Breakfast, again

One of the biggest things you can do to be green, and the most cost effective, is to eat vegetarian. This doesn't mean salads every meal or tofu for everyone. In fact, you don't have to give up meat entirely to be green. Try this pretty simple meal for breakfast or even dinner.

Pair of Potatoes Hash Browns
1/2 chopped onion
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 tspn minced garlic
1 tspn oil (coconut or olive is my preference)
1 small sweet potato-grated
1 small russet potato-grated
1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms
3 leaves of fresh sage, shredded
ground pepper-freshly ground, I hope
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese
1 tspn of braggs amino acids or salt to taste

In a 12 in skillet, warm your oil and put in garlic, onions & peppers. Fry until onions are just translucent.
While that's happening, get your washed taters out and either grate them by hand for the best arm workout you can have on one side of your body, or use your handy dandy food processor to get your hash on. Put into your frying pan and brown for about 5 mins. Add mushrooms & cheese. Flip. Don't worry, it will break up. It's all good, this isn't a restaurant. Let that cook for another 5 mins. You want to just watch for scorching now as you let it cook for about another 8 mins.

Serves about 2 as a main with something on the side, like yogurt & granola bowls or 3 if you're serving scrambled eggs & fruit. To make more for a larger crowd, double the potatoes, mushrooms and onions, make the cheese about 3/4 cup and add another 2 leaves of sage. Enjoy.

Food Fight

I'm watching Man vs Food and I just don't get this phenomena. What's the point of taking something we really just need for survival-food-and making it into some sort of an endurance sport? The mind boggles. I'm watching 2 men eat a pizza about 24" diameter with more meat protein and fat than anyone needs to consume in a day. Or 2 days. Why? What's the point of a spectacle like this? What's worse is the fact that hunger in America is growing. More and more families can't scrape together the money for half the crap on this pizza that, by the way, the consuming duo can't finish. And the remainders-which could be a family size pizza by themselves, will be heading for the trash. I'll be honest, I'm not too fond of the culture of feast while others famine, but apart from an individual ethical stance, there's very little that can be done. Why can't people donate large meals to charity groups instead? That's a lot better than making a sport out of gluttony.

Ah well, here's another recipe. Not quite fine dining, but it's been good so far. And it stars little bits of food that are quite healthy.

1lb ground turkey or chicken
1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs or just plain breadcrumbs
2tbs of chopped garlic
about 20 leaves of fresh basil, chiffonnaded (stack them into a pile, roll it into a cigar, chop the cigar into little rolls)
1 tsp pepper flakes
1 tblsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon pepper
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Put every thing into a big mixing bowl and using your very clean, fresh washed hands, mix the whole deal together. In a large sauteing pan, coat the bottom with a nice spray of olive oil (a tsp, max). While that's heating up, with a table spoon or a melon baller, start scooping out little bits of your mix and rolling them into balls. Nothing fancy, just a firm meatball. Do this until your meat is gone. Now place those little balls into your pan and brown each side until, well, brown. This is your first step.

Now to make it a meal. Here's where you can make it different everytime. You can take half a pound of greens like spinach, or, in my garden, arugula, mince and add over your meatballs. Mushrooms go nicely and fresh from the garden cherry tomato halves. You can also just pop a big 16oz can of chopped or crushed tomatoes over this. What's nice is that extra vegetables allow you to get more out of the meal, like say, a lunch. In fact, this is a great way to hide extra vegetables that your family won't eat, like say, eggplant. Mince it fine and they'll never know. 2 cans of tomatoes, a pound of spinach, some onions, mushrooms and even finely chopped carrots drive up the nutritional value. Pour it over some long grain brown rice, orzo or rotini pasta and you have a great meal.

I've even set a spoonful of pasta over a bed of lettuce with this on top. No pics as of yet, because it get's eaten way too fast for shoots. Have fun!

MMMmmmm, pie

Still annoyed, so I'm still cooking.

That pic, up above, is the refrigerator cheesecake pie.

1 package of organic cream cheese
1 package of neufchatel cheese
1/3 cup of non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup of honey
1 tblspoon of vanilla

that be the cream cheese filling

1 bag of frozen raspberries (brought to room temperature)
1/2 cup of powdered sugar (so sue me, I used sugar)
2 tsps of lemon juice

that be the fruit filling

take 1 chocolate pie crust
put 1/2 of the fruit into the crust
then fill with cream cheese filling
add the rest of the fruit filling on top
with a fork or a chopstick,
carefully mix the 2 fillings together to create the swirl effect.

Pop into fridge for about an hour to cool, then freeze it a touch more, about another, to get it really cold for those hot days.

Serves 8, except in this sugar happy household.