Redirecting My Energy

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Peanut Butter, Banana, Mayo and Whole Wheat Pita

When I was a kid my father introduced me to peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches. While some thought it gross, I improved the sandwich by adding sliced banana.

Since spring I’ve changed my eating habits significantly – pretty much doing the South Beach diet.

I have an updated version of the sandwich, and it fits nicely into my South Beach lifestyle.

Instead of bread, I use whole wheat pita pockets. Because I can only have three servings of a bread-like product a day, I use ½ a pita bread, to make a pocket – typically the Kangaroo brand.

A half banana is all I use – all that will really fit in a pocket. Preferably I use a frozen banana. For some reason, it tastes better in the sandwich, the way the flavors meld together. Freezing is also a great way to use up bananas before they get too brown. I peel them first, and then put them into a freezer bag.

I use Laura Scudder’s Natural peanut butter. Actually, I’ve gotten hooked on the stuff. Mom has even left her Skippy behind for the natural flavor. I would prefer the no salt version, unfortunately our local WalMart (which has the best price) doesn’t carry the salt free variety.

As for mayo, Best Foods. I did try some other brands, yet the flavor was off.

After cutting the pita bread in half, I warm half in the microwave for about 15 seconds, and put the other half back in the package.

To the warm pita, I add about 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, about ½ tablespoon of mayo and ½ banana, sliced.

Serve with a glass of cold milk. Yum.

Satisfying, and I am still losing weight!

Sweet Potaotes on the BBQ

My mom is always trying to get me to eat sweet potatoes. They are really good for you, and an approved food for the South Beach diet. It is not that I dislike sweet potatoes, I always like them at Thanksgiving, but I can't get too excited over boiled sweet potatoes, and while I like baked sweet potatoes, I never feel compelled to make them, even though they are good for me.

Well, all that has changed. I love BBQ sweet potatoes, and so does Hubby who, until he tried the BBQ variety, shared my take-them-or-leave-them attitude.

BBQ sweet potatoes are my new favorite food.

So easy, just cut them in wedges, like in the picture. Brush a little vegetable oil over them and stick them on the grill for about 10 minutes, or until tender.

Love the texture, love the flavor, and even like them cold. No butter required. Try 'em.

Turkey Meatloaf whenthe Pantry is Empty

We never made it to the grocery store this weekend, and the pantry is bare. I was preoccupied with work so my hubby decided to make dinner. He does great barbeque, yet he's never done meatloaf - at least not until tonight.

He thawed a package of ground turkey we had, and then came to me for the recipe. Only problem...there were no bread crumbs, no bell peppers, no onions and no tomato sauce. We did have a can of tomato paste, and I told him how to mix it with water to make tomato sauce.

The lack of ingredients didn't detour him - and he threw together a turkey meatloaf with just the ground turkey, one egg, a can of tomato paste and a bunch of seasonings from the pantry. What seasonings? I have absolutely no clue.

My first surprise...while cooking, it smelled really good. Seriously.

My second surprise...it tasted really good!

Recipe Cards, Ready for Immediate Download

I like using recipe cards, as they tend to be easier to use in the kitchen than a cookbook. When reading a card while preparing the recipe, there are no pages closing on the book, causing me to lose my place in the book.

At home, I’ve copied a few of my favorite recipes, the ones I use frequently, on 3 x 5 cards and keep them in a kitchen cabinet. They come in handy and save me time.

A while back I formatted some of my favorite recipes and created several PDFs, which can be printed on cardboard stock paper, and then cut into 4-cards per page. I made three sets: salad dressings, cakes and appetizers.

The recipes are some of our family favorites, and we offer them for sale for just $1.50 a set. Each set has 32 recipes. When you purchase a file, you can reprint as many copies of the recipes as you want, allowing you to create sets of recipe cards for friends as gifts.

Recipe Traditions

Look to the right of this blog entry and you'll see a "Buy It" tab. We have released a new version of Recipe Traditions, on PDF. It is ready for immediate download. It is hosted at Tradebit, a company we've used for several years. You can purchase the file with Paypal or your credit card, on a secure page.

Order Recipe Traditions and download the file immediately! Take the great recipes with you!

BBQ Jalapeño Poppers

We had a Memorial Day BBQ at our house on Monday. Those attending included some family and friends. The menu wasn’t terribly original, just burgers and brats. But my husband’s cousin (actually the husband of the cousin) made something interesting.

He made jalapeño poppers on the BBQ. I’ve had the deep fried version, yet never a BBQ version. He began by slicing open each pepper and removing the seeds. He used both green and yellow peppers.

After removing the seeds, he stuffed each hallowed out pepper with cream cheese and a tiny little smoky sausage, and then wrapped each pepper in bacon.

He cooked the peppers directly on the grill, and they did flame up a bit.

They were tasty, yet I preferred them with just the cream cheese, and liked the green peppers better. The photo shows a yellow and a green pepper, and a third popper, cut open so you can see the sausage and cream cheese.