Mmmmm veggies!

Well, so much for trying to keep up! It's Sunday and I haven't posted since Thursday! We've been pretty busy since Friday, so I haven't really had time to get on here.

Friday morning started with breakfast at work, as usual. Lucas bought some Grape Nuts cereal, and I was excited because I had never tried it before. I made a bowl of it for breakfast and topped it with some of our homemade banana chips.


Looks yummy, but I wasn't a fan. I ate the banana chips, but got rid of the rest of it. I think they'll be good to use in recipes though, as breading, stuffing, etc. I was still hungry so I grabbed a Larabar that I had purchased. Kath, over at Kath Eats, eats these all the time, and I was curious so I picked up a few on my last trip to the store.




SOOO good! It only had dates, peanuts and salt, but tasted just like a peanut butter cookie! It was absolutely delicious!

We had an early lunch for the office at Olive Garden. I shared some artichoke spinach dip with Michelle, and had the portobello mushroom ravioli with cheese and sun dried tomato sauce. It was so good, and not too much to eat. We all decided to get dessert and share. I had a bit of the Black Tie Mousse cake, Lemon Sponge cake, and an amazing donut square dipped in chocolate.



After work we went to have some drinks with friends, then had to hit Walmart to buy some cleaning supplies for my cleaning job on Saturday, and something for dinner. Friday marked our first day of a week of pretending we are vegetarians, so we needed to pick up something quick and full of veggies. We decided on quesadillas, which were delicious and really quick to make. We didn't cook the veggies before putting them on the quesadilla, so they still had a bit of a crunch. It was so good we didn't even use the salsa we put on the plate! Tortilla, chedder jack cheese, red onion, jalapeno pepper, red pepper, green pepper toasted in olive oil just until the cheese melts and the tortilla is brown. Delicious!



Saturday I stupidly skipped breakfast and headed right to my cleaning job. That was HARD work. I cleaned a 6 bedroom/6 bath house and a 3 bedroom/3 bath house in 3 hours and was ready to DROP. I was starving when I got done, so I ordered some Vegetable Chow Mai Fun from the chinese place down the road. It was loaded with broccoli and hit the spot. Then we headed out to our weekly shopping trip. Holden Brothers Farm Market, Indigo Farms, and Lowes Foods were on the list. As always, we got a HUMUNGOUS bag of veggies at Holden Brother and then went in search of Indigo Farms. There we bought some blueberries and a huge watermelon, which was just $2! We also grabbed an eggplant for dinner later in the week. It's a really nice little place, and I'm sure we'll be going back! Lowes Foods was great as always, and we got some great help from Customer Service, especially from Paula, the manager. We had been having trouble with our Esavings, and they fixed it all right away.

Last night my sister came over and we had the Portobello Mushroom burgers that she had been begging for. We topped the night off with a bottle of wine and followed the Browns game online - then headed to bed.

This morning we woke up and decided to make Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes. Another win!! I found the idea on Kath's blog, and changed it a bit to make it my own.

Here's the recipe, and some pics:

1 1/3 cups oats
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 banana, mashed
cinnamon to taste
Blueberries

Mix all together, make into pancakes (makes 5 medium size). Melt butter in pan. Add pancakes to hot pan. Flip when they start to get firm and won't fall apart when flipping. Serve with preserves, mashed banana or maple syrup.





I figured out a great way to mash bananas that aren't quite overripe enough to be mushy. Squeeze the banana slightly while it's still in the peel. Eventually the peel will split and a half-smashed banana will come out. Finish the rest of the mashing with a fork and it's easier then trying to mash a firm, ripe one!

Well, I think we're all caught up now! Today I plan to be lazy. I'm going to throw together some jalapeno cheddar bread - in the bread machine (cheating again!) and vegetable lasagna for dinner. Then it's True Blood!! I love Sunday nights!!

Best Day EVER!!

Well, maybe not ever, but it was definitely a good one, which I needed after yesterday. Yesterday was filled with computer problems at work, kid problems at home and was one of those days where it seemed best to just call it a day and start over tomorrow. Once the house cleared out and calmed down, Lucas and I decided to make an spontaneous "what's in the fridge?" dinner. We decided on some mashed potatoes and veggies, which became an "out of the crust" pot pie. We had some left over chicken from Sunday's cook out, and I mixed up a quick gravy, added the chicken and the Full Circle Organic Mixed Veggies that were left in the freezer and like magic, we had a yummy, hearty dinner that we didn't even know was there!


At the same time, we decided to make our Sweet Watermelon Rind Pickles. We had the watermelon soaking for 2 days, which is 1 day longer than instructed, but I had forgotten to buy sugar the day before.
The recipe was super easy to make, and I just hope that I did it all right! The one thing I had to change was that I didn't have whole cloves, allspice and cinnamon sticks. I used the ground spices and mixed it right in with the syrup. I was a little disappointed because it turned the syrup brown, of course, so I added a little red food coloring to the mix....

And to the wine glass...


And to my face.... I made a mess.



In the end, the jars came out pretty great.



After dinner, we made a special recipe given to me by my boss. He calls them Monkeys in a Blanket. It goes like this:
2 slices of white bread
drizzle of honey
sprinkle of cinnamon
1 banana
2 tbsp of butter, melted.

Roll out the bread with a rolling pin until good and flat. Drizzle honey on the bread and place 1/2 a banana on top of that. Roll the bread around the banana. Sprinkle the cinnamon in the melted butter, then roll the bread/banana in the butter to coat. Place in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes and you get sweet, hot, gooey, sticky, toasted bananas.





We finished the night with some tv, which Chuck rather enjoyed, too.




Today started out good enough - got to work, no computer issues, got some stuff done. Then I got a message on Twitter from Lowes Foods. They had read my blog entries about their store (see below)and thanked me and offered to send me a free cookbook! Score!!!! I decided right then that I need to pay more attention to my blog, since it's already paid off and I didn't even try!! That led to my awesome husband creating the new title for me...great job, baby!! Then, this afternoon, my brand new food dehydrator arrived at the office. I had mentioned to my boss that I really wanted one, and he went ordered one for me right away! Best Boss EVER, and I'm not exaggerating that one! Finally, my friend and receptionist, Liz, bought a HUMONGOUS watermelon at Bilo (I swear it weighed at LEAST 50 pounds!) She came and asked me to help her cut it up and that used up the rest of my dragging afternoon. I'm hoping to have a picture to post soon so you can see just how huge it is! I sent her my watermelon pickle recipe so she can use the tons of rind she'll have left over!

So I rushed straight home, put down my bags and broke out the dehydrator immediately! I sliced some bananas, apples and kiwi and got them going.


For dinner, I somehow ended up with 5 kids here to feed, so I made them the old standby of grilled hot dogs and a pan of macaroni and cheese. Lucas and I had stuffed cabbage rolls. We had some leftover Spanish Rice from Saturday. I boiled some cabbage leaves and sauteed some chopped up zucchini, mushrooms, pepper and onion. I added the left over spanish rice and some diced tomatoes to the mix and warmed it all through. The cabbage leaves came out so green and not rubbery like cabbage usually is. I wrapped up the rice stuffing, put them in a little casserole dish, topped them with more tomatoes and baked them. Soooo yummy!!





And that brings us to now. Lucas and I have barricaded ourselves in the bedroom and let the kids have the living room and the Xbox. Time for some tv and the stack of Better Homes and Gardens, Southern Living and Cooking Light magazines that are piling up, neglected by me.

Have a great night, everyone!

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!