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

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.

Mexican Marshmallows

I've been in the kitchen a bit the past couple of days and as a result have a couple of recipes for y'all! Don't worry I have two separate recipes one for salsa and one for marshmallows! Unless you are completely disgusting daring and want to eat them together! ;)

Alright. First for the salsa. A week ago Monday, Megan brought some homemade salsa to TFC for our snack. It was de.li.cious! Immediately I asked for the recipe, and Chris agreed this was necessary. It is uber simple, uber delicious, and uber customizable--trifecta!

Here's the original recipe with my adaptations:
"Fresh" salsa
Combine the following ingredients in a large bowl:
     1 can whole kernel corn
     1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
     1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
     1 pepper [red, green, whateve], diced
     1 red onion, diced [I only used 1/2 an large onion.]
     1 tomato, diced [I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes, drained.]
     1 c. cilatro [I used maybe 1/4 c. because cilatro makes me gag leaves a funny taste in the back of my mouth.]

Mix the following ingredients in a separate bowl and then add to large bowl:
     1 Tablespoon sugar
     1 pkg. Good Seasons Italian dressing, prepared OR 3 Teaspoons Italian Seasoning, 3 Tablespoons Vinegar, and 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
     2 teaspoons chili powder

Feel free to adjust ingredients to your preferences.

Colorful = Ah.mazing.

 Enjoy! It's best if you put it in the fridge for a bit to let the flavors marinate but totally not necessary if you can't hold yourself back! It makes a pretty large portion unless your name is Chris or Rachel, then it only makes a 2-person portion! ;)

************************************************************************************************************

Marshmallows
Switching gears, awhile ago I came across a recipe for marshmallows. I'm not sure if it was on Pinterest or from blog hopping, but nevertheless, it perked my interest. Marshmallows are one of those things that if I really thought about it of course I knew there had to be a homemade method, but I guess I really never thought about it. [Very similar to when I put together that pumpkin pies were made from the same thing as jack o'lanterns. Don't judge. That revolution was in late high school...at least.]

We had all the ingredients on hand except geletin and I kept forgetting to get that at the grocery, so finally this weekend I remembered and took my hand at making marshmallows. The recipe I found uses beer so they have a bit of a malty-taste, but even non-beer drinkers aka me won't be turned off by that ingredient as it's not a strong flavor! I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the mallows, so I followed the suggestion of the recipe I followed and ended up dipping them in chocolate and putting some crushed pretzles atop. Again, don't judge, just try! :)

So without further ado, here's the recipe for Chocolate Covered Beer Marshmallows.

Beer Marshmallows
makes one 9 x 13 pan of marshmallows

2 tablespoons + 2 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin or 3 1/2 packets of Knox
1 cup cold, flat* beer, divided in two
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites [Make sure you have these before you start or your husband will have to run to the store and be your Mallow Hero! Not that that is from experience. :S]
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups dark chocolate morsels
2 cups milk chocolate morsels
pretzels, crushed

*Note: To flatten the beer, you can take the cap off the bottle and leave open overnight. Or if you don't want to plan ahead you can do what I did and pour beer into a bowl and use a whisk to remove some carbonation.*

Generously spray a 9 x 13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle on powdered sugar to cover and coat. Set aside. In the bowl of your electric mixer with a whisk attachment, pour 1/2 cup cold beer and 3 1/2 packs of gelatin. Gently mixed with a spoon once, then let sit while you make the sugar mixture.

In a large-ish pot [I know that's real specific, but the original recipe called for a medium pot and that wasn't big enough for me and I had to switch over mid-recipe] combine sugar, remaining beer, syrup and salt. Heat over low heat and whisk until sugar is dissolved, about 3-5 minutes. Turn heat up to medium and let sugar come to a boil. Note: It will bubble up even though you used flat beer so keep your eyes on it or it'll overflow! Let it boil for 8-12 minutes, until it reaches 240 degrees (use a candy thermometer). The mixture may appear to be a lightish brown color depending on the beer you use, but your mallows will still be white.

Once mixture is at 240 degrees F, turn off heat and gently pour it in the mixing bowl with  the gelatin with the mixer on low speed. Once all of the sugar has been added, turn the mixer to high and beat for for 6-8 minutes. It will grow in size and be white and fluffy.

About 3-4 minutes in, add the egg whites to a separate bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. It's easiest if you have a hand mixer to use for this or else you'll have to take off the mallow-covered whisk, clean it or put on another one and then switch out your mixing bowl. It'd be sticky, messy to say the least. Once stiff peaks are formed, add egg whites and vanilla extract to the sugar/gelatin mixture and beat until just combined.

It's always important to taste test.
Don't worry the blue spatula didn't make another appearance
with the mallows once it touched out lips!
My momma taught me right!

Pour marshmallow mix into the 9 x 13 pan. Possibly an impossibly sticky task. :) Get as much as you can from the bowl and then spray a spatula with non-stick spray and smooth, if necessary. Dust powdered sugar on top and let sit to firm up for 3-5 hours.

Once firm, you may be able to turn the pan upside down on a cutting board to release marshmallow rectangle. I wasn't quite able to do such so I cut the mallows in the pan and then removed them in "strips" to remove much more easily. Cut them into pieces of whatever size you like.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave [or however you prefer] and in a separate bowl put crushed pretzels. Using a fork, toothpick or corncob poker holders :), coat marshmallows in chocolate then sprinkle with or roll in pretzel crumbs. Let sit at room temperature until chocolate hardens.

Enjoy! Marshmallows can be stored in an airtight container for 1-2 weeks.

[Recipe Taken from How Sweet It Is here.]

Have you tried any new recipes worth sharing lately?!

P.S. Now that I retyped this recipe, I realized that I used too much beer. 1 cup does not equal 12 ounces. Duh, math teacher! They still turned out well but now thinking about it it makes sense why they weren't as firm as I thought they should be! Guess I'll just have to make 'em again!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Caution: This post is actually not about Ainsley! I know it's hard to believe since all posts in the past 4 weeks have solely been about her. This one is about another one of my favorite things: food! :)

So I have a friend who is a baking goddess. She makes delicious food, period, but her desserts are absolutely lovely! This past Saturday, Chris, Ains and I as well as another couple went over to her house for socializing the Buckeye's game. We made homemade pizza from garlicy, cheesy bread to "regular" pizza with all kinds of toppings and then also a dessert pizza--apple streusel! It was all very good. Later she offered some cupcakes that she had made for another occasion. Yes, please! I chose to indulge in a cookie dough cupcake, complete with a chunk of cookie dough in the middle! Yum! Yum! Sara definitely has a knack for cupcakes!

So that was my inspiration for making some cupcakes of my own. And what kind of cupcakes would I make, you ask? Of course that would be chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes! These weren't "from scratch" but close enough to be much more than the funfetti bakery that I usual stick to! ;) [Isn't there a cooking show about taking boxed items and doctoring them up a bit for a nice/delicious touch?! That's what this is!]

So for the cupcakes, I used a regular box of white cake mix and instead of following the directions on the back, I doctored it up a it based on this website's suggestions. [Note: I was originally drawn to this site because of their free fonts and other blog design suggestions, so check them out!] Without going to the site, you can make a doctored up version of any cake mix by adding the following to the cake mix:

1 sm. box of instant pudding, just the powder DON'T prepare it [I used vanilla.]
1 c. sour cream
1 c. vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

They also suggestion 2 c. of mini chocolate chips, but that was for chocolate cake so I skipped that suggestion.

Doctoring up ingredients!

You think mix everything together to make a thick batter [stir in the chocolate chips at the very end] and then bake. You can use the timing on the cake mix box as a suggestion. It was accurate for cupcakes. :)

So I scooped the batter into cupcake liners about half full [at first I put in more but it overflowed a bit after the cookie dough and baking. I then put a chunk of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough in each cupcake. It's important to use frozen cookie dough so that the dough doesn't bake along with the batter.

Chris helping putting in the frozen
cookie dough chunks.

I then put a teensy bit of batter on the cookie dough so it would be completely concealed. [I didn't do this at first either, but as a result I think the heat of the oven got to the cookie dough and baked it a bit which caused it to "cave in" a bit. This resulted in filling the cave with frosting to it didn't look funny. I guess that's not a bad thing. :) ]

Pre-baked goodness.

Speaking of frosting, for chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes, I had to make some cookie dough frosting. I used this site's recipe for cookie dough buttercream. It was pretty easy to make and according to Chris, it was what almost made the cupcake. Note that the butter needs to be at room temperature. So you'll need to set this out before you make the cupcakes so you don't have to wait as long. Or you can take a break to breastfeed your demanding 4-week old. It takes about the same time! If you choose the latter make sure you have a great husband to take out the baked cupcakes when that untimely timer goes off. :)

Cookie Dough Butter Cream

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
3.5 c confectioners'/powdered sugar
1 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2.5 tsp. vanilla extract

To make it, beat the butter and brown sugar until creamy. It takes a couple minutes. Mix in the powdered sugar until smooth. Then beat in the flour and salt. Finally mix in the milk and vanilla until it's all smooth and blended. Top your cooled cupcakes!

Final product, in awful lighting!

After the frosting was made and the cupcakes were cooled, I topped the cupcakes and then I put a few chocolate chips for the aesthetic appeal. After they were all iced and topped, Chris and I each enjoyed one with lots of milk! Chris said they were really good, and I thought they were good as well! Not as good as Sara's but that will take a lot more practicing. ;)

My handsome taste-tester.

Even though I wasn't responsible for snacks last night at TFC--I mistakenly thought I was Sunday night which was a reason that I made them--I still took them along for the leaders and our hostess home family. If I didn't, Goal #16 would never be accomplished. No one seemed to mind my little mistake and I even received a text from a leader about ten minutes after leaving that read, "Those cupcakes are AWESOME!! ;)" And my parents didn't seem to have a problem enjoying them as well. Not bad "payment" for watching Ainsley while we were at TFC, I'm sure!

So try them out! And check out Sara's blog for some to drool over delicious recipes!