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

WEEKLY MENU

MONDAY 6/1

 

Green Chili Chicken, Buttered Fettuccine, Corn
Soup: Indian Tomato

 

Green chili sauce is something I created in 1980 to go over a burrito and get covered in cheese and then toasted. I have augmented that version of the sauce to be far healthier by omitting much of the oil, the bacon and some of the sausage and replacing it with Better Than Bouillon ham base to retain the bacon flavor while removing the associated 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! This is a white sauce seasoned with cumin, not chili powder. The sauce contains green chilies and some tomatoes, which are drained to prevent the juice from discoloring the sauce. The grilled chicken has 160 Calories, 3.5 grams of fat (1 gram saturated), 85 mg of cholesterol and 530 mg of sodium per serving. The sauce will easily fit into a moderate diet like the DASH diet. The Indian tomato soup is made using the wonderful lower-sodium stewed tomatoes I use in many places. The soup is seasoned with garam masala, turmeric, garlic and ginger and accented with fresh cilantro and cream. Naturally, I use 2% milk instead of cream to reduce the fat. Nothing is gluten-free today except the vegetables.

 

TUESDAY 6/2

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 6/3

 

Grilled Chicken Chow Mein, Chow Mein Noodles, Egg Rolls
Side: California Roll
Soup: Spinach & Mushroom Soup with Smoked Pork

 

The noodles add zero fat, zero cholesterol and zero sodium to what is already 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 per roll. One portion of the California roll contains 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. This is a new soup featuring whole or half baby mushrooms, spinach and strips of smoked pork, suspended in a light chicken-mushroom broth and thickened with cornstarch. 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 6/4

 

Chicken Patty Sandwich, Baked Chips
Soup: Jalapeño Popper Chicken

 

This sandwich is a favorite of the Sunday Staff here at lunch! The chicken patty has 210 calories with 2.5 grams of fat (0 saturated), 50 mg of cholesterol and 840 mg of sodium. Everything looks good, but the sodium is a bit high. It is difficult to find a chicken patty with less than 1000 mg of sodium, so 840 mg is comparatively low. The DASH Diet daily parameter for sodium is 2000 mg, so it will fit into a day if you are careful with the meal before and the meal afterward. We are converting 1/2 of the salad bar to a toppings bar, as we do for taco salad and baked potatoes. It will include lettuce leaves, sliced tomato, sliced onion, a variety of sliced cheeses, pickle chips, sliced olives and a wide variety of dressings, including Arby’s and Chick-fil-A sauces, Subway’s sweet onion teriyaki, and more! The chicken patty is seasoned with pepper, which some people find excessive. Just be aware of that if you are sensitive to spicy foods. For this reason, we will be serving Meals on Wheels a grilled chicken sandwich today instead of a chicken patty sandwich. On average, the baked chips we offer contain 50% less fat than regular chips. Some of them are also very low in sodium. Check the nutrition facts label on the bags. All Lays products and Doritos are under 200 mg of sodium per bag. 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! Nothing is gluten-free today. I will refer you to the chip bags to see how gluten-free they are.

 

FRIDAY 6/5

 

Steamed Salmon, Baked Cod, Fresh Asparagus, Steamed Gold Potatoes
Soup: Steak

 

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.f

 

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!!”