Quinoa, black bean & sweet potato chili

Tonight's commute was a friggin' nightmare. We sold our one and only car last month to boost our  savings for a round-the-world trip next year. It hasn't been the easiest adjustment, but we've done well so far. Portland generally has great public transportation and since I get a free bus pass from work, it was a relatively easy decision. We take the same bus in the morning for about half my trip and it's a nice way to spend a few minutes together before heading off to work. Most days have been tolerable because I can walk the 4 miles home from work pretty easily.

Quinoa & Black Bean Salad

Tonight our beloved Denver Broncos are playing Monday Night Football. As such, I don't have time to make dinner before we head out to our neighborhood bar to watch the game (that's right, we don't have cable...we're trying to save money here and the lovely grey matter in my husband's brain that makes him the witty delight that he is). We are also trying our best to save money and calories by eating in more, so no taco night for us, sorry Bear Paw.

We have fancy grown-up plates...from the 70s

Healthy White Bean, Avocado & Tuna Wraps

The sun has finally appeared in Portland! As the pasty, white skin makes its way out into public and hipsters all over the city spend lazy warm days sitting on patios of various microbreweries, it's time to start thinking about ways to make dinner on a budget without the use of the oven (you know, so I can join those cool people and up my beer budget).

Light(ish) Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

The other night I was bored. Shawn had gone off to write (his usual post-dinner routine), and although I had just made a delicious chili dinner, I still had some kitchen time left in me. When I get this baking kick on a random night, I normally don't have all the ingredients I need to make anything. I'm either missing chocolate chips, or oatmeal, or whatever...but this time I checked and had just enough to make oatmeal cookies from the Best Light Recipe cookbook from America's Test Kitchen. So I thought. 

Vietnamese Noodles & Beef

Your long-lost food blogger has returned. This has been a crazy month or so. Besides my career change and wedding planning, we also had to move. I can honestly report that it has turned out to be a move for the better. Our new house is fabulous and is complete with a ready-made vegetable garden. I'll get to that in a future post. I have yet to take pictures of all the beautiful plants I have growing back there. We've been feasting on fresh lettuce, zucchini, and soon...tomatoes! My favorite summer treat.

For now, you'll have to be satisfied reading about the delicious, easy, and healthy Sunday dinner I made: Vietnamese-style noodles with grilled beef.

Another delicious meal provided by Mr. Webber

Needing something to do with half a package of leftover whole wheat capellini and steaks on sale at New Seasons, I ended up with this recipe from Epicurious. I ended up reducing the amount of sugar by 1 tsp., but basically kept it the same. Since we were firing up the old grill, I decided we should also make use of it and grill the bell pepper that accompanies the noodles, as well as some onion. It made a delicious accompaniment. In the end, I wish I had reduced the amount of mint a bit, as well, but it was delicious even with that. Very refreshing and, minus the rather hefty sodium content that is expected with many Asian cuisines, a pretty healthy meal.

Double Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

I had a moment of domesticity last night and decided to make a quick batch of cookies. I inherited some baking supplies from a coworker a week ago and had an idea immediately to use them in an oatmeal cookie.

Using a basic oatmeal cookie recipe from the Test Kitchen's Best Light Recipe* cookbook, I added chopped dried cherries, a large handful of white chocolate chips, and another large handful of dark chocolate chips.

Sorry so dark

They were delicious right out of the oven--just wish I would've had some milk around to go with them. Shawn gave his hearty approval, as did my coworkers the next day, even though they were cold. 

*Side note: I highly recommend the Light Recipe cookbook. They focus heavily on flavor and try to cut down the fat and calories of a lot of great dishes. I'm not a huge believer in low-fat diets, but if you can trim down a recipe without using crazy altered ingredients, I'm all for it. I've cut down my use of oils in a lot of recipes just using techniques like sweating the onions.