Beautiful Saturday except for . . .

the cottonwood tree across the street from our house.  Every year about this time it starts to “shed” and it looks like its snowing, but its all the cottom from the trees – it sticks to our lawn, our dog if he’s laying outside, even tried to get into the grill while I was making salsa!

it usually passes in about a week - just kind of a pain to sit outside 😦

I decided to make pancakes for breakfast.  I used my pumpkin pancake recipe, the only change was I made them plain.  Two secrets:  I use this:

And I let my pancake batter sit for a minimum of 15 minutes – fluffy pancakes every time!

My plate:  3 pancakes, 1 sausage patty and 1/3 cup sugar free pancake syrup:

499 caloires, 60 carbs, 14.8 protein, 23 fat and 1 fiber

Then Tony and I ran some errands – I forgot my camera and he kept pointing out to me “oh, that would make a great picture!”  We ended up at a place called the Texan.  Hands down awesome ribs, but I had a burger on my mind.  My blood sugar was super low – as we were paying I could start to see my eyesight starts getting black so I ate a mini Peppermint Pattie while we waited for our food.

I ate exactly half of what you see, so I weighed it when I got home – 4 oz. of burger and 3 oz. of french fries:

I got to put my new 13 quart bowl to good use yesterday!  Our local grocery store had roma tomatoes for .49 cents a pound and I was out of salsa!  I hope everyone gives this a try.  The smokiness you get from the charred bits of tomato and jalapeno and the mellow grilled garlic is downright addicting!

This recipe was actually one of the first I did on the blog – way back in September 2008!  So simple, but so good!

Baja Fresh Salsa (printer friendly version here)

• 7 firm tomatoes
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teasoon salt
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
• juice of 1 lime (about 1 tablespoon)

Toss the tomatoes, jalapeno and garlic (left in paper – thanks Tony for that idea!) in a bit of olive oil.  When grill is at temperature, grill until they are charred – turning every 10 minutes or so.

When they are done, your bowl will look like this:

this was enough for three batches

my mouth is waterning just looking at this picture!

Tony and I relaxed outside for a while – I was reading cookbooks per usual!  I got some new ones from the library – and while I like this one, I’ve never read a cookbook that has not one picture of any recipe!

But then we had to do some chores – one of the bushes on the side of our driveway was DED – dead!

that part was about 1/10 of the whole bush!

Since we ate such a late lunch, we had a late dinner.  Tony had seen a recipe on America’s Test Kitchen for a weeknight pasta sauce – he described it as a bolognese, and at the library I was actually able to find the DVD with that recipe on it!  Only problem?  It wasn’t the one Tony watched!  So I had ingredients for the one I made, so next time we’ll do Tony’s version.

I did make some adaptations though, I did not use reconstituted dried porcini mushrooms, and I, or course, left out the onions!

Quick Bolognese Recipe (printer friendly version here)

Makes 6 servings (360 caloires, 16.6 fat, 10.6 carbs, 2.0 fiber and 40.9 protein)

Typically a sauce that needs to cook low and slow, here is a weeknight version ready in about 40 minutes.

Ingredients

1	ounce mushroom
1/2	small carrot , peeled and chopped into rough 1/2-inch pieces (about 1/4 cup)
3	ounces pancetta , cut into 1-inch pieces
28	ounce tomatoes, with juice
1 1/2	tablespoons unsalted butter
1	teaspoon garlic, minced
1	teaspoon granulated sugar
3/4	pound ground pork
3/4	pound ground beef
1 1/2	cups whole milk
2	tablespoons tomato paste
1	pinch table salt
1/8	teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Pulse carrot and mushroom in food processor until broken down into rough 1/4-inch pieces, about 10 one-second pulses. Transfer vegetables to small bowl.
2. Process pancetta until pieces are no larger than 1/4 inch, 30 to 35 seconds, scraping down bowl if necessary; transfer to small bowl.
3. Pulse tomatoes with juice until chopped fine, 6 to 8 one-second pulses.
4. Heat butter in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat; when foaming subsides, add pancetta and cook, stirring frequently, until well browned, about 2 minutes. Add carrot and porcini; cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are softened but not browned, about 4 minutes.
5. Add garlic and sugar; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add ground meats, breaking meat into 1-inch pieces with wooden spoon, about 1 minute.
6. Add milk and stir to break meat into 1/2-inch bits; bring to simmer, reduce heat to medium, and continue to simmer, stirring to break up meat into small pieces, until most liquid has evaporated and meat begins to sizzle, 18 to 20 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook until combined, about 1 minute.
7. Add tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper; bring to simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until liquid is reduced and sauce is thickened but still moist, 12 to 15 minutes.
8. Serve over pasta of choice.

After the pancetta and carrot/mushroom mixture cooks, you add the meat and the milk:

After 20 minutes, it looks like this:

Then after adding the tomato paste and tomato sauce, it simmered for 15 more minutes:

Tony chose mosticolli, which I love!

My plate: 1 1/2 cups pasta, 1 serving of sauce, fresh basil from our potted plant and I sprinkled with crushed red pepper on mine! 😀

624 calories, 69 carbs, 46 protein, 18.1 fat and 12.1 fiber

Stats for Saturday

• 1,497 calories, 169 carbs, 76 protein, 59 fat and 15.1 fiber
• only exercise was yard work

It’s another beautiful day in Chicagoland!  I am hitting up Fresh Market for goat milk to make goat cheese.  I also am hosting May birthday’s at my office tomorrow and plan on making zucchini/walnut muffins. 😀  Enjoy our day!