The BEST bean and Vegetable Crockpot Chili

I was in the mood for thick and hearty chili tonight.  Since I am no longer eating meat, I find myself adding more vegetables to my chili....truth be told, I like it better with more veggies and no meat!  It is so incredibly easy to make and so very much cheaper!

Veggie Chili

- 1 medium yellow onion

- 3 large peppers, red, yellow, green

- 2 cans of black beans

- 2 cans of kidney beans (can use two cans of chili beans)

- 1 can of red beans

- 1 large, or 2 regular sized can(s) of crushed tomatoes

- splash of olive oil

- 2 tbsp cumin

- 1 tbsp red pepper flakes

- 2 tbsp chili powder

Dice the onion and peppers and saute them slightly with the olive oil in a large saucepan.

Pour everything else into a slow-cooker (juices from the beans and all).  Once the veggies are softer, but still slightly crunchy add to slow-cooker cook low for 8 hours, or high for 4.  Adjust the spices to your liking...as I actually do not measure the exact amount of spices...I just taste test them!  

Super thick and hearty chili, you wont even miss the meat!

Paint, Porch and Food!!

So Sara contines to give me grief because she is the only one who has been posting lately but I have been very busy on her "honey do list" that would make most contractors hire more help!! Unfortunately the weather hasn't coordinated very well with my scheduled days off work so getting things completed has been a real pain in the butt!! I think the biggest project I have had this fall was painting the house and finishing the porch (neither of which is 100% complete yet). These two projects have made a huge difference to the appearance of the house even though the finishing touches are yet to come. Unfortunately at the moment the only pics I have are during the process so I will edit this post with new ones as soon as I can.

Here is the start of the new porch column, underpinning, railing and stair relocation

Here is the house with the first coat of green paint on it. Its amazing what a color change does for something.

Second side painted and running out of day light!!

All dry, we think there is just too much brown so we are going to be painting the window trim and porch white and I will be finishing the gable of the porch roof off with craftsman expired panels painted in green with white trim to match the paint we have planned for the large columns I built for the porch.

Since we don't have a fireplace in our house and Christmas time is coming up Sara requested a stocking hanger like she had seen on pintrest Luckily I had some wood laying around left over from the porch and I was dying to try out my new router so I got to work. I was also excited because I was going to get to break out my lettering brushes and it has been a couple of years since I have gotten the chance to do that. So router the edges, painted, lettered, screwed some cheap hooks on it and hung the stockings, WALAH!!!!

And Lastly Sara isn't the only one who does the cooking ;).....We ended up staying home on thanksgiving day thanks to a last minute work obligation for me. So I decided I would try my hand at another Greg Plitt recipe. Greg and I call these "Wooton Wonders" but Sara likes to point out they are actually called wontons. They are pretty easy to make and were the perfect finger food for a day of football and lounging on the couch. No over eating and unnecessary weight gains for us this year!!

Here is what I started off with, carrots, mushrooms, swiss and cheddar cheese, an onion, a bag of leaf spinach, can of shredded chicken breast, package of wonton wrappers and pictured is stir fry sauce which we didn't end up using. Oh and of course the iPad so I could cook along with Greg.

Started off by chopping everything up with the slap chop and shredding the cheese, I didn't use any specific measurements for this just kinda eyeballed what I thought would taste the best and fill me up all while being very beneficial to my body.

I then cooked all the veggies in some olive oil and added chicken to my half. You could stop right there and eat this stuff just like this because it is so good and so good for you but I wanted the finger food.

The next step is to wet the wonton wrappers in a little water and put the filling in. There is two ways to do this, Greg used a more traditional method and folded up the corners like a flower and while this looks fancy my method of doing it like ravioli gets more contents inside. While I was making these I was heating up a large skillet with olive oil to fry them in. I know thats not the healthiest but it was a small amount of oil for just about 30 seconds per side and they are done. 

So here is the final product, one plate of vegetarian for Sara and one plate with high protein chicken for me. They were very tasty and very filling and were simple to make!!!! 

Until next time, DO WORK!!!

Vegetarian White Bean Chili

As many of you know I gave up on the meat.  It has been about 6 weeks and I am feeling great.  The problem is that Nathan did not give up on the meat, so it has been somewhat difficult to find recipes that are meatless and still will satisfy both of us.  This Northern bean chili did the trick and was delicious!

- 3 cans of of organic Northern Beans (or 2 cups of dried beans soaked overnight)
- 3 peppers, any kind adjust to your spice level.  I used jalapeno, and poblano.
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 2 cups of vegetable broth
- 2-3 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes (adjust to taste)
- 1 tbsp cumin
- pinch of salt
- splash of olive oil

Dice the onion, peppers, and mince the garlic.  Saute the veggies in a small amount of olive oil in a deep pot.

 Once soft add the beans, broth, and spices.  Cover and bring to a boil, then simmer for 1-2 hours.  I ended up simmering for around 4 hours, all of the spices melded beautifully.

 After roughly two hours of simmering I separated half of the soup into an additional pot and added cooked diced chicken to "Nathans pot", and continued simmering both pots for another two hours.  While I did not try his soup and he didn't try mine we both thought that it was delish!  A definite keeper in the meal rotation!

Protein and Energy bars

I am experimenting with making gluten free granola bars for me, and protein bars for Nathan.  Protein bars are EXPENSIVE, Almost 3 bucks for one bar!  I decided to try my hand at whipping Nathan up a batch.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Protein Bars

- 4 scoops of peanut butter protein powder (or PB2)

- 4 scoops of Chocolate protein powder

- 1 cup of oats

-  1/3 cup of peanut butter

- 2 tbsp pure honey

- 1/2 cup of Almond milk

- 3 tbsp chia seeds

- 2 tbsp of ground flax

Simply mix everything together

The mixture was pretty sticky so I used a little coconut oil to spread in the glass baking dish to make sure that it didnt stick.

I popped the dish in the refrigerator for about an hour to hopefully harden up the bars (could also use the freezer for a quicker hardening).  The were still slightly sticky when I cut them, but they cut easily and came right out of the dish.  I wrapped them individually in wax paper so Nathan could easily grab one and go!

I am not a huge fan of protein powders and am attempting to stay all natural (or almost all natural!), so while my bars did not have as much protein they were still very filling!

I have been playing around with this very simple recipe, and don't remember exact measurements of course...

- 1 cup gluten free oats

- 1/2 cup of raw cashew butter

- 3-4 pitted Medjool Dates

- 2 tbsp pure honey

- 1 cup dried cherries

- 2 tbsp ground flax

- 2 tbsp chia seeds

Blend the oats in your blender until they make a fine powder.  Add the medjool dates (it is helpful if you cut them up a bit before adding), and the cherries (you could also use any other dried fruit).  Blend this mixture until the fruit pieces are diced and sticky.  Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until everything is combined.  Grease the bottom of a glass 8x8 baking dish, spread the mixture and let it firm up in the refrigerator for about a half an hour.  Cut and wrap individually in wax paper.  Great to grab on the go!

Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin!

I have made quite a few grain free pumpkin breads and bars lately.  They were all good...just good, not great.  Tonight I made a pumpkin bread with caramel topping.  Maybe it was the bread, maybe it was the topping, or maybe I was just really in the mood,but it was excellent!  So good that I cannot wait to share the recipe!  I followed this recipe, but added a couple of tweaks. **The bread that I made is not grain free, as I used rice flour, the original recipe calls for Coconut or Almond flour*

The Main Bread Ingredients

- 4 eggs

- 1 cup of organic pure pumpkin

- 1/3 cup of pure honey

- 1/4 cup of coconut oil

- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

- 1/2 cup of rice flour

- 2 tbsp of pumpkin pie spice

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 2 tbsp chia seeds

- 2 tbsp ground flax

- pinch of salt

The Caramel Glaze ( The most delicious thing ever)

- 2 tbsp pure honey

- 2 tbsp butter or coconut oil

- 2 tbsp of vanilla almond milk

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 tbsp cinnamon

- pinch of sea salt

- a couple of tbsp of rice four to use as thickener

Combine the eggs, pumpkin, honey, coconut oil, chia, flax and vanilla ( I forgot the vanilla in the bread and it was still awesome!) mix well.  Blend in the flour and spices, pour into a greased bread baking tin and pop in the oven for roughly 40 minutes at 350.

For the heavenly glaze, melt the butter or coconut oil over medium heat in a small saucepan.  Next add the almond milk and 1-2 tbsp of flour, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Stir constantly and remove from heat when it gets to a thicker glaze consistency.  Add the honey once removed from the heat.  Let cool for 15 minutes.

Let bread cool for 5-10 minutes and spread the glaze on top, you could sprinkle nuts or pumpkin seeds on top for a nice crunch.

Here is the finished product.  It was insanely delicious!

Meatless Eggplant Lasagna

I made the best fall lasagna last night, so good that I had to share right away!  There are a couple of tweaks that I will note throughout the recipe of things that I will do differently next time.  Lets get started.

I sauteed fresh mushrooms, one small chopped onion,several cherry tomatoes, two minced garlic cloves and a full package of frozen spinach (defrosted) in a little EVOO.  One change that I would make is to use fresh spinach next time, the frozen (although squeezed and drained) produced a lot of extra liquid.

While that was sauteing I washed and thinly sliced one large eggplant, skin on.  I also mixed roughly 1.5 cups of cottage cheese (could use Ricotta, or Cashew), two eggs, and some basil and parsley in a medium sized bowl.

*I admit that I did use store bought sauce, It was an organic Butternut Squash Tomato sauce, it was so sweet and tasty, I will be experimenting on how to make my own soon! I also think cubes of butternut squash would be DELICIOUS in this recipe.

Then the layering fun began!  I layered several thin slices of eggplant on top of a small amount of the sauce, cottage cheese mixture, veggie mixture, sauce, eggplant...I continued the layers until I ran out of ingredients!

During the layering process

I shredded a small amount of fresh mozzarella, and basil right on top covered with foil and popped in the oven at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes.  I then removed the foil and baked an additional 10 minutes.

Before being baked

hint*** Be sure to check that the eggplant is super tender before removing from oven.

The finished product, YUM.

Enjoy!

Falling into Fall!

Nathan and I agree that Fall is by far our favorite season.  There is something about the crisp weather that screams bonfires and get-togethers.  Fall seemed to appear out of nowhere this year, one day we are sweltering in the hot sun, then BAM 70 degrees *ahhhh if only it could be like this all year!

We have quite a few projects going on, finishing the porch, painting of the house, and parties galore!  We just celebrated Nathans birthday with a big bash, outdoor movie for the kiddos and fun conversations for the adults.  We had a hotdog bar, which of course I didn't take any pictures of, but everyone seemed to love!

Pretty Dark, but our make-shift outdoor movie was a hit with the kids!

The day after Nathans birthday we visited Curtis Orchard, got lost in the corn maze, practice our sling shots, and Nate rode his first pony ever...He says he is now ready to ride a big horse, I am so excited about the prospect of this!

Of course I had to try!

Dad showing Nate how to sling!

In the following weeks we will be having an "Old Fashion" birthday party for Nate, complete with fall games and fun *think bobbing for apples, and relay races!  We also have a fairly large pumpkim patch in our backyard that we will be harvesting soon.  I think a pumpkin carving party is in order!  And, of course Halloween, no parties here, but I cannot wait to go trick or treating!
I will be sure to take lots of pictures of the upcoming events, Nathan will be posting soon, as he promised to start painting the house this week!
Til Next Time,
XO

Foodie

Lately Nathan and I have been trying some new recipes.  Nathan is on a health kick and has been dropping weight like no ones business...On the other hand I have gained a few pounds.  I am certain my snack of choice *walnuts* surely has NOTHING to do with that!  I wanted to share some of the recipes that I have made this week, all of them Gluten Free. Most of them have zero or very little dairy..except for one which has dairy overload!

My favorite recipe that I made this week, was also the easiest and had the least amount of ingredients.  Stuffed Portobello Mushroom caps.  Of course I found the recipe on Pinterest, the link to the original recipe is here..Stuffed Caps

It was simple I was quite worried about the taste, but seriously it was DELICIOUS!  I bought 2 Portobella caps, scraped out the insides, added spinach and arugula leaves, topped with some homemade salsa (that Nathan made), a little feta cheese * I normally would have used goat cheese, but they were all out when I went to the market* , steamed everything together and viola, a filling, nutritious, delicious dinner!

 Of course I had no steamer bags like the original recipe suggests, so I used my trusty steamer.  I steamed each cap for roughly 20 minutes.

and yum!  My easiest, cheapest dinner this week!

Like I said Nathan has been working out and eating healthy for the last 2 weeks or so.  He is obsessed with Greg Plitt and has gotten several recipes off of Gregs website for us to try.  One was chicken pot pie, which was delicious however not gluten free, and oops I made it with some wrong ingredients and took zero pictures....So we will try that one again at a later date!  The second recipe we tried from his website is called Muscle Loaf, essentially Turkey meat loaf!  I was a little apprehensive about making this with so few ingredients but it really wasn't bad.  I followed the recipe to a T except I used Gluten free bread to make my breadcrumbs.

Eggs, small onion, ground turkey, bread, horsey sauce, ketchup, and a head of garlic....yes folks an entire head of garlic!  Needless to say the house smelled like garlic for 2 days after making this!  Nathan raved about this dish, I thought it could have used a tad more flavor, but it was good none-the-less!

I love love love Italian food, one of the crappiest *pun intended* things about Crohns Disease is for the most part Italian food is off limits to me, unless I make it at home with belly friendly ingredients.  So when I found this GF Ravioli recipe I was ecstatic!   I was much less ecstatic when I realized that not a single store around here sells the Well and Good pastry flour.  So I improvised... but not well.  I tried following the recipe but had to use double the Namaste brand flour in order for the dough not to be sticky

Once I finally got it to the right consistency I rolled it out and used a drinking glass to cut the rounds.

annnd for some reason this picture is crooked!

For the filling I followed the directions, egg, ricotta, spinach, salt, pepper, basil, and I added some extra spice.  A teaspoon of filling in each round and a little brushed egg to pinch and seal the rounds closed.  Dropped in boiling water and wahla! They were good, but a little 'doughy'.  The problem with the flour that I used was if I rolled the rounds too thin they would crack, too fat and it seemed like dough overload.  After I removed them from the boiling water I brushed them with Olive Oil, sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on and threw them in the oven to bake for roughly 10 minutes.

We ate them as a finger food dipped in sauce and stuck the rest in the freezer.  I think when I pull those out in a couple of weeks I will lightly coat them with homemade pasta sauce and bake them * I will post about that if it turns out well!  Since I had so much filling left over I also made the quiche-like breakfast casserole, which Nathan LOVED.  I mixed 5 more eggs in the ricotta mixture, added some herbs de provence and covered with garden tomatoes.* Note to you and self* Next time I make this casserole (Nathan has already requested a next time) I will be adding onion and garlic. Then it will be perfection!  

So while all of these recipes are definitely worth a try and I will be making all of them again, with a few tweaks for some, my all time favorite thing to eat is this.  Polenta with a little vegetable better than bouillon.

YUM.

XO

Front porch project begins

So I am going to start off this post by saying that the front of our house has no curb appeal and does not in anyway represent the look and feel of the interior of the house. When we first looked at this house I had a vision in my head of what the house could look like I just had to convince Sara to trust that I could change the look of the house into something much more appealing than it was. She was reluctant but my persistence paid off and we bought the house despite of her unatraction to the front. So with the backyard and deck finished it was time to move up front and get to work.

The first issue is the extremely large set of concrete steps on the left side of the porch that have settled towards the house and have been putting pressure on the foundation for who knows how long. 

 Not having a clue what we were getting into Sara and I grab the sledge with enthusiasm ready to bust up the steps. Well we both took a couple of swings and quickly realized we were wasting our time with the hammer. My next step was to try to hire someone to drag the steps away from the foundation so they could be jack hammered apart, if we would have attempted to do that in place the foundation mortar would crumble from the vibration causing an even bigger disaster than we had going on. After having several contractors turn down the task of dragging the steps out one mentioned a product he had heard of a guy using with great success but had no personal experience with. He described a non explosive demolition compound the when poured in drilled holes in concrete expands and busts the concrete apart. Sara quickly grabbed her trusty iPhone and searched for a product that matched that description with immediate success. Desperate for anything that would solve our problem an order was placed for 44 pounds of Dexpan.

 The first step to using this product is laying out a hole pattern no more than one foot between holes (i did much closer). Then using a rotary hammer drill I drilled inch and a half holes going about two inches from the bottom of the slab.

 It was a heck of a workout with a twenty four inch long bit, took about six hours from the first hole to the last but there were lots of water breaks in there.

 Here is what you get when you order 44 pounds of Dexpan, a five gallon bucket with simple yet complete instructions printed on the side and four eleven pound bags of the Dexpan powder.

 Before you get started mixing the Dexpan up you should thoroughly clean out the holes. I used my shop vac with a piece of one inch tubing duct taped to the end of the hose so i could reach all the way to the bottom of the holes.

 Next it was time to mix up the Dexpan, since it uses water to react I decided to do it in small batches. Mix one and a half liters with one of the eleven pound bags in the supplied bucket. I used a paint stirring paddle on my cordless drill so I could mix it thoroughly and quickly. Once the batch of slurry was all mixed I went right to pouring it in the holes. Unfortunately I did not calculate the amount I needed to fill all my holes so when i figured out I was going to be short i skipped around so that i wouldn't have any major portions intact.

 Luckily for me I had to leave town for the night after pouring in the Dexpan or I would have been staring at it the whole time waiting for it to work. When we got home the next day the steps looked like someone had shoved explosives in the holes and blown them apart!! I was absolutely amazed not only did it actually work but worked very well. The holes that had been filled were completely busted loose and I am confident that if i would have ordered the proper amount for my task there wouldn't have been a single piece I could not pick up by hand.

 The large pieces got drug back by the Jeep and I moved the rest in the wheel barrel. Of course I couldn't resist crawling one wheel up on the concrete pile to show my triumph over the eight thousand pound concrete steps!!! So now that those are out of my way its time to see if I can full fill my end of the deal and make the front of this house beautiful!!!

Backyard progress

So the summer has been extremely busy but very productive for us, when the spring rolled around we had a disaster for a backyard because of the new septic system and terrible storms that caused a very large tree next to our deck to split and deposit large limbs on and through the deck. After cutting the tree down and disposing of the massive amount of limbs and wood from the tree it was time to get to work on the deck.

The railing had to be completely torn off and rebuilt. We decided to take a little different approach to make the deck look and feel a little more "high end" by building custom railing that emulates something you might see on a much more expensive house than our humble little home. The key as it is with most of our projects is bang for our buck, we don't mind putting in the sweat equity especially when the results turn out like this.

First we started off by cutting some 2x4's to length for the bottom rail, then we used a paddle bit and drilled holes every six inches about an inch deep. Then we cut and painted black pieces of 1/2" electrical conduit and inserted them in the holes we drilled. For the top rail we just used a standard railing board from Lowes that had a nice basic profile, it got drilled to match bottom rail and secure the conduit between rails. The posts got caped with a matching black metal post cap.

The next task was replacing the lattice that the storms had tore down. That was pretty straight forward other than we wrapped it around the corner where the original steps had been giving it a more enclosed feeling on that side. Sara and I had discussed several uses for this corner but we decided an "outdoor living room" type of area would be the best use for this space. 

Construction projects are always more fun and go smoother when you have good help, Nate checked all my measurements and made sure I was making square cuts. I cant say enough about the amazing feeling I get when him and I work on something together. Just teaching him these skills feels like I am passing on something special that will stay with him forever. 

Since we wrapped the lattice around where the stairs had previously been we needed to build a new set in the center of the deck. Like everything I do I didn't want them to be boring standard stairs so this is what we came up with. They turned out nice especially for something that was designed on the fly and built without any written dimensions or instructions.

Fast forward through the boring staining process (which took way too long) and here is where it is today. I built an L shaped bench to fit in the corner padded with standard 48" outdoor patio cushions and loads of comfy pillows. A nice big outdoor rug feels good on naked toes or you can kick your feet up on the pallet wood coffee table that Nate and I had previously built. A couple of hanging ferns and two tea light lanterns finish off the feel of a separate space from the rest of the deck. This has already been a big hit while entertaining and an amazing place for our early morning coffee.

On the opposite side of the deck is the dining area, just a simple iron table with four chairs but combined with the black accented railing and the red cushions looks and feels much more expensive than it actually was to build. We have gotten so much use out of this great outdoor space all summer even while trying to complete the project. The only thing its missing now is an outdoor kitchen but hopefully that is coming soon!!! 

I guess I should also mention that we now have a level yard with beautiful green grass!! It was a lot of moving dirt, leveling and raking before my friend Blake came over with his high tech grass seeder and seeded the heck out of our yard!! While the seed was more expensive than I ever thought grass seed could be it was well worth it, it looks like a golf course (its golf course seed). Seriously the key to a yard like this is of course weather and soil conditions but quality seed makes the biggest difference, and I am told it is just going to get thicker and greener as time passes. 

It was a time consuming project but for the small amount of money we invested it made the biggest difference in the comfort and feel of the back of the house. We will let Nate and Sara relax and enjoy it for a bit while I get started on the next project!!