Monday, June 10, 2013

Spinach fettucini

June 9 & 10, 2013

Yesterday we had plans to go to the zoo with a friend. My daughter and I had leftover shepherd's pie and my son had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. After the zoo, we decided to all go out to eat together. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings. My daughter and I had black bean burgers and my son had macaroni and cheese.

Today my daughter packed a sandwich for lunch. She decided to try our new jar of sunbutter (peanut butter equivalent of sunflower seeds). She also packed some leftover salad and strawberries. My son ordered school lunch. I didn't know what I felt like eating so I settled on a quesadilla of almond butter and bananas. It was ok but it wasn't what I wanted. I hate those days.

I decided to make a batch of the cookie dough hummus for the kids to snack on after school. Oh who am I kidding? It was for me too! That stuff is addicting. We haven't had it for awhile so you should have seen the kids faces when they got home. "You NEVER make hummus"! Ha. Ok, guess I better make it more often. I changed it up a bit today. The recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie calls for 1 can of chick peas (1 1/2 cups), 1/8 plus 1/16 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp vanilla, up to 1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk), and 2/3 cup brown sugar. Ugh. That is way too much sugar. I only use 1/3 cup and it is still plenty sweet. I used half honey and half brown sugar to equal 1/3 cup. The last ingredient is 1/4 cup of your choice of nut butter. I have only made it with peanut butter before but today I tried half the batch with sunbutter and half with almond butter. Oh yeah, and don't forget to stir in some chocolate pieces too! I served it with apple slices and cinnamon graham crackers. Is it me, or does it kind of look like a smiley face?! There really wasn't much of a taste difference between them. Although, my daughter and I both liked the sunbutter one better. The kids (and I) ate the entire batch! So much for leftovers for later. Ha.

My daughter asked for spaghetti and chickpea "meat" balls for dinner. I didn't feel like putting much effort into dinner after doing a bunch of yard work. We compromised. I had a bag of spinach fettucini to try. I was going to open a jar of homemade spaghetti sauce but then saw that I had half a jar of home canned tomatoes in the fridge. Hmmmm. I decided to do a light fresh sauce instead. I sauteed onion and garlic in a little vegan butter then added in the tomatoes, a tiny splash of olive oil, a fresh basil leaf, oregano, salt, and pepper. I steamed cauliflower for an easy side. When the pasta was almost done cooking, I figured I would make "chicken" scallopini tonight too. Super easy. Just heat a little oil and brown for about 3 minutes per side. I topped our pasta with freshly grated parmesan cheese. The kids were surprised the pasta was made out of spinach. You couldn't even taste it. The scallopini was similar to the chicken tenders we had made before (Gardein brand). Not too bad for fake out meat.

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