Giving Up Life's Pleasures...On Purpose!

See that lovely lady above? Her name is Racheletto and she's a girl on the go.

For the entire month of January, she has decided to simplify her life (in a very complicated way) and participate in something called "GULP." What is GULP, you ask?

GULP stands for "Give Up Life's Pleasures." Yeah, on purpose.

So all month long she's been subsisting on only 9 food ingredients, 5 condiments/seasonings, and 1 beverage. Here's what she can eat:

● beans ● nuts ● apples ● yogurt ● eggs ● lemons/lemon juice ● spinach ● carrots ● potatoes●
● olive oil ● salt ● pepper ● curry powder ● honey ● water ●

Maybe this sounds crazy to you (like the thought of living without bacon just sounds sad to me) but scoot on over to her blog, follow her progress, and most importantly VOTE!

What's this? Doing your civic duty? You betcha!

You see Ms. Racheletto will be donating the money she isn't spending on groceries to one worthy cause.

My favorite among the bunch? SAME Cafe--a Denver joint that exists "so all may eat" and feeds the homeless and hungry.

GO! VOTE! Enjoy whatever you're eating/drinking/consuming in her honor!

And maybe you're thinking, "What's in it for me?"

Well...How about our first ever Bacon & Other Bad Habits contest?!

Here are the rules:
1. Create and submit a recipe that Racheletto can eat to: leahcharney [at] gmail [dot] com.
2. Recipe must contain only the ingredients above.
3. You do not need to use all the ingredients.

Winners will be chosen on Sunday, January 31st (the last day of the GULP challenge).

Getting Your Week In Order!

Greetings Baconeers!

The new year has started and we have all made resolutions that, due to "time constraints," are starting to fall to the wayside. I know I am guilty of it myself. So here is a great tip to help get you more time and if you resolved to lose weight, help with that as well.

Every Sunday, I sit down with a cookbook, paper and small dry erase board and plan out my menus for the week. Now any cookbook will do, but if you are concerned about the calories, pick one with healthy recipes.

As I page through the book, I think about how the week will run. For instance, Monday, Friday and Sunday, Mr. F and I are home together so I cook a big meal. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Mr F goes to the gym after work so I will cook a smaller meal or salads. Saturdays we usually go out for "hot date night".

Once I have picked out the recipes and written them on the dry erase board ( this allows for easy changes if anything crazy pops up), I will create a shopping list for the week and shop Monday after work. Now I am done for the week!

I know what you're thinking--"This chick is crazy!"--but it helps us keep our diets in check and after cooking all day at work, I don't come home and stare into the fridge trying to get inspiration.

To make our meals a bit healthier, I usually eliminate all starches at dinner, portion-control our proteins and stay away from creamy salad dressings. This planning also works for lunch and keeps you away from the drive-thru.

So don't let my over-planning scare you off. Give it a try for a week and I'm sure you will find it is as big of a time saver as I do.

Let's Get Baked...Zucchini

I try to eat healthy, really I do. And for a girl who loves bacon and could eat it with every meal this can sometimes be tricky. (Note: 2 slices of bacon are only 90 calories so shut it). Often, when I've been going out to eat a lot or eating a bunch of fried food or living on junk, I'll make myself some nice vegetarian meals that are chock full of veggies.

The trick with this veggie bake is the squash ribbons that mimic pasta in their texture and consistency. I also omitted many spices and seasonings because I used homemade breadcrumbs that are covered in delicious. If you use store bought or skip the breadcrumbs make sure you add in some of your favorite Italian seasonings.

Baked Squash Ribbons and Tomato

--butter
--1 onion, chopped
--3 medium sized zucchini or yellow squash, cut into small fries or ribbons (using a potato peeler or a mandolin)
--3 large tomatoes, cored, roughly chopped and mostly de-seeded
--shredded Swiss cheese
--1/3 cup sour cream
--1 egg, whisked
--paprika
--salt
--garlic powder
--pepper
--bread crumbs
--shredded Parmesan cheese


In a large skillet saute the onion in 1-ish TBSP butter until tender. Transfer to a large bowl and add in the zucchini, tomatoes, 1/2 cup of shredded Swiss, sour cream, egg, seasonings and 1/4 cup of fine breadcrumbs. Mix like crazy until all stirred up and cheese and cream are evenly distributed. (The egg in this case is merely acting as a binder to keep the casserole hanging out together).


Transfer to a large baking/casserole dish. Make sure you spray down the dish with cooking spray to allow for easy removal. Sprinkle the top with 1/2 cup of shredded swiss cheese and a few tablespoons of parmesan. I also like to mix in some chunkier, larger pieces of breadcrumbs.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until veggies are tender and cheese is melted and delicious.

Hello Stew, Meet Curry & Saffron

I tend to eat a lot of warm foods in the winter time. Winter just seems to loan itself well to soups, stews, and ragouts. The following is a modified version of one of my favorite recipes. It combines lots of veggies with two of my favorite spices: saffron and curry!

I made this while housesitting and just threw it together with what veggies were fresh on hand along with some from the freezer. Stews like this one can change throughout the year to reflect whatever veggies are in season.

Winter Vegetable Curried Stew
--olive oil
--yellow curry powder
--pinch of saffron threads--onion, chopped roughly into medium sized pieces
--garlic, chopped
--assorted chopped veggies (I used squash, kale, spinach, and carrots)
--1 can white beans
--1 package of chicken sausage, links chopped into 1/2" thick slices
--24 oz. container chicken or vegetable broth


In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. Once the oil coats the bottom of the pot add in the saffron threads. Adding heat to the threads releases their flavor. Add several healthy shakes of curry powder. Add chopped onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent. The curry and saffron will coat the onion and garlic and make your stew taste delicious!

Begin adding in your vegetables one at a time. First I added my carrots and then stirred them all together so the curry/saffron mix coated them. Then I added my different squashes (I used 3 different types: delicata, yellow, and zucchini) and stirred the mix all together. Then I added my white beans on top and stirred together.


Pour the chicken broth over the veggies mix. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for at least 30 minutes. You can simmer for up to 2 hours, but if you intend to simmer for this long, please turn heat down to low.

While the soup is simmering it's time to cook up our chicken sausage. I buy the package of 4 links and am really fond of the chicken and apple sausages because they add great flavor to this particular recipe. Most chicken sausage links are already pre-cooked but we want to sear the sides and warm up the sausage.

In a small to medium sized skillet, heat the sausage over medium heat until seared and warm.
Then add it to the simmering stew!

Toward the end of your simmering period add in the spinach and kale (or whatever greens you'd like to use). I remove the stems and either roughly chop these or rip them into pieces by hand.


Once everything is nice and warm it's ready to be scarfed!

Old Bread, New Life

Breadcrumbs are super easy to make and have on hand for the next time you need 'em.

I tend to make up a batch every time I have a few extra pieces of bread in a loaf that's getting old or is crusty. Also French Bread loaves make delightful crumbs!

Garlic Bread Crumbs:
--Bread
--Cooking spray
--Garlic salt
--Pepper
--Oregano
--Thyme

If the bread isn't dried out, I leave the bag open for 24 hours to let it get a little crusty.

The rest of the process is really simple!

Coat one side of bread with cooking spray. Douse with your favorite spices (mine are listed above). Flip bread over and repeat.

Place on baking sheet and cook at 400 degrees until bread toasts (but doesn't burn).


Remove from oven. Allow to cool. Place in a food processor or blender and pulse until desired consistency. I like to beat my crumbs by hand with a mallet by placing the bread in a ziplock bag and taking out all my aggression on it... But that's just me.

Store these bad boys in a ziplock bag in your freezer for several months.

Spare A Rib Or Two

I was cooking for men. I needed to make man-shaped foods to feed manly menfolk.

What's manly? Ribs!

What's more manly than ribs? Ribs drowned in beer!

I made these with my own BBQ sauce, which is pretty tangy. The great thing about making your own sauce is that you can make it to your palate. Add coffee or cayenne pepper or liquid smoke or, or, or...

Beer Drowned Spare Ribs With Homemade BBQ Sauce

--Rack of ribs (I like St. Louis Style because it's meaty, mmm)
--salt & pepper
--Lots o' dark beer (I used Porter)
--Onion, peeled and quartered
--BBQ sauce (recipe below, though bottled works just fine)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Rub the rack of ribs, on both sides, with salt and pepper.


Cover in onions and beer. Place foil over the top of the pan and cook for 1 hour.


While the ribs cook you can make the BBQ sauce.

Homemade BBQ Sauce
--1 cup ketchup
--1/4 cup tomato paste
--1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
--1 TBSP dijon mustard
--1 TBSP maple syrup

Now add whatever you like...I added the following:
--1 TBSP bourbon
--splash soy sauce
--splash Worcestershire sauce
--garlic
--shake of onion powder
--shake of cayenne pepper


Mix all ingredients in a sauce pot and heat on low, stirring to mix.

Heat ONLY 5 minutes until the sauce is all melted.


When the hour is up on the ribs remove from the oven. Remove foil and discard.

Turn oven temperature down to 300 degrees.

Pour out the beer (sob!) and slather in BBQ sauce on both sides of the rack.


Return to the oven, uncovered, for another hour to hour-and-a-half (until meat is tender and will be easy to cut apart. Feel free to remove from oven halfway through and douse with more sauce.

Remove from oven. Allow a few minutes to cool before slicing ribs apart.

Use wetnaps...

Crisper Drawer Ham & Black Eyed Pea Stew

Who snagged the ham bone after this year's Christmas dinner? This girl.

Traditionally a lot of folks prefer to make some version of split pea soup, but I decided to make something I call "Crisper Drawer Stew." What exactly is in Crisper Drawer Stew? It's not quite everything but the kitchen sink...it's actually all the veggies left in the crisper drawer that need to be cooked. Plus, it being New Years and all, it's tradition to eat black eyed peas for good luck in the coming year.

So below is the recipe I made, but look inside your own crisper drawer. There's veggies in there crying for help.

Crisper Drawer Ham Bone Soup
--1 ham bone, some ham left on it
--32 oz. Chicken Broth or Stock
--Carrots, sliced and chopped
--Celery stalks and ribs, sliced and chopped
--Turnip, sliced and chopped
--Onion, chopped into larger chunks
--3 Bay Leaves
--Garlic Salt
--Collard Greens, stems removed and roughly chopped (I just rip with my hands)
--1 bag frozen black eyed peas, thawed



Place the ham bone in a large stock pot and cover it with chicken broth/stock. Add the bay leaves, garlic, chopped carrots, onions, celery and turnip (insert-your-own-root-veggies-here). Simmer on low heat for 2-3 hours, until the ham is falling off the bone and the marrow slides out easily.


Remove the ham bone and remove any remaining ham from the bone. Fish out any other large chunks of ham and chop or rip (again, I use my hands) into smaller pieces.

Return the ham to the pot and add the ripped greens and black eyed peas.

Continue to simmer until ready to eat.

Remember, soups and stews almost always test better the next day!