Thanksgiving for the Herbivorous Part 2

                                                                This is a multi-part series- Click HERE for part one

We are talking about vegetarians and Thanksgiving. Since we don't eat a lot of meat we tend to like some turkey, but have sides that are meat free. here are two more of my favorites. :)

Winey Cranberry Sauce

·            2 cups red Zinfandel

·            1 cup sugar

·            1 cup (packed) light brown sugar

·            6 whole cloves

·            6 whole allspice

·            2 cinnamon sticks

·            1 3x1-inch strip lemon peel

·            1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries

1.  Put all the ingredients, except the cranberries, in a medium saucepan. Stir to partially dissolve the sugars. 
2.  Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced to 1 3/4 cups, about 10-12 minutes. Strain syrup into large saucepan.
3.  Add the cranberries to the syrup and cook over medium heat until berries burst, about 6 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and transfer sauce to medium bowl when cool. Cover and refrigerate until cold. 

This can be made up to 1 week ahead, but it needs to be kept refrigerated.

Roasted Wine Mushrooms

I made these last year and have made them several times since then. I am merely reposting the recipe, because Gina at So...Let's Hang Out pretty much hit it out of the ball park with this one. And considering that I rarely ever follow a recipe, this is really saying something. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 package of crimini mushrooms
• 3-4 tbs butter, cut into small cubes (I used grassfed)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup of red wine
• 2 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbs fresh thyme, minced
• salt, pepper
• Extra thyme to garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
2. Clean your mushrooms and pat them dry.
3. Put the mushrooms into a baking dish. Add in your wine, balsamic vinegar, garlic and thyme. Toss using a spoon so that the mushrooms are evenly coated.
4. Salt and pepper your mushrooms to your liking and then add in the chunks of butter. Place the chunks evenly throughout the dish.
5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally.
6. Mushrooms are done when they are tender and golden-brown in color. A wine and butter sauce should be bubbly and forming below.
7. Remove the mushrooms from the oven and sprinkle with fresh thyme. Serve over pasta, or as a side dish. These would go awesome with a steak!
8. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving for the Herbivorous Part 1

This is a multi-part series. For Part 2 click HERE 

My husband and I are mostly vegetarian. Some of our friends do the "Meatless Mondays", but for us it's "Meaty Mondays". Well it used to be. Now I have learned that setting meals on certain days, just leads to disappointment. Did you miss that post? See it here. 

Wait... I got of topic... Oh right, Thanksgiving and vegetarians. 

Now since my family does eat meat occasionally, we are not opposed to eating the turkey. But since we don't eat a lot of meat, eating a meal where almost everything is meaty is.... let's go with overwhelming for our digestive tracks. 

So I have created an assortment of vegetarian dishes that I serve alongside those mighty meaty dishes. There have also been times that people have joined us for dinner that are true vegetarians, and they have always been delighted to have something other than cranberry sauce and a roll. :)

Here is the first two that are always a huge hit:

Stuffing (adapted from Martha Stewart):

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 large yellow onions, diced small
• 3 celery stalks, diced medium 
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 10 ounces mushrooms, diced small (I like to mix up the kinds I use, but any mushroom that is available is fine)
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
• 1 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped
• 1 loaf crusty white bread, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (8 cups) and left uncovered overnight or toasted.
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups low-sodium or homemade veggie broth
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten (If your guests don’t eat eggs you can use 2 tbsp of ground Flax seeds and 6 tbsp Water. Let sit for about 10 minutes before adding it in.)

1. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Add onions and celery; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are soft, 5 to 7 minutes; transfer to a large bowl. Add 1 tablespoon oil, mushrooms, and sage to skillet; season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until mushrooms are browned, 5 minutes. Add wine and cook, stirring and scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon, until wine is almost evaporated. Transfer to bowl with vegetables; add almonds, bread, and enough broth to moisten (stuffing should feel moist but not soggy). Season with salt and pepper and toss to combine.
2. Add eggs (or flax) to bread mixture and toss well to combine. Spoon remaining stuffing into a lightly oiled 3-quart baking dish. (To store, cover and refrigerate, up to 1 day.) Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with rack in upper third. Bake, uncovered, until golden brown on top. About 30 minutes.

Green Beans with Shallots:

• 2 lbs fresh green beans (French Green beans are delightful, but standard are also fine)
• 6 medium shallots 
• 1 Tbs Olive oil
• 2 tsp butter
• Salt and pepper

1. Peel the shallots and thinly slice them. Separate the rings. Heat the butter and oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and stir to coat in the oil. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.
2. While the shallots are browning heat a pot of water to boiling. Salt the water when it begins to boil and blanch the green beans by putting them in the water for 2 minutes or until bright green. They should still be very crunchy when you remove them. Place into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.
3. Toss the green beans with the shallots in the skillet. Gently heat the green beans over Low heat until warm. Do not over cook or they will become mushy. 

Bruschetta and Garlic OIl

We love garlic around here. I am pretty sure that I have said that before. In fact I know I have. I am pretty sure that I called it an "irrational fear of vampires."

Along those lines comes my families love of all things garlic. But our most favorite thing is garlic oil. We put it on...everything. Except ice cream, brownies, and such. That would just be gnarly. 

Any way I know you can buy garlic oil, but it's expensive when you can just make it at home so easily and for a fraction of the price. And the best part is how you house smells. So yummy! 

The first step is to take about 1.5 cups of olive oil and place it in a small saucepan. Then peel 10 garlic cloves and place them in the oil whole. Then turn the heat to medium-low and walk away. (But not too far. You do have the stove on after all) 

After a bit the garlic will begin to smell heavenly and begin to brown ever so slightly (about 10 mins) Grab a fork and flip those little beauties over and get them sizzling on the other side.
About another 7 minutes they will be nice and golden all over. Like this:

Now once they look like this take the pan off the heat and fish the garlic cloves out of the oil. Let the oil cool because it will be very hot! Then transfer it into a jar or even better a condiment squeeze bottle. All the better to put it on everything with ease!!!

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups olive oil
• 10 garlic cloves, peeled left whole

1. Put the oil and garlic cloves in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes or until the garlic begins to brown just a bit. Flip the cloves over and let the other side brown about another 7 minutes. 
2. Remove the pan from heat and remove the garlic cloves. Once the oil is cool pour the oil into a jar or condiment squeeze bottle. 

A New Way to Meal Plan

My family meal plans. It is seriously the most time (and money) saving thing we do around here. On the weeks that we don;t meal plan we all just mill about the kitchen and have long drawn out conversations about what to have for dinner. We rummage through the fridge with a general sense of apathy and concurrent feelings of being overwhelmed. And really all I can think is "How do people do this without planning?"

So, we plan!

I used to plan each day on this cute little calendar that had 2 weeks on it. I would think about what was happening each day and try to pick something that would work with the days schedule. It was all very well intentioned. 

But here's how it really played out. On Tuesday we would not want what was planned. We would want what was planned for Wednesday. Then on Wednesday we would want what was planned for Sunday. And then I would feel like a failure because I hadn't adhered to this fictional schedule that I had created with good intentions. And really, who want so to feel guilty when you are just trying to plan something? 

So I changed it up. I still plan for 2 weeks of meals and I account for things I know are coming in those weeks: date nights, dinner with my sister, birthdays, etc. 

I try to balance the selections with things that I can make and with things that my husband can make. We also try to work in things that the girls request with out having 4 nights of nuggets and mac n' cheese.

It works super well and I can even use my meal box that I posted about HERE.

What I did was take an old picture frame and I simply put some old fabric where the picture would go. Then I used some left over letter stickers and wrote "What's for dinner?" at the top.  I hung it on the side of my fridge and I use dry erase markers to write the selections on it. After we make it, I just wipe the item right off! Super easy and incredibly efficient. :)

To Dip or To Drink? That is the Real Question

My kids love to dip things in ranch dressing. I am well aware that this makes them neither special, nor unique, in the realm of toddler/preschool land. Of course to me they are both divinely special and gloriously unique. But not because of their desire to coat their small bodies in ranch and wield carrots as swords... not that they would ever do that. :Þ 

Alrighty then...due to my children's predilection for dipping, I cringe every time I have to buy a bottle of ranch. Why you ask? Many reasons. Allow me to list them for you:

1. It can be loaded with gross things (MSG anyone? How about disodium phosphate? No? How about the crazy train my brain takes when I see "artificial flavoring". I go straight to the fact that Dr. Pepper used to contain ethylene glycol. Yes that is right. Dr. Pepper used to have ANTIFREEZE in it. I honestly cannot even think about what that "Artificial Flavoring" might be.)
2. It can be expensive even with the gross stuff in it. But to get the stuff that doesn't make me want to wrap my girls' digestive systems in protective wrap, yeah that just blows my budget. 
3. It's fattening. And the low-fat stuff has even more gross stuff that I cannot pronounce (Did you miss #1?). Not to mention that the low-fat stuff tastes...well...horrid. 
4. Use the powder you say? Even the powder has crazy gross stuff in it. 
5. I really think you should be convinced by now, but somehow having a list of 5 reasons seems more complete to me. (OCD Woman, Away!!)

Anyway I have been on  a mission for a while now to find a recipe that tastes really good, is easy to make, is free from chemicals that are not food, doesn't have 35000 calories per teaspoon, won't spoil in a day, and that my children (and husband) will actually like. Tall order, I know. 

BUT!!!! I found it. It is So. AMAZINGLY. GOOD. I could drink it. I won't, but I could. And just for you, Dear Reader, here it is. 

(OK. OK. It isn't totally low-fat. But I think it strikes a wonderful balance between full-fat tasty and low-fat healthy.)

Makes 1.5 QUARTS. That is a lot of dressing. 

Ingredients:

For the Mix:

1/4 Cup Black Pepper 

1 1/2 Cups Parsley Flakes 

1/2 Cup Garlic Salt 

2 Tbs Kosher Salt 

1/2 Cups Granulated Garlic 

3/4 Cups Granulated Onion 

2 1/2 Tbs Dried Dill weed

For the Dressing:

Juice from half a lemon

2 Cups Buttermilk

1 Cup Mayonnaise

2 Cups Non-fat Greek Yogurt

1/2 cups Sour Cream

What To Do:

1. Combine all mix ingredients and store in an airtight container. Pictured is a large peanut butter container. It filled it about 2/3 full. 
2. To make the mix into dressing, whisk together 3 T of mix with the remaining wet ingredients. 
3. Let sit for at least 2 hours. This gives the flavors a chance to develop. Before the 2 hour mark. It really just tastes like yogurt-mayo with green bits. Not tasty. But after the 2 hour mark:bust out the chicken wings and the carrot sticks. You are in for a treat. 

When Someone is New...

I love giving gifts. I love the thrill of finding just the right item that the person loves. Watching them open it and exclaim in surprise. I just love it all. Except when the person is new to me. Then... what should I get them? I probably over think it way too much. And I will admit that there are times when I don't really know what to get someone that I've known forever. They said they needed a new cheese grater... but a cheese grater?? For Christmas?? Yawn.

Truthfully I often rely on the handy Amazon Wishlist. I have one for each of the girls in my account. I keep it updated for out of town friends/relatives that want to send them gifts. But what if a person doesn't have an Amazon list? Or what if they give you a list that is...let's go with lack luster. See cheese grater above. (To be 100% honest my family informed me this year that my list was lame. But for the record I thought reusable produce bags and an extra bowl for my Kitchenaid was lovely.)

Anyway in response to a few lackluster lists I got this year, I developed this handy questionnaire.  I think it will solve many a gifting dilemma.

Don't you think it would be super cute to give the kids a page each year and then keep them in their scrapbooks so we can see how it changes every year?

I think I will start sending out this form each October to my family. I've included the downloadable version below if you want to use it. :)

To Say I Love You

We are all about doing cute things to keep our girls believing in the magic of youth and feeling special. So this is our latest idea. I saw THIS post on Pinterest about Valentine's envelopes and thought, "Why do that just in February?"

 So we installed mailboxes for the girls right outside their bedroom doors.

I found the mailboxes in the dollar section of Target last year around Valentine's day. (On a side note: does anyone love Target's dollar section as much as I do? I always find something fabulous there.) So I bought letter stickers and put the girls' names on the boxes and then mounted them with "L" brackets. We didn't want the pointy ends of screws to be anywhere near the girls so we screwed the brackets into the wall and then hot glued the boxes onto the brackets. Worked wonderfully.

So Sweet and Charming and I now write notes, or do something special for them at least 5 times a week. We shoot for every day, but sometimes life just gets in the way and it just doesn't happen. :/

Any way, the girls just love them. They wake up in the morning and run to their boxes first thing. D even leaves little gifts for K during the day. :)

It also is really helpful on days where the girls....let's go with try our patience. This allows us to sit and really think about them and what they would like. It is really a great way focus on the amazing people they are and forget the silly things that really shouldn't matter.

:)