Healthy Tom Kha Gai

I have to give a shout out to La Tortilla Factory.  A few weeks ago I posted a picture on my blog because the package of tortillas I bought had been cut wrong, so I basically only had 2/3 of each tortilla.  Not too long after, they left a comment and asked if they could replace them and apologize.  I said of course, and said that sending a coupon would be just fine.  Not only did they send me VIP coupons, but also two replacement packages of their green chile tortillas.  Nice!   These are each two smart points, no matter how you multiply it.  Sometimes one tortilla is two points, but if you have two it jumps to 5 – but two of these four points.

I had a work day on Friday, so I made this big breakfast of two breakfast tacos which came in at 11 smart points.  4 for the tortillas, 2 for the egg/egg white scramble, 3 for two ounces of leftover taco meat and and 2 for the 1/2 ounce of cheddar cheese.

Friday night we had a cooking class, which means the Chef takes the lead on the class, and I am there to keep things rolling, making sure guests stay on task, clean up, etc.  I was still training with Jess, my trainer, when she kindly pointed out to me that while it’s nice to get involved in conversations with the guests, turns out I am there too to actually work.  I got caught up talking to a guest about cast iron grill pans! 

And I have to remember that I have to follow the Chef’s lead and not take over.  See those cast iron skillets in the middle of the table?  The ziploc bags held canned roma tomatoes, and the Chef told each of the groups to just crush the tomatoes with their hands for the sauce for the meatballs.  Since the tomatoes were in the bag already, I thought it would be easy if the guests added all of the ingredients for the sauce directly into the bag, so when it came time to add the sauce to the meatballs that had been seared, all you had to do was pour the whole bag into the pan.  Well, I didn’t actually clear that with the Chef and she asked “what are you doing?!”  I explained what I was doing, and she told me nicely that I should check with her first, because if another guest asked what I was doing with another group, she wouldn’t have had a clue.  It all worked out in the end, but I have to remember in a class setting to not talk so much and make sure that I still get my job done. 😀

So wouldn’t you know that on Saturday when I woke up, I had a cold.  I’ve been immunized for everything, but still got sick.  Hannah’s had a cough for a while and I may have gotten it from her, and people at work have been passing around the same bug for a while.  All I know is that my voice sounded as if I had just smoked two packs of cigarettes!  I had my first 1 on 1 meeting with my GM yesterday.  And of course, I had to butter him up with a gift!  I made him a loaf of rosemary sea salt bread – isn’t the packaging cute?!

The last class that I had to work to cross off my training checklist was a demonstration class.  This is a class where the guests watch all the food being made, and just hang out, sip wine and beer and be served their food.  Since my voice wasn’t the best, I didn’t talk very much, but just soaked in all the information.  I anticipated what the Head Chef would need and silently hand her tongs, or a serving spoon, or grab bowls from her when she was done with them.  Afterwards she said “I hope you are my Class Assistant every time – you are awesome!”  Um, duh!  (kidding!).

I had been scheduled to do a class yesterday morning, which meant I would have gotten home at midnight, and had to be back at work at 8:00 a.m., but the class got canceled due to low participation.  Whew!  I was able to sleep in yesterday morning and just take it easy.  I feel a lot better today.  I didn’t eat breakfast until nearly 11:30, and the only thing that sounded good to me was oatmeal.  I had one remaining frozen Trader Joe’s steel cut oats in the freezer, so I nuked that and did a quick saute of strawberries, banana and 1/4 cup of Smucker’s brand sugar free pancake syrup – so this whole bowl of oats came in at just 6 smart points.

I thought a spicy soup might be good for lunch.  Hannah had bought some Asian ingredients last week for one of her dishes she made when I was at work.  I had leftover rotisserie chicken, bok choy, fresh ginger, carrots, and 1/2 a can of light coconut milk, so I quickly decided that Tom Kha Gai soup would be perfect.  I had a recollection that I may have made something similar, and I did find a similar recipe that I made with packaged chicken noodle soup.   I had to laugh at my 2009 photography though – how did I think this would be remotely appetizing?!

Here is the dish I made yesterday:

[sp_recipe]

Those were the noodles I used – I love having them on hand because they literally cook in seconds after you place them in boiling water and you can directly add them to your soup.  This was so spicy good!

I have today off of work too, so I am just going to take it easy.  I do have Cooking Club tonight though!  So excited to see everyone since we took the summer off from getting together.   The theme is “last gasp of summer!”   Our Head Chef Courtney is making the entrée with a roasted salmon nicoise platter.  I’ve been assigned a side dish, and I think I am going to make an orzo/asparagus/lemon dish.  It’s bright and fresh and I think will go well with the salmon.

I hope you all had a great weekend!  Our weather is still going to be in the 80s for this week.  So looking forward to next week though – highs of 70 and lows in the low 50s – my favorite weather!!

Make it a great day!