Sometimes Simple is Better......

Home cooked black eyed peas, wild rice pilaf, steamed broccoli, sliced red onion and tomato. Delicious.

A Fine Sunday for Adventure (Culinary and Otherwise)

My sweetie was feeling much better today, so we took a drive up north to Prescott Valley to see a good friend of ours. We drove past this sign and I had to take a picture as I thought Dawn to Milky Way was a very cool street name. We had a great time target practicing, I hiked around a little bit and took some pictures. It got very warm today, I even got a little sun burnt.


I am still learning this blog thing and my pictures are a little out of order as they were taken with different cameras. This was tonight's dinner, veggie black bean burgers made from a recipe in Jeanne Lemlin's Simple Vegetarian Pleasures. The burgers were okay, and may have been better with the salsa mayonnaise that Jeanne suggested to serve with the burgers. (I am trying to do low fat, so I skipped the mayo) I used mustard as my condiment along with sliced red onions, tomato and red leafed lettuce. I also had a problem when cooking these, I got the pan way to hot, and my Sweetie had to help me cool down the pan with water so I would not burn the burgers. (I took them out of the pan first) Once we cooled the pan down enough, we sprayed a little more olive oil cooking spray in the pan and the burgers got toasty crispy on the outside, but were very soft on the inside. I was also thinking that the bread crumbs I used may have been old and they also may have altered the taste of the burger. For my first venture in cooking veggie burgers, I think I did pretty well, and learned that I don't need to have my pan scorching hot, or I will burn the burgers.
I served a side of store bought potato salad with the burger. (Bought for today's picnic up north but never eaten) It was okay, but homemade is so much better!


Okay so we are on day three of the no eating out challenge and I think we have done very well. We ate breakfast at home, took snacks to eat up north, and we managed to make dinner at home (and try out a new recipe). Not bad for such a busy day. It's so hard for me to plan as I never know what we are going to be doing. We are a kind of "fly by the seat of our pants" people. It's always exciting because I never know what we are going to do next.

I figured we were going to be staying home today because my sweetie was sick, but he wanted to go do something as he was going stir crazy.

My Saturday in Photos.....

Breakfast of Nature's Path Organic Mesa Sunrise Cereal with sliced strawberries, sliced banana and milk.

We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie this morning, we were stopped by a train on the way home from the movies. The movie was good. Shhh, we took are own snacks into the movie. I had a small bag filled with Golden Graham cereal with vegan chocolate chips. Yummm......

Don't you just love it when they make faces when you are trying to make their picture?

Squirrel blowing bubbles. My sweetie is still sick and has been running a fever on and off all day. So we hung out and watched TV all afternoon.

Lunch...Whole Wheat bread with melted dill Havarti cheese, and sliced tomatoes.

Cool Refreshing afternoon drink.

Our little Pluto

Squirrel and I playing Sponge Bob Life. Trust me, I would rather be venturing off somewhere, but sometimes, it's nice to just hang out at home.

Friday Night Delight....Day One of No Eating Out Challenge

Tonight after a rather hectic day at work, I stopped by the grocery store to do the weeks shopping. I really didn't know what I felt like eating for dinner. I walked in the door and my sweetie is lying on the couch telling me he is sick. "Groan" He wants juice, so I make him a glass of juice, put away the groceries and ponder what I am going to make. I decided to make him and Squirrel soup (you know that whole soup makes me feel better thing) and I make me brown rice, okra and red beans loosely based on the recipe in Moosewood Resturant's Low Fat Favorites. It was very good, I finished the dish off with a few splashes of Trappey's Pepper Sauce.
So it is day one of the no eating out challenge. Not only did I not eat out today, but I managed to
make me a low fat dinner which was totally delicious.

No Eating Out Challenge....

Tonight's dinner was Mexican inspired. Steamed broccoli, creamed corn, homemade guacamole with sliced red onion, diced jalapeno, tomato and lime juice. This was all served with sliced raw cucumbers, baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. It was very good and very filling. I even have leftover guacamole for lunch tomorrow.

I went to lunch today with one of my vendors, and came back with a really bad stomach ache. I spent about three months eating mostly fat-free and wheat-free. I have added more fat back into my diet along with wheat products. I feel like my weight loss is suffering for it, plus I am not feeling very well. I was so tired when I got home, all I wanted to do was lay on the couch.

So, I am giving myself a very important challenge. To eat mostly fat-free and wheat-free again, along with not buying or eating any candy. (Chocolate is so evil....) I also want to see how long I can go with out eating out. I don't know how long the no eating out challenge will go on for, it my not even last one week, but I will try and see how long I can go. (My sweetie loves to eat out.) I just feel better when we eat at home, and I want to continue to lose weight. Plus I have a ton of cookbooks I haven't even cooked out of yet.

......I weighed myself this morning, 143lbs...........

A Little Bit of Everything.....

Picture of flowers taken at Alamo Lake, Arizona a few weeks back.

Back to work today, you know, it's funny, I was just telling someone that I felt like I needed to make a "change" with my job because it's not challenging anymore....When I walk into work this morning, it's chaos and then the day goes by like a flash.

Nothing exciting cooking wise, ate some leftover Thai fried rice that we drove all over Northern Arizona looking for Sunday afternoon. Word to the wise, don't go to Flagstaff looking for Thai food on a Sunday, nobody is, and I mean nobody is open. So we drove back down through Sedona, waited in a really long line of traffic (two hour wait). Then drove back through Cottonwood, Jerome, then on to Prescott Valley to the old reliable Tara Thai. Now we could have saved gas and ate Thai food here at home, but we wanted to take a small drive, and trust me, it was so worth it. It was so beautiful up north this weekend, and here in town for that matter.

On Monday we got some pineapple with chili and lime, a container of guacamole and some chips from the Ranch Market and my sweetie took me to a park with a beautiful pond to have a small picnic. (I don't know what my thing is with having picnics, but I just love to.)

Hopefully, I will have a tale of more cooking adventures tomorrow........

Summer Time Greek Food

I spent the day off from work, after an adventurous three day weekend. I slept in until eight thirty (very rare for me) and was awaken by a phone call from my sweetie. Feeling a little guilty, I left my warm cocoon and started my day...... I exercised, watched really bad television and made Greek Food for dinner.
I roasted some baby potatoes, zucchini and onion. I seasoned it with salt pepper and a pinch of dried oregano. I topped it with a lemon yogurt sauce.


I also made a Greek salad with spinach, yellow bell peppers, cucumber, red onion, tomato, peperoncinis and feta cheese. Dinner was yummy and filling, even though we didn't eat until eight thirty at night.

Also, stay tuned for some adventures in low-fat vegetarian cooking........Cookbooks are a wonderful thing......