Vegan nachos

I haven't blogged, cooked or baked in forever. I have subsisted on various holiday parties and eaten a ridiculous amount of cookies.

And I feel gross because of it.

Today we had salad for breakfast, and now at 3 p.m. I'm enjoying vegan nachos: black beans, my home canned corn salsa, home canned garden grown salsa and avocado topping.

The avocado topping is almost gaucamole except we didn't have tomatoes or onions. Not that I use onions.

Avocado topping:
- 2 avocados
- juice of one lime
- a pinch of cumin
- a pinch of garlic powder
- a pinch of chili powder

Mash, mix and let flavors blend for an hour or two in the fridge. Way better than cheese!

Greatly anticipated nachos

Tonight's nachos were incredible.

We made guacamole this morning:
- 2 ripe avocado
- several small tomatoes from my garden
- chives from my garden
- lemon juice
- extra virgin olive oil
- one clove garlic chopped very tiny
- one small red pepper from my garden
- a pinch cumin
- a pinch fresh ground pepper
- a pinch chili powder

The nachos tonight included beans I had cooked and stored in the freezer, sour cream, velveeta (a gift), Archer Farms raspberry salsa (my favorite was on clearance at Target), sour cream, the guacamole, and the homemade corn salsa we canned last week.

The corn salsa tasted incredible! It was so sweet and zesty. My husband said it went really well with the guacamole.

Homemade guacamole and burritos

I bought an avocado on a whim over the weekend. So this led to a small batch of guacamole last night. I improvised some ingredients, kept forgetting to buy a lime.

LAST NIGHT'S GUACAMOLE (vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 avocado, mashed
- about 1 teaspoon canola oil
- about 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- about 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons diced green chilis
- 1 small tomato, seeds removed and diced

Mix all ingredients except tomato and chilis. When well mixed, add the remaining ingredients. Let flavors blend for about an hour before serving.

My sister-in-law had given us a box of Rice-a-Roni Spanish rice so I handed it to my seven-year-old and told her to prepare it. I told her it wasn't home cooking, but it was good practice in following directions which would help her learn to read a recipe.

She did great.

Meanwhile, I sliced the leftover sirloin from valentines day and gathered more chilis, tomato, lettuce and a multitude of salsas to make burritos.

Taco 'clearance' feast

We started taco beef in the Le Creuset skillet for our taco 'clearance' feast (so-named for all the goodies we got at Target.)

This is the taco post, though I didn't use beans today since we have refrieds instead of whole.
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/07/tacos.html?m=1

Yesterday we got the following items on clearance or at a reduced cost:
- refried beans
- multigrain tortillas
- Spanish rice
- salsa
- avocado
- bagged salad

Red Robin

Last night, I had an overwhelming craving for French fries. So the family took me to Red Robin.

I ordered what they call a BLTA. It's bacon-lettuce-tomato-avocado and turkey on a croissant. My daughter ordered the cod fish and chips dinner. My husband got some burger with bleu cheese.

Mine came with a side of cantaloupe that my daughter devoured.

I quickly discovered that I can't mix hot and cold. The broken molar in the rear of the left side of my mouth screams severely when I attempt it. The slightest cold bothers it-- yogurt, sandwiches, pudding-- and to combine that with hot does not work. At all. So I opted for the hot fries instead of the cold sandwich.

What I wanted

And this suited me. Because those fries tasted incredible. That's the real beauty in this whole dental injury mess. I am rediscovering food. Slowly. One tiny bite or one flavor at a time. And it's a euphoric adventure. Don't get me wrong-- I'd rather have my teeth. But this recovery... each step toward being able to eat comfortably, I can't help but savor everything.

Today, I took the half sandwich in the picture here and I sliced it into tiny pieces and ate it like a salad. Two pieces would equal the size of my finger nail. And I ate it, slowly, with a fork. It was laborious, but I enjoyed every mouthful.

Avocado Recycle: Green chicken salad

I made some chili for dinner tonight and when I went into the cupboard for the roasted tomatoes, I noticed a can of chicken. I received the canned chicken as a gift, and I like having it around for impromptu batches of chicken salad (cravings do happen).

So yesterday, since I didn't have avocados firm enough for the avocado salad, I mashed them into a dip which my husband enjoyed snacking on with crackers. I commented that it would make an awesome topping for a turkey breast sandwich on a big bun.

Enter can of chicken. Remove last loaf of English muffin bread from freezer and toss in oven. Mix chicken and avocado-mustard dip and pile on bread with romaine.

So, I mixed:

• the can of chicken
• the avocado dip made from two avocados
• about 1 teaspoon it's a dilly
• the remaining dressing from the attempt at avocado salad
• about 1 teaspoon four color organic peppercorn
• about 1/4 cup cucumber

And what I've created is some really green chicken salad!

I love it! It's fabulous.

Avocado Salad

This is my first shot at replicating the avocado salad I had at a French household.

This sounds similar:
http://www.acozykitchen.com/avocado-salad-with-honey-mustard-dressing/
At least in terms of dressing... so...

I made a good dressing of:

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, cold-pressed
• almost 2 tablespoons lemon dijon mustard
• 1 TBS champagne vinegar
• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsps. fresh parsley

I like the way the dressing turned out, but my avocados are overripe and mushy. I threw them in the fridge to chill will the dressing, but it's a futile attempt. I have a feeling I'll be mashing them and making avocado mustard dip. 

Two weeks! (and Paris)

It's been two weeks since I wrote in this blog, in part because of my trip to Paris. Ah, what culinary delights. I'm going to tease you now, by sharing some of my adventures and starting with my first lament.

Why can't Americans make a decent breakfast pastry? And a good cup of coffee? Starbucks exists in France now, and that confounds me. Why on this green Earth would you need Starbucks in France?  In the land of warm croissants, brioche, pain au chocolat, pain au noisette, pain au raisin, brioche au chocolat... Really, Starbucks?

Today I attempted my own café crème. My research suggested a tablespoon of warm cream in coffee brewed like espresso would do it. I pulled the cappuccino machine out of the basement and gave it a thorough cleaning. Then I prepared some Trader Joes whole coffee beans via the grinder. I measured out a guess of how much coffee I would need and brewed some Trader Joes coffee in my Krups machine. I warmed up some heavy cream, spooned it into demi-tasse cups and added the coffee and sugar.

It was good, but it felt thin. I'll keep trying.

Before I reflect more on Paris, I have to let you know I have completed two shifts at the Target café, my new part-time job. I purchased two of the turkey clubs I made and served with leftover Asian-style salad from dinner last night. Our Target is a "PFresh" which means it carries groceries and fresh produce but isn't a full SuperTarget. My employee discount is 10% and as soon as I get my Target Debit card, I'll get an additional 5%. This is cool news since some of the "splurge" items we like (like our blueberry cobbler coffee) are available at Target.

Avocado salad chez Célia's grand-mère

But on to food... in Paris. Some of these meals you will see me try to replicate. Like Célia's grandmother's avocado salad. I believe this is a vegan dish, if the recipe they told me is complete. It was very simple: avocado cut in chunks and a dressing of oil, vinegar, mustard and parsley. Good stuff. Really good stuff. I bought avocado and an Archer Farms lemon dijon mustard to try and do this.

frog with escargot in the background. I had already eaten one leg.

Something I won't be replicating really soon is my "tourist dinner" from Saint Michel. I ate escargot in this fabulous green sauce, frog, and rabbit in mustard sauce.

Pot au feu, so tender...

I would love to make pot-au-feu as succulent as Célia's grandmother prepared hers, but I have always viewed this as a dish for real chefs with lots of meat products that I'm not ready to deal with.

We'll call that post one from France. My next post will have to recount the ethnic foods I enjoyed.

Chicken salad picnic

As part of our picnic, Gayle made the following chicken salad:

20 ounces of shredded cooked chicken
1 small apple, diced small
15-20 grapes cut in half or quarters if large
1 handful sliced almonds

Mix together

Add dressing of 1 part Mayo and 1 part plain Greek Yogurt or regular
yogurt drained.

There was a lot of grapes (which I liked, they were *perfect* red grapes) and we could have used some more almonds, but then, I love almonds. I love fruity chicken salad. And Gayle and I had the discussion that we're not fans of mayo, so hence the yogurt substitution. Gayle said she read you could used mashed avocado instead of mayo for the fat, and so we added sliced avocado. That was yummy. So there may be something to this avocado idea.

Guacamole

Opened my big recipe book today, the volume where I keep all my favorites. I think it's been three years since I made guacamole, but the recipe still lingers in my head... though not complete enough to be memorized and followed without a recipe.

The recipe wasn't there.

I couldn't imagine where else it would be... turned out to be from the Betty Crocker 25th Anniversary Cookbook.

Mix, cover, and refrigerate for at least one hour. Do not use a metal bowl.

• 2 large ripe avocados, mashed
• 2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped (about 1.5 cups) *I used one tomato, about 5/6 of a cup)
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup) *I only used about three tablespoons of red onion
• 2 jalapeno chilis, seeded and chopped (I didn't have, tossed in a pinch of cumin instead)
• 1 clove garlic finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (I used parsley from the garden. I know, it's nothing like cilantro but I figured why not)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
• two tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice. (My lime was small, I used the whole thing)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used sea salt)
• dash pepper (I used my four-color organic pepper)
  

Roasted Red Pepper Avocado Dip

This vegan recipe was posted the Facebook page of a friend of mine. It sounds like an incredible variation on guacamole. I have not tried it as I just got the recipe today.

Roasted Red Pepper Avocado Dip

1 avocado
2 roasted red peppers
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1 clove of garlic
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground salt
1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves (optional)

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree. Serve with sliced cucumber.