Well that's a new twist

Cooking when you can't smell or taste (except for super strong odor/flavor) is really hard.

so I made hummus today and I have NO idea what it taste like. lol But here is the process with a basic recipe that can be turned into any flavor you prefer.

I started with dry beans and an over night soak then cooking the chick peas. Once you have that done you can start. Or you can just buy canned, whatever works.

2 c chick peas (garbanzo beans)
3 cloves garlic, minched
3 T lemon juice
1/4 c water
3 T tahini
1/2 - 1 t cumin
1/2 t paprika

Step 1: Place cooked chick peas in your food processor with garlic lemon juice and water process for about a minute, until smooth. If too thick, add more water.

Step 2: Add spices


Step 3: Add tahini


Step 4: Adjust to your taste and Viola!

GERMS!

gah, we've been under attack this past week. The evil head cold has kicked my butt so the cooking thing has pretty much not happened. It's been all easy meals and clean out the fridge nights.

This is a great easy meal, so easy the kids or your husband could do it. ;) I kid, I kid. lol But it's really easy peasy. this is a great option if you are off pasta/carbs.

Spaghetti Squash

cut in half lengthwise, scrape seeds, bake cut side down for 30-45 min @ 350. Scrape threads, add sauce and fresh parm. cheese and enjoy.

So fresh you wanna smack it

Today's dinner that is... Fresh corn chowder.



Kid requests for next time... less corn, puree more of the soup and less jalapeno (they are heat wussies I only used one). But they ate without real complaints because they knew this was waiting...



http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-trifle/Detail.aspx

Today was made of yuck

I am a southern girl... I was born in the south and I've always lived here. I do not enjoy cold, windy, rainy days... at ALL! But that is what I got today and I had to go out in it multiple times.

My daughter, Teagan, is not feeling well so she couldn't go with me and had to stay home with the 13yo. Here she is later in the day hamming up the pitiful while

drinking her tea.

A head cold never looked so cute.

As far as food, it was basically meat free fast food.
Total crap comfort food otherwise known as Cincinnati Chili




Here is how I ended the day

homemade hot chocolate. yes my oversized mug says Princess... you gotta problem with that?

Lazy Dinner

ok so tonight was not very exciting. just a simple breakfast.

pancakes
home fries - SO GOOD!
morning star maple flavored sausages - I personally do not want to use lots of "fake" meats but sometimes it's just easy and I'm not above it at all. lol

Meat Free Mania

We are now a meat free house but its kinda complicated.

Ok if you read in order you just read about my internal organs trying to mutiny. Well I'm not cool with that so I made a pretty drastic decision... NO MORE MEAT for me or soda or fast food (at least for the most part, I'm not going to be a militant weirdo that freaks if you get a french fry near me).

So my daughter has been a veggie for almost a year and I figured that even if I did get my gb taken out you have to change your diet so I might as well try to change my diet now because what do I have to lose... Well Chris took it one step further and decided the whole house should go veggie. He will not be fully veg when he is on the rig because it is really too hard at this point but all the meals I make are veggie or vegan.

Going to share our faves and not so faves here. :) so expect lots of food posts in the future.

Red Bean Burgers

So good! I just made another batch for the freezer but actually made 12 patties instead of 6 because they were so huge you could barely finish one.


Mock Tuna Salad



tuna melts


eh... still working on this. won't call it a miss just yet but it needs some doctoring

Thanksgiving

Not even a full month between posts

I'm getting better. ;)

Ok so... lets see what I have to catch you up on.

I had a bad gall bladder attach on the 14th, it lasted about 3.5 hours and it sucked wind! But I survived and the next day (the 15th) I got up and felt better... until round 2 started! I've never had back to back attacks like that and it was horrible. I know, I know... you are screaming GO TO THE DR AND GET IT CUT OUT YOU FOOL! right about now but I refuse for a few reasons.

1) I don't want to lose any organs until I really have to.
2) Lots of people have side effects from removing the gb
3) You can still have problems with gall stones even if you remove the gb.

To make matters more fun, on the day of my 2nd attack I had to go to the grocery store because the boy had a stomach bug and it was not pretty. Neither was me walking through the store hunched over and shuffling. lol

on the 16th I turned 34! and the boy was better but still tired and the girl got the bug... GAH. and I was off solid food trying to baby my gall bladder. And of course, did I mention that Chris was working in Texas through all of this. Sigh

There has been another huge change but I'm going to give that it's own entry...

Halloween

How cute were we. :D



Teagan's hair went a little flat but it started off super cute and she got new glasses.
h