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

WEEKLY MENU

 

Monday 3/30

West Indian BBQ Chicken, Brown Rice & Beans, Corn on the Cob
Soup: Corn Chowder

It’s Spring again, and that means it’s time to brush off the outside grille! The marinade for the chicken is typical of the West Indies and is made from finely chopped “sofrito,” which is a blend of onions, celery and peppers. Sofrito’s origin is Spanish, and it is also used in Creole cuisine, eaten on the southernmost Caribbean Islands all the way up to New Orleans. I use thyme and garlic, accent it with some allspice which grows prodigiously on Jamaica, and I add nutmeg for which the southern island of Grenada is called the “nutmeg island.” Like the well-known Jamaican barbeque called “jerk”, I marinate the chicken for two days and then I fire it up on the grill and finish it in the oven with Bull’s Eye BBQ sauce. Throughout the Caribbean, rice and beans and corn on the cob are typically served with grilled meats and chicken. The rice and beans are meat-free (except for Better Than Bouillon bases), oil-free, dairy-free, gluten-free and low in sodium. I use the Better Than Bouillon ham base instead of bacon. Give that a try at home it will save you loads of saturated fat! You can buy Better Than Bouillon Soup bases right down at Gene’s grocery store! Look for the “Chef Steve’s Grab Good” label in the aisle! There’s really no way to avoid using an oil-based roux to thicken the soup, so it will have a little oil with the associated bump in calories. Everything is gluten-free except the soup.

 

Tuesday 3/31

Braised Steak Au Poivre, Red & Gold Potatoes, Green Beans
Soup: Black Bean

There are many versions of steak au poivre. The one I will serve today is made from a cube steak braised in a beef sauce flavored with white wine, 2% milk and green peppercorns in brine as well as capers. Everybody thinks that capers are peppercorns, but they are the unopened flower of the caper bush or Flinders rose that grows in countries around the Mediterranean. In a high-end restaurant, I’d start this sauce with bacon and finish it with a heavy cream reduction and whole butter, but I will spare you the extra salt and fat here and use Better Than Bouillon Ham base instead of bacon and 2% milk instead of cream! You can buy Better Than Bouillon Soup bases I use right down at Gene’s grocery store! Look for the “Chef Steve’s Grab Good” label in the aisle! The green peppercorns add a delightfully subtle zestiness to the sauce and the capers bring a light floral essence. It is just a little “peppery”. The cube steak I start with has 189 calories, 12 grams of fat (5 saturated), 65 mg of cholesterol and 58 mg of sodium per serving. The soup has a touch of oil in it to make a small amount of roux but is meat-free (except for Better Than Bouillon soup bases), dairy-free and relatively low in sodium. Instead of bacon, I use a smoked Spanish paprika called Pimentón to give the soup its trademark smoky flavor. Black beans are a great source of non-meat protein and fiber! Just the potatoes and vegetables are gluten-free today.

 

Wednesday 4/1

Mediterranean Rice Bowl, Moroccan Chicken, Brown Rice/Braised Lentils, Chickpeas & Tomatoes, Naan Bread/Tzatziki

Soup: Tuscan White Bean Soup with Spinach & Chicken
I start with a boneless and skinless chicken thigh and sear it in a cast iron skillet and then braise it with onions, garlic, thyme, turmeric, coriander, fennel seed, caraway seed and lemon juice. I estimate that when all is said and done, the chicken will have 3-4 grams of fat (1 saturated) and less than 200 mg of sodium per serving. The brown rice, chickpeas and lentils are perfect for any diet. They are all meat-free (except for soup bases), oil-free, dairy-free and low in sodium and will fit into any diet on the healthy diet spectrum, even the whole-foods plant-based diet. Be careful with the naan bread; it has 3.5 grams of fat (1 gram saturated), 5 mg cholesterol with 340 mg of sodium and 21 grams of carbohydrate per piece…and you can eat a bunch of those! The surprise of the meal is the tzatziki, which for a yogurt-based condiment, doesn’t have enough of anything in it to worry about unless you are on a very strict weight-loss diet.  I have made soups similar to this one before, but never with the soft dice chicken breast.  I think it will go well with spinach, white beans, and the pile of vegetables you all know I will toss in here!  I’ll use cornstarch to thicken this soup, so it will have less fat and fewer calories!  Everything is gluten-free today except the naan bread.

 

Thursday 4/2

Baked Potato Bar
Soup: Creamy Roasted Red Pepper

We serve baked potatoes topped with meat and bean chili, broccoli cheese or plain. We fill 1/2 of our 12-foot salad bar with an assortment of baked potato toppings, including cheddar and Swiss cheese, sour cream, salsa, red and green onions, bacon, tomatoes, olives, broccoli, beans and wheat berries, plus more! If I were making this creamy roasted red pepper soup in one of the high-end restaurants or hotels I have worked at for decades, I’d bring out the butter, heavy cream and rich, hard Italian cheese like pecorino made from sheep’s milk. I now call these ingredients “culinary crutches” because they make cooking tasty food extremely easy. I am going to resist the dark side and use what I learned cooking for myself during my own lifestyle modification to make this soup taste spectacular, using only a small amount of those high-calorie, fat-laden ingredients. I’ll be using 2% milk instead of cream and Better Than Bouillon ham base instead of bacon. You can buy Better Than Bouillon Soup bases right down at Gene’s grocery store! Look for the “Chef Steve’s Grab Good” label in the aisle! The roasted red pepper soup is not gluten-free, and for the soup topping on the potato, the chili is gluten-free, but the broccoli cheese is not.

 

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!!”