the agony of defeat

Shockingly, my experiments in the kitchen don't always turn out as good as I would like.  Tonight was one such experiment. 

First off, at first glance, I thought I had couscous in my pantry.  I wanted to make couscous with dried fruit and almonds.  It's so tasty and almost seems dessert-ish.  Next, I thought, why don't I mix ground turkey with some feta and some spices and make some meatballs. 

None of it worked out.

First I tried to make meatballs.  I had chosen the 97% fat free kind of ground turkey, and let me say, if ever there were a confirmation that fat adds flavor...'cause this stuff was taste-free.  I mixed in some diced onion, feta cheese, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  I thought for sure that would help things.  I balled them up into about golf ball sized meatballs and put them on a pam-sprayed baking sheet.  Into the oven they went at 350 for 20 minutes. 

As it turned out, I had quinoa and not couscous.  I still chopped up the dried apricots and mixed them with the slivered almonds and the sultanas (golden raisins) while the quinoa was cooking...just so I could get my head around things.  I also realized...well, if I'm cooking quinoa, I should use broth.  And then I opened the pantry.  Sweet.  Just one cup of stock.  So the quinoa, after being rinsed thoroughly and toasted in the pan with a tiny bit of oil was cooked in one cup of chicken stock and one cup of water.  Not what I would normally do, but this was just the way the night was going.

The meatballs came out and despite being completely cooked, they looked anemic.  B-O-R-I-N-G.  Despite all the things that I put in the mix, they tasted as anemic as they looked.  Again I say...sweet. 

Then I thought, well, I'll just forgo the dried fruit and almonds (they were really for the imaginary couscous), and I'll add black beans into my quinoa.  I'll throw a little "house dressing" on it too.  I get the house dressing out of the fridge.  It's pretty much empty.  So I put what is left in the bowl and then went to make more dressing.  No balsamic.  It's at the boyfriend's house.  Strike85 against this meal. 

The boyfriend decided to add marcona (as he calls somewhat jokingly "maricopa county") almonds to his quinoa, black beans, and cut up meatballs.  He said he liked it a few times and that the almonds really made it. 

I had quinoa, black beans, a tiny bit of house dressing, and cut up meatballs.  A passable meal, but man, it was not what I had planned in my head.  I'll have to go and get some couscous to do my dried fruit/slivered almond meal. 

(As an aside, two nights ago I made leek/broccoli soup and put too much liquid in it.  The tilapia I made was fine, and actually tasted pretty good when piled into a bowl of the soup, but nothing earth-shattering.  Let's assume this was not the beginning of a streak of mediocre meals.)

A kind of love story...

I am in love yet again.  (Yes, I still love Mark Bittman, but amazingly, this is not about him.)

In recent months, I have experienced a training program called the Corporate Athlete.  It's not training in terms of sports (though there is a "movement" component), but it's rather about energy management.  Everyone always talks about time management, but sometimes time is out of your hands and there is a finite number of hours in the day.  Your energy, on the other hand, is something that you always have control over.

That sounds a little more New Age-y than it is...I promise.  You have to build on your physical or basic energy in order to optimize your other energy (emotional, mental, and spiritual).  It's very Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for all you nerds out there. 

And while I love the Corporate Athlete program (and desperately would love to be a certified instructor), this is not about that program either.  This post is about Kind Bars. 

While in this Corporate Athlete program, one of my co-workers who was leading the training mentioned finding Kind Bars.  It took me a while until I tried one.  And as soon as I did, it was love. ...But first let me tell you a story....

I was working out with a trainer (a trainer trainer, not a Corporate Athlete trainer, sadly) and she suggested I try one of those protein bars as a good supplement to the cardio and weight training she was having me do.  This was a woman who was supposed to have my overall health in mind.  A woman who was helping me trim down.  I tried the protein bar she suggested.  "I like the chocolate chip cookie dough flavor."  (That should have been the first red flag.)  It had the texture of all those other protein bars - chewy beyond belief, a serious test for any dental work.  And sweet.  Good lord was it sweet.  So I turned it over to check out the ingredients.

And there they were.  The first five ingredients.  (And remember, this was supposed to SUPPORT my HEALTH and help me LOSE WEIGHT.)  #1- corn syrup.  #2- high fructose corn syrup.  #3- calcium caseinate.  #4- sugar.  #5-fractionated palm kernel oil.  Did I mention this young woman said she was getting a masters in nutrition??

Okay.  Out of the first five we've got two kinds of corn syrup, one of the worst oils we can get, something I can't pronounce, and good ole sugar.  No wonder it was sweet.  yikes.

Now back to the Kind Bar.  Basically, it's made of things that not only can be pronounced but also are actually good for you.  The first one I had was the Cranberry Almond bar.  Tasty doesn't begin to describe it.  It tastes like...well...what it should taste like - cranberries and almonds.  If you look at the first five ingredients (there are a total of 9 compared to 40 in the other bar)  they are #1-almonds. #2-dried cranberries. #3-macadamias. #4-honey. Okay...the fifth ingredient seems to be basically just a nicer way to say corn syrup (from what I can tell), but at least it's not genetically modified.  :-)

The next two bars I have tried by them (I have about another 8 waiting on my kitchen counter) were equally delicious.  For breakfast one morning when in a rush, I had the Fruits and Nuts in Yogurt bar.  Yum.  And then tonight for dessert (when I really wanted to go out and get some ice cream), I had the Sesame and Peanuts with Chocolate bar.  Certainly healthier than a pint of Blue Bell. 

Tomorrow I'm going to try to continue my Kind affair with a Almonds & Apricots bar.  It is, indeed, love.

A Lunch Person

When I was three, I attended a half-day session at the school down the block from where I lived. Being the "older than my time" girl from an early age, I was bothered by the fact that there were other kids (some 4 years old, some 3) who were staying there for the entire day. I wanted to be a "Lunch Person" like those who stayed until the afternoon. My mother, wanting to support her youngin's desires, would pack me a lunchbox that I could bring to school, even though I didn't eat it there. I was a Lunch Person.

I am again a Lunch Person. I have begun bringing my lunchbox to work. Yes, you read that right. I'm in my 30s, and I bring a lunchbox to work. Think a modern bento box, less disposable packaging, healthier meals, and downright cuteness. My lunch box is made by Oots. I am in love with it. It has all these cool little containers inside, and if you get the "Deluxe" version, it comes with one large and four small plastic containers that fit inside. (You can also buy it without the inserts.) I was lucky enough to receive one of these beauties from my sister and brother-in-law as a birthday present back in the beginning of May (everyone...mark your calendars for next year...). But it took me a couple months to get in the swing of actually using it as intended. There have been a couple days I've trotted along with a frozen meal inside, but that's not nearly as exciting.

So I gave myself an assignment. Go to the farmers' market (see my previous post called The Prodigal Daughter), buy some tasty vittles, and make sure to eat healthily with the help of my Oots Lunchbox. I started with some fruit. I cut my orange in the "Chinese restaurant" style way, as my mother calls it - in half from pole to pole then slice parallel to the equator. It's the best way to eat an orange. You can just rip the flesh out with your teeth and you barely get any pith.

Next came blueberries. A ton of blueberries in another small bin. They are so easy to snack on throughout the day. I love the way they pop in the mouth.

I also packed one of these little squares with cheese and crackers. It was some delicious Colby that I got at the farmers' market (my dog also likes it...he likes cheese). The Colby was firm, but not oppressively so - it didn't hurt my gums when I chomped down on a big cube. The crackers I used were, brace yourself, good ol' Premium Original Saltines. I know that this Colby could have stood up to a Carr's cracked pepper of a similarly spiced cracker, but there's just something about those Premium Saltines. I love them. One thing I didn't really think about, though, was that the moisture from the cheese made the crackers a little less than desirable in texture. But don't get me wrong, I still ate them. You can't beat the perfect amount of salt on those things.

Lastly, as mentioned in my last post, I had done up some zucchini and and steak in the same grill pan. I had some leftovers in the longer of the plastic bins. Boy were they tasty.

Tomorrow I'm taking another meal. Dark sweet cherries and green grapes in two small bins. Another small bin has some tuna salad (tuna, light mayo, celery, dill pickles, celery seed, salt, and pepper), and the fourth has some more dill pickle spears and some more celery. The big bin has two pieces of Nature's Pride Double Fiber bread (remarkably tasty for how much fiber is in them, and I can toast them at work and make my tuna sandwich) and a handful of Marcona almonds (that are absolutely irresistible).

I'm hungry just thinking about it.