Breakfast after bloodwork

As some may know, I have a past history of stress-induced severe anemia. This is what ended my almost decade of a vegetarian lifestyle. This also ended my relationship with my former doctor, and led my to a new team of medical professionals who make me feel like they care whether I live or die.

That's a good thing in a doctor. 

So, today I pledged I would take care of my annual bloodwork. Fasting. And of course, my child, the early riser, sleeps until 9. 

But I manage not to eat and we walk to the lab about a half-mile from the house. It's about 9:30 and I'm sweaty already. 

We get home at 10:10 (walking home I'm mentally calculating the distance to the nearest diner). I am completely inept at making coffee. No matter what I do, my coffee turns out double strength. This made me very popular in the Lehigh Valley News Group newsroom. Reporters like caffeine.

To make a decent cup of coffee, I have to use my little espresso machine. Which I did. I took advantage of the fact that I had the espresso brewer out to warm and steam some almond milk to give my daughter a hot cup of chai with local raw honey. I drank what didn't fit in her cup and it was good!

Breakfast was scrambled egg wraps, with a pinch of garlic pepper and a drizzle of Annie's Organic Cowgirl Ranch and a few sprinkles of parmesan cheese.

Coffee, canned soup, blood sugar and budgets

I did buy a few odds and ends at Target last week so we could make it to pay day, and I didn't record it here because life got hectic. On Wednesday last week, I had a 'blood sugar episode' that ended in an indulgent dinner out. That was the day my daughter went to the ENT and received the news that she is getting tubes in her ears Nov. 2.

My husband made scrambled eggs that morning, while I packed my daughter lunch. When the adults sat down to lunch, we had pop tarts and coffee and my husband made himself peanut butter crackers. I promised to eat something later.

I forgot.

So my blood sugar dropped to 90 and with no appropriate fuel in my body I started to shake-- from my hands to my knees. And I ate a bowl of soup, but my daughter took half. (chunky chicken-broccoli soup transformed into a corn chowder with a can of creamed corn, soy milk and curry.)

My husband took me out to dinner. We went to Delahanty's where daughter ate half my jalapeño poppers... She had a jr burger with cheese, bacon and fries. Husband had fettucine Alfredo with bacon and peas. I had a beef and sour sandwich. We all had dessert, and I added a Weyerbacher imperial pumpkin ale for the season and we spent, with tip $62.

Moral of the story: Eating is necessary. And I still don't understand how people can send kids to school with a breakfast of cereal, pop tarts or, as I witnessed last week, Twinkies...

Good news is: Even with this dinner, and my scattered shopping trips, our budget remains in tact. Thus far in October, we have spent: almost 20% of our income thus far this month on food. Gulp. $125 on dining out and $115 on groceries. Hmmm... That leaves $10 for the next two weeks. I'll aim for $50, which will keep the total food expense for the month under $300.

One of the terms of our current budget is NO FANCY COFFEE. But I cashiered last night and discovered many varieties of Archer Farms coffee on sale for $3.50 for the 12 oz bag which is normally $6.99. My favorite tea (Tazo rest) was on sale for $2.79. (I have one 32-ounce mug most mornings and use one tea bag.) And I grabbed a cheap 28-ounce jar of peanut butter.

I bought in total:

- Market Pantry peanut butter, $3.49
- Archer Farms coffee, 4 bags at $3.50 each
- 3 boxes Tazo Rest tea, $2.79 each

Subtotal: $25.86
Team Member Discount: - $2.59
Red Card discount: -$1.16
No tax
Total: $22.11

Bliss

The Coffee Mate folks have launched several new creamers that don't have soy as a base or artificial chemicals. They are tasty, but extremely potent. I love the simple packaging. When I saw these at Target, I wanted to try one but couldn't decide which... I bought them all. Which one did I like best? I don't remember. I do remember that these tasted better than the soy creamers. Since I traveled to France last fall, I really can't stand the taste of creamer. Matter of fact, I got used to heavy cream in my coffee.

Strawberry chocolate coffee smoothie

I'm not fond of this one. I put in too much liquid and it's runny. But I gave half of it to my husband and then reblended my half with yogurt. Now, it will be my dinner at work!

The original runny Smoothie:
- 5 small strawberry cream eggs
- 5 fresh strawberries
- 1 strawberry carnation instant breakfast
- 3 tablespoons chocolate syrup
- 2 cups coffee (too much)
-1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

Blend.

Remove half.

Add to remaining half: 6 ounces Greek style strawberry yogurt.

With addition of yogurt, it's perfect

Easter Chocolate Smoothie

This is what happens when you finally crack and say "I don't care if I can chew I have to have some of my mother-in-law's Easter chocolate."

In the blender:
- 6 peanut butter eggs (small ones, I would say three if they're Reese's)
- 1 HUGE heaping tablespoon peanut butter
- 1 cup very vanilla silk soy milk
- 1.5 cups coffee
- 1 vanilla carnation instant breakfast
- 1 tablespoon caramel

Two weeks! (and Paris)

It's been two weeks since I wrote in this blog, in part because of my trip to Paris. Ah, what culinary delights. I'm going to tease you now, by sharing some of my adventures and starting with my first lament.

Why can't Americans make a decent breakfast pastry? And a good cup of coffee? Starbucks exists in France now, and that confounds me. Why on this green Earth would you need Starbucks in France?  In the land of warm croissants, brioche, pain au chocolat, pain au noisette, pain au raisin, brioche au chocolat... Really, Starbucks?

Today I attempted my own café crème. My research suggested a tablespoon of warm cream in coffee brewed like espresso would do it. I pulled the cappuccino machine out of the basement and gave it a thorough cleaning. Then I prepared some Trader Joes whole coffee beans via the grinder. I measured out a guess of how much coffee I would need and brewed some Trader Joes coffee in my Krups machine. I warmed up some heavy cream, spooned it into demi-tasse cups and added the coffee and sugar.

It was good, but it felt thin. I'll keep trying.

Before I reflect more on Paris, I have to let you know I have completed two shifts at the Target café, my new part-time job. I purchased two of the turkey clubs I made and served with leftover Asian-style salad from dinner last night. Our Target is a "PFresh" which means it carries groceries and fresh produce but isn't a full SuperTarget. My employee discount is 10% and as soon as I get my Target Debit card, I'll get an additional 5%. This is cool news since some of the "splurge" items we like (like our blueberry cobbler coffee) are available at Target.

Avocado salad chez Célia's grand-mère

But on to food... in Paris. Some of these meals you will see me try to replicate. Like Célia's grandmother's avocado salad. I believe this is a vegan dish, if the recipe they told me is complete. It was very simple: avocado cut in chunks and a dressing of oil, vinegar, mustard and parsley. Good stuff. Really good stuff. I bought avocado and an Archer Farms lemon dijon mustard to try and do this.

frog with escargot in the background. I had already eaten one leg.

Something I won't be replicating really soon is my "tourist dinner" from Saint Michel. I ate escargot in this fabulous green sauce, frog, and rabbit in mustard sauce.

Pot au feu, so tender...

I would love to make pot-au-feu as succulent as Célia's grandmother prepared hers, but I have always viewed this as a dish for real chefs with lots of meat products that I'm not ready to deal with.

We'll call that post one from France. My next post will have to recount the ethnic foods I enjoyed.

On chocolate

I regularly (every couple months) splurge on some good dark bittersweet chocolate from Wegmans or Target. I'd love to splurge on Godiva or Chaudun, but we deal.

Last week, I opened the Lindt Black Currant bar (pictured). Delectably sweet from the fruit and crunchy from the almonds, but still maintaining the dark, bittersweet flavor.

Tonight, I opened the Ghirardelli Expresso Escape. They got the coffee blended so smooth into the chocolate...

But yeah, I pay $3 a pop for some of these, but they last for about four servings (2 for me and 2 for my hubby) and they satiate me much quicker than a Snickers. And I love exploring flavors... Another favorite is the vegan dark chocolate with candied dried ginger... but I can't remember the name.

For me, buying the splurge items is cost effective because when I don't get the flavor I am after, I eat other things trying to find it. So, one square of quality bittersweet chocolate versus...

Well, I'll be honest. I resisted opening the chocolate, and first I ate two slices of lunchmeat ham that my mother-in-law brought for lunch. When salt didn't do it, I ate the last croissant (also from my mother-in-law). Then I finally relented and opened the chocolate.

Which is better for my budget and my waistline?

Had I opened the chocolate in the first place...

How I make my French press coffee

I prepared a cup of coffee for my friends Kev and Tracy with my new coffee pot, and they became enamored with the ritual of it. So, they purchased their own and I've been asked to share my wisdom as to how I prepare mine.

1. Fill the tea kettle and set to boil.
2. Carefully measure and grind your beans, if preparing your own. You don't want them fine, you want them fairly large but yet smooth.
3. Put the beans in the pot.
4. When the water boils, remove it from heat and let rest for 2 minutes or so. You never want to pour bubbling boiling water into a delicate glass carafe. I call this the lesson of exploding pyrex and glass pitchers.
5. Once the water settles, pour the appropriate amount of water slowly into the carafe. I pour mine in thirds with a rest at each third. At each rest, I swirl the pot with my wrist gently. Before the final pour, I use a wooden spoon to stir the coffee if I feel it necessary. Never use metal in your delicate glass carafe. I then pour the final third of water in, using it to rinse the spoon and the coffee still clinging to it.
6. Fit the lid.
7. Set a timer for at least five minutes. I start with six.
8. While waiting for the timer, prepare your cups with milk and sugar.
9. When the timer beeps, slower depress the plunger.
10. Pour.

The new coffee contraption

My mother-in-law bought me a French press coffee pot for Christmas, a Swiss contraption, the Bodum Chambord.

From Wikipedia: A French press, also known as a press pot, coffee press, coffee plunger or cafetière, is a simple coffee brewing device, probably invented in France in the 1850s, but first patented by Italian designer Attilio Calimani in 1929, who made subsequent design improvements over the years, and further refined by another Italian, Faliero Bondanini.<sup>[1]

Now my mother-in-law didn't buy me any coffee and I'm not putting Folgers in this puppy. So, with some cajoling from my husband, we headed to Wegmans. He had every intention of getting ground specialty coffee. But as I didn't see us using this pot every day, I thought whole beans would store better and allow us to grind our own.

Of course, this required a coffee grinder and in true cheap fashion, I headed to the household aisle of Wegmans where I found a Cuisinart grinder on clearance for $15. And I just happened to have a $20 gift card to Wegmans which was essentially my Christmas bonus from the non-profit where I work.

Then to the coffee aisle. In college, I adore Viennese Cinnamon coffee. Closest Wegmans had was "cinna-nut." $7.99 for 12.2 ounces of whole beans. Plus some half and half and some milk. For a grand total of $28.12 minus the $20 gift card.

Now when we got it home, we carefully made the coffee. I ground some, measured it. Heated the Le Creuset tea pot. Boiled the water. Let it calm. Measured it in the measuring cup. Poured it into the press pot and let it brew 4.5 minutes.

We drank with half and half and a splash of French brandy. Fabulous!</sup>

Pumpkin lattes

A friend forwarded a link to a gluten-free, crock pot cooking blog:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/search/label/gluten%20free

Quoted from the blog:
Skip the coffee house today and make pumpkin spice lattes at home. This recipe really does taste like the real thing----even though it doesn't leave a fluorescent orange stain when you dribble it down your sweater.

updated 11/23: I just learned that the coffee house Pumpkin Spice Lattes are not gluten free. Yet another reason to make them at home!


The Ingredients.
adapted from Taste of Home's Halloween 2008 edition

--2 cups milk (I used 1%)
--2 T canned pumpkin
--2 T white sugar
--2 T vanilla (not a typo. it asks for tablespoons)
--1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
OR: 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, and a teeny tiny pinch of ground ginger
--1/2 cup brewed espresso or 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee

--garnish with whipped cream (optional)

The Directions.

This will make enough for 2 people to have a big mug with a bit leftover. If you are having friends over, adjust the recipe accordingly. I used a 4-quart crockpot, but as small as a 1.5 quart will work with these amounts.

Add the coffee/espresso and milk to the crockpot. Whisk in the pumpkin, spices, sugar, and vanilla.

Cover and cook on high for 2 hours if everything is cold. Whisk again.

Ladle into mugs, and garnish with whipped cream and additional cinnamon. I added a cinnamon stick to be fancy.
(if I rinse it off, can I re-use it? It seems wasteful to toss.)

The Verdict.

Adam and I really enjoyed these. We had them for breakfast yesterday, and the kids were jealous.

It would be fun to put this out for the adults at a Halloween party, holiday gift-wrapping party, or to serve guests while you're waiting for the turkey to cook.

I'm thinking of making some pumpkin cookies with the leftover canned pumpkin.

What I did:
Angel's pumpkin butterscotch lattes

In the crockpot, on high, whisk:

• 1.75 cups unsweetened soymilk
• 2 cups decaf coffee
  
• 5 tablespoons solid pack pumpkin
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1.5 tablespoons butterscotch
• 4 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• pinch cinnamon
• pinch ground cloves
• pinch nutmeg
• pinch ginger
  

Streusel Coffee Cake

Years ago my mother gave me a little pocket cookbook called "Cooking for Two for Couples" (the redundancy in that title is amusing, isn't it?).

I'm using their recipe for streusel coffeecake and making variations for my guests.

I'm making plain, blueberry and honey-pecan cakes. I can't exactly reproduce my recipe because... well, I'm a mess in the kitchen today. Here is the original.

Streusel Coffeecake for Two
1/2 C sugar
1/4 c margarine
1 egg
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons milk

crumbs
1/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream flour and butter. Beat in egg, lemon extract and vanilla.
Combine 3/4 cup flour, salt and baking powder. Stir into creamed mixture alternately with milk. Pour into greased and floured 6x6 pan. Combine crumb ingredients, sprinkle over top of batter, bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes.

Yogurt Parfaits

For dinner, my husband took this morning's leftover decaf and made iced coffee with raw milk. For dinner, we had some Klein Farm lemon yogurt with my own homemade granola from the other day with fresh pineapple, local cherries and blueberries.

Memorial Day Coffee Drinks

Daughter started her day with some Aldi Kids Crunch, their version of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. Around 10 (it is a holiday after all), husband made scrambled egg wraps and flea shampoo potatoes. The recipe for flea shampoo potatoes (named after the smell) can be located under Eileen Breslin in the links below. It's one of her recipes from her vegan cooking course at Northampton Community College.

For dinner, I used the last batch of frozen spinach-cottage cheese-ricotta mix (at least I think that's what it was) that I preserved in February when I made calzones with my own dough. I created a lasagne that tasted great and got nice and crispy on top the way I like.

But the treat was this afternoon's coffee drink.

My husband saves all the partial pots of coffee we never finish. He keeps them in the fridge in a pictcher and instead of Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts he mixes up our own special iced coffee drinks.

Like iced decaf with milk and Chambord.
Or iced coffee light and sweet like a frappucino.
Or a shot or two of coffee with soymilk for extra protein between meals.
Or, like today, a big cup of coffee with vanilla ice cream in it.

Waste not, want not.