Terrifying Tuesdays: thanksgiving and cauliflower and bonus!

I'm two weeks behind. So a quick round up and some bonus recipe reviews!

Last week I made Vegan Dad's Mini Pot Pies. Of course I served it with turkey, being an omnivore family and all... It was delicious!! But, the recipe goes totally against the rules of TT - in that there's no way it could have been low fat. The only thing I deviated on was that I used store bought puff pastry. And I really enjoyed buying little ramekins... it's always fun to shop for new things. Okay, so the boys weren't wild about it - because it was loaded with vegetables. Gary and I thought it was better once we put some chopped up turkey pieces in it. I think, if you were to stick with the veg. theme, it'd be better with some faux meat. I guess I just need that meaty "chew" factor.

This week I chose a roasted cauliflower recipe from "The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen" cookbook by Peter Berley. I'll post the recipe since I've seen it online with some modifications.

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower with Sweet Peppers and Cumin

3 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 cauliflower, cored and separated into florets
1 lg. red bell pepper, halved, seeded and sliced into 1" strips
1 lg. yellow bell pepper, halved, seeded and sliced into 1" strips
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves


1. Preheat the oven to 450* F. 2. In a large bowl, combine the lemon juice, oil, salt, ground cumin and red pepper flakes. Whisk to combine. 3. Add the cauliflower and bell peppers and toss well. 4. Spread the vegetables in a baking dish and roast for 45 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes for even browning. 5. Transfer the vegetables to a serving dish, garnish with fresh cilantro leaves, and serve.



It's vegetables, so the boys didn't like it. I loved it and finished it off for lunch today - yum!! The peppers really took the sourness of the lemon juice, so that was the only thing I wasn't wild about. I was so paranoid roasting the peppers and cauliflower together, since they are different densities. But if you stir it every so often, it turns out fine. I will definitely be making this again, either with or without the peppers, and even if it's only for me. Gary liked the peppers but not the cauliflower. It seemed like a lot to have cumin AND cumin seeds, but it turned out fine.


Next is a picture of a bread I made last week. I'll be making it again and again until the dough is used. I had read in the newspaper about a new cookbook that has come out. It's Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Don't be mislead by the name. It takes longer than 5 minutes. What it is, you make a gigantic batch of dough that lasts 2 weeks in the fridge. You take out a hunk of dough and bake it when you want, but the catch is it has to rest for 90 minutes before baking. Still, it's easier than making fresh dough every time. It's no knead too! And healthy. Bonus!

It's pretty good, but it cries out for something to be spread on it. Makes a good sandwich bread. (note the leftover yucky halloween candy and the lovely gecko trivet my friend Jenny made for me)

I've already told y'all about my obsession with the BBCA tv show You Are What You Eat. So I finally made one of her recipes. The one for salmon with spinach and leeks. First off, I had to do some conversions from metric to regular. What on earth is gas mark 6?! I poked around on some conversion charts and poked around for other recipes and found one that said 400degrees F. One recipe said cook for 25 minutes, another said cook for 10 minutes! It took at LEAST 30 minutes for it to get done to my preference (um, that would be cooked throughout). It was easy to assemble and smelled lovely, but I just don't care for baked fish. I think it's a mental block rather than anything else. It's fine, but I'd rather eat my fish grilled and my spinach fresh or boiled (without the fish drippings). oh, another conversion was with the spinach. It called for 500gr. What? It turns out the bags of baby spinach you get at the grocery store are only 170 gr. (IIRC). That was more than plenty. No need to be wasteful.

I have 2 leftover leeks I need to do something with. I have no clue.

TT catchup

I'm behind 3. Really, we've been doing Terrifying Tuesdays at home, but I just can't motivate myself to write about it. So here we go in one fell swoop. (I'm not sure I can even remember what we've had!)

I've made Sweet Potato and apple soup when my mother in law was here visiting. She and I liked it (I loved it), but the rest didn't fancy it.

Then I made Vegan Dad's Baked Chimichangas. We've never had chimichangas before, for better or worse. I believe it helped to not have something to compare to. Thumbs up, but there was a bit of a bitter taste. I do believe it was from the refried beans, because we've eaten canned refried beans (either veg. or fat free) and I remember thinking it needed something like cheese or salsa to cut it. The kids didn't like it so much, and I think it's due to the refried beans. So, we need to tweak it. Now, I've got to say, the "meat"mixture (which uses TVP) is good, but again, Vegan Dad likes to put in unusual spices - I halved the cinnamon and left out the anise - could have done altogether without the cinnamon. If you make these, set aside a good bit of time for the assembling of the chimis. It takes a little while. This recipe makes a LOT. I had leftover stuff, so I just threw the leftover "meat", rice, beans, salsa, etc. in a bowl, heated up and it made great leftovers with corn chips.

Last week I made Cajun Tempah over Brown Rice from Tal Ronnin's new cookbook, The Conscious Cook. I won't post the recipe since the book is new. This took a bit of time to cook, and I had to search for ingredients, but it was really good. Frankly, the tempah itself was to die for! This was my first attempt at tempah that was really good. I hate that it's fried, but that crispy exterior is really nice. I may have to see if it can be oven fried to lessen amount of oil that's absorbed.

While I'm on this cookbook, I'll tell you about what I made yesterday. His Whole Wheat Penne with San Marzano Tomatoes. Yumm! It had fennel and swiss chard. I'd never had fennel before, and it smelled awful - so much like black licorice. It also had white wine and green olives in the recipe. I told my husband that this is probably one of those things where you throw together a bunch of horrible things and it turns out brilliantly - and it did. The fennel lost it's licorice.

Let's see, I've also made a Dean Ornish (Art Smith) soup, but I think I posted that already. It's to die for. I'm doing another soup tomorrow and a vegan dad recipe on Tuesday.

Gotta run to get supper!

Terrifying Tuesday - 2 week edition...

First, I have to say I'm so bummed that Guiding Light has gone off the air. That was one of my favorite "stories".

Last week was not a thrilling TT. We tried pomegranate. I did a little demo on how to get to the seeds, a hands on demo. Gary helped. The boys are too old, they were underwhelmed. Anyway, we all deem it pretty good, but the seed - do you spit or swallow? (I'm sorry that's raunchy) I eventually decided to just swallow the things because it became too tedious to pick the seeds out of my mouth.

This week we tried Brussels Sprouts! I cannot remember where the recipe came from, I'm pretty sure it's either from someone's blog, or a cookbook of mine. I just didn't document it.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Roasted Red Peppers

2 tablespoons Grapeseed oil (use this as it is wonderful at a high heat!)
2 cups shredded Brussels Sprouts (chop or use a grater)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped purple onions
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup coarsely chopped roasted red peppers (homemade or from the jar)
1 tablespoon white Balsamic vinegar
Garnish: Chopped walnuts

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add Brussels sprouts, onions, and walnuts. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are tender and sprouts are bright green, about 5 minutes. Stir in peppers and vinegar. Continue cooking until heated through, about 2 minutes. Place on serving platter and garnish with chopped walnuts if desired.
Yield: 4 servings

notes:

I didn't use grapeseed oil, but I did splurge and buy the white balsamic. Um, using a grater is just ridiculous. I coarsely chopped the sprouts.

This recipe was pretty good. It got a thumbs down from Jake, but a half thumb for both Gary and Ryan. I thought it was so-so at first, but the more I ate it, the more I liked it. It's pretty too. I wasn't wild about the red pepper or vinegar part. But anything with nuts is always a winner! I had a few sprouts leftover so I'm going to steal Kath's recipe of roasting them with maple syrup tonight. Or maybe something different since I'm making bbq chicken and I think that's too many sweet things on a plate...

This was the first time I've ever had brussels sprouts and I'm glad I tried them. They are supposed to be very high in lots of nutritious stuff and be good cancer fighters.

Speaking of cancer... I had my yearly mammogram and it went very well. Yay! Another year down!

Terrifying Tuesdays - we got a good one! Red Lentil Soup

I finally hit upon a recipe that I like. The boys, not so much, but they are barbarians. It has been raining cats and dogs for a whole week straight (you may have heard of the flooding in downtown Atlanta) and it's been wet and cool - perfect soup weather. Wouldn't you know, yesterday the sun came out and it was decidedly NOT soup weather any more!

Okay, first on to the lentils. Our Krogers has revamped it's store and put all the organic/health foods in it's own section. Plus they've added bulk bins. (I wish the bins had grains, but that's probably wishing for too much) So I bought a few scoops of the most interesting thing I saw - red lentils. Have you seen these things?? Here's a picture:



Aren't they beautiful? I've only made lentils one other time and wasn't wild about the bay leaf in it. I'm not a bay leaf kind of person. This recipe does not call for any bay leaves! Hooray!

I got the recipe online, I can't find the exact blog that convinced me to make it, but everyone (it seems) who does the Red Lentil Soup with Lemon online refers to the same new york times recipe that I also used. Notice that the lentils turn yellowish. The little orange specks are carrots. It said to blend half the soup, but I just stuck my immersion blender in the pot and didn't have any chunks left after that! (I would have liked chunks, but it's good this way too) I did not put any olive oil on top - there was enough oil in the soup. I did not sprinkle on more chili powder. I did stir in the cilantro (although I think the original recipe calls for mint?) The cilantro has a strong presence. (I love cilantro) I think it could have benefitted with a little more lemon. Maybe my lemon was too small or dry. But I think the soup was lovely.



I couldn't remember if you were supposed to rinse the lentils beforehand, so I did quickly, and when I went to dump them in the soup, they all stuck together! I think they were afraid! But they broke up quickly as I stirred them. Another recipe note, I opted for chicken stock. So I'm not sure how it would taste with vegetable stock.

The next picture is an experiment. I saw a bag of TVP in the same health food section of Kroger and wanted to try it. So I went to my favorite vegan blog Vegan Dad and found a hot dog chili recipe using TVP. In the picture above you can see I grilled hotdogs and asked Gary to try at least a little bit on his dog. (I went out last night so I didn't eat any hotdogs) He asked if there was any orange in it. No, no orange. But he must be thinking that because some of the spices in this stuff are the same that go into Russian Tea. Allspice, cloves, cinnamon. Yeah. Weird. Below is a picture of the end result. The texture didn't bother Gary at all. So I think if I can get a recipe that is actually similar to a chili dog sauce, then it'd be worth trying again. I'm definitely going to try other TVP recipes!

Terrifying Tuesdays/marathon and moving musings

Yesterday's TT was dedicated to my mom. Technically, it doesn't fall under the guidelines of TT in that my mom fixed this dish for me and the boys - but Gary hadn't had it and frankly, I haven't unearthed my TT recipes at that point. It's a very simple stir-fry of cabbage. You simply shred cabbage, heat up a large fry pan and put some oil in it, about a tablespoon, you can probably use less. And throw in the cabbage, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. It's yummy! If you can get a little brown on the cabbage, then that's even yummier! It's just better than boiled cabbage.

Of course, no one else liked it. But who cares? All the more for me!! :0)
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I am considering signing up for the Nashville Country Music marathon. It's supposed to be walker friendly, not too far away, and it's not until April, so I have time to get back in shape. I can't wait for next week to come so I can get back into the walking groove!
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Yesterday I finally got the boys registered for school. We had their school screening at the health department in the morning and then ran right to the center to get them registered. There was a line out the door! I was so surprised! The line got even longer after we got there. It took a good hour and a half - mostly waiting. Then we stopped by the school and dropped off paperwork and they will assign the boys teachers. This is the first school to give us the option of whether or not to put them in the same class. I asked for different teachers, but the same team (so their homework would be the same). I think they would just behave better and pay attention better without each as a distraction to the other.

Tomorrow we "meet the teachers" and get all signed up for stuff and find out the bus schedule and lunch money business. The fun stuff.

These boys need school to start. *I* need school to start. They are fighting a lot, getting sassy with me, and they miss their old buds. While we were waiting in line yesterday, I just started reviewing the times tables with them - I reallly wasn't going to do but one, just for grins, but when Jake couldn't give me the answer, I started firing more at him and then spelling words. Boy, they've really lost a lot over the summer. I really , reallly need to work with them on their handwriting. It's just awful. I had bought one of those summer bridge workbooks, but just never got started beyond 2 worksheets.

*sigh* bad mama
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We have not got the house put together yet. It's come a long way, but we're not there. Gary's philosophy is "get it out of the box". If you do that, then you can declare yourself unpacked. So he opens up box after box and pulls stuff out and just sets the stuff down within reach. MY philosophy is "it's neater in boxes than laying out everywhere". I like to unpack and put away as I unpack - one box at a time. The visual clutter of what the unpacking has created is so chaotic to me. I get so overwhelmed. Needless to say, while I'm doing my thing, Gary did his thing. He got all the boxes open on the second day. (we had over 300) I can't work in this mess! I don't know where to begin. But, to his credit, Gary has a very good work ethic and is a hard worker. he can get more done in one day than I can do in a week. So we should be able to get this knocked out in a few more weekends.

Terrifying Tuesdays is back! Black bean burgers

I got today's recipe from a Taste of Home Magazine that had been in storage. I had recieved the magazine for several years and collected them - I just hate to throw away things like that. And they were waiting for me in storage. Here I am without cookbooks and not much to do for entertainment - so I scoured the magazines for their healthy recipes and found this gem.

I must say it fell in the catagory of easy to make. I have very limited resources at the moment. So I was able to make them with what I've got. I gotta say, it's not fun cooking with camping gear - I've not got proper lids! I've got a gas stove, so I'm terrified that I'm going to catch my potholder on fire when I grab the plate off of the pot.

Anyway, it tasted fine. I think it would be tastier if I had my arsenol of spices available. The cheese got lost in the bun - could not taste it at all. To me, if you can't taste the cheese then you might as well not have it - wasted calories. I like to taste my cheese. I think some sort of different bun or no bun would have been better.

The boys gave it an immediate thumbs down, but as they ate more (we made them eat more) it went from thumbs down to middle thumbs. And it grew on Gary too.

I had read the opinions online and most of them warned how messy the mix was and to add breadcrumbs for binding. So I had a mini chopper and made breadcrumbs from an end piece of wheat bread and added it to the mix. I added powdered garlic also. I also baked the patties at 350 for 35 minutes as suggested by one reviewer. I hate frying, so it worked for me. As a warning, the mix is pretty wet and sloppy, so you scoop it up in a 1/2 cup measuring cup and mound it on the cookie sheet and flatten it out. I flipped the burgers halfway through cooking.

The recipe calls for an egg and calls for the burger to be topped with cheese and a sour cream/salsa mixture - so ymmv as far as your vegetarian/vegan needs.

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a couple of weeks ago I perused a health food store and found a bag of dried figs and that's what we did for TT. Those dark wrinkly things terrified me, but they taste like fig newtons! Duh! So it wasn't too bad. Days later I went after the bag to eat some as a snack, but I had not refrigerated them and they had a fermented smell and were fuzzy. Oh, well.

Terrifying Tuesday and moving full panic mode

I've moved out of the denial stage and am fullly into panic mode. I had a little freak out tonight. The packers come in a few days and we have to be ready. We have to be done! If we aren't ready, then it will be triple-wrapped and stuffed in a box before I even realize it. I can't think straight. I made Gary sit down with me and give me specific tasks so I can have things to focus on - instead of the nebulous "get the house ready".

I was pretty busy today - spent hours picking up medical records. I know the parking at Tripler can be a bear at certain times of the day, so we waited until 10:30 and by the time we got there, there were spots to be had. Picked up the boys' records, my records and my films. They put mri films on cd, which take a little time to do, so we ate at the cafeteria. Not what I had planned for lunch, but it was $6 for the 3 of us - not bad. Then we drove downtown to get records from my dermatologist, then went home.

I was so tired I immediately laid down for a nap. I've not been able to make myself go to bed before 11 lately, at waking up at 5:45 - it's just not enough sleep. So I've taken "power naps" every day for at least 2 weeks now.

I remembered that I forgot about my eye doctor, so I'll call her tomorrow and hope that she'll mail the records to me. I really don't want to have to drive downtown again.

Then I did some more random move readiness stuff - magazine subscriptions and such. and some cooking. Which leads us to todays Terrifying Tuesday.

I had a package of raw almonds just waiting to be used. So I decided to whip up some almond milk. I soaked a cup of almonds overnight, rinsed, drained and set out to dry off a bit. Stuck them in the fridge until I was ready to make it. You can find this recipe all over the internet. Blend 1 cup of soaked raw almonds and 3 cups of water. Blend, blend, blend. It gets all frothy. Then you strain it. I had to throw out the almond pulp because this just isn't the time to be trying to figure out how to use it. Then you put the liquid back in the blender, add 2 or 3 dates (I added 3, tasted then added a 4th). I added vanilla and regret it. I don't have a vanilla bean or alcohol free vanilla. I could really taste the alcohol and didn't like it. And that's it.

I gave everyone a small taste. We all gave it a thumbs down. However, I did save the rest so I could make a smoothie in the morning with it. I've got lots of frozen fruit in the freezer to use. I hate to waste. Plus I want to give it a second chance.

Okay, so here's my take on it. The videos I'd been watching on youtube make you think that it's so rich and creamy. And it looks all pretty and frothy. Well, it's watery. It has an almond flavor which is nice, but it's not rich. At all. It's very lacking. I guess if you were adjusted to eating a vegan diet, then you would be used to that. It just made me sad. I don't think it should be called almond milk or mylk. It doesn't even compare to milk - even skim milk. It's almond water.

Oh, my pineapple! It's all pretty and golden. I'll have to post pictures, but I'll wait until we cut into it. I decided to harvest it tonight. I saw ants crawling all over it and that freaked me out. (tonight's theme: freaking out) I have the store bought one that we have to finish eating first. (it's really a beautiful pineapple - just a perfect flavor) Which is a lot of pressure for my little guy to compete against. I just hope the ants didn't ruin it. I will take pictures of what it looks like inside and report on the taste. It'll be fine sitting on my counter for a while.

final thought for the day: I don't have to vacuum anymore if I don't want to! In fact, Gary told me to not bother with it.

Terrifying Tuesday and our hold baggage packout

So a quick rundown on TT. I forgot to take pictures, I really wanted to.

Today's recipe was a raw vegan recipe from the Ani Phyo website: Pecan Pie Cookies You really need to go to the Washington Post website, because for some reason, she lopped off the amounts.

Super easy recipe. Only 4 ingredients that you can find in any grocery store. Pulse them in your food processor and mash into balls and flatten. Viola'. Of course, "cookies" is a loose use of the word. Cookie shaped sweet thing. Oh, but you can eat the "dough" without getting sick. Bonus!

Thumbs up for me and Gary. Thumbs down for Jake - but in a surprising turn of events, and half thumb from Ryan. I think Ryan didn't realize it had nuts in it. Because he's been poo-poo'ing nuts. See, he's very proud of not liking chocolate to the point that I think he's more proud of the fact than actually being a chocolate hater. And I see that he's becoming that way with nuts.

I gave them a thumbs up, but these are not craveable. Not yet at least. Maybe after eating a few more they will be. Plus, it's one of those "one is enough" situations. But they keep in the freezer - so it's easy enough to just pull out one for a sweet snack. It would be great with some hot tea.

Anyway, as you know, I've been reading vegan/vegetarian blogs for ages now, so I'm glad I finally took the plunge and tried a recipe. I really wanted to make the donuts, but I've not been able to find the dried pineapple with no added sugar.
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So, on to moving stuff. Our "hold baggage" went out today. We get to send a 1000 pounds of stuff out early that will hopefully get there early enough to be useful until our household goods arrive. We didn't even approach 1000 pounds. But I think we did good in selecting things. Gary took today off and worked like a demon. He has such a good work ethic. We did a lot to get ready for the move. All the junk in the garage was cleaned off and sorted. He took two loads to the dump. He washed and waxed the car that we've been borrowing. We'll return the car Thursday.

The ladies who are going to clean the house after we are packed out did a walk-through. So that's another thing checked off the list.

Ryan started begging for a cell phone so he can call his friends. I told him he can use the computer and skype his friends. It's free plus you can see them. Ryan hasn't cried for the last few days. They are both still acting like pills... I'm trying to make an effort to stop and pay attention to them and spend some one on one time with them. I'm re-reading the book about the 5 Love Languages. This one is about discovering your children's love language. I'm hoping to figure it out so I can really keep their love tanks full because I think they're gonna need it. It's gonna be really hard moving from here.

On the housing front, I'm still looking for rentals online - I'm getting burnt out, but yet I persist. It's in God's hands. He's always put us in the right situation - maybe not the most stylish or beautiful home, but just right for us. I think we've always had the BEST neighbors. So, I may not get the pool I want so badly, but we'll land where we need to land.

Gary's job is to find a new car. He's really been researching what he wants. I'm pushing for a hybrid - or at least not a gas guzzler. He's always been attracted to big cars or trucks. i.e. gas guzzlers. We're definitely getting used. We have a budget. So I think it's good for him to have a boundary -even if it is a loose boundary. He's going to do some test driving while he's in Charlottesville next week.

so that's where we are so far.

Terrifying Tuesdays: Wednesday edition

(again, I'm late posting this. sorry!) We postponed TT for one day because Ryan had a stomach ache and I had a huge headache.

I chose Asian-Style Greens with Sesame Seeds from my cookbook "The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen" page 136. (By "my" cookbook, I mean the one I own) I had already bought tons of baby bok choy for the dish, so I HAD to make it - despite all the whining. I don't know if Ryan had the stomach ache due to stress from the upcoming move, or was just trying to get out of TT. Or both.

The stress of the move has really been coming out in Ryan - poor guy. The moving has really not affected the boys before, but this time it's bad. He's had nightmares about the plane crashing (thanks to Discovery channel detailing the crash of the hudson river flight), and he's worried about his stuff making it. We haven't hit upon the loss of friends yet. I so dread dealing with that.

So, anyway, on to the dish. None of us have had bok choy before. Not bad. The dish called for adding rice vinegar "to taste" at the end, but I didn't do it to taste. I just added what the recipe called for. I wish I hadn't. I had tasted it before adding the vinegar and liked it better that way. The vinegar adds just a tad of sour taste. So next time I'll leave it out.

We pretty much liked it. Ryan, being the pickiest, gave it a half thumb. And Jake gave it a half thumb. I think that's pretty hopeful for kids! Actually, I've made collards similar to this before, it's just that this recipe has you add toasted sesame seeds and ginger. I was excited to get to use my sesame seed toaster thingy. It's like a little pan with a hinged screen for the top, since sesame seeds pop when you toast them. I got it at the Marukai. I'll definitely make it again with less oil and I'll experiment with different greens. It would probably be good doing green beans like this. I remember one chinese buffet that served long green beans that tasted like this. Yum! Now I'm getting hungry thinking about that!

One tip, you can't find those chinese buffets here like you can on the Mainland. You can find chinese food, but just not that big ole "stuff yourself silly and top it off with soft serve ice cream and fortune cookie" place.

Terrifying Tuesday: Yemiser Wat

First I need to conduct a little business here. I'm going to take a blog link off the side. I'm not sure why, but whenever I exit Megan's Munchies and try to get into another blog, I get thrown into this weird Internet Explorer loop. I don't even use Explorer! I use the AOL software! So I'm gonna take down her link. I'm a little scared to visit her site, and that's sad because it's a neat blog. But I need to figure it out before my laptop explodes.

Okay, so last night we went international. I got this recipe through a regular on Weight Watcher's. Who got this recipe from another regular, who got this recipe from a vegan website who got this recipe from a vegan cookbook. LOL!

This is the link to the recipe. http://www.fatfreevegan.com/beans/yemiser.shtml As you can see, it's Ethiopian. Which sounds so exotic!

This is the link to the lady who created the recipe: http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com/page/page/579094.htm I will post more about that after I review the recipe.

recipe notes:
First, don't be intimidated by the list of ingredients. They are mostly spices. I practically had to pull out all the spices out of my cabinet - or at least a whole lot of them! Second, the recipe called for you to saute the onions in a non-stick pan. The pan I used was not non-stick, so I opted to add some canola oil. And thirdly, the recipe has a flaw - it doesn't tell you what to do with the lentils after you boil them! So I drained them, and then added them when I added the tomatoes and broth.

verdict:
One thumbs up (me), two thumbs down (the kids), and a 1/2 thumb which turned into a 3/4 thumb from the hubby. It actually is pretty tastey, oddly sweet (but I think that's due to the spices like nutmeg and ginger). Gary gave it a better rating after he tasted it with the brown rice (like the recipe calls for). I think the kids didn't like it because they are kids. It makes a huge amount. It was fairly easy to make and not hot at all. (I only used a 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes) Actually, the more I ate it, the more I like it. But I didn't have the leftovers for lunch today because I had other leftovers to eat. We'll see tomorrow...

I don't know how filling it would be as a meal itself. Because I fixed it with pork chops. Is that wrong? To fix a vegan recipe with grilled pork chops? Shhhhhh. Don't tell anyone!

I am so very fascinated with the vegan/vegetarian thing. I love the look of some of the recipes, but often wonder if they would fill me. Sometimes I fix stuff with the fake meat, or with beans or tofu (which I love), but it just does not satisfy. If you add a little meat, then wah-lah, satisfaction. Yeah, I've been reading about umami - the "fifth taste". I dunno.

Anyway, I spend too much time on the internet reading vegan/vegetarian blogs - wondering what it would be like to eat like that all the time. I get stuck on the practicality aspect. It just doesn't seem to translate into MY life. And causes me stress just thinking about it. Plus I don't have the convictions against eating meat. BUT, if I get one more cancer - I swear something has to change. Drastically. (I do not think meat causes cancer, but I do need to eat more nutritious foods)

Meanwhile, I continue to experiment with meatless recipes. I also eat meatless breakfasts and lunches (for the most part).

One side benefit that I did not anticipate - Gary's reactions to the foods. He's pretty picky. There aren't a whole lot of fruits and vegetables that he eats. He's a meat and rice man. NOT potatoes! Before Terrifying Tuesdays, he MIGHT taste something that I made that was not normal. And then pick out the offending bits. But now, he WILL taste the recipe. He realizes that the boys really emulate him, so he doesn't complain or make faces or segregate bits out of his food. And he takes an honest taste test. And I believe he's loosening up a little. The man has the pallette of a child, but maybe we'll grown him up a little. :-) I don't know if I can wait for his taste buds to dull with age.

Terrifying Tuesday: East Coast Lasagna

I'm so lazy, this is so late. The good news is that we found a winner. Almost.

First, I'll start with the recipes. I got the recipes from "Skinny B**** in the Kitch". (Lord only knows what possessed me to pick up a cookbook, much less any book, that has a swear word in the title and then followed by thousands throughout the book - totally tacky and classless - can't believe I gave these women my money) I'm going to copy and paste these recipes in here, and my justification for that (since I haven't been doing it) is because there is a flaw in the recipe that I want to discuss and there are changes I made. So these are not exact copies of the recipes, at least the red sauce is not exact. And I'll discuss that too. I just want you to know that the recipes below may vary from what's in the book.

East Coast Lasagna

6 qts. water
about 3 tbsp. fine sea salt
1 lb. whole wheat or brown rice lasagna noodles
5 cups Basic Red Sauce (see recipe)
4 cups Tofu "Ricotta" (see recipe)
12 - 14 oz vegan ground beef (if frozen, no need to thaw)
10 oz vegan mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350* F.

In an 8-10 qt stockpot over high heat, combine the water with about 3 tbs. salt. Bring the water to a boil, add the noodles, and cook according to the pkg directions. When the pasta is done, drain it, briefly rinse it (just to make it cool enough to handle), and drain it again. Separate the noodles and lay them on foil, waxed paper or parchment paper to keep them from sticking together.

Spread 1/2 cup of the sauce in the bottom of a 13X9 Inch pan. Top the sauce with some of the lasagna noodles, overlapping them slightly. Top the noodles with 1/3 of the Ricotta, 1/3 of the ground beef, and 1/3 of the cheese, spreading each layer of ingredients out evenly. Repeat the noodles, ricotta, beef and cheese layers 2 more times (you may not need all the pasta).

Place the pan of lasagna on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until the tip of a knife inserted in the center of the lasagna comes out piping hot, 60 to 75 min. (check on it periodically to make sure the cheese isn't burning. If it seems like it might, cover with foil unitl the final 15 minutes)
Remove the lasagna from the oven and let it sit 10 to 15 min. before cutting and serving.


Basic Red Sauce

2 tbsp. oil
1 onion, cut into 1/4" dice
8-10 cloves garlic, minced
2 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1/4 cup fruity red wine (optional)
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. hot sauce, like Tabasco (optional)
1 Tbsp. agave nectar (optional)


Heat the oil in a 4-6 qt stockpot over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender. 6-8 minutes (adjust heat, if necessary, to avoid browning). Add the garlic and cook stirring occasionally, 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste, increse the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the wine, if using, along with the basil, oregano, salt and hot sauce (if using). taste, and if the sauce is too acidic, stir in the agave. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 2 months.


Tofu "Ricotta"


14 to 16 oz extra firm tofu, crumbled
3 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp. dried oregano
3/4 tsp fine sea salt

In a food processor, combine the tofu, garlic, olive oil, oregano and salt and pulse to puree. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
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Recipe notes:

• The Skinny B gals like to use refined coconut oil, and they give their arguments for it. I'm not quite sold on the idea, nor do I wish to experiment with my health since I do have high cholesterol and can somewhat control it through careful watch on my diet. So on the red sauce recipe where I have "oil", they call for the coconut oil. Where there is evoo on the ricotta, they call for evoo.
• On the lasagna assembly portion of the recipe, they only call for the use of the sauce one time, in the beginning before you put down the first layer of noodles. Obviously this is a mistake, since the recipe calls for 5 cups of sauce and lasagna needs it's sauce. So, you need to remember to include a layer of sauce each time. This is the one recipe mistake that I caught.
• I used white lasagna noodles because I don't have access to whole grain noodles
• I used regular part skim mozzarella cheese because we are not vegan and soy cheese just doesn't melt or taste as good as real dairy cheese. Why mess up a good lasagna?
• The mistake I made when I typed out the recipe is that I forgot to include the vegan ground beef. I didn't realize that until it was time to cook. I happened to have a 1/2 pound of ground beef and just 1 Amy's hamburger patty - so I nuked the beef, thawed the patty and made do with that.
• I used canola oil to saute the onions
• 8-10 cloves of garlic is a LOT, it's good, but be warned that it's an odor that will be hard to shake
• We don't drink so I didn't use wine
• I didn't have fresh oregano, so I used dry, 1 tsp
• I used Cholula hot sauce because that's what we had
• I used sugar because that's what my mama uses! (instead of the agave)
• the tofu they sell around here comes in 12 oz tubs, so I bought two and used 1 and 1/4 pkgs.

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The results were really good. Thumbs up all around. I do want to make it sometime with just the faux hamburger. Next time I will give myself more time to make it. It took about an hour of hustling (before baking). Either I need to make the elements ahead of time, or start earlier. Also, I need to remember to check it earlier to make sure the cheese doesn't get overcooked. And be more generous with the sauce. It was a little on the dry side. When I assembled, I did not measure out 5 cups, so I don't know how much I used.

While I am not a big fan of this cookbook for personal reasons, they do have an excellent pizza sauce recipe.
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And so you won't think that Tuesday is the only day I experiment with food, I made a quinoa recipe on Monday that I saw in the newspaper. I couldn't resist. It was okay, could have done without the orange segments in it.
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Tomorrow is the day I go in for my little surgery to remove that spot on the side of my face. I've become quite the spokesperson for sunblock ever since I was diagnosed with skin cancer! I've already offended a couple of people, I do believe! Not that I mean to, but you'd be surprised how resistant folks are to the idea of using sunblock. But this is the tropics and the sun is very serious here. That reminds me, I want to take before and after pictures. At least a before picture, now that it's not gross and bloody. It's just red. It would be educational.

Double Whammy Wednesday - and the drama of picky eaters

We didn't do Terrifying Tuesday because our school had a fundraiser, asking us to eat at Mama's Island Pizza and Baskin Robbins. Our school playground is so close to it's monetary mark but not there yet, and the construction has already begun! Yesterday we were blessed to have our Representative Cynthia Theilan's son donate an auger and recruit the Hawaii job corp to dig post holes using the auger. How awesome is that?!! Plus they used leftover lumber from our boardwalk to construct work tables (very green) and did a lot of other stuff in preparation for the build.



So, yesterday we had double whammy wednesday. Double whammy because I made the planned Valentine's dessert and then I made a recipe I found on the internet. Where to start? With the food or with the drama that accompanied the food? Let's start with the food. I have pictures today! (not good pictures...)



For dinner I made a recipe I found on the Vegan Dad blog http://vegandad.blogspot.com/. I'm going to post the recipe because I have some comments on changes I made and such.



INGREDIENTS
- 5 cups water
- 1 1/2 cup basmati rice
- 5 green cardamom pods
- 1/2 tsp tumeric
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken in two
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cloves
- 2 tbsp oil
- 3 onions, sliced
- 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1" piece ginger, minced
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- juice of 1 lemon
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3-4 tomatoes, thickly sliced
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 2/3 cup plain soy yogurt
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 2/3 cup hot water
METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a casserole dish. Get water boiling in a pot. Add rice, cardamom, tumeric, cinnamon, salt and cloves. Parboil for 3 mins, drain, then return to pot and cover to keep warm.
2. While water is boiling, heat oil in a large frying pan. Dry onions for 8-10 mins, until a deep golden brown. Add chickpeas, spices, lemon juice, and season to taste. Fry for 3-4 mins, until heated through.
3. Place chickpea mixture in the prepared casserole dish and top with cilantro. Top with enough sliced tomatoes to cover the chickpeas. Spread yogurt over the tomatoes, then top with cashews and raisins. Top that with rice, and pour water evenly over the top.
4. Cover and bake for 60-65 mins, until liquid is all absorbed and rice is cooked. Serve topped with more chopped cilantro.



My notes:

1. I don't have white rice in my house any more, so I had to figure out how to parboil brown rice. (what is parboil anyway??) So, I boiled my jasmine brown rice for 15 minutes, drained it and left it in the pot until I was ready for it.

2. I also picked out the cloves and cinnamon stick. They didn't specify that in the recipe, but who wants that surprise?

3. ground cardamom costs $13 for a 2 oz jar! cardamom pods cost $10 a jar! I chose just the ground cardamom and guessed at how much to use instead of the pods. I had all the other spices.

4. the recipe calls for sliced onions. I think it would be better to quarter the slices, because they were big and unwieldy and hung out together in the casserole (it was hard to get them evenly distributed)

5. I used regular dairy fat free plain yogurt. So that makes my version not vegan.

6. I wouldn't know where to find raw cashews, so I used planters lightly salted.

7. don't be intimidated by the ingredient list. It's mostly spices.



Here are the pictures. I forgot to take them before we served ourselves, so excuse the carnage. (yes, my dishes are Buttercups on Blue - I meet lots of people who have Poppies on Blue)

My comments about this dish.

• I was afraid the rice wouldn't cook, but it did. In my serving, there were 4-5 hard rice pieces - so I guess they all didn't cook.
• This smelled soooooo good when I was cooking the chickpeas. Even my kids commented about how good it smelled.
• I liked it, with the exception of the tomatoes. I thought for sure the tomatoes would be great - but they tasted sour. ?? How weird is that?
• new addition: last night I thought it was the tomatoes for sure that were sour tasting, but maybe it was the maui onions I used? I'm eating it for lunch right now and trying to pick it apart - I'm confused...
• Plus the yogurt seemed to coagulate in clumps on the tomatoes. Yuck. I think it probably should be stirred into the chickpea mixture.
• I would be tempted to make the whole thing without the tomatoes, but I bet they add a lot of the moisture which cooks the rice. So maybe completely cook the two elements separately and just layer on the plate? I dunno.

The family reaction? Thumbs down from the kids and a so-so from Gary. I will be eating a lot of leftovers. I pulled out the tomatoes and packed up a baggie for the freezer. I think this recipe is worth tweaking and I welcome suggestions.

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Now on to the big drama. The dessert. I chose a recipe from my Pink Ribbon Special edition BH&G checkerboard cookbook. It's called Berry Clafouti and I even bought cute little quiche dishes. I won't duplicate the recipe (because I'm lazy and would have to type it out...) but it's just a layer of berries covered with a light batter and bake. I used blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. (I couldn't commit to just one kind!) It smelled like heaven!

Again, I forgot to take a picture before I started eating it so excuse the carnage and bluriness!

It was wonderful. I think we all agreed that the raspberries were the strongest in tartness - so if tart is not your thing, you might not like it.

The drama: Ryan's first bite he said he liked. But I think the bite was the size of a microbe. He started to refuse to eat any more, which is frustrating since he said he liked it! Then he started crying!

I should have seen it coming because he had been harrassing me about supper ever since school got out. I can tell he had built it up in his mind that he was not going to like it, all he had to do was eat one bite and be done with it. This child can go a long time on very little food. Of course, I had been putting up with attitude all day, and I had specifically chosen a non-chocolate recipe for him, so I was quite upset by this time.

I wont' go into all the details, but I suppose you could call me an ogre for wanting him to eat his dessert! I gave him all the lectures a mom gives. He's heard them all before. This kid has had eating issues from the get-go. Some of it is physical - it certainly started that way. But there is also the mental aspect. If you think it's going to taste bad, then it will. I've got to hand it to him, he's quite brave when he does try new foods. Eating a grape to him is as scarey as eating a bowl of worms.

Anyway, I resorted to my usual "you must eat x number of good sized bites" (he can't handle being told to "eat it all") and we ended it with a hug and cuddle. No one was hurt during the exchange, but I certainly felt like bashing my head against the wall.

Ryan is a super good kid. This is the ONLY area we struggle with. It hurts my heart sometimes because feeding my family is my favorite way to show my love. I have to remind myself that he doesn't mean to hurt me, it's not personal. I also have to remind myself that over a LONG period of time and after thousands of "just one bites", he does sometime come around. He has come a long way, and maybe by the time he is an adult he'll be eating vegetables and fruit. (I apologize in advance to his future wife)

Okay, before this turns into a novel, my final parting thoughts. I've approached TT with a attitude of mystery. I thought that would add to the fun. But I need to rethink that. It seems to have added to the stress for Ryan. I'm torn between thinking that if he knows what we are going to have he'll have time to decide to dislike it, and thinking that if he doesn't know then he'll work himself up into a tizzy of worry. And my other thought is that 2 mystery dishes was just too much. One at a time from now on.

my cooking date - mysterious monday?

I had my cooking date with my vegetarian friend- finally! She gave me a list of possible options - which all sounded so yummy. It was very hard to decide - but she had one thing on there that she had not made before and was going to make sometime this week for her family - so I chose that, since I wanted her to have fun too, and have me not feel like a total taker. It was a pasta dish. She bought all the ingredients. Really, it didn't require much. Pasta, shallots, tempeh, goat cheese and some various ingredients for a marinade.

I actually found the recipe online here:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2008/10/meatless_monday_hooray_for_tem.html

I have to give my family a big high five for even trying it. They all gave it a thumbs up, to my surprise. I think we all agreed that the tempeh would probably be better if it were crumbled instead of cut into 1 inch cubes. I guess we all have a thing about the texture. It's just something you have to get used to. Very different from anything else we've ever eaten. It was also the first time for goat cheese. There was something in that recipe that was just not right in the taste. It wasn't horrible, but it prevented it from being cravable. I will try tempeh again, but I will not make this recipe again. Mainly because I don't like to fry foods. It's not healthy, it messes up the kitchen and stinks up the house. I have to say the caramelized shallots were heavenly. They were totally lost in the strong flavors in this recipe and deserve another shot somewhere, somehow. I must find a way to make them again in a dish that will not overwhelm them.

My friend has had a very interesting life. We are both pretty quiet people, so it wasn't a rollicking good time, but I'm getting to know her better. I did have fun. I hope there will be a next time.

So, there will not be a terrifying Tuesday tomorrow, since we did it today. However, I do have a mango in the fridge just calling out for some special treatment...

Terrifying Tuesdays #3 - the burning has finally stopped

Heh, heh, heh. No pictures again this time.

The dish: Cajun Stew
so yeah, you expect spicy. But yowza! Let me start by telling you about the dish. It has tofu, and it has a sausage-like faux product. Boca sausage links. And veggies and stuff. Spices. I should have known. I did. Actually, it called for 1 tsp crushed red pepper and 1 tsp. cayenne pepper and thought, wow! that's a lot! So I put in 1/2 tsps. Really, I should have started with just 1/8 or 1/4 tsp and tasted then added more if necessary. I cannot imagine how hot it would have been with the full amount.

I think it's a recipe worth tweaking. I chose the Boca breakfast sausage links. While the recipe just called for a soy product sausage links, I'm thinking breakfast sausages were the wrong choice. Do they make a soy based andouille? (sp?)

So the verdict is a no - not as is. Gary gave it a 3/4 thumbs up. No one gave it a total thumbs down. Anywhere between halfway and 3/4 down.

Tonight we are having flank steak to make up for last night. :-)
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I just finished watching Dr. Phil and his topic was posting private info on the internet. And I do wonder about journaling on such a public place. Especially weird stuff like the fembot post. Why be so personal? But I think back to the beginning of when I got diagnosed with BC and how important it was for me to link up with other warriors. How those who had gone before me had shared their experiences and prepared me for what was to come and getting/giving support from others who were fighting alongside me. So yeah, I have some odd/personal posts, but I'd like to think that some of those just might help somebody else. And if I make some friends along the way, then that's a bonus!