Month: February 2017

Pig Out Night

Mr. Man and I have been on the Whole Life Challenge diet for four weeks now. We’ve been sticking with it and eating only good for you food, but we have some bonus points saved up and we’re going to shoot the whole wad tonight on some fried chicken strips, GRAVY (be still my heart), mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon, cole slaw, and Rice Krispie treats for dessert. Can we eat now????

The point of the “diet” isn’t to lose weight, it’s to eat healthy, leaving out all the most common foods that cause inflammation. Since I’m getting old and arthritic, I’ll have to admit that I really do feel better leaving out dairy, wheat, sugar, soy, chemicals….. but it’s not always easy. Why are all the best things in life bad for you?

You’d think that at least to ease the pain, one might really lose a lot of weight. Mr. Man has lost 16 pounds in four weeks. Me? Not even close. Is that fair? No! So I’m going to drown my sorrows in a glorious feast before getting back on the wagon tomorrow, and I’m not even going to feel bad about it.

It fact, I’m going to feel pretty darn good because Mr. Man’s specialty is fried chicken and gravy. The bonus of having parents raised in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri! So, I only have to make the sides dishes tonight!

I tried to buy a cole slaw kit in a bag. Yes I did. I’m that lazy! But sadly, I have to resort to making coleslaw from scratch. So since I actually have to make something, I’ll give you my recipe for coleslaw. In case you can’t find a kit in a bag either. Life is hard sometimes.

 

Asian Night

I don’t know about you, but when I go out for Asian food, I want VARIETY! I want the noodles, rice, a few different dishes, the whole megillah. Oh man, if my daughter-in-law is reading this, she just said, “HUH?”. She thinks I speak in some strange foreign language half the time.

OK Angela, “the whole megillah” means having it all, “the whole nine yards”, “the whole ball of wax”, “the whole shootin’ match”, “the whole shebang”. It has nothing to do with the cartoon character Magilla Gorilla, although he was pretty big. And you probably have no idea who Magilla Gorilla is anyway do you? Ah, that darn Generation Gap.

Anyway “megillah” is the Hebrew word for scroll. Reading from those scrolls on holy days was long and tedious. The “whole megilla”started out meaning a long, tedious, or complicated story. Then it also started being used to just mean the whole darn thing.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, Asian dinners. Anyway, last night the kids were coming for dinner so I thought I’d give it a shot. I managed three dishes, Broccoli Beef in Oyster Sauce, Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and Sumi Salad, with a side of steamed rice courtesy of the rice cooker.

Actual cooking is easy, it’s the prep work that sucks. But I got all my ducks in a row earlier in the day, and with Angela’s help we got dinner cooked in short order.

The rice cooker took care of the rice, so I didn’t have to think about that. Angela manned one skillet, fixing the chicken dish. I had broccoli beef going in another skillet. Or, I could have made the chicken and kept it warm in a crock pot, just stirring in the green onion before serving. That works too. You could even hold the broccoli beef warm for a while if you want to get real crazy and make another dish, like some pot stickers. But I wasn’t that ambitious. Maybe another day.