6 weeks!

 

So did you know......I LOVE fall!  The colors, the cooler temps, the apples, pumpkins, hay rides - LOVE IT!  It is the reason I live in and for the Midwest!  Autumn definitely doesn't stick around long enough in my opinion.  They changed daylight savings time....can't we all agree to make fall last like, oh I don't know - 6 months?

No I suppose not. 

Anyway, this IS the danger zone for me! Anyone else? 

I am one of those people that associates great memories of family and friends with some type of calorie laden comfort food.

So if I am missing family....I want to eat.
If I am bummed about my plantar fascitis ....I want to eat.
If I want to create some awesome memories with the kiddies...I want to EAT!

easy with the attitude kiddies

See the trend?

So I gave myself a good shaking, told myself to get back to working out --- even if that means I can't do what I WANT to do (read 100 burpees) and just do what I can, because IT IS better than nothing.

Did my feet hurt?  Yes.
Did I stop this time when they did? Yes
But did I give up? NO!

I moved on! I adjusted! I found something similar and maybe not as high impact, but continued to challenge my body.

"healthafied betty crocker fav - apple coffee cake love"

It would be so much easier to just eat coffee cake a couple of times a day with a hot cup of chai tea and watch the leaves change on the trees.

But actually sticking with it and giving my body a workout makes me feel SO MUCH better!

I mentioned before how much a plan made a difference (fitmixer boot camp I still love you!), and I realized yesterday that as of today we only 6 weeks away from Thanksgiving and the obstacle course of food madness, temptations and potential pitfalls at every gathering that follows, and I NEED to be prepared.

6 weeks?  Perfect for a challenge:

 

Calee!  Thank you! This is something I can get on board with!

My weight loss journey is far from over and I cannot head into the holidays with bad eating habits and a lack of workout discipline.

me + healthy = happy kids

Time to tighten the belt!  Ha!

So what am I going to do these next 6 weeks?  The same thing we always do pinky...



eeeerr..no, I guess not take OVER the world, just get MY world in check. 

Still, taking over the WORLD always seemed more awesome ;)  So the same "formula", tried and true:

1.  Count Calories
2.  Work out at least 30 minutes - 5 days a week.  With a 6th day - fun focused activity.
3.  More vegetables, less carbs, more protein.
4.  Try some healthier recipes showcasing fall flavors. 

Like this lentil soup, a mostly almost Isa recipe from her A4R cookbook! A must have in your kitchen.  Mmm, mmmm  good!

 

Golden Lentil Soup

1 med yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp sea salt
fresh ground pepper, to taste
2 ribs celery, diced
1 c carrots, diced
1 med zucchini, diced
1 cup red lentils
6 c veggie broth

Saute onion about 5 minutes in a pot over medium heat.  Use nonstick cooking spray or broth if needed.  Add garlic, thyme, pepper, salt and saute another minute.

Add celery, carrots, zucchini, lentils, veggie broth, and mix to combine. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower to a simmer and cook 45 minutes, until the lentils and veggies are very tender, and the soup has thickened.

Let sit 10 minutes, then serve! Love the consistency this soup and bursting with flavor.  Now that's good comfort food.

So what are you doing the next 6 weeks?

More Maize!

Helloooo readers!

Today's recipe has been inspired and brought to you by the rhythmic beat of the cowbell.  'Cause you can never have enough cowbell!




This cracks me up every time!

Being of Latina heritage, or maybe just because my family is so musical, I am VERY familiar with the cowbell.

Yes, I can play a mean cowbell, thank you very much.

And though I missed playing up national Hispanic heritage month - sorry my peeps - the lovely Heather has given me the opportunity to share some recipes by so very timely calling up Hominy as the latest on:

 

cue APPLAUSE!

 

Lucky for me I had recently been craving Hominy and have a recipe to contribute!

 

I call it, More Maize Soup!

 

 

 

A little lesson first: What is Hominy?

 

Hominy consists of dried maize kernels  Maize ( /ˈmeɪz/ MAYZ; from Spanish: maíz after Taíno mahiz), known in many English-speaking countries as corn, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. (thanks Wiki!)

 

Source




Our family pronounce it Mahiz, Taino style.  Relevant, why?  Because this started as Tortilla Soup (an Isa recipe - highly recommended) - and since it called for corn tortillas (or tortilla chips), my brain - thanks to the persistence of my abuelos when I was a kid - translated it to Sopa de tortillas de maíz .  Which made me think of Maize, which made me think - this soup needs MORE Maize aka Hominy!

 

Yes my brain is a tangled web of random thoughts.

 

So this:

 

Isa's tortilla soup

 

Made up of these ingredients:

 

 

Quickly turned to this!

 

More Maize Soup!

 



And just like you can never have too much cowbell - I truly believe you can't have too much Maize in your bowl! 

 

Anyone note the third type of maize in the bowl? 

 

Yes!  That's right - good old yellow corn.

 

Heavenly Maize goodness.

 

You can have some too!

 

More Maize Soup

 

Ingredients:

 

1 tsp olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp cumin powder

1 tsp salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes

32 oz diced roasted tomatoes

24 oz vegetable broth

2 cups tortilla chips (plus extra for garnish or for scooping!!)

15 oz pinto beans, drained and rinsed if from can

1 cup frozen corn

juice from 1 lime

15 oz hominy, canned

1/2 c chopped fresh cilantro (plus extra for garnish)

 

Saute onions, pepper in oil over medium high heat until translucent.  Add spices and saute for another minute.  Add broth and tomatoes.  Break up tortilla chips and add to pot.  Cover and bring to boil.

When boiling, add beans, hominy, corn and cilantro.  Simmer for 5 minutes.

 

Add lime juice and serve!  Garnish with crumbled tortilla chips and cilantro.  Serve!



Now back to that cowbell.....;)

Forks or Tortilla Chips

My Forks over Knives Cookbook arrived on my Kindle a few days before the labor day holiday. As we traveled about I was able to peruse it while the kids snoozed in the van.

Ah, the simply joys. 

If you haven't already seen the documentary, I suggest you do!  The entire theme is simplicity!

As we have transitioned between summer and the school year, that is certainly all that has been on my mind.  Our world can get hectic, busy and overwhelming in a flash.  That usually leads to tired and stressed out kids and parents, and inevitably bad food choices in our haste.

As with every new school year, I'm determined to keep our schedules simple, and our food too!

Plus it's football season!!!!!  We are ALWAYS ready for some football in this town.  That in itself can present a whole new world of temptations and obstacles in Titletown, where the daily eats suddenly becomes all things meat, cheese, fried and beer - all in support of our Packers of course!!

So I was tickled to find a simple, healthy, game friendly food in my new cookbook featuring EDAMAME!  Just what I needed for my next Meatless Monday A-Z!
 

Don't you just love when everything false in place?

So first things first - what is Edamame? Here is what wiki said: Edamame is a green vegetable more commonly known as a soybean, harvested at the peak of ripening. 

Ahh...good simple.

 

 Some more simple ingredients. Excuse the fake lime.  It's handy in a pinch.

 

 

 Taken for a spin.

 

 

Then boiled edamame, cooked for 5 minutes get a whirl too.

 

Put it all together, and get your fork ready. 

 

Or some chips. 

 

I prefer tortilla chips as my eating utensil of choice.  Or tortillas...its a latin thing.

 

Because now you have Edamamemole! Edamamole? Edahuh? ....well you get it. A bowl full of yum is what we have!

 

Need a closer look?

 

One last end of summer deck party? Perfect.

Healthy tailgate potluck option?  Why yes thank you, this will do nicely.

 

This stuff is good.  It is as I-can't-stop-eating-this-stuff good as the full fat avocado version. 

 

The real test?  The hubster.  Would he like it?

 

Answer:  He loved it! Success!

 

This was the up and up version right out of the cookbook.  Shocking I know, from the master at straying from every recipe I've ever attempted!
_________________________________________________________________________________
  



  Not-So-Fat Guacamole

Makes 2 cups

1 c shelled edamame
1 c broccoli florets (yes, that's right. this is hard core green eating)
zest of 1 lime and juice of 2 limes (or 2 tbsp here)
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 small red onion, peeled and diced small
1/2 c finely chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced (about 1 tsp)
Salt to taste
1 pinch of cayenne pepper, or to taste.

Boil edamame in medium saucepan, add water and boil 5 minutes.  Drain and rinse until cool.
Stream broccoli for about 8 minutes.  Drain and rinse until cooled.
Add edamame and broccoli to food processor and puree until smooth and creamy.  Add water if needed to achieve creamy texture.
Add pureed mixture to bowl and add remaining ingredients. 
Mix well,  chill until ready to serve.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Other options I have seen remove the broccoli and add 1/4 - 1/2 avocado if it just seems like too much of a shame not to include it.

For guiltier-free ....or guilt-freeER? ...snacking, I like you just the way you are edamamemole, edamole, ..uh...ed.

Forks over knives to heavy for you?  There's also a little documentary on the Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue which I actually got hubby to watch with me.  I think he was convinced, seeing as this big fire fighter, still seemed manly eating this green food.





But if you're ready for the full story, watch Forks over Knives. It could change the way you eat ...for the better.



Both are available on netflix!

So you tell me now. 

What healthy eats do you put out for the gang during football season?

WIAW

Though technically not correct.  Just reflecting on some of the yummy stuff  I've had recently.  Lots of new stuff for me!

• Ethiopian Millet, Mushroom Tibs and Sauteed Collards. From the amazing Isa.  Let me warn you that the mushrooms were SUPER spicy! Even for this spice loving chick.  There are a bajillion spices in this dish, but I absolutely loved it!  Made it again already and pulled the curry powder.  Just as yum with some heat, but that simple fix made it something I will definitely be making regularly - COMFORT food!!
• Larabar Sale!!!! New flavors for me including Lemon?!. And the cookie dough. Craaazy good.
• Sweet and Spicy Dates!  It's not too late to hop on board the Meatless Monday A-Z train! Go check out Heather's blog for more Date recipes!  Next week is edamame!
• Salad with hummus for dressing - not new, but always seems like an indulgence.
• Tuscan Kale Soup
• Artichoke!! with some leftover Ethiopian millet.  What an adventure to clean one of these lovelies!
• Green Tea Kombucha. I am still getting use to green tea.  Liked this one - clean, refreshing, and it makes me feel good about myself!
• Fro-yo!!  I may be the last person on the earth that had not had fro-yo. Well at least in my suburb.  A new Smart Cow store opened at the beginning of summer, the only fro-yo place around, and you would have thought there was money at the bottom of each cup.  Its has been PACKED.  And our girlies have been pleading with us to go.  I had a vanilla bean with sea salt caramel pretzel,  (aka fro-yo crack) and strawberries - oh my yum! and I am addicted!
• Falafel, another Isa recipe. It was my first try making homemade falafel.   They were great - but seriously I think I would eat anything chickpea based - addicting!
• Gala Apple Salad with Shittake Vinagrette, Feta and Almonds - oh joy!

Sweet and Salty Dates

It's Monday peeps.  What do I have on the brain? 

 

DATES and dates! 

 

Hubby and I have to do our annual health assessments for the insurance company, so we decided to make the best of it, take the day off, shuffle the kids off to day camp and and make it a date day too! 

 

Yay for us!

 

So after I skee-daddle, yeah that's right I said skee-daddle, it's a word, out of work this evening, I get a day off to get blood drawn, my weight taken --- um, no that's not the good part yet --- and have a date day with my man!

 

Other dates on the brain?  DATES!  Like the kind you eat! 

 

I was so excited when Heather over at Better with Veggies suggested Meatless Mondays from A-Z! While I have tried SO many new-to-me veggies, there are still some I have yet to experiment with.

 

 

For instance - the artichoke.  I have had these before actually, but usually the briny canned variety and usually in something prepared by someone else.  I decided that I should get my big girl pants on and tackle this ART-I-CHOKE.

 

Did you know they are mean little guys?  They poke.  It hurts!  It is a lot of work to prep them too!

 

phew!...and yes, my kitchen has the worst lighting
 

Satisfying?  Yes!  So yummy, this is the Ethiopian Millet Stuffed Artichoke I got from all my hard work! De-lish!

 

Ethiopian Millet Stuffed Artichoke

 

 

I have had NO luck finding Beets or Caper berries, neither of which I've had. 

 

So sad. 

 

Is there some kind of shortage of beets? Are they out of season?  I have no clue.  But I know I have seen them at my grocery store before, so I'll keep waiting.

 

This week the challenge was :  DATES!

 

Again, a new one for me.  I may have had these IN something, at sometime, but I couldn't really remember it.

 

My first thought when I saw them though was some cheesy, sweet and salty concoction.  The great google told me that some people like to eat these guys with bacon!  Interesting. 

 

I was looking for a veg friendlier version, and found a goat cheese stuffed version on pinterest.

 

Bingo!

 

A few adjustments and soon we had:

 

 

Sweet and Salty Dates

 

Ingredients

4 oz tofutti better than cream cheese
3 tbsp shelled, salted pistachios
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

Freshly ground pepper
8 plump, soft dried dates, pitted and halved lengthwise

Sea salt

 

 

 

 

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine cheese, 2 tablespoons pistachios, and 1 tablespoon chives.  Season with pepper.
2. Arrange dates, cut side up, on a platter. Scoop and stuff dates with cream cheesy goodness
3. Garnish dates with remaining pistachios and sea salt

 

Need a quick app for guests?  Look how sophisticated these little guys can be!

 

 

 

Take a bite and it's creamy sweet and salty goodness....oh my yum.

 

 

As my obligatory taste testing was going on, I had another epiphany.

 

Date Sandwich Spread!

 

Chop up the dates, add some more cheese, and sea salt right to the bowl, combine and you have a perfect sandwich spread that would love to meet up with some rye bread for some tea sandwiches. 

 

Hmm, guess I'm not over the tea time treats the kids and I mustered up for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, but that's a tale for another post ;)

Earl grey tea, cucumber dill sandwiches, and figgy spread

Try that Recipe!

This week on Try that Recipe!,  I attempted to cook a lovely Zuppa Toscana Soup from the brilliant mind of NS Sweet Life.  Oh sweet Kelly, you may want to close the screen down now.  If you haven't then let me apologize, 'cause I'll admit it:  I am TERRIBLE at following recipes. When it comes to recipes, I am a reckless, mess of an almost-sometimes-I-do-tell-myself-I follow-a-recipe kind of gal. Anyone else like this? 

How does this happen?  It's simple right? Anyone who can read should be able to successfully follow a recipe.  Perhaps its because I have the attention span of a gnat, perhaps the character Dory was based on me, or I can blame the kids and tell you they don't allow me two consecutive minutes doing ANY activity at any time, EVER.

Regardless of the WHY, the fact is I am fairly certain I couldn't completely and accurately follow a recipe to save my life.

This is how it went down:

A few weeks back: 

LOOK! NSSL has a gorgeous (almost) vegan version of a soup I haven't  had in EONS!

I LOVE that soup. 

Hubby might actually eat this "vegan" soup with me....

**"Scan" ingredients.**

I can do this.

I'm going to make that soup!

**Kind of-sort of skim the directions**

(Several weeks go by now as I buy ingredients when I see them at the grocery store, one by one and completely from my fading memory, then subsequently forget and use them in different concoctions).

See a cooking show making soup - and remember I never made that GORGEOUS soup! 

Next grocery stop I am determined to get all the ingredients.  (Nope, determination doesn't spur me to look up the recipe again or make a list to get ALL the ingredients at home)

At the grocery store:

Spy YELLOW potatoes.  Oooooh.  I LOVE yellow potatoes, so buttery and creamy. 

Fields sausages!! Score!

Kale, kale, kale, kale, kale! Reminder to self, don't use up this kale in a smoothie! 

Hmmm....I think the rest of the recipe was staples.

I'm good!

Declare to twitter followers that I have ALL the ingredients to FINALLY make said soup - something has to hold me accountable, right?

SOUP-MAKING DAY!!

Decide to start prepping soup ingredients at about 4 pm on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  Occurs to me I need to look up the recipe as I have no idea what I am adding, let alone what quantities.

Wait...this is a CROCK POT recipe?  This would be GREAT in the fall!  Ok, focus - I can still do this.  We would eat dinner at what, 11p?.......?!!!  THAT's not going to work.  Okay, okay, I can do this in a pot, right?  You can make soup in a pot. Ok!

Onions, onions....oh crap.  My onions went bad last week.  No onions.  OH, RED onion!  What's the difference again?  Um, okay close enough.

Garlic!  Chopped garlic.  How many teaspoons per clove?  Oh well.  I LIKE garlic.  Let's add LOTS.

Russet potatoes?  Oh, those went bad too.  Yellow potatoes are sooo buttery and creamy though. I love yellow potatoes!  That'll be good!

Only have cherry tomatoes.  THOSE are pretty. Dice? I'll just cut them in half.  They're so little!  Oh darn, that wasn't suppose to go IN the pot? 

White wine.  white wine? I don't remember that at all.  Hmmm, I have white wine vinegar....noooo, that can't be the same. Skip it.

Okie dokie, searching, searching, searching.  YES! - I DO have vegetable broth.  Good thing, 'cause that pot is sizzling!  I need to add some liquid, fast!

How many ounces are in a cup?

 **break for kid referring**

Was that four or five cups I added? 

Hmm...that's it? Awesome!

But....well.... I like me some spice! 

*liberally shake in some pepper.......add a little more......resist the urge to start tossing in other "italian-y" spices**

Boil, boil, boil pot!  I guess a watched pot doesn't boil. Well, what do you know?

FINALLY boiling.  Set on low and cover.

Actually read the recipe directions. 

Realize I have no DAIYA!  Oh good, it says optional.  Aww, I love me some daiya - poo.

OH, so the tomatoes were a gar-nish!

So if its 4-6 hours in a crock pot, how long is that in regular pot time???

Its starting to smell good!!  I must have done something right!

***************

So in the end, this is how I murdered revised this lovely innocent  recipe ingredient list:

4 Italian "sausages" (vegan Field Roast)

2 cloves 2 tbsp Garlic (minced)

1⁄8 1/3? large red Onion (diced)

4 cups 1 bunch Kale (mostly torn in to pieces - extra rustic! chopped)

2 Large Russet  3 medium yellow Potatoes (cubed)

32 ish ounces Chicken broth (vegetarian, if desired)

2 cups Water (added later just realized it was actually in the ingredient list!)

1⁄2 cup White Wine

1⁄2 cup Daiya cheese (optional)

1⁄2 cup  1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved Tomatoes (diced, optional)

black pepper to taste

I could pretend that I am just sooo creative in the kitchen, and meant to do this.  And ultimately these shananigans would be fine when I actually end up with a tasty concoction.  But I NEVER end up marking up the original recipe, because I am delusional and think I will ONE DAY do it right. OR that I will remember what I changed!! - HA! I crack me up.

So there you have it.  Kelly, if you're still reading, I'm sooo sorry!  I'm sure your version is phenomenal as it likely actually took careful thought and planning.

What was that? How did it turn out you say?

SUPER tasty!  And yes Kelly, HUSBAND approved!! (I did manage to save some for him after devouring a good portion of it - so yum!)

I am definitely giving it another go.  I may even follow the directions this time and enjoy the FULL awesomeness of this recipe!

 

 

VERDICT:  SUCCESS!