What Is Left To Eat? -- a Food Journal by Laura Bracken

This first mention isn't the recipe... I'm just sharing about the lovely breakfast I had first.  I just peel and cut up some sweet potato or yam, drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil and mix them up (yes, there was a wee bit of oil in the breakfast... but that's not the recipe we're here for.... the oil free recipe is below... breakfast was just so yummy I wanted to mention it). Then I roast them at 400 degrees until done (30-40 mins depending on your oven).    No need for salt because… When they’re done, I remove the pan from the oven and spoon a lot of sauerkraut over them and then pop them back into the oven for about 5 more minutes. That keeps the cold sauerkraut from cooling off the potatoes, like if you just mixed them together without heating up the kraut. The sauerkraut provides more than enough salt. Mmmmm! Okay, but here’s why we’re really here today. I made these lettuce boats and they turned out so yummy I had to share. Lettuce Boats Ingredients 1 cup of ...

I have been NOT taking care of my health and hit another one of those “I have to do this!” marks.   So… here we go again.   I know full well that aside from craving fat, sugar, and salt… my biggest problem areas are in not planning. You see, when I have a day filled to the brim with projects that must get done, it’s hard for me to think about what is involved in healthy eating… because usually for me it would be: do dishes, go grocery shopping, do food prep, then cook.   That’s just WAY too much work when I can instead just slather some peanut butter and honey on top of a banana or toast and be done with a “meal” in 10 minutes flat, from creating to eating. Cleaning, prepping, and cooking can take hours if not all day.   Been there, done that.   So how do I resolve this?   A plan.   I have to have a plan and I have to plan ahead. Step 1: Meal plan. Pick 2 or 3 basic meals that I can mix and match for 3-4 days. Step 2: Use Instacar...

Soup and salad is a good meal to transition from winter to summer.  Here in California, spring can be short.  We kind of leap right into summer. So I'm taking advantage of our short spring to enjoy this light and hearty meal (oxymoron?). I made the zucchini soup in my Pampered Chef blender.  I recently saw an article about the top blenders.  So I was looking at the one they deemed the best, and honestly, I like my Pampered Chef better.  Not only is my blender less expensive, but mine actually COOKS the food (if I choose) whereas the other blender merely heats the food up from the friction of the blade. Click this link if you are interested in seeing more.   This link is from my Pampered Chef friend, Hillary.  There are always all kinds of deals and specials.  (I also use the blender to make all my nut milks, nut butters, and nut flours... there's still many things I have to try.) Anyway, I found a zucchini soup recipe online but then chan...

Apparently today was cooking day.  You know how sometimes when you're on the internet and you're looking at something like Pinterest and then you click on something cool and then that leads to another article and then that leads to a DIY project and then that leads to....  yeah, and the next thing you know you're down the rabbit hole and three hours have disappeared. That's what today was like, but it was in the kitchen. This morning I started by making veggie broth (click here for my recipe on that... which you'll pretty much need if you want to make THIS recipe). So there were a ton of awesomely healthy organic veggies that I had no use for after I strained the stock and put it into the freezer. No way could I just put all that goodness into the compost.  Well, I put a little of the celery into the compost because I didn't feel all that celery was necessary in my upcoming experiment. I strained all the veggies and measured them... six cups.  ...

My friend Mary shared this recipe with me yesterday.  Looking over the ingredients, I decided I could make a variation of it without having to go grocery shopping, which is saying a lot because my fridge is pretty bare at the moment. I'm going to post the link to the original recipe because my version (below) has some pretty significant changes. The original recipe called for a pound of small white beans.  I only had half a pound so right off the bat I decided to half the recipe... sort of.  I altered things based on my likes, dislikes, and the availability of my ingredients. I used quinoa rather than farro.  I used homemade veggie broth rather than water and bouillon.  I used more carrots, celery, onion, diced tomatoes, and garlic than the original recipe.  I do not like rosemary in my food so I left that out.  Did not use kale or yeast.  But did add a sweet potato, liquid smoke, and mushroom powder. So here's my version: Ingredients ...

This recipe intrigued me originally because the title is "Awesome Beet Burgers"... and being someone who doesn't like beets but feel they're important, I wanted to give it a try. I'll tell you right now, despite the fact this burger has in it two foods I really hate (beets and mushrooms), in the end I could taste neither. So I made these and served them at a small dinner get together at my house.  Although I served the meal "hamburger style", one of my guests suggested these might be good broken up over a salad.  I agreed (especially since I'm always looking to jazz up my salads). She did try this with the leftovers and said it was better than the "hamburger style" dinner.  I will try it like this shortly too.  If you smell the burger all by itself it has a wonderful aroma... spicy and earthy.  But when you burger it up with mustard and tomatoes and avocado, etc... the flavor gets a little lost. I've frozen all my leftovers (as ...

I've had a lot of good meals and tried a lot of new recipes since I last posted... but in my typical all or nothing perfectionist mentality, I didn't post anything here because I didn't want my posts to be half-assed. Apparently I can get over that because my next two posts will definitely not be full-assed.  I'd rather have a place I can refer to when I'm looking for a recipe that I tried, even if it doesn't have a great photo or whatnot... than not be able to remember what recipe I used for a really good meal. So, with that out of the way, the other day I followed a recipe called "The Best Vegan Chili".  Here's the link to the original recipe. I'm also going to post the ingredient list because I have this fear about other people's blogs being taken down and then the hyperlink will go nowhere and the recipe will be lost to me forever.  Also because I made a few minor alterations.  For example, the original recipe called for olive oil...

Everything is a work in progress.  I don't believe any of us can follow one particular meal plan that is outlined by others without tweaking things to suite our particular needs. So yeah... I've got a new plan and I'm sharing it with you. The other day, a friend posted a link to this video.  I stopped what I was doing and watched the entire thing (which, if you know me, know that was MAJOR!). I've always been squeemish about eating animal products.  I don't even like the taste of meat or eggs or fish most times, but in my weirdly desperate attempt to make sure I get the protein I need, I was eating it.  I'd mask it with spices and sauces. The animal products I ate had to be from humanely raised sources, but something still didn't feel quite right. On the other hand, veganism?  That seems so .... severe. After watching the video, though, I'm willing to give it another go (been vegan before).  This time, however, I have more knowledge of ...