Farm Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

11:06 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments



I am very excited. I have signed us up for a home delivery service that will bring organic fruits and vegetables straight from local farms to my doorstep every other week. This will benefit me in many ways.

The fact that the produce comes directly from a local farm means that I will be receiving the absolute freshest produce that is in season at that moment. This will give me a large variety of produce throughout the year. I have the option to select specific items or to reject certain items but I hope to use whatever they give me because that way I can expand not only my palate but also my cooking skills and recipe collection.
It has sort of been a little theory of mine that if you eat foods that are in season, you are eating healthier. Think about it. Oranges are packed with vitamin C and they grow during the cold and flu season. Fresh, ripe foods contain more of their vitamins and minerals. Even honey, if harvested locally, is known to lessen the effects of seasonal allergies.

I am also excited about supporting local farms. On the website they tell you what you will be getting in your box that week and which farm each thing came from. What you get depends on where you live and which farms are closest to you. It's like they were grown in my own backyard.
A week from today I will receive corn on the cob, summer squash, seedless grapes, ambrosia melon, yellow peaches, carrots, heirloom tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, Italian basil and gypsy peppers. Think of all the possibilities for meals to make!

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Warm Potato and Chicken Sausage Salad

7:16 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments



I was visiting with my parents earlier this week. Their garden is going crazy with great veggies. I was sent home with some homegrown lettuce and potatoes. I have never had homegrown potatoes before. I left them on my kitchen counter and spent the next day at work dreaming up ways I would like to enjoy them. When I go on a vacation, I like to do a lot of planning beforehand because that way I feel like I am on the vacation already. The same thing goes for planning a meal. I can spend a whole day dreaming of food until I come up with a recipe in my head. Then I go make it and see if it works out. That is what I did yesterday. I daydreamed about potatoes.
I wanted to do these special potatoes justice. I considered just oven roasting them with some oil and herbs but that would have been just a side dish and I wanted these to be the main meal. Making potatoes a main meal means adding a protein. I thought through what I had at home and what I felt like eating and came to the conclusion that I wanted some form of warm potato and sausage mix. I had the recipe clear in my head but as I actually began to make the meal, I made some changes. First, I added way more sauce. Second, I added some spice. The third thing I did was on accident. I over cooked the potatoes. Turns out, I have not cooked potatoes very often in my life and had no clue how to and how long to cook them. At any rate, the final product was very well received so I thought I would share it with you.

Warm Potato and Chicken Sausage Salad

1 pound new potatoes
1 package chicken sausage (6 links)
1 tbsp oil
1/4 cup wine vinegar
1/4 cup broth or water
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp maple syrup (honey would do fine too)
2 tsp red pepper flakes
Fresh herbs

1. Cut potatoes into quarters and boil or steam until just tender.
2. Slice sausage into 1/2 inch coins and fry in a large frying pan.
3. Add the oil, vinegar and water to the sausage. Scrape the fried bits off of the bottom of the pan and remove the pan from heat.
4. Add the mustard and syrup to the sausage and blend well.
5. Add the potatoes and pepper flakes to the sausage and mix gently to coat with the sauce. Sprinkle with fresh herbs and serve warm

I used a fantastic sausage that I got at Costco. It is called Coleman Organic Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Chicken Sausage. It is organic, no added antibiotics or hormones, vegetarian fed chicken. Because of the theme of the sausage I added a bit of fresh basil on top of my dish to give some color. You can add any fresh herb you would like.
Yummy sausage

I always have a difficult time figuring how many servings a meal I make has because my boyfriend and I eat giant portions and often go back for seconds. I am going to figure this meal serves 4 though. I mean, it is six sausages and a pound of potatoes! So figuring on that here is the nutritional breakdown per serving:

Calories: 333g
Fat: 17g
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 22.5g

Of course, between me, my boyfriend and my dog (my dog was going crazy for it!) we ate the whole thing in one sitting. I now have all kinds of cravings for potato dishes. I hope this summer provides my parents with more potatoes than they can handle.

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The Best Healthy Stir Fry Ever

10:03 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 1 Comments



I was hungry at work so I started to think about dinner. I put together this idea of what to make that would use some of the food I had in the fridge that I wanted to use up. I jotted a few ingredients down. When I got home I started tossing all kinds of things in and ended up with a fantastic dish. We loved it so much I tried to repeat it the next night. I tried to remember what I added so I could share this fabulous dish with you. This took me about ten minutes to make. Remember that I never measure ingredients so this is my best attempt to but rules and boundaries on my cooking. Also, I used some flavored oils I had in the cupboard as my base oil but I am sure any oil would do. The oils I used were basil, garlic and ginger flavors.

Stir Fry Better Than Take Out

1 Tbsp Oil (flavored would be good or just canola or vegetable)
2 Large cloves of garlic
1 1/2 inch fresh ginger
2 dried hot peppers (or 1 tsp red pepper flakes)
1 1/2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Fish sauce
1 Tbsp Rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup Chicken broth
1 Bell pepper
1 White onion
1 cup Snow peas
16 frozen shrimps, thawed, tails removed
1 Tbsp Flour
1 small handful fresh basil
3 Green onions
Pepper
Sesame Seeds, toasted

1. Peel ginger and chop finely along with the garlic and red peppers
2. Heat the oil in a wok or wide pan, add ginger, garlic and hot peppers. Stir until the flavors are released, about two minutes.
3. Add soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar and broth and continue to heat on med high.
4. Cut onion and bell pepper into strips and add to wok with the snow peas. Cook for another couple minutes.
5. Cut shrimps in half and add to wok. Cook for another couple minutes until the shrimps turn pink.
6. Sprinkle flour over everything and immediately stir in to avoid clumping. Continue to cook for a few more minutes or until the sauce thickens up. If needed add more broth or flour to get the desired consistency.
7. Remove from heat. Chop the basil and slice the green onions. Gently stir into the mix.
8. Season with crushed pepper and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

I suggest serving this over some Asian noodles but rice would go well too. I like to season the noodles or rice with a tablespoon of sesame oil and a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar.

So simple but so delicious and there is nothing in it that is bad for you.

1 comments:

How's the diet going?

9:19 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments


What IS a diet? When most people hear the word "diet" they think of a temporary eating program. This is often what the word is used to describe. But think about when you are watching the nature channel and they say that the yellow bellied warbling rooster finch has a diet of leaves and worms. Do you think they mean he is trying to lose weight? No, I diet is simply what you are eating. Last year, my diet consisted of pot stickers and pizza. That is pretty much it. I gained a lot of weight. As you know, in the last few months I have lost all that weight with another diet: a low calorie diet. Now I am at a weight that I like. It isn't my goal weight but I am not worried about that at this time. I gained four pounds on my vacation. Not too terrible seeing as how I ate burgers and pizza and really fruity, sweet drinks every single day for almost two weeks. Also, my cold that I had for the last week made me feel starved so I was just gorging on anything I could get my hands on.

Since I have been home I have started to eat healthy again. My breakfasts consist of one of the following:

Whole wheat english muffin with almond butter and banana slices

Power smoothie with bananas, strawberries, flax seeds, soy milk and almond butter

Beans and a poached egg

Protein bar (if I am running late for work)

My lunches have been fantastic. I bought some Lavash from Trader Joe's and have been having a lot of fun filling it.
Lavash bread from Trader Joe's

What I love about this bread is that it is square so you can make a wrap much easier than with a tortilla. Plus, it holds more! I also love it's texture when you grill up on a panini maker for just a little bit.

I went to Costco and bought a pre-cooked turkey breast and this really yummy artichoke lemon spread.


A similar spread and the turkey from Costco

I spread a little of the artichoke lemon sauce on the lavash, put a couple ounces of cubed turkey then whatever veggies I feel like. I sometimes add a slice of Trader Joe's Jalapeno Yogurt Cheese. I am lucky enough to have a panini maker here at work so at lunch time I just pop my wrap on the grill and toast it up. It is so delicious!!

Another lunch I am loving is a recipe that I have posted on a previous blog. Right now Costco has some perfect papayas. I get up in the morning, take a papaya, peel it and slice it down the center. I scoop out the seeds and place the halves in a tupperware bucket. I then open a can of tuna and add a few chopped pickles, green onions, a scoop of mustard and a dab of yogurt or low cal mayo. I salt and pepper it and mix it all up. I fill the papayas and I am ready for work! It is so tasty and so refreshing to have at work out on the patio.
I am lucky to have such a nice view at work.

For dinner I have been having something I have also posted on a previous blog. It is the chicken or fish pouches. We have gotten more sophisticated with our pouches. If you recall, I take a piece of tin foil and lay it on the counter. I put a piece of chicken or fish in the center and top that with all kinds of yummy things. I seal up the food by making a pouch with the tinfoil and bake it for about a half hour at 350. This week I have added things like lemon, green beans, capers, green olives, kalamata olives, garlic, ginger and fresh herbs like rosemary. There are so many combinations you can use. We have even talked about adding some dry rice and cooking the pouches for an hour. The juices stay in the pouch so you really can not over cook the meat with this method. It is basically fool proof but oh so good for you!

Last night I made a stir fry to use up some of the veggies that were in my fridge. The bf said it was one of the best meals I have ever made! I will include the recipe in a following blog so I can make it again and actually take pictures of it. Stay tuned!!

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Maui, Now and Then

12:29 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments


I am back from my wonderful trip to Hawaii. I have not been able to blog because I got a cold right when I got back and immedately following that, I got a nasty ear infection. But here I am now (mostly, I am still on tons of meds).

About our trip: We had an absolute blast. Going to Maui in the springtime is different from going in November. The sunset is in a different spot, for example.
Sunset in the Spring at Black Rock Beach.

Sunset from Black Rock Beach in the Fall. Way to the left.

Another difference is the wave intensity. There were considerably less waves during our Spring visit which was great for snorkeling. I do not normally snorkel that much because it hurts my brain after a few minutes but the water was so smooth I thought I would take the opportunity.
Slaughterhouse beach in the Spring.

Slaughterhouse beach in the Fall


Some things went a little downhill. In 2008 we discovered the Mai Tai Lounge and just loved it. They had wonderful drinks and a crazy huge selection. We ordered some pupus. I got the coconut shrimp and it was the best I had on the island. In the photo you can just barely see it in front of me but you can clearly see their toasted little tails sitting up. I was excited to go back and have them again. What I got this time was a pile of mushy, from frozen, tailless shrimp.
See the little shrimp tails standing up on my plate?

And now there is a pile of mush :(

Somethings never change. There are still geckos climbing on the walls:
Gecko in 2008

Gecko in our room 2010

Harry Troupe is still the best entertainment on the island
Harry in the Spring, 2010

Harry in the Fall, 2008

and I still love shave ice!
Shave ice in the Spring, 2010

Shave ice in the Fall, 2008

You will notice that my spring 2010 pictures are horrible. That is because I dropped my camera in the ocean the day we arrived and had to buy a very cheap camera to use the rest of the trip.

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