Everything but the kitchen sink

We usually have stir fry once a week. Both of us enjoy it and it's different every time - sometimes exceptionally delicious. Tonight we did stir fry and I wanted something different. We used half brown basmati rice and half jasmine rice. Then, this is what I threw in the skillet:

• lo-sodium soy sauce for sauteing
• onion
• red and green bell pepper strips
• mushrooms
• carrots
• green beans
• water chestnuts
• bamboo shoots
• edamame
• crushed pineapple
• chopped pear
• orange sections
• banana slices
• just a handful of chopped walnuts

I let it cook til everything was still just a little crispy and then served it over the rice with a dash of additional soy sauce and some duck sauce. Absolutely delicious! The banana really was a delight in this dish. The only fat is what is natural in the edamame and the little dab of walnuts, and it wasn't much- and I can't imagine how many servings of veggies and fruits it was, but we both ate a huge bowl and we have plenty for leftovers for tomorrow.

Bagel Update

Cherry chocolate chip. Awesome! I found some dried cherries and I chopped them up and added a few along with a few vegan chocolate chips. It doesn't take but about a quarter of a cup total of any add-ins for the bagel recipe. These were very good.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

John is turning into quite the baker! He made this pineapple upside down cake tonight and it is outrageously delicious!

Looking good!

John has lost 22 pounds now - only 4 pounds from his goal weight. Here's a picture that I took Sunday before Church. He's really looking good isn't he?

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

John found a recipe for bagels last week and sent it to Jack (his brother). Jack promptly made them and absolutely RAVED about how great they are. I took a day off today and decided it was a good time to do them. It's not that they take a long time or are difficult or anything - but today I had time to fiddle around in the kitchen. Wow. I used the bread machine on manual cycle to make the dough. Then divided it into 6 fairly equal pieces, rolled it in a ball and stuck my finger through the middle to make it look like a doughnut. You drop the doughnuts in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then bake for about 20 minutes. We use parchment paper for all our baking. The recipe called for a lightly greased cookie sheet but the parchment works great and there is no mess. We will definitely do this again! I thought it might be an issue eating them plain - I usually like cream cheese or peanut butter on mine - but they were soooo good. Not an issue at all. :)

Gross - or not Gross???

John hates cabbage. He doesn't like it boiled, sauerkraut, coleslaw, nothing - zip - nada. Doesn't even want to smell it. I can't even HIDE it from him in other dishes! I like it. Not too many ways I won't eat it - except with corned beef hash - and since we no longer eat meat - that's not an issue.

From time to time, I like to fix a pot of cabbage and something - usually onions, carrots, etc. Today I cooked some blackeye peas with an onion in some veggie broth til the peas were tender. Then I added some stuff I found in the fridge - a couple of roma tomatoes, about a third of a head of cabbage diced, a big handful of fresh spinach, some baby carrots, some garlic. . . I let it cook til the cabbage and spinach were wilted and then dished it up. It was quite tasty! :) I had it for lunch and I had it for supper. He ate leftover corn chowder. Sometimes I just have to cook for myself.

Makin' Seitan (and other stuff)

As I wrote before, seitan is a good source of very low fat protein. The link in the post goes to a recipe and instructions for making it yourself, so of course, I had to try it. I had thought it might be good fixed like chicken salad and eaten in a pita. Well, it was just OK. It's really pretty easy to make but the last step is simmering it in veggie broth for about an hour or so. I'm not sure I cooked it long enough. It tasted ok but seemed a little watery. I was a little disappointed. However, I diced some up and heated it up in a non-stick skillet, added some spaghetti sauce, and served it over steamed spinach with a little garlic. Now THAT was excellent!

I think it would be really good in stir fry or fajitas - maybe even in a taco salad. It seems pretty versatile and I keep thinking if I could find some sausage seasoning to add while I'm making it, it would be good heated up to eat with pancakes. I'll keep my eyes open for the seasoning. I know I used to buy it in Dyersburg at Pierces Market but they are long gone.

I've been making bread at least a couple of times a week. Tuesday I did a HUGE loaf of raisin bread for Jeannie as a belated Christmas present, then made a loaf of taco bread to go with our potato soup. It would be really good if Papa Johns Pizza would quit showing that chocolate pastry commercial. I made another batch of those too. Today I made a loaf of regular white wheat bread. We finally figured out that you cut it in half down vertically down the middle and then slice it. Now it will fit in the toaster.

Eat your veggies!

We love stir fry. It's the best way to get John to eat veggies he's really not too crazy about - like onions and spinach and broccoli. Today after church, I came home and did some quick chopping and put together a nice skillet of veggies to serve over some brown basmati rice. I added all of the above plus a big double handful of fresh chopped spinach. Today we added something new - seitan. It's actually protein made from wheat - low fat, high protein and a consistency and flavor like chicken. We don't do lots of meat substitutes - but we found this during our last trip to the hippie store and I thought we'd give it a try. It was really good and we'll do it again - though we are finding that we don't really NEED the illusion of meat in our dishes. Still, it would make good fajitas I think - and maybe even a nice "chicken" salad for a pita.