Read Your Recipe!
When my husband gets in from work (in the fall it’s around 7), he says a quick hello and then proceeds to the kitchen where he opens things. Things like the fridge and the snack cabinets. He opens them, stands there for about 20 seconds, and then closes them. Sometimes he opens cabinets where we keep the glasses or the plates. It’s like his hungry stomach is making him confused. High protein granola to the rescue! Let me explain…
Asian fusion is trendy now, and this makes me happy. Asian food didn’t used to be as trendy – but probably everyone had at least one ”China Palace” type restaurant nearby. After softball games in high school my mom and I would go to China Palace (mine actually was called China Palace) and get egg rolls, wonton soup, pork lo lein and General Tso’s chicken. These 1000 calorie dinners were much needed after the incredible energy expenditure involved with running to first base once or twice. Oh metabolism, how I miss you.
A few months ago my husband decided to give up gluten. His reasons were health related and totally viable – it lasted six days. It actually ended with a stomach flu that involved him saying to me in the middle of the night, “GET ME GLUTEN”. He thought the sans-gluten diet led to the upchucking and I was telling him he’s off his rocker (though while I was telling him this I was also in the kitchen, toasting him a flour tortilla on the stove top – who’s more off their rocker??). The only good thing about his gluten free week was that I had a very respectable reason to get creative in the kitchen.
This is one of those recipes that’s really more of an idea. It takes like, two seconds to make. When pb and j or turkey and cheese fail to turn your wheels, try something like this! The wrap provides whole grain, the ricotta and yogurt our protein, the nuts our healthy fats, and the apple provides the fruit! It’s sweet, creamy, and pretty low calorie to boot.
I quite enjoy meals that look fancy but take no time at all. No time, and no real skill. We had this on a week night but I would absolutely serve it for company – guilt free and elegant is a rarity but the two most definitely make friends in this dish.
Did you know that strawberries got their name from when farm children used to string the berries on pieces of straw to sell them at market? Did you know you can make ice cream without the machine? And it tastes really really really good?
My little tiny backyard is all shaded. This makes me mostly happy – it’s nice and cool through the summer. We never go out there, though, because the mosquitoes attack you like your blood is the sweetest thing they’ve ever had. The shade ALSO means that I can’t grow anything edible. My mom is totally into gardening and while I like to have a neat, nice looking yard, I did not inherit this interest. It might have something to do with the fact that I am definitely crazy-person-level-arachniphobic. Remember how I said my husband and I are in a grilling stalwart? We are also in a gardening stalwart.
Thanks, Beth from “It’s good to be the cook”, for including me in this – I think it’s like chain mail for blogs. Not all chain mail is bad, though.
Every cook has a line we won’t go past just for necessity’s sake. I won’t buy packaged cookie dough. Now you might LOVE the ease of packaged cookie dough but you’d NEVER buy precooked bacon. Even if you don’t consider yourself a “cook”, you are still a food consumer and with that comes a myriad of choices. This is what I always tell my students who say they don’t care about cooking. High school boys might not care about cooking, but they dang sure care about their bodies – as evidenced by the bizarre amount of time they’d spend looking in my demo mirror in the school kitchens. Learning about food goes hand in hand with caring about your body. Isn’t amazing how fast I can get off topic? Bear with me.