Success!

This morning I stepped the scale to see that I’ve lost 4.6 lbs since last Friday. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am about this. Even though I decided when I started this (again) that I would not obsess over it, I will admit that I’ve been weighing myself every couple of days to see if I was making any progress. I chose Friday to be my official weigh in day because a) I wanted some motivation to keep going through the weekend, and b) if I’m going to do any cheating, it’s most likely going to be on the weekend, which gives me time to make up for it the next week. Yes, I’m bad and I know it. But like I’ve been saying, this is not a diet for me; it has to be a new way of living and relating to food.

I’ve known people who give up just about everything they find tasty when they make a “lifestyle change” and if they can live like that, I applaud them. I know that I can’t do it. I enjoy the flavors that life offers – cheesecakes, steaks, sodas, etc. But I also am quite happy to eat steamed broccoli, chicken, fish and other foods that are supposed to be better for me. It isn’t that I necessarily disagree that these foods aren’t good for me – it’s that I don’t believe any food is truly bad for us, unless consumed in excess. I suppose that even eating too much broccoli may have some sort of downside.

Earlier this week, I read about Stacey Irvine, who at 17 years old, hasn’t eaten anything but McDonald’s chicken mcnuggets since she was 2 years old. Not being a big fan of most British foods, I can sort of see how something off a fast food menu might have its appeal to a young girl, but at the same time I am repulsed by mcnuggets because they are not very tasty in my opinion. This girl has been eating them for 15 years, which of course means she’s seriously lacking the vitamins needed to keep herself in good health. I don’t think anyone can look at her diet and say she’s eating well. But if you look at her picture, she isn’t overweight; she looks reasonably healthy. I would never ever recommend anyone eat a single nugget, let alone base their entire diet on it, but this girl is eating crap every day and her problem isn’t being overweight. In moderation, and in conjunction with a mostly healthy diet, one could conceivably eat a mcnuggets meal once or twice a month and probably not suffer any long term effects (though why anyone would want to do that is beyond me). The same principle would then apply to virtually any food or restaurant – when it isn’t your main source of nutrition, one can eat virtually anything on occasion and not suffer long term effects, least of all weight gain.

Where most people fail in this scenario is that they give themselves a “free pass” to eat whatever they want once, then again. And again. And again! I’m guilty of it. If I go on a business trip and I have no choice but to eat out, I will have a steak three nights in a week because “I don’t usually do this.” But then I’m also having a dessert every night because “I don’t normally do this” and a couple glasses of wine with dinner because “I don’t normally do this.” In a week, with that mindset, I can easily gain five pounds. And I’m weak; if I do gain that five pounds, I’m much more likely to decide that I can’t lose weight and it’s not meant to be than to admit that I’ve been eating crap all week and it’s my fault. Who wants to admit they made stupid choices?!

The things that have worked for me over the past week:

Not obsessing over whether or not I stay within my calorie limits. If I go over by a bit, I don’t really care. If I go over a lot, I take a look at what I did and what I could have done better. I’m trying to learn from my mistakes.

Measuring everything, either with a kitchen scale, measuring cup or measuring spoon. In fact, it’s worked so well I’m going to buy some measuring cups and spoons for the office.

Preplanning my meals. Knowing in advance what foods I plan to eat so I know about how many calories I will be eating. If it changes (as it did once or twice this week for dinner) I’ll adjust, but I found it incredibly helpful to write down what I intended to eat then checking to be sure I stuck to it after each meal.

Having some low-calorie high impact snacks around. I thought I didn’t care much for peanut butter, and when I tried the off-brand they offered at work, I was right. My husband encouraged me to try something from the grocery store (he loves pb) so I did – I tried Jif Reduced Fat and Peter Pan Honey Roast. I really liked them both, but the Honey Roast was the best. It has only 5 or 10 calories more for the one tablespoon I ate than the Jif, but the taste is oustanding. A regular serving size is two tablespoons, but when I’m pressed for calories, one tablespoon and some crackers or a banana really does help fill the void. I also really enjoyed the Special K Chocolately Pretzel bar this week – it’s 90 calories and totally satisfies my sweet tooth, though I must admit it didn’t do a whole lot for me when I was hungry. Coupled with some fruit, though, or maybe some Weight Watchers String Cheese (the best string cheese on the market, in my opinion), it was pretty good.

What I haven’t given up:

Dr. Pepper – at least, not entirely. I will admit that I was drinking way too much every day. Some days I would drink six cans. I’ve cut back considerably to two or three – three on the two days I had a migraine. I can’t really help it – I crave them when I have one. I would like to cut back to one or two, but for now I’m happy with the way things are.

Good food. My husband has jumped on the bandwagon, and we are looking for ways to maximize flavor without sacrificing calories. Last night, we sauteed three cloves of garlic in half a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil. Once the garlic was soft, we removed it from the heat and added two cups of steamed broccoli, half a cup of steamed carrots and a whole large steamed onion, sliced into big pieces. It was sooooooooooooo good. You cannot imagine! A cup had just about 115 calories, and it went very well with our grilled chicken and rice. I walked away full, satisfied and happy.

Ice cream. OK, so I happen to like the Weight Watchers and Skinny Cow ice creams – who cares?! For 140 calories,  I can have one (giant sized) Skinny Cow vanilla ice cream sandwich or a WW Giant Fudge Bar (mmmmmm) or a WW drumstick. For 200 calories, I can have TWO of the WW English toffee bars, which means one is only 100 calories.

I’m still not really exercising much – in fact, I really only exercised in the form of house cleaning on two days. But still, I lost 4.6 pounds! Yes, I know that much of that might be water weight, but it is STILL nearly five pounds gone. It’s five fewer pounds that I have to drag around with me everywhere I go. I’ll take that!

So, for the coming week, my goals are to make some things over the weekend for lunches and breakfasts for the week (have you tried the Fiber One Muffins? So good, and only 140 cals if you make them with applesauce). Try to move my body more in the form of some sort of exercise. And continue logging my food – I cannot tell you how helpful www.myfitnesspal.com has been for that. There are lots of “free” websites out there that you can use to log your food – I also like www.fitday.com – but I don’t think they are as user friendly or as helpful as MFP.

I may start posting some of my recipes here too … I’ve found that some of my recipes are surprisingly low in calories, and others I’ve tried that are low cal are fabulous. I might just have to share those …

 

Hard to believe

But it’s nearly Thanksgiving! In just two and a half weeks, we’ll be celebrating one of my favorite holidays. I really love this time of year (I think I’ve mentioned that before), and this year I’m really excited to decorate a new home for the holidays, spend time with my family, and get moved.

The Big Move will take place on November 15th. We’ve been moving some things over in the last week – bookcases, boxes, dining table, just to list a few things. I’ve started to unpack boxes, too. Everything that goes in the kitchen has been put away. Linens are put away, so everyone will have clean towels & washcloths when we move in. My studio is being unpacked, so when we move in, I can just bring in my tables & machines and voila! I’m ready to finish Christmas projects.

Before you know it, we’ll have zoomed past Thanksgiving, right into Christmas. What I don’t understand is, why do so many people zoom past Thanksgiving right into Christmas before Halloween is even over?! I love Christmas, I really do, and maybe it’s that I’m getting older, and want time to slow down, but I was a bit irritated to see the Christmas decorations up all over town on the first of November! Even the Home Owner’s Associations in our area have decided to put up decorations. What is up with that?!

I saw something the other day – and I really wish I could remember where it ws, but I can’t – about “Respect the Bird.” It was all about not skipping over Thanksgiving and getting caught up in Christmas. I think this is an excellent idea. We spend half our lives wishing it away, or ignoring it (anyone else remember being a kid, praying to grow up?), and the other half wondering where the time has gone. This year, I am going to make an extreme effort not to over think Christmas before Thanksgiving. I’m going to enjoy every minute leading up to Black Friday (which is an ominous name in it’s own right, isn’t it?) and not try to leap too far ahead. Like any quilter/artist/crafter, I will be working on gifts before Thanksgiving, but I won’t turn on a single Christmas song (never mind that I was singing them last week without even realizing it), pull out a single string of lights, or even consider a Christmas tree until the evening of Thanksgiving at the very earliest.

Instead, I will spend my time moving, unpacking boxes, working on making gifts for the holiday season, determining what I’ll make for Thanksgiving dinner, and enjoying the time with my family. The day after Thanksgiving, I will turn my thoughts to Christmas, but until then … the reason for THIS season is the Bird!

 

All things considered

Apartment life is not bad. At least that’s what I’m telling myself, as I come to the realization that renting a house is not in the cards for us at this point. After denials from half a dozen agents, and another half dozen who suddenly “lose” our phone number after finding out what our situation is, the message has become quite clear. You can have bad credit and still be able to rent a house, as long as you have good rental history. You can have bad rental history and be able to rent a house if you have good credit. But if you have bad credit and NO rental history, you cannot rent a house.

So tomorrow we start looking at apartments. This is not a thrilling adventure for me, because I don’t particularly enjoy apartment life. I mean, there ARE good things about it – not having to worry about maintenance, for one thing, is VERY nice. And not having to take care of a yard is wonderful, for all that I enjoy having a yard for BBQs and such. But the down side to apartment life – like noisy neighbors and a lack of privacy – doesn’t do a lot for me.

Fortunately, I think that living in an apartment could be a temporary thing for us. Once we have spent a year or two in an apartment, we can start looking at houses again. We will have established some rental history, we will not be facing a foreclosure (that should be over by that time), and we can start to slowly rebuild some credit. Also, the deposit for an apartment will likely be lower than a house. For a house we were looking at putting down a “double” deposit – which means it would be equivalent to two months of rent, PLUS the pet deposit AND the first month’s rent, just to move in. Most apartments I’ve spoken with will have at most a $300 deposit, so even if they “double” it, we shouldn’t have to put down much more than $600 plus a pet deposit of $400 on average. So we’re looking at about $1000 for a deposit on an apartment versus $2600 or more for a house. Hmmm … I think I can probably live with that.

I’ve had lots of suggestions and encouragement not to give up on finding a house, but the truth is, this has been dragging on for some time – since the beginning of January, really. And we are running out of time here, I feel. I just do not want to be here when the bank decides to come in and change the locks (I’ve seen that happen before). I would much rather just find an apartment we can live with and move on with our lives. I would like to get the move over in March if at all possible. It’s just TIME. I don’t want to “keep looking” and “not give up hope” … I’ve checked craigslist and ebay and the realtor sites and everything I can think of … all to keep getting the same rejection. We drove around for DAYS looking for signs in front yards that would indicate that an owner stuck it out there hoping to attract a tenant, but we found few. Of the ones we did find, four were agents who were “posing” and one … well, one made me very nervous.

This is not really where I want to be in my life – in foreclosure and unable to even rent a house. I thought I was done with this sort of thing, but apparently, I am not. I’m not really one to wax poetic about God’s hand in my life, but in this case I cannot help but think that He has put me in this place – all these financial difficulties of the last two years – to humble me in some way. Message received, Sir. Loud and clear. I get it. Cut out the unnecessary crap and focus more on the things that really matter. Got it. So please, can You cut me some slack and let us find a place to live? Please?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think God wants us to stop having fun or even to cut out every unnecessary expenditure. I think the message is more, “Save more, spend less” … because I haven’t ever really saved a lot of money, ever. That is about to change.

Anyway … tomorrow we plan to hit a marathon session of apartment hunting. We have somewhat specific needs, and I have seen a few floorplans on the internet that seem to fit the bill. I’m not sure if they actually will stand up to scrutiny when we actually see them in person, but I think we have a good place to start. At least I have my fingers crossed.

As a cooking aside, I made homemade ravioli tonight. It was my first time making any sort of pasta at home and it was quite the learning experience. In short, before I do it again, I will make sure I have a pasta roller, because a big part of the problem was that the pasta was too thick, and therefore, not very good.

I’ll try to remember to update tomorrow about the apartments we see … and maybe even post some pics of them if we get lucky.

 

The no-box results

Our week of eating no foods that come from boxes is over and I would say it was a roaring success. We did eat out/fast food a couple of times due to circumstances – and once simply because we wanted to, but over all it was a very successful and tasty experiment.

In fact, we deemed it so successful that we’ve decided to make it a way of life. We still have several boxes of “side dish” items in the pantry, some of which need to be tossed because they’ve been in there far too long, and others that we will eat but not replace.

So, onward and upward! I am excited about the prospect of learning new recipes and ways to cook, and I look forward to sharing successes (and disasters) with everyone here.

 

Another (mostly) successful cooking event

As I wrote yesterday, we celebrated Chris’s birthday last night. Things I learned:

1) When a steak is labeled “paper thin” this means that there are actually holes IN the slices of steak.
2) Always check your milk expiration before going to the grocery store.
3) An egg wash isn’t a bad thing.
4) Pancetta may be the second most wonderful pork product, right behind bacon
5) I make a better buttercream than any store I know.

When I got home from work, I put three russet potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour to bake. All I did to get them ready was wash and then prick them with a fork. I put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment and into the oven they went. Once they were baked through, I let them cool for about 20 minutes, then cut them in half and scooped out the potato from the skin and put it in a bowl. There is a bit of an art to scooping baked potato out of skins, so a couple of mine fell apart, but all in all the potato came out pretty easily. The best thing is to try to leave about a quarter inch of potato inside the skin – but it sounds a lot easier than it actually is to do. Anyway, once I got the potato into a bowl, I mixed it with a stick of melted butter and a cup of chedder cheese. Then I topped it with a slice of pancetta and more cheese. They went back into the oven for 25 minutes and I started on the chicken fried steak.

The steak I bought was labeled “top sirloin milanese paper thin.” I’ve bought milanese style before and they ARE thin, so I wasn’t worried. Usually, for CFS I purchase cube steak, but last week the cube steaks were tiny and there were only two or three to a package. I would have needed at least two packages (hey, I have two men in the house), and for some reason, these were the most expensive cube steaks I’ve ever seen at almost $4 a pound. The round steak, which would be my second choice, was highly “eh” so I bought the sirloin milanese.

I knew there were going to be issues when I opened the package and started laying out the steaks for seasoning – there were rather large holes in all but the top steak. I would have had no real problem with the “paper thin” part as long as they steaks were whole, but they were holey instead. I seasoned them and left them to “rest” for a few minutes while I got my wash and dredge together. I opened the fridge and found two containers of half-used milk that have expired. Great. Thinking I could get by without the milk, I just took a couple of eggs and beat them up in my dish, then combined my dredge ingredients. For this I used self-rising flour, kosher salt, pepper, paprika, original Mrs. Dash, a little cayenne pepper and some chili powder. I mixed them together well and heated a little oil in a skillet, then dipped the steaks into the egg wash and then the dredge. Because they were so thin, they only took a couple minutes on each side to cook and they were ready.

The red beans and rice were “no fuss, no muss” … simply put them in a pot with 3 1/4 cups of water and cook for 15 minutes, then let sit for 5. So easy and Chris thought I was the best wife ever just for that. LOL

The twice baked potatoes were WONDERFUL. I mean, REALLY good. We loved them, and will be adding them to the “regular rotation”. And they were easy too. I think they would really impress guests, and they are so tasty. The pancetta really made them, so if you want to try them, use the pancetta. I won’t lie to you, it’s expensive – the “cheap” stuff was $12 a pound. BUT we got a quarter pound – which was about 12 paper thin slices (and there were no holes in THESE slices!), and you only use one slice per potato. It’s just enough to give the flavor without overpowering the potatoes. It could be the best $3 I’ve spent in a grocery store in a very long time.

The steaks weren’t bad – we agreed that the cube steaks are better. And the egg wash sans the milk worked well. But the shining star of this part of the meal was the self-rising flour. In the past, my dredge has always lacked something, no matter what spices I added. You’ll recall that my mother suggested the self-rising flour instead of regular flour … and she was right. It makes a HUGE difference. The steaks were good, but I’ll be going back to my cube steak in the future.

Chris’s cookie cake didn’t work out quite the way I wanted it to, though. Knowing that I would be pressed for time last night, I didn’t make the cookie from scratch; I used the toll house cookie dough roll from the store. I got the small roll and I should have bought the bigger one, because the small roll didn’t cover the cookie sheet completely. But Chris didn’t care as long as it had frosting and the cookie was soft. So I set out to make buttercream and realized that I needed milk for that, too. I sent Travis over to my neighbor’s house to beg milk (thanks Colleen! love ya!) and got started. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to make buttercream frosting, but I think it is extremely easy. All you need is a stick of butter, half a cup of shortening, a teaspoon of vanilla, a pound of confectioners sugar and two tablespoons of milk. You cream the butter and shortening, add the vanilla & beat, then start adding the sugar, a cup at a time. And then you add the two tablespoons of milk. It is SO MUCH BETTER than canned frosting … and it can be flavored in a variety of ways. We just put the frosting “on the side” of the cookie cake because it was already 930 by the time it was done and there wasn’t really a need to decorate the cookie anyway – he just wanted the flavor. LOL

All in all, a most successful dinner. And there are enough left overs that tonight, neither of us is cooking.

 

Halfway through a no box week

And it’s going pretty good. I will admit that we ordered pizza last night for Chris’s birthday – not because that’s what he really wanted, but because I was short on time and couldn’t make the meal he really wanted. That will happen tonight, when we have more time. He requested chicken fried steak, red beans and rice, and a cookie cake. I am going to use a pre-packaged red beans and rice because it takes a seriously long time to make them with dried beans … like all day long time. And I don’t currently have a crock pot to cook beans in all day while I’m at work, considering that it just got taken over to make soap. /blush

But … we’ve been having a lot of fun with our back to basics cooking this week. Well, I have been anyway. It’s really nothing new to Chris. But the other night, his “chicken fingers” instead became the most awesome Asian inspired chicken for salads I’ve ever had the pleasure to eat. I’m not sure what he did to the chicken because I was otherwise engaged when he cooked it, but it was incredible. I mean truly awesome. He then put it on a bed of lettuce with some mandarin oranges and almond slivers and I was in heaven. I am sort of funny about salad dressing, and I don’t care much for most Asian dressings. Being that neither of us ate till 930, we just used bottled Italian dressing. It’s not my favorite (I prefer to make my own) but it wasn’t bad. All in all, it was a total win. But still no pics, and I’m sad about that.

I think this is about to become a way of life for us. We do need to use the boxed convenience foods we have the pantry already – no reason to be wasteful with it – but I suspect we’ll be doing more and more of our own thing because, let’s face it, food is just better that way.

 

Weekend Successes

We started our “no box challenge” on Saturday, which is good because I can’t recall for the LIFE of me what we did for dinner on Friday night. I’m sure it was at least edible. LOL Anyway, we looked at the ads for the various grocery stores, wrote up a menu, checked the pantry for what we already had, made up the grocery list, and went shopping. I hate grocery shopping, but going to our local HEB hybrid market sort of makes it fun. I always schedule a couple hours when we go to that store, because they have all sorts of samples on the weekend, including various wines and cheeses. It takes a l o n g time to get through there and eventually I have to drag Chris away because if left to his won devices he’d stay there till they ran him out the front door. Anyway, we got the grocery shopping mostly done – we didn’t get a couple of things they didn’t have, and a few things we didn’t really need, but on the whole it wasn’t horrible.

My daughter was with us, and Chris had planned to cook Cuban food one night, so he did it for her Saturday evening. I didn’t take pictures of what he was doing, but it wasn’t particularly complicated. The menu was grilled Cuban pork chops, rice, black beans, and fried plantains. He used a seasoning – I think it’s maybe Adobo seasoning (?) – for the chops. He rinsed them, dried them off, and then sprinkled the seasoning on them. He then put them on paper towels on a cookie sheet and set them aside while he started the rice and sliced the plantains. He usually cuts them pretty thick – like maybe 3/8 of an inch thick. But we figured out when we tasted the first batch that the plantains weren’t quite ripe. It wasn’t a problem, because we could just cut them thinner, more like chips, and it worked out fine. A little oil in the skillet, and fry them up till they’re nice and golden brown, then sprinkle them with salt. The black beans were just Goyo brand black bean soup because that’s what his grandmother always used. It was a GREAT meal and everyone loved it. SUCCESS for Chris! But then, I knew it would be. *sigh*

Sunday was my night to cook, so we stopped at Kroger to get some boneless, skinless chicken breasts – they were on sale there. At home, I made Geronimo’s rice pilaf. It wasn’t bad, but next time I’ll make a few adjustments based upon our taste buds. I think I’ll use chicken stock instead of water, and … maybe a little less of it? I don’t know what happened, but the water from the veggies are likely the culprit. The rice was a little soupy to me, and when I tried to cook off the remaining water, the rice became a bit softer than I like. Chris thinks it was the rice I used, and that if I use HIS rice next time it will be ok. Also, I will probably add something to give it a bit of kick … maybe a little bit of a jalapeno or some spice. My taste buds have likely been burned off, according to my mother, so to me it was a little blander than I normally like, but … my mom is probably right. LOL For the chicken, I used salt, pepper, a little bit of Mrs Dash original, some garlic powder, and a bit of paprika. I sauteed them in a skillet with just a little olive oil. I thought the whole dinner was delicious! And none of it came from a box! I was so pleased.

Tonight Chris is going to give homemade chicken fingers another go. And homemade french fries. Tomorrow is his birthday and he’s chosen chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with gravy and … something else I can’t remember right now. LOL I may need him to show me his mashed potato secret, and if he does I’ll try to get pics. In fact, I’ll try to get pics of what he does with the chicken fingers tonight as well. Wish me luck!

 

The Well-Stocked Kitchen … and another lesson

Well, it wasn’t really a lesson. It was a reminder – to check the dates on the meat you buy at the grocery. And when the label says “Sell by” that really means “Use by” or “Freeze by”. Last night when I got home, I had visions of chicken brilliance – I had been inspired, after all, and I was ready to put my inspiration to the test. I pulled out a (rather large) package of boneless skinless breasts we bought over the weekend. Fortunately, they were on sale for less than $2/lb. I say fortunately, because it was only $8 worth of chicken I had to throw away last night, not $20. *sigh* When I slit the package open, I smelled it – the fragrance of rank chicken. I was irritated; the package said it was to be sold by the 26th of January. Yesterday was the 27th. If the package was to be sold by the 26th, why wasn’t the meat still edible on the 27th?! Into the trash it went and I scrambled for something else to cook … and since I had nothing else thawed, I reached into the pantry and pulled out my last jar of spaghetti sauce and made spaghetti. And chicken nuggets. I’m embarrassed to admit that, actually. But yes, I made frozen chicken nuggets with spagetti and marinara sauce last night. And then I put my nuggets on top of the spaghetti, added cheese, and called it a pseudo parmesan. The Pioneer Woman would likely hang her head in shame, or laugh at me. But … I wasn’t going back out last night and that’s what I had available. I figured using the nuggets wasn’t that different from using the preformed chicken breast patties I have used for parmesan … but I was still pretty embarrassed.

At least I haven’t started my “no box foods” week yet – that’s next week. I just wasn’t prepared this week to start.

Oh well, onward and upward!

Even before this incident, I realized that I need to take an inventory of my pantry, clear out my freezer and stock up on those items that are needed for no-box cooking. I have expanded “no-box” to also mean “fewer jars and cans” … like the jar of spaghetti sauce last night (though it certainly DID save my arse). I’ve been scouring the internet for a list of items that are essential for a well stocked kitchen, and I’ve come up with several, though I don’t think any single list fits my personal needs. I mean, I really have no use for anchovies, though Chris certainly likes them, and I don’t intend to use them for cooking (he can eat all of them he wants, but I’m not kissing him after he does!). I asked a couple of friends about their “well stocked kitchen” and I got several suggestions for things I should always have in the pantry. I thought I would share my personal list with you and see if there are any suggestions – either to add or take away.

Fridge
eggs
butter
milk
sour cream
mozzarella
cheddar
parmesan
mayo (not for me; blech! but for Chris)
dijon mustard
ketchup (for Travis)
pickles
salsa
jelly
bacon
yogurt

Freezer
ground beef
chicken (breasts and whole)
pork chops
sausage
ice cream
frozen fruit (things not in season, and for smoothies)

Produce
potatoes
onions
lettuce
apples
oranges
lemons
garlic
bell peppers
mushrooms (in small quantities)
tomatoes
carrots
celery
limes
bananas

Dry Goods
all-purpose flour
self-rising flour
cornmeal
granulated sugar
brown sugar
confectioners sugar
baking soda
baking powder
cornstarch
unsweetened cocoa
unsweetened chocolate
Semi-sweet chocolate chips
Cereal
Crackers (various varieties)
Dried breadcrumbs
Pasta (elbow, spaghetti, lasagna, etc)
Egg noodles
long grain rice
wild rice
barley
couscous
beans
bread, buns
tortillas, flour & corn

Canned
tomatoes
tomato paste
tomato sauce
chicken broth
beef broth
cream of mushroom soup
cream of chicken soup
worestershire sauce
steak sauce
soy sauce
olive oil
vegetable oil
canned chicken
green beans
corn
black beans
kidney beans
sweetened condensed milk
peanut butter
canned chilis
corn syrup
maple syrup
honey
vanilla
peanut oil
cooking spray
balsamic vinegar
white wine vinegar
rice vinegar

Dried herbs/spices
parsley
oregano
basil
rosemary
thyme
sage
marjoram
pepper – black & white
peppercorns
tarragon
onion powder
garlic powder
minced onions
kosher salt
table salt
cinnamon
mustard seed
cayenne pepper
chipotle pepper
bay leaves
minced garlic
paprika

Whew … that’s a lot of stuff! Fortunately, we already keep much of this in the house. I only really need to purchase a few additional items to have all of this (as I have said before, I may not be much of a cook at this point, but Chris is). I’m trying to get Chris to plan a menu of sorts for next week so we can make a shopping list for the grocery store. Thing is, he’s always really resistant to making a “menu” but we stand in the middle of the grocery store deciding what we’re going to eat for the coming week anyway. We don’t assign the meals to specific days, but we don’t have to do that if we plan in advance either. At least if we planned it at home, we’d know what we have there so we don’t buy stuff we don’t really need. I think that’s going to be something we need to work on, too.

 

What I Learned Last Night

Last night, Chris made chicken fingers from scratch. They were cooked perfectly, juicy and tender. But they were a little bland. Not horrible bland, just … bland. They needed salt, I thought, and so did he.

Later in the evening, I was talking to my mom on the phone and I told her about my “challenge” (she got a HUGE kick out of that) and about Chris’s chicken strips being a little bland. She asked me what kind of flour he used. I told her it was just plain old regular flour. That, she told me, was the problem.

I’ve always noticed that no matter how much seasoning I put into a flour dredge I make, it never tastes like my mom’s does. It’s always just a little bland, but I’ve never known why. She told me that I need to use self-rising flour for dredging, and that it will cure my blandness problem. I had no idea.

So this weekend, when we go to get our groceries, I’ll pick up some self-rising flour. I have chicken fried steak on the menu this weekend, so we’ll see if the self-rising flour helps with the blandness issue I’ve had for years. If this is all it takes to rectify that problem, I’m probably going to beat my head against the wall.

 

I threw down the gauntlet

Not realizing that the one who will REALLY be challenged is me!

Last night, my husband Chris and I were watching a dvr’d episode of The Worst Cooks in America, a Food Network reality show. Do I really need to explain the premise of this show? These are people who were nominated by friends and/or family to go on this show to learn how to cook because presumably their cooking is so bad, no one wants to eat their food. Pretty sad, huh? Yeah, I thought so too, particularly when one girl broke down into tears and more or less sobbed for the last five minutes of their challenge. I mean, I’ve had cooking disasters, but never ones that reduced me to tears – not since I was a kid, anyway.

Now, I am by no means “worst cook” material, despite what my little brother woud have people believe (he still hasn’t forgotten the microwave cake from THIRTY YEARS AGO … I may go into that at another time), but I’m not Iron Chef either. Can you tell we watch a lot of Food Network at our house? That’s because Chris is an excellent chef. He really is. He can cook circles around me, as can my father, and my brother. And frankly I’m a bit put out over it. But back to the challenge.

Last night, while we were watching this show, they were being taught how to make ravioli from scratch. I told Chris that it’s something I’ve always wanted to learn to do – make pasta from scratch – but I’ve never been brave enough to try. But this weekend, I am going to give it a shot. Everyone says that when you make it from scratch it’s so much better than store-bought. I usually buy the frozen raviolis, so this will be interesting. And messy. I’m sure it will be messy. I then told Chris that I think we should start cooking completely from scratch for one week, just to see if we can. He raised an eyebrow at me. I tried to clarify .. “You know, no boxes!” He looked slightly offended.

“I don’t use boxes to cook. I made those mashed potatoes last night from scratch!”

He did. He made cheesy mashed potatoes the other night wholly from scratch and they were divine. I mean, seriously some of the best potatoes I’ve ever had.

I, on the other hand, rely heavily on boxes for my cooking. Flavored rices and other side dishes are from boxes. My “homemade” pizza is actually a pizza kit by Chef Boyardee! They’re all good, but I’m pretty sure they’re not all good for us. But my mom cooked (cooks?) that way. She is a very good cook, and always has been, and she always made sure we had a home cooked meal at least once a day. But she stuck with things she knew – fried chicken and steak, mashed potatoes, rice, gravy … all of them were great. But when it came to something outside her realm of expertise, even flavored rice, she turned to boxed varieties. At least, I think she did. I know she did in at least some instances. I can’t ever recall her trying to make a rice pilaf from scratch, though she may have.

I do know that when I grew up and moved out on my own, and then later married (for the first time), boxed foods figured prominently in my kitchen. They are my “staples” … and I think that must be a little sad. Aren’t staples supposed to be things like milk, butter, flour and sugar? Rice and potatoes, meats, fruits and vegetables? When did Rice A Roni become a staple?! Probably, for me at least, right around the time I realized that Mom wasn’t going to be there every night to cook dinner for me.

And so now … I have challenged myself, when I really thought I was challenging my husband. Challenged myself to get away from boxes, find a better way to cook, more flavor, less sodium, more fun, and to be innovative. I have hope that I can do this, but I can’t lie … it won’t be easy for me. I’ve used the box crutch for so long .. CAN I get away from them and back to the basics of the kitchen? Will it cost me more or less to do this? I don’t know. But I do know that you can follow along right here, laugh at my disasters, help me celebrate my successes. And maybe we’ll all learn something new!