Before Valentine’s Day, B purchased a Valentine’s Day treat for the boys.  Given their love of Disney, this treat hid a special surprise.  Can you see the special hidden character?

Yes, these are Hidden Mickey Valentine’s Day cookies!

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What special Valentine’s Day treats did you have?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #126

Growing up, I loved the rare Twinkie or Hostess cupcake.  Are they healthy to eat?  Not by a long shot.  Are they as good in quality as a fresh baked treat?  Of course not.  Still, there’s something special (and nostalgic) about opening that package and eating those cream filled cakes.

When I heard that Hostess was declaring bankruptcy, I felt a wave of sadness.  I hadn’t eaten one of their snack cakes in years.  I couldn’t even remember if NHL or JSL had ever eaten one.  I know that the bankruptcy will likely just be a reorganization of the business, but I decided to introduce my kids to this snacking phenomenon.

We went to the grocery store and stopped by the display.  I let the boys pick out a box each.  NHL decided he wanted Twinkies.  JSL chose the chocolate-y Suzy Q’s. (I was secretly hoping that they would pick the cupcakes so I could show them how to peel off the fudge-like top to save for the end.)

When snack-time rolled around, the boys were highly impatient.  They wanted to dive right into the snack cakes and didn’t appreciate that dad was taking so long with the pre-snack photographs.

Up first was the venerable Twinkie.  Introduced in 1930, it’s a snack cake that many generations have enjoyed.  My boys loved seeing the little yellow cake come out of the package and get unwrapped.  To better take a shot of the cream in the middle, I split the Twinkie in two and showed the boys the delicious filling.  As a bonus, this meant that I could give each boy a half of a snack cake.  They could each try both cakes. This way.

NHL seemed to love the Twinkie.  At least, that’s the impression I got when, after an initial bite, he nearly shoved the remaining Twinkie in his mouth whole.  JSL seemed to savor it more.  He liked it but wasn’t as enthusiastic.  (He really is a chocoholic and Twinkies completely lack chocolate.)

Up next was the Suzy Q.  Suzy Qs are much younger than Twinkies (introduced in 1961).  To be honest, I don’t think I had ever eaten one.  After taking my picture, I split the cake into two and gave the pieces to the boys.

NHL and JSL both loved this one, but their levels of appreciation were reversed.  JSL loved each and every bite of the chocolate, cream filled cakes.  NHL, meanwhile, liked it but wasn’t as enthused as he was with the Twinkie.

In the end, the boys loved the cakes.  B and I split one of each of the cakes also.  They were good, but I’ve got to admit that I remember them being better.  Perhaps the haze of memory and nostalgia has enhanced how I remember them tasting or perhaps my tastes have simply grown up.  Most likely, a combination of both of these.  Still, they were good.  I’m not going to make eating these a daily routine, but as a once in a very long while treat for the boys, they aren’t too bad.

Do you buy Hostess (or similar) snack cakes for your kids?

On Sunday night, the boys were in bed and B and I were searching through the channels for something to watch.  We landed on Food Network where they were showing a special titled The Big Waste.  (If you missed it, it will air again on Saturday, January 14th at 4:00 pm Eastern/Pacific and Sunday, January 15th at 5:00 pm Eastern/Pacific.)

This show was a competition.  Two teams of chefs (Bobby Flay and Michael Symon versus Anne Burrell and Alex Guarnaschell) were competing to see who could make the best dishes for an audience.  So far, this sounds like many of the other competitions that Food Network has aired.  This show had a very interesting twist, though.  The competitors could only use food that would otherwise have been discarded.  Yes, they were essentially cooking with garbage.

Initially, you might wrinkle your nose in disgust.  You may picture Bobby Flay emerging from a dumpster with a half eaten pizza slice, discussing how – after he brushed off the flies – he would turn it into a wonderful appetizer.  It was nothing like this, however.

You see, Americans are very spoiled when it comes to food.  When we shop for tomatoes, we want the very best.  An otherwise edible tomato with a crack in its skin is tossed aside.  Peaches with blemishes on them are left on the ground to rot.  Lettuce is ignored because it isn’t picture-perfect.

It isn’t just the vegetables and fruits, either. Meats that aren’t the ever-desired center cuts are cast out.  Chickens with a broken wing are thrown away because people might think it means they are diseased (when the truth is that they are perfectly fine to eat).  Bagels left at the end of the day and pre-packaged foods with creeping expiration dates get the garbage bag treatment.

As the contestants gathered food, the amazement at their finds increased.  So did the disgust.  Perfectly good food was being thrown away every day.  While 1 in 4 children go to bed hungry, while people scrounge around wondering where their next meal will come from, mountains of food are being tossed in the trash.  The food recovered by the contestants was a mere drop in the bucket.

This show got me thinking about food waste by me.  I am not innocent of passing over produce because of minor blemishes.  I also wondered what my local grocery stores, bakeries, and other food shops did with their waste.  If the food is still good, albeit blemished or slightly older than customers tend to like, does the store toss it away?  Or do they donate it to a local food pantry/shelter/etc?

Thanks to this program, I plan on calling some local companies to see how they handle their food waste.  If they don’t donate it, I’m going to see if I can arrange for at least some of it to be donated.  I encourage everyone to do the same with companies in their area.

Have you seen the Food Network special?  How do you think you can help raise awareness about food waste?

Disclaimer: I wasn’t compensated in any way by Food Network for this post.  I simply wanted to share what I felt was a good program and an important issue.  The image above was created using two images from OpenClipArt.org.

I love cooking squash.  It’s pretty easy to make and goes in a variety of dishes.  Spaghetti squash has a bonus, though.  It looks like pasta after it is cooked!  This means you can make pasta-like dishes with it.

For this recipe, you’ll need a spaghetti squash, some sliced mushrooms, onions, garlic, jarred (or homemade) spaghetti sauce, chickpeas, and ricotta cheese.

First, we’ll slice the squash in half and remove the seeds and "goo" (that’s a scientific cooking term) in the middle.  Don’t toss those seeds, though.  You can bake them later for a tasty snack.

Place the squash halves face down on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 30 – 40 minutes (depending on how heavy your squash is).

While the squash bakes, sauté some onions and garlic.  Then, add some mushrooms and cook them down.

When the squash is done, use a fork to pull the flesh off of the shell.  The spaghetti squash will string out just like… well, spaghetti.  Put this in a big pan.

Mix the squash with the mushrooms, chickpeas, sauce and ricotta cheese.

Then, you simply serve and enjoy.

I’ve made this dish quite a few times.  It’s relatively quick, easy and very healthy.  It also makes quite a bit.  One spaghetti squash can last make enough to last us for two or three dinners.

I can’t mail these latkes to everyone, so here are some photos.  Just try not to slather your screen with apple sauce or sour cream.

No, I didn’t make these.  This was a collaborative effort between Aunt M and B’s grandmother.  And, yes, they tasted as delicious as they look.

As I sit here writing this post, my stomach is filled to the brim.  I couldn’t eat another bite.  I’ve indulged in turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, Asian salad, chocolate rugalech, pumpkin chocolate chip cake, and dark chocolate peanut butter banana ice cream.  I can’t eat any more.  I can’t even think about food.

Ok, maybe I can think about food a little bit.  Thanksgiving, to me, always means certain dishes.  It just doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving otherwise.  Of course, one is turkey and another is stuffing.  The dish that most says “Thanksgiving” to me, though, is sweet potato casserole.

Growing up, my mother and I seemed to have a ritual.  Every year, she would make a sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows.  Every year, I would eat the marshmallows and leave the “yucky” sweet potatoes behind.  Every year, my mom would bug me to try a little bit of sweet potato.  I never would.

One year, I had enough of being bugged.  I decided to just give in, take a taste, and show my mother just how disgusting those sweet potatoes were.  I took a small bite and… loved them!  I couldn’t believe how great they tasted.  I went from skimming the casserole for the marshmallows to eating the whole thing.  (My portion, that is, not the entire casserole.)

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What Thanksgiving food brings back memories?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #115

Yesterday, B and I began cooking some of the desserts for our Thanksgiving meal.  B made her Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake.  I made Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream.  We will soon head out to B’s parents’ house where we will spend the day playing, watching movies, and cooking the rest of the food for our meal tonight.

Here’s wishing you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving!

The news programs and blog sites have been a buzz recently about Congress declaring Pizza a vegetable.  Not some eggplant, pepper, spinach, and broccoli laden version of pizza.  What was being referenced was your typical school lunch slice of pizza.

I have bad memories of school lunch pizza.  I clearly remember a girl taking her fist and punching her pizza.  The indentation she made was clearly visible… until the pizza began to “recover.”  It morphed its shape back to the pre-fist-punch shape.  This pizza apparently had healing capabilities or was cooked with a liberal dosage of rubber.  Possibly the latter considering that kids also used to bounce the meatballs around the lunch room.  (I wish I was joking.  And, yes, I usually brown-bagged it.)

So pizza a veggie?

Well, despite the reactionary tone, Congress didn’t exactly make this declaration.  They did do something nefarious to anyone who wants kids to get nutritious school lunches, though.   Currently, an eighth of a cup of tomato paste counts as if it had the same nutritional value as a half cup of vegetables.  Most other veggies need to be half of cup’s worth before they are counted as a serving.  The Obama administration wanted to remove the tomato paste exception.  Congress blocked this.

Some, mostly the food companies, hailed the decision pointing to the fiber and other nutrients that tomato paste contains.  I’ve used it in my cooking from time to time, too.  So I wondered.  How nutritious is it?

The Washington Post tried stacking tomato paste against various fruits.  They found it fared pretty well.  Still, they pointed out, fruits and veggies vary wildly in their nutritional content.  As they put it: “A half-cup of avocado is quite nutritionally different from a half-cup of zucchini.”

I got to thinking that the best thing to compare tomato paste with are actual tomatoes.  After all, tomato paste isn’t claiming to be zucchini or spinach or apples or oranges.  So why stack it up against those.  Let’s see how 1/8th cup of tomato paste compares to 1/2 cup of tomatoes.  Thankfully, Calorie King let me easily look this information up.

So 2 tablespoons (1/8th of a cup) of tomato paste contains nearly twice the calories and much more sodium as the “equivalent” (as defined by Congress) amount of chopped tomatoes.  (They could use low sodium tomato paste, but let’s be honest here.  They’ll likely use the regular stuff.)  It also has nearly twice the sugar, twice the carbs and none of the calcium.  Tomato paste does best chopped tomatoes when it comes to potassium and slightly beats it out in dietary fiber.  Still, I don’t think the calorie/sodium/sugar tradeoff is worth less than 1 gram of added fiber.

Tomato paste clearly doesn’t stack up, but perhaps it has more vitamins?  Calorie King didn’t display this information, so I found another website, Self Nutrition Data, that did.

Here is the nutrition data for 1/2 cup of tomato paste.  (They didn’t let me modify the amounts.)

Now, here is the information for 1 cup of chopped tomatoes.

They look sort of the same until you realize that you need to divide the tomato paste percentages by 4 and the chopped tomato percentages by 2.  Here’s a handy chart with the final “serving size” percentages:

You can see that tomato paste still falls short in vitamins A and C.  It has a slight lead in calcium which is interesting given that Calorie King showed it as having 0mg.  (I’m guessing that was due to rounding for a 1/8th cup serving.)  It also has a decent lead in iron.

So, should pizza (or, more accurately, tomato paste) be defined as a vegetable.  Most certainly not.  First of all, there is the nutritional data that I showed above.  Perhaps, the best reason comes from NHL, though.  My third grade son, upon hearing this, declared: “But tomatoes are fruit, not vegetables!”  He’s right.  They are.  You might as well declare apple pie a veggie.  Perhaps we need to hire Jeff Foxworthy to run a special of his TV game show for Congressfolks.  We’ll call it: Are You Smarter Than A Third Grader?

Three weeks ago, B and I got to experience that all-too-rare event known as “date night.”  We ditched dropped the kids off at B’s parents’ house and went to Outback Steakhouse.

I had called ahead, but, due to circumstances beyond our control, we wound up arriving about an hour later than our reservation.  Even so, we were seated rather quickly.

After placing our order, we were presented with two big loaves of bread.  I knew we had a big meal ahead of us, but it still took all of my willpower not to devour this bread.  I took a little taste, but that made it worse.  It tasted so good!

Before long, our appetizer, Spinach Artichoke Dip, arrived.  This tasted heavenly.  The dip itself was wonderful, but the addition of the garlic toast pieces was incredible.

Next up was the main course.  B got steak with shrimp and a baked potato.  I had a mahi dish with rice and veggies.

I can’t speak for B’s dish, but mine was very tasty.  I wound up finishing all of mine up while B had some of her meat (and the rest of the bread) packed up to eat for lunch the next day.

When it came time for dessert, we were too stuffed to eat any more.  Still, we ordered the Sweet Adventure Sampler Trio.  This comes with samples of three different desserts.  And by samples, I mean what might be regular sized portions of each dessert anywhere else.  Since we were full, though, we ordered it to go.  I was quite amazed when our server showed us how they had packaged the desserts.  Each segment of the desserts was in a different container.  (I’ve got to apologize for the overexposure of some of these shots.  The white packaging made photographs hard to take.)

First up was the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under: A chocolate pecan brownie topped with vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.

Once combined, they formed this delicious dessert:

After this was the carrot cake (with coconut and pecans) and the classic cheesecake.

Both of these were good, but the brownie was by far my favorite.  All in all, we had a great time at Outback Steakhouse.  While steak is not my thing, they have enough other options that I look forward to going back there again.

Disclaimer: B received a coupon for a free steak from an online promotion and I received an Outback Steakhouse gift certificate during a blog tour.

It’s inevitable.  You buy a bunch of bananas and though you use many, one or two start to turn brown.  Not just normal brown, though.  Those are still good to eat, but threatening-to-go-mushy-any-day brown.  Time to toss out the bananas and buy a new bunch, right?  Wrong.  Well, maybe buy a new bunch, but don’t toss those old ones.  Any baker will tell you that many a great banana-based recipe can use ripe bananas.  Banana bread.  Banana pancakes.  Banana pudding.  Banana muffins.  Ice cream.

Yes, you read that last one right.  Using only bananas and one other ingredient, you can make ice cream!  That other ingredient isn’t even milk.

First, let’s start with the bananas.

Peel and slice the bananas.  Stick them into ziploc bags and put them into the freezer.  I usually put about 1 to 2 bananas per bag.  Allow them to freeze for awhile.  This might take a couple of hours, but you could also just put bananas in as you have them until you’ve collected enough.

Once you have quite a few bananas, you can make the ice cream.  Take out your bananas and a jar of Peanut Butter & Co’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.

First, put the bananas in your blender.

I usually work in batches of 2 bananas.  I made a 4 banana batch once and it overwhelmed my poor blender.  With the bananas in, turn the blender on.  After awhile, the bananas will turn crumbly.  You might have to stop a few times to move bananas off the blender’s sides and towards the middle.

Finally, the whole thing will take on a creamy, almost soft-serve texture.

At this point, toss in the dark chocolate peanut butter.  One tablespoon per banana.

Turn the blender back on and puree the mixture together.

You now have soft serve dark chocolate peanut butter banana ice cream!  If you want your ice cream more like hard ice cream, just put it in a container in the freezer for about 3 hours.

There you go.  Hard dark chocolate peanut butter ice cream!

Given that this is only bananas and peanut butter, it’s probably healthy, right?  Well, I came up with this little nutritional chart to the right.  As you can see,

1 banana’s worth of the ice cream is under 200 calories, has only 7 grams of fat, and has 4 grams of fiber.  Plus, it has 35% of your daily requirement of B6 and 20% of your daily requirement of Vitamin C.  Let’s see plain ice cream do this!

Of course, it could be the healthiest ice cream in the world, but it wouldn’t matter if it tasted horrible.  Luckily, it tastes great.  I gave it to my boys and they loved it.  I toyed with hiding the secret, non-dairy aspect of the ice cream from them, but decided to let them in on the secret.  They still begged for bowls of it every night.  They even tried asking for it for breakfast.

“After all”, NHL reasoned, "it’s peanut butter and bananas.  It’s healthy!”

I’ve got to admit that I seriously entertained the notion of breakfast ice cream.  Sadly, for the kids, I eventually turned them down.  Still, I don’t mind giving them a bowl or two for dessert and they don’t mind gobbling it up.