Coconut Banana Pecan Coffee Cake Oatmeal

I have not been feeling the best the last couple of days.  I drove to Springfield, Illinois, 3 hours from my home, so that my sons and I could have Thanksgiving dinner with my Mom.  On the way back, I had a coughing fit before I even got out of the Springfield area (which I attribute to the air freshener I got at the car wash the night before and was promptly thrown out), and once that was done, I had a scratchy throat for the rest of the drive. Yesterday, I woke up with a mild sore throat and a hoarse voice.  Today, I had a voice, but I had a moderate sore throat.  Needless to say, a green smoothie was not appealing in the least.

I remembered Kathy Hester's website, Healthy Slow Cooking, and that she had a TON of recipes for steel cut oats.  The only problem being, the recipes all call for a 1½ to 2 quart slow cooker, which I did not own.  That is ... until I ran out and bought one this morning at 9 AM.  :::smile:::

After looking at all of her oatmeal (steel cut oat) recipes, I finally settled on Coconut Banana Pecan Coffee Cake Oatmeal.  Yes, it does take a long time to cook (7 to 9 hours), and by the time I washed out the crock pot and put the ingredients in it, it was 10:20 AM.  I didn't care.  I decided I would eat the rest of the soup I had in the fridge early and eat the steel cut oats later.

I only did a few things differently than the recipe, and I'm sure they did not affect the taste.  First, I used unsweetened almond milk (not vanilla flavor) and upped the vanilla extract to 1 teaspoon.  I used agave instead of a low calorie sweetener and I used walnuts for my nuts instead of pecans.  I didn't have any pecans in the house and walnuts just seemed close enough.  I don't know if my slow cooker cooks at a warmer temperature than Kathy's does, but 6 hours was long enough for my steel cut oats.  To cook it overnight, I think I'll add a bit more liquid and put it on so it will only cook for 6½ hours at the longest.

This is an absolutely delightful steel cut oat dish.  It's extremely tasty.  It would be good with a splash of almond milk in it, too.  As a bonus, the vegan bowl I ordered from Etsy.com came today, so I got to eat the oatmeal in my new bowl.

I can't wait to try more of Kathy's oatmeal recipes.  These will be perfect for the upcoming winter months.

Cabbage, Chickpea, & Sweet Potato Soup

I started out to make one soup, Chickpea Rice Soup with Cabbage on PPK, and ended up making an entirely different soup.  Part of the problem was I didn't have any carrots.  The other part of the equation was although that is a good soup, it was too bland for my palate.  I like soup with a little zing.

Here is what I did:

Cabbage, Chickpea, & Sweet Potato Soup

1 onion, sliced or diced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (I used Penzey's minced equivalent to 2 cloves)
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon dried jalapeno flakes
1/2 teaspoon of red cayenne pepper
sprinkle of salt and pepper
1/2 to 2/3 cup brown rice
1 squirt (about 3" long) of Thai spice blend (in the tube in the produce section)
1/2 head of cabbage, shredded or cut in 1/4" or less ribbons
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and diced in 1/2" squares
6 to 8 cups of water
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of Better than Bouillon, no-chicken flavor
2 cups cooked chickpeas (I use frozen that I've cooked at home)
1/2 teaspoon dill weed

1 teaspoon Tofutti Better than Sour Cream per bowl of soup

Saute onions in the olive oil until soft over medium heat; add garlic, thyme, jalapeno flakes, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, and brown rice.  Saute another minute or two over medium heat.  Add cabbage, sweet potatoes, water, and Better than Bouillon.  Bring to a boil and let simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.  Add the chickpeas and let simmer another 20 minutes, until the rice and sweet potatoes are tender.  Add dill weed.  Let simmer another minute or two.

Ladle soup into bowls.  Add 1 teaspoon of Tofutti Better than Sour Cream per bowl (no more than 1 teaspoon - you only want a hint of richness to keep the soup on the lighter side versus it being a heavy soup).  Stir to mix in and enjoy.

This soup is not over-the-top spicy, but rather has a little zing, just enough to make the soup interesting and keep you coming back for another bowl.  YUM!  It's a keeper.

Butternut Squash with Couscous and Dried Fruit

I needed to use the butternut squash that I roasted the other day.  I didn't want to make a risotto, although I think that's what I should have done as I love winter squash risotto.  Instead, I was trying to find a soup that I could make.  I ended up settling on a recipe from VegWeb.com called Butternut Squash and Couscous.  This would be my first time making couscous.

I chopped the onions and minced the garlic and ginger.  Then, I sauteed them for a few minutes and added a fruit medley.  I was going to use a craisin/raisin blend, but I had a bag of mixed fruit that I needed to use.  It contained papayas, pineapples, raisins, and bananas (which I picked out).  (In hind sight, the fruit medley would have been perfect in a rice pudding.  Go figure that occurs to me now!)

I sauteed that mixture for a bit and then I added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon allspice, and 1 teaspoon (at least) of freshly grated nutmeg.  I sauteed that for about 30 seconds and then added 2 1/2 cups of water and the couscous.

Since my butternut squash was roasted, I didn't need to complete the step to let it simmer until tender.  I thought I'd up the spices and add a few more to give it more of a sweet and savory type of taste.  I decided I didn't want it to be a thick pasta dish, but rather a creamy soup.  So, I added a handful of garbanzo beans, 1/4 cup of SO Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer, and about 2 cups of water.  The "soup" (very thick soup) turned out too sweet, not enough savory.

I ended up putting a squirt of Sriracha in my bowl and that helped, but it was still missing something.  So, I added 1 teaspoon of red curry paste and about a teaspoon of Sriracha to the pot.  That was more like it.  It's much better now.  However, in the future, I'll leave out the fruit all together.  I'm not a fruity soup person and would have never thought to add it before reading the recipe on VegWeb. I also didn't care for the minced ginger.  If it was grated, that would have been better.  The ginger flavor was too strong when biting into a small cube of ginger.

While I won't make this soup exactly the way I did today, I will try making a butternut squash soup again.  I love winter squashes.  I'm glad I experimented as it brings me closer to finding the exact spice ingredient combination that is perfect for me.

Today, it is cloudy with a temperature in the lower 50's with a wicked wind whipping around.  I took the girls for a walk at Lake Katherine today, which is our favorite place to walk.  However, I under-dressed because I'm thinking 50's, not 30's or 40's with the wind chill.  Brrrrr!  We only walked 1 mile and then came home.  (Our norm is 2 miles.)  I guess that 1-mile walk was enough to tucker the girls out, because here they are this afternoon.

Kobe is in the dog bed, which she OWNS and has actually pushed Jordan out of when Jordan had the "nerve" to lay in it the other day.  Jordan is in the rocker/recliner, which she owns. ha!

They've been in these positions for the last hour at least.  They need to rest up because tomorrow morning, we'll be back out there walking our 2-miles and I will be dressed more appropriately!

Lake Katherine

Roasted Red Kuri Squash & Coconut Soup

I have a variety of squash at my house.  I have a spaghetti, butternut, acorn, and red kuri squash along with a pumpkin pie pumpkin at my house.  I've had these squashes for weeks.  OK, some since mid-September.  I figure it is time to start using them.  So, I threw the red kuri and butternut squashes in my roaster that doubles as a slow cooker, and slow cooked them for 8 hours today.  I knew I wanted to make soup or risotto or something with the red kuri squash as I've never had it before.

So, I put it on a plate to remove the skin.  I really wonder why I needed to remove the skin.  The skin was extremely thin and was almost as tender as the squash flesh.  I think next time I roast one of these, I'll leave the skin on it.  I've seen recipes that use it unpeeled, so that's what I will do.  It was an absolute M-E-S-S to peel the thing.

After looking at MANY recipes (and bookmarking a few of them), I decided to make Roasted Red Kuri Pumpkin & Coconut Soup.  Technically, I don't think the red kuri is a pumpkin, but it kind of looks like one.  What I can say, regardless of the title, this soup is the BOMB!  LOVE IT!

It took a bit to put it together between chopping shallots, mincing garlic, and grating ginger.  I was supposed to "crumble" a dried red pepper in with the shallots/garlic/ginger, but I discovered that my pepper wouldn't crumble.  Oh it's dried and has been sitting in a cellophane pocket for months, but it was still a little gummy. So, I chopped the CRAP out of it and added it.

 

This is my first recipe using coconut milk.  I bought a can for something (I have no clue what), and finally used it today.  When I first put the coconut milk in the soup and tasted it, I could taste the coconut strongly.  After simmering for 30 minutes, it no longer has a strong coconut taste.  While I did add the lime juice, I only added 1 tablespoon, not two.  Also, I didn't use the garnishes.  Maybe they add a ton to the soup, but I have to say, I absolutely LOVE the soup without them.

This soup is a keeper and will be a repeat in my house.  There is a link in the comments for the blog entry for this soup for a butternut squash soup.  It's called Spicy Butternut Squash, Apple and Coconut Milk Soup.  Since I already have a roasted butternut squash, I'm thinking this is my next soup.  Although, this soup uses far less coconut milk, which is a good thing.  I could probably get away with using 1/2 cup of almond milk.  I'll keep you posted. :)

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween.  As Halloweens go, the weather is pretty nice.  It's been just a so-so day for me.  The State of Illinois, in its infinite wisdom, sent new license plates for my son's car.  I found out, when I was trying to take the old plates off, that the bolts were rusted.  After researching the problem online, I headed off to the auto store to get some PB Blaster to spray on the bolts.  The biggest advice on the internet was to be patient and go slow.  OK, sounded easy enough.

So, I spray the bolts, wait about 10-15 minutes and go out with my vise grip pliers.  The right bolt turns reluctantly and comes out.   YAY!  The left bolt seems a bit more stubborn.  Do you think that I sprayed more PB Blaster on it and waited?  Nope.  I snapped the bolt head off, leaving the screw inside the nut.  It snapped off flush with the nut, so there was no hope of using pliers to get it out. Back to the internet!

The next procedure was to get a bolt extractor kit, make an indentation in center of the bolt fragment, and then drill into the center of the bolt fragment.  Once there is a pathway through the bolt fragment, I was supposed to tap the bolt extractor into the pathway and screw counterclockwise to remove the bolt.  Sounded scarier, but hey, I was up for the challenge.  Alas, I couldn't get an indentation in the middle of the fragment, which meant that when I tried to drill, the drill drifted.  Rather than risk more damage to the nut, I took it to the car dealer, which was the only place that would drill out the old bolt (believe me, I called around for a cheaper alternative).

I had the dealer remove the bolt fragment and then install the new plate on the back.  (This could or could not have involved tapping out the screw and rethreading the nut, I didn't ask.)  Then, I had the dealer install a new bracket for the front plate, which has been missing for years after someone rear-ended me and pushed me into the car in front of me, popping the license plate and bracket off of the front of the car.  While I've not been ticketed for a missing front plate, it's a distinct possibility in Chicago, so I just had them replace it.  $200 later, the car is back home.  :::sigh:::

So, while I was waiting for the car to be fixed, I decided to make some Slow-Cooker Black Bean-Mushroom Chili.  I received the recipe in a Recipe of the Day email.  I made a few alterations.  First, I halved the recipe as it's a TON of chili.  Second, I added some ingredients and changed one.

I sauteed the mushrooms, tomatillos, and onion in the spices and 1/4 cup of water.  I probably sauteed them 15 or 20 minutes before the liquid from the vegetables started to evaporate.  Instead of adding mushroom broth, which I didn't have, I added 1 carton of Imagine Organic No-Chicken Broth.  I still added a full can of tomato paste and two chopped chipolte peppers in adobe sauce.

I let the broth heat up so it was steaming before I added it to the crock pot.  I put 3 cups of frozen black beans that I had cooked on Thursday, and I added 1 poblano pepper, chopped to the crock pot.

I also added a cup or so of a black bean/corn/bell pepper frozen vegetable blend and a third of a bag of vegan crumbles that I had in the freezer after I added the broth to the crock pot.

Since the beans are already cooked, I figured I didn't need to let the chili cook as long as it would have needed to for uncooked black beans.  I put the chili on high and let it cook about 4 hours.  I will be eating mine with a little avocado and a teaspoon of Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream.  If it's not quite zippy enough, I'll add a little Cholula Hot Sauce, chipolte flavor.  Here is the recipe as I made it.

Addendum:  The chili is da bomb!  I didn't add any avocado (due to laziness), but I did add 1 teaspoon of Tofutti Sour Cream and a couple of dashes of Cholula Chipolte Hot Sauce.  This chili rocks.  I'll definitely (A) be freezing some portions for future meals, and (B) be making this again during the winter season.  Next time, I need to make some rocking cornbread to accompany it.  Tonight, I'm just satisfied with the chili. :)

Black Bean and Mushroom Slow Cooker Chili

3 cups black beans, cooked*
1 poblano pepper, chopped
1 cup corn (or corn/black bean/bell pepper blend)
1/3 package of vegan crumbles (my best guess is 1 to 1½ cups)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon medium hot chili powder (Penzey's)
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
4 oz. tomatillos, coarsely chopped
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
8 oz. sliced mushrooms (I used button)
1 carton (32 oz.) Imagine Organic No-Chicken Broth
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
2 chipolte peppers in adobe sauce, minced**

Chop poblano pepper and add it to crock pot with black beans, corn, and vegan crumbles.

Roast spices (mustard seeds through cardamom) in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 30 seconds to a minute (mine were popping all over, so I don't think I did this for even 30 seconds).  Add tomatillos, onions, and mushrooms with 1/4 cup of water and saute/simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until the mushrooms have released their water and the mixture is starting to dry.  Add broth, tomato paste, and chipolte peppers.  Cook another 5 minutes or so until the broth is heated through.

Add broth mixture to crock pot.  Cook on high 3 to 4 hours or on low for 5 or 6 hours.  Serve with avocado slices, Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream, and Cholula Chipolte Hot Sauce.

*  Can use two (2) 15 ounce cans of black beans.  If using canned, rinse beans well to remove excess sodium.
** I froze the rest of the chipolte peppers in an ice cube tray.  I put one pepper per ice cube portion and evenly distributed the remaining adobe sauce.  After the peppers and sauce were frozen into cubes, I dumped them all into a ziploc bag and threw them back in the freezer.   I had 10 portions left over.

Happy Halloween!  Here are pictures of the girls in their Halloween costumes.  Seeing as they are both named after great basketball players, what better costume could there be, but to have them wear the basketball jersey for their respective player.  Kobe's jersey is left over from when my sons were young and my oldest first started loving Kobe Bryant.  This is back in the day when Kobe Bryant wore #8.  Jordan is in a Michael Jordan jersey, #23, his most famous number.  Don't they both look thrilled?

It's a really nice day here in Chicago.  The girls are much happier looking out the back screen.

Butter Chick'n and the CUTEST Apron!

I've been cooking the past few weeks, but not as much as I should have. Today, I decided to use my crock pot.  I have MANY things I could be cooking in it, I just needed to pick a recipe and do it.

I chose Butter Chick'n out of Kathy Hester's The Vegan Slow Cooker.  It's tofu (cubed) slow cooked in a curry sauce.  I've seen recipes for Butter Chicken, but when I was a carnivore, I never tried it.  Now, I want to try it. It's currently in my crock pot.

I'll be having it over brown rice (mixed variety) and roasting some Brussels sprouts for my side dish.  Can't wait until dinner! :)

Also, I'd like to share a website with you. It's a mother/daughter business based in Iowa.  They make aprons, and they are very CUTE aprons, if I say so myself. (I did!)  The aprons are 100% USA made.  It's called J & J Inspirations - Fancy Aprons & Custom Creations.  I learned about this website from The Iowa Housewife blog (not a vegan blog, but still a great blog).  It took me a month to order one and by the time I got around to it, the one I wanted, For the Dogs, was sold out.  :::boo hoo!:::  I emailed the site and Janelle immediately responded to me.

Needless to say (because you can see in my picture), Janelle and her Mom (who does all of the sewing) made more For the Dogs aprons and I got mine!  This site has a lovely collection of aprons.  I have my eye on Turquoise Stripes and Flowers (there's just something about that apron that speaks to me).  :::smile:::  So, if you are looking for a unique gift or just a cute apron for yourself so you don't splash ingredients on your favorite shirt (I swear, it only happens when I am cooking something with tomatoes in it), check out J & J Inspirations.

I'm backkkkk ... :)

This is just a short note.  I've been gone for about 2 1/2 weeks.  I told you all earlier that my tried and true PC died (it's been a month ago at least), and I started using my son's old PC, which is actually faster than my PC.  After I had used it for about 2 weeks, Jordan, my rottie/shepherd, knocked over my PC tower and (I thought) damaged the hard drive as it wouldn't boot up and asked for a bootable disk.  (EEK!!!)  It took me a week to get it to the computer expert that works on my PCs and it turns out, Jordan only knocked a plug loose.  Whew! :)  Now that I have a working PC again, I'll be blogging again.

Sisters

Hope you all had a wonderful summer and that fall has started out beautifully for you.  It's been rainy in Chicago all week, but we're supposed to have a beautiful weekend and sunny weather this coming week with temperatures in the 70's.  I can handle that! :)

A Tribute to Skittles

Skits, posing pretty after grooming.

This is a sad post for me.  My 12 year old Yorkie, Skittles, passed away yesterday.  I took her to the groomer three weeks ago.  I remember when I was dropping her off that one of the dogs was coughing.  About a week or so ago, Skits started coughing a bit, so I thought she caught something at the groomer's.  But, she seemed to be OK and actually seemed to be getting better (eating and drinking), so I was just watching her.  Then yesterday morning, she had what looked to be a huge seizure and became unresponsive.  We wrapped her in a big towel and ran out of the house.  She died on the way to the vet's office in my son's arms.  The vet said he thought she had a heart attack and had a weak heart, which is strange to me.

Skits enduring my son dressing her up, November 2010.

Two years ago when I brought Jordan home from the Animal Welfare League, I discovered she had Kennel Cough the day after I brought her home (that's when she started coughing).  She gave it to Skittles.  It hit Skits very hard and I took her to the vet probably 4 times in a 3-week period.  She wasn't eating and I thought it was going to kill her.  But, the vet told me that Skittles had a strong heart and was in great shape and that he thought she would pull through, which she did.

"Scruffy" is what we called her when she needed to be groomed.

Maybe the Kennel Cough weakened her heart or maybe her age just caught up with her.  I have no clue, but I can say I wasn't ready for her to go, not like this.  She had a wonderful life with our family.  She was an excellent dog with a lot of spunk and personality.  We will miss her deeply.

And this is how Skits looked ... inquisitive, ready to do anything.

Skits, knocked out in the "big" dog bed.  She looked like a little toy in it.

Skits on Christmas Day 2009, sitting by my Mom.

Skits, peeking out from behind my son's Snuggie, Christmas Day 2009.

 

Skits sitting with Jordan in the chair.

Skits never really liked Kobe, even though we got Kobe when she was 11 weeks old and was about the same size as Skittles.  Skits would bark at Kobe so hard and so fast, she would end up sneezing at Kobe.  They didn't fight, but it was a unique and interesting relationship.  We got Jordan when she was 10 months old and 50 pounds.  You'd think Skittles would hate her too, but she didn't.  Skits actually liked Jordan.

Skits' last picture, September 4, 2011.

We love you, Skits Bits.

Catching Up Here

Soooo ... about a week ago, my older son told me that the PC wasn't working.  He was right; it wasn't.  When booting up the PC, we get a black screen with a blinking cursor.  This is NOT good.  Luckily, I have another PC tower.  My younger son blew the motherboard in his PC, so I had it replaced and something else replaced (goodness, I can't remember what, only that it cost me $150).  BUT, in the mean time, my younger son begged me to buy him a new "gaming" PC that would be better for gaming, so I did.  He used his old PC for about a week before he received his new one.  Then, it sat in my dining room until a week ago when my PC died. 

Did I back up my PCs?  Well, yes, I did.  Did I do it recently?  Ummm ... no, I didn't.  It's been a year.  I'm afraid my hard drive is corrupt, but I'll still take it somewhere to try and get the pictures and documents off of the hard drive.  :::sigh:::  In the meantime, I'm trying to get my son's old PC up to speed with the programs I need.  It's actually a faster PC, with 4 gig of RAM.  My old PC only had 1 gig. I finally installed the picture software I need so I can blog again. :)

This holiday weekend, I was determined to be productive, and I have been.  Today, I did some laundry and cleaned out my pantry.  I dug deep to the back of the shelves and threw out all of the old canned goods, sauce mixes, etc. that were in the pantry.  It's amazing how much space there is when I threw out the old/expired stuff.  After that was done, I made a vegan apple crisp.  It's quite tasty, too!  I converted a recipe that I got from my ex-mother-in-law.  Here it is.

Apple Crisp

4 to 5 apples, pared and sliced thin (I used Fuji)
3/4 cup oatmeal (quick or old fashioned)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup Earth Balance (I used 1 stick cut in 1/2" squares)

Preheat oven to 350º.  Put apple slices in ceramic baking dish.  (I didn't grease, but you can.)  Combine oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, and Earth Balance in a food processor.  Pulse until crumbled.  Spread over apples.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Enjoy warm plain or with vegan vanilla ice cream.

 After the Apple Crisp was done baking, I got really serious about dinner.  I peeled some potatoes for mashed potatoes made with unsweetened Almond Breeze.  I served those with some Tofurky gravy. It's my first time having Tofurky gravy and it was pretty good.  I also threw 6 ears of corn into the oven to roast at 350º for about 30 minutes.  I used the instructions that I found on Susan Voisin's blog for Oven-Roasted Corn-on-the-Cob, but really, it's just literally throwing the corn in the oven.  I pan fried some vegan Chicken Scallopini to go with it.  Finally, I threw some rolls into the oven to warm.  The entire meal was very tasty!

Earlier this week, I made a vegan veggie pizza.  First, I cleaned and sliced some baby bella mushrooms and sauteed them.  Next, I cut a yellow bell pepper into strips and some black olives in halves.  I used half of a container of whole grain pizza dough I had bought at Whole Foods.  I rolled it out very thin.  I drained a jar of the Bruschetta in a Jar that I canned a couple of weeks ago and put it on the pizza.  I followed that with some fresh spinach leaves, the mushrooms, yellow bell peppers, black olives, and the Zuma Grape Tomatoes that I had roasted and frozen a month ago.  I let it bake at 400º for about 20 minutes.  It was mighty tasty!

Tomorrow, I think I will cut the seedless watermelon into cubes and made Watermelon Sorbet with half of it.  I really enjoyed that.  It is quite the refreshing frozen dessert.

Since I may have lost all of my pictures from last September until now (yes, it's been a year since I backed up my PC ... I've learned my lesson!), I thought I'd take some more pictures of the girls, but from their level.

Jordan, trying to ignore me

First I took Jordan, and she wasn't really happy about it.  She really HATES getting her picture taken. :)  But she posed pretty and looks so regal, that the picture is a winner!

Kobe, trying to ignore me because she was licking her paws.

Kobe usually doesn't mind getting her picture taken, but she was upset with me, so she wouldn't look at me.  After Kobe's anterior crucial ligament surgery, she was still limping a bit and the vet put her on DuraMaxx to control the pain.  DuraMaxx has some less desirable side effects.  One is depression or restlessness.  I believe Kobe has that and licks her paws to relieve some of it.  I think she's been licking them until they are raw.  I had been fussing at her to stop licking her paws right before I snapped the photo. 

I've taken her off of the medication for now and will keep her off of it for a few days (she only takes 1/4 pill, so she's on the minimum dosage).  She didn't have this problem until she was on this medication for such a long period.  If it stops the problem, I will ask the vet to change her medication to something else.

Jordan trying to back up on Kobe, while Kobe pays no attention and licks her paw.

Here's a classic picture.  One, Kobe is licking her paw ... ugh!  But the reason this is a classic is that Jordan is always backing up on Kobe and putting her behind in Kobe's face.  I swear it's an act to try to establish dominance.  Jordan is a nut!

I hope I can recover all my pictures from the last year.  bah!  PC problems!  They drive me nuts! :)

A Truckload of Roasted Veggies

I've had a weird diet today.  I've been using up veggies from my CSA boxes.  For lunch, I had a spinach salad with diced zucchini, cucumber, kohlrabi, purple bell pepper, and a tomato.  It was a huge salad, so I saved half of it for tomorrow.  Tonight, I decided it was time to roast some veggies.

I cut up probably a dozen small gold beets, a head of cauliflower, a big sweet potato, and 2 medium sized white potatoes.  I tossed them in a mixture of 3 tbsp.extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. hot curry powder, 1/2 tsp. Spike seasoning, and 1 tbsp. lemon juice.  I roasted them for 30 minutes at 400º.  They weren't done, which didn't surprise me because I had so many veggies in the pan.  I stirred them and put them in to roast for 20 more minutes.  They still weren't done to my liking, but they were drying out and sticking to the pan.  ACK!  I drizzled a little bit more olive oil on them and sprinkled them with red cayenne pepper and smoked paprika.  I gave them a good stir, turned the oven temp down to 350º and cooked them for 20 more minutes. 

Finally, the veggies were done to my satisfaction.  They have just a hint of a "kick."  These are very tasty.  I'm glad I got a significant portion of my veggies on hand either eaten, ready to eat, or roasted.  I will be eating these roasted veggies over the next day or two.  I think I'll have some of them in a wrap for my supper tomorrow for a little variety.