New Camera

My old Nikon of 6-7 years has endured 2 Europe Trips, college and camp nursing. On my last beach trip I asked a stranger to take a photo at Cape Lookout and it got dropped on the rocks. :( Goodbye Nikon. Hello Canon. I was unsure, until I uploaded a photo. Holy Crap! What have I been doing all this time. It's incredible. 7 years really changes things. I can't wait!

Cheers to the end of jimmying my laptop to be my camera.



Just look at that avocado!

Cuisson!

This lovely Sunday afternoon, well, this dark, gray, and ugly Sunday afternoon has been spent in the kitchen. Old french music is playing and the butternut squash that's been sitting on my counter all week is glaring at me. I decided to simply search 'butternut squash' on my google reader-it searched through all my favorite food blogs and came up with two keepers. I decided to combine two recipes: Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce from The Pioneer Woman and Roasted Butternut Squash Soup from Gluten Free Gigi. To make Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Pepper Pasta. :) Unfortunately, my six-year-old camera had a tragic accident last weekend and I had to jimmy my laptop to take these photos-the photos from other blogs are much better. Camera will be replaced this week. :)



Ingredients:
1 whole butternut squash, roasted* see GlutenFreeGigi
olive oil
1 whole red pepper, roasted* see ThePioneerWoman
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup red onions
salt and pepper
1 box of quinoa shell pasta
1 cup of hemp milk (or heavy whipping cream)
Dash of cayenne pepper
To make it a lasting meal for the work week I added:
1/2 Andouille turkey sausage (Did you know Andouille means imbecile in french?)
1/2 large zucchini




Saute onion and garlic in olive oil for about 3 minutes.

Blend the roasted butternut squash, roasted red pepper, garlic, onion, and a tsp kosher salt to make the pasta sauce.



Oh, with all this roasting going on, I decided to make some hummus as well (above on the Left).
1 can of garbanzo beans, drained 1/2 way
2 Tbs Olive oil
1 slice of roasted red pepper
1 spoonful of cooked garlic and onion mix

Blend it and put it in the fridge to set before work!



Pour sauce into pan and add hemp milk. Add a dash of cayenne pepper. In the mean time, boil the pasta and gently fry the sausage and zucchini just until lightly browned and before it tries to stick to the bottom of the pan. Add sausage, zucchini, and pasta to sauce and let sit on warm before stirring/storing to let ingredients settle.



Quite delicious. The cayenne is important because the squash is so sweet. It certainly tastes different than your average pasta sauce.

When there's 'nothing to eat' x2

Opened the fridge and there's nothing to eat. So I whipped this up. I think it's a stoup (stew/soup). Turkey Lentil Soup.



Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and Pepper
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1 cup lentils
2.5 cups chicken/veggie broth
1 can diced tomatoes
chopped mushrooms
1 bay leaf
cilantro





Directions:
-Heat up a large saucepan and brown the ground turkey. Drain if needed. Add onion, garlic, and spices.
-Add mushrooms and cilantro. Let cook up until it smells really good.
-Add canned tomatoes, lentils, broth and bay leaf. Bring to boil.
-Reduce heat and let simmer for 20-30 minutes.





Tasty, healthy, filling, and good to make at the beginning of a long week.

Love you too Mom!

Happy Mother's Day!