I get up pretty early now and work with a team of super duper cookers in a large organic/health food store which features a deli, buffet, and prepared foods section.
Anyone need a LARGE recipe? Yesterday I made a couple batches of pesto; one basil, and one cilantro--8 quarts each.
I wanted this job to learn more.....that's happening! Plus I'm home with my son most of the day afterward.
I made a picnic for us and a friend of his this week. His friend liked the food and said to my son, "This is health food stuff, isn't it?" My son said, "Yea, and I have to live with it."
How ironic, RW... I've been paring my recipes DOWN, as now it's just 3 of us in the house. Most of the recipes I had, I made enough for 5 people. When the oldest moved out, I didn't bother paring it down, we just used the 5th portion as leftovers or I would eat it, which is why I'm now on the South Beach Diet!
Now that it's just Karen, Seth and I, I'm learning to cut those recipes down. I've always found it easier to work in bulk, making soups 5 gallons at a time, 20 pounds of pizza dough in one batch, chopping a 10 pound bag of onions at once, etc... Ah, the good ole restaurant days!
Anyways, considering that I'm attempting to eat healthier (I even forced myself to eat broccolli and peas in the last couple of weeks!), I'd appreciate some small healthy recipes...
No, I'm NOT giving up my membership in the pork gang. I'm just eating healthy stuff in addition to it. Matter of fact, I was able to modify my famous bacon-cheeseburg meatloaf into a dietary version that tasted just as good as the original!
Speaking of pork, Costco sells a pre-marinated pork loin. It's about 5 pounds and is marinated in onions and garlic, for $3.29 per pound... And it's worth every penny!
>-Okay, that's pushing it WAAAAAY too far for a pork gang member... >
To balance it out Cory we had refried beans with bacon last night and home-made tortillas that had bacon in them too. Of course the pig hadn't been sprayed with any insectisides!
Hey, just for fun, look up hemp seed protein on the net. Try it- be surprised. Next thing you know, you"ll be able to bust whole buildings in two!
>>The loss of hope and the blow-up of a 25 yr. marriage in divorce court, isn't much FUN to discuss.<<
I'm with you, Marie and let's throw in custody hearings too, while we're at it.
>>Edy's makes a sugar-free chocolate ice cream that is VERY good. That's about as far as I'm willing to go... <<
Cory, that's DREYERS to those of us out West and the ice cream is from the West (Oakland, CA, to be exact). Fun Factoid: Edy's is actually the name of a long-gone, long-lamented of ice cream shops in Berkeley and Oakland that Dreyers (the ice cream company) owned. Everyone who was a kid in the East Bay Area seemed to work in them as a teenager, sort of like McDonald's now. My friend's father even worked there as an ice cream maker. Now that's my idea of a dream job.
And to return to our regularly scheduled thread:
Tomorrow I am making a TRIPLE recipe of vegetarian chili. That's right, Texans, NO PORK, NO MEAT!!!! Heck, no tofu even. But it is dang popular among us tree-huggers here in California; hence, the triple recipe. Maybe I'll have to find some hemp seed sour cream to go on top, eh, Miz Marie?
Homemade tortillas? Can I come too? I just spent a week in Mexico, OMG, fish tacos and Carne Asada with homemade tortillas. They made them right there in front of us. Oh God I'm going under!
Marie wrote >>The loss of hope and the blow-up of a 25 yr. marriage in divorce court, isn't much FUN to discuss.<<
Then WR wrote >>I'm with you, Marie and let's throw in custody hearings too, while we're at it.<<
Amen, amen, amen. Maybe Bart has something witty and insightful to add, but all I can say is that it stinks.
Cory, you can have fun with green beans. Melt a couple of tablespoons of reserved bacon fat (you DO keep bacon fat in your fridge, don't you?), chop up a small onion and brown it in the fat. Then drain a small can of green beans and toss it in with the onions and keep stirring. (You can actually do this with fresh green beans, but you have to trim and string those!) When you're done, you'll have Hoosier Green Beans.
Broccoli is good (crowns only) steamed in the microwave and then served with cracked pepper and parmesan cheese. Or you can drop some shredded mozzarella on top of it.
Spinach can be flavorful...brown a chopped onion in some olive oil, stir in some leaf spinach, and sprinkle some rice-wine vinegar (and a little sugar on top) and cook until the spinach is hot. It's really more of a hot spinach salad, but it's really yummy.
2 cups organic brown rice uncooked in 3 cups water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
6-8 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp sea salt
1 clove garlic minced
1 Tbs honey
4-6 scallions minced
1/2 cup minced fresh parsely
1 cup chopped toasted pecans
black pepper to taste
2 cups red or green seedless graped cut in half lengthwise
1 cup cooked chickpeas
Mix
Large version:
2 cups organic brown rice uncooked in 3 cups water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
6-8 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp sea salt
1 clove garlic minced
1 Tbs honey
4-6 scallions minced
1/2 cup minced fresh parsely
1 cup chopped toasted pecans
black pepper to taste
2 cups red or green seedless graped cut in half lengthwise
1 cup cooked chickpeas
Mix
"No, I'm NOT giving up my membership in the pork gang."
Nobody's asking you to do that Cory! Oh no. You'll be pleased to know that all the cuttings we make go into huge 'pig buckets' and are taken to a happy piggie farm.
Well, I made chicken quesadillas tonight. Boiled the frozen chicken breasts and then threw them on tortillas with some cheese and opened up a jar of salsa. Son and h liked them. I mixed my chicken with refried beans and salsa and threw that and cheese on some corn tacos since I do not eat wheat.
I want easy no trouble recipes that taste good.
jbean
NO, NO, NO! In fact, we get up every morning and bathe the little piggy in Awapuhi and vitamin E soap.
Then we massage the little porker with Extra virgin olive oil, brush his teeth, trim his nails, and put a big red bow around his neck.
We spoon feed him fresh oragnic corn, and watermelon rinds. Poor piggy.
For starters, a leafy green salad with a delectable 2,4-D vinagrette dressing.
For the main course, fetuccine al-Ambdro(tm) (an alfredo sauce, flavored with my own secret blend of Ambdro(tm), diazanon, and assorted pyrethrins, with just a dash of nicotine sulphate, served over over a bed of piping hot fetuccine - dentata, of course).
And for desert, a fungi-shake (blend one part Bravo 720, one part vanilla ice cream, and one Nestle Crunch(tm) bar.
<For starters, a leafy green salad with a delectable 2,4-D vinagrette dressing.
For the main course, fetuccine al-Ambdro(tm) (an alfredo sauce, flavored with my own secret blend of Ambdro(tm), diazanon, and assorted pyrethrins, with just a dash of nicotine sulphate, served over over a bed of piping hot fetuccine - dentata, of course).
And for desert, a fungi-shake (blend one part Bravo 720, one part vanilla ice cream, and one Nestle Crunch(tm) bar.>
Well at least you'll be preserved, and you probably don't have any intestinal parasites!!!
>>you probably don't have any intestinal parasites!!! <<
Nope - no tape worms. Don't have to worry about lice or athlete's foot either and I categorically deny that I've ever had broccolli sprouts growing in my beard.
>>Here's how I picture youthful 'well preserved' Bart<<
Didn't we agree that we wouldn't be posting pictures of my parents on the board? Hmmm?
Today I cooked a case of kale with garlic and canola oil. Anyone for a bowl?
I made two huge pans of beets roasted in balsamic vinegar dressing. mmmm. You'd like that JC. You always struck me as a beet kind of gal.....someone who can beet the woopass out of a can if she wanted to.
Then I grilled 6 giant cans of artichoke hearts in canola oil until tinged with some black edges. Good on salads.
After that I made 5 quarts of black bean dip. Black beans, tomatos. green pepper, scallions, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, red wine vinegar, olive and canola oil, lime juice, and salt. Whiz it.
WR
<After that I made 5 quarts of black bean dip.>
Damn! That's enough to swim in. I shop at a little health food store that has a wonderful salad and hot bar. Yesterday I had kalamata olive hummus, cashew/carrot soup, raw veggie salad and bar-b-qued tofu. It was ALL delicious!
Everything you are making sounds yummy too! I'd probably weigh 500 lbs. if I worked around all that good food.
I think I hear JC going EEWWWW after reading about the tofu! HI JC!!
"I'd probably weigh 500 lbs. if I worked around all that good food."
Maybe at Krispie Kreme. Not in the Kale Kitchen.
Speaking of white dough. I found this interesting.
Did you know that there are 22 various nutrients in the bran and germ of unrefinded whole grain?
Refined grains are processed to remove it and make it 'white'. Then due to heath surveys in the 1930's which showed alarming nutritional deficiencies in B vitamins, iron, and iodine, somebody had a bright idea. That somebody was the American Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, and several public health authorities. They decided to 'enrich' the refined grains with 3 B vitamins; niacin, riboflavin, and thiamine. Folic acid was added in 1993 after showing it's reduction of spina bifida in developing fetuses.
So, they take out 22 nutrients and put back 4--just enough to keep 'alarming deficiencies' at bay.
He specifically requested a special breakfast this morning. He wanted my very-occasionally-done "specialty":
Made-from-scratch biscuits and gravy.
No canned or packaged anything. No Bisquick. Just some chopped-up sausage, real white flour, real butter, real milk, real shortening.
(This is why it's only "very occasionally done" around here...maybe once a year. It's an artery-clogging-fat nightmare, although I did use lowfat milk...as if that would matter )
Neither one of us was hungry for lunch at 1pm.
Chris.
ps. I had homemade black bean soup for dinner. MY black bean soup always seems to turn into black bean dip when it cools...the beans suck up all available water and turn to paste. (Come to think of it, my recipe sounds a lot like the dip WR made, although being an official Pork Gang member, I also put some diced ham in mine.)
There were just some black beans swimming around with little diced ham and onion bits, Bart. (I only rewarmed a quart of soup, not quite enough for Marie to swim in. Boy, could I launch a risque riff here...)
Are you using canned beans? You can control the 'dip syndrome' if you cook them. I used to make some bean soups where I'd puree' some of them for a thick broth and leave the rest in the soup.
I'm planning of sending my boy off to camp the last two weeks of August. I'll miss him, but I hope he loves it. They study whales and lots of marine biology.
"Hey Fred, what's that you're puttin in your swimmin pool?"
"Why it's black bean dip, Bart. It's the latest in exercise technology. The resistance increases your muscle tone in half the time. Not only that, when you get hungry... hang on. Marge, Marge, can you bring me us some chips and sour cream?"
Gees I can just imagine a Monty Pythonesque skit with John Cleese doing the bean stroke in a pool, with his head just above the dip!!!
This is sooo much more fun than obesessing about getting on a plane and flying to the mid-west to give the OW a gift.
Hey, WR one of the best aquariums on the west coast is here. HINT HINT!!!
Can you make it soon and help me decorate the new place. I think I"m gjoing to paint the walls in the LR strawberry red. Today I'm buying a chair and ottoman that have these big red caggage roses on a light cream background.
MM
This message has been edited by mizmarie on Jun 28, 2004 10:31 AM
Chris wrote >>Boy, could I launch a risque riff here ...<<
Do it. It's my turn to be straight man already.
MM wrote >>I can just imagine a Monty Pythonesque skit with John Cleese doing the bean stroke in a pool<<
Ministry of Bean Strokes?
>>I think I"m gjoing to paint the walls in the LR strawberry red. Today I'm buying a chair and ottoman that have these big red caggage roses on a light cream background<<
Oh geez. Here we go - you can almost feel words like "taupe" and "lichen" coming on.
The boys and I are decorating our new bachelor pad with stud-grade 2x4's. You heard me. I said "stud-grade" and I will not apologize. So far, we've got one and a half loft beds done. We start on the living room next - probably start with a coffee table and entertainment center. Then, if there's any money left over in the decorating budget, we'll look for something to sit on. To contrast with the plum carpeting, would something in a lighter shade of taupe or lichen be best?
BART
Are you insane? YOU have BOYS!!! Think about beige or taupe an boys! Come on stick with grape or black or navy, even army green would look ok with a plum carpet, but NOT taupe!
Oy vey - always with the hard questions, jbean. The jury deliberates even as we speak.
>>YOU have BOYS!!!<<
Yes. Afraid so. Two. Snakes, snails, puppy dog's tails, etc. We have dirty sock issues - leaving them on the living room floor or wherever they happen to land - but we're trying hard to face it head on and deal with it.
>>stick with grape or black or navy, even army green would look ok with a plum carpet, but NOT taupe!<<
Am I sensing that maybe taupe isn't the best way to go?
AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH, good, your senses are in tact, dear Bart.
Good luck with the dirty socks. My son just thinks I should keep buying him more socks. Too lazy to get them down to the basement to be washed so I say go sockless or wear the dirty ones. It is funny the little wars that go on between a mom and a 12 year old boy.
But right now he is at his friend's at the lake for 5 days. What a great break!!
jbean
1. Small red beans (dried).
2. Wild blueberries.
3. Red Kidney beans.
4. Pinto beans.
5. Blueberries (cultivated).
6. Cranberries.
7. Artichokes (cooked).
8. Blackberries.
9. Prunes.
10. Raspberries.
11. Strawberries.
12. Red Delicious apples.
13. Granny Smith apples.
14. Pecans.
15. Sweet cherries.
16. Black plums.
17. Russet potatoes (cooked).
18. Black beans (dried).
19. Plums.
20. Gala apples.
For her part, Anding said people shouldn't get too hung up on gorging on one particular food, but "cast your net widely," eating generous daily servings of a variety of fruits, vegetables and other wholesome foods.
"strawberry red. Today I'm buying a chair and ottoman that have these big red caggage roses on a light cream background."
I get it. Sure I'll help you decorate. I wonder if you could add a touch of sage here and there. Or are you going for vibrance and contrast? You've got cream and red. You could move into pink tones....anything from candy pink to dusty rose. Bronze and gold tones would work.
WR wrote >>Some day we're going to meet MM. I just know it. I feel it in the center of my bean.<<
WR, the funny thing about this (to me, anyway) is that the trip I made West a couple of years ago when I met you was to Oregon. To MM's town, in fact, but I didn't know it until I got home.
Chris.
ps. I use dried black beans for my soup. You never know what you're getting in a can. (Prince Albert, sometimes...) And I only "paste" part of the soup...maybe a quarter of it...and leave the rest of the beans floating. The same thing happens when I make split pea soup, too. Maybe I use too much olive oil browning the onion and ham, and then the cooked fat makes gravy with the starch from the beans.
How can that be right? There isn't one single pork product in their list.
>>The same thing happens when I make split pea soup, too. Maybe I use too much olive oil browning the onion and ham, and then the cooked fat makes gravy with the starch from the beans<<
Sounds like a great way to cook beans or split peas to me. Legumes and pork just mix well don't they? All over the world, people combine them in so many imaginative ways. Tofu and bbq'd pork in southern China. Pork and bean soup in Italy. Black-eyed peas and fat back. Red beans and bacon. BBQ'd ribs and beans. Split pea soup and ham. Which reminds me, how is that "pea souper" can describe foggy weather as well as being derogatory slang for a French Canadian?
I forgot before. Real man colors, suitable for dealing with boys:
Duct tape gray (good color for carpet or clothes or socks).
Blue. Any blue except "periwinkle" is fine.
Green, but NOT "seafoam", "sage", "kale", or "mint". "British Racing", "kelly" or "shamrock" are preferred greens.
Purple. (Honest. My son's room is PURPLE, and not that pukey Barney purple, either. Real dark purple. But NOT "plum".)
Brown. (From an old Ivy League cheer: "What's the color of dirt? BROWN!" although by the 70's, sometimes a different and more derogatory four-letter word might have taken the place of "dirt" depending on the amount of alcohol consumed by the opposing band and/or cheerleaders). It IS a good "dirt" color, and various pork gravies and sauces, coffee, and tea spills don't show up on a medium brown, either.
>>Oh geez. Here we go - you can almost feel words like fat back, bacon, and ham coming on.<<
You feel it too? Wonderful, isn't it? And on topic, too!!!
>>pork is for greasing up achy joints<<
Ohhhhh. Okay. No need to anti-oxidize an achy joint, by gum. "Pass the beans and the joint greaser upper, please".
>>*** Tofu and bbq'd pork*** Now I know that just ain't right !!<<
We're talking China over here. When you've got 95% of the world's population and 5% of the world's farmland, it's important to find ways to ssssssstretch your bbq pork dollar.
>>pork gravies and sauces, coffee, and tea spills don't show up on a medium brown<<
... which would explain why medium brown is the preferred choice for neck ties, t-shirts, and recliners.
MM wrote >>Well, I'm putting the artichoke in a zip-lock baggie, and handing it over. HA!<<
This could be the beginning of a disturbing new trend in home improvement - customers heading for the paint department, carrying assorted fruits and vegatables.
"Give me five gallons of rutabaga, a gallon of parsnip, and a gallon of collards, if you please. Oh ... and you might as well throw in a coupla quarts of guava while I'm here".
"Give me 3 gallons of primer and 3-4 gallons of a deep stud-grade 2x4 shade. I'll be adding an attractive trim, so also give me a gallon that matches these all natural sausage casings."
>>Then we can find a environmentally friendly man! We could give the new guy a body flush!!!<<
Y'all be careful flushing the bodies of environmentally friendly men. Just the thought is enough to give me the heebeejeebies and I don't even know what a body flush is.
Now you just HAD to mention that beautiful country again!
Maybe after my kiddo hits college, I'll head west again. I loved visiting/traveling through the foothill regions from Sequoia up to Grass Valley/Nevada City.
That's it...I'll find some old Chinese laundryman ready to retire...borrow another small fortune...lose my rear end in the laundry business all over again, but I won't care, living in such beautiful country.
>>"Hey Luigi, where ya want I should flush dis heya body"?<<
Hudson River? Puget Sound? Firth of Forth?
>>different than in Oreeygun<<
Say! Isn't that pronounced "Organ"? That's what I heard. Orgonians get upset if you don't pronounce it "Organ".
>>I'll find some old Chinese laundryman ready to retire<<
That's fine, Chris, but if you do, keep it to yourself. Otherwise MM and WRRW might be wanting to flush him too (assuming that old Chinese laundrymen are environmentally friendly, of course).
>>Is this a great nation, or what?<<
Pulling out all the stops, Chris? Letting'r rip with the Yakov Smirnov impression?
>>I'm just wondering if a body flush is better or worse than a hot flash<<
"lose my rear end in the laundry business all over again, but I won't care, living in such beautiful country."
I think it matters where your body flush takes place. Nice locations help. MM, I think that Bart might like the one that's made with castor oil, fat back, and pumpkin seeds......perhaps near the Grand Canyon or Niagra Falls.
I think I've figured out how to execute a body flush.
First, you smoke up a bunch of baby backs. Then you wrap them in tin foil, set them on the counter to cool, and forget them for a week or two. Serve with your favorite brand of bbq sauce.
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>>I'm in Ca. right now. Must be valley fever!!! <<
Where? I just bought a case of pure California fermented fruit and would love to share a glass with you. (How's that for health food, WR?) A glass washed in natural, environmentally-friendly soap, of course. Oh, and I could make a small batch of pesto, as snacks, too. No cement mixer...
