For the Love of Food

I absolutely LOVE food. Anyone who knows me knows this. Yes there are some quirks in my food life, such as not being a fan of icecream. I used to love it, now and for the past several years I dislike it. Every once in awhile I'll have some but I'm not the type of girl that has it stocked in her freezer and when it is sitting in there, it sits for quite a long time until my husband or house guests eat it. For my son's birthday party I almost forgot to buy some, if it wasn't for my mom and best friend reminding me to purchase it.

My husband LOVES icecream, to the point where he'd prefer an icecream cake over the regular kind. I think it's crazy, but then again I'm probably just as crazy for not loving it.

As part of loving food so much I have enjoyed cooking to such great extents. Currently I'm working on my pot and pan collection and actually found a set I really like. Of course I found them at my friend (more like an acquaintance but she's super nice) Sarah's house and they are Pampered Chef which means they are very expensive but she swears by them and to tell you the truth I love they are guaranteed for life. Of course one of the best parts of the Pampered Chef Pans are who they are sold by. I'd rather buy them from Sarah then some random person I met at a party. Yes Sarah sells Pampered Chef so if you ever want a delicious party give me a call or send an email and I'm sure Sarah would be more then pleased to have a "cooking show" with you. To make it even better I'd probably buy some stuff at your party as well.

My extent of cooking involves me trying new recipes constantly. I will cook new meals for my family, bake breads and even whip up new desserts. The problem with this is eating. I eat while I cook, I eat the food when it's first ready, I eat left overs when it's cold. Now this will clearly run up caloric intake and well...that's a problem.

Since food is such an important part in my life, I have to try and be careful. Notice it's try to be careful. So how do I be a stay at home mom, who adores cooking and baking and not weigh 200 pounds? Recently I found this TV program called, "Cook Yourself Thin." I was so intrigued by the recipes I looked them up. I highly recommend you do. I ate a full dinner with a side of stuffing (which was not on the menu and was as unhealthy as you can get) and my calories for dinner was STILL less then what I normally eat. Tonight we ate the Mediterranean Chicken and Tomatoes. It was divine! I've also made the chocolate biscotti which was wonderful as well. These recipes really do taste amazing and the caloric intake is low.

Not only have I been trying new, healthier and just as fulfilling recipes, I've been trying harder to exercise, which involves running again and my beloved long walks with my son. Honestly I do love food but if there's one thing I do know is the calories add up fast so you have to burn some. I'm hoping in about four more weeks I'll be down ten pounds, if I keep following the guidelines. Try the website, "Cook Yourself Thin" and let me know what you think. We are most definitely going to continue using these recipes in my house and if anyone wants to get me something for Christmas, either Pampered Chef Pans or the Cook Yourself Thin Cookbook. I hope you enjoy! Bon appetit!

Everything Blue

This past week at the local grocery store blueberries were on sale, "Buy one get one free with your Price Chopper card." After little contemplation I decided, why the heck not? Earlier in the week I had been craving blueberry muffins and never before had I made them from scratch. I love to cook and bake so I thought it would be a wonderful new baking adventure. Now mind you these little containers weren't the standard small size normally sold at the grocery but quite large, you know the larger strawberry size containers, which reminded me of my childhood.

As a little girl I remember my Aunt Claire and Uncle Neil taking my brother and I blueberry picking. They talked it up and it was going to be a fun adventure. Hours later I hardly had any blueberries in my bucket. I ate a lot of them and I'm pretty sure I had a tummy ache. While at the grocery store I reminisced about what it must have been like in fields picking blueberry after blueberry for hours on end.

As I was unloading the groceries, and the baby, I came to the realization I really did have a lot of blueberries. I needed to do something. The next morning, Friday, I made blueberry muffins as I planned. The only problem was the recipe called for only one cup of blueberries, which really wasn't as much as I thought it was. Regardless the recipe only made twelve muffins and they were delicious. Chris referred to them as blueberry cupcakes all day. Between Chris, Bradley and me we ate about five of them. The remaining seven, although an odd number, we gave to our neighbor Carol, who was more then pleased to have homemade muffins.

The next morning I was determined to use up more of those blueberries. We hardly eat pancakes and I thought it would be a great way to get rid of some of the fruit. I pulled one of our dining room chairs up to the counter and had Bradley stand on it. In my mind I thought it would be fun for my almost toddler to help me cook breakfast. Bradley's idea of stirring the pancake batter was dunking his entire hand in the bowl and squishing it with his fingers. Good thing his hands were clean and it was just us eating the meal. After cleaning up his little mess I thought he would enjoy putting the blueberries in the batter, instead he was taking handfuls of blueberries and shoving them in his mouth. I was dreading future diaper changes. Turns out things weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be.

Sunday I decided to make more blueberry muffins, this time sending the remaining treats with Uncle Brad. I still have almost a full container of blueberries left. Although I think we are blueberried out, I may try one more recipe of something blue.




To Die For Blueberry Muffins (www.allrecipes.com)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.