Well its been quite a few weeks of discount grocery trips, Hogan's Heroes reruns, swiss chocolate indulgences, rotting tomato transformations, folk music concerts, and thrift store shopping adventures since I've even visited this blog. Not to mention a wedding, a honeymoon, a surgery scheduled, and the start of autumn semester. =) I have been very blessed with a busy and wonderful first month and a half of my new life as a wife! There have been plenty of fun times in the kitchen already, from baking bread, to freezing corn, to canning beets! Not to mention mac and cheese burgers, homemade pizza, lentil patties, miso soup, butternut squash bread, baked fish with tomatoes and zucchinis, and stuffed eggplant! Nathan and I have really been enjoying our nice kitchen and although I don't have any recipes to post right now, I'd thought I should reenter the blogging world with some pictures =). Thanks for reading and God bless!

Nathan and I had a blast with the deep fryer last sunday =). We decided to make Indian pakoras, which were made with chickpea flour and filled with yummy veggies. It took a couple tries to figure out how to work the deep fryer, but it was definitely worth it. It was difficult to find chickpea flour so I just processed some dried chick peas in the vitamix. These were so delicious and they disappeared in no time! They also didn't leave me with a heavy feeling in my stomach like most deep fried things. I posted a link to the recipe, but don't feel like you need to follow it closely. Nathan and I just started dumping all the veggies in we could find =)

Yummy Pakora Recipe

So it has actually been 80 degrees here in unpredictable ohio and I am definitely loving it!! Yesterday evening Nathan and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and the lovely yellow weeds that were growing in our backyard. We picked dandelion leaves and heads and made delicious tea =). It was lots of fun and I was really surprised by the delicious and earthy taste the tea had. We simply washed a handful of the leaves and let them steep in a low boil for around 25 minutes. We then let it sit with the heat off for a while longer and strained out the tea and voila! 

Well life has gotten busy unfortunately =) 

I did, however, go through a bread baking frenzy about a week ago and I'm happy to share the results with you.

I am a big fan of chewy, grainy, healthy breads, and this recipe does just the trick. The prep was a little timely because my black thai rice needed cooked, the pumpkin seeds needed toasted, and the wheat germ needed heat as well. After the preparation though, it was really very simple (thanks to my mom's bread machine) =) Well here are a couple pictures and a link to the recipe. Enjoy!

Delicious Forbidden Seed Bread

It has been a little while since I have updated (school and other exciting things have been taking up most of my time). A little less than two weeks ago my boyfriend Nathan proposed and I was happy to accept! =) Since then I haven't made much time for being in the kitchen. I was, however, able to try one of the many burger recipes I have acquired these past months last Friday afternoon. I made my fiance an interesting lunch - lentil burgers with avocado and yogurt. I found this recipe on 101 cookbooks, which I believe is a treasure chest of delicious and wonderfully healthy recipes. Instead of using the normal hamburger buns with the burgers, the recipe advised making the patties very thick and then cutting them down the middle. Then you can stuff all sorts of good things inside - it is essentially a burger and bun in one!

I was able to stick the leftover patties in the fridge and fry them the next morning for Nathan's lunch box. I once again provided a link to the recipe at the bottom of the page - enjoy!!

( This recipe also gave me an opportunity to use my new food processor which I got from my wonderful friend Rachelle for my birthday.)

 

                          

PS: A delicious variation: Instead of making one thick patty, make two thin ones and use those for the bun. Also when frying the thin patties add lowry salt to each side and fry until very crisp. (Nathan and I both liked this variation better than the original)

                       

                 Nathan and I the night he proposed =)

Lentil Burger Recipe

As I nervously anticipated the national election's results (which to my dismay, did not go well) I decided to try a recipe I saw on a recent DeliciousWisdom post (another one of my favorite blogs). I thought it was intriguing that this lasagna did not only have no meat, but also very little cheese. The many different spices blended together well, and the result was a lasagna that really was more like chili than anything else. I'm happy to say that even my meat-loving boyfriend got second helpings! =) 

 

Chili Lasagna

 Last Friday I had the wonderful opportunity to spend my morning baking some fall goodies =). (Of course this meant my mounds of homework were ignored) I had the inspiration from my good friend Whitney who told be about carving out the pumpkin to use as a bowl for the dip.  

I found the gingerbread cookies off 101 Cookbooks (one of my all time favorite food blogs) I provided the link at the bottom of the page. As far as the pumpkin dip, it was really simple and incredibly good. I hope you enjoy!

     

           

                                           

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Pumpkin Dip Recipe