Kristin van Ogtrop's Blog, page 403

Day 9: BONUS! - A Veggie Take on Chorizo and Potato Tacos

We're doubling up today! Our editorial production director Jeff Nesmith created a vegan spin on the Chorizo and Potato Tacos with Black Bean Salsa. Jeff is the one on our staff who keeps everything running smoothly. He sets deadlines and makes sure we stick to them. (If you see him outside your office door it means it's time to pick up the pace!)

 

Every Sunday evening comes our ritual of gathering with folks to cook food, drink wine, and watch True Blood and Mad Men. This often means picking a recipe out from the latest issue of Real Simple. This is sometimes tricky since my partner and I do not eat meat or dairy and my guests are looking for a night of creative vegan food.

 

This time, we went through Your Four-Week Dinner Plan feature and picked the Chorizo and Potato Tacos with Black Bean Salsa recipe to whip up, even though it was not week two, nor was it Thursday.

 

 

In our version, we used 1 pack (4 sausages) of Field Roast Mexican Chipotle, organic canned black beans, Tofutti Sour Cream, taco shells, and an organic avocado that I picked up at Whole Foods, along with veggies, lemons, and cilantro from the Greenpoint Brooklyn Famer's Market. The rest was in the pantry.

 

 

In the end, just following the directions made for an awesome healthy and spicy taco feast for 4, with enough leftover for more. And speaking of the leftovers, I was hoping to use them for some really good pics since the wine started flowing and the sun went down before I got that really great shot on Sunday, but I didn't act fast enough! My boyfriend hit the fridge and finished off the rest before I got my chance.

 

Have you tried this recipe? Let us know how you liked it in the comments, and share your photos by following @RealSimpleFood on Twitter and using the hashtag #OctDinner.

 

Day 9: Chorizo and Potato Tacos with Black Bean Salsa

Today's updated classic was prepared by executive editor Sarah Humphreys, who edits the entire magazine (meaning she reads each story at least twice, and sometimes three times). She makes sure that all the articles in an issue fit well together and that everything is well-planned out.

 

As soon as football season starts, I get a craving for tacos. Hard-shell tacos—the kind my mom used to make straight from an Old El Paso kit and topped with chopped dill pickles (uh huh). Crunchy, spicy, creamy, no-frills delicious. Place plate on coffee table and eat while watching game.

 

And so when it came time to pick my Month of Dinners dinner, there was really no option. It had to be the Chorizo and Potato Tacos with Black Bean Salsa. Could this Real Simple recipe satisfy those same base cravings—in an admittedly more sophisticated (and less trans-fatty) way?

 

 

The ingredients: You know it's a good recipe when everything you need to buy is fresh and perishable…except for the taco shells. In my mind, precisely what makes taco shells delicious is that they come from a yellow box that's been sitting on a grocery-store shelf for who-knows-how-long.

 

 

The prep and cooking: I made the black bean and radish salsa that afternoon and stuck it in the refrigerator. As for cooking the potatoes and chorizo, I could actually conduct a conversation while I was doing it and not mess it up. Which means it was EASY. I did manage to get distracted by football and Mexican beer while I was assembling the tacos and so forgot the avocado slices. Rookie mistake. But they still looked pretty (even though they seem scarily gargantuan in the photo).

 

 

The outcome: I think the picture below says it all, don't you? The chorizo was nice and spicy, the radishes in the salsa lent that same satisfying crunch as my beloved dill pickles. My delightful dinner companion remarked he'd like these just as much wrapped into a soft tortilla (to each his own). As for me, I was already looking forward to the following night, when I'd use the leftover chorizo, potatoes, and salsa on nachos.

 

 

Have you tried this recipe? Let us know how you liked it in the comments, and share your photos by following @RealSimpleFood on Twitter and using the hashtag #OctDinner.

 

Money Rant of the Week: Kids and Fund-raising

As a kid, I did my fair share of fund-raising. I solicited donations for the St. Jude's bike-a-thon, sold frozen cookie dough and burritos to benefit my high school band trip to Florida, and hawked magazine subscriptions to help pay for the junior/senior prom. In each of those situations, I walked door-to-door, asking my neighbors to support my cause.

 

A few days ago, I received a Facebook message from a casual acquaintance asking me to purchase something from her son as part of a fundraiser he was participating in. Now, I know that this child is too little to be using his mother's social media accounts to conduct sales, so clearly his mom was doing the work for him. This irritated me and I quickly decided that I wouldn't buy anything.

 

Growing up, my parents held the opinion that if someone was selling something, they had to be the one asking you to buy it. I continue to live by that standard today. If a boy scout comes to my house selling popcorn, he better be the one asking me if I'd like to buy some caramel or cheese-flavored corn. Not the parent. And if the parent asks? I'm going to turn them down or say, "Sure, I'll buy something. If your child asks me to."

 

I realize that it's not my job to teach your child a lesson (and that if I don't buy anything, I'm probably just hurting your kid in the long run), but this is my stance, and I'm sticking to it. Selling things or ringing doorbells to solicit donations teaches a child an important, yet totally basic financial concept: You do the work and receive cash in exchange. Parents, don't try to sell me a wreath on Facebook, even if the proceeds go to a charity whose cause I support. And please don't try to hawk wrapping paper that benefits your child's youth group at our next book club meeting. I'm not buying!

 

But if your child asks nicely, I will.

 

How do you feel about parents using Facebook to help their children fund-raise? Sound off below.

 

Lancôme Gives Back to Kids!

Lancôme makes it easy to look and feel great thanks to a new collaboration with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

 

On October 22nd, Genes Day, Lancôme will give $7 from every bottle of Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate sold to St. Jude's to aid with their scientific research. If you weren't aware, St. Jude's is the first and only pediatric cancer center where families never have to pay for treatments not covered by their insurance. The hospital covers the costs through their fundraising endeavors and partnerships...like this one with Lancôme.

 

The Concentrate, which boasts loyal users (with beautifully porcelain skin) such as Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, is said to brighten and smooth skin's texture in as little as seven days. It also encourages protein production, leaving you with healthier, firmer skin in the long run.

 

Day or night, just warm a couple of drops between your palms before applying it to a clean face and neck. It sinks in quickly and doesn't leave a slick or smelly residue. Plus, it makes a great base for makeup. When I tried it (I went through a whole bottle!), my light foundation smoothed on so easily and stayed in place all day. I swear my skin looked plumper and clearer, too. Minor scars and freckles faded--not in seven days--but with a couple weeks of use.

 

Be a do-gooder and pick one up for yourself on October 22nd at Lancôme counters and lancome.com!

Day 8: Red Currant-Glazed Chicken with Spinach

Today's update on a classic weeknight staple (chicken) was prepared by Didi Gluck, Real Simple's beauty and health director. In addition to helping you look your best (in the least amount of time), Didi also oversees the fitness and wellness coverage in the magazine.

 

If there's one food I've cooked more than any other it's chicken. It's healthy, it's easy, it's a crowd pleaser. So I love a chicken recipe—and this Red Currant-Glazed Chicken with Spinach did not disappoint. The preparation was simple; Because I am a rookie home cook, it usually takes me longer than the recipe says it will to make it. But the steps were so basic that I really did have dinner on the table 35 minutes from when I started. This alone was a triumph in my family's eyes.

 

 

As for the taste? My husband said this was "the best chicken" I ever made—no small feat when you consider it's my most-cooked food (and when you consider that he's generally the cook in the family and quite a gourmand at that). He and I both liked that the red currant glaze made the chicken skin flavorful and kept the meat moist. We also loved the spinach. It was just barely wilted and full of kick (thanks to the crushed red pepper and garlic).

 

 

I chose to serve the dish with couscous because I felt it needed a grain to round out the meal. And my littlest child deemed the spinach too spicy (word to the wise, if your children will be joining you for this meal, cut back on the crushed red pepper). But overall I loved this recipe. It's officially going into the binder where I keep the recipes I use for a quick, healthy, weeknight meal.

 

Have you tried this recipe? Let us know how you liked it in the comments, and share your photos by following @RealSimpleFood on Twitter and using the hashtag #OctDinner.

 

Vote, Vote, Vote!

Hello, Bookies!

Can you believe we're up to November's poll already? Next month's discussion leader is our associate editor here at RealSimple.com, Kristin Appenbrink, who, like Noelle, is also taking her second turn with the book club. In her first go-around, you read the powerful—but not particularly happy—Revolutionary Road. Vowing to go lighter this time, Kristin offers the four choices below, all debut novels. The poll closes at 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday, October 25.

The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake

Set primarily in a small New England coastal town on the brink of World War II, Blake's story follows three women: a radio correspondent covering the Blitz, a young newlywed, and the title postmistress, whose act of perfidy—she hides an important letter—drives the plot.

Kapitoil, by Teddy Wayne

Walking the line between humorous and heartfelt, Real Simple contributor Wayne tells the story of Karim Issar, a computer programmer from Qatar who comes to the U.S. to help a financial firm prepare for Y2K, and navigates the social and corporate maze—and romance—in the process.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson

Simonson renders a tale of English manners—and culture clash—with charm and wit: After suffering a personal loss, the very proper Major Pettigrew takes comfort in an unlikely friendship, with a Pakistani mini-mart proprietress.

Long for This World, by Sonya Chung

A Korean emigrant, living in America for 40 years, unexpectedly returns home, soon followed by his photojournalist daughter. A multilayered saga of complex emotions and relationships, and the responsibilities and bonds of family.

Vote for your favorite below.

What Book Should We Read in November?survey software

Breaking Bad Habits

My friend Jen is trying to lose weight. She's not going on a fad diet, she's just increased her amount of physical activity and is eating healthier foods. She has some health issues in her family history that are a result of obesity, and she would like to avoid these problems since a number of them are preventable.



One of the habits Jen is trying to break is to stop buying and eating snacks every afternoon from her office's vending machine. For the past two years, she has had cookies or chips when she has needed a break from working. Once she decided to improve her diet, she thought she could hold off the temptation of the vending machine by bringing alternative healthy snacks with her to work. No matter what she did, though, the healthy snacks paled in comparison to the yummy treats she had been getting from the vending machine. Jen held strong and ate her healthy snacks, but she was disappointed and couldn't stop thinking about the unhealthy treats in the vending machine.



I told my friend Jen that she needed a new perspective and to break her snacking habit completely. Instead of thinking about treats (healthy or unhealthy), she needed to find a non-food way to give her a boost of energy in the afternoon. Here is the specific advice I gave to her:


Sleep well. Keep a sleep journal and note when you go to bed at night, when you wake up in the morning, how you feel when you first wake up, and what time the next day you start feeling tired. Log this information for a number of weeks and determine how much sleep you need each night to function at your absolute best the next day. You could be getting too little or too much sleep, so vary your bedtimes to see what repeatedly works best for you.
Eat a hearty breakfast. A cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal often isn't enough energy to fuel your day. Your breakfast and lunch should be your two largest meals of the day, filled with proteins, carbohydrates, a little fat, and a nice supply of calories and nutrients. Keep your dinners light, instead.
Plan an alternative. If you need a break every afternoon from work, make plans with a co-worker to take a walk around the block at that time. Use the time to talk through projects or to ignore work completely. The point is to do something not related to the habit you're trying to break. If you eat a healthy snack, you're still going to think about snacking, so find something new to look forward to.
Change your perspective. Try not to think about it as abstaining completely from snacking. A treat from the vending machine every other week isn't going to destroy your health, especially when you're eating healthy and exercising the rest of the time. Also, you don't have to eat the entire bag of chips if you do buy some, you can eat just enough to satisfy your craving. Think of it as downgrading the snacks from your diet instead of abstaining from them fully. The more accustom you become to eating healthier foods, the less you'll crave the unhealthy treats.
Focus on your motivation. If your goal is to be healthier so you can avoid medical problems in the future, remind yourself of this whenever you feel a desire to revert to your bad habit. A sticky note on your wallet (where you get money to buy snacks for the vending machine) or a sticky note on your car's dashboard (if you're often tempted to go through a drive-through for a treat) can work well at reminding you of your goal. Be positive and try to make your goal as SMART as possible.

Whenever you try to change a bad habit, you need energy (sleep and healthy meals) to make it happen. You need to keep your goal in mind (SMART motivation), but it doesn't have to consume your thoughts (alternatives and a new perspective). Whether you want to improve your eating habits or do nightly chores at home, the tactics to break the bad habit and replace it with a better one are the same. Good luck!

Day 7: Lamb Meatballs with Couscous and Feta

Today's recipe was prepared by Maggie Shi, deputy editor of RealSimple.com and a recent addition to our blogger lineup in the Food & Recipes channel. For the website, Maggie overseas all of our food coverage as well as everything in the Work & Life channel.

 

When I saw the recipe for Lamb Meatballs with Couscous and Feta in this month's issue, I knew I had to tackle it. Why? Because apparently, many of you RS cooks out there don't like lamb. Salmon? Sure. Shrimp? Yes. Chicken? Forget about it. But lamb seems to be an unpopular choice for a lot of you.

 

 

This recipe is perfect if you're a little uncertain about cooking or eating lamb, because it instantly becomes picky-eater-friendly (dare I even say kid-friendly?) once it's in meatball form. I already had a few of the ingredients on hand, so I stopped by the grocery store and farmers' market to pick up the rest. From the grocery store: organic apricots (which is why in the photo above they aren't that perky orange color you usually see—nothing artificial added), whole wheat couscous (more fiber and protein than the regular kind), and Feta. (If your store sells its own Feta packaged in plastic containers and water, get it—it'll be much fresher and more flavorful than the pre-packaged type shrink-wrapped in plastic. Oh, and buy a block and crumble it yourself—the pre-crumbled cheese will also lack flavor.) My store wasn't selling its own Feta, so I picked up the Neighborly Farms brand: It's a Vermont cow's milk feta that I knew would be delicious because I've had their raw milk Cheddar, which is extremely tasty and makes a killer grilled cheese sandwich.

 

From the farmers' market, all I needed was a cucumber (I got a Persian one because the farmer said it had a thinner skin and seeds, similar to an English cucumber) and some ground lamb, which came from happy, hormone-free animals at Catskill Merino Sheep Farm. If you can't find ground lamb packaged at the grocery store, ask your butcher to grind some lamb shoulder for you—it'll be fresher that way, too.

 

Back home, it took me several minutes to chop all my ingredients before it was time to make the meatballs. When mixing the ingredients with the lamb, don't be shy—dig in with your clean hands and go to town (just don't overmix, which will lead to dense meatballs). Forming the balls was a cinch; they held together well and didn't stick to my hands. I lined them up on my baking sheet, which I had covered with parchment paper for easy cleanup.

 

 

I popped them in the oven, then turned my attention to the couscous. I had a moment of panic when I realized that whole wheat couscous might cook differently/take longer than regular, but luckily that wasn't the case. Placed in a bowl with the hot water and covered with a plate, the couscous came out perfectly fluffy in just a few minutes—amazing! (If you're trying to put together quick meals on a regular basis and couscous is not one of your staple ingredients, you're making a big mistake; it's a lifesaver.) In the meantime, the meatballs were ready. I was again amazed at how quickly they cooked and how speedily the meal came together once the initial prep work was done. 

 

 

The final meal looked beautiful on the plate and was a huge hit. The meatballs were delicious; the chopped apricots really elevated them to another level, their sweetness perfectly balancing out the earthiness of the lamb. The Feta added just the right salty bite to the vegetables and couscous, while the sliced onion and lemon juice perked up all the flavors and cut through the meatballs' richness. My boyfriend loved the meal too, calling the meatballs "incredibly good!"

This recipe is definitely a keeper; I'll be adding it to my regular rotation. And if you're still not convinced about lamb—well, you can always use ground beef instead.

 

Have you tried this recipe? Let us know how you liked it in the comments, and share your photos by following @RealSimpleFood on Twitter and using the hashtag #OctDinner.

 

Day 6: Curry Shrimp and Snow Peas

To kick off week two of our four-week meal plan, we have deputy editor Noelle Howey. She oversees several sections of the magazine including the money section, the life lessons essays, and the stories about real women. She also leading this month's No-Obligation Book Club on Simply Stated.

 

I love Thai food. I would be happy to dine three times a day on Tom Kha Gai (coconut chicken soup) alone, even though this would be next to impossible to do where I live in northern New Jersey, where there is a real paucity of Thai restaurants. So I was thrilled to make Curry Shrimp with Snow Peas, a Thai-infused dish.

 

 

Well, I was thrilled until I noticed that the price of shrimp has skyrocketed where I live, up to $13-$16 per pound (is this oil spill-related?). And until I trekked to three different supermarkets—including Whole Foods!—in search of snow peas and bean sprouts, with no luck whatsoever. (At the mention of bean sprouts, one market employee looked as perplexed as if I'd asked for, oh, I don't know, ostrich eggs. With furrowed brow, he led me, somewhat quizzically, to a display of alfalfa sprouts.)

 

 

 

This is all just to say: My version of the recipe was a bit improvised. I used sugar snap peas to stand in for the snow peas and, well, nothing to substitute for the bean sprouts. Because I don't love raw sugar snaps, I steamed them briefly in the microwave (covered, with a tablespoon of water added, for two minutes), and then proceeded with the rest of the instructions. On the plus side, the dish was extremely healthy, and even my picky eight-year-old ate the shrimp. On the minus side, even my picky eight-year-old ate the shrimp—which means it was a little bland for my taste. And I don't say that lightly: I'm a piker when it comes to spiciness. Still, it needed a little something extra. (I'm guessing bean sprouts and snow peas might have done the trick.)

 

 

Have you tried this recipe? Let us know how you liked it in the comments, and share your photos by following @RealSimpleFood on Twitter and using the hashtag #OctDinner.

 

How Can I Keep Mascara From Flaking and Smudging?

This great question, submitted by reader Amy Mitchell, of Nashville, Tennessee, is a common problem for many women. I went to Jenna Menna, a New York City makeup artist, for her tricks on keeping mascara in place.

 

"Mascara transfer is a recurring dilemma. Sometimes it's a trial-and-error thing where you have to test out different formulas. But if you need a quick fix, these will fit the bill," says Menna.

 

1. Sweep on any mascara—waterproof or not—and then, with a clean wand, apply Benefit She Laq right on top. This clear fluid acts as a sealant to lock in color and pigments. (It can also be used on liners, shadows, and lipsticks to keep them from budging!)

 

 

 

2. Sometimes, something as simple as not pulling the mascara all the way through the ends of your lashes will help. Work the mascara into the base of your lashes and avoid the tips. Though you won't get a lengthening effect, you'll still get tons of volume. Pro Pick: Clinique High Lengths Mascara.

 

 

3. After applying mascara, dust translucent powder over the area where transfer happens most often. This will create a barrier on your skin so you'll have less rub-off. And keep away from cream shadows! Anything moist will just exacerbate the problem.

 

 

Thanks for the question, Amy!

 

 

Does anyone else suffer from this frustrating makeup woe? What are your burning beauty q's?