Mushroom gravy

I planned to make this mushroom gravy for weeks and weeks - finally did it last night! It was super fast, easy, vegan, gluten free, raw...NUMMY!!

It even looks like gravy, tastes a little better than the goopy, greasy stuff I remember though. Here's the recipe (I can't remember where I got it from! I wrote it down on a scrap of paper.):

1/3 cup olive oil

3/4 cup mushrooms

1/3 cup water

1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp sea salt

Put everything in the blender until smooth.

Love it!! Wish I'd have made it in time to eat all my baked potatoes...as it is though I put it on instant mashed ;0) That's a little sauteed broccolini next to it, something new to me!

I cannot express how thrilled I am to have this little recipe. Even if you're not trying out vegan or raw recipes - this would be great with any regular old meal. And there are general health benefits if you're watching fat, salt or flour intake. I'm definitely going to use it for holidays...it was that good.

Potatoes galore!

So weeks ago I was at the store and they had organic potatoes on sale BOGO in bags, of course I got 2! Then, last week I was cleaning things up and found the bag of them that I had shoved aside to put away later and opened it up and holy mole!! They had all sprouted - huge lots of intertwining sprouts!

I don't know what it is about me that makes potatoes so motivated, but this was ahhhmazing!

Anywhoo...I ripped all the sprouts off, scrubbed and foiled them for baking - some in the oven, some in the crockpot and then I wished I'd have thought ahead...

One little me and 10 pounds of baked potatoes. Online, the verdict was that you cannot freeze them if you wish to eat them later...so I ate a potato with every meal.

I had eggs with potatoes, and potatoes alone, with sandwiches and even with salads. It took over a week, but they are done!

Now, do you wonder will I ever eat another potato again?

The Foodie Call review

So one of my dearest friends forwarded me an email from her mommie's group about this food delivery/catering company called The Foodie Call. You can find them here:

http://www.thefoodiecall.com/

Every month they offer several different meals that are delivered cold and you can reheat/freeze them and have a heat and eat dinner ready any old time!

Most of the offerings (so far) are gluten free and they are super nice about questions and accommodating food allergies! So I would totally give them 2 happy gf thumbs up. If you're in the Denver area, give 'em a try!

The picture above is the Creole Seafood Stew from last month. It was to die for! Just a little spicy, with more spices on the side in case you want it hotter. I did - my eyeballs sweat and my tastebuds danced. Delicious. There were good chunks of fish and little shrimp stuck in with a lot of peppers and onions. We dug it.

I also heated up the Vegetable Beef soup so we could have a sampling of everything. It was really more stew-like than soupy. Lots of big chunks of meat and veggies - total Comfort Food!!

This month I'm sad to say I'm not ordering because I'm planning a Mardi Gras feast but, if you order let me know what you think! I can't wait to see what's coming in April.

Besides being really tasty, I think it's a pretty good value too. Quite a bit cheaper than going out to eat, lots fresher than frozen dinners & faster than picking something up. Of course, I'm a homebody so it's like a dream come true for me :)

Breakfast sandwich! Yum!

It's still really cold here...they said it's warming up but I don't feel it. I haven't felt my toes in weeks.

Anyway, one of the best things to do on a cold day is stand over a hot stove so this morning I decided to make a hot breakfast and kind of got carried away. Scrambled eggs turned into eggs and ham...and toast...I just kept cooking because it felt so good to be standing over those hot burners!

Also, I have these gorgeous ripe tomatoes from my delivery this week and happened to wash an extra pear so slicey, slicey and breakfast is ... gone! It was pretty good. The simple things...

In other news, I'm having a lot of thoughts lately about what's next in life. I guess you could call it a phase? It's all about, "what do I do next?"

Any suggestions?

I'm just having this gut instinct that things are really going to change in the near future. Also, looking back, I can see that I'm preparing for something. A couple days ago I checked all my finances and realized that I'm totally flush. My assets are higher than my liabilities. It made me feel pretty good to know that I could sell my house and be free and clear of every obligation and just start fresh.

Yeah, that's what I mean. I don't think think things like, "I can really settle in and build a life." or "I could remodel, go shopping, donate more to charity or get more involved in my community." I think, "Wow, I could just up and change everything about my life - I could start over from scratch. I could run away." That's what I keep doing too - every few years I just start over from scratch. Different career, different house, different states even. I'm just built this way and I've been fighting it for some time now, trying to be normal. I'm telling ya, I've really dug in here and tried to be the most boring, stable version of myself.

Who knows, maybe tomorrow things will feel different, sometimes stable isn't so bad ;0)

Spring Rolls

Look at these babies ;)

I got inspired to make spring rolls, finally and it was super easy! You should try it...

Basically I got some rice sticks, green onions, cucumber, carrots and pre-cooked shrimp. Put a little pickled ginger and Thai Kitchen sweet pepper dipping sauce on the side and tah dah!

It's also a good way to use up the leftover veggies too :)

Now, if only spring will finally get here!! It's been a long cold winter at Cocoa's place. I was so desperate for some sun I went and sat in my car so the sun could beat on me but I wouldn't be out in the cold wind! It was nice and I'm sure if anyone saw me they thought I was nuts. Don't care. I got warm ;p

Wow, I'm actually cooking again!

I think it was the cold weather and the only recipes I could find for my leeks were for soup, so I sliced those babies up and put 'em in the crock with some vegetable broth, 3 red potatoes and some S&P. 4 hours on high later and I was floored! It was really delicious. I expected it to be bland or watery, but it wasn't :0) Looks bland though, doesn't it?

I also rolled up some collard green wraps:

It might sound weird, but trust me - this is a fabulous little dish! I've made it a few times before and ate them so fast I forgot to take a picture. This time I happened to have the camera in the kitchen and snapped it quick!

These are so easy too.

First, you wash your collard greens - I soak them in water for a few minutes then rinse them under running water. Mostly I just want to make sure I get all the dirt off.

Then, you lie one on your cutting board and with a sharp paring knife start at the stem and cut up the leaf. Your knife will automatically cut the boniest part of the stem as long as you're sliding it along the stem toward the top of the leaf. You'll have to repeat on the other side. Did that make sense?

If not, come over and I'll give you a live demo.

Next, pick your filling. I love doing some tuna salad with tomato slices.

Put a dab (spoonful) on the end of a leaf and roll it up. Voila!

Now, promise me you'll try it some time and let me know what you think!

A little help from Barilla

This was possibly the best pasta I've ever had...ever. I had a little help from Barilla though, so I can't take all the credit ;0)

I started by slicing up some mushrooms, onion and zucchini and threw in a few grape tomatoes and sauteed until they were tender. Then I dumped in a jar of Barilla and simmered it for the 15 minutes it took to boil the pasta (Tinkyada shells, btw)

Isn't it pretty?

So, here's the sauce I used and I chose it because it had the best ingredients...and it was on sale!

Doesn't it sound good? Like sauce my Italian grandma would make, if I had one. Can I borrow yours?
This was about a 25 minute meal - 10 mins to sautee the veggies and get some water boiling and 15 to simmer and boil the pasta. I managed to mix a pomegranatetini and load the dishes in there too. Multitasking, I am - I am!

Outback Steakhouse - you are so funny!

I was seriously craving a steak all week long. I mean, every day I thought how great it would be to gnaw on a huge chunk of beef. Gross, I know. After months of being a vegetarian I was shocked at myself. I felt like Phoebe when she was pregnant - the baby wants meat!!

So, I gave in and ordered Outback take-out. The sirloin with a salad and garlic mashed potatoes. I added plenty of notes for them to mix my salad in a clean bowl, no croutons, gluten allergy, etc. So, I get my bag and inside is this cute little packet...of BREAD! Ahem, really Outback? All my gluten free warnings and you shove a piece of bread in the bag? Get a clue.

I guess it wasn't terrible, silly though. And into the trash it went. Everything was in it's own little container so I wasn't too worried about contamination. Was a shame to throw away that bread though. I remember how warm and soft and slightly sweet it was *drool*.

11 ounce steak in a giant styrofoam box (I hate those leaky monsters)

2 cups of mashed potatoes in a styrofoam bowl

1 cup of salad in a styrofoam container and about 1 Tbs of dressing.

Gotta tell you, I felt really off kilter with this. I'm used to a plate filled with salad and veggies and maybe a single serving of potato - which means 1, about 1/2-1 cup at the most. Here I was with this pathetic little salad and I craved more. I was stuffed full of potatoes before I even got to the steak.

I admit it, I ate the whole thing. It was delicious. Smelled terrible, but tasted so good...and I was hungry again in 2 hours. What's up with that? Feed me a zucchini and I can go for hours. Stuff me with potatoes and meat and I'm starving again in 2. Weird. I thought protein was supposed to keep you full longer.

My only explanation is that my body was so desperate for protein that it immediately incorporated it with my tissues and I could go for more.

I'm a little sad today. I was loving being vegetarian but after eating that steak I feel so good today. None of the usual fatigue, no dark circles under my eyes that I thought were normal. I guess I need meat for my health. I'm sure there are some arguments that I don't. That I can take supplements to replace what I'm not getting from being vegan (where do they get the stuff in those supplements?) and maybe I just wasn't getting the right mix of nutrients.

I'm tired of the fight. It shouldn't be so hard to figure out how to live. I shouldn't be constantly questioning my diet. Is it making me sick? Am I getting proper nutrition? Am I killing innocent animals? Am I killing myself slowly? Am I going to get glutened? How about food poisoning? It's exhausting.

So, dear Outback, thank you for not glutening me, despite your best efforts. Thank you for the vibrancy I feel today. I'll be back. Keep a steak on the barbie for me cuz Lord knows I still can't stomach the thought of raw meat in my house.

P.S. thank you for the gluten free menu: http://www.outback.com/menu/pdf/glutenfree.pdf

Shopping!!!

One of my favorite things to do is go shopping somewhere great and today I found a new place! See, the grocery store I usually go to is under construction - still open, but the last couple times I went everything was covered in this sticky gray dust. Today I headed out to go and as I was approaching I just couldn't bear the thought of coming home with a bunch of dirty stuff again (I seriously had to wash some of it last time!) So, I took a left and went to the store on the next street. La La La! It was great! I'm going back for sure - it was a gluten free palooza there. I got a bunch of stuff, as you can see.
My regular store stocks a handful of Amy's gf meals and on a good day I can find gf pretzels on the bottom shelf way in the back behind other stuff. My new store...wow! They had at least 7 different kinds of gf cookies, 2 kinds of gf pretzels, a ton of rice noodles, bowls and sushi makers! Not to mention the usual gf pastas and Betty's cake mixes you can find almost anywhere.

I was in awe as I stood in the frozen foods and they had 5 different kinds of gf bread, pizza crusts, muffins, cupcakes, regular cakes, BAGELS!!! and sandwich buns. They even had Amy's gf burritos and lasagna. I teared up a little.

If you're ever in the NW suburbs, let me know and I'll take you over to KingSoopers with the gf palooza.

Today's to-do list:

Find sushi recipes to do with my Nori that don't require soy sauce (did you see - I got sushi vinegar?)

Have Chipotle with the 'rents

Watch Letters to Juliet

And a bunch of house chores :(

Crock Pot Bakers?

I think this is my new favorite Crock Pot function! You can bake potatoes in it! And yams!
I hate starting up the oven to do just a couple potatoes and when I microwave them I always end up with some kind of hockey puckish thing. This was FABULOUS!! All you have to do is wrap them in foil and cook on high 4-6 hours or low for about 8 hours and they come out perfect. The skins literally fell off the yam, which was sweet and soft. The potato peels fell off too. MMMMM.

So, I'm thinking that there will be many crock pot bakers in the future. The best part? since they are wrapped in foil there's no clean up!

Have you ever cooked anything non-stew in a crock pot? Do tell! I'm always psyched to find new meals I can do in the Crock and save me cook time. Not to mention how divine it is to come home to the smell of dinner ready.