Making My Way to Nine-a-Day

 

Does anyone remember these guys? I used to watch Veggietales all the time when I was younger! And what does Veggietales have to do with today’s post? Well, nothing really, except for the fact that I think they’re cute and I thought it was a good way to kick off a post pertaining to all thing vegetables. Just bear with me! :-)

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So lately I’ve found some time to finally catch up on my magazine reading. I was developing quite the pile since the start of the new year. So many subscriptions, so little time. Anyway, I started noticing a trend in all of the New Year’s Resolution articles—most people want to get more vegetables into their daily diet. Now as far as my diet goes, I never go a day without vegetables, but the latest recommendation from the new dietary guidelines released by the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services recommends nine servings translate to about 2 cups of fruit and 2 1/2 cups of vegetables every day. A lot of days I can say that I hit the 2 1/2 c mark, but realistically, when my life gets busy, my vegetable consumption takes a nosedive, and lately my life has been busier than ever..I’m sure you get where I’m going with this—I needed to find some sneaky ways to add more veggies back into my life!

1) Pick restaurants that offer all you can eat veggies

This past weekend I went to my all-time favorite restaurant, the Golden Corral. I wish Minnesota would get one, but instead I drive to North Dakota, about an hour away to get my “Corral fix” haha.

They have the best veggie selection ever, and they are all delicious. It’s a perfect way for me to pile on the veggies like so:

Steamed cabbage, baked potato, steamed carrots and broccoli, sautéed onions and mushrooms, and steak.

2) Always start your meal with a salad.

So maybe you can’t always go to an all-you-can-eat buffet. In that case, you always have salads to back you up. I am a huge fan of salads, but as we all know, they can turn into a diet disaster—just stick with veggies, no cheese or croutons, and a light or fat-free dressing. Some places really skimp on side salads, but I am always happy with Applebee’s generous side salads!

 3) Or better yet, make your salad the main meal.

I don’t know about you, but just the word “salad” doesn’t sound filling enough to be a meal, but trust me, one you load up on all the good stuff, it can be the perfect meal to satisfy your appetite and a tasty way to get even more veggies!! My favorite salad that I eat as a meal is Subway’s Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki salad with Sweet Onion Dressing (is anyone else is love with this dressing?) And even better, you can make any sub into a salad—so you have lots of options!

4) Soups on

Soup has always been one of my favorite ways to get in lots of veggies, especially with the cold wintery days of late. I’ll usually whip up one of my favorites ( a good one for lots of veggies is my Very Veggie Soup) or if I am out to eat, I love Olive Garden’s minestrone soup!

I also recently tried this soup for the first time..

Dr. McDougall’s Minestrone

Loaded with chunks of fresh-tasting veggies.

5) If your favorite produce isn’t in season, use frozen or canned (low-sodium preferably)

I especially love having lots of canned veggies now ever since I got my soup can organizer from Progresso Soup—love it!

6) And the last way I like sneaking in extra veggies to my diet? Baked good of course!!

My veggie loaded cupcakes…

Zucchini Nut Cupcakes
Moist Zucchini Cake Studded with Orange Zest
Topped with a Brown Sugar Frosting
Garnished with a Pecan
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Moist Carrot Cake
Topped with a Cream Cheese Frosting
Garnished with Walnuts and Coconut

Now for a new & delicious veggie loaded cookie recipe—Bonus: it’s semi-homemade!

White Chocolate Dipped Carrot Cake Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 box carrot cake mix
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 oil
• 1 bag white chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 c sliced almonds, if desired

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Mix cake mix, eggs, and oil until thoroughly combined—add it grated carrots.
• Place in preheated oven on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake 7-11 or until edges start to brown.
• Remove from oven and let cool on cooling racks for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate chips over a double broiler, stirring until a dipping consistency is achieved.
• Dip half of a cookie in the white chocolate, and immediately dip in the sliced almonds.
• Place on parchment paper to harden

How do you reach the daily serving of vegetables, or are you still working on it?

--Thank you for the votes on my POM Pink Velvet Cupcake—keep voting here!!--

I’m From Minnesota eh.

Can someone please just whisk me away from the arctic tundra of a place..?

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I don’t know about you, but I’m sure glad it’s finally the weekend. Not that I had a long week, being that it was cut a day short, but mostly for the fact that I can stay cuddled up inside till the temps warm up a bit instead of having to trek out in the wee hours of the frigid morning to class. Heck with snow days, I think someone needs to instill cold days into the university policy..eek!

I loved hearing about all of your favorite Progresso soup flavors. We all pretty much agreed that Progresso knows what they are doing in the soup department! Speaking of which, I suppose you’re wondering who one the fabulous Progresso prize pack?

Drum roll please…

We have a winner!

Jessica from The Novice Chef Blog! Great blog by the way—I love her sense of humor! So please send me your contact info and we will have all your goodies in the mail ASAP! :-)

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No food fun today folks, I have quite a bit of homework I need to get a head start on. So instead, I did this Dialect Vlog I’ve been seeing floating around the blog world. It’s all about how everyone has different accents from all corners of the globe. Can you tell I am from northern Minnesota, eh? ;-) Have a great weekend all!

p.s. If you decide to do this, let me know—I’d love to tune in!

The Questions:

1. What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
2. What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
3. What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
4. What do you call gym shoes?
5. What do you say to address a group of people?
6. What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
7. What do you call your grandparents?
8. What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
9. What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
10. What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

The Words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

 

Do you say anything different than I do?!

Soup’s On

I went home again this past weekend being that I had 3 days off. And I’ve come to the conclusion that every time I have plans to drive a distance, it snows…

and snows…

until it’s declared a blizzard with hazardous road conditions.

 

And then of course once I finally reached my parents house (which took me more toward four hours instead of the usual two), we found out the highway I was on was rated the worst driving conditions in Minnesota..just my luck! :-/

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For the weekend entertainment with my parents we had a new toy to play with…

My dad’s new remote control helicopter—so fun, if we can ever find out how to steer it in a flyable fashion.

And the second means of entertainment was our ongoing experiment of growing shiitake mushrooms! My mom ordered it for my dad from the Fungi website. It’s basically a shiitake mushroom patch composed of a unique blend of sterilized, enriched sawdust fully colonized with a select strain of shiitake. Shiitake kits are super-boosted to give the most prolific harvests yet.

After just 10 days…

Step 1: Harvest

Step 2: Observe— “ooh and ahh” over your shrooms

Step 3: Add them to your favorite dish—in this case, a veggie omelet!

End result: Delicious and fresh mushrooms grown in your own home. :-)

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Next up on tonight’s menu? Another round of Progresso Soup news. (Member this one from last year?)

Last month I was contacted by MyBlogSpark asking if I wanted to try out some news soups from the Progresso line. Soup + MN winters=a good way to warm up…so naturally I said “yes”!

“Giving you a taste worth talking about with new varieties, Progresso continues to provide convenient options made to taste great and encourage good food choices, too. It’s important to make food choices for yourself and for your family that are both satisfying to your taste buds and nutritious.”

Currently on shelves:

Progresso® New World Recipes™ – Inspired by Mexican recipes, explore one of the fastest growing ethnic cuisines by giving the Progresso New World Recipes line a try. Made with authentic Mexican ingredients and seasonings, four new Progresso soups will be hitting grocery shelves near you - Chicken Tortilla, Meatball & Rice, Black Bean Jalapeno and Chicken & Vegetable.
Progresso Light - America’s number one Light soup just got better, as all 13 existing Progresso Light varieties are now packed with bigger pieces of white meat chicken, more tender pieces of beef or added vegetables. Need even more to talk about? Progresso Light New England Clam Chowder is the first creamy Light ready-to-serve soup that holds true to the Progresso Light name with just 1 Weight Watchers® POINTS® value per serving!
Progresso Reduced Sodium – With 49 percent of shoppers concerned about high cholesterol1, Progresso understands the importance of soluble fiber and reduced sodium diets. New Reduced Sodium Tomato Parmesan soup is one more tasty option that has a delicious blend of flavors and carries the “May Help Lower Cholesterol”2 benefit. In addition, five additional Reduced Sodium soups also carry the “May Help Lower Cholesterol”2 benefit.
Progresso High Fiber – With 9 out of 10 Americans not getting the recommended Daily Value of fiber, Progresso High Fiber line of soups are packed with 7 grams per serving. Giving you one more thing to talk about, Progresso brand’s first Chili Soup just joined the High Fiber family!

In the Progresso package I received one can of Chicken Tortilla Progresso Soup and one can of Light New England Clam Chowder Progresso soup, a spoon rest, soup can rack, and soup mug with matching spoon.

 

I don’t know about you, but when seafood is mentioned, I immediately jump at the chance to get my hands on some. This weeks seafood indulgence came in the form of soup..Progresso’s  Light New England Clam Chowder to be exact. I’ve never tried their original version, I always make this homemade version,  but for a canned version I would have to say Progresso has the flavor spot on, it’s just lacking big chunks in it. However, I realize not everyone is a fan of chunks, so it’s always better to go with less and let the customer add more of whatever if they wish. So if your a fan of New England Clam Chowder minus the chunks, make sure to add Progresso’s light version to your grocery list.

You can enter yourself in a Progresso giveaway just by entering an answer to the question below! You’ll get the same prize pack you saw above. (Let me know in a separate comment if you shared this giveaway on your blog—you’ll get an extra chance!

Contest ends this Friday!!

 

What Progresso soup flavor is your all-time favorite?

It’s Ok to go Bananas!

“Why did the banana go out with the prune? Because he couldn’t find a date.”

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Do the days sometimes fly by so fast that it seems like you’re going bananas? I don’t think the summer has ever flown by so fast for me..guess it must be the full-time job haha! But sometimes going bananas is the way to go—in this case, today’s recipe actually requires it. But hang on to your hat’s for a little longer..first up is a work week wrap-up.

Half of our lovely kitchen staff—so much fun!

Tomato soup (recipe here), stromboli (recipe here), gateau breton, and fresh watermelon.

Minnesota State Fair night—corn dogs, corn on the cob, fresh French fries with gravy, homemade cheese curds (recipe here), and a tossed salad.

Cheese curds are a huge seller at Minnesota fairs and carnivals during the summer—I was in charge of making them. It was my first time, but boy did they turn out tasty!!

Ok..so now I give you permission to go bananas—but don’t over-do it..tomorrow is Friday!

Peanut Butter & Banana Bread

**This bread is now my go-to banana bread recipe..perfect texture and taste!**

10-12 Servings

Ingredients:

• 2c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. butter (soft)
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 bananas (mashed)
• 1/2 c. peanut butter, I used PB & Co Cinnamon Raisin PB
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts, I used almonds
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar, I used Splenda
• I also added 1/4 c unsweetened applesauce to soften the batter up a bit.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In small mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

3. In larger bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, peanut butter & eggs.

4. Stir bananas into creamed mixture. Stir well. Add flour mixture, and nuts. Mix well.
5.Pour batter into greased 9"x5" loaf pan.
6.Bake for 55-60minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool 15 minutes, then remove from pan to finish cooling on baking rack.

And one last treat that I am going bananas over lately..

Dairy Queen’s banana sundae!

What is your favorite way to have bananas?

Workin’ My Way Through the Work Week

“I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”—Oscar Wilde

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I just looked at my calendar, and can you believe it’s almost July? Summer is going too fast, but at least we’ve had decent weather here in Minnesota, and it is continuing through this week, or so I am told—I am inside most of the day in a hot and steamy kitchen, so the 80 degree weather isn’t benefiting my situation. But I am glad it’s ideal summer weather for everyone who is out baking on the beach!

This work week is actually quite nice. We are serving only 8 adult students, some from Canada, and various places in the US. So like I said before, we are trying to serve dishes native to this area. I’ve been trying some amazing food, some new to me, and others are old favorites. And every night I have food to take home, oh the perks of a foodie job! It’s pretty hard to take pictures of everything when we are on a time schedule and things move fast, but I’ll try my best to get the highlights of the days for a recap!

--Sunday--

Only dinner was served

• Vegetarian Vegetable Soup
• Whole Grain Bread
• Eggs and Olive Mold
• Crackers
• Fruit

This has to be hands down the best vegetable soup I’ve ever had. SO loaded with numerous veggies, I can’t wait to make more for me!

You can find the recipe we used here.

--Monday--

Lunch

• Fry Bread Tacos
• Tomatoes, Lettuce, Onions, Sour Cream, Salsa
• Potato Salad
• Corn on the Cob
• Orange Cream Frosty (a mixture of vanilla ice cream and orange juice—so good and refreshing!)

Dinner

The potato and leek soup was fabulous. It was my first time having leeks in a soup. The recipe we used can be found here, but the only adaptation we made was using our water the potatoes boiled in for the 6 c of water called for in recipe—it definitely added more flavor.

(Yes, I am in charge of the menu board!)

 

This cake, Gateau Breton, was out-of-this world. I am so glad we have such a good baker on staff! :-)

--Tuesday--

Lunch

Dinner

A similar recipe for the corn stuffed peppers and sauce we used can be found here.

Peppers ready to be cut and stuffed. 

Corn stuffing 

The pound cake was to die for, and the lemon curd was the perfect summertime flavor.

What is your favorite soup? If so, share a link to the recipe!