Yes, I'm Still Alive

Just pulled up my blog for the first time in a loooong time. I thought it was very interesting that the last post I made was EXACTLY one month before C came into this world! Yep, we had a Groundhog Baby. I ended up being induced and was able to choose between January 31st and February 2nd. For some reason I have always really liked the month of February, I wanted her to be born on an even day (weird, I know) and Groundhog Day is also my grandparents' anniversary.  It was the most amazing experience and one of the best days of my life. We now can't imagine life without C!



Just a few hours old.  Isn't she precious?



There were a few bumps in the road along the way the first year. We dealt with nightly 1 - 3 am scream-fests for a few weeks, difficulty digesting dairy (I ended up giving up dairy for 5 months so her little tummy wouldn't hurt), and chronic ear infections that led to C not sleeping through the night before her first birthday.  I will be forever grateful to Dr. Harvey Karp’s book Happiest Baby on the Block, all of the great dairy replacement options on the market and to Dr. Jakob for putting tubes in C’s ears.  Through it all the Hubs has been such an amazing support. I know I would not have survived without his encouragement and love. 

Found this stuck to my  lamp while getting ready for bed one night.

Although it’s not my first choice, I did have to go back to work this school year and honestly, balancing working full-time and trying to be a good mom has been really hard.  I rush home from work every day and try to cram in as much quality time as possible before bedtime.  And before C began sleeping well at night I was still getting up 3xs a night on average.  Needless to say I was exhausted.  For the first year of Little C's life I didn’t do much cooking.  Never before had we ever eaten so much take-out, fast food and pre-packaged meals.  It’s not like I was happy about it, but I just felt like I had no other choice.  I did make a fair amount of her baby food, but not as much as I would have liked - still working through all of the ‘mom guilt’ I feel about that one.

This photo captures it perfectly.

It’s only recently that, as I posted on Facebook the other day,"I'm finally starting to feel morelike ' me'... starting to cook more and meal plan again, tackling a few 'just for fun' projects, and am ready to buy some new, stylish clothes for my post-baby body". C has started sleeping very well, only occasionally waking up once during the night. She also now plays independently for extended periods of time, freeing me up to actually prepare meals, as opposed to just heating something up.   I have missed cooking.  A lot.  But I am getting back into it, slowly, but surely.  I’ve found that planning ahead and utilization of the crockpot are keys to success for me.  For April I actually made a monthly dinner plan calendar! 

It's color-coded and even includes hyperlinks to recipes

On Pintrest I have seen a ton of links to sites that say something like “prep a month worth of meals in 1 day”.  I excitedly open each of them hoping that they hold the key to simplifying my life, but without fail they require large chunks of hands-on time to do the food prep. This is a problem for me for several reasons: 1) I work full time and 2) the Hubs holds a second job as a photographer and most weekends he has at least one, and many times two photo shoots, in addition to several weeknight sessions.  Two other criteria that have to be met for a meal plan to work for me are that the meals need to be fairly nutritious and budget friendly.  I’ve been trying to take some of the ideas behind those “ahead of time food prep” sites and shape them in ways that work for my family with my time, nutrition and budget constraints. 

C is such a big help in the kitchen

One thing I have noticed is that tons of make-ahead recipes utilize already cooked and chopped or shredded chicken. If you’re using store-bought rotisserie chickens it can get really expensive really fast. So when bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts go on sale at my local HEB, I stock up and roast them all at once. Super simple. Here’s what that actually looks like time-wise at my house:

1. When I get home from work I turn the oven on to preheat (375°F) while I’m changing clothes and getting us snacks.  C then helps me season the meat with some olive oil, salt and pepper and any other spices I feel like using. (I’m currently addicted to this blend from Penzeys).  
2. We play outside while the chicken breasts roast (45 - 50 minutes) and then I let them cool completely while we eat dinner and do our bedtime routine. 
3. After she is down it takes me about 10 minutes to remove the skin, pull all of the meat off of the bones and then cube it.  I typically use my FoodSaver to vacuum pack the meat into 2 cup portions to go in the freezer. 

This means that this week I spent a little less than $10, lost no precious time with my daughter and ended up with over 12 cups of cooked, cubed chicken that I am using in empanadas, green chili chicken enchiladas, chicken tortilla soup, and homemade pizzas (Thai & BBQ) that we will eat later this month and next month, too. 

Score. 

Pilsner + Pork = Perfection

I had something today that I rarely have anymore- time.  Time to clean the house.  Time to do laundry.  Time to grocery shop.  And most importantly, time to cook.  I even squeezed in a yoga workout and a trip to one of my favorite local ice cream shops.  It was a fabulous day. 

The Hubs was busy tutoring students all day for their upcoming AP Exam so I had the house to myself...for almost 7 hours.  These days are very rare and I treasure them.  I'm an incredibly independent person and so "alone time" has always been very important to me.  It also meant that I had time to attempt an all-day recipe. 

And I Don't Even Really Like Sausage...

It's cold (for the Houston area) and wet outside.  We're experiencing the kind of weather that makes you want to curl up with your Kindle and a cup of coffee under a warm blanket and just shut the rest of the world out. Unfortunately that is not my reality.  There are still errands to run, clothes to fold, meals to prepare and papers to grade.  In short, life goes on, even when I would rather it not.

Anyone else out there wish you could just raise the white 'surrender' flag every once and awhile and take a break?    That was what tonight's dinner was all about.  A simple, comforting, delicious stew that took about 20 minutes to make, but tasted like it had been simmering on the stovetop all day. 

U.W.W.H - Days 2 & 3

Day 1 of this week's challenge was a smashing success and so I thought the rest of the week would be easy too.  WRONG.

On Days 2 & 3 I cheated. 

Okay, I only kind of cheated on Day 2, but I did thoroughly cheat on Day 3.  I admit it.

Day 2 involved me begging Mexican lunch leftovers from a friend (to combine with my own leftovers) to feed the Hubs for dinner. 

I did cook dinner for myself though - Chicken and Black Bean Quesadillas with a Spicy Ranch Dipping Sauce

Odds and ends this dish used up:
frozen (but pre-cooked) chicken fajita meat
a bag of shredded jalepeno jack cheese
half a can of refried black beans
some leftover corn tortillas
a little Ranch dip
some red salsa

Pretty self explanatory, very simple, very fast, but completely delicious!  I even let the Hubs have a few. 

Day 3 was an epic failure:

Odds and ends this dish used up:

some Pepto to deal with the upset tummy from dinner

I have to do better than this on Day 4...

Using What We Have - Day 1

We have a lot of food 'odds and ends' in our fridge, freezer, and cabinets.  Not a lot of any one item, just a little bit of a lot of different things.  It makes putting away groceries really tough.  Space is limited in our little house and we do not have a pantry. 

I'm swallowing my pride and showing you the inside of my fridge and freezer. 

Please don't judge. 

Soooo embarrassing. I'm fed up with it.

Summer Challenge

Well, it finally got hot here.  It's as if as soon as August hit, so did the heat.  Summer has been bearable up to this point, but I feel I have sweated more in the last two weeks than I have in the last 2 months!

We live in a house that is a little older and doesn't have the most energy efficient A/C unit, windows, doors or insulation.  To keep from adding unnecessary heat to the already warm kitchen/great room area of the house I issued myself a personal challenge this week:

Cook a week's worth of dinners using only my outdoor grill; no microwave, stove top or oven. 

Oh, and just to be clear I don't have a 'tricked out' outdoor kitchen with a mega-grill, fridge and sink.  I have a basic gas grill with one side burner. 

I knew this would take some forethought and that I couldn't just wing it every night if I was going to be successful. 

Here are a few pictures and highlights from the week:

Monday:
*Grilled Shrimp with Mango Sauce - too much vinegar in recipe, even using just ¼ cup; also ended up  tripling sugar. Forgot the red pepper flakes. It lacked the intense balance it needed. An okay first try, but not sure there will be a second...

Tuesday:

*Cilantro Citrus Chicken and Mango Black Bean Salsa

*Mixed Berry and Red Wine Sorbet
Divine. Paired beautifully with the peach gelato we still had.  I didn't have raspberries, so I just used some frozen mixed berries.  Once again, David Lebovitz came through. 

Wednesday: (Dinner Divas)
G hosted and made us the most fabulous lo-cal bellinis that I cannot wait to share with everyone.

Thursday: (my favorite grilled meal of the week, even though I have NO PICTURES!  I guess that's what happens when you wait until 8 pm to prepare dinner outside on one burner)

Grilled steelhead trout – not dried out at all; S&P, lemon juice from ½ lemon, a teaspoon olive oil; grilled over med-low heat, flipping twice.

Quinoa Pilaf – used garlic and walnuts, no parsley, raisins or cilantro. LOVED it!!! First quinoa experience and I'm hooked!

Grilled Artichokes with lemon garlic sauce – LOTS of work both in the prep and in eating them. Liked the dipping sauce a lot, very similar to zucchini salad dressing from cooking class. Used immersion blender and it made all of the difference.  Ended up breaking down leftover grilled artichokes and using the hearts on a Mediterranean style pizza. 

Friday:

Cowboy Burgers (from HEB) - I had a coupon and we always love 'em!  Chock full of bacon, cheese and herbs.  1/2 pound each!!!

Garlic Dill Pickles (homemade) - I will add extra mustard seed next time and maybe even make my own pickling spice so I can omit the cloves.

After the week was over I decided I had had so much fun and loved not heating my entire house that I just kept on going...

My Italian take on Shrimp and Grits...
Marinate the shrimp in cayenne, smoked paprika and salt for about 5 minutes then skewer them.
Slice a tube of prepared polenta (any flavor) in to 12 discs, brush both sided with some olive oil then sprinkle them with salt and pepper. 
Toss the broccoli florets with garlic slices, olive oil and S&P.

Grill all 3 at the same time over low to medium heat. 

I love this one because it's ready in 20 minutes and tastes delicious.

 Next time... a favorite and fun grilled meal of ours: Grilled Pizza.

Cheesey Pico Chicken

We have so many odds and ends left over from the 3 parties we have hosted or attended over the last 6 days, that I cannot in good conscience go buy more food.  So we are in 'scavenge' mode at our house.

It's like a game to dig through the fridge and pantry to see what is available for a meal. It's a random assortment for sure with things like a pitcher of sangria, a package of fajita marinated chicken breasts, three pork tenderloins, a ton of veggies, some leftover queso from Mission Burrito, artichoke dip, a layered berry dessert.... I could go on and on.

Here was my solution to "What's for dinner?" last night:

Cheesey Pico Chicken 

I had to cook the chicken ASAP - its days were numbered.

And I had a tomato that was just at the peak of ripeness, but was going to start going bad any minute. It married beautifully with some corn, red onions, jalepeno, cilantro and garlic.

I have decided that Mission Burrito's queso is my all-time favorite queso now. See how much I put on our plates?!?!

And you better believe I ate every single bite ...

Not Quittin' My Day Job

Last night for dinner we had another of R's favorites - Steak Salad.  So fast, fresh and fantastic.

While a simply seasoned flank steak and an ear of corn were grilling, I sliced some carrots and red onion and washed the spinach.  After the corn and beef were nicely grilled and had time to rest, I threw everything together and served it Willie's style, meaning the dressing was a mix of queso and salsa. 

After dinner it was time to get to work.  I had decided that I would bake and decorate 50 cookies for the winners of this year's SURVIVOR Challenge.  `Each of the 5 tribes created their own flag, complete with tribe colors, slogan and logo.  The goal was to somehow incorporate those ideas in the decoration. 

What was I thinking????

Here are a few of the baked, un-iced cookies, just staring at me. 

Mocking me, really.

 

I began with the most simple designs

Team Outback

  

Simplicity and bright colors make me happy

I found the perfect cookie cutter at Hobby Lobby for my MOKO tribe - a crown to match their logo.

This tribe definitely thought of themselves as royalty...

I was not pleased at all with how this next class period's cookies turned out.  They had a complicated mascot to begin with and then every time I tried to 'draw' their symbol (the swoosh) it ended up looking sperm-like.  Not a good thing when you work with 9th graders. 

One kid today told me it appeared that I had 'given up' by the time I got to their cookies!  Gotta love 15 year-olds for their honesty. 

This tribe's logo was tough to do as well.  I mean, a pineapple???

I don't know if I like the buck teeth or the enthusiastic slogan more.

I had to just let go and do the pineapples and leaves 'freestyle'. 

It's a loose interpretation.  But isn't that what artistic license is????

Finally, we have the tribe that won out of all of my class periods... Thunder From Down Under.  Prior to this I had never made gray icing.  Who wants a cake or cupcake with gray icing??? How depressing.  Thank goodness Hobby Lobby carries every color under the sun. 

Notice I did not even attempt the kangaroo

The cookies turned out to be a huge hit and the kids didn't seem to notice every single imperfection that I was freaking out about.  They were very appreciative of the fact that I customized them for each tribe.  And as much fun as the cookies were to make and decorate, my favorite part was seeing the smiles on their faces each period as I would open the tupperware container and show them their designs. 

Just one more confirmation that the classroom is the place for me.

Copy-Cat Meal

The first Wednesday of each month is set aside for Dinner Divas. 

Dinner Divas started out as the book club "Classically Cosmopolitan", but we started focusing more on the food and drink and less on the book so we quit pretending to be something we weren't and threw the books out completely. 

Which is quite interesting considering all but 1 of us work in a school setting!

There are about 10 of us in the group and everyone has their own distinct style.  It's so fun to go to a very different dinner party every month, but only have to host once a year!

This month's hostess is one sophisticated and fabulous lady.  I would love to hire her as my personal stylist.  Her clothes are fabulous.  Always.

Here is her table setting:

Since it was Cinco de Mayo she made us delicious, fruity Strawberry Mojitos and some real-deal-lucille queso to get things going. 

For our main course she made a Latin meal that included rice, beans, grilled chicken and all sorts of fresh veggies.  For the life of me I cannot remember the name, but I remember how great it tasted. 

I decided to make my own copy-cat version for dinner one night this week...with a few of my own touches.

Layer 1:

I am never without a couple of packages of saffron rice in my pantry. 

My two favorite brands are Mahatma and Vigo. 

Layer 2:

Black beans - another pantry staple.

Layer 3:

Some leftover corn from last night's dinner. 

I had stirred in a little honey butter in to it and the way the sweet played off the other flavors was wonderful!

Layer 4:

Chicken marinated in a little olive oil, lime juice, orange juice, cilantro, salt and pepper for about 15 minutes and then grilled over low heat 5 minutes a side.

Layer 5:

A little bit of thinly sliced red onion is never a bad idea. 

Layer 6:

Shredded savoy cabbage and a little monterrey jack cheese means we are almost there...

Layer 7:

To top it off: a little bit of that yummy sauce we used on our fish tacos. 

This is what absolutely made this meal!

The further ahead this sauce is made, the better it tastes. 

Another super simple, inexpensive and amazingly delicious meal that turned in to the best 'leftover lunches' the next day.

Easy Weeknight Dinner

Every Wednesday after work I follow the same routine  - get a snack, fix myself something to drink and check out the weekly food ads.  I am a frugal shopper, but refuse to sacrifice quality or deprive myself of good food, so the food ads are very important to me. 

I stock up on pork tenderloins whenever the price goes below $3/lb.  I love pork tenderloins because they are so versatile and so dang easy to prepare.  All it takes is a good meat thermometer and you're golden. 

My sister got me this one for Christmas 2 years ago and it changed my world. 

One of my favorite weeknight "Go-To Meals" is Raspberry Chipotle Pork Tenderloin.

It's super easy and utilizes several already prepared ingredients. 

Preheat oven to 375 F

After trimming the excess fat and silver skin off of the tenderloins,  season them with whatever spice rub you have on hand.  (Tonight I used Adams Reserve Peppercorn & Garlic Sean-n-Crust, but good old salt and pepper works beautifully too.) 

 I keep several of these in my cabinet at all times and use them on almost everything. 

Heat 1 T of olive oil and 1 T of butter in a skillet or fry pan.  Sear the tenderloins on each side for several minutes, forming a nice 'crust'.  Put them in a roasting pan, pop them in the oven for about 22 - 25 minutes (internal temp should register 140 when you remove them from the oven). 

As soon as you remove them from the oven you'll want to pour a little bit of Raspberry Chipotle Sauce over the tenderloins and tent them with foil.  They need to rest about 10 minutes before carving.

I think everyone and their brother makes a version of this sauce now. 

This just happens to be the one I had in the fridge. 

While the pork is resting, you have plenty of time to do side dishes.  I usually do some sort of whole wheat couscous and a green veggie. 

I love couscous for two reasons:

1. the liquid to couscous ratio is 1:1 *I can never remember what the ratio is for rice*
2. it cooks in 5 minutes 

Tonight's side dishes were Walnut Parmesan Couscous and Walnut Garlic Green Beans. 

For both dishes I toasted the walnuts lightly ahead of time and then later cooked them a little more in some butter and garlic... mmmmm.

From start to finish this dinner takes no more than 35 minutes and most of that is "hands-off" time.  Fresh, tasty food with minimal effort - now that's what I'm talking about.

A Cheesey Post

I'm a cheese lover and rarely pass up the opportunity to add that dairy-based goodness to any meal.  However, I'm not a big fan of the processed stuff that is so rampant at local supermarkets. 

My favorite memories from trips (domestic and abroad) almost always involve food.  And not fancy-schmancy restaurant dishes, but food from street vendors or tiny markets.  I love hitting the local stores each morning and buying just enough bread, cheese and meat to make sandwiches for lunch that day.  And whatever the local cheese is, that's the one I'm buying.  I have had picnics in some of the most interesting and memorable places.

Fine dining on the steps of the Pantheon, drinking my favorite Italian birra

Last week while looking up information on homemade creme fraiche, I also came across several recipes for homemade ricotta.  They sounded simple, tasty and like something I just had to try myself. 

The recipe I chose was from a guest post by Dave Lebovitz on Simply Recipes.  It's very straightforward with only a few ingredients: 1/2 gallon of whole milk, 1 cup of yogurt, 1/2 cup of cream, 2 teaspoons of white vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt.

After reading the comments about the recipe I decided to swap a 1/2 cup of my homemade creme fraiche for the cream. 

(I realize I neglected to mention this at the beginning of the post, but I'm sure by now everyone realizes that this was not going to be that Part-Skim Ricotta crap.  When given a choice, I almost always choose the full-fat dairy products.  They just taste so much better.  And when the flavor is better and the food is richer, you tend to eat less anyways.  It all balances out in the end.)

Back to the recipe...

Basically you dump everything in to a big pot and bring it to a boil for a minute or two, until the milk curdles.

 Then you pour the mixture into a cheesecloth-lined strainer and let it hang out over a large bowl for 15 or 20 minutes.  You can use it right away or store it in the fridge for up to 3 days.

The hardest part of this recipe was watching the milk curdle because normally that is what I try desperately to avoid.  It was strange and looked like lumpy ooze from another planet.  However, it smelled great!

I didn't even let it finish the full 15 minutes of draining before I snuck my first taste... I just couldn't resist.

WOW.  It was unbelievable.  So fresh and squeaky/chewy - you know, the way good ricotta cheese should be.  Reminded me a little bit of those yummy cheese curds.

Never again will I buy the stuff in the tubs at the big supermarkets.  It costs the same (or even less) to make it myself and there is absolutely no comparison when it comes to taste.

For dinner I ended up using the ricotta in a shrimp and pasta dish.  My mom The Easter Bunny brought me 4 packages of specialty pastas from Austin Gourmet Foods and I have been dying to try them out. 

I found a recipe to use as a starting point but ended up changing it around a little bit. 

I sauteed some garlic and crushed red pepper in a little butter, then stirred in 1/2 cup of milk and 3/4 cup of ricotta until it all combined.  I tossed in a little salt, some nutmeg and a couple of dashes of Texas Pete's Hot Sauce.  I wasn't totally pleased with the way things were headed, so I tossed in a 14 oz can of crushed tomatoes.  Good decision.  Next I stirred in 1/4 cup of cheese (I used a mix of gruyere and parmesan) then tossed in about a pound of raw, peeled shrimp and covered the skillet.

While the shrimp were cooking away I boiled the pasta... and dropped the almost full bottle of Texas Pete's.

12 oz on the floor looks like a lot more liquid than 12 oz in the bottle.

No, I'm not giving you the bird, I'm showing you my boo-boo.

Despite the huge mess, the cut finger and the fact that my kitchen smelled like a Wild Wings restaurant, we both thoroughly enjoyed the meal! 

(I realize it looks a little lumpy, but once it hits your mouth it completely melts.)

From start to finish the dish took less than 15 minutes to make.  Definitely a keeper.