feels like home to me....

Comfort Food: n. Food that is simply prepared and associated with a sense of home or contentment. The term "comfort food" refers to simple, familiar food that is usually home-cooked. More generally, comfort food can be defined as food that brings some form or measure of comfort, sense of well-being, or easy satisfaction.




It's raining.....again. ALL I WANT TO DO IS EAT!! Could I please get: mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, tator tot hotdish, a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, corn bread and fried chicken on the side....oh and a DIET coke. These thoughts make my waistline cry quietly in the corner.

I've been working really hard to NOT want to burn the pictures that will be taken at my little sisters wedding coming up in May. And all this rain, making me want to eat EVERYTHING, isn't helping! THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY!

Have no fear! The days of having to choose between a Beach Body and eating the food we love when it's cold and rainy are over. Ok, enough with the infomercial.

All this started when my girl, KTJ asked me, "What food would you concided relaxing?" I thought it was such an interesting question. You think of food as delicious, comforting, subtle; but relaxing isn't a word I would think of to discribe food. Well, not the actual food itself. We came to conclusion that food itself isn't nessesarily relaxing, but the company and atmosphere can be. It got me thinking about food and the feelings that are evoked from it.



Your Mom's speghetti or chocolate chip cookies, or Dad's lasagna or beef stroganof. [Shit, now I'm hungry.] No matter if you have their specific recipe and make it EXACTLY like they do, it never quite tastes the same. Maybe it's because they have been making it for years and years, or maybe it's just magic. But there is nothing like your parents cooking. OR IS THERE!!!??!!!

I've decided that our own cooking might not be the same, but it can be just as good and healthier than you'd think. For example, the chili I made when it was cold out and I wanted a little taste of comfort was better than my Mom's [sorry mom]. I can't say that it was too much healthier just because she makes her's with broccoli tons of lean meats and veggies. But I will pat myself on the back for this 3 Bean Turkey Chili recipe I made up one night. Let's see if I can remember.....[I really have to start writing these things down.]



Ingredients:

1 md. yellow onion
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 carton sliced mushrooms
3 jalapejos pepper
1 habanoro pepper
1.5 lbs. ground turkey breast
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can chili beans, with sauce
1 can black beans, drained
1 can tomato sauce
1 28oz. can crushed tomotoes
5 cloves garlic
3 tbs. cumin
2 tbs. chili powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

[... that's a lot of shit]




12 Servings

PER SERVING: Calories: 164.7, Fat: 4.2, Carbs: 20, Protein: 13.3


Basically put it all in a pot and let 'er rip. Nah, kidding. Cook the meat with the onion and garlic until it's cooked all the way though. Then add all the peppers and mushrooms; cook for 5 mins or so. Then add in all the rest of the ingredients. Cook FOREVER.........or for as long as you like. The longer, the better the taste. You could also make it in a slow cooker. That's it. Totes. Easy. Oooh! I almost forgot the best discovery ever! If you like it with sour cream or cheese and are watching you're girlish or boyish figure, try adding 1% or fat free cottage cheese. I'm telling you, I'll never eat chili another way ever again. SO yum.

I think food is all about reinvention. Nothing tastes the same each time you made it. Recipes are great for guildlines, but there is something about having an idea of flavors in your head and just going; sink or swim.


Assignment readers: Go into your kitchen when you're ready to eat and look in your fridge. Grab the things that you like; protein, pasta, rice, veggie, cheese, anything! And just go. Mix it up. It's so much fun! I'm telling ya.


Website of the Week:
http://www.cookinglight.com/food/quick-healthy/quick-easy-comfort-food-recipes-00400000057748/


This is a Cooking Light website that's all about updated Healthy recipes for our favorite comfort foods. I would make any and ALL of these. They look so amazing! Check it out!!

OOPS!!!

I ate four of the most amazing chocolate brownies today......WORTH IT!

That is all.

Guess I Got Bored...

So, as I predicted, I got bored. And by bored I mean busy and by busy I mean there are few things that I can actually follow through with these days before I forget or something else comes along. Here's what's up:

I love pasta, as I have stated over and over and over. It only made sense to create a Blog around something that I loved so much. It was all so magical!! It was a new year, a new decade and I wasn't about to just sit around doing nothing while I could be creating amazing food and fun for myself and my friends. 

Then reality hit. 

A new job, a new show, and a new theatre company. Cooking with my ta-tas all pushed up for the world to enjoy as much as I do fell by the wayside. Don't get me wrong, I cooked!! Max's Birthday 3-course dinner went off without a hitch and they were great recipes [Baked Caprese Salad, Asparagus with Vin Santo Vinaigrette, and Roman Style Fetteccini with Chicken.Friggin' YUM]. I'm just seeming to have a problem actually blogging about it all....yea........which is kind of the most important part about having a blog..... Am I right ladies?

The other thing that has been bugging me about the project from the very beginning is the fact that, even though I do love the carby carbs and endulgent delites found in the Everyday Pasta cookbook, I do know that there is something I have been even more interested in my whole life. Healthy cooking that tastes as good as the real stuff. Of course there are great lighter and healthier recipies in the book too but cooking ALL of them means ALL of them. I can't sit here and say to myself, "God, tonight I have to cook an oohie goohie pasta dish that is just going to make me feel guilty for eating it all week long just because I have to blog about it? Whatever, let's order in Green Mill instead." That's kinda how that goes.

Maybe it's not the blog that is making me not go through with this. Maybe, juuuuuust maybe, it's all the constrictions that I was putting on it and myself. [profound, right? i know, i thought so too]

So here we are. What now. I don't want to abandon this goal that I had for myself. I don't want this all to end on a note of disappointment that I somehome new would come eventually. Besides....this site is cute. So what now? 

I know this. I want to do things that make me feel good, great even. But not guilty. Guilty that I didn't write about it or that I'm eating something that I know I shouldn't. Don't get me wrong!!....I endulge.....a lot. That's the problem. Everyone is trying to find that balance in life. Whether it's the balance between staying out for one [or four] more drinks or going home because you have to work in the morning; or eating a whole box of Samoa girl scout cookies or going to the gym; or doing what we WANT to do in our lives -OR- feeling this sad, stressful pressure of doing what we feel we HAVE to do. 

Soooooo. Here we are. Things are gonna change. Cooking with Cleavage isn't going anywhere but she is going to mix it up. 

Reinvention is the word for spring. Get ready.