Gazpacho (for Shane)

When Shane and I first got got together, before there were children with sensitive little tastebuds, ballet recitals, orchestra performances and drumsticks, we moved to the Tempe, Arizona area together so that I could finish my Theatre Education degree at ASU. There, we met some of our best friends, and we discovered a great little place called Pita Jungle, where we used to share an order of hummus w/ pita and cold, refreshing bowls of gazpacho on a hot afternoon.

We loved gazpacho. In fact, somebody gave us a tote bag with a recipe for gazpacho printed on it, but, before I ever got to try it, the bag disappeared. Then there was school, and work, and soon enough, children, a move to California...and somehow, I just never got around to trying my hand at making gazpacho. I don't know why. I always knew it would be easy enough, and I always knew how much we liked it, but I just never did. That is, until yesterday.

While I was (and continue) to recover from bronchitis (and terrible side effects from the medication I was given), I had a lot of time on my hands. I decided to spend some of it researching gazpacho recipes in an effort to find one that sounded like it might approximate our beloved Pita Jungle gazpacho. I discovered that, traditionally, gazpacho contains bread, but the one we liked so much didn't seem to, so I decided to skip that. I found a lot of variations, but, in the end, decided to base mine on a recipe in the Joy of Cooking. I did make some modifications (and you might make more) but the resulting gazpacho was so well-received by my husband, that I promised to share the recipe with friends, so here it is (mine, that is, not the Joy of Cooking's...'though it is close):

GAZPACHO

In a food processor, finely chop:

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped
1 medium green pepper, coarsely chopped
Remove to a large bowl (or pitcher).

Finely chop in the processor:

1 small red onion
1/3 - 1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro (leaves only; no stems)
Remove to the same bowl or pitcher.

In the processor, finely chop:

2 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled*, seeded and coarsely chopped
Remove to the bowl/pitcher.

Now, to the chopped veggies in your bowl/pitcher, add the following:

1-2 cups tomato juice (start with 1c, mix, decide if you need more)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsps. salt

If desired, add 1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and minced, or a few dashes of hot sauce. I chose to skip this and serve with hot sauce on the side, since I wasn't sure how spicy the kids would like it. Remember, too, if you will be storing it in the fridge for a day or two, the hot pepper will get hotter over time as it sits, so you might be better off leaving that on the side.

Taste and adjust seasonings. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

This makes a very thick soup. If you like it thinner, you can add ice cold water to thin it. Make sure the water you add is cold, so your veggies stay nice and crisp.


*The easiest way to peel a tomato is as follows:

Bring to a boil a large pot of water. Have ready nearby a large bowl of cold water. Cut a tiny "x" in the bottom of each tomato. Plunge tomatoes into hot water for just a minute or so, then fish them out with tongs and drop them into the cold water for another minute or so. When you pull them out of the cold water, you should be able to pull off the skins with very little effort. Cut peeled tomatoes in half, scoop out the seeds, and you're ready to roll.

Hope you all enjoy this as much as we do. We are keeping it in a pitcher in the fridge and eating at it whenever we feel a little peckish. Shane has requested that I keep some around "all the time." I am not sure how realistic a goal that is, but I will try to make it often :)

(Thanx, honey!)

The Banana Muffin, Perfected

It's difficult to type while patting oneself on the back, but I'll try. You see, for some time, I have been trying to arrive at the perfect banana muffin. Something that tastes good, has a pleasant texture (moist, but not mushy; tender, but not crumbly...) and is not too terrible from nutritional standpoint. After making many adjustments to many recipes, by Jove! I think I've got it! Now, you can have it, too :)


Perfect Banana Muffins

1 cup almond meal
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 TBS graham cracker crumbs
2/3 cup oil
1 cup honey
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups mashed bananas
½ cup hot milk or milk substitute**


Heat oven to 325 F.

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine oil, honey* vanilla and eggs. Stir mashed bananas into wet ingredients and mix well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, alternating with hot milk.

Pour batter into greased muffin tin and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until done.

Optional: serve topped with a dollop of peanut butter and a drizzle of honey (do this upon serving, or provide toppings on the side ~ do not top them all and plan to store them this way).

* Tip: Measure oil first, then use the same measuring cup to measure your honey, and it will slide out cleanly, without sticking.
** I used So Delicious Coconut Milk Beverage, but you can use your favourite milk substitute…or regular milk….or probably even just plain water.


And here's the rest of the good news: I found a site that will let me input a recipe and figure the nutrition facts. Check it out.


Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 85 g

Calories 258
Calories from Fat 109
Total Fat 12.1g
Saturated Fat 1.7g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 42mg
Sodium 290mg 12%
Total Carbohydrates 34.7g
Dietary Fiber 1.7g
Sugars 18.3g
Protein 4.7g
Vitamin A 1% • Vitamin C 3%
Calcium 3% • Iron 7%
Nutrition Grade C-
* Based on a 2000 calorie diet


I am no nutritionist, but I think this one stacks up pretty well. What do you think? Are these good numbers for a muffin? I mean, I am not thrilled with the C- grade, but, when I compared it to the nutrition facts on another site for a generic banana nut muffin, I found that mine had fewer calories, less sugar, less sodium, less fat, less saturated fat, more protein, more fiber and more iron, so, for a snack food that you don't plan to eat every single day, it's probably okay, right? I mean, it may not be the healthiest food in the whole world, but, for what it is, I think it's acceptable.

Obviously, if you serve it with the optional peanut butter/honey topping, you change the nutrition information, but it is so, so yummy that way. And, if you eat it for, say, breakfast, it's probably still a pretty decent choice. I checked the nutrition facts for that (assuming 1 TBS peanut butter and 1/2 tsp honey per muffin), and it wasn't bad, IMO. Calories and fat rose, as expected (363 cal. and about 20 grams of fat, which is, admittedly, a lot), but so did the protein, fiber and iron, so, you know, make informed choices. You could probably lower the fat in the actual muffin by subbing applesauce for some of the oil, but you have to go in knowing that the resulting muffin won't be quite as moist as the original, and you'll bring up the sugar count a bit, I suspect.

Ultimately, I feel this recipe works for us because it is sweet, but not too sweet, and because Kaia won't eat baked goods with nuts in them...but...nuts are so good for you! The addition of almond meal to this recipe packs in little extra nutritional umph, but it blends right in with the texture of the wheat flour, so she'll actually eat it. Hallie is not a huge fan of whole wheat baked goods (weird, because she loves whole wheat pastas), so using part whole wheat and part all purpose flour makes it a little less...um..."Whole-Wheaty," I guess.

The Afterschool Special

AKA ~ afterschool snack.

We're snackers. In fact, I tend to snack my way through my days, rather than sitting down and packing away a great big meal all at once. Maybe that's why I never post here. I'm too busy snacking.

Because I know this, I try to encourage healthy snacking habits. Every bite counts, so if I can pack a little nourishment into every morsel, all the better, right? I think so. When I use eggs, I make sure they are the ones that are especially high in Omega 3 fatty acids, for instance, and I like to add applesauce or pumpkin to the pancakes, so my finicky little non-fruit-and-vegetable-eating 7-year-old will accidentally get a little something that might be missing from her limited diet. I try to use wheat bread and brown rice, I add pureed carrots to my tomato sauce. You get the picture.

But then, we like to have fun, too. I mean, we can't be serious all the time. Sometimes, you want cookies, candy, muffins, cake...you know, treats. And sure, we have those things sometimes, but, when I can, I try to keep it as healthy as possible. It just makes sense to me. If I can give my family a delicious treat, but amp up the nutrition a bit, why not?

So, on this, the third day of the new school year, I will devote an entry to after-school snacking.

I have always felt that, when the kids get home, they should get a little time to unwind before they tackle the books again. I like to give them about an hour to decompress, relax, play, run off steam, and have a little snack to fuel them through the rigors of homework that await. I generally keep around the house an assortment of healthy snacks: nuts, dried and fresh fruits, veggies, hummus, whole wheat pita, cheeses, yogurt (dairy and soy), whole grain crackers, olives, graham crackers... We're not really a Goldfish crackers and juice box kind of family, but we do have those sometimes, too.

I had been wanting to do a little something special for back-to-school, but Justice's scheduling problems ate up Monday afternoon, and jury duty killed Tuesday for me, so, here I was on Wednesday, finally, with time to make something a little more involved than, say, yogurt and fruit.

I settled on this:

Agave Spice Cake

Ingredients

* ¾ cup agave nectar
* 1 cup applesauce
* 3 eggs
* 1 tsp. vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* ½ teaspoon ground clove
* ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 scant cup whole wheat flour
* ½ teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* ½ tsp salt
* 1 cup strong brewed decaffeinated coffee
Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together the first 4 ingredients.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, spices and baking soda.
3. Add the flour mixture to the wet stuff, alternating, with the coffee. Beat well.
4. Put into one greased 9"x13" pan.
5. Bake at 325F--60-90 minutes.

The kids love this. It is quick and easy to mix up, and mine has never taken longer than 60 minutes in my oven. I wish I could remember where I found the recipe, but I have made several modifications since then. The flavour is similar to gingerbread, and the texture is firm, but moist. It is not too sweet, and agave nectar, as I recall, has a low glycemic index. Sometimes, I substitute pumpkin puree for the applesauce, and substitute pumpkin pie spice for the other spices. That is divine, too.

Children were thrilled to find this waiting when they got home from school, and they will be getting slices in their lunchboxes for the next few days, too. Give it a try ~ it's especially nice enjoyed with a glass of milk (or milk-like beverage of your choice), while listening to your Schoolhouse Rock CD :)

School days, school days...

Dear ol' golden rule days..

Ah, yes, it is that time of year again. Time to dust off the old backpacks and lunchboxes (and replace the ones that the cat defiled near the end of the last school year), label mountains of new socks, try on the old uniforms, school shoes, sweaters...And time for school lunches.

In a world full of quick this and disposable that, we have made a concerted effort to strike a balance between convenience, health and personal responsibility. It's harder than it sounds...and, also, easier than it sounds, once you get the hang of it.

Our children carry lunch to school each day. We have thought about letting them buy school lunches, but, as vegetarians, the options available to them at the school cafeteria are very limited. Even on days when they offer a vegetarian option (cheese pizza is the only offering I have ever seen), they cannot guarantee that it will not be gone by the time my girls get up to the counter. Besides which, Justice can't have the cheese, anyway.

The great thing about packing lunches is that I know exactly what they are getting, so I can try to make healthy choices. Another bonus is that we can use reusable containers and utensils, so we aren't adding heaps of garbage to the landfill. The girls have cloth lunchbags, thermal bowls, water bottles, containers in a variety of sizes and cloth mats for wrapping their sandwiches. In addition to the health and environmental benefits, I find it is fairly easy, most days, to make sure that everyone has something she actually likes and will eat.

There are a couple of down sides. At least once a year, some teacher or other adult with express concern about the fact that one of my children isn't eating what they consider a "complete lunch." The truth of the matter is, sometimes my girls can be finicky (some more than others). I know what they ate for breakfast, what they will eat for snack after school and what they will have for dinner. In short, over the course of a day, they will get everything they need. To be honest, Kaia doesn't like most fruits and vegetables, so I don't often pack them for her. It would be a waste of perfectly good food. She also doesn't like sandwiches, or most traditional school lunch foods. I guess it throws them off when they see that she has things like crackers, yogurt, nuts..., but no real "main dish," as it were. The other stumbling block we have occasionally hit is other kids at school thinking my kids' lunch is "weird." The girls have all had to deal with this at some point, and I am pleased to report that they have all gotten through it. Hallie once said to a kid who told her that her food (hummus, tabouli and pita bread) was gross, "Um, you're eating dead animals." Granted, probably not the most polite thing, but, really, mashed chickpeas are gross food and flesh it not? Eh, it's a matter of opinion, to be sure, but, having both mashed chickpeas and sliced rare roast beef while working at a deli in college, I would beg to differ.

Anyway, here we are, on the first day of school. We have new haircuts, new backpacks, new pencils, a huge supply of fresh loose-leaf paper, carefully selected back-to-school ensembles...and our very first school lunch. What to pack? hmmm...

Well, it was the first day back, so I asked each of the girls, if they could choose their very favourite school lunch, what would it be? Their answers were surprisingly do-able, so they all got just what they asked for. Here's what they took today:

Justice:
gnocchi w/ olive oil, basil and garlic (packed in thermal bowl)
baby carrots
chocolate soy pudding
water

Hallie:
panini w/ fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil
baby carrots
peach-mango gel (vegan jell-o)
water

Kaia:
peanut butter (in a small container w/ a spoon)
banana
panini cut into slices
chocolate pudding
apple juice

I think we did pretty well, frankly. I'll admit, I did buy the prepared pudding and fruit gel in little plastic cups. Like I said, we try to strike a balance. Nutritionally, I think their lunches stack up pretty well. Kaia's is most likely to raise a few eyebrows. Funny thing about that is, if I had made the peanut butter, banana and bread into a sandwich, nobody would have thought twice about it. The only difference would have been that the child would not have eaten her lunch, and, for me, that's a fairly monumental difference.

Now, what's Mama having for lunch? hmm...leftovers, perhaps? We had tacos last night...maybe a taco salad? Or perhaps some of that gnocchi? Come to think of it, what's a great "back to school" dinner?

Off to the kitchen!

Frankly, I like beans.

Franks & beans, that is. See what I did there?

Honestly, this post is more about the beans than the franks. I used SmartDogs http://www.lightlife.com/product_detail.jsp?p=smartdogs They're the ones Kaia prefers, so I tend to have some around the house. I fried them on a pan, then cut mine up and mixed the slices in to my beans. The kids ate their franks and beans separately.

So, this latest adventure started because I had been craving baked beans for a few days. I guess I could have gone and bought a can, but I had dried beans on hand and, on further inspection, all of the other ingredients to make my own. Because it has finally decided to get hot here in the LA area, I didn't want to actually "bake" them, so I guess they are just beans. I have decided to call them "Barbeque Beans" for two reasons: 1) You might wish to enjoy them at a cookout (AKA: "barbeque") and 2) They are cooked with barbeque sauce. (BTW, you can just make the barbeque sauce and use it for other stuff.)

I started making this yesterday in my crockpot, and it would have worked (I've done it successfully before) if my crockpot had not turned out to be on the fritz. As it stands, I cooked them for 6 hours on high, and the beans were still not soft enough to eat, so I put them in the fridge for the night and started them up again in the crockpot this afternoon. The darned thing just would not get hot, so I dumped them into a large saucepot and finished cooking them on the stovetop. If you cook them in the crockpot, 2 hours on high + 4-6 on low should do it (or 8-10 on low, which works well if you want to throw them on before work and come home to a hot meal in the evening). As I said, the crockpot has always worked for me. Alternately, you could just cook it on the stove. It should take about 2 hours (after the soaking period), and you will want to keep it covered, stir occasionally and add water if it starts to look too thick.

And now, the recipe:

Barbeque Beans

1 lb dried beans (navy, small white, great northern, large lima or a combination)
water sufficient to cover beans twice

Sauce:
1 medium-sized sweet onion, diced
4 strips vegetarian bacon, diced
2 TBS canola oil
¼ cup molasses
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup mild picante sauce or salsa
1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes (with juice)
juice of one orange
1 TBS prepared mustard
1 TBS balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp. garlic powder
chipotle pepper sauce to taste


3 cups water
salt & pepper to taste

Rinse and sort beans. Place in a large pot. Cover twice with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, then turn off and let soak for 1 hour while you prepare the sauce.

In a medium saucepan, heat oil. Add diced onion and bacon. Cook over low-medium heat until onion is translucent and bacon begins to crisp. Add remaining sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Transfer sauce to crockpot*. Drain and add beans when they have finished soaking. Add 3 cups water and stir gently. Cover and turn heat to high. (Okay, now you can go back and read all of my notes above about cooking. Basically, in the crockpot, it should be about 2 hours on high, then 4-6 on low, or 8-10 on low.)

*if you chose to cook this on the stovetop, return the beans to the large pot, add the sauce and water, bring to a boil, stir, cover and simmer for about 2 hours, or until beans are tender.


I thought the perfect compliment to beans (besides franks) would be corn muffins. I am still working on perfecting my recipe, but this is what I did today:

Corn Muffins

2 eggs
1 cup water or milk substitute*
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
In a small bowl, lightly beat eggs together with water or milk substitute. In a separate bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. Add egg mixture, oil and honey; stir until smooth. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Makes 9 muffins.

* I used water this time, but I think I will try using the coconut milk beverage Justice and I like, or maybe almond milk. I also think they could be a bit moister, so I may up the oil by just a bit. Split and smeared with a little dairy-free margarine, they were pretty good (think I will mix up a little dairy-free honey butter to have with them in the morning).

Good God-Almighty, which way do I steer?!

I haven't had "carnivorous habits" in more than 25 years, so I don't find myself in the position of trying to "amend" anything. Nevertheless, I give you: Cheeseburger in Paradise. No, I didn't have a draft beer, but a cold Anderson Brewing Company (Booneville Beer) Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema worked out just fine, thanx. It's brewed in Mendocino County, California, and I do love to support local(ish) businesses ~ especially when they brew delicious beer :)

I fixed my burger just like Jimmy (Buffett, in case you have forgotten) says:

"I like mine with lettuce and tomato,
Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes,
big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer ~
Well, good God-Almighty, which way do I steer
to my cheeseburger in paradise?"

I skipped the onion slice and (I think) mustard that he mentions in other parts of the song (sorry, Jimmy). My cheese was soy, of course, so I am on a bit of a soy overload (ended up scraping most of it off, actually, as I am not a soy cheese fan). In the future, I can totally live without the cheese, and go for a veggie burger in paradise. I don't think Jim will mind. Do you think he minds if I call him Jim? Let's pretend he doesn't.

By the way, have you read his "Tales from Margaritaville?" No? Run right out and get it. Now. Perfect Summer reading. I highly recommend you read most of it in a hammock, if at all possible. In fact, I just highly recommend spending time in a hammock.

Next time, I will make my not-quite-yet-famous homemade veggie burgers, but this time, I went with Morningstar Farms Grillers (I like the "vegan" variety best). I will not condescend to tell you how to cook a veggie burger. We used the grill, so the house stayed nice and cool.

Oh, and, as you can see, the children enjoyed theirs with a cold ROOT beer. We felt that was more appropriate, while still remaining true to theme :)

Zucchini Fettuccine

Sometimes I get a song stuck in my mind. Often (perhaps, rather perversely, all things considered) it's this one:

"Tried to amend my carnivorous habits
Made it nearly seventy days
Losin' weight without speed, eatin' sunflower seeds
Drinkin' lots of carrot juice and soakin' up rays

But at night I'd had these wonderful dreams
Some kind of sensuous treat
Not zucchini, fettuccine or Bulgar wheat
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat..."

That's right. Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise." In truth, I never dream of meat. In fact, I am not even a huge fan of veggie burgers. I'll admit, once in a while, I might crave one, but they aren't at the top of my list. Zucchini, however...Now, I LOVE me some vegetables. And, as my garden is actually starting to come through on the zucchini front, I got to thinking about this.

Zucchini fettuccine...hmmmm... See, in my brain, it wasn't zucchini (comma) fettuccine, but "Zucchini Fettuccine," and that sounded damned good.

Now, if you really want to go all out with the home-cooking (I often do, so I totally understand that), you can make your own fettuccine. It's fun. If, on the other hand, you had to race out to have your hair thinned because you were starting to resemble Bugs Bunny's "Interesting Monster," and you don't have a lot of time to devote to dinner prep, you might want to just buy a pack. I recommend the fresh kind you can find in the refrigerator section of your grocery. IMO, dried fettuccine just doesn't quite have the same body as fresh, but I suppose you can use the dried kind if you prefer (in fact, I know you can. I totally cannot stop you, nor will I try). Cook it according to the package instructions, but not until your veggies are almost done.

For the veggies/sauce, here's what you'll need:

2 TBS olive oil
1 large or two small-medium zucchini, halved lengthwise, then cut into 1/4" slices
6 cloves garlic
approx 15 large basil leaves
6-8 Roma tomatoes, diced
salt and pepper to taste
approx 1/4-1/2 c. water

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add zucchini and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for a few minutes. As soon as you toss your zukes in the pan (zuke 'em ~ zuke 'em ALL!!!...oh, sorry...Moving on:) As soon as you toss your zukes in the pan crush and/or mince* your garlic, then sprinkle it over the top of the zucchini. Chop up the basil and toss it on top, then sprinkle the whole thing with salt and pepper. Gently stir things around for a minute or two, then, add your diced tomatoes and stir again, so it all cooks through. This will only take a few moments. If you want your zucchini to brown a bit, move it less often in the beginning, but be careful not to brown the garlic much, or it will go a bit bitter on you. When the zucchini looks almost as done as you would like to be, pour the water overall (use more or less water, depending on how juicy your tomatoes are). Turn up the heat, give it a stir and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer just a moment or two, to reduce the liquid to a slightly thick-ish broth. Turn off heat.

If you timed everything perfectly (you did, right? I always do. And, while I have your attention, I have some gorgeous real estate I have been thinking about selling. It's hard to part with, but, for you...) your pasta should be just about ready. Drain the pasta and turn it into a bowl ("Poof! You're a bowl!" oooohhh...magical...).

Using a slotted spoon, carefully move all of your veggies up to one end of the skillet, letting the juices drain toward the other side (tilt your skillet up a little, so the juices collect in the lower end). Spoon the broth/sauce over the pasta and toss lightly. Then arrange your veggies on top. Or, if you don't care how it looks, just mix the whole shebang together and eat it.

YUM.

Serve with good crusty bread (and a good quality olive oil for dipping your bread) and fresh salad. I happened to have a variety of lettuces from our garden (yay!) and some corn on the cob.

Normally, I would serve this with a nice wine ~ a blush or white would probably be appropriate, but I am almost always partial to red. However, in further homage to Mr. Buffett, who, after all, was the inspiration for this dish, I served margaritas (for Shane and me ~ the kids had lemonade).

* Here's how I deal with my garlic most of the time: Place peeled garlic clove on a cutting board. Lay your big 'ol chef's knife on top of it. So, you're holding the handle, but the knife is lying flat on its side ~ DO NOT point the blade up or down. The side of the knife blade is resting on the garlic clove. Now, using the heel of your hand (that's the bottom part of your palm) give the side of your knife blade, right on top of the garlic, a good, firm whack. I will see if I can find (or make) a video illustrating this. Please don't hurt yourself trying this. Please. If you don't understand, or you're worried about it, just use a garlic press or mince your garlic. It'll be fine.

Adventures in Quinoa

Quinoa. What can I say about it? I could tell you what the package says: "Quinoa is an ancient grain that is wonderfully textured, delicately flavored and highly nutritious. In addition to having a higher protein content than any other grain, quinoa also contains all eight essential amino acids, making it a complete protein."

That sounds pretty good, right? In fact, every time I am at Costco, I hesitate for a moment over the ginormous packet of quinoa thinking, "Wow, I keep hearing about this stuff ~ I really ought to try it..." Every single time, I walk away empty-handed, telling myself that, if we don't like it, I will be stuck with enough quinoa to feed a...um...well...uh....something very large...that eats quinoa.

I think it was, in part, a mental block. Quinoa, in my mind, had become one of "those" foods. You know, the off-the-wall, only-hardcore-vegetarians-eat-this kind of foods. I know, I know, my popularity with hardcore vegetarians has just plummeted. No, wait. *checks her list of "followers* (*giggles over the idea of having "followers"*) Not a lot of hardcore vegetarians, as far as I can tell, so...I think we're good. Y'all still love me, right? I mean, even if I don't want to serve you a great big, steaming mushroom-bulgur-sprout burger on sprouted 97-grain ancient flatbread, with vegan mayonnaise? In truth, I imagine some of you love me more because I don't try to make you eat such things. Some of you might be inclined to run if I came at you with shit like that. Hell, I would run from shit like that.

So...quinoa...? Really? I just keep hearing how great it is, and I see all of these friendly-looking people tossing it into their shopping carts at Costco ~ and they're all kinds of people: college-aged, middle-aged, families with young children, grandmas, men, women, black, white, brown, purple, green, yellow, orange (It's true ~ Oompa Loompas LOVE them some quinoa)... So I got to thinking. I mean, they can't ALL be wrong, can they?

So, today, I picked up a rather reasonably sized packet of organic quinoa at Whole Foods. It probably cost more per ounce than I would pay at Costco, but it seemed a fair amount to experiment with, but not enough to, say, build a scale model of Los Angeles. I thought it was a good compromise. I also picked up a pack of black beluga lentils, because they are tiny and cute. Yes, I think that is perfectly logical.

When I got home, I checked the garden to find that, to my dismay, it hadn't suddenly burst forth with dozens of ripened tomatoes. I got, instead, a couple of zucchini. At first, I thought they would be on tonight's menu, but...eh. I just couldn't get in the zucchini spirit. They are very nice zucchini, and I love them very much. Probably, I will eat them tomorrow. Tonight, I decided to experiment with my two new grocery items.

After zipping around online for a while, I came upon this: http://quinoa-recipes.com/

The "Curried Quinoa" sounded okay, but I didn't have all of the ingredients, so I improvised a bit. Here's what my recipe looked like:

1 Cup Quinoa
1½ Tbsp. Olive Oil
3-4 scallions, thinly sliced (about 4 or 5 oz.)
¼ tsp ground Ginger Root
1 Fresh Green Chile, finely diced
1 Heaping Tsp. Turmeric
1 Heaping Tsp. Coriander
¼ Tsp. Ground Allspice
1¾ Cups Water
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
Salt to Taste

You may note that it is very similar to the original. I just didn't have an onion, fresh ginger or cinnamon. Oh, or peas. So...

I heated the oil and scallions and cooked them for a few minutes, then tossed in the quinoa (which I had rinsed exhaustively, because the idea of my dinner tasting bitter or soapy did not particularly turn me on) and all of the spices and cooked, stirring, for about two minutes. Added the water and salt, brought it all to a boil, covered, reduced the heat and simmered for 15 minutes. Then, I added the mixed veggies, covered it again and continued to cook for another 5 minutes. After that, I turned off the heat and let it stand for another 5-10 minutes before I removed the lid and fluffed it with a fork.

In the meantime, I rinsed 1 cup of black beluga lentils and placed them in a medium saucepot with 2 1/2 cups water and 2 tsps. vegetarian chicken broth powder. I brought them to a boil, reduced the heat to very low and cooked them very gently for 20-25 minutes. The package said 15-20, so yours may not take so long to cook, but I cooked mine on super-low because I didn't want to risk them getting all mushy and broken up, as lentils sometimes do. When they were done (but not mushy), I turned off the heat, drained the lentils and tossed them lightly with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. That was all they needed.

By the time I got the table set and managed to pry the children away form their play, the food had cooled to about room temperature. Honestly, I think it is better that way than it was hot. I tossed my lentils right in with my quinoa (the kids wanted theirs separate), and served cherry tomatoes and mango on the side, because I happened to have them. It was delish. In fact, I am looking forward to having it tossed together as a cold salad for lunch tomorrow. This one is definitely a keeper, and I will continue to experiment with both of these ingredients.

The texture of quinoa is interesting. Somewhere between barley and couscous, I would say. I was a little freaked out by the descriptions telling me that a little squiggly thing would pop out of each grain as it cooked, but that wasn't as nearly freaky and alien-like as I anticipated. The flavour is...well...mild, I suppose. I mean, mine had a lot of spices cooked with it, so it tasted like them. It's a little bit chewy, and a little...um...tiny...and...uh...round. I don't really know how to describe it. You'll have to give it a try for yourself.

My friend, Heather, tells me it is good with tahini sauce and zucchini, too. I like the idea of preparing zucchini and tahini together, because they rhyme. Maybe I should do a series of rhyming foods ~ that could be fun. I think I will start with "zucchini fettucine." We'll serve it with Margaritas while listening to Jimmy Buffett. I hope he doesn't mind, but I'll skip the bulgur wheat.

Pasta w/ Cabbage & Veggie Burger Crumbles

The dish we had tonight hearkens back to my childhood. I think (in retrospect ~ I didn't think about this until I tasted it) that it was inspired by my mom's "Poverty Stew." Poverty Stew is basically made by browning ground beef with onions, pouring water over that and adding egg noodles. Season with salt and pepper, and that's it. I used to pretty much drown mine in Worcestershire sauce. YUM. Really.

Tonight, I found myself facing the daily dinner dilemma once again. After a rousing day of birthday party shopping and furniture moving (yes, I moved the furniture again. Sue me), I got home at 6:00 p.m. and started to hunt around the kitchen. * insert voice-over: "Join me, as I go In Search of...the elusive...dinner."*

It is imperative that I clean out fridge and free up as much space as possible to stash food for Kaia's birthday party. On Saturday morning, it will need to house a birthday cake. I happened to have stocked up on Morningstar Farms frozen goods recently, when I found that I had a large number of dollar-off coupons and they were on sale at Target for $2.99 apiece. That meant I could get them for $1.99/package, instead of the usual three-and-a-half to four dollars. So now I have a freezer full of meat analogs, which aren't the sort of thing upon which I rely every day, but, you know, a sale is a sale, right? There was also a head of cabbage taking up a lot of prime shelf space, and I always have pasta, so...Here's what we ate. It has no title. I defer to the aunt of one of my dear friends who, upon being asked what a particular dish she had prepared was named, replied, after a rather puzzled pause, "We don't name our food ~ we eat it." Makes perfect sense. I give you: the dinner that shall remain nameless.

1 TBS olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 package frozen veggie burger crumbles
1 small head green cabbage, chopped
1/2 c. water
salt and pepper to taste
cooked pasta (I used rotini)

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion and cook it 'til it's dead. (I HATE onions, but... sometimes a recipe really needs one, so, if possible, I cook it until it is unrecognizable. In this case, I diced the offending vegetable as tiny as possible, and cooked on low until it almost dissolved. I did not want it to brown, but you can brown yours if you prefer.)

Add veggie burger crumbles and garlic and cook until burger is browned and hot through. Spread the cabbage over burger mixture, sprinkle with salt and pepper, pour water over all, cover with a lid and cook for about 10 minutes, until cabbage is wilty. Remove lid and stir thoroughly. Cover and continue cooking until cabbage is done. This is a matter of opinion. Some like it crisp, some (like myself) prefer it thoroughly cooked. Just keep checking, stirring occasionally. When done to taste, toss with pasta and serve.

It's really good with (vegetarian) Worcestershire sauce, or, if you are one of those there cheese-eaters, you can stir in some cheddar cheese (and/or a dollop of sour cream). And then you can grin ~ you know how :)

Okay, so...that was dinner. What did you eat tonight? I could really use some inspiration.

Polenta w/ Cauliflower...and a surprise dessert!

Okay, it's not really a surprise. Is anybody reading this who is NOT friends with me on Facebook? If so, here are some recipes. If not, here are those recipes I already posted.

Tonight, we thought about ordering pizza, but...well, that is always problematic. Justice and I can't eat cheese, and Kaia will only eat plain cheese pizza, with not much sauce...oh, and Hallie likes extra sauce... Besides which, I had some things in the fridge that needed to be cooked before they went bad so, as attractive as Shane's offer to call the local pizza man might have sounded (it did sound attractive, considering that the thermometers around here hit 105 today, and I was not looking forward to slaving over a hot stove), I decided to do the right thing and actually cook dinner for my family.

I had a roll of prepared polenta in the fridge that I had been planning to use, and the expiration date was July 19, so I figured that ought to make the menu; and the cauliflower had been there for a while, but still looked pretty good, so it made the cut, too.

I also had a LOT of eggs, so I started by putting on 6 of those to boil.

Next, I heated a good amount of olive oil in a large skillet. Sliced the polenta into 1/4" thick slices and fried them in the oil, turning once, until they were just barely golden and hot through. I drained them on paper towels and arranged the cooked slices on a serving platter, sprinkled them lightly with ground black pepper and garnished with basil ribbons.

Then, I cleaned out the skillet and heated a bit more olive oil, tossed in about 3-4 cloves minced garlic, turned off the heat and swirled it around in the pan until the garlic was starting to soften, but not brown. Added the fresh cauliflower florets (it was 1 smallish head), a couple of tablespoons of water and a sprinkle of salt, covered the pan and cooked until the cauliflower was just tender. Tossed that on to the platter and topped with a few more ribbons of basil. Done.

By this time, the eggs were done. Hallie doesn't like deviled eggs, so I put aside a couple for her, which she mashed up with a bit of mayonnaise and a sprinkle of salt & pepper. The rest, I deviled. Everybody has their own recipe for this. Mine is very simple. First, run cold water over the hardboiled eggs to cool them. Peel under running water (makes them easier to peel), then slice each egg in half lengthwise. Carefully remove the yolks to a small bowl, and place the whites on a serving dish. In the bowl, mash your egg yolks with mustard and mayonnaise. I use more mustard than mayonnaise, but you can adjust it to suit your taste ~ some people like it more creamy, some less. (Today, I ran out of plain yellow mustard, so I used some lovely whole grain dijon mustard, and it was just fine.) Using a teaspoon, spoon the yolk mixture back into the whites, then sprinkle with paprika. Once, recently, I accidentally sprinkled them with cayenne pepper, instead. Wow! Were those eggs DEVILED!! Actually, we kinda liked them that way, and we'll probably do it again sometime (on purpose) ~ but we decided to stick with the mild paprika this time :)

I think, with the addition of a green salad and a glass of wine, I might have achieved Summer dinner perfection. Nevertheless, for a hot, lazy night, this was not bad at all.

Now, let's see if I can figure out how to add pictures...

And now...dessert!

Today, the kids and I discovered a fantastic no-bake treat. I wish I could remember where I found this recipe originally, but I know I saved it a long time ago because I knew there would be days ahead when we would want a sweet treat that didn't involve heating our sweatbox of a house. It was PERFECT.

Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients

* 1 cup butter or margarine, melted
* 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
* 2 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1 cup peanut butter
* 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 4 tablespoons peanut butter

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the butter or margarine, graham cracker crumbs, confectioners' sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter until well blended. Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a metal bowl over simmering water, or in the microwave, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. Spread over the prepared crust. Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into squares.

feeling not-so-groovy :(

I feel yucky. Tired, queasy, achy...blech!

Nevertheless, the children must eat. For lunch, I went with the quintessential kid lunch: grilled cheese and tomato soup. Soy cheese from Leonor's for Justice, regular cheese for the other girls. I am sure you know how to make a grilled cheese, right? If not, ask, and ye shall receive...instructions, that is...later...when I am feeling better.

I used this tomato soup: http://www.imaginefoods.com/content/organic-creamy-tomato-soup It is one of our favourites, and I happened to find it at the 99-cents Store (and where is the "cents" symbol, come to think of it?) recently. I am partial to it because it is creamy and delicious, but does not contain milk ~ and I recognize all of the ingredients. Oh, and it was cheap.

So, there you have it. I am hoping Shane or the kids will decide to make dinner. Otherwise, I fear I will be forced to move again, and I have a feeling that will not go off without a hitch.

No, really, they are.

These peanut butter cookies are the simplest and best I have ever tried.

When I read that I am supposed to mix together peanut butter, sugar and an egg, bake it and expect it to turn into COOKIES, I was skeptical. I understand that is hardly a revelation. I am, after all, a skeptic by nature. But...I think it sounds a little nutty (if you'll pardon the pun). I mean...Yeah. Right. Where's the flour? Vanilla extract? Baking powder?? Salt??? These people are crazy.

Right?

Nope. Turns out, they are not. Here's the recipe:

1 cup peanut butter*
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar**
1 egg***

Mix all (yeah, all 3 of them) ingredients well. Form into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with a fork (first press down lightly with the tines from top to bottom, then again from side to side, to create the signature criss-cross pattern). Bake at 350 (for crying out loud! ~ where is the freakin' "degrees" symbol??) for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes just under 2 dozen (for me, anyway).

You can try to eat them while they are warm, but they will sort of fall apart. That's it.

Yum.

Really.

I swear.

Go try it.

* I use organic, natural peanut butter when I bake. It contains only peanuts and salt. If you use peanut butter that contains sugar, you may want to cut the sugar in the recipe a bit.

** I thought that seemed like a lot of sugar, so I didn't pack it very firmly, and used a little less than a full cup. I think they could be slightly less sweet and still taste great, but Shane and the girls like them as they are.

***Is you are vegan, you can probably use an egg-replacer. Although I haven't tried one with this recipe yet, I have found that they generally work well in cookies.

Are you still sitting here? Go make some peanut butter cookies.

Really, this is what I am posting?

I stated at some point during this, my latest blogging adventure, that I would simply post what we eat for dinner. Whenever possible, I prefer to be a woman of my word, so here goes nothing (no, really, trust me on this ~ NOTHING):

Tonight, Shane, Kaia and Hallie had cheese ravioli ~ the frozen kind from Costco ~ with canned sauce (yes, CANNED) and canned green beans. Justice had leftover spaghetti and green beans. I had...an appointment to get my eyebrows waxed before I go away for the holiday weekend. Rose was sweet enough to squeeze me in, right at dinner time.

What can I say, a gal's gotta keep her priorities straight, doesn't she? I mean, I can't be expected to spend the weekend at the lake with lots of friends, lots of cameras and one giant eyebrow. Yes, I am vain and shallow. I accepted this year's ago. Moving on!

I later gave the kids some homemade ice cream (J's was dairy-free, of course) which we made last week, so maybe I will get all crazy and post those recipes later.

At this particular moment moment, I have finally managed to get all of the kids into bed and am taking a moment away from packing and cleaning to enjoy a beer. Well, I say enjoy, but the only beer I have in the house is Pabst Blue Ribbon, which I keep around because it makes surprisingly good beer bread, and is not a bad addition to a pot of chili. Well, however comparatively crappy it may seem to some other people's beer choices, I am pausing to drink a beer, anyway, and...hold on a sec...*gulp*...yeah, that's not the worst thing I've ever had for dinner. No, really. It's not.

Soup in the Summer?

Why not?

I don't know if it is just allergies gone wild, or if we are all nursing mild Summer colds (no fevers, so I lean toward the allergy theory) but some of us are sneezy and some have headaches, sore throats, etc. Soup seemed like the natural choice. Luckily, it is a pleasant 82 degrees (where is the "degrees" symbol on the keyboard? There must be a "degrees" symbol somewhere!!) here in So-Cal (as opposed to 102),so it's not too unreasonable a choice, I suppose.

I just started, but here's how it is going so far:

2TBS olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 can organic diced tomatoes
about 1 1/2 cups leftover tomato sauce from last night's dinner
4-5 cups water
a pinch of salt

Now, if I hadn't had leftover tomato sauce, I would have added fresh herbs, garlic and maybe some more diced tomatoes, but I did. So, there.

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add onion and salt (herbs and garlic would normally have gone in at this point) and cook over low-med heat until the onion is translucent. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and water. Now, I am going to cook that for an hour or so, and then I will add veggies. I have some frozen organic mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, green beans and peas), so I will add a few handfuls of those, along with a small diced zucchini from the garden, about 1/2 of each a red bell pepper and a green bell pepper that is leftover from a recent macaroni salad and some frozen chopped spinach if I still have it. When Shane gets home (early ~ hooray!!), I will add a lot of fresh minced garlic, because I am pretty sure that will cure whatever ails us, and because he is stopping at the store to get me some ~ thank you, honey :) I'll cook that until the veggies are tender (or maybe longer, because I like to cook my soups for a long time), and then I will add a can of chick peas, drained and rinsed (and drained again, of course) and cook until everything is hot through.

Justice asked if we could put noodles in the soup. Yes, and no. I will serve the soup with noodles, but I won't cook the noodles in the soup. I will cook the noodles separately, drain them, toss in a little olive oil so they won't stick together, put them into bowls and spoon soup over them for those who so desire*. I purposely made enough that we will have leftovers, and I have found that, as the noodles sit in the broth, they tend to sop it up. The soup thickens too much, and the noodles get mushy, so, I prefer to store them separately.

I think we have some Romano in the fridge, so the cheese-eaters can grate that over the top of their soup, if they like. Then, they can grin ~ a great big cheese-eating grin. Cheese-eaters are like that, you know, always grinning in their cheese-eating way (or so I hear). I'll be sprinkling nutritional yeast on mine. It's not quite the same, but I have grown accustomed to it.

If I get a wild hair, I may get up and make biscuits, but I don't really want to heat the oven...or get up, come to think of it. Besides, I have a whole loaf of French bread that needs to be eaten, anyway.

* FYI ~ Kaia will be eating noodles, sans soup. She will probably drink green juice, and we will all pretend to think this is a perfectly reasonable choice. *sigh*

Homemade Pasta

I didn't make homemade pasta tonight, but I do like to make it and, shoot, maybe I will again soon. I thought it would be silly to post the instructions for cooking store-bought pasta ~ they are on the package, and, if you are reading this, one would have to assume you can read ~ so I decided to post this recipe instead. This was originally written when my daughters and I first tried out the pasta machine my husband had given me as a gift. I have made it several times since then, and it is always just lovely. This recipe assumes you are using a pasta machine. Someday, I will post a recipe for homemade egg noodles that do not require the use of a pasta machine. For now, enjoy this:

Place 3 cups of flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Crack 4 eggs into the well. Use a fork to gradually mix the flour into the eggs until the dough begins to come together. Move dough to a floured surface and work with your hands until you achieve a relatively uniform colour and texture. Now, the instructions did not say it should be "relatively" uniform, but that was as close as we were going to get. The dough is VERY stiff. If it won't hold together, you can add a sprinkle of water, but be very conservative in this matter.

Okay, so your dough looks pretty much like a lump of dough now. Form it into a ball and wrap it up in a towel. Let rest for a few minutes. Next, use a sharp knife to slice off 1/4" thick slices and process them in your pasta machine. Make sure you wrap up your lump of dough again each time you remove a slice (you don't want it to dry out). Adjust your pasta machine to its thickest setting. Run the slice of dough through, then lay it flat, sprinkle with a bit of flour, fold in thirds and run it through again on the same setting. Do this one more time. Now, turn the dial down a notch (to the next thinner setting) and run the dough through one time. Turn down, run through again. Repeat, adjusting the setting thinner and thinner for each pass, until the desired thickness is achieved. Finally, run the long, thin strip of dough you have created through the cutting end of your machine. Lay the pasta flat to dry.

The pasta should be cooked in boiling, salted water just until al dente (literally, "to the tooth" ~ in other words, you should have to use your tooth to cut it, it should not just squish). Toss with you favourite sauce. Here's one we like:

6-8 Roma tomatoes, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
10-15 leaves of basil, chopped
a few oregano leaves
2 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a skillet, then add olive oil and heat until quite warm. Turn off heat, place garlic in pan and swirl gently to cook the garlic until softened, but not brown. Add herbs, tomatoes, salt and pepper, and toss gently. You can serve it as is, or, if you prefer the tomatoes a bit softer, turn on the heat again and cook briefly, stirring constantly, until the tomatoes have reached your desired consistency. Toss with hot cooked pasta. If desired, top with grated cheese, and/or pine nuts (or chopped walnuts.

Readers

Alas, I have none.

I have been thinking that, perhaps, my husband should read this. He is convinced he cannot cook at all, but, on Sunday morning, I talked him through scrambled eggs with spinach, basil and cheese (soy on mine and Swiss on his). I stuffed mine into a whole grain English muffin, and it was just right. Bear in mind, this is the man who once asked me if I wanted corn or artichokes for dinner. He didn't mean as a side dish ~ he really just planned to prepare one of the two. We decided to have both. I will say, however, that he is the one to whom I defer when artichokes need to be steamed, or corn on the cob is on the menu. He does a better job than I with both. He can scramble an egg, boil pasta, cook rice, steam broccoli...He's really much better off than he thinks. I think he just doesn't think to season things and mix them up as much as I do.

It occurred to me that, since I kind of talk my way through the prep steps here, it might be helpful to someone like him. Maybe it drives other cooks crazy, but I like to leave things sort of open-ended, to offer options and encourage experimentation. You know, variety is the spice of life, they say.

Well, time to plan tonight's dinner. I am thinking a simple pasta with tomato sauce. I have packaged dry pasta, and sauce in the freezer, but maybe I will come back later and post recipes for homemade pasta and sauce. hmmm...where are those recipes? Probably we'll need a vegetable of some sort. I'll let you know how it all pans out.

What's for Dinner

Wow. I guess I sort of forgot about this. Good thing I have no readers. So, here are a few things we have eaten recently:

Saturday morning, we awoke in our little cabin, which was part of a rental complex we were sharing with friends for the weekend. We meet once a year with this particular group of friends for what is now known as "Friends Holiday." This year, we decided to meet in the San Diego area and enjoy a trip to Legoland. During our holiday together, each family is responsible for one meal. My family (and therefore, me, as I am the primary cook in our household) took Saturday breakfast. Since we were fueling up the troops for a long day of amusement park fun, we decided to give them something good and hearty. The trick, as I saw it, would be to come up with a menu that would satisfy the adults need for delicious variety, the kids' need for simple, delicious food, and everyone's need for fuel that would last them through the first few long lines. I thought I would try to sneak in some nourishment while I was at it. With all that in mind, I settled on the following menu:

whole wheat pancakes
plain old white pancakes
homefries
scrambled eggs
sauteed vegetables
shredded cheese (cheddar, Swiss and soy*)

The idea was that we would leave the eggs plain, and anyone who wanted to add veggies and cheese to their eggs could do so. My original plan was to make an omelet, but it made more sense this way, since we had people who preferred plain eggs or different types of cheese. Instead of making each omelet to order, I cooked it all up and let people mix things up however they pleased. The pancakes were made from mixes, so I won't list a recipe for them, but I will say that, when I make pancakes from a mix, I always add applesauce (about one of those little individual serving packs for the smallest recipe on the box), and I usually use a fortified rice milk, nut milk or other dairy milk substitute for the liquid, even if the recipe onthe box calls for water.

Thanx to Warren, we were able to add fresh-squeezed orange juice and homemade salsa to the menu :)

Homefries are very simple.

You will need:

onion
potatoes (I like Yukon Gold)
salt & pepper to tatse
olive oil (probably 1/2 - 2 TBS)
seasonings of your choice (see instructions below)

Heat a large heavy-bottomed skillet (I use cast iron), then add some olive oil (depends on how many potatoes you are making ~ use enough to keep them from sticking, but not so much that they will float away) and turn heat to low. Quarter and then thinly slice an onion, then add it to the hot oil and stir to coat. Use as much as you like. I used one large onion for our big group (24 people, I think).

Peel potatoes and cut into bit-sized chunks. My mom taught me this rule of thumb: one potato per diner + one for the pot. If I am cooking for a very large group, I might add 2 for the pot. I added this part to the equation: 2 small children = 1 person (not in real life, but in the potato equation). Add the potatoes to the hot skillet, and sprinkle with salt, pepper and seasoning of your choice. Now, here's where it gets interesting. You can change the seasoning to suit your taste. I like Old Bay Seasoning on my homefries, but, sometimes, say, if I am serving them with soy chorizo, beans, eggs, salsa and tortillas (one of my favourite hearty breakfasts, BTW), I might season them with cumin, cilantro, garlic, chili powder...or, sometimes I might feel like adding curry powder and dill, or garlic and basil...you can play around with the seasonings. Or, play it safe, and just stick with salt, pepper and onion. That will be tasty, too. In this case, I had forgotten to pack the Old Bay, so I look in the spice drawer and came out with a bottle of Spike. It worked out just fine. Now, you want to cook your potatoes over med-low heat and stir them occasionally, but not too often. You want them to brown a little in some places, but not too brown all over. Just keep checking them. They'll be done when they're done. Sorry, I have no idea how long it will take. That kind of depends on your idea of "bite-sized." Season to taste as you go.

Now, I think I will give you the recipe for the sauteed veggies both with and without eggs.

1 red pepper, thinly sliced, then cut in half
1 green pepper, as above
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
8-12 leaves fresh basil, cut into ribbons**
10 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 bag of fresh baby spinach*
salt & pepper to taste

* first and foremost, I know "1 bag" is a stupidly vague measurement. You know, you go to the grocery store,and it comes prepackaged in these bags...I don't know how many ounces. I will try to find out. Anyway, use fresh spinach ~ frozen gets soggy and canned is already soggy, so fresh is the way to go here. (BTW, the mushrooms were one of those little square packages. I am guessing about the weight, but it seems right...ish)

** to cut basil into ribbons, stack the leaves together, then roll up like a jelly roll, stating at the top and rolling toward the stem end. Use scissors to cut through the roll, in the same direction as you rolled them. (Did that make sense? Maybe I will have to figure out how to add pictures, so I can illustrate this stuff...)

Heat the olive oil in your large, heavy-bottomed skillet. Add peppers and mushrooms. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and stir to coat. Turn heat to med-low and cook, stirring, for just a few minutes. When the mushrooms start to look a little softer and darker in colour than they did when you started, add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Add the spinach and continue to cook, stirring, until the spinach is wilted.

Now, you can be done there. You can eat these as they are ~ it's great with with crusty bread and beans ~ add them to a grilled cheese (place veggies in between two slices of cheese and flip you sandwich very carefully, so it doesn't fall apart), toss them with pasta or rice...the possibilities are endless. What I did this weekend was to put them in a dish, then put out a dish of scrambled eggs and small bowls with different types of cheese. However, my original plan was this:

In a large bowl, beat 6-8 large eggs with about 1/4 water (or milk, if you prefer). Evenly distribute the veggies over the bottom of your skillet, then pour the egg mixture over all. You can either stir the egg mixture as it is cooking, scrambling the eggs, or, for a more elegant presentation, cook over low heat until set. If you are skilled enough to flip the large omelet without breaking it, kudos to you. If not, I have found you can sort of "cheat" by placing a lid over the pan, which helps hold in the steam and cooks the top of the egg well enough. Keep the heat low ~ burnt eggs kind of suck. Okay, so, when the egg is set, you can sprinkle cheese over the top if you like. Cover the pan with a lid to melt the cheese. You can serve it as is (cut into wedges) or you can fold it in half (the usual way an omelet is served), but I find that makes it very thick.

So. I have actually posted a couple of recipes. Woo-hoo. They are simple, but I like them. If you don't eat eggs, you can use tofu, I suppose. Be adventurous. Try different veggies, different seasonings...Sometimes, I mix the veggies with the potatoes. Sometimes I add broccoli and/or corn. That, wrapped up in a tortilla with some avocado and salsa is simply scrumptious.

Non-dairy Sweetened Condensed Milk

Right now, I am making my first attempt at cooking up some non-dairy, coconut milk-based sweetened condensed milk. I hear it will take 5-6 hours. Wow. I am not usually this patient; however, considering what is at stake here, I'll give it a shot.

What is at stake, you ask? Mrs. Mae's Peanut Butter Cremes. (Or is it Mrs. May? I'll find out, and get back to you on that.)

My mom made these delicious confections, along with her mom's chocolate-covered coconut and fruit & nut eggs, every Easter. As soon ass I was old enough to help, I did. So much fun! Mixing up the candy and forming it with our hands, dipping in chocolate and laying out all of those little chocolate eggs to set on waxed paper. We had candy eggs ALL OVER the place :) Sometimes, my best friend, Lucy helped. Sometimes, my brother walked through, snitched a bit of the candy to eat, threw a bit ofit up to ceiling to see if it would stick...It was a good time.

Now, fro years, I made these with my daughters, too, but the Peanut Butter Cremes have become problematic, as they contain sweetened condensed milk, which one of my daughters and I cannot have, due to a dairy allergy. In the past, I either a) made them anyway and said, "Sorry, kiddo ~ we can't eat these ones" or b) didn't make them :(

This year, I was determined to find a substitute for the milk so we could make (and eat!) them. I did some searching, but...well, frankly, I feel we eat enough soy, and I really wanted to find a soy-free alternative. In desperation, I posted a query to a vegetarian recipes group to which I belong. Another member posted a recipe, so I am giving it a shot. Wish me luck!

BTW, I am not sure if I will share the candy recipes or not. They're old family recipes, so I should check in with Mom. I promise, one day, I WILL post a recipe of some sort. For now, you can look at this as a sort of "Adventures in Vegetarian Cooking" blog. However, if I know you and you live nearby, I will definitely share the candy :)

Eating Out

Kids had a cheerleading competition in Pomona, so we ate out. Unfortunately, we don't know of a lot of places to eat in the Pomona area ~ especially places that are kid-friendly and veg-friendly.

Eating out as a vegetarian certainly has changed since 1984 in Maryland, when I became vegetarian. I remember going out with friends and ordering the burger...with no burger..because there really wasn't much else on the menu I could eat besides salad. In some cases, even the salads weren't vegetarian. When I was doing a l0t of roadtripping in the early-mid '90s, it was hard to find food, sometimes. I remember joking that, in Montana, when you ordered a salad, they asked, "do you want the steak salad, or the chicken salad?" or that, if you ask if they had any vegetarian options, they would suggest the chicken. Only...well, we weren't really joking, were we? It really was like that.

Now, living in the Los Angeles area, I find that I can go pretty much anywhere to eat. There are lots of vegetarian options, and many places have vegetarian menus. Shoot, even the Denny's in Pomona offers a Boca Burger.

We have our few favourite places to eat with the family. there's that Indian restaurant in Santa Monica of which I can never remember the name (I feel like a jerk about that ~ I would love to recommend them). Kung Pao Bistro has an extensive vegetarian menu, and we love Pink's veggie hotdogs when we're in a real "hotdog" kinda mood (mine w/ mustard,relish and kraut ~ there is just not much better than that). But, you know, we can usually find something anywhere we go. Most Mexican or Italian restaurants have vegetarian options (you may have to ask about things like meat-based broths or lard in the beans, but they are usually pretty forthcoming, I've found).

Anyway, I guess I was just thinking about how much easier it has become to be vegetarian. Of course, this may not be true everywhere. Maybe I am just lucky to live in a veg-friendly city. at any rate, two of my little girls brought home 1st place medals tonight, and I had very satisfying Boca Burger w/ lettuce, tomato and pickles for dinner. Oh, and a side of celery and carrots. I really gave the celery to Shane, if you must know.

I promise, one of these days, I will actually cook something again.

Leftover Re-vamp

Yes, my very first actual post is about leftovers.

Well, I decided I will just post what we eat. Sometimes, I will post recipes. Sometimes (assuming I can figure out how all of this works), I will post pictures. Sometimes, I may post, "Tonight, we ordered pizza." Because, well, sometimes we order pizza.

Tonight's meal was a re-mix of leftovers from a couple of nights ago. On Wednesday evening, I got home from my girls' cheerleading practice to discover that I had not put anything in the crockpot for dinner. Hence, we had no dinner. I needed something quick, so I started a pot of brown basmati rice.

Next, I heated a little olive oil in the bottom of my soup pot and added one small head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces, four or five peeled and diced potatoes, and a few cloves of minced garlic. When the cauliflower had started to soften, I added a bunch of roughly chopped asparagus, a couple or three handfuls of organic frozen mixed vegetables, a can of organic diced tomatoes + one can of water. I seasoned it all with curry powder, dill weed, basil, mint and a generous sprinkle of onion powder (because I would have sauteed a fresh onion with the cauliflower and potatoes if I'd had one, but I didn't). Cooked it all until it was done, seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

There ya go ~ dinner. Such as it was, anyway. It was hot, filling, nourishing and...well, it was there. So, it did its job, I suppose.

I had a lot of leftovers, so I decided that, tonight, I would dress them up a bit. I like to do that, if I am serving leftovers for another meal. You know, mix it up a little, keep things interesting.

I happened to have a package of Chicken-Less Strips from Trader Joe's, so I heated a tiny bit of oil in a skillet and tossed them in. They seemed a little bland, so I added some rubbed sage and a little bit of celery seed.

When the strips had browned a little, I added the leftover vegetable curry stuff, as well as the leftover brown rice. On a whim, I sprinkled in some Chinese five spice, a pinch of coriander, and a couple of dashes of cinnamon. Cooked it all until it was nice and hot. The eldest daughter and I agreed it would have been even better with a few nuts and maybe some golden raisins thrown in (it ended up like a sort of juicy rice pilaf, if you can imagine that).

Hopefully, I will be able to post some more interesting stuff soon.

I have to warn you, I don't always measure things, so I will often just sort of describe my process, as I did above. Maybe I will try to make myself measure things, if I remember. However, I have a terrible memory.

My blog has been created!

So...wow.

Here we are.

Possibly, you want to know who I am. I am Sam.

I am Sam.

I am Sam.

Sam-I-Am.

I will not eat green eggs and ham...'cause I'm a vegetarian.

Well, okay, I might eat eggs once in a while, but not often, and mostly if they are very well disguised ~ baked into things, or smothered with chili and cheese (cheese! Which I can't eat anymore, so...booooo!!!). I am not especially morally opposed to eggs. I just sort of detest them. They feel gross, taste gross, and might have been chickens if they had half a chance so...you know...GROSS. Nevertheless, I sometimes crave a really good egg salad sandwich.

I am allergic to milk protein, so that leaves me almost vegan, I guess. Except that I am too lazy to be truly vegan. I was, for 8 years, but now I am too lazy. Yes, I know, I suck. Like a Hoover. Moving on... I like honey, and I wear my dad's old Navy bomber jacket, which you'd better believe is leather. Oh, yes, and I would totally eat cheese, ALL DAY LONG, if I could. But I can't. It's sad. Soy cheese bites ass. I suppose I should make an effort to become more eloquent if I am going to write for an audience, but, as yet, I have no audience ~ score! So. Soy cheese bites ass. With the exception of the kind you can buy from Leonor's Mexican Vegetarian Restaurant, which fairly rocks. But, really, nobody has made a good vegan smoked gouda or ricotta. There's no passable soy jarlesberg or brie, as far as I know. Maybe I will discover one...or invent one. Who knows?

Well, anyway...

I have been vegetarian for something like 25 years. I am married to a wonderful man who tries to be vegetarian most of the time, but who, I suspect, would be thrilled if chickens grew on trees. Sometimes, he eats chicken when he is out and the kids and I are not around (yucky!). Shhh! We don't talk about that. He used to sneak in seafood sometimes when we were out, but my severe shellfish allergy has pretty much nipped that in the bud. I guess having to rush your wife to the emergency room because you gave her a kiss after you ate shrimp pretty much turns one off shellfish. Together, we are raising 3 wildly precocious vegetarian daughters, who are currently 12, 10 and 6 years old. One hates vegetables. Go figure.

I love to cook for my family (or anyone, for that matter), and they (with the exception of that vegetable-hating one) like to try new things. In fact, I like to cook so much that, when I am really pleased with a meal I have created, I sometimes photograph it and share the recipes with friends online. I didn't realize how often I did this until my kids started saying things like, "Mama, my food looks really good. Do you want to take picture before I eat it?"

Last night, over a dinner of curried vegetables, tofu and brown rice, they suggested that I create a vegetarian food blog. They even came up with the name. I think they are awfully clever, these little people I've spawned. I like them, and I like their ideas. So, here I am. And here is my blog, in all its vegetarian food-y glory. It won't be fancy. Nor will I.

I promise the next entry will actually include some kind of food...ish..ness. Foodishness?? That's a word, right. I think it is. I am pretty sure I just made it up, but I like it, so I think I will keep it.

Welcome aboard.