Lentil Taco "Meat"

If you do recall, one of my goals that I successfully accomplished was to eat vegetarian for a month. Mister and I successfully accomplished that for the month of February and then continued with those eating habits through Easter day. At that point, Mister enjoyed some ham at my parents’ and I didn’t eat any meat until this past Friday night when we met my parents for supper at Beer Barrel. Dad’s suggestion: Taco Pizza! How did he know that that was exactly what I was thinking about on my way to Beer Barrel. Initially I had said that I wanted to continue eating meatless even after Easter, but in a split-second thought I decided questioned why and said, “Sounds good to me!”

My dad is a meat-lovin’ kind of guy. My momma-cita is a vegetarian that hugs the vegan-line in some aspects. They are that couple that orders a pizza “half-meat lovers/half-veggie lovers!] There were times I recall her making 3 different meals in one evening. She’d prepared something for my dad and me—including meat. She’d prepare an alternative for herself—meatless. And then she’d also prepare something for my brothers who were watching their intake for wrestling! That is way too much work for my liking!! I want something that appeals to various food liking people.

Of course that quick thought had been thought about previously which is why I decided to eat three too many pieces of Taco Pizza that night. For the month of February, eliminating meat [and bread] from our diet was a fast. Eliminate something from our lives in order to focus on something else. Continuing through Lent was again a sacrifice of sorts. Those where pretty black and white decisions for me. Continuing after Easter on the other hand was more focused on the overall health benefits of not eating meat as well as the benefits of eating things other than meats. Those are indeed two different things. Our bodies were made to eat meat, yet we have evolved in such a way that we can handle it and in the process pull nutrients from it. By no means am I arguing that meat is completely awful for you, but it’s also not the best. On the other hand, when we weren’t eating meat we obviously had to fill that void with other nutrients. This pushed me us to prepare meal combinations full of veggies and grains that I likely wouldn’t have eaten had I had a hunk of meat on my plate. Those “other” foods not only broadened my taste buds but also provided different types of nutrients that would have otherwise been lacking.

So in our adventure of eating meatless, a new “goal” has emerged. I want to be eating vegetarian 90ish% of the time. I don’t want to deprive myself of something that isn’t awful for me in hopes to stick to a rigid legalistic diet of sorts. If I’d really like a slice of Taco Pizza, then I really like a piece of Taco Pizza and I’m going to have it. In the process of it all, I’d also like to experiment with new recipes and new foods that my once carnivore-self would bypass.

Some of those new recipes have quickly become trashed recipes but I’m hoping to find some staples that I really enjoy!

Some of my trash recipes were Parsley-Garbanzo been burgers in Rachael Ray’s Magazine—bland, bland, bland—and my attempt to make black bean burgers—these tasted good because I like black beans, but there wasn’t much burger to it! It was more like black bean sloppy joes!

My favorite vegetarian recipe would have to be Lentil Tacos. Now I’ve never [knowingly] had lentils before and my greatest experience with them was as an object lesson about Jacob & Esau and when we told our parents about Ainsley’s anticipated arrival—she was the size of a lentil Christmastime 2010 when we spilled the beans! My, oh my how life has changed!!

The website that I found the lentil taco recipe on claimed that you can easily substitute them for taco meat, yet I definitely had my reservations since in the past preparing dry beans resulted in bland and crunchy [and once food poisoning of sorts! Sorry mister!] Nevertheless, I gave this a try and the verdict?! Definitely making it again!

It wasn’t a complete texture/taste replica, but boy was it good! [It wasn’t super bean-y flavored as well!]

Lacking a bit of photographic appeal,
but certainly not deliciousness appeal!

And so here is the delicious, economical Lentil Tacos Recipe:

Lentil Tacos

Yield: 4 servings [The original recipe said 6-8 servings but I can only see this if you are having other Mexican “sides” as Mister and I ate two-thirds of it—we only had tacos for that meal.]

Ingredients

1 cup lentils, rinsed and drained

2 Tbs. oil

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbs. chili powder

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. oregano

2 1/2 cups broth—Original called for chicken broth [obviously not vegetarian!] I used vegetable broth.

1 cup salsa

Instructions

In a large skillet, saute the onion and garlic together. Add the lentils and spices, cook for a minute.

Add the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 30-35 minutes. [Do a quick “tender check of the beans. J]

Uncover and cook a few more minutes to thicken. Add the salsa.

Enjoy your taco meat alternative as tacos, burritos, nachos, or however!

1.AdasldkAAdapted from: Eat at Homes
 
If you are interested in other fairly simple, fairly economical meals and menu plans, definitely check out http://eatathomes.com . There are tons of recipes there! J

Dear Ainsley

Dear Ainsley,

Wow! Boy Girl how you have changed since your last letter! Where to even begin?!

Just shy of 7 months old we visited friends in Michigan, and even though you were scooting everyway but forward leading up to that weekend, that weekend you scooted forward straight after their fuzzy companion! (The way you interacted with Buddy made me seriously question my no-indoor-animals mantra!) You giggled and scooted all across their floor to get close to that pup!

Ainsley & Papa with Buddy & his human papa

Then within that week you were crawling! Not the I'm-a-first-time-mom-so-I-want-to-say-you're-crawling kind of crawling, but a very legit, one hand then the other, moving forward kind of crawl! Amazing! You've yet to disappoint when it comes to your development.

And now, just 3 weeks after you started actually crawling, you are a babe on a mission! Just yesterday, you were reading playing with a book in the nursery as I left you to finish folding clothes in the living room. Before I knew it, there you were sitting in the [living room] end of the hall watching my every move! You've also become an amatuer couch/entertainent center/laundry basket surfer!

The only downfall of all this growth is the falling that goes with it! I'm trying my best to be hands-off in this area, and unless it looks like serious pain, allow you to fall of your bum and learn from doing. I want to protect you from all that I can, but this is one area that I know you just need to learn from doing. We'll survive!

In other news, you are Miss Chatty McGee! Da-da-da-da-daaa! If you want to call it your first word, go ahead, but Baby Girl we're just counting it as chatter! We don't refer to anyone as "Dad" or "Daddy" and all the baby websites will say that "dada" is [nearly] always a baby's first "word", so in our book, we're still waiting for that true first word, but in the mean time, we'll continue to talk right back as if you make perfect sense!

Last but not least, you now have two teeth! On April 5th, you bottom two teeth popped right on through! Aside from a little extra dooliness and a bit more gnawling, you don't seem too bothered by them. A couple nights you woke in a fuss for a bit, and Papa is convinced it was thanks to the toothers, but overall nothing compared to the horror, I was expecting! I'm not writing off the horror yet though, we still have 18 more teeth to go!

A bit dark, but it's hard to capture our
newest teeth friends when their host is so active!

So because life has been busy and I've been trying to enjoy/capture the moment versus taking time to blog, the rest of your past several weeks is captured here in photos!

Your 1st--of many--State Wrestling Tournaments



Enjoying the meet with Uncle Zac & Dues



And enjoying it sleeping through it
with Grandmomma-cita

 First out of State Road Trip to Michigan

Sharing Momma's cone after a day in the sun
[which resulted in your first sunburn! :S]

First Easter

Personal Egg





Adorable [boogery] self



Massie Family Picture

Grandma Great aka
Grandma Cow

Easter basket--filled with candy Papa & I
like and a bike helmet for you!

Sharing a Peep with Sondra

 Miscellaneous

Chewing on those toes!
You get your flexibility from your momma
not your papa!

Another cone shared--raspberry sherbet/vanilla twist
which we both agreed was delish!

First pair of stylin' shades!

All jazzed up for Sunday Morning Worship Nursery

 You bring us such joy baby girl!

Love,
Momma

Asparagus and Raised Beds

Rachel and I figured we’d finally put the name of the blog to its fullest potential, including posts by me as well. So I’m hoping to contribute some entertainment for you, as well as maybe a few bits of wisdom that you may or may not want to incorporate into your life!

Most of my posts will probably be about things taking place outside, having to do with the garden—or maybe some other projects in the future.

Well, it’s been a busy spring already, since it came so early. I’ve been able to do quite a bit so far. I have big dreams for our backyard—and front yard—but I’m trying not to overdo myself. Rachel is good at reminding me to not bite off more than I can chew and to take things slowly. We make a good team!

So here’s a few things we’ve accomplished so far:

1 – Asparagus         We planted some asparagus. I like asparagus, but I’ve never been a part of growing it or even harvesting it. Heck, I don’t even know what the plant looks like! I just know I like the green stalks that get fried with a little butter and devoured quickly.

Asparagus Location

I ordered them online, and I got 10 plants. Sounds like a lot, but I did mention that I like asparagus, right? It only came in quantities of 10, actually. So, in following the directions, since I didn’t get to planting them immediately when I got them in the mail, I loosely wrapped them in a dark towel and soaked them with water until the day I did plant them. Then I dug a trench about 8 inches deep, wet it down, and spaced them about a foot apart in two rows. I covered them with about 2 inches of dirt, watered them again, and walked away. I’m supposed to cover them with another two inches once they poke through.

I found a wire in the ground!

Talk about feeling unwanted! I have to do that about 3 more times until they finally get to break through and stay in the open air. I hope they don’t think I don’t want them around. I’m just following directions. I’m pretty sure I won’t get to enjoy anything off of them for at least 2 years. They’re supposed to grow as big as they can, and store as much energy into their roots as possible so that I’ll be eating good nutrients come year 3. (This is one of those times I’m longing for a time machine!)

The fork I used to turn the soil,
before I decided to remake the garden.

2 – Raised Beds         Last year I made a box 8’ x 8’ and filled it with too many vegetables. This year, I wanted to double it! Then I got creative with the shape it would take. Instead of just having a box of dirt that was 8’ x 16’, I decided to add some variety and broke it down into smaller boxes.

I did this for a few reasons. I’ve been doing a lot of reading this winter about gardening, different methods, different ideas, anything and everything. One theme I noticed in a lot of them was to stay off the dirt you plant in. Since we have raised beds, the easiest way to do that is to limit how wide each bed is. The average person can

reach 2’ comfortably, but I decided to make mine only 3’ across.

I bought some long boards, cut them to the length I wanted and screwed them together. Ainsley played with a hammer while I worked on them. Made me so proud! So I have 3 – 3’ x 8’ boxes and 2 – 3’ x 3’ boxes, with about 2’ of paths between that will be covered in mulch. So I went with the mulch for aesthetic reasons more than anything else.

Ainsley helping Papa out!

I intend to not just have the tomatoes in one spot or the beans in one spot, but to kinda mix them together. Some people recommend doing that so that a particular bug that loves beans won’t get to have a heyday jumping from plant to plant as it gorges itself into Bug Euphoric Bliss. So we’ll see how it works out. I didn’t even notice anything like that last year (which was my first year gardening on my own), but I’ll keep an eye out for anything interesting.

2012 Garden

For the dirt in my boxes, I went to my dad’s and shoveled in some good topsoil. I’ve considered getting some compost or peat moss or something really good with lots of organic matter to mix into it, but I’m also kinda trying to see how well I can grow a garden by only using what I can produce.

Compost Bin

I have a small compost bin, into which I throw vegetable scraps, grass clippings, leaves, and dirt. I’m no expert, but I’m trying to make my own compost and improve things as much as I can without buying it elsewhere.

Future Site of Black-/Rasp-berries

An exception will probably be when I prepare the soil for blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries this year. I won’t have anywhere near the amount I’ll need for making the soil better for them. So I’ll be buying some peat moss or something somewhere to get the soil ready for them.  I turned the ground the other day, and most of it is clay or really hard dirt.  So it will need some love before it will produce some delicious summer fruit.  I'll keep you posted about that process.

Well, I think that's about it for now.  I'll probably update you on some projects we've been working on next time.

-Mister

Cheez-Its Gone Simple

Cheez-Its win the prize when it comes to favorite snack. Don't give me the flavored powdered ones either. I want my cheese in the cracker. Cheesey. Crackers. Salty. Perfect.

So when I stumbled upon Homemade 5-ingredient Cheez-Its [I think on Pinterest of course! ;)] I thought "A recipe after my own heart!" In addition to loving Cheez-Its, the fact that it only had 5 ingredients--all of which I already had on hand--was a real bonus. Different food-awareness articles and blogs I've read have noted that a good rule of thumb if one is trying to avoid processed foods is to limit yourself to "boxed foods" that contain 5 ingredients or less. Cheez-Its certainly don't fit that bill, but homemade ones do. :) I also read somewhere [I do that a lot without remembering where I read things!] that if you are watching your diet in particularly your junk food intake that someone made themselves the rule that they could eat all the junk food they wanted--as long as they made it themselves. Obviously the effort to make the food usually trumps the desire to eat it so you still eat less.

Either way. This recipe wins. It has 5 simple ingredients. It is so easy to make.

So without further ado, the delicious recipe:

Homemade Cheez Its
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded
½ stick unsalted butter, at room temperature [Room temperature-ish is sufficient.]
3/4 teaspoon salt [If you use salted butter, then you may want to adjust this down a bit]
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons ice water

If you have a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to mix the cheese, butter, and salt until soft and combined. If you don't have a stand mixer, whip out the ol' handheld mixer and you'll be juuuust fine. Add the flour and mix on low speed. The dough should be dry and crumbly. Slowly add the water and continue to mix as the dough forms a ball.

Shape the dough into a disc, wrap tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour. Or you can put in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes. [This step is really just to firm up the dough so it makes it a lot easier to work with. I read through an half a dozen or so recipes and they all varied on this step. Fridge for 30 minutes. Fridge for an hour. Fridge overnight. Freezer for 15 minutes.]

Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll dough very thinly (1/8 inch or less). I put the dough between a couple pieces of parchment paper and then rolled them out. This made for easier rolling pin clean up and I didn't have to add any extra flour if the dough was a bit sticky. Using a sharp knife, fluted pastry cutter [if you want the Cheez-It edging] or pizza cutter*, cut the rectangles into 1-inch squares, then transfer to the baking sheets. Use the tip of a chopstick to punch a hole into the center of each square. This helps them not to puff up as much and look more like "real" Cheez-Its. Sprinkle with a bit of coarse salt.

Pre-baked--Being my first time
and for our consumption,
I wasn't going for uniformity!

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until puffed and browning at the edges. I cut ours a bit smaller so they only needed about 10 minutes. Watch carefully once you get to the 9-10 minute range because of the cheese and butter golden Cheez-Its could quickly become burnt Cheez-Its**. Immediately move the crackers to racks to cool.

Let cool completely, if you can wait that long!

Deliciousness at my fingertips!

These things are delish! Seriously! While you're at it, just trust me and make a double batch!! You won't regret that life decision!

*I love using our promo pizza cutter for jobs like this or to cut brownies--much easier than a knife!!

**The Cheez-Its that are a bit darker/burnt a bit are actually my favorite from the box! When I was in middle school I had a friend tell me that she would write into the Cheez-It company and request the burnt Cheez-Its and they'd send them to her all the time. I was so guillible. And Em was such a good "storyteller"! :)

In reading another recipe today, I think I made mine a little differently accidentally. In the step of rolling out thinnly, I then separated each cracker before putting it on a parchment covered baking sheet. I think some cut in 1" squares then baked them all touching. So the cutting was then used a score to break them apart after they had baked. Does that make sense?! I'll have to force myself to make these again asap to see the difference! :)

Recipe Adapted from A Chow Life.