White Bean Ragout

Tonight I made a swiss chard and white bean ragout. I sauteed an onion, garlic and mushrooms until soft then I added some Field Roast Italian Grain Meat Sausage. I sauteed the sausage with the veggies until it started to brown. Then I added about a fourth of a cup of white wine, and a can of fire roasted crushed canned tomatoes and a can of drained white beans. I let this simmer together and seasoned with thyme, oregano, pepper, salt and crushed red pepper. I then added some shredded swiss chard and I let it simmer until the chard cooked into the sauce.

I served it with a mixed green salad with red onions, chopped Roma tomato and garnished with pine nuts. I served the ragout over couscous and sprinkled it with nutritional yeast. It was so good. I am going to try and start cutting my portions down. I have to start loosing this weight I am carrying around.

Monday's, Saturday and Sunday Leftover Meal

This is not a very good picture, but I had my left over chili from Saturday over my roasted veggies from Sunday. I topped it with nutritional yeast I bought a Whole Foods tonight on the way home. I have never tried this before, and it was really good, kind of cheesy tasting, but not really.

Sunday and Fall Roasted Veggies

This is the second time I have ever made Brussels sprouts. The first time I steamed some frozen Brussels sprouts and ate them without anything on them. Needless to say, I did not like them. This morning we went shopping at Whole Foods and I saw some fresh ones, so I decided to try cooking it again.

I washed them and cut them in half, I then steamed them with an onion. In the meantime, I melted some butter and browned a clove of garlic. Then I added the steamed Brussels sprouts and onions along with salt, pepper, oregano and thyme. Oh my goodness, these were so good. I will be making more of this dish in the future.

Fall means root vegetables......So this is what I made for my dinner tonight. I roasted some new potatoes, sweet potato, parsnips, carrots, onions, garlic and a little red bell pepper for color. I seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil. I baked at 325 for an hour and a half.

Who says a meal of veggies can't fill you up?

Saturday-Acrosanti, Montezuma's Castle, Fall Foliage

We decided to go and check out Arcosanti on Saturday. This place was really cool. It is a modern urban and ecology experiment in the middle of the desert.

The Soleri Windbells

Braided Garlic

Montezumas's Castle, this is a Sinauga Indian ruin dated between 1100 and 1400 AD, it is built in a cliff on the side of the mountain. The people got to it by climbing ladders. This place is so cool. There are many ruins along the Verde Valley here in Arizona. Generally most of the ruins are not in as good as shape as the castle, but is is very interesting to learn about how the people lived their lives.

Pretty Yellow Flowers

Me and my Sweetie by Montezuma's Well, this is a natural occurring spring well not to far from the castle. The Sinauga learned from the Hohokahm Indians how to build irrigation ditches so they could farm their food.

Here is where the spring came of the well, and the irrigation ditches started.

After learning about the ancient inhabitants of Arizona, we took a drive up to Flagstaff to take pictures of the aspens changing colors. This is always spectacular.

It was very cold in Flagstaff, well cold for us Phoenicians, we had sweaters on. So being that it was so cold, we decided on the way home to make some chili. I made my veggie chili with black beans, chickpeas, carrots, onions, fire roasted tomatoes with green chilies and corn. Almost a three sister chili as I did not add any squash. I added lots of chili and spices. It was very good. Just what I needed after a day of hiking around the forest and Sinauga Indian ruins.

Bowl of veggie chili

TGIF-Thank Goodness it's Friday

Thank goodness it's Friday. It has been a very long week. We ended our work week by going to see the Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller. The movie was very funny. Time for sleep as we have a long weekend of fun ahead.

Thursday Night Left Overs

Rainbow in the sky.......


Storm clouds in the sky....
Tonight's dinner was horrible, I took last nights leftover rice and chutney and used it as my pita filling. I made a cucumber yogurt sauce to go along with this. It just did not taste good as pita filling, so I ate the filling, which was good. I guess you never know how something is going to taste until you try it.

So far we have had very strange weather for an Arizona October. Its been cool, then warm, then humid, then rainy....It rained on me on my way home from work for about a minute, then it quit.

Mango Madness Wednesday

I had three mangoes in the refrigerator, so for the first time ever, I made mango chutney from a recipe I found online. I also made basmati rice with red lentils, curry powder and fresh ginger. This recipe was based on Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. It was a little bland by itself, but paired with the chutney, it was out of this world. I also made a green salad topped with left over fresh mango chunks. This meal was very good, though total time in the kitchen was over an hour. I got a late start tonight because I had to work late. Just to note, my sweetie did not like the rice, he said it was bland. But the rice recipe I used was meant for croquettes, which I did not feel like making. I have only had Indian food once, and that was at a restaurant, so I will definitely have to experiment some more. I did manage to watch the second episode of the Bionic Women while cooking :) I grew up watching the Bionic Women, so far I really like the new show. (Sorry to get off of food, but I think it is cool.)

Happy Monday it's Veggie Sushi and Tempura Time

Well it's October First and Vegetarian Awareness month. So to celebrate we made sushi and veggie tempura with a cilantro dipping sauce.

Well, you can tell I haven't made sushi in quite a while, the rice was really mushy, and I think it did not get cold enough before I rolled it, so they came out a little lopsided. It was still good. The filling was was mashed chickpeas with mayonnaise, dulse, kelp, salt and Sriracha hot chili sauce all mixed together. This was added to cucumber, rice and avocado.

My Sweetie was brave enough to make the tempura veggies. The kitchen was a complete mess when we were done, but it was so worth it, as I have been craving tempura veggies for a while. We cooked up some broccoli, zucchini, onions, and sweet potatoes. The cilantro dipping sauce was from Vegetarian Planet by DiDi Emmons. It was really good, though I subbed the fish sauce with soy sauce and dulse flakes. It's been a while since my sweetie and I cooked together, and it was great fun.

Apple Pancake Sunday

I tried to post my pictures both Saturday and Sunday, but I couldn't get them to upload. So I am going to catch up..... We decided to make an apple pancake from The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham. Here are the apples cooking up in the skillet.
Here is my Sweeties little Squirrel mixing up the batter. You had to cook up the apples in a lemon, sugar, and butter mixture. Then you pour on the batter.....
Here is what it looked like after I put it in the oven.
Here is what it looked like after it was cooked. It was nothing like I expected, but it was very good and sweet. The batter was a little strange texturally, not really like a pancake, but I would definitely make this again.
Dinner was a lentil and brown rice pilaf. I cooked up brown rice with a can of fire roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, a carrot and some spices. I added the left over lentils from the lentil loaf right before it was done. This was very good, even the little Squirrel has seconds. I also made mashed potatoes and canned green beans with a little salt. Sliced raw tomatoes added the right touch to this Sunday evening supper.

Arizona Sunset and Friday Night Veggie Tacos

This is one of the reasons why we liver here.....we have some of the most awesome sunsets...... I started to make dinner at about six o'clock when I opened the blinds on the kitchen window to look at the puppies in the back yard, that is when I saw that the sky had some beautiful hues to it. So we all jumped into the truck to drive down the street so I could get a few pictures. When we got back from taking the pictures, I started to make dinner.

I was going to make pinto bean tacos for dinner, but my sweetie was thinking about me when he stopped by the store on the way home. He bought me my very own taco "meat" so I wouldn't feel left out. (He is so good to me!) There wasn't really any instructions on the package, so I put it in a pan with some water and heated it up for about fifteen minutes. I added some of my own seasonings, took a taste, and oh my gosh, this was really good!
Here ate my taco shells on a plate, ready to be heated up in the microwave.

I topped the tacos with cheese, lettuce, tomato, green onions and salsa. They were very tasty indeed. Just the thing I needed after a hard days work.

"Meat" Loaf Wednesday

Tonight I decided to make a "meat" loaf, except mine had no "meat" in it at all. I based the recipe loosely on Mom's "meat" loaf. Here is the recipe:

2 cups cooked lentils

1/2lb of Gimme Lean Sausage

1 Onion

1 Egg

Handful of crushed crackers

Garlic Powder

Lawry's Salt

Pepper

Cayenne Pepper

Tomato Sauce

This was all mixed together and made into a loaf. Then it was topped with the rest of the tomato sauce, ketchup, and tangy barbecue sauce.

Here it is in the oven.

Here is what my plate looked like. I really wanted peas, but I had none in the pantry so I settled for green beans instead. I also made my garlic mashed potatoes which my sweetie loves. This is my first time making a lentil loaf, and all in all it was very good. I would make a few changes though, I would use one cup of lentils to 1/2 lb of sausage or two cups lentils, to one lb of sausage. I also would only cook this in the oven for forty five minutes instead of an hour. I think this would give it more flavor and make it a little more moist. I am so full right now! It was a very filling meal, and I didn't miss the meat at all.

Dinner in twenty

What's a girl to cook in twenty? Leftover couscous topped with zucchini, onion, garlic and veggie sausage sauteed in fire roasted tomatoes with very special herbs and spices. Served with a side salad of spinach, baby greens, sliced red onion, orange bell pepper, chopped Roma tomato, pine nuts and feta cheese. We were done with dinner by seven o'clock. Now that is awesome, especially for us.

Supper for the tired.....

What do you have for supper when you are worn out and don't feel like cooking.......leftover sloppy joe sauce (freezer find) spooned over a soft onion bun. Ahh, at least we were done eating by nine thirty tonight.

Beautiful Sunday

After sleeping in....We went for a drive. I can not believe how beautiful the weather was today! It was definitely "fall" like weather. It wasn't hot or humid, just very breezy and beautiful. We went to the casino and played a little bit. Then we went out for lunch...... Estrella Mountains in the distance.
We went and had Thai food at a place in Chandler, unfortunately I do not remember the name, and I did not get a menu, but I do remember what I ate. We started with potato and curry filled wantons with a sweet dip. They were okay, not what I was expecting. they were better after I added some chili to the to each bite.
Next we had the veggie spring rolls, these are always yummy......
I had vegetarian Thai fried rice with fried tofu. This was really good too. I had them make this very spicy, a spicy level of four out of five. It was the kind of spicy that you had to keep eating so you don't feel the heat.
After shopping and playing with the puppies, I made what my sweetie likes to call, toothpick dinner, sans the toothpicks. It was actually a veggie relish tray with ranch dressing which is not pictured here. This was very good to munch on after a full day of shopping, driving and casino playing. I look forward to more of these days to come.

Hiking Around Rock Springs on a Rainy Saturday

We decided to go do some geocaching around Rock Springs today. The weather station said we had a chance for rain, and for once they were right.

Here we are going north on the I-17 up towards Rock Springs. Clouds are looking dark and ominous in the distance.

We are passing through New River, it was raining so hard, we were hydro planning on the freeway, it was a little scary because at one point we could not see the car in front of us.

I love the desert after it rains, it has a certain smell that reminds me of being home, as Arizona is my home.

Here is the cafe that we ate breakfast at.

It started raining again on us, you can barely see the Bradshaw Mountains in the background.

We did a little hiking and a little driving around in the desert. We saw a scorpion, two jackrabbits, one cottontail rabbit, quail, and a lizard. The rain was very nice, but when the sun peeked out, it got a little hot and humid. I sweated when the sun was out, and got a little cold when I got rained on. We had a great time hiking in the desert, It has been so hot, that this is the first weekend we have went out in a long while.

Dinner tonight was a grilled Gardenburger veggieburger on a onion bun with tomato, lettuce, red onion and a little mustard. Steamed broccoli, corn, and sliced tomato made up the sides. It was good, especially since we were so tired from hiking today.