Citrus Avocado Salad

  Whenever me and the mister get invited / show up for dinner at someone's house, I like to bring at least one thing to contribute to the meal. First, because I am nice like that. Secondly, because I get to make food for other people besides Nick and get new feedback on recipes. (Sometimes I think he tells me things taste amazing when they might not) And thirdly, its nice to mess up someone else's kitchen besides my own. So last night we went to my sisters and  I made a salad.  A very easy and virtually mess free salad…….I still made a mess (I cleaned it up myself!)

 The salad I made was a light, crisp, and citrusy thing of beauty. Not exactly what one would think to eat on a freezing my face off cold day, but hey, you can't help what the body craves. Plus, if you  make it for. lets say, a sister that is making french fries and hamburgers for dinner..then a light and citusy salad is just what you need. Feedback from the mouths that ate it….Fanstastic combo! Best Salad ever! Never going to eat anything else! Ok, not so dramatic, but this was a winner. And for real, this salad takes about five seconds to compile and all the ingredients are really accessible right now so really, why not? 

  

 Nice crisp  kale. Thinly slices red onion for a nice bite. Orange for that sweet citrusy and juicy smack and avocado to add a perfect creamy finish. Lime to make it perfect.  Start with the  base layer of kale… then first goes the sliced onion. (Make sure it's thinly sliced or else it will be to overpowering)  Add thinly sliced oranges…oh boy, your half way there!!!

Top with thinly sliced avocado, a sprinkle of salt and drizzle with lime juice. I also served with an extra wedge of lime, there is never too much lime.

Now you can stand back, take a picture, send to all your friends and make them jealous of you fantastically pretty and oh so delicious salad. They will ask, "What is that amazing looking dish you are eating?" Your response will be.."Check out the blog..the lovely crazy…and make it yourself! " (yes, I am shamelessly plugging myself here) 

Anyway, enjoy the day and try to keep warm!

-C

Citrus Avocado Salad (Makes 2)

Ingredients

• A few good handfuls of kale leaves
• 1 orange
• 1 avocado
• 1 lime
• 1/2 a red onion

Remove tough stems from kale and chop leaves into small month sized pieces. Thinly slice  onion, peel and thinly slice orange and cut avocado into…yup you got it, thin slices. 

Kale into bowls, top with  onion, orange and avocado. Top with the juice of half a lime…Add a sprinkle of salt. 

Warm Winter Salad

Lets kick the weekend off right, with a nice warm and hardy salad. Not a frilly little salad, but a salad that fills you up and leaves you feeling warm and cozy.   A salad with a lot of squash! So here's the thing, I eat a lot of winter squash, maybe 4 plus a week. Because I eat so many, I store a good amount in a cold storage area outside of the little warm living space we call home. Last week we had a drastic temperature change and  a good few of the my butternut and spaghetti squash froze.. then started to de-thaw. Not good. That was the second bad food experience of the day….. Earlier that day I had bought about 2 dozen super ripe bananas that I had been planing on freezing and what not. There were four bunches and each bunch was wrapped in plastic and were in a bag that I left near the back door. The thought crossed my mind, but I hastily brushed it away. Washer won't eat those….. Well guess what? The shit ate half of my freaking bananas…plastic and all. Needless to say, I was kind of pissed already so finding my squash on the way out really set me off. I was not about to let more food go to waste.(or be eaten by the dog) I went into rescue mode..Chop chop and dice…boil, roast and steam…and eat eat eat…. and eat. I have been eating butternut for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the past week and that's ok with me cause man it does taste oh so tasty. But for some people in my life, eating mashed squash out of a jar all day long does not hold the same appeal so I have been sneaking it in where ere I can.  

So some of that diced squash tuned into this lovely warm salad. Even the mister liked it and he is not a fan of warm salads(he says he is not, but I think he actually is, as long as I don't call them "salads") Any who…This salad hits all the marks…. Fantastically filling, super delicious, fast and healthy.  Check, check, and check! I am so good. 

Easy peasy….

Diced butternut squash, half a vilalia onion,  prepared lentils and a bunch of kale… Nothin else.(salt and pepper, but they don't count)

Diced butternut and a mediumly sliced onion..(mediumly is a new cooking term) Spritz a bit of oil in a pan and toss the squash and onion in there and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Shove into the hot oven and roast until squash and onion are tender and tasty.

Remove the pan from the oven and toss in finely chopped kale and a big scoop of lentil… Mix it up and let the sit in hot pan for a few minutes…it will make the kale get soft and warm.

Plate it and eat eat… I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar on mine…Nick like his straight up. Do what you will cause either way, it's going to be awesome!!!!

Hooray for Friday and for winter squash!!!!

-C

Warm Winter Salad

Ingredients (This made one good sized salad…and exact measurements were not used so feel free to add greater or lesser amounts of any of the ingredients)

• 1 1/2 cup Diced Butternut squash
• 1/2 Vidalia Onion(or any variety you like)
• 3-4 large Kale leaves
• 1/2 cup Precooked Lentils
• salt and pepper to taste
• Balsamic Vinegar 
• drizzle of oil for pan

In a 425 degree oven,  place diced squash and sliced onions in a slightly oiled pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for about 20 minutes until tender. Remove pan from oven and toss in chopped kale and lentils and let sit in hot pan for a few minutes… Plate and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Mushroom Kale Gravy

This year for Christmas my family decided to do a mid day brunch lunch thing. Everyone has their own little families that they do the morning with and then everyone goes their own ways that nigh(Nick and I do our own Christmas celebrating at night)…That leaves a chunk of mid day to hang, talk, play, exchange stockings and then usually someone gets a little pissed and yup, time to go. Its totally cool, we see each other too much anyway. So food wise, it was pretty basic. Eggs, hash browns, a ham, fruit and bagels… The hash browns were store bought, Me and nick did the eggs frittata style and the ham was just stuck in the oven….Not much to do. But then one of my lovely sisters requested gravy…..and so it was made. And a basic brunch was turned into a gravy laden food feast. And so you know, I am not a huge gravy fan, or I never really have the opportunity to eat gravy, its just not in my food rotation..until now. I was really impressed with myself on this one.

We have white mushrooms, kale, red onion, garlic, soy, nutritional yeast(if you don't have, no worries, you can get away with not using it), sage and thyme and corn starch…

Dice up onion, mushroom and garlic… Into a pan on medium heat with a bit of olive oil…just to soften up

Toss in the spices, nutritional yeast and the soy sauce and let meld together for a minute or 3

Add 2 1/4  water and whisk in a tablespoon of  corn starch….and let it simmer

 Once the gravy gets to that super nice consistency…add in finely chopped kale and let gravy simmer for another 5 minutes or so

Transfer to a nice bowl or gravy boat, stick a ladle or big spoon and get to graying up all your food!!!!!

Everyone was to busy eating for me to get a good picture of the gravy on food, but trust….it was all over everything!

-C

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Mushroom Kale Gravy

Makes about 2 1/2 cups 

• 7-8 white or cremini  mushrooms
• 1/2 small red onion
• 2 kale leaves
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy or tamari
• 1 teaspoon ground sage
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon nurtitional yeast
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2 1/4 cups water
• tablespoon corn starch

Dice onion into small bits, slice mushrooms nice and thin and dice garlic into wee little pieces.. Toss into a skillet with a bit of olive oil on medium heat and let mixture soften and smell nice and fragrant. Toss in the dried herbs, nutritional yeast and soy sauce and let cook for another few minutes until the mixture sucks up all the soy sauce and the veggies start to brown.

Add in the water and whisk in the corn starch. Turn heat to low and let simmer until gravy starts to thicken. Finely chop the kale and toss into gravy when its about done.. Simmer for another 5 or so minutes or until you can't wait any longer….Serve straight from the pan or transfer to a gravy holding device,. Pour gravy on everything!

YUM YUM YUM ENJOY!!!!

Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

What we got here is an easy one pan meal for the beginning of a hectic(but fun) holiday week . But I am sure that you  have your wits about you, that you are not feeling like a stretch Armstrong doll. No, you are all calm and collected… Well that's nice because I feel like my head going to explode.So what I need this week is easy,  fast food  with lots of healthy good stuff and maybe to get rid of the meatballs that are in the freezer….. Mission accomplished with this dish. It's basically a hug pan of veggies with a few left over meatballs from Nicks bday dinner and a little cottage cheese.  Nothing fancy… hearty and warm..Nick likes it so it's a winner. 

The spaghetti squash is the main component in this dish so if you want to use other veggies, go for it. You can make this vegan and leave out the cheese and use fake balls or no balls at all (hehe)  You can even toss in some beans, lentils, or tofu. I make variations of this dish often… and lentils are a really good addition..

Besides the squash and the meatballs, I used mushroom, onion, kale, tomato and garlic  plus about a half cup of cottage cheese, cause that was what I had in the fridge. 

First thing first, cook the squash.  Just stick it in the oven for half hour at 425.. Once you can stick a fork into it, pull it out and let it cool enough to handle.. While thats cooling off, cook down the veggies. Started with a little oil in a cast iron skillet on medium heat, toss the onion and mushrooms ands frozen meatballs*(or whatever you want to use) and heat  until meatballs are cook through and the onion and mushroom are browned. Now add the garlic, kale and tomato, Turn heat off.  When the squash is cooled enough to handle,. slice open, scoop out the seeds and scoop the flash out. Spaghetti squash and cottage cheese into the skillet and toss.. Sprinkled a bit of mozzarella or parmesan cheese on top.  Lots of crushed black pepper and into the oven for about 15 minutes. or until the cheese is nice and melty and you are hungry and want to eat. 

*Note. If you want to make meatballs fresh, my recommendation would be to make them in the skillet first and then just toss all the veggies into that pan to cook down… No need to make more dishes. 

Pulled straight from the oven….Served nice and hot, placed right onto my wooded counter. I need to stop placing hot pans on the wood, I am leaving burn marks. There is actually a lot of thing that I need to stop doing in the kitchen, like setting towels on fire, burning myself at least once a day, slicing my fingers,.breaking dishes…….So maybe place skillet on a trivet of  some kind and serve it up!

So easy and fast.. Served with a piece of crusty bread… Man, I wish everything this week could be this fast sans easy….. but I am not complaining. 

Have a good Monday!

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Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

• 1 small Spaghetti Squash

• 5-7 pre cooked vegan meatballs

• Small red onion

• 2 -3 big mushrooms

• 1 small tomato

• a few kale leaves

• 3-5 cloves garlic(or as many as you like)

• half a cup of cottage cheese *

• a handful of shredded parmesan or mozzarella*

• salt and pepper

• oil (for pan)

*use vegan versions or dairy versions.. up to you.

Preheat oven to 425

Place spaghetti squash in oven. Let bake for about a half hour or until fork tender. Remove and let cool enough to handle.

While that's happening, chop the veggies into any size you want.. Drizzle olive oil in medium skillet and place diced sliced mushrooms, onion, and pre made meatball to brown. Once meatballs are warmed through, add the kale, garlic, tomato, and cottage cheese. Take the cooked spaghetti squash and remove seeds and scoop flesh into the skillet. Toss everything together, sprinkle with salt pepper, top with shredded cheese and place in oven for 15 minutes

Take it out of the oven and let cool. for a minutes and…...

EAT!

Bits of Happy

Oh, it definitely was a long week. Did a lot of holiday stuff, watched a lot of littles( got peed on) got sick and lost my voice for a couple of days.(that was fun). All sorts of good stuff. But for real, I had a great week. Here are some bits. Persimmons.,,,,,,,,,,,. Do I need to say more?

This new tea… I wasn't sure I was going to like it but oh do I. It's so freaking good, I have been drinking it every day. I must stock up before its gone!

Everything about getting our Christmas tree makes me happy. Every year, the mister, the dog, and I drive down to the rangers station,, get our tree tag , and hike into the Green Mountain National Forest to hunt for and cut down our Christmas tree. The tree is the thing for me. I don't want presents, no shopping, take the food, just the tree and I will be happy.  Its our most fantastical tradition. We make is a whole day event. A nice drive, lunch, listening to Christmas music, lots of hot coffee, a long hike in the most beautiful place in the world. The perfect day. Look at how happy this guy is. Its hunting season and we forgot his bright colors so we improvised. Yellow trash bag ribbons. His new nickname is now Trash dog. It fits him.

Watching this little. She is an amazing human being and I love love love her.. I think she might be mine. She really likes soup..

My elf candle holders I got from CB2. I wanted them so bad for years and finally the last year they sold them I bought myself these guys. I heart them

Oh you like my new milk crate show bench? Its awesome,, one of the best uses of scrap wood and milk crate that I have ever done(Yes there has been other scape wood milk crate projects) Well you are in luck..I will show you how to made it.. watch for it next week!

I love old strainers. I kind of have a thing for them. This big guy is now in my collection. Bonus, green AND purple kale….

Hanging out with my sister. I haven't seen her for what seems like the past 4 months(she is in nursing school). This was her last day of classes  so we cleaned her house, folded laundry while listening to music and I made her dinner.We wrapped up the night by mass texting our other sisters inappropriate pictures of the elf on the shelf. It got pretty crazy.  It was such a great night. I love my sisters.

Hope you found some bits of happy this week, if not, your not doing it right.

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!