A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Taste of the Ozarks: Beans & Greens

Even I will admit that maybe that doesn't look all that delcious, but I swear on a stack of Bibles, it's delicious.  Beans & Greens has long been a down-home dish throughout most of the southern U.S. and we're no exception.  We love our "brown" (pinto for the uninitiated) beans and cornbread, which btw, form a complete protein. Couple that with kale, collards, or spinach, and you're really looking at a protein/vitamin powerhouse. To be completely honest, you see the green but you don't really taste it.  Until I told him, Gene thought I'd just gone really nuts with the parsley.

This is my version using country sausage with lots of sage, collard greens, and pinto beans.  It's an easy-peasy workday recipe where you throw everything from the pantry/freezer into the crock-pot and either go to work, or like me, go to sleep. Dinner is ready when you are.  Add crackers or cornbread or dinner rolls and you've got a happy Gene, I mean, whatever your spouse's name is.

Mexican Villa Fake-out: Home-made Burrito Enchilada-Style

 

Let's start with a HUGE Thank You to Jamie D who read my original post about our hometown Mexican Villa and sent me a taste-alike recipe from the 'net for The Villa's enchilada sauce. Like Springfield-style Cashew Chicken, The Villa is a Springfield original, it's ours, and we're wild about it!

Using Jamie's sauce I created our own Burritos Enchilada-Style last night and we loved them. In a private email Jamie had said "When the chili seasoning hits the sauce your nose will know it's The Villa."  Yup, sooooooooo true!  Not that we won't be ordering from the restaurant itself anymore but it is a nice home-style meal as well that I got a huge kick out of creating. It will be fun to make it for friends or family sometime and see if I can fake them out.

Good & Good For You: Blood Orange & Lavender Olive Oil Muffins

 

My sweet tooth has been acting up a bit lately. No matter how much I try to feed it broccoli, it screams for sugar. I hate it when it gets cranky, but I will persevere. I'm a firm believer that I can eat healthy AND still satisfy my sugar cravings. My sweet tooth demanded orange: Orange martinis?  Orange jelly candies?  Orange Cake?  What we compromised on, my sweet tooth and I, was a batch of these delicious and good-for-you blood orange and lavender olive oil muffins.  Sweet, but not too sweet, and a treat without being empty calories.  With the addition of the whole wheat pastry flour, these muffins are a little heavier, a little more toothsome than so-called muffins that are really fluffly cupcakes masquerading as breakfast food.  More than breakfast, these are a fruity, flower-scented snack, that also contain a serving of good daily fat, for tea time or any time of the day I need a pretty little pick-me-up. 

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A Spring Classic: Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

 

I've lost a little over 20 lbs since I've been following the "Glenna's No Crap" Diet, which is a combination of all the best nutrition information I know and no, you guessed it, crap.  Basically, I'm cooking from scratch and looking at every label. If I don't know what an ingredient is I set it aside.  For convenience sake this leaves me eating a lot of cottage cheese or natural peanut butter and homemade bread if I'm not in the mood to cook but, luckily, I'm usually in the mood to cook from scratch. This week, my craving has been for broccoli soup.  I love broccoli soup when I'm out at a restaurant but there's something about that too bright orange color that hints at some not very natural ingredients...so I made my own.

One of the simple tricks to this soup is something I learned from Auntie Miranda:  if you want a cheddar flavor in something, the sharper, more flavorful the cheese you use the less it takes to give you the medium cheddar flavor you're looking for. Good advice, Auntie.

 

Warm Winter Soup: Navy Bean and Ham

 

I've been trying to keep homemade soups in the fridge this winter for something nutritious to snack on or grab for work lunches and bean soups are my favorite.  Even though I happily eat them all year round, they embody winter cooking for me. I love how meaty and hearty they are, while knowing that they're absolutely good for me on every level from the fiber to the vitamins to the protein.  One of the ways I've changed my cooking style of bean soups, though, is to pump up the vegetable volume. I used to use veggies as seasoning and now I usually have as many onions, peppers, carrots mixed in as beans.  I love the way they fill out the taste and cook down along with the bean starch for that porridge consistency, sort of thick bowls of warmth on a gray day.

Happy 50th Birthday, Gene! Nannie's Banana Pudding Just For Gene

 
  
Happy 50th Birthday to my wonderful hubby, Gene! 

On the other hand, I can't believe I'm married to an official old man, AARP candidate, self-proclaimed "cranky old bastard".  How do these things happen in life?  They just sneak up on you with a baseball bat in the night.  :-)

Had a great party for old bastard (hey, his words!) last night with a few old friends to help usher him along into this over the hillishness and of course I have a few stories to tell.

Let's start with Friday, the day I was prepping food for this little shindig but in the middle of the afternoon I needed to go get my allergy and asthma shots. I'd just put on a pot of water to hardboil eggs for deviled eggs and, standing in the kitchen, told Gene "Just let them boil hard for 10 minutes and then turn them off and let them be."  His response was to scowl and bang his hand on the counter, yelling at me "I'm so damn tired of you starting crap and leaving me to finish it and take care of everything!"  My eyebrows were somewhere in the fifth dimension, I believe. While THINKING "You. Are. A. Dead Man." I SAID quietly "Are you kidding me?"  He immediately laughed and said "Yes! I am! You should see the look on your face. That was hilarious."  Yeah. Hilarious.  He almost didn't make it to that Big Five Oh.

But of course it was funny and I've been telling everyone.

He's been so ornery the last few days--it's been really fun and funny around our house. He also bacame his own birthday chronicler from time to time as he photographed the birthday prep.  After uploading this one, I asked "Why did you take a picture of me picking egg shell pieces out of the eggs?" He said "You were doing something with your hands?" 

Cute little dirty old man! :-)

 

I put up the fall and part of the Halloween decorations for last night and then added a few spiffy old man party things including this caution tape across the door and wound some of it around the pillars on the porch. We also made him wear a ribbon/button that said "OH NO THE BIG 5-0" and he stuck a little caution sign I'd bought for the dessert table into his shirt pocket that said "Caution: 50 year old having a senior moment" so I guess he was as decorated as the house.  He also had a baseball hat that read "50:  Been there, done that, can't remember it."

 
The Motley Bday Crue--Front Row:  Dee McKeel and Birthday Boy, Middle Row:  Debbie Henderson, Barb Schurke, Tammy Jahnke, and Jenn Garrison (Campbell).  Back row:  Jeff McKeel, John Henderson, John Schurke, Corbin Campbell, and Dave Jahnke. And not in the photo,  Darrel and Leigh Hasty, friends through Corbin and Jenn.

The connections are:  Jeff and Gene grew up together in Marshfield...John H. and Corbin and Gene were all in the radio game together for the last two and a half decades...Barb and John work with me but Gene loves them too... and Dave and Tammy have been neighbors and friends for over 15 years. 

We ate tons, told lots of fun stories, played a little poker... 

What a wonderful evening--thank you all for joining us and celebrating Geno's transition officially into old-man-hood!

And now for the recipe.  Gene's favorite dessert is my Nannie's (grandmother's) old-fashioned banana pudding, the truly southern version using 'Nilla Wafers.  She used to make a big bowl of it for him every year for his birthday and as a special treat whenever she thought he needed a little Nannie pick me up or whenever he did something extra special nice for her which was often. They were pretty tight. I love that they loved each other so much. The bittersweet part of that is that Nannie is no longer with us. So in memory of her and her love for Gene I get to make the banana pudding for him.

Cheesy Vegetable & New Potato Soup

 

I had a scratchy throat last night, no big deal, just allergies I think, but I craved something soft and creamy for dinner like potato soup.  I wanted veggies in it but I was also feeling too cranky to chop to I ended up creating this little gem that I'll be making again and again. 

Eat Clean Diet: Minestrone

 
At the beginning of the year, I talked about this year being the year (that sounds familiar to EVERY year, doesn't it?) that I really do concentrate on eating healthier and cutting junk food out of my diet.  With half the year almost gone, I realize that to a great extent I have been successful. I am eating many more fresh vegetables and much much less junk food. Am I perfect? Nah, but I'm learning to enjoy better foods more often instead of just as the guilt tucks in.  I also talked about four books at the first of the year that have been helping me on that journey  http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/01/happy-new-year-ring-in-the-new-year-with-renewed-commitment-to-health.html#tp

One of those books is The Eat-Clean Diet by Tosca Reno. There's also a companion cookbook and a web site:  www.eatcleandiet.com.  Most of Tosca's principles line up perfectly with The Mediterranean Diet in that she focuses on real, as fresh as possible, wholesome foods, getting rid of the junk food, good fats, deleting sugar, and concentrating on complex carbs.  Another principe of Eat Clean that I'm experimenting with is she suggests eating every 2-3 hours and to combine protein/complex carbs, both to keep blood sugar stabilized.  I had an epiphany on that one. Because I work long night shifts I find myself often craving soda to the point of getting a headache and sick to my stomach while at work. I suddenly realized that while I was thinking I was craving the caffeine, I'm now wondering if it's not a blood sugar drop instead. I'm experimenting this week by following Eat-Clean to the letter.

A great way to get lots of vegetables in without any chemicals or trans-fats is soup, specifically veggie soups.  This Minestrone recipe is very good and a pleasure to eat. I don't even feel like I"m deprived.  I'm eager to sit down to a bowl of it.  I will make one caveat.  The recipe as written is a HUGE batch.  I cut it in half and still have a huge crockpot full but it's perfect for a family of more than just two people, or for dinner plus nice lunch leftovers, or for me, like this weekend when I'm working a three day stretch.  It gives me quick grab and run meals at home and at work that keep me out of the hospital crapeteria and not even glancing at the vending machines.

Look For This: VitaTops

 
In my commitment for healthier, fresher eating, I've had to give up a lot of processed foods we take for granted, like cereals, granola bars, and other pre-packaged, pre-processed foods. Seriously, read the labels. I'm realizing there are a lot of edible products in the grocery store but not necessarily that much nutrition unless you stick to that sage piece of dieting advice to only grocery shop along the outer walls without venturing much into the aisles for boxed goods.

However, I have found one exception to that rule that I need to share with my fellow dieters and it's in the freezer section. At my Price Cutter, it's in the organice freezer section:  Vitalicious products.  Auntie Miranda and I didn't know you could even buy these in our local groceries for a while so our first introduction came by way of a splitting a mail order box.   The reason why you find them in the freezer section, and why online orders come with a packing slip that instructs you to freeze the muffins within a day or so, is because these muffins, muffin tops, brownies, etc don't have the normal laundry list of preservatives in them that most processed bars and treats do.  Each Vita Top is 100 calories, 4-5 grams protein, and 4-5 grams fiber made from whole wheat, nuts, and dried fruits (depending on the flavor, of course).  Since they're frozen, you can microwave them, toast them, or pop them into the toaster oven to warm up in just a couple of minutes.  Actually, because they only have a gram of fat, even if they're thawed to room temp, heating them up brings out their best side.  Not home-made but about as close as we're going to get inside a plastic wrapper.

At this point I'm addicted. I really love these nummies!  My personal favorites are the banana walnut, apple berry, and even though I'm not a big chocolate eater, I really like the deep chocolate flavor.  I'll be honest, I'm still committed to cooking from scratch including my own baking BUT these are a nice shortcut to have on hand that I can feel good about eating, knowing I'm sticking with my wholesome foods goal.  They're great to take to work, perfect for a quick breakfast, and a great choice for a late night snack attack that just will not go away. 

www.vitalicious.com

 

Ina Garten's Turkey Meatloaf

Went over to Auntie Miranda's the other night, and in "exchange" for Gene hooking up her new Wii, she served this beautiful dinner of Ina Garten's Turkey Meatloaf, Loaded mashed potatoes, Green beans with slivered almonds, whole grained rolls, and an elegant salad of romaine, strawberries, feta, pecans, and vinaigrette.  It was as delicious as it was beautiful! Thanks so much Auntie. I think we got the better end of the deal!

I also loved how beautifully the purple dishes set off the food. Isn't that gorgeous?

For the meatloaf recipe, click below: