Archive for the ‘Veggies’ Category

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Last Night Jenny

Sunday, November 27th, 2011

You know when your past self did something that makes your present self really happy.  Like the way Past Jenny cleaned her room before leaving for vacation.  That made Today Jenny very happy when she got home from her parents’ house.

The worst part of coming back from a trip is unpacking all of the wires that are absolutely critical to my ability to live life.  The phone charger.  The laptop power supply.  The iPad charger.  Can we say “first world problem”?

But also, I’m determined not to take more than one bag when I travel to my parents’ house.  I mean, one bag for my clothes/toiletries.  I have a bag for kitchen tools/ingredients.  And of course, a bag for wii games, computer, etc.  And then usually a cooler.  No biggie.  But sticking to one bag for clothes/toiletries is no small feat.  I’ve left out pajamas and just borrowed from my sister before.  I also never take shampoo of my own.  But my sister has much drier, much curlier hair than I do.  And she has the shampoo to counteract her hair-type.  The kind of shampoo that makes my hair a little crazy.  I’ve missed my shampoo.

While I was home for Thanksgiving, I cooked lunch for my brother and his family.  I made the easiest baked “pasta” in the whole world.

My mom turned me onto this, and it’s delicious.  It’s gluten free on top of that, and you’d barely even notice.  It’s a super simple baked pasta without any pasta.  Use butternut squash for the noodles.  Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

I wish it were more complicated, and I could post some fancy recipe.  But basically…

Baked “Pasta”

  • peeled discs of butternut squash (or half moon shapes from the bottom)
  • your favorite spaghetti sauce (with or without meat)
  • mozzarella cheese

Layer the squash and sauce.  Top with mozzarella.  Cover and cook at 350 for about an hour and a half or until tender.  Uncover and cook until the cheese is just starting to brown.  Just like that.

Posted in Gluten Free, Italian, Pasta, Recipes, Veggies | No Comments »

Growing Up

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

I’ve been trying to get at least 3 servings of veg into my diet every day.  It’s harder than it sounds.  Maybe it’s not, but it is for me.  That means I have to have 1 serving for lunch, 1 serving for snack, and 1 serving for dinner.  Snack is easy: carrots and hummus.  Lunch is always leftovers from the previous night’s dinner, so… I mostly just have to make sure I eat some veg in my dinners.  I made lettuce wraps early on this week.  I was doing quite well with those.

Then I saw this come up on my google reader.  For starters, I don’t make anything fancy.  I take fancy and make it casual.  It’s what I do.  I’m good at it.  So “Fancy Sloppy Joes” isn’t really my style.  But do you know what is?  Sneaking veg into sloppy joes.  So I ran by the grocery store on my way home from work, all prepared to pick up some carrots and zucchini to put inside of them.

Sloppy Joes

These are a bit on the spicy side of things, but feel free to modify them to your taste.  I wouldn’t at all frown on you if you wanted to use a spice pack, either.  I was going to, but the only brand I could find put all kinds of gluten into it.  Dumb.

I ate it on two slices of Rudi’s multigrain, and while the flavor was great, the texture wasn’t quite right.  The bread fell apart in my hands so I went at it with a fork.  Manageable, though not ideal.

Sneaky, Sloppy Joes:

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 zucchini, shredded
  • 2 carrots, shredded
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 1 small can tomato paste
  • 1 c. water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • dash red pepper flakes
  • salt to taste (I probably used a couple teaspoons)

Cook the ground beef and onions over medium high heat.  Drain off any excess grease.  Mix in veg, water, tomato paste, and the remaining ingredients.  Cook until veg is soft and cooked through and excess liquid has thickened.

Posted in Comfort Food, Gluten Free, Health, Meat, Recipes, Sandwiches, Veggies | 1 Comment »

I really do have recipes!

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

This meal was made pre-gluten free days, but aside from that little biscuit off to the side it totally fits the bill.  And it was AMAZING.  No joke.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

I have this steak marinade recipe that came from my brother’s roommate’s mom.  Did you follow that?  It’s really good.  But what I realized is that it’s really good even if you’re missing half the ingredients.  So here’s the deal.  You should make steak sometime.  And when you do, use garlic, vinegar of some sort (red wine, white, balsamic, whatever…), brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and steak sauce (if you have it; I didn’t).  Marinate half an hour.  Then make your roommate grill them to perfection while you finish off the mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Then eat like a pig.  It’s the only way, really.

Posted in Gluten Free, Meat, Recipes, Veggies | No Comments »

a bit distracted

Monday, March 21st, 2011

I’m a slacker.  With ideas for wonderful things I will someday do.  Like recipes I still haven’t made, they sit on a shelf, waiting for me to remember that they exist.  I dropped the ball on a project I’m working on this week.  It wasn’t a major thing.  I told my friend (who is also working on it with me) that I’m a slacker-face.  He said he already knew that.  My other friend pointed to the boy and said that I’ve been distracted.

It’s not that.  It’s really not.  But between you and me, I’m sometimes a bad rememberer of things I don’t really want to do to begin with.

But I’ve been cooking up a storm.  And Nate hasn’t been around to photograph very much of it.  … so you’re going to be seeing some really rough looking pictures of really yummy food.  And you just have to trust me that you want to make these things, mk?

Today, I’m not going to post any picture at all.  Just say that I did a fruit and veg cleanse, which required me to try out that whole spinach in a smoothie thing.  It’s delicious.  Really is.  I didn’t believe it, but everyone was right.  My basic smoothie was this:

  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup fresh spinach (loosely packed and all that)
  • orange juice until proper consistency

Sometimes I put strawberries in it.  But that was unnecessary, really.  Try it.  Amazing!  And healthy!

Posted in Gluten Free, Health, Veggies | No Comments »

Reinvention

Friday, January 21st, 2011

My official least favorite programmer phrase is “no need to reinvent the wheel”.  I’ll let Val explain it to you.

That said, I like reinvention.  It’s fun.  It’s familiar.  But only sort of.  It’s perfect.

Remember the time I made empanadas?  They were really good.  Seriously.  Whoa.  This time, I made them like this…

  • 1 lb. chorizo, casings removed
  • 1 zucchini, shredded
  • 1/2 head of cauliflower
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 cups shredded cheese

I roasted the cauliflower, then mashed it up with my potato masher.  It felt good.  While that was roasting, I shredded the zucchini in Lola, and sauteed it just a bit with the onion.  I set aside the onion/zucchini mixture, and cooked up the chorizo.  Now this is very important: I drained the chorizo of all that disgusting greasiness.  Then I mixed it all together.  And into my beautiful little dough it went.  Baked as usual.  Then I totally snarfed it.  All by myself.  That’s a lie.  I ate with other people.  But still… I would have made these even if nobody had told me they were “dank”.

Posted in Comfort Food, Health, Meat, Mexican, Recipes, Veggies | No Comments »

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