Sunday, March 9, 2014

Late Night Sunday Bloggin'

Hi. Gina here.

I happen to be off work tomorrow so I am trying to amuse myself late into the evening because I'm too old and lame to want to throw back 80 beers tonight (I'll be hungover all day tomorrow and possibly into the next day and I will waste my entire day off.) and I don't feel like sitting in our basement and watching everything I have DVR'ed in the last 2 months (Jason and I are really bad at watching television. DVR is the best invention ever, at any given time we likely have 6-10 episodes of any show we like because we never watch them when they air.) and I also don't feel like reading because then I will either have to turn the light on in the bedroom thus keeping Jason (whom has to work tomorrow) awake or at least tossing and turning and grumbling about when I'm going to turn the light out like every ten minutes, or go read in the living room or somewhere else and then I'll just probably fall asleep while reading and the couch will destroy my entire body and by the time I wake up I will have to roll myself off the couch and into the bedroom. In this predicament, I remembered that I have not blogged in one hundred years. Here's some food I've made.


I think I have mentioned on here before that we subscribe to Vegetarian Times magazine and this is a recipe I found in there. It was supposed to be like a Samosa in Indian cuisine but instead of being a triangular fried pastry shell of magic, you put the mixture in a red bell pepper which I guess is healthier or whatever. Incase you don't know, A Samosa is a fried or baked pastry with a savory filling, such as spiced potatoesonions, peas, lentils, ground lamb, ground beef or ground chicken. It's size and consistency may vary, but typically, it is distinctly triangular. That entire definition is courtesy of Wikipedia

It was pretty simple to make but I felt like it didn't have enough kick. I thought I perhaps should have used more curry powder and more garam masala but I'm not sure. I will attempt to revisit this again someday. Overall it was pretty good and helped us curb our often intense craving for Indian food. (Get ON this, Robinson Township. I am judging you hard for not having an Indian restaurant to enjoy. I don't even expect anything remotely close from Kennedy Township, but you, Robinson, you I have some hope left for.) 






My husband, expert photobomber.  I'm just so proud.




Next up is Mozzarella Stuffed Eggplant Meatballs. The recipe is here. I found this on The V Word. We both always enjoy the recipes from that blog, this one was no exception. It was delicious. We didn't use her recipe for sauce because we're Italian and both of our families have super secret sauce recipes and everything else we both eat tastes less than to us so we always just make our own. We used quinoa rigatoni as well, which we are big fans of. The only thing I will caution anyone with if they make these is to have a non stick pan. We, as of right now (or the last two years) do not and I tried to pan fry a couple of these to no avail. I ended up just baking them, which was still super good but I think pan friend would be even better. 




Next up is another recipe from The V Word. Spinach and Artichoke Rollatini! If you are a fan of spinach and artichoke dip then you will freak out over this like I did. I'd always dreamt of eating spinach and artichoke dip only for dinner and this kind of made that dream come true. Only thing I would have changed with this one is making more filling to stuff the rollatinis more. Though the recipes from The V Word are always awesome, the proportions sometimes do not work out for me. Usually I can spot it and add more of this or that as I'm going but with this one I didn't alter anything and I really wish I would have doubled the filling mixture. As you can see, mine are a little flat. I will likely make these often, though, so I will adjust for next time. 





For the finale, I give you the magnificent, extremely simple, and wonderfully tasty, BUFFALO CHICKPEA PITAS featuring RANCH DRESSING!! Courtesy of The Post Punk Kitchen. You can find the recipe right here. Jason and I both devoured these amazing little pitas like mad. I was glad that I cut the mini-pitas in half because then it was less bread and we could eat EVEN MORE. It was a little out of control. The ranch dressing recipe for this is by far one of the best I have tasted. I used to always pair ranch with everything (yes, I was one of THOSE people) but since vegan ranch is near impossible to find except for like one place around here (here's lookin at you, Mad Mex) I rarely get to indulge in it anymore. I plan on making these as appetizers for any and every event I go to. Mostly so I can eat them.




Thanks for hanging out. Max is watching you leave this post. Max is judging you for leaving this post.