Recipes!

I have it on good authority (thanks, Marnie!) that this recipe is very tasty, so I'm sharing it here! It sounds delicious, so I will try these Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas at my earliest opportunity!

In the meantime, this is what I'm starting tonight, just to marinate. I will cook it tomorrow. If you've never had Peruvian Chicken, you are SO missing out! This recipe is pretty close to the yumminess you get at any of the various Pollo a la Brasa places around here.

PERUVIAN CHICKEN

1 4lb chicken
4 T white vinegar
3 T white wine
3 T canola oil
2 ½ T garlic powder
2 T paprika
2 T cumin
2 t black pepper
1 t salt
juice of 1 lemon
1 qt cold water

Combine vinegar, wine, and oil with garlic powder, paprika, cumin, pepper, and salt. Mix well.

Add lemon juice to cold water. Trim excess fat from chicken. Wash chicken thoroughly with lemon water. Place chicken in a ziplock bag; pour spice mixture over chicken, rubbing it into every surface. Try to get as much spice mixture under the skin as much as possible. Seal chicken in bag and refrigerate 2 to 24 hours. (The longer it marinates, the better, just not more than 24 hours.) 

Preheat oven to 300° and cook chicken for 1 ½ hours, or until cooked through. Add a couple tablespoons of water to the marinade, and baste the chicken with it every 15 minutes or so while it's baking. Make sure the last glazing has time to cook thoroughly.


DIPPING SAUCE

½ c mayonnaise
2 T mustard
3 T lime juice
1 T chili-garlic sauce (Asian), or to taste

Cauliflower Fritters!!

Sorry to keep you waiting so long for more words of ... er, wisdom? Whining? Whatever. No whining tonight, just happy happy taste buds! I just made cauliflower fritters from skinnytaste.com, and decided to pair them with Zesty Avocado Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing, from the same awesome site! Holy mackerel, SO DELICIOUS!! And easy-peasy to make!

Lousy picture, but yummy food. Well, except the (clearly) too-old-to-be-tasty cucumbers, which don't even have enough life left in them to Pretend to be green. :-/

Anyway, skinnytaste is great for any of you who do the Weight Watchers thing; in addition to usual nutrition content, they also give the "old points" and "new points" for WWs.

Radishes...

Not something I would normally associate with Brussels sprouts... you? Well, I just oven-roasted a bunch of radishes because someone told me that they were tasty that way, and that they don't much taste like radishes. I don't *mind* the taste of raw radishes, I just don't ever think to eat them, because in my youth, they were just a garnish; no one ever actually Ate them, except my father, who was weird that way.

Anyway, so I roasted these radishes (sorry, no pics... I gobbled them up too fast!), just like I do Brussels sprouts, in about a 400-degree oven (in this case, the toaster oven, since I just had a single bunch), drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. Well, they're just delicious, that's all. They taste a Lot like roasted Brussels sprouts, and I'm not sure why. I never would have thought they were from the same vegetable family; they grow completely differently, and they are physically nothing alike. A vegetable conundrum, if you will. They do have a little bit of a peppery finish, unlike the leetle cabbages. I say give 'em a shot!

On the subject of little noshes (oh, did I forget to mention that the radishes were a snack? Whoops.), does anyone out there have any zippy ideas for easy, healthy snacks to have around? That require little or no prep? Low in carbs/fat/sodium (you know, all the things I love)? One of my favorite things is sliced cucumbers with little tiny slices of cheese on top, but I'm sure the cheese is a bad idea. Still better than Pringles and spray cheese, but I would like to set the bar a bit higher than that.

Comments, suggestions, welcome as always.

From my friend, Donna!

Donna from out in the rainy NW here. I've been a "convenient vegetarian" for about 12 years now. It was the movie "Babe" that convinced me that I didn't feel right eating animals anymore, but I use the term "convenient" because I usually go along with the crowd when invited out to dinner, and will eat the occasional turkey for Thanksgiving, etc. But recently I saw the movie, "Forks Over Knives," through Netflix, and am now working on becoming vegan. (Man, that ice cream is hard to give up, tho!) The movie is great—and definitely thought-provoking, especially when they show how adapting a vegan diet can help with not just diabetes and heart disease, but cancer, too. And I thought this Huffington Post article, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/shattering-the-meat-myth_b_214390.html was interesting, as well, with its title, "Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians."

But I know what you mean about the high cost of fresh fruits and vegetables--I can't get over paying $2 to $3 for ONE green pepper. Thought this article had some good ideas on healthy, low-cost meals: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/vegetarian-eating-on-a-budget.aspx .

But I think you have two great things going for you in adapting a new diet. 1)It seems like you LIKE to cook! This is great, as you don't mind spending time in the kitchen and trying new recipes. (I, on the other hand, think that spending any more than 10 minutes fixing a meal is a waste of my time and I'd rather be doing something--anything! else.) 2) You live alone and don't have to fix, or be around other meals, that don't go along with your diet. A friend of mine signed up with a CSA--getting different fresh veggies every other week--hoping her veg-hating husband might also enjoy the new tastes, but it was a disaster, as she ended up with way too much fresh (and ultimately rotting) produce and having to fix two different meals every night.

Lastly, and speaking from experience, I would encourage you to consider getting another dog or walking your friends' or family's dogs on a regular basis. Knowing my dog has been inside all day is the biggest impetus to get me outside with her on an invigorating, calorie-busting walk. And I invariably feel better afterward!

Didn’t mean for this to get so long, but wanted to say that I'm sorry your health situation has forced you into this change in diet, but I hope/believe that you will definitely benefit from a new way of eating! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go buy a mango and some pepitas and start massaging that head of kale in my fridge! Thanks for the new recipes!

Best wishes and happy eating, Mary!
~Donna
Ps. Morningstar “bacon” isn’t the real thing, but it’s not a bad substitute. Had it this morning…and my dog Lacey definitely approves!

Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians

www.huffingtonpost.com

Going through the comments of some of my recent posts, I noticed the frequently stated notion that eating meat was an essential step in human evolution. While this notion may comfort the meat industry, it's simply not true, scientifically.

Snacks!

I had an impromptu Artists' Play Date yesterday afternoon with my dear friend, Lilly. Her patio was the perfect setting for a creative outing; the sun was warm on my back, there was a beautiful breeze gently billowing our pages (em, along with the occasional flying-off-the-table of plastic paint dishes, which resulted in some hilarity while Lilly wrestled the water hose for clean-up), and Pandora fed our creative souls with pieces from George Winston, Tuck & Patti, and Eva Cassidy. It was just lovely. And THEN... Lilly comes out with our snack! Just look at how yummy! That dip for the apples is almond butter - delicious! Red pepper hummus for the carrots and assorted crisps. What a truly delightful afternoon!

For dinner last night I made Massaged Kale Salad (recipe below) and had leftover quinoa and roasted Brussels sprouts from the other night, and a couple clementines for dessert. Successful day! :)

This salad is SO GOOD!

MASSAGED KALE SALAD
(from Aarti Sequeira, "Aarti Party" on food network)

Ingredients

• 1 bunch kale (black kale is especially good), stalks removed and discarded, leaves thinly sliced
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• Kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons honey
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 mango, diced small (about 1 cup)
• Small handful toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds), about 2 rounded tablespoons

Directions

In large serving bowl, add the kale, half of lemon juice, a drizzle of oil and a little kosher salt. Massage until the kale starts to soften and wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside while you make the dressing.
In a small bowl, whisk remaining lemon juice with the honey and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stream in the 1/4 cup of oil while whisking until a dressing forms, and you like how it tastes.
Pour the dressing over the kale, and add the mango and pepitas. Toss and serve.

Isn't this pretty? It's my breakfast sandwich! 12-grain bread, tahini and a leetle mayo, one egg - fried in a non-stick pan with a little oil spray, two slices tomato, one skinny slice of cheddar cheese,* and a pile o' sprouts. YUM.

*I am a cheese fiend, people. I have never met a cheese I didn't like, so it's pretty hard for me to be judicious in my portion control. Although buying a two-pound block of sharp cheddar is what I *wanted* to do, I went to the deli section instead and bought a half pound of THINLY sliced cheddar. The price/lb was higher, but I spent less, and I have found that I can take a slice of it and be happy with that, rather than the slabs I would have carved from the large hunk.

Not your auntie's scallops, I'm afraid.

So... this is a lesson in how to screw up a scallop dinner. In my humble opinion, scallops should be eaten in a nice heavy cream sauce, full of calories and yumminess. What you DON'T want to do is overcook them. *sigh*

I marinated them for about ten minutes in a balsamic vinegar/lemon juice/olive oil/orange zest kind of concoction, adapted from an epicurious.com recipe, then sauteed them in the marinade. They were supposed to cook for like 2 minutes, but I was also keeping an eye on the roasting Brussels sprouts and the quinoa, so time May or may not have slipped away from me. In any case, the succulent little nuggets were just not as ... succulent as they should have been. Taste wasn't bad, just underwhelming when all my taste buds could think of was the amazing scallop casserole that my ex-husband's aunt used to make for Thanksgiving dinner (it was Maine; it's obligatory to have some sort of sea creature at all festive occasions). That sucker was LOADED with creamy goodness. *wistful sigh*

Anywayy, I also cooked some quinoa, just plain; I wasn't really prepared to do anything more creative, but it was a mixture of a few different varieties, so it was actually very tasty by itself. The plate looked really rather boring, so I sliced up some cucumber to lighten things up a bit. The plate is still fairly monochromatic, but the Brussels sprouts were SO good, I saved them for last. They were just oven-roasted with a little olive oil, and a LITTLE salt (that's for my daughters, who literally hide the salt shaker from me; I have a little addiction problem, OK? I'm working on it).

Watermelon for dessert, and I would say that I have had a pretty successful day of food. Yayy!

My newest challenge

So. I recently had some blood tests, mostly I went for my thyroid test (which was *ahem* long overdue), but the doc also wanted a blood glucose test and a vitamin D test. I officially flunked all of them. The thyroid one was no surprise, although the magnitude of the imbalance was a bit of a jolt, even to my doctor. The normal range of TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is .5 to 4.5/5.0; mine came back at 109. Your eyes did not deceive you, there was no decimal in that number. Yeah, so that happened.

My blood sugar, the doc reported, was at "diabetic levels." She said, "this may in part be due to the thyroid imbalance, and may be improved with lifestyle changes." Hmm, by 'lifestyle changes,' I'm betting she was referring to binges of Pringles and spray cheese, or eating Chef Boyardee ravioli several times a week. Yes, guilty as hell on both counts.

ANYway, since I am now officially and forever to be labeled as a diabetic, I have to make some dietary changes whether I like it or not. Mostly because (as one of my friends accurately posted on Facebook) healthy eating - while depressingly expensive - is cheaper than medical care for unhealthy eating.

I now am the proud owner of a large head of kale, some quinoa, whole grain bread, and a bunch of other assorted veggies and fruit. I am going to make some sort of a quinoa/kale salad that's going to be so damned healthy I will feel like I'm 20 again. Yikes. What a scary thought!

As always, comments, suggestions, recipes, etc. are welcome! Thanks for playing.