Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Thoughts on my Creative Flow....

Pat Sloan asked on her blog
"What is your creative flow? 
Do you make for the Joy of it?  
Or must you always (or most of the time)
have a purpose for that project? "

This made me think about the reasons I sew, quilt, knit, crochet, write, create new recipes, and scrap book.

When it come to sewing and quilting I make things for many reasons. The desire to create, the love of playing with fabric, a pattern I was inspired by, learning a new technique, fabric that called out my name to come play with it, or called out the name of someone I knew needed a quilt to be wrapped in love.

When I worked full time and had two young children it was my sanity. I would put myself in timeout, set the timer for 30 minutes, and tell my boys they could not disturb me unless there was blood, broken bones, or fire. It is in my soul.

 I believe I inherited the need to create, quilt, and leave a legacy from my grandmother. Grandma Wilson was a quilter and a cook.  I have two of her quilts and the remains of one she made for me when I was born. It is well loved.  I fell close to her sometimes feel that she is looking over my shoulder when I am piecing and quilting.  I hope to pass on the love of quilting to future generations.


Knitting and Crocheting allow me to relax on long rides in the car, helped me through teaching both boys to drive, and I create or make gifts for others. It is something I enjoy and whatever I make it is made with love.


Writing, whether it be in my journals or on my blog allows me to leave something for future generations, ideas, thoughts, lessons learned, recipes, and stories of my life.  I know that I enjoy reading diaries and biographies and hope that someday, someone will enjoy reading mine.  Writing also helps me to clarify my thoughts and my feelings and to plan and organize.


Cooking and creating new recipes is something I enjoy. I take recipes and tweak them so they are more to our liking. Some things I tweak recipes because they are too bland. Other times because I don't like an ingredient and find that by swapping it out it makes it more flavorful. I also play with food and create recipes based on things I have tried at restaurants.  I enjoy the challenge and the outcome.  Tom is my guinea pig and if he says it is a keeper then it is a winner.



Scrap booking is two fold, one it allows me to create memory books of my life, my boys lives, and events and it is a fun time to get together with a dear friend and do something we both enjoy. It is also a creative time, full of of laughter and memories as well as preserve those we want to share with future generations.


I would have to say in answer to the last part of Pat's question that I create because I enjoy it and because I have sometimes have deadlines. One deadline that is fast approaching is getting our Christmas cards made for this year and I have not even gotten started. Yikes!  I have 21 days to get them done and in the mail because in this case I have a deadline....Christmas Eve.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Carrot Juice

I love our sweet Alaska carrots and eat them until they run out, then I go on a carrot deprivation diet.  I freeze some for use in soups and such but carrots that are shipped here from elsewhere just do not taste the same.  I stock pile them in the fall for soups, snacks, salads, and juicing.

Today I made a new for me juice combo and it tastes really good.

4 carrots chopped with peels left on
1 small green apple, cut up
1 TBSP size chunk of ginger peeled
2 small cuties peeled
1/2 cup water
two handfuls of ice

Blend thoroughly adding the hot water when it get thick and the ice at the end to cool it down and thin it our a little more. It tastes sweet, but not too sweet and is filling. Makes a nice refreshing snack. It made about 4 cups of juice. 

I recommend drinking it right away so you get all the nutrients and to prevent loss of vitamin and mineral content through oxidation..  By blending instead of juicing you get the fiber which is good for your digestive system.
 
Here is a link to the health benefits of carrots.

Carrot Juice

I love our sweet Alaska carrots and eat them until they run out, then I go on a carrot deprivation diet.  I freeze some for use in soups and such but carrots that are shipped here from elsewhere just do not taste the same.  I stock pile them in the fall for soups, snacks, salads, and juicing.

Today I made a new for me juice combo and it tastes really good.

4 carrots chopped with peels left on
1 small green apple, cut up
1 TBSP size chunk of ginger peeled
2 small cuties peeled
1/2 cup water
two handfuls of ice

Blend thoroughly adding the hot water when it get thick and the ice at the end to cool it down and thin it our a little more. It tastes sweet, but not too sweet and is filling. Makes a nice refreshing snack. It made about 4 cups of juice. 

I recommend drinking it right away so you get all the nutrients and to prevent loss of vitamin and mineral content through oxidation..  By blending instead of juicing you get the fiber which is good for your digestive system.
 
Here is a link to the health benefits of carrots.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Veggie Fajitas

I tried out a new recipe last week and then of course I had to make a bunch of changes as it was way to mild and I wanted to try some different veggies than were in the recipe and now I think I have come up with the perfect veggie fajitas for us.

1/2 of a small Sugar Pumpkin or Butternut Squash peeled and cut into narrow strips
1 small Zucchinni thinly sliced the long way
2 - Onions - thinly sliced
2 - Sweet Bell Peppers thinly sliced
5 - cloves of Garlic sliced into thin strips.
1 can Low Sodium Black Beans, rinsed, or if you prefer to cook your own, 2 cups of cooked Black Beans
1 - 2 TBSP Olive or Coconut Oil (liquified)

Home-made salsa, recipe of your choice we like the following one:
1/2 Onion
1/2 Sweet Bell Pepper
4 Roma Tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 Jalepeno (The amount will vary according to your taste.)
chopped and well mixed.

In a large baggie mix the following ingredients:
2 Tsp garlic powder
2 Tsp onion powder
2 Tsp oregano
1/4 Tsp Cumin
2 Tsp Chili Powder
1 Tsp Ancho Chili Powder
1 Tsp Hot Shot or Black Pepper
and for an extra kick at 1/8+ Tsp Cayenne Pepper

Toss the veggies in oil to coat, then put in the baggie with the spices and shake to coat before cooking.

Layered in a mesh grilling basket. I always put the onions on the bottom as they take the longest to cook, but things get stirred up when cooking. I am thinking this will also work well to bake them in the oven when winter sets in and it is way to cold to grill, but then we have two grills. One gas for summer and one charcoal for when it is too cold for gas.

Cook on grill in mesh basket until the veggies are soft (10 +/- minutes)  and then add the black beans and cook for an additional 2 to 5 minutes until the beans are heated.

If you prefer to eat them with tortillas, you may use whatever kind you prefer, heated. You could also do them as lettuce wraps. We prefer to just eat the veggies as we do not eat many grains.

Serve the veggie mix topped with the salsa and shredded cheese and enjoy!

Next time I think I may try adding Sweet Potatoes in the mix.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Locked Out

You all will laugh at me today. I decided to shred and freeze a bunch of zucchini I bought at the farmer's market and thus said well, I should clean out the freezer. So I took things out that were unidentified, or well past their dates so were freezer burned and headed out to the compost pile after defrosting them so they would slide out of containers. I slid the screen door closed and headed off to the the compost pile behind the large pine tree. Dumped everything and came back to the house, only to discover that the screen had latched and I was locked out. You will laugh and I wish I had a video of me trying to get the door open. I stuck my arm between the screen door and the glass door trying to reach the latch. Of course my arm was not long enough. So I looked around to see if there was anything I could use to lengthen my arm. On the grill sat a long handled spatula, AH HA! I stuck my arm back in between the two doors and spent about 10 minutes waving the spatula around beating on the inside of handle and first succeeded in pushing the latch further in, so I was really locked out. I tried wiggling the blade or flat part between the door and the wall to move the latch, no luck, then I went back to putting my arm inside with the spatula in hand and beating on the door, running it up and down trying to catch the latch and finally after another 10 minutes or so got the latch to release so I could get back in the house.
I am still trying to figure out how the door managed to lock.
My phone of course was in the house, the front door was locked, Bryce is who knows where in the state delivering and picking up luggage, and Tom was teaching. The neighbor with the spare key was teaching, and everyone else who could possibly help by giving me a ride to Central to get the key from Tom, was at work. That spatula is going to live on the grill table forever because I am not taking that chance again. I guess I should also take my keys out to the compost pile next time so I can get in the front door. Good thing it was a beautiful sunny day.

Friday, August 15, 2014

It's Back to School Time

     My favorite part of going back to school was setting up my classroom and the smell of new supplies.  The anticipation of new students and getting to know them and what made them tick.  This of course was before all this common core stuff. When you could teach what was required but at your own pace and in your own way. Everyone did not need to be on the same page in every classroom across the district.  I could spend more time on the Civil War and less on the War of 1812. More time on Women's Suffrage and less on the Era of Good Feelings and the Monroe Doctrine. I could use my knowledge to judge when it was time to move one and when it was time to delve deeper into topics based on student interaction and reactions to what we were studying.

     Do I miss the start of school? Sometimes. I miss setting up the classroom and the greeting of students on the first day, but I do not miss the meetings, the paperwork, the daily hassles that teachers have to deal with when they have severe behavior problem students who have never learned manners and appropriate behavior in prior years of schooling or from their parents. I also do not miss the parents who do not accept responsibility for their children and blame everything on the teachers, who are not at fault.

     Last year I was at school for the first student day and I really did enjoy that. I was filling in for a new math teacher who was hired the day before classes started and had to have time to move to Anchorage and get all his stuff in order with the district. I spent two weeks in his room and enjoyed starting the year off with a group of seventh graders.

     This year I am not subbing on the first day of school, but I already have a job lined up before the end of the month. I will be teaching English for a week.  I look forward to it.

     Today when I was out shopping I heard a mother tell her son that they needed to start shopping for school supplies. I would certainly hope so since school starts for students next Wednesday.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

     It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood was my thought this morning as I looked out the kitchen window this morning. The trees are green and the birds are singing and today teacher's are back at work.

     Even after three years of retirement, this being the fourth year my husband went back to work and I did not it feels good to be off today. Yes, I still was up or at least awake before he left the house, but I did not have to hurry off to sit through a day of boring inservices listening to people drone on about ethics, infectious diseases or as we often referred to it the hand washing lesson, child find, and the newer ones on suicide awareness and gender and race equity which are so boring and never really change.

    Today my plan includes sewing, and a haircut. I may run to Joann Fabrics for some shape flex and fleece, but beyond that my day is mine. The only other thing on the agenda is cooking dinner and I am thinking of trying a new recipe for baked cauliflower to go along with some baked sweet potatoes.

     In past years this was always the day I caught up on letter writing, and did applique work, or hand stitched down bindings to stay awake.  I also would work on lesson plans and pass notes like most students use to do back in the days before cell phones and email. <:>/ 

     If the sun comes out or the rain holds off I may even decide to take a short bike ride, but  for now I am sitting sipping my tea and enjoying watching the birds play in the trees out my back window.

    

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Baked Asparagus, Leek and Goat Cheese Bites

I made this recipe tonight for dinner and though it was good it needs some work. I found it on the Williams and Sonoma website.

Choose a soft, crumbly, fresh goat cheese with a hint of citrus to highlight the onion-like leeks and earthy asparagus in this dish. The freshest whole-milk ricotta available will provide these eggy mouthfuls with the creamiest, lightest texture.

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 tsp. unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
  • 6 asparagus spears, tough ends trimmed
  • 1 leek, halved lengthwise and rinsed well, white and light green portions finely chopped
  • 2 oz. fresh goat cheese
  • 1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 300°F. Generously coat the cups of a 12-cup miniature muffin pan with butter.

Thinly slice the asparagus spears crosswise, keeping the tips whole. Set the asparagus tips aside.

In a sauté pan over medium-low heat, melt 2 tsp. of the butter. Add the sliced asparagus and the leek and cook gently, stirring often, until just softened slightly, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool.

Crumble the goat cheese into another bowl. Add the ricotta cheese and egg and mash together with a fork until well combined, then mix in the cooled vegetables. Divide the filling evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake the “bites” until puffed and lightly golden on top, 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut each asparagus tip in half lengthwise. In a small nonstick fry pan over low heat, melt the remaining 1/2 tsp. butter. Add the asparagus tips and sauté until just tender, about 1 minute. Transfer to a small bowl.

When the bites are done, transfer the pan to a wire rack. Run a table knife around the inside of each cup to loosen the edges and let cool slightly. Invert a large plate or tray over the muffin pan, invert the pan and plate together and lift off the pan.

Arrange the bites on a platter or individual plates and top each with an asparagus-tip half. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 bites; serves 6 to 12.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma New Flavors for Appetizers, by Amy Sherman (Oxmoor House, 2008).

It needs more spice so I plan to add some hotshot pepper and garlic and instead of using a muffin tin, use little baking dishes and simply divide it into two servings and then adjust the cooking time. I might also add in some basil or thyme as it needs a little more flavor.  We shall see. I am thinking I will try it again this weekend with my modifications.

They were not bad, just bland.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Today I Almost Shot the Locate Man

I came home from a nice relaxing massage and was  in the kitchen getting myself a snack before going on an errand to find a background fabric to match an odd color background of my main fabric. While looking out the back window over the sink I noticed something or someone moving  around in the backyard behind the shed and in the area of the tall pine tree.
It made me very nervous. I checked that the alarm was set to STAY and grabbed my 9 mm, and made sure it was loaded.

I walked out on the deck and yelled, "Who are you and what the hell are you doing in my back yard?" By this time the guy was up along the side of the addition and between it and the deck. That made me even more nervous.

His back was to me and when he heard me he quickly turned around. He took a couple of steps back when he saw my gun, and said "Please don't shoot me, ma'm. I am here doing a locate for GCI, so they can dig up your yard to put in new cables." I actually think it was for ACS, since that is our internet service that we have been having troubles with.

I apologized to him and explained that he had scared me.

He told me that a neighbor woman of his had someone break into her house and she shot at them with her gun and missed. He recommended she get a different gun, a 9 mm like mine.  He also told me there were no hard feelings. Women need to protect themselves. He was glad I did not shoot first and ask questions after.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Vegetarian Lasagna

Tom and I love this dish.  I have been playing with several different recipes and think I finally hit on the one that works best for us. It makes about four to six servings, so we have dinner and lunch out of it.

Ingredients:

1 small to medium spaghetti squash = roughly 3 cups of shredded spaghetti squash.

1 - 2 small to medium or medium to large zucchini = roughly 3 cups of shredded zucchini.

15 ounces of ricotta cheese. I buy organic.

2 cups of shredded mozzarella. I like to shred my own and buy organic.
You can also save some to sprinkle on top after cooking or during the last few minutes of cooking.

1 tsp to 1 TBsp of hotshot  or black pepper (We like it spicy, so I add more.)

You will need a baking dish that is 9 X 5 and about 2-3" deep.

Before putting this dish together you need to have prepared the following in advance:

Clean and bake one small to medium spaghetti squash.  After letting it cool, scrape out the insides and set aside to use in the lasagna.  To bake I cut mine in half, scrape out the seeds and then set cut side down on a wire rack over a cookie sheet with water in it.  After baking at 350° for roughly 30-45 minutes, until you can pierce the outside with a fork, I let it cool, cut side down, until I can easily pick it up and scrape the inside out. I then let it drain for a bit so that it is not too watery. It really works great if we have spaghetti the night before and I cook a large spaghetti squash and use the left over for lasagna. You need roughly 3 cups of shredded spaghetti squash.

I shred one to two small to medium or medium to large zucchini, and let it drain in a strainer for awhile.  I also pat it with paper towels to remove some of  moisture. (I am thinking I may bake it for a few minutes next time to see if I can get more water to drain before putting it in the lasagna. You need roughly 3 cups of shredded zucchini.

I also make my own sauce, another reason I like to have spaghetti the night before.  I will share my recipe in another  post, but you need roughly 2-3 cups of sauce.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Directions:

Smear some sauce in the bottom of the dish, just enough to coat it lightly.

Sprinkle one third of the shredded zucchini in a layer in the bottom of the dish.

(Here you have a choice. I prefer to layer the spaghetti squash and then the ricotta, but you could do it in reverse.)

Sprinkle one third of the shredded spaghetti squash in a layer over the zucchini.

Using one third of the ricotta cheese dab it over the squash and then smear it around lightly so that it is pretty evenly layered.

Sprinkle some of the hot shot or black pepper on the ricotta cheese.

Sprinkle with one third of mozzarella cheese.

Layer one third of the sauce over this

Repeat twice.

Bake 45 minutes, sprinkling the saved mozzarella over the top during the last five minutes of cooking or after removing it from the oven. Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Because there are no noodles to absorb the excess liquid due to using squash, it is helpful to have bulb syringe to remove some of the excess juice before cutting and serving, if you do not have one you can use a spoon to remove some and then once cut and served, tip the plates slightly to let the excess liquid run off before serving.

The extras keep well over night in the refrigerator and make a great lunch when reheated the next day. We never have any left over for freezing so I am not sure how it does at freezing, but please let me know how it works out if you try freezing it and reheating.

Sorry there are no pictures but I forgot to take any when I made this a couple nights ago. I will try to remember to update with a picture next time I make it.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Response to "The Tough Decision to Leave the Classroom"

This is my response to /the-tough-decision-to-leave-the-classroom that I stumbled across on Facebook.

Josh I can truly understand whatyou are saying,. I retired after 27+ years of teaching. I was tired of jumping through hoops and playing games. Tne amount of paperwork kept increasing and the time to teach seemed to be shrinking due to the increase in hoops. Too much time is spent having to parent students because their parents do not parent. 

More money is spent on sports than in the classroom and parents and community members are more likely to raise an uproar over a cut to hockey or football than teacher cuts or elective class cuts. Many parents get more upset over a snow day than a failing a grade because heaven forbid they have to find a babysitter. Parents do not come to conferences and even if thy do they talk the talk, but do not walk the walk. Kids who do not have money for basic school supplies come in wearing $100+ shoes and have money for the junk food machines or the latest phone, which many teachers cannot afford. I had students who asked me for change for a hundred dollar bill and they were surprised I did not have change as I was a teacher I made the big bucks. HAHA! Big buck, I wish. 

The community does not realize the money we put out for recertification, classes to recertify, and for classroom supplies. They seem to think it is all there and that we don’t really work that hard as we get summers off. They have not been there when we are at school at midnight making copies or grading papers or writing IEPs for special ed sudents, or at home doing many of these activities. They seem to think our job is SO EASY. 

Cuts raise class sizes which make teaching more of a wrestling match as we have to deal with crowd control rather than teach. I have been in 6th grade classrooms with 36+ students where you had to ask students to stand up and push in their chairs so you could get to the student who needed help. I have been in classrooms with 35+ high school students many of whom were hyperactive boys with no room to move so they are bothering everyone around them and I have spent more time trying to deal with behavior issues than I have trying to teach them to write a sentence. Students who are highly gifted and students who are so severely handicapped they need constant one-on-one care crowded into small rooms with inadequate heating, lighting, and too few textbooks do not make for a good learning environment. It simply becomes babysitting. 

Last year my husband had a class of students who simply wanted to play. They were interested in learning, or doing anything that could be considered work. They came to school simply to socialize and play. These were 8th graders. They were so far behind in school that they have no hope of getting a diploma and graduating and will probably drop out. 

It is sad to see how the future of our country has been hung out to dry with all the cuts to education. We are failing our country and our kids. Our governments, country, state, and city need to wake up and see that they are not helping our kids, they are hurting them. I think we need to institure a uniform policy, and allow corporal punishment in some cases as well as fully fund education and limit class sizes in all grades to 20 students. We also need to stop all this social emotional learning garbage and go back to a more rigourous and basic curriculum of reading, writing, and arithmetic with science, art and music and stop all the crap about we will hurt their feelings. I also think we need to tighten the reins of welfare but that topic is for another day.

I know that many of you know there was more to my decision to retire, including health issues, but waht I have said above is also true.  Yes, I continue to sub but it because I care about the students and want to help those I can. I do believe they are the future of our country and I would like to help those that I can to be successful contributing citizens to our society and to the future of our country, but our govenrment and the lacsidasical ideology of many members of our country is contributing the downfall and the destruction of our civilization as a whole.   As I said welfare and robbing the rich or rather middle class to pay the poor is getting to the point where there will soon beno middle class.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Bandwith Issues Learning Experience

After much frustration for my husband regarding my computer eating up too much bandwith, he discovered the culprit. He was searching through my computer looking at the sites I surf the most and he discovered that one of my often visited sites The Toothfairy Quilter eats up lots of bandwidth because she does not archive her pages so that only one page at a time shows, which until today was the same with mine. Now that I know why my pages eat up so much bandwidth I now have my blog set so that only one page shows at a time instead of a chain of pages going back to the beginning of my blog.

My husband says this makes a huge difference in the amount of bandwidth that my computer uses. I have now changed my blogs to all reflect this and it has solved some of the issues we were having.

For those that want to make this change go to  your SETTINGS: POSTS AND COMMENTS and set the following at 1. Mine was set at 7 which I am assuming is the default.  Now that it is set at 1 I am not hogging all the bandwidth when I am on my own blogs and updating them.

Posts 

Hopefully this will help others who are experiencing similar issues.
 

Sunday, May 11, 2014

My Hero, My Mom

In High School










 
My mom worked outside the home before most women did. She joined the Air Force and served our country until they kicked her out because she was pregnant with me. Back in the 1950s you were not allowed to serve if you were pregnant, it did not matter that she was married to my father, it was the rule. They did not have cute maternity uniforms and such then, because a woman's place was in the home.
With her parents, brothers and sisters.





With my youngest at his high school graduation
With two of her younger sisters, Sally and Sue.
With another of her four sisters, Linda



2006
 She has been there for me through thick and thin and even times when I felt I she was way over protective and I was a real brat, she stuck with me and for that I am forever grateful.


With my youngest son


With my oldest son


WIth my youngest son in 2006.

WIth my youngest son in 2006

With Jim in October 2011 after our trip to Ireland


My mom was a women's "liber" before it was popular because she was always one step ahead. She set an excellent example for me in life. She showed me how to be strong and how to take care of things when my dad was not around because the Air Force had sent him off somewhere for a year or how ever long.

With me in Memphis in July 2011

My mother is a strong woman even today, though she is loosing the physical strength battle due to age taking its toll on her body, she is still strong in all the ways that count.  She has topped onions, worked a switch board, and marched in Air Force boots. She never got a college degree, but she still worked her way up to management in the Civil Service and she was still there to help with Girl Scouts and bake cookies.  She is an example that more women need to follow and one who I hope I can live up to.
With me in Ireland, October 2011

With Jim and I on the bus in Ireland, October 2011.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

The Coolest Thing I Have Ever Seen in a Foreign Country

The Coolest Thing I  Have Ever Seen in a Foreign Country was not actually in the country, but in the water off the coast of Australia. If you haven't guessed by now, it was the Great Barrier Reef. The colors, in the reef are intense.

I could spend hours just staring our into the water watching the fish and other creatures swim about.  We saw sea turtles, sea anemone, fish, and many other creatures.  It was fascinating and beautiful.

The water was so clear and such a beautiful color that you just wanted to dive right in.  I wish I could find fabric in the clear, bright colors that I saw there, but I do not think man can ever capture the pure colors of the reef. We can come close, but I doubt we could ever duplicate them.

It is like the Alaskan glaciers you can not match those colors in nature no matter how hard you try. Yo u can come close, but only Mother Nature can make those perfect colors.

Mexican Lasagna

I love experimenting and trying new recipes and found one that I as usual twisted around to my liking.  I call it Mexican Lasagna.  Tom likes it and considering that for years he turned up his nose at zucchini that is saying a lot. It is fairly quick and easy to make, though I like to let the zucchini drain for a few hours so that it is not so juicy when cooked.

Ingredients:

2 small to medium or 1 large zucchini shredded.
2 -3 carrots shredded
1 tsp oil (I use olive or coconut oil.)
1 onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
2 peppers chopped (I prefer red and yellow or orange.)
1 cup crushed taco shells or tortilla chips. (I bake corn tortillas and crush them as they are lower in sodium)
2 - 14 oz cans low sodium diced tomatoes or use crushed tomatoes.
1 TBSP chili powder (I use a mix of chili and ancho chili powder as we like it spicier.)
1 tsp dried oregano or if you have fresh that is better.
1/8 to 1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 - 1 tsp Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipolte Seasoning Blend
1 TBSP parsley
black pepper to taste
Cayenne Pepper or Red Pepper to taste if you like it spicier. (We do)
1 can low sodium black beans rinsed and drained. (In a pinch you could substitute red kidney beans.)
2 cups Mexican Shredded Cheddar Cheese.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Shred the zucchini and carrots and let them drain for an hour or two or over night. You can also pat them with paper towels to help dry them so they are not so juicy when cooking.

Saute the onions, garlic, and peppers in the oil or put them in a microwaveable dish and steam them for 1 to 2 minutes until the onions are opaque.  I also sauté the onions without oil as I have waterless cookware and this reduces the added fats.

I blend the tomatoes, spices and onion mix so they are less chunky and more like crushed tomatoes. You can just mix them in a sauce pan and add the spices: cumin, oregano, and chili powder.
Heat to boiling and reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or so.

Lightly grease a 9x7x2 inch casserole dish.

Layer crushed tortillas, tomatoes mixture, black beans, zucchini, cheese, and repeat.  I always top it with the tomato mixture.  You can add more cheese after it bakes it you like lots of cheese. You can also mix the beans in the tomato mixture if you want and just layer them together.

Bake about 30 minutes, and let set for 5 minutes before serving.

We find that this makes four large servings which are perfect for the two of us, as we get dinner and lunch the next day.

You can make smaller servings and add a salad or bread and then it will serve 6 to 8.

Sliced avocados make a nice side dish, also.

For dessert try sliced strawberries with fresh whipped cream and chocolate shavings.



It Is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to Pay Off Your College Loan

  There is a key point that the leftist are totally missing in their, asinine argument, saying that the government should pay off student lo...