Meat and Potatas!

I am not much of a meat-eater. I usually keep meat consumption to once or twice a month. And the more often I eat meat, the more convinced I am that I would be okay never eating meat. It is not something I ever buy or prepare at home unless its for a special occasion. It's just not my thing!

Jerry usually indulges my faux-vegetarianism and will even dabble in it himself every now and again. Since Whatever They are Calling It Now Sandy hit last week, Jerry has been working 12 hour shifts every day, coming home to a cold and dark apartment until Saturday afternoon when our power came back on.

When he said he wanted pot roast for dinner, how could I refuse? Even though meat isn't my thing, he definitely deserved a home cook meal of his choosing.

Since I don't usually cook meat, this meal was a bit of an adventure...in that I almost messed it up in 12 different ways! I didn't have some of the ingredients I wanted to use! I forgot ingredients altogether! Miraculously, it came out pretty good. Jerry (and our fat, naughty kitties who tried to break into the garbage to eat the scraps) seemed to enjoy it.

Pot Roast with Root Veggies

by Bonnie Graham

Cook Time: 2 1/2 to 3 hours

Keywords: bake entree carrots parsnips potato meat

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Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 3-pound chuck roast, trimmed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large coarsely chopped onion
• 1 cup dry red wine (optional - add 1 c beef broth instead)
• 4 thyme sprigs
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 1/3 c less-sodium beef broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 c baby large carrots
• 2 large parsnips, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 large red-skinned potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.Salt and pepper roast and add to the heated pan.

3. Cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove roast from pan.

4. Add onion to pan; sauté until tender.

5. Return browned roast to pan. Add the red wine, thyme sprigs, chopped garlic, beef broth, and bay leaf to pan; bring to a simmer.

6. Cover pan and bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until the roast is almost tender.

7. Add carrots, parsnips, and potatoes to pan. Cover and bake an additional 1 hour or until vegetables are tender.

8. Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaf from pan; discard. Remove veggies and roast from the pan leaving the juices.

9. Skim excess fat off of the juices if desired. Return the pan to the stovetop over medium-high heat.

10. Whisk in 2 tsp of corn starch to pan with juice. Continue to whisk until juices thicken slightly to make a gravy. Pour over meat and veggies.

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Never Say Never

A few nights ago, I did something, that as a diabetic, I swore I would never do.

After a lovely girls night out with my friends (who I refer to as ABC), I stumbled into the apartment, exhausted and blurry eyed, at 1AM. We hadn't even been drinking! I walked into the bathroom and step on something wet and squishy. I immediately panicked. With two cats in the house, you just never know.

Someone had thought it was a good idea to dunk this toy in the toilet and leave it on the floor for an unsuspecting human. But we're not naming names. 

I digress.

Realizing that an alarm had gone off on my pump, alerting me to a low reservoir of insulin, I knew I couldn't wait until the next morning to refill. Feeling my way like Helen Keller through my bedroom, trying not to disturb a sleeping Jerry, I grabbed all of the tools for changing my infusion site and insulin reservior. One these tools being an obvious one of insulin. Duh, right?

When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I read many diabetes blogs, talking about the trials and tribulations of being diabetic, taking insulin, living life, etc. One thing many of these bloggers discussed was the annoyance of dropping and shattering an insulin vial. How annoying. How expensive. How smelly. Insulin has very distinct smell. 

In my arrogant little mind, I thought, "How irresponsible! I would never shatter any of my insulin vials."

Guess what I was cleaning up off the kitchen floor, trying to stop the cats from rolling in, at 1:15 AM?

Call me irresponsible. 

Love is in the Air

Ah, love is in the air here in Jersey.

Besides all the kitty love we got going on....

Yes, that is our cats, arm and arm.

...there's another kind of love in this apartment. A sweet love that only grows stronger with each passing day. A love that, I am certain, will last a lifetime.

That would be the love of my new kitchen! It. Is. Awesome.

I always knew that Jerry had a superior kitchen to my large but limited kitchen back in Astoria. For starters, his has a dishwasher! A dishwasher! I've never actually owned a dishwasher before! Plus, there is a lot of nice counter space and a set-up for an easy work flow. I can wash something in the sink, chop it on my cutting board, and drop it in the frying pan all without moving more then two steps to the left or right.

Since moving in, it feels like I have been non-stop in the kitchen. Having a dishwasher is certainly encouragement to cook more! A combined pantry of two fat kids doesn't hurt either!

Inspired by the love of my new kitchen, I thought I'd share a few more things with you that I'm currently obsessing over. Don't worry, there's a recipe at the end of this post. 

From L to R: Parchment paper, PB2 Peanut Flour, Smoked Paprika,
Golden Roasted Flax Seeds, Pressure Cooker

1. Smoked paprika - Have you ever used this before? Because if you haven't, you need to go out and buy some this instant! Really. Go now. I can wait.
2. PB2 Peanut Flour - For someone like me, who eats spoonfuls of peanut butter straight from the jar, this product is awesome! It has 85% less fat then regular peanut butter but still adds great PB flavor to many dishes. I'm diggin' it.
3. Trader Joe's Golden Roasted Flax Seed -  So good. Just opening the package, you can immediately smell what makes them so good. I've been using these bad boys in everything from granola to salads. 
4. Parchment paper - I've been using parchment paper like crazy, mostly for all my baking.
5. Pressure Cooker - It's taken me a while to start using my pressure cooker, but now, I'm addicted. In household where we literally have 25 pounds of grain dominating our cabinet space, it's definitely coming in handy. 

My last obsession is of the food blog variety. Oh She Glows is a healthy vegan blog with really awesome recipes. Even though I'm not vegan, I like to pretend I am. Despite my affinity for diary and the occasional plate of BBQ, I eat a mostly plant- and grain-based diet in my day-to-day life. Angela's blog actually makes me consider turning full vegan. She makes it look that good and easy. 

So easy, in fact, I made an adapted version of her "Perfect Veggie Burger," non-vegan style.

Nutty Veggie Burger

Makes 7 to 8 burgers

Ingredients

½ c onion, diced

1 large garlic clove, minced

2 eggs

1 c oats, processed into flour

1 ½ bread crumbs (I processed 3 pieces of TJ’s sprouted grain bread until fine crumb)

1 c grated carrots

1 c cooked garbanzo beans, rinsed and roughly pureed

½ c sunflower seeds

½ c golden flax seeds

1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 ½ tbsp soy sauce

1 ½ tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp. oregano

salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350.  

2. Process each ingredient separately in a food processor, adding each ingredient into a large mixing bowl as you go, stopping at the sunflower seeds. Those don’t go through the food processor.

3. Mix all of the ingredients until thoroughly combined.

4. With slightly wet hands, shape dough into patties. Pack dough tightly as this will help it stick together. 5. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake for 25-30 mins (15-17 minutes on each side) until golden and crisp.

For alternate cooking methods, you can pan-fry or place on the grill. For grilling, pre-bake the burgers for about 15 minutes in oven before placing on a pre-heated grill until golden and crisp on each side. These would be great to feed a vegetarian for a Memorial Day BBQ.

Blended Family

Ah, moving in together.

Some bumps in the road should be expected. Some time needed to adjust to one another's routines. Time to get use to each other's annoying habits, like horking a lung into the bathroom sink every morning and the endless need to fart every time you bend over. Have you ever met anyone who literally gags on their toothbrush every morning? Because I have. With any significant change in life, some anxiety is to be expected.

Maybe I'm being overly optimisitic, but my biggest "moving-in" concern has very little to do with Jerry and I. Really what I'm worried about, feel the incessant need to talk about, discuss with my therapist...is how our cats will get along.

Look how fuzzy he is!

I know, I know. It's my own fault. I haven't given Jackson's the greatest rep with all my posts about his assholey behavior, but he really is a sweet kitty. Sometimes. When no one else is looking. 

Whereas Bilo, on the other hand, is the sweetest, most loving cat that has ever walked the planet. He doesn't stop purring.

He was purring as I took this photo.

In their few visits together, things have not gone well. Our last visit ended with Bilo shitting on the couch, just to really punctuate the fact that we were not welcomed! Message received, my friend. The only problem now is that this time I can't pack Jackson up at 3AM and take him home! We'll already be home!

I'm hoping our furkids can pull their shit together (both figuratively and literally) to make one happy family!

Wish us luck.