Miscellanea

So it’s fairly early on a Saturday morning, and I’m the first one up.  Of course the first thing I did was to try to catch up on reading some of my favorite blogs that I’ve been too busy to read lately.  (I’ll be sad when school starts back up because I’ll be lonely and I’ll miss my boys, but my consolation is that I’ll have a lot more time for keeping up with my blog reading!)

My first random thought involves this blog.  I’m kind of a newcomer to the whole food blogging thing, so I’m always trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing.  For instance, have you ever noticed that I comment on your blog all the time, but I don’t have you on my blogroll?  And a lot of the people I *do* have on my blogroll haven’t updated their blogs in months?  That, my friends, is a pretty good indication that I can’t remember how to update my blogroll.  I’m sure I could figure it out if I played around for a while, but that would cut into my precious blog reading time.  (Heck, I just figured out how to set up a reader so I no longer have to go through my bookmarks and click on each blog that I like.)  I promise that as soon as the boys are back in school, I’ll figure it out and fix it.  I’m also trying to figure out how to better organize my recipes on here so you can find them if you ever come back and want one.  That would be yet another one of those things that will require me to spend quality time poking around the WordPress site, which isn’t my favorite thing to do when I have internet time.

A few days ago, Cathy at Noble Pig wrote a post asking What Bothers You Most About Certain Blogs? Some of the comments she got were fascinating.  It also makes me feel a little better about my blog.  I don’t have any obnoxious music that starts playing as soon as you open my site.  It isn’t cluttered with all kinds of extra stuff.  I tell little anecdotes about my life, but if you want the long (TMI) versions you have to go to my non-food blog.  I try to post decent pictures with each of my recipes, and I try to post any extra instructions I can think of for the benefit of the people who don’t cook as much.  I don’t scream at my kids across the lawn, and I don’t leave my dog out to bark all night.  (Wait, that’s MY pet peeve about my neighbors.  Sorry.)  I do tend to rant occasionally about things like stupid people and processed food, but I try to keep it under control.  I’ll also concede that I probably use parenthesis and italics too much, but I like them and it’s my blog.    (Oh, and I use cheesy winky-faced emoticons.  At LEAST I don’t use things like lol…much.)

Did I tell you that I’ve been teaching Simon about non sequiturs?

Speaking of Simon, I’ve also been thinking a lot about upcoming school lunches.  (If you lived through the whole lunch box thing on my non-food blog last year, I’m truly sorry.  Let’s just chalk it up to the fact that I was going through a lot of stress right then.)    I’ve been the worst June-Cleaver-wannabee ever this summer.  My poor child has been forced to live on whole lot of the foods he’s able to make for breakfast and lunch.  (That includes sandwiches, cold cereal, and fresh fruit.)  One one hand, I don’t feel too guilty about it because I don’t cook breakfast for people who don’t get out of bed before 9:30.  On the other hand I feel guilty because summer is almost over and all of my grand ideas of having all kinds of great snacks on hand are out the window.  EXCEPT, for that lovely do-over we like to call the beginning of the school year!  It’s like New Year’s resolutions, only different!  And I’m much better at school-year resolutions because I actually have more free time after school starts to lovingly prepare these wonderful snacks and foods that my beloved child will consume for breakfast and lunch!  I’ve already been practicing while they’ve been at Music, Arts & Drama Camp this week.  We’ve suddenly been getting oatmeal for breakfast, and there are suddenly extra things like boiled eggs and string cheese in the fridge to grab when you want a snack!  I also pulled out the yogurt maker, and I’ve pulled out some higher protein muffin recipes to try out.  I still don’t think I’ll be one of those bento lunch making moms, but my hope is that his lunches don’t deteriorate into all pb&j all the time by the end of the year like they did last year…and the year before.

Also, Simon’s birthday is this week, so his party is next weekend.  He requested the banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, so I’ll actually take a real picture this time!  I might even replace the cupcake drawing I made with a picture of the real thing!

Vegetarian Chik’n Noodle Soup

Poor Steve has picked up a summer cold, and this morning was rainy and almost chilly. (Ok, it was 70 when I took the dog out–but compared to the upper 80s we’ve been having it felt cool!) I have been having a hard time coming up with inspiration for lunches and dinner while Steve and Simon have been home, so inspired by poor Steve’s cold, I asked him if some old fashioned chicken soup sounded good. He said it sounded amazing, and Simon was amenable since my chicken soup is one of his favorite things. The only problem is that I’ve been avoiding meat and meat products as much as possible lately. I think I’ve had meat once in the past week or so, and it tends to sit on my stomach like a rock when I do eat it. Fortunately, the boys don’t mind being vegetarian–which is good since today I converted my normal chicken soup recipe to a vegetarian version. (Don’t worry, they both still loved it!)

Vegetarian Chik’n Noodle Soup
8 servings – 3.5 ww points per serving

As always with soup recipes, all of these measurements are approximate, feel free to use more or less.

For Bouquet Garni

10 whole black peppercorns

2 sprigs flat leaf parsley

1 sprig thyme

1 dried bay leaf

For Soup

2 Tbs butter

1 onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice (I frequently use more)

1 leek, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced and washed well (Don’t leave this out!)

64 oz Imagine brand No-Chicken Broth (2 32-oz cartons)

12 oz Quorn Chik’n Tenders (These are optional, but we like them.)

3 carrots, cut into 1/4 inch coins

2 stalks celery, cut into 1/4 inch C-shaped slices

2 cups egg noodles (I used whole grain from Ronzoni)

1. Make the bouquet garni by bundling peppercorns, parsley, thyme and bay leaf in cheesecloth, and tying with kitchen twine.
2. Heat butter in a stockpot over medium high heat.
3. Add onion and leek; cook until soft and translucent (About 5-7 min).
4. Add broth and bouquet garni and bring to a simmer.
5. Meanwhile add carrots and celery.
6. The vegetables will need to cook for about 18 minutes, so check the directions on your egg noodles, and let your veggies cook by themselves until you have just enough time on your timer for the noodles to cook. (My noodles needed to cook 7 minutes, so I let the veggies cook for 11 minutes, then added the noodles and cooked the last 7 minutes.)
7. After the veggies and noodles are finished cooking, add the Quorn Chik’n to the pot until heated through.
8. Taste and add salt as needed.
9. Serve with crackers or crusty bread.

You know, I still struggle with the whole non-processed foods vs. imitation meat thing. I know that most vegetarian meats are total franken-foods, but I still buy them. I guess if I’m mostly avoiding processed foods, that’s still better than nothing. Right? (I hope so.)

This Cheese is Proof That Jesus Loves Me

We ran to Indy on a grocery shopping trip last night. We made the rounds and hit Costco, Trader Joe’s and Wild Oats–which has now officially turned into Whole Foods.

At Whole Foods, we were just browsing, and Steve picked up a wedge of cheese and said “Oooooo, smell this!”

(Now, you can’t always trust my husband when he hands you something to smell. One of our favorite games back when we still had a Yankee Candle store nearby was called “Yuck, smell this!” Where you’d pick up something horrid, but not let on that it’s horrid until after the other person had taken a big, gag inducing whiff. Fortunately, this was not one of those times.)

This cheese smelled like the food of the gods! We immediately threw it into our cart, and went on our merry way. By afternoon today, the half pound block is gone.

I decided to Google the name of the cheese to see what I could find out about it. (When did I become the type of person who Googles cheeses?)

Here’s what I learned–It’s called Parrano Uniekaas. This is what the Zabar’s website said about it. (The above picture is also from Zabar’s site.):

It’s Dutch, but sort of Italian. How can this be? Dutch cheese producer UnieKaas has taken the best qualities of Gouda and parmesan and created this 20-month-aged pasteurized cow’s milk wheel. Tasting tangy, full-flavored, and nutty, its smooth, semi-firm texture makes it an ideal grating or table cheese.

The Cheese Reporter said that it is imported by Best Cheese Corporation, and that Best Cheese products can be found at Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, Albertson’s and Kroger. (And obviously Zabar’s if you live in the New York area.)

Oh. My. Gosh. Part of the reason I’m posting about it is to recommend it to everyone I know. The other reason is so that I’ll be able to remember the name later when I go back to find more…next week.

(Oh, and just in case you’re wondering–I calculated it, and a 100 gram serving has 10.5 ww points.)