New Year, New Projects

So my friend Empress asked me to join her in starting a vegetarian blog that seemed more real life... no perfect kitchens and blingy cameras. I was totally on board and this was what we ended up with...    


The Real Mom's Vegetarian Starter Kit

Recipes, reviews, handy tips and stories from the trenches of picky kids, pickier husbands, successful meals and total disasters.

And I've decided to try the 365project... again!  Last year I failed but I have a good feeling about 2010. You should join me!


 Venus 365

Making pasta is kinda hard

I did it on my own with no helpful tips or anyone to tell me how wrong I was doing it. And I don't (yet) have  pasta machine so they are ugly, I know, but the taste was AWESOME.


Homemade Spinach Ravioli with Alfredo Sauce





I would like to practice more with pasta... having actual counter space in my kitchen would be a great start. Feel free to share any pasta tips or links to pasta machines you love. ;)

Peanut Buttery Goodness

Buckeyes are a gift from the dessert gods... they are simply AMAZING! 


There would be holiday mutiny if I did not make them so that's what I did today. I thought I'd give you a little pictorial. Here is the recipe I use... Buckeyes


Get your ingredients ready:



Here is your pb dough:



Roll your little balls and place them on wax paper then stab them right in the head:



You have to freeze your pb balls then melt your chocolate



Dip your frozen balls into the chocolate, chill to set then ENJOY!



And we had "rat-patootie" for dinner. My kids refuse to use the real name thanks to Disney's Ratatouille movie. lol

Dinner: Partial FAIL

Tonight we had falafel and tabbouleh, both from mixes I found in the greek grocery.


The falafel was fine, the tabbouleh not so much..  no, not so much at ALL. A photo...

So it's almost Christmas, and then almost 2010... where does the time go? Not just "wow that year flew by" but 2010, holy crap!!!  I swear as a kid I thought we were going to be living like The Jetsons by the year 2010 but here I sit with no jet pack or flying family car.  


I'm getting the last of our holiday stuff tomorrow and I dread the stores but I will survive and of course bring back any crazy stories.

Well that's a new twist

Cooking when you can't smell or taste (except for super strong odor/flavor) is really hard.

so I made hummus today and I have NO idea what it taste like. lol But here is the process with a basic recipe that can be turned into any flavor you prefer.

I started with dry beans and an over night soak then cooking the chick peas. Once you have that done you can start. Or you can just buy canned, whatever works.

2 c chick peas (garbanzo beans)
3 cloves garlic, minched
3 T lemon juice
1/4 c water
3 T tahini
1/2 - 1 t cumin
1/2 t paprika

Step 1: Place cooked chick peas in your food processor with garlic lemon juice and water process for about a minute, until smooth. If too thick, add more water.

Step 2: Add spices


Step 3: Add tahini


Step 4: Adjust to your taste and Viola!

GERMS!

gah, we've been under attack this past week. The evil head cold has kicked my butt so the cooking thing has pretty much not happened. It's been all easy meals and clean out the fridge nights.

This is a great easy meal, so easy the kids or your husband could do it. ;) I kid, I kid. lol But it's really easy peasy. this is a great option if you are off pasta/carbs.

Spaghetti Squash

cut in half lengthwise, scrape seeds, bake cut side down for 30-45 min @ 350. Scrape threads, add sauce and fresh parm. cheese and enjoy.

So fresh you wanna smack it

Today's dinner that is... Fresh corn chowder.



Kid requests for next time... less corn, puree more of the soup and less jalapeno (they are heat wussies I only used one). But they ate without real complaints because they knew this was waiting...



http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-trifle/Detail.aspx

Today was made of yuck

I am a southern girl... I was born in the south and I've always lived here. I do not enjoy cold, windy, rainy days... at ALL! But that is what I got today and I had to go out in it multiple times.

My daughter, Teagan, is not feeling well so she couldn't go with me and had to stay home with the 13yo. Here she is later in the day hamming up the pitiful while

drinking her tea.

A head cold never looked so cute.

As far as food, it was basically meat free fast food.
Total crap comfort food otherwise known as Cincinnati Chili




Here is how I ended the day

homemade hot chocolate. yes my oversized mug says Princess... you gotta problem with that?

Lazy Dinner

ok so tonight was not very exciting. just a simple breakfast.

pancakes
home fries - SO GOOD!
morning star maple flavored sausages - I personally do not want to use lots of "fake" meats but sometimes it's just easy and I'm not above it at all. lol

Meat Free Mania

We are now a meat free house but its kinda complicated.

Ok if you read in order you just read about my internal organs trying to mutiny. Well I'm not cool with that so I made a pretty drastic decision... NO MORE MEAT for me or soda or fast food (at least for the most part, I'm not going to be a militant weirdo that freaks if you get a french fry near me).

So my daughter has been a veggie for almost a year and I figured that even if I did get my gb taken out you have to change your diet so I might as well try to change my diet now because what do I have to lose... Well Chris took it one step further and decided the whole house should go veggie. He will not be fully veg when he is on the rig because it is really too hard at this point but all the meals I make are veggie or vegan.

Going to share our faves and not so faves here. :) so expect lots of food posts in the future.

Red Bean Burgers

So good! I just made another batch for the freezer but actually made 12 patties instead of 6 because they were so huge you could barely finish one.


Mock Tuna Salad



tuna melts


eh... still working on this. won't call it a miss just yet but it needs some doctoring

Thanksgiving

Veggin' Out

Today the girlie and I made a veggie filled lasagna. How can you beat whole wheat noodles, spinach, carrots and zucchini smothered in cheese.