Aloe Vera Smoothie

I got my inspiration for this smoothie from some aloe vera recipes. I kind of mixed and matched until I came up with my own recipe. I juiced my ingredients, and then I blended them. The experience of working with aloe vera was unique to be sure, slimy. The smoothie was quite good.

Ingredients:

2 Large Aloe Vera Gel Pieces

1/2 Cucumber

1 Inch Ginger Piece

1 Cup Mix of Kale, Romaine, & Napa Cabbage

1 Container Kumquats

Beautiful Weather

Last week we had snow. This week we have gorgeous weather. Beautiful times to get out and enjoy God's creation! This week we went for a walk in the woods with baby Shastya to enjoy sunshine and fresh crisp air.

Avocado Sandwich

I was surprised to find my avocado sandwich reminded me of an egg salad sandwich, the taste and feel. Avocados and eggs are both mild in flavor and take on the characteristics of the seasonings one adds to them. My ripe avocado was creamy not unlike the combination of a boiled egg and mayo mixed together. I added minced garlic, salt, and pepper to my avocado sandwich. I wouldn't mind having such a sandwich again.

Fried Beans Over Romaine

We were hungry for a midnight snack. I asked Anthony what he wanted. He said salad. I just scrounged up some leftovers in the fridge for salad toppings and fried them all up with eggs. I got the  scrambled egg on salad idea from Anthony awhile back. We sprinkled black pepper on top of the salads. Anthony used chipotle ranch on his as well.

Fried Beans Over Romaine:

1/2 Head of Romaine Lettuce

3 Tb Leftover Vegetable Filling from Dill Dumplings With Vegetable Filling

2 Eggs

1/2 Can of Red Kidney Beans

Philly Cheese Steak Eggs

Why yes, I did grow up in Pennsylvania. While there, I happened to love getting Philly cheese steaks at the food court in the mall and at other random Pizza shops.

I was making breakfast for dinner one evening since I was in a hurry to get supper on the table. Seeing roast beef, cheese, peppers, and onions in the fridge was all I needed to find inspiration for Philly Cheese Steak Eggs!

Artisan Pecan & Date Pancakes

Anthony was in a hurry, so for breakfast I whipped up some pancake batter, and poured some of it out on a large skillet. I then hurriedly crumbled pecans, and cut pitted dates, dropping them on top of the batter. While piecing the pecans I thought of how my Mom loves pecan pancakes. I'm not sure what she would think of the dates accompanying them. She'll have to try pecan & date pancakes sometime. We thought they were delicious. The dates really just added kind of a syrupy flavor.

Scrambled Cornbread

So I was on the phone with a friend and started getting hungry. I'm not talking Bluetooth, I was on an old fashioned handheld flip cell phone. I was carrying my baby on my other arm. A plan had just conjured up in my mind of a delicious lunch. Still on the phone I went into the kitchen and started pulling ingredients from the fridge and cupboards: can of corn, half a leftover onion, milk, egg, cornmeal. I pulled a cutting board, a skillet, and a couple containers.

At this point I set the baby down so I could spring into action. I put half the can of corn in a little container for later, and dumped the other half in a larger container which I designated for today's lunch prep. Then I chopped the onion and added it to the Cool Whip container/ mixing bowl. I was planning to make some cornbread cakes an American southern cousin of the pancake. I had seen my Gramma from Alabama prepare them many times for my Grandad.

Then, baby Shastya needed attention. I scooped up my dear baby and after a short time asked my friend if I could let her go because I was getting a crick in my neck from holding my phone with my right shoulder, while cooking with my right hand, while cradling my darling baby with my left arm. My friend and I had been talking about blogging. She's looking to start a blog! About this time I looked at my mixing bowl. What was in it was definitely not batter. "Hmm . . ." I thought, "from the looks of it I could add some more milk, eggs, and cornmeal, and I could still turn out corncakes." "Nah, we'll just go with it. It will be fried corn and onions, similar to fried okra!"

I put it in the pan on high heat, but then I needed to change the baby's diaper. I turned the stove off. When I returned and cooked my food a little more, I noticed that my mixture of wet and dry ingredients was not sticking to the corn kernels and onion pieces. The skillet however was still full of delicious food which I dubbed scrambled cornbread.

Wanting to season my dish, I thought I would try a healthy substitute for salt, and doused my lunch with balsamic vinegar. Um, the dish totally called for Cajun seasoning. So I added that too. Much better. But you guessed it, my Cajun seasoning had salt in it. Salt was listed as it's first ingredient no less.

I must say that lunch was delightful. The Cajun seasoning even seemed to add a hint of celery to my plate. Yum!

Scrambled Cornbread:

1/2 Can of Sweet Corn

1/2 Onion

Egg

1/2 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Cornmeal

Gelato Disaster

Somehow I came up with the idea of sensuous papaya date pecan gelato. Bottom line is, it didn't turn out. I even forgot to take pictures of the late stages of my gelato disaster. My apologies. I have some theories as to what could have gone wrong with my creation: 1) my "gelato" mixture came to a boil when it was not supposed to, 2) I used all milk, no cream, 3) I had a bunch of curious add-ins, 4) all of the above. I am inclined to go with the fourth theory. My gelato disaster did taste good, but it looked atrocious, and most certainly was not going to solidify in any creamy fashion in the the freezer. A perfect, horrendous looking kaleidoscope of milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, pureed papaya, dates, and pecans that just did not turn out.

Chicken Curry With Curd Gravy

I'm glad our dinner turned out amazing even though I was in a hurry and didn't get to follow the recipe "to a T." The recipe I used was one off my friend Rachel Singapogu's blog. Anthony was kind enough to "give me a hand" chopping the chicken. I served up our Indian dinner with Spanish pitas, and we ate it all with Chinese chopsticks.