so it's a couple of years old at least.  Unfortunately it's plastic and been through at least 2 moves and didn't do so well on the last one, the new turntable is metal and has three supports instead of 1 so I'm hoping for something a bit more stable.  This will also give me a chance to go through my spice cabinet as well, I did it not too long ago but I'm finding I'm using fresh herbs more now so there are just some things in there that are not being used and are waay passed their fresh date.

Successful dinner...

So last night was deemed a success the austin steak tacos couldn't have been more perfect as was the salsa.  I managed to avoid the cake (all except for half a fork full) and abstained from dipping into the chocolate too much.  The girls loved the fruit hated the tacos but enjoyed the beans and rice.  I honestly think the meat is a bit tough for them anyways.  To top it all off they slept the whole night again.

Today I'm giving turkey meatloaf ago and have a ton of errands to run during the day (wait a minute didn't I do that yesterday too?).

Hmm exercise how the heck do I get some?  Walking somehow em ok weather is nicer walk good.

Interesting dishes and flavors

Yesterday was jam packed solid in the end.  Between me getting some pampering and James doing the chores and still managing to get the shopping done we had a lot going on.  The girls for some reason just didn't want to nap, by the time they finally went down we ended up having to extend their bedtime and even then they still fought the sleep thing.  On the plus side they did sleep all night again so I'm not going to complain too much.

Last night's dinner I fulfilled my fish obligation (chicken for el hubo).  I used the same marinade for both the fish and the chicken...miso-ginger marinated salmon.  As the weather was just so damn nice we broke out the grill and did both the fish and chicken on it saving on a little clean up.  I paired that with a tropical salad with a pineapple vinaigrette and some kine wantons.  The salad was an interesting combination of romaine lettuce and fresh pineapple topped with a little toasted coconut.  The dressing was a simple using oil, red wine vinegar and a little pineapple juice.  The whole meal had a hawaiin influence using some japanese flavors paired with tropical.  Must admit I enjoyed it a lot and certainly not something that I'd done before.  The wantons are cream cheese, crab meat and water chestnuts with a little green onion wrapped up in wanton wrappers (you really can find them at the grocery store).

Today's dinner is sitting in the fridge covered in a barbecue spice from Penzy's....ribs (I had a craving).  I'm going to make a baste for those later and start them off in the oven roasting over a low temp and some beer with a little liquid smoke.  Oh I hope they come out good.  I plan on pairing that with a beet salad (no potato salad for us!).  I will finish off the ribs on the grill just to make sure they are fully cooked, as our grill just doesn't do so well on the even heat factor any more.

Tomorrow is Johnathon's bday as I have been requested to make the austin crispy tacos and we will follow that up with some cake and probably fondue (there goes the diet).  I think I'll just moderate the cake intake and stick with the fruit and not the fondue.  As for the cake a small piece won't hurt too much.  Yes I know ribs diet.../sigh that was before the change to the menu on Monday lol.  I'll figure something out for reducing some of that fat.

Won't be doing that again without modification

Lunch today was chickpea patties with a lemon-yogurt dressing.  Loved the dressing hated the patties, they were too dry for starters and didn't have a whole lotta taste although the meal was filling if it looked a disaster.  I'm not gonna give up on that entirely but maybe canned beans next time and more egg white or something or maybe grate the onion into the chickpeas to make them stick together more.  Ah well I will do a curry or something with the left over chickpeas for now.

Tonight's dinner is a very easy vegetarian chilli...and I mean easy!  I omit the beans in my version for the sake of my beloved but as he's having a drink tonight I need something quick and easy.

Quick easy dinner with leftovers

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originally uploaded by Karen Jonas.

Last night's dinner and today's lunch was cauliflower and penne pasta unfortunately, and to save a buck, I had some regular pasta on hand that needed using up rather than using whole wheat penne which is a shame, but I'm not one to throw things away if I can help it, however next time I will be buying whole wheat. I actually thought I had burnt the cauliflower at one point however much to my surprise the dish remained intact with just the burnt offering staying in the bottom of the pan.

Here's a tip...if you burn something don't stir it immediately take out the good stuff on top of it and then clean out the pan it's only burnt on the bottom if you stir it you mix in the burnt bits and flavor rendering the whole dish inedible, if you are lucky you can still salvage some of your hard work. (I watch too many cooking shows sometimes).

Oh and I have to laugh my two children are sitting in the middle of the floor humming at each other seeing who can hum longer and then laughing, such a joy.  Did I mention we had another full night's sleep?!!!!

Ok back to talking about food, I have on the oven currently some dried chick peas that have soaked overnight. I will be making some chick pea patties for lunch tomorrow and I can't wait! I chose to reconstitute beans rather than buying canned just to reduce sodium. Now I know you can wash some of that off but well it's not all that hard to do em from scratch.

Dinner tonight will be coconut baked chicken and I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a sauce yet as I think the original one I used had a bit too much sodium and sugar for me (although it was tasty) I think I just need to think about it and modify it some.

What to do with quinoa...

I was inspired by this question so did a couple of internet searches...and found out more about quinoa in the process very interesting.  I'm going to give a link here to a site all about quinoa that had some interesting information about the grain which I didn't realize.  All I can say is wow.

Debbie had made a salad the other week for our Capo Verde night that also included quinoa I might add here that salad was amazing.  Quinoa in itself is a good source of fiber and is glutten free.  It can be found if you search for it in the supermarkets, I suggest trying near the flour or near the grains and beans if they have an organic natural food selection you might need to look there too, I admit it took a bit of searching.  I will be trying more quinoa salads and recipes so keep reading and I'll let you know what I think of the recipes as I come up with them.  I'm even thinking of just making my own using a reduced balsamic vinegar dressing  and cucumber.

Oh here's an idea pita pockets...serve the quinoa salads inside a pita pocket for easy lunch time meals or a light supper.  Portable and use whole wheat to bump up the nutrition.   If you don't like goats cheese use feta or some whatever you might like.  I'm also thinking perhaps I might be able to include some beet as well, would make for an amazing color combination.

Balsamic reduction...1 cup of balsamic vinegar heat over a medium temp until reduced to about half.  You will end up with a sticky sweet vinegar substance that makes a great dressing and one that I'm going to be using a lot as you really don't need to add oil or anything else.

An end to the nightly wake up calls?

Now I realize that we will never be free of wake up calls in the night, what I'm referring to is my eldest child's habit of waking us up once a night and demanding a drink...so far we have managed 3 yes count em 3 nights in a row without her waking!  This has been a blessed relief for mother who after 16 months of interrupted sleep has finally gotten some rest.  Now whether or not we can continue with this trend remains to be seen but I'm praying!

Continued today with the healthy breakfast and lunch dinner tonight was pork with grapes and onions.  I have to admit to enjoying dinner tremendously although the girls were a bit picky about the kale, small shame there but I could always add a smoked wing to it next time as I know they love that.  I actually used thin cut pork chops and put them under the broiler instead of pan frying to reduce the fat on it although in retrospect I could have still done them in the pan and just used the spray.  Either way yum!

My husbands comments were kale isn't my favorite vegetable but I'll eat it anyway and he did like the onion and grape topping.  I'm on a mission to say the least I'm very tempted to try to find recipes that include chard as I've not really had that or cooked that before either, but with the weather turning warmer I'm going to be looking for summer fare rather than the winter staples.  I'm going to make the shopping day a fish day (chicken for James) and will continue with the fruit.

Dinner needs some modification

Tonight's dinner was pork with roasted lemon-apple relish however both my husband and I thought it way too lemony, so I think half a lemon or less and it would be perfect.  It was a great idea roasting lemons and apples and clean up wasn't so bad just the lemon over powered everything else.  Easy to prepare and would be great to entertain with but definitely needs an adjustment.  Otherwise I served this with roasted broccoli and mashed sweet potatoes.

Nice healthy breakfast and lunch

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originally uploaded by Karen Jonas.

Breakfast this morning was a bowl of oatmeal with a couple of strawberries sliced in and a little agave syrup for sweetness, I ended up sharing some of this concoction Abi and Isabel and they were fascinated by it and enjoyed it better than when I left them to try to feed it to themselves.

I then dragged all of our butts to the library only to put them back in the stroller early and leave right before the dinosaur dance. Unfortunately right now I have so little patience given my state of health the constant running around etc. just got to me and then Abi decided to have a little hissy fit, all too much really ill try again Wednesday and hopefully I'll have my leashes by then (says a little prayer).

Lunch was a very civilized affair and the quinoa salad was fabulous. I added a slice of melon to my plate and most of which ended up in my girls but hey I'm not going to complain too much. I added a little salad with a drizzle of the balsamic reduction that was left over from the night before. All in all a very healthy meal and relatively filling. I had my sin I added a couple of crumbles of goats cheese and a couple of tortilla strips for crunch, I'm finding a little goes a long way and I can get my treat without over indulging that being one of my biggest downfalls.

I love cheese and I like em strong tasting I have a big problem with the lack of taste to most american cheese so my Dr's request of using the lower fat varieties just went in one ear and out the other. Instead I will continue to use the sharper and more fuller flavors but just have less after all I would only just add more of the bad stuff so I can taste it anyway. So there is plenty of salad for at least another two or three days and I have alternative ideas for when that runs out too :)

Oh that's a keeper

So tonight's dinner was roasted pork with fennel, parsnips and spinach what I didn't realize was it was only 5 ingredients, yep 5, have to admit it was one of the easier meals I've fixed.  My husband's words were after the first bite 'this is a keeper'.  I'm so happy that a couple of months ago I decided I wanted to know what fennel tasted like and embarked to try the vegetable, I have to say I'm so glad I took the plunge.  It kind of has an onionish taste with a hint of liquorish, it's not too strong and paired with carrots and parsnips really makes a great side vegetable, the fronds can also be used as a herb and garnish.  For once I also managed to cook the pork to perfection allowing it to rest before slicing and serving.

I've already prepared my quinoa and edamame salad for lunch for the next few days, and having sneaked a taste I'm looking forward to indulging tomorrow.  I'm thinking I can even make this sans the edamame for my bean and pea afflicted significant other's tastes.

Now one of the major changes I've made to reduce some of the fat intake is to use an olive oil cooking spray instead of drizzling it onto food or into pans.  I'm also experimenting with using more vinegar and mustard in my own salad dressings and reducing the amount of oil that way.

I think I've achieved my goal for the day tho, I had some blueberries in with my oatmeal this morning, some melon at lunch and a couple of grapes here and there along with a few almonds.  I set myself a small promise that I would eat more fresh fruit and it's a good start.  I also achieved eating more greens with the wilted spinach with dinner and there were no potatoes in sight.  I just have to think about what is going into my  mouth before it goes in.

Almonds get to rule!

I was able to convince my husband that almonds are not that bad for you in fact they are good for you far from the opposite of him convinced that they are just too high in fat for him to eat. Well yes they are high in fat...the good kind! They also have potassium vitamin and a bunch of other things that are great at fighting diabetes and heart disease. Seeing as that's something I need to be conscious of and the main concerns of my Dr almonds seem a blessing.

I've had a bunch of raw almonds in the kitchen all week and I think when that lot is gone I will replace them. Lunch today consisted of the remains of the pilaf and a carrot ginger soup I had made awhile ago. Course the soup was brought down by the use of coconut milk so I was just glad to get rid of it out of the freezer to make way for newer healthier left overs. I can certainly make an equally tasty soup without the use of the milk.

Diet changes...

Ok so I couldn't really do a lot about last week's meals although when it came down to it the only really bad meal was Monday (although it was fabulous!). This week I've had the luxury of being able to think about things and take my time over selecting healthy choices. I am also wondering perhaps maybe this diet might work for me and loosing weight, I'm not looking at loosing weight but if I do it will be an added bonus instead I'm looking at making healthy food choices.

Oh the other night I did learn the ancho chicken soft taco recipe I use needs to be toned down a tad in the spice department for the girls (oops). With some minor adjustments I got them eating that last night although I think I still need to refine it a bit for their tastes..experimentation here I come!

So tonight's dinner beet risotto looked amazing and was pretty tasty, and it's fairly healthy too! I hadn't cooked or eaten beats in like forever. The other meals for the rest of this week include using up things I have in the cupboards and I've found a couple of salad recipes on line using quinoa, edamame, tuna and white beans...(not all in the same dish). The only down side was by the time my girls had finished the beet pilaf major clean up was necessary...although praise to the shark steam for getting any beat stains up off of the floor.

Shopping done and avoided a lot of processed food, even bought the beans dried as you cannot buy them in cans unsalted which in my mind is crazy but it's not all that difficult to reconstitute beans, aggravating but not all that difficult. I've made sure to stock up a bit on fruit so I can snack a bit healthier on that rather than the cookies...not that the cookies are going in the trash, they can wait until we have visitors. My Dr will be proud of me, I used the cooking spray on the asparagus and the minimum amount of olive oil in the pilaf. All in all other than the mess the girls made of themselves a nice easy and relatively quick dinner.

Bleah to my blood work

So my blood work done this last weekend wasn't fantastic, it's not fatal but I must make changes to my diet. So that being said I guess I will be thinking more about the way I cook things and what I cook. Not that it's all that horrible to be honest and this week's menus really weren't too bad. Ooo which reminds me I'm soo looking forward to trying this beet risotto...yum!

However! I now have to watch very carefully my sugar, fat and salt intake. Given I cook from scratch most nights salt is easy just have to watch the snacking, same with the sugar and no more sodas. (Currently drinking unsweetened iced tea!).

I am thinking a lot about making bean salads for lunch, oatmeal for breakfast and more fresh fruit. Oh and the jicama orange salad recipe I've discovered to is a good break from lettuce. There is no fat in that and a tiny amount of salt although next time I think I might omit it completely. Homegrown tomatoes later in the summer and the use of more spinach and green vegetables with dinners.

I will also switch things up and start using more agave syrup and less butter, I can always use margarine or not use it at all. Now bacon...it's got flavor you can't substitute really, and that's a double whammy of fat and salt, however, a trick I think that will at least reduce the fat is to use bacon bits, if used on occasion it shouldn't be too bad. Spray olive oil will be my friend! And instead of frying I'm going to bake, just spray with the oil and then bake in the oven, it's just as crispy.