Good Eats

My new found love for Google Reader (I know that I am extremely late on this bandwagon) and Pinterest have encouraged me to get in the kitchen a little bit more often. I'm also really working on cutting carbs and sugars down to a minimum (the midwife says that excess sugar and carbs are what grows big babies in the third trimester and the thought of a natural birth of a large baby has me motivated to watch what I eat).

A while back I found Mark Bitman's Food Matters cookbook at Half Price Books for less than $10 and I have been trying some recipes from there. I really like his food philosophy- eat whole foods and enjoy in moderation, and keep in mind how what you eat impacts the world around you. He's pretty "granola," but in a more sensible way that some. My favorite recipe that I have made from there is "Beans and Greens." It was a great way to hide some veggies into my meal, since pregnancy has made me revert to my childhood hatred of vegetables.

Here is the recipe:

1. Saute an onion and some garlic in olive oil for 5-7 minutes. Add some chili powder (a teaspoon or so) and some cumin and some red pepper flakes if you want. Cook a little longer.
2. Add about a pound of kale to the pan and cook until the kale wilts.

Mmm. Kale. And amateur iPhone phootgraphy.

3. Add a can of black beans (drained, liquid reserved) and cook to heat beans.
4. Use a potato masher to mash up the beans. Add some of the bean liquid if it seems dry.

Mashing beans. One pan dinner- sign me up!

 5. Put the bean/kale mixture into a tortilla, roll up and serve. The make great leftovers for lunches, and I hear they freeze well, too.

No picture of the final product because I was too busy eating it. That's the difference between me and people who write real food blogs. They take beautiful pictures of their food before they eat it. I just eat it.

Final ratings:
• Me: GREAT because it was super easy, made good leftovers and tasted great!
• Husband: GOOD because I ate vegetables and the taste was tolerable. Complaints: no meat, whole wheat tortillas are "like the desert in my mouth."

Roasted Chicken Experiment

I read a few cooking blogs like this one and this one. The second one featured this post about how to eat for a whole week on a roasted chicken. In the interest of trimming our food budget (which I am failing miserably at so far) I decided to try it. I was terrified. The scene from Christmas Vacation just kept running through my head (you know, where he cuts into the beautiful turkey and it deflates with a puff of smoke).

Here are my thoughts on the roasted chicken experiment:

1. It is SO worth it! I don't know if I'll ever just buy chicken breasts again. They cost twice as much and only make 1 meal. The chicken I bought was less than $5.00 and it made 4 dinner meals plus left overs for lunch.

2. Why was I scared? What could be easier than spending a few minutes preparing the bird and then sticking it in the over for a couple of hours?

3. I would say that it did not significantly decrease our food budget for the week. Either we already spend too frugally for it to make a difference, or the food we buy for lunches is way to expensive.

Here's what we ate for the week (I guess that's presumptuous of me to assume that you care, but I'm going to tell you anyway because I was very proud of my developing home-maker skills):
1. Roasted chicken and veggies (using the lemon recipe in the blog post above)- DELICIOUS
2. White Chicken Chili (also featured in the blog post above and very tasty, especially the next day)
3. Homemade Pesto Chicken Pizza (probably my favorite of the "leftover" meals...spinach, artichokes, tomatoes, yum)
4. Chicken Enchiladas (I followed this recipe but I used canned sauce and was not overly impressed. I also did not realize how much work they are, no wonder my mom hardly ever made them!)

And, because I know what's really important- the pictures:

Who wouldn't want a bite of that?!

Even Andy was excited, putting his photography skills to work. Mmm!