Favorite Foods, Meals & Grocery Stores! Yummy!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love food! It is my life! Perhaps God did have mercy on me and knew what He was doing when He made it nearly impossible for me to gain weight! I know, I know, you're thinking "shut up, Sarah! Please, I'd love your problem!" But really, you would not. As hard as it is for some people to LOSE weight, that's as hard as it is for me to GAIN weight...most brides want to LOSE a few pounds before their wedding, I, however, want to GAIN some! But you know, with the healthy way I eat, I probably wouldn't be that heavy anyway, even if I could gain weight, and I'm an extremely disciplined person, or at least, I can be! ANYWAY...weight or not, I LOVE to eat! One can almost say I LIVE to eat...is that THE healthiest attitude to have about food? Probably not. Do I care? Not a bit! I don't do drugs, I don't smoke, and I never slept around, so food, is my vice! Well, that and other things, but those shall remain nameless! LOL! :)

ANYWAY....I get up and usually think about what I want to eat that day, and I try and plan what I eat. I'm not a breakfast person, but I do feel better if I eat something in morning before I get going with my day!

Here are my favorite breakfast foods:

Eggs...Colin's or my mom's scrambled eggs...so yummy! I also like eggs that are fried hard with no runny yellow stuff, eww! My friend, Nancy, taught me how to scramble an egg in the microwave in a coffee cup, it sounds totally weird, but it works! It's quick and easy and yummy, because you're not warming up a pan, using extra butter and standing at the stove! The texture of microwaved scrambled eggs is similar to the scrambled eggs that come on a breakfast sandwhich...like McDonald's or Jimmy Dean...neither of which, I eat!

Toast...particularly Rye or Sourdough....with a bit of butter and 100% Fruit Preserves with NO corn syrup or other chemicals in it! I like Blackberry Jam the best! Peanut butter on toast is also good, but in that case, it has to be wheat bread!

Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal....dry, as a snack, or in milk! Yum!

Mom's Hasbrowns, seriously, the best EVER and worth feeling over-full for! One of my favorite tastes and aromas in my entire life!

Grandma's Cinnamon Rolls...I don't get them very often, but she makes them from scratch and they're out of this world good! So yummy!

Yogurt....usually what I'll eat this the morning above anything else. It's cool, quick and yummy! I especially love Cascade Fresh Yogurt, it is sweetened with natural fruit juice, higher in calcium, has 8 good cultures in it and is really creamy and tart! My favorite flavor of any yogurt is Blueberry!!! :)

Fruit...I love all fruit, in the morning, I especially love bananas, berries, melon and grapes or strawberries!

French Toast.....come on, what is bad about fried and sweetened bread? Yum!
It should be noted that I also love breakfast for dinner....breakfast is quick and easy and can be savory or sweet...I love to eat "breakfast," pretty much any time of the day!

A lot of times, I have breakfast for dinner because it's easier than cooking a whole meal!

My favorite lunch foods:
Veggies: any veggie with a good dip...like carrots, celery, radishes, green onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc with ranch, blue cheese or balsamic vinegarette! Or my homemade honey mustard sauce!

Sandwich: as a vegetarian, this is kind of tricky, but do-able. A good, veggie-filled, flavorful sandwich is hard to beat!

Salads: lunch or dinner, anytime, anywhere!

Burritos: bean/cheese, chips n' salsa, pastas! Any of these are good for lunch!

My favorite dinner foods/meals:

Fresh Corn on the Cob, a big salad w/ homemade salad dressing (probably my lemon-herb vinegarette), fresh steamed beets w/ parmessan cheese and olive oil and if the mood strikes me, 1 piece of fried chicken or a yummy turkey breast!

Grama's Spaghetti: out of this world, amazingly delicious Sicilian Red Sauce over imported Italian Pasta....doesn't matter what kind!

My Garlic Noodles: olive oil, basil, parsley, salt, pepper and LOTS of garlic over aldente' cooked medium shells or rotini! A meal in and of itself and one of mine and Colin's favorites!!!

Salad, good bread with great olive oil and balsamic vinegar! Yum! (I love French Bread, San Francisco Sourdough, Facaccia, Crusty Italian, or homemade Italian Herb)

Green Beans, lightly steamed with butter/salt/pepper

Freshly steamed beets w/ parmessan cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinegar! Oh Lord!

Colin's Brocolli...I never ate brocolli until my man came and showed me how to make it! Broil it w/ lots of herb, a tad of white wine and olive oil! Worth standing in line for!

When I was growing up and ate meat, my favorite meals were made by my mother, those included: baked chicken, London Broil and Pot Roast! I also loved my grama's soccer ball sized meatballs! I don't eat meat anymore, or at least not beef, but yep, summertime growing up meant....a good London Broil, Corn on the Cob, salad, and fresh garden tomatoes! That pretty much was heaven to me, and still is, minus the beef!!!

I was really fortunate to grow up in a garden. My mama and daddy had a 1,500 sq. foot garden and grew EVERYTHING....to this day, not much in life pleases me more than a garden fresh tomato...there is NO comparison between a store-bought tomato and a garden fresh one! Seriously! To this day, I've never tasted a store bought one that was quite as good as a garden fresh one! Farmer's Markets work in a pinch, as well as organic tomatoes!

Things I didn't like growing up but love and adore now:

Beets, blue cheese (not in a salad dressing), raw carrots, peanut butter (wasn't a big fan then, love it now), most beans except green ones, kale, bannanas, and extra virgin olive oil!
It's funny how our tastes change through life!

I'm begining to really enjoy organic veggies and fruits! They really don't cost THAT much more than regular or conventionally grown veggies and fruits! Sunflower Market (here in Vegas) sells organic produce for the same or CHEAPER price than regular produce! My favorites so far are: carrots, SO sweet and delicious; tomatoes, taste like home-grown or at least relatively close to it, and peaches, so sweet and scrumptious! Or, and apples, so crisp and sweet and yummy! Obviously, I can't buy everything organic, but the way I see it is this: if you CAN buy organic produce for the SAME price as regular produce, WHY NOT do so? It's healtheir for you and for the planet! Yay!

As much as I LOVE my fruits and veggies, I also love my sugar and candy! Don't mistake me! I have a horrible sweet tooth and a serious sugar problem! I hate it, I'm working on it! But, my favorite candies are: Dove Dark Chocolate (so smooth and rich and decadent), Snickers, M&M's Peanuts, Sour Patch Kids, Sour Gummy Life Savers (totally addicting), Skittles and Nerds! When I was a kid, I used to HOARD candy because my mother never let me have it. I can see why now, but please, that plan totally backfired on her! Colin and I both have a bad candy habit and it's GOT to stop....it's so NOT good for us in the long run! But it sure makes us happy in the meantime! :)

As much as I love sweet stuff, I love cookies too! But I REFUSE to eat Chips Ahoy and the chemically ladden, preservative loaded cookies! YUCK! Today, I found some AWESOME and delicious tasting, wholesome (as wholesome as a cookie can get anyhow) cookies! They're called Healthy Handfuls Oatmeal Raisin, they're totally organic and completely free of the following stuff: hydrogenated oils, trans-fats, corn syrup, soy and gmos (whatever those are!). And belive it or not, they're absolutely positively DELICIOUS and amazing! They're my NEW favorite cookie, and possibly, my new favorite food! Even I was skeptical, because normally, organic cookies/crackers don't taste so good, but these are outrageously good and reasonably priced! If you come across them, try 'em, you won't be sorry!

As for markets, I really dislike most grocery stores because everything is SO overpriced! One of the BEST things about living in Las Vegas is the availability of fresh, local markets! My favorites are Sunflower Market and Fresh N' Easy...they have unbelievably fantastic food at unbelievably outstandingly great prices! I can walk out of either one of those stores with an ENTIRE week or two worths of food for like $30.00-$90.00....it's amazing! And it's ALL FRESH! I especially love Fresh N' Easy's line of products...fresh, from-scratch, home-made tasting food that's mostly free of preservatives, chemicals and other bad crap I don't need/want in my body! My body is my temple and I'm VERY concious about what goes in it! Fresh N' Easy has a full line of freshly made salad dressings that honsetly, are pretty much as good as mine....and that's saying a lot becuase I normally CAN'T stand bottled salad dressing, eww!! I don't corn syrup and fake oil in my salad dressing(s), no thanks! But Fresh N' Easy's are so yummy and delicious and amazingly well priced! I can't make that amount for the price I pay for it! ($2.99 for 12 oz.) I especially love their Balsamic Vinegarette, Pomegranite-Raspberry Vinegarette and Caeasar varieties! Granted, the latter is loaded with fat, but that's Caeaser Dressing for you and once in a while, it's totally worth it!

I think my mama was right: EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. I think you can have/eat most anything you want, if it's done sparingly and in control! Most people don't have that control though and that's where trouble begins!

I ENJOY food, I'm not going to NOT enjoy my food or cut out something simply because it's not good for me: I just don't eat as much of it as I'd like. Life is short, no one is going to live forever, and I wouldn't want to anyway. But, you can also enjoy healthier options when it comes to food and get acquainted with good-tasting, FRESH, food! What a concept!

Oh, my other food downfall is CHEESE: I love, love, love cheese! Especially Parmessan! I mean, come on! Parmessan cheese, cheddar cheese, Provolone Cheese, Greirre Cheese, Swiss Cheese, Blue Cheese, Danish/Irish Cheese...the possiblities are absolutely endless and delicious! And hey, it cheese does have protien and calcium! I would love to go to Italy and France and just tour the cheese factories/shops. Oh, wow, that'd be just beyond awesome! I DON'T like American Cheese and I'm not a fan of Monterey Jack either!

My favorite herbs are Basil, Oregano, and Dill! I also like Thyme, but I'm not so much into Taragon.

Obviously, Italian Food is my favorite, but I also really enjoy Chineese and Mexican. Italian is just easiest to be Vegetarian with! And it's easy, in my opinion!

What else can I say about food right now? I love making it! I love to cook and create new dishes and throw things together! I'm not abig recipe follower or measurer, but I'll do it if I have to! I LOVE watching Food Network and have watched it from day one...that'd be 1993, almost 15 years ago! I used to make nightmares in the kitchen, but now, I'm a fantastic cook! One of my greatest accomplishments in life, I feel, is making an outstanding Thanksgiving Dinner this past TG 2007. Oh it was above and beyond delicious and I impressed myself! I did it all by myself and it was my first attempt! No burnt nothin' for me, thanks! That being said, I don't plan on doing it again this year...we'll be going out to eat probably, too much work--but worth it. We'll see where I am and how busy I am! I did enjoy cooking a big meal, just not the clean up! Oh well! It was a fabulous TG and I wouldn't mind repeating it!

Anyway, below are some links to the places I've written about. Hope you enjoy my antics on food and take some yummy ideas away with you!

Happy Eating everyone, and thank You, Lord, for the abundance of good food and great people in my life! And thank You especially for the partly cloudy day today, very beautiful and enjoyable!

In Light N' Love,
-Sarah Liz :)

Cascade Fresh Yogurt: http://www.cascadefresh.com/yogurts_lfboysenberry.html

Sunflower Market: http://www.sfmarkets.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id_1.asp?storeID=69610B99DE2C416A84CC8693150E7216

Fresh N' Easy Neighborhood Market: http://www.freshandeasy.com/home.aspx

Healthy Handfuls: http://www.healthyhandfuls.com/

P.S. I can't believe it's the last day of June and July is here already...the 4th of July is Friday! Yay! I've always loved the 4th of July and am looking foward to it this year! Oh and as for my sickness, I'm feeling better, not 100% yet, but better. Thanks for the concern and prayers! -SL :)