How The Birth Control Pill Should Have Been Marketed

(anyone from any media is free to yoink this - just get in touch with me so I get some credit)

(and women excluded from this marketing campaign since we'd have been smart enough to get on board with it but it would have sold ALL the men on it)


How They Should Have Marketed The Birth Control Pill (Commercial)

(DR is a 50s esque cartoon animation of a doctor.  Bonus points if he has a cigarette in his mouth)

(50s Man is your Mad Men era male, sitting in his arm chair, suit jacket off but still business clothes and looking a bit disrumpled, with some kind of cocktail in his hand.  More bonus points if he is also smoking)

DR: Hey you, what's the problem?

50s Man: (looking surprised until he sees the cartoon) What?  Huh?  Oh, hello there, doctor.

DR: Anything I can diagnose?

50s Man: I wish.  My wife is angry with me and I have no idea why.

DR: Then you might want to have her look in to "The Women's Pill"

50s Man: The Women's Pill?

DR: Oh, it's this great thing scienticians have come up with.  Does your wife seem to get like this every 28 days or so?

50s Man: Yes!

DR: And it's when she's either laid up in bed for days and/or not up for her wifely duties?

50s Man: Yes!

DR: (slight laughing) Well my man, that is called hormones.

(50s Man winces)

DR:  I know, I know, not a subject we like to talk about.  But what if I told you there was a magic pill she could take that might make it all go away?

50s Man: (suddenly bright) YES!

DR: Well, there is now a little pill your wife can take...

50s Man: Well what about those other pills the doctor gave her?

DR: Oh, this one deals with more than just her minor glooms.

50s Man: Tell me more!

DR: Well (slight laughing again) without going in to gory details, it may help to improve her moods and lessen her simptoms during those times so she can spent more time getting ready for you to come home from the office.

50s Man: Wow!  Really?

DR: Of course!  And she may be able to get back to ALL wifely duties sooner.

50s Man: WOW!  What else?

DR: Oh, there are benefits for you, too....

50s Man: Benefits for me?  I always like more of those!  Like what?

DR: No more need for rubbers or the rhythm method, my boy, if you're not trying to have more children.

50s Man: Wow, how do I get her on this miracle drug?

DR: Just ask your doctor for her since you're a man and can ask for her!

50s Man: Wow, that sounds great!  (looks thoughtful for a moment) Say doc, my 17 year old daughter is starting to show some of the same symptoms.  Could this help her, too?

DR: OF course it can!

50s Man: But the uh... reproductive side effects....

DR: We don't need to explain that to her!!!

(both laugh, fade sceeen)

Creamy Chicken and Poblano Chili

I made this recipe a few times last fall/winter.  Loved the idea of slipping some cauliflower into a chili for a little more nutrition.

I am also a big fan of the Skinnytaste cauliflower soup, also a big winner.

Combine the ideas of the two???

AWESOMENESS.

I started cooking my onions and the spices, then added the chopped cauliflower and the broth.  Set my chicken thighs on top of all that to pretty much steam, covered the pot, let it go for like 30 minutes.  Then lifted the chicken off, set aside to cool, and took the stick blender to the pot, and whoooogzed it until it was creamy.  Like, really, really creamy (it was a pretty big head of cauliflower).

Then I added the chopped peppers and beans, and let that simmer until the peppers were tender. Chopped up the chicken thighs and added them back to the pot, ta-da, done.

 Totally creamy, yummy, a bit of kick from the peppers, and just lovely.

Looking forward to my lunches this week.

Veal Parm Burgers

Wwwwhhhhhhh...... 

 

Are the cobwebs gone? 

Long time no post.

Sorry 'bout that. Life has been busy.

Work, work, work, more work, too many visits with doctors that result in only more visits with doctors, and more work.  Oh, and then the fun of layoffs!  I was not downsized.  Thankfully.  I think.  But now that only means more work.  Yay.

So... last Friday night the husband was running out for food, and I turned on an old episode of Lydia's Italy that was featuring some American Italian recipes.  This one was about St. Louis.  And one of the things she made was a veal parm sandwich that involved a ground veal patty, which was then breaded and fried.

Why have the need to bread it as fry it? Why not just cook it up as a burger patty??

So that is what I did.

I pretty much followed this recipe using ground veal rather than ground chicken. If veal skeeves you out or you don't like it, go for the chicken.  Oh, I did also have to stop for gluten buns for the hubby, and I decided to also get a small eggplant.  I sliced that into half inch slices and cooked those up in a pan with some oil while I mixed the veal, and flopped one of those on to the burger also.

I served them as burgers.  Would work just as well as a patty on top of pasta, or zucchini noodles if you are low-carb or too cheap for a gluten-free bun (mine was an Against the Grain bun). 

Seriously, seriously good.  Tasted just like veal parm, without all the work that goes into your usual veal parm.  And with the eggplant, it was like the hubby's old favorite of the veal + eggplant parm combo at a now closed place we used to love.

This will be repeated.  I still love some veal parm on the weekends when I have the time to do it (and all the cleanup it involves) but this was darned, darned tasty.  And easy.

Potato Soup

Yeah... no pictures.  I didn't take any while I was making it, and the picture with the original recipe are way better than I would have ever done yesterday.

I love potatoes.  Jacques Pepin has an awesome recipe for a potato leek soup that uses potato flakes that I love.  But in trying to cut down the carbs, that would be a no-no.  Potatoes do not seem to cause the blood sugar issues I get with some other starchy stuff, so they are one thing I do still have sometimes.

The day before I made this soup, my own went and died while I was trying to bake off the potatoes.  Stovetop still works, broiler still works, but I've been oven-less for about a week (it'll be a week by the time oven fixin' dude comes on Tuesday... yes, it probably would not have been hard to get the parts to fix it ourselves, but some times it's just easier to go with the repair dude).

Back to the recipe.... so good.  Did not tell the hubby it was half cauliflower, and I finally convinced when he was into his second bowl, he shrugged and kept eating.

And a lightened up soup means you can put that bacon on cheese on top of it without feeling guilty.  I am all for that.

Eggplant Parm Stacks (And traditional veal parm)

I do love me some veal and eggplant parmesan.

We used to have a great Italian place in town, Bimbos.  Sadly, it went the way of a lot of mom & pop places... owners got older, and the land the place was on became worth a LOT of money for just the lot. It was inevitable that it was gonna close.  And get torn down.

But the gem that place gave us was the combo plate of eggplant and veal parmesan.  I think the first time the husband saw that, he looked at me with a gleam in his eye and said "They can do that?!?!?"  It is what he got every time we went there.

If you're going to "parmesan" something, it is just as easy to do multiple things as one.  Well, almost as easy.  In gluten-free land, a full regular eggplant plus veal would probably mean about $5 in gluten-free breadcrumbs alone.  I am to cheap to do that most times.

A friend mentioned she was making Eggplant Parm Stacks  and I was immediately interested.  I knew I could use some gluten-free bread for the breadcrumbs, and it all seemed pretty darned easy.

And it was.  I do love the sliced garlic stuffed into the slices, it really adds a LOT of flavor to "just eggplant".  I went for the fresh mozz, but the shredded stuff would work fine to.

I served my stacks over a little polenta, the man got pasta.

Yum.

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Pumpkin Chili???

It sounds kinda gross, right?

I'd heard friends rave about it, and some days it sounded great, other days it sounded terrible.

For awhile now, I've been making a bit pot of chili or stew or something on Sunday to have for lunched during the week.  Usually it ends up being a chili, since beans are my friends lately.

Which gets to why I have not updated this in so long....

Work is hectic.  But it means I still get a paycheck.

At the start of last year, I was having major problems eating anything dairy.  In addition to having to avoid gluten, let's just say it makes all food very not fun.  I was getting a bit angry at food.

Then I started making homemade yogurt in hopes it would help adjust some of the ick-ness of my gut, and it made a WORLD of difference.  I can do dairy again.

But then, about halfway thru last year, I started having hypoglycemic episodes. Doc got me a blood sugar monitor and I've tested for diabetes multiple times, and I do not have that, but I still have days where my blood sugar thinks it's opposite day, and I have high blood sugar before I eat, and then it drops way low after eating.  It's not fun, but at least now I know what is happening and I can deal with it as needed.

I've cut ALL corn syrup from my diet (that is a difficult one - you would not believe all the places they stick that stuff), most sugars, I use agave nector as my main sweetener the few times I do use a sweetener, I have to have a reminder set up on my 'Droid to remind me to have some snack times during the afternoon.  I don't eat any "white" carbs and only allow myself some whole grain carbs or potatoes a couple times a week.  For the most part, it seems to work.

Oh, and I also have to have an alarm to wake me up at 3:30 every morning, since I discovered that every night, I usually have a blood sugar crash around then, and catching it then is the difference between feeling like a normal person or a zombie the next day.  Awesome.

And I'm also (along with 90% of America) trying to start 2013 out a little more healthy, and this chili is a way to do it.

So... pumpkin in chili.  Actually not gross.  No, it will not make your chili taste like pie.

It actually just adds a little sweetness (good if your base is just canned tomatoes, like it is above) and creaminess, another good thing.  If we ever do a work pot luck again (we had one last year, I opted out) I may make a totally vegetarian version of this (LOTS of vegetarians at my work).

My biggest chili/stew secret of late... add a head of cauliflower.  Yes, a head.  (In the case of this chili, I had another half head left over from dinners this week).  Found it in a recipe on the Whole Paycheck... I mean Whole Foods website, and I've added it to pretty much every one since.  You really can't tell it's there (since cauliflower doesn't have much taste anyway) but it adds a lot of good veggie-bulk.  Not a bad thing.

Here is to 2013... may it be a better year for all of us.


Pumpkin Chili
It's a chili recipe, people.  Just go with the flow.

1 large onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey (or however much is in the ground turkey package)
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
A lot of chili powder
2 cans chopped green chiles
1 large can black beans, drained
1 cup chicken stock
1 to 1 1/2 half heads cauliflower, sectioned

Get the onion and red pepper started.

Add your ground beef and cook until it's crumbled up.

Dump in the canned goods and the chicken stock.

The fun part... the cauliflower!  You can chop it before you add it, if you don't mind the mess cauliflower makes when you try to do that.  Or you can just kinda section it off into large pieces, and dump those in.

Simmer on low for an hour.

If you did not chop your cauliflower before adding it, fish out the pieces.  Much easier to chop now and not have cauliflower bits all over your kitchen for the next week.  Heck, you can even take a pair of kitchen scissorss to it while it's in the pot.  As long as it is good & cooked, it should break apart fairly easily.

Serve with whatever you like on your chili.

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Crab Cake Mac & Cheese

One can never have too many baked pasta dishes when you're gluten-free.  Baked pasta is something you just can't get outside your own home.  And they're great to take to parties - no one can really tell gluten-free pasta from the regular stuff in a baked dish.

And every once in a blue moon, a Rachel Ray recipe is worth writing about.  I had the TV on last week or so for noise, and she was making this and the hubby walked into the room.  "Woah, that sounds good," he said.

I agree.

Crab Cake Mac & Cheese

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