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.

Chickpea Patties Rock

I had one chickpea pattie left from the other night, so I heated it up and dressed it with the last of the tzatziki sauce. I made another Greek salad with feta, more heirloom tomatoes, red onions and red and yellow bell peppers. I also sprinkled some pine nuts on the salad for good measure. I had a box of Near East Toasted Pine Nut Couscous in the pantry, so I decided to cook that up as a side dish. I took a taste as I was dishing it up and had to go check the box to make sure there was no chicken stock in it. I swore it tasted like my Mom's Thanksgiving stuffing, but it was chicken stock free.

Tonight after work I meet my Mom and my Sister at my old elementary school to see my baby nephew (he's in kindergarten) perform in a little signing program. We still live in the same town we grew up in, not together, but close enough. The children were so cute! It's funny because I ran into a few people I went to elementary school with, that have their children going to the same school. Crazy! It is such a small world. Even though I went to the program, I still came home a made a great meal, and we were done eating with all the dishes done by 8:00. Pretty cool. There was some Chinese food take out discussion, but I said no. We have plenty to eat in the pantry.

Leftover do over and vegan

I took last nights leftover beans and made a new dish. I cooked up some brown rice
and steamed some zucchini, red bell pepper, broccoli and corn. I seasoned the vegetables with some fajita seasoning and pepper. I then topped the brown rice with the beans and veggies. I garnished it with leftover chopped tomatoes and green onions. I also made a spinach salad with red onions, red bell pepper and heirloom tomatoes. I then dressed it with salsa that I had in the pantry. This was a very simple and delicious meal. I even got my sweetie to eat the brown rice and beans. Score one for me! This whole meal was vegan as well. I will be trying to do more fat free vegan meals each week.

Yummy chimichangas and vegan cookies

Tonight I got home from work and decided to make some vegan peanut butter cookies. I wrote down a recipe from vegweb (can't remember which one) and got to work. This is the first batch of vegan cookies I have made, and I think they turned out pretty good. I ate some of the dough, so I only made a dozen cookies. Even my sweetie liked them! They did come out a little crumbly, but it could just be me. I used to be a good baker, but it seems as of late, everything I try to bake turns into a disaster. So I am going to say that this was a success.

Here is a picture of my first vegan peanut butter cookies.

One of our girls helping in the kitchen.

I called my sweetie today and asked him what he wanted for dinner, he said chimichangas. (I have only made chimichangas once, and I can't remember how they turned out.) He had meat in his, but mine was a filling made with onions and garlic sauteed in oil. Then I added a can of black beans, Hatch green chili enchilada sauce, and fajita seasoning. Oh my gosh, this was so good! Better than any restaurant! It was topped with cheese, red leafed lettuce, tomatoes and chopped green onions.

Sloppy Joe Monday

Tonight I felt like a sloppy joe, don't ask why....Just felt like some comfort food. I found a recipe online and followed it pretty closely. This was a bit sweet for me, but won't add as much sugar next time. I used kidney beans in place of the "meat" and served it on an onion bun. My sweetie fried up some potatoes and I mixed some ketchup with Tapatio hot sauce. Sigh, this was good. I haven't had sloppy joes since I lived at home.

Just an average Monday for me, except sweet bf surprised me with lunch. Teriyaki veggies and rice, at least I got my veggies in today. I did order some more cookbooks today. I must confess I read them like novels, but I am still a so so cook. (Will have to work on that.)

Lazy Sunday

We had a very lazy Sunday.....Usually we go somewhere every weekend, but this weekend we choose to stay at home, due to the fact that we spent three days in Arkansas this past week. We were both tired. We did get up early and took one of our girls on her first hike. This is Phoebe posing with her Daddy. Aren't they cute?


Since it was Sunday and we were just hanging out at home today, my sweet bf wanted pizza for breakfast. The problem was that it was nine o'clock and none of the pizza places were open. So while he rushed to the store for some sauce and a crust, I prepped the ingredients. I cut up some onion, red and orange bell pepper. We didn't have any olives to add but I did get to try out some Vegetarian Grain Meat Sausage (Italian), I was surprised at how good this was, I sauteed it in a pan and let it cool and this is the chunky stuff on my side of the pizza. My bf is so sweet as he also got me veggie pepperoni from the store. Ahhh love....

My half has the sausage sticking up out of the cheese. Ignore the omni side.......

On our way to feed my Mom and Dad's animals we saw a rain storm, so we decided to chase it....I love the rain......

Wet street and ominous clouds over Phoenix. This is the spot I got out and played in the rain.

Dinner tonight was Greek...I made a salad with mixed greens, red bell pepper, red onion, cucumber, heirloom tomatoes and feta cheese. I also made chickpea patties from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen and tzatziki sauce. I have never made these patties before, and had some trouble getting them turned over without messing up their shape. These were really fun to make and I filled my pita bread with two small patties, lettuce, red onion and tomato. I added the tzatziki sauce as garnish. I also steamed some zucchini as a side dish. This was a very delicious meal.

Catching up.......

I haven't blogged in a while so here are a few pictures from my adventures.....

Sunflower in Flagstaff

Flowers along Flagstaff's Urban Trail

Zinnias and Marigolds at Sharlott Hall Museum in Prescott

Fruit plate, breakfast in Puerto Penasco, Mexico

Sunset over the Sea of Cortez our view while having dinner at Portifino

Puerto Penasco, Mexico

Labor Day Weekend 2007

Fall Like Dinner, but still Summer....

I don't know why but I really felt like having a "fall like dinner" even though it was probably in the high nineties today. So I searched online and found a baked acorn squash recipe, and came up with my own stuffing. It contained apple, orange, dried cranberries, Earth Balance, fresh orange juice, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice all mixed together and stuffed in the cavity of the squash. Yum is all I can say......


I also made a salad with mixed greens, tangerine, dried cranberries, red onions, red bell pepper, blue cheese and walnuts. This was dressed with Newman's Own Lite Raspberry and Walnut dressing.

I also cooked up a box of Seeds of Change 7 grain rice pilaf blend I bought a while back. The box kept calling for me each time I opened the pantry. This was good, kind of chewy. I have to remember that this pilaf was made from whole grains which has sustained much of the world from the beginning of time. Okay so I am being dramatic, but I am going to try and include more whole grains into my diet. This was a great introduction for me.