Accidental gardening.

 Yesterday I was weeding to plant my pumpkins and eggplants and we found watermelon seedlings from where we had thrown out watermelons in that area last year. Very exiting stuff!

Spicy Tuna Salad

Mr. C requested tuna salad for lunch next week and this is our first week of our CSA. I hate to waste veggies even if I don't care for them.  Mr. C does not care much for mayo. I obviously have not tried this because it has an animal in it but Mr. C swears it's good.

2 stalks of fresh celery chopped
3 radishes
1/2 yellow onion
4 pouches of tuna
1 hard boiled egg
1/3 cup mayo
1 1/2 TBSP of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp of minced garlic
salt to taste
1 tsp of chili powder
1 tsp of cayenne (can use hot sauce instead)

CSA & meal planning

About January and February I did really amazing at meal planning. I knew what we were going to eat at every meal and had everything planned out. Well we went out of town for March and April and it all fell apart. Eeek. I need routine. We'll I'm getting back on the horse. But I'm going to do it by week and not month due to our CSA back in season. 

In our CSA box this week: strawberries, 1 head of cabbage, green onions, broccoli, raddishes, unknown type of greens.

So my meal plan is:

Sunday- cook out with our church group. I am bringing cole slaw (cabbage) and strawberry ice cream I have made.

Monday- Thai Shrimp/Tofu noodles Obviously, I will modify to make 1/2 shrimp, 1/2 tofu. This will use our green onions and broccoli

Tuesday- leftovers

Wednesday- Here I am using our mystery greens instead of spinach- Crockpot indian tofu and greens.

Thursday- Sloppy joes/lentils with sweet potato fries

Friday- Mr. C cooks- you never know what it'll be but usually stir fry or grilled something.

Saturday- Jambalaya and grits. I have some okra in the freezer left over from winter CSA screaming to be used up.

Lunch this week: Mr. C asked for tuna. I am making spicy tuna salad (I have snuck the radishes into this) with beer bread made in my bread maker.  I eat leftovers for lunch. YUM

My ode to my breadmaker

In my confession of my inability to be a vegan I mentioned my love of my bread maker. I think that the bread maker is totally under-appreciated. Have you seen the price of bread these days? Even crap bread cost about $1, and that's on sale. Then when you make your selection how many ingredients does that wonderbread have? My bread has 10ish depending on spices and it didn't travel far to find me and I can pronounce all the names of the ingredients.

Seriously, how many couples do you think own them and don't use them or were given them for their wedding only to return it right back to Target? Probably way too many. Well, If you are one of those that have one around here and it's currently a door stop for my laundry room or in your gift closet just waiting for your next set of friends to get married, as soon as you are done reading this go get it out, dust it off, and give it a try. I guarantee if you do you will fall in love with it. If you are leery of bread making have no fear I am here to help. Most everything you need you will likely have at home with the exception of 2 ingredients: bread flour and yeast. Now theoretically you can make sourdough without yeast and make bread with other types of flour. BUT, let me tell you from one cheapo to another, just go buy these ingredients. Go to walmart (eeek, I know, but they are the cheapest. I have checked around and don't wait for a coupon. You are just holding your breath for nothing.) and pick them up. After you feel comfortable you can buy yeast and flour in bulk at Costco saving you LOTS of money but since this is an experiment don't go for bulk until you're sure you are ready for it.

So, here is a simple and yummy recipe to start with. I got the idea from the Better Homes and Gardens bread machine cookbook I checked out of the library but have tweaked it some.  This is so easy. All you do is put the ingredients in your bread maker in the order listed, press start and be patient for 4 hours.

A few tips,

1. You have to put the ingredients in the right order. If you don't it won't rise and then your loved ones will be like Mr. C and pretend that they love it but mysteriously won't touch it after the initial day.

2. Peek after the first 15-30 to make sure your consistency is right. If it's not a ball of dough add water. If its runny add flour.

3. Don't peek too much after that first time. It'll make your bread fall.

4. Don't tell people how easy making bread is. Pretend like you a bakery genius and let them hero worship you (naw, just kidding but really follow the first 3 steps.)

Now try my Potato Bread:

3/4 cup of water

3/4 cup of milk (I have used cows, soy, and almond and all work fine)

1 egg

3 tablespoons of oil, butter, or margarine. I have tried them all and they all work fine.*

4 cups of bread flour

1 1/4 tsp of instant yeast

3/4 cup of instant potatoes (not prepared, just the flakes)

4 tsp of sugar (any kind will work. I use regular white sugar)

1 tsp of garlic salt

1 tsp of rosemary, oregano,  or any other spices you love.

Kids are funny

I love my job. I don't blog about it because I think it's important for my mental health to be able to separate my time at home from my clients' mental health. Well, I am so blessed to be able to work with kids. Really, and that's totally not my personality if you would have told me last year that I would be a children therapist I would have looked at you just like you just walked up to me and said that the sky just turned magenta. Well, despite what I thought then I love my work and I think I have the funnest job. So, I am going to try to share some of the golden nuggets with you that I hear regularly.

To start:

This week I was discussing with a boy about controlling his anger before it gets out of control. I said you need to go to your happy place when you first start to feel yourself get upset to be able to control yourself. He said "Every time I get angry you want me to go to Taco Bell?"

Ha, ha, kids say the funniest things. I used to think that people were just being corny when they said it but I believe it may be true.

Chickpea Spaghetti Sauce

First,  I LOVED this recipe and Mr. C said it was ok. He says we eat too many beans. What?!?!? I on purpose feed us tons of beans and I love him but don’t see that changing. Second, Could the chickpea be the perfect food? It’s yummy, filling, and has a great texture. I think its my food husband. You know the food you love so much you’ld give it up for all other foods if food worked like that.

Now, I’m unsure if I’ve blogged about it before but I have a not so private obsession with my slow cooker but around our house Kyle has asked if we can keep the slow cooking to a minimum because if not I would use it every day. I love it that much. Well, I use it about 1 time a week.

Well here it is. I have a 6 quart slow cooker but think this would be better in something smaller. Maybe 4 quart?

1 can of tomato paste

1 can of diced tomatoes. I used muir glen fire roasted but i think in the crockpot it doesn't matter.

1 package of baby bella fresh mushrooms

3 cups of chick peas. (I'm not sure how much this would be in terms of cans. I always make them from dried beans. I think this could be adjusted to your liking. Probably 2 cans drained and well rinsed.)

2 cups of fresh spinach

1 carrot stick chopped (I take a full carrot, scrub it down good and chop it up in my food processor)

1 celery stick chopped (same as above with the carrot)

1 TBSP of oregano

1 TBSP of basil

1 TBSP of brown sugar

1 tsp of salt

2 TBSP of minced garlic

2  TBSP of onion powder.


Put everything in the crockpot and mix except for the spinach. After done spread the spinach over the top. I find this makes it hold up better during cooking. I cooked this on low for about 6 hours and served it with pasta and oven baked tofu for me and chicken for Mr. C. Yummy and you even snuck in some added veggies.

The not so great Vegan adventure

So, My friend Donelle pointed out (hi, Donelle) I never talked about my great vegan adventure. Well, it went, hmm, it wasn’t a great adventure. With Mr. C gone I did better with veganism but really struggled to cut out dairy. I had a couple of days in the spotlight but I can tell you I’m no Vegan. I have started cooking mostly sans dairy. I bought some soy cheese and that’s helped quite a bit but I have also discovered the world of bread making, oooh. One of the blogs I stalk on a regular basis is Good (&Cheap) Eats. Have you read it? You should it’s really good (just please don’t compare mine to hers, she’s amazing.) Well, I have my mom's old bread machine and now I've fallen in love with homemade bread. Well, I have made some vegan bread but really all good bread needs dairy. So, My experiment was a fail but I now have a much greater respect for vegans, wow that's hard, and I've fallen in love with the Vegan Dad blog. His food is great! I will continue to strive towards vegan eating but still be just a cheese eating mortal.