Category Archives: cooking

That’s using your noodle

04 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by in cooking, recipes

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I know I’ve talked ad nauseum about the roller coaster of the past year and a half. I’m almost tired of hearing myself talk about it. But the more I get this detritus out of my head the more I heal and the healthier I am.

The past three weeks I have felt better than I have in the last two years. No doubt about it! I am so happy to be getting back to ME!

One of the things I have missed the most is being able to cook. I’m not a great lefty. Coe would disagree because I’ve gotten pretty good at the left handed frisbee and ball toss. I even learned how to use chopsticks with my left hand! What I couldn’t get down was whisking; all I managed to do was make a mess and send food flying.

Almost every weeknight for the past three weeks I’ve been cooking dinner and playing in the kitchen. That process alone has fed my spirit.

I’ve written before about how much I love bowls… Noodle bowls, rice bowls, burrito bowls… What is better than a dinner in one dish? (That’s rhetorical)

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Last night’s noodle bowl was almost a work of art and I have to share. As I’ve also mentioned before, I’m not big on measuring, but some things I actually did portion portion out.

1 serving (56g) whole wheat noodles
1 serving (4 ounces) 99% fat free ground turkey
Onion, chopped
Cauliflower, broken into small florets
Cabbage, shredded
1 serving pasta sauce
1 ounce grated Parmesan
Fresh basil

In the move, I discovered the joy of a true non-stick skillet, so I did not use any oil in making this dish.

While you are assembling the veggies in your skillet, boil and cook your pasta, so everything comes together at the same time.

Heat your skillet to medium heat, when hot, toss in onions and cauliflower. Let cauliflower roast a few minutes and onions get soft, then put the lid on to cook cauliflower. Check and stir a few times. After about five or so minutes, add ground turkey and desired spices.

Last night’s bowl had Tony Chachere, garlic powder, and pasta sprinkles, but I’ve regularly added celery seed, Herbes de Provence, and red chile flakes.

Stir a few times, and as the ground turkey is almost done, add a very generous handful of shredded cabbage. Give a toss and put the lid on for a couple of minutes.

At this time your pasta should be done. I usually scoop it out with a small strainer or spider. Toss pasta into your skillet, add pasta sauce, and mix together. Add a little pasta water to the skillet to make it a little saucier if you want.

Serve up and top with parmesan and fresh basil. This whole dish (per the Loseit app) was only 515 calories.

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Enjoy!

21 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by in cooking, vacation

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I find it hard to get back on the blog after vacation and the subsequent cold that followed.  The cold was a small price to pay for an amazing vacation.  A week in New Orleans eating ourselves silly and watching lots of football.  We have a running list of restaurants we want to hit.  Just to name a few we visited Sobou (crazy small world story, ran into a guy I know from Portland sitting at the table next to us), Pesche, Palace Cafe, Cafe Amelie, and Butcher.  I wasn’t kidding when I said we ate ourselves silly.

I even met Archie Manning- what a lovely man!

Archie & Archie Joe

I’ve been having fun in the kitchen.  For my birthday, I had a few friends over for a simple dinner and I made an incredible lasagna inspired by the Pioneer Woman.  I say inspired, because the resulting lasagna was only slightly reminiscent of her original recipe.   I was off work for Martin Luther King, Jr day and cooked up  a storm.  I made chicken broth.  With that broth, I made chicken tortilla soup and wild rice soup (with my pulled pork instead of ham).  I’ve baked up several batches of banana nut muffins trying to use up all the bananas I’ve thrown in the freezer over the last few months.

banana nut muffins

While writing this up, I realized I have taken so few pictures lately, both on vacation and in the kitchen.  I can’t believe I didn’t take any of the lasagna because it was awesome.  This had been my second time making it and I’ll make it again for sure.

Now that the holidays are over and the new year has settled in, I’m regaining my balance.  My whirlwind day in the kitchen Monday helped quite a bit with that.  Hope your new year is off to a tasty start as well!

dear dining diary

07 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in cooking, dinner

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Dear Diary, It’s me Lula…  I feel I need to balance all the pork and bacon I talk about with how I really eat during the week.  I have a fairly firm weekday dining plan.  I don’t call it a diet.  I eat real food in moderation.  Truth be told I eat all day.  But a few  bites here and a few bites there that add up to quite a bit.

Here’s my boring weekday plan:
Today I started with a cup of coffee with coconut creamer and a Morning Glory Muffin
mid-morning snack a banana and half a pbj
lunch started with half a turkey sandwich
I went on a 2.3 mile walk
when I got back I had the other half of my turkey sandwich
afternoon snack was an apple
3:30 or 4ish I had the other half of my pbj
Optional snacks I keep in my desk just in case include raw almonds, mixed nuts, goldfish and oatmeal.

Boring. I know. I warned you.

Dinner on the other hand…  I want to call bull on all the people who say they can’t cook a good healthy fresh dinner during the week.  Tonight was a little bit of an experiment, but it worked great and is a fair representation of a weeknight dinner for me.

I’m into bowls. Burrito bowls, noodle bowls, rice bowls, bento bowls.
Tonight was my twist on a noodle bowl
Grill a boneless, skinless chicken thigh and chop up. While the chicken is grilling, cook pasta. Instead of buckwheat or soba noodles as are more traditional, I use whole wheat spaghetti. Still a noodle. when the pasta is about 2/3 done, throw chopped broccoli and cabbage in the pot for the last minute to 1 1/2 and drain. Toss everything with the ginger miso dressing.  Healthy noodle bowl.

Monday and Wednesday are the hardest for me since I am trying to have a snack late enough in the day before my evening exercise class without it being too close to class.  Tuesdays and Thursday don’t always have that extra pbj so I can have a glass on wine with dinner.  It’s all about balance.  Of course you’ve seen how I eat on the weekends.  You know there is nothing off limits!

A coworker recently asked what my favorite apps are.  2 of my favorites are Lose It! and iMapmyRUN.  I use both of these with great frequency.  Start IMapmyRUN when you start your walk or jog and it tracks your route, counts calories, and keeps your pace.  It’s neat to see how I improve.  I had no idea how fast I jogged. I thought I was a pretty slow jogger since I hate jogging.  Lose It keeps track of what you eat and how many calories you’ve burned or earned.  I don’t do it daily, just when I feel like I’ve gotten really far off track and need a little refocusing.

I hate how the media tells us we are supposed to obsess over our weight and how we look and how we dress.  I eat and exercise to feel good.  and truth be told I exercise so I can eat more.  Exercise should be a positive part of our lives.  To make our days better.  I certainly know I feel MUCH better on the days I exercise.  My lunchtime walks are the source of my sanity during the day.  The days I don’t get out, I am not a happy camper.

Did you notice anything was missing?  Dairy.  The last couple of weeks, I’ve been laying off the dairy.  I tend to go overboard with diary, so I’m taking a break.  When I’m on dairy my breakfast is Bob’s Red Mill Muesli with a half a cup of non-fat greek yogurt.

Ok.  enough boring food talk.  What do your weekday meals look like and how do you find balance?

Salt Roast Pork

09 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in cooking, recipes

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Thanks to PBS, Jose Andres, and A Moveable Feast repeat during pledge week I’m able to bring you today’s post.  If you are a regular visitor here, I think by now it’s clear I love pork in just about any form (though, not a huge fan of ham).  When I saw a repeat of A Moveable Feast and this recipe, I knew I had to make this.

Salt Roast Pork

  • 3 pounds sea salt (ish)
  • 4 sprigs fresh rosemary (ish)
  • 4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley (ish)
  • 6 sprigs fresh thyme (ish)
  • 1 2-pound pork loin (mine was 2.16)
  • 4 ounces of thinly sliced jamón serrano (I skipped)
  • Spanish extra-virgin olive oil (I omitted)

Preparation: I made my notes in blue

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix the salt with 3 tablespoons water (I’m sure I used more, but I didn’t measure) until the salt is slightly damp. The salt should be moist so it packs well. Spread half of the salt on a sheet tray and lay 2 sprigs of the rosemary and the parsley and 3 sprigs of thyme on top of the salt. Place the pork loin on top of the herbs.

Lay the remaining herbs on top of the pork loin and cover the pork completely with the remaining salt, making sure to pack the salt in well around the pork. Bake for 25 minutes.  I baked for a little longer 30-35 minutes to account for my slightly larger pork loin.

Remove the pork and let it rest for 5 minutes. Using a fork and spoon, crack open the side of the salt crust. The upper half of the salt, now a hard shell, should lift off easily.

Transfer the pork to cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes. Slice the loin into half-inch slices and arrange on four plates. Lay slices of jamón in between pork slices. Drizzle with some olive oil and serve.  I skipped the olive oil drizzle and jamon and served slices by themselves.

This was the most tender pork loin I have ever made!  It melted in my mouth!  We had this on New Year’s Day with black eyed peas and an amazing sweet and sour slaw.  All of our superstitions covered for a prosperous and good year.  Pig, black eyed peas, and cabbage!

mobile monday

27 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in cooking, dinner, Portland, take it outside

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After a long weekend I got up at the ass-crack ‘o dawn to take Vivian to the doctor.  Before you begin to fret, she’ll be fine.  An oil change and a few new belts and she’ll be as good as new.  btw, Vivian is my beloved Jetta.

After dropping her off I hoofed it to Mt. Tabor and caught Kristin in the act of kicking some exercise ass.  Best trainer EVER!  She makes me hurt (good kind of hurt) and I love her so!  I wandered around Division for awhile before heading home for lunch and a walk with Coe.

Afternoon held the most excitement.  I met M (I’m Auntie Gayle) at school and we went for a bus-ride lesson.  He was less than impressed.  I’m a dedicated lover of Tri-Met and did my best to sell the freedom that this brings and the trust that it shows.  He was NOT buying it.

After Kristin kicked my butt with Pilates I made another pizza.  Tonight was sausage and goat cheese.  I am so close to perfecting my thin crispy crust.  I saw this on some Food Network show.  Start your crust on a pizza pan then finish on your pizza stone.  Yum

Burrito Bowls

14 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by in beans, cooking, dinner, recipes

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Canned beans are so passe.  I don’t know where the great fear of dried beans came from, but it’s over-rated.  In my journey of culinary exploration I’ve been playing with different recipes, different beans and different methods.  So far my favorite has been pinto beans from Cooking Dude.

As you will learn if you continue to follow my posts, I rarely follow a recipe as it is written.  Drives some folks bonkers.  I always say a recipe is like the speed limit, merely a suggestion.  My version of pinto beans has a few added yummies and certainly a bit more zip.  This recipe can be cut in half easily and freezes great.

  • 1 pound (2 cups) dried pinto beans
  • 3/4 head garlic, minced or crushed
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
  • 8 cups water with 2 Tablespoon adobo sauce mixed in (you have to stir really well to get it all dissolved before you add to the beans- lesson learned)

Rinse your beans and sort through them as you add them to the pot, looking for and discarding the little pieces of soil and then drain the rinse water.  The pot needs to simmer for about three hours, so you can keep the heat pretty low, or even use a crock pot and let them cook all day. Toward the end of the cooking time add salt and pepper, if so desired.

Now what to do with a big pot of beans? One of my favorite stand-by dinners is a burrito bowl.  Make some rice, top with your yummy pinto beans, olives, cheese, sour cream and salsa.  Enjoy!