Stuffed Mexican Shells

Mexican Stuffed Shells

30 pasta shells

1 bag Morning star crumbles

2c salsa

1 can diced tomatoes

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup black beans

1 cup mexican cheese 

toppings

sour cream (or greek yogurt)

salsa

olives

green onions

Cook the pasta shells per package.  Warm up the crumbles either in microwave or on stove then add all ingredients.  Rinse shells with cool water.  Stuff with ingredients and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  Top with your favorite toppings!

Find this in the freezer section.

Try to find "no salt added diced tomatoes"  You'll save a lot of unnecessary sodium.  

Before cooking...looks like a mess but oh so yummy! 

You can do so much to this recipe to suite your taste buds.  I didn't add taco seasoning but you could do that or cut up onions etc.  It's a quick easy recipe when you are trying to go meatless!

Did you go meatless today?

Follow my day in pictures

I read a blog the other day and she showed her day in pictures.  She took a photo every hour. I thought that was a neat thing to do so I did that yesterday.  Here was my day....

4:00am

5:00am 

6:00am

7:00am

8:00am

9:00am

10:00am

11:00am

12:00pm

1:00pm

2:00pm

3:00pm

4:00pm

5:00pm

6:00pm

7:00pm

8:00pm

Thankful Thursday

Sometimes we get so caught up in our lives that we forget to stop and take a moment to be thankful for what we have.  Today's blog is dedicated to what I am thankful for this week...

1.  Cari, my daughter.  Cari will be going off to college this August.  I'm pretty sure I will curl up in the fetal position on my bed and cry my eyes out.  Not sure how I will be able to go through every day without her around me.  Thank God for cell phones!
 I am so proud of her for taking this next step in her life.  She is going for photography and she is darn good at it.  I'm excited to see where this next chapter will take her.
 She is getting her wisdom teeth out tomorrow and did I mention she has a very LOW tolerance for pain?!  Stocking up on lots of mashed potatoes, baja blasts from taco bell and Popsicles!

I'm so thankful for you Cari!!

2.  Nancy Ainsworth-  Nancy stepped up to the plate to help me out twice last week.  I came into work on Thursday with a bad headache and knew teaching Yoga class was going to be rough...she walked in to take my class and offered to teach.  What a blessing!!!  (Yes she is also a certified Yoga inst)  Also, turned out my son needed a bartender at his wedding and she stepped up without much notice to do that as well.
Nancy is always willing to help out.  I think she would give the shirt off her back if I needed it.  Thank you Nancy!!!

3.  Moe Jablonksi and my herb garden.  I am so thankful to have this herb garden that Moe gives me every year.  I love being able to go outside in the morning and pick some fresh herbs to throw in my smoothie.  Thank you Moe for helping me stay healthy!!!

4.  Mary Lou Reed.  I met Mary Lou when I was 14 at the Candy Emporium on Lincolnway.  I began working for her until she moved to Florida when I was 17.  Mary Lou became the mother roll that I was missing in my life.  She is currently in the hospital in Florida being treated for Leukemia.  She has such a great sense of humor and a wonder love for the Lord.  She has taught me a lot and for that, I'm thankful!

5.  Self acceptance.  "I'm not beautiful like you, I'm beautiful like me."   I am thankful that I am able to Love myself for exactly who I am.  It's taken me a long time in this life to stop trying to be like other people.  I love me as all my flaws make me perfectly imperfect!  For that, I am thankful!

What are you thankful for this week?

Cauliflower Crust Pizza- Meatless Monday

I've made cauliflower crust pizza before but I found this recipe that swears the crust will hold together.  I found this recipe here at The Lucky Penny.  She has some really goods pics too.  I forgot to take pics of the crust as I went along.  Usually, cauliflower pizza must be eaten with a fork because it falls apart.  I found that I should have used more cauliflower because the pizza was just too small and I had way too many toppings on it for it to hold up. 

Grain-Free Cauliflower Crust Pizza (taken from The Lucky Penny Blog)

makes one approx. 10-12 inch pizza

1 small to medium sized head of cauliflower - should yield 2 to 3 cups once processed (I had 3 cups of cauliflower but it still didn't seem like enough)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
optional a few shakes of crushed red pepper
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1 egg
optional 1 tablespoon almond meal  (I didn't use this but I think I should have) 

Place a pizza stone in the oven, or baking sheet if you don't have a pizza stone. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a cutting board, place a large piece of parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking oil.

 

Wash and thoroughly dry a small head of cauliflower. Cut off the florets, you don't need much stem. Just stick with the florets. Pulse in your food processor for about 30 seconds, until you get powdery snow like cauliflower. (I used this instead of a food processor)

 

You should end up with 2 to 3 cups cauliflower "snow" - Place the cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl and cover. Microwave for 4 minutes. Dump cooked cauliflower onto a clean tea towel and allow to cool.

 

Once cauliflower is cool enough to handle, wrap it up in the dish towel and ring the heck out of it. You want to squeeze out as much water as possible. This will ensure you get a chewy pizza like crust instead of a crumbly mess. I got a 1/3 cup water out of this cauliflower.

 

Dump ringed out cauliflower into a bowl.  Now add 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon dried basil , 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (crush up the leaves even more between your fingers before adding), 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt),and a dash of red pepper if you want.  If you do not have enough cauliflower, you can add some almond meal....this is optional.  Now add your egg  and mix away. Hands tend to work best.

 

Once mixed together, use your hands to form the dough into a crust on your oiled parchment paper. Pat it down thoroughly, you want it nice and tightly formed together. Don't make it too thick or thin either.

Now, using a cutting board slide the parchment paper onto your hot pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven. Bake for 8 - 11 minutes. After baking the crust, you can add any toppings you like.  I used basil pesto sauce instead of traditional pizza sauce.  This is my picture before cooking.......then cook 5-7 minutes Enjoy!!

I used Morning Star meatless sausage patties on this as well as lots of veggies.  What would you put on your pizza to keep it meatless??

 

Love j

 

Thankful Thursday

It's thankful Thursday friends.  Here are the top 5 things I am thankful for this week.  These are in no particular order....

1.  My Son Cory and his soon to be bride Brittany.  They are getting married tomorrow and they are just perfect for each other.  I couldn't be more proud of them both.

2.  My husband Tommy.  He has to put up with me, which is not an easy task.  He is very social and he likes to talk.  A.  Lot.   He can stop a total stranger and talk to him for an hour.  True story. 

I find myself becoming more of a hermit....I don't like going in crowds of people.  For instance, he said, "Let's go to Great America!"  I was like....."Noooooooo!"  I just don't like being around ALL those people.  Am I getting old or what?!  Don't answer that.

3.  My Daddy.  He is so good to me.  He stops up at work almost daily to see if I need help with anything or just to make my bank deposit if I need it.  I appreciate him immensely. 

4.  A good foot day.  Ok, so I did over dose on Advil to get through my monitoring for Jazzercise today..... but, I passed my monitoring so I'm good for another year.  I don't let it worry me like I used to.  I try to remember, I am getting monitored to make sure I am teaching quality classes.   

5.  Levi.  Levi was our chocolate lab.  He was 10 1/2 when we had to put him down this past Monday.  It's funny the things you miss when they are gone.  The little things I would get after him for, like drinking and eating out of the little dogs bowl....waking us up at 2 or 3am to go potty....barking NONSTOP as soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning until I got downstairs to let him out....I only wish those things could happen now.

Life is so darn short and it is so easy to take all that for granted every day.  Treasure each moment you have friends because we truly don't know just how long we have to share this life with each other.


What are you thankful for this week?

Kindness matters

Hi friends,

It's been a while since I have blogged and I'm going to do something about that.  I've decided to start a Meatless Monday post and a Thankful Thursday post.

As most of you know, I am a vegetarian and I am teetering on the side of becoming a vegan but just haven't gone there yet.  I find myself steering away from dairy more and more because it just does not agree with my body most of the time.  I am just sick with the way we treat animals for meat and dairy and that lays heavy on my heart sometimes.  

I thought you might like to try some different recipes and make your Mondays meatless with me.

Trying to stay positive and realize what I am thankful each week will keep me in check with the great things around me.  Sometimes, I think we get so caught up in "this thing we call life", that the great things can pass right by us without acknowledgement.  I'm going to try not to let that happen.

Today, I want to talk about kindness.  Lately, it seems our world need a bigger dose of kindness.  The other day, I was driving east down J street and turning into the Verizon store right on the intersection of J and Lincolnway.  I turned on my turn signal to go into the parking lot, and immediately realized, this would NOT be a good spot to turn in.  I was almost rear ended three times and I was about to just keep going straight and just turn around when I caught a little break between cars.  I turned in as fast as I could, but not without the SUV I turned in front of laying on the horn the entire time past me.  Now, I did not in any way endanger the SUV.  However, they let me know how unhappy they were because I turned in front of them. 
It just made me think how unnecessary it was to lay on the horn.  Couldn't they see, I was in a very dangerous spot and maybe slow down and wave me in?  Or at the very least, not blow the horn like I had cut them off.   They could have practiced just a little kindness. 

I think sometimes, we have to remember that we don't know what is going on in everyone's lives around us.  If we practice kindness everywhere we go, kindness will prevail.  Stop acting like you own the road and share the love.  Relax, slow down...smile.  A little smile and kindness will go a long way.

Peace,
j