Brussel Sprouts!!

I had such a craving for brussel sprouts the other day!  Huge craving.  So, what did I do?  Indulged of course in a tasty veggie dinner! :)   For those that don't know, brussel sprouts are not in season locally (I caught the tail end of them at my local Farmer's Market about 2 weeks before they were gone :-( ).  So even though frozen don't hold a candle to fresh, they're all I got right now and are still better than no brussel sprouts!

Let me just say I cannot even believe how much I love brussel sprouts.  For someone who heard all the horror stories as a kid, didn't grow up with them on a regular basis to get used to them, and had a couple icky brussel sprout meals as a kid, I'm shocked I like them as an adult.  But ever since cutting out 95% of my processed sugars, flours, and all other processed food intake, my taste buds certainly have changed and gotten used to a whole other arena of flavors and tastes that I don't think I ever would have liked while still consuming flavor enhanced, processed food.

That being said, unless you love a cabbage-y flavor, you do have to prepare brussels right in order for them to really be tasty (in my opinion).  So here's a rough idea of what I do that has me goo-goo ga-ga over the funny little cabbage looking brains.  ;-)

So the ingredients hold true for fresh or frozen, but the cooking method's here are for frozen.  (Roasting fresh is the way to go.)

Balsamic Seasoned Brussel Sprouts

Brussel Sprouts
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive oil (just a smidge)

Toss in a microwavable bowl with a little water and cook for 3ish minutes (which is half the time the bag says it should take to cook them).

Optional: Transfer to cutting board and slice the semi-cooked little cabbage brains.

In a nonstick skillet, heat maybe 1/2tsp-1 tsp olive oil.  Toss brussels in and start sauteing. ( I like to finish cooking them this way in order to get a little color on them and to reduce the wet mushiness that can come from just microwaving.  They will still be mushier than fresh though, unfortunately.)

In the skillet while cooking, season to taste with S&P, garlic powder and a bit of balsamic.  (This is what they look like seasoned, but without the balsamic.)

When you reach the desired amount of color, tenderness, or whatever, take them off the stove, adjust seasoning as needed, and enjoy!  (Most of the brown color in the picture below actually came from some balsamic added at the end, not from that much sauteing.)

Note: I believe there is some question as to how good non-stick cookware is to use.  I haven't researched that much, but I also rarely use my non-stick skillet.  I like it here, because it enables me to saute the sprouts in very little olive oil without burning them.  You can of course use a regular skillet and more oil, but that will definitely start adding [potentially] unwanted calories.

So that's my simple little brussel sprout recipe.  And it really is pretty simple in spite of the two methods of cooking involved, mostly because you aren't actively having to do things while they are microwaving, and most of the time I am not actively stirring the sprouts in the skillet either.  I give them a good stir/toss, then let them sit for several minutes - repeat, repeat.

So I'm curious, for anyone brave enough to try the dreaded food from childhood stories, who likes brussel sprouts (either using this recipe or another one)???  I think it's so fun to find someone who actually likes them!

My current salad of choice

Here's what I'm eating a lot of these days.  

It's super simple and easy.  

Washed and chopped green leaf lettuce 

chopped tomato

chopped cucumber (if you have it)

a generous grating of freshly cracked black pepper

a large dollop of homemade hummus

a splash or two of my latest super easy dressing

This is pretty quick to prepare (assuming you have your hummus already made up, and maybe even your Zing Pizazz dressing as well) and a little less expensive than a salad with loads of different veggies.  Not that I don't love having a salad dressed to the nines with all sorts of veggies, but sometimes you have to go a little simpler and a little less expensive when you are watching the dollars.  Also, I've gotten on to a really big green leaf lettuce kick now, ever since my grocery store raised the price of romaine lettuce, making it more expensive than green leaf.  

The newest dressing in my life

A lot of the healthy salad dressings I have require a bit of time to make.  Not really any significant amount of time because it usually just involves dumping about 8-10 ingredients in the blender and, voile!  But compared yanking a bottle of premade, store bought dressing out of the fridge, it takes time.  So here is my latest dressing, created in really about 10 second moment when I desperately needed a dressing for myself and to walk out the door about a minute later.

Warning:  this dressing is not for the faint of heart.  It is Ah-MAZing, but totally packs a really zingy, flavorful punch.  You'll see why as soon as I list out ingredients.  So if you are a subtle, mellow dressing kind of person, this might not be for you.  If you appreciate zing and pizazz, try this!

The Zing Pizazz Dressing

3 parts lemon juice

2 parts Braggs Liquid Aminos (like soy sauce, but healthier)

1 part apple cider vinegar

(I generally make it up in a glass jar with 3/4c lemon juice, 1/2c braggs, and 1/4c apple cider vinegar - but it can be made up in any 3,2,1 size quantity.)

This dressing is very versatile.  So far I have thrown it on regular tossed salads, pasta salads, bean and veggie salads, and hummus wraps.  Oh and just today Sonny insisted I put some on his food, so I spooned out just like tsp on his quinoa and he seemed to like it.  :)

The dressing is good by itself, but it is very tangy, so in order to cut the tang sometimes, I'll mix it in with some hummus on top of a salad and that is just super tasty.  

Black Bean and Corn Salad

Whew!  I am back from the depths of cold hellishness.  (Not cold temperatures, cold sicknesses.)  I have to say this might be the most grateful I've ever been to be done being sick.  On to other things now!

Since it's nice and summery and HOT over here now, I am raiding my recipe stash for cold dishes to prepare for meals.  I have a much better stash of nutritious, vegan hot soups, than I do cold dishes.  So I'm always looking for a new cool, summery dish to try.  (Hint hint, time to share your healthy summer time recipes with me.)

I remembered my fabulous Black Bean and Corn Salad recipe that is a frequent dinner guest at our house in the summer, made it the other night (actually hubby made it), and knew I should post the recipe.  The recipe is originally found here courtesy of Allrecipes.com.  I have, of course, made a few alterations to it to make it a bit healthier and for our tastes, so that's what I'll post below.

I really thought I had a better picture than this, but it will have to do.  See all the rainbow colors?!

Black Bean and Corn Salad

Dressing:
1/2c freshly squeezed lime juice (bottled works, but fresh makes ALL the difference in the world)
1 medium clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1/8tsp cayenne pepper

Salad:
2 cans (or 3 cups) of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2c frozen corn kernels
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2-3 green onions, chopped
1/2c cilantro, chopped
1 avocado, chopped

Combine all salad ingredients in a big bowl.  Whisk together dressing ingredients in separate bowl, pour over salad and mix well.

This salad is SUPER delish and refreshing.  Using it as dip on corn chips is even MORE amazing, but if you don't want the extra calories, or simply want to stay on the healthy side, avoid the chips and just eat a big bowl of salad.  The salad is fantastic by itself, but eat it with a chip and you might not want to go back to plain salad.  Consider yourself warned.

The alterations I made were cutting out the oil in the dressing (you don't miss it or the extra calories!), switching out a red pepper for an orange one (cause I'm so nerdy I wanted to see as many rainbow colors as possible - red tomato, orange pepper, yellow corn, green cilantro and onions, black beans that almost look purplish), and cutting back on the onions (since 6 green onions were too much for me).  Also, while avocado is so tasty in this, if you don't have avocados near you or can't find any good ones that day, don't stress.  Just make the salad without.  I have had to do that on occasion before, and while I miss the avocados, the salad is still yummy!

This salad really is killer good.  Enjoy!

The stages of a headcold

I have a head cold.  Or maybe just a really bad reaction to dairy.  (Yes I had a little bit of dairy over a week ago in conjunction with beach travel and for the ease of it.)   Whether it's a head cold contracted at the beach, a bad reaction to the dairy, a head cold greatly exacerbated by the dairy, or a dairy reaction colliding head first 90miles an hour with a head cold, I know not.  But it's been plaguing me the entire beach trip and has continued up till today (and after I imagine).  That's 13 days for anyone that's not counting.

I feel like this congestion go around, either due to my reduced weight or my "generally" healthier body, I am noticing in more [agonizing] detail, all the phases of headcoldy-ness and their miseries.

....I just started to type out the different phases (I kid you not), and then suddenly thought why in the WORLD am I sharing disgusting details that no one wants to read about.  Seriously.  Who wants to hear about my insane tissue consumption, nasal passages, and...er....the rest of the gory details.  I must be out of my mind to think that was appealing.

Lets just say that not only my whole nose area hurts on the outside from excessive tissue usage, but it hurts on the inside as well.  Not only that, but in the several hours that passed between the first two paragraph and these last several (yes that's right, I get interrupted when blogging), I think something akin to the flu has decided to jump on the ailment bandwagon.  I'm waiting to see if it actually turns out to be that.  But right now, I feel miserable head to toe. 

Bummer.

The Hat!

So after the bad mama went to the beach with a too small 6-12m hat for her 20m old, Aunt Tater stepped in to the rescue with a very very late birthday present for Charlie!!  (So late I totally had no idea she hadn't given him one.)  This is a super fabulous hat - in case you were unaware.  (Three of his cousins even have this hat.)  It is super size adjustable.  It's made of lightweight, fast drying material.  The brim has a thin layer of foam in it to help it float should it come off a head and land in a lake or something.  It has side vents for head cooling (something my little Sweaty Head really needs).  And oh yea, looks totally awesome.  Charlie now has a much more awesome hat than either of his parents.  He will now model it for you.

Didn't really want to pose.

He actually smiled when I said "smile"!!

Love that it has the chin strap to prevent it from blowing away .

He kept hitting his head going "Haa, Haa!"

Modeling the profile shot.

This was the other "smile Charlie!" shot.  Hehe.  

Thanks Aunt Tater for the totally awesome hat!!  :-D

Beach Pictures! Part 1

For the last 4 years my entire family (Mom, Dad, us 5 girls and all of our families) have done a big family beach trip in the summer.  For those that can't keep count or don't know, that's 22 people.  together.  under the same roof. in a house that borderlines too small (okay, IS too small).  for a week more or less.

It's unbelievable.  In so many ways.  :)  And yes stresses come with that number of people on one roof for that long, but a lot of good times as well.  So here is the start of the beach pictures and the good times. :)  I'd love to say that I really have a lot of fabulous ones (I do have some), but honestly, Charlie's face was glued downwards at the sand most of the time, so my good face shots are few and far between.  In no particular order.

Charlie with his biggest boy cousin, James.  Charlie did a lot of digging with James.

Charlie and the too small hat.  The story of the mama who didn't come  prepared.  But oh that just got remedied today as you'll soon see.

He was all about smashing the castles that James made for him.

Yea he's a destroyer.  He loved it.

More digging with James.

I think he had just gotten some water splashed in the face.

That's Conal in the back ground, Charlie's 2 month older cousin.  I just love that he's holding a large shovel and is like "don't mess with me".

Probably the best picture I captured at the beach.  Love him.

No not the ocean.  The big pit was part of a fort that was dug out by two  uncles with shovels.  Charlie and Conal had a ball playing in it.  When the Baughmans go to the beach to build in the sand, we get serious about our forts.

L-R: my sister Julie, her daughter Anna, and my sister Carrie, enjoying some nice sun.

More James with Conal and Charlie.  James was great with the little guys.  We were so grateful.

Playing in the sand is so much better with two.

I've got some more pictures coming, so stay tuned!