Salt & Humor

Salsa of any kind, is just great by me.  I mean, chips and salsa have been known to be a dinner for me.  Then there is green salsa or salsa verde (however your prefer to say it).  I can remember the first time I ever had it!  My family and I started making green salsa and even growing tomatillos in the garden.  I did not plant tomatillos this year but if you remember my Dad mailed me some from his garden. I made green salsa right away and canned it.  I am still very new to canning and if I had to be honest am not so sure I like it.  One of the jars broke in the pot while cooking.  I made sure to leave 1/4″ head space and cleaned the rims before lidding so I’m not sure why that happened. Oh well, I am still happy with the results.

Hope you make some fresh salsa soon and enjoy it as much as I do.

Just a quick post tonight.  I must proclaim my mad love for Los Gorditos.  It is no secret that my favorite food would be mexican food. Well, finding vegan options in traditional restaurants can be a bit challenging, especially if they don’t even have veggies on the menu. With a bit of research and plentiful options in this veggie-friendly city led me to find Los Gorditos.  I ordered the soy curl tacos with rice and beans and we shared chips and salsa.

I cannot even begin to say how much I loved this lunch.  I am hoping that with a bit of bribery, I may convince J to take me back tomorrow.  Is that too soon?? I say, it’s worth a shot

Having tacos for dinner is like celebrating your Birthday or a Holiday.  Or, at least that is what it feels like in our house.  What is your favorite dinner?  ”Tacos.”  What was served at your wedding?  ”Tacos.”  What do you always eat on your Birthday?  ”Tacos.” You see, I just love tacos!  What makes taco night even better??… Homemade salsa, I tell you!!

Tacos consisted of  homemade “refried” (smashed pinto) beans with cheddar, salsa and Greek yogurt for her and sour cream for him.

Those tortillas look a little different, you ask?  Oh yeah, Jason made those from scratch!!

Let me just say, “I made one!” There is no way I have the patienience for that! He, on the other hand did and did a great job! Thanks Jason!!

Taco Night Success!!

What is your favorite dinner of all time!?

Wow! I must say, I really love salsa!  Lucky for me, Jason enjoys making it.  Lately, he has been using red onion, which just so happened one night when that was all we had.  Now, I think I might like it better with red onion.

Yesterday, the weather was very mild.  I went for a bike ride earlier in the day and I don’t even think it got up to 70.  
I packed my bike to the Spring Water Corridor trail.  The weather was really nice for the ride.  I am very lucky to live near such a nice bike path.

These wild sweet peas are one of my favorites.  They really get your attention.

Leave it to me to spy a sweet kitty off in the grass.  I stopped to take a closer look and it immediately came to say hi.  It was a very friendly kitty.  Silly thing tried to follow after me when I started to pedal away.

Of course I was crazy hungry for lunch when I got home.  I quickly made some miso and lime tempeh and topped it over a salad with quinoa.  For a salad dressing, I used Jason’s salsa.

Our garden this year seems to be a little behind as far as the “season” might go.  We had a very cool and wet Spring here.  The tomatoes and peppers are looking pretty sad.  So, imagine my excitement when I saw this yesterday!

Yahoo!

We were going to make fish tacos for dinner last night and so I made a black bean and couscous salad to go with it.  Jason worked later than I realized so we will make the tacos tonight.  So, I had some of the salad with corn tortillas for dinner. The salad was: Israeli couscous, black beans, raw corn, green bell pepper, green onion, tomato, cilantro, jalapeno and avocado.  The dressing was lime juice, avocado oil and honey.

kjjjjjjjjjjjj ( kitty on keyboard) “GALL!!”

Have a great Sunday night.  I shall be back with fish taco details and a guest post from Jason about rhubarb soon.

Making eggs and toast for J and I yesterday, I was perplexed as to which nut butter I wanted. Well, I decided to go with both, cashew and Sunbutter, that is! Side by side, Sunbutter is still #1!

For lunch I had my smoothie in a bowl.  I think I prefer this route, if time allows of course.  Usually, my breakfast smoothie is sipped on my way to work.  Having it in a bowl seems like you are able to taste it better.

Smoothie: spinach, banana, blueberries, almond milk, hemp protein powder and peanut butter.

Toppings: Galaxy granola (cranberry orange) and hemp seeds

Time to back it up now.  I have been very relaxed about my blogging posts.  I guess you could just say, I have been taking it easy.  I do have some tasty bites to share though…

MY FAVORITE BURRITO IN THE WORLD

It might be safe to say that Chipotle make my favorite burrito of all! Sometimes my salsa choices vary, depending on how spicy I feel that day.  This day, it was black beans, rice, peppers, pico de gallo, cheese, lettuce, corn salsa and sour cream. Their chips are also dang good! Second, next to Juanita’s of course.

Then there was Easter. Everything was perfect!

turkey, mashed potatoes/gravy, sourdough stuffing, homemade rolls, bourbon sweet potatoes, gnocchi-pesto green beans

Even this ranunculus bouquet was perfect!

Wednesday, J and I made pizza. My pizza consisted of red sauce, mushrooms, pepperoni, spinach, mozzarella and tomato. The ways to create a pizza are endless. We are still working on finding a crust that we love.  This one, was one of the better ones.  It was too chewy though Still a fun dinner night

Rather than turning this in to a really long post I think I will wait to share a little more tomorrow.  I am going to go finish cleaning up my mess from doing yard work all day.  J should be home very soon, we are going for a bike ride! Can’t wait.  Hope today is lovely where you are!!

Check out Janetha’s Giveaway!! Oh, Kombucha, how I love thee!

Did you think I forgot all about blogging? Well, I pretty much did.  I left for Reno last Wednesday and returned last night.  I had a wonderful visit with family and friends! It was a good break from blogging, but nontheless, I am stoked to be back! I was not diligent as to photo all the marvelous eats but I did snag quite a few. Coming at you fast, here we go!!!

dinner at Dad’s: turkey enchos, fish tacos, quac and beans

Jason’s amazing salsa!

Dad busy fixing his famous breakfast potatoes!

crab pan roast from the Atlantis

tofu/veggie soup from Pho 777 (this was to die for!!)

salad at Mom’s

spaghetti squash with Mom’s marinara

eggplant and brussel sprouts

All together now!

My Mom is a little rock star! She is the single most, best influence in my life! She is an amazing cook and I owe my love for cooking to her! Miss her already!!

I completely forgot to take a photo of the dinner I had at Sue and Jasons. Shoot! We had homemade cheesy polenta, steak with blue cheese on top and a green salad! OH MY! I had no idea I was going to like the steak that much!! What a treat, I must say. Thank you guys!

Get a glimpse of the generous gift basket from my brother and his girlfriend! Can you tell, they know me pretty well! Rather than list it all out, I will just remember to mention the goodies as I break into them.

Thanks Ray & Nichole!

Check out the makings of that stout! Let me just say, I did see organic coca nibs in the recipe! I am thinking a trip back for a sip will be in order!

I had such an amazing time, however, it always seems to fly by.  I miss everyone so much already! I love you ALL! I have much catching up on laundry, cleaning, petting some neglected kitties and planning a healthy(ier) dinner.  Happy Tuesday bloggies!

***GIVEAWAY*** Check out this amazing site, oh yeah, and a giveaway!

The $50 Safeway giftcard winner is Karla! I will submit your info and BlogSpark will get that out to you! To be honest I was pretty shy about how to pick a winner.  I put names in a bowl and stressed all day.  I waited till Jason came home and had him handle it.  He wrote all your names down in order and added the bonus entries then entered the data into the true random number generator.  Thank You for handling that for me Jason! Seriously, I stress out about the smallest things sometimes!!

Moving on!

I started the day with a power smoothie.  I had some maradol papaya left over from the other day.  I am the only one that eats them and it was a good sized one.  I used about 1/2 the papaya, 1/2 banana, 2 T flax oil, cinnamon, 1/2 scoop protein powder and almond milk.

This turned out even better than I thought! Can’t wait to get another one!

I went to get a few things for the Valentine’s dinner that I will be making tomorrow. Unfortunately, Jason works all day but at least he gets home at 7:30.  Just in time for dinner! I told him it was his choice for dinner, aka, my present to him, is the dinner…He picked carne asada.  Next to fish tacos, this would be his favorite. So, I prepped that “stuff” for the dinner tomorrow.
Lunch was well deserved.  I still had some of the black rice left over from the Thai food. So I warmed it up and topped my salad with it.  The perfect salad has something warm on it! (according to me) HAHA! I used some of the avocado/lemon oil and fresh lemon juice for a dressing.  Again, this was better than I was expecting

Since, I am not into the carne asada for dinner tomorrow, I wanted to make something for me.  Hmmm….hummus, of course.  For the sake of the holiday, how about red pepper hummus.  Yes, please!

Oh, yes, that is NICE!!  Even thought it takes a little more time, I prefer to roast the pepper myself, than buy them in a jar.  Last jar I got, smelled and tasted a little off.

Last night, I was reading my February edition of Body + Soul. I really enjoyed an article that talked about guilty pleasures that are good for us.  They spoke of why napping, cheese omelets, gossiping, beer and playing with your iphone are good for us! SWEET! So, while my back is still really tight and inflamed, I have not been getting any workouts in, aside from stretching.  So, I have been trying to eat really strict.  Well, the other night, I was craving a beer and chips and salsa and I DID NOT have it. Well, let’s just say that the article last night may or may not have convinced me to make salsa and enjoy a beer tonight. Just in case you are curious, beer seems to be just as good for you as wine! While it does not have resveratrol in it, it does have more calcium and magnesium, plus 5x the level of free-radical-fighting polyphenols. A 12-ounce bottle of beer may up “good” HDL cholesterol, decrease the risk of blood clots and reduce coronary heart disease rates by 30-40%! All, things within balance, of course.  As, long as it averages out to 1 beer a day.  Whoot, Whoot! Check it!

Guess what’s funny about this picture?? The blade is missing! If you have a food processor, you have probably done this a time or two. Sheesh!

This was a “cheater salsa.” I don’t think the fresh tomatoes are all that good right now for making salsa.  So my take on tonight’s salsa was 1 can, sliced tomatoes, 2 cans, chopped tomatoes with green chile, 1 jalapeno, 1/2 sweet onion, 1 clove garlic, 1 juiced lime, 1/4 t cumin, a bunch of cilantro, salt and 5 NuNaturals stevia drops. who cares if I used canned tomatoes, this salsa was EPIC!!!

So, there you have it, foods for my soul! And I didn’t even feel guilty about it!