The Hometown Café is open for dine-in and carryout.

WEEKLY MENU

Monday 4/13

Stuffed Cabbage, Wild Rice Blend, Stewed Tomatoes, Cauliflower
Soup: Chicken Spinach Artichoke

 

 

I use 90% lean ground beef, a little pork sausage and what the South American and West Indian folks call “sofrito” in the stuffing for the cabbage. 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. As a reminder, if you are trying to stick to nutrient parameters associated with a diet like the DASH diet, the sodium limit is 2,000 mg for the entire day. You can easily fit this meal in by limiting your sodium intake at breakfast and supper. It requires some planning, but it can be easily achieved! 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! The things that stick out in my mind about a good spinach-artichoke dip, besides spinach and artichokes, are cream cheese, white cheese, lemon juice and sour cream. All of that will be in the soup, plus a nice velvety pulled chicken! Along with the jalapeño popper chicken soup, this is one of the favorites with staff and the public! Only the rice, vegetables and stewed tomatoes are gluten-free today.

 

Tuesday 4/14

Red Wine Braised Ribeye Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Braised Red Cabbage, Italian Breadstick
Soup: Ratatouille Seafood Stew

 

Ribeye steaks are seared in a cast-iron skillet, smothered in a red wine sauce and braised. The sauce is heavy with onions caramelized in the same cast iron skillet the ribeyes were seared in. We are serving the braised ribeye and red wine sauce right over mashed potatoes! The braised red cabbage is a healthier vegan version of the German favorite that usually starts with bacon fat. As you might guess, I’ll mimic the bacon flavor with the Better Than Bouillon ham base. You can buy ham base right down at Gene’s grocery store! Look for the “Chef Steve’s Grab Good” label in the aisle! The ratatouille seafood stew is a takeoff on a popular plated soup, similar to a bouillabaisse, that I serve in fancy, full-service a la carte restaurants. This version contains cod, pollock and surimi, a Japanese imitation crab. The base for this soup is the Italian vegetable stew, ratatouille, which you are all now familiar with. Everything is gluten-free today except the breadstick.

 

 

 

Wednesday 4/15

Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl, Brown Rice, Baby Bok Choy
Soup: Curried Chicken

 

If you were ever given a sample of teriyaki chicken in a mall food court, then you have tasted this teriyaki chicken. I love this stuff; it’s tender but not shredded and is very well-marinated. This is now officially one of the favorite meals we serve in the Hometown Café! One portion of this chicken has 3.5 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated), 50 mg of cholesterol and 290 mg of sodium. Brown rice is a great non-meat source of protein with a huge fiber punch! Remember, if you are following the DASH diet, aim for 30 grams of fiber daily. Brown rice can give you a great head start on that number! The last two times I ordered bok choy; it arrived the week after it was on the menu. This time it arrived on time! The curry in this soup will be light but will have everything you’d expect in a good curry, including ginger, garlic, allspice, coconut milk and a good Madras curry powder with a pile of vegetables! You can make it a meal in itself if you want! The rice and vegetables are gluten-free. The soup is not. The box for the teriyaki chicken has a gluten-free statement, but I see soy sauce listed in the ingredients several times, which is derived from wheat.

 

Thursday 4/16

Club Wrap, Baked Chips
Soup: Chicken Soup with Tortellini

 

We have whole wheat, spinach, tomato-basil, garlic herb and jalapeño cheese tortillas. For fixings, we have turkey, ham, beef, a variety of cheeses, as well as lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, arugula, sprouts, peppers, olives, pickles and too many other fixings and dressings to mention. Make this meal what you want it to be. Lunch meats and cheese are always a little high in sodium, but we don’t use much. Be careful with dressings if you want a low-calorie wrap with less fat and sodium. Remember, we have honey and spicy brown mustard, which are tasty options with zero fat and not enough sodium to mention. On average, the baked chips we offer have 50% less fat than regular chips. Some of them are also very low in sodium. Check the nutrition facts label on the bags. All of the Lays products and the Doritos are under 200 mg of sodium per bag! Remember that you are shooting for 2000 mg of sodium a day on a moderate diet like the DASH diet. I’m thickening the soup with corn starch, not a heavy oil-based roux, so it will be lighter with far less calories. For a one-cup portion, which is about twice what you can fit in a bowl of soup, the tortellini has 240 calories, 3.5 grams of fat (2 saturated), 25 mg of cholesterol and 330 mg of sodium. The wrap, as a salad without the tortilla, and the soup without the tortellini are gluten-free.

 

Friday 4/17

Steamed Salmon, Cajun Catfish, Fresh Asparagus, Steamed Gold Potatoes
Soup: Steak

 

Friday is fish day in Smith Center. The salmon is simply steamed with a little Smart Balance, salt and pepper. The catfish has just a bit of Cajun seasoning on it and 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 the non-fish eaters. 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 catfish 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.

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LUNCH PRICES

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.

Be Relevant: About Chef Steve Smith

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.
DASH Diet Guide

Chef Steve's Grab Good

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'S GRAB GOOD

“Chef Steve and his crew make awesome food!!”