Meatless Monday: Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

For those not in the loop, Meatless Monday is a movement that encourages
people to give up meat once a week to 'promote personal health and the health of the planet'.
They have great recipes on their website and tons of information there too.

I go meatless pretty often.
For oh so many reasons:
1) My health- I just don't digest meat as well. I get all acid-refluxy and heart-burny. Especially if I eat fried meat. All those years of eating my grandma's southern fried chicken must have caught up with me.
Plus, while meat is high in protein, it is usually high in fat that I can do without (with the exception of seafood).
2) Animal Ethics- I don't like how the critters are treated in order for me to get a mass produced hamburger. It disturbs and saddens me. And I don't know what sort of hormones and crazy chemicals are in that there meat either.
3) Meat is expensive.
4) I enjoy so many other foods!

With that said, you should know that I am not a vegetarian. I do still eat meat ocassionally. But I try to give myself and my family satisfying and healthy alternatives.

I'm not posting a recipe for Meatless Monday today. I saw a delicious looking Cheese Souffle recipe that I'd love to try out. But, for now, I just wanted to show you Noah's lunch.

Well, obviously it was made with love, as you can plainly see by the heart-shaped sandwich.

But I'm particularly happy with this lunch because:

I made the bread myself...I know what he's eating...I know what's in that bread. (I have been so thrilled that I can make my own bread! I want to shout it from the rooftops!) Maybe I'll share my recipe soon...and some close-up bread pictures to make you ohhh and ahhh.

I made the Grape Jelly. You can read about that in my Food Waste post from a few days ago, and get the recipe and instructions from The Frugal Girl's blog.  

The smoothie there on the upper left is made with yogurt that I made and blueberries we picked over the summer (oh, the summer seems like lifetimes ago!). Plus, I snuck in a handful of fresh spinach leaves into that smoothie. They disappear completely, and you can't taste it at all. However, if I use frozen spinach- I do notice a slight spinachy flavor- I recommend fresh spinach if you want to be super sneaky like me.

Of course, I didn't make the peanut butter or grow those baby carrots...but I could have. And I would've loved to have made that yogurt from the milk of my own cow...that I lovingly milked myself. Maybe one day...a girl can dream, can't she?

February is Food Waste Reduction Month

I've been reading the Crunchy Chicken blog for a few months now, and I think Deanna is great. She challenges her readers to do all kinds of crazy stuff...the craziest being the Golden Showers garden parties...in which you use your pee to nourish your plants. I'm not kidding. She's done the research on this. There's also the Freeze Your Buns Off challenge...in which you turn the thermostat way down. She has a naughty sense of humor, but a serious focus on the environment. Read her blog!
Anyways, I've not summoned the courage to join one of her challenges until now.

February is Food Waste Reduction month, which is pretty self-explanatory-
reduce the amount of food you waste.
I can do that. In fact, I'm cheating a bit here because I've been trying to reduce my food waste already.
I also have to give credit to Kristen at The Frugal Girl blog for first making me think about my food waste as a financial issue. She takes pics of her wasted food and posts it on Fridays. Read her blog too!
Not only do I want to reduce my food waste for thrifty reasons, I also want to reduce food waste for environmental reasons. Here's where Crunchy enlightened me. A bunch of food waste (50% edible!) sits in landfills giving off methane like a motha. Also, when you throw away your food, you waste energy...all the energy that it took to grow, harvest, transport, package that food.
I never really thought of it that way.
With this in mind, here's an example of what I did this week to reduce my food waste:
On Monday, I cooked a delicious (if I do say so myself) Veggie Chili for Meatless Monday. I made much more than needed for me, my husband, and 3 yr old. I put half of the leftover chili in the freezer. On Tuesday, I made Spaghetti Marinara...and acrued more leftovers in the fridge. On Wednesday, I made pizza dough from scratch and we enjoyed homeade pizza. On Thursday, I assembled an awesome Chili Pasta dinner out of the leftover chili (Monday), pasta (Tuesday), and mozzerella (Wednesday). And I will easily find something to do with my leftover marinara sauce...maybe throw in a few meatballs and make meatball subs.
I will tackle fresh produce and other perishibles in another post. Perhaps I'll take some pics of my waste (a la The Frugal Girl) on the way out to the compost pile. 
Anyone care to join me on this challenge? Anyone care to share creative ways that you reduce food waste? I'd love any help I can get!
 

Meatless Monday: Grilled Portobello or Eggplant 'Burgers'

If you are fortunate enough to live someplace warm, like FL, where most of my family and friends reside, then maybe you should consider something GRILLED for your Meatless Monday dinner tonight.
Might I suggest for you the vegetarian's steak: the PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM.
Portobellos are so hearty and flavorful.
You can marinate the shroom in some Italian dressing, or garlic oil, throw it on the grill until the juices are flowing and the 'meat' is tender. Stick it on a bun with all the fixin's (cheese, lettuce, tomato, roasted red peppers, caramelized red onions...whatever floats your gastronomical boat).

Yummy. Easy. Super low fat. Healthy Healthful. Cheap (but not as cheap as beans). And you can rest assured that you are not eating a friendly animal. That makes me feel good to know.

Or maybe you'd like to try a grilled Eggplant Burger? Well, that is also very easy and delicious...
Just take an eggplant (remove the skin, or not), slice into 1/4 inch thick slices. Marinate or not. Grill it. Melt some cheese on top, maybe feta? Bun it...or try it on toasted sourdough. Also wonderful.

Enjoy!

Grill while you can Floridians. I envy you. Even though its not super cold yet here in NY, I will not be venturing into the great outdoors to grill up my dinner tonight. For the LeBlanc's Meatless Monday dinner, we will be enjoying the fabulousness that is Chana Masala.

It's Monday Again. Quiche, Anyone?

You know what Monday means, right? Meatless, baby.
Don't cry, Glenn Beck, I don't want to take away your steak.

I am just suggesting that you try a meatless meal one day this week...just Monday. You can just try it. There are plenty of things that you know are delicious that don't happen to be meaty.

Like Gingerbread cookies.

Here is our family in gingerbread form.
That's me in the Nerds shirt and fish skirt. Micheal's eyes are M&M's. Noah is a sprinkle bear.

Perhaps you don't want to make a meal out of gingerbread?
Well, then, you are no fun!

Ok, maybe you require something more substantial.

I recommend QUICHE for your Meatless Monday meal/experiment/extravaganza.
Quiche is elegant, yet hearty. Fantastic for any meal of the day...but I prefer a dinner quiche.
It's healthy. It's quick. It's cheap. It's easy.
And believe me, being cheap and easy is a good good thing! ; )

Here's a simple way to do it (Quiche, that is):

1) CRUST. You can make your own. Or you can do as I do...buy a refrigerated pie crust. Brown it.
2) CHEESE. Whatever kind you have. Whatever you like. Grate it or slice it. Whatever. Put it on top of the browned crust. This forms some kind of wonderfulness. It also prevents your crust from getting soggy from the eggs and other fillings.
3) FILLING. Use whatever you like. This is the fun part. You get to experiment. Try different flavor combinations. It's a culinary adventure. Look in your fridge and see what veggies are in danger of becoming Food Waste, and use it up! Or if you need a little inspiration, saute green and red peppers, onion, and garlic. Or try some mushrooms and spinach. Maybe just tomatoes and  fresh basil. How about broccoli?
Go wild. Be conservative. Do whatever. Really, you can't fail here.
Spread veggie filling over cheese.
4) EGGS. Take 3 or 4 eggs. Whisk them with a little skim milk. Pour whisked eggs on top of the veggie filling. Sprinkle a little paprika on top for color...or oregano. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Or until quiche is no longer jiggly.

Serve this with a fruit salad on the side. Or roasted asparagus. Or a caesar salad. Or some green beans.

Or maybe with some warm gingerbread cookies right out of the oven.... and a glass of cold milk.

Have a full and happy belly!

Meatless Monday and a Lesson in Tofu

Meatless Monday approaches. Do you have your Meatless Monday meal planned? Well, just so you know, you can find some truly awesome recipes from Meatless Monday participants on their website:
http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

I recently tried a few out.
Ok, this may sound gross or otherwise unappealing, but I tried out Barbequed Tofu!!!
I admit it. I have been a tofu skeptic. I would much rather use a vegetable or bean than a flavorless block of white spongy sliminess. I have tried tofu in stirfries with plenty of ginger and sesame oil...but it still was too tofu-ey.

With all this said, I loved the Barbequed Tofu...and amazingly... my husband did too! And he is even more of a tofu snob than me.

You can look up the recipe on the Meatless Monday site, but I'll just tell you what made this tofu experience different than all of those sad sad times before.

• First, you FREEZE the tofu.
• Then you slice/shave the frozen tofu...it almost replicates sliced turkey in appearance. 
• Finely chop some onions (Sweet Vidalia, in our case). 
• Smother in BBQ sauce (Dinosaur Jr. for us). 
• MARINATE in the fridge for a while (4 hours, in our case). 
• Bake at 350 degrees for half an hour or so. 
• Serve on Sesame Buns with Coleslaw and a Pickle.

Oh my Barbequed Goodness! This was delish!

The MARINATING is really what made all of the difference here...and I think the thin meaty-looking slices helped too. There were no leftovers in our house.
So the valuable lesson about cooking with tofu is this: Since it is utterly bland on it's own, marinate it in a strong flavor, and you will have much better results.
Tofu is made from the ever-versatile and healthful soybean. And boy oh boy, is it cheaper than meat. The block o' tofu I purchased was $1.99 at Wegman's.

We only used half the block for the Barbequed Tofu recipe. I think I will slice the other half, marinate it in a Thai Peanut sauce, serve it with shredded steamed carrots over noodles. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Any tofu cooking pros out there? Any suggestions or recipes? I'd love to hear all about it.

My Defense for Blog Fail...and some Book Reviews

It has been a week and a half since I last blogged. There were extenuating circumstances. Really. My darling, dear 3-yr-old son placed a magnet on my laptop! Needless to say, the hard drive was completely wiped/scrambled/fried. Like an egg. Or your brain on drugs.

I hired a 'geek' to attempt to retrieve anything from the hard drive. But the geek failed. Geek Fail, nothing worse than being defeated by a 3-yr-old wielding a magnet. So, precious digital photos, goodbye. Luckily I had much of my stuff backed up. But still. It took a while to get my laptop back, get a new hard drive installed, get all of my programs and drivers and etc. etc. back. 

Then, of course, we celebrated my favorite pagan holiday of the year. Being the pagan I am, I was so busy making candy apples, carving pumpkins, and throwing together Noah's costume, that the blog was neglected once again.

King Noah of the Jack-o-Lanterns

My kid has a GUN! Good Lord. What kind of politically-correct liberal am I?!

Finally, the Co-op has been calling and requesting my assistance. Oh boy. We had a 3 and a half hour board meeting on Tuesday night! Lots of work remains to be done, typing up the minutes.

And then there's our little secret. Michael is teaching 6 classes this semester...driving to 3 different campus's... and he is doing online tutoring...and tutoring on campus. Sheeeesh. So to help in some small way, I have offered my skills to Michael for his online tutoring. For 3 hours on Wed nights, I rap the knuckles of college freshmen, and help them get in line and clean up their grammar and punctuation. College freshmen are pretty much just like my high school seniors. Oh my goodness, why oh why do people have so much trouble getting their subjects and verbs to agree!?

I have such high hopes for this blog. I would love more folks to follow and interact with the blog, leave comments, join the discussion. I can't wait to get back and do the Meatless Monday posts. In fact, I had pictures and a recipe for a gorgeous/delicious quiche...and I was all set to post them...but then the Magnet Wielding 3-yr-old came along, and those pics are history. Ok, I will wipe away my tears and move forward.
Stay tuned!

One last thing. I finished 2 books.
Margaret Atwood's "The Year of the Flood" is awesome and prophetic. And I don't give a darn what the New York Times Review of Books says... But then, I'm biased. I'm a maniac fangirl when it comes to Atwood. "The Year of the Flood" takes place in a consumer-based/corporate-run society. The main characters are on the fringes of this society gone awry. The tale is told from the perspectives of 2 women in the God's Gardeners cult. Religion. Science. Non-consumerism. Hippies. Who could ask for more? Not me, I tell you, not me!
Also, I read Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle." Jackson's wrote "The Haunting of Hill House," horror/spooky fans.

I must say, Castle was disturbing...but the narrator, Merricat, was the quirkiest character I've met in a long while. If you are agorophobic, and you handle most of your social interactions through your computer, you may find yourself relating to this strange girl. It was a perfectly creepy read for Halloween.

Meatless Mondays: Week 1

I'm very excited to present to you the first installment of 
Meatless Monday!
Now, what exactly is Meatless Monday?
According to the website: http://www.meatlessmonday.com/ -
~It's a non-profit initiative in association with the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with the goal to reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.~
I HAVE JOINED THE MONDAY MOVEMENT, and will henceforth share recipes and other meatless tidbits.
I had trouble choosing which of my favorite meatless recipes to share with you. There are so many yummy goodies that I've been trying out from the Moosewood Cookbook (which I adore). However, some of the ingredients aren't readily available, or they might seem a bit too vegetarian. I'll share exotic Zuccanoes, Ratatouille, Curries, Chana Masala, etc...in future Meatless Monday posts. But for now I'll show you my favorite good ol' standby. I want to ease you into the meatless idea gently, dear reader. So, I will start with something delicious, yet simple, with ingredients you have actually heard of and aren't afraid to try.
Without further ado...


Cheap and Easy & Healthful and Quick Black Bean Tacos

Ingredients:
1/4 onion, chopped


1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon oil or margarine
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained -if you rinse your beans, they will be less gassy...or rather, YOU will be less gassy
1 can diced tomatoes with chilies....OR 1/2 cup salsa + 1/4 cup water
1/2 package of Taco Seasoning mix OR the following spices:
(1/2 tablespoon chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/4 teaspoon salt,
   1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon pepper)
8 hard or soft tortillas, warmed
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
1 large ripe avocado, peeled and diced (optional)
1/4 cup sliced black olives (optional)
1/2 cup shredded lettuce
Directions:
In a skillet, saute onion and garlic in oil until tender. Stir in beans, tomatoes or salsa, and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 5 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken. Fill taco with as much bean mixture as you like. Top with cheese, avocado, olives, and lettuce. 


This feeds our family of 3 very happily. Noah and Michael even have a song:
"Black Bean- Black Bean- Black Bean- BLACK...
Gimme dem Black Beans-Black Beans- BLACK!"
We usually have a few beans left over...which I smash with a fork and use as a dip for tortilla chips.
Cheap: Black Beans- less than a buck a can...even cheaper if you use dried beans...
Easy: You just throw a few things in a pan, stir once...
Healthy: Black Beans are high in fiber and loaded with antioxidants
Quick: Oh goodness! This takes about 5 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to simmer!



Don't worry, you won't suddenly turn into a hippy just because you lay off meat for a day. Well, maybe you will, I don't know. But what's so wrong with that?! ; ) 
Try out this recipe with an extra-large Margarita, and let me know what you think. 
I hope you enjoy!  

Global Warming: Get Your Damn Hands Off My Pinot, Wildflowers, and Guacamole!

Did you realize that if we don't get a grip on this Climate Change thing, we are going to have to wave "Bye Bye" to many things we hold so dear!
I know you might be thinking, go crunch your granola somewhere else. But, wait, listen, I'm not going to pull out a chart and get all Al Gore on you...There are some truly awesome things that make LIFE sweet that are in terrible danger. If you visit this site,
www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html,

you can see for yourself 100 or so effects of Global Warming. It's terrifying- no more French wine...British wine instead! Mon Dieu, indeed! No more delicate Pinot's from Oregon, no more salmon, lobster, guacamole! I don't want to just spread fear here but, really, Cannabalistic Polar Bears and no more Christmas Trees! More dreaded mosquitos. Oh yeah, and the OCEANS ARE TURNING TO ACID!!! Not the fun kind of acid either. Maybe you would like to live in the world of Cormac McCarthy's The Road? Nope. Not me,either. Unless Viggo's there...no, not even then!

Worst of all for some, this whole Global Warming thing could cause a Global Great Depression...kind of hits me where it hurts, in my already empty wallet! Ughh!
So if you want to do some small part to SAVE THE GUACAMOLE, you can visit Scientific American's 10 Solutions for Climate Change:

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=10-solutions-for-climate-change&page=2

Little things can make a big difference and they are totally do-able: like try walking when you can, consume less junk, try a Meatless Monday (www.meatlessmonday.com). Bonus- you can improve your health while improving the world! If you have a 'voluptuous' body, like me...saving the whales has a double meaning in your life too. ; )

As an aside, I'll be posting my ideas for doing some delicious meatless meals...every Monday from now on...stay tuned!


http://www.blogactionday.org/

We don't really want to end up Mad on a Gray Sea...now do we? I prefer the sea Blue or Green.