Feast or Famine

I'm either blogging up a storm or not at all for months on end. That's kind of how I roll in real life too...I'm currently trying to lose a few pounds, which of course makes me OBSESSED with food. The more I have to diet, the more compulsive I become in finding the very best recipes and freshest ingredients and how much of something I can eat for the most amount of food...well, you get the idea.

I've been stalking this blog Can You Stay for Dinner? for a few weeks and recently read her 400 calorie salad ideas. I loved the thought of throwing all your leftovers into a salad (in an organized fashion). Today for lunch I made myself a super yummy salad with lettuce (duh...), onions, black beans, corn, tortilla crisps, and light ranch. I understand this isn't exactly a salad revolution or anything but it was slightly more out of the box for me than my normal.

http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2011/12/14/how-to-make-a-delicious-400-calorie-salad/

Tonight for dinner, I made gazpacho. Our friend, Nate, used to make this often but we live 5000 miles away from him and for some reason I've had a mega craving for it lately. CRH isn't supposed to eat a lot of tomato stuff right now, so I had put it off for a little bit but I decided today was the day. I just blended it all (I may have slightly over-blended...live and learn) and gave Eve a taste. She spit it out, so that's my measure that it's yummy goodness and the best part is that it's only 39 calories...yes, 39. I'm having it with a grilled cheese.

Here's the recipe from Allrecipes!

Prep Time:
20 Min

Ready In:
2 Hrs 20 Min

Servings (Help)

USMetricCalculate

Original Recipe Yield 10 servings

Ingredients

• 4 cups tomato juice
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, minced
• 1 cucumber, chopped
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a blender or food processor, combine tomato juice, onion, bell pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, green onions, garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, tarragon, basil, parsley, sugar, salt, and pepper. Blend until well-combined but still slightly chunky. Chill at least 2 hours before serving.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 39 | Total Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 0mg

Blue Potato Burrito

We have a new market around the corner called Waialua Fresh. It's like an indoor farmer's market only better! They are my new favorite place and I visit as often as possible. I'm also stalking, I mean following, them on Facebook and one day this week they posted a picture of blue potatoes. I've never heard of, much less eaten, a blue potato. Purple, red, gold...yes. Blue...never before. So, of course I had to have them!

Last night, I was feeling lazy and went to get a pizza at our new local pizzeria, Jerry's. While they made our dinner, I felt compelled to run across the parking lot to grab up some of those potatoes. This morning, CRH whipped up this yummy blue potato breakfast burrito with a side of blue potato home fries. It was pure yummy goodness! I can't tell you what all was in it because I didn't make it but the burrito had the potatoes, eggs, cheese, veggie sausage and the home fries had the potatoes, sweet peppers, onions, garlic, and cayenne. OMG, delicious! Isn't it a pretty plate?

Follow Through...Not So Much

If you know me at all, you know that I really suck at following through with stuff. This did not prove untrue in my recent foray into being vegetarian. Truthfully, I never made it past pescetarian and honestly, I just can't give up fish. I super, triple, over the top love seafood. Anyway, I went home for Thanksgiving and fell off the wagon...badly. I started eating any and all meat in mass quantities and realized that I'd missed it. And then, I started feeling badly about it again and remembered how gross it is and now I'm back onto select meat. In an attempt to remove as much meat as possible from the dinner diet, I have asked some friends for recipes and just purchased Mark Bitman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian book. It should arrive Monday or Tuesday!

In the interim, my childhood (and current!) friend Sara, who doesn't just dabble in being a vegetarian but actually IS one gave me the most amazing recipe that I'm going to share with you good people now (because she said I could). Her mother has been a vegetarian for a long time and in the 80s had a cookbook with this recipe in it. Sara has apparently loved it since then and makes it for her family. I made it last night and we all agreed that it has officially made it into the menu rotation around here. (Well, the adults agreed...Eve ate something less nutritional.)

I have no idea what to call this...Adzuki Yumminess seems appropriate.

Put 2Tbsp of olive oil in a large-ish pan on the stove. Dice a medium onion, dice a medium potato, and slice a medium zucchini and cook in the oil for 3-4 minutes. Then add a cup of adzuki beans. I used drained can, but you can use dried ones that you have soaked. I'm not the patient. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add 1 1/4 cup of good veggie stock (I made mine using a recipe on all recipes...my first stock ever!) and 2 whole cloves (to be removed later). Then add in 3Tbsp of tomato paste, 3Tbsp of red wine, and 3Tbsp of cognac (a mini bottle is more than enough) and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered for 20-30 minutes until thickened. I simmered for about 30 and then CRH decided he wanted crescent rolls with it, so it continued to simmer while those cooked. Season to taste with salt and pepper!!

This was FANTASTIC!! Thank you for the recipe, Sara!

Red Wine Diet

Recently, my friend Becky visited and brought with her a copy of OK magazine. I love to read those rags and they are great for fad diets from time to time. I’ve never been a fad diet girl. Well, I’ve done South Beach until I realized how toxic it was for me, but Weight Watchers has always been my thing because it’s sensible. It’s portion control, but still eating the things you enjoy. Anyway, I read this red wine diet and decided that I could totally rock this and it promises that you lose 5lbs in 2 days.

Here’s how it works from an eating standpoint. I’m including the link to what it recommends, but here’s what I ate since I no longer eat chicken and I refuse to add OJ and tonic to my wine.

http://www.free-fad-diets.com/red-wine-diet.html

Breakfast (Both Days)

I slice of whole wheat toast

I hard boiled egg (since I have no idea how to poach one)

1 cup of coffee (diet says black, but I can’t…I used Splenda and Silk Soy Creamer

I glass of red wine

Lunch (Day 1)

Salmon sashimi – (half a pack because I was in the sun and it started to get weird, so like 5 or 6 pcs)

2 glasses of red wine

1 cup coffee

Dinner (Day 1)

Grilled shrimp marinated in garlic, cayenne, paprika, lemon juice, and olive oil

Small Romaine lettuce salad with onions and pomegranate dressing

Rest of the bottle of wine

I was hungry at the end of Day 1, but it was a huge cutback in food for me. I resisted the urge and I lost 2lbs the first day.

Lunch (Day 2)

Sashimi – ahi (10 or 12pcs)

Diet Dr. Pepper b/c I was too hot for coffee

Glass of red wine (Only 1 b/c I had kids around to be responsible for)

Dinner (Day 2)

Crab legs – steamed w/out butter

Small Caesar salad (this was a total cheat, but yummy and satisfying)

Rest of the bottle of wine

I was not hungry at the end of Day 2 and I lost a total of 4.6lbs. This will be repeated again next weekend and the one after that. I will be maintaining through the week with Weight Watchers. For the curious, I added up my WW points for Day 2 and it was 26 of the 29 I can have.

Lasagna Cupcakes

First of all I have to start this post by saying that Eve and I are obsessed (and I do mean obsessed) with cupcakes and Cupcake Wars and the like. When I told her this was dinner, she was super psyched. She didn't realize that it wasn't going to be sugar goodness, but I have to say it was definitely yummy goodness in the mouth. I made CRH's without ricotta (since he did find the recipe and all) and of course I used Morning Star Farms veggie soy crumbles instead of ground meat, but the overall verdict was yum. Each cupcake is 7 points for WW, but I actually estimate less because I didn't use as much of the ingredients as it called for. The 7 points does factor in using MS Farms vs. ground beef, just FYI.
Here's the recipe compliments of tablespoon.com.

Ingredients
1 cup marinara sauce
3/4 pound ground beef
12 wonton wrappers
8 ounces shredded mozzarella
3 ounces Parmesan cheese
4 ounces Ricotta cheese
(optional) basil for garnish

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
2.Brown beef and season with salt and pepper. Drain.
3.Cut wonton wrappers into circle shapes using a biscuit cutter or using the top of a drinking glass. You can cut several at a time.
4.Reserve 6 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and 6 tablespoon mozzarella for the top of you cupcakes. Start layering your lasagna cupcakes. Begin with a wonton wrapper and press it into the bottom of each muffin tin. Sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese, Ricotta cheese, and mozzarella cheese. Top with a little meat and marinara sauce. Use around 1-2 teaspoons of all the ingredients depending on your personal preference.
5.Repeat layers ending with marinara sauce. Top with reserved Parmesan and mozzarella cheese.
6.Bake for 18-20 minutes or until edges are brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. To remove use a knife to loosen the edges then pop each lasagna out.
7.Garnish with basil and serve.

Yummy in the Tummy Weekend Recipes

I’ve started Weight Watchers again. It’s a whole new system than the old Points that I was used too, so it’s taking some time. Plus it seems I’ve been eating double my allowed points each day, which would explain the weight gain! My new allotted points for the day is 29 with 40 something extra weekly points. When I did the plan before, I got like 20 points a day. I did well on it and eventually got to a point where I wasn’t hungry in between meals. I’m feeling pretty sure I can do it again.

This weekend I made White Bean and Shrimp burgers from Mark Bittman’s book. YUM! I initially made them a little too pureed, so I had to double the recipe and add in coarsely chopped shrimp and beans by hand. It is 8 points alone and then you have to add some mayo and a bun. Well, I guess you don’t have to, but we did! CRH made a yummy Miracle Whip mayo for it.


For dessert, I made this Blueberry Crisp from the same book. I loved it, but it was 10pts and I can never, ever have it again. Ok, well perhaps I could modify the recipe and have it again but that’s not one of my strong suits.


Last night, CRH made this salmon and mushroom pasta. I didn’t get a pic, but omg it was delicious and only 10pts too. It was seriously yummy!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
12 oz salmon fillet (skinless salmon fillet cut into 3/4 inch pieces)
3 large garlic cloves (chopped)
1/2 lb mushrooms (sliced)
5 green onions (chopped)
1 tomato (seeded diced)
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 tbsp capers (drained)
1/2 lb linguine (freshly cooked)
1/4 cup fresh dill (chopped fresh dill or 1 tablespoon dried dillweed)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice


Preparation Steps:
1. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat
2. Season salmon with salt and pepper
3. Add to skillet; sauté until just cooked through, about 3 minutes
4. Using slotted spoon, transfer salmon to plate
5. Add garlic to same skillet; sauté 30 seconds
6. Add mushrooms; sauté 2 minutes
7. Add green onions, tomato, wine and capers; cook until mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes
8. Add linguine, dill, lemon juice and salmon and toss
9. Season with salt and pepper

Ode to Mark Bittman

Mark is the author of the beloved lima bean parmesan recipe in this house. He's written a ton of recipe books and I'm dying to try some more of his recipes. Last week, I took Eve to the library and to my complete surprise my tiny little Waialua library had his Food Matters cookbook. There may or may not have been a girly squeal emitted in the middle of the library as I snatched it off the shelf! I've poured over it this weekend and on Wednesday (pay day), I'm going to Costco and the grocery store and stock up on groceries to make pretty much all of the bookmarked recipes.

School is over for me until Tuesday, August 23rd. I get an almost 2 week break, so I'll try to do a much better job of cooking and posting. I think these recipes are going to be awesome!!