Rainy Days

What's better on a rainy day than toasty bread and warm soup? Last night, after dinner was on it's way to being done, I decided to start a loaf of Jalapeno Cheddar Bread and a batch of Black Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Soup.

I looked back through my posts and couldn't find anyplace that I had given you the link to my very favorite bread recipe. We've made this Jalapeno Cheddar Bread in the bread machine a bunch of times, but this time it was definitely the best. The peppers I added were ones that we had dehydrated a few weeks ago. Some bites of the bread were pretty spicy - and delicious!

Look at the big hunks of pepper!!

When I made the Cuban Chicken the other night, I had prepared an entire pound of black beans. I didn't even use half of the beans, so I needed to find other things to do with it. I used some today for lunch, in my turkey wrap. Some more went into this Black Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Soup. I changed the recipe a little. I only used 1.5 red peppers and used 2 jalapenos instead of the pobalanos, and I roasted them on the grill. I used the vegetable stock to make a totally vegan soup (until I dropped sour cream in my bowl!)

We topped our soup with some sour cream, avacado, and tomatoes.


This was the first time we bought this large avacado. We stopped at Walmart to pick some up and while we were discussing the difference between the large lighter colored avacado and the small tough skinned darker ones, another shopper was nice enough to tell us the difference and which was better to use in certain recipes. Score one for Walmart shoppers - though that won't convince me to start shopping there again!!


Soup in the pan:

Soup in the bowl, with a side of toasty, buttery bread:


So good!! Even though it was rainy out, which would usually be perfect for the spicy, filling food - we decided to cut back on using the air conditioning, so it was a little warmer in the house than I would have liked for this food. It was still delicious, though!!!

Going to do some reading - time to start Harry Potter 3!!

Good night!

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Lucas had his 38th birthday yesterday. For weeks we couldn't decide how to celebrate it, changing the plans from going out, to just spending time on the beach, and maybe a cook out at home in the evening. Last week, we came up with the idea of inviting over all of our friends and doing a Stone Soup kind of dinner, only with seafood and potatoes and corn, in the style of a Low Country Boil. If you don't know the Stone Soup story, it goes like this:

The Story of Stone Soup

Once upon a time, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

"There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "Better keep moving on."

"Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

"Ahh," the soldier said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage -- that's hard to beat."

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Capital!" cried the soldier. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king."

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the soldier a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on the next day. The moral is that by working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.

So we asked everyone to each bring a bit of the following: clams, oysters, crab legs, mussels, shrimp, potatoes, corn or sausage. We ended up with more food than we ever imagined! Luckily, one of our friends owned a huge steampot to cook it all in, and brought it along. She even brought the "stone" for the soup - a brick to set the steam basket on! Perfect!!



Yum!!!!!



It was fun watching the guys figure out how to dump the food once it was done!






We ate, drank and were VERY merry through the night, and had a great time with all of our friends. I count it as one of the best get-togethers we have EVER had!!

We had so much food leftover, that I needed to come up with something to do with it. The mystery was solved with a seafood chowder, and an afternoon of crabs and beer today! Around lunch time we covered our coffee table with newspaper and dug right in!




We made a seafood potato corn chowder for dinner, served with a fresh new loaf of the jalapeno bread. I will post the chowder recipe, but in a separate entry, as I don't have it all written out yet.

DOUBLE YUM!!



Another weekend ends with a great dinner, True Blood (SO GOOD TONIGHT!!) and situps - we did 90 tonight!!! Ouch!

The kids start school tomorrow, so I really should already be sleeping! I guess I just am not ready for the weekend to end!

Good night, all!

Blueberries

One of my favorite summer superfoods is the blueberry. We've been eating quite a few of these this week, since our trip to Indigo Farms last weekend. This farm is known locally for it's blueberry fields, and there are days that you can go pick your own. We haven't done that yet, but it would be a fun adventure! They also have a produce market, with some great prices, and what seemed to be a flower market, though we didn't go to that side of it.

Before I go on, let me point out that I have NO education in nutrition, other than what my nutritionist has taught me and what I've learned myself online. We all know you can't believe everything you read on the internet, but I believe the links I'm going to post here are reliable. Just remember - I'm no expert!

On WebMD, I found an article regarding Superfoods that was the basis for the list I previously posted. This is what they say about blueberries:

Blueberries -- Antioxidant Superfood

Packed with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids, these berries are also high in potassium and vitamin C, making them the top choice of doctors and nutritionists. Not only can they lower your risk of heart disease and cancer, they are also anti-inflammatory.

I'm not sure what a phytoflavinoid is, and couldn't seem to find a good definition online anywhere. So I kept looking for more articles on blueberries that had words that meant something to me. I found a great article here. It sets out all the health benefits of blueberries, their nutritional information and even a history of blueberries. I found it interesting that they weren't marketed as a food until 1916! This site also has a link to some recipes, though I haven't checked them out yet.

Here's a recipe I featured earlier in my blog, but only with a link:

















Banana Blueberry Bread
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups flour, all-purpose sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/3 cup Butter
2/3 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 cup Bananas mashed
1 cup Blueberries


Directions
60 minutes Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 50 minutes
Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and gradually beat in sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs one at a time. Add flour mixture and banana alternately in three parts. Gently stir in blueberries.
Turn into oiled 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Turn out of pan to cool.
____________________________________________
And finally, though it actually has nothing to do with food, here's a video preview of a new book by one of my favorite authors.

Blueberry Girl, by Neil Gaiman

Two in one day!

Yes, I'm actually posting twice in one day - can you believe it??

Just a quick recap of the rest of our day, which was VERY relaxing. We spent quite a bit of time just sitting on the couch and catching up on some shows we had on DVR. I finally got around to take a shower and head out to do the rest of our shopping. We needed to go to Big Lots to try to find some looseleaf paper for the kids for school, since there was NONE at Walmart last week. While we were there, we also picked up some All Natural Peanut Butter treats for Chuck, and stocked up on some Kashi products. They had some amazing deals on Kashi - GoLean cereal for $2.50, TLC chocolate coconut bars for $2.00 and microwave oatmeal for $2.00. I figure all of these were AT LEAST half off of normal prices. I was so excited, since we don't usually buy Kashi because of the price. After that, we ran to Bilo to grab some last minute groceries for the week, then back home to the couch.

For lunch we made some chip dip out of the left over roasted red pepper sauce from last night, mixed with some sour cream and eaten with Full Circle Organic Potato Chips. I LOVE these chips! We also had grilled havarti cheese sandwiches on Earthgrains Wheatberry bread, topped with some spinach, and a tomato on mine. YUM!


Some more lounging on the couch, then cleaning up the house a bit, weeding the garden and it was time to start dinner. I made the vegetable lasagna that we discovered a couple of months ago, with a side of jalapeno cheddar bread. YUM! Times Two!


I think I already posted my veggie lasagna recipe, but I'm not sure. If I didn't, I'll do it again in a bit.




Ok - True Blood starts in less than one minute - so I gotta run! Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!!

Catching up!

Looks like I have some catching up to do here after a long weekend of no posts from me! This one is going to be picture heavy, to make up for not having many in the last few posts.

Last time we got together here, it was Friday night and we had just eaten my yummy steak-spinach rolls. You'd think that would have filled us up, but at about 10:30 Lucas and I both decided we needed a snack. We rooted through the kitchen and came up with nachos! I had a can of refried beans that had been patiently waiting to be used up, so I warmed them up with some jalapenos and banana peppers (from the garden!) a little onion, cayenne and chili powder and spread all that on some tortilla chips, smothered it in cheese and broiled it. It was better than we thought it would be - and gone in about 4 minutes!



Friday night (Saturday morning?) brought some crazy twists and turns, and we ended up having Dalton and Brianna with us. Brianna, who is 7, was up bright and early and ready to spend the day with us. Lucas slept in (not much sleep was had by anyone the night before) so Brianna and I went out to the garden so she could pick some peppers and beans with me. We cleaned up the kitchen, and I took her out to dump the compost bin from the kitchen, and taught her a bit about composting while we turned the pile. The soil out there is looking amazing, and I can't wait to use it next year! Then we went inside and made some baked apple oatmeal. A cup of oatmeal, a couple of diced apples, a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and about 1.25 cups of milk, in the oven for 30 minutes and it's warm, gooey apple oatmeal.



The rest of Saturday was spent shopping (Lowes review to come soon!) and on the beach, which I thoroughly enjoyed and really needed. Saturday night we had dinner at mom's, which was pork chops and gravy and after eating it, I realized I shouldn't have. It didn't settle well. It's unfortunate that with all our "clean" eating I can't enjoy some of my all-time favorites as much as I used to!

Sunday was a day of resting and cooking. I love that every Sunday is becoming a ritual of sorts and we spend all day in the kitchen! Yesterday we made strawberry & cream banana bread, pickled some cucumbers and some jalapenos/zucchini/red pepper/carrots, and made chicken pot pies from scratch, which Lucas and I both agree are in our top ten favorite meals ever!

Here is the bread - it tastes as good as it looks!

This is me pretending I know how to pickle things! We followed recipes online, but changed them up a little bit. I hate that we have to wait so long to see how they turn out!

We have pickles!!

Lucas did all the prep work on the pot pies. Actually, he did the prep work, cooked the veggies, made the crusts - much more work on these than I did!!


Chicken pot pie veggies - potatoes, red pepper, mushrooms, garlic, onion and some Full Circle organic frozen mixed veggies


Pot pies, pre-baking

Finished product - SO good, especially with some white wine!


And that brings me to this morning. Breakfast was a huge, juicy Kiwi, orange juice and some Kashi honey grain cereal that we got at the new Big Lots yesterday for $1.80! Got in two superfoods and probably half of my recommended whole grains for the day, which I don't eat enough of!

Ok, on to work, and later will be my Lowes Foods review! My plan is to have a productive, positive day!

A year ago today....

I met the man of my dreams. We talked about spending the day together and then going to the place we met to have some drinks with some friends, in honor of the day. What I love about who we are in our lives right now, is that we chose to stay home and clean up the house and work on projects and cook and garden rather than going to the bar. I think spending the day together like we did gave more meaning to this last year than anything else could have. We are truly lucky to have found each other, and to have realized what we found, when we did.

So, the day started with me playing on the computer and not wanting to do much of ANYTHING! We decided to finally roll out of bed and have some juice and eggs. I made the juice, Lucas made the eggs, which were delicious!!! The juice today was a new one. It had cucumbers, carrots, apple and lemon. I have to say, I was NOT a fan. Drinking a cucumber just doesn't feel right. I drank half of mine and gave the rest to Lucas, and opted for the Pomegranate Blueberry juice that I bought at the store the day before. He, however, loved the juice and drank it all down - to wash down the eggs he made, mixed with all the veggies from last night's pizza and some monterey jack cheese. Top it off with a slice of wheat toast, and it's one great breakfast!



House cleaning got done and then we decided on turkey burgers and a spinach, mushroom, olive salad for lunch. We melted some havarti cheese on the burgers and I used our homemade salsa from last week as a salad dressing/condiment. Lucas sprayed a little balsamic vinegar dressing on his salad. This all looked really awesome, but I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture first!

We headed out and cleaned up the back yard, after yesterday's mowing, and puttered around the garden a bit, harvesting some cucumbers and discovering that we have some BABY watermelons growing!! We then headed out front to weed the front flower beds. Next we came inside to watch a little zombie movie - perfect way to spend the "anniversary"...hehehe.

Once the movie was done, I was back in the kitchen. First I prepped the peppers for roasting and made some fresh lemonade. First time - so some adjustments were made to the recipes I found. Came out yummy in the end. Then on to the Banana Blueberry Bread. I only changed one thing in this recipe, I got rid of the sugar and added the same amount of honey, instead. I haven't tried it yet, but it's on the counter cooling and looks great. I will report back!

Dinner was Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce and Spinach on a toasted onion roll and a side of fresh hash browns. I do believe that this dinner beat last night's dinner!!



The picture definitely doesn't look as good as it tasted...but I never claimed to be a photographer!

As I was cleaning up after dinner, I realized that the leftover red pepper sauce would make an awesome dip when mixed with sour cream. I mixed some up, and that'll be our snack tomorrow night, maybe!

I'll be back to post the recipe for dinner and for the dip, but right now I've got to get off of here and watch True Blood!!! Sunday means True Blood, which is great, but True Blood means it's Sunday night and the weekend is over...not so great!

A day late...

I did SO well yesterday with my menu! Yesterday started with delicious microwaved eggs with tomatoes and a piece of Nature's Own Honey Wheat bread. I had no idea how easy, and good, microwaved eggs would be for a work breakfast! I had that with some Tropicana oj and some Lipton berry tea.

Lunch was brown rice (again in the microwave, didn't work out as well as the eggs - must adjust the time!) mixed with some of our homemade salsa and cheese. I had a snack of my homemade applesauce oatmeal bread. I shared that with Liz and Scott and ended up sending Liz the recipe.

Dinner was a couple of leftover chicken pieces that we had in the fridge. We made it earlier in the week. We're now making all of our own bbq sauce, to avoid the corn syrup that's in most of the store bought kinds. This time we made a white Alabama style sauce. We threw those leftover pieces on the grill along with some sliced zucchini with olive oil and salt and pepper, some leftover baked potatoes sliced up with some red, orange and green peppers, wrapped in foil with butter, and topped off with some corn cobs. Everything came out delicious! Lucas got stuck cooking in a downpour, but moved the grill to the carport, and Nathan brought him an umbrella to bring the food in with. As we started eating, we decided we should have taken a picture of it all, because it looked so good...so pics may follow!

We ended the night with some poker, some Orville Redenbacher's All Natural Popcorn, some internet surfing and some Harry Potter. One good day...