Funny food lover quandries

OK - when you like food, you come up against some funny issues. For instance, we think we might be pregnant, but not sure. However, I am trying to eat as if I am. Since the meat eater is not here right now, I have been indulging myself in all sorts of things that satisfy me, but leave him hungry (personally, I think it is all in his mind :-))

I have been eating a spring mix salad, to which I add extra arugula (there is never enough in these mixes), goat cheese, artichokes (in the big jar, rinse so they are not so oily), oil-cured olives, dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and some lemon juice. I do admit to one travesty, if I don't have fresh lemons, I will use the Realemon concentrate. However, we are looking at planting a Meyer lemon tree in the back yard, so that might solve my problem!

In addition, I made hummus the other day, so put some in a bowl, roasted some red peppers* (dressed them with a little EVO, salt and pepper), added those and added a few kalamata olives to round it out. Served it with a pita for dipping. Seriously, my last 3 meals have consisted of this medley. It is delicious!

Well, as I was making my salad, I started to wonder about the goat cheese, so go to Google it. No soft cheeses! What!! However, as my very wise hubby pointed out, in the US we can only eat cheese or import cheese that is made from pasteurized milk. Whew! So both cheeses in the fridge are made of pasteurized goat and sheep's milk.

Then I wondered about the tahini used in my hummus?? Raw sesame seeds ground up?? Googled again and found a vegan site that listed tahini as a good protein source for pregnant women. OK!

I actually have some vegan recipes that I am going to try one day. Spicy peanut stew and butternut squash rice paper rolls. They sound yummy and healthy which means the meat eater can eat all he wants! My husband didn't quite realize that I could easily be a vegetarian when he married me. Not a true vegan only because I love dairy and eggs. Soy cheese is just not the same as real cheese, even though I realize the benefits.

*if you need to know how to roast peppers, this is how the blog began.
http://i-love-costco.blogspot.com/2006/09/h-ere-is-how-to-roast-peppers-and-one.html

Homemade Granola

I love Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen and use it often. She has such great commonsense wisdom and it is funny to boot! I linked her website as she has good recipes. Buy her book if you want a good healthy cookbook! She has a new one that looks great too!

(if you click on the title Homemade Granola, it will take you to her website, she has recipes there too)

I use her crisp recipe all the time (but I don't use rhubarb, I use frozen mixed berries). If you eat a good healthy cereal for breakfast, pour the extra that is always left over into some oatmeal and keep on hand for crisp toppings. Even if you don't eat healthy cereals, the leftover sugar can flavor a crisp. I always use less sugar than the recipe call for.

We had lots of oatmeal, so I made granola today from her cookbook. As always, items in red you can buy at Costco.

1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar (I like it clumpier)
1/2 cup water
4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
8 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups chopped pecans, walnuts or slivered almonds (I chop whole almonds and use all 3)*
Dried fruit (Craisins)

Preheat oven to 275. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Combine brown sugar and water in a 4-cup microwave proof glass measuring cup or bowl. No smaller-it could boil over. Place in microwave on high for 5 minutes and cook until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from microwave; add vanilla extract and salt. Stir to combine until salt dissolves. Place oats and nuts in a bowl and pour brown sugar syrup over them. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Spread mixture on cookie sheets and bake 45-60 minutes, or until golden and crunchy. When mixture comes out of oven, it is still pliable. Mix in dried fruit at this time. When granola is completely cooled, store in an airtight container.

Notes: Make sure to clump the granola with your hands before putting in the oven (I forgot to last time). I have read other recipes where replacing some brown sugar with honey can help make it clumpy. Either way, this makes a lot of granola, and it is good and healthy. This next time, I think I am replacing one cup of oats with one cup of Fiber One. That will add 28 grams of fiber to the granola.

* We keep the bags of raw pecans, raw almonds and raw walnuts from Kirkland Signature in the bottom of our fridge. I posted a fridge picture on my first blog!
http://i-love-costco.blogspot.com/2006/09/welcome-to-my-first-blog_15.html

My new favorite item

I have always liked the Burts Bees lip shimmer (my favorites are Nutmeg and Rhubarb). I have a thing for all things lip gloss (up to 18 so far), but I like that these are in stick form. It is much easier to stick in my pocket versus a liquid.

Costco had a set of Burts products for $19.99, that included 2 Lip shimmers (Champagne & Rhubard), one Lip Balm, Peppermint Shower Soap, Coconut Foot Creme, Hand salve and Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme. The cuticle creme smells divine, but the best of the bunch has to be the Coconut Foot Creme. It smells absolutely amazing, seriously, I have to resist the temptation to eat it. I love the smell of coconut (makes me think of summer) and this smells so delicious that I love to use it at night.

You can buy the foot creme by itself at SuperTarget. In fact, they had a really nice selection of products. I see online at Burt's however, they have a set of 4 Lip Shimmers for $10. Hmm, much cheaper than $3.99 each at some stores, but I need to see what colors they offer. Now you can see why I have such an addiction to lip gloss, it is cheap and fun!

Chicken stock update

OK - I need to put the homemade granola post on hold for right now and will post later this week.

Here is an update to the chicken stock recipe. I wanted a stronger broth, as freezing in bags was good, but then getting them out and thawing was kind of a pain. I wanted a thick, gelatinous broth that I could freeze in ice cube trays.

I bought one of the savory roasted chicken from Costco. They are huge and such a bargain!! Once the meat was off, I put the carcass (rip/cut it apart to get it into smaller pieces) in the crockpot. Making it smaller will allow all of the marrow in the bones to release, which will make it richer and provide gelatin. Then make sure you cook it all day! I started at about 8 in the morning and around 8 at night, I turned the crockpot off and strained it through a yogurt cheese maker sieve. You can use cheesecloth or a chinoise, but I didn't have either. As long as you have something with a fine mesh to strain all the impurities.

If you don't know what a chinoise is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinoise_(utensil)

So after sitting overnight, it is rich, dark and wiggly!! I am excited as the last batch didn't cook long enough to get to that point. I did use some of the other stock last night to make tortilla soup and threw in the rest of the roast chicken. It was good.

A picture is worth a thousand words, indeed!

OK - if looking at this site doesn't make you hungry, I don't know what will! YUM!!

http://joakitchen.blogspot.com/