Foodprint: Dishing

DessertTruck Works.

I have to confess. There's highly likely there's nothing nutritionally beneficial about dessert truck works.

Whew. I feel so much better.

Firstly, one must hike down to DessertTruck works, one of the standing, erm, stands of NYCs infamous food trucks (Wafle & Dinges, TacoTruck, Etc.), if the truck's not about. Or, if you want to sit somewhere whilst desserttrucking. I went for the bread pudding. Mmmm. Bread...mmm........pudding (insert further Homer Simspon drool here) because it has BACON CUSTARD SAUCE.

BACON.
CUSTARD.
SAUCE.

Each word deserved its own line break, okay?

You can request the sauce on the side, so you don't feel quite so bad about yourself. The portions are also tiny. But, I like tiny because it's indulgent without overindulging. Strong flavors, and great ingredients really don't need sparklers, noisemakers or huge portions to be great. Although, the bacon custard sauce wasn't as bacon-y as I would have liked. Also, the staff behind the counter were very friendly, it didn't hurt that the place was empty for a spell, but nevertheless, friendly. The coffee, is also good and they have skim milk. Often, smaller non-chain places tend not to have skim, and I end up going sans milk. But, at DTWorks, you don't have to. You can have your cake, and skim too. And your...

BACON.
CUSTARD.
SAUCE.

Healthy Obsessions

Trader Joe's Lite Kettle Corn!

Okay, so this obsession isn't quite as healthy as it ought to be, but lately I've been obsessed with trying to eat more whole grains. A whole grain is a grain, duh, but a food where the grains remain intact -- seed, germ, endosperm --- and popcorn is a whole grain! WIN!

I like the Trader Joe's kettle corn because, they've lightened up their own brand, and Trader Joe's generally makes things preservative free. The price is nice; I get the portioned controlled, 6-pack for 2.99, roughly 50 cents a bag. I can eat two of these things and not feel so bad. They also manage to fit in some of my purses, and it's actually a nice, filling snack.

It's not that I want to eat popcorn as a main dish, or a side dish. But, it is pleasant to know that healthy food can also be snack food, and even if you sauce or sweeten it up a tad bit, it can still fit reasonably into your daily diet. Besides, if eating kettle corn is wrong, I don't want to be right. But, I'm right...so it's not wrong at all.

Do you know the muffin man?

You should. Then you should find out what he bakes in.

Muffins tins are excellent multitaskers as they can play a major role in portion control. Last week for lunch, I used a modified muffin tin, a mini-loaf pan, to make individual meatloaves. I had meat that I could eat hands on! So, aside from the gluttonous-perk, I had built in calorie/portion control as each loaf weighed in at 2 oz of meat.

I've also used muffin tins to do assembly-style breakfast, such as mini-quiches and egg scrambles for breakfast sandwiches.

Another benefit: by increasing the surface area of your entree, you shorten the cooking time. So, where a meatloaf can take as long as 40 minutes to an hour to cook, mini meatloaves take about 25 to 30 minutes. It takes no extra effort as you "downsize" some of your favorite recipes. The only additional step is that you have to grease/lin the tines and perhaps adjust the oven temp or cooking time.