Cleanin’ Out the Pantry: Palak Paneer

I have good news.
and I have bad news.
And I have MORE bad news.
The Good News is that I finally restocked my pantry with yummy groceries for some yummy new posts.
The Bad News is that there are a few more “cleaning out the pantry recipes” to torment you with until i start bangin‘ out new projects. (lol– i said bangin‘)
The More Bad News is that I didn’t make it to Round 3 in Project Food Blog… but it was good news to me! I got my wish. I wanted to make it to Round 2 and I did! I couldn’t ask for a more rewarding experience. I will for sure be entering next year (if they have one next year) and am so happy for some of my friends that made it to the next round! I am routing for you guys!
But not making it to Round 3 allows me to look through my cookbooks and say “Im gonna make WHATEVER I WANT!” and I shall! Deadlines were never really my forte…
Sundays are big cooking days for me. I plan my week, i plan my food, and then i prep. Being single, I can get away with making 2-3 new dishes per week. One dish will be LUNCH for the week and the other two recipes will alternate nights as my dinner. This plan is not for those that hate leftovers… but every week is something new and something to look forward to.
Cleaning out the pantry is not always easy…
I like fresh food. I like fresh tasting food. And when i was holding the package of Palak Paneer and preparing it, the smell of it reminded me of baby food.
Not a good smell.
Luckily, i had some fresh spinach in stock and decided to add it to the packaged palak paneer for a fresher taste. And threw in some chicken to stretch it out.
I marinated the chicken in cumin, garlic and a little bit of cilantro and a drizzle of olive oil.

I heated a pan till it was screaming hot and added the chicken tenders to the pan.

I let them cook for 4 mins on each side over med-High heat. While that was going, i steamed some rice.

I divvied up my portions for lunch and thought this photo was quite hideous. And since I am working on my plating skills i thought I would dazzle you with my newest trick:

Same dish. Different presentation.

I am looking forward to sharing my millions of photos with you!

I’ve been a busy little bee as per the usual.

Do you clean out your pantry?

Whats your go to “cleaning out the pantry” dish?

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Hey, its friday! TWO POSTS in ONE DAY all before 11am!
Story time post is up… but if some of you aren’t in the mood for a story or the sweet treat I left for you at the end of the post… here is something on the savory side.
STUFFED PEPPERS!
Yet another awesome dish i got from the Take 5 Cookbook. I have owned this book for a little less than a month and ALREADY the spine has broken! lol. I wore it out. I saw the most BEAUTIFUL peppers at the market the other day and I wanted them so badly… the first thing that popped into my head was stuffed peppers and i was even more delighted to know that my take 5 cookbook had a recipe…
but as I read the recipe, i found I didnt want to make it the way it was in the cookbook… so here’s my version with some tweaks and improvs.
I set some rice to steam. I seasoned the rice with salt and basil. While the rice was cooking, i started to cook a pound of lean ground beef.
I seasoned the ground beef with adobo… but feel free to use whatever you like to season ground beef. I mean, this will be YOUR dinner so why not season it the way you want! Oh and I think soy crumbles would work nicely in this recipe for my vegetarians (Hi Mari!). I cooked the beef until it was no longer pink and broke it up into crumbles.
When the rice was cooked i added it to the beef and stirred it around to get the rice and the beef well acquainted.

Give it a taste… it might need more seasoning. At this point I sprinkled a little bit of salt and pepper. Just cause i can.

I then grabbed my peppers. Cut them in half and removed the seeds and ribs. I filled the peppers to the top with the beef and rice mixture. Sprinkled it with sharp cheddar cheese, cover with a sheet of tin foil, and place them in a baking pan on 400* for 25 minutes.

I poured some vegetable juice into the pan… for no other reason than I wanted to use it up…lol. And it looks pretty, i guess?

Try not to eat your screen. I served myself two pepper halves because one was not enough. these babies were awesome and i shared the loot with my mom and dad who arent really big fans of the Pepper…

They asked if i had any more…

Def gonna make these again but want to try them with soy crumbles for a leaner and lower calorie pepper! yum!

Happy 4th on the 7th!

Since my family went off to Delaware for the weekend I decided to tag along with my friend and his family for their annual 4th of July tradition. In my family, we used to spend the day poolside bbqing and then finding a spot to watch fireworks. Dan’s fam kinda does the same thing… only they wake up at the crack of dawn to nab a good spot to picnic.

Sunken Meadow on Long Island has a picnic area and is steps away from the beach. The plan? Get there early to swipe a tree so we can have some shade. I was up at 5am and we hit the road at 6. We arrived at the site at 745.

And we rolled deep. Dan has a big family plus his 8 friends and we gotta a pretty big group. We threw our blankets all around our respective trees and relaxed. It was earky so the heat was not yet a problem.

Jess and i decided it was a good time to nap since the air was still cool… Around 930 i was starving… and nothing was ready. And who the hell eats a hamburger at 930? (okay, i would but it wasnt ready yet)

Breakfast of champions! Such a bad idea…

with two homemade iced coffees. It was good! When people noticed i was eating chips like i never ate in my life they grill was put on…

and someone tried to nominate me to grill. When these things happen, its best to pretend you are asleep. No one wants to bother a sleeping foodie. lol. I totally would have cooked though… but it was starting to get hot and i was sleepy. 🙂

But what a great brunch! i was supposed to make mac and cheese but was told we had a lot of food. Not picutred is about 100 hamburgers and 200 hot dogs! they were very prepared! I ate 2 hot dogs and a hamburger later on… doncha love the smell of a BBQ?

One of the kids found a crab on the beach and all the men took turns scaring the shit out of their wives and girlfriends by putting this thing near them… ah, the joy of being single LOL. Too bad im allergic to crabs… i woulda threw that baby onto the grill! ha!

We we relaxin in the ntural shade. After a trip to the beach and a rocky walk along the shore, we were pooped

and took respective naps. When we awoke we couldnt beleive our eyes. it was almost noon and there were people everywhere! and since we were hogging the tree people were RIGHT on top of us so they could steal some shade too. I was highly annoyed. Some people just dont care… And I eventually had to just deal with it. Next year, im comign with rope so people can stay out of my area!

We all got sleepy and decided we had enough… and i was nursing a sexy back burn. We left the site at 7pm. 12 hrs! gadzukes! we saw fireworks on the way home!

bad photo! but a trip that should have taken 2 hours tops took 5 hours. because we got stuck on the henry hudson pkway for 2 hours. had to be named HENRY! lol. All in all it was a great 4th! the following day i woke up early and headed to brooklyn to meet mom and dad on their way back from Delaware. They took Mickey with them.

It was my first weekend without my baby in a whole year since i adopted her. i asked if she was a good girl and they said for the most part. They learned that Mickey was quite fond of cat poop… as well as my cousins garden vegetables. And that Mickey knew how to hop a fence… Home sweet home!

Whats your favorite thing to bring to a BBQ?

No Alarm!

So i was going to attempt the whole “Move your Alarm Clock to another part of the room” thing… and i blew a fuse last night and when i restored the fuse… i forgot to reset my clock. But get this…i woke up EARLY! 6am. I went to take a nice shower and remembered as the freezing water hit my back (and shrieked) that the boiler is being repaired and I wont get a hot shower until later when i return home (shit). I should have sat down to a hot breakfast but when i opened my cereal cabinet, i got a whiff of chocolate and peppermint!
The delicious chocolate that Tiffany sent me! and I sprinkled it on my cornflakes. OH MAN. SOOOO GOOD! I love you Tiffany and you crack-licious chocolate.
I still havent been grocery shopping and plan on making a trip with the roomie… once we are home at the same time… so I had some leftover brown rice… and lots of eggs.

This made for a very interesting and Poor Lunch. thank goodness for hot sauce, salt and pepper.

and new popchips! Found this at Duane Reade and swiped a bag. Loved it so much I wrote a letter to popchips telling them i was in love and might name my first child Jalapeno PopChip Rodriguez. We can call him JP for short.

I was looking forward to dinner becuase I had a tray of stir fry veggies from TJs and a really good stir fry sauce… so at least dinner would be more than eggs.

MMM. Veggies.

And Tilapia! haven’t had tilapia in FOREVER!

I used a tbsp of stir fry suace and added some water and spices. I let it simmer to thicken up and it made a very nice brown sauce.

Piled it onto some WHITE rice and ate. It was the best stir fry ever… felt bad too becuase i didnt make enough to share.

-Whats the simplest most delish meal you have ever made?

-On your broke days what is your go to meal?

A Bonafide Boriqua

If it was news to any one of you…I’m Puerto Rican.

*GASP*

And I don’t speak MUCH Spanish

*GASP*

And I just recently lost my V Card to making ARROZ CON GANDULES or Rice with Peas- which is like a food group in any puerto rican household.

My mom had given me some Pasteles, lastly noted in a post from almost a year ago, and thought i should get over my fear of making Spanish rice. (“just do it already Mo!”)

Why am I so scared?

well, my very first pot of white rice (when i was about 12) came out like Oatmeal because I added too much water. The next pot was kind of on the raw side. And all directions I received from family were never in exact measurements (put like “this much” water and then a little bit of salt). I finally mastered white rice in my early 20’s and continued to marvel at my mother and cousin when they made delicious pots of perfect, fluffy, flavorful spanish rice.

Mom was getting at me to make a pot because Henry is Ecuadorian and NEVER had Puerto Rican food before… so it was my DUTY to get some of this stuff in his belly. And possibly use the powers of good food to make him fall more madly and deeply in love with me…

My cousin Tracey (whose hubby is a reader- WADDUP CLIFF! ) makes the best rice in the family (sorry mom), moms is a close second… until now. As I write this blog up I can honestly say that I made a seriously delicious pot of Spanish Rice. And it wasnt that as difficult as I thought it would be. My fears stem from the many days while living at home smelling moms rice cooking then hearing the slew of disappoints because the rice didnt come out right. Mom’s theory: sometimes its good and sometimes its bad- thats just the way it is…
I believe this inconsistency is what kept my fears strong- the fear of not being able to rely on good rice every time.
But alas, I have some kind of recipe that i intend to perfect to ensure a perfect pot every time.

I had most of these ingredients already in my kitchen… but try the international aisle in your grocery store or if you live in the ‘hood your local bodega. 🙂

-1/2 cup of Sofrito

– 2 cups of white rice (washed)

– 1 can of Green Pigeon Peas or Gandules

– 1/4 cup of spanish olives

– 1 packet of sazon con achiote

– 1 8 oz can of tomato sauce

– salt, pepper, oil (not pictured)

Start off by washing the starch off of the rice. When rice is washed really well- it cooks better. Don’t know why- i just do what momma does.

If you have a rice pot, use a medium one, if not use a short and wide sauce pan. Heat over medium heat 2 tbsp of oil, tomato sauce, sofrito, olives, and sazon for about 5 minutes. Its very fragrant… Don’t lick the spoon- its really salty.

I might have licked the spoon.

It smelled really good.

Moving right along, grab your Gandules. Drain them and dump them into your pot.

Then add your washed rice. Followed by almost 2 cups of water. (there goes the shady directions!) I sincerely apologize for this- for I have not yet mastered the science of the rice to water ratio. The actual recipe calls for WAY TOO MUCH water and those authentic puerto ricans out there that make perfect rice by eyeballing the water levels don’t put anywhere near the recommended amount of water. All I can say is, depending on your pot, your water should be between 1/2 to 3/4 inch above the rice.

It should look like this. Then set the flame to high to bring this to a boil. Mainly this step is to jump start the absorption process. I boiled on high for 5 minutes and then reduced to the lowest possible flame, covered and left alone for 30 minutes. If you peek at your rice it might take longer to cook, if you stir your rice too much it will come out mushy- mushy rice is an abomination.

At the end of the 30 minutes, my rice still looked like it was absorbing so i covered it again, raised the heat a teensy bit and cooked in 5 mins intervals. When it was finally done, and you can give it a taste, it will be fluffy and tender. Its still edible if its mushy, mine was a lil mushy but flavor wise- spot on! You can now turn your rice; I use the Fold method. Just bring the rice thats on the bottom to the top. Careful not to scrape the bottom of the pot because the bottom part will be a lil charred…. not the best addition to fluffy rice.

When the rice was ready, I had already prepared my pasteles (thats for another post) and served them up side by side. I have a picture of Henry’s dish, before he covered it with hot sauce. He thought the dish smelled fantastic but the appearance of the pastele left him a lil uneasy. Luckily he doesnt eat with his eyes. He hoovered this plate and another one. My darling boyfriend really loved the rice.

I think I will keep him!

And now I am inches closer to being a bonafide ‘Rican. Once I make my own pastelles I’ll be full on P-Rican.

Don’t forget to enter my Simply Cookie Gift Set Giveaway that ends Monday!

When they say on the House, they mean its NOT free…

In a few day I will be hopping a flight to Texas for the APLS Conference and won’t be seeing my family or friends for like 5 days, so we decided to have a big dinner at Sofrito. Sofrito is an upscale restaurant on East 57th and 1st Ave and they serve Puerto Rican Cuisine… Prepare yourselves for culinary porn… Here is the best sangria I have ever had! I beleive their secret lies within a bottle of Blackberry Brandy and some triple sec in a good sweet red… We each had 3 glasses of this lovely stuff.

The wait for for one whole hour so when we sat down we immediately decided to order an appetizer. I was glad i had my camera with me. This platter was amazing! It was chicharones de pollo y pernil (fried chunks of chicken and pork), fried shrip, fried calamari, tostones de mariscos, carne, pollo, y pulpo. (fried plantains served with shrimp, beef, chicken, and octopus. sooo good!
My momma and poppa… we were all smiles till we found out the appetizer was $60. So glad we took a photo of that one because we will NEVER order that one again.
My friend Dan and his wife Nechama. It was her birthday last week so we were all secretly planning an embarrassing birthday cake for dessert.
Me and the boy! He has a face! Ladies and Gents, this Be Henritos.
Me and Nechama acting like seafood bandits…we attacked the mariscos hard core.
Then my entree arrived. This is what a $25 paella looks like. Its HUGE. Its loaded. Its mine. And pretty much the best entre on the friggin menu.
Paella is safron rice with peas, chorizo, mussels, clams, lobster, and chicken along with some sliced red peppers. I had so much food in my bowl that I was giving away stuff. Henry helped me eat it by loving reaching over for rice 🙂
Dan got the fried pork chops. He loved it. I didnt try it but everyone else did. They said it was crisp on the outside and extremly juicy on the inside. and of course it was expertly seasoned.
Dad had the Roast Pork (aka Pernil) which had a crisp skin and juicy dark meat inside. Served with a side of arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and platano maduros (sweet plantains)
Mom and Nechama got the stuffed Red Snapper. Nechama’s worst fear was that her fish would be looking at her…but it was so good she didnt even care! It was stuffed with calamari and shrimp. (Dan poked out the eyes when she was done- gross)
Henry got a shrimp scampi of sorts with garlic spinach. He enjoyed it but LOVED the paella. He plans on getting the paella next time…
Then while we were eating, Henry told the waiter it was Nechama’s Birthday (its tradition for us to go to Sofrito to Celebrate a Birthday and we were happy there was an actual birthday!) so the waiter replied with “Congrats Man, I will bring your table two desserts on the house” Doesnt that mean FREE???
Right, the waiter claims to have said he will bring two of the best desserts of the house… which is very slick in my opinion. He didnt even ask what we wanted and just brought over two desserts. Tres Leches cake (on the right) and flan (on the left). Both were good but the flan was hands down the best.
After dinner Henry surprised me and took me to the rooftop garden on 5th ave. They gave us robes and blankets while we sat in the moonlight with a gorgeous backdrop.
We were given warm red robes to keep warm with blankets and had big mugs of smokin hot spiked ciders! They were delicious and hit the spot.
Dan and Nechama reported they felt like a part of a secret red robe society or a Harry Potter event.
I had a big irish coffee and Henry had a Makers Mark with maple syrup.

Special Delivery!

Looky at what I got in the mail!
Let it be known that I have never had regular POM Juice and am really curious to try it! I got 6 bottles to experiment with and foresee an alcoholic beverage recipe in the near future.

One POM bottle is 16 oz and contains two servings of juice. It contains 150 calories per serving… Or 300 cals for the whole bottle (yiiikes)It seems that the bottle looks smaller than what it is. I split this bottle with Henry. Henry is a lover of all things sweet (which is why loves me so much) and he did not like it at all…but he drank it because he knows its good for him. I found it to taste like a hybrid cran-grape juice. Cranberry tartness and grape juice consistency. It wasn’t awful but it did have a certain tartness too it.

Im thinking of using my 4 remaining bottles of POM to make:

Chilled POM soup

POM Martini

POM spritzer

POM ice cream/sorbet

Breakfast was a blueberry Chobani and a POM that I still drinking. I really want some green tea… so im gonna put the POM away. The Chobani is AWESOME. I really love the Blueberry one, But I think the Peach is still my #1.

Yesterday Morning Henry and I went to Village Diner and I had a sausage and Swiss Omelet with fries.

I’m starting to feel sick and I wanted some serious comfort food. I love this combo together. I ate breakfast around 1130.

I slept for the remainder of the day and woke up hungry at 730. Henry ordered chinese.

A word about Take Out: Its become a habit as of late to take my chinese food and eat it out of my own dishes at home. I used to eat right out of the carton and feel sick to my stomach. i come to find that restaurants pack in about 5 cups of food respectively in an order; next time u order Chinese you should measure it.

I poured myself a glass of diet soda and 1/2 cup of fried veggie rice, and 1 cup of chicken with broccoli. I ate the egg roll because those things are not yummy when reheated (in my opinion anyway). I was STUFFED! And I have more than half a trays worth of chinese food in my fridge. I am having some for lunch and the other 1/3 will be for dinner.

I came in to work today and found these on my chair:

DAMN YOU GIRL SCOUTS!!!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Crazy Pic Overload!!!

I have a bad habit of slacking off on the weekend, with respect to the blog, and then on Monday I get flustered and go nuts uploading pics and then sorting them out by day.

We are going to go over the weekend as it happened.

FRIDAY
On Friday after work, it was a coworkers birthday so we all headed over to Whiskey Tavern for Happy Hour.

My First Drink was a pitiful Dirty martini. It was too dirty, It was incredibly cloudy and they used the cheap stuff *blech*, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round was a very safe and yummy Vodka Tonic. Thats my “go to” drink when I go out.
This was dinner. I only paid $9 for a Chicken Florentine burger. The fries were perfect. But the chicken was a little tough. A Little spicy mustard and dab of mayo cleared that problem right up!
That is ONE Mamoth Burger! I looked at it and felt overwhelmed because i imagined a $9 meal in the city would be smaller. Quite the bang for my buck! I was hoping to NOT eat this whole thing…

Drinking leads to mindless munching… and I ate that WHOLE thing. Except the napkin of course.
Went home, went to bed because Saturdays I have TAP CLASS!

SATURDAY
Alarm clock went off and I was happy to NOT have a hangover (who the hell wants to bounce around with a hangover)

I made a super healthy breakfast of Oatmeal with cinnamon and walnuts.

And I MUST have my vitamins with all the sickies around!

Looks like Orange Juice. Tastes like crushed Orange Vitamins. I usually put this in Orange Juice but I was all out so i used water. Chug Chug Chug.
I got lost on my way to tap class because our studio moved to a FURTHER part of Queens and Im a Brooklyn Girl. I had to take the bus and I am not good with the bus. So after witnessing a man beatup his girlfriend in Jamaica Queens, being offered weed on Parsons and Archer, someone asking me to marry them at the bus stop and the perv that faced the back of the bus to stare at me I made it to class. Next week Im carrying Pepper Spray. Class went well. We were productive. I, as usual, had tourettes in class; because when i cant nail a combination i curse.
Went home to moms house and freeloaded.

Thanks to Missy and her wraps, I made a Smoked Turkey, Meunster Cheese and Roast pepper wrap.

Wrap-tastic!I was geared up to go to Michael’s 5th anniversary of his 21st Birthday (or 26th Birthday to all the old fogies) and I got so sick all of a sudden. I had a splitting headache and got chills, a fever, and felt really dizzy. My dad took me home and I missed the party! I was so bummed. Later that evening, I ate some chicken fried rice. And then I splurged on a cupcake my bro brought home from work.

Went to bed with an ice pack on my face.

SUNDAY
I felt pretty rotten. Stupid headache. Everything else felt better but I could not open my eyes, the light was sooo bright. And when I moved I hurt like hell. It was definitely a sinus headache. I made some breakfast and realized it was time to go food shopping.
No bread around so i made an egg with some grits. Not exciting at all. But it filled me up. I rummaged through the cabinets and fridge and made my shopping list. I also took out a Beef Tenderloin to defrost for Dinner.

I seasoned a 3 lb tenderloin with some Montreal Steak Seasoning. Its a coarse rub with pepper, garlic, salt, and some other delicious spices. I preheated the oven to 425.

And placed the tenderloin in a baking dish with carrots and potatoes. I covered with foil and cooked for 50 minutes. It was 20 minutes in the oven for every pound of meat.

Next time I will cook for less time. The meat was a little one the chewy side. To accompany the meat, I made some Risotto. I kind of BSed this recipe but what else is new?I took some arborio rice (or med grain rice) and tossed it in some Oil to toast the grains a bit. Once they were a bit toasty, I added two packets of mushroom soup mix from my Ramen Noodles (minus the noodles).and poured three cups of water into the pan. Let it come to a boil and cover. Stir every 5 minutes until the water is absorbed. Some people add 1 cup of water at a time so the rice slowly absorbs the water but Im impatient that way.

Its just about ready in this photo. Remove it from the heat after about 15 minutes and let the remaining liquid absorb into the rice.
Iit should be very moist and as my mom would say it “MUSHY”.
Plate it and serve! After all this cooking, I gave it a taste and was more than happy to serve this to Henry and put mine aside. I still had a headache and wanted something creamy. Was going to make pudding but it would have taken too long and the thought of taking out the mixer made me tired. So I went for the Chobani yogurt that I splurged on today. This one yogurt was $1.99!No complaints. It was tart and sweet and creamy and just what i wanted! YuM!

Henry came over later on, ate dinner and surprised me with dessert.

He rememberd how taken I was with the photo I took last week and bought this to me hoping it would cure my headache.It didnt cure me but it certainly did taste good! it wasnt too sweet and the cake itself was fluffy. polished this slice off with a glass of milk.

I think I am lactose intolerant… After the yogurt and milk I had a tummy ache.

If you’re still reading… thanks and sorry. I hope you feel caught up. Because I need a nap now.

Big Wong King Restaurant for Lunchies

So the Kids and I (my coworkers) decided to go on a class trip (group lunch) with a strong recommendation from Andy, who knows ALL the good spots in Chinatown. (Whaddup Andy!!) Andy is always asking about the blog and always asking whats for lunch and inviting me to join the gang. After several “No thank you’s” I finally relented today. He said Chinese Barbecue was the spot today. I had plans with Jess but I had to be back to work at a certain time and I had to postpone (sorry snookums).
Andy led the 10 of us, yes 10 to a small and QUITE busy restaurant on Mott Street called Big Wong King. Its Zagat Rated. Busy is good.

See those prices? InSANE! and The portions are fantastic! I was leaning towards the Roast Duck soup with WonTons and Egg Noodles But everyone was getting something with duck and Pork and I didnt want to be left out…

They served us this deep fried loaf of sin. We all took a piece of it and immediately dubbed it the “Chinese Zeppole“. I purchased one later for a dollar for my Henry. (hi Henry!)

This is the LoMein. This dish is $5.00. hello??? $5! And thats a mountain of LoMein. I got to taste it. Its delightful, the noodles were cooked al dente and were not OVERLY greasy as typical LoMein goes. Good flavors and yummy crisp stir fried veggies added in!

Thinking that i was at the Chinese spot on my block I ordered Iced Tea thinking i was going to get some Home Brewed stuff. Everyone laughed when I looked disappointed. But If Im at an authentic Chinese restaurant, whats wrong with wanting some home brewed iced tea? I will get my iced tea fix at the spot tonight.

Here’s my beautiful plate! Feast your eyes on Roast Duck, Roast Pork, a Fried Egg and some white rice. All this lovely stuff for $5.25 and you are probably thinking “the portions look small”…I couldnt finish my food. The meat alone with an egg satisfied me… but i was being greedy. Andy was going to take us to a Chinese bakery afterwards but our pants felt tight. We are saving the bakery for another day.

Mexican Meatloaf

When the alarm went off this morning, I did not want to get up. My sheets were warm and soft. My body was exhausted and I was in the middle of an excellent dream. If it weren’t for the fact that I NEED my annual days for a getaway in March or the fact that I have two paid days off next week I would have stayed my ass in bed. When I left my house (in a rush becuase I just HAD to snooze one more time) my hair was sopping wet and I left my windo open about a foot ( regretting that now). In the elevator on the way down, I read a note that said today there will be NO HEAT or WATER. How lovely! Then when i got to the train station felt my hair had frozen… its okay now though. But i also see that its going to be a lovely 10 degrees when i get home tonight (and probably a negative something INSIDE my apartment!) I will most likely spend the night at Moms house or the boyfriends house.

I packed the last of my PB Pancakes for brekkie.

And really enjoyed my tofu with broc yesterday that I made it again for lunch today.

For dinner last night I decided to make a Taco Meatloaf but when I saw the one pound of turkey ground laughing at me, I thought of adding a “filler”. When I opened my cabinets, I found a can of refried beans. So Taco meatloaf became a Mexican meatloaf.

I started with my ground turkey and dumped it into a mixing bowl with 1 egg and 1 red onion.

I seasoned it with Onion Powder, Garlic powder, salt, pepper, chili powder and Taco Seasoning.

It smelled yummy. And added the refried beans really gave it volume! It doubled in size!

I put this in the oven for one hour at 375.

When it was done it was a slightly browned.

Sides. I decided to make a packet of Annies White Cheddar mac and Cheese in the mircowave to go with my meatloaf and some Italian Green Beans.

When I sliced the meatloaf, it didnt hold its shape very well. It sort of crumbled a bit. However, the taste is very very good! (prior to baking the meatloaf I grilled a portion to see if it tasted good and it will be a future BURGER recipe! It held up really nice and gave me and idea for a veggie burger too!)

Ah, so since it crumbled I dumped it into my mac and cheese.

and mixed it all up!

Probably having the meat “crumbles” for dinner tonight with Roasted Russet potatoes.