Wide Awake
Posted on February 7, 2010
Filed Under dreaming | Leave a Comment
World turns black and white, pictures in an empty room…. There isn’t much I like from the days when Sammy Hagar was backed by the Van Halen boys, but that song is one of them.
I’m up at 3AM because I was woke by a dream about an old friend I hadn’t heard from in a long time. I wasn’t one of those warm and fuzzy dreams that make smile when you wake up. I actually woke up in a sweat from this dream and it’s keeping me from getting back to sleep. In my dream I went to visit a long time friend in his new home. It turned out that directly across the street was the old friend. Or, more accurately, former friend – we had a falling out a few years ago. Anyway, in the dream it turned out the former friend had become good friends with the long time friend’s wife and she was constantly at their house during my entire visit. Whenever anybody else was in the room she was fine, but at every opportunity when it could be done without anybody else seeing or hearing, she would say vile and hateful things and did everything she could to make my visit miserable.
I dont’ know why I would even be thinking of her enough to cause me to have any kind of dream about her. We parted ways a few years ago and I honestly have not thought about her. The specifics of why we parted ways isn’t important. I don’t hold any hatred or malice for the things she did and said, we have even had civil and friendly words since, so I don’t know why I would dream that she would hold so much malice toward me. And now that I’m thinking about her, I do miss our conversations and the good times we used to have together.
Ok, maybe I’ve rambled on about it long enough to go back to sleep.
Tips For Quick & Easy Meals
Posted on February 6, 2010
Filed Under Dinner for One | Leave a Comment
Welcome to Dinner For One. A couple of recent comments have suggested that my quick meals must only be possible because I’ve been professionally trained or have experience working as a short-order cook. Neither is true. I have never taken a cooking class and I have never worked as a cook. Most anyone can prepare a healthy and delicious meal in minutes with a little practice. Here are a few tips to help you on your way.
Be prepared. Don’t look at cooking as a one-time event that happens each and every night, instead consider it an ongoing process. If you’re preparing something that you’ll use in several meals during the week, consider doing enough to cover all those meals. Rice and pasta are really good examples. It takes 35 minutes to cook basmati rice. It doesn’t matter if you’re cooking 1 or 10 servings, it still takes 35 minutes. Why not cook all you need for the week the first time? Then just re-heat the rice you need each night in the microwave. Two servings of rice in a covered dish reheats in about a minute on high. If you have rice with four meals during the week, you’ve saved yourself an hour and a half. Do you eat a green salad every night? Consider making a weeks worth. Store it in the fridge in a tightly covered plastic container. To keep the salad fresh, put a couple paper towels on top and turn the container upside down. The paper towels absorb any extra moisture and keep things from turning slimy.
Know what you’re going to cook. This sounds pretty basic, but I’ve heard it over and over again (and even been guilty of it myself). After working all day you come home, stand in front of the open fridge, staring down the array of ingredients to try and formulate an acceptable dinner. At best, you waste just a few minutes, quickly assembling a hodge-podge into something edible. More than likely, you’ll waste a half hour and end up feeling frustrated and less like cooking the next night. And in extreme cases, you’ll just give up and head out for that burger. Make a menu of dinners for the week and make sure you have the ingredients for each of them. But allow some flexibility. Don’t expect to sit down to make a menu Sunday night and know what you’re going to want for dinner on Thursday. Instead, consider your menu a meal pool. Just make sure to decide which item from the pool you’re going to cook each night before you get to the kitchen.
Shop smart. How many people do you know who stop by the store after work each and every night to pick up the ingredients for that night’s dinner? Quite a few I’d wager. So what’s it hurt? More than you’d think. For starters, each one of those trips takes time. Sure, you may be in and out of the store in less than 15 minutes, but added up over a week and you’ve logged nearly two hours in the grocery store. Those trips also cost more. You’ve been exposed to impulse displays a half dozen extra times during the week, which means you’ve had 6 extra opportunities to purchase something you hadn’t planned. Add to that the likelihood that you’re hungry when you go into a store after work and the chance that you’ll make an unplanned trip down the ice cream or chip aisle has skyrocketed. Instead, make one trip to purchase your groceries for the entire week. Make a list and stick to it. Eat a small snack 10 minutes before going into the store so that you won’t be tempted by hunger to make that unplanned purchase. Read your grocery ads and take advantage of sales items (and your store’s price match policy, if they have one).
Clean as you go. This is one I’ve learned slowly over the years, but it really is a time saver. If you use a dishwasher, make sure it’s ready to accept dirty dishes before you start cooking so you can deposit things as you finish using them. If you wash your dishes by hand, fill a sink or wash pan with hot soapy water and quickly wash and rinse each item as you finish using it. Before you sit down to eat, wash your pans. Keeping your kitchen clean as you go frees up space and makes it easier to work and your meal will be enjoyable knowing the only cleanup you have left is your dinner plate.
Get organized. I can’t stress this one enough. When I visit friends for dinner I am always amazed at how much time is wasted because their kitchen is poorly organized. Put things close to where they’ll be used and keep them in the same place. Take out everything you’ll be needing when you start. That way you won’t be hunting for your spatula or that jar of Dijon while your dinner is on the stove burning.
Watch for more tips and recipes in upcoming Dinner For One posts.
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Posted on February 3, 2010
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
I can’t let today go by without at least a mention. Today would have been my late wife’s 43rd birthday. She was an amazing wife and mother who always thought of others first and for that she deserves a moment commemoration.
Your life was far too short, but you shall always live on in the hearts of the many lives you touched.
Asian Style Ginger Beef and Vegetables Over Pan Fried Noodles
Posted on February 1, 2010
Filed Under Dinner for One | 3 Comments
Welcome to my first installment of Dinner For One recipes.
As I promised, I’m going to start sharing some of my favorite recipes created to provide delicious and healthy meals that don’t take forever to prepare and don’t break the budget. For those of you cooking for more than just yourselves, don’t worry, all my recipes really provide two servings (except where otherwise noted) and it’s pretty easy to increase them from there.
Tonight’s dinner is my take on the Special Chow Mein you find in many Asian style restaurants. It’s a delicately flavored stir fry of beef marinated in a light and zesty ginger sauce served over a bed of pan fried noodles. My total prep time tonight, which includes clean up and pulling out the camera to get take the pic for this post, was 14 minutes. I did, however, have a cheat or two. My noodles were left over from a pork linguine I made a couple of nights ago. Cooking the noodles fresh tonight would add about 10 minutes. I also make my up enough salad for a week at a time. It takes about 5 minute to put the salad together using 2 – 12oz bags of pre-cut salad greens, 1 cucumber, 2 stalks of celery and 8 oz of frozen peas. I keep it stored in a 2 gallon zipper bag in my crisper drawer. So, without further ado, here’s the recipe:
8 oz round steak
8 oz (1/2 package) frozen stir fry vegetables
1 stalk celery
1/2 medium onion
1 cup broccoli florets
2 heaping tbsp chopped garlic (increase or decrease to taste)
2 tsp dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh chopped basil
4 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp crushed ginger
1 tbsp mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tsp crushed red peppers (increase or decrease to taste)
1 tbsp olive oil
4 oz (1/3 package) dry noodles (used for this recipe was whole wheat linguine)
6 large (32/35 ct) peeled and cooked frozen shrimp tails
1 tbsp cocktail sauce
4 cups green salad
2 tbsp of your favorite salad dressing
You will need a 10 inch frying pan, metal spatula, cutting board, sharp knife, small bowl (about 2 cups) for marinating, dinner plate, salad bowl, saucer, 2 plastic containers with lids (about 3 cups each) and a fork. Chopsticks are optional. If your noodles are not pre-cooked, you will also need a 3 qt pot with a lid and a colander.
Thaw the shrimp tails under cold water. If you’re noodles are not pre-cooked, fill the 3 qt pot with 6 cups of water, cover and set on high to boil. If you’re using and electric stove, preheat a second burner to medium high (70%). Don’t forget this burner is on – it’s hot! If you’re noodles are pre-cooked, toss with 1 tbsp light soy sauce and heat in the microwave for 3 minutes on high. Thinly slice 1 stalk of celery and set aside. Cut the 1/2 medium onion into strips and set aside. Trim off 1 cup of broccoli florets and set aside. In a small bowl, mix together 3 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp crushed ginger, 1 tbsp mirin and 2 tsp crushed red pepper. Set aside. Cut the round steak into thin slices (note that the meat is cut last to prevent cross contamination with the vegetables) and place in soy sauce mixture – mix well with your clean hands to ensure all pieces are covered. Now go wash your hands. If your noodles were not pre-cooked, the water should be boiling by now. Add your noodles to the boiling water, stir and cook to the package directions. For whole wheat linguine like I used tonight, return the water to boiling, reduce heat to medium low (30%), cover and cook for 7 minutes. Place your 10 inch frying pad on the preheated burner and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Allow to heat so that the oil easily flows to cover the bottom of the pan. Add the meat and all of the soy mixture and spread evenly across the bottom of the pan. Allow meat to cook through (about 3 minutes). While you’re waiting, prepare your shrimp cocktail and salad. Place 1 tbsp cocktail sauce in the center of a small saucer. Shake the thawed shrimp dry and place on the saucer around the cocktail sauce. Place 2 cups of salad into the salad bowl and another 2 cups into one of the plastic container. Top each with 1 tbsp of your favorite salad dressing and toss to coat. Place the cover on the plastic container and place it in the fridge. It should have been about 3 minutes by now. Add the chopped garlic and basil to the frying pan and mix with the now cooked meat. Spread evenly across the bottom of the pan. Now spread the onion strips, celery, broccoli florets and frozen stir fry vegetables in layers over the meat and garlic mixture. Allow to steam for a moment. If you’re boiling your noodles, they should be done now. Taste test one noodle to make sure it’s not still crunchy. Assuming the noodles have cooked properly, drain them into the colander and rinse with plenty of cold water. Rinse out the pot and return it to the stove. Increase heat to medium and return noodles to the pan. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp light soy sauce. Now give your meat and vegetables a quick stir. Go back to the noodles and toss in the pan until the soy sauce begins to sizzle and becomes fragrant (for those of you that aren’t familiar with cooking terms, that means it produces a steam that smells like soy sauce). Remove from heat. Divide the noodles between the dinner plate and the remaining plastic container. Give you meat and vegetable mixture a quick stir and turn off the burner. Quickly wash up the pot, colander, cutting board, knife and marinating dish. Divide the meat and vegetable mixture and spoon over the two servings of noodles. Place the lid on the plastic dish and place in the refrigerator next to the container of salad – these will be lunch tomorrow. Quickly wash up the frying pan and wipe down your stove and counters. Now sit down and enjoy your dinner. I enjoy mine with a cup of unsweetened green tea, but it also goes great with a glass of white wine, pale ale or plain old water.
You can also use this recipe to feed two (impress women by showing them you can cook – it’s worked wonders for me!) instead of boxing up leftovers for lunch. You’ll just need to double the shrimp and cocktail sauce.
This dinner is not only delicious and satisfying, it’s also healthy and very economical. It weighs in at just 600 calories and 13.7 grams of fat per serving, not including salad dressing (the citrus and Italian herb dressing I use adds 25 calories and 0.2 grams of fat per tbsp), which is well within the dinner limits for a 2000 to 2200 calorie diet. And at $3.19 per serving it won’t put a strain on your wallet.
Dinner For One
Posted on February 1, 2010
Filed Under Dinner for One | Leave a Comment
Over the last few months I’ve been facing a new set of challenges. Last September, my youngest left home for college, leaving me with the house to myself. Having an empty nest isn’t an entirely bad thing. My time is now entirely mine to do with as a I please and so is my house. I don’t have to worry about scheduling the things I want to do around the needs of my kids. I don’t have to worry about whether or not my private activities are setting a good example. And with the entire house to myself, I can walk around naked and have sex on the kitchen table – oh, wait, that last part requires another willing participant and that’s another post entirely.
The empty nest has its drawbacks, too. Most of them were expected, a few of them weren’t. The one that really took me by surprise was eating. When the kids were at home there was a certain expectation of a somewhat regular dinner schedule, so cooking dinner was the first thing I would do when I got home from work. It took all of the first day after my daughter left to break that schedule. When I have things to otherwise occupy my time, eating usually comes last. I quickly got into the habit of getting so busy that I would skip dinner altogether or, even worse, go running out at 10:00PM to grab a greasy hamburger, onion rings and a shake that I would wolf down just before heading off to bed. After about 3 months of this I was really feeling the effects of my poor diet with a ballooning waistline and unstable blood sugar levels. Over three months time I had gained over 25 lbs and when I started experiencing brown-outs and dizzy spells from unstable blood sugar levels I knew it was time to make a change.
Eating regular, healthy meals is only common sense. All the time I was eating poorly I knew it was wrong. But I had managed to convince myself that it was both more convenient and less expensive to eat out than it would be to cook for myself. I don’t know what I was smoking when I came up with that logic, because I was dead wrong.
Let’s take a look at from my two points of justifications.
Convenience. Eating out meant I had to go out to get something to eat. I live out in the country, so it’s not like I can go down to the corner burger joint to get something to eat. The nearest fast food restaurant is a 15 minute drive from my house and the nearest sit down restaurant is 10 minutes away. At best was the fast food restaurant. It is 15 minutes there, 15 minutes back and at least another 5 minutes sitting in the drive-thru, so a minimum of 35 minutes before I was back home with my meal. At the other end of the spectrum was the sit down restaurant. Sure, it was closer, but by the time I drove both directions, waited to have more order taken, waited for my meal and waited for my bill I had blown 45 minutes or better, not including the time it took me to eat. Even when I was cooking for my kids, it rarely took me more than 30 minutes to cook a meal. So much for convenience.
Cost. My typical fast food meal would cost me $7.88, including tax, and a typical dinner at a sit down restaurant costs right around $12.00. Add to that the cost of driving (fuel, car maintenance and wear and tear), which the IRS estimates at 55¢ per mile and my fast meal ends up being $21.63 or my sit down meal at the closest restaurant $20.25. Taking into account that I would skip, on average, 2 dinners per week and I was spending about $230 per month before taking into account the cost of driving, or $485 with driving costs included. And that was just for dinners. Even with two hungry teenagers at home I rarely spent more than $400 a month on groceries to cook them healthy meals, so it only makes sense that I can feed myself for considerably less.
And then there’s the health consideration. Since most nights I didn’t think about dinner until too late to go to a sit down restaurant, I most frequently went to a local fast food burger joint. My typical meal amounted to a whopping 2250 calories and 100 grams of fat. For my age, height, build and activity level, the ideal daily intake to maintain a healthy weight is 2500 calories and 70 grams of fat and the majority (65%) should be consumed during the first half of my day when I’m burning the most calories. Yet I was eating nearly a full day’s worth a calories and nearly 1-1/2 days worth of fat in one meal and just minutes before heading off to bed. It’s no wonder I was packing on nearly 10 pounds a month!
After taking the time to really look at things I found that my justifications for the previous three months were totally unfounded. I could cook at home and eat healthier in less time and for less money than going out and grabbing a quick burger. It’s been nearly two months and what I’ve found is that I can cook a healthy and delicious dinner in 30 minutes or less for a fraction of the cost. In fact, most meals only take about 20 minutes to prepare, including clean up, and for an average grocery bill of $195 per month I’m not only eating a healthy dinner, but a healthy breakfast, lunch and two snacks every day as well. And since I do my grocery shopping on my way home from work, a trip I have to make anyway, I’m avoiding the added cost of putting additional miles on my car. And most importantly, by consistently eating healthier, I have managed to get rid of half that extra weight I had put on, I have more energy and no more annoying brown-outs.
Eating right doesn’t have to be difficult, expensive or inconvenient. I’ll be sharing many of my favorite dinner recipes in future posts. I hope you’ll enjoy them.
A Humble Return
Posted on January 30, 2010
Filed Under writing | 3 Comments
Hello. Surprised to see me here, are you? That’s ok, I’m a little surprised to be here myself. I’ve been away a long time. No writing, no reading, nothing for many months. Leaving was not an accident, it was a decision I made. I chose to turn off my computer and walk away from blogging. Blogging had become, in my eyes, an endless flow of toxic self pity which was keeping me focused on the negative aspects of my life. Removing that element from my life appeared to be the right move. I was going to be happier and healthier without this distraction.
But just because something wasn’t an accident doesn’t mean it wasn’t a mistake. Sometimes we make changes without realizing we were doing the right thing all along. I had come to see my blogging as a cesspool of negativity, a dark distraction. I was wrong. Sure, my posts seemed to carry a negative theme, but they were not breeding the negativity, they were providing an outlet. What I thought was an unhealthy influence in my life was actually anything but.
So here I am. Again. I’ve spent quite a bit of time these last few months thinking about blogging, both how it has helped and how it has held me back. I did a few things wrong. I was often too worried about what I was writing and ended up deleting more unfinished posts than I actually published. And I spent a lot of time worrying about the need to publish a post, any post. I’m going to try to do things different this time.
First, I’m not going to worry about what I’m writing. If a post is worth starting, it’s worth finishing. You may not agree with me, but that’s ok. It would be a pretty boring world if everyone agreed about everything all the time.
Second, there are no taboo subjects.
Third, I don’t have to write just about the bad stuff. Sure, I have bad stuff, who doesn’t? But I also have plenty of good stuff to write about. It may help me to unload the bad stuff, but occasionally sharing a fun or happy moment is a good thing too.
Finally, there’s no schedule. Nothing says I have to post every day or even every week or that I can post more than once in a day.
So here it is.