Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Thanksgiving Blinders and Leftovers

Thanksgiving Day has come and gone, and now it’s time to reflect on how we managed it, and working with CFG. Our charts were ignored for the better parts of Sunday and Monday. Putting on the blinders would be one way of describing it, but I would like to say that we just allowed ourselves the option of eating what we wanted without concern over whether we had any grain, meat or veg servings accounted for. We have become quite accustomed to what is a serving size for most foods, and looking back; I don’t feel that any of us ate much more than what we would have been allowed.

We didn’t indulge in poor quality food, but with an abundance of fresh veggie appetizers, hummus, whole wheat crackers, oh yeah, and beer. Dinner consisted of ham, mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing, and green salad. Dessert was a selection of tarts; pumpkin, mincemeat, and blueberry with a dollop of custard.

I tried to make our meal and appetizers, healthy and simple. By making tarts, I ensured everyone would have a chance to sample dessert, in an appropriate portion size. Not to mention that the kids like eating tarts. One family member jokingly commented that our refrigerator was just the type she liked; filled with desserts and beer.

The following day, we snacked on our veggies and hummus. What was I to do for dinner? I didn’t want to just reheat the same food, as we would probably be having more of the same for the next few days at lunch. So I looked at the mashed potatoes and came up with an idea for gnocchi with a tomato sauce. I looked up a simple gnocchi recipe and found one here; http://www.foodwhine.com/2010/12/leftover-mashed-potato-gnocchi.html and proceeded to chop up a bit of veggies and ham to throw into the tomato sauce. It was delicious! A big enough hit that Phatdogg has requested that I make some more on Wednesday for him to take to work for lunch, and as the recipe is so simple, I haven’t a problem doing that, like I said, it was delicious. Below are the recipes for the gnocchi and sauce, and a couple of pics.

TOMATO SAUCE
1 small can tomato sauce (or your homemade)
½ onion sliced thinly
1 cup chopped left over veggies
1 or 2 cups chopped ham (as much as you want)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic minced
Heat all above ingredients on low for 20 minutes or until the gnocchi is ready. Whichever comes first?

GNOCCHI
2 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup flour
1 egg
Whisk together egg with mashed potatoes, slowly fold in flour, making sure not to over mix the dough. Flour the surface of the counter top, cut off a portion of your dough, and roll it with your fingers. Cut out bite sized pieces and set aside on a lightly floured surface (a cookie sheet maybe?). Repeat until all the dough has been cut. Boil a pot half filled with water and a teaspoon of salt. Drop in the gnocchi about 10 at a time. Remove them after they float to the surface, which means they are done cooking. I placed mine in a strainer over a bowl until I had completed all of them. When the gnocchi are all done, portion out onto plates, spoon tomato sauce over top, and serve. Nothing beats freshly made gnocchi.











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