Aren’t We All Chapped By Now?

I received this GREAT “Ideal Bite” tid bit on lip balm and it deserves taking note:

 Lips feel like worn leather?

The Bite
Use eco lip balm on your next prairie rustle. While conventional balms are made with petroleum (yep, that petroleum), plant-based options are now widely available and will rescue your parched pucker lickety-split. Now ride.

The Benefits

• Being healthy as a horse. Researchers have linked impurities in petrolatum (a common ingredient in many lip balms) to breast cancer; hence, the EU’s restrictions on its use.
• Spur-ning oil. Once the world’s petroleum reserves are gone, they’re gone. 

Personally Speaking
A few of us claim that we’re addicted to lip balm, but we looked into it and it’s just psychological – your lips won’t build up a physical dependence (well, as long as you avoid those heroin-flavored versions).

 

Wanna Try?

• Miessence Jaffa Lip Balm – organic shea butter and safflower and avocado oils moisturize in a big way ($6/0.12 ounce). 
• Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer – sparkly colors (11 of ’em, to be exact) and a minty taste make this longstanding beeswax-based staple even better ($5/0.0975 ounce).
• Eco Lips SPF 30 Sport Lip Balm – if you wanna avoid the white lips that natural titanium dioxide balms give you, here’s the best option we’ve found for the outdoors – does contain not-so-natural sunscreens ($3/0.15 ounce).

 

The dinner menu for tonight was comprised of a Boboli pizza and sliced cabbage mix.

I used 1/2 a head of green cabbage and sliced it. Boiled it for 10 minutes to soften. Meanwhile, I sauteed 4 green onions, chopped.  2 tsp of minced garlic.  I removed 1/2 the onion mix to use on the pizza. Added the drained cabbage to the pan with onions and garlic, then also tossed in 1/2 a sliced green pepper, 1 sliced plum tomato, and 1/2 a can of rinsed, drained black beans. Deglazed the pan with white wine, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little pasta sauce.  Allowed the mixture to simmer until the pizza was cooked.

I didn’t use any oil to cook this vegetable and if you should try it, I recommend you add oil and leave out the pasta sauce. It doesn’t need it.

As for the pizza, I obviously used a Boboli Whole Wheat Pizza crust.  This thrilled Ted because he doesn’t like the wheat free crust I usually make. 

We topped the Boboli with pasta sauce, the sauteed green onions and garlic, some diced green pepper, sliced baby bella mushrooms, Morning Star breakfast patties, sausage links and bacon.  All meat free.  Basically the only meat free items that Ted will eat.

The cheese was fresh mozzarella balls, packed in water. I sliced them and top that with just a small bit of parmesan cheese. Cooked 15 minutes at 450F.

To be honest, I would have been happy if the only things on the pizza were the sauce and the sliced mozzarella cheese. Oh what we do for our sweeties!

That funky pink piece on the side is the "meatless bacon". Ewww!

 TGIF tomorrow!  That means happy hour Friday!Yippee!  The only draw back to this Friday is that Sue won’t be in work.   I’ll have to talk to myself all day… or I can take a lot of breaks and leave comments all over blogdom.  So watch out!

Have a great night!

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CEimB: Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

I couldn’t go wrong.  Both Emeril and Ellie were in my kitchen

When I asked the girl serving at the fish counter in our local market about  1 1/2 lb of medium, raw shrimp, she steered me away from the ones in the display and, pointing to the “Emeril” bag of frozen shrimp, said “these are your best choice”.  Who am I to question that fishy chick?

I was excited about this CEimB night and cooking up a shrimpy dish because I really enjoy shrimp. A true seafood lover which is why I could never declare myself a true-blue Vegetarian.  When I saw what Cookies With Boys chose as tonight’s main feature, I was beside myself!  And FETA cheese as well?! Oh Heaven!

I surfed a little and found a couple of suggested alterations for this recipe which were right up my alley. 1. Add a little crushed red pepper. 2. Add wine. 

Adding the wine was a no brainer since there was so much to use from our Wine and Food Pairing Party last Saturday.  I like a little spice in my life so the red pepper worked for me.  However… I forgot to add it.

I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned. Not sure why because this time of year in New York (maybe even where you are), the tomatoes look really nice, all red and plump, but they lack flavor. Still… something about “fresh” makes me think “better”.  They sure did smell good when being chopped and smashed!  A green bell pepper was also a spur of the moment addition.

 

Here are the ingredients used with another change:  I tossed that old McCormick Dill Seed and used  Spice Hunter dill.

 

 

My procedure: 

I cooked the onion with 3/4 green bell pepper (chopped) for about 6 minutes. 

Ted smashed the chopped fresh tomatoes and, after adding the garlic, we added the tomatoes along with 1/4 cup very light, somewhat sweet red wine (the Abby Rose).  Brought our mixture to a boil, however instead of thickening, it got juicier. Probably – well, definitely, the fresh tomatoes fault. 

After simmering for 10 minutes, I transferred the mix to a baking dish with a slotted spoon to get rid of some of the juice. Added my cilantro instead of parsley, dill, shrimp, salt and pepper, put in the oven for 20 minutes.

We served our Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta with broccoli and snap peas cooked in Glenora Riesling (another left over wine).

What did we think of this dish?  Well, Ted enjoyed it and I was not thrilled. I really wish I hadn’t forgotten about that crushed red pepper. In my opinion, it needed a bit more flavor. 

• Was it the tomatoes? 
• Was it the wine?
• Was it the Emeril shrimp?
• Was it the cilantro instead of parsley?
• Should I have used fresh dill?

I really don’t know.  It was easy to make and with some adjustment, we just might embark on this adventure one more time.

Good pick  Pamela of Cookies With Boys!

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