Crazy mexi steaks

I created this crazy Mexican inspired steak sandwich to use up some leftover steak sandwich meat from my mother in law. The meat came with some fried peppers and hot peppers.

There wasn't enough left for three full sandwiches so I fried some corn tortillas in butter and put some sliced smoked Gouda inside each pair.

I piled some various lettuce on top of that, then the reheated steak meat, then Parmesan and then salsa.

Good stuff.

Spicy corn salsa

First canning project of the season. Spicy corn salsa.

For the salsa:

- corn cut off six ears of fresh-from-the-farm sweet corn 

- about one cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half

- about 1/4 cup mild green chili pepper

- about 1/4 cup medium jalapeño, chopped

For the sauce: 

- 1/2 cup lemon juice

- 1/2 tablespoon local raw honey

- 1/2 teaspoon each of ground pepper, cumin, chili powder and hot chili powder

- 3.5 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Mix everything together. Bring to a boil. Simmer, covered 10 minutes, ladle into jars.

Process in hot water bath 15 minutes.

Mediterranean veggie burgers

In my quest to get myself moving more, we met our friend Ally at the park for a one mile plus walk. Since the walk occurred at one of our favorite local parks, child and I stopped at Wawa and bought apples with peanut butter and cut watermelon for a picnic breakfast.

Lunch today is Morningstar Mediterranean style veggie burger with lots of lettuce, salsa and Goddess dressing in a wrap. I also put srirancha sauce on mine. Washed down with home brewed unsweetened sun tea.

Hot summer night equals nachos

It's darn hot.

So we had nachos for dinner: chips, lettuce, black beans, salsa, black olives and a light layer of cheese.

It made me laugh when I noticed our salsa collection, mild for baby bear, medium for papa bear and extra hot for mama bear.

The Ultimate After Work Sandwich

I got home from work at 10 pm today and I didn't think I was hungry (having not eaten dinner) but at 10:30 it became clear that I was.

One thing led to another and before you know it I had made this truly, truly beautiful sandwich.

INGREDIENTS (per sandwich):

- one Morningstar chickpea pattie

- chopped raw kale (a double to triple layer) 

- a hot dog bun

- a couple tablespoons of grated Parmesan

- a couple heaping tablespoons Archer Farms fire roasted habanero salsa

I toasted the hot dog bun under a high broiler, added the cheese to both sides and returned it to the oven.

Then I heated the chick pea pattie in the microwave.

I took the hot dog bun out of the oven. Cutting the chick pea pattie into strips, I arranged them on one side of the bun and the kale layered on the other. On top of the kale I plopped the salsa and then I plopped the two halves together.

This will be repeated for dinner for the family sometime soon.

Heaven.

Crazy Food

I love food. This is a phenomenon that occurred during my transition to adult life. I was a picky eater as a child and grew up on junk food.

I'm known now as the nutrition Nazi mom
who packs weird snacks and lunches. I'm the one who loves to cook and loves to grocery shop.

I love vegan cooking. I love gluten free cooking. I love cooking with local ingredients. I love harvesting my gardening. I love canning.

And Oh My Goodness! I can't wait to open that last can of spiced apples I made from local apples.

But I also love Doritos, Girl Scout Cookies and brownies. I have a soft spot for froo-froo coffee drinks. And I love a good cheesesteak or a hot baguette with butter and jam.

My point is: food is personal. Food is individual. Every family has a different relationship with food. Every body has different responses to food.

So, whatever you eat: savor it.
Whatever you eat: eat it with loved ones.

And every once in a while have ice cream for dinner or a crazy concoction like this (delicious by the way):
- 2 eggs, fried in coconut oil
- one tortilla shell
- horseradish sauce
- lots of raspberry salsa
- 2 jalapeño poppers

And maybe someday, I'll feed the world.

Zippy Egg Wrap

In a tortilla shell:
- one egg fried in coconut oil
- half a spicy black bean burger from Morningstar
- home canned salsa

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!

Crazy Southwest Pizza

I saw something similar to this on the back of a can of Del Monte corn at work.

I made one of my multigrain pizza crusts, this one with organic white flour, unbleached white flour, whole wheat flour, dark rye flour, sorghum flour, and corn meal.

For the sauce, we used Archer Farm raspberry salsa. Then we piled on spinach, pinto beans thawed from the freezer, and leftover turkey.

Someone ate all the black olives so that's out.

We topped with some of my home-canned corn salsa and a cup of grated cheddar cheese from the farm. We intentionally kept the cheese minimal because of girlie's ears.

It's now baking and before I serve I'm going to sprinkle with the crumbs of organic blue corn tortilla chips.

More corn salsa

We opened the corn salsa Saturday night and it was so incredibly delicious that everyone in the family agreed we should make more.

So while I went to work at Target Sunday, hand washing greasy pizza hut pans, my husband and daughter went to Buzas and got corn and extra tomatoes and peppers.

They bought 3 dozen corn, 2 tomatoes, 2 green peppers and a spicy pepper for about $17.

That yielded a dozen ears for eating, and 2 bags of 2 cups of corn for the freezer and a double batch of corn salsa (once I added the produce from my garden).

Today's corn salsa yielded 6 1/2 pints and 2 full pints.

And this all has me thinking how I'd love to have a canning set, spoons, a skillet and a pot for gluten free vegan cooking so I could be assured of the purity of my food and share with friends.

Canning Ball Fiesta Salsa

I have two very similar goals when it comes to my canning. 1. To save what we can't eat fresh out of the garden and 2. To save the excess of fresh produce we may get into the house.

I'm a novice canner and a half-baked gardener so I try to get some quality food for my family and to use that food to the farthest extent.

But I'm a small batch canner and I don't see that changing. In about two hours, I can make a few pints.

Not the drinking kind.

Today I'm using Ball's Fiesta Salsa mix to season some garden veggies into salsa. Someone gave me the mix.

What they called for and what I did ate slightly different.

We chopped:
- 3 huge tomatoes from the farm stand
- 3 tiny tomatoes from our garden
- 2 small peppers from our garden
- not quite 1/4 cup red onion
- 1/2 cucumber from our garden
- 1 large glove garlic

Yield: 6 cups

In my large Le Creuset saucepan I mixed:
- 4 tablespoons white vinegar, 5% acidity
- 2 tablespoons strawberry basil vinegar
- 1 packet Ball Fiesta Salsa mix
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Add vegetable/tomato mix. Heat to boiling. Simmer 5 minutes. Pack with 1/2 inch headspace.

I have 2 pints (one with more liquid than I'd like) and 2 half jelly jars. 35 minutes in boiling water canner.

Zesty egg wrap

For my breakfast I scrambled an egg from Klein Farm, placed it on a small flour tortilla with Klein Farm's garlic cheddar and greens. I added Archer Farms Raspberry Salsa and a slice of Morningstar vegetarian bacon. Served with sun-brewed unsweetened, decaffeinated black tea with organic rose hips.

Multi-bean burritos

Do you ever have those days when you convince yourself "there's nothing in the house to eat"? And then you look around the house and you realize you're just lazy and blind?

Or is it just me?

So, today we made bean burritos for lunch.

Ingredients
- black beans (reduced sodium from a can since I couldn't find dry black beans at the store)
- red beans? Or pinto beans? I'm not sure. I made them all from dried beans and froze them in individual packs and I didn't label them.
- extra sharp cheddar
- small tortilla shells
- archer farms raspberry salsa
- red leaf lettuce, organically grown in my garden

Now, honestly, these did not need the cheese. Would be an awesome vegan lunch without the cheese.

Served with a side of tropical fruit salad

And I thought we had nothing to eat...

Make your own quesadilla night

The make-your-own quesadilla bar had the following items:

- chicken
- black beans
- cheese
- black olives
- fresh spinach
- buffalo blue cheese dip

For the top, a variety of salsas to choose from:
- Archer Farm raspberry
- tequila lime from Aldi
- mango salsa from Aldi

Avoiding failure

Today started strong. It's December first so I have to forgive myself for blowing November's food budget in a flurry of ear tube surgery, report card rewards, stress eating and Thanksgiving.

Breakfast was vegan pumpkin waffles with maple syrup from the freezer.

Lunch was hurried after an eye doctor appointment so it was a bowl of Boo Berry with unsweetened soy milk.

So I had to make myself something hearty for 4 o'clock snack (before work.)

I opted for two scrambled eggs in small tortilla shells, Archer Farms summer fruit salsa and a touch of pepper jack cheese.

Salsa festival

As I mentioned a while ago, Wegmans phased out their organic mango salsa and I haven't been to Wegmans lately to see if they rolled out their new salsa line.

We made nachos tonight with canned refried beans, cheddar, velveeta (a gift), and black olives on Archer Farms blue multigrain tortilla chips with flax seed. (These chips very much hurt my broken tooth, somehow chip ended up over there when I hadn't chewed on that side.)

I had a coupon for $1 off if I bought one 16-ounce Archer Farms salsa and one bag of Archer Farms chips. Hence the chips mentioned earlier. The chips were $2.99 before my discount(s) and coupon. The salsas were between $2.99 and $3.31 a jar. Odd price range.

I opted for two jars: one mild (raspberry with jalapeño, pineapple and red bell peppers) and one medium (corn, black bean & roasted red peppers with roasted jalapeño, red bell peppers and green chiles).

Both are tasty. Now the cheap salsa from Aldi has 10 calories per 2 tablespoons, 180 mg sodium, 2% RDA of vitamin A and no protein or other vitamins/minerals.

My favorite Wegmans mango salsa has 15 calories, 105 mg sodium, no protein, but 8% RDA of A and 15% vitamin C. Much more nutrition.

Archer Farms? Well...

The mild raspberry has 15 calories, 120 mg sodium, 1 gram protein, 4% vitamin A and 6% vitamin C. So it has some punch, but not like the mango. And the corn/black bean also has 15 calories, 220 mg sodium (holy cr*p), 1 gram protein, 2% vitamin A and 10% vitamin C.

Each year I plan my garden hoping to grow enough herbs and ingredients for homemade salsa. Hopefully this summer I'll learn to can and if I don't grow enough, I'll be visiting local farms and farmers markets. Let's make salsa!

Boring food

Yesterday I made the little one caffeine free almond tea with milk and honey. For lunch she had leftover pizza with her dad. I packed the leftover brioche and some coleslaw from a meal out we had on Saturday. Our daughter had her applesauce as a morning snack (also leftover from the decadent meal out when we were supposed to be buying someone's girl scout uniform. Bad Mommy! But I had to try the raspberry lambric from Belgium.)

Last night we had nachos with stale chips, the last of the Velveeta-ish cheese, black beans, mango salsa (from wegmans), plain organic salsa and sour cream.

This morning we had pumpkin roll for breakfast (frozen from Gayle's fundraiser). For a mid-morning snack my daughter and I split a Nature Valley granola bar (almond flavor) and had more tea.

For lunch, she's having the last slice of pizza, hopefully the rest of her applesauce and some juice.

As for me... who knows.

Dinner looks like chicken of some sort.

Chili Nachos

Hubby took some of the chili out of the freezer tonight and made nachos for us. Messy and delicious. My daughter spent the weekend with her grandmother so husband and I ate a lot of junk... Really, we did. Like one night for dinner we had jalapeno poppers, onion petals and Coke floats.

Crazy Quesadilla

My husband used my idea and made crazy quesadillas tonight. We made them with fresh broccoli, slightly cooked, cheddar, and tortilla shells--oh and more morningstar veg chik'n. I hate using lots of soy analogs... And we topped them with salsa, mango salsa, spinach dip, guacamole, sour cream, Frank's hot sauce... and for dessert: watermelon!