Graveyard Food

(*SIRENS*)The title may come across as creepy, but truly *hands up* it's not what you think. ;-)
 

Recently, I got promoted. Yay! The only drawback? I had to move to the graveyard shift. Boo!

I won't bore you with the details, but....

With all this new responsibility, I needed to make some adjustments. Not only to my schedule in which I'll miss seeing my love 24/7, but also to my diet.




Have you ever looked around at 3am and tried to find food at home? It's like something out of bad dream isn't it?








 
How about at work?
Vending machine city?
Oh lawdy no!
Over-priced high fructose corn syrup central!







What about in a city that shuts down at 9pm?

Houston? Houston? Houston there's a problem! Houston do you copy?

Drat.



 
So my options are a 24 hour grocery store, Jack N the Crack, and McDonald's. Taco Bell or Wendy's if I can make it by 2am.


TV dinner or pre-cooked slop from the grocery store, or that 5th food-group known as fast-food.

Lets consider the downsides to these options:

1) Too expensive.

• Even off dollar menus and various pre-made meals or tv dinners from the store, I'm still looking at $20 a week MINIMUM, and that's just for my lunch. Don't forget I should be eating 2 other meals each day, and Mr. Niceguy has to eat too. Budget beware, right?

2) Seriously? It's all garbage!

• 1200 calories for a burger, and I won't even mention the fries.
• 700 calories for a pasta dish from the store, made from a frozen kit.
• Iceberg lettuce in a grocery store salad that has ZERO nutritional value. Don't forget the 3 carrot slivers! They count right?

3) Vending machines have those nice muffins and veggie cups, right? Garbage!

• Have you ever looked at the calories in an Otis Spunkmeyer Blueberry Muffin? 400 calories for the 4oz muffin. That's ONE muffin. Oh, but it says "2 servings". Who the hell eats half a muffin?
• That ranch dressing they include in that veggie cup? 3 tablespoons = 210 calories.
• A premade sandwich with mystery meat and mayonnaise that's been soaked in to the bread? That actually made me chuckle.

4) It's all crap!


Well, I could make sandwiches everyday for the next few years.....

but um, yea..... No.

So we bought:

• Rival 2 qt Crock Pot *Similar to this one.*
• Elite 3-cup Rice Cooker with Steam Tray*This one, but we found it cheaper elsewhere.*
• Black and Decker Toast R Oven *Similar to this one.*
• Two sets of really great dishes and silverware.
• Some Snapware

This stuff all fits so snuggly in the cubbies at Niceguy's and my desks.

I then started doing my research.

****Some know about my website, some don't. Months ago, I started a website dedicated to purchasing a month or two worth of food at once, prepping ALL of your meals, and then freezing them for later use. This has saved Niceguy and I hundreds of dollars in what would have been wasted food. We plan a well-balanced menu, can portion control, and only buy what we need.****

Check it out --  http://www.prepyourmeals.com/

****The best part? I know every ingredient that goes in to my food. With the exception of prepared sauces. Working on that one though! :-) ****

Now, this gave me an edge, because I already knew where to look for what I wanted.

Have you ever gotten one of those "Soup In A Jar" gifts from any random person? They include all the seasonings and basic ingredients in a little decorative jar, and a card telling you how to prepare and what to add to it? I have. They normally aren't half bad.

I went searching, and I found 7 recipes for "Soup In A Jar" that I was willing to try.

I took each recipe, and broke them down in to single servings. 1/2 TBS of this, a pinch of salt, 2 tsp of that, and wuala! I have 28 meals ready to go, for less than $1 a meal.

$1 a meal?! No, it's not a bag of rice with salt. These are full, filling, TASTY meals. Some with tomatoes, some with beef. Some with chicken and fresh veggies. Some vegetarian, and all of them could be. Yes, $1 a meal.

I put each single serving of dry ingredients in to a baggie and sealed it with a labeled twist-tie.

   

I then prepped all the fresh ingredients and split that into single servings and baggies. 

 

 

I froze the fresh ingredients and took all the dry ingredients to work.

This is what I got with three of the recipes!

Lentil with Rice Soup

Chili with Rice Soup

Soup In A Jar

I also tried the Patchwork Soup. It wasn't as good as the other three, but still not bad.


I think this is a great alternative to junk food, and it's a fresh hot healthy meal at work! No fuss, and easy cleanup. :-)

I'm going to be adding these recipes to my website in the next couple of days. Keep your eyes peeled!

We're also working on some new recipes. Pizza and Pasta bakes!

Horchata

My horchata is a slightly modified method suggested by a friend. His Momma apparently makes the best in the world.


Horchata = Cinnamon Rice Milk


My method is super simple, it's just time-consuming. I'm able to make about 1 gallon with three cups rice and three cinnamon sticks. It's just the perfect mild, non-overwhelming flavor. More cinnamon sticks equals more flavor. =D

Recipe: 3 cups long grain rice 3 cups water 3 cinnamon sticks Approximately 12-13 more cups water 1 large bowl (I use a gigantic mixing bowl) Straining materials (tips at bottom) 1 1/2 cups sugar (or to taste) 1 Gallon jug, or several smaller to equal Funnel Soak 3 cups rice, cinnamon sticks, and cups of water for a minimum of 8 hours. Cover, but don't seal. Do NOT pour out the water.  Get your straining method ready before you start blending. Scoop out approximately 1 cup of the soaked mess and water in to a decent blender and add enough additional water to equal 4 cups of stuff in the blender. Don't forget to get 1 of the cinnamon sticks in there too! Blend baby blend! (suggestions below) Strain, strain, strain in to your large bowl. Set bowl aside for next batch. If you're straining well, you'll have a mass of pureed rice and cinnamon bits. Set this aside for now. Do steps 2 through 4 again. Set aside rice bits. Do steps 2 through 4 again with whatever is left of the soaked mess. Remember the strained out rice and bits from the three batches?  Throw it back in the blender. Add enough additional water to equal approximately 4 cups of stuff. Complete with steps 3 and 4. Now, at this point, you should have just about 1 gallon of rice milk in your gigantic bowl. Stir it, and pour in to container(s). You stir, because some of it will settle, and you don't want to miss out on the good stuff.  Add your sugar. If using multiple containers, be sure to divide evenly amongst them. Refrigerate! Dispose of remaining after 4-5 days.

 

Straining tips and suggestions:

We, haha..... I.. spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to strain this mess. Each time getting better.

We'd tried:

• Cheese cloth (40%)
• Regular strainers (50%)
• Grease splatter screens (20%)
• Nut Milk Bag (15%)
• Chinois (will let you know)

The results in parentheses represent approximately how much of the rice-bits mixture made it through that particular straining method. 

And yes, it's called a "Nut Milk Bag", and I still giggle like an idiot every time I have to say it out loud. I found a recommendation online to use it when making almond milk, so did some research and ordered one. It's AMAZING! 


I did try the nut milk bag, pouring the mixture right in to the bag, and it was good, but not great. Then I laid the bag flat over my splatter screen, and we're getting significantly fewer rice bits. I'd say we're at about 5% instead of the 15% with the bag alone. Obviously, since we now have 3 layers of straining power. I'm also considering ordering a couple more bags.

When I pour my horchata in to the jugs, I line my funnel with my Nut Milk Bag, to give it that one extra strain before it hits the jar.

Cheese cloth isn't terrible, it's just nearly impossible to get the cinnamon chunks out of, and frankly, I want stuff I can quickly clean, reuse, and not have to buy again in a week.

We're working on getting a Chinois that has a fine enough mesh for this. I'll update this post when I find one.

Be sure to shift your contents around, no matter what your straining method. Spots of the mesh will become clogged with bits, and you want stuff to break through. We used a spatula to move stuff around on our splatter screens, and for the nut milk bag you just squeeze the milk out. Stop giggling. =P

Blending:

My blender is a hunk of garbage, and I can get a decent blend in 1.5 to 2 minutes. Some recipes say go for 5.

This part is really up to you. The more you blend, the more cinnamon ricey goodness flavor you get.

Do NOT burn out your blender! 

Some blenders cannot handle running on high liquefying its crunchy contents for 20 minutes nearly straight. So be sure if your blender is as terrible as mine, unplug it, and give it a breather in between batches.  I actually run mine on high for about a minute, and then stop for a minute or so, and do it again. Like I said, hunk of garbage..... In all fairness, it was awesome years ago. At 15 years old, it's just ready for retirement.

Serving suggestion:

The horchata will separate while it sits. Be sure to give the jug a healthy shake before serving.

I give it a few seconds to sit after shaking it before pouring to allow some of the remaining bits to settle in the bottle instead of in the glass.

Some days, we like ours a little creamier/thicker, so we'll poor about 2-3 oz of regular milk in to an 8oz glass and then top it off with horchata.

Where to get stuff?

Nut Milk Bag
Splatter Screens

Enjoy!!!!

Miss Fuzz

I also posted this to Facebook, to those that may have already read this.

 

Today started like any other work-day....

Woke up bleary eyed, and I stumbled to the bathroom to begin my morning ritual.

I do the same things everyone else does as soon as they get out of bed in the morning. Turn on the bathroom light and wince at the bulbs, make mental notes about getting to bed earlier, and pee. Yep, I said it. Get over it.

So I finished my morning, "Okay, I guess I'm up," ritual, and reached to pull the shower curtain back to turn on the water for my morning shower.

Bam!!! Something isn't right.... You know that feeling? Something is off, but you can't really place it. Most of us look up. Yep up, because we know what we're looking for. Creepy, crawly, black, fuzzy, pissy, little monsters. Hoping the whole time, it's just the sleepy stupor or maybe I'm still dreaming.

So I'm scoping out the ceiling in my tiny tiny bathroom, making note to move away from the vent above my head. Wishing I hadn't closed the bathroom door, which was done to allow the man to sleep. When it happened.

Every hair on my body stood straight up. I felt the electrical charge almost immediately as I flew in to the bathtub with a muffled squeal.

(*Muffled because yes, I don't want to wake the man up after all.*)

There.... On the floor.... There she was....

Quarter-sized, legs included. Not huge to many, but dammit she was gigantic to me. And when she ran over my foot, she sent my adrenaline pumping in such a way you'd think I had just jumped out of a plane.

Oh my word was my blood pumping. There’s nothing like a charge of electricity at 5am.

I calmly stepped out of the bathtub. Careful not to disturb Miss Fuzz, but she was having none of it. She bolted for the towel hanging on the rack.

No way! I swung the towel wildly, knocking her to the floor, and in an act of defiant aggression she charged me. Body standing tall, legs bent at the knees, rushing quickly across the bath mat. It would have been admirable if it weren't so futile.

Mumbling through clenched teeth, "Oh no you didn't," I reached for and found the extra toilet paper roll on the back of the toilet. Wrapping the roll around my hand frantically, for what felt like years as she hurriedly pushed across the rug. Seven full rotations later, I felt I had sufficient shielding to grind her overly dignified happy ass in to the rug.

And that's exactly what I did....

With yet another muffled squeal, I slammed the perfectly wound paper down on top of her. A firm lump felt underneath it, I pushed her deeper in to the rug. Then scrubbing wildly, I imagined at this point that I'd ground her limp body down to 4 legs and a mangled mass.

Nearly panting and heart pounding so hard I could hear it, I gripped the remaining torso piece within my pinched fingers and flipped the paper over just enough to catch a glimpse of what, at the time, I was certain was a dead spider....

In classic horror movie style, when I opened my pinched fingers a smidge, she shifted. Thus began the stomping....

I threw the paper on to the fake wood linoleum, and smeared her lifeless body across the floor with my foot until I was certain that even residual muscle movements had ceased.

Heart still pounding, I picked up the paper, spider parts scattered from edge to edge, and gingerly placed it in the toilet. I watched carefully as the toilet paper spun away and then disappeared. I then stood there, breathing deeply, watching the toilet for more than a few seconds to be certain there would be no additional reappearance of Miss Fuzz.

I took a shower.