Monday – Clutter
August 17, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under From the Editors
I have a little confession to make. I love watching those shows about hoarders. I first saw it on Oprah when they emptied this poor lady’s household belongings into a warehouse. A very large warehouse. There were rows and rows and rows of tables stacked neatly with clothing, household goods and bulk items that she had purchased over the years.
It was impressively immense. I audibly gasped.
And then they opened a door at the back of the area. It was another entire room as big as the first as full as the first.
Holy crap! How did all THAT crap fit in the poor lady’s 3 bedroom home, garage and basement?
It was doubly impressively immense. I audibly gasped twice as loud.
I noticed that a new series about hoarders is starting. I will probably find myself flipping over to watch in horror.
The horror is good therapy allowing me to accept the three piles of crap on my kitchen counter. The horror is a reality check about the train wreck in my laundry room which obviously included an explosion or why else would there be so much debris? The horror is motivation to start in the closest closet.
The thing is that I don’t even LIKE STUFF and my house ends up in piles of clutter…
Oprah & Chef Cora’s 7-day Menu Challenge: Day 1
July 7, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under Best Of, reality check
Last week I watched the Oprah episode with three chefs from TV showing American families how to cut down on food costs. Each chef boasted that his/her recipes were easy and could be done at home. Each chef declared that following the recipes would save money. Each chef posted the recipes on Oprah.com.
I was a bit skeptical.
OK, I was a LOT skeptical.
There is good reason for my skepticism – I am not a very good cook.
I decided that we were going to try and see if it worked.
I looked online and chose Chef Cat Cora’s recipe list. It has 21 meals which include breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days. She states that it will feed a family of 4 and that the whole week would cost less than $150. Her list of recipes also included a shopping list which I printed so I would be ready for the grocery store trip.
I enlisted the help of Bianca. Making one meal a day would be a shock to my system, let alone 21 in one week so I figured I could use the help. And since we decided this could not go undocumented…here is our story.
Chef Cat Cora’s 21 meal menu
Chef Cat Cora’s shopping list for 21 meal menu
We started by taking our printed shopping list to Wal-Mart. It was easy to use because it was organized by areas within the store. When a choice was needed we chose the store brand or the cheapest product that would work.
There were three things that Wal-Mart either didn’t carry or was out of stock: Butter leaf Lettuce, Orzo, and fresh mint.
We found the missing items at a different store substituting for the Butter leaf Lettuce which wasn’t at either grocery shop.
Being very eager cooks we chose a recipe that sounded good and prepared our first meal from the list for dinner:
Spicy Chicken and Mango Stir Fry
This was one of the recipes that Chef Cora demonstrated on the Oprah episode in a real family’s kitchen. She suggested using it for a lunch but once we looked at all the recipes we realized we had another problem…
*insert haunting music here*
A problem that we will discuss tomorrow.
*insert foreshadowing music here*
Is it called foreshadowing if I just come out and announce that we will be discussing it tomorrow?
Anyway, that is what we chose and we started to chop an onion.
and another onion.
How many onions?
The picture tells the story of a heaping pile o’ onions with a side of post-chopping weeping.
We thought that two onions seemed like a lot for this recipe, but since we don’t have our own TV show or even regularly cook we decided to follow the recipe EXACTLY.
Then there is the issue of the chicken.
Cluck. Cluck.
The recipe calls for “3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken , sliced into 1/2-inch thick strips”.
What?
We just bought three WHOLE chickens.
Cluck. Cluck.
Let the skinning and de-boning begin.
We will be the first to admit that it wasn’t pretty…
*insert foreshadowing music here*
Finally we have chicken!
Whoo hoo!
Finally we have dinner!
Whoo hoo!
This is the entire dinner.
This is the final product that will be split into four portions.
For our purposes we are going to chart the results for 2 adults and 3 small children. Especially since the small children are super picky and will probably not eat much of anything because they are my small children.
The verdict?
4/5 LOVED the recipe.
1/5 refused to try it.
Triumph at dinner…
The post cooking reality check report:
I will make this recipe again. Next time I will start with skinless, boneless chicken. It would also be a huge help to have all the vegetables pre-chopped. Because we are not super handy with a knife the chopping took a very long time. I am pleased to announce that both Bianca and myself still are the proud owners of 10 fingers each.
I think it is a bit labor intensive for a lunch, but appropriate for dinner. I would add a side of rice. With a side of rice I think that this could be stretched to feed four small adults. We didn’t have any left-overs and we only fed two adults and two willing children.
Tune in tomorrow when we tackle THREE WHOLE MEALS in one day and dance to the foreshadowing music.
To see how this whole idea of following advice to see if it really works – check out our new Burbmom topic – Advice Reality Check.
Oprah & Chef Cora’s 7 day menu challenge: Day 7
March 25, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under eat, feature, reality check
Whoo hoo! It is the last day. We have made it a whole week cooking FROM SCRATCH 3 meals a day from the Chef Cat Cora 21 meal menu as seen on Oprah.
Let’s get going…what’s for breakfast?
Everyone participating in this challenge is a FAN of the fruit smoothie so we were pretty excited that we were having it for breakfast. We followed the recipe exactly and here is our four serving breakfast:
Yep, a little on the skimpy side.
As I have mentioned almost EVERY MORNING of this challenge,than even a full glass of smoothie would provide. Luckily, my husband (who is not participating in the challenge), who saw the disappointing breakfast yesterday had a solution:
He whipped up hash browns and scrambled eggs with a side of bacon in less than 25 minutes for us to have with our smoothies. I know it is cheating, but it IS the last day…
If you have never tried Simply Potatoes Hash browns you really need to try them. You find them in the refrigerator section of the grocery store and they are really easy and SUPER yummy.
The Verdict?
5/5 LOVED the taste of the berry fruit smoothies.
5/5 appreciated DAD making additional food.
The post cooking reality report:
I will make this recipe again. I usually add more than “one spoonful” of yogurt – especially if I am trying to fill up hungry boys.
The portion size was wrong. I think there must have been a misprint on the recipe because it really makes more sense as a recipe for ONE smoothie.
Let’s eat lunch!
This recipe was pretty uneventful.
The Verdict?
1/5 ate this.
3/5 refused to try it.
1/5 was absent for lunch.
The post cooking reality report:
I will probably not make this recipe again. I was the one who ate it. I thought it was fine. It was pretty easy to make. My favorite food in the whole world is Indian cuisine so I was hoping for a little more. It has curry, but there is not the flavor layers and spices that are normally included in Indian food. The boys didn’t like the smell which is weird because we make other Indian food dishes that they will try.
The portion size is good.
What’s for dinner, Mom?
Pasta with Red Pepper and Tomato Sauce
This recipe took just a few minutes. The sauce was easily accomplished in the time it takes pasta to cook.
The Verdict?
5/5 liked it.
The post cooking reality report:
I will make this recipe again. I will add meatballs. The boys LOVE meatballs and only tolerate spaghetti and sauce as a vehicle for meatballs. They liked this, but didn’t eat enough not to be crying at my bedside at 6 am the next morning about how hungry they were. I am NOT a fan of the taste of roasted red peppers, but this tasted fine to me. I really appreciated how easy it was to make.
Whew! We made it through 7 days.
I am planning a re-cap post that will summarize our findings. If you have missed anything, here is where you can find it:
Yeah! Thanks so much for hanging in there with us…
Oprah & Chef Cora’s 7-Day Menu Challenge: Day 6
March 22, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under eat, feature, reality check
This week Bianca and I tackled Chef Cat Cora’s 21 meal menu with the goal of staying under $150 for home cooked meals as seen on the Oprah show. All the recipes appear on Oprah.com and you can visit each recipe by clicking on the recipe title.
So let’s see what is for breakfast!
And here is where I yell “Please Chef Cora have mercy on my outside-the-kitchen-loving soul“!
Bianca started this recipe at 7 am. We did not pre-cook the potatoes so she was starting from the very beginning.
After much frustration, a few mild curse words whispered under our breaths and 2 hours later…TWO HOURS LATER…the frittata didn’t stay together and she ended up scrambling it to get it cooked through so we could eat.
We finished in the kitchen this morning at 9:30. That is 2 1/2 hours from start to finish. It was very discouraging and quite unacceptable.
At this point we don’t even care what it tastes like because we are hungry, grumpy and have low blood sugar and the boys are LONG GONE from the kitchen table…like 2 hours LONG GONE…in fact they are back looking for a mid-morning snack.
The Verdict?
2/5 tasted it but were too irritated to even care.
3/5 had cold cereal and toast 2 hours before this was completed.
The post cooking reality report:
Never. Never. Never. Seriously, give a mom a break here. If I had been doing this alone it would have been abandoned at about minute 45 so that I could PARENT my children.
Surely lunch will be better!
Lettuce “Gyros” with Tilapia and Yogurt Sauce
This recipe was pretty simple to assemble. It did not take much time. I had never cooked fish before so this was a new experience for me. I often order Tilapia when in a restaurant so I was anxious to find out how easy it was to make at home.
The Verdict?
2/5 thought the fish tasted good but didn’t quite understand the yogurt sauce and lettuce part.
3/5 thought the fish smelled yucky and wouldn’t try the dish. at. all.
The post cooking reality report:
I will not make this again. I will try making fish again. I do appreciate being forced into trying something new, but this recipe was extremely bland. When I think lettuce wraps I think of Pei Wei’s spicy chicken lettuce wraps which are one of my favorite things in the whole wide world and this fell flat.
The portion size is probably good – hard to tell when the majority of eaters refused. I think breaking the kids into fish gently would be a better idea than wrapping it in LETTUCE which they don’t like either would be a better idea – fish tacos anyone?
Let’s eat a snack not on this menu!
I think we all deserve some nice big chocolate chip cookies with apple slices and cheese…yum!
It is dinner time!
Three Bean Salad with Mint and Chicken Strips
The Verdict?
0/5 liked this recipe.
5/5 picked out the chicken strips and a few beans and then ate left-overs from the fridge.
The post cooking reality report:
I will not be making this recipe again. It was easy, but nobody liked it. The different elements – beans, mint, chicken, onions – didn’t seem to taste very good together.
This is the first recipe that no one liked.
Today was a pretty rough food day. On other days we may have spent some time in the kitchen but we ended up with food that people consumed. All day today was frustrating to spend time (and money) cooking food that no one liked or took so long they didn’t eat it. I am thankful that this day was not early in the week or we would have totally given up and made more chocolate chip cookies…
You can catch up with our Oprah-inspired 21 meal journey based on Chef Cat Cora’s menu-
Oprah & Chef Cora’s 7-Day Menu Challenge: Day 5
March 21, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under eat, feature, fun, reality check
Bianca and I are DANCING into the kitchen this morning to see what day five of our 21 cheap, cheap, cheap meal menu courtesy of Chef Cat Cora and the all knowing Oprah has to offer…
Let’s start with breakfast!
Rizogalo (Creamy Breakfast Brown Rice Pudding)
We were glad that I had made a large batch of brown rice a few nights ago and put it in the fridge for later use. That meant that our cooking time would be shorter this morning because we were so smart (and cute).
We even ended up making about 3 videos to post with this process, but due to technical difficulties they were accidentally deleted on Bianca’s camera so you will have to just imagine me in my big fluffy robe standing by the stove stirring the RizagallawhateveritisIcannotpronounceitanywaysoprobablyagoodthingthevideothingdidnotworkout:
20 minutes into the recipe:
Holly: What is happening here? I can’t get this milk to boil.
30 minutes into the recipe:
Holly: Whew! Got the milk to boil and now I am being all fancy and tempering an egg by pouring 1/2 cup of boiling milk into the pre-mixed egg. Now I am adding the tempered egg into the boiling milk along with our rice. We will cook the rice mixture for another 20 minutes until it starts to thicken.
50 minutes into the recipe:
Holly: I was supposed to be “continuously stirring” during the entire 20 minute thickening process, but I have three kids so that just isn’t feasible. I spent the last 20 minutes feeding them since they couldn’t wait any longer.
60 minutes into the recipe:
Holly: The kids are long gone from the breakfast table. THIS IS NOT THICKENING! I am going to go do my hair and get some clothes on.
75 minutes into the recipe:
Holly: Seriously, this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. I want that Chef Cat Cora over at my house ASAP to explain how to fit a 75 minute BREAKFAST recipe into my life.
90 minute into the recipe:
Holly: It thickened! Hurry Bianca! Let’s eat it before it is lunch time.
The Verdict?
2/5 were patient enough to try and like it.
3/5 had toast and cold cereal at a normal time.
The post cooking reality report:
I can promise you without any uncertainty that I will never make this recipe again for breakfast. It takes WAY too long (and we had pre-cooked rice!). It is a sweet hot cereal rice pudding hybrid that was good, but again had very little substance to it. It was too sweet for me for breakfast and not as filling as plain old oatmeal that I can whip up in less than 7 minutes.
We had a lot of it left over since only 2 of us ate it initially and it was portioned well for four. We put it in the fridge and it is GONE…why? Because it makes a fabulous cold dessert or snack when you want something sweet. YUM! Despite being a super yummy dessert it is unlikely I will make it again.
Crap…is it lunchtime already?
Farfalle and Herb Salad with Peas
So answer quickly without Googling…what shape is farfalle?
The shopping list only said farfalle and I searched the Wal-Mart pasta aisle high and low and nothing was labeled farfalle! I finally just picked up something:
I guessed….wrong.
Farfalle is bowtie pasta for those of you playing at home.
Ooooops.
The Verdict?
2/5 ate it.
3/5 looked at it and couldn’t find anything to pick out of it they wanted to eat.
The post cooking reality report:
I will not make this again. No one really liked it. It was very light. I think it would be better with the addition of a protein and some nuts maybe…but the flavor was nothing spectacular. The boys just said NO. They are not big pasta eaters to begin with and this just had vegetables that they don’t like so they rebelled.
I have no idea if the portion size is appropriate. I think this is a side dish instead of a main dish.
Let’s try a snack!
We decided to try this as a snack instead of a dinner accompaniment:
Don’t be scared! They tasted much better than they looked.
And the original photos fell prey to the previously mentioned accidental deletion – ugh!
The Verdict?
5/5 rave reviews.
The post cooking reality report:
I will make these again A LOT. These were great as a snack and would be great as a side dish. The kids loved them. They took a little time to prepare, but the end product is worth it.
The portion size seems good. We only had a few left over after snacktime.
What’s for dinner?
The Verdict?
5/6 LOVED this recipe (we had a 10 y/o guest for dinner)
1/6 didn’t like it.
The post cooking reality report:
I will not be making this recipe again.
WHY? 5 people LOVED it!
Because I was the one who didn’t like it and there should be some sort of benefit to being the mom.
The recipe is straight-forward and the portion size is good.
That sums up day 5! If you have missed anything here is a list of where to find days 1-4:
And tomorrow is another day…
Oprah & Chef Cora’s 7-Day Menu Challenge: Day 3
March 19, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under eat, feature, reality check
We made it through day one and flew through day two of our quest to attempt the 21 meal plan of Chef Cat Cora as seen on Oprah…so what does today hold?
For breakfast we made:
Let me start by saying this tasted good, BUT I just don’t get it.
We started by making mashed potatoes from scratch…from scratch at 6:30 am. And after adding a full stick of butter to the mashed potatoes we then FRIED them. Is this why we couldn’t have yolks yesterday – we were saving up for this?
The recipe called for 2 cups of milk, but we found that it was extremely soupy after only one cup so we omitted the second cup. Most of the “pancakes” turned out more like scrambled eggs. We took the above picture of the best formed one.
The Verdict?
2/5 thought the pancakes tasted OK.
The post cooking reality check:
I will not be making this recipe again unless I have a ton of left-over mashed potatoes that I need to magically transform into something slightly different. This recipe took WAY TOO much time if you are starting from scratch for a family breakfast. My three boys wake early and hungry. They were not impressed with waiting for this or the way it tasted.
The portion size of this recipe was adequate if it was served WITH something. I ate what would have been considered two portions of this and needed something else as well. I usually eat some sort of protein for breakfast and this just felt like I was eating a 1/2 of meal. I think this would make a better side dish for a lunch or dinner.
Let’s see if we have better luck with lunch!
For lunch we made:
Chickpea and Roasted Pepper Soup with Blanched Greens
The blanched greens recipe had been paired with the Cinnamon Chicken and Orzo we ate last night, but we were a little overwhelmed with the amount of cooking required to make all three items. We thought it would be good with the soup for lunch.
I made one modification to the soup. Instead of just pureeing just the peppers, I pureed the whole soup.
The Verdict?
4/5 liked the soup plus my husband who is not participating in this 21 meal trial ate a full portion as well declaring it yummy.
The post cooking reality report:
I will make both these recipes again. The greens were very good and similar to a spinach and mushroom recipe I make for special occasions (minus the mushrooms). The soup was filling and tasted good. I will caution that the younger children were not wild about this, but they don’t regularly eat soup. Next time I might pull out some of the beans for them before pureeing.
The portion size was good.
SNACK TIME!
We ate the left over Leftover Frozen Yogurt Banana Pops
- yum!
Let’s make Dinner:
The only thing we modified with this recipe was we doubled the lettuce.
The Verdict?
5/5 loved ‘em!
The post cooking reality report:
I will make this again. It was quick (if you already had the rice cooked like I did) and easy and tasted good. Everyone ate it.
The portion size was good if the tortillas are large.
We made it through the day! The lunch and dinner recipes were easy enough that we didn’t feel like we were in the kitchen all day. Using left over rice and the left over banana pops for a snack made it go smoothly (after the breakfast thing…).
See you tomorrow…
Oprah & Chef Cora’s 7-day Menu Challenge: Day 2
March 18, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under eat, feature, reality check
Whew. We felt pretty good making it through day one of the Chef Cat Cora 21 meal menu as seen on Oprah.
And then we realized that day two would mean three homemade meals.
Three homemade meals.
I think I can…I think I can…I think I can.
Let’s make breakfast!
We decided to try:
Egg Whites, Turkey Bacon and Low Fat Cheddar Tortilla Wraps
This was also one of the recipes that Chef Cora demonstrated on the Oprah show in the home of an ordinary family. Bianca tackled this breakfast and when I saw it I was surprised because I could have sworn that on the TV show it looked yellow – like the whole egg was used. I checked the website and they mention use of only egg whites…
And I just have to ask WHY?
First of all, separating the 6 yolks from the 6 whites seemed cruel…they seemed so happy together.
Then disposing of the 6 yolks since none of the recipes in the 21 meal menu uses them seems very wasteful.
And third, by only using the egg whites the total recipe size seemed small.
And fourth, I LIKE the taste of the yolks.
And fifth, the yolks contain a bunch of nutrients that the whites do not.
And finally, none of my family members have high cholesterol or have special dietary needs and let’s be frank…eating a few egg yolks is MUCH better for them then what they might have been eating on any other given morning for breakfast.
Sorry, I got a little caught up in my pro-yolk agenda.
The Verdict?
3/5 liked the breakfast tortillas.
1/5 refused to try the breakfast tortillas.
1/5 threw a giant tantrum and cried all over the breakfast tortillas.
The post cooking reality check report:
I will make a modified version of this recipe in the future. It took a reasonable amount of time to prepare. I will use the WHOLE egg and add something to make them less bland. I ended up dipping my portion in salsa which was good. I think chopped jalapenos or a fresh pico de gallo mixed in with the eggs would be really yummy. The amount of cheese used was so minimal I didn’t taste it, but I hate to suggest adding more cheese after making such a big deal about the eggs…but more would taste better.
The portion size was VERY SMALL. I think that if only the whites are used then at least 3 more eggs need to be added for four full servings. Maybe I just eat a lot, but I had 2/4 portions (as described by the recipe) and needed a snack by 10 am. I suspect if the whole egg is used then the portion size will be about right.
Whew! Breakfast is over and we have a few hours before lunch.
What should we do?
Let’s go back to the grocery store!
For lunch we made:
Veggie Stuffed Twice Baked Potato Boats
Right after breakfast we popped the potatoes in the oven and set the oven for an hour. Since our potatoes were small we decided to make 5. When I checked on the oven an hour and 1/2 later the potatoes were still a little firm to the touch so I reset the oven for another 30 minutes.
Bianca assembled the recipe:
And the children ATE this recipe.
Hallelujah!
The Verdict?
5/5 LOVED the Veggie Stuffed Twice Baked Potato Boats
The post cooking reality check:
I will definitely, without question make this recipe again. It is full of vegetables and everyone ate them! It is a pretty easy recipe that doesn’t take much time if you use the timer on your oven for baking the potatoes.
The portion size was good. We ended up with quite a bit of the stuffing left over because our potatoes were so small. The stuffing is yummy so I don’t think it will be in the fridge long…
SNACKS! SNACKS! WE NEED SNACKS!
The 21 meal menu did not include snacks and we are attempting to limit what we eat (within reason) to what is on the menu. Well, the boys are not THRILLED with this plan so we took a closer look at some of the recipes to see if we could use them for snacks instead of meals. We decided that the small portion size of the Frozen Yogurt Banana Pops (each portion is 1/2 a banana) would be difficult to pass off as a FULL breakfast so we are using it as a snack instead.
Let’s make them now!
Actually, we made them earlier since they need to freeze for at least a few hours.
The Verdict?
5/5 are WILD about Frozen Yogurt Banana Pops
The post cooking reality report:
The family freezer will always have these available for snacks. The only complaint we had was that they were messy to make. The yogurt seemed to stick to the bananas, but the granola didn’t stick to the yogurt. BUT who cares…they taste great.
The portion size of these are great for a snack. This would be WAY too small for a breakfast for me. Maybe as a side to a whole bowl of oatmeal? I am beginning to get a complex about how hungry I am in the morning.
All right people, we are nearing the end of the day. Let’s make dinner!
Every one on Oprah was licking their fingers over this recipe. I just had to taste it for myself.
Crap…the chicken factor.
Cluck. Cluck.
Chicken, Schmicken.
After 4 recipes we are KITCHEN WARRIORS!
The chickens don’t have a chance…
The recipe was pretty easy to follow, but the liquid reduced too quickly and Bianca added more water. There was a side of Orzo suggested with this recipe.
The Verdict?
5/5 liked the chicken.
2/5 liked the Orzo which is really surprising since the Orzo was very neutral in flavor.
The post cooking reality report:
I will probably make this again. It is a bit labor intensive, but would be easier the second time around. Since the Orzo was not a hit at my house next time I will substitute mashed potatoes.
The portion size was good – even generous. We have tons of Orzo left over and several pieces of chicken that can be used in other recipes later this week.
Overall this was a good food day. We are spending a majority of our day in the kitchen, but for the most part making food that the kids will eat.
Tomorrow is another day…
