What's on your plate?

[lylysa]

Hello there, ladies and gents!

Keeping in line with all the fun and interactive threads asking about your most recent halls, items you have your eyes on, what you're currently wearing, what's your hair routine, and more, I've decide to branch out and ask:

"What's on your plate?"

The beauty world doesn't just stop at skin care and cosmetics, it also goes hand in hand with your overall health and well-being, so with that, I'm curious to see what we're all chowing down and snacking on be it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, or inbetween!

For those with apps that help count calories or to those who just want to keep a log, here's a place to share, possibly find and share some recipes, and even tips on maintaining a balanced diet.

Don't just share food items, but even drinks! I'm a huge fan of tea and at least have a cup of green tea a day (anti-oxidants) and drink plenty of water.

For lunch today, I had:

-Brown rice

-Steamed egg

-Steamed red snapper with green onion, sesame oil, and black pepper

-Gai lan (it's a type of Chinese vegetable/greens)

Now, tell me, Beauty Talk world, what do you have? 😄

[lylysa]

Why, fall face first into that cookie tray??? Don't mind if I do!

[jozkid]

Some of my co-workers practically did! OK, not because I made them, but the cookies were pretty darn good!

But seriously, these people will eat anything. I once had a party at my apartment (ages ago, way before I was married) and I had some old Russell Stover chocolates left over in a small candy dish on my bookshelf. You know, the really gross ones like the strawberry marshmallow and stuff? Anyway, they'd been there so long, they had dust on them. After the party? They were all gone. Seriously. Ugh.

[lylysa]

At least you got rid of the gross ones! 😛 I always feel guilty about leaving the gross chocolates in a sampler box. I try to take tiny nibbles to eat the chocolate outsides without touching the centers when it comes down to those.....and if I'm SUPER desperate for chocolate. Haha!

[jozkid]

Depression-era parents here! Nothing gets thrown away regardless of how incredibly disgusting it may be (hence the gross chocolates on my bookshelf).

I can just picture you nibbling away at the chocolate coatings like a squirrel! LOL! When I'm desperate for chocolate I raid my baking stash for chocolate chips!

[lylysa]

No matter how hard I try I still end up biting into the center and then it's just ew ew ew gross gross spit it out and I end up having to spit out the chocolate that went along with it.

Ohhhhh speaking of raiding baking stashes! Come Christmas time I love buying mint chocolate chips, should any be left over after the holidays I'll pour some into my hand and snack on them like tiny chocolates.

By the way, what are those fruit-jelly filled looking cookies???? O_o I'm eyeballing those!

[jozkid]

Ah.....those are a family recipe! In my family, they're called kisses, but most people call them thumbprint cookies or Russian tea cakes. They're wicked easy to make and you can put any filling in that you want. The ones there have seedless raspberry jam. I can post the recipe if you guys are interested!

The usual filling for them (at least in my Hungarian family) is lekvar. Which is (don't gag) prune or prune-apple butter. Very tart! But needless to say, it's a tough sell for people who didn't grow up eating it. Me personally? I love the stuff, but the raspberry goes over much better! 😄

[DiVWA]

jozkid, when I used to bake and wanted to cut fat, I used prunes. They work well in replacing fat. I used to make brownies with prunes in them. Nobody who ate them knew...

[jozkid]

Cool! I didn't know you could do that. I've heard of applesauce being used as a sub in recipes but never prunes!

[lylysa]

I never heard of prunes as a sub either, but have heard of the applesauce!

Thanks for sharing, DiVWA!

You're like a sneaky brownie baker sneaking prunes into the batch! 😄

[DiVWA]

Yes jozkid and lylysa, the prunes worked well for the fat. They were put through a food processor with a bit of water to make "prune butter." The prune butter was an ingredient in the brownies and other goodies.

I just checked and I still have the book--written in 1990s when low-fat was the rage. Book is called "101 Great Lowfat Desserts: No Butter, No Cream, No Kidding!" by Donna Rodnitzky. I just checked Amazon and this book is so out of print that I had to use the author's name to find it. If I were still into the low-fat mentality and still liked baking and using gluten flours, I'd probably still use the book from time to time. Certainly, jozkid, if you're into baking and are comfortable incorporating different ingredients/techniques, this oldie may be something to look into. Alternatively perhaps Googling "prune butter recipes" or "prune lekvar recipes" may bring up some conversion info. [And yes, the term "prune lekvar" is used in some of the recipes.]

[lylysa]

Yes yes yes, recipe(s), please! 😄

[jozkid]

I will do it this weekend! Keep your eyes open here!

[DiVWA]

MMMMMMMM. I forget, where did you say you work again? [noting for 2015 holiday season]

[jozkid]

You have to move fast. Newspaper people eat like locusts!

[knuevekm]

Yummy!

[malday]

I MADE SOME BANANA BREAD GUYS. IT SMELLS GLORIOUS. And yes, the all caps was necessary.

[lylysa]

Darn right all caps is necessary!!! That looks marvelous! What recipe did you use?

[knuevekm]

Now I want to bake some bread! 🙂

[DiVWA]

This looks quite yummy. If there are nuts in this, I'm on my way over to your house right this instant!

[malday]

Toasted walnuts 😄

[Anonymous]

I think there might be a slice for me too. 😄 We could even french toast it.