Evil Tomatoes

Seriously, we have a lot of tomatoes. I was trying to think what to do with all of these tomatoes that are taking over my back yard. Frank was also having a bad day so I thought I'd be a nice wifey and make a comfort food dinner. We're trying to get back on the wagon diet-wise, and even though a large supreme pizza from pizza hut would be comforting, it's not part of the diet (and anyway, that's what we had for dinner last night . . . seriously). 

I decided on homemade tomato soup with grown up grilled cheese sandwiches. Okay, so maybe two slices of buttered carbs with cheese in the middle isn't exactly going to help my pooch, but baby steps. 

I found this recipe from Ina Garten for the soup but really changed it up, so I'll just explain it here. 

Ingredients:

Around 4 lbs of tomatoes

3 cups of chicken stock

1 large onion

4 cloves of garlic

3 tbs olive oil

1 cup of plain greek yogurt

fresh basil

salt and pepper

1 tbs sugar

1. First, prep the tomatoes. Here's the easy way to peel: remove the stems, score the bottom of the tomato with an X, drop the tomatoes in boiling water for a few seconds and then transfer them to a bowl of ice water. This makes them super easy to peel. Get out as much as the "goop" and seeds as possible and chop them up finely. Dice the onion and mince the garlic.

2. Heat olive oil in a big pot. Add onions and garlic and let them cook and get soft for ten minutes.

3. Add chicken stock, sugar, and tomatoes. Bring everything to a boil.

4. Once it has boiled, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 40 minutes.

5. Remove soup pot from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes (I didn't actually do this because I have no patience). 

6. This part is annoying but essential. Ladle the soup into a blender and blend the crap out of it until it's nice and smooth. Only fill the blender halfway or there will be a boiling hot red soup explosion. It took me 2 blender-fulls to do all the soup. Transfer the soup back into a pot. (I used a new pot, to help the soup cool faster.

7. Once the soup has cooled off a bit (mine was good to go from the combination of blending and putting it in a new pot) stir in a cup of plain greek yogurt. Also stir in as much finely chopped basil as you want. Taste it and add salt and pepper accordingly. Heat it again when you're ready to eat. 

When I cook, I generally try to replace bad things with good things. The original recipe called for heavy cream but that wasn't happening, so I added the yogurt instead. You could probably also try 2% milk or something. Just make sure your soup is a little cooled off, so that your creamy whatever doesn't curdle. I'm sure it would have tasted extra delicious with the cream, but these are the sacrifices we have to make, people. 

I also didn't use the carrots because this is tomato soup. Get your own soup, carrots.

The grilled cheese is pretty self explanatory: good fontina cheese, bakery sourdough bread, margarine instead of butter (point!). If you can't make a good grilled cheese sandwich, you should probably reassess your life.

What I ate today

Riveting title for a blog post, right?

Sometimes I get weird cravings for things and I have to have them like yesterday. This explains why I drove to the grocery store during evening rush hour today for a can of beans.

But first, let's talk about lunch. When I was 16, I went to the beach with four of my best friends and one mother. That makes five teenage girls and one mom living in a trailer on the beach for a week. Did I mention that the week before the trip, my best friend (who was there) confided in me that she was a lesbian? Oy, awkwardness. Yes, we almost killed each other and nearly drove the mother crazy. Luckily (she thought) she was a cool mom, not a regular mom (bonus points if you know what that's from). Anyway, we drove to this little restaurant/stand on the beach each morning for breakfast and got what were called Sunrise Bagels. Big chewy bagels with a thick layer of cream cheese, a big slice of tomato and some dill. So good! For some reason, eleven years later, I got a craving for one today.


I slimmed mine down a bit with a whole grain "Bagel Thin" (like a bagel with the middle sliced out, only 100 calories). I think maybe Thomas's makes them? I also used reduced fat cream cheese and used fresh basil and cilantro in place of the dill. I may or may not have also put some bacon bits on it . . . It took all of my willpower to take this picture with my phone before inhaling it.

And then, my weird dinner craving. Last weekend we went to a cookout hosted by one of Frank's employees. The guy and his wife are Turkish, and her mother lives with them. So the mother cooked all this awesome food for the cookout, which included tabouli and some kind of bean salad. I couldn't get this stuff out of my head, it was that good. Seriously, if I could eat one kind of food ethnicity for the rest of my life, it would probably be Middle Eastern. I will eat anything that is loaded with garlic, lemon and olive oil. I decided that I needed to eat this tonight, so like I said, I drove to the grocery store during rush hour.

I don't have a recipe so I kind of just guessed on flavors and it turned out awesome, though i'd like to get the real recipe sometime. I just bought the instant boxed tabouli (if you're not familiar, it's a salad made of wheat bulgur and other things) and added chopped tomatoes, olive oil, lots of lemon juice and onion.

For the bean salad, I combined a can of cannellini beans and a can of navy beans, drained. I mixed in olive oil, lemon juice, fresh minced garlic, chopped vidalia onion, parsley, and a bit of salt. Oh, and some celery for some crunch. I went absolutely crazy with the lemon juice and garlic. I'm going to smell like a garbage truck. But it was worth it.

Look, I made something!

I'm kind of notorious in my family as being a hot mess in the kitchen. And I'm really not sure why. I've never expressed great joy in cooking but I've also never caught the stove on fire or cooked something totally inedible. I think it's because my younger sister is very into cooking, so I just got pegged as the one who's not. Oh, comparisons are so great. 

Since I've started losing weight and trying to get a grip on my eating habits, it's become very clear that I need to start cooking and eating home more often. Before January (when I started "the diet") we would eat out maybe four nights a week or more. Multiple times on the weekend. As I've made an effort to buckle down and cook at home, I've realized that I kind of like cooking. I still have the slightly feminist view that I shouldn't be expected or obligated to cook every night. But if I'm doing it on my own terms, I enjoy it.

When I'm cooking, I rarely follow a recipe to the T. I substitute ingredients that I don't have or like better, I try to sneak in extra vegetables or flax seed to up the nutritional value. So the other day I decided to try the ultimate test and create a recipe from start to finish. I'd throw in some ingredients, taste, throw in a few more, taste, try something else. And what I ended up with was the perfect tasting and nutritionally packed soup! 

I entered the recipe into CalorieCount.com in order to find out the nutritional breakdown of the recipe. It earned a "Grade A" for nutritional value. Check out all that protein!

Emily's Chicken and Chickpea Soup

This tastes like homemade chicken noodle soup with less guilt.  I've taken out the noodles and added fiber and protein rich garbanzo beans (chickpeas). You won't miss the noodles! This soup is packed with so much chicken and vegetables that it is almost like a stew.  I use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store because it saves time and has a great blend of white and dark meats.

Ingredients (makes ten servings):
6 cups chicken stock
1 Chicken bullion cube
1 cup celery
1 cup carrots
1/2 onion
1 rotisserie chicken
1 can garbanzo beans
5 oz plain Greek yogurt
juice from 1/2 a lemon
6 cups fresh baby spinach
3 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
1 tsp ground thyme

Directions:
1. Dice the carrots, celery, onion, and chop the spinach. Mince the garlic cloves.



2. Add the chicken stock and extra bullion cube to a large pot and begin heating at a medium-high heat.



3.  Add the vegetables, garlic, and can of garbanzo beans to the broth.



4. While the vegetables are cooking, chop up the chicken.  Remove all the skin and fat and separate meat from the bones.  Chop or shred the chicken to the size you prefer. Add it to the soup.



5.  Add the juice of half a lemon to the soup.
6.  Add the yogurt to the soup.
7. Stir well and let the soup simmer for twenty minutes or longer.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 serving (265.9 g)

Amount Per Serving

Calories 164 Calories from Fat 23

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 2.6g 4%

Saturated Fat 0.5g 2%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 39mg 13%

Sodium 394mg 16%

Total Carbohydrates 13.0g 4%

Dietary Fiber 3.5g 14%

Sugars 3.8g

Protein 22.0g

Vitamin A 72% • Vitamin C 14% Calcium 7% • Iron 12%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Breakdown

Daily Values (265.9g)

Legend:

Fat

Protein

Carbs

Alcohol

Other

It also freezes well, so if you don't have a big family, just freeze half for later. Enjoy!

My Love-y Valentine's Day

Frank and I had our Valentine's Day date on Friday night. I wasn't planning on being around on Monday because I had to go home to my parents' house to take care of my dad following some surgery (I'll get to that part in a bit).

Since we're a) on a budget and b) on a diet, we decided to do something we had never done before, and skip the fancy dinner out. Instead, we cooked up a gourmet meal at home. It looked a little something like this:

A pound and a half of crab legs for me and a new york strip steak for him. We split a baked potato (CARBS!) and I made a spinach salad with blueberries, sliced almonds and vidalia onion dressing. With the mass amount of animal on our plates, we barely had room for the vegetable riff raff. I had a glass of Sparkletini and he had a wine glass full of Vitamin Water. We even got to eat dinner with a kitty on the table. You can't get that kind of service in a restaurant.

Then we settled in on the couch and watched a movie. I let Frank pick and had to put up with a Sean William Scott comedy called "Balls Out". He basically plays Stiffler in every movie since American Pie. I passed the time by making a crafty little banner for above our fireplace.

Then on Saturday, we headed out to my parents' house and Frank and his brother repaired the ceiling in their garage. We had lunch, visited with my sister and her fiance, and then went home for a long nap. That night, my best friend and her boyfriend came over. We made tons of apps, drank some beer, and watched Paranormal Activity 2. Cupcakes happened.

Sunday was gorgeous. We got up early and trucked it to the gym, where Frank submitted me to a lower body workout. Then, after an eye appointment, we went to a trail near our house so that frank could do his half marathon training. The trail was a mix of mud and ice, the limestone and mud mixture was like quicksand. It made for one muddy beagle and nearly destroyed UGGS. But it was so peaceful. It was around 50 degrees and I was almost tricked into believing it was the beginning of spring. I know better than that though. The sun was shining, the creek was rushing and you could hear everything melting. I took a ton of iPhone pics but will be making a separate post of out those.

On Sunday night, I drove out to my parents' house. My dad had just had rotator cuff surgery and is off of work for a few months while he recuperates. My mom works during the day so she wanted someone home with him for the first few days after his surgery. My dad is handicapped: he had polio when he was a baby so he has had braces on his leg and has walked with crutches his whole life.  So not having use of his arm is a bigger deal than it would be for someone who was more able-bodied.

I brought the dog with me and he was a TERROR. He was totally out of his element and just paced the house whining. He begged for attention every second and shit in the house twice! He has NEVER had an accident at home. Then on Sunday night, he got up and barked at every tiny noise in the house, so I slept for about an hour. I was supposed to stay until Tuesday but when Monday night rolled around I couldn't handle him anymore. My mom is NOT a dog person and his antics were causing some major tension in the house. I was completely exhausted, totally frustrated and cranky and I just started crying. 

My mom ended up telling me to go home, spend Valentine's day with my husband and get a good night of sleep in my own bed. We had realized that my dad was doing much better than we thought he would be and he really didn't need me there. I packed up my car and my obnoxious dog and left, relieved to be going home.

It was sleeting and cold. I stopped at Hallmark for a card and then at the gas station for a protein bar, bag of beef jerky and a vitamin water for Frank (this was his budget V-day gift). When I finally got home, it felt so good to be back at my own place. 

On the dining room table was a bouquet of red tulips (he knows I dont' like red roses), a box of chocolate covered strawberry and a bottle of Frambois (my fave). He was also totally stoked about his man gifts. I changed into my pajamas and then we ate the strawberries, drank the beer and vented about our day. 

After learning he had never seen it before, we watched "When Harry Met Sally". I had forgotten what a good movie that was. Then we went to sleep. It was the perfect Valentine's Day. My day went from tear-filled frustration to a perfectly comfy love-fest in a matter of minutes. It was our 9th Valentine's Day together.

Thanks Frank, for my favorite Valentine's Day yet :)