Homemade and Colorful

What exactly is Polenta?

2013-12-07T14:02:00.000-06:00

What exactly is polenta? Is it cornmeal? Is it grits? Alas! I have the answer. Or rather Brette Warshaw of food52.com has the answer and explained it most swimmingly. In short, the answer: it's all ground up corn ;) Read the post "Cornmeal vs. Grits vs. Polenta vs. Masa" Knowing this pertinent information would have saved me a lot of time and frustration walking up and down isles trying to find cornmeal labeled "polenta"

Choo Choo Train Table Center

2013-11-26T15:34:00.001-06:00

You can say it, I'm a genius. The reeds are from two separate assorted packs at Ikea. The trains are from Aldi. That's right Aldi! Aldi on CLEARANCE!

Baby's Reindeer Feet

2013-11-26T15:23:00.004-06:00

Can I say success, or can I say success? !!!
Mine look better than the pinterest original

My babies LOVED making them
Their little thumbs made the red noses. And the washes in the background adds some artistry

Art at the Chicago Children's Museum

2013-11-18T08:13:00.002-06:00

I dislike museums. They bore me for the most part, however I do love a clever display.

This white Christmas tree is made with mop heads. How great is that?

Horses made from trash :)

This is a bench. I love how painting the street on the seat makes this look 3 dimensional. GREAT IDEA!

Snowflakes & Ballerinas

2013-11-18T08:07:00.001-06:00

Ok. I'm jumping on the trend wagon again. I can't resist these paper diy ballerinas. I used the template from krokotak and some some sheet music instead of plain paper just for fun.

Vegan Mapo Tofu

2013-10-31T12:11:00.006-05:00

My old roomie taught me how to make Mapo Tofu with pork. I also love it w/ beef. But now I don't eat meat :( My husband loves this dish, so I decided to make it the exact same way as my friend taught me except with a head of broccoli instead of meat.

Outcome DELICIOUS!

My friend Lisa's recipe:
1. Marinate Pork
-few teaspoons sesame oil
-few teaspoons soy sauce
-salt (but there is some in the soy sauce)
2. Fry 2-3 cloves of garlic pressed in a tablespoon of oil. Add pork and fry until cooked. Add hot sauce/bean paste
3. Add cubed tofu, stir to heat up (careful not to break up too much)
4. to make thick and more gravy mix corn starch (1 tbs) with room temp/cold water. Then add to pan.
5. Serve with chopped green onions

My recipe:
1. start with frying garlic and some fresh ginger in sesame oil, soy sauce, and the hot sauce/bean paste.
2. add Tofu and a head of broccoli.
3. continue to add sesame oil, paste, soy sauce until the flavor is what you want.
4. Thicken if you want
5. garnish w/ green onion

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

Dessert Soup?

2013-10-29T08:45:00.000-05:00

Per usual, the peeps on the other side of the world know how to eat better than we do. Get this, Chinese Sweet Red Bean Soup with Tapioca pearls. I first had this at a Chinese wedding reception and dare I say it changed my life. Problem is I have yet to recreate it properly, but I get closer every time.
I use a combination of several recipes.
But essentially this is what I do.

1. soak 2 cups of red beans for overnight
drain them.
2. put them in a big pot with enough water not too much. About 8 cups of water.
3. Get beans to a boil then put down to a simmer for about 1.5 hours until soft. Add water if needed.
4. While beans are cooking throw in orange peals to 1 orange.
5. Add 1-2 cans of coconut milk
6. Add sugar to taste.
7. While beans are cooking put some tapioca balls into a pot of water. Get to boil and then leave on active simmer until they are translucent. Add water if needed so they don't burn. BTW the bigger the tapioca balls the more time they'll take to cook. I used the big ones and it took roughly 2 hours (i think)
8. Once tapioca is cooked add to the beans.

Here are the sources that inspired my recipe.
Thewackywongs
userealbutter
cindybear
about

Vegan Bread: Herby Olive Tomato Kale Bread

2013-10-25T14:43:00.000-05:00

Let it be noted. that I do not share every recipe I make. In fact, just last night I made an entire pot of soup only to dump it in the garbage. Yup! It was that bad. Trying new recipes is rough. Not all of them are winners. The trick is to pitch a bad dish just like one should click off a bad movie. Cut your lost and move on.

Herby Olive Tomato Kale Bread from goodcleanfood.wordpress.com

I'm confused because I just don't know if this recipe is worth dumping or not.
Ok per usual I didn't follow the recipe to the last detail. However this bread was so so so so so so salty. Way too salty.

I did use a red pesto sauce (found conveniently in my fridge) to saute the kale in rather than oil or water. I also added a Tablespoon of the pesto to the dough to make up for not having sun dried tomatoes. That might have been my down fall. The required olives add a lot of salt. But I can't help but feel like 3 Tablespoons of salt is a little excessive.

I didn't use all of the special flours listed either. I used 5 cups of regular flour w/ 1 coup of whole wheat flour. I didn't have fresh herbs, so I used dried .
I misunderstood the directions, so I over cooked them. They're a little on the hard side. The directions said to start at 500 degrees and then turn the oven down for 25 minutes. I thought it was an additional 25 minute snot 25 minutes total UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I'll try this again. Otherwise there was true potential. My husband likes them except for the saltiness and my toddler calls them cookies (although she calls all carbohydrates cookies (poor girl).

Warm Fall Vegetarian and Vegan Dishes

2013-10-22T19:56:00.000-05:00

I have gotten back into making some new recipes. . I have made some new dishes since I posted recipes last, but I don't see the point in posting recipes I don't like.

These two recipes were really good

The first is Sweet Potato Cauliflower Soup from Allysonkramer.com. It was very simple to make and vegan. The recipe calls for garam masala to season. I don't have that season mix so I used a dash or two of curry, cumin, cinnamon and nutmeg. It was really good, but I didn't get super excited about leftovers the next day which tells me I didn't love it. I enjoyed how it was thick and creamy without the aid of flour, milk, or butter.

One of these days I'll invest in some garam masala.

Mushroom and Lentil Pot Pies with Gouda Biscuit Topping
This was delicious, and I can't wait till tomorrow to have the leftovers. I did a whole butt load of things different from the recipe.
1. I could not find dried porcini mushrooms, so I doubled the fresh mushrooms. (next time I'll use porcini, the added mushroom flavor will probably add a lot to the dish)
2. The water that the porcini mushrooms were boiled in was used later in the recipe, so I just used the equivalent amount of normal water. (again wish I had the porcini)
3. I didn't have gouda cheese. I bought random cheese ends from the grocery store. I have no idea what I used, most likely a mixture of munster, mozzarella, and some mild cheddar. (Next time I'll use gouda or a cheese that I know will brown and become crispy)
4. The recipe calls for one carrot, but I used two because mine are on the smaller side. (glad I used two)
5. I don't have cute little individual pie dishes, so I instead used two normal sized pie dishes. (perfect. I'll do it this way again.)
6. I substituted the buttermilk. 1 cup Buttermilk = 1 Tablespoon of vinegar + enough milk to make 1c. I just cut this equation in half for the 1/2c of called for buttermilk (Yes, I will do this again as well)
7. I didn't have yukon gold potatoes, so I subsituted with two brown potatoes (maybe yukon would have been better, but I probably will continue to use whatever potatoes are on hand)
8. I didn't bother with a food processor to make the dough and instead just used my kitchen aid. (Turned out fine).

Bicycle Rack

2013-10-14T09:51:00.000-05:00

Galesburg, IL is small town in western Illinois. Galesburg was hipster before hipster had a definition. Bicycles are the token hipster hobby, design decal, etc. I saw these bicycle racks and thought of my hipster brother (who denies being hipster). Aren't they cool? Much better than the standard gray bars.

Preventing Cancer

2013-09-25T11:28:00.000-05:00

Why not start now? My grandmother went out of remission for colon cancer, my aunt was diagnosed with kidney cancer, my other aunt was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and my mom was diagnosed with nonhodgkin;s lymphoma within two years. In less than a year , I lost both my mother and aunt to cancer. My mom did everything including radiation, chemo, stem cell transplant. In the end her body was so weakened and harmed from the chemo that she died of side effects.

It scared me senseless. Would I get cancer? Would I die of cancer? Would my personality change as a result of chemotherapy? Would I lose all my hair and age ten years in just a few months? I can't control the future, but I can be a faithful steward of the body that God has given me. Stories started coming to me of people who made healthy lifestyle choices and were treating their cancer that way. I started to ask myself, "If people treat cancer naturally, how much more powerful would it be for me to prevent cancer naturally?".

I'm working right now on changing my life and possibly saving it. My husband and I made the decision as I've written of before to eat more healthy. I didn't realize how unhealthy I ate until I started to make healthier decisions! I still believe I have room to grow, but I've made significant progress. We even stopped buying dairy milk and started drinking a combination of soy and almond milk. I just haven't figured out how to part with cheese yet :).

EXERCISE! WHAT! For the first time in my entire life I started to exercise. That's right! I started a kickboxing class two days a week. I didn't even know I could sweat that much and SMELL. My mom was overweight but nothing ridiculous. She used to say how she never worked out a day in her life. I don't know if exercising would have prevented her from getting cancer, but what I do know is that she would have been healthier and stronger. Instead of telling myself things like "I'm not athletic", "I look stupid working out", or "I'm not a health junkie", I made a choice to be healthy.

Also, check out this site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just stumbled on it today and it's incredible

http://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/what-every-new-cancer-patient-needs-to-know/

Baby at the Shedd

2013-09-19T09:14:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting to paint this picture for nearly two years, and I finally worked up the nerve to do it. I took snap shots of it at different times in the process. It's fun to see the progression.

Two Substantial Vegetarian Couscous Recipes

2013-08-27T12:37:00.003-05:00

Chickpeas, Spiniach, & Cauliflower Couscous
Codeforsomething.com

http://www.codeforsomething.com/2012/02/recipe-chickpeas-spinach-cauliflower-couscous/
This was excellent. The flavors were full and intriguing. I didn't have the called for spice garam masala so I just substituted with curry and allspice.

Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Couscous Salad
ohmypancake.blogspot.com

http://ohmypancake.blogspot.com/2013/02/recipe-repost-roasted-eggplant-tomato.html
The only thing I would do differently is to cool the couscous before mixing in the warm veggies. Kinda have a mixed bowl of temperatures.

USDA: Official Cost of Food at Four Levels

2013-08-25T09:54:00.000-05:00

Food budgeting for us is a challenge. Our budget currently is $60 dollars a week. We go over frequently, but rarely more than $5-10 dollars. It's a good goal for us, and lately we've been fantastic at meeting it.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion issued a table presenting the average weekly and monthly cost Age/Genger groups and Families of 2 and 4 and their correlating average cost of food at four levels Thrifty Plan, Low Cost Plan, Moderate Cost Plan, and Liberal Cost Plan.

"To calculate overall household food costs, (1) adjust food costs for each person in
household and then (2) sum these adjusted food costs."
Accordingly, the weekly average of food on the Thrifty Plan for my family
((Family (M&F) of 2, 19-50 years) 87.30 + (individual child of 2-3 years) 23.5) + .5%(total)= $116.34

Ok that was super confusing. Essentially, using USDA's equation my family should be spending $116.34 on average per week and this is based on their studies of healthy eating. "The Food Plans represent a nutritious diet at four different cost levels" (USDA).
DID YOU READ THAT?!!! I'M INCREDIBLE! I manage to feed my family in a healthy way $56.34 less than the average, healthy, expected weekly amount. AND THAT WAS THE THRIFTY PLAN!!! How? Simple! I don't buy junk food, I plan for my meals, buy off brands, and if able plan my meals around what is on sale.

Gluten Free Birthday Cake

2013-08-24T18:11:00.004-05:00

My baby turned two. A good friend of ours is severely allergic to gluten, so I made my first gluten free birthday cake. It is a white cake with strawberry icing.
Just 3 easy steps
Recipe
1. Any old gluten free baking mix
2. Omit the flour, baking soda, or rise agents
3. Replace the called for amount of flour with the equivalent amount of baking mix.
That easy.

The strawberry icing was a first for me. I used this recipe which was very good. The salt added somethin' special.

Not just Chili

2013-08-22T09:14:00.001-05:00

Listen to this!
Vegetarian chili over homemade potato wedges! Yup it changed my world. So good. Remember chili is 100% tastier with cilantro and fresh lime juice.

http://www.treehugger.com/easy-vegetarian-recipes/quick-delicious-vegetarian-chili-fries-vegan.html

Sugarless, Flourless, & eggless Cookies

2013-08-20T09:43:00.002-05:00

Like any other true American, I like dessert. I also like to eat sweet things. We don't often think of sugar this way, but it is a spice. People can become more or less sensitive to spice depending on how much and how often they consume it. My husband's aunt once told me that green bell peppers are "too spicy". WHAT! I don't detect anything hot in the spicy sense. If anything, bell peppers are sweet. When I was a kid my parents had company. Our guests watched in shock as we ate our dessert w/ a glass of ice water next to each of us. Because it was "sweet" SOOOOOO SWEET! As an adult I gravitate towards desserts that aren't as sweet. Not because I hate sugar but because desserts are more often than not too spicy

Here is a cookie recipe that's super easy and I love it because besides the chocolate chips all the sugars are natural and simply not as spicy.

2 ripe bananas

1 cup quick oats

1/2c chocolate chips

1 heaping spoonful of natural peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

oven 350* 15 min.

Next time I make these I think i'm going to omit the chocolate chips and sprinkle some cinnamon on top. Ooooh maybe even a sprinkle of ground chili pepper. OMW!

Yes, Still Vegetarian

2013-08-18T11:30:00.002-05:00

I understand now the slope to becoming a health food junkie. You start w/ "I'm going to eat veggies" and end up with ORGANIC EVERYTHING! Ok, I'm not there yet, but I am starting to consider buying almond/soy milk rather than cow milk. The added cost to our food budget however would be less than ideal. I expected to start craving meat. However, what I have found is that meat doesn't have the same appeal that it once had.

What's been a blessing, is that I've finally started to get the hang of this type of cooking, so I've started to experiment and make stuff up rather than follow new recipes. I've experimented with polenta a lot, and plan to soon make a polenta, gluten free pizza! We've made a lot of repeat recipes this summer, so I haven't had as much to write about. Also, some of our dishes have been flops, so I don't see the point of sharing them. A new staple in our home has been lentil tacos. They're super easy and super good. Just cook lentils in water, add a taco seasoning packet and cook off water to desired thickness.

Here are a couple new recipes that I have tried over the past couple of months that have been FANTASTIC!

http://orangette.blogspot.com/2013/06/told-you-so.html

Pasta with Yogurt, Peas, and Chile.

Can I just say KILLER good. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good! Incredible good!

While staying with our dear friends and incredible cooks Lisa and David in Seattle, Lisa made this delectable dish. Since, I have made it at home. It's expensive because of the pine nuts. But! soooo worth it. I love the alternative of yogurt rather than butter to make the pasta creamy, the pine nuts, the peas, the red pepper flakes. OMW INCREDIBLE

http://veggiezest.com/2012/10/18/moroccan-tagine/
I had to use canned tomoatoes instead of fresh (bummer). Also, my grocery store was out of zucchini, so I used extra eggplant. I omitted the unnecessary sugar . I would add extra raisins next time to make it naturally more sweet.

Vegetarian Meals Week 5

2013-06-24T16:03:00.000-05:00

This week I got all of my recipes from www.twopeasandtheirpod.com. I really like their recipes, but they often lack the spicy hot that I love. I usually add a little extra crushed red pepper if their recipes call for it. And this week I even added jalopeno. Another critique is that their recipes dirty sooo many dishes. Also, for some reason they roast vegetables where I would saute them. However, their dishes are healthy and creative.
Spinach Salad with Trotellini

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/spinach-salad-with-tortellini-dried-cranberries-apples-almonds-and-feta/
It's official! I don't like tortellini. It didn't even add anything to the salad

Spinach Mushroom Cannellonii

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/spinach-mushroom-cannelloni/
I was under-wowed by this recipe. It was just a lasagna that was more work and not worth it.

Creamy Polenta with Roasted Mushrooms

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/creamy-polenta-with-roasted-mushrooms/
Excellent!!! However I sauteed the mushrooms instead of roasting so I wouldn't have to turn on my oven. Also, added 1/2 a jalopeno and tomatoes.

Vegetarian Meals Week 4

2013-06-14T08:39:00.001-05:00

Greek Tortellini Salad

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/greek-tortellini-salad/
Note: It should have been amazing but something seemed to be missing. Next time I will try more cheese and use the juice from the can of olives as part of the dressing.

Stacked Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/stacked-roasted-vegetable-enchiladas/
Note: I will now for always stack my enchiladas rather than roll them. So much easier! I used chihuahua cheese instead of monterery jack. Needed much more cheese and a little more sauce than what it called for. I will try another recipe before settling on these vegetarian enchiladas.

Roasted Potato Frittata

http://www.treehugger.com/easy-vegetarian-recipes/Roasted-potato-frittata-onions-peppers.html
Note: Makes a better breakfast than dinner

Vegetarian Meals Week 3

2013-06-07T11:05:00.000-05:00

This has been our third week of buying and cooking vegetarian. We were just $3 dollars over our food budget!, so things are starting to even out.

Lentil Tacos
I put lentils and water in a pot and brought to boil. Then I turned down the heat and let them simmer until the lentils were a consistency that I wanted (30min?). I had too much water, so I dumped out some of the water. I then added a my favorite taco seasoning (Aldi's brand) to the lentils. This seasoning for those who care is NOT gluten free. Essentially I let the water cook out until it was a good thick consistency. I dressed the tacos with our favorite taco dressings. I thought the lentil tacos were just ok. I could have just flavored pinto or black beans for the same effect. My husband emphatically disagreed, and my 1 year old LOVED them.
Braised Coconut Spinach Chickpeas Lemon

http://www.treehugger.com/easy-vegetarian-recipes/braised-coconut-spinach-chickpeas-lemon.html

Next time I would cut the requested amount of sun-dried tomatoes in half. I don't know if adding the ground ginger at the end was at all necessary. If anything I think it made the recipe too bitter. More crushed red pepper should also be added than what the recipe calls for. If the amount of desired changed is any indication, it was not my favorite recipe, but maybe worth another go.
Baked Polenta Pie

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/baked-polenta-pie/

This recipe was incredible! It's gluten free because polenta is a grain that is corn based not flour based. The only thing I would do differently next time is substitute the vegetables for whatever is on sale rather than following the recipe religiously. I put A LOT of crushed red pepper in the sauce which made it AMAZING.

I Went Vegetarian

2013-05-31T08:44:00.000-05:00

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/avocado-strawberry-spinach-salad-with-poppyseed-dressing/
Note: I found the avocados unnecessary

"I went Vegetarian." Wow! I've always made fun of people who say things like that. My husband prompted me based on this article about antibiotics in meat. My paranoia about cancer enticed me to agree to "Go vegetarian" what! We decided not the be religious about it and have meat when we go out to eat and people come over. The plan is to not buy meat regularly so that we can afford better quality meat every once in a while.

Each week, I've been trying 3-4 new recipes. It' an entirely different way of cooking and it has been a little more expensive for us because the staples are different with vegetarian cooking. For example, I go through a lot more olive oil than usual. Adding new things to my pantry like apple cider vinegar, red whine vinegar, and sunflower seeds have also impacted our start-up cost. For example, our weekly budget for food is $60 and last week it cost $70 dollars for groceries.

Along with the above "Avacado Strawberry Spinach Salad". Here are some more recipes I've tried over the past couple of weeks.
Chickpea Salad with Feta and Mint

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/07/jamie-oliver-chickpea-salad-with-feta-and-mint-recipe.html
Note: Rather plain on it's own, but it would be fantastic in pita bread. Also, I used a serrano pepper stead of a fresh red chili pepperr.

Pico de Gallo with Chickpea, Avacado, & Queso Fresco

http://www.mangotomato.com/2012/03/how-to-cook-chickpeas-from-scratch-plus.html
Note: Perfect just the way it is

White House Salad from "Biggest Loser"

http://www.ivillage.com/white-house-salad-biggest-loser/3-r-319466
Note: Needs fresh lime juice & avocados to taste complete. Maybe even some sunflower seeds.

Asian Slaw with Ginger-Peanut Dressing

http://www.onceuponachef.com/2011/03/asian-slaw-with-ginger-peanut-dressing.html
Note: Perfect just the way it is, and my favorite so far

Sweet-Chile-Pineapple-glazed Tofu

http://spoonwithme.com/2011/10/16/sweet-chile-pineapple-glazed-tofu-with-mixed-veggie-stir-fry/
Note: Next time I will use more chili garlic paste than requested. Use pineapple juice from a can of cubed pineapples for the glace and put the pineapples in the stir-fry

Raw Cookie Dough Bites

http://www.adashofcompassion.com/2011/01/raw-cookie-dough-bites/
Note: Perfect just the way they are

Interesting fact, by chance all of these recipes are gluten free.

DIY Nursery for Two

2013-02-13T15:56:00.002-06:00

Making a nursery for two posed a few challenges. One I had no budget which means spend almost no money. Two I have an apartment, so I can't paint walls,, put in built-ins to conserve space etc. Three the room is small.

Friends gave us a toddler bed which saved us from buying a new crib or toddler bed. My crib is a converter crib, but my 18 month old needed to move out for the baby. Now all we need to buy is a new mattress for the crib.

All of my furniture was mismatched either pieces that were given or craigslist purchases. Also, I can't brag about the quality of any of these pieces, so painting them was a more than viable option. I chose to paint all of them white not only to save on cost of only having to buy one color but also to create cohesion in the space.

To add a little spice to my plain white furniture, I painted a bold green stencil on the baby-doll cradle and the end table. The stencil was a find while going through my parents basement c. 1983. I'm not a big fan of stencils, but I wanted something graphic and bold. Forcing myself to choose from my already acquired acrylics also helped saved me from spending money.

Space is a HUGE issue in this room. Using a dresser as a changing table helps. Keeping baby toys to a precious minimum is also a huge space saver. A 18 month old only needs so many toys of each variety. Utilizing closet space well keeps clutter out of the bedroom. I love using wicker baskets to hold diapers, burp cloths, etc. The key to good space management is to rearrange rearrange, and rearrange furniture. One must find a furniture placement that fools the eye and still lends to a good flow.

I want to give a special thanks to my sister and friend for spending well over 8 hours painting this furniture for me. :)

Homemade Watercolor Stationary

2012-12-29T08:58:00.002-06:00

Winter Barn Wedding: Gray, White, and Blue

2012-12-17T11:39:00.000-06:00

Gray, White, and Blue

Have you ever seen a prettier use of Baby's Breath

Table Centers

Pie & Hot Chocolate Bar