Taste the rainbow.

This past weekend saw some colorful highlights in the Land of Food. Starting with Friday:



Raw ground beef? Not quite... Beet, Carrot, Onion & Potato Latkes!



I saw this dish on a holiday episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate and since we had the ingredients on hand, I decided we should give it a shot. I wouldn't say it was the best thing I ever ate, but it was okay.



I liked my latkes with applesauce the most. We also tried sour cream and horseradish. Doug liked a mix of both horseradish and applesauce the best. A fun experiment, but in retrospect, it was a lot of work for not necessarily the best result. We still want to try making traditional potato-only latkes though. I've come to love beets, but I just wasn't feeling them in this particular application.

Saturday ended up being a baking day. We were invited to a holiday party that evening and wanted to share some sweet bites:



I made Green Tea Sweets. I bought some matcha powder a couple of weeks ago and while I love drinking it, I thought it would be fun to try cooking with it too. I didn't have a leaf-shaped cookie cutter, so I improvised with a palm-tree cutter instead.



These turned out pretty good! They weren't overly sweet and there was just enough sugar in the mix to cut through the bitterness of the tea leaves. They seemed to be a hit at the party, so I think a repeat batch is in order.

Doug also did some baking and made some Snowball cookies:



He jazzed up the recipe by adding vanilla extract and orange zest. Great additions, especially the orange flavor!

After partying a little too hardy Saturday night, Sunday morning demanded a good hangover breakfast:



Diner-style, but made at home. Two corn tortillas, Doug's hashbrowns, scrambled egg whites plus one whole egg, one chopped up turkey sausage patty, fat-free shredded cheddar and some green chile sauce that Doug threw together.

!!!!!

So, so delicious. And way healthier and cheaper than going out to breakfast.

That concludes our weekend in food. Hope everyone has a great week!

Chile=Comfort.

FANTASTIC dinner tonight! Thanks to Serious Eats, I came across a recipe that made my inner New Mexican sing along with a chorus of angels: Green Chile Hominy Casserole with Chorizo.

I hauled ass on my lunch break to one of the farmer's markets here in town that still had some roasted green chile for sale and stocked up. The recipe calls for 2 poblanos, but I couldn't resist replacing those with several Anaheim-style peppers. We also used turkey chorizo to cut back on the insane amount of grease that tends to accompany the regular pork varieties.



One-pan mix. Hungry Friday nights demand simplicity.



Transferred to baking dish...



Topped with the remaining cheese...



Baked to bubbly, browned perfection.



On my plate (which may or may not be sitting on legs covered in Super Mario pajama pants... Did I mention I'm an 8 year old boy?)





Ultimate southwestern comfort food. I love posole, I love green chile and I love cheese. There was pretty much no way this could turn out bad. We left out the cayenne pepper because there was already enough heat in the chile. And the chorizo had more of a smokey flavor versus spicy, so it went really well with the roasted peppers. Served with a little red wine and we are now spent with delight.

Perfect Friday meal. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

We got the funk.

Earlier this week, I was in a major funk. I found myself feasting on junk, falling out of love with healthy/whole foods and feeling completely indifferent toward exercise. I just didn't care.

What brought this phase on? I suppose underlying work & financial stress is partially to blame. But I think the bigger reason was some good ol' body hatred. Last week, I noticed more clothing items not fitting. And of course, my immediate reaction was, "I have failed."

Obviously I haven't failed in the general sense of things, but I'm still failing to love myself and my body, at any size, on a regular basis. Some weeks are easier than others. Some weeks I feel "pleased" with myself because I look slimmer than normal and/or because I've kept up with workouts and healthy eating. But it's still pretty shallow at that point; even if I say "I love myself [right now]!", I know it's not genuine because the thought is only temporary. It's never long before I start dissin' my looks and size.

Oh, healthy body image and self love. We'll be BFFs someday, once I break the habit of criticizing myself in detail and mentally kicking myself to the curb for no good reason.

Anywho. I didn't intend for this post to be a downer, but I did need to capture some of these thoughts instead of beating them down with a shovel, as if they were zombies. Dang- now I want to watch the "Thriller" video, haha.

SO, said funk ran up through Wednesday. Yesterday, I knew I needed to get a grip. I needed some fresh foods. I needed to re-kindle my love of veggies. I went shopping, found lots of goodies, got home and started cookin'.

Into the pan went: black beans, mushrooms & zucchini:



Added some cumin, salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder (forgot to add real chopped onion) and some cilantro.

At the store, I picked up something new to try:



When I see "New Mexico Style" and "Green Chile" on the same label, I gotta give it a shot. I added about 1/4 cup to the beans/veggies. While that simmered, I got a salad started:



Romaine, tomatoes, cheddar. I also grilled some corn tortillas (can you see where I'm going with this?):



Few steps later, I had myself a black bean taco salad:



Topped with guac and sour cream.



AHHH! This salad was so dope. And the chile sauce is great- lots of heat, but the flavor of the chiles still comes through. This dish did indeed remind me of the awesomeness that is healthy food.

I avoided the gym all week, but finally went this morning for a quick 30 minute session. Twenty minutes/2 miles of speed intervals on the treadmill and 10 minutes of intervals on the stair master. I didn't feel like working out for very long, so I knew I needed to put on my Big Girl Pants and kick up the intensity. It was tough, but man, I felt amazing afterward (still do!).

Came home, showered, prepped my lunch and then made one of the best Green Monster smoothies I've made to date. I haven't had one in over a month, so I'm glad it turned out so good. In the mix:

• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 scoop Designer Whey Chocolate Deluxe protein powder
• 1 scoop Amazing Grass Chocolate Superfood
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 2 huge handfuls fresh spinach

Chocolate peanut buttery goodness! And still holding me over. Love that stuff.

So boys and girls, it would appear that I no longer have the funk (sorry, Parliament). Glad I snapped out of it when I did; a) it's Friday, b) I'm going to New Mexico this weekend for family fun, amazing homemade New Mexican food and hopefully a trip to Trader Joe's and c) I re-discovered one of my all-time favorite songs by one of my all-time favorite bands:



Ah, the feeling of being a 14 year old anglophile, full of angst.

Lastly, I hope to have new book and DVD reviews within the next 1-2 weeks, so stay tuned. And of course, enjoy the weekend!

Fish burritos!

Man, I'm posting way more than I intended to this weekend! Oh well.

After roasting green chiles, we moved on to making some fish burritos. I bought a bunch of cod fillets on sale a few weeks ago, so we used some of those. Doug seasoned the fish (garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper) dusted it in flour (well, technically I did the flouring, heh) and then pan-fried it with a wee bit of oil. Then burritos were assembled:





Santa Fe Tortilla Company wheat tortilla with f.f. cheddar, one roasted anaheim chile, the last of my black bean/salsa mix, fish and topped with guacamole and light sour cream.





Deeee-lish! It was the first time either of us tried fish with green chile, but it worked pretty well. Looking forward to trying that combo with other types of seafood in the future.

Ok. I think I'm done posting for the rest of the night- promise.

The best things in life are green.

One of my favorite things in whole world: Green Chile. And more specifically, roasted Anaheim Green Chiles. It's pretty easy to find for sale in the fall 'round these parts... People roast it and sell it either at local farmer's markets or random parking lots. It's a flavor and smell that I've grown up with, thanks to my mom's New Mexican heritage.

Aside from fall, it can be tricky to find. It's available frozen year round, but the price and flavor isn't always that great. And the prices on fresh chiles in the supermarkets vary depending on the year. Well, this week, Rancho Liborio has a rockin' sale on these babies for $0.67/pound. We picked up 6 pounds and Doug is roasting the last of it as we speak. Some visuals for ya:











After roasting the chiles, we toss 'em in a plastic bag, let them rest in their own moisture and from there either freeze them or peel & chop them for immediate use. We're making fish burritos tonight for dinner, so we'll be sure to sneak some of this roasted awesomeness in somewhere. Don't ask me what else you can do with it. So many delicious options. Google if you must. Or just take a trip to New Mexico for a few days. (The latter is most recommended.)

Oh, and to make this officially "Green Chile Day," I totally found Green Chile hummus at Whole Foods earlier today. Be still, my heart.

I enjoy a lot of different foods. But there are few foods that I can say I've grown up with that not only taste awesome, but also play an important role in my family's culture and lifestyle. Green chile is one of those foods. Let's take a moment silence, yeah? .....................

...................................

[bites knuckle]

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Ok. Thank you. Now I must depart and refuel my soul with one of the best variety of peppers of all time. Good night!