Quick Tortellini Meal

Happy Friday!

Because it's Friday, that means I'll be talking about FOOD FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD today!

I have to say, I have set a very bizarre and unintentional standard in my house. I only recently "discovered" cooking as something I really enjoy, and as such, I've been making homecooked meals every night - even when I don't feel like it. As a result of that, my family has come to expect that every night I will prepare a delicious homecooked meal.

Sometimes I can get pretty creative and come up with something really cool, but sometimes? Sometimes I just want something easy that doesn't take a lot of brain power.

One of the reason I love cooking is because once you get the hang of it, you can tweak any recipe and make it your own. Also, I just got this badass apron in the mail from ThinkGeek.com and now I wear it every time I cook:

So last night, it came to be around 6:00 and I knew I had to start...shudder...planning dinner. Normally I love planning dinner, but it's been stressful and busy for me lately, and all I wanted to do was sleep. I definitely didn't want to mess up a bunch of dishes and spend an hour in the kitchen.

I rooted through my freezer and decided to make a simple, basic meal based on my favorite freezer staples. Click "Read More" for the recipe I just made up last night.

Farmer's Market-inspired Thanksgiving

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone!

I am so sorry this post is going up so late tonight. We drove back from dear old Dallas today and it was a long and arduous trip. I'm exhausted! So I'm hammering out this post real quick before it's too late!

I made an absolutely fabulous (if I do say so myself) Farmer's Market-inspired Thanksgiving meal this year and I wanted to share with you what I did. My family is full of health-nuts, but even those who aren't into green eats might be able to glean a recipe or two from this spread.

Here's what my plate looked like:

Can we say om nom nom? I can say it, and I did say it, a lot, throughout the afternoon's festivities. :)

Click the jump for more food pr0n and some recipes. :)

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts.

Hmm.

They get kind of a bad rap, huh? Always considered the "grossest" vegetable. So gross, in fact, that the very name "Brussels sprouts" seems to cause even the most open-minded face to cringe just a tiny bit when they're mentioned.

I had Brussels sprouts when I was a kid. They were disgusting. I hated them.

But something has been happening lately on the Internet...people have been making Brussels sprouts for their families...and their families LOVE them! I was intrigued. And when I walked into Trader Joe's the other day and was faced with this:

I thought...hmmmmmmm...could be that it's time to try Brussels sprouts again!

I dug around and looked at a few different recipes. Clearly the best way to do this is to roast them. Which is great, because roasting is my favorite way to prepare vegetables! A lot of people suggested Balsamic vinegar, and a lot of people said garlic, and a lot of people said lemon. Well, I happen to have all of those things. So I brought it home...

Click the jump to see how THIS weird little experiment turned out!

Black Bean Potato Chili

Sometimes you don't feel like cooking and you can't afford delivery. So you just throw a bunch of crap into a pot and heat it up and hope it doesn't suck.

That's how this Black Bean and Potato Chili came about. And friends...it did. Not. Suck.

It's hard to photograph chili. It's kind of gross-looking, to be honest. But even these pictures are making me drool. I WANT MORE CHILI NOW PLEASE. 

It's perfect with a little corn bread...

And a sprinkling of melty cheddar cheese...

Basically there might not be a more perfect winter recipe than chili.

Click "Read More" for the recipe. You'll be so, so glad you did.

Acorn Squash Lasagna

October is almost over! :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

But that means that Halloween is almost here! :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Since I recently discovered (two days ago) that I was going to have the kids for Halloween this year instead of sending them to their dad's, I have been frantically throwing together the costumes I'd been thinking about for weeks, but not actually making. Yesterday was a 12-hour-solid day of crafting, sewing, painting, researching, running to the big box store, wig-styling...ugh. It's amazing what we can do when we go into a project thinking "I literally have no choice but to make this work."

So I don't have anything to show you yet because I'm planning to show off the costumes tomorrow. But! In the meantime! I made a pretty tasty lasagna that I'd love to share with you. :)

Click "Read More" for some truly glorious photos and the recipe...

Baking Bonus: The Perfect Dinner Rolls

I am sorry. I'm gonna come right out and say it. I make the best damn dinner rolls in the world. 

I sort of stumbled across this recipe because the previous recipe I used to use included an egg, and simply put, one night I was out of eggs. 

So I hunted around for an eggless recipe, but frankly they all seemed...boring. I didn't want just white bread in bun form. I wanted a chewy, fluffy, flakey, beautiful roll that was reminiscent of croissants and the cafeteria rolls of my childhood. 

I got the gist of what other recipes wanted me to do. Some wanted me to use more yeast. Some suggested replacing the egg with oil. Nothing seemed quite right on its own.

But I figured it out. On the first try. And now I'm writing it down, for posterity and the world-wide fame that will inevitably follow the publishing of this recipe. 

I know, I sound very full of myself. 

But guys. Guys. Look at this picture:

#nofilter y'all. 

Go ahead. Click "Read More." I dare you. 

"Kitchen Sink" Banana Bread

So I'm gonna be honest: I don't really like bananas. I mean, I'll eat them because they're filling and a good source of potassium, but like a lot of people, I only like them when they're still a little firm and a wee bit green: basically underripe. My daughter hates bananas with a fiery passion. So does my boyfriend.

And yet, I always have bananas in the house. Why?

Because:

My son LOVES them. He loves them so much. He would eat a whole bunch of bananas every day if I let him. It was the first food he ever learned how to prepare for himself. It's a go-to "MOM I'M HUNGRY" pre-dinner snack. It's a pre-breakfast snack. It goes into lunches and gets cut up over cereal. Nobody loves bananas more than this kid, I swear to god.

And yet, somehow, we occasionally end up with bananas that go bad before they've been eaten. And by "go bad" I of course mean "ripen". Many will argue that when the banana starts to turn black and brown and gets really soft, it's "perfect" for eating. Blergh.

Until recently, I've been throwing them away when they get like that. But then someone reminded me that overripe bananas are PERFECT for banana bread! And while I may not particularly enjoy bananas, I do love me some banana bread...

Click "Read More" to find out what I did with two particularly overripe bananas and why I call this recipe "Kitchen Sink Banana Bread"...

Adventures in Fall Baking Week 3: Apple Coffee Cake

Because I am good at learning things...

I have decided to forego this week's planned recipe, which was Martha Stewart's Acorn Squash and Honey Pie. I just couldn't bring myself to fail at another recipe, and this one had a high possibility for failure. The weird thing about making Martha Stewart recipes is that I feel like she's there...watching me..."tsk tsk"ing with her arms crossed and her perfectly coifed head shaking back and forth gracefully.

So I tossed it out the window and let my daughter pick the recipe, since she would be helping me again this week.

And she selected...wait for it...

Apple Coffee Cake!

This is the recipe we used from the fabulous Love in the Oven blog. Click "Read More" to see how we did!

Bonus Baking: Food Processor Pumpkin Cookies

Well, I got it in my head to bake again. What can I say? It's fall, it was less than 80 degrees today, and yesterday my neighbors brought over some orange rolls for all of us. So I had to return the favor, right?

Of course I did. 

I went with something easy for today: cookies are hard to screw up. So I dug around, looked at some recipes, and as my hard-cooking boyfriend once advised me, "figured out what they wanted me to do" and put together a recipe all on my own. 

Adventures in Fall Baking Week 2: Apple Cider Spice Cake

I gotta say, this week's baking adventure went far more smoothly than last week's. I certainly did have my share of hiccups, and I'm definitely not going to be winning any awards at the county fair anytime soon, but as my lovely daughter reminded me last week: it doesn't matter what it looks like. As long as it tastes good!

And friends...let me tell you. Don't be fooled by my awful pictures. This Apple Cider Spice Cake is. So. Good. 

Foodie Friday: Peanut Butter Hummus

Happy Friday!

Man do I love food. I mean really, really love it. I have a relationship with it. In the bad way. Fortunately, I happen to have a deep and abiding love for a lot of relatively healthy stuff. 

In particular, hummus has been one of my main squeezes for most of my life. Even when I was a kid, a favorite sandwich was a thick layer of hummus spread between two slices of toast. Hell, that's still one of my favorites. I've had it for lunch every day this week.

I've made "poor man's" hummus before. You know the kind: a can of garbanzo beans, some garlic and lemon juice, blend it together, done. It's not great...but it does the job all right. 

My main issue is that I can never find tahini. Or I never remember to look for it. At that point, I might as well just buy store made hummus, which is becoming more and more popular these days. So usually that's what I do (Costco has a spectacular deal on what appears to be a quart of hummus and it is SO good). But sometimes I don't wanna do that. I want my OWN hummus. 

That's where, just a few short days ago, Nigella Lawson came to my rescue.

(Click that "Read More" button down there for basically the hottest photograph ever taken of a human being.)

Foodie Friday: Imitation Crab Cakes

Happy Friday everyone! Let's celebrate with some food.

I ended up with a package of imitation crab sticks this week. Not sure why I decided to buy them, but I did. After making a rather delicious sushi thing with a couple of them, I decided to kill the package with one of my favorite meals of all time: crab cakes!!

Ingredients: Assemble!

I was fortunate to have everything I needed at home. Most of these items are things you probably have too. 

First I opened up that package of crab and shredded it up real good until it looked like this:

Then I sautéed some onion and garlic in olive oil until they were nice and soft:

Then I whisked together an egg, some plain yogurt, smoky seasoning, salt, herbs, and lemon juice together in a bowl:

Which I then added to the crab!

Mm, appetizing...

Then I dumped the onions and garlic - olive oil and all - right into the bowl and combined. I didn't want to overdo the bread crumbs (in this case I had seasoned fish fry) so I added them 1/4 cup at a time until I was happy with the consistency. I ended up using about a cup. The consistency was a little like peanut butter, or sugar cookie dough. The crab stuff should stick together a little while you're stirring it. 

Then I formed 1/4 cup at a time into patties with my hands and laid them on some wax paper on a baking sheet:

Then I refrigerated for around 5 hours. As I understand it, the longer you fridge the stuff, the better it will stay together when you're frying it up later. 

About 20 minutes before show time, I heated yet more olive oil in a pan over high heat until it was sizzling. Then I fried the patties four at a time. 4 minutes on each side was too much, so aim for 3. Flip carefully, then when they're brown on both sides, let them drain on a paper towel while you move on to the next batch. 

Then I served them up with boxed cheesy scalloped potatoes:

It wasn't the healthiest dinner, but it was easier than I thought it would be and frankly, kind of fun!

Here's the full recipe for those who don't like stories:

Imitation Crab Cakes:

Ingredients:

1 8-oz package of imitation crab sticks

1 egg

2 Tbsp + 1/4 cup olive oil, divided 

1/4 white onion, chopped finely

3 garlic cloves,minced

1/4 cup plain yogurt or mayonnaise

3 Tbsp lemon juice 

1 tsp Herbs de Provence or any other herb mix you like*

1 tsp salt*

1 tsp spicy or smoky herb mix*

Around 1 cup bread crumbs

* If you are using seasoned bread crumbs, use half the listed seasoning amounts, or none at all. Don't make my mistake and over salt these!

Directions:

1. Shred or dice the crab finely. 

2. Sauté the finely chopped onion and garlic in 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat until onion is soft and translucent. 

3. Whisk together the egg, lemon juice, yogurt, and seasonings in a bowl. 

4. Combine with the crab until crab is well coated. 

5. Add onion and garlic to crab mixture. 

6. Add bread crumbs 1/4 cup at a time until mixture resembles peanut butter or cookie dough. 

7. Using wet hands, form patties out of 1/4 cup of mixture and place on wax paper-lined baking sheet. Once the baking sheet is full, lay another sheet of wax paper on top and layer more crab cakes on that. 

8. Cover crab cakes with paper towels and refrigerate at least one hour or up to overnight. 

9. Heat remaining olive oil over high heat in a nonstick skillet until oil is bubbling and drops of water sizzle on the pan. 

10. Carefully place crab cakes 1 at a time in the oil and fry 3 minutes on each side. Let crab cakes drain on a paper-towel-lined plate. 

11. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Frantic last minute dinner

It may not look like much now, but this is dinner. We were planning to drive up to Dallas tonight for Mother's Day weekend, but became unexpectedly delayed by thunderstorms all through Texas all afternoon and evening. 

We found ourselves with a free afternoon, and did what any normal, well-functioning modern family would do: we sat on the couch and played with our phones and tablets. Hey don't judge; at least we were all together. 

At one point someone (my son, who is usually the one who points these things out) realized it was 7:00, and hey, isn't that dinner time?

Well, in preparation for a weekend trip, I had been avoiding going to the grocery store because I don't know why. Maybe I'm afraid everything is going to go bad in two days via some form of black magic. 

Anyway, everyone was starving and I didn't have anything planned for dinner. We've gone out to eat...a lot. Seems like every day this week someone has eaten a meal at a restaurant instead of at home. And I didn't feel we needed to resort to that again. So I rummaged around to find something - anything! - that I could feed my family tonight. 

Inspired by some posts I've seen on Pinterest, I decided to try my hand at this Italian "wonder pot" everyone has been raving about. It ain't complicated. It ain't even pretty. But it should be serviceable:

Handmade Hell Italian Wonderpot

2 cans veggie broth

1 28-oz can crushed (or diced) tomatoes 

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

2-5 minced garlic cloves (or whatever depending on how garlicky you like it)

1 bag penne pasta

Salt, pepper, various Italian herbs as desired

Put it all in a pot. Boil it. Keep boiling it, stirring occasionally, for about 25 minutes. Don't over stir or it'll get mushy. Throw something frozen in during the last ten minutes or so. Frozen meatballs, precooked sausage or beef, I used frozen broccoli. 

Done and done. End result:

Not too shabby for what was essentially less than 30 minutes in progress. Have fun with that. 

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

After a fun evening of wine and fried things from the local Chinese delivery place, I ended up going to bed super early. As a result, I woke up at 6:00 fully refreshed and ready to start my day. My first thought upon awakening was "what is that amazing smell??" As it turned out, my houseguest had also arisen particularly early and had, while I still slumbered, browned a beef brisket and put it in the crockpot, where it is currently still making me crazy as it cooks.

I decided I wanted to get in on the productive early morning cooking from scratch train and realized I had all the right ingredients to make muffins. 

I used a recipe I found online but tweaked it so I'll put what I did here:

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

(Mix these ingredients together and set aside)

In a separate bowl:

Beat 1 large egg

Add 1 cup of milk (I used vanilla almond milk)

Add 1/4 cup oil or melted butter (I used melted coconut oil)

1 tsp lemon extract

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Whisk all together

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Fold all ingredients together carefully with a rubber spatula. Add about half a pint of fresh blueberries. Don't over mix or they will be tough!

Spoon batter into muffin tin or silicon or foil cups until about 3/4 full. Bake 25 minutes in a 400F oven. 

These muffins turned out beautifully...light and chewy on the inside, sweet and slightly crunchy on the top. The lemon is a little strong, so I might not use the lemon juice next time. And they're not too sweet, like store bought muffins can be.

I imagine they smell great. But I can't smell them over the scent of that brisket...oh my. We're going to have the best French dips for lunch!

Vegetarian Chili Mac

Time for another non-wearable post (unless you're my 7-year-old son, who is currently wearing this particular handmade on his shirt)!

I like macaroni and cheese. I really, really like macaroni and cheese. I would venture so far as to say that it is my favorite food. Even the stuff in the blue box. And my kids, being kids and all, absolutely love it. That being said, I have kids now, which means I am saddled with the sometimes depressing and often challenging task of providing them with mostly healthy meals most of the time. Macaroni and cheese doesn't typically fall into that category.

But oh! The convenience! The frugality! How can I possibly turn down a 50-cent box of creamy delicious mac and cheese?

So I use it, but I add to it. Sometimes it's just peas, sometimes it's something more elaborate. Take a healthy thing, stir it into some mac and cheese, and generally kids will eat it. It's a time-honored tradition among busy moms to do just this kind of thing.

Today, whilst tooling around the city with a good friend in tow, I mused, "What should I make my kids for dinner tonight?" His immediate response: "Chili mac."

Now, my kids are vegetarians, so at first the idea of chili mac didn't make a lot of sense. Until I remembered, of course, that vegetarian chili is not only possible, but delicious. And I happened to have a variety of delicious potential chili ingredients in my house. It couldn't have been more perfect. I made the chili (TONS of leftovers - TONS!), made the mac, and stirred them together to make...oh my dayum. Just look:

Hummuna hummuna nom nom nom nom...

And now, the recipe:

Vegetarian Chili Mac

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

Olive oil

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium green bell pepper, diced

2 medium carrots, diced

1 medium cucumber, diced

1 cup brown lentils

1 cup hot water

1 cup vegetable broth

1 can black beans

1 20-oz can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1 Tsp chili powder (or to taste - I made mine mild for the kids)

1 Tbsp chili sauce

salt and pepper

1 box macaroni and cheese

1/2 cup milk

2 Tbsp. butter

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in the bottom of a large sauce pot.

2. Add chopped garlic, onion, bell pepper, carrots, and cucumber, and saute until onion is translucent.

3. Add lentils and saute for 1 minute.

4. Add hot water, vegetable broth, black beans, and tomatoes.

5. Bring pot to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer.

6. Add entire can of tomato paste and seasonings.

7. Simmer for 45 minutes, covered with lid tilted for ventilation.

8. During last 10 minutes of chili cooktime, cook mac and cheese according to package directions.

9. Once chili and mac and cheese are done, add chili to mac and cheese a spoonful at a time, stirring constantly to mix thoroughly. Stop when the mixture appears to be 50-50, or whenever you want really.

My kids gobbled this up, and I had a second helping. The creaminess of the macaroni and cheese really mellows out the intensity of the chili, making this a highly accessible, remarkably edible, pretty darn healthy version of a classic favorite. I THINK SO ANYWAY SO THERE.

Superest Salad Ever

It's been a while since I've posted, and although I have had inspiration and have even made a thing or two, I'm not quite ready to expose them to the universe yet. However, I made a hell of a great salad today so I thought I'd share that with you.

The other day I placed an order through Greenling.com, a sort of multi-farm coop plus health food grocery website, where you can order food, particularly local and organic produce, to be delivered to your door. While I can see why this would be a terrific service for some, I don't think it's really right for my family. I prefer selecting my own produce, and I would rather support my local area farmers more directly by buying from them at the farmer's market.

That said, I did get a pretty cool assortment of veggies, none of which were quite enough to feed me, my kids, and my parents this weekend, but many of which came together in a pretty beautiful way.

Ingredients:

1 small head of Romaine lettuce
2 cups loosely packed baby spinach
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 orange bell pepper
5-6 medium sized carrots
2 large radishes
1/4 head cauliflower
1 cup micro greens
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can kernel corn
Parsley to taste
1/4 cup bottled raspberry vinaigrette

Chop the greens, peppers, radishes, cauliflower, and parsley roughly (I diced them so the pieces would be small and easy to eat). Shred the carrots. Mix all ingredients together, including the drained cans of garbanzo beans and corn. Toss with dressing and serve.

This was delicious, filling, and entirely vegan, and very very healthy. Even my kids liked it! Well, my daughter did. My son balked a little, but not too much.

Of course, this is just what I had on hand, so obviously it'll be different every time. It's hardly a recipe at all, but I loved it. All the different textures and fresh flavors came together really made it special, and the garbanzo beans gave it a protein boost that made it filling and a whole meal by itself. It's been a long time since I've been so satisfied by a single salad!