Check out this site. It's supposed to help you be a smart shopper by recognizing where you're wasting your money at the grocery store and how you can save. I wish they'd have more information though, it's a little lacking.

Also, check out MilwaukeeRecycles.com for important information on what to recycle where and how.

"Marketing jingles from every angle lure patrons to turn out backs on our locally owned stores, restaurants, and farms. And nobody considers that unpatriotic. This appears to aggravate Tod Murphy, owner of the Farmer's Diner. 'We have the illusion of consumer freedom, but we've sacrificed our community life for the pleasure of purchasing lots of cheap stuff. making and moving all that stuff can be so destructive: child labor in foreign lands, acid rain in the Northeast, depleted farmland, communities where the big economic engine is crystal meth. We often have the form of liberty, but not the substance.'"

p. 152 of Animal, Vegetable Miracle: A Year of Food Life

I have another website for y'all to check out, it's called The Hunger Site and it's free. Click the yellow donate button daily and 23 pounds of food a year will be donated to the poor by the site's sponsors. There are other tabs on the top to donate to as well, including Breast Cancer, Literacy and Animal Rescue. Again, this is another thing to do while you're checking your email at work!

Have a hankering for some Chinese takeout but don't feel like dealing with talking to them on the phone? (Come on, admit it, you can never understand someone who speaks English as a second language - and that's a good thing because you know the food is authentic!)

Well, here's a close substitute I tried out last night for dinner. This is also a slightly healthier (and faster than waiting for the delivery guy) version of Chicken Lo Mein, courtesy of the newest issue of Real Simple. This one serves two.

1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 pckg of chicken ramen noodles, with the seasoning packet
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 green bell pepper, chopped*
1 small onion, sliced
1 carrot, chopped

In a large skillet, heat the oil, soy sauce and the seasoning packet over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning occasionally, until beginning to brown, 2-3 minutes.

Add the peppers, onions and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through, 3-4 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to the package directions; drain. Toss with the chicken and vegetables.

*When I get everything home from food shopping, I pre-rinse and chop everything so all my veggies are ready for the week's recipes. So, if this is how you roll too, just take some of your already chopped peppers, onions and carrots.

Hey all!

Check out some of these ABC News stories for some current food info you may not already know. The 10 Healthiest Foods You've Never Tried was interesting, although if you're any kind of food nut like me, you know most of those already.

Basically, eat fruits and veggies and work out - anyone can wrap that advice up in a different package and call it the next diet wave. Just listen to me instead!

Yay for Friday! Here are some fun links to get you through the weekend.

http://www.hungry-girl.com/
I love this site! My cousin recommended it to me to get some Weight Watchers recipes for the holidays. The Rockin' Green Bean Casserole was a huge hit at Thanksgiving. Explore the site for more recipes, and sign up for the newsletter, it's full of current food news and more recipes and stuff.

http://freerice.com/
I prefer doing the English Vocabulary, but you can pick which subject. For every answer you get right, the website donates 10 grains of rice to the UN's World Food Program. It's an easy way to kill time at work today!

"I understand that most U.S. citizens don't have room in their lives to grow food or even see it growing. But I have trouble accepting the next step in our journey toward obligate symbiosis with the packaged meal and takeout. Cooking is a dying art in our culture. Why is a good question, and an uneasy one, because I find myself politically and socioeconomically entangled in the answer. I belong to the generation of women who took as our youthful rallying cry: Allow us a good education so we won't have to slave in the kitchen. We recoiled from the proposition that keeping a husband presentable and fed should be our highest intellectual aspiration. We fought for entry as equal partners into every quarter of the labor force. We went to school, sweated those exams, earned our professional stripes, and we beg therefore to be excused from manual labor. Or else our full-time job is manual labor, we are carpenters or steelworkers, or we stand at a cash register all day. At the end of a shift we deserve to go home and put our feet up. Somehow, though, history came around and bit us in the backside: now most women have jobs and still find themselves largely in charge of the housework. Cooking at the end of a long day is a burden we could live without."

- Page 126 of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

Think about the big and little picture the next time you buy that produce from Pick N Save that came from God knows where. Think about what you're actually about to eat as you're going through that drive-thru. I hope you reconsider your choices, or at least think about them thoroughly before making them...

It's Mexican time, part two!

If you have some leftover taco ingredients, use those for tomorrow night's upside down shepherd's pie. I happened to have some leftover ground beef with taco seasoning, peppers and onions. So I warmed those up again and put them on top of mashed potatoes. Make your own, or when I'm feeling lazy, I buy them pre-made and warm them in the microwave.

Another quick and spicy dinner idea is a corn salad (maybe serve this alongside your upside down shepherd's pie). Use a bag of defrosted corn, one or two small containers of pimentos, one small can of green chiles and some cumin. YUM!

I consider myself German over any of the other ethnicity in my background (French, Irish, Native American). So I attempt to cook the occasional goulash or schnitzel, but sometimes I like to take a German dish and meld it with something else.

Bring in Mexican food - my favorite! I'd probably rather be Mexican simply for the food, but I don't think it really works that way. So, the following recipe combines both.

Basically, take your average taco fillings - flour or corn tortillas, cheese, sour cream, green onions, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. I happened to have some leftover brats from a party, so I cooked them along with the rest, sliced them and froze them. I pulled them out for this case, sauteed them a little and used that as the meat in these German Tacos. Try it - it turns out equally delicious as ground beef, I promise.

Or here's a quick lunch idea I use sometimes. Take a flour tortilla and shmear on about a third of a can of refried black beans. Add some shredded cheddar, cilantro and bacon and fry in a pan for a quick Quesadilla. Don't have bacon? Leave it out. Don't have cheddar? Use cream cheese. Serve any variety with some green taco sauce and you will be one happy lunch-er.

My shtick is to use what you already have in your pantry to adjust a recipe. If you don't have peas, but you have green beans, use those instead. If it asks for you to chop garlic, buy it already chopped (they'll never know you changed it, I promise). If it asks for fresh tomato but it's December in Wisconsin *cough* use canned, it's okay! Use the basic idea of a recipe, but adapt it to what you like and what you have available.

I'm also motivated by the health factor. Who isn't trying to eat healthy? But that doesn't mean eating a salad every night. Most vegetables taste wonderful with cheese and since I'm in Wisconsin, I'm taking advantage of the abundance as you'll see in the following recipe. As long as you're eating your fruits and vegetables every day, what difference does it make if there's a little cheese with it? Okay, a lot of cheese!

This recipe is taken from Rachael Ray's Classic 30 Minute Meals cookbook. I adjusted it in several ways, which I'll note along the way. I hope you enjoy!!

Spinach-Artichoke Casserole
Makes 6 servings

-1 small round loaf crusty bread (so about 1 pound, I recommend sourdough or ciabatta)
-2 boxes (10 oz each) frozen chopped spinach (I only had one box in the freezer, so I subbed in one small can of water chestnuts - it added some great crunch that was missing)
-2 tbsp olive oil (I used cooking spray instead to save calories)
-2 cloves garlic, cracked away from skin with the flat of a knife (yada yada yada I just used pre-chopped, jarred garlic, same flavor!)
-1 can (15 oz) quartered artichoke hearts, drained
-1 tsp coarse salt (use however much you want!)
-2 eggs, beaten
-1/2 cup heavy cream (I used skim milk)
-2 cups shredded Swiss or Gruyere cheese (If you can afford it, use Gruyere, it makes a HUGE difference in flavor)
-1/2 cup grated Manchego or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (Again, opt for the pricier Manchego here, it makes an enormous difference. And I used more like 1 cup of each cheese.)
-Black pepper, to taste (I use A LOT because I like spice)

Preheat oven to 425.

Trim two sides of the loaf and thickly slice the bread. Place slices on a baking sheet in the oven to toast. (Save the ends for breakfast the next morning.)

Defrost spinach in the microwave, then squeeze dry in a clean kitchen towel. (Make sure it's dry - all that liquid makes the casserole disgusting.)

Spray your casserole dish on the bottom and sides. Spread garlic on the toasted bread and arrange them in a single layer on the bottom of the dish.

Add the artichokes and sprinkle the spinach around and season with salt. Beat the eggs with the milk and pour evenly over the dish.

Top the casserole with cheeses and pepper and bake until golden on top, about 18 minutes or so.

Try it out and let me know what you think!!