Good foods, good moods

tomato sauce

1/2 cup onion diced

3 cloves garlic minced

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp thyme

pepper

salt

10 sun dried tomatoes

1 cup tomatoes (we used grape) diced

Saute onion and garlic and then add remaining ingredients. Cook the tomatoes down. Put mixture in the blender. The sun dried tomatoes are key because they make the sauce thicker. Simple recipe and it was simply delicious. We used it to put on pizza but it would work wonderfully as a pasta sauce as well. Once again, use sun dried tomatoes! I cannot stress that enough. We have this thing about sun dried tomatoes. I think our attachment grew while in France. (Speaking of tomatoes, have you heard of that tomato festival in France? Hundreds of varieties. I mean, hundreds? Seriously? Imagine surrounding yourself with hundreds upon hundreds of tomatoes. Does life get any better than that? This. Ohhhh yeah, baby!)

We make thick pizza dough from time to time but lately (and by lately I mean for the past year or two) we've been using brown rice tortillas instead. (Note: these gluten free tortillas taste SO GOOD but they're not very practical. They fall apart quite quickly if you are trying to use them for anything other than pizza or quesadillas) So. We use the tortillas as a base, spread with some homemade sauce, and then add whatever veggies/additional topping seems good at the time. Last night we used onion, garlic, spinach, jalapeno, green bell pepper, olives, and a little cheddar Daiya cheese. Bake for 12 (ish) minutes at 350 degrees. Yummy personal pizzas. Don't you find that you get quite full eating that deep dish stuff? All you're eating is dough! Using tortillas instead helps you to actually enjoy the flavors piled on top.

Pizza last night and totally loaded baked potatoes tonight. This is what heaven must be like. Good food, good moods.

mushroom sauce

1/2 onion diced

1/2 leek diced

4 cloves garlic minced

80z sliced mushrooms (cremini or baby bella)

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp sage

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp white pepper

2 TB braggs

2 TB brown rice vinegar

2 TB nutritional yeast

1/3 cup rice milk

2 TB brown rice flour

2 TB cornstarch

1/3 cup raw cashews

Saute the onion, leek, and garlic. Add the mushrooms and braggs. Cook down for a few minutes. Remove from heat. Mix together milk, flour, starch. Add to the mushrooms along with the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth.

This is our sauce. Some couples have songs or places. We have this sauce. I'm completely fine with that. Try it. You'll get it. In tonight's dinner we topped some baked potatoes with this sauce but you can also use it to go on top of... well... anything.

The totally loaded baked potatoes were first baked (just the potatoes) at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. (I chose red and purple potatoes. Why shouldn't I?) Next, cut them in half, place in an oven safe dish, and load them bad boys. We sprinkled smoked paprika and balsamic vinegar (Weird? Kinda. But I love vinegar on everything. You can't go wrong with mustard and you can't go wrong with vinegar. You just can't. Did I mention we have at least 5 kinds of vinegar and usually at least 4 kinds of mustard?) on top and then added kale, broccoli, tempeh, and cheese. Cook them for about 10 more minutes. Plop a portion on your plate along with mushroom sauce and sour cream. Serve and then chow down while wearing a super sweet outfit. Like so...