Candied Citrus

I have a lemon tree in my backyard, which is great, except now I have a ton of lemons that I don't know what to do with.  Which wouldn't be that bad, only my mother sent me a huge stockpile of oranges and grapefruit she got as part of a fundraiser.  Now I have oodles of citrus, and I can't eat it fast enough before it will go bad.

I've made lemon ice cream, frozen lemon juice, frozen lemon zest, sweet and sour mix...what's next?

CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every year on Christmas Eve my family has a large extended family gathering.  Everyone brings food and a great time is had by all.  After dinner, pictures, and presents we have appetizers (a little backward I know, but hey we are who we are).  I wanted to bring something and I thought why not kill two birds with one stone?  This year I brought Candied Lemons and Candied Oranges to Christmas Eve.  They went over so well my aunt asked me to candy some kumquats from my Dad's garden for her!

I used Martha Stuart's recipe for the lemons.  The second batch I made I altered a little bit, the lemon's only needed to cook for 45 minutes.  I halved the amount of sugar for the oranges, they are sweet already, and added a cinnamon stick for extra measure.  The oranges cooked for 45 minutes as well.

Once the citrus cooled I cut them into fourths and piled them high into a serving dish.  I recommend serving these bit sized fruity treats with toothpicks, they stay quite sticky.

If you are looking for an easy dish to wow party goers I highly recommend these! They are easy, delicious, and make you look so cool!  Candy away my friends!

It's the Holiday Season

I love entertaining during the holiday season.  A few weeks ago I had several friends over for dinner and multitasking to get everything ready is what I thrive on.

I made a goat cheese asparagus pasta from Smitten Kitchen.  It was super easy and a huge hit!  Goat cheese is one of my favorites and a perfect pairing with the asparagus and lemon juice.

 

I served it alongside a simple bagged salad (gotta keep things easy you know), some great local bread, and wine my guests had brought.

In addition to the wine I also made a homemade sweet and sour mix for whiskey sours.  I love wine with food, but if I'm going to have a cocktail I love whiskey drinks. 

 

 

I've made whiskey sours for the family this Christmas as well and the recipe won several people over.  I only use lemon juice in mine (mostly because I don't have fresh limes) and it still turned out well.

 

Down south we need cold cocktails, even during the Christmas season.  If you have a powerful blender I recommend making whisky slushes.  1 part whiskey for 2 parts sweet and sour mix, add as much ice as you would like to water it down, and blend away!  

African Peanut Stew

This recipe came from the December issue of Clean Eating Magazine.  If you are looking for healthy, budget friendly, delicious recipes you should really check out Clean Eating.  Most of their recipes are not vegetarian, but focus on lean meats with lots of protein and healthy fats.  If you are vegetarian, a lot of the recipes can be easily modified to fit your lifestyle.

I was a little skeptical when I started this recipe.  As you will see from the ingredients, they aren't items that usually go together.  However, it was awesome!!!!  Even the omnivore roommate was singing it's praises.  It's perfect for the winter season.  This stew is warm, slightly sweet, spicy, and chock full of delicious and nutritious vegetables.  

African Peanut Stew

Ingredients

2 cups brown rice

1 tbsp cooking oil (sunflower, olive, canola, peanut)

2 yellow onions diced thickly

6 cloves of garlic, minced

3 jalapeno chili peppers, seeded and chopped  (I only used two, because they only had giant peppers at the grocery store)

2 tbsp curry powder (Apparently I don't have any curry powder.  Oops.  Instead I used equal parts of chili powder, paprika, and cayenne)

1 tbsp minced fresh ginger

4 cups low sodium veggie broth

2 cups boxed or jarred chopped/diced tomatoes with juices

1/3 cup smooth or chunky peanut butter

1 3/4 lbs sweet potatoes, diced into 1 inch squares

4 cups shredded green or red Swiss chard

sea salt to taste

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Cook rice according to package directions, cover and set aside.

2. In a stock pot heat oil on medium.  Add onions and saute, stirring occasionally, until tender, 5 to 7 minutes.  Add garlic, jalapenos, curry powder (or other spices), ginger and saute for 1 more minute.

3. Stir in broth, tomatoes and peanut butter (wear an apron or clothes you don't mind getting messy, I got tomato juice all over myself).  Add potatoes and chard and increase heat to medium high.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes and chard are tender, uncovered, 12 to 14 minutes.  Season with salt.

4. Divide rice among serving bowls.  Top with stew and cilantro.

Y'all this was so good! I didn't even mind eating it everyday for lunch.  It was that good!  

Let me know what you think of it!

Snowlady

I got this idea from a Pinterest post I saw forever long ago.  The only problem was, the one I saw was a snowman.  Who needs a snowman in their life? Only ladies in the house! Snowlady on the door!

This was a super easy project!  

Supplies:

Three different sized wreaths, floral wire, scarf, and a sparkly bow.

Step 1

Use the floral wire to attach each piece to each other.  The wreaths should have a wire circle around the  back which you can wrap the floral wire around to attach the wreaths together.

Step 2

Attach the bow to the top wreath with floral wire.  This was slightly more difficult because there was no obvious wire backing.  I just wrapped the floral wire around one of the branches of the top wreath.  

Step 3

Hang wreath on door.

Step 4

Put scarf on wreath.

See! Done! How easy was that!  I suppose you could put a top hat on him if you wanted a snowman, but I like my snowlady just fine!

Send me your pictures of Christmas wreaths you have made!

Just Dance

Teachers, parents, bored individuals, anyone looking for a dance workout at home!

I have an announcement for you!

Are you aware that there are tons of bootlegged just dance videos on YouTube?  (Not that I condone bootlegging in any way)

I discovered this in an offhand way a few weeks ago while I was looking for a song to do as a warm up with the dance team I coach at work.  Ever since then I've been utilizing just dance videos into a lot of my teaching.

I teach creative movement and theatre, so I can easily fit the videos into my lesson plans.  I use these videos as warm ups, to get ideas for dance moves, and most often as a reward. 

In my classroom I have a chart that keeps track of the behavior of each class that I see throughout the week.  When a class gets 5 stars (5 days of excellent behavior) they get 10 minutes of a reward.  Ever since I introduced the 'Just Dance Dance Party' my students have gone crazy for it!

I understand that most teachers do not teach dance and theatre, but you could use these videos in a ton of other ways!

Ways to Use Just Dance in Your Classroom

As a reward: A certain percentage of good behavior in a week, great reviews from all specials teachers in a week, meeting a class set average on a test, or for getting 20 compliments from other teachers.

As a brain break: Learning can be exhausting, and those little (or big) brains deserve a break every once and a while!  Most of the videos on YouTube are only 2 minutes, put 2 of them on and you've had a 5 minute fun brain break!  The kids get moving, get their minds off what they've been learning, and allow them to come back to work fresh.

As a recess alternative: I remember when I was substituting that rainy or cold days were absolutely miserable.  The students needed that 30-45 minutes of play to get out a lot of their energy.  What do you do when you cannot have recess because of weather reasons?  When I was student teaching, my wonderful cooperating teacher would have a dance party on rainy days.  She would put on the radio and the kids would all get a chance leading the class.  If you have a smart board or a projector you can stream these off YouTube and give your a students an actual workout.  Not only will it get the energy out, but your students will have a blast!

If you want to check out this awesome resource for yourself just head over to YouTube and search for 'Just Dance' if you teach middle-high school or 'Just Dance Kids' if you teach elementary school.

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

One of the foods I miss the most since I have become a vegetarian is buffalo chicken wings.  I LOVE buffalo flavored food and every since heading down the veggie road I have been searching for a recipe to satisfy my buffalo cravings.



I've found it!  This recipe of Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower is the closest I have come to finding a satisfying buffalo chicken wing substitute.  It comes from Amazing Pinterest World and it was so good!  So good that I didn't actually get any pictures of my version...oops!  I swear, the roommate and I gobbled up most of it before I had a chance to photograph it myself.

That being said, this was super easy and super delicious.  It's vegan too!  Can't get any better than that! 

Christmastime is Here

Christmas is my favorite holiday.  It is the season of peace, happiness, love, charity, and hope.

It's true that Christmas has become so commercialized lately, and that all anyone seems to care about is  presents.  I don't seem to have too big a problem with that though.

I love giving gifts, and Christmas is a wonderful time to do it!  Gifts express how much you care about someone, why you love them, what you have in common, or anything else you wish to express.  I don't think about giving gifts in a monetary sense, but the meaning behind the gift is what is important. 

Christmas gifts should be a reflection of the relationship between the person giving and receiving.  To help me keep the balance and choose gifts that are meaningful I keep a few tricks up my sleeve. 

Tips for Christmas Shopping

The first thing I do is keep a running list on my phone of gift ideas for people.  Whenever I see a good movie with someone, go to a concert, read the same book, have a similar food interest, I write it down next to their name.  When that person's birthday or Christmas rolls around I have an already made list of their interests so that I can find a gift that will be meaningful. 

The second thing I do is try to buy throughout the year.  If I find something on sale or that screams the name of a family member or friend I will go ahead and purchase it.  This helps with budget issues as well as time issues once the holidays roll around.

The third thing I do is start early.  After Halloween I start getting my thoughts together about who I need to give gifts to, what my budget is, and my time frame for gifts.  Once all that is accomplished I can hit the ground running after Thanksgiving.

A trick I use is pinterest. Most of my female friends and relatives have a pinterest account.  I know that I often post products I would like to have in my life, ideas for craft projects, recipies I want to try.  Why not use that same information to give something wonderful and thoughful as a gift.  My cousin has a list of art she wants in her house, my friend has a board of books she wants to read, my sister has a board of jewelry she wants.  Pinterest is basically an already categorized wish list!
For the $5 stocking stuffer kind of gifts at Holiday parties I often bake, make candy, or something else homemade.  Everyone loves Christmas goodies, and they can be very cost effective when you make a large batch.  If you need to bring something not homemade keep an eye out at stores like Tuesday Morning, TJMaxx, or Ross.  These stores often have really great deals throughout the year on generic gifts like candles, lotion, kitchen tools, and other items.  You can stock up on these throughout the year, then have lots of items quickly at hand when you need them.

All of these help me stay sane during the holidays and enjoy what they are really about; spending time with loved ones.

Greasy Sae Soup

Last year a group of friends and I started a supper club based on the principles of Iron Chef.  Every Tuesday we would get together to watch Chopped on Food Network.  (Can you tell we love food, love to eat, and love to read/watch things about eating?)  There would either be a theme or ingredient that everyone had to incorporate into their dish.

It was great for us because most of us were recent college graduates and almost no idea what we were doing in the kitchen.  It also fueled our creativity and forced us to think outside of the culinary box week after week.

Around the time the Hunger Games was released into theatres, we are all huge fans, we decided to have a Hunger Games themed supper club.  Everyone brought amazing dishes to the table, it was one of our most successful nights. 

My contribution was Greasy Sae Soup.  It's not really called Greasy Sae Soup, the original recipe comes from My Recipes and is a Tuscan Kale, White Bean, and Ciabatta Soup.  The first time I made this recipe I went straight by the book.  I saw some ways I could improve upon it for my own tastes. 

Since that first supper club I have made this several times.  It is so easy, and so delicious.  As everything simmers together there is a wonderful earthy taste and texture that gets going.  I always think I'll have enough to freeze, never happens!  It's so good I end up eating the whole pot in just a few days. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

And so, I present to you:

Greasy Sae Soup

Ingredients

1 can white beans, drained
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms (I use cremini mushrooms, but feel free to choose whatever you prefer)
2-2 1/2 qts veggie broth
10 garlic cloves, minced
10 fresh sage leaves
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 bunches kale, rinsed chopped
1 tblsp fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tsp capers
1 tsp pepper

Directions

1. Place broth, beans, garlic, salt, pepper, garlic cloves, sage, and chili flakes into a stock pot.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat.

2. Add the mushrooms and simmer for 20 minutes.

3. After the 20 minutes have passed, add the capers and kale.  Add the kale a handful at a time.  If you put both bunches in at once it will be quite overwhelming and you won't be able to stir it at all.  Once you've placed a handful of kale in the pot, spoon the broth over the kale to begin to wilt it.  As the kale wilts it will get smaller and you can continue to add more and more. Once kale has all been added, simmer for another 15-20 minutes.  The second simmer is to get the kale wilted down to a size and texture you like.

4. Once the kale has wilted down as far as you would like it to go, turn off the heat and serve!  You can add more salt and pepper at this point to suit your taste level.  You can also add either Parmesan cheese or feta to each individual serving dish.  I don't (I'm trying to stay as vegan as possible with my home cooking) and I don't miss it at all; but do as you wish!

This soup is served best hot with some crusty bread on the side.  As you can see from the picture, I didn't have any crusty bread, toast had to do.  Such a lovely end to a rainy and dreary day!

Dragon Noodles

This is one of my new favorite recipes!

It comes from Budget Bytes, one of my favorite websites for recipes!

Things I love about Dragon Noodles:

1.     Spicy
2.     Easy
3.     Cheap
4.     Did I say spicy?

When I make my dragon noodles I usually don't use the lo mein, I usually use half a container of fettuccine.  I rarely have lo mein hanging around my pantry but I often have fettuccine or other stringy pasta. 

You can easily make this a vegan recipe by using margarine instead of butter.  The recipe also calls for eggs but you could easily use egg beaters or tofu instead.
This may be one of the easiest pastas I have made in a long time!  And almost all of the ingredients come straight from your pantry!  (Stay posted for a post on keeping green onion around all the time!)