I am delighted to hear that Oprah talked about Food, inc. on her show this week. I mean really, with a voice like that behind the slowfood movement… perhaps the U.S. consumers will perk up and listen? Oprah is responsible for bringing many lot’s of topics to the forefront of our minds. Who didn’t read the Kite Runner? Did anyone pay attention to Rachael Ray before Oprah endorsed her? Heck, even to some extent Oprah introduced us to Obama, didn’t she?

On the heels of the post I wrote last week, I must say that I am delighted to hear that others are thinking about the same subject. (Thank you Oprah!) Perhaps we are on the cusp of making real change in the way that the American government subsidizes farming and how American’s (and let’s face it mom’s who do the grocery shopping) are thinking about the food that they eat.

On another note… do you remember why I have not been cooking lately? Well, I finally pulled the trigger. I ordered myself a Le Crueset French Oven! It’s the first of three pans I will order to stock our kitchen. I figured this was the most versatile of the three. Heck, I can do everything from boil eggs to bake a cake in it! After much hunting for the very best price on the internet, I realized there are a lot of stores who mark up the price to give you the perception of a deal when they sell it to you for less. So instead, I went to Sur La Table who recently released an exclusive color that I adore. It’s called Cassis. Pretty, no?

Here’s a question: Did you watch Oprah’s show about Food, inc. and the slowfood movement? Did it change how you think about the food you eat?

I was recently looking through the photos on my iphone (the only camera I carry and actually use) from this past year and was horrified to see a larger me creep up as I scrolled through the months. This wasn’t a complete surprise as my clothes have been snug recently, but it was still a bit of a shock to see the visual evidence. My first reaction was to blame it on my travel-heavy schedule; surely sitting on a plane several times a month is hell on the hips, am I right? I knew though, as much as I would like to use that excuse, that the real culprit was my love affair with a certain beverage: Coca Cola Classic.

Have you ever looked at the nutritional content on the back of a can of Coke? I’ll save you the trauma: it’s bad. I’ve never cared for the taste of Diet Coke and am anti-aspartame, so I knew I had to find something else to calm the cravings. I also knew that the cravings weren’t because of the caffeine. I can easily go without coffee and rarely get headaches during times I skip caffeine altogether. I then read a blog post (forget which blog, sorry) that talked about how some soda cravings are actually caused by the carbonation and that substituting mineral water sometimes satisfied that. Armed with this new information, I set out to see if sparkling water would help cease my desire for Coke and help get me back into my green Banana Republic dress.

I first tried Perrier and quickly resisted the urge to spit it back out. Way too salty. Next I moved on to another brand in a blue bottle which clearly didn’t leave much of an impression as I can’t remember the name. I finally settled on Pellegrino – the one that tasted most like water and had the least salty taste.

I was thrilled to learn that I fall into the camp of being addicted to the carbonation rather than the ingredients. As long as the drink is fizzy, my mind and tastebuds are satisfied. It also allows me to still drink Coke for the taste, but has cut down the amount I consume. It’s still too soon to fit back into the green dress, but I have definitely been feeling better, even on my work trips.

Have you ever had success replacing a not-so-fab food with something else?

Creative Commons photo by Daniel Y Go

Hope this post finds everyone relaxed, content, and carefree on this beautiful fall day!  It’s been getting a bit cooler around here (FINALLY!) and we decided to make some delicious soup today using seasonal ingredients.

This recipe can be adjusted for any season. The key step is truly the sauteeing of the vegetables, which brings out their flavor and makes the soup’s flavors have more depth.

Seasonal Soup

4 garlic cloves, chopped (or more, depending on taste)
2 shallots, diced
5 or so celery stalks, sliced
1 leek (slice lengthwise and rinse with cold water–use only the white to light green section. Then dice!)
9 medium carrots, sliced
1 tbsp. fresh thyme
1 can white beans
1 can black beans
bag of frozen corn
Two 32-oz cans of chicken broth
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
4 tbsp olive oil
Chopped cilantro or parsley, for garnish

1) Sautee 1 tsp. salt, celery, leeks, shallots, and garlic in olive oil for about 15 minutes until transluscent and aromatic.

2) Add chicken broth and 4 cups of water (this makes a HUGE pot of soup!).

3) Bring to boil; add carrots, thyme, beans. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.

4) Add frozen corn last, so it remains a bit crunchy.

5) Simmer until carrots are done: not crunchy, but not soggy either!

Serve topped with chopped cilantro or parsley.

And there you go…a delicious, heartwarming, yummy soup for those cool autumn days. It’s also super easy to reheat, so this meal could last 2 people a few days!

Add whatever veggies you like or are in season: we’ve added zucchini, acorn squash, cabbage…whatever suits your fancy!

What’s your go-to meal during the cooler months?

Much love,

-B

As the autumnal equinox approaches, I always love to usher it in by making homemade applesauce.

A perfect mix – half a peck – Macintosh and Gala. There is no need for extra sugar. These apples are naturally as sweet and delightful as they can be!

Quarter the apples. Take out the seeds. Place in a soup pot with about 1 inch of water. Add just enough H2O so that they don’t burn to the bottom. (They’ll excrete a ton of water themselves, so don’t worry!)

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If you’re anything like me, getting to work on time is a miracle, let alone getting there with healthy snacks that will keep my energy up.  With my hour-long commute, I usually end up even eating breakfast at work…and trust that it’s difficult not to hit the vending machine for the yummy strawberry Pop Tarts!

So lately I’ve been trying to come up with some easy-to-grab snacks that are easy to prepare at the office, such as:

-Old fashioned oatmeal.  I prepack 1/2 a cup of uncooked oatmeal in a baggie the night before, throw it in my bag, and cook it in the microwave at work for breakfast.  I’ll even throw in an extra baggie as an emergency snack: due to the fiber content of oatmeal, it’s super filling and satisfying with a side of yogurt.   If you like sweetened oatmeal, you can even mix it into the baggie, and bam! Instant custom oatmeal!  Get creative and toss in nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, or even dried apples.  Reuse the baggies: if they’ve only had dry oatmeal in them they’re definitely reusable!

-Apples and a small yogurt.  My favorites are the Stonyfield Farms mini packs; I can just snap one off, and it’s purse-sized for easy transport. If I’m at work in need of a pick-me-up, I can slice up a small apple and dip it in the yogurt.  It doesn’t leave you sleepy like a Snickers will, and it tastes great!  Peanut butter is another alternative, but it’s not as portable and can even feel a bit heavy as a snack.  Plus, the calcium in yogurt can help eliminate any post-lunch bloat!

-Edamame: Buy frozen, in bulk. Throw some into a tupperware, keep in the freezer until right before you leave.  Sprinkle with a bit of salt at work and microwave.  Lovely salty snack!

What is your favorite healthy, trusty, on-the-go snack?

Much love,

-B

I will fully admit that I love to eat out. With the plethora of fantastic restaurants in Las Vegas, I could eat out every night. We don’t of course because of the expense, and Nick prefers eating at home. I do enjoy cooking and learning new recipes and techniques, but most days I don’t have the energy for it after a long day of work, so I take the easy way out. In attempt to change my ways, I’ve decided to start planning out our meals weekly again.

Last year before wedding and moving madness took over our lives, I freelanced exclusively and enjoyed planning a weekly meal plan. Nick and I would grocery shopping for the majority of our meals on Sunday before or after mass and I’d pick up perishable (or forgotten) items every other day or so. I used the What to Eat notepad from KnockKnockthat I purchased from Anthropologie for a while, and I’ll be breaking it out again.

Image from KnockKnock

To keep myself interested in cooking, I like trying a new recipe or two each week. Weeknight dinners have to be quick, easy, and somewhat healthy. My current sources for recipes that meet these requirements are:

• Everyday Food and the Everyday Food editors’ blog, Dinner Tonight
• The Pioneer Woman Cooks (Okay, I’ll admit not always healthy, but almost always easy – I love Ree’s photos that show every detail, leaving no room for error!)
• Back issues of Every Day with Rachael Ray (I am somewhat over these. I have my go-to recipes, but after a while all of the recipes seem to be the same. I’ve stopped buying this magazine because of that.)
• Better Homes and Gardens (The quick, easy meals section is great.)

On the weekends, I enjoy busting out my Martha Stewart cookbooks and creating a feast or making more complicated recipes from Smitten Kitchen and other food blogs. While I like the blogs and/or magazines I currently use for weekly meal planning, I’m always searching for more sources so I have more recipes in my repertoire.

So now I want to know – what are you favorite resources for easy, delicious weeknight recipes?

I’m only posting this because I want to be like Sharon and other foodie bloggers:) I don’t have any real recipes to share…..except for this one. Nate started making this homemade granola a few months ago and it took me awhile to fall in love, but now I’m a goner. I could eat this stuff three times a day and not get sick of it.

Now I know what you are thinking: Granola? Really? Talk about your stereotypical tree hugger grub. But once you try it I think you’ll agree that this is the best snack/breakfast ever. Did you hear that challenge? :)

So, ingredients:

• 2 cups Rolled Oats [not the instant kind]
• 1 cup of almonds [pre-sliced are way easier, as an FYI]
• 1/4 cup of sesame seeds [optional]
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup of wheat germ AND/OR flax seed [this is where it gets really healthy!]
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup of raisins [but don't dump them in yet!]
• 1/2 cup of other dried fruit [our faves are orange flavored cranberries]
• scant 1/4 cup of cooking oil [I'll explain later]
• 1/2 cup of honey
• vanilla extract to taste

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I don’t own a lot of cookbooks – I’m always tempted to purchase them and have been known to wander the food section of Williams-Sonoma aimlessly, fingering glossy pages of meringue and short ribs and paella until shop clerks start looking at me like I’m a culinary junkie/vagrant.  The deal is, I know myself well, and myself rarely cooks from a book.  I have several standard dishes that I know how to make by heart and can vary at a moment’s notice to mirror the contents of my pantry, and if I’m in the mood for something new, I either make it up as I go or pull a recipe off the interwebs to fit my fancy.

But, whilst exchanging wedding gifts at W-S a couple of weekends ago, I couldn’t resist throwing Great Food Fast – a Martha Stewart “Everyday Food” cookbook into my pile of items to purchase with credit. the recipes looked easy enough and I love how they are broken up into season to best compliment the weather outside your window and the produce inside your local grocery.

Since the tomatoes have been singing to me like sirens every week from the farmer’s market, I decided to give the spaghetti with three-tomato sauce a go last week.  Here’s the original recipe:

Ingredients:

• coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1 lb. spaghetti
• 1/2 c. oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped, oil reserved
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 can (28 oz.) whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 lb. cherry tomatoes, halved

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First came Part 1: attire, then came Part 2: timing and tunes, and now for the final installation of this newbie runner’s toolbox. Nutrition and training programs. Ugh-the not-so-fun stuff.

My other posts would be helpful for newbie runners tackling any distance [the 5k, 10k, half and full marathons] since everyone can use fun new clothes/shoes, tunes, and a timing system. But this one is going to be more for the longer distances: 13.1 and 26.2 milers require focused nutrition before, during and after your runs. And you better believe it takes a butt load of training to complete these races–never trust anyone who says they ran a half or a full without ANY training. They might be aliens. And I bet they are flirting with a major injury in their near future, too.

If anyone is even remotely considering a marathon I would highly recommend it. You can read about my journey towards my first full marathon here, here, and here. If that doesn’t inspire you in the slightest then I’ve got nothin:) Both the half and the full will leave you with a tremendous sense of accomplishment and the training programs provide for a solid structured work out routine that requires little to no thinking. It’s not like you can just say, “Hmmm, I really don’t feel like running today. I don’t know how far I can make it anyway. Maybe tomorrow,” because your program tells you exactly how far to run and when. Plus training for a long race will kick your fitness into high gear, burning obscene amounts of calories and therefore allowing you to pig out guilt-free. Yes, I am one of those who runs to eat because I love food way too much to limit my desserts/second helpings/large portion sizes. I’m hope I’m not alone on this one?

A. Nutrition

It might seem like a no-brainer, but when you are training for a marathon your body needs healthy, nutritious foods for fuel and recovery. Never is it more important to eat well than the night before a long run–I found this out the hard way when I popped fried cheese curds and Diet Coke the night before a 15 miler, naively chuckling, “These will be my little balls of energy!” I definitely learned my lesson after that and cut out the fried foods, cheese and dairy products, soda, alcohol, and meats for my ‘final meal’ before a long run. Instead, I usually eat whole wheat pasta with plain marinara sauce plus plenty of water to fuel my system before a run. It works for me but everyone is different with this aspect and I encourage you to try out different combinations of carbohydrates with proteins to see what works. But either way, you’ll need to chug water all day long for the 2-3 days before a long run so that you are well hydrated. Yep, lots of potty breaks throughout the day, but it’s worth it.

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I’m not what one would call “culinarily (hmmm, not a real word) inclined.”  One one hand, I can make a few impressive dishes from scratch (apple pie, squash casseroll) and I can rock the socks off a box of Near East… on the other hand, there was that time that I poisoned all of us – The Boom included – with a freakin’ pot roast.  I mean, how hard is it to screw up roast in a crockpot?

Rancid Meat Incident aside, when it comes to creating a healthy yet yummy dinner for two, I often find myself at a loss.

So thank gawd for all those Home Depot gift certificates, bequeathed to us by clueless menfolk lacking the gonads to enter Pottery Barn alone!  ‘For now we are the proud owners of a legit outdoor grill and 87% of all my cooking foibles have been resolved!

Spirit E-310 Grill by Weber

For those of you that don’t have an outdoor grill, I highly recommend (for whatever that’s worth!) investing in one.  Don’t get me wrong: I love my George Foreman (still lean and mean after 8 years), as well as our new fancy indoor grill, but there’s just something special about “grilling out”… enjoying the outdoors after a day cooped up inside, the smells, the sizzle, the semi-smokey taste… its the perfect summer culinary experience!  Plus, its a breeze to clean up.

Need yet another excuse to take your chef hat into the great outdoors?  How about ridiculously simple techniques that minimize fat and calories while maximizing taste?

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