Marla Anson Photography

A couple weeks ago I had some left over chicken and rice so I decided to make chicken fried rice. This was to prove to be a difficult task as I didn’t own a proper wok and had to use one of my regular frying pans. So on Thursday I went to Ikea and bought myself a new wok and made tofu fried rice that night! It was awesome! So much easier to cook rice with. I wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to buy a wok except that when I made that chicken fried rice I discovered that Hunter LOVES the stuff. I do believe that fried rice is about to become a staple in our house. Hunter eats the stuff like it was going out of style!

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A couple of weeks ago Garrick took Trent to go and see the new Iron Man movie after he got home from work. So, it was just the baby and I to cook dinner for. I was really jazzed about this because Hunter is much easier to cook for then Trent is. I also had some asparagus to use up and Garrick doesn’t really like that. I proceeded to cook a nice non-meat dish for Hunter and myself. I had two boxes of pasta that were a quarter full that have been sitting in my cabinet for months, so I went ahead and used those up. I threw the asparagus in the water with the bowties and elbows and while those cooked I took a half a stick of butter and melted it in a small pan, threw in some very thinly sliced red onion and garlic, added some vinho verde and cooked it down nicely. Next I opened a can of Cannellini beans, rinsed them and threw them into my butter mixture and finished that off with some fresh Basil and Mint. After I drained the pasta and asparagus, I combined everything. It turned out so amazing! The baby and I feasted. Hoorah for experiments in the kitchen!

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I grew up in upstate New York. I am white. As a result it had never before occurred to me that I could make my own tortillas on taco night. There has been many a night when my husband and I would say “Let’s make tacos! Oh wait, we have no tortillas and I don’t feel like going to the store….”

I’m not sure where I got the idea from, but all of a sudden, last month I decided to try making some for myself. I did an internet search, found a recipe and started making them. They are so much better than the store bought stuff! It took me a little while to figure out how to properly roll them out, but once I got the hang of it they were pretty easy. I felt so proud of myself for making them, I don’t think I will ever by the stuff from the store again. The recipe I used came from Texas Rolling Pins.

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I realized that I have been baking way too many sweets lately. I made my chocolate chip cookies and had absolutely zero self control in regards to eating them. That was about a week and half or two weeks ago and I haven’t made any cookies since, but I want to so badly, I can practically taste those buttery, chocolatey cookies right now….

Anyway, since I have not been baking sweets, I still have a major sweet tooth that cannot seem to be ignored. Enter, once again, the Jessica Seinfeld “Deceptively Delicious” cook book. She has a recipe for ice cream sandwiches in there that I figured I would give a go at. It’s made with yogurt, buttermilk, lemons and graham crackers and they are absolutely fantastic! I cannot stop eating them, and I don’t feel bad because they are mostly yogurt. I need to make another batch I think…

My biggest problem with the recipe is the freezing times that it gives. The book says it should take an hour and a half for your yogurt mixture to freeze. Wow, was that one waaaaaaaay off. I waited almost five hours for it to freeze properly, and it still could have gone just a little longer. Since I had started making them in the evening, I was up late and couldn’t wait any longer for the mix to freeze to the proper consistency.

So, to overview, ice cream sandwiches; good. Directions on how to make them; bad.

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I like yogurt. I like the kind that comes in the little cups at the store. You know, the ones that have too much sugar and have yummy flavors like blueberry and cherry-pineapple. I do have a pet-peeve about yogurt, though. For some reason, it makes me absolutely mental when the companies that make yogurt put the fruit on the bottom of the cup. I HATE it. So much.

I mean really. Why? Why do that? It must save on cost or something. Instead of mixing all the fruit and sugar into the yogurt, they just put some on the bottom and the yogurt goes on top and I guess it saves a couple of cents? Too me, that’s just lazy. If I am paying money for the yogurt, I don’t want to have the to do the work of mixing it myself. The way I see it, that’s part of what I am paying for, not having to do the work.

Speaking of paying, did you ever notice that the yogurt that does have the fruit on the bottom is usually smaller AND more expensive then, say, the store brand that already has all the fruit mixed in? The store brand cups are usually some where between six and eight ounces and the name brand crap is usually four to six ounces. It also seems to be the only kind that you can buy, as well. When I go to the grocery store, if I’m not buying the store brand stuff I REALLY have to search for something that already has the fruit mixed in. What gives??

There is one more thing that really irks me about fruit on the bottom yogurt. It’s the stupidest thing, really, but bothers me none the less. I hate that when you have to stir up the fruit the yogurt gets all over the handle of the spoon. I don’t know why that bothers me so much, but it is probably the one that bothers me the most.

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So the kids have been sick for the past two weeks. Trent the first week, and Hunter the second. In addition to being sick, poor Hunter was cutting six teeth. I couldn’t do anything because all he wanted to do was nurse. Thank goodness they are both finally feeling better.

Today I have been playing catch up with my organization duties as leader of my Mommies group. I wasn’t able to post anything at all, or email any of my members, because I couldn’t type. I could look at stuff, but with Hunter in one arm it was impossible to do any sort of corresponding or updating. I still have a bunch of things I have to do, but for the most part I am now all caught up with everything, emailing people back and getting events up on my groups calender.

It has been pretty nice here the past couple of days and it is supposed to stay the same tomorrow. Since we’ve been cooped up for so long, I decided to take the kids outside tomorrow. We’re going to check out this neat play ground that I have been hearing a lot about since we have moved to our new neighborhood. I’ll take pictures tomorrow and try and write a review of the place. I’m really excited to get Trent out of the house, because he needs it badly. He hasn’t been good about taking his naps or going to bed, and I know it is because he has too much energy. Tomorrow he shouldn’t have any problems.

I’m also catching up with feeding my family. I have been struggling getting food on the table these past weeks, can you guess why? Anyway, I was at least able to get good nutritious food made every night, even if Trent won’t eat it. This weekend, though, I was able to finally sit down and make puree’s for baby food and to cook with! I have the Jessica Seinfeld “Deceptively Delicious” cookbook and I have been wanting to utilize it forever, I just never had the time to actually make the purees to make the recipes. I made up a ton of purees over the weekend and I am going to start using them this week in recipes. Tomorrow I am making the banana bread with cauliflower puree and the spaghetti pie with carrot and broccoli purees.

I was really excited to make the puree’s because I was using the new rice maker and hand mixer that I got for Christmas. I got the exact rice cooker that I posted about a couple of months ago, and let me tell you it is AWESOME! It has a retractable cord, I can set it to start cooking at a certain time, it has a slow cooking option. This thing is fantastic! I used it steam all my veggies over the weekend and then used my new hand blender to puree them. The hand blender is great too. It only has one speed, but it works so well that it doesn’t even matter. The feature that I like the best is that the stick detaches and can go in the dish washer. Rad!

Well, I have a lot more stuff that I could write about in this post, but I think it’s getting a little late. I can always write another post tomorrow!

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Today I’m attempting to make truffles as holiday presents. I found a really easy recipe online that I want to try out. Here goes….

Here’s the first finished batch, just regular chocolate. Half are rolled in crushed walnuts and the other half have cocoa powder sprinkled on top. Yum.

These ones are coconut flavored and dipped in white chocolate with cocoa powder on top of them. Hmm… one appears to be missing in the bottom photo.

These are the pumpkin pie truffles, made using canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice, dipped in chocolate with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

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I have to say that I am consistently impressed with the Target brand food line, Archer Farms. Everytime I pick up an Archer Farms product I am usually pretty happy with it, with the exception of their chocolate chip cookies. A few days ago I decided to try their ice cream and got the chocolate overload. Mmmmboy was it good! Usually when I get store brand ice cream I don’t like it, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Go Target!

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For the past week I have been feeding my family all these super healthy meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It makes me feel really good when I know my family is eating well. That pomegranate fish I posted recently was one of the meals. I made this quinoa dish that is a big family favorite. I call it a super food dinner because in addition to the quinoa there is also spinach, sweet potatoes, lots of garlic chunks and chicken. One of my easiest and healthiest one pot meals.

We had spaghetti squash with sauce and meatballs the other night. Another night I made a rotisserie pork roast with brown rice and roast vegetables.

For breakfast I’ve been making kasha with cranberries and a little sugar. That is really yummy. Since my husband isn’t too fond of cranberries, one morning I made it with blueberries.

It feels really good to finally be eating good food as opposed to the past month of fast food and dining out we have been doing because if the move.

My oldest son hasn’t been eating much, but I am not going to cook a seperate meal for him. He has to eat what we eat.

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Chicken and dumplings can be super easy to make anyway, but just opening cans and putting the contents in your slow cooker is even easier. I made this recipe last week when I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner with what we had unpacked.

12.5 ounce can of chicken
Family size can of cream of chicken soup
Chicken broth, enough to fill the empty can of soup twice
4 carrots, chopped into large chunks
4 celery stalks chopped into large chunks
Half of one vidalia onion, chopped into chunks
3 potatoes chopped into chunks
2 teaspoons Bell’s poultry seasoning
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 cups of Bisquick
2 tablespoons of cold butter

Put all of the ingredients, except for the Bisquick and butter, into a slow cooker and set to high. Combine the Bisquick, butter in a bowl and add just enough of the soup from the crock pot to make a dough that is not too sticky and refrigerate. Let slow cooker sit for four hours then form the bisquick mixture into half inch rounds and drop in the slow cooker. Let cook for another fifteen minutes and serve.

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