Feed me, Seymour!

Dinner time around here gets a little hectic. Not as much as when school's in session, but hectic nonetheless. It's already nearing the end of July, but I start reeling when I think about school hectic! Homework, swim practice, more homework, piano practice, book reports, more freaking homework....Remember?? Yeah, I don't want to either! But ooohhh, the magic of summertime! Today was a lazy, stay home day, which means the minions were stirring up all sorts of ways to keep themselves entertained. I mean, what better way to while away the time than to tie your sheets together and rappel down the staircase! Although they did manage to get outside for a bit, decided quickly indoor rappelling was a much better idea!

Back at base camp I decided to use some of the tomatoes and basil that have been growing in the garden. Mind you now, I don't have much of a green thumb. I can hardly keep a fake flower alive. I leave the gardening to my hubby or my mom, the plant whisperers. So thanks to them, we have beautiful, organic, and local veggies and herbs on hand. Yum!

Roasted Tomato & Basil Pasta

Ingredients:

Tomatoes

Kale

Basil

Garlic

Lemon

**Olive oil

**Pasta 

Set the oven to 375 and boil some water & start cooking your pasta.

Slice off the top of a whole head of garlic and place with the tomatoes on a baking dish. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Roast on 375 for about 15 mins (but check at 10) or until the tomatoes and garlic have begun to brown. By this time, your pasta may be ready too, so drain it and remove the baking dish from the oven and let them cool while you get on with the rest of the dish.

Remove the ribs from the kale & cut the leaves into smaller pieces. Then I stack up all the leaves, roll 'em up, & slice them on the diagonal into little shreds.

I also roll up the basil & slice the same way.

Put the kale at the bottom of a big serving bowl, the heat from the pasta will lightly wilt them. Squeeze the juice of 1 whole lemon then add the hot pasta on top. 

**Drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil.

Pop the roasted garlic out of their skin and dice, then add along with the basil and mix to combine. 

Fold in the tomatoes.

Season with salt & fresh ground pepper to taste. Mmmmmm! This is when I have to shovel spoonfuls into the mouths of hungry & impatient small folk while trying to get it into bowls. Serve and enjoy!

**You can omit the oil altogether. Whenever I cook pasta, I always save at least 1 cup of the cooking water, just in case. When it comes time to drizzle olive oil onto the pasta, you can replace that with a little of the cooking water instead!

**Use whatever pasta you would normally, gluten free, brown rice, quinoa, etc. Or sub out the pasta with quinoa!

The Hot Hot Heat, Pt 2

Well, we didn't last long outside....it was too humid for us Valley types. So we came back in, put on a movie, and had some popcorn instead. By that time, the watermelon cubes and strawberries were frosty. I ran them through our blender, poured the puree into an ice cream maker, and turned it on. About 25 minutes later....

Watermelon Strawberry Sorbet & the girl minion!

Watermelon Strawberry Sorbet

Cubed watermelon

Hulled strawberries

1. Prep your fruit and put them in the freezer for at least 2 hours

2. Puree them in your blender

3. Pour the puree into your ice cream maker and check it in about 20-25 mins or until it gets to a creamy consistency.

I happen to have an ice cream maker, but if you don't I'm pretty sure it would work if you put the puree back in the freezer for a while then let it thaw just a little before serving. Now go cool your jets!

The Hot Hot Heat

It's hot around here! And I'm pretty sure it's hot wherever you are too! So to cool their busy little selves, the minions requested sorbets. One little minion wants watermelon while the partner-in-crime wants strawberry. So before we set out for scooter racing, I prepped this and popped the dish in the freezer so that we'll be one step closer to cool sorbet goodness later!!

...stay tuned...

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world! Welcome and hop to it!

Way back when I was a teenager, way, way, way back....I decided I wanted to be a vegetarian. The thought process behind that decision wasn't too thought provoking; I wanted to be a vegetarian because I loved all sorts of cute, fluffy things like bunnies and kittens. And the big fluffies were pretty cool too, like cheetahs and lions. And even things that weren't so fluffy were cute...like cows and pigs. So it seemed like a natural choice to not want to eat these guys and cause them any pain.

That's how it started. Don't eat meat. Pretty easy. But then it dawned on me that I shouldn't use other things that hurt those animals either, so most of the time when I bought beauty products I checked labels to make sure they didn't test on animals. That was harder...and it limited most beauty products. But I tried, I really did. I didn't always succeed, but that's ok because a little effort counted for something. Right??

I remember a long time ago I read an interview with Drew Barrymore and she may or may not have said something to effect that she wanted to live her life doing as little harm to others as possible and I thought, "Yes! That's do-able!" I also want to live my life that way, thanks Drew! In more recent years I've read things like she stopped being a vegetarian because of her fiance, now husband. Sad face. Even more recently I read that she started her own make-up line which was cool at first until I also read that it would only be available at Wal Mart. Super sad face. Wal Mart? Really Drew Barrymore?? That makes me sad, but whateves Drew, it's your life and I still love that Cinderella movie you made.

Anyway, I know how it feels, I fell off the veg wagon for a long time too. But then I climbed back on and have made leaps and bounds. I still fall off the wagon a few times a year, real quick for a few hours, then climb back on and try not to beat myself up too much about it and move on! Falling is ok, like Bruce Wayne's father says to him, "And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up." True for so many things in life, so let's move on!

When I climbed back on the wagon, it wasn't just about food. It was about healthier alternatives for everything in my life from the soap that I used to the household cleaning products. I'll just start with one of the easiest replacements, moisturizer! I buy big ole tubs of organic, unrefined coconut oil and raw cocoa butter, mix the two together, and viola, moisturizer! 

Not only has making it myself saved me tons of money (cause Lawdy, I don't have much to begin with!) But at least I know what's going into it and I feel good about using it on me, the hubby, and the minions! More importantly, I know what's NOT going into it: a boatload of chemicals and preservatives! And our skin is super soft and glowy to boot! Don't believe it? Give it a try and thank me later, or just smile and thank yourself!!

Because I love recipes and instructions but because I hate things that have lots of steps and take a long time, here's my super simple recipe:

Coconut Oil Moisturizer

What you'll need:

1. Coconut oil

2. Cocoa butter

Sometimes when I'm feeling more lazy than usual, I'll just pour some coconut oil into a container and put it in the bathroom. But I've found that coconut oil by itself feels a little greasy, but mixing it with cocoa butter makes it less so.

1. I grate a few tablespoons of raw cocoa butter into a small saucepan and melt it on low heat.

2. Let the cocoa butter cool a bit then mix it with about 1/2 cup of coconut oil.

3. Put it in a pretty jar (I usually use a cleaned out jam jar).

That's it, you are done! Take a shower, use it to shave & moisturize. Marvel at the super soft, glowy you! 

*I've bought coconut oil and cocoa butter from Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Sprouts, Costco, and Amazon.