Egg & Chorizo Sandwich and Beet Juice

Richard is one of my most favorite people in NWA. His heart is big, his words are encouraging and ladies he's available. He drops by our home "African Style" (unannounced) and my family is always so happy to welcome him. He works at the same company with Jonathan and has become a dear friend not only me, but my family. My mom and dad, sister and brother all know him and love him too. But he's MY First Friend.

The picture to the right was taken at the finish of the Branson 70.3 & Sprint race (l-r: Dirk, Richard, me and the Duck). Where else but Branson, MO do you cross the finish line and are greeted by a "Ride the Ducks" duck and Saloon girls? I had to get a picture of 1 and passed on the other. This was my 3rd triathlon and had it not been for his encouraging words, I may not have made it past my first. Thanks FF, you are the best! 

Cooking and Eating through The Feed Zone readers...Welcome Richard!

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Below are recipes as cooked by myself that come straight from ‘The Feed Zone Cookbook. I gotta admit, since my BFF ‘becca Nimrod mentioned it, I have been hooked on this book. The food is amazing and simple to create. Plus, I’m a bit of a ‘rule follower’ so I like following the recipes.  And it sure beats the “food guideline” that I have been following for the past year of BORING food. Lets dig in.

Egg and Chorizo Sandwich, page 48

Kitchen Action: So this one appealed to me because I have done breakfast sammiches before. This one is interesting because it used chorizo. Which I have not cooked with before. And I’m Hispanic! Meh.

Anyway, if you are looking for chorizo in the store, it is near the refrigerated dough and yogurt. Makes no sense to me but that’s where it is. Because I thought it would cook like a breakfast sausage, I made patties out of it. When it hit the pan, the chorizo separated due to the fat and was more like a chorizo crumble. Oh yea, this is gonna be good.

Lacking in pantry: nada

Additions/Substitutions or method changes: For ‘rustic bread’ I used a loaf of neo-tuscan boule. Also added cheddar cheese and cilantro that I had from the night before. On the poached egg, I actually like it when the yolk is gooey and sopps up the bread. So good.  The bread had chorizo, egg yolk, melted cheese and cilantro in it. Oh wow…

What I’ll try next time: Make more of it! Once you toast the bread, place the chorizo and egg on top. Its magic.  Always good with beet juice (see below) and a mug of freshly roasted TTR coffee.

How it scored (1 low – 5 high): 10. No really.

Beet Juice, page 113

Kitchen Action:  I’m a huge fan of juice. I bought a Breville Juice Fountain about 4-5 months ago and have been ‘on the juice’ ever since. My favorite has always been apple-orange-carrot-ginger so trying a new juice was a bit of an adventure for me.

Lacking in pantry:  Nothing. After picking up beets and a few other items from the Bentonville Farmer’s Market, we are set.

Additions/Substitutions or method changes:  Subbed the apples for oranges because I had oranges. A lot of oranges. Still tossed in 3 apples for sweetness but the gala apples here are really small. Had to kick it up a notch. And few stalks of celery because they were sitting in the fridge. What the hay!

Also, the only change I made was to make more of it. I am not a fan of juicing daily just from a cleaning the machine and counters and cabinets and floors perspective. So I juice weekly and fill a jug so I can just pour it out as I need it.

What I’ll try next time: nada nada

How it scored (1 low – 5 high):  4.98. I give it a near perfect score because it is a great juice and I can definitely notice a difference when drinking or not drinking beet juice The 0.02 miss comes from the fact that the beet turns your hands and your pee red. Sorry, had to subtract something for that.

Chicken and Bacon Hash

Chicken and Bacon Hash, page 67

Another peek into my kitchen...tools. I recently purchased a few new ceramic knives and really like them. We have been eyeballing them for months and on a recent trip to TJ Maxx Jonathan noticed them on the shelf. We need knives. Good knives are something we have not purchased, but tend to buy inexpensive and replace too often. We are hoping this will end the repurchase for quite awhile. Not ceramic, but also from TJ Maxx...my peeler. Why use a black gripped stainless peeler, when you can have one shaped like a bird?  Are you kitchen tools consistent? A mix? Ancient? What is your favorite?

It should come as no surprise, we have another near perfect dish from Dr. Lim and Chef Biju. I didn't have much time to prepare dinner, as we were headed downtown for First Friday in Bentonville. I knew there were funnel cakes and corn dogs, turkey legs, kettle corn and cupcakes ready to be purchased, but if my boys had full bellies when we arrived they would be bit less tempted. 

As I thumbed through TFZ & read the ingredients for Chicken and Bacon Hash, I had what I needed and just enough time to prepare. As a whole, we are not fans of white potatoes and I rarely have them on hand, but sweet potatoes are a different story. We love 'em. I had 3 pans going at one time, then placed them all together at the end. Quick, delicious & we had full bellies as we headed downtown. I did however give into warm kettle corn. Somethings I simply can't resist.

Kitchen Action
Lacking in Pantry: white potatoes
Additions, Subtractions or Method Changes: Sweet potatoes for white, red onion for yellow or white
What I'll try next time: I will make the romesco. I didn't have time and also was lacking too many ingredients. I'll make this again and when I do, I'll plan ahead.
How it Scored:
Jonathan: 4
Elliott: 4
Chas: 4 (the bacon & chicken were his favorite)
'becca: 4.5

Tomorrow breakfast from my FF's home and hopefully soon a post from my friend Kathy's Kitchen too. She received The Feed Zone in the mail today, but made this recipe last night. I shared it with her. Her family loved it as much as we did, but her only question was if the recipe amount fed my family. I told her I doubled it, at least doubled it. Maybe I tripled the bacon part.

Oh and you must check THIS out from @swimbikerunguy's Instagram photos. I don't know what he calls them, but I'm calling them Skratchsicles. I think from the conversation credit needs to possibly be given to @TeamCrankAddict. Fellas? And while I have your attention, @swimbikerunguy, when are you going to be a guest here?

Bacon Potato Cakes

The Feed Zone hits Northwest Arkansas 

 Bacon Potato Cakes, page 52

I'm so excited that this is finally happening! Brock, is cooking and eating his way through The Feed Zone too. I'm telling you, the athletes in NWA are giant FZ fans. He snaps way more photos than I and calls me Rebecca. He properly chose his family and a movie over bike hill repeats, will become a triathlete in just a couple of weeks and you need to follow him on Twitter. Welcome Brock!

 I accidentally discovered Dr. Allen Lim while looking on YouTube for an energy bar recipe. I never found the one that I thought was suitable or easy to make.  What I did find was Dr. Lim making boiled parmesan potatoes. Along with that I became fascinated with sports nutrition and began my search for healthy, natural (as possible), easy to make food that would make me healthier and fuel my new addiction of multisport.   Along the way I found a blog by Rebecca Nimrod called Cooking and Eating my way through the Feed Zone.

     After reading a few of her posts and thinking I had found the answer to all of my nutritional and fueling questions I purchased the cookbook.  I followed Dr. Lim, Rebecca, Biju, and Skratchlabs on Twitter almost immediately after creating my account @TeamCrankAddict. A few tweets later here I am guest blogging with Rebecca.

     Coincidentally, Rebecca and I live a short distance from one another and yesterday she offered to kick my butt (my words) while doing some hill repeats on the bike.  I didn’t bite, pardon the pun, my son aka Agent J, my wife Agent O, and I had a date with Men In Black 3.  But when I got home I began cooking on page 52.

     I like to gather all of my ingredients for what I’m cooking and have them in front of me so I don’t have to do any last minute searching.  Prepping the potatoes is pretty easy.  I washed and peeled them as you would if you were making mashed potatoes.  They were sliced and cooked on the stove top.  

    While they were cooking I prepped all the other ingredients and sautéed the onions on the stove. I like my onions more firm than most, and knowing they were going to be cooked in the dish itself I basically just warmed them up on the stove top. I also like a lot of onion but held back knowing Agent J was going to critique my work and he’s tough!

     I prepped the eggs and bacon and when the potatoes were done I mashed them in the pot I cooked them in. When you do this you want to leave some small chunks so that you’re not completely mashing the potatoes.

     When all of this is completed you combine all of the ingredients into a bake safe dish and bake.  My oven (gas) takes a little bit longer than most so I always add 5-10 minutes to the cooking time depending on the dish, so adjust accordingly.

    When they were done I checked by placing a long knife in the center and it came out clean so I knew they were done.  Now the fun part…eating!  I cut small pie like pieces because my baking dish was round and served it warm.  This dish was great!  I added sour cream on mine because that’s what I had on hand but you could also use a low fat or non- fat plain Greek Yogurt. I love cheese so I also added cheese to mine. If I have an excuse to add cheese to a dish I almost always do.  Enjoy!

('becca Rebecca speaking...I Love this picture. Sorry Brock, but the kids most always win. He's darling!)

Kitchen Action:

Lacking in Pantry Amazingly I had all the ingredients.

Additions subtractions or Changes: I replaced the “normal” bacon with my normal bacon which is low sodium (25% less) Turkey bacon. I prefer this and when cooking you can’t tell the difference so I try to go with the healthier option.

Try Next Time:  I would use a shallower pan or dish so that I could get the edges and bottom crispier.

How it scored: Agent J, who we all cater to, gave it 9 out of 10. As for me it was a solid 8. 

Tuna and Broccoli with Noodles

Tuna and Broccoli with Noodles, page 148

This was a quick dinner and is easy to throw together if you are in a time crunch. I believe it would take a bit longer if ahi were used, instead of canned. Unfortunately I did not have ahi and the grocery did not have it available when I stopped to pick up broccoli. I chose a 12 oz can of solid albacore, not chunk tuna. This provided the dish with large sections of the fish. 

Although the egg noodles in the picture on page 149 looked delicious, I used rice noodles, making it GF. Many times I will fix two different sets of noodles, but my boys no longer seem to notice the difference, making dinner a little easier and also less dishes to clean. 

This was a filling dinner which we enjoyed, not around the table, but on the deck. That seems to happen more and more as the days grow longer. 

Kitchen Action

Lacking in Pantry: Ahi steaks
Additions, Subtractions or Method Changes: Extra onion, garlic and broccoli and a splash of apple cider vinegar, because I cooked the onions a little too long.
What I'll try next time: I'd like to try it with ahi
How it Scored:
Elliott: 4.5
Chas: 3
Jonathan: 4
'becca: 4.5

Has TFZ hit your community - triathlon, cycling, running? It certainly has here and I'm excited to begin sharing from some kitchens in the area. Here's a sneak peek...

The Feed Zone hits Northwest Arkansas

from the kitchen of my FF

It's a beautiful day in the Ozarks. Coffee has been drunk and breakfast eaten, boys off to school and my husband is at the office. I'm off to spend most of the day out of doors. Trails with DandyDog, hills to bike, track workout to run and flowers to plant before I head back to the kitchen. Happy Tuesday!