Mung Beans! Yum Beans!

Spicy Mung Beans with Tomato and Onions
This is one of my favorite foodie blogs. Vegetarian, simple, healthy, and creative. Lisa's Kitchen has tons of recipes that incorporate chickpeas, mung beans, and other legumes that I love. Eating biblically clean foods has forced us to eat more legumes and less meat, just because we can not find local, pastured, and affordable meats. Finding recipes like this one makes me happy! Thank you, Lisa's Kitchen, for once again giving me more creative ideas for the beloved bean!

Thanksgiving Day Menu

I am so excited about Thanksgiving, which has to be my most favorite American holiday. I love the smells, the season, the friends and family and the FOOD! Oh, the food...

I thought I'd post our menu plan for all to see and the links to some of the recipes. I LOVE www.allrecipes.com . It is my go to recipe sight when I am looking for something to make. One of my favorite things about it is the fact that there are photos of the food. I am a visual person, and if I can see the picture of how it is supposed to look, I feel like I can do a better job at preparing it.


Turkey
20 lbs. Brined and roasted by my dear friend over at Declared Unto Him

Mashed potatoes and homemade gravy
The recipe for the gravy will have to wait because I have no idea how much of what I put in. Basically, it's just a bechemel sauce, except you substitute the butter with drippings, and use stock instead of milk. I still use some milk, just to make it creamier.  I add chicken stock to the potatoes to give them more flavor without adding a lot of fat. I'm making my stock today.

Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing 
I am assembling this on Wednesday without the liquid so I can just pop it in the oven on Thursday. Just add the stock and melted butter before you cook it. Add a little more liquid if you are cooking it outside of a turkey. *Turkey sausage NOT pork, never pork :~)


Cranberry sauce
Two bags of cranberries
2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c orange juice
a smidge of ginger

Dissolve sugar and OJ in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in cranberries and cook until they pop. Refrigerate till cool. Garnish with orange peel if you like...I don't like. Making this Wednesday.

Roasted Russet and Sweet potatoes
Peel both sweets and russets and cube
Toss with olive oil, enough to coat. Salt, pepper, curry powder, a smidge of cinnamon and cardamom, a smidge of coriander, and a tad bit of brown sugar, and toss again. Roast on baking sheet lined with parchment paper @ 425 degrees for about 40-50 minutes. I'm putting these in the oven an hour before the stuffing (2 hours before dinner) and then tossing them in a hot crockpot till everything else is ready to be served. I'll have two racks of these roasting so the cooking time might need to be increased and trays might need to be rotated.

Grandma's Egg Custard Pie
Never done this before...we'll see how it goes. I made a practice custard this week, and it tasted great but was a little watery. Hoping the pies turn out better. I'm making these on Wednesday.

Pumpkin Pie
Your basic, back-of-the-can recipe. Nothing fancy :-) Making Wednesday.

My lovely friends are bringing apple pie, corn, cider and dinner rolls and the TURKEY!

We will be feasting! Then probably fasting...

This is our first Thanksgiving in a new place, away from all of our family. Wyoming is treating us well. I am beginning to meet people, but still miss home terribly. I am really looking forward to hosting this dinner though, and loving people in my most favorite way, and that is to FEED them. :~) 

Wow, do I feel better getting this all out and seeing it on the screen. I have made list upon list, but I finally have it organized and figured out to a T. Now, I just need to locate a few more chairs...

Creamy Walnut Sauce

I LOVE this sauce! Every now and again I want a thick creamy pasta sauce and this is a very healthy and delicious recipe.

Add the following ingredients to blender and blend together until smooth.

Serve with pasta and toss.

Great with Chicken as well.

2/3 c. walnut

2 cloves garlic

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1/2 c. chicken stock

2 T. Parsley

1 t. lemon juice

2 t. walnut oil 

If it is a little too thick, just add more stock. 

Delicious! And the benefits of walnuts are amazing.

Chickpea Salad

My lovely husband took me out to lunch the other day at my favorite restaurant in town, The Plaza Cafe. I love this place because most of their food is organic, non-GMO, and just fresh and delicious. I ordered a new dish, which is not my style (I like to stick with what I know). I am glad I did though, because my chicken guacamole wrap was yummy. I ordered it with a side of chickpea salad and that was the best part of the whole meal. One of my favorite things to do, culinary wise, is to eat out and then recreate the meal at home. I am so glad I tried to recreate this salad. SO GOOD! The recipe is sort of a taste-as-you-go recipe, so nothing is really measured out. Taste and see!

2 cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

half of a English cucumber -chopped

a few handfuls of julienned carrots

half of a large red onion -diced

3 0r 4 small celery sticks -chopped

Drizzle olive oil two or three times around the bowl.

Do the same with either red or white wine vinegar. I used red, but pretty sure the Plaza used white. Either one is good.

Salt conservatively.

Pepper liberally.

A few tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro.

Two cap-fulls of lime juice.

1 tablespoon of pure cane sugar or honey.

Toss together and let sit for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

*variations...

Next time I would leave the cucumber out (which is something I added that was not in the original recipe) because the flavor seems to over power the entire dish the second day. It is good if you aren't planning on having left overs though.

I will definitely add red peppers the next time I make this. More celery and maybe add some fresh sweet corn.

I would use cumin in this if there were no cucumbers. Especially with the addition of corn and peppers.

Instead of wine vinegar you could use balsamic and add a squeeze of Dijon mustard, leave out the cilantro. That would be yummy.

Cooking is all about discovering what you like, what works and what doesn't. Be creative and make mistakes. It's fun.

Making Applesauce

We were given a few bags of apples that were on the edge. Since they weren't very good for eating whole and I didn't want to see them go to waste, I made applesauce. This is a very simple recipe and the results were pretty good.


I peeled about 18 large apples and cut them into large cubes. Set the crockpot on high and add apples, 2 t. cinnamon, 4 t. vanilla, 4T. brown sugar and about 8 T. of lemon juice. The recipe I had called for 1 c. of water for this many apples, but if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't add any water. There was plenty of liquid from the apples. I did end up adding a bit more brown sugar and cinnamon. Probably about 2 more teaspoons of cinnamon and a tablespoon more of brown sugar. Stir it all up and let it cook for about 4 hours.




This made 4 pints of applesauce. The kids loved it, so I guess this is a winning recipe!

Pita Bread Recipe

I just found out I have gallstones and after having three gallbladder attacks within the last week I have had to change the way I eat. It's not too much of a change. We ate whole grains, raw honey, homemade yogurt and kefir, fruits, veggies, chicken and turkey. I made all our food from scratch, no boxed, processed junk. But, I had a tendency to make really fatty foods using cream sauces, cheeses, and making the most delicious gravies. I over indulged myself and my family for too long. I also loved making Indian, Mexican, and Asian dishes. Now, my diet has become bland and boring and without much substance for the most part. I have been eating lots of apples, steel-cut oats, plain old baked potatoes, veggies and drinking lots of apple and pineapple juice to try to clean my liver and gallbladder out. I can't have much fat at all and no sugar. This is all good for my waist line, but my stomach is crying out for FOOD!! So, yesterday, whilst craving bread I came across a recipe for whole wheat pitas using no oil or sugar. I modified it slightly and came out with some pretty good pitas. It was my first attempt at making them, so maybe a little more practice is due, but they satisfied my bread craving. I served one stuffed with some Israeli hummus and the other half with some left over butternut squash soup that had thickened up quite nicely. I chopped up some raw cabbage and added that to the soup for some texture...It wasn't curried chicken but it was pretty good. I am planning on making more pitas today for the weekend.

WHOLE WHEAT PITA BREAD

2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 T. dry yeast\
1 1/4 c. warm water
1 tsp. raw cane sugar

5 min @ 500 degress
Makes 10 pitas

1.Mix warm water, sugar, and yeast in bowl and proof.
2.Mix salt and flour together.
3.Mix yeast water and flour mixture together. You made need a tad more flour if your dough is too sticky.
4.Knead dough for 4-5 minutes on lightly floured surface, until it is smooth and elastic.
5.Form dough into ten balls and lightly roll out on floured surface (about 1/4 inch thick) Do not roll out too thin or they will not form a pocket when you cook them.
6. Let rise for 30 minutes on a nonstick pan
7. Just before you put them in the oven, flip each pita over on its other side. This makes them puff up.
8. Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 5 minutes.

Store warm pitas in plastic bag or resealable container.
Fill with num nums and enjoy

I made two batches yesterday and the first one was rolled too thin and they did not puff or form a pocket. No worries though. For dinner I used these for mini pizza crusts and the family was super pleased.

Enjoy!