Grilled Salmon with Strawberry Salad

Wouldn't you know it! I made a delicious dinner tonight that EVERYONE liked and I didn't take a picture.
It was this recipe from Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. But I subbed salmon for the halibut. I haven't been able to find any halibut that fits in our budget yet.
Here's the pic from the RR website.

Made me seriously wish for Spring and the abundance of strawberries. We were lucky enough to get some in our Bountiful Basket on Saturday. Yay!
I served this with some steamed broccoli.
Roger, Kenzie and I loved it. The balsamic vinegar/strawberry/onion combo is YUM-O!
Emily liked it and ate a little bit of everything.
Jaxon ate his weight in salmon. The boy loves his "red fish". He enjoyed copious amounts of the rest of the meal as well.
I haven't' figured out the PointsPlus values yet. I'll add them to this post when I do.

Meal Plan and fun news!

We did our grocery shopping today. I am experimenting with a 2 week meal plan. We'll see how it goes.
Here's what we're having for dinners for the next two weeks.

~Turkey for family dinner. Sides by everyone else.
~Creamed turkey on biscuits
~Turkey wraps, fruit
~Satay Lettuce Wraps
~Grilled Salmon with Strawberry Salad
~Lemon Tilapia with garlic and parsley couscous, veggie
~Lemon curry tilapia and cool cucumber salad
~Whole wheat spaghetti with lemon basil salmon
~Pesto Pasta with asparagus and zucchini, bread
~Focaccia with blue cheese and honey, Salad
~Grilled Ratatouille, Bread
~Basmati rice with Spiced Cauliflower, flat bread, cucumber raita
~Butternut squash soup with chipotle cream, bread

I just realized I've already made a mistake by not planning for the family dinner next week. hmmm...Maybe someone else will have to bring the main dish that week.

And the fun news....
When we got home from grocery shopping, Kayleigh and Richard stopped by to tell us that they are expecting a baby a few days after Heather and David's baby is due.
Hooray for more grand babies!!!

What we did today

Unloaded one very used up rattle trap van which served us well for 9 years and a hundred thousand miles.
And brought home a new baby.

Today I ...

Paid bills and pushed our debt snowball a little closer to FREEEEEDOMMMMM!!!!
Made 12 Ginger Pear muffins...

...and tasted one.
Made 8 pieces of Soft Wrap Bread to go with the falafel I'm making for dinner tonight. Recipe to follow if the meal turns out well.

The Soft Wrap Bread turned out great! You can find the recipe on my friend, Norah's, blog.
This is an awesome recipe! There is some prep time involved but very little of that is hands on. And it uses potato flakes which I happen to have a bunch of due to a questionable food storage program that my ex-husband and I signed up for many, many moons ago.
I think if you rolled them even thinner before cooking them, they would be a great sub for tortillas. And so easy!

And after dinner tonight I am going to a play with Kayleigh and her friend.

Totally looking forward to it!

A Gift for Christy

My sweet friend, Christy, had a birthday this month.
I made her a little kitchen pretty.
A new and improved version of the dish drying mats I made a few months ago from upcycled bath towels. Improved by making them larger and binding the edges like a quilt.
And some dish towels embellished with the same fabric, which matches her kitchen.
And a towel holder for the kitchen counter. I recently added one of these to our kitchen and it's so nice to have the towel right by the sink! I can't believe I didn't think of it dozens of years ago.

Happy birthday, dear friend! So glad to have you in our lives.

Surplus Squash

I've acquired a collection of butternut squash lately due to the co-ops I've been participating in.
I love a good butternut squash soup as much as anyone but I keep forgetting to incorporate it into the meal plan.
This is what I've been doing with them for the past 2 or 3 days.

Roasted Butternut Squash Bites

Serves 1

2 PointsPlus per serving

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Line a cookie sheet with foil (for easy cleanup).
Spray foil with a bit of non stick spray.

Peel a small butternut squash, cut it in half, scoops out the seeds.
Cube the whole thing up. I like 1/2 inch cubes.
Put the cubes in a bowl. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons olive oil. Sprinkle with flavorings of your choice.
I like things spicy so I use Cajun blackened seasoning or chili lime rub.

Spread the cubes on the prepared cookie sheet, in a single layer.
Bake for about 10 minutes.
Stir.
Bake 10 more minutes or until the squash is tender and browned in places.
Eat up!

Sure you could just roast the squash halves. And skip the olive oil.
But this creates hundreds of tasty little surfaces for maximum flavor. YUM!
This would be a good side dish as well.
But then you'd have to share.

Merry Christmas from our crazy kids!

If you got a Christmas card from us this year, this is the picture that was enclosed.

If you didn't get one, don't feel bad. No one did.
I was a serious slacker this year.
Plan B was to send out an apologetic New Year's salutation with a witty bit about how "crazy" the holidays were around here.
Now that it's the last week of January and they have not only not been sent, but the pictures haven't even been printed, I am admitting defeat.
So, to all our loved ones, consider this your official

Merry New Valentine's!

From our house to yours!
Phew! Now that that is done I won't have to figure out how to work St. Patrick's Day into the whole thing.

Lazy Salmon Supper

This one is adapted from a recipe in the February 2011 issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. It's so good that I've already made it twice! As usual, Rach (Do you think she'll mind if I call her that?) allowed for ginormous portion sizes. Most of making it WW friendly was simply reducing the portion sizes a bit. And reducing the olive oil and butter.

Lazy Salmon Supper

Serves 4

10 PointsPlus per serving

1 cup chicken stock
4 scallions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 Tablespoon butter
1 cup couscous
Salt and Pepper
1 Tablespoon dried dill
juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 (4oz.) salmon fillets
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt

In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken stock, scallions, garlic and butter to a boil. Stir in the couscous and season with salt and pepper, the dill and lemon juice. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and let sit for 5 minutes. Then fluff with fork.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a non stick skillet over medium-high heat. Season the salmon with the cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Add to the skillet and cook about 2 minutes on each side for medium rare (for fish that is cooked through, add a minute to each side).

Serve the fish with the couscous alongside and a dollop (2 Tablespoons) of yogurt on top.
I served this meal with some steamed green beans.

What we thought~
I am CRAZY about this recipe. It cooks so fast! Dinner, a fantastic dinner, in about 15 minutes. YES! And it tastes soooo good! Light and fresh. So good!
Roger and Kenzie both love it too. 
Emily isn't digging the fish thing. She liked the couscous and the green beans. She ate the fish. But doesn't love it.
Jaxon likes the fish. "Red fish is my favorite". :)

More than 100

lightbulbs in our house.
We've been making efforts, as the budget allows, to make the house more energy efficient. We're trying to bring our utility bills down as much as we comfortably can.
One task has been replacing every light bulb with a CFL.
Today Roger went around the house counting just how many light bulbs we have. He came up with 100. And we found about 3 more that he forgot about.
Phew! That's a whole lot of light bulbs, huh?
How many are in your house?

Meal Plan

We're doing GREAT with our renewed resolve to stick to the grocery budget!
Here's the plan for the coming week. Most of it is from things we have on hand. And two of the meals are hold overs from last week. There won't be a lot of grocery shopping to do this week.

S~Picata Style Fish Fillets with thin pasta and wilted spinach.
S~Chicken Fajitas, Chips and Salsa, Black beans
M~Almost Marie Callendar's Potato Cheese Soup, homemade rolls or bread
T~Briami and whatever the rest of the family brings
W~Falafel on homemade pita bread, fresh fruit
T~Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas, chips, Salsa, Cilantro Lime Rice
F~Turkey, Gravy, Garlic mashed potatoes, veggie to be determined.

Book Club

Emily and I went to book club tonight.
The local library has a mother/daughter book club once a month. This was our second month participating.
This month we read Savvy by Ingrid Law. It was a fun book. The book club meetings always include some discussion, activities and crafts that are related to the book somehow. This time we did face painting.

And then we went to Cold Stone for a treat.
It's fun to spend a little one on one this way. These are the preteen years, ya know. Gotta grab those bonding moments when I can.

The problem is....

the colons and the semi-colons.
I rocked most of the test I had to take for school tonight.
It was the TABE test.
Test for Adult Basic Education.
Of all the subjects tested, I tested lowest in math. I expected that. Use it or lose it, ya know? I am confident that that would be greatly improved by simply DOING the math again. I really have no use at all for algebra in my every day life. So I get rusty. We all do. Right?!?!
The only other area that tripped me up was the Language Mechanics portion of the test and I KNOW it was all the questions having to do with the proper use of colons and semi-colons.
But even in those low areas, I was given the green light to take the GED test and just be done with it.
But I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to earn every last credit required for high school graduation.
And then, who knows? I might just rent a cap and gown!
And I might just throw myself a kick ass graduation party.
Wanna come?
Any of my smarty pants English pro friends who offer up an easy way to remember which (colon or semicolon) goes where, get a special invitation. :)

Grandpa, chilling with the little people

And did I mention that grandbaby #6 is on the way?
We need bigger laps!

Baked Costa Rican Style Tilapia with Pineapple, Black Beans and Rice

I was browsing foodnetwork.com looking for some new seafood recipes to fit our new meal plan template. I thought this one looked delicious! I adapted it slightly to be more WW friendly.

Baked Costa Rican Style Tilapia with Pineapples, Black Beans and Rice

Makes 6 servings

10 PointsPlus per serving

1 cup long grain white rice
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup orange juice
1 lime, juiced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon sugar
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
6 (5 oz.) tilapia fillets, rinsed and patted dry
2 cups jarred or homemade tomato salsa
1 (15oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups diced fresh pineapple
2 limes, thinly sliced

Combine the rice and chicken broth in a pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the rice is tender and has absorbed all the liquid. About 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the orange juice, lime juice, oil, 2 Tablespoons of the cilantro, the garlic and sugar; season with salt and pepper. Add the tilapia fillets to the marinade and turn to coat. Marinte in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, turning occasionally.

Stir together the cooked rice, salsa, beans, pineapple, and remaining 2 Tablespoons of the cilantro in a 9 X 13 baking dish.

This was when I knew things were going very, very well! Look how beautiful this is!

Remove the tilapia from the marinade, reserve the marinade, and lay the fish fillets over the rice mixture, overlapping if necessary. Pour the reserved marinade over the fish. Shingle the lime slices over the fish.
Bake until the fish flakes easily, is opaque and cooked through. This was about 30 minutes for me. It's going to depend on the thickness of your fish fillets.
Garnish with chopped cilantro before serving.

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven. Mmmmmm.... If I had a better camera, you'd be salivating right now. ;)

One serving is 1/6 of the prepared dish. A little more than a cup of the rice mixture and 1 fillet of fish (mine were tiny fillets, so 2)

What we thought~
I thought this was every bit as delicious as I suspected it would be. For some reason I LOVE the combo of fish and fruit. LOVE! Maybe it conjures up some tropical island kind of life or something. And it's so colorful! Very pleasing to the eye. I think that's important.
Kenzie loved it too. She says it's a keeper.
Roger thought it needed a little more spice than the salsa alone provided. He added a little hot sauce and loved it.
Emily liked the fish but didn't love the rice mixture. She's making a real effort to eat what is prepared even if she doesn't love it though. So she ate all her rice too.
Jaxon liked the fish but only if I scraped off all the "green stuff". (cilantro). He didn't touch the rice.
Other than Jaxon's untouched rice, there wasn't a bit leftover.

File this one under: It worked out.

A few weeks ago I bought a case of organic gala apples from Bountiful Baskets.
Why?
I have no Earthly idea.
I do like gala apples. They're my favorite.
But a whole case?!?! What was I thinking?
So we put them in the cold storage room. We ate a few.
And every weekend we got a few new apples in our Bountiful Baskets order.
I thought about them every few days.
As in: "Self, why the heck did you buy a whole case of apples? And while we're on the subject, what are you going to do with them?"
Today I finally owned up to the problem and decided to deal with them.
There were a few that had spoiled. But the rest became 2 dozen very ugly (thus no pictures) but delicious apple pumpkin streusel muffins to be used for breakfasts in the next couple of weeks.
And 20 pints of applesauce. Plus a big bowl in the fridge.

I think it turned out to be a good thing in the end. Emily loves applesauce. And Emily doesn't love too many things that we actually eat around here. So I suspect she will be the primary applesauce eater.
It is good to have some on hand to use in place of oil in baked goods too.
Yeah...it worked out.
I might even do it on purpose next time.

Light Fettucine Alfredo and Roasted Veggies

I found this recipe for fettucine alfredo on the Food Network website and adapted it slightly. I made it with dried fettucine. And not even the healthy kind. I had a box of the regular hanging out in the pantry so I made it with that. I'm sure the PointsPlus value will be lower if it's prepared with whole grain pasta. Next time I make it I'll adjust the points value to reflect the whole grain pasta.

For the veggies, I used brussel sprouts (quartered), broccoli florets, and asparagus (cut into 1 inch lengths)
I put the brussel sprouts and broccoli in a bowl and drizzled about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil over them. Season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast for about 20 minutes in a single layer on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven.
At that point I added the asparagus to the other veggies and gave it a good stir. Bake for another 10 minutes or so.
I only did this in stages because the asparagus was so thin.  I didn't want it to overcook.
In my opinion this is the most delicious way to eat a vegetable! Though I will add some chopped garlic next time. Not sure why I didn't think of it this time.
1/4 of the vegetables is one serving. 2 PointsPlus per serving.

Light Fettucine Alfredo

makes 4 servings

14 PointsPlus per serving

1 pound of uncooked fettucine
1 1/2 teaspoons corn starch
1 cup 2% milk
1 Tablespoon butter
1/4 cup light cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta in boiling water according ot package directions.
In a large dutch oven, melt butter, add milk and then whisk in cornstarch over medium heat until lightly thickened. Add light cream, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and a bit of nutmeg to taste. Whisk over medium heat just until smooth.
Add cooked pasta. Toss to coat with sauce. Serve immediately.

What we thought~
Everyone thought it would be great with chicken or shrimp in it. I asked them to think of it only as a vegetarian meal and give me their opinion.
Everyone liked it. Even Jaxon!
I was impressed that it still tasted very rich and creamy considering the lighter than usual ingredients.
There wasn't a noodle leftover so I'd say it was a success and I definitely plan to make it again.

Meal Plan

Unless there's some sort of food crises tonight, we made it!! We got through the week without a trip to the grocery store.
I did get the kids a pizza one night so that was $5 over the food budget for the past 2 weeks.
And I had to get creative for breakfasts when we ran out of eggs.
I'm calling this a win!

Here's the meal plan for the coming week:
Sat~ Light Fettucine Alfredo with broccoli, Salad
Sun~Baked Costa Rican Style Tilapia with pineapple, black beans and rice (Totally excited to try this one!)
Mon~Smoky Poblano and Portabello Tacos, Chips and Salsa
Tue~Lasagna for family dinner!
Wed~Lazy Salmon Supper, Veggie to be determined (I made this a couple of weeks ago and it is FANTASTIC! I've been excited to make it again and blog it.)
Thu~Falafel, fresh fruit
Fri~ Chicken Fajitas, Chips and Salsa, Black Beans

Renewing Date Night!

Roger and I love having date nights. I think every marriage needs them regularly!

Last year was so full of weekends spent taking care of two houses and then the holidays, and then...

We kind of  let them slide.

But thanks to a nice holiday bonus, we renewed our season passes to Hale Center Theatre this year.

Which means we have at least 6 date nights already in the bag for this year.

Starting tonight with a comedy! Born Yesterday

Is there anything as sad

as a tiny little boy forced to eat a giant bowl of beans?

He's been at the table (when he isn't crouched in a corner by the couch) crying for over 45 minutes. 

If I don't look at him, he forgets that he's supposed to be crying and the sobbing kind of fizzles out. Only to be renewed again as soon as we make eye contact.

So, why am I forcing him to eat the beans?

I'm not! I don't believe in that!

This is why he's crying.

One semi-smashed cookie that Dad has had stashed in his pocket since a work meeting earlier this afternoon.

I told him he doesn't have to eat his dinner. But he can't have the cookie if he doesn't.

He seems to be having trouble deciding how badly he wants the cookie, or how badly he doesn't want the beans.

Some days it's just REALLY, REALLY hard to be Jaxon.

Mommy/Daughter Day

Kenzie said all she wanted for her birthday was lunch with her Mommy (awww...) and shopping.
So we spent a few hours together this afternoon.

We had lunch at Mimi's Cafe. Yum!
And of course we had a little tag along...

Who absolutely would not tolerate my teasing him about eating a dirt cup. Every time I joked about the squiggly, wiggly worms in his tummy or the mud at the bottom of the cup, he reminded me, very condescendingly I might add, that it was gummy worms and pudding. Silly Mom!
After lunch we did a bit of shopping.

She's been doing a lot of clothes shopping lately though, so not much was catching her eye today.
She didn't want to go shoe shopping because her toes haven't healed yet, so that's no fun.
I asked if she wanted to get something for her room.
Do you know what she said to me?!?! She said no because she'll be moving out soon to go to college.
Can you believe that?
*insert huge, gulping, unattractive sobbing here*
Just kidding.
Mostly.
No, really. I'm actually excited to watch her embark on that journey. I think it's gonna be great.
Mostly.
And then, to wrap up our afternoon, we went to the podiatrist to have those toes checked out! Woohooo! We really know how to plan a day!

They're healing a little slower than expected but I think she's gonna make it to college. ;)

Happy Birthday, Kenzie Poo!!!
(She likes it when I call her that.)
I had a nice time with you this afternoon.

Curry Couscous with Garbanzo Beans

My friend Eileen suggested in the comments of an older post that I check out Cate's World Kitchen .
THANK YOU EILEEN!!!! I love that blog and I have already tried a couple of her recipes.
Here's one that we really enjoyed.

Curry Couscous with Garbanzo Beans

serves 4

7 PointsPlus per serving

Spice mix:
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (This was a good amount of heat for us. You might use less if you don't like too spicy)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix together in a small bowl and set aside.

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
a handful of green beans, thinly sliced (you should have about a half cup of the little slices)
I didn't have any green beans so I skipped them.
1 small zucchini, diced
1 small yellow summer squash, diced
1 medium carrot diced
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup couscous
3 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Bring the broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan.
(My carrots weren't quite cooked well enough in the end result. Next time I make it I will toss the diced carrots into the broth while it simmers or chop or shred the carrots instead of dicing.)
Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Add the onions and cook, stirring until translucent and slightly browned.
Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring for one minute.
Stir in the green beans, zucchini, squash, and carrots, salt, and spice mix and cook for 5 minutes, or until vegetables are crisp-tender.
Stir in the garbanzo beans.
Add the couscous and mix until evenly distributed.
Stir in the broth.
Turn off the heat, cover the pan and wait 10 minutes.
Fluff with a fork, sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

One serving is 2 generous cups full. Which is kind of a lot, really.
I served it with homemade pita bread, cilantro mint chutney and peach chutney. All totally optional, but delicious. ;)

What we thought~
Roger said it was really good. No complaints about the lack of meat. That's saying something!
I loved this. I loved that it's basically a one pot meal and it was ready to serve in about 20 minutes. And the leftovers have been just as good, maybe better.
Kenzie wasn't home for dinner that night.
Emily says she didn't love it and didn't hate it. Which...is saying something considering what a picky eater she is.
Jaxon ate pita bread.

Meal Plan

I've RENEWED my commitment to staying within the food budget. We overspent from the food budget for New Year's Eve which leaves me having to exercise my creativity for the meal plan this week. Other than milk and eggs, there's no grocery shopping this week. In spite of that, I pulled together a good looking meal plan using what we have on hand. Here's what we're having.

Sat~Chicken Lo Mein
Sun~Turkey Noodle Soup with homemade noodles
Mon~Yogurt Chicken, Sindhi Curried spinach, Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Tue~ The kids and I will wing it. Roger has a business dinner.
Wed~Crockpot Ham and Beans
Thu~ Date night! Spaghetti for the kids
Fri~ Homemade Pizza

We did have a co-op pickup yesterday so lots of fresh fruit and veggies on hand.

Friends

I got a little surprise at the front door last Sunday.
An anonymous gift, delivered under cloak of darkness.
Wanna see?

It came with a little note that said

"There ain't no troubles we can't rise above

With a handful of faith and a heartful of love."

I do love me some Tim McGraw
I've been a little blue lately and it looks like someone wanted to help a little.
But who????
For about ten minutes I wondered and wondered.
And then I just decided to stop wondering and feel the love.
Thank you my anonymous friend.
Carry on indeed.

Eighteen - And one day.

She is...
Smart, sensible, reasonable, responsible, beautiful, easy going.
Possibly Jaxon's favorite sister.
On her way to college soon.
Nervous and worried over that. But hopefully excited and hopeful too.
Gonna be a GREAT Nurse midwife some day.

We love her so very much. So excited to see where the future takes her because if the last 18 years are any indication, it's going to be a JOY to watch.

Love you, Kenzie! Have a nice day! Have a nice good day!

*photo by Janae Cooper Photography

PHEW!!!

Yesterday I joined in on a challenge with some of my blogging buddies to blog every day.
And then I went all frugalistic CRAZY today with about 10 different things and 40 pounds of chicken and now it's after 9pm and I haven't blogged yet today!
Oh wait! I just did!
ZZZZZ........
Goodnight! I forgot how tiring it can be to max out one's frugalness.

Living my WOTY

Renew:

to begin or take up again

Life was what it was when I was 15 and I made the choice then to drop out of high school and start a family. I have had no regrets at all. It was absolutely the right thing for ME at the time. Since then I've taken a few college classes. But now is the right time for me to get my high school diploma. So I'm going back to school! Maybe helping Emily with her math homework will be a little easier now. ;)

Renew:

to restore or replenish

A couple of years ago my confidence level had fallen so low that I had to say no to an opportunity I was offered. But yesterday I finally gathered up some courage and went for it! I was a nervous wreck beforehand, but going through with it helped restore a little self confidence.
Big thanks to my friends who offered their encouragement.

Renew:

to revive; reestablish

My renewed commitment to WW is going well so far. A quick peek at the scale this morning shows that I'm a little lower than before Christmas. Although my official weigh in isn't till Sunday.
It's almost like the holiday indulgences never even happened!
6-8 pounds to go to reestablish my ability to wear my skinny jeans. ;)

Meal Plan and a couple of "recipes"

Roger and I have worked out a new way to meal plan.
He wasn't loving the 4 vegetarian/3 meat way we've been doing thigs for the past year or so.
We've decided on 2 meat/2 seafood/3 vegetarian dinners per week.
Here's this week's meal plan:

~Grilled Veggie Sandwiches, Hot Cabbage Salad. (Cabbage on New Year's day for prosperity in the coming year. Roger insists every year and I go along because it can't hurt, right? LOL)
~Stuffed green peppers, leftover broccoli
~Black Bean Vegetable Soup, rolls
~Thai Chicken Fettuccine, sides provided by others. We have changed our weekly family dinners to Tuesday nights.
~Curry Couscous with Garbanzo Beans. Maybe some homemade flat bread.
~Lazy Salmon Supper, veggie to be determined
~Citrus Balsamic Glazed Salmon, Rice and Veggie to be determined

 (Obviously Santa did not bring us a great new camera fr Christmas. *sigh* Maybe cupid will pick up the slack in February.)

I made the Grilled veggie Sandwiches and Cabbage salad tonight.
I saw the meal prepared on some late night cooking show but then couldn't find the recipes online. So I made it up as I went along.
It's similar to the Roasted Veggie and Pesto Sandwiches that we already know and love. The guy on the cooking show made these with pesto too. But we have some spinach and artichoke dip  leftover from our New Year's Eve festivities and I figured that would be just as good. It was great! It'll be great with pesto too I'm sure.
I haven't figured out the WW points+ for it. I'll get around to it eventually.


Grilled Veggie Sandwiches
a loaf of ciabatta bread
one eggplant, sliced in 1/2 inch slices.
one zucchini, cut in half and then each half into 1/2 inch slices lengthwise. (Does that make sense?)
one yellow squash, cut in half and then each half into 1/2 inch slices lengthwise
one small red onion, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
one red pepper, quartered, seeds removed
pesto or some other yummy thing that seems like it would be a delicious sandwich spread
olive oil
Toss the veggies into a bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper.
Heat a grill pan over medium heat.
When hot, add the veggies in a single layer. Grill until well marked, turn and grill the other side until well marked and softened.
Remove veggies and set aside. But leave the grill pan on the heat.
Cut ciabatta bread open lengthwise, like a giant hamburger bun. (Make sense? This is why I don't write recipe books.)
Drizzle cut side of both halves of bread with a little olive oil.
Place cut side down on grill pan and press down lightly.
When bread is well marked, remove from grill pan.
Spread some pesto (or whatever) on the bottom half of grilled bread.
Layer on the grilled veggies, salt and pepper, and then the top half of the bread. Slice sandwich into serving sized portions.

Cabbage Salad
one medium sized head of napa cabbage, sliced VERY thin
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
one package of precooked bacon
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
1/2 cup or so of light honey mustard salad dressing ( I used Newman's Own)
olive oil
salt and pepper

Put sliced cabbage in a large bowl and toss in the blue cheese crumbles. Set aside.
In a skillet, over medium high heat,  heat a bit of olive oil. Add mushrooms and cook until they begin to sweat and then beyond that until they begin to brown nicely.
Chop up the bacon and throw it in.
Cook and stir a minute or two until the bacon is warmed.
Add the dressing and cook and stir a minute or two until the dressing is hot.
Pour the hot dressing mixture on top of the cabbage, add some salt and pepper, toss to coat evenly with the dressing.

What we thought~
Roger and I LOVED both of these recipes.
Kenzie wasn't home for dinner but I'm sure she would have liked them too.
Emily ate her sandwich but only a couple of bites of the salad.
Jaxon said, "I don't like my sandwich. I don't like the salad either. It's kind of yucky."
Ha ha! Can't please all the people all the time. That's what peanut butter sandwiches are for.

My word of the year for 2011

*~RENEW!!~*

1. to begin or take up again, as an acquaintance, a conversation, etc.; resume.

2. to make effective for an additional period: to renew a lease.

3. to restore or replenish: to renew a stock of goods.

4. to make, say, or do again.

5. to revive; reestablish.

6. to recover (youth, strength, etc.).

7. to restore to a former state; make new or as if new again.

 

—Synonyms
3.  restock. 7.  re-create, rejuvenate, regenerate, reinstate, mend. Renew, renovate, repair, restore  suggest making something the way it formerly was. To renew  means to bring back to an original condition of freshness and vigor: to renew one's enthusiasm. Renovate  means to do over or make good any dilapidation of something: to renovate an old house.  To repair  is to put into good or sound condition; to make good any injury, damage, wear and tear, decay, etc.; to mend: to repair the roof of a house.  To restore  is to bring back to its former place or position something which has faded, disappeared, been lost, etc., or to reinstate a person in rank or position: to restore a king to his throne.  

 

I have a few very specific ways in which I want to invite ~renew~ into my life. But I hesitate to say too much just yet. I want to be still with it for a while and see where it leads me.

I'm looking forward to a wonderful New Year.