Polenta

I made some polenta last evening. I don't make this often. Phil is not a big fan of corn meal. I have, however, decided that he is only half of our family. So, polenta it is! We were doomed to have chili for the third night in a row and I wanted corn bread. Last night I made popovers, which were good, but contain eggs and didn't really hit the spot with the chili. I decided to try polenta instead for a couple of reasons. One, I was under the misguided impression it was faster than making muffins, which it is not. Two, I always toss out 3-4 cornbread muffins because we don't eat them. Lastly, I am going to try to freeze it and see if I can use it later.

Phil always needs bread with dinner, and because I had eaten chili for lunch, I needed some variety. I don't eat sandwich bread, for some reason. Maybe it takes me back to the days when I took sandwiches for lunch as a kid. But I really have to be in the mood to eat a sandwich. I know I am digressing a tad ;-), but Phil took his lunch to work daily for over 30 years. He mainly ate sandwiches. He usually packed two sandwiches. Every day! I can't figure how can stomach them every day now that he is retired. He just loves sandwiches. I guess that is what makes us different.

I grew up eating fresh baked bread. My mother made it occasionally because we lived way out of town and if we were running out, she made bread for our sandwiches. Unlike Phil, I love the aroma of freshly baked bread and just can't let it cool before taking the first slice. Years ago my mother bought a wheat grinder, which I still have. She would buy a huge bag of wheat berries, grind them, and make bread, which us kids used to laugh about. It was very dense. A couple of days old, it could be used as frisbees or hockey pucks. Honestly, I am going to get some wheat berries and fire up the old wheat grinder again. Anyone need hockey pucks?

I am also going to make a sourdough starter and make my own sourdough bread. With all the press adulterated or GMO wheat and corn are getting, I think it might be best to try to make a more wholesome bread, since we eat so much. That stated, Phil is trying to learn to like homemade bread. I make fococcia bread, and he tries to toast it and eat it, but can't figure out how to make a sandwich with it. I will have to see how the sourdough experiment goes. Stay tuned.

Back to the Spicy 3-Bean Chili. It is vegan and delicious! And of course, you know how chili is? It gets better each day. I made it a little spicy the other day, but Phil is getting used to the spicier foods, thank goodness. I love spicy foods. We put a square of polenta in a bowl and poured the chili over it. Delicious! and filling!

Tomorrow, marinara sauce over polenta and I will freeze the rest. Phil was not at all excited that I had made so much. :-)

I did it! I think I have reached a balance.

I think my last post was Friday. We were doing really well on our "mostly vegan" diet. I still stray with a little cheese over my tacos. Then the weekend came. I was out grocery shopping and had the bright idea to invite my sister and her BF to dinner. I know her BF does not eat vegetables, so I decided to make a tri tip. He could have all he wanted, my husband could eat some, and best of all, it could be grilled outside. I have really gotten used to NOT having the odors and greasy residue that cooking and eating meat brings to the room.


At any rate, Phil grilled the tri tip, and I roasted cauliflower and sauteed Swiss chard from the garden. I chose not to make a starch. I am not sure why. I just don't think of it any more. About 50% of the time we have a starch as a filler. I usually think of it as a source of protein in the absence of beans or nuts, but since we had the roast, I asked Miles if he would like me to make some pasta with pesto. He said, no, the meat and bread would be enough. He said he would eat some of the 'lettuce' stuff (chard). I felt a little guilt, but not enough to make the pasta. Now, in retrospect, I could have made some rice or polenta or even the pasta. Oh well. Maybe next time. At any rate, we all seemed to eat enough. My sister brought the bread and pie. I must say I was not strong enough to steer clear of the bread she brought. I can safely say it has been years since I have had store-bought garlic bread. It was a treat! Then there was the pie. She also brought a peach pie. I was happy to say I was not impressed. It was too sweet. I wonder where the peaches came from? We were thankful for her additions to the meal, though. We ate it all.

Sunday we had leftovers. Breakfast is always the easiest when eating well. I think Sunday we had pancakes. Phil hates it when I do this, but I like to throw some frozen blueberries on them. They don't need butter and I can eat them a little maple syrup. That and a little fruit, I was good for the day. I think I had leftover vegetables and nuts for lunch.

Fast forward to this evening. I made a filling, salty, rich vegan dinner. Kung Pao Brussels sprouts, stir fried some red and green bell peppers, some tofu-sesame patties (recipe later), and white rice. The Kung Pao was fabulous. Really hit the spot. 

At the store Friday I bought:

• cashews
• cauliflower
• green onions
• jalapenos
• iceberg lettuce, which we love, so sue me! 
• sliced beef and fresh bologna (like that matters) for Phil's lunch
• Raisin bran
• spaghetti noodles
• Greek yogurt
• a variety of canned tomatoes and tomato paste

We have to remember to prep our summer garden and grow tomatoes. Last year I put up more than 40 pints of tomatoes and marinara sauce. Nothing like home grown tomatoes. It makes it hard to buy tomatoes at the store.

Went back to the store today:
Costco:

• bread
• cabbage salad mix
• onions
• Peta chips
• mayonnaise

Food 4 Less:

• pinto beans
• avocados
• apples
• bell peppers

Tossing out food.

I hate that! It is probably the main reason I have not gotten in the habit of filling my refrigerator with vegetables. I need to be in the mood to eat and cook certain things, and I had the tendency to leave foods too long in the crisper. They lose their color, vitamin activity, and frankly, once I have decided not to use a specific item, I just won't. Sad.

I just wanted to leave this update. In the past two weeks, the only food I have tossed out is an handful of green beans and a half a head of broccoli. That is great for me. I am writing mainly to remind myself to go through the crispers every other day. What I don't think will use immediately, I will clean, cut up, and toss in the freezer bag I have in the freezer filled with vegetable scraps for soup stock. :-)

Saturday and having company this evening.

Well, lets. see. I am quickly (after 50 years in the kitchen :-/ ) that the more varied ingredients I have at my disposal, the easier it is to scare up a nutritious, tasty meal. I know I have mentioned this once or twice already, but I really loved the pesto I bought at Lakewood Meat and Sausage.

We were able to eat the Cheesy Casserole twice and this morning I am going to freeze the rest. It just can't be finished today.

I made pasta with pesto again. Phil was happy. Me, too, for that matter. I paired it with oven-roasted cauliflower and Swiss chard. I opened a nice bottle of wine I had picked up at Murrieta's Well winery; a delicious red blend called The Spur.

Then I made the minestrone. I forgot to tell you about the minestrone. My friend Gary sent me a recipe the other morning. It sounded delicious and I happened to have all the ingredients, it looked to be a cold day, so I made it. It called for beef, which is traditional in minestrone. I have made it in the last without the beef and Parmesan cheese, but it was always missing something. I believe now the answer is SALT. Everything tastes better with salt.

But I digress. I made a huge pot with 1 pound of stew meat. In reality, that is not much meat for the number of servings it created. And Phil was so happy to have some meat. He had gone out with his mom the day before and stopped for a hamburger on his way home. I really don't want to see him sneaking out for meals, so we are starting to achieve a balance. Great!

Needless to say, with the casserole, pesto, and soup, we were set for food for three or four days. Last night, after our daily errands and cleaning the garage, I decided to toss a couple of potatoes in the oven. We had baked potatoes and salad for supper. Perfect. Oh yes, and finished that wine.

Cook it. Eat some. Freeze some.

Of course, I make the entire 16 ounce bag of beans and freeze some. Sometimes I don't know why. In my pressure cooker, it takes less than 30 minutes to make a pot of beans; less time than it takes to defrost them. I can even make a small pot. Anyway, I still do it.

• Pintos
• Pink beans
• Black beans

This week I froze:

• Some of the caramelized onions and spaghetti squash and it was a delicious lunch.
• Part of the spaghetti squash plain and will bring it out to eat with some of the pesto I brought home from the store yesterday. 
• The rest of the pesto I will freeze by the tablespoon full in an ice cube tray. I love to add it to spaghetti sauce. 

I want to try to freeze :

• burritos to take for lunch

That's all for now. I just wanted to remember that I really liked the frozen squash with onions. 

Making use of the food in the Fridge

I can't believe how few groceries I have had to buy at the grocery store this week. Since my last shopping trip, we had:

• Garlic and Rosemary steak, potato patties, sauteed bell peppers. I love the flavors. It is one of my favorite meals, even without the meat. I had a couple of slices of meat and saved out half of the marinade to see if the flavor was as good without the meat drippings. YUP! https://friggardenandgrocery.blogspot.com/2014/10/garlic-and-rosemary-steak-with-potato.html
• Bean burritos for dinner. Pintos from the freezer. Fresh made Mexican rice.  Salsa. OK, and cheese. A little can't hurt.
• Cheese and spinach ravioli with pesto sauce and steamed cauliflower. Geez it was good. Say Cheese! Yesterday I worked and stopped at a local meat market that carries pasture fed, natural, organic meats. I was thinking I might buy some eggs and maybe a couple of chicken pieces for Phil. I could barely walk in, the smell of meat was so strong. I did, though, and they had no eggs. It seems pasture raised chickens don't lay eggs in the winter. Who knew. At any rate, I saw some raviolis and pesto and brought it home. 
• Taco salad. It was fun utilizing ingredients I had finally had the foresight to buy last weekend at the grocery store: lettuce, carrots, jalapenos, and green onions. I made some fresh black beans (love my  pressure cooker), and cilantro from the garden. Basic dressing of olive oil and lime juice. I wish I had had an avocado. Anyway, it was delicious anyway. I had a little steak leftover from earlier in the week. I sliced and heated it for Phil. 
  

Superbowl Sunday

Today was a good day. Traditionally, Superbowl Sunday has been a day of snacking and booze. The longer I am eating whole foods, the better I feel and the less I want meat. I can say, at this point, I am not as concerned with eliminating the little butter I use on bread or to saute, as I am focused on finding tasty, easy to make, vegan meals.

I am learning that I can exchange vegetable broth for meat broths. I can substitute mushrooms for beef in spaghetti sauce and I have even substituted it in "Beef" Strogonoff. It is the texture more than the taste that drives me.

I am also learning to use more of my herbs and spices.

So...back to Superbowl Sunday.

• Breakfast was the usual. I am still eating Greek yogurt. Breakfast was fruit, yogurt. Phil had leftover pancakes. 
• Lunch for me was leftover (previously frozen) split pea soup and a couple of toasted baguette bread slices*. Phil had a roast beef sandwich. 
• Dinner: Around 2:00 I started prepping for the game. I chopped and sliced a bunch of different vegetables: carrots, green beans, red bell peppers, cucumber, and green onions. *The other day I had been at the grocery store and purchased a baguette of sour dough bread. I brought it home, sliced it into small rounds, brushed lightly with olive oil, and baked about 15 minutes. I also bought some Sabra hummus with olives. It is delicious. I made a dill dip and some cinnamon almonds. We started munching about 3:30 and that was the last thing we ate. We are still full. 
• https://thekitchengirl.com/how-to-make-crostini/

Where I need to work on removing dairy from my day.

• Look into vegan butter substitutes. I'm not sure if it is better than butter. How bad can a tablespoonful of butter a day be? Really?
• Cheese. I have already bought Nutritional Yeast. I have started buying cashews regularly. Maybe next month. 
• Dips: again, not sure how bad yogurt is. It is nice to be able to have something to dip veges into occasionally.

Spaghetti Squash and Caramelized Onions

WOW! I made spaghetti squash with caramelized onions and mushrooms for dinner and it was delicious.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/174303448062696341/
The caramelized onions of course are so sweet and flavorful. Then I added mushrooms, which added flavor and texture. Final addition in the recipe was kale. I didn't have kale, but went to the garden and picked some Swiss chard. Delicious!

What I am realizing is that herbs, onions, and mushrooms improve anything.

Grocery Shopping Basics

Last week I decided to shop and just load up with vegetables. I hate to waste them, so I was sure I would make good use of them. I think I am still in the habit of cooking larger meals that we can eat for a few days, so I did not use all of the veges, but am going to try to use up the more fragile ones tonight. I went to the store again today and loaded up again. Gads. I had better hurry.

Last Friday at the grocery store: I did not use all of any of these. I need to use the zucchini and mushrooms tonight

• zucchini
• mushrooms
• iceberg lettuce
• spaghetti squash
• sweet potatoes
• salsa (she says...blushing) 
• red potatoes

Costco

• almonds
• cashews*
• organic sugar
• coffee

Today (Friday) at the grocery story

• baguette sliced that I toasted for crostini
• hummus
• bananas
• bell peppers -3
• jalapenos - 2
• carrots
• cauliflower
• flour tortillas
• coconut flour*
• polenta
• nutritional yeast *

 * I am finding these ingredients in recipes as substitutes for wheat and cheese. I need to use them!

For dinner this weekend, I made a menu and put it on the fridge.

1. Burittos  - include sauteed zucchini and beans I just took out of the freezer, make Spanish rice, and add a little cheese if desired. I will try to use the nutritional yeast myself. I am sure Phil will opt for the cheddar.
2. Spaghetti squash - Caramelized onion spaghetti squash on Pinterest - Vegan. Use spaghetti squash, mushrooms, and Swiss chard in garden
3. Superbowl Sunday - Buffalo Cauliflower on Pinterest - Recipes and yummy foods, Garlic and Rosemary Steak https://friggardenandgrocery.blogspot.com/2014/10/garlic-and-rosemary-steak-with-potato.html. For snacks during the game, buffalo cauliflower and dipping sauce, veges and hummus, chips and salsa, nuts.
4. Monday: sweet potato recipe of some sort and salad.
5. Some sort of soup

Friday shopping trip

This was a loopy week. I was really trying to stay on a healthy path. The carrot stick, celery stick trick helped. I even made some really good sweet/savory roasted cashews that were a hit with Phil. I think it is important to eat nuts. The oil satiates. The crunching satisfies. And was a snacking hit!
The recipe came from What Can I Bring? by Elizabeth Heiskell. Page 81.

The weekend weather was foggy and cold. I had to make beef stew, that we ate for a few days. I think I can get closer and closer to making the stew with no meat. I had purchased 5 pounds of stew meat at Costco. I had frozen it in 1 pound packets 

I have to think back, but I made split peas soup one evening that we ate for a couple of days. I froze the rest and oddly brought it out a few days later, forgetting we had just eaten it. It was very good served with popovers one night and I think a salad the second.

Then...I finally caved to my cravings and made tostadas. I am having a love/hate relationship with Mexican food. Normally it includes cheese and meat; lots of meat. I need to try to rework recipes to be meat free and using minimal amounts of cheese. Tostadas seem to be one of these recipes. Such simple, delicious food. I had pinto beans frozen. I defrosted those and heated in a small frying pan. I used a potato masher to smash, slowly heating and reducing to remove some of the moisture. A little salt and pepper, they were smooth and tasty: no grease! Yes, we sprinkled a little cheese on top of the tostadas, but I don't think a little will hurt me. Besides, I still have cheese in the refrigerator and I hate to waste.

I bought Phil some sliced beef lunch meat. He was happy. I also bought some bagels at Costco and gave in to some cream cheese. I do admit fudging and having a half a bagel and cream cheese a couple of mornings. Also, I forgot to mention, I saw a recipe on Pinterest and also in What Can I Bring? that I decided to try. Overnight Oats. A hit with me! I particularly liked adding the chia seeds, shredded carrots, dried cranberries. It really helped make breakfast easy and nutritious.



 

Make in bulk and freeze

There are things that freeze well and things that do not.
Those that I will try to freeze for later quick dinners include:
Beans: pintos, black
Soup: Moroccan lentil, split pea, vegetable (just remember that potatoes don't freeze well)
Bread: foccacia

Canned tomato paste: the small can is 6 ounces, I think. I often only need a tablespoon or two in any given recipe. I have been doing this for a long time - adding a tablespoon of paste to a ice cube tray cup. Freeze it. Pop it out and move them to a jar. Keep frozen until you need a tablespoon or one cube.

Mushrooms: another think I love to do is buy lots of mushrooms when they are on sale. I chop fine and saute to dry them out. Once reduced, like the tomato paste, I drop a tablespoonful into the ice cube tray, freeze, and again, I have mushrooms ready for soups, spaghetti sauce, or whatever.

Wine: pour into ice cube tray. Freeze. Save for sauces. 

It's Monday: Snacking ideas.

The weekend was long. I am now rethinking snacking options. I got hungry and when I need something quick, spicy, crunchy, and protein filled, fresh almonds or pistachios don't fill the bill. I kept reaching for the pita chips, and unfortunately had purchased a large bag at Costco. :-/ I did have some hummus, which added some calories and protein to the chips. It helps to at least have something to "dip" chips in rather than eat chips all day long.

I need to find something (1) not wheat-filled or fried and hopefully (2) something I don't have to open the fridge all day long to get at. I am going to slice and prepare celery and carrots to munch on. We'll see how that works.

Thai food in Sonora

The other day I finally talked Phil into going for a ride. Since he is thinking about getting a new truck, lunch and truck shopping was a no-brainer. We decided to drive up the hill to Sonora. It was a lovely day, a wonderful change from the overcast dreary days we had been having. Not to bore you with the details of our day, we eventually settled on lunch in downtown Sonora. It is cute, quaint downtown. There are several cute stores, but the restaurants come and go from that area.

Phil saw a Thai restaurant that looked cute. We found a place to park and walked to the restaurant. I am finding it more challenging to eat out, mostly because it takes me more time to peruse the menu and I really hate to pay for a 'meat-containing' item, have them hold the meat, and still get charged for it. At any rate, after looking at the menu, I finally found the Vegetarian page. I ordered vegetable Spring Rolls served with peanut sauce and a vegetable stir fry with red curry and rice. It was delicious. Thai will now be one of my go-to lunch stops. Phil ordered a grilled pork dish with rice. The pork was set atop a bed of cabbage and served with a chili oil.

Today at home, I digressed. I made beef stew. :-( At least it's two steps forward and one step back now. Also, I am not sure a little beef will kill me. There was an abundant of vegetables in the stew, so the beef:vegetable ratio favored the vegetables.   

Where the heck is that recipe???

I have spent the last three days looking for a cool recipe for a nut-filled sweet treat that I had seen SOMEWHERE! What a frustration. I am thinking that once I get the hang of mixing and matching veges, grains, nuts, and beans, I will be OK. Until then, I still need a recipe to guide me.

Take the sweet treat recipe. It was a combination of pepitas, walnuts, maybe almonds or cashews (in reality, probably does not matter which nuts one uses), held together with maple syrup and coconut oil, baked at XXX for XXX. See? This is what I mean. Phil is starting to get used to not having cookies and candy around, but I really give him something to satisfy his sweet tooth (not to mention mine).

So...I thought I would start making a note of the recipes I see and use. Pinterest seems to be a good place to store recipes and ideas, but when I find them in a book, that is another story. Take today for instance. I thought I would make split pea soup and focaccia bread for dinner. I had to hit the last three cookbooks and Pinterest until I found it. Thankfully, I did. I still  have not found the nut treat recipe. :-/

I found it in Forks Over Knives, the book. Page 91. I will not add it to my Fridge, Garden and Grocery Store blog until I know it is a keeper. So far, it is tasting pretty good. Stay tuned. Serving it tonight with focaccia and will probably have it tomorrow again. I work and hate to come home late and starving and still have to drum up dinner.

How'd We do? It's Friday

Well, it has been a long week. Changing our diet is turning out to be a real struggle. I was just telling Phil about a patient of mine who sent me a chili recipe that sounded delicious. He also spent some time on the phone talking about the best way to purchase beef; not the best thing for me to hear the week I have decided to stop eating meat.

The week began by meeting a friend for coffee Monday. After that I had to run an errand and being starving, thought it best to eat something. The conundrum is to find some fast food that is good for me. I decided to stop by an Indian restaurant. I ordered some Samosa and Palak Paneer. Delicious. Not vegan, but no meat. Grocery store stop included:

• mushrooms to stuff
• spinach 
• acorn squash
• celery - chop into sticks for snacking
• canned beans - garbanzos, kidneys
• canned tomato
• kale (remember to check it closely and buy it as you can find it)
• cauliflower

Dinner Monday: steamed cauliflower, leftover Paneer, miscellaneous other leftovers, and rustic sourdough bread. I may have made a tomato, red onion, and tomato salad, as well (successfully snuck in some beets).

Dinner Tuesday: Spinach-stuffed mushrooms, kale salad, leftover Ancient Grains. I took leftovers for lunch the next day. Later that evening I had Phil cut the squash in half, cleaned it, put it into an oven-safe pan, and added a 1/4 inch of water. Phil, as instructed, popped it into the oven Wednesday at 5.

Dinner Wednesday:  acorn squash, leftover brown and black rice (not the best frozen and reheated), and something else. Acorn squash was kind of bland and I will need to find an great recipe to justify cooking it again.

Dinner Thursday: Tired of thinking and working two days in a row. Phil popped a pepperoni pizza in the oven. I stopped and got some packaged salad mix. Dinner. For better or for worse.

Dinner Friday (tonight): Chili beans and foccacia bread with tomato and mushrooms. I am weak about totally removing meat from our diet. Although I did only have one piece of pizza last might, I didn't remove the pepperoni, either. Today at Costco, I purchased 4 pounds of stew meat. I separated and froze it into 1-pound portions for use later. I think a little meat a couple of times a month, should be a good compromise.

Referring back to the chili recipe my patient sent me, I was really interested in trying it. It called for hamburger and sausage. I had not fully read the recipe, so purchased the stew meat thinking I would use that. It was great. Added a lot of flavor and still had lots of beans and tomatoes. I also cooked a whole bag of beans with the intent of freezing some. I have frozen some in 2 cup batches. I can use them later when I make Mexican food. 

Moroccan Vegetable Stew

I decided to get back to work. I was creating my list, and was hesitant to put soup on my comfort food list. Phil and I have not had a loving relationship with soup, but it never ceases to amaze me that we both always enjoy soup when we consume it at home. I am not sure how good of a soup chef I am, but I find it easy to make, so am adding it to my "Comfort Food" list.

My favorite cookbook, the DoubleDay Cookbook, has a basic soup recipe and a table for making any variation of the base soup. My favorites include, broccoli, potato-leek, Minestrone, chicken noodle. I think I like to make soups because I have no preconceived notion of what "good" means. Many recipes call for special instructions, like floating egg shells in the broth, to eliminate clumping. Most recipes call for milk or cream. I do neither. That is why I love to make soup.

I never use cream or milk. I have homemade vegetable broth in the freezer, but generally use Better Than Bouillon vegetable broth base. It is quick, has some salt, and gives good, quick flavor. Back to the homemade vegetable broth. Currently, when I have leftover vegetables, I will toss them into the freezer. When I have time, I turn it into broth, place it in jars, and freeze it. Unfortunately, frozen things take time to thaw, so using this take a little forethought. Note to self: learn how to pressure process the broth.

So, where was I? I was creating The List this morning and remembered a fun resource: the Pampered Chef (PC) recipe website. At a PC party once, the host showed us how to make a vegetarian chili, of course using their cool tools to chop and measure. At any rate, she put together the ingredients in a bowl and then loaded zip lock bags with enough for two nice servings. So easy. Freezable. And it was delicious.  I am still looking for the recipe. Stay tuned.

However, I did find a yummy recipe that I made for supper today. It is called Moroccan Vegetable Stew. I noticed a few things about the recipe that I have noticed in other recipes that will help us meet our health goals: vegetarian, spices - in particular, turmeric, ginger, curry, cinnamon, and garlic.

BTW, I am d day late finishing this. The stew is fabulous. The smell still lingers in my home. 

Sunday

So...here we are. It is Sunday and a day we will probably be home all day, the days we snack more. I am slowly getting over the "traditional" bacon and eggs breakfast. First, I don't like to eat eggs and secondly, we are not eating bacon any more at home. I will see when we go out for breakfast. :-)

I think I will just take Phil's cue on breakfast. In fact, I got up early, as usual, and on seeing my ripe avocados, I slathered some on two pieces of sour dough toast. With coffee, I was full by the time Phil got up. He opted to eat cereal. I succumbed and had a handful of Shredded Wheat and a smoothie. I don't normally drink smoothies in the winter for two reasons. I don't like to consume cold products in general, but especially when it is cold outside.

Second, my Vitamix is in the laundry room (because it is too noisy to be in the kitchen) and it is FREEZING right now in the laundry room. Here is my Vitamix in it's place of glory, underneath my husband's old caps.

 

 It is so noisy, I start it and dash into my kitchen and shut the door. I watch it through the window, in case I have to stop it quickly. This is a picture of me in the kitchen looking through the window of the door.











I digress. We were full until about noon. Then I kind of got hungry. I proceeded to make some yummy Mushroom Strogonoff. I cooked up my favorite egg noodles and made an impromptu salad of tomato, avocado, red onion, beets, and almonds, dressed with vinegar and oil. I think I have finally cured myself of egg noodles, too. I LOVE egg noodles, but they are hard to eat. When I made Strogonoff with beef, the sauce was thicker and the noodles were easier to eat, but they were a real nuisance today. The Strogonoff was delicious, but thin. I will try to thicken with a little corn starch next time.

At any rate, Phil had a Biscotti for dessert, I had a half of one, and we did not munch at all. I currently have two potatoes in the oven and will serve them with roasted broccoli, Greek yogurt, and leftover soup from the other night. The flavor of the Moroccan Vegetable Stew was fabulous.

Aarg!...just go the results of my cholesterol test

Yup, my cholesterol is up. I had been really striving to remove or reduce meat from my diet. I was shown in black and white that I have failed. I must confess, though. I love to eat meat. I need to find a way to meld eating meat with being healthy. We were really good about not having processed meats in the house for quite a while. Then the Holidays came around. Gotta have salami, cheese, and bacon for those special recipes and friends. But really, do I really need to feed my special friends and family bacon? NO.

I need to go back to the paradigm of eating food as grown. Make all food at home. I need to stop using so much cheese. I just went overboard during the Holidays. I also know that when it gets cold I turn to my favorite comfort foods. I just decided to make a list. It may take a few days. I am going to list our usual comfort foods. I also think I need to determine why they are comfort foods. I will list the "bad" ingredient(s) and work on designing or find an recipe that reduces or eliminates the "bad" ingredient.

I also need to ensure I have healthy snacks in the house. I think we should never buy sweets or chips, etc. If we want to eat that stuff, we need to go out and purchase it.

Stay tuned.