Lentil Curry

This is an offshoot of Red Lentil Curry.  I decided to play around with the tried and true recipe.  Because I had tomatoes, and I ran out of red lentils but had extra brown.

It was delish, I think.  I have a bad cold.

Lentil Curry:
1 small onion, diced
2 T canola oil 
1/2 tsp turmeric 
1/2 tsp coriander 
1/2 tsp cumin 
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp garam masala 
1/2 tsp fresh garlic, minced (3 small cloves)
3 roma tomatoes, chopped
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 c. red or brown lentils (I used a mix)
2.5 c. water
1/4 c to 1/3 c coconut milk 
1-2 Tbsp tomato paste  
1 tsp salt

Saute onion in oil until soft. Add garlic and saute one more minute. Add spices and saute one more minute. Add tomatoes and cook 5-6 minutes, or until tomatoes are soft.  Add lentils and water.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmering for 15-20 min. Check periodically.  I needed a bit more water.  Once it looks done, use the immersion blender if you like it a bit creamier. I still wanted a few chunks.

Add coconut milk and tomato paste and cook 5 more min, or until desired consistency.  Add salt.

This was good with my Indian roasted cauliflower and Trader Joe's garlic naan, found in the freezer section.  My big boy goes NUTS for that stuff.

2017 Goals: Week 2

1. Exercise:
Running: 300 miles: To date: 14.45 miles 
Biking: 500 miles: To date: 0 miles (rain)
Swimming: 50 miles: To date: 3.34 miles
Walking: 150 miles: To date: 7.56 miles
Weights/ yoga: 30 minutes a week (1560 this year): 142 minutes (21 day fix Upper fix)

2. Grocery bill: Keep it under $7000 ($134.62/wk): $315.65 (uhhh...my 10 year old is in a growth spurt)

3.  Weight: maintain or lose up to 5 lb: didn't get on the scale this week

4.  Family:
Go on 12 family hikes: Zippo. Nada.  Little guy has a cold.
Do game night once a week: Clue (kiddo's friend won) and Settlers of Catan (I won, but the game was so long everyone was starting to help me win).

5.  Crafts:
- Crochet a blanket (a "thermometer" granny square blanket, based on the temperature each day): 14 blocks down, we hit 71 yesterday whee!  I got to use yellow.  I am running out of blue-green (51-60F).

- crochet a purse: nothing
- finish a quilting baby blanket: done

- participate in my quilting group's exchange: nothing
- make 12 snowflakes: nothing
- attempt to make socks: I've pinned a bunch of instructions?

6.  Sleep: keep track of it and see if the low dose estrogen helps: Haven't started.  Slept really well this week.

7.  Food: eat vegan 2 days a week: Weds and Friday.  I made oatmeal with almond milk for breakfast.  It was delish.  I ate bean and rice bowls for lunch or dinner, plus salad.  I also had oven roasted tofu from Eats Well With Others.

8.  Cookbooks: Try 1 recipe from every cookbook I own:
This week: Apple Pie Oatmeal  from The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon.  It was *very* filling.
Cocoa and raspberry (I subbed cherries) muffins from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. These were yummy but a little underdone on the bottom, even with cooking the full time.  But vegan, so do I have to worry if they are a little gooey?  I will probably just reheat in the oven.

I also made soyrizo cajun vegetable stew in the Instant Pot. I've made this before but edited the method to work in the Instant Pot.  Trying to get good at making things so I can use the sucker mid-week.  It was good, but I'm generally not a fan of using soy based processed foods.  So I need to figure out the spices so I can just make it with beans. I set some aside in the freezer for my vegan days (and the muffins are for breakfast).

9.  Work:
     a. Skills: Learn enough programming to automate the data pulls for problem lots (which requires pulling data from 2 different databases).  Haven't worked on this yet.
     b. Personal:  Don't engage.  Really.  Did okay here.

10.  Home: Contact contractor/ architect on adding a second bathroom.Nothing

11.  Garden: actually plant tomatoes this year.  Baby steps. Nothing
Ooh, need to add: put some ground cover in the back dirt patch

12.  Spouse: once a month lunch date: nothing

13.  Beverages:
- Drink less coffee and more tea (one cup coffee per day): Yes, Monday to Weds, and Friday.
- Do not buy any wine aside from my two wine club memberships: Nothing
- Drink two 24-oz bottles of water a day, minimum.  My doc thinks that my occasional light-headedness when exercising is a combo between low blood pressure + slight dehydration.
Mmm...probably did okay for half the week.  I need to take my 24 oz water bottle to work with me.

2017 Goals week 1:

1. Exercise:
Running: 300 miles: To date: 9.26 miles 
Biking: 500 miles: To date: 0 miles (rain)
Swimming: 50 miles: To date: 1.64 miles
Walking: 150 miles: To date: 1.58 miles
Weights/ yoga: 30 minutes a week (1560 this year): 110 minutes (yoga stretch, Cize crazy 8's, physical therapy for my back, Chisel strength ISO)

2. Grocery bill: Keep it under $7000 ($134.62/wk): $172.62 (uhhh...my 10 year old is in a growth spurt)

3.  Weight: maintain or lose up to 5 lb: scale had me under 140, so I'm good.

4.  Family:
Go on 12 family hikes: Zippo. Nada
Do game night once a week: Kid #1 was 3 for 3 in Clue today

5.  Crafts:
- Crochet a blanket (a "thermometer" granny square blanket, based on the temperature each day): 7 blocks down, pretty boring so far, temps have been 49 to 62.

- crochet a purse: nothing
- finish a quilting baby blanket: done

- participate in my quilting group's exchange: nothing
- make 12 snowflakes: nothing
- attempt to make socks: I've pinned a bunch of instructions?

6.  Sleep: keep track of it and see if the low dose estrogen helps: Haven't started.  Had one bad night sleep (4 year old 2 am wakeup)

7.  Food: eat vegan 2 days a week: Almost on Weds and Saturday.  This was a last minute whim of a goal, and I had no non-dairy option for my coffee.  So 
Weds had milk in my 1 cup coffee, and my (pre purchased frozen) veggie burger had cheese in it.
Sat had milk in my first cup coffee.  My lunch was fab!

8.  Cookbooks: Try 1 recipe from every cookbook I own:
This week: Roasted tomato and white bean soup from Bikini Bootcamp by Melissa Perlman and Erica Gragg.
Roasted brussels sprouts with rosemary from The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon (recipe included potatoes, which I left out because I didn't have them)
I also tried a new Mexican rice recipe in the Instant Pot.  It was not as good as my Spanish rice.

9.  Work:
     a. Skills: Learn enough programming to automate the data pulls for problem lots (which requires pulling data from 2 different databases).  Haven't worked on this yet.
     b. Personal:  Don't engage.  Really.  Found a 4th person that I need to "not engage" with.  Oops.

10.  Home: Contact contractor/ architect on adding a second bathroom. Nothing

11.  Garden: actually plant tomatoes this year.  Baby steps. Nothing
Ooh, need to add: put some ground cover in the back dirt patch

12.  Spouse: once a month lunch date: nothing

13.  Beverages:
- Drink less coffee and more tea (one cup coffee per day): Yes, Monday to Friday.
- Do not buy any wine aside from my two wine club memberships: Nothing
- Drink two 24-oz bottles of water a day, minimum.  My doc thinks that my occasional light-headedness when exercising is a combo between low blood pressure + slight dehydration.
Mmm...probably did okay for half the week.

2017 Goals

Taking a page out of Mavis' book (I haven't done this before because it felt too overwhelming), I have 2017 goals!

1. Exercise:
Running: 300 miles, half marathon in May, and *maybe* the Pier to Peak half in September (depends on how May goes)
Biking: 500 miles (to/from work 2x a week)
Swimming: 50 miles
Walking: 150 miles (more running, less walking)
Weights/ yoga: 30 minutes a week (use that Beachbody all-access!)

2. Grocery bill: Keep it under $7000

3.  Weight: maintain or lose up to 5 lb

4.  Family:
Go on 12 family hikes
Do game night once a week

5.  Crafts:
- Crochet a blanket (a "thermometer" granny square blanket, based on the temperature each day)
- crochet a purse
- finish a quilting baby blanket
- participate in my quilting group's exchange
- make 12 snowflakes
- attempt to make socks

6.  Sleep: keep track of it and see if the low dose estrogen helps

7.  Food: eat vegan 2 days a week

8.  Cookbooks: Try 1 recipe from every cookbook I own

9.  Work:
     a. Skills: Learn enough programming to automate the data pulls for problem lots (which requires pulling data from 2 different databases)
     b. Personal:  Don't engage.  Really.  There's that one guy who is annoying.  And that other guy who just has a different opinion.  And he's always right, and he's impatient.  He really doesn't like to listen.  He seems friendly, (and is), but in a "do not engage or get into a discussion.  You will only annoy him, it's obvious, and he annoys you too."  It's okay.  Smile, listen, move on.  Then there is that third guy.  Also a great guy but you don't agree on a few work-related things.  Just don't discuss those things.

10.  Home: Contact contractor/ architect on adding a second bathroom.

11.  Garden: actually plant tomatoes this year.  Baby steps.

12.  Spouse: once a month lunch date

13.  Beverages:
- Drink less coffee and more tea (one cup coffee per day)
- Do not buy any wine aside from my two wine club memberships
- Drink two 24-oz bottles of water a day, minimum.  My doc thinks that my occasional light-headedness when exercising is a combo between low blood pressure + slight dehydration.

Vegan Thai Night

So, I pulled out a cookbook off the shelf yesterday and got inspired.  The cookbook was Nava Atlas' Vegan Express.  I've been meaning to try a couple of recipes from the book.  There are only a few photos in the book, but two of them were for Thai coconut corn soup and Thai pineapple fried rice.  They are supposed to be quick and easy, and I'm all about that these days.  And it's nice that I can find the recipes online so I can link them for you.

Another bonus: they use a lot of the same ingredients: red peppers, scallions, curry powder feature in both recipes.

The soup is touted as being amazingly simple and amazingly good.  And it did not disappoint.  Delicious!  I picked out the red peppers for the kiddo, and he enjoyed it immensely.  The only thing I would change next time is to use my dutch oven.  The soup pot I chose was too small and it boiled over and made a mess.  Good thing tomorrow is cleaning lady day.

The fried rice was a little bit bland.  Next time I'd add more curry powder, more ginger, and more soy sauce.  I topped mine with sriracha, of course.  I also made mine with white rice instead of brown.  My brown rice was buggy.  I'm not sure why.  The little bit of brown rice still in the original bag was fine (ziploc seal), but the rice in the canister with the sealed rubber lid was not.  Huh.

My only problem with the rice is that my new nonstick 12" pan is simply not big enough.  I might have to get a wok someday.

Frittata and Sesame Noodles

This weekend was an exercise in prepping for the week.  In order to fill up my fridge with vegetables, I went with an old favorite Tri County Produce.  I haven't been there in awhile, but I walked a few miles on Saturday with friends and was in the area.  And they  have coupons.  I have never used a coupon there, because their prices are so reasonable it's VERY hard to spend the amount needed to get the coupon, unless you are buying meat and wine.  And I don't buy much of either.  I managed to spend enough to get 5 free ears of corn.  They were HUGE and very sweet too.  Not local, but good.

I picked up some discount bananas and tomatoes too.  I lost a couple of tomatoes (went bad before I could  use them) and the bananas are destined for banana bread.  I MEANT to make chocolate covered frozen bananas, but haven't had the energy.

Saturday night was pizza night (with corn and salad).  I made the dough in the bread machine and par-baked it.  That's always good for one more meal too.  At least for now.  I can foresee the day when both pizzas will be gone in one night. 

Sunday was the prep day.  I made a veggie frittata for lunches this week.

Bread crumbs
chard
onion
zucchini
corn
tomatoes
cheese
eggs and milk

Monday night was our 2nd pizza night, and also the night of my quilting group meeting.  We did a potluck.  I happened to find this recipe on one of the blogs I read, and it seemed perfect.  So I made that on Sunday too.  Our quilting potlucks are hilarious.  The last one (last month) had half desserts.  This one - not a single bite of chocolate, but a lot of carbs.  2 loaves of bread, 2 people brought crackers and cheese, I brought the sesame noodles.  Then two people brought fruit, but they BOTH brought green grapes and red cherries.  Hilarious.  Plus carrot soup and a vegetable dish.

My version of the sesame noodles had cooked broccoli and raw julienned summer squash instead of green onion, because one of my quilting friends is allergic to onion.  Also, a couple don't do gluten, so maybe next time I'll use rice noodles instead of pasta and tamari instead of soy sauce.  They were very tasty, but if I were making them for just myself?  I'd probably use some sriracha.

Up for the rest of the week: a stir-fry with kohlrabi, peppers, and broccoli and some teriyaki meatballs from Costco.  Probably a skillet pasta dish with canned salmon - maybe a creamy mushroom sauce.  I bought mushrooms.  I can make a cream sauce.  Should be doable if I have the energy.

Peanut Lime Dipping Sauce

So, in the end I combined a couple of recipes.  It's very good.  I plan on dipping yellow and orange peppers, snap peas, cucumbers, and carrots for snacks and lunch during the week.

Peanut Lime Dipping Sauce
1/3 c. natural smooth peanut butter
1/2 tsp dry ginger
1 T sesame oil (dark)
1 clove garlic, pressed
2 T soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
2 tsp sugar
1T rice vinegar
1/4 c. water

Mix all ingredients with a fork until smooth.  Lick the fork when done.  Yummy.

Skillet Pasta!

Another (very bad) photo of skillet spaghetti.  Man, I love this stuff.  Easy to make, the ability to use up all sorts of meats and veggies, one pot dish.  Amenable to meat lovers, vegetarians, and vegans alike.  Okay, so the Paleo folks are out of luck.

I forgot to take the pretty picture of my plate (with broccoli!) before I dug in.  My family loves it too.  It is so tasty.

In case you forgot, you can find it in my favorites tab.  But basically:
1.  Saute veggies (in my case, it was onion and chopped fava leaves)
2.  Add 3 cups sauce (in this case, home-canned marinara - yum) and 3 cups water. 
3.  Add 12 oz pasta and other spices if you'd like (extra basil, rosemary, oregano, garlic...be creative)
4.  Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer (covered) for 20 to 25 min, stirring occasionally to keep stuff from sticking.
5.  Add other items as desired.  Today I added sun-dried tomatoes and olives, but waited until only about 10 min left so as not to get them totally mushy.
6.  Top with cheese!  Or avocado.  Or nooch.  Or nuts.  Or nothing.

Spicy Peanut Noodles

Boy, has it been a busy weekend.  I had a bad work day on Friday, followed up by not feeling well in the evening (and not sleeping).  My hubby went out for burrito takeout because he didn't feel like leftover bean burgers or salmon patties.  I ended up not being hungry for my burrito either.

The rest of the weekend has been a flurry of activity.  The season of "birthday parties" has begun.  Saturday I quilted at a class while the fam attended a party.  Sunday we attended another party while hubby worked.  I worked on a quilt today for our school auction.  I have only 11 days to finish it, and my walking foot broke today.  So that has slowed me down tremendously. I'm still pretty sure that I can finish.  I will have to buckle down and do a little bit every night.  This probably means we are eating at the coffee table most nights this week.  My sewing table = dining room table.

We spent the afternoon making 3 kinds of cupcakes for my son's birthday, while joking about cupcake wars.  Dinner wasn't ready until 8 pm (which is really 7, right?)  By the way the cupcake recipes - one from Elie Krieger (chocolate cupcakes), one lemon cupcake, one vanilla cupcake (from this month's Fine Cooking, also Elie Krieger).  I liked the cupcake recipes because they called for whole wheat pastry flour, and are a LITTLE bit healthier (less sugar), and some substitutions also - a little less butter.  We didn't frost them - that's a no no in my son's class.  Nobody wants 26 kindergarteners hopped up on sugar.

I wanted something easy tonight after the cupcake afternoon.  I chose vegan spicy peanut noodles with vegetables, from Wildly Affordable Organic.  I won't post the recipe here, but it was easy and delish.  Well, it WOULD have been easy, but I ran out of peanut butter, and had to spend 15 minutes stirring up the new jar, which is a real arm workout.  My version had the stir fry greens from the CSA - no kale this week, just cabbages and bok choy and tatsoi.  I also had carrots and broccoli stems...I just got tired of trying to get all the aphids out of the florets...they went into the compost.  I didn't make it very spicy, but happily put on sriracha at the end.  Definite keeper.  There are a lot of vegan and vegetarian recipes in that cookbook. I highly recommend it (and the E-books at Cook For Good, if they are still available).  Mostly the same recipes.

And one day last week, I had a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich for breakfast.

Falafel and Homemade French Fries

The falafel was my fave recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, with a small adjustment - I didn't feel like going into the dark to see if I have fresh parsley still living, so I used dried.

And I sliced up potatoes and made homemade oven fries.

Vegan meal, at least until I dipped the fries in ranch.

There's a distinct lack of green on the plate, but I did have cole slaw for lunch and sugar snap peas for lunch also.  It was a really long day yesterday, culminating with my work computer getting a virus.  So I left with no email account and no computer.  I ended up going back in for 2 hours using someone else's computer, but I only had access to about 1/2 of the programs that I needed.

Chickpea Curry (Aarti Party) and...when you have energy - GO FOR IT

So, I taped an episode of Aarti Party this weekend and enjoyed watching her make Chickpea and Artichoke Masala.  I was inspired and bought artichokes and dried chickpeas to make on Sunday. Except I didn't have the energy on Sunday, and went to a friend's house for dinner.  So I postponed it to Monday.  It was very easy.  I love Indian food and was happy to see an Indian show on the Food Network.

The only things that I changed were: I used a can of tomatoes (it's not tomato season), used lemon juice instead of lime juice, and I omitted the yogurt (making it vegan).  Not because I wanted to make it vegan, but because I took my plain yogurt to work, and I didn't think that vanilla would taste right.  With the beans, tomatoes, and vegetables, it's a pretty frugal meal for sure. 

I did, however, take the time to cook up a pound of chickpeas on Sunday.  I used to be in the habit of cooking a pound of beans a week.  According to the USDA, they're good for you! (1/2 cup a day is recommended!) When I was doing the paleo/primal thing, I gave up beans.  I still try to avoid them at lunch (too many carbs), but I just love beans.  And chickpeas are versatile.  I used some in the masala, then I used some in falafel.  I froze the rest.  I probably should have saved the cooking water for some chickpea gravy ala Cook for Good or Wildly Affordable Organic (I can't remember where I read it, but I'm pretty sure it was from Linda Watson!), but I didn't.

I was also supposed to make Cole Slaw on Sunday for Monday's dinner, but didn't have the energy for that either.  So I made it last night (with much help from spouse) and we ate it tonight.  Plus lunch tomorrow.  And the next day.  I rounded out tonight's dinner with more potato and kale soup and some baked chicken fingers from TJ's.

After all that dinner tonight though, I had some energy.  So while my family was occupied with finding a camera for my son's photography class tomorrow (I know, he's 5.  Weird.  Maybe soon he'll be taking my food photos.  Nowhere to go but up!) - I got busy making the falafel in the food processor.  It will be nice and cold and ready to shape for dinner tomorrow.  And that's my lesson - when you've got the energy, go with it! 'Cuz you never know when you'll get home without even the desire to face the microwave, much less the food processor, knife, or stove.

We ate the last of the bagels today for breakfast, so here's to hoping my energy stays high enough to throw some bread into the bread machine.

Oh, and Friday night's dinner, I made nachos.

I made bagels!

And burritos.  The burrito filling:

Pinto beans (cooked from dried), onions, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, corn, rice, cumin, oregano, chili powder, S&P.  This was dinner on Thursday and Friday, lunch today, and probably lunch tomorrow.

The bagels came from this recipe using the bread machine.  I was inspired by my neighbor who made them for her hubby's birthday a couple of weeks ago.  They were pretty easy!  And only about 13 cents per bagel.  Can't wait to have one for breakfast.  I topped mine with sesame seeds and coarse sea salt.

Pizza, Soup, and Hummus, Oh My! and Cupcake Wars

And cupcakes.  Let me explain first about the cupcakes.  Last weekend (the long holiday weekend), I vegged on the couch a bit and watched Food Network.  And I came upon Cupcake Wars.  Now, I do like my food TV and competitive shows.  I like Anthony Bourdain.  I faithfully tape Top Chef.  I enjoy a good episode of Chopped.  When I was on maternity leave 6 years ago (almost), I watched a lot of food TV while nursing my son (my husband ate like a king during those 3 months, and I watched so much that it was over a year before they showed an episode of Barefoot Contessa, Giada, or Rachael that I HADN'T seen.)

But these "challenges" and "wars" - not really into it so much.  Maybe it's because I'm not really into dessert.  But we caught the start of an episode, and lo and behold, one of the contestants was from Santa Barbara!  We have more than one cupcake shop in town, but Crushcakes Cupcakery is one we drive by weekly.  It's in downtown and on the way to the farmer's market on Saturdays. 

I enjoyed watching the show and so did my son (probably had something to do with it being cupcakes).  The editing on the show isn't that great.  I've seen 4 or 5 episodes so far, and it's pretty clear very early who is going to win. Thus far, it's always been the "pretty girl" (young and pretty, and I'm not exaggerating), and she gets a lot of air time.  So alas, our local girl came in 2nd (for the THIRD time). 

Yesterday, we (I) decided to stop at the shop after our grocery shopping.  Spouse picked vanilla (not lemon, who knew?)  Kiddo picked "peace" because he liked the frosting.  Mommy picked peanut butter cup.

We waited until after lunch and after a trip to the park to try out my son's new bike to eat them (and did that while watching another episode).  I am pretty amazed at the combinations of flavors they come up with and the decorations.  I'm pretty sure the contestants know the "theme" before the go (such as poker or surfing), so that they can take the decorations they need and design a final display.

The cupcakes were pretty good, but were $3 each, so they are a treat for sure.

On the home front yesterday, I decided to make hummus. I've had the ingredients forever, including an unopened jar of tahini, and have just been lazy and have been buying it.  I use the Cook's Illustrated method, which basically involves putting the water-based items in the food processor first (chickpeas, lemon, water, garlic, spices) and puree'ing them pretty fine, and drizzling in the olive oil/tahini mixture later.  Makes it really smooth.

How come the hardest part about making hummus is the 10 minutes that it takes to stir in the oil in the tahini jar??

Next up: Creamy cauliflower kale soup

I saw this recipe in my MIL's Martha Stewart Living magazine, and basically bought the magazine to try it out.  It is vegan, and tasted pretty good.  However, it uses water as a base.  So it could have used a little more seasoning.  Maybe extra salt, or some homemade stock.  I'll make it again, but with stock next time.  It's cauliflower, kale, garlic, onion, water, salt, pepper, and dill.  Pretty simple.  If you use the blender, it gets really creamy and frothy.  And we love soup in this house!

And finally: Pizza

You know me, I love pizza.  And I had some time, so I fired up the bread machine.  The bread machine makes it so easy.  To make the dough the way I like it, it still takes a couple of hours.  The bread machine only runs for 45 minutes, but there is a little bit of kneading, resting, shaping, resting, par-baking...much of this isn't necessary, but it's what works with my oven and pans.

This is our standard pie, with sauteed onions, pesto, cheese, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes.  Eaten with ranch and sriracha of course!

Peanut Lime Dragon Dressing

Recipe #2 from Appetite for Reduction. Another winner. In the back of the book, Isa brings up the suggestion of a "bowl". A grain, a sauce/ protein, and a vegetable. One of the "bowls" mentioned was quinoa, steamed broccoli, sauteed tempeh, and peanut lime dragon dressing. I boiled the tempeh in water and vegetable broth, then sauteed it in a bit of canola oil. I steamed the broccoli and carrots. I made the dressing, though I decreased the spice/ sriracha in half (concerned about my 5 year old), but it wasn't spicy, so I shouldn't have worried too much. I also subbed maple syrup for the agave and red onion for the shallot. And I didn't use quinoa. No grain at all. My son LOVED it and actually begged for leftovers. There are some for tomorrow's dinner!

Stir Fry Rice - my Go To Meal

I'm sure most people have a "go-to" meal. If you read around the blog-o-sphere, you can see it. The meal that shows up more frequently than others. Something quick and easy to put on the table.

For me, this is that meal.

I generally get home from work at 5:05-5:10 pm most days. Dinner is at 6:15 or 6:30 pm (shortly after my husband gets home). That gives me an hour. Now, it's not like I have a solid hour. I like to spend time hanging out with my son, talking about his day, coloring, and playing (usually while drinking a little wine).

That's why this meal is perfect. Get home, carry in all the "stuff" (my bag, lunch bag, his stuff). Throw the rice/quinoa mixture in the rice cooker (it takes about an hour).

Then, hang out until 15 mins before dinner.

I know that I am a member of a CSA. The CSA does not provide quite enough veggies for the family for the week. I often shop at the farmer's market or the local produce stand to round out the week. But I also have frozen and canned veggies on hand too. Costco's Kirkland brand of stir-fry vegetables is pretty good.

Here's what I've learned about Costco - different locations carry different items. For every time I've read someone wax poetical about the great frozen broccoli - I realize that mine doesn't carry it. I've learned to work around that, and usually have two bags of frozen SOMETHING in my freezer at any given time.

It takes all of 5-6 minutes to stir-fry these vegetables from frozen. During that time, I can whip up a little sauce (soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar) and grate some garlic/ginger. If I am feeling ambitious, I may press and saute tofu or fry some eggs. If I have leftover meat (which is rare), I will mix that in. Most of the time, I toss in chopped cashews or steamed edamame for extra protein.

Last night I took what was leftover from Thursday's stir-fry, and mixed the veggies and rice mixture with more stir-fried veggies. I added some oranges from our tree to the sauce and diced in a mango from the discount rack (35 cents!) It was very delicious, and took all of about 15 minutes. Today, there's almost enough for me to eat for lunch, so I'll toss in some chickpeas.

What is your "go to" meal?

Curried Cabbage

Sometimes, the essence of frugal and simple cooking is in what you DON'T do, not what you do actually do. Case in point: traveling. My husband travels. Not a huge amount, but still. It's pretty difficult to try and hold down a full time job and be a single parent, even if only for a day or two. I'm expected to work 40 hours per week (actually, I'm expected to work closer to 50, but good luck with that). But on travel days, with drop off AND pick up at school, I can only be at work from 8:30 to 4:30 pm. Which makes the math hard on getting in 40 hours, and makes me tired.

Last week, when my spouse traveled, I did no cooking. Really. I'd made a couple of items over the weekend - caponata and eggplant curry. And that's what my son and I ate for the week. The cabbage languished in the fridge - why make something special for only two? As my husband traveled again this week, I though about doing the same thing. I made turkey alphabet soup (for the sick husband) and homemade bread on Sunday. So, why not? Then I remembered the languishing cabbage. And the fact that when I go really "simple" like that, my veggie intake suffers, and this doesn't make me feel very good. My digestion suffers.

Last night I pulled out the cabbage and threw some stuff together. It was pretty delicious. There's a little bit of uncooked cabbage left, but...cooking two nights in a row is pushing it for me as a single parent. Tonight, it's frozen veggies. And more soup and bread.




Curried cabbage
1 T canola oil: 0.03
1/2 onion, chopped: 0.10
1 lb chopped cabbage: 0.40
1 clove garlic, minced: 0.05
1/4 tsp EACH cumin, turmeric, coriander: 0.05
1 T Bragg's liquid aminos: 0.10
juice of 1 lime: 0.20
1 tsp sugar: 0.01
Total: $0.95 for 4 servings, or $0.24 per serving.

Saute the onion in the oil until brown. Add the garlic and spices and saute 30 secs. Add the rinsed cabbage with the water still on the leaves and the Bragg's. Cover, reduce heat and cook about 5-10 min, or until soft.

Remove lid and turn up the heat to get some browning action (10 min). When almost done, sprinkle on the sugar and squeeze on the lime. Stir, cook 2 more min and serve.

On a side note, I discovered kabocha! Yum! Better than butternut even. After reading about it from HEAB and others, I had to try it. (It was on sale).

And, I had a delicious salad at some point.

Eggplant and Potato Curry

Finally, a delicious recipe that I can take credit for. Kind of. You see, there's this little Indian restaurant here with a great eggplant curry dish. I haven't eaten there in at least 5 years. But for about that long, I have wanted to try eggplant curry. Now, considering how many vegetarian/vegan/Indian cookbooks I have, you'd think I'd find a recipe easily. Not so. In the end, I found a vegan eggplant stew, an "Indian eggplant dish", and one other eggplant and potato dish in various cookbooks. I decided to make it vegan and use only the items that I had. And I wanted to have a tomato based curry.

This recipe is basically a combination of the three. I used the spices that I had, the ingredients that I had and like. And ... it was very tasty. My husband said "this is great!" unsolicited. Not that he doesn't appreciate my cooking normally, but it's nice when he pops out with a compliment on a new dish.

We ate this over cooked brown rice and quinoa, and topped it with avocado. I had a feeling that it would be better with something creamy/fatty...like avocado, yogurt, eggs, or nuts. And I got a bunch of delicious avos at the farmer's market this week.

Eggplant and Potato curry
4 T canola oil: 0.16
1 chopped onion: 0.18
1 eggplant, diced in 1/4 to 1/3 inch cubes: 0.90
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic, pressed: 0.10
1 T fresh ginger, grated: 0.05
1/4 tsp turmeric: 0.05
1/2 tsp garam masala: 0.05
1/4 tsp chili powder: 0.05
1 tsp cumin: 0.05
1 lb potatoes, diced small: 0.10
1 14oz can diced tomatoes: 0.58
1/2 tsp salt
Total: $2.27 for 5 generous cups, or $0.45 per generous cup.

Saute onion in 1 T canola oil until soft, and then add garlic and ginger and saute one more minute.

Add the spices and cook another minute. Or, forget to do that like I did. Add the eggplant and 1/4 tsp salt and the rest of the oil, and cook for 5 min. Add the water, reduce heat, and cover. Then remember that you forgot the spices. Add the spices, stir, and cook, covered, 20 min.

Meanwhile, peel and dice the potatoes and steam (I did in the microwave) until cooked.

Puree the tomatoes and add to the eggplant after the 20 min are up. Add the potatoes. Cover and cook 10 more min or until potatoes are fully cooked. Add the 1/2 tsp salt.

We served this over rice and quinoa, which was $0.85 for 4.5 cups, or $0.19 per cup. I generally eat 1/2 cup, spouse eats 1 to 1.5 cups. The avocado for the topping was $1.05

All told, this will be 2-3 meals for two and a half people, for $6.27, and that includes the three avocados.

Roasted Vegetables

Ah, there is something about the cold weather that just makes me want to roast stuff. I love roasted vegetables. The problem with them is that when the weather is warm, you just don't want to turn on your oven.

The weather is often warm in So Cal.

Still, I've got great recipes for roasted cauliflower, roasted root vegetables, roasted potatoes. I use "recipes" lightly because with the exception of the cauliflower, the recipes are "salt, pepper, oil".

I experimented a bit this week because I still have a lot of that 10-lb bag of potatoes for a $1. I also still had some green beans. I wonder if you can roast green beans?

Turns out you can. And later this week, I repeated the experiment with the potatoes, green beans and onions, and I tossed some broccoli in there too.

I do have a little trick to make it go faster: Pampered Chef has this great little black micro steamer that I LOVE. I love it so much I have purchased the larger size as gifts for friends. It microwaves vegetables quickly and perfectly. Then the oven is just the browning part. These days I am making two trays. We eat a LOT of vegetables in this house. Still with two trays, there were only enough leftovers for one lunch (mine).

Roast vegetables: (amounts are just what I had)
1.5 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced into 3/4 inch cubes: 0.15
1/2 lb green beans trimmed: 0.35
1.3 lb broccoli, cut into florets and the stems peeled and diced: 2.00
1/2 an onion, sliced: 0.12
1 Tbsp canola oil (yes I measure this out because I'm trying to lose weight): 0.03
seasoned salt (homemade) to taste

Total: $2.65. The broccoli was from the farmer's market.

Use the microsteamer to steam the veggies. I did it as I went:
green beans: 1.5 min
broccoli: 2.5 min
potatoes: 4 min

Put in a bowl with the spices/seasoned salt and canola oil and toss.


Line two cookie sheets with parchment (a nod to the spouse who does the dishes). Spread evenly.

Bake at 425 for 20 min. Stir. Bake another 10-15 min.

Enjoy.

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins and Work-Life Balance

So, as most working moms know, we tend to have issues from time to time with work-life balance. Truly, it's not just moms. It's dads, and non-parents as well. Whenever you are deciding how much time to spend...working, sleeping, exercising, cooking, being with family and friends, there is going to be some push-pull going on. In my case, always the pull from work as I push them back.

My work hours have gotten steadily longer over the last year. Where once I left at 4 pm, now it is 4:30 pm. And the pull gets worse. I've had folks ask why I don't work after 5. I've been asked to work weekends (on a regular basis, from home. I'm not talking about the "emergency" stuff.) I've been asked at 4:30 pm to do "just this one more thing". Of course I say no because I have to pick up my kid. My explanation, of late, has been of the "it's $1 per minute for every minute that I am late picking up my son from school" variety. Now, my girlfriends get offended by that answer and think that I should just say "no, I'm a mom, my kid comes first." Well, duh. That's the real answer. I'd rather spend more time with my kid. Yeah yeah. While that is the truth, I have to face facts here.

I am an anomaly. I am the only full-time working mom in my company (with a young child). Out of 70 people. I am a woman in a man's world, and I have to speak the language that they will understand. Sure, the dads get it (especially those with working wives!) But the men without kids...they don't. They may try. But they really don't get it. However, they do speak the language of money, and they all understand that $1 per minute is $60 per hour, and by the way, I don't make $60 an hour.

I'm in a job where working longer hours is encouraged and praised. However, I don't enjoy being penalized for being efficient (using my friend Kelly's terminology). If I can get the same work done in 40 hrs that it takes someone else 50 to do, that does not mean I need to be working 50 hrs. While I have no problems coming in on weekends during emergencies, I simply will not be working late every day. I'm okay being the person to constantly fight the pressure to work long days, because I'm confident in the quality and quantity of my work. (And truly, when the sh*t hits the fan on the weekend, who is the first one to come in and fix stuff? Yeah, that's right, it's usually my boss, but if he's out of town, it's me.) I am definitely a "do what it takes" employee, but I simply don't have the luxury (or the desire) to spend 60 hours at work and never see my kid. I already outsource the cleaning. If I try to outsource the cooking (by eating out, buying convenience food), or cut back on exercise, I'll just get fat, and sick. I know this because I used to weigh 182 lbs. And my blood pressure was through the roof.

The upshot of all of this is that no matter what I do at work, at home, I have to start job #2. I generally get home at 5:15 pm, and have to cook dinner. Even with the bulk-cooking that I do on the weekend, I have to put at least 20-30 minutes into cooking. So I get home with a little boy who wants to PLAY PLAY PLAY. His second choice is to watch TV. But I prefer to limit his TV to 1/2 hr per day. Which he often gets to watch in the morning while we shower. So, that means I have to PLAY. Or distract him. That's where the pumpkin muffins come in.

I am finding that while it's not "playing", having him help me cook is a great way to have fun, interact, keep him busy, and teach him skills, all at the same time. He's been so excited to make muffins. They made them at school. I needed a recipe, so I dug out my favorite Isa cookbooks. Vegan Brunch had a pumpkin muffin recipe with wheat bran and whole wheat pastry flour. Don't have either of those. So I moved on to VWAV. The PERFECT recipe according to the book.

Except for one tiny thing. The recipe makes 12 muffins, and has 1.25 cups of sugar. Let's do the math, shall we? 1 cup has 16 tablespoons. So 1.25 cups of sugar has 20 tablespoons, or 1.67 tablespoons (5 teaspoons) of sugar PER MUFFIN. Holy camoly!

I cut the sugar to 2/3 cup and they were still very sweet. Next time, I will cut to even less. When I think about it, a small muffin should probably have a tsp or less of sugar. 1 tsp x 12 muffins = 12 tsp = 4 TBSP = 1/4 cup. I think I'll cut the recipe to 1/3 cup next time.