This Morning in the Kitchen

I told you I was going to buy a healthy cookbook.  It wasn't as easy as I thought to find one.  At Barnes & Noble, it seemed like they were all Paula Deen-ish (by the way, it irritates me that people criticize her for not revealing she had diabetes.  It's not like all the other cooking gurus have to reveal their respective health statuses.  Everyone knows too much butter or sugar is bad for you...seriously, let the woman live how she wants to live.  You can't tell me everyone thought that following a diet based primarily on her recipes would make them the picture of health.  Please...& for crying out loud there's even that cliche about a skinny chef).  The only healthy non-diet specific cookbooks seemed to be the Naked Chef's, and they were a little too wild for me at this point.  So then I looked through the diet books thinking there might be hope there, & I didn't find anything either (not trying to lose weight, though a few pounds would be a fantastic side effect...just trying to cut out the preservatives and refined business).  I could've missed the perfect one, but I'm happy with what I got: The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.

One of the Michael Pollen rules is that if you can make it, you can eat it, so I did.  Above are the cinnamon rolls from the new book.  They were (to invoke Parks & Rec's Rob Lowe/Chris) literally, the best I've ever tasted (I should add that there was a moment when the dough was stuck to everything & I wondered what I was doing trying to make cinnamon rolls by scratch when there were perfectly good ones to be had in the refrigerated section just down the street).  I'm sure their tastiness has nothing to do with the amounts of butter and sugar in them.  So there's white flour and powdered sugar in these--refined, refined, refined, but I can't do this all at once right now.  I'm beginning by eliminating packaged stuffs (& coke) & then (post bar), I'll start incorporating wheat flour.  It does have recipes for wheat bread & pizza dough (latter is on the menu).  I also made snack humus this morning & chicken salad for lunch.  Both excellent...although I really need a food processor (making humus in the blender is not the way to go).  And, in the Cook's Illustrated corner: our fridge is stuffed with vegetables (from Sprouts)...two drawers almost completely full.  Chris thought that our grocery bill would be much more shopping there compared to the commissary & I am happy to say he was totally wrong...cutting out the packaged stuff made up for going organic, etc. 

Happy weekend.  Back to the studying.  Love, Sara

Comments

[christine]

Yummy! Wish I lived closer so I could drop by at the right time . . . Miss you guys!

[Sara]

Me 2...there would've been just enough for each of us! I miss you guys too & am a little sad that we're missing out on AJ time. Once we figure out where we're going to be when Chris gets out- you're coming for a visit. Period...unless you live in a cooler place than us (in which case, I'm crashing your house, of course :)).

[janeane welch]

Just so you know, I'm sipping my hot coffee right now & I just realized (thanks to your real to life pic) that what I'm missing is a yummy hot homemade cinnamon roll!

[Sarah N]

Mmmmmm! I've been craving caramel rolls and have been good about resisting. You may have broken me! Still resisting, but not for long...
Back to your cookbook quest, I recently bought The Athlete's Palette and Love it!