Vegetable Rosti with Tomato-Corn Relish

This is a recipe I found in Vegetarian Times Magazine.  It was my turn to pick the recipe this week and this looked great in the book.  Right before I went to make it, I went online to see if I could find the recipe to print out so I didn't have to type it all out and on the web site, I noticed there were some comments about this meal. Every single person that left a comment didn't like it and said it was bland and no flavor, all sorts of horrible comments about it. So I tried to get a hold of Lou in a frantic worried I had picked a horrible dish to make and tell her abt the negative comments! We decided to go ahead and make it anyway.

Well Lou had a great experience. She loved hers and so did her husband Todd. She said it was flavorful and everything about it turned out perfect. You can go to see Lou's review of the meal here. Lou Girl Plus Tea

I didn't have as much luck as Lou. When I first started making mine, they were falling all apart and it was frustrating me. So I added some more flour and egg. Then the egg helped it stay together a little better, but they still weren't very sturdy.  I took a bite of it and didn't like it. The potatoes were still crunchy even after cooking it the amount of time it said.  I hate potatoes that are still crunchy and not completely done.
Then for the relish. I made that and didn't like it either. I used the basil and so I picked all the basil out thinking that was why I didn't like it and I added cilantro instead, it was still blah. So I added some lime juice and more salt. It was okay but nothing great.  So there I sat eating my crunchy falling apart meal with relish that I could live without.  Sorry, but I just didn't like this meal either.  :(

Well, if I have wet your appetite to want to try this amazing meal, you can go get the recipe here at the Vegetarian Times website.  haha

Vegetable Rosti with Tomato-corn Relish

I really wanted to like this meal, I tried the best I could, but it just didn't work out. I even tried a few of the tricks the commenters suggested on that page, but still, no.

The picture looks real pretty though, doesn't it?  

This Quaint Lil' Town

You know, I rant sometimes about the weather here and how I long for a tropical climate year round ... long for there to be a beach close by, but I must admit... this IS the nicest and friendliest town I've ever lived in and I've lived in quite a few different places over the years. There are so many positives about living here and a small country town really warms the soul.

Today I saw a link that said Mount Airy is the 3rd friendliest town in the top 211 towns in America.

Here's a link where a lot of friendly folks had nothing but nice things to say about this quaint little place.  

Click the link below to either vote or read comments.

bestoftheroad.com

Just thought I would share because sometimes the grass looks greener somewhere else (Hawaii, Bahamas, Island off of Thailand), and sometimes we are already in green pastures if we just look for it where we are. 

And for you trouble makers thinkin' of givin' this town a bad name,

 don't forget Barney Fife keeps everyone in line around here.

Hot Weather Treats

I posted in my No-Buy post that I was going to try to also spend less on my groceries. I was going through the grocery store the other day and was looking for a treat to buy. I get the coconut ice cream a lot that's made with coconut milk instead of dairy and sometimes I like to buy the frozen fruit bars.  They are so pricey though! So as I was looking at the high price tags on all these items the thought occurred to me that I should try to make  my own. 

I have no idea how to make  my own, I didn't even Google how to do it, I was just playing around and came up with my own fruit bars.  I found some frozen peaches in my freezer from my dads farm that I had frozen. So I threw them in a blender. Added some coconut milk and Agave to sweeten...

...then filled up some Popsicle trays and popped them in the freezer.

I had a little left over so I filled up some ice trays, too.

Then after they freeze, take them outside on a hot sunny day and I have a yummy homemade treat!

Peach popsicle

I was also playing around trying to make a Coconut popsicle.  I used coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut flakes, coconut extract and agave.  The only thing weird that happened with that is all the coconut flakes floated to the top and when I ate the popsicle, it was coconut ice milk at one end and frozen flakes at the other.  Maybe I will keep working on my coconut recipe or just Google how to do it.  

Coconut popsicle

I'm sure you could probably take almost any smoothie recipe and pour them into popsicle or ice trays and get a nice frozen treat.  I was also thinking if I have leftover fruit I could always juice them and make them that way, too.

Hey, ya gotta cut corners any way you can! These cost only a small fraction of the price I would have paid in the store.   :)  Share your money saving ideas for yummy summer treats, I would love to hear them.

Shrimp Ceviche & Mango De Gallo

I made this for dinner tonight, it's called Shrimp Ceviche. I found it from the blog I Love Feta Cheese. It was really delicious and super easy to make and it only takes about 5 minutes to throw together!
(My dad brought this shrimp back with him fresh from the coast of Florida.)

Shrimp Ceviche

1 lb of shrimp (around ~ 40 shrimps), cooked. I buy them frozen and cooked from Whole Foods.
2 lemons
2 limes
2 small tomatoes
1/2 an avocado
1/4 cup, or 1 handful, of chopped cilantro
sea salt and pepper to taste
drizzle of EVOO

Start by rinsing frozen shrimp to defrost and take tails off. Chop tomato and avocado into about 1 inch pieces and add to shrimp. Top everything with the juice of  lime,  lemon, some chopped cilantro, a drizzle of EVOO, sea salt and pepper. So easy and delicious!!

*You can also chop these ingredients up real fine and serve it as a dip or a topping.

Mango De Gallo

You make this just like Pico De Gallo, except you use mango instead of tomatoes.

Mango De Gallo:
Red onion
Mango
Cilantro
Lime juice
Salt
Garlic

I put the Mango De Gallo on my scrambled eggs this morning. Oh so yum.

I thought I had some blue corn chips here I was going to finish off the rest of it with and when I went to get them, they were nowhere to be found! Guess I ate them, don't you hate it when that happens? Anyway, I am sure they would be great with chips.

My garden is really taking off with all this rain we've had. I sure am glad I planted the rows down hill this year or they probably wouldn't  have survived.  It's been rainy and gloomy all week, but this weekend is suppose to clear up and get up to 80F degrees. About time! 

Just like last year, my thai basil it growing like wild fire. I already cut off a bunch of it today so I can freeze it. I  just rinsed it off under water, let dry on counter and freeze.  I can add it to soups and meals later, I really regret not freezing a bunch of it last year. This year I learned my lesson, I'm freezing as much as I can.

My Thai Basil from the garden.

I'll probably take some pics next week to show how well the garden and deck plants are doing. My tomato has almost doubled in size, I had no idea these were going to get so big, maybe it isn't such a good idea to try to grow them in pots, but they are doing fine so far.  I just know last year my tomatoes did horrible out in the garden, so I didn't want a repeat of that.


Lou and I have decided to only do our Tuesday night dinners every other week as the summer is approaching since this time of year is busier for the both of us.  It's my turn to pick and I have a yummy recipe already picked out.  Sorry for those of you that hate seafood, we seem to keep picking seafood recipes.  Seafood is one of my favorite foods on the planet. Growing up in Florida I had access to more fresh seafood there, so I just grew up on it and can't imagine ever giving it up.  My dad went on a deep sea fishing trip this year to FL and brought me back a bunch of fresh fish they caught and a bunch of fresh shrimp caught fresh that day. He froze it that day, too, so it would be the freshest it could be. It doesn't get better than that. Well, I guess me catching it and living on the coast myself WOULD be better than that, but I'm going to try not to have those daydreams! haha

Tuesday Night Dinner

Lou picked the meal this time. The meal turned out nice, but it would have turned out so much better had I been able to find crepes.  I walked all over the store looking for them and even asked the people who worked there for help. When I asked them where the Crepes were they looked at me like I was from Mars, although, I knew that would be the case before I asked. lol  At first they thought I was saying grapes, one girl said she would go look and I never saw her again. Oh the drama of finding crepes.  So I used flatbread instead.

I know I can make  my own crepes, so maybe I will try to do that in the future.

Anyway, here is how my Creamy Ham and Arugula (flatbread) Crepes turned out.

Creamy Ham and Arugula Crepes

1/2 cup  reduced-fat  tub-style cream cheese
2 Tablespoons fat-free milk
2 scallions (green part only) thinly sliced
8 Crepes
8 (1 oz) slices lean Black Forest ham
1 small bunch arugula, trimmed

Whisk together cream cheese and milk in small bowl until smooth. Stir in scallions.
Place 1 crepe on work surface, prettiest side down. Spread 1 rounded Tablespoon of cream cheese mixture over half of crepe closed to you. Top with 1 slice of ham and 1/4 cup of arugula; roll up jelly roll style. Repeat, making a total of 8 filled crepes. Cut 2 of the crepes in thirds. Serve and enjoy. For a side item tomato wedges go well  :)  

This is how they were suppose to look with the crepes.

Photo from Weight Watchers Cookbook.

Note to Lou:  The new rule is you must mail me the ingredients that are hard to find in a small town first before we make the meal!! Haha

Still Saving Money

I went on a No-Buy last month and so far, so good.  I've been focusing on just purchasing the basics and trying to cut down in those areas, too. Such as trying to save on electric, grocery bills, etc. I usually spend a crazy amount of money on groceries a month and it's just me. You would think I had 3 mouths to feed with what my bill costs! So this week I spent only half of what I usually spend at the grocery store and will try to make that last throughout the whole week.  I bought mostly fruits and veggies, some fish and chicken, tortillas and oyster sauce to make some thai stir fry. I love drinking coconut milk, so I found a coupon online for that. I just Googled coconut milk coupon and found one. You can find a lot of coupons for things you regularly buy by doing this.
I have a friend that's really into coupons and she even invented her own coupon organizer. It is set up by Aisle, so if you shop the same store all the time, this could come in handy. You can get them from her at Coupon Compass.  There is a link to her site on my sidebar, too.

What I am most excited about the warm weather is things are coming back in season and it's salad eating time again!  I hate not eating salads in the winter, nothing is in season here in the winter to make a good salad with. I never had that problem living in Florida and it's hard to get use to not being able to eat things during certain times of the year here. I have recently become obsessed with something called the Caribbean salad! I first had one at a restaurant and I just tried to mimic what was in it and it turned out great.

Caribbean Salad

I just threw in some leaf lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, pineapple, oranges, chicken with Caribbean seasoning and topped it off with poppy seed dressing. There are a variety of ways to make these types of salads, I just used what I had on hand. The salad was so big I got full before I finished it, but Little Foot was happy to finish it off for me. He loves veggies!  I love this so  much, I'll be eating this for lunch all week. I cooked up 2 chicken breasts to cut off of and throw in and they had pineapples on sale for $1.98.  I know sometimes they sell them for $4.00 or more which seems insane.

Although I'm excited about the new fruits and veggies coming into season, we still don't have too much yet like we will in the summer. The Mount Airy Farmers Market still  looks a little sparse right now because of it, but they had lots of strawberries!

Mount Airy Farmers Market

[In the parking lot of the Andy Griffith Theatre.]

Ok so this post is  just me rambling about saving money, but I love a challenge and the only non-essentials I spent money on this month so far is Mother's Day and going to the movies twice (and you know my Johnny is coming out in Pirates of the Caribbean this month, too).  Okay after this month I will try to stay away from the movie theater! A movie theater diet?  :p

Oh and one more money saving thing I wanted to share. The electric company I use is giving away FREE fluorescent light bulbs to help people save on energy. So I signed up and I now have 15 free light bulbs coming to me! Pay attention to your bills when they come in because they advertise things like this sometimes. I would have missed it if I hadn't looked through my bill this month. I have all of my bills deducted automatically from my bank so I never have to worry about late fees, so it's easy to ignore the bills. My electric bill was also twice as cheap as the month before this time, too, but probably because we haven't had as many cold days. I've kept my windows open almost everyday the past month, minus the little cold front we got last week.

Coming May 20!
Argh! Argh!

Movies

Water For Elephants

I read the book, Water For Elephants, before I went to see the movie.  To see my review of the book, you can read it here. The movie, like the book, was not disappointing.  Most of it was everything I pictured it to be.

 There were some things about the movie that were better than the book.... they left out all of the porn scenes. Yay!  I mean, I really couldn't see them including some of the things they mentioned in detail without it being rated X, haha.  They also left out all of the harsh cussing, so no F bombs and using the Lords name in vain like in the book. So I highly recommend watching the movie if you chose not to read the book for these reasons.

The book was better than the movie in that it helped you connect with all of the characters much better. The movie only made you feel connected with the 3 main characters. So when people were getting killed and tossed off trains, you didn't feel that same since of loss like you did when you read the book. If that makes any sense.  The book obviously goes into more detail and I understand they can't fit the whole book into a 2 hour movie.  So you lose a connection with the rest of the characters because of this.

All in all, the movie was magnificent!

Soul Surfer

[The real Bethany Hamilton on the left. Actress Annasophia Robb, on right, played her in the movie.]

I remember watching all the news stories on tv when this really happened. It touched my heart and I remember thinking what amazing strength this girl had, how she said her faith in God is what keeps her strong, and her accident has never held her back.  I was so excited when I heard they were making a movie out of her real life story.

This movie touched me in such a deep way, even days after I have watched it, I still can't stop thinking about it.  The movie is about Bethany Hamilton and what happened to her when she was out surfing with some friends. A shark bit off her left arm and they rushed her to the hospital to save her life. She had been competing in professional surfing championships and even after the accident, she carried on and continued to compete.  What amazing strength this young lady has. She gives all the credit to God though. Her and her family are strong Christians and live their life serving the Lord.

[Carrie Underwood plays Sarah, her Youth Ministry Leader.]

Carrie Underwood played Bethany's Sunday school teacher, who was always there encouraging Bethany no matter what life may throw at her. She also was involved in doing missionary work overseas and Bethany really had a heart for missions work, too. After her accident, she went to Thailand to do outreach work after the Tsunami.  This part also really touched me since I use to live in Thailand and also do missions work there. I really felt this movie speaking to me in so many ways and I'm glad they left in how involved God was in their lives and didn't try to water it down to make it more * palatable* for some viewers.

I highly recommend the movie, for anyone of all ages. One of the best movies I've seen in years.

Mother's Day :)

I had a wonderful time yesterday with my mom on Mother's Day. 

We went to church, then to Gondola Italian restaurant.

I hope everyone had a wonderful time on this day to celebrate one of the people that is most dear to us.  

The Start of This Years Gardens

We got our gardens started this week. I love gardening!  My dad plowed the field over at his house and a friend and I planted all the seeds and plants for him.  I'm not sure if I can remember everything we planted for him or not, but here's the list...

• Green beans
• Tomatoes
• Corn
• Bell peppers
• Banana peppers
• Chard
• Hot peppers
• Onions
• Potatoes

I'm sure I forgot something. We are going to have tomatoes coming out our ears this year.

My friend and I planting the garden.

And  now we have farmers tans. haha

It took us most of the day to plant everything, it's a pretty big garden.

Here is my tiny tiny little garden I planted behind my house.

That is the plum tree at the end of my garden. See how much it's grown?  :)
I paid my lawnboy to come plow it for me with his tractor. He charged me 10 dollars. What a bargain!

It didn't take me most of the day to plant mine of course.

What I planted:

• Thai basil
• Sweet basil
• Dill
• Cilantro
• Mint
• Tomatoes
• Bell peppers (A LOT of them)
• Chard
• Cucumbers
• Cherry tomatoes
• Leeks (I replanted the smaller ones left from last year)

Bell peppers are just so over the top expensive in the stores, so I figured I would plant me a bunch of them this year and freeze what all I don't use. I'm planning on freezing a lot this year, even the tomatoes.

The things on my deck are doing really great, too.

Look! I already have a tomato! 

I can't wait for it to ripen.

I did the Topsy Turvy thing like I said I was.  It will be interesting to find out how this works.

I planted a cherry tomato plant in it, I figured they wouldn't weigh it down as bad.

The chives survived from last year.

Well, ALMOST.

 My lawnboy mowed them down, so I went out in the garden and dug them up and put them in pots to save them.

I feel I have learned some things from last year that will help me this year.  I planted the rows facing down the hill so the garden can drain better. I made little drainage areas on each side of the row that is lower than the plant so the garden can drain.  My tomatoes didn't do well in the garden last year at all, that is why I am growing them in pots on  my deck instead. I did more herbs this year than last because I use a lot of them to cook with.  Here's hopes to a successful garden this year!

Mexican Salad with Avocado Dressing

So Delicious!

This salad turned out absolutely amazingly fabulous. 

The flavors are so perfect and flavorful.

Mexican Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing

For the dressing:

1 large avocado

1 Tablespoon + 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon hot sauce

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves

3/4 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth and creamy.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  Cover and refrigerate.  Toss salad with dressing right before serving.

For the salad:

1-1/2 to 2 heads romaine lettuce, chopped

2-3 large tomatoes or 6-7 small tomatoes

2 cups corn chips, crushed into pieces

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

15 ounce can pinto or black beans, drained and rinsed

5 green onions, chopped

Combine all ingredients in a big serving bowl and toss well with dressing.  Serve immediately.

______

Okay so my dressing curdled a little, but once you mix it all together you can't tell. I'm not really sure why mine did that, I followed the directions to a T.  Here's the website I got the recipe from, it has photos of each step you take to make it. Their dressing looks real creamy.  I used the Olive oil mayonnaise for mine instead of regular mayo, not sure if that is what did it. Anyway, the flavor was awesome.

I didn't use canned beans for mine. I made my own beans. I let dry beans soak over night, then cooked  my beans this morning and added some salt, garlic and cumin for flavor. Left them in the frig all day until I was ready to make the salad this evening. 

I picked the dinner for our Tuesday dinner across the miles.  Here is Lou's site and she should have her photos of her dinner up soon.