More delicious recipes

At my church I was recently called to be the self reliant specialist in the women's group, called Relief Society. Initially I had no idea what this meant, but now that I have been told I am super excited. This duty, or calling as we say in our church was made for me. Two Sundays a month, and at Thursday activities I share with the women ideas to be more thrifty or frugal. Whether it is about canning, gardening, food storage or just some clever way to cook a healthy, cheap meal, or stretch our dollars a little further. Seriously this is what I love and do on a regular basis. I am excited to teach how you can make your own laundry soap that lasts for a really long time and saves you money, and how to make veggie scrap soup from your frozen veggie peels and ends. My friend Kristina showed me a blog with this idea on it. I love cheap, healthy recipes and have tons to share, and I am looking forward to researching and finding more clever ideas for encouraging self reliance.
Now for a few recipes: first is just basic roasted vegetables. This is something Chris and I eat at least every week. You can always change your vegetables and seasonings so it doesn't get boring. My favorite vegetable since I started growing it in the summer is beets. I love them and they are so good for you. Just packed with vitamins. If I use beets I steam them for a bit first because they take longer to cook then most other root vegetables. They are so good roasted. So last weekend I cooked a whole chicken to use throughout the week. I rarely cook whole chickens because I hate touching raw meat. It really grosses me out and we eat very little meat anyways. Anyhow, I decided to use some of my precooked chicken in with my roasted veggies. I was concerned about the meat drying out in the oven and I didn't want to use oil to roast my veggies either. I always keep a supply of unsweetened applesauce around to use as an oil substitute in baking. I decided to mix a half cup of applesauce or so in with my chicken and veggies. The vegetables consisted of carrots, yams, potatoes, and maybe celery, plus the chicken. I stirred the applesauce through to coat everything and added a few other seasonings, but NO SALT. Roasted with foil over, and then removed foil for last ten minutes. It turned out so good and the chicken stayed moist, plus it was completely oil and salt free. A very healthy and tasty meal.
Now I will try to explain how to make the homemade butternut squash ravioli, with vegetable pasta. It's a lot of work, but so worth it.
First you need to cook the veggies you want to add. Spinach works well, but I had kale and carrots so that is what I steamed. Cook until quite soft. I added some leftover broccoli and celery I had in the fridge. ( I hate to waste food) Puree vegetables in food processor or blender, then add 2 eggs and 1 tblsp of olive oil. Puree until smooth and well mixed. In a separate bowl combine 2 to 2 1/4 cups of flour and a pinch of salt. Make a well in the center and add the veggie and egg mixture. Mix thoroughly. You may need to add more flour to make less sticky and if it's too dry add a bit of water. (I forgot to mention to precook your butternut squash. I roast mine.) Once your dough is a nice ball knead it for about 5 minutes. Divide dough into separate parts and roll out. If you are lucky enough to have a pasta maker you can flatten it that way. Either way you'll use a fair bit of flour. Roll as thin as you can without it falling apart; this requires adding flour to both sides as it stretches out.
Back to your squash. When it is cooked and soft, mash it up and add your seasonings. I use a bit of garlic powder and rosemary. I also add a bit of light ricotta to my squash, but it's not necessary. You could add Parmesan if you have it. So once the pasta is rolled out into nice flat pieces I scoop spoonfuls of the squash mixture on it evenly, leaving spaces between.

I have included a picture, but since I am writing this from my iPhone I'm not sure how to place the pictures. Hope it works. I put a bit of water between the dough so it will stick together. Get a separate piece of flattened dough and place it over the piece of dough with the squash on it. Seal around each individual lump of squash. When it is all nicely sealed you can either cut into squares or use a circular cutter. When they are all cut out, toss them in a pot of boiling water with a smidgen of oil to prevent sticking. They cook very fast. About 5 to 10 minutes. You can do what you like for the sauce. I had spaghetti sauce which I toned down with plain yogurt. I have a sensitivity to tomato sauce. It's an acidity thing. I added artichoke hearts and avocado to my sauce. I topped it with toasted pumpkin seeds. It is a relatively healthy meal if you don't count the flour. I really try to eat very little flour as it turns to sugar and totally bloats me. It was a little treat though, and I worked hard Saturday so I could enjoy it, and boy did I. I hope my instructions make sense and some of you will try this because it is so worth the effort. If you are feeding more then four people you should double the recipe.

Happy cooking.

And here's my beautiful 9 year old looking incredibly stylish for church.