Pasta Puteneggsca ;)

I apologize for the lack of photo but this disappeared WAY too fast to photograph and when creating it I had no clue it was going to be so stinking amazing. But I can't not document this creation.

• cavatappi noodles
• pesto sauce (i cheated and used a jar)
• half eggplant peeled sliced and diced (i cubed them)
• half a bag of sweet peppers sliced
• 1 can diced tomatoes

1. Saute eggplant and peppers in olive oil
2. Spice with salt pepper and garlic if desired for some flavor
3. After the eggplant has softened and changed color add the diced tomatoes
4. Continue cooking over low heat as the sauce thickens
5. Boil pasta
6. Drain pasta and mix pesto into pasta
7. Add eggplant mixture to pasta
8. Serve and enjoy!

Russian Vareniki - Strawberry Dumplings

If you have a wonderful Russian in your life like I have one in mine, then you may have experienced the heaven that is Vareniki yourself. If not - tune in and give it a whirl yourself!

Ingredients

• 2 C flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp veggie oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 lb strawberries

Instructions

1. Mix flour, salt and egg into a dough.
2. Add water and knead away.
3. Egg oil and continue kneading.
4. Cover bowl of dough with a towel and move on to strawberries.
5. Chop strawberries into small pieces and place into bowl
6. Add sugar to berries
7. Mix and set aside.
8. Go back to dough and break into manageable sections
9. Roll out the dough, and use a cookie cutter to pull out circles
10. Place a small amount of strawberries (you will figure amount more as you work) on one side
11. Fold half of the circle over into a moon dumpling shape.
12. Use water to seal the edge.
13. Use a fork to seal the edge.
14. Complete this process until the dough is gone.
15. Place dumplings into boiling water.
16. Once dumplings float, remove.
17. Serve warm. You can drizzle remaining strawberries and juice over the dumplings. We added vanilla bean greek yogurt as well and it was to die for!

Ugandan Rolex

One of the things you can find on every street vendor in Kampala is a Rolex. But not the kind you are thinking of. A Ugandan Rolex is an egg burrito inside a chapati. In fact, if you just drive down most any street in Kampala you will likely have rolexes brought to your car. The first time I had one of these was this hilarious story of trying one of the "not previously American approved restaurants" which turned out so fun and no one got sick. Ironically we all got sick from one of the Amer Approved restaurants lol. The owner was so excited to have Americans visit and did this whole welcoming thing - it was one of our favorite stories where we met the sweetest people. Anyhow - since most of his menu (not that there was a menu) was fish and meat, he offered to go buy us girls some rolex. Anyhow... I like to make it on occasion for my boy. Here you go!

• 1 eggs
• 1 thin chapati (or tortilla if you dont have any)
• salt and pepper
• handful of shredded cabbage
• sliced tomato
• cooking oil

1. Mix egg and salt and pepper
2. Pour egg mix into pan and fry it up on both sides
3. Place egg round into chapati and throw back in pan
4. Remove from pan and place a row of tomato and cabbage down the center
5. Sprinkle more salt and pepper and other desired spices down the row
6. Fold over one side and roll up the rest
7. Enjoy!

Ugandan Chapati

Chapati is something that we learned about a little too late when we were in Uganda. One of our last nights, friends came over with it and were like "what you haven't tried it yet?". We actually had tried it when we ate Rolex - just didn't know it alone. It is somewhere between a flatbread, naan, or tortilla bread. It is not the easiest thing to cook right - but worth it when you do.

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• warm water
• cooking oil
• finely chopped purple onions
• finely chopped garlic

1. Mix flour, onion, and salt in a bowl
2. Mix water in slowly until you get a thick dough
3. Knead slowly adding in flour as need be
4. Cover bowl of dough with a cloth and let it sit for a t least a half hour
5. Preheat skillet and coat with oil
6. Divide dough into small balls
7. Flatten balls into rounds
8. Dust chapati rounds with flour
9. Fry on each side until both sides have brown marks
10. Enjoy!

Blueberry and Goat Cheese Empanadas

I wanted to make something different for the boys to enjoy tonight. Josiah likes most things with strawberries, but I am about sick of strawberry everything, so I went with a blueberry option. And in honor of Millie and Billy we went with a goat cheese empanada for the win.

This was super easy to make and absolutely delicious to taste.

Ingredients

• 2 cups blueberries
• goat cheese
• 1 T flour
• 1 T brown sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract
• empanada dough (freezer section in grocer)
• egg
• table sugar

Steps

1. defrost empanada shells
2. preheat oven to 400
3. pour blueberries in a bowl and add flour, brown sugar, and vanilla extract and mix it up
4. lay out empanada shells and use water to keep them sticky
5. place a spoon of goat cheese and a spoon or two of blueberry mixture in shell
6. fold shell over
7. use a wet fork to press edges tight
8. poke holes in top
9. use egg mixed with water to wash the top of the shell
10. sprinkle table sugar over nadas
11. bake for 15-20 mins or until browned shell
12. enjoy!

Right From The Teat of An Almond :: Almond Milk

So, with the sale of my favorite juice company that made amazing almond milk, I was on a quest to find either a company selling something similar or to make it myself. Well, since I am fond of the occasional (hehe) diy... I found a recipe I liked but didn't love, and tweaked it til I loved it and it came as close as possible to my memory of cali's yummmmmmmy almond milk. So here we go...

• 1 cup of almonds
• 2 dates
• 3.75 cups of filtered water
• 1.5 teaspoons of pure vanilla

1. Soak the almonds in water for 12-48 hours. This step was actually confusing to me as silly as it sounds so let me spell it out. I had lots of questions - in the fridge or out covered or not covered... etc...
   
   Take a cup of almonds, pour it in a bowl or mason jar, cover with clean water about an inch or two above almond line, drop in some clean salt here if you like, do not cover, do not put in fridge, cover with a dry cloth if you are worried about bugs or things getting in... Let it sit. The longer it sits the better.
2. Drain the almonds and rinse them. Place in blender.
3. Add remaining ingredients to blender, and blend until it is frothy and homogeneous. Should be a few minutes.
4. Pour mixture through cheesecloth or nutbag or fine mesh filter into mason jar or clean container. Squeeze the last bits of yummy milk out of the almond meat to get as much as possible.
5. Refrigerate for up to 5 days if it lasts that long lol. No almond teat is safe in this house.

BONUS :: Take the leftover drained meat (almond meal) and either bake it in the oven to use as a snack like granola, or store it in the fridge to use as almond flour (I like to mix it as a portion of the flour when I make homemade bread). Or if you don't have a use you can throw it out - you crazy waster!

The Ultimate Chopped Greek Salad

So my sister and I have been obsessing over this chopped greek salad at our local greek eatery (Hungry Greek) and after repeating visits there much this month I decided to try and replicate it. We absolutely loved our version - though next time I would see if I can buy their dressing or try to make my own. Also would add the beets next time that we forgot this time.

• iceburg lettuce
• romaine lettuce
• tomato
• feta 
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 cucumber
• kalamata olives
• black olives
• chopped beets (optional)
• chopped gyro meat (optional)
• potato salad (we got a small container from Publix deli)
• greek dressing ( I just got marie's greek vinaigrette but next time I would pay more attention to this and possibly buy a bottle from the local greek restaurant)
• pita (who eats salad without bread?)

1. Wash, peel and chop the cucumber
2. Wash and Chop the lettuce, tomato, feta, onion, and olives
3. Place the potato salad at the bottom of a large bowl
4. Mix together lettuce, tomato, cuke, onion, and olives in the bowl
5. Sprinkle feta on the top
6. Pour dressing over the top
7. Mix it all up
8. Toast the flatbread or pita for the side
9. Serve and Enjoy!

PS Make sure you put the collossal olives on your fingers and eat some like that 

Foods That Don't Have Folic Acid (Folate)

On rare occasion you may find yourself prescribed a low folate (folic acid) diet perhaps after mtx treatment. While this doesn't seem like a big deal to cope with - you soon find that folic acid is in almost everything - especially on a vegetarian diet. Here is an accounting of some food ideas for when you can not eat folic acid.

• Apples - while very nutritious apples do not have folic acid (one of the few fruits that you can eat on a low folate diet)
• Cheese - not so low-fat but an oked food on the low folic acid diet
• Potato Chips - most regular potato chips have zero or very low folic acid
• Potatoes - guess what the plain old potatoes also should have zero folic acid
• Greek Yogurt - well I guess regular yogurt too - but who likes that drippy stuff :) - yogurts often have no folic acid - though make sure you arent adding in ingredients high in folate like black cherries or other fruits or nuts or grains
• Chocolate - have at it - no folic acid to fear here
• Beverages - including soda, apple juice, water, coffee, and milk
• Tofu - unless fortified with folic acid should have zero folate
• Beef / Chicken / Pork - for you carnivores you should have much less trouble on this diet
• Sweets - most candy and sugar sweets are zero on the folic acid scale

If you find yourself on this diet - good luck - I never thought I would get sick of cheese - but after only two days on this diet I could go a long time without it.

General Tso's Chicken

My sweet sweet husband has one really sweet habit that makes me crazy sometimes. Every single time he goes to any restaurant he has a particular thing that he always gets. For instance - if we go to any Chinese restaurant he will get General Tsos Chicken; if we go to any Thai restaurant he will get Chicken Pad Thai; if we go to Winners he gets the Birdie Sandwich... every every dang time. I want to break his OCD and every time hope he will try something new - "here doesn't this look good?" at which point he always takes it into consideration and when it is time to order goes back to his old standby. Every every dang time. So yes - I see it as a challenge to expand his horizons - but yes I also find it absolutely adorable how faithful he is to his choices. So... it was only fitting that I find a recipe to make my sweet sweet husband General Tso Chicken. I made one version vegetarian with fake chicken and one with real chicken breast.

• 1C veggie broth
• 2T low sodium soy sauce
• 1T chopped fresh ginger
• 2t rice vinegar
• 2t sweetener
• 1t curry paste
• 2T Franks sweet and spicy hot sauce
• 2T evoo
• 1 package of boneless chicken breast (or 1 bag fake chicken strips)
• 1 handful of green onions
• half package of frozen broccoli

1. Mix broth, soy sauce, ginger, vinegar, sweetener, and curry in a bowl until it is well blended and put aside for a while
2. Saute the chicken in evoo in a pan until heated through - remove from pan and put in a plate for a while
3. Pour broth mixture in to pan and simmer until it thickens a bit
4. Place chicken, green onions, and broccoli back into pan and coat with sauce until cooked through
5. Serve over rice (though if you skip the rice and franks sauce this works for stage 1 south beach diet)

How to Make Quick Pickles - Quickles

This past week I journeyed with my dashing groom, my snuggly prince, and my mother-in-law on a road trip through the South. We visited family in North Carolina, stayed at a cabin in the Mountains, hiked waterfalls, climbed through caves, braved mile high swinging bridges, visited a winery, visited fort sumter, savannah riverfront, and even stayed a night in Charleston with BT's cousins. While there I got to taste some quickles cousin Michelle made that she found a recipe from TheShiksa. I couldn't quite get them off of my mind and bugged her until she sent me a link to the recipe before I even arrived home. Well - after a whole day home I ran to Publix and bought what I needed - or what I could find that I needed. Here is my slightly tweaked version of the recipe.

• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 fist full of fresh dill
• 1 bay leaf or a shake of dried
• 1/2 tsp of whole peppercorn
• 1/2 tsp of coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp of dill seeds (not dill weeds - i ended up finding it at walmart after a couple stores I checked didnt)
• a couple shakes of red crushed pepper
• a shake of celery salt
• 1/4 tsp of fennel seed
• 8 small cucumbers (without the wax coating)
• 2 cups of water
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1.5 tbsp course salt
• 1 mason jar

1. Put slices of garlic into a pan with water and let it boil for one minute to blanch the garlic (this keeps the garlic from turning blue in the soaking. After boiling for one minute drain the garlic.
    
2. Add garlic, all spices (except salt), and cucumbers into the mason jar. The cukes will likely have to be squished to fit but after the soaking they will shrink so should be easier to get out.
   
   
3. Boil the vinegar and water and salt in a saucepan until salt is gone and about one minute after
4. Use a funnel if you have one - and pour the solution over the cucumbers until they are covered.
   
5. Let the jar cool off before closing with the jar top and sticking it into the fridge.
   
6. After about two days of soaking you can take them out to eat, but the longer you wait - the tastier they will turn out to be.
7. Enjoy!

BBQ Tofu Pasta

So I was looking for new ways to enjoy tofu and found a recipe that involved grilling the tofu chunks and then pouring barbecue sauce on top. I decided to take this and mod and created the recipe below. It was awesome and we enjoyed it for dinner and then leftovers for days.

• tofu
• red and green bell peppers
• mushrooms
• garlic
• bbq sauce
• shells pasta

1. saute tofu in evoo in pan until crispy
2. sauce peppers, mushrooms, and garlic in another pan until soft
3. combine both pans and boil water for pasta
4. drain cooked pasta and add to pan with veggies and tofu
5. pour bbq sauce of your choice over the concoction until it is covered and mix
6. Enjoy!

Vegetarian Tex Mex Casserole

So a craving for ground crumbles took over me this week and I bought a bunch of bags of the Boca variety while at publix this week. Too bad they werent on bogo. I decided I was going to make this casserole, some vegetarian cincinatti chili, and who knows what else. So anyhow, we made this last night. The boys tore it up. And I thoroughly got my craving satisfied. Here is the recipe I came up with - try it, enjoy it, share it, mod it.. :)

• veggie crumbles
• rigatoni
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1/2 vidalia onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• frozen corn
• 1 can black beans
• a little cheddar
• rotel
• chili pepper
• red pepper (or berbere if you are a berbere addict like me)
• salt and pepper

1. boil pasta and set aside
2. pre-heat oven to 350
3. in a pan saute the garlic and onions in evoo until onion is translucent
4. add crumbles, corn, rotel, and black beans until heated thoroughly
5. add soup and spices and cook until warm
6. mix pasta into pan
7. move to casserole and sprinkle a little bit of cheddar over the top
8. cook in oven for 12-16 minutes depending on your oven
9. Enjoy!

Scoopy Baggles.

This is a simplest way to make a mini pizza with as few ingredients that you can. Cooking time - 2 minutes.
For this one, I used just some bagles, an Italian cheese mix, and random pasta sauce.

I usually toast the bagles, if they are soggy, just to make the crusts a bit sturdier. But don't overtoast it, because scooping out will be kind of a pain.
After the bagles are ready, scoop out the bread.

I save the bread for squirrels/birds. After the scooping is done, fill it up with pasta cause and cheese.

 Once filled, pop the bagles into the microwave. Mine takes about 45-50 seconds to become a melty cheezy goodness. Cool them off and ready to nom!

Mint Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt

The fact that my husband has a sweet tooth will not be a surprise to my readers, as is my continuous search for healthier alternatives for him. Perhaps his greatest temptation is Ice Cream. His two favorite flavors are Mint Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Anything. I decided to knock one of those out this week with an idea I found on Pinterest.

• 18oz chocolate chunk vanilla low fat chobani greek yogurt
• 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 5 drops green food coloring

1. Mix all ingredients together until all yogurt is evenly green
2. Put plastic cap back on and place in freezer
3. Freeze for 3-4 hours or until appropriately frozen
4. If frozen overnight place in fridge for an hour to soften
5. When you serve, mix it up a bit so its not icey but smooth
6. Enjoy
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Spiced Pork Chops & Mango Salsa

Rare is the day that I touch meat. But every once in a while I have to get down and dirty in animal flesh for my boys. So when I saw that Publix had pork chops on BOGO this week I decided to make it happen. I found some recipes and tweaked them to our taste.

Pork Chops

• pork chops
• allspice
• berbere
• salt & pepper
• rosemary
• basil
• honey
• evoo
• balsamic vinegar

Mango Salsa

• 2 diced mangoes
• mint
• chives
• lemon rind
• lemon juice
• stevia
• red pepper

1. slice tofu, dry, and marinate in allspice, bebere, rosemary, basil, salt, pepper, a tiny bit of honey, evoo and balsamic in the fridge for a few hours 
2. chop mangoes and mix with mint, chives, rind, juice, stevia, and red pepper to taste 
3. saute tofu in nonstick pan until crispy 
4. serve with salsa drizzled over

Tofu with Mango Salsa

I was looking for a good pork chops recipe and decided to try the same method from the pork chops on my tofu. It was outstanding and plateLickWorthy.

tofu filet

• tofu
• allspice
• berbere (or crushed red pepper if you don't have berbere)
• salt & pepper
• rosemary
• basil
• honey
• evoo
• balsamic vinegar

mango salsa

• 2 diced mangoes
• mint
• chives
• lemon rind
• lemon juice
• stevia
• red pepper

1. slice tofu, dry, and marinate in allspice, bebere, rosemary, basil, salt, pepper, a tiny bit of honey, evoo and balsamic in the fridge for a few hours
2. chop mangoes and mix with mint, chives, rind, juice, stevia, and red pepper to taste
3. saute tofu in nonstick pan until crispy
4. serve with salsa drizzled over

Crispy Smashed Potatoes

So... I was making the boys pork chops last night and thought it would go well with mashed potatoes. Unfortunately the only potatoes I had were tiny little potatoes and guess what! I didn't feel like spending hours peeling tiny little potatoes. And when I pondered making mashed potatoes with the skins I recalled a recipe I had seen for smashing potatoes instead of mashing them. So I looked up some recipes and combined my favorite parts of them. And since they were insanely yummy - I figured I would share what I did with you.

• small potatoes
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• garlic

1. boil the potatoes in a pot of water
2. once they are soft remove them from the water
3. take two dish towels and place a tater in between
4. smoosh the potato with your fist until it is quasi flat
5. place a parchment paper on a baking sheet
6. move your potatoes one by one to the baking sheet - if any of them crumble just smoosh it back in
7. drizzle evoo over and under all the taters
8. shake salt and pepper over the taters
9. drizzle chopped garlic over the taters
10. Roast them in the oven for about 40 minutes
11. 
12. If they aren't brown yet broil under a watchful eye to make them crispy
13. Serve and ENJOY!

Spinach Pesto Tofu

I had this for the second time today and combined it with the balsamic roasted brussel sprouts for a yummy and very filling dinner for the family. Last time, Josiah and I were licking our bowls. This time I put a tad too much evoo so we weren't licking anything, but noone left a drop on their plate... that is for sure. So I share with you to enjoy. :)

• extra firm tofu
• 2 cups spinach
• 1/2 cup peanuts
• a handful of pine nuts
• 2 cups parmesan cheese
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1.5 cups of evoo

1. drizzle tofu with evoo and broil for 15-20 minutes or until its the crunch that you prefer 
   
   
2. dry tofu on towels
3. mix the remaining ingredients in the blender until smooth
4. drizzle the pesto over the tofu until properly saturated (you should have enough pesto to store for two or three more tofu blocks in freezer or fridge depending on how long until you use it again)
5. Enjoy!