Food Processor

This year Jeannie bought a Cuisanart Food Processor. It is wonderful. I'm going to slice lots of vegetables each week to eat raw. I watched the video and it's fast and versatile. This one has a dough blade to make breads. I can't wait to start using it. I've been making Humus and it's a bit tricky with at blender. I love Humis and make it often. It even will grind up meat if you wish.

Pressure Cooker

Last year Jeannie, my sister bought a pressure cooker. I'm loving it and it has two sizes. The above size and a larger pot. It has been fun learning to cook with it. I use it alot to cook dry beans. We love chicken breasts with tumeric. It takes about 20 minutes to cook the beans and 15 for the chicken. It's healthy fast food cooking. I've used it to cook a whole chicken for soup and want to try pulled pork or beef. I have a older one my Mom used, but it needs a new gasket. The newer ones have safety valves and is very easy to use.

Korean Tofu Soup

My sister, Jeannie and I tried a new place to eat. It was a Korean restaurant. They specialize in tofu soups. You have some choices including beef pots. I had a dumpling soup and Jeannie had a soup with seafood. They serve it in very hot and bubbling bowl. I don't much like tofu, but this was good. The broth was very good and the tofu was a bit creamy and picked up the flavors of the broth. My dumplings were tasty. The rice bowl was very hot too and was served in a stone bowl. They served about six different sides. Pickled cucumbers, something we weren't sure of, bean sprouts, kimche and a pickled radish. All very good and the cost was $10.00 each. Not bad and was an interesting place. We will go back and try something else. I believe this was the only time I didn't mind tofu.

Enchilada Cassarole

I like this Enchilada recipe. You could add chicken easily, but I make it with black beans. Sometimes I use tomato enchilada sauce or the Verde/Green style sauce. It's filling and would be good with a salad and tortilla chips. I usually use dry beans and cook them quickly in a pressure cooker. It takes about 15-20 minutes to cook them. I love the pressure cooker.

Corn Tortillas
15 oz can of black beans or cooked dry beans
Large size can of Enchilada Sauce
1 can of diced tomoatoes, I like fire roasted tomatoes
1 small can of green chilies, fire roasted
shredded cheese enough to cover each layer
season with cummin, salt and pepper, each layer

In a 13 x 11 pan layer with corn tortilla on the bottom of the pan. Spread sauce and some tomotoes with cheese. Cover this layer with tortilla's and make another layer of sauce, cheese, chilies, tomatoes. Cover with tortillas and put cheese on top of last tortilla layer. Cook at 350 for about 30 minutes. Put on cookie sheet because mine dripped.

Less Cheese and Meatless Casserole

I am finding that when you cut meat from your diet you tend to eat lots of cheese and tomato sauce items. I liked this recipe because it doesn't have alot of cheese and you use whole wheat pasta and it's a change from tomato sauce.I would recommend heating the yogurt alittle before adding it to the pan. This helps it not to curdle. Maybe with the eggs, cool after heating. I read in other recipes to do this before adding the yogurt. I used penne pasta.

Almost Cheeseless Pasta Casserole

zest of one large lemon
8 oz whole wheat pasta, Penne
1 1/2 cups butternut squash, peeled and sliced into quarter sized pieces
3 handfuls of kale, chard and or spinach loosely chopped
2 cups plain Greek yogurt (2 percent)
2 egg yolks
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tea fine grain sea salt
2/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/4 cup Kalamata olives pitted and torn into pieces
scant 1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 with a rack in the middle. Butter or oil a 8 x 12 inch baking dish, or two small gratin dishes. Sprinkle with lemon zest and set aside.

Cook pasta to al dente. Ten seconds before you are done with pasta, stir in the squash and kale for a quick swim. Drain and run cold water over pasta and vegies. Shake off extra water and set aside.

White waiting for pasta to boil whisk together the yogurt, eggs, garlic and salt in a large mixing bowl. Set aside until the pasta is boiled. Then when ready, add the pasta-squash-kale mixture and stir in half of the almonds. Scoop everything into the baking dish, sprinkle with olives and feta, and bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and serve sprinkled with a bit of the chopped fresh mint and remaining almonds. Serves 6-8 as a side-from 101cookbooks.com I ate this as a meal and enjoyed the vegetables. Use zest of lemon because it tasted great.

Fresh Ingredients

This is some of our harvest last year from our garden. I love the fresh tomatoes and the green peppers were very tasty. This past summer was cold and rainy so we didn't have much to harvest. Next spring I'm going to concentrate on lots of herbs and tomatoes. I have sage and rosemary plants that we harvest through the winter. I'll probably dry the ones that won't last through the winter. I'm also trying to avoid processed foods and make tomato sauces. I've cut down using canned items. My goal is to shop local food markets and perhaps can some items. I haven't canned before, but want to try and store up in the winter time. Just like people used to do it alot. I love the freshness when you make dinners from scratch. Jeannie and I even dislike going out to eat because it isn't homemade or even fresh sometimes. I love my old dishpans I've found and use them to harvest and wash vegetables.

Mom's cookbook

This was my mother's well used cookbook. I found a 1956 magazine article on making picture perfect pies. I remember watching her bake pies and will be trying to duplicate her crust. I especially think of her baking this time of year.

Thankgiving 2010

For the last couple of months I've cut down on eating meat. I've discovered black beans which I never ate before. I use these in casseroles or tacos. In just a couple of months of this change I've lost 10 pounds. My sister Jeannie has also lost weight.We have cut sugar and eat complex carbs. I have some recipes I'll share and thoughts about this change in my eating. I'll add exercise and portion control and hopefully my weight will come off gradually. One thing I noticed at Thanksgiving is just how much fat is in the turkey dinner. Since I've cut back I really am not missing the meat and prefer the lighter way of eating.