Sometimes to me, being on a diet dosnt mean eating really healthy. I feel that I always eat fairly healthy including whole grains and plenty of vegetables into my diet. My main problem is portion size, and eating really late at night. If we are hanging out on a Thursday or Friday night we often wont eat until 10 or later! So what I try to do when I am being good is eat before 6:30. This may seem impossible to most people, but what we do is run to the store after work, get home, and frantically pull something together in a half hour, and be sure to only make enough to have a reasonable portion. A sandwich is a perfect option. Its fast, and it is a set portion. A few days ago we made chicken poblano panini’s that came out excellent!

Today I have some food wallpapers for all of your computers. You sit at your desk looking at so called food-porn, scour the web for recipes and images of your favorite dishes, and read about food all day, so why not pimp out your desktop a bit to show your foodie pride? The bottom 2 images do not have dual monitor versions because they didn’t look right, but the other pepper dual monitor wallpaper has both peppers in it, one for each screen! For dual monitor people- remember to set as ‘tile’ to allow it to span both screens, if you just right click and say set as desktop background it will be set to ‘center’ and will not look right. You need to go under display properties to change it.

I am really happy with the way this set of wallpapers came out, but if you don’t like any of these, be sure to click on the wallpaper tag on the left to look at some previous ones I’ve posted. Please comment if you use any of these on your computer!

 
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The word gyro actually refers to the way the meat is cooked on the vertical rotisserie and sliced into thin strips. In most places in the US however, it refers to the pita rollup the meat is served to you on, and the other fillings inside. This sandwich can’t traditionally be called a gyro because it is made with chicken, but I just love how the mild flavor of the chicken contrasts with the sharpness of the cheese and olives. We decided to make these when Mandi was craving olives and feta, but didn’t know what she wanted them with. We had just made naan and loved it and wanted to make it again, and that’s when I realized the naan is very similar to the Greek flatbread the gyro is served on. I loved the way these came out and the taste instantly reminded me of my first taste of a gyro not too long ago. At my last job, Mike, Bill and I would start looking forward to lunch at 9:15 AM. When we finally got lunch we would eat so much that we would often be in a food coma from 12:45 – 3 (I always wonder why that job didn’t work out in the end…) One of our favorite stops was Steve’s Greek on Newbury St. in Boston where I would get a gyro and onion rings.

Vindaloo is one of the more authentic dishes at your local Americanized curry house. It was brought to Goa by the Portuguese. One common ingredient that is actually not traditional is potatoes. The confusion came about because aloo is the hindi word for potato! When making curry, or generally any eastern or middle eastern dish, I think it is VERY IMPORTANT to get whole spices. The key to curry is the intensity of flavor and you aren’t going to get that from curry powder. You aren’t even going to get that from ground cardamom or cumin, you have to grind them yourself! The blender works fine for this. It is fun to me tasting and smelling all of these exotic spices! Go on a vacation with your senses. Travel to the market in Goa and pick through the cloves and cardamom pods, rip a piece of cinnamon bark off the larger stick. Watch out for the camel droppings. I guess all I am saying is what I say every day. Have fun cooking and take pride in what you make. The more “scratch” you start from, the better your food will taste!! If you are going through the effort of cooking, why not add the extra 10 minutes of using the whole spices? It will cost more in the beginning, but the spices will keep their flavor for a long time because they are not already ground. Ok enough ranting.

Since it has been awhile since her last post, I wanted to write a quick introduction. Mandoline’s slice is a monthly column here on The Food in my Beard (She took the summer off). If you are fairly new to the site, you can click the category on the left and check out her other articles. Thanks Mandi! Glad to have you back!

Mandi and I try to be healthy most weekdays. This often includes a salad for dinner and a mile or 2 jog. Sometimes when one of us is having a rough day, or needs something to make them happy, they casually mention delicious food in a hypothetical conversation about that night. Most of the time, this food is tacos. A few hours ago Mandi planted a taco seed in my head. Most days when I am feeling strong, I can stomp on this seed, ignore it or leave it unfertilized to die in my brain. Today, this seed is stubborn and has grown into a full on taco tree.

In Bermuda, it is customary to paint your apartment when you move out. In the US (or at least where I have lived) paint is covered under the “normal wear and tear” of an apartment, but not here. We got together some friends to help us paint and get everything out of the place. Food seemed appropriate for a nights work and we were going to order pizza, but decided to use what we had in the freezer. I am happy to post this recipe, because it was always a favorite appetizer my mom would bring to parties when I was growing up. Now I tell my friends to make this when they ask me what to make that’s easy to bring to someone’s party or when they are having people over for a sporting event.

Today I am pleased to present a guest post. This past weekend was 2 members of the TFIMB family's birthdays, the design team! since I was all the way across the ocean, I was unable to celebrate so I had to give posting dutys to someone who could. This post is all about kim, but rich, happy birthday to you as well. The rest of this post will be written by my good friend steph, but i may leave a comment in italics. Happy birthday guys! leave some love for them in the comments.

For those of you that may not know...I love Birthdays...in fact I love any reason to celebrate at all. Kim's Birthday this Saturday was perfect timing to get my baking skills back up to par. I'm a huge fan of cupcakes instead of cakes for birthday desserts for two reasons. One being that you have the opportunity to have various designs and colors without looking over done. Second, in my personal opinion I feel that people are more likely to grab a cupcake then to grab a piece of cake that has to be on a plate and ate with a fork. Cupcakes are low maintenance and fun to eat. That being said....I have been hearing lots about Amy Sedaris' cupcakes, and wanted to give them a shot. If you don't know who she is, I'd suggest watching some Strangers with Candy. I decided to stick with the vanilla cupcake recipe and add a special touch of stuffing them with some chocolate frosting.

We hadn’t made pasta in some time, and for some reason I was craving manicotti. As a kid, this was my favorite meal and I hadn’t had it in years! we decided to have a nice night in and watch the opening ceremonies and spend time making this meal great. We started with some drinks and apps as you can see here. Some would call this cannelloni, where manicotti would be pre formed tubes, but this is what I grew up knowing as manicotti.

Last Friday, Mandi, Amy, and I decided to forgo the usually Bermuda Friday night activities to stay in and cook and watch the opening ceremonies. The meal we were set on was going to take at least 3 hours, so we knew we would need plenty of drinks and an appetizer while we were waiting for the meal. Amy found some cool drinks we could try, and our tomatoes were bursting off the vine, so we decided on a simple bruschetta.

“If you could have any pasta in the world right now, what would it be?” Overtired and hungry, Mandi hoped that I could make a decision better than she could. We had just packed our lives into a big truck, and hauled it across the island. Our theory when it comes to moving is different from most; it is better to suffer greatly for one day, than to suffer mildly for 10. The whole evening was crazy, trying to get things done quickly since the moving truck charges per hour... but as the truck drove away, our minds drifted to our empty stomachs. We had planned to get take out from one of our new neighborhood restaurants, but at times like this when we have waited too long to eat, a decision sometimes can't be made. “If you could have any pasta in the world right now, what would it be?” There were only 2 options on the take out menu, a “sampling” of their full menu it said. Mandi hoped that whatever came out of my mouth at this moment, she would relay to the man on the other end of the phone, and they would miraculously serve it. “Orecchiette…..orecchiette with sausage…and cherry tomatoes, and maybe some arugula and mozzarella.” Maybe it was because we were standing in front of our new stove, or maybe because we knew that whatever we got from the restaurant wouldn't be exactly what we wanted anyway, but we decided that it was a pretty easy dish to make for ourselves. So we pulled our pans from our suitcases and headed to the grocery store. Click below to read more and see a few pictures.

When I see discussions of my website over the internet, I have noticed that one topic that often comes up is the smallness of my kitchen and the fact that I chop on my coffee table. It is true that I have an extremely small kitchen so I decided to make an interactive tour. People can use this as a guide if they have a small kitchen. I feel like we use the space well. Things do look a bit cluttered, but this is as clean as it gets really since we do not have much cabinet space. I am happy to be finally putting this post up, because I am moving to a new apartment tonight! This is a good way to say goodbye to the old place. DIRECTIONS: to navigate, click arrow buttons and objects on screen, if an object has green dots when the mouse is over it, you can click to inspect further. Move your mouse over things to read a description. Click and explore!! PS. if you see white spots, wait a bit, it hasn't fully loaded. Click below to start the tour after the jump.

I am marking this vegetarian, even though we used pancetta. The pancetta isn’t necessary, but it added a nice flavor. You could just use olive oil instead, and maybe a dash of red wine or balsamic vinegar. This idea came to Mandi in our usual 3pm what do you want for dinner email discussion. She said she wanted to make vegetable lasagna, but use the veggies as the pasta and even as the sauce. We brainstormed for a bit and this is what we came up with. I love giving you guy’s original recipes, so PLEASE let me know if you like this and if you ever cook it!

Secret beach is not so secret anymore. Mandi and I are moving across the island, so we decided to let all our friends know exactly where secret beach was since we wouldn’t be going as much anymore! We did this by having a party there and inviting everyone. I sent out a treasure map with an X on secret beach, and anyone who could find it was welcome to come and party. As usual, the grill was fired up and people brought things to cook.

Nooshin was up this past weekend so we decided to cook Persian food again for her. For one, cause we liked it last time but weren’t 100% satisfied with the outcome, and two, because Mandi never ended up cooking it when she went out to visit Noosh in LA. This meal was awesome despite the fact that we did not have 2 major Persian ingredients; dried limes, and fenugreek. If you have access to these things, you should use them to make this dish even more authentic! Another great thing about this meal is that it is easy. It does take a bit of time, but it isn’t hard and you are greatly rewarded for your time.