It’s-Just-Another-Recipe-Testing Monday
I’m back to reality at home for a couple of days, and it feels good to be playing catch-up in my home office and eating in my familiar kitchen. Now if only I could get Scarlet back on Phoenix time, instead of one hour earlier!
I had a lot of work to do, and no time to waste so I mixed up a bowl of Mom’s Best Naturals Mallow-Oats cereal (from the natural foods section of the store). Think Lucky Charms minus the artificial stuff, plus 14 grams of whole grains per serving which is equal to nearly one full whole grain serving. I buy it for Scarlet for treats (yeah, sure). To add nutrition to my cereal, I typically toss in nuts and dried fruit. Today I tried a new combo of fresh bananas and pecans. Ooh, it was delightfully good. Dare I say banana pie-ish?
My intern arrived a bit later with groceries to help test recipes. First we made a meatball stroganoff dish to be used in a web show sponsored by a yogurt company. Some of you have already asked for the recipe via Facebook. Here is link to the original version. I swapped out the white noodles with whole grain and switched the sour cream with fat free plain Greek yogurt. The optional freshly chopped parsley perks up the flavor and appearance of the dish. Creamy. Savory. Delicious. I popped two more meatballs into my mouth just to be sure.
Next I tested a full-sodium, full-fat pasta sauce recipe for my Fresh & Easy presentation on Thursday. The attendees will be taste testing it next to my lower sodium version. The regular recipe turned out swimmingly and won’t go to waste in my house. I’ll conveniently forget that it contains 1/2 cup olive oil in a 4-cup yield recipe.
Then I made a batch of traditional chicken noodle soup.
After that I prepared chicken noodle soup made with less salt, lemon juice and zest, more vegetables, Bragg’s amino acids, and Bragg’s nutritional yeast seasoning to wake up the flavor.
Instead of taking the nap I longed for, I brewed a strong cup of iced orange pekoe tea and polished off the remaining chocolate cookie from the airport.
But the cookie wasn’t enough. I found an untouched dark chocolate Easter bunny in the pantry, chopped off its ear, and filled it with peanut butter. Sorry Mister Easter Bunny.
Before running out the door, I grabbed a home-concocted mix of pistachios, raisins, and cinnamon raisin bagel chips for my late afternoon snack.
My sweet tooth continued to whisper insistently in my ear. What is the deal? Oh it just dawned on me. Ladies, I bet you can figure it out. Steve had a dinner with clients, so Scarlet and I ate waffles for dinner. This is a homemade one I pulled from the freezer, then topped it with strawberries and the last dollop of cottage cheese. I got a little heavy handed with the syrup.
My A-Type personality wanted to test the stroganoff recipe once more with a different variation. Of course I had to try it. I liked the first version better. Then my B-type personality kicked in and allowed the dishes to wait until tomorrow morning.
Estimated calories: 325 (breakfast), 700 (lunch), 650 (dinner), 340 (snacks)
Do you have a sweet tooth that just won’t be quiet some days?
I'm a chef nutritionist, not the food police. I eat cookies but make sure to eat my broccoli too.
