Urban Cave Girl

After chopping up the onion I threw the carrots in the mini food prep (which has since broken and I'm beside myself) and chopped them up really good.  I do this often if we have leftover carrots around.  I'll use them in just about anything.


Put the hamburger, sausage and onion in the pot and got things cooking.


 Then opened the fridge to get out my jar of garlic and realized....oh, leftover taco meat from our taco salads we had a few days earlier. Hating to waste I thought what the hell and threw that in the pot too.  I tell ya, when I cook, it all goes in the pot! I added in some crushed garlic at this point too.


Then I added in the can goods - tomatoes, tomato sauce, and olives.  Added in some generous dashes (maybe 2 tbsp of each) of oregano and basil and then let that all come together to a mild boil then turned it way down to simmer while I got busy on the "noodles"


I greased up a square baking dish and laid down a very thin layer of the sauce.  Then I layered on zucchini.  This is where I will tell you to layer it on thick.  Do like 2-3 layers of the zucchinis cause I only did one and although it was delish, I would have liked more "noodles".


 I covered it in foil and baked it in the oven for about 40 minutes.  My husband loved it and I love it!  The leftovers were especially fabulous!  This is on our list of things to make again in the near future.



Enjoy!!

Made this ice cream last week out of sheer desperation for ice cream.  It was warm and everyone on FB was making ice cream with their ice cream makers and I don't have one *pout*

It's hot!  I won't complain though cause I was bitching and moaning last weekend about how cold it was.  I even spent one afternoon scouring the rentals in San Diego on Craigslist trying to convince the husband we needed to head farther south.  Aside from the Bay Area, which I ADORE, there are only two other places I would ever even remotely consider moving - one being San Diego and the other, Portland.

But....summer graced us with her beauty, I'm content, and we will stay put for the time being.

My point of popping on here was not to talk weather but rather to share an amazing recipe I threw together the other night that consisted once again of everything random and leftover in the fridge.  Those meals always turn out the best and they are hard to duplicate.  Go figure.

Stuffed Bell Peppers and Stuff Portobello Mushrooms - YUMMMMMM!

1 lb of hamburger and 1lb of spicy sausage links (I removed the casing) from Trader Joes
1.5 zucchinis
1 yellow onion
3 peppers (red, orange, yellow)
2 large portobello mushrooms
Salt, pepper, some dried basil and garlic

Here is a picture of all the "ingredients" once I pulled everything out of the fridge.

I browned up the hamburger and the sausage with the chopped up yellow onion.   Then diced up the zucchini and the red bell pepper and threw them in too along with some salt, pepper, dried basil, crushed garlic, and the cut up stems from the mushrooms.


As the pot mixture was simmering I cleaned out the other two bell peppers and the mushrooms and placed them in a greased glass baking dish.


Then I took the mixture that was in the pot and put it all into my food processor and mixed it up till all the really large chunks were gone.


Then it was time to stuff the peppers and mushrooms.  There was a lot of mixture in comparison to the compartments I had to stuff so the over flow was abundant.  You could have easily filled 2 to 3 more peppers or mushrooms.


I then baked them in an oven at 375 for about.....30 minutes or so.  When they look nice and browned on top they are done.


Served them up with sliced up avocado.

SOOOOO Delish!!

I've bought a total of 5 Larabars in my entire lifetime.  It wasn't until recently, in like the last 3 weeks or so that we decided to give them a try.  Mainly it was an on the go snack alternative that was good and easy.
The only downside was the price tag.  However not extremely spendy...still a 1.29 more than I wanted to spend.  I know, call me cheap.  But I don't work remember.

So after reading the ingredients on the back, like 5 times, cause there was no way that's ALL that is in those things, I thought "Shit, I can make this"  which is something I say to myself all too often.

After a pitstop at Trader Joe's for some dates we were on our way.  Everything else I was going to use I already had on hand and chances are you do too.

I threw the baby up on the counter and we went to work.  She ate berries while I tossed things into the food processor.

These bars didn't really have one specific ingredient and therefore a name was eluding me.
I just went with:

Larabar Try #1 (it was appropriate)

Also, I didn't measure anything.  I've said several times, I'm not a measuring kind of cook.  And, I'm sorry for that if you're trying to follow the recipes I post to a "t".  It's an inherited trait cause my mom is the same way.  I'm a pretty good eye baller though so even though measurements aren't exact...I guess-ti-mate them to be damn close.

1.5 cup of dates.  Let me start here by saying this was my first real time using dates.  I didn't know they had seeds.  It wasn't until after putting them in my food processor and hearing a terrible noise did it dawn on me.  Going back through the mutilated dates and pulling out seeds by hand was not only incredibly MESSY it was really time consuming.  So, note to self, take out the seeds FIRST!

1/4 cup of slivered almonds
1/2 cup of golden raisins
handful of dried cranberries
1/4 cup of sunflower seeds (out of the shells.  I know, DUH!  but hey, I didn't seed my dates sooooo just covering bases here)

Everything goes in the food processor and eventually comes out looking something like this:



Basically a big glob of goo that smelled really good.
I scooped it all into a glass baking dish (which I actually greased a little with some coconut oil) and then patted it all out flat.


I covered it and stuck it into the fridge overnight.  The next morning took it out and cut it into small bars and then wrapped each one in some parchment paper.  I put them all into a plastic ziplock and back into the fridge they went, ready to be grabbed for a quick snack.


Then entire family LOVED THESE!!!
They were really good and so easy to make.  I think you could use just about anything to make them.  Next up I'm trying a cherry concoction.

Enjoy!!

It went something like this.....

Then this..........

Bright pink permanent marker all over her face and legs and arms.  Wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.  I got a picture before I did either.

I think by now everyone and their momma has read the bullshit article detailing the best and worst diets  out there.  I found it especially interesting how high Weight Watchers ranked considering it sells and advocates eating crap food.  I did some digging today on some of their spectacular products you can eat on the "program" and my mind was boggled.

How appetizing does this look to you?

We've been trying to clean out the freezer and the fridge for that matter in anticipation of our next big meat haul this weekend.  Beer (ok that was supposed to say BEEF but obviously a Freudian slip...lol) and lamb this time.  Super excited about that!! (super excited about some beer right now too...go figure)
My gym will now host a chest freezer because the room in the other isn't enough.  It has been learned through past meat buys that it's better to go bigger (I find this true with boobs too in case you're ever in a quandary).
Get the half instead of the quarter (D instead of the C).
YOU WILL EAT IT ALL and LOVE IT!

So, with all that being said, last night I was trying to come up with some dinner concoction that would use stuff I already had in the house.
I came up with a Curry Chicken that easily passed the family test.
My 9yr old even went back for seconds! SCORE for Mom!!!

4 chicken breasts cut up into bite sized pcs
4 green onions chopped up
1 can of coconut milk (full fat peeps, not the light)
3 tbsp of Thai Kitchen Green Curry paste that I've had for awhile and needed to use it
1 maybe 2 tbsp of chopped ginger (I actually never measure anything but this is a decent estimate, promise)
handful of dried cranberries
coconut oil

Melted the coconut oil in the pan and then added in the chicken and the green onions.   Fried it up a bit and then added in the entire can of coconut milk and green curry paste as well as the ginger.  Mixed it up really good and then threw in a handful of some random dried cranberries I had.  Let it simmer for a bit....12-13 minutes maybe while I got the sweet potato mash made.

Here is a closer look at the Curry Chicken.





I need to comment on the sweet potato mash too and how in love I am with my pressure cooker.

12 minutes (yes I timed it) to make a pot of mashed goodness.  That is starting at the sink, washing and peeling, to the final mix in the bowl before being served.  AMAZING!
I used probably 6 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2-2.5 inch chunks
put them in the pressure cooker and got it rumbling then set the timer for 8 minutes.
Mixed the sweet potatoes with 2-3 tbsp of butter and two dashes of cinnamon.

That's it.

My 3 yr old won't touch this stuff.  She will actually cry if it's on her plate.  No idea why.  I'm beginning to wonder if it's a texture thing.
My 9 yr old and my husband can't get enough of it.  I try to make a little extra for school lunch the next day for my daughter.

Today I'm going to try my hand at some sort of Larabar creation.  Should be fun!