dirt don't hurt

All it takes is a day of sunshine and I start to get spring fever.  And for whatever reason, spring fever for me inspires me to eat real, wholesome, from-scratch food.   I usually make granola in the oven, in huge batches and it takes all day.  I tried a new recipe and with a few alterations found a great combination of flavors for my kids.  And me.  It’s sinfully delicious.   Ingredients: ▪    1 Tbl olive oil ▪    2 cups rolled oats ▪    1/3 cup butter ▪    1/3 cup brown sugar ▪    1 Tbl honey ▪    1 tsp vanilla ▪    ½ cup chopped pecans ▪    2 graham crackers, broken into pieces ▪    milled flax seed (optional) Directions: 1. Heat olive oil in skillet.  Add oats and cook until oats are toasted but not burnt, about 5 minutes.  Remove oats to a cookie sheet to cool. 2. In skillet, melt butter.  Add brown sugar, honey, ...

If you've never had black beans that didn't come from a can, here's a secret: they are actually black. I find the dull brownish color from canned "black" beans as appealing as that syrupy goo that it is packaged in, but I fully admit that I call on those cans quite often. Because as it turns out, I'm a blackbeanaholic . I put them in hummus , on my tossed salads, in cold salads, in warm salads. I re fry them and spice them to soup. But my most favorite way to eat them is right out of the ol ' crock pot, scooped out with a salty tortilla chip. Making beans sans-cans was always something I was afraid of. The soaking just turned me off, as if that one extra step of doing, well, nothing, was too difficult to juggle. It wasn't until I later learned the beauty and ease of cooking these babies in a crock pot, and my world has become beautifully bean-y. Your house will smell fabulous. Your kids will say, "mom, what's cooking? It smells soooooo gooo...

I have this recipe for black bean hummus that I just adore because not only does it taste good, but I have this everlasting crush on black beans. I just love them. Cold, hot, refried , ground up, you name it. A recent kick of this recipe has me scrounging for cans in the back of my pantry, trying to dig up a can of the black variety. One day my daughter, age 8, asks what I'm looking for and says "yuk. I don't like black bean hummus. Can't you just make regular hummus?" Hmm , ok . I didn't find any black beans anyway. I did, however, find a can of great northern beans, which I simply used in place of my ol ' favorite. And the kid ate an entire bowl of it. "This is the best hummus ever, mommy!" eat eat eat eat eat eat eat "Hey mom, what is hummus made out of?" I began to list the ingredients and she about fell out of her chair at the mention of beans. "You mean there are BEANS in here? Like the kind I don't normally like?" ...

As some of you may know, we have standard traditions that we do on the first day of each season. For the first day of summer, it's a campfire. Fall is a small pot of applesauce. Winter is hot chocolate in the dark. And spring, lovely spring, is planting seeds. Only this year's first day of spring was so lovely, that we packed our lunch, put on our boots and spent a big chunk of the day at The Wilderness Center , one of our most favorite places. We fed the geese and the fish, and for once I wasn't attacked by a large bird. It was already a good day. We picnicked on the tower, to the sound of spring peepers, blue jays, crows, and more. Even better, the babe slept for the last 2 miles, so we didn't have to drag her away from stopping to pick up every pine cone and rock. It was a very good, nearly perfect day. But the next day, we had to carry on our tradition. This year: egg heads. We've done these in the past, and the dog has eaten them before we truly got to enjoy th...

Let's face it. There are a million mac and cheese recipes out there, and still, our kids like the stuff from the box better. It drives me crazy, that they would prefer neon orange powdered product and little Spongebob shapes, but I can't complain about the convenience . Our Meatless Monday pledge, though, has forced me to make dinners that are good and hearty enough for the whole family, all the while being healthy. And we know that as good as that neon orange stuff is, it probably isn't the most wholesome thing we can put in our mouths. This has been my go-to mac and cheese recipe for a long time. We haven't eaten it in a while because of the baby being allergic to dairy, but for the rest of the gang, I'll be whipping this up soon. It's pretty easy, I must admit, and you can even prepare it in the morning and stick it in the refrigerator and bake it off just before dinner. It may not be open-box-add-mix convenient , but it's pretty close. McAllister Mac ...

OK, OK, I know it's not Monday. I'm late this week, due to travels around the country and around the county. (There's a post here , on the Mamazina Blog, that sums it up.) But don't let that distract you from what is probably my favorite vegetarian (VEGAN, no less!) recipe. This one is so easy and so delicious, even my son will lick the bowl. In honor of him... Bowl-licking baked rice and beans 1/2 onion, chopped 1 Tbl olive oil 2 garlic cloves, chopped 3/4 - 1 can beans (I love Great Northern for this one) 1/2 cup black olives (optional-- i put it on 1/2 the casserole for myself) 1 Tbl soy sauce a little peppa ' 1/2 tsp paprika 1/4 tsp dried basil 1/4 tsp dried oregano 1 cup white rice 2 cups water Saute onion in oil until translucent. Add garlic, cook one minute more. Mix all ingredients (including sauteed onion mix) in a large bowl, the dump into a greased casserole dish. Or be lazy like me and just mix it all in the casserole dish-- still works. Bake at...

We had a very long discussion on Facebook , my friends and I, trying to figure out what I could call tofu so that my kids would eat it. It seems that the word "tofu" has gotten really bad press over the years (at least in my house), mostly because of my husband who thinks it is the world's worst culinary ingredient. "You've never had it prepared well." I responded. "I'm not eating it," he replied. And I imagine under his breath he was mumbling "where's the beef?" But beyond his opinion, the word "tofu" is a terribly unappealing name. Toe and Foo. Together, it's nearly a one word euphemism for toe jam. (I reckon that's where the name probably originated.) This being a Meatless Monday , I was going to make it anyway. From a Cooking Light book, I prepared Fettuccine and Tofu with Finger-Licking Peanut Sauce, with a few adjustments, as these things go. I was all prepared to tell the kids I was making "ve...