winners!

Dinner last night was a winner!

"Chickpea Cutlets" with "Mustard Sauce," both from Veganomicon, with sides of garlic-mashed potatoes and lemony chard. I wasn't completely sold on the whole chickpea cutlet idea at first -- my first couple of tries with the recipe yielded slightly gummy, mushy centers. My trick to perfect cutlets? I divide the recipe into six cutlets (instead of the suggested four,) and press them as thin as I possibly can. Voila! Fully-cooked, crispy goodness all around! P.S. the mashed potatoes were worth writing a song about -- I had a few tablespoons of leftover sour cream in the fridge, and holy cow! That was a great thing.

Breakfast this morning was also a winner!

"Amazing Overnight Waffles," from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe, made with all whole-wheat pastry flour and topped with peanut butter and maple syrup (shout out to Ann!); pineapple and blueberries on the side. YUM! I'm so glad I bought a new waffle iron!

And, I forgot to mention yesterday that I made some muffins last night:

"Barley Spice Muffins," from the back of the Arrowhead Mills barley flour package. When did I last buy barley flour? Who knows. What did I buy barley flour for? Again, who knows. There was just about a cup left, though, and it didn't smell or look funny, so I figured, why not use it up? And as you can see, even non-vegan muffins suffer from the "pits" sometimes! Oh well; at least they are whole grain, healthy, and delicious!

Stay tuned for the last of the "Olive Oil Dough" useage later tonight!

bread & more whole grains!

I've been on a "more whole grains" mission lately -- resultingly, a lot of oatmeal for breakfast. Oatmeal never does look like much, does it?

This was an awesome bowl yesterday morning, despite its appearance -- regular ol' rolled oats made with soymilk, containing ground flax seeds, unsweetened coconut, and chopped dried apricots! Yum.

Mysterious sideways naan:

I promise blogger did this for me. :) Not a whole grain, but damn tasty! Lump #3 of the "Olive Oil Dough," and even though we smoked the heck out of the apartment and set off the fire alarm, a tasty use for the dough!

We served the naan with some potato, tomato, and spinach dal:

ANOTHER shout out to Dan's Aunt Mary! Last time we saw them, she forced us into an Indian grocery store and bought us curry leaves, asafoetida, (I just know I didn't spell that correctly,) and a couple of spice mixtures to lend more authenticity to my homemade dal. Thanks, Mary! This was the best batch yet!! (I'm all for "forced" shopping any time!)

AND, more bread baking this afternoon:

Sometimes, you just need a basic sandwich loaf. I've made this recipe before with good results, and was pleasantly surprised that it even froze well! (Hence, two loaves.) I used agave this time instead of honey, and smartly turned the oven down 25 degrees to prevent over-browning. Success! I'm trying really hard NOT to hack into one of these loaves right now while they are still warm . . . !!!!!!

haircut, food

First, as promised, a glimpse of the new haircut:

It's basically a "bob" -- longer in the front, shorter in the back -- but because my hair is "weird" (not really straight, not really curly,) it does its weird "flippy" thing. Oh well! I like it a lot -- much lower maintenance, much less static-y, and takes a lot less time to wash, too!

Here's what I made for dinner last night:

A frequent and favorite repeat at our house -- red curry! Same sauce as always, (can of coconut milk, 2 tbsp each soy sauce and red curry paste, and water to thin it out,) this time made with tempeh, garlic, ginger, potato (I precooked it at the same time I simmered the tempeh,) broccoli, red pepper, and a few mushrooms, served over brown rice. Yummy! The only thing that would have made this even tastier would have been a squeeze of fresh lime juice at the end -- must remember for next time!

Dan and I were originally planning on going out to see a friend's band play last night, but you know how hard it is to go out on Friday night! We ended up staying in, watching a movie, munching on popcorn (a whole grain snack!) and having treats!

Virgil's rootbeer and Alden's organic vanilla ice cream . . . YUUUUUUUMMMMMMM!!! Rootbeer floats hit the spot any time, if you ask me!

What's your all-time favorite movie treat?

A break from bread

I had kind of a funny day today -- I had the day off from work! It's a little weird to have a TUESDAY off, but heck, I'll take my comp day when I can get it! (I had 8 hours of training on Saturday, and since the economy's so bad, my work can't pay me overtime, so there I go!)

I was very busy today. I visited my dentist, chiropractor, AND fabulously amazing haircutting lady, (Dan says that my new haircut makes me look like I just stepped out of a shampoo commercial! Ha!), and also did loads of laundry, mountains of dishes, and visited one of my new favorite places, Penzey's!

I did go with a list, but a few things, ahem, accidentally fell off the shelves into my basket, so I HAD to buy them! I have heard wonderful things about Penzey's "Baking Spice" blend, so I decided to pick some up and give it a try.

What to bake? I thought about apple oatmeal muffins, but decided I wanted something more dessert-y. Solution? I made a most basic brown sugar shortbread, (1 cup butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 1/4 cups flour), and added 2 tsp of baking spice. Results?

I can't stop eating these. If somebody wants to sneak into my apartment and eat half the batch for me, I'd be thankful! Even Dan likes these, and he claims not to like "crunchy" cookies.

I also made a more labor-intensive dinner for us tonight, since I had plenty of extra time:

"Mushroom Potato Stroganoff," from The Cheese Factory Restaurant Cookbook, (no, not the Cheesecake Factory . . . this place is in the middle of rural Wisconsin, completely vegetarian, and fantastic!), buttered egg noodles, and a big, green salad as an attempt to offset all of that fat. :) Mmmm, fat! This recipe is such a winner, I really wonder why I haven't tried any of the OTHER recipes in the book yet???

What would you do if you had a random day off in the middle of your work week?

decadently delicious pizza!

I realize that "real" pizza is all about the crust, with very minimal toppings.

I guess I don't make "real" pizza, but it sure is tasty! (What can I say . . . I like toppings!) Check out this bad boy:

Lump #2 of the Olive Oil Dough as the crust, topped with a "sauce" of caramelized onions, three cheeses (mozzarella, parmesan, and FETA!), mushrooms, diced canned tomatoes, artichokes, spinach, kalamata olives, and slices of fresh garlic.

Usually, I enjoy two pieces of pizza; this pie was so loaded, one slice was sufficient for me! :) And I almost had a panic attack when I thought Dan had finished up the leftovers for breakfast AND lunch today . . . and then I noticed stuff just got pushed to the back of the fridge. WHEW! Pizza panic averted!

Stay tuned for more bread dough useage coming up later this week!

welcome to the bake-a-long!

Victoria and I have started our Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day bake-a-long this week! We decided to start with the recipe for "Olive Oil Dough," which can then be turned into many different tasty concoctions.

Since choosing what to DO with the dough is up to the individual baker, I decided to take my first lump of olive oil dough and turn it into Olive Bread!

So beautiful! So easy! (As one comes to expect with AB.) So delicious!

Sliced up, ready to be enjoyed with dinner:


I served the olive bread alongside Corn Chowder with Roasted Poblanos, from The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook:

Best corn chowder recipe, I swear. Not too rich, not too heavy, and if you use local home-frozen sweet corn like I did, the corn practically tastes like candy! Yum.

And, what's dinner without dessert, right?

Mixed-berry crumble, to be enjoyed with vanilla ice cream here in a little bit, once we settle into the couch and a movie for the rest of the evening!

Stay tuned for more bake-a-long fun!

one of my favorite things

I don't usually spend a lot of time touting websites that I love, but I HAVE to tell you about vitacost, if you don't already know about it!

I just placed a roughly $200 order, and saved OVER $100 on retail prices!

What do they have?? Check out their website for full information, but I buy some of the following brands from them:

Natra Care
Seventh Generation
Probar
Tom's
Burt's Bees
JASON
Nature's Gate
Alba
Thursday's Plantation
Preserve
Earth Therapeutics (I've been searching for a retailer that sells their antibacterial body sponge for YEARS!)
Yogi Tea
Rainbow Light vitamins

They also have amazing prices on dried fruit, nuts, whole flax seeds, flax oil, hemp seeds and oil, chia seeds, herbs, supplements, and other great stuff!

AND THE BEST PART IS, THEY ONLY CHARGE $4.99 SHIPPING ON ANY ORDER, REGARDLESS OF SIZE!!!!!

Please go check out vitacost, if you haven't already, just because I think it's such a great place! Let me know what you think!

I baked! I cooked!

It's been a weird week -- we had so many leftovers from the holidays, I barely had a reason to bake or cook! I did manage each, once, though:

Overripe bananas are always the best excuse:

This is the first time I tried replacing all of the oil called for in a recipe with ground flaxseeds, and it worked well! The recipe called for 1/2 cup oil, and I used 1/2 cup flaxseeds and 1/2 cup applesauce. The banana bread stayed nice and moist, even though I used whole-wheat pastry flour, too! Success.

Dinner Thursday night:

Pasta alla puttanesca! With a random 2 cups of white beans thrown in, since they were languishing in the fridge. Deeeeeeeeelicious. I didn't follow a recipe at all, and was very pleased with how this turned out. Success #2!

UGH -- I'm off to CPR and 1st Aid training from 8 - 4:30 today. Blah! (At least I get to take a day off next week to make up for it!) After I get home, though, it's grocery time! I'm excited to get back to meal-planning and cooking!

Calling all "Artisan Bread" fans!

Are you a fan of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day? Please join Victoria and I in our quest to try out more recipes from this fantastically easy bread baking book!

Shoot one or both of us an email and/or comment to let us know you'd like to bake-a-long!

***UPDATE: We'll start on Monday, January 11th with the "Olive Oil Dough" recipe, page 134.

hello, 2010.

Happy New Year! Hope you all found some kind of fun ringing in the new decade. We've been extremely busy these last few days, entertaining family in all forms, (my parents, Dan's brother, Dan's cousin, and a neighbor who I used to babysit for when I was in high school,) and a few friends, too! There have been a ton of people crowded into our tiny apartment, (thankfully, none of them sleeping here,) and lots of food coming and going. Whew! I took no pictures of the tasty things we've been eating, but I'll still tell you what we enjoyed:

New Year's Eve dinner: lasagna made with whole-wheat noodles, sun-dried tomatoes, smoked mozzarella, spinach, mushrooms, and bechamel, with Greek salad and wholegrain sourdough on the side; assorted NA bubbly to drink and leftover Christmas cookies for dessert!

New Year's Day breakfast: homemade granola, gigantic fruit salad, local plain yogurt, and blueberry muffins; coffee, spiced hot apple cider, and OJ to drink

New Year's Day dinner: chili, cornbread, and assorted cookies

Also, the dining out extravaganza has continued, and consequently we have tons of tasty leftovers tucked away in our fridge. Whew! Thankfully, we won't need to hit up the store for this coming week -- we're pretty set!

~~~~~~~~~~

Here are my meager resolutions for 2010:

1. Get into the habit of taking my multivitamin.

2. Make sure Dan and I get our Omega-3s. (Dan's bad cholesterol is higher than it should be, and I figure, even though my numbers are fine, it can't hurt, right??)

3. More yoga.

What are your goals for the coming year?

unrelated rambling

I wanted to blog this morning, but didn't have any interesting pictures to add to my post. Rats! Since I've had far too many pictureless posts in a row, I found a couple of things to take pictures of and tell you about. Here you go:

Thing 1:

While Dan was at band practice last night, I reorganized my spice rack! I know this seems like a very lame thing to be excited about, but I was getting to the point where I couldn't really find anything, and resultingly had multiples of certain things. Whew! I've also decided that I love the 1-ounce jars of spices from Penzey's, (I received a bunch from Dan's brother for Christmas,) and I think I'm going to start buying all of my spices there for convenience. Heck, the name of the spice is on the FRONT of the jar, so it can be easily read from the spice rack! Woo!

Thing 2:

I need to hit the store for a few things this morning; here's my list. My parents are coming to town today and staying (in a hotel down the street) until Friday, and I don' think any of us can handle eating out every single meal! Both our tummies and wallets would suffer greatly, so I'm planning on a couple of simple meals while they are here. I'm also having a few friends over on Friday night for potluck and board games -- woo cheap entertainment!

happy camper

I do think the only way I would be happier than I am now is if I was actually camping! (Well, and if it was warm out -- I'm kind of a "fair-weather" camper.)

How much fun have I been having??? Since my holiday break started, I've . . .

~ enjoyed delicious home-cooked meals made by Dan's mom (sometimes with my help)
~ gone hiking and snowshoeing in the woods
~ gone for several walks in the city (as well as one in the small town)
~ spent lots of time with old friends (one I see often, and a couple I only see once or so a year)
~ enjoyed pizza, a burrito, and a breakfast quesadilla "out" to eat
~ had fun caroling at our choir Christmas party
~ gone bowling! (And I ALMOST won! Conveniently, none of us broke 100.)
~ read a LOT (a whole book, plus started a new one)
~ enjoyed shopping for and watching people open special gifts
~ printed out 240 pictures for Dan from our 2009 camping/travel adventures (and stuck them all in an album, too!)

Currently, I'm sipping spiced hot apple cider and waiting to wind down for the night. Wahoo! What kinds of fun have you been up to?

UUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH.

Anyone else feel like they've been eating too much junk food? My non-stop food fest has been going since Wednesday night, and I fear there's no end in sight any time soon . . . holiday treats, rich foods, going out to eat, parties . . . ack! I already feel icky, and we have several sets of plans involving eating out coming up this week.

I have a feeling a nice, healthy dose of yoga or a walk, oatmeal for breakfast, and a big, green salad will be items on my agenda for tomorrow! (I bought a HUGE bag of salad greens at the co-op today, expecting I'd need them!)

How do you combat the "post-holiday grossness?"

a very Minnesota Christmas

Hello blog folks! I left my camera at home, so I have no pictures to share of our holiday festivities, but I must say, I received the BEST Christmas gift a Minnesotan who loves the outdoors could get!

SNOWSHOES!

Am I weird? Dan, his brother Ryan, and I each received a pair from their parents today. Wahoo! We tried them out right away, and it's SO much easier than hiking in boots! (Even though I'm having some technical difficulties with mine -- they are whipping snow up my back and over my shoulders! Must experiment with adjustments further.)

What was your favorite holiday gift this year?

meals and Merry!

Here's what we've been noshing these past few days . . .

"Jerk Tofu" and "Coconut Rice," with a side of kale, from Vegan with a Vengeance:


"White Bean and Garlic Soup with Greens," from Love Soup:


And "Smoky Grilled Tempeh," from Veganomicon, with roasted sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, and leftover Coconut Rice:


And last but not least, just in case you haven't enjoyed enough treats yet, here are all of the cookies, arranged together to take to work:

I still haven't found out whether I won the second baking contest!!! We shall see. :)

Dan and I are headed out of town tonight, in an attempt to beat the winter storm headed our way. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! (And enjoy your time away from work, to those who don't!)

a very nice Sunday

Since we had such a nice day yesterday, I'm compelled to share . . . !

I started my Sunday by hauling myself out of bed and trudging through the snow to church. Sounds miserable, I realize, but it was actually quite worth it -- the handbells had several parts in the service yesterday, so the choir only had to sing one anthem. Woo! And we got to sit with the congregation, instead of being stuck up in the choir loft! Plus, our Advent theme this year is "Welcoming the Wild One," and to celebrate the theme, our senior pastor spiked his hair and temporarily dyed it "Advent blue." Man, that was funny!

After church, I made us some soup for lunch, (photo soon, I promise,) and then we headed out on the town. We made stops at both of our banks, saw the 8th Floor display at Macy's, spent an eternity at the library picking out new books, stopped at Pizza Luce for slices and some coffee for Dan, saw the movie "Precious," and then hit up Target for a few things before coming home. Whew! But we had so much fun!

Even though it's a three-day week for me, I wish I was already on vacation like Dan! I want more fun!!!!!

How was your weekend?

Just say "yes" to treats!

(UPDATE: Shout out to Dan's Aunt Mary! Unbeknownst to me, she's been following my blog and Christmas cookie debate since Thanksgiving, and I've added links to my recipes on this post, since she's faced with the challenge of baking for her mother-in-law's 35 closest friends! Go Aunt Mary!)

'Tis the season for dessert after every meal, including breakfast! My selection:

Anise Tea Crescents

These are such a nice surprise -- good anise flavor without being overpowering, and they weren't nearly as fussy to shape as I thought they were going to be. Nice change from the predictable (yet very tasty) Russian Tea Cake/Mexican Wedding Cake.

Mexican Chocolate Cookies

I chanced making these again this year, since I wasn't totally pleased with them last year. Important lessons learned this year: DON'T freeze the dough balls before baking, (the cookies dried out too much last year,) DON'T overbake (again, too dry last year,) and I also doubled the amount of pepper (both types) called for in the original recipe. Wahoo! That's what I'm sayin'! Spicy, rich goodness!

German Honey Cookies

I haven't made these in years, and am very glad to return to this recipe. Dan LOVES these -- they have a good honey flavor, without being oppressive. You sort of have to stop and think while you are chewing, to figure out what you are tasting. A nice, soft, chewy, homey, satisfying cookie.

toffee

Crowd-pleaser, and dead easy. Recipe from Betty Crocker is as follows: combine 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup butter in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Cook to "hard crack" stage (300 - 310 degrees Farenheight.) Add 1 cup chopped pecans, then quickly pour into a very well-greased pan. (I own an 8-inch square silicone pan purchased especially for candy-making. Very handy. Saves lots of time in not having to pick bits of greased foil from the bottoms of things.) Top with 1/2 cup chocolate chips, and cover until the chocolate is melted. Spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee, and cool. Remove from pan and cut into small bites. Yum!

Lemon-Rosemary Butter Cookies

A repeat from last year, since I can't get enough of the slightly-sweet, slightly-lemony, slightly-pine-y flavor and dry, almost sandy texture. Very much a "grown-up" cookie, I think!

my grandma's Christmas cookies with buttercream and sprinkles

Smells, looks, and tastes like childhood. I make vanilla-mint buttercream every year, but the traditional vanilla or almond-flavored frostings are also delicious.

Gingerbread Cutout Cookies

I doubled this recipe, and have an army of ginger-vegans! (Except there's an egg white in the decorating icing. Sorry, vegan police.) Tasty, spicy, molasses-y goodness! I love gingerbread people, but until now, had not found a recipe for gingerbread dough that I actually liked eating. (They are always too dry or too sweet, if you ask me.) Soft and chewy but still sturdy, these dudes rock!

Yummy Molasses Crackles

I love molasses spice cookies so much, I just HAD to make these this year, even though the gingerbread people have all the same flavors. Chopping the candied ginger requires a little extra work, but it's SO worth it. A "light" cookie that certainly doesn't taste like it sacrifices a thing! Good job, Eating Well!

Oh yeah . . . and don't forget about the caramels, too!

DONE!

Can you believe it? I finished ALL of my holiday baking today! I must have hit some sort of pre-holiday baker's time warp, because I made seven different cookies and my toffee in less than 24 hours! (That's including icing and decorating the sugar cookies!)

I've also washed all of those dishes, and took time out to read for a while this afternoon, and to go out for dinner with Dan and his bro!

A "Christmas miracle," if you ask me!

Photos soon -- it's too dark now to get decent shots. More later!

delicious dinners

Monday night:

Spinach Lasagna with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce, from The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook. I was pleasantly surprised by the filling richness of this dish, being from a "healthy" cookbook and all, plus the portion size was just right! Yum. Next time, I need to work on finding whole-wheat lasagna noodles. (I think my co-op has them in bulk . . . !!)

Tuesday night:

"Brooklyn Pad Thai," round 2, from Vegan with a Vengeance. I've been pulling that cookbook out more and more lately . . . I forget how fantastic many of those recipes are! You'll see more from V-WAV this weekend. :)

Thursday night:

Cannellini Beans with Wilted Greens, again, from The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook. Served this one over a quick, homemade soft polenta. Polenta falls into the same category as couscous, in my book -- quick, simple, tasty foods that I tend to forget about! :)

As you can see, I've really been trying to amp up our veggie and lean protein servings lately, to counteract all of the holiday junk food that we've both been around lately. :) Also, I was so proud of Dan yesterday -- he was tempted to go out and get himself a sandwich or burrito or something after work, but instead he came home and made himself a spinach and cheese omelette! Yay Dan!

In other news, we had a holiday baking contest at work yesterday, and I WON! Woo! 8 extra hours of PTO for me! Wahoo! My sea salt caramels were the winning entry -- everyone kept joking about how they were going to pull their fillings and other assorted dental work out, but it didn't stop anyone from eating one! :)

I'm very excited to tackle my cookie-baking this weekend, and I also have several more delicious meals on our agenda. Until then!

not a lot of cooking

Until I finally managed to get back into my kitchen yesterday, it had felt like I hadn't cooked in a week! (Really, it was more like a few days, but, you know what I mean.) Towards the end of last week, we were subsisting on leftovers and the ever-reliable pasta and burritos:





I swear, you could put guacamole on a rock and I'd consider eating it. :)

Friday, I picked up a few small things during my break so I could officially start my holiday baking and candy-making Friday night:



One down, eight to go!

Saturday morning, I woke bright and early, and decided to get the shopping over and done with for the next two weeks. After visiting THREE different grocery stores, (Asian market, Middle Eastern market, and the co-op,) I was much poorer, but had a carload of food, including all of my holiday baking supplies.

The baking is going to have to wait until next weekend, though, because it was time to make some REAL food!

"Old-Fashioned Cream of Mushroom Soup," from Love Soup, by Anna Thomas:

Yummy! Additionally, I'm not typically much of a broth fan, but I couldn't get enough of this one. Practically licked my bowl clean!

AND, it was time for "Brooklyn Pad Thai" again:

Broccoli has become a requirement with this recipe lately, and that's a good thing!

I'm SO excited to get busy baking this weekend! Watch for the finished products later this week!

kids say the darndest . . .

We've had a bit of a cold snap in MN this past week, and consequently, our attendance has been low at school. (I assume car problems, not "having" to go out means not going out, etc.)

Today, we had only five kids show up! Low attendance days usually mean our schedule is more "laid-back," and we're able to do all sorts of special stuff with the kids -- more labor-intensive projects, longer play times (since transitions are shorter,) extra songs during group time, etc.

We had a really nice morning! At lunch, one of the kids asks me, "Ms. Catherine, is today a fun day?"

Hello! I hope they have at least a little bit of fun EVERY day! :)

a great weekend!

I really have had a great weekend! Let's recap . . .

Friday night, my friend Ann met me at work and we walked to the Cheeky Monkey Deli for dinner. YUM YUM YUM! I've walked by this place a bunch of times, and finally ventured in, based on a recommendation from my boss. I had a side salad, pressed brie and roasted mushroom sandwich, some chips, and split a sour cherry mascarpone rice pudding with Ann for dessert. I'm still dreaming about that sandwich . . . this may be my new "go-to" place when I fall through packing a lunch for work! (The harder part will be NOT eating there once a week!) After dinner, we went to Penumbra Theatre and saw "Black Nativity," which was excellent, and helped finally shove me into the Christmas spirit! ;)

I spent Saturday morning sitting around on the couch, clipping recipes out of food magazines and drinking tea:

Yeah, that's a lot of tea. I had, ahem, an impulsive trip to the co-op on Friday afternoon during my break! (Hey . . . they were all on sale!) I made it my mission to try all FOUR flavors of holiday tea, just so I could post a short review here:

Candy Cane Lane: One of my favorites of the bunch. Decaf green tea with peppermint and vanilla flavors. I found this tea benefited greatly from an extra minute of steeping, and a teaspoon of sugar stirred in before enjoying. Brought out the vanilla flavor a little more. Delicious, especially if you love mint tea as I do!

Sugar Plum Spice: My other favorite. Fruity and spicy, sweet without adding any additional sweetner, and delicious! Bright pink in the cup, too. Leave the teabag in a long time, (I usually let my herbal teabags sit in the cup until I've finished drinking,) because the spiciness becomes more present the longer it steeps.

Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride: I have heard wonerful, rave reviews of this tea, but I must confess . . . my socks weren't knocked off. My first cup was sort of blah -- the tea smelled AMAZING, but didn't taste like much. After experimenting a little bit, I found this tea required doubling up on bags in my cup, a LONG steep, (up to 30 minutes,) and a teaspoon of sugar for best flavor. After my initial disappointment, I've been pleased -- imagine sweet sugar-cookie flavor and aroma, with a hint of orange. This would make a fun after-dinner treat on a day you don't want many extra calories!

Gingerbread Spice: I almost didn't buy this tea because I was afraid it would be too . . . spicy. "Spice" tea usually means overpowering, almost bitter cinnamon flavor, in my opinion, and I was a little worried . . . but the sale price made this box jump in my cart, and I'm glad it did! This is a nicely balanced tea, spicy but not overwhelming, and enjoyable even when I forgot and left the tea bag in for fifteen minutes. :)

So . . . if you're a fan of herbal teas and like holiday-inspired flavors, check these out! I think they might still be on sale at Mississippi Market, too! (Maybe even the Wedge? I've seen them on display, but didn't pay attention to the price.)

After my morning of tea and lounging in my jammies, Dan and I decided to head out on foot and "play" -- we went out for lunch, went to the library, hit up a couple of stores, (smoked paprika from Penzey's, a few holiday baking essentials from Kitchen Window, a quick grocery item I forgot on Friday, etc.), got Dan a haircut, a short browse at Cheapo, and then took the bus home. Whew! We were tired!

When we got home, Dan napped on the couch while I made cookies:

Dan complains that I can't ever make "regular" chocolate chip cookies, (i.e., no oats, nuts, dried fruit, etc.,) and unfortunately for him, this batch wasn't "regular." I threw in a bunch of peanuts and a teaspoon of coarse sea salt, which I'm thrilled with! And, well, Dan did confess that he actually liked them. :) (He's not anti-nut, just anti-walnuts and pecans, which I tend to use most often.) I'm going to take some to work tomorrow to share with my boss -- she's had an overwhelming couple of weeks, and deserves a treat!

When Dan got up from his nap, he made his famous tempeh stir-fry for dinner:


Yum! Spicy, salty, and delicious! (And I love all of that broccoli!)

After dinner, we watched part of "The Last King of Scotland" before I practically had a meltdown due to tiredness. :) Early to bed for me!

Today, I went to church, and then made pizza for lunch:

Dan and I had a funny discussion about how much we both love pizza, and never seem to get sick of it. Probably why we have it a couple of times a month! :)

After lunch, we finished the movie, then put up our tree:

Wee Christmas! Now the trick is to keep the cat from tearing the whole thing apart before Christmas actually arrives!

Off to finish the laundry, wrap some presents, and make bean burritos for dinner. Anyone have an amazing refried bean recipe they love? I haven't been happy with the experiments that I've tasted to date . . . I guess I'll just have to search for a recipe!?!?

loads of food

Sorry for the delay . . . I had three nights in a row of busy-ness this week, which means not a lot of cooking. :) Here are some meals from this past week, in no particular order:

A simple polenta dish, topped with black beans and spinach, and queso fresco:

An old Cooking Light recipe, I believe, and a winner! The only changes I would make would be to double the polenta and triple the topping -- we polished off the entire recipe in one sitting! We ate some of the polenta with the topping for dinner, then each had a bowl of the polenta with maple syrup and milk for dessert. :) Yum!

Curried tofu with roased sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts, and couscous:

Very yummy, and very easy to make ahead. I prepped all of the veggies and marinaded the tofu over the weekend, so all I had to do when I got home from work was throw everything in the oven/skillet!

French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme:

A recipe I got off the PPK originally, (but I think the recipe may have found its way into VCON,) totally easy and totally delicious. This time, I threw all of the ingredients into my Crock Pot and let it cook away while working on other things last Sunday -- best lentil soup to date, in my opinion!

Cranberry-Orange Sour Cream Coffee Cake:

Thought we needed a fun breakfast treat this week, and this has fit the bill. I followed the basic sour cream coffee cake recipe from Betty Crocker, omiting the cinnamon streusel layer and instead adding orange juice (in place of some of the sour cream,) orange zest, and a 2-cup bag of fresh cranberries. Delicious holiday flavors!

And last but not least, Tuscan Poached Eggs with Parmesan:

A VERY easy meal, and when you add sides of greens and homemade Artisan Bread, extremely nutritious, too! We really don't eat eggs all that often, (I don't really care for them,) but this is one recipe that I LOVE!

Not pictured was a batch of Black Bean and Chipotle Soup, from Moosewood. The soup turned out just okay, (I was really disappointed -- I've made this soup in the past and LOVED it!), and photographed horribly. I think this is one bean soup recipe that doesn't translate well to the Crock Pot. (That, or I added too much water, and should stir the OJ in at the end next time!) Oh well! Hasn't stopped us from eating leftovers for lunches this week. :)

What kinds of recipes/foods serve you well during very busy weeks?

kids say the darndest . . .

From lunch today . . .

One of the kids was pouring himself a glass of milk, and misjudged and overfilled the cup. (Milk spilling everywhere, you get the idea.)

Another child gently slaps himself in the forehead, shakes his head, and says,

"Help me, Lord Jesus!"