Operation: Quit Eating Crap

Guys, I'm gonna talk about something besides pregnancy.

WHAT?!

Yep, it's happening.

Here's what I would like to discuss:

The awesomeness of Meal Planning.

First, let's start with this: I'm not a big planner.  So, doing something like weekly meal planning is kind of a big deal for me.  

I'm definitely more of a Go to the Grocery Store Every. Single. Day. kind of person, and I kind of hate this about myself.

I hate going to the grocery store.

And in the very near future I fear it will be rather impractical with a newborn in tow.

In fact I loathe people at the grocery store with small children and I have vowed to never do this unless absolutely necessary.  Baby can stay with Daddy for half an hour!

Since I hate going to the grocery store I think meal planning is the greatest idea ever invented...in concept.

I've pondered meal planning and I've attempted meal planning.

I even wrote about Meal Planning.

But the part of my brain that requires me to plan out a week of meals and what goes into each of those meals does not work very well and no matter how I try to remedy the situation I still leave the grocery store missing some key ingredient and have to go back anyway...so I just shut that part of my brain off, quit trying and kept going to the grocery store every day.

Until the husband stepped in.

I'm not sure when or why he decided to bring up the idea of Weekly Meal Planning but he presented it to me as a team effort in which we'd sit down once a week and plan out our meals and then go shop for those meals together.  So if HE was interested in helping me make meal planning a reality I was on board.  

I also went ahead and let him think meal planning was totally his idea and something brand new that I'd never thought of.

Btw I think this works on all husbands, let them think the idea is THEIRS and they're way more interested in helping you.

So, we started meal planning.

And I LOVE IT.

On Fridays we sit down and have a chat about what we should cook for the week and Saturdays (Farmer's Market Day!) we shop for the week.  

And then THE BEST PART, Dom is always inspired to pick something to cook once a week and as long as it's all planned out and all the ingredients are on hand, HE COOKS ONCE A WEEK.

And it's like a little slice of heaven because I HATE COOKING.

Yes, the cook in the house hates cooking.  But what're you gonna do.  I'm jobless, he works too much, clearly I should be in charge of cooking whether I like it or not.

So, in a nutshell WEEKLY MEAL PLANNING IS AWESOME and you should all do it.  We also attempt to double recipes that are easily doubleable (totally not a word, I made it up) and freeze the extras so on nights when cooking is the last thing on your mind, VOILA! There's something to heat up in the freezer!

Now, the real reason I'm writing about meal planning...

I suck at it when my husband is gone.

Surprise, surprise!

And unfortunately he's been gone A LOT lately.  So, what do I do when he's gone?

I eat crap.

I eat a lot of crap.

And I have no idea why.

When he's here I'm really good about being the responsible eater in this home.  I cook 5-6 nights a week and I do not cook crap (unless I'm craving Fried Chicken).  Crap being fried greasy food or carbs, there's not a lot of carbs in this household, etc.  And we don't buy snacks like potato chips, so generally speaking there's not a lot of "bad" food in our house.

Lots of protein and lots of fresh veggies.

You get the picture.

BUT by myself I just can't do it.  I hate cooking so I go for simple when it's just me.  And guess what's simple?

Carbs are simple.

Chicken with broccoli, pasta and parmesan.  

Chicken with cous cous.  

Cereal.  

Pizza.  

Indian.  

All carb heavy and all are wreaking havoc on my digestive system.

 So, what's a girl to do?  A pregnant tired girl, no less.  No, better, a pregnant tired girl who HATES COOKING!

There's no brilliant solution is there?  I just have to suck it up and keep cooking...or eat crap.  It's Thursday and we got back from Oregon on Tuesday, guess how many times I've already been to the grocery store?

If you guessed 3 you'd be right.

Sigh.  Seriously, right back where I started.  Old habits die hard.

But at least I haven't eaten crap this week...

Some Updates

I decided I owe you guys a few updates.

I wrote about a few things that I feel you need to know how they turned out.

Is this pretending you care more than you do?

Probably.

Nevertheless, updates you shall have.

1. Italiano - As suspected my class is full of old men.  Why did I think that an Italian class would be full of old men and why is my Italian class full of old men?  Both good questions.  I have no idea.  So, there's 4 old men (with Italian last names, maybe they decided they can't die without seeing the land of their ancestors?) 1 older lady and 1 older guy.

Old means over 50 and older means over 40 =)

So, no bueno on making friends UNTIL this past Tuesday, my 3rd class we had a brand new student....AND she's young, married and pretty!  Now I just have to figure out if she's cool...we have 5 more weeks to become friends.

On the Italian leaning front you'll all be happy to hear I'm like totally the best in my class.  Guess that's what $500 spent on Rosetta Stone gets you, Italian I is review.  Awesome.

2. Fried Chicken - My fried chicken turned out pretty damn good I must say.  It needed WAY more seasoning than I used and I think buttermilk is probably a better egg wash than egg and water but the craving is gone and it was tasty.  I would say first fried chicken attempt = success!

3. My assload of maternity clothes that I finally splurged on at Old Navy.  Well, they arrived.  I tried them on.  And they went immediately back in their package and sent back to Old Navy.

I'm officially running out of clothes to wear now.  I seem to be in clothing limbo land.

I have two problems.  One is that my bump is too big for the majority of my regular clothes.  Two is that my bump is too SMALL for the majority of maternity clothes.

Seriously Old Navy, I bought everything in XS, the top part of the dresses fit fine even over the giant boobs and then just under the boobs the dresses would just TENT!!!!!  SO MUCH EXTRA FABRIC that I look like I've been swallowed by a mumu.  Why, WHY?  I JUST NEED A LITTLE EXTRA ROOM IN THE BELLY.  I do not need yards upon yards of fabric.

I think they should make different stages of maternity clothes, like 1, 2 and 3 because while it's possible that I may fit into some of these clothes that I just sent back sometime toward the end of my pregnancy, the fact is that I need clothes to fit me NOW, not just at the end.

So, here I am in maternity limbo.  With nothing to wear.

And that's it for me today.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter weekend and had an extra day off work.

My family came down for a quick visit and my weekend of being a tourist has left me EXHAUSTED today.

I'll be on the couch if you need me.

Chicken

Yes, my post really is about chicken.

And it has nothing to do with pregnancy or babies.

It's deep.

And heartfelt.

And honest.

Ok, I'm full of shit, my post is just about fried chicken.

While watching The Help on my flight out to NYC a few weeks ago I decided I should make fried chicken one night when I got back home.

Once home I promptly forgot.

Then about a week ago I got out of my car at Safeway and there was this heavenly scent in the air...fried chicken!

Oh right, I was going to make fried chicken!

So, Saturday when we planned out our weekly meals (this is new for us btw and AWESOME, I highly recommend weekly meal planning!) I threw fried chicken on the list for Thursday night.

Now here we are, it's Thursday and I'm left with one small problem.

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO MAKE FRIED CHICKEN.

I've never made fried chicken before.

It's not that hard is it?

I've looked up a bunch of recipes and I've decided it goes something like this.

Heat some oil in a frying pan.

Make an egg wash, coat chicken in the egg wash and flour and fry.

But is that all there is to it?

I also HATE touching raw chicken!!!  How am I going to coat the chicken in an egg wash and flour without touching it?

Maybe I should just say screw the chicken and order some pizza.

I know there must be some southern ladies out there (talk about a stereotype!  ALL southerners know how to fry chicken clearly =) Anyone have some fried chicken tips?  Or great fried chicken recipes?

Kid-Friendly Dinner Party Ideas

We're having a dinner party tomorrow night.

But our guests are half kids.

2 other couples and their 4 kids to be precise.

Since we don't have kids yet I'm not used to cooking for a child's palate.

My 5 year old niece likes to say to me "You don't cook for kid's much do you?"

No, Parker, I don't. Thanks for noticing.

My chili didn't have beans and it was too spicy, my taco soup was too spicy and my enchiladas were too spicy according to Parker.

The theme being...too spicy.

Got it.

But now I'm paranoid that kids don't like my cooking.

I changed my menu three times, but have finally landed on what I hope is the final decision.

Cheesy Beef Enchiladas

source

and

Grown-Up Gouda and Bacon Mac & Cheese

source

Parents, what do you think?

Will kids eat enchiladas and mac & cheese? Specifically Gouda mac & cheese?

Or do I need to change my menu again?

Paleo Chili

It's summer here in Oz and yet raining almost every day and I find myself making soups and stews...subconsciously I obviously think January means winter regardless of the temps outside.

So, here is a recipe for my paleo chili. Paleo because it fits into the Paleo Diet which I have been following for the last few years with a few modifications, ie. I still eat dairy though only in small amounts. Originally the hubs and I started this diet to get fit for our wedding and continued with it off and on and now we've gone back to it because of some medical issues regarding insulin. So now the paleo diet is an easy way for me to stay healthy.

Originally I found this on some paleo website but have changed it so much from the original that it is now mine.

So, without further ado.

Ingredients:

2 lbs lean hamburger meat

1/2 onion diced

1 green pepper chopped

mushrooms chopped (as many or few as you like)

2-3 hot peppers, jalapenos or habaneros diced (depending on spiciness you want/can tolerate)

6 cloves of garlic minced

1 big can whole tomatoes (not the 15 oz. ones, the bigger ones, what are they 20 oz? 24 oz? I'm in Oz where everything is in grams, so I don't have a can in the house to confirm =)

1 15 oz. can tomato sauce

2 1/2 TBSP cumin

2 1/2 TBSP chili powder

pepper to taste

salt to taste

To Garnish:

sour cream

shredded cheese

onions (I use the other half of the onion I used in the recipe)

Brown meat and onion in large pot, add pepper to taste.

Add green pepper, mushroom, garlic and jalapenos and continue to cook for another 5 minutes just so the pepper and mushroom begin to soften.

Stir in the can of tomatoes, tomato sauce, cumin and chili powder.

Add salt to taste.

I also have a tendency to add a bit of water here, I put some water in the tomato sauce can, just a 1/4-1/2 way full and pour it in as well.

Bring to a boil then put a lid on it and turn it down to simmer. Let it simmer for 1-4 hours (or longer if you like, it just intensifies flavors the longer it cooks).

Intermittently check the chili and stir and skim off any grease.

After your designated cook time, be it 1 or 4 hours, remove the lid and let it cook down on a low heat for another 20 minutes or so before serving just to thicken it a bit.

Add shredded cheese, a dollop of sour cream and some raw diced onions for crunch.

I love making this and then putting it in the freezer, it's a fantastic surprise to not feel like cooking and opening up the freezer and realizing you have wonderful homemade chili that just needs to be reheated.

Serves 6-8

Enjoy!

Taco Soup

This recipe is from my little sister, who I think got it from a friend of hers, so I'll just continue to pass it along. I've changed it a bit from hers, but not too much. It's the simplest and yummiest soup in the world.

Ingredients:

1 lb. hamburger meat

1 small onion, chopped

1 can corn

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 can black beans

1 can pinto beans

jalapenos to taste

1 packet taco seasoning

1 packet ranch seasoning

(2 notes, first you can use other types of beans, I've made it with kidney beans when I couldn't find pinto beans here in Oz, still tastes delicious and you can also skip the ranch seasoning if you're having trouble finding it, again impossible to find here in Oz and still rather delicious without it)

For garnish:

shredded cheese

sour cream

tortilla chips

Brown the meat and the onion in a large pot then add the rest of the ingredients. DO NOT DRAIN canned veggies, leave everything in, just throw it in the pot. Bring to boil then lower to simmer and cover for as long as you want ;-) Cook it for at least an hour, but you can slow cook it in a crockpot and leave it on there all day as well.

Then when it's time to serve add cheese, a dollop of sour cream and crushed tortilla chips.

Feeds 6-8

HOW EASY IS THAT?

Plus there's enough leftovers for several days if you're just cooking for 2 people like I am.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Egg Poaching

Eggs. We eat eggs every morning. Every. Single. Morning.

We pretty much follow a paleo diet ( I mean lifestyle!) and don't eat many carbs and try to stay away from preservatives and sugar. In a nutshell if you couldn't hunt it or gather it you shouldn't eat it! So, protein in the morning is very important

I used to do a very simple scrambled eggs & bacon which takes all of 15 minutes and is damn near impossible to screw up.

Then Dom goes to the doctor and the doc tells him his cholesterol is slightly elevated and he shouldn't eat eggs every morning and he should incorporate whole grains. As I just said protein in the morning is important! So we switched to poached eggs and included one piece of whole grain toast.

Why are poached eggs any better? Well, we took a cooking class back in NYC earlier this year and Chef Jane told us that the cholesterol is lower in poached eggs and hard boiled eggs...something about them being immersed in water...unfortunately I don't remember the science. Anyway, I decided Chef Jane was brilliant and regardless of the fact that I can't prove she's right via Google I think she's right anyway and eggs have less cholesterol when poached. JUST GO WITH IT.

So, poached eggs, not as easy as scrambled. I SWEAR I used to make poached eggs when I was younger and could do it easily every time, NO PROBLEM. Well, I'm just gonna go ahead and blame the Australian stove on this one and tell you I HAVE FUCKED UP MORE POACHED EGGS IN MORE DIFFERENT WAYS THAN I THOUGHT POSSIBLE. Please excuse the profanity, it was necessary to portray just how amazed I am that you can screw up eggs in so many different ways.

In a few short weeks I have managed to:

Make GREY poached eggs, yes the color grey, it was like green eggs and ham...except grey.

Make poached eggs with a hard yolk and runny whites, like so runny they were still clear, but the yolk was DONE. I have no idea how I accomplished this.

Make poached eggs with little to no white still attached to it's yolk, so basically we had poached yolks. Awesome.

Break 3 eggs before they got to the water in quick succession one after the other, one I managed to break still in the fridge. That morning I used a total of 7 eggs before breakfast was done.

Make a poached egg in which the entire egg white turned into a bubble. That one turned out delicious, but boy was it weird looking, the bubble floated.

AND

I've made some absolutely PERFECT ones as well.

Ultimately I have discovered 2 things.

One, the water must be at a perfect almost boiling temperature, with bubbles along the bottom but not breaking the surface.

Two, they can't sit in the water TOO long, as in if the temperature is not right and they're not cooking fast enough some funky shit starts to happen to them. This is my theory on the grey eggs.

Breakfast unfortunately takes a good 30-40 minutes now a days because of the time it takes to boil the water, then the time it takes to lower the temp of the water so it's not boiling and it goes on and on. BUT if I'm helping lower Dom's cholesterol, then all is well in the world.

Anyone know if this cholesterol thing is accurate or is Chef Jane full of shit?

Adventures in Cooking: Jalfarezi

It's no great revelation to say I do not like cooking. It's not the worst thing in the world, I don't hate it, but all the chopping, dicing and prepping that goes into cooking...well I would rather be doing other things. But with the circumstances of my life at this time, not working and all, I have taken it upon myself to cook most days of the week...and get better at it.

Cooking has been an adventure in and of itself here in Australia because all the ingredients for dishes I normally prepare are all different and I've had to improvise most recipes. But, one good thing about cooking here is that I can try my hand at some asian cuisine because the ingredients are so readily available. No venturing off to specialty shops in the East Village looking for garam masala or other Indian spices. Like there's a whole Indian section in the grocery store. Awesome.

Chicken Jalfarezi here I come.

I even found an aussie recipe (did you know allrecipes has an aussie version, allrecipes.com.au) that has everything in aussie terminology so when the recipe calls for tomato puree I know it means aussie tomato puree which equates to American tomato sauce (just one of the trials and tribulations of trying to find equivalent ingredients here).

Anyway, I used this recipe, doubled all of the spices because the reviews said it was quite bland and tada!

It turned out lovely =) Very spicy and tasty with the doubled ingredients. Yay for me! Just call me Chef Barnes..er, Brennan, BarnesBrennan? ha!