The Time Has Come for Colds and Overcoats

This is the Father's Day Card Boyfriend sent to my Dad, saying it reminded him of me!

It probably feels that way, but this blog isn't turning in to a recipe blog, I promise. It's just for now, while the weather sways between sunny and kindof warmish and freezing and overcast/rainy there aren't a whole lot of adventures going on in my life. Plus, I'm really trying to focus on finding on job so that doesn't make for very exciting days, either.

Boyfriend's name has been resolved, sortof. I'd prefer to call him Beau because it means both handsome and someone's sweetheart which Boyfriend is and it's also a guy's name so it'd be easy just to start referring to him as that, but after reading everyone's suggestions in the comments he would like to be called MOTH Dude, like some sort of super hero! He has been thinking up a MOTH Dude theme song, contemplating what sort of outfit MOTH Dude should wear, and even referring to himself (in public!) as MOTH Dude to drive me crazy!

Friday night MOTH Dude and I headed out to an uncelebratory dinner for me not getting the job. There is a SsS BBQ Barn not far from us and we've been wanting to try it because they serve ribs. It wasn't that great and we won't be going back. I ordered a margarita and it tasted like a frozen lemonade, I don't think there was any tequila in it at all. The ribs fell of the bone, but there was less than you'd get at Tony Roma's in Sydney and they needed more sauce. MOTH Dude was starving so he ordered a damper roll that was $5 and the size of a bread roll! We were full when we left, but not satisfied and for $87 you want to leave a place satisfied!

After that, we went over to the Soccer Player and the Hairdresser's place and hung out with them and the baby and it was just a fun, relaxed night sitting around talking and watching the football game on in the background.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Farmer's Market at The Entrance with MOTH's parents. It was a beautiful day and although the market was super crowded and more expensive and had less produce than I am used to, it was nice that after we were done shopping that we could sit on the walkway with our feet hanging over the water and look for schools of fish swimming by. Saturday night, we went over to the Farmer and Tinkerbell's house and it was another fun, relaxed night of sitting around and talking with friends.

Sunday morning, I slept in super later, while MOTH actually got up early and was productive. He went out for a dive at one of the local beaches and it was so cute to see him when he got home because he was bursting with excitement and happiness over all that he had seen. He told me all about it then proceeded to pass out for 3 hours, while I baked up a storm for our weekly dinner at his grandparents' house.

And that was our weekend! Now it's Monday, nearly noon my time and I'm waiting for my family to get back from dinner so I can call my Dad for Father's Day. I'm also working on finishing up my contracting job for the University my Mom is working for and I've got soup started in the Crocpot. So yeah, it's not a recipe blog, but I do have another recipe for you all today. Now a) I claim to not eat pork, but I ate ribs the other day and there is ham in this soup, so I guess I go through phases and b) Yes, I know ham and lentil soup sounds kind of yuck/boring, but it's actually really, really good! One of our family friends threw this together with stuff she found in our fridge the day after Easter and I was skeptical at first, but after having a taste I was hooked and had been craving it ever since! It's really cheap and easy to make, which is a bonus, too! MOTH and I both agreed that the soup kind of tastes like smokey Mexican beans.

You Will Need

1. Crocpot

2. 2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3. 1 Medium Brown Onion

4. 1 Heading Tablespoon of Minced Garlic

5. 1 Large or 2 Medium Ham Hocks

6. 1.5 Liters of Chicken Broth (I use a brand called Massel)

7. 1 Bag of Green Lentils, I think the bag is about 300 grams? or maybe 1.5 cups worth, dried

8. Blender

What To Do

1. Turn your Crocpot on to high and add Olive Oil.

2. Chop up the Onion and add that and the Garlic to the Oil. Let sit for a few minutes, I don't know if this really sautes them or not since Crocpots cook at such a low heat, but I like to pretend it does anyway.

3. Throw in your Ham Hock(s).

4. Add .5-1 Liter of the Chicken Broth.

5. Let the Ham Hock(s) simmer away on low for 6 hours. Meanwhile, soak your Lentils in water for 6-7 hours (can also be done before hand and soaked the night before).

6. Add Lentils to Broth and turn up to high for 2-3 hours, until Lentils are soft and all meat is falling off the bones.

7. Fish out the bone and fat.

8. Scoop half of the Lentils, Ham, and Broth out and into a blender and blend on a medium setting for about 15 seconds.

9. Pour the blended stuff back in with the Broth and other Lentils and mix the two batches together.

10. Serve with hot bread.

We got 6 HUGE servings out of this.

There is Nothing to Keep Me from Coming Back to You

Source

(Yes, I'm singing a love song to my food in the title there like only a fat kid could!)

Tonight I made Avocado Chicken Cakes, Cous Cous, and Mom pitched in and made an Organic Spinach Salad with Oranges and Trader Joe's Soy Sesame Dressing. It was so delish! Oh man, I'd go back and have seconds if I wasn't so full from my first mega serving. I don't think I've ever had cous cous before, is that weird? I've certainly never made it, but it was super simple and really tasty. Here are the recipes for the Avocado Chicken Cakes from the blog Cake, Batter, and Bowl and the Sauteed Garlic and Onion Cous Cous from Hot Off the Garlic Press. In case you've forgotten how I do this, my changes to their recipes will be in parenthesis as we go.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil (Like I really measure this stuff, I just poured some in to my fry pan)
1/2 cup chopped red onions (I used white)
2 garlic cloves, minced (I used a big heaping tablespoon of the crushed stuff in a jar)
2 cups cooked shredded chicken (I used 3 medium sized chicken breasts since this recipe says it serves 2)
1/2 avocado, mashed (mine was a little less than 1/2 cup) (I used 2 medium avocados)
1 cup panko (I poured out 2 cups but ended up with about 1/3-1/2 panko crumbs left over at the end)
1/4 teaspoon cumin (didn't measure, I just sprinkled some in)
1/4 teaspoon paprika (didn't have so I used some chili powder)
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano (no measuring, just sprinkling)
1/2 teaspoon salt (probably used a bit less than that)
1 egg, beaten (used 2 eggs since I was doubling the recipe)
5 tablespoons of your favorite salsa

Directions:

(Cook chicken if you haven't already)

Heat 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and sauté onions for 5-7 minutes, or until soft. Add garlic and sauté one additional minute.

In medium bowl, mix together the shredded chicken, onion mixture, avocado, 1/3 cup panko, cumin, paprika, oregano, salt, and egg. Shape mixture into 5 cakes that are 1/2-inch thick; lightly coat all sides of each cake in the remaining 2/3 cup panko.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat in a nonstick skillet. Add 2 chicken cakes and cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and 3 chicken cakes. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of salsa over each chicken cake. (Maybe because I had my heat on high, but there is no way that 1/2 tablespoon was enough for 2 of the cakes, just pour some oil in, fry these guys off and if you need more, add more) Makes 2 servings.

Nutrition: 468 calories, 13.9g fat, 1.8g fiber, 45.3g protein per serving

Source

Sautéed Garlic and Onion Couscous:

2 drizzles of Olive oil, divided

1 clove garlic

1/3 of an onion, sliced into 1/2 rings

chicken stock or bouillon (I used Trader Joe's Organic Free Range Chicken Broth)

couscous (I used Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Cous Cous)


Add a drizzle of olive oil to small saucepan and in the onion. Saute over low heat until onions turn translucent, being careful not to burn the onion {this will probably take about 10 minutes}. Add a clove off finely minced garlic.

Make chicken stock out of the bouillon according to package directions, for mine it is 1 c. water to 1 tsp granules. Then add the stock to the onions and garlic and use as you would water according to package directions on your cous cous. (I had to add about another 1/2-3/4 cup of stock then what was called for on the recipe because my cous cous was looking dry half way through)

Sorry, this may be confusing. Each of the couscous brands has a different water to couscous ratio they use, so make up however much stock you need and then add however much couscous your package calls for, my current is 1 1/2 c. stock to 1 c. cous cous, plus the garlic and onions we added. The package will tell you the rest, which will likely be something like 'after combining the water {stock} and cous cous, remove from heat and leave it to absorb for 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork and serving'.

Drizzle with another light drizzle of Olive Oil and serve. (I also added a tiny bit of salt and some cracked pepper to this)

All-in-all this was a fairly simple dinner to make. I did get the stove pretty messy with spilled cous cous and some oil splatters, but the taste made up for all of that. Hope you enjoy it!

Someone's in the Kitchen with Dana

So I got a little manic today and decided to make chicken and steak satay, cold asian noodle salad, won ton salad, a lemon cake from scratch with homemade lemon buttercream frosting, and Malva pudding which is a traditional South Africa dessert in honor of Nae's last dinner at home. Luckily we had 12 people here to eat it all!

I also made these really yummy Pacific Rim turkey burgers with ginger mayo last night. I have been on a cooking bender this weekend.

I didn't get pictures of any of it because my camera is still broken and should be sent off tomorrow to get fixed and my Dad's camera had a flat battery, but I will be posting the recipes and pictures from the sites where I got the recipes from over the next few days.

In other news, this really did turn out to be the weekend of wildlife. Last night, we had 4 great horned owls flying around and calling to each other from the trees out front. We also, sadly, have found 2 huge (like the size of labradors) sea otters washed dead on our beach this week and have had to call the Monterey Bay Aquarium to come take a look at them. Then just this morning I walked down the back steps and saw what I thought was another gopher head that Sparticus had left as a treat for us, but what turned out to be a little Mexican free-tailed bat. The good news was that he was still alive so I found a big sturdy stick and got him to use it as a perch and then put him in one of our big planters. Mom couldn't get a hold of animal control so I did a quick Google search and found a bat conservation group who had a representative in our area and called her. She asked if I could put the bat in a box and bring it to her. So there Mom and I were at 10:30 this morning, in the Audi driving to Corralitos,to drop off a bat perched in a Vans shoe box! We'll know with in a few days if he's sick with rabies or if he might have just accidentally hit the wall trying to get up in to our eaves last night. If he's ok, we'll get him back and will put him in our bat box to sleep in through the day and as the free-tailed bat is a colony dweller, hopefully he will bring his other bat friends to live in the bat box with him!

Fat Bottomed Girls You Make the Rockin World Go Round

Lil D has not been feeling so little lately so it's back on the Hydroxycut for me and this time I've got to take it consistently like I was when I was back in California. It's got a ton of caffeine in it and I forgot and drank a bunch of tea and some coffee yesterday and when I went to bed at 11:30 my mind was racing and I probably didn't fall asleep for nearly an hour. Through the day I don't feel like I've got that much more energy, but it must be there if it's keeping me up like that. Hopefully I get used to it, but from taking it last time I should expect that it'll probably leave me cracked out at night for awhile.

To coincide with restarting the diet, I came across so much diet related stuff just randomly yesterday. First off, last night was the season finale of The Biggest Loser here in Australia. The winner was a guy in his 60s and he lost 68 kilos...that's nearly 150 pounds (just .4 shy of it) and the show takes place over about 5 months. There is NO way in HELL that that can be healthy. The stress on his heart from being fat and then getting super skinny has got to be pretty bad-worse than being super heavy to begin with? I dunno. I've read that these contestants don't get any counseling before or after the show to deal with the issues that made them fat in the first place and after 5 intensive months of training they are thrown out in the world and expected to maintain on their own. I've heard a lot of people end up gaining a bunch of weight back after a while. Back to this Biggest Loser, that kind of up and down yo-yoing with your weight, if he puts it back on, will for sure do some kind of damage to him. I think food is an addiction. I know I'm addicted to it. The high you get from running or a cigaretter or whatever, I get from eating something I'm really craving. Just like any other addict people addicted to food have got to fight the cravings in order to get over the addiction. And like someone addicted to anything else, most people will relapse at some time or another and have to choose to fight the good fight all over again.

Yesterday I also came across a website called "Hungry Girl." I think I had heard it mentioned somewhere before but I checked out the site and she's got some books she is selling and there are also nearly 300 recipes on there. It's cool because it's all about swapping out foods..."eat this, not that" She takes also this really yummy stuff, for example a Starbucks Chocolate Chip Frappucino, and shows you how to make it at home with way less fat and calories and without sacrificing much of the flavor. She's got recipes for egg nog, pie, mexican food, scones, shakes, egg rolls, and chicken fingers. If only we had Fiber One cereal and CoolWhip here, I'd be in heaven! Haha! She claims to have lost 20 pounds using these swaps so maybe it works? I don't think you could exclusively eat the foods on there and expect to lose a bunch of weight but maybe on the occasions where you were craving a frappucino you could now make it at home and a)save yourself some money and b)save yourself a lot of calories and fat.

Lastly, I've been following Shanna Moakler on Twitter. Mainly cause she brings the dramz and the lolz by fighting with Travis on it sometimes. Yesterday she posted that her new Bikinibook challenge was about to begin on Facebook so I went on to check it out. Basically you join a team and your team works all week to follow the rules Shanna has posted, for everything you do everyday you give yourself 1 point and if you do more of the suggested thing you give yourself an extra .5 points, so if you eat another serving of fruits or veggies you get an extra point, 2 extra serves you get 1 point, etc and then at the end of the week you give your team leader your total points for the week and send it off to Shanna and the trainer and I think the team with the most points at the end of each week wins something. If you're interested there are probably still spots on teams left as the challenge only started today. If not and you just want to follow along and maybe reward yourself for every 50 or whatever points you get, here are the rules:

* drink at least 4 bottles of water a day = 1 point
* having a food journal ( you eat it, you write it down) = 1 point
* taking a daily vitamin = 1 point
* staying TRUE to YOUR diet plan ( zone, atkins, 6 meals, whatever it will be etc) = 1 point
* doing 1 daily personal goal ( this can be taking the stairs instead of the elevator etc ) = 1 point
* 2 servings of fruits and or veggies = 1 point
* not having any JUNK food = 1 point
* at least 30 min of exercise = 1 point! for every 15min you do over the 30 min you will get half a point .5 ( so if you do and 1 hour of exercise you would have 2 points!

Doesn't sound super hardcore does it? When taking Hydroxycut you've got to drink 10 glasses of water a day anyway so I've got the first one covered. I found the last time I really lost weight a food journal helped a lot, I was embarassed if I ate something bad and had to write it down-not that anyone else saw it, it just shamed myself in to thinking "Did I really need that?". I should start taking a daily anyway. I don't get hungry very often on this pill so sticking to my diet each day, if I just think about it one day at a time, should be alright. I'm not big on the fruits or veggies but all that fiber is good for losing weight so I guess I'd better up my intake. Even on hydroxycut I allow myself one sweet a day, I just go nuts otherwise. I figure it's better to indulge the craving a little bit then deny myself and then I go nuts and eat a full cake or something. I need to get back in to exercising so I guess what better time than now. Plus I noticed it really helped when I was on the Hydroxycut before and like I said earlier, maybe it would help with me sleeping at night?

That's all from me for now. School starts today and tomorrow around here so I will be calling around to see if anyone needs teachers' aides or after school care workers. Work went well on Friday and I will be trying it solo this Thursday as the Runner's Mom is giving herself a day off. It should be fun to do it on my own. I wish they could have me on more days as I really don't mind the work and it would pay for my rent and bills and groceries and more. Oh well, baby steps. For now I am just really grateful to have some money coming in at all :) Fingers crossed for me that some other type of work comes up for me here soon!

Update: I think I'll put up my food journal at the end of this week, maybe just posted in the comments of this blog. I'll be even more shamed in to eating well if I know other people can see it all on here! :)