Category Archives: 100 Recipes

100 Recipes #5 Flat Belly Brownies (FAIL)

So, keeping with the Belly Fat theme, I made these brownies today.

They are the most god-awful tasting brownies in brownie-dom.  They’re not nearly sweet enough, and the texture is what I imagine recycled paper towels might taste like

If this is what it takes to have a flat belly, I’m depressed.

But it’s not.  I know that.

I had a great workout with Tim at a different gym today. I fell in love with this machine.  It’s made by a company called “Hoist,” so that’s what I call it: the Hoist.  I want one for my living room.  I think it would look awesome there, right next to the Rothko print.

It has a barbells on gliders, on GLIDERS!  And Tim showed me all kinds of torturous moves I can do on it.  And he took VIDEO!  You wanna see?

Sorry.  Not yet.  The video he took today is the “Before” video.  In a month, when I am looking all buffalicious, I’ll use it for dramatic contrast..

In the meantime, I want you all to rest this weekend, read a good book, and don’t bother making those brownies.

Eat Halloween candy instead.

100 Recipes #4 Fail

People always assume I’m a vegetarian because I teach yoga.  But I’m not.  I was a vegetarian for many years (maybe 10?) but when I was a vegetarian my diet was pretty crappy.

Yeah, I didn’t eat meat, but I also didn’t eat well.  My diet had a lot of dairy. Cheese mainly.  Cheese dishes gave me my protein (this was way before the days of the “fake meat” Morningstar Farms products), and I like cheese, so I exploited it.

Then dairy began to give me gastro fits.  And then my diet really became a mess.  So I began to introduce fish and lean meat (chicken) and suddenly my headaches went away, my energy went through the roof, and I felt much better in my gastrointestinal tract.  In short, I felt balanced.

I still continue to eat some meat.  Not everyday, but occasionally.  And I make sure that the meat is what I like to call “happy meat,”meaning, that the animal did not suffer in a CAFO-type facility.  I eat only organic, free-range, grass-fed meat.  I buy it at the Growers Market or from Pag-Omar.

Last Growers Market, I bought some lamb.  There was a recipe in the Wegman’s magazine for Slow-Cooked Lamb and Beans and I made it yesterday.  It cooked in the crockpot all day while I hiked the Lynn C. Keller trail.

I ask you: Is there anything better than coming home from a day in the woods to a kitchen that smells all warm and delicious and dinner is already made?

But I have to tell you. The whole time I was eating this lamb?  I was thinking:

I am eating…..a lamb.

Mary had a little lamb.

Shari Lewis’ Lambchop.

No more. I can’t eat lamb.  Even if it was a “happy” lamb.  I can’t eat baby animals.

So technically I have another recipe to add to my 100 Recipes list, but I’m not going to be listing the ingredients and directions here.  If you want it, go buy the Fall 2009 Wegman’s magazine.  But just remember:

Mary had a little lamb

Its fleece was white as snow….

100 Recipes #3 Fail

I tried a new recipe yesterday, something I taste-tested on Saturday at Wegman’s at one of those stations where they give out samples.  It was a warm pasta salad with butternut squash, escarole, whole wheat fusili and lots of other yummy ingredients.  Perfect!

I took the recipe card and bought all the ingredients.  The card said it took 35 minutes to prepare.  An hour and a half later and a sink full of dishes I was still at it.  It turned out just as good as I remembered it in the store, but labor intensive?  Good god.

Too many steps, too many dishes.  If I’m going to commit that much time, I want to have a full Thanksgiving dinner at the end of it, not a pasta salad. You know what I mean?

So if you really want the recipe for it, email me and I’ll send it to you.  Instead, I am going to give you the recipe for a vacation I wrote today at Emma’s.  It’s raw.  It’s unedited, but that’s how we roll at Emma’s.  This one I would make at the drop of a hat, any day of the week.  I could eat this every day and never tire of it.

Recipe for a Vacation

  1. Chop into small pieces: anxiety, pressure, stress, frustration, irritation and anger.  Place into a blender and blend on HIGH until smooth.  Pour immediately down the nearest drain.  Flush with hot water.  Sigh deeply.
  2. Flatten 1 long stretch of white pristine beach.  Dot liberally with terns, plovers, and conch shells.  Carefully remove loud people and whiney children.
  3. At the edge of the beach add 40 trillion gallons of blue sea.  Ladle in dolphins, whales and porpoises.  Stir lightly.
  4. In a separate bowl combine: 2 weeks of time, 3 gallons of wine, 1 bottle of champagne, 10 limes, 8 large books and 1 pound of the best coffee you can afford.  Let sit.
  5. Cream together: 1 pair of flip flops, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 beach towel, 1 bathing suit and 1 sun hat.
  6. Fold the contents of the bowl into this mixture.
  7. Turn out onto the beach.  Smooth lightly.  Garnish with abundant sunshine, seagulls, white puffy clouds and a gentle breeze.
  8. Bake at 85 degrees for 2 weeks.
  9. Serve immediately.
  10. Enjoy!

100 New Recipes, #2

I took out the slow cooker today.  (Must be fall, huh?)  Tonight I needed to rush home from yoga and be finished eating by 7 PM because tomorrow I am having the Community Diagnostic Blood Analysis done.

For a mere $49 I will allow a fledgling phlebotomist to poke me about 17 times in the arm in the attempt to find one “good vein,” and then draw 2 vials of blood.  This blood will then be subjected to the GRE of blood tests, and in a few weeks I will get a 2 page report telling me more about my blood than I probably care to know.

It’s a “fasting” blood test, so that’s why I had to eat quickly tonight.  No food for 12-14 hours before.

I found an intriguing recipe for lasagna in a slow cooker.  Worth a try, right?  Who wouldn’t want to walk in from a tough day on the yoga mat to the aroma of lasagna cooking, right, Garfield?

I had my doubts about this, but it turned out great, so I’m adding it as #2 in the long trudge toward 100 new recipes.

Tomorrow I am doing the Ives Run Trail Challenge.  (I’ll be one with the hiking poles and the junkie arms.)

Vegetarian Lasagna

Prep: 15 minutes

Slow cook: about 2.5 hours on low or 1.5 hours on high.

Makes 8 Main dish servings

Ingredients:

1 jar Mainara sauce (25 oz size)

1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz size)

1 Package oven-ready (no boil) lasagna noodles (8 – 9 oz size)

1 container (15 oz) part-skim ricotta cheese

1 package (8 oz) shredded Italian cheese or shredded mozzarella cheese

1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 cup frozen veggie crumbles (or 8 oz ground beef)

Grated Parmesean (optional)

Directions:

  1. In medium bowl combine marinara and tomatoes with their juice.
  2. Spray slow cooker bowl with non-stick cooking spray.  Spoon 1 cup tomato sauce mixture into bowl. Arrange one-quarter of noodles over sauce, overlapping noodles and breaking into large pieces to cover as much sauce as possible. Spoon about three-quarters cup of sauce over noodles, then top with one third of ricotta (about half cup), and a half cup shredded cheese.  Spread half of spinach over cheese.
  3. Repeat layering 2 more times beginning with noodles, but in middle layer, replace spinach with frozen veggie crumbles.  Place the remaining noodles over spinach, then top with remaining sauce and shredded cheese.
  4. Cover slow cooker with lid and cook on low for 2 – 3 hours or high for 1 and half to 1 and three-quarter hours or until cheese is melted and noodles are very tender.  Sprinkle parmesean on top and serve.

About 415 calories per serving. 24g protein, 41g carbs, 17g fat (8 saturated), 6g fiber, 37mg cholesterol, 1120mg sodium.

100 Recipes: Nut-Crusted Tilapia

Oh boy am I in a food rut!  Same thing every week, almost.  So this being Rosh Hashannah and all, I decided to make a New Year’s resolution to try 100 New Recipes this year. I got the idea from Orbitalmechanic, a LJer I have followed for a number of years.  She does this, and it’s a good idea, I think.

Here is my first recipe.  I got it from Prevention Magazine.

*** a sidenote here about Prevention: Every single issue has the words “Belly Fat” on the cover.  Apparently if you want to sell magazines, a surefire way to do so is to put “Belly Fat” somewhere on your cover.  (Hear that, Mt. Home??  Belly Fat.  Just sayin’)

This month it’s “Walk Off Belly Fat.”  Other months it’s been, “Beat Belly Fat,” “Melt Belly Fat,” or “Begone! Belly Fat.”

ENOUGH ABOUT BELLY FAT ALREADY!

(end of rant)

The other night I tried this fish recipe and it was easy and really good.  The pecan crust on the tilapia was a nice complement to the soft fish, and I loved the mango peach salsa with it.  I did kasha instead of rice, because I’m not a huge rice fan.

Here it is:

Ingredients:

Pecans

Tilapia fillets

Fresh lime

Fresh peach mango salsa (I used plain peach salsa which I found in the ethnic food section of Wegmans.)

Directions:

Finely chop 1 cup pecans in food processor or put in ziplock bag and crush with mallet.

Season both sides of tilapia fillets with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Dredge fish in flour, shake off excess, dip in milk, and then coat thoroughly with nuts.

Heat a thin layer of canola oil until just done, turning once, about 5 minutes in all.

Stir the juice of half a lime into 1 cup of the salsa and serve with the fish.

Enjoy.  And, good luck with that…. BELLY FAT!!

hahahahahaha