1/29/11

I have a feeling that you will be seeing a lot of posts like this...YUP its another salad!

KEEN-WAH Muffins

Quinoa Muffins turned out wonderful!

mmmm mmmmm tasty!

http://www.wholeliving.com/photogallery/quinoa-recipes?lpgStart=1&currentslide=11&currentChapter=1

1/27/11

Small Group Family Dinner night is always my favorite! We all bring a dish to share and then we eat and its so neat to eat what others bring. Last night I made Chicken Tortellini Alfredo and it was delish. We also had home made bread and a been and noodles dish that was tasty too!

Sick

Yesterday I woke up really sick so I made myself eat whole foods! This salad is what I ate!

Then lest you think I am a whacko who NEVER eats fast food, my sweet wonderful husband brought home Panda Express for me so I wouldn't have to cook!

So much for eating healthy!! :)

1/25/11

Back in my younger years I was involved in 4H! I did cooking classes and went all the way to state and won blue ribbons along the way! One of the recipes I made was this Sour Cream Apple Nut Coffee Cake! Yup it was pretty much amazing. Though I have adapted it a tad, its still pretty much the same. Here is the recipe in case you would like to try it.You will notice it tells you to ask for adult help, thats because it comes from the Betty Crocker cook book Jr. addition!


Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose white flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon salt
½ cup regular sugar
¼ cup shortening~~~ I use BUTTER!
1 each egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 large apple
½ cup dairy sour cream
¼ cup nuts
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions:

1. Grease pan with some shortening. In medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, soda, salt.
2. In large mixing bowl use a wooden spoon to beat together regular sugar and the 1/4 cup shortening till fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla till well mixed.
3. Peel apple with vegetable peeler. With adult help, remove core from apple and throw it away. Chop the apple.
4. Stir about half the flour mixture into the sugar mixture. Stir in the sour cream. Stir in the rest of the flour mixture.
5. Stir in the chopped apple. Spread evenly in greased pan, scraping bowl with rubber scraper.
6. Put nuts into plastic bag. Close bag and crush nuts with the rolling pin. Empty bag into small bowl. Use your hands to mix in brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon.
7. Sprinkle over coffee cake. Put pan into oven.
8. With adult help, turn oven to 350. Bake 25 to 30 min or till done. Turn off oven. With adult help, remove pan from oven. Cut into pieces and serve warm

Makes 9 to 12 servings.

Feeling the need to confess

Yesterday was again a no go as far as the pictures go. Had a house guest and tons of people here and it just slipped my mind.

Tonight I made Taco Soup and Kyla made Corn Bread! It was great on this rainy cold January day!

Birthday 2!

Today I made a Carrot Cake and had friends over to celebrate Kellys day! I used HER very own recipe and LOVE the results! Next time I will go ahead and use more butter for the pan and actually flour the pan as well! It turned out quite nice!

1/21/11

Birthday Party Night for a friend who turned 21! We went all over downtown but stopped first at TWIGS bistro where we had their signature fries and drinks. It was delicious. I love how they use fresh basil over the fries. Such a lovely flavor!

Pork Roast

Pork Roast tonight from our pig. My parents gave us part of a pig they bought and OHMYGOHS the meat is honestly like nothing you have ever tasted! I made mashed potatoes and gravy and salad and sliced carrots to go with it! Good food! No bread...this is an accomplishment. OR it could be that I was too busy to make bread today! :)

Food Rant

If you care about what you eat and how it got onto your plate, I encourage you, implore you to watch three videos. Food Inc. King Corn and the Future of Food. This will open your eyes to what is happening to our food and our future. It may also give you a glimpse into me and why I hate HFCS and all other kinds of fake food. Don't get me wrong...I still eat unhealthy food once in a while but I really think its important to know what you are eating and where it came from. That is why I get Spokane Family Farm milk and my eggs come from a farm and more and more of the purchases I make at Costco are organic. So that's me and where I fit into all this. Call me hippie if you like, I don't mind in fact I think I am one....except for the free love and drugs part! :)

It was bound to happen!

Ahh today is the first day that I actually forgot to take a picture.....forgive me. I will post this one of the coffee cake I made last night and then tell you that we actually has toasted cheese and organic tomato soup. Organic soup? Really?? YES! PLEASE! Do you have any idea what is in that canned crap? Oops said crap again. Canned tomato soup has HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP in it! Thats my all time arch enemy! Hate that stuff and its in EVERY THING! I even found it in beef sausage today.....Guess I will be getting my Kielbasa from the natural food store!


Ok enough of my ranting. Here is the pic of the coffee cake I served last night to my ladies book study!

Taco Salad

I am not much of a fan of the Taco Salad. One could tell by the dinner conversation. MOM! This is good...I have never had it before. My 12 year old son tells me, though I am quite certain that he has just so long ago he doesn't remember it. So I bought one of those COSTCO sized organic salads and I needed to use it! What better way than to have salad for dinner.

Pizza

Do you ever think..."GOSH I don't know what to make for dinner!"??? I do just about  every day. Ok well I have a general idea sometimes. I like to plan ahead and make menus, then grocery shop and have all the ingredients available then just wing it every day. That's what I like to do....that's not what always happens! Like today I had absolutely no clue. BUT I have discovered the most amazing salami ever and had thought the other night about pizza so I went and bought some and made that tonight. Served with a salad! I have a really great flat-bread recipe I will have to post someday soon!!!

Birthday Tacos

Today Cameron wanted Tacos for his birthday so I made chicken and onion and pepper filling, as well as the typical beef filling. They were delish! Also tonight I made my favorite hummus recipe and ate it for dinner. Must post that recipe soon!

Its a BUNDT!

Birthday celebration tonight! This is the King Arther Flour Company Chocolate Zucchini Cake!

Seriously you can NOT tell that it has zuc in it! Delicious!

Chris was right

Chris said this would look disgusting and he is right. Now if you have this Ginger Chicken over rice noodles and its warm....it would be another story. We had friends over and I completely forgot to take a picture so late last night I grabbed the left overs and snapped one off! I hope I don't forget again....

http://www.nibbledish.com/people/Jaylene/recipes/peanut-ginger-chicken


This is the recipe for the sauce but I added mushrooms and carrots and water chestnuts because I think just chicken is a bit bland. 

Warning the sauce is amazing so if you want more you may want to double it because it doesn't go very far!!!!

Healthy or Not??

So I being the baker that I am gave a friend a coupon for her to use to get a pan of cinnamon rolls....she chose today to redeem. I also am eating a salad today! So alas here are my pictures for today! Note that I did drop off the rolls and couldn't be rude so I had a very small one...it was good. Then I came home and did my workout! NOW I am eating salad!!

Honey Oatmeal Bread.

I dont know about you but today just seemed like a "Soup and Bread" day! I made a beef soup with this AMAZING bread. I used regular oats and for kicks and grins I also  threw in real whole un~rolled oats! I boiled them first as they would break your teeth off if I hadn't! So this is my pic for today. Bread. I seriously wonder how many posts will be a bread post.  :)

Crepes

So tonight I made crepes! One of my most favorite things to make for dinner. We has bacon from our pig and scrambled eggs to boot. I almost forgot to take the picture but remember as I was eating the second one!!! I served it with home made jams! Raspberry, strawberry and apricot! They were wonderful!

Ok now HERE is a thought!!!

A friend of mine knows of a blog where she is taking a picture every day for the year 2011, started January 1! I was bummed because I thought that would be a BLAST and take a picture of food once a day and post it. But then I realized I was too late to start on January 1. THEN a brilliant idea came to me. start on 1/11/11 and end on 1/11/12! SO here goes. I will attempt to take a picture every day of food that I am eating or have prepared and post it. Ok so please dont hold me to posting EVERY day because I have a pretty busy life and lots of chaos going on.....BUT I will take a picture every day and maybe post them every few days!!! Sound fun??? I think so! Hope you enjoy the ride!

Cinnamon Rolls....

....its whats on my mind. Those soft yummy ones with the cream cheese frosting, OH YAH baby you know the ones. Cinabons! When I was growing up  my best friend and I would roam the mall and eventually drift by the intoxicating smell of that wonderful store. Of course back then we could eat anything we wanted and never have to worry about the waistline. Alas the curse has caught up and now I must think about how much I want a cinnamon roll, how it will cost me. HOWEVER I have been craving them AND I have company coming to town next week SO guess what will be on the menu at some point?? I have a recipe for the ones like you get in the mall!! I will be posting about those for sure! They are so fun to make and one of my secrets thats really not a secret at all is the fact that to "slice" I use dental floss! Probably lots of people do this but it makes it fun and easy.

Happy NEW YEAR!

Ok so I know I am late but at least I am still within the week! I have been making bread with my new machine. Today if I choose I will make cinnamon rolls. I must say though with my current circumstance I am not sure they would be in my best interest. I did not make any resolutions this year about my eating habits and from the look of things I should have! I have osteoporosis and that is why my TMJ happened. Now that I know that every creak I hear in my body slightly panics me. Alas I am NOW on a band wagon to get healthy! Sugar, coffee and alcohol are the biggest contributing factors outside of genetics. So I am reducing those things in my lifestyle. This is sad but I also see it as a challenge! I have been eating a TON more salads and hoping to get in shape using my wii fit!

SO that being said I am making Split Pea Soup and salad for dinner and we had soup and salad for dinner last night TOO!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/ham-and-split-pea-soup-recipe/index.html

I like Emeril and he has some great recipes too! I also use his favorite salad dressing too! I didn't soak the peas as the package said it didn't need it so we will see if this soup is chunky or not :)