Bacon and Mushrooms

While I am in the middle of training for the Surf City Marathon in February and both my wife are extending that training for the Way Too Cool 50K the first week in March, we were looking for something "meaty" for dinner.  To met this hankering I got a couple of Rib Eye steaks and wanted to do mushrooms.  To keep with the meaty theme, I through in some bacon and whola a new dish was born.

What you will need:

4 or 5 strips of applewood bacon gotten from the meat counter. (this provides the best flavor)
1 half medium onion - diced
2 cups of mushrooms ( your choice, I used the typical run of the mill white mushroom)

Slice the bacon into small pieces and put in a hot pan.  Cook until the bacon is almost crisp.  Throw in the onions and sweat them a bit.  Follow up with the mushrooms.  Cook the mushrooms until browned.

You will find that due to the  bacon fat, the meal is pretty filling by itself, but definitely provides a great addition to any meal.

Enjoy!!

Brian's Spaghetti Sauce

When it comes to spaghetti sauce, I am not one just to pour it out of the jar or can.  Mind you, I also will not claim that I make it from scratch either.  That said, I took my aunt by surprise when we had them over for dinner.

While anyone can do this and it is a pretty no nonsense embellishment, I am surprised when I hear that most people don't add to their favorite sauce except for the occasional meatball or sausage.

The basic ingredients are as follows:

1 bottle of Spaghetti sauce (I prefer Mushroom Prego, Ragu tends to be to sweet)
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
4 cloves of crushed garlic
1 pound of ground turkey (or beef of course)
2 cup red wine (two buck chuck is just fine)

For extra spice, I add fennel (not my wife's favorite)

So what you want to do is brown your meat with the crushed garlic (I use a garlic press).  In a separate pan (most likely the one you will cook your sauce) saute your mushrooms in a little bit of butter and 1 cup of wine.  Once they are to your preferred texture, combine the browned meat and spaghetti sauce into the pan and the second cup of wine.  Bring to low heat, and start the spaghetti.  

For properly cooked spaghetti, bring the water to a boil, place the pasta in the pan and cook for exactly 10 minutes.  The pasta will be a perfect al dente.

Now I am not big on stiring the sauce in with the noodles.  Serve the pasta then the sauce over.  If you must add Parmesan, you must.  That's it!   Tell me what you think!

Waffles Anyone?

A couple of years back we got a waffle maker.  Now for some reason I thought you needed to get waffle mix.  Silly me.  But what do you do when you want to make them for your kids and you don't have the mix.  You improvise!!

What I do is take your standard pancake mix, we use Target's Market Pantry Pancake mix, which you just add water.  This is what I do to make it a waffle mix:

2 Cups Market Pantry Pancake mix
1.5 cups water
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 packet sweetener or 1 tablespoon sugar

Mix together and pour in a oiled waffle maker and enjoy!

Tasty Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved brussels sprouts  My parents made them pretty simply by boiling them whole, then serving them drenched in butter. Simple but good.

However, I quickly learned when I married my wife that not everyone likes brussels sprouts.  In fact, she shares a common discription, they taste like dirt!

So I have played around with them in different ways and finally have found a great recipe that the whole family loves.

What you will need:

3 cups brussels sprouts, sliced in half
2 cups mushrooms, also sliced in half
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons oil oil.
3 or 4 cloves of freshly crushed garlic
Salt to taste

Place all the ingredients in a pan.  Make sure you mix in the crushed garlic and oil.  Cover the pan, and bring to medium heat.  This will cause the wine to steam the sprouts and the mushrooms.  Let them cook for about 10 minutes, until the sprouts are tender.  Then remove the lid, allowing the rest of the liquid to cook out, stirring occasionally to caramelize the remaining wine.

Your sprouts should be slightly brown while the mushrooms are firm and not slimy.  Serve hot and enjoy!

Oatmeal Berry Shake

Boy time flies.  I have neglected this blog for too long.  So to revive it, how about a nice Oatmeal Berry Shake?

This is a recipe I developed when the protein powder I got at Costco increased from $28 to $48.  I just can't justify paying that much when I can create something just as satisfying as well as healthier.  

The ingredients are as follows:


1/2 cup Trader Joe's French Style Organic Yogurt
1/2 cup Knudsens 2% fat cottage cheese
1 1/2 cups fat free milk
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 banana
1/2 of either Trader Joe's Fancy mixed berries or Organic Blueberries
2 cups ice
1 small handful of fresh baby spinach.
3 to 4 packets of Splenda

So basically you combine all the ingredients in a blender.  The key is blend the ingredients until the oatmeal will be suspended within the ice as well as completely chopped up.

Try other ingredients.  Other items I include to replace the berries include peaches, Trader Joe's pineapple tidbits, a tablespoon of peanut butter.  

The ingredients above will get you a shake that is about 500 to 550 calories.  By leaving out the banana you can reduce the shake by 100 calories.

I hope you enjoy!!! 

Chicken and Lentils Yellow Curry

So a couple of months we bought a bag of lentils.  I am a big fan of Indian food and lentils are such a great source of protein without any fat.  So I finally decided to put them to use.  This is a pretty simple recipe and very versatile for experimenting with.  

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup dried lentils

1 cup mushrooms

1 bell pepper

1 red onion

3 or 4 cloves of garlic

1 bottle Trader Joe's Yellow Curry sauce

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Place the 1 cup lentils in 3 cups water.  Bring to a boil, then cook on low for 25 minutes.

While the lentils are cooking, dice the onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms.  Cube the chicken.  In a pan, place oil and heat to medium high heat.  Place the onion and garlic (pressed in a garlic press) in pan and cook a couple of minutes.  Add the chicken, cook for a couple of minutes, then add the mushrooms, bell pepper, then the curry sauce.  Bring down to medium heat and cover.

At 25 minutes, take the lentils off the heat, and drain.  Then stir in the curry chicken sauce.  Cook for another 5 minutes.  Let cool for 5 or 10 minutes (the lentils hold their heat).  

This is a great tasting dish!!!

Product Review: 100% Whey Protein Powder

I am a firm believer that having a diet high in protein helps in so many ways.  Either in appetite control or exercise recovery, for me I try to have at least 150g of protein a day.  I typically start the day with a chocolate banana protein shake in the morning with my blueberries and oatmeal.  The problem is that protein powder can be expensive.

Over the past three years, though, we have been getting our Wellments protein powder from Costco.  With 25 grams of protein, it was a great way to start the morning. Each bag had 78 servings so it would last awhile.

Well as things typically go with Costco, they have changed their protein powder.  They now sell 100% Whey Protein Powder from Cytomax (the makers of Muscle Milk).  And to be honest, this is a nice change.  The powder dissolves very nicely.  There is no chemical taste and has a very smooth texture.  The powder has 27g of protein and has less cholesterol.  While it costs about $4 more a bag than the previous powder, it does have the 78 servings and tastes great!!!

This is how I make my shakes.  In a blender put:

1.5 cups  non-fat milk
1 banana
3 cubes Ice

Blend until banana is liquefied, add one scoop powder.  When added to the non-fat milk, there are 41 grams of protein in this shake.