Grilled Veggies

Why yes, it is possible to grill non-meat items on your George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine! I'm all about quick, healthy, and easy. Okay, so maybe grilled cheese isn't the healthiest option for dinner, but when it's on whole wheat bread with tomatoes and grilled onions, it seems a little better!

I sprayed the grill with some olive oil spray and lined up the onions in a row. I closed the grill and let them sizzle away for about 10 minutes. No need to flip them because there is a top and bottom grill on a George Foreman. And there you go, in about 10 minutes you have yummy grilled veggies!

Thanks, Lisa, for this little mini-grill! :)

Happiness

For those of you that know me, I'm sure you're well aware that it really doesn't take a whole lot to make me happy. I tend to get very excited about "the little things" in life. This post is all about 5 little things that make me smile. There are many, many more on my list... 

Packages

A special package was delivered to me this weekend - brought all the way from California. It was a package I have been looking forward to receiving and I'm so happy with what was inside. The items pictured below are family heirlooms and my Aunt Stephanie is a gem for passing them on to me. Thank you, Steph. I appreciate them more than you could ever know. 

Memories

Family

My dad came to visit me this weekend. I can honestly say that I can't remember the last time I spent that much one-on-one time with him and it was fantastic. We had a wonderful time exploring restaurants around Oshkosh that I haven't been to yet. Mexican food = our favorite! :) We did some quick thrift shopping and checked out a retro furniture shop downtown. Saturday we attempted to stay awake for a movie, but after a long day we both ended up passed out on the futon. Quite the pair! 

"New" Cookbooks

The start of my cookbook collection

I've acquired a few new cookbooks over the past few weeks that I'm pretty excited about. I love old cookbooks. I like to try to imagine the people who used them before they were passed down or given away. I look at thrift shops to see if there is anything that catches my eye. My mom also got a few from my Grandma that she thought I would enjoy. One dates back to 1974.  

Pressed flowers that my mom put in this cookbook when she gave it to my Grandma

How To Use Chopsticks Illustration and a handwritten recipe found in a thrift store cookbook

Running

After what felt like quite a long winter, spring is starting to come through. I shouldn't complain too much. Wisconsin had quite a mild winter compared to years past...but to a girl who loves heat, it still was cold! Now that the weather is nice, I've started running again. I say again because it seems I fall into these strange summer running patterns that don't continue through the winter.  

Breaking out the Nikes

Maybe at one point I'll be a year-round runner, but for now I'm just happy that I've started again. I'm using an application on my phone called Map My Run and I've found the perfect workout Pandora playlist called AHA Fitness by the American Heart Association. 

Spring 

Spring is really fun to watch. All of the flowers start to bloom, you can hear all the little birds chirping in the trees again, and everything gets green. I love green. I'm excited to say that my herbs are growing up! They're two weeks old today. Another fun thing: I talked with my neighbor Jim and he's going to save a little space for me in the backyard garden. Yay! I'm also looking forward to the day I can take the pesky plastic off my windows... soon! 

SMILE!

Windowsill Herb Garden

Well friends, I was going to wait a little longer to post this, but I'm just too excited! A few weekends ago I visited Nichole and we bought seeds to plant windowsill herb gardens. The seeds went into the pellets a week ago today and a few days ago they started sprouting! 

I got super excited when I saw green in the midst of the brown peat pellets. There are three types of herbs planted. Cilantro (definitely my most favorite herb ever - I think we planted 4 of those), Oregano, and Basil. The Oregano seeds are so tiny! I can't wait until I have enough Basil to make pesto. Mmm!

They're planted in a Jiffy Windowsill Greenhouse. You can get one here or buy one for a lot cheaper at your local garden shop. I got mine for $3.99. The pellets come compressed and you add water in order to make them expand. They're covered with a thin, mesh netting and they "grow" when they get wet. How fun!

So, here sits my little windowsill herb greenhouse. I'm so excited for when the herbs are actually producing and I can transplant them in the little windowsill planter I bought. It's cute, colorful, and happy!

I'll leave you with the view of the sunset through the trees out my kitchen window. Peaceful. :)

Roasted Veggies

I always get so excited to see a blank blog page. It's so fun to make it beautiful by adding photos and a steady stream of thoughts. I find it hard not to write too much, but I think I like more photos than words a lot of the time. I have a feeling this will be a post with a lot of photos. :)

The good thing about being a vegetarian who loves vegetables is that you can usually find quite an assortment in my apartment any given day. I had some veggies that needed to be used up, so I decided to make roasted veggies last night.   

  

The fun thing about roasted veggies is you can pretty much use whatever you have on hand and they turn out amazing. It's quite a simple process and roasting with herbs really brings out the individual flavors of each vegetable. I used about 1/2 a head of broccoli, 1 sweet potato, 1/2 a red onion, and 1 yellow squash.

Chop up all your veggies in 1 inch cubes or slices. Add enough olive oil to cover all the veggies. 

I used about 2 Tablespoons.

Add about 1-2 teaspoons of rosemary, thyme, parsley, marjoram, and I also threw in some "Arizona Dreaming" from Penzey's to add an extra little South of the Border flavor, but you can use any type of seasoning you have on hand. Arizona Dreaming is a mix of ancho chili pepper, black pepper, onion, garlic, paprika, cumin, oregano, cilantro, lemon peel, chipotle pepper, red pepper, jalapeno, cocoa, and natural smoke flavor. Talk about a fantastic mix of spices! I love Penzey's... more coming on that later! :)

Salt and pepper to taste. Mix well until the veggies are coated with spices. 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and spread out the veggies in a single layer on a baking sheet.

Bake for10 minutes. Remove from oven, turn the veggies with a spatula and put back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes or until the veggies are cooked through and browned.

I decided last minute that I wanted to make a roasted veggie sandwich so I cut up some slices of Monterrey Jack cheese to put on toast. I put it on a piece of (pre-toasted) whole wheat toast and put it on the baking pan to cook for the last 5 minutes so the cheese melted.

What's your preference? Blogs with more photos or more text? Leave your thoughts below. :)

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Vegetarian Mexican Tortilla Lasagna

This Mexican tortilla lasagna is definitely a lot of my favorites combined into one big blob of yumminess. Nichole and I made this one weekend when she came to visit. We're both Mexican food lovers. It's not necessarily the prettiest thing I'll ever put this blog, but it is definitely tasty! It's pretty easy to come up with ingredients, too. It can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. And it's pretty healthy!

Ingredients:

15 corn tortillas

1 15oz can vegetarian refried beans

1 medium white onion, finely diced

1 can large black olives

1 medium zucchini, diced

1 poblano pepper, diced

1 medium red pepper, diced

1 cup chopped cilantro (or more!)

1 lime

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 1/4 cups grated Monterrey Jack cheese

1 1/4 cups grated cheddar cheese

1 jar salsa (mild, medium, or hot)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a casserole dish.  

Start with 3 tortillas for the bottom layer.

It's easier to spread the beans on the tortillas with a spoon before you top them with the veggies. 

Add salsa.

Top with cheese mixture.

Sprinkle on some spices.

Squeeze on some lime juice. Repeat.

Be sure to save some of the cheese to put on the top.

I think it would have worked better to use a 9x9 pan because then you end up with more "layers" but I only had a round casserole dish, so this one turned out really thick.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the cheese bubbles. 

Top with green onions and serve with lime wedges, avocado, and salsa. 

Look at all those layers :)

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Banana Cornbread Muffins

I spent this past weekend laughing, thrift shopping, and cooking with my best friend Nichole. She got to experience cooking in the tiny ass kitchen and we sure did have a ball! I have now started affectionately calling my kitchen a "butt bumping kitchen." As we were busy running around gathering ingredients we bumped butts too many times to count ha ha. 

We spent Saturday afternoon exploring quite a few thrift shops and made a lengthy stop at Hobby Lobby. I could spend hours upon hours at thrift stores. I love it! I found this great little muffin tin for $2 at Goodwill. We put it to good use by making these banana cornbread muffins! They are very moist and have a sweet, subtle banana flavor. :) Yum-ee!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup natural applesauce (no added sugar)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup half and half
2 tablespoons honey
2 - 3 overripe bananas, mashed (thawed, if frozen)

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together melted butter, applesauce, sugar and eggs until smooth. Whisk in buttermilk and honey. Add bananas.

In a separate bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in two batches, stirring until just mixed.

Spray muffin tins with cooking spray (or use paper liners). Fill 3/4 full. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This recipe makes about 15 muffins.

These are great for breakfast or for a snack any time of the day! I prefer them warm, but they're pretty tasty cold, too. I realized after we made these that we should have added walnuts! Happy baking! :)

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