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Archive for April, 2011

Royally Refreshing

Apr 29

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Heeeellllllllllooooooooo! (Said in the voice of Jon Stewart as Queen Elizabeth…*)

*If you watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart this makes sense. :D   If you don’t watch it, then watch this link first.  Jon Stewart loves to mimic the Queen and it cracks me up.  All morning long while I watched the Royal Wedding, all I could hear in my head was his voice every time they showed Her Majesty!

Happy Friday, friends!  Were you up bright and early to watch the excitement on TV?  While I didn’t set my alarm, I was up early enough (4:37 to be exact) to start watching shortly after William and Kate said their vows.  And while I’m definitely SO over all the media coverage that’s been leading up to this, I have to admit that it’s really refreshing to have something celebratory and happy on TV.  Between the heartbreaking weather disasters around a lot of the nation lately and then the circus act that is Donald Trump and the ‘birther’ issue, it’s been really sad to watch the news.

So this morning, what a wonderful way to start the day!

Except that I’m going to completely contradict myself and muck it up with this crassness:  was it just me or did anyone else find the, er…bodice…of Kate’s dress to be oddly like Madonna’s cone bra???

I’m just sayin’…

My awesome friend and equally awesome baker, Allison over at The Sunday Flog made scones this morning to celebrate the Royal Wedding. I am not nearly that motivated.  I did think of scones, considering a run to Starbucks to pick up one of their ‘petite vanilla’ ones, but I was much too cozy in my robe so Tea and Toast would have to suffice.

(After a royally refreshing glass of fresh green juice: 1/2 cucumber, large broccoli stalk, piece of ginger, 1 carrot, 2 stalks celery and 1/2 a green apple. mmmm green!)

***

While MSP and I were out on a walk last night before dinner, it occurred to me that our next anniversary will be our 10th!  WOW, a decade flies by quickly. I can only hope that William and Kate are as happy today as I was almost 10 years ago on my own wedding day!  I was so lucky to marry my best friend and that 10 years later, he’s still my best friend.

If you are married, what’s your next anniversary number?  Any fun memories from your special day? We actually had a Vegas wedding and it was perfect!  The Little White Wedding Chapel hooked us up with a limo so we rode to the Bellagio Botanical Gardens to take some wedding pictures.  We were married on a New Year’s Day, so the gardens were still decorated in Christmas colors and it was so beautiful!

Well blog buds, my laptop seems to be experiencing a Friday slump because each time I try to upload a photo to the blog, it keeps hanging.  (Maybe the Royal Wedding is crashing the internet after all…!! ;) ) So I’m going to hit the Publish button and get started on the Friday to-do list.  It’s a long one!

Have a FABULOUS Friday!

– Shari B. =)

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Vicariously Vacationing

Apr 22

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 7 Comments

Happy Friday FitFeat Friends!

Another week has flown by in a flash and I have been a COOKING machine!

(Does that make me an OVEN??  ha ha! OK, that was terrible!)

SOOO glad it’s Friday – I’m definitely ready for a weekend NOT in a kitchen. ;)   Outside of some cheffing work, I’ve also been developing my library of client recipes – the ones this week are of the “freezable” variety for testing how they reheat and taste after coming out of the freezer, so I haven’t been taking pictures – they aren’t really pretty to look at as they are being packaged up.  This little guy was somewhat photogenic though, so I did nab a pic of him:

(BTW, would you believe that organic red bell peppers are currently $5.49 a pound???  OUCH!)

My house smells like onions and garlic all the time now.  No amount of candle burning or Febreze will eliminate it.  ;)

Here are some of the dishes I was testing/tweaking/tasting/freezing:

Tempeh NewMex Stuffed Sweet Peppers (a variation of the tomato version I did for my final presentation at school)

Southwest Healthy “Joes”

Creole Chicken with Jambalaya Brown Rice (an improved version of the one I made for Mardi Gras)

Greek Spiced Buffalo Sliders with Rosemary Thyme Mashed Cauliflower

Indian Chicken Curry with Carrots and Chard over Basmati

African Sweet Potato with Peanut and Red Beans (sounds weird, but it is delicious!)

Asian Cabbage & Daikon Pita Pockets with Hoisin Peanut Sauce

Tilapia Italiano over Herbed White Beans with Capers

Salmon and Millet Cakes with Dairy-free Creamed Spinach

Oh and one dessert (not for the freezer – I just felt like I needed something sweet!):

Peanut Butter Millet Bars (mmm – MSP liked these and he doesn’t usually like PB)

Apparently I’m aiming to vacation vicariously through my cooking – my recipe list seems to hit a lot of locations: Italy, Greece, Asia, India, Africa, New Mexico…!

If you’re wondering why I don’t have almond butter in these recipes where you see the peanut butter, there are two reasons.  One is that when I’m first testing out a recipe (and especially if I’m going to change it up to fit into a healthier food style) I don’t want to use my insanely expensive almond butter when I can use natural organic peanut butter, just in case the recipe doesn’t turn out how I had hoped.  But the other reason is that I learned that peanuts may be beneficial to my digestive system (for my blood type) – if I were to follow the blood typing nutrition plan such as “Eat Right for Your Type”.  That’s a whole other discussion that we’ll have to have sometime in another post.  So I decided to have some PB on hand as well my beloved AB and switch it up every once in a while.  If I were to fully follow the nutrition plan for my blood type, I’d need to get rid of two of my all-time favorite foods: chickpeas (what, no hummus???) and mangoes, among a list of other things.

But I digress!

I can’t believe it’s Easter weekend!  Hallelujah, the Cadbury Caramel Creme Eggs will finally be off the shelves again for the next 9 months!  Wahoo!  Those little devils taunt me and I had more than my usual share this season for sure.  Speaking of devils and creme eggs, you absolutely have to go look at this link – someone with LOADS more patience than I will ever possess made Deviled Eggs out of Cadbury Creme Eggs.  They are ADORABLE!

Do you have any big Easter plans?  Large family gatherings?  Easter dinner? If the weather holds out for us, we hope to spend our Easter morning outdoors, preferably on a little hike.  I have been easing back into exercise with Bob Harper yoga this week and it feels GREAT.  Next week I’ll attempt a little more intensity.  Thank you all for hanging with me while FitFeat has been lacking in the “FIT” the last few weeks!  It feels so great to be on the road back to normal!

Have an EGGScellent Easter blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

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Juicehead

Apr 16

Posted by Shari B. in Handy Kitchen Tools, vegan | 8 Comments

High-Dee-Hoe friends!  Any Jersey Shore fans out there?  If so, let me assure you the title of this post is not “juicehead” in the same meaning used on the show, LOL!  ;) (But I must admit my Thursday TV line-up feels a little blah now that Season 3 is over!)

Anyhoooo – I think I may actually have (partially) rejoined the land of the living.  This “cold” or whatever it is has really wreaked a little havoc on things around here.  Primarily my SCHEDULE!!  Oh yeah, and any thoughts of wanting to exercise.

I feel like my poor liver is going to be a toxic wasteland after all this, because I’ve resorted taking Advil, Nyquil, Mucinex, Jack Daniels, Ambien, you name it, if it might make me feel better, I was ready to pop it (and just to be clear, I am not taking these at the same time.  Well, except for the one night that I did have Nyquil and a cup of hot toddy which does have whiskey in it ;D ).

This bug is very stealth.  It likes to trick you into thinking you are getting better because during the daytime you feel physically OK for the most part.  But then evening hits, and BAM, it takes you DOWN in a hurry (and steals your sleep with it)!  Hence trying anything each day to see if I could get a few zzzzzzz’s.

I feel the need to do a little “cleansing” because of all this so I actually caved and got a juicer.

I’ve always been a bit “anti-juice”.  I think this comes from way back in my “Zone Diet days”.  Juice was the devil because you were getting all of the sugar and none of the fiber, which would in turn cause your blood sugar to spike.  This is partly why I prefer “blended” juices (like green smoothies) where the fiber remains for consumption.

Let me state for the record that I still feel this way about most fruit juices.

However, I think I’ve been sold on green juice.  On a recent trip, I had the good fortune of being treated to an organic, fresh, all-green juice.  It was fabulous and I literally felt a sense of ‘energetics’ in my body shortly after drinking it, almost like a caffeine buzz.

So I searched high and low for a place around where I live that makes fresh ORGANIC green juice.  I found two places about 15 miles away, but neither is using organic veggies.  Which just wigs me out when it comes to juice.  I do not want a glass of concentrated pesticides, thankyouverymuch.

The next nearest place was 30 miles – but a 60 mile round trip for juice is just a little silly.

Enter the “20% off” coupon from Bed, Bath and Beyond and I’m now the new owner of a Breville JuiceFountain.

For my first few batches I used celery, cucumber, parsley, ginger, and a little lemon.

Then this morning I got a little more brave.  This combo sounds like it should be gross but it was so good! Don’t let the red fool you though, this juice was mostly from greens.

  • 1/2 raw beet
  • 2 large stalks from heads of broccoli
  • about 1 head of romaine
  • large handful of parsley
  • about 2″ of ginger root
  • 1/4 fuji apple
  • 1 english cucumber
  • juice from half a lemon (which I just squeezed in at the end)

It made about a glass and a half of the one pictured above.  I forced encouraged MSP to take a sip, which he finally did.  Let’s just say he’ll be sticking to carrot apple juice for now.  :)

I’ll never replace my green smoothies, that’s for sure.  But I like having the option to add even a little more “green” to my day, especially while I clean all the ‘junk’ from my system over the next few weeks.

Are you a fan or foe of juicing?  If you juice, do you have a favorite veggie? My great friend Keri (owner of Om of the Rockies yoga) shared with me that she likes to include daikon radish in hers.  I thought that was genius and I can’t wait to give it a try!

Have a SPLENDID Saturday!

– Shari B. =)

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BEET This Crazy Club Sandwich

Apr 8

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 6 Comments

Well, it’s official.  I have the ‘crud’ that’s going around.  Still no voice, the uncontrollable coughing kicked in last night, the plugged ears and headache today, and even LESS voice than I had yesterday.  Whereas before I could talk kind of in a whisper, now nothing really comes out except for a few squeaks.

Sadly it doesn’t keep me from still trying to talk.  I just cannot be silent.  You know that vow of silence scene in Eat, Pray, Love?  I would never make it more than 18 seconds.

So today I wanted to make an effort to rest (so far I’ve not been all that successful at it) so that hopefully by the end of the weekend I can beat this thing.

And by resting, of course one means tinkering in the kitchen…

I saw a traditional club sandwich over at The Pioneer Woman’s site today and it sounded so wonderful.  Except for the bacon, the deli meat and the cow dairy cheese – all of which I’d end up having to pick off.  :)   But it did give me a spark of inspiration!

I’d purchased beets yesterday to roast for a salad but decided they had to be in sandwich form instead.  Here’s how my thinking process went.  First I wondered if maybe I should just do it as a wrap since beets are messy and stain everything within a 2 foot radius it seems.  Then I was wondering whether I really wanted to use all those pieces of bread to make a club sandwich (especially since it had to be a serving for ONE and I knew this wasn’t something you could really stick in the fridge for later) so I decided to make it as a ‘half’ sandwich.  Then I wondered what the heck I’d put between the other layers of the club’wich. Well let’s see, what goes with beets?  Goat cheese – which I had.  Hazelnuts or walnuts, which I didn’t have on hand, but hey how about some all natural peanut butter or almond butter?  Oranges and apples go with beets – again, no luck.  But I had apricot fruit spread.  And so on and so forth… Convoluted, I know.  It’s just how my brain works.  (And I haven’t even taken any cold medicine yet!)

And you know what else worked?  This sandwich!

Can you BEET This Triple Decker Crazy Club

In usual FitFeat fashion, this is definitely a “Build a Meal” not a recipe.  The idea of this is to figure out what you have on hand, be bold in pairing things together and you might just love what you created!

I start by putting a bunch of stuff in a pile on the counter.  Even when making a sandwich I make a MESS out of my kitchen.

Then I smeared some all natural peanut butter on half a slice of toasted Ezekial and apricot just fruit spread on the other:

In this layer went slices of beet.  Then I ‘closed the lid’ and on the top of it I smeared a mixture of greek yogurt with a little dijon plus some sea salt and pepper:

I ‘massaged’ some olive oil onto arugula (mainly so it would break down a bit – on such a narrow sandwich, I didn’t want pieces of greens falling out.  This makes them ‘stick’ in the sandwich a little better):

I layered on the arugula, some red onion pieces and some chopped fresh basil:

Next I smeared goat cheese onto the remaining halves of toast:

One half of the goat cheesed toast went face down and the top of it was smeared with a little more of the yogurt mixture, and then topped with some hard boiled egg slices:

Then the top was added along with 2 toothpicks to hold it all together for slicing:

Cut in half to make a tall tower and serve!

Did you follow all that wackiness?  Ezekial toast, peanut butter, beets, apricot spread, arugula, olive oil, basil, salt/pepper, Greek yogurt, dijon mustard, red onion, goat cheese, hard boiled egg. Did I forget anything?? Is that a Crazy Club or what?

It was awesome!  A little sweet/salty from the PB, sweet from the apricot, bitter from the arugula, kick from the onion, and creamy all over.  I think this might be the most unique sandwich I’ve ever made!  It was fun to look at and fun to eat!

What is the most unique thing you’ve thrown together with just whatever you had on hand? Did it taste amazing or did it get tossed?

Blog buds, I hope you have a FABULOUS Friday and an even more WONDERFUL weekend!  Comment lots – I’m stuck here on the couch and need the ‘virtual conversation’!  ;)

– Shari B. =)

(And thank you Ree aka Pioneer Woman for the inspiration to get me into my kitchen for some fun today!)

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Who Pushed My Mute Button?

Apr 7

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 10 Comments

Hi blog buds!

Happy Friday EVE!  I’ve missed you guys!  It’s been B-U-S-Y up here in FitFeatville!  I had a Chef Shari project that took about 4 days and then a day of side work for something unrelated.  It’s been a whirlwind since Saturday morning!  I’ve been meeting myself coming and going.  But I love it!  Things are definitely cooking right now (pun intended!).

The only downside is that I think my usually bulletproof immune system may have  succumbed to MSP’s bug.  So far it’s only in my voice, or lack thereof actually.  I woke up yesterday with little more than a whisper.  I sound TERRIBLE but I feel fine for the most part.  So I’m crossing my fingers that this is all that comes of it.  MSP is in the tail-end of his cold (or whatever he had) and it’s been 2 weeks!  I don’t want it!  I’ve got some errands to knock out today but after that, I’m going to take it easy just to be on the safe side.  And make some homemade ginger tea.  Here’s why I’ll be making it at home – I bought this Ginger Soother drink that I’d heard about before:

But didn’t look at the label until I was already almost done with it.  32 grams of SUGAR???  Really?  Well no WONDER it tastes delicious.

So today I’ll grate my own ginger, steep it in hot water, squeeze in some lemon juice and a hint of honey and have my own ‘soother’ for a lot less calories.  Nothing against The Ginger People.  I love most of their products.  I love their Ginger Chews and their jarred minced ginger.  But if I’m going to consume 32 grams of sugar in one sitting, chances are it’s going to be in the form of a Cadbury Caramel Creme Egg!   :D

***

Prior to the “busy busy” of the last week, I’d spent a bit of time ‘playing’ in the kitchen adapting recipes to use for personal chef clients.   I have to share pics with you of my two favorites.

One is a vegetarian stroganoff using tempeh in place of beef (with plenty of veggies:  mushrooms, onions, spinach, carrots) and served over wild rice in lieu of pasta.  I am crazy about this dish – and it’s a good thing because I’ll be eating leftovers from the freezer for awhile!

I also wanted to make tamales but time is of the essence on a cookdate for a client, so I can’t really spend precious minutes separately wrapping each tamale in a corn husk or banana leaf.  Solution? Put it all in a baking dish – now it’s like a tamale lasagna!  This one is also vegetarian.  Mushrooms, onions, spinach, black beans, tomatoes, raisins, almonds, corn – there are LOADS of things in this one.

Do you have a favorite food/dish that you have converted to your “style” of eating? Whether that means taking it from a meaty recipe to a vegetarian one, or from high in bad fats to lower in fats (or using better fats), etc?  What recipes do you like to tweak?

Well friends, I’m off to get those errands done so that I can hit the “pause” button on the BUSYthis afternoon!  I hope you have a TERRIFIC Thursday!  Can’t wait to hear about your recipe tweaking!

– Shari B. =)

Spring is Sprung!

Apr 2

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Hi friends!

How is your Saturday treatin’ ya?  Ours in Denver is GLORIOUS!  We’re supposed to hit 82 degrees today!  Wahoo!  I’m just about to head out to take my little Rascal for a walk so that we can both soak up some sun.

Unfortunately MSP is still super sick so he is going to stay home with old gal Riley (her hips have really been sore when we walk lately).

Poor MSP has zero voice left, he has to talk in a whisper and this cough is just insane.  I feel really bad for him and wish there was something I could do.  I’ve been making him tonics with all sorts of things:  fresh ginger, lemons, honey and even whiskey!  I’ve been keeping a steady stream of ice cream in the freezer for him, since that feels good on his throat.  Hopefully he’ll be over it soon.  If not by Monday, I’ll be hounding him to get to the doctor.

I feel lucky that I haven’t been hit with it yet, and I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t.  So many people have some sort of bug right now.  I’m eating kale, garlic, oil of oregano, you name it, just to try to keep my immunity up!

***

I have a “Chef Shari” related project that will keep me from blogging for a few days, so I just wanted to give you a heads up as to why it will be a little quiet here at FitFeat.

In the meantime I’ll share some interesting reads I came across recently.  These are commons sense things we may already know but it’s always nice to have studies confirm them.

Have a great weekend friends!  If it’s warm where you are, enjoy!  If it’s chilly and wet, hopefully warmth is on its way!

– Shari B. =)