Tater Tot Mess

This is not a recipe I'm proud I made. But it happened and it was eaten, so let's do this.

It tasted better than it looks, but it looks like a mess.

The recipe is here from BlogChef.net. I added frozen corn to mine and omitted the onion.

Again, not my proudest moment, but I'm glad it's out here and now, we can move on.

Hangover Smoothie

Let's say you have a situation in which you, the reader, are at a friend's house with your significant other and your dog watching your favorite sports team on TV. And then you start drinking, because, hey, you're hanging out and having fun. And then you keep hanging out and drinking because your team wins after a very exciting very long shoot-out and they never win a shoot-out and hey, look! Holiday Nog!

Not as innocuous as it seems. Beware.

And then, way after the point of no return, your friend asks your significant other "Hey, what time is your flight tomorrow?" and then you remember that he has to be on a plane in fewer than 12 hours. Crap.
Wait, where was I going with this?


Oh, yeah. Hangover Smoothie.


So, I've really been into smoothies for a few weeks now. Like, make one everyday kind of into them. I figured (given that this particular morning the mere thought of any kind of food gave my tummy the heaves) I could slurp down some goodness and it would cure all my ills. So, I blended. 


Now, I'm going to give you my "recipe." But, smoothie making is not an exact science. Be loose and liberal with your measurements. 



For example this is a scoop of OJ concentrate:


See? Be loose and liberal. It's a smoothie. Not actual science.




Hangover Smoothie


1/2 cup Orange Juice 
2 scoops frozen orange juice concentrate (the 100% juice kind)
2 spoonfuls yogurt
2 tablespoons fiber powder (e.g. Benefiber, Brand X dissolvable fiber)
20g protein powder (vanilla or unflavored)
1 scoop greens powder (preferably orange flavored)
ice


Blend until smoothie-like consistency.Drink up, take some vitamins and aspirin, and watch 8+ hours of Biggest Loser on Netflix. 

Action shot.

Ok, so it's not pretty. But it's tasty. Put it in a pretty glass with a straw. That's my prescription anyway. 

Broccoli!!!

Confession:

I 

love

taking

pictures

of 

broccoli.

Double Pie!

Wow, what I could do with this.

Chicago Metallic Non-Stick 9-Inch Split Decision Pie Pan

Breakfast Salad

Yes, it's a breakfast salad. Now stay with me - I didn't say you have to eat it for breakfast. I'm sure a lovely, educated person such as you has heard of brinner? 

This lovely image is Romaine lettuce, grapes, bacon, buttered toast, and 2 panko-crusted fried hard boiled eggs. Now, the recipe, from Circle B Kitchen, is for soft-boiled eggs, but I don't like runny yolks. 

Tip: When you fry the eggs - put them in the oil with a spoon or something to turn them over. Otherwise, they will stick to the bottom. 

Even though these are fried, they aren't greasy, and they do taste amazing. 


Mmmmm.... breakfast salad. 

Time to Clean-ish

Today, fueled by a fairly successful self-made espresso & milk, I decided to organize the food cabinet. We have very little kitchen space and I have a tendency to just shove items in there willy-nilly.

Ta da? So it doesn't look like a lot of stuff, but when it's laid out on the counter...

Aerial shot?

Holy crap, that's a lot of crap. But I need it all. I NEED it.

And I fit it all back in nicely. Kind of. Ok, it doesn't look much better in the picture, but it's LOADS better in real life.

Also, I found that I buy too much salt (3 large containers and 2 small ones) and jello (7 boxes of assorted gelatin and pudding flavors) and we need to start eating more peanut butter (1 extra large unopened, 1 large half-eaten, 1 large mostly eaten, 1 small unopened).

I should clean more often.

Amazingly Healthy Sweet Potato Bake

Man, I'm so freaking buzzed right now. Buzzed with how awesome my dinner was! What?? Betcha didn't see that one coming.

So I've been craving sweet potatoes all day. I spent an hour on Foodgawker searching for ways to make a sweet potato into a whole meal, because that's all I wanted to eat. (I found a few.)

So anyway, I found Mama Grubbs Grub's recipe for Sweet Potato Foil Packet Tacos and it was almost exactly what I wanted. But not quite.

Using that recipe as a jumping-off point, I put in each foil packet:

• 2 cups(ish) sweet potatoes cubed-ish (see photo above) - approx 2 whole potatoes. BTW, there is a lot of ish-ing in my cooking tonight.
• Handful of fresh spinach (torn)
• 3 TBS (ish) of black beans (totaling 1 whole can)
• 1 heaping TBS (ish) of chopped tomatoes (totaling 1/2 can)
• 1/3 of 1/3 of a grilled chicken breast (Feel free to omit this. I had this leftover in the fridge and kind of just threw it in. It would be yummy and perfect for a Meatless Monday dish w/out it. It would be equally yummy with more grilled chicken.)
• 1 pat butter
• dash salt

Look how beautiful it is! All the colors! This dish is like a rainbow of yummy.Fold up the foil like a burrito.Bake for 25 minutes. Enjoy over rice/tostada/soft taco shell. I cooked gummy rice, but a tostada would be superb next time.

I can't stress how yummy and filling this was. I almost couldn't eat all of mine. But I powered through like a champ.