Day #6 of Thankfulness

I'm so thankful for a the time to make some good homemade food. This weekend I've made; jalapeno hummus, vegetarian chili and corn and blueberry griddle cakes. I've also pre-cooked some beans and also some rice to use in meals this week. The time to prepare these this weekend insures that we will have good healthy food all this week. Also the food is very thrifty so it saves some coin!

I used my crockpot to pre-cook about 1.5 lbs of beans. I rinsed the beans and placed them in the crockpot with some Kombu (seaweed) and salt. I put water to cover the beans plus about 2 extra inches. This cooked for about 8-10 hours, I put all the beans in jars and will freeze some of them for use next week. It will be really nice to have some cooked beans on hand to use as that is a deterrent for me to make some recipes.

The jalapeno hummus was a 18 oz jar of garbonzo beans (liquid reserved), 1 Tbsp Tahini, juice of 1/2 lime, couple squirts of olive oil, handful of parsley or cilantro. I put all this in a food processor and add the liquid from the beans until it is the right consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Y.U.M.

Happy Birthday Baby!

So I used my cake decorating skills that I've been learning at my Wilton Cake Decorating Classes to make a cake for my nieces 4th birthday. I have made a Similar Cake before but this is the first one I've made all by myself.

I don't know if you realize how much icing is on this cake but let me just say, its a ridiculous amount.

The beautiful birthday princess. We were so happy to share in her birthday :)

Some Good Dinner

Last night I was soo close to ordering out, I was just tired when I got home and didn't feel like cooking. I stopped at my sister in laws house and took in some of the cuteness that is my niece. The pit stop fueled me on and gave me the boost I needed to make some dinner. So I made some roasted potatoes, chicken and asparagus.

We had a lovely dinner with a stimulating dinner guest, Kitten Cat Snuggle Fluffy Pants III (we're trying to rename him because his name now isn't safe to say in front of children, he got the name from his love of jumping on the dining room table).

The hubs was REALLY happy I made asparagus.
I also made a Cranberry Lemon Cake from A Hippie with a Minivan's blog and it was goooooooood

Rustic Butternut Squash with Linguini

Oh mama thats the stuff.

I was trying to think of what to make with a yummie looking butternut squash that I have had.  Today I was inspired by one of my favorite reads, Apartment Therapy The Kitchen when they had an article about how butternut squash tastes amazing roasted with butter and thyme.  

I thinly sliced my squash and roasted it in layers with sliced portabellos, mozzerella, provolone, lots of fresh garlic, pepper, salt, onion powder, thyme, sage and pats of butter.  When it was all layered up I poured about a half cup of cream on top. I put this mixture in the oven at 450 degrees until it bubbled and the squash was tender.

I mixed this into some linguini and let me just say FANTASTIC!!!

A really nice rustic tasting fall dish :)

Happy Birthday Daddy

So my dad is coming over tonight for a birthday dinner, so as is customary I made him a birthday cake last night. As you know my birthday cakes aren't usually the normal run of the mill type jobs, I like to have fun with them, and if you know my father you know that this one is especially appropriate.

The hubs and I were happy to have two really good friends over last night helping us with this tremendous undertaking. My friend Lisa kept singing "I think your tractors sexy" song and lets just say that after about 2 hours of cream cheese icing intake we were having a good time. There may have been another cake decorated with a plastic Captain Kirk and something about a sexy starship written on it but I'll just leave that to your imagination.

Life Got In The Way

So this summer it feels like I lost it and went into survival mode for a couple of months. I lost a good bit of frugalness and by just surviving we saved a good deal less than we could have. I didn't cook nearly as much as I should have, we skated by not going grocery shopping more weeks than I can count, we ordered pizza or went out to eat more than normal. Honestly I don't feel too bad about it, we were busy enjoying life and having so much fun we didn't have time for the normal stuff. Now that the summer is over and things are slowing down and the house is getting back in order I feel like I can tackle this and get back on track with our savings and also prepare more healthy meals for me and the hubs.
This past week we did eat healthy meals that I prepared myself and I'm going shopping today to make sure that we do the same next week. I'm keeping a tighter reign on us as far as spending goes and making sure we're not going too crazy. Any ideas for quick, easy, healthy meals for this week? I love a challenge so leave me a recipe :)

btw as far as weight loss goes I lost another 2 lbs this past week! Yeah!!

Wordless Wednesday-Weekend of Cakes

Above cake was made for my friend Mary's wedding this weekend by my best friend T who is AMAZING!


This cake was made by Dirkey for a friends retirement party. Its a yellow cake with buttercream and a raspberry filling; it was decorated with buttercream, fresh raspberries and fresh flowers.

Garden Bounty or as Beyonce would say Bountyliscious!

Mmmmmm we're still harvesting the goodness, below is some freaking awesome tomatoes we have going on at Casa de Dirkey.
I think I've said before I'm totally digging on this whole gardening thing! I love having the freshest best tasting veggies at my hand for dinner. I don't know if I've divulged this yet, but I'm kind of a veggie snob (shocker I know). I will not buy canned veggies and it causes great pain to buy frozen veggies but I will do it (rarely).
One of my favorite things that I've been making this summer has been Zucchini Parm. Mmm just typing it makes me drool...

Here's the recipe:
need
3-4 good size Zucchini's
Olive Oil
Diced Tomatoes (preferably fresh)
Mozzarella
Parmesan
2 white onions
7-8 cloves of garlic
Lots of spices (parsley, basil, oregano, etc)

I slice the Zuch's up into disks then lay out a layer of them in a Lasagna Pan. I then will spread 2-3 crushed garlic cloves over them and sprinkle with olive oil. Then I'll put a thin layer of diced tomatoes, diced onions, spices and cheese on. I repeat this all 3-4 times and bake at 350 for about an hour or until Zucchini is tender when you pierce with a fork. You might want to cover with aluminum foil until the last ten minutes of cooking time so your cheese on top doesn't get too brown.

Seriously-SO GOOD!

Creation Recap and Detox

So you all know that last week I went away for work and it was an amazing week. There were alot of highlights for me. The most noteable probably was Melody Green talking about her and her husband Keith's ministry. I had read No Compromise about 10 years ago, which is a book Keith Green had written that made a tremendous impact on me and on my faith. Other highlights were seeing friends that I only get to see once or twice a year (boo geography for keeping our states so far away!), seeing new to me artists (I now love Skillet and Flyleaf), and also just seeing a years worth of work come to fruition and see God use what we put our hands to for His glory. For all the fun involved it was also was a tremendous amount of work with most of us pulling at least 17 hrs a day (my boss was easily doing 20+). We all drove home on Sunday and thankfully the hubs had met me up there on Thursday night and was able to drive our car home. I literally slept 80% of the car ride home then promptly fell asleep on the couch and slept until 10 am Monday morning. The no sleeping came with a side of crappy eating (lots and lots of coffee and free access to fair type foods). I did try to grab veggies when I could but it was maybe a handful a day. Needless to say my body is not too happy with me, it feels as if I have a sinus infection, and I think I could sleep for another 3 days easily. So I've decided that I'm doing the whole Vegan thing again for at least the next two weeks until west. Hopefully it will clear out of my system a good amount of the junk that has accumulated there and kind of get me back on track with my eating. I feel like I've been treading water with my weight for the past year despite working at it and following weight watchers most of the time. I'm going to use this time to really focus on this and changing habits. I know its going to take awhile but I also know it can be done. I just pray that I would have the strength and endurance needed to finish this race.
I went on my lunch break to Whole Foods and picked up about $80 worth of veggies for my veggie/juicing blitz. I'll be breaking out my Christina Pirello books and my imagination to cook up some yummie treats for us. As a change from last years Vegan August I will not be incorporating any soy into our diets as soy and I are not friends. I will be relying heavily on my friends, the Legumes. I'm going to try to cut out any processed Vegan foods (except whatever I bring for west if I decide to do it while I'm there). I'm also going to add in the juicing as I've discovered that I love me some beet juice in the morning. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll start harvesting my garden as well.

Baconhenge-I want to make this

Speaking of breakfast foods, this looks good.
Baconhenge-bacon-wrapped french toast "stone" sticks that surround a frittata of mushrooms, potato and onions.
I found it here

Yummie Summer Quiche

So last night I got a bug in my bum to cook some quiche.
My favorite crust for this type of recipe uses:
1.5 cups of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup corn oil
1/4 cup water
dash of salt.
Mix up flour, salt and corn oil with fork till consistancy of sand. Add water and mix till it starts to come together. Place in the bottom of your pie plate and smoosh it up to look like a pie crust. It will be thicker than a normal pie crust thats what makes it so good :)

Filling:
2 onions
2 cloves garlic
Whatever veggies are in your fridge-we love: spinach, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, spaghetti squash, broccoli; but basically anything will work.
You can also put in some meat if you would like-sausage, ham, bacon, etc.

I sautee these all in a pan till they are al dente I put in a good amount of pepper here.

Then I mix them with 3 eggs, 1 cup milk (or half and half if you so choose).
I'll also throw in whatever bits and pieces of cheese I have in my fridge adding in some thyme and rosemary.

It then goes in the oven at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until set.
Its soo good :)

McDirkey Cooking-Lime Chiffon Cake

I was looking online for Pretty Cakes (Google Image) and found this cake and decided that I wanted to make that! So Schmoop and I had a little date night Friday and baked a cake. I've never made a chiffon cake but it was sooo good!!!
I've enclosed the recipe below with pictures of us making it in between. :)
Fresh Lime Chiffon Cake
Yield: 16 servings

Filling:
1 teaspoon finely grated lime rind
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Cake:
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon cake flour
2 cups sifted cake flour (7 1/2 ounces)
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon finely grated lime rind
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract
3 egg yolks
8 whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Frosting:
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice (about 1 lime)
2 1/2 cups fat-free whipped topping, thawed

Fresh mint sprigs (optional)
Fresh blueberries (optional)
Lime wedges (optional)


To prepare the lime filling, combine 1 teaspoons lime rind, 1/4 cup lime juice, and sweetened condensed milk in a small bowl, stirring until blended. Cover and chill 3 hours.



Preheat oven to 325 degree F.

To prepare cake, coat bottoms of 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray (do not coat sides of pan); line bottoms with wax papaer. Coat wax paper with cooking spray, dust with 1 tablespoon flour.

Lightly spoon 2 cups cake flour onto dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 cups cake flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk until well combined.

Combine oil, 1/3 cup juice, 3 tablespoons water, 1 teaspoon rind, lemon extract, and egg yolks in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add oil mixture to flour mixture, beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.


Place egg whites in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Gently stir one-fourth of egg white mixture into flour mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture.


Divide cake batter equally among prepared pans, spreading evenly. Break air pockets by cutting through batter with a knife. Bake at 325 degree for 20 minutes or until ckae springs back when lightly touched. Cool in pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Remove wax paper from cake layers. Cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare frosting, combine 3 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons lime juice in a small glass bowl. Microwave at HIGH for 30 seconds or until sugar dissolves. Cool completely. Fold into whipped topping.


To assemble cake, place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread half of filling over cake layer. Top with second layer. Spread frosting over top and sides of cake. Garnish with mint, blueberries, and lime wedges, if desired. Store cake loosely covered in refrigerator for up to 3 days. Slice cake into wedges.



Source: Cooking Light, date unknown

DUCK!!!

Tamara and I made this...

then I became the two headed ducky monster... grrrrr