Nom nom nom

That’s right. Those falafels were damn tasty. (Of course, I had to come back and tell you.)

Today’s menu:

figs stuffed with mascarpone, wrapped in prosciutto (mildly smoked)

honey mustard and fage pork chops (pork was braised in the liquid)

garlic and herb barley

beet and chevre salad

Not posting recipes for these tonight, too much to do. But if you want them, email me.

More importantly… what am I going to do with my MLK day?? Three day weekend and no plans yet…

Let’s eat better.

Of course, because of the wedding I am trying to get healthy! That involves lots of good (yet healthy) food.

Something I’ve noticed while exploring the grocery store is that there are a lot of great options out there. I’m going to highlight a few:

1. What I had for lunch today vs. what you had for lunch today.

I probably had the same lunch as you have had–Hot dog and bun, chips and an apple. That’s a lunch that would generally be, oh, somewhere around 500 calories.

Instead, I had a 97% fat free all-beef hot dog, 100 calorie pack of baked cheetos (the 30 count box at costco, with sunchips and doritos as well, is SO WORTH IT!) and a wheat bun. I had a small apple (not medium, not large) and it was all 100% delicious.

2. Breakfast time!

Generally, I love lemon yogurt, so that’s a good breakfast item. But don’t get me wrong, I know people love warmer, more delicious items (most days, I’m with you).

Enter the mini-bagel, 100 calories from Thomas. Whole wheat, and oh so good topped with fat-free Philly cream cheese (only 30 cals) with room left over for a large glass of OJ. Or top it with a fried egg/poached egg and a slice of fat-free kraft (or a few shavings of fresh parmesan, if you’re picky like Chad and love your microplane grater).

3. What I’m having for dinner versus what you’re having.

Don’t get me wrong. I know people who can cook healthy dinners. But darnit, I like a little SPICE! It doesn’t always have to equal spicy, but it better be savory and oh-so-worth it, or else I’m just not interested. That’s kind of what draws us to have food, isn’t it?

Here’s a good one: We all love steak. Faced with the almost-never-happens conundrum the other day of having too much leftover steak (I KNOW RIGHT?!?!?! They were a celebratory investment, thanks Costco, and about twice the size of our stomachs), I decided to use it in a stir-fry.

HOLY CRAPOLA! Best stir-fry we’ve had in a long time! Yeah, steak is expensive, but to feed us (twice–we had leftovers for lunch, very generous leftovers) we only needed one, so pick up a good one and enjoy the steak flavor in a slightly different way. We always add extra broccoli, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts to our stir-fry mix, and eat it over brown rice.

Similarly, I buy my pork chops from Costco as well. Those things are like a serving and a half of meat, but two servings is the recommendation for dinner anyways, so it’s ok. Now, I shall be the first to tell you that pork chops suck. I mean, they SUCK in terms of being a tasty, flavorful meat. I buy these because they’re great for stuffing as they’re about an inch thick, but still–not great flavor.

Well my friends, turns out if you stick them in the crock pot for two hours with a packet of ANY seasoning on the seasoning aisle, they turn out amazingly! Just trim the fat and voila, they are a VERY lean meat. (The fat is generally only concentrated on the side of the chops, so it’s a pretty easy fix.)

Anyways, I thought I’d let you in on how I’m managing to eat like a normal person and stay sane throughout this summer (and this year).

slow cooked.

so I finally broke down and bought a “slow cooker,” otherwise referred to as a (brand name) “Crock Pot.” I just got a cheapo one at Walmart for $15… it’s a 5 quart one! I was impressed at the price.

And boy did I hit up the post-post-christmas sales at target. $2/pair socks for $.74, $9.99 2 pk of seamless undies for $2.84 (and another three pack of cotton for same price), $4.99 chenille gloves for $1.24, the same price as the crappy ones! Hmm. They had a gorgeous light coat for spring, it was green plaid. Too bad I wouldn’t be able to use it for like 3 months here! Brr! It froze over last night.

I finally organized my crafting stuff. And in the past month, I’ve gained 7 ink pads, and a bunch of stamps. My craft stuff is so cute and organized, I’ll take a picture and post soon. I can’t believe so much of it fit on my shelves, and then the rest ended up fitting under my desk, bed and in my closet.

I picked up a bunch of scrapbooking stuff at target, too, from the $1 section. You can get great deals there–I got a teal ink pad that seems to work pretty well, and a bunch of stickers (it’s hard for stickers to not work well… you can always glue them). I also found a bunch of stuff from Dollar Tree and Big Lots to flesh out my collection for now… have a lot of pictures to print before I can get back to doing more scrapbooking and painting.

Also, great deals going on at World Market post christmas. I got 5 blown glass rubber duck ornaments for $3, and plain wrapping paper (not christmas-y) for $2; it came with some cute paper tags that I can use for scrapbooking, and some raffia.

I started my new job last week, and I really like it. I have a couple of cute kids I tutor, and they seem to be pretty good readers and fast learners.

And to anyone: I know beans and rice is a really cheap meal, but isn’t it good? I’m making ham, beans and rice for dinner because of my crock pot. Haha! I’m sure it will turn out well, and who knows, maybe it will get regular rotation. The whole thing costs less than $5 for three people!

Well, I think that’s all I wanted to talk about for today. More soon!