Mmm, sandwiches!

Well, now that I have a little more time on my hands, hopefully I can cook and write a little more!

My sister works at Panera and gets an amazing discount. Great news for carb fiends like me, so whenever I'm near her store and she's at work, I try to stop by and grab a little something.

Tuesday, I picked up a loaf of tomato basil bread. It's got cinnamon on the top crust, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's just so trendy lately to put cinnamon in everything, and... truth is, I'm not crazy about the cinnamon love. I think it works, but the grilled sandwich I made last night tasted a little too much like French toast at the top.

Still, they were delicious. I'm at work right now, absolutely starving and craving about six more sandwiches.

Ingredients

• 4 slices of tomato basil bread
• 1 small tomato, sliced
• mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 3-4 basil leaves, chopped
• black pepper
• 1/2 small onion, sliced

Directions

1. Oh, for [stuff]'s sake, you know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

Wrap!

Ouch! Has it really been two weeks? Man. I feel like I almost never get to do anything because I feel like it anymore.

Well, that's not completely true. I did get to go hang out with The Mr. and his friend a couple weekends ago. 'Course, he lives way out in BFE, so we had to go down to Fredericksburg to get food (and it wasn't even good food, it was Tex-Mex with extra Tex).

I'm also on another eat-less-food kick, which sucks because I really like food. I like food a lot. But I've refused to get married if I weigh more than 120 pounds on my wedding day, so I have a year to lose mumbly-mumble pounds. And since I'm one of those women that just can't eat much, I'm constantly hungry (and, as a result, bitchy).

My dinner of choice for the past two nights? A very simple wrap:

Ingredients:

• 1 tomato-basil tortilla
• 2 tablespoons of hummus (I used sun-dried tomato and basil)
• 2 romaine leaves
• 2-3 tomato slices
• Freshly ground black pepper
  

Directions:

1. Spread the hummus in the center of the tortilla.
2. Add the romaine leaves, then the tomato slices.
3. Grind some pepper over the tomato.
4. Wrap! Eat!
   

This has about 205 calories. :)

Hmmm, chicken

So, I made some chicken last night--a nice and healthy recipe that I got from Clean Eating Magazine (no, I'm not part of a movement, I just like some nutritious low-cal goodness).

Unfortunately, the recipe doesn't seem to be posted on their Web site and I probably shouldn't post it here. I guess I could lend the magazine or a copy of the recipe to friends or family but... I really don't want to get sued. So I'll list the ingredients, because that's not copyrightable!

The rice on the bottom is just a pilaf with onions, dried basil and cumin. It calls for brown rice but I substituted not quite 1 cup of red rice and topped it off with a bit of white rice.

The chicken sauce is a mixture of a single-serve package of plain non-fat yogurt, garlic, lime juice and chili powder.

We thought it was entirely too bland. As The Mr. said, "If I'd ordered this in a restaurant, I'd think it was pretty good. But since it was you, I'm disappointed." I don't know about that, though... it was just plain mediocre.

The post-dinner critique, which I wrote on a sticky note and attached to the recipe, is full of notes:

• Bland
• Add cumin, pepper to chicken
• Chicken needs more spice!
• More spices in rice
• Use red rice, v. good
• Add lentils to pilaf?
• More heat in chicken

Tonight, I had a bit of carnivore guilt over buying Purdue brand chicken, so we dug out the veggie burgers that were hanging out in the back of the freezer. It was great! More about that soon!

Candied pecans!

I am the Drunken Master of the kitchen!

Yep, I got the wine munchies pretty bad, and I wanted something sweet to snack on. So, I dug through my kitchen and found the fixings to cobble together candied pecans!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon of water
• Splash of vanilla extract
• Small sprinkling of cinnamon
• Couple handfuls of pecans
  

Directions

1. Mix the sugar, water, vanilla and cinnamon.
2. Toss the nuts with the liquid, in separate batches if necessary.
3. Spread on a banking sheet. Sift powdered sugar over the nuts.
   
4. Bake for about 10 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven and toss with more powdered sugar. Let cool.
6. ANNIHILATE that stuff 'cause you've got the munchies!!

I'm sure that tomorrow I'll regret making such a huge mess in the kitchen. Right now, though? Mmmmmm, tasty!

Link time!

I am such a bad blogger. Sorry, you guys. Sad face!

Cake Wrecks, however, has had me pissing myself with laughter all day. The best ones are the last page.

Enjoy!

Salsa Verde

I'm not dead yet!

The last real thing I made was salsa verde. I made it late Wednesday night to take to a party on Thursday, and despite being a little too spicy, it was very well received. This recipe makes a whole lot of salsa, but it's easy enough to halve if you don't want so much.

Ingredients

• 14 tomatillos
• 8 jalapenos
• 1 onion
• freshly ground salt
• a tiny bit of freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup cilantro (rip the leaves from the bunch and lightly pack it into the measure)
  
• juice of 2 limes
• 1/4 cup water
  

Directions

1. Remove the husks from the tomatillos and wash off the sticky residue.
2. Slice the onion into thick rings. Do not separate the concentric rings.
   
3. Remove the stems from the jalapenos (you can wiggle off the whole part around the stem). Go ahead and wash those, too, because you just never know.
4. Heat a skillet over high heat. Cook the tomatillos on both the top and bottom sides until blackened and blistered.
   
5. Blacken the jalapenos on as many sides as possible.
6. Cook the onions until dark brown on both sides.
7. Let the jalapenos, onions, and tomatillos cool slightly, then put them in the food processor along with the other ingredients
   
8. Put the salsa into an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.

Yes, I know, I haven't blogged in a long time.

Mostly because I was a dummy and messed up the camera settings, so my pictures of delicious homemade salsa verde weren't in a usable file format. :(

Never fear, I'm going to make another batch reallllly soon to use as enchilada sauce. :D