Well maybe not totally lonely.

Ten years ago, my husband and I decided to try out a vegetarian diet.  He had some issues with acid reflux and we thought that perhaps that by trying the “no meat” route for 6 months, maybe the reflux would subside.  It did for a little bit.   By the end of 6 months, my husband was pretty much sold out on this way of eating and wanted the children to be vegetarian too.  So, because it wasn’t immoral or unethical, and not totally unhealthy, I didn’t argue.  In fact, I stopped eating meat also because I didn’t want to cause a rebellion amongst the children.  So I learned just what substitutes were out there for meat.  I learned how to use those substitutes in regular recipes, and over the years, we’ve been alright.

However, I’ve never been a vegetarian at heart, only in practice.   I come from a family with farming roots.  During the first 8+ years of my life, my father helped run my grandfather’s dairy farm.  We had cows around our house most of the time.  The cows that didn’t like to stay in the pasture, wound up in our freezer, and on our dinner table.  We had beef nearly every night.   So years later, when I stopped eating meat, there was concern from some in my family (my grandma mostly) that we weren’t getting any protein.  Well the meat substitutes were soy based, so there was protein.   Dairy was still part of the menu (however, my husband has gone vegan a few times, and he is doing the vegan way as I type this).

So as of 3 weeks ago, I stopped being a vegetarian.

So that leaves me as the only non-vegetarian in the family.   I’m still cooking meatless for the four of us.  Last weekend, I think in an attempt to show that it was ok with him if I eat meat, my husband offered to take me to a Wendy’s for a burger.  Well, I’m on Weight Watcher’s, and a burger would have been too many points for me, and quite frankly, I wasn’t in the mood for one.  Plus, I hadn’t eaten meat in front my family in several years.

I wasn’t sure when the opportunity would come up to for me to break back into the carnivorous world.  As it turned out, today was the day.  It’s Friday night, and a payday, which means it’s “takeout night”.  My husband wasn’t feeling good today, and he’s the one who usually procures the dinner for “takeout night”.  The overall request was for sandwiches from Subway.  The kids and their father had their usual “Veggie Delight” sandwich.

My sandwich:

Turkey! Mmmmm………………

Ep

T

This morning, I decided to make donuts for the family (usually I buy muffins for the kids Sunday breakfast, but money it tight this week and I had the ingredients and I had been wanting to make these).   This recipe is found on The Pioneer Woman’s website.

I had to start last night as the dough needed to sit for a few hours.  So I mixed the dough last night, at around 10, while my husband was watching “House” (this episode was a bit intense for me, so I was glad to be in the kitchen).

This morning, I woke up at around 6:30 (without the alarm, which has become the norm since I had the kids), and started rolling out the dough and then searching for something to cut out donuts with (which I don’t have so that means a shopping trip next payday).   I finally used a drinking glass and the opening of a water bottle lid (improvising!).    Then I laid the flat donuts on a wax covered cookie sheet and covered them.  Because the dough had been in the refridgerator all night and I needed it to be warm and rising, I set the cookie sheet on the griddle and set it to “warm”.  I put the donut holes on a plate, covered, and set it on the coffee pot which was at the time, making the coffee.

By 7:30, the kids were up and Heather was waiting patiently for the donuts to rise.  Kylin came in and wanted to know if they were ready, and why they weren’t ready.  Then he went into his room and sat on his bed.   I checked on him later and he was just staring out of his window.  Then he said, “You should have gotten up earlier”.   Yeah, yeah, yeah………sure.

Finally about an hour later, the donuts were ready to fry, and I had told him that once this time had come it would go very quickly.   There was a bit of questioning as to why I didn’t make any chocolate frosting, but he will forgive me this time because, it’s my first time making these.   Of course once they were finished and glazed, he devoured two of them!  So hopefully he thinks now that they were worth the wait.

My husband liked them enough to compliment them on his Facebook page.  So I think that I am more than welcome to make them again!  It may be awhile though because they are so good, that I could easily use up all of my daily Weight Watcher’s points eating them!

Very tasty!!

Lp

I’ve had a craving for baked potatoes and remembering that my mom & step-father made them years ago in the crock pot, I thought I’d try it.

So here is my crock pot.  Obviously not a current one with no sign of stainless steel or white ceramic.  This was actually my grandparents’ crock pot, which they bought when I was about 4 or 5, however it still works as if it were new.    I’ve been married for nearly 15 years, however the first time I actually used it was last Christmas to keep scrambled eggs warm for brunch.

Then here are my bag of potatoes.  I don’t buy the large bakers in bulk because that is just way too much potato when one includes and toppings and/or sides………..at least it is for us.

Then we have our selection of potatoes.  We only need a small amount, because our last name isn’t Duggar (by the way, I love their show!).

First of all, it’s always good to wash the potatoes (and I realize that I’m not talking to novices).  I used a dish towel because I currently don’t have a vegetable brush.  So that’s on the shopping list for next payday and I can go to our local kitchen & garden store (or as my daughter calls it “The Hippie Store”) for a really good one.

Next, prick your potatoes all over with a fork.  If you don’t, you’ll have mashed potatoes………on your ceiling.

……a bit of foil……

Well, I think you know where I’m heading here……..

That’s right, wrap them up like a present…………

Place them in the crock pot, put the lid on, and ………….

cook on “High” for 2 1/2 -4 hours.

Everyone except my son really liked the potatoes (my son isn’t really a potato fan, and he’s really particular about what he eats……even after a “try-me” bite).

So that’s my story of introducing the crock pot into my meal preparation.  I found a couple of websites with scads of recipes that I’m interested in trying (one site even has a recipe for making playdough in it.  At this time, there’s not a high demand for playdough here).

Lp

Tonight, I made one of versions of pasta that Kevin and I like, and the kids are ok with.  I found the recipe years ago in a cookbook we were given as a wedding present (always helpful to a new bride).  I’ve made it so many times over the years, that I don’t really need to consult the cookbook anymore.  It is really simple to prepare, and, because when I post on Facebook that I’m cooking something in particular, some of my friends ask for the recipe.  So I thought I’d try posting here on my blog, of what I use to prepare tonight’s meal (and some of the other things that were going on while I was cooking).

So here are the basic ingredients that I use
1/4 C of Olive Oil
3 garlic cloves
linguine (enough to feed your family, you know how much or how little they’ll consume).
1/2 C of Basil and Parsley combined (I didn’t have any freshly grown herbs on hand tonight, but these bottled ones will be fine for tonight).

Just as I was getting started, my son came in and was rubbing his hands all over the counter exclaiming “The counter is clean!” (after I put his artwork away, then yes, it was clean).

So, my water is boiling, and the pasta is going in………….

and my son came in and turned on the fan so the steam from the water wouldn’t set off the smoke alarm (it only happened once and it was caused by steam in the bathroom after a shower.  Ever since, he’s been concerned about steam setting off the alarm).

After your noodles are cooked, drained and in the serving bowl of your choice, heat 1/4 Cup of olive oil in a small pan………

mince 3 cloves of garlic and add to the heated oil, just long enough for the garlic to become a light brown color (if you leave it in too long, it will turn black very quickly!).  Then pour the oil with the garlic over the pasta and toss the noodles a bit.

Then combine 1/4 Cup of Parsley, 1/4 Cup of Basil, & 1/8 teaspoon of pepper, and add it to the pasta and toss the noodles again (it will be very noticeable if you don’t).

I’m in mid toss here 🙂

While I was tossing my noodles, my husband and kids were spending “quality” time, defacing pictures in our yellow pages!   Who needs TV when you have the phone book for entertainment?

So, now dinner is ready.  The recipe calls for Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on the pasta and any other time, that is what I would use.  However, I was out of Parmesan, so I used Mozzarella cheese.  No one seemed to mind.  However, Parmesan is the better cheese for this dish.

A word to the wise: be sure not to smile at others, until you’ve brushed your teeth and checked them with a mirror!

All through September, we had Summertime weather. The kind of weather that maybe has a crisp chilly nip in the morning and is 90 degrees by dinnertime. Picnic weather.

We’re now in the first week of October and the weather has drastically changed to being very cold if, not close to freezing at night (and despite this, my husband is still too warm, wearing shorts, and still has the AC on in our room at night). When the temperature drops, I start thinking about soups. For the past week, I’ve made some soups and a large batch of spaghetti sauce for the freezer, and this year, some of the ingredients came from our garden.

I also found an article in the latest issue of Better Homes & Gardens (publisher of my favorite cookbook), on how to organize your freezer better. So I’m working toward a goal of having an organized freezer and utilizing as much space and still have easy access to everything in there (without having something fall out, landing on my foot), using the ideas in that article. Hopefully in my next blog (or the one after that), I’ll have a picture to post of the newly organized freezer. So this week, I’m working on round two of cooking for the freezer. Today’s feature: Split Pea Soup (one of my husband’s favorites). Ep