Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

My food-creation adventure began this evening with an empty, unhappy belly, armed with a newfound diet determination. Although this year has been largely devoid of regrets, one unhappy moment came when I could no longer fit myself in to mypants. An unwelcome by-product of a welcome development - my happy marriage - happy feelings seem to have swollen up and taken over my body. I checked out a couple of pumpkin pie smoothie recipes tonight, for some pumpkin puree I had, that I purchased for something like this, before Christmas, having no intention whatsoever of cooking anything with pumpkin.

Pumpkin is supposed to be, like, super good for you, so I'm thinking I have nothing but good things ahead of me tonight. Unfortunately, in all my bad-girl cooking (and eating), I've run plumb out of any of the healthy ingredients these recipes call for. For one thing, I'm supposed to have frozen my puree. Not gonna happen; this girl's hungry. For another thing, they call for some nice plain or Greek yogurt, which is all fine and good, but all I can seem to find in my fridge is heavy cream. I figure at 40 calories a tablespoon, that cream ain't gonna cut it, so I kept looking, and lo and behold I find some leftover holiday egg nog. I need to get rid of this stuff anyhow, and it probably won't do to add to my coffee before work in the mornings, seeing as it's got alcohol in it and all.

No Meat May

"Eating greens is a special treat. It makes long ears, and great bit feet. But it sure is awful stuff to eat." - Thumper

I hadn't originally planned to have a "diet" month, seeing as how I'm less of a dieter and more of a healthy lifestyler, or at the very least a healthy lifestyle attempter. I don't generally believe in fad diets or anything you put your body and metabolism through that you don't plan to or can't continue indefinitely.

One of the easiest - ok, best - ways to control your diet is to begin to make all your own food. I was able to start this during no spend month, because I couldn't eat out. Although the goal of the month was not to improve my diet, it did end up having that result. Making your own food means you control all the inputs, and more than that, you know what the inputs are. This has helped me to be able to cut out meat.

So I covered the how. Now for the why.

Green month started the "why". In learning about green living, I've reinforced something I already knew - meat takes a lot of energy. Cutting out meat can do good things for your carbon footprint. I'm not even cutting out milk and eggs, but animal-derived energy needs many times that energy for its production. This energy largely comes from fossil fuels, which aren't sustainable. Thus, a vegetarian lifestyle comes closer to a sustainable one. Growing lentils or beans, which are other good sources of protein, takes less energy than producing a similar amount of protein in meat. Getting a calf out of a cow, growing the feed for the calf, feeding and housing it, butchering it, and keeping that beef fit for consumption until it gets to the grocery store takes a whole lot more energy than it takes to grow a bag of beans. All this points me toward attempting to cut out meat. For no meat month, we are cutting it out completely, however in the future I expect we will eat it in limited quantities, especially for special occasions or when there aren't many options. For example, this week I got invited to lunch at a BBQ joint... I figured I could eat some beans, as long as they don't have any pork added.

That's my no meat story. I have tried several new recipes this month and have enjoyed them all. I don't feel run down or deficient in any way thus far. Time will tell!

I will have to post some of my favorite new recipes soon!

Chocolate Granola

Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you. - Annie Get Your Gun

That seems to be my motto. I like trying to make things myself - the chocolate granola I found recently is no exception. The granola I bought boasts oats, dried cherries, almonds, pecans, and cocoa. A peek at the ingredients lists reveals brown sugar and coconut. I loved it! My first round, I only made it with about half a cup of oats, to test my ratios... and cooking temperature. I baked it on my standby temp, 350, and ended up thinking that could have been a tad high. It had a cooked smell to it that I wasn't really looking for. I did better the second time around.

Ziti with Vegetables and Sausage

I made this Tuesday night, and it was a big hit at work the next day! I got some Ziti with Chicken from Olive Garden on Sunday, and it struck me how incredibly salty and greasy it was. I told the boy what I was making and he said, "Didn't you just have that?" But I thought I could make it better!

Ingredients:
1 15 oz. box ziti or penne pasta (I used Barilla Whole Grain, yummy!)
1 bell pepper
1/2 onion
1 pkg. turkey link sausage
1 ea. 12 oz. can diced tomatoes (I always use the no added salt kind)
1 ea. 12 oz. can tomato sauce
2 eggs, beaten with 2 Tbsp milk
1 8 oz. ball fresh mozzarella cheese (Of course you can subsitute not-fresh. But why would you want to? :)
2 Tbsp italian seasoning
2 Tbsp Garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
(And a tad bit of cayenne pepper, if you like to keep things a little spicy!)
1/4 C parmesan cheese

Amazing Banana Bread

I've always loved banana bread. My mom didn't really made it often, but whenever I could manage to sink my teeth into some, it was a real treat. I have a "Fake it, Don't Make it" recipe that I got from my boyfriend's momma, and have worn it plumb out. However, it always bothered me that it was incredibly unhealthy. The main ingredient is a cake mix, for crying out loud, and you add a pudding mix! Beyond that, it's bananas, some eggs, oil, and nuts, so, very easy. (I will send it to anyone who wishes to try it, but on behalf of your blood sugar, I don't recommend it.) I wanted a better recipe. I had some over-ripe bananas. Let's try this.

Homemade Pizza Night

No spend month has been great so far but challenging. Because I love to eat, and sometimes get pretty busy, it's hard for me to deal with wanting to have something other than leftovers... again. I miss the convenience of hitting up a good restaurant. Last night, I was fed up and decided I was making something amazing. Here is the recipe I used/created. It takes around 2-1/2 hours to make, but you could probably make the dough for the crust ahead of time and be able to knock it out for dinner in no time. I, on the other hand, am very stubborn and ended up getting off work late, working out, starting the crust, heading to the store for toppings, then finally settling in for my piece with a glass of wine at about 11 o'clock. The pizza I recommend. My other methods, not so much. Recipe after the jump.

Day 5

Well folks, we're getting pretty committed to this whole "2011" thing. Don't think there's any turning back now.

I had been doing so well. My record unblemished. Working out, sink's been clean, haven't been late... Yesterday, when I got home I couldn't remember one instance all day that I had told myself to be quiet or made an effort to listen. No X for me. That's a toughie, because it could be very easy to convince myself I did or just fake it. But no. I did a LOT of talking yesterday. And this isn't one you can make up for, either. I could pick up the phone, call someone and refuse to talk, right? (I care enough about this that I'm surprised it didn't cross my mind.)