I Almost Sold Out!!!!

I didn’t feel like cooking and I almost caved.  I was going to make a Shepherd’s pie, subbing out Boca Crumbles for the beef.  Easy enough…but I was feeling lazy and didn’t feel like making a sauce and started to reach for the cream of mushroom soup.

Yes, you read that right the canned, processed cream of mushroom soup that has been sitting unused on my shelf for at least the last six months.

And I just couldn’t do it!  I felt guilty and unhealthy…and I went back and forth a while on it.

I finally ended up settling for another meal…still with processed something, but somehow totally different in my mind.  At least it was organic!

We ended up with sauteed kale, roasted sunchokes, and Gardein beefless tips.

Sunchokes look like ginger, but taste almost, but not exactly, like potatoes. 

After searching the internet for something interesting to do with the sunchokes, I found everything too complicated or exotic and decided to simply slice and roast the sunchokes along with some garlic and sliced leek.

Leeks have to be washed really well, especially between the layers.  I had already rinsed this leek when I peeled back the outer layer and found this!

Tossed in a little EVOO and some S&, then into the oven at 425.  I like the higher heat in order to caramelize the onions and garlic.  So good.

     On the side was curly kale, washed and destemmed…Then sauteed in the pan with garlic, onion, and a little EVOO as well.  I think garlic and onion enhances veggie!  After cooking I sprinkled (heavily) some parmesan cheese on top. And my quick processed portion of the dish?  These meat-free beefless tips from Gardein. I have been having some low B12 issues and was recommended nutritional yeast to help…so I loaded it on top of the kale as well.

So good.

Finishing Off 2009

Yes…I have been MIA!  I really thought with the kids out of school I would have time to relax and enjoy…instead I have still been on the run.

First came our weekly yummy produce delivery!

This was a really great one!  (I think I say that about all of them).

Once that was sorted out I dealt with the kids, using up gift cards with coupons before they expired; trying to get some transcription work in; and trying to use up produce before it went bad (sometimes that is a job in itself!)

New Year’s Eve Day was spent at home…working!  FabHubs actually had to work all day and at the fireworks shoot so we didn’t see him until late night when we got to the shoot.

I put FabTeen to work making dinner while I finished working….we tried a new recipe for a lentil loaf.   I am still trying to get more processed foods out of our diet…and even though the Gardein and Boca Burgers are not meat, they are processed, so I am looking to beans to alternate for the processed soy. 

And this was the result…since FabTeen cooked and we were in a hurry to get to church, this was the only picture we got!  That is homemade ketchup glaze on the top but it was not glazy enough.  Good recipe but needs some tweaking.

After inhaling dinner, we dashed off to church for the burning bowl ceremony.    Last week at the Christmas Eve service we could barely find seats and I wanted to make sure we got some this time!

We were meeting my friend Sandra and her two daughters there.  This  was their first time at a burning bowl ceremony…although Sandra had also come to Unity with me last week for the Christmas Eve service.

The burning bowl ceremony is a beautiful two-step ceremony.

First you do a meditation, and then you take some time write everything you want to release from 2009 onto a piece of onion skin paper.  

Then row by row, we walk up to the bowl and put the paper with what we want to release, into the bowl.

They we say a blessing of release, and they set the bowl on fire!

 

The papers burn up in a giant flash!

This is Sandra and me after the ceremony

Part two of the ceremony, now that you have released what you don’t want to keep from 2009, you fill the void left by creating your vision  for 2010.

I had lots to create!  Front and back!!!

 

We put these in an envelope and addressed them to ourselves.  The church then collected them and will pray on them for three months…and on April 1 will mail them back to us!

Here we all our with the kids after the service….

Then it was onto the fireworks!  We got there really early, around 9:45, and had to sit around and wait…but these were the results!

I found  a “fireworks” setting on my camera and had to try it out!

This last one is a sparkler the kids were doing…it looks like a firework too!

At midnight we popped open our bottle of sparkling apple cider and ate 12 grapes!  It is a tradition of good luck to eat 12 grapes at midnight and we have been doing that since I was a little girl.

After we got home, FabTeen and I played on the WII until  about 3:30 a.m.!  We canoed, sword fought, bicycled, played ping pong, and archery.   After all this I was exhausted and went to bed!

For more good  luck today I will be making vegetarian Hoppin’ John…I will post the recipe later…along with my goals for 2010!

 

Happy New Year and many blessings to you all for a wonderful and prosperous 2010!

 

I Am Overrun!!!

The race is on!  Between being out of the house a lot this week AND having no extra kids to help us eat fruits and veggies…the fridge is way too full!

 

It looks like a garden in there!   And a lot of my fruit is out on the counter in a fruit bowl as well!

I already had a lot of produce left over from my delivery last week and this week’s delivery came late…on Wednesday instead of Monday…but it came in full force!

This week was a particularly gorgeous box too…..

It had:

• 1 broccoli (I still have some from last week!)
• 1 box grape tomatoes (I still have from last week too!)
• 1 bunch leeks
• 2 gorgeous Delicata squash (I have never tried these!)
• 2 yams
• 1 fennel (another thing I have never tried fresh)
• 1 bunch collards
• 1 red cabbage
• 1 bunch parsley (I still have one bunch of parsley and cilantro from last week!)
• 1 bunch turnips with greens
• 1 head red leafy lettuce (again, lettuce left from  last week)
• 1 box blackberries
• 1 hand bananas
• 1 crenshaw melon (I have my honeydew from last week…and I have never tried crenshaw)
• 2 boxes strawberries
• 4 apples
• 1 pound of mandarins
• 4 pears
• 1 box cranberries
• 1 box raspberries

And as a coordinator thank you, Annie threw in these for me!

Organic dark chocolate covered almonds!

Huge!

Delicious!

Forget produce, the rest of the day I am snacking on these! 

Dark chocolate, almonds, organic…all of the things that make them completely healthy right?

    

Here are those beautiful Delicata squash….they are so pretty!

And the fennel!  Pretty too…I have to figure out what I am going to do with it.

By the time I sorted the boxes and everybody picked them up, I had not even eaten breakfast!  (I had managed to fit in an espresso though)

And it was lunchtime.  Since I had a ridiculous amount of lettuce…I decided we need to be eating a lot of salad around here over the next few days. 

While shopping yesterday I had treated myself to these:

     

A Julienne peeler and a veggie scrubber!  I was pretty excited about the peeler…I love the texture of Julienne’d carrots and beets.  I am not a beet lover…but lately I love it fresh in my salads, only Julienne’d though…or a little in my juice…I don’t think I can handle them cooked or in wedges.  (I may try one balsamic roasted though…that makes everything taste good).

Unfortunately the peeler didn’t work!  It was such a struggle to use it that I ended up pulling out my big ole chef’s knife and did it by hand.  Back to TJ Maxx this is going!

Also in the mix:

• Leftover rice from last night’s dinner
• grape tomatoes
• carrots
• beets
• red bell pepper
• green leaf lettuce

 

I topped it with my favorite…Thai Peanut dressing!  It  hit  the spot…and the rice was filling enough to keep me satisfied when I left to finish up shopping for the day! 

I also threw into my purse two little mandarins to snack on during the day.

By 8 o’clock I was hungry and almost done!  I kept wishing I had brought a snack…I completely forgot about my mandarins!!! (and I have soooo many of those…they are on the must eat now list too!)

This time for dinner though I was somewhat prepared!  I had made that big pot of brown rice earlier in the week to try to be ahead of the game…and for once I was!

I had also stocked up on a variety of Gardein products last week when they are on sale for $1.99 in my Publix.   I got at least 6 of each variety…they are processed, but they satiate the meatlovers in my family somewhat so I pull them out occasionally to treat them.

Tonight we had the beefless tips!   And for  a change I didn’t get “The Look” from FabHubs…so he is starting to accept them.

I also had two bunches of fresh spinach left from last week that needed to be used.  I pulled one bunch out and washed it, weeded out some mushy pieces, and chopped off the bottoms of the stems.  I  left the leaves intact with most of the stems on for cooking.

I rough chopped about five cloves of garlic and tossed them into a pan of heated olive oil.  I browned the garlic, then put in the washed bunch of spinach, sprinkled some Adobo seasoning, and stir-fried them up until  they were still pretty green, but wilted.  I topped this with some freshly grated parmesan (I put FabHubs to work grating the giant wedge I got from Costco this weekend!)

He did compliment the spinach! (I have to say myself it came out really good).

I also heated up some of the brown rice in the microwave (I am torn between using it or not at this stage of the game…but it sure comes in handy sometimes) and sprinkled crumbled  feta cheese over the top.

And since we had no kids to set an example for, we dragged our plates, along with a glass of wine (merlot for me….sangria for FabHubs) into the family room and sat in front of the TV watching Criminal Minds!

The best supper we have had all week!   

A Few Veggie Dinners

Bok Choy turned out great the other night!

As usual, I hunted whatever I could find to throw in there to use up.

We added shitake mushrooms, carrots, garlic, and onions.  I say “We” because I pulled out stuff from the fridge and barked orders, while FabTeen chopped and cooked and followed my directions.  

I found a bag of frozen cooked shrimp which went in there too….they were definitely happy!  Ummm…not  the shrimp…the shrimp-eating family!

And I sprinkled some Adobo seasoning and chopped roasted cashews on top.

   

I served this with brown rice.  I thought I took a picture of the food plated…but I couldn’t find it on my camera!

FabHubs still had a little nose upturn…he is not a fan of stir fry, even though I deliberately did not use soy sauce (which he cannot stand!).

Now last nights dinner I thought was delicious…I actually was pretty excited to try it as we sat down for dinner…maybe it was because I was kind of hungry!  I don’t know…all I know is it looked awesome…to me….after we got started eating I don’t think everyone else was quite as excited about it as I was!!

First…I had a butternut squash in the fridge that needed to be used up.  And I was going to make Marisa’s brown rice casserole with broccoli because I definitely have broccoli that needs using…but I also found some  green beans that were from the previous week’s box and decided to use those first.

First, cutting up the squash…I hate doing that!  But finally the job was done.  I tossed into a bowl with some cumin, ground coriander, paprika, and salt a la RecipeZaar.  Only I added a teaspoon of all of the spices rather than following the directions.  

 

I also rough cut half a shallot I needed to use up, half a bulb of garlic, and a whole onion.

I have some thyme I got in the Thanksgiving week box that I have had no idea what to do with…so I took half of it, peeled off the leaves, and sprinkled half of that over the butternut squash mixture.

I mixed everything in a big bowl with 2 TBS of olive oil until it was very well coated.  A lot of directions for roasting veggies say to put the veggies on the pan and then drizzle the oil over the veggies and mix…but I find they get coated much more evenly when I do it in the bowl first.

Then I put on the pan and off into the oven at 450 degrees for about half an hour to 45 minutes.  I stirred every 15 minutes or so…until they were getting nice and roasted and browned and crunchy….my favorite!

Next came the green beans…I had a ton of these!  I washed and used the scissors to tip the ends and then a snip in the middle to get a relatively even length….some are longer, some are shorter…I don’t worry about this though!

      

I put in a pot with a little water to steam…(and somehow  I ended up forgetting to take some pix of the next few steps!).

The rest of the garlic bulb was peeled and rough chopped (we LOVE garlic in this house!).

Then I got the olive oil out to start toasting the spices and almonds…but  on a whim I decided to go with butter.  Not sure if I should have not not….but I did.   About 2 TBS of butter went into the pan.  When that was all melty I added a large handful (maybe 1/3 cup or a little more) of sliced almonds, the rest of the thyme, and the garlic.  I sautéed until the almonds were nice and toasty…then threw in the green beans, which I had let steam a little too long so they were mushier than I like!

A sprinkle and stir with Adobo seasoning to finish it off.

Then…because I have let them make me feel guilty these days…I foraged in the freezer for this (which I had bought a few months ago but never used).

I set up the George to grill them…but when I read the directions I found I needed to stir fry them!

Well…FabStepson and I  really liked them!  Others at my table dealt with it…but still had a little upturn to their noses.  Humph!

I would buy them again…the only thing I don’t like is of course that they are processed even if they are vegetarian.

And the final result was this!