Living in Green Jeans

Pizza Dough Step by Step

2012-04-22T14:51:00.001-07:00

Next to the amazing topping you can put on your pizza, the crust is extremely important, it should have a simple flavor so your toppings will stand out but not a boring tasteless flavor. I find this hard to achieve. I plan to add garlic infused olive oil to my next try just for fun. So I want to highlight the crust recipe. I would love to hear what other find that works.

So here is what I did for this weeks Friday Night Pizza dough.

These are the main ingredients:

2 Cups Warm Water
2 Packages Yeast or about 4 1/2 teaspoons
Pinch of Sugar
2 1/2 t Salt
2 1/2 T Olive Oil
5 - 6 Cups Flour (I add to the 5 cup point and then while mixing I add more until it pulls easily from the sides of the bowl and maybe more while kneading it).

Garlic salt or garlic infused olive oil might be a nice addition.

Combine warm water, yeast and sugar, I let this sit for about 5 minutes until it gets a bit frothy.

Sometimes it even gets frothier than this but this will work.

Then I add the salt and the olive oil and if you want to try the garlic powder you can add it here too.

Than add some of the flour I add about 2 to 2 1/2 cups until combined

Add remaining flour to about 5 cups

My arms were tired today so I put to the mixer to finish adding the flour and to knead the dough, time to knead is about 7 minutes.

I move the dough to a glass bowl greased with olive oil and let rise until at least double in size, I have had this take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

Here is how it will look after it rises, now at times I have been busy and it rises even bigger.
From this I get about 4 pizza.

This whole process takes about 15 minutes to prepare and then the rest of the time it is sitting rising in the bowl. So if you think you don't have time to make pizza from scratch you will be surprised at how little effort this takes for a truly wonderful taste.

Where to shop while we wait for our garden to grow

2012-04-20T19:22:00.002-07:00

I am so beyond excited to have our garden well on its way and adding to it everyday. While we wait I am lucky enough that our farmers market opens fairly early here and now one of our farmers is even there Monday through Saturday. Today I went there and here is what I got for forty dollars and that was only because I bought a bunch more plants to add to the garden. So skip the grocery store and go buy fresh and local. Happy cooking.

I will post our our meals tomorrow.

3 packs strawberries, potatoes for .50 lb, 2 onions

1 large cucumber, 3 squash, 3 green peppers, bunch of carrots

2 large heads of lettuce and a very large cabbage

9 - 4 packs of veggies to plant

Are you green and you don't even know it?

2012-04-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

I kind of find the term "being green" almost too trendy. I grew up living mainly with my mother and she was definitely a "green" chick but she was not labeled that, maybe we looked at her as being cheap, frugal, a hippie, and oh my heavens she sent us to school with the most awful meals, not one single person ever wanted to trade lunch with me. My lunch went something like this, first had the Tupperware lunch box - this one to be exact. In it there was usually this thermos filled with a barley soup and in the sandwich compartment of our Tupperware lunch box there was squished in there a half of a pita bread filled with lettuce, sprouts and carrots with a homemade oil and vinegar dressing (now I know this sounds good but not to a 9 year old) Oh and of course there was some type of fruit, apple, orange or grapes were the standard. So we had what is a very healthy lunch which probably explains why I was a pretty fit kid. See so we wasted no plastic bags or wrap everything was reusable. Did my mom do this to be green, no not likely it was to save the expense of zip-lock baggies and plastic wrap or foil, it was to save the cost of paper bags too. She was very frugal and in turn it was totally awesome for the earth, we did not use plastic water bottles EVER. As a child I thought this was a punishment, I just wanted a Twinkies like all the other kids, but now to my mom I say thank you. First I thank her for feeding good healthy food that did not rot my body (I did though go wild as I got older and ate like crap which explains why I have an extra 50-60 pounds I need to get rid of, but that is another story), and second for being kind to the earth. Oh and when my mom did use plastic baggies we washed and reused them.

If you just take a few steps to be frugal it will end up being kind to the earth and that is a great thing. If you are being frugal already you are being green and don't even realize it.

Keep living green and healthy.
Peace and love.

What's for Dinner?

2012-04-19T16:18:00.002-07:00

Last night I repeated our Bean Burrito recipe for an easy quick homemade meal.

Tonight after a long day of working in the garden I really wanted something quick so I made homemade Mac & Cheese and for a nice side a green salad would make a complete meal.

Dawn's Mac & Cheese

1 1/2 lbs Cooked Pasta (tonight I used Rotini but you would use your favorite)
1/4 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Celery - finely chopped
1/2 Cup Onion - finely chopped
3 Cloves Garlic - finely chopped
1 t Salt
1/4 t Fresh Ground Pepper
1/3 Cup Flour
2 Cups Milk
3 Cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese (I use the larger shredding tool)
1 Cup Pecorino Romano (I just use the fine hand shredder for this one)

Topping
1 Cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese - Shredded
1/4 Cup Pecorino Romano Cheese - Shredded
1/2 Cup Bread Crumbs (I used the Italian Seasoned ones for this, it was what was in the cupboard but even when I have just plain I will spice them up with the Italian seasoning it adds a nice flavor.

Cook and drain pasta. While the pasta is cooking in another pan melt butter, saute Celery, Onion, Garlic, Salt and Pepper until golden brown and soft. Add Flour and stir then slowly stir in Milk, simmer and stir until thickened. Stir in Cheeses until combined and then stir with pasta until well combined. Put this evenly into a glass dish. Stir together cheeses and bread crumbs and spread evenly on the pasta.

Cook on 350 for 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Boil your pasta.

Chop celery

Chop onion

When I say 3 cloves it is your choice on the size and add more if you like. I love garlic!

Finely chop your garlic

Here is what gets sauteed in the butter.

Saute this until a nice golden brown.

Add your 1/3 cup flour to the golden brown mixture.

This is what the mixture will look like with the flour added.

Gradually add in milk and stir until thickened.

Add your cheddar cheese to the mixture.

Add your Pecorino Romano to the mixture.

Mix together the 1 cup cheddar, 1/4 Pecorino Romano and Bread Crumbs.

Pour pasta mixture in baking dish.

Top with the bread crumb mixture.

Hot out of the oven.

Beef or Chicken Pot Pie for dinner #9

2012-04-18T16:08:00.002-07:00

I have a favorite meal, it is my favorite because my family absolutely loves it too, that always makes me happy.

My recipe for tonight (well actually last night) was inspired by one in a booklet that I got free, it was a great recipe except it used canned stuff and a pre-made pie crust, I have been trying to avoid the pre-made stuff and unless I was super crushed for time I did not use a pre-made pie crust I made one from scratch and it is easier than you think and you can so taste the difference. You can use a food processor or a hand dough cutter I have found either to be fast and easy. So use your favorite crust recipe or if are in a crunch for time you can find a pre-made one but try to find one with no gross ingredients.

Chicken / Turkey / or Beef Pot Pie
(Last night I used beef but I much prefer the chicken or turkey).
2lbs Beef / Chicken / Turkey (I go for organic here)
2 Cups Water
1 t Salt
1/4 t Pepper
2 Cups Corn (I used frozen this time, as it was what I had on hand but you can use fresh and cook it in with the beef/meat)
1 Cup Carrots - Chopped
1 1/4 Cup Celery - Chopped
3/4 Cup Onion - Chopped
3 Garlic Cloves finely chopped
3 T Olive Oil
1 3/4 Cup Beef / Chicken Broth - See instructions below
1/2 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Butter
1/3 Cup Flour
1/2 t Salt
1/4t Pepper

Warm 3 tablespoons Olive Oil in frying pan, add meat and saute until browned on most sides. To make the broth I add the 2 cups Water, 1t Salt and 1/4t Pepper cook over med/hi heat for about 5-8 minutes. Drain off the liquid into measuring cup, I got about 1 3/4 cups and left a bit in the pan, set aside the broth. Add to the meat the Carrots and Celery, cook about 8-10 minutes, turn off the heat and add corn.

Note: for the Chicken or Turkey I usually take my chicken or turkey after a meal and boil with some water, you can add salt and pepper but usually said chicken or turkey was seasoned and now I am just adding water to cover bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for about 20 minutes, I strain the liquid and once cooled I freeze it so not only do you have a broth without an overload of sodium but it is

In a separate pan melt the butter and add onions and garlic cook 2-3 minutes, gradually whisk in the flour, salt and pepper until blended. Slowly stir in the broth and milk and cook until thickened. Turn off heat. Mix together with meat and veggies. Roll crust to fit pie plate pour mixture in, top with second crust . This cooks for about 40 minutes on 425.

Some of the chopped vegetables.

Sauteed Beef with Celery and Carrots added - Cook about 5-8 minutes

Pan I use to saute the onions with butter

Here is your beef broth

Beef with all the veggies

What your onions will look like sauteed with the butter and then flour added.

Adding the broth and then milk to the onion, butter, flour mixture. Stir until thickened.

My pie dough.

Pyrex is my favorite. I will post more about buying older Pyrex.

Poke bottom of crust with fork.

Pour mixture into the bottom pie crust.

Top and crimp.

Pie just out of the oven after 40 minutes.

We get 6 large slices out of this pie. Since the crust I use is a little flakier due to the whole wheat pastry flour next time I want to try individual mini pies.

Enjoy!

Dinner #8

2012-04-17T15:53:00.002-07:00

So I was in the mood for something quick but yummy. Thankfully I am getting better about taking meat from the freezer instead of having to soak in hot water to get it to thaw last minute. I have used the microwave but I just am not a fan of the microwave so I avoid it at all costs.

Anyway I don't really have a recipe, I simply took boneless/skinless chicken breast and put them in about 1/3 cup Teriyaki Sauce mixed with about 1 1/2 cups water poured that over the chicken and then I decided to add the leftover dressing from the Asian Wraps on top and just flipped them in the sauce popped in the oven for about 40 minutes, the flavor was amazing. Now mind you I just used leftover sauces I had, next time I really want to make my own sauces, but I used good sauces free of nasty ingredients and used it on good clean free-range chicken. For a side dish we added corn. Nice easy meal made from scratch. Not everything you eat every day of the week has to be loads of ingredients it should just be fresh, clean and made with no yucky ingredients.

Happy Cooking. =)

See how our garden grows

2012-04-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

I debated giving up this blog and just keeping my other two but I have missed sharing about our garden and neat finds for living a more organic life in a more direct format, so after a little break I am back to writing here too.

I liken this lifestyle to a more "old fashion" life and I mean old fashion in a good way. I think we are trying so hard to be so "fashion forward" that we are filling our bodies and our homes with crap. I have been posting on my family life blog about cooking better and by writing about what I am cooking it is helping me to watch what goes in our food. Plus the most amazing thing is that I am finding my love of cooking again. I always loved to cook and bake but put that on top of loving to craft, run our book business, go on field-trips with friends and especially home-educating our children and something has to give and for so many years that was the cooking and baking. Baking has made its way back into my life because my daughter loves to bake and so I am motivated to teach her and show her family recipes. Cooking has taken a bit more time. I found it easier to order pizza on Friday nights than to make it from scratch and sometimes it was so much easier to throw noodles in a pot and a jarred spaghetti sauce in the pan and go. I was even too lazy to make a salad.

As we began growing our own food I found I was more excited to cook it, even shopping at the Farmers Market gave me that excitement to cook fresh foods. I can cook when I want to put the effort in and really it has just taken me time to get to the effort part.

You can see what I have done the last week here. I am so enjoying the flavors of the food and the smell that permeates through the house. I have had mostly positive feedback from the family. I know you think because they are my family that they will be easy on me, ha! Fat chance. They see no reason to hold back on the criticism because if it is something they don't like and they don't tell me I will make it again thinking they liked it, so they know better.

In addition to all this I am making time to exercise and be very conscious of what goes into my body and on my body. I have tried to get my family to change along with me but am now working on baby steps and things that they can't complain about (ie they like certain shampoos, deodorants, etc). So I started with making all my own cleaning products since I am the main cleaner and whether they work or not only effects me. So far I love what I have made, especially the laundry detergent. My next move it to begin working on body care recipes with my friend who has breast cancer and wants to rid herself of all chemical products. I do purchase the chemical free facial care, shampoo, etc but making my own would hopefully save me money.

As I make my next round of cleaning solutions I will write down what I put in and I will share my recipes with you and any recipes I find elsewhere.

Okay now to share a few pictures of our garden in progress. My dh expanded this year and I am so excited to have more room.

Our three original boxes we built 2 years ago. Right now we have tomatoes and asparagus (won't get any asparagus until next year) in one, potatoes and onion are in another and one is waiting to be filled.

Here is our new addition. Love this set, dh did a fantastic job. We have onions at the top, broccoli in another row, carrots and lettuce in another, not sure what is in the bottom row but something new was seeded yesterday. The other set of boxes is waiting.

This area was here last year but dh expanded out and also added that larger bottom row. In here so far we have peas.

Plus we have a mound that has strawberries and I just got two blackberry bushes.

Happy, healthy living to you.

Fun craft idea

2012-04-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun little craft, that is quick and easy. I have been used a Tupperware container for my compost bucket and I really need to have something more fun and with a handle so here is what I came up with.

Compost Bucket

You will need:
One large can - I used the clean and label removed 102oz can from my tomatoes I used in my tomato sauce the other day.
Paints
Sealer
Pipe Cleaners

This was just nice sit on my front porch with some paints and newspaper and paint project, no big set up unless you don't have paints in your house which could have been me except I bought some in December and never did the project (that is so typical me, grand ideas and no time to complete them).

I used the hammer and a nail to punch holes on either side of the can, I simply hammered the nail from the inside out into the wood, then put the wood inside the can and hammered outside in to flatten the metal from the hole. Sanded the can a bit not much just basically rubbed it around the can a few times.

I used the rounded edge of this landscape timber to hammer the hole flat. There was a bit of metal sticking out once I punched the whole with the nail so that is what I was hammering back in, basically a quick tap pretty much does it.

Here is the paint I used and the sealer above.

Painted 2 base coats.

I added a double coat of the blue and then added the strips of pink, wrote the name in blue with pink accents. Let is dry and then coated with the polyurethane and let it dry overnight.

This morning I took the pipe cleaners and put one end in with about a 2 inch tail, wrapped the tail up and then took another pipe cleaner and began wrapping from the bottom, added an extended piece by wrapping together, put the end outside in through the hole and twisted up again, I again wrapped another cleaner around this to reinforce and then one for a bit of padding, not much but I just liked it. You can really just use thick wire and then cover it with duct-tape or get creative with your handle, I just used what I had so as not to spend any money.

Happy Crafting =)

Mini Break and now for some food

2012-04-16T08:57:00.002-07:00

Okay, I decided not to type at all this weekend, it was nice to enjoy the amazing weather and be with my family.

So for meal #6 - Saturday April 14th.....well there wasn't one. I drove my son and his friend to Richmond for the X-Chili Cook-Off and then proceeded to spend a day of shopping and fun with my daughter. What a glorious day. So we did not make it home until after 8pm and by then my dh has already taken our other 2 boys out to dinner and we had snacked in the car on the way home. It was a wonderful day.

We all should have time to enjoy what we have in our lives and I sure did.

So on Sunday I was ready to cook something yummy and I was inspired by a small-plate I had at the Cheesecake Factory. FYI if you are out and about and looking for something NOT fast-food but won't break the bank I suggest these small-plates and since I cut out the nasty soda beverages I am happy to have water with lemon. The dish I got was called Chicken Lettuce Wrap Tacos, they came in three varieties and I chose the Asian, they were amazing and healthy and nothing small about this. I was full after the second one but was not going to let it go to waste. Anyway this flavor inspired my dish last night.

I made Asian Style Lettuce Wraps, because I was worried about coming up with the right flavor I did buy at Trader Joe's a Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette but the flavor was a wee bit off so I added about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and red pepper flakes to my final dish to get a wonderful flavor.

So here you go Meal #7:

Asian Style Lettuce Wraps

1lb Ground Turkey (you can us ground beef, cut up chicken or beef, your choice)
1 Carrot grated
4 Clove Garlic - pressed
1/3 C Chopped Onion
4 Small Sweet Peppers (these were my last four, yay, goal accomplished of not wasting food I buy, I tend to do that, you know forget they are in there etc and before you know it is rotten and in the trash, not this time, woo hoo)
1 C Brown Rice - cooked ahead of time
1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/2 C Water
1/2 C Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette (next time I will make a dressing from scratch but this worked for now)
2 T Brown Sugar
1t Red Pepper Flakes
1t Salt
Some ground pepper

Cook up your turkey until almost done, add the carrot, garlic, onion and sweet peppers. Cook through until soft. Add in rice, soy sauce, water, dressing, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, salt and ground pepper. Cook about 10 minutes. Time is hard for me I just cook until I can smell a really good flavor from the mixture and it is nicely browned.

Serve this on Lettuce of your choice, next time I will use a softer lettuce for easy wrapping but the head lettuce worked fine too. The top of Roman lettuce might work nicely.

I served this with a sauteed Asparagus this just had a bit of salt and pepper and was sooooo good, sometimes less is so much more.

The general consensus was that I should make it again. They liked it a lot. This is why I right things down as I go so I don't forget and I can make it again. I will make some changes, ie; make my own sauce and probably use whatever veggies I have available to mix in. That is what I love about cooking, there are so many flavors to end up with just by changing the ingredients even a little bit.

The cooked mixture

Fresh Asparagus

The mixture on lettuce

Happy Cooking.

Dinner #5 Homemade Pizza

2012-04-13T19:03:00.001-07:00

If you think that homemade pizza is too hard and too time consuming, I can reassure you that it is actually quite quick and so so yummy. I save the cost of the pizza and gas to run out and get mediocre pizza. You will love the taste of this.

I again was feeling a bit tired and almost caved but then I remembered how amazing homemade pizza tastes.

So here is my recipe for a variety of homemade pizzas.

Pizza Crust (this makes about 5 - 13 inch pizzas)

2 Cups Warm Water
2 Packages Yeast or about 4 1/2 teaspoons
Pinch of Sugar
2 1/2 t Salt
2 1/2 T Olive Oil
5 Cups Flour (May need more I add until I have a nice soft dough as I am kneading it)

Mix Yeast, Warm Water and Sugar and let sit for a bit it will start to be foamy, then stir in Salt and Olive Oil, put in the first four cups of flour stir until combined you should need another cup stir this in. From here I knead in another 1/2 to 1 cup. Today I was busy so I used my mixer to knead but I also find it good exercise to knead by hand, I am hoping it will help my flabby upper arms.

Okay from here I put it in a bowl greased with olive oil, cover with a bread cloth and let rise until double or over the top of the bowl by a nice amount, next time I will add a photo of what mine looks like when raised to where I like it.

Here is the pizza dough ready to rise.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

5 cloves Garlic
1 C Onions
1 C Celery
1 C Sweet Pepper
1 - 102 oz can of tomatoes (yes that is large but I made enough sauce to use for the week, you can even freeze for next weeks pizza)
Oregano
Basil
Thyme
Red Flaked Pepper
Rosemary
Salt
Pepper

Saute Garlic, Onions, Celery and Sweet Peppers in olive oil until browned, then pour in tomatoes and mash with masher (don't worry when this is cooled we will be blending this in the blender so they don't have to be fully mashed), I bring it to a boil then turn to low and I let this cook a good long while, hour or so stirring occasionally, then add seasonings listed and any other favorites you have and let simmer another hour.

Wait until this is completely cooled and blend in the blender for a smooth sauce.

Here is the beginning of the sauce, forgot a final pic, I will do that next time. Do you see the amazing color here, it just adds amazing flavor.

Some topping choices

Okay now for the toppings:

I like a variety since I have many tastes in our house. Tonight I just made 3 styles.

Tip: Roll directly on parchment paper, top and put parchment right on baking stone in the oven, this will make a evenly cooked through pizza and a nice crispy crust. I put my stone in the oven and warm the oven to 450 then put parchment and all right on it to cook.

#1 - Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

I chopped up the extra 2 breasts of chicken from Weds, sauteed it with 2 cloves garlic and 1/4 cup or so of sliced onion until it was a nice caramel color, then I had some leftover barbecue sauce water with about 1/4 cup water. Stirred and turned the heat off. I rolled 1/5 of the dough to a thin crust, topped with the chicken mixture and a mix of cheese. Baked at 450 for 10-12 minutes.

Pepperoni before the oven

#2 - Pepperoni Pizza

For this I prefer the pepperoni from Trader Joe's and a fresh Mozzarella. Layer the sauce then your pepperonis, then a layer of the fresh Mozzarella add freshly grated Parmesan and sprinkle with basil and oregano. Cook on 450 for 10-12 minutes.

Pepperoni, onion and pepper pizza before the oven

#3 - Sweet Peppers, Onions and Pepperoni Pizza

Layer the same, roll the crust thin, spread about 1/4 - 1/3 sauce, layer peppers, onions and pepperoni, sprinkle mozzarella, then fresh grated Parmesan, sprinkle basil and oregano. Cook 450 10-12 minutes.

So that was it for tonight. Next time I will try some fresh Sausage.

Pepperoni, Onion and Pepper pizza fresh from the oven

These bake up so quickly and taste amazing you will never want to order out again.

Also be flexible with your sauce I change mine up all the time and add some of whatever I have, can be regular peppers, carrots,etc. remember you will be blending this so these add flavor only.

Day 4 another yummy dinner

2012-04-13T06:47:00.003-07:00

Okay tonight I put together Enchiladas a request from my dear husband. As I said I am really aiming to cook completely from scratch and since I did not have enchilada sauce in a can in the cupboard I took the opportunity to make that from scratch. However I had no clue what was even in the Enchilada sauce so I Googled it and found this wonderful recipe on The Mija Chronicals for a beautiful homemade sauce. Warning: it is HOT, next time I will follow her advice and start with 2 of the Serrano Peppers, but tonight it will be spicy.

So here is what I did for Enchiladas

1 C Sweet Peppers chopped (remember I said I would be using these quite a bit this week so here they are again)
1/2 C Onions chopped
4 Cloves Garlic

Saute these in about 2-3 T Olive Oil for a good while, you want them fully browned and just yummy, the flavor is unbelievable. At the end I added 1/2 t Salt and 1/2 t Cumin and let it cook about a minute more. I could put this on toast and eat it the taste with the sweet peppers is amazing. Set this aside to cool.

Next take

3 C Grated Cheese
1 C Sour Cream
1/3 - 1/2 C Chopped Onions

Combine in a bowl and add some pepper and mix in the sauteed mixture.

Then take 12 - 13 Flour or Corn Tortillas

Put tortillas in the sauce mixture, I removed the extra just had them lightly coated because of how hot the sauce is. Put about 1/4 C mixture in each, roll and put in Pyrex baking dish. I ended up with 13 and I did stack about 5 of them on top of the bottom layer. I then put the remainder of the sauce lightly around the pan.

Cook this for 20-25 minutes then top with more grated cheese, I leave this up to you I will only use a small amount but you may want more. Cook 5 minutes more.

I am going to put a side of chopped up Avocado because I love them.

Here is the homemade Enchilada Sauce from The Mija Chronicals and usually I like to make changes to recipes but this truly needed no changes and I should have followed her advice on the 2 peppers.

Here is the final product

My final tips - I used Corn Tortillas, next time I will use flour, I like the consistency of the flour better than corn. I will eventually try to make my own flour tortillas too but for now I will look for the ones with the fewest ingredients and no gross stuff. I think the corn almost mush up and the taste is lost a bit. The flavor in these was amazing, hot but wonderful. If you want to taste more of the ingredients make sure to use only one or two Serrano Peppers.

Feedback from family: It was spicy hot but good, use flour tortillas next time and shouldn't the sauce be browner and poured on the top at the end like at the restaurant. So I will look into that for next time. Overall a respectable hit.

Eating Healthy - Dinner #3

2012-04-12T07:11:00.001-07:00

Okay so last night I was going to skip the whole dinner thing and cook something quick and then I remembered that I would be posting what we ate, soooo I cooked. Nothing fancy mind you I made it up as I went along but I wrote down what I put in it.

I am thankful to have a freezer full of chicken breast from Quail Cove Farms. I did not however have any defrosted, so I soaked the packs in hot water until I could at least slice through them. Along the way on this journey my goal is to be prepared and have what I need at the very least thawed ahead of time.

So I don't really have a name for this but I will call it - Sauteed Chicken and Sweet Peppers

4 Chicken Breasts sliced and cut to about 1 inch pieces.
6 Sweet Peppers (I bought these at Costco so I have a rather large bag so you have seen these a lot and probably will for the rest of the week.
1/3 C Sweet Onion
4 Cloves Garlic
1/4 C Worcestershire Sauce
Oregano
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Salt
Pepper

So basically I sauteed the chicken in about 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil until cooked through, in a separate pan I sauteed the Sweet Peppers, Onions and Garlic in Olive Oil for about 3-4 minutes then tossed it in with the fully cooked through chicken and added the spices (I just put in what seemed good to me, approx 1t each). I stirred and then added the salt, pepper and Worcestershire Sauce tossed for a few minutes and it was done. I probably could have cooked the chicken a little less before I combined it with the veggies.

I made a side of Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes to go with this

8 Large Potatoes
2-3 oz Cream Cheese
1/4-1/2 C butter
Salt and Pepper

Next time I will sauteed up some extra onions and finely chopped peppers to a nice golden brown and throw those in with the potatoes as I had some left over and tried them and oh my was that delicious.

So that was my meal for last night and no complaints so I happy with that.

Healthy Cooking Dinner #2

2012-04-11T07:01:00.001-07:00

Yes eventually this will roll into all meals in the house but for now I am focusing on dinners. I figure baby steps will get me to our goal. Usually I dive in full force and eventually burn out trying to change it all at once and then I give up. Not this time. So I hope you will enjoy my daily posts of what I cooked and how I cooked it. I will put the recipes but please understand I am not great at directions or rather being quick and direct in my directions =D. So I will write out how I cooked the best I can so you can see how each meal came together. Thanks for joining me on this little adventure.

So on to dinner #2.

I have lots of black beans in the cupboard and we all love them so I decided I would do a black bean burrito. This is a good quick meal, it took me double the time because as I chose what to put in I had to write it down so I can see where I started and adjust next time if needed. Anyway here is what I came up with.

Black Bean Burrito

2 - 15.5 (or near to) cans of Black Beans (I prefer organic)
1 1/2 C cooked Brown Rice (I cheated because I am using what I have left in my cupboard first and that was the 10 minute rice, so even if you are going organic finish what you have in the cupboard so there is no waste and then buy whole/organic products next time)
1/2c Sweet Onion chopped. I get the rather large ones and only use about 1/4 of the onion per recipe.
2 -3 Sweet Peppers chopped (These are smaller than the regular peppers and truly if you want more flavor use more, next time I am trying 6)
4 Cloves Garlic
1 1/4 C Smoked Gouda (Now here truly you can use your favorite sharp cheddar or any variety, I liked the Gouda but dh did not care for it so next time it will be cheddar)
1/2 C Sour Cream
6-8 Whole Wheat Tortillas (I think we made 6 but there was more left for maybe 7 or 8) Lunch today for DH =D
1/2 t Paprika
1/4 t Cayenne
2 t Cumin
1 t each - Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme and Basil
1/2 t Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 - 1/2 C water
1t Kosher Coarse Salt (or salt of your choice I just really like the taste of this but I plan to try a coarse Sea Salt as well)
1/4 -1/2 t Pepper

How I put this together:
I put about 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil in a frying pan and sauteed the Onion, Sweet Peppers and Garlic until I smelled a nice flavor or a nice golden brown (I love the smell of food cooking and you can just smell the flavor coming together as it cooks). Then I added in the Black Beans, the Cooked Rice and stirred. Then I added the Paprika, Cayenne, Cumin, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Red Pepper Flakes and the water to keep if from sticking. Once cooked through (basically this is for the beans to heat through) about 5-8 minutes I removed from the heat and let it cool about 3 minutes and put in the Sour Cream and the Smoked Gouda stirred and added the Salt and Pepper stirred once more. I put a generous portion of the mixture in the Tortilla and on DH and mine I put cut up Avocado (Yum), not on the kids though, they don't care for it unless it is mashed into guacamole. Rolled them into burrito style and ate.

You can vary this a bit by not mixing the cheese and sour cream into the mixture but save it and put it on top of the mixture once in the tortilla and again roll it up and eat.

Oh and one last option it to not even mix it all together but just heat the beans separately and then put all the seasonings in the rice and then assemble in layers on the tortilla. You can put the veggies in raw or also cook them separately and put them in cooked. So many options with this one. You can also add cut up tomatoes.

Food is so awesome and flexible have fun making it into your creation. I hope my recipes help a bit =)

Some of the ingredients you will use.

This is so gorgeous, I just love the color of the peppers, garlic and onions cooking.

UPDATE: The consensus is that assembling it separately would be better and then dh added that he would like me to make cheese enchiladas next. (I will try them this week but not next, need a few ingredients for that one)

Cooking whole foods

2012-04-09T16:35:00.001-07:00

It is time for me to make this commitment to cooking from whole natural foods without all the chemicals and gross stuff. What a difference it makes in the taste of the food we are eating. I, probably like many people, have this eternal excuse that I use daily. "I am so busy, I just don't have time to cook, I need quick things to make." I think it is time that I table that excuse and start cooking great food for my family. I love cooking but I don't love taking the time to do it, so I tell myself that I don't like cooking because I just don't have the time and then when I am done eating the quick easy stuff I feel like garbage and so does my family. One of my children keeps begging me to cook good for the family. He desperately wants to be fit and healthy. So now I think it is time to get my rear in gear and start cooking.

Tonight's recipe is Stuffed Peppers. I was inspired after eating a friends cabbage rolls yesterday and in awe of how fantastic they tasted, my friend then says that she makes stuffed peppers that way too. So today I was grabbing coffee at Giant and saw these beautiful red, yellow and orange peppers on sale and so bright and l instantly knew what I was making for dinner tonight. I then did my research on recipes and found a few that were good to start with but I like to make things my way, plus being Italian I like garlic...A LOT! So here is what I came up with.

Stuffed Peppers

6 Large Peppers (I used a mixed bag that had red, yellow and orange)
1lb Ground Turkey (you can use beef also)
1/4 to 1/3 cup Chopped Onions (I use the 1/3 as I prefer more onions)
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 1/2 t Coarse Kosher salt
2 Garlic Cloves - finely chopped
1 14-15oz can tomatoes
1t each - Thyme, Basil, Parsley, Oregano & Rosemary
3/4 cup Shredded Pecorino Romano (or cheese of your choice, I prefer a sharper taste)

Cut the tops off the peppers, chop and set aside. Clean out the seeds, place in deep pot and cover with water, bring pot to boil reduce heat to simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
Brown the ground turkey and set aside. In the same pan add some olive oil, chopped onion, chopped garlic and chopped tops from peppers, saute until soft and I like them to have some brown to them. While they saute take canned tomato and quickly blend in the blender and add your Thyme, Basil, Parsley, Oregano, Rosemary and 1t salt, this makes a quick tomato sauce.

Combine Ground Turkey, cooked Rice, the onion, garlic, pepper mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce, 1/2t salt and 1/2 cup cheese.

I use the Made in the USA glass Pyrex pans to do all my baking in. Use the 9 x 13 or similar and place peppers, stuff each to the top with the mixture, top with about 1 T of the leftover tomato sauce and about 1T of the Pecorino Romano Cheese.

Cook on 350 for 55 minutes.

These were wonderful. Next time I may add more Pecorino Romano to the mixture but these were moist and so tasty. So far 4 out of the 4 who have eaten like them.

Happy Cooking

Update: I am 6 for 6 and my non-pepper eaters left behind the pepper but loved the stuffing. =D

I love baking

2012-04-08T08:32:00.002-07:00

I am truly a baker, I grew up in a bakery when I was young, but there it was work and not the most joyful of situations. Now as an adult I am feeling the joy and the love of the whole process of baking. Pretty much since I have had my children, I have enjoyed baking with them and for them. I have some of the cutest pictures of my children baking with me, once I get them scanned in I will share those. Yes I said scanned, in the early 90's I did not own a digital camera so now I must scan all those photos into my computer and alas I procrastinate with that part, but soon I will get that done. =D

So back to baking, Samantha and I baked yesterday. First we had a failed cupcake batter (it was too heavy and just didn't taste right). Then we found a yummy Devils Food Chocolate cupcake recipe and started again and we had success. Next we really wanted to do something cute and fun on the cupcakes so we hunted for something we could do with fondant but nothing caught our fancy so we came up with this idea of the rabbit just poking his little ears out of the bunny hole. It was our first attempt with fondant and we NOT in love with that stuff at all.....until we had a bit of success and things began rolling along. We disliked working with fondant so much we were only going to make five of whatever we came up with and just frost the rest, but as this idea came along and we started rolling and shaping it began to turn to fun. My daughter got lots of practice making grass with the right frosting tip and I think she gained some muscle too. We both got practice with rolling and shaping bunny ears from fondant, nothing fancy I know but we are pleased with our completed cupcake and we had loads of fun working together. =D

Here is our finished product.

We ended up with a few more than five. Looking forward to our next fondant creation.

Happy Easter!
Peace and Love!

Have I mentioned....

2012-03-28T17:41:00.001-07:00

inside my head I am a gourmet chef, an incredible seamstress, the perfect mom, a great wife, I keep a great house, exercise every day and eat only healthy food, oh I am a size 8 too. So now for those of you who know me I will wait a moment for you to pick yourself up from rolling on the floor in laughter before I continue.

In reality I am a so so cook with about 1 in 5 or so, I can bake, hence the reason I am not a size 8, well that and I don't exercise every day, I can sew but I am average, I think my kids think I am an okay mom, my husband no matter what seems to think I am a great wife (now that's love), my house is quite disorganized and I wish I ate only healthy foods.

It is hard watching the world around us, I can totally make you think I have it all together, take pictures of my home when it is clean, take only pictures of the projects that turned out perfectly, only show pictures of when I was skinny and only show photos of the healthy meals I cook, but what fun would that be. Now don't take this to mean that I don't strive for more I absolutely do I just like to accept where I am now though, because overall it is a great place. I have amazing children, a warm home, food to put on the table, I get to be home with my children, they get to learn in a stress free environment and I have a wonderful business that I love.

If you put life in perspective you will see how good it is. Take the time to start a thankful journal, I plan to so that daily I can be reminded of all the good that is around.

Green Acres

2012-03-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Eight years ago we decided we wanted to move to a place that was less crowded than where we were living. Our perameters for our new location were that we needed a neighborhood so our kids would not be lonely. When you home-school you think of things like that just in case you don't find activities in your new location. So we hunted and we hunted and we found, at the time, what seemed like the perfect location for us, a neighborhood in a somewhat less busy location with a beautiful home and some lawn to play on.

We did not account for things like a garden or wanting to have chickens because at the time it was not on our agenda, we were knee deep in home educating our children and knee deep in life. After about three years we knew we wanted to grow our own food and truly wished we could have chickens. Well we got close have the garden and it keeps growing, alas no chickens but plenty of local farms to buy the fresh eggs from around here so all is good.

We have over the last few years transformed our backyard to fit our garden needs. Each year it grows and changes. This year we will add even more, I am so excited. I am thrilled that my husband loves to garden and continuously grows our space and added more boxes this year which more than doubles our growing space.

Here are some photos from last year.

And here is some from this year.

Since this photo this garden has increased in size.

I used to think we had to have the perfect piece of land to grow the perfect garden. I now know there is no such thing as perfect and if you take what you have and make the most of it you can have an amazing garden.

From my book blog

2012-03-16T07:55:00.002-07:00

Had to share here another great book.

I have been coming across some beautiful blogs and writing on the internet. One I have followed for quite some time. I shared her book in my last post, I hope you get a chance to read both her blog and her book.

Recently, thanks to a Martha Steward Living Magazine article, I found a wonderful new writer, her blog is called Rurally Screwed, love that title. From there I learned she has a book due out on April 3rd. Her blog is so enjoyable to read I can only imagine that her book is a great read. Don't forget to pre-order on Amazon for a great price. Could be a fun read for your book club.

Life is good, it's all in how you look at it

2012-03-15T07:34:00.001-07:00

I was talking to my sister-in-laws the other day about how people can often make it seem like they are living the perfect life and you get the annual Christmas photo of the perfectly dressed family and the letter of how wonderful their life is and how smart their perfect children are and everyone just looks so happy and then whammo out of the blue some secret life is revealed and the cover up is removed and now the family I was so envious is just like the rest of us, just trying to get through, find happiness, be a good parent and so on. Life is not always as it appears from the outside. So anyway speaking of perfection, I then proceeded to tell them out about how I had put together the cutest photo Christmas card, and got it printed off and even addressed the envelopes and then they both said to me, "I didn't get one!" I kind of laughed and said well yeah no one got one. I put them in a bag to get postage and then mail and completely forgot they were in the trunk of my car until my dear husband found them in February =(. (Insert my embarrassed face here). That is the story of my life, I have great plans and ideas but they don't always go down the path I intend.

This brought our conversation to one of my favorite scenes in a movie. The movie was Parenthood and the scene was this:

[Gil has been complaining about his complicated life; Grandma wanders into the room]
Grandma: You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster.
Gil: Oh?
Grandma: Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride!
Gil: What a great story.
Grandma: I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.

It is a perfect description of life. Life is wonderful, exciting, stressful, scary and a whole lot of other adjectives. It definitely does not always go as planned, but you can make life enjoyable but just being grateful for what is brought your way and not look at the rough stuff as bad. I also find that staying away from the daily media that blasts out mega doses of negative crap to be a very wise idea.

I am a much happier person when I don't give that negative stuff my time. That is a daily battle. Here is to a beautiful day.

Peace & Love

Inspiring..

2012-03-14T19:03:00.005-07:00

I have been reading NieNie Dialogues for quite some time. I learned about NieNie just after her accident, as people gathered together to raise funds for her and her family via auctions on Ebay. I was so inspired first by the total strangers who band together to help and then completely inspired by Stephanie Nielson and her courage and spirit. I will be buying her book and I encourage you to do the same. If her book Heaven is Here is anything like her blog you will be completely inspired by her. I can't wait until April 3rd.

Ladies Home Journal

2012-03-13T08:00:00.003-07:00

Tuesdays magazine special.

Tues, Mar 13, Subscribe to Ladies Home Journal for just $3.50/year from DiscountMags.com! Use Promo Code: 5595

2012-03-10T16:35:00.001-08:00

Great deal on a subscription to Men's Health Magazine. Code is good today through Sunday March 11.

Sat, Mar 10 thru Sun, Mar 11, Subscribe to Men's Health Magazine, as low as $5/yr for 3 years from DiscountMags.com! Use Promo Code: 2267

Here is a great deal on Seventeen Magazine. Code is good on Sunday March 11th.

Sun, Mar 11, Subscribe to Seventeen Magazine for just $4.50/year from DiscountMags.com! Use Promo Code: 6248

2012-03-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

Eleven years ago I lost my mother to ovarian cancer, on May 19th I will walk for her and all others whom cancer has affected.

If you would like to join our team go here to join and walk with us on May 19th. If you want to donate clicking the above logo will get you to the right spot.

Tuesday Magazine Special

2012-02-21T09:58:00.001-08:00

Tues, Feb 21, Subscribe to More Magazine for just $4.99/year from DiscountMags.com! Use Promo Code: 2314

Monday Magazine Special

2012-02-20T06:26:00.001-08:00

Mon, Feb 20, Subscribe to Working Mother Magazine, for just $3.99/year from DiscountMags.com! Use Promo Code: 4436