Lentils – are a type of legume, and are very high in proteins. They cook relatively quickly and when mashed are similar to chickpeas used for hummus.  You can substitute lentils for chickpeas in your hummus, or use it instead of refried beans in your bean dip.  The red lentils have more of a mild flavor and aren’t as high in protein as the dark green, but I used them because I thought they would go well with the red peppers.  Use this dip for crackers, raw veggies, pita or just chips.  Serve warm or cold and to keep from drying out you can pour a thin layer of oil over top – and sprinkle with red hungarian pepper as you do with hummus.

Sunday’s Chicken Soup…

Tuesday’s Chicken Soup…

Anyway, these really cool friends sent a batch of this incredible Albondigas meatball soup home from work with my husband.  So for a few evenings we reheated the soup, plus I took some to work for lunch.  What didn’t I do?  I didn’t take any photos darn it.  My friend was cool enough to share her recipe with us.  I think this would make a great superbowl entree.  It’s not finger food, but the meatball and the peppers make a hearty dish, but not heavy.  That way you can taste some of the other offerings.

We topped the soup with some arugula – it has a bright green color and adds another peppery note to the soup which has a few already.  At work, I tossed some fritos on top for some crunch and fun, but without the garnish, it works well too.  The meatballs are both chewy and dense, but not too heavy.  Just heavy enough to be hearty with the peppers.  Though pepper is the main taste, and there is heat, it’s not too warm.  My son ate it, and he’s not a fan of too much heat, in fact, he finished the container off for us.

Tosca Reno the queen of the Clean Eating recipe books has produced a small guide book.  It’s small in size, and you can stick it in your laptop case or your briefcase to reference whenever you need a little help.  Tosca calls it “JUST THE RULES: TOSCA’S GUIDE TO EATING RIGHT ” – I think it’s a strong name for a small book, but some people need help being strong and so “Just The Rules” fits. Everyone needs a help to be strong sometimes.  There are 50 rules altogether, most are obvious though sometimes we just need a reminder.

I like Rule # 14: A Treat is not a Cheat… A Treat is a Treat! – A treat is a once in a while thing, not something to overwhelm you with guilt, by the same token.. a treat is not a whole carton of ice cream, it’s a scoop.  “What we need to be conscious of, is how often we choose to enjoy a treat.”

Here are some more of the common sense “rules” that Tosca Reno presents in her Just The Rules!

Rule #8 – Color Up: Super Bowl junk is often a sea of fatty beige foods. Colorfulfoods are filled with more nutrients and flavor than bland, monotonous, processed foods. Opt for a rainbow of colors on your plate, which offers numerous health benefits.

Rule #12 – Smaller Portions, Smaller Pants: If it seems there’s a big array of food out still just take a small portion.  Sit down, eat and pay attention to your body.  Your body will tell you when it is hungry. Reflect on whether or not you want that next nibble because your body requires it.

Rule #13 – Fletcherize and Swallow: Take your time, chew, chew, chew before you swallow.  Makes your food last longer, and less will be gobbled up.

Rule #23 – Good Carbs, Bad Carbs: Carbs can be confusing, and are often given a bad rap! Stay away from ‘bad’ grocery store, processed carbs and stick to ‘good’ carbs like fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grain.

Tosca Reno has some suggestions for lightening up your superbowl party.   If you are going to the party, and you know what kind of food will be there, make your contributions be something lighter that you can start with.  Just nibble at the unhealthy fare, if you have to, and leave it behind for the others.

I like the quote at then end of the book:

Kick out the crap, invite in the good, throw in some water, and you are on your way to excellent health and a better body than you have ever imagined.

She also says it’s never too late to start and I think that’s the key to staying positive.

We’ve been trying out the Genius Salad Chopper and the Genius Nicer Dicer, two chopping tools that are sold on QVC.  They’re mostly self contained because you can store the blades, and slicers inside the container the Chopper sits on top of.  It’s both a work and serving station.

The salad chopper bowl is huge, which will come in handy when you have a really big gathering and want to serve a big group though, t’s a bit oversized for a family of four.  The Salad Chopper comes with two different sized blade inserts, an insert with two graters and a cleaning tool.  The chopper lid has a button on top, where you push the self-cleaning part of the lid to help push the food bits out.

The Nicer Dicer  has a couple of different size double sided grates, that you push food through.  Plus it has a wedge blade for two different sized wedges.  The nicer dicer also has a grater and a mandolin blade and egg cutting blades. Both of these chopping stations have separate lids that can replace the chopper for storing the chopped food in the chopping bowl.

Pros – if you have quite a bit of chopping to do, this will help.  It will easily chop onions, peppers, apples, tomatoes, with one caveat.  The fruit and vegetables have to be cut down to fit on the chopper, or it won’t work.  However, cutting an apple into four apple slabs and then chopping it down, is easier that trying to dice the whole thing by hand. The blades are different sizes, so you can cut it to the portion you want and uniform sized food, means it will cook more evenly.

The chopper containers have lids to cover it, turning it from a chopper, to a container you can store in your fridge.  I love the mandolin – it shaved my apples into really thin slices and the onions sliced well too.  The chopper is easy to clean with the push through self-cleaner – though it can be difficult to push and clean, I mastered pushing the self-cleaner while spraying with the vegetable sprayer to clean it off.

Cons – Sometimes you need a bit more leverage or oomph to get the chopper to chop, and a couple of extra hits.  The directions say to wet the blade first, which I found helpful.  Also, if the vegetable is a little big, it will need to be cut down in order for the chopper or dicer to work correctly.  The other problem is the size of the salad chopper.  I think it will be perfect for a large salad when you are having a gathering – and it’s nice to look at, but it’s note easy to store.

The best part is that my son took it out and used it to make baked fries with herbs – in the toaster oven.  They were lighter without any fat, or oil and very tasty.  I gave him a quick instruction the day I received it and that’s it.  Easy Peasey – well and a little oomph.

Disclosure:  I received the Genius Salad Chopper and Nicer Dicer for review. This was not a paid review.  All opinions expressed were my honest opinions.

We had a full house – both of the kids were home and the fiancee was at dinner too, so I brought out the leftover kumquats for a tasting.  My daughter died laughing over the name and then refused at first to eat it.  She wanted to peel the skin which I said was the best part.  My son and the fiance popped them in their mouths without a second thought, but my daughter really had to get herself ready.  Then she was fine until the tart juice squirted in her mouth making her pucker.   Later I thanked her for being adventurous – it’s fun to try something new, don’t you think?

My husband and I picked up apples from a grower’s warehouse with plans to make applesauce.  They were only open one day until 3:00.  My husband got off work at 2, but I lost my keys and wasn’t able to get to him until 2:25.  We made it with about ten minutes to spare, but people were still showing up when we were done. I took advantage of the overflowing apple baskets in the diningroom to create a slaw that is pretty fresh.  I have a mandolin, and so took a hunk of green cabbage and shaved the cabbage down.  I also took thin hunks of apples and then shaved them too.  I made the dressing using some of the candied kumquats, the kumquat simple syrup and whisked it with some orange flavored oil and white wine vinegar.  It’s a fresh light salad – but as my daughter says -”It’s Slaw!”

Kumquats can tolerate a low of -10, and a hot summer between 77 ° to 100 °F.  Though it can stand the lower winter temps a little, it does much better with a long summer in the lower states, like Florida, Louisiana,  Alabama and California producing larger and sweeter fruit.

This is my first experience with kumquats – the whole fruit is edible, though the seeds can be used to create a pectin for jamming and can be easily removed from the fruit when you are using it.  The outer rind of the kumquat is floral and sweet like an orange skin, but sweeter.  The inner flesh has a tart juice inside but quite tasty.

Kumquats can be eaten raw, shaved in salads and added to your favorite cocktail.  You can make a simple syrup with the kumquats (to make your favorite cocktail even tastier).  Add the kumquat to your favorite tangine or roast.  Kumquats go very well with ginger, and are great in tea. Marmalade is one of the most frequent uses of kumquat.

I made a kumquat and ginger simple syrup using a cup of chopped kumquats that came out really tasty.  It will make a florally sweet/spicy note to a cocktail.  Plus the candied kumquats are fantastic.

Kumquat and ginger simple syrup.

Kumquats can be found in local stores right now, and I’ve seen some online sites that will ship, but you have to look around because some are already done for the season.  If you really want to be around kumquats, head to the Kumquat Festival in Dade City, Florida.

We picked up a bunch of apples to sauce this weekend, but I couldn’t wait and made some on the stovetop tonight.

This time we took some chicken from our roast chicken the other night and added pasta, some broccolini, a few herbs, smash some galic and voila – dinner is served.  This is a good college kid meal, you can change up the pasta, the veggies, substitute the oil with broth to make it a little lighter.  Swap the lemon with white or red wine vinegar for a little different.  We stood side by side at the stove cooking this dish.  When we were done, I asked my son if he thought he could do it all over again, and he assured me that he could.

Tonight’s chicken was lemony goodness and very easy to prepare.  I’m a fan of just a few steps to great food, the oven does most of the work here, slowly roasting to perfection.  My husband is a big poultry fan.  When we go to restaurants, often I will order a steak and my husband some chicken or turkey.  It never fails that the server will swap our plates and give my husband the steak and me the chicken. We taste off of each other’s plates though, so in the end it doesn’t matter.  He won’t swap this though.  I had to let him chew the bones a little before I put them in the freezer so that he could pick off every morsel of chicken left behind.

Today’s chicken we bought fresh from the market yesterday.  You tell them what you want and they will bag it and even skin, bone and cut it up for you all in a few minutes.  They’re really fast.  I bought two whole chickens and a couple of whole breasts split along with some sausage.  The chicken was free range, from a local farmer and that made me happy.  It’s more expensive than the grocery store, but very tasty and local, so I pay a little more for better quality. These chickens were not frozen before I got to them.  One chicken we had for dinner, the rest went into the freezer for later.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of after I roasted the chicken.  My daughter was leaving for school and I cut a hunk of cooked breast off, and sent it with her to have in her salad for dinner.  I have a before photo that shows how I pulled the skin away from the chicken and stuffed the lemons and rosemary in between the skin and the meat.  You may need to use a knife to start the slit, but after you get it separated you should be able to slide your hand right in.

I sliced the lemons and slid them flat in between the skin and meat.  The two ends of the lemons went into the cavity.  I snipped bunches of rosemary from my plants that I have growing in pots in the diningroom.  Then I tore the leaves up and smashed them before shoving the rosemary in around the chicken.  A couple of branches went into the cavity as well.  I poured a little olive oil over top of the chicken and just smoothed it all around.  A sprinkle of salt and pepper as desired and bake in the oven uncovered at 375 until the thermostat reaches about 165.