Macrobiotic Meatless Monday!

Tonight there simply was no time to cook, I hadn't thought about it at all, and I was hungry. I stopped at the Co-Op and picked up "fast food"

This is Shanhai Dumplings and Spinach Noodles by Macro Bento. I can't do the entire 1/2 a box for a single serving of either (they're spicy!), but that makes them last longer! Hot tea rounds out the macrobiotic meal.

And then I topped it off with a little crystalized ginger to help with digestion (and for a little more spicy-sweetness).

Who says you can't have meatless fast food?

Meatless Mondays Lunch This Time

It's that time again, and I've made lunch! It's a simple recipe, as I usually pack my lunches and I want things easy as pie (without the pie)

On the Weight Watchers point system this one weighs in at a heavy (NOT!) 4 points (but then I added strawberries for dessert, and a cup is 1/2 a point, so factor that into your counting)

A Hummus Veggie Wrap on Whole Wheat Tortilla:

(yes, this isn't the best photo, I'd already wrapped it up)

I buy my hummus tho' there are several good recipes out there to use if you want to make your own (if I ever get 20 minutes, I think I'd like to try one of them!). I spread 2 Tbls. of garlic flavored hummus on a warmed wheat tortilla, tossed on some baby spinach leaves, slivered some red pepper strips and drizzled a Ceasar Italian flavored dressing on it - I used a fat-free bottled kind, but you could make your own. IF you use olive oil, remember to add that into your point count, but don't worry, because you're using one of your Good Health Guidelines while you're at it!). I'm careful with the dressing, because I really just want a touch of flavor, not a soupy mess! Roll it up, steam a few spears of asparagus (with a touch of butter on it
for 1 point), salt, pepper, and the whole meal is ready in a flash. And I've got time to knit at my desk during lunch!

Happy Meatless Eating!

Meatless Monday Again!

For once I can claim credit for this recipe. I devised it after having something very similar at a fancy dinner some years ago:


Strawberry Spinach Salad
(I'm giving general quantities - I made this for just one serving)

1 cup fresh organic spinach, loosely packed
4-5 fresh strawberries, sliced (or more if you're like me and love them)
5 English walnuts chopped
2-3 Tbsp low-fat feta cheese (to taste)
Ken's fat-free Raspberry Walnut Vinagrette
(you may add slivered red or Vidalia onions to taste, my digestive system can't have them, but wish it could!)

Do I really need to give you directions to assemble? I think not.

(In the winter? Substitute canned mandarin oranges - or a clemantine, sectioned - it's every bit as good, and a fine salad to add to a soup or veggie chili meal.)
:)
Enjoy - Thankfully, 'tis the season for the freshest of ingredients...and wow is this good.

Meatless Monday!

Baingan Bharta (Eggplant Curry):

I can't take credit for the recipe, I found it here. I had no idea how it would come out, but it's good! I input all the ingredients to Weight Watchers e-Tools, and came back with 2 points per serving. Since it made 4 servings, and I was hungry, I doubled my portion for 4 points. Three points for the Na'an (which is storebought) and I thought I was in heaven for a dinner at 7 points!

I will tell you that I automatically chopped the onions, and then realized the recipe called for sliced (oops!). Then I did not have the garlic paste. There's an hysterical youTube video out there telling you how to make your own garlic paste, but I just mixed equal parts of minced garlic and finely grated fresh ginger into the mixture and didn't worry about it (yes, that's what garlic paste is. Equal parts of the two ingredients and perhaps a little water to make a paste...IF I could have found my mortar and pestle, I'd have made it up. Unfortunately, that's one thing that hasn't been unpacked since the move (three years ago).

Anyway! A great, warming meal (which I made last week when it was really quite chilly and appreciated no end!), not too difficult to make. Happy Meatless Monday!

Meatless Monday

I've almost missed posting, but this is Monday, and I've a yoga class to attend after work. Things tend to run very late!

And I didn't cook again tonight. No, this time, I picked up a (not so vegan!) meatless meal in a hurry - but very tasty indeed:

I adore cottage cheese (there's even a photo of me at my first birthday with it all over my face and in my blonde ringlet-ed hair, so you can tell it's a long-lived affair!), and tonight when I saw strawberries and pineapple all ready and waiting, I just couldn't resist. I added a bit of baguette with seasoned olive oil, and thoroughly enjoyed my very simple meal.

But oh, for next week? I've got something planned! I'll make it over the weekend so it will be ready and waiting after yoga class, and I promise I'll post earlier, too! *wink*

I did a little bit of veggie shopping this weekend...a fellow yoga student is a potter and she was having a sale of her wares. I picked up the eggplant salt and pepper shakes, and the little garlic head shaker was just sitting there all by itself. I thought, "why not for garlic powder?" and it came right along home with me! I love that her attention to detail even included the little rootlets at the base, tho' this photo doesn't show that well...

The three will reside on my stovetop and work in nicely with my vintage vegetable pottery collection - Shawnee King Cornware, and Made in Occupied Japan Tomato-ware, plus an odd assortment of peppers, squashes, celery, and beets (ALL ceramic salt and pepper shakes).

What can I say? I'm just a pushover for veggies and fruit in all forms. This purchase supported a local artist, too. :)

An Apology and - It's Earth Day!

I have to admit that I was away this weekend, doing a show, and as a result, did NOT post for Meatless Monday. I've been meatless both Tuesday and Wednesday, but repeated my Portabella Mushrooms from the grocery store, so don't have a recipe to share this week, I'll try to do better next week, I promise.

Today is Earth Day, and I'm wondering what you will do to celebrate and honor it?

Me? I'm working, as usual, and have an appointment after work, so cooking isn't going to happen. I think I might have a big salad tonight, meatless again, because I'm spending the evening in a 90 minute yoga class. It will be late when I get out and I'd like to toss something light together to end my day.

I'm going to use the least possible amount of energy (read "electricity") at home today, but that's in part because I won't be there.

I did, however, read an interesting article at Newsweek that if we think consuming green products is going to get us out of this mess we're in, then we're somewhat delusional.

Not that it won't at least be better for us to use these products. But it does boil down to not buying as much - reducing what we use, reducing the amount of waste we produce.

So I'll be looking for a couple of things I would like to have (glass yogurt cups, a personal CD player as mine broke and I have so many books on CD to read!), but I'll be looking for a used item, whenever possible. And over the next few weeks, I'll be working hard to pass along used items I no longer need.

As the Newsweek article says, there's a reason the first word in the slogan is reduce, reuse, recycle. And I'll add there's are reason many of us are adding the word repurpose to the refrain. It's about making less stuff and rethinking how we relax and unwind. Shopping can't be the way we enjoy ourselves any longer. If the economy and your credit card hasn't already told you this, then the Earth's predicament surely should.

More of us need to follow the old yankee proverb of "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." I feel somewhat embarrassed by the fact that having lost 40 pounds in the past 7 months, I've been forced to buy an entirely new wardrobe (remaking things wasn't possible with this much change in my shape!). I did, however, shop consignment, thrift, and charity shops as much as possible. And will be passing along my former wardrobe thru the same vehicles, including a yard sale and occasional ebay auction.

What ONE thing can you choose to do today to address the crisis facing the earth? Join up with One Small Change and just do one thing each month? I did. I've been using cloth napkins at home rather than paper towels as napkins. It's going great. I've kept a small stack of them next to my spot at the table all month, and have just washed them with my regular sheets and towels wash. Before this? I'd use a cloth napkin with my lunch, packing it in my tote. But I never thought about it at home, I just tore off that paper towel in "auto-pilot" mode. That's all changed, there's not even a roll of paper towels in my kitchen now.

I haven't made the napkins I promised my Ravelry pals I'd make, but there's still time this month to do that. I picked up some super-cool fabrics (OOPS, see? We buy without thinking!) to make them out of...like I needed more fabric? In fairness, I'd not read that Newsweek article yet, and was in a new fabric shop where I saw the cutest "green" fabric prints.

Which, of course, is exactly the Newsweek article's point - we see "green" in the advertising, and just figure we're doing something good. Forget about the fact that I have hundreds of pounds of fabric in my sewing room...
(sigh)
I forgive myself. And I'm going to change.

What about you?

Meatless Monday

It's Meatless Monday! And today's dinner is my fast, easy vegan spaghetti.

It's easy because it's jarred sauce, doctored up. It's vegan because the "meat" is Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles. It's fast, because I make it on Sunday and eat it for a couple of weeknight dinners, and freeze the rest for later on! There is nothing better than your own food for "fast food."

So I being with cleaning out the cupboard and freezer:

There's a small can of mushroom stems and pieces, three cloves of minced garlic (still from my CSA last fall!), and a small can of sliced black olives. I drain the canned items, and rinse off the mushrooms to rid them of any additional salts. Then in a frying pan sprayed with olive oil spray, I toss in a tablespoon of good olive oil, and let the veggies saute.

IF you have other veggies you'd like to add, now is the time. I've been known to toss in summer squash or zuccini, multi-colored bell pepper strips and sliced onions, even shredded carrots! None of them have any calories, so from a Weight Watchers perspective, there are no points.

Eventually I add half a bag of the recipe crumbles and let them saute as well. This particular time, I added in dried onion flakes to taste (I didn't have an onion in the crisper), and then a bit of dried basil. But not too much, because the jarred sauce I used was "tomato basil" flavor (Barilla).

Here's everything simmering away.

And of course, in the meantime, I had the whole wheat pasta on to boil:

Served on a salad-sized plate, with just a touch of shredded parmesan, this is a total of 8 Weight Watchers points (for anyone who cares - I do since I'm following the program).


Last night I also made up a vegan salad for lunch this week from Kalyn's Kitchen. I'd never cut up a mango and this was my very first avocado, too. It's a good salad, tho' I have to admit, I'm not yet loving the avocado...(and it's pricey on points, too - at 7 per serving, I rarely eat that many at lunch)

Come back next week and I'll try to have an interesting recipe to share on Meatless Monday again.

Apparently Convenience Can Be Healthy!

I discovered a wonderful concoction in my regular grocery store's produce section yesterday: stuffed portabella mushroom caps! Two to a pack, they were completely ready for me to grill, broil, or bake when I got home. $2.00

Now on the nights when I have yoga class (my Thursday class gets me home at 9p.m. and I surely don't want a heavy meal right before bedtime, but I can't eat dinner when I get off work and head to a 7p.m. class - talk about yucky, yoga on a full stomach? No thanks) I do whatever I can to eat lightly, eat intentionally, and to not eat meat.

Somehow meat and yoga don't mix in my head, either.

The mushroom caps I picked up were stuffed with fresh spinach, mozzarella shredded part-skim cheese and seasonings - I know there was oregano in there, and probably a touch of garlic. I input everything to Weight Watcher's e-tools and got 2 points per cap! With some Morrocan Olive Artisan bread and seasoned olive oil, the entire meal was 7 points, and as vegetarian (but not vegan) as you can get!

(I ate one last night after class and one tonight when I thought I could manage to snag a photo for you, but you know what? I was too hungry and I never thought about pulling out the camera! I'm sorry...believe me tho' they're really good!)

Hmm...that makes it meatless Thursday, and meatless Friday, as well as mostly meatless Monday so far this week! But considering the fact that eating lower on the food chain is easier on the environment, as well as on my own physical being, I'm happy about that.

This is a work weekend, as I've got a show next weekend. So I stopped by the library to pick up my "reading material!" (ok, one of those is actually printed material...)

I'm "reading" Hot, Flat, and Crowded this evening...while I cut and sew handcrafted bags for my show next week...
(thank goodness for books on CD!)

Meatless Mondays...

Meatless Monday's won't be a hard thing for me to do, and in fact yesterday I managed to join the movement (click that link and join up, too!), but after I'd packed my deli turkey sandwich for lunch, so that I couldn't change without having waste. But dinner was a vegetarian chili-filled whole wheat burrito.

I think I'm going to plan for making something vegan on Sunday nights, and having the leftovers on Mondays - because I have yoga class and don't get home till late. Dinner on Mondays has to be easy-peasy!

One Small Change - April

I learned of a blog event over here at One Small Change and decided to participate.

What will my one small change be? I have apparently got some kind of blip in my brain power that makes it second nature to use a fabric napkin when I pack my lunch for work, but then I come home and use paper towels! I have no idea why. So this month is going to be devoted to actively choosing to use cloth, not paper.

(I make many small changes during any given month. I may even try to find the time to dig out my delicate vintage handkerchiefs and carry them with me instead of Kleenex!)

Wow. That's two changes. When combined with last month's choice to use my drying rack for personal clothing items? See how they can make a huge difference in just a short time?

So...What will YOU do?

This Isn't a Craft Blog, Per Se...

I've crafted from my earliest memory. My grandmother taught me to embroider at her knee when I was just about 6, and I collected scraps of fancy fabrics (whatever Mom found along the way) and tried to sew doll clothes by hand. I hadn't a clue how, of course, but I tried, draping bits of velvets, satins, and crepes and wrapping them on my fashion dolls.

Then Mom taught me to sew, on her old treadle sewing machine when I was in 5th grade. I should have done as I threatened, when a degree in ballet was refused by my father, and majored in Home Economics. Do you ever wonder "what might have been?" That's my query - what would life have been like as a public school teacher? But I was a feminist and such a life was not what I dreamed of...I didn't go to college out of spite (and you know what happens when we bite off our noses in those cases, right?)
:)
Anyway, as usual, I digress...this is about crafting. In fact, it's about Green Crafting.

Mom sewed, knitted, crocheted, and tatted. She taught me the first two, but not the last. I taught myself many other things: macrame, counted cross-stitch, quilting, and crochet, primarily. But I never learned to like crochet, in fact, it hurts my wrists.

This week, I spent some time, as I often do, researching Green Issues, and everything converged in one simple pattern I discovered in a message board on Ravelry.

I've knit dishcloths forever, but these crocheted scrubbies caught my fancy. The folks in my new "Trash to Treasures" group on Ravelry (I'm a new member, they've been around a bit!) make these from plarn (that's plastic shopping bag yarn - yes, the ultimate in upcycling, it's yarn created by taking plastic shopping bags and cutting them into same-sized loops, connecting them, then crocheting them into these critters:

Um...no, you're very correct, mine are made from cotton yarn. Dishcloth cotton to be exact. But that's because I have very, very few plastic bags - the ones I have I keep in reserve to stuff wet knitted wool bags while they dry into felted bags. I don't want to make plarn from them.

Notice anything about that photo? The scrubbies are 1) different sizes and 2) progressively neater (the one in the middle is the neatest).

Remember I told you I taught myself to crochet? Well, I picked it back up this week, but all I did was grab an instruction guide and remind myself of the components of the stitches. It wasn't till tonight, after making the green/ivory and the red tweed/ivory scrubbies and being very unhappy with them, that I sat down with the guidebook and really read it. (Yes, sometimes you really really do need to "read the destructions," as my friend Lynette says)

I was trying to hold the yarn in my right hand with the hook (I am an English-style knitter, so I throw with my right hand). The tension of the yarn in my hands made for very sloppy scrubbies. But that red/ivory one in the middle? It was done in a fraction of the time, and once I put that yarn in the correct (left, for me) hand, everything "connected" in my hands!

We have memory in our hands (tho' I can't cite scientific studies for my claim). But I believe it's what makes speedy typists (and data entry operators, which is the work I did to put myself through college after "biting off my nose!") and concert pianists. The memory basically bypasses the brain, the brain has to be a conduit I suppose, but the fingers hit the keys or the yarn comes into the fingers and memory takes over - not "brain" memory...finger memory. It's "touch-do." See? No brain-power involved!

(And by way of explanation: I'm using up stash cotton yarn, which is as good as upcycling plastic bags, in my book. These little critters take very little scrap yarn, and will make great pot scrubbers in Christmas kitchen gift sets this year.)

Oddly, so far, my hands aren't hurting, which is good. But, oh, my. I surely hope I don't end up with another obsessive/compulsive craft! This crochet stuff is fun!
*wink*

Turn OFF Your Lights Tonight!

For One Hour on March 27, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. EST
What will YOU do with that hour?

Fabulous!

Saturday morning, I happened into the living room in time to watch a cooking segment on the CBS Saturday The Early Show. This young hunk was cooking, and it sounded as if he might be cooking semi-healthy stuff, so I sat down to watch.

He was the author of this book. (Okay, I'm apparently very behind the times, but I really don't watch prime time television - he's a celebrity chef? he's been on Dancing With the Stars? (yes, I do know there's a show by that name, but I haven't watched it! shhhh)

I was so impressed with the fact that the entire premise of the book was recipes for comfort foods that had been redesigned to be less than 350 calories, that I RAN to the computer and searched online for it. I had a holiday gift card at Barnes and Noble, and the order was placed forthwith.

It arrived today. And I made the sweet potato fries on page 195. One serving is 1 WW point.
Because I was exhausted tonight, I also just tossed a black bean burger in the microwave and combined it with a sandwich thin for a bun (3 points), then heated up some frozen kale from last fall's CSA share (1 point with the olive oil and red wine vinegar).

This book is choc full of many recipes I want to make...1 point brownies and chocolate chip cookies, 4 point mac and cheese, a 7 point turkey Reuben!!

I may have just fallen in love with a man 1/2 my age.

(I suspect Rocco Dispirito's not interested in anything more than my spreading the word about his book, huh? But you seriously want to check this one out - it's worth it!)

Baby Steps...

If you didn't see this on
David Letterman the other night, you should go here and watch it now. And yes, it's a tad bit on the side of overwhelm, so you're forewarned.

However, I'm willing to take baby steps toward making a difference. Our municipality has curbside recycling. And yes, I took their survey recently and suggested that instead of continuing the pickups every week - with alternating weeks for paper products and glass/plastic/aluminum - we could reduce the frequency of pickups in an effort to save the City a bit on the cost of those collections. Like most local governments they're looking at every possible way to reduce costs, and I'd a lot rather see fewer pickups than a lost teacher! I also suggested to one city office my agency deals with that we could stop the snail mail hardcopy notifications on certain stuff we do and just use email (lordy the postage, trees, and time that saves!!).

I also discovered a business that will accept plastic 5 for recycling: Preserve Products

I'd already decided to collect my #5s and ship them (at my cost) to Preserve. Then tonight, after yoga class, I dropped by the Co-op to pick up a couple of things and found they carried their products...

This one came home with me. I think it's the perfect size for lunchtime salads. It's cute, too!

I am not the sort to become overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem. And I'm certainly not capable of eskewing all plastics (I'm afraid with Lupus and heart disease, I'm dependent on one too many prescriptions for example - but my Rx's come in #2s at least!).

But I'll do what I can do, as much as I can do. Starting with this of course:

A couple of handknit dishcloths...the yarn is organic cotton. I know now that's not necessarily a good thing...Ecological Intelligence is a very enlightening book (and another source of potential overwhelm, fair warning!)...

Reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose...The more of us who try, the better off we are. If you can do one thing? Please...do it!

Backlog...

I'm up to my eyeballs in stuff I want to absorb...

these are on the "short list" of my stacks. Since I love to knit, and sew, and need to keep my house one step ahead of the dust bunnies (oh who am I kidding, that's a lost battle!), not to mention work a couple of jobs to keep the wolf from the door, and cook healthy food, and practice yoga? Well, I'm suddenly realizing that books to READ should really become books to LISTEN TO. I have two on request from the library now (in a similar vein as those above).

I finished Food Rules last night, thankfully a small book, but with a huge message. If you've not read it, try to check it out from the library (tho' at $11 USD, it's certainly worth the price!).

I like that Pollan admonishes that these are rules but not laws, policies to try to live by. There are 64, many of them are similar, and you can pick and choose those that will work for you, obviously.

The best general guideline is on page xv of the Introduction: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants. The remainder of the book elaborates on that. It's the main premise.

And extraordinarily wise.

Tonight's menu? Frozen beets and greens from the CSA - via my freezer - and a wonderful White Bean Chicken Chili from Secret Garden Gourmet. A bag of their Cream of Wild Rice and Asparagus soup mix was in a gift basket when I arrived at the Mayo Clinic's Leadership Symposium for Women with Heart Disease in 2002, and I've been a fan of their soups and mixes ever since.

(I know, they're not local to Virginia, but sometimes, we just have to support good companies, even if they're a few hundred miles away)
*wink*

Challenges - Personal and Public

As you know, I'm doing everything I can think of to live more lightly, to save energy, and money, and my sanity, too! Well, last night, in knee-jerk "I've always done it this way" fashion, I was tossing a smallish load of laundry into the washer (I have small and medium load settings) and I suddenly thought: I don't have to put this in the dryer, I can use my drying rack. Ok. That seems silly right? Not when you realize I don't have a clothesline and have used a dryer for probably close to 15 years non-stop. Needless to say, the load was dried on the rack.

Now to be fair, I always dry my handknit socks that way. And I always put my tops on hangers and air dry them to keep them looking good longer. I just hadn't made the next leap that much of my personal laundry did not need the dryer! Everything was dry this morning, too, and that's with the thermostat set on 60!

Then a week or so ago, I joined a Facebook Challenge in association with The Red Tape Chronicles blog on MSNBC's website. The issue surrounding the challenge was high (and unfair) fees and charges such as those on credit cards and such.

As soon as I read about it, I joined up. I read an article on the Chronicles about cable company charges: you know they charge the same price for long-time customers with only one or two services as they charge new ones for new "promotional" bundled rate. Well, I don't have a landline phone but was paying the same price as the advertised phone/cable/internet promotion.

Today I phoned them, and very nicely asked if they couldn't do something about that. And they did! For the next 12 months I'll be paying approximately $15 less per month. And when the rate goes back up (as I expect it will) I'm going to contact them again. Of course, by then? I may decide finally to rid myself of the television, as I'm watching less and less of it (I'm not mentioning the Olympics - *wink*).

On the heels of that success, I happily headed home tonight and immediately pulled out boneless chicken thighs and one of the remaining CSA's butternut squashes. I froze about 1/2 of the butternut, but roasted the remainder of it with a touch of olive oil and maple syrup. The chicken was roasted with lots of CSA garlic, onion bits and dried rosemary. I did pick up asparagus at the grocery store, as when I saw it this week, I simply could not resist (it's like a breath of spring, and it's still awfully cold around here - we had snow last night, too!). Added to that plate down below is a small serving of Artisan olive bread and olive oil with herbs.

Weight Watchers points: 8 for the entire plate. LOVE IT!

Especially since 3 months after the CSA ended, I'm still happily eating the fruits of that membership. I have a lot left, in fact, in the freezer, and in the "root cellar" that is my unheated, closed "pantry."

Whoohoo!

Never Another Duplicate! And Other Money-Saving Grocery Ideas

I hope that's not wishful thinking up there in that title! Over on
Cheap Healthy Good this week, in her links of the week, I discovered Bon Appetit's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Grocery Shopping. There was this one little tip that made such total and complete sense to me that I had to come home this weekend and work it into my crazy schedule!

What is it? Know What You Have. Simple huh? How many times have you gone into the store and tried to remember what you have in the freezer, in the cabinets, in the fridge? Or better yet, when you plan meals for the week (you do, don't you?) have you said: Oh I have to put "x" on the list...and then after you buy it realized you already had it (I know whereof I speak, folks, I have THREE - count 'em three! - bottles of Lite Soy Sauce! (Two are open and in the fridge, one is on the cabinet shelf.

I think I'll be making more Asian cuisine for a bit to use those up...

So I got into the cabinets easily enough and listed everything...

And ended up here. Yes, that's actually my "organized" freezer. I more or less remember where I put everything. I had to wear gloves when I went into it, because my fingertips quickly go numb when I work in there (hence the reason I have had no idea what was in there in the past).

Tonight I have leftover (frozen) beef stew and corn muffins thawing. I'm going to clean out the freezer. Use it up, make it do. It's the frugal thing to do, doncha know?

(And I think I'll be having spaghetti-based dishes for a bit, because I also discovered I have 2 full boxes and a partial, opened box of the whole wheat variety in the cabinets. While I was over on Bon Appetit, I noodled - sorry! - around and found this recipe which I have all the ingredients for...so it's on the menu for later in the week, and I think I'll put it in the slow cooker, too.)

So now, I challenge you. Find out what you have and list it. Mine is in a notebook that is now dedicated to planning those meals from my storehouse, and I'll also tick off what I've used up as I do. I need to begin a new grocery store price-book, too, so I think it will fit in here as well. What's that? You use your price-book to track the prices of the foods you use most at the stores you shop in - those prices vary and if you're really trying to keep your grocery expenses down, shopping sales and such, this is well worth the effort to do. The fastest way to get started is to pull out your receipts - of course you save those, right? - and list what you've bought over the past month or so...keep it by food type and then have separate columns for each store. I could see doing this on a spreadsheet, but I like having the spiral notebook to cart along with me.

And for those of you wondering how I'm doing on sticking to my food budget this year? I went over in January by $20.44. In mid-month, I revised my "budget" downward by $25 every two weeks. So it might have been smarter not to do that. January is also a very long month, but frankly? I had no idea what was in my kitchen to eat, so that should all change from now on, right?

In February (and there's still one day left!), I'm maintaining that $25 per bi-weekly paycheck reduction - which turns out to be $50 less in the shorter month. So far? I'm $32.44 under budget!

(I did take goodies to our monthly KnitIn group last weekend, and I did not include the price of that in my grocery budget - it was entertainment - but that was $17, so if you want to include it, I'm no longer ahead...you decide?)

Trying to keep myself honest here. So will YOU itemize your pantry? If you do, let me know, okay?

Interesting Spots Online

* Fake Plastic Fish
I poked around and found this list of storage tips to keep produce fresh - I'm printing it out, slipping it into a *yuck* plastic sleeve and affixing it to my fridge for quick reference!

* Green Phone Booth

* The Conscious Shopper

* Mindful Momma

All very informative, with some valuable ideas - if you're interested in things like green living, eating and shopping locally, and reducing your environmental footprint.
;)

More CSA?

Back in the summer, I popped the excess of green peppers into the freezer with just such an evening in mind...cold, and needing comfort food:

So I mixed up some dry stuffing mix with water and some Smart Balance Light margarine, and gerry-rigged a couple of pans to fit - I should have started with a smaller one, but I didn't so had to help bolster the littler peppers by setting a dish into a dish! Then it was an easy maneuver to slip the stuffing into the peppers, add a touch of water to keep it all from drying out in the oven (the pans are sprayed with cooking spray, too) and a 400 oven for about 1 hour was all it took.

While that cooked, I opened a can of diced tomatoes and heated them, adding in some McCormicks Spicy seasoning - I like things with a bit of a bite. Once the tomatoes were bubbling, I added a tablespoon of flour to help thicken them into a nice sauce and allowed them to cook for a bit, breaking up any lumps that formed.

Everything comes together with the pepper and stuffing opened out onto a plate, and a spoonful or so of the tomatoes on top. A little fresh cracked black pepper and here's your comfort food!

My mom used to make these, so the recipe is vegetarian. I can remember that this, along with her macaroni and cheese were often the meals we ate at the end of the month when my Dad's paycheck just didn't make it all the way through...

Thanks Mom. I love these recipes so much and I know you always felt you weren't giving us the best you could, that these meals weren't what you wanted to provide us with.

But they were just exactly right!

*oh...btw? I put this into the Weight Watchers Recipe Builder to discover that even with the sauce, a medium pepper stuffed this way is a whopping 4 points! So while I had the oven going, I quickly made up my easy, yummy, Maple Baked Apple: One apple, cored; spray a small baking dish with cooking spray, set the apple inside (slice of a piece on the bottom to hold it upright if you need to). Take a Vermont Maple Sugar candy (or 1 Tablespoon of Annie's Vermont Lite Maple Syrup) and pour into the center of the apple, and dust with your favorite apple spices - I use cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. You can bake that about 30 minutes at the same temperature as the peppers.

Let's see...that's two veggies and a fruit. and it's another 2 points for the apple - so a 6 point meal.

I do feel so virtuous!
*wink*

In a Snowstorm? It's Time for Soup

Thursday night, in advance of the storm, I had a yen to make soup over the weekend. I was stunned when I got to the store and discovered that the shelves were mostly bare...but you know what? No one had seen this recipe yet, I guess, because I was able to pick up what I didn't have in the larder to make Mushroom Barley Soup with Cannelini Beans and Cabbage!

I had most everything but I needed mushrooms and cabbage:

I'm not the best food photographer, but this mixture of red onions (which is what I had), garlic, mushrooms, thyme, and red wine (I didn't have sherry) looked so yummy as it cooked away, I ran for the camera.

That was probably the toughest part of making this soup, chopping the various ingredients. Simplicity was tossing in cannelini beans and shredded cabbage - I bought red, which the Fat Free Vegan used in her version, because there wasn't any other in the store. The bag of pre-shredded was 2 ounces less than the recipe called for, but it was fine that way, after all...

Doesn't that just look yummy? Other things I did? Well, I didn't have the smoked paprika - so I used 1 Teaspoon of regular paprika. And then I pulled out the Cayenne Pepper as FFV suggests. "A pinch" became probably close to 1/3 teaspoon (I shook it in...I like spicy).

I think I'll invest in a bottle of sherry and the smoked paprika. I'd love to make this once and see if I like my version better or hers! I LOVED mine!

And I love that FFV calculates the nutrition content, including the point values for Weight Watchers - a serving of this was 2.6 points! I rounded out the meal with this:

Two teaspoons of olive oil with McCormicks Spicy Blend for seasoning, and a whole grain roll from the grocery's bakery. Total points? 6.

Oh, yes, that roll? Well when I got to the bakery aisle? There was practically no bread of any sort to be found. Apparently folks don't love whole grain rolls as there were just two bags of these? That suited me just fine...
*wink*

Stay warm if you're caught up in this monster storm...and batten down the hatches, as I hear there's another on schedule to hit the mid-Atlantic this Tuesday! Hmm...I'm going to start planning what I'll make for comfort food then!