Loving root veggies and roasted kale

It's finally turned colder here which means I can get back into the kitchen and start using the oven to my hearts delight :)  That entails breaking out the bread puddings (yum!).  Also soups, been making a lot of those recently including a very delicious french onion soup tonight.  I've also been craving root veggies, parsnips, carrots and I keep thinking I need to add more squash to the mix as well.  I'm actually aiming at trying to stretch a buck and bulking more meals out with a bit less meat and more veggies, dunno if it will help the food bills or not but hey it's worth a try.

Monday night I kind of made my own recipe up.  It was based on Rachael Ray's mulled cider beef, but I added some other veggies including cabbage and butternut squash, I basted all of that with cider with mulling spices in it and put it all in the clay pot, served along side of course mashed sweet potatoes.  I've also suddenly become obsessed with roasted kale which is just delicious, drizzle of olive oil a little salt and you are good to go in a 350 oven for 20 minutes.

I've also been cutting down on television, three days so far and the only thing that has been on was Monday night football.  I watch a little during the girls nap and we turn it on after they have gone to bed.  I confess it's a challenge specially on wet days tomorrow is going to be interesting.  However I have been getting out more taking the girls for walks, we even went to the state park today, as all three of us are currently snotty messes I'm keeping us away from the general public and going to wide open spaces where we won't run into too many people.  So far it's working a treat, shame we had to miss the play group this morning, but I just don't think it fair on us spreading our germs.

Fantastic Veggie Meal

Anyone reading this blog will know I can struggle with my weekly vegetarian meals.  Number of reasons, kids are picky, hubby won't touch legumes etc. it's a constant battle.  However we did find a major hit last night, red lentil chili soup, yum!  Now here is the trick, try as I might I couldn't find red lentils (try middle eastern / Indian stores) so I substituted red quinoa, worked a treat and it's been aske to be repeated.  Monday was chicken chasseur thanks to Colemans...there is just something comforting about using the package mixes now and then and everyone enjoyed the meal.

Tonight was a one pot meal, honey mustard chicken with roasted kale oh what a treat and I was able to get both girls to eat a good amount of the veggies.  Tomorrow we get meatloaf for Thanksgiving with sweet mashed potatoes and I'm throwing in a green bean casserole to boot.  Pie is done and in the fridge so looking good despite James working during the day.

Snappy Schnitzels

Thanksgiving week, James is working Thursday so I figured turkey meatloaf rather than the full blown turkey experience, the good news is he will be off Friday and Saturday so I'm not complaining.  Now Rachael Ray did a new meal this week, snappy schnitzels with a dill potato salad.  I am planning on making a pumpkin pie that uses a ginger snap crust so I figured this would be a great recipe to try, all I'm going to say is YUM!  The girls loved it and there was little left over which always makes me happy.

We had family photos taken this last week, can I say challenging?!  Anyone got any idea how hard it is to get two year olds to stay still for more than 1 second or both look at the camera?  We were able to get some shots but sheesh I hope its easier next year!

Oh and easiest recipe ever coconut macaroons!  5 ingredients and not a lot of prep they were in the oven within 10 minutes!  Wow.

Another veggie meal to add to the repetoire

Tried a new dish tonight, and yum!  Loved it, roasted mushrooms and kale over mashed sweet potatoes.  A great way to eat kale roasted and tasted delightful.  Girls weren't sure about it but then they are picky sometimes over mushrooms, and Isabel just doesn't like mash a whole lot so I had a backup plan for them.  I did however mix it up a tad and used apple cider to make the mash adding a slight sweetness to the dish, I fully confess going back for seconds but not feeling bad about it.

We have some new recipes coming up this coming week so watch this space going to mix things up a bit :)  I have to confess veggie night is always a challenge but we manage the girls struggle but I plan to plod on and I'm determined to find the perfect veggie dish for em.  I'm also tempted to try them at some point with a quiche.  Ah the possibilities the possibilities.

Where do I begin?

I've been a bit quite the last month or two, my excuse...I've been busy.  Had a couple of lovely visits from family first Maureen then my parents.  With my facebook addiction I put the blogging on hold for a little bit just till I could regain a sense of calm.  But I'm going to keep this fairly limited to food comments.  Not too many new recipes of late mostly redoing some old favorites to keep cooking times down to a minimum, however there have been some standouts.  There was the turkey meatloaf sliders...all I can say is wow, and my parents want to make them sometime for Jo.  Another must try is the apple-fennel stuffed pork tenderloin, oh wow it was good and relatively inexpensive to make and fed easily 4 adults, 1 teenager, 1 preteen and 2 toddlers, and there were no complaints from any quarter.  Oh and here is another neat recipe, chicken porcini shepperd's pie I had to skip the cheese that this called for due to my hubby's sensitive stomach :) but again a hit with everyone.  Of course had a couple of things that didn't work as well as intended but overall great.

Oh and fair warning when you think the spinach as been in the fridge too long don't use it really don't use it.  I managed to give us food poisoning while Maureen was here and it was the only item that Isabel didn't eat and she was the only one that didn't get sick.  I'm now ultra paranoid about veggies that have been in the fridge too long but none the less keep on trying lesson learned and it's the first time I've ever made anyone sick and hopefully the last.

I hope this gives a few ideas, of course with lots coming in on a weekly basis as the show is on to a new season.  Ah too many recipes too little time.  I shall just keep up with the ideas :)