A quick word on Quinoa

So there's been a lot of fantastic food over the last few weeks from brunch to a delicious dinner with the rents to a very fantastic anniversary dinner involving wine and seared ahi tuna.I also got the opportunity to sample some fresh from the garden tomatoes from my friend and coworker M. They were scrumptious!

Today I'm just giving a quick note on a new item I tried. With all this talk of gluten free etc. there's been an increased market for alternative grains. Quinoa happens to be one of the ones that often comes up in the health food circles. I've had quinoa maybe once or twice, and didn't particularly dislike it but didn't find it so amazing I had to have it again, however I discovered red quinoa in the store the other day and decided to give it a shot. I'm not a big fan of rice and I thought some other grains might be a good idea.

I cooked some up tonight for the week. It does look a little odd since it's tiny little reddish dots but it gets points for easy cooking. 20 mins to cook and let stand. The package claims the red quinoa has a nutty flavor. I'd say it definitely has a richer taste to it. I like the texture because it has a little crunch in a good way, so you really feel like you're eating something substantial. It's texture and flavor seems to lend itself well to making salads like a quinoa corn and bean salad or something of the sort. I may have to start to look into this because grain more because it really has caught my attention.
 I also discovered that it looks beautiful when it grows, as you can see in the picture above.

Since I'm still learning how to use this lovely grain I just mixed up a little tofu and veggies with a light miso/chili/chicken broth sauce and there's a meal!

Let the Cooking Begin!

With Halloween approaching it seems only fitting that this blog should become "undead'. I always get excited for the fall and Halloween holiday foods so  I decided it was high time to wake Road Raging Foodie up again. However, buyer beware this blog may be about to become Road Raging Foodies, otherwise known as cooking with EL and JJ.

As some of you may know,  I recently vacationed in the wilds of Utah for about a week, living off the lovely freeze dried camping meals ( which actually weren't so bad). On my return home my lovely boy insisted on cooking me a full home-cooked meal. This is what happens when you date someone who spent 6 months in a culinary program! Since then he has been spoiling me, or planning ways to spoil me with delicious meals. If anything was going to inspire me to come out of the void of the cyberspace to write about food again it certainly would be his meals.

The menu for my return to civilization meal was Pulled Pork, Grilled Veggies, Coleslaw, cornbread and Molten Lava cakes. The pork  and corn bread he prepared at home and brought to heat up, the coleslaw was bought and while he made the lava cakes I grilled the veggies.

 I grilled peppers, eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms and onions on my little George Foreman grill after drizzling them with oil and vinegar.

The veggies took forever but came out really tasty; even the chef approved. The pork was fantastic and I couldn't believe it was homemade. The lava cakes were care of a Paula Deen recipe and they came out beautiful and delicious.

cakes hot from the oven

Every thing was delicious but the warm lava cake with a gooey center definitely stole the show. JJ said it could have use whipped cream but I thought it was perfect.


Meal number two which we had a few weeks later consisted of breakfast for dinner, which is usually my favorite way to have breakfast ( aside from at midnight or later).
We made french toast from a recipe, which I can't say I've ever done before, and JJ brought a quiche ( one of my standbys) that was half Gruyere and bacon and half just Gruyere ( for the veg roommates). We used half and half in the french toast, which lightened it up from being so heavy, and made it super delicious. The quiche was excellent, especially with the smoky flavor of the bacon against the strong cheese flavor. We accompanied both with fresh fruit and mimosas. I did say I was getting spoiled didn't I ?

And, last but not least, I created a meal for myself tonight which I'm rather proud of for being unusual. It wasn't as magical as I'd hoped but it was pretty darn good.
I found myself hunting through the kitchen for dinner ingredients and decided to try cooking up a mango with my tofu.

I started by sauteing half an onion and adding a bit of hot sauce and ginger. Next I cut up the mango and cooked it up for a bit. Next the tofu was cut and added ( about 3/4 of a block) followed by some black beans. I was going for sort of a hot mango chutney/salsa inspired thing but as a main dish. Something was missing, despite the fact that I kept adding hot sauce.

I wanted a little liquid and couldn't find anything until I stumbled onto some tangerine-guava- mango juice I had bought recently. Just a touch of that and it was perfect! I put it over some egg noodles and voila! Dinner is served! It was spicy and had a good flavor to it, but probably could be tweaked into perfection.
Don't hold your breath too long but stay tuned for more cooking adventures to come! There's certain to be a lot more joint menus on the way :)

What's that? More bacon, you say?

Last week I talked about bacon pancakes but today we talk about the novelty that Burger King has unleashed on the world just a few days ago, known as the Bacon Sundae. Yes, you heard that right. A quick internet search brings up a plethora of new articles and reviews on the subject. The sundae is part of the new limited time, summer menu. I have not had the opportunity to taste this beast yet, however it will definitely be on my agenda, when I am planning on eating nothing else for the day.

The promotional image is, of course, ridiculously prettied up- but given the other images I've seen, it still looks pretty good.

 I can't find any faults with the concept of bacon, chocolate and ice cream all in the same place. Bring it on! My only concern is that cold bacon might have a questionable texture. But I'm still willing to give it a shot.The Huffington Post has a nice review of it here, which I will defer to until I get a chance to experience and report for you.

A little bit of this and that

Greetings Earthlings! I have returned briefly to planet earth to bring you some food tidbits.  I've been busy doing heavy snack research for you, as well as enjoying some delicious camping food fit for a king this weekend. Life is crazy, the cooking continues with some interesting dishes which I keep meaning to write about.
Here are the highlights starting with this weekend......

I went up to Phoenicia New York to camp with some co-workers etc. Right in the town we stopped on the adorable little main street for ice and I insisted we check out the ice cream shop. Good choice because they had Carrot Cake Ice cream, which I have never ever seen before. Mostly they had Hershey's flavors but this one seemed homemade. Let me tell you, this might be the best ice cream I've ever tasted. It literally tastes like carrot cake in ice cream form. It has all the delicious spices and it tastes like cream cheese frosting. This might be a strange way to describe food, but it pretty much tastes like how I imagine all those pumpkin spice or 'fall' scented candles would taste ( minus the wax of course). So it's a super big thumbs up on this one. Now if I only knew where to find some closer.
Next fabulous food item from this weekend, aside from all the awesome meat and veggies cooked over the fire, was P's invention of bacon pancakes. Essentially you add precooked bacon into the pancakes while they are cooking. It's a way to warm up the bacon and it's also delicious! It's a time saver too because you know you were going to dip your bacon in syrup anyway!

Moving on to snack foods, I've been finding lots of yummy snacks at  Stop and Shop lately, particularly in the hoity-toity area with all the health foods and organic stuff- not that I claim that any of this is good for you.

Snack one- the ultimate chocolate bar. Never heard of this company, but they have a very vintage look and I'm a sucker for cherries in my chocolate so I decided to give it a try. The company is Chocolate XOXOX. So far the bar pictured above, and the plain dark chocolate is the only one I've seen or tasted but it is truly fabulous. I have gotten everyone in my department hooked as well. The chocolate is deep and rich and I definitely appreciate the cherry/ almond version, although the plain is great as well. If you can find this stuff, pick it up immediately. Be warned though, you might never go back to any other chocolate.
Next interesting snack was freeze dried peaches. I had to try them since it was only 99 cents for a little pack. I can't remember at all what the company was called, but it really tasted like a peach formed in your mouth out of an ugly white chip. A few of my coworkers tried them but were freaked out by the texture, but I thought they were a decent snack. I wouldn't want to eat it all the time, but I might try out the pineapple ones once too.
Snack Three, dried edamame. Edamame are soy beans, if you don't know, and they apparently can be eaten dry roasted. I started out with the wasabi flavored ones by Seapoint Farms and then tested the plain salted ones. Wasabi is definitely better, because they come up with a nice kick every other bite, but the salted ones are nice too. It's a good snack, and pretty healthy as well. Thumbs up!

 

And last but not least, a few weeks ago I was inspired to buy a salmon kabob to cook on my tiny little George Foremen grill. I also decided it was time to cook some meat again and I made up a few awesome marinade. I made one marinade out of chili paste, oil, rosemary and another with balsamic and orange and oil. Both came out very tasty.

 Salmon pre-cooking and post-cooking...

And the chicken...

And that's all for tonight folks. Hope you enjoyed your  super speedy tour through my cooking highlights.

Real Free Range Eggs

I mentioned in passing that I'd purchased some fresh eggs recently. Normally I wouldn't say eggs are much to write about, however these eggs were truly incredible.

I picked up the eggs somewhat on a whim at one of the agencies my non-profit company works with. I was there for work but I could pass up farm fresh cage free eggs that were $2.99 for a dozen. Eggs are never that inexpensive, particularly free range eggs. The place I got them from, Central Islip Civic Council was pretty awesome as well. It's basically an old homestead,  with a garden and a blacksmith and chickens and a garden in the middle of neighborhood that is otherwise pretty sketchy. Shout out to CI Civic Council for doing great work with kids as well as providing social services and a food pantry.

Anyway, they told me I would notice a difference in the color of the eggs and the flavor and I have to say they were right. The outside of the eggs looked a little dirty, but definitely very natural, like they literally just came from under a chicken.

I washed them off, just for good measure. Once I cracked them open they were such a vibrant shade of yellow. It was definitely a noticeable difference from any kind of store bought egg- free range or not. The color was like sunshine yellow yolk. Not only were they super yellow looking, I also thought they tasted better. I can't really tell you exactly why, but they just seemed fresher and tastier. I might have to go back there specifically to get some eggs because the price is so ridiculously good and they are so delicious. No more $5.00 eggs for me!  I used some today and I still have 3 left but I think I shouldn't let them sit around too long.  I turned the first ones into a nice omelet with tomatoes. Yay! Definitely a food win!

Love at first Bite

A few weeks ago I made a sort of impulse/test purchase in the snack aisle. I tend to stay away from this aisle in general because I try to spend my money more on food and less on snack. Nevertheless, snacks are important, especially at work. I saw that these new Keebler Wheatable crackers were on sale and that they claimed right on the packaging to be "better than Wheat Thins". I happen to like Wheat Thins so I thought I'd test this claim. The nutrition facts were decent as well so it seemed like a win-win.

I tested them out and thought they were decent. I'm not sure I'd say better than Wheat Thins, but definitely similar and tasty. The following week I was in the store again and saw that they Wheatable Nut Crisps. The flavor they had that day was cashew, which is not really my favorite nut, but I certainly don't dislike it either. Again they were on sale so I bought them. I opened them at work the next way and was completely blown away.

They tasted nothing like the original honey wheat flavor. At first I felt like I was eating pancakes. There was a definite syrup like taste going on. After a few more I decided that they were equivalent to eating french toast - at least in flavor. The weird thing is that there really isn't a whole lot of sugar in them, nor is there anything resembling syrup in them. There is also a distinct lack of cashew taste, which doesn't bother me at all.
These little snacks are highly addictive. I've managed to get my whole department hooked on them. My boss decided that 'malt' is the ingredient giving these tasty treats their syrup flavor since a comparison of both boxes showed that the original flavor only has a hint of malt. I'm on my second box and I bought a box for my co-worker who couldn't find them at Stop and Shop ( which by the way is where I found mine).  While they aren't the greatest thing for you, they certainly aren't so awful as snacks go. They also have a Pecan flavor, which I'm eager to try since I actually really do like Pecans. I wonder if those taste like any sort of breakfast food. Guess I will have to let you know.

A chain worth blogging about

Lots of good things to talk about in food news like the free range eggs I recently purchased from a local Civic Council, or the intriguing new Sol sunflower milk I've seen in the supermarket or the Thai tuna casserole I just made, however, today I'd like to talk about a recent restaurant find called Energy Kitchen.

When I'm not at work, most of my time is being taken up by massage therapy school. This means I find myself in Sysosset several times a week. Here's what I've learned about Syosset: There's a LOT of money there and there's an alternative, new age, trendy sort of vibe that seems to govern at least certain parts of the town. As a result there are some interesting food choices. I had been getting food from a sort of 'healthy deli' where they had nice salads, sandwiches and wraps and frozen yogurt but no red meat. It was probably the best option and they are open late, which is helpful when you get out of class at 8 or 9pm.

About a month back however, I saw another place when I stopped at the Kinkos up the road. It was called Energy kitchen but there was paper all over the windows so I figured they had closed down. I discovered a few weeks ago that they were opening rather than closing ( I think, or maybe remodeling?).  Anyway, I saw that they were open and then a teacher recommended the place so I decided to give it a shot. They are also open late, even later in fact than the other place. Apparently this chain started in the Financial district and has branched out across the city to include 11 locations. There are also 2 in NJ and 2 in FL.

I tested them out a few nights ago and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I won't say that they aren't somewhat deceptive ( every good thing has a catch right?) but I do believe that their food is genuinely more healthy than a lot of places that claim to be healthy.  Here's what their website says about their food:
We take the guesswork out of eating healthy by offering a completely guilt-free, fail-proof menu. There are no hidden temptations, no hidden calories and, best of all, no regrets. Everything on our menu is grilled, baked or steamed, never fried, and always under 500 calories.

I ordered a turkey burger with 2 sides, which is one of the meal deals they offer. Their side dish choices blew me away, but I ended up getting the mashed sweet potatoes and the corn and edamame salad. I was also definitely intrigued by the black bean and mango salad and the baked fries. That I will have to save for next time. The burger comes on a whole wheat bun with lettuce and tomato and here's my only problem with this restaurant; the burgers are tiny. Actually, they are probably what a normal burger should be, but as Americans we are so used to eating giant portions of everything. So the secret to their 500 calories in partially size. But I can forgive them. Between that and the sides I felt full afterwards, so no harm done. It also comes in a cute little tray that looks like wood.
Since I was sitting there for a little while I also scored a free  protein brownie which has sort of an odd sticky consistency but overall was pretty decent. 
This afternoon I once again found myself hungry in Syosset and opted to try out something other than a burger. This time I chose the Thai Chicken wrap, sans sides. It was also good. I can't really describe it any other way than to say it tasted healthy. Some people might think of this as a negative, but I think it's a positive. It tasted fresh, even the wrap.  The best part about Energy kitchen is that it's reasonably priced, by New York standards anyway. My burger and 2 sides cost $9.50, which is basically what you'd end up paying for Wendy's these days, and this is a hell of a lot better for you than that is ( although the fast food is delicious). On the opposite end of the spectrum, I passed a Smash Burger the other day and was tempted to stop for some fried pickles. Somehow I restrained myself.

Duck..... Duck......

GOOSE!

I spotted this beauty on the road today near school. The only logical conclusion I could reach was that this is related to Easter. Otherwise, I have no idea.

The Milk Update

Just wanted to give a brief update on the search for the next milk. I know you've all been waiting breathlessly for the results.

I tested out the soy creamer and it was no good. It just tasted like soy milk, which, as I've said, I really dislike. I opened the coconut product I had bought and it was ok. Kind of neutral but nothing fabulous. I then bought the So Delicious brand of coconut drink ( unsweetened) and it's not bad. It's not nearly as good as the creamer was, but it has some potential. The consistency is a bit gelatinous, for lack of a better term. Not that it's like pudding but it has that bounce to it a little.

It wasn't bad in cereal, but unlike with milk I don't want to drink up the last bits of it sans cereal at the bottom of the bowl. It was even decent with a cookie, but again, more to provide moisture and less as a tasty treat. Still, it's definitely beating all the other candidates as a viable for multipurpose usage. I really need to go back and find the creamer again since that was ideal, but I'm glad I gave the milk version a try too. So for now, So Delicious Creamer is the winner!!

I can't say I've been doing a good job of going dairy free though. I've still had half and half in my coffee when I buy it instead of making it, and I've been having cream cheese on bagels, however, I've pretty well stopped eating cheese, which is impressive. I have sinned on occasion, but I'm doing much better! Even at Chipotle ( which I frequent far too often) I've been getting sour cream but no cheese. It's a work in progress. In other news, gas prices are insane and that makes me sad.

PEEPS SEASON!!!

Walking down the grocery store aisle with the Easter candy and St. Patty's stuff absolutely destroyed my willpower to eat well. When peeps come to town, and I'm talking about the original, not weirdly shaped or covered in something or whatnot, then it's time to celebrate.
Chocolate is always great, but Peeps are an age old Easter tradition. I succumbed to pressure and bought a pack of yellow and a pack of orange. They are currently hardening up with open air, although I already are some before the air had a chance to get to them. Who can resist those brightly colored beauties?
I also indulged in a pack of Cadbury Eggs- the original of course. The next section that got to me was the demo area where they were giving out samples of Irish soda bread with Irish butter. Of course, I had to buy that since it's a special treat only for this time of year.

So all I'm saying here is, it's a great season for sugary foods! So get excited!!!!

Oh Snap!

Yesterday I discovered a new super snack! I was on the road for work, dying for lunch at 2:30 when I finally found a Subway. Got a relatively  healthy sandwich and I was going to indulge myself in some chips, possibly sunchips, when I can across Snapz, crunchy premium apple crisps.

I was intrigued, although I suspected that like most fruit snacks they would be either loaded with sugar or loaded with fat or both. But lo and behold, neither!

Snapz are fat free, cholesterol free, only have 45 calories in a pack ( though yes the packs are a bit small) and only 8 grams of sugar, which isn't much in the scheme of things. The only ingredients are apples and lemon juice. The process is to dry them, not fry them.

The best part of all though, is that they actually taste good. Better than good actually. I may have to reevaluate when I'm not starving, but still, they are pretty awesome. They have the crunch of a chip but a nice appley flavor.

Good texture + good flavor + healthy = 3 for the win!!

The problem is, where do you buy these things besides Subway? The company seems to be pretty new and their website  offers information about purchasing them online or how to become a vendor. The website also states that besides Subway, they have products at some Target stores. There are also other types of chips made by Snapz, including beets and carrots. The website notes that more vendors will be coming aboard in 2012 so I guess it's time to wait. No Target store in NY carry them although some in PA and NJ do. The problem seems to be that this company is based out of the UK, so they haven't gone mainstream into America yet. So my friends, it's up to us to bring this product into the mainstream. Goooooo apple chips!

Milk and Creamer ... the Saga Begins

So I promised you updates about our milk contestants and so far I haven't delivered. Life has been busy and milk free ( but not really dairy free). I actually owe credit to my  mom for restarting the fuel for this post.

So, here is round one. So far I've only tried the oat milk and the hemp milk, but as my room mate K, pointed out, the hemp milk is actually "hemp drink", so it's not actually what I wanted.

I have not been impressed by hemp drink at all. It's not really bad, but it's not particularly good either. In the straight-up test it wasn't very impressive. I couldn't bring myself to use it in cereal. It will probably end up in the trash tomorrow since it's been open for a while. K gave it a negative rating too.

Oat milk has been going quite well. It has a pretty good flavor  that definitely has an oat taste to it and nice thick consistency. I've used it successfully in cereal and it's decent on it's own. It can be ok with cookies, but it's got nothing on milk in that arena. The problem though is that the lowfat, non vanilla type still has tons of sugar in it. It doesn't taste sweet, but I bet it tastes a lot better than it would with no sugar.

I haven't opened the other candidates yet, however on Sunday my mom brought me a few more things to add to try out. Since I mentioned coffee and creamers she brought me two types of non-dairy creamer alternatives, which I've seen but haven't attempted to try yet.

#1 So Delicious, Coconut Creamer
#2 Organic Valley, Soy Creamer

Rich consistency

I opened the Coconut cream tonight just to give it a quick taste test straight up. I was actually shocked to discover that it was amazingly delicious. It's thick, creamy and really smooth. There's definitely a mild coconut taste, but it's not overwhelming. I want to just drink the stuff. It even has the right color.  The best part? There's literally nothing bad about it! It's got no fat, only 1 gram of sugar in a Tbsp and 10 calories! I know it's supposed to be creamer, but might have to start just drinking this stuff! Good call mom! You can check out other So Delicious products here. They have a line of coconut milk products, soy products, almond milk and some other oddities. This makes me more inclined to try the coconut milk drink I have, although it's a different brand. Thankfully they do sell this in stop and shop so it shouldn't be hard to get, unlike some of the other options. Stay tuned for the soy creamer update and others to come.

THE BATTLE FOR THE NEXT GREAT MILK!

In the tradition of Iron Chef, the Next Food Network Star, The Next Great Baker, American Idol, America's Next Top Model and so on, I'd like to announce the beginning of a new contest here at Road Raging Foodie which will be known as:

THE BATTLE FOR THE NEXT GREAT MILK!!!

This furious competition will be a battle between only the best of the best non-dairy drinks as they compete to replace milk in my diet.

Let me explain the background of this competition. First, let me say, that I'm not giving up dairy altogether. I simply love it far too much to do that, however, I am attempting to cut down on my dairy intake. I've also done a bit of reading on milk and the negative impact of the hormones etc. Even buying organic milk, there's only so much you can do to counteract the fact that you are drinking another animal's milk and no other animal does that. There are a lot of people who claim that we should not be consuming milk after we are babies. Many sources say that it actually has damaging effects on bones and instead of building up the calcium it actually depletes it. Our bodies shouldn't be processing the animal proteins. I need to do some more research to see what the difference between animal proteins in meat and animal proteins in milk are. But regardless, milk has fat and it definitely clogs up my sinuses so I think  it wouldn't be a bad idea to cut down on it. I do love cheese, and cheese is worse than milk but I'm making an effort to make some changes.

In light of this, we begin the competition for a new milk product! Let's meet the competitors:

First up we have Oat Milk. I saw this in Stop and Shop believe it or not, while I was looking for hemp milk. I like the flavor of oats and it seemed like it would have good body. I chose the original flavor, with no vanilla.

Next up, Hemp Milk. Again, I chose the original flavor, no vanilla, which was hard to find. This was courtesy of Trader Joe's ( who did NOT have oat milk by the way). I tried a different brand of Hemp milk at my parent's house recently and it was pretty decent.

Finally we have Coconut Milk. This one is kind of a throw away because I'm expecting it to taste like coconut water, which I hate. I'm hoping that it doesn't taste like that but it was by far the cheapest so I figured it was worth the experiment. This also was courtesy of Trader Joe's.

Certainly there are other milks that could be added to the competition, and perhaps at stage two they will be, but I have reservations about the others. I've never been a big fan of soy in past, nor do I really want to get into drinking soy milk as it also has a lot of adverse hormonal effects and I don't want those.  I've had almond milk before and don't really love it, although it was better than soy. Rice milk doesn't really impress me either, though still better than soy. Maybe I will try them again if I'm unsatisfied with these three.

In this competition, the milks must pass several tests to be considered a winner:

Test 1: The Cereal Test: How does the milk taste in a bowl of cereal, or several different kinds of cereals?

Test 2: The Cookie Test: How does the milk hold up against a delicious cookie?

Test 3: Straight Up Test: What does the milk taste like by itself?

Test 4: Presentation Test: What is the consistency like? Does it feel like drinking milk or is it like drinking white water? How does it appear? Is their body?

Test 5: Coffee Test: How does it taste in coffee, tea, etc? ( This is a really a sub-test because I'm still using creamer or half and half in my coffee and I doubt that will change... but you never know)

Test 6: The Nutrition Test: What is the fat content, sugar content, calorie content, protein etc? 

These are the challenges! Stay tuned to see my reviews!

Al Dente

My room mate and I recently had a slight disagreement over cooking pasta and what it means to properly cook pasta. As all my Italian relatives will know, I've been raised with the expectation that pasta should be cooked al dente, from the Italian, literally meaning ' to the tooth'. This means the pasta has a little resistance, some spring still left in it.

We often share food, particularly pasta because it is easy to cook a large amount of it and silly to cook a very small amount. It's pretty much impossible to mess up pasta so for a while I was trying to figure out why something wasn't quite right when he made it. I finally realized it was just a bit too soft, a point he emphasized when he complained to me last week that I hadn't cooked it enough. I argued it was al dente and that's the way it was supposed to be, but he insisted it was undercooked. I suppose it's a matter of taste and what you grew up with. Eating some pasta he cooked tonight reminded me to write about it. We could also argue over sauce, but I admit I'm somewhat of a sauce snob so that's not even worth it.

For those who insist on getting their pasta just right, there's even a device to tell you when time is up. I'm not sure if anyone actually uses this but it's good for a laugh. Apparently this singing al dente timer will play opera for you after 7-9 minutes of cooking your pasta.

Yes, his name is Al and sadly he seems to no longer be available. Sad days.

Cooking Marathon

You may have noticed that I like to cook in what I now call cooking marathons, ie. cook a lot at once so I can eat for the week. Today I had a bit of a marathon, which I prepped for yesterday. I've decided it's time to start getting some meat back in my diet; meat that I choose and prepare, not the fast food kind mentioned previously. I also wanted to use my George Foreman grill again since it has been sitting useless in my kitchen since I used it for tuna. For some reason my pictures didn't come out great, probably cause I have bad lighting in the kitchen, but you should get the idea.

The Marinades:
Yesterday I prepared three plastic bags with marinades and put the chicken in to soak up the flavor.
1. Hot Sauce ( First it was chili paste, now I'm obsessed with hot sauce, you know, the kind you slather all over bbq wings. Wow, it's so tasty. Aside from a horrific amount of sodium, there's nothing nutritionally bad about it.)
2. Chili paste and oil
3. Oil, balsamic, garlic salt, onion powder, fresh rosemary, lemon, chopped garlic

The Cooking
As part of the marathon I cooked with three different devices, four if you count a microwave.
1. The Grill- On the George Foreman I cooked up my 3 different kinds of chicken starting with the balsamic. They came out beautifully tender and full of flavor. I think each one was unique and great in it's own way. The rosemary really came through in the balsamic chicken. I also cut up some orange peppers and put them in the bag that had the hot sauce in it, then cooked them up on the grill.

2. The Oven- I've had sweet potatoes sitting on top of the fridge for weeks and somehow never wanted to deal with them. Tonight I finally decided to slice and bake em. Probably it's not the healthiest route, but it is delicious. I sliced them thin and rolled them in oil, salt and rosemary. If you have rosemary on hand, it really is a great flavoring agent. I must say they came out just perfect after 30 mins in the oven. They were beautifully soft and flavored just right. Win!




3. The Stove/ Microwave- I wanted to make some sort of vegetable and discovered fresh green beans that I'd frozen a while back. I thawed them in the microwave then cooked them up in a pan with some mushrooms. The texture was a little softer than I'd have liked, but it was still tasty.



So my meal tonight consisted of chili chicken, sweet potatoes, green beans and peppers. And I have leftovers!

Here's my chicken in order from left to right: balsamic, hot sauce, chili.
'And that's my somewhat healthy cooking. Probably up next is some matzoh ball soup and then who knows!

Am I the only person who just wants to drink half and half sometimes?

I know, it's kind of disgusting, but it's also kind of awesome. I'm not saying I want to down a whole container of it, but sometimes, I'd like to drink just a little. I had a room mate who used it like milk. I wouldn't go that far, but sometimes you just want something super rich and creamy. I generally reserve it for my coffee though, but I'm sure other people must have this impulse on occasion?

Since we're on the topic of things that are terrible for you, I'd like to put in a word on fast food. I've probably mentioned that I've eaten more of it this year than in the past, somewhat for financial reasons and somewhat because I'm lazy and well, let's face it, it just tastes good. In any case, I had to watch Supersize Me in my Foundations of Holistic Health class. It's not the first time I've watched it, but it still is a fairly fascinating and horrifying look at the world of fast food, particularly McDonalds. If you aren't familiar with the movie, it's basically a documentary of a guy in good health who decides to eat nothing but what's on the McDonalds menu for 30 days. Not surprisingly it's absolutely horrible for his health and emotional well being.

Two things occur after watching this movie: 1. I have an inexplicable craving for a fast food burger ( though not Mickey Dees. They're the worst offender.) and 2. I feel revolted by fast food in general.
Both of these occur at the same time unfortunately. I did succumb to a Burger King Whopper the other day out of convenience. I've also learned that if I don't eat before class, or bring food, that I'm tempted to indulge in fast food because it's there and it's easy.

With all this mention of class, I should probably note that I recently, as in two weeks ago, started attending school to become a licensed massage therapist. That's actually a lot more work than it sounds like believe it or not since you have to learn anatomy and all that good stuff. So now I'm employed and in school and trying to promote my jewelry shop as well so I can have more money yay. Oh and trying to stay healthy... I'll write a bit more about that in the next post since this one was devoted to unhealthy stuff.

Soups Galore

Now that apparently it has decided to be winter, it's a good season to break out the soups.
I've also been on the borderline of sick since after Christmas and there's one thing that is always a cure: chicken soup! If you're sick, you have to make chicken soup. My mom always did, but I've never made my own until now.

The process is actually a lot simpler than I imagined. Really all you need is chicken broth, some veggies and some chicken. Of course you could go old school and make your own broth, but let's not get carried away. According to my mom you can either use chicken that's skinned already or use chicken that has skin which will need more cooking time but will also make the broth richer. The second version also requires you to scoop the fat off the top of the soup after it cools.

I tried the skinless version. There weren't a huge amount of choices in chicken pieces, and as I've mentioned before, I'm pretty picky about the meat I buy, when I do buy meat. I bought some fairly thin breast pieces and tossed them in a pot with chicken broth, chopped carrots, chopped celery, chopped garlic, dill, and dried parsley. Everything boils for about half an hour and voila! you have chicken soup. I think for my first try it came out very well.Soup number 2 was based loosely on a recipe for split pea turnip soup, which I think also came from mom. I had looked at the recipe vaguely a few times but it involves a crock pot and dried split peas so I just created my own version using frozen turnips and frozen peas.

I boiled vegetable stock with frozen turnips, frozen peas, celery, garlic and a potato cut in chunks. I also added onion powder, a pinch of turmeric, a pinch of paprika. I boiled it all for about half an hour or so then let it cool off a bit and blended it with the handheld blender or 'motorboat'. I left chunks in it, but I blended the majority of it.

Above is the photo before the blend and below is after the blend.


It came out nice and hearty like I was hoping. It's a great winter soup! Nice amount of flavor and a good texture. Soup for the win!