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

I get to be a nurse!

Hey! I passed my exam to get a degree. So I'm pretty good to go. I have one more oral exam once I get back to Portland (I have to tell some faculty what a great nurse I'm going to be). Then I'll be taking my licensing exam around the first of June. But, I'm not thinking about that now. I just want to open a bottle of champagne. ;-)

via marveydaw.com

The corvette...

not much more to say...

Snowy

We went from 75 to 55 degrees. Yikes! I told him to slow down. ;-)

Santa Fe!

Jordan and I needed some time away so we went to Santa Fe for the weekend.

Camel rock. Do you see it?

Buffalo THUNDER resort and casino!

St.... Francis chapel I believe.

Pretty

Cookies!

I made some of Bob Red Mill's chocolate chip cookies last week. I made some regular cookies for Jordan and got too jealous. The gluten-free ones were OK. It was weird how dry the dough was-you had to mash it together. They cooked up good but, after a few days they just got dry and hard and would crumble easy-I threw the second dozen away. It was still worth it.

What a week...

What a week. It was intense at clinical. Yesterday was sooo slow, and then at about 4:45 sh*t hit the fan. It was awful and I'm sooo glad it was my Friday. Today Jordan and I are going to drive his new corvette to Santa Fe and stay at the new resort. I'm ready to get away and not cook/clean/or do dishes. Blech. I just want to come over for dinner! So anyways, there will be photos soon. Laters