Pimp

Have you tried Special K's Fruit Crisps?

They are fantastic. They are the closest you are going to get to a Pop-Tart for 100 calories.

Hmmmm... remember Pop-Tarts? No, not really. Sigh.

I keep pimping the Fruit Crisps to everybody I know, cause when you don't get junk food, even junk food adjacent is a happy, delicious thing.

But, seriously, they're really pretty good.

You. Are. Welcome.

Bliss... In Donut Form

There is a treat circle at work that I participate in. Every Monday there is a new treat, red velvet cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, blondies, etc. Some are good, some are excellent, all are welcome.

This morning, Jigglypuff brought in donuts. So, I had a chocolate iced donut. With sprinkles. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've had a donut? Years. It'll be years before I have another one, but holy buckets it was good.

Has anyone ever done a study on the addictive properties of sugar? Because when I put that donut in my mouth, the amount of bliss it brought was a little obscene. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I'm not bragging.... oh wait, maybe I am.

Men in White Coats

I keep looking out the window to see if they're here yet. Not yet, but I'm sure they're coming.

I bought one of those bag frozen dinners at the grocery store this weekend. You know the kind that comes with chicken, vegetables and pasta in the same bag? It was pretty cheap and comes with 3 servings. Perfect... sort of.

I decided to split up the ingredients so that I could keep two portions frozen and only make one portion for dinner tonight.

Carrot in the pan, carrot in bag 1, carrot in bag 2.

Chicken, chicken, chicken.

Pasta, pasta, pasta.

Broccoli, broccoli, broccoli.

I knew when I got to the corn that there was something wrong with me.

They'll have to get past Joe and Milo to get to me, but I know they're coming... sneaky bastards.

The High Cost of Being Poor

I didn't have anything better to do yesterday, so I went shopping.

Exciting? Maybe if it hadn't been for groceries.

Since I had some time to kill, I did a little comparison shopping.

We've got four places to buy groceries here:

I can shop the Pig, Pick N Save, Brennans or Wal-Mart.

Brennans is top notch, but waaaay too expensive and more of a niche story anyway. Although, I love the free samples!

The Pig is kind of worthless.

They don't even sell beef jerky... wtf?

That leaves Pick N Save and Wal-Mart.

Pick N Save is my normal grocery store, but except for Natures Valley Peanut Butter granola bars, it sells all of my comparison items at a higher price than Wally World (on average $0.34 per item).

However, Wal-Mart doesn't sell the environmentally friendly, non-animal testing cleaning products and paper products that I normally buy. So, I'll have to go to Pick N Save for that stuff anyway.

Even though it may make a little pin-prick in my soul, I think I'm going to have to shop for some of my groceries at Wal-Mart. I just can't justify spending that much more money per item for the exact same thing right now when every dollar counts. Ugh.

Culinary Ninja

I made bars today for our Brewer's tailgate tomorrow. 

(Bars, for the non-Wisconsinites are, as far as I can tell, any dessert that can be served from a 13 x 9 pan)

To make the bars, I had to melt some chocolate, so I rigged up a makeshift double boiler to do it. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty much feeling like a culinary bad ass at this point. 

No microwave for me, thank you very much! 

I'll do it the hard way. I'll take the not-a-double-boiler-but-I'll-make-it-into-one-anyway, please. 

If the bars turn out to be awesome (and why wouldn't they?), it will definitely be due to my ninja-like double boiling skills. 

P.S. I have noticed, but I no idea why so many of my blogs are food related lately. 

Food Goodness

I had some amazing, amazing food in San Francisco. There is such bliss in eating truly excellent food. It's a good thing I'm not around it all the time or I don't know if I could maintain a decent level of self control, but having it is just so lovely.

One of the places I went with JR was Nolas, a New Orleans themed restaurant. We both got excited for an appetizer that had fried okra in it. 

Sometimes I feel so thoroughly "Wisconsin-ized" that I forget there are these parts of me, locked away, that belong to someplace else. 

Fried okra and corn bread stuffing (both of which were available at this restaurant) belong there. 

So, for the day when I go back to San Francisco...

The Catch

Where I had a warm arugula salad with white corn, bacon, goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. 

And the seared mahi-mahi with white corn risotto. 

Nolas

There we had NO L.A. 'Frites' which was basically fries, sweet potato fries and fried okra. 

I had Andouille & Cornbread stuffed pork chops. 

Question: Baked Goods

If you ice a muffin, can you call it a cupcake?

Ooch!

GameBoy brought in brownies for our team meeting today. They were delicious. Normally, I'm not a fan of walnuts in brownies, but these were truly excellent.

I was interrogating him about it after the meeting and apparently this was his first time baking. Ever! Color me impressed.

Why did he make brownies?
His girlfriend's present isn't going to arrive in time for her birthday, so he baked her some brownies and he brought us the extras. Can I get an 'awww'? That is so sweet. I've never seen this side of him before. Usually he's all Viking camp, martial arts and video games.

The downside is that I don't normally eat brownies at 9AM, so my stomach is sort of annoyed with me for filling it up with chocolate and processed sugar instead of yogurt. As good as it was, eating it was a bad idea. My stomach hurts. Boo.

Minor Food Meltdown

In a few weeks, I'm going to San Antonio to warm my bones. It won't be warm, warm, but it might be about 40 degrees warmer than here, which sounds like a little bit of heaven. 

It's kind of like going home for me. I'm not from San Antonio, but I am from Texas. I haven't been back to Dallas since my grandmother's funeral two years ago. I didn't think about this trip like "I'm going home" when we planned it, for two reasons. One, Texas isn't really home anymore. Two, San Antonio isn't that close to Dallas, so it's not like I'm going someplace I've been a hundred times before.

BUT!

Then, mr. blume and the husband started talking about food today. Did we want reservations anywhere before we go... that sort of thing. I mentioned that I wanted to get some bar-b-que and tex-mex when we're down there, since although you can find those restaurants up north, they are generally crap when compared to the real thing. 

That got me thinking. 

There's also southern food. Real southern food, the kind nobody eats up north. Places where the serve fried okra and chicken fried steak. 

AND there's Luby's, a cafeteria style restaurant, but it's not your high school's cafeteria. The home of a beautiful mac and cheese, mouth watering rolls and my favorite kind of pie. 

AND there's Cajun food. It's more Louisiana than Texas, but you can still find some pretty good stuff in Tejas. 

AND, well can you see my problem? We're only going to really be there for two days. I can't fit all the fabulous food of my childhood into two days. Not even close. Plus, I'm not looking to gain 10 lbs on this trip, so I'll have to pick and choose carefully. 

I'm excited at the possibilities and a little sad that I know that there just isn't time for everything. Until then, all this talking about food makes me hungry, so I'm going to go find something to eat. 

Quaker Steak and Lube: The Affordable Choice

The husband went golfing last year with the KhakiRepublican, among others, at some tournament. He ended up getting a $100 gift certificate to Quaker Steak and Lube.

Last night, before the Badger hockey game, we went to the QS&L with Sist-A and the KR.

Between the four of us, including an appetizer and entrees we only spent about 1/2 of our gift certificate. 

AND the food was pretty good. Or at least mine was, and it was not unhealthy. 

Hmm... who knew the Quaker Steak and Lube was such an affordable option?

P.S. Thanks to the golfing tournament for a gift certificate that will cover the greater part of two meals for 4

Nice Guy

I'm sure this comes as no shock, but the husband is (or can be, would probably be more accurate) a nicer person that I am.

He agreed to share his birthday chocolate with me.

Hmmm, although come to think of it, he just stole my birthday chocolate. I actually asked. Maybe I am the nicer person.

Ha! Maybe...

Yay for chocolate though!

Real chocolate with real sugar.

Yum yum yum.

After months and months of "light" desserts, the real stuff can be kind of heady.

If I'm up blogging and bouncing off the walls at 2AM I'll be able to blame the husband, not that I wouldn't anyway.

A: Awesome!

Q: What is one word you could use to describe Sara Lee's Cheesecake bites?

Other acceptable answers:
Delicious
Amazing
Yummy
Stellar
Tempting

Cake on the Brain

A guy at work used a cake reference at work.
"... and it takes the cake in this case..." is approximately what I think he said.
I can't stop thinking about cake since then... luckily only this afternoon.
I want white cake. Light fluffy, sweet, but not too sweet white cake.

(No comments about how you'd pick a better cake. It's my fantasy. Let me have my cake... even better if I could eat it too...)

WITH icing.
It makes my mouth water just to think about it.

But, there is no cake in my immediate future.
Maybe at Mandy's shower, but frankly, at the rate my brain is obsessing over cake, Mandy's shower might as well be in fifty years.

If you are wondering what my brain processes are like tonight. Here's a recap:
Cake
Cake
Cake
Gym
Cake
Cake
Olympics
Cake?
Cake??
CAKE???????
Sigh, no cake. :(

I Want a Sandwich

I was listening to a song on the radio on the way home from the grocery story.
The chorus of the song went like this...
"My heart's damaged, damaged, damaged..."

I swear to you the first time I heard it I thought the line after that was:
I want a sandwich, sandwich, sandwich.

It isn't.
It just repeats the first line again.

Hmm... a sandwich.
I do want a sandwich.
I think I'll go have one right now...

Update: Damn! That was a good sandwich!!!!

So! Hungry!

I don't know what has been up with my body lately, but I have just been ravenous the last couple of days!
I want to eat, eat, eat.
And, it's not a psychological thing. My mind isn't saying, oh I really want to eat, even though I don't need to.
My stomach is the culprit! I ate about an hour ago and I'm already friggin' hungry again!
It's been growling for the last 15 minutes.
Shut up, stupid stomach. You're not getting anything else for at least 45 minutes, so you'll have to suck it up!
I have a late meeting today. I may not make it home... argh!

You know what the really bad side of all this is.. besides being hungry ALL THE TIME?
When I get hungry. Not just hungry, but ravenous hungry. I turn into a cranky BITCH. Yeah, that's right. An all-caps bitch.
I'm still sane for the moment, but as we get closer and closer to one o'clock anybody bringing an annoying problem to me may be in danger of their very life.
Let's all hope it doesn't come to that.
If I killed somebody, I probably wouldn't be able to go to Hawaii in a couple of weeks, and that would just be annoying.

The Way to my Heart...

Today is my four year wedding anniversary. (Yay us!)

Some women are romanced by flowers and jewelry.

My husband is much wiser than that.
He brought me home Glarner Strube mashed potatoes.
He's no dummy. He knows that the way to my heart is paved with those mashed potatoes.
What a yummy surprise!

He also got me a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure to a spa, so the potatoes weren't some sort of cop out. They were a bonus!

Hopefully, I won't be cursing his name in another half hour when I jump on the elliptical at the gym! :)

Recipe: Pasta Bake

I love pasta. I've always known that knowing how to make a good, low-cal pasta dish would be integral to keeping up this new healthy lifestyle.

Yes, let's just get this out in the open. I refer to this as a lifestyle change, rather than a diet. It's a little (a lot) pretentious, but I think it's an important enough distinction to deal with that. Diets are temporary changes you make, lifestyles are permanent. Diets also smack of the kind of self-hatred a lot of women feel about their bodies, which I find profoundly disturbing, but I think that's a topic for a blog by itself!

I've been watching a lot of Top Chef today, so I feel like I should apologize for not being some great gourmet foodie, but after this I'm done with that. It is what it is, take it or leave it.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat pasta (2 oz/person) - Try Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Penne Rigate, it's 180 cal/serv
Tomato sauce (1/2 c. /person) - I used Contadina sauce with Italian Herbs.
It's 105 calories for a can which is about 1 3/4 c.
Diced tomatoes (1/2 c. /person) - I used Hunts Diced Tomatoes with Balsamic Vinegar, Basic and Olive Oil
It's 175 cals for a can which is about 1 3/4 c.
Sun-dried tomatoes (6) - I used Mezzetta sun-ripened tomatoes in olive oil.
It's 30 cals/serving with is 3 tomatoes.
Reduced-fat Mozzarella cheese - I used Sargentos
It's 40 cals/2 tblsp

Instructions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare pasta according to directions on the box.

Dice sun-dried tomatoes.
Mix sun-dried tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce. I added some "pasta sprinkle" which looks like it was basil, garlic, turkish oregano and thyme.
Heat it together in a saucepan.

I used an 8 x 8 pan for baking, but I was only making 2 serving.

Add pasta to a pan for baking.
Add 1/2 c. of pasta sauce for each serving.
Mix together.
Top with 2 tbsp of Mozzarella per serving.
Bake for 20 minutes on the lower rack.
Serve. Enjoy.

Here's the break down of the calories:
It's about 56 cals/serving for the pasta sauce which made 6 servings for Jeff and I.
180 for the pasta and 40 for the mozzarella.

Total: 276 calories

I was actually surprised at how much food this dish actually provided. I worried that the 2 oz of pasta wouldn't be enough for my non-healthy lifestyle husband, but it ended up being more than enough. I have no idea how much 2 oz of pasta is, so I used a cheap food scale I bought at the grocery store for $3. That thing is so handy. I use it all the time.

Recipe: Hot Ham and Cheese

I've made a lot of changes in my life over the last year. As a result of some of these changes (eating better, exercising more) I've managed to lose over 60 lbs. Which is great don't get me wrong but in response to the people who've noticed...
Yes, I've lost weight
No, I'm not sure what to say about it.
I'm not ashamed of it, but at the same time, it's a weird thing to be recognized for. Am I supposed to be proud? Not sure...

Anyway, as a part of losing the weight I've started finding low-cal ways of making my favorite foods. I needed somewhere to unload these things so they exist somewhere else other than just in my own mind. A recipe book, I know, would be idea. In lieu of that, here is my way of making a low-cal hot ham and cheese.
Don't give me bunk people, I'm not Top Chef, I like simple, quick food.

Hot Ham and Cheese

2 slices low-cal bread (Try Village Hearth Italian or 12 Grain) 40 calories per slice (=80 cals)
1 tbsp margerine (Try SmartBalance Light, it's got no trans fats) 45 cals per tbsp, you probably won't need a whole tbsp
2 oz ham (I use Honey Ham) 70 cals
1 - 1 1/2 slices of Reduced-fat Swiss (Try Sargentos) 60-90 cals
(I vary the amount of cheese based on the bread size and use enough to cover one slice)

Spread margarine on one side of both slices of bread. Place one slice, butter side down in a skillet. Add cheese, then ham, then the other slice of bread (butter side up).
Heat until toasted on both sides.

Total cals: 255-285

I usually have this sandwich with a spinach salad and light dressing for lunch. Yum!