Behind!!

Mk, so at the end of my last blog, I noted that plans usually fail. My plans for this week failed. Although, I can't say I mind. I rather prefer the way this week has turned out :) Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've made some pretty incredible things since my last entry. The reason I've been putting off posting is because, I'm ashamed to say, I've neglected the visual part of this site. I made awesome dish after awesome dish and didn't take a single picture! THE SHAME!! Alas, I still want to share my recipes and the epicness of my food this week.
Monday night we went to Chili's for dinner. I was sorely disappointed in Chili's. I ordered a small shrimp salad. Their small salad is fairly large and their large salad is fairly massive. So I ordered a small only to discover that ::gasp:: it's actually small! There were four measly shrimp on the whole salad. Three tiny chunks of pineapple. Washed out green tinted lettuce. Not green lettuce, mind you, white lettuce with green tint. Disgusting. I kindly, politely sent it back, explaining that if I pay $10 for a salad, I should receive $10 worth of salad. At least $7 worth of salad, I think. I ate the chicken off of Jason's salad. By the way, his salad cost less than mine, had more meat, lettuce, and veggies. Why? I don't know. Thank you waitress, for being kind about it.
Tuesday night I made Black Bean Burgers! They were amazing! I gotta brag on this. They were the best black bean burgers I have ever tasted. Notice I said burgers because Mrs H made black bean patties last week that were pretty stupendous. We had cheesy grits over her patties. I made actual burgers. Sort of. I couldn't bring myself to spend $15 on a package of burger buns (The same people that make Genesis bread make these buns) and I wasn't about to buy white or wheat which are mostly bleached flour. Side note: If you're going to switch to whole wheat or whole grain breads, read up and do your research first. It may not be worth it. Producers know how to trick consumers with words and stamps like "organic" or "whole grain." My preference is Genesis bread. It's a very meaty bread, if that makes any sense at all. So I went ahead and toasted Genesis bread and called it a hamburger bun. Here's the recipe:

Black Bean Burgers
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 small onion (coarsely chopped)
1 medium red pepper (chopped)
4 medium cloves of garlic (minced)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 can black beans (drained)
1 cup cooked brown basmati rice
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 teaspoon Celtic Sea Salt

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, red pepper, and garlic. Cook while stirring frequently until soft and onions are translucent. Stir in cumin, turmeric, and cook for an additional minute. In a food processor, combine beans, rice and onion/pepper/garlic mixture. Transfer to a large bowl. Add breadcrumbs and mix well. Season with salt and hot pepper if desired. Flatten 1/4 cup amounts of mix into patties and they are ready for the grill. Cook about 3-5 minutes each side. Save some of the mix (enough for two patties) for the next recipe. If you've got plenty of mouths to feed and you're not worried about left overs, go ahead and make the last two patties :) Sidenote: My mama always told me that cooking's messy. When you're adding in the breadcrumbs, dig those hands in and mix that way then just make your patties from there :)

Wednesday was spent at the H home as usual but I made enchiladas for lunch for Jason with leftovers from the burgers.
Black Bean Enchiladas
2 patties worth of black bean mix
4 flour tortillas
1 small can enchilada sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar

Warm enchilada sauce slowly. Meanwhile, toast the tortillas until slightly brown. Once sauce is warm and slowly boiling, add black bean mix and stir. Season to taste. Spoon mix into the center of the tortilla in a line. Top with cheese and roll up. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas. Place in oven safe bowl and pour remaining mix on top. Top with the rest of the cheese. Cover with tin foil and warm at 325 for 10 minutes. Send him to work with a fork, the dish, and lots of napkins.

For lunch on Wednesday, I have no idea what I ate. All I can remember is the Rhubarb Crisp. The H family is from up north and they eat northern things on occasion. Typically, I am one to not eat northern foods but this stuff is spec-tac-ular! I am going to keep my eyes peeled for some rhubarb.
Dinner was Mrs H's pizza. She made one meat lovers, one veggie lovers, and one cheese. I had several slices of the veggie and it was pretty fantastic. I can't make crust like that :/ I've tried several times now to make some sort of crust and it just never turns out quite right. You'll read more about that in a minute.
Thursday for lunch, I had a grilled chicken sandwich. Bread, garlic mayonnaise (it was organic and had actual garlic in it!), left over chicken that Sharon made Wednesday, Roma tomato, mozzarella, spring lettuce. It was pretty tasty.
For dinner, it was Dad's birthday so Jason and I cooked dinner for him. I made pesto salad and warm apple pie. Jason grilled steak. I juiced some orange carrot apple juice and Sharon made tea. It was a very lovely dinner. Jason is a fantastic steak cooker! I didn't save the recipe that I used but that's alright because I'm planning to use a different one next time. The pie crust I made wasn't too fantastic either so I'm not even going to bother posting that recipe either.
Friday was a pretty good day as well. I made pesto tacos which are basically pesto sandwiches except in a tortilla instead of bread slices. I baby sat and drank lots and lots of water as well as a glass of tea. For dinner, Jason, Ethan, and I went to Jason's Deli and ate soup and salad. I only had one helping of pudding! Woo!
Tomorrow, we are celebrating several birthdays. Me, Jason, Dad, Sharon, and Casi all have January/February/March birthdays so we are celebrating all together for the second year in a row. I do believe this is a new family tradition. I am making ceasar dressing to go on a salad.
I'll try to get back on that picture taking part for my next post. I'll also try to keep the posts more frequent so that they're not super duper long like this one.
Til later!!

This Weekend

Saturday morning I had eggs, fruit, and yogurt.
Veggie Egg Delight
1/2 cup Green bell pepper, finely diced
1/2 cup Red onion, finely diced
1/4 cup Portabella mushroom, finely diced
1/2 cup Roma tomatoes, finely diced
Shredded cheese to taste (I prefer mozzarella but in the picture, I used cheddar)
3 farm fresh eggs
Rosemary
Thyme
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
Fresh basil, minced
Smidgen of milk
Olive oil

Heat up your skillet. Pour enough olive oil in to cover the bottom. Break the eggs into a bowl with the milk. Whip with a fork until frothy. Add your spices. Set aside. Throw all of your veggies into the skillet. Add a smidgen more olive oil to keep it from drying out. The tastiest way to cook them is let them simmer on low heat for about 8 minutes. The healthiest way is to flash sautee. Turn the heat up and stir them in olive oil for a few minutes. When you bite into the veggies, they will still crunch this way. Add your eggs once the veggies are cooked to your liking. Scramble at medium heat. I prefer hard scrambled so I usually leave them on the stove for about 5 minutes. If you want soft scrambled (more runny), it takes less than 2 minutes. You have to keep stirring them so they don't burn to the bottom of the pan. Turn off the stove and remove pan from heat. Sprinkle cheese over top and let sit while you prepare your yogurt.

Sweet Vanilla Yogurt
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
4 tablespoons agave nectar
vanilla extract to taste
1/4 cup grapenuts

This is a variation on a recipe I used earlier this week. I made this one pretty and didn't stir it up together until I sat down to eat it. If you want pretty, follow these instructions. If you want just regular yogurt, follow Thursday or Friday - breakfast lunch. Although, I made both of those pretty too.
Scoop the yogurt into a pretty bowl in a nice round plop. Using a the back of a spoon, make a shallow lake in the top. Pour the agave into the lake, allowing it to spill over the edges. Pour the vanilla into the lake. Most if it will stay in the top, making it darker. Sprinkle your grapenuts over the entire bowl like tiny, leafless trees. Viola! You've got a bowl of yogurt that looks like a snowy hill in the winter! Not my winter, of course. I live in Texas.

The last part is mostly up to you. Choose your favorite sweet fruits, cut them up, and enjoy! I used strawberries, bananas, and grapes. Grapes don't fare too well with the sweet yogurt but they taste wonderful by themselves :)

By now, your cheese has melted. Slide the entire egg creation onto a plate. Don't scoop it out, slide it, so the cheese stays on top. Serve it all together and you've got a delicious, mostly healthy*, filling breakfast!

*Yogurt gets an 8 on a scale of 10 for healthiness because it's a dairy product and those aren't too good for you all the time. I wouldn't recommend eating dairy daily. Fruit gets a 10, as long as its fresh. Frozen fruits only go down to a 9 though. In deliciousness, frozen fruits get a 6 and fresh gets a 10. The eggs get a 5 because they aren't healthy but they aren't detrimental. The longer you cook the veggies, the less healthy they become. I recommend flash sauteed.




Saturday for lunch was pizza. I did not cook because we went out antique shopping. I know what you're thinking. Pizza isn't on the diet! Oh, my friend, you are wrong! It may not be incredibly healthy, but it sure was close! Its called a Margherita Pizza. No, you can't drink it. No, you won't get drunk. Yes, your tummy and taste buds will scream in delight! We ordered it from a local pizzeria that operates with a stone oven. They claim to have all fresh ingredients and their crust is whole wheat. No, it didn't taste like whole wheat. Yes, the ingredients tasted like they were over nighted directly from Sicily. I have yet to try to make it myself but I can almost guarantee it's on the menu sometime in the next week or two. I have yet to decide on a specific recipe but here's the basic ingredients (I've gathered this from looking at several online recipes: parsley, garlic, oregano, tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, fresh mozzarella, Parmesan, feta. I've seen some that has onion, some that adds chicken, and various other things. Basically, tomato, mozzarella, and basil give this pizza a superb, one of a kind taste.
Saturday snack I had some cut up fruits with agave drizzled over it. Dad cooked chicken breast for dinner with avocado toast. Tasty.
Sunday breakfast was again very difficult for me. I ate chips and drank a root beer about 10 AM. Lunch was a little better but still not fantastic. It was fend for yourself at the Hochstettler home. Which always ends up a tasty meal, regardless. I had a croissant with some very delicious, very soft cheese. I also ate part of an apple and some macaroni. Last night for dinner was semi healthy. We ate at Olive Garden. Spinach artichoke dip for appetizer. We both had creamy soups for starters, and way too much bread. I then had the stuffed chicken with mushroom garlic mashed potatoes. Jason had the seafood fettuccine. To be honest, though, I don't entirely remember what he had only that it was noodles and seafood. He added cayenne to it. Who's surprised? Not I. No, that's not a picture of the dip from last night. That's a Google image. We ate last night's food too fast to capture it on film... er... SD card... I am currently searching for the perfect spinach artichoke dip online because Jason absolutely loves the stuff. It is our appetizer where ever we go.
This morning, I woke up a bit late and decided to eat lunch for breakfast instead of the other way around, which I have been doing the past week. I had left over bread and stuffed chicken from Olive Garden with a homemade Arnold Palmer.

In conclusion, weekends are not very healthy for me. I slip easily and blog lazily. Oops.

Tonight is the chilled avocado soup I've been itching to make and a small veggie salad with avocado dressing.


Til' 'morrow