I use 90% lean ground beef, a little pork sausage and what the South American and West Indian folks call “sofrito” in the stuffing. Sofrito is a Spanish version of the French vegetable trio called mirepoix: carrots, celery and onions. In sofrito, we substitute sweet peppers for carrots and cook it with garlic. The stewed tomatoes are relatively low in sodium for canned tomatoes, with 430 mg for 4.4 ounces, which is more than a serving. Wild rice is actually not rice but a grass. It is indigenous to North America as well as China. A popular variety grows along the shores of the Great Lakes in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. It is high in fiber and is an excellent source of non-meat protein. Four ounces has more protein than a cup of milk and you get six grams of fiber towards your goal of 30 grams for the day! Tomato, sweet pepper, cilantro and black beans are the standout flavor profiles in the creamy Southwest chicken soup. It will be lightly thickened by an oil-based roux and finished off with corn starch to reduce calories. Only the rice, vegetables and stewed tomatoes are gluten-free today.
Every Saturday, we serve pot roast, gravy and homemade mashed potatoes, but very few of you get to try it because we are not open to the public and very few staff members work over the weekend. Here is your chance to give it a try! The beef is the same meat we use for French dip sandwiches. It has 12 grams of fat (5 grams saturated), 65 mg of cholesterol and 290 mg of sodium per serving. The mashed potatoes are homemade, and the gravy is the real deal. It’s a midwestern classic! What I have in mind for this soup is a thinner-bodied soup with vegetables and spinach suspended in a chicken broth. I will wash the barley to make it loose rather than thick. If you are looking for something with less calories and fat, this might be a soup and salad day for you! Everything is gluten-free today except the gravy.
Wednesday 12/17General Tso’s Chicken, Fried Rice, Egg Rolls
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Choux Croute is a French-German dish from the Alsace region. The sauerkraut is drained and washed and then braised with onions and white wine for a good long while. Most of the sodium in the sauerkraut is washed away and there is only a small amount of olive oil used. We usually use a bratwurst, but US Foods discontinued all but the most unhealthy bratwurst options, so I am going with a Kielbasa this time. It has roughly the same fat and sodium content as the bratwurst we were using. The Kielbasa has 200 calories, 16 grams of fat (5 saturated), 35 mg of cholesterol and 490 mg of sodium. You can make that fit into the parameters of a diet like the DASH diet, but you will have to watch what you eat carefully before and after you have this for lunch. I will use a cubed steak meatball for the curried beef soup. The curry will feature coconut milk and both garam masala and a rich Madras curry powder, garlic, ginger, carrots, celery and onion, as well as some gold potatoes. If you like a good curry, you’ll like this soup! It’ll be thickened with an oil-based roux, so it will have a few extra calories. The entire meal is gluten-free except the soup.
The salmon is simply steamed with a little Smart Balance, salt and pepper. The cod is baked, not fried and is VERY low in sodium coming in at under 20 mg per serving! The potatoes and asparagus are also steamed, making this a super healthy meal option no matter what fish you choose. The steak soup is for those who don’t eat fish. It’s actually a stew and is a meal in itself! If you are watching fat and sodium, you will have to make room for the soup in your diet, though. The soup and the cod are not gluten-free.
Open for dine-in or carryout weekdays from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM. Due to supply shortages for some products, menus listed may change.
Full hot lunch (includes one cold side) – $7.99
Just entree – $3.99
Just vegetable or starch – $2.50
Pre-packaged side salad – $2.50
Full Salad Bar (unlimited trips, includes soup and roll) – $11.99
Children’s Salad Bar (8 and under, unlimited trips, includes soup and roll) – $3.99
Children’s Full Meal (8 and under) – $3.99
Senior Salad Bar (65+, unlimited trips, includes soup and roll) – $5.99
Senior Full Meal (65+) – $5.99
Salad only (unlimited trips) – $9.99
Soup only (unlimited trips) – $3.00
To-Go/One Trip Salad Bar – $7.99
Other sides priced specifically.
Chef Steve’s passion for delicious food is paired with a love for creating healthy options. Chef Steve was trained at the Culinary Institute of America and has opened 13 restaurants around the world. Most recently he was the executive chef at Coconut Grove in Nevis, West Indies.
Following a decision to make more healthy food choices in his own diet, Chef Steve became a registered and licensed dietitian. SCMH and Chef Steve have partnered to add nutrition education and support to patients and their families as a new service provided to those staying at the hospital.
Offering high-quality food in a healthcare setting is always a formidable challenge, one few healthcare facilities can tackle. The quality and service goals of a chef and food service professional do not always align with the nutrition concerns of a healthcare facility. Smith County Memorial Hospital has devised a unique solution to this problem in the person of a Chef-Registered Dietitian. By combining the responsibilities for creating food and delivering nutrition services we are able to maintain high quality standards of both food and service while filling the nutrition needs of patients and the community. The result is a food service department that is highly relevant to the medical team, the staff of the facility, patients in the hospital, and the community at large.
The Hometown Café is situated at the front entrance of the Smith County Memorial Hospital, located in North Central Kansas up near the Nebraska border. We are open to the public Monday through Friday from 11:30 am to 3:00 pm and serve approximately 100 staff members, 30 Meals on Wheels participants, 30 members of the public, and 10-20 patients and guests in the hospital daily. Our meals are based on the macronutrient parameters of the DASH diet, and we tailor food and nutrition to meet the needs of patients on an individual basis. As a Chef-RD, Chef Steve goes into patient rooms every day armed with 30+ years’ experience providing tableside service to patrons in high-end hotels and stand-alone restaurants, intimate knowledge of what is in the refrigerators in the Hometown Café kitchen and the skill to know what to do with it, and a dedication to the highest level of service called the Spirit of Hospitality.
Chef Steve’s community health partnership with Gene’s Heartland Foods makes finding exciting, healthier ingredients a breeze. Look for Chef Steve’s Grab Good labels on the ingredients he selects at Gene’s. Scan the QR code for instant access to Recipes, Pro Tips from a Registered Dietitian, and How-To Cooking Videos. It’s never been easier to cook healthy and tasty meals.
With Chef Steve’s Grab Good, making healthy lifestyle changes is not just easy, it’s a breeze!
“Chef Steve and his crew make awesome food!!”
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