Eating in Guatemala

So I just returned last night from a short trip to Guatemala with International Justice Mission. And what an amazing trip it was!
I've been blogging and talking all about my experiences there, but one question that keeps coming up is "what kind of food did you eat?" I figure that deserves it's own post here on my little food blog. After all, so much of the experience of traveling is about the food. I've heard of some who dread getting out of their comfort zone, being forced to stretch their culinary palate. Poor souls. Live a little! Embrace where you're at! Get yourself out of your box!

So, here's what I had a lot of...




Pretty much everywhere you go, the coffee is good. Really good. I even had the opportunity to zip line over a coffee plantation. Seeing all the work that goes into it gave me even more of an appreciation for the people who harvest, wash, and roast it.

Another interesting drink that is quite popular in the restaurants is called "Fresco de Jamaica" (hibiscus flower drink). It's a refreshing, sweet, floral tasting drink that's really good. I wish I could find it here.

Probably the most popular fast food restaurant, Pollo Campero, just opened up a location here in my home city just outside of Atlanta.
These places are everywhere in Guatemala. Although we did not eat there on this trip, back in 1995 I ate there several times. One of the newest staff members of IJM is a native Georgian. He and his family just moved to Guatemala City and he said that Pollo Campero has the best fried chicken he's had at any restaurant. I plan to take the boys there sometime in the near future for the cultural experience!

A typical breakfast for me was "mosh". Mosh is similar to oatmeal, but more runny. I topped it with granola, papaya, strawberries and honey. It was really delicious and filling. I'd also have fried plantains, refried black beans (yep!), and papaya juice. On one of our visits to an IJM's client's house, she had worked hard all morning preparing her mosh for us. Her's was cooked with cinnamon and sugar and the sweet lady had been stirring it for SO long. She then served us the mosh in cups and we drank it as we left.

My last morning there I had this:



On the menu, it was called "Mexican Eggs." I SO want to recreate this. It was basically two fried eggs atop a corn tortilla, topped with salsa, avacado, crumbled queso blanco with a side of fried plantains and black beans. Simple enough, but I doubt I'll be able to make it just right because the salsa was very unique.

Beans for breakfast? I can tell you that that every time I had refried black beans they were always wonderful. They were very salty but in a good way. They were usually topped with sour cream or cheese. I've never had them like that in the states. I've heard that the way to prepare them is to cook them, run them through a food processor until they're very smooth, then fry them in a skillet to dry them out a little. I have no idea if this is truly the way it's done, and I don't know what seasonings are added but I figure it's worth a shot.

Other things on my menu: ceviche (first time having it...definitely won't be the last!), pumpkin ravioli in a Guatemalan herb sauce, shrimp in a curry coconut milk sauce with raisins and bananas, and chili rellenos. There was also an interesting marinated vegetable salad offered at the hotel with every meal that included cauliflower, carrots and peppers marinated in a vinegar sauce. Again, very tasty.

Dessert was a bit of a disappointment. I was never that impressed. They usually seemed so promising, but just didn't quite deliver.

If you're interested, here's a link I found on typical Guatemalan food.

Pie crust

I'm dreaming of the chicken pot pie from my last post. It was even better the next day as leftovers. This will definitely be put into rotation more.
I saw Rachel Ray making beef pot pie wedges where she rolled out two pie crusts (storebought), cut each in half making semi-circles, filled a little filling on each and folded over and pressed with a fork to make little pockets. She brushed and egg wash on top and baked until golden. I think this would be great with the chicken filling.

Per Sara's request, here's my pie crust recipe. Of course, store bought is easier, but I like to make mine because I've been using a blend of 1/2 whole wheat flour 1/2 regular flour to make it a little healthier. I like the flavor whole wheat adds as well.

Pie Crust:
In a small bowl, combine
1 1/3 C plain flour (I use the 1/2 and 1/2 blend)
1/2 tsp. salt

In a glass measuring cup, measure
1/3 C. vegetable oil
Add enough milk until it reaches the 1/2 C line
Mix well and add to the flour mixture, mixing well.
If mixture is too dry, add a little more oil or milk

Roll out for use in a pie. I usually roll mine out between two sheets of waxed paper.
Bake at 450 degrees until browned.

Super easy party treats

Is it just me, or is Valentine's Day becoming like another mini-Christmas season? It seems like this week has been filled with having to get lots of goodies, treats, Valentines, etc. together for the boys' Valentine's parties at school. I tell you, these elementary parties can be quite stressful! I need something easy as my "go to" treat for these things.

The following is not my own creation. I got this from my sister in law, who I believe got it from someone she works with. They are SUPER easy, the kids can totally help, and they usually get devoured at a party. And there's really NO baking involved, although you do have to turn on the oven.

What you need is this:

1 bag of small Snyder's pretzels (This brand works better than Rold Gold for this recipe)
1 bag Hershey's Hugs (the milk and white chocolate swirled ones...NO nuts)
1 bag colored M&M's (for whatever holiday you're celebrating)

Preheat the oven to 200.
Line a cookie sheet with waxed or parchment paper. DON"T skip this step! You'll regret it later if you do.
Place as many pretzels on the sheet as will fit. Don't use any broken pretzels. Top each pretzel with a hug. Pop in the oven for about 5-10 min. Stay close by and keep an eye on them. You want them to be soft, but not totally melted.
Remove from oven and immediately top with M&M's by lightly pressing.
I like to use a variation of 1, 2, or 3 on each pretzel. Put in the refrigerator to cool down and return to solid.
Once they are back to solid, put on a pretty plate, wrap with foil and keep refrigerated until party time.

Another variation...use a Rolo instead of a hug and a pecan half instead of a M&M. They're like mini-turtles and people go NUTS over them.

Imagine the possibilities...Spring M&M's for Easter, multi-colored for Summer, red and green for Christmas, etc.

Keeping it real

Just so you don't go thinking I'm some ultra healthy, feeding my family homemade meals every night of the week kind of gal, I thought I'd bring you down to Earth a bit. My usual "It's Thursday night and my husband is on the road for the next 4 nights and it's just me and the boys" dinner is this: eating what's left of the mac and cheese directly out of the pot while watching my kids watch the Suite Life. If I'm lucky, there might even be some crumbs leftover from the chocolate pop tarts they had for dessert. That's my totally glamorous rockstar wife's life. Sorry if I disappoint.

Note to self...make these every Christmas!

Christmas is not the time to watch what you eat. Or, I guess you could reason that it's exactly the time to watch what you eat. If I know I'm headed to a function where there will be lots of tasty treats, instead of being that person who tries to avoid all the greatness, I'm usually the person who has no fear of indulgence. Maybe I'll regret that in a few years, but I do try to eat light the rest of the day. And for the record, I've been running a lot these days. I'd like to start off the year with a 10K in January.

But I digress.

Here's a couple of recipes that are hits. And yes, they're not light, but they are oh so good!


The first one is a great sweet appetizer, perfect for entertaining or for taking to a party. I've served it several times and it's always been devoured. It's quite easy to assemble and can be made in advance. And for all you who hate coconut, please make this for the people in your life that love it. I promise, they'll love you forever! Instead of only serving it with fruit, I also serve it with some simple crackers.

Sweet Cheese Ball

And for all those cookie swaps that we ladies inevitably get invited to, here's a favorite cookie recipe that's also quite easy to make. I opt to make the recipe with pecans instead of almonds, but that's just my preference. I also cut the vanilla extract to 4 tsp.

Italian Wedding Cookies

Merry Christmas friends!

Some of you may have seen this before; it was in my inbox this morning from a naturopathic/homeopahtic doctor I've been to. Very cool! Gives new meaning to the children's prayer "Thank you God for our food."

Nature's Pharmacy! Amazing!


God left us great clues as to what foods help what part of our body!


A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopene and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocadoes, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers! It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually help balance the blood sugar of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

Birthday cakes

Here's a fun post for you. I've been making my kids birthday cakes for the past year. I started it last year when I made Ethan's cake instead of ordering one from Publix, our usual. I have this cookbook of fun kid's recipes and he had picked out a spaceship cake that we made together. It turned out pretty cute. And of course, there was Wyatt's catipillar cake. A surprisingly simple cake to make.
This year, Ethan wanted a Star Wars Indiana Jones Lego cake. What was I supposed to do with that? Well, I found a pretty cool website that has some super homemade cake ideas and came across an idea for a lego cake. Here's how mine turned out.
In theory it was pretty simple, but it was work. I used two cake mixes (chocolate and butter cake) and poured the batter into two loaf pans and one sheet cake (rectangle). I did this a couple of days before the party and just froze the cakes themselves so they would be easier to assemble and frost the day before the party. The day of assembly, I trimmed the rectangles to make them look more "blocky". I frosted each one a different color, stacked them how I wanted them, and used large marshmallows cut in half for the lego prongs. I used Duncan Heinz cake mixes and so many people raved about how good it was. I think freezing them a couple of days enhances the flavor a bit, too. As far as the frosting goes, I used just a couple of tubs of the buttercream frosting. The fun part was Ethan got to be creative and pick out exactly which legos he wanted to go on the cake and he built some small spaceships as cake decorations. I think this part made him feel very important and he took it quite seriously. This cake was probably the most work of the three I've done in the past, but it was a labor of love.

Treats for the kiddies

I was a TJ's this week, and as usual, I had to stop by the demo area to see what they were cooking up. It was different this time, the lady said she was making something that her mother used to make for her when she was growing up. I think she called them cookies, but they were more like little donuts or fritters. Very simple...went something like this:
Take some premade pizza dough (usually found in refrigerator or deli section of store),
tear off little "bits", about 1 or 2 inches in size, fry them up in some oil (not olive...I think I'd use grapeseed) until they're browned on both sides, and top with what you want! They used chocolate syrup and powdered sugar. Other ides...cinnamon, sugar, jam, agave, etc.
See, so simple but they were delicious! I haven't made them, but I think I will at some point. The boys would love them and could help make them. TJ's sells whole wheat pizza dough...I wonder how that would taste? Hmmm...I just may have to try that out and let you know.

Thinking about treats for the kiddies, it reminded me of a recipe from a cookbook my sweet grandmother gave me when I got married. It has a recipe in it called "Instant treat for the kiddies." Let me back up. This cookbook is one of those cookbooks that has all those wonderful recipes from the good Christian women from the Extension Homemaker Council of Fannin County , GA. That's where Blue Ridge is. This book was printed in 1971, so all the women went by their husband's name, such as "Mrs. Homer Turner" or "Mrs. Dave Murphy." It cracks me up. Some women broke from tradition and listed the recipes under their names. I have to wonder if they were secretly looked down upon for that. Plus, many of the recipes call for lard, oleo, cheese whiz, or ritz crackers. I'm sure all staples of a good "Southern" pantry at the time, although they make me want to have a heart attack.
I bet many of you have a cookbook just like this, one that's been handed down, or purchased for a fundraiser, or just given to you. I treasure mine, because even though it was printed in 1971, I didn't actually get one until 1996 when I got married. I always grew up with the book, since my mother has one. As a kid I'd just "read" the cookbook for fun, looking for a cookie recipe I might be interested in making. Apparently my grandmother, Leslie, purchased many of these books, deciding that when her granddaughters, present and future, got married, she'd give them each one as a gift.
The inscription in mine says (in her sweet handwriting):
Jennifer, I hope you enjoy this cookbook and make a real good cook. I bought it a long time ago especially for you. I thought you might need it sometime. Grandmother." Bless her sweet soul. My Mamaw was an amazing woman. She worked so hard, was a farmers wife (my grandfather was also a schoolteacher), an amazing cook, always took such good care of her family, never gossiped, helped other families out even if she barley had enough for her own family, wrote poetry, and get this...she married her schoolteacher! There was a 15 year age difference! She really was amazing and I wish I had had more time with her on Earth. Imagine Caroline Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. I treasure my cookbook because it's a little tangible piece of my Mamaw.
So, back to the recipe "Instant Treat for the Kiddies".
It goes like this:
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup milk
dash of salt
Mix all ingredients and bring to a boil. Spread on soda crackers and serve immediately.

Funny...my mother never made this for me that I can recall. I can't tell you if it's worth making or not. Seems to me I'd like to make the TJ's treats. I may have to save this recipe for a rainy day when I'm desperate to do something out of the ordinary.
I'd like to hear from you on this. Do any of you have any good "treats" that you whip up for your little ones? Something maybe a little out of the ordinary? Or something that was made for you when you were little. Speak up! Even if you're a lurker to this site. I'd love to know!