Last night I made stir fry again, this time using peanut butter in place of the almond butter. We liked the almond butter sauce better.
Chopping the veggies, I noticed this cute center to one of the bell peppers. I’ve never seen anything like it! The colors were really pretty.
I perfected my ramen recipe! It’s quite simple.
Ingredients
Noodles (we use something similar to soba noodles, as they aren’t deep fried like ramen noodles and thus way lower in fat)
1/2 tomato, diced
1 green onion, sliced
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 T. Sriracha chili sauce (or something similar)
Directions
1. Boil water. Add noodles, tomato, and green onion. Cook for three minutes.
2. While the noodles are cooking, mix soy sauce, lemon juice, and hot sauce in your bowl.
3. Add noodles and boiling water to bowl. Mix. Eat.
We also wanted to try a new stir-fry recipe. We visited Sprouts and picked out all of our fresh veggies. Then I looked around the internet and put together a list of ingredients for a sauce.
Ingredients
1 pint mushrooms
Big handful of fresh green beans
3 bell peppers (we used red and yellow)
Soba noodles
Sauce-
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 T. almond butter
Dash crushed red pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
Directions
1. Add 1/2 cup of water to the bottom of the wok. When boiling, add vegetables and cover.
2. Cook soba noodles on the stove according to package directions.
3. In a small pot, mix water, soy sauce, almond butter, crushed red pepper, and garlic. Heat on low until almond butter is melted.
4. When vegetables are cooked, add noodles and sauce to the wok. Stir until heated.
5. Serve and eat. Yum!
I still need to write up a post regarding our New Years resolution about health. Part of that goal includes trying new recipes, as our menu is pretty limited. We usually find a new favorite dish and then eat it frequently.
This morning, hubby and I tried to make a ramen dish we discovered several years ago but had forgotten about. Hubby had posted the recipe on an old blog but we couldn’t find it and had to improvise. The ingredient list is fairly simple – ramen noodles, green onions, tomatoes, lemon juice, soy sauce, and hot sauce. We use Sriracha Chili Sauce which I absolutely love. We’ll have to experiment a bit to figure out the ratio of lemon juice to soy sauce to hot sauce. Don’t use two tablespoons of any type of hot sauce with only one serving of ramen. Ouch. My lips and tongue were burning. Oh, it sure tasted good though!
When will I learn not to multi-task? Today’s attempted multi-tasking resulted in a messed up pie crust, a load of towels sitting in the dryer wet, and two seams of sewing that now need to be ripped out.
But I did get a lot done today – dishes, vacuuming, three loads of laundry, a pumpkin pie baked, Bible study, exercise, and some time spent with hubby.
We’re headed to the laundromat tonight to wash a couple blankets as we have guests arriving tomorrow and Wednesday. We’re not using the heater in our apartment and they will probably appreciate having clean blankets to use at night.
On Fridays, I try to make sure the house is clean before sundown. I iron all of our church clothes. I wash my hair. On Sabbath, we leave all of the dirty dishes in the sink or in the dishwasher to be cleaned on Sunday. The only thing I have not yet been able to integrate into our household is pre-cooking.
Sabbaths usually find me in the kitchen for each meal preparing something easy but doing all the work. I have not yet wrapped my mind around the idea of pre-chopping/washing/slicing or pre-making our Sabbath meals. This is not yet a habit but something I desperately need to work on.
Today was a little bit different, though. We have company coming over in an hour to spend some time with us tonight and share dinner with us. Hubby and I made homemade pizzas this morning. We mixed up, kneaded, and let the crust rise. We chopped up all the toppings. Now, when our guests arrive, we just toss toppings on the crusts and bake. Easy.
I also assembled a lasagna for lunch tomorrow. When we get home from church, I will just pull the pan out of the fridge and bake it. Then I’ll toss in the frozen garlic bread and bake that as well. Easy.
Why can’t I make this a habit? It feels good to sit here and know that sundown is in half an hour but I’m ready for it. I’m ready to spend time with family, friends, and God. The house is clean and peaceful. I have the Christian radio station playing on my computer and incense burning on the table. I’m ready for the Lord to visit.
How did I get so far behind? Thanksgiving is in two days and I have to make a pie from scratch. Hubby has a dentist appointment tomorrow afternoon so we will be away from home for half the day. And I haven’t even done my shopping yet!
I’m way behind on my novel. I should be approaching 40,000 words today and I’m just over 31,000. Being sick really threw me out of whack and now I’m desperately trying to play catch up. I know I can reach 50,000 before November 30th but I have to write a lot every day in order to do it.
AAAGGGGHHHHH!!!
Every day, I try to find some small way to improve our diet or to get some exercise. Several weeks ago, I found a way to cook onions without frying them. Today, I wanted to see if I could cook mushrooms the same way. I tossed a slice of mushroom into the pan with my onions and cooked like normal. After the onions were cooked, I bit into my mushroom. Success! I think the mushroom tasted as good, if not better, than when I fry them.
Earlier this week, I made pumpkin oatmeal to finish off my first fresh pumpkin. It turned out well, though I need to use less allspice and nutmeg next time. I’m guessing the recipe only needs 1/4 tsp of each.
Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal
3 servings of oatmeal
1/2 c. + 2 T. fresh pumpkin, cooked and blended (because that’s what I had left)
2 T. brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. allspice
1/2 t. nutmeg
1. Cook oatmeal according to directions.
2. Add pumpkin and spices. Stir.
3. Eat.
There is no phrase to describe how I’ve felt about my latest kitchen adventures other than “tickled pink.” Over the last two days, every time I step into the kitchen, I have been absolutely tickled pink. I tried something new and it was successful!
We found painted pie pumpkins on clearance the day after Halloween. I bought two. On Wednesday, I decided it was time to see if I could cook a pumpkin correctly.
First I cut my pumpkin in half and scooped out all the seeds. I felt like I was a kid again, playing in the slimy seeds and innards of a pumpkin. Picking out all the seeds by hand was easy. Then I started the more difficult process of scraping out all of the membrane.
I put the pumpkin halves face down in a baking pan and added 1/2 inch of water. Then I baked the pumpkin at 450 degrees for 45 minutes.
Here’s what it looked like after being baked:
After it cooled off a bit, I scraped it out of the shell, which was a very simple matter of peeling off the shell:
I threw the cooked pumpkin in the food processor:
I ran out of time to make pumpkin pie so I refrigerated the pumpkin overnight. Yesterday morning, I started making pie (this is my own recipe).
Vegan Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
2 c. pumpkin, cooked and blended
3/4 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/4 t. cloves
1/2 t. nutmeg
12 oz. tofu, drained and blended
Directions
1. Cream the pumpkin and sugar together.
2. Add spices and tofu.
3. Cook at 425 degrees for 15 minutes and then 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Next time I’m going to increase the cinnamon and possibly the nutmeg. The pie turned out really well but tasted like it needed a bit more spice. I just need to learn to make pie crusts and then the whole pie will be homemade!
In the past week, I’ve had one kitchen failure and one tremendous success.
I tried to resurrect the bread dough I had forgotten to add yeast to. The bread raised a little bit but not enough to save it. Also, the loaf ended up entirely too dense and didn’t cook in the middle. It was a complete failure. Next time I’ll make sure to add yeast.
I also found a new method of frying onions. My weight fluctuates because my motivation to be healthy fluctuates. I’m trying to make small changes to my food preparation that will help my body in small ways. Happy Herbivore posted a recipe in which she talked about cooking onions in a skillet using water.
It worked!
Using water instead of oil lowers my fat intake (specifically the trans fats created from heating oil) and it tastes just as good as traditional frying methods. I just filled a skillet with water, heated it on high to boiling, added onions, stirred, and cooked for 4 minutes. That’s it! I’ve done this twice and the first time I had to add some water because it all cooked off before the onions were done. But it worked!
Letting myself get pulled in too many directions is not a good idea.
Today I’ve been doing laundry, which of course means I have to line dry everything. That takes longer. I’ve done most of the dishes, except the ones I dirtied for lunch and cooking. I mixed up dough for a loaf of bread. And in the middle of all that, I’m working on my novel (6,600 words so far!).
The problem with jumping from one thing to another is that sometimes things don’t get done properly because I’m not paying enough attention. What was the problem today? I left the yeast out of my bread and didn’t realize it until after the rising time. Oops. That was the last of my whole wheat flour, too. I can’t buy any more until Friday.
I’m going to attempt something that probably won’t work. I just added the yeast to the dough, mixed it up really well, and I’m going to let it sit for an hour and see what happens. The worst that will happen is that it won’t rise and I’ve wasted a tablespoon of yeast. I’ve made this recipe once before, a no knead whole wheat bread that tasted really good. I made this one Italian style by adding some spices. Maybe we’ll get to try it.