Hi Ho Hi Ho...to my kitchen I go! (insert whistling if you wish)

Second night of cooking since we have been back from our 2 1/2 week vacay.  While I enjoyed getting a break from cooking, it sure has been nice to start getting my kitchen messy again!  As usual, my kids were just not interested in dinner or don't like the vegetarian fare!  I am thinking they just don't like dinner since they never devoured dinner while we were on vacay either.

Our menu this week consists of some "back on track" meals...these are meals that are quick, easy, and vegetarian to get ourselves readjusted to the dietary changes we had adapted before we left.  On the menu tonight was Fusilli Col Buco with Braised Spring Vegetables, a recipe I found in one of my new vegetarian magazines I have been getting.  We made a few changes, and I will write the recipe out the way we made it.  I wanted a quick and easy side dish, so I whipped up some Quinoa with a drizzle of olive oil, black olives, tomato, and feta cheese.  I didn't have a recipe to go by for this, so I went off of a picture that one of my Facebook friends posted on her wall a couple of days ago.  The Quinoa was my favorite part of the dinner!  I buy these super sweet, organic, on the vine cherry tomatoes from my local health food store, and they absolutely MADE the dish!  

Alright, enough talk, here are the rcipes; and because I usually only use recipes that have a picture of the dish, I am throwing in a couple pictures too!

Fusilli Col Buco with Braised Spring Vegetables

2 cups chopped frozen onion

4 cloves (4 tsp) minced garlic

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

2 cups dry white wine

1 cup vegetable broth

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 can artichoke hearts, halved or quartered

3 medium carrots, diced

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced

1 cup frozen peas

8 oz. Fusilli Col Buco pasta

parmesan cheese, to taste

* Heat a large dutch oven or pan to medium high heat.  Spray with non-stick cooking spray and saute the onion and garlic for about 3-5 minutes.  Add the red pepper flakes, white wine, vegetable broth and lemon juice.  Stir in the artichokes, mushrooms, and carrots.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium low and simmer about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Add the peas and cook another 3-5 minutes.

*Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a pot of salted water according to package directions and drain.  Return the pasta to the pot.

* Using a slotted spoon, remove the vegetables and combine with the pasta.  If you prefer a more dry pasta, do not add any of the vegetable braising liquid.  If you prefer a bit os sauciness, add a ladle or two of the braising liquid (the whine, broth, and lemon juice mixture) to the pasta and vegetables.  Add salt, pepper, and parmesan to taste.

MY NOTES

Overall, this was a good dinner!  It was light, refreshing, and full of vegetables.  I would probably not add the red pepper flakes, it gave it a bit of a kick that I didn't like in this dish.  I added two ladles full of the braising liquid and I found that the combo of the wine, vegetable broth, and lemon juice gave the pasta a somewhat vinegar taste that I really didn't care for.  If I make tis again, I will not add any of the braising liquid to the pasta.

Quinoa with Olives, Tomatoes, and Feta

1 cup Quinoa

extra virgin olive oil

5-6 large cherry tomatoes

black olives, sliced (add as many as you like)

crumbled feta cheese (again, add as much as you like)

* Follow package directions for preparation of Quinoa; otherwise a typical way to prepare is 1-2 cups of water per 1 cup of Quinoa.  I added 1.5 cups water and 1 cup Quinoa and brought to a boil.  Once brought to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the germ separates from the seed.

* Once cooked, add a drizzle of olive oil, sliced tomatoes, sliced olives, and feta cheese.

Quinoa Fun Facts

1. Has a protein content of 18%

2. A source of complete protein, which means it has adequate proportions of the eight essential amino acids which are necessary dietetic requirements for humans and animals

3. Good source of fiber, magnesium, and iron

looks good, tastes good, and easy to prepare!

Thanks for reading and good eats!

I'm Baaaaaack!

No, I did not fall off the face of the planet!  We spent 2 1/2 weeks traveling back to the midwest to visit family and celebrate my little sister's college graduation!  While it was a fun trip, we were gone a very long time and am happy to be back home now.  Living out of suitcases and spare bedrooms for that amount of time can be stressful when you have three little kiddos.

Our diets pretty much went out the window on this trip!  There was way too much eating out and eating a lot of unhealthy foods and consuming way more alcohol than we normally do!  We ate a lot of yummy food, but were missing our own meals while we were gone.  We have gotten so used to an almost meat free diet, it was kind of hard to eat so much meat, and it was not friendly to my body; I came back 3 pounds heavier!  

There were two things I was most excited to come back home too; my bed and my kitchen!  I sat down and immediately planned our menu for the week and went directly to our local health food store to stock our kitchen back up.  So, back to a mostly meat free diet and more new blog entries (I found some new recipes to try out!).  

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Plain and simple...nothing crazy so far this week, just really busy!  No entertaining stories from the kids, no interesting things going on...just going with the flow of life and enjoying every minute of it.

Tonight's dinner serves triple duty!  I would eat or serve this for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!  I have told you before how much I have started to love tofu, the tofu in this dinner was so well flavored and tasty!  If you are scared of trying tofu, this would be a great "starter" dish for you!  My son has an egg allergy; crumbled, sauteed, and seasoned properly, this seems to be a great substitute for scrambled eggs!

I got this recipe from our Blissful Bites cookbook.  Instead of making just the southwest tofu scramble, we added  some gluten free tortilla wraps that we heated over a hot skillet in some olive oil.  This is flavorful all on it's own, but if you wanted a bit more, you could add some shredded cheddar cheese to the wrap.  If you wanted to get really chop happy in the kitchen, you could add some diced red bell peppers, scallions, or diced and sauteed red potatoes as well.  I imagine you could omit any of the vegetables in the recipe below that you don't care for and swap in ones that you enjoy.  All in all, I think this is a pretty versatile dish!

Enough talk, here it is!

Southwest Tofu Scramble


oil spray, for skillet (I drizzled olive oil in the pan...I just can't seem to give that up yet!)
1 package (14 oz.) extra firm tofu, pressed (to soak up the water in the tofu) and then crumbled
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tbsp tamari
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 medium carrot, diced very small
pinch of sea salt
1 cup zucchini, diced very small
5 mushrooms (We like mushrooms, so I just used a handful of button mushrooms), diced very small

My add ons:
tortilla wraps, optional  (I used some gluten free ones from the natural food store, they were much better than I thought they would be!)
shredded cheddar cheese, optional

* combine the tofu, nutritional yeast, tamari, cumin, and chili powder in a bowl and set aside
* In a large skillet with the olive oil, saute the carrots with the pinch of sea salt until slightly tender.  Add the zucchini and mushrooms and saute for two to three minutes with a lid on.  Remove them from the pan, and wipe the pan out.
* add another drizzle of olive oil to the pan and add the tofu mixture in an even layer.  Cook the tofu over medium heat for 5 minutes (without flipping or turning), after 5 minutes, turn the mixture over in the pan and let sit for another 5 minutes or so.  Stir in the vegetable mixture and serve immediately.

Now, you can serve this alone as is, or you can throw it into a tortilla wrap, like this!

And because I know what you are all wondering, what did my little food critics think of dinner tonight?  My son was skeptical about it, but when I told him we were having breakfast tacos he was sold!  My son hates mushrooms, he won't eat mushrooms in anything that I cook; the little bugger always pulls them out and throws them on my plate (I don't mind though!).  I diced the mushrooms so small, he didn't even know they were in there!  Both kids ate EVERY bite!  Papa nothing said he was going to save the rest and make a breakfast burrito in the morning; unfortunately, I helped myself to the last remaining bites!  I can't wait to make this again and do some ingredient experimentation!  

Thanks for reading and good eats!

Two for One

Well, I did cook last night.  However, I was lazy and decided not to actually tell you about it until tonight!  So, as a little treat for today, you get last night's dinner as well as tonight's dinner!  Aren't you a lucky bunch of readers?!  So, instead of telling you all the boring details of my day, I will dive right into the food, because let's face it, that is why you are sitting here reading this!

I got this first recipe from a blog one of my friends suggested I check out called Peas and Thank You.  Like my family, this was a mom who had finally had enough of all the bad things she and her family were ingesting, and their family went vegan.  She also has a cook book that I intend to buy once papa nothing starts getting antsy for some new recipes.  I changed the ingredients a bit since we have not really gone vegan; I can't bring myself to buy tofu cheese yet, and quite frankly, it just doesn't taste the same as some melted gooey mozzarella cheese!  Anyways, here is the recipe for Spaghetti Squash Casserole.  This was one of my favorites so far...and...it only took about 15 minutes to prepare (once you baked the squash in the oven)!  The recipe has you cut the squash and then microwave it, I don't like that method...I almost lost a finger doing it that way once!  Those things are a real pain to try and cut uncooked.

Spaghetti Squash Preparation

*do this about an hour before you are ready to start dinner prep.  For example, we like to eat around 5:30 pm, so I put the squash in the oven and then went and played with the lil' ones for an hour*


* preheat oven to 375 degrees
* put squash on a cookie sheet and bake 40-60 minutes ( I baked it for 60 minutes)
* remove from oven and cut lengthwise; it is so soft you can pierce it with a paring knife
* scoop out the seeds and "guts"

this is all that should be left when you are done

* take a fork and shred the squash, it will look like short spaghetti strands

this is what the squash looks like shredded

Spaghetti Squash Casserole


1 large spaghetti squash (about 7-8 C of squash strands)
2 C marinara sauce
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
1/2 C non-dairy (Tofutti) or organic cream cheese (oops, I misread this and bought sour cream, so I used 1/2 C sour cream instead)
1/4 C nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
2 C lightly steamed broccoli florets
1 C mozzarella cheese, shredded

* preheat oven to 350 degreees
* in saucepan, combine the marinara sauce, oregano, basil, cream cheese (or sour cream if that is what you bought by mistake) and the nutritional yeast or parmesan.  Heat over low to medium heat until all melted together.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
* add spaghetti squash and broccoli to the saucepan and evenly coat
* put it all into a large casserole dish, lightly sprayed
* top with the shredded mozzarella and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly
* after baking, broil for 2-3 minutes

Ok, now we move on to dinner tonight!  As you can see by some of my blogs, I really like gnocchi!  I made a new gnocchi recipe tonight that had spinach (another one of our faves), baby peas, lemon, and heavy cream...what could be better than that combo?!  As usual, the kids started raiding my pantry and fridge about halfway through dinner...they found a bag of lunch meat that they decided was an acceptable substitute to gnocchi.  My son threw slices of it across the table to his sister, who promptly chewed two little eye holes and made herself a meat mask!  Papa nothing, who by the way, was an hour late for dinner, declared it was a great meal.  He told me that if I had cooked like this when we first met he would have married me even quicker!  His next sentence was "this is put me in the mood to spend money good" hmmm...mama nothing thinks a new Coach purse might be a good reward for all this extra effort.  I got this off of Epicurious, and pretty much followed it by the book.  The best part about this recipe:  prep time is 10 minutes, cook time is 20 minutes...mama like!


Lemon Gnocchi with Spinach and Peas


1 cup FROZEN baby peas (do not thaw)
1/2 heavy cream (I used organic)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 garlic clove, smashed (I just used the minced stuff from a jar)
3 cups (3 oz) baby spinach
1 tsp grated lemon zest (any excuse to use my microplane grater, I use!)
1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 lb. dried gnocchi
1/4 cup grated parmesan

* simmer peas with cream, red pepper flakes, garlic, and 1/4 tsp salt in a skillet, covered, until tender, about 5 minutes
*toss in your spinach and cook over medium low heat until spinach is wilted
* remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and juice
* bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add your gnocchi, boiling about 2-3 minutes until gnocchi start to float to the top
* add gnocchi to the sauce mixture and stir in the parmesan

Gnocchi me happy!  Add a side of lemon roasted asparagus (see earlier blog post) and you have a healthy and delicious dinner!

Thanks for reading and good eats!

Who loves fluff?

It was like Christmas at my house this past week!  My kids get so excited when the UPS driver walks up to our door!  Not only did I get a package of fluffy mail; I am a total cloth diaper addict, I also got TWO boxes of make-up and skin care products from Mary Kay (which I sell).  Papa nothing thinks I am a bit nutty for buying so many cloth diapers, every month he looks at my credit card bill and shakes his head in frustration at how we don't actually save any money by using cloth diapers if every month I keep buying more!  Here's a little secret that Papa nothing doesn't know (so, let's hope he doesn't follow my blog as closely as the rest of you!), I don't use cloth diapers because I am a tree hugging eco mom who is using them to save money or because they are good for the environment; in my mind, these are like the little "bonuses" to using cloth.  So, why do I use cloth...well, honestly, there is nothing cuter than a little baby booty decked out in some adorable fluff!  There are so may colors and designs to choose from, sometimes, I just can't hold myself back from buying that new owl print or the newest AIO (all in one) diaper!

who doesn't enjoy a bit of fluffy booty during tummy time

I will also admit that I was bad this week...really bad!  Papa nothing was gone for most of the week leaving me and the three little ones to fend for ourselves!  When Papa nothing is gone I tend to retreat into laziness; "you have been gone all week, I couldn't possibly have had time to clean the house", "too hard to actually cook a meal with the kids hanging off of me"...so...as much as I really enjoy cooking a great wholesome and usually nutritious dinner for my family, it was nice to take a break from the kitchen!  We ordered pizza on Monday night, ate out fast food on Tuesday night (yes, I did say fast food!  Once in awhile I do rely on the drive thru to supply food for my children), and took advantage of our church's soup supper on Wednesday night!  In that time frame, I also made a most unhealthy and "not clean" chocolate ganache cake for our church dinner on Wednesday!  I did however use organic heavy whipping cream for my ganache ...hey, it's the little things that count!  Needless to say, when Papa nothing returned from his work trip, he really wasn't in the mood for more eating out...back to the neglected kitchen I went!  I decided since it was the first time I had cooked all week, I needed something relatively quick and easy, so I decided on a recipe I came across on Epicurious.  As usual, I tweaked the recipe to make it to my liking, and definitely have one major thing to change when I make it again!  So, here is the recipe for my dinner on Thursday night...Gnocchi Gratin with Gorgonzola Dolce.

I will say, I am not a fan of cheese that has mold, so you can imagine my surprise when I opened the gorgonzola dolce cheese to discover it very reminiscent of blue cheese, which I really don't care for!  The finished product has that same "bite" that blue cheese has, so while I did eat my helping, I will find a different cheese to use next time, feel free to comment with suggestions for cheeses that could be used!  This recipe also has you making your own gnocchi, but seriously, I am a busy mom of three, i don't have that kind of time nor patience, so I used the ready made gnocchi, which made my job WAY easier!

Gnocchi Gratin with Gorgonzola Dolce

1 package vacuum sealed gnocchi
6 oz. parmesan cheese, divided
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 good pinch of dried rosemary
1 good dash of ground ginger
2 Tbsp butter, room temperature, divided
3 Tbsp Italian style bread crumbs
3 oz. Gorgonzola dolce

* bring cream, rosemary, and ginger to a boil.  Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
* preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; add the gnocchi and boil for 2 to 3 minutes when the gnocchi start to float to the surface.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the gnocchi to a baking dish that you coated with 1 Tbsp of the room temperature butter.
* mix the bread crumbs, the last 1 Tbsp of room temperature butter, and 3 Tbsp of the grated parmesan into a small bowl.
* strain the cream mixture (I used a sifter for this) over and into the baking dish with the gnocchi in it.  Break off small pieces of the gorgonzola (or whatever other cheese I decide to use next time) over the top of the gnocchi and cream mixture.  Then top with the remaining parmesan cheese and add the bread crumb mixture last on top of the parmesan.
* bake until filling is bubbly and top is slightly browned, about 25-30 minutes.

My little eaters, who don't normally eat any gnocchi recipe I make, really enjoyed this one!  I was surprised that they weren't put off by the taste of the cheese.  I threw together a side of cous cous, although I probably should have done a vegetable.  My lemon roasted asparagus recipe would have tasted great with this!

Sassy Sweet Potatoes

Short and sweet tonight!

For dinner we made a recipe from our new "Forks Over Knives" cookbook called Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna.  While I will admit this was a good recipe, I definitely have some adjustments to make the next time we make it...which will be again soon!  This is another one of those recipes that I seriously recommend you take the time to try...go ahead, give your kitchen some love, spend some time in it!  This lasagna has tofu in it, and if you are on the fence about trying tofu, this would be a great recipe to get you accustomed to the taste and texture.  As I have mentioned before, tofu takes on the taste of whatever you are cooking it with, seriously, please don't be afraid of it!  And, just for your own reassurance, once you eat tofu, you will not suddenly be turned into some tree hugger yuppie sort, I promise!  

Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna

1 onion, chopped

1 small head of garlic, cloves chopped or pressed

8 oz. fresh sliced mushrooms

1 head of broccoli, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 bell peppers, chopped

1 can corn; rinsed and drained

1 package firm tofu

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp rosemary

2 jars pasta sauce (little or no added oil)

2 boxes whole grain lasagna noodles

16 oz. frozen spinach; thawed and drained

2 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed (I did this about an hour before I was ready to start dinner)

6 Roma tomatoes, sliced thin

1 cup raw cashews, ground

* preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Water saute the onion and garlic on high heat for 3 minutes in a wok or nonstick pan.  Add the mushrooms and cook until the onions are limp and the mushrooms give up their liquid.  Remove them to a large bowl with a slotted spoon.  Water saute the broccoli and carrots for 5 minutes and then add to the mushroom bowl.  Saute the peppers and corn until soft then add them to the vegetable and mushroom bowl.  Drain the tofu by wrapping it in paper towels to absorb the excess water.  Break the tofu up and mix it in the vegetable and mushroom bowl.  

* cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan with a layer of the pasta sauce.  Add a layer of noodles.  Cover the noodles with the sauce, this way the noodles cook in the oven saving time and energy.  Spread the vegetable mixture over the noodles.  Add another layer of lasagna noodles over the vegetable mixture and cover with pasta sauce.  Spoon the spinach mixture over the top of the noodles and then spread the mashed sweet potatoes over the spinach.  Add the final layer of lasagna noodles and cover with pasta sauce.  Cover the lasagna with thinly sliced Roma tomatoes.

* cover with foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil; sprinkle with the cashews; and return to the oven to bake for an additional 15 minutes.

OK...MY ADJUSTMENTS FOR NEXT TIME!

Well, we have a nut allergy in the house so we skipped the whole ground cashew thing, although I am pretty sure it tastes darn good.  The recipe has you use UNCOOKED lasagna noodles that you layer with pasta sauce, and this is supposed to cook them; instead we ended up with chewy lasagna noodles in the middle and crunchy burned lasagna noodles at the edges.  Take the extra 15 minutes and boil the lasagna noodles so they are nice and soft, just as lasagna should be!  The recipe calls for two boxes of lasagna noodles, I think you can get buy with one box.  In total, I used 15 or 16 noodles.  Save yourself a bit of extra prep time and use frozen onions.  I used frozen onions and already minced garlic from a glass jar.  I have NO clue what water sauteing is, and it did not go very well for me, I will just use extra virgin olive oil next time to saute all the vegetables.  I also did not think the broccoli got softened enough for my liking, so next time we make this I will steam the broccoli instead of sauteing it...a bit of extra work and an extra pan to clean, but well worth it, I think.  I was also not a huge fan of corn in my lasagna, so will probably omit this next time, and I may even sneak in a bit of cheese!  And, just in case you get confused by lasagna layers like I do, here is a break down; sauce, noodles, vegetable mixture, noodles, sauce, spinach, mashed sweet potatoes, noodles, sauce, roma tomatoes.  

The kids were not totally keen on dinner tonight, so I bribed them with Veggie Straws to get them to eat at least some of my lasagna goodness!  Papa nothing needed no bribing whatsoever and had three plates of it!  All in all, pretty tasty, can't wait to tweak it to my liking!

I'm dreaming of a white...SPRING!

While most of you were outside enjoying your unusually warm weather and soaking in a healthy dose of vitamin D...up here in the mountains we were outside shoveling!  Well, actually, when I say "we" were shoveling, I mean papa nothing was out shoveling!

This is a 6 ft. privacy fence, the snow is halfway up the fence!  I took this picture this morning, yesterday afternoon papa nothing shoveled a foot and a half of snow off the patio that the trike is sitting on!  The snow on the trike is from overnight!  Behind the trike is the 30 inches of snow that fell from Saturday around 11:30 pm until early this morning!  Yes, you read that correctly, 30 inches!

What does one cook for dinner with 30 inches of snow on the ground?  My initial plan of attack for dinner was a sweet potato lasagna recipe I have been wanting to try, But I didn't realize I had to first cook and mash the sweet potatoes, I was out of time for that step.  Then, I thought soup would be good, but the soup has yellow split peas in it and you have to let those soak for two hours before you can even tackle the actual soup portion...it was already 4:30 pm!  So...we made a dish we have been cooking quite regularly for about 4 months now!  Crispy Gnocchi with basil pesto and then I sauted up some fresh brussel sprouts.  I initially got the gnocchi (pronounced nok-ee, unless you are one of my kids, then you call it Pinocchio pasta) recipe from a food blog, and she had got the recipe from another food blog.  I didn't like some of the original ingredients, so we switched it up and make it the way we like.

Crispy Gnocchi with Basil Pesto

1 pkg gnocchi (found in the pasta section, in a vacuum sealed little tub)

1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved; we use the heirloom variety because it gives it more color

2-3 Tbsp prepared pesto

1 container of Feta cheese, although you can use goat cheese as well (I think these come in 3 oz. containers)

* In a skillet, pour 1 Tbsp olive oil and heat over medium heat.  Dump the gnocchi in the skillet  and let saute for a couple minutes.  I then take a spatula and flip the gnocchi several times to get all sides golden in color.  usually this takes no more than five minutes...be careful not to burn the gnocchi!

* Add your cherry tomatoes and cook over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes until they are nice and soft.

* When the tomatoes are done, mix in your pesto and remove from the heat.

* Add the carton of feta or goat cheese and lightly toss.

For a side dish I cooked up some fresh brussels sprouts.  My kids are not huge fans of brussel sprouts, but if I found that if I add enough flavors, textures, and saute them, they will inhale them!  My daughter actually had three helpings of brussels sprouts last night!  The original recipe is from my new "Forks Over Knives" cookbook, but like almost everything we make we end up adding extra ingredients or omitting ingredients we either forgot to buy or couldn't find.  We ended up omitting some things in this recipe, here is the way I made it.

Maple Brussels Sprouts

1 1/2 lb. fresh brussels sprouts

1 large shallot

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 Tbsp Tamari

1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

* clean brussel ssprouts, trim off the ends and cut the brussels sprouts in half.  Bring water in a saucepan to a boil, once boiling, drop in the brussels sprouts and boil for 2 minutes.  Drain and rinse with cold water.

* dice the shallot and saute in about 1 tsp olive oil for about 3 minutes.  Add the brussels sprouts and saute for another four or five minutes, tossing them in the pan occasionally.  

* while brussels sprouts are sauteing, whisk together the maple syrup, tamari, and dijon mustard.

* add the sauce to the brussels sprouts and let cook until sauce thickens up a bit, about five minutes or so.

and... ta da!

Enjoy your day, wherever you are, and happy eats!

Can you buy sweet potatoes in Mexico?

My kiddos have been taking a lot of vacations lately!  Almost every day they jet away for the afternoon!  To what lavish destinations are they traveling you ask...Mexico!  It started about a week ago when my daughter found a rather large pink leather tote/briefcase (from my previous working life) that she decided would be a perfect vacation bag!  So, fast forward a week to the present; she packs up this huge tote with all of her most valued possessions: clothes, slippers, princess figurines, make-up, and some light reading material.  After she is done meticulously packing her bag, her and big brother announce they are going to Mexico!  They trudge off to the car, a.k.a. my bed, and off they go.  Sometimes I just don't want them playing in my room, so I try to move Mexico...turns out you can't move Mexico!  I try to create other exotic vacation destinations for them in other areas of the house; venice canal in the hallway, etc...nope...they only want Mexico!  So we visit Mexico everyday now, you would think I could at least get a margarita out of all my travels!  The best part about visiting Mexico with my kids...no problems with border crossings!

If only my kids could do some of my errands while in Mexico, like grocery shopping!  They could pick me up some of the sweet potatoes that I needed for dinner last night.  Can you even buy sweet potatoes in Mexico?  I don't know...it just sounded like a good segway into my dinner!  And yes, you did read this correctly, my dinner LAST night!  I am still quite under the weather and just really felt like crashing on the couch instead of updating my blog last night...sorry folks!  Last night we made Sweet Potato and Black Bean enchiladas!  It sounds kind of weird, but trust me, this is a really fantastic and sweet spicy dish, I think even my Dad would eat these!  It took about 2 hours to make from start to finish...but don't panick, you have about 50 minutes worth of baking time that you can use to clean up the mess you made preparing dinner or just sit back with a glass of wine or a cold beer...me, I sat at my table with a box of kleenex!  I don't know exactly where this recipe originated, I got it off Pinterest, and the original link took me back to Vegetarian Times magazine.  We made some changes to the recipe, here is our version:

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas


Red Sauce
15 oz. tomato sauce
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tsp ancho chili powder
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried oregano
12 tsp chipotle chili powder

Enchilada Filling
1 Tbs olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
15 oz. petite diced tomatoes
16 oz. mild or medium salsa
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup water
15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed and drained
12 oz. round queso fresco or large bag of shredded mozzarella

Enchiladas
6 inch corn tortillas, warmed (warming them is the most important step!  Warm them in the microwave or on a skillet to make them soft and pliable...if you do not, they will break apart on you in the dish)
Avocado slices for garnish
Sour cream for garnish

* For the sauce: whisk all ingredients in a sauce pan and simmer over medium heat.  Let simmer while you prepare the filling.  We let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes, then pulled it off the heat.
* For the filling: Heat oil in a large skillet; add the onion and let it saute for about 3-5 minutes or until pearly and soft.  Add the diced sweet potatoes, tomatoes, salsa, garlic, and 1/2 cup of water; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for 40 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are soft (the smaller you dice your sweet potatoes, the less simmer time this means for you!)

Once the potatoes are soft, mash the mixture with a potato masher.  Add the black beans and cook an additional 5 minutes or so.

Crumble half of the wheel of Queso Fresco into the filling mixture and remove from heat.

* Enchilada assembly: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish.  Spread 1/2 cup of the red sauce on the bottom of the dish.  Warm your corn tortillas and then fill them, wrap them, and pack them into the baking dish, making sure the seam side is down.  Pour the remaining sauce over the top.  Crumble the remainder of your Queso Fresco round and sprinkle over the enchiladas and sauce.

* Bake the enchiladas for 15 minutes.

* After they have baked, broil them for 3-5 minutes until your cheese is browned and bubbly.

* garnish with sliced avocado and sour cream.
On a side note: the sauce has a bit of a kick to it and my kids don't really like spicy stuff, so I made a couple extra enchiladas for them in a mini loaf pan without any of the red sauce, and topped them with mozzarella cheese.

These are so fabulous!  This is a must try recipe, you won't miss the meat, I promise!  My daughter devoured two of them, and my husband announced they would make great breakfast burritos and that he might eat one in the morning!  If you are scared of making enchiladas without the meat, at least try this yummy red sauce when you make your meat enchiladas!  Eating these enchiladas assured me that giving up our old meat based diet may not be such a bad thing after all.  Eliminating meat does not necessarily mean sacrificing taste and flavor, this dish proved that to us!

Thanks for reading and good eats!

Eggless salad and a case of the blahs

Ok, so haven't been on here for a couple days due a case of feeling like crap, a.k.a. the flu, I think,  coming on suddenly yesterday afternoon.  Mind you, I have not had the flu in about as long as I can remember.  Of course, this all came on at the end of one of papa nothings busiest times at work right now and he couldn't take any time off work to allow me to rest and recouperate.  Needless to say, taking care of three kids when you are sick with the flu and no help really sucks! I have been bribing them with iPad apps for good behavior!  Anyways, enough of the pity party...let's get on to dinner!

Since I am still under the weather, I decided something easy would be on the menu again; papa nothing made them grilled cheese last night while I laid on the couch watching them under the warmth of my blanket.  Since our oldest has an egg allergy, I found a recipe in our trusty "Blissful Bites" cookbook that uses tofu instead of egg.  Not to fret folks, I just got a new "less involved" cookbook and have found some great eats on Epicurious!  You will be treated to those finds next week, as well as whatever eventful or rather uneventful events occur in that timeframe as well!

Tofu Eggless Salad


1 package extra firm tofu
2 celery stalks, thinly diced
1/4 cup vegan mayo (I just used the regular ole mayo taking up room in my fridge)
1 Tbsp relish
1Tbsp dijon mustard
1Tbsp tamari
1 tsp turmeric (it adds that pretty yellow coloring)
1 tsp celery salt
dash of black pepper

* steam the tofu for 10 minutes and let cool
* crumble the tofu into a large bowl; add the rest of the ingredients and mmix thoroughly but gently
* serve as a sandwich filling or over a bed of greens

Sorry, no picture here...it is eggless salad...in bread...
Alright folks, the wee ones are going to bed and so is this mama!

What is your sick, lazy, or just don't want to cook go-to meal?

Beer and Pizza

You can't be healthy EVERY day of the week...sometimes a gal just needs pizza and a cold beer!  This mama had a long day, and quite frankly, just did not really like the idea of cooking tonight...so I took the night off and let our favorite pizza joint do the time in the kitchen!

There is absolutely NOTHING healthy about this pizza!  It has pretty much zilch for nutritional content, and is loaded with all kinds of crap that isn't good for you.  It is plain, wholesome, fatty, caloric goodness; and it was delicious!  I think I will be stepping over the scale tomorrow morning instead of on it!

Thanks for reading and good eats!

Weak in the knees...and a little ole thing called Hiziki

Papa nothing convinced me to take my run off the treadmill and venture outside today...I tried to make excuses to not run outside; it is really windy out, it is cold out, etc.  He told me to dress in layers and shut up.  So, I ran outside for the first time in over a year since having our third little babe.  It really isn't that cold out, it was pretty windy, but I survived.  I think that running on the treadmill has made me weak!  I used to run in the rain, in the wind, in the snow, in the heat...now I don't ever venture off the treadmill.  I set the incline at 1% because I read that is what most closely resembles running outside...bulls*^t!  So, as I cursed papa nothing as I was running uphill into the wind, I was also thanking him on my way back (downhill and wind to my back).  He told me I needed to get out into the fresh air, take a complete break from responsibilities and kids, and just go.  I realized once I got out that I really have missed running outside.  I am also reminded of all the positives of running outside during the colder months...
*Spitting; I always have to spit when I run, I can freely spit when I run outside and not gag on it!
*Decrease in sweat!  I like getting done with a run and not dripping sweat everywhere!
*We live in a mountainous area and when I run outside the mountains are always in my sight...the snow capped peaks are truly beautiful!
*Layers!  When I see cars coming I always speed up because I don't want people to question if I am just trying to walk really fast or am I in fact running...in the winter, I am so layered and then with my hat, no one can tell who I am!

After my run I settled down with a cherry chocolate peanut butter smoothie, it was surprisingly tasty!  After my quiet three minutes of relaxation, dinner prep began!  On the menu tonight was Land and Sea Soba Salad.  We slightly modified the recipe from our "Blissful Bites" cookbook.  This recipe contains "sea vegetables"a.k.a. seaweed...that annoying stuff that entraps your toes and makes you think large fish with teeth are brushing by your ankles when you are in the ocean.  The "sea vegetable" in tonight's dish was hiziki...a $24.99 per two ounce vegetable!  The price was ridiculous...this shit better taste fabulous!

The vegetables for dinner tonight!  Julienned carrots, broccoli, sliced cabbage, and that stuff in the measuring cup is hiziki.

You have to let the hiziki soak in water for about 10-15 minutes before you cook them.

I know, this looks crazy wierd...move past that!

Land and Sea Soba Salad

8 oz. soba noodles

1 carrot, julienned (I used two carrots)

3 leaves Napa cabbage, sliced (no clue what Napa cabbage is, nor did I see a sign above any of the cabbages at the grocery store, so I just used some purple cabbage that I already had from our sushi adventure)

1 cup chopped broccoli

1 cup tofu, steamed or fried (I used one package of extra firm tofu that I cubed and then sprinkled with sea salt.  I then added a bit of olive oil to a skilled and fried it up)

Sesame Seeds, toasted for garnish (oops,  I forgot to buy these!)

1/4 cup hiziki, soaked in 3/4 cup filtered water

2 tsp tamari

Dressing

1/3 cup tamari

1/4 cup brown rice vinegar (I was not willing to shell out $$ for yet ANOTHER vinegar, so I googled substitutes and found that Apple Cider Vinegar is an acceptable substitute, so I used 1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar instead)

2 tsp fresh ginger (I just used some ground ginger from my spice cabinet...not messing with the fresh stuff, I am busy enough as it is!)

1 Tbsp liquid smoke (I was too lazy to run to the grocery store today to get this, so I just omitted it)

2 Tbsp maple syrup

* cook soba noodles according to package directions.  Whisk dressing ingredients together.  Remove the noodles from the water (mama nothing note: MAKE SURE TO KEEP YOUR BOILING NOODLE WATER, YOU WILL NEED THIS IN THE NEXT STEP)

* toss the soba noodles with the dressing and set aside.  Keep the noodle water boiling for blanching the vegetables.

* blanch the vegetables until lightly cooked and vibrant in color.  Remove the veggies with a slotted spoon and toss with the noodles.

* drain off the hiziki water and put fresh water and tamari into a small pot and simmer until water is absorbed.  

* meanwhile, fry up the tofu in a skillet.

* toss all ingredients with the noodles and veggies.  Sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Tada!  

This was a close second to the stuffed pasta shells we made the other night!  Even our kids devoured it, and asked for us to save some for lunch tomorrow!  I know the hiziki looks a bit creepy in the picture, but if you can get past the fact that it looks weird it really is very delicious!  I recommend you give this one a try!  I have really gotten to love tofu!  Tofu is great because it tends to take on the taste of whatever you are cooking it with.  

For a side dish, I would recommend asparagus spears with lemon!  We adapted this recipe from the same "Blissful Bites" book, and this is a new favorite in our house, I hope it is in your too!

Lemon Roasted Asparagus

1 lb. fresh asparagus, ends trimmed

2 Tbsp thinly sliced lemons

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp oregano

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

* preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Combine all ingredients, making sure to coat the asparagus with oil.  Spread evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and roast.  Shake the pan occasionally to toss, and roast for about 12 minutes or until tender-crisp.

There you have it!  Good for you and tasty to eat!

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Love / Hate Relationship

I think I have a love / hate relationship with the dinner I made tonight.  I love that it tastes great, has tons of yummy veggies (and you wouldn't even know it!), is super healthy and a very clean dish.  That is where the love stops!  This dish was a beast to make!  I had one casualty in the process; RIP beloved Kitchen Aid spatula!

We will start with the sauce, this was the longest and most time consuming to make.  Once again, I adapted these recipes from the book "Blissful Bites" by, you guessed it, Christy Morgan!

Mama Mia Magnifico Sauce
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
1 medium rutabaga, quartered
3 medium carrots, cut into large chunks
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp oil
3 celery stalks, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 Tbsp oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp sherry vinegar
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp tamari
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 small beet, grated
sea salt, to taste

Place squash, rutabaga, and carrots in a pressure cooker (I don't have a pressure cooker, so I diced the pieces and put them in my stockpot covered with water and let boil until they were soft).  If you have a pressure cooker, add 1/2 tsp sea salt, lock the lid in place and bring up to pressure. Cook on full pressure for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, heat oil in skillet over medium and saute celery, onion, spices, and a pinch of sea salt for a few minutes.  Stir in the vinegars, tamari, and maple syrup; then set aside.

When the root vegetables are done, turn off the stove and let pressure come down naturally.  Puree the cooled vegetables in a food processor or blender.

Fold in the sauteed celery, onion, and grated beet.  Add as much beet as you want to make the sauce a deep red.  Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.  Warm on the oven and serve hot over the filled pasta shells.

You start with this...

And you get this!  Can you believe there is not a SINGLE tomato in this sauce?

Pureeing the vegetables is how lost my spatula!  My food processor ate it!  I had to toss the second half of my sauce.

Next up was the make my pasta shell filling...

Tofu Ricotta Cheeze
1 pkg (14 oz) extra firm tofu
1/3 cup fresh basil
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (that flaky stuff from my previous post)
2 Tbsp tamari
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp maple syrup
1 cup fresh arugula or spinach (I used baby spinach)
sea salt, to taste

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until well combined and no lumps remain.

Veggie Stuffed Pasta Shells
16 oz. jumbo pasta shells
1 tsp oil (I used olive oil)
1 cup zucchini, diced small
1 cup mushrooms, finely chopped
Tofu Ricotta Cheeze (from above)
Mama Mia Magnifico Sauce (from above)

Cook pasta according to directions.  Heat oil in skillet and saute zucchini and mushrooms until barely limp.  Turn off heat and mix with the Tofu Ricotta Cheeze.  Stuff the filling into the pasta shells and cover with the Mama Mia Magnifico Sauce.

All in all...I really LOVE this dish...probably my favorite healthy dish that we have made so far.  I would save myself a lot of hassle the next time I make it and buy already cubed pieces of butternut squash for the sauce...that thing was a pain in the butt to cut and peel!  I would also NOT make this on a weeknight again!  Next time I make this will be on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when I am not so pressed for time.  This dish takes a lot of prep, a lot of washing dishes in between, and a lot of patience.    White wine goes great with the stuffed pasta shells, I drank a chardonnay.  I seriously recommend you take the time to try this recipe; my words of wisdom for you...when you are done, sit back with another glass of wine and let your husband or significant other tackle the clean up!

The final touch!  So yummy!

Somewhere in the middle of all this mess, I also decided that I would be super mom and bake a batch of cookies with a new recipe I have been wanting to try!  The cookies were a good bribe to get the lil ones to eat their dinner!

Roller Coasters and Sushi

Having a child with Tourette's is like riding a never ending roller coaster.  There are ups and downs.  You love it but are terrified at the same time.  Every once in awhile, you even have to let a few screams escape.  We have had a particularly rough time the last four or five days.  One of the hallmarks of Tourette's is rage episodes.  My lil ticcer has been having rage episodes almost daily for the last couple of days.  It takes almost nothing to set it off.  His episodes include screaming, hitting, kicking, punching, pinching, destroying things in my house, throwing things, and the inability to be consoled.  We try to be patient through these episodes, but sometimes it is difficult.  Today it was difficult to be patient, tomorrow I will be better; tomorrow will be a better day for everyone...I hope!  I love my lil ticcer, but sometimes this mama just needs a lil break.

Anyways, tonight we experimented with making our own sushi!  I have gotten papa nothing addicted to sushi (the basic kind) now, so he was game for our experiment.  What do you make sushi with?

Our recipe called for Soba noodles instead of rice, and dare I say that I like it a lot better...  This recipe also had collard greens in it, which I was not a huge fan of.  The kids did not much care for their new dinner, they decided to eat Pirate Booty and Veggie Straws instead.  The only veggies in it were cucumbers and purple cabbage, I think I will throw in some avocado the next time we do this dish.  This recipe had a fantastic apricot ginger dipping sauce!  This sauce is so yummy, I need to find some more uses for it!  The ginger in the sauce gives it a little kick, but I found that a nice cold Blue Moon helps with the spiciness!  Here is the recipe if you are interested!  We got the recipe from the book "Blissful Bites" by Christy Morgan.  Rolling them up is quite a challenge and quite frankly, I really sucked at it!  Papa nothing came home and instantly rolled up a near perfect sushi roll...so, I stepped out of the way and sat down with my cold beer!

Soba Noodle Sushi with Apricot-Ginger Dipping Sauce

2 bundles, from 1 package of soba noodles (we just used a couple of handfuls per nori sheet)

3 collard green leaves, stems removed

3 nori sushi sheets

1 cup purple cabbage, thinly sliced

1 persian cucumber, thinly sliced (I have NO CLUE what a persian cucumber is, so I used an English Cucumber instead, peeled and cut into matchsticks)

6 basil leaves (I don't like leafy things, so we omitted this)

Sauce

1 Tbsp apricot preserves

1 tsp ginger, minced (we used ground ginger from one of our spice jars...I am a busy mom of three, I don't have time to mince fresh ginger!)

2 Tbsp Tamari

1 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp fresh mint, minced (again, I don't like leafy things, so we omitted this as well)

So, with all of this, you get this!

 Good eats and enjoy!  Thanks for reading!

Boys WIll Grab Their Junk...and Portabella Mushrooms

So, two of the kiddos had their well child check ups this morning.  As the doctor and I were talking, I told him how my baby constantly grabs his manly stuff the minute you remove his diaper.  It is kind of akward trying to get the new diaper on and snapped with his hand in the way, kneading his "stuff."   My (male) pediatrician shared this hilarious wisdom, that has become my new favorite quote for the day.  "Boys will grab their junk from about 6 months of age until the day they die."  So true!  I almost keeled over with laughter!

After our appointment I took the kids home to have a somewhat "healthy" lunch since papa nothing banned me from the drive thru during such situations when I feel to lazy to go home and actually prepare a meal!  I reheated the kids some fabulous cheesy meatloaf minis, which they wholeheartedly devoured!  For dinner we tried one of our new "uber healthy" recipes.  We had marinated portabella steaks with a tropical relish served with a side of roasted garlic and olive oil cous cous.  When the kids saw the "steak" on their plate, they immediately pushed it away and not so politely told me that they wanted something else to eat.  I am guessing at this point, they would have gladly eaten ANYTHING other than what they were being served.  I eyed my plate pretty skeptically as well.  Topped with the relish, it wasn't too bad; we told the kids that if you eat a bite with the relish it tastes like candy.  That tactic got them to take a couple more bites, but they soon realized that we were plotting to get them to actually eat their whole dinner and promptly devised a scheme to try and sneak ice cream out of the freezer instead.  So, for those of you that are interested, here is the recipe we used from a book titled "Blissful Bites" by Christy Morgan.  The balsamic vinegar in this recipe is a bit much for me, I would probably cut the amount in half if we make this again, but to each his own.

Tropical Relish


1 1/2 cups ripe mangos, peeled, pitted and finely chopped
1/2 cup bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 cup tomato, finely chopped
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
dash lime juice
pinch of sea salt and black pepper

*mix ingredients in a bowl and let flavors meld together for about 20-30 minutes

Marinated Portabella Steaks


4 portabella mushrooms, stems cut and wiped with damp paper towel


marinade
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 lime, juiced
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
pinch of sea salt and black pepper

*place marinade ingredients into a plastic bag and shake.  Add mushrooms and coat with the marinade and refrigerate for one hour.  Grill mushrooms directly on hot grill for a few minutes on each side (or if you are too lazy to fire up the grill like we were), you can bake them at 350 degrees for 8 minutes, turning once.

Enjoy!

Lemons, Yeast, and Noodles...oh my!

After church today we decided to take the clan to our natural food grocery store to pick up a few "nutritional" items that my grocery store didn't carry, and some great sushi for lunch (this place has fantastic sushi...even papa nothing loves it).  One of the items on the list was "nutritional yeast"  WTH is nutritional yeast?  To me, it sounds kind of scary and "earthy".  I ask the guy at the supplement counter, thinking it must be some sort of supplement.  This guy has no idea and then parades us around the store on our mission to find this elusive nutritional yeast.  Finally, as we are talking about it some customer tells us it is in the bulk grain section.  We go to the grain section, and there it is...on the bottom shelf.  I open the bin, and staring back at me is this brown flaky stuff.  My son asks me "Is that dog food mom?" Hmmm...possibly, I think to myself.  I have no clue what this is used for, so, let's hope it tastes better than it looks!

In case you are curious, I did find out exactly what it is used for.  It is an inactive yeast that has a nutty flavor and it used in many vegetarian dishes because it is similar to cheese when sprinkled on foods or added in sauces or stir fry.

Before we left church today, one of the ladies had brought in some fresh lemons...so I took a small handful.  My motto for the day:  When life (or a friend) gives you lemons...EAT THEM!  : )

Ruta...what?

So, it was papa nothing who suggested that I start this blog as a record so to speak, about some of our new changes.  We have been trying to eat "clean" for awhile, but after watching the documentaries "Food Inc" and "Forks over Knives" we have decided to try and switch over to a more predominant plant based diet.  Today was my first shopping experience buying mostly plant based foods...it was interesting...and expensive!  This new venture does have a silver lining...I get to re-outfit my kitchen with new gadgets, accessories and knives!  Happy shopping to me!

So, on my list of new foods to buy today; rutabaga, beets, collard greens, tamari, purple cabbage (the kids thought this was great!), butternut squash, portabello mushroom caps, soba noodles, and nori seaweed wraps.  I have NEVER bought any of this stuff before!  I had to call papa nothing several times from the grocery store!

Me: (calling papa nothing) Can you google Tamari for me?

Papa nothing: What?

Me: Tamari...I think it is in the spice section but not sure

Papa nothing: (googling)  it is like soy sauce...

Me: really?  

What exactly is a rutabaga?  I should have looked at pictures on the internet BEFORE I left for the grocery store!  Beets...I knew that they were really red, but no clue as to what they looked like!  I had to check the label three times before I actually believed they were in fact beets!  The beets are the top photo and the rutabaga is the one on the bottom.  Most likely I will have to look up how to cut these up as well!