Weekend cooking & a football game? Where?

Greetings!  If you're checking in to see where I am, I'm here!  Sorry about Friday's post.  As my mom used to tell me when I asked an uncomfortable question, "I'll tell you why when you're old enough to understand."  Let's just say, I don't think I was ever old enough.  Sunday would have been my Mom's 76th birthday.  Amazing to me that she died when she was just 64.  Unfortunately, her lifestyle led to her time being cut short.  So many things they didn't know back in the 50, including that smoking is cool.  I consider myself blessed that I have had a healthy life and have learned so much in the last few years that I do not plan to go back to the few unhealthy things that I used to do.

So here we are on Monday & I did some cooking this weekend.  Just a little bit. There was a football game on that usually involves a lot of food planning and I, too, got wrapped up in the excitement of lots of food.  We were supposed to have a few teenagers come for a visit, but that didn't happen. I had already made my menu and purchased extra food, so I went with it for just Hubby and me.  But before I get to Sunday, let's start with Friday.

Friday night Alex was playing a gig at a local coffee/dessert house, and I was looking forward to some nice music & a date of sorts with my handsome man.  Alex's girlfriend was over for dinner and though she is a vegetarian, she's not quite as extreme as we are, but she is a nice young lady, goes with the flow and eats what I prepare without saying a word about it unless it's a sweet compliment.  Friday I made what we call Rice & Bean bowls, which I have since come to understand really should be referred to as Buddha Bowls -- they have a grain (in our case, quinoa), a protein (black beans), lots of veggies (corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, avocado) and a dressing (salsa).  We love these.  They're different each time and since I serve them sort of as a buffet, you can leave off what you don't like.  I wasn't in the groove and didn't take a picture.  Sorry. 

Before we headed out the door, I made these brownies with the leftover quinoa from dinner.  I got the recipe from my friend Carrie's blog.  Every Friday she shares other people's vegan recipes.  And it was just way to tempting.  I have to say these brownies are THE BEST!  Too good even.  Because the frosting has peanuts in it, they were off limits to my husband -- though, he did try a couple -- and that left the rest of the pan to me. (It was a small pan, come on.)  I made a couple of modifications to the recipe, subbing almond butter for coconut oil in the "dough" mixture.  It is possible to overeat on healthy food, and I think that's what I did. 

Later that night it was off to the coffee shop to listen to Alex play a few songs.  There were quite a few people who had come to see him, so it was nice to see some friends and chat with Alex's girlfriend a little bit.  She has been in the picture for just shy of two years, and I'm hoping she stays around much longer.  I am no longer outnumbered by males when she is around.  We really enjoy her company.  If you click here you can get a little taste of what we heard that night while we sipped some tea.  I can't believe how far he's come in his guitar playing and his singing since he started all those years ago.  Lessons and practice have definitely paid off.  His playing and singing is one of the things I miss when he's away from home for extended periods.  It is so much of who he is.


On to the rest of the weekend.  Except for going to work, I have been at home and inside so much lately -- I think because of the cold weather (I don't tolerate it well) -- that I was itching to get outside!  Mr. Weatherman said it was to be foggy in the morning and in the low 50s later, so I had great ambitions to go hiking.  Well, since Mr. Weatherman did say it would be foggy, I won't hold it against him, but the fog didn't lift until about 3:30 Saturday afternoon.  There would have been no way to wait that long, so we headed out at about 10 a.m. to an old railroad bed that's been made into a trail.  We got in a very chilly six-mile walk.  It was nice to breathe in the cool air and get the heart pumping outside of the gym.  Plus, who can argue with some hubby time?  We did stop to take a quick little picture. 

I need a step stool for self portraits!  I'm really not THAT short... am I? It's not the greatest picture what with the hat hair and all...

I was pretty tired on Saturday afternoon since my cat had decided to wake me up at 4 a.m. so I did something I don't normally do... I took a nap.  That took me straight through to late, late afternoon and I wasn't prepared for dinner, so we just had huge salads.

Sunday was the day of the "Big Game."  Apparently, the "S" word is copyrighted so I won't be saying it.  I started off by making a baked oatmeal.  It was just what we needed for a chilly morning, chock full of berries, bananas, heart-healthy oats & flax.

baked oatmeal ingredients

After breakfast things really got cooking!  On the menu: for snacks: stuffed mushrooms and crispy garbanzo beans.  For dinner: Enchiladas and fruit.  I had intentions of doing a veggie tray or a salad and something for dessert, but as the morning and early afternoon went on, I lost my enthusiasm so we just had the few things.  It's okay.  It was all healthy.  I didn't get in any greens (except the cooked ones in the enchiladas), but I'll make up for it today.

First for the stuffed mushrooms.  Feast your eyes on these for a while.  Chef AJ has a great recipe.  I can't find it online right now, except for a video of her making them.  Trust me when I say they are delish!  I will get that recipe on here soon! 

I also made some chickpea snacks.  At first I didn't think these were very good, but they're kind of addicting.  They are easy to make.  I will post the recipe later as I don't want to overwhelm the system here -- or yours for that matter. 

crunchy little buggers! Perfect for movie watching -- and they're healthy!

And now for the enchiladas:
I love my food processor.  Sometimes I don't use it for small tasks because I don't want to clean it, but it really cuts (pun intended) the prep time incredibly!  I first used the chopping blade and chopped the peppers, then took that out and added the slicing blade and shredded two carrots and a zucchini.  This is what it looked like all in the bowl.

 

Then I chopped up about two cups of greens.  I happened to have some Swiss chard and collard greens on hand, but any dark green leafy veggie will work fine.  Put it all in a pot with a couple cloves of garlic (minced) and about a cup each of corn and black beans (left over from Friday).  Let that go for a few minutes and then it will be ready to use as a stuffing for the enchiladas.

I know the tortillas I used aren't the "best" but they are good, have only a couple of ingredients (which are NOT salt or lard) and are pliable for enchiladas after a few seconds of heating.

I like these corn tortillas, found in the fresh case near the cheese

Here's what they looked like with some mooshed avocados

And what goes with enchiladas?  Tropical fruit salad, of course!  I'm not sure that it goes better than anything else, but I dig it, so that's what I made.  Pineapple, kiwi, mango, starfruit (not a fan) and oranges rounded out the dish quite nicely.

So that was our spread for watching the game.  I was in the kitchen during the plays and was in the room to watch the commercials.  I really liked the farmer one narrated by Paul Harvey.  I was surprised that it was a Dodge advertisement, but the underlying message was good.  I will hold my comments about the other commercials, but suffice it to say that I don't think it's a family-friendly activity anymore.  I told my husband that I thought the whole four hours was definitely targeting men and he said "not this man."  Maybe next year we'll have something else to do on game day!

In any event, I hope you have a great week.  Make it a healthy one, and I'll be back on Wednesday with yet ANOTHER soup recipe.