ACK! It's been a month!

So sorry for not posting very often, my husband has been on and off work for awhile and it's very nice, but very hectic when that happens. We'd been doing a lot of dining out, which doesn't make for very interesting food blogs (at least not at the places with crayons and kids menus.)

We did go for a date lunch to a sushi place, and had bentos. I love bentos because they're a great way to try a lot of what the restaurant offers, while keeping it inexpensive. I got miso soup, a salad, sashimi (salmon, himachi, and tuna), gyoza, kalbi, and spicy tuna rolls for $13! Bentos are definitely the way to go if you're on a budget but love sushi.

I have so many ideas for things to write about, not just about food, but life in general and different things.

Tasty vegan pasta dish

Last Friday I took out some tuna steaks to make for dinner, but they didn't thaw in time, so instead I made some egg drop soup, vegan pad thai that wasn't bad, but it wasn't as stellar as I thought it would be (it was a package sauce, served it over rice noodles with tofu), and had TONS of rice noodles leftover. As I tried to find ways to use the rice noodles, I went through my recipes and found this oldie, but goodie. I found it in a book called The Way it All Vegan.

Spicy Garlic Toss
4-6 garlic cloves, crushed (I mince them too)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 c water
2 tsp soy sauce (I use low sodium)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried pepper
1/4 tsp salt
dash cayenne pepper

In a small saucepan, saute garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil on medium-low heat until garlic is translucent, be careful not to burn. Add water, remaining oil, soy sauce, paprika, basil, thyme, pepper, salt, and cayenne and bring to a boil. Simmer for 8-15 minutes.

I tossed some noodles in the sauce, served it with some marinaded tofu I'd made (I only put half the block in with the pad thai), kimchee for Lana and myself (Lana LOVES the stuff!), peas, and grilled tuna steaks. No one else wanted the tofu, so it was all mine, muah ha ha ha! Kevin had drill and wasn't going to be home for dinner. If not for the tuna and the egg in the soup, it would have been completely vegan! (I know that sounds silly.) Here are some pictures of the dishes:



Egg drop soup. I made this with organic low sodium vegetable stock. It wasn't that good to me, but the girls loved it. Next time I'll probably go with organic low sodium chicken stock, it'll probably be more flavorful.



Vegan pad thai. The girls weren't that into it.



My plate, not enough room for peas, though I had them later. The tofu is the tofu I mentioned in my love of sesame oil post. We use salad plates for meals, so that's why the tuna looks so huge, it's actually only a 4 oz tuna steak.

And the verdict from Lana:





She likes it! Emily and Kevin liked it too. Score one for me against the picky eaters in the family! Woot!

(Btw, yes, that's a vacuum attachment in the pic next to her. We've never used it, and for some reason she loves to carry it with her a lot. She knows it's for the vacuum, but she likes it anyway!)

Freebie I wanted to share!

On free pastry day at Starbucks and free cone day at Ben & Jerry's, both of which I can't or won't do (gave up Starbucks for Lent and B&J's is 30 miles away!) I figured I'd share a freebie that was good for you! Subway and the Biggest Loser have teamed up and released a FREE workout mix. So those of you looking for good music to work out to, here you go! Here's the list of songs:
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
Estelle w/ Kanye West - American Boy
Rihanna - Umbrella
Kanye West - Stronger
Madonna - 4 Minutes
Taylor Swift - Love Story
Daughtry - No Surprise
Flo Rida - Sugar
Lady Gaga - Paparazzi
Pussycat Dolls - When I Grow Up
Shinedown - Second Chance
Danity Kane - Damaged

I think most, if not all, aren't sung by the original artists (I know the Flo Rida one isn't, it's sung by a woman on this file!) It's a zip file of mp3s, so ready for putting on an Mp3 file.

Go HERE to download.

Thanks to The Thrifty Mama for posting this awesome freebie and others!

Fishy, fishy, fishy!

We've always had a love of "Finding Nemo" in our house, it's a great movie if you haven't seen it (and where the heck have you been? OMG!) Emily, my oldest, had been talking for a long time about wanting a fish, so after a month of good behavior (she REALLY wanted that fish!) we got her a betta. His name was Boots (well, both of them, the first one died the first day) and he was passed on to a friend to care for when we moved cross country. When we were settled, Emily started talking about wanting a fish tank again. Well, we got this lovely Tetra 10 gallon half moon tank, it's pretty freaking cool. You can sit across the room and see the fish, even small ones, flitting around because of the magnifying effect. It was on sale at Petco when we got it, so it wasn't too expensive. We got it set up, and 5 days later got our fish, which Emily chose. We first got a Mickey Mouse platy (named "Oh Toodles"), a marigold swordtail ("Goldie"), and a sunset fire platy ("Blaze"). We get home, let the little fish bags bob around in the water for the 15 minutes, and then let them go at it.

4 hours later we were back at Petco... "Oh Toodles" had died. Emily wasn't too distressed. We got another Mickey Mouse platy (named "Toodles" this time), a Chinese algae eater (named "Doo doo boy"), and a black Molly (named "Molly", creatively enough.)

2 1/2 hours after that, we were back... Goldie was a bully. She was picking on all the fish, including the algae eater which was so not cool to me. We exchanged her for a red platy (named "Rocket").

4 days later, we were back, Molly died. We got a blue platy to replace her, which Emily named "Dora" (she's the culprit behind these names btw! I know, I know, you totally thought I was the one that came up with "Doo doo boy".) The Petco employee told us Dora was a girl, showed us how to tell the sex on the platys, and I was excited to use this knowledge. Well heck, all of our other fish are boys! Bow chicka wow wow, right? Wrong, Dora was already knocked up! I looked it up, and found that platys get a gravid spot when they're pregnant, and she had it ever since we had her. I have to wonder if this is some sick joke that God is playing on us because I said there would be a prego in our house again. Good one God, thank you that it's the fish and not me!

Anywho, fast forward to today, Toodles died. Emily was upset because he was sucked up against part of the filter, she was afraid he was stuck and scared (who knows, maybe he got stuck and had a heart attack?) I posted it on facebook and a friend from high school told me not to go back to Petco. Taking his advice, I went to Petsmart with a water sample, thinking it's either crap water, or crap fish (and all this time we'd been getting the water tested and Petco told us it was good!) Well, it was bad, really bad! Ammonia levels were high, nitrates and nitrites, the works. I was upset. The girls take the death of the fish rather well (too well sometimes), but I just don't like having them die all the time, it stinks!

I talked to the manager, and she told me that the ammonia problem could be from too many fish in the tank (not the case with 5 fish in a 10 gallon tank) or overfeeding. I blushed, Kevin's been on me saying I'm feeding them too much (once a day, but the amount is the problem.) She said to put in some food, let them eat for 2 minutes, then scoop out whatever hasn't been finished with the net. She said to do a 25% water change with the treated water (with special drops to neutralize the ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and other baddies in the water). Change the filter. We did all that, and she said we should see an improvement in a few days (the fish haven't been sluggish).

The water change went well, we scared the crap out of Rocket, but I think he's ok, he likes to hide in the plant. We're going to set up an air stone in a volcano, so we'll have our own Mount Wannahockaloogie just like on Finding Nemo (Sharkbait, Oh ah ha!) The manager said that the air can help raise the oxygen levels in the water, and my friend from high school (who's been breeding fish since 4th grade) said it "assists in the development of aerobic bacteria that digest waste". Ok, good to know I wasn't taken for a ride by the Petsmart manager (I'm totally gullible at automotive shops too, which is why the hubs takes the cars in for the major stuff!) I have to go back tomorrow and get an air pump because our tank didn't come with one (I already bought Mount Wannahockaloogie, the T valve and hosing for the pump. I called Petco while I was at Petsmart and asked if the air pump came in the tank, stating I wasn't at home and couldn't remember, and they said yes. Bung holes!)

So, anyway, pray for Dora, her fry, Blaze, Rocket, and Doo Doo Boy. We'll be adding a catfish as soon as the levels are good (great thing about Petsmart, they say you need to bring a sample of the water before you buy the fish, nice!) because they'll help keep the uneaten food at bay. Interestingly enough, platys are liverbearers, so they give birth to babies instead of laying eggs. Dora's belly will get very square shaped and she'll be sluggish and hang out at the bottom of the tank before giving birth (this will be my signal to put her in a tank by herself to have the babies to increase their chances of survival.) I thought that was pretty cool!

Are there really only two choices in Hollywood?

So, Gabourey Sidibe was nominated for Best Actress for the Oscars (lost to Sandra Bullock), and people are all atwitter with the talk of the size in Hollywood on boards that I read. Someone said it's nice to have a change from the anorexic supermodel sized norm, but I don't think this is much better. Gabby is my age, yet she is so unhealthy looking. I agree that supermodel size norm is damaging to girls, but showing them morbidly obese alternatives is just as damaging. Instead, we need to be focusing on eating healthy, watching portion sizes, staying active, and not overindulging. It's not about hatred of fat people, it's not being sizist your mean, it's about wanting people to take care of themselves. I think telling people, "Oh, it's ok, yeah, go for that huge 1000 calorie piece of chocolate cake, and eat it all by yourself!" isn't right. It's setting people up in the worst way. It makes me sad that the average overweight peerson only sees 2 options, and since they "can't" (aka don't want to for the most part) eat healthy and exercise, they'd rather do nothing and stay overweight.

Kale chips

I, like most moms I'm sure, have a hard time getting my kids to eat their veggies. I puree them and add them to recipes, allow them to be dipped in organic ketchup (shudder!), ranch, whatever, just eat them. I found this recipe for kale chips and was intrigued. It's a simple recipe, oil, kale, vinegar, and the oven, but it had me wondering how good they could be. I bought some kale, and divided one bunch into 3 batches. 1 batch was olive oil and salt; 1 batch was olive oil, salt and apple cider vinegar; and the last batch was olive oil, salt, and garlic mustard aioli spread from Trader Joe's. They all came out pretty good, the girls went gaga for them, and I watched as they munched on kale with a little evil giggle going on inside. Emily asked what they were, I asked what she thought they were, and she said garlic chips. I said, ok, that's what they are. Do I regret it? Not really, I'm not sure if she would have decided against eating more if she had known it was kale (which she doesn't know what it is) but I wasn't taking the chance, this kid loves garlic! Today I'm making more, I'm going to try an Asian twist on it with garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, and red pepper flakes. I'll let you know how they turn out. In the meantime, here's the recipe:


Fresh kale - at my grocery, 3 bunches weigh a pound
Olive oil - allow about 1 tablespoon per pound of kale
Apple cider vinegar or mustard - allow about 1 tablespoon per pound
Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 375F, 400F, up to about 450F. The higher the temperature, the faster the roasting. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

Under running water, wash each kale leaf carefully, splaying the leaves to get into the crevasses. Arrange in a single layer on a double layer of paper towels. When the paper towels are completely covered, put another paper towel on top and press gently to remove as much water as possible. (See TIPS.)

In a bowl, mix the oil and vinegar or mustard. Add the kale and loosely swirl the leaves around to distribute the oil mixture. With your hands, rub the leaves together, the objective is to cover every bit of leaf with the oil and mustard/vinegar, working the oil into the leaves. Arrange the leaves in a single layer on the baking sheet. "Rain" with salt -- be generous!

Bake for 5 minutes to start, then stir around and bake for another 5 or 10 minutes. We like the kale best when it's still quite green but with some salty crispiness versus completely crispy. Tastes may vary so taste as you go along! Serve hot! Savor!


NUTRITION ESTIMATE
(How many calories in Kale Chips? How many Weight Watchers points in Kale Chips?) Assumes that 1 pound serves 8, Per serving: 44 Calories; 2g Protein; 2g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 6g Carb; 1g Fiber; 337mg Sodium; 0mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 1 point

http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2010/03/crispy-salty-kale-chips.html

A thought on eating healthy

I've heard so many people saying they can't eat healthy because it's so expensive. Ok, first off, it's not that expensive. If you start with just watching your portion size, you'll be amazed at how far your money can go! Most bagged chips, for example, have at least 18 servings in them. Instead of buying 100 calorie packs, get a $3 bag of the chips, some ziploc bags, and portion them yourself. I believe if you pay attention to how much you're eating, your food budget will go down, and you can then afford to buy better food.

(I realize that chips aren't healthy, but I firmly believe that you have to start somewhere when going on a diet or resolving to eat healthy, and portion control is a good place to start!)