Vicky Learns to Cook

Good evening! Hope you are all well.  I've been thinking about the past few weeks, a few lessons learned, and some wins I wanted to share, and while I bake a cake that was ordered, I wanted to get them down for you. LOSSES: First we will discuss muffins, and my as yet to have figured out recipe exchanges: There was an apple oat muffin recipe I tried to replace some of the ingredients and ended up with dry crumbly nearly tasteless muffins. Really they were better used as door stops. Substitutions included: wheat flour for white, turbinado sugar plus some honey for white and brown sugar. I think these things would have been better had I added some applesauce or some greek yogurt perhaps. What do you think? Anyway I tried to make the best of it and created a bread pudding out of it. That too was dry but I found that putting maple syrup over it was pretty good. Next we will talk Chorizo and how I really don't quite understand the need for vinegar? So I had this idea th...

Monday dinner - Turkey Kofte with couscous Ingredient list:  For  the kofte: 1 lb ground turkey 2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped 1 tsp garlic, chopped dash cumin salt olive oil For the sauce:  1/4 c 2% milk 1/2 block cream cheese 1 handful fresh dill, chopped 1 tsp garlic, chopped dash of lime juice Whole wheat pita or flatbread Homegrown tomatoes, chopped baby arugula 1 c Couscous 1 1/4 c water dill weed salt garlic powder parmesan cheese to taste Directions : Mix turkey, parsley, garlic, cumin, and salt. Form into 7 or 8 balls and squeeze them into tubes.  Put olive oil in a frying pan and sear the kofte on both top and bottom.  Turn down the heat and put the lid on the pan to cook through.  Meanwhile heat the milk, cream cheese, dill, lime juice and garlic in a microwaveable bowl for 30 seconds to warm up the cheese. Mix until smooth and then refrigerate.  Heat up the water f...

Sunday dinner: Whole sage chicken with creamed spinach and honey glazed carrots Ingredient list:  1 natural young fresh chicken 1 bag of carrots 1 bag of celery stalks Pam olive oil spray Fresh sage leaves Fresh thyme Fresh rosemary Fresh mushrooms, sliced thick 1 bag or box of baby spinach 1/4 c cream cheese 1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg 1 - 2 tbsp honey salt white pepper Directions : I start with a "natural young fresh chicken", bought at the local Kroger. Cut it out of the bag with kitchen scissors (ones you only use for the kitchen) and you will discover a bag of giblets in the cavity. (Note: always wash your dish drainer with bleachy soapy water if you set the chicken on it! Oops.) Giblets in a bag.  No I wont make you eat this if you think its gross. Use it for stock, later. Here's how: Pull the giblets bag out of the chicken, as shown above, and dump the contents into a small saucepot. Add water, 1 carrot - chopped, 1 celery rib -...

What is your dream? Mine has been, for many years, to open a bakery. I'm not confident that I know enough to do so, or have the money or time to do it either. But the dream lingers. What I've learned from working at my current job is that even when you don't have all the parts yet, you start building something, start heading in the right direction. Be open minded and ready to change everything about your first draft as you start talking to people, but have a dartboard to throw darts at. With this mentality, you WANT people to tear apart your idea. Because what is left over is more polished and gleaming than what you could have done on your own. It builds ownership and people will remember they were part of building something new and wonderful. So with this attitude, I've decided to start moving toward the dream. I got a printer and pulled down the recipes I thought might sell with my gimmick and created a cookbook over the last two days. You all know wha...

Oatmeal Raisin Carob cookies They are soft. And not too sweet. But the raisins and carob help. It is not your typical chocolate chip cookie. But what it is, is good. The best part? not only is it on my diet, it is 157 calories a piece. Not bad for my first healthy recipe. 👱  3 out of 4 stars! Vicky aka The Clumsy Healthy Chef. ;)

I'm not even sure this will work. But I added up the ingredients that we can have on the diet and it looks like I can make a cookie that fits the diet. I came to the conclusion that this could either be a really good and somewhat good for you cookie. Or it could be a disaster. I imagine evil cookies coming out of the oven.   <<--- Certain Disaster! Evil cookie! The problem is, even though I'm baking the cookies, I'm finding that I am running out of time and also I ate all my calories for the day. Because I'm also trying to lose excess weight along with getting healthy. It's already 10:15pm and my first batch is barely in the oven. Ack. I wonder if the dog wants some. But she can't have grain. Then again it could turn out well... angelic singing cookies?   <<---Ahhhh! Singing angel cookies emerge! I'm sure it will be somewhere in  between. Here are the ingredients; Raisins, carob chips, Oats, eggs, honey, turbinado sugar, baking ...

13 days in, 7.5 lbs down, and missing burgers and pizza. It isn't easy to explain, this change in my way of eating. Basically in a nutshell, i had tests done, needed a detox, and now I cannot have red meat nor onions until October. boo. Whining a bit. I hate it because I love cheeseburgers, but, I do love the weight loss. I do love that I am digesting food better and am not waking with stomach aches anymore. I just really really hope I can have a cheeseburger when I get done. :) Here is a  recipe I've used as part of this diet. Very good, actually. I use zucchini and swiss. More to come. <3 Vicky aka The clumsy Chef.