Burger Come Back

I haven't been posting because I have been sick. As much as I have tried to stay away from the sick people out there I still  managed to get their sickness. So while I was sick my hubby had to pretty much vend for himself for a couple of days. For lunch today he brought home Sonic (ick) but I appreciated the fact that he was trying to take care of me and feed me. lol

I was feeling well enough to cook today so I decided to make some orange muffins. I think they taste ok but Tito says they taste like flowers...lol. I shouldn't have used olive oil for the oil in the recipe cause they smell kind of like olive oil they taste fine though. I also decided to take the easy way out for bread this week and used the master boule recipe my sister gave me to make some ciabatta bread. I made two small ciabatta bread rolls to use as buns for the homemade hamburgers I was making for dinner.

I made homemade hamburgers and french fries (yummy) there is nothing like homemade fries. I also sauteed some onions and cooked up some of the deer sausage a friend gave us that Tito has been dying to try.  It  turned out pretty good. I use Montreal steak seasoning by McCormick in my hamburger patties. I added some pepper jack cheese and lettuce and tomato.Tito said "yum so much better then that burger from sonic" He even liked the homemade bun it was on. It made me feel good to come back from being sick and make him a meal that made him happy:O) (minus the orange muffins)

I love feeding people. Hope everyone had a great week!! Happy to be back on my feet

Loves Angela

Crazy busy

Wow! My life was so busy since last Wednesday, no wonder I was so exhausted by Sunday not to mention feeling under the weather.
 Let me update you on the last several days:

before I put it in the oven

Wednesday my girlfriends came over for dinner with their little boys and we had a great time visiting and catching up with one another!! Brooklyn even was in a pleasant mood for the first part of the morning so I was able to get my pizza's almost made up by time my girlfriends got here. I made a whole wheat plain cheese pizza for the boys. I was very pleased with myself because it was all homemade (except the cheese :o) I thought the pizza turned out beautifully...

The only bad thing was it bubbled in the middle the last few minutes of baking. I am not sure why but it still tasted fine. I forgot to take a picture of the Margarita pizza I made for us ladies but I did get a picture of a slice. It tasted just as good as the cheese only pizza. We also had mango strawberry smoothies...they were de-lish!!

I also have been keeping really busy trying to expand on my reduce skills by "reducing" the amount of money I spend on Christmas. So I have been slaving away with my crochet needles making gifts..hopefully I get everything done by Christmas!!

Just started my first baby blanket ever as well...its a little frustrating for me because I am dealing with curling and rippling but its because I don't keep the same tension...I guess..oh well maybe over time I will get better at it and I am hoping that once I am done I can block it to fix my mistakes.

Mom and dad visited for the weekend and we had an awesome time!!  Friday night we didn't feel like waiting till 9 to eat so we decided to order pizza from a local restaurant called  Winter Garden bistro. They sell Toarmina's pizza (which I have never heard of) but it tastes very good and isn't very greasy. Well we decided to save money and order the 24 inch Jumbo...lol. We  had no idea how big this pizza would be. It barely fit in the front of my dads truck! We didn't even dent it and Tito and I had pizza leftovers for three days.


We went to the Long Beach Farmers Market this weekend and I was so excited when I saw that they had local farm raised eggs!! I can't wait to dig into them. But we have to finish off the other eggs first!

Also we went shopping over the weekend for my daughters birthday gifts and she said she only wanted stuff from this store called Justice. Well I almost chocked when I saw the prices of this clothing store for little girls. I had to pretty much shop clearance only. (Thats probably the way I should always shop anyway). Well as we were checking out we found out that it used to be Limited Too. So it made a lot of sense that it was so expensive. However the cashier was really nice and gave us the coupon discount (even though we didn't have the coupon) and we got 40 percent off of our total purchase...so naturally they gained a new customer by being so kind:O) I just know that if this is all she wants for Christmas I am going to have to start buying a little at a time.

I made Carne Asada and home made tortilla's for my parents on Saturday night and they really enjoyed it. I love when my dad is pleased with my food!!

So that pretty much sums up my last several days.

So on the menu this week is:

Eggplant and Zucchini Picodillo

Stuffed Poblano peppers (I didn't get to these last week)

Hamburger Steak

Some type of Chicken and chile soup!!

Hope I can stick a little closer to my menu this week. Hope you have a great day:O)

Loves Angela

Fishy fish...yuck

Yea tonight was fish night. I decided to fry the fish and make french fries...bottom line way too much grease for this lady...but Tito enjoyed it especially since I made him rice to go along with it. The fish was really fishy tonight and if you know me you know I don't like fishy fish...I know that it doesn't make sense but it is what it is. So needless to say I didn't really enjoy dinner much at all tonight and I know I have to figure out a better way to cook the fish.

On the up side. I am having friends over for lunch tomorrow and can't wait to try out my margarita pizza recipe on them. I am also going to make some mango fruit smoothies and blondies are in the oven as we speak...I have to get a head start,sometimes I am a little too ambitious and forget that I have a two month old I am keeping that demands a lot of my attention.

Well gotta run, I am just beat today and I still need to finish up a few chores before tomorrow.

OH yea I almost forgot. I figured out how to cook brown rice in the rice cooker finally. I have to add 2 1/4 cups of water to 1 cup of rice and I added a little salt to it. The rice came out great (not anywhere as good as white rice but way healthier right...that's what I keep telling myself anyway)

Anyway have a great night!!

Loves Angela

Roasted chicken night = SUCCESS!!

Ok so I get tired of chicken its not really my favorite meat at all so tonight I was anything but excited about cooking roasted chicken breast. I knew I wanted some sweet potatoes, and that I had to cook one of the two eggplants I had bought over the weekend at the farmers market. I also bought some small grape or cherry type tomatoes from the farmers market that I wanted to incorporate before they went bad. (not sure what kind they were cause they were like yellow and purple reddish colored but very sweet)

Well all day today while I was holding Brooklyn (the baby that I keep) I was watching Food Network. It must have been Italian day cause it seemed like that's what a lot of the hosts were making. Anyway...Giada came on about 3 and wouldn't you know she was cooking eggplant. So I paid attention to how she cut it and cooked it. She made a Basil pesto eggplant mixture to go over some pasta...I can't wait to try the recipe. I couldn't do what she did but at least I knew what to - kind of do with an eggplant, and I gotta tell you this has been one of the foods that I have not been keen on cooking because I didn't think I liked them.

So while I was making  Honey Wheat Bread I had some time to think about what I was going to make for dinner. I decided I was craving bruschetta so I decided that I would give tonight's dinner an Italian spin...(uh oh I see a theme occurring here cause we had spaghetti last night). So I put together my normal rub for my roasted chicken (salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, and basil)and peeled and cubed the sweet potatoes (not sure they fit into the Italian theme..LOL) and got all that in the oven. I chopped up some of the tomatoes I got over the weekend and added some salt, pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, basil and olive oil and toasted some Ciabatta bread we had. Then I put my chopped up eggplant in a pan with olive oil  and added some chopped zucchini. ( Next time I know it takes zucchini longer to cook then the eggplant, it was a bit mushy but OMG)..the flavor was so good. I never knew I liked eggplant. I could have very well done without the chicken tonight for dinner. Before I pulled the chicken from the oven I added a little smoked Gouda cheese to it..oh that was so yummy. Tito said the bruschetta was awesome....yea success.He liked the flavor of the eggplant zucchini mixture but agreed with me that it was too mushy. Dinner was wonderful...there I go again tooting my own horn...but it really was.

On a side note...today for lunch I use some of the ciabatta bread and added some of my marinara (the meatless one) that I made last night for dinner on it then put a little Gouda cheese on it and threw it in the toaster oven for a few minutes...oh goodness that was delightful too!!

I never in a million years would have figured that I would love to cook and that I would love to try new food...who knows maybe next week I will try leeks...ok maybe not next week but I do plan on trying them in the future!!

Loves Angela

Started Italian ended American

On Sunday's I usually make a big lunch and then we just have leftovers for dinner. Well staying true to my menu that I planned I decided that today I would make spaghetti because it was something I could start before church and finish up quickly after church.

All homemade, ok not really the ciabatta bread wasn't

First let me say that trying to find tomato sauce that has less then 5 ingredients proved to be a daunting task yesterday! I finally had to settle on tomato puree, and I bought some organic fire roasted tomatoes (also 5 ingredients or less). So I was nervous about using tomato puree but excited to try and make my own sauce. I started by sauteing 1 diced onion in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil, then I added 4 minced garlic cloves and sauteed till they were brown. Then I chopped 3 roma tomatoes and added them and cooked it all down. To that mixture I added 2 cans of tomato puree and 1 can of diced fire roasted tomatoes and half a can of water. I probably didn't need the water but I was nervous that it wouldn't make much sauce. Let me tell you the smell was awesome. I also added about 1 teaspoon of oregano and about 1/2 tsp of basil a little salt and pepper also. I don't measure when I cook so sometimes its hard to tell how much I used. I let it come to a boil and then I turned it to low and went and got ready for church. Before we left for church I turned the stove off but left the pot on the burner.

So on the way home I asked Tito if he was ok with me not adding meat to the sauce. There was a very long quiet pause before he answered...lol. He said, "I am all for us eating right and more healthy but if you try and turn me into a vegetarian I am going to be mad!!" I started laughing.
I explained that I wasn't trying to do that and that I  have read that if you can eat a couple meals a week without animal protein  its better for you. So anyway when I got home I cooked up some ground beef and separated me some of the sauce and added meat to his sauce. (he was happy) The sauce turned out wonderful. But it was chunky and my kids are not going to eat a chunky sauce so I have to figure out how to make a smoother sauce. Tito did complain about the noodles too. In my haste at the grocery store I just grabbed a box of whole wheat spaghetti and didn't even think to make sure it was angel hair. (he has become acccustomed to eating the whole wheat angel hair because they taste less grainy)

While I was finishing up lunch I decided I was going to make the apple pie I have been craving all week. So I threw together an apple crumb pie. It wasn't ready until about an hour after we ate but it was really good. 

Whats for dinner?

So I decided just to blog what I want to do for dinner for the next week, that way I am not writing and typing the same menu twice. I stole the idea from Leafy Green, (sorry Rachel:O). Anyway... so this will be a loosely followed plan, as my menus always are.

Pasta Carbonara    
This easily one of my most favorite dishes. I like to use the bow tie pasta




Carne Asada- another easy but favorite,of course I will be attempting my own tortilla shells again.

Stuffed Poblano peppers..yum (not one of Tito's favorites though)

Picadillo (Filipino dish) with rice (I like to use ground turkey breast)

Spaghetti with marinara (and meat sauce for Tito), side salad and bread

Fried Flounder, french fries, and a side salad

Roasted Chicken, twice baked potato casserole, greens

pretty good menu I will let you know how successful I am with it. Also just wanted to let yall know I am down another pound! Yay!! I am not dieting or calorie counting either just making healthier choices

Bad quiche, good caprese

So still cooking cooking cooking. I think my husband is enjoying all the made from scratch cooking lately. He is getting spoiled and so much more picky then he used to be. I have been waiting to make a quiche for a really long time. Ever since one of my co-worker made some from scratch for her wedding and I helped. Her quiche was so good and nothing I have eaten since then has come close tasting the same. So when I came across a recipe for a spinach, green onion, and smoked gouda quiche I was more then excited to try it. Tito said he liked quiche, so I bought the ingredients and then every time I wanted to make it last week something would come up and i couldn't make it. Finally yesterday I decided to make it. I altered the recipe a little.

I think it baked up beautifully

I wanted to make a whole wheat pie crust so I substituted whole wheat flour for the all purpose flour and I wasn't sure if Tito would be ok with a no meat dinner so I added 4 pieces of cooked chopped bacon to the recipe. I was having trouble rolling out the pie crust so I had to just mash it into the pie plate with my fingers lol.

I was super nervous about this dinner because I had no clue how to know if it was done cooking or not. But then I started thinking ok eggs cook rather quickly so it has to be done. So I stuck a fork in the middle and it seemed firm so I decided that it must be done, now all we had to do was wait 10 min for it to cool.

I couldn't wait to try it. Tito wasn't hungry so he decided to wait. It cut well and stayed together. I thought it tasted wonderful. The bacon added just the right amount of saltiness to it and the cheese made it so moist. It was really good. I couldn't wait for Tito to try, well after he finished eating I asked what he thought. He said "its ok" WHAT!!! OK?!?! I slaved in the kitchen for a whole 25 minutes making this and he says its ok?!!! I was a tad bit irritated so I said, well what could I change? Or what didn't you like? He said, "I don't like salty pie crust." LOL. I told him I couldn't have made a sweet pie crust that would have been gross. He said he knew. Anyway...long story short, when my hubby tells me something is ok that means, don't make it again. Bummer. I am really trying hard to find dishes that don't have meat that he will eat as a main course because I would like to do all veggie dinners a couple of times a week. So far I have had no success. What is truly remarkable is that his mom cooks a lot of vegetarian foods so I don't understand his aversion to it. Anyhow on to better things.

Tonight I made Chicken Caprese with Bacon (which has quickly become one of our favorites except I can't add the basil to Tito's chicken) with stir-fried spinach and spinach and tomato fusilli with a garlic butter sauce. He said the spinach was bitter. I told him I am just going to have to start adding sugar to his food. lol. Greens are bitter, I think they are supposed to be, they are leaves right? Any suggestions on how to not make bitter greens because he said the same thing about the collard greens last week. Oh well, you win some and you lose some right:O)  Oh yea the only thing missing from my wonderful dinner tonight was a nice glass of Riesling.

Hope you enjoy the recipes as much as I did.

Loves Angela

No more "happy plate"

Have you ever thought about the damage we have done to our kids by making them eat everything on their plate!! ( or the damage our parents did to us!). I know you are thinking but its wasteful to not make a clean plate (or as my kids were told "a happy plate"). There are two lessons I have learned by reading "In Defense of Food" one, put smaller amounts of food on your plate, and two stop eating when you are full!!! I am thinking maybe that's what half of us fat girls of America's problem. We put to much food on our plate to start with and then we feel we must finish it. Or if you are like me you finish your plate and your kids plates cause you don't want them to waste either (especially if you are at someone's house for dinner).  So you would think this habit would be easy to break but it isn't. I noticed tonight I was only a quarter of the way done with my food and I had to take a deep breath before I took another bite, that should have been my sign to stop eating but instead I kept eating and then I was like, OH no I am getting really full so I stopped before I was done. So I did get a little over full but not stuffed, thank goodness.

Well today my eating habits were so bad. (side note, I have lost 1.5 pounds in 5 days;o)I had a breakfast bar (Kashi Apple and Cinnamon) and coffee not to bad but the bar has more then 5 ingredients!! Then when I got to my Grandma's she had made biscuits and asked me to cook some eggs and turkey sausage. So I did. I opted out on the egg but I did have a sausage biscuit with homemade dew berry jelly, a cup of coffee and a banana. The banana was good right!!? I had to take my G-ma to the doctor today and we thought we would be out of there by lunch but we didn't leave there till 1 and didn't have lunch till almost 2! My blood sugar was low so I ate a peach on the way home. So for lunch I cut up some iceberg lettuce, threw an ounce of diced cheddar cheese on it with some baco's and ranch dressing plus I had some "wheat crackers", that was a completely processed lunch I am sure, except the lettuce. Even the wheat crackers were full of junk. Then we had 4 o'clock coffee!!! When  Tito picked me up we went and got sno-balls (oh heaven help me, I am just completely got off track!!)

I did redeem myself for dinner. We had pork chops (free of all the icky stuff) that I seasoned with some salt, pepper and oregano, garlic and onion powder. I pan seared them in olive oil (not to much) then put them in my deep dish stone and threw them in the oven with the oven roasted sweet potatoes.

I added a little more oil in the pan that I seared the pork chops in and added some shallots. Those started to caramelize and I added some fresh garlic for a few min then threw in some zucchini and about a tablespoon of soy sauce (that's free of sugar). Once the zucchini started to brown I pulled the pork chops out of the oven and put them on top of the zucchini mixture and covered it and turned the heat off. I wanted to let the steam finish cooking the veggies.

Something that amazed me about this meal is there is no grain! That is just totally A-MAZING for me, because I love bread and Tito loves rice, but we survived without it:O)  So we had a completely healthy meal free of refined or processed anything. Yay. By the way if ever you make oven sweet potatoes, salt, pepper, olive oil, that's all you need and those ingredients compliment the sweetness of the potato well! Have a great night!
Loves Angela

Lots of YUM today!!

I am always trying to be creative for lunch, especially since its usually just lunch for 1. I had one slice of my homemade honey wheat bread left and was trying to decide what to make with it. I am a little tired of cashew butter sandwiches. So I decided that I wanted to see how my homemade bread would hold up to grilling. I got a piece of black forest ham (nitrate and nitrite free!), and a half a slice of pepper jack cheese and made an open face black forest ham and cheddar jack grilled cheese sandwich!! OH MY!! it was so yummy on its own but I couldn't resist getting some Terra Sweet Potato chips to go with it., followed by a few fresh strawberries! I know its simple but it was oh so yummy!!

For dinner I decided to try and make my own whole wheat flour tortillas!! OMG that was so much harder then I expected it to be. First off rolling anything into a circle is not very easy, secondly I was a bit heavy handed on "lightly" flouring my work surface. But they were edible once you put the carne asada and cheese and grilled onion and bell pepper on them, all I was missing was sour cream (I am not quite ready to try and make that on my own yet). So as you can see in the picture my tortilla looks a little closer to Naan then a tortilla, but it tasted nothing like Naan.

I can brag on my carne asada though. I think I have pretty much perfected that recipe except one of the seasonings I use isn't real food (guess I gotta work on that, huh?) For dessert tonight we had Amish Friendship Bread, but I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour, 1/2 a cup less oil then it called for and omitted the instant vanilla pudding mix. It tastes good. Not as sweet as it is when you make it following the directions. It does contain sugar but I tried making it with honey and thought it was horrible, Tito liked the honey one though, so maybe I could acquire the taste for it.
Hope you all had a yummy day of eating too;OP
Loves Angela



P.S.Day 2 into my 4 weeks and 4 days and I still haven't been to the gym!! No motivation and its been so stinking hot!

Did you say collards?!

Yes, I did. I hate greens of any kind, that smell was my least favorite smell in the world during the holidays. No matter where we went someone was cooking them and they stink when they cook!! So let me tell you how I acquired these particular greens. I asked Tito to stop by the store on his way home from work one day last week and pick up some romaine lettuce and Ranch salad dressing. He did and when he came in Grace looked at the "romaine lettuce" her Pop had bought and said, that's not romaine...lol. I said your right its not but don't say anything. Well of course she goes to the room and tells him he didn't get the right things. I checked the receipt thinking maybe I was wrong, maybe this was some type of romaine on steroids. Well the receipt said romaine lettuce. Hmmpph. I was perplexed. So I used up what little romaine we had and proceeded to divvy it up myself so that everyone who wanted some salad got some. I was not using the "romaine" he had bought, I was quite sure it was some type of green just not sure what type. So when he came to the table I said that's not romaine. He said that the sign up above what he had bought said romaine lettuce.I said well they were probably so close to each other you thought it was romaine, but what you bought is some type of greens. Anyway long story short, after a trip to the store I discovered that it was collard greens he had bought. I have never in my 35 years, eaten or cooked collard greens, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them away. So tonight for dinner I knew I was making roasted chicken breast, salad and  oven sweet potato fries. I decided that greens and sweet potatoes probably compliment each other well. So I got on the Internet and found this recipe for stir fried collard greens. It took me awhile to find a simple recipe that I didn't have to cook the greens for hours. I did tweak the recipe a little by first blanching the greens so they would be more tender before I stir fried them. They turned out well, I still don't know if I can acquire the taste for them but at least I can cook them for my hubby now! (even though I always told him I would never cook greens in my house ever! Guess you should never say never huh!!) Anyway, if you try the recipes let me know how they turn out for you!!
Loves Angela

4 weeks, 4 days!

So I have exactly  4 weeks and 4 days to try and lose 8 to 10 pounds. But this time no pills and I don't think I am going to calorie count anymore. This is just another short term goal to get to my long term goal. Tito is graduating from NCO Academy Sept 2 and I want to feel good about myself since I get to dress up like a princess that night!! Well its semi formal but still we don't get to play dress up that much so I take advantage of it every chance I get. We are currently trying to convert to real food eating. It has been a slow two year process but I didn't know that's what I was doing until just recently, lol. I found out I had a tremendous amount of food allergies in Nov 2008 and we started slowly changing our diet then. I have the normal lethal allergy to peanuts, but I also have a lethal allergy to legumes. Yea I know, dumb huh? Most people have never heard of that one but trust me when I say we went against what the allergist said and I had severe reactions all 3 times, so we don't play with that allergy anymore. I am also allergic to corn and soy (in case you didn't know soy is a legume) however here is the interesting part I cook with soy sauce. As long as I cook the soy into my dishes I don't have a reaction to it. I have no idea why but that's just how it is. Now I will say I don't add soy to all my dishes and over time I have figured out how to use it less and less in the Filipino dishes I cook. The reaction I have to corn is more like the reaction people who are lactose intolerant experience.Anyway this is not about my allergies, but that is what prompted our food changes. I began to realize everything that was prepackaged, bottled, or bagged contained some type of corn or soy derivative. So I had no choice but to start cooking some things from scratch using some canned products. So like I said our switch has been a long one but I am excited because we have pretty much made great leaps and bounds in the last few months. Then I discovered some great resources and am happy to say will probably make the rest of the changes in the next couple months. So I said all that to say that the reason I won't really count calories is because I am really trying to rid my mind of the diet concept and the only way to do that is to EAT REAL FOOD and eat smaller portions. Well I have noticed that  eating smaller portions seems to be easier when you eat real food. Buying real foods is difficult here in the deep south, but the more I dig the more I find stuff. So, over the next 4 weeks I am going to continue to blog about how well I am doing! Wish me luck:O)
Loves Angela