In which I defend junk food

Oh yeah – I’m going there.  I know it’s not popular right now, but I am going there anyway.

Remember when I said I was contrary?

So everyone I know is on a health food kick.  A diet kick.  A Real Food kick.

This is fantastic for Jamie Oliver.  Fantastic for the authors who usher in the next big trend in eating, and the companies that peddle all the right foods.  It is even – possibly - good for America. 

I’m certainly not against healthy eating.  Bring on the apples!  I am, however, solidly against trends of pretty much any sort.  And in my very humble opinion, a lot of the food discussion we see and hear right now falls in to that trendy category.

This week alone, I have read over a dozen blog and/or Facebook posts regarding the sugar content of chocolate milk.

If you, too, have been told that chocolate milk contains more sugar than a can of soda, allow me to set the record straight.  It does not.

Does. Not.

I have compared chocolate milk from my local public school, Hershey’s, Nestle’s, Dean’s, and 2 store brands.  I’m taking the one with the highest sugar content and for an 8 ounce drink, it contains 25 grams of sugar.

Next up, the soft drinks.  Coke – 39 grams of sugar, Mt. Dew – 46 grams, Sprite – 38 grams.

To be fair, the cans of soda are 12 ounces, so let’s make it ‘even’ – or at least biased in the same way that I’m sure this study was done.  Highest sugar content milk vs. lowest sugar content soda.

8 ounce serving of chocolate milk – 25 grams of sugar

8 ounce serving of Sprite – 25 grams of sugar

Exactly the same.  Very interesting.

Oh, except the milk also has calcium, potassium, and Vitamins A, C, and D.

The soda – not so much.

Does anyone else remember a simpler time, when we didn’t panic over milk in school lunches?  Apparently that time was at least as recent as 2006, when this study was released showing that chocolate milk is actually good for you. <gasp!>

Is chocolate milk the best possible choice?  Probably not.  But equating it to soda, which contains so much phosphorus it literally sucks the calcium out of your bones, is just absurd.  Check out this WebMD article, which not only explains why soda is bad, it also explains why milk is good.  Who’d have thought that would be a novel idea?

Don’t fall for these lies, people!

I am all for watching what I eat.  I also believe that ‘everything in moderation’ are words to eat by.

In my house, I avoid artificial food colors.  They make my kids hyper and prone to meltdowns and they give me dizzy spells.  I avoid high fructose corn syrup.  I don’t buy Doritos, or ‘juice’ boxes, or candy.

My theory is that if it wasn’t a food 100 years ago, then it isn’t good for me now.  Real food, please.

And just so there’s no confusion, by that I do not mean REAL food.

But.  BUT.  I also don’t care if my kids eat cheese doodles, or cupcakes, or suckers.

Every day, day in and day out, they eat fruit.  They eat green, leafy vegetables.  They eat whole grains.  They eat fiber.  I add flax seed to my [homemade] bread.  I serve chicken more than beef. 

I make brownies with spinach in them, for Pete’s sake. 

And you know what?  They know about the spinach.  They love it, and they help me make them.

We have our own garden, and we eat the fruits and vegetables that we grow.  My daughters help me prepare our meals, so they know what they are eating.  And I tell them why carrots are good for them, so they know that what they put into their body is important.

In my house, that is enough. 

We are not an obese nation because we eat hamburgers.  We are obese because we eat double quarter pounders with super-sized fries and an extra large soda, and we do it several times a week.

Our children are not overweight because they drink chocolate milk at school.  They are overweight because we feed them cocoa puffs for breakfast, Lunchables for a snack, and park them in front of a television set or a video game until dinner.  Which is most likely more of the same high calorie, high fat, ready-to-eat junk they’ve had the rest of the day.

We are fat and unhealthy because we never tell ourselves no.

People are complaining about the nutritional content of school lunches, but let me tell you, the nutritional content of those 5 meals is government regulated.  The other 16 meals they eat every week?  Totally up to us.  And sorry to say it, but we are the ones making the bad choices here.

The bad choice isn’t drinking chocolate milk.  The bad choices are those other 16 meals a week.

A bad choice is blaming chocolate milk for our sustenance ills.

And if I dare say, another bad choice is jumping on bandwagons, nutritional or otherwise.

To put it bluntly, chocolate milk has been around for a very long time.  Thousands of years.  Far longer than we have been a fat nation full of fat children.  Somehow my parents, and grandparents, and great-great-great-grandparents were able to drink chocolate milk.  And you know what?  My children will continue the tradition.  If that’s the worst thing they pump into their little bodies, I will consider myself a smashing success.

And now I’m off.  A bowl of ice cream awaits.

Homemade Caramels

My friend Kris gave me this recipe well over a year ago, and I just got around to making them. 

Wow, was I missing out!

Let me start by saying I’m not a big caramel fan.  Or a sweets fan at all, for that matter.  But for some reason these really appealed to me, and I’m glad I finally tried them.  They are delicious and very easy to make.

Melt in the Mouth Vanilla Caramels

Makes about 2 1/2 pounds

1 cup butter or margarine
1 pound brown sugar
Dash salt
1 cup light corn syrup
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan. Add brown sugar and salt. Stir until thoroughly combined. Stir in corn syrup and mix well. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly.

Cook and stir over medium heat until candy reaches firm ball stage. 248 on candy thermometer; about 12 to 15 min. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Pour into a buttered 9×13 pan. Cool and cut into squares.

This may say you can use margarine, but I wouldn’t recommend it.  I tried it that way the first time and while still delicious, it never hardened so it was more like caramel sauce.  Another alteration that I made was to line the pan with foil and lightly spray it with Pam.  This made the removal (and cleanup) a breeze.

The cooking part isn’t kid-friendly, as the hot sugar could cause serious burns. The wrapping, however, is a perfect chore for little hands.  My 7 year old cut small squares from waxed paper and wrapped them with a twist.

Interestingly enough, this evening on television Alton Brown (Good Eats) also made homemade caramels.  His recipe is different, and he sprinkled sea salt on the top.  Intriguing to me, since I’m much more of a salty-than-sweet girl.  I promptly went to the kitchen to dip one of our caramels in salt, and I’m happy to report that it was, indeed, quite delicious.

Alton also recommended that you use a pizza cutter, and I will definitely try that the next time.  I’m sure it would take much less time than my knife-cutting method did.

If you try these, please come back and let me know what you think!

Sound good? Find my recipe and many others at Foodista!

Caramel

Writer’s Workshop – What I hate about you

I’m going with Prompt #1.

10 Reasons why you’re better off without him….or her….or it.

1. You don’t love me the way that I love you.
2. You’re empty inside.
3. The good moments we spend together are fleeting at best.
4. You look good on the outside, but looks are deceiving.
5. You take more than you give.
6. You’re never around. You think once a year you can sweep me off my feet, but I require more than that.
7. I can’t afford you!  Good grief, you burn through my money in the blink of an eye.
8. After we’re together, I feel bad about myself.
9. You don’t care about making me feel bad, either. You just sit there and mock me, relentlessly.
10. You’re not loyal.  You cozy up with women all over the place and I’m supposed to just take it.

Wow.  I was planning on writing about someone something else entirely, but when I got going something else entirely just poured out.  I’m guessing some of you can relate.

photo credit: this is a thing

Die, Girl Scout Cookies. 

I need you dead and gone.

I literally ate 3 thin mints while on the treadmill today. 

My judgement has been compromised.

And I am ‘supposedly’ training for a half-marathon and participating in not one, but two fitness challenges as well.

Not. Looking. Good.

But my frozen Samoas only come around once a year, so how can I say no to that?

Clearly, I cannot.

And this, my friends, is the tale of why I will never again wear a 2-piece bathing suit.  Because I have the willpower of a…dang.  What’s the rest of that sentence?  A person with no willpower?

I’ll have to have a cookie while I think about that for a minute.

Scallops anyone?

I love to cook.  So much, in fact, that I’ve always wanted to go to culinary school, just for fun. 

I’ve worked in restaurants before – that is not fun.

I’m the kind of cook that has a very hard time sharing recipes, though.  I rarely use them and I never measure.  I’m more of a grab this and that, toss some in, take a taste kind of gal. 

Therefore, I can’t exactly share with you this recipe.  I can tell you what I put together, but not how much of anything. 

This post is mainly to give ingredients and inspiration – you’re on your own after that.

I started with rice.

I like to use parboiled rice, and I cooked it with some chopped garlic, fat-free chicken broth, and turmeric.

Next, like any really good recipe, I used lots of unhealthy chopped bacon.

I used bay scallops for this recipe.  They are generally not as delicious as sea scallops, but in this case their small size is an asset, and they are easier for my young children to manage anyway.

I sauteed the scallops in an olive oil-butter combo with minced garlic.  Be careful not to overcook – small scallops cook very quickly!

I then removed the scallops and worked on the sauce, adding some white wine, lemon juice, a dash of chili powder, and salt and pepper to the garlic and fat already in the skillet.  Reduce until it begins to thicken, add some chopped green onion, and remove from the heat.  At this point I swirled in a small amount more of butter to thicken.

In a bowl I topped the rice with scallops, bacon, and sauce.

This was a very easy, inexpensive, under 30 minute meal that my whole family raved about.  Granted, it’s not the most healthy fare, but sometimes good food is worth an extra mile on the treadmill.  I’ve made this about half a dozen times now and everyone always eats more than I expected, so definitely plan for extra!

Scallops a la Heather – enjoy!

Homemade Pesto Sauce

If you said that looks tasty, you’d be wrong.  It’s beyond tasty and all the way into fabulous.  If I do say so myself.

Want the recipe?  Read on my friends, read on.

But first know that you will be bombarded with pictures.  I judge cookbooks by their pictures – I like lots of ‘em.

Ingredients:

2 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves

1/4 cup pine nuts

3 large cloves garlic

1/2 cup E.V.O.O.

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

pinch of salt

pepper to taste

Begin by toasting the pine nuts.  You can substitute the cheaper and more readily available almonds or walnuts, but the end result is much better if you stick with pine nuts.

Whichever you choose, lightly toast them in a dry skillet over medium-low heat.  As you can see, I actually prefer mine to be more than lightly toasted, but start light until you develop your own preference.

You can put these on the heat with minimal attention besides the occasional stir.

Moving on to the herbs – gather your basil

and parsley

and wash and dry thoroughly.  The parsley is not essential, but if you’re making the pesto to freeze, it helps the sauce retain that beautiful bright green color upon thawing.  If you opt not to use parsley, you may want to decrease the EVOO by a tablespoon or so.

Meanwhile, remove the stems.  (Not completely necessary if you’re in a rush – I’ve done it both ways and was never disappointed)

Place the basil and the parsley in a bag and using a rolling pin, the back of a spoon, or the flat side of your meat tenderizer, pound until all of the leaves are bruised and slightly weepy.  This releases extra flavor and it is key to a superior pesto sauce.  My secret weapon.

The garlic should be blanched.  Again, I’ve skipped this before and it’s ok in a pinch, but the strong flavor can overpower the more delicate herbs and change the tone of your sauce.  A quick 30-60 second dunk in boling water will make an amazing difference in the finished product.  If you are making pasta at the same time, blanch the garlic before you add the pasta to the pot.

At this point I like to use a mini food processor, just the right size for 1-2 recipes.  If you don’t have one you can use a mortar and pestle, the back of a fork, or possibly a really good blender.  I add the garlic to the food processor first, and after it’s finely minced, the pine nuts as well.  I then add the basil and EVOO, drizzling in a little bit at a time.  Finally, the salt, pepper, and Parmesan.  I know it’s very un-fancy of me to admit, but in the sauce, I prefer the powdered cheese.  I use freshly grated to top the pasta, but the powdered kind spreads and freezes better.

The end result:

If you are making this for immediate consumption, one recipe will coat 1 pound of hot pasta.  I like to reserve a bit of the water the noodles cooked in, just to add in and help the spreading consistency of the sauce, but that should be based on personal preference.

I generally top with grilled chicken and fresh parmesan, and serve with hot, crusty bread.  This is a tried-and-true recipe in my house that leaves everyone coming back for more.

[Obligatory kid pictures]

Yes, Catie is eating a tomato like an apple.  She loves them, and she grew that one herself.

And the freezing I mentioned?  Once you try this recipe, you’ll want to freeze some too.  I usually grow several basil plants each summer, and I make and freeze basil every few days all season long so we have a nice stockpile for winter.  Sadly, this year we are already out – and have been for quite some time.

Part of my stash:

It’s that good.

Promise.

Pesto

Super Bowl Sunday

My friend Julie just blogged about how important a witty title is to attract the interest of potential readers.  Clearly, this week I am not trying to attract anyone new.  I’m either writing for current followers or for those who just love the painfully obvious, what with clever titles like ‘Handy Manny Cake’ or ‘Lilly’s First Haircut’ floating about.  Pardon my Super Bowl Sunday thing.  Duh. 

A side effect of NaBloPoMo is that my titles suffer.

So aside from the obvious, we’re not doing much.  I’m making some yummy snacks and using the prize pack I won from my friend Mary and Old El Paso.  I’m a big football fan so this Tackle The Taste package is right up my alley, and green chilies – yum. 

And the big game, of course.  I’ll be watching here:

No, that’s not a movie theater, or a high school gymnasium.  It’s actually our family room, and my husband’s new, embarrassingly large television.  It’s like 400 inches wide or something, just so that no one has any doubts about who the smart one is in this house.  Me with the books, him with the barcalounger and remote.

You decide.

He ordered the projector from China – bought it on ebay.  It’s apparently 1/20th of the price that way.  I’m a firm believer that you get what you pay for, but him notsomuch.  This contraption arrived Friday evening, and he spent the entire weekend re-arranging, building, re-wiring, mounting, and hanging it all up, just to be ready for game day.

Too bad we don’t care about either team.

But hey, at least I’ll have a comfy spot to eat my chips and guac, right?  And it’s almost as great as being in Miami, since the players will appear pretty much life-sized in front of us.

Not that I’m bitter about the whole big dumb stupid ridiculous absurd tv thing.  Not at all.

Happy game day!

Handy Manny Birthday Cake

As I mentioned earlier, my youngest daughter turned 3 last month. 

This is where I’d like to talk about how beautiful she is – because she really is gorgeous.

(She also refuses to look at the camera for pictures)

I’d like to tell you how smart she is, what a quick sense of humor she’s got, how she posesses a God-given ability to entertain herself quietly for hours.  I’d like to tell you how bittersweet it is to watch her grow up, knowing that she is my last baby.

But since I just said a blog shouldn’t be all about ‘me’, I can’t.

So instead I’ll tell you about her Handy Manny Birthday Cake.

The kid is head over heels for Manny these days.  I have my concerns, but whatever.

She got the Handy Manny Talkin’ Toolbox for Christmas, so a toolbox cake seemed appropriate.  It also seemed easy, since I could just steal borrow the plastic tools from her set.

My mom was kind enough to bake the cake and fashion the handle for me – my only task was frosting it.  You’d think I’d be able to handle that, but actually not so much.  Cake decorating is so not my thing.  Pardon the rough splotches.

The design on the front was meant to make it look like her toy toolbox.  My dad printed the image off and laminated it and then I just stuck it in the frosting.

(You might notice here that I said ‘my mom’ and ‘my dad’ and not ‘my husband’.  That’s because he did nothing.)

Lilly was a happy camper.

And a good day was had by all.  Even by Mommy, who cried a little when she tucked a 3-year-old baby into bed that night.  Bittersweet, I tell you.

Caesar salad recipe

For whatever reason, yesterday was a hungry day for me.  All day long I was looking for something to munch on, so of course when it came time to blog, food was on my brain.  Therefore, you get to hear about food.

When I was in college I worked at a fancy-schmancy restaurant where I had to learn all about fine wines, gourmet foods, and proper serving etiquette.  I was expected to pick up on non-verbal cues like silverware placement to know when plates should be cleared – very formal.  I also learned how to make a table side Caesar salad, which turned out to be the best part of the job.  This salad is delicious and easy, and I still make it quite often.

The ingredients:

3 cloves garlic

1 tin flat anchovies

1 T. olive oil

1/2 T. vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)

1/2 T. mustard (Dijon is preferable, but yellow will work in a pinch)

1 egg yolk

1 T. lemon juice, or the juice from 1/2 a fresh lemon, squeezed

dash Tabasco sauce

dash Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

grated Parmesan cheese

croutons (optional)

1 head Romaine lettuce, torn or chopped into small pieces

To make the dressing table side, or if you’re a purist, follow the directions below.  This could also be mixed in your food processor – but I prefer to do it by hand.

Place whole garlic cloves in a hard bowl (not plastic) and crush with the back of a fork until they are in small bits.

Add the tin of anchovies, including the oil they are packed in, and smash them thoroughly as well.  Add in olive oil and vinegar and you should have a consistency like this:

Add remaining ingredients one at a time, combining as you go. The end result should be thick, not runny on a fork, and look something like this:

At this point I like to add in a little of the cheese to help with tossing the salad.  Add the chopped Romaine to the bowl and toss with forks until evenly coated.  Plate, add more cheese and croutons or chicken, if desired.

Yum!

I have made lots of substitutions in this over the years, and they all came out great (mustard, hot sauce, different types of lettuce, vinegar, etc)  However, the 2 things that make many people nervous are the 2 key ingredients – anchovies and egg yolk.  It is possible to make a good Caesar salad without them, but not easy…and it’s really not nearly as good.  And chances are, if you’ve ever eaten Caesar salad in a nice restaurant, you’ve already eaten it made this way anyway.  You honestly don’t taste anchovies when you try this, promise.

My family loves this recipe and I hope you will too!

Update – check out Foodista.com!

Caesar Salad

The (cheap) wine project

I have a favor to ask of you.  It involves you drinking wine. 

Do I have your attention now?

I am working on a new page for the blog which will contain wine reviews.  I want both the good and the bad, so we know what to look for and what to avoid at all costs. 

On a personal note, I like the cheap stuff.

Not Boone’s Farm kind of cheap (though I’m not knocking it – every wine has it’s time and place, including all manners of hooch).  Just inexpensive.

The kind that you won’t hesitate to spontaneously buy, even when it’s not on sale.  The budget-friendly-even-in-a-recession kind.  The wine we do not cut from the budget ever.  That kind.

Not that I don’t appreciate good wine – I most certainly do.  A decade+ ago I worked in a 5-star restaurant and learned a lot about what makes a wine great.  I was fortunate enough to be able to enjoy that great wine at bargain prices too.  But what I once enjoyed wholesale gives me sticker shock retail.  ‘How much?  For something we will drink?  It will be ALL GONE?  Ummm…no.’

Anyway…I welcome reviews of all price ranges, but I personally am focusing on the cheap more affordable varieties.  (Hint – the less it costs, the more you can buy)

I’m making note of every bottle we open and I will be adding a new tab shortly.  I hope to add to this list on an ongoing basis, and while I do love wine I can’t afford to drink it all, so I welcome your input.  My goal is to have a fairly comprehensive list of budget-friendly wines we can all refer to and enjoy.

So there’s a project for you this weekend.

Go, drink lots of wine, and report back.

Do-able, right?

Calphalon!

Big Thanks to Mary for pointing out this Amazon steal! If you need new pots and pans, check these out:

Calphalon bargains on Amazon!