Welcome!

Hi and thank you for visiting my blog. My name is Tina, I am 42 years old and married to a wonderful man named Robert. I live in the Cleveland, Ohio area with my husband and our two pugs, Koko and Lucy and a special kitty, named Trixie.

I am of Italian decent and love to cook not just for my family but for everyone! I have a lot of weeknight dinner guest and try to keep it casual but delicious! My Mom passed away a few years ago and was my great teacher.

In 2012 I have changed the way I eat. A real lifestyle change to be healthier, eat a nutrient dense diet and remove all processed foods, refined flours and sugars from our diet. I do cook a lot healthier than my Mom did and do a lot more vegetarian meals, poultry and fish. I'm trying to find a way to keep the traditions of family, friends and good food in my house always.

I plan to post my weekly menus, update with new recipes, health information and articles and how to eat mostly organic in an economical way. I will also periodically post personal updates of my journey to regain health and hope.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Close only counts horseshoes....

Tonight's dinner was a blend of hearty goodness and near misses. I made Grown Up Sloppy Joes with ground turkey on homemade yeast buns, baked sweet potato chips and a fresh tomato, cucumber salad. The sloppy joes are a recipe that I received from my Nest friend and fellow food blogger, Beth about a year ago. Here is a link to the recipe in her foodie blog. The only thing I do differently is add about 1-2 Tbsp. brown sugar and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
The sweet potato fries are something I just can't get crispy in the oven. It looks like this is one item you really can't try to skimp out on the oil and if you want them to be crispy you just need to deep fry. Personally, I don't even care for sweet potato fries, but they are Robert's favorite.

Of all the cooking I do, I rarely, if ever bake anything with yeast. Tonight I attempted to make homemade buns for the sloppy joes. I used this recipe from http://www.breadworld.com/. As you can see my buns didn't quite turn out like the picture. They are very tasty, but very heavy and not so pretty. In the next few months I am going to try and perfect my bread/bun making skills. So stand by for more attempts.



Our neighbors gave us a few things from their garden and I decided to make a very simple salad with cucumber, tomato, onion and celery. I tossed all the veggies with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper. Delicious! You really forget what real garden tomatoes taste like when you get used to eating the engineered ones. Also, I rarely eat the skins on cucumbers as they are usually covered in wax and chemicals...not so when they are grown next door. Mmmmm.

1 comment:

Beth G. @SweetLifeKitchen said...

I definately want to try it w/ the brown sugar and cayanne- I bet it's fantastic! Looks so yummy :O)