Very Pinteresting…apple pie shake

This makes a great tasting apple breakfast shake.

We’re not quite ready for fall here in 90-degree-weather Texas, but today I made an apple protein shake that put me in mind of Thanksgiving dinner.

Everybody’s doing it: Working on Pinterest pins a little at a time by trying new recipes, make-up ideas, or exercise routines, among other things. My most-used boards are two recipe collections, and this week I’ve been using Pinterest pins to help me get more variety into my morning shake routine.

Today, I did a variation on something called Harley Pasternak’s Breakfast Smoothie (original source Popsugar Fitness). I’m not sure who Harley Pasternak is, but I thank him for the shake idea.

Instead of using Greek yogurt and whole almonds as in the original version, I used almond milk and Vega One vanilla chai nutritional shake mix. This flavor has cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger, which will add a touch of fall to your shake rotation.

What I used:
1 Granny Smith apple (peeled)
1/2 banana
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 serving Vega One vanilla chai shake mix
ice to taste

My poor Magic Bullet was having problems this morning, but I managed to get my daily shake. You may need to cut up your apple to help get a smooth consistency, and this recipe calls for the bigger blender cup.

This is a shake I’ll make again, especially since it helps me get an extra piece of fruit into the day.

Now if the weather will just cool down, we can work through some of those outdoorsy Pinterest boards!

Happy blending,
R.D.

Shake it ’til you make it

My dad at age 16.

My dad loved to lift weights; he was of the generation heavily swayed by body builder Joe Weider’s sand-in-the-face advertisements, and he often went on weird diets to help him build muscle.

Brewer’s yeast, other disturbingly smelly powders, and egg yolks were part of this occasional bulking-up cycle, which completely turned me off to liquid diets forever. Or so I thought.

About three years ago, I read Revive: Stop Feeling Spent and Start Living Again. One part of the book resonated with me: Breakfast never seemed to last long enough, but how do you make time to  prepare a hearty meal to start the day?

Authors Dr. Frank Lipman and Mollie Doyle suggest having a protein shake each morning in order to give you enough energy to get you through to lunch and to avoid the sugar crash that often comes before. This crash before lunch has always been a problem for me; I remember being a 112-lb. high school kid starving by second period, and although I’m no longer close to 112 lbs., the late-morning hungries have never gone away.

I decided to try the shakes, though the mention of protein powder made me think of my dad’s weight-lifting days and his disturbing raw egg with brewer’s yeast concoctions.

I went to my favorite grocery store and purchased a whey protein powder and some Barlean’s Greens. The shakes were a bit weird at first. They tasted a little earthy – in fact, they tasted like grass with a hint of dirt. I tried a few recipes and began to feel less hungry and grouchy midmorning. It took a bit of experimenting and a lot of honey, but I finally started to enjoy the shakes.

Shakes can be fast, creative, pragmatic, fun, simple, complicated, and occasionally disastrous.

I don’t follow recipes very often, but there are plenty out there. Once you’ve tried a few, it’s like making spaghetti sauce: A little bit of this, a little of that, and viola – you’ve got it. Try the Magic Bullet, Vega, or Vitamix websites for recipe inspiration.

My favorite protein shake is a bad one; a bit high in calories, but yummy delicious every time. Take your favorite chocolate drink powder (I just tried the Vega, and it’s fantastic), put it in your blender with a little ice, skim milk or almond milk, add a big dollop of peanut butter, and drop in some banana if there is any room left in the blender cup. This is a monkey’s dream of a shake, and it counts for me as a whole meal!

Give it a whirl, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Happy blending,
R.D.

Shameless library plug: Want more info on whether or not shakes and shake mixes can add something to your diet? Do some research on a consumer health database via your local public library or academic library.

Thrifty Thursdays

Objective: Do a little pantry stocking at a 99¢ Only store. Cost: $22.93.

A 99¢ Only store isn’t for the faint of heart or someone who doesn’t know how much things actually cost at the regular retailers. For me, this store is a place to find things to fill in pantry gaps, purchase holiday decor, or get really cheap gift bags. Products range from high-end food items to socks to tacky do-rags. I once did a small library open house and saved lots of money by purchasing goody-bag items and decorations at 99¢ Only.

Sadly, my favorite 99¢ Only store has closed, but there are still four in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Shopping at these stores requires some price savvy; purchasing canned goods can be tricky, since there are often 10 for $10 sales at the local grocery and because Wal-Mart’s everyday low price is many times going to be less than 99 cents. (This is where a price book comes in handy.) I don’t go weekly as some people may, but I do go fairly often.

I purchased things that are regular items in my pantry. Here is a partial list:

Niagara 24-pack water, 2.99. Yes, I recycle the bottles.
Chicken of the Sea pink salmon packets. I love these for work lunches.
Juliana’s Parmesan Cheese. I wished I’d taken the gamble and purchased the Paisano Mio Italian Topping.
Two individual frozen, thin-crust pizzas. Not recommended, but I ate them.
Two 28-oz cans of peeled Italian tomatoes. I’d seen them elsewhere for $1.50, so the price was right.
NESCAFÉ instant coffee sticks. No coffee snob here. I love these at work.
Iodized salt. Thirty-nine cents. It will last forever, and it is a baking necessity.

I have since purchased the Paisano Mio Italian Topping, and I use it for grated parmesan when needed. It gets a little clumpy, but a good whack on the counter usually loosens it up.

Happy eating,
R.D.

Here are some links to help you wrap your head around this idea.

The author of the 99 Cent Only Store Cookbook cooks a quick meal in this YouTube video (great Breakfast at Tiffany’s music in the background).

Buy the cookbook at Amazon.com.

Here is a New York Times article with ideas on using items from a different 99-cent store in New York City.

Editor’s note: Post originally drafted in September 2010.

Ice Cream Dream

Ice Cream in Matlache 2009

For we will buy an ice cream shop,
and it will be a tasty stop
for kiddies, beach bums, and their pals,
for muscly guys and pretty gals.

Oh, they will make a line that’s long
to purchase treats for just a song
like butter brickle and creamsickle
or a pickle for a nickle.

There’ll be an awning red and white
a neon sign to light the night
big jukebox filled with forty fives
a jangly bell when someone arrives.

We’ll dish up treats sublimely smooth
good for the soul, bad for the tooth.
We’ll serve smiles and laughter gay,
then go swimming in our bay.

-September 2003

Arroz con Pollo Valenciana

Or: Chicken and yellow rice from the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City

Objective: To make a huge batch of comfort food

Inspiration: January visit to the Columbia

Serves: Eight or a small Army

Chicken and yellow rice dished up

This is absolutely, positively, not going to fit into your toaster oven, but that’s okay because the leftovers can be warmed up in the toaster oven…up to a week.

For this delicious concoction, courtesy of the beautiful Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City (Tampa), you will need a very large pan. I like the cheap, many-quarted, granite-ware pot I got when Big Lots was MacFrugal’s, or I use a granite-ware turkey roasting pan from the local big-box store. (Granite-ware turkey pans aren’t just for holidays, after all.)

This recipe intimidated me at first; it contains saffron, an expensive, somewhat exotic spice, and it is Cuban, something with which I am really not familiar. My aunt in Florida is an expert cook when it comes to Cuban dishes, so I wasn’t sure if I should even attempt this feat considering my Tex-Mex perspective in light of her skills (think of a five-foot Paula Deen).

I finally committed – last month – to the saffron purchase and made the dish because my sister almost died over the Columbia’s Cuban chicken and yellow rice when we were there. I absolutely couldn’t get the picture of the steaming golden-yellow goodness with colorful green peas and asparagus served on a little silver charger out of my head.

Here’s the recipe link: http://www.columbiarestaurant.com/recipe.asp?FeaturedItemID=51

(If that doesn’t work, go to http://www.columbiarestaurant.com and look for the wine and featured recipes links.)

I made my second batch this week, and I will be eating well for the remainder of said week.

I use skin-on, bone-in, split chicken breats because I no longer have the patience to cut up a whole chicken. I also used red bell peppers the second time around because that’s what I had on hand, and I did the whole recipe from memory, which means I unwittingly modified it. (Deliciousness ensued, regardless.)

I’m sure modifications abound. My sister remembers chopped black olives in my mom’s version, and I remember it as a budget version made with Mahatma saffron rice. It turns out that the memory may be moot anyway because when I called my mom to ask if I should precook the rice, she said she didn’t really remember and then reminisced that my dad would eat crunchy rice anyway. (You may have to vary the cooking time to make sure the rice is cooked enough.)

Ah, it’s just like being a kid again.

Cheers,
R.D.

P.S. There are quite a few granite-ware pots and pans over at Amazon.com if you want a look see.

Zucchini frittata

Objective: Use on-hand items to create a toaster oven frittata

Inspiration: Avec Eric’s Get Toasted Zucchini Mint Parmesan Frittata recipe

Cooking can be a miracle. Take the humble egg for instance. Depending on the mood, budget, or calorie count, a person can do just about anything with this little gem. I started experimenting with eggs and frittatas several years ago, thanks to a Weight Watchers recipe; later, I discovered a small book called The Cookbook for Poor Poets and realized that a frittata could be made with just about anything that happens to be in the refrigerator.

While researching toaster-oven cookery this week on the Internet, I ran across some wonderful videos on the Avec Eric website. He includes a zucchini mint frittata under the Get Toasted section, and I immediately wanted to try it. My version, which serves two, doesn’t have mint or parmesan cheese because I had dried oregano and a Colby-jack mix on hand and used those instead. If you are cooking for one or two, as I am, this makes a lovely yet very affordable meal.

Ingredients: Eggs: 2 whole, 3 whites; two handfuls of julienned zucchini; 1/2 to 1 cup of Colby-jack cheese; oregano, salt, and pepper to taste; a splash of milk.

Preheat your toaster oven to 400 degrees. Beat everything but the zucchini together (the splash of milk is supposed to make the eggs fluffier). When you are happy with your spices and cheese ratio, add the zucchini. (I used about half of one which was chopped up the night before.) Mix a little more. Split the mixture evenly between two individual casserole dishes.

Place in your toaster oven. The original recipe calls for baking one for eight minutes, but my two required 12 minutes. The middle was a bit softer than I prefer, so I might add another minute. I think it must depend on the toaster oven and the cook’s preference for hard- or soft-cooked eggs.

Et voilà! A great dish for about $1.00 per person. I served it up with two small Pioneer Buttermilk Pancakes, a cup of milk, and the rest of my morning coffee. The other zucchini frittata waits patiently in the refrigerator.

Happy eating,
R.D.

Next time: Bacon-wrapped figs (if I can get fresh figs!)

Theme toaster

This blog is a convergence of ideas. I’ve been wanting to do a personal blog for a long time, but it is difficult to decide on a focus or theme that can be added to on a regular basis. I have a now-defunct blog, which I enjoyed putting together, but the posts veered from my intended focus. I decided to take it out of public search until I could come up with a more managable theme.

So, what to blog about? Food, reading, work, life, illegal immigration, what? How have I arrived here at Texas Toaster?

• I like to cook.
• I like to coupon.
• I like to read recipe books.
• The grocery store is where I sometimes unwind.
• There are lots of recipes and food discoveries I’d like to share.

Couple the above with the fact that my mind recently has been turning over several bits & pieces, which came together “of a sudden.” I recently watched Julie & Julia, and I recently bought a toaster oven. This weekend I found some really cool YouTube videos about cooking with your toaster oven, and viola! I had an idea: Blog about cooking with a toaster oven and perhaps someone will give me a book contract, which will be followed by a movie adaptation and then followed by fame and fortune. Not that I care about the fame, but I certainly wouldn’t mind a fortune.

Seriously, this is a creative outlet for me, and I hope you stay tuned as I gather Internet goodies, recipes, and toaster-oven tricks together for you.

Happy eating!
R.D.

Suburban thrifty: Coupon quest

This is the first in several essays on the delights of grocery shopping, making lists, and working a coupon angle.