Cabbage Rolls

1 Med cabbage
1 large diced onion
2-3 shredded carrots (optional)
1 shredded summer squash (optional)
28 oz stewed or diced tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic
fresh or dried Italian herbs
1 cup thawed frozen spinach (optional)
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 lb lean ground turkey
pepper, herbs


Boil the cabbage about 10 minutes until outer leaves are soft. Remove and rinse with cold water. Remove 8-10 outer leaves.  Set aside. Refrigerate leftover cabbage for use later.
In a large sauce pan with a little bit of oil saute half of  the onion and half the garlic. Add the tomatoes and herbs. Simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile saute the other onions and garlic in a separate pan. When almost cooked add the carrots and squash. Cook until soft. Mix together with cooked rice, thawed spinach pepper and herbs. Mix in ground turkey.
Remove thick vein from leaves to make it easier to roll. Place about a half cup of meat mixture on each leaf. Roll up. Place seam side down in the skillet. Cover and cook on med-low heat for 40 min to 1 hour. Until meat is cooked. Enjoy!

All about week two...

Why are cameras such an issue for me?

My camera battery died in the middle of last week and I couldn't find the charger so I started using the husbands camera. Well he was gone this weekend, with the camera, so I haven't been able to blog. Today, miraculously I found the charger for my camera. On the desk I've been using all weekend.... Anywho, so now I have some photos to post. And the husband came home this afternoon with his camera, yey! But I cant find the cord for his to upload the photos... Sigh.

So last Sunday I made breakfast. That happens less than its been raining here in Texas lately. It was the husband's idea. Since we had bread and eggs I made this:

Then later that day I went to the store... what a fiasco! I was trying to stock up on real food and ended up spending $30 over our weekly budget of $60! Fortunately I had some leftover cash from our food budget from a few weeks ago.. but still! See its exhausting enough to read labels and make sure that you are getting enough food for the whole week since really there is no going out... let alone keeping a rolling total of what you are spending. I should have taken a nap when I got home....

But no. Too much to do. I had cheddar crackers to make, tortillas and of course dinner. Oh and Vanessa came over to show me her Renaissance Festival garb that she was giving me. I think I might actually have about 4 outfits now!

Well as it turns out, you shouldn't cook while tired. You may get frustrated. I found out that you can't make the cheesy crackers without cheese. And you shouldn't try and make the crackers and tortillas at the same time. I think I spent two hours fighting with those recipes. And probably at the same time boiling the cabbage for cabbage rolls. By the time I was done with that I HAD to take a nap. :)

Thanks to my nap, the cabbage rolls turned out great!

Monday we had leftovers. And Tuesday was awesome chicken night. 

Pan cooked chicken with sun dried tomato sauce. This recipe was originally for pork, but I always end up over cooking the pork. Chicken however is fabulous cooked this way and it is super easy. Heat up about 2 cups of chicken broth, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Marsala wine, a cup or so of sun dried tomatoes and a few tablespoons of rosemary. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Meanwhile start some pasta. Then in a hot pan with a bit of oil brown the chicken breasts on both sides. Don't cook completely. Remove from pan. In the same pan, saute some onions and garlic. Pour in the chicken broth mix to de-glaze the pan. You can thicken the broth at this point with some cornstarch and water. This time I tried a bit of whole wheat flour and water. Wisk that in. Then add the chicken back into the pan. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes or so, until the chicken is done. Pour the sauce over the chicken and pasta. Sop up any leftover sauce with bread. Super yummy!!! I have pictures but I will have to post them later...

Posted later... oh and it looks like I made biscuits too, those were good too.

Wednesday I discovered the best quesadillas. Using the leftover chicken, home-made whole wheat tortillas, sauted onions (sauted mushrooms on mine) and cheese. Cheddar on his and swiss on mine.

Now by this point it had come to my attention that the husband was going out with the boy scouts on a weekend camping trip. And to my surprise he wanted to take "real" food instead of eating what they served. So he came up with a plan. 

On the way out of town he took tuna wraps. Then for breakfasts he planned on oatmeal with honey. Snacks were fruit and granola. Dinner was precooked real mac n cheese, ground turkey, cooked veggies and more cheese all ready to be heated, stored in a ziplock bag. Normally I would have sent him with a re-usable container, but with camping the bag was easier and I was letting him do whatever because he was taking "real" food!

So Thursday night I was busy! I decided that he would need some whole wheat sweetened with honey banana bread and some whole wheat muffins with bits of chopped frozen strawberries! I also had to make up the mac n cheese which fortunately I was planning on making that week anyway so I had everything I needed. I was by pure luck that I still had the frozen bananas for the banana bread.

Friday night I was on my own. So I made a quick salad with some home made honey mustard vinaigrette, and a fruit smoothie. So yummy :)

I didn't make it to the farmers market this week, I cleaned the house instead. But I did make it to HEB. And I kid you not, came under budget by $0.40. Crazy!!!!  Later that day I used the leftover cabbage from the cabbage rolls i made earlier that week and whipped up some cabbage soup. Which might have tasted just a bit better had it not been 100 degrees outside. But it was still yummy. (Clearly Texas does not know its Fall yet....)

And that brings us to today! The husband sent a text mid-morning saying that he was starving (he didn't pack much for today's lunch and everyone else got to eat pizza) So I got to work on Sheppard's pie!

Then later since we haven't had anything remotely related to cookies for about 2 weeks, I tried some no bake cookies with honey. The oatmeal sticks to your teeth a bit... but other than that they are pretty tasty. 

That other camera cord has got to be around here somewhere...

RAIN!!!!!

It rained today, which is a big deal here in the Houston area. Texas has been fighting wildfires for a few weeks now, and 100 degree weather for two months. We need the rain.

To the food project, it is now day 6 and our fridge is pretty empty. I'm not sure what we are going to do for dinner. This project takes a lot of work and planning. The good news is that I went on an adventure to the Woodlands and found the Disney Store! Where I did not buy a set of Sally and Jack (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) mugs to not fit in our too full cabinet of beer pints and Disney mugs, nor did I partake in the pre-sale of Cars 2 that came with super cool lithographs that I am going to frame.. *ahem* that is of course *ahem* if I did so happen to make these purchases.... *shifts eyes* Anyway.... this was of course a side trip to finding Great Harvest Bread company. Which I found, no thanks to Google maps... WE NOW HAVE BREAD!!!

After almost a week of our food challenge, I have learned that bread might be a key factor. See the husband gets grumpy when he has to wait for food. And for some reason, he, this week, has been incapable of preparing his own dinners. I am proud of him, with a little nudging, like premixing the tuna, he did manage to get some lunches together this week and not starve. Dinner for some reason is another story. And since I got home late almost every day this week, making dinner was difficult.

Tuna wraps with home made whole wheat tortillas

Lets see... Monday was pasta which was easy. Tuesday was... oh, meatloaf!! I missed the first part of the movie the husband was watching so I could make the meatloaf so we would have dinner and lunch the next day. The movie was still good and the meatloaf came out well. Except for too much mustard... Generally my meat loaf is ground turkey, oatmeal, an egg, cheese, cooked onions, usually spinach (this time I added grated squash and carrots that I cooked with the onions since I am out of frozen spinach) and then herbs. I scoop them into mini loaves because they bake faster. And yes they are pre-portioned that way... which would help if you only ate one, instead of two or three...

On top I usually mix mustard, ketchup and brown sugar. But two out of three of those ingredients are on the banned list for this challenge. So I took the leftover sauce from the pasta on Monday and mixed in the mustard and some honey in place of the brown sugar. But since I dont measure anything, I added a bit too much mustard. We liked them anyway. And the husband didn't mind the mixed in veggies.

Wednesday... since I cant remember what we had on Wednesday it must have been leftovers. Thursday was of course the Indiana Jones Feast!

Which included Smoked Trout spring rolls with a side of plum-ginger sauce paired with St Arnold Weedwaker. We both liked that beer. 

Then ancho glaszed pork served on corn Arepa with avocado and pickled jicama, paired with St Arnold Octoberfest. The pork was amazing! 

The third course was curried potato and black eyed peas soup paired with St Arnold Elissa IPA. Neither one of use were impressed by that course. 

The fourth course however was quite good. A fresh pita with chickpea and cucumber salad, saffron couscous, mint tabouli and slow roasted lamb with garlic tzatziki sauce. Paired with St Arnold Divine Reserve 11 Double IPA. Yum Yum! I might have to make tabouli soon.

Then for dessert we had fantastic pecan baklava, creamed goat cheese (yum!) and pomegranate sorbet that "will melt in your mouth as the Nazi's faces melt on the screen" The dessert was very very good! And it was paired with St Arnold Chardonnay Barrel Aged Cask Conditioned Farmers Brown Ale. Which was nice and sweet to go with the dessert. 

Last night was nothing fancy. I made some more pasta and sauce. Since we both came home late that was fine with us. 

I need to hit the store this weekend and really stock up so that next week is a lot easier. And make some rolls and things I can freeze for later in the week. We don't have any dinner plans to break up the week this time to  save me from some cooking! I should probably go do some dishes to, I have to wash the mugs I didn't buy....They are sooo cute!

Day One

Well today sucked. Not because of our food project, but because I have a cold. Fan-fricken-tastic. Please tell me our new food project will help keep us well.

The good news is cooked the chicken yesterday in the slow cooker.

 And today I pulled off all of the yummy bits and put the rest back in the cooker with more water and some frozen leek tops from... say... a month ago? Thats not bad right? I mean they were frozen.... Anyway yummy  chicken stock is on the way!

These are the bits I picked throgh. Most of it went into the pot to make stock.

So on Saturday I decided to make some whole wheat tortillas which the Husband used for tuna wraps today for lunch. He seemed to like them ok. Which was good because he didn't have any leftover steak and potato like I did for lunch. Gotta love Taste of Texas!

 I was kinda surprised at how easy and tasty the tortillas were to make!  I used this recipe. 

And yes I have thrown out that disgusting hamburger bun in the background.

Later that evening I decided we might need some crackers to snack on. And I found on the same blog as the tortillas, these cheesy whole wheat crackers. While I will miss my bunnies, these are pretty tasty. And also super easy!!!

Tonight I cooked up some of the whole wheat pasta and mixed up some tomato sauce from a large can of crushed tomatoes, garlic, basil and a dash of chili powder. Then threw some of the pulled rosemary chicken on top. It was surprisingly tasty! I think I will pick up some parmigiana cheese next week to go on our pastas.

The conclusion I have come to today is this: Whole wheat is actually very good. :)

Stocking up, or trying to...

I spent two hours in the grocery store and came out with $40 worth of groceries. That doesn't include the $9 on goat cheese this morning at the farmers market, or the $5 on a whole local (i think) chicken from Midway Food Market in downtown Katy.

Do you know how hard it is to buy things that fit the rules? I figured it wouldn't be too bad since we almost follow them already. And it really wont be, but it is going to require lots of cooking. I'll have to make my own spaghetti sauce, from canned tomatoes. All pasta sauces have too many ingredients and have added sugar. I wasn't sure we could get enough fresh tomatoes and stay under budget. I might try that next time though.

Whole grain pastas and such aren't always 100% whole grains.

I had to decide between organic from India brown rice and Texan grown brown rice. I went with the Texan.

The husband is going to dislike the no sugar peanut butter that you have to STIR! I'm hoping the crunchy is good. But I figured if he hates the peanut butter, there is no reason why I can't make peanut butter soup with it.

Oh and the best part? I can't seem to find a bread recipe that might work well and the nearest Great Harvest Bread Co. (they make a honey whole wheat with only 5 ingredients) is an hour away. Maybe we should invest in another bread maker.

I have pasta sauce to make, chicken to cook, tortillas to make and possibly bread to bake... Maybe i'll just go take a nap.

The Real Food Project

After finishing a small bowl of potato salad and then a small mug of icecream, (local bluebell of course) I cracked open my "Whole Grain Baking" King Arthur Flour book.  Why the well rounded dinner followed by whole grain recipe reading?  Well...

Inspired by the book "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan and the food blog "100 days of real food" the husband and I have decided to take the challenge. Now a 100 day challenge is quite overwhelming if you are following all of the rules.  And there is of course the ten day challenge. But we were thinking along the lines of a 30 day challenge, but with a few modifications.

1. We will eat local meat with in our budget. That may not include any local meat as it tends to be quite expensive.
2. Both a Alamo Drafthouse Indiana Jones Feast (a pre-planned 5 course meal) and several trips to the Texas Renaissance Fair will fall in our designated 30 days. These meals are of course excluded from the rules.

Now I have read all of the posts for the original 100 day challenge and I know that the author would have never considered changing the rules, but we really have to make it work for us. I still think that we will gain many benefits from this experiment.

Since moving to Texas we both get sick a lot, and have many allergies. Maybe this will help. We have been trying to eat healthy-ish in the past 6 months or so. (In fact I've been doing a lot of label reading lately and we try to stock more fresh foods than canned or boxed. I found that since we gave ourselves a weekly budget of $60 we force ourselves to go shopping once a week, really focus on what we buy and try really hard not to let anything go to waste.) I'm not sure that this has done much for our health though, as I think we have both gotten sick. But maybe the stricter rules will be a better defense for the fall season that is usually full of colds and other sicknesses...

And since we are starting on Monday, all of the crap food that was leftover from the BBQ last weekend must be finished. Potato salad and ice cream anyone?

Its a long back story

     I should have started a blog two and a half years ago when we first moved to Texas. That's the biggest change I've made in several years. Talk about culture shock.

     I grew up in Alaska. (Pissing on Texas since 1959) A beautiful state of lovely long summer days, wonderful white winters, out door activities and lots of family and friends.  Then moved down to northern California to go to school. I loved Alaska but I also really enjoyed California. Moving from mountains on one side, ocean on the other, to a small college town with rolling hills didn't seem like much of a change. The people who lived there even tried to convince me the hills were mountains. If there is no tree line, then to me, its not a mountain, but it will do.

     I never really felt out of place in California, I enjoyed the culture and the health conscious feel. There were health food stores and cute sandwich cafes everywhere.  Californian cuisine makes sense, and I really enjoyed it! The weather was beautiful, summers were not overly hot. People spent time out side staying active. This isn't to say that I am the most active person. In fact I cant run for more than a few blocks. But I like having the option. And the healthy eating options.

That also isn't saying that I eat health all of the time. I love sugar and desserts. I love them so much in fact, that after my I obtained my Sculpture Degree, with a Minor in Business, I went on to complete the 30 week Baking and Pastry program provided by the Culinary Institute of America, Greystone. A place where quality and full fat ingredients, with some added refined sugar in many forms, rule the kitchen. We asked about low sugar and low fat options and they pretty much said, "just eat smaller portions." Ok, I'll agree with that. 10 pounds and 30 weeks later I obtained another degree that I'm not really using. But man, was it tasty.

So how did we get to Texas you ask? And why if we had to leave the beautiful state of California would we move to Texas and not up to Alaska? Well, I ask myself that sometimes too. Here's the relatively short version.

The summer after my freshman year of college, I was back in Alaska. Staying on campus wasn't an option and I missed family and Alaska so I returned for the summer. I spent the days working for dad at the construction company as a receptionist/courier. And the evenings and weekends hanging out with friends usually at parks around town. Only if they had swing sets though, what was the point of a park if they had no swings? Yes it was Alaska, there wasn't much to do... Thanks to my best friend Emily, Brian was a part of our crowd. He claimed he like hanging out at the parks too. Maybe he just thought I was pretty. Whatever the case, we started dating. Five years later and after I had graduated, twice, we were married. (He wouldn't let me plan the wedding until I had graduated. Silly me went straight from one school program to another delaying the wedding planning.) So by July of 2008 we were both graduated, were still living in California, and had a beautiful wedding in Alaska. He had a job offer for tax auditing that started in August in a tiny town in California about an hour away from our current location. The town was small, cute, kinda expensive but he could walk to work from our new apartment. Life was beautiful.

Did I mention that was in 2008. Yeah remember how the economy was, well, crappy. Yup. By December, the company Brian was working for decided to downsize. There went his job. Brian spent Christmas with his family in Texas. When I came back from Alaska after Christmas and Grandad's funeral, I found out that the owners of the little bakery I was working at part time, had decided to "retire". There went my job. Merry Christmas to us.

So there we were, just married. I didnt get my honeymoon because he was starting his awesome job which they took from him a few months later. We had a super cute apartment that we couldn't pay for. We had to move. Well that's not too bad, we could experience any part of the country we wanted. I loved that idea. So I thought hey, why not Texas? NO. I grew up in Alaska. Do you know how to piss off a Texan? Tell them that if you split Alaska in half, then Texas is the third largest state in the country.

As it turned out, the simple facts were this. Texas was/is cheap. The job economy was/is good. And Brian's parents were willing to let us rent a house from them. We packed up. Hired a moving company, And drove half way across the country. Welcome to Texas.

And the culture shock? Well, that's a whole other story...