Have you ever eaten something so good that for the rest of the day you didn't want to put anything else in your mouth because you just wanted to SAVOR that flavor, texture, experience? It happened to me. Today. At BRUNCH.
Yes, I had Brunch (capital B) with some good girlie friends. It was at the original Lindey's and so urban. Picture the cute little NYC breakfast place that Jack Nicholson visits everyday in the film As Good As It Gets. You know, the one where he says, "There's Jews sitting at my table." And one of the accosted Jews is the actress who is now the head of the hospital on House, but I digress.
Well as I listened to my friends speak of their new babies, upcoming nanny interviews, upcoming babies (in like two weeks), and upcoming gallery openings, I felt like an adult and awfully shmancy. I didn't have as much to contribute, except for my dorky students who are taking over an online discussion forum that I started for them...and boy are they DORKS! Discussing the upcoming Eragon movie and new Nintendo Wiii.
So, I just sat back and enjoyed the ambiance, and then came my brunch. I ordered the Croque Madam and oh. my. God. I didn't have to hear anything else about disposable or cloth diapers and then cringe at the idea of WASHING diapers. You know. DiRtY diapers! (perhaps when I can focus on the money saved and not the poop, I'll be ready for a kid) I was all sated and just bathing in the richness of the Croque. (pronounced Croak, I think. Hopefully not Crock). It was a brioche, soaked in egg and cream, with ham and gruyere cheese. Topped then with a fried egg and then again with hollandaise. Did I say oh my God?? Because that is about all I can say to explain.
So moral: Lindeys...good croque madam. And I have a tiramisu in the fridge waiting for me later.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
I'm Back Baby!
So much to discuss, oh where to start!
Let's start with the bad and then get to the good. It is serious. It is really something to be concerned about. The topic. The concern. The issue:
Fat Women, Large Large Women, with...gasp...COUPONS!!
If you ever wonder when NOT to go to the grocery store, the answer is simple. With me. And with me on Sundays. Twice now I have been stuck behind evil coupon wielding bitches. Most recent occurrence was Giant Eagle two days ago. This event made me want to blog. So thank the amazon woman with a pile o' coupons for this post.
Now I had a bad coupon experience last time, which included mass coupons and price checks on clearance gum. So with the visit Sunday, I doubled checked that the lovely pregnant lady in front of me had NO coupons. Check. Little did I know, the woman in front of her, seemingly almsot done, and did I mention OH LARGE, was actually scanning the first part of her coupons. I think we could separate her coupon load into four parts. When I started unloading my cart, she was on part two. Then part three occurred as I watched people get in line behind me. Then before part four could occur, I kid you not, the manager had to come over to allow the rest of the coupons to go into the register. Literally, she hit the maximum for normal people, and went into coupon orbit with the rest.
"Dear Gawd Kristy, what was in the cart?" you ask. Cereal. Chips. Lotions. In essence, CRAP. Lots of high fat, high sugar, overly processed CRAP.
"What was in your cart, oh wise ass?" Apples, ground chicken, Birds Eye frozen vegetables at 10 for $10. No crap here, dammit! Well, some crap. Ranch Munchies for my lovey love.
Moral of the story, if you use coupons, and I mean USE THEM. Like piles of them. Go shopping at 1am. Don't inconvenience people willing to pay more because they value their time too much to waste their time on 50 cents off of THREE (yes, because my experience requires you to purchse multiples and the biatch in front of me Sunday proved that point too).
Onto the good stuff. The meal plan for this week is STELLAR! We had cannelloni last night. It was from Cooking Light. Here is the recipe, in bold is how I changed it to make it LESS good for us.
Cannelloni (Weight Watchers 8points for two)
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
Cooking spray
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound ground chuck
1/2 pound ground turkey I actually used ground chicken. It was cheaper.
1/4 cup egg substitute
5 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided Yeah right. 5 T! More like 1/2 cup.
1 1/4 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
(8-ounce) cans no-salt-added tomato sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt
12 cooked manicotti shells
White Sauce The white sauce calls for dried milk. uh, eww. I did 2T butter, 2T flour and about 1.5 cups milk. Beautiful. And I added some parmesan to that too.
Place spinach between paper towels, and squeeze until barely moist; set aside.
Place a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat until hot. Add onion and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add spinach; sauté 1 minute. Place mixture in a large bowl; set aside.
Combine ground chuck and turkey in skillet; cook over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain and pat dry with paper towels; add to spinach mixture. Add egg substitute, 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper; stir well, and set aside.
Combine tomato sauce, 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a bowl; spread 1 cup over bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 375º. Stuff each shell with 1/3 cup spinach mixture; arrange on top of tomato sauce mixture in dish. Pour remaining tomato sauce mixture over shells; spoon White Sauce evenly over tomato sauce mixture. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Cover and bake at 375º for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 stuffed shells with 1 tablespoon white sauce)
NUTRITION PER SERVINGCALORIES 376(30% from fat); FAT 12.5g ; SODIUM 448mg; CHOLESTEROL 48mg; PROTEIN 26.4g; CARBOHYDRATE 38.8g
So the cannelloni rocked. But the pork cooked tonight for dinner by the husband was even better. It, also is from Cooking LIght. I picked out three recipes before my fateful grocery trip on Sunday. And then the webpage makes a grocery list for you. Quite nice!
Honey Hoisin Pork Tenderloin (weight watchers 4pts a serving):
2 tablespoons sliced green onions Didn't use this either, because it is green and TJ doesn't eat green things. Well, he doesn't eat onions either, but generally anything green is boycotted in our house (parsley, cilantro, garnishes far and wide).
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons sage honey Regular honey was just fine.
1 tablespoon hot water Uh, this was not used. Not sure where it was supposed to go. But he didn't do it.
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
Preheat oven to 400°.
Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl. Pour 1/4 cup honey mixture into a large zip-top plastic bag; reserve remaining honey mixture. Add pork to bag; seal and marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes, turning bag occasionally.
Remove pork from bag; discard marinade. Sprinkle pork with salt. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork; cook 2 minutes, browning on all sides. Brush 1 tablespoon reserved honey mixture over pork; sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place skillet in oven. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160° (slightly pink) or until desired degree of doneness.
Place pork on a platter; let stand 5 minutes. Cut pork across the grain into thin slices. Drizzle with the remaining honey mixture. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3 ounces pork and about 2 teaspoons honey mixture)
CALORIES 195 (20% from fat); FAT 4.3g (sat 1.4g,mono 1.9g,poly 0.6g); PROTEIN 24.7g; CHOLESTEROL 74mg; CALCIUM 12mg; SODIUM 633mg; FIBER 0.5g; IRON 1.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 13.6g
Let's start with the bad and then get to the good. It is serious. It is really something to be concerned about. The topic. The concern. The issue:
Fat Women, Large Large Women, with...gasp...COUPONS!!
If you ever wonder when NOT to go to the grocery store, the answer is simple. With me. And with me on Sundays. Twice now I have been stuck behind evil coupon wielding bitches. Most recent occurrence was Giant Eagle two days ago. This event made me want to blog. So thank the amazon woman with a pile o' coupons for this post.
Now I had a bad coupon experience last time, which included mass coupons and price checks on clearance gum. So with the visit Sunday, I doubled checked that the lovely pregnant lady in front of me had NO coupons. Check. Little did I know, the woman in front of her, seemingly almsot done, and did I mention OH LARGE, was actually scanning the first part of her coupons. I think we could separate her coupon load into four parts. When I started unloading my cart, she was on part two. Then part three occurred as I watched people get in line behind me. Then before part four could occur, I kid you not, the manager had to come over to allow the rest of the coupons to go into the register. Literally, she hit the maximum for normal people, and went into coupon orbit with the rest.
"Dear Gawd Kristy, what was in the cart?" you ask. Cereal. Chips. Lotions. In essence, CRAP. Lots of high fat, high sugar, overly processed CRAP.
"What was in your cart, oh wise ass?" Apples, ground chicken, Birds Eye frozen vegetables at 10 for $10. No crap here, dammit! Well, some crap. Ranch Munchies for my lovey love.
Moral of the story, if you use coupons, and I mean USE THEM. Like piles of them. Go shopping at 1am. Don't inconvenience people willing to pay more because they value their time too much to waste their time on 50 cents off of THREE (yes, because my experience requires you to purchse multiples and the biatch in front of me Sunday proved that point too).
Onto the good stuff. The meal plan for this week is STELLAR! We had cannelloni last night. It was from Cooking Light. Here is the recipe, in bold is how I changed it to make it LESS good for us.
Cannelloni (Weight Watchers 8points for two)
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
Cooking spray
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound ground chuck
1/2 pound ground turkey I actually used ground chicken. It was cheaper.
1/4 cup egg substitute
5 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided Yeah right. 5 T! More like 1/2 cup.
1 1/4 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
(8-ounce) cans no-salt-added tomato sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt
12 cooked manicotti shells
White Sauce The white sauce calls for dried milk. uh, eww. I did 2T butter, 2T flour and about 1.5 cups milk. Beautiful. And I added some parmesan to that too.
Place spinach between paper towels, and squeeze until barely moist; set aside.
Place a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat until hot. Add onion and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add spinach; sauté 1 minute. Place mixture in a large bowl; set aside.
Combine ground chuck and turkey in skillet; cook over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain and pat dry with paper towels; add to spinach mixture. Add egg substitute, 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper; stir well, and set aside.
Combine tomato sauce, 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a bowl; spread 1 cup over bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 375º. Stuff each shell with 1/3 cup spinach mixture; arrange on top of tomato sauce mixture in dish. Pour remaining tomato sauce mixture over shells; spoon White Sauce evenly over tomato sauce mixture. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Cover and bake at 375º for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 stuffed shells with 1 tablespoon white sauce)
NUTRITION PER SERVINGCALORIES 376(30% from fat); FAT 12.5g ; SODIUM 448mg; CHOLESTEROL 48mg; PROTEIN 26.4g; CARBOHYDRATE 38.8g
So the cannelloni rocked. But the pork cooked tonight for dinner by the husband was even better. It, also is from Cooking LIght. I picked out three recipes before my fateful grocery trip on Sunday. And then the webpage makes a grocery list for you. Quite nice!
Honey Hoisin Pork Tenderloin (weight watchers 4pts a serving):
2 tablespoons sliced green onions Didn't use this either, because it is green and TJ doesn't eat green things. Well, he doesn't eat onions either, but generally anything green is boycotted in our house (parsley, cilantro, garnishes far and wide).
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons sage honey Regular honey was just fine.
1 tablespoon hot water Uh, this was not used. Not sure where it was supposed to go. But he didn't do it.
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
Preheat oven to 400°.
Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl. Pour 1/4 cup honey mixture into a large zip-top plastic bag; reserve remaining honey mixture. Add pork to bag; seal and marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes, turning bag occasionally.
Remove pork from bag; discard marinade. Sprinkle pork with salt. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork; cook 2 minutes, browning on all sides. Brush 1 tablespoon reserved honey mixture over pork; sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place skillet in oven. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160° (slightly pink) or until desired degree of doneness.
Place pork on a platter; let stand 5 minutes. Cut pork across the grain into thin slices. Drizzle with the remaining honey mixture. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3 ounces pork and about 2 teaspoons honey mixture)
CALORIES 195 (20% from fat); FAT 4.3g (sat 1.4g,mono 1.9g,poly 0.6g); PROTEIN 24.7g; CHOLESTEROL 74mg; CALCIUM 12mg; SODIUM 633mg; FIBER 0.5g; IRON 1.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 13.6g
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