What's For Dinner?

I’m No Chicken

I had a first as a blogger today.

I got my first official rude comment. I’ve had some backhanded ones before that I chose not to publish because that wouldn’t have done anyone any good. But today? Today I got a comment telling me that I “shouldn’t” be eating things like dark chocolate and “how is it possible that rice isn’t allowed” on this “newfangled plan” of mine.

I thought about letting it go. I thought about not saying anything, about not giving “Scared Sandy” any sort of recognition at all, and then I thought again. What is it about anonymity and the internet that makes people think they can say whatever they want? I’ve linked to this before, and I’ll do it again:

I’ve seen it on message boards and on other people’s blogs, but I’ve never experienced it firsthand in the comments of my own. The negativity. The rudeness. The inexplicable need to be anonymously terrible to another person. So rather than taking the easy way out and just hitting “delete” on the comment, I took a chance and responded. I defended myself, and explained that I’m not a blogger that reveals each and every thing I eat. And then you all came along. You, my amazing readers, came along with emails and comments too, defending me and my choices, and I’m absolutely blown away and humbled. Thank you all from the bottom of my non-rice-eating heart.

Speaking of chicken, that’s just what I made tonight. It was simply roasted much like I did back in January, and I served it along with some (more) roasted brussels sprouts. Since there’s no recipe, and just a bunch of photos, please enjoy the visual candy. Meat-o-phobes, you might want to stop reading after the pictures of the sprouts!

Thank you again, friends, for confirming why exactly I stay a part of this amazing community. We may all have our differences, but in the end, we have one common bond… and energy vampires and flower cutters be damned! When one dares to try to bring us down, there’s 30 more to pull us back up.

Also, a VERY happy anniversary to my mom and stepdad!! How cute are they??

Technorati Tags: chicken, friends, simple recipe, thank you, vegetables

27 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, March 4th 2010 | Tags: chicken, friends, simple recipe, thank you, vegetables
Posted in friends, simple recipe

A Gin(a)ious

Sometimes, I’ll be reading a food blog (you know, one of the hundreds I subscribe to) and I’ll see some random food combination or recipe and think “Really? What the heck was she thinking?” And it’s always the girls, right Matt? The guys always do “normal” combos, and us girls? Sometimes, I just don’t know…

Then sometimes, there’s something I think is weird the first time I see it, and then it sticks in my brain. It’s like a peanut butter smear that just won’t go away. I ponder, and think, and revisit posts dozens of times… and then I ask the author for specifics about that recipe or combo. And then I think on it some more. And then I find myself in the aisle of the grocery store that happens to have 90% of the ingredients I need, and I decide to go for it.

And you’re thinking now “Whattheheckisshetalkingaboutnow?” Yeah, I can read your mind from here OOOOoooooOOOOHhhhhhhhh….

I’m talking about Gina’s raw cauliflower sushi rice. I saw it months ago when she was in culinary school at 108 Degrees, and it stuck in my head. I know it’s not her recipe per se, but she’s the one I associate with it. I asked her today if there was a recipe or to just go with the ingredients til they taste right, she said to go by taste, and so I went. Mostly because well, with this whole “not eating grains or many carbs” Paleo diet thing, the thing I miss the most is definitely sushi.

In my food processor went a small head of raw cauliflower, which I pulsed until it vaguely resembled rice. Then I transferred it to a bowl and seasoned it with about 1/4 c. rice vinegar, one packet of Splenda (SHAMEFUL ha right), salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder. Then I tried my hand for the first time at rolling my own sushi rolls.

Not bad for my first time, eh? Adam and I got all these sushi sets as engagement presents (seriously, 3 of them) and they’ve just been sitting there, so I figured I’d break them out. These lovely raw rolls are filled with avocado, organic Persian cucumber sticks, and some (definitely not raw) canned crabmeat.

Gina my dear, you are a freaking genius. Absolutely GENIUS! Do you all get the title now??

I ate 2 rolls like the one pictured, then stirred the leftover ingredients together into a salad of sorts with a bit of sesame oil and sesame seeds. I have this feeling that I’ll be buying a lot more cauliflower now, and Adam, I apologize… you do have to sleep in the same room as me…

I purchased something new to eat with my sushi, and since I don’t have very many “this is my hand holding something I ate today” photos, I figured I’d start with my lovely Japanese wasabi paste. It was $2 and the hottest wasabi I’ve ever had!

And I’m finishing my meal off with a piece of this remarkable $1 Polish dark chocolate I get from our ethnic market. It’s better than any non-gourmet dark chocolate I’ve ever had, and better than most gourmet ones too!

I’m making some turkey burgers for Adam and for lunch tomorrow, so my cooking isn’t over yet… and I’m taking the first step of tackling Mount Clothesmore in our second bedroom tomorrow. I’ve been putting it off for 3 years and I just have to DO it. Please reassure me I don’t need the stuff I haven’t worn since I moved??

A couple of reminders for you:

Don’t forget to vote in the Cuteiversary Contest! Check out the entries on the last Cute Food Saturday post, then vote in the poll on the right hand side of the blog.
Go shopping! The 50% off sale on the oil and vinegar set only lasts until next Wednesday!
Enter Ashley’s Blogiversary contest!

Have a great Thursday all!

Technorati Tags: Asian, dinner, friends, fun, sushi, vegetarian

32 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, March 3rd 2010 | Tags: Asian, dinner, friends, fun, sushi, vegetarian
Posted in Asian, friends, vegetarian

One, Two, Three, No Tradebacks!

On Friday night, I had the pleasure of attending Lizz’s birthday party which, as usual, had a fun and interesting theme. Last year, she held a “dirty shirty” party where everyone’s shirts were inappropriate, to say the least. This year, for her 30th (Ok, her 7 and a half because she’s a leap year baby), she opted for a more “grown up” theme and had a wine and beer exchange party.

The rules were simple: come to the party with either two bottles of wine or two 6-packs of beer. One bottle or 6 pack would be opened for everyone to taste, and the other stayed on the table. Everyone’s names got put in a bucket and drawn randomly, and we got to choose a bottle of wine (or beer if thats what the guest brought) to bring home!

One of the many reasons I love Lizz is that she held off on putting any of the food out until I got there, and asked that I take some good pictures, and she didn’t want anything to be eaten or ugly when I got to take the pictures! We talked before about what a good blog post the party would be…

First and foremost, there was this incredible garlicky cheese dip that Lizz baked in a loaf of bread. I’m working on getting the recipe from her, but let me tell you, in all honesty, it was the BEST dip I’ve ever had. AND it looked good!

Most of the other food is self-explanitory, and the one picture that looks like a bunch of jam in the middle of a plate of crackers? That’s some slightly spicy jam atop cream cheese… also quite delicious!

Soon, all the guests had arrived and there were two tables of liquor set out, one of wine and one of beer. I brought the wine all the way on the left hand side of the wine table. It’s a 2008 Szoke Matyas & Zoltan Matra Irsai Oliver. I have no idea what that means, but I know that it’s a DELICIOUS Hungarian wine that smells a bit like roses, yet tastes like butterscotch.

Each beer and wine were opened and poured for each person to taste. The wine bringers got wine, and the beer bringers got beer. Lizz had fun playing sommelier

That was Fünf Riesling, which was one of my favorites, but alas, I didn’t get to bring it home… but I’ll get to that in a minute. Skylar was on hand doing her job being cute and eating Almond Roca

Soon, a few people needed to start leaving, and the executive decision was made by Lizz’s mom that we needed to light birthday candles ASAP. This amazing cake is called the Queen Elizabeth cake, and it featured ladyfingers, pound cake, strawberries, bananas, and buttercream icing from Deerfield’s Bakery:

The candles were lit

And huge slices were enjoyed by all. It was literally impossible to have a small piece, so I’m blaming the sugar for making me not take a picture of the sliced cake… once we all had a nice sugar and wine buzz, Lizz started drawing names from her basket of wine labels. My name was drawn next-to-last, which meant I had only two options of wine left to choose: the one I brought or a red that I didn’t like. Lucky me got to bring home a bottle of wine I KNEW I liked! There was a no tradeback rule (well, an unspoken one) so I was “stuck” with it!

I’m most definitely having a party like this sometime soon… it was a lot of fun trying wines that I’d never think to try, and it gave a common thread of conversation for people who didn’t know each other that well.

So Happy Birthday Lizz!! I’m thankful every day that you are my heterosexual life mate, and love you dearly!!

A little blog news:

* Make sure you check out the Cute Food Cutiversary Contest and vote for your favorite reader-submitted cute food using the poll on the right. Comment votes won’t count!

* I’ll be working to organize my recipes in the coming week. Expect to see more links in the Recipes tab!

* Fun stuff from my OpenSky Shop is coming on Tuesday!

I have a great chili recipe coming tomorrow, as well as my first foray into Indian cooking on Wednesday! Also, a HUGE thank you goes out to Ashley from Edible Perspective and Alice from Eat A Duck I Must for the heads up about the amazing photo-editing program that is Lightroom. I’m obsessed… as if I needed something else to occupy my time on the computer!

Have a great Monday!

Technorati Tags: birthday, cheese, dessert, Drinks, friends, fun, poll, wine

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Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 28th 2010 | Tags: birthday, cheese, dessert, Drinks, friends, fun, poll, wine
Posted in friends

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans

A few months back, my mom told me about this supper club she and a few other women were starting in their neighborhood. They started by going out for dinner once, and then agreed upon a theme for the next meeting and met at one woman’s house for a potluck-type meal. When I say potluck though, I’m not talking about tuna casserole and crockpots of chili!

Last night, my mom asked me if I’d like to join them for their Southeast Asian-themed dinner, I happily agreed! I felt badly that I didn’t have time to bring anything, but my mom insisted it wasn’t a problem. She thought it would be a great experience and I’d get to meet some fantastic people. She was right on both counts!

We walked in to the house and were greeted with “Would you like a drink?” As much as I wanted to try the hostess’ Singapore Sling cocktails, I opted instead for a mocktail of seltzer, pineapple juice, and a cherry.

There was the most gorgeous centerpiece on the kitchen island full of ingredients the hostess used in her dishes. It served as a trivia game to win a bottle of wine!

Can you name everything on that tray? I couldn’t! The last of the members arrived, including Liz from Lazy Cook, Crazy Cook (a fantastic blog, by the way, I recommend you check it out!) and some cooking ensued! There were pork potstickers with two dipping sauces to munch on while the other amazing dishes simmered away.

Liz got busy cooking her Pho, a Vietnamese beef and noodle soup. It was quite the process involving multiple soakings and blanching of cornstarch stick noodles, slicing of beef, and simmering of this wonderful-smelling broth.

And of course, silliness ensued as well

My mom prepared her larb kai for serving (don’t worry, I’ll get that recipe for you all, you’ll LOVE it! Or maybe my mom can write a guest post about it? HINT HINT!)

We sat down in this beautiful dining room with super-creative theme-related place settings

I had about half a glass of this amazing Israeli white wine as we sat down to eat. First I tried Liz’s pho (pronounced fuh). I absolutely cannot wait to try to replicate this at home! What’s fun about pho is that while it sounds simple, the person eating gets all sorts of options to doctor up their own bowl. I added bean sprouts, cilantro, hot peppers, sriracha, and cilantro to the already flavorful broth and noodle soup.

Next up was Tina’s (the host) laksa. Laksa is typically a Malaysian or Vietnamese dish, but she had melded together a few recipes for a bowl full of deliciousness. There was a complex sauce made with fresh turmeric, galangal (in the ginger family), a multitude of other spices, and coconut milk. In this sauce was shrimp, tofu, scallops, and halibut, along with skinny noodles. She topped it with a hard-boiled quail egg.

Next was my mom’s larb kai, a steamed and highly seasoned chicken dish that we’ve loved for years. It’s as delicious as it is beautiful!

Last but not least, after much talking and laughing, we got to dessert. There was some unpictured black rice and coconut ice cream that was an excellent compliment to this lovely meringue-topped pineapple and coconut bread pudding. It wasn’t too sweet, and the texture was phenomenal!

It was a fantastic time, and I stayed up WAY too late and probably ate way too much… but it was so much fun! I’m looking forward to the next meeting of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans (their aptly named group) when I can actually bring something! Next time: Italy at my mom’s house!

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading! I loved being included in such a fun event. Have a great Friday, and come back later to find out who won the SkinMD Natural giveaway! This means you still have a few hours to enter!!!

Technorati Tags: Asian, chicken, friends, get-together, supper club

16 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 26th 2010 | Tags: Asian, chicken, friends, get-together, supper club
Posted in Asian, beef, chicken/turkey, family, friends, pork

Steak House? No! Our House!

Today was one of those days that made me realize how lucky I am to be a part of this wonderful blogging community. Who else can say that they have friends from LITERALLY all over the country, many of whom they’ve never met in person??

I started my day bright and early by meeting up with two of my favorite bloggers, and girls who have been loyal readers and commenters pretty much since day one of this little blog of mine: Jenn and Caroline! We met up with each other at a childhood favorite restaurant of mine, Walker Brothers Pancake House, and as usual, the line was out the door. Luckily, they got us in and seated quickly!

I got a mushroom omelet, fruit, and a side of bacon. I only ate the strawberries out of the fruit cup…

Walker Bros. was the first place I ever remember going that had amazingly fluffy baked omelets, instead of the flat and folded over ones of so many greasy spoon places. The bacon was, well, bacon…so it was awesome! The best part though was the company and conversation. Thanks so much for a great morning!

From left: Me, Jenn, Caroline, and Caroline’s cousin

I’ve made an executive decision: all the bloggers I’ve met need to move to Chicago so that we can hang out on a regular basis.

Since I was so close, I stopped off at my mom’s house to show off the new camera, and of course, the lovely Stella was thrilled to be the subject of an impromptu photo shoot!

She’s been watching Top Model!

I came home and vegged out for a while, because its Sunday…and then set out to the grocery store with my EnviTote for a few days worth of produce and ingredients for dinners. Much to my surprise and delight, 3 lb. bags of baby spinach were on sale, buy one get one free for $3.99! Needless to say, I then needed to stock up on Green Monster ingredients too… I had a very specific dinner in mind, hence the trip to the grocery store.

Last weekend for Valentine’s Day, I bought a bunch of ingredients for broth/bouillon fondue after we ate our cheese, and found that we were too full after the first course. The ingredients went into the freezer, and I wanted to use them today. What were these ingredients? Jumbo shrimp and filet mignon!

The steaks needed a simple preparation: just a sprinkle of salt and fresh ground pepper, then a quick sear in a pan and then a few minutes under the broiler.

The shrimp though, got the royal treatment… they got Scampi-fied!

Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients

1 lb. peeled raw shrimp

2 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 c. dry white wine

juice of 1 lemon

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter and olive oil, then the garlic. Cook a few minutes, then add the white wine. Reduce by half. Add lemon juice and shrimp and cook until shrimp are done, about 6 minutes. Add parsley, stir and serve immediately.

In addition, I made a batch of the same creamed spinach I made recently. In all, this was, as Adam said, like Wildfire at home. Remember Wildfire? We went there at the end of my first week of camp this summer, and it’s one of our very favorite steakhouses! To hear that I successfully recreated at home a similar meal as we enjoy out was one of the best food-related compliments I’ve gotten!

All together now:

So, with a full belly and a sleepy head, and thoughts of snow days lingering in the back of my brain… I bid you good night!

Technorati Tags: bacon, beef, breakfast, Chicago dining, dinner, EnviTote, food, friends, fun, out, seafood, simple recipe

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Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 21st 2010 | Tags: bacon, beef, breakfast, Chicago dining, dinner, EnviTote, food, friends, fun, out, seafood, simple recipe
Posted in beef, fish or seafood, friends, simple recipe

Skirting the Issue

¡Buenas noches!

I hope you all had a wonderful Monday, whether you worked today or not. I did not and had a thoroughly unproductive day off. I tend to do nothing on my days off and then feel guilty about it, but I have NO shame about being completely useless today. I did have a doctor’s appointment to meet my new doctor, then hit the grocery store. I found the CUTEST thing:

Pocket kabocha! I thought of HEAB and Coco when I found them! I can’t wait to roast this and FINALLY try it! It was also an exciting evening because our new dishwasher was installed! A huge thanks goes out to LIzz’s dad, who took time out of his busy day to come out and put it in for us. I can’t wait to see how it works! It certainly looks nice:

I insisted that Lizz’s dad stay for dinner, and I made a marinated skirt steak (now do you get the title?) and garlic steamed broccoli. I’d never made a skirt steak before, so I asked my mom for advice on what to do with it. Unfortunately, her suggestion included a bunch of stuff we didn’t have in the house, so I’m going to have to save it for another day. I went with a simple marinade:

1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1.5 Tbsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp parsley flakes
Salt and pepper

I mixed up the marinade, set the steaks in, and let them sit for almost 2 hours. Then, I simply broiled them for a great result!

Tomorrow’s a big day over here… a certain 5 lb shipment from Amazon is coming that I just can’t wait for! Some of you know what it is, and the rest of you will just have to wait! There are big things this week, maybe a giveaway, and definitely some shopping opportunities!

I have gotten a few questions to answer in the last couple of days:

Have any tips on substitutions for those of use who keep kosher?? My answer here depends wholly on how strict of a kosher house you keep! For the very strictest, I’m low on ideas, as I’m not sure of all the intricacies. However, if you’re a “no pork, no milk and meat together” kind of kosher-keeper, I do have a couple of ideas. Many of my pork dishes are easily recreated using chicken or turkey. All of the marinades taste great on chicken, and cooking time will need to be adjusted slightly. If there’s a milk/meat dish, I’d recommend subbing in either rice cheese or casein free soy cheese instead. Casein is a milk protein often found in some soy cheeses, so avoid those. Usually the vegan ones will work. Also: most foods that are marked as kosher (either a circled K or a circled U) will also be organic, and vice versa.

If you could change places with anyone for one day who would it be and why? This feels like an essay question on a state achievement test… but I kind of like it! I would have to say that honestly, I wouldn’t change myself at all, I’d just change my circumstances. I’d love to be me, still be married to Adam, still be a blogger, etc, but I’d love to have the house of my dreams, no financial worries, no weight problem… so I guess I’d like to change places with my ideal me, just to know what I’m striving for.

What are your absolute favorite blogs? You know, the ones you can’t miss a day reading? Name your top 5 faves. I check in on a ton of blogs every day, so many that I can’t even keep track… but yeah, there are a few that I HAVE to read every day. Many of them are bloggers I’ve met in person, and a few with whom I have a great phone and email relationship with. So, in no particular order, and since I can’t just pick 5:

EatingBender (She’s been such a great friend)
On A Lobster Placemat (for her honesty, passion, and amazing artwork)
Fitnessista (She’s just fabizzle)
ColorHungry (She’s a fantastic writer with a great perspective)
MizFit (For her inherant Mizfitednessandpassion)
Gliding Calm (She’s just adorable)
How Sweet It Is (for her love of bacon and sweets)
The Daily Balance (Food, Fashion, Fun…what else do we need?)

I have over 200 blogs in my Google Reader that I read regularly, and most of them are on my Blogroll Page. Feel free to check that out!

What are you most looking forward to this summer? Warm weather, like I am? Haha Warmth for sure. Camp as always, especially since Skylar (Lizz’s daughter) will be attending for the first time! Maybe a small vacation, going to the pool, and sunshine until after 8 p.m.

And on that warm note, I bid you good night… I can’t believe I’m looking forward to doing dishes!

Technorati Tags: ask me, beef, dinner, friends, red meat, simple recipe, steak

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Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 15th 2010 | Tags: ask me, beef, dinner, friends, red meat, simple recipe, steak
Posted in beef, friends, simple recipe

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I’ll be back tonight with a dinner post, but I wanted to wish all of you a very happy Valentine’s Day with some vintage food Valentines I found… so, to all of you who have made this year so sweet, thank you! And a very happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!

8753

9011

9012 9020 free-vintage-kids-valentines-cards-two-fried-eggs-in-pan

6a00e553a8751c88330111685f9b9c970c-800wi

I love you all from the bottom of my nerdy foodie heart!

Technorati Tags: friends, holiday

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Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 14th 2010 | Tags: friends, holiday
Posted in friends

Shoes & Answers

Didja miss me last night?? I know you did!

Apparently, Wednesdays are my “be really busy until really late, and have no time to blog at night” days! Last night, I was lucky enough to be selected to be part of a focus group talking about trends in one of my favorite things: shoes!

It went from 6p.m. to almost 8, but before I got there, I had the pleasure of eating one of my favorite non-fast quick foods: Chipotle! With my new eating plan focusing on using NO grains and healthy fats, I ordered a bowl with carnitas, veggies, extra salsa, guacamole and lettuce. The picture is stuck on my phone at the moment… I’ll add it later, I promise!

I got a few more questions to answer!

When is a good time? I didn’t know where to go with this one. A good time for what? If you meant “what do I think is a good time” as in a fun time, I’d say any time when I’m surrounded by good friends!

Do you make money off your blog? If so, how much? I do make a small amount of money off my blog, but due to FoodBuzz’s confidentiality agreement, I’m not at liberty to discuss how much, but let’s just say that blogging does not put me in any sort of financial situation where I could say, quit my day job. I get just about enough to cover one grocery shopping trip, sometimes.

What’s your favorite part of every day? Why? **cheeseball alert** My very favorite part of any day is when I get home and am greeted by Adam with a hug. That’s when I really know I’m home and can relax.

If you could choose 6 things to bring with you and your hubby on a deserted island, what would those 6 items be? I’ve always been terrible at these deserted island questions, because I try to cheat. I’d say “a huge generator and my house with everything in it.” That’s not going to work. Ok, six things:

My camera. I have to be able to take pictures of things!

A small propane grill with extra canisters. I gotta be able to cook, and I can cook most anything on a grill.

My favorite pillow. I can sleep just fine without a blanket, but without a good pillow, I just can’t get the right rest.

Burt’s Bees lip balm. If you use it, you know why. If not, go get some! It’s the best!

Our pets. Technically there are 3 of them, but they’re one entity. They’re like our children and I couldn’t bear to leave them!

A first aid kit, for obvious reasons.

Keep the questions coming!

See you tonight for a fun restaurant post! I’m a judge in our regional spelling bee, so I get to go out for dinner! Or should that be D-I-N-N-E-R?

Stuff to do:

Check out Jenn’s ICBINB giveaway! And speaking of Jenn, make sure to vote for her and Bobby in the Crate & Barrel Ultimate Wedding contest!

Are you going to this year’s Healthy Living Summit? It’s going to be in Chicago!! More details are going to be announced soon!

Email me your Cute Food Contest submissions! They must be cute food YOU’VE made, and the contest will start on February 25!

Have a great Thursday!

Technorati Tags: ask me, dinner out, friends, fun

12 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 11th 2010 | Tags: ask me, dinner out, friends, fun
Posted in friends, random

Simply Random

I had a big event after school today. I got to do something I haven’t done in a very long time… I went to Trader Joe’s! I got a pretty decent haul for a small amount of money, and proceeded to make a simple and random TJ’s dinner. After, of course, I spent some time packing up my secret bloggie Valentine gift! I just hope it doesn’t snow so much tomorrow that I can’t get to the post office!

Back to the random dinner:

First, on the left, were some simply sauteed mushrooms and green peppers. Then, to the right of that were some TJ’s tomato basil chicken sausages (quite good I might add!) and above that, the star of the plate, some simple creamed spinach. My mom used to make this creamed spinach ALL the time, and it always surprised me because well, we didn’t eat creamed anything. When we went out for dinner on Saturday, she told me how to make it, and I had to try.

The process is simple: steam and drain a bunch of spinach. Stir in 1 Tbsp. cream cheese, 1 Tbsp. sour cream, and I added a sprinkle of garlic powder. You have to try it!!! It works with fat free dairy, or regular… I might have to make a second batch for when Adam gets home, as I might need to finish this batch!

I had a couple of questions over the weekend, some anonymous and some not… so I’ll get to it!

Lauren from Say What You Need To Say asked: IF you could have anyone in the world over to dinner, who would it be and what would you make? That’s a really tough question… it depends on the day, honestly! There are people I’d like to have over just so I could look at them, but somehow I doubt they’d eat much. If we’re talking living or dead, I’d say Julia Child and/or Eddie Izzard. I know, random! Julia Child would get a simple and standard Jewish meal of brisket, kugel, matzoh ball soup, and kishke. Eddie Izzard though, he’s a bit more difficult. I’d be tempted to cook something very “executive” (Eddie fans will get that) or something with Jam.

Annabel from Feed Me, I’m Cranky asked: I would like to know how you met your hubby! Adam and I actually met in college… but the story isn’t that simple! We met probably multiple times at multiple parties, but neither of us particularly remember, for various reasons. Then, in 2004, sick and tired of dating the “wrong” people, I signed up on JDate. I paid for 3 months, went on COUNTLESS bad dates (seriously, go read that guest post from Jessie’s blog, whose blogiversary is today!) and upon getting the “renew now!” email, I decided to cancel. I had 2 weeks left on my subscription when I got this message from this adorable guy saying “Hey, you went to Bradley and look really familiar. Here’s my IM, let’s chat sometime.” Turned out that this adorable guy was Adam, we had DOZENS of people and stories in common, and figured out quite a few times we’d met before.

Do you ever get scared that you’ll never get to where you want to be? I sometimes feel like I am on a hamster wheel and sometimes I feel like my life, my weight, everything is GREAT and then another week I feel like it is horrible. I wish sometimes I could just be….do you ever have those same fears? This is such a loaded question! There is part of me that wants to say “yes, I get terrified that I’m not really that good at my job, that I’ll be overweight forever, and really don’t want to stay ‘here’ for much longer.” Then, there’s another part of me saying that this, right now, is really the most wonderful things have ever been for me… While yes, sometimes things just suck, and sometimes I get scared, when I get that “hamster wheel” feeling, I make a conscious effort to just get off of it. Change something. Do something I’m scared of.

I’ve been on and off of Weight Watchers for years- and it works really well for me, when I’m that point-counting mode- which is hard to do every single day! How’s your new style of eating going? See any results yet? Can you tell us what you typically eat throughout the day? Thanks! UGH POINT COUNTING MODE!! I know that all too well! I get on the whole Point thing fairly easily, and fall off easily too! I just hate having to overanalyze everything that goes in my mouth. My new eating style is going very very well! According to my bathroom scale (which I get on maybe 2-3 times a week, but really only “take” my Saturday morning weight) I lost 4.5 lbs in my first week eating the way I do. A typical day for me on this plan is:

Breakfast: 2 eggs and 1 egg white scrambled with about 1 c. cooked spinach and 1/2 c. sliced mushrooms, 2 pieces bacon, coffee with half-and-half

Lunch: Usually leftovers from dinner, including additional vegetables. Today was about 2 sliced green peppers and some leftover Italian beef

Snack: Today was a handful of raw almonds. Some days its beef jerky (DYING to try those PrimeSnax that MizFit loves!), some days its avocado or vegetables.

Dinner: Most of you know my dinners already!

As a kid, what was your favorite family meal ? Mine was spag with meat sauce That’s easy. My absolute favorite family meal that was a never-fail, smile on my face meal was when my mom roasted chicken, made garlic roasted potatoes, asparagus, and fillets. My grandma made a very similar meal too, and no matter who made it, I always loved it!

WOW I’m long-winded today… thanks for sticking with me, and don’t forget to Ask Me Anything! I’m LOVING answering all this stuff!

Have a fantastic evening! We’re supposed to get about 8 inches of snow… nothing like you East Coasters, but it still might be enough for a snow day. Keep your fingers crossed!

Technorati Tags: ask me, cheese, dinner, friends, fun, simple recipe, vegetables, weight loss

19 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 8th 2010 | Tags: ask me, cheese, dinner, friends, fun, simple recipe, vegetables, weight loss
Posted in chicken/turkey, friends, simple recipe, weight loss

A Pleasant Surprise

On Wednesday night, I got a phone call from my friend Mary (which was odd, because I was JUST thinking about how we hadn’t talked in a while) and after a short chat as I made my healthy brownies we figured out that we would both be “husbandless” the following night. Her husband was away on business, and mine was at class until 9:30 p.m. so we decided to get together.

Since she works near Downtown Chicago, and I live a good hour from there, we found a place that was near the midpoint of the two places. (Hey Bender, seriously amazing places to eat on the same street, we should try them all!) There’s this odd little neighborhood on the far north side of Chicago called Edison Park. One side of the street is Chicago and the other is a suburb, and the way to tell is that the color of the street lights are different. The suburb uses standard “white” lights, whereas Chicago uses yellow sodium lights. Nonno Pino’s Italian kitchen came recommended by another friend, and I’m quite glad we decided to go there. I was immediately drawn in by their cute logo.

Since it was Chicago, parking was a little bit of a pain, but once we were both inside, it was worth it!

We sat down to peruse the menu, and immediately noticed that it was $4 martini night. While we decided which ones to get, we were pleasantly surprised by the warm, crusty Italian bread and olive oil, parmesan, and olive mixture that was placed in front of us.

We decided on a martini to drink. I got a French Martini (vodka, chambord, pineapple juice) which was as delicious as any I’ve ever had, and Mary had a mango martini which was also as fantastic as it was pretty

More bread eating ensued as we decided on entrees and caught up on the last couple months happenings. We ordered our entree after much deliberation, and soon a family-style Italian house salad arrived with two homemade dressings: creamy garlic and House italian

The entree decision for me was easy: risotto made with white wine, featuring spinach, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and shrimp.

Mary opted for a veal tortellini with Italian sausage that had one of the most hearty tomato sauces I’ve ever had outside of my own house

Now, let me tell you a little bit about Mary and my friendship: we’ve been friends for nearly 25 years (how am I old enough to have a friend for 25 years?!) since we met in Kindergarten. As long as I can remember, she and I cooked and baked together, and every single time we gone out to eat, we get dessert. It was just our luck that the dessert menu at Nonno Pino’s had what they called “Chocolate Delight”. It was a decadent chocolate cake with layers of ganache between each one. It was a good thing we shared because I could’ve eaten a lot more of it!

Soon after polishing this off, we called it a night, since well…we had to work today! I was really glad to get to spend time with Mary, and since we could’ve had a good time at McDonalds, it was even nicer that the restaurant was fantastic! Unfortunately, any alcohol at all makes me quite sleepy, so I crashed as soon as I got home at 8:45, only to be awakened at 9:20 when Adam got out of class. I do finally feel rested though, after a week of being exhausted.

Don’t forget to enter the iHerb.com $50 shopping spree giveaway (ends Sunday) and the Tropical Traditions Organic Flaxseed giveaway (ENDS TONIGHT!)

P.S. Sorry if the formatting on this post is odd… I had to use the web-based editor, and it was misbehaving. I should give it a detention!

Technorati Tags: dinner out, friends, fun, Italian, pasta

9 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, January 29th 2010 | Tags: dinner out, friends, fun, Italian, pasta
Posted in Italian, contest, contest/giveaway, dinner out, friends

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