Friday, October 19, 2012

Feast and forage

A foodie, I am not. Not a nwaFoodie. Certainly not a Fancy Pants Foodie. Not even on Fridays. But I do love to cook and search out new ways to bring healthy, tasty food to the table. Ever since I began my grain-free, sugar-free and a whole-lot-of-other-stuff-free diet, people have come to me asking for healthy recipes. At the same time, I hear a lot of "I could never follow your diet." I tell these folks to imagine their dinner plate. Usually it will contain some kind of meat, vegetables and then some kind of starch or grain. If you simply remove the starch then you are eating my diet. It's not really that simple (especially since I've never eaten a lot of meat), but if you think of it that way it is a lot easier to swallow (I know).  So, for this Foodie Friday edition of BLOGtober Fest, I would like to share the top recipes that I tend to share when asked.




Brussel Sprouts --From my absolute favorite food blogger, this recipe calls upon white beans and pecorino cheese to make those sprouts oh-so-tasty!

Texas Turkey Chili --A really fast and easy recipe. I prefer to use the beer it calls for, but you could easily substitute chicken broth.

Salmon patties --Kind of like crab cakes, but with salmon and almond flour. A favorite in our house.
Chicken with sage roasted vegetables --Perfect for a busy week night, this recipe uses rotisserie chicken and frozen veggies, then you can use the left-overs to make Chicken and Roast Veggie Stew

Mediterranean Chicken --this was very good, but I would recommend serving it over brown rice or even pasta (neither of which is allowed on my diet, but I think it needed something.)

Mediterranean Vegetable Stew --the recipe says to sprinkle on feta cheese if desired, but I would say that the feta cheese makes this recipe! Be sure and add a lot!!

Chicken Stir-Fry Lettuce Wraps --I love these just the way they are. Jeremy prefers the stir-fry over rice or in a tortilla instead of the lettuce.

Finally, this is similar to the recipe I used to make the vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free (did I mention delicious?) cupcakes pictured above. There are many more recipes to be found on my Pinterest board, Feast & forage. Kinda thinking this could be a series here, foodie or not.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Im'ma come back

Wow, this year has gone by so quickly. When I wrote this post in January about traveling to New Orleans for my friend's 30th birthday, I wondered what the year would bring. I also wondered what it would feel like to make that transition from twenty-something into thirty-something. I can't say that it feels a whole lot different. In fact, someone asked me my age this past weekend and I told them I was 31 without skipping a beat. I won't be 31 until March, but Jeremy had just turned 31 three days prior, so I must have just decided to go ahead and be 31, too.






One funny little antidote from my trip to N'awlins that I didn't share in my previous post was when we went out to dinner on my friend's birthday. We called and called restaurants trying to find one that was still serving their Christmas/New Year's Reveillon dinner. I had read that some restaurants continue theirs until January 6, but we did not find a single one. So, instead the birthday girl decided she wanted breakfast for dinner. We asked the girl at the front desk for a recommendation of a local place that served breakfast all day long. She sent us off to a diner down the street from the hotel. When we got there we thought we had struck gold. It looked like a little hole-in-the-wall place where only locals would eat. We were partly right. It was not a chain and there seemed to be a table of "regulars" sitting a few feet away from us. However, the food was not "local flavor" by any stretch of the imagination. The coffee was horrible (and not just compared to Cafe Du Monde), and the food left much to be desired, but our waitress was the worst! We were looking at our menus and not taking any longer than what is normal to decide on what to eat, but she kept coming back and just standing there, waiting for us to order on the spot. Finally, she realized that we were not going to just throw out an order to appease her and she announced, "Im'ma come back," and just disappeared. The rest of the trip we laughed about it and it kind of became a new catchphrase for me and my traveling companions!

I hope you enjoy this flashback to my "Love Song For the Crescent City". It's BLOGtober Fest over at Arkansas Women Bloggers, and today was promote a post from the past day.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The fair is a veritable smorgasbord

Every year around September, I get a hankering for pumpkin spice lattes and the Texas State Fair. Since massive amounts of sugar preclude me from indulging in the former, I'm always trying to find a way to experience the latter. Not just any fair will do. It has to be Big Tex. This past weekend, on a trip with my sister to visit my papa in Central Texas, I was able to feast my eyes (if not my sadly restricted digestive system) on my old friend in Dallas.


I didn't ride the ferris wheel or eat anything deep fried, but I did allow myself a taste of the best root beer in the world. Yes, it probably had just as much sugar in it as the aforementioned pumpkin spice latte, but it was so worth the ache I'm still feeling from it today, 3 days later.


I am so glad that we were able to go! Have you ever been? Are you as terrified of the ferris wheel as I am? (I love roller coasters, but the ferris wheel just gives me too much time to think about how high up I am!)

Also, this print cracked me up. Reminds me of my dad.


This post is part of the Arkansas Women Bloggers BLOGtober Fest. Fair print via Fab.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Ghosts of Halloween past




While fall is my favorite season, Halloween has never been my favorite holiday. I don't wear a costume or put up decorations. And I confess, more often than not when the 31st rolls around, I just leave the porch light off. So when the topic of Halloween arose as part of the Arkansas Women Bloggers BLOGtober Fest, I drew a big, ol' blank. 

Then I started thinking. I could write about the time I was trick-or-treating in North Carolina and walked onto a porch to find an unattended (so I thought!) bowl of candy sitting next to a scarecrow decoration. As I reached out to take my piece (only one, of course) the scarecrow moved! Or, I could tell the tale of my first (and last) experience going to the haunted houses in the abandoned warehouses of the Kansas City West Bottoms neighborhood. For me, the terror began even as we stood in line waiting to enter. Inside was a maze winding through the dark. I feared every corner, around which came some new horror. 

However, my fondest Halloween memory has to be watching Arsenic and Old Lace with friends. It became a tradition of sorts. One that I try to keep even now. Last year, I added the Cary Grant flick to my Netflix queue and then put it aside to watch on Halloween. I ending up sending it back unwatched. I hope to make up for that this year. 

"It's not a nice thing to do. People wouldn't understand. He wouldn't understand. What I mean is...well, this is developing into a very bad habit!"--Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster addressing his elderly aunts after they've poisoned and killed their 12th lonely, old man.

Monday, October 15, 2012

I fancy fall


Ah, fall. The season of cooler weather and scarves, crunchy leaves and boots, bonfires and sweaters, and steaming hot beverages and jackets. Okay, clearly for me fall is as much about fashion as it is about anything else. I'll just go ahead and say it, I'm pretty sure I dress better in the fall. It might have to do with the fact that I tend to do more shopping in the fall than in any other season. Or it may be that I'm much more comfortable in the layers, sleeves, tights and boots of fall than I am in their warm weather alternatives. 

A quick peek at my Fall Fancies board on Pinterest reveals that I'm loving leather, dots, colorblocking and those oh-so-fall textures like houndstooth and tweed. Not to mention the fanciest of my favorites for fall--peplum. Be it on dresses, tops or jackets, I'm in love!

As for the image above. I have been watching all of the old seasons of Frasier on Netflix and I've decided to channel Peri Gilpin as Roz Doyle this season. I'll leave the hair in the 90s where it belongs, but so far I've spotted her in maxi dresses, chambray and again my favorite, peplum.

This post is part of Arkansas Women Bloggers BLOGtober Fest. Check out all of the fun here.