I started this blog to share my favorite recipes with everyone and to archive them all in one spot for myself, and I refer to it to print out recipes for my binder when I make something for a second time and know there will be a third. But I don’t share everything I eat with you guys on here. Most meals I eat, especially lately, are quick & easy and aren’t really “recipes” or anything impressive enough to share with you.
But, being a food blogger, I often snap pictures of my non-blog-worthy food as a matter of habit and have decided to share some of them here for those like me that enjoy a sneak peek into the dietary lives of others. I hope you find some entertainment value in seeing what it’s really like in my kitchen on the days when I’m not making pizza or cake.
Let’s start with the most important meal of the day: breakfast. The breakfast I eat most often is some form of yogurt (preferably non-fat Greek) with thawed frozen mixed berries, usually mixed with some honey.
Lately I’ve been getting into oat bran and have made three kinds just in the last week:
Apple Cinnamon
Pumpkin Pie
Unchunky Monkey (banana & peanut butter, no chocolate)
I eat one of these chicken salad kits for lunch almost every work day because they are convenient, cheap ($1 each at Aldi), tasty, and low-calorie. I never get sick of them. I either have baby carrots or Italian Green Beans with it.
This is my “happy dinner.” Tilapia fillets seasoned with Tony Chachere’s, cooked in a skillet for 5 minutes and served with whatever veggies I can find. The most delish & nutrish 5-minute dinner ever. It makes me happy.
Here’s another (overcooked) version of it over stir-fry veggies and red rice. Sometimes I eat this fish three times a week. I love it.
I used those same stir-fry veggies (from a frozen bag) to make a 5-minute vegan dinner by adding black rice (I cook rice in batches and use throughout the week), white beans, and bottled peanut sauce. Yum!
Another easy favorite: the BLT. I have to have Miracle Whip on mine (I use light), but I used to think that “BLT” implied you used ONLY bacon, lettuce, and tomato with nothing else so it’s only recently I started adding a condiment. Much better with.
And sometimes I just start with a can of something and add other something’s to it. This was a can of Aldi limited edition jalapeño black beans that I added peppers & kabocha squash to, served over rice and garnished with cheese.
After I realized how good sweet squash can be with spicy beans, I came up with what I’ll call Black Bean Fiesta. I started with a can of Bush’s Black Bean Fiesta Grillin’ Beans and cooked it with some red, green, and yellow peppers, some cubed butternut squash, diced onion, pickled jalapeños, a bit of the jalapeño juice, and added a tablespoon of sugar. I served it over brown rice with cheddar on top and garnished with cilantro. So good.
I love pimiento cheese and one day wanted to eat a lot of it in one sitting so I decided to plop it all over a big plate of broccoli and call it dinner. Kind of a new take on broccoli with cheese sauce?
I share most of the desserts I make with you because, unlike my meals, most of them are blog-worthy. I really am a better baker than cook. But there is the rare dessert that needs some tweaking and I never get around to it. This crazy pound cake tiramisu is totally blog-worthy (i.e. delicious), if I ever make it again the way I would blog it. The way I made it was really weird (for starters, I only had half a pound cake) but I don’t feel right telling you what you should do without trying it first myself.
And then there’s the meals that I can’t share because they are just not good enough, like these brown sugar beer brats. They were kind of OK, but kind of OK doesn’t cut it! I give you guys only my best stuff. You’re welcome. :)
And this beautiful vegan curried quinoa salad that looks like a plate of jewels! How could it betray me and dare to taste anything less than steller? I should try it again and buck the Healthy Cooking mag’s directions and try adding salt this time! Duh.
And then there’s the meals that I can’t share because they are just plain awful. Have you ever had someone immediately barf up a dinner you made them? Yeah, that happened with this one.
I was trying to find ways to use up my vodka that I bought to make Kahlua (thankfully it finally occurred to me to make vanilla with it) and got a recipe for vodka cream sauce from a friend. I don’t blame her for the results–I didn’t have the ingredients I needed but tried to make it with substitutions and we ate a dinner so gag-worthy that Dennis literally went running for the toilet as he finished (but, bless him, he did finish, even if it didn’t stay down!). I don’t think I’ll dare to attempt vodka cream sauce again for a long, long time.
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GIVEAWAY WINNER
I loved the feedback I got on my anniversary post and many of you gave me some good ideas for future posts. I especially was encouraged to hear how many of you most look forward to Thankful Thursdays because when I first changed my blog title and started including that feature, along with other more personal posts, my readers started unsubscribing right and left. I was disheartened for a while, but was determined to keep doing what I loved, knowing that the ones that stayed with me were the ones I wanted anyway. Now I feel like I have a group of people here that are not only hungry for recipes, but care about or are interested in me as a person (or at least don’t mind me getting personal once in a while). And I find that I care about my readers more now too, because in return, you are sharing more of yourselves with me in comments and emails and I’m getting to know you! Thank you for supporting me through that transition. And for those of you who really only are here for the recipes, thanks for ignoring all the other stuff and sticking with me in spite of it! :)
OK, I drew for the Amazon gift certificate from the comments on that post, and I’m so totally stoked by the against-all-odds winner: Rani! She was the very first commenter and this has to be the first time in the history of blog giveaways that the first commenter was drawn (I used random.org to generate a number)! I’m also stoked because she’s a cancer survivor and Mom of four, so I’m glad the gift certificate is going to someone who deserves a little gift for herself! Congrats, Rani, I sent the certificate to your inbox.
Veronica's Cornucopia 
Your non blogworthy fare is WAY more exciting than MY non-blogworthy fare! There are so many of these dishes that I would be thrilled to be eating right this second! Curried quinoa salad for instance? Love.
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Hi Veronica! I really enjoyed today’s post. You eat a lot of the same things we eat here. We have lots of oatmeal, yogurt, and fruit for breakfast. The BLT for lunch made me drool. I LOVE BLTs, but really can’t eat bacon (boo hoo) so I only indulge in that about once or twice a year. And I’m trying (really, really trying) to serve more fish for dinner these days. I can’t say I’m up to three times a week, every week, but I really want to put more fish on the table, and keep things light and healthy! Can you tell us more about the Tony Chachere’s you mentioned? I am not familiar with that. We love tilapia, and I’d love to hear about another way to prepare it. (I most often just grill it, or bake with a tiny bit of breadcrumbs.) Thank you!
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Can’t eat bacon?! CAN’T? Sure you you mean “shouldn’t” and not “can’t?” Because can’t would make the situation even worse than shouldn’t. LOL! As for Tony Chachere’s, it’s a spicy cajun spice mix that you can buy at most supermarkets near the other spices. It’s in a green spice container with a mustachioed guy on it. It’s really good on the fish and supposedly good on other meats too but I haven’t tried it on anything else. I’m going to email you with some links to yummy ways to prepare fish.
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Great recipes ….but all the ingredients are not available in the Netherlands ……but the pictures of the food looks very good!
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Was sad at first that I didn’t win but then totally happy when I heard Rani is a mom of 4 who’s survived cancer! Woohoo! Go Rani-God is good,right?
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So good! :)
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See a lot of rice there! You probably know this…but some of your readers might not. Most of our adopted kids came when they were older and from an island in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean….where their only food was pretty much rice. So, of course, rice was a requirement at our house every day. Even though they’re all out on their own now…they still expect there to ALWAYS be cooked rice at Mom’s house, haha! Rice is one of the easiest and best things to freeze. Make a large batch and then freeze it in several gallon bags. Put only enough in each bag that when you lay it down on it’s side flat… it’s probably less than an inch. Freeze flat! To use…First I usually drop it on the counter so it breaks into big chunks, then microwave with the zip lock slightly open so it steams nicely. Also…if you don’t need an entire bag..you can take out a couple of chunks and put the rest back. Same if you think you need more than what’s in one bag….you can easily drop another bag on the counter and just take out a couple of chunks to add to the other bag. Also wonderful for a quick meal when you don’t think you have time to make potatoes or pasta…since it only takes 2 or 3 minutes to microwave. Basmati is the best (in my opinion)…but very expensive — so I always mix mine with a little bit of the ‘cheap’ store brand long grain rice when I cook it.
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Thanks for the tips! I had no idea you had adopted children, or that they were from the middle of the Pacific!
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ooops…I just re-read my post. I meant you probably knew you could freeze rice but maybe some of your readers didn’t. I didn’t mean I thought you knew I had adopted kids from an island in the middle of the Pacific. But I guess you know now, haha!
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Too funny! I was feeling bad b/c I thought I had forgotten something you told me, but I usually am not forgetful when it comes to things like that! LOL! Thanks for clearing that up-I’m glad I’m not going crazy. ;)
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Congrats Rani!
And I know all about food that looks so pretty but ends up not tasting great–and vice versa! I just made a pork roast that looks like a pile of brown mush, but it’s SO GOOD!
By the way, I made your pumpkin cranberry walnut bread Wednesday night and served it at Bible study last night. Huge hit! I love the stuff, and the chunk I had for breakfast this morning hit the spot. =)
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What a fun insight in your life in a culinary way! Thanks love some of these ideas! Oh and I am a great Aldi fan also!
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What a fun post! I’ve thought about something like this but just never have. I’ve taken pictures of my breakfast in the past, not that they are particularly blogworthy but they are pretty and have wondered whether to share them. My kids will make a fruit salad or something and ask if I want to photograph it for my blog and I totally take a picture of it but I’ve never blogged it. Hmmm… You’ve got my wheels spinning in my head, I might just do something like this!
Your oat bran creations look REALLY nummy!
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Ha ha! Had a good laugh about the “barf” spaghetti. Yeah, it’s happened to me before (rather, my poor husband). Good thing they love us enough to give us another chance, right?
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I MUST say I LOVE the way your new site is! It is so personal and entertaining, oh and yes, WODERFUL recipes!!! I wished you were my next door neighbor!! Sorry you had some that unsubscribed. I so looked forward to starting my day with your post! Keep doing what your doing!!!
Be Blessed!
CONGRATS to Rani!!!
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Two things that I miss most about the Paleo diet? Beans and cheese! Love that you added squash with the spicy beans – I am a sucker for sweet and savory!
Have a great weekend!
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I love these sort of “behind the scenes” posts. I’ve never had pimento cheese either! And I’ve never been to Aldi’s!
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Funny Aldi’s story. The first time I went, I didn’t know the carts were outside and that they required a quarter for deposit (even though I had apparently walked right by them!). I spent most of the time wandering around the store looking for carts and ended up balancing a case of hot dog buns and corn chips (don’t ask) on my shoulders until some nice older gentleman took pity on me and upped his cart. I now know where the carts are and always take a quarter! (Nice “behind the scenes” post!)
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ahaha…. you are so like me. I also generally eat quick and simple food, totally unbloggable. your selection though was quite bloggable to me. and I agree, that tiramisu’ looked delicious. thank you for sharing your private food :)
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you are such a lovely person and I love the fact that include information about yourself!!
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