Stormeh kitteh!!!

Stormeh's getting more comfortable with Matt ;-D Letting Matt pet her/him a little :) Hopefully soon it'll be comfortable enough that he can get a hold of it & take a peek at the undercarriage to see if we have a little boy or a little girl for our East Coast feline lol!!

Monday's juice & the final say on my spaghetti sauce!!

 Hi everyone!! I hope you've all had a good Monday =) Mine wasn't so bad! Went pretty fast & nothing to eventful happened, other than I had a very slow internet connection which was frustrating me but I called Charter & they switched my channel & all seems to be better for the time being =) So, this morning's juice consisted of sweet potato (vitamin C, calcium, folate, potassium, beta carotene), kiwi(fiber, Vitamin E &K, potassium, copper), peach(boron, antioxidants, vitamin C & beta carotene), 2 oranges (natural aspirin & boron), ginger root (Vitamin B, potassium, manganese, magnesium, copper & natural anti inflamatory), apple (boron, cellulose, pectin),  & pear (Vitamin C & E, potassium) Made about 36 ozs of juice! Tastes a bit like a creamy orange smoothie with just a touch of bite from the ginger root :)

 At lunch time, my juice consisted of spinach (antioxidants, potassium, iron, calcium & Vitamin C), kale (antioxidants, calcium, iron, Vitamin A & C), parsley (antioxidants, folic acid, iron, Vitamin A & C), cilantro (potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, magnesium, folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, Vitamin A& C, beta carotene), ginger root (vitamin B, potassium, manganese, copper, magnesium & natural anti inflammatory), tomato (beta carotene & vitamin C), lime (calcium, iron, copper, fiber & Vitamin C), cucumber (Vitamin A, K, C, pantothenic acid, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, potassium), beet (folic acid, iron, calcium & Potassium), kiwi (fiber, Vitamin E &K, potassium, copper), three carrots (beta carotene, vitamin A&C, pectin, flourine, potassium), broccoli ( beta carotene, Vitamin C, calcium, iron, folic acid, chromium), peach (boron, antioxidants, vitamin C, beta carotene), & celery (riboflavin, vitamin B,A, C,K {lol! there is BACK in Celery, celery got back!!}, pantothenic acid, dietary fiber, folate, potassium & manganese) Whew! That's A LOT of nutrients!! =D approx 38 oz of yumminess!!!!

 And last photo of the day! I got to try out my spaghetti sauce!! I cooked some ground turkey in Italian seasonings, mixed my sauce in, let that simmer a bit to heat up. Poured that over rottini and sprinkled some parmesan on it. Came out amazing!!! My sauce is so delish!! =D

My first successful Spaghetti Sauce!!!!

Today I successfully made spaghetti sauce from scratch and oh my goodness is it delicious!!! I started by coarsely chopping about 8 cloves of garlic, 2/3 of a large carrot & 2 stalks of celery & a bell pepper (I used two small costa rican peppers since I didn't have any bells) & mixing those together. I had 17 small/ medium tomatoes to start. But did end up having to go to the store for about 10 more small (roma sized ) tomatoes.

I cut a small cross into the bottom of each & should have cored them here, but I forgot lol-so make sure you core them as it's a bit of a pain to try & remove the cores after this step, but it is possible so don't fret if you forget too ;-)

I placed the tomatoes into boiling water for about a minute--well... I was instructed about a minute, they were in there closer to four, try to keep it clsoer to a minute as they slightly over cook if you leave them in too long. Then dumped them into a colander & poured cold water over them. Then peel them & dice them, removing the seeds. If you like, you can do this over a bowl to trap the juice/water from the tomatoes in case your sauce is too thick near the end, you can add some of this to thin it out. I have frozen veggie stock cubes I would have been able to use to thin if I needed to ;-)

While you're peeling these, you will want to cook the diced garlic/celery/carrot/pepper mixture along with diced onions if you like (I used half a sweet yellow onion, a pretty large one) I forgot to take a pic of this step X( sorry folks.. anyhoo, then mix this cooked veggie mix and the diced tomatoes in a large pot & use a potato masher (or your hands, my sister likes to use her hands & I admit I think I will next time too, I had done that before & I like the way it mashes them better)

Add any italian type seasonings you like, I have a mc cormicks italian mix I like, I also added some extra oregano & basil, and some fresh chopped parsley. One day, when Matt & I have our home and garden, I will have all fresh seasonings to add--yummy!!!

let that simmer for about an hour. Then if you like, you can cook some mushrooms, I also cooked some zucchini in a bit of butter & italian seasonings

Once those are just about half way cooked, just starting to soften, mix them in with your sauce

I literally let this simmer on the stove for about 3 hours to let it reduce & thus thicken up & I am so glad I did because it came out so delicious!! During the last hour of cooking, I added a good amount (adjust to your preference so specific measurements are not needed here)of coarse sea salt, a touch of pepper & a few tablespoons of white granulated sugar to sweeten.

This came out so incredibly delicious! So hearty & robust yet also sweet!! I will let it sit in the fridge over night & tomorrow I will cook up some ground turkey with some italian seasonings & pour it over some pasta to try it out!! If you don't want to let it simmer for hours on the stove, adding a can or two of tomato paste will thicken it also. I did not come up with this on my own lol!! Between the advice of my 'not' older sister & my friend Jade, I finally have spaghetti sauce! Thanx ladies for your help!!! I am so glad I have such experienced people in my kitchen corner to help me out ;-D

Today's fabulous juice!!!

Today's juice consists of an apple(boron, cellulose, pectin), pear (vitamin C, E & Potassium), peach (boron, antioxidants, Vitamin C & beta carotene), 3 kiwis (fiber, vitamin E &K, potassium & copper), 2 oranges (natural aspirin and boron), sweet potato (vitamin c, calcium, folate, potassium & beta carotene) & ginger root (bitamin B, potassium, magnesium, manganese & natural anti inflammatory). Made about 38oz of juice that tasted a bit like a peach orange smoothie :) the sweet potato ads a nice creaminess to it. With just a touch of a bite from the ginger root =)

Latest project :)

Tonight I finished the puzzle that Matt got me for my birthday :) 1000 piece puzzle of the Hogwarts Castle From the Harry Potter series. And believe it or not--the cats didn't lose any of my pieces!! There are two that ended up with bite marks o.O but, eh... could have been worse lol!

Giving the frozen yogurt craze a shot ;-D

I keep hearing how delicious this frozen yogurt is, so I'm giving it a go for the first time! I like to let it set out for 20-30 mins to soften (not sure what it is but I prefer that to sticking it in the nooker to soften) so we shall see in a bit ;-)

Stormeh Kitteh!!

This is Stormeh!! The little kitten Matt rescued from a storm drain near his home a couple of weeks ago =D (s)he is sooooo stinking cute!!! Not sure if it's a little boy or girl yet because still too shy for Matt to get a hold of & take a good look. Just now  coming around to play and approach Matt :) So very adorable!!