Cauliflower Pasta "Sauce"

Meant to post for "Meatless Monday," which I haven't done in months... Oh well!

We go through phases where we'll eat this dish almost every week. I like to use Trader Joe's brown rice pasta. The cauliflower "sauce" would go well on a number of dishes, though... like on rice or quinoa, or even to top a pizza.

Ingredients

1 med. sized head cauliflower

1 head of garlic

olive oil

1 small onion, sliced thin

maple syrup

1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

kosher salt

pepper

1/4 c. half & half (to thin, if desired)

Lunchbox Brownies

This is my mom's "Fudge Brownies" recipe. She'd whip it up on movie nights or anytime we needed a quick and tasty treat. She does not make brownies from a box, and thankfully this recipe is easy enough, that I  don't either!

Lately, I've been making them to pack in the kids' lunches for dessert (and doing my darnedest not to snack on them all day long). They are addictive... You can halve the recipe and bake it in an 8 or 9" pan if you must -- just lower your cooking time by 10 minutes or so.

It also helps if, after they've cooled, I go ahead and cut them up and wrap the kids' lunchbox portions up individually in plastic wrap. Then I keep them in the fridge, ready to grab. Makes the morning routine just a bit easier when I'm not scrounging around for lunch items, and makes my day a bit less fattening when there's not an entire pan of brownies lying about.

Housemarmary

Yesterday was an extremely productive kitchen day for me: first-ever batch of crockpot yogurt, homemade granola, sandwich bread and brownies.

You see, we have re-examined Ye Olde Household Budget. I won't say Josh's discovery of this guy didn't have anything to do with it. "Early Retirement through Badassity"... I sense a new life-motto for my husband, who has always said he wants to retire by 40.

He is 33, which means we've got some serious saving to do. (And by "retire," he means stop having to work for someone else, not stop working altogether, btw.) ANYway. Budgets. We've also hopped on the Mint bandwagon. Which has an app. Which means Josh knows exactly how much money I've spent on mochas. and yarn. Like, ever. I'm happy to report, however, he is still speaking to me ;-).