Cauliflower Potato Hash

With the new year comes yet another new year’s resolution: to drop a few pounds. Mind you,  I’m usually pretty happy with myself, except on the days when I’m not, but there is still this driving need I have to be skinny. Who knows why, but I’m thinking the constantly projected images of tiny little girls in a persistent state of youth and near-emaciation might have a little something to do with it. Thanks, American media. Thanks.

Anyways, my decision comes with a plan of action. I’m going to start off with a good, healthy breakfast. There has to be a vegetable in there somewhere, a bit of protein, and possibly some type of potato. That would make me soooo happy. I’m sick of eating things that are just a pile of carbs drizzled with some sort of sugary by-product.

This was my attempt at making a delicious, sort-of healthy breakfast, and I succeeded. Please enjoy!

Cauliflower Potato Hash

one large head of cauliflower, chopped into small florets

one package of ‘Gimme Lean’ vegan breakfast sausage

one pound fingerling potatoes, NOT peeled, cooked soft then roughly chopped

4 ounces cipollini onions, chopped (the package pictured actually comes with two smaller individually wrapped packages inside of it. Use one of those.) You could also use one small vidalia here.

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tsp cumin, ground

Start off by heating one or two tablespoons of the olive oil in a very large skillet. Throw in the onions. Cook for a couple minutes, until soft. Next toss in the Gimme Lean and break it apart into bite size pieces. Add in a tablespoon of olive oil at a time, as needed, here of there. Now, toss in the cauliflower and cook at medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring every so often. Need more olive oil? Toss it in! Now throw in the cooked potatoes and the cumin and cook for 15 more minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Voila! Done and delicious, dammit! Ooh, alliteration!

See how it just kinda looks like a big old pile of mush? It’s delicious mush, I promise. You can barely taste the cauliflower, so my kids effing love this. As an added bonus, this is the kind of food you can serve to your meat eating hubby and he won’t even be able to tell the difference because of all the other flavors going on here. Not that I did that. *grins*

Yeah so this is what happens at my house when you leave your bedroom door open while you go pee. Don’t do that. Yep, that’s my bra.

Whew!

So, holy crap, it feels like it’s been forever since I posted anything. I look at my blog stats and they are slowly but surely trailing off with each passing day that people come to visit and I still have not posted anything.  No reason, really, except that I’ve felt no real food inspiration lately.

I like to post recipes and pictures but when I’m just making the same old crap that I’ve already posted about, then I have nothing to give you. Oh, plus, I can’t seem to access a lot of the pictures I downloaded last month…long story. It boils down to me being severely computer retarded. I do have a couple things to give you: a calzone and some muffins. In other words, carbs, carbs, and more carbs. Meh, whatareyougonnado?

Cherry Almond Muffins

Oven at 400. Spray muffin tin with no-stick spray.

2 cups ap flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 cup rice or soy milk

1 6oz container soy yogurt, plain or vanilla

2 tsp almond extract

1 cup sliced almonds

1 1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the center then add oil, ‘milk,’ yogurt and extract. Use a wooden spoon to mix well until combined. Fold in 1/2 cup of the almonds and all of the cherries.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Press the remaining almond slices into the tops of the batter. Bake for 18-22 minutes.

The original recipe had you picking fresh and never-in-season-therefore-always-ridiculously-expensive bing cherries. Those would be delicious in this muffin but I’m a cheapskate so I bought dried and just added more to the recipe. It’s from Vegan With A Vengeance.

Next up, I made this fantastic calzone with some pizza dough that my Trader Joe’s carries. Add some sliced tomatoes, pizza sauce, cheeze, homemade pesto, herbs and spices, and I say old chap, you’ve got a bloody good dinner!

God, those pictures suck hard. Sorry. It really was delicious though. Oh, ps- my homemade pesto consists of basil, olive oil, garlic, and walnuts. Oh, snap! No pine nuts? Whaaaat? That’s right. I didn’t have pine nuts but i did have walnuts and they are a cheaper, totally acceptable substitution. So there.

As any of my friends can tell you, I am an absolute horror movie fiend. Not just a fanatic but a completely obsessed nerd with the most useless knowledge about directors, cinematographers and producers that you could possibly percieve. Imagine my utter  delight when I came across the Val Lewton series of films from the 1940s! I was ecstatic. They were everything I could have dreamed of and then some. Netflix has this wonderful collection of movies at two to a disc with a little documentary of Lewton’s life on one of the pairs. I highly recommend them to you, as you will be totally astounded by what was considered a horror film back then. Today, we are bombarded with gross-out images of body parts, bloody viscera, and plotlines so convoluted and ridiculous that movie-makers have obviously noticed, otherwise they wouldn’t resort to remaking all the classics as they have recently been doing. Examples: My Bloody Valentine, Friday the 13th, Halloween…need i say more?

The picture is of my television with the opening screen image of one of the discs. I Walked With A Zombie is not what you think, trust me. And The Body Snatcher? Well, there is nary a pod person to be seen for miles.

Enjoy the food and the movies!