This is one of those amazing one pot meals that comes as the result of being towards the end of the week with random groceries left in the house. I basically looked through my fridge & pantry & pulled these ingredients together. The result was a warm & hearty bowl of soup that tasted a little like ginger, a little like garam masala, and a lot like winter.
Wintery Kale & Chickpea Soup
Servings: 6 ● Points Plus: 6
Ingredients:
Directions:
1) In a large soup pot, saute the onion, garlic, sweet potato, & carrot with the olive oil for 5 minutes.
2) Add the garam masala, salt, pepper, red pepper, and ginger & saute until fragrant. Add the chickpeas & mushrooms & toss.
3) Add the water, bouillon cubes, & quinoa. Add the kale in bunches & let it wilt into the soup. Bring to a boil & simmer at least 30 minutes. If you have time simmer at least an hour.
4) Top each bowl with a little hot sauce & serve.
Everyone has their own stuffed shells recipe, but this is mine. I very seldom get a craving for a stuffed pasta, but when the craving hits it has to happen. These are cheesy & baked until bubbly & come out perfect. They’re also so easy to prepare. You can prepare them ahead of time & pop them in the oven when you get home, or take about 20 minutes to prepare them when you get home from work.
Stuffed Shells
Servings: 4 (3 shells each) ● Points Plus:9
Ingredients:
Directions:
1) Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Boil the shells in a large pot of water with a little olive oil added to the water. This will stop them from sticking together as much.
2) While they’re boiling, combine the ricotta cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, & egg in a bowl. Stir together.
3) Drain the shells. Pour a little marinara sauce on the bottom of a baking pan. Stuff each shell with about 2-3 TB of filling & line the baking pan with them.
4) Pour the rest of the marinara sauce over the shells & sprinkle the 1/4 cup of grated parmesan over them. Bake for 25 minutes & serve immediately.
Hey all! My name is Erica, I’m a friend of Jamie’s and since I know she’s been busy with little Miss Layla, I volunteered to do a little guest blog for her so y’all aren’t left hanging for too long (and because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but totally don’t have the dedication to keep up with a blog of my own)! Now the funny part about this blog is that I’m actually blogging a recipe of hers! Jamie first sent me the recipe for her Bolognese sauce back in February and since then it’s been one of my great loves in life (along with of course, my boyfriend, puppy, job, family, ya know, the usuals.. I’m not just some looney having a love affair with rich, meaty, hearty sauce) I seriously eat this stuff by the spoonful, no pasta necessary, a spoon is a more than sufficient vessel. Warning, this will be picture heavy.
1. In large skillet, heat oil over medium flame. When almost smoking, add onion and garlic and saute until onion is very tender, about 8 minutes.
2. Add celery and carrot and saute for 5 minutes. Increase heat to high, add ground beef, and saute until meat is no longer pink, breaking up large lumps - about 10 minutes.
3. Add tomoates, parsley, basil, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, and cook over medium-low heat until sauce thickens, about 30 minutes.
4. Stir in cheese, then season with more salt and pepper to taste.
I serve this over pasta, polenta, toast, a plate.. seriously, just about anything.
Since this recipe only calls for one stalk of celery and one carrot I’m sure some of you may be wondering what to do with the rest so they don’t go to waste, I chop some, chunk some, put in ziploc baggies and freeze for later use, just plop into soups, stews, casseroles, or anywhere you need them
And a special shout out to my down below cleaning crew, who never misses a dropped carrot.. King Bentley.
I’m apologizing for being a bad blogger lately. Life has been hectic & I’ve been slacking. This little lady has been keeping us very busy.
I have a few recipes to post soon. Hopefully I’ll get to a few tonight! I also finally got my engagement party photos back & need to sort through & post them.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! xO.
Meet Layla, our border collie pup :)
Mmmmm chili. Nothing is better on a cold night than a bowl of thick & hearty chili, especially when it’s meatless & loaded with good-for-you ingredients. I serve mine with some jalapeno corn bread, or with plenty of tortilla chips to use as forks. It’s comfort food at it’s max. If you load up your slow cooker on a Sunday morning your house will smell amazing all day while you relax & do whatever it is you do on Sundays (nap, watch football, read, clean).
If possible, don’t skip the chipotle pepper in this! It gives the chili a smoky background & a bit of added heat. This chili is slightly sweet at first taste, but the heat hits later. Don’t touch the pepper with your hands & you’ll be okay.
Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili
Servings: 6 ● Points Plus: 6 (chili only - about 1 1/2 cups)
Ingredients:
Directions:
1) Place all ingredients into your slow cooker, toss together.
2) Cook on low 7-8 hours. Give it a stir every now & then for a quick second. You can skip the stirring if you’re making this while you’re at work.
*If you have a large slow cooker you can toss some corn bread batter right on top of the chili & let it cook all day at the same time. You’ll have moist corn bread & hearty chili ready at the end of the day.
Yay Friday! Today’s blanks have a fall theme, & it’s perfect for the type of day it is because it looks like Halloween outside. I love the days leading up to Halloween! Blue skies peeking out from behind rolling gray clouds, leaves blowing around, and that crisp chill in the air. I live for days like this.
1. Nothing says fall like curling up with blankets, pumpkin spice candles, & scary movies. Sounds like what I have planned tonight.
2. My favorite autumnal tradition is the vineyards & pumpkin picking with Frank. We’ve done this since we met & I seriously love it so much. We skipped the vineyards this year because we have so many expenses coming up ($$$$) but he still took me for pumpkins, cider donuts, jelly apples, & mums :)
Growing up my favorite tradition was hands down watching The Worst Witch with my mom & sister. We watched it every year right before Halloween & we still do it some years.
3. My favorite fall treat is cider donuts!
4. Fall makes me think of a new beginning because it feels more like the start of a new year than New Year’s does. There’s a magic in the air wen fall comes around & it brings lots of good changes.
5. Autumn free-form word association, go! Crunchy leaves, naps, farms, little kids, apples, my mom, candles, witches, soup!
6. My favorite fall holiday is (Halloween or Thanksgiving) Halloween! Listen, no one does Halloween like my momma & growing up in her home meant Halloween was serious business. When I was a kid I remember rushing home from school on Halloween & she’d have all sorts of goodies out for us & scary music playing, and spiderwebs all over the house. Sometimes Michael Jackson’s Thriller would be on & she’d dance all over the house with us. She prepared for WEEKS. We would eat treats, watch The Worst Witch, and then go to my elementary school for their Halloween party, which she eventually wound up taking over. Then she would have tons & tons of kids & their parents at our house to start trick-or-treating.
There were years where she threw the biggest Halloween parties I can remember, and they always had a DJ, or a karaoke set, or just tons of music & dancing. She strung donuts on strings across our porch & covered the kids in powdered sugar as we tried to get the donuts while she pulled string away from us. There was bobbing for apples, and lots of sticking our blindfolded hands into “eyes & guts.”
She sewed our costumes by hand until we were old enough to say we wanted the packaged ones like every other kid. Even then we still had the best hair & makeup because mom made sure of it. She even went as far as closing down our block, renting horses & a trailer & creating a haunted hayride for all the kids in the neighborhood.
Now, as adults, we do Halloween for my mom. We must see her that day & there are only two days I can remember missing Halloween with her: One I was away at Frank’s Homecoming, and last year I was miserably sick. I laid on my couch & called her to talk Halloween instead. It’s “our day.” I may not wear the fairy princess costumes she used to sew me by hand, but I wake up the morning of Halloween & think of my mom immediately. The air is filled with her on that day & I’ll never forget how much fun being a kid was around that holiday (even though I tended to fall down in my costumes & cry - I was always a klutz). Love you, momma!
If you need some awesome Halloween plans, come over. My parents’ block still closes down to this day & bands play, kids run around, a DJ makes everyone dance, and all the houses are set up for haunted walk throughs. I told you Halloween was serious business.
{fill in your own blanks here} xO
I apologize for the awful picture. I didn’t realize my camera was on a weird setting until I went back to look at the photos.
I made these for Frank & he loved them. We saved the leftover batter so he could make pancakes for himself during the week. In all honesty, these tasted like dessert to me. You could leave the chocolate chips out if you want to cut down on the sweet.
Pancakes can easily be made out of a box, but I didn’t have a box of mix in my house. I did have all of the ingredients for pancakes made from scratch so I went that way. They’re so easy to make that I doubt I’ll buy a boxed mixed again.
And what the heck is this stuff? Pancake mix in a spray can? Gross.
Chocolate chip & vanilla bean pancakes
This makes a ton of batter. Definitely enough for about 6 people, or one person with a lot of leftovers.
Ingredients:
Directions:
1) Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, except the chocolate chips (flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, salt, sugar,). Make a hole & add the wet ingredients (egg replacer, margarine, vanilla bean, extract, soy milk, seltzer). Beat together with a hand mixer until smooth, or one of those fancy counter top mixers that I do not own.
2) If it seems too thick, add some more soy milk.
3) Make a griddle hot & rub some margarine on it. Pour batter about a quarter cup at a time, sprinkle some chocolate chips on top. Let the batter bubble, flip, brown on both sides & eat!
This was taken in NYC by one of my best friends, Stephen Risolo. For everyone who claims that there are only lazy liberal hippies at Occupy Wall Street, this photo tells a very different story. Please re-blog if you support the 99%.
Oh how I love Fridays. The anticipation of sleeping in on Saturday morning keeps me going all day. I don’t have much on the agenda this weekend, which is nice. Hopefully just relaxing, getting some stuff done, & spending time with Frank.
1. The most selfless thing I’ve ever done is agree to move, if we had to, for Frank. That counts, right? I adore our home, where it’s located, and being so close to both of our families. I would give that up though if it meant his career dreams would come true. I have my own dreams, but they are much more flexible than his.
2. When it comes to working out I make any excuse I can to skip it. I am the worst exerciser ever.
3. A woman should always own an outfit that makes her feel like the hottest person on earth, make her own decisions about her life, know the difference between a bad guy and a guy that just isn’t right for you, & call her mother.
4. I wish I could sing and then I’d be a rockstar.
5. A best friend is someone who tells you when you’re wrong or being an asshole but totally loves you at the same time. A best friend doesn’t tell you you’re right even when you’re wrong. They give it to you straight & listen to you when you need to talk.
6. I can’t get enough of rye bread. If I had to live on one thing forever it would be rye toast.
7. This weekend I am relaxing & playing things by ear. That doesn’t happen often.