' I tried one of McD’s frappés this morning – the mocha one to be specific. It tasted more like a chocolate milkshake that someone put a couple drops of coffee into than anything mocha. I don’t think I’ll be getting it again.
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19Jul
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22Apr
Now, I’m not one to take herbal supplements. So many wild claims are made about them, and I really don’t know whether or not to believe it. That said, I picked up a package of The Republic of Tea’s Get Lost Herb Tea For Weight Control at World Market. The name caught my attention, so I checked out the label. It’s supposed to help satisfy your appetite and control your sweet tooth to help control cravings.
I doubted it could do that, but it was the ingredients – and the potential taste of it – that made me buy it. It’s got tropical banaba leaf, cinnamon, carob, gymnema leaves, organic roobios, and orange peel. I thought what the heck. Even if it doesn’t control my appetite and cravings, it should at least taste good, right?
The tin says you’re supposed to drink three cups a day either before or after a meal. I had my first cup of it this morning. All I can say is that it appears to work. The horrible cravings I’ve been having for chocolate are gone. And I am right – it does taste good too, even without sugar or sweetener.
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02Feb
Yes, I know it’s not Christmas, but this is what I made for Christmas Eve dinner. The sauce makes enough for two pounds of pasta, way more than we can eat at a single sitting – especially when we’re trying to cut back. It’s a Rachael Ray recipe. What else is new, eh?
The kids liked it enough that I’ll probably make it again next Christmas.Christmas Pasta
Serves 42 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
1/4 pound pancetta, thick-cut, chopped into small bits
1/2 pound bulk hot Italian sausage
1 pound combined ground beef, pork and veal
1 medium carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup good quality dry red wine
1 cup prepared beef stock, packaged in a box container or canned
2 cans chunky style crushed tomatoes (32 ounces each)
A handful of flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon allspice or cinnamon (a couple of pinches)
Coarse salt and black pepper
2 pounds penne rigate, cooked to al dente
Grated Pecorino Romano cheese, as an accompaniment
Fresh, crusty bread, for moppingHeat a deep pot over medium-high heat. Add oil, garlic, bay leaf and pancetta bits and brown for one minute. Add meats and brown and crumble them for five minutes.
Chop carrot, celery and onions near the stove and add to the pot as you work. Cook vegetables with meat for five minutes and add wine. Cook for one minute; add stock and tomatoes to the pot.
Stir in parsley, allspice or cinnamon and season sauce with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring sauce to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and cook 10-15 minutes minimum before serving. Reheated sauce only improves.
Toss pasta (cook only as much pasta as you need at the time: half a pound for every three people) with a couple of ladles of sauce to coat, then top bowl with extra sauce. Top pasta with lots of cheese and pass bread at the table.
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31Jan
The theme for many of the gifts I received for Christmas this year was gourmet treats. One of the things I got was BELLAGIO Gourmet Sipping Chocolate
*. This stuff is absolutely delicious. Forget about calories and whatnot. It’s too good to be concerned with mundane details. I like to drink it as hot chocolate – I heat up the milk, put in the chocolate mix, add in a little sweetener, and it makes a rich, slightly sweet dark chocolate delight.
*Yes, this is an affiliate link. I gotta pay for my chocolate somehow.
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15Jan
I’m going to try to make reviews of food, and things related to food, a regular part of this blog. At least once a week, you’ll find a review of some kind. This week, I’m going to be taking a look at one of Nabisco’s 100 Calorie Packs products – the Lorna Doone Shortbread Cookie Crisps.
In the past, I’ve always tried to look at the economy of products. Buy in bulk and you save money. However, you may have noticed that when you do buy in bulk, you use those things up faster simply because you have more. That’s certainly the case when it comes to cookies and other snacks. Buying in bulk doesn’t save you anything if you’re eating too much. We’ve decided we’ll spend a bit more on something if it means it has built in portion control. For me, being able to grab a single packet of something is great – it’s a single serving. For the kids, it’s great because they get to eat an entire package of cookies.
So, like the millions of other people, we’ve been buying the 100 calorie packs. We’ve tried several of them, but my favorite of the second is the Lorna Doone Shortbread Cookie Crisps. First of all, they look adorable. Little individual shortbread cookies about the size of a nickle. Don’t ask me how many of them are in the package, I don’t know, but it’s the perfect amount for a little treat, and it’s only 100 calories. There’s enough of them, however, that it makes me think “wow, there’s still some in the pack” if I eat them one at a time.
I don’t know why they call them crisps. Probably simply for marketing purposes, but I love the fact I get to eat a handful of mini-cookies. I’ve never had the regular Lorna Doone shortbreads, but the 100 calories crisps taste wonderful. They’re definitely going to be put on the grocery list again.
