Thai Ramen: Dedicated to Wes

Coconut Thai Ramen

1 tablespoons oil
1 small sweet onion, julienned
2 ounces pimientos
½ cup diced "chicken"
½ can coconut milk
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
⅛-¼ teaspoon cayenne
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
5-6 cups water
3 packages ramen, noodles only

Servings/Yield: 6 servings

1. In a 4 quart pot, heat oil and fry onions until they brown on the edges. Stir in pimientos, veggie chicken and spices and cook for about 2 minutes.

2. Add water and bring to a boil.

3. Add remaining ingredients and cook, boiling, until noodles soften, 2-3 minutes.

Quick Potluck Cake

Can it get any easier? Thank you for your patience with my posting "lull." Just 10 days until graduation (!!!), and this recipe is in honor of all who need to throw something together in 5 minutes to take to "that event." Not as healthy as some, but not too bad, and SOOO easy. :-)

Potluck Cake

2 pounds Strawberries, chopped
1 box strawberry cake mix
16 ounces strawberry soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray a casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Spread chopped strawberries over the bottom of the pan.

3. Mix cake mix and soda pop and spoon over the strawberries.

4. Bake until top edges are golden brown, 25-35 minutes.

Creamy Red Pepper Curry - One More Very Favorite

Here is another one of Mike's creations. You may notice that he tends to cook a little more complicated than I do, but it is so worth investing in these spices and herbs to get this meal. If you have none of them, it could be pretty expensive, so you might want to bum a few you're missing from a friend. But once you taste this, you'll probably get your own anyway... Don't say I didn't warn you!

This also takes awhile to make, 30-45 minutes, but it can and should be made ahead. As with most Indian food, the longer it sets, the better it gets!

Creamy Red Pepper Curry

3 tablespoons coconut oil
2 onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced
1" ginger, minced
2 dried red hot pepper, halved
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 ½ teaspoon corriander, ground
¾ teaspoon cardomom
⅛ teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon saffron, opt
1 ½ teaspoons garam masala
⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon parsley
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 - ½ teaspoon chili powder
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 cup cashews, raw
10 almonds
¾ cup coconut milk, about 1/2 can
3 ½ cups water
2 1/4 teaspoons salt

1. Chop onions, garlic, ginger and set aside. Heat coconut oil on high heat and then put in the veggies you just chopped, along with the red hot peppers. Stir, and then occasionally, browning, but not blackening.

2. As soon as onions begin to cook, measure out spices and sprinkle over, continuing to stir until veggies are browned and all is fragrant.

3. When they are almost done, add tomatoes and heat through. Remove from heat, then blend in a blender.

4. Chop red peppers into 1/2 inch to 1" pieces and boil, covered in 1 cup of water until soft.

5. Blend nuts, coconut milk and 1 cup of the water until very smooth. Then add the remaining 2 1/2 cups water and blend.

6. Combine all and simmer for at least 10 minutes, but the longer the better. This works great in the crockpot, but only for a few hours, and not overnight.

My New Favorite - Celery Soup

Sometimes you just need comfort food, don't you? I don't know why, but this is my current favorite... I can't wait to get to the store and get more celery! Great thing is, you can even use the center, the leaves, etc. of the celery, so it's a great way to use up the not-so-great parts that normally go in the trash in most families. This stuff is easy and delicious - the entire family loved it, and that is rare, as they (we) all have such different tastes!

It's good to have, too, because there are many recipes that call for cream of celery soup and this is so much healthier than Campbell's. If you want to make it concentrate (as a can of soup would be), Use only 1-2 cups water in place of the 4 cups you'd blend in with the cashews.

Cream of Celery Soup

2 ½ cups celery, chopped fine
4 cups water
2 tablespoons chicken-style seasoning
4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup cashews, raw
¼ cup cornstarch

1. Cook celery, water and chicken-style seasoning on a low boil until much of the water is gone, about 15 minutes.

2. In a blender, blend cashews and remaining water until very smooth, about 2 minutes.

3. Combine all, bring to a boil, stirring, and cook for about 2 more minutes.

HoneyBaked Wham

Gourmet-ly Amazing! Warning - this food is complex, so not as much a kid favorite. But Hubby and my sister loved it!

HoneyBaked Wham

1 pound Wham*
½ cup honey
½ cup orange juice concentrate
2 tablespoons mustard

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix honey, orange juice, mustard with a fork.

3. Slice Wham and pour glaze in, over and around slices to marinade. Allow to set in this in the refrigerator overnight (as little as an hour or so, and as long as a couple of days is fine).

4. Spray a 9 x 13" casserole dish and in this, layer Wham in two lines and pour any extra of the sauce over the top.

5. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

*Wham is a Worthington food product. You can get it at a health food store or online. I'm not into "fake meat" because I need or miss meat... I've never eaten it, and don't care to. But there are some recipes that look so completely amazing that I'm thankful there are "veggie" versions of meat to substitute in!

Delicious Blueberry Muffins

One more favorite. We took these mouth-watering, crumbly topped muffins as a portable breakfast for a day out and they were filling and sustaining, and so very good!


Blueberry Muffins


2 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white chia seeds, or flax seeds
⅓ cup oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups water
¼ cup sugar
⅓ cup white whole wheat flour
¼ cup Smart Balance
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Servings/Yield: 12 servings | 12 muffins

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray muffin tins with nonstick vegetable oil spray.

2. Mix flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and chia seeds.

3. Mix in oil, vanilla and water. Don't stir excessively, but mix powdery parts in.

4. Stir in blueberries and then spoon into muffin tins, nearly full.

5. Mix 1/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour and 1/4 cup "butter" thoroughly and then sprinkle over muffins.