My Bizzy Kitchen

Afternoon! Just checking in from the road. After my meatball sub lunch at work yesterday I was all caught up with my work and was able to leave work early which made all the difference, we didn’t have hardly any traffic and we made it to St. Louis last night.

I ate lunch around 12:15, the subs were a big hit, but who doesn’t love a sub sandwich? Oh, that would be Tony! Italian and he doesn’t like balls!

We pretty much drove straight through, so by the time we settled into our hotel and went to eat, it was nearly 8:30! We were hangry!

We started with beer, I got Summer Shandy on tap. So good but I can usually only drink one because its very lemony.

I got a grilled chicken sandwich with pepperoncini, really hit the spot!

We got up early. Our hotel had free breakfast so we each had a small bagel and coffee. Since Tony drove the whole time last night I offered to start the driving today.

Only one tiny problem with that. Tony hates how I drive. I drive too slow, make the wrong lane changes, etc. Lets face it, men and women are completely different drivers!

We stopped after I drove for four hours and got lunch. This place was half KFC and half Long John Silvers. I picked the obvious best choice:

If given the choice, which would you choose? We just entered Oklahoma, a state I have never been to before!

So I will do what I did yesterday when Tony was driving, pin shit on Pinterest!

Are you wondering what the blog post title is about? We are on I-44 and all we see are signs for antique malls, adult book stores, and we have seen a dozen dead armadillos on the road. Crazy!

This is the first time I have posted from my phone, so that’s why the pictures are marginal at best. I will post from my laptop on Monday, but wanted to wish you all a happy weekend. Hugs!!

Well operation clean out the fridge/freezer was pretty much a success.  I had some wimpy looking asparagus, but after chopping off the tops, the rest of it was fine.  This is probably the easiest quiche I have ever made!

Asparagus & Potato Quiche

• 4 servings: 181 calories, 9.6 fat, 250 sodium (without added salt), 9.43 carbs, 1 fiber and 13 protein

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces cooked potato (about 1 medium)
• 1 cup chopped asparagus
• 4 eggs
• 1.25 cups skim milk
• 2 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Slice the cooked potato and lay on the bottom layer of your pie plate, which is sprayed with Pam.  Mix the eggs, milk, cheese, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and asparagus together.  Pour over the potato crust and bake for 35 minutes at 350, or until the eggs are set.

My boss gave this one two thumbs up!   It was tasty, but a bit bland for me, so I added hot sauce to mine.  You may want to bump up the crushed red pepper, and next time I might add a tablespoon of Italian seasoning.

I had errands to run at lunch, so again, no workout.  I do plan on moving while on vacation though.  My step-daughter-in-law has some workout videos she wants me to try.    (Hi Lizz!).

Lunch was more leftovers – pizza!  Heated up in the toaster oven so it tasted like it just came out of the oven.

For dinner? I cheated.  I did a Sam’s Club and grocery store run to stock up the office while I am gone.  I ended up picking up a steak and some corn on the cob for dinner, so I ended up spending $8 on groceries this week – I’ll take it!

I enjoyed a beer while we sat out and grilled.  I love that I got Tony’s pyrex dish ashtray in the background. #classy

The corn was delicious!  Even better with buffalo Tabasco.

There was a chance of rain today, so I decided to make meatball subs for lunch.  I bought roma tomatoes last weekend and never used them, so made a quick marinara sauce and right now my balls are getting seared on the stove as we speak.  It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my balls.

Not sure what my blogging schedule will be like, but I’ll “see” you on the road!  Make it a great day!

Sourdough bread that is.  I’ve been working with my starter from Mel’s instructions.   I fed it every day, made sure it was still bubbling along.  Then Monday night I declared it time to make bread!

While it wasn’t as sour as I thought it was going to be (I am still feeding the starter) it was pretty delicious.  But it was dark out and we cut it nearly as soon as it came out of the oven, so I have no pics!  But, I am hoping to put the starter in my fridge while we are on vacation and hope for the best.

I ended up using this kind of container, open just enough to let the carbon dioxide release.  The bubbles mean its fermenting!  This was I think day 2 or 3.

I’ll be sure to do a proper write up the next time I make it!

So we are getting close to leaving for vacation, its been interesting coming up with meal plans.  We still had leftover beef roast from Sunday, so I chopped some of that up and made an egg white breakfast sammie – I could actually taste the smokiness from the grill.  #awesome

I worked straight through lunch – super busy, but I actually like it that way so the day goes by fast.  The next two days should be much calmer.  When I was going through the fridge, I realized I had my leftovers from that Thai restaurant (Kung Pao Chicken)that Hannah and my Mom went to.  I ended up heating that up, and then adding 3/4 cup chopped cucumber for some crunch and to help tone down the heat – this was supa spicy!  And there wasn’t much chicken left, so I added a few slices of the roast to this dish too.

Later in the afternoon I was wondering what to make for dinner, when I realized I still had the second half of the sauerdough bread sitting on my counter.  I texted Tony and said “how does sausage and green olive pizza sound?”  I was shocked when I got a quick reply that said “sounds great!” 

While I could have pizza every day and never get sick of it, Tony isn’t on the pizza bandwagon like me, so when he gives me the thumbs up I go for it.

Now this dough has been sitting on my counter since Monday night, with just a lid on top, but not completely covered.  My camera battery was dead, so my iPhone had to step in.

See all those bubbles?  This dough is super wet and sticky.  I probably ended up adding about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of flour in order to get it the right consistency to roll out.  I love that I’ve left the unopened container of yeast on my counter for three days.  I am klassy like that.

Speaking of yeast, that was a two pack container that I bought from Sam’s Club for only $5 for both.  Once opened it just can hang out in your fridge until you are ready to use it – they say that 1/4 teaspoon is a serving, and there are like 576 servings in each package – 2 1/4 teaspoons is the equivalent to a packet of yeast you get in the three pack at the store – so this is a great deal.

I found we had mushrooms, green olives, pepperoni and sausage as our toppings.

I use a baking stone (that my MIL gave me – thanks Bonnie!) and heat the stove to 450 with the stone in there.  Once the oven comes to temp, I bake the dough blind for about 5-7 minutes.  Make sure you poke a fork in your dough so it doesn’t bubble up on you.

Exactly 12 minutes later – bam:

I topped my pizza with hot giardiniera, I am getting addicted to that stuff!

The crust was a bit crunchy, and doughy at the same time – kind of like a pan pizza.  Tony isn’t a fan of super thin crust like me – I love a cracker crust.  And kudos to me, no after dinner snacks or wine last night!

I ended up finding some asparagus in my crisper (that was for you Roz!) and while the ends were kind of iffy, the rest of it was fine.  I ended up making an asparagus quiche for my breakfast this morning, using up the last of the milk too.  If it turns out I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

Off to fold some laundry before getting ready for work.  Question of the Day:  Could you have pizza every day?  Make it a great day!

Jacky sent me a link yesterday on Facebook yesterday morning.  I hadn’t even gone on Facebook yet when my sister called me to tell me that I made the list for the Top 100 Most Influential Weight Loss Blogs.

There’s only one slight problem with that list.  Um, I haven’t lost any weight in 5 years.  Yes I’ve dropped a few pounds here and there, but in September 2008 I was 168 pounds and today I am 169 pounds.  WTF?

These lists are just giant advertisements in my opinion.  They want you to take their widget and place it on your blog.  I don’t even know many of the blogs mentioned on the list except for Diane, Shelley and Brooke, who all most deservedly need and deserve the recognition.

And looking through the list there were glaring errors, names of bloggers wrong, even the name of some of the blogs are wrong.  I don’t even know how they got this list, but some of these people lost their way through weight loss surgery, some lost the weight only to today be back where they started. 

This is what it said about me:

When you open up “My Bizzy Kitchen” and start to read, you will laugh. Not just chuckle a little, but actually laugh out loud. Elizabeth’s writing clearly reflects the positive stance she takes on life. In fact, it’s almost as if she was never diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and never had to overcome weight issues. But she does, and her blog proves it. With a pension for silliness tapered with some very emotional posts about her day-to-day struggles, her life and more, you will find yourself returning to Elizabeth’s blog again and again.

First of all, I never go by Elizabeth.  Ever.  I’ve always gone by Beth, except for my crazy grandma who called me Liza for a while, which turned into Beth+Liz=Biz.  What do you think about lists like these??  Just curious.

Yesterday was another busy day at work – a quick egg white spinach sammie with frozen fruit on the side.  Well, it was 1/2 way thawed. While Tony loves to eat frozen fruit out of the bag, I need it to thaw a bit.

I ended up running errands for my boss at lunch, so no work out yesterday.  When I was trying to figure out what to make for our lunches with what I had on hand, I decided to throw all the ingredients I needed to make sausage and sauerkraut soup and figured I’d just throw everything in the crockpot at work and let it do the work for me.

Sausage and Sauerkraut Soup

• makes 6 servings, about 1.5 cups each: 276 caloires, 11 fat, 39 carbs, 5.4 fiber and 12 protein (eek, 1540 sodium)

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces Polish sausage, sliced
• 8 cups low sodium beef broth
• 2 cups jarred sauerkraut
• 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
• salt and pepper to taste (to me it only needed pepper)
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Throw everything into a crock pot and cook on high for 3-4 hours.  I sent this picture to Tony around 11:00 and his reaction was “ick.”

This was delicious and got rave reviews.  The smoked sausage flavors the broth.  While this would be considered a hearty winter dish, it felt like a light summer soup!

The picture I took at the office was quick and sucked ass, so I brought home the leftovers and took another picture so it would at least tempt you to make it.

When I got in the car to go home, check out the temp!

I thought for sure once I drove for a few minutes the temp would dramatically drop, but it only dropped down to 91 degrees – crazy!

So in “operation use what I have in the house no grocery shop before vacation” I defrosted a small package of ground beef and ground lamb.  I asked Tony if he wanted Salisbury steak, burgers, or taquitos.  He said he didn’t care.  Of course taquitos won!

These three taquitos aren’t that bad for you.  Yes, they are deep fried but I take that into consideration when figuring out the points:

• 3 corn tortillas (3 pts.)
• 3 ounces beef (3 pts.)
• 3 tablespoons fat free refried beans (1 pt.)
• 3/4 ounce cheddar cheese (2 pts.)
• 1 tsp. oil for frying (1 pt.)
• chopped baby spinach and jalapeno (0 pt.)
• 3 tablespoon salsa (0 pt.)

Yum and yum.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I could eat Mexican food every night of the week and never get sick of it.  This is a super quick dinner too, even quicker if you cook the ground beef/lamb the night before.

Alright, I have exactly 20 minutes to get ready for work – I kinda slept in this morning!

Make it a great day!

I absolutely love Nature Valley granola bars.  They are crunchy goodness.  But it seems every time I try to make crunchy granola bars, they fall apart almost immediately upon cutting and I am left with granola.  If I had wanted granola I would have made granola!

Enter HalfBakedHarvest’s recipe.  I think the simple missing ingredient was using the bottom of a cup measure to REALLY press down hard on the mixture before putting it into the oven.  You can click on the link above for her recipe – I only changed two things based with what I had on hand – I used 1 cup of Cheerios and I subbed agave nectar for the honey.  Oh, and I forgot I added 2 tablespoons of flax seed and 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds.

I actually used my hands to make sure every piece was covered in the peanut butter/agave nectar mixture.  The parchment paper is key too – makes it super easy to get it out of the pan to cool before cutting.

So far it looks good!

After cutting??  Hardly any crumbs!!

Finally, a granola bar that stays together!!  I will note that mine were a tad salty – I shelled my own peanuts, so if your peanuts are really salty, you can leave out the salt in the recipe.  Still delicious – I need to make some more soon!

So we are flying by the seat of our pants this week food wise.  I knew we had enough stuff in the house that I didn’t need to grocery shop – should be an interesting week!

Breakfast was blueberry Chobani pancakes.   I was super busy at work all day so I just took a quick pick with my iPhone.

I decided to do the StairMaster at lunch.  Tony and I signed up for Netflix because they were having a free month special.  I watched a movie, but it wasn’t very good, but it made the time go by fast!  I ended up doing 100 flights of stairs in 35 minutes, or 2.07 miles.

So yesterday was all about the sausage!  I bought these last weekend. 

The package had me at jalapeno!  I decided to make a smoked sausage panini – I used store bought bread, baby spinach, horseradish mustard and a small slice of cheese with the sausage.  My boss loved this!

We split a 1 ounce bag of pretzels and had oranges, strawberries and grapes on the side. #winning!

So then I get home and Tony asked what was for dinner.  I start to mention “I have smoked sausage” and he said “put cheese on mine please.”

So this time I made a smoked sausage dog with sauerkraut on the bottom, the sausage, topped with a bit of blue cheese and hot giardiniera.  I had a cooked baked potato in the fridge so those because some potato fries, with cucumbers and ranch dressing for dipping.

I think I have yogurt for breakfast parfaits this morning, and I think I am going to throw all the ingredients into a bag to make smoked sausage sauerkraut soup for lunch.  I figure it can cook while I work!

Question of the Day:  Sauerkraut fan or not?  I can eat it out of a can cold, but Tony thinks it tastes like ass.

Make it a great day!!

I picked up Hannah late Saturday afternoon to head to my Mom’s for a Momma Day sleepover Saturday night.  It’s kind of weird when you see your kids after they have moved out.  I think it’s been about a month since I’d seen her?

We got to my Mom’s house and we decided it would be easier to go out Saturday night then on actual Mother’s Day.  I actually hate going out on Mother’s Day.  It’s crowded, over priced and I always feel like I am being rushed because they want to turn as many tables as possible.

We headed to downtown La Grange, which I’d never been to before. 

They had a super cute down town that was about four blocks long.  So many shops and restaurants!

It was a bit chilly though, we probably could have used heavier coats!  I like this picture because I was able to focus on my Mom and make the background blurry.

We ended up eating at Thipi Thai.   We all love Thai food.  And you know I love spicy shit!

The food was excellent, however our server was soooooo  sssssllllooowww.  Luckily we weren’t in a hurry, but it was crazeballs.  We split appetizers of chicken satay and potstickers.  I got Kung Pao Chicken with noodles:

There were so many hidden thai chilis in this dish that it was almost too spicy, almost.   After dinner we got some coffee at Starbuck’s and walked around the down town area.  When we got home, we sipped some wine and watched Silver Lining Playbook, completely not what I thought the movie was going to be about, but it was good.

Hannah and I stayed up until about 12:30 and then slept in my Mom’s guest bedroom.  The only problem with her guest bedroom is that it is super bright in the morning.  Tony and I sleep with black curtains so our bedroom is always pitch black no matter what time of day.  I was wide awake by 7:30.  Hannah slept until 8:00.

I brought flowers for my Mom – hydrangeas (SP?!) – which I didn’t even know are one of her favorite flowers – she’s going to plant them in her back yard.

Hannah got me a wine glass with a bottle of wine, some salsas and tea.  Thanks Hannah! 

My Mom had choir rehearsal before church so Hannah and I went to Panera for a bit.  Coffee and a pumpkin muffie, which is like a muffin top.

We had time to kill so I made Hannah a walking dead person!  God I love that app!

After church it was back to Mom’s for brunch.  I made a classic sausage casserole:

• 1 package of Jimmy Dean’s sage sausage, cooked
• 12 ounces of stale bread, cubed
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1.5 cups milk of choice (I used 2%)
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

This is best if you make it the night before and let the bread soak overnight.  Heat oven to 375.  Spray your pan with Pam.  Layer 1/2 of the bread on the bottom, sprinkle with half the sausage, then half the cheese.  Whip the eggs, egg whites, milk and salt and pepper together.  Pour half the egg mixture over the sausage, bread and cheese, then repeat with the final layer of bread, sausage and cheese.  Bake until the eggs are set – between 45 and 60 minutes.  Mine took closer to 60 minutes because it went from fridge to oven.

The sage sausage gives this so much flavor.  We nearly finished the whole thing between the three of us!  

And then what Momma Day would be complete without a visit to the local thrift store?!

I got some cute shirts for vacation.  Still need a couple more pairs of shorts, may have to run to the Good will by me one night this week.  It was great hanging out with my Mom and Hannah!

And when I got home, Tony prepared a delicious dinner for me.  He’d marinated a pot roast overnight – mine had chili oil, crushed red pepper, garlic and sriracha.  His simply had salt, pepper and garlic salt.  Mine was better!

We’ve learned the secret over the years to perfectly grilled meat.  We almost always grill our meat on a cookie sheet, above a cast iron skillet off the heat.  We cook the meat for about 15 minutes with the top slightly off on the grill to feed the coals with oxygen to get a nice sear, then close up the top, leave the top grate open and finish cooking that way.  125 degrees is the magic number to take the meat off the grill for medium rare.

Tony had a great idea to put smoked bacon on the top.  It became almost like butter when it was done cooking.

The skillet catches any dripped fat so the coals stay perfect.  No flare ups.

He made potatoes and carrots with rosemary on the side.

OMG.  So flavorful, tender, absolutely delicious.  Of course at only 1/3 of this meat, but it will be put to good use as a leftover.  Thanks for a delicious Momma Day dinner Tony! 

And to cap it off, when I went to go to the bathroom Tony left me this picture.

I am sure there are plenty of Michael Buble fans out there, I am just not one of them!  And Tony likes turn up a song if we are driving in the car too!

I am utterly unprepared food wise for this week, mostly because I want to use up stuff we have before going on vacation.  Should be interesting!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend – make it a great day!

Afternoon!  Wow, what a lazy morning I had.  I slept for 10 hours last night.  I wish I could give my gift of sleep to Tony just for one night so he could know what it feels like to sleep that long. 

We were both really hungry and I had to pick up my contacts before the eye doctor closed so we headed out to breakfast.  My phone died and I didn’t have my camera with me (I know, shocker!) so all I have for you is my coffee cup – I love diner coffee.

I may or may not have gotten corned beef hash and eggs.

Yesterday I had a spinach egg white, ham and cheese egg sammie with some strawberries. I love the Thomas English Muffin high fiber muffins – 8 grams of fiber per muffin!

Luckily my weather held out yesterday and I was able to grill out.  It was about 50 degrees and overcast, but the rain stayed away.  I made chili hot dogs, cole slaw and Fritos – super simple but so tasty.

Now the chili I make for hot dogs is different from any other chili I make,  It’s thinner and doesn’t have any beans.

Chili Dog Sauce

• 1.5 pounds ground sirloin**
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

** If you use any other kind of meat other than sirloin, cook the beef first and drain any fat off.  If using lean beef just cook with the other ingredients.

This can’t be easier – throw everything in a pot and mix together, using a wooden spoon to break up the beef.  Cook for 20 minutes.  Done.

I bought Oscar Meyer Angus beef hot dogs and they were really good – only $3.99 for 8 hotdogs.  And the coleslaw couldn’t have been easier too – have you ever tried this before?

I just chopped up a small cabbage, used 1/2 a bag of broccoli slaw and just tossed this dressing over the top – delish!

Here’s a shocker – we didn’t have party pizza Friday!  I know, I am just as bummed as you are!  But I had some ground beef I had to use up that I had leftover from the chili sauce.  I ended up making patty melts.  Here are a couple secrets to a great patty melt. 

First, thin burger just with salt and pepper.  Heat your skillet to medium high and don’t put your burger on until the pan is really hot.  Then don’t move the burger for 3-4 minutes.  You want to get a nice crust on the burger.

Once the burgers are almost done – about 3-4 minutes per side, build your patty – 2 slices of buttered bread, American cheese, and for me, hot giardiniera.  Once you put the patty melts back in the pan, put a lid over it and bring the heat down to low – you want to melt the cheese before the bread gets overcooked.  I use my wok top.

The only flack that Tony gave me?  That patty melts have to be made on rye bread.  I disagree, and feel a patty melt is a burger made on bread – any kind of bread.  He then proceeded to show me the first 500 pictures on google images, and sure as shit, each of them was made on rye bread.  Who knew?!

So since tomorrow is Momma’s Day, I decided to have a sleep over at my Mom’s house tonight.  She has pretty much everything she needs and/or wants, so I decided my gift to her this year would be the gift of time.  She needs her patio furniture put out and has a couple other household things she needs done.  We’ll have dinner out tonight and go to church tomorrow.  Hannah got tomorrow off so she will be joining us too – a three generation sleep over!

Tony will be fine.  Turns out we have Banquet fried chicken in the house and I am sure he’ll find a boxing or MMA fight on t.v.

I hope all the Momma’s out there have a wonderful day tomorrow – have a great weekend!  I am off to try making my first loaf of sourdough bread, if it turns out, I’ll post it on Monday.