I will not get sick(er) sandwich : avocado, artichoke, and spinach oh my!

I'm still alive. I'm still cooking. We have just been in transition mode for a while. First off we had to clear out the fridge for a vacation. Now, actually on vacation, I've been doing much less cooking. Above and beyond that, I have been doing next to no picture taking, which results in (as you may have noticed).....no blogging. For those of you here to hear about the sandwich feel free to scroll to the last paragraph where you will find what I'm sure is at the forefront of your mind (as it is usually in mine)...food.

Also.......have I mentioned this....

Certainly not the finest picture of me on the interwebs.........certainly not the worst. Yes amongst the packing, traveling, unpacking, settling in, getting sick and getting better I have also (not so) patiently been biding my time awaiting the day when I can bend freely and cough without wetting myself...in other words, I'M HAVING A BABY!!!!!! :)

Perhaps you remember back in October when I hurt my arm. This was directly followed by morning sickness of doom and a sharp decrease in blogging. Well I'm feeling better now, but I'm not in my kitchen. I am not sure how much blogging you will see in the next few months as I rely on things I can make with few ingredients, but I felt you all deserved a heads up. Thank you so much for reading! You have no idea how it warms my heart to hear of people cooking and enjoying my recipes or discovering new veggies they thought they didn't like. Please hang in there while life happens and expect to see me getting back into the swing of things after the little nursling is born and has started eating only 10 times a day instead of 12....should be somewhere around October.

Now for that sandwich. My little ones had been booger faced (you are hungry now right?) and cranky for a few days when I determined not to get sick......I failed....however, the cold didn't hit me nearly as hard as it did everyone else....that may not have anything to do with this sandwich, but it sure was tasty. Definitely worth a try. I also ate plenty of citrus and loaded up on water.*

I took two pieces of bread and toasted them in the toaster oven. If you are using butter (or "butter) you will want to add it after the bread is toasted. If using olive oil you can brush it on ahead of time. I sprinkled one clove of fresh (not jarred) chopped garlic on the bread and spread on some artichoke spread. Then I added thick slices of avocado, seasoned with salt and pepper, and topped the whole thing with heaping handfuls of baby spinach. Voila. If you are not sick, and would prefer a more understated sandwich you could certainly add the garlic before cooking so that it cooks up a bit and you don't get that raw garlic bite. Add cheeze or cheese if you like, but I think this veggie filled sandwich is pretty good as is.

*I am not a doctor....(though you might find me dressed as one at Sci-fi conventions but that's besides the point) more importantly I am not your doctor. I am not qualified to diagnose or treat you, I am qualified to make you a super tasty sandwich. Though I don't feel this needs to be said, if you are dying go to a doctor......you can read my blog later.

P.S. I did notice all the horrific run on sentences and other errors when I read through this. I felt since it has been a month since I last posted, and because I don't know when I'll get another long stretch of free time....I had better just hit that publish button now, and work on that later (maybe...you know me). So here we go....

Black Bean and Avocado Tacos

This is another cold taco filling. It is very simple, and I encourage you to play around with the ingredients to suit your own tastes. It's still really hot outside here, so these were a refreshing break from warm food. I would write more, but I think my brain has already left for the weekend. Hope you are all having a great Friday.

2 cups black beans
1 washed peeled and diced avocado
2 tbs chopped cilantro leaves (or to taste)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vinegar (apple cider)
1 tsp oil
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup shredded cheese or "cheese"
1/2 diced onion (optional)
1 clove pressed garlic
salt, pepper, and hot sauce* to taste

Mix everything together in a big bowl and spoon into taco shells. Add extra taco fixins as desired. The hubster and I thought these were great plain. The filling tasted even better the next day.





*My personal belief is that you can never have too much hot sauce....unless it's in your eye. Then pretty much any amount is no good. Hot sauce haters may leave it out of this recipe if they so desire. :)

Vegetarian Sushi Filling

The video card on our desktop is down, so no pictures today. But it got me thinking about what I could write about that I don't have pictures for. Sushi is a summer staple in our house. I used to make fancy sauces for it as well, but now with little man's soy allergies less so. There are many reasons for eating vegetarian sushi, pregnancy, allergies, avoiding unsustainable fishes. Whatever your reasons you need not be limited (although it's still tasty) to cucumber and carrot matchsticks.

Here are a few of my favorite sushi fillings, mix and match them as you like.

Spicy Thai cashews from Trader Joes

Green onion

Avocado

Tempura fried tofu

Tempura fried jalapeno peppers

Hot peppers of any sort

Tempura fried veggies

Cucumbers that have been marinated in rice vinegar

Spicy cucumber salad (diced cucumbers mixed with a dressing of yogurt, cayenne, rice vinegar and a smidgen of sugar....I will post a recipe for this later, you can also add diced jalapeno to this)

Cream cheese

Cream cheese mixed with wasabi

Cream cheese mixed with Thai sweet chili sauce

Lemon pepper tofu

Lemon pepper asparagus

Marinated tofu (in a mixture of teryaki sauce garlic and cayenne)

Spicy nuts (either cashews or macadamia) Nuts that have been chopped and mixed with salt and chili oil....yum!

Veggies! Of course of any sort, matchstick, marinated, grilled, fried, whatever you like...then mix them with any of the other above ingredients.

Some of my favorite combinations....

Fried tofu, jalapeno, cream cheese

wasabi cream cheese, green onion, avocado

cream cheese, green onion

avocado, jalapeno

Marinated tofu, grilled bell peppers

Avocado Sandwich Spread or Dip

I am not going to call this an egg free substitute for mayonnaise, because you couldn't really use it to replace mayonnaise in recipes. It does make a very tasty sandwich spread though. So in our house we will be using it as an egg free, soy free mayo/ranch alternative. It also works great as a dip. This isn't so much of an actual recipe as a, "here is a vague outline of what I did, with some pictures and witty banter thrown in". So now go out there and adjust it to your own taste preferences and dietary restrictions.:)

The only downside to this is that avocado turns brown and I didn't add enough lemon juice to prevent it. If you make this, you have to use it quickly, or you have to get over that lovely shade of greenish brown (that always reminds me of Linda Blair) being on your sandwich or quesadilla.

All I did was throw 2 tbs of yogurt, two avocados (washed, peeled, pitted) and the juice of one lemon into the food processor. Then I added ranch dressing mix to taste. I've found packets of ranch dressing mix on the shelves that my met our dietary restrictions before, however....I did not love them. I wanted to...believe me, but it was just not meant to be. Try making your own, you can adjust the sodium, spices, and there are even dairy free recipes out there.

This made it's way into the kids muffin tin snacks the other day, check it out....

The theme was "A". A is for apple slices, avocado dip, and ants on a log. The kids gobbled this whole tray up in no time flat. I got the idea for serving it in a muffin tin over here, at Mama to 4 blessings, our homeschool blog.

Might I also suggest you try it on a veggie burger....good stuff!

Taco Tuesday (I know it's Wednesday...shhhh)

Question:
When is an appetizer an entree?


A.) When I say it is, because I'm the mom.
B.) When you serve it in a 9x13 casserole dish
C.) When I say it is, because this is my blog.

Answer:
All of the above.

This dish can be eaten as is, or in taco shells (as we prefer it). You can mix it up quite a bit, spinach in place of the lettuce, add jalapenos, bell peppers, or whatever else strikes your fancy. It's basically seven layer bean dip, but I put it in a really big casserole dish and call it dinner.

I make my own refried black beans, so the measurement of three cups might not exactly equal a full two cans of the canned stuff....but this is bean dip...for dinner...I don't think you have to follow the recipe too closely. Omit what you like, keep what you like, serve stuff on the side that causes your children to vomit on you.....which reminds me of a story.......

A story that should probably wait for my picky eaters post.....
I should probably just get to that recipe.



3 cups of refried beans
1/2 cup salsa
1 cup shredded cheese
1 can of sliced olives that have been drained
1 bag shredded lettuce (or baby spinach)
1 chopped roma (or other) tomato
1 diced avocado
1/2 cup cilantro (washed well, with the majority of the stems removed)
1 diced onion if desired

Corn tortillas



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the refried beans into a 9x13 baking dish.

Spread salsa on top of beans.

Sprinkle cheese and olives on top.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until it's hot and bubbly.

I used the time to prep my toppings....
Also, if you are using corn tortillas you will want to take this time to heat them according to the directions on the package.


Once the beans are done you have a "blank" canvas of sorts......the best kind of blank canvas, one that's made of cheese!




Layer your lettuce, avocado, onion, tomato, and cilantro over the top. Add whatever else you want. Add heaping scoops of this cheesy goodness into your corn tortillas and eat!

Sushi Rice Bowl

The weather here lately has been sooooo nice*. And by nice I mean you just want to get up in the morning, run outside, and DIE of heatstroke. The last thing I want to do in this sort of weather is cook.....the first thing I want to do is lie half naked under a ceiling fan sipping on a Jamba Juice....but since we don't have Jamba Juice here, and I live with other people that's not going to happen....Everybody good and hungry? :)

Back to the point (I totally have one)....which is, this is a super yummy cold dish that I've eaten two days in a row for lunch. It's basically brown sushi rice mixed with chickpeas, sauteed peppers and onion, avocado, and then I drizzled mustard wasabi dressing over the whole thing. Today I garnished mine with pickled ginger, and green onion.

Three fantastic things about this dish, you can make as much or as little of the components as you want and serve it several days in a row. You can change it up quite a bit and still have it taste quite good, throw in whatever you have on hand, leftover steamed veggies, maybe some carrot or cucumber sticks for more of a salad feel. And you can serve it without the dressing to keep it soy free, as I did for my son. Short on time? Try using a store bought organic salad dressing such as this.


Mustard Wasabi Dressing

5 tbs oil (I used canola)
3 tbs seasoned rice vinegar
3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp mustard
1 1/2 tsp + more to taste prepared wasabi

Whisk all the ingredients together. This doesn't make a lot of dressing, but considering how little of it you need (I used about a tbs) it should do the trick.





*It's called sarcasm...love it, embrace it.

Simple Meals and Chili Ten Ways

I went to the farmers market this weekend and picked up some produce along with a lovely ciabatta bread. I brushed it with a mixture of melted butter, crushed garlic, and cayenne pepper, then sprinkled it with parmesean cheese and toasted it in the toaster oven. So simple, so good. White bread is a sometimes food...... but if I'm going to eat it, it might as well have butter and garlic on it.



I served it up with a spinach salad, topped with strawberries, feta cheese, and a light vinaigrette.

Chili Ten Ways
brought to you by Bubba Mc chompsandcries

Among my finds at the market were bell peppers, and zucchini. Perfect for a vegetarian chili, which turned out to be just the right thing to make this week. You see, my son at his best will eat a wide variety of foods, with his favorites being beans, rice, and yogurt. At his worst however he narrows down the foods he will eat into two groups, chili.........and things he will tolerate if mixed with chili. And this week he has been sick, and teething. So in my effort to get him to eat a variety of foods I have come up with ten ways to serve chili. This will work well if you also have a toddler who refuses to eat anything but chili....or possibly also if you just have a bunch of leftover chili, which is the more likely scenario out of the two. You can serve chili....

1.) Topped with cheese, sour cream, avocado, and crushed tortilla chips.

2.) On a baked potato.

3.) Over nachos.

4.) As enchilada filling.

5.) In redneck casserole. That's chili in a casserole dish topped with tots, baked, and then sprinkled with cheese.

6.) Mixed in with spaghetti sauce.

7.) Mixed in with mac and cheese.

8.) Over rice.

9.) As the filling for a shepherds pie sort of dish. Chili, topped with mashed potatoes and baked.

10.) On a grilled cheese sandwich.

There you have it, not gourmet, not revolutionary, and most of these recipes involve potatoes.....I just noticed that. However, I never said I was a chef. Just a mom out to prove that you can eat well on a budget.

The events that led to my hysterical breakdown in Starbucks

No recipe today, just a picture of some nummy tacos filled with refried beans, cheese, avocado, and spinach. I'll probably be posting a recipe for lentil and potato tacos in the near future...so stay tuned for that.

As I write this I must say I am feeling much better. I am not going to say that tacos are better for depression than Prozac*, but to my knowledge there are no studies that prove otherwise.

When the weather warms up I start to feel bitter, the fire ants start coming out from their winter hiding places to seek and devour me, I start to sweat even more than I do in the winter, and I develop a lovely sun rash upon any exposed skin. From my unsuitableness for hot weather the bitterness starts to turn to loathing, which turns to sadness, which turns into a minor breakdown at Starbucks**, because of an image of a cherry blossom which reminds me that I have friends in Maryland enjoying the cherry blossom festival, which reminds me that they are not here, which reminds me that three very good friends have left me, which in turn becomes the longest run on sentence in the history of blogdom. Hormones may have had something to do with it as well...

What does that all have to do with tacos and a package of cookies?? Well my Grandma is kind of famous for her tacos, and they always bring back good memories of home. Also the whole family loves them and that's a plus. As far as the cookies go, last year my Grandpa died, and I was so sad because I was stuck over here while my family and friends were growing older and dying. There wasn't much to be done about it at the time, we had just spent 5,000 dollars on a new A.C. so it wasn't as if I could catch the next flight for the coast. I remember remarking to my husband that what I really needed was a hug, and some cookies. He gave me a hug as we had no cookies on hand. The next day a package arrived on the doorstep, it was a box of cookies from our H.V.A.C provider, a thank you for choosing them. There was no way for them to know how much those cookies were appreciated, in fact they were probably sent out before even I knew how much I needed them. The point being, my need/want, no matter how small or silly was met, and when I start to get depressed about living here I think of those cookies and smile, knowing that my needs will be met, even 3000 miles away from my BFF. I am so blessed to have a hubby who I adore, who treats me with such kindness, and two beautiful kids who fill each day with adventure and joy. So now you know, a belly full of tacos, and a heart full of thanks is what cures homesickness.

*please don't stop taking medication to take on an all taco diet...I don't like being sued

**I was only at Starbucks because it was a Sunday, please support your local coffee shop. There are a lot of great ones out there.

I heart my rice cooker

I made Spanish rice today...with brown rice...in my rice cooker....don't tell Grandma.
My rice cooker cost about seven dollars, and it has never done me wrong. I won't say that this recipe will work in just any old rice cooker, but it came out perfect in mine. If it doesn't work for you, you are welcome to come on over and use mine....but bring tortilla chips...and avocado...mmmmm avocado.

2 1/2 rice cooker cups of rice
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 onion chopped
1tbs butter
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp garlic salt
dash o' cayenne
1 can of tomato sauce
water

I mixed the first eight ingredients in my rice cooker (the butter can be omitted or replaced with a vegan substitution for a vegan version of this dish) then I added water up to the top line. We ate this with beans and potatoes fried up with bell pepper and onion, simple, cheap, delicious.

Those are Nacho Beans Fool

get it???.....
not your beans...nacho beans

You have no idea how hard I laughed when I thought of this title, and to think it was just one of many equally hilarious puns I thought of while making this dish. If there is anything I love though, it's a good pun. I dare say, one of the best things about owning a home was buying a hoe for the backyard. That hoe provided hours of entertainment for the hubster and I...
"where's the hoe?"
"Hey how much did you pay for that hoe?"
etc etc...until the day my husband broke the hoe...he can be a little rough (Hi Grandma).
So before things get any more awkward, this (with a few minor adjustments of course) is the recipe I use for black beans. I don't use the vinegar or sugar, and I double the spices. To make refried beans I just send it for a spin in my food processor. Tonight we used these beans for nachos, or rather the kids and hubster ate nachos with salsa, sour cream, avocado, cheese, onion, and bell pepper. I ate pretty much the same thing, but I replaced the chips with brown rice, since I can get 3/4 of a cup of brown rice for 150 calories, but only about 14 tortilla chips.