The Hometown Café is open for dine-in and carryout.
WEEKLY MENU
Monday 8/24
Rosemary Chicken, Brown Rice Pilaf, Broccoli
Soup: Loaded Baked Potato
I use fresh rosemary like a dry rub with granulated garlic, onion and seasoned salt to season the chicken before baking. After baking, the chicken is held in a warmer at a slightly elevated temperature, which allows it to finish cooking and become very moist and tender. It is vaguely reminiscent of a rotisserie chicken. Nothing is more French than rice pilaf! It’s a classic combination of carrots, celery and onions cooked with thyme, black pepper, garlic and chicken broth. Brown rice pilaf is something we do every Friday night for patients, so those of you who just eat lunch with us never get to taste it. Brown rice is a good source of non-meat protein and fiber. Remember that if you are trying to stick to the macronutrient parameters for a moderate diet like the DASH diet, the daily target for fiber is at least 30 grams! The soup has everything you would put on a baked potato: cheese, sour cream, bacon and green onions at least! I will use 2% milk as a base. Consider it a treat if you are watching what you eat and be careful with sodium and fat in the other meals you have today to make them fit within the parameters of the DASH diet. Everything is gluten-free today except the soup.
Tuesday 8/25
Red Wine Braised Ribeye Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans
Braised Red Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts
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.
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Wednesday 8/26
Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl, Brown Rice, Baby Carrots
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, and soy sauce is derived from wheat.
Thursday 8/27
Hometown Bierocks, Side Salad
Soup: Southwest Smoked Chicken Soup
Bierocks are a popular item in Nebraska and Kansas, almost exclusively. It’s a yeast-leavened sweet bread pocket filled with a savory mixture of ground beef, cabbage and onions, seasoned with garlic, vinegar and a hint of sugar. The portion size is quite substantial…these are big boys! Each portion contains approximately 500 calories, 10 grams of fat (3 grams of which are saturated), 40 mg of cholesterol and 700 mg of sodium. That compares with a bierock from Runza with 490 calories, 16 grams of fat (7 grams saturated), 40 mg cholesterol and 1,280 mg of sodium. This is obviously a treat item, but you can easily make it fit into the macro-nutrient parameters of a moderate diet, such as the DASH diet. We are serving it with a side salad, and you are welcome to use the smaller plastic container and visit the salad bar to build a salad to your liking. We’ll be making 315 bierocks. That’s all our very tiny kitchen and walk-in cooler will allow us to do at one time! I’m not placing a limit on purchases this time. For the soup, I have a nice smoked chicken that I will suspend in a chicken broth with onions, red peppers, celery, corn and maybe a few black beans. I’ll definitely give it a Southwestern slant, but it will not be spicy at all. The salad can be made gluten-free if you choose gluten-free options from the salad bar. The soup is gluten-free, the Bierocks are not.
Friday 8/28
Steamed Salmon or Cajun Catfish, Fresh Asparagus, Steamed Gold Potatoes
Soup: Steak Soup
If it’s Friday in Smith Center, it is fish day at the Hometown Café! 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.
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!!”
