bagels and borscht

So in one of my last posts I commented about my cooking resembling body fluids lately. While this may be true I've discovered/re-discovered some easy meal fixes. The first one is the wonderful world of quinoa. My roommate eats it so I tried it and it's a great alternative to rice and grits which are great alternatives to evil carb-loaded PASTA. I mix it with cheddar cheese, chili powder, and garlic powder, a delicious combination that I also borrowed from my roommate.

My second discovery (and this is really a re-discovery) is spicy tuna. I guess that it's a variation on tuna salad but tuna salad can be gross and heavy on the mayonnaise and this recipe is not. I stole it from a cafe that I used to work at, it's just a mixture of tuna fish (the kind that comes in the little packets rather than the cans because the canned kind is slimy) hummus, and a lot of hot sauce. It comes out a weird orange color but its soooooooo (yes, and all those extra o's are necessary here) wonderful!!! I made it every day this week.

Other foods that I have been putting in my body: extreme amounts of coffee and diet coke, dark chocolate, lots of cottage cheese and provolone cheese, crackers and peanut butter, sweet potatoes, and salads that come in nice, easy, and ready-to-eat bags.

Today I spent the day in New York City with a friend. It was great; we looked at art, shopped, and ate (all necessary ingredients in a good NYC trip). While there Aly introduced me to my first knish and borscht soup. It was fantastic!!!!!!! (and all those exclamations point are well deserved). I'm thinking of trying to make borscht soup this week. I found this recipe online at simplyrecipes.com:

Borscht Recipe

Ingredients
8 cups beef broth*
1 pound slice of meaty bone-in beef shank
1 large onion, peeled, quartered
4 large beets, peeled, chopped
4 carrots, peeled, chopped
1 large russet potato, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups thinly sliced cabbage
3/4 cup chopped fresh dill
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste
*Use gluten-free broth if you are cooking gluten-free

Method
1 Bring 4 cups of the beef broth, the beef shank, and onion to boil in large pot. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until meat is tender, about 1 hour 30 minutes.

2 Transfer meat to work surface; trim fat, sinew and bone and discard. Chop meat; cover and chill. Cool broth slightly. Chill in pot until cold, at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.

3 Spoon fat from top of chilled broth and discard. Add remaining 4 cups broth, beets, carrots, and potato; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

4 Stir in meat, cabbage and 1/2 cup dill; cook until cabbage is tender, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in vinegar.

Ladle soup into bowls. Top with sour cream and remaining 1/4 cup dill.

Serves 6.

So maybe I'll try that and blog about it soon. Although it looks like I'm going to have to buy a lot of ingredients for it and I am feeling both lazy and poor this week so we'll see.





*Please note that bagels are not part of a healthy and balanced diabetic diet...but they're worth it :)