Guess I don't use Cream of Tartar much....

Tonight's been a BUSY night! I got home from work around 4:45 and cuddled on the couch a bit with Lucas before he went off to work. I've found that although I miss him immensely when he works nights, I get LOTS of stuff done. I've cleaned out my sons room, shampooed carpets, scrubbed baseboards and many other projects on the nights he works. Tonight I decided to cook.

I had some pumpkin in the fridge I needed to use, and some bananas going bad, and had bought bunches of apples to make applesauce. I also needed to use up the leftover chicken and make some dinner.

I started out freezing the bananas...you'll find out why another day ;)

Then I sat down to a DVR'd Saturday Night Live to attack this pile of apples:


30 minutes or so later:

I used red delicious, roma and golden delicious apples. Bilo had them on sale - 3 pounds for $2...had to get lots!!

I used a different recipe tonight for the applesauce than the other night. I changed this a bit. I added more honey and less brown sugar. I would have used no sugar at all, but I ran out of honey. I also used about a tablespoon or so or lemon juice rather than the orange peel. I'm not sure how exact that is, since I really just kind of dumped some in.


Applesauce, pre-smashed. See that it's already turning to sauce, all on it's own?

I only used 22 apples, not 24 like the recipe called for, but still got 2 and 1/2 quarts. It was tasty warm. I hope it's as good cold. I sealed these jars so we can put them in the cupboard for when we need it.


Next up: Chicken Pot Pie. I previously posted about this recipe here. I really only used the filling and sauce tonight. I used a regular Pillsbury deep dish crust for the bottom and then added mashed potatoes to the top, instead of a top crust. Tonight's picture even looks the same as the other night we made this!!


This is where the camera died, so no more pictures of this meal - just be assured that it came out great. Pot Pie meets Shepards Pie....yummy!

Next on the list were pumpkin brownies. I really didn't want to make a bread, or muffins with the leftover pumpkin so I googled my way to this recipe. I stuck to this recipe completely, and my brownies didn't look ANYTHING like the picture.

(camera re-charged!)




They are very tasty though, and not bad for a first try.

After I got done cooking, I decided to clean out my cupboard that holds all my spices and baking goods. A few months ago, I needed nutmeg for something and dug and dug and found some. Apparently I didn't use it often, because I recognized the jar as being from a grocery store in NY, that had been closed for a LONG time. Sure enough, I looked on the label and saw this:



I don't know if you can see it, but it says 1991!!! However, I keep using it, and it seems fine. Then again, maybe it doesn't....I wouldn't really know, since I don't use it often.

So tonight I found something worse...can you see the date on this can??



Yes, that says 1977. The Cream of Tartar is AS OLD AS ME. I threw both away and put nutmeg on the grocery list. I'll wait on the other until I need it....which probably won't be soon.

My how the week flies by!!

I have (thankfully!) been SO busy at work this week, that writing a blog and paying attention to the food we've been eating really has been one of the last things on my mind! I keep thinking to myself "well, this would be a good picture" or "I could write about this" and then don't snap the shot, or make a note, and then it's out of my mind. I'm really glad to be busy at work, but I miss the days where I have at least a few minutes to think about non-work things while sitting at my desk! So, I'll hit the highlights and the things I DID think about!

Monday night we had our first squash of the (almost) fall. We'd had some summer squash here and there, but that's not the same. It doesn't have that cozy feeling that some of the winter squash has. Lucas had never eaten acorn squash before, so I bought some for him to try. Simply cut it in half, place it face down in a dish with a little bit of water and steam in the microwave for 10-15 minutes, until a fork slides in when you poke it. I like mine with lots of melted butter and some brown sugar, and eat it right out of the shell. We had the squash with some boiled red potatoes and bbq (from scratch!) pork chops. Good dinner!


Sugary, buttery yum!


A while back I ordered from free samples via a blog I read: Hangry Pants. She referred me to the site the samples actually came from - here. I got this package of chia seeds and another package of something that I haven't broken into yet...saving that for another post!




Anyway, I dropped some of the chia seeds in my yogurt for breakfast Tuesday. I didn't add much, since I didn't know what to expect, so I'm not sure what effect it had. Guess I'll read up on it a little more, then finish off the pack. If anyone knows the benefits of chia seeds, fill me in!


That leads us to tonight. Our friend Tara came over for dinner, and we decided to try out a new recipe. Cuban Chicken with Black Beans. The only thing I would change in the recipe would be to use boneless, skinless breast. Boneless because I'm not a fan of bone-in chicken, skinless because the skin got kind of soggy after cooking in all the liquid and beans. Other than that, the meal was delicious!! We had to use green pepper rather than red, and we used brown rice. YUM!!


Tara brought dessert. She remembered that Lucas can't eat sugar, and brought him a sugar free chocolate ice cream. He had some of that after dinner with some banana jam and peanut butter. We girls (and Nathan) shared some of this cake. I ate it without reading the ingredients, knowing that it was probably full of things that "aren't allowed". It was really good - light and fluffy and CHOCOLATEY!! Sure enough though, after we ate it, I read the label and it's loaded with high fructose corn syrup, among other things. Oh well! Too late! It was already in my belly!!

So know we're caught up! Final note for tonight...we're watching the finale for America's Got Talent, and the most original perfomers on the show, and the ones who should have one, in my opinion, just got voted off!!! Check them out!! (the performance starts at about 2:14)



Good night!!

Catching up!

Looks like I have some catching up to do here after a long weekend of no posts from me! This one is going to be picture heavy, to make up for not having many in the last few posts.

Last time we got together here, it was Friday night and we had just eaten my yummy steak-spinach rolls. You'd think that would have filled us up, but at about 10:30 Lucas and I both decided we needed a snack. We rooted through the kitchen and came up with nachos! I had a can of refried beans that had been patiently waiting to be used up, so I warmed them up with some jalapenos and banana peppers (from the garden!) a little onion, cayenne and chili powder and spread all that on some tortilla chips, smothered it in cheese and broiled it. It was better than we thought it would be - and gone in about 4 minutes!



Friday night (Saturday morning?) brought some crazy twists and turns, and we ended up having Dalton and Brianna with us. Brianna, who is 7, was up bright and early and ready to spend the day with us. Lucas slept in (not much sleep was had by anyone the night before) so Brianna and I went out to the garden so she could pick some peppers and beans with me. We cleaned up the kitchen, and I took her out to dump the compost bin from the kitchen, and taught her a bit about composting while we turned the pile. The soil out there is looking amazing, and I can't wait to use it next year! Then we went inside and made some baked apple oatmeal. A cup of oatmeal, a couple of diced apples, a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and about 1.25 cups of milk, in the oven for 30 minutes and it's warm, gooey apple oatmeal.



The rest of Saturday was spent shopping (Lowes review to come soon!) and on the beach, which I thoroughly enjoyed and really needed. Saturday night we had dinner at mom's, which was pork chops and gravy and after eating it, I realized I shouldn't have. It didn't settle well. It's unfortunate that with all our "clean" eating I can't enjoy some of my all-time favorites as much as I used to!

Sunday was a day of resting and cooking. I love that every Sunday is becoming a ritual of sorts and we spend all day in the kitchen! Yesterday we made strawberry & cream banana bread, pickled some cucumbers and some jalapenos/zucchini/red pepper/carrots, and made chicken pot pies from scratch, which Lucas and I both agree are in our top ten favorite meals ever!

Here is the bread - it tastes as good as it looks!

This is me pretending I know how to pickle things! We followed recipes online, but changed them up a little bit. I hate that we have to wait so long to see how they turn out!

We have pickles!!

Lucas did all the prep work on the pot pies. Actually, he did the prep work, cooked the veggies, made the crusts - much more work on these than I did!!


Chicken pot pie veggies - potatoes, red pepper, mushrooms, garlic, onion and some Full Circle organic frozen mixed veggies


Pot pies, pre-baking

Finished product - SO good, especially with some white wine!


And that brings me to this morning. Breakfast was a huge, juicy Kiwi, orange juice and some Kashi honey grain cereal that we got at the new Big Lots yesterday for $1.80! Got in two superfoods and probably half of my recommended whole grains for the day, which I don't eat enough of!

Ok, on to work, and later will be my Lowes Foods review! My plan is to have a productive, positive day!