Bob’s Corndogs
Dedicatd to Bob’s Redmill Gluten Free cornbread mix, which doesn’t make you feel at all like you’re missing out on anything…….
1 pkg Bob’s Redmill GF cornbread mix, mixed per package (I usually omit the oil because I’d rather save the fat for the butter that will go on the cornbread!)
1 pkg turkey hot dogs (Nitrate free, of course. I scored mine at the Davis Co-op )
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
lots of mustard
Once the corbread mix is mixed up, get out a cookie sheet and grease it with oil/butter, etc. Pre heat your oven to 375
Take about 1/2 cup of mix into your hands and mold it into a palm-sized disk. Place a hot dog in the middle of the disk and wrap the dough around. Make sure the dough touches end to end and use your fingers to press it together. You could add a tbsp of shredded cheese to the doughy disk if you wanted a corn/cheese dog. I think a sharp chedder would work wonders here.
Set each dog and dough on the cookie tray. You should have ample dough to wrap each of your dogs (usually 8/pkg) and enough for a few biscuits and a few spoonfuls of the dough to make sure it taste’s alright 
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.
Serve warm topped with mustard and chopped onions. I paired with a spinach and kale salad. Tasty. Also, these dogs pack well for lunch the following day…and dinner that night…okay I’ve had more hot dogs in the last 24 hrs than in the last year!
Nutritional benefits: GF option for corndog, and the mix has a little fiber. Turkey dogs are high in protein, but not fat, and no nitrates = less inflammation. Top with mustard and onions for a taste boost with little caloric influence. Pair with dark greens to get the phytonutrients, some more fiber, and vitamin K. I suggest a little EVOO dressing on the salad to round out the meal.
Click here to see what other’s say about Bob’s Redmill GF cornbread (scroll down to bottom of page)
Add comment February 10, 2010
Warning: Eating off white may change your life
Changing your diet is going to do more than just alter your waisteline. Whether you go off white, simply reduce portions, go Atkins, go Zone diet, or just stop eating junk food, something is going to change.
The non-weight related changes that happen when we change our diets is a seriously undervalued concept, in my opinion. I think its these somewhat ‘immeasurable’ changes that actually drive people to continue making good dietary choices because they are the stuff that real life is made of. It’s not like being skinnier by itself is a lifechanging experience, but rather the new behaviors, attitudes, relationships, etc that happen.
I was recently inspired by a client who mentioned that a week of eating healthy made her want to color her hair, as an act of self-care. Who knew that eating healthy could lead to a better hair day? So I thought it might be helpful to you off-white readers to know what to look out for when you make healthy choices. This by no means a comprehenisve list, and I’d love to hear for YOU about how your life changes when you eat well.
Some of the ways healthy eating can change your life include:
- A desire to wear the cuter clothes in your closet
- Increased interest in managing your money better, including less money wasting, more saving, and just more caring about where it all goes
- Willingness to reason things out with loved ones when you fight
- Taking the stairs more than the elevator
- Starting or finishing those craft/photography/sewing/whatever projects you started a million years ago
- You can actually get a good night’s rest
- You can taste the flavors in real food
- Looking people in the eye when you talk to them
- Better sex, or just having sex in general
- You laugh more, because life is funny, isn’t it?
- You shave your legs, even when you don’t have a date
- Treating yourself to the new make up/lotion/nail polish/shampoo, etc that you would never buy before
- You want to see your friend b/c you feel good about yourself
- More time in the kitchen, less time in the drive-thru
- Looking at your thighs when you sit down doesn’t drive you as crazy as it once did
- You sign up for a half marathon/5K/triathalon
- Exercise clothes take up more laundry space than lounging around clothes
- You want to get dressed on the weekends….but not all the time. Jammie days are still a vital part of life
- Your skin is clearer
- You care about how the inside of your car looks, and you clean it more regularly
- People start asking you for advice on how to cook healthier/eat better
- You appreciate your family more
- Less crying, except for the happy kind
- Less PMS
- You can recognize when you need a time out, and you take it!
- Bubble baths are fun again!
- Your spiritual life and practice improve
- your spouse is no longer the root of your problems…nor the solution to them
- Work isn’t as bad as you once thought
- You’re looking for a new job (if work really is as as you thought)
- It’s okay for you to be in a photograph, even next to your skinny friends/sisters/brothers, etc
- You’re planning a vacation and might actually wear a bathing suit or at least shorts
- Tank tops are no longer off limits
- You don’t have any more room on the kitchen counter because it’s covered in fruits and veggies every week
- You know how to pronounce quinoa
And the list just goes on and on! Thanks to all of those who have shared their stories and inspired ME to think about all the wonderful reasons why I love to eat healthy because I forget sometimes too!
2 comments February 10, 2010
Go Ellen! See Ellen Degeneres give up sugar
Ellen’s committment to giving up sugar.
I submitted an application to be on her show during the no sugar stint. Wish me luck!
1 comment February 7, 2010
Kale in the spotlight, by request (Recipe)
Good evening bloggies,
Just spend a lovely evening having dinner at Dos Coyotes in Davis with friends and sharing some Aggie pride watching UC Davis hoops with Matt and friends. A lovely evening, indeed!
Look like some folks want to get to know their kale a little better. So I’m going to suggest starting with a veggie/bean soup. Reason: It’s not a kale overload, its hearty, and a cost effective way to use a veggie that tends to be somewhat pricey. At $1.89/bunch here in Davis one has to be frugal with making new food purchases. This way one bunch goes a long way……
2 tbsp EVOO
1 large yellow onion chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced or 2 tsp pre-minced garlic
6 cups of water or broth (not too salty!)
Salt, pepper to taste (less if you use broth)
2 tsp ground oregano
1 tbsp drired parsley or 1 tsp ground
1 bay leaf
4 red potatoes, chopped
1 can white canneloni beans, or navy beans
1 head of kale, stems removed, chopped into 1-2″ pieces
In a non-reactive pot, heat oil on med heat. Sweat garlic for a minute (add to pan alone and then remove). Add onion. Cook for 1 min, stirring. Add celery, salt/pepper/dried spices. Cook for 2-3 min, until onions start to soften. Add garlic back in. Add water or broth, potatoes. Cook until potatoes are nearly soft but not mushy. Add beans. Cook another 10 minutes. Add kale for last 5-10 min of cooking on low/med heat. Kale will wilt, and this is just fine. If you are an omnivore, you can also add ham hock to this when cooking. Nice flavor.
Enjoy!
Other additions: 2-3 carrots, butternut squash cubes instead of potatoes.
Add comment February 7, 2010
How to love Kale
(Photo courtesy of www.encyclopedia.com)
I often forget that not everybody loves kale. Strange, I know. What reminds me are random things like strange looks I get when I drink my kale-infused smoothie for breakfast at school, or when I see people’s eyes widen with confusion when I unearth my lunch and reveal the green leafy and onion sautee (over a bed of quinoa typically) leftover from the previous nights dinner. For me, this is just standard fare. How quickly I forget my anti-kale roots.
I get it. Upon first glance Kale looks uninviting. Almost angry. With its curly leaves and almost snarly looking appearance, it doesn’t exactly exude the a welcoming vibe. Not to mention that your only exposure may have been to the kale on the side of your “Eggs over my Hammy” plate at Denny’s or as the decorative green below fruit and cheese platters at dinner parties. That was certainly how I first knew kale.
But underneath all of that ruffage is a really tasty, nutritious and versatile veggie. But like all relationships, it simply takes time. My first adventure with kale was probably in 2005. I’d gotten the book Vegetarian Cooking for Everybody, by Deborah Madison and I was on a mission. Each week I chose a new veggie and accompanying recipe. Until that point I was a romaine lettuce and baby carrot girl, with the occasional salsa diversion. Now I can’t think of a veggie I don’t like. Even brussel sprouts. My grandmother is probably rolling over in her grave for that one!
Can I recall my first kale dish? No, but I bet it involved other flavors, as to hide the taste and texture. Turns out that kale, when cooked, is rather soft and pliable, not all all mean and offputting, as it looks in the grocery store.
Tip #2 for learning to love kale is to broaden your sense of what kale is. The hyper-curly variety is only one option. Dino kale is my fav – leaves are easier to work with (less curl) and it just has a nice, mild flavor. I also like red kale or a mix of several kales. Try putting them in minestrone soup, or veggie and chicken soup. I bet you won’t even notice your new friend, but your body will reap the benefits.
It’s not that you have to go nuts with kale like I do to have a healthy vegetable appetite. It’s simply that if you can make friends with kale, you’re probably in with most other veggies too, and that means lots of variety. I mean, who can eat romaine salads with fat free dressing and a few coarsely chopped baby carrots forever? I certainly couldn’t. My veggie repetiore needed a facelift. I’m glad I found kale. It’s a keeper in my diet.
PS: I don’t recommend eating it raw if its your first endeavor with dark leafy greens. It’s called ‘ruffage’ for a reason, people…get my drift??
Add comment February 5, 2010
Too excited to sit…
Today I’m excited. I have all these ideas running around in my head about interactive food experiences I’d like to put together. I just don’t know where to begin.
Maybe it’s the vegan clease that is giving me this energy….or is it the MASSIVE CHEAT I had today when I gulped down a 16 oz decaf coffe w/sugar free vanilla creamer.
Well, technically the creamer was nondairy, which might still be ‘vegan’ but I’m certain there was nothin’ clean about that combo. But damn, it felt GOOODD going down, and perked me up.
What can I say, this week I”ve been studying the fascinating topics of cellular signaling, fatty acid synthesis and teaching a physiology lab about the electrical properties of the heart. Hmm… its a far cry from cooking shows, cook books, and my newest idea: ”Chocolate and Chaturanga”. I borrowed the idea from a recent article about fusing yoga and foodies together. Brilliant! So now I’m hot on the trail of how to put together such an event.
Yes, this is much better than reading the paper sitting in front of me, entitled ” Epitacechin mediates beneficial effects of flavanol-rich cocoa on vascular function in humans” . Although I think there *might* be something about chocoalte in there somewhere……..
Nighty night bloggies. What do you think about “chocolate and chaturanga?”
3 comments February 5, 2010
food economics
Even on a vegan diet, Matt and I spend $83/week on food for two of us, and go out 1x/week.
I love the topic of food economics. Recently I found this website:
The Dollar a Day Project. Check it out. We are eating $2/meal at this point, which is way more than the project outlines, and I still feel like I’m always pushing the budget.
What do you guys think?
Add comment February 4, 2010
I’m in
By the way, I should absolutely be grading lab reports right now . Absolutely, without question I should be doing that. But I’m not…and I don’t even feel that bad about it. Sometimes a girl just needs a break.
Amidst all my grad school chaos some good news came today. Some of my cooking classes got approved for teaching at the Davis Food Coop. Yes. I’m in. Watch out Davis, here I come!
4 comments February 2, 2010
Not your average french fry
The vegan clease allows for potatoes…okay, so not what I’d usually have on a ‘cleanse’ but since I’m opting not to have corn or any flours at all (even GF), I’ll take an inch when its ‘allowed’.
Being the creative kitchen gal I am, I wanted to raise the potato bar and do something fun. Besides, it was day 4 and Matt was starting to get might cranky, missing his favorite dairy and meat foods. We decided to make a vegan burger and fries meal:
Grilled portabello with spices
Green lettuce leaf ‘buns’
fixin’s: mustard, red onion, and tomato
“cheezy” fries.
See video below for the fries, but basically I cut up 2 lbs of red potatoes, marinated them in EVOO, salt, pepper and brewer’s yeast (what gives them the ‘cheezy’ appeal) and baked at 400 for about 17 minutes. Delicious! The whole meal was tasty!
Afternote: I definitely ate too many fries and it made we me want sugar. I satisfied my urge with a not-so delicious apple, but it worked. And hey, part of this clease is about facing those cravings and realizing the feeling is transient, relatively meaningless, and I feel much better having gone for the apple and not for some other treat!
Enjoy the video, and remeber, it is homemade (AKA, not perfect)
1 comment January 28, 2010
Hello world…
This is what gets me going everyday. It’s my magic bullet (ironically, you use a magic bullet to make this too!).
Yes, my friends, the rice protein smoothie has made its debut back into my life during the cleanse. Not that I don’t eat a smoothie for breakfast quite a bit, but this one has some secret ingredients that will hopefully get my GI humming and my cells smiling.
Those secret ingredients would be mustard green, kale or spinach leaves and ground flaxmeal. You really can’t taste the greens, I promise! Add enough berries, cinnamon, and vanilla rice powder and your palate will overlook the bitter greens. Try it, really.
I love this because I can make it the evening beforehand, store it in the fridge, and then sip it through my biochem class EVERY DAY at 8am. I swear I can feel my brain cells perking up with every sip as more anti-oxidants enter my body.
Fun fact for ya: The more unsaturated fats (plant fats) you eat, the higher your requirement for anti-oxidants. That is because unsaturated fats are prone to oxidation, which produces free fradicals (BAD). Anti-oxidants are like cellular vigilantes that come in to wrangle up those free radicals and keep our cells happy and well. So, eat those colorful veggies, especially if you eat a lot of unsaturated fats.
Consequently, this is also why its not advised to do high heat cooking with many unsaturated fats – the heat oxidizes them and makes them rancid….so I guess its back to butter and eggs after this 21 day cleanse for me.
Okay, back to work. Smoothie recipe below
Toodles….
3/4 cup frozen berries
1/2 cup green leafy veggie leaves (kale, spinach, mustard – NO COLLARDS!)
1 tbsp flaxmeal
1 tsp cinnamon
8 oz or so of either water or unsweetened almond milk
1 serving Vanilla rice protein powder
Put ingredients in a blender and blend. Add more liquid as needed. I don’t recommend you put the protein powder in first, as it sticks to the bottom of the blender at my house….
2 comments January 25, 2010
