Runs with Spatula

I have been on Pinterest for a few months.  I know that it has opened some users eyes to the world of food blogs, but I was already there.  It has opened my eyes to the plethora of education and early child development bloggers out there.  There are some moms, teachers and home schoolers out there with some excellent resources and a willingness to share them.  I am loving it and readily applying them to my professional work!  I love it!  I subscribe to over 100 blogs in Google Reader, most of them being food and health related and have been starring and bookmarking recipes for years.  What pinterest has given me is a visual bookmarking and sharing system that I have found very useful!  I have to say that I have probably made at least 3 or 4 times the recipes I have liked online than I did pre-pinterest.

One of those recipes was for a vegan fajita filling that really piqued my curiosity.  I made it today and it is awesome and so worth sharing!  This is a perfect Meatless Monday recipe.  When I made it, I had planned on eating it with a dollop of greek yogurt and/or a little cotija cheese.  After tasting the filling, I knew that it wasn’t needed.  I shared this recipe with an old friend I have recently gotten re-acquainted with through Facebook (more on that later) and she actually made it first.  She gave me some advice on the use of coconut oil, as I had never cooked with it.  The flavor combination of the coconut oil, lime juice, cilantro and garlic is heavenly.  It is a flavorful pesto-ish combination that I am sure I will make and use in other dishes.  The recipe can be found here on Three Many Cooks.  I ate a second serving of the filling on some sliced avocado and it was just as good.  I called these vegan black bean and quinoa tacos because I used the tastiest corn tortillas I have had in a long time.  I found these Maria and Ricardo’s Corn Tortillas at Foods for Living and gave them a try.  They were a bit pricey for a small package, but the handmade style of a little thicker tortilla held up well with an overstuffed taco.  I found little information about them online.  Their website is under construction but there were links to distributors.

I heated up the tortilla for a few seconds on the burner and topped it with a generous spoonful of the filling, a few slices of avocado, diced tomatoes and scallions.  It needed a touch of sea salt.  I cooked dry beans and had not added salt and avocado always needs a touch of salt for me.  All I can say is my meatless meal turned into a vegan meal and I didn’t miss the dairy one bit.  This did not need cheese or greek yogurt.  It was perfect as is.

I had to use up the rest of the avocado half!  I topped it with another spoonful of the filling and toppings…I can’t wait to take the leftovers to work tomorrow!

I have been hearing people talk about cooking with coconut oil for some time, but had yet to try it.  The flavor of the coconut paired perfectly with the lime and cilantro.  I can’t wait to try it again in the next dish!

On the topic of “Meatless Mondays”, Chet and I have been having many more meatless meals and days lately.  We have been juicing like fools, have dropped a few pounds and are really enjoying trying new foods!  Even Chet!  One of our recent finds in a Lebanese restaurant was Tomato Kibbe.  The restaurant that serves it is in the Detroit metro area (we found a closer one in Brighton) but we have yet to find it locally.  Watch for this to come…either a post on our favorite or once I work out the kinks and come up with my own version!  If anyone has any advice on tomato kibbe or recipes for me to try, please comment and share!

***The part of “Corky” is now being played by Chet J. Jorgensen, Jr.***

2011 brought about a few changes for the Spatula household.  Here is a nutshell recap.  April marked the ten year anniversary of my sister, Therese’s death.  It is hard to believe that it had been ten years, it still feels like yesterday.  My sister, Clare and I traveled to Columbus, Ohio and met her daughter there for the weekend.  We celebrated her life that weekend with wine, shopping and eating at her favorite Columbus area restaurants.  We miss you T!  I didn’t take a lot of pictures that weekend, but did take this picture of a picture that my niece had with her.

I finished the graduate certificate I was working on from UNC in the first half of the year!  That was a relief.  I worked a LOT over the summer.  Between my summer responsibilities in Jackson and another part time job in Ann Arbor, I often didn’t know where I was going each day until I checked my calendar! It was a great summer though.

My friend David moved back to Michigan from the other side of Lake Michigan.  It is great to have him and his dog Gus back!  Hobart and Gus get along well.  We took them for a walk around Ann Arbor together and they hung out on the side walk outside Arbor Brewing during dinner.

Of course we went to several shows.  I can’t even think of all of them.  Two of the most memorable ones were Elvis Costello in Royal Oak and U2 at Spartan Stadium.  Chet was sick and couldn’t go to Elvis at the last minute, so I took my friend Sheryl.  It was a great show.  Seeing U2 was unbelievable.  Here is a picture of the stage from my seat.

Chet and I took a vacation and visited friends in upstate New York in August.  It was wonderful to hang out with Tia and Ben. Hobart got along well with a dog 1/10 of his body weight!  Of course this was after he hip checked him when we first arrived and accidentally sent him flying off the porch!  We came home with Taylor Pork Roll and lots of Yuengling Beer.

The school year started and at first it felt like part time work since I was only working in one place! That quickly changed, as my schedule became as crazy as ever.

We celebrated my birthday in Traverse City, extending my trip there for a conference.  We were a little scared about Northern Michigan in the first week of November.  The weather was unseasonably warm and I got to show Chet how beautiful Northern Michigan is!  It was his first trip.

On 11/11/11 we met a very nice female springer pup who needed a new home.  We agreed to take her for a “trial” to see how she got along with Hobart.  I am sure you can guess how this story ends.  By Thanksgiving she was a permanent part of the household.  She is a sweet dog and after a “touch and go” start with housebreaking, she is doing great!  She is good for Hobart and for us.  We have gotten a lot more exercise since she has been around!

We traveled to the Chicago area for Chet’s 50th Birthday and attended the NU/MSU Football game Thanksgiving weekend.  I wore purple.  If you don’t know, I am a Wildcat Football Fan.  Go Cats!  It was a very wet game, but dinner out with the family afterwards was great!

My friend Beth gave my blog a little overhaul.  Isn’t it pretty?  Thanks Beth! We got to meet her adorable daughter Ada.

Hobart was a little freaked out with a baby around.  He barked every time she cried or made sound.  Sunday was actually much better with the baby.  Here is a picture of her guarding Ada during a nap.  She also liked to sniff her head.  Who doesn’t like to sniff a baby’s head?  What a smart dog.

We stayed home for the Christmas Holiday and had a relaxing break.  I can’t believe that it is time to go back to work tomorrow!  Chet and I are both looking forward to a happy and healthy 2012!  We have some mutual health and fitness goals.  I will refrain from a laundry list of resolutions and just live.

I have had a very lazy New Year’s Day.  In fact, I have had a very lazy holiday break as a whole!  Corky and I had planned on traveling to Phoenix for the two weeks but changed our plans at the last minute.  We have two weeks on hold with a rental house there, so we will be planning something for later in 2011!  Luckily, we like the heat there, because the next time I will have two weeks off is summer break and that is when the rental is most available!

I was a very negligent blogger in the last quarter of 2010.  I have plans to blog more regularly in the new year, although I don’t want to state a bunch of blogging related resolutions here!  Maybe one day I will be a real blogger who researches posts and blogs a few weeks ahead of holidays with ideas and recipes that I have tested and tried out and share with you with ample time to make them for your holiday!  That is a bit lofty.  This blog’s tagline should read “hey, I made this” or “hey I ate this here and really like it!”  I am a home cook who likes to eat and likes to share creations with others.  I am not a planner and not timely with the posts.  My neighbors think I am crazy when they see me taking a picture of my dinner (outside in natural light when we have it) before I eat it, but hey, that is me!  I am also the crazy lady pulling out the camera in a restaurant!

Because of my blogging negligence since August, 2010, I have a lot of pictures that I hope to share over time on here.  I still can’t believe that I haven’t shared the stories of our Labor Day weekend trip to Philly or my birthday dinner at The Girl and The Goat in Chicago!  Life has been pretty crazy, but 2011 should be a little calmer.  We shall see.  Those two events are on my “to do” list. 

I started out this New Year’s Day with plans to make a traditional Southern New Year’s Dinner.  I bought Black Eyed Peas and Collard Greens.  Since one of my “goals” for the new year is to not waste food, I decided to turn those black eyed peas into chili with the Longiza (can someone tell me how this is different from chorizo?) that was in my fridge from last week’s trip to the Honeybee Market in Detroit.  I wish I had a recipe to share, but what started as loosely following this recipe from Homesick Texan turned quickly into a typical chili making experience for me.  I used the longiza, onion, garlic, chicken broth, black eyed peas, canned fire roasted tomatoes, ground chipotle pepper, the juice of a lime, a touch of cinnamon, a little Piloncillo or Mexican Brown Sugar.  It tasted a lot like the chili I made for the BWL Chili Cook-Off in 2008.  It wasn’t the Hoppin’ John that I envisioned making when I bought the Black Eyed Peas, but I was very happy with it!  It needed a little chopped cilantro, but I was not about to head to the store just for that, especially since that would have involved changing out of my pajamas!  I settled for a sprinkle of shredded cheese and a dollop of greek yogurt.

Since I also had a bunch of Collard Greens, I needed to come up with something to do with them.  I could have cooked them up with some onions, garlic and bacon, but then I remembered this recipe that I bookmarked yesterday!  The recipe from Ezra Pound Cake is exceptional.  I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, except I used regular cream cheese instead of the low fat variety and 2% Greek Yogurt in place of the sour cream.  This dip is so flavorful that I am sure it is great with low fat dairy as well. 

I have resolutions for 2011, but haven’t put them down in writing or really put them into words in my head yet.  The BIG resolution for both me and for Corky involves getting “back to our fighting weights”, also known as the weights we were when we started dating over six years ago!  This picture is of the two of us at my niece Jenny’s wedding in 2005.   

This picture is hanging up in my bathroom and on the refrigerator as a constant reminder of how skinny we once were!    I had Weight Loss Surgery in December, 2003.  While I am not happy with the weight gain I have experienced, I am still close to 100 pounds lighter than I was in 2003 and thankful for that!  2011 will be a year of going “back to basics” and following “the rules” that I have gotten away from.  One other thing that I know is needed and I know that I won’t be able to maintain a healthy weight without, is regular exercise.  My biggest goal in this process will be figuring out a way to get active and STAY active in 2011.  I am open to suggestions on that. 

Here is to a 2011 full of activity, good food, moderation in all things, good friends, family, love and good health!