I can never stop talking about the American Heart Association’s Low-Calorie Cookbook. I’ve been systematically making every single thing I can from it for about a year. You should make this. It is healthy and good and you won’t have heart attacks

Ginger Chicken with Whole Wheat Spaghetti and Green Beans
copied with my notes from the American Heart Association’s Low-Calorie Cookbook

serves 4; 1.5 cups per serving

Ingredients
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, all visible fat removed
for marinade:
3 Tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
3 Tablespoons dry sherry or 2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar (I used 2T of sherry vinegar - booya!)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon minced peeled gingerroot

4 ounces dried whole-wheat spaghetti
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil (I used toasted sesame chili oil and it added some heat)
2 cups frozen no-salt-added grean beans (I used french cut - much crisper)
2 medium green onions (green and white parts), thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest (if you don’t feel like buying an orange, you can leave this part out)

Cut the chicken into thin strips about 2 inches long. Put the chicken in an airtight plastic bag or glass baking dish. Add the marinade ingredients.

Seal the bag and turn to coat, or stir chicken and marinade together in dish, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 15 minutes to 8 hours, turning occasionally.

Prepare the spaghetti using the package directions, omitting the salt and oil. Drain well. Return the spaghetti to the pot and stir in the sesame oil. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, cook the beans using the package directions, omitting the salt and margarine. Stir the beans into the spaghetti.

Heat a nonstick wok or large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken and marinade for 2-3 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, stirring constantly. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the spaghetti mixture, green onions, and orange zest. Cook for about 3 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and forms a glaze on the chicken, stirring occasionally.

I threw some parsley and red chili pepper flakes, and I can’t say anyone complained.

The best part about having a famous blogger wife is picking through her widely cast net of electronic friends and finding people that are surprisingly awesome. RA, of Definitely RA, is … definitely awesome? Anyway, food blog, let’s focus here people.

The titular host of Definitely RA is hosting an eight week food/cooking contest in which participants cook a new dish each week and submit posts (with pictures!) for judgement. The winners of the contest will be awarded with eternal life glory, honor, and cook books.

As cooking and contesting are both things in which we regularly participate, Suze and myself have entered TPN into Whip it good! We plan on masticating the competition.

If you have anything you’d like us to try just drop us a comment.

Aside

My local CSA harvest continues to reign supreme. This week I got:

• Potatoes
• Tomatoes(!)
• Broccoli
• Lettuce
• A green pepper

So I’m thinking something with cheese + broccoli + potatoes sounds delicious. I’ll see what I can come up with — UNLESS YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS INTERNETS!?

I have been superbad about posting. Ross has been lessbad about it. Look, I got a new job, got married, had five children, and circumnavigated the globe in the past couple of months, and I am here to tell you that, though I could not/would not post, I have some new bytes of info that you may or may not already know about.

Item 1: Stainless Steel Water Bottles

The People! Why do you hate Mother Nature? Don’t you know about WATER BOTTLES?

I think I’m pretty slick when I use only Diamond Springs water from the giant cooler thing at work…that is until the Dasani bottle I’ve been drinking from starts getting kinda aquariumesque and I have to buy another from the machine. Oh yes, I throw the old, gross one into the recycling, but think about this:

I use one water bottle every five days. That’s 73 bottles a year! If I have nine friends (DO I?) and they all are as stupidly unconcerned about the leechy chemicals in plastic water bottles as I am, together we use and discard 730 bottles! If they DO care about leechy chemicals and they get a new bottle every time, they’re piling up about 568,326 bottles a year.*

Nalgene makes water taste gross and is for hippie college students.

I just bought myself a Klean Kanteen!

It’s efficient (thing gets cold and stays cold), it drastically reduces waste, no chemicals get into my water, and it looks fantastic. Everybody wins! Except Dasani!

Item 2: CatalogChoice.org

I shop online a whole lot. I love shoes, I love clothes, I love books, I love pet grooming things (?), I love cookware. I love stuff that comes for me in the mail. I get like four catalogs a day. I don’t shop via catalog because it’s not 1953, so I toss them immediately into recycling.

Have you noticed that NPR is always talking about CatalogChoice.org? It’s a free service created for people like me who get so many catalogs that the idea of calling them all and telling them to quit seems both daunting and fruitless. You enter your address, type in the catalogs you get, and finally have a polite way to refuse delivery of the Newport News catalog. I figure it saves the company money, the postal service some extra weight, and Mother Nature her children the trees. Everybody wins! Except Newport News! Wait, even they win!

I’ve been making a ton of stuff lately that I am all too happy to share. Stay tuned.

*Made up number.