Pasta with lentils and arugula

This one has been made a couple of times, and I was looking for a pasta/lentil recipe to use up some lentils. What really makes this dish is the caramelized onions. I think I might have actually done so correctly as the recipe stated. YAY! Also added was some tomatoes from my CSA and some parm cheese (BOGO at the BILO). I did end up using arugula...debated between that and a spinach sub, but arugula worked very well. I served it with some beet chips, also from the CSA.

Black Bean Enchiladas

To celebrate the blogaversary of the Monthly Challenge, we were to create a recreate a recipe from this blog. I chose the black bean enchilada recipe and just made my own corn tortillas and enchilada sauce. 

The recipe is from the Food Network Magazine  and can be found here.  The used the black bean mixture for two recipes; once for burgers and then using the remaining mixture for the enchiladas.  I used all of the recipe for the enchiladas... I like ours filled! The bean recipe by itself was rather bland and I would definitely have to spice it up if I was to use it in burgers.  However, the enchilada sauce I used worked well with it and gave it lots of flavor.

this is my recipe for Enchilada Sauce.... I have had it for years and don't recall where the recipe came from

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 onion, diced or minced whichever you prefer

3 tablespoons chili powder

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons sugar

15 ounce can tomato sauce or 2 (8-ounce) cans if that's what you have on hand

1/2 cup water

salt and pepper to taste

     Heat the oil and and cook the onion until it is soft.  Add the chili powder, garlic, cumin and sugar,tomato sauce and water.  Simmer and cook until it is thickened. 

Fudge Babies

I have made a recipe similar to this one before, but really was looking for a lara-like bar recipe where I could add my penzey's cocoa. YUM! This one was perfect. All it contains are almonds, dates, vanilla, and cocoa. Well, I used almonds. The original recipe called for a different nut. I actually added more dates than called for, plus some almond butter and water to get them to stick together a bit better. I keep them wrapped individually in the fridge, but they are better at room temp. Definately fudgey. James loves them!

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

Oh bother. I have been serving these for breakfast for the part week thinking they were muffins when they were really cupcakes. They are really good!

This recipe really isn't not from this blog, but it is from Michelle's blog. Too be honest, they will be posted on this blog during the farmer's market challenge so it is a little bit like looking into the future. I made these to see if I could get one of my kids to eat zucchini. He isn't dumb like most kids. He knows when I am trying to sneak something in. However, with this recipe, success. He did eat these cupcakes. The only problem, my kids make a mess when eating muffins. It almost isn't worth it! I guess it is better than the cocoa puffs though...

June challenge - Happy Blogaversary

Has it already been 4 years of monthly challenges? For this challenge, cook from this blog...or any other