May 6, 2010

It’s a leafy green vegetable.

No!  It’s a yummy crunchy chip.

Actually, you’re both right.  We’re talking about kale chips!

I know, you’re skeptical.  Even though I KNOW the health benefits of eating kale, I just don’t like it much.  It’s bitter and pretty tough, especially when it’s raw.  I never really had a kale dish I liked much. Until now!

You can drive to Whole Foods and buy a small bag of kale chips.  They’re delicious, but they’re $7 or $8.  No joke.

Or you can make you own.  Now, pay close attention because this is pretty darn complicated.  To make kale chips, you go to the store and buy a couple of bunches of kale (organic if you can get it).  You come home and wash it, dry it and tear it into pieces.  Then you spray it with a touch of oil, season it, and bake it til it’s crunchy.  Then you eat it and feel very, very virtuous.   😀

Kale Chips: before baking

Kale Chips

2 bunches kale (I like the curly kind)
Nonstick cooking spray (olive oil or canola)
Your favorite seasoning to taste

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Wash the kale and dry thoroughly.  Pull off the tough center rib and tear each leaf into medium-size pieces.  Place onto a baking sheet and spritz with a touch of oil.  Sprinkle with whatever seasonings you like and toss the kale to evenly coat with oil and seasonings.  Be careful with the salt; it will intensify as the kale shrinks and your chips will be way too salty.

Bake until the kale is dried out and crispy, 20 to 23 minutes.  I like mine lightly browned and pretty crispy.  Enjoy as a snack, or as a garnish on soup.

Note: I seasoned with very little salt, plus a big dash of lemon pepper and a salt-free Penzeys spice blend called Mural of Flavor.

Kale Chips: after baking. Not pretty, but delicious!

~BigSis

April 30, 2010

Aldi stores have finally come to Texas!  We’ve been looking forward to their arrival for a while, partly because we heard Trader Joe’s stores are owned by one of the Aldi brothers.  We hoped that TJ’s would follow Aldi here, but we’re hearing now that is only wishful thinking.  Boo!!  For now, we’ll have to settle with exploring Aldi stores.

Aldi stores are marketed as being basic, no-frills, and low-priced grocers.  I visited a new North Dallas store, and found those claims to be true.  The store was very small, with concrete floors, and products stacked in their shipping cartons instead of arranged prettily on shelves.  These are not warehouse club stores, but that is the feeling you get: bare and stark.  Prices are clearly marked on tags above the product.

No frills also means you bring your own bags and bag your own groceries.  You must deposit 25 cents to get a grocery cart, refundable when you return the cart to its home.  You should know too that Aldi brands eliminate the use of coupons, and Aldi only takes cash and debit cards – no credit cards or checks.

Another important note is that you’ll see very few familiar brands at Aldi.  During my initial 15 minute breeze-through, I only saw 2 or 3 identifiable brands.  That means you’re going to need to spend some time looking at products and reading labels to figure out what you’re buying.  You can’t just grab your favorite granola bar and know exactly what you’re getting.  You’ll have to do some research in the aisles when you first shop at Aldi.

On my first trip, I spent $14.59 on 7 items, an average of just over $2 per item.  That’s already a good sign, right?  It seems like everything I buy at the Wallymart or SuperTarzhay is $3-something or $4-something.  When’s the last time you bought something that was $2?

Here’s what I got (I know it’s an odd random list!) and how it worked out:

• Tuscan Garden Large Black Olives $1.19 – Perhaps on the medium-ish side, but good flavor as far as canned black olives go.

• Fit & Active Instant Brown Rice $1.35 – I’ve always made regular brown rice so this was  my first taste of an instant version.  It wasn’t quite done after 5 minutes of simmering and 5 minutes of steaming, as the directions stated.  After another 3 minutes of simmering and steaming, it was fine. Not fabulous, but ok.

• Benita Guacamole $2.99 – Wow!  Great!  Just like the Wholly Guacamole two-packs; it tastes like it might have come out of the same kitchen.

• Fit & Active Dried Cherries $3.49 – The best dried fruit I’ve ever had.  Really!  These cherries were plump and full of tart sweet flavor; not dried to leathery death.  Next time I’m grabbing a bag of the dried blueberries too.

• Grandessa Garlic Vinaigrette $1.99 – Slightly sweet for me, but a high quality dressing.

• Millville Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars (10 pk) $1.69 – That’s not a typo…you get 10 bars for $1.69.  Granted, they are small bars.  Very small.  But they’re tasty little guys that my coworker says are a dead-ringer for Quaker’s chewy granola bars.  They weigh in at 100 calories-3 grams fat-2 grams protein-7 grams sugar.  These are too candy bar-ish for me, so even though they were yummy, that’s not what I want from a granola/energy/protein bar.

• Fit & Active Mixed Berry Fruit & Grain Cereal Bars (8 pk) $1.89 – These tasted exactly like Nutri-Grain bars to me, but may be a touch smaller. A great value for an 8-pack of bars.  They have 130 calories-3 grams fat-2 grams protein-13 grams sugar.  Delicious, but I don’t want this much sugar in a bar so I wouldn’t buy them again.

Overall, I thought these products were a fabulous value for the money.  The quality was consistently excellent, even though the prices were sometimes unbelievably low.  Will Aldi be a weekly stop for me?  Probably not.  I don’t buy a lot of processed foods, and the majority of Aldi’s offerings are not what I routinely buy.  I do see Aldi as an occasional stop for a few items from time to time, like that amazing guacamole and the scrumptious cherries!

~BigSis

April 25, 2010

We can’t leave our Chicago chat without talking about the food!  If you mention Chicago, some people will think about Wrigley Field, Soldiers Field, Millennium Park, the Sears Tower ledge, the Navy Pier, the lake, and even Oprah.  But lots of people I know will think about the food!

There are lots of fancy restaurants in Chicago that might come to mind, like Charlie Trotter’s and Tru.  We didn’t eat at any fah fah fahncy places, but we did use the ladies room in The Gage!  Does that count?

We had a crowd of people with us and were super busy all weekend, so fine dining wasn’t on our agenda.  There really wasn’t time to spend on that kind of a meal, and we didn’t want to break the bank either.  The weekend was about spending time with Bry, and celebrating his Navy graduation and LilSis’ birthday on Sunday.  So where did we eat?  We WERE in Chicago, so we had to check out at least a couple of the foods that Chicago is known for!

Portillos in Chicago

What says “Chicago” more than hot dogs and Italian beef?  Our first night in town, we headed for Portillo’s.  Portillo’s is known for their hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches (juicy or dry), polish sausages and burgers.  There are close to 50 Portillo’s locations now, and all of them are in Illinois and Indiana except for two in California.  This place was crazy!  It was packed with customers eating and two full lines of customers waiting to place their orders.  I couldn’t eat much there – even most of the salads are not vegetarian friendly – so I ended up with lettuce and tomato salad, but I really enjoyed the decor and the feel of the restaurant.  And I did sample their french fries: crispy, tender, hot, crinkle fries…delicious!

You can’t come to Chicago without having pizza, right?  We headed to Gino’s East since there was one close to our hotel in Great Lakes.  The restaurant looks and feels like a pizza joint in any other place in the country, but the pizza is all Chicago.  We loved that we could all get an individual-size pizza (thin or thick crust), plus a salad and a drink for only $5.99.  Not bad!  LilSis got the thin crust, and I wished I had done the same because it was scrumptious. I got their “thick golden crust” since I thought that was more authentically Chicago-like, but it wasn’t what I expected.  I imagined a tender thick crust like Uno’s, but it was a cornbread crust that I wasn’t crazy about.  The toppings were great though; I just should have asked more questions before I ordered.

The day that we zipped around downtown Chicago on the double-decker bus tour, we were famished and happened across Cosi as we were leaving Millennium Park.  Our group included all ages and all kinds of eating preferences, and Cosi’s menu satisfied us all.

The ambience reminded me of Starbucks, and it’s my understanding that Cosi started out as a coffee shop and added food later. It was a good move!  We all loved the flatbread that comes with soups and salads, and is used on sandwiches too.  It’s great soft bread untoasted, but when toasted it gets nice and crispy on the outside.  Our group tried the fire roasted veggie sandwich, cobb salad, tomato basil soup, bacon cheddar turkey melt, and the chicken club.  It was all delicious, and affordable.  There are bunches of Cosi restaurants in the Chicago area, but none in Texas.  Boo.  This is my kind of food!

We also ate at a couple of chains that are maybe a little more generic, but still really good.  You can’t go wrong with Jason’s Deli in a pinch.  Who doesn’t love Jason’s?  It’s another place with a menu big enough and good enough to satisfy pretty much anyone in your group.  I have one near my office and eat their Spinach Veggie Wrap minus the cheese all the time.

At the airport, some of us grabbed a quick sandwich at the Potbelly Sandwich Shop.  I have a Potbelly right down the street from me here in Dallas, but I’d never been there although I’ve heard it’s good.  I wasn’t disappointed.  The veggie sandwich on whole-grain wheat bread was excellent, and I love that you can request “Thin-Cut” bread on any sandwich, which gives you 1/3 less bread to deal with.

So there’s your quick and cheap tour of Chicago eats.  Overall, it seemed to me that Chicago cuisine is pretty “meaty” and not super-veggie friendly, but it’s clear that Chicagoans are really passionate about their food!  We’re hoping to visit Bry again in a few months, and when we do, we’ll no doubt eat a bunch more and report back on it!

~BigSis

April 12, 2010

Have you been seeing all the ads and hearing all the buzz about L’Oreal’s Extra-Volume Collagen Mascara?  I have, including a pretty glowing positive recommendation from More Magazine, which I really like.  I’m always on the lookout for a new great mascara, just as I am for miraculous new eye creams and anti-aging skin cream.

This mascara claims that their “instant-impact brush builds breathtaking volume fast.” I was intrigued and picked up a tube recently.  This shot of Eva Longoria-Parker’s lashes from L’Oreal’s ad sets a pretty high expectation for the Extra-Volume Collagen Mascara, don’t you think?

We usually don’t do reviews unless we have something good to say, so let me think.  This mascara is a nice black color, it comes off easily at the end of the day with Lancome BiFacil, it doesn’t smudge at all, and it doesn’t flake much; no more than the L’Oreal mascaras I like.

Did it give me breathtaking volume like Eva?  No.  I had a really hard time maneuvering the ginormous brush without getting it all over my eyelid, and what I ended up with is stubby lashes.  No volume, no length, no curl.  Just stubs.  And “stubs” is not what I’m aiming for when I apply mascara!  I also got some spiky clumps, again not what I was going for.

So it’s back to my usual cocktail of L’Oreal Voluminous Mascara followed by a dash of L’Oreal Lash Out Mascara.  I should have kept my sales receipt and returned L’Oreal’s Extra-Volume Collagen Mascara, but I didn’t so I guess I’ll try to use it up on the weekends.  If you run into me at SuperTarget on a Saturday afternoon, please don’t stare at my clumpy, spiky stubs!  😀

~BigSis

April 7, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself without one crumb of eye cream.  No Replenix, no Relastin, nothing.  Not even a random sample, or a dried up drop of an old cream I don’t like any more.  How did it happen?  I don’t know how, but I know it was bad!  Bad, bad, bad!  I wanted to try something new, but I didn’t know what so I just went without any eye cream at all for several days!  Horrors!

Instead of reordering Relastin, I finally decided I wanted to try an affordable drugstore brand or two to see if there were any good ones out there.  Do you have to spend a lot of money to get an eye cream that works?  Maybe you do, but I want to know, so I’m making it my mission to investigate!

I drug my wrinkly, puffy, dark-circled self up to CVS and wandered around, hoping no one would see how scary I looked.  When I walked in the front door, there was a big ad for a new Olay Regenerist Anti-Aging Eye Roller.  Maybe it was a sign!

LilSis and I tried a similar product by Garnier last year, and it worked for her but not for me.  I generally like the Regenerist line so I thought this roller was worth a try.  I also picked up the Olay Regenerist Anti-Aging Eye Lifting Serum.  They were each around $20.

I first tried the Anti-Aging Eye Roller.  It is supposed to diminish eye puffiness, lines and wrinkles, according to Olay’s web site.

To test the roller, I used it on one eye and left the other one alone.  You just click the pen-style applicator until you see a dab of product start to peek up around the metal roller balls.  Then you just roll the balls gently under the eye for about 30 seconds.

The product went on a bit creamy, but I was shocked at how quickly it soaked into the skin.  After a few minutes, it appeared to me that the treated eye looked less puffy than the untreated eye.

The next test…would my concealer go on smoothly over this product?  Yep, no problems.  So far, so good.  I liked the roller and thought it was effective.  It definitely seems to be a morning product, so I still needed something more moisturizing for nighttime use.  Maybe it would be the eye serum!

The Eye Lifting Serum is supposed to be an “all-around eye firming, smoothing, brightening amino-peptide + B3 complex”.  Sounds good, but did I see those results?

Mmm, not really.  The serum got good reviews at the Olay web site, but it initially didn’t seem to provide enough moisture to me.  I would have given it a little more time to do its’ thing, but there was a deal killer.

My concealer hated the serum.  It caked up into a big goopy mess.  Back to the store you go, Anti-Aging Eye Lifting Serum.  Eye cream is essential, and concealer is essential, so you have to play nicely together.  If one of you acts up, you’re out.

It’s been a couple of weeks now, and I’m still using the roller and liking it.  I picked up another inexpensive eye cream at SuperTarget last weekend, so I’ll let you know how that trial’s going soon!

~BigSis

April 5, 2010

I know we’ve thrown a lot of Easter projects at you over the last week or so, but believe it or not, I have a couple more!  After this post, I promise, no more Easter talk til 2011.

I worked on these little White Chocolate Smiley Face Easter Bunnies over a period of days, but then guess what happened when I was finally putting the post together on Saturday afternoon?  My internet went down, of course!  Ding dang Time Warner employee accidentally disconnected me when he was working on someone else’s service in the hood, and they couldn’t get anyone out here to fix it til Monday morning.

So call me selfish, but I am not going to let all that work go to waste without showing you the bunnies!  I don’t care that Easter is over!  😀  Let’s just pretend that it’s still Easter!

Now, on with it.  I won’t bore you with instructions that you won’t need til next March, but I do want to show you the photos.  These are the White Chocolate Smiley Face Easter Bunnies.

Oh, and one more thing…Chocolate Fudge Easter Eggs; molded and decorated in pink, of course!

Now, we can all go back to our after-Easter worlds!  Thanks for indulging me!

~BigSis

April 1, 2010

When you hear the words “Marshmallow” and “Easter”, do you think of Peeps or maybe those super-sugary marshmallow eggs with the hard sugar shell?  I don’t because I don’t like either of those Easter candies.  To me, they’re the Easter version of the hard-as-a-rock peanut butter taffy wrapped in black or orange paper that you got at Halloween as a kid, and tried to pawn off on your unsuspecting little brothers in exchange for their chocolate candy bars!

I have a new Easter marshmallow treat to share with you, and these also have white chocolate.  This project isn’t quite as fancy and classy as the Easter Bird’s Candy Nests that LilSis made yesterday, but they’re pretty fun to make and I think kids would have a ball putting them together.

The key is to get yourself a candy mold like this.  It has bunny heads and bunny bases with feet and tails (bunny butts).

I got mine at my cake supply store, but you can find them online too.  I have bunches of these kinds of molds.  They’re only about $2.50 each, and you can use them for chocolate, candy melts or even soaps.  Buy just one or two, and you’ll be addicted to them.  You can customize candy for any kid’s party theme and color scheme.  Wrapped up in foil papers, people will be shocked that you made these cute candies yourself.  I made little green frog chocolates for a kid’s party once, and the kids were thrilled!

So back to this project.  Here’s what you do:

• Melt some candy melts or chocolate wafers (I like the Guittard White Chocolate Wafers; they come in mint too).  I nuke them for 30 seconds, then stir, and repeat til all are melted.

• Pour the melted chocolate into a squeeze bottle, and fill the cavities in the mold.  Once it’s filled, tap the mold gently on the counter to bring any air bubbles to the surface.  Add more chocolate if needed.

• Refrigerate the mold for a few minutes until the shapes are set and cold.  Unmold.

• Now the fun part!  Use more melted chocolate to lightly coat large marshmallows, then immediately roll in shredded coconut.  Chill for a few minutes to set.

• Decorate the bunny faces if you like.  I used food markers, but they tended to slide around a little on the chocolate, so you’ll probably come up with better ideas than BigSis-in-a-hurry did!

• Add a dab of melted chocolate to the bottom of the marshmallow and gently press onto the base.  Then, with a dab of melted chocolate, add the bunny face to the front of the marshmallow.

You just made a Marshmallow White Chocolate Easter Bunny!

~BigSis

March 30, 2010

Happy early Easter, everyone!  And happy good-excuse-to-use-pink-holiday!  I DO love me some pink, and I really love pink with green.  But actually, I love pink with any and every other color.  Pink is probably the most perfect color in the rainbow, don’t you think?  Ok, BigSis, you’re getting off track.  Focus, focus, focus, girl!  We’re talking about Easter baking today, not your obsession with all things rosy.

Sorry…back to the program!  I love Easter, I love color, and I love baking.  Voila!  Easter Basket Cupcakes!

You can use any recipe of course.  Since I’m 3 months into doing the vegan thing, I baked up a batcheroo of my all-time favorite Pumpkin Walnut Bread.  I baked tons of it for the last couple of bake sales, more for Christmas gifts, and I’m still baking it.  I can’t get enough of it, so here it is in its’ cute little Easter basket outfit!

I found these super-delicious Wilton Easter Basket Cupcake Wrappers at my Michael’s store, and I bet your local craft store has them too.  They may even be on sale this week like mine were!

Instructions?  I got ’em for you:

• Bake any cupcakes you adore in a cute paper liner.

• Let them cool, then frost or not.  I chose not.

• Convince some coconut to pretend that it’s Easter grass.  I added about 6 drops of liquid green food coloring to about half a bag of shredded coconut in a ziploc baggie.  Mush it around until the coconut/grass is all pretty green.

• Add a pile of coconut/grass to each cupcake, and top with some jelly beans or whatever for an extra shout of faux egg color.  I didn’t have jelly beans and don’t really like them anywho, so I wasn’t about to buy any.  I used Skittles and M&Ms.  You’re the boss of these cupcakes, so you do what you want!

• Make the little basket wrappers, and secure with tape to be sure they don’t come unhinged at an inappropriate time.

• Drop each cupcake into the Easter Basket wrapper, and add the handle.  I just tucked it into the sides so it would be easy to remove for faster cupcake access!

That’s it!  Hoppy Easter!

~BigSis

March 27, 2010

It’s tempting to buy a cute little chick, duckling or bunny at Easter.  They grow up though, and then how do you care for them?  Little chickies are adorable, but a full-grown feisty chicken is another story!

How about sponsoring a farm animal instead of buying one that you aren’t prepared to care for long-term?  Farm Sanctuary has a great farm animal adoption program that could be a perfect solution.  Do you have children who have outgrown Easter egg hunts?  Maybe you have a grandchild out of state?  Or perhaps you have a niece or nephew who loves animals?  Maybe you’ve decided this is the year you’ll be more creative at Easter, and you just don’t want to bring a bunch of candy into the house.  What a great idea to sponsor a farm animal in the name of someone special!

All you need to do is go to Farm Sanctuary’s adoption page and choose a duck, bunny or chicken to sponsor for $10-$15 per month, based on a one-year sponsorship.

I’m especially partial to Buttercup!

and Howard!

You or your gift recipient will receive an adoption certificate with a color photograph of the adopted friend, an adoption card, an invitation to schedule a VIP tour to meet the adopted friend, and other great benefits depending on the animal. If a year is more than you want to commit to, you can also make a one-time gift that will be greatly appreciated.

So if you’re looking for something different to do at Easter this year, here’s a way to do that and help a great cause at the same time!

~BigSis

March 25, 2010

How many of us remember precious homemade Easter Bunny Cakes from our childhoods?  SisMama has made Bunny Cakes over the years, and they’re always seriously adorable and a big hit with everyone…not just the kids!

This is the one SisMama makes.  It’s the Kraft Easter Bunny Cake.

Kraft's Easter Bunny Cake

If you want to make the super simple version, you just need cake mix, Cool Whip and coconut.  Oh, and decorations like gumdrops, licorice and jelly beans.  But if you have a little more time on your hands and want to fancy it up a bit, use a homemade cake with good homemade frosting.

Betty Crocker also has an Easter Bunny Cake that’s way cute!  Again, use a cake mix if you want to.  Betty recommends a carrot cake mix with her canned frosting.

Betty Crocker's Easter Bunny Cake

I am so in love with this last cake that I can’t stand it!  It does require the purchase of a Wilton Bunny Pan, but take a look at this Easter cuteness!  Wilton calls it their Landing Feet First! Cake.

Wilton's Feet First Easter Bunny

So pick your favorite, and surprise your family and friends with a cute Easter Bunny Cake this year.  I bet they’ll remember it for years to come!

~BigSis