3 Month Mark

During the last 90 days I have been eating my own home cooked meals or other people's home cooked food. I know what I veer towards in restaurants and fast food and have tried when needed to duplicate that with my own versions. I get on my kicks of Mexican or Italian. Love my salads and French bistro cooking. Have my homemade bread and jam. I know what home cooked meals of my own I love and keep on hand at all times, carbonara, vegetables for roasting, potatoes of every kind and freshness as often as possible. I eat eggs - omelette's - and salad a lot, as it's summer now, eating patterns will change with the seasons. I've been keeping garbanzo beans and black or pinto beans in the refrigerator for my tacos and salads, also.

When I shop I always make sure when I come home I prep and cook what I know will be a few good meals. Meats or casseroles last me 3 maybe 4 days. Cooked rice is another good item to have on hand, it mixes well with ground beef, eggs and cheese and will make a dish a little bit heartier than expected.

I know that by myself I can eat a whole loaf of bread and whole pound cake within about 7 days. Sounds like a lot? I thought so, too. But I do and I feel much better for it. No pounds gained, none lost.

I'm enjoying this. The trick is to Think Ahead...Meals Ahead. Hungry? The next meal is at 8AM, 12PM and 5PM. Meal time always comes around so snacking is not really that necessary.
Let your hunger grow and sit down and eat what you cook.
~All my best.

Fiesta Fries

I'm sure you know I love my fries or pommes frites. In the early 90's I owned a snack bar and at the time it was sort of the craze to have fries any way you could imagine. Of course, there was the usual, chili cheese fries and nacho cheese fries, I, also made something similar to the In-N-Out Animal fries with cheese and fried onions. My personal favorite, though, are the fiesta fries: fries topped with cheddar cheese, salsa and sour cream.
Homemade fries, however, are the best. I know that I can eat 2 medium potatoes cut into strips by myself with toppings. If there is any taco meat or chicken that can be chopped up for the topping, hey the more the merrier. I love my fries, and I hope you do, too!

Things That Drive Me Wild

Face it we all have a taste for something that not many others would understand. Certain things that are just mmmmm...Homemade bread; anything with pistachios or macadamias, nearly all things chocolate, junky cereals...and some definite junk food fetishes. I love Yoo Hoo's and Moon Pies and I'm from southern California - and I love Nutella. Right now I am on a Nutella kick - on homemade bread, baguettes, bananas, ice cream, strawberries, straight from the jar. This was not something I grew up on, I never had it until I was at least in my 30's and it was sort of an acquired taste, not too sure what to think at first. Once I tried a knock off brand and knew right away it wasn't the same - went back to the original and never once looked back. There is always an emotional tie to the foods we love - a certain loyalty. It's funny if I hear the song to an old t.v. sitcom the music will often remind me of a taste or a smell from home growing up; Sunday dinner, a roast in the oven, a cake baking, chutney slow cooking on the stove. Sometimes you just have to eat and linger...

Roasted Green Beans

My new favorite thing - that thing that I can't get enough of is Roasted Green Beans.

Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Wash the beans and dry them. Lay them out on a baking sheet toss them in olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake for about 15 minutes, then toss them around. bake for another 10 minutes or so. The beans will be shriveled and brown in spots, and that's just how they should be. I like mine on the overdone side. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. These are just to die for! I love all vegetables roasted but I had never tried these, you will be amazed at how good that stale old green bean can taste!

You Don't Have to Buy to Be Happy

I used to clip tons of coupons and pride myself in how much I saved every week, and I did save a whole heckuva lot. What I didn't realize back then was that I was getting a healthy dose of "Consumerism" by buying products with little or no nutritional value and lots of cool packaging.

Being frugal and buying whole foods is healthy in the long run. Eating real meals that have not been processed or packaged and served on plates is real living. Buying into something because of the advertising campaign for the product is so ridiculous when you think about it. It's junior high school playground at it's worst. Buying a certain product is not meant to make you a better person or a more popular person or make you happy or act a certain way...commercialism and marketing are meant to make us 'feel' they get under our skin and our kids' skin to emotionally connect us to their product. It's not right and if you have kids it's especially hard to raise them without the influence of commercials and eye catching products. When you can't give them and hopefully don't want to give in to their every whim it makes you feel bad and standing your ground is hard especially when you feel like you've hurt them because you aren't buying for them. We all have to learn - You don't have to buy to be happy.

Tacos Galore

I love Mexican food, being from L.A. I have my favorites. I love traditional food made with lard - I also, like healthy Mexican, like Chipotle's bare burrito - Awesome. When I make it at home I steer towards the more healthy fare. Yesterday, I cooked some chicken breasts and sliced it and chopped it, fried some corn tortillas and made taco shells. I had some black beans that I had made earlier in the week along with some brown rice. Years ago I found this hot sauce called Bufalo, it's a smoked chipotle chili sauce and it's worth it's weight in gold for flavor - and it's about a dollar at the market. I make chipotle mayo with it for fries or burgers. Anyway so this addition to my tacos was unbelievable...I was in heaven.

Today I had a salad version of my tacos from last night: lettuce, chicken, beans, tomatoes, cheese. I mixed the chipotle sauce with a little oil and balsamic vinegar. Heaven!

When I get into a Mexican food kick, I like to make meat to have on hand along with tortillas, sour cream, salsa, beans and avocado...To tell you the truth I have eaten like this all of last week and been quite happy.

Stuffed Spuds

Really good baked potatoes are the best. Since we have been having thunderstorms lately I decided to bake a bunch. When I bake potatoes for stuffing I bake them a bit differently. I toss them in olive oil and salt and pepper them really well, place them in a pie dish and bake them. The skins are sooo delicious. Tonight I have some sauteed broccoli and fried onions and cheese. Tomorrow I will fry up one and put a little chili over the top with cheese and sour cream. These are great for the office as they heat up fast and make everyone wonder what smells so good. Also, very economical and I love that! Anything to save money these days helps. Cheese, salsa and sour cream is another favorite. When I was in London a few years ago many of the pubs offered stuffed spuds on the menu - Classic!

Buy Only the Best Vanilla

I have been through culinary school and know all about good vanilla and using vanilla beans and all the celebrity chefs say to use only the best vanilla extract and let me tell you something, it's worth its weight in gold. I have been on a budget lately and tried the store brand vanilla extract and couldn't figure out why my cakes were tasting a 'little off', to say the least. Well, I looked at the bottle and corn syrup is an ingredient, the smell is very good, but it does not bake well. It just doesn't taste like it should. So I will scrimp and save and buy only the very best vanilla I can get my greedy little hands on. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way...