Vegetarian Cinco de Mayo

This soup was a hit with everyone. It had crispy strips of fried corn tortilla, chickpeas, onion, garlic, refreshing cilantro....and oh yes, did I mention these......















Spicy un-meatballs anyone? I know, I've been on an unmeatball kick lately. I can't help it, they are so versatile, easy to eat, and a great way to pack my kids food with veggies that would otherwise be vetoed for texture reasons like spinach and eggplant.

Spicy un-meatballs

2 cups chickpeas
1 block of cream cheese
1/2 cup salsa (divided)
1 clove of garlic
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup of COOKED brown rice
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1 cup or less bread crumbs
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
2 tbs finely chopped cilantro
Tabasco and cayenne to taste

Defrost and drain the spinach. While the spinach is defrosting mix the chickpeas, 1/4 cup salsa, cream cheese, and garlic in your food processor until well blended. Pour into a large mixing bowl
and add the rest of the salsa, rice, pepper, drained spinach, cheese, cilantro, Tabasco, and ground cayenne. Stir and add the breadcrumbs slowly until the mixture becomes a doughy consistency that can easily be shaped. Form into balls and chill (I made these a day ahead of time)....fry those suckers up in some olive (the kind that says "for high heat cooking") until they are golden brown. Or bake them.
Serve over rice or in tortilla soup!

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
1 Onion Diced
1 cup chickpeas
2 cups frozen corn
2 cloves of garlic sliced
2 tsp chili powder
dash o' cayenne
olive oil
1 batch of spicy unmeatballs
corn tortillas cut into strips
4 cups stock or broth of whatever kind suits your fancy.
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat about 1 tbs of olive oil over medium heat in a large stock pot, add the onions and cook until they are tender. Add the corn, chickpeas, garlic, spices, and cook for two more minutes stirring occasionally. Add the broth and bring soup to a simmer. Meanwhile fry strips of tortilla until crispy, and place on a paper towel to drain. Sprinkle with salt. Once soup is simmering and cooked through add salt and pepper to taste. Add the tortilla strips, and unmeatballs to individual servings along with cheese, sour cream, avocado, or any other toppings you desire. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Waffles (egg free)

Happy Monday!! Our week has been kind of crazy. We have been back and forth at the doctors trying to figure out why little man is so...well...little. His sissy eats the same types of food (less even with her sensory issues) and has never had problems with her iron or sodium levels like he does, so that left us perplexed and referred to about a bijilion specialists. The doctors all agree that he has allergies to food, but what that food is, and whether that is the only problem is being debated. So this week we go in for his second round of testing for Cystic Fibrosis.....which has nothing to do with waffles...and really not much to do with food at all. I just felt like sharing.

I really enjoyed these waffles, they weren't as light and fluffy as you would expect from a waffle made with eggs. However, given the choice between these and no waffles at all....I would definitely take these.

Also completely unrelated, Mother's day is coming up....................hunny.....

The dry ingredients
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tbs sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom

The wet ingredients
3/4 cup pumpkin
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1 tbs maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

In one bowl whisk together the wet ingredients. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined. Follow the directions on your waffle iron for some super yummy waffles. Fight the urge to make these every day. Seriously, we've had these twice already.

Roasted Eggplant Un-meatballs

Sorry about the picture quality (not that you aren't used to it by now). For one my camera is broken and two...........



These went REALLY fast! Note the little hand grabbing for more. I had hardly enough time to take a picture before I was swarmed by my little man asking for "more, more, peeeeese". I think I am really getting the hang of un-meatballs, and vegetarian burgers. These held their shape and totally passed the toddler test. There are two main tricks, a food processor, and chilling the dough, (or whatever you call it) before cooking. I actually managed to make these on one of the busiest weeks we've had in a while. I was in need of one of my favorite comfort foods...spaghetti and meatballs.....err....rather brown rice pasta and roasted eggplant un-meatballs. I don't know that this would fool a carnivore, but I think it was pretty tasty in it's own right. It was received well by all the family members, even my eggplant hating husband. Be leanient with the amounts in this recipe, depending on the size of the veggies you may need more or less bread crumbs, sauce, etc. The most important thing is that the dough can be shaped easily, and holds together well.

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
2 onions
6 cloves of garlic (divided)
olive oil
Salt
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1 block of cream cheese
1 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste

I chopped up the eggplant and onion, peeled and crushed 4 cloves of garlic. I then mixed the veggies in a big bowl with a little olive oil and salt, and roasted them in a baking pan at 375 degrees (my oven runs hot) for about 20 minutes, stirring half way through. After they had cooled, I threw them in the food processor with the cream cheese, sauce, and two remaining peeled cloves of garlic. I added bread crumbs until the dough was thick and easy to shape (about 1 1/2 cups) . You could add salt at this point if you feel it needs it, I didn't. I shaped all the dough into balls and put them in the fridge. Then I went to sleep, got up, red my bible, went to the gym, came home, showered, went to the doctor, went to the lab, back to the doctor, over to medical records, back to the lab......well...anyway...I got home at 6 and fried these up for a quick dinner over brown rice noodles. They paired perfectly with my after dinner bowl of mint chip ice cream too.

Pizza with White Sauce and Roasted Veggies

This was not bad for a pantry meal, quite tasty if I do say so myself....although I don't know if it is really a pantry meal since I keep the yeast and flour in my fridge.....the veggies were in the freezer...and the cream cheese was obviously in the dairy drawer. But "pantry meal" has a much nicer ring to it than "what you make for dinner when you are trying to save money for a big trip to California and all you have left are staples meal"....point proven I think. If you really want to get picky the veggies weren't roasted at all, they were sauteed. The bag said roasted though, and who am I to argue with a bag....there is no reasoning at all with bags you know, they are highly illogical.
The crust was a recipe from King Arthur Flour. I replaced one cup of unbleached flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour, and I sprinkled the pan with cornmeal because I love the texture of it. Other than that I think I stuck to the recipe pretty well. It came out great.





The veggies came in a bag....from my freezer....I'm not ashamed. I think they paired very nicely with the garlicky white "sauce", really it was more like a spread.

White "sauce"

1 package cream cheese softened
2 onions caramelized with one tsp salt
2 cloves pressed garlic
salt and pepper to taste
2tbs (or more) milk
Stir together the cream cheese caramelized onions, garlic, and salt and pepper. Add in milk one tbs at a time until desired consistency. For me it was really more of a spread. It covered half of the pizza this way, leaving the other half free to be cheese pizza in case the kiddos found anything objectionable about a pizza without orange cheese.

I baked the crust until done spread on the white sauce, added the cooked veggies, and served it. The sauce was strong, I really like caramelized onions though so that's OK. The hubster gave it a big two thumbs up as well.

Creamy Cran-apple Fruit Salad

I can't eat a lot of oats anymore....insert super sad face here-----> :(. I miss oatmeal mixed with almond butter and honey on a cold winters morning, the smell of granola baking in the oven, and of course oatmeal cookies. It was a very difficult adjustment at first, oatmeal is a fantastic and filling breakfast, and a great choice if you are watching your sodium.
What you see in the picture is my current breakfast, that I enjoy almost every day. It's simply 2/3 of a cup of plain organic yogurt (you can use French Vanilla if you can't handle the plain yogurt taste), 1 chopped up apple or other organic fruit, 1-2 tablespoons of dried cranberries, a few shakes of cinnamon, and during the spring I add a drizzle of local honey. Mix it all up and eat. It is that simple.
My daughter is insisting I say "Hi" now....so "Hi" from my three year old who has apparently finished her lunch and is wishing that I go play with her.....we are going to do puzzles.

Rockin Moroccan Stew....

....saves the day.

I think I have mentioned before the importance of freezing meals. I had a fantastic morning, followed by a not so fantastic mid morning faint/legs giving out thingie and hitting my head (on the driveway? car?). Either way now I'll never be a teen model.....sigh.

So I came in, put my feet up and my wonderful hubster brought me some juice and promised me a dinner out. Well I got to thinking, and I realized not only would I much rather save the money and have a nice meal out when we are on vacation, but also I had some of this in the freezer. It has been so long since I have made it I am not sure of all of the modifications, but I can tell you that I used sun butter in place of the peanut butter, and I most likely doubled the spices. It is one of my favorite ways to eat sweet potatoes, and that it is an excellent meal on it's own, or served with rice and chapati bread.

What a life saver! Now all I have to do is read a book, get some rest, and heat up dinner whenever the mood strikes me. Jaime Oliver said something on the season finale of "Food Revolution" that stuck with me....not of course enough for me to remember it verbatim (blame it on the head injury). It went something like this "You CAN do it, within the time and in budget".....and it was an ah-ha moment. That is exactly what I want this blog to be about. Just reaching other people and letting them know they can eat healthier, not go bankrupt, and teach their children to do the same. Simply put that's it. I'm not a super Mom by any means. I have days where I am not at my best, and don't have the energy or time to cook. By planning ahead I avoid filling my body with junk and YOU CAN do it too.

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.