Vegetarian Chipotle Tacos

Matt and I try to eat vegetarian dinners at least twice a week.

Why?

Because meat is really expensive

 and we don't think we have to eat meat everyday.

While we do have an assortment of great recipes,

I was itching to try something new.

Something summery and if it happened to use up my zucchini even better. 

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen.

We love tacos so I was ready to give this a spin.

After reading through the recipe, I decided to make a few changes.

So here is my slightly altered version.

Vegetarian Chipotle Tacos

6 radishes

1 small (4 to 5 ounces) zucchini, long and narrow if you can find it

2 limes

Salt

1 can of corn

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus additional if blistering tacos in skillet

1 medium white onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley

1/2 cup crumbled cotija cheese

(or another salty, crumbly cheese such as ricotta salata or feta)

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1 tsp of chipotle powder

10 to 12 small (6-inch) soft flour tortillas

avocado (optional)

To make the slaw

(I thought her directions for this were brilliant, so I just copied it)

"Cut radishes and zucchini into tiny matchsticks with a mandoline. If you don’t have a mandoline, you can use a peeler to peel thick ribbons down the long side of the zucchini. Stack the ribbons and cut them crosswise into thin matchsticks. Cut the radishes into a similar shape by hand. Toss radishes and zucchini together. Squeeze the juice of half a lime over the radish and season with salt to taste. Add more lime juice if desired. Set aside."

I suggest doing this before hand...like in the morning,

 because the longer it sat...the better it tasted.

But it still was good fresh.

The corn

1) Throw corn in a skillet with oil, garlic, chipotle powder, chili powder, and cilantro.

2) When corn is hot set aside

3) Make sure this has a lot of flavor.

Assemble

1) Heat up tortillas

2) Put the cheese on

3) Put the hot corn on

4) Put slaw on

5) Cut up raw onion and avocado to top it off

6) (if you want an unhealthier version of this, stick everything in and fry the sides of the tortilla)

We were suprised by the flavors of this.

The chipotle corn gives a heavy, smoky flavor to the taco,

while the slaw with the lime is really light.

It was an interesting combination.

It tasted very earthy, healthy, and light.

We liked it, but I have a soup recipe that uses these ingredients and more

that I absolutely love.

It's one of my very favorite recipes so I'll stick it up here soon. 

Blueberry Muffins

• Remember how we went blueberry picking last weekend?
• Well I have a confession.
• I'm not the biggest fan of blueberries...
• BUT I love blueberry muffins.
• They are my favorite way to eat blueberries.

I found this nifty little recipe and wanted to share it with you all.

Blueberry Muffins

• 2 cups of flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of blueberries

Steps

1) Preheat oven to 400*

2) Stick 16 cupcake liners in cupcake pan

3) Completely melt the butter in microwave

4) Add sugar, eggs, and milk

5) Mix all of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl

6) Slowly add sugar mixture to the dry ingredients

Mix well.

7) Carefully FOLD in blueberries 

(If you mix them in, the poor blueberries become pulpified. Sad day.)

8) Fill cupcake liners 3/4 up

9) Cook for 18-22 minutes 

(Until muffins are slightly brown on top)

Then eat all of them without sharing.

The end.

One Pot Pasta

Yesterday Madeleine and I went on an awesome adventure to Hopewell.

We both weren't feeling good.

When we got home, we both went to sleep.

(Oh and I forgot to bring my camera)

Today was grocery shopping day.

I love grocery shopping. 

It is even more fun now because Wegman's is so amazing.

**Warning: Flagrant grocery store bragging ahead**

This store is incredible.

It has "Pregnant lady parking"/"mothers with small minion parking".

Shopping carts are not squeaky and they have easy to use baby seat belt.

(We had a bit of an issue with that at Trader Joe's today.)

It also have more free samples than Costco,

and the selection is amazing.

For example, today I was looking for brie and cotija cheese.

They not only had both, but 12 different types of brie!

I didn't know what to buy, so their cheese expert came and educated me on brie.

How cool is that? 

The exceptional customer service doesn't end there.

Today it was raining all day.

When I was leaving, one of the workers grabbed an umbrella and offered to walk us to the car.

He not only escorted us, but he load the groceries and put away my cart, just so I wouldn't get wet.

How sweet is that?!

I could go on and on. I like it that much.

Madeleine updated Matt on her day while I cooked dinner

Anyway the reason I needed the brie was because I was trying a different variation of one pot pasta for dinner tonight.

It wasn't worth the money for this pasta, but our normal one pot pasta is awesome.

So here is the recipe!

Ingredients

2 1/2 c of water

1/2 bag of Linguini or some other type of pasta 

(this is brown rice pasta from Trader Joe's)

2 handfuls of cut up tomatoes of some sort 

(The little tomatoes work really well too)

1/4 c Basil 

1 onion (optional)

a few shakes of red pepper flakes 

(optional, but I really think it makes this dish)

1/2 T. of oil

1 clove of garlic

Throw everything in the pot turn it on medium.

Wait until the pasta is cooked.

Don't drain it. 

(If you wait a minute, the water will turn into sauce)

Top it with cheese.

Tada!

Texas Thus Far

Last week, Matt and I dyed my hair purple and then packed our bags to head down to Texas with Baby.

It was Tiny's 2nd flight and she was great.

This time she had fun looking out the window.

I spent the whole time looking out it too as we past over the plains.

There were some pretty amazing clouds from the recent tornadoes.

They were huge! So big that we had to weave around them for most of our flight.

When we landed my grandparents were waiting for us. 

I was excited. I always like visiting this state.

After all I was born here...and even though I only lived here for 5 years, I still have some Texan pride.

(Not so much so that my house is decorated with the state and state flag everywhere.)

We passed through San Antonio and drove a while before we got to the ranch my grandparent's live on.

It has always been a fun place to visit, and I was excited for Matt to come here with me.

There are also a TON of animals at this ranch. Madeleine got to experience this first hand when Chewy the deer came up to the porch to check her out.

Then he licked her foot.

Baby with Pop

 On Monday, we drove up to Austin to visit our friends, Natashya and Andy.

We had so much fun.

Baby went swimming for the first time.

Baby's first time at the pool

We talked a lot, made pizza, went to Stein Mart (so jealous they live so close to one), tried on shoes, played video games, and probably other stuff that I can't remember. 

We also made this Hot Fudge Pie recipe.

The original blog post is really fun to read (you can read or look at pictures of it here)

Things you need

2 mixing bowls (one needs to go in the microwave)

1 stick of butter

1.5 oz of unsweetened chocolate

1 c of sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla

1/4 c of flour

2 Tbs of milk

A tub of vanilla ice cream

(handful of nuts if you want)

What to do

Preheat oven to 350*

Spray a glass or ceramic pie or cake pan

In mixing bowl #1, melt chocolate and butter in the microwave

(I do it for 30 sec intervals so the chocolate doesn't burn...it took like 1 minute)

In mixing bowl #2, beat sugar and eggs together.

Then add the stuff from mixing bowl #1.

Stir them together well.

Add vanilla and milk.

Then mix in flour until everything is brown.

(Apparently don't over beat).

The mix should taste like tootsie rolls.

Then stick in the oven for 25 minutes.

When the top looks done, pull it out. 

(The middle will still be gooey)

Then serve with lots of ice cream.

It was really good and a bit lighter than brownies.

It only takes about 5 minutes to mix up and 25 minutes to cook.

Or as the lady said, "Should be done just as you finish dinner."

.....

While we were there, at one point I talked to Andy about how I need a new computer since Flo, my tiny computer, isn't doing too hot.

I told him I just wanted one that lasted.

He said "Oh!" and like the engineer he is rattled a long list of things I should look for.

I heard it as "lots of numbers memory...more numbers RAM...quad core processor...and a lot of other things."

The next day, Matt went to buy us a "pet" mouse. 

(keyboard mouse, if it was a real mouse, I told him I was buying a kitten or a snake)

While he was debating what he wanted, I went around the corner. 

The next thing he heard was "I found it!"

Thinking that I found a mouse, he came over, only for me to point to a computer.

"I want it," I said.

"But Michele, you don't even know what it looks like."

"Nope."

"Then why do you want it?"

"The price is right and it has the quad thing that Andy said to get."

When we got home, we told my dad about it, who was impressed by my savvy computer picking.

He couldn't believe I was the one to pick it out.

So the next day we bought it!

Presenting Matilda!

Isn't she great?

:)

(Matt is amused that Michele hasn't removed the protective plastic yet.)

Thai Curry Noodles

Look at those little eyes. So cute, so innocent, so alert...especially since they are supposed to be asleep. 

I thought since I was still up, I would share a quick recipe we tried for dinner tonight. 

This is the first recipe we have tried in a long time. I think the last one was fried chicken while I was 5ish months pregnant, since I was craving it, and we didn't feel like going to the store. My goal this week is to eat 3 meals a day. It will be quite the stretch. More often than not, Matt will come home starving, only to find me equally hungry...so we run to In-n-Out for burgers and fries. So the fact that I ate 3 meals today and tried a new recipe, I feel like an overachiever  (okay, I found it and had Matt cook it, but that still counts right?)

Matt and I love Thai food. Two times ago, when we went to my favorite little Thai restaurant Matt's dad ordered some Thai noodles. They were so yummy, and I decided I wanted to make some at home. This recipe isn't the more traditional recipe I'm guessing, but it was so good and only took 30 minutes to make. (And for bonus points, it used up all the broccoli in the fridge) 

Thai Curry Noodles

• 2 tsp. vegetable oil

• 1 chicken breast

• 1 c of green onions, chopped

• 1/2 of a white onion

• 1 bunch of chopped cilantro
• Dash or 1 tsp of ginger (we chop ours)

• 2 Tbs. yellow Thai curry paste

• 1 tsp. curry powder

• 1 tsp. ground turmeric

• 1 15-oz. can of coconut milk

• 5 oz of rice noodles

• ¾ cup chicken broth

• 2 tsp. light brown sugar

• 5 cups broccoli florets

• 2 limes

(Note: The next time I made this, I added mushrooms, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and baby corn. More veggies. :) )

Cut up chicken and add to oil in medium pot over medium-high heat. 

Then sauté onion, green onion, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and baby corn in oil 2 minutes. Add cilantro, curry paste, curry powder, ginger, and turmeric, cook a minute or two. 

Next stir in coconut milk, broth, and brown sugar, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium, and cook 5 minutes. Simmer 10 minutes. (If you don't do this long enough, like I didn't, the water doesn't cook off enough and you'll need to add another tb of curry.)

Cook rice noodles in large pot of boiling water. Add broccoli to pot for last 2 minutes of cooking time. Drain, and add to curry mixture sauce stuff. Mix well and serve with lime.

Food in tupperware on the floor = one classy food photo :)

PS Here is the other recipe for Thai Green Curry soup that I made for Riley's and Mollie's farewell.

Happy 10/11/12

Life is still busy, and it doesn't look like it will be slowing down anytime soon.

We just about finished up midterms (I have one left tomorrow) and we are getting in the full swing of school. I am already counting down how many class periods I have left until graduation. (While I like school, walking up to campus lately has not been the most comfortable thing.) Matt has been doing awesome in school like usual, and even got his first graduate school application in!!!

The paper that is dominating my life at the moment is about this painting by Andy Warhol.
I'm totally in love with it, and the more I learn about it, the more I like it.

We are loving the fall weather too. Matt bought hot chocolate today, and this weekend we pulled out our winter bedding. We put the quilt and comforter on, and Matt looked at me and said, "I really like comforters." (Thank goodness too...since we have 2...Small confession: When we took out the comforter, I realized we now own enough bedding that we have a different set for each season. Luckily, Matt doesn't seem to mind.)  Tonight for dinner we made this recipe with bread bowls. (We don't have a blender, so ours doesn't look pretty enough to take a picture of) Now if the tree in front of our window would start turning colors then fall would be perfect.

Also, this Ted talk is amazing. Everyone should watch it. I think this might be my favorite one to date. Really you should watch it. 

Potato Salad

10 1/2 weeks, and I'm eating again!! Yeah!!! The last 4ish weeks, my appetite basically reduced to almost nothing, and I absolutely had no motivation or desire to cook.

But I started cooking again this weekend, partly because I started feeling better, and partly because our friends the Heims moved out. :(

We got some food from them. Mostly random stuff, that Natashya and I (just a week ago) stared at in complete despair, as we tried to find something edible between our two refrigerators. (Her sweet husband ended up getting us a pizza when he found us half delirious on their living room floor from hunger.)

One thing we got was a collection of Mayo.

(These aren't the small ones either. They are the 30 oz. each.)

(Matt was so grossed out that we had this much in our fridge."Michele, next time don't grab anything we already have." I told him he should be grateful, I didn't take all the mustard.)

I had a plan though. Over Memorial Day weekend, I had been craving for potato salad, and Matt refused to get any because he didn't want us to go over budget. The Heim's conveniently had the missing ingredients we needed. So Saturday afternoon, I dragged myself into our kitchen and started cooking. I haven't really stopped since then. (We have made chicken enchiladas, curry, and soup since.)

Tada! Potato salad...the recipe is here, and way healthier than the grocery store stuff.

Poppy Seed Chicken

Living with Matt is never boring. Last year, Matt and his friend Tyson did an experiment to figure out if someone could fail a drug test after eating a poppy seed muffin. They ended up using several batches of poppy seeds, and when we got married, there was still a container of poppy seeds left. Over the last few months, every time I went through our spice cabinets, I kept thinking "Huh, I should use those up." I found this awesome recipe! (Honestly, it surprised me how good it was) Not only did it use up all the poppy seeds, but it was so quick and easy. I might actually buy more poppy seeds to make this again, instead of buying them to check for the morphine content. And don't worry, Matt and Tyson figured out that you will not fail a drug test from eating this dish.

Poppy Seed Chicken
(adapted from Shugart & Spice)

$2.84  2 chicken breasts

   1.12   1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

   1.56   1 8 ounce container of sour cream

  3.00   2 teaspoons poppy seeds

    .50   ¼ c of bread crumbs or crackers

    .10   ¼ of an onion

    .75   3 cups of cooked rice

$9.87

Serves: 6 ($1.65 per serving)

How to make it

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a skillet, cook the onions and chicken, so that the chicken is white and the onions are soft.

3. In a large mixing bowl, add chicken soup, sour cream, poppy seeds & season with salt & pepper.

4. Shred chicken and put it in a 8x7 inch dish (or something similar) and then spread the sour cream/soup mixture.

5. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs top with cracker topping then & bake for 30 minutes.

6. Take it out of the oven and serve it with rice.

(You shouldn't judge books by the cover, and therefore shouldn't judge the recipe by the picture)

Thai Green Curry Soup

Matt and I absolutely love this recipe. We made it three times last week alone. It’s not very spicy (that’s one of the perks of making Thai food at home, you can control the spicy level), but it has so much flavor. On top of that it is healthy. Now it isn’t quite as cheap as Red Lentil soup, but it is so worth every penny.

(Macey’s does carry everything you need for this recipe, but you’ll end up paying a lot more. We usually go to Chao’s (the Asian Market on University Ave.) to pick everything up. It saves us about $3 per batch.)

Thai Green Curry Chicken soup 

(Adapted from  http://www.fortysomething.ca )

$1.42  1 chicken thigh
    .15  Vegetable or olive oil
    .39  1 onion, sliced in moons
    .14  1 thing of ginger the size of the top part of your thumb, finely minced
    .05  2 clove garlic, minced
  2.19  1 c sliced mushrooms
    .79  1 red bell pepper, cut into 2 to 3-inch thin slices
    .34  3 Tbsp. green curry paste
           6 cups water
    .33  3 bouillon cubes
    .74  1/2 can coconut milk
    .63  Handful of uncooked Pad Thai Rice Noodles aka rice noodles (I use half a bag)
    .50  Lime Juice
$7.67

Serves: 6 ($1.27 per serving)

Calories per serving: 248

(Again, I’m assuming you have bouillon cubes, and I’m also assuming you have half a can of coconut milk, a full can is $1.47 at Maceys. Curry Paste is $3 at Chao’s for a cup of the stuff, and the noodle package is $1.26.)

Optional
1 Tbsp Thai chili sauce or Sriracha sauce
2-3 Tbsp. fish sauce
Cilanto or green onions garnish


How to do it

1. Saute onion in a pot until a bit soft. Cut everything else while it is cooking.

2. Add garlic, ginger and curry paste. Stir everything in curry paste before adding mushrooms and bell peppers, then stir everything up again.

3. After about 2 min of sauteing the veggies in the pot, add water, bullion cubes, and chicken. Then bring to a boil.

4. Boil for 6 min and then start shredding chicken.(You can shred it in the pot or out of the pot or just cut it up in little pieces. It doesn't really matter.)

5. After chicken is cooked, add coconut milk and rice noodles, then reduce heat to a simmer. (I usually put the lid on.)

6. In the bowls, add fish sauce, lime juice, and anything else that you want in that you haven't already added. Taste test soup before pouring in bowls.

7. Eat and get more.

Yum!

"Adventure is out there!!!" (Our travels to SLC)

The Schedule

8:00- Wake up
8:32- Finally leave warm bed for freezing environment, only to tumble in a really hot shower
9:00- Breakfast
9:30- Clean up and make pizza dough

Pizza Dough Recipe 

(It will rock your socks...if you are wearing some.)

1/2 cups of wheat flour

1 1/2 cups of white flour

1 tsp of salt

3 tsp of yeast

1 tb of oil

1-ish c of warm water

10:00- Slap water on hair or run a brush through, look for a reasonable outfit

10:15- Make pizza sauce and roll out dough and add on the toppings

10:30- Pizza goes in oven, Matt makes sure we have money for the bus

10:40- Matt leaves for school

10:50- Pizza comes out

Our lunch and dinner for the day

12:40- Michele leaves for school

1:00- We have class together!!!!!!!

2:50- Classes are over, mad dash to bus

3:01- Watch old man almost get hit by car as he very sloooowly jaywalks across Canyon Drive and pray that no one hits him.

3:03- Reach bus and crossing fingers that it isn't the bus driver that likes to leave early.

3:05- Bus leaves and we talk about life, hope, dreams and our relationship

4:24- We reach Sandy Trax and get on Trax (and shove pizza in our mouths)

5:13- Reach The Gateway Mall and dash to BYU Salt Lake Center for Michele's class

7:30- Michele gets out of class, and get back on Trax

8:10- Arrive at Sandy Trax and get on bus

10:03- Get off bus and come home!!!!

Adventure complete.

Mondays really are crazy, but in all honesty it is one of my favorite days of the week. I love the time I get to spend with Matt on the bus. I have 4 hours to discuss anything I want to with him, and we talk about everything. (He gets sick if he does his homework on the bus. Lucky me!) We talk about what we learned in our class, graduate school, the random person that is sitting across from us, awful names we could name our future kids, etc. It is awesome and so much fun.

Also, I love people watching on the bus too. It interesting the types of people that come on the bus. The guys that were right in front of us two weeks ago were ex-drug dealers. They were talking about the pros and cons of the jail system and what they think would improve it. We didn't necessarily agree with them, but Matt and I found their conversation very enlightening. There are always cool people on the bus, that I would never interact with except for the fact that we are riding the same bus.

The bus drivers are just as cool too. Jerry is one of my favorites. He has been driving the Provo to Sandy bus for the last two years. He is an avid bike rider and is always pointing out random trails that I should check out one day. There is another bus driver Miguel who I really like. He loves learning different languages, (the last count I heard was eight.) He practices with passengers and goes to night school at UVU to get his degree. How cool is that? 

I love that these people are on the adventure with Matt and me. They are our fellow travelers, just going to different places. It's a nice change to be with some normal people before being canned up in Provo the rest of the week. :)

Esau's Soup

A few years ago, I took cooking at BYU. It was an awesome class. For our final project, we had to come up with a dinner that cost under $3 a person. Sounds like easy right? It wasn’t. It was actually a lot harder than I had anticipated. Since then, I have become more conscious of how much each meal I make costs, especially since I’m married now. I figured since this is my blog (sometimes Matt’s) I wanted to put up some of our favorite recipes (because how am I suppose to make dinner if pinterest is down and I can't get to the recipe??)

Red Lentil Soup Vegan and therefore also vegetarian, and gluten free!! (Basically everyone can eat this)

History of Lentil Soup According to Wikipedia (which is back up!!!) 

"Lentil Soup is mentioned in the Bible: In Genesis 25:34, Esau is prepared to give up his birthright for a pot of fragrant red lentil soup (a "mess of pottage") being cooked by his brother, Jacob.” 

Esau gave up his birthright just to get this soup, which was kind of a big deal.

Red Lentil Soup > Isaac's Inheritance

Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly the red lentil soup, but really this recipe is amazing. 

Red Lentil Soup Recipe 

From: SassyRadish.com

Ingredients:

$ .15  3 tablespoons olive oil,
  .39   1 large chopped yellow onion
  .05   2 minced garlic cloves
  .50   1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
  .01   1 teaspoon ground cumin
  .01   1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  .01   1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  .01   Pinch of ground chili powder or cayenne
  .33   1 quart chicken or vegetable stock (I use 3 bullion cubes and 4 cups of water)
  .88   1 cup red lentils (These are at the sunflower market, and 1 cup is a little less than half a lb)
  .40   1 large carrot, peeled and diced
  .59   Juice of 1/2 lemon
   .79  3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

$ 4.12 for everything (Given that you have salt, pepper, bullion cubes, cumin, and chili powder)

Preparation:

In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons oil over high heat until hot and shimmering. Add onion and garlic, and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes.

Stir in tomato paste, cumin, salt, black pepper and chili powder or cayenne, and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add broth, lentils and carrots. Bring to a boil, then partially cover pot and turn heat to low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and season with salt if necessary.

Using an immersion or regular blender or a food processor, purée half the soup then add it back to pot. Soup should be somewhat chunky.

Reheat soup if necessary, then stir in lemon juice and cilantro.

Serves 6 to 8

Total per serving: $0.52-0.69 

Let me know if you make this. I really hope someone does. It is amazing and cheap and basically everyone can eat it. 


Also, if you have any awesome recipes that are cheap and yummy, would you mind giving me a copy? I love trying new recipes.


PS I'll put a picture up as soon as I can.
PSS This is with actual Macey's prices.