Jill’s Jumble

I’ve been having fun experimenting with some sprouted corn tortillas that I bought.  They work great for quesadillas!

I also topped one with a quick guacamole.  It was really good that way too.  I think I’ll be needing to keep avocados on hand more frequently!

So yummy!  And it should make great camping food too!

My husband and I have joined a few CSA’s this year. Today was our pickup day for the one at Stony Loam Farm. They’ll be providing our veggies all summer long. I got to meet the farmers and pick up the very first set of veggies! We’ve been having some crazy weather here lately so apparently this haul isn’t overwhelming but I think it’s great.

Tonight’s dinner was a salad made from the redder of the two heads of lettuce with a couple of the radishes. I also threw on some chick peas I’d prepared the other day, some goat cheese and a half an avocado that I had lying around. The turkey I was cooking to go along with it didn’t actually get cooked through until well after we’d eaten. I did eat some of the crisp skin while it was still hot, but really the salad seems to have hit the spot.

So after a period lacking in creativity when it came to food, I’ve picked up on being adventuresome! I’ve been craving some easy summer salads that would work well as a meal. The last two nights the salads have had a quinoa base. Leftovers work well in bento!

This bento contains cut up baked chicken thighs, soaked and cooked quinoa, and steamed broccoli, asparagus, and carrots. I also had a side of soy-ginger dressing. I was attempting a bit of a landscape theme so you would see a cliff of chicken “rock”, a sky of quinoa, and a forest of veggies.

Of course I then had more veggies so the forest overgrew the rocks!

We went camping this weekend. I was kind of nervous about how well food would work out because I hadn’t done as much prep as I’d hoped to. I haven’t been as good about prepping food ahead in general lately. Everything worked out really well though! Here’s a list of what I brought:

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Carrots
4. Cucumber
5. Green Beans
6. Peanut Butter
7. Hummus
8. Cheese (goat for me)
9. Leftover Jambalaya
10. Various sausages (Bratwurst, Knockwurst, Hot Dogs)
11. Sauerkraut
12. Mustard
13. Ketchup
14. Crackers for Justin
15. Hot dog rolls for Justin
16. Tea bags
17. Butter
18. Potato chips
19. Banana chips

We actually bought the potato chips and banana chips because we got hungry on the way. They ended up being our dinner that night! Saturday morning’s breakfast was apples and PB with tea. For lunch I had a bratwurst with sauerkraut while Justin had Jambalaya. Dinner ended up being brats and sauerkraut again because I’d actually forgotten to pack mustard and ketchup.

A friend cooked breakfast for everyone on Sunday morning so I had bacon while everyone else enjoyed the typical breakfast fare of eggs and gluten. Lunch ended up being hummus and veggies. We had snacks along the way though I never did eat my cheese. Justin had some of his though. The banana chips worked really well as a sweet ending to our meals.

I had bought, but forgot to pack some canned fruit in juice. Hopefully I’ll go back to read this post before I pack next time to try and be more organized!

Next time I want to bring a sausage that’s good eaten cold. The kielbasa I’d used in the jambalaya would have worked really well but it came from a health food store and we didn’t have a chance to pick up more before we left for the weekend. Chili would also make a good leftover meal we could bring along. I’ve discovered that it works just find cold as a tortilla chip dip. Since I can have oats I want to bring oatmeal next time too.

I think I’ll be experimenting more with bean based dips. The hummus and veggies worked out really well. I know there are other bean based dips out there so that may be my next food based internet search.

We hosted Mother’s Day Brunch for my mother and mother-in-law. Also in attendance was my father, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and BIL’s girlfriend. Luckily everyone gets along really well! And everyone seemed to enjoy the food. People really like the Baked Pork Spring Rolls I’ve mentioned in one of my Bento posts. What I was most excited about was the fruit salad I made!

Aren’t the bowls adorable? I found a small watermelon in the grocery store when I was purchasing the fruit for this salad. I couldn’t resist buying it and using it to serve the salad! In addition to the watermelon the salad also contains pear, apple, banana, and strawberries. The “dressing” was just the juice from half a lemon. Next time I think I’ll have to add blueberries for more color.

We ended up having a big meal at lunch due to a visit from my husband’s aunt and uncle from Michigan. Dinner needed to be a much lighter meal. You should have seen how excited my husband was when he realized what I’d made for dinner!

Isn’t it amazing how such simple fare can bring so much joy? This tomato soup wasn’t entirely from scratch but it was really quick and tasty. It reminded me of the gazpacho that my husband and I had in Paris on our honeymoon. I can’t wait to try it cold!

When I make soup, it’s different every time because I usually just follow a pretty basic guideline rather then any kind of formal recipe. In this case, here’s what I did:

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

1. Butter
2. One Leek, cut into 1 inch chunks
3. Three celery stalks, cut into half inch chunks
4. Two cans of diced tomatoes (14 – 16 ounce cans)
5. One can of chicken broth (14 – 16 ounce cans)

Instructions

• In a saucepan melt the butter.
• Add the leek and let cook until soft.
• Add the celery and let cook while you are opening the cans.
• Add the cans of tomato and chicken stock.
• Mix and allow to simmer so that everything is hot.
• Using an immersion blender, blend everything together.
• Serve hot with a bit of cheese.

Yum! Goat cheese for me and cheddar for my husband. He also had his soup with crackers. I’m sure I’ll be making it again. I love making soup like this with fresh tomatoes too!

Dinner tonight was pork chops cooked in coconut oil with cheesy peppers and applesauce. This picture didn’t come out as well as I would have liked. I didn’t think to take a picture fast enough!

The cheesy peppers are a really versatile food that a friend of mine came up with for camping. She starts them in the oven at home then rewarms that for meal time at the campsite. At home we either cook them in the oven or on the grill. We haven’t gotten our grill up on the deck yet so these were done in the oven. Here’s the recipe:

Cheesy Peppers

Ingredients:

• Bell Pepper
• Grated Cheese

Instructions:

1. Cut the bell pepper into wedges along the ribs so that they form cups when they are lying on their skin.
2. Place grated cheese inside the cup.
3. Cook either on a cookie sheet in the oven set at 350F or on your grill until the cheese is browned. Approximately 25 minutes.

In my case I used goat cheese which doesn’t seem to brown the way cow’s milk cheese does. So I just cooked them until the cheese was obviously melted. I love that the peppers aren’t fully cooked through. They come out surprisingly sweet which somehow works well with the cheese.

And here’s a picture of my husband. He wants me to write a blog just about him. He’ll just have to accept cameo appearances in this blog.