Food

I’m heading into my 3rd week of low fat and low sugar eating since I started on July 7. So far the food I’ve eaten from my freezer stash hasn’t triggered any pain. It hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be, although I know I’m still barely starting.  The weekends and especially the off Sunday where I’m home by myself is what I need to be careful with. It’s not that I’ve eaten terribly healthy, but I haven’t had any junk food, and I’ve consciously been eating more fruit and vegetables. And every day, I’ve had a little bit of chocolate. 

Right now my biggest issue is that I feel like I’m going to get bored with my food really fast. Looking at some of my Pinterest recipes, even just the ones that sound good and I haven’t tried, they have a lot of cheese in them. 😭  So trying to figure out ways around that because soon I’m not going to know what to eat. And I think I’m going to have to learn to substitute butter and creams in some of my recipes. 

I made a veggie and pasta dish tonight (that I have made a few times) and used gluten free pasta made from red lentils and left off the cheese completely. It is fine, but would be better with the cheese. And since I’m not eating butter, I haven’t had any toast or anything like that either. On the plus side, I did realize today that I don’t eat butter on my favorite rolls. So when it’s cold enough to bake, I can freeze a batch and still get some enjoyment out of them. Hopefully, anyway. I’m still not exactly sure what triggered the pain. 

Do I feel better? In some ways yes. I think my digestive system is having to get used to eating a little less “white”. But I haven’t had the overly full feeling that I get when I binge eat junk food, that makes it hard to lay down to sleep. I’m motivated to keep going if only to keep the painful stomach aches away. Hopefully, it will eventually feel more normal. 

Today

So I spent this evening doing something out of my comfort zone. It’s no surprise the work makes me a bit grumpy at this stage of my life. I’m not trying to be mean on purpose, but sometimes I can come across that way, evidently. Well, someone at another division thought I was very helpful and has been very nice over Teams. She came to my state for a training and asked if I was able to meet up for dinner. 

Meeting people I don’t know for dinner is absolutely not something I want to do. But I gave myself a talking to and said yes. We don’t live close enough to have to become good friends or anything like that, but it is really nice to know someone in person and to be friendly with them when you have to work with them. A guy from an Arizona division was also at the meetings and needed someone to eat with so it turned out to be the 3 of us. I drove up to Logan and we went to a hibachi grill. 

The food was good, and we shared our table with a family with 2 young kids and it was a nice time. I didn’t feel like the conversation was too awkward and I ended up having a good time. Much better than I had hoped. So a lesson to me to try a little harder to be friendly and that it is ok to sometimes get out and do things I don’t want to do. 

The drive to Logan was stunning. It rained today and snowed in the canyon. The green and white contrast and the moody, cloudy sky was just amazing. I’m glad I went. 

Monday, Monday

My favorite food blogger posted a recipe for summer corn chowder using fresh corn and since I’m impatiently waiting for soup weather, I decided to make it. The forecast is calling for rain over the next few days. That’s cooler weather, at least?  The soup was delicious and now I have a bunch of soup in my freezer. I do love to make and eat soup. And I also want more corn just to eat. I will probably be making another trip to the stand on the side of the road. 

Also, my face is killing me. I don’t want to go back to the same endodontist, but I think I might find a different one for a second opinion. I’ve talked to my regular doctor and he gave me an antibiotic to see if we could get rid of a sinus infection, but it’s not getting rid of anything. It goes in waves and I’m ok until the really intense pain and then I just sit there until it leaves and then I feel kind of yucky but better. I can’t live like this though. I have plans for the rest of the year and they don’t involve lying on my couch in pain over something that might be a relatively simple fix. 

Happy Late Thanksgiving 2022

Well, my “staycation” week is almost over. I was off work and didn’t really even think about it, which is really nice. I had a low key and uneventful Thanksgiving day, which is probably something else to be grateful for. LOL I did a little shopping and am almost finished, and we even made a little candy yesterday. That day was probably the most stressful and chaotic with kids running around and making messes and that kind of stuff. But we survived that also. 

I put up my Christmas tree and decorated a little bit this week as well. And it’s finally trying to snow again. It’s just making everything wet and not sticking but I’ll take it. It put me in the mood for soup so I’m currently making leftover turkey soup that I will eat with some leftover rolls. Can’t wait! 

So happy thanksgiving and here comes Christmas right around the corner. Can’t believe it’s the holidays again already. 

Salt?

Sometime in the middle of quarantine in 2020 I watched the show Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat on Netflix and I’ve been thinking about salt ever since. 

Here are 2 things about me:

1. I don’t like to cook. I’m awful at throwing things together and almost always fail if I don’t have a recipe to follow. I feel fortunate that I don’t have a family to feed and can get away with popcorn or cold cereal for dinner some nights. Having to cook for a living would be the most awful job I can think of. 

2. I cook anyway. Mostly from scratch because I like to know what I’m putting into my body. I avoid boxed and premade foods almost entirely. I will admit that when I cook something that tastes good and is good for me it makes me happy and I enjoy that feeling. Luckily, I’ve learned to eat leftovers so I don’t have to cook every day.

But back to salt… When my dad’s kidney failed and he went on dialysis, he had to cut sodium completely from his diet. My parents were empty nesters by that time but the whole family kind of went along with it when we had family dinners. The food we brought or mom made just didn’t have salt, or very little. It was a big switch at first. That first year when mom didn’t add salt to Grandma’s roll recipe we all mutinied and said the rolls must have salt! But you get used to it and I cut a lot of salt from my diet as well, even when I was by myself. I figured I was still getting plenty anyway and it was probably better for me. Since dad’s been gone, I have added some salt back into things but I think I still eat a lot less than average Americans. I usually don’t add the full amount called for in recipes and I don’t do the extra things like salt my pasta water. I never add salt at the table unless it’s mashed potatoes or popcorn.

I’ve been thinking about it though. Yeah, sometimes I make some tasty stuff, but it could be because those recipes had the right amount of salt or fat or whatever to make them taste good the way they were written.

I borrowed Samin Nosrat’s book from the library. The Netflix show was based on the book. I’m reading about things that can improve my cooking. So the other day I put salt in some ground beef I was cooking for enchiladas. It wasn’t even a lot, but wouldn’t you know, I swear the meat tasted…meatier. Now I’m thinking about trying it again with something else. Maybe I’ll salt the pasta water!  LOL

I still feel that I don’t need to add tons of salt back into my cooking, but maybe I can learn to add some where it counts to get good tasting food that is still healthy. Plus, if healthy eating is what I’m after, I need to look at sugar intake instead of salt.

Anyway, yeah I think I might buy myself some different types of salt this year and maybe improve my cooking skills. I’m still not gonna like doing it, but tasty results will make me feel better that I did it anyway.

 

Apples and Pears

I had my final oral surgery a month ago. At least, it had better be the final. Ha ha…. Anyway, trying to find soft foods I could eat had me making applesauce in my Instant Pot. Oh my gosh, it was good!!!  I have to say I’m not the biggest fan of cooked fruit, so pies and cobblers are something I can easily pass on. This applesauce was just apples, cinnamon, and a little lemon juice and honey. It was like eating apple pie filling but so much better. I will definitely be making it again.

So last night I was looking in my fridge and I still had a vanilla Greek yogurt which I’m not a big fan of that particular flavor. I also had some pears that were going to go bad if I didn’t eat them. So I made baked pears. And…..they were so good! LOL – I really love cinnamon. The recipe said serve with ice cream if you want, but I didn’t have any so I decided to save some for breakfast to eat with my yogurt. Yum! It made a really good breakfast. And it was filling. Now I’ve been rethinking the whole cooked fruit thing, or at least apples and pears. I do like to eat them raw, but now I have some new, healthy ways to eat fruit when I get tired of plain. Sometimes you just need to mix things up a bit.

I’m just really happy it all turned out. I’m really not much of a cook so I always feel so good when I find a recipe that makes me feel like I can actually make good food. Or as one of my favorite food blogger says a Rockstar in the kitchen.

La Cuisine Cooking Class

For sure, one of my favorite things was the cooking class we did. I let Heather pick it since it was her idea but I had a great time. We did the market class which means we met up at a local market and purchased vegetables, meat, cheese, and bread and took it back to the kitchen to cook. 

I will probably never cook anything like it again but it was so fun and delicious.  We had artichokes, leeks, potatoes, duck, cheese and bread. Then for dessert we had crème caramel.

For all that though, I did learn a few things that I can use with my own cooking.

Truly, I only rarely enjoy cooking. Every once in a while I get quite pleased with myself for making something tasty and good for me, but I don’t feel that way a lot.

I had to laugh at the difference between my plate and the one the chef did. The art of making the plate look good is totally lost on me. Bet you can’t guess which is which.

After the cooking class we went shopping! Even though I wasn’t in the market for designer anything, the Galleries Lafayette was a fun place to go. I did buy some souvenirs there.

 

 I also bought a ton of French beauty products from Citypharma.

And soap from another little store in the Marais area. My suitcase was so full going home. I’m amazed what I pulled out of there when I unpacked. Three bottles of perfume! This is definitely the trip that I spent the most money on.

Popcorn Cake

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is popcorn cake. My mom makes it every year. She gives a lot of small ones away to neighbors and friends and always makes me one to share with the people at work. Then the final one is for us to eat during Christmas when we're all together as a family. I love it. It's got popcorn, and nuts, and spiced gumdrops in it and it's held together with marshmallows (like a rice krispy treat). Yummy!

I had a great Christmas, spending time with the family and celebrating the birth of Christ. It finally snowed for us during the night on Christmas Eve so we got to really wake up to a white Christmas. My 2 year old niece and I went outside and tried to make a snowman. We did make a small one, but the snow was so fine and powdery, it just wouldn't stick together.

Now I'm ready to spend the evening curled up with some cocoa and a good book.

Merry Christmas! (a day late)

Cheesecake

This year I decided to get sick for Thanksgiving. I got a cold the day before and it stayed with me for over a week. It didn't help that the week after Thanksgiving I had to go to Kentucky for work. I'm finally feeling a lot better and wanted to post a picture of the cheesecake I made for Thanksgiving.

I got the recipe from this website. It was pretty easy to make and was very rich and tasty. My sister did the actual piping of the snowflake with the pattern provided on the website. I have to say it was a thumbs up all the way around. My mom had to take it to the dialysis center on Saturday to give away. We just don't have the people to eat it up and nobody could handle more than a small piece at a time anyway.

Chocolate Oreo Cake

I decided I needed to test out a Pinterest recipe for my birthday cake.

Recipe is here: Chocolate Oreo Cake

I'm not the best cake maker. I prefer things like brownies and cookies where it's ok if there is a mess getting them out of the pan.

I'm obviously not a food photographer either, but I snapped this with my phone. You can't tell from here that the cakes had issues coming out of the pan. The frosting and oreos around the bottom hid it pretty well. But it tasted soooo good. It was moist and chocolatey and I had a hard time finishing my piece. It will satisfy die-hard chocolate fans for sure. Yum!

Grandma's rolls

For as long as I can remember, my mom has made my Grandma Walter's crescent rolls for special dinners like Thanksgiving, Christmas, big family dinners, my birthday, etc. They are my very favorite rolls. Mom always got up early (sometime between 5 and 6 am) to roll them out so they could rise and then be cooked before it was time to use the oven for other things. To this day, seeing them sitting on the table under the white dish towels as they rise makes me happy.

I always used to think they were hard to make or took a lot of time. I remember there have been times when my mom made the rolls for my aunt's Thanksgiving dinner. Then I decided one day to take the plunge and learn to make them myself.  Well, they are super easy to make, and require no kneading. I think they might seem a little labor intensive because the dough has to be refidgerated over night and then they have to be rolled out and have to have about 5 hours to rise. Of course, I plan it out so I don't have to get up early to roll them out, but even that takes only about 30 minutes.

Mom still makes them better than I do, but she has 30+ years of practice on me.  Even without all the practice, they are dang good!

Applesauce

I helped my mom and dad make applesauce the other weekend. Mom has 2 apple trees. Homegrown apples and then homemade applesauce are so good. It's kind of a messy job (or maybe it's just us) but it's worth it in the end.

I took my bottles home and immediately made a batch spiced applesauce bread with pecans and chocolate chips.

Waffle Cookies

It would be hard for me to choose my favorite cookie between chocolate chip and waffle cookies. Ha ha...warm chocolate chip cookies with milk are like food for the soul. But I do love me a waffle cookie, which are also best served warm with milk. :)

Our recipe comes from the 10th Ward Cook's Corner cookbook that my ward put together in 1981. We've made them in my family since I can remember. In high school, a friend and I ruined my mom's waffle iron by trying to cook chocolate chip cookies in it. Since then I've stayed with the tried and true and it really can't be beat.

Waffle Cookies

Melt 1 cube margarine and add:
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 tsp cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour

Mix all the ingredients together. Cook on pre-heated waffle iron on medium heat by dropping one spoonful of batter on each square. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Frost while warm. This recipe makes about 16-20 cookies, depending on how small they are. I usually double it when I make them.

Frosting:
powdered sugar
cocoa
vanilla
milk
butter or margarine

I don't have measurements because I just dump in the bowl and mix. It used to drive all of us crazy that my mom couldn't give us the actual measurements, but we must have learned well because now my sisters and I make frosting the way mom does. :)

A few notes:
Butter can be used instead of margarine, but the taste changes slightly, of course. I've also tried baking chocolate squares when I was out of cocoa and they make a rich chocolate flavor, but change the texture of the cookie slightly. And finally, I prefer homemade frosting instead of store bought kinds. The frosting melts a bit because you put it on the warm cookie and store bought frosting seems to change a bit when it sets back up.

YUM!!!