Category — Dessert

After work I stopped at the supermarket and picked up some fruits and veggies for the next few days.  I found some great sales and ended up buying more than I anticipated – but the produce section was calling my name.  I have missed my fruits and veggies!

For dinner, we started with a salad – organic herb salad mix, cucumber, red pepper and cherry tomatoes.  I added a little bit of feta and dressed it with champagne vinegar and olive oil.

The main course included a Gardenburger Veggie Burger  on a Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat Deli Flat with a yellow tomato, ketchup and spinach. 

I also made some sweet potato fries.  First I peeled and sliced two sweet potatoes with my mandolin.  I then microwaved the sweet potato fries for 2 minutes to start the cooking process.  Lastly, I drizzled some olive oil and kosher salt on the fries and baked them at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and then broiled them for about 5.

Those were some amazing fries – slightly soft with a crisp outer layer.  Very simple too!

Lastly, I finished off my meal with dessert – a blood orange.

What a great meal – full of veggies!

Matt and I are going to watch the Biggest Loser from last week in a few minutes – I better get going!

After realizing that there is way too much food in our house and we leave Tuesday for Disney, we decided not to make the planned dinner for the evening.  Instead, we trudged through the lasagna and made a dent in our veggie drawer.

First up – Hugh Jass Salad a la Mama Pea (she is honestly one of my favorite bloggers out there and cracks me up with every post). 

Mixed greens, orange pepper, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumber, broccoli slaw, 1/2 an avocado, onion and a sprinkling of feta cheese.  I dressed the salad with a little bit of olive oil and Vincent Arroyo Balsamic Vinegar. 

Next up, a small portion of Pesto Lasagna with Spinach and Mushrooms. 

Last but not least…to satisfy my huge ice cream craving.  Hot Cocoa Edy’s Slow Churned Ice Cream with some caramel sauce.  I have been wanting some ice cream since catching up on Meghann’s blog – she has been eating ice cream out in Colorado. 

What a delicious dessert. 

I think Matt and I may make it a 3 for 3 movie viewing evening.  Tonight – the Hangover.  I love Bradley Cooper!

Today Matt and I tried a new shopping plaza that opened up about 25 minutes away – Legacy Place.  Wow.  I got to browse Anthropologie for the first time, try b-good, and walk around the most amazing Whole Foods I have ever seen.  First up…lunch at b-good.

I had a Veggie Burger Cousin Oliver style with avocado; I also had a side of sweet potato fries

Honestly…I was disappointed.  The veggie burger was very dry and blah.  The sweet potato fries were not crisp enough either….

The star of the meal was the Seasonal Side – Local Cauliflower with cheese and breadcrumbs

OMG this cauliflower was delish – perfectly steamed – the cheese was melty and the breadcrumbs added a nice crunch!  Even Matt, who is not a cauliflower fan, didn’t think this was bad. 

After some shopping – new pants at the GAP, and some running socks from City Sports, we ended up at the mecca of Whole Foods.  Words cannot describe this Whole Foods – pasta noodles being made before your eyes, a ginormous beer and wine section, and even a Trail Mix bar.  There was a Taco making bar, gelato bar and a huge assortment of sushi.  I think someone could have picked our jaws off the floor.  Needless to say, we spent our Whole Paycheck. 

We brought home dinner from Whole Foods – I had a salad with mixed greens, beets, feta cheese, onion and lentils.  To the salad, I added a little tuna salad…

We had to sample the cookies – I mean the selection was amazing!  Matt and I split pieces of the Sugar Cookie, Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip and Triple Chocolate Chunk

The sugar cookie had some cinnamon in it – I wish I loved cinnamon, but I just don’t.  I loved the Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip and Triple Chocolate Chunk…can’t wait to have some more tomorrow. 

Matt bought Beatles Rock Band today – I have a feeling that will be on for a while in our household tonight.

Hello blog readers!  This is Matt, the often mentioned husband, doing a special report. I thought that Heather needed a little break from posting, so I’m filling in for this post.  The topic of the day is…. drum-roll please… MILK!  I’m going to share my thoughts on a variety of different milks that I did some very un-scientific testing on.

Our subjects for today are Skim Milk, Oat Milk, Rice Milk and Soy Milk.  Around our house, we usually drink the skim variety, and you’ll often see oat milk get used in different ways.  Rice and soy are not usually our common choices for us.  For the test, I tried out the milks during breakfast using Island Vanilla Kashi Cereal.

Skim Milk
I have been drinking skim milk for a really long time.  When I was around 4 years old, some cholesterol tests showed that the eating habits in our family weren’t so great, so my mother made some major changes, one of them being a switch from whole to skim milk.  Many years later, I still drink it and usually prefer it over 1%, 2% or whole.  But today, I’m being critical.  Because I will be trying four milks, I only did a small portion of cereal and milk.  Here are my thoughts on skim milk:

• Doesn’t bring much to the table (no pun intended)
• Taste is a little watery
• Cereal got a little soggy, but still had a little crunch
• Color is as you would expect… white!

Oat Milk
Next up was oat milk.  This milk is made from oatmeal, as the name would suggest, and it has become a favorite for Heather and I over the last year or two.  Even though we have a long relationship, I’m being critical and unbiased.  I used vanilla flavored oat milk.  Here are my thoughts:

• Very strong vanilla taste (not necessarily a bad thing)
• Creamier then the skim milk
• Has a slight “texture” to is, not sure if this is the right way to say it, but it kinda stays on your tongue a little longer then you would expect.
• Cereal got a little soggy, but not much different then skim milk.
• The color is a brownish/tan, sort of like oat meal… hmmm… interesting

Rice Milk
In an effort of full disclosure, I want to make sure that you know that I don’t believe that I have ever had rice milk before this experience.  I may be wrong though, there were some times back in my mid-20’s where I experimented with different milks and I may have tried Rice milk then, but it did not leave a big impression on me if I did.  This is also a vanilla flavored rice milk.  Here are my thoughts today:

• Creamy
• Very nice flavor
• Not an overpowering vanilla, very pleasant
• Appearance and thickness are similar to skim milk

Soy Milk
I used to drink soy milk a lot.  I went through a time where skim milk just wasn’t cutting it for me, so I tried out soy when it was all the rage in the early 2000’s.  There are so many types of soy milk out there, but today I went with a vanilla soy milk.  Here were my thoughts:

• Distinct flavor, almost nutty tasting
• Somewhat creamy but at the same time watery
• The vanilla flavor is a little weak
• Off-white coloring

Summary
I feel that skim milk is the traditional, sometimes taken for granted, grandfather of the group.  Oat milk is probably best left for adding to things other then cereal, it’s actually really good when you make oatmeal with it!  Rice milk was the newbie to the scene, but I’m not sure if can stand on it’s own.  Soy milk has been around for a while, and in my experience you have to try a bunch of different brands before you find the one that you like, but finding a somewhat healthy one that tastes good can be tough.

The Verdict
I decided that Rice milk was my favorite for the application of cereal.  I think that its flavor worked well, the creaminess of it was really good and it was similar to cow milk in appearance.  So I decided to give it one more test just to make sure this was the way to go… the cookie test!

It passed with flying colors!  What are your thoughts?  Do you have a favorite non-cow milk?

Thanks for reading!  Make sure you let Heather know that I did a good job! I get a cookie for every comment, so comment a lot!     Till next time, bye!

If you noticed earlier, I did not post my lunch.  I was at a luncheon with new students and their family members and felt a little odd taking pictures of my food.  I ate a whole wheat roll with 2 pieces of gouda cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a little mayo.  I also consumed massive amounts of Caesar salad.   Massive.

After my consumption of this cookie

I ate.  And ate.  I started with a chocolate crunch rice cake – I have developed a love for these things.

An unpictured apple AND two more of the cookies I had enjoyed early. 

Am I mad at myself for all I ate today.  Yes.  Is there anything I can do about it now?  No.  It is a very stressful time right now in my job and I recognize that I am a stress eater.  Also, today I spent a lot of time at my desk doing mindless editing.  Very tedious, very time consuming, very frustrating.  I ate to keep my mind occupied. 

Is my stress eating something I am working on – absolutely.  But I also realize it is something I cannot focus on now – I need to get through the next 7 days (I will be working every day straight for 13 days – I am only on day 5).  The next few days, my hours will be crazy – for example, tomorrow I am working from 3:30 pm until probably about 10 pm.  Not so normal. 

I am going to do my best to run next Monday and Tuesday to relieve some stress.  Next Sunday and Monday and I want to try to think of ways I can avoid this excessive stress eating. 

Ok…off my soapbox. 

On to more exciting things….like more food!

Today is the end of the New Recipe Challenge I started on Sunday.  Today was the last new recipe I had to try – Southwest Polenta and Vegetables.  On Wednesday I had prepped some of the veggies for this dish – I cut the onion, minced the garlic and diced two peppers.  The early prep meant this dinner came together pretty quickly. 

I followed this dinner pretty closely except I did not use any zucchini and instead used two peppers – a red and yellow one. 

Look at this delicious mixture cooking on the stovetop

I used frozen corn (I forgot to buy corn at the farmers’ market earlier in the week).

In the casserole dish on top of the sliced polenta

We then topped this mixture with some reduced fat cheddar cheese.

Similar to the recipe, we served this dish with sautéed spinach. 

I sautéed the spinach in the same skilled that I cooked the veggie mixture in – hence the pieces of veggies mixed in with the spinach.

With a piece of the polenta with some veggies

This meal is excellent and makes A LOT.  Matt enjoyed it and gave it the ultimate approval – he would make it again.  I broke up the polenta into little pieces and enjoyed some in most bites.  The cheese and spices gave this dish some great flavors without being too overpowering.  The peppers and corn were sweet and proved to be a nice contrast to the tomato, onion and garlic.  Loved it. 

For dessert, we made the Banana Soft Serve I have been seeing a lot of lately.  I have been freezing bananas for a few weeks now and had a nice stash set aside for this dessert. 

We had some difficulty with the food processor and had to stop it a few times to break up the large banana chunks but we persevered and enjoyed an amazing treat.  

With some melted chocolate chips drizzled on top.  OMG this was absolutely amazing.  Both Matt and I could not believe this contained only one ingredient (well minus the chocolate on top) – banana.  How simple yet delicious.  The “soft serve” was airy and very rich – in a good way.  How could you go wrong with bananas and chocolate.  I’m already imagining how to top this next time…I’m seeing melted Soynut butter in my future…

I need to get some sleep tonight – its going to be a long day tomorrow – especially in the middle of Tropical Storm Danny!

I have been craving ice cream all day.  I really wanted to go out for ice cream, but Matt and I are going away this weekend – I know there will be some indulgent eating (and some ice cream). 

I wasn’t very hungry after dinner, but I wanted something sweet.  I looked in the freezer and saw one of my favorite things – Edy’s Slow Churned Ice Cream Snack Cup – in Mint Chocolate Chips (these also now come in Coffee – I am beyond excited).

Although a little expensive, I love these little snack cups.  Matt and I have different tastes in ice cream and whenever we normally buy ice cream, we eat it once or twice to find it in the freezer a few months later completely freezer burned.  Yuck.  We would then end up throwing it away. 

These snack cups, on the other hand, are a perfect portion size.  They don’t take up too much space and can always be on hand to satisfy that ice cream craving. 

Tonight I wanted a milk shake with my Mint Chocolate Chip.

I took 1/2 of the container and put it in a small glass

I then added a little of this

Did a little mashing with that spoon and ended up with this

A little thicker then a milk shake, but perfect to eat with a spoon.  No dirty blender either! 

My craving has been satisfied and now I am off to read my book.  See you in the morning!

One of my reasons for starting this blog is to increase my recipe repertoire.  Tonight we tried a new dish – Lemon-Artichoke chicken from the January/February 2009 issue of Clean Eating magazine.  I do not subscribe to this magazine, but have picked up a few of the issues.  After searching the internet, I was able to find the recipe here. 

We had some issues with the chicken smoking and almost setting off the fire alarm – next time I would not cook the chicken on medium to medium-high heat as the recipe called for, but on medium.  Hopefully this will reduce the smoking. 

Ready to eat

Come on – don’t you want to make this yourself…

My plate (we served this over whole wheat penne)

With some cucumber and orange pepper

And for dessert, two blondie cupcakes and some moo juice

Going Greener:  I read this article today from the NY Times regarding the bill that is trying to prevent antibiotics used to spur animal growth in farm animals.  Although lobbying by farm organizations will probably prevent this bill from being passed, it is an important step forward in reducing the amount of antibiotics in our food.  What do you think of this bill?  Do you think about it when you are eating meat? 

I know I am more aware now after reading this article and will start looking for antibiotic free meat when shopping.