you know you’re a health nut when…

…your dinner looks like this:

It’s Kath’s Orangey Bean Salad, only with pintos instead of navy beans (it’s what I had). Actually, it worked out perfectly because I used half the can of beans for Ellie’s sloppy joes, and planned on using the other half for this. I also had an avocado from the Southwestern Barley Salad I made a few nights ago, so it worked out quite well. I put it in my tracker and it was 350 calories.

If you hadn’t guessed already, Andrew was on his own for dinner tonight; he and his dad drove THREE HOURS to go look at tractors today. He would have had a cow if I’d put this in front of him on the table. Seriously. A cow. I’m pretty adamant about serving good, healthy food here in this house and making him (occasionally) eat things he doesn’t like, but even I wouldn’t make him eat this. He would have died.

I also brought these yummy treats to the table:

Strawberries, a bit of honey, cinnamon and some shredded coconut. I took a bite or two, but alas, was too full of beans to eat it! Blame it on this new thing I’m trying, it’s called “stop-eating-before-you’re-uncomfortably-full.”

Guess I’ll just have to save them for later tonight!

dinner x 2

I didn’t get a chance to post this last night, and my breakfast wasn’t anything worth taking photos of (although I did add frozen cranberries to my smoothie this morning–a first for me), so I figured I’d lump the photos in with tonight’s dinner.

I’ve been on what seems like a constant quest to empty out our tiny freezer here, which is filled with my stash of nuts and frozen fruits, among other things. I had one pound of beef remaining, and I didn’t want to make burgers. Sloppy Joes it was! I found Ellie Krieger’s recipe in the cookbook of hers’ that I brought with me to the hotel.

It’s made with lean ground beef, the usual ingredients (red pepper, tomato sauce), flavorings (molasses, Worcestershire sauce, etc..) and one from left field: pinto beans. As per my usual modus operandi with beans as an ingredient, I added half what the recipe called for. I do this because Andrew isn’t a huge fan of beans (who am I kidding? He doesn’t like them.), but I feel the need to at least try to stick to the integrity of the recipe, so I just use less. Or another variety altogether. Neither Andrew nor I like kidney beans, so I’ll sub pinto or white beans sometimes.

Beans fall into the “try them until you like them” category for me. There are so many things I hated as a kid that I now like (or at least don’t hate) as an adult because I’ve continued to eat them. I mean, I don’t LOVE beans, but I know they’re good for me and that they can be wonderful in certain dishes, so I eat them. And come on. How old are we? We can’t always eat only what we like.

I served Andrew’s sloppy joe on four leftover hawaiian sweet rolls that I kept intact and then sliced down the middle. They created a nice, large bun for his sandwich. I used some leftover dressing from the quinoa for a spinach salad I whipped up. It was all green (spinach, celery, green onions and cucumbers) with some dried cranberries for color and sweetness. Apparently, Andrew didn’t like the dressing (although he didn’t complain about it on the quinoa), so he pretty much turned up his nose at the salad. Oh well.

I do have another recipe for sloppy joes I’ve used before that he said he prefers, so I’ll either use that next time, or maybe I’ll come up with my own. I don’t normally do that (I really like using recipes from my cookbooks–it’s like crossing things off a list), but I really would like to make a healthy, from-scratch version that tastes like the canned stuff you get in the grocery store (because that’s what Andrew wants).

Anyone have any recommendations?

Tonight I made another of Ellie’s recipes, this time her Curried Butternut Squash Soup. Yet another meal driven by freezer contents, this one used up a bag of frozen squash puree.

Barefoot Contessa has multiple butternut squash soups, to include a curry version, so I’ll have to do a “butternut squash soup cook-off” sometime this fall to determine our “go-to” soup. I love doing cook-offs with recipes I have in cookbooks. There is just something about having made all the different versions and definitively picking a winner that gives me such satisfaction.

Both Andrew and I really liked it. It definitely had a strong curry flavor, with just a hint of sweetness. And so easy to make (especially when the squash is already cooked and pureed!); you basically saute some onions and garlic, add chicken stock, curry and squash and boil. I pureed it in two batches in my blender since the onions were still in chunks.

I served the soup with an eggplant and yogurt dish I’d torn out of a Food Network magazine forever ago. Another easy one, you just cut up eggplant, roast with shallots and garlic, then dress with yogurt and dill and toasted walnuts. YUM. Unfortunately, Andrew took one bite and declared he wouldn’t eat it, so I ate his, too. (I’d anticipated something like this, so I wisely divided up the two servings of eggplant into three smaller ones, so I really didn’t end up eating that much.)

They may not have all been home runs, but I enjoyed making them all and writing notes down in my cookbooks. I’ll be feasting on leftovers tomorrow!

cake, nap, quinoa

So… I had a little more than a bite of that chocolate cake. I. could. not. stop. eating. it. I had enough willpower to stop at about half, after I’d dug around to get all the yummy chocolate mousse sandwiched between the slices of cake. So, a pseudo-victory.

Within about an hour, I had succumbed to a sugar coma and ended up taking a TWO-HOUR nap on the couch. I must have been tired; I can’t sleep like that unless I am. It was like I didn’t know what hit me! It was the kind of nap in which you wake up hot, and thirsty and STILL tired.

I woke up just in time to start dinner. I made Patricia Wells’ Quinoa Salad with Spinach, Parsley and Spring Onions. I had to use a mix of quinoa and millet (another grain) since I didn’t have enough quinoa. It worked out really well; I was able to use both of them up–SCORE!

It was really yummy. I started by toasting the quinoa and millet, then cooked them in chicken stock until softened. Then all you do is pulse parsley, olive oil and lemon in a blender to make a vinaigrette, and add that to the quinoa, along with chopped scallions.

Before serving, you make, essentially, a salad dressing to toss with the spinach separately (pictured below) out of light cream, lemon juice, lemon zest and chives. I didn’t know “light” cream existed… I’d always bought heavy cream for all my cream needs. This recipe specified light cream and it didn’t occur to me until I got to Wegmans that it might be hard to find. Thankfully, it wasn’t hard at all; it was right next to the heavy cream. Go figure.

The dressing was great. Very light, lemony and chive-y. I love chives. I don’t get them nearly enough. I actually used chives from my herb garden from before we moved. I froze teaspoonfuls into ice cubes and transported them here. Freezing fresh herbs in ice cubes has been brilliant for me. I use them all the time. I’m so looking forward to having a garden next summer.

Conveniently, I had a mason jar from canning to use to shake up the dressing–sweet! I served the quinoa with some of my homemade apple pear sauce to round out the meal. We were going meatless tonight, whether Andrew wanted to or not! Actually, he noticed that tonight’s free hotel dinner was spaghetti and meatballs, so it didn’t take him long to ask, rather sheepishly, if he could go down the hall and get some. I was pretty peeved (someone back me up here), but relented if he’d wait until AFTER we finished dinner.

I had planned on serving wine with this dinner, but since we were going to be going to the last “Thursday at the Waterfront” downtown concert series event of the summer, I figured we didn’t need two alcoholic beverages in one night.

We met Andrew’s friend, Bart, downtown and listened to the concert for a little while before heading over to the Pearl Street Bar and Grill for some wings. I really didn’t want any (SO CLOSE to my goal!), but I didn’t want to be a stick-in-the-mud, so I went willingly. I chose water (instead of their awesome, seasonal BLUEBERRY beer) and ended up having just two of Andrew’s wings. I had to try them…what if they were to become a new favorite?? I won’t keep you in suspense, they weren’t. Don’t get me wrong, they were great. But nothing beats the Bar Bill and Pasquale’s, in my book.

Happy (almost) Friday!