It's just another day...

My daughter has somehow managed to be sick again, and this time she took me down with her! It has been really difficult to juggle work life, home life, and cyber life lately. All of the viruses making their way around our house have kept me down for the count. In fact, what am I doing up right now? We are currently back in the waiting time and hoping for good news. It will be another week or so before we find out if our latest treatment has resulted in a pregnancy. So far I've been able to keep my mind off the topic most of the time, but it creeps in once in awhile. I have absolutely no plan for the next cycle yet. Whether I like it or not, it might be necessary for a financial break. We'll see...

In the meantime, I have a quick recipe to share. We were inspired to make it recently, and I realized that it is a good recipe for the beginning of baseball season. If you care about that stuff. I know I don't. I have a strong dislike for athletics, but I like to eat! This one isn't the healthiest, but it is really yummy! This recipe isn't even an exact science, so feel free to tweak it!

Chili Dog Hotdish

Ingredients:

1 bag hotdog buns (6?)

1 package of vegetarian hotdogs

2 cans of vegetarian chili

onion

mustard

cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 13x9 baking dish. Break up hotdog buns evenly on the bottom. Then cut hotdogs into quarters lengthwise. Cut them again into 3-5 pieces. Does that make sense? Then sprinkle them evenly over the buns. It should look like this:

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Pour the 2 cans of vegetarian chili over the top and spread to cover. Chop onion and sprinkle over the chili. Use as much as you like! Drizzle some mustard around on the top. It helps at this point to have an adorable helper!
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Then just cover with some shredded cheese.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until it is bubbly and the cheese is melted. It should smell wonderful and look like this:

. Enjoy! This reheats well too. We normally have leftovers for a few days. My daughter can help a lot with this since it's so easy, and she tends to eat it more willingly when she has helped. It's also easier when she knows what's in it, and this recipe qualifies. "Remember? It's just bread, hotdogs, beans, mustard and cheese. Those are all things you like!" (Notice there is no mention of onion here. That isn't on the list of foods she's on board with yet! However, mustard is one of her favorite things, so it's usually a big selling point.)

Muffins and Snufflin'

I hope to write a little more about Easter and family activities soon. It has been awhile since I've had time to write! My family has been battling some nasty bugs, so we've been too busy wiping noses and dosing medications to do much of anything else. We were at Urgent Care on Saturday afternoon when a morning of errands turned into a lunch time scream session. Turns out it was a sudden start to a nasty ear infection. I snapped a picture of our kitchen counter when I realized that it perfectly summed up our weekend.

In the meantime, I will share a recipe. It's a favorite of mine lately. I've found myself making a batch of muffins every week, and then grabbing them for a quick breakfast. These are fairly low fat and healthy. They also taste amazing.

Low Fat Banana Muffins:

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup white flour
3/4 Cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt (optional)
3 large bananas, mashed
1/2 Cup sugar (I use organic cane sugar.)
1 egg
1/3 Cup unsweetened apple sauce

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Coat muffin pan with non-stick spray or use paper liners.
- Mix together white and whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Combine mashed bananas, sugar, egg, and applesauce in a large bowl.
- Fold in flour mixture and mix until smooth.
- Scoop into muffin pan (each at 3/4 full)
- Bake in preheated oven. Mini muffins for 10-15 minutes. Standard or large muffins for 25-30 minutes. Muffins are done when slighly brown. They should spring back when lightly touched.

Yum! I find that recipes with banana are hard to screw up. They tend to rise well, and they turn out very moist. I also have a tendency to overmix, and I haven't had a problem with that yet when using this recipe. You can also throw in some cinnamon for added flavor. A little sprinkle of ground flax seed never hurts either if you want extra fiber and some Omega 3's. Enjoy!

Food, Baby!

I am a big nutrition buff. Being a vegetarian for so many years has turned me into a label reader. When I started to read more labels, I started to find out more about nasty little food additives and nutrition as a whole. Now that I'm the parent of a toddler, I find myself looking for even more creative ways to make the foods we eat more healthy and nutrient-rich.

Since I'm fairly well versed in these topics, I have become a resource for many of the people I know. When someone realizes that they have a gluten allergy, they talk to me about it. When people are curious about why I eat so differently, we engage in detailed discussions of vegetarian foods and the impact they have on health and environment. When people have kids with sensitive stomachs, they ask me if I know what would help.

In the course of these many conversations, I have realized that there is one little thing I do that doesn't always occur to people. I assumed that many people do the same thing, but based on the feedback I've gotten from those around me, I might be wrong. I will share here, and I'm curious if anyone else does this too!

We eat baby food. Yup. That's it. My husband and I eat it. My daughter still eats it. I try to throw it into anything I can. I can't take credit for the idea of using veggie puree in meals. Jessica Seinfeld wrote a cookbook on the topic. I always hoped to purchase it, but I haven't yet. I think I saw her talking about it on Oprah, and the only problem I had with her plan was that it involved making large batches of veggie puree on the weekend and planning ahead for the week's meals. I just don't have that kind of time. I made my daughter's baby food when she was little. Now that she's older, I want a break! Conveniently, organic baby food is easy to find. It's probably more expensive than doing it yourself, but I still find it fairly affordable and simple. That's worth a lot to me.

Here are a few of the ways I use it:

-squash or sweet potato in applesauce. Put some cinnamon in it and you'll never taste it.

-Carrots in spaghetti sauce

-squash, mixed veggies, or sweet potato in enchiladas. Just mix it with the rice/beans/spices inside the tortilla, pour on sauce and sprinkle a bit of cheese. It blends nicely.

-any kind of veggies in chili

-any kind of veggies spread onto pizza crust under the sauce and cheese (although I find that carrots are less likely to be detected!)

-carrots in tomato soup

-small amount of squash in scrambled eggs

I realize that one jar of babyfood in a batch of sauce doesn't elimate the need for fresh veggies on the side, but I think every little bit of nutrition helps - especially when you have a toddler. My daughter doesn't always finish her veggies, so it's a good way to complete the serving. I also find that she gags easily when she has a stuffy nose, so we try to feed her soft foods and avoid things like peas that can set her off. Adding a little bit of baby food helps her get more veggies during those times.

Eat your baby food! Does anyone else do this? If so, how do you work it into your recipes? If not, try it and let me know what you think!

name that recipe!

I'm still stuck in the waiting game around here. It's impossible to keep my mind from wandering to pregnancy. I'm not feeling anything yet, but it's only been a week. Patience! We have also been waiting on edge for a possible change with my husband's job. It would be a wonderful change for our family, so we are hoping it works out.

In the meantime I'm going to share a recipe that we just tried out for the first time not long ago. It was very tasty. The problem is, that I'm not sure what to call it! Any ideas?

Italian Rice Patties?

Spinach and Rice Bake?

Fred?

Help me name this recipe!

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Oh, and I apologize ahead of time for the pictures. They were taken at night. That explains the lack of natural light. I also didn't haul off to retrieve my truly wonderful flash, so the I was stuck with the kitchen lights. They make the food look a bit, ummmm.... yellow. You know, like in cookbooks from the 60's and 70's? What was up with that? How could people ever find anything appetizing from the looks of those horrible pictures? Anway... I'll stop rambling now and make good on my promise. Here's a tasty recipe. That doesn't have a name. It's sad really. Just sayin'. I'm glad we could share this moment.

Ingredients:

- 2 tsp oil

- 1/2 Cup of chopped onion

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1 box (10 oz) frozen leaf spinach - thawed and chopped (I used fresh since that's what I had on hand and it worked just fine)

- 2 1/4 Cups water

- 1 cup long grain rice (I used brown rice)

- 1/2 Cup grated parmasean cheese

- 1/4 tsp of pepper (I think I used a bit more. Pepper is yummy!)

- 1 large egg

- 2 oz of shredded mozzarella

- 2 cups spaghetti sauce (we used 1/2 a jar)

I'm a bit of a free spirit when it comes to recipes. I'll do my best here!

Heat the oil in your skillet. Saute your onion and garlic a bit.

Then add the spinach and water and bring it to a boil.

Stir in the rice. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the water is absorbed.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil. Spray the foil with non-stick spray (so do I list non-stick cooking spray in my ingredients? I'm out of practice here!)

Transfer your rice mixture into a bowl and stir in the parmasean and pepper.

Then mix in the egg.

Scoop out the mixture and spoon onto the baking sheet. I made them approximately hamburger sized or maybe a bit smaller.

Flatten each scoop slightly with your spoon to help it look more like a patty. Like this:

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Bake for 20 minutes until they seem firm.

Then sprinkle on the mozzarella cheese and put it back into the oven until it melts.

Serve with spaghetti sauce on top like in the picture or you can adapt it for a toddler by cutting the patty into quarters or halves and providing the sauce for dipping. Yummy!

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Come on, baby!

Another month of fertility treatments is complete. Last week I had to ask my husband to give me the shot again. There is some kind of self preservation instinct that kicks in when it's time to give yourself a shot. It renders my arm frozen. My brain can't make my hand move, so my husband has to save the day. Seems he has no trouble stabbing me with that needle!
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Saturday was our big day. The nurse assured me that everything looked good, so it's now up to God and fate. Our life feels like it has been full of pills and shots (well, at least mine has. Not so much for him!), so we're hoping to put that behind us soon! If this month doesn't take, we'll be taking a month off. I figured the time to recover from the medical bills would be good. I'd also like to avoid a Christmas due date if I can help it, so we plan to hold off a bit after this. Two weeks always feels like an eternity, but that's how long we'll have to wait before we can find out of this worked. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was gagging while brushing my teeth after about a week, so I'll be watching for little signs while trying not to drive myself nuts in the process!
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In the meantime, we'll have to talk about other things to distract me. Take a look at this picture...

Does it look good? I'm curious to find out if this looks like something other people would want to eat. It is something I started eating in college, and it is a favorite around here! Wheat toast, mayo, garlic & pepper seasoning, and cold spaghetti. Voila! Spaghetti sandwich! What a great way to use leftovers in a creative way! If anyone tries it, let me know what you think!

Frosty Day

Today was just gorgeous. It has been a little warmer. (Let's face it - anything over 10 degrees in the winter here is good!) There was a layer of frost on everything. I love it when the world is covered in icing! I wish I would have had more quality time with my camera!

I worked a long day after getting very little sleep so I found myself dragging a bit, but it was nothing a hot shower and cup of peach tea couldn't cure. I've been struggling lately to find enough fuel to get me through the evening. I am working on finding patience and a sense of fun after a long day for the my daughter's sake. Tonight we played with puzzles. Mission accomplished. I'm going to try to take some time each day to play and focus on my daughter.

Since I'm running on empty, I'll wrap this up. I just wanted to share a recipe for one of my favorite kid-tested vegetarian dishes. I put it together last night for us to eat today at lunch. Although we have to stop our child from eating only spoonfuls of ketchup and mustard, my daughter really does like this!

Veggie Corndog Hotdish (This is the midwest after all. We don't do casseroles!)

- 1 pkg vegetarian hotdogs

- 2 eggs, beaten

- 1 1/2 cups plain soy milk

- black pepper to taste

- 1 lb of cornbread mix (we like Marie Callender's brand)

- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

- 1 small can diced green chiles

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the hotdogs lengthwise into quarters, then cut into thirds. Set aside.

In a medium bowl combine eggs, milk, pepper, and cornbread. Stir well, then mix in hotdogs, cheese, and chiles. (Don't worry... the chiles don't make it spicy. They just add a bit of flavor, color, and texture.) Spread into lightly greased 9x13 baking dish. Smooth out the hotdog pieces so they are laying flat and spread evenly throughout the pan. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes - until it is just browning on the top.

We cut it into large cubes and dip in ketchup and mustard. Yummy!