Chips even the Brit likes

The other night, I had a craving for fries. Rather than go out, I decided to peel a bunch of potatoes and make my own. I have to say, homemade beats fast food any day.


This picture was a one-off on the couch before we dug in. Seasoned with sea salt, rosemary and corriander and baked in the oven with a light olive oil coating. Yummmmmm.

Pancakes

Another pancake breakfast...



Organic whole grain pancakes with pureed blueberries, raspberries, pomegranate and rhubarb. Sooooooo good.

V-Day Menu

Valentine's Day Menu courtesy of various Michael Smith recipes... Received fantastic reviews from my partner so it was well worth it. :)

Brunch - Smoked Salmon Egg Cups with Dill and Havarti and Spice Baked Fruit Salad








Dinner - Tandoori Chicken with Aloo Gobi and Balsami Rice

6 Weeks

It has been six weeks since I started this project slow-food... whole, organic food that is cooked at home, not at a restaurant or sealed in a package. I've learned that broadening my palate wasn't as difficult as I thought, nor finding the patience and time (or rather energy) to hone my cooking (and more importantly, prepping) skills.

In six weeks I've lost 18 lbs, just by changing what and the way I eat. I have lost one pant size and one shirt size. I can tell I'm actually losing fat and not muscle because the first part of me that started disappearing was my belly. Amazing. I have more energy than I can remember ever having. I can jog up the stairs to our apartment and not be winded like I used to be. I don't get as many headaches as I used to either. I can tell when I'm full and I can tell when I'm actually hungry. This project is undoing almost 31 years of poor eating habits learned by myself and from family and learning new, healthier habits and skills...although I wish I had gotten to this point a long time ago, I'm glad I've reached it, period.

Indian Tuesday

Tonight's dinner was comprised of two great Indian vegetable dishes and one fantastic Indian beverage. For the two veggie dishes, I had to follow the recipes closely because I've never attempted to cook Indian food before. Jules free-styled the beverage part of it.

Aloo Gobi

Vegetable Masala

Mango Lassi

New Gadgets

So, another good use for the ol' PVR is recording cooking shows. As a person who isn't really into following recipes, it's really nice to just watch someone throw something together and then attempt to do a few of the interesting parts. For example, I was watching Jamie Oliver the other day and most of what he was making I was not interested in at all, but one of his sides were these baked chips (that's fries on this side of the pond, I suppose) that apparently tasted like they were fried. Included with them was this seasoning he made that he kept raving about. I was interested in trying these chips because I'm not the biggest potato person but Jules loves them so I keep them in rotation a couple times per week. I normally prepare them baked, either whole or cubed with seasoning, so I figured making chips would be a nice treat for both of us. Before I attempted this though, I had to overcome a minor issue - I had no way of grinding up dried rosemary or coriander seed. Jamie Oliver uses a mortar and pestle to grind his spices and herbs up. The other method I could try is an electric grinder. After debating yesterday whether I really needed to grind spices and/or herbs at all (I mean, pretty much all of them can come ground in a package these days), I decided to indulge. Then I read reviews online for decent and low price grinders and purchased one today. I went with an electric grinder over a mortar and pestle because electric grinders actually cost less and can also do coffee, not to mention the result is uniform.

So, was it worth it? Oh hell yes. I ground up rosemary first and the smell was amazing. Next I added the coriander and I was sold. I used that mixture to season the chips as well as on the salmon I foil wrapped and baked to have with the chips and it was fantastic. It wasn't even exactly as Jamie had prepared it (he also ground up lemon zest and sea salt, where I ground the sea salt separate and sprinkled lemon juice instead of the zest) but it was definitely a hit. I think the $25 for the grinder was definitely worth it!

The other addition to my kitchen that was purchased today (Jules' V-day gift to moi) is a food processor. However, unlike the spice grinder, the food processor has not been taken out of the box yet. I have tomorrow off so I'm going to play around with it then. I have to go grocery shopping anyway so I'm sure it'll get some chopping use at some point tomorrow. I (or rather Jules) does a lot of veggie chopping every week because keeping chopped veggies at hand is a huge time saver and a guarantee that plenty of them get thrown into whatever I'm making. Also, to save time, I tend to buy pre-shredded cheese which is damned expensive. I absolutely hate using a shredder though - I get grossed out by holding the block of cheese to grate it - even though my hands are washed and dairy has plenty of bacteria in it anyway, I feel like I'm getting it dirty. There's also the danger of accidentally getting nicked or cut which is more exaggerated in my mind than anything. So... I actually clued in to the brilliance of a food processor when I watched someone shred an entire block of cheese in about two seconds on one of the cooking shows. I kind of sat there and went, 'Duh. Why didn't I think of that?' My parents have had one for years, although theirs is about 15 years old and only has about a two cup capacity and one fixed chopping blade so it wasn't brought out all too often. Actually, I think the only thing they ever used it for was to dice onions. I had not realized that food processors had come a LONG way since then which is probably why it never occurred to me that I would now find one useful.

Veggie Chili

Dinner - Vegetarian Chili (Serves... um, lots)

2 green peppers diced
1 red pepper diced
3/4 cup onion diced
1 zucchini diced
2 large cans of crushed or diced tomatoes
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can lima beans
1 can brown beans
1 can corn
1/2 cup salsa
2 tsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic minced
1/3 cup chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp basil
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp oregano

On medium heat, start with the olive oil and onions along with the cumin, basil, black pepper and oregano. When the onions are tender, add the red and green peppers, the garlic, the corn and the zucchini. Mix and let cook for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and chili powder and then finally the beans. Bring to a boil and then cover and let simmer for 15 - 20 min.

Salmon Wednesday

Dinner - Baked Salmon with Steamed Cabbage & Double Baked Potato (Serves 2)

2 salmon fillets
2 potatoes
1/2 head of cabbage
1-2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp butter
1-2 tsp lemon juice
seasoning (chives, parsley, ground black pepper)
grated cheese (optional)

Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice on the salmon fillets, season with pepper, parsley, chives and wrap each fillet up in aluminum foil. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes.

Cut the 1/2 head of cabbage in half. Steam in a pot for 20 minutes (or until tender). Slice up the cabbage before serving for ease.

I cheat and bake the potatoes in the microwave in a steam bag for 4 minutes. Then I place them in a bowl of cold water so I can handle them without burning my hands. I slice each potato almost in half (more like slice 1/3 off lengthwise) and scoop out the inside to mash up. I add some chives and 1 tsp butter to the mash and then refill the potato skin. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and place in oven (turned off but still really hot) for a few minutes.

To eat meat or not to eat meat?

It's hard to get out of the habit of eating meat almost every day. I want to eat a lot less of it but to do that I need to learn how to prepare alternatives. I already have seeds and nuts covered, it's the beans and tofu I need to work on. Thank goodness for recipes online!!

Pasta Tuesday

Breakfast - Fruit & Yogurt smoothie (serves 2)

1 cup frozen fruit (in the fridge before bedtime so it thaws overnight)
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup plain yogurt
Add orange juice and yogurt to the fruit in a container or glass suitable for using a hand held blender (or use a regular blender) and, well, blend.

I paired this with a piece of whole grain toast with peanut butter.


Lunch - Amy's Vegetable Pot Pie
Mmmmmm... Delicious.


Dinner - Spaghetti (Serves 4)

1 jar of tomato & basil pasta sauce
1 can of crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup red onion
1/4 cup red pepper
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup chopped spinach
4 mild italian pork sausages, grilled and then sliced (optional)
Whole wheat spaghetti
Grated cheese (optional)

Food, Inc.

So, it turns out that eating dinner while watching Food, Inc. was not the greatest idea. It was really hard to finish eating the meat especially... Yuck.