Road Trip!

Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota,Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, whew. We're in South Dakota now. Mt. Rushmore rocked! Off to Lacrosse, WI and then Chicago! Can't wait!

Brussel Sprouts!

While discussing the wonders of brussel sprouts one day with my sister I was shocked to hear her say that she has never had them (to her recollection). So hear's to ya sis!
Ingredients:
Brussel Sprouts (that many in the picture)
Canola Oil
Salt and Pepper
Oregano
Garlic

Cut and X in the stem of the brussel sprout (so they can cook through). Cover the brussel sprouts with water in a pot, bring to boil for 7-10 minutes, until really green but not too green (same as broccoli). Strain, cut them in half, and pour into a frying pan with oil and spices. Saute them up for another 7-10 minutes I guess-until browned. I kept them face down. They were good, not too mushy and delicious. Would probably be good with the giant sweet onions from my Grandma too. :-)

Off to Baltimore!

So... two months ago or so, Jackie and I are sitting on my bed goofing around when she finds a rad internship in Baltimore. She reads it over, finds it's awesome, and applies. I mentioned to her that I would be willing to drive with her after my licensing exam. On Thursday she came over to my house and asked if I was busy next Friday because we're driving to Baltimore... Holy cow. So this Friday, after taking my NCLEX on Thursday we're off. It will be my longest road trip in one go (the second one being I-40 with Jordan). We plan on hitting Great Falls, MT, Mt Rushmore, La Crosse, WI, Chicago, Cleveland or Pittsburg (any ideas) and then Baltimore. Wish us luck! I'll keep you posted!

Mmmm cookin'

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad from my The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook by Segersten and Malterre

I made a 1/2 batch of this:
2 c quinoa
3.5 cups water
pinch of salt
1 cup chopped cilantro
5 chopped green onions
2 cups cooked black beans
(I didn't have any but also:
1 small jalepeno, seeded and diced
1 small red pepper, diced)
Dressing:
1/4 cup EVOO
1/2 cup lime juice
1 tsp cumin
1.5 tsp salt
1. Rinse quinoa, strain, and put in pot with salt and water. Bring to boil, lower heat, cover and let simmer for 20 min. Remove from heat, place in another bowl and let cool.
2. Combine dressing ingredients, cilantro and green onion and whisk. Combine with qunioa, (peppers) and black beans (cooked and strained) and toss well.
3. Chow down. I let mine cool but still like it warm.

Bread baking!

Hey, I made up a bread mix-Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich Bread, which turned out awesome! WAY better than the bread I've made from scratch. It's moist and delicious and fantastic and looks legit! I sliced and put half in the freezer (per directions). Mmmm!

Family Campers!

In preparation for the Alberta Art Hop, we did some summer, camping activities.







They're tricky to photograph and this one (accidental) photo with flash was the best.

Kitties!

This is my new kitty, my mom's house adopted who I need to take with me to Albuquerque. Meet Buster Brown-Noser or just Buster

The boys just taking a cat-nap

Heaven!

So this morning, after having a good-bye party for a friend last night, I went down to the kitchen to enjoy my new expensive stash from whole foods. I toasted a rice flour english muffin, made some jimmy dean sausage, and fried up a tofu slice with some tumeric. I threw it together with a swipe of veganaise and I have to say it was the most glorious thing I'd eaten in a month! The bready, greasy, egg-like-ness of it all was fantastic. I meant to take a photo but I gobbled it down too quick. There certainly will be more where that came from. mmmm

Graduation Party!

Yay! Good times. Mom has more photos I have yet to get. :-)

Grades are in!

Application Multicultural Population Health Nursing A-
Nursing Leadership A
Personal Preparation for Licensure A
Capstone Clinical Immersion Passed

22nd Birthday!

Yay birthdays. I have been unlucky enough to have to share my birthday with my best friend every year. Last year we missed each other and we were happy to share a party this year.

Arn't we cute?

Marie and Ivan


Yeah, Mom was invited, she brought food!

Jackie and Tyson

Yay Birthdays!

Forgotten Cooking Adventure!

I almost forgot about these! I just found some photos on my camera of the fish tacos I made before I left Albuquerque. I had used up a lot of my food but was able to throw this together. I breaded the Tilapia in tapioca flour because that was all the gluten-free-ness I had left at Jordan's and it turned out great! The fish was delicious-don't cook it too long. Just add cilantro, veggies, and guac-and a rum and coke and call it good! Mmmm

Motorcycle!

As my friend Kaleb said: 'This is a beautiful thing.' ":-)

Epic Fail

So as I was serving myself up some more delcious mac n' cheese I realized my stomach is still upset from what I thought was going out to eat on Friday night. Four days of it though... is a little much. So I took that $6 cheese out of the fridge that I bought at whole foods only to find that is has casein in it (the milk protein I'm allergic to). That's what my over-distended, ouchy belly has been trying to tell me. So I dumped my $$$ mac n' cheese in the trash. Dammit.

Yum!

So, once one gets allergies such as mine, it is inevitable that he or she will eventually crave the cheesy, melty, homey, deliciousness of mac an' cheese. My cousin Alex, with similar allergies had this experience and now it was my turn. It was so pretty and I'm sooo proud I put a bunch of photos. :-)
Vegan mac an' cheese from 'In a Vegetarian Kitchen'
10-12 oz elbow macaroni (I used quinoa-cooked 12 min or so, strained and set aside)
12.3 oz silken tofu
2 Tbs butter (which, I decided I'm not allergic to-whether I am or not)
1 1/2 c cheddar cheese (vegan cheddar $6 :-P)
I added:
Lots of salt and pepper!
garlic salt to taste
tumeric (for color, taste and health)
4 hot dogs (housemate happened to have an extra 2 lbs of hot dogs), sauteed in butter!
1 head of broccoli, steamed
I cooked things separately and added everything into the sauce pan-pasta, broccoli, hot dogs. I'm sure you could throw everything in a casserole in the oven at 400 for 30-50 min but, I was hungry! For the sauce, blend the tofu (I whisked vigorously w/o a mixer) and add butter and cheese on low heat until melted.

pretty colors :-)





It was heavenly.

More cookin'

So I told you that I split the pizza dough in two. I threw the other half in a pan and baked it as bread. It came out really well. I loved it warm although it was difficult to eat after eating all that pizza. I've been putting it in the toaster, smothering it in butter and strawberry jam.

This is another mad mess I made when I didn't want tacos.

1 lb ground beef, browned
1-2 garlic cloves, sauteed
1/2 onion, chopped, sauteed
2 zucchini, sauteed
1 can corn
2 potatoes, shredded
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce
I threw it in the pan: potatoes and corn, then meat and veggies, then the sauce. I baked it at 400 for 40-60 min. I smothered mine in ketchup and ate it and will be eating it for days. It's tasty and filling and was just the kitchen-leftover dinner.

So I've had it up to here -

I'm sick of this allergy crap and am ready to eat good food again. I've been getting pretty upset lately especially with getting sick after every time I eat out. So after pulling my hair out and eating some more damn tacos I decided to spend some money on good food. Jordan has been eating big, gooey, crusty, cheesy pizza lately so I decided to through it in his face (not really). I cooked up this sucker and have been living off of it for a 3 meals now. I guess that means it wasn't bad. It's hard to go wrong with all the good stuff on it but, it really was rather tasty.



Recipe

I used pizza dough mix from 'Gluten Free Pantry' that was quite good. I let it rise forever and used flax meal for egg. It was pretty gooey and pretty hard once it cooled but, still had a good taste. I broke mine into two parts and saved one for later. I wonder if it would be good thick-crust style?

I spread on a sun-dried tomato pesto that I got at Trader Joe's. I later looked at the label and saw it has parmesan in it but, I just tried to put that out of my mind. Then I used some leftover jimmy dean breakfast sausage which I browned in a skillet and put on top. And topped it off with the feta and kalamata olives.

The fake feta was surprisingly good. I would want to try it again after lettingit sit for a while, I waited barely an hour. It doesn't melt or anything but has a cheese-like texture and taste. It was satisfying. Here's that recipe which, I'll be saving in the box.

Vegan Feta Cheese

Ingredients

-1/4 cup olive oil

-1/4 cup water

-1/2 cup red wine vinegar

-2 tsp salt

-1 Tbs dried basil

-1/2 tsp dried oregano

-1/2 tsp pepper

-1 lb firm tofu, herb flavored, cubed or crumbled

Directions

-Place everything but the tofu in the bowl and whisk together

-Add tofu, and let sit for at least an hour, maybe refrigerate over night

(sorrys, I found this on the internet somewhere and combined it with some others-no source)

To the top of mountain we go!

On Sunday, Jordan, John and I drove to the top of the mountain in corvette's. John has a red '85. It was a lot of fun and I was a little squeamish a couple times around the corners but, it was a thrill.


John's a quality friend.

The top of the Sandia Mountains.



I'm never dressed for snow. It's 75 at the bottom of the mtn I promise!

More Sunday Morning Pancakes!

They're getting better and I put the extras in the toaster the next morning. mmmm