Kale Fail

Lately, I have seen an awful lot of hype regarding kale chips.  Recipes abound all over the internet - on the Weight Watchers site, AllRecipes, Skinnytaste...everywhere.  They've even made it into the grocery store in highly priced single-serve baggies.

I realize that I am probably late to this little party, but I figured that maybe I should look into this phenomenon.  I checked out some different recipes and noticed that they all seemed highly rated by the public.  That's a good sign, right?  Everyone says they were surprisingly delicious, and terms I saw included:  "to die for," "a healthier alternative to regular chips," "fantastic."  You get the picture.

So I picked up a healthy looking bunch of kale at the grocery store the other night and got to it.  I settled on this recipe from The Food Network, since it seemed nice and quick.  (Every recipe I found was for a different heat setting and time period.  This one blasts the kale at 425F for 15 minutes.)

First step - wash and dry the kale.  Done.

Second step - cut away the tough middle stem.  I chose to tear it, since I didn't want to dirty a knife needlessly.

Third step - tear leaves into small chip sized pieces.  I combined this with #2.  Warning to anyone who hasn't worked with kale before: look closely at those leaves - they harbor little green insects that almost look like they are part of the leaf.  I hope I got them all, but if I didn't, it didn't kill me.  (Or as my father would say, extra protein!)

Step four - toss leaf pieces with olive oil and seasonings.

Step five - wait patiently as your chips roast to crispy healthy perfection in the oven, stirring halfway through the roasting time.

After taking the "chips" out of the oven, I impatiently popped one into my mouth.  Definitely crunchy.  Fantastic?  An alternative to regular chips?  I think not!  It just tasted like you would expect a roasted leafy garnish to taste...like hot grass.  Crispy as it was, you just can't chew it enough to break down the fibers of the leaves...or is that just me?  I'd say that it was a waste of $1.99, except that I still ate most of the "chips," hoping they would grow on me.  They did not.  At least I got in more vegetables that night, and healthy oil (still going strong on my WW plan).

Okay, I will admit that I am not a big fan of kale, though I have made a good pea soup that used it as extra veggies (cut into thin strips).  I have no problem relegating this particular vegetable to the salad bar...as the greenery dividing the dishes.

*Sigh*  Am I the only one totally unimpressed with the kale chip phenomenon?  There have to others out there like me...

Muffin Madness

It's been nearly a month since my last post, which I just realized as I logged in for today's entry.  Where does the time go?  To the corporate overlords, plain and simple.  Work has kept me quite busy, and fairly stressed out lately.  While I've been keeping up my new year dedication (not a resolution - those are destined to fail) to healthier eating with a decreased reliance on convenience foods, I have noticed myself slipping a little bit this past week.  I hit fast food twice after work this week after avoiding those places for months (every once in a while, I would grab something that was pre-decided, but rarely).

I've also been trying to keep up my nails with fun color, since when I'm mentally exhausting myself during the work day, I like to look down at my nails and have something to smile about.  Is is weird that a good manicure can boost my mood during a tough day?

So, while I've been spending time at work and letting my nails dry, I haven't been keeping up the blog like I'd like to.

However, I have been inspired.  Gina over at Skinnytaste.com may not realize it, but I semi-stalk her.  Earlier this month, I was on a banana bread kick, and tried out two different recipes in single serve and two serving portions.  The problem I found with the recipe I made into 2 serving portions (using mini-loaf pans), was that I seem to be physically incapable of only eating half of the loaf.  Those are in the freezer and are a bit of a treat on those low-point days.

Onto the inspiration.  I was sitting at work toiling away and fantasizing about that banana bread, but wishing it were fewer points (the 2 servings together are 11).  I had also just eaten my lunch - 1C of oatmeal with chopped apple and maple syrup (easier to throw together in the morning than a sandwich, when there's nothing in the freezer).  I was thinking of making an oatmeal fruit bread, similar to my lunch but with leftovers.  Later that day, while taking a short sanity break, I checked Skinnytaste.com and found the recipe for Insanely Good Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins.  I already had most of the ingredients on hand, and had chopped up strawberries and blueberries in the fridge.

Naturally, I had to hit the grocery store to pick up some things first.  I didn't think I had enough honey at home and didn't trust the applesauce in my fridge to still be good.  Long story short, the baking was delayed until last night, at which time my berries were dried out and sad looking.  Quick change - apple pie muffins instead.  I substituted chopped up apple for the berries and added some apple pie spice to the dry ingredients.

 I'll admit that sometimes I get intimidated by lengthy ingredient lists, but this recipe is really rather simple and easy to follow.  

Ingredients ready for assembly

Since the first step in the recipe is to let the oats soak in the milk for about 30 minutes, it gave me time to prepare all the rest of the ingredients while the oven pre-heated.  Once the oats are sufficiently soaked and the wet ingredients are mixed, everything comes together quite quickly. 

Ready for the oven

Normally, I would worry about filling a muffin-tin to that level with the batter, but since the photos in the recipe page showed this level (and the finished product), I was okay with it.  And you may be wondering what all that liquid is on top of the muffin-tin.  One of the recipe steps was to spray the tin and liners with oil.  I had never done both steps before, but after reading the comments, saw this to be integral.  I used non-stick cooking spray.

Pretty!

This is the first time I've baked something that didn't rise up and out over the top of the pan to the point that you have to destroy them to remove them.  I guess actually following written instructions has its perks.  Of course, since it's me, I had to do something stupid during the process.  This time, when I slid the muffins into the oven, I realized that I hadn't moved the racks to their usual positions (I had planned on putting these on the rack in the middle position, but had forgotten that I'd moved that rack to the top position to broil something earlier this week).  My solution was to bake these on the top rack for the first 11 minutes and then move them to the bottom rack for the last 11.  Result - some of the muffin bottoms are a bit over-done.  I'm not sure if this is due to the rack issue, or the fact that while I was mixing the ingredients, the pan was on top of the hot oven waiting to be filled.  I need a larger kitchen, or more inclination to keep the counters clutter free.  Normal people probably will not get this result.

The first taste

The verdict:  Moist and tasty.  I will definitely be making these again, and trying different fruit combos.  It has a good oat flavor and a subtle sweetness.  The big apple chunks cooked up well, and there's a nice fruit to muffin ratio.  When I first folded in the fruit, I was afraid it wouldn't be enough, but it is.  

To circle back to spraying the liners with the oil...you do not want to skip that step.  These muffins come out of the liners completely with no precious points lost to the wrapper.  That is so important to a Weight Watcher's member, since I know when I have counted points for an item, I am eating every morsel, even if it means gnawing the crumbs off of that muffin liner (I'm not proud).  From the recipe comments, you will want to use liners because otherwise these tend to fall apart when removing them from the pan.  Other comments have remarked that the muffins bottoms tend to be rather wet, but dry by the next day (I didn't have this issue, but I'm "special").

I may be smuggling one of these in to The Hunger Games later for a WW-Friendly movie snack.  

Kitchen Nightmares

I swear that if anyone decided to film my life for a reality show, I'd end up being portrayed as completely inept, dimwitted, and comically clumsy.  Really, these oddball occurrences only happen once in a while, but it does seem like I've been extra-blessed in the kitchen catastrophe department over the past few weeks.  Here's some of the wacko things that I'm talking about:

1)  I had a can of refried beans fall on my head a few weeks ago while rummaging around in a cabinet.   The can was on the counter over the cabinet where I keep my casserole dishes and tupperware.  My cat had been getting up on the counter and I think she must have nudged the can to the edge during one of her forays, because I can think of no other explanation for how that can could have possibly fallen on my head.  Other than poltergeists, and I really don't want to think about those in my apartment.  I also don't know how the can could have been perched that precariously on the edge of the counter without my noticing it.  Regardless of how it happened, it hurt like nobody's business!  The very bottom edge hit me right above my hairline and I did have a little bump from it.  Luckily, it didn't fall far before impact.

2)  I burned myself pulling a dish of homemade macaroni and cheese out of the oven.  Not the brightest, but also the most normal of my incidents.

3)  Last weekend I managed to burn myself while doing the dishes.  The tap water from the hot side has been scalding hot lately, which I knew when I started the dishes that day.  I must have had a lapse, though. While moving a pan under the stream I wasn't careful enough and ended up burning my wrist right under the thumb.  It hurt bad enough that I felt it through my whole body, stamped my foot on the floor and swore.  (Sorry Mom.  It happens.)  It was hot enough that it was a bit red and warm to the touch for the rest of the day (it looked like a mild sunburn, but didn't last long).  Right after it happened, I was so mad that I tested the water temperature with a meat thermometer held in the stream of running water.  150 degrees (beef, medium rare).  I had been meaning to report the temperature of the water to the apartment complex office for a while, but the burn prompted an actual irate call.  I also reported the broken garbage disposal, since I had to leave a message anyway.  Next day, the hot water is merely hot again, without being hot enough to physically endanger the young, elderly, or simple-minded.  The garbage disposal is still broken, but the drain is clear again.

4)  Yesterday, I had another dish washing incident.  I received a vegetable slicer for Christmas, and was cleaning the components for the first use.  I was planning to make scalloped potatoes with a giant sweet potato that I found at the store.  All necessary parts were washed, and I had taken special care not to come in contact with the extra sharp slicing blade (it ate up my poor sponge).  I was drying everything on my flour sack towel and made one last and nearly fatal (by which I mean not really even close to fatal, but not very bright) swipe with the towel, catching my middle fingertip right in the blade.  Amazingly, there was no blood on the towel.  But that sucker bled like a mother.  The cut wasn't that deep - maybe a millimeter - but it seemed like it bled forever.  And each time I thought it was finished, it started up again.  Then of course I started thinking too hard about it (Do I need stitches?  Should I see a doctor?  How clean is that towel?  What if it gets infected?).  I had to lie down and look away from it for a few minutes, to stop myself from giving in to the irrational panic and because I was feeling a bit faint.  Then, as I was getting myself a bandaid to keep myself from looking at the wound, and to keep from bleeding all over the place, I made the mistake of trying to assess the damage and started to feel faint/queasy again and had to lie down.  Did I mention that I hadn't eaten yet either?  That probably didn't help.  Anyway, I was so irritated at the slicer (and myself for being a dork) that I nixed the potato idea and moved on to something simpler and faster.

5)  Today, less actual physical damage to myself...but it did involve that vegetable slicer.  I decided not to hold a grudge against an inanimate object due to my own carelessness, and was preparing the scalloped potato recipe.  The white sauce was completed on the stove waiting for the potatoes to be layered in the pan.  I had already re-washed the blade component, without touching it, and didn't bother drying it.  I popped it into the top of the slicer and started slicing up the humongous sweet potato. This slicer has a container attached to catch the sliced veggies, and I was holding it in my hand instead of using it on the countertop.  Naturally, the whole slicer somehow catapulted out of my hands, crashing to the floor and distributing an even layer of perfectly sliced potato disks across the tiles.  I managed to keep a nice tight grip on the potato, though, and hadn't sliced more than 1/4 of it before dropping the container.  So, all was not lost.  Of course, it delayed my recipe prep and the white sauce ended up thicker than ideal, since it was sitting on the stove during this time and the aftermath.  I had to spread it over the potatoes instead of simply pouring it, as called for in the recipe.  The sweet potato produced enough liquid during cooking that it didn't seem to make a difference though.

Cut to my reality show after the inevitable editing process, and it goes something like the following scene from Frasier, only without the dating or the ironing:

Culinary Creation

In my quest to both eat healthier and cook more, I have been spending more time in the kitchen.  (This has severely impacted my FaceBook gaming schedule...but has also resulted in a loss of 5 1/2 pounds so far.)

I have found some great healthy recipes and have whipped some things up on my own.  I whipped up the following concoction last week, loosely based on the memory of a recipe for a Mexican meat dish.  Naturally, I cannot remember the name of that dish, nor where I found it.  My version uses ground turkey instead of ground beef, and is very lightly seasoned for versatility. I used it as a filling for soft tacos.

For lack of a better name (or any creative abilities), I have called this:

Turkey Potato Skillet

Ingredients:

1 TBS canola oil

1 1/4lbs 99% fat free ground turkey

1 large russet potato, peeled and cubed

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 28oz can chopped black olives

Instructions:

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add onion and cook until it starts to become translucent.  Add potato and cook for about 2 more minutes.

Add ground turkey to pan, breaking up the meat as it cooks.  Add seasonings to pan and stir to distribute.  Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until potatoes are tender and meat is cooked through.  Add olives to the pan and heat through before serving.

Serves 8
Serving size = 4 1/4 oz
WWPP = 4

Birthdays, Ball Games and Bad Baking

What a busy, busy weekend!  And the week has continued in the same busy fashion...  I am going to need this weekend to recover.

Saturday was my nephew's 2nd birthday, and my step-sister threw him a party.  He is very much into tractors right now, so that was the party theme.  My mother and Caroline created this cute cake for him, and he was very happy to see the vehicles on it.  (Every time he see's a tractor, and some other assorted large vehicles, he yells out tractor and gets very excited.  It's incredibly adorable, but I will admit to a bit of a bias, as his doting aunt.)

He got these tractor cookies, too.  I'm told they were a lot of work...  I know from experience that they were quite tasty.

Sunday, of course, was the superbowl.  Given that I'm not a sports fan, you'd think that I wouldn't give a flying fig.  But, I did have a party to go to where I could tune out the game and tune back in for the commercials.  The hostess's birthday was on the 1st, so I wanted to bring her a cake as a surprise.  She consulted me about what to buy or make beforehand, and I had to spoil the surprise to stop her from making the cupcakes she had planned.

I had stumbled upon this photo and recipe for a zebra cake a few weeks ago and had been itching to try it out.  I thought the superbowl party was the perfect opportunity to use my friends as test subjects, um, I mean, beneficiaries of my baking talents... The original recipe I had found called for olive oil and Sprite, and I was not too sure about that combination in a cake, so kept looking.  I settled on this one instead, since the ingredients looked more normal to me.

I ended up having to borrow a round cake pan.  I don't know how I can have at more than 4 different bundt pans and not have a single normal round pan...

I don't know that I've ever actually baked a cake from scratch before, being such a fan of the modified cake mix methods of The Cake Mix Doctor.  I was tempted to just use a white cake mix and a chocolate cake mix*, and pour the batter in the pan per the zebra cake instructions, but that would have resulted in way too much cake.  (Yes, I also realize that I could have used a single box of white cake mix, and added cocoa powder to part of that mix...hindsight and all that...)  I also thought that baking the cake from scratch went hand in hand with my resolve to eat fewer processed foods.

Anyway, after getting home from my nephew's birthday party on Saturday night, I made a quick trip to the grocery store and got to baking.  

Per the recipe, I started out by mixing the eggs and the sugar together until most of the sugar was dissolved.  Then the oil, milk and flavor extracts were stirred in, followed with the dry ingredients (except for the cocoa powder).   Very soon I had 2 bowls of batter ready for pouring.

In order to achieve the stripes on the inside of the cake, you need to pour alternate between pouring small amounts of each batter into the center of the pan.  This will create concentric circles of batter.  It looks pretty snazzy in the pan, if I do say so myself, even though I think I should have poured a bit more batter per circle.


My circles were decidedly off-center, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it.  It still looked sort of impressive, though not quite like the photos in the links to the recipe.  This cake rose a crazy amount over the top of the pan, mounding in the center, and it developed a gaping crack at the top.  I will admit that I improvised with the borrowed pan - it was only an 8" and not a 9" as called for.  I am blaming that for the huge crack and the fact that I had to bake it an additional 20 minutes before it was done.  (I may have also mixed too much air into it trying to get rid of the flour lumps.)

After baking, my apartment smelled wonderful, and I was full of pride about my scratch-baked cake...until we cut into it at the party.  Luckily, we didn't make it a giant deal with candles or singing.  Lucky for me, if not the birthday girl, at least.  This cake tasted terrible.  The texture was fine and it was moist enough, but it had no flavor.  None.  Okay, maybe a little bit, since it actually tasted like cornbread to me.  I might have enjoyed it with a generous smear of butter and a bowl of chili, but cake this was not!  I knew it wasn't going to be an overly sweet cake, based on the description on the recipe site, but that site also stated that it had a good mix of vanilla and chocolate flavor.  People had commented on that site saying how perfect the recipe was and that they even used the plain batter for cupcakes.  Liars!  I don't believe it!

So much for my lofty baking ambitions...  What a let-down.  Next time, I will have to enlist the help of my good friend Betty Crocker.

Weigh In Wednesday

It looks like all of this cooking for myself business is paying off.  I am down another pound today for a total of 3 pounds gone in a 3 week period.  This is actually pretty incredible for me, since even when I was losing weight on the plan before (or rather, my version of the plan, which was cheating myself), I rarely lost a full pound a week.  So, I am hoping this trend continues.  It is certainly motivating.

Speaking of cooking for myself...I tried out a new recipe in my crock pot yesterday.  Originally, I had been searching for a crock-pot recipe so I could try out my nifty new Slow Cooker Liners.  I made chili last week, and still have 2 servings in the freezer for future use, so I didn't want a chili recipe.  I usually throw together whatever is on hand for a quick chicken or beef stew, but I didn't feel like either of those.  I also ruled out any recipes that require you to sear the meat first in a skillet, because I didn't want to do any prep work (also, I had planned to prepare everything the night before and toss it in the fridge, then set the slow cooker to cook it while I was away at work all day).

I settled on Cuban Style Pork and Sweet Potato Slow Cooker Stew from the Weight Watcher's website.  It was something a little bit different from my usual crockpot fare and I am a sucker for sweet potatoes.  I put together my shopping list and took a trip to the store on the way home from work.  Pork loin at buy one get one free?  Score!  (I do like free.  One package went right into the freezer and is destined for pasta sauce.)  Amazingly, I didn't forget anything from my list...

After combining all of the ingredients in my crock and nestling it all in my fridge, I signed on to my computer and read through some blogs before bedtime.  I saw this post and immediately realized that I forgot to use the liner!!  Naturally...

Wednesday morning I threw the crock into the base and turned it on before work.  There is nothing quite like coming home to my apartment and finding it smelling delicious (not a common occurrence, what with the cat and all), with a nice hot home cooked meal waiting for me.  

How it looked in the crock when I got home, after adding the lime juice and cilantro, but before stirring.

The recipe has very little liquid in it -  Only 1/4 Cup of orange juice and whatever liquid is in the can of diced tomatoes.  I worried that the meat was going to be dry and tough, but I had to add the fresh cilantro and lime juice and cook another 5 minutes before finding out.

What happened after I stirred...

I was afraid that the sweet potatoes would fall apart, based on some of the comments made in the recipe reviews.  They did, as you can see.  I don't know if they were cut too small or if I overcooked them by not setting the crockpot to revert to "warm" after the 7 hours of cooking time.  I was gone at least 8 hours, so they got at least another full hour on the low setting.  Next time, I will try to cut bigger chunks and actually use the "warm" setting (I don't know why I am always reluctant to do that).  

Ready to be devoured.  I am thinking of new plates...I'm getting tired of these.

It wasn't the prettiest meal, but it was certainly tasty.  The pork was not dry at all, but was fork tender and quite delicious.  I ate this with a tortilla on the side to sop up the sauce.  I can see myself making this again.     I was definitely not expecting this much flavor from a WW recipe, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Now, what to do with the rest of that orange juice...?  (I don't care for orange juice, so I know I won't drink it.)                   

Dieting Differently

This go round with my diet, I'm doing a couple of different things.  You know, besides the obvious: trying to actually follow the WW plan.  I'm eating real cheese that melts like it's supposed to and half and half that doesn't have any partially hydrogenated oil in it.  Fat free half and half is an oxymoron anyway, and I have little tolerance for morons.  Instead of relying on foods that are created as "diet-friendly" (many of which have added sugars to compensate for the lack of fat), I'm trying to eat a realistic diet.  If this is supposed to turn into a lifestyle, it needs to be full of foods that I enjoy eating.  And believe me, I find no joy in fat-free cheese.

Don't get me wrong, if it's a naturally fat-free item, I don't have a problem with it.  I'm just trying to eat generally healthier.  I'm not doing away altogether with processed foods either, but I'm trying to choose more carefully.  

Conseqentially, I've been doing a lot of cooking for myself lately, and also a lot of dishes.  (Note to self - contact apartment management to fix the garbage disposal!)  I'm making more frequent trips to the grocery store for fresh produce, and actually eating most of it as opposed to my old habit of forgetting that it exists and finding it in altered states in the bottom of my crisper.*

I've discovered that my preferred cooking method for fresh broccoli is tossing it in some olive oil and roasting it in the oven, which really brings out the flavor.  I've discovered that trying this same cooking method with fresh eggplant doesn't quite work the same, as those little buggers are like sponges and soak that oil up before you can coat it at all and ends up burning to the bottom of your pan.  It still tastes good though.

I'm learning to enjoy oatmeal that doesn't come pre-sweetened and packaged.  I've started eating it as a snack...though I still prefer it with some pure maple syrup (1T = 1PP).  It even keeps me satisfied for a while.

Yes, I realize this simple eating plan of mine is not a very revolutionary idea.   It's definitely do-able, and I think encouraged, on the Weight Watchers plan.

The other thing I'm doing differently than in the past is related to the 49 extra weekly PP that each WW gets.  Previously, I would horde all of these points and give myself a "free" weekend.  That meant I wouldn't track my foods on the weekend and I'd allow myself to basically eat any crap I wanted.  Somehow I was fooling myself into thinking that my splurges were within my points, though they may or may not have been.  Obviously, that wasn't really following the plan, and is most likely the reason that I was not losing weight on the diet.  (Because I wasn't really following it.)

No more.  I am tracking 24/7 now, weekday or weekend.  If I've used my minimum daily PP allowance and am still hungry, I will eat something else using my Weekly PP.  That's what's they are there for.  If I don't use them, I don't worry that they've been "wasted."  Using the plan this way (as intended), I am not left feeling hungry.  What a concept, right?

Now, I hope this all becomes habit and I can keep it up.  I think my mindset is where it needs to be for success right now, I just hope it stays there.

*Clarification:  the veggies are in an altered state, not me, just in case there was any confusion.

Back So Soon?

I have yet again re-dedicated myself to my weight-loss... I know, I know... You hear that a lot from me, don't you? Well, this time I mean it. Okay, fine. So I say that a lot, too. Too bad. This broken record is going to keep on playing until at least 20 pounds have spun off. (That metaphor may have spun away from me.)

In all seriousness, I had originally re-dedicated myself to the Weight Watchers program months ago, with exercise and everything. Then I'm not sure what happened. I got really busy at work with a special project, working late and on some weekends. I believe I used that as an excuse to slack on tracking my food and I stopped my mid-day walks when I was working through lunch. It's amazing how quickly good habits go by the wayside. Especially when I know that in the back of my mind I resent having to actually work to lose or maintain weight. Too bad I love food so much!

Reality hit at Thanksgiving, when there were photos taken. Standing next to my tiny mother (who recently had some very successful weight-loss herself), I looked positively stout. Mom looked great though! But, naturally, all I could focus on was how much bigger I looked than I had in any photos taken earlier in the year. Reality struck again when I visited the doctor about the recurrence of my tendinitis and saw the scale.

The Thanksgiving Pie Bar did not help matters.

I decided to hold off on going gung ho into Weight Watchers until after the Christmas festivities were over. Anyone that knows my family will understand the food-fest that any holiday entails. Plus, my father just moved down the Central Coast, and so close to Solvang, I knew I'd be powerless when faced with those excellent bakeries...and I was right.

Heaven on a plate! Cinnamon in the pastry dough!

After all of the festivities, my two Christmas celebrations (Dad's on Christmas, Mom's on New Year's Day) and New Year's Eve, it was time. Again. Which brings me back to the point of this rambling post. I'm back on the "journey" (as so many WW members call it) as of about 3 weeks ago. Tracking, healthier choices, cooking for myself instead of picking up fast food or take out, and relying on fewer convenience foods. Of course, I'll admit that I have not really incorporated exercise into my plan yet, but it will happen. I'm down 2 pounds already, and hope to see continued success.

Expect more frequent blog posts from now on, since I'm afraid my Facebook friends will get tired of me posting all of my food photos there and hearing about my weight loss issues repeatedly. Besides, if I keep my hands busy, I can't use them to stuff food into my face. Alas, this blasted tendinitis has severely curtailed my crafting, which was previously a satisfying non-food activity!

What's Cooking

In conjunction with my new resolve to stick to my diet (which I was on for 2 successful weeks before Christmas, and then conveniently forgot existed until after the new year), I've been on a cooking kick. Laura is partly to blame for this, too, since she posted the recipe for this split pea soup on her blog. She found it on Epicurious. Instead of the linguica or andouille sausage that the recipe calls for, I used Italian sausage (I tend to like it better than other types). It also calls for kale, which I'm 99.99% positive that I have never purchased nor cooked with before. It also always reminds me of that episode of Cheers where Woody does the commercial for Veggie Boy (they start talking about the kale 1 minute and 7 seconds into the clip).

Despite the color in the photo, I'm pretty sure this isn't radioactive.

The soup was surprisingly delicious! I was worried that it might be bland because there are so few ingredients. It's not. I think cooking the peas with the sausages infuses the broth with a lot of their flavor. I think I'm going to have to make this soup one of my staples, since it gives me an excuse to pull out my immersion mixer and the pureed peas did not trigger my IBS like the canned split pea soups that I enjoy(ed). It also cooks up really quickly.

Later in the week I decided that it was high time I put my crockpot to use again. I found this recipe for French Chicken Stew that I thought I needed to try. So I did. I prepped all of the ingredients the night before, threw them in the pot, then stuck it all in the fridge. Before leaving for work, I placed the crock into the base and turned that sucker on. I almost forgot to plug it in, but averted disaster by realizing that the cord in the outlet behind it belonged to a different appliance. Remember that I was doing this before I had any coffee...

After a long day at work, during which I kept noticing that my hands STILL smelled like the onions I had chopped the night before, I finally made it home and was greeted at the door by the succulent aroma wafting from my kitchen. And my cat. (Clarification - she greeted me, not her odor, which is anything but succulent).

This greeted me when I came home. Hi chicken!

After a long day at work, during which I kept noticing that my hands STILL smelled like the onions I had chopped the night before, I finally made it home and was greeted at the door by the succulent aroma wafting from my kitchen. And my cat. (Clarification - she greeted me, not her odor). All I had to do with stir in the jar of pasta sauce and enjoy. This was really good, and different from the stews that I usually throw together in my crock pot.

I'll make this again, but I will use a different pasta sauce to stir in at the end. I think that the one I used overpowered the herbs that are used during the slow cooking process. I also couldn't used bone-in thighs and simply removed the skins at home. The bone-in thighs also keep the chicken together (mostly) when portioning this out into servings (important for me when I'm actually tracking my Weight Wacthers points - this came out to a Points Plus value of 5, based on 6 servings, since my 2lbs of chicken was only 6 thighs). The meat falls right off of the bone though, so it's easy to remove it before eating.

It photographs well, too, doesn't it? This is after adding the tomato sauce.

Speaking of removing the bones, I did so and tossed them into the trash can. The next day, I come home from work to see my trash can laying on it's side on the kitchen floor, spilling trash onto the tiles. Just past the rim of the can was a chicken bone missing one end, with the marrow exposed. I didn't bite the end of that bone off, kitty, or knock that trash can over, so you've got some explaining to do! Luckily, I had emptied the trash just before I started making the stew, so there wasn't much in it, and not much to clean up. Regardless, I didn't expect my cat to forage through my garbage.

Chop Chop and Other Random Thoughts

After all of my recent baking and the non-stop eating, I decided I need to hop back on the Weight Watcher's wagon. Yes, it's true, I do come to this realization at least once a week, if not more often. Regardless, this time the realization caused me to cook, or at least prepare to cook. One of my co-workers re-dedicated herself to WW last week (she calls it food rehab) and had printed out the recipe for the zero point soup, which I found on the printer. This inspired me, and today I chopped up a ton of veggies and threw them in the crockpot, which I'll leave on low all day tomorrow so I can come home to a nice hot dinner. I did change up the recipe a bit, since I used chicken broth instead of veggie broth, left out the sweet red bell pepper (there is no way I am paying $2.50 for a single pepper - what are these things grown in? Pure gold soil? Crazy.) and the swiss chard. I also finally found a use for that sugar pumpkin I bought weeks ago. I peeled, seeded and chopped that puppy up and threw half of it in the crockpot, too. (I roasted the other half and ate with some butter and brown sugar for dinner.) I hope it turns out okay, but am a little worried that I overfilled the crock... I guess I will find out when I get home, based on how much soup ended up on my counter...

During the chopping session, and pumpkin peeling (what a pain!), I discovered that I must not do enough cooking anymore. Why? Because I ended up with a blister on my pointer finger, right where I was holding the knife. Of course, I just might need better knives. Any suggestions?

Now to randomly change the subject...

I believe that the horde of 2-3 year olds at my friends' party yesterday must have worn me out. I believe there were around 17 little munchkins running around during the party. I don't know where they get their energy, but I swear I got tired just watching them go! And to prove it, when I set my alarm last night I accidently set it for PM. I haven't done that in years! I knew there was a problem when I woke up this morning feeling awake. Luckily, my new boss was really cool about it and didn't give me any grief (I gave myself enough). I also found that I had left a candle burning all night. I haven't done that in ages, either.

As I mentioned, I went to Kristin's party yesterday. I helped her out with some of the planning and stayed afterwards to help out a bit with the cleanup. After the party, I reached up to scratch my head and noticed that I had 3 brightly colored spider rings in my hair (probably what caused the itch in the first place). The spider rings brought back fond memories of my maternal grandmother (which is why they ended up in my hair after I picked them up off of the rug in the first place). Grandma used to cover the screen door on her porch with those artificial spiderwebs and place a bunch of the plastic spiders throughout her blonde hair. The neighbor kids called her the spider lady (only at Halloween, mind you. She didn't do this daily.) My family always had a great time when we visited my grandparents on the night before Halloween, which is when their town trick-or-treated. They called it beggars night, I think. Then we'd go out again in our own neighborhood on the day of Halloween. All of us, except probably my grandfather (usually in the living room watching baseball) got pretty deeply into the spirit of Halloween, and I wonder sometimes if that's why I still enjoy the holiday so much. And the reason why the spider rings always make me smile. I miss you Grandma! (And Grandpa, too, but I can't imagine him with a spider ring in his hair.)

My favorite photo of the spider lady and her husband - 1945