Following Our Rainbows: July 2014

One of my favorite things to do is cook, but not just any old cooking will do. I love to create and explore beyond the realm of a normal boring recipe. There are very few recipes that I will follow to a T. I always like to throw in little extras to really make the meal mine. One of the problems with this is that if I get a complement (which I ALWAYS do from Nathan, pretty sure he is a liar!) I can never remember exactly what I put in the dish or how long it was cooked for..ect. I NEVER measure ingredients, I am a rebel like that. *Which leads to the point that although I may be a good cook, I am a terrible baker*. Many people with Crohns Disease have a really hard time eating well, especially with the dietary restrictions that I have (no gluten, very little dairy). I take my love of cooking as a plus to a debilitating disease, I LOVE experimenting with other ingredients that mimic the ones that are forbidden.

One of my most favorite breakfasts of all time is one that I did not make any changes to...although I might in the future. I found it on Pinterest of course, it is perfect for dietary restrictions and is very gentle on the belly. You need exactly 3 ingredients, I kid you not, just 3! Honestly, I am not sure that I would have even tried this recipe, except my lovely Nathan surprised me with breakfast in bed one day, and had scoured my Pinterest account for the perfect meal to make me. Yes, I am a lucky gal! These "pancakes" are hearty and filling 2 eggs, 1 banana, and couple shakes of cinnamon and viola! Here is the link from Pinterest

http://6006px.blogspot.com/2014/02/3-ingredient-pancakes.html

After smooshing all 3 ingredients together simply pour into a skillet and flip after 30 seconds to a minute.

Here are my finished pancakes! I don't use syrup or butter on them and they are moist and freaking fantastic!

This year Nathan and I have a huge garden. I posted about gardening several months ago, now the garden is overflowing with delicious veggies. I am ecstatic! I love. love. love. creating any type of food with fresh veggies, especially if I grew them myself. My garden is all organic * no pesticides*, and surprisingly doing very well, the only thing we lost was the spinach..too hot, too quick = flowering, bitter spinach.

Yummy, freshly picked!

Today I made some cucumber salsa...which is pretty much just all of the regular salsa ingredients, plus chopped cukes :) It is so yummy and refreshing, I cannot wait to dig up some potatoes and have a baked potato with cuke salsa on top....maybe tomorrow!

Nathan has been requesting pizza, for the past several days...I used to make the cauliflower crust pizza, which we both love, but is time consuming * I should reintroduce that, I haven't made it in forever! Sometimes if I am super lazy I will make crust with gluten free bisquick, or a gluten free Bobs Red Mill bag. But not today. Today I tried something totally different, and it turned it fabulously! I made a "Pizza Quinoa Bake" I will actually attempt to post ingredients to this, because it was fantastic and could be eaten at pretty much any meal. Initially I was going to make this dish vegetarian, as we really don't eat much meat, but at the last minute I decided to add some fresh mild Italian sausage.
Please forgive me for guessing the amounts of each ingredient remember I don't measure, yikes..
-Boil one cup of quinoa in 2 cups of water covered, and then simmer for 20 minutes.
-Sauté 1 lb of Italian Sausage, with 1 cup of onion (I used green onion from the garden), and I threw in a handful of mushrooms. (really just throw in any veggie you want!)
-Chop roughly 20 cherry tomatos, and add to a medium bowl along with 2 eggs, 3 minced garlic cloves, 2 tbsp. basil, 2 tbsp. Italian seasoning (I use grinders), roughly 1 tsp paprika, and a couple shakes of salt....I also did add cheese, it would still be fantastic without though. I grated about 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese into the bowl.
- Pour the quinoa and sausage mixture into the bowl and mix well.
-grease a pie pan, muffin tins, anything with sides, pour mixture in and toss in the oven for roughly 20-25 minutes. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before you cut it.

Side note- Nathan requested more cheese the next time I make it. I may use goat cheese then as I can eat more of that it doesn't bother my dairy sensitivity. If I do add more cheese I think it would be good to add on top with about 10 minutes left to bake.

I served this pizza quinoa bake with a dollop of pizza sauce, but honestly it was great without the sauce too! Here is what we have all been waiting for...the finished product!

This recipe is a must, you can thank me later!

I cant believe that it has been so long since either Nathan and I posted! We have had some amazing last couple of weeks, and its a shame that I can't upload the billion photos that we have taken... well I suppose I could, but instead I will just post the highlights from the last several weeks, be prepared for a long picture filled read!

As you can see someone got a little tired and needed to be carried the last half a mile!!

We will start waaaaay back.......Nathan, Nate, Hershey, Giuseppe, and I took a 2.5 mile hike at Allerton park several weeks ago. Nate loved it, which led us to taking a long weekend trip to Shawnee National Forest *pictures of that trip at the end of the post*

We had a fantastic Fathers Day. Nate and I worked hard on making a "nuts and bolts" picture frame for Nathan, and of course no present is complete without Nates personal drawings!

We went on a fun adventurous train ride for Fathers Day!

Nate had a blast cooling off with his head out the window!

Cheese!!

We took a fun vacation up to Chicago to visit the zoo, and some family. Nate went on his first boat ride off of Michigan lake and promptly fell asleep.

We met up with Nates cousins and took in the circus! Nate and I even rode an elephant, unfortunately we don't have any pictures of that ..

Torey and I at the Take Steps for Crohns and Colitis walk, our second year annual picture.

Nate and Amala whipping Nathan and me at bowling!

Fun picnic and band at the park

Nathan may kill me for posting this, but he just looked so darn cute sipping his coffee and playing his guitar. *Don't mind the brush in the background, thank goodness it is finally cleaned up*

Our first night we stayed in a hotel at the halfway point and swam the night away! We took a small detour the next morning and visited Metropolis the home of Superman!

Nate found a fun little cubbyhole/secret hideout in the loft at the cabin

We were excited about the hot tub on the deck, even though the temperature was like lukewarm bath water, but with the heavy humidity it was actually quite refreshing.

One of the best things about our cabin was the additional outdoor pavilion with a huge open brick fireplace. It made for perfect nights of hot dog roasting, S'more making, and fun UNO games as the sun went down