am I turning into a food snob??

For days I have been craving my favorite side dish. My old family meal stand-by - green bean casserole. The ingredients were purchased and all I was waiting for was the right moment to prepare my all-time favorite meal. Yes. You read that right, I said meal because I can absolutely eat it all by itself. At least, I used to be able to do it until last night. I knew something was wrong when I popped open the can of Durkee's Fried Onions, which in the past I have munched on while mixing the casserole's ingredients, because when I took a little taste, something was amiss. They didn't taste good to me. Immediately, worry set in. I thought perhaps I had a funky can of onions. Well, I forged on and got the casserole together and put it in the oven and anxiously waited for it to come together. It came out of the oven and sat on the stovestop, steamily resting, and I continued to wait for it eagerly. Earlier I had baked some drumsticks in the oven with BBQ sauce and knew this meal would be so good in it's old-schooly comfortable way. After the casserole had cooled down, I plated my dinner with one drumstick and a healthy spoonful of Green Bean Casserole....

It's never been a pretty thing on the plate...

I took a bite, the first one of this manna from heaven in a long time, and was instantly disappointed. It tasted nothing like I expected nor like I remembered. Gone was the delicious warmth that used to envelop me when eating this dish and it was replaced with a bland, slimy, blahness that defied explanation. Has it finally happened then? Have I reached a point in my quest for finding good eats that my old favorites are now history? I don't know, friends. I just don't know. What is known is this. I woke up to a different world this morning, people. Green Bean Casserole no longer equals goodness to me and what that means in the scheme of things is yet undetermined but for now I think it means I have moved on. I'm really ready to eat better things or perhaps to find a more delicious way to prepare the dish that doesn't include canned soup, onions, and beans. Does this portend other major food changes? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Oi yoi, yoi

What a crazy few days we've had around here. Thanks goodness I have been doing ok foodwise, in spite of all the stressful things going on because my weight is down to 198.5. Hey! Every little bit counts!!!

On Friday, we yet again ate the chicken dish I've been gnawing on for the last few days. I was going to fix salmon but Sean didn't get home at a decent hour so we just had leftovers. On Saturday at lunchtime, I figured I would fix the salmon we missed out on the night before but I didn't count on finding it spoiled in the fridge. That's the one bad thing about buying fish on special. If you don't eat it the same day you buy it, you may as well throw it out. So what was I going to do? Thankfully I had some butterflied pork chops in the fridge and we had those along with some roasted asparagus and tomato, mozz, and basil, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Roasted Aparagus is so good and easy. You need:

1 bunch of asparagus
olive oil
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cover a jellyroll pan in foil, unless you like to clean dishes in which case you may leave the pan naked.
Trim 2 inches off the ends of the asparagus and place on your jellyroll pan.
Drizzle with 2 tsps of olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper over the top and then toss them around the pan to coat.
Put them in the oven for about 15 minutes.
When you removed them, sprinkle some good quality parm on the top or grate some if you have fresh parm.



So gooood!

The Tomatoa, Mozz, and basil is pretty basic. For two people, I used:
1 tomato
half a fresh ball of mozz
a few leaves of fresh basil
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Slice your tomato and mozz and layer them on a plate along with some torn basil leaves. Drizzle with the oil and vinegar very lightly, you don't want to drown them. Then crack fresh pepper and sprinkle a tiny bit of kosher salt over the top.

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite things to eat, in spite of the fact that I have never been a big fan of tomatoes. I can't wait for the baby tomatoes growing on my plant to get big enough to eat!

The pork chops were simple as well. In case you haven't noticed, I like keeping things simple. I'm simple. Got it? Ok.

2 butterfly-cut chops 1/2" thick
2 tsp olive oil
garlic salt, fresh pepper

Warm the oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Season the meat according to your own taste and add to the pan once you see ripples in the oil. Cook a few minutes per side, until the you can press on the thickest part and it feels like the part of your palm, close to the heel of your hand. Firm but not hard. It should still have some give. Pork is tricky because you don't want to overcook it or else it's really unpleasant.



This was a great meal!

Later that night we went out to dinner with friends and had a nice time. I got tuna in a soy-ginger glaze served with rice. For dessert, Sean and I split a piece of carrot cake, it is one of our favorites!! Then Sean proceeded to drink too much and spent the next day hungover. LOL


Last night, the boys and I had McDick's for dinner. Usually, I would have the Filet-o-fish combo but instead exercised some restraint and had a regular burger, small fries, and a small vanilla shake. It was not good but I was proud of myself for keeping my portion sizes small.


Hope all has been well with you!

Still here!

I will have a post for you tomorrow, friends. One of my littles is sick so I'm a bit preoccupied. Come back tomorrow though for some photos!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Lunch and an Interesting Article

Yesterday was a pretty good, healthy eats day for me. I started out the day with lowfat cottage cheese and pineapple. Yum! That combination is about the only way I can eat cottage cheese and it was delicious. As I puttered around the house yesterday, I was trying to figure out what to do for lunch. The day before I had cleaned out my freezer and had taken out some thin chicken breasts to defrost so those HAD to be used yesterday. My sister had invited me over for dinner so chicken was on the menu for lunch. Frankly, I've been feeling a little uninspired by my chicken preparation ideas and yesterday was no exception.

Usually when I cook these scallopini-style breasts I pan-fry them and then make a caper sauce but I didn't want capers yesterday. I still pan-fried the breasts but this time, I made a very light sauce out of dry sherry, chicken broth, and a touch of half-n-half. It was so good! I forget how good sherry is for cooking until I use it. It just adds a layer of taste that is so unexpected. What I did was season the chicken with kosher salt, freshly cracked pepper and garlic powder on both sides while 2 Tbs of olive oil was heating in my pan. Then I quickly cooked the chicken (there was a lot) and layered the breasts on a plate while I got out the ingredients for the sauce. Into the still hot pan I poured a 1/2 cup of good chicken broth, 1/2 cup of sherry and brought it to a boil and reduced it by half, stirring occasionally to be sure all those yummy brown bits released from the bottom of the pan. Once the liquids had reduced I added about a 1/4 cup of half-n-half over low heat. I tasted it and added a pinch of salt and a couple of turns from the pepper mill and the sauce was ready.

While all this was going on, I put my microwave to work on my side dishes which were leftover rice and green beans. My meal was absolutely delicious and light!

I still have plenty of leftovers so it will be repeated today.

Last night for dinner, my sister fixed homemade steak and cheese sandwiches which were out of this world. They weren't heavy or greasy and were seasoned very well also. On the side, she fixed a salad which I topped with 1 1/2 tsp of light ranch dressing. It was so good! After dinner, we had some chocolate chip cookies which really hit the spot, too. I needed that chocolate! As I said earlier, yesterday was a good eats day for me. I felt really satisfied with it.

I don't know if I've ever said anything about my dieting past on here but a few years ago, I followed a low-carb regime and lost quite a bit of weight. I actually enjoyed eating low carb and because of choosing that lifestyle, I fell in love with a lot of vegetables that I had never tried before and still love to this day. However, when I hit a bump on the road of life, I fell off the wagon and used food to try and make me feel better and the weight piled on pretty quickly. That is pretty common for me, I gain fast and lose fast. At any rate, I didn't go back to low carb and I've been trying to lose weight ever since. That was in 2003. I was pretty bitter for a long time and blamed the low carb diet for my weight gain, which would have happened no matter what regimen I was following. Why am I telling you all this? Yesterday, I was reading the news on the internet and came across the following article:

Low Carb Beats Low Fat on Weight Loss

It is an interesting read which basically states that low carb, low fat, and low cal diets all produce weight loss but out of the three, low carb provides the best results in both weight loss and improved cholesterol. Check it out for yourself. What are your thoughts on that?

Not sure what today brings in the way of food but I'm going to do my best to make it healthful and delicious!!

Stress Eating

Y'all. I'm BRIZOKE! That's "Broke" for those of you who don't understand my pitiful attempt at being hip. The stress has really gotten me down and I spent the day trying to make myself feel better with food. There wasn't much here to float my boat but tonight we went over to my sister's house and had pizza. All in all, it could have been worse. Like I said, there wasn't a bunch of junk in the house so my stress monkey went hunrgy for most of the day. The only thing I munched on was a few chips with homemade salsa. I couldn't decide whether to be more depressed that I had no money or no junk food in which to drown my sorrows.

The economic times are hard right now and, even though we make a good living, the rising costs of fuel and food are hitting us pretty hard right now. Something happened at dinner though that made me realize that even as stressed as I am, there are people who are having an even harder time than we are. When my sister and I went to pick up the pizza, there was a young girl in the parking lot trying to sell candy. Her family was sitting in the car as she wandered from person to person, doing her very best to make some money. My sis and I felt terrible because we didn't have one iota of cash on us. We just never carry it anymore. When we told her we didn't have any money, she looked at our pizza boxes with obvious envy. It was quite a moment. One of those, "Ok, Evie, it's time to get over yourself" moments. Here I am, money is tight but at least I can afford to eat without resorting to taking my children to a shopping center to sell candy bars. Something has got to change and soon. If people like me are struggling, I can't begin to imagine what it's like for that little girl's family.

I'm sorry for going off on that tangent but that occurrence really affected me.

My goal for wednesday is to be more positive, to eat mindfully, and healthfully, and get up and move. Please come back and see how I did!

Everybody Loves Pie

Well, maybe not everyone but I sure do! Apple, cherry, Lemon meringue, Key Lime, chocolate Silk. Need I go on? While on our PA trip, my SIL had the latest issue of Cooking Light magazine and prominently featured on the cover was a beautiful cherry pie. I knew when I got home that a copy of that magazine was going to be in my cart on the next trip to the grocery store.
Being who I am, I couldn't make the recipe as printed. Nope, had to switch things up a tad. Instead of cherry pie, I made peach which required additional spices and some adjustments to the recipe. Without further adieu, here is the recipe for Evie's Rustic Peach Pie as adapted from the Cooking Light July 2008 edition's recipe for Fresh Cherry Pie.

2 TBS uncooked quick-cooking tapioca
5-6 large fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon (all of it!)
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 TBS maple syrup (the real thing)
1/8 tsp salt
1 (15 ounce) package refrigerated pie dough (i used pillsbury)
Cooking spray
2 TBS water
1 large egg white
2 TBS turbinado sugar



Place tapioca in a spice or coffee grinder; process until finely ground (i used mortar and pestle). Combine tapioca and next 8 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; toss well. Let stand for 30 minutes and then stir to combine.



Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roll one of the packaged pie crusts into an 11-inch circle. Place in the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. (i forgot the spray, don't do that) Allow the dough to extend over the edge of the plate. Pour the peach mixture into the dough and be sure to scrape all the spicy goodness in there. You don't want to miss a thing. Roll the remaining dough into a 12-inch circle and then cut 12 1-inch strips. (i did 1/2 inch strips because I read wrong) arrange in a lattice pattern over the peach mixture. Fold edges under and crimp. (i SO can't do this well)



Combine 2 TBS water and egg white in a small bowl. Brush the egg white mixture over dough on top of pie and sprinkle dough evenly with turbinado sugar. Bake at 400 degress for 20 minutes. Then take from the oven and shield pie crust edges with foil. Put back in oven and bake for an additional 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool pie in pan for 45 minutes on a wire rack. Makes 12 servings.



Y'all. This pie is SO good. I might have to eat a slice for breakfast. It's only 282 calories so I can do that.

Our evening meal was courtesy of another cooking light recipe, this time from their website. Farfalle Carbonara. Again, I made a couple of tiny adjustments because that's just how I roll, yo, but for the most part the recipe remained unchanged. You can find the recipe HERE. The only changes I made were to add 1 cup of frozen baby peas that I heated in the microwave and 1/4 cup of half-and-half. It was really pretty good, see?



For those of you doing WW points, one serving of the pie is 6 points and one serving of the Carbonara is 8 points. Well worth every one. Oh, and I was 199 even today, yeah!!! This week I begin exercising in earnest!!

Another delicious dinner

Last night, we ate a goooood dinner. It was simple, delicious, light, and flavorful. Oh yeah, it was healthy, too. I took two filets of salmon, with the skin still on, and broiled them, served that alongside a wild rice blend (not Uncle Ben's), and tomatoes fresh from my garden paired up with artisan mozzarella and organic basil. Yummy!


To prepare the salmon, I preheated my broiler for about 15-20 minutes. Of course I'm cooking on Wilma Flinstone's range so yours may not take that long to heat up. I seasoned the salmon with kosher salt, freshly cracked pepper, and a light sprinkling of lemon-pepper seasoning. Then I placed the filets skin side up on a foil-wrapped cookie sheet and placed them under the broiler until the skin started to bubble. Once that happened, I took them out, peeled the skin off and put them back under the broiler for 1-2 minutes and they were cooked perfectly.

While the broiler was heating up though, I cooked the rice in the microwave. THis is by far my most preferred method of cooking rice because I don't have to worry about messing it up on the stove and it is cooked perfectly every time. I had a wild rice blend that included white basmati rice, red rice, and wild rice which I placed in my Pampered Chef steamer along with 1 1/2 cups of fat free beef broth (to 1 cup rice) and about 2 tsps of butter. That took about 20 minutes to cook.

When those things were both done, I took the last couple of minutes before plating the meal to prepare the tomato-mozzarella dish. I had two beautiful tomatoes from my patio garden and after slicing them and the artisan mozzarella, I layered them with torn leaves of organic basil. Then I drizzled a TINY bit of olive oil and some balsamic vinaigrette on top and Voila!!

Dinner was served. It was really, really, good, didn't make a big mess in the kitchen, and was so easy to do. My goal is going to be to try and find a way to make all my dinners like this. I love to eat but I hate slaving in the kitchen!!

After dinner, we went to Baskin Robbins where I had one scoop of my all-time favorite flavor, Pralines-n-Cream. It is freaking DELICIOUS. Forget Cold-Stone Creamery, just give me a sugar cone topped with a scoop of Pralines and Cream and we'll be friends forever.

This week, I'm planning on making a peach pie from scratch so stay tuned and see how that works out.