French Dip Sandwiches (with homemade bread!)

Pinterest is my life. I use it whenever I have a free moment to meal plan for the week, and look for new and interesting recipes that my very picky family will eat. It's very hard to eat healthy when the people you cook for favorite food groups are bacon, butter, cheese, and meat. No veggies, no fruits, no whole grains, so I gotta sneak them in when I can. Luckily the baby will eat anything without much objection. Usually after a meal or two of me making them eat more healthy, I reward them with something extra delicious. I saw this pin a few months ago and added it to my board, Recipes to Try.

Carey Burgers

This is Charlie. He belongs to my brother Carey and his wife Dana. He's super cute and amazing and I love his little face. He was watching us as I took pictures and I made Carey make me his famous stuffed bunless burgers, and I know he doesn't read this so I can say whatever I want! HA!

Carey was ever so kind as to show me how to make these puppies (omg puppies).

You just start with some basics;

Hamburger
Salsa
Mexican Cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste

Start by really working the meat into some nice patties. Carey made 2 huge patties for us cuz his wife was at work. Make a medium sized "hole" in the center to create a lil meat bowl.

Next put a few spoonfuls of salsa into it, and add cheese.

The next part is the "tricky part" as he calls it. Basically now you mold the meat around the cheese and salsa so its inside the patty. He warns to be careful to make no holes because everything will ooze out when you cook it if you do.

Cook them in a pan until nice and brown. We had homefries and corn as a side.

Top with more cheese and salsa and dig in.

The GM Diet Plan : DAY FIVE

I've lost 5lbs so far!!! YAY!!

and....

TODAY IS BEEF AND TOMATO DAY!!!

HUZZAH! So Kristi and I have been checking out multiple websites regarding the GM Diet plan, and all of them say different things on Day Five, but essentially its the day you get to eat lots of meat and 8 tomatoes. Just so you know, Kristi HATES tomatoes, so today proved difficult with finding recipes that she might like.

Day Five

Take small portions of lean meat or cottage cheese with 6 whole tomatoes. You can make a sandwich out of it. Increase your water intake by 1/4th. The meat / cheese are for iron and proteins and the tomatoes are for digestion and fiber. The excess water purifies the system.

I grew up in a pro-tomato household, so I had a few decent tomato recipes up my sleeve.

We started the day off by going to the store for the goods. We grabbed a bag of vine ripened tomatoes, and some deli lunch meats for snacks, 2 nice sized steaks for dinner and a zucchini. I figured some veggies in there for variety wouldn't hurt.

We went to In-n-Out Burger for lunch as a treat, and we were VERY GOOD. We ordered a double meat, cooked in mustard, with tomato, protein style (which means no bun, wrapped in lettuce) we added light amounts of condiments and some pickles. Give us a break!


For dinner we made steak, my dad's famous tomato zucchini "soup" and broiled Italian tomatoes.

For the "soup", you just need a zucchini, and a can of italian stewed tomatoes. Put it all into a small sauce pan, and cook on low for about 10 minutes.


For the broiled Italian tomatoes, it requires a bit of work. Start with some nice ripe tomatoes...


Slice them in half, and add some butter, we used the I can't Believe it's not Butter Spray (0 calories and 0 fat!) Sprinkle with Italian Seasonings, salt and pepper and top with a bit of Parmesan cheese.


Throw them in the Broiler (or on the BBQ) for about 5-10 minutes, depending on the size. The cheese should melt and be goldeny brown.

We got very lean cuts of beef, and enjoyed a nice big feast. We could barely finish it all, but it was very tasty and even Kristi ate it!

Genghis Cohen

Adam decided a few weeks ago to take me out for my birthday, I'm just getting around to blogging it now. Shame on me I know, but I'm so far back logged I'll be posting things that have long past happened for the next few weeks.

A few years ago I stumbled upon Genghis Cohen with an ex-boyfriend. He was a HUGE Seinfeld fan, and rumor has it that Jerry LOVES this place, so well we had to try it. It's been a favorite ever since. I took Adam there one night and he's a convert as well.

The best thing about eating out with Adam, is that he LOVES to try everything and we usually end up ordering more than we can eat, thank goodness for take home boxes! This night was no exception.

One of the best things about Genghis Cohen is the blatant Jewish references in the restaurant. They are kinda have that New York Chinese food thing going for them, and as far as I know are one of the only places you can get those big East Coast NY egg rolls in LA. They even have silly names for things like, Krispy Kanton Knish , Cohen Slaw & Pickles and my favorite of them all, Shalom Pork.

I ordered a pot of hot tea and a glass of water I had to beg for 3 times while we waited for all the food we ordered. The waitress, as she finished our order, had to mention what fat asses we were by saying "Ooh that's a lot of food."

Hot Tea.

We started off with some crispy noodles. They have the BEST crispy noodles, seriously.

Crispy Noodles, "Duck Sauce" and Hot Mustard.

For our Pork dish we got the BBQ Pork Fried Rice. I think fried rice is pretty hard to mess up, so this compares to most fried rices I've had, but it's still really freaking good.

BBQ Pork Fried Rice.

For our Chicken dish we got the Orange Peel Chicken with Broccoli. Amazing. I've actually had the Fried Tofu version of this as well, and it's the BEST tofu I've ever had to this day.

Orange Peel Chicken with Broccoli.

We decided to be adventurous and order the Crispy Duck, which we didn't like. I'm not a huge fan of duck and I keep giving it second and third chances for some reason and it always lets me down. Their No Name Duck comes with a plum sauce and is actually a lot better than this. I'm not much of a fan of that one either, but Adam eats it up.

Crispy Duck.

For the Beef dish we got my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE THING AT GENGHIS COHEN EVER; Mabu Beef in a Basket. It's yummy thinly sliced beef, tossed with some yummy sweet sauce and then cooked til crispy AND THEN! placed in an Egg Roll wrapper BOWL! YOU CAN EAT THE FREAKING BOWL! I always get this, it's a given.

Mabu Beef in a Basket.

Being pretty close to Hollywood, on the corner of Fairfax and Melrose, lots of celebrities eat here, so we felt we had to do the only thing left to do, Pose like the last remaining heirs to the Massengill fortune. We fit right in.

"Douche Chill!" - Tobias Funke