I never write on here anymore! I eat food from my garden and gardens of others and fresh lean meat! I quit eating food out of a box and boy is life great! When I find myself slipping and eating boxed food it is so hard to detox that junk out of my system.

My favorite summer foods have been eggplant, okra and tomatoes! Not sure when my onions are ready to pick and my baby leeks look funny! I am making a gazpacho tomorrow night and will share it on here as I try to re-establish myself on my blog.

Life is still good. Really good actually!

Welcome Back!

WOW! It has been over a year since I have blogged and I have missed it immensely. I have gone through a lot of changes over the past year and one of them has been in my food preparation! I have always fought with my weight. (It being easier to gain than keep off the weight I had lost!). But last summer somehow something hit me. I found myself hiding under clothes especially during the summer. When at the pool I did not want to take off my cover up and did not want to get in the water because I really didn't want anyone to see me.

The last straw was during the summer when I was buying in-style baby-doll dresses and using them as tops! I realized I was just not happy. My pants were all way too small but I refused to buy a size 16!

So I did it!

What you ask?

I took control.

I went to the Medical University of South Carolina Weight Management Center. Told them my goal was to lose 30 pounds. I felt that was a safe weight where I would feel good. It was a 15 week program. No drugs and no magic pills! Just me and some protein bars and shakes and a light meal each day for the first 8 weeks and then the next 7 weeks I was on my own with their guidance. After the 8 week mark they have you follow the American Diabetes Association food exchange program. So for the past 168 days this has been my life. It has opened up a great new way of cooking and eating. I still make a lot of my old dishes but have updated them for a healthier lifestyle. I have lost over 50 pounds and now fit into a size 4! I feel fantastic and love life even more than before.

So welcome back to me and to you! I am glad to be back and glad to be able to share healthy meals for a family and help to maintain a healthy weight!

With my new found body and lifestyle life is oh so good!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sausage and Onions wth Garlic & Herb Risotto

Finally I cooked! It seems like forever that I cut and chopped and was able to spend a long time in the kitchen cooking. I love to cook. I don't really like to bake but cooking is my thing.

When I was in the grocery store the other day I got some Italian sausage from the butcher and saw a box of risotto (with dry herbs and stuff) and thought "I bet I could add stuff to my risotto to make it a bit healthier without preservatives (which I am sure were in the packet). So I got a box of "real" risotto (the kind that takes forever to cook) and went on my way.

I was sitting watching Food Network yesterday and Guy Fierri (I think that is his name) was making a pasta sauce that had sausage and ribs in it and it looked great so I decided to do some of what he did. Not sure I would ever use ribs in a pasta sauce but I bet the flavors were awesome.

I didn't have any peppers, which would have been great with the sausage, but I did have plenty of onions and lots of cans of organic canned tomatoes. I knew I could make it work. I did have to run out and get some garlic as I realized I was all out!

I paired the meal with a nice Caesar salad and it was fantastic. Dan asked were I got the recipe and when I told him I made it up he told me I should probably write it down! Sweet guy he is.

Garlic & Herb Risotto
Box of Risotto
3-5 garlic cloves chopped
olive oil
basil
Parmesan cheese

In bottom of pan heat some olive oil and add the garlic to saute it. Add the amount of water that is recommended on he risotto box and then add some basil and the risotto. Bring to a boil and add the Parmesan cheese and follow the directions on the box for cooking. I added a bit more Parmesan cheese at the end of cooking and stirred it.

Sausage & garlic & onions
4 Italian sausage (I used hot but my dish was hot) try sweet if you don't like spicy
2 onions
5-8 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes (with basil is great if plain add basil)
white wine
salt and pepper to taste




cook sausage in a bit of olive oil until done. Take them out of the pan and add the onions and garlic. (I actually ended up cutting up another onion for mine as this was only 1 onion and did not seem like enough.) (that is my $1.48 Santuko knife I got at Target on Friday!)

Saute the onions and garlic until they are done. In the meantime cut the sausage into pieces. When onions and garlic are done add some white wine to deglaze the pan and then add the sausage back in. Add the entire can of tomatoes and let simmer for at least 30 minutes. Mine was not watery at all and was somewhat thick.

Place on top of the risotto add a salad and Mangia!



With a homemade meal like this and a holiday the next day Life is Good!

Dos and Don'ts & Some Bargain Hunting

I have not really cooked much this weekend. Friday night Dan went out so I ate a peanut butter and fluff sandwich with a few low fat tortilla chips and salsa. Turns out I am allergic to this salsa! I had it a few weeks ago with some Puerto Rican food that a friend gave us and broke out in an itchy rash. We blamed the Puerto Rican food! NOT! I got the same rash and severe itchiness on Friday night after my 10 chips with salsa. It is Ortega and I am going to call and see what "spices" and "other ingredients" mean. Not sure what it could be but it took a Zyrtec and 2 Benadryls to calm it down. On the plus side I slept well (2 Benadryls will do that to you).

Last night Dan cooked steaks on the grill and they were awesome. It has been a while since we had a good steak as last week they went up in flames and the week before we were out at Kiawah and did not bring the handy dandy Montreal Steak seasoning that we like so much. We had a baked potato on the side and it was a good meal.

I am cooking something yummy tonight so I will be here tomorrow to tell you all about it and include loads of pictures.

On Friday I was at Target and they have a lot of their kitchen stuff for 75% to 90% off. I got lots of handy little kitchen tools that I didn't have for $0.64 to $0.98 that were normally $5-$10. Felt like I got a good deal on stuff I would like to have but wouldn't pay full price for. I also got a Hello Kitty popcorn popper (the kind I had when I was a kid) and the kids loved watching it pop the popcorn. And I love fresh popped popcorn.

I am sitting here laughing because I was on facebook and it showed that a friend was tagged in a picture. I went to look at the album and it had a bunch of pictures of people at a black tie event called "Black and White Ball" that was held just recently. As I am scanning the pictures there is a picture of 2 girls and in the background is an attractive woman all dressed up in her cocktail dress and she has a HUGE tattoo on her arm. There is also a picture with this woman in it where she is posing with others and you can see this HUGE tattoo. I am sorry it looks ridiculous. I have nothing against tattoos. Go ahead and get them to your hearts desire but you have to know if you have a tattoo that spans the entire top half of your arm that some day it will come back to haunt you! I am saying this is a haunting moment for this woman. See below and I hope you get as big a kick out of it as I did. I am keeping this for my daughter when she goes off to college to show that in that drunken moment when she thinks it is funny and cool to get the tattoo like all her friends, some day down the road it will not be funny and cool.

Now since tattoos were not popular when I was in college I am thankful and Life is Good for me since I can show my daughter that since I didn't get any she should not either (and if she does get one it should be in a very discreet place so that no one will see it when she gets a job and goes out in the real world!)

Food Photography

I really have nothing to say about cooking today. Last night I baked a whole chicken and made oven fried potatoes. I was smart and put it in the oven before picking the kids up and set the timer so that it would start cooking while we were gone and be done by 5:45. When we got home at 4:40 the house smelled great and I had much less pressure on myself to get things started. It was great and everyone loved it.

I don't have pictures but I did get my camera battery back and will be back in business and trying to improve my food photo skills. Good luck to me. So in honor of me trying to become a better food photographer I will be checking out some websites that help you. Wish me luck!

Now I doubt I will get this creative but the idea is cool.

Look for future photos like this from me. With the fresh herbs and wine glass in the background. Because really, what good is a nice bowl of pasta without a nice glass of red wine?

I am already learning and it is all free at this website so click here if you want to read about it or watch videos on it. And when my photography is looking great and the food tastes divine you know that Life is Good!

Sort of Sheperds Pie

My husband found his way to my blog yesterday. It must have been the self promotion on my facebook status that gave away the address and said I was back up and running. He gave me some constructive criticism and told me the food pictures do not do my food justice (I think that is a compliment!). So I will try to do better with pictures in the coming year but today no picture as I am waiting on my battery to be mailed to me. Hoping it gets here today. I have not tried to hide my blog from him but when I have taken pictures of our food in the past he certainly has looked at me strangely. Now I think he gets it!

Yesterday I was on the phone with a friend and she was talking about crockpots. I love my crockpot. I would put it right up there in my top 3 appliances with my food processor and bread machine (oh and my Kitchen Aid mixer). Food is so easy. I also love the cookbook Fix it and Forget it. I happened to be trying to clean out my recipe cabinet and get rid of recipes I had printed off the Internet that I would not make again, get rid of a cook book or 2 (didn't happen). And there looking at me was Fix it and Forget it and my friend telling me about crockpot macaroni and cheeses (which by the way is yummo!).

I looked in the freezer and had some ground venison and frozen corn and of some potatoes in my vegetable bowl. So I decided on Shepard's pie or something like it.

Crockpot Layered Sheppard's Pie - Adapted from Fix It and Forget It

6 potatoes -sliced thin (perfect from the food processor)

1.5-2 pounds ground meat - cooked

Frozen or canned corn

Frozen or canned peas (I did not have any so only used corn)

half an onion (I went light on the onion because my kids pick them out!)

1/4 cup beef broth (or water)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Spray the Crockpot with Pam. In layers ad

1. Potatoes 1/4

2. onion 1/2

sprinkle salt and pepper on layers

3. corn

4. potatoes 1/4

5. corn or peas if you want to add them

6. potatoes 1/4

7 onion 1/2

sprinkle salt and pepper

8. potatoes 1/4 and add beef broth or water

9. ground meat

10. cream of mushroom soup (spread this over the top so it is not a big blob)

Turn Crockpot on low and bake for 5-6 hours (or however long you would like). I put this in at 10 am and did not eat until 5:30 and it was perfect. I sprinkled cheese on it for the kids and they loved it too. And I think Dan ate a hearty helping when he got home after 9:00!

In the cold winter months with a Crockpot of hearty food and an appreciative family Life is Good!

Since my camera battery is dead here are a few pictures of us from our recent trip to Kiawah.

Dan and Lucy riding bikes on Kiawah

Me and Cambridge riding bikes on Kiawah

Soup for a Cold Winter's Night - Potato Leek Soup

I have to admit...I love soup. I love soup for dinner as it is hearty and can be low calorie and healthy. When I go to the grocery store I am always looking at vegetables wondering, can I make a soup with those? I buy vegetables I have no idea what to do with but when they are organic and on special I have a hard time resisting. Enter the bouquet of leeks I bought the other day. I have never had leek soup but thought it sounded good. I had seen a Knorr package for leek soup so I knew that I could throw something with it.

Now mind you I picked up ingredients before I looked at a recipe to get the basics. I did take a peek at the Knorrs package yesterday when I was running in to get a few items and saw that you could add potatoes. So that is where I started. I came home and googled leek potato soup and came up with 2 from the Food Network, Alton Brown (whom I really like) and Emeril (who I can tolerate). I chose the Emeril recipe for my basics as I had nearly every ingredient in the list (Yeah for me!!!)

I knew my kids wouldn't eat it so they got a piece of ham from the slice that I used and some veggies and a quesadilla. Now don't get me wrong. I am all about the family eating the same meal but I will not force the kids to eat something that I know they will not enjoy. You gotta give Lucy credit though as she is a soup lover and eats from the soup bar at school every day but this was "not to her liking." (Kind of like the day I went to school and ate lunch with her and she got the she-crab soup, I was shocked, and tasted it and told me "it's too crabby!" give the girl credit for trying). Just so you know I do not normally make 2 meals but this was one that I was sure they would not eat. Oh and just so you know it is not a pretty soup. It is actually very blah looking and looks something like liquidy paste but it tastes way better.

photo from here it is not my photo and here is credit for where I got it (I did not have all that stuff on top but the soup looks the same)

Potato Leek Soup (adapted from Emeril Lagasse)



3 Leeks
dash thyme
olive oil
ham, sliced into small pieces
1/2 cup dry white wine
5 cups chicken stock
1 to 1 1/4 pounds russet potatoes, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 to 3/4 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream - I used fat free half and half!
2 tablespoons snipped chives - for top I forgot these and had them in my herb garden



Cut the white part of the leeks in half, length wise and rinse well under cold running water to get out any sand and dirt. Slice thinly crosswise and set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, put a little olive oil and the ham (you can do bacon here as Emeril does in his recipe but I used ham) and add the ham. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ham is warm. Add the chopped leeks and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes (I added a bit more olive oil as the ham did not have fat in it and needed a little help). Add the wine and bring to a boil. Add the chicken stock, potatoes, salt and white pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until the potatoes are falling apart and the soup is very flavorful.

Working in batches, puree the soup in a food processor or blender (my blender is still broken and this made my food processor hard to open - FYI). Stir in the cream (or fat free half and half - I promise the benefits without the fat and guilt!) and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Serve immediately.


I actually had the soup made about a half hour before we were to eat and let it sit and them put it back on low right before we were going to eat and added the cream. (Don't add the cream until you are ready to eat it). We had a nice slice of hearty bread with this and that was dinner.


Now if my camera battery wasn't dead and I had not left my charger at the house on Kiawah last week life would be divine and you would be looking at a picture of my divine soup that I made last night. But instead you have to look at a stock photo and hope that my charger gets here today or tomorrow!


With a warm bowl of soup on a cold night and your family gathered around the dinner table talking about their day Life is indeed Good! Enjoy

Dinner on the Cheap - My Mixed Up Stromboli

Happy New Year! I can not believe it has been nearly 3 months since I blogged here. Life has gotten so busy with school and travel (7-day Disney Cruise, a week on Kiawah Island, SC) the holidays and now getting back in the groove. However, I am back. I promise to come here everyday and give you a recipe or food tip.

Yesterday afternoon I was looking through the refrigerator, freezer and pantry and trying to figure out what I could make without going to the grocery store. My daughter is currently obsessed with garlic bread (homemade). So I decided to use this as the start. I grabbed the ingredients to make a loaf of bread and put them in the bread machine on the dough cycle and set that going. I then found a nearly empty package of pepperoni (one of children's favorite proteins!) and some chicken breasts and frozen spinach and a few kinds of cheese. I was trying NOT to cook pasta as we had it at least 2 or 3 times last week (it is mine and my daughters favorite meal).

I came up with an idea based on a Stromboli and it came out really good. I actually made one side with no spinach as I knew the kids would not eat it if it was in there! And if I do say so myself it looks good and tasted great and is also great for leftovers.

Mixed up Stromboli

3 chicken breasts cooked and cubed

pepperoni slices

mozzarella cheese (provolone or cheddar work well too!)

frozen spinach (defrosted and drained) - as much or little as you like

bread dough (homemade or from the grocery store)

roll out dough into rectangle and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle a bit of garlic salt over the dough (optional). add the ingredients in any order that you like. From the long end, roll like a jelly roll and pinch the ends together and place the seam on the bottom of a cookie sheet. (I used a Silpat so it would not stick). Bake at 350 about 30-45 minutes (until it is brown on top and bread looks done). Let sit about 5 minutes when it is done and cut into slices. I served this with a Caesar salad and everyone loved it. Again, one half had more pepperoni and one half had the spinach so you can put whatever you want and mix it up for different tastes in your family.

With a mixed up easy dinner like this like is most definitely good!

Crescent Mummy Dogs

The kids saw this in the paper on Sunday in the coupon section for Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and thought it would be fun to make. They were fun and easy and it is the first time I have made something like this where the kids actually ate the bread portion.

Ingredients (this the recipe cut in half- double for 10 hot dogs!)

1 4 oz can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1 1/2 slices American cheese, quartered

5 large hot dogs

Directions

1. Heat over to 375

2. Unroll dough and separate at perforations creating 2 rectangles. Press perforations to seal.

3. With knife , cut each rectangle lengthwise into 10 pieces, making a total of 20 pieces of dough.

4. Wrap 4 pieces of dough around every hot dog and 1/4 slice of cheese to look like "bandages." stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog. About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate "bandages" so hot dog shows through for "face." On un-greased large cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs, cheese side down, spray dough lightly with cooking spray.

5. Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot. With mustard or ketchup, draw features on "face." Now with such a cute meal for the kids Life is Good!

Garlic Chicken

I have been making a ton of fun foods and just have not had time to post about them. I made this garlic chicken the other night and it was great. Not so much from the kids perspective but for me and my husband it was a good meal. I had nearly all the ingredients in my house when I decided to make it. I would have used more zucchini (since I didn't have enough green onions) as I prefer more vegetables to meat.

Garlic Chicken

Ingredients
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry white wine
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 whole medium chicken breasts 1 1/2 pounds total (skinned and boned)
2 tablespoons cooking oil
10 green onions, bias-cut into 1 inch pieces (1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts
1 medium zucchini
2 cups hot cooked rice

Directions
For marinade, in a bowl stir together water, soy sauce, white wine, and cornstarch. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Cut chicken into 1/2-inch pieces. Add chicken to marinade; stir to coat. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Drain chicken, reserving marinade.

Preheat a wok or large skillet over high heat, add oil. (add more oil as necessary during cooking) Stir-fry green onions, mushrooms, and garlic in hot oil for 1 to 2 minutes or until tender. Remove from wok or skillet. Add zucchini and saute for 3 minutes. Remove from wok or skillet. Add chicken to wok or skillet; stir-fry for about 4 to 5 minutes or until no longer pink. Push chicken from the center of the wok or skillet. Stir reserved marinade, add to center of the wok or skillet. Cook and stir til thickened and bubbly. Add onion mixture, zucchini and water chestnuts. Cook and stir about 1 minute or until heated through. Serve with hot cooked rice.


Main ingredients


Chicken marinating

Cooking in the wok


Finished product

Here is a preview of some of the yummy things to come in my blog in the next few days.

Life is Sweet Cereal crunch (used this for my cinnamon life cereal)
Jalapeno cornbread
Crescent Mummy Dogs (huge hit with the kids!)

Now with all these predetermined blog posts my Life is Good!

Cinnamon Life Cereal

I have a huge double box of Cinnamon Life cereal and I tasted Lucy's leftovers this morning (dry we don't put milk on our cereal in our house!) and it is so good. I forgot what it tasted like. I haven't had this cereal since I was a kid (probably since they were still running the ad I posted above!).

I want to make something with it but can only find one recipe on the web. I guess I need to go through some of my cookbooks but thought I would give a shout out to all of you foodies out there and see if you had any ideas. With fall supposedly making an appearance tomorrow something with this in it would be really yummy. So please help me out if you can.

Life is good whether I get a recipe or not as I am sure I can make something up!

Tortellini Pasta Salad

This is my in a pinch go to side dish for cookouts, weekends, bring a dish for girls night, etc. It is so easy and really good. My kids love it too so that is a plus.

Tortellini Pasta Salad

Ingredients

2 bags cheese tortellini (tri color is great)
pepperoni
can sliced black olives
1 bottle lite creamy Caesar salad dressing (Newman's Own or Ken's)



Directions
Cook the tortellini according to the package. While the tortellini is cooking slice the pepperoni into small bites and chop the black olives. When the tortellini is cooked drain and place back in pot. Add the pepperoni and sliced olives. Add about 1/4 of the bottle of the salad dressing. Toss. See how it looks. Depending on how much you make you will use more or less. Place in container or bowl and serve now or refrigerate. After refrigeration add a little more salad dressing as it soaks in. It is great both warm and cold. I love this for a leftover dinner or lunch.



Enjoy and Life is Good!

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches

Congratulations Foodbuzz! This is so exciting and I am proud to be a part of it!

LAUNCH OF GLOBAL FOODBUZZ BLOGGER COMMUNITY
LEVERAGES REAL-PEOPLE, REAL-TIME POWER OF FOOD PUBLISHING

San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.

“Food bloggers are at the forefront of reality publishing and the dramatic growth of new media has redefined how food enthusiasts access tasty content,” said Doug Collister, Executive Vice President of Foodbuzz, Inc. “Food bloggers are the new breed of local food experts and at any minute of the day, Foodbuzz is there to help capture the immediacy of their hands-on experiences, be it a memorable restaurant meal, a trip to the farmers market, or a special home-cooked meal.”

Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions. Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors.

“Our goal is to be the number-one online source of quality food and dining content by promoting the talent, enthusiasm and knowledge of food bloggers around the globe,” said Ben Dehan, founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, Inc.

The Foodbuzz blogger community is growing at a rate of 40 percent per month driven by strong growth in existing partner blogs and the addition of over 100 new blogs per month. “The Foodbuzz.com Web site is like the stock of a great soup. The Web site provides the base or backbone for bloggers to interact as a community, contribute content, and have that content buzzed by their peers,” said Mr. Dehan.

Global Blogging Event
Demonstrating the talent and scope of the Foodbuzz community, 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs offered online food enthusiasts an international, virtual street festival of food and diversity. The new feature showcased blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz partner bloggers chronicling events occurring around the globe during a 24 hour period and included:

· Mid-Autumn Festival Banquest (New York, NY)
· The "Found on Foodbuzz" 24-Item Tasting Menu (San Francisco, CA)
· Aussie BBQ Bonanza – Celebrating Diversity (Sydney, Australia)
· The Four Corners of Carolina BBQ Road Trip (Charleston, SC)
· Criminal Tastes – An Illegal Supper (Crested Butte, CO)
· From Matambre to Empanadas: An Argentine Dinner (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
· A Sweet Trompe l’oeil (Seattle, WA)

“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” captures the quality and unique local perspective of our food bloggers and shared it with the world,” said Ryan Stern, Director of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community. “It illustrates exactly what the future of food publishing is all about – real food, experienced by real people, shared real-time.”

About Foodbuzz, Inc.
Based in San Francisco, Foodbuzz, Inc., launched its beta Web site, foodbuzz.com, in 2007. In less than a year, Fooduzz.com and its community of over 1,000 exclusive partner food blogs have grown into an extended online property that reaches more than three million users.

Contact: Allison Costello
Ketchum
allison.costello@ketchum.com

Doug Collister
Foodbuzz
doug@foodbuzz.com

So go check out all the stuff that Foodbuzz has to offer and see what the many featured publishers are blogging about and cooking. You won't have to come up with your own idea for dinner again. Now with that thought...Life is Good!

Baking for Breast Cancer Awareness

Ley at Cilantro and Lime is hosting Baking for Breast Cancer Awareness. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. The event is to raise awareness of Breast Cancer. Ley is encouraging bloggers to bake and make others aware.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, it's estimated that About 178,480 women in the United States will be found to have invasive breast cancer in 2007. About 40,460 women will die from the disease this year. Right now there are slightly over 2 million women living in the United States who have been treated for breast cancer.

One of my best friends lost her mom to breast cancer. I never met her mom but feel that I somehow know her and her kindness through my dear friend Parrish. My friend is my sons Godmother. My daily prayer is that this will never happen to her. Through her, I have become more aware of breast cancer and I got my first mammogram at 35 and since I am so lucky to be over 40 (43 to be exact) I get a mammogram each year. They are easy and painless. I encourage anyone that is scared or too busy to bother to go get one. It could save your life.


Now I am not a baker as I have stated before but I did "bake" a portion of the dish. I made a roasted beet and goat cheese salad with shrimp cocktail and split an organic steak with my husband. I love fresh beets. I had never had them until a few months ago. I only thought they came in a can! I used a recipe from Giada DeLaurentis for a Beet and Goat Cheese Arugula Salad but when I saw the beets yesterday at the grocery store I decided to make it not knowing what else I had. I knew I had goat cheese and knew I also had some type of organic lettuce but was short a few of the other ingredients so I made it my own. I will post the recipe for the original salad as it is so good but know that I did not have arugula and used a spring mix of lettuce, no walnuts so used pecans and instead of making the homemade dressing since I didn't have any balsamic vinegar I used a raspberry walnut vinaigrette. I also did not have any avocado or shallots. My version was tasty but the original is awesome.


The beets are red and their cooking juice is red/pink! They are so healthy and are said to fight cancer and birth defects.



Beet and Goat Cheese Arugula Salad

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons shallots, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon honey
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 medium beets, cooked and quartered
6 cups fresh arugula
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries or dried cherries
1/2 avocado, peeled, pitted, and cubed
3 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, coarsely crumbled

Directions

The original recipe does not tell you how to cook the beets. Wash them and cut off most of the stems leaving the top and bottom on the beet (this will keep more nutrients in it - just learned that now while googling beets so I did not do that!) Place in pot and cover with water, bring to boil and cook for 40-50 minutes. Take beets out of water and run them under cold water and while doing this rub your hands over them and the skin will peel right off.

Line a baking sheet with foil. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Whisk the vinegar, shallots, and honey in a medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in the oil. Season the vinaigrette, to taste, with salt and pepper. Toss the beets in a small bowl with enough dressing to coat. Place the beets on the prepared baking sheet and roast until the beets are slightly caramelized, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes. Set aside and cool.

Toss the arugula, walnuts, and cranberries in a large bowl with enough vinaigrette to coat. Season the salad, to taste, with salt and pepper. Mound the salad atop 4 plates. Arrange the beets around the salad. Sprinkle with the avocado and goat cheese, and serve.

Now if we could find a cure for breast cancer life would be really good but in the meantime if we can educated enough people to be aware then Life is Good!

A few cooking secrets & household secrets

Last night I did NOT want to cook. Husband offered to do take out but I opted to throw something together. I did the chicken sausage with some ravioli for the kids.

Sausage cooking secret - I saw a part of a Rachael Ray episode a few weeks back and she was cooking sausage. She put some water in the pan with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and when the water evaporated the sausage were basically cooked and then the olive oil in the pan browned them. The did not burn. My house did not smell awful and it was a super trick. I have now used it twice and it works great! Can't believe I didn't know that.

Hard boiled egg secret - I also saw this on Food Network a few years ago. It was the 2 guys that won the first season of next Food Network Star. When making hard boiled eggs, after cooking drain the hot water and fill with cold water and ice and add a splash of vinegar. Let sit for a few minutes and then when you peel them the skins will peel right off! Amazing. Can't believe I didn't know this one either.

Olive oil and greasy food stains - before washing put some regular Dawn dishwashing liquid and put it on the stain. rub together and then wash. the stain will come out. Even if you have washed the item many times it still works.

Sour smelling laundry - if you accidently leave the clothes in the washing machine overnight start the load again the next morning and add some white vinegar and laundry detergent. The vinegar will take out the sour smell. Works like a charm!

Hope these tips are helpful. If you have any pass them on to me. Life is Good!

Real Sicilian Meatloaf

Where has the time gone. Last week flew by in a world wind of me trying to get the house ready and menu planning for a surprise dinner party for my husband's 40th birthday. He turns 40 on Saturday but is taking the kids to Charlotte with one of his best buds and his kids. (they were born on the same day in the same hospital and that is how their moms met and he is now my daughters Godchild and husband to Under the Red Tin Roof! Hiya Anne!).

I was going to make the meatloaf for Friday night but my husband thought there was only going to be one other couple for dinner and he wanted a new grill for his birthday so I bit the bullet and bought him a new grill and I got steaks for the dinner party and paired them with a spinach salad that a friend makes and will not give out the recipe and also had the brussel sprouts that I talked about last week. They are so good and who ever knew that so many people actually like brussel sprouts. Such an under appreciated veggie!!!

I did a fall inspired table with little metal buckets that were silver, black and orange and I put votive candles in them. For the place cards I printed each persons name so it was curved (think top half of a circle) and did the men in black and the women in orange. My dinner plates were see through and I placed the name cards under the plates. I thought it was clever! Needless to say I had bought the ingredients for the meatloaf of Thursday before changing to steaks on Friday so I had to make it. We had a traditional Italian Sunday dinner with the meatloaf on Sunday night (with leftover brussel sprouts!). This is the first time in a long time I have actually had the meatloaf with red meat in probably a year! YUM-O is all I can say.

As for this week I have been bogged down with Halloween carnival planning at my son's preschool and yesterday was his trip to the pumpkin patch. It was fun and when the sun was behind a cloud there was a chill in the air!

Sicilian Meatloaf
2 lbs ground beef
bread crumbs
2-3 eggs
grated Parmesan cheese
ketchup or tomato paste
Italian seasonings
salt and pepper to taste
4-8 thin slices prosciutto
6 slices of provolone cheese
3-6 bacon slices

In a bowl combine ground beef, bread crumbs, eggs, Parmesan cheese, ketchup/tomato paste and seasonings and mix. If too moist add more bread crumbs. If too dry add more egg and/or more ketchup/tomato paste. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and spray with Pam.

put the meat on the cookie sheet and and spread out to fill it up.

Place the prosciutto and provolone cheese on top of the meat.

With the longest end of the cookie sheet facing you, grab the edge of the tin foil and pull up and start to roll the meatloaf like a jelly roll. When the meatloaf is rolled pinch the ends and the long seam and roll it so the seam is on the bottom.

Weave the bacon over the top (I didn't have any bacon so I used prosciutto which actually turned out good!)

Bake at 350 for about 30-45 minutes (until meat is cooked thoroughly). Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting. Manga!

Now with a crisp in the air and hearty food like this Life is Good!

Cambridge at the Pumpkin Patch 10.07.08

Greek Stuffed Peppers & Chicken Sausage

Does it seem there is a Greek theme this week? Lots of Greek inspired foods but I am an American of Italian descent but know there is a tiny tiny itsy bitsy piece of Greek in me somewhere (which would explain why I ate my weight in Feta cheese during my pregnancy with my son!). Last nights dinner, again, came from Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine. Have I said how much I love this little book that comes about every 6 weeks? (and no they Martha Stewart is not paying me for all this free advertising!) The recipes are so easy and, most of the time, really good. And if they don't look "to my taste" I don't make them. The most recent issue had a whole section on crockpot foods and that is where the stuffed peppers were. Who knew it could be so easy and so good and I didn't use any oil to cook them, just sprayed the inner liner of the Crockpot with Pam. There was really no difference (although my great aunt Sue's were awesome and hers were cooked in loads of olive oil!) from a regular stuffed pepper and the stuffing was so different and just plain ole yummy!

I paired these with a chicken, spinach, fontina cheese and roasted garlic sausage. I got these at Costco, Han's All Natural Gourmet Sausage and they have no antibiotics, no added growth hormones no MSG, nitrites, or nitrates and they are gluten free (not that we eat a gluten free diet but I love the no nitrites and nitrates). These are so good and only 3 Weight Watcher points each. My son ate 3! YIKES. I only ate 1.


Now I must admit, I am an awful food photographer. I don't know how some people get such great pictures of their food. It could also be the quality of the camera (I have a good one but not a great one). And....I had 2 glasses of wine while cooking dinner so I only have before pictures and no pictures of the actual food right before we ate it! But suffice it to say the Crockpot cooked the peppers to perfection. I also stuffed a tomatoe as the reciped was to stuff 4 peppers and I only had 2 so I had extra stuffing and used a yellow tomatoe. It looks great as well and will be my lunch today.



Greek Stuffed Peppers
Recipe from Martha Stewart Everyday Food, October 2008


Ingredients
Serves 4
4 large bell peppers
1 can (15 ounces) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup crumbled feta (4 ounces)
1/2 cup couscous (uncooked - they did not say this in the recipe but it was assumption and is correct!)
4 scallions, white and green parts separated, thinly sliced (I did not have these and didn't miss them)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Coarse salt and ground pepper
Lemon wedges, for serving


Directions
Slice a very thin layer from the base of each bell pepper so they sit flat. Slice off tops just below stem. Discard stems; chop tops, and place in a medium bowl. Remove ribs and seeds from peppers.


To bowl, add beans, feta, couscous (uncooked), scallion whites, garlic, and oregano. Season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine. Stuff peppers with bean mixture; place upright in slow cooker. Cover; cook on high, 4 hours. (I cooked on low for 6+ hours.)

Sprinkle peppers with scallion greens; serve with lemon wedges.

Stuffed peppers prior to cooking (ding bat forgot the after photo!)

Again these are great. Low fat, high fiber and again with the beans! The addition of the chicken sausage was great. Now after a meal like this and a morning filled with 4-year olds hugging me and asking me to read them stories... Life is Really Good!

Giant Greek(?) Beans

Have any of you had these giant beans? They look like lima beans (or sieva beans (pronounced sivvy) as they call them in the south) on steroids. My sister brought a jar of them on vacation this summer and they had a skin on them. They were in a brine. I can't remember what they were called but they were good. Then yesterday I am in the grocery store and at the olive bar they have them. They were marinated in a bit of olive oil with roasted red peppers and some spices but are oh so good. Not sure what to do with them other than to snack on them or add a few to a salad? Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

I googled the term giant beans and colossal beans and the only thing I could find was giant Greek beans, hence the title. Today I am working in my son's preschool class as it is picture day so I expect a crazy morning. Now with a bunch of 4-year olds dressed their best and beans this tasty Life is Good!

Spinach and prosciutto lasagna & a whole lotta nothing

I a so busy this week! I am in charge of the Halloween carnival at my son's preschool and I am hosting a dinner party this weekend. (I need to come up with a menu YIKES!). I am also in the starting stages of a home remodel! We are tearing out our floors downstairs and also redoing the kitchen! My dream. The cabinet guy is coming over this morning to measure the kitchen. We picked out our floor wood color but might change it depending on the cabinets and counter tops we choose. I also replaced the 2 ceiling fans in our downstairs family room with these beautiful wood ones that has blades that look like large leaves! My house is finally starting to come together and we have only lived here 4+ years.

Last night I made a recipe from the most recent Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine. I love this magazine and have made many things from it. Me and my husband loved this but the kids picked out the spinach. The love lots of veggies but apparently spinach is not one of them. My son thought it was celery and ate a good portion but my daughter did the tongue out gag from the texture. Makes a mom/cook feel real good when that happens (sarcasm!).

While I thought it was good I would make it again, I would make it without the prosciutto the next time. You could not taste the prosciutto and therefore, to me, makes it a waste of calories and money. I served this with a side salad of arugul with very thin sliced red onion, dried cranberries and a tiny bit of goat cheese with balsamic vinegar and a tiny bit of olive oil. The salad was awesome!

Spinach and Prosciutto Lasagna
Martha Stewart Everyday Food Magazine Issue 65, October 2008

It is important to squeeze the spinach dry, or the lasagna may be watery
2 packages (10 oz each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta
1 garlic clove, minced
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 1/2 cups jarred tomato sauce
4 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, finely chopped
6 no-boil lasagna noodles
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella (4 oz)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Make filling: In a medium bowl, stir together spinach, ricotta, garlic, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper; set aside. In another bowl, stir together tomato sauce and prosciutto

2. in an 8-inch square baking dish, spread 1/4 cup tomato sauce. Layer 2 noodles, 1/3 filling, and 1/3 remaining tomato sauce; repeat twice. Top with mozzarella. Bake until brown 35 to 40 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

There are so many good recipes in this magazine. Tomorrow night I am making the crock pot stuffed peppers (have cous cous in the stuffing and sound good and easy. I will let you know!)

My life is extremely busy right now but regardless, Life is Good!

Ode to other food blogs and fellow foodies

We ate baked chicken last night that I stuffed with an onion and about 4 large stalks of rosemary. It was divine. No pictures. Nothing exciting. But I highly recommend using stalks of rosemary for chicken stuffing and with roasting potatoes. Next time I make them I will photograph and write the recipes.

Today I am listing some great blogs I have found recently. Blogs I found because they either visited me or someone exited their page and came to my blog. I am just beside myself with the traffic I have received from Foodbuzz and the Foodie Blogroll and the fact that I was a random contest winner was a bonus for traffic. Oh and someone from Martha Stewart Living visited but they were searching to see who had used the term Everyday Food. Hoping they liked what they saw!

The Hungry Housewife - check out the cute kid friendly stuff

Chez LaFleur in Manhattan - the chicken tortilla soup and she had a post on the Feast of San Gennaro festival. Oh how I miss living where there are other Italians!

Daily Deliciousness - for the love of French onion soup!

The Sporadic Cook - my kind of food!

Cara's Cravings - check out the perfect little cupcake pops! They are too cute.

Cooking in the Heartland - She is also getting in shape so I don't have to be the only food blogger that is trying to slim down!

Elegantly Domesticated - I Pray to Gouda- anyone with an addiction to cheese is a friend of mine.

And many more. Those are just a few of the great blogs that people were reading before they came to my blog.

Life is Good!!