Project Seventh Day

Sorry for the delayed post.

This weekend we had dinner with friends, but I made some delicious brownies for desert.  I wanted a recipe that used cocoa powder instead of baking chocolate, so  I found this one at www.allrecipes.com and modified it just a bit.   I made it as it is once, and the brownies were good, but I wanted them to be a bit more fudgy, so I made the batter following the recipe, added white chocolate chips, poured it into the pan, and then swirled in hot fudge using a fork.

Oh my goodness.  These were the best brownies ever.

I am not a good grocery shopper.

As hard as I try to make good lists, buy only what’s on the list, stick strictly to my budget, and avoid the junk food isles, I inevitably leave the store with 10 extra items, $20 over budget, and with some sort of hydrogenated, fructose-sweetened, quadruple-processed “treat.”

I’m going to try something new for the next couple of weeks.  I’m making over my grocery shopping trips.  This makeover was inspired by a show that I was watching on TV last night that was “weight loss-themed.”  In the show, the trainer/mentor/healthy guru made this statement to his pupil:  “If it comes in a wrapper, you can’t eat it.”  I started thinking about how much junk is in my pantry that comes in wrappers.  Some of these things are marketed as healthy or nutritious, but  my thought is that they can’t possibly be as good for us as fresh food.

So here are the new rules for the grocery shopping makeover:

1.  I will shop only on the outside parameters of the grocery store.  This includes, obviously, the produce, meat, and dairy aisles, as well as whole grain breads only in the bakery.
There are 2 exceptions – I’m not ready to sacrifice my Diet Coke habit yet (don’t judge!), so I will go to the beverage aisle, and I also will need to go down the baby aisle to get a few things for Cohen.

2.  I will shop weekly instead of bi-weekly so that we have fresh produce and meat each week.

3.  I will make my husband do this with me.

4.  I will still take the seventh day off, where this weekend I intend to try a delicious new brownie recipe.

Tune in next week to find out how it’s going!

Today has been a good day.  I made it to the gym, which will hopefully keep my indulgence from making too much of an impact!  And another good thing happened too!

I almost ruined dinner.

Sometime during the week I was thinking about what I wanted to cook tonight, and I was thinking back to how much I used to love the spicy ground beef and potato burritos from Cilantro’s here in Lubbock.  (Let’s all pause for a moment of silence in memory of Cilantro’s, which is no more).  Anyway, I really really loved the beef and potato combo, because….well, I love beef and I love potatoes.  They go well together and somehow make you feel slightly more American when you consume them as a pair.  So as I thought about beef and potatoes, I started to run through recipes in my head that used this combo.  I sort of spontaneously decided that I was going to attempt to make a pizza that was topped with flavorful beef and potatoes.

Sounds good, right?  Well, I’m sure that someone has tried it before, but I decided to invent my own recipe, mostly because I didn’t have time to research other people’s.  Also in an effort to save time, I decided that today was not the day to make my pizza crust, so I bought one (very inexpensively) from the store.  When I started cooking, however, I decided to try to reshape the store-bought crust from a rectangle into a circle so that I could bake my pizza on my pizza stone instead of on a cookie sheet.  This was a very bad idea.  Don’t ever try to do that.   Just let your pizza be a rectangle.  Trust me.

As I stared at the lump of dough that used to be a perfectly good rectangular pizza crust, I was struck with a flash of inspiration.  I pushed the pizza stone aside, pulled out my muffin pan, and threw together what turned out to be the most delicious, adaptable, fun dish that I’ve made in awhile.  Curtis loved it.  Cohen loved it.  I loved it.  And you will love it too!  This is definitely one to try, and I would love to hear feedback when you do!

I think I’ll call it…..

Muffin Pan Pizza Piles

You Will Need:

1/2 lb ground beef

2 small potatoes

1 pizza crust (you could also use biscuits or crescent rolls)

pizza sauce

2 cups shredded cheese – Italian blend

1 tomato

1 tsp garlic salt

1 T parsley

olive oil

Drizzle a pan with olive oil, dice potatoes, and brown them in the pan.

Add ground beef to potatoes, and season with garlic salt and parsley.

Brown beef and potatoes and drain any excess oil.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Grease muffin pan.

Using a biscuit cutter or a round glass, cut the pizza crust into small circles.

Place the circles of dough into the muffin pan and spread them out until the bottom of each muffin cup is well covered.

Season the dough lightly with a sprinkle of garlic salt.

Add pizza sauce to each muffin.

Add beef and potatoes to each muffin.

Add a generous amount of cheese to each muffin.

Top each muffin with fresh diced tomatoes and parsley.

Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is completely melted and bottoms are thoroughly baked.

Enjoy!

What I love SO much about this little accidental recipe is that while we were eating them my brain was overflowing with ideas for variations.  I want to try Alfredo sauce with chicken and green chilies.  A taco version.  A veggie version.   Sausage, eggs, and cheese for breakfast.  Even a Greek version could be really good.  Be creative and make up your own adaptions!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sometimes in life, the rest of the world doesn’t get the memo.

What does that mean, you ask?

Well, this week in my own life, my child didn’t get the memo that his being sick would affect my ability to go to the gym or get the necessary amount of sleep to function like a successful member of society.

My bank account didn’t get the memo that I needed to go grocery shopping to be able to cook what I originally wanted to on Saturday.

My emotions didn’t get the memo that I was on a diet and they shouldn’t influence my eating choices.

And my scale didn’t get the memo that it’s numbers are supposed to go down every day.

Needless to say, not the greatest week ever.  I’m a little bit frustrated that my “not the greatest week” happened on only the second week of my project, but at this point I think the best thing I can do is get up, dust off the debris of a rough few days, and get my butt to the gym.

I guess that’s what you have to do in life when you’re handed the unexpected.  You get up, dust off, choose to trust God and His timing, and you get back into action.  Because the alternative is to sit and stew.  Or in my case, sit and have a good cry, eat a candy bar, and bemoan my plight in life.  (Which really isn’t too bad of a plight if we’re being honest!)

I will say, though, that one good thing came of my failures this week.  An awesome new recipe!!  Last night I totally cheated, and I made up this yummy dish a bit off the cuff.  Curtis and I both really liked it, and it was easy and cheap!  (But not healthy).  It’s pretty likely that it will be made again in the Thomas house….but only on our “cheat days!”  I don’t have pictures because I wasn’t planning on posting it, but the recipe is below!

Yummy Yummy Taco Melt

You Will Need:

1 lb of Ground Beef

2-3 potatoes

1/2 block of Cream Cheese

1 Packet of Taco seasoning

1 tsp Garlic Salt

1/2 Cup Water

1 cup of Shredded Cheese (I used Colby Jack)

Wash and dice potatoes.

Pour a small amount of oil into a large skillet and cook the potatoes on Med-High heat until they are tender.

Add the ground beef to the skillet, and brown the beef along with the potatoes.

Cooking the potatoes first allows them to get a little bit crunchy as they cook further with the beef.

Add garlic salt, taco seasoning, and water.

Stir until well mixed.

Reduce the heat on the skillet to Low.

Cut the cream cheese into cubes, and add to skillet.  Again, stir until the cream cheese melts and is well incorporated into the taco mixture.

Add the shredded cheese to the top of the taco mixture and cover the skillet.

When the cheese is completely melted over the top, remove from heat, and prepare as desired.

You can serve this Yummy Yummy Taco Melt in warm tortillas, taco shells, or on top of tostadas or chips.

Top with lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, or guacamole!

One other fun tip is to add eggs to make really good breakfast burritos!

So there’s the silver lining to a rough week!  Make, eat, enjoy!

Yesterday was my first “Seventh Day.”  It was an interesting experience, and we definitely had some yummy food!  I learned a few things too.

For breakfast I made triple berry muffins with a crumb topping.  I wasn’t really happy with how they turned out (they weren’t sweet enough!) so I’m not going to post the recipe, but I’ll post a picture anyway.  Maybe I’ll try this recipe again later with some modifications!

For supper I made Buttermilk Chicken Fried Chicken and Granny Bo’s Mashed Potatoes.  Recipes below!

Buttermilk Chicken Fried Chicken

You Will Need:

Chicken Breasts

1 T Salt

1 t Paprika

1 t Garlic Powder

1 t Pepper

1 t Parsley

2 eggs

1-2 C Buttermilk

2 C Flour

Canola Oil

Heat oil in a skillet until a pinch of flour sizzles when dropped in (around 350 degrees).

Mix salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, and parsley in a bowl.

Mix eggs and buttermilk in a second bowl.

Put flour in a third bowl!

Sprinkle chicken breasts with seasoning mix.  Pour the remaining seasonings into the flour.

Dip chicken breast into buttermilk egg wash, then coat both sides with flour mixture.

***Repeat!  (It gets extra crunchy if you double dip!)

Carefully place chicken into hot oil and cook 10 minutes on each side, or until the outsides
are golden brown and chicken is cooked all the way through.

(If you’re not sure, it really is okay to cut into the chicken to make sure it’s done!  )

Granny Bo’s Mashed Potatoes

You Will Need:

Potatoes (of your choice – I used red potatoes)

1/2 can Evaporated Milk

Salt

Pepper

1 Stick of Butter

Wash, cut, and peel (if desired) potatoes (I like to leave my peels on!)

Fill a pot about half way full and boil water.

When the water is boiling, generously salt water and add potatoes.

Boil potatoes until they are very tender.

Drain remaining water.

Add about a half of a can of evaporated milk (or as much as needed for desired consistency), a whole stick of butter (gasp!), and salt and pepper to taste.  (Remember to taste the potatoes before adding more salt, because you salted the water!)

Mash by hand, or use your handy dandy mixer to make them creamy – it doesn’t take much!

These potatoes are simple, and SO yummy!

I took quite a few pictures of the whole experience, so I’m just going to put them in a slide show below!  Sorry….I’m not the best food photographer! 

As a whole, it was a fun (although heavy) meal.  Yummy, but definitely not something to eat every day!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.