Garden Enchiladas

A few weeks ago Hubs and I travelled to Pennsylvania where we were visiting my parents.  During our visit we went out to eat at Don Pablos, a mexican chain in the area.  I ordered a Spinach and Pimento Enchilada dinner.  I thought the meal was delicious with the spinach and peppers and onions all wrapped up and smothered with cheese and sour cream.  I also thought that I could cook it better...

When we returned to the PT House I instantly set about researching enchilada recipes.  I was quite obsessed really.  I decided to copy the spinach and pimento idea but I went a bit further to add a multitude of veggies and called it a Garden Enchillada.

I used:
1 Red Bell Pepper
2 Jalepeno peppers (seeded w/o ribs)
1 Green Bell Pepper
4 cloves pressed garlic
1 white onion
1 red onion
1 container mushrooms
2 Table spoons Cumin
1 Table spoon chili powder
2 pinches red pepper flakes
S and P
1 Bag frozen chopped spinach
1 Jar pimento slices
1 can beans rinsed (black, white, or pinto is best)
1 Jar green chile sauce
Mexican cheese mix
Sliced black olives
Cilantro, chopped
Pico de Gallo
Corn Tortillas

I chopped and sautéed all fresh veggies with evoo in a cast iron skillet.  Be sure to remove the ribs and seeds of the jalepeno peppers unless you like things really spicy.  I added the seasonings and S and P once the veggies started to look soft.  Then add the chopped frozen spinach, rinsed beans, 1/2 of your cilantro, and pimento peppers.  Once everything is very soft and mixed well add your desired amount of cheese to get everything to stick together and get all gooey.

Then soften the tortillas by frying them in medium-hot frying pan with oil (I used evoo and another cast iron).  If you have a helper it is great to have them do this while you are sautéing the filling.

Fill the tortillas and wrap them placing them in the pan with the opening side down.  Once you fill the pan with the enchiladas smother them with the entire can of green chile sauce, as much grated cheese as you wish, black olives, your remaining cilantro, and pico de gallo.  Bake in the oven @ 400 for 15-20 minutes.

The results are amazing.

I served the enchiladas with fresh guacamole, and a good rose wine.  This as already become one of our favorite dishes and Hubs wants be to make it every week!

Ray LaMontagne

So there is this artist that has this gorgeous rustic voice... and well if there was ever a voice I could listen to all day (except for Hubs of course) it would be Ray LaMontagne. Beautiful. I recommend all of his albums ;-)

I was surfing the web and came across his storytellers spotlight on VH1. The video below is a song about the poverty he grew up in, and he speaks a bit about his mom.

Tags: Ray LaMontagne Storytellers, Ray LaMontagne, Music Videos, Storytellers

Living room make over!

This week, the first week of my summer vacation, I decided it was time to paint the living room. This was the first makeover I've done to a room in our first house! I can't believe we've already lived here for 4 months and its taken me this long to open a can of paint!

You may recall from my post on peonies that the living room used to be LIME GREEN!!!! I think this is a much better, more relaxing, color. :-)



Here are some working photos of Hubs and I.





This time I got to use the roller :-)

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs!

Here at the PT house we have gone through a wet-weather streak, and now a dry weather streak that is accompanied by lots and lots of bugs as a result of the aforementioned wet weather streak.

When I'm working in the yard or garden they swarm around me.  Gnats and mosquitoes particularly.  I was told that herbs will help repel them... and I have an abundance of basil so I clipped of a bunch and stuck it in my bun.  From the picture you can see I am squinting from all the tiny bugs on my face.  So I don't think the basil helped any, perhaps it was the wrong herb? :-) I am thinking of trying some natural bug repellant... I hear that catnip oil does the trick (really, I dare you to Google it) I wonder how all our cats will handle that. 



And then there are the fleas!! So many fleas.  AND all of our animals are on flea and tick meds., AND WE STILL HAVE FLEAS!!!!! Our last trip to the vet (that I mention below) had us loaded up with spray for the house, and pills to kill any bug on every pet we own.  Now we have to pick a day and wage war on the fleas, spray, vacume, and wash every inch of the house.

Whats worse is Kona seems to be allergic to something outside.  He is fine one minute, then we go outside (even for only 5 minutes), and then when we are inside again the skin around his eyes are all swollen!  The first time it happened we took him to the emergency vet and spent about $160!!  We don't know what is causing it, and it keeps returning!  So he is on a benadryl regiment now.  I have a feeling it is the gnats because they swarm his eyes and he keeps pawing his face until after the benadryl has taken effect.



Kona will eat anything I hand him.  I thought he would take the benadryl pill just like a treat but the tiny little size of it confused him.  So I doctored it up with a dog biscuit and peanut butter sandwich.



Notice the pink benadryll in the middle.  He liked his mondo-pill-sandwich, a lot, and spent a good five minutes or so licking his chops afterward.  Hubs and I still do not know what is causing the reaction, but hopefully it stops soon!  Please feel free to comment if you have any idea or tips!

Product Review: Soup and Crackers

Being on a specialized diet (yes we're going strong!) means that you have to make all your food from scratch.  This can become sorta tricky around the PT house because being two music teachers we can get overwhelmingly busy.  So it is a life-saver to find quick meals that are instantly ready and gluten free and vegan without preservatives or a lot of salt.  (Wait?!! does such a thing actually exist?!?!!)

Yes, my friends, it does.

My first go to meal comes from Dr. McDougall's Right Foods.  In fact as I type this it is lunch time and I am enjoying Dr. McDougall's Low Sodium Vegetable Soup.  I have to say that while I was standing in the grocery store weighing my soup options I was weary of choosing the low sodium soup over the regular soup.  I remember not liking low sodium Campbell's soups because they tasted bland!  But I thought I needed to give it a try, this is no Campbell's soup after all. 

I am so glad that I tried the low sodium soup.  I love it.  It is still delicious and full of flavor.  On Dr. McDougall's Right Foods website they state that they have 3 goals when producing food:

About Our Food

It means a lot to us that you eat well. And we’ve got pretty high standards for what eating well really means.

• First, you’ve got to have meals that TASTE GREAT.
• Second, you’ll need a VARIETY of meals to suit any mood and occasion so you never get bored or run out of options!
• Third, your meals should have an ABUNDANCE OF NATURAL, NUTRITIOUS, AND NOURISHING INGREDIENTS so that you feel full and still feel great.

We’re not satisfied until we’ve satisfied all three for you.

I think they've covered all three of their goals with their Veggie Soup!  They also have other gluten free foods and soups, though I have to say I've only had one other soup from their product line: Black Bean (which I also love). I used two cartons of the Black Bean soup and a garden salad to serve four people lunch when my parents came to visit.  It was quick, easy, delicious, and satisfying.  I was so grateful to have a quick lunch so I didn't have to spend all day in the kitchen.
Dr. McDougall's product line is based around the principle that people should be healthy, happy, and enjoy a long life through the benefits of a plant-based diet.  The company also uses sustainable food and packaging practices because they believe that what is good for the earth is good for us also.  Here is what their website says about sustainability:

Sustainable Packaging

• We use paper-based packaging because paper is a renewable, biodegradable natural resource and BPA free
• We source our paper from FSC certified sustainably managed forests that are continuously growing and where biodiversity is preserved
• We use only cartons and cups, which weigh less and take up less truck space than cans, reducing fuel consumption and lowering our carbon footprint (It takes 9 truckloads of cans to ship as many units as 1 truckload of cartons!)
• We recycle at our own facility
• Our suppliers work with waste management companies to encourage investment in equipment that recycles paper cartons and cups.

Sustainable Food

• Everything we make is all natural
• We use only non-GMO ingredients
• We never use animal products
• Shipping our Meal Cups and Asian Entrées weighs less, takes up less space and doesn’t require the energy consuming refrigeration of frozen foods

It feels good to buy a great product from a company that has similar values to ours at the PT house.  I am looking forward to taking a stash of these soups on a camping trip this summer, simply open and pour into a pot and heat up over the fire.  Easy!

Now what is soup without crackers?  Soup without crackers is like peanut butter and no jelly, chips and no dip!  The problem I have found in the search for gluten free crackers is they are too stiff and not absorbent, the first brand of crackers Hubs and I tried didn't absorb the soup at all.  Hubs especially loves the crackers and was very sad about the whole thing.  The crackers which are soft and crumbly and gluten free (which I am also currently enjoying with my lunch) come from Schar.

I know of this company because my Mom, who is also gluten free, will only eat their pasta... and honestly I won't eat another brand of gluten free pasta either.  Now, this is not a pasta review, but I drove an hour to a Martin's grocery store in search of the Schar pasta which I did find (Thank the Lord!!!!!), but also found an array of other Schar products.  Like their crackers.  Their products are so easy to find because they all have the same yellow colored package.  I decided to get them thinking that perhaps, maybe, since they make the best gluten free pasta I've ever had, maybe, they might just be the best gluten free crackers I've ever had?? And they are.  I opened up the package today to find that they have individual portions packaged inside so the rest of the crackers will not get stale.  They are the perfect pair for soup, and perfectly absorbent and crumbly. 

I know that I will have many lunches in my future that will be Dr. McDougall's soup and Schar's crackers!  Happy Healthy Eating!!

This is how we do it....

At the PT house.  Tidying is not our favorite chore.  We are not messy people but tidying is something everyone must do, am I right?

So we've created "Rules" about tidying.  A tiding "how to."

How to tidy your abode, PT style:

First you must plug in your ipod to the largest speakers you have and blast the most motivating music you own.
For tidying I always go to my favorite band from my teen years: Flogging Molly.  Maybe it's the constant bass drum, or the fiddle, or maybe it makes me feel youthful and energized.  What ever it is, I always get more done and faster when listening to Flogging Molly.  Find your grooove. 

Then focus on one room at a time.  Have your kitchen timer handy and set it for 15 or 20 minutes and try to get as much done as possible in that one room for the amount you set on the timer.  When the timer dings, move on to another room.

When you have completed all your rooms, then do the chores that take you all over the house... dusting or vacuuming for example.  

That is how you tidy, the PT house way!

Peonies

When Hubs and I moved into the PT house last year one of the things I loved about the property was that there were peonies! Gorgeous, fragrant, romantic, peonies!  They quickly became my favorite flower.  Since we saw our new house in the fall and moved in during the winter, I didn't really know what would be popping up this spring.  I was hoping for peonies.

Thankfully there are many peonies everywhere!  They are mostly light pink/white, but I spotted some magenta ones buried by some bushes in the back yard.
I waited forever for them to bloom and once they did I cut them and arranged them all over the house.  They smell so wonderful.

PT in a Garden

I am writing today to bring your attention to my new blog! While I may not be posting a whole lot here, I have lately been posting a bit over there.  It is called Pear Tree in a Garden, and is all about Hubs and my adventure into Organic Gardening.  Whats worked, what didn't, what grew, what died, products we like, etc.  SO go check it out!

Kona says: Its time to get up!

One of the things I was looking forward to most this Saturday was to sleep in.  To maybe around 8:00.  Gosh I remember when that was early.  I'm not sure if you've noticed this silly thing that happens with spring, the sun, it rises earlier every day.  This rising of the sun is my dog's signal that it is time to GET UP!

So at 6:20 today (which is earlier than I get up for work on some days) I was woken by the blessedly cute, but painfully annoying (before the hour of 8:00 am) Kona. 

So my lesson today is... blinds, must get blinds!!

Wallpaper, drywall, mold, plaster, brick.

Today at the PT House we were started the simple project of tearing down (ancient-faded-pink) wall paper to paint a room.

Then we found some moisture.

 Then we found some mold.

 Then we found brick.

...and now we have a big project. 

Lifestyle changes!

Recently Hubs has been on a crusade to safe the world!! He has been watching documentary after documentary, has lost all trust in politicians (save for Ralph Nadar), wants to go green (now, right now, save the planet now!!!), and has convinced me to completely re-think how and what we eat.  Gosh, he as a superhero complex!

Of all his new obsessions, I really like the idea of eating healthy.  So we've decided to have a Vegan-ish diet.  Yes, I call it Vegan-ish.  Not unlike most Americans, Hubs and I grew up eating cheese burgers, and chicken nuggets, and pizza.  In fact we quite enjoy a good hearty steak, and giving up the pizza will be difficult, so why the vegan-ish-ism?  Quite a few reasons really.

First of all is the fact (yes fact) that the Human body is not build to digest meat.
We Humans have flat teeth for grinding, not gnawing and tearing, and have soft nimble fingers for picking nuts and berries, not the claws needed for tearing raw flesh.  If we were meant to digest meat, our bodies would look more like a dog, or cat, with claws and sharp teeth.  Also our digestive track is long and digestion in humans is very slow, perfect for digesting plant based foods!  The digestion process takes about 48 hours for Humans, and about 2 for carnivores, meat tends to putrefy in our digestive track or get stuck in the many bends of our intestine.  This can make us very sick!

A vegan diet is just plain healthy.  In eating a vegan diet you are reducing the amount of fat and processed foods you eat, and are ingesting more nutrients instead of 'fillers'.  People who switch to a vegan diet tend to lose about 20-30 pounds, although that is not one of the reasons why Hubs and I are switching.  We are switching mainly because we like to feel good, and eating good means you feel good.  Also we don't want to have to worry about diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, colon cancer, and auto-immune diseases which can be a side effect of eating meat and not enough vegetables/fruits.

Not to mention- a plant based diet encourages more (plant) farming and less animal farming which is good for the earth.


So Vegan it is!


But then there is the 'ish' part.  Hubs and I have also eliminated gluten from our diet.  Gluten is in wheat and anything that uses wheat.  No bread, pasta, beer, crackers, etc. unless it is 'gluten free' of course.  We first ventured into the gluten free diet more of an experiment.  About 1/3 of my family members are on the gluten free diet due to food allergies, so it may just be good for me because of my genetics; but also it is a suggested diet for people with ADD/ADHD, or auto immune diseases, AND it is estimated that about 90% of the american population is allergic to gluten and don't even know it.  So we threw our hands up in the air and said WHY NOT?!  Really why? 


Then, since we were altering our diet so drastically and were nervous about getting enough protein, we decided to keep seafood in our diet.  This aspect of our new diet was to avoid that jumping in the deep end feeling.


So.  Vegan - gluten free + seafood = Vegan-ish.


Now it's been over a month.  I sorta wanted to try it out for a while before I announced it to the world.  It isn't even 'facebook official' yet.  Anyhow it's been a while and I feel awesome.  I have more energy, I feel stronger, I have less of a double chin and more bones in my face (which looks awesome in my opinion), I have less gray under my eyes and more color to my complexion, and I have less pimples!  Hubs who used to be hypoglycemic said that he hasn't experienced one blood sugar crash since we've started the diet, and exclaimed that he feels hungry - not shaky- and doesn't think he's felt actual hunger before.


It's amazing.


And I thought I would miss meat, and cheese, and bread, and croutons, and cheese its... but really I don't miss it one bit.


So look forward to some vegan-gluten free recipes in the future!

Because it is still February and can get at least ONE post in here...

So, have you all been wondering what is going on?!!
It just so happens that the PT house HAS in fact moved, and ARE in fact homeowners!!

YAY!!!

For a while there I wasn't sure it was going to go through. It got right down to the wire, the closing date got pushed back 4 times... FOUR TIMES, and the house's foreclosure deadline got extended twice!! It was most nerve wracking! But the house is ours now and we are all moved (but not settled).

It was a lovely hectic type of moving experience. Hubs and I had help from my Mom and Brother, and Hub's Dad and Great Aunt & Uncle. They were all amazing and worked so, incredibly hard (I didn't have to lift any heavy things! It was amazing!!!!)

We really didn't have time to pack everything.... sooo it was a lot of hurry up and shove!
For the love of Jesus most Holy, I didn't think I had so much stuff!!! It took us 2 whole days to have everything out of the old house and into the new house! We've been recovering ever since.

In fact we've been in the new place for about a month now and we haven't recovered at all. We haven't even painted anything yet! Aaaaaand there are some interesting paint choices from the previous owners. Sherbert lime green (living room) for example, and vivid purple on the bottom and blue on the top (spare room... former kids room). Once I find my camera cord there will be pictures to follow.



Some things that I LOVE about my new house:

~There is NO dish washer... I know you are thinking "What?!!" Yes its true. I like that there is no dish washer. In fact I have a dish washer that is much more eco friendly: HUBS! Honestly its true, he does all the dishes! I like that there is no scum on the dishes from being in the machine, no residue and no food stuck on the dishes. It's great!

~We are next to a cow farm (again, go figure! I don't plan these things) and so it is very quiet and there are lots of trees. Because of this we have a great show of birds at the feeders. Tons of Cardinals, Chickadees, Nut Hatches, Finches, Tufted Titmice, and even Woodpeckers (Downy and Red Bellied), the highlight of my Saturday morning!

~We have a beautiful Sun Room in which Hubs and I (and the cats) can watch the birds and what not! It is even heated so we can enjoy it when the weather is very cold!

~The door to the basement has a cat door on it. It is very cute, and the cats love it. They run away from the dog and turn right around and look at him like "nah nah nah nah, you can't get me!"

~The house is heated with Propane instead of Oil, which is saving us a LOT of money; and the house is smaller so that saves us in money too! PLUS it has a fireplace which I LOVE... it even has a remote to turn it on and off, how cool!!

~We have a huge gigantic pantry. It is amazing!! It is the size of a small powder room, words really can't describe the wonders of this pantry!


The list can go on and on and on. For now I am going to work on getting some more pictures around here. A Blog with no pictures is just sad :-(

About that purchasing of a house...

Well as things go, we are able to purchase that house after all!!! Good things come to those who wait I guess! Everything is all worked out and in a few short hours Hubs and I are going over to sign all those papers! Then we will be working on cleaning/moving over this week and the holiday weekend.

(It is looking like we are in for snow this week too... so hopefully school will be canceled so I may work on cleaning the house!)

Hubs and I were over at the house yesterday for our final walk through, and there was a ton of junk still there. We may have a lot of moving to do before we can move in... I'll keep you posted

Lessons Learned in 2010

The PT house has NOT moved yet. The closing date has been pushed back over, and over, and over again. We've packed, unpacked, packed again, decorated for Christmas, then left town unsure of whether we were going to rush back to VA to move, or get pushed back again!! Which, of course, closing was pushed back once more. We've been start to stop so many times I think I have whip lash! We've been tossed around like a yo-yo first by the appraiser, then by our bank, then the owners bank, then by our bank again.

The whole experience has forced me to relax, work through the clutter, and to have patience... (and I thought I was a patient person...) I haven't blogged because I was waiting and waiting for something to happen with the house (so I could write about it)... but nothing has happened.

So onward, just like the time that is ticking. Here I enter 2011: forcefully relaxed, patient, and living each day whether we've moved or not. I plan on having more fun, reflecting more, and getting back to the things I love to do!




I am still waiting on that house though.....