My guilty pleasure is Asian cuisine. More specifically, Chinese takeout. Back when we lived in Atlanta, I kept the local Chinese restaurant very busy, especially after the twins were born. I ordered so often that the delivery guy began to comment on how big the kids were getting and would notice when I didn’t call in an order for a while. They even recognized my voice when I called. If we would have stayed there any longer, I would probably start getting Christmas cards from them.

Needless to say, there are not many Chinese takeout spots way out here in the country. This is a good thing since there have been plenty of nights when I would have happily called in my order for General Tso’s chicken, crab wontons, Pepper Steak, and some Sweet and Sour Chicken for the kids.

Besides being expensive, Chinese takeout isn’t very figure friendly (and I’ve got high hopes for a smaller swimsuit this year). So, as I roamed the aisles of the new discount grocery in town, I found nearly all of the makings of some very yummy lettuce cups. Healthy and tasty. It’s the best of both worlds.

Life should never be this crazy. Swirling towers of wind should never come out of the sky at 2:30 in the morning and leave you and your family huddling amongst the winter coats and wrapping paper. No one should ever have to walk outside to see the war-zone that is left in the wake of an F2 tornado. But it happens and it happened to us about a week ago and I am more thankful than you can ever imagine that we survived to tell the tale. Although I am a little tired of telling the tale, so this will be the last time for a long time.

We were so very lucky. We lost just about every tree in our yard, but not a single one fell on the house. Thank God. The roof is a little peeled up in spots but we are still dry. There is now a dead animal under my house. I could have done without that.

That’s my brother who came with my Dad at 7AM to help us try to clean up. He’s 6’3″. That is the tree that didn’t hit my babies’ bedroom.It’s about 30 feet tall.

They got it worse on the other side of that hill though. My friend, Brandy, lost her house and because of her quick reactions none of her family was injured.

Lots of other folks lost everything. Those who didn’t will be paying to fix the damage for quite a while. The community has been so supportive and caring. The outpouring of love has been amazing.

There is a benefit at The Old Coble Store this Saturday if you are in the area and would like to help out. If you are not in the area and would still like to help out you can call First Farmers & Merchants Bank to donate at (931) 729-3522. I urge you to do so. This is a poor community with many families scraping by long before a  tornado came through.

So this week, for us, has been crazy and emotional and busy and we are slowly returning to some kind of normal. And normal for me is holing up in the kitchen and playing with my food. This pepper dish is one I have had rolling around in my head for a while. Its one of those comfort food dishes, perfect for a time like this.

 The turkey sandwich is the iconic Day-after-Thanksgiving food for most Americans and our household is no exception. Members of our family have been known to nearly chase you around the house with a turkey sandwich like some kind of turkey sandwich hustler. As if the fate of the world depended upon that turkey being eaten…and soon! No one shall be allowed to go Black Friday shopping unless a turkey sandwich has been consumed. It’s pretty serious stuff.

The thing about a turkey sandwich, though, is that they aren’t all that exciting. Bread, mayo, cheese lettuce, maybe some tomato. Sounds like the typical lunch box fare to me. I like to jazz things up a bit and the best jazz-in-a-bottle you can buy is Sriracha sauce.

Sriracha may be the best thing to ever come out of the Asian aisle in the grocery store. It’s a spicy ( but not too spicy) sauce that has a lingering heat that makes everything better. We put it on anything here; eggs, toast, fried chicken, stir fry, the list goes on and on. And it really does wonders for a turkey wrap especially paired up with the avocado. Make sure you get the big bottle of Sriracha. You are going to need it.

The funniest thing happened the day before Thanksgiving 6 years ago. There I was, big as a barn, pulling a ham out of the oven. It had been a long day of cooking so I went to lay down for a nap and as soon as my head hit the pillow – POP!- my water broke and my two babies were on their way. Five hours and some good drugs later, my husband and I were blessed with two healthy children. Our families ate the Thanksgiving dinner without us (they did bring us leftovers), but we couldn’t have been more thankful for the Thanksgiving gift we received. Since then, we have experienced all of the ups and downs that having young twins brings, and every year around Thanksgiving, we celebrate the gift we have been given.

There fore, this year (like most years) we will have birthday cake with our turkey, but since I’m guessing that your family does not have a birthday on Thanksgiving, I’ll tell you about the turkey instead of the cake.

When it comes to cooking the bird, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1 – make sure you thaw your turkey properly. That means in the fridge ( which takes about 3 days) or in a sink full of cool (not hot!) water. Not sitting on top of the counter, unless you want to make your whole family sick.

2 – Keep your oven low and allow plenty of time for cooking. 325 degrees is a good temperature at which to cook, and the bigger the bird the longer it takes! Think about two turkeys if you are feeding a large crowd instead of one giant fowl.

3 – This is one is really important. Ignore the pop-up timer and use a thermometer instead. As soon as the thickest part of the breast reaches 165 degrees, TAKE IT OUT OF THE OVEN!! Cover it in foil and let it rest. It will keep cooking to 170 and your turkey won’t be dry.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all !!!

I’ve been so busy lately. The catering business is starting to pick up, the winery is getting busy, and my kids are really getting into their extracurricular activities ( Remind me to do a post about the awesomeness of taekwondo for my son).

For that reason I have been turning down a lot of products and promotions for this blog. I just feel like I may not have time to really do the product justice, ya know? So when I got an email from Barhyte foods for a new Saucy Mama “Skinny Mama” contest, I nearly passed it up. But then I remembered the last time I did a Saucy Mama contest and how much fun it was to create a recipe around a new product! (Getting my hands on some more superb Saucy Mama products didn’t hurt either) So, I joined in the contest and put my thinking cap on.

The contest is all about healthy cooking. The recipes that are submitted have to follow some nationally recognized diet ( i.e. Atkins or low-cal) By the time I got my box of delicious mustards in I had some ideas floating around in the ol’ noodle that I was dying to try. I tried a few different things. I did some potato skewers, some baked breaded chicken strips, a pretty yummy salad, but I wasn’t blown away by anything I was coming up with. Then I thought, ” What do I like mustard on? Sausage. What goes with sausage? Peppers and Onions, of course! And potatoes! Why not! With some kind of mustardy sauce! Perfect!”

I get very excited when I talk to myself, obviously.

So, I hit the kitchen and got to work and you know what? It came out really dang good. And the kids even ate it! And it’s only about 320 calories for a serving! Sweet!

The only thing left for me to do is enter this recipe in the contest. The only thing left for you to do is make this dish, vote for me, and enter the giveaway for some of your very own Saucy Mama mustard.

Giveaway rules:

Comment here ( make sure to fill out your email so that I can get in touch with you if you win) telling us your favorite healthy tip!

Facebook followers who share this link get extra entries! ( Just comment here again to let me know)

Giveaway ends March 11th!

There hasn’t been much of a winter down here in Tennessee. Take yesterday for example. It was 64 degrees outside! In the middle of February!  This weather is just crazy. We have had the odd day or two of really cold temperatures. We actually had some snow last week…briefly. I took that opportunity to make this recipe that I have been thinking about for a couple of weeks now.

So, maybe I’ve told you before that there are only 2 grocery stores in my small town. One is a local chain that does their best, but is a little expensive. (I go there to buy “weird” things like balsamic vinegar or Romaine lettuce). The other grocery is a Save-a-Lot, which I do most of my shopping at. I consider it an adventure to shop at Save-a-Lot and I have found some really great things there. Last week I found fresh mozzarella and queso fresco. They periodically have Cornish game hens and a 15lb sack of the biggest dang baking potatoes I have ever seen.

Hey, you move out to the middle of no where and then see what you get excited about finding at the grocery store.

So anyway, on a recent shopping expedition I came across this bag of alphabet pasta for $.47 each. How much fun is alphabet pasta?! It’s practically a barrel of monkeys if you ask me, so I bought two bags. I turned one bag into this yummy vegetable soup. I added some ground turkey ( $1 per pound at ye ol’ Save-a-Lot) and made it even more yummy. And the kids loved it too.

Happy New Year! I’m only about 2 weeks late on that one. I hope 2012 has gotten off to as good a start for you as it has for me. For the first time…ever I think…I have stuck to my resolutions so far. The most exciting part? I’ve lost 5 pounds. WooHoo! Five down, 25 to go. I’ve been putting a lot of focus on not eating like a pig and not drinking like a fish, both of which are tasks I still struggle with on a daily basis. But as my 30th birthday looms closer and closer, I realize more and more that nothing in or on me is 20 years old anymore, especially my metabolism. So, 1200 calories and at least 20 minutes of Zumba everyday and people are all ready telling me my face looks thinner. Hopefully soon they will start telling me my butt looks thinner too. That’s what I am really shooting for here. That and a size 8.

So, just because I am watching what I eat ( notice I didn’t say “diet”) doesn’t mean I don’t crave certain foods. Like pizza, and sausage, and cheese. Ohhh, glorious cheese. When that happens, I improvise.

Let’s face it. No one can eat just one piece of pizza. Heck, my five year olds will hoarf down 3 slices each. One slice of pizza will leave me feeling very hungry. And I don’t deal well with hungry. This pasta is a great compromise. It’s loaded with veggies, usually the odds and ends I have left in the bottom of the crisper drawer, and dotted with just enough delicious greasy Italian sausage to satisfy that greasy-Italian craving. I would love to substitute turkey Italian for regular Italian sausage, but I don’t have that option here. Maybe you do. Go for it. Plus, this recipe will make a whole pot of pasta. So, take it for lunch the next day too.

There are a couple of ingredients that I used that you may not be familiar with. The first one is the herbs-in-a-tube. This is my new favorite product. Why? Because I cannot get any fresh herbs in this town. Zero. So my monthly visit to the Kroger an hour away will now always include this stuff.

Second, is some fresh mozzarella that I found in the Mexican section of my Save-a-Lot. It’s much softer than the shredded stuff and gets all stringy and delicious. Yum.

I am so unbelievably sick of Thanksgiving food right now. We have eaten some variation of Thanksgiving more times during the last few days than I really care to think about. I don’t even want to make the turkey soup or the turkey casserole, and luckily I made a small bird so that the turkey leftovers were minimal and I don’t have to.

It is a little chilly here so a nice, hearty soup really fits the bill. This soup has a lot going for it. First of all, it’s not leftovers. Second, this is really very healthy for you and it comes in under 400 calories per serving. Plus, with all those beans and greens, you will be getting a good dose of fiber. Lastly, it’s quick to put together. It takes about 30 minutes for this soup to be finished.

After that, you can watch your husband lick the bowl. Mine did and I smiled because it was probably the healthiest thing he had eaten all week.

Thanksgiving is next week. Can you believe it? This year has just flown right by and it’s been full of exciting changes and challenges. Although the big Turkey Day is at the forefront of my mind, right now the most important event going on in my life is my babies’ birthday! They will be five this year. Five!! How did that happen? Where did the time go? How can they possibly be so big?

So, right now, I am putting the finishing touches on a Pirate Party menu. There will be hot dogs, skewered fruit and probably some cheese puffs. I know. It’s terribly elaborate. There are also plans for a treasure hunt and a tattoo parlour. And eye patches. We can’t forget those.

I did cook a Thanksgiving themed lunch for 40 people last week and this wonderful turkey roulade was on the menu. I had to buy the turkey breast and then de-bone and skin them, but you could probably find turkey breasts already skinned and de-boned in a grocery store in civilization. I don’t really have that option here. If you are out in the middle of nowhere like I am, you can refer to my tutorial on butchering your own chicken. It’s basically the same process, just a bigger bird.

This is a really delicious way to make turkey and it’s perfect for smaller gatherings or if you just want something a little different. I took a little shortcut by using pre-packaged stuffing mix ( oh, the horror!) but feel free to use your own cornbread dressing if you have some on hand.

That’s right I said meatcicles. Like popcicles, but with meat instead of…um…pop.

The inspiration came from Top Chef. (Do you watch it? If you do, let me just tell you that I’m not seeing a whole lot of creativity so far this season. Angelo and Kenny. That’s all I’m seeing. Discuss …) One of the chef’s on the last episode, Arnold I think, made some lamb kebabs on the grill and they were a hit. So I said to myself, “That is a good idea”

Now, I love anything on a stick.  Good food is always made better when you put it on a stick. So my thought was to put a meatball on a stick and grill it.

I’ll tell you right away that it didn’t go well at first. I should have gotten the flat skewers instead of the round ones, for one. And maybe shorter ones too. But once I figured out that the meat needed to be wrapped around the stick in a long, thin homogeneous mass instead of a cute little ball, everything went fine.

So, if you are at home this weekend with nothing but a package of turkey meat in your freezer, you can still be American and light up the grill…or grill-pan in my case.

Meatcicles

1 pound ground turkey, chicken, pork, or beef
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 t. crushed fennel seed
2 t. Italian seasoning
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper
2 cloves of garlic,minced
2 T basil, minced
bamboo skewers

Soak your skewers in water for 20 minutes. Mix all ingredients together.

 Preheat your grill to medium high. Shape a small handful of meat around each skewer.

Don’t make them too thick because they won’t cook near as fast. Place skewers on hot grill.

Rotate every few minutes until meat is done in the middle.

Serve and enjoy!