Librarian in Disguise

Garlicky Pork & Udon Bowl

Last night, I had a little dinner party, with friends from church, Pat & her daughter Violet drove north on 29 to join me for dinner and the Spring musical at the college.

We feasted on the following. It was so good I think I might make it again this week.

Garlicky Pork & Udon Bowl
serves 4

Ingredients

1/4lb udon (or whole wheat spaghetti or linguine)
1 32oz carton reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2lb bok choy, coarsely chopped
1/2lb pork tenderloin, trimmed and thinly sliced
2T reduced sodium soy sauce
1T minced peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Directions
1. Cook the udon according to package directions
2. Meanwhile, combine the broth, bok choy, pork, soy sauce, ginger and garlic in a large saucepan; bring just to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat and cook until the pork is cooked through and the bok choy is tender, about 10 minutes. (I seared the pork slices ahead of time so they would have a little color).
3. Stir in the udon an serve at once.

This is from my newest Weight Watchers cookbook, "Shortcuts--130 Almost-from -Scratch Recipes".

4 points. If you use whole wheat pasta it becomes a core plan meal and reduces the points value by 1 point.

Yummy! And my new little friend Violet who is 9 loved it! She even ate the bok choy.

i like baking

Last night I was feeling domestic. I thought I'd bake some cookies. After Christmas I bought a few jars of cookie mix so all I had to do was add butter and eggs. Well my goodness was I disappointed. I've made these mixes before and they were okay. It didn't seem like they would be too bad, but the finished product was GROSS! Ugh. What a bummer! I had planned to give them to my workstudy students. But I suppose I'll have to make another batch from my tried and true recipe that never fails me. What a bummer and what a waste of time. I have a brownie mix from that same company, wonder if they'll be gross too. Oh well, at least I got a nice glass jar out of the ordeal.

Ketchup Chips?

I bought these last week while in Chattanooga. I thought they'd be an interesting novelty to eat. Nope, they were gross. Tasted like dried ketchup has been dumped on the chips, ketchup shouldn't be eaten dried. But apparently my nephew Fuller likes the way they taste. Funny.

trader joe's

Since moving to Columbus I have enjoyed the delight of shopping at Trader Joe's. Before moving to Columbus I had only experienced it out West when my folks were living in Tucson, AZ. Just last week I found out an interesting fact about Trader Joe's, it's owned by Aldi. How very cool. That makes me like it even more.

Trader Joe's is on the way home from my weekly Weight Watchers meeting. Which lets me kill to birds with one stone. A lot of folks think that Trader Joe's is super pricey, but I've actually found it to be quite affordable, espeically for a single gal who doesn't make big meals, and their packaging isn't so big that stuff goes bad before I can finish it.

Horrah! For Trader Joe's.

a few of my favorite things!

It's rainy outside. And this is the perfect beverage for a rainy night in September. It gets even better the colder it gets outside.

yummy cookies

tonight we tried to decorate cookies with fuller. he really wasn't that interested in decorating, primarily he wanted to just eat them. mom and alicia ended up decorating the cookies. it was pretty entertainly.

oh my

too much dijon mustard can be a bad thing. It certainly tastes good, but in large quantities it can make your eyes and nose run.

so fun!

We all had so much fun! We split the group in 2. One worked on the cookie pizza and the other group worked on the pretzels. I think overall the pretzels were more fun to make but the kids liked eating the cookie pizza more. I had a hard time getting the boys who were responsible for applying the salt to realize that the whole thing didn't need to be coated in salt. Most of the pretzels ended up being a little salty for the kids. I though they tasted great, especially with a little mustard.

changed my mind

Last night I thought I had made my mind up about baking bread with the kids. Well, after talking with my mom this morning I've decided that because bread is so labor intensive that only 1 or 2 kids would be able to help at any given time.

Thank goodness for homeschooling websites. I found a great recipe for pretzels. Again it's a bread based recipe, but each kid will be able to make their own pretzel. And I thought to top it off some of the other kids could make a pizza cookie.

I'll let you know how it goes! Off to Aldi to buy the ingredients.

what a name!

It's a long story, but on Thursday I helped a local social service agency hand out donated vending machine food to local homeless & needy residents of Columbus. Anyhow this particular product got a lot of laughs from me & the students I was volunteering with! It's a rather ironic name, don't you think?

My New Favorite food

I just finished eating some. I don't know what it is about it, but I LOVE IT!