Alright so we all know by now that fast food is just plain old not good for anyone. It makes us feel sluggish and heavy. Yes there are some better choices but they still are not that great for you. Why do we continue to go there? Convenience.
We don't have to cook, or do the dishes afterwards but sometimes life just really likes to get in the way. Like personally now my wife is back in the hospital fighting a stomach flu on top of trying to still heal from her gallbladder surgery. It's too time consuming (in my head) to go home and make anything to eat.
It takes too much time. I don't like cooking for just one person. I need to get back to the hospital, just in case.
They are all really pretty sounding excuses. Not good ones mind you, but they sure do sound pretty. Now I know most of this has to do with will power, so I'm reaching out to you, my beloved readers.
How do you deal with those impulses?
What are even some of your alternatives?
Now mind you yes I can live off sandwiches, I would just rather not. Also in my defense they take to long to make. While I do love a good one, mine normally consist of three different veggies, skillfully paired condiments and just the right bread, cheese, and meat ratio. That takes a while. haha
Honestly, what are some of your favorite power foods/snacks?
~Skadia, the not so dieting panther.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Very Veggie Soup
Over the past few days I have browsed my local grocery store and not only found some great deals, but have crafted this tasty (and cheap!) recipe. Feel free to switch out anything at all with personal taste preferences, but I found this to be simply amazing.
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, skin removed
1/3 cup baby carrots, coin sliced
1/3 cup celery, diced
3/4 cup leek, diced ( You could also use onions here but the leek is such an underused veggie and in season currently for me.)
1/2 bell pepper, diced (Roughly 1/2 cup)
3/4 cup frozen green beans (Another good sale)
4 cups beef broth (I personally used bouillon but any of your favorite will work.)
3 red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in chunks
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
First add the oil to your pot and toss in all those rough veggies. The ones that take forever to really cook. So in goes your celery, carrots, and bell pepper. Cook those down just a bit while you chop everything else up. It might seem like a skipable step, and it is, but it really adds a lot more flavor to the final product.
After that cooks for a few moments toss in the rest of your chopped veggies and pour in your broth. Add the seasoning to taste and put a lid on this one. I found leaving it just off center works the best for keeping heat in, but letting steam out.
Let that simmer for at least an hour, you can always go longer but once that smell starts drifting through the house. Good luck on waiting. Those of you with self control, I envy you some days.
Remove the ginger chunk just before serving. It also refrigerates well so feel free to make a big batch for leftovers.
The recipe above was made for 2 people (and we had a big bowl each with enough for another one tonight), so for your family you might have to adjust it. This soup (for the entire batch) cost me only about $3.
Let me know what you think, or even what parts you changed! I'd love to hear.
~Skadia, the soup crafting panther
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, skin removed
1/3 cup baby carrots, coin sliced
1/3 cup celery, diced
3/4 cup leek, diced ( You could also use onions here but the leek is such an underused veggie and in season currently for me.)
1/2 bell pepper, diced (Roughly 1/2 cup)
3/4 cup frozen green beans (Another good sale)
4 cups beef broth (I personally used bouillon but any of your favorite will work.)
3 red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in chunks
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
First add the oil to your pot and toss in all those rough veggies. The ones that take forever to really cook. So in goes your celery, carrots, and bell pepper. Cook those down just a bit while you chop everything else up. It might seem like a skipable step, and it is, but it really adds a lot more flavor to the final product.
After that cooks for a few moments toss in the rest of your chopped veggies and pour in your broth. Add the seasoning to taste and put a lid on this one. I found leaving it just off center works the best for keeping heat in, but letting steam out.
Let that simmer for at least an hour, you can always go longer but once that smell starts drifting through the house. Good luck on waiting. Those of you with self control, I envy you some days.
Remove the ginger chunk just before serving. It also refrigerates well so feel free to make a big batch for leftovers.
The recipe above was made for 2 people (and we had a big bowl each with enough for another one tonight), so for your family you might have to adjust it. This soup (for the entire batch) cost me only about $3.
Let me know what you think, or even what parts you changed! I'd love to hear.
~Skadia, the soup crafting panther
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Chicken Broth: My New Best Friend
So simple, so cheap, and so versatile! I just get the generic stuff (Watch your sales it has a decent shelf life!) and have been doing so much with it. Everything from cooking in it, replacing fating liquids with it and even using a full can to pound in a door hing pin.
Okay so maybe that last one isn't as helpful but it was at the time.
Yesterday I made the most juicy and tender chicken. It marinated all day in a wonderful mixture of soy sauce (Low sodium!), chicken broth, and lemon juice with some minced garlic and a hunk of ginger. (Sorry I will be sure to measure it out next time and post the recipe) I then sliced it really thin, think sushi thin, and put it in a pan and covered it with chicken broth and let it boil.
In less than five minutes I had juicy, fully cooked, flavorful chicken. Best part of all, only fat is what the chicken naturally has.
Another wonderful thing I have tried. Who doesn't love mashed potatoes? Now, who can eat them with all that fattening butter and milk (or cream)? Well I'm not one for using that watered down skim milk. So I had to find another option. Chicken broth? Why not?!
I made the potatoes like normal just in salted boiled water. Once they were done I added 1 tablespoon of that delicious low fat fake butter. (My honest personal favorite is I can't believe it's not butter) and just enough chicken broth to make it creamy. Generally speaking I couldn't taste that much of a difference. Like no it wasn't the exact same as what my mother made, but they were a lot closer than you would think.
You could also always add some garlic or onion or even some turkey bacon to those potatoes for some extra flavor. You'll never miss those full fat potatoes again!
Until next time
~Skadia, the chicken broth obsessed panther
Okay so maybe that last one isn't as helpful but it was at the time.
Yesterday I made the most juicy and tender chicken. It marinated all day in a wonderful mixture of soy sauce (Low sodium!), chicken broth, and lemon juice with some minced garlic and a hunk of ginger. (Sorry I will be sure to measure it out next time and post the recipe) I then sliced it really thin, think sushi thin, and put it in a pan and covered it with chicken broth and let it boil.
In less than five minutes I had juicy, fully cooked, flavorful chicken. Best part of all, only fat is what the chicken naturally has.
Another wonderful thing I have tried. Who doesn't love mashed potatoes? Now, who can eat them with all that fattening butter and milk (or cream)? Well I'm not one for using that watered down skim milk. So I had to find another option. Chicken broth? Why not?!
I made the potatoes like normal just in salted boiled water. Once they were done I added 1 tablespoon of that delicious low fat fake butter. (My honest personal favorite is I can't believe it's not butter) and just enough chicken broth to make it creamy. Generally speaking I couldn't taste that much of a difference. Like no it wasn't the exact same as what my mother made, but they were a lot closer than you would think.
You could also always add some garlic or onion or even some turkey bacon to those potatoes for some extra flavor. You'll never miss those full fat potatoes again!
Until next time
~Skadia, the chicken broth obsessed panther
Saturday, January 10, 2015
A New Cat in Town
Really, it's not what you think, however it does hold some good news for some of my normal readers. More posts coming soon. Yeah sure I've said it before, this time is different. Why you ask? Let me explain some things.
Towards the end of last year my partner got very very ill and went into the ER. A few hours later she went into surgery for the worst gallbladder surgery this Doctor had ever seen in his 30+ years of practice. It was bad (we have pics for anyone who would want to see! haha strong graphic warning on those however). Anyway a own hour surgery took three and she was in recovery for about twelve days. It was really bad.
The good news in all of this is for the rest of her life she now needs to be on a brand new diet (see there lies the new cat pun). One consisting or no red meat, low gluten, and low lactose, and low fat. She will be at about 40-50 grams per day max. So not only what I cook changes but how I cook it and the ingredients I use. That's where this blog will come in. (Finally! I swore when I made it, it would have a use.)
I will not only be posting recipes and money saving cheats on here but also different ways to change your diet for a lifestyle similar to this. Or you could even if you just want to eat better.
My promise to you will not be regular posts (life it to crazy for that kind of a promise), but for sure more. I will also be so brass to promise that all of my recipes will be flavor packed and delicious. So give them a try, who knows you might not miss that steak after all.
~Skadia the panther living in an upside down world
Towards the end of last year my partner got very very ill and went into the ER. A few hours later she went into surgery for the worst gallbladder surgery this Doctor had ever seen in his 30+ years of practice. It was bad (we have pics for anyone who would want to see! haha strong graphic warning on those however). Anyway a own hour surgery took three and she was in recovery for about twelve days. It was really bad.
The good news in all of this is for the rest of her life she now needs to be on a brand new diet (see there lies the new cat pun). One consisting or no red meat, low gluten, and low lactose, and low fat. She will be at about 40-50 grams per day max. So not only what I cook changes but how I cook it and the ingredients I use. That's where this blog will come in. (Finally! I swore when I made it, it would have a use.)
I will not only be posting recipes and money saving cheats on here but also different ways to change your diet for a lifestyle similar to this. Or you could even if you just want to eat better.
My promise to you will not be regular posts (life it to crazy for that kind of a promise), but for sure more. I will also be so brass to promise that all of my recipes will be flavor packed and delicious. So give them a try, who knows you might not miss that steak after all.
~Skadia the panther living in an upside down world
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Pepperidge Farm Pirouette Cookies - Review
It's still the weekend, so in my personal opinion I'm still on time with this. Haha Today however I am going to ramble on about cookies. What's not to love right? Even more so I'm going to talk about something new that my wife found and purchased, and I couldn't keep my hands off of.
I always knew that they had the chocolate filled wafer rolls, and the dark chocolate, but I was thrilled to learn that there is a French Vanilla flavor one. Those who know me know about that weakness. It's such a bad habit of mine that for a few months I was drinking French Vanilla flavored coffee, with matching creamer. So yes, I am an oddball. Anyway, I never knew that they had these and happily dug into one.
After a few days I realized I needed to go out and buy her another container due to the fact that most of the package had been eaten. I keep swearing the cats did it, somehow she doesn't believe me.
5/5 Stars on this one for the fact that between the light wafer like cookie, and the not overly sweet cream, they just blew my mind.
2 wafers is the serving size (who follows those? oh wait, I'm supposed to.) and only 120 calories (45 of those from fat) But for all of you diabetics out there good news, for those 2 cookies, it's only 18 grams of carbs!
The ingredients list you might not want to read, it has a lot of goop in it. So these are for sure just as a treat not a meal.
Overall there was nothing I really didn't like, only complaint I could make is the broken bits of these fragile cookies at the bottom, but they work like chips, those yummy little bits go great on something else, like ice cream!
Also there is no recipe today for these because they are just perfect all by themselves.
~Skadia, the cookie eating panther
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Libby's Canned Pumpkin
What's better in fall than the warm taste of pumpkin? Now, who had time to make their own pumpkin puree? Not me that's for sure. So I wanted to make some pumpkin buns for our (very early) Thanksgiving dinner. Figured what did I have to lose, it was only an $0.88 can of pumpkin. I was very surprised.
5/5 Stars
Ingredients: I was very surprised (and had to research a bit more) to find out that the label was right, 100% pure pumpkin.The reason I find this so shocking is because it was very very sweet. Almost like it was mixed with brown sugar already. But for only 40 calories on a half cup serving and 9 grams of carbs, it was perfect to help these buns become diabetic friendly. (Natural sugar is always a better choice)
Why I liked it: Mainly, it was super easy to work with and for the price I couldn't ask for a better product. Another reason I did like it was the punch of flavor it had. Sense it is nothing but pure pumpkin, it was nothing but flavor as well.
What I didn't like: For me, it was possibly a tad too sweet for my personal taste. But natural sugars again and I will take those over processed stuff any day, so no other complaints.
5/5 Stars
Ingredients: I was very surprised (and had to research a bit more) to find out that the label was right, 100% pure pumpkin.The reason I find this so shocking is because it was very very sweet. Almost like it was mixed with brown sugar already. But for only 40 calories on a half cup serving and 9 grams of carbs, it was perfect to help these buns become diabetic friendly. (Natural sugar is always a better choice)
Why I liked it: Mainly, it was super easy to work with and for the price I couldn't ask for a better product. Another reason I did like it was the punch of flavor it had. Sense it is nothing but pure pumpkin, it was nothing but flavor as well.
What I didn't like: For me, it was possibly a tad too sweet for my personal taste. But natural sugars again and I will take those over processed stuff any day, so no other complaints.
Pumpkin Buns
1/3 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon of pumpkin puree
2+ cups of all purpose flour (Add extra a tablespoon at a time till dough stops sticking)
2 1/4 (or one packet) Active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar (optional but is used to bring the yeast back to life for puffier rolls.)
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
dash of salt to taste
Add milk and butter in a large microwave safe bowl, nuke for about 30-45 seconds until butter is melted into the milk. Add the sugar and yeast and let it sit for about 10 min or so. Once that starts getting good and foamy, add the egg and pumpkin to the wet mix, and stir to combine. Once that's all together add in all your dry ingredients. You can sift these if you want, but I am to lazy and had a full meal to make as well so I skipped it. However I would say it would add some good texture to the buns. Once dough is all together and not sticky (oh how I hate sticky on my hands!) grease the top by putting a bit of oil in the bowl and flip the dough to coat. Let that sit for about an hour until it doubles.
Split into rolls. I got about 9 fist size rolls out of this recipe but you could very well make it as a loaf too. Let them sit on the pan for another 30 min and double again in size.
Bake at 325 for about 15-20 min. You will know they are done when you tap the top, it will sound hollow.
Let cool only for a moment, then serve.
Hope you enjoy!
~Skadia the writing pumpkin noming panther.
Friday, November 21, 2014
Neglecting this poor blog.
Yes I know it has been neglected and I have been thinking of ways to bring it back. With working 3 jobs now it has become hard to keep up on it, but I shall continue to try and try again. Tomorrow I have a day off, so I'm going to work on a review of some food products and share a recipe to go with it. So lets see if this can keep me going.
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