Lack of posts

Sorry for the lacks of posts, dear readers. I'm visiting family and friends for the holidays and away from my blogging post. I'll be back shortly, possibly with some recipes and stories from my trip.

Happy holidays!

Free stuff rocks!

I happened upon a gift basket sitting at a colleague's desk this afternoon. She told me she didn't want anything in it and I should take as many things as I like. I don't know if she was being nice because I'm going to be jobless soon or if she just doesn't like cheese. Regardless, check out the free stuff I scored!

Is butter the answer?

Apparently my inabilities as a baker have to do with butter. Who knew?

Recipes of the week: Holiday Gifts, Part 1

I spent all weekend in the kitchen preparing tasty holiday treats. It has even spilled over into tonight. Whew, lots of time and energy. But, it makes for a great personal gift that I had an enjoyable time making. Much better than those lousy mass-produced gifts you can get anywhere. There's just one little problem with all of this. I am a lousy baker. It's true. I don't know how the baking gene passed over me, my sister is a great baker! So, I went into this with an open mind and prepared to have some misses but hopefully also some hits. And I think it is mostly the latter. Here are the goodies I made (if you are a friend or family member, you may want to stop reading right about now).

I have several friends and family members who are diabetic, so I tried to find some diabetic-friendly recipes.

First I made Sweet Potato Raisin Cookies. For some reason I had way more dry ingredients than seemed necessary, so I ended up not using them all. The cookies themselves came out okay, not the most exciting thing I've tasted. They were a little bland. But the raisins, nuts and bran added some much needed flavor. Not for those with a sweet tooth.

Another diabetic recipe I made was for Apricot Oat Treats. These were much better. I even had to fluff egg whites, which I have never done before. I was so excited to do it, but then it was a little bit of a let down.

Very much not a diabetic treat - I made a Paula Deen recipe for Cookie Dough Truffles. Very decadent and no baking required! I probably would make them smaller next time.

Lastly I made an oldie but a goodie - Chocolate Chip Cookies. (See my snazzy new apron in the pic!)

And of course, all this baking requires a play list. Here are some songs that helped get through the holiday baking.

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant make for good listening when you are deep in the throes of measuring and mixing. Here's my pick.

Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us ...

Here's a good one for getting into the holiday cheer. Van Morrison, you saucy boy, look how you've brought my spirits up.

Glad Tidings - Van Morrison

Finally, this is a great song to dance to while waiting for cookies in the oven. It's okay, no one's watching ;) (It's better if you don't actually listen to the words.)

Take Me As I Am - Wyclef Jean ...

I will soon post a part two, which will showcase the non-cookie treats. It was a busy weekend...

Menu Plan Monday: Week of December 15

It's a sad, sad Menu Plan day. I found out last week that I will be laid off as of next week. Happy holidays! What? You mean I will not be getting paid to write on my blog all day? Boo!

So, due to the dwindling funds and the zen retreat I am participating in for part of the week, my menu will be quite simple and limited. Sorry folks.

Monday

Breakfast: Granola bar

Lunch: Beef stirfry with zucchini and onions over rice (leftovers)

Dinner: Breakfast for Dinner!

Tuesday

Breakfast: Bagel with vegetable cream cheese

Lunch: Rice with sesame seeds, side salad

Dinner: Goodbye party for a dear friend

Wednesday

Breakfast: Hot Cereal

Lunch: Soup

Dinner: PB and J Sandwich (I am heading straight from work to the zen retreat Wed, Thurs and Fri, so dinners will be eaten en route)

Thursday

Breakfast: Bagel

Lunch: Tuna Sandwich

Dinner: PB and J Sandwich

Friday

Breakfast: Hot Cereal

Lunch: Soup and Salad

Dinner: PB and J Sandwich

Food of the week: Black Beans

A few days ago I wrote a post about my wonderful birthday dinner at a Latin American bistro. It seems that this week I have been eating quite a bit of Latin/Cuban food. Tuesday I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and last night I found myself at a Cuban restaurant with a friend who was in town. While contemplating a food of the week I thought maybe I should incorporate a common staple in all of these cuisines. So today I present to you, the black bean.

Benefits:

• Good source of cholesterol lowering fiber. This means that your blood sugar will not spike after eating them. Good news for diabetics and those with hypoglycemia. And since the fiber is insoluble, it helps to prevent constipation, irritable bowel and diverticulosis.
• Protein that’s almost fat free (unlike those pesky meats)!
• Detoxifies sulfites.
• Antioxidants! And much like chocolate, the darker the bean the more antioxidants.
• Help prevent cancer.
• Lowers risk of heart attack.
• Good source of Iron.

Drawbacks:

• Because black beans contain Purines, excessive eating may lead to the gout or kidney stones.

Ways to eat black beans:

• Cuban black beans and rice are a favorite side dish of mine. I always get them whenever I go out for Cuban food. Trader Joe’s makes a pretty decent version that you can just heat up and throw over some rice.
• Amy’s Organics makes the best darn black bean soup I’ve ever tasted.
• I process black beans with olive oil to make the base for my taco dip, which is loved by all. By all!
• Essential in my Southwestern Quinoa recipe.

Little known facts:

• Dried black beans can be stored for up to a year.
• Black beans have been around for over 7,000 years.

The quintessential birthday dinner

I had the distinct pleasure of celebrating my birthday last weekend with several of my closest friends. First I had a VIP dinner, with only my nearest and dearest, which was followed up by drinks and shenanigans at a local bar/lounge. It was quite a night! Probably the most memorable part of the evening though, was the delicious dinner. Even several days later my friends are still talking about how wonderful the dinner was.

Now, I love Latin American food, possibly more than any other food in the world. Seriously, beans and rice, plantains and sangria make me so happy! So, when my roommate suggested this Colombian and Latin America Bistro for my birthday, I was sold! And although we had to wait over an hour for our table (they didn’t take reservations after 6:30pm – WTF?!?!?!) we managed to sit at the bar-like section and get started on drinks and appetizers…which you know is just trouble…

Here is a break down of the totally wonderful meal.

6:58 pm Arrive and put our name in for a table. Wait for the entire party to arrive.

7:20 pm All have arrived and we decide that waiting outside for a table is for chumps. And we are not chumps!

7:30 pm The first pitcher of a red sangria is served alongside a dish of corn and plantain chips with several wonderful dips (guacamole, black bean, and salsa were the choices) at the bar.

8:00 pm We sit at our table and immediately order a second pitcher of sangria (and some order mojitos too…) from the very attractive waiter (hello Javier!).

8:10 pm We order our entrees.

8:20 pm The appetizers arrive, which include fried plantains with cheese and sour cream and a plateful of chorizo.

8:40 pm Our entrees begin to arrive. I enjoy the Quinoa Cakes entrée, which are made of quinoa and sweet potatoes, and come with a soy sauce for dipping. It comes with sides of shredded kale and a super-duper yummy mango-cucumber salad.

9:00 pm The time when we are supposed to get to the bar to meet those not coming to dinner. I feel bad for not getting there on ti…ooh, is that cheesecake?!?!?!

9:10 pm I come back from the ladies room and notice that the dessert menus have disappeared from our table. What are these people up to?

9:15 pm Some of the wait staff come to our table singing happy birthday and playing maracas. Best birthday song at a restaurant ever! They put in front of me a coconut flan and what can only be described as cheesecake heaven. The table devours both desserts like wild animals.

9:30 pm We sadly pull ourselves up from the table of gluttony and start heading to the bar. We get outside only to realize that it's snowing. Dancing and leaping ensue. Happy Birthday to me!

A perfect dinner - one part delicious food mixed with one part awesome friends having a great time. We finished the night with drinks at a lounge where we could converse on couches by a fireplace. Come on...how poetic is that!

Now this is how you celebrate the holidays!

Menu Plan Monday: Week of December 8

It's time to get back to the weekly routine of planning my menu's. Although, I know it will be put on the back burner in the coming weeks during the holidays. This week's theme is a little school lunch and a little more broke college student. The holidays are usually the hardest time for me financially, so I'm looking to eat minmally. This week is a bit busy with evening activities, so I will not be making many dinners at home (luckily some of the dinners out will be free!).

Also, I would like to add that although my menu's often look healthy, I don't always stick strictly to them and there are usually unhealthy snacks eaten during the day sometime. I find that if I make a plan to eat healthy ahead of time, I'm more likely to do it. But still, things happen.


Monday
Breakfast: Chai Latte (not helping the pocketbook) and a bagel
Lunch: Soup and salad
Dinner: Sushi (homemade by a friend!) and other foods brought by my knitting circle friends.

Tuesday
Breakfast: Hot cereal with raspberries
Lunch: PB & J and chips
Dinner: Out for Mexican with a friend

Wednesday
Breakfast: Hot Cereal with banana
Lunch: Salad with tuna, black beans and beets
Dinner: Alumni holiday party (free food and booze, woo!)

Thursday
Breakfast: Bagel
Lunch: PB & J sandwich and chips
Dinner: Burrito

Friday
Breakfast: Hot cereal with strawberries
Lunch: Egg salad sandwich
Dinner: Pasta primavera

Food of the week: Chocolate

People, it was only time. I've done several foods of the week that are vegetables or fruits, but now I move on to a food that really has something to contribute in the drawbacks category. I feel though, that the benefits are such that chocolate really needs to be a food of the week.

I am not really differentiating between semisweet and dark chocolate, although I outline how they differ in health benefits and drawbacks at times. They are very similar and come to be through mostly the same process. I will NOT be talking about white chocolate, however, because it is an abomination to chocolate everywhere. You hear that white chocolate? An abomination! You're not really even chocolate, how dare you soil the good name!

Benefits:

• Cocoa beans are high in fiber and antioxidants and help to lower blood pressure and prevent blood clots. These are diluted when mixed with milk, sugar and other additives. The darker the chocolate the better your cardiovascular health! (Actually dark, and even milk, chocolate rated the highest in antioxidants of all foods.)
• Contains Phenylethylamine and Serotonin, which make us happy. Cocoa also helps to relieve PMS symptoms. See ladies, there is a reason why we crave chocolate every month!
• Lots of essential vitamins and minerals.

Drawbacks:

• When mixed with milk, chocolate can be high in cholesterol.
• Chocolate itself is high in fat and sugar. Yes, even the darker chocolate.
• Chocolate is high in caffeine. Do what you want with that.
• Bad news if you’re prone to kidney stones and possibly migraines.

Ways to eat chocolate:

• A few bites of dark chocolate while sipping (sipping!) on a spicy red wine (perhaps a syrah).
• Mixed with peanuts and/or peanut butter. Reese’s sure has something right.
• An idea for a gift or to make for yourself: I put a cup of cashews, 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips and some peanut oil in a food processor and made a decadent nut butter.
• Brownies!
• Strawberries dipped in chocolate, even better in dark chocolate.
• See my earlier post from today.
• I could go on, but really, you know….

Little known facts:

Your mother lied! There is no link between chocolate consumption and acne.

Ever wonder how chocolate is made?

Chocolate is made using beans harvested from the cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao. The beans are removed from their pod, fermented, dried, roasted and then ground to produce a cocoa mass or cocoa liquor. This is then pressed to yield cocoa butter and cocoa cake which is ground up into cocoa powder.

Why is dark chocolate healthier than milk chocolate?

• As you add more milk, you increase the fat and cholesterol in chocolate.
• Dark chocolate is made without hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils.
• As mentioned earlier, dark chocolate contains more antioxidants, for greater health benefits.

So, there you have it people. Eat chocolate and be happy, but not if you get kidney stones or migraines (you poor souls).

Some recipes to tide you over

Here are some recipes passed on from my sister, from a friend of hers. I haven't tried them but they sound so good! Also, they relate to the food of the week that I am gearing up to post soon. Sorry, it's been a busy week at work, I'm still kind-of sick and yesterday was my birthday. What a week!


Chai Hot Cocoa Recipe:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 chai-flavored tea bag
1 envelope Hot Cocoa Mix

Heat milk & water to boiling then pour into mug.
Add tea bag. let stand for at least 1 minute.
Remove tea bag; tir in cocoa mix.


5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake:
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate ifdesired.

EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous). And why
is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all
only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

Thanks to my sister and her friend Kelly for the decadent recipes!

In the absence of an actual post

You may have noticed, dear Accidental Epi fans, that I have been lacking in the blog posts. I'm sorry to disappoint but I've succumb to the virus that I've been fighting off for a while and have been a bit busy at work, both things keeping me from writing on this here blog. I'm sorry to say there will be no recipe of the week or menu planning for this week. But don't you worry, little darlings! I'll be back soon with the food of the week. What do you think it will be? Talk amongst yourselves.

To keep you entertained until my next post, I will pass the buck on to other bloggers.

• How about giving away fetus cookies for holiday gifts?
• Some ideas for your Thanksgiving leftovers.
• Avocados, Avocados, Avocados! (And no, I am not linking to this post just because my blog was referenced in it. Although I do feel a bit like a celebrity. Avocados are a higher priority in my life than fame. If that seems to you in any way sad or wrong, I pose one question to you. Have you ever eaten an avocado?!?!?!?)