this girl likes coffee :)

I have a new project!!! I need to change my diet in a house where I am responsible for the cooking, but no one but me is willing to eat healthy. SOO... its time to invest in some storage dishes and start experimenting with homemade tv dinners!!

I want things that will freeze and reheat easily, but that I can cook from scratch to control what is in them. This way I can cook whatever it is they all want to eat, and just pull mine out of the freezer and heat it up.

I have a few ideas, but I am always looking for a few more (keep in mind I am lactose intolerant).

So far on my list...
Thai Peanut Chicken (I really do love that one)
Black beans and rice
Southwest steak soup
Eggplant Parmesan (I use a goats or sheeps milk cheese option)
Lemongrass pork stir fry with noodles

I would really like a variety of tastes and a few more soups... what ideas do you have?

I absolutely LOVE Lactaid products. I use the milk a lot when I have to cook big meals for groups, and sometimes I can get cottage cheese from them as well... not always, but when it comes in I am like a kid in a candy store.

I make wontons and freeze them on a tray. Once frozen, I bag them. Then when I want a serve of wonton soup, I grab some chicken stock, bring it to a boil, throw in about 5 or 6 wontons and whatever vegetables I have on hand, maybe a bit of ginger or garlic, sesame oil, chinese 5 spice... whatever takes my mood, and voila! Super quick and healthy wonton soup.

Sometimes I cheat and use the chicken powder from the asian supermarket if I don't have real stock on hand.
http://www.ettason.com/products_details.asp?id=4046
I really like it actually, and it's a lifesaver when you are short on time.

is currently drinking hot cocoa made with vanilla soy topped with a dollop of whipped topping...yum

Ursy, would you mind sharing your wonton recipe? Wonton soup is certainly on my list, its my favorite comfort foods!!!

I've been putting this into a number of holiday dinners recently: Quinoa stuffed portabella mushrooms with a cashew sage cream sauce.
You can stuff baby bella mushrooms for appetizer size servings or larger bellas for an entree~

Stuffed mushrooms

• 4 large portabella mushrooms
• 2c cooked brown rice or quinoa
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• Fresh sage
• Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350̊
Remove stem from mushroom and lay upside down on a baking sheet.
Warm a pot over medium high heat with 2 tbsp olive oil on the bottom of the pot. Add in garlic and onions and sauté 3-4 minutes until onion is translucent. Add in grains and stir well. Season with sage, salt, and pepper. Stir well.
Spoon rice mixture into the mushrooms.
Cover with aluminum foil.

Bake 20-30 minutes until mushroom is juicy and beginning to cook down.

Cashew cream sauce
• 1 lb raw cashews
• ¼ c water
• Dry sage
• Salt

Puree cashews with water until creamy. Pour into pot on stovetop and season to taste with sage and salt while bringing up to heat.

Pour cream sauce over mushrooms just before serving.

Sure! I cook very much by feel, so I don't have a specific recipe (hope that's ok, I know some people like exact quantities but I tend to chuck stuff in and see what happens).

I just use the wonton or gow gee wrappers from the supermarket. They are not exactly the same but I think both are good.

I have made them from scratch once but I usually don't have the time, but here are my notes: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s13/s...e39957e9b48533

For the filling, I usually grab some mince (most often chicken or pork). Not too lean, a bit of fat is good (like sausages and hamburger, you need at least a bit of fat for the texture). Usually half a pound of mince will give you about 30 wontons.

I add a bit of any of these things to taste, according to mood (a bit of all of these would probably be too much, just pick what you have on hand / what you feel like)

Garlic, ginger, lemongrass, spring onions, onions, cilantro, lemon zest
Soy sauce, maggi seasoning, rice wine, chilli sauce (sriracha is the best!), sesame oil, chinese five spice, any other asian spice you like.

I put these in the food processor and give them a whiz. If they get caught up the sides and fail to get moving, I might add some of the mince to get things rolling. If your food processor is big enough you could add all of the meat if you like, mine is just a little one so I don't.

You could also add a bit of carrot for some colour if you felt like it. Sometimes I do just because I like to encourage my family to eat less meat and more vegetables.

Once everything is mixed together, you might want to do a taste test and adjust seasonings. I either pan-fry a little ball of it or drop it in a small pot of boiling salted water or stock for a few minutes.

Once you've got the filling to your liking, it's time to make your dumplings!

This is a good visual guide:
http://pinterest.com/pin/62698619782720850/

Basically find the one that pleases you most and get folding! I like the 5th one down, it's similar to the way my grandmother taught me to fold them, only the wrappers she used were square. In fact, I don't know if you could call any of the other designs wontons.

You get a feel for how much filling goes in each wrapper. If you are going to deep fry them, don't use quite as much filling because you could end up with raw middles.

Put them on a tray lined with baking paper and freeze. Once frozen, you can put them in a bag.

*follows Ursy's pinterest link*

*carefully peruses wonton folding methods*

*comes to #4*

*laughs hard, calls Gryph over; Gryph starts laughing too*

Thank you very much Ursy! :cheesy: :cheesy:

I would LOVE to grow herbs, vegetables, and trees... right now I move every couple of years it seems, so I am waiting. But I sure plan on it in the future.

Dante, I envy you your garden.
I LOVE growing stuff!

There is a house we have our eye on, and it has Paw paws, tropical apples, mulberries, bananas, strawberries, mandarins, and another citrus tree that we haven't identified yet.

I haven't been able to grow much because I know we will be moving soon, so I'm growing the tomatoes in a big pot (which you've seen pics of), potatoes in a pot (we had a supermarket one sprout so I thought I'd throw it in a pot and see what happened), cilantro, lemon basil, chives, mint, and I'm trying to grow some catmint for Tigerlily.

If we get the house we want, I would like to also plant some blueberries, lemongrass, galangal, ginger, kaffir lime, and a pandan plant. Oh yes, and maybe an avocado tree, if we have space. But they get big, and I think for best yield you need two of them, one A type and one B type (from memory, I researched it awhile ago)

You might not have heard of the pandan plant if you haven't had a lot to do with Asian cooking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandanus_amaryllifolius
I have a small one in a pot. I think it's one of my most cherished plants because it's not easily sourced where I am.

I have some galangal growing in the garden of our current home. It just the prettiest plant, I love how it looks (these photos don't do it justice but they were the best I could find at short notice)
http://pickmeyard.wordpress.com/tag/greater-galangal/



What? You never seen a dumpling in the shape of a surprised fish wearing sunglasses before? Lol :)