Eat your beans!

June 26, 2013

I found one of my new favorite lunches today. I had leftover salad in the fridge that I wanted to use. It had spinach, lettuce, red onion, mushroom, cucumber, and radishes. I added in pea shoots, arugula, avocado, sunflower seeds, quinoa, red pepper, poblano pepper, zucchini, and black beans processed with salsa. The black beans and avocado were so creamy that I barely needed any ranch. It was delicious and I can't wait to have more tomorrow! My daughter had salad, quinoa, and a big pile of a bean mix: chickpeas, black, and pink. My son had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I received a box in the mail today. A dear friend of mine got me a three month subscription to NatureBox. I got 5 different snacks in today's box. We sampled the peanut butter nom nom's (cookies) and they were surprisingly good. I couldn't believe such a healthy snack could taste so good. I can't wait to try the rest of them out!

After spending the day cleaning, I needed a quick dinner before Karate. I made some angel hair pasta and added in a jar of my home canned spaghetti sauce and about a cup of small white beans. I steamed some broccoli. I also made another batch of salad. Yum. I was wondering how everyone would like the beans in spaghetti (never did that before). My daughter had seconds (no doubt, she's the bean lover). My son had one bite left and asked "is there beans in this"? Ha. Evidently he was preoccupied with talking while he ate.

Loaded nachos & grocery savings

June 25, 2013

My hubby had a late work day today. He made an early lunch before he headed in and there was a few bites left for me to try. He cooked up some onion, red/green pepper, and mushrooms. He added in provolone and cheddar cheese and put it in a tortilla. Oh yum. The garlic and wine seasoning (from The Melting Pot) is just so delicious. Our bottle is almost out so it looks like it is time to hit up the restaurant again! Those few bites were so good that I wanted to recreate it for my lunch. I cooked up onion, green/red pepper, poblano pepper, and mushrooms in a little local white wine. I stirred in mexican cheese. I spread some black bean and salsa (processed) in my tortilla and topped it with the veggie mix along with some arugula. Yum. Yum.

My pre-challenge grocery shopping average was $175. My cupboards have been building up again (I can't stop buying dry beans, pasta, and rice) and I still had some fruit/veggies but I couldn't put off shopping any longer. I had to go today. I ran out of mountain dew (gasp!), paper plates (which is a no go in my house), along with other stuff we use on a regular basis. I wanted to keep the food portion of my bill down today and have us use up some of what we have at home already. Today I spent $45.29 on toiletries/cleaners. Yikes. I told you we were running out of stuff! I spent $66.45 on food. I could have had that $13 lower but I had four dollar off coupons that would expire before I shop again (on freezer "non" chicken items) so I figured I would grab them today and stick them in the freezer. I spent $2.99 on impulse items. I saw cranberry orange oatmeal cookies from the bakery. Yeah, there was no walking past those cookies! I spent $7.26 on gossip magazines. After adding in their surcharge and taking out my coupons, I spent $120.53 out of pocket. This is a savings of $54.47. My pre-challenge weekly average at restaurants was $80. This week we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings (with a coupon) and ordered a pizza. We spent $56.71 which is a savings of $23.29. The kids are out of school for the summer so I can't count their school lunch savings. Boo. Our weekly savings is $77.76. This brings our grand total savings to $3,955.71 in 251 days!

My daughter had a pizza party for her final Girl Scout meeting tonight. My son wanted to just have cereal, strawberries, and a yogurt smoothie for dinner. Perfect. It gets my hubby and I off the hook for dinner. I decided to make some nachos for us. I wanted to add some veggies to the nachos so that I could pretend we were eating a somewhat healthy meal. Ha. I sauteed some red onion, fresh garlic, red/green/poblano peppers, zucchini, and mushrooms with garlic wine seasoning in local white wine. I let the mixture cool while I picked up my daughter. I layered tortilla chips, the veggie mixture, cilantro, black beans, avocado, and black olives. My hubby put crunchy jalapenos (salad toppers) on his side. I topped it with some mexican and cheddar cheese. It went under the broiler until the cheese was melted. After it came out of the oven, we added sour cream. Pull up to the couch with a couple of beers and our nachos. Ahhhh. My kind of night. How did the veggies work on nachos? Oh. My. Gosh! I LOVED them. You would think that zucchini wouldn't belong. However, it was delicious. My hubby said they were really good. He would like a little taco flavor in them next time. Easy enough. I'll add some taco seasoning to the veggies as they cook. Yum. A definite do again. And again.

Chocolate Chip Blondies

June 22, 23, & 24, 2013

We've been really busy so I had to combine some posts. On Saturday, we had to run some errands and pick up supplies to start building a treehouse! The kids are so excited. We decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings while we were out seeing as I had a coupon. We came home and started building. And building. And building. We took a quick break for dinner (ordered pizza) and built some more. We had a veggie pizza with onion, mushrooms, peppers, olives, and broccoli. We never had broccoli on a pizza before. It was different but added a good crunch.

On Sunday, we had to go get more supplies. This was after my hubby started working on the treehouse at 7:30 a.m. I think my hubby is enjoying this just as much as the kids. Ha. We ate a lunch of leftovers: pasta, taco pasta salad, beans, veggie lettuce/spinach salad. That's right. We spent the day building again! See who's enjoying it more! We decided to stay outside and cook over a camp fire. We had pudgy pies (think grilled cheese but with pizza). We filled our pudgy pies with spinach, black olives, onion, mushrooms, broccoli, green/red pepper, provolone, and mozzarella cheese. We had dessert pudgy pies with raspberry pie filling. Yum!

My hubby had this morning off so he got right to work on the treehouse. I tilled the garden and replanted the beans/peas. We came in for a lunch of portobello burgers. He grilled up some onion, yellow pepper, and poblano peppers. I topped my burger with american cheese. I made a side salad of lettuce, spinach, pea shoots, arugula, radishes, and japanese cucumber all from the farmer's market. I also added in red onion and sunflower seeds. Portobello burgers are awesome. They are so juicy and flavorful.

My hubby had to work this evening so it was just me and the kiddos for dinner. We settled on baking some of Gardein brand (fake) chicken tenders. I steamed some asparagus from the farmer's market. I wanted to try cranberry orzo that I had found at a health food store. We tested it plain, with parmesan cheese, and with the tomato garlic dipping sauce that we found at the food & wine festival. We decided on the dipping sauce. The pasta was strange. I love the quinoa craisin pilaf I make so I thought that the cranberry orzo would be good. It just didn't really work for us. So we moved on to dessert.

Remember the cookie dough hummus I make? My kids can't get enough of that stuff. I got the recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie. I decided to check out her website tonight and try something new. I thought the Chocolate Chip Blondies sounded good. 1 1/2 cups chickpeas, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, 1/4 cup quick oats, 1/4 cup peanut butter, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used chopped chocolate bars). Blend all ingredients (except chocolate) in a food processor until smooth. Stir in chips. Spread in a greased 8x8 pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350. Katie mentions that they may look underdone when you pull them out of the oven but they will firm up as they cool. I debated using less sugar but didn't want to mess with the recipe seeing as this was the first time I made it.

The kids and I each ate a blondie. My son asked for another one. As I got up to get it for him, he asked "you are letting us have another one? Why, were we being nice"? Ha. I told him they were pretty healthy (eh, minus the sugar). That led to my daughter and I having another one. I found a jar of carmel sauce in the fridge and drizzled some on. Then my son had another. Oh god. Half the pan is gone. Ha!

Farmer's market finds & Pot luck

June 21, 2013

We had fun making our lunch today. Ok, so maybe I had fun. :) I was excited to try out some new items that I found at the farmer's market this morning. I have never tried pea shoots or arugula before. We made wraps (my daughter had a salad) with leftover black bean salsa mixture, leftover grilled tofu, and leftover white beans (I had made a big batch yesterday to freeze). We also grilled up some red onion, green/yellow/red peppers, poblano and jalapeno peppers, and baby bella mushrooms. We added in some avocado, japanese cucumber, fresh spinach, pea shoots, and arugula. Yum!

Pea shoots are so fun. They are like little salad greens but taste like a pea pod. I'm glad I bought two containers today because we ate just about an entire container already! Arugula was really good too. I've heard it described as peppery. I don't know if I would call it peppery but it does have a nice "seasoned" taste to it making it much more flavorful than just lettuce.

We have a potluck to go to for my hubby's work tonight. We made a batch of deviled eggs with avocado, mustard, homemade relish, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. I wanted to make another dish to share. I settled on taco pasta salad. I took the recipe I came up with a few weeks ago that we had for dinner. Instead of having it topped with cheese and baked, I stirred some cheese into it and we will have it as a cold salad. I sauteed red and yellow onions. I stirred in some garlic, red/green/yellow peppers, corn (frozen from farmer's market), half a can of pink beans (mashed), and about a cup of black beans. I took a quart of my homemade salsa and put it through the food processor so it would be more of a sauce consistency. I added it to the bean mixture. I stirred that into some small veggie pasta shells along with a couple handfuls of mexican cheese and some freshly chopped cilantro.

When a vegetarian feeds a meat eater...

June 20, 2013

What a good food day! The kids were home for lunch today. I asked if they wanted to try the new macaroni & cheese that I had found for them. They both agreed and then headed outside for a picnic. If you are looking for a healthier option for mac & cheese, let me point you to "Back to Nature" brand. We tried their organic shells & cheddar. It was really good. Both kids asked for seconds. Also, I made it with vegan butter and just a splash of almond milk and it still tasted good. I'd say that's a winner. For myself, I decided to make a wrap out of some leftovers. I used processed black bean and salsa mixture, grilled tofu, and grilled zucchini/squash, peppers. I also added in some spinach, avocado, and cilantro. Yum! I wasn't sure if the tofu would be ok as leftovers but it was fine.

A few weeks ago, my daughter had a friend over and she stayed for dinner. I was so nervous to cook a vegetarian meal for a meat eater. There was no need to be nervous because she LOVED the bean burgers I made. Yay! Today her mom even asked me for the recipe. The girls wanted another play date so she came over for dinner again tonight. Hmmmm. Will I be able to pull it off and have her enjoy another night of vegetarian fare?

Today is also a special day for us. It marks 8 weeks of being vegetarian. I wanted a feast! We decided to make meatballs, cauliflower steaks, salad, and Italian bread with dips. Once again, we used the meatball recipe from Celiag16.hubpages.com. 2 cups chickpeas, 2 eggs, onion, parsley, 1/4 cup quick cooking oatmeal, 1/4 cup bread crumbs (we used panko), 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, and 3 tbsp worcestershire sauce. Combine all ingredients and mash until the chickpeas are no longer whole. Roll meatballs and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. My hubby sliced the cauliflower into "steaks" and brushed them with olive oil and garlic wine seasoning. The cauliflower needed to bake at 425 for 25 minutes so we compromised and set the oven at 395 (because 400 would be just too much. ha). My hubby made a sauce for the meatballs and cauliflower out of sauteed onions and mushrooms, marsala wine, vegetable broth, garlic, thyme, and thickened it with a little corn starch. For our salad, I chopped up spinach & radishes (from farmer's market), carrots, mushrooms, red onion, and sunflower seeds. The bread we served with the processed black bean and salsa and some of the tomato garlic dipping sauce that we got from the food & wine festival. We washed it all down with some berry gelato.

How did my daughter's friend like dinner? She couldn't decide if she liked the bean burgers or the meatballs better! Yay! She even went back for seconds of the meatballs and cauliflower. The kids weren't too thrilled with the sauce. I think there was just too much  mushrooms for them. I loved it though. My hubby said dinner was good. Today was a win!

Grilled tofu; grocery savings

June 19, 2013

Today was the last day the kids will have lunch at school. My daughter packed a banana granola nut peanut butter sandwich and an apple. My son packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some grapes. I had the leftover soybean pasta and spaghetti sauce.

Today was grocery shopping day. My pre-challenge weekly average at the commissary was $175. Today I spent $10.33 on toiletries and cleaners. I spent $94.13 on food. I spent $6.10 on impulse items. I got the kids an organic macaroni and cheese. I figured that they probably miss macaroni but I couldn't bring myself to buy the Kraft box. While the organic one still has some ingredients I would rather do without, it is better than the alternative. I also saw a new item that I thought my hubby would like (ok love). Crispy jalapenos. It was in with the salad toppers but you could also put it on a burger, etc. I also got a box of popcorn chips. I guess I was feeling snacky at the store! I spent $10.16 on gossip magazines. After adding in their surcharge and taking out my coupons, I spent $124.03 out of pocket. This is a savings of $50.97. My pre-challenge weekly restaurant average was $80. This week we ate at a local pizza place, Moe's, and a local cafe when we went to the food & wine festival. We spent $79.03. This is a savings of only 97 cents. Oh well. It was Father's Day week. The kids packed lunches  and saved $16. This brings our weekly savings to $67.94. This brings our grand total to $3877.95 in 245 days!

I was feeling brave tonight. How brave? Brave enough to try to make tofu again. I've learned to like the tofu at Moe's. Granted, it is hidden amongst a ton of delicious taco toppings but I like it none the less. I found a recipe similar to what Moe's uses for a marinade. 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup red wine vinegar, 2 tsp dijon mustard, 1 Tbsp honey, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp coriander (I skipped this but added in some chopped cilantro instead), 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp cayenne (I didn't add quite that much), 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. First, I took the extra firm tofu and drained and rinsed it. Then I set out a dinner plate. I put two paper towels on the plate then set the tofu on it. I topped it with more paper towels and another plate. I set two cans of beans and a small can of paste on top of the plate to press the tofu. You can use whatever you have that is roughly 2 pounds (a book, can goods, etc). Every 15 minutes or so I would change out the paper towels. I think it pressed for about an hour. Meanwhile, I chopped green/yellow pepper, red onion, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, and potatoes. I added a little olive oil and garlic wine seasoning to the veggies. The tofu may stick to the grill so make sure you spray it (or oil it). I decided to just brush some marinade on the tofu when it was grilling. I didn't want it to get to soggy so I didn't let it sit in the marinade as I would meat. About 6 minutes per side and we were all set. I also made up a batch of my black bean dip. Well, I don't know if I should call it dip. I also use it as a wrap condiment. All it has is 2 cups of black beans and a few large spoonfuls of homemade salsa. I served that with some Italian bread and a handful of pea pods.

How did the tofu turn out? I preferred it with a bite of veggies. On its own, the tofu still had a squishy texture. However, if it was combined with some of the other grilled veggies, then I actually liked it! I'm looking forward to using the leftovers tomorrow and that says a lot! I think next time I would use less olive oil and red wine vinegar in the marinade that way the spices stand out more. I asked my hubby what his input is on dinner. "Delicious". I asked, "really, even the tofu"? He felt the same as I did that it needed to be put with the veggies though. Wow. Score! I forgot to ask the kids what they thought of dinner (they are in bed now) but they both finished their meal so I guess there's no complaints!

Oh yeah. I almost forgot about our new milk today. My son asked for cow's milk but I told him that there are a few other kinds we can try before we discuss cow's milk. I bought soy milk and rice milk today. My daughter liked the soy. She said the rice was ok. My son said the rice was ok. Ugh. I really don't want to go back to regular dairy. I'll have to see if there are any other options that he may like better.

Portobello burger

June 18, 2013

The kids both packed their lunches today. My daughter brought a peanut butter sandwich. She was excited because I found a new kind of peanut butter. Banana granola nut (peanut butter). She also brought some applesauce. My son had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some grapes. I had some leftover risotto. I volunteered at school for awhile today. They had pizza, subs, and salad for the volunteers so I grabbed a salad.

Another night of new recipes. We are on a roll. My hubby and I decided to try a portobello mushroom burger. He lit up the charcoal and set to grilling. He topped them with some grilled zucchini, yellow squash, red/yellow/green pepper, jalapeno, and red onion. I had american cheese and he had provolone. I also topped my burger with spinach, avocado, ketchup, and mustard. The kids didn't want a mushroom burger so I tried something else new for them. I had a package of soybean pasta that was calling their name. Well, my daughter asked for it so I guess she was calling its name. Ha. I served it with a jar of homemade spaghetti sauce. We also had some grilled asparagus and the rest of the strawberries.

How did our new food turn out? First, the burgers. Let me say wow. I was surprised how much I liked it. My hubby said he loved them and we have to make them more often. Ha. Deal. One thing I have missed since we started making different veggie/bean burgers is the juiciness of a beef burger. Portobello mushrooms definitely bring the juice! The pasta was surprisingly good too. It has a different texture than regular pasta of course. It is almost a cross between spaghetti and ramen noodles. The surprise was that it didn't have a bean flavor. At all. Awesome!