0007. Nancy's pizza lasagna

2 bags of Spiral Pasta
2 lbs beef (hamburger meat)
2 Cans Tomato Sauce
1 can Tomato paste
one jar of Pizza Sauce
6 - 8 cups of Mozzarella Cheese
1-2 bags of pepperoni (depends on how much ya want)

Large Casserole Dish

Set oven to 400F
Cook Pasta
Brown meat

Mix all sauces & Paste

Add beef (strained) and noodles
Then add the sauce combo

Spread about 1/2 of the pasta/beef/sauce combo into the bottom of the casserole dish.
Spread 1/2 of your cheese reserve on top
Then place your pepperonis

Pour on top of that the rest of your pasta/beef/sauce combo and the rest of your cheese.
Then add more pepperonis on top.

Put it in your oven until cheese is nicely melted. Top might start to turn a golden color.

0006. Mexican casserole

Ingredients

• Salsa:
• 8 plum tomatoes, halved and seeded
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 seeded jalapeño pepper, quartered
• Cooking spray
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• Casserole:
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup diced zucchini
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 3 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 (10-ounce) can green chile enchilada sauce
• 1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles
• 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

Preparation

• 1. Preheat broiler.
• 2. To prepare salsa, combine first 4 ingredients on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Broil 20 minutes or until charred, stirring once. Remove from oven; cool slightly. Place tomato mixture in a food processor; add cilantro, lime juice, and pepper. Process until smooth. Set aside.
• 3. Preheat oven to 350°.
• 4. To prepare casserole, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1 cup onion, corn, zucchini, and bell pepper; sauté 6 minutes or until tender. Add chicken and next 5 ingredients (through green chiles); sauté 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat.
• 5. Spread 1/2 cup salsa over the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange half of tortillas over salsa. Spoon 2 cups chicken mixture evenly over tortillas. Top with 3/4 cup salsa. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of each cheese. Repeat layers, starting with remaining tortillas and ending with remaining cheeses. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes until bubbly.

Sidney Fry, MS, RD, Cooking Light
JANUARY 2011

0005. pumpkin spiced latte - crockpot

Spiced Pumpkin Latte Ingredients

• 4 cups of Unsweetened Coconut Milk (or 2 cans of coconut milk) [Note: If using homemade coconut milk, make extra thick and strain well for good flavor and texture]
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin without added sugar
• 2 tablespoons of natural vanilla extract
• 1/2-1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice ( or 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a sprinkle of cloves and nutmeg)
• 1 cup of strong coffee or 3/4 cup espresso
• Heavy cream for whipping (optional) [note: can also use the cream that accumulates at the top of a can of coconut milk.

How to Make It:

1. Pour all ingredients except heavy cream into crock pot.
2. Use immersion blender or whisk to mix well.
3. Turn crock pot on high for 2 hours until hot and flavors are incorporated.
4. Whip cream in blender or by hand with a dash of vanilla and top lattes (optional)

Notes:

• This can also be heated on the stove top for a faster version, though the spices don’t incorporate as well and it tends to thicken.
• For times when you will want it out for longer than a couple of hours, just use the “low” or “keep warm” setting instead of high.
• If you are using canned pumpkin and won’t use the whole can, freeze the rest in ice cube trays and keep in a bag for future batches.

This was gross no matter what milk I used. Don't even bother.

0004. biscuits & gravy

Normally, when I make biscuits and gravy, I take the easy way out: I pop open a can and toss them on a cookie sheet. Yes, I'm lazy. What? Making biscuits takes time. And your hands get all sticky when you knead the dough. But there's just something about making them yourself.

Anyway. This morning, we didn't have any biscuits in a can, and I had a

hankering for biscuits & gravy. So, I pulled out the box of Bisquick - the Heart Smart version, thank you very much. ;)

I used 2% milk to mix the dough and managed to keep my hands as unsticky as possible... which wasn't really a great success. What can I say? When you're kneading dough, you're going to get

messy.

I used a little bit of the Bisquick mix to try to keep the dough from sticking to me too much (it didn't work entirely, but it did the job well enough that I made pretty little round circles. The back of the Bisquick box said to roll it into a log and cut it up, but that just wasn't going to happen with my particular set of skills. I figure the way it came out, everything worked out fine.

I tossed the biscuits in the oven and started on the gravy. First, I took out some Armour beef meatballs from the freezer and tossed them in the microwave for a few minutes so they weren't blocks of ice.

I chopped up the meatballs and heated them up the rest of the way in the frying pan I planned to make the gravy in so that I could use the drippings for flavor, then spooned out the meat to a waiting bowl. After, I melted some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light! and tossed in some flour to soak up the butter.

Then I poured in some 2% milk, but I ran out of milk. Oh, crap. I called my mom to ask if I could use evaporated milk and lo and behold, you can! Woohoo! You can add water to basically rehydrate it if the flavor is too off, but I liked the way it tasted after I added salt and pepper and tossed the chopped up meatball in, so I let it be.

I cut the biscuits in half, poured the gravy over the top (or in my husband's case, put butter on the biscuit, then put the gravy on top - he does so love his butter) and served while they were steamy hot. I had a big glass of water with mine because I'm on a big water kick. Monkey had lemonade with hers because that's all she wants these days.

I wish this picture were the right orientation. Even though I switched it, it won't show up correctly.

0003. Recipe: Coconut Chicken Curry

There's a blog out there called Paleo Parents, talking about this "awesome" diet called the Paleo Diet (found it through a #twitloss tweet). I think their before & after story is pretty freaking awesome, but looking at some of the recipes in the Paleo Diet menu... I don't know that it's for me, despite their fantastic results. Still, I did find one recipe that looks really freaking good - probably because I'm so in love with curry right now. Seriously. I want it all the time. I crave it constantly. Poor PK & Monkey aren't huge fans of it, so I don't make it too often. But if I had it my way, I'd have either sushi or CURRY every. single. day.

I haven't made this one yet, but I plan to pretty soon. Though I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to find cauliflower rice...

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red chili pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 Tablespoons Curry Powder
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

Cooking Steps

Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces and brown in a pan with the olive oil. Set the chicken aside in a separate bowl.

Combine the chopped onion, chopped chili pepper and garlic to the pan that was used for the chicken, and let simmer until onion pieces are soft. Add coconut milk, broth, curry powder, red pepper flakes, and chicken, and mix well. Cover and let simmer on medium low for about 20 minutes.

Serve over cauliflower rice.

0002. Dinner - 6 Sept 2011

I didn't want to work too hard on dinner tonight, and I had a turkey breast tenderloin thawing in the fridge along with a pork tenderloin for my neighbor to toss on his grill (since we don't currently have one), but he wasn't home. Boo. So, I tossed the turkey tenderloin in the oven (it was pre-seasoned "Rotisserie"), made some mac & cheese (with Smart Balance butter & non-fat milk), and steamed some "California style" veggies (broccoli, carrots, & cauliflower) with a little bit of butter, oregano, garlic, & basil.

Not entirely healthy (the mac & cheese especially - but I promised Monkey that I'd make some for her, since I made "healthy grown up food" last night), but it was yummy. I didn't put a lot on my plate, and I didn't finish it. The meds I'm on make my appetite really small, so I usually leave a bit on my plate.

0001. I love to eat.

It's no secret that I love to eat. Food is one of my favorite things. This, of course, led me to being nearly 100 pounds overweight. At the height of my weight issues, I weighed in at 246 pounds. I'm 5'4". That is not healthy.

I'm still 5'4", but I've managed to drop 62 pounds by mostly just changing the way that I eat - eating foods that are better for me and not eating nearly as much as I normally do (a single serving vs two or three - I admit, I adopted my husband's eating habits when we first started dating). I did work out for a time, but with school the way it is and working in addition to going to school full time, I no longer had the time or the energy to work out. I have an elliptical set up in the corner of my living room, and I will get back on it at some point... I've been having issues with my knees and other things that are personal that limit me from getting on the elliptical because of pain. I walk as much as I can (and with my program in school, I'm on my feet a lot of the time, training on how to use the x-ray machines in the hospital), and I'm still slowly but surely losing weight.

My friend Lyndie is keeping a food blog with recipes and such that she tries out, and I'll more than likely be "borrowing" a few from her. When she told me that she was starting her blog, it made me think of my old food blog, that is sadly no longer available. And it made me miss it. So, I'm starting a new one. In addition to running MamaKitty Reviews, my personal blog, and my regular Friday spots on the Women of Twitloss blog, I'll be posting here. Hopefully it'll be more than I updated my other food blog (which was extremely rare). Ultimately, I'd like to post pictures of whatever I ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks every day, but with my schedule (and my memory), it probably won't be feasible. I will, however, be posting my favorite recipes and pictures of when I make them. That is what a food blog is about, right? :)