At last I have had a perfect morning this week.  By prepping everything the night before I was able to get ready for work with leisure, I even watered my plants before work (which gave me time to mow the lawn after work).  It also gave me time to make a childhood favorite breakfast.  Although not complicated, it does take more then a minute in the microwave.  As you can see, I even had a little time to read the paper.

My favorite way to have eggs is over easy.  I love a runny yoke, and I love to dip my toast, bacon, hash browns, or whatever in that beautifully runny yoke.  So an “Egg in a Nest”  is the perfect fusion for having your runny egg yolk and toast wrapped cooked into one.  I’ve heard this called by other names, but growing up it was always “Eggs in a Nest”, so it will always be that for me.

As you can see, this was a much greater success than my soft boiled egg from the other day.

 Definitely slim pickins by now, but I managed a ‘mater sandwich, leftover carrot and celery sticks with the ranch dip, and a yogurt.

 After mowing the lawn, taking out the garbage and doing some laundry (I had to prove to the men that I can take care of myself), I really wasn’t in the mood to be overly creative.

I fell back on an earlier dish, a steak quesadilla and a simple green salad on the side.

 At last the steak is gone, seriously, I don’t want any steak for awhile!

At last I have polished off much of my perishables, at least as much as one person could.

Unfortunately, it left me with this…..

Seems like a good time to clean my refrigerator, but not tonight.

I think I better do some grocery shopping before my men get home tomorrow….

This is my last daily post (at least for awhile), I will be working at the Montana State Fair tomorrow.

Just a side note, I have a lot of respect for my daughter who has been blogging daily for 3 years now.

Her commitment, well, lets just say she’s a lot better at commitment then her mama.

At last I am done….for now.

Yesterday I woke up late, but I had prepared my breakfast and lunch, laid out my clothes and accessories.  I was prepped, so when I woke up late, I was able to get ready in 8 minutes and still make it to work on time.   This morning was different.  I woke up with an hour to get ready.  But last night I was lazy, I didn’t prep anything for the next day.  Results:  Showered, dressed, make-up, took care of dogs and played with them, and then time started to close in on me.  Holy Toledo, where did it go?  I quickly prepped my lunch but had to grab something from the freezer to take for breakfast.  Fortunately I had prepped sometime before.

For breakfast, a couple of sausage biscuits.

For lunch I polished off the rest of the cantaloupe.

 And had a greekish salad for lunch.

Made with lettuce, tomato, green onion, radishes, kalamata olives, feta cheese and a peperoncini.

Helpful hint if you pack a salad for lunch, pack the wet ingredients in a separate container.  Your salad will stay crisp and fresh.

Dinner wasn’t exactly creative, but I polished off the mashed potatoes by making a potato pancake.  Steak again, with a little bit of my leftover mushroom and onion mix.  To give the steak a different flavor, I made a sauce of horseradish cream and A1 sauce, very delish.

 I cut up the remaining carrots and celery and made a ranch dip with some of my sour cream.

 I didn’t eat all the veg, so expect to see this with lunch tomorrow.

Here’s the latest on what I have left to consume:

 In case your wondering, I’m already prepped for tomorrow.

4:10 am the alarm goes off.  I hit snooze, 5 minutes later the alarm goes off again.  I snooze, just 5 more minutes and I’ll be good.  5:10 am I wake up look at the clock.  PANIC!  I have to be to work by 5:30 am. 

Being prepared pays off big time.  I had laid out my clothes the night before.  Made my breakfast/lunch and had it packed.  I even had all my jewelry ready to go.

I didn’t shower, I didn’t brush my teeth, I didn’t put on any make-up.  I got dressed, let the dogs out, fed them, grabbed my stuff and left.  I arrived at 5:28 am.  We won’t discuss my speed getting to work, but I made.

After 22 years in the military I know how to be prepared.  I keep in my drawer at work, toothpaste, toothbrush, hair brush and make-up.  After taking care of my opening management duties, 10 more minutes and I looked polished.

That was it, that was the worst of my day.  I was off by 2:00 pm.  I actually left work on time.  I came home and did a little yard work, worked on my jewelry making, played with the dogs and made myself dinner.

The great thing about starting your day so rough, it can only get better!

I was busy at work, a nice busy, a just right busy.  The kind that makes time fly and before you know it….I forgot to get my breakfast, so I had it for lunch, brunch or whatever you want to call it. 

A breakfast burrito stuffed with eggs, a little fat free half and half, onion, mushroom, tomato and a little jalapeno pepper.  Can’t forget the cheese and topped with some taco sauce.  On the side, leftover corn salad.  I couldn’t get all the corn salad, fortunately I found a hungry co-worker willing to help me out.

 Want to make a lot of spinach into a little bit of spinach?  Cook it!  For dinner I made some creamed spinach cooked in some of the leftover cilantro compound butter.

I cooked a piece of steak and topped it with mushrooms and onion.

The steak was glazed with a special ingredient.

Over the 4th of July weekend in Westport, WA, my favorite Jam lady had her booth set up.

Her jams are amazing!  I mean seriously good!  She works full time and does this on the side.

I found myself seriously drawn not to the sweet jams but to the savory jams.

Especially the garlic based jams.

On my steak a used a rosemay garlic jelly.

Heaven, I tell you, pure heaven!

 The creamed spinach?  The cilantro butter sounded like it would work well, but in actuality, not the best thing I’ve ever made.

 Good news, it was only for me, and I was using up what I had, so NO guilt!

Today was a better day, the puppy got up and went straight out, and I started out with a great, although slightly less than perfect breakfast.  Breakfast was a nostalgic trip back to when I lived in England and I was introduced to soft boiled eggs and toast soldiers.  Toast soldiers are pieces of toast cut into long rectangles so you can dip them into yummy, ooey, gooey, yolk.

Unfortunately I did not pay enough attention to the time and my should be soft boiled egg came out a hard boiled egg.

Ce la vie!

Today is a better day.

Cantaloupe makes a repeat appearance.

Lunch was a spinach salad made with the rest of the antipasti mix, some pecorino romano, and an oil and vinegar dressing topped with a peperoncini.

The salad was spectacular and filling.

 The phones finally got fixed (a plus/minus deal).

And work went on just like any other typical day.

 I had more time and more energy to create a dinner for one.

Steak and cheese quesadilla with onion and tomato, topped with sour cream. 

Corn salad with tomato, onion, jalapeno, radish and a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper.

On top of a bed of spinach. 

A little too much for one, I had plenty of corn salad left over…..lunch tomorrow?

Slowly the food is diminishing, although my waist is not ) 

 My morning started off with puppy who decided to replace a teenager.  Normally the Summer dog gets up and goes outside first thing in the morning.  Not this morning, not at all.  I went downstairs to let her out of her kennel and she didn’t budge.  I let her be.  I came back 30 minutes later, a nice snooze time I thought, and still a no go.  This time I waited an hour and she reluctantly came out.

A stretch and shake and another stretch and I thought she was ready to go.

I mean really, she just snoozed an extra 90 minutes!

And still she required cajoling.

I’m behind the coffee table, you can’t get me.

Once outside, business was takin care of.

 Hey be glad I didn’t publish her other “duty”.

 In my effort to use up my leftovers and food that I already have, I decided on an egg beater omelet.

With a couple of cantaloupe slices.

The omelet used the rest of my egg beater and 1/2 my antipasti mix and a little of the pecorino romano cheese.

Hello winner!  Wow what a great omelet.  I will definitly do this again on purpose.

For lunch it was turkey noodle casserole and celery sticks with peanut butter/honey mix.

Can I interject here?

Of course I can, who’s going to stop me.

I had a busy day at work, a really busy day.

Our boilers went down, again….

The phone system went down, again…..

We had 4 support personnel show up who needed orientation.

I had to spend 3 hours on my cell phone with I.T. because of our phone problem (which still isn’t fixed).

We had major changes to our operating instructions come out today…..changing our daily work practice/forms, etc.

Wah, wah, wah…poor me.

Okay that out of my system (usually McGyver gets to hear it, he can thank me later for whining to my one reader).

For dinner I decided to make a “Big Salad”.

Everytime I have a “Big Salad” I am reminded of the a show, you can view a snippet here:  Jerry Seinfeld and the Big Salad on YouTube

My big salad was a twisted cesar salad, with pork chop, green onion, radish, leaf lettuce, cheese and a frozen bagel I found in the fridge and turned into croutons.

As for part of my lime, I couldn’t think of a better additions to my day then having a Cuba Libre! 

My standings so far…..boy do I have a long ways to go…..

And now for something completely different.  I find myself alone for a week, once again the men have gone off on a Scout venture.  This time to Glacier National Park.  I find myself looking forward to some quiet time where I can putz around if I want to, be lazy, watch TV or chick flicks, maybe make some jewelry.  And then a few days go by and I’m ready for them to come home and mess up the house, mow the lawn, take out the garbage, keep me company, rub my feet, bring healthy chaos back to the house and give me someone to cook for.

What also happens when they leave, is I’m left with a fridge full of food, leftovers and otherwise, so I thought I’d reach out to the blogosphere and see if anyone has menu suggestions based on what I have to consume.  My goal is not purchase anything, but I may make exceptions for 1 or more items if it’ll make or break a dish.

Here’s my lofty goal….I am going to try and take a photo journal of what I am eating this week and how I’m utilizing what I have in my larder.  My daughter’s blog is based on this whole concept of food journaling and using her leftovers.  So for this week only, I’m stepping into my daughters shoes, we’ll see if I can handle it!

Now done to business, here is what I have to work with this week (which is way more then 1 person needs):

Obviously I have regular condiment type items (Dijon and yellow mustard, ketchup, mayo, jams, dressings, pickles, horseradish, olives, pepperoncini, etc.) and my cabinets are well stocked with a variety of oils, vinegars, hot sauces, and spices.  I also have some fresh herbs like parsley, rosemary, dill, a little basil, marjoram, and oregano.

Any ideas out there?

My dinner tonight, I didn’t reinvent anything other then I fried the mashed potatoes.  The pork chop was made by my baby boy, so were the mashed potatoes, ain’t he sweet!

Can’t wait to read your ideas!

Pure simple unadulterated guacamole.  I’ve read many guacamole recipes that call for a variety of ingredients such as garlic, tomato, onion and jalapenos.  But the truth is, I love, love, love avocados.  So much so that I don’t want to have my guacamole covered up by any flavors.  Just salt to enhance the flavor and some lime juice to retard browning and also to enhance the avocados natural creamy green goodness.  This is as simple as it gets, only 3 ingredients, and a celebration of the avocado.

Ingredients

 2 avacodos

1/2 tsp of salt plus more to taste

Juice from 1/2 lime

Directions

Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit.  Slice lenghtwise and crosswise to make small cubes.  Using a spoon, scoop out the green goddess into a bowl.

 Mash with a fork till desired consistency (I like mine slightly chunky).

 Add the salt.

 Juice the lime.

I’ve had my stepsons staying with me, and like good boys they’ve helped with the kitchen duties.

Who am I kidding, they were forced to do dishes….house rules.

Anyways, they didn’t know where I put things so instead of asking (cuz that would make sense) they put things away to wherever seemed appropriate at the time.

For the life of me, I could not find my juicer.

So I enlisted Thing 2 to juice my lime with a fork.

 Mix together and serve immediately.

If you can’t serve immediately put one of the pits in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap and it will help prevent browning.

Make sure you taste test it before you serve.

 Thing 2 was happy to be the guinea pig.

 Nom, nom, nom……

Bacon makes everything taste better.

That’s a fact Jack!

 Can’t deny it, can you believe it also makes things healthier?

 Okay, maybe not bacon itself.  But use bacon and grill instead of breading and deep frying, suddenly really unhealthy turns into not so unhealthy. 

Jalapeno peppers area vegetable and cream cheese is lower in fat then regular hard cheese.

What I’m getting at is Jalapeno Poppers, a favorite snack/appetizer doesn’t have to be all bad.

Ingredients 

 8 Jalapenos

6-8 oz Cream Cheese

4-8 slices of bacon

 Thats it!  the variance in the amount of cheese and bacon is based on the fact that not jalapenos are created the same size.  I used anywhere from 1/2 oz to 3/4 oz cream cheese and 1/2 to 3/4 slice bacon.

Directions:

Make a lengthwise split down the jalapeno (I used gloves to handle mine because I invariably touch my eye, etc. and it burrrrns).

Clean the seeds and membranes from the inside of the pepper.

Method:

Hold the pepper between your fingers lengthwise and squeeze slightly.

This will cause the pepper to pop open like the old football shaped coin purses your grandma used to use.

I used a spoon handle to clean out the seeds and membranes.

Once cleaned stuff it full of cream cheese. 

Use the same “football change purse squeeze” technique to open the jalapeno and stuff it. 

 Once stuffed, wrap each jalapeno with bacon and use a toothpick to secure.

  Cook over a medium hot grill.

 Cook until desired doneness.  Generally speaking most people like their bacon crispy.  Unless you have my boys, they like theirs ‘al dente’. 

Is there such a thing as ‘al dente’ bacon?

 Regardless, they like theirs slightly on the chewy side.

Whether you like your bacon crispy or ‘al dente’ I guarantee that you’ll love these jalapeno poppers!

Go ahead and eat them, they aren’t so unhealthy.

Last Night was the Last Night.  The last night I got to spend with whom we affectionately call Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

I wanted their last night meal to be special, I carefully planned a menu and spent hours prepping and cooking.

Cause I love the guys and this is how I show my love.

I started them with some Jalapeno Poppers,

and chips with guacamole.

Our main course was pork fajitas and corn on the cob with a compound butter made with cilantro, lime zest, cayenne pepper and seasoning salt.

Some peach and mango salsa.

 And finally a simple watermelon salad.

 For the not so young, Mojitos.

Dinner on a perfect Montana evening.

The Baby boy wasn’t very hungry, he just got back from a week at Scout Camp.

 When you think about the time spent together certain memories seem to stick more then others…..

Our first trip in the well used “new” camper.

 How fun they are to travel with.

 Our overnight stay near the Cataldo Mission and how much it rained.

 How much they helped at the cabin.

 How they are still boys.

 How they’ve grown into young men.

Time spent with their Grandpa and Grandma HoHo.

 Taking Thing 1 to his first Rodeo.

  And mostly, I will remember them just like this.

Last night, was the last night, but not the last night forever.

Love you boys!

Farmer’s Markets are brimming with fresh lettuce, herbs and vegetables.  Although I make garden salads year round, nothing can match shopping for the freshest ingredients at your local market, taking it home and making a delicious fresh salad. 

I’m sucker for creamy dressings, I do love a vinaigrette, but a creamy dressing is my faaaaaaaavorite.  Not nearly as healthy but there are ways to make it not so un-healthy.  In this recipe I’ve created a ranch and blue cheese fusion.  To reduce the fat I used an Olive Oil based mayonnaise (it also adds “healthy” monounsaturated fat) and I used buttermilk.  The wonderful thing about buttermilk, it sounds utterly fattening ‘butter’= fat, ‘milk’ = fat: buttermilk = low fat.  Whole milk has approximately 8 grams of fat per 8 oz and buttermilk has approximately 3 grams of fat per 8 oz.  Not only does the buttermilk have less fat but it packs a lot more flavor.

Speaking of flavor, fresh herbs give a creamy dressing a ton of flavor with zero addition of calories.  Yessssssssss, free flavor!  To give my dressing maximum flavor, I added blue cheese.  Blue cheese packs a lot of flavor in a little package.  It doesn’t take much to flavor your dish. 

Buttermilk Blue Cheese Dressing

Ingredients

1/2 cup blue cheese, divided

1/2 cup olive oil or other low fat mayonnaise

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 tbs vinegar or lemon juice

dash of Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp dill

1 tsp chives

salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions

In a medium bowl add the mayonnaise,

add a the buttermilk

then add the vinegar or lemon juice

a dash of Worchestershire sauce

crumble 1/4 c of blue cheese and add to the bowl

finely mince the chives and add throw them into the bowl also

now for the dill

can’t forget the salt and pepper

whisk the ingredients until they are smooth and creamy

crumble the other 1/4 cup of blue cheese and add to the dressing

stir until incorporated

don’t over stir, the chunky bits are the best

to make my salad a meal I grilled some lean steak and topped my salad

another way to reduce calories, only 2 oz of steak seem like a lot more on top of a big salad

excuse my while I go enjoy my salad with a not so un-healthy creamy dressing