The Hometown Café is open for dine-in and carryout.
WEEKLY MENU
Monday 10/12
Chicken Parmesan, Buttered Fettuccini, Broccoli, Garlic Bread
Soup: Beef Barley Soup with Mushrooms
I haven’t been happy with the chicken parmesan since the wonderful biscuit-breaded chicken thigh we used was discontinued. We tried the chicken nuggets and the Peppered chicken patty. Neither of those worked well. Finally, I have found another breaded chicken thigh that I tested and worked well. It bakes up crispy, which is what you need for parmesan. It also has only 4 grams of fat (1 gram saturated) with 80 mg of cholesterol, 12 carbs, 18 grams of protein and just 420 mg of sodium. I spend a lot of time looking for breaded items to use on menus and it’s very tough to find products with numbers this low! If you are watching your sodium intake, resist putting additional cheese on top and just go with the mozzarella cheese we put on the chicken as it is re-baked with the tomato sauce. The DASH Diet daily sodium target is 2000 mg, so this meal will fit into a day if you are careful with the meal before and the one afterward. The garlic bread has 7 grams of fat (1.5 saturated), 0 mg of cholesterol, 240 mg of sodium, plus 5 grams of protein per serving. The soup is made with whole barley, which is a great source of protein and fiber! I use the eye of the round and simmer it until it is spoon tender. Only the broccoli is gluten-free today.
Tuesday 10/13
Smothered Steak, Gold Potatoes, Green Beans
Soup: Vegetable Lentil
The cube steak I start with has 189 calories, 12 grams of fat (5 grams saturated), 65 mg of cholesterol and 58 mg of sodium per serving. It is seared and then braised with Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup as a base for the sauce. This cold-weather comfort food is thickened with an oil-based roux. You can fit smothered steak into a moderate diet like the DASH diet, but it has too many calories from fat for some other diets on the healthy diet spectrum. Gold potatoes are somewhat richer than the russet potatoes we use for everything else. We season them simply with Smart Balance, salt and pepper. If the smothered steak is a little too heavy for you, the healthier option today might be soup and salad bar! The soup is meat-free (except for Better Than Bouillon soup bases), dairy-free and low in sodium. Lentils are a great source of non-meat protein and fiber! You can buy the Better Than Bouillon Soup bases I use in this soup at Gene’s grocery store! Look for the “Chef Steve’s Grab Good” label in the aisle! The potatoes, beans and soup are gluten-free.
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Wednesday 10/14
Sweet & Sour Meatballs, Brown Rice/Cauliflower, Egg Rolls
Side: California Rolls
Soup: Mulligatawny
I am using tenderized beef cubes that resemble small meatballs. They have 6 grams of fat (2.5 saturated), 20 mg of cholesterol and 28 mg of sodium per serving. The sauce features onion, celery and peppers, with pineapple and cherries suspended in a sauce flavored with a ham and chicken base, vinegar and sugar. The egg roll should be considered a treat item if you are watching your weight or eating for health. It has 180 calories, 7 grams of fat (2 grams saturated), 20 mg of cholesterol and 490 mg of sodium for ONE egg roll and we serve two. You can fit that into a moderate diet, like the DASH diet, if you are careful for the rest of the day. California roll is a sushi roll with seasoned rice, avocado, cucumber and surimi, which is an imitation crab most Americans are familiar with. Ours is a higher-quality surimi that does have a small amount of snow crab in it. Mulligatawny is a traditional British-East Indian soup. It is a creamy, lightly curried chicken soup featuring red lentils, apples, coconut milk, cardamom, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and cilantro. Rice provides gluten-free thickening. I am substituting coconut milk and 2% milk for the yogurt and heavy cream usually found in Mulligatawny. Everything is gluten-free today except the egg rolls and soup.
Thursday 10/15
Baked Potato Bar
Soup: Jalapeño Popper Chicken
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 onions, bacon, tomatoes, olives, broccoli, beans and wheat berries, plus more! In the soup, I will use what Jalapeño Poppers are known for: Jalapeños and cream cheese. I will blanch the Jalapeños and toss the water to reduce the spiciness in the peppers. The soup will definitely feature the flavor of Jalapeño, but not the full extent of its fire! It’s a cream-based soup, and I will use 2% milk instead of cream and Better Than Bouillon ham base instead of bacon. There’s no way to avoid using an oil-based roux to thicken the soup, so it will contain a small amount of oil, which will increase calories. You can buy the Better Than Bouillon Soup Ham base I use right down at Gene’s grocery store! Look for the “Chef Steve’s Grab Good” label in the aisle! The jalapeño popper chicken soup is not gluten-free, and for the soup topping on the potato, the chili is gluten-free, but the broccoli cheese is not.
Friday 10/16
Steamed Salmon or Baked Cod
Fresh Asparagus, Steamed Gold Potatoes
Soup: Steak 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.
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.
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 and his crew make awesome food!!”
