Disclosure: I was sent a free copy of this cookbook to review. Also, Roni is a cool chica I’m proud to call my friend.

Roni from Green Lite Bites (and a couple zillion other sites) published her first cookbook this year. It’s called Favorites from the First Three Years and contains—you’ll never guess!—her favorite recipes from the first three years of food bloggin’.

I’ve got to give Roni big props because her cookbook is beautiful. She put it together while raising a kid, incubating a new one, planning a blog conference and working for herself full-time, so honestly she’s making us all look bad. It’s got lots of large, full-color photos that make you want to eat the pages. Each recipe also has three tips or suggestions for variations on the recipe in case you don’t like one of the ingredients or just want to switch things up. She even calculated the calories, fat and fiber information for each recipe, which means she’s good at cooking and math. I also enjoyed the short introduction that explained what cooking and healthy eating has meant to her. The only thing that could have made this cookbook better is if it had come with the food it tells you how to make.

The cookbook is a paperback coming in at 80 pages, but she packs a lot of content into those pages. I prefer to have a smaller cookbook where you actually make the recipes instead of having a big, fat, heavy one that you use for 2 or 3 meals at most. You can buy the cookbook here for $19.95 and also view some companion videos. Tell ‘em PastaQueen sent you! (It won’t get you a discount or anything, but I sure will feel special!)

My recipe for Capp-oat-ccino Delight aka Oatmeal Espresso was recently published in Dave Grotto’s new book, 101 Optimal Life Foods. Some of you may remember that I entered a recipe contest after the Quaker Oats Living Proof Blogger Weekend in Chicago. My win included the prize of an ill-fated unvacation to the Colorado Oatmeal festival as well as the publication of my recipe in Dave’s book.

Dave was kind enough to send me a copy of the book which I’ve flipped through. It’s a guide to what foods will help you manage or prevent various illnesses. I took special note of the chapters on headaches and chronic pain. It’s a handy little guide, and Dave Grotto is a registered dietician dietitian, so he knows what he’s talking about. Roni from Green Lite Bites has some recipes featured in the book too, so you can double the blogger love even if we don’t get any royalties :)

Still, I managed to cook some of my bok choy and ginger using the recipe for Stir-Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger from Epicurious.com. I started by peeling the ginger with a spoon over the trash can as some of you advised. And DAMN, you were right, that stuff if potent! As soon as the skin came off the aroma was overwhelming but it smelled—AAAAAH, GINGER IN MY EYE! IT BURNS! IT BURNS! None of you warned me about THAT! Ginger is a dangerous spice, practically a controlled substance. You might want to wear safety glasses when peeling ginger because it—OMG! I DID IT AGAIN! AAAAHH! AAAAAAHHHHH!!

Anyway, when my left eye stopped watering, I was able to mix the rest of the ingredients into the stir-fry sauce and chop up the vegetables. As I was about to start cooking the bok choy, I started to worry about what would happen if I didn’t like the taste of it. I’d already risked my vision and the tips of my fingers when peeling and chopping stuff for this meal. I wanted it to be edible. So I pulled out come celery and carrots to add to the mix just in case I needed to pick out all the bok choy when it was done.

There was no need to worry though because the result was delicious. I don’t know if it was worth an hour in the kitchen though. Bok Choy tastes like lettuce or celery or what you’d expect a leafy green vegetable to taste like. I don’t know if I’ll get bok choy again in the future, but at least now I know to be careful around ginger.

At first glance they appeared to be a mutant strain of lettuce and a set of reindeer antlers. However, I have since determined that they are bok choy and ginger root. I figured this out after eliminating everything else on the invoice that I could identify.

I have absolutely no idea how to cook bok choy or ginger root. Actually, I’ve seen ginger root in the grocery store and considered buying it for my old Lick the Produce series, but decided it look far too funky for me to attempt cooking with it. Am I supposed to slice it? Grate it to get ground ginger? Tape it to a headband, paint my nose read, and call myself Rudolph? I have no clue, but now I have some in the house, so I’d better do something with it!

After some Googling, I’m leaning towards trying this recipe for Balsamic Vinger and Ginger Bok Choy, but I thought I’d also solicit my readers for recipes. Anyone got some hints or clues as to what I should do with this stuff? Thanks!

I’m going to a Cookie Exchange Christmas party tomorrow, and I’m concerned. I’m working on losing the 40 pounds I gained during the worst of my headache, and cookies do not seem like the best way to do that. (And if anyone mentions “The Cookie Diet” I will stab your eyes out with my ballpoint pen. The PR company for that product is run by assholes and morons who aren’t competent enough to remove me from their email ist.) But, I want to see my friends, and they are throwing a cookie party, so I’m going. Everyone is supposed to bring a batch of cookies and then we exchange them so everyone gets a plate full of different treats.

Does anyone have a recipe for healthy cookies? Or is that term an oxymoron? If I can’t find a healthy cookie recipe, I figure I should find a recipe for cookies I hate. That way when I’m baking them I will not be tempted to lick the beaters and shove five spoonfuls of dough down my throat. (Just to taste test, I swear! Give me my spoon back!!) Of course, I don’t want the cookies to taste bad to everyone, or else I will get a reputation as the bad cookie lady. “Did you taste those cookies Jennette brought? I think they were made of Elmer’s glue and sidewalk chalk!”

Ideas please! And quickly! I need these cookies by tomorrow afternoon.

“Oh, no, that’s just my yogurt experiment,” I told her.

About a month ago MelPo left this comment on my Voskos yogurt entry:

Did you know you can make any yogurt thick–like the so-called greek yogurts that are so popular now? It’s just strained yogurt.

I do it by putting a couple of coffee filters in a colander over a bowl–dump the contents of a big yogurt (my fave is seven stars, but any kind, any flavor will work) into the filters. Then fold the tops of the filters over the top of the yogurt and put the whole bowl into the fridge overnight. The next day, take it out and dump the watery stuff from the bowl and open up the coffee filters and enjoy your thick yummy yogurt.

If you want it even thicker you can weight the top with something fairly light–like a can of soup or something and the resulting yogurt will be a cream-cheese consistency. It makes a delicious pie.

Intrigued, I decided I should try this. I got out a cup of vanilla flavored Dannon Light ‘N Fit yogurt, put it in a coffee filter set over a plastic cup, and stuck it in the fridge to freak my roommate out. When I checked it an hour later, the coffee filter was totally soaked, so I had to take it out and add two more filters to the contraption. The next day, it looked like this:

I tasted a spoonful of the strained yogurt, and it was a bit thicker than when I started, but it still wasn’t as thick as Fage yogurt. I looked in the cup, and at least two tablespoons of water had been strained out. Perhaps this experiment would go better if I started with a thicker type of yogurt to begin with. I dunno. I just know that I’m going to let the professionals handle the yogurt straining in the future.

I remembered that Quaker Oats is owned by the same company that makes Diet Pepsi as well as other products like Tropicana and Lays Potato Chips, as illustrated in this photo of the lobby above. (This photo also makes me think “I need to lose 10 pounds” which is why I didn’t post it before. Oh, body image, how you toy with me!) I decided to suck up real good by cooking a bowl of quick oats in Diet Pepsi.

Please don’t try this at home. (No, really, don’t. You have been warned.)

After spitting out that hideous concoction into the trash, I remembered a commenter who told me mangoes and hot sauce tasted good together. Entries were going to be judged on creativity as well as convenience and taste. Intrigued, I bought some mangoes with the idea of naming my creation Tropical Spicy Delight. Then I actually ate mangoes and hot sauce together and decided that was a worse idea than Lays Potato Chip Oatmeal.

Out of inspiration, I looked in my cupboards and saw that I stored my oatmeal right next to the instant coffee. (Uh, yes, that’s Kroger brand oatmeal. Don’t tell the Quaker Oats people!)

Having recently become a coffee addict, I said, “What the hell! Let’s just mix a cup of coffee in with the oatmeal! It’ll save me time in the morning.” So I did and it didn’t taste half bad, at least after I added the sweetener and milk. It didn’t have many ingredients, though we could add up to 10, but I decided it was convenient and fairly tasty. My brother, who just graduated from business school, said coffee flavorings were hot. Thus, I named it Oatmeal Expresso and sent it in.

The deadline passed and I hadn’t heard anything, so I thought one of the food bloggers had kicked my ass by using real ingredients like fruit.

Then I got a voice mail saying Quaker had very exciting news for me and to call them back please. Unfortunately I got the message after office hours and had to wait a day to find out what they wanted. The optimistic part of me hoped I had won, but the pessimistic part made me think I was one of two finalists who would have to fly to New York for a sudden death round of oatmeal wrestling. The really pessimistic part of me imagined the other finalist would be Miz Fit, whose eyeballs are more in shape than my entire body.

I finally called them back the next day and guess what? Oh no, you already guessed? Well, you’re right! I won! And I didn’t have to force another blogger into a hammer lock to do so. It made me so happy I got off my ass and ran for 30 minutes, which is something I have not been doing enough of lately.

In many ways this has been both the best and worst year of my life. It’s been like eating an ice cream cake covered in fecal flavored frosting. There’s been a lot of creamy, vanilla, chocolate goodness, but there’s been a lot of shit too. It’s nice to know that good things can still happen.

So, I shall go to the oatmeal festival and I shall visit the world’s largest topping bar and I shall report back to you, assuming I do not go splat into a tree on the bunny slopes.

Here is my winning recipe, Oatmeal Expresso, which I also considered naming these titles, many of them inspired by Mo’s oat puns:

Capp-oat-ccino Delight

Morning Moch-oat Delight

Mocha Cup-of-oats Delight

Mocha Oats in the morning

Morning Moch-oat Surprise

Morning Mocha Express-oats

Cappuccino Express-oats

Cappuccin-oat Delight

Oatmeal Expresso

3/4 cup Quaker Quick Oats

2 teaspoons instant coffee

3 teaspoons Splenda

1/4 cup skim milk

1/2 cup water

Save time in the morning by combining your cup of coffee with a heart healthy breakfast. Quick and easy, this recipe will give you a shot of energy in the morning that also keeps you full until lunch time.

Combine the Quaker Quick Oats, instant coffee and Splenda. Mix in the skim milk and water. Microwave the mixture for one minute and 45 seconds. Enjoy!

Single-serving oatmeal pancake

1/2 cup of quick oats

2 teaspoons of Splenda

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 egg

1/4 cup milk or soy milk

Mix together the oats, Splenda and cinnamon in a small microwave-safe bowl.

Then mix in the egg and soymilk.

Microwave the bowl for three and a half minutes.

Lift out pancake onto serving plate and enjoy! Or you can eat it straight out of the bowl. Just a note: I guesstimated the ingredient measurements. I’ve just been eye-balling the amounts until the mixture looks good. At first I tried it without any milk, but it was too dry, so adjust that measurement depending on how gooey you want the pancake.

If you’d prefer to make this as a muffin, you could probably microwave it in a small mug and scrape out the end result using a spatula. Either way, it’s a quick and easy way to eat some carbs and protein in the morning without creating a batch of muffins, which I always end up binging on. Thanks, Kathy!

The good thing about posting a recipe every weekend is that it forces me to cook. I’ve gotten rather lax about making my own meals lately. I use a lot of energy fighting my chronic headache, which hasn’t left me much strength to do normal things like cook or do the dishes or floss every night. Instead, I’ve been eating pricier instant dinners or buying wraps and salads from Whole Paycheck. But here’s a recipe that wasn’t too taxing, didn’t take too long to cook and mixed up my protein and veggies into one tasty, filling meal.

Southwest Chicken Stir-Fry

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch strips

1 small zucchini

1 small yellow summer squash

2 Tablespoons canola oil

1/3 cup salsa

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Mix lemon juice and chili powder in bowl. Stir in chicken. Cover and refrigerate 15 minutes. Cut zucchini and yellow squash into thin slices.

Coat 12-inch skillet with 1 Tablespoon of oil and put on high heat. Add chicken and marinade. Stir-fry until chicken is no longer pink in the center. Remove from skillet.

Add remaining 1 Tablespoon oil. Add zucchini and yellow squash and stir-fry for about 4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.

Add chicken, salsa and cilantro. Cook and stir until hot. Serve.

First I chopped up some skinless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and stirred them into a marinade of lemon juice and taco seasoning. The recipe says to use chili powder, but I prefer the taste of these taco seasoning mixes made by Old El Paso. You’re supposed to let that sit for 15 minutes, but I never do. Me want food now! Me hungry!

Next I took the zucchini out of the fresher drawer because their skin was getting wrinkly which was a sign they were getting old, just like in humans. I usually also use a yellow squash, but I didn’t have any and I DID have two zucchini, so no squash for me this time. So, yeah, so far I’ve followed the recipe by about 50%, and later on I’m not going to use cilantro either. If you’re new to cooking, it’s important to learn that this is ok. Modifying recipes for your tastes and for what you have on hand is fine and actually encouraged.

I cooked the chicken until it was mostly done, which didn’t take long since the pieces were so small. Then I dumped that on a plate and cooked the zucchini. Once they looked crispy, I dumped the chicken back in and then dumped the salsa on top of that. It was like a game of musical chairs with produce and poultry.

And that’s that! The southwest chicken stir-fry is ready to serve! Yum.

When I opened the cupboard to see roots growing out of my sweet potato, I knew it was time to make some muffins.

Sweet Potato Muffins

1 medium sweet potato (8 oz)

2 cups dry oatmeal

1/4 cup Splenda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

5 egg whites and 1 egg

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Puncture the sweet potato several times and microwave it for about 8 minutes. Scoop out the orange part and mash it in a bowl. Mix it with the rest of the ingredients.

Grease a muffin pan and spoon the mixture into the cups. Bake for approximately 30 minutes.

This is a quick and easy recipe which is high in carbs and protein. I used to mix it up before I did weights and they’d be warm and ready at the end of my routine, ready to refuel my muscles. I usually halve the recipe because I’m prone to eat the whole batch. Note: I’m avoiding artificial sweeteners right now, so for this instance I subbed the Splenda with real sugar.

First I cut off all the roots growing out of the sweet potato, apologizing to the young sweet potatoes that would never be born as a result. Then I punctured it a few times and nuked it in the microwave for about 8 minutes. After slicing it in half, a sweet potato is a yummy treat in itself, particularly if you sprinkle a bit of brown sugar on top.

While that was cooking, I had more than enough time to measure and mix together the other ingredients. Then I scooped out parts of the sweet potato and mixed it into the batter.

I tend to get impatient and sneak little bites of the batter, which is why I should probably chew gum while I cook to impede such urges. Then I scooped out the batter into my silicone muffin pans, filling it basically to the top. These muffins don’t really rise, so they’ll be about as big as you fill the pan. BTW, if you’ve never used silicone muffin pans, they’re very cool. They’re bendy, easy to wash, and don’t conduct heat.

About 25-30 minutes later, I pulled them out of the oven and arranged them nicely on a plate like this.

Normally, however, I skip the pretty stuff and just devour them straight from the pan while they’re still hot. The word “muffin” is a bit of a misnomer here because I don’t use any flour. They’re more like a cross between a muffin and an oatmeal cookie, sort of tough but still tasty. These are fairly calorie dense, so go easy on it!