Christmas!

What did you eat for Christmas?

tell me every detail, post 4 comments if it won't fit in one.

First we went for a jog around the neighborhood. It was wonderfully quiet. Then we drank champagne with pomagranate juice. Holidays call for champagne.

Then I made breakfast potatoes with 1 regular potato, 1/2 sweet potato, onion, 1 green pepper, salt, pepper, olive oil and 2tbsp healthy choice cream of mushroom soup. We ate them with eggs (or egg whites).

Lunch time was after going to the movies to see Tangled, where we ate our traditional popcorn and cherry coke. I made a veggie tray. Can you say you "made" a veggie tray if all you did was transfer vegetables to a cute tray you got for your wedding? It took me longer to arrange this photo.

For our pre-dinner appetizer Chris made these quite delicious stuffed mushrooms from The Pioneer Woman. I would recommend everyone's husbands makes them for their wives who have now moved on from mimosas to Pomegranate Cranberry Martini's.

Salad: Spinach, Goat Cheese, Pear, Fresh Pepper, and a splash of Vinaigrette dressing.

The main course: Fresh no color added salmon that I splurged on from Whole Foods, Gigantic Scallops that were delicious (and maybe a part of a new tradition), Wild Rice, and Roasted Asparagus.

DrinkyDrink: Pomegranate Cranberry Martini (again)

Happy Holiday Eating!!

Christmas Cookies

Chris made these cookies. I wasn't even home when he did it so I can't even pretend I helped a little. I am not an excellent baker. In fact do you remember that time I told you I made banana bread? I did make it just like I told you, but later when I tried to eat some, it was raw and disgusting in the middle but I never told you.

Chris made cherry cookies for Christmas. They even have a romantic story: Chris and I gave our wedding guests favors, as most couples do, and we decided to give everyone a Welcome to Las Vegas Bag of Fun. They got candies, playing cards, gambling chips, a Vegas magazine, a card with information about the wedding, and a box of these cherry cookies! Chris' mother made them for us, which was super nice and I bet the guests were glad she did. She even made them in heart shapes!! How cute. and delicious.

Chris' were in a circle. Next year I'll tell him to do trees to keep the blog interesting but for festivities sake, we will call them ornaments!

I don't have the recipe or anything informative to tell you about them.

I know that first you make sugar cookie dough, which I learned has to chill out in the fridge for a bit. Then you make this cherry sauce (YUM!).

Then you cut out a bottom cookie with a large circle and put cherry sauce on it. Then cut out the same shape with the large circle and cut out it's center with a small circle and place it on top of the first large circle. Then you bake it. Then you let your wife eat them or take them to work and bible study and brag about how stellar your husband is for making them!

Happy Eating!

Pretty Foods and Ugly Foods

I think in the new year I'm going to blog a little more about my relationship with food, and not just the food itself.

I love food, I've told you that, but it wasn't always that way. Like most people living in middle class america I have struggled with food. This probably isn't surprising. What is surprising to me is that for most people, their struggle is ongoing. I'm going to write a little bit about that sometimes.

When I was young I was sent to a class where you could learn how to be a lady. A class designed by this lady, Linda Wilder Dyer. We bought this handbook, Pretty Me. I'm sure Mrs. Dyer is a lovely southern woman who wrote this book to help young girls. I'm sure she didn't mean to destroy their individuality and give them unreachable expectations. I'm sure my mother, and all the mothers who bought this book, were looking for a nice book to teach their daughters about table-settings (chapter 3), being popular (chapter 1) and how to be house guest (chapter 5). Here is where my blog comes in, chapter 4; Health and Fitness. You'll find this chart on page 130.

There are no such things as pretty foods or ugly foods. Except the Durian fruit maybe, which is very very stinky. I personally, do not find raisins attractive, they are wrinkly and squishy. I think a hot fudge sunday can be beautifully constructed with colors and layers. Sadly, Mrs. Dyer is not talking about the photogenic qualities of these foods. She is associating foods with their health benefit and their ability to make you overweight or not, which she is calling "pretty" or "ugly". This upsets me.

You probably know that being active and eating nourishing foods is very important to me. This has absolutely no bearing on whether I am pretty. I probably don't need to go into much more detail about this and I think you see my point without climbing on my internet soap box.

If your new year's resolution for 2011 is to loose weight please know, your weight or the food you eat has no bearing on your attractiveness. I know over and underweight people who are both attractive and unattractive. If your resolution is to be more attractive my suggestion would be to start with a positive attitude. Avoid saying negative or harsh things. It can make you a difficult person to be around. Be grateful for every experience in your life because it has brought you to today, and today is where you are.

Happy Eating all nourishing foods in moderation and Happy being positive!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

The holidays always bring parties and there is always the horrible idea of what to bring...

a bottle of wine is nice, if they drink wine. a six pack is a little "college days". an actual present can be fun but what to get? Bath and Body Sweet Pea soap?

Food is my favorite option! and you can even buy those aluminum pans at the grocery store so no worrying about your favorite platter.

This buffalo chicken dip could be perfect! My recipe is for two because I only made it for Chris and I but you could double or triple it if you needed.

Ingredients:

10oz Canned Chicken

4oz Softened Cream Cheese, I used low fat.

Blue Cheese Crumbles

Wing Sauce

Chips and Celery for dipping

Directions:

Combine the chicken and the cream cheese. We got the specialty canned chicken without additives, so it was two 5oz cans.

Add as much wing sauce as you like. We like it not too hot. The consistency will be much smoother after the sauce though. We used Ashanti Chicken Wing Sauce because it was the only one at our store without corn. You could always use your favorite.

Then I sprinkled in about 1/3 of the container of blue cheese crumbles.

Bake at 350 degrees for maybe 20 minutes until the cheese is a little melty and the dip is heated though.

It's delicious on chips but the celery would be good too, it really does taste like a chicken wing with blue cheese!

Happy Eating!

2011

Goals for the New Year:

1. STAY on budget. I have no problem, although much shame, in admitting November and December were terrible for our budget. (think horrible terrible no good awful and despicable)

2. Blog more. November and December were also terrible for blogging, probably to do with the eating out which also damaged our budget.

3. Associate eating out with the devil! Since they are obviously responsible for ruining my good intentions regarding the first two goals.

4. Get out of debt minus one student loan (and maybe even that one too!). This isn't a huge number so I think it's completely reasonable to think we can do it this year. as long as goals 1, 2, and 3 work out.

5. Run my 1/2 marathon in January in Key West.

6. Eat at Bern's for Valentine's Day (totally using gift cards!)

7. We're moving in April and I'd love to find a home for rent with a fenced in back yard for Eliza.

8. Go to Wyoming/South Dakota in July.

9. Have a home-made gift Birthday season in August. Chris' home-made sock monkey from last valentine's is my favorite.

10. I'd like to begin a community group with Chris and other couples where we can talk about God, the Bible, life, love, and anything else. I'd like to stay in this group for 12 months, committed to the other couples.

Magazine Recipes

Do you read food magazines? I do. I'd like new ones to subscribe to for the next year though, please give me your suggestions!

I'm keeping real simple, because it makes me so happy.

I'm dropping bon appetit and the food network. Not because I don't like them, but I need some variety in my life. Although, bon appetit often has recipes that look good, but not my style.

I'm thinking about picking up cooking light and maybe martha stewart living or vegetarian. Am I missing an amazing magazine that's out there?

I'm enamored of these two recipes from Real Simple for next week. They are from the January 2011 issue so the recipes aren't online yet, but I'll link them as soon as they go live on their website.

Roasted Pork Chops and Butternut Squash with Kale.

I like this one because it's a protein, a wheat free starch/carbohydrate, and a dark green vegetable. Can't get a much better combination than that! The ingredients feel cozy too, I can see the big bunch of kale in my cart already.

Flaky Mushroom and Gruyere Tarts.

This is their vegetarian option, which I love. Although there is no shortage of protein with that cheese! (16 grams of protein in this recipe) Bonus, I'm taking any excuse to eat flaky pastry crust and call it dinner. I'll go for a small portion and probably pair it with a big salad.

Pasta with Goat Cheese

It's official, Real Simple recipes are my favorite. Here's the link.

and I have found yet another pasta dish that doesn't make me feel like I should be drinking red wine and brooding over a lost love.

This dish was DELICIOUS. It was bright, savory, flavorful, full of textures, comforting and for Chris, all in one bowl.

I used Heathy Harvest Linguini which is why the pasta looks a little darker. I like wheat pasta and in this dish I would totally recommend it. It's a little earthy tasting which goes so well with the creamy goat cheese and zucchini. The lemon zest is a must, please don't skip it in the recipe because it's tiny and doesn't even show up on my picture. It changes everything.

I did change the recipe a tiny bit because I drained all the water before remembering to save a bit for the pasta, so I used vegetable stock. It turned out good!

Let me know if you try it and how it turned out for you!

Happy Eating.

One Year, going on Two

Now that Chris and I have been married for one year we are celebrating our second holiday season together. There was something magical about the first season but I think I like the second just as much so far. In celebration of our life together I made these collages on Piknik.com.

Cheers to many years together!

What year was your favorite with your spouse?

Meal Planning

December was made for eating out. It's getting cold enough that you sleep late in the mornings to keep the covers on a little longer, so you don't pack any food. It's so bright and cherry outside at night that you want to go out and be apart of it. It's a terrible combination. I'm going light on the groceries this month to try and compensate for my splurge in the eating out department.

Meal Planning:

Monday:

Leftovers from Columbia. Proof that we're eating out too much!

Pasta with Goat Cheese and Zucchini, from Real Simple.

Tuesday:

Leftover Potato Soup

Pork Chops with Broccoli

Wednesday:

Balsamic Chicken with Spinach and Quinoa, similar to this one from Food Network.

Thursday:

Kashi Frozen Pizza

Friday:

Eating out! - I'm being realistic.

Happy Planning!

Cookies!

My family is not made of gifted bakers.

It's a tough thing to admit but it's absolutely true.

Chris and I were day-dreaming the other day about our lives and all the things that could happen. Cooking and food are a huge part of our future dreams. I decided that I should at least attempt to bake something and see how it turned out, just incase we want to open a bakery someday.

I made Almond Blackberry Sandwich Cookies! You can check out the recipe here at Bon Appetit. They used raspberry jam but I used blackberry.

Steps:

Blend sugar, almond paste, and cinnamon with egg whites in a food processor. Put the dough in a plastic bag, instead of a pastry bag. Whoever invented this is genius. It's so much less mess!

Pile sliced almonds on a parchment sheet and squeeze little dough thingies on top. Roll or somehow get almonds all all sides of the dough-y cookies.

Then transfer the cookies to a sheet.

and bake!

Then heat the jam and spread between the cookies and sandwich together. Let cool and dust with powdered sugar. If you're celebrating the first night of Hanukkah like I was, then place on your favorite platter with jewish stars on it and take to your Bible study. (hum...)

The cookies are sweet and chewy and I think mine turned out delicious! Maybe there is a baker in me yet!

Happy Eating (and baking)!