Asparagus & Mushroom Risotto

Well it only took 3 glasses of wine but the risotto is finally done.  pheww but now I am diffidently buzzed and things are looking a little blurry lol.  I love risotto, yes it takes time to cook, but the end result is always worth it.
njdwuegt......This is how I should be typing right now, thank goodness for spell check =)

I'm getting nervous theres only a few days left before I leave for tech school.  I still haven't packed and we are going camping a day before I leave......I'm such a procrastinator.
By the way this risotto is great for any diet! if your dairy free, gluten free, vegan or vegetarian you can't go wrong with simple ingredients like rice, veggies and broth.

Asparagus & Mushroom Risotto
Adapted from Cleangreensimple.com

Yields 4-6 servings

Ingredients
1 White Onion diced
4-6 cloves garlic
About 1 - 1 1/2 cups Asparagus chopped into 1-2 inch pieces. remove the woody part of the stock
1 Cup diced mushrooms, your favorite kind
1 tsp dried Thyme
1 tsp salt
1/2 Cup white wine
1 Cup Brown Basmati rice
32 oz Vegetable Broth
2 cups spinach either chopped or whole
1/4 tsp Onion Powder
2 tsp Lemon Juice


Directions
Heat a large pot or saute pan over medium heat, spray with cooking spray like Pam. Add onions, garlic and asparagus, stir occasionally until soft about 2-3 min.  Add mushrooms, salt, thyme and white wine. stir until soften another 2-3 min.  Add rice and stir till the rice is coated and its starts to make popping sounds. Add broth 1/2 cup at a time, stir well and let the rice soak up the broth before adding more. usually took about 5 minutes each time I add in some broth.
Once your on your last 1/2 cup of broth add the spinach, onion powder and lemon juice stir till spinach is wilted. Add salt and more lemon juice if needed

 *note* before you add the spinach if your rice still isn't completely soft to your liking either add more broth 1/2 cup at a time or water until the rice is nice and soft. I had to use a lot more broth than the original recipe called for, could be cause I was using brown rice instead of Arborio.

Vegetarian Tostadas (+ gluten free)

Wow totally got my mind blown today.  It was my first day at the legal office and wow is all I can say.  Its a completely different world in that career field then on the flight line where I've spent the last 9 years working.  Everyone is so cheerful and happy, officers and enlisted are super nice to each other and they work together on cases and legal documents.  Its a completely different atmosphere from where I use to work to where I'm going to start working, its so opposite.

I think I'm going to enjoy my new career, tho I'm going to have to be on top of my A game when it comes to doing research and drafting memos and sentence structure and grammer and spelling and phewww I need a English class stat!

On a different topic, me and the hubby have decided to start implementing a more gluten free diet to our routine. The hubby came across a book called Wheat Belly and it discusses how eliminating gluten and wheat from your diet can help you physically and mentally. Everything from losing weight to exhaustion and more.  So we decided to give it a try, it might even help me with my skin problems.   But now I can't use my morning star products as often as I use to :(
at least I read that corn is gluten free, so you can never go wrong with mexican/tex mex food like corn tortillas =) thank goodness

Vegetarian Tostadas (+ gluten free) 
By Oishii Treats

Yields 4

Ingredients
4 White or Yellow Corn Tortillas
1 15oz can of Black Beans (drained)
1/4 Cup onions diced
1 clove Garlic minced
1/2 tablespoon Olive Oil
1-3 Chiles in Adobo Sauce (diced)
1 1/2 Cup Spinach (sliced julienne style)
Spinkle of dried basil and garlic sea salt (for black beans)
8 Cherry Tomatoes (halved)
Feta Cheese
Sour Cream
your favorite salsa


Directions
Heat a large saute pan on medium high heat. Saute your onions and garlic in olive oil for 2-3 minutes.
Place your balck beans (BB) in a microwavble safe container and add the sauted onions and garilc to the BB.
Add the diced chiles in adobo sauce to the BB.  Sprinkle in some dried basil and garilc sea salt. Stir and microwave for 2 minutes, using a potato masher mash the warm BB to your desired consistency and return to the microwave for 1 minute.
Meanwhile take a paper towel and using the same saute pan wipe out any excess oil or browning from the onions. Spray with cooking oil and on high heat, toast your tortillas until crsipy anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes.
Assemble your tostadas by placing the beans on top, sprinkle with feta, top with spinach, sliced cherry tomatoes, dollop of sour cream and sprinkle with more feta and salsa

** Update, there is a fun linky event going on called Fabulous Friday where a bunch of great bloggers come together to share their recipe of the week. So I will be sharing my yummy vegetarian tostadas. Come check it out or join in. Also check on Freedom Fridays for another fun blog hop.