Cook Together

Jun 10, 2013 by Ben

I finally got back into the kitchen after an extended break due to some sinus issues that resulted in me not being able to smell or taste anything.  Not fun.  But I’m back, and back with a vengeance.  I posted, not one, not two, but three awesome recipes and it feels great.  I love cooking.

We also went up to visit my wife’s sister and family yesterday and all cooked a big breakfast together and it was so much fun.  We had 10 people all packed into the sisters cute apartment and cooking up a storm.  The kids helped make blueberry pancakes.  We had eggs, potatoes, lil smokies, bacon and more.  It was a great breakfast and great time with family.

Your Truly Simple Action of the week is to plan and cook a family meal.  It could be breakfast, or a nice dinner, or even a picnic lunch.  Just plan a meal with your family and friends and cook and eat it together.  There is something so simple and therapeutic about everyone gathering around the kitchen helping and talking and having a good time.

Pick a meal.  Pick a day.  Invite your family and friends.  Do it.

But I don’t have a big kitchen, or I don’t have the right tools you say.  Well first off, stop whining.  No one likes a complainer.

You will be fine, and you will make do.  We squeezed way too many people into a very small kitchen to make this breakfast.  We were stepping all over each other to share the stove, but we made it work.  We didn’t have all the right tools, but a towel works just fine for a pot holder.  You will figure it out.  I have complete faith in you.  Don’t let some little excuse prevent you from doing this.  Just start doing it and you will figure it all out on the way.  You may hit a little speed bump or two, but that only makes it that much easier the next time you do it.

We had a great time cooking, eating and talking about everything under the sun.  I want you to do the same.

Pick a meal.  Pick a day.  Invite your family and friends.  Do it.  It’s just that simple.

Ben…

Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s:

 

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Bananrama… this is what you do with those brown bananas

Jun 7, 2013 by Ben

We all love bananas and we buy a big ripe bunch at the store and then we forget about them on the kitchen counter and they are somehow all brown within  a day of bringing them home.  It’s a classic tale as old as time.  I’m pretty sure Shakespeare has a play about it.

So what do you do with those brown bananas that no one wants to eat?

You make this awesome dessert that is likely to be tastier and healthier than all that crap in the stores.

This recipe requires a bit of forethought as you’ll need to freeze the bananas ahead of time.  So take those browning bananas, slice them up onto a plate and throw that plate in the freezer for a few hours.

Once you have the frozen bananas, throw them in the food processor or blender.  Our blender sucks, so we shall use the food processor.

turn the processor on until you get this creamy mixture of bananan-y goodness.  You can stop here if you want.  You’ve made a tasty and smooth banana ice cream like treat and it is good. Or you can keep going and make it epic.

Here’s the part where you get to add whatever you like.  I had a Reese’s peanut butter cup on hand, so in it went.

Add a bit of Hershey’s chocolate syrup

Add a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter

This was the best idea ever.  I am hooked on these damn cashew clusters from Costco.  I should not buy these, but they are just so tasty.  I had all the crumbs from the end of the bag, so I threw them in.

I’m a genius.

Blend it all up.

And it may not be the most appealing picture, but it is oh so tasty.  You can take it out and eat it right then or throw it back into the freezer to let it firm up a little more.

This is a great snack and an awesome way to not throw away perfectly good bananas that no one will eat.  Depending on what you put in it, this can be a very healthy dessert as well.

Ben…

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Cauliflower rice aka Oh my god why haven’t I made this before

Jun 7, 2013 by Ben

I like cauliflower as much as the next guy.  We eat it every once in a while and have even made an awesome mashed cauliflower recipe from one we grew in the garden, but we probably don’t eat it that often.

My wife found a recipe for Cauliflower rice and has been asking me to make it.  Well I finally got around to it and dammit I wish I had been making this stuff every day for the past 10 years.  It is so freaking good and so simple to make.

The recipe is basically this

1.  Chop/grate up your cauliflower into tiny little pieces.  2.  fry it up in a pan.  3.  add spices.   It really is that easy.

The really great thing about this recipe is that you can add whatever spices or flavors you want and they all taste great with the cauliflower

So here’s what you’ll need.  Some cauliflower, onion, garlic and some spices.

Cut up the cauliflower into smaller chunks.

In a food process throw in several cauliflower florets and pulse.  It works better to do smaller batches at a time.

You will end up with your cauliflower looking like this and that is what you want.  Put all your cauliflower in a bowl and set it aside

now throw in the garlic and onion and chop it up as well.   I used 3 garlic cloves and maybe 1/2 cup of onion.

Now in a pan, add some cooking oil of your choice, and the garlic and onion.  I used olive oil.  cook for a minute until the onion in translucent.

Add your cauliflower and stir around.  I added 1 tablespoon of butter at this point to give it a little flavor.  Cook this for 3-5 minutes stirring occasionally.

Then  just add your spices and stir for another minute.  The awesome thing about this recipe is you can add anything you like.   I made three separate batches.  One had garlic and salt spices, the other, red and black pepper with chili flakes (pictured above) and the other had just salt and pepper steak seasoning.  All were super tasty.

I am definitely making this again and going out right now to plant more cauliflower in my garden.  I could eat this every day.

If you are on a paleo or keto diet, this will be your new best friend.

Ben…

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Yummy Yummy Pancit

Jun 7, 2013 by Ben

So every Thursday night we go to the farmers market in downtown Oceanside.  Its near the beach and its more a tiny street fair than farmers market, but that is why we go.  The food is awesome.

We take the dog and he gets to say hi to all the other puppies and get attention from all the other people, but we mainly go to eat.  Did I mention the food is awesome?  Nothing matches the blue crab burrito.

But one of our favorite food vendors was this Filipino food stand that made the best pancit  and lumpia, and sadly they are no longer there.  There are a couple of other Filipino places that also sell pancit and lumpia, but they are no where near as good as this other place was.  So we’ve been missing our weekly pancit and lumpia and thus I set out to make my own pancit and holy cow was it easy.

If you’ve ever made any stir fry or fried rice, its basically the same thing.  This is so easy.

Here’s the final product and it is so tasty.  So lets show you how easy it is to make it

I don’t have a picture of all the ingredients, but here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast
• 1 pack of rice sticks (found in the Asian section of your grocery store)
• cabbage
• carrots
• pea pods
• onion
• celery
• green onion
• garlic
• soy sauce
• fish sauce (also found in the Asian section of your grocery store)
• pepper

First you want to boil your chicken breast.  I cut a couple slices to help speed up the cooking time.  Save the water from this step.  You’ll need it later.

Here’s a nice haul of veggies I got from my garden.  Yeah free veggies!

Here’s the rest I bought.

Here’s what the rice sticks look like.

Looking at this carrot from the garden it looked big and awesome and ready to be harvested, and then I get this cute little carrot ball when I actually pull it up.  Nice

Slice up all your veggies

You can use as much of each as you’d like.

I made a big double batch so here’s what I used per a single batch: (approximately)

1 cup cabbage

1 cup carrots sliced thin

1/3 cup green onion

1/3 cup onion

2/3 cup celery

2 cloves garlic

OK once your chicken has boiled for a bit, take it out and shred and chop it into small pieces.  Don’t worry if its not fully cooked, you are going to cook it again

In a large pan or wok, add some oil and throw in the garlic for 30 seconds

Next add the onions and carrots and cook for a minute or two

Next throw in the chicken and stir it up

Time to add the sauces.  Use 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon fish sauce.  I just pour it in and estimate.  Stir that all round and let it cook.

OK, I missed a picture, but throw all the rest of the veggies in and let them cook for a minute or so.  You want to keep the veggies crisp, so don’t over cook it.  Next separate and throw the rice sticks on top.

Now take that chicken stock from cooking the chicken breast earlier and pour that into the mix.  Some recipes call to pre-soak the rice sticks, but then they just soak up the water and not all this awesome flavor.  After you pour in the chicken stock, mix it all up so the noodles are at the bottom of the pan and soaking in the good juices.  You can add more soy and fish sauce here if you want or need to.  Stir it around for a few minutes letting all those flavors mix.  Add a bit of black pepper at the end and taste it to make sure the noodles are done.

You will end up with this awesome dish that took no time to make.  While I am not an old Filipino grandmother, I still think this turned out pretty good and will definitely make it again.  And of course I made way too much, so its great for leftovers.

Ben…

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Stop and Help Someone

Jun 3, 2013 by Ben

Had the opportunity to see Mumford and Sons again last night and they were awesome.

Singing along with 30,000 other people to some great music is always fun.  What is not fun is trying to exit a poorly laid out parking situation with those same 30,000 people.  We made the long trek back to our car after being locked into the amphitheater as someone thought this was a good idea to help relieve traffic.  It was not.

We also had to stop for a bacon wrapped hot dog in the parking lot as that is what pregnant wife’s need.  After the long trek we made it back to the car and realized we weren’t moving for some time.  So we napped, read books, chatted and hung out for a bit.  The car started just fine when we got back to the car, but somehow after waiting in it for a few hours the battery must have been drained somehow as when it was our turn to sort of pull out into the long line of not moving cars, ours did not start.  I am a car guy and can fix most anything on cars, but when a Prius just flashes lights at me, I am at a bit of a loss as to where to look first.  I was hoping it was just a dead battery as there is not much else I can do for that car to get it going in the middle of a dirt parking lot.

After getting the jumper cables out I asked a few people around me who were also not moving as much as we were and ran into some not nice people who would rather sit there not moving and not helping then sit there not moving and helping.

Finally we got some awesome people to pull up next to us and give us a jump and all was well.  We got out on the road and slowly made the crawl toward the exit.  We saw another car that looked like the might need help so we stopped.  They also needed a jump and sadly as we were just jumped I knew my battery would be of no help to them.  I was shocked to hear that we were the only ones to stop in the last 3o minutes.  30 minutes of cars just barely crawling past them and no one had time to help.  We chatted for a bit and they had AAA on the way so we took off and thankfully our car made it home with no problems.

The moral of this story is what kind of world do you want to live in?  Do you want to live in a world where everyone is a jerk and out for themselves or would you like to live in a world where everyone helps one another.

It’s up to you to make that world, so stop and help someone this week.

It’s just that simple.  Your simple act of pausing what you are doing for a few minutes to help someone else will carry with it the ripple effects of that person you helped will be more likely to stop and help someone else.  You will have made a positive change for the good and that does not go unnoticed.

Stop and help someone this week and make your world a little more awesome.

Ben…

Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s:

 

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Take a Day Off

May 27, 2013 by Ben

Today is memorial day and I hope you have the day off.  I have just finished a 2 month remodel on our rental house.  I love remodeling.  I love fixing and building, but 2 months of nights and weekends has taken its toll and I am ready for a day off.

So I am taking a well deserved day off.

I am going to relax.  I am going to do fun projects around the house.  I am going to tend to the garden.  I am going to take a day off of the things that I call work and I recommend you do the same as well.

If you live in the US, then you live in the only developed country on earth without a mandated vacation policy.  We have a strange work ethic here, and I admit that I subscribe to it.  I often work way too long and hard to the determent of health or quality time with my family.  This is something I’m trying to keep and eye on and curb to the betterment of my physical and mental well being as well as those around me.

I actually got to spend a weekend with my wife this past weekend and it was wonderful.

So on this Memorial day, I hope you take the opportunity to not only remember those who have served for our country, but use this day off to actually take a day off from the things that you call work.  Put the phone down.  Stop checking email.  Relax and spend some time with those you love to spend time with.  Do the fun things you’ve been wanting to do.

Your Truly Simple Action is to enjoy a day off.

And for those interested in how the remodel came out, here is a before and after of the kitchen.

Before…

 and after…

Ben…

Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s:

 

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Perspective

May 21, 2013 by Ben

 

This picture was taken in the recent aftermath of the tornado in Oklahoma.

Pause and think those words for a minute.

I live out in earthquake country so we don’t get the tornadoes, but no matter where you live or whatever natural disaster might affect your area, you could lose it all at any time.   Or you could gain the perspective to understand what is truly important in your life.

The things in your life are just things.  They will come, they will go, and rarely will any of them matter at all.

This week’s TSA is to focus your perspective on what is truly important in your life.  When you find out who they are, give them a hug.

Ben…

Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s:

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