Health(ier) Chicken Strips and Mac 'n Cheese

Week 10 (March 10, 2010)
I cooked this week and decided I wanted some healthier version of fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. I found the following recipes for crispy herbed chicken strips and creamy stove-top macaroni and cheese.

I know what you are thinking, will Geoffrey eat mac 'n cheese? Why yes, Geoffrey happens to LOVE macaroni and cheese! I know, weirdo. When we first started dating, he'd stock Stouffer's Mararoni and Cheese in my tiny dorm fridge. So with his blessing, I proceeded to find a semi-easy mac 'n cheese recipe which uses REAL cheese. Picture below is evidence!

Shhhhhh, but I had to use another type of cheese Geoff can't stand, but I snuck it in there without him seeing it and therefore judging the dish prior to tasting it. I personally think it is what made the dish creamy a la Stouffer's, but once he sees this post he will say he hated it. It's ok though, I saw him serve himself seconds and even thirds so, I know he liked it, even if he won't admit it:)

I decided to bake the chicken strips instead of frying them (per the directions) and they came out nicely golden and crisp! I don't really like the smell of dill so I was hesitant to use it, but surprisingly the flavor/smell did not overwhelm the strips. I did think the strips needed more seasoning (basically it was just dill, salt and pepper that was used) but Geoff picked up a fabulously spicy bbq sauce that made up for the underseasoning of the strips!

Lastly, to complete the meal I sautéed some French Green Beans with some onions and a squeeze of lemon and they came out wonderful! I guess lots of people use this method, but I never had until now. So easy and tasty!

We rated this night's dinner at an average of 8 (Mayra: 7, Geoffrey: 9!!!!!).

Herbert's travels

I saw this site recently and thought of Herbert and his travels. Long before Amelie came out and even longer before this stuffed animal travel agency thing started, Herbert was paving the way of traveling stuffed animals. In the picture above he is in Muchen land (Munich, Germany).


Below is a sampling of Herbert's travels (we have much more pictures, these are only a few of the digital ones).

Here he is in the Cayman Islands:

And in the Motherland (Cancun, Mexico):

He's been to French Polynesia (this was in Moorea):

He's spent some time Down Under (Sydney, Australia):

But his favorite spot is in San Francisco!

Get your Greek on!

 Week 9  (March 3, 2010)

Special contributing writer: Geoffrey Gonzalez with added commentary by me, Mayra Sustaita

I felt like making something a little on the healthy side tonight.  And when I think of healthy, I think Greek.  I think it has to do with all the veggies and the flat bread! I decided to make Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki Sauce and a traditional Greek Salad. 

I think I went overboard with all the veggies I bought, cause I ended up cutting the salad recipe in half. (Comments: Understatement! Geoff was about to buy like 10 cucumbers and 10 tomatoes. When we were checking out at the grocery store I was alarmed at how many cucumbers were on the conveyor belt, I instantly advised him to halve the recipe. He was a little bit upset about this, but there is no way we could eat all those cucumbers in one week, let alone one night!) The salad consisted of tomatoes, English cucumbers, onions, parsley, feta, kalamata olives and oregano.  Obviously I don't eat cheese and Mayra doesn't eat olives, so I basically sprinkled those ingredients on after.  The salad went pretty smoothly since all the preparation was just chopping. 

But for the chicken dish (which actually were skewers), all I did was marinate the chicken for about 20 minutes in the fridge with some lemon juice, salt/pepper, olive oil, garlic  and oregano.  So easy.  And while it marinated, that's when I prepared the salad.  (Comments: I liked the chicken, it definitely tasted "healthy" but it could have used a little more flavor or marinating)

Once the chicken was finished marinating, I put them on the skewers, along with more cucumbers, and plopped them right on the trusty George Foreman grill. (Comments: Easily the most used appliance in our kitchen. Geoff never wants to use it though because he hates washing it. Surprised he pulled it out for his cooking night.) Easy peasy. The finishing touch was making a yogurt sauce for Mayra which yes, you guessed it, had more cucumbers!  I don't like yogurt sauce so I bought some hummus for myself. (Comments: The yogurt sauce was yummy! Probably my favorite thing of the night!)

Fun facts about cucumbers:

• Cucumber is the best natural diuretic known, secreting and promoting the flow of urine. (Comments: Neat!)
  

• Helps in kidney and urinary bladder disease. (Comments: probably due to its high water content)
  

• The high mineral content of this vegetable also helps to prevent splitting of nails of the fingers and toes. (Comments: Useful info!)
  

• To reduce heartburn or sooth acid stomach, drink fresh cucumber juice. (yuck!) (Comments: I second that yuck! I don't even like cucumber in my water!)
  

Oh, I forgot to mention that all the while I was preparing the dinner, I had some delicious potato flat bread baking in the oven.  Just bought this at Whole Paycheck Foods as some needed carbs for the dinner.  It would have been a really light and healthier dinner without it, but since I eat like I weigh 300lbs I would have been starving like 10 minutes later.  So this hit the spot.

This dinner was actually really tasty and easy.  My reco's:  buy 1 pound of chicken instead of the 1/2 it calls for. And cut the salad recipe in half if it's just for 2.  This dinner would have paired great with some wine like some Reisling, but alas, I'll never know what that's like until Easter :)

(Comments: Our rating for tonights dinner: 8.5. Mayra: 8, Geoffrey: 9)

Enjoy!

geo the mexican greek

Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having.

As many of you know, Geoff and I decided to give up alcohol for Lent (Geoffrey mostly gave it up for his marathon training). Last week we were discussing whether drinking non-alcoholic beer or wine would count as cheating and I gave Geoffrey the example of "What if you drank a 12 pack of O'Douls and you were pulled over by a cop? How would the cop react if you admitted to drinking the non-alcoholic beer? Would you get a DUI?" We didn't come up with an answer but I did decide it would be sort of a cheat since it is a beer, has some alcohol in it and I think you have to be 21 to buy it.

Luckily (coincidentally?), a week later, Zach Galifianakis had the answer to our questions. Watch his opening dialogue on last night's SNL. It's so raven.

P.S. Was it me or did he remind you a little bit of Mitch Hedberg?

P.P.S. Here is the rest of the joke: "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. 'Damn it, Otto, you're an alcoholic.' 'Damn it, Otto, you have lupus.' One of those two doesn't sound right." RIP Mitch.

American Idol predictions

Geoffrey and I are big fans of American Idol, the show. We'd never buy a cd or check out the concerts, but we will spend hours and hours of our time watching this show, texting for our favorite contestants and critiquing it.

After listening to the Top 24 20 sing "live" this week (I meant to publish this post last week!), here are my favorites this season (always subject to change depending on how annoying they get):

The Good
Girls
Siobhan Magnus (I call her Chrissy, cause she looks like one of Geoff's soccer teammates names Chrissy)
Katelyn Epperly (She reminds me of Sandy from Grease, love the crazy hair)
Crystal Bowersox (dreadlock/coffeehouse girl, has a GREAT voice)

Boys
Casey James (nice face, nice bluesy voice)
Alex Lambert (underdog with a good voice, I just want to give him a hug and tell him things will be ok)
Andrew Garcia (representing "the hood" and "the Latinos")

Diversity
When I found out that 4 of the Top 24 were Latinos (or at least their last names sounded Latino, racist of me, I know), I was shocked, especially since we've come to know this show as a different name which I will not repeat here. I thought, "good for you American Idol, diversifying!" But, I should have known better. After the first week, half were eliminated. After week two, another one was eliminated. One Latino left. Oh well, guess I spoke too soon. Again.

Ellen
I am enjoying Ellen's addition to the judging panel. She is freakin' hilarious sometimes. Every time she talks, I picture her as Doris, from Finding Nemo. I keep thinking she is going to forget what she said and start all over again. Seriously though, I like that she is not in the music industry and offers a normal everyday people opinion (she's already compared the contestants to bananas and snuggies). And she is nice, even when she is being mean. Love her.

Who's your favorite Idol this season?