My Midwest Life February 22nd

 Hello! I just got back from a walk with the dog, and I think we have 2-3" piles of slush in some areas.  It's at this time of year that I'm really thankful for my warm socks and LL Bean boots.  I just finished A Year in Havana for my book club this Saturday and I loved it.  I would highly recommend it. I'm also finishing up Unorthodox on Netflix.  It's an interesting and suspenseful TV show. This is part of my "me" TV time.  I'm finally at the point where I can enjoy some of my own TV and not just when I'm treadmilling in the mornings during the winter.  

Here's a peek of what else has been going on for the past 2 weeks. 

Of course breakfast.  I've got to have a little extra protein so I usually make a smoothie with my weekend waffle.  I also had the last of the grapefruits for the season sadly.

For lunch last week I made a tempeh eggroll bowl.   This was so easy I had some time on the night before so I didn't have to make it for the weekend.  I'm also trying some more vegan recipes, just to expand my repertoire and find more healthy alternatives. 

The frost on my bedroom window one morning.

I made Valentine's cards for my girls. 

Another vegetarian lunch.  This time I made Mexican rice (subbed veggie broth for chicken) and then added some leftover black beans, roasted veggies and spinach.  Instead of cheese I used nutritional yeast. 

We made homemade mushroom filled ravioli as a side dish for our anniversary. 

I went snowshoeing the other day.  It was so beautiful. 

These grasses must have been 10 ft tall. 

Homemade lasagna, everything from scratch: pasta, Bolognese and béchamel sauce.  This is lasagna perfection. 

I hope you have a wonderful week!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Recent Eats

 Hello! I just thought I'd try to inspire you for some cooking ideas this next week.  I always like to see what others are cooking and eating as well.  It's a cold snowy morning and I'm  quite thankful I don't need to go anywhere today really.  It's time to hunker down, cook and  blog.   As I write this I have crème brulé in my oven for dessert tonight and I started marinating my rack of lamb for dinner.  It was  our 26th anniversary the other day and we thought we'd make ourselves a lovely dinner tonight.  We will be drinking a Bordeaux. On with the eats.

Breakfast: I just want to prove I don't always  eat eggs for breakfast.  I really do love them. Today I made teff  pancakes with maple butter, grapefruit and cherry and spinach smoothie topped with cacao nibs.  The pancakes are from Run Fast Eat Slow by Shalane  Flannigan.  I recommend at least picking this book up from your local library to check out.  It has a lot of great recipes.                                                                   

I do love my Smucker's  all natural peanut butter or Costco all natural peanut butter.  Here I had it with sourdough toast and my rhubarb jam and the smoothie, day one. 

Of course what breakfast would be complete without an egg pic.  I love putting a sunny side up egg on leftover roasted veggies, and who can complain about avocado toast and everything seasoning?

For some of my lunches I made sesame chick peas.  I put them on cauliflower rice which I topped with grated carrots (or another veggie), arugula and avocado and more sesame seeds.   Yum.  For work I put the avocado and the arugula  in a separate container and topped the rice mixture after I heated it up. 

I also tried a new veggie recipe for turnips. I roasted them and topped with a caper raisin vinaigrette. The recipe is in Six Seasons. Joshua McFadden has a lot of creative recipes with vegetables or that are veggie heavy yet still contain meat or chicken.  

For dinner last week, we had Mexican rice. It's similar to stir fried rice yet with some different flavors. Honestly this could be a B, L or D. The corn was from last summer and the lettuce is local Wisconsin grown, Superior Farms. Of course the eggs are local too. 

I hope this post inspires you to create a week of delightful eats.

Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

  

My Midwest LIfe February 6th, 2021

 Hello! It's a cold afternoon in Northeast Wisconsin. We got about 6 inches of snow Thursday and now it's bitterly cold. The snow is here for a while.  It's time to just stay inside and enjoy some of the inside things I like to do.  Currently I'm reading Belonging. It is a fascinating book about finding out who you are.  The illustrations and the way the book is put together is really interesting.  I don't know if reading it on a Kindle would do it justice.  I've also been cooking a lot, knitting and working on my art.   I'm also blessed to have a treadmill so I've been watching Brigerton while I'm on the treadmill.   

Speaking of snow I took this picture before our extra 6 inches came down. I love the sun setting in the distance. 

A few days later,  4 pm

5 pm - I love how the light changes. 

I'm working on growing more plants.  Greenery is so good to have around the house.  These are grapefruit seeds.  I need to get them in some potting soil pretty soon.

My sister-in-law gave us this grow pod, yummy fresh herbs in the winter. 

As I said, I've been working on more art.  Watercolors inspired from a walk.

I might do more of this, make it into a whole word or on a different medium. 

Of course some good food.  Italian quinoa soup. I used black beans and veggies I had in the freezer and fridge and less cream.  You could make this vegan, by subbing plant milk and nutritional yeast.  

Also so proud of this breakfast: local eggs, topped with local micro greens, homemade cracked wheat toast topped with raspberry jam from local berries, (not local peanut butter -but no sugar) and peaches I canned last year from Tree Ripe Citrus. 

And what could be better than a filet mignon with a red wine sauce, mashed potatoes and broccoli and a Spanish red on a a cold night. 

I hope you have wonderful week and find ways to bring joy and creativity into your life.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth