Recent Grub

I have definitely been neglecting the topic of food around here. Don't worry, we are eating, I guess I just haven't thought a lot of it to be post-worthy.

But here are a few things I wanted to share.

Apparently, steel cut oats are good for lactating mamas so of course, I wanted to try them out. Also, I like to try to eat a hearty breakfast if I can because sometimes lunch comes a little late for me. The only issue I have with this breakfast is that when I am home alone, it is a little time consuming with boiling and stirring so the babe has to be on her best behavior. I cook 'em up, slice up some fresh fruit, throw in some dried fruit, a little brown sugar, cinnamon and almond milk and yum, yum!

Next up, we have some cookies. Again, another recipe that caters a bit toward the lactating mama, but they are a little healthier, Ben eats them and they are good. They aren't too sweet which makes them a good snack. I saw them posted on Whitney's blog and the recipe is from here. I don't pump my milk very often so I don't have a great gauge as to whether they work or not, but I figure, hey, they are healthy-ish and it can't hurt right?

Moving right along, we started to get a bit unhealthy. While Ben was off last week, we tried a couple of new things. I have always wanted to bake bread from scratch but am always scared. I know. Scared of what? Don't  you just try something and if it works is does and if not oh well? Well, yes. But I pretty much like to succeed in the kitchen. Not fail. I'm the first born, what can I say?

We sometimes enjoy watching the Sandwich King on Sunday mornings. we have tried a couple of his recipes and liked them. So for some reason we think we should try Pretzel Buns with Grilled Dogs and Spicy Cheese Sauce. Yeah. Okay, so we make the buns which turned out delicious. the only complaint we had was that we used wax paper on the baking sheet and the buns stuck like a mother. Other than that, complete success. We were pretty proud of ourselves considering we used yeast, had to let them rise, boil them and bake them. 

The next steps were easy: make a cheese sauce and grill the dogs. We didn't love the cheese sauce as we followed the recipe and used Velveeta. Not awesome. The next day when we ate left overs, we just used regular hotdog toppings: ketchup, mustard and relish and like them a lot better. I think the fakey Velveeta was a little much. A lot much.

Last but not least, we went for homemade pizza. 

We have a confession. Most Friday nights we get a Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza. I don't know why this started but it's typical. We actually hadn't done it in awhile, maybe because we are on a tighter budget, we have been having leftovers or whatever. Anyway, last Friday we decided we wanted to make our own pizza including the crust. Since we had succeeded with the pretzel buns, we deemed ourselves seasoned bakers and figured we couldn't go wrong.

We got the crust recipe out of my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and went to town. We didn't want to go to the store so we used all ingredients we had on hand: made sauce from scratch, ground pork, tomatoes, cheese and jalapenos. It was delish. I don't know if Ben and I will keep it up now, but I definitely think it will be fun to have a weekly family pizza making night with kids.

Nothing too exciting, I suppose, but it always feels good to try new recipes, discover healthy recipes we like and eat yummy food at home!

Sometimes We do Feel Normal

Ben and I have always liked to cook. And eat. We have always enjoyed a weekend or evening in with some good ingredients and spending time in the kitchen together. We joke around, we laugh, sometimes listen to music and have a glass or wine or beer.

The past two and a half months have proven a little difficult for this activity. With a newborn/infant it is hard to get the timing right, for us to get into the kitchen together. We have kind of developed a strategy of tag-teaming our meals so that one of us is in the kitchen and one may be in the living room entertaining the babe.

We are totally okay with this, obviously, and luckily our kitchen overlooks our living room so we are still hanging out together.

This past Sunday we were home all day and started the morning snuggling in bed, getting some morning chores done and watching a movie. Ben had taken out a fresh pork ham roast and we were trying to decide what to do with it. When I see a roast, I automatically think, stick it in the dutch oven or slow cooker, throw in some veggies and, yay, dinner is done! However, that gets a little boring. And we were both home so we figured we should try to be a little more creative.

Ben searched on the computer and suddenly looked up with a smile and said, "I found it!"

So he prepared the pork how the recipe said and it needed to sit in the fridge for about an hour. We went on about the day and finally I suggested we start preparing. Ben was holding E at the time so I started things but then he brought her in and set her in her Rock and Play chair and they joined in the fun. I opened a bottle of wine, Ben put on music and before we knew it, we were back in our comfort zone and enjoying an evening of cooking, family and fun. E was great for longer than I had expected and she was laughing and talking up a storm with us.

Please don't judge our Sunday lounge attire. ;)

After a bit, she started to get a little tired so I picked her up and danced around a little and she fell asleep. She being the perfect baby she is slept right through us eating so we enjoyed a quiet dinner at the same time and she then woke up right when we were finished. It all timed out perfectly and was a great end to our weekend.

Love when our lil' baby cooperates!

By the way, our dinner was a delicious feast of sweet and sour pork. From scratch. I, in bad blogger form, did not take a picture of our plate before we scarfed it down but you should try this recipe. Super easy and made with all ingredients we had in the house. Love those type of meals!

"Art," A Place to Lay Her Head, Some Joes and a Random Chicken

So there is another crafting supply that I love almost as much as mod podge. It is scrapbooking paper. I know, kinda random. And simple. But honestly when I can create fun, quirky "artwork" for my daughter's {did I really just type "my daughter's"?!} room for around $5 per piece of "artwork," I really can't pass that up! I got some cheap frames in 2 packs at Ben Franklin and while I was originally going to spray paint them to make them more colorful, nothing was really standing out to me in the color department so for now, they are brown and white which look fine to me. This is the beginning of a frame collage but I just think it's so darn cute I thought I would share now.

I guess my approach to sharing the nursery is bits and pieces and then a "big" reveal when it's "finished." If I will ever say it's "finished." To see some of the furniture check out this post.

Birds on the left, then monkeys, alphabet and numbers, then
lions-hippos-alligators

I made these lil' guys a few months back with my two favorite crafting supplies plus wood and some paint and I am so happy to finally hang them up. They are just 4x4 pieces of wood with paper mod podged on and then Ben stapled some pop tabs to the backs to hang them. There are two of each style.

Ben and I went and got our crib mattress this past weekend. I know, I know, I'm sure it's pre-mature because we obviously have no intention of putting her in there right away but I couldn't resist putting her bedding on any longer.

I guess you could say our "theme" for the room is colorful. We are loving it so far!

Sunday we had philly cheesesteak sandwiches which we made out of a chuck roast with peppers, onions, and provolone.

The next night, we still had some of the roast left and for some reason, Sloppy Joes came to mind. So I looked up Pioneer Woman's Sloppy Joe recipe and it was delish. And super easy. Made from all things I had on hand plus the leftover meat and bread.

{Sorry about the weird shadow at the bottom. Still getting used to the new camera.}

Tonight's dinner. Kind of weird. I had a whole chicken on hand. So I put some barley, garlic, onions, a packet of french onion soup and some chicken broth in the crock pot and then put the chicken on top. In a couple hours I plan to add zucchini, green pepper, carrots, mushrooms and maybe some crisped up bacon. Kind of a "clean out the fridge" kind of meal. Shh, don't tell Hub, he usually likes anything that comes out of the crock pot. 

Yeah, raw chicken isn't really that appealing.

Well, except that one time I burnt something in there. Who burns something in a crockpot? Oh, I do when I put teriyaki sauce in there and it's pure sugar so it burns to the botton. Nice.

Sorry about the random post but these were all things I wanted to share and didn't think they each needed their own post.

Happy Wednesday!

Stuffed Veggies are Delish

A couple of weeks ago I really didn't feel like making dinner. Ben was working from home and decided to take on the task. We had quite a few zucchini from our garden this year so we were eating them pretty frequently. This particular evening, he made stuffed zucchini. I think there was some sausage, cheese, rice, spices, and maybe some onion and garlic involved. It was delicious. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture.

I was reading through some blogs and came across Little Miss Momma's dinner party {how beautiful is this party by the way?}she and a friend hosted and got a wonderful idea to make stuffed peppers.

For mine, I cooked a wild rice box mix, cooked sausage, onions and garlic together. I added the cooked rice and some goat cheese into the mix. While all this was going on, I had been roasting the hollowed out green bell peppers for about 20 minutes on 400 degrees. I took the peppers out, stuffed 'em with the mix and back in the oven they went for about another 20 minutes. You'll know when they are sizzling if they are ready.

Yum. They were good and I enjoyed trying something a lil' different but really easy. Sometimes it gets frustrating when you try a new recipe, get a whole bunch of new ingredients, it takes forever and then its just okay, you know? Anyway, try they peppers, they are good. And, the best part is that you can pretty much put whatever you want in them!

A Nice Weekend with a Good Dinner

The weekend started out great with Ben working from home so he was home when I got off work. He worked for a couple of more hours and then we headed down to the beach in our neighborhood and swam around with Holly for a little while. A few friends came over and we relaxed in the back yard for a couple of hours.

Saturday morning I wasn't feeling great so Ben made breakfast and we watched some Dexter that we have been waiting on for awhile. Ben had plans to go to the soccer game and I was just going to relax at home. I ended up going out on my parents boat for a little while and when I got back Ben was home. We cooked some BBQ'd beef short ribs with a couscous salad and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Sunday morning we were up and and out running some errands. We got some paint to paint the changing table/dresser and a side table. We also got some shelves for extra storage in our office. We then headed to one of our favorite grocery stores to get ingredients for dinner.

We decided to make "Greek Tacos" after watching Ben's new favorite Food Network show, Sandwich King.  So off to the store we went in search of the ingredients:
ground lamb
red onion
tomatoes
cucumber
pocketless pitas
plain whole milk greek yogurt
feta
tomato paste
mint

At home we already had red wine vinegar, oregano, olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper.

If you want to see his version of the recipe go to his website. But this is what we did.

To make the cucumber relish, I simply diced the cucumber, tomato and half the red onion and mixed it with a few turns of red wine vinegar and a few turns of olive oil. Just so all the veggies are coated. Then salt and pepper to taste.

For the tzatziki sauce, I mixed a cup of greek yogurt, maybe half cup of crumbled feta, a whole cucumber drained as well as possible, a clove of minced garlic, maybe ten mint leaves chopped and salt and pepper. Stir it all around and make sure you like the taste.

While I was making the sauce and relish, Ben was browning up/crisping up the lamb. We put the skillet on about medium-medium high heat and put a turn of olive oil in the pan. We didn't mix around the lamb until it was brown and crispy on one side. Once it is cooked, remove the lamb from the pan and put in a few minced garlic cloves and the other half of the diced red onion. Let these sweat until they are aromatic and translucent. Add the tomato paste and dry oregano. Stir it all together while the tomato paste lets out its sugars. Add a dash of red wine to the pan, or in our case some broth, to deglaze a little and get a little bit more of a saucy texture and then add the lamb back to the pan.

While the lamb was cooking I heated up our Naan. Naan? Yes, instead of pitas, we got Naan because they were sampling it at the store and it was delish.

Once it was all done, we slathered the tzatziki on the Naan, topped with the lamb, topped with the relish, rolled it up and dug in. So, so good and super easy. I would say it's one of the best gyros/Greek tacos I've ever had!

Tasty Tuesday: Braised Beef Short Ribs

As a I mentioned in my post yesterday we shared in part of a whole cow with my parents. For some reason, the first think Hub was really excited to have was short ribs. Or maybe it was me that was excited. I can't really remember. We got the beef on Sunday and the short ribs were on the menu for last night's dinner. I looked at a few different recipes here, here and here and as usual kind of did a combo of all of them. Adding some ingredients and leaving some out for what I didn't have or didn't feel like using.

I took about four pounds of the short ribs and dredged them in flour and put them in the Dutch oven on the stove with some hot olive oil and let them brown on each side.

I took the beef out and added diced carrots, diced celery, diced onion and garlic. I let these soften a bit and then added in about a cup of Cabernet Sauvignon and let it come to a boil. Then I added three cups of beef broth. I am seasoning through all of these steps, in the flour, the beef, in the vegetables and in the beef broth. For seasoning I just used salt, pepper and garlic salt.

I added the beef and bite-sized chunks of carrots and celery, covered and put in the oven on 350 for two and a half hours. I lowered the temperature to 325 for a half an hour.

I boiled some whole wheat pasta, put beef, sauce and veggies on top and a salad on the side. Yum! Easy and delish!

Tasty Tuesday: Flatout Pizzas

Welcome for another edition of Tasty Tuesday. Sorry, I missed last week's. I don't know what happened. Fell off the earth for a week. Or so. I don't know.

Over the weekend {more to come on this tomorrow}, we wanted some pizza but we never ended up getting any. Hence, my idea for dinner last night. I spoke about Flatout Flatbread here and how they make delicious wraps. Well I decided {with a little help of their website as well as my friend} that I would make some pizzas.

Flatout Pizzas

Flatout Flatbread

Pesto {I just had a hankering to make some yesterday}

Olive Oil

Fresh Spinach

Ground Turkey, cooked

Tomatoes

Onions

Orange Bell Peppers

Mozzerella

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush both sides of Flatbread with olive oil. Place on a rack and bake for 9 minutes. Remove from oven and layer toppings however you desire. I put cheese on the top because I like it a little browned. Bake in oven for about 10-15 minutes depending on how "done" you like your toppings.

I thought this was a healthy alternative to the usually greasy pizza we get. Hub isn't always as "into" health food kicks as much as me because he thinks everything that is "healthy" tastes bad. Well, he sure didn't think these pizzas tasted bad! Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday: Spaghetti and Spicy Turkey Meatballs

This meal was actually made for the holiday last Monday that we all refer to as Valentine's Day. I ended up having the night off and Hub thought he would get to come home a little earlier however weather and traffic had other plans. He didn't get home until a little later but I had some dinner ready. I had been inspired by some recipes I had been looking through and decided to try something new as I like to do from time to time. Isn't it funny how we just fall into a pattern of cooking our "go-to" meals and it is hard to stray away? Well it is for me at least. That's why I try to read cookbooks and try to keep main ingredients in my head from recipes listed in magazines so I can remember to try new ones. Anyone else with me on this? Anyway, back to Tasty Tuesday. I prepared this spaghetti dish and it was a big hit with the both of us.

Spaghetti and Spicy Turkey Meatballs

**courtesy of an "archived" copy of a Better Homes and Gardens Magazine

Heat oven to 375

In a bowl stir together 2 eggs whites, lightly beaten, 2 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. milk, 2 tsp. chili powder, 1 tsp. black pepper and 1/2 tsp salt

In a large bowl combine 2 lb. uncooked ground turkey, 1/3 cup finely chopped onion, 1/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs, 2 jalapeño peppers and 1 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
Fold egg mixture into turkey mixture; mix well. shape turkey mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place on foil-lines baking pan. Bake 20 minutes or until no longer pink. (170 degrees)

Cook 1 14-16 oz. package dried multi-grain, whole wheat, or regular spaghetti, with one tablespoon of salt added to the water. Drain; keep warm.

In the same pan used for pasta, melt 2 3 oz. packages of cream cheese over low heat. Add 2 cups of milk and cook, stirring until bubbly.

Return spaghetti to pan; toss to coat with cream cheese mixture.

Serve with meatballs, cheese and cilantro.

So. Confession. I did not follow this recipe. I strayed when we started with the sauce. I didn't have any cream cheese and was trying to just use what we had and not go to the store. For the sauce, I made a roux  then added milk to that and season with Italian seasonings, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

I then put a little bit of regular onion, green onion and garlic in the food processor and pulsed that up to go in the sauce. I then thawed out some frozen spinach, dried it out and added that to the sauce. I let that simmer together for awhile, cooked the meatballs when I knew Hub was on his way and came up with this:

Like I said, it turned out really delicious. I am sure it would be delicious if I had followed the other recipe too, however, I am not known to follow cooking recipes too exactly. Enjoy!

What did you have for Valentine's dinner? What is your favorite pasta dish? Do you have a secret recipe for meatballs you would like to share?

Tasty Tuesday

Hub and I had a short amount of time together this weekend due to his business travels so we tried to make the most of it. What does that mean? Well, we saw the pigs and then....of course we cooked! I love meals that do not take me to the grocery store but only to the pantry and the fridge. Hence, I bring you my version of:

Pot Roast

Ingredients:

1 chuck roast (ours was 4.37 lbs, but yours doesn't have to be)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

garlic salt

salt

pepper

carrots (as many or as little as you like)

celery (as much or as little as you like)

onion

garlic

thyme

rosemary

potatoes

beef broth

1/4 cup dry red wine

vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350

1. Heat a dutch oven with about 2 tbsp. oil on the stove

2. Mix 1/4 cup flour, a generous amount of salt, pepper and garlic salt in a pie plate

3. Generously salt the roast

4. Lay roast in flour mixture and coat on each side

5. Sear roast in dutch oven until each side is browned and even slightly crispy, remove roast from pan

6. If the bits left in the pan are unappealing (like ours were) drain out the pan

7. Put all chopped veggies into pan and brown

8. Return roast to pan and add 1 can of beef broth, red wine and one twig each of rosemary and thyme

{liquid should be barely visible under the veggies}

Our roast cooked for about 3.5 hours, but just use a meat thermometer if you are unsure. Beef should be cooked to no less than 145 degrees for "medium-rare."

We love this cozy, winter meal. It's such an easy dinner but tastes so delicious. I also do this in the crock-pot if I want to "set it and forget it" for the day. Enjoy!

What's your favorite "easy" entree? What ingredients do you like to have readily available at home to be able to whip up a "go-to" meal? Is your pot-roast recipe similar to mine or way different?

Saturday Night In

Lucky Hub and I both worked yesterday morning but we had a yummy dinner planned for last night so we were both eager to get home. We watched the Seahawks win their first playoff game and then set about making Beef Bourguignon. Yes, we were inspired from this movie:

and since we got a Dutch Oven for Christmas, we figured it was time to tackle this meal. Such a fun Saturday night with a few libations and cookin' in the kitchen with my honey. We decided on this recipe from Simply Recipes and it was delicious. For some reason, I thought that it was only going to take a couple of hours but it ended up taking about four so we did eat a little later than we probably would have like but it was well worth it. Here is Hub slicin' up the beef:

Isn't he a cutie?!

I figure since the recipe was already written with pictures over at Simply Recipes, that I would just provide some pictures of our experience. We were so happy it turned out so well because after that long of waiting for dinner, it would have been slightly disappointing if it hadn't turned out. When the aromas started filling the house, I figured if it tasted half as good as it smelled that we were in for a treat and it sure did deliver.

Salt pork

Prepping ingredients-creminis, beef, shallots, carrots

Searing the beef

Preparing part of the sauce

A whole bottle of wine!

If you and yours enjoy cooking, I would definitely recommend making this meal together for a date night. We both contributed to the meal, we could chat, watch the football game and take breaks while different parts of the meal were cooking. It isn't a super high level of difficulty, we didn't think, there are just a lot of steps involved so it is time consuming. Just what were were looking for to spend some time together!

What are your favorite meals to cook together? Do you like trying new recipes for date nights? Have you made this meal before?

Filling & Tasty Taco Surprise!

I find that trying new recipe after new recipe is so fun and educational, however I sometimes find myself getting away from my own "classics." Everyone has them. Your stand-bys. You know your family loves them, they are something you can (usually) whip up pretty quickly and sometimes if we are lucky, its something we can throw together with some basics we keep in the kitchen. I can't believe I haven't made this stand-by in awhile. It is a recipe I learned back in college and I used to make it quite frequently for the Hubs (then boyfriend) and his roommates. They all loved it and recently I got a call from one of our old roommates and he wanted the recipe to make for a gal he is dating! Love it!
Taco Surprise
Prep: 30 mins
Cook: 45 mins
Feeds: 5-6

1 lb.      ground beef
1 pkg.   Taco Seasoning
1           onion
Brown hamburger in a skillet with onion. Follow directions on Taco Seasoning packet.

1          box Jiffy corn bread mix
1          can cream corn
1          can diced green chilies
1/2 lb.  shredded cheddar
1          jar of your favorite salsa
Follow the directions on the Jiffy cornbread mix while the beef is browning. Once the mix is mixed, add creamed corn and green chilies to the mixture and stir.
Grease a 13x9 pan, preheat oven to 400 degrees and now we will begin layering. Spread a thin layer of the cornbread mixture on the bottom of the pan. Make sure it is just enough to coat the bottom.

Then, add the beef on top of the cornbread layer. Add salsa on top of the beef layer. (I had some leftover black bean and corn salsa that I had made the day before for a get together so that's why you see those ingredients.)

Sprinkle your cheese over the salsa.

 Spread the rest of the corn bread mixture of the top of the cheese. The cheese may be peeking out in some spots but that's okay, it will all cook together.

Bake for 45 minutes or until the topping is golden brown. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes and enjoy!

There are a lot of variations to this recipe. For instance, I made a bigger version (an 11x15 pan) so I could freeze half of the pan. You can add more fixin's to your hamburger while it's cooking, more spices if you like spicy. I have added refried beans over the layer of beef before the salsa layer. We also top it with hot sauce and sour cream when we are ready to dig in. Be creative!