1 Week: Breakfast Lunch & Dinner

A had someone contact me and ask for more of lunches etc. I prepared some today during Sunday prep and actually took some pics. They also asked for a grocery list- so get ready for the longest post ever. I always plan my list according to the set up of the grocery store, which allows me to be efficient and not get side tracked wandering down aisles buying things I don't need. I have been using pregnancy as an excuse (sort of) to pig out. After the nausea subsided, the appetite and cravings kicked in like crazy and I think I ate french fries every day for a week. So I had my indulgence and now I am getting back to being a little more healthy with a few treats every now and then. We'll see how this goes. First the plan, then the grocery list. I made most of this ahead of time today and set it aside. The plan is set up as breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, late night snack. If I don't keep my stomach full, I get sick.... so I plan to eat... ALL DAY.

Monday: 
Banana Nut Muffin. 1/2 apple. Orange Juice
Cashews + Dried Cherries
Pasta Salad on Mixed Greens*
Celery w/ Low Fat Ranch
Filet + Sweet Potato + Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Fresh Fruit

Pasta Salad: rotini noodles with light italian dressing, garbanzo beans, feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, diced onions, salt and pepper. YUM.

This is my husband's lunch for Monday. He is on the same snacks, breakfast, and dinner as me, but he likes different lunch foods. So this is Mexican rice with grilled chicken + refried beans with cheese and corn.

Tuesday: 
Peanut Butter Toast + Fresh Strawberries
Lara Bar
Tomato + Mozzarella Salad on Mixed Greens with Basil*
Orange Slices
Spaghetti + Turkey Meatballs + Haricot Vert
Greek Yogurt

*I use a reduced balsamic vinegar on this that is delicious and easy. If you cook balsamic vinegar on low heat in a sauce pan it will turn from a watery vinegar into a thicker, sweet syrup like dressing. It is soooooo good.

Tuesday husband's lunch. Vegetable fried rice with chicken lo mein. Yum. (These are leftovers from Sunday!)
















Wednesday: 
Muffin + Glass of Milk
Almonds + Cherries
Mixed Greens with Veggies + Chicken Salad and Crackers
Sweet potato dip + Celery
Spicy Black Bean Burgers + French Fries (Splurge) + Brussel Sprouts
Lara Bar

Thursday:
Oatmeal + Fresh Strawberries
Lara Bar
Chicken Salad + Crackers
Celery + Ranch
LEFTOVERS FOR DINNER
Ice Cream












Thursday: Husbands Lunch
Mixed Greens + Mozzarella and Tomatoes, Pasta Salad, Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Brussel sprouts are my new favorite food. Seriously. The best thing ever. And people don't buy them much so they're always on sale. I got a whole package today for .79 cents. Can you believe it? Then you just add a little butter or olive oil, sea salt, garlic and pepper and cook at 400 for about 30-40 minutes. So simple, so delicious, and healthy.




Friday we will have a little of whatever is left so that we can save some $$ and not waste any food.

Now here is the grocery list:

milk

crackers

greek yogurt (flavors)

plain greek yogurt

feta

buffalo mozzarella

orange juice

peanut butter

rotini

mexican rice

spaghetti sauce

steak filet

chicken breasts

ground turkey

larabars

garbanzo beans

refried beans

dried cherries

almonds

apples

strawberries

orange

veggies: brussel sprouts, celery, mixed greens

tomatoes

parsley

cucumber

sweet potato

onion

Let the Countdown Begin

I am back on the "morning all day sickness" train again and so walking into my kitchen is a no go. So rather than postponing blogging, I will blog some more about pregnancy & maybe add some old food posts. My friends all joke with me that my blog will slowly convert into one of those obnoxious blogs that share all the details of pregnancy, birth and motherhood. I will be honest for a second and say those blogs used to annoy me to no end, but have now become somewhat of a saving grace. There is nothing better in the world than finding out there are other people going through and/or that have survived what you are going through. Misery loves company-- thats the truest statement of all regarding being pregnant. I want to know there are other people in the world that spent the first 14 weeks as miserably as I have. And even better, maybe someone that was ever more miserable so that I can find something to be thankful for. I think that might make me a little bit evil. Oh well. I can still blame the hormones for the bad thoughts.

I did have these dollar store glass vases sitting on my dresser all summer with "Pounds Lost" and "Pounds Remaining." I was trying to lose a little bit of weight and get in shape before we tried to have kids in a few years. Needless to say, I didn't reach that goal before I became pregnant and now pounds lost continues to get smaller while pounds to go is becoming mountainous. And now, I obviously can't lose weight. So I converted these containers into Weeks Gone By and Weeks Until Baby. I just transfer a stone each week and have a little book I write in about what things happened that week, what I'm craving, how much weight I've gained, etc. Just so I can remember this one day in the chance that having a baby makes me forget how miserable this was and I somehow consider doing it again.
It is kind of fun to see progress and remind myself that time is actually passing. You can't see the stones from the front because when I'm sick I don't want to be constantly reminded how much longer I have, and when I am thinking about all that needs to be done before baby gets here, I don't want to be reminded of how few weeks I have to get prepared.

Other milestones coming up:

Our gender scan is February 22nd. I'm thinking girl all the way considering how sick I've been, the heart rate, and fruit/sugar cravings.

Also, only 12 weeks until I graduate from dental school!!! I can't hardly believe it.

Best Biscuits Ever!

Now that i can actually walk back in my kitchen without getting sick, I made a day of cooking. Feels so good to be back. A few months ago I found this biscuit recipe and it is AMAZING. I think they taste most  like cracker barrel biscuits. Basically its just your classic buttermilk biscuit, but super easy to make. You can make it with Bisquick or with regular flour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. I personally like the Bisquick version the best so that's the recipe I'll give you. I use my Kitchen Aid Mixer with the dough hook but you could definitely mix by hand.

Ingredients:
2 and 1/4 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup Buttermilk
1 tsp. Sugar
1 tbsp. Butter (+)

Mix the first three ingredients. Add 1 tbsp melted butter and knead biscuit dough. I usually work the dough on wax paper with a floured surface. I rolled it out to about 1/2 inch thickness and use the top of a cup as a biscuit cutter. The key to getting the biscuits to rise is placing them close together on the cookie sheet. The push against each other to make themselves rise. So place the dough circles in contact with each other, paint the tops with melted butter and cook for 8-10 minutes. Pull the biscuits out of the oven and brush some more melted butter on top. Absolutely delicious.

Big News.

This is the longest I think I've gone without posting a new blog article, but the truth is there hasn't been much cooking going on in our house. For the past three months, I haven't had much of an appetite. In fact for a few weeks, I couldn't even go into my kitchen without losing my saltine crackers. I've been sick to say the least.... but I think its the only kind of sick that can actually make you happy and give you some reassurance. The kind of sickness that reminds you there is a precious sweet gift growing inside of you!

Sounds corny and not really my style, but the hormones are raging and PREGNANCY makes a girl a little nuts.

That's right, we're having a baby. The most unexpected surprise of my life. The story goes something like this- I'm not a dreamer. I don't normally have dreams at night when I sleep. I used to think it was because I was too exhausted to dream, and I am sure that has something to do with it. But November 20th, I had a dream. A dream that I was pregnant. Out of the blue, out of nowhere the most realistic dream I've ever had. I woke up and kind of brushed it off, but spent the whole day thinking about it. On my way home I stopped at the Rite Aid to pick up a prescription and thought I might just pick up a test just to see. I walked in and didn't even tell Dustin that I had the test or that I was going to take it. A few minutes later though when I saw the second pink line I had to get confirmation that my eyes were working properly. Dustin's eyes got big and we both said maybe its not right....maybe that line isn't there. I decided that I needed one of those tests with WORDS to be sure. I hadn't bought the one with words because it was more expensive (and I am cheap!!) but this seemed important at the moment-- so we went back and bought a couple more BOXES (yes, boxes) and 5 tests later reality started to hit.

We went straight to the doc for blood tests, I think because we were in denial... and it confirmed the truth-- Life as we know it has changed forever. (And at this point we were only at 3 weeks!!!)

We had a great time telling our family over Thanksgiving and Christmas break... I will post more about how we did that in my next post.

But for now, here is a picture of this little nugget @ 6 weeks.... approximately 7 weeks ago now.  Isn't she/he super cute?!?

Baby Humphreys-- July 31, 2013

Foodie Pen Pal!

Through the blog of a college sorority sister I found out about a new program called Foodie Pen Pals. Apparently over 1300 people do it! I am no expert as I am somewhat of a newbie but basically you send in your information. They send you a pen pal. Someone to send food to and then someone else gets you. They contact you and find out what you like or if you have any allergies/restrictions. Then you send a package to your penpal and receive a box from someone else. The total cost limit is like $15. Then, if you have a food blog you post about your experience.

I had a great first pen pal. Her name is Sarah (just like me). She is from Chicago and we had a great time emailing back and forth. And then I got her package- which represented both where she was from and the things we talked about. It was super thoughtful and a really fun thing to look forward to.

So in my box from her, I got a box of Chicago popcorn (which is perfect because I love popcorn), sweet & hot mustard with pretzel chips from Trader Joes (my favorite store; and as a tailgating food because I love football), some dried fruit to be healthy and some seaweed chips (which she probably didn't realize was one of my favorite snacks!). She dropped in a cute little note.

I sent my penpal some Kentucky stuff- 3 types of Bourbon, chocolate chips and walnuts with a recipe for Derby Pie. Some baked cheetos (which is also one of my favorite snacks), Mint Julep Jelly, Apple Jelly, and whole wheat crackers. I hope she likes it. I will link to her blog if she posts one!

Healthy Tailgate

Being from the south & a huge football fan, I love to tailgate. This takes several different forms for me and since moving away from Georgia, most of my "tailgating" happens within the confines of my own home. I consider any preparation of food to munch on throughout a football watching session as a "Tailgate." Now that we're trying to be more healthy my tailgating goals have changed- create the same atmosphere of fun football food but without the high fat & calorie content that comes with snacking on unhealthy foods all day. I am a true football fan in the respect that I watch football 5 of 7 days a week during the fall. NFL, college, and high school- I don't discriminate. I get as much as I can in during the season because I know half of the year I will go without it completely.

I really look forward to the food aspect of football. But here are some tips for making a tailgate a little bit more healthy by showing you some of my favorite tailgating foods that can be modified for a calorie/fat reduction.

Spinach & Dip: Use fresh spinach. A healthy vegetable with low calories and lots of nutrients. This is the only healthy part of a Spinach & Artichoke Dip. I've read mixed reviews on the health of artichokes, so take that for what it's worth. The way to make this healthier is to emphasize the spinach and artichokes and de-emphasize the creamy, cheesy part. So I cook the spinach in chicken broth until it is tender. Then DRAIN DRAIN DRAIN. Make sure you get out as much water as you can. Put it back on the stove and add 1 pat of butter (rather than a whole stick, which some recipes call for), half of a cup of reduced fat sharp cheddar, 2 tbsp of reduced fat cream cheese, salt, white pepper, and reduced fat sour cream. Place this in a 8 X 8 dish and cook at 350 for 15-20 minutes. YUM! Then, I think the biggest key is serve your dip with veggies instead of chips. Red pepper sticks, cucumber sticks, and carrots.





Instead of chips, if you need a sweet/carb use air-popped popcorn. My favorite is Trader Joe's Kettle Corn- the perfect blend of salty and sweet. You can eat 2.2 cups of this deliciousness for only 130 calories, which makes it a good snack over chips or some other crunchy bread or whatever.

I also made turkey meatballs this week. Turkey meatballs can pack some major protein without major calories and fat. As opposed to hot dogs/hamburgers/brats, emphasize the turkey and you slash some major fat & calories. I made two types of meatballs- one with marinara and the other with Robert Rothschild pepper jelly. So a sweet and spicy with a savory italian. This adds variety and PROTEIN. A must have for a tailgate. Turkey meatballs are so easy- ground turkey, egg whites (this helps decrease fat as well), whole wheat bread crumbs, and italian seasoning. Loosely pack your meatballs and place them in a sauce pain at low heat with chicken broth or any kind of sauce and cook for about 25-30 minutes turning them every now and again.

Lean cuisine egg rolls. These were a tailgating add this week as well. Chicken egg rolls by lean cuisine. Limit yourself to one or two and it feels like a fried little decadence that packs less calories and fat than some other tailgating treats.

Keep lots of fruit & veggies on hand as well so that when you keep going back to your tailgating table there is something to munch on with vitamins, nutrients and lower cals. I had raspberries, pineapple, grapes & oranges this week. This meets your need for sweet, without having cookies or any of that.





Finally, ants on a log. I modify this a bit. Celery sticks with reduced fat peanut butter and I use dates instead of raisins. Its mainly a matter of preference and I love DATES!








So that was our tailgate this week. As the season moves forward I will add some more ideas. We also had Cocktails that represented our favorite teams. My favorite is a low cal gin and tonic, which is gin, tonic water, a little simple sugar, one stevia pack and a little food coloring to show your team spirit. I also added some fruit. Our teams are Tennessee & Georgia- so naturally a little red & orange. Hope these help! ENJOY!

Key to Health- Preparation

I've been going on this new health kick for about 8 weeks now. Eating healthy (most of the time) and exercising. The key to being able to do this as a busy dental student is preparation. Every weekend I've been doing some key things that have helped maintain this new habit (6 pounds lost and counting). Some sound like typical cliche's but this really does work. So here are my new "rules":

1. Shop the outside aisles of the grocery store. You get fresher food & aren't tempted by the boxed cake mix, cookies, crackers etc. You end up with fresh veggies, fruits, fresh meat, and dairy products.

2. Pack your whole week ahead of time. This has included prepping breakfast, lunch and snacks for all 5 days of the week. I also do some dinner prep if I have time. This way there is no pondering what you will eat and you don't even think about stopping to get something from a fast food restaurant. I mean you can't waste your already prepared foods, you have to eat it. 

3. Drink a lot of water. I pour my water into various water bottles at the beginning of the week and add something to it: lemon, lime, cucumber, etc. Makes water a little more exciting. I also keep Trader Joe's natural lemonade packs around. While I don't think this is the same as pure water, its better than diet coke. 

4. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Low calorie, high yield foods. I find myself craving salt or buttery food and used to grab some pasta when what I really wanted was butter/salt or parmesan cheese. Now I choose different things like steamed broccoli and use spray butter and a little salt. Also fruits can meet your craving for sweets. Not sweet enough? Add some light cool whip or a packet of stevia (my newest favorite sweetener). You don't needs chips to eat hummus or any other dip. Use sliced red peppers or cucumber sticks. 

5. Season your food with something other than fat. It doesn't need butter and oil. Use chicken stock and water to saute. Use fresh herbs which have more flavor anyways. Use greek yogurt when you can as a cooking substitute. Use low fat cheeses (shredded mozzarella, or colby jack instead of cheddar). Use egg whites instead of eggs. Easy Substitutions; lower fat and calories and still meet your wants.  

6. Eat a lot of lean protein. Fish, Turkey, Chicken. No red meat for me anymore except on the rare occasion. Also learn to cook beans from the bag- black, pinto, lentils etc. I also supplement some protein because I don't like a lot of meat. I drink bolthouse farms chocolate protein shakes with some almond milk. These pack a lot of calories and sugar, but I just drink a little bit and dilute it with the milk. 

7. Ok, last thing. I keep my healthy stuff in pre-packaged serving sizes in a basket in the fridge. That way when I open it up there is no debate about where I go looking for snacks. I had to do this because my husband still keeps junk food in the house. This way, no temptation. Go straight for the blue basket and I can find any snack I want that will keep my healthy. 

I think its so important to allow your self to splurge every now and then. This weekend was the first college football games and I splurged with boneless buffalo wings and ranch dressing. Definitely a splurge, and definitely worth it. I just ran a bit extra. Not a big deal. I've learned to enjoy running and working out. It is what I do for myself during the week, and I feel like I deserve it. I never thought these words would come from me, but healthy living is a lifestyle and keeping that perspective helps keep me going.

Here are some photos from a typical week of prep:

This is the chaos before. Wash everything at once and then bring it over to table to slice and package.

The after. Sliced fruit, veggies in big containers for dinner; and the blue basket filled with individual serving sizes of carrots, celery, lemon slices, fresh herbs, string cheese. All the breakfasts and lunches which you can see on my site.

My husbands lunches

Almond Milk

I have been reading and reading and reading about Almond Milk on all these health blogs lately. I just lumped it in with soy milk or something for people with some kind of dietary restriction. But this little treat isn't just for those that can't enjoy regular milk- its delicious. And the best part- its healthy! No lactose, no cholesterol, with more vitamins and minerals than soy or rice milk. It is low fat, but contains healthy omega-3 fatty acids, protein, and fiber. Low calorie/carb, high nutrition & antioxidants, and delicious- what's not to love?

You can grab a coupon for this at: http://www.silkpurealmond.com/ by registering.

Football Season Started!

One of my most and least favorite times during the year is FOOTBALL SEASON! Favorite- because I love football. Everything about it. Just the feeling I get the first Saturday when college football starts and I turn on Game Day that morning- it's just amazing. Also, its the back drop of Dustin and I's relationship. Least favorite- Dustin being gone ALL THE TIME. I am hoping this season may be a bit easier for me because I can be more involved. My goal is to do something to encourage the players or coaches each game this season, and so far I am two for two. Besides enjoying the actual cooking part, I enjoy the creativity and I hope in some way that it is supportive. I have to find affordable ways to do this- so I look for what is on sale and what I can find coupons for.

Week 1: Cookies. I did two different kinds of cookies- chocolate chip and funfetti. For those of you who haven't had funfetti cookies, definitely do it. So delicious, so easy, so cheap. Easiest cookies ever. Use 1 box of funfetti cake mix, 1/3 of a cup of oil, and 2 eggs. Mix together into dough and then form the cookies. Bake @ 375 for 6-8 minutes. Voila!

Week 2: Cupcakes. Not quite as easy. Definitely not easy, but more fun for sure. I have a Wilton Cake Decorating kit, which is the best thing ever and super useful for things other than cakes (deviled eggs, cake balls, anything requiring drizzling). I had to go with a football theme. I made vanilla, chocolate, and funfetti cupcakes. I made large cupcakes and mini cupcakes to make a higher quantity. A long day- but hopefully worth it as long as they make their way from my house to the school in one piece. No easy task. I learned a couple of things about decorating cupcakes that I will share.

The worst part of decorating is cleaning the pastry bags. Especially when you use different colors and you only have a few bags. So I used the Ziploc perfect portion freezer bags. Put the connector into a regular pastry bag. Twist one corner of the freezer bag. Slide the bag into the connector and fill the plastic bag with icing. Take the bags at the top and tie a rubber band around the top. Use the icing in the bag and then grab the disposable bag and throw it away. No mess and the bag is clean for the next color you need. You can do this with saran wrap too. Check out this demo on youtube (ps this is not me)

 

Homemade Italian "Lite"

I bought homemade pasta from a local pasta company in Lexington @ the Farmer's Market on Saturday. It's $1 per ounce and worth every penny. I had some leftover tomatoes that were getting ready to go bad so I decided to make some homemade pasta sauce. It was actually pretty easy. Here are instructions:

Ingredients: Tomato Sauce
1 package of tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 can of tomatoes
onions
olive oil
garlic
Italian Seasoning
salt/pepper

Ingredients: Turkey Meatballs
lean turkey
any type of bread
egg whites
parmesan cheese

Bring a pot of water to boil on the stove. Get a bowl of ice water next to the stove. Boil tomatoes for about 2 minutes. Remove from boiling water with slotted spoon and put it into the ice water. When cool, remove the skins and seeds from the tomato (I just used my hands and peeled them off). It's not that hard. Drain water from the pot. Add a swirl of olive oil to the pot and brown some garlic. Then add tomatoes and crush them with a wooden spoon. I added some seasonings too: fresh basil, oregano, thyme, minced onions, chopped onions, salt, pepper and simmered for about 2 hours with a lid on it. I added a tsp. of sugar and 1 package of stevia sweetener and simmered for another hour. I did this during the morning while I was doing my other prep-work for the week, so I took my sauce and placed in the fridge until dinner time.

I put the pot back on the stove @ dinner time and added tomato paste and 1 can of tomatoes. I brought that up to a medium heat while preparing the meatballs (be careful, don't let it burn.) I made turkey meatballs: I was just making for two people so I used 1/2 pack of lean ground turkey, 1 crumbled slice of sourdough bread, egg whites, low fat parmesan cheese, parsley and salt. I mixed it by hand and then formed a few meatballs. After reading a few recipes online, I learned the secret to good meatballs is to not make them too dense. Roll them gently enough to hold together, don't squeeze them together in your hands. Add the meatballs to the sauce and cook at medium high heat for approximately 20 minutes. I turned them over several times and kind of stirred the sauce. While it was cooking, I prepared the pasta.

This really turned out quite nice. The sauce was really delicious and authentic and the meatballs were the right consistency. I always love a nicely set and decorated table. These flowers were from the farmers market. BEAUTIFUL.

The pasta & sauce with meatballs = 500 cals

Packed Lunches for Adults.

By now everyone has seen the websites with creative lunch ideas for kids. Call me crazy, but I still pack my own lunch. I am almost 27 years old and because of budget concerns, lack of time for lunch between clinic times (in dental school), I need something quick and ready to eat. Also because we are trying to work on being a bit healthier, it helps with portion control and allows me to get all the nutrients I need. This is my first weeks lunches and hopefully I will stick with it and have lots more ideas for lunch ideas for adults. To see more lunches: CLICK HERE

Cherries/Grapes+ String Cheese + Pasta Salad

I cooked almost a whole bag of egg noodles on Sunday and then used them during the week for different things. I just threw 1/2 cup noodles in there with my Spaghetti Jar Veggies, which you can read about here. I paired this with a bag of Trader Joe's kettle corn popcorn, which is DELICIOUS.

292 calories.

Cut Veggies: Cucumbers, Celery, Peppers +

Trader Joe's Three Layer Hummus (YUM!) +

1 cup grapes

162 Calories

(not enough for lunch so I added Bolthouse Farms Chocolate Protein Shake w/ milk)

Spinach Salad with Spaghetti Jar Veggies

+ Cherries + String Cheese

112 calories

Chicken Salad + Oranges + 1/2 tortilla + Pickle

307 calories

I made my own chicken salad and I feel like I've gotten this down to an artform. It's so delicious and healthy (No MAYO!!) I cook 2 bone in chicken... I boil it in water with a little salt for about 60 minutes. I run it under cold water. The chicken falls off the bone in big pieces. Into the kitchen aid mixer on high until shredded. In another bowl 8 ounces of plain greek yogurt, a little white wine, some dill, seasoned salt, black and white pepper, lemon juice. Add to kitchen aid mixer and mix on slow speed. Add grapes and walnuts. Easy, easy, easy, and HEALTHY. Protein packed, low fat, delicious chicken salad. I put it in a large yogurt container with a date and use it all week.

Hillbilly Tea

Outside @ Hillbilly Tea

Recently, my grandmother came to visit us in Louisville, Ky. I really love having out of town visitors because it gives me the chance to approach a city that I am in on a regular basis like a tourist. I visit the tourist websites and find fun things that I think would be something my visitor would enjoy.

My grandmother and I share a love for tea. So I searched the web to try and find like a little tea house or a place around town that offered tea and boy did I find a place! A fantastic little place called Hillbilly Tea. Emphasizing an Appalachian theme with a focus on tea it was the perfect place to show an out of town visitor Kentucky culture.

How they served tea: with filters on top of mason jars.

Besides being the perfect theme, it was well decorated and very rustic and authentic. I loved the decor that had lots of re-claimed wood, mason and mustard jars, paint cans filled with tea, etc. Well thought out with great attention to detail, I knew when I arrived this was going to be a special place. So we ordered a tea platter, some tea, and a peach salad. The tea platter was so cute and included:  

Decor. Great tea themed desserts.

smoked chicken salad on corn pone

benedictine on stale bread

biscuit & apple butter

pork fried popcorn
candied nuts
tea cookie trio

The benedictine for those of you who don't know is like a whipped cucumber cream cheese that is a Kentucky Derby Staple. You can use it as a dip or on a sandwich, either way, its refreshing and delicious. Check out the recipe here. 

The biscuits were incredible and pork fried popcorn delicious. Finishing up with some tea cookies.... I cannot wait to go back to this place. 

You should definitely check it out. 

Making Bread Crumbs

Bread Crumbs

I usually buy panko to bread veggies or make chicken parmesan or squash casserole. Bread crumbs are a staple in my pantry. Well in trying to not be wasteful and utilize everything to its full potential- rather than throw away the stale Italian loaf I had leftover I made some bread crumbs. This is probably the easiest most useful thing I've ever done. AND I utilized the old glass pickle jar that I washed out last week to store them in. If you've never made your own bread crumbs here are some quick instructions:

Take your old (not moldy) bread, I prefer Italian loafs or baquettes that come in those paper packages because they seem to get old and hard the fastest, and cut it into small pieces. It doesn't have to be exact, just smaller pieces. Then you put them into a food processor or blender and just chop until they are the size that you want. Sometimes you want a coarser crumb (for casseroles) and sometimes a little finer (for breading chicken or veggies).

 Then lay them out in a dish and place in the oven at 250 degrees for 25 minutes. When you pull them out add seasoning- you can make this whatever you like but I use garlic salt, onion salt, white pepper, and italian seasoning. Then once cooled, I sprinkle in a little parmesan cheese. And pour into my well cleaned pickle jar. You can use a dry erase marker to label the side of your glass container with the date and label so that you can re-use the jar by just wiping it clean!

Spaghetti Jar Veggies

My newest thing I'm obsessed with is utilizing things that are supposed to be "disposable" to meet other needs I might have. These things include shoeboxes, spaghetti jars, cans, cool whip containers, etc. The newest and most favorite thing going right now for me is the glass spaghetti containers. They make great food storage for my pre-mades because they don't take up a lot of room in the fridge and they seal really well. My favorite spaghetti jar make ahead food right now is a spin on Fatoush (an arabic toasted bread & veggie salad). Best thing is- its a super easy make ahead item that is healthy and versatile.

Here is how this works: cut up cucumbers, tomatoes, different colored peppers, feta cheese. Put in the spaghetti jar in layers. Half way up I add the seasoning: Italian seasoning, chopped rosemary, minced garlic, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp red wine vinegar. Continuing layering veggies up to just below the lid. I love the different colors and fresh veggies. I think you could use a variety of different things; get creative. Then- shake. It mixes up the veggies, no mess, seasons everything. Then put it in the fridge and it lasts a week or more. I throw this little veggie mix onto sandwiches, into a pita pocket, onto a salad, eat it as a dip, or my personal favorite- crush up some Stacy's Pita Chips, sprinkle on top and eat it with a spoon. Really super delish, easy and HEALTHY!

Here it is after a little shaky, shake:

Happy St Pattys Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day. We celebrated like the rest of Lexington by watching basketball. I'm kind of over the whole basketball thing. I think its kind of boring. You can't get to know the players because they only play for one year and then they go to the NBA which lets be honest no one watches. If only they could recruit the marketing manager from the NFL, basketball might be worth watching. In honor of St. Patrick we had Corned Beef & Cabbage, which I don't even really think is "Irish." I think it is one of those things we as Americans associate with Irish culture that isn't actually from there. Anyways, it seemed an appropriate time to make it, it was on sale at the grocery store, and I kind of love it but don't think I could eat it all the time.

Rather than follow a recipe, which seems way too confining and out of my control (yes, I'm a control freak) I made something up. I am not exaggerating either when I say it was super yummy. Maybe the best corned beef ever. I put together a slab of corned beef with a little bit of water and peppercorns into the crock pot. Put it on high for a couple hours, flipped the meat and added cabbage, sauerkraut, and cubed potatoes. I put it down on Low heat for a few more hours topped in bourbon. Bourbon is a great way to flavor meat. It really ended up giving it a lot of flavor without making it real bourbon tasting. I probably used a cup or something?

Obviously we paired our meal with some internationally imported drinks, just in keeping with the theme.

Meet Abby!

Meet Abby

Dustin and I added a new addition to the family... and that is my excuse for not having blogged in 3 months. That and maybe I was working off the Christmas food coma/hangover. We'll get to that later though.

I've been doing some reflection and have realized that over the past two years during my time learning to cook..... I realized that I don't always cook as simply, cheaply and un-indulgent (I know not a word) as much as I should.. Sometimes its nice to get back to basics. Tonight we had "International Quesadillas" which consisted of chicken & cheese quesadillas with cilantro ranch & asian rice & chicken w/ thai chili sauce. It was pretty delicious and SUPER simple. Two pans only, which I like for cleaning purposes- and I got to use our panini press (which I LOVE). so just some boiled chicken, cheese, tortillas, some veggies, thai chili sauce (pre-made; House of Tsang)....

The newest love I've re-discovered is TRADER JOE's Groceries. I've been literally driving to Louisville to buy groceries-- weird. But its that good. Trader Joe's makes these frozen cubes with herbs inside. So for the cilantro ranch it was just ranch dressing, two cubes of cilantro, lime & lemon juice with some sour cream and the thai chili was the premade sauce.

Quesadillas

Yum yum. On the other note- the new addition is ABBY!!! Abby is a little wheaton terrier rescue dog- 7 months old and precious as can be. She has the cutest little face. I feel like I should blog some about the other things I've been doing- dentistry, marketing, doggies.... more to keep a record for myself than anything else.

I went back and read the first blog I ever started about wedding planning and how I decided to go to dental school etc. It was a good reminder of who I used to be. That person feels like a stranger to me now almost 4 years later. Amazing how much things change and you don't even realize it as its happening. But again, this is why writing and blogging are so amazing for record keeping purposes. I will never lose those times and the things I was feeling and thinking then.

Pinterest-mas!

I had the wonderful privilege of cooking for the family this year as my mom and dad hosted Christmas for the extended family. I spent several weeks collecting recipes and ideas on my newest favorite addiction- Pinterest. Love it. Got some great ideas. I put together a menu that would allow me to re-use ingredients and put together a menu that still offered variety, plus some Christmas themed foods. I bought a cake decorating kit over the break too. Merry Christmas to me. I had a super fun time icing some cupcakes and making some red velvet cake balls. We had meals for 3 days and nights for 12 people for like $300.00 which I think was pretty good. I've included some of my favorite pics.

I'm learning how to plan a menu and utilize similar ingredients. For example, one night we had spinach dip and the next night I made a spinakopita. I had to buy a package of puff pastries so I served slice brie and apples the first night and made a baked brie the second night. I made pepperoni pizza bites, roasted vegetables, steak and salmon, strawberry santa hats, mashed potatoes the first night and potato casserole the second. I bought some mixed field greens and we did a pear and field green salad with pomegranate dressing the first night and a balsamic greek with feta salad the second night. Enjoy the pics. There were way too many recipes to put them all on here.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.684245310169.2141476.41800595&type=1

Panera Potato Soup

So I've made this soup before modeled after Panera Bread's Potato soup. I peeled and and chopped potatoes and onions and cooked it in my crock pot for hours.... and by the end, while the product was good, it hardly seemed worth it when I could roll up to my local panera and buy a cup + some delicious bread for $5. Can't hardly compete with that when you consider what when into making this recipe.... and then BAM! Figured it out. A 15 minute Panera potato soup that costs all in all $7 for approximately 6 servings. Panera can't compete with that.... Here is the trick:

Find the Kroger Brand (or Oreida) steam and mash potatoes. This new find is really a life saver, especially considering how expensive potatoes seem now. This is a bag of frozen chopped peeled potatoes. Steam them in the bag in your microwave for about 8-10 minutes. While that is cooking, put some chicken stock (I'd say I used about 1 can and a half) into a pan and heat it up. Then add some room temperature cream cheese (approx 8 ounces) and mix it up until the cream cheese melts. I then added some frozen chopped onions, white pepper, seasoned salt. Stirred until creamy and well mixed. About that time the potatoes were ready. I poured them in and mashed a few up and mixed things around and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, I crisped up some bacon in a pan and then chopped up some green onions.

So in 15 minutes you have a delicious potato soup that you can top with some cheddar cheese, green onions and bacon bits. I also served with a wonderful loaf of White Mountain Bread that was on the sale rack at Kroger for .99 cents. All in all: dinner was about $7 for all ingredients listed, 15 minutes spent cooking, and I have lunch ready and packed for tomorrow.

The other thing I made this week-- was a take off on Jim N Nicks Cheese Biscuits. I consider it a much healthier version than the other ones I have found. I miss a lot of things about when I lived in Birmingham, but sadly enough the food is what I missed most. I found a great Taziki Friday Special Recipe, I found the Thai Crunch Chicken Salad from California Pizza Kitchen, and now Jim N Nicks Cheese Biscuits. Now all I need is ZOE's CHICKEN SALAD!!! I can't find it anywhere.
Anyways The recipe I found for what I will term a lower fat healthier version of Jim N Nicks Cheese Biscuits is probably one of the easiest things I have ever made.

1 1/2 cups Bisquick
3/4 cup low fat buttermilk
3 Tbps sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 425.  Stir together all ingredients just until combined.  Scoop into a muffin pan coated with cooking spray.  Bake 12-15 minutes. I made about 12. They were delicious and then saved well so that I can eat them for breakfast or with my soup even tomorrow.

Crock Pot Chicken & Chili

We really have been utilizing that crock pot. I have two new crock pot adventures from the past week. Its really getting chilly outside and the Christmas tree is up and all the decorations out. Snow is in the forecast in the next 7 days and its perfect timing to turn the crock pot up and fill the house with the smells of fall & winter. Ok first recipe came from last weekend. Sundays are the best days for me for the crock pot- I feel like it enhances the NFL experience. This was not really a recipe at all, it was a conglomeration of things I had available so that I didn't have to go to the grocery store.

Ingredients (if I can remember this correctly): boneless skinless chicken breast, cream of celery soup, half a soup can of water, 4 ounces sour cream, 4 ounces cream cheese, sour cream dip seasoning packet, dill, onions, and garlic. (salt and pepper of course) I put it all in the crock pot for about 6 hours and then served it over whole wheat egg noodles. It was really delicious and made great leftovers to pack for lunch last week.

My husband made this other meal yesterday. It was chicken chili. Boneless skinless chicken breast, tri blend beans (kidney, black and pinto), chili powder, a chili pepper, green/red peppers and onions, corn and can of tomatoes. We made it with some cornbread and it really was so delicious (and HEALTHY!!). I think this week we are going to make corned beef and cabbage- I saw it was on sale at Kroger. So be looking for that. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Fall Stew

As the weather cools and the football season feels like its coming rapidly to an end, I am reminded that without Christmas and fall food I would really hate this season. I have learned that I am not super cut out for cold weather. I think its biologic or something, but when the temperature drops so does my mood. I've decided this year to try to have a better attitude about putting on 15 layers of clothes and scraping ice off my windshield by focusing on the things that make this season great (hence we are planning to put up the Christmas decorations and plan to start watching our favorite go to Holiday movies this weekend). And, the reason that I plan to utilize my most underutilized kitchen gadget-- my crock pot. I should've taken a hint after we received 6 crock pots as wedding gifts that this was a go-to for ready made delicious meals, but I really have only used it for a tailgating cheese dip a handful of times.

Seeing as the school year is amping up as the semester winds down, I think this may be a handy option to put in my toolbox. Dustin and I stopped by the local Whole Foods yesterday and purchased a Buffalo Shoulder Roast. I'm not sure what drew me to this choice except that it looks beautiful and it was cheaper than the other roasts in the case. I asked the butcher for any kind of pointers about how to cook a buffalo roast because I have never cooked buffalo and never cooked a roast. His main advice was to cook it low and long. I spent some time googling this beautiful food and didn't get a whole lot of information. So I was left to kind of wing it. The one thing I did find out that was interesting is that buffalo roasts are super lean....so just an added bonus.

So nothing real fancy about this: I put the roast into a crock pot with beef stock and red potatoes, carrots, red peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, seasoned salt, pepper and some sprigs of thyme. I started this at 10 am and just let my crock pot do the work for the next 8 and half hours at low heat. As the NFL day winds down, I reflect on the things I've learned today:

Even good quarterbacks have bad days (Matthew Stafford)
It's never a good idea to kick the ball to Devin Hester.
I can only study a total of 6 pages of pathology notes in eight hours of football.
I hate it when the Falcons play the Saints.
My crock pot is my new bestfriend.
I'm ready for high school football to give me back my husband.

Looking forward to trying some new recipes soon.

Divine Mashed Potatoes!!!

I have a serious affinity for mashed potatoes. And in fact, like about all kinds of mashed potatoes. I think it was the first thing I ever learned to make, and there really is nothing simpler or better than some good mashed potatoes. I've learned a few things along the way about how to make them absolutely delicious and I thought I would share. The BEST mashed potatoes, albeit not the easiest or cheapest way to make them follows:
Ingredients:
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Skim Milk (or Almond Milk!)
Butter
Seasoned Salt
White Pepper
Reduced Fat Cream Cheese
Reduced Fat Sour Cream
(No set amounts on the sour cream, butter or milk; just add and taste, add and taste)

Directions:
Peel potatoes, chop into 1 inch cubes
Boil or steam (boil for approximately 30 minutes; a gentle boil until its soft with a fork. Keep an eye on them, if you overcook them they get gummy)
Drain potatoes (really well, the less water the better!!)
Mash with a hand masher or a hand mixer before you add any additional ingredients
Add milk and seasonings
Taste
Add
Taste
YUM!

1st: BUY GOOD POTATOES!! This is probably the most important part. Yukon Gold potatoes are by far the best mashed potato potatoes there are. And finding a good bag that doesn't cost a fortune can be a challenge. One of my favorite ways to handle this is to find a place where you can buy by the pound and pick out the ones you want. Choosing potatoes that are firm, but not green are keys to good flavored potatoes.

2nd: Peel your potatoes. And side note: don't put them down your garbage disposal. We had a "back up" in our sink not too long ago and my husband disassembled the plumbing below our sink and it was completely clogged with potato peels... from a LONG time ago.... not a pretty site. Avoid this is possible. After you're peeled cut the potatoes into pieces that are about 1 inch by 1 inch squares.

3rd: The BEST way to cook potatoes for mashed potatoes is to steam them. This is definitely not the easiest way to do it, but definitely the best. If you boil the potatoes that will absorb all the water and when you mash them that water gets out into the mashed potatoes and waters down your flavor. Steam in a vegetable steamer if possible, or if you have to boil them! Either way, you want to cook them until they break apart with a fork but aren't gummy. This time changes based on how you cook them or how many you are cooking. Usually between 20-30 minutes. If you do boil the potatoes drain them super well.... the less water in your mashed potatoes the better!!!

Some of the ingredients: the lower fat version

4th: Start mashing. Before you add anything to the potatoes go ahead and put your hand mixer in there and mash them up. (NOT TOO MUCH, but just enough until they start to get creamy)

5th: The ingredients I would add to mashed potatoes are as follows:
butter, cream cheese, sour cream, seasoned salt, WHITE pepper, and milk
these ingredients are completely modifiable whether you want to "go all out" and don't care about how fattening it is vs. maybe you want it to be a little bit healthier. For going all out: use a high fat milk, as much butter, cream cheese, sour cream as you want. To be a bit healthier, hold off on the butter or use a lowfat spray butter or butter buds powder. Use a lowfat/nonfat sour cream/cream cheese. And add a lowfat milk. Another thing you can do is add different kinds of cheeses. Because I love cheese, I've tried a lot of different types of cheese. One of the best I've had is mixing in a soft goat cheese and not using the cream cheese or sour cream. It adds a lot of flavor and you can even reduce salt and butter added.

Day After Potato Pancakes w/ Turkey bacon and sour cream

The only other thing I can contribute about Mashed Potatoes is they don't always re-heat well. One thing I like to do with leftover mashed potatoes is make them into potato pancakes the next day. That way you can use those extra potatoes. Just heat up a little butter and put a scoop into your nonstick pan. then flip/flip and you're done.

Cheese!

I will have to admit, as some of my previous posts have indicated, that I am somewhat of a cheese fan. I'm not totally sure how to pinpoint where this exactly came from except to say that some of my most favorite food memories included cheese. Not the bagged shredded kind but real legit gourmet cheeses. I must have read about it somewhere along the way and think the whole process of cheese making, arranging etc is all very fun. So how better to spend a night of Sunday night football than eating some delicious cheese?

Here is the spread (yes, pun intended):

List of ingredients. Somewhat cheap, especially with my Whole Foods Living Social deal, which I hope no one passed up. From the left to right: pita chips, pita slices, and Garden of Eatin' Blue Corn Tortilla chips (which is on sale this week at Whole Foods). Then top middle: Lentil salad with green peppers and onions that we used as a dip). Bottom middle: The Cheese Tray, which included: a creamy herb goat, Port Salut le Fameuz fromage Semi Soft, and Whole Foods Swiss Baby Wheel, with crackers, a few slices of hickory smoked bacon, and my favorite Date & Red Wine reduction. Finally to the far right - hummus.

So this all was a little bit Greek inspired. The cheese on the Gourmet Cheese spectrum was pretty cheap-- nothing more than $10/lb. I must say my favorite combo was the cracker with the Port Salut with a little piece of bacon and some of the date puree. Dates are delicious. If you aren't on the date train you should get on it. Besides being totally delicious- they are good for you. Plus if you cook them in some red wine it brings out the sweetness and caramelizes them in a way that I don't think anyone would pass up! So it was a great combo- the perfect creamy, salty, sweet, crunch that just awakens all the senses and makes you say Yum!!!