Fresh Pico de Gallo

Farmer's market means, fresh veggies and herbs!  My husband and I took advantage of the fall like weather and loaded up our dog and off we went!  It was the perfect day at the market.  I even tried goat cheese (again) still don't like it.  Found some fabulous local vendors and some great treats!

I was feeling pico in my soul, so we picked up everything I needed.  Oh the joy of fresh veggies as opposed to the icky stuff in the store.  Take advantage while you still can!!!

This recipe seems to easy to even share, but I am sharing it anyway!  I never miss the chance to make some fresh pico and just wanted to share how I do it!

While I enjoy the combination of white onion and green onions, please, use just one or the other if you like.  Cilantro is another "to taste" ingredient.  We have discussed this on social media before, it seems people love it or hate it, there isn't much of an in between.  I VERY finely minced mine so a tablespoon is perfect, if you like more, get on with it!

2 cups finely diced tomatoes
1 jalapeno FINELY minced (remove veins and seeds unless you want to shoot fire out of your....whatever)
1/4 cup finely minced white onion
1 green onion chopped
1 T cilantro (not my fav, so add more if you like)
1/2 of a lime
1 tsp. salt

Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined.  I used 1 tsp of salt and then ended up adding a WEE bit more.

This pico is so refreshing, so flavorful and should definitely make all of my healthy eaters happy! Very easy to double or triple for a party, and it will keep in the fridge a few days, so make tons, it is a delicious snack!  I think I will use the rest on some well seasoned grilled chicken breasts!  I am down for healthy AND this delicious and I hope you love it too!

This will get stronger onion and jalapeno flavor the longer it sets.  You could let the tomatoes drain before mixing in other ingredients, I simply use a slotted spoon to scoop it out into a bowl for eating!  

ENJOY!

Katie Parker explains it all! Vegan/Tofu/Apple Pie!

Hello FTOACW fans! My name is Katie and I'm a childhood bestie of Chris. I'm so proud and amazed at what Chris has done with this blog, that I begged her to let me do a guest blog. Being the awesome person that she is, she gave in and let me do it. Thanks, Chris! :)  

Now, let's talk food. I don't know about you, but I always think about food. ALWAYS.  Kinda like they say men think about sex. Anyway, as much as I think about food, you'd think that I would be a good cook. I'm not. In fact, I kinda don't know how.  Before you start thinking that I come from a line of people who don't cook, or do it well, let me set the record straight. I come from a family of wonderful cooks. I've just always been more interested in the eating part. Someone else can prepare it and I'll devour it. Alas,  I don't  think that I'm a hopeless case.  I can boil water, follow instructions and put frozen entrees in the microwave with the best of them. I've even made-get ready for it- AWARD. WINNING. SALSA. Yeah, I know. Award winning  (okay, so it was just first place at my friends' annual salsa tasting party. I got a prize and there were like 70 entries. Big time for me). Now that I'm 38, I've decided to be a grown up and learn how to cook and do it well. Being completely honest, part of what's fueling my interest in cooking is that I'm in a local ultimate makeover contest. I'll spare you all the gory details of that, but I will tell you that we're on our own for the diet portion. I'm in it to win it, so I've been looking up healthy recipes to cook up. I was fortunate enough to find some delightful recipes for Vegan Sloppy Joes, Tofu Finger and Red Hot Apple Pie in a Mug.  All I can say is that all three were total yum! I know that you probably can't wait to make this for your family or yourself, so without further ado, here are the recipes! 

 Vegan Sloppy Joes: 

1 package (it's actually a box) of Boca Original Vegan Meatless Burger patties. I tried to find some meatless vegan crumbles, but was unable to (Morningstar crumbles are not vegan). You'll be crumbling the patties up, so 2 patties would possibly serve 4-6 people and 4 patties would serve 6-8 people.
Depending on how many  people you're cooking for, put either 2 patties or 4 patties into a non-stick skillet or microwave. Tip: It helps to crumble the patties if you break them up into pieces before you put them in your cooking device.

Stovetop: cook on medium heat until cooked through to 160F. As the patties, cook, take a fork and crumble them into tiny pieces. 

Mircowave: The Boca box says to only cook 1 patty at a time, but I've cooked more than one at a time before without incident. Follow the directions on the box for the time, but be sure that the patty is cooked to 160F. You can crumble after the patty is cooked. I used a fork to do this, but do what is easiest for you. 

Pour Manwich Sloppy Joe Sauce ( I used the original style) into skillet until heated

Viola! You're ready to serve your Vegan Sloppy Joes on your choice of bread! 

Tofu Fingers: 

1 pound firm tofu, sliced into wedges/fingers/strips, 1 cup Italian breadcrumbs (note: you will not need this many breadcrumbs, but using this much will ensure easier breading) 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain the water off of the tofu, rinse it, and set it in a colander to let excess water drain off. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch wedges/fingers/strips, and spray both sides of the tofu wedges with the cooking spray. 

                           

Roll them in the breadcrumbs. Lay the wedges on the cookie sheet and give the tops one more spray. 

Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with dipping sauces (ketchup, honey-mustard, ranch, etc.). In my apartment oven, which is from 1985, I had to bake for close to 30 minutes to get them golden brown. 

Tip: I used some additional Italian seasoning for some additional flavor. 

Red Hot Apple Pie in a Mug 

• 1 medium Fuji apple, cored and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 12 - 15 pieces Red Hots Cinnamon Flavored Candy
• 1/2 sheet (2 crackers) low-fat cinnamon graham crackers
• 2 tbsp. Fat Free Reddi-wip (or more!)
• Dash cinnamon

Put apple cubes in a microwavable cup or mug.  Top with Red Hots -- the more you use, the hotter your pie in a mug will be. 

Cover and microwave for 2 minutes.

Stir well. Re-cover and microwave for an additional 1 - 2 minutes, until apple cubes are soft. Additional time may or may not be needed, depending on your specific microwave. Container will be HOT when removing from microwave, so please be careful.

Meanwhile, crush/crumble graham crackers in a manner that you see fit. I just used my clean hands to crumble; set aside. Once cup or mug is cool enough to handle, mix contents well. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.Top with most of the crushed graham crackers followed by the whipped topping. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

I loved this receipe, but my can of Reddi-Whip was defective, so the "whip" was mush. Lol!

This was a yummy meal! It may be a "go-to" meal for me from now on. Easy to do. Although I will say that the Vegan Sloppy Joes make for great leftovers, the Tofu fingers do not. I ate the Hot Apple Pie in a Mug right up, so not sure how that fares as a leftover. 

Thanks Katie!  It is so fun to share in your personal transformation!  You are such a positive role model for women, young and old.   I am so honored you would want to write a post for my blog!  

xoxo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katie Parker is a breast cancer survivor, speaker and writer.  Katie was a 2011 Pink Together Ambassador, a breast cancer writer for the "Fight Like A Girl" website, blogs for the Pink Lotus Breast Cancer's, "Breast Cancer 101" blog and is a volunteer speaker for the American Cancer Society. 

Guest Blog, if it can be "Veganized" SHE can do it! Vegan Monkey Bread

Nick, husband of Jessica, father of Riley and Georgia, and living legend  of the vegan community in the making

A little over a year ago, I agreed to help my husband embark upon the great vegan experiment. It was a little rough in the beginning. There was a lot of Googling the ingredient lists, there are animal by products in damn near everything; and, it feels like manufactures’ are trying to hide that fact.

I am an adventurous cook, brash baker, and a big fan of eating food. I took it as a personal challenge to veganize what I could. If nothing else- to prove to my mother that this was a viable lifestyle.  To be perfectly clear- I am not vegan; but, I am fairly busy with two babies and don’t want to make two meals all the time. So I go vegan during the week.

One fateful night I was scanning my favorite blogs, when I came across this lovely little recipe for monkey bread. It was really more of a cake, but I wasn’t going to hold that against the blogger. A quick scan of the ingredient list and I realized- I CAN VEGANIZE THIS! My poor husband had been left out of several great internet finds and now he was finally able to partake. Let me fill you in on how simple it was to make these face free.

Vegan Cinnamon Monkey Cake

You will need:
1-8oz. tub softened vegan cream cheese

1 ½ cups softened soy butter

2 ½ cups vegan sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3-4 containers of Pillsbury biscuits

2 TBSP cinnamon

1 ½ cups brown sugar

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter up two 9 inch pans and set aside.

In a small pot or bowl, melt ½ c  soy butter.

In a big Ziploc bag mix 1 c brown sugar and 1 c sugar, add cinnamon and shake it all up.

Remove biscuits and roll each one into a little 4 inch tube, then cut them into 4-5 pieces.

Drop the pieces in the butter. I used a slotted spoon to fish them out and drop them in the bag of sugar. Shake it , shake it, shake it like a Polaroid picture.

Drop them casually into the well buttered cake pans.

Repeat until you’ve covered the bottoms of the pans fairly completely. I actually ran out of sugar and had to had about ½ c more of each kind of sugar and another good dash of cinnamon..

Take the remaining butter from the dipping process and melt 1 more stick with it. Add to that whatever sugar was left in the Ziploc bag and heat in a sauce pan. This bit is tricky because you want to stir it constantly until the sugar is just melted into the butter but not burn it.

Drizzle this delicious concoction evenly over your two pans.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

While that’s baking:

Make sure the burner is OFF!

 

In the same little sauce pan you melted your butter/brown sugar mixture- mix ½ c soy butter, vanilla, the tub of vegan cream cheese, and about 1 c. vegan sugar. Residual heat only here folks. With a whisk just whip the crap out of all those ingredients until you get a creamy smooth consistency. Finger dip tasting is the only way you’re going to know if you’ve added enough sugar.  Once you’ve reached peak taste toss the pot into the fridge and let it rest and set up while you’re baking.

Pull your lovely cakes out of the oven. Loosen the sides with a spatula and turn them out onto plates. Take your frosting and spread a thin loose layer to be the middle.  Top it with the second layer and coat it with the remaining frosting. At this point you should be DYING to eat the whole damn thing- so go for it!
 

Jessica, with daughter Georgia

 



Guest Blogger-

Jessica is a blogger, mom, and all around amazing  person.

Check out her blog It's Less Important Than You Think.

She's also on Facebook  and Twitter @CrunchieMom