Catching Up

Honestly, I don't know what I've been up to that got me so far behind in my blogging. I guess we had Halloween, and I had a birthday, and then we had a lovely weekend, all during which I didn't feel like sitting at the computer!! So, I guess I'll just start where I left off.



Let's see......one evening last week I made up a big batch of falafel, and some Hummus en Fuego to go along with it. I got the idea for the hummus from the 101cookbooks blog, but I didn't follow Heidi's recipe exactly. Basically I just made my regular hummus recipe, adding in a few tsp of hot chili oil. Then, I drizzled it with a few more tsp of chili oil when I served it. This hummus was delicious. Stella, my 2 year old, loved it so much she was eating it with her hands!! She loves everything HOT!!

For Halloween I wanted to have something that I could get ready and feed the kids early (read: before they went trick or treating), but that would still be tasty later when Rob and I were ready to eat. Plus, I wanted something to kind of fit the season and the theme of Halloween. So, this Black and Orange Chili is what I came up with. In my haste to get dinner going I didn't write down a recipe, but basically this chili is started by sauteing onions, celery, carrot and garlic. Then I added in some diced sweet potatoes, cumin, chili powder, oregano and about 4 cups of vegetable stock. Bring chili to a boil, allow sweet potatoes to start to soften, then add LOTS of black beans. Heat through and serve. The kids really liked this, and I felt good that they'd filled up on something healthy before trick or treating!! Of course, Stella can't eat any of the candy she collected, and I did allow Mairin a few pieces of non-vegan chocolate from her stash. Since then the candy has been sitting untouched in the closet.

And finally, I just wanted to share with you one of the lovely birthday presents the kids gave me. I got this beautiful cupcake tree, and some fantastic heart shaped muffin cups. The muffins you see on the tree are chocolate chip muffins that I've shared the recipe for before.