Jan's Veggie Salad

Finally, a candida safe recipe. I have been slacking pretty bad, haven't I? My mom has been trying her hand at eating candida safe. She is an excellent cook and has the ability to improvise (a skill I am still trying to master). This is a great recipe to bring to gatherings as well. Try this recipe...your body will thank you.

Jan’s Veggie Salad

• 2 medium zucchini
• ½ red onion
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 3 cup broccoli
• ½ cup orange bell pepper
• ½ cup red bell pepper
• 1 cucumber
• 3 stalks celery
Dice all the vegetables and put in serving bowl. Pour on dressing and mix together. Refrigerate for a least 2 hours.

Dressing:
• ½ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper

Chicken Pot Pie, Raspberry Blue Cheese Salad, Peanut Clusters

Chicken Pot Pie, Raspberry Blue Cheese Salad, Peanut Clusters

First of all can I say, watching the Nuggets and other teams in the playoffs is cool and all…but please don’t schedule the games over Bones! TBS from 5-8 is Bones time…get it straight.
So I coerced Jeff into going shopping with me and helping me cook. We stopped at Kings with a massive list of recipe items and other normal items we needed. For the most part we stuck together; but Jeff went off to go get cashews and sunflowers from the ‘fill your own bag’ area. He comes back with a gigantic bag of both, the cashew bag costing over $13! Having both of us shop before dinner was not the best idea and we ended up with the highest grocery bill I have ever had. True we got a lot of items we don’t always get (detergent, toilet paper, paper towels etc.) but I felt sick to my stomach about the bill. I called my mom to try and make me feel better; she said ‘don’t worry, that included food for Saturday right?’….it didn’t. Bahumbug. I am cooking for my little sister Shannon and her boyfriend for their prom dinner; should be posted next week sometime (teaser: baked macaroni).
We started cooking, Jeff on the meat and the chopping and me on the cooking and organizing. I am pretty sure I screwed up the chicken pot pie. The directions made it seem like I needed to cook the piecrusts before I added the innards. It didn’t seem right, but I did it anyway. Turns out that wasn’t right. When the instructions told me to seal the edges of the bottom and top pie crust I knew I was screwed…they were cooked! I couldn’t mold them. So instead of a beautiful chicken pot pie with slits in the top and warm steam escaping I got a broken, maybe a little overcooked, pie crust plopped on the top. So much for the picture I was hoping for! It all still tasted the same and Jeff mentioned multiple times, “This is one that you should make again!”
Jeff made most of the Raspberry Blue Cheese Salad (from my cousin Christie). It had green apples, avocado, blue cheese, green onions, dried cranberries and raspberry vinaigrette. I thought it was pretty good sans the dried cranberries (I love fresh cranberries and cranberry juice, but hate the dried ones). Jeff was in heaven and started and finished his meal with a serving of this salad.
The peanut clusters (Jenny) were pretty easy. I had to call Jenny first though, “so I have all the ingredients listed but not really any instructions”. As it turns out you melt the chocolates, add the peanuts and form a cluster…hence the name peanut clusters. Jeff and I decided to go to Target to pick up Avatar but could not leave the peanut clusters to dry out in the open. Max would have had a hay day and probably would have been very sick or maybe even dead (at least I would get some sleep that way…oh gosh, I can’t believe I said that, I am a terrible mommy). So I laid the clusters on my bed and shut the door to avoid disaster.
I finished the night ‘watching’ Avatar and by watching I mean falling asleep 30 minutes in. This cooking business is hard work!

Nachos, Oreo Salad, Cucumber Salad

Nachos, Oreo Salad, Cucumber Salad

My parents came over for a Thursday dinner. I laid out some pretzels (still left over from the Scramble) and some fruit. I bought the necessary Pepsi for my Dad and Shannon, and some sparkling water for my mom and I (not that we drank much of it, a bottle of wine was opened as well). Since my family members are notorious picky eaters, the nacho ingredient list was not going to make everyone happy. To avoid ‘why did you put that on there’ or ‘I don’t like that’ I decided to spread the chips out on a bar pan and lay out all the possible ingredients. I then told everyone to pick a corner and make your own! My Dad added ground beef, a few black beans, cheese and jalapenos; Shannon added ground beef, a few black beans and cheese; My Mom put everything on (she gets the award for non-picky eater of the family) and I had black beans, cheese, and green onions. I then tossed it in and let it cook.
Our Cucumber Salad (from Jenny) was a blend of cucumbers, tomato and onion tossed in some oil and spices. It wasn’t really my favorite as I distain tomatoes, but my Mom loved it and my Dad even had a small taste.
For dessert I made an ‘Oreo Salad’ from Jenny. By Oreo Salad I mean pudding, milk, cool whip and oreos…I wish all salads tasted like this! If you happen to not have any kitchen tools to crumble the oreos up, an ice cream scoop works. It was a nice stress relief to crunch up those oreos! I also served the white chocolate fudge that I had made the night before. We all watched a little bit of Pirates of the Caribbean, the last one, and then they went home.

Taco Soup and Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad

Taco Soup and Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad

The Taco soup is a mixture of recipes from Mom and Christie (cousin), the differences were so small, it didn’t make sense to do it twice. It took a little while to figure out the ingredients as Jeff went shopping for them. My 1.5 lbs of ground beef turned into 1 lb and the taco seasoning never even made it home. It goes with the old saying, ‘if you want something done right, do it yourself’. The recipe was pretty simple; cook up some ground beef or turkey and then add cans of corn, tomatoes, beans, chopped onions, taco seasoning etc. Then let it simmer for a while. I didn’t eat much of the soup; I have been fighting a cold all week. But the recipe says that it is better the next day and I agree. As always, my personal garbage disposal (Jeff) finished up what I could not.
The Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad is from Jenny. It uses 2 heads of romaine lettuce (which if you are Jeff, means 2 heads of cabbage, yuck!) with red onions, strawberry slices and a poppy seed dressing made from scratch. The salad would have been great with romaine, but cabbage is not my favorite. The poppy seed dressing is amazing though (perhaps since its main ingredient is mayonnaise and the recipe even asks for sugar). Stay tuned for next week, perhaps things won’t go so smoothly….