Spaghetti Squash Tostadas

I am so sick of school fundraisers. That sounds horrible I know, but also very true. It all came to a head last week with a fundraiser not benefiting the school. I won't go in to details, but since I decided that I didn't want to have my son raise money he was not allowed to enjoy the popsicles and apple juice that all the other kids received for participating. I could have done the fundraising, but I chose not to. It was the 4th fundraiser since the beginning of the school year. During the first fundraiser my son raised 1200 dollars. I feel that that should be more than enough as my contribution for fundraising for the year. Apparently not though, they have had 3 more. Maybe I am getting old, but when I was growing up we had one fundraiser a year. One, nothing more. I understand that times have changed, things cost more money etc. However, I would rather donate supplies that I bought at 90 percent off at Target than donate to 4 fundraisers in 8 months. I joked with my husband that I am going to run for PTO next year with the slogan work smarter not harder. Obviously that won't happen, I'm way too much of a perfectionist to deal with all the fundraising drama. In the meantime I bought my son a whole box of popsicles for the dollar that he would have had to raise to enjoy the one at school.

 I try to incorporate at least one vegetarian or vegan meal into my meal plan every week. If left to their own devices my family would only eat meat (mostly bacon) three times a day. I prefer a more varied diet and have slowly converted them to my thinking. My husband has even started drinking the banana tofu smoothie I blogged about recently for breakfast every morning. Major progress. Last week I tried a new recipe for Spaghetti Squash Tostadas from the March 2014 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First, I used homemade beans instead of canned. I prefer homemade beans, they are cheaper and far lower in sodium than store bought. Secondly, my microwave wasn't large enough to fit the spaghetti squash in so I roasted it in the oven instead. It was easy since it could roast the squash while the tomatoes and onions were in the oven. Finally, I make my own chili powder. The flavor is better and it stores for 3-6 months, so it saves money.

With 440 calories and 11 grams of protein these tostadas were a nice vegetarian meal option for my family. My husband absolutely loved the spaghetti squash and ate the leftovers without the tostada shell for breakfast the next morning. Like most kids my sons were thrilled with the spaghetti squash, it's very kid friendly. To cut down on the heat for their servings, I tossed sour cream with the squash on their plate.

For the recipe go to Spaghetti Squash Tostadas. 

Curried Lentil and Rice Loaves from Martha Stewart

Curried Lentil and Rice Loaves

Today reminded me that I'm not in my 20's anymore. Since my oldest had the day off school I thought it would be a good day to paint the ceiling in our dining room. The last time I had painted a ceiling was 7 years ago when I was in my late 20's. This evening I am sore, very sore. What was relatively painless in my 20's is an entirely different story in my middle 30's. I'm positive tomorrow is going to be a day for painkillers and my neck and back are not going to be happy. It's days like today that remind me that I have gotten older. On a daily basis I tend to forget my age, but when a task that was easy 10 years ago takes twice as long and makes me feel twice as bad I remember that I'm not the same early 20 year old I was before kids. I also remind myself that that's okay. I might take a little longer and feel a little more sore, but I'm also smart enough to know how to do something right the first time due to the wisdom I have gained with age. I would much rather be where I am now, being in my 20's was confusing and tiring. In my 30's I am older, wiser, and happier. I know who I am and can stand up for myself with no qualms. My younger self was quick to judge, talked first, thought later and could be more than a little selfish. My 30 year old self is pretty great, I listen first, talk later, look at most situations from all angles and have the wisdom to know how to deal with most situations. So tomorrow as I take a few aspirin with my morning coffee I will smile knowing that even though I am older, I am also only getting better with age. Now on to the recipe! Tonight I tried a new recipe for Curried Lentil and Rice Loaves from the Martha Stewart website.

Cabell Huntington Hospital Huntington, WV

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 1 hour 50 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 1 large loaf or 3 mini loaves. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First I was out of curry powder. So instead I used a mixture of the spices I already had on hand to make homemade curry powder. I love making my own spice blends and they are oftentimes cheaper than the pre-made varieties. For the rice I used arborio and homemade black beans instead of canned. Make sure to let the loaf sit after cooking in order that the loaf doesn't fall apart when sliced.

Harris Riverfront Park Huntington, WV

My husband isn't a big fan of meatless meals. He did however, like this recipe. It had the right amount of salt and I added cayenne to my curry powder so the loaf had a nice amount of heat. Finding vegetarian recipes that my family will actually eat can be really hard. This recipe was nice since everyone in my family ate it without complaints.

For the recipe go to Curried Lentil and Rice Loaves.

Curried Lentil and Rice Loaves

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A vegetarian recipe for Curried Lentil and Rice Loaves. Full of lentils, black beans and curry powder.

Preparation Time: 0h, 25m

Cooking Time: 1h, 0m

Total Time: 1h, 50m

Yield: Serves 8

Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili from Taste of Home Magazine

Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili

This morning my youngest ran into the kitchen and announced "I love bacon". Then he ran away into the other room. That's how my household is, the three males in my house have a minor bacon obsession. As I was writing this post my husband went into a 5 minute one sided conversation about how he will only eat crispy bacon and that he judges Tudor's Biscuit World locations (a popular WV breakfast biscuit restaurant) by if they have crispy or chewy bacon. I should be used to this by now since growing up my father insisted on two things for Sunday breakfast, crispy bacon and fried potatoes. Neither of which I was allowed to cook, my bacon was never crispy enough and I have a bad tendency to over flip fried potatoes. A couple of weeks back I made a chocolate cake with bourbon glaze and chocolate covered bacon. My family is still talking about it and honestly I think it might be their favorite thing I have ever made. Maybe I should just cook bacon at every meal and then everything that I make would be well received. My youngest ended the day by informing me that he had seen a sign for bacon donuts and that he wanted one. It looks like I will be spending part of my weekend tracking down this alleged donut or I won't hear the end of it. While the rest of my family is bacon obsessed, I am obsessed with fall foods and in particular pumpkin and apples. Last week I tried a new recipe for Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili from the September/October 2013 issue of Taste of Home Magazine.

Church in the Southside Neighborhood of Huntington, WV

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 4 hours and 20 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 10 servings. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First, I made my beans from scratch. I prefer this method since I can control the amount of the salt. I also used my own chicken broth. I don't salt the broth to cut down on sodium. Finally, I didn't add cubed avocado since my kids refuse to eat it currently and I used grilled chicken thighs instead of turkey. I rarely have frozen turkey leftovers, but I frequently have leftover chicken so the substitution was a nice way to save money.

Julian's Market Southside Neighborhood Huntington, WV

With only 5 grams of fat this recipe has a lot of protein (16 grams) while being low in fat. Plus since it's all done in the slow cooker it's very easy to prep and makes more than enough for multiple meals. With fall being right around the corner this recipe will be great when the weather turns cooler.

For the recipe go to Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili.

Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

Review of Sow Cooker Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili from the September/October issue of Taste of Home magazine. Great for fall!

Preparation Time: 0h, 20m

Cooking Time: 4h, 0m

Total Time: 4h, 20m

Yield: Serves 10

Summer Slow-Cooker Meals: Spicy Pumpkin Chili

Slow Cooker Spicy Pumpkin Chili

There are days I get burnt out as a stay-at-home mom. This has been one of those weeks. I love my kids and spending time at home with them everyday. However, there is also the flip side. I started working as an intern when I was 17. I stayed at the company for 7 years until I moved to West Virginia. During grad school I worked three jobs, including teaching a class. I met my husband and got married during my master's program and have stayed home since. Then there are the moments when you realize all the things that your high-school friends that got married and had kids later have accomplished. Some of them have been very, very successful. There is always that awkward situation when everyone that I knew back in Seattle talks about how smart and successful I was when I was younger. I know they don't mean it the way it comes out, but it still gives me pause. My husband thinks that I should start claiming that I work at home since I blog and take care of the household. Maybe he's right. I can always hope that one day my blog will become vastly successful, but we all know that's unrealistic. In the meantime I remind myself that my kids are growing up surrounded by my love and knowledge. That's enough rambling for now, onto the cooking! This weekend I chose to keep my cooking simple and I relied on my slow cooker. I tried a new recipe for Spicy Pumpkin Chili from the new All Recipes magazine.

This recipe has 18 ingredients. It takes 1 1/2 hours of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 10 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First, I allowed my chili to cook in the slow cooker for 4 hours on low. I like my flavors to fully come to fruition so I increased the total cooking time. It would also work well on the stove in a dutch oven or a big pot with a lid. I was unable to find my crushed red pepper flakes, so I was forced to leave them out. Finally, I used a full 8 ounces of tomato sauce with garlic. I also found that I needed to add more salt than the 1 teaspoon suggested by the recipe.

My husband liked that this recipe has the health benefits of pumpkin without the taste being overly noticeable. He isn't a big fan of pumpkin, but he was surprised by how much he enjoyed this recipe. I love pumpkin and chili so this was a dish I really liked. It made a very big batch, more than enough for at least 10 servings. For the servings for my kids I added cheese and sour cream. They aren't big chili fans so these additions made them willing to eat their bowls. If you like your chili on the spicy side I would suggest adding jalapenos or a bit of cayenne. Since I cook with my kids in mind I always try to have my recipes be on the mild side.

For the recipe go to Spicy Pumpkin Chili.

Healthy and Low-Fat Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup

I have a horrible habit of trying to eat healthy and then falling off the wagon. Don't get me wrong the majority of the time I eat very healthy, but making big changes in my diet always seem to take a number of failures before they are successful. In college I ate a ton of restaurant food. There were always cheap places to eat and I rarely made food at home. Eventually it caught up with me when I realized that I never seemed to have any energy and I generally felt run down. I vowed to change my habits and I did until I started graduate school and then I was back to my old habits. After getting married I vowed again to start eating healthier, then I got pregnant and the smell of meat made me sick. To compensate I ate a ton of ice cream and peanut butter. After my first son was born I reformed and gave up pretty much any bad food while I breastfed. Then I became pregnant again and my bad food habits quickly came back. So over the years I have started and stopped a lot of healthy eating plans. Luckily since having my youngest and starting this blog my eating habits have leveled off. 99 percent of the time I eat healthy and the other 1 percent I remind myself that I'm human. Since my husband's dad had heart surgery last year I have been determined to make my husband healthier. He has lost 30 pounds in the last year and a lot of it has had to do with dietary changes. This week I made a new healthy recipe for Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup from the February 2013 issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 16 ingredients. It takes 1 1/2 hours of total time, 1 hour of which is active and makes 8 servings. I did make a few changes to the recipe. First I made my own chicken stock from scratch. It really does taste better and is a great way to save money. Second, instead of diced canned tomatoes I used one fresh tomato. I am trying to use more fresh ingredients and rely less on canned goods. Plus the price of fresh tomatoes is lower than canned currently. Finally, I also used fresh spinach and I cooked my own beans.

I love that this recipe is high in vitamin C and only has 5 grams of fat and 199 calories. It has great flavor and the lime juice makes the soup delicious. I tasted the soup before adding the lime and the lime makes a tremendous difference. Make sure to salt at the end, especially if you are making your own stock or using low sodium store bought. This recipe could easily be modified to being vegetarian by omitting the chicken and using vegetable stock instead of chickens stock.

For the recipe go to Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup.

Turkey, Squash and Black Bean Chili

There were very few foods that my dad could cook growing-up. He would make great fried potatoes, bacon and best of all chili. Everything else he burned or didn't even try to make. There was one time that my dad managed to completely burn boxed macaroni. He forgot that the macaroni was cooking and the water went dry. It was not delicious. However, he could make great chili. I never understood how everything else he made was so bad, when his chili was so great. Since my dad made chili so well I never really made chili when I was younger. I did have a great recipe for vegetarian chili, but since I married a big meat eater I haven't made it in years. After a couple years of marriage I decided that I needed to start cooking more chili since it is so hearty and can make multiple meals. Fast forward to ten years of marriage and I cook chili once or twice a month in the winter. It is one of my favorite winter time meals, it is warm and filling. Yesterday I made a new recipe for Turkey, Squash and Black Bean Chili from the January issue of All You magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 34 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few modifications to the recipe. First, I have been making an effort to make everything I can from scratch. For this reason I made my black beans from scratch in the Crock-pot. I also grind my own turkey. It is cheaper and the texture is so much better. I saved the leftover butternut squash to make squash bread and it was delicious. The recipe cooks the chili on low for 10 minutes. I chose to cook the chili on medium for 10 minutes in order for it to fully thicken. Finally, I was out of regular chili powder so I used ancho chili powder instead. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My whole family was really happy with this recipe. Normally I make beef chili since it tends to come out more tender and flavorful. This turkey chili was delicious and my husband even commented about how good it was since he normally doesn't like turkey chili. Do not use low-fat ground turkey. Very low-fat turkey will dry out and not have the same flavor as turkey with higher fat content.

For the recipe go to Turkey, Squash and Black Bean Chili.

Black Bean Soup

Today was the last day of school for my oldest before winter break. My younger son spent the day unhappy that his brother was having a party at school and believing that our new puppy was getting more attention than him. I have a feeling it is going to be a long break. Due to last minute changes I will be hosting Christmas this year so tomorrow is going to be spent cleaning and prepping. I am planning on keeping things low key, so it should be an easy holiday. I hope. As I seem always be since having kids I will be spending the weekend getting last minute gifts that I fully intended to buy weeks ago and time just got away from me. And wrapping. My mother was a beautiful gift wrapper. She would buy fabric and make handmade bows. They really were works of art. I seem to have inherited none of this gift. When I was younger I worked in the executive office of a dept store and had to fill in at the gift wrapping counter during the holiday rush. I was horrible at it and was told to help costumers, not to wrap. That was when I decided that I was destined to be someone that is great at picking out the perfect bag, no wrapping involved. So wish me luck with my gift wrapping this weekend. This week's meal have been mostly stews and soups, since it has been cold and rainy. I have really not been in the mood for much else with the end of my cold still sticking around. Last night I tried a new recipe for Black Bean Soup from the December issue of All You magazine, which with 3 grams of fat and 12 grams of protein looked like a great pre-holiday meal.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 1 hour 45 minutes of cooking time, 10 minutes of prep and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Instead of quick cooking the beans, I soaked the black beans overnight. I find this method much easier and requires less effort. I let the beans cook for longer than the hour and a half suggested, probably closer to two full hours. Adding the citrus juice at the end of the cooking time really does add to the dish and I definitely suggest adding the step. I did not add sour cream to my serving, but I did to my boys. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

With only 217 calories and 3 grams of fat per serving this recipe is a great healthy meal option. It is especially great given that next week is Christmas and I will inevitably be overeating, so something light and filling this week is essential. My two boys were skeptical until they ate their servings and then loved it. My husband's only complaint was that he would have preferred not to have the tomato chunks, but he never likes chunks of tomatoes in recipes.

For the recipe go to Black Bean Soup.

Barbecue-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple Salad

My family loves pork. I'm pretty sure my husband could be a perfect vegetarian, as long as he could eat pork. I think that he needs to invent a term for this, maybe porcinatarian. He would be a perfect poster child for this movement. Given my family's love of everything pork related I have learned to make a large number of pork recipes. Some have turned out great, like any type of pork taco, others such as a curried pork tenderloin recipe I tried last year where pretty horrible. Bacon is always a popular option. If I mention a dish includes bacon my family will come running to the table. There is one other food that my two boys in particular absolutely love, sweet peppers. My oldest has been known to eat an entire red pepper like an apples, he loves them. Recently, as I was looking through the May issue of Woman's Day magazine I came across a recipe for Barbecue-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple Salad, which looked delicious and low in fat.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes a total of 30 minutes, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of these ingredients and I made no ingredient modifications. I did run out of ancho chili powder, so I used a combination of ancho and chipotle chili powder. Since I was making this recipe for my children, I made two different salsas. In one I used jalapeno and in the other I did not. I do this with a lot of recipes, make a slight modification for the part of the servings for my kids. That way we are still all eating the same dish, just with a milder version for the younger tastebuds. My tenderloin took exactly 18 minutes to cook and then 5 minutes of rest. I let my salsa sit in the fridge for an hour. I would definitely recommend letting the salsa sit in the fridge and chill, it enhances the flavor. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was really impressed with this recipe. The combination of sweet and spicy was delicious and even my two boys loved the pineapple salad. I like how the pork is simply seasoned, without a needless amount of extra spices. I would suggest that if you don't like a lot of spice reducing the amount of chili powder. Since my family tried to eat low-fat dinners most of the week, I really like that this recipe only has 8 grams of fat and 37 grams of protein. Overall, a very easy and nutritious dinner recipe.

For the recipe go to Barbecue-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin.

Black Bean, Chorizo and Sweet Potato Chili

If you have read this blog for any given amount of time you know that I love my slowcooker. I use it year round, it's great when it's hot and humid outside to keep kitchen temps down and it's even better in the winter for hearty soups, stews and chili. Since this has been a busy couple of weeks with the school year starting and re-adjustment of schedules I have been relying on my crockpot tremendously. I love that I can set all the ingredients up in the morning when I have more time and by dinner it's completely done. It's a great way to save time and stress. When I was looking through the August/September issue of Taste of Home magazine the recipe for Black Bean, Chorizo and Sweet Potato Chili caught my eye and looked perfect for a weekday meal.

This recipe has 15 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and 6 hours of cooking and makes 16 servings. I ended up having to go to two different grocery stores in order to find both poblanos and jalapenos. That's normal for my area though and I didn't consider it inconvenient. This recipe does have a number of ingredients, but they are all easy to prep. Make sure to rinse the beans very well or they will taste metallic. Normally, I make my own beef stock, but neither of my local stores had beef bones so I took the easier route and used all natural canned stock. Make sure when you pick any type of stock from the grocery store that it is all natural. The cheaper brands often have additives and they make a big difference in the taste and quality of the stock. This is one area that I do not cut corners and save money by buying the cheaper options. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

When this recipe states that it makes 16 servings it's telling the truth. This recipe made enough for over three meals and the some. I froze half of the dish for later meals, which I would suggest if you don't have a huge family. I really loved the chorizo in this recipe. I use chorizo frequently, especially with eggs and tacos, yum! However, I had never tried chorizo with chili before and I was very impressed. This will be a great meal for fall and winter and I look forward to making it again.

For the recipe go to Black Bean, Chorizo and Sweet Potato Chili.