The Hometown Café is open for dine-in and carryout.
WEEKLY MENU
Monday 10/26
Lasagna, Broccoli, Garlic Bread
Soup: Italian Meatball
This is a cold-weather comfort food that we do a few times in the Summer. Lasagna is one of those comfort foods that gives you the double whammy of high sodium and high saturated fat. There’s just no way around that, and I’m afraid that garlic bread adds to the fat and sodium load. You can fit this meal into a moderate diet like the DASH diet, but you’ll have to have a smaller piece and compensate by reducing saturated fat and sodium in the meals before and after. I usually make the Italian meatball soup using an oil-based roux that adds to the fat and calories. Today I am going to make a healthier version thickened with cornstarch to present as a lunch alternative to the lasagna. I am going to bake the pressed meatballs and then pat off the remaining fat before adding them to the soup. The soup base is similar to a minestrone with a tomato base, beans and a pile of vegetables. The vegetables and soup are gluten-free.
Tuesday 10/27
Braised Beef Stroganoff, Buttered Fettuccini, Broccoli
Soup: Corn & Tomato Soup with Black Beans
Stroganoff is originally a Russian braised beef with mustard and a high-fat sour cream called “smetana,” which is similar to the French version called “crème fraîche.” 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. As you will guess, my version of stroganoff is toned way down in the salt, fat and calories departments. What we all most associate with stroganoff is mushrooms. This is actually an American variation of the original Eastern European recipe. This time I am using sliced fresh mushrooms, but no mustard. I will also leave most of the sour cream on the side for you to add if you wish. Remember that much saturated fat in stroganoff is in that dollop of sour cream you add on top! The soup is meat-free (except for the Better Than Bouillon bases), oil-free and dairy-free. Those Better Than Bouillon soup bases are available right down at Gene’s grocery store. Look for the “Chef Steve’s Grab Good” label in the aisle! The soup and broccoli are the only gluten-free items today.
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Wednesday 10/28
Grilled Chicken Chow Mein, Brown Rice, Egg Rolls
Side: California Roll
Soup: Hot & Sour
This is one of the healthiest meals we serve at the Hometown Café! The chicken only has 160 calories per serving with 4 grams of fat (1 gram saturated) and 80 mg of cholesterol. The chow mein is crazy healthy; it’s just a pile of vegetables stir-fried with garlic, ginger, toasted sesame oil and a little thickened chicken broth. The smaller egg roll is made with pork and contains some textured vegetable protein. The larger egg roll is all vegetable with no meat whatsoever. Chinese restaurants all deep-fry their egg rolls in oil, making the final fat count something you probably don’t want to know about! We bake our egg rolls here and our fancy air-frying oven allows us to keep the fat count down! Even so, it’s safe to consider egg rolls as a treat meal. The California roll is a healthy food option. The surimi, or imitation crab, has a fair amount of sodium, but I only use about half a portion on an entire roll. One portion of the California roll will give you about 150 mg of sodium. Remember that if you are trying to stick with the macro-nutrient parameters for a moderate diet like the DASH diet, the daily target for sodium is 2000 mg. The hot and sour soup features dried shiitake mushrooms, strips of smoked pork and a pile of vegetables suspended in a chicken broth accented with garlic, ginger, vinegar and cilantro. If you cannot tolerate the small amount of gluten in soy sauce, the California roll and soup are the only 100% gluten-free items today.
Thursday 10/29
Philadelphia French Dip, Tater Tots
Soup: Chicken Spinach Artichoke
The Philadelphia French dip is served with grilled peppers and onions. The beef is a very tender pot roast and the dip is a rich beef broth. The pot roast has 12 grams of fat (5 grams saturated), 65 mg of cholesterol and 290 mg of sodium per serving. The sweet potato fries are baked, not deep-fat fried, and have 140 calories, four grams of fat (zero grams saturated), zero mg of cholesterol and 130 mg of sodium while delivering three grams of dietary fiber! Remember that the DASH diet suggests getting at least 30 grams of fiber a day. Most Americans get only between 10 and 15 grams of fiber a 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! The Tater Tots are gluten-free, but the bread on the sandwich is obviously not and neither is the soup.
Friday 10/30
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!!”
