Delicious Butter Baked and Broiled Cabbage Slabs.

OH my heavens.

I'm a vegetarian.  I don't know how or why this even happened, but over the course of a year, maybe two, I found myself really loving a meatless lifestyle.  I do love animals, but I'm not going to throw ketchup on your furs, I'm just feeling a lot better going veggie. AND I get to eat dishes like THESE for BREAKFAST!

SO here's how its done..and there's nothing complicated about this at ALL so please tweak my recipe to your liking.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Your cabbage:  I cut mine into 1/2 inch slabs. I like my cabbage "al dente"..not slimy and flaccid. (giggle)

Prepare your cookie sheet by brushing it with some olive oil.  give it a good coat.

Now. lay down your cabbage slabs and just smear the heck out of them with REAL, salted BUTTER.  OH yeah, baby....I said it.  BUTTER.  It's good for you.  Get that butter all over the place.  Grind some sea salt and some fresh peppercorns on top of that.  OH MY GOSH.

NOW we COOK!

Put. It. In. The. Oven.  Now set your timer for 20 minutes, but check at about 15 minutes.  When the bottoms are becoming brown and the cabbage is turning translucent, flip 'em...let them bake for 15 more minutes.

Now turn your oven to broil and give them a nice brown.  The tops will caramelize with the butter and THAT'S what we're looking for.  My oven took about 7 minutes, yours might take more or less time, so keep your eye on it.

Here's what we want to see:

LAWD ALMIGHTY.

You're almost done.  You can eat this as is and its delicious.  If you're a carnivore, add some bacon bits.  I love to serve mine with some good marinara, and a sprinkling of parmesan....whatever you decide, I promise, that caramelized cabbage, butter and salt and pepper is absolutely to die for. 

Here's mine, seconds before I devoured it. (at 10am)  haha!  Enjoy! 

Tell me how you tweaked this to you or your family's liking in my comment section!  

Thanks for visiting!

Karen

Rainbow Cupcakes!

Rainbow cupcakes!  These are fun and easy to make if you follow a couple of helpful hints!  REALLY!  They look like a mess, but trust me, if I can do this so can anyone!

First: Use a white cake mix, any type will do, but be sure to not add the egg yolks, egg whites only, we're going for bright, vibrant color here.

Second:  

Have on hand 6 small (sandwich size) Ziplock bags..you will mix your batter and colors in these.

OK....Mix your batter according to the directions on the box.  (these are far from gourmet..if you prefer a homemade from scratch recipe, wellthen rock and roll.)...the kids were fine with the box recipe.

Divide, (we just eyeballed it)...your batter into 6 somewhat equal parts and put them into your Ziplock bags. 

Here's your color recipe:

RAINBOW COLOR	DROPS OF FOOD COLORING
Purple	9 red and 6 blue drops
Blue	12 drops
Green	12 drops
Yellow	12 drops
Orange	12 yellow and 4 red drops
Red	18 drops

Add to each ziplock bag and squish with your hands....don't worry, this doesn't effect the batter at all,  I was worried, but it didn't.

Using your scissors, cut a wee corner out of each Ziplock bag.

Squeeze just enough batter to cover the bottoms of your lined cupcake pan....keep adding layers until you have used each color, in rainbow order....be careful not to overfill your cupcakes, as I did a few times...be very gentle here, don't disturb the batter at allll...you will end up with mud cupcakes, not rainbow cupcakes, and that would be tragic.

Bake according to package directions....voila. 

Frost with your choice of frosting, we chose vanilla with sprinkles and they turned out darling.

Have fun with this!  We sure did,  We'll be making these again for sure!

Namaste.

Karen

Mason Jar Salads!

SO....this is the beginning of week 3 on Weight Watchers and I am enjoying big success!  6lbs gone so far and I can already feel a big difference.  Here's something that has saved me AND encouraged my husband (Mr. Honey Bun and Mountain Dew), and my kids (no tag names needed), to eat healthier without even realizing.

So, here is our take on Mason Jar Meals, specifically Mason Jar Salads

Our first step:  Hunting and Gathering.  We have a lovely farm market here in Lansing, however, Lansing happens to be in MICHIGAN, therefore, fresh, locally produced foods are scarce, so please sub your own local, preferably organic produce if possible.

Our next step:  cleaning, cutting, chopping.  (and sampling)  We also boiled up some quinoa and some whole wheat rotini pasta.

Then, assembly.

Here are a few tips:

1. Dressing on the bottom, lettuce on the top.  If the two are touching the lettuce will turn to slime.

2. So, dressing goes in first.  On top of your dressing, use a rather "hearty" vegetable, such as shredded cabbage, pea pods, or julienne carrot matchsticks.  They can withstand the acidity of the dressing, and actually get better!

3. Pack it in.  Use a nice variety of colorful vegetables!  Make it fun and involve the kids.

Here are some of our recipes:

Poppyseed: Layer, in this order:

-poppyseed dressing

-carrot shreds

-green peas

-pineapple

-blueberries

-raspberries

-lettuce

Asian:

-light asian ginger dressing

-peapods

-carrot shreds

-cabbage shreds

-water chestnuts

-green peas

-bean sprouts

-quinoa

-toasted sesame seeds

-lettuce

Seafood

(I make a light dressing with light mayo, skim milk, s and p, and parmesan

-dressing

-cabbage shreds

-cherry tomatoes (halved)

-black olives

-celery

-drained canned crab / drained canned salad shrimp

-lettuce

Caesar:

-light Caesar dressing

-carrot shreds

-diced grilled chicken

-celery

-cukes

-lettuce

-parmesan

(add croutons later) ...they get mooshy in the jar.

Here's what you will have when you're done.  Aren't they gorgeous?  

...and here's a closeup:

We also made rainbow fruit salads....layered in this order:

-blueberries

-honeydew

-cantaloupe

-pineapple

-strawberries

-raspberries

(we HAD kiwi, but forgot to add!)

Now, don't forget to label the lids!  We use a Sharpie.  The Sharpie ink can be removed easily with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for your next use.

Annnnnnnd....I could never finish this post without a photo of my lovely assistant and head kid in charge of nom nom nom noms.........she eats these every day!