Ever since we got the crock pot, we've been making this veggie chili. It's mostly canned food so only takes a few minutes to throw together and when we get home, dinner is done. Plus it makes enough to feed Mama and Daddy for a few days (yes, CJ is too picky to eat anything). With a quick trip to Trader Joe's you can make it mostly organic and pretty flavorful. We use their canned organic roasted tomatoes, organic veggie broth, organic beans, skip the lima beans and use a cup of their roasted corn (freezer section), add some fresh pepper, but also a scoop of TJ's frozen fire-roasted onions and veggies. We even skip the jalapeno, but it still tastes great. Tomorrow we are making a batch to take to a schoolmate's family as they just had a new baby. Hope they like it.
Since time is always an issue and cookbooks can be overwhelming with too many recipes, Mama ended up grabbing copies of the Whole Deal from Whole Foods. Initially we just used them for the coupons and recycled the rest, but lately Mama's found some intriguing recipes to try. First we tried the Cashew Noodles with Broccoli and Tofu and the Winter Greens with Carrots and Feta Cheese. The Greens were actually a bit tastier than the noodles. Although we do still have some greens to use up on something else.
Then we tried the Quinoa Loaf with Mushrooms and Peas this week, along with the Spring Salad with Strawberries and Creamy Orange-Avocado Dressing. They were both pretty good, but time consuming to prepare and used quite a few dishes. Peeling asparagus for the salad was a bit of a process. And Mama loves avocados, but the dressing was a bit overwhelmed by the orange juice.
In between we made Jamie Oliver's pasta with some paprika roasted cauliflower on the side. Both were very good. I wish I'd thought of putting a pan below the melting cheese in the oven as the oil ran over and made quite a bit of smoke.
And last night we made the cottage cheese and egg custards that started the whole thing. We finally bought the ramekins we needed. Mama added rosemary, green onion and fresh spinach to hers and Daddy's and they were yummy. CJ tried to resist, but ended up eating a few bites of hers, proclaiming it was good. And this was one of the easiest of all the recipes, with just a few ingredients.
For dessert, we found a secret recipe for some of our favorite chocolate chip cookies. Yum. Ok, that's not too healthy - but they do have oatmeal.
After all that cooking, we headed over to Bella tonight for pizza, salad and, of course, gelato. Guess whose turn it was to pick?
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