Neighborhood mommas doing what they do best… drinking wine. (Some not pictured)…
LaGrange, Ohio- I’m taking you to the hood! The neighbor’hood I grew up in that is… I’m re-winding just a bit today because I think I finally have used everything that my neighborhood mommas gave me before moving to Vermont.
(Note: I don’t really have 11 moms… duh, they just feel like family and I kind of just started referring to them as my neighborhood moms.)
My basket of goodies they got me… I swear there are cooking tools in there, they are at the bottom because they know I don’t like cooking so they tried to hide them.
But to be honest, I probably would have never used everything that they gave me (especially the cooking utensils). But recently I competed in the #HealthyLivingSpringChallenge.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Healthy Living, it’s a market and cafe that sells clean food from local farmers and producers. They also have cooking classes through their learning center and I have done many morning cooking segments with the cooking center’s coordinator.
The challenge was between quite a few Vermont woman, we were given less than 15 minutes to search the store for a dinner for four people. AND it had to be under $30! We then had to cook the meal, so here I am sharing my experience and thanking my neighborhood moms for giving me all the right tools to make food AND somehow provide me with domestic skills. I’m trying.
Gluten-free Shrimp-ach Pasta (Shrimp-ach is a mushed word I created… it’s shrimp and spinach).
Ingredients:
- 2 packs of gluten-free pasta – yes I’m on a gluten-free kick… it’s nice, no judging
- 1 bag of organic spinach- tell Popeye to watch out
- Shrimp with their jackets on- you must strip them
- A teensy bit of red pepper flakes
- 1 organic lemon- when life gives you lemons put them in your pasta
- 5 cloves of *garlic- because vampires are scary
- Olive oyl- again tell Popeye to watch out
- Salt and Peppa- push it good
Thinly sliced garlic
Instructions:
Sautéed garlic
Use a cheese grader for some zest!
Open the windows and turn on the fans (that shrimp is going to taste great but make your house smell like a raw bar). Cook your pasta, in a larger pan sauté thin slices of garlic in olive oil until golden brown, empty into another dish but keep the olive oil in the pan, sauté your spinach so it’s almost wilty, don’t forget your olive oil and red pepper flakes. Add the shrimp (jacket-less) once the spinach is almost to a wilt. When your pasta 
is cooked add it into the Shrimp-ach. Add some lemon zest, however much you want… eyeball it. Push it real good with some salt and peppa. 
Eat. Feed the family. Have leftovers for lunch.
So…I literally have to have dessert. And when I was checking out with the cashier, the ingredients I had only came out to $25 so I bought items for dessert.
Healthy-er-ish Ice Cream
Ingredients:
- 1 cup fat-free vanilla yogurt
- 1 nectarine (but to be honest I had a malfunction with the fruit so I had to substitute with frozen peaches already in my freezer, I will not tell you the malfunction because it’s too embarrassing to share… the point is you can use whatever you want for a fruit and sometimes you might mess up and that’s ok).
- A squeeze from that organic lemon
- Sugar (or agave nectar)
Instructions:
Get out your food processor… if you don’t have one, knock on your neighbors door. Keep knocking until one of your neighbors let’s you borrow theirs. In your 
processor, add 1 cup of the yogurt and your sliced and peeled fruit. Squeeze a bit of that organic lemon in there, add some sugar or agave nectar. I like to eyeball everything. It 
will taste good no matter what. PROCESS. Freeze for a bit. Serve. You only need a little bit to satisfy that sweet tooth.
And that’s that! I cooked. And now you can too if you want. Mom’s from the hood- thank you again for sending me to Vermont prepared for any situation… like a cooking challenge!
“I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.” -Julia Child
Glad I still have some time until I have to start cooking for real. However, I’m growing to like it more and more.
#VisitMe
*Disclaimer: The pictures are not staged. I truly cooked everything, I promise. Nothing burnt… except the first time I tried sautéing the garlic slices. But I got it right the second time (and didn’t have to buy extra garlic) so it’s fine.
It’s in Wyoming… no big deal, she just takes casual trips to Wyoming to climb… that’s passion, guys. I’m not going to do that.
I did attempt to climb a boulder (without belay) (belay is the rope thing) and then a higher wall with an automatic belay. I made it up both, WATCH OUT WORLD I AM CLIMBING FOR YOU! And as you can see in the pictures this place is not the rock wall you climbed at your small town’s summer festival (mine was the “Lion’s Festival” rawr). 
lly because I would feed him Vermont maple syrup, he’d immediately be hooked.
YouAreVermont 