Guest Post: What is Hominy Again?

I have another guest post up at FarmFlavor.com. Check it out!

Early Resolutions

I’m getting a head start on my New Year’s Resolutions this year. Since I was away from cooking for most of 2012 (due to aversions during pregnancy), I’m really eager to get back in the kitchen to learn and try new things. Here’s my list for 2013:

Say cheese - I’m familiar with Mozzarella and Cheddar, but I couldn’t tell you much about Gouda and Camembert. I’d like to change that by upping my adventure quotient in the cheese department. To put this into practice, I plan to swing by the cheese section of the grocery store every other trip or so and choose something new to research and try. I want to know what it tastes like, what other foods it pairs with, and how to use it in a recipe. We’re also fortunate to have a local resource with access to a group of cheese makers through The Bloomy Rind. I also just found out about Corrieri’s Formaggeria (located in the 12South area of Nashville) from a quick Google search. I hope to check those two businesses out as well. Maybe a good graduation from this one would be to prepare a cheese board for a party. Fun!

Roast a bird - Here comes another confession. I’m kind of afraid of chicken. When I buy it, it’s always boneless and skinless breasts. When I prepare it, you’d think I was dealing with a biohazard. I’m super OCD about what it touches and washing my hands 1,000 times. It’s bad. Also, when I took my Knife Skills II class, we were tasked with breaking down a whole chicken, and I almost had an anxiety attack. My food “rules” when I was younger (and ok, probably still to this day) dictated that I didn’t eat anything in it’s natural state. This means no bones, no eyeballs, etc. I’ve come to learn that bone-in chicken is quite delicious, but I have NO idea where to start or what to do. Not to mention the huge fear I have to overcome. I’ve decided to take baby steps and purchase a rotisserie chicken so that I can practice “harvesting” the meat. Then when it comes to starting from raw, I may purchase breasts with ribs still attached so I can get a feel for it.

Stock up - If delicious chicken weren’t motivation enough, I’d also like to make homemade chicken stock. Can you imagine…a delicious chicken noodle soup or I might try to knock off my favorite Chicken Tortilla Soup from Taco Mamacita (holy cow, it’s good!).

Let’s go Dutch - Last year for Christmas, Mr. J got me a cast iron Dutch oven. I want to explore new ways to use it and get it out of the cabinet a little more this year. My dad makes a delicious campfire cobbler that I want to try.

Breaking Bread - I’ve mastered pizza dough and biscuits, and I made potato rolls once. I want to conquer homemade tortillas, loaf bread, and a few more types of rolls this year. I don’t have specific recipes picked out yet so that will be a good place to start. I know Mr. J will be excited about this experiment. He loves fresh bread!

A Day in the Life: Eating for Bradley Method and Gestational Diabetes (Fun!)

Have you ever tried to balance 3 specialized diets at once? It’s so much fun (sarcasm!).

• First up you have pregnancy (get your veggies and your fruits stay away from too much fish watch out for deli meats no soft cheese cook everything all the way!).
• Next you have Bradley Method (eat ALL of the protein eat your veggies eat two eggs a day eat three potatoes a week eat dark leafy greens salt to taste and water to thirst).
• And finally, you have gestational diabetes (watch your carbs watch your sweets watch your fats watch what you eat at your baby showers).

Well, this has been my life since about 28 weeks. Thankfully, most things in these diets don’t compete with each other, and you can still find your way (and something to eat!).

First of all, I want to say that I’m being monitored for GD as a precaution. All of my levels have been great and well below the range. I have a lot of diabetes in my family, and my glucose tolerance test came back high…so we’re not taking any chances. It has been easy to manage and monitor, and I don’t have to go back to the doctor until after the baby is born.

Turkey burgers have been one of my go-to dinners these days. I found a tasty way to prepare and serve them…full of flavor!

Turkey Burgers

A friend warned me that straight-up ground turkey burgers with no binding fall apart when you cook them so I wanted to add a little something extra to mine to avoid this issue and add a little extra flavor.

1 lb. ground turkey (I got Publix brand ground breast meat so it’s very low in fat – some say that’s the culprit for them falling apart)
2 T bread crumbs
1 T burger seasoning
1 T Worchestershire
1 egg
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Mix together all ingredients with your hands and portion out patties.* Grill until temperature reads 160-170*.

*I had 1.30 lbs of meat, and I got 4.75 patties out of it (one was a runt).

To serve, I melted provolone cheese on top and spread herbed mayo (Duke’s low fat mayo with chopped, fresh dill and basil) on top. I served with 2 servings of brown rice, broccoli, chopped tomato, and a peach. This was a LOT of food.

Total protein: 31.4
Total carbs: 45
Mommy: full
Baby: happy