Blink!

That's basically how long it took to prepare dinner!


Found these on my last trip to Trader Joe's. I love that place for prepared, but not totally guilt inducing food options. They were frozen, so I just defrosted in the microwave, dumped in a Pyrex and baked for about 10 minutes at 425, finishing with a few minutes on broil (this is apparently my favorite cooking trick).

Served over a bed of whole wheat pasta, with some leftover TJ's marinara sauce and a side salad. Yay for my favorite (non-homemade) dressing from Aldi! I can't wait for lunch leftovers!

What I do all day....

In 1:40 time lapse!



(ok, this obviously isn't me, but you get the point and this is cool)

Frittata feast

To FINALLY use up the last of the eggs, YJDKIY experimented with my first official frittata. I usually fail at omelets so I was a little nervous on this.

Saute several cloves of garlic in olive oil, when lightly browned, add artichoke hearts (or asparagus). Continue saute until artichokes just begin to brown.


Beat 5ish eggs and add 2T of milk, some pepper, garlic powder and whatever other spices desired. Pour evenly over artichoke/garlic mix and add sliced olives and 2 wedges of divided Laughing Cow Original Light. Top with grated parmesan and a little kosher salt. Cover and cook on medium for about 10 minutes, careful to brown not burn (unlike me!) the bottom.


Transfer to cookie sheet if pan cannot go into oven and broil 5 minutes or so until lightly browned. Also great to make toast!


It's like an egg pizza!


Served with diced fresh tomatoes for those who desire or as is! Yum!

From the sale papers

(or email rather...I LOVE the weekly Wednesday e-VIC where I can click click away my YJDKIY grocery list). Sadly, there are fewer items on these lists these days. It seems the only thing ever on sale is junk, the produce section does offer a few rewards each week, but I thought I'd share a few of the reedonkulous items on sale this week (speaking of subsidizing all the wrong things!):

 

Del Monte Fruit Smoothie: Fruit in a box in plastic, that has to be tasty right? You could make like 12 smoothies spending the same amount on fresh fruit. Why can't I find this on their website?

 English Toasting Bread: American isn't good enough? Butter much?

Kraft 100 calorie packs Cheese Bites: This is one of my favorite food industry trends to make fun of. Hey, let's prey on people's inability to count out a serving of crackers (hey, it IS hard to count to 20) and put it in a baggie or container themselves. And, while we're at it, let's put real cheese pictures on the front to make them think it's healthy. This little packet also has 10% of your sodium RDA (in the form of MSG) and the second ingredient is partially hydrogenated oil.

Kraft Singles Melt Downs Nacho: Another winner from Kraft, because apparently normal cheese doesn't melt up to our standards anymore or something! I can't find this on their site either, which leads me to believe they don't WANT me to find it! In fact, their solution is to put in the UPC code. Sneaky. I did discover from a dieting site the following: 1 slice = 45 calories, 3g fat, 240mg cholesterol, and 240 mg of sodium. I'd really like to bawk at that ingredient list too.

Perdue Fun Shape Chicken Nuggets: Wow, I just couldn't resist. In addition to all the gross, ridiculousness that went into farming (if you could call it that) this meat, someone thought it would be a good idea to then cut in creepy shapes to make kids want it even more and then bread and cook it, package and sell it. Four, FOUR, nuggets have: 180 calories, 12g of fat, 430 mg of sodium and who knows what else. This is the business of food at it's worst if you ask me.

Money Talks?

 

YJDKIY heard a few minutes of a story on NBC last night about a new study from the journal of the Archives of Internal Medicine that suggests an 18% tax on soda and pizza would be enough to change adult eating habits such that they could lose 5 pounds a year. Thus, reducing the $147 billion per year obesity generates in health care costs. Costs sometimes, frequently, pushed into other taxes.

I certainly know the best way to motivate myself to exercise is to pay for a gym membership or training session, and I know that I couldn't bring myself to pay $5 for organic bacon that I rarely eat when the store brand was $.99.  I was also listening closely when Gary Hirshberg reminded me the most powerful means to fight the food industry is my consumer dollars, and each time I choose to buy from a socially responsible or organic company, I'm essentially voting against mass production, GMOs, HFCS and ridiculous carbon footprints.

Whether I support this particular tax proposal or not isn't the point. YJDKIY supports actions that intend to achieve better results, but I have an alternative to consider. Instead of limiting, taxing and banning these foods, ingredients from our diet, what if we do the opposite.

I've blogged about how expensive organic chicken is, how healthy ingredients cost more, how hard it is to find healthy, local products.  What if we stop subsidizing all the wrong things like corn and subsidized healthy foods ("thin subsidy")? What if we pumped the same amount of money into farmer's markets and removed taxes on healthy fruits, vegetables and meats all together? (Here is a great article on this.) After all, isn't this how Skinner's positive reinforcement theories (I had a persuasion course in college solely devoted to this!) teach us to train dogs and babies? Reward the good behavior, ignore the bad.

In fact, why not do both? Get the revenue from the sin tax, encourage producers to clean up their ingredients by the means that hits them hardest, AND make it easy to eat healthy, delicious, local food.

Perhaps I'm just on a soapbox because of my love affair with Stonyfield (a company trying to do this), or watching Food, Inc., or because I'm in the middle of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Which do YOU think would work better?

Oscar Grades

YJDKIY made a point to watch the Oscar's red carpet, since these are the beautiful people that have stylist and should be well dressed, but I could really have cared less about the actual awards...although the hosts were surprisingly funny. I wonder if Liz helped Jack out on that one? Have you noticed that actors are increasingly playing themselves in shows and movies? It really takes something special to stand out if you ask me...but you didn't.

So on with the point of the post, as there is a lot (of boring no-winners) to cover.

 

Sandra Bullock, Marchesa: B

Dress was ok, love the color, her makup was horrendous and hair too dark. Appropriate for her big night, I guess.

Nicole Richie,  Reem Acra: D

Not sure what she was thinking here, too...much (pattern, sequins, but mostly fabric) Morticia Addams much?

Penelope Cruz, Donna Karan: A-

Love the color on her, classic style, but the top was a little big/asymmetrical in a bad way

Jennifer Lopez, Armani Prive: B

She wore it well, and it was classic with style, but the color could have been better

Kristen Stewart, Monique Lhuillier: B

Love the color, but she looked uncomfortable, if mostly classy. A necklace would have been nice with that hair.

Queen Latifa, Unknown: A

I love this dress! The cut, color and accessories flatter her perfectly and she looked very Hollywood. She needs a steamer!

Helen Mirren, Badgley Mischka: A

Not only is this a great dress, it looks fantastic and appropriate on this 64yo actress! 

Kathryn Bigelow, Unknown: C+

At first I loved this dress for the color and simple style, but I think it didn't fit her well, but then again, she's a director, not an actress.

Meryl Streep, Chris March ("Project Runway"): C-

But only because I can think that I've ever seen her look polished or wear an outfit well, so this is a start. But why oh why would you wear heavy draped white fabric to the Oscars?

 

Carey Mulligan, Prada: C+

I really wanted to like this, but in retrospect, it's all over the place and too much with her hair. She was so cute in the movie....

Cameron Diaz, Oscar de la Renta: A

About time! She finally got one right, love the color, the dress the hair, she looks fantastic!

Vera Farmiga, Marchesa: B-

All the talk! I actually love the dress, the ruffles, the way she wore it, but the color is a little off for this event. 

Kate Winslet, Atelier Yves Saint Laurent: D+

She usually gets it so right. This boring bland and unflattering dress is all wrong and doesn't go with the jewels or the hair. What happened Kate?

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dries Van Noten: B

She's exactly the person to pull this off and it flattered her really well, but I don't just love seeing Miami Vice at the Oscars.

Demi Moore, Atelier Versace: A

Hold on to your seat, I think this might be my best dressed. Despite the skin-tone matching color, it all just works perfectly for her. 

 

Sarah Jessica Parker, Chanel: F

What the heck was she thinking? She looked like a preggo banana, her skin color was horrid and well, I won't continue. Poor Ferris.

Miley Cyrus, Jenny Packham: C

The dress is nice, but she's too young for this strapless and good grief child, STAND UP!

To see how these stars fared with YJDKIY previously, check out Grammy Grades!

You say pistou...

I say pesto!

 

This was mostly based on my planned recipe , but I modified it a bit for ease of preparation since I wasn't feeling the soup loving on the warmest day of the year so far! :P

1. Saute onions, garlic in olive oil, add carrots

2. Add approximately half a jar of dried basil and half a jar of garlic powder, some oregano, rosemary and black pepper

3. Add 32 oz. low sodium organic chicken broth and 32 oz. water, and bring to a boil

4. Add zucchini, potato, leek, navy beans, tiny pasta, and return to boil

5. Simmer 20-30 minutes

6. Meanwhile, prepare pesto mix (I cheated with a package)

7. Add diced tomatoes a few minutes before serving and top with thickened pesto

Do you know the difference between pistou and pesto? Basically just that pesto has pine nuts!

Rajbhog

YJDKIY rarely posts restaurant reviews, so take note! I don't know how this came into circulation, but whenever anywhere close, Rajbhog is on the agenda.

I never know what I'm eating and it's different every time I order...and it's slightly intimidating to be the only ahem, Caucasian, in the place, but the restaurant owners and staff are always super smiley and almost excited to explain the specials.

The only thing I know I regularly like is Chole, slightly spicy chickpeas

and bread, naan or rotli, which is what I had last night.

The Jeera rice is sooooo tasty and the only way YJDKIY's wussy mouth can make it through.

I'm not really sure what else I ate...but it looked something like this:

either Bhindi, which is basically okra OR

Tindora, which I think it actually was because she described it as mini-cucumber

and some kind of dal I think. There were also crunchy things on the side that looked like unsweetened kid's cereal, but I don't even know how to google to find them!

Maybe one day we won't stuff ourselves so insanely that we have room for one of the 60 varieties of sweets they stock. 

Some more photos from their Facebook page!

 

And finally, a review from Creative Loafing.  Get thee there!

You'll thank me later...

Snack time! 

What is that powdery yellow stuff in the bag? Nutritional yeast from Whole Foods adventure the other day.

 

I was recently reminded that YJDKIY was raised on healthy food, and this is a good example. YJDKIY kiddos were often served popcorn (stove top, which was a little oilier and allowed fixings to stick, which is my biggest issue with the air pop) and yeast, much to my immature tastebud disgust. "You'll thank me for this later...." And now, I do in fact like this complete protein B-complex rich tasty on my snack much better than cheese or butter.