Cup of joy

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, and good food!

I’ve been loving this extra time off work, and my relaxing mornings with no alarms, bright sunshine, and warm cups of joy:

Also known as … warm chai tea.

Erik and I spent Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law’s and she was nice enough to make us a non traditional, vegetarian meal of delicious appetizers and lasagna, yum!!  I didn’t miss the turkey, in fact that was never my favorite part about Thanksgiving anyways.  My contribution was peanut butter cookies:

They were decent, but could have been sweeter, and baked a few minutes less!
 
And I’m sure none of us have had enough food lately, so it’s only logical that it’s recipe time!!

Erik and I have made this several times now, I talked about it in my last post, and we love.  So without further ado …

Grown up Mac ‘N Cheese

Ingredients:
- Penne pasta
- Chopped medium onion
- Cheese of choice (we actually used Provolone, and it tastes delish!)
-1 vegetable bouillon cube or about 2 cups broth
- Minced garlic
- Olive oil
- Kale or other greens such as spinach or chard
- Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
- Preheat oven at 350 degrees.
- Boil a pot of water for the Penne, which will need to be cooked al dente.
- Sautee chopped onions and minced garlic in olive oil until tender.
- Pour dried Penne pasta into boiling water.  Cook al dente.
- Add vegetable broth and chopped kale to sauté mixture, and let cook down a little.

- When pasta is complete, pour into baking dish, and add a small layer of cheese.

- Pour in vegetable mixture, and the another layer of cheese. Add salt, pepper, and other seasonings of choice.

- Pop it in the oven for thirty minutes, or until cheese becomes golden brown, and voila!

We’ve been on a huge pasta kick lately, and this fits the bill perfectly.

I got up way too late this morning, because Erik and I stayed up way past our bedtime watching season one of Mercy on Netflix.  Therefore, my goal today is to be productive!

What’s on tap for your weekend??

Penne two ways

Is it really the end of November? Crazy, but despite the inevitable cold and snow, it’s such a wonderful time of year and it’s been a long fall!!

Anyways … let’s get right to business. 

Sweet potato wrap, anyone?We got these at The Mixx the other day just to try something different.  I think next time I’ll get the veggie wrap, because we didn’t love it.  Not enough sweet potato, and the sweet potato was a bit greasy. (Check out my recent Examiner article about The Mixx).

After that wrap, we were pretty thirsty …Ha, kidding.  All that pop soda is for the vending machines.  I grew up in southwest Nebraska, and I just can’t stop saying “pop”.  Meanwhile, Erik grew up in New York and he likes to make fun of me.  So just for fun’s sake, what do you think: pop or soda?

Food

Erik and I have discovered a wonderful, fast, and delicious way to cook dinner …. together!  The past week one of us has planned the menu for the night, and then we both pitch in chopping, sautéing, and preparing. 

Not only does it go by much faster than one of us doing it, but it tastes better too.  So here’s some of our recent creations:

Stuffed cabbage rollsThese were filled with quinoa cooked in vegetable broth, cannellini beans, and sautéed carrots, spinach and onions, served with unpictured purple potatoes. 

Butternut squash penneWe discovered this pasta sauce at Costco the other day, and it sounded way too good not to try.It made for a super easy meal too.

Our meal simply involved boiling penne pasta, and heating half of the can of sauce with some water, spinach, and mixed beans. 

Enter … dinner:We’ve been on a penne kick, because guess what’s next??

Mac ‘N Cheese for Grown Ups

Pre Oven:  Post oven:This recipe involved penne, sautéed onions, minced garlic, vegetable stock, kale, and provolone cheese.

It was a winner!!And last but not least …

Raw Raspberry PieRecipe to come!

And for tonight … I’m pretty sure some form of pasta is on the agenda once again.  What’s on your plate for dinner tonight?

Squash, Pizza, & Vegetarian Chili

And another weekend is over!

Thankfully, this Monday is my day off, however due to my lack of any productive activity until Sunday night, I have plenty to do tomorrow. Either way, it’s nice to do stuff at home, rather than at work.

Several people asked what it’s this delicious looking butternut squash from my last post, so here’s an approximate contents list:- Cooked Quinoa
- Veggies sautéed in olive oil: onions, carrots, bell peppers
- Seasonings: garlic powder, Italian herbs, sea salt, and pepper
- Topped with your cheese of preference : ) Mmmm.

We’ve recently tried a certain product that simply must be shared … it’s the best frozen pizza in the world.

Enter: Amy’s roasted vegetable pizza :) This pizza has teased me several times as I’ve opened up that freezer door, but I avoided it due to the fact it doesn’t have cheese … I love cheese on my pizza, and  I thought, how good can it be?? 

But the more I looked I thought hmmm … shiitake mushrooms?  Artichokes?  Caramelized onions?  Roasted red peppers?  How can this NOT be good?

I added some cheese before I threw it in the oven, and oh. my. goodness!!  It’s such a perfect combination! It comes very highly recommend by myself and my husband. What’s your favorite go-to frozen pizza??This afternoon included the Chief’s game (not good), and crock pot vegetarian chili.

Before: And after:We ate it with a little sour cream and chips.  I would have liked it thicker but it was still tasty. 

As I’m blogging, I’m waiting for a little treat to come out of the oven, and for The Next Iron Chef to come on. Go Chef Tio!!  What can I say, I love Kansas City, I’m bias towards her.

What was the highlight of your weekend??

Absolutely nothing.

It’s been one of those weekends …

… one of those weekends where I can’t decide if I’ve been way too lazy, or if it was nice to be able to do almost nothing all weekend … maybe both, ha.  Either way, I have no regrets.

Due to my laziness, there was almost virtually no cooking in my household this weekend, and this blog post will probably reflect upon that fact!  Dinners consisted of Amy’s frozen pizzas and burritos.

However, I happened to have some pictures on my camera of this past week.  Enter: salads. I love salads, because they’re so quick and easy, and with the right ingredients, oh, so delicious!  Both of them include freshly chopped veggies, spring mix, beans, walnuts, cheese, vinegar & oil.The highlight of my food this weekend was Friday night.  I worked overtime, and was so excited to come home to a warm plate of food, made by my wonderful husband, waiting for me. He even took a picture of it for me ; )  Stuffed butternut squash … yum!! 

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Long weekend festivities: Vending, Whole Foods, & vending

Thank you all for the Originally Organic Vending support on Facebook and in general … we really appreciate it!  Our website will be rolling out one of these days as well, and I’ll be sure to share when it does.

What a busy weekend! First off, Happy [late] Halloween!

We spent our whole Saturday doing vending stuff; looking at a machine, getting a new one dropped off and stocked at a YMCA, stocking others, etc etc. After a long day of running around, we satisfied our palates at the Whole Foods bar. And with Honest Tea. 

I didn’t even intend to look like an Honest Tea ad in the above picture, it happened on accident.  Though I think I would be in an Honest Tea ad, haha, I do like them that much.  But money sure helps!! 

Waiting for a guy to deliver the new machine we had purchased, we entertained ourselves with Annie’s  bunnies and weird faces.  (Not surprisingly, the weird faces were mostly Erik’s thing).  There was no one else around, otherwise we would have portrayed a much more professional and poised demeanor while on business, I promise! Fast-forward to today …

We’re in Kansas City yet again conducting vending-related activities, and what do you know, we grabbed some food from Whole Foods.  Surprise, surprise.  What can I say, they’re a quick and delicious option for veggie-friendly food.  Honeydew hibiscus water with a grilled vegetable and hummus wrap. 

Or as the box says, “wra” ; ) Though it seemed a bit salty, I loved this wrap due to its grilled veggie fillings.  If you haven’t noticed before on Lesley Lifting Life, grilled veggies are probably one of my all time favorite foods.And now, back to sitting in the car watching Erik stock vending machines!

P.S.  Can I live here?
   What did you do for Halloween??