Mermelada de Guayaba

When my husband's mother came to visit us from Cuba, she brought a can of guava marmalade with her. Yes, a tin can of marmalade. Seems like somethings wrong with this picture, a can? of marmalade? A jar sure, but a can? Turns out in cuban (ok, so maybe spanish) marmalade isn't really a jelly, it's more like a syrup.

My husband was super excited, he opened the can and ate the stuff with a spoon. He also eats condensed milk with saltines, so i thought maybe this was one of his weird cuban things. However, one of my friends recently went to Costa Rica and came back raving about this guava syrupy stuff they served at her hotel. I'd been on the lookout for cans of "marmelade" for my husband, so i doubled my efforts, curious to find something for both husband and friend.

I'm a big fan of guava juice from time to time, so i decided to try the guava jelly i found in the spanish aisle at the super market. It's tasty, but definitely not what husband and friend were talking about. Then i stumbled upon this in the peanut butter and jelly aisle at Stop & Shop, and it's delicious! Husband doesn't eat it with a spoon since it's still a little too spreadable, but it's DELICOUS! Bought some for friend, and she agrees that it's very much like what she was eating in Costa Rica... not quite as syrupy, but same flavor. It's great on toast, or in any combination with cheese (popular cuban dessert: chunks of guava paste with chunks of cream cheese, great flavor, but i have trouble just eating chunks of cream cheese!).

Try some! The brand's website is weird, but like i said, i get mine at Stop & Shop (and it seems to be slightly cheaper there too... though not cheap, a little under $5 for a smallish jar, but it's worth it!)

PS - the real cuban thing would definitely not say "no sugar added", maybe that's the real reason husband isn't eating this stuff with a spoon?

Chocolate covered (sugar?) plums

I had some of these for 2nd breakfast.  They're delicious!  Probably not the healthiest choice for breakfast, especially since i had way more than 1 serving, but delicious nonetheless!  Plus, they're partially fruit!  (why do people think dried plums sound delicious and prunes sound gross?  Same thing!  Both extra tasty when covered in chocolate!)

Warning

This yogurt is pretty gross.  I bought a few assuming they were greek yogurt, thinking that their claim of being made with rBST/rBGH free milk couldn't hurt. 

Unfortunately, after tasting and going "blegch" i read the ingredients list, and apparently it's not greek yogurt.  It's regular yogurt with a bunch of stuff added to make it think and greek-like.  Texture is horrible...chalky maybe?  Don't buy these.

grrrrllluuaaa (stomach growling)

I'm starving!!  My stomach is talking to me, it has a mind of it's own.  And it's saying "don't eat healthy food, get me some lasagna!"  I know it's only 10:30, but the cranky old man in my belly doesn't care about acceptable dining behaviors.  I offered him a yogurt, but who in their right mind would accept yogurt when they want lasagna?  Not this cranky belly, i can tell you that.  I tried little coffee with lots of milk and sugar (wear down the attitude with some sugar and acid?) but it only made him angrier.  Maybe carrot sticks or a nectarine will have more success?  Not likely.  I might have to go out and get some lasagna for 2nd breakfast.

Maybe I can appease him by detailing my weekend food adventures?  Saturday I made my own chicken stock! (not good enough for the cranky old man, but i was plenty happy!)  I used this recipe (using chicken breasts!), and it turned out very well.  I also made bread, tried to use a recipe with no milk (basically yeast, water, sugar, and as much flour as i could get in there), but then i let it rise for way too long, it collapsed, and i came out with a weird foccacia-like brick.  As it's aging, it's getting less crusy and is actually not so bad.

With my stock-remnant boiled chicken breasts, I decided to try making a buffalo chicken dip.  I modified the recipe a bit, forgot about the vinegar, and used feta cheese instead of blue (gross!).  It turned out pretty good, but i think i went a little too heavy handed on the hot sauce!  We have lots leftover, so I used a bunch of my fresh chicken stock to make potato soup, into which we mixed spoonfulls of the leftover buffalo chicken dip for a spicy chicken & cheese potato soup.  Was pretty tasty!  More for dinner tonight... and probably every night for the rest of the week, haha. 

I also made chocolate cookies!  They were delicious!  But we already ate them all.

Whatever it is I think I see...

Lollipop, lollipop, oooo, Lolli-lollipop! How many licks does it take to reach the center of a tootsie pop? not very many when you're eating one of these mini ones, i can tell you that much.

One of my coworkers was selling chocolate bars for his son's school for a dollar this morning. After lunch, i dug out a dollar, getting pretty excited about getting a chocolate bar, only to find out the chocolate bars had already gone home to start their weekend! Boooo! most people in my office are on a 4.5 day week, so i'm pretty much the only one here right now. And chocolate-less. Until i remembered my mini toostie roll pops! Phew!!

Tootsie roll, tootsie roll chocolatey chew...tootsie roll i think i'm in love with you! (I just looked up the first half of that lyric, and what a let down. They couldn't come up with anything better than "tootsie roll tootsie roll chocolatey chew?")

punxsutawny THIS!

Winter is ending! Major snow storm this weekend? Who cares! When i walked to work this morning, i got sun on me! Yippeee!

It can keep snowing, i like snow. But mostly i like sunshine. Sunshine + snow = even brighter sunshine!

Whenever I see pictures of groundhogs (did you know that last year Staten Island Chuck bit Mayor Bloomberg?!) they remind me of the gopher in winnie the pooh. I wouldn't trust him to tell me when spring is coming... all he's good at is digging holes, falling down them, whistling, and using dynamite, while pooh eats honey.

Speaking of honey, there's a rumbly in my tumbly....

Shake shake shake

I'm trying to make myself like soymilk. I'm addicted to yogurt and cheese, but lactaid pills are kind of expensive and i'm trying to learn to like soymilk for things like coffee and cereal. For my belly, i've been trying to avoid caffeine, but sometimes i get a giant craving for a sweet beverage. So imagine my delight when i found a packet of carnation instant breakfast in my desk drawer this morning, next to the rice krispies! (well, rice krispie wannabees, puffed brown rice, blegh). So, off to the kitchen i went, to mix up a chocolate soy instant breakfast. GIANT FAILURE! A. Nothing to shake with, B. Tasted really gross, and lumpy.

Maybe carnation instant breakfasts are a bad idea to begin with, aren't they full of chemicals? Chemical vitamins... but chemicals nonetheless.

I've been wondering lately if i should give my body a "clense", like go vegan for a week, see if i can survive, and see if i feel healthier. But let's be realistic, i can't go vegan. Or even vegetarian, i love me some cheeseburgers.

So instead, maybe i should focus on ridding my life of one terrible food... but what food? What food can i eliminate from my diet, with the biggest health impact? Processed meat? White flour? Cookies? (Forget it!) What's the worst food out there? Probably hot dogs. They taste pretty good sometimes though... but maybe i could give up processed meat... no cold cuts, no hot dogs, no sausage? What do you think? Are there any decent hot dogs substitutions out there? Maybe a hot dog roll with some roast pork, saurkraut, and mustard would work... what about kielbasa? Any substitutes for that? Would fresh sausage from the butcher (or butcher department) be allowed?

PS - Why do vegans think that fake chicken patties are healthier than real chicken patties? Are they really? I can't see how fake food could ever be more healthy than real food...