Yumm.com life, health, fitness and other yummy things

So yesterday while I was running I was thinking about what to cook for dinner. I do that - running is a great time to let my brain wander. I don’t have to entertain my son or watch to make sure he’s not climbing over the back fence or trying to dismantle the DVD player or something. I can have imaginary conversations with people or figure out what I should have said in a particular situation. Without repercussions or far-reaching consequences I can tell people off or tell them what I think of their child’s recent behavior or what I think of their ever so charming Christmas sweater or, as yesterday, I can plan meals. I know, it’s hard to keep up sometimes the way my brain jumps around. In truth, it’s somewhat exhausting. Anyway, meatballs sounded good so that’s what we’re talking about today.

These tasty little guys are light, healthy, and so simple. We ate them without accompaniment, but they would be perfect with couscous or quinoa. Try it sometime when you’re exhausted, but still want a solid dinner.

Slightly Spicy Turkey Meatballs
(serves 2 generously with a bit for leftovers)

3/4 pound ground turkey
2 tablespoons plain breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons Italian Seasonings
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 “shakes” Cayenne pepper
1 beaten egg
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese + more for garnish
1 cup tomato sauce
3 tablespoons water
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup sliced portabella mushrooms

In a large bowl, place the ground turkey, breadcrumbs, Italian Seasoning, cumin, garlic powder, Cayenne, egg, Parmesan, and salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix the ingredients together until they are just incorporated. You don’t want to overwork it so just gently smoosh it all together until it looks like everything is mixed together.

Pour enough olive oil into a straight-sided skilled to almost cover the bottom (about 3 tablespoons or so) of the pan and turn on the heat to medium. Again using your hands, drop golf ball-sized (or just slightly larger) balls of meat into the oil. Here’s one of the tricks about meatballs. Don’t over pack the meat into a perfect, tight sphere. It doesn’t matter if your meatballs aren’t perfectly round; getting them that way is too much trouble and often results in a very dense meatball that doesn’t taste very good so don’t worry about it. Just form a nice ball, make sure it’s hanging together, and drop it in the pan.

Continue until you’ve used all of the meat. Using a metal spatula (unless you’re using a non-stick pan, of course) brown the meatballs on all sides (or most of them, it can be tough since they are basically round) - about 4 minutes per side. Once the meatballs are browned, add the tomato sauce and water to the pan. Stir gently to get it all around the meatballs. Add the sliced onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms. If you like spice, go ahead and add a few more shakes of the Cayenne. Gently stir everything up and cover. Turn down the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Serve alone or with couscous or quinoa. Garnish with grated parmesan.

Do you ever watch that show “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel. My friend who shall remain nameless is in love with Mike Rowe, the host, but that’s beside the point. The point is, it’s an awesome show. It highlights all the things that people do that “make civilized life possible for the rest of us.” That’s the truth - did you ever think about how they get those really nice clean white skeletons for biology class. Well, someone had to clean the creature off of those bones and it’s not pretty. So many things are just so not pretty…

Anyway, so they had a little 200th show retrospective last night that I caught and jeez, what a great show. It got me thinking though…are there any really awful dirty jobs for a cook? The worst I can come up with is having to clean out the chicken and the only reason I think it’s awful is because I am convinced that something is going to bite my hand when I put it in there. Nothing else is all that bad. True, someone had to get that chicken all dead and de-feathered for me to put my hand in, but that’s a separate issue. I’m wondering about dirty jobs in the kitchen itself. 

Can you think of any? While you’re thinking take a look at a few of these great Dirty Jobs clips.

P.S. I just read some of Mike Rowe’s little bloggy lists and I think I’m a little in love with him now too. He’s hard to resist, that one.

So it’s my sister’s birthday today and she is at Disneyland - for FREE! Did you know about this? Did you know that if you go to Disneyland’s website and register with their birthday deal then you can go to Disneyland on your birthday for FREE. And apparently you get a rad button with your name on it to wear around all day - so fun!

Anyway, since my sis is playing in the Happiest Place on Earth today, we are having her birthday dinner tomorrow, which means I have to wait another day before making her cake. Yes, we will be making her cake. We don’t really do store-bought cakes around here. They can be tasty and all, but we are pretty religious about homemade birthday cakes with homemade frosting. We all have our favorites; my sister’s being chocolate cake with coffee frosting.  She would be sorely disappointed if presented with a a store-bought cake on her birthday, no matter how pretty it looked. That’s the thing (for us, anyway), homemade cakes taste better because someone made it for you - not to mention they are often lighter and fresher tasting too. They taste better because someone loves you enough to put a tiny bit of time into a bowl and bake it into something yummy. Homemade cakes aren’t always the prettiest ones and they aren’t always the fanciest or most sophisticated ones, but you can be sure that they are the loveliest, sweetest, most appreciated cakes around.

Pasta is usually my go-to meal when I don’t want to cook, but I don’t want to order take-out either. Even with this gluten-free thing, it still always sounds good to me. This one I whipped up last night and I thought it tasted pretty good. The beans added a smooth, rich quality to the sweet carrots which I liked, but then I had it for lunch today and it tasted even better. There’s something about leftover pasta, it always seems to taste better the second day.

Pasta with Ground Beef, Kidney Beans and Carrots
(this should be plenty for 2 servings with leftovers)

2 cups dry Mostaccioli or other tube pasta
1/2 pound lean ground beef
1 cup dark red kidney beans, drained
1 cup chopped carrots
2 cups tomato sauce (any brand is fine if you use a jar, but plain tomato sauce is good too)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 “shakes” Cayenne Pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. While the pasta is cooking, brown the ground beef in a large skillet - you shouldn’t need any extra fat for the pan, but if you think it’s too dry, add a splash of olive oil. Salt and pepper the meat to taste.

When the meat is cooked through, add the spices, drained kidney beans and chopped carrots. Stir to coat everything with the spices. Add the tomato sauce. Stir and simmer over medium heat until your pasta is done and the sauce is hot.

Serve with the grated parmesan, a crusty slice of bread, and a fresh salad. Dinner without too much effort - love it.

First things first - please don’t buy the prepackaged corn. Yes, I know, they make it so easy by husking it for you and it’s so clean and pretty, but seriously, don’t fall for it. The cobs in those packages simply are not as tasty, fresh, or delicious as those you will choose for yourself in the bulk bin. Seriously.

Ok, now that I have that off my chest we can discuss how to choose the best possible corn cobs.

1. Don’t buy the prepackaged, pre-husked corn…oh wait, I already said that. Ok…

2. Get yourself to the bulk corn bin and start pulling back those husks. You need to look at the corn in order to know if it’s any good and the only way to do that is to peel back the husk. No, you’re not ruining merchandise. No, it’s not the same as opening a box of crackers and testing them before buying them. Just do it.

3. Look for tightly packed, firm kernels. Press the kernels gently with your fingertips. They should be nice and firm.

4. If the tips are missing a few kernels, it’s nothing to worry about. If more than an inch or so of cob has been pecked clean, leave it and move onto another one.

That’s really it. It’s not tough, but I find that people are sometimes intimidated by things that aren’t pre-packaged for them and that’s a shame because there’s nothing intimidating about having to actually prepare something. Especially corn, it’s just corn for goodness sake, and it tastes so very much better when you haven’t wrapped it in plastic for god knows how long.

P.S. One more tip - husk the corn over a garbage can. This might seem like common sense to some of us, but you’d be surprised how many people try to do over a counter or sink and then get frustrated when they have to clean up all that silk. Save yourself some time and husk it straight into the garbage.

As you may know, I’ve been trying to go gluten-free with rather haphazard results. For a couple weeks there I was really good about it and then I sort of got bored with having to think about everything I wanted to eat. Does soy sauce have gluten? (YES.) Does couscous have gluten? (YES.) Does this pasta have gluten? (MAYBE.) It’s just annoying. In any case, it was during that annoying time that I first tried quinoa.

Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-WAH) is a protein-rich grain and is somewhat similar to couscous in texture. On its own, it’s pretty boring and bland, but it mixes beautifully with other flavors and it’s one of those gluten-free superfoods that are insanely good for you so I do with it what I can.

This one bowl meal with quinoa is decidedly healthy, decidedly tasty, and decidedly easy. See what you think.

Quinoa with Parmesan, Kidney Beans, Chicken and Vegetables
(this is plenty for 2 people with leftovers)

1 cup dry quinoa, prepared according to the package directions
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup dark red kidney beans, drained
1/2 medium zucchini
1/2 red bell pepper
1 medium carrot or 5-7 baby carrots, chopped
1/2 stalk broccoli
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, Cayenne pepper and garlic powder to taste

Cut the chicken breasts into very small chunks and saute in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil until cooked through, about 7-10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Set the chicken aside.

Chop up the zucchini, bell pepper, carrot (peel it with a potato peeler before you start chopping), and broccoli into very small pieces. As an example of the size I’m looking for here, cut your zucchini lengthwise, then flip it 90 degrees and cut it lengthwise again before you start chopping. You want little pieces of veggies for this dish. Saute the veggies in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and the crushed clove of garlic. Salt and pepper to taste. Add 3-4 shakes of garlic powder and the same of Cayenne (more or less depending on your taste for spice.) Add the kidney beans and stir to coat. Cover the pan over low heat, stirring occasionally to make sure everything is getting heated evenly. You don’t want the veggies getting all soggy or mushy; really we’re just warming them up here, so only keep them on the (low) heat for about 7-10 minutes. 

Prepare the quinoa according to the package directions - it cooks up like couscous and should take about 10-15 minutes.

Once the quinoa is done, spoon it into shallow bowls. Add the chicken and vegetables, then sprinkle liberally with the parmesan. Now, it will look prettier if you don’t mix it all up at this point, but it will taste better if you do so…it’s up to you.

Hope the quinoa grows on you - it really is VERY good for you!

I have a question concerning apple pie. Let me first say that I like apple pie very, very much. I have always liked it. My grandmother made perfect apple pie. My mother makes equally perfect apple pie and I myself make a darn good one. A perfect apple pie has very few ingredients - and this is not simply my opinion, this is fact. A perfect apple pie has crust (flour, butter and water), apples, butter, sugar and cinnamon. That’s it. No extra flour, no corn starch, no apricot jam, no thickening agents of any kind.

My question is this - does anyone out there actually like those store bought pies with the gel-crap in the middle? What is that stuff? Does anyone actually like it or think it constitutes pie perfection? Do you, god forbid, make your own apple pies that way?

One of the best parts about making pie is making cinnamon sugar pastries with the little scraps of dough that are leftover.

There’s never a lot of dough left after making the pie so these little treats are small and they are gone almost as fast as I make them, though I suppose I could simply make an extra batch of pie crust if I wanted to and then I could make a ton of these treats - it’s not like pie crust is hard to make - but there’s something about only having them as a special treat that makes them taste even better.

So here’s how you do it:

Once you’ve got your pie crust all draped in the dish, tear off any extra bits you don’t need. Gather up the extra dough and smoosh it together in a ball. Roll out the dough into a long oval. You can make it pretty thin. Spread softened butter over the entire surface then sprinkle liberally with sugar and cinnamon. Roll up the dough lengthwise so you’re left with a sort of pencil-shaped thing. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes - a toaster oven is best for this but a regular oven is fine too.

Once your pastry is nice and brown you’re ready to go. It’s simple and sweet and very old fashioned, which I like.

P.S. You could also use your favorite jam or preserves instead of cinnamon and sugar; that’s tasty too.

I enjoy old-fashioned tips for cooking. Here’s a quick one from my husband’s grandmother for keeping parmesan cheese fresh for weeks…Not that cheese lasts that long in my house, not a chance actually, but it’s a good thing to do even if you plan on keeping that hunk of parmesan for only a couple of days. It’s quick and simple and it really does keep the cheese very fresh.

Lay out a piece of plastic wrap. Soak a paper towel in water squeeze out all the drips. Lay the damp paper towel on top of the plastic wrap. Place your parmesan on the paper towel. Wrap the paper towel around the cheese as your would wrap a present. Finally, wrap the plastic around the towel/cheese combo. The damp towel will keep your cheese fresh for weeks.

So what about you? Do you have any fun, folksy tips for the kitchen to share with us?? Let us hear them!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like waking up before 7am. Truth be told, I don’t really like waking up very much at all, but I’ve gotten used to it with my early riser of a child. But, under no circumstances do I think it is ok to wake up before 6am and there is no way on this green earth that I am going to be ok with getting up before 5am. I’m sorry; it’s not going to happen. Nope. Not this time. Not this mommy.

You’ve probably guessed that we’ve been having sleep issues lately with the 2 year old in our house. He was doing pretty well for a while and by “pretty well” I mean he was sleeping past 6am, but somehow he got screwed up and started waking up at 5:15, 5:20, 4:40 (though that was just once), and so on and so forth in a downward spiral of annoying sleep habits. It got so bad that I found myself unconsciously trained to wake up at 4:52 even if my son was sleeping past that ungodly hour.

So I started reading to find out what I could do about this awful new development. Dr. Spock told me to try to get him to sleep longer. Gee thanks, doc. I hadn’t thought of that. Dr. Sears told me to put a sleeping bag at the foot of my bed and tell my son to crawl in there in the mornings and to tell him to be “quiet as a mouse.” Clearly, Dr. Sears has not met my son. I also read a few blogs and one of them mentioned that extended naps sometimes can disrupt nighttime sleep and when I thought about it, my son’s naps had been getting later and later. I mean, he was sleeping for like 2.5-3 hours in the afternoons, not waking up until after 4pm. I decided that might be the problem and so worked hard on getting his naps to start earlier in the day and vowed I would limit them to 2 hours at the most. Turns out I am bad at limiting the duration of his naps (how can I possibly wake him up when I can actually get things done when he’s sleeping???), but pretty good at getting them to start earlier.

So…so far so good. We seem to be getting ourselves back into the early part of the 6 o’clock hour, which is good, but I’d love to get him to 6:30 or 7. Any suggestions?? Please??