Recipe Tuesday

Vegetarian meal planning becomes a chore and quickly loses its appeal.  After five weeks of lent my husband has become a lot more intolerant of meatless meals. It is amazing to me that it took five weeks of no meat before he started complaining. We are counting the days until Easter actively planning to eat a big bacon cheese burger.  Tonight I combined two recipes to make the meal last a little longer, well so my husband has a lunch tomorrow.

I took Kohlrabi Parmesan and crossed it with Macaroni and cheese.  It turned out really well but then I love the flavor of Kohlrabi.

Kohlrabi Parmesan

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/vegetables/kohlrabi-parmesan/

Makes: 4 servings Start to Finish: 20 mins

Ingredients

 ·       3 tablespoons butter or margarine

·       4 small kohlrabies (about 1 pound), peeled and coarsely shredded (3 cups) I roughly chop the veggies into bite size pieces. It is easier and goes a lot faster.

·       1 medium red or green sweet pepper, chopped (3/4 cup)

·       1 medium carrot, coarsely shredded (1/2 cup) I use 2

·       1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese or more

·       2 teaspoons snipped fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed I like to use fresh mint and basil. Use what you have growing in the garden or your favorite herb.

·       1/8 teaspoon salt

·       1/8 teaspoon cracked black pepper

·       Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (optional)

·       Fresh thyme

Directions

1. In a large skillet melt margarine or butter. Stir in shredded kohlrabi, chopped red or green sweet pepper, and shredded carrot. Cook and stir for 4 to 5 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.

2. Stir in the 1/4 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, thyme, salt, and pepper. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan or Romano cheese, if desired. Garnish with fresh thyme. Makes 4 servings.

To combine this to Macaroni and Cheese I made a pan of elbow noodles and then tossed the vegetable mixture with the noodles and added more cheese. I also added lemon juice to the whole mixture It was really good.  If you want to try something new this is a great recipe.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and that you day is full of love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Meal Plans

I need to go grocery shopping. Which means I need to make a list. I also need to plan two weeks worth of meals. Unfortunately all of the above falls to me. The boys in my family don't care and never have any input in what we eat until it is on the table or when I should be making dinner. I am looking for easy meals. I have two weeks left of Science and ten more weeks of my Literature class which means the next two weeks are filled. Twenty page power point on deforestation, two labs, a discussion board post on forest products, and a final covering science and a 1200 word essay on the Aeneid, read the Aeneid, a discussion board on Sakuntala, read Sakuntala. If you can't tell my next two weeks are full, very full. So what is for dinner?

Two weeks of meals:

1. Rosemary Chicken in the crock pot, with rice and a green vegetable
2. Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas
3. Tomato, Basil and Cheese Baked pasta
4. Baked Potato soup-slow cooker style
5. Huge pot of Chili that makes three meals
6. Not to worry I will freeze the leftovers to have later
7. in the two weeks. It will be vegetarian Chili
8. Another Roast Chicken with mashed cauliflower, and corn
9. Chicken noodle soup
10. Lentil soup
11. Vegetable soup
12. Curry Pumpkin soup
13. Butternut Squash Bake
14. Broccoli-Potato Soup with greens
15. Pork fried rice, with stir fried vegetables
16. Pumpkin, Barley, and sage soup

Lots of soup for the month, but soup is easy and mostly does not require a lot of meat. We are trying to lower our meat intake down to about 5%. Basically just enough so that my husband doesn't feel deprived. We watched a documentary called Forks Over Knives and it changed the way we eat. It recommends a whole food diet and we aim for that but I really like to cook. . .Most of the time anyway. It is in the works, just small changes that improve our over all health. As soon as I finish up my science class we will start family walks again. Which might help my waist line slim a little but then again it will be just in time for the holidays. I need to learn to tight rope walk, or juggle, or just plain multitasking. I will get there someday.

I hope your week is filled with crisp fall mornings, hot chocolate, Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Cooking is love

I know that I had motioned how I wanted to use my blog to share my journey to finding God and adding him to our daily lives. I know that I post mostly on menus, and recipes, and even lessons learned for the week. Today I wanted to focus on my love for cooking and why I put so much energy into sharing it with you. When I cook for the people I love I am giving them love. When I am in the kitchen mixing, chopping, kneading, stirring, baking, and tasting I am at peace. Although I am never absent from what is going on around me I allow my mind to wander in relief. I often spend the time chopping, dicing, mincing, or slicing onions with whatever worry that is there. By the time I am finished with the onion my soul is quieted by the simple task of cooking. In the peacefulness that surrounds my activity I can explore my theology, my relationship with God, what I believe God is. When I am quieted I can hear whispers of the truth as I brown the meat, or saute the vegetables. I am also very grateful for the love our small family is blessed with. I know with out a doubt that God loves us, and that God is everywhere we allow him to be.

I may not be rooted in a faith, but I do not find that a hindrance to my belief. It allows me to be open to thought and option without being trapped by what others believe is righteous. I believe that all thing that happen, happen for a reason, that it is all part of God's plan to teach us a lesson we need to learn in order to grow. That doesn't mean I want something bad to happen so that I can learn forgiveness, or grief, or any of the other lessons that come from a bad situation. I know that we are not alone as long as we are open to the idea, belief, possibility of the Love God has for each of us. I also Know with out a shadow of a doubt that some of the lessons we learn stem from love, joy, and gratefulness. I know because the biggest lesson I learned was how to love completely when I first held each of my sons. It was a sudden unexpected gift that calmed my anxious soul. I can love and deserve to be loved.

If you know me at all you know that some of my beliefs, or ideas can be a bit of a stretch. I hope that I do not but limits on my children. I believe that God does not want us to be boxed in to one idea because God is all ideas. No one religion is different from another God is there. He/She is the idea behind every religion and there may seem to be many but we can not all fit into the same idea and God made it easier to find him by giving us choice. Some people need to feel confined by the written word in the various books of the lord, others hope only for guidance. He enlisted the help of human men to write his word, and since he gave man the gift of free will we each interpret his words differently. The bible for instance has been rewritten to make it easier for people to read and understand. It is different from the original text but most of the meaning stays the same. It is a guidebook for lost travelers. We are all lost travelers trying to return home.

What moves me the most is the fact that Jesus came for the lost gentiles, me and people like me. I am a sinner unworthy of his love. Yet he came to earth for my sin, to forgive me, to set me free. This applies to you as well. We are not alone. One of the reasons that my family is choosing to become Catholic is because it is not about solidarity, meaning all about me, we pray together for each other. I do not know the faith completely so I can not comment on the whole picture, when I only have a small piece. I have a feeling some of the beliefs I have are not the same as the church such as birth control, and gay marriage and I am sure a few other things. I am unwilling to change my opinion that it is a human right to be married regardless of sexual orientation, I believe God made them and that makes them the same as me even where they are different. Love is love. I believe in birth control. I believe that God loves me for who I am regardless of my own ideas.

I am thankful for the life I lead and the life my husband and I are making for our children. I will continue to ask for guidance, and forgiveness. I hope that we are building a solid foundation for our children to become men on, that they will grow into strong, healthy, kind, good heart men. I trust the Lord will lead us.

I have to admit when I am cooking I don't always actively think about God, but it is a good time to bring him to our family. When I set the table with the meal it is filled with my love always. I was once told when I was a young girl that it will always turn out just right when you make it with love. So to me cooking is love. When or if you ever get the chance let me cook for you. I am happy to feed you and your family. So here it is if you are worried about your cooking abilities just remember that you are cooking for someone you love and loves you back. Regardless of how the meal turns out it will be perfect.

I hope that your day is filled with laughter, love, and a comforting meal with your loved ones.