Busy week

Hey followers!  Or should I say follower cause I only have 1 (thanks Ottav).

Another busy week.  Knockout roses and foxglove planted.  Check.  Kids survived another week of school.  Check.  Beth has no after effects of the half marathon.  Check.  Fighting off the weeds in the yard and the kudzu bugs in the air.  Check.  Pressure wash the house.  Half check since the sides still need work but big thanks to my dad who supplied the pressure washer and was a huge help, without him this would be unchecked.  Convincing Ali that vacuuming is awesome.  Check.  Cooking all vegetarian meals for the fam.  Check.

Still sticking to the plan, we had lots of good food this week with only minor complaints from the kids for homemade hummus and also for avocado.  Here is the meal rundown.

Monday - Veggie plate with homemade hummus and ranch (for the kids).  Hummus is pretty easy to make if you have a good food processor and you like hummus.  I use a can of garbanzos, cannellini beans will also suffice and seem to make a smoother hummus.  Either way make sure they are rinsed and drained but reserve the juice in case your hummus is a little chunky and you want to pour some in to smooth it out.  Juice of a lemon, couple tablespoons of tahini (they sell it in a can at Publix or Kroger), couple of cloves of garlic or roasted garlic out of the jar, tablespoon of cumin, dash of paprika, salt and pepper to taste, and let the processor rip.

We followed that up with a vegetable paella.  Similar to your usual paella but replacing the meat with asparagus, broccoli, and garbanzo beans.

Tuesday - Fettuccine Primavera.  Just a fettuccine with low fat alfredo with some veg including peas, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. 

Wednesday - Mexican triple corn squares.  This was a hit.  Took a can of cream corn, a small can of kernel corn (drained), and a box mix for corn bread (I used one that was a little sweet) with a couple tablespoons of melted butter and 2 eggs.  Mixed it all together and threw it in a 13 x 9 pan at 400 for about 15 minutes, until it all looked set.  Pulled it out and let it slightly cool.  Cut out squares and threw it in the bottom of a bowl and covered it with all kinds of good fixins like black beans, spanish rice, fresh salsa, sour cream, cheese, avocado, etc.  Super delicious.

Thursday - Roasted eggplant and red pepper sandwich with risotto florentine.  Risotto was really good, used vegetable broth as the liquid and added garbanzo beans and spinach and finished it with some freshly shaved parm.

Its still fun to try all these new recipes although it does take a lot more time to meal plan, buy the ingredients, and cook things fresh.  If you want any more info on the recipes let me know and I can be more exact with the ingredients and directions.

As for me, I am feeling really good about it and looking forward to using more ingredients from the garden.  We will have some yellow squash in a week or so with zucchini soon to follow.  We have some tomatoes on our upside down planter but those are still a way off.  I am feeling pretty healthy as well.  I had been running on the treadmill pretty regularly but was getting bored with it and I am shifting back to lifting weights, something I haven't done seriously since college.  I am fairly sore and I am curious to see what kinds of gains I can make without the help of protein from meat.

Be good!
Otto