Q-Pon Cooking: September 2015: Sweet Corn -- Southwestern Egg Rolls

I had Southwestern Egg Rolls on our 2-week menu list for about a month (we just didn't get to it last pay period), so today, I decided I needed to use those egg roll wrappers!  As I looked over the recipe today, I realized I could completely THRIVEalize this meal!!!  And so I did :).  The original recipe can be found here.  The recipe below is my THRIVEalized version!

1 1/2 cup THRIVE Sweet Corn
1 cup THRIVE Spinach
3/4 cup THRIVE Instant Black Beans
1/4 cup THRIVE Green Chilis
3 tablespoons THRIVE Green Onions
1 cup THRIVE Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese*
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 package egg roll wrappers
2 1/2 cups water, divided

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

In a small saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water and black beans to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

While the beans are cooking, put all remaining THRIVE ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.  Add 1 cup water and mix.  Allow to sit while beans finish cooking.  When beans are finished, drain the water and add to bowl along with cheddar cheese and seasonings.  Mix again until well combined.

Place an egg roll wrapper on a flat surface, with one corner pointing towards you.  Place about 1/4 cup mixture in the middle of the wrapper.

Fold corner closest to you over the mixture and roll a little bit.  Then fold in side corner and continue rolling.  Dip your finger in water and moisten the last corner and press to seal as you roll the rest of the way.

Continue with remaining wrappers.  (I ended up with about 17 egg rolls, but you could get more or less depending on how much filling you add.)  Place them on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Spray lightly with cooking spray.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, turning once during cooking.

And here's what they look like when done baking!

Serve warm with salsa!

Delicious!  We ate these for a meatless dinner, but they can also be a heavy appetizer!

Contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com if you'd like to have these ingredients on hand!

Farfalle Basil Marinara

This is now one of my go-to dinners!  Especially in the summer!  It's stove-top.  It's fast.  And it's delicious!  My whole family loves it!  It was served at a Power Up Seattle, and I knew I wanted to have it again at home!  And now we have it again and again :).

FARFALLE BASIL MARINARA
2 cups farfalle (bowtie) pasta*
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon garlic
1 1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons THRIVE Chopped Onions
1/2 cup THRIVE Tomato Dices
1/4 cup THRIVE Classic Tomato Sauce, dry
1/4 teaspoon THRIVE Chef's Choice Seasoning Blend
1/2 tablespoon Basil*
1/4 cup THRIVE Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Cook pasta in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes until done.  Drain and set aside.

Sweat oil and garlic together in saucepan.  Add all remaining ingredients except Parmesan and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes.

Toss pasta with sauce and Parmesan and bring back to a simmer.  Simmer another minute or so and then enjoy!

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

As written, this recipe makes about 3 servings.  But it would be very easy to double it for a larger family!  Seriously, our dinner was done in about 30 minutes from start to finish that night!  We served this dish alongside sauteed spinach, fresh strawberries, and French bread!  Yum!

And let me just say that I love the Classic Tomato Sauce!  I never would have considered buying it had it now been for trying this recipe at the Power Up.  Now I consider it a home store staple!

Happy THRIVEing!

Whole Wheat Tortillas

Don't you love it when you go to the store and forget something so basic as bread?  Even when it's on your list!  Yeah, I did that.  On Saturday night. 

I didn't want to go to the store for a special bread-buying trip for a couple of reasons:  1.  waste of gas to buy only one thing.  2.  I am an impulse shopper (I know, shameful!) and that one thing would have turned into more than one, I can guarantee it.  Which means I'm spending money I don't need to. 

Anyway, without bread in the house earlier today, I decided to try my hand at some whole wheat tortillas I found a recipe for in the THRIVE Cookbook.  I love that this recipe can be made with 100% food storage!  And 100% THRIVE, for that matter.  Mine weren't 100% THRIVE, simply because we have wheat from years ago given to us by my in-laws, and we grind it up for flour.  We need to use the oldest stuff first, naturally ;).  But this could totally be 100% THRIVE.  And I love that I had my THRIVE Shortening Powder on hand to use!  It is one of my favorite items, because I don't usually buy shortening.  I buy butter a lot at the store, but not shortening, as very few of my recipes call for it.  So I'm really thrilled that, on the rare occasion my recipe calls for shortening, I now have a solution in my home store!

Anyway, so on to the recipe!  (P.S.  I halved the recipe below and ended up with 12 tortillas)

WHOLE WHEAT TORTILLAS
1 cup white flour*
4 cups whole wheat flour*
2 teaspoons salt*
1/2 cup THRIVE Shortening Powder (plus 1 to 2 tablespoons water)
 2 1/4 cups boiling water
additional flour for rolling

Sift together white flour, whole wheat flour, and salt.  Add shortening powder and mix.  Add 1 to 2 tablespoons water and mix in with a fork (or hands) until mixture is crumbly.

Make a well in the center of the mixture, then pour boiling water in the well.  Mix with a fork until all the water is evenly incorporated into the mixture.  Dough should be soft and not sticky.  If your dough is too flaky, add more water 2 tablespoons at a time until dough comes together.

Sprinkle with a bit of additional flour and knead until the dough does not stick to fingers (this took me about an additional 1/4 cup).  Make balls the size of golf balls and place them on a sheet pan.  Cover the dough with a cloth and let sit for an hour.

Heat a griddle or large frying pan over high heat.  On a lightly floured surface (we found we needed it heavily floured or the dough would stick...), roll out a tortilla as thinly as you prefer.  Fry the first side for approximately 10 seconds until you see a bubble form in the middle of the tortilla.  Flip the tortilla and let it cook for approximately 30 more seconds.  Flip the tortilla once more and let it cook for 30 seconds more.

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

So this was my (and my husband's) first attempt at making tortillas from scratch.  We learned a lot!  I think we may have over-floured in an effort to prevent sticking when rolling.  And I think we over-cooked and dried them out.  We learned by the last few, and then those were much better.  They all still tasted fine.  Just some were drier than others. 

I used the tortillas to make cheese quesadillas for our lunch.

Then, I used one and slathered it with Nutella and put a banana in it and sliced it for an afternoon snack for my toddler and myself ;).

It was definitely a lot of fun trying out new things with the tortillas :).  And, as always, I had fun using my THRIVE!

Meatless Monday: Beef Enchilada Bake

In recent months, the price of beef has gone up significantly.  As a result, I started looking for more meatless meals to help me stretch our grocery budget!  

THRIVE Life has opened my world to so many possibilities with their great variety of TVP (textured vegetable protein) products!  I'm loving that we're able to have meals that would usually use beef, but don't -- and we don't feel like we're missing out!  Our beef supply is stretching further this way, and I'm not having to buy beef at the grocery store nearly as often! 

One of our recent meatless meals was a Beef Enchilada Bake.  I found the recipe on the back of the THRIVE Life Sweet Corn #10 can.  I made a couple of substitutions, since we currently have the THRIVE Taco TVP.  The recipe below is as I made it -- and I felt like it came out quite well!

BEEF ENCHILADA BAKE
1 cup THRIVE Taco TVP (I subbed this for THRIVE Beef TVP)
1 cup boiling water
1/2 of 6-ounce can tomato paste* (I subbed this for 1 can condensed tomato soup, because the THRIVE Taco TVP is seasoned more than the THRIVE Beef TVP and I wanted to decrease the sodium due to my original substitution)
1 cup salsa*
1 cup THRIVE Sweet Corn, rehydrated
6-8 corn tortillas, cut into 1-inch squares
1/2 to 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese*

Combine THRIVE Taco TVP and water in a microwave safe dish; microwave on high for 6 to 10 minutes.  Let stand for 5 minutes.

In a large skillet, combine the THRIVE Taco TVP, tomato paste, salsa, THRIVE Sweet Corn, and tortillas.  Heat through.  Transfer to a 2 1/2 quart baking dish and top with cheese. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.  Top with a dollop of sour cream* and sliced olives if desired.

*Denotes ingredients also available through THRIVE Life.

If you want to stretch your grocery budget a little further with the help of some of THRIVE Life's awesome TVP options, contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com!

You can also check out more info on the THRIVE Taco TVP by following this link!

THRIVE Express Creamy Garden Vegetable Chowder

Today wrapped up 6 days of vacation for my mom, my munchkin, and me.  38 hours of traveling (34 actually driving); that took 4 of our days.  Two full days in Utah.  (One of which we stopped by the THRIVE Warehouse to pick up our orders -- so check back soon to read about my experience!).

We got home around 6 tonight.  Which means we ran into some yucky rush-hour traffic.  Blech. 

Knowing I was going to get home around dinner time, my mind turned to what I could do for dinner.  Most particularly for my toddler.  I didn't want to do fast food (we'd already done that for lunch -- traveling makes for some bad eating!).  And I really wanted to get more veggies into her (to accompany the THRIVE asparagus we snacked on earlier in the car).  But I didn't want to have to figure out what to cook -- and then cook it -- at the end of a very long day of driving. 

THRIVE Express came to the rescue!!!  While we were visiting the THRIVE Warehouse Showroom, we picked up some extra THRIVE deliciousness!  Including a couple of THRIVE Express pouches! One of which was the Creamy Garden Vegetable Chowder.  I asked my mom if she'd like to eat that for dinner, and this yummy pouch filled all 3 of us (with some leftover for my husband tonight when he gets home from work :)).

Here's why I absolutely love it:

1.  We were literally eating within 30 minutes of me pulling the van into our parking space.  I came in the house, got the requisite amount of water into a pot on the stove and turned on the burner.  My mom stayed inside with the munchkin and added the contents of the pouch when the water was boiling -- and kept an eye on the munchkin -- while I unpacked the van.  And by the time I was done, so was dinner!

2.  It is full of vegetables!  Corn, carrots, green beans, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, and celery!

3.  It is delicious!  Rich and creamy and yummy.  True, it is an odd choice for a 98-degree day in Washington (what the heck, Washington!?!)...  But fortunately, my sweet husband left the a/c running when he went to work, so it was perfectly fine, even on a hot summer day :)! 

Ah yes, THRIVE Express to the rescue today :).  Totally a fabulous purchase.

If you think you might enjoy the convenience and deliciousness of THRIVE Express Creamy Garden Vegetable Chowder, contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com and I'll get you the Q-Price hook-up :)!