Confession Time

Happy Friday, everyone! Be forewarned: This is a rambling, personal post.

I have a confession to make.

Before I started this blog, I thought to myself: I am doing this for me, I am doing this for fun, and if it never goes anywhere that needs to be okay with me. I made that deal with myself before the first post ever went up, because sometimes things work, and sometimes they don't. Unless you have tons of followers and page views, it is also almost impossible to make money off of a blog, so I knew I couldn't do it for that reason, either.

I loved it when people commented on the recipes on Facebook (and sometimes on the actual blog), and it tickled me silly when people actually wrote and told me they made one of the recipes. (I even got to try my friend Lisa's version of my guacamole at a party!)

But, somewhere along the way, my expectations got too high--for the blog, and even for me. I can get very anxious about things sometimes, silly things more often than not, and the blog started to become one of those things. I was anxious about what to make, whether it was new enough or if I should be more inventive. I was anxious that I didn't post enough, or did I post too much? I was anxious if there weren't as many comments--did that mean it was a bad recipe?

Rather than be inspired by the desire to do well and do better, it kind of paralyzed me and I noticed myself blogging less and less often until finally I went on hiatus.

I told myself once we got the house, things would be better. I would have more space, feel more motivated, etc., etc.

Unfortunately, I was still just as anxious about everything, just with more space to do it.

I realized somewhere along the way I lost my joy for cooking because I was too worried about how people would receive it. I was discouraged when there wasn't much feedback.

I became that person with a First World Problem with my blog. Boo hoo.

I actually told Hubby the other day I was thinking about shutting down the blog, because even though I am now back from Hiatus, it has still been almost six months since a recipe has gone up on here, and over two weeks since the last non-recipe post. My high expectations for myself said that's just not okay.

Hubby, Mrs. Webb-expert that he is, asked the question I didn't really want him to ask: Was I going to stop writing because I was discouraged, or because I actually didn't want to do it anymore?

Of course the answer was that I was discouraged. I was caving to an imagined pressure that just wasn't there, and I knew it. It was a pressure entirely of my own making.

I set out in this venture for myself, because it is something I had wanted to do for a while. I love cooking, I love sharing my vegetarian recipes with the world, and opening the eyes of even just one or two people that food without meat doesn't have to be boring or tasteless.

It was only ever supposed to be fun, and my own expectations skewed that.

So, hoping to conjure some feeling other than discouragement, I went back through my own archives... and found myself remembering how good all of those recipes tasted, how silly I felt with some of the mistakes I made in the recipes and posted anyway. And I found myself writing a new post for a new day, and feeling hopeful about it all over again.

All of this to say, I'm here to stay--at least for a little while longer. And if any of you have small-time ventures like this, I hope you remember why you started. If it wasn't for fame and fortune, don't put too much pressure on yourself. At the end of the day, it will just take the fun out of life.

See you next time! And I promise... Next time will actually bring a recipe.

The Big Reveal!

So, the moment of truth--the big reveal:

Hubby and I bought a house! :D

It will make doing this blog easier because:

-We will actually be getting internet (like we live in the 21st century or something), so I don't have to scramble to do the posts on my lunch break.

-We will live closer to the grocery stores that have everything we vegetarians need--one is only a mile away! Our local small-town grocery store didn't even know what falafel was! And of course no vegetable bouillon cubes were to be found.

And!

-It means a brand-spankin' new lovely kitchen of our own!

With real counter space so the days of cutting boards on the washing machine are over!

With a dishwasher so the days of washing all of our dishes by hand are over!

Lots of cupboards so the days of not having enough space are over!

Lots and lots of drawers so the days of having one drawer for the entire kitchen (that's right, folks, one) are over!

And of course loads of other fun stuff that comes with a new house, like a deck, a yard, being able to have pets, having more than one bedroom, having more than one bathroom, etc., etc., etc.! But for the purposes of a food blog, the kitchen's the main thing, eh?

Once we're more settled in, I'll put up a few pictures--and recipes will start back up like normal. It's a little hard to cook right now, what with the majority of our belongings in boxes.

Check back soon for more!

Announcement--4th and final hint!

Here is is, the final hint from the announcement mentioned last week! Hint #4 : We have given our landlords our 30-day notice!

That pretty much spells it out for y'all, but I will do a full announcement next week!

All the hints so far:

-Will make this blog easier
-Involves a kitchen
-Does not involve our current kitchen
-Involved giving our landlords notice
-Not babies

See you next time for the official reveal!

Announcement--Hint # 3!

The list of people who know the answer to this is getting longer all the while...

I confirmed with another person that she was right after Hint #2: my grandma Sue! I broke my neither-confirm-nor-deny rule again because, well, Grandma privileges. (Should I make a list of all the special perks around here? I feel like I should...) She guessed privately, too, so the cat's still not out of the bag!

The third hint for the announcement from last week is this: The kitchen mentioned in Hint # 2 is not our current kitchen.

Hmmm. :)

What we now know:

-Will make this blog easier
-Involves a kitchen
-Does not involve our current kitchen
-Not babies

Stick with us, almost time for the announcement!

There is only one more hint after this, and then the big reveal!

But--the next hint will pretty much spell it out for you, if you didn't get it from this hint. Stay tuned!

Announcement--Hint # 2

Another beautiful and rainy autumn day! And time for Hint #2. Getting close to the announcement!

Last time we got Hint #1, and my friend Lauren guessed it from that! She was pretty confident she knew what it was, so she just texted me rather than out the surprise. I know I said I wouldn't confirm or deny, but she was my maid of honor so she gets special perks.

Now here's Hint # 2: It involves a kitchen!

That's a little bit more of a hint than the last time, right?

Now we know:

-Doing this blog will be easier

-Somehow related to a kitchen

-Not babies

There will probably only be one or two more hints after this--and then it will be time to spill!

Keep guessing, y'all!

Announcement--Hint # 1!

Howdy, y'all!

Still no official announcement from the last post, but I will drop a hint here: It will make doing this blog much easier.

I know, not much of a hint (probably) but I'll make them more and more obvious as I go.

So far we know:

-Makes the blog easier
-Not babies

Keep guessing! We'll let you know next week or the week after!

And a reminder to those who know the answer to keep bragging about I-know-something-you-don't, but not spoiling the surprise. Thanks, all!

Exciting Announcement!

As I'm writing this, it is the first day of fall/autumn/that wonderful time of year when the air gets crisp and the leaves get crisper and colorful.

And here I am! Just like I said.

...Without a recipe.

BUT!

Hubby and I do have an exciting announcement to make, very shortly! It will be another week or two until I can fully confirm or deny what that surprise is--but I welcome guesses.

FYI: This is a no-cigar-required celebration, so if your guess is "BABIES!", your guess is wrong. Sorry! Try again another time.

P.S., for those of you who already know, don't spoil the surprise for everyone else--but do feel free to giggle incessantly that you know something they don't.

See you in a week or two!

Summer Off, Back in the Fall!

Howdy, all. I hope you are having a good summer, so far!

So sorry this is so late...two months into a hiatus is a little late to announce it.

Things have been super busy in the Webb household, more so than usual. Not to mention food has been an interesting conversation as of late because Hubby and I have been doing two rounds of the 21 Day Fix back-to-back, so "fun" recipes are a little harder to come by.

For instance, in the culinary world, a few of my favorite things are:

-Mayo
-Ranch dressing
-Carbs
-Pizza
-Pie
-Chocolate

I can have the equivalent of 2 slices of whole-grain bread per day in terms of carbs, and pretty much none of the rest fits into the 21-day fix.

We've been eating lots of veggies, though! Hubby has lost just over 20 pounds and I have lost somewhere in-between 10 and 15 (no weigh in this week so not positive at the moment.).

Needless to say, I am not expecting to be back until the fall (like the title says!), so mid-to-late September. There may be an odd post here and there until then, but I'm not betting on it.

Unless y'all want to see 21-day-fix recipes, that is--I might be able to do one or two of those in the meantime.

I'm also hoping to do a little site redesign and figure out how to do "print" buttons and all that fun stuff, so maybe things will look a little bit different around here next time you see it. I guess we'll find out!

See you in September!

Chicken Salad Wrap

Sorry for the sparse posts lately, y'all. It's been busy around here! And sadly I haven't been cooking too much...or I haven't been cooking things that you haven't already seen.

On a side note, that's something I never thought about much with food blogs when I read them rather than wrote them--the sheer number of new things you always have to make! Props to my hero Ree Drummond AKA The Pioneer Woman AKA Overachiever Extraordinaire who has been doing her food blog for something like 10 years! How does she do it? The world may never know!

Mine and Hubby's lunch today was chicken salad, but not like the leafy chicken salad I posted a couple weeks ago. This one's more of a chicken salad/tuna salad sandwich hybrid...minus the tuna and chicken. But it does have Quorn "chicken" in their place!

I was pleasantly surprised with how this turned out, and it made quite a tasty lunch today. I may have found another staple easy lunch/dinner for our house!

Let's get down to it.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 3.5 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 Quorn "chicken" cutlets

1/2 red bell pepper

5-6 dill pickle slices

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

4 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise

1- 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard

2 spinach tortillas

1 cup kale or spinach, stems removed

Directions:

1. Follow the directions to cook the "chicken." Dice finely. (It doesn't shred very well!)

2. Finely dice your red pepper and throw that in with the cutlets.

3. Pickles next--wanna guess what to do with them? (Hint: finely dice, also.)

Normally chicken salad and tuna salad call for celery, too, but I don't much like celery most of the time and don't use it very often, so we virtually never have it in the house. It's mostly for the crunch factor, anyway, and we have that with the peppers!

4. Mix it all up and add in the garlic powder and onion powder. The measurements above are more of estimations than anything--it was mostly just brief sprinkling to get a little extra flavor.

5. Plop in the mayonnaise until the chicken is nice and moist. You can add more or less per your preference! We're a big mayo family, though.

6. Add in your little bit o' mustard and mix.

7. Grab a tortilla. A non-spinach tortilla works just fine, too. Also, if you want to just make this a chicken salad sandwich instead of a wrap, I won't be offended. Promise!

Plop on half of the chicken salad.

Layer on half of the kale (or spinach, if you don't like raw kale's semi-bitter flavor).

Roll 'er up.

And done!

Rinse and repeat step number 7 for the second wrap.

Enjoy!

Printable directions:

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 3.5 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 Quorn "chicken" cutlets

1/2 red bell pepper

5-6 dill pickle slices

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

4 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise

1- 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard

2 spinach tortillas

1 cup kale or spinach, stems removed

Directions:

1. Follow the directions to cook the "chicken." Dice finely.

2. Dice red peppers and pickles. Combine peppers, pickles and chicken in a bowl.

3. Add garlic powder, onion powder, mayonnaise and mustard and mix well.

4. On both tortillas, layer chicken salad and kale in the center. Roll each wrap like a burrito and cut in half, if desired.

Enjoy!

Berry-Coconut Popsicles

It always seems like if I make a recipe for a good, hot summer day, then the day that I actually post it is cold again. I've been wearing dresses for about two weeks straight, and today I'm back in jeans and a sweater.

Welcome to upstate NY.

In any case, the day we made and actually had these popsicles, it was very nice out! Too warm, actually, for an apartment with no AC. Hopefully you're reading this from somewhere that is still a little too warm and you could use something to cool you down.

Like these:

I found the actual popsicle molds at an outlet/discount mall for $2. $2! I had looked at several other stores with no luck--apparently there are few stores in NY that assume that we would have any need for popsicle molds.

But warm days are coming, again, and hopefully one of these days they'll stick around. It is May, after all.

Let's get down to it:

Prep time: 10 minutes

Freeze time: 6 hours + (overnight is best)

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1/2 can coconut water
~1 - 1 1/2 cups frozen berry mix

Yup, that's it.

Directions:

1) Grab your popsicle molds.

Fill about 1/2 of the way with coconut water.

Those little floating white things are the "pulp," just little coconut chunks.

2) Plop in your berries--gently! Since they're frozen they like to stay together even after you initially break them apart, so they might need a helping hand settling. Meaning, be prepared to  shove them a little farther into the popsicle mold.

3) Fill just about to the end of the mold, and top off with a teensy bit more coconut water. Add the lids, making sure to fully seal them (or else the popsicle won't stick to them), and freeze.

4) When it's time to remove them, they can be awful stubborn. I always run the outsides of the popsicle molds under warm to medium-hot tap water to loosen them up a little, then rock the handles back and forth until the popsicles decide to come loose.

If you're too rough, the popsicle sticks might just dislodge and you won't have a popsicle at all -- just a very large berry ice cube that you have to fish out.

Aren't they pretty?

Since Hubby and I are trying to eat healthier, we didn't add any extra sugar (The coconut water already has a lot), so the berries can be a little sour. If you want a more traditional-tasting popsicle, I would recommend blending the berries with the coconut water and adding a little sugar or honey.

We liked these just fine, though.

They all look a little different, depending on how many berries you managed to convince to get in there.

Come on warm days! I want an excuse to make some more!

Enjoy!

Spicy "Chicken" Salad

I would just like to point out, before I get started here, that this is the first leafy-lettuce salad I've ever posted on this blog--which I find comical since so many people who don't know many vegetarians assume that all we eat is salad.

Anyways.

This thing has become my new jam.

I love this salad.

It's pretty simple, too, considering that we use store-bought dressing. Maybe some time I'll make my own for this!

FYI: The dressing is quite spicy, at least for people who usually like mild and maybe a gentle medium once in a while, like me. Use at your own risk!

Let's get down to it:

Prep time: 5-10 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

1 Boca "Chicken" patty
1 cup romaine lettuce, chopped
1/2 medium tomato
1-2 tablespoons small onion, sliced
1/4 cup red pepper, chopped
2-3 tablespoons canned sweet corn
2-3 tablespoons House of Tsang Bangkok Peanut Sauce

1. Follow the directions to cook the Boca "chicken" in a skillet, to give it some nice crispiness. Chop and set aside.

2. Grab a bowl and throw in your lettuce.

3. Then your tomatoes.

4. Onions.

5. Red peppers.

6. And of course, the corn. (Look at all that color!)

7. In a separate bowl/tupperware, chuck in your chopped Boca patty.

Drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of the dipping sauce all over the "chicken."

Top with a small plate or the lid of your tupperware and shake the heck out of it to coat the chicken.

8. Throw that on top of your salad.

9. Top with the remainder of the dressing, to your taste.

That's it! Enjoy!

Mother's Day Brunch Ideas

Happy Mother's Day Eve-Eve! Err, happy two-days before Mother's Day! ...Uhh, happy-- Let's try this: Happy Early Mother's Day, since on actual Mother's Day I will be with my mom and my mom-in-law and not blogging!

No new recipe today, just some oldies but goodies that you could possibly use for Mother's Day Brunch, if you are planning one.

P.S., I had no idea how many breakfast recipes I actually had on here until I looked through to find stuff for this post!

Let's get down to it:

1) Strawberry Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup--for the mommas who like their foods pretty and classy, as well as tasty.

2) Banana Nut-butter Muffins--for the health-minded mommas out there, or gluten-intolerant ones. Mine is both!

3) Waffle Breakfast Sandwich--serve wisely, these things are dense! Not for the health-minded mommas mentioned above.

4) "Caprese" Breakfast Sandwich--for the Italian momma in your life. (Or just those that like Caprese salad)

5) Kale Scramble--Another for those health-minded and/or kale-lovin' mommas.

6) My Dad's French Toast--for the French mommas in your life. (Or just those that like French Toast.)

7) Egg and "Sausage" Biscuits--for the Southern momma in your life. (Or just those that like biscuits.)

8) Semi-Homemade Breakfast Pizza--for those mommas that love pizza in any form...and for those of you that like fast breakfasts!

9) Mini Quiches--for the mommas that like to add a little fancy to their mornings.

10) Egg & Cheese Breakfast sandwich--for the more traditional and/or bagel-lovin' mommas out there.

And now, for a few extras to add a little something to the brunch:

11) Semi-homemade mochas--for the coffeehouse connoisseur mommas.

12) Mini Heart-shaped Berry Pies--for the pie-loving mommas out there.

13) Homemade Reese's--for the peanut butter loving mommas.

14) Carrot-and-cucumber Tulips--for the mommas that love flowers and Spring!

Whatever your momma loves, Hubby and I wish her a Happy Mother's Day! Enjoy!

Potato Salad--and the First Picnic of the Season!

Sorry for the radio silence the past couple weeks, y'all. Things have been very busy in the Webb household, and work has been busy too--which, if you've read other posts, you'll know is the only place I have regular access to the internet. So, blogging can be a little tough when work is busy.

On the bright side, though, it has been super nice out this past week+, and Hubby and I were able to have our first picnic of the season this weekend!

On the menu:

-"Turkey" wraps (with tofurkey lunchmeat)

-Potato salad (with a twist)

-Fruit salad

and

-Sparkling lemonade

I'm only going to post the recipe for the potato salad today, though.

My ex's mom introduced me to this recipe, and she got it from a restaurant whose name I can't remember, but wherever the heck this recipe originated, I like it!

Let's get down to it:

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: ~10 minutes

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients:

5-7 medium to large red potatoes
3/4-1 cup mayonnaise (as needed)
1 cup scallions
1 cup canned sweet corn, drained
Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Cube your potatoes and boil until tender, about 10 minutes. Add to a large mixing bowl.

2. Plop in your mayonnaise. Everyone is very different with how much mayo they like in salads like this, so it's up to you how much you want to add!

3. Toss in your scallions.

4. Throw in your corn.

5. Mix it all up! If you want to add in any extra salt, now's the time to do it.

Then, package it up and throw everything into a picnic basket and go.

Set down a towel in the bottom of the basket.

Load up the food.

And your best fish plates and lemon/lime glasses.

And the rest of the food, some napkins, the lemonade, and some ice packs/oversized ice cubes. (They do double-duty for the lemonade, too!)

Pad it all with a your picnic blanket, and it's good to go!

We found a nice sunny spot with a good shade tree and set up a big ol' comforter blanket.

Then we laid out the spread.

We ate, we drank, we watched the wildlife.

And all was well with the world.

Enjoy!