Veggies are good for you

But to start:

Fondant.

My sister-in-law, Devany, does AMAZING things with cakes. Like, straight up beautiful things. I am not a cake-er. At least not to degree she is. SO, I thought I might like trying a fondant I learned to do at a recent Relief Society gathering. It was fun, messy, and ultimately productive- which means it worked beautifully.

But my camera didn't.

See the pictures?

And I think we can all agree that I need a cake pedestal.

But enough about cake (don't you want some now?)

Veggies!

I know, great segue.

So, this month we've been vegetarian- almost. We still eat eggs, milk, cheese... you know, things that don't involve killing. FYI, eating eggs doesn't involve killing because the eggs aren't fertilized yet- so nothing TO kill.

I gotta tell ya'- I don't miss meat.

Let me repeat that:

I. Do Not. Miss. Meat.

Part of this experiment was to actually see if I COULD cook veggie for a whole month. Part of this was to see if I could loose some weight just my eliminating meat. Part was seeing if I could actually FEEL a difference in my body by just eating veggies.

I know this hasn't been a month yet- but I can answer at least one of my experimental questions:

YES, I can actually FEEL a difference. And it feels great. Let me es-plain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

You know that "heavy" feeling when you're done with a meaty meal. Kinda sleepy-like? "let out the old belt a couple of notches" feeling?

Gone.

really gone.

And the sleepy feeling is gone too. After eating a great veggie meal, I feel refreshed. Energized.

And it's opened my eating eyes to new foods.

Capers, for one. Oh. Man. My favorite way to incorporate these babies is to make a simple pasta fresca:

Pasta (your choice)

Fresh tomatoes

Olive Oil

Parmesan

Capers.

Make the Pasta. Chop the tomatoes. Drain pasta. Add about 1T Olive Oil, parmesan and tomatoes. Toss to coat. Top with 1T capers.

Delish. Fast. Easy. And a perfect blend of flavor. The capers add that dimension so often lacking in pasta. Try it. You'll LOVE it.

But enough about capers.

The point of this ramble (it's late for me and 8:50pm.) is to tell you that I'm seriously thinking on expanding this trend into the immediate future. Not that I won't eat SOME kinds of meat- I'm thinking becoming a pescatarian (fish and veg only) sounds pretty good. But the red meat is out of my heart -until it's time for me to make my AMAZING pulled-pork again:)

Why not try it yourself? See what you think?

fondant

coming soon: pictures and recipe of my Valentine's Day cake with Marshmallow Fondant.

How many things can you do with Cornmeal?

I have a crisis.

For the Polenta, I need to purchase a coarse ground cornmeal, specifically one that had grains the size of large sand pebbles. I found the Bob's Red Mill variety and it seemed to work well- I thought it went well anyways.

The problem is that NOW I have a full 1.5 cups of coarse ground cornmeal with nothing to do- recipe wise.

So, tonight I did the ultimate pioneer-woman menu: cornmeal pancakes with a blueberry compote.

The compote was DE-LISH-US. Of course, it's hard to screw up just basic fruit, water, sugar, and lemon juice.

The pancakes. Well, I just don't think pancakes should ever be crunchy.

Thanks to the pioneers who ate crunchy pancakes so I don't have to. Thank you, guys. You blazed the way to smooth, fluffy cakes from a very wet batter cooked on a non-stick griddle. Amen.

And now, what do I do with the rest of the cornmeal?

chicken-less

I tried something tonight that I DONT think will end up as an heirloom recipe:

Chicken-less chicken noodle soup.

It was odd.

In a bad way.

But tomorrow is a great standby: BAKED POTATOES!

I love them cooked for a LONG time, and the skins get all crackly and everything just tastes BETTER.

Add the best things in the world: butter and salt.

enjoy.

Polenta

We had Creamy Parmesan Polenta with Cherry Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella Topping.

It was yummy.

It kinda tasted like Grits.

If you like grits, you'll like Polenta.

If not- well, this may not be for you.

I got my recipe from the Cooks Illustrated Magazine I got a subscription for from my dad for Christmas. I think the recipe might be on their website.

Tomorrow?

Veg soup with homemade French bread...

Cauliflower

Historically, I have not been a big fan of Cauliflower. I mean, c'mon. It looks like a brain and tastes like old water.

But tonight's dinner was FAB.U.LOUS.

Give it a try:

You'll need:

A whole cauliflower

Olive oil

Capers

A lemon

any kind of pasta you like (Linguine was divine)

Salt

Pepper

Preheat your oven to 400. Remove green stuff from the cauliflower and core it. If you've got the core out completely, the parts should just break off. So, break off the parts into a large bowl. Toss with 1 T EVOO (Extra virgin olive oil) and 1 t salt, few cranks pepper and roast in a well greased shallow pan- I used a 9" pie pan. Roast for 1 hour or until veg is tender.

Make pasta according to directions.

Vinaigrette:

1T lemon juice (best if it's fresh)

1T capers (drained)

1/4 C EVOO

Salt and pepper to taste.

Remove veg from oven. Toss pasta with HALF of the vinaigrette. Arrange veg on pasta and drizzle the rest of the vinaigrette over it. Top with grated or shaved parmesan.

So so SO yum. Give it a try. EASY PEASY to make and de-LISH-us.

Tomorrow:

Parmesan Polenta with sauted cherry tomatoes and fresh mozarella.