Vegie Marinara Sauce....mmmmmm

Hi everyone.....do you see the light at the end of the tunnel??? I heard the weather is going to be 35 degrees this weekend OH AND daylight savings begins too..."Spring ahead" which means our days will be longer....THAT is a sign of SPRING to me. Yes....we are all looking forward to nicer days ahead.

Well today I made some more Vegie Marinara Sauce, thanks to Biz at: http://www.mybizzykitchen.com (for some reason my link button does not work, after 4 tries, decided to just type in Biz's blog address) I love this recipe and it sure is a good way to get all your vegies in one dish, not only for kiddo's but for us adults too!!! So thanks Biz, for a wonderful recipe, this and lasagna soup have to be my favorite all time recipes!!!

MMMMMMMM~~~~~~Vegie Marinara Sauce. Roasted the vegies last night, beans, onion, broccoli, tomato, pepper, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper and seasoning. Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Roasted at 325 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until done. After roasting, let cool then put in a pot. I then added 1-28 oz can of diced tomatoes, 1-28 oz water, 1 teasp. basil and 1 teasp. Italian spices. I let it sit in the frig. overnight (only because there was no time to finish it) Maybe, letting it sit overnight, the spices and vegies can work together and blend well for a more Italianey taste.

Today while making JP's lunch, I took the pot out and heated it up till boiling, then turned down the heat. (which reminds me, I probably will add a couple of pinches of cayanne pepper to this pot of sauce after it is finished.

Brought out the immersable blender and started blending all the vegies together till they were blended. MMMM looking forward to some of this.

Here is the finished project, about this point you can add the hot pepper if you like. Or some hot sauce. How ever much you would like.

You can see in this picture the sauce looks chunky, almost as if there is some kind of meat in the sauce....but there is not. As I said before....mmmmm....looking forward to a taste of this on Spaghetti, spaghetti squash, sauce for pizza, maybe cook up some cabbage and pour some of this sauce over it.....the ideas are endless I think.

I found this picture I took a while back of some vegie sauce on spaghetti, must have taken a month or so ago. But this is what it looks like. One thing I like to do is put some mozzorella on the sauce and melt in the microwave. MMMM just tastes soooo gooooood!!!!

So have a great day, and I hope you try this recipe, it's actually lots of fun to make and is very good and versitile too. Take care and talk to you later, keep looking up!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Comfort Food....Yummmmm!!

Hello everyone....how you all doing today??? Well, this is the last day of January, now where did this month go??? Onward and forward to February and possibly a bit of a warmer month???

In the midst of all this cold and snow and stuff, I made some "Comfort Food" today. Don't ask me why this is comfort, but it is something that was made alot when I was growing up. Mostly in my teen years, when my mother married into a Ukranian family. Not even sure what this is called....but I sure did like it, and now it tastes even better.

Umm....I will just call it "Fried Bacon and Hot Cabbage Slaw" So today, this is the way I made it: (I say today, because the recipe changes from time to time, but this is the basic recipe.
1 Tablespoon bacon grease (or fry some bacon and use that for this dish)
2/3 cup broken up pieces of bacon
1/2 head of shredded cabbage
1 small onion sliced (this can be optional)
1/2 cup marinara sauce (I used the rest of my left over vegie marinara sauce)
1/4 cup of water

So I fried the bacon and grease in a Dutch Oven. When hot added the cabbage and onions and mixed with the bacon and grease. After the cabbage is cooked down a bit add the marinara sauce and water (you can also omit the marinara sauce and just do the bacon and cabbage alone and it is goooooood). Turn down the heat to simmer and cover. The heat from the dutch oven will keep the cabbage cooking. Ready to serve right away. It didn't take long to make cause I was dishing it up for JP's lunch in no time, along with fish and potatoes and a smoothie.

Boy this was a good recipe. Yummy and very comforting. I am not sure what the calorie content is, but it is good and filling. Well, I am going to close now and go finish my dishes. Tonight I am going to make some cards for my Etsy store....maybe a set of 6 birthday cards. Talk to you later and keep warm and cozy with some of your favorite comfort food. Cheers ~ Louise

My Cards4ubylouise Studio

Hi everyone. Hope you are keeping WARM in this freezing cold Polar Vortex?????!!!! Thought I would type a few words while JP eats his dinner....yea, it's about 1:14am and he is slurping up the last of his fruit and yogurt. I made some rustic bread, vegie marinara sauce over spaghetti and beans. Today's marinara sauce includes a 28oz of crushed tomatoes, roasted zucchini, green peppers, onions, carrots, celery, sliced cabbage and garlic. After roasting the vegies, I let them cool, then added the vegies to the crushed tomatoes and brought to a soft boil. Used my immersable blender to blend altogether, you can't even tell there are all those extra wonderful vegies in there. How healthy is this recipe????

I am most definitely spoiled now.....probably will never buy another jar of tomato sauce again.

So here we are in my "Woman Cave". I guess that is what you would call it, my place to get away and play a little. I know, I know that's a lot of stuff. But it is an accumulation of about 15 years or so. Ya just never know when a technique will come up and I just might have the stuff to make it!!! This is the view of where I sit and create. In front and to the side of me are my many pens. The drawers hold fancy papers, stamps, embossing powders, watercolor pencils, H2o colors, paints, washi tape and many misc. things.

From this angle are my inks, papers, cuttlebug and die cuts, folders, punches, glues, tape, scissors, boxes and containers of punched out designs oh, and a drawer full of "Valentine embellishments".

From this angle, are cards already made, cards waiting to be made, envelopes, stamps and many embellishments, Quilling, Iris folding, flowers, glitter, ribbon, scrap paper, plastic sleeves and Etsy tags and cards.

On the same wall and on the other side of the basement, is scrap booking stuff, books, idea books, folders, beads for jewelery making, Hospice inserts, wooden block and acrylic stamps. I do have another section of stamping stuff, in the other room are my Christmas, Easter, Valentine, St.Patrick stamps, more ribbons and magazines.

And here is my special friend, Kylie who sits in her chair keeping me company. So there you have it, a tour of my "cards4ubylouise studio". It's not like some of the other gorgeous stamping studios you may have seen....but it is my little studio. Maybe someday I will have an actual room, totally organized, with windows and sunlight beaming through, bright and airy!!!

Well, the President is giving his State of the Union Address.......ho hum....sounds like we are living in some kind of Utopian place, according to him. I sure don't see that, like what planet is he talking about? I will be interested to hear what Rush, Sean and Mark Levine have to say about Obama's speech. Oh yesssss. he just said "Give America a Raise" that would be nice....oh cool "MyRA" a savings for us poor people, so they can take more from us...hahahahah, sounds good????? I better go, before I get in trouble.

Have a great day tomorrow and keep looking up and keep warm in this cold, cold unpredictable weather. Cheers ~ Louise

JUST A NOTE: Incase you were wondering. We got our car back today, to the tune of $396.00, hopefully nothing eles happens and we can pay off what we owe by the end of this year.(like about $1000????)