Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
“Hoender Pastei” is South Africa’s Dutch-Malay’s version on the humble “Chicken Pot Pie!” Served along with Saffron rice and Mrs. Ball’s Chutney…. aaaah Paradise!
Since this was one of Laura’s family favorite dishes, we decided to incorporate some of the wonderful ideas Karen brought back from South Africa! Here’s our latest recipe for a fun dish! enjoy!
Roger Freberg
Now does this really look like “DIET” food?
It really really doesn’t look like diet food when I add a large serving of cooked French Beans, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, pearl onions all dowsed with “Susie Q” brand seasoning!
Thanks to “Mama Laura” we are experiencing some of the ‘Meals-on-our-own” from the Jenny Craig Cookbook … wonderful.
We do plan ‘something special’ for our 35th Wedding anniversary on Wednesday… one of Laura’s family favorites of her youth… a Chicken Pot Pie but with a “South African Dutch-Malay” flavor. It’s called ‘Hoender Pastei’ down there… but it looks delicious. Here’s a sneak peek…
It takes a lot to make a Hoender Pastei!
Roger Freberg
Laura’s baking her wonderful Amarula Carrot Cake, too!
Well… I have dropped 87 pounds on Jenny Craig! I feel great and I am into size 32 jeans which is very cool.
However, I have come to realize that I still want and NEED great food! Jenny’s food is wonderful… but I do think about food a lot anyway, so this gives me a chance to plan something special now and again. (Our 35th wedding anniversary is on the 12th of September)
I am particularly fond of the Cape Town favorite “Bobotie”. I bake it often. I am also researching a few other South African and Afrikaner dishes that have caught my attention, like “Smoorvis” (smoked fish and rice) and “Hoender Pastei” (chicken pie).
We are also looking at preparing a ‘Bobotie hamburger”– which will require tweaking the recipe a bit — topped with baked egg, onions and Mrs. Balls Chutney Sauce which sounds very special. It’s in the lab for further study!
Roger Freberg
Here’s our “Bobotie” recipe that contains a lot of traditional flavors (Leipoldt) as well as many of the current wonderful variations out there.
Well… we dropped in for our weekly weigh-in at Jenny Craig.
Somehow, when you are down 85 lbs. and nearing my goal… you wonder when to stop?
Frankly, I am feeling fine at this weight and I may drop a little more… but wearing a size 32 pair of jeans is just amazing to me! I joke that I plan to donate some of the sizes I ‘passed through’ (including 36’s) to some of my friends who might need these ‘fat’ clothes. ha!
On the left — in case your are wondering — I am enjoying some “Biltong” that Karen brought back from South Africa. This piece came from Kruger Park and it is Springbok! Yes, very yummy!
Everyone in the family has been on Jenny Craig… and it seems like — collectively — we have lost a small Toyota.
Now… I will reward myself on Sunday with a South African ‘Bobotie’… a recipe that I have been exploring and I will post my recipe.
Roger Freberg
I have lost almost 90 lbs and my family is jokingly ( I think) referring to me as “MAN-orexic” as though being 236 lbs is like being one of those ‘stick models with poofy lips!” True, my size 32 jeans is hell and gone from my old 46’s… but I think that is a GOOD thing, don’t you? Thank you, Jenny Craig.
However, this now presents a ‘problem’ as I enter apon unknown territory into what dieters refer to as ‘maintenance.’ Jenny has a plan for this… and for $39 a year, it’s a bargain. Regretfully, part of the program is ‘cooking on your own.’
In truth, we always do a certain amount of preparing already… ‘super sizing’ the salads and dinner time veggies helps curb my big appetite. However, I have become quite fond of their ‘complete start cereal’ ….and wondered… how I would get along without it?
So, I put my ‘marketing hat’ back on and ‘theorized’ that Jenny wasn’t probably baking up her stuff …but having other folks prepare to her specifications. I thought, what better way to come up with your own ‘proprietary’ cereal than to take a few assorted packages of other folks stuff and mix it up as your own. Clever, girl ….. Anyway, that’s my theory.
I then took the bag of Jenny Craig ‘Complete Start’ cereal and separated it into what seemed to be it’s component ingredients …. and I found: an ‘all bran’ , a ‘flake’, a ‘puffed wheat’ and a crunchy nugget that — to me — tasted of almonds. So, I began to look for the components in other cereals in order to reproduce a reasonable ‘facsimile’.
It’s tough to match Jenny’s low fat and high fiber combination… but I think I got breakfast down… but the other meals? Sheeeeesh…. I think I’ll be on Jenny for a while down the road… which is all fine by me… I love the ‘individually frosted’ chocolate cakes!
Roger Freberg
Have you called Jenny, Yet?