If you don't try this pasta, I am going to unleash a vague threat with marginally negative consequences

Every single day I try to teach my patients skills to avoid food pushers.

“Oh have some of these brownies I just made!”

“No thanks.”

“But it’s a new recipe!”
“Nah, I’m really not hungry.”

“Oh come on- just try a bite!”

Yeah that sort of thing. We’ve all probably been on both sides of that scenario.

So I do realize the irony when I end up being the food pusher. I know I shouldn’t. But you know what? I am a traditional girl and I totally get my jollies off of:

1. Cute outfits and
2. Great meals

I made a meal last night that I would’ve fed the whole neighborhood had I been able.

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Roasted sweet pepper and sausage pasta ALL OVER YOUR FACE.

That’s who.

Roasted Sweet Pepper and Sausage Pasta

2 bags of those baby sweet peppers (if your store doesn’t have them buy 6 assorted bell peppers)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 package lean turkey sausage, spicy or sweet Italian

2 medium yellow onions, sliced

2 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup all purpose flour (don’t sub whole wheat here)

2 cups skim or 1% milk

1 teaspoon minced garlic

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon chili powder or hot sauce

1 box whole wheat penne or other pasta

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut up your peppers into thin-ish strips. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes, stopping at midpoint to stir them up.
2. Meanwhile bring a pot of water to boil. Add your sausages. Cook until internal temp registers at least 160 degrees.
3. While those are cooking, heat up your remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan. Add onions. Add cooked sausages- the point here is that now the insides are cooked, but they’re going to be kind of puffy and inflated from the water. Let’s char them a weensy bit.
4. Once sausages are somewhat browned, remove the whole pan from heat. Quick slice the sausages into coins, and return to heat until both sausages and onions are softened and slightly browned. Remove from heat.
5. Dump our your old gross sausage water, or dare your husband to chug it for $10, and replace with clean water. Heat that to boiling and cook your pasta according to package directions.
6. Are you still with me? You’ve earned your glass of red wine tonight. Remove those nicely browned peppers and run ‘em through a food processor. This yielded me with about 2 cups worth of pepper puree.
7. In a smaller saucepan, heat up butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour. Stir for a few minutes to ensure the resulting paste (ew?) has heated up. Pour in your milk. Stir until mixture thickens and starts to bubble. Remove from heat. Stir in garlic, pepper, hot sauce (if desired), and pepper puree.
8. Combine all those lovely ingredients- the pasta, the sausage/onion mix, and the glorious sauce, and go push this dish upon everyone.

Makes six servings. Per serving: 490 calories, 28 g protein, 8 g fiber

The year of George!

I can't *not* make a Seinfeld reference sometimes.

 

It has been a good week 'round here.

 

One of the hidden perks about being a parent is the songs you end up creating for your little one. Most of mine are parodies though.

 

Changing his crib sheet every other night led to "The sheet is on! Dun dun dunnnnn dun dun dunnn. The sheet is on!"

 

And constantly living in fear of his regurgitation led to J. Lo's "Waiting for your barf! Oh ohhh. When it would be here on my shirt. Waiting for your barf! I've dreamed of this barf for so long...waiting for your barf. Oh ohhhh oh oh oh."

 

I am nailing this whole parenting thing with my sweet lullabies.

 

In other news, I'm a solid three weeks late to the New Year's resolution bandwagon. Goal setting is something I discuss with all my patients, and it's easier said than done. Many of us start out the year way too gung-ho about accomplishing EVERYTHING, and then it inevitably starts to crumble, and we fully give up.

 

So how about just setting one goal each month? Studies indicate that small goals stick- so let's start there.

 

This is my own goal list I've created. Some of these things might seem insignificant, but again, better to exceed small goals than fail large goals.  

 

January- journal food intake 3x/week

February- limit to 45 minutes TV/day

March- do 50 push ups twice a week

April- take 600 mg calcium/day

May- get 8000+ steps twice a week

June- eat 1+ servings of fruit per day

July- eat 1+ servings of vegetables per day

August- jog twice weekly

September- start back up with taking 4000 IU D3 at least 4x/week

October- walk during my lunch break at least twice weekly

November- 1+ cup of tea daily

December- be in bed by 9:00 2+ nights/week

 

So think about what it is you might want to accomplish in 2015.

 

And sorry if you have J. Lo stuck in your head for the next 24 hours.

Adventures in eating

We’re trying new things in our household, all-around.

 

Baby has decided that baby food is for, well, babies. And that is not him. Nope he’s a man. And men eat Cheerios…and avocados.

 

Not sure at first.

 

Ohhhh but wait…yes…yes, this is awesome.

 

I should mention that his shirt says “Polo Sport” and not “Poo Sport” as it appears.

 

Though if that really was a thing, he'd totally be gold medal material. Pampers Champ.

So...

I have a new recipe to share!

 

Easy? Nope.

 

Quick? Not at all.

 

Still worth it? Totally.

 

Homemade noodles. Yep we’re going there.

 

One of our favorite places in NYC is a Chinese noodle shop. After much extensive research (Google), we felt we had learned enough to give it a go. Flour + water + egg.

 

Ok so our first attempt did not go so hot. You REALLY need a lot of flour, and we ran out. Stickiness everywhere.

 

Round two was a success. To go with our noodles, I stir fried a whole head of cabbage along with some soy-marinated beef.

 

Ready for something new?

 

Homemade Noodles

5 cups flour + 2 cups set aside

2 ¼ cups cold water

1 egg

 

Combine 5 cups flour with water and egg. Just use your  hands to form the dough. Add more flour if it is too sticky. You want dough that is nice and elastic without sticking to absolutely everything. Once fully kneaded and formed, wrap in plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes.

 

Flour your work surface and knead your dough some more, like 5-10 minutes. Spread out even more flour. Using a rolling pin, roll it out until it’s verrrrry thin. Use a pizza slicer or knife to cut into 1” strips.

 

 

Not a tapeworm.

 

Add noodles to a stockpot of boiling water. Boil for just 60 seconds and remove.

 

There you go. It’s not complicated, but it is messy.

 

If you’re inclined to make the cabbage and beef as well, which you ought to be, here are the how-to’s:

 

Stir fried cabbage

1 large head of cabbage, core removed, cut into 2” pieces

1 tablespoon sesame oil

 

In a large shallow pan, heat sesame oil over medium high heat. Add cabbage. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir. Re-cover. Continue until cabbage is cooked down but still somewhat crunch. Soggy is no good.

 

Marinated spicy beef

1 pound sirloin steak, cut into thin slices

2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

2 teaspoons Sriracha, or other hot sauce

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

 

Combine all ingredients in a resealable bag and let marinate for 30+ minutes.

 

Saute in a large shallow pan once ready. This only takes a few minutes to cook. Optional- if you really like heat- add a few diced Thai chiles to the pan while you cook the beef.

 

Serve cabbage and beef over noodles.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

I hope you already ate your dinner…’cause this might make you lose your appetite. Me? Nope.

Storytellers are immune.

Hope you had a lovely Christmas! Baby got all sorts of cool stuff. Of course he’s at the age where
everything just goes in his mouth. He actually got irritated that the xylophone wouldn’t fit in his mouth. Maybe next year.

Now I’ve always been proud of my hearty manly immune system. True story- last time I got sick (uh, apart from college and drinking too many…sodas…), was in high school.

(Ermehgosh I think I know where this might be headed)

When baby came down with some funky stuff down south I didn’t think much of it.

(Oh geez I really don’t really want to know the details)

But by midday at work on Friday, those ominous urpy hiccups started, I knew that I needed to get home and have my trash can ride shotgun.

(Seriously please don’t go there)

And as soon as my queasy stomach knew it was home, it was all over.

I called Ralph.

(NO)

I bowed to the porcelain throne.

(GROSS) 

I liquidated my assets.

(MAKE IT STOOOOOOP!)

Baby ended up infecting 79.4% of those he came into contact with over the holiday. It was just his li’l way of making his first Christmas memorable.

So I have no recipes this week. Red Jell-O and Gatorade. That’s about it. But I thought of a way cool thing to do for the new year- look for that on Thursday.

‘Til then, wash your hands thoroughly. And avoid me. And my baby.