My Fridge is Full but there’s Nothing to Eat

Have you ever gone to make dinner, opened the fridge and just stared. I know I’m gonna cook tonight, sounds like a good idea, but where do I start? That was me last night…just staring blankly at the cold food. Nope, still nothing. Where is that spark of food creativity that I really enjoy? I know I’m cooking venison that has been marinating for a day but what else. Then it hit me. I have a pot of leftover cooked Kashi grains. Yeah-- I love this stuff but what to do with it. At that point I was on a roll and just started pulling veggies out. Here is the end result.

Spicy Kashi with Veggies

1 small tomato diced

½ onion diced

½ bell pepper (any color) diced

½ c no salt canned corn or frozen

2 c cooked Kashi grains

½ c broth – chicken or veggie

2 cloves garlic chopped

2 t cumin

6-8 shakes Cholula hot sauce or your favorite brand

¼ t smoked paprika

Sea salt and pepper to taste

1 T olive oil

In a med sauce pan sauté the garlic and onion in the oil for a few minutes, add the pepper and tomato and cook for 5 minutes. Now, add the corn and all of the seasonings and simmer for 10 minutes or so. Mix in the grains and cook until heated thru and serve hot.

Other ideas—any grain will work in this, barley, rice, quinoa

- Use your favorite veggies

- Want more heat, add a diced jalapeno

Just a bit of advice from a die hard traveler

Good Morning from a remote location in the desert of Southern Utah. This is Jamie, Moe and I both post to this blog as we are co-authors to our new cookbook “Squeaky Gourmet.” I’m also a Geologist in my other life (which brings me to Utah) but I thought the collision of my two lives might make for some entertaining and hopefully helpful reading.

How do you eat healthfully while traveling? Let me be the first to tell you that it can be REALLY DIFFICULT for me to maintain healthy choices. First, I’m staying in a motel in a very small town. I’m in the friendly town of Green River, Utah just 70 miles North of Moab. My room has a microwave and a small fridge so that is really helpful. I also usually have a cooler with me but since it’s not too warm outside this trip I left it at home. It’s working for me so far. I’m not quite sure where to start so I guess I’ll start with breakfast.

Breakfast--I’m really lucky my motel serves a good hot breakfast. I really love this place, they know me by now as I’ve been here many times for work and they go out of their way to help me eat really good stuff. So I usually have a veggie omelet and oatmeal or some of the locally grown melons. This week we had an Israeli melon—delicious. However, if you don’t have a really nice guy cooking you breakfast it’s still easy to make old fashioned oats in a microwave and you can cook eggs there too. Add some fresh fruit and you are ready for the day.



Lunch--I’m in my truck all day watching drilling rigs so lunch is made in the am before I leave. Here is a picture of the salad I’ve been eating for a few days. It’s pretty basic but yummy and I bought all of the ingredients here at the little grocery store. It’s just greens with black beans, baby carrots, 3 oz canned chicken, ¼ c shredded cheese and some Italian dressing. To get 3 days of salads I buy 2 bags lettuce, bag carrots, 1 can beans, 3 small cans chicken w/ pull tops, cheese, and some dressing. I would have loved to buy organic but it doesn’t seem to exist here yet so I do my best.

Snacks--This week I bought some string cheese and some really great apples. I knew I would want something crunchy so I brought a mixed nut trail mix and also some dry roasted soybeans. I really like the soybeans and a ¼ c of them really cuts the "hungries". Oh and I almost forgot I have a tub of local melon all cut up that the breakfast guy gave me. Nice huh?

Dinner--This is the hardest meal of the day for me. I am usually exhausted and starving so my mind typically drifts to a cheeseburger and fries. I will have a meal equivalent to that maybe twice a week but I get a homemade burger from the restaurant next door. Can’t do much about the fries but to enjoy them. I’ll also go to that same restaurant and get the salad bar and soup. If I’m too pooped to leave the room I usually have some tuna with Italian dressing, a cut up cucumber and some whole wheat crackers. Kashi makes some great ones.

The biggest challenge to this whole travel thing is not buying junk at the gas station everyday when I fill up. Stay out of the junk food isles when you are dragging and needing to eat. Just a bit of advice from a die hard traveler.

A Sorbet Day

I went out to the garden this morning and found that the local mule deer herd had visited my well fenced veggie patch and cleaned me out of squash and green tomatoes. I was going to do something with my little yellow patty pan squash but--No! It was not to be.

But I had fresh blueberries calling out so I made some sorbet.

Peach Berry Sorbet
Serves-4
1 c water

1/3 c natural sugar
Combine water and sugar in a microwave bowl and bring to a boil ( 3 minutes or so). Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool in refrigerator.

2 c fresh blueberries
1 c frozen peaches or 1 large fresh peach
1 c frozen or fresh strawberries
2 limes or lemons – juice only
Pinch sea salt

Combine sugar mix and all other ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Spread mix into a 8x8 cooking pan, cover, and place in freezer until frozen. 3-4 hours.

Remove the frozen mix, break into chunks and place in a food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy. If you have a smallish food processor, you may have to do the blending in 2 batches. Place the creamy mix into a freezer container and re-freeze until solid.

Other Good Ideas:

Place the liquid in Popsicle molds and freeze--makes perfect vitamin rich Popsicle for the kids..yeah for the kids!