Edible TV - » Jon and Kate Plus Recipes

Edible TV - » Jon and Kate Plus Recipes: "Good news for fans of massive-family TV: Jon & Kate Plus 8 returns for season five on May 25. As Kate Gosselin is a enthusiastic cook as well as mothering machine, why not celebrate the resolution of season four’s cliffhanger with some of her family’s favorite recipes?

Kate’s Hearty Meatloaf: This huge, beefy loaf, made with organic ingredients as Kate prefers, makes enough to feed a family as enormous as hers, with leftovers. Budget friendly and, with lots of chopped veggies snuck in, healthy, too. Click through to the Good Morning America site to see the accompanying video featuring Kate and kids."

Took a bit of searching to find recipes that looked authentic to the Gosselins -- there's a lot of people out there looking for Kate's recipes after seeing her cook so much on the show. She ought to consider making her next book a cookbook.

Filthy as it was at first, the kitchen in her new house looks pretty sweet. I don't find my relatively small kitchen to be a hindrance most of the time, but there are occasions when I wish for that kind of storage space.

Cut Energy Use By Cutting Calories

Thinner is better to curb global warming, study says:

(CNN) -- Here's yet another reason to stay in shape: Thinner people contribute less to global warming, according to a new study.
More than 1 billion adults worldwide are overweight, and about 300 million are obese.

More than 1 billion adults worldwide are overweight, and about 300 million are obese.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine published a study showing that, because of food production and transportation factors, a population of heavier people contributes more harmful gases to the planet than a population of thin people.

Given that it takes more energy to move heavier people, transportation of heavier people requires more fuel, which creates more greenhouse gas emissions, the authors write.

"The main message is staying thin. It's good for you, and it's good for the planet," said Phil Edwards, senior lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Cut the calories by reducing meat consumption, and you'll save even more greenhouse gas emissions. Oh, the plague that is cattle flatulence . . .

Well Fed Network - » Hungry Girl Feeds Good Morning America Hosts

Well Fed Network - » Hungry Girl Feeds Good Morning America Hosts: "If you’re a regular reader of Fit Fare as well as Edible TV, you might just be a fan of Hungry Girl, the daily newsletter featuring product reviews and drastically slimmed down recipes for favorite foods. Lisa Lillien, the Hungry Girl herself, appeared on Good Morning America Thursday to promote her new book, Hungry Girl: 200 Under 200.

As the title implies, it features 200 recipes that all have 200 calories or less per serving. Lillien and her team achieve these astounding nutritional stats through the use of certain Hungry Girl staples (sure to be familiar to readers of the newsletter), such as Tofu Shirataki noodles, Fiber Onecereal, and Vitalicious high-fiber muffins."

Meals for the Week: Abbreviated for Travel

We're leaving tomorrow afternoon for about a week, so the only meal I had planned out was . . . today's. We had my attempt to copy Stouffer's vegetable lasagna, which turned out pretty well except for a salt deficiency.

I thought I had accounted for seasoning all right, adding several pinches of kosher salt to my veggies and breadcrumbs, as well as generously seasoning my cream sauce. I tasted the sauce, and it was delicious on its own, but somehow the flavors became muted when combined into the lasagna.

I blame the noodles in part. Clearly I need to overseason the sauce to make up for the no-boil noodles not having sucked in any of their own salt. Probably the veggies needed more garlic and salt, too.

At any rate, a heavy sprinkle of California-style garlic salt over the top added the missing element for a decent meal. We ate it alongside a tossed salad and the last homemade baguette, which we dipped in delicious seasoned oil.

Incidentally, that oil was seasoned using a mix from the company Herbs for Healthful Living. I can find the whole line of mixes (including the perfect icebox dill pickle mix) at local farmstand/craftsy stores when I'm visiting my family in Pennsylvania, but alas, they apparently have no web site for me to order more from.

I'll have to rely on the old-fashioned method of asking my mom to mail them to me when I need to restock!

Spring Cleaning for Your Fridge

Spring Cleaning for Your Fridge: "The official start of the new year may be January, but it’s only when all this new life buds into being in spring that it feels like a true beginning.

Something about the warm breezes, invigorating showers, and green shoots of spring makes me (and so many others) want to spruce up the house to match the prettiness of the outdoors. It’s spring cleaning time!"

(Via Well Fed Network.)

Meals for the Week: Ham, Ham, and More Ham

Though I purchased the smallest spiral-sliced ham on offer at Fred Meyer, we still came out of Easter with two big tubs of leftovers. Scott's been enjoying ham sandwiches ever since, but I know I have to work some ham into our dinner plans to help make a dent. Some leftovers may still have to migrate to the freezer nonetheless.

On another note, I discovered the perfect tool for filling deviled eggs on Sunday: a small, "teaspoon" cookie scoop
. True, you can spoon the filling into a zip-top bag, snip off a corner, and pipe the yolk mix into the whites, but I was making four different egg fillings and didn't want to muck up four different bags. A mounded scoop from the smallest of my cookie scoops was just the right size to fill each egg, plus it left a smooth, evenly rounded top. I'll post a picture later.

Monday
Salad bar
Biscuits

Tuesday
Omelets
Home fries
Strawberries
Toast

Wednesday
Pasta caprese
French bread
Salad

Thursday
Fried chicken
Baked beans
Biscuits
Slaw

Friday
Baked chili-hoisin tofu
Garlic pickle broccoli
Light sesame noodles
Salad

Saturday
Spaghetti with meat sauce
Garlic toast
Salad

Sunday
Black bean and chicken enchiladas
Tortilla chips
Salad

Easter Candy Madness

Check out this informative post from the Healthy Recipe Doctor on WebMD for info on the caloric wallop packed by your Easter basket. She makes clear, though, that candy is not all bad and that indulgence in moderation is OK.

Here's an interesting excerpt in that vein:

It's better to eat jelly beans than to drink soda! Our bodies appear to be more likely to compensate naturally for the calories in a handful of jelly beans compared to the same calories in a sweetened drink. A Purdue University study found that significant weight gain might occur when carbohydrates are consumed as liquids rather than as solid food because the participants didn't decrease their intake to compensate for the added soda calories but were able to for the additional jellybean calories.

Hurray for jelly beans!

Meals for the Week: Beans and More Beans

Over the next few days, I'm helping us undo the damage of a week of vacation followed by a week of our building's fitness room being closed. We actually didn't gain much weight - I was up maybe a pound, and that's easily within the realm of daily fluctuations - but we do need to get our digestive and muscular systems back on track.

Exercise is so "use it or lose it." I ached terribly after returning to a full 30-minute strength-training routine after getting back to California.

Anyway, this week's meals lean heavily on beans. I stocked up on beans at Costco and Fred Meyer last week, plus I just so happen to LOVE beans. They have a comforting starchy texture and fill your stomach nicely, all without a load of calories or an empty wallet.

Monday
Taco salad with beef and black beans (inspired by Kalyn's Kitchen)
Cornmeal muffins (I might be making this recipe wrong, but I love how the Hillbilly Housewife's recipe turns out muffins that taste like rich disks of polenta)

Tuesday
Whole-wheat macaroni and cheese with chicken and broccoli
Whole-wheat breadsticks
Salad

Wednesday
Baked beans with spicy smoked sausage
Broccoli with cheese sauce
Whole-wheat breadsticks
Coleslaw

Thursday
Chicken lo mein
Asian slaw

Friday
Pizza with pesto, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella on whole-wheat crust
Salad

Saturday
Spaghetti with meat sauce (from last week's massive batch!)
Garlic breadsticks
Salad

Sunday - Easter!
Spiral-sliced ham
Roasted potatoes
Asparagus (I think)
Deviled eggs
Biscuits
Salad