pop it like it’s hot

Do you now have Snoop Dogg stuck in your head?? Now?? Well, you’re welcome. Because I do too.

So I figured I’d take a moment and share one of my grocery store saving techniques. As we’ve seen before, I made $1.67 bread and $2.23 pasta sauce. Compared to what you’d pay at the grocery store, that saves you a lot of money. but want to know how to save even more money? Pop your own popcorn!

That’s right kids! Go buy your kernels in bulk (or just regular bagged, unpopped kernels if you don’t have a bulk section at your grocery) and heat up a pot. You don’t need fancy popcorn pots for this if you don’t have one and it will save you lots of moolah — we’re talking a production cost of only $0.12 per serving (based on the bulk price of my kernels). Just pop 1/4 a cup of kernels to get the equivalent of a personal or mini-bag of popcorn. If you picked that up at the grocery store, you’d be paying close to $0.60/serving or even more! It might not seem huge, but it adds up. Plus it is fun!

Just start out by spraying the bottom of a pot with some vegetable oil spray (or putting in about a 2 teaspoons of oil, if you’d rather). Make sure the pot you choose has a lid!!

Just pour your serving (1/4 cup per person) into the pot, shake it around in the light oil layer, and cover that baby up.

Now, what I do is start the kernels out on medium so the oil and the kernels heat slowly and don’t burn prematurely. No one likes the smell of burnt popcorn, right? Oh, now I’m getting horrific flashbacks to living in a college dorm… I digress.

So start on medium heat and once the first kernels start popping, you can crank it up to medium-high. But you need to watch it. And keep the lid on!!!! The kernels will fly everywhere! if you’re afraid the kernels will burn or stick, feel free to give it a few hearty shakes, but hold the lid on with a pot holder!

The first few kernels will take a few seconds but then magically it will be done and, much like microwave popcorn, you’ll be able to tell it is done when the pops start to become infrequent. Transfer immediately to a bowl, top with your favorite topping (I prefer salt-free cajun seasoning) and you’ve got yourself a big bowl of saved money. And some old fashioned popcorn!

I think old Orville would be proud of me. And my mom, who I’ve watched do this my whole life!

how to be a domestic goddess

How to Become a Domestic Goddess:

Step 1. Pick a classic, comforting recipe.

Step 2. Get nekkid.

Yes, that is right. Desnuda. Today, we’re getting dirty in the kitchen (and I don’t just mean the dishes). But, why??

Well, I am a participant my friend Rachel’s contest, Project Tasteless, a blogger competition for those of us who maybe aren’t conventional or traditional enough  to win all the other blog contests out there. And our first competition? Cook naked.

So I decided to break out my true domestic goddess skills, tie an apron on, and invite my friend Brett over to humor me. He and I have been friends for years, since I was 15 or 16, and we met at a high school conference and stayed in touch. Now we’re both in Austin together and he’s just the kind of friend who doesn’t question when I send texts like “I need to cook a meal naked and I need a photographer.”

Also, I have no significant other to share this moment with. So I’m practicing being an imaginary housewife with Brett.

On the menu: My Mom’s Meatloaf.

This involves getting your hands dirty. Get over it. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to use up all the leftovers before they went off, so 2 lbs of ground beef and made one small meatloaf and 4-4 oz burgers that are hanging in the freezer for another day. Plan ahead, gals, and you too can achieve higher domestic goddess-ness.

It was so good I forgot to take a picture and just scarfed it up. That has to be a sure sign that I’m a domestic goddess, right? With the apron and the meatloaf, it was very 1950′s housewife. And I liked it.

My Mom’s Meatloaf
2 lbs ground beef (I used 93/7)
1 packet Lipton Onion Soup (dry soup mix)
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. If you don’t think you’ll finish a whole 2 lb meatloaf before it goes off, turn half of it into burgers (4-4 oz) and freeze them for later! After all the ingredients are well mixed, put in a loaf pan and bake at 350* for 1 or 1.5 hours (or longer if it is still not done inside). It is mandatory to eat this with ketchup. Don’t ask questions, just do it.

And cook naked. Trust me.

life lessons: how to score blondie points

As a graduate student, it is inevitable that I will eventually have to take some classes I’m not particularly crazy about. Unfortunately, that happens to be this semester, my first semester. I sometimes feel stupid and out of my league and hardly every participate. So my participation this week will come in the form of sucking up: Brown Butter Blondies.

If you don’t know how to brown butter, I suggest you grab a stick of butter and a sauté pan STAT. One of my favorite side dishes (typically served with my Mom’s Meatloaf) is brown butter noodles, so I’ve known the technique since I was practically an infant.

Drop the butter into a pan on medium high heat and stir constantly. It will get foamy and start to look like the head on beer (or at least that is how I think it looks) and then, as if by magic, after about 5-7 minutes, it will just turn brown. It starts out kind of slowly and then suddenly it is ALL brown and that is when you take it off the heat and dump it onto the mountain of brown sugar.

Important note: no matter how intoxicatingly salty sweet and caramely the browned butter smells (and it will), do NOT under any circumstances decide to lick the spoon with which you’ve been stirring the butter with. You will burn your tongue. Just sayin’.

Then I get another chance to use my hand mixer! Brown sugar + brown butter. I suggest you lick the beaters.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix it thoroughly. Fold in your (optional) chocolate chips. Pour it in a pan, bake it up, and revel in your cakey-fudgy blondies.

According to my prof, my classmates (who all had seconds), and my roommate, these were a total success. There were several audible moans. I’d say I scored some serious blondie points with my prof and classmates.

Brown Butter Blondies (makes about 16)
1 stick butter, browned
1 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 T vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional
In a sauté pan on medium-high heat, melt the butter stirring constantly until it turns brown and starts to smell like caramel (5-7 minutes). Once it has all turned brown, take off the heat immediately and pour over the brown sugar, mixing well. Add in the other ingredients, incorporating the flour slowly until it is a sticky cake batter consistency. Fold in chocolate chips if desired. Pour into a 9×13 pan and bake at 350* for 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting (trust me on this one, too!)

Product review: ZYM electrolyte tablets

Hey everyone! The awesome people at ZYM sent me some samples of their electrolyte tabs. This is my 100% honest opinion of the product.

(Source)

I really recommend them as a lighter, less syrupy tasting alternative to Gatorade, Powerade, etc. and a much better alternative to other electrolyte powders and tablets I’ve tried. If you have any questions, just leave a comment or visit their website!

ZYM Orange Rival: 8/10. I personally don’t like orange flavors of anything, unless it is a real orange, so this might just be my personal taste preference and you could love it! But the flavor, to me, tasted too much like Tang (nostalgia, anyone?). However, this tab is flavored with Stevia and has 0g sugar, which is awesome. Thumbs up, ZYM! This is the newest flavor from ZYM and, like the other products, is a quick dissolving tablet with electrolytes and vitamins to give you a natural boost during your workout.

ZYM Berry Catapult: 9/10. I really liked the flavor of this, typically berry-flavored drinks are too heavy and sickly sweet for me, but definitely not this. No gross aftertaste and this one has a blend of guarana, 0g sugar, and 100mg of caffeine for a boost during your workout. It also has vitamin B12 to help prevent caffeine jitters — and it works! I get the jitters from a few sips of Diet Coke, so I appreciated this added addition. Added bonus of B12 (not stated in company literature, but something of my own discovery): B12 helps prevent hangovers. Just sayin’.

ZYM Lemon-Lime Endurance: 10/10. I loved this flavor, being that Lemon-Lime was my favorite Gatorade as a kid when I had the flu and during all those years of competitive swimming I did. However, this is a much lighter version! 1 g sugar and lots of good vitamins and electrolytes made me really feel hydrated. I really liked this one!

None of the ZYM tablets gave a chalky after-taste, or a sickly sweet after-taste, which I appreciate. I loved that I was only taking in 7 extra calories during a workout, as opposed to 100+ from a bottle of Gatorade. You burn off 7 calories just sitting here reading this post! These tablets dissolve quickly and completely, another bonus, because who likes to drink chalky water? They fizz like Alka-Seltzer and then turn flat. I like the taste a lot and, if nothing else, they encouraged me to actually drink my water during my workouts, something I’m not always the best about doing. If you want nothing more than a better way to keep hydrated, I recommend these! If you want the added bonus of the vitamins, the caffeine (in the Berry flavor) or a naturally sweetened tablet (Orange flavor), I say go for it. If you’re looking for an alternative to a typical sports drink or just plain water, I say visit http://www.gozym.com and read up on the products.

Thanks, ZYM, for letting me try your products! I really enjoyed reviewing them!

I’m one hot tamale

Sunday was my friend Trevor’s birthday, and since we were both too busy with school to celebrate (pathetic), we celebrated last night! Trevor was my first Austin friend… mainly because we met when I was 15 at a summer camp (!!!) and have stayed in touch all this time! He is an amazing friend and I was happy to cook him up something amazing: made-from-scratch TAMALES!

Note: hot tamales are technically different than what I made, but the post title just sounds better.

So this is a kind of labor-intensive meal (and a long post), but totally worth it. I ate tamales all the time when I lived in Mexico and I dream about the corn filling almost weekly, so I am so proud to bring you this amazing recipe!

First you need to choose your filling. I decided to go with chicken, but beef or pork would work great too! And a lot of tamales in Mexico are done vegetarian or even sweet with fruit — be creative!

You’re going to want to throw your meat of choice into a pot with spices: parsley, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Then fill that sucker up with water (6-8 cups), bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and let simmer for 2 hours. Your apartment will smell intoxicating, try not to eat the walls.

Oh, and you can also spend that 2 hours soaking your husks.

You can find cornhusks at almost any grocery store with a Latin section these days, even outside of Texas! They’re super cheap, too! You grab a bunch and soak it in water, making sure you have something to hold it down so all the husks are submerged. Start with hot water and let it all soak for 45 minutes – 2 hours.

Once the husks are pliable and the chicken is stewed, shred the chicken off the bones and set the cooking liquid aside — DO NOT discard!!! You’ll need it for preparing the masa harina, along with lard.

Get your hands dirty and dig into that lard! You can find masa harina at most stores these days, probably in the same section you find the corn husks. You’re going to combine some salt, baking powder, the masa harina, lard (just do it), and your reserved cooking liquid to make the filling. I recommend adding the liquid little by little until it gets to the right consistency, probably about 2-3 cups until the masa resembles mashed potatoes. And all that spice and flavor from the cooking liquid is perfect!! If you make a sweet tamale, just use warm water.

To construct these delicious pockets of heaven, take your softened corn husks (shake the water off them) and simply put a scoop of the masa with a scoop of the filling and roll it up. Use as much or as little as you want, depending on how big your husks are. Once they’re all constructed, put them in a pot with a steamer basket. I had PLENTY of leftover masa that I froze, by the way.

Once the water in the bottom of the steamer comes to a boil, turn it down to low and cover these. Tamales require a long hot bath and some wine (drank by you, of course) to coax them out of their clothing. Much like me.

While that is happening, you need to make a hot salsa to go with your tamales, naturally. For a super easy tomatillo salsa, go find these cuties in your produce setion!

Throw your tomatillos (sans leaves) whole into a sauté pan with some onion and serrano pepper — which I recommend taking the seeds out of.

When the tomatillos, onions, and peppers are nice and brown, remove them from heat to let cool a bit before throwing them in the blender with some water and pulsing a few times to make a nice chunky salsa.

When your friend makes it over (hi, Trevor!) your tamales should have been steaming for about an hour and a half. Remove them from their bath and serve them with your amazing salsa and black beans.

Not to toot my own culinary horn, but I feel pretty darn proud of myself for making these completely from scratch and having them turn out almost as amazing as I remember from my summer in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Go forth and prosper and get your tamale on.

From-scratch Chicken Tamales (makes many, many tamales)
Filling:
3-4 chicken legs with skin and bone
1 T chili powder
1 T parsley flakes
1 T ground cumin
1/2 T cayenne pepper
3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
water
Dough:
3 cups masa harina
2-3 cups reserved cooking liquid (from chicken)
2 tsp baking powder
1 T kosher salt
1/2 cup lard or vegetable shortening
Construction:
Corn husks (soak about 18 in case some are too small or tear)
Warm water for soaking
To make the filling, combine spices, chicken legs, and enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover, and let simmer for 2 hours. At this point, you should also start soaking your corn husks in hot water to make them pliable, at least 45 minutes. Once chicken is done, shred the meat off the bones and use forks to tear into a stringy texture. DO NOT discard cooking liquid, you will need it! Just set it aside. To make the dough, combine the masa harina, lard, baking powder, and salt with your hands. Once it has reached a lumpy consistency, start gradually adding in the reserved cooking liquid, about a cup at a time. Add the liquid and mix with hands until it becomes a mashed potato-like consistency (about 2.5-3 cups cooking liquid used). Once the masa is done, shake the water off the corn husk and scoop some masa and chicken into it. Roll the corn husk and fold it over to cover all of the filling. When all of your tamales are done (you’ll probably have extra masa which you can make in plain tamales or freezer for later), put them in a pot with a steamer basket and steam the tamales for 1 1/2 hours. The dough should come away from the corn husks cleanly when they are done. These can be eaten fresh but also taste great cold!

Super Easy Tomatillo Green Salsa (makes 2-3 cups salsa)
3 large tomatillos (should be bright green in color), leaves removed
1/2 large onion, in large chunks
2 serrano peppers, split down the middle and deseeded
Olive oil cooking spray
In a big fry pan, spray some cooking spray and throw in the peppers (skin side down to start), onions, and whole tomatillos. Occasionally move them around over medium high heat until the tomatillos start turning brown and the onions and peppers are brown. For less intense spice, you can remove the skin of the serrano peppers once it has turned brown, or leave it on for more heat! (Note: wash hands thoroughly after handling peppers!) Once everything is nice and brown, set it aside to cool a bit before putting everything in a blender. You may want to cut the tomatillos in half depending on your blender’s strength. Pour in 1/2 cup water and pulse a few times to render a nice chunky, spicy salsa!

good deeds lead to baked goods

This morning, I did my civic duty and went to a blood drive! Texans everywhere should rest assured that soon my blood will be pumping through their veins. I feel like I have an obligation to donate, since I have type O+ blood, and since it is the right thing to do. I’ll get off my soapbox in a second, but if you fit all the criteria (most people do!) get over your fear of a little needle and look the other way while they stick you!

When I finally made it back to my apartment, I was feeling a little zonked from the blood loss. The only remedy to this? A hearty meal and some sugar. Yes, SUGAR. I made good ol’ sugary banana bread. Today is like sugar central considering I also had a Sprite (ick) and some cookies to keep me conscious during the donation. But I don’t care. I think you get some kind of bonus points for having to regenerate lost blood cells. I think you win karma bonus points for saving 3 lives.

My other excuse for baking? (As if I need one…) Last night, while drinking wine with my friend Trevor, we started talking about stand mixers. That’s normal, right? I started whining about how I wanted one really badly for Christmas, then remembered that a family friend gave me a nice hand mixer for graduation! That is better than nothing. When I dug it out to mix the banana bread, I also discovered it has a dough hook AND an immersion blender attachment, as well as the beaters. WIN.

So I started with the sketchy bananas that, when this ripe, I refuse to consume as-is. I prefer green bananas and yes, I’m weird.

Then you get to use the fun mixer!! Best part? Licking the beaters.

And out comes some delicious, fluffy, semi-healthy (half wheat and contains fruit!) banana bread. Just what the doctor ordered for ideal blood donation recovery. Or any occasion, really.

Sweet Buttermilk Banana Bread (makes 1 loaf)
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 T cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup raisins, optional
In a mixing bowl, mash bananas and vanilla together. Cream in the butter, sugar, buttermilk and eggs until throughly mixed. In another bowl, combine flour, wheat flour, soda, powder, salt, and cinnamon and mix well. Using a stand or hand mixer, add the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until well mixed. Lick beaters throughly. Transfer mixture into a greased or non-stick metal loaf pan and bake at 350* for 50-65 minutes or until a knife can be removed cleanly from the middle of the loaf (my oven finished it in 50 but it tends to run very hot). Let cool in loaf pan for 10 minutes, then let it continue to cool on a wire rack or cutting board. Inhale.

single gal survival tips

So if you know me at all, you’ll know that sometimes I’m completely inept and, frankly, it is amazing that I’ve survived this long. I’d like to take a moment and give a shout-out to my mom who has put up with a lot of panicked, freaked out moments where I’m completely lost when it comes to things like getting my car fixed, paying bills, bodily functions, and other grown-up things.

Well, I am happy to report that I officially learned an adult skill. That’s right, you guys… I’m a big girl now.

This might seem like common sense to, say… 97.5% of you. But I’m banking on the fact that the other 2.5% of you reading this will benefit from my stupidity-turned-knowledge, so I will now share with you my first, of many, Single Gal Survival Tips…

There I was, driving along and rocking out to Ke$sha (don’t lie, you do it too) when I noticed a funny light on my dashboard. Well, I drive a spaceship (Prius) that totally boggles my mind, so anytime it makes funny noises or lights go off, I freak out because I don’t know anything about cars, especially magical hybrid ones. When I got to my destination, I breathed and channeled my dad’s spirit and did the smart thing: opened the owner’s manual. Dad, you would have been proud of me!

I learned that this little light was telling me that one of my tires had low pressure. Well, why can’t the light tell you WHICH one?! But then I relaxed, remembering the nice little car kit my grandmother had gotten me for Christmas the year I got my license (5 years ago TODAY!) and this helpful kit contains a tire pressure gauge. Said kit is also readily available and waiting in…. Virginia? It somehow got lost in the sale of my old car, the purchase of the new one, and the move to Texas. Hmmph.

After reassuring myself that I wasn’t in danger of imminent doom, I rolled myself to Target, where I successfully avoided the tempting clearance rack of clothes and managed to leave with only the bare essentials (butter and a tire pressure gauge) and set out to learn how to be an adult.

Another glance at the handy-dandy owner’s manual let me know that there was a chart of proper tire inflation right on the inside of the driver’s side door. Who knew?

Then came the fun part. I got down on the ground, located the little nobby thing on the tire, unscrewed it, and stuck the tire pressure gauge on it, knowing that the magical air force inside the tire would cause the little stick on the end of the gauge to pop out and show me the PSI of the tire. Nifty, right?

Well, that tire was, in fact, supposed to have a PSI of 35 and was coming in with a register of 30. I stood up, washed the tire grime off my hands, and drove literally next door to the gas station, armed with quarters and female pride in my accomplishment. I braved the scary air machine and after a few tricky seconds, I figured out how it worked. I triumphantly filled the tire to the recommended air pressure and got back in the car to drive to Home Depot for a home improvement project.

About 2 seconds later I realized that the light was still on. Yeah, I’m that stupid and only checked 1 tire. I had no more quarters with me, so I had to turn around, go get more quarters, check the rest of my tires, and realize that all 3 of the remaining tires were also low. Awesome.

However I am happy to report that my car is now comfortably riding on properly-inflated tires, after only 2 trips to the gas station and $1.75 in quarters. The little annoying light went off and my spaceship is back to functioning as mysteriously as always.

So what have we learned? We’ve learned to read the owner’s manual, don’t panic, have a steady supply of quarters in the car, and learn to keep a tire gauge in your glove box. Oh and wash your hands, tires are filthy.

another epic change

In the eternal words of Madonna, “This is who I am, you can like it or not. You can love me or leave me but I’m never gonna stop.”

I’ve done a lot of thinking from the Marie Claire debacle and it made me step back and take a look at what this blog has become. And subsequently, what, or better yet who, have I become? They say you change the most in your 20′s… well, I am your proof.

I used to be a weight-loss blogger. I used the common format of taking a picture of my meals and snacks, talking about them, and detailing my workouts. Then I got sick of doing that, realized it wasn’t a good enough outlet for my inner writer and for my personality, and I morphed it into more of a general healthy living blog. But lately, I’ve been changing and so has the blog… yet again. And I’m sure you’ve noticed if you’ve been reading for any time now.

I am not the person I was when I started this blog, and that is okay. We change. Blogs change. I’ve decided to channel the new way I’ve been feeling lately into morphing the blog again. I have taken down my race recaps and my before and after weight loss pictures. The people who know me well enough know my story and I don’t need to prove myself to anyone. I am a much healthier and happier person these days, and that should shine through in the words that I write and in the thoughts that I have.

I am going to write about the things that make me who I am and that shape who I am becoming. I’m a generally happy person. I’m a rookie cook. I’m an adventurer. I’m a woman in her 20′s who is lost and trying to navigate her way through life. This is what I’m choosing to write about. I’m writing about the epic and the not-so-epic things in life that change our moods, our personalities, and our lives.

I hope that, if you’ve just found me, you’ll visit again. And I hope that if you’ve been reading a while you’ll stick with me. I just want to show you all the fun, epic, ridiculous, happy things I do and what I learn along the way.

blogging & truthiness

If you are involved in the blogging world, you probably saw it blow up yesterday when a Marie Claire article surfaced calling out some of the popular crowd in the blogging world. The article ripped some blog authors to shreds and pointed out something that I’ve thought for a long time: these women showcase an impossible standard for a healthy lifestyle.

The article discusses exercise bulimia (“binge exercising”) and journaling of food that doesn’t seem sufficiently nutritious or realistic to support the lifestyles these women are writing about.

Well, I am just here to say I think the article was mean and that it was a bit of a harsh attack on “The Big Six” (seriously, must we inflate their egos even more?). But I am also here to say that I agree with a lot of the things in the article.

I hope that, on my blog, I have never displayed a lifestyle that was an impossible standard for others to lead. Nor do I even dream that other people even consider “modeling” their lifestyle after mine. I started the blog as an outlet to journal my weight loss journey, and it then turned into a healthy-living blog, and now I don’t know what the fuck I write about. I just write about the things, people, and places that make me happy. That happens to include food and being active, but not always. I mean, you’ve seen me eat Texas barbecue and the next day float down a river drinking beer before noon. And cocoa puffs. I like to think that what my blog is, is real. I bitch about things, I wax poetic about my love for food, I tell the stories about my life that have made me who I am, and I tell it like it is.

In light of that Marie Claire article and the spotlight it shines on unrealistic “healthy” lifestyles, I would like to remind everyone of the concept of truthiness. Yes, Steven Colbert’s truthiness. Truthiness is “truth that comes from the gut, not books.” Let’s all take a step back and look at the situation. Do the words of Marie Claire resonate with your gut? Do you feel that, inherently, it has value and worth? In your gut, do you think that the article is pointing out something that needs to be said? I do. I think these are issues that need to be discussed openly in the blog world. Just because the bloggers in question are part of the popular clique does not mean they are perfect. I think it is a major flaw in the blog world that people lead completely unrealistic lifestyles and people feel let down when they themselves can’t live up to them. Why do you think I got so obsessive about running? I got an injury, stepped back, and took a look at the fact that I was comparing myself too harshly to the big bloggers who run marathons like they’re going shopping. I’m certainly not claiming to be perfect or a model that one should follow. But the article, while unnecessarily mean, makes a good point.

(source)

I know in my gut that I live a real life. I know in my gut that some of these women don’t.

It is time we start being real, filling our blogs with truthiness. I don’t want anyone to ever think that I am an unrealistic model for normal life, but some other bloggers are. I hit the snooze button and skip workouts. I enjoy cheeseburgers. I think beer is delicious any day of the week, not just on a weekend as a reward for a 15 mile run and starving myself all week. This is real life, people, and you have to be real about how you live it.

If you’d like some more reading on the issue, I urge you to stop by Hollaback Health, the blog group I write for, and check out the latest post reacting to the Marie Claire article.