For the most part, I eat healthy foods and I’m an active person. My day job requires that I teach nearly 18 hours of fitness a week. I particpate in extra curricular fitness events. I eat well, and have fresh fruits and veg every day. Although I’m fairly confident of my ninja status among my students and peers, I still struggle with my weight from time to time.
I’ve been feeling a few pounds creep on here and there over the past four or five months, and I’d like to nip it in the bud while my pants still fit…
time to attack the spare tire. Like the warrior I am.
So, I’m resorting to an old standby and have picked up a(nother) subscription to Weight Watchers online. This is my third or perhaps fourth attempt with WW, and I’ve always been successful. You see, I know the right foods to eat, I just eat too much of them. In an effort to hold myself accountable, I’m laying myself out for all you creafty readers to see.
Working in the arts often means keeping strange hours. Lately I’ve been getting home from work between 10:30 and 11:30pm. The typical nightly ritual of nine-to-fivers who come home, eat dinner, watch some TV, and go to bed is pretty much out the window in my house since by the time I get home I’ve already eaten dinner. If I’m lucky, I have enough energy to drink a beer and fall asleep on the couch to the first 15 minutes of Project Runway on the DVR… Anyway, my co-worker Tony was gloating on Friday about his ingenuity in reshaping the theater schedule to include more home-cooked meals.
I’m all about multi-tasking, and what better way to multi-task than to cook dinner for tomorrow while you’re sleeping! So, instead of the aforementioned 15 minutes of Project Runway I threw the typical meat-veg-liquid combination in the slow cooker and this morning I’m greeted by this:
Friday nights just got a little crazier in my house. I might be doing this often…
Overnight Pork Roast
Ingredients:
Pork Shoulder (with or without bone)
Vegetable of choice (something sturdy like carrots, potatoes, onions, and celery), cut into big chunks
Liquid (water or broth)
S & P, or, a seasoning mix like Adobo
Loosely place the veggies on the bottom of your slow cooker and rest the meat on top. Rub salt and pepper or spice mix onto the pork shoulder and cover with liquid. Set cooker on low to cook overnight and grab a beer.
I pseudo inherited my crock pot from my mother while foraging her basement on a Sunday trip to the suburbs. This 1975 Sears “Crock Watcher” is older than me, but undoubtedly in better condition.
If the 70’s got anything right, it’s the slow cooker. The idea that I can stick something in there at 6am before I leave for work, cover it with liquid, and come home to a good smelling house AND dinner still boggles my mind, and I do it about every other week…. sometimes more, sometimes less.
Lately Old Faithful has been working overtime cranking out tomato sauce to stock up for the winter. I bought 30 pounds of tomatoes from Midnight Sun Farm over the course of three weeks and have made tomato processing an obsession.
After an epic fail on the stove of sauce that was way more juicy than saucy, I revamped my approach. Ok, it wasn’t entirely a fail, just a misunderstanding between me and the tomatoes, really. After consulting mom (my go-to for kitchen mishaps) and my friend and fellow canning-enthusiast Toni Camphouse, I opted to try the slow cooker approach, and I’m never turning back.
Homemade Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Tomatoes (duh)
Salt
Lemon Juice
Canning jars and lids
Core and quarter tomatoes and fill your slow cooker. Prop the lid open with a spoon and cook all day on low.
The great tomato stock-up begins…
Using a blender or immersion blender, puree the tomatoes until smooth. Pre-fill canning jars with salt and lemon juice. For quart jars, use 2TB lemon juice and 1 tsp. salt*. Half those if using pint jars. Add sauce to jars and fill to 1/2″ from the top. Cover with lid and band, twisting until hand tight.
Add jars to water bath (making sure the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch). Once water is boiling, reduce heat to a rolling boil and set time for 30-40 minutes (30 for pint jars, 40 for quart). Remove from water bath and set on a level surface to cool (don’t shake the jars). Store for as long as you like, or about a year, whichever comes first.
* You can add seasoning to your sauce before you jar it, but I prefer to do it once I open the jar so the herbs and spices are fresher.
Fall 2011 at Portage Park Farmer’s Market | Photo by Kelly Rose
We’re on the heels of my favorite season. The mornings now have a bite in the air, fashion scarves and sweaters are becoming imperative, and everything around me is turning into orange-y and amber hues. Though I’m a California girl at heart, I’ve lived in the Midwest for almost 25 years. The one thing about living here that has kept me from continually accosting my parents for moving us across the country is the leaves. Well, they have leaves in California, but they don’t turn orange and gold and burgundy.
Some people live life with rose-colored glasses; my glasses are burgundy.
Plus, the idea of not sweating profusely every time I go somewhere is highly appealing to me.
The farmer’s market is becoming particularly bountiful, and though it’s sad to see summer squash and tomatoes go out of my life, the beginning of fall means it’s “squirrel time”. What I mean is, I’m trying to make time to take everything that still just barely at it’s peak of freshness and dry it, freeze it or can it for the winter.
I’ve always wanted to make an attempt to preserve enough produce to make it through the winter without buying a shriveled up zucchini that was grown in the middle of Mexico and shipped to my local store on a refrigerator truck.
Wishful thinking…
I know that this isn’t the year for me to make this happen full stop, but nonetheless I’ve managed to buy and can or freeze 25 pounds of tomatoes, pickle a bunch of beets, blanch and freeze broccoli, eggplant, and green beans, and there is a batch of crispy squash chips in the oven as I type. I got a really big squash in my CSA box last week, was told it would be the last one, and, having eaten one squash too many, this is what I chose to do with it:
Squash Chips
Ingredients:
Zucchini or summer squash, thinly sliced and dried on a paper towel
Olive oil
Salt
Line a baking sheet (or two) with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (spraying it with cooking spray works fine too). Arrange the squash slices in a single layer and coat with olive oil using a pastry brush. Sprinkle with a modest amount of salt and bake at 275-F for a LONG time (several hours). When they are firm and crispy, they’re done.
A great substitute for potato chips, use these chips up in about three days, stored in a plastic bag or wrapped in a tea towel
In my household, football is a big deal. My coping mechanism has been to come up with meal ideas that celebrate what I consider to be the best part of football season: food, beer, and the occasional social gathering. I first got the idea of pulled pork in the slow cooker from our friend Mandy Love in Gillette, WY (who’s kids made it for dinner, I might add (that’s how easy this is)). I paired the sandwiches with a delicious slaw of my own invention. I’ve tried out this cabbage slaw on three people who “don’t like coleslaw”… and it’s worked every time.
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Ingredients:
Pork Roast (approximately 3 lb.)
1-2 C. Chicken Stock (homemade, of course)
1 medium onion, sliced
Salt and Pepper
Mandy’s Special Sauce*
Ketchup
Worcestershire Sauce
Apple Cider Vinegar
Onion powder
Ketchup
Honey
*OR* pre-made BBQ sauce
Put the sliced onion on the bottom of your slow cooker. Rest the pork roast on top and pour chicken stock over it. Season with salt and pepper and cook on low for 5-7 hours.
Remove the roast from the cooker and dispose of the liquid and onions. When cool enough to handle, tear into shreds and return to the cooker. Add sauce and heat on low or warm setting until ready to serve. Mandy didn’t give me specific quantities for her ingredients, and I have to imagine that this sauce can be made a thousand different ways and still be good. So play around with it until you find the combination you like.
Not-from-the-Grocery-Store Cabbage Slaw
Ingredients:
1 small head cabbage (red, green, napa, no matter), cut in small strips (chiffonade)
Big glob of mayo, light mayo, or Miracle Whip
Salt and pepper to taste
Add-ins: my favorites include shredded carrots, diced tart apple (like granny smith or macintosh), walnuts, dried cranberries, and grapes (sliced in half). Pickled beets are also a great treat in this recipe.
Fluff cabbage in a bowl and mix in mayo and salt and pepper. The amounts of these ingredients is kind of up to you, but I suggest not going too heavy on the mayo… that’s what makes it taste like it’s from the grocery store. Just enough that the cabbage isn’t dry. Fold in the other ingredients and enjoy, or chill and eat later once the flavors have combined. Eat as a side, or mix in some protein like leftover chicken or pork and take it for lunch in place of a sandwich!
Tomatoes are so delicious. I can eat them whole. Like apples. For about two days.
When the tomatoes started arriving in my CSA box, I jumped for joy and literally squealed. It’s a BIG deal for seasonal eaters when the tomatoes are ready. I think I ate one with every meal for the first couple days, and then as swiftly as my excitement rose it passed.
A couple days ago, I just stopped being in the mood for tomatoes. Without enough supply to justify a full-on canning session, I looked back to my box and thought, wow, this could be an opportunity to use up the onions, garlic, and jalapenos too! So I threw together this beautiful and really, really spicy salsa. My hope is that with a few days in the fridge will take the edge off, but if you like hot, THIS is the salsa for you:
Spicy Garden Salsa
Ingredients:
About five big tomatoes, cored and chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 C. onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 jalapenos, seeded, de-veined, and chopped (or, keep a few seeds in if you dare) *
Splash of vinegar
1 TB sugar
1/2 tsp. cumin
Mix up in a bowl and eat it. Or, store in a mason jar in the fridge and eat it later.
* Tips:
If you’re smart, unlike me, you’ll wear gloves when dealing with hot peppers. I didn’t and then scratched my forehead and it was still burning 30 minutes later…
There are plenty of great recipes for canning salsas to increase their shelf life. I just chose to do a quick fridge-worthy salsa because I was short on time, it’s really hot in the kitchen, and I figure this will be in my stomach before long.
And,
Salsa is not just for chips! Use this to add flavor to your tacos, eggs, or make a sassy and refreshing salad by adding it to cubed fresh watermelon
and then, I thought, those posts just didn’t seem that interesting to me anyway.
So I ditched the weekly updates on what arrived in my box of deliciousness and opted to spend the time eating said deliciousness instead. What has resulted is perhaps one of the most culinarily creative summers I’ve had to date, and a REALLY conscious effort to not let anything go to waste. Once you’ve weeded carrots with your own hands you’ll never let them turn flimsy and brown in the fridge again.
So now comes that point in the post where I share a recipe, and although I can’t take credit for the nifty taco shell because I saw it on The Garden Pantry‘s Facebook Page and had to try it. The rest? Leftovers.
Lauren’s Leftover Taco Night
Ingredients:
Corn tortillas (make sure they are good quality and extra soft)
1/2 lb. Ground Turkey
1/2 packet taco seasoning
1 onion, diced
shredded cheese
sour cream
avocado
cilantro
lime
whatever veg is in your fridge: I used lettuce, scallions, cherry tomatoes
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 375 deg-F. Using a muffin pan turned upside down, press tortillas into the notches and spray with cooking spray. Bake 10 minutes for cute little crispy taco shells.
Brown the ground turkey in a skillet coated in non-stick cooking spray over medium high heat. Add the taco seasoning and diced onion and cook until onion is soft and translucent. Place turkey aside on a plate covered in paper towel to drain oil.
Prepare your tacos in the shells. with the meat on the bottom. Add your toppings, squeeze some fresh lime juice over the top, and pour yourself a margarita.
Lauren Warnecke 
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