Halloween Weekend!!

Well, no food for this blog. I am back to Gobble Green meal delivery to save me some cleaning time in the kitchen. I really need someone to buy this house already...geez! Anyway...

What a great Halloween weekend! Saturday was SO MUCH FUN. First I went out to a friends house - Katie. She's a high school friend of mine that I don't get to see very often. It was fun to see her and her family again.

Later I headed out with my brother to a friend's house. Ry has been back in Columbia, and I've actually kind of missed having him around (but don't tell him that). Anyway, I got to hang out and meet some new people. Here are some pictures of us all. Bonus points for anyone who knows what my costume was...

This was Katie and I. My sign says "Go Ceilings!" What am I??

This is Ryan as a hippie...but really its just Ryan with a vest on :)

Then my poor dog suffered through Halloween Sunday. I don't usually dress up my dog, but I just couldn't pass up this costume...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Hopefully more interesting blogs to come soon!!

Ellie Krieger Strikes Again!!

Yum!! I just finished making a DELICIOUS salad from Ellie Kriegers "Foods You Crave" cookbook. I wanted to make sure I shared this recipe - its great! Its really pretty too, so its good for company. I ate it as a meal, which will make 2 servings, or you can serve it as a side dish and have 4 servings.

Ingredients
2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
4 cups baby spinach leaves

Yogurt with Orange Essence, recipe below, optional
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves, optional

Directions
In a medium bowl combine the chickpeas, parsley and onion. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the chickpea mixture and toss to combine. Serve the chickpea salad over a bed of spinach leaves. Top with the yogurt sauce and a sprinkle of mint, if using.

Yogurt with Orange Essence:
1/3 cup lowfat plain yogurt
1/4 teaspoon orange zest
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon honey

In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, orange zest, orange juice and honey.
Yield: about 1/2 cup

I REALLY hope you try this one.

I am waiting for my Sweet Potato and Chile Soup to finish cooking...I'll let you know how that goes :)

Eat Your Veggies - (and make 'em taste good too)!

One of my pet peeves is media and ads telling us that in order to eat vegetables or to get kids to eat vegetables, we need to disguise them - we need to make them not taste like, well, vegetables. Well, that's just stupid! Vegetables taste amazing!

I feel like I am qualified to say this. I spent the first 20 years of my life not eating vegetables - unless you count canned green beans and corn (which are vegetables...but come on - that's not much). I didn't even eat spaghetti sauce. My poor mother had to bribe my brother and I to try them, and I HATED VEGETABLES. So...if I can now say that vegetables are delicious and some of my favorite foods...well, that's saying something :)

I got a wild hair this afternoon and decided to do some cooking. I had been looking at one of my favorite cookbooks - Ellie Krieger's "The Foods You Crave", and got very excited to cook. Ellie is a Registered Dietitian (like me!), but with a flair for cooking. She's not one of those old-school RDs that I dislike so much that tell us all the things that we can't eat...and then throw flavorless brussel sprouts on our plate and expect us to be satisfied. No, Ellie teaches us how to make dishes that are beautiful, easy to make, healthy, and most importantly...delicious!! Here were some of my dishes I made tonight. As you can see, I made a pretty big mess (but it was well worth it).

Umm...this was SO MUCH prettier in person than on the camera...hmm...I thought I got a better picture. This is a vegan hybrid of Ellie's Fetticine Bolongese. The orignial recipe uses 1 lb of ground beef, but this one has vegan meatballs (which surprised me with how good they were actually. I've also made it with green lentils instead of beef, so do what makes you happy!! My version is this...

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Chop (I chop very finely, but you can make it as chunky as you want) 1 onion, 2 stalks celery, and 2 carrots. Add to the oil and cook until soft. Add a tsp of thyme, a clove of minced garlic, and the meat/vegan balls/lentils. Cook until warmed. Add 2 cans of diced tomatoes (I use one can diced and one can sauce). Cook for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down and add about 1/4-1/2 cup of evaporated milk (I use regular soy milk). Add to noodles and be amazed!!! SOOO GOOD. My dad and brother (nonvegetable eaters) have even eaten the ground beef version of this and liked it - even with all those veggies :)

This is radish, snap pea, and scallion salad - added a sweet vinegar dressing. I feel bad giving away all of Ellie's recipes, so buy the book. This one is worth it!!

This last one is Jewel Roasted Veggies. Aren't all the colors pretty?? I really think so. I'm not a huge brussel sprout fan, but roasted this way, they are SO GOOD. The purple stuff is beets. I'm new to the beet world, but so far, so good. This would make a pretty fall dish and great for Thanksgiving. Really, you could use any vegetables that are in season.

So anyway, these are just a few examples from tonight. Now I have some fun things to eat for a few days. The rest of this week, I plan to make a chile sweet potato soup, a spinach and chickpea salad, and roasted snap peas with miso sauce. These meals are so filling, so flavorful, and so good for me.

I hope you all get on the veggie bandwagon!! Anyone want to share their favorite veggie recipe??

Here is the link to Ellie's book. Seriously, if you buy one cookbook in your life - THIS IS IT!! I've never used a cookbook like I use this one!

http://www.amazon.com/Food-You-Crave-Luscious-Recipes/dp/1600850219/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1286331806&sr=8-3

Time for soups!!

Okay, so I don't hide the fact that I don't like cold weather. Really, I don't. I could live with 90 degrees year round.

BUT!!! The one thing I like about fall is that its SOUP weather again! I love making soups and chili's and such. So here is my first soup of the season. Its a new one from Mark Bittman's Seasonal Cookbook (he's the guy who writes How to Cook Everything, which is the Joy of Cooking's rival).

Also, as a side note the cookbook - Mark Bittman Kitchen Express is AMAZING. It separates recipes by season, and the recipes are written so lots of variations can be made on each recipe. It is a meat and veggie eater book, so I recommend to everyone. I've gotten some really great recipes from this.

On to the Soup... Lemony Red Lentil Soup with Cilantro

Okay, so I realize that the picture looks kind of gross...but most soups DO look gross. This one is good, so just close your eyes and take a bite...

I cut up half an onion and cooked it in the pot with a little olive oil. Add 1/2 cup red lentils and2 cups of water (or chicken or vegetable broth). Simmer until cooked. Throw a handful of cilantro and olive oil into a food processor (i.e. my magic bullet), and purree. When the lentils are done, add the cilantro, and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Add salt to taste. Tada!!! Yum.

My favorite from this book is his chili. Give it a try...

http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Bittmans-Kitchen-Express-inspired/dp/1416575669/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286126983&sr=8-1

Another recipe I want to share...which should have been more for the summer season is...

Massaged Kale Salad with Mango - SO RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS!!

Here's the recipe...http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/massaged-kale-salad-recipe/index.html