Costco rocks. I mean, really -- where else can you find pounds of fresh produce on the cheap, not to mention a great selection of nutritious packaged foods? No where, I tell you.
There is one drawback to bulk stores, though: you have to eat said pounds of fresh produce before it spoils. Even though there are just the two of us, this is usually never a problem for the Best Husband Ever and I. Probably mostly because I'm a veggie fiend. Whatever the reason, though, we tend to make it through all of our Costco purchases before they expire.
Sometimes, however, that is not the case. This week I misremembered our broccoli stash at home and bought a second massive bag of the stuff. We've been making good headway, but the broccoli is now starting to go bad, and fast. What to do?
Well, I had seen a curious recipe floating about the blogosphere some time ago. I heard tell of a different kind of guacamole -- brocamole, if you will. My first sighting was of HEAB's Broc Guac, I believe, and when I went searching for inspiration this weekend I also discovered Kath's Fiesta Broccoli Dip. Armed with ideas, I hit the kitchen and revved up my blender. This was another I-got-no-measuring-cups concoction, but here's what I did, more or less.
Brocamole
1.5ish cups of broccoli
1/2 cup yogurt (I used super thick fat-free yogurt)
1 heaping T garlic, minced
1/2 tsp Mexican-style hot sauce
pinch of salt
lime juice to taste
cilantro to taste (I used dried because it's all I had, but I recommend fresh)
other veggies as desired
Place the broccoli in a microwave safe bowl. Add a little water (I used no more than 1/4 cup) and microwave for 1 minute. Transfer the broccoli and what water remains to a blender or food processor. Add the remaining ingredients, except for any additional veggies. Process until fairly smooth, adding more lime juice and cilantro as desired. If you would like extra texture, pulse in some corn (I used frozen, which was a mistake -- I recommend thawed/fresh), bell pepper, or tomato. I'd imagine that some black beans would not be amiss, either.
This dip can be served with tortilla chips, mixed into soups, with carrot sticks, or however your Mexican food-loving soul desires. I mixed my brocomole with the last of my mango peach salsa (from Costco) and a new food find, also at Costco -- Sandwich Thins! This is another item I have spied on other folks' blogs, but up until now I had only seen them in local stores for close to $4 for a package of six thins. As that's nearly a dollar a "bun," I did not indulge. Now that they're at Costco, home of thrifty bulk bargain love, you can bet these thins found a home in our pantry.
I'm not excited. No, not at all.
What about you? Do you have a favorite dip, guacamole-inspired or otherwise? Have you ever made an alternative version of a traditional dip, spread, or garnish? Do tell, because you know I'm always looking for new ways to torture -- er, use my blender.
Holy Brocamole!
Everybody Wins!
We have a winner! And I don't mean the New Orleans Saints, who apparently won the Super Bowl yesterday. (Can you tell that the Best Husband Ever and I don't watch much professional football . . . or any?) Nope, I'm talking about the winner of Kitchen Courage's Progresso soup giveaway!
So who walks away win a gift box of Progresso soup, plus a super cute mug and a digital jump rope?
That's not all, though. The folks over at Holey Donuts! wanted to offer a Valentine's Day special. These donuts are super tasty, and don't have all the bad fats and high sugar content of regular donuts. I've tried these products, and I really like them. I recommend any of their crumb donuts (there are chocolate, vanilla, and caramel varieties) or a standard glazed donut. They even have a super cute (and delicious) pink frosted Valentine's Day donut!
If you'd like to try a few boxes of Holey Donuts!, head on over to their website and put three boxes of product into your cart. Then at checkout enter the code "VDAY1" and hit recalculate, and one of your three boxes will be yours for free. Yum! There is also a contest for blog readers to win four free assortments and $250, so be sure to check out the Holey Donuts! contact page to enter as well.
Happy Monday!
Back in the Smoothie Groove
I don't know why, but I love me some green smoothies for breakfast and lunch, despite the frigid Montana weather. (I can't believe I just used that horrible grammar in the name of artistic license. Will you ever forgive me?) They're super nutritious as I incorporate protein and lots of spinach (hellooo, vitamin K, vitamin A, magnesium, folate, manganese, iron, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B2, potassium, and vitamin B6, to name a few spinach perks). Plus green smoothies are energizing, fun to make and eat, and just plain yummy. The only things I don't like about smoothie meals are a) that they stress out my poor little blender-that-could, and b) that I shiver in my cold office after eating one. But then I drink lots of hot tea, so it's all good. The side-effect of the smoothies' chill factor is that I end up consuming more water than I might ordinarily feel motivated to do, which is no small feat.
Today's breakfast and lunch smoothies are fairly representative of the flavor combinations that
I enjoy. These green smoothies might not actually be green, but rest assured that they both contain powerful and verdant nutrition within. Want to eat what I ate today? Give these smoothie concoctions a whirl -- literally! in your blenders! -- and then tell me what you think.
Blueberry Breakfast Smoothie
1 cup of water
1 cup of yogurt (I used plain organic non-fat)
splash of skim milk
1/4 tsp guar gum
1/2 tsp xantham gum
pinch of salt
sweetener to taste
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
a few large handfuls of spinach
3 big handfuls of ice (added after blending all the above ingredients)
Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Smoothie
(Okay, so the strawberries aren't so much chocolate-covered as made one with the chocolate, but the first option makes a better sounding title, don't you think?)
1 cup of water
splash of skim milk
1 scoop of whey chocolate protein powder (I've tried Jay Robb's, but I like my local store's brand better)
1 scoop of Amazing Grass' chocolate Green SuperFood
sweetener to taste
pinch of salt
about 2 Tablespoons sugar-free chocolate syrup
4-5 large frozen strawberries
3 big handfuls of ice (again, blend together all of the above ingredients before adding the ice)
Easy, healthful, tasty, good transporters and keepers -- what else could you hope for in a smoothie breakfast or lunch? What's your favorite smoothie concoction? I'm always looking for new inspiration.
Don't forget -- today is the last day to enter to win free Progress soup! A can of soup is no green smoothie, it's true, but I wouldn't say no a hot bowl of soup, either. Good luck!
Soup-ed Up
I am continuing to eat my way through the bevy of soups that Progresso sent my way a few weeks ago. This week I tried two new-to-me flavors for a couple of lunches, and I thought you might be interested in my thoughts. You can win your own bundle o' soup, too, if you enter the giveaway by Friday (that's tomorrow!).
On Tuesday, I packed a can of Light Chicken and Dumpling soup for lunch, and my microwaved bowl is pictured above. You may noticed that there's not a lot of liquid in said bowl. That's because I drain some of the liquid off. If I don't, I feel really bloated and uncomfortable, possibly from all the salt. Progresso is really good about keeping their soups low in unhealthy fats and chock full of veggies, but the salt content is pretty excessive. One can of Light Chicken and Dumpling soup contains nearly 60% of your daily sodium intake! That's a lot, in my opinion.
Thankfully, I don't eat a lot of salty foods, so I figure that I'm pretty safe on the soup front. Besides this soup has some nice nutritional stats, especially if you're being careful about diet and weight loss. Plus, it was fairly tasty. I felt a bit nervous about the look of the turd-like (yes, I did just use "turd" to describe food!) dumplings, but they ended up tasting pretty good. My one complaint is that I would have liked the dumplings to be made from a whole grain flour.
For Wednesday's lunch I made a meal of another new variety, the Light Italian Style Meatball soup. I tend not to go in for meat dishes, and meatballs are especially not my thing. However, I really did enjoy this soup. It seemed to have a lot of veggies, and I liked the contrasting texture of the meatballs and pasta pieces. What's more, this soup smelled really appetizing and, well, Italian. Yum! Again, though, whole wheat pasta would not have been amiss, and each can contains 40% of your daily value of sodium. And another thing -- if this is a meatball-based soup, where is all the protein? Each can only offers 6 grams of protein.
To sum things up (and because I like lists), here's a rundown of my Progresso soup thoughts.
Pros:
- the ease of packing and prep (2 minutes in the microwave = lunch! with veggies!)
- good flavor
- low calorie (good for those hoping to lose a few pounds) and low in unhealthy fats
- decent price, and many of the varieties are available at bulk stores like Costco
Cons:
- the high sodium content
- too much liquid in each can (I want more veggies!)
- there could be so much more nutrition in each can (whole grains, more veggies, more protein)
What do you think of canned soup? Want to win some?
Meet Me In Vancouver
Photo by Guang Niu/Getty ImagesI cannot believe that the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver are about to begin. And by "about" I mean next week . . . but they've still snuck up on me! It's a good thing that I stay in impeccable shape and in peak figure skating condition. It's not easy to do that one-legged backbend that I'm demoing in this photo.
Okay . . . so maybe that's not me. Maybe that is, in reality, Kim Yu-Na of South Korea. And that I'm not that bendy. None of that changes the fact that I have a morbid fascination with figure skating (and, to a lesser degree, ladies' gymnastics). I can get sucked into hour upon hour of gawking at the television during a figure skating competition. I think the sport is beautiful and
intense and . . . a little scary.
Scary how? In a few ways, in my opinion. First, as with gymnastics, the competitors seem to be getting younger and younger. How is it that Michelle Kwan was considered too old to compete when she was barely 20? And let's not even get into the body image issues that are embedded in the sport. For me, though, I watch the figure skating cringing a little, waiting for somebody to fall and crack their brains across the ice. Or, even worse to my freakish brain, their teeth.
But I watch it anyway. And I like it. I don't really go in for other Olympic sports as a spectator, but figure skating gets me every time.
What about you? Are you going to watch the Vancouver Olympics? Which is your favorite event?
Don't forget to enter the Progresso soup giveaway! Deadline is Friday, February 5, y'all.
Treasure Hunt
This video was made by one of our good friends, and it's insane. It gives me the chills every time. I couldn't not share.
To listen to some sweet [free] Jesus-lovin' music, check out Dan Bourassa's MySpace page. For more information on Dan's production company, visit 4:14 Productions.
