We're moving!

A year ago, we started this blog to record our juicing journey. A first for us! Does juicing benefit our bodies? Is it hard? Expensive? Worth the effort? These were questions we sought to answer.

From there we traveled the road to a vegetarian lifestyle. We had heard so often of the benefits of a meatless diet that we decided to try it.  We tried many new recipes and found how convenient and easy this lifestyle choice is to follow.

Polenta base with veggies!

Vegetarian Pizza - scrumptious!

We have added some meat
 back into our diet.

After one year, where are we? We continue to juice and maintain a somewhat vegetarian lifestyle. We love both and have found much benefit from them. As we evaluate where we are today, there doesn't seem to be any point in just sharing recipes with you - which is pretty much all we have left.  (There are many links full of information on these two subjects throughout this blog.)







Now what?  Our next interest is learning to become more self sufficient.  We want to grow a bigger garden, get some chickens, use solar power heating, etc. We're going to show you how we do it - step by step.

Our plan is to move to a more "friendly" blog site.  So come on, continue the journey with us!! We'll post one final time here with our new location.

Mix it all up and you get....

...all kinds of good recipes! 

It happened!  I knew we would have one more cold snap.  It is drizzling rain outside and the temperature should drop to the mid 20's tonight.  A perfect stay-at-home day! As I was listening to the rain fall on our tin roof, Bill was downtown with WAFT handing out water for the big Hospice run.  I figured he would get home cold and hungry! To warm our stomachs I tried a new recipe - Potato Lentil Stew. I am all for those quick and easy recipes.  I've made a recipe similar to this one, but I think we like the flavors in this recipe better. Biscuits would have been nice, but we opted for cheese and crackers on the side.

Easy dump - 4 ingredients!

Need a couple of quick ideas for something fun to eat? I tried two recipes for our Bible Study group this week. The first was a cherry dump cake.  Can you believe as long as this recipe has been around that I have never made it?!  I used a gluten free cake mix and the topping was nice and crunchy.  We ate it warm with vanilla ice cream.  Scrumptious!  To balance it out, Bill made some Chili lime roasted nuts.  It's amazing how a few spices can transform an ingredient.

Warm, sweet and crunchy!

Chili lime

Bill has a ton of seeds in his greenhouse and is ready to get them started. He bought a variety of vegetable and flower seed packets.  Our parsley is still thriving well in the herb garden.  The cold weather hasn't bothered it at all. The oregano has a presence but will probably bite the bullet after the cold hits this weekend. We have some rutabagas popping their heads up in the garden.  It's the first time Bill has grown them. I'm excited to see how they will do.

I love seeing the signs of spring popping up everywhere. The honeysuckle on our arch is so pretty.  I love how it is always drawn to the sun. Exactly how our lives should be - drawn to the SON.

Just make it up!

Do you ever just open your refrigerator and start cooking whatever you grab?  Tonight was one of those nights! I had been out of town taking care of a family member and had no idea what to fix for dinner. I opened the fridge and started cooking. Here's what we threw together tonight:

Fresh squash - I got them in the skillet first because we like to cook them down and get a little crust on them. Olive oil, onions, S/P are all you need to add to squash for the perfect flavor.
Cabbage - Remember that spicy cole slaw recipe we made some time ago?  The Neelys on Food network make the absolute BEST cole slaw!  It is sweet and spicy! Super easy and very good! Our favorite cole slaw recipe!
Potatoes - For some reason, scalloped potatoes struck my fancy.  I know most of the recipes call for an hour cook time; we would be starving by then..lol!  So, what to do?  Just make it up!!  Bill sliced some potatoes really thin - they actually were waffled.  I made a quick roux (butter, flour, milk, S/P), adding a little more milk than normal and cooked the potatoes until they began to get tender.  Then we poured half in a casserole dish topped with a couple of different kinds of cheeses, added a touch of nutmeg, repeated the layer and then topped with bread crumbs.  I had several misc bags of different cheeses....so I just mixed them up.  There are no rules with cheese!










Green Beans - I love green beans, Bill doesn't!  Fresh are my absolute preference. For some unknown reason I had one of those steamer bags of green beans.  Honestly, frozen green beans are not my thing because they tend to be mushy.  Why I had the steamer bag is beyond me! I threw them in the microwave and got the surprise of my life when the beeper went off.  Apparently, the bag had a hole in it and all the water that was supposed to steam the beans was in the microwave plate. The beans not only looked pathetic and shriveled but were really bland!!  Now, how could I fix them in a hurry?  Everything was ready to eat.  Lightbulb moment! Melt some butter, add some brown sugar and drizzle.  Redemption!

We have decided to continue eating (primarily) vegetarian with the occasional meat when eating out or with friends. We just do not miss it.

Don't be afraid to try something new......or make a recipe up.  Just open your fridge and start cooking. You just might surprise yourself!

FUN and yummy snack!

Hey!  We tried a new snack for some of my friends. It was good, fast and super cute!


'Caramel Apple Grapes'
Ingredients:
1 cup caramel bits
2 tablespoons heavy cream
handful of seedless green grapes
1 cup salted peanuts, crushed
toothpicks

Directions

1. Poke toothpicks into the tops of each grape; set aside.

2. In a small pot over medium-low heat, combine the caramel bits and cream. Stir until melted. Reduce heat to lowest setting just to keep warm.

3. Place the peanuts in a shallow dish and dip the grapes into the caramel sauce and then roll in the crushed nuts. Place on a plate to set. Repeat until all the grapes are used.

It's been a rainy day; and I have enjoyed it.  The rain has been so refreshing it was a perfect day for soup or stew. After pilfering in the freezer, I found a bag of cooked beans and rice. The taste was really good but the rice had gotten too soft and it just needed a crunch factor. I kept contemplating and decided to steam some corn niblets. I wish I had had some green onions to sprinkle on top.  It was warm and comforting. A couple of hoe cakes on the side, tabasco sauce and dill pickles!  
That's some good eating!

Cherry Cheesecake Dip!

It's Super Bowl Sunday and we're gathering with friends to watch the game and of course, EAT! Our gang loves to cook and we will have all kinds of great snacks.  I heard Meredith was making  pimento and cheese wontons!  Who would have thought?!  I'm anxious to see them and try them! I love new things.

I had a hard time deciding whether to make my jalapeno popper spread or try a new recipe...or both?!  Right off the bat, I put together a SUPER easy Cherry Cheesecake Dip! It is chilling in the fridge as we speak! Take 3 simple ingredients: cream cheese, cool whip and some marshmallow fluff = mix together, cover with cherry pie filling and serve with graham crackers. Seriously?! Can it be any easier? The taste of cherry cheesecake without all the work!

ONE - Pull anything out that strikes you!

I am all for throwing recipes together.  I was hankering for pasta, saw a lot of veggies in the fridge, and though, "Ummm, pasta salad."  I simply chopped all kinds of veggies, dill pickles and olives, cheese cubes (whatever you love) mixed with cooked pasta and Italian dressing. Scrumptious! Take a chance - just go for it! It was as easy as 1-2-3!

TWO - Chop

THREE - Mix!

Well, we fell off the wagon.  I put off buying groceries (our life has become increasingly hectic) and Bill was hungry.  Two reasons to come up with something fast.  Since Bill had a quick errand in town, I said, "Go ahead and grab a rotisserie chicken."  YES!  Those words just flew out of my mouth.  I made some creamy mash potatoes and some zipper peas to eat with it. It was quick and convenient but I wasn't like, "Man, have I missed having chicken!"

The time has come to do an evaluation.  We wanted to see if eating the vegetarian lifestyle would make a difference in our lives.  It hasn't been quite a year since we started this adventure.  We have had meat a few times (less than 8); like when we were invited over to someone's house to eat. (I think at times it may have been an inconvenience for others.)  Personally, it makes cooking supper with veggies a whole easier and faster, as long as you buy groceries!  We have tried many new vegetable recipes that we otherwise may not have tried (like potato/beet hash). We do not feel weak or that we are lacking anything. Is it something we want to continue? That is the decision we need to make now.

Our daughter is reading a book that I need to get started on! It's the Omnivore's Dilemma! You may want to check it out!

Great weather...and we ate what?

View from our balcony

Wow! Fabulous weather in the south! The temps have been in the low 80's, pollen on cars, and girls are sun bathing on the beach. We have been out of town for a few days for a planning session for WAFT. We went to Jacksonville Beach and loved the sound of the ocean! I even made sure the curtains were opened so we could see the sun rise every day!

Since we didn't get home until Monday night, I didn't have time to go shopping. Juice for breakfast - no problem. But lunch?  I looked in the pantry, saw a can of pinto beans and thought "quick chili".  As usual, I wanted to try a new recipe and found this quick and easy one called The Best Vegetarian Chili EVER! Super easy and quite good.  I didn't have the exact beans called for in the recipe, so I just substituted - I know you are surprised!

Garlic, onions, bell peppers

Throw everything together

Add sour cream and cheese of desired

Seriously good!

We are finding that restaurants are expanding their menus to include more vegetarian choices. We found several that had fabulous food while we were in Jacksonville.  A favorite place of ours is the  Mellow Mushroom. We used to have one in Valdosta, but alas, they moved. We ordered  the MEGA-VEGGIE pizza: red sauce base with feta and mozzarella cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, green pepper, mushrooms, onions, black olives, Roma tomatoes, broccoli, banana peppers, artichoke hearts and tofu.  The tofu wasn't a big deal to me, eat them or leave them is my philosophy, but it is a good source of protein.

Another fun place that we ate was the Mojo Bar-B-Que. In fact, we ate there twice! The first time we ordered a vegetable plate; I got the smoked yellow corn, collards, black eyed peas, and dirty rice.  Bill had the corn too, mac/cheese, sweet potato mash and a side salad. It came with jalapeno cornbread.  As we were leaving to come back home we stopped there for lunch.  We decided to try something new - smoked chicken nachos. Yes, we had meat! Super good!

If I could get there famous sauce - I could make these!

Good food...healthy food.....if we can make it, you can too!

Craziest thing yet!

We have tried quite a few unusual recipes!  Most have been good, only one or two were "bombs"! Last night was an unexpected good one!  The kind you would probably read and avoid cooking. I figured we should bite the bullet!  Are you ready for this?  We made Vegetarian Hash!  What?! You just said, "big deal", didn't you?  Did I mention beets were in the base? with eggs on top? I have no idea how I came across this recipe.....but we would definitely make it again. I guess I would say we were somewhere between I liked it - I loved it!  HaHa!

Cook eggs to your preference.

If you need a quick, easy, HEALTHY recipe..... this vegetarian hash recipe is for you! Potatoes, beets, onions, garlic, eggs... The potatoes and beets mixed together give you a sweet/salty combo. The only thing I did differently was I used a roasting pan, because I did not have a large cast iron skillet. Also, we cut the beets/potatoes in small chunks which reduced the cooking time. "In addition to protein and fiber, this recipe will give you 13% of your daily value of iron, 54% of your daily value of vitamin C, and 18% of your daily value of vitamin A."

We do not eat a lot of beets. I'm thinking, "What do you even do with them?" We tried juicing them but didn't care for it. When I came across this recipe I thought we would give it a shot. It was a nice change and a good recipe.  Here's a good link about the benefits of beets: 7 Reasons to Love Beets.

If you are feeling adventurous and want to venture out  into the world of beets, allrecipes.com is one of my favorite go-to sites.  Check out their top rated beet recipes.

Bill is so ready to get into homesteading full time.  He looked at the vegetarian hash and said, "We can grow all this ourselves." We already have the 4 foot gardening plots, all we need are chickens!  Seriously, I wonder if we should go for it??

I love to cook!

The weather is changing, perhaps we will have a winter yet! I am convinced the worst is yet to come, probably in early February. I might even break out a jacket this year. When the air turns chilly, I start looking for more soup, stew and chili recipes.  We love them all.  I do try alternating eating "regular" food with new recipes.  The familiar is always so comforting!

I love pilfering in the produce section at the grocery store. Just looking at fresh veggies makes me feel healthy! Creamy white cauliflower, brilliant green broccoli, smooth red tomatoes...well, you get the picture. I really like it when the little sprayers doused the veggies...it makes them look like the dew has just fallen and they are begging to be picked! After wandering through the aisles, I decided to make a regular veggie plate.  We had fresh green beans, corn on the cob, baby carrots with a side of southern potato salad. Yum!!

Today, the wind picked up and it was just cold.  I had a bag of dried lima beans; the big ones.  Originally, I thought I would just cook the beans like normal and have a side of fried potatoes.  I was curious about other herbs or spices to add to the beans (I  didn't want to use  ham bone), and saw a lot of people made lima bean soup.  Well, that sounded good.  I scanned a few recipes and decided to make one up.  You could do the same.....I just eyeballed everything.

I cooked the dried beans the quick method.  I covered them with water, brought them to a rolling boil for about three minutes, turned the heat off and let them sit for an hour.   Meanwhile, I  grabbed my soup pot and threw in a stick of butter. I chopped up equal amounts onions, celery and a yellow bell pepper and sauteed them for a few minutes and then added some fresh garlic. The smell was wonderful!!  I drained the beans and added them to the sauteed vegetables, along with some fresh sliced carrots and covered everything in vegetable broth (you could use chicken broth).  Now, for the seasonings.....salt/pepper, smoked paprika, oregano and cumin. I cooked the soup for a couple of hours. When the beans seemed to be getting close to being done, I added a can of diced tomatoes and some cubed potatoes.....simmered till the potatoes and beans were tender (but not mushy).  It was so good! 

Crackers didn't seem like a good match so I broke down and made something that I haven't made in forever - dropped Garlic, cheese biscuits!!!!   Add a glass of sweet tea and we were in hog heaven! Ah, what shall we try next?

What's normal anyway?

Yes, we do eat normal food! Looking back over some of the recipes that we've made, you may think we only eat "strange" foods; like bean patties, polenta and walnut meatballs.  Since we have changed to a primarily vegetarian lifestyle, "normal" foods that we used to eat all the time have become a thing of the past. Now, all things are becoming new.  Our food choices and recipes are creating a new normal!

 The other day I decided to throw together a quick and easy meal - what you would call normal. I cooked up some penne pasta, made homemade spaghetti sauce, sprinkled it with cheese and baked it. We also had a scrumptious salad on the side - Blue Salad.  Take your favorite greens, add some chopped green apple, red onion, blue cheese crumbles and bagel chips.  The dressing was apple cider vinegar, oil, sugar and poppy seeds. Both are quick and easy to make!

I have to tell you about the first time we had the Blue Salad.  Our second daughter, Jennifer, had been dating Dusty Sirmans for some time.  One night he invited us over to his house for dinner.  Of course, the whole point was to tell us he wanted to marry Jennifer.  He served the Blue Salad - we fell in love with it and with Dusty.  They have been married for 3 years.

Remember the bean patties I made the other day? (They were topped with salsa) Have you ever been to Moe's or Chiptole's? They are fun restaurants where the food is in an assembly line and you can design your own tortilla. So, for lunch we had our own assembly line. We heated a tortilla shell, broke up the left over bean patties, added some yellow rice (I threw in some cilantro when cooking it) made a corn and bean salsa, added sour cream and guacamole and  voila....we had some scrumptious burritos.

More to come...happy eating!

Seriously, chocolate?!

Yes, that is a chunk of chocolate!

Well, I came home early from work (WAFT) to cook lunch. I had this hankering to try the Black Bean Cakes with Mole Salsa that I was telling you about. It's a recipe from The Taste of Home site.  If you're like me, my first question was, "What in the world is mole salsa?" The best definition I found was...are you ready for this?......."the generic named used for a number of sauces in Mexican cuisine." Well, that answered it for me, how about you?! Ha, Ha!  The black bean patties were quick, easy to make, and held their shape.  The salsa was the surprise.  At first glance it seemed to be a basic pico de gallo recipe, until you looked closer.  It has HONEY, CHOCOLATE, and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.  Now, that was an interesting recipe to make. I had no idea what to expect.  It was good!  Remember chipotle has a smokey flavor; it wasn't real hot and spicy.

So close: parsley and cilantro

Not cilantro...

I did get a little bummed.  When I was making the salsa it called for fresh cilantro.  I was so excited that we had some still hanging on in the garden.  I ran outside and snipped some off and starting chopping it.  Something did not seem right.  I looked at it again, smelled it and realized I had parsley. Sad times.  Fortunately, I had a tube of cilantro in the frig that I keep on hand for emergencies....such as today!

I had forgotten that we had bought some fresh squash when we were at the Farmer's Market the other day. I threw those in the pan and got them to cooking right off the bat.  I do it the southern way, just olive oil, onions, squash and salt/pepper.  I also like to cook mine down. Scrumptious!

Lunch was a black bean patty, salsa, fresh squash and cornbread. And of course, sweet tea

on the side!  Now I'll be honest....I think you could use this recipe for a veggie burger.  Grab a hamburger bun, add some regular toppings and a patty.  I think the salsa would add a nice twist, perhaps even some pepper jack cheese.

Just buzzed his head!

Bill liked the salsa the best.  He thought the bean patty looked too much like a hamburger patty.  I mean, it's not like I didn't tell him.  The taste was fine, it was just in his head that he should be biting into a regular hamburger.  I enjoyed it all.