The Laughing Cook

National Guacamole Day.....

2012-09-16T15:03:00.001-07:00

Happy Guacamole Day

After seeing a post from Paula Deen's website about it being National Guacamole Day I decided to make some at home today. I do make a lot of guacamole but it has been a while.

I tend to make my guacamole with a lot of ingredients in ratio to the actual avocado in the guacamole. I don't measure I just chop and eyeball the ingredients and depending on my mood, it comes out a bit different every time.

The guacamole pictured has the following ingredients, in no particular order:

1 Haas avocado smashed

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 ripe tomato, diced

1/2 tsp jalapeno minced

1/2 a bunch of cilantro roughly chopped

1/4 sweet onion diced small

1/2 tsp salt(plus some more to taste)

1/8 tsp pepper

I just throw everything in a bowl, mix well and serve with Blue Sesame Chips. It can be served with any tortilla chips you like. I do not usually put lemon or lime juice in mine, but I have and it tastes great and helps to keep the avocado from turning black, so if you have one available feel free to use it to your liking.

I am the only person in my family that eats this, so I get to eat it all. Unfortunately, I eat it all! It should probably feed at least 2 people. Love it because it is all natural, vegan friendly and filling. Enjoy!!

Learning to cook....

2012-09-11T18:10:00.001-07:00

I am definitely not a great photographer, but this evening I made a great dinner and I felt like I wanted to share it. It has been about 2 weeks now since I have any red meat, in fact the only animal protein I have had were some Blue Crabs last weekend.

Tonight I threw together some vegetables with whole wheat spaghetti and Tofu for a surprisingly good meal. I don't have a recipe to post, I usually don't use them so I will do my best to describe my process.

I steamed some broccoli and carrot chips for 10 minutes. I then sauteed some sliced baby bok choy, Vidalia onions in some toasted sesame oil. When they became soft (about 5 minutes of stirring) I added the broccoli, carrots, minced garlic and cubed tofu. I then added some Teriyaki sauce (5 or 6 shakes of the bottle) and a bunch of cooked whole wheat pasta.

I am still amazed at how good eating can be without the meat, eggs or cheese that I used to seem to use in every meal. I now realize that I was drowning everything in cheese and missing the wonderful flavors that are in the vegetables naturally. After all, before this I really only ate broccoli with a cheese sauce or drowned in butter.

So, here is my contribution to those who are trying to eat healthy and maybe trying to do the Vegan thing. My husband ate the tofu and he survived, so there is still hope for him.

On the road to Vegan-ism......

2012-09-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

After watching a movie recently, Forks over Knives I find myself wanting to pull away from meat and dairy. Now I know what you are thinking, "Give it a week and it will wear off." But the truth is although I do not hate meat, I have never been a huge fan.

So, I decided to go slow and just not have meat for a week. And I have to tell you, after about 3 days I felt great. Less tired, more alert and I have lost about 4 pounds. I have had some dairy but I have cut back drastically. I did have Blue Crabs with the family one night, but that was it.

I think this may be something I could like. I basically eat any and all vegetables and fruits and I love to try new recipes. So why not combine them and come up with a lifestyle that may have health benefits and help me lose some weight.

The recipe I used was from Savvy Vegetarian and it is dairy free. I was skeptical at first, but I have to tell you it is great. The only changes I made were I sauteed some asparagus spears in sesame oil and put it on top instead of parsley. The oil gives it an additional layer of flavor. The picture above is an actual picture of the soup I made and as you can see I added some croutons for crunch.

I really like it and will take it for lunch this week. I find cooking like this filling and satisfying. Can't say I am ready to be done with cheese yet, but meat is off the table.

Why The Laughing Cook....

2012-07-08T17:21:00.001-07:00

I have spent many years trying to hone my skills in the kitchen. I started with lots of cookbooks that were at first like Bibles to me. I tried different recipes and some were successful others not so much. But while trying so many different recipes came the ability to cook without a written recipe in front of me. So, this is a place for me to share what I cook, where I eat and what I read about cooking. I hope you find it insightful and helpful and maybe a bit humorous. Enjoy.