Sloppy Sketti Salad and the Best Classic Snack/Dessert/Breakfast

Sloppy sketti salad for supper last night. When I was headed out the door to the grocery store this week, Brian requested we have spaghetti every night this week. I know he was serious, but he knew who he was talking to. And plus, I buy the groceries around here. So to honor his request, I made spaghetti on Tuesday night for him. Well spaghetti is kind of a fluid concept around here, because I dont care for spaghetti noodles, and Brian doesnt care; as long as it's pasta and a tomatoe based sauce with some sort of meat in it, well that constitutes spaghetti.

I had some whole grain penne in the pantry and did the whole sauce thing with a bit of fresh garlic, a hand full of chopped fennel, with Organics Spaghetti Sauce from Tom Thumb.

For my meal I made a huge bed of spinach, topped it with about a fourth of a cup of cooked penne, a generous helping of spaghetti sauce and some fresh grape tomatoes. Brian had the regular with the bed of pasta and then the sauce.
Both meals were complemented with a side of those yummo steamed whole green beans.

For dessert, which I did not need, but wanted. And since it's pretty healthy...why not? I had about a half cup of cottage cheese and some delicious cling peaches (about five slices, maybe a small peach, or half a good sized one) these were canned, but not in a can. They were in a jar, and somehow tasted so much better. And some fresh blueberries for added color and variety.

Unfortunately I scarfed dinner down before I thought to photograph it, but I will post that dessert tonight after work.

Perrty darn good, if I do say so myself... and I do.

Cod Packs

So I did my own twist on something I saw Rachel Ray doing the other day on a rerun from like 1990. Yep, it was an oldie but a goodie. She was baking cod in parchment paper with some yummo herbs and such so I took down the temperature which was 400 degrees and added in what I wanted.

I started with the bulb of a fennel plant, if you havent let your olefactory organ soak that in, then you should drive yourself to the grocery store right now, just to sniff it. Then I chopped up about half of a medium sized onion, finely chopped 3 garlic cloves and rinsed (really well) about two tablespoons of capers. This is kind of where I strayed from RR. My family doesnt do well with olives which is what she recommended, so I did capers. And RR wanted me to add parsley but I didnt have any, so I chopped up a little of the fennel fern and added that. RR said to add lemon juice, but I forgot to do that, and my fish was perfect without it..., but you might need it (fish is funky that way).

Then between two pieces of parchment paper I split up the cod portions, the fennel, onion, and capers. I added about a tablespoon of good olive oil and a pinch of salt and generous pepper (cause me likes it).

I wrapped up the parchment paper and set it on a cookie sheet and let her go in the oven for about thirty five minutes. My fish was frozen, so if yours is thawed it probably takes less time to get it all flakey and delicious.

I served it right on the parchment paper... I just put a plat under it, and sliced that package open with a side of steamed whole green beans. Dang, that was some flippin out good eating. The only complaint in the house was that the portion was too small. That was kinda my fault... I didnt know how much fish would shrink up in the cooking, and I thought there were 4 portions in the bag I bought, but there were only 2. So make sure you have enough to keep the guests happy. Other than that, hope this works out as well for you as it did for me.

Greek Yogurt and Ezekial Bread

So, I have been hearing about Ezekial Bread from my good friends Charlie and Kristene for a long time, and then I heard Jillian Michaels raving about it. So I had to try it, right? I picked up the sandwich sliced bread and the cinnamon raisin english muffins from my local Sunflower Natural Foods store. The sandwich bread is super dry. I like it toasted with a bit of pb and j, most often though, just a bit of pb. It's too dry and too whole for Brian. He's not loving it, so it wont work for my family. We usually love sandwiches, and I feed him two sandwiches for dinner the first night we had it, and that was the last sandwich he has eaten. NOT A SOLUTION... totally a new problem. So we'll have to go back to wheat bread until i can find something better. I really want a bread that doesnt have HFCS, or soy. I'll keep searching. I'm really loving the english muffins for breakfast, with a little bit of peanut butter. I know that the whole world seems all hung up on Almond Butter, but I have a full jar of peanut butter, so I'm going to finish that off first.
I also picked up some Almond Breeze Milk from the Sunflower. Yeah, the almond milk has the best milk alternative consistency for sure. My first couple sips though, I gagged on. Nothing really prepares you for the taste of nuts in a liquid form. I got really used to it. I used some chocolate Quik in it, and that was freaking fabulous. I put it on my cereal and even enjoyed drinking the last of it, and by the end of the carton I was drinking it by the glassful.... but alas, it's not really an option for my household because my husband is allergic to nuts, and refuses to touch the stuff... not sure if the nut allergens are in the almond milk, but I'd rather not risk it, myself. So Jillian Michaels did the research for me and has been telling me of some of the ill effects of having too much soy in your diet, and how estrogenic it is. Seeing that I have already got some sort of estrogen problem, I'm thinking I am going to pass on it. So after trying everything else, I think that my family is going to go back to moo milk. Yep, I totally went off the deep end hating milk this summer, and now that i have come full circle in my research, it really is the best choice. I'll be buying ORGANIC clean milk for a long time now. I think my husband is relieved. He has gone the whole summer with my alternative milk experiments, and I have noticed that the cereal boxes stay around longer.

Anyway, my amazing delicious wonderful find from the grocery store this week was Oikos Greek Yogurt (Honey) OMG, so freaking delicious. I will not be able to live the rest of my life without this. And it is conveniently located in my regular grocery store. I dont even have to drive all the way to the Sunflower for it.... although, I'll still be making trips to the Sunflower for my english muffins and some other natural organic clean yummy food.

skewers, kabobs... back on track

so I totally jumped ship last week. I barely exercised, I ate like a fat cow and now, I am back on board.
I had a stroke of genius last night at the grocery store and decided we'd have kabobs. good for you, fun, and has absolutely 0 risk for tempation for bread. so i was all over cooking in the skillet and then stringing the meat onto the veggies and broiling, but when I got home and the hubs was looking for something to do, I suggested he fire up the grill downstairs by the pool. he loved that idea, and I loved dinner. I made a fruit salad to go with the kabobs and we ate outside by the pool. it was fabulous. i love when i start the week off properly. it's gonna be a good week for watching me eat.

oh, did i mention that i had to go to a second grocery store to find skewers? yeah, super weird - who runs out of skewers? so i'm wondering, because i was not thinking about kabobs when i went in, did they have some kind of subliminal message suggesting that everyone have kabobs last night??? i know, im such a conspiracy theorist.

something hilarious

you know how coffee makes your urine smell? yeah, rice milk does that, too.

Just Desserts

Well, I did try the rice milk today. Actually, I did not have it for breakfast, but I did have it in cereal. So, that is reallly all that matters. I didnt love it in cereal. But it's a tastey by-itself drink. It is exactly the flavor of milk I used to drink when Mom would make rice for breakfast and add milk and sugar and butter. Only, less creamy and also less buttery. Still yummy.

I ate like an idiot today, and while I'm confessin', I ate like an idiot all week so far, and I'm telling you it's not getting any better. I ate a awfully carbed up meal at lunch today - an elementary school cafeteria combo of chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, gravy and a roll. There were green beans, and I ate them, but that crap could not have been considered nutrish. As I put each little olive green mushy green bean shaped morsel in my mouth, I said to myself, "Nothing about this is good for you. Nothing"

Also, my tummy was very angry at me today over some Cinco de Mayo shennanigans. Tummy I am sorry. Taste buds, do not listen to a word I say. Anyway, I started feeling really gross about an hour after dinner last night, so no walk yesterday. Today, I still felt cruddy. I did not eat breakfast, had a gross lunch, came home had a bowl of delicious cereal, and a glass of V8, got pretty sick at my tummy, made Brian's meaty dinner, and an extra chicken breast for me, waited several hours then ate the breast. Had 2 glasses of rice milk, mmmmmmmm. And am telling you about right now. Right before I lay my bones in the bed.

Tomorrow my work is catering a fajita lunch. I'll go easy I promise. And breakfast... what in the world am I going to do for breakfast. Some people really need to go to the grocery store and buy responsibly.
I have promised myself dessert this week, but I have to get in gear if I am really to make good on that promise.

Milk, Milk, Milk

So, I have read a few books and stuff, and have decided that one of the big sources of fat in my diet is dairy. I love dairy - ice cream, cheese, yogurt, milk... seriously, dairy is by definition one of my vices. And I am either not strong willed enough, or not willing enough to give it all up. But, I've started.
I saw on E! the other day that the actress from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" attributes alot of her weight loss to kissing cheese goodbye. Oh, how I long to do that, but I started with something I knew I could do. I have said the big "Goodbye, via con Dios, Fare the Well" to cow's milk. Honestly, you don't need it. All those creamy delish vitamins that you get from milk, can be supplied from lots of other places, provided that you actually eat them. And really, who in their right mind really needs to have the milk from a cow, it is designed to grow a 500 or more lb cow up - I'm shooting for something closer to 160.
I already knew that I loved soy milk, because an old college roomie used to keep it in the fridge ( I would have never known I liked it, except her rather invasive fiance was forever drinking my milk, so I had to hit her where it hurt, and drink the soy!) Anyway, that's it. One little healthy change - a butterfly effect because now my snacking is much healthier, to make sure I am getting all the little vitamins I am no longer drinking, and I've added a ton of delish veggies to the menu.
Today's blog comes because of some serious anxious-ness I have about tomorrow and breakfast.
While I have been training myself to eat fruit alone for breakfies, sometimes I need a little cold cereal comfort. So, I have been hearing about all the different milks available to sort of replace moo milk. Almond, Rice, Soy, etc. My husband is not tolerant to most nuts, so Almond is probably not a choice for me -not that I think he would drink it, but just in case he wanted to try it...
So I curiously picked up some shelf stable Rice milk from the health food section at my local Kroger. And, have since run out of soy milk. So no matter how long I put it off, I am going to have to try the rice milk.
I sure hope it's good. I love milk. I love the cold refreshing stuff all over my healthy grains and nuts and raisins cereal. I need this to be good, or I am going to just drive right back to the Kroger, go straight to the refrigerated section, and Buy my Soy Milk.