A Taste of Tuesday

Today's epicurean delight (haha) is another of my own creations. As previously mentioned, I am a very lazy cook, and will take short cuts where ever I can. With that I present:

Fettuccine Ala Dee

• 1.5 (or more) lbs lean ground beef
• 1/2 bag frozen Seasonings Blend veggies (the one I got was the Publix brand and had onions, green peppers, red peppers, and I think a few other things)
• Minced garlic to taste (I like a lot -- if I can't use my breath to peel wallpaper, there isn't enough garlic in there)
• 8 oz chopped mushrooms
• 1 jar organic spaghetti sauce (I like the Paul Newman's Sockarooni)
• 1 can organic cream of mushroom soup
• (optional) Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 package fettuccine, cooked as directed on package

Brown the veggie mix. garlic and ground beef.

Drain off the fat and return to the pan.

Add the spaghetti sauce and mushroom soup. Stir till it looks stirred and hot.

Add parmesan cheese to taste. Mix with the fettuccine.

Another cute re-post from LOL dogs

see more dog and puppy pictures

Friday Goals

Well, due to the weather, I totally lamed out last weekend. We did go bowling in place of the kayak trip. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as kayaking would have been. But onward and upward to this weekend. My goals for this long weekend:

• Birding Turkey Creek. Check out the Events page for details. I hope people show up! HFC David is out of town this weekend.
• Emptying the entertainment center, pulling it out, and fixing the back so the cats can't get behind the TV anymore. I just don't think it's safe for Maggie to be back there, and she'd killed the power to the TV twice now.
• Find new recipe for next week's Taste of Tuesday. I have pretty much posted everything I know how to make. Given that I've only been posting recipes for about 6 weeks, that is pretty sad!
• Play with Hiawasee mom and dad on Monday!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Make your own goals! And let me know if you are going to join me on Saturday.

A Taste of Tuesday

This is a recipe that I got off the Fettuccine box, but I've adapted it a bit to make it more lap band friendly by reducing the amount of pasta, increasing the ham, and using lower fat dairy products. This recipe freezes and nukes up well, I have a bunch of 4 oz servings in the freezer as I write this.

Fettuccine Papalini

• 1/3 (12 oz) package Fettuccine
• 1 bag (10 oz or so) frozen green peas
• 16 oz cooked ham, chopped
• 6 oz (or more, I usually add the whole package) mushrooms, chopped
• 1 clove (I add more, the worse breath the better!) minced garlic
• 1/4 cup butter or margerine (this is optional, as described in instructions below)
• 1 cup fat-free or low fat half and half
• 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
• 1 cup fat-free or low fat parmesean cheese

Cook pasta as directed on package and drain. Nuke up the frozen peas till not frozen anymore.

Stir-fry the ham, mushrooms and garlic in some of butter. You can use cooking spray (such as Pam) if you want to reduce the fat/calories a bit.

Stir in the half and half, egg yolks and the rest of the butter (again, you can greatly reduce the fat and calories by just omitting the butter altogether.) Cook until hot through.

Pour ham mixture over the pasta and toss with the cheese. Nom.

It's the Little Things

There are days when someone could give me a million dollars and I would still be in the dumps. I admit, it has been very cold here lately, and I've been crabby, but for the most part, I am pretty easy to please and easily amused. Here are some of the little things that keep me going:

• Waking up with NummyMuffinCoocolButter sandwiched between mine and David's pillows.
• Painted Buntings at my bird feeder
• Printing 2-sided brochures on a printer that only does 1-sided printing, and having the up, down, right and left all where they are supposed to be
• Having the kitty use the new potty seat (we just started toilet training)
• When eating a handful of M&Ms, realizing that I have an even number of each color so I don't have to eat a blue one with, say, a yellow one (yuck)
• Realizing that a product I bought has one of those Boxtops for Education labels (which I am saving for a friend)
• Putting my iPod on random, but having the most perfect song for the moment come up when I need to hear it
• Free stuff that I realize I would have paid a million dollars for but didn't have to. Case in point: Over the weekend there was a special on Twitter where if you tweeted about the new Pearl Jam song you could get it for free. I did and the song is so beautiful and perfect it made me sob, but I listened to it over and over and over and over and over.
• Big fluffy sweatshirts, especially fresh out of the dryer on a cold day.
• Warm tuna salad made with cheese and pumpkin seeds on crackers.

I guess today's been a pretty great day as I am 10 for 10 today!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it -- tell me what are the little things that make your day go great!

Comments from previous blog:

(Anonymous) at 2010-01-26 16:22 (UTC) (Link)

I truly love the M&M thing. We really are too much alike! I agree with pretty much all the things on your list, but the M&M thing is by far my favorite! Your Monkish cousin, Amy =)

Kitty Salad

For Christmas, Auntie Shirl got my kittens their very own Chia cat grass planter. After giving it a few weeks to sprout, I was able to give it to them today. If you need inspiration to eat healthy, take a look at this!

Pita loves him some salad!

Mmmmm! Barty loves him some salad too!

Even Lisa risked incurring the wrath of Pita to get herself some salad!

But alas, NummyMuffinCoocolButter is more like his mom. Salad? Pfui!

Ok, we all try to raise our kids right. I guess I am lucky that 3 out of 5 of mine take after the healthier eating habits of their dad instead of me :-)

A Taste of Tuesday

David had a hankering for Chili this week. I've never made it from scratch before, but I figured, how hard can it be? So off I went to the grocery store to get some chili type ingredients. Right as I walked in the door, there was a big display of canned tomatoes on sale buy one, get one free. Totally cool. I picked up one of the cans and read the label. Now, keep in mind, this was just diced tomatoes -- not sauce or anything -- just chopped tomatoes -- and the ingredients list included High Fructose Corn Syrup as the third or forth ingredient. Huh?

Now, as stated in the FAQ, I am not a health food nut, I eat more than my share of junk. But the thing is, when I buy junk, I expect it to be made of junk. If I am in the mood for a Snickers bar, they could put arsenic as the first ingredient, and I would still eat it.

But when I am buying chopped tomatoes, I want chopped tomatoes, not tomatoes covered in cheap syrup that serves as a filler. I wound up buying organic canned tomatoes because they were the only ones in the store that did not contain HFCS. Yes, they were more expensive, but cost is more than just about money.

So, I spent a very long time in the store, reading every label, and eventually came home to make my baby chili. But it was very cold out, and I was whining about the weather. David said that where I was so miserable, we could call what I was making "Warmi" instead of chili. So, without further ado, here is my recipe:

Dee's Warmi

• Browned Ground beef (I used about 2.5 pounds -- better for lap band, but adjust to suit your taste)
• 2 cans organic diced tomatoes
• 1 can organic tomato sauce
• 1 can organic red kidney beans (For non-lap band peope I would suggest 2 cans of beans and less ground beef)
• Spices - I used cayanne, black and white pepper. This came out a little bland. David added salt, cilatro and more cayanne to the left overs, and it tasted better. You can also buy chili spice blends at the store, though I've never tried them.
• (Optional) Some uncooked elbow macaroni

Dump everything into a crock pot for 6-8 hours. If you choose to add the macaroni, dump it in to the crock pot (uncooked) about an hour before you want the chili to be done.

Update: It tastes even better with some wheat crackers, especially if a loved one breaks up the crackers and makes a smiley face out of them cause he knows you are grumpy due to the insanely cold weather :-)

Comments from previous blog:

(Anonymous) at 2010-01-06 15:38 (UTC) (Link)

I do read your blog!

Dee

I check your blog often--it's just that I am a lurker. I read but don't comment. And I relate so much to much of what you say. Wish I was close enough to do some of the activities with you. But not sure I would be able to. I am riding my stationary bike most days. And your blog has encouraged me to get up and move!!! And the only way I get through the boredom of riding a bike in the living room is by listening to my IPOD to songs I can sing every word with!

You are an encouragement to me and I am so glad you are a part of our family. By the way, I just copied the bread recipe and plan to make it today-- or have Amy make it :-) She has spoiled me. I seldom cook anymore. Love you, Kathy