Pantry cooking never tasted so good!

So my car was fixed for a nanosecond and then it pooted out on me again. Which means I am digging through the cabinets looking for foodstuff until I can get a ride to the grocery store again. Went through and cleaned out the fridge of all the odds and ends that I have let get a little too ripe during finals week, and decided to make myself up a yummy pantry dinner.

Curried Lentils and Brown Rice

I boiled up about 1/2 bag of dried lentils with 2 bay leaves until they were very very soft. Drained and pulled the bay leaves out and added a large can of crushed tomatoes, about 1/4 cup of leftover curry ketchup, and somewhere in the ballpark of 1 Tb. each of curry powder, garlic powder and dried cilantro and some salt to taste. Basically, start small and add until it tastes good to you :-)

In the meantime I used my tried and true method for a pot of delicious brown rice (The secret - saute the dry grains of rice in some hot olive oil until they are nice and toasty before adding water. Lots of flavor and it doesn't get too mushy!)

Spooned up half a bowl from each pot of deliciousness and INSTANT YUM!!! This probably cost me no more than about $3 for the entire big pot. 1 cup of rice from a $1 bag, about $0.75 worth of lentils, $0.99 for a can of crushed tomatoes, a few pennies for the various spices. The curry ketchup was probably the most expensive thing and the meal would be just as good without it, I just happened to have a bit left in my bottle from my birthday. I think I will toss some frozen spinach in the rest of the pot to up the veggie quota, but otherwise this is about as perfect a winter dinner as it gets! Add a glass of white wine and some old episodes of Star Trek Voyager and I am a happy girl this Friday night.

I am the disappearing blogger evidently!

So theatre - it Is wonderful for giving me a sense of fulfillment and joy about pursing my dreams in life. Not so great for keeping up to date on a blog!
I was assistant stage manager for a show called Romantic Fools - which was hilarious, awesome, fun and a joy to work on. A sketch comedy type of show all about the absurdities of love, romance, sex and relationships. But it also meant that between classes/work/rehearsals/shows I was spending just about every day at school from 8am-10pm. And considering this is a food blog and I was eating an inordinate amount of ramen noodles and fast food burritos, also less than thrilling for updates. But...I'm baaaaaaaaack! And will try to ramp it back up a bit, at least until the next show starts :-)

That also means I will try to start posting more pictures again...promise! In the meantime - some updates and a recipe or two.

1) Very exciting news...I got foodstamps!!! Hooray!! That means my approximately $30/month budget for groceries has been tripled...I still have to work around a budget because $120/month which is still lower than I was used to before, but with eating healthy, cooking more from scratch and going vegetarian I can definitely do it. It also means that I can go back to buying certain things that I was morally and healthfully struggling with because I couldn't afford it - things like almond/soy milk instead of dairy milk, organic cheese, organic eggs, organic produce, leave the ramen behind! Because I am not using my foodstamps to buy a ton of junk like soda, chips, cookies, cereal, etc. I can afford to spend a bit more on organic, high quality of what I do buy.
2) Also because I have food stamps now and I don't have to watch literally every single penny at the grocery store, I decided to go ahead and take the vegetarian plunge again right now. The meat still in my freezer can stay there until I want to use it for friends or my dog or something. As of Sunday I haven't had any meat and feeling damn good about it! I have decided I am not going to stress over being vegan just yet, although I have continued to drastically reduce my dairy consumption and anything I do buy I am committed to getting from organic, humane, sustainable sources. I may make the vegan transition at some point, but honestly I just don't like hummus that much and my bagel and cream cheese is an easy on the go breakfast for rushed school mornings when I don't have time to blend a smoothie!

2) One of the things I loved most when the show was over was being able to go back into my kitchen and cook for myself without feeling like I had to run back out the door in 15 minutes. The first thing I made was a batch of peanut butter cookies for the cast party...and they were successful! I made 3 dozen and they were devoured in less than an hour (with the director himself polishing off about 6 of them!) So yeah, I got to have a cookie and enjoy baking and share the rest so I don't have them sitting around tempting me all week. The second thing I made was jello shots (also for the cast party!). Ok ok, maybe not really COOKING persay - but they were even more successful than the cookies! I will let you in on the secret of the world's most amazing grown up jello shots shortly ;-)
3) On the vegetarian side of things, I made a killer pot of veggie chili on Sunday afternoon! I have been making chili for others for awhile, so I tend to stick to a pretty simple meat/beans/tomatoes recipe...but for myself I decided to PUMP IT UP! I ended up with (ready for it?) onions, garlic, bell peppers, green beans, peas, corn, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots black beans and kidney beans! I added in some cooked elbow macaroni to make it chili mac and topped with a little shredded cheddar and some sliced avocado. Holy YUM! Made lots too, I put 2 containers in the freezer and 1 in the fridge for lunches. I don't really use much of a recipe but here is what I did for anyone who would like to try your own variation:
* Sautee 1 onion (diced) for 1-2 minutes in olive oil until translucent.
* Add all diced fresh veggies you are using (mushrooms, bell peppers, garlic, celery, etc.) and cook until tender
* add any extra frozen veggies you have sitting around that you want to use up (green beans, corn, peas and carrots, etc.)
* add 1 large can of diced tomatoes, and 1 large can of crushed tomatoes, 1 can of black beans, 1 can of kidney beans, and 1 bottle of beer to the pot and stir everything together well
* season with chili powder, cumin, salt, red pepper and oregano (and if you are feeling CRAZY a dash of cinnamon!) to taste
* simmer for 30 minutes to allow all the flavors to combine well
* while the chili is simmering, cook a box of elbow macaroni until tender, drain and add to the
chili.
* serve with tortilla chips, avocado, and/or shredded cheese as you like!

4) Fitness! Because this blog is also about me getting HEALTHY I wanted to let you know that I have begun going to the gym...hooray! I started the week before the show and went for 30-45 minutes every day. Then the week of the show happened and I felt like I had been run over by a truck, so I decided rest and sanity were more important and took a week pause. But, rather than let that throw me off schedule, I am back again this week and feeling great!

Let me share my planned fitness program with you so I can stay accountable -
M/W/F I have 35 minutes between classes to exercise - so I will be doing the Couch to 5K running program to work myself back up to running condition (maybe I will be able to finally tackle that Disney World half marathon in 2012??). It is fairly high intensity, I can push myself, and it is done in 30 minutes plus some stretches.
A screen shot of the fabulous IPhone Couch to 5K app that I use

T/Th I have an hour between classes to exercise - so I will be doing a 15 minute cardio warmup and then 30 minutes of the Shape "Best Body" strength training workout using resistance bands, and then 15 minutes of additional abs work and stretching
Sa/Su I will pick one of the days that is the most free and do a repeat of my 1 hour T/Th cardio/strength/abs workout and one day will be purely rest.

This is a total of 4 1/2 hours of exercise a week - add in the 2-3 hours a week that I am riding my back back and forth to school and around campus and that makes 6-7 hours a week of exercise or almost an hour a day. Very doable and great for fitness and hopefully some weight loss! The other thing I like about this program is that it is doing it in decent chunks of time that I have available...I know I have a hard time going to the gym at 5pm after work when I really want to go home and get dinner and see my dog. So if I only have 1/2 hour to workout between classes but I know that I will DEFINITELY DO that 1/2 hour, that is more valuable than having an hour scheduled every evening that 50% of the time or more I don't follow through on.

Ok - enough for now! I will share the post o' jello shots soon...something to look forward to ;-)

Stuff N' Nonsense

So I don't have a ton of updates - just kind of a random jumbling of thoughts health/food/living related that I thought I would share. I am about to go into tech week for the show I am currently Assistant Stage Managing so my schedule is going crazy yet again. Hasn't left as much time for cooking as I would like, so I am still trying to get things as put together on the weekends as possible because Monday - Thursday (and this week Monday - the following Saturday, yes, almost 2 weeks) I am at class/work/rehearsal from 8am - 9pm or later. So, here are where things are in the Shakespearean Tomato world at the moment:

1) I am the master of food stretching! I made a 2 lb. roast with carrots and potatoes last weekend in my crockpot and ate about 3/4 of it for dinners over the course of the week. So this weekend I took the remaining roast and veggies, added some kale, water, pasta and extra seasonings and turned it into an amazing beef veggie stew/soup that I got another 4 meals out of (currently in my freezer awaiting lunches for the week.) So basically, that one roast, 1/3 bag of potatoes, and 1 bag of too old to eat fresh baby carrots is going to feed me for almost 2 weeks. Not too shabby I would say!

2) In relation to the item above - part of me is feeling guilty that I am still eating on this grocery store meat that is still in my freezer. As I have said in previous posts, I have decided to go vegetarian but for economical reasons I just can't justify not eating the food that I already have in my house. Of course, being such a good food stretcher that single roast, 1 lb of ground beef and 4 chicken leg quarters will probably last me a month or more. That means another month of eating food that I don't think is particularly healthy for me, but financially it means another month of EATING which is always good. So I am trying to remember that valuable recovery phrase "Progress, not perfection!" Because honestly, even if I am still eating meat at the moment, averaging out to 1 lb. of beef per week for myself really isn't that terrible. And once it is gone, no more will be coming in!

3) Evidently I have crazy healthy hair that is THRIVING under this No Shampoo routine! I haven't used shampoo on my hair in over a week, just doing a nice, warm water rinse with a good scalp massage every morning in the shower to loosen up and get rid of any dirt or grime. My hair looks fantastic, I haven't had to use ANY product in it at all, it is holding a style better than it EVER has in my life, and that whole "dipped in a jar of oil" look that a lot of the blogs warned about for the first few weeks hasn't happened AT ALL for me. I am thrilled. I will still put together the baking soda and vinegar rinse and maybe start doing that once a week, but I feel like any more than that would be overkill because my hair is just doing great on its own.

4) I had planned on beginning the Couch to 5K routine again last week and I just ended up busy tackling other things to do with school and life and it didn't happen. But we were watching a video in my Nutrition, Fitness & Wellness class today that followed a group of fairly sedentary people of all ages as they trained for the Boston Marathon with the Nova tv channel. And honestly, it got my toes twitching to get out running again. I remember how good I felt when I was running every day and training for the half marathon. I just had so much energy, slept well, felt strong, and when I did the half marathon it was such a HUGE accomplishment. I miss that...I miss having a goal to work for and train for like that. I am going to start again, at least with Couch to 5K and then take it from there, see how I feel and time-wise what I feel like committing to again. But If I can just pack my clothes and plan on running for 1/2 hour every Tuesday and Thursday morning in between classes, running longer one day on the weekends, and adding in some resistance training 2-3 days a week for 15 minutes in the evenings before bed I just feel like I will feel SO much better. What do you think? Can I plan on starting this tomorrow? It means laying out my exercise clothes tonight and having everything ready. I bet I can do it!

Yummy Yummy In My Tummy

So I made a recipe last night that I found on Eating Bird Food for homemade, sugar free apple butter. Now, my sugar free muffins were not super successful. I actually have had a hard time eating them because they just are too dry. But I am not one to be wasteful, and I thought apple butter sounded like about the perfect thing to make with my 5 lb. bag of apples to spice up my muffins and have around for awesomeness!

Here is the recipe straight from Eating Bird Food

(with the changes I made starred ***)

Healthy Homemade Apple Butter (no sugar added)
10 medium sized apples (choose a sweet variety like Red Delicious or Gala)

***I used about 13 apples, the entire 5 lb. bag because they were pretty small
2 cups of unsweetened apple juice or approximately 5 apples juiced

***I used no sugar added 100% apple juice
1/4 cup water

***I added this, but would probably leave it out next time...just seemed a little too liquidy and if it needs more moisture I would go with more juice
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 T cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground nutmeg

***I used about 1 Tb (give or take) of pumpkin pie seasoning and tossed a whole cinnamon stick in the crockpot while it was cooking for seasoning...I like the ginger flavor that it adds.

1/2 t pure vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt

Prep:
1. Place cored and sliced apples (not peeled) into a large crock-pot / slow cooker.
2. Juice apples and pour juice on top of sliced apples. Add water, apple cider vinegar and spices. Stir all ingredients together, cover pot and let it cook for 15 hours on low.
3. The liquid will reduce and the apples will be very soft, darker in color, and smell lovely. Turn the crock pot off and let the apples cool down a bit (about 30 minutes), then transfer the mixture into a blender (or use a hand/stick blender) and blend until completely smooth.
4. Let the apple butter cool and then transfer into storage containers. It should store well in the fridge for about 3 weeks.

***I ended up getting a peanut butter jar, a marinated artichoke jar, and an Earth Balance tub full of apple butter (hooray for reusing containers!) I am keeping the peanut butter jar in the fridge to use over the next 3 weeks and I froze the other 2 containers to take out when I finish off the first one. And I am TOTALLY making another batch of this and getting pretty little jars and giving it away with batches of homemade muffins for Christmas!

I made a peanut butter & apple butter (pb&ab) sandwich to go with my leftover chili for lunch today, and brought another little tub to go with a muffin for an afternoon snack. It is just yummy! No sugar, no sweeteners so I like it even better than jam. And it can't get much cheaper to make for how much you get! ($3 for a bag of apples, $2 for a jug of juice that I froze the rest to use next time, $1 for a jar of vinegar that I was buying anyway for my hair and face). Definitely in love with this stuff...try it this weekend, you will be happy you did!

Other variations I would love to try are apple/pear and apple/pumpkin. Can you think of other variations that would be good? Let me know!

Oh yeah, and anyone who reads this blog who I may be giving a Christmas gift to...you will forget everything you just read :-)

Cha-cha-cha-changes!

So I have decided that it is time to start moving back towards a more environmentally healthy lifestyle in addition to a personally healthy lifestyle. I was very active a couple of years ago about reducing my consumption of goods, cooking a lot more, cutting back my meat intake, and just generally living a more concientious life. Now that I am watching my budget so intensely I have also started re-educating myself on the value of a simpler life for both my own personal health and the health and wellness of the planet!

If you haven't watched The Story of Stuff yet please take the 20 minutes and watch it now...it is a fascinating, entertaining and eye opening piece about consumption in our society and how we can make a difference.


Now...I promise I won't go all preachy on you :-) That's not my style! But what I do want to do is share some of the changes I am making, contemplating and planning in the near future.

1. I am going to go vegetarian and cut out most dairy - I personally abhor the industrial agricultural system. I think it horrifically abuses animals, introduces far too many antibiotics and pesticides into our food system, and pollutes the environment. (Watch Food, Inc. if you haven't yet for more info on this!) I am not opposed to eating meat, but I do feel that the meat, dairy and eggs should come from local, humane, small farm operations. However, that is expensive and I just don't have the budget for it on a regular basis. So I am going back to an idea that meat is for special occasions and maybe once a month or so treat myself to an organic chicken or roast and savor it and use every bit of it I can. The rest of the time, vegetarian with some local eggs but no dairy because it really seems to not settle well with my system and it is waaaaaay too easy for me to go wacky on cheese!
2. I am going to try not to buy anything that I don't need, and anything I do need I will attempt to find used at thrift stores, on Freecycle or will make them. I have my basic items already in place. Smoe "nice to have" things like a bookcase, bathroom rug, living room table, glass jars, etc. I can try to find on Freecycle or in a thriftstore and things like washcloths or new fashion scarfs I have BAGS full of yarn in my closet and I can knit or crochet myself! But by doing my part to avoid introducing new items into the system I will save money and the environment.
3. Ok, now this one may sound a little weird - but I am giving up shampoo. I have done a LOT of research on this as I was coming to the end of my shampoo bottle. Shampoo is simply not necessary for healthy, CLEAN hair! Modern shampoo is actually more of a detergent that strips your hair of the healthy oils it needs which then have to be replaced with other products. By going shampoo free and cleaning your hair once or twice a week with a baking soda/water mixture and then following with an apple cider vinegar/water rinse your hair not only won't get greasy and disgusting, it will actually get healthier and more manageable. So, I am embarking on a 1 month experiment to see how it goes...so far 3 days in all I have done to my hair is do a good warm water rinse with a scalp massage to loosen up any dirt and such and honestly, my hair looks great! All the product is out of it, it doesn't look greasy at all, it is holding a style without any fuss, and my hair color doesn't seem to be fading as fast as normal. They say it takes from 2-6 weeks for your hair to really adjust and not overproduce oil to make up for being stripped by the shampoo, so let's see how it goes!

Now, in the meantime while I am slowly transitioning to vegetarian I decided I just can't be wasteful and throw out or give away the meat I already have in my freezer so I am cooking it, one piece a week, and using it for dinners. So I have to share the AMAZING beef roast/stew I made in my crockpot this weekend!!

Again, not much on an official recipe, but I had a 2 lb. beef chuck roast that I put in a crockpot along with a bag of baby carrots, about 6 chopped up potatoes, 2 chopped onions, 1/2 bottle of red wine, about 2 cups of water and seasoned with rosemary, garlic and (the secret ingredient) 3 cinnamon sticks. Cooked on high for about 6 hrs - could do it on low too for 8-9 hrs, but I started it late in the day. Holy Cow was this amazing!!! The cinnamon was unexpected but really made it pop!! I took the roast out, shredded it, put the potatoes and carrots in another container and will eat on it for dinners all week with the broth to make it a stew.

P.S. I am attempting to attach a picture of this fabulous creation but Picasa and Blogger are giving me trouble so it will have to go picture free for the time being...I will upload one when I get a chance if possible :-)

Holy Super Sweet Smoothie Batman!

Oh my GOODNESS!! My sweet taste buds are going wacky this morning! So I made my normal green monster smoothie with one BIG difference - I had run out of milk so I opened a can of light coconut milk and used about 1/2 a can of that alone with some water to make my smoothie. Holy moly it was amazingly good but CRAZY sweet...Honestly, when I first tried it I thought I had died and gone to heaven, but about half way through I realized that it was in fact too sweet for me. I think I am going to repeat this coconut milk experiment, but I am going to cut the amount by about half and make up the liquid with more water. It will still be super creamy, tasty and sweet, but a little lower in fat/calories/tooth aching sweetness.

On that same note - I am seriously considering going at least vegetarian and possibly vegan again. I haven't decided for sure, but there are a couple factors coming into play here for me.


1) I am poor and beans and rice and stuff are cheaper than meat
2) I am EXTREMELY opposed to industrial factory farming and for the past couple of years I have been very adamant about only eating local, organic, humanely raised meat and dairy products. However, referencing factor #1 I am no longer really able to afford those things anymore. I have caved on my principles the last couple of weeks and bought standard meat items and honestly, felt like total crap and a complete hypocrite about it.
3) I have a very sensitive stomach - I had my gallbladder removed when I was 22 and my system hasn't been the same since then. Eating a ton of animal protein just doesn't settle well with me in general, eating lower fat and lots of veggies makes me feel better on a day to day basis.
4) I have been vegetarian and vegan in the past for varying lengths of time and felt GREAT while doing it

So I haven't fully decided yet, and on a practical note I have a pound of ground beef, a pot roast and a package of chicken quarters in my freezer that I can't really afford to let go to waste. So I guess the question is, just jump in and do it? Work on phasing it out while eating meat for the next month it will take me to get through the meat in my freezer? I mean, on a practical note I eat quite a few meatless meals anyway...my lunches for this week were tortellini and broccoli salad and baked tofu with brown rice and green beans, so it's not like going meat-free is going to be a huge shock or change (however my chicken enchilada casserole would have to get altered - no more chicken, sour cream or cheese although the refried beans and collard greens and homemade salsa could stay)

Any of you who are reading this who are vegetarian/vegan or have made that switch in the past - what do you think? Any suggestions or ideas on how I should move forward?

Oh yeah - My birthday was also this past Tuesday September 14th...I am now officially 29 and on the homestretch to 30!! I celebrated by going to school, working, going to rehearsal, and then taking myself out for karaoke :-) And I am still recovering...I must be getting old, it wasn't this hard to bounce back after my 21st birthday!! It's time baby, I am almost 30...the time to be healthy has arrived and it can't wait any longer!!