What's for Dinner

So we kind of have this week night dinnertime game at our house, well, I try to look at it as a game. While I'm at the office during the day, Scoob will generally take some kind of meat from the freezer to thaw for dinner. Sometimes he has a plan, but just as often he doesn't.

I typically call Scoob when I'm on my way home from work so he has some idea when I'll get home. It usually goes something like this:

Me: Did you take something out for dinner?

Scoob: Yeah. I took out some ______, but I don't know what to do with it.

So for the rest of my commute I'm running through mental recipes using whatever type of meat he took from the freezer and trying to remember what's on hand in the pantry. Other times I end up using whatever is on hand to create an altogether new recipe.

Like the other night when ground beef happened to be the centerpiece.

Medi-Burger

Cooking time: 15 minutes
Servings: 2 - 3

Ingredients

½ lb ground beef (since there's only the two of us I tend to freeze things in smaller portions)

1 Tbsp capers

1 egg

5 marinated artichoke heart pieces, chopped

1 tsp garlic powder

1 ½ tsp oregano

¼ cup crumbled feta

½ cup breadcrumbs

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Italian dressing

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients except dressing until combined—like a meatloaf.
2. Form the mixture into patties and grill until done.

It seemed a little dry when I was cooking it, so I brushed the patties with Italian dressing to keep them moist and prevent crumbling.

Spicy Mexican Rub

I came across this recipe in a Raley's grocery ad a few years ago. It's spicy without being too hot and it has been my go to solution for several Mexican dishes, not just a rub. It's inexpensive, super quick to assemble, and it works well with beef or chicken.

Spicy Mexican Rub

Ingredients

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground oregano

¼ tsp pepper

juice from one lime

½ cup salsa

Directions

1. Combine dry ingredients.
2. Rub combination on both sides of meat.
3. Grill over medium to medium-high heat until done.
4. Squeeze lime juice over meat and brush both sides with salsa.
5. Cook 1 minute longer on each side.

This is one of my more flexible recipes. I've served the meat along with rice and beans, sliced in tortillas as burrito, taco, or fajita, and cooled and sliced over salad.

I also use this spice combination any time a recipe calls for taco seasoning. I like this better than store-bought seasoning both for the taste, and because I control exactly what's going in there. We do a lot of low-sodium cooking because of Scoob's blood pressure, and you know those store-bought packs are loaded with sodium.

To make with ground beef or turkey as taco meat, in addition to the ingredients above, you'll need:

1 15oz. can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

¼ c water

(You won't need the lime juice unless you want it; maybe as a garnish after cooking.)

1. Brown 1 lb. ground meat and drain off fat.
2. Add kidney beans, seasoning mixture, salsa, and water. Simmer until liquid is reduced.

Shh, I'm Hunting

In the ongoing hunt for curtains to cover the closet opening, today, we went to IKEA. Some people love shopping at IKEA. I'll do it if I have to, but it's not something I look forward too.

Actually, I did go to IKEA this one time, after work, on a week night, and it really wasn't all that bad. Truthfully, it was borderline enjoyable. But the weekends are murder.

Well, I didn't find what I was hoping for at IKEA. The color scheme of our bedroom is kind of Mediterranean and I was hoping to go with that in the curtains, but IKEA leans more toward primary colors and complete neutrals. So the hunt is still on.

But our trip wasn't a complete bust. We did pick up a desk lamp and a waste basket for the office. I grabbed a new pillow for sleeping. And I picked up some really inexpensive pine picture frames for a project Mom is working on. Now I just need to mail them.

I May Have a Problem

We tried playing the lottery last week. A $212 million jackpot is nothing to sneeze at. We didn't win, but I particularly liked the public service annoucement about Problem Gambling Awareness Week printed on our ticket.


"Here's your ticket, but you may have a problem."

How a Fresh Idea becomes Frozen

I stumbled on this graphic representation of the Top 100 foods to improve productivity. Oddly enough, I like most of these foods. So why am I not more productive?

After some poking around the FoodProof site, it looks like it's a hub for food blogs. It might be a good resource down the road, but as of now, I don't know how you would ever purposefully find something you were looking for. I did spot this image while I was browsing, though, and thought it was funny.

On the subject of food, I've had the distinct pleasure of dining at Alice Waters's Chez Panisse once. My previous boss took Scoob and me there as a thank you and farewell dinner after our company merger, she and I were both being laid off.

I listen to locals grumble when guides and experts recommend Chez Panisse as a top California cuisine restaurant time and again, "Geez, tell me something I don't know. Can't they at least look a little. There have to be other worthy restaurants." While Chez Panisse gets a lot of praise and attention, and it's what people think of when they think California haute cuisine. There's a reason for it. The praise in not undeserved.

Anyhow, this recent interview with Alice Waters caught my eye. It's interesting. I imagine most people would agree with her definition of what constitutes real food, and yet the majority of us continue to feed our bodies the other stuff. She talks about foraging a lot in this interview. I don't imagine a lot of us have the time, or the energy at the end of the day or week, to forage for food. It's nice when you can eat like that, but for most of us it's just not a reality.

Let's see, maybe if I ate more of those energy boosting foods I'd have the energy to go out and forage, but of course I'd need to forage those items first. So I guess we'll stick with the Macaroni Grill Chicken Marsala in a box for tonight.

Your Conscience Doesn't Belong in My Health Care

I was pretty excited to read the news Saturday that Obama has decided to void the health workers' conscience rule enacted by Bush. Of course the people who want to keep this rule in place have framed the decision as a pro-abortion move, and unfortunately the people who support removing the rule have engaged them at this level. This rule is really about so much more than abortion.

It's not enough that we need to research our primary care doctors and try to find one whose medical approach most closely matches how we would like our health care managed. But under this rule, we also need to research and seek out and equally appropriate pharmacy.

If my doctor decides to prescribe marinol, a synthetic marijuana derivative, as part of a pain management plan or as an anti-nausea drug, but my pharmacist doesn't believe in prescribing marijuana, where does this leave me, the patient? (This is not a hypothetical question, it has happened—though I wasn't the patient; I was the caregiver and had the lovely task of dealing with the pharmacy.)

Either I need to go back to the doctor (schedule another appointment, take more time off from work to go to the appointment, and add another $20 office visit co-pay) and get a different prescription, despite the fact that my doctor has already considered the options and felt that marinol was the best option, or I need to seek out a pharmacy that will fill the existing prescription.

In a metropolitan area, the second option (while still a hassle) is doable. That is, of course, assuming the pharmacist will give the prescription slip back to you. But in a rural area, a person may only have one or two options available.

The doctor is my health care provider, not the pharmacist. The pharmacist is a service provider and should not be able to dictate the direction of my health care based on his or her beliefs.

If the pharmacist has a moral objection to dispensing medications as prescribed by a doctor, then the pharmacist clearly chose the wrong career—because that is exactly what a pharmacist is supposed to do.

Aside from refusing to fill a prescription due to dangerous drug interactions, unfortunately common when different doctors are prescribing for the same patient, the pharmacist should fill any and all prescriptions.

Aside from the marinol example, which admittedly only a relative few people would encounter, there's also the birth control issue. I have actually been in a Safeway pharmacy in San Jose, CA that refused to stock or sell all forms of birth control, including condoms.

Granted, you don't need a prescription for condoms, not even they cherry flavored kind—but come on, they're condoms! If I were a randy teenager, do you really think the fact that you won't sell me a condom is going to stop me from doing whatever it is I wanted the condom for?

Some Things Just Make You Feel Good

I read in the news this morning that radio personality Paul Harvey passed away last night and it just made me sad. I used to list to Mr. Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" segments during my morning commute until the station changed their format. I loved listening to these stories behind the stories, and Mr. Harvey's distinctive voice and delivery.

I flagged this article last week from the Boston Globe because it made me feel good, and now seems like a good time to share it. Just goes to show that small gestures by perfect strangers can make a difference.

News from the publishing world on the reception of Samuel Wurzelbacher's, a.k.a. Joe-the-Plumber of campaign fame, new book Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream, made me feel good too, though not in the same way. Apparently crickets could be heard in the downtown D.C. Borders. He'll probably have a warmer welcome at appearances in the mid-west.

As for me, I understood the concerns he voiced during the campaign about Obama's plans but what I didn't understand was how he so quickly discounted Obama's plans because his take home pay would decrease despite the fact that the plan could help his neighbors, community, and by extension, himself.

As we're seeing in the Wayward house, our pay is being cut (not just take home pay) and our neighbors and community won't realize any benefit from it. If we were going to have to give up income, I would gladly opt for curtain number 1.