A little avocado

Somehow I came home from the store with a 4-pack of avocados. It was only $3.99 which was cheaper per avocado than single avocados. But there they sat on the counter longing to be used. Tonight, I created one of my favorite snacks - a bean salad. A pile of canelli beans rinsed and drained, half an avocado diced, grape tomatoes sliced, fresh basil, feta cheese and a dash of olive oil. Yum! Now to use the other three and a half!

Dinner dilemma

I am horrible at planning dinner. It is never a priority for me. I realize that as I build my little family, I am going to have to get better at this. I would have been devastated if I came home from school and asked my mom what was for dinner and she said, "I don't know? What do you want?" That is what I say nearly every day to my husband, Nate. I get frustrated, because he never has an answer. And when I do cook, he never seems really impressed. I call him picky, but maybe that is because I will eat ANYTHING. I hope my daughter gets my appetite.

No matter what, my mom had dinner on the table. I don't really recall eating out a lot. There was always something hot on the table, even if it was later in the evening than I would have liked as a growing teenager.

So, today when I was getting in my car at work (a little later than I like to on a Friday afternoon), my husband called.

"What's for dinner?"

"I don't know," I said.

It's not for lack of food in my house...because I spend a lot on groceries and pride myself on having a stocked pantry.

I start going through the file in my head. What can I make quick? He said he is starving.

In my defense, Nate doesn't eat lunch at a set time every day like I do. When he is on day work, he can be hungry for dinner at 3:30 p.m. when he gets home or at 6:30 p.m., which is way too late for me. So, even if I planned, it might not work out perfectly.

Tonight, I happened to have chicken breasts set out. I called my sister for a chicken and rice recipe she had made when I was visiting for New Year's Eve, but it took an hour to bake and sit, and that was too long for my starving man.

So, I saved it for another day and tried to improvise something quicker that would taste similar.
Here is what I came up with.

Chicken and Rice Skillet

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 can cream of chicken soup (plus one can water)

2 cups instant rice. uncooked

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 small can mushrooms

1/3 cup shredded cheese (I used mozzarella)

Cut chicken breasts into 1-inch strips. Cook the chicken in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, until no longer pink inside. Add the chicken soup and can of water. Bring to a boil. Add the rice, onion powder and pepper. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for a few minutes so the rice cooks. Add mushrooms. Stir. Remove from heat and let it sit until the liquid is absorbed, about five minutes. Sprinkle with cheese. Serve with crumbled buttered crackers if desired.

Enjoy!

Travelin' trail mix

Trail mix is good for you in small doses, but who can eat it in small doses? Especially when it contains chocolate.
I have a cupboard of random nuts, seeds and other fruity-type odds and ends. Every now and then, I get sick of it piling up and make a batch of trail mix. It really takes not effort at all, just a little dumping. It's great for a mid-day snack or a little salty/sweet combo for lunch packing. And, it doesn't spoil!

This beauty contains:

Leftover Hershey's Mini Kisses from cookies
Peanut Butter Chips (also leftover)
Pumpkin seeds in shell
Craisins
Raisins
Cashews
Granola
Salted pumpkin seeds (no shell)
Sunflower seeds (no shell)

My solo candlelight dinner

I love sharing dinner with my husband, but I look forward to the times he is on night work and I can cook what I want. It usually involves a lot of vegetables and feta cheese. He is a real trooper, trying new stuff here and there, but overall, he is pretty good at taking a few bites, giving me a sideways look as if to say, "I am sure YOU this is good, but I don't like it."
So, he worked the other night and after a long day of cleaning the house, going for a jog and playing with the dog at the park, I needed a serious cache of calories. I put on a pot of boiling water and threw in some shredded red cabbage. In a frying pan, I dumped 2 tablespoons of olive oil and let it warm. I sauted 1/2 cup mushrooms, 1/4 cup onion and 1/4 cup red pepper. When those veggies started to get tender, I added one cup of fresh spinach and watched it wilt. Soon, the cabbage was tender, so I drained it and added it to the fry pan. I boiled 1 cup of whole wheat pasta noodles. In the meantime, I added 1/2 cup of imitation crab meat to frying pan. In a few minutes, I dumped the noodles and the veggies into one gigantic bowl. I sprinkled it with 2 tablespoons of feta cheese and had myself a colorful pasta dish that reminded me of summer. So, I lit some candles and put on soft music. It was a relaxing way to end my weekend!

Oh for the love of chocolate and peanut butter!

Happy Easter...well not yet...but if you have some time before the Holy day...make homemade chocolate peanut butter eggs. They are to die for!


1/4 cup margarine
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cups 10X sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips

Mash margarine in a bowl with a fork. Add peanut butter and milk and vanilla and stir until creamy. Add sugar. Shape into egg shapes and refrigerate on waxed paper. Melt chocolate in a double boiler and coat eggs. Keep in refrigerator at all times.

Enjoy.

Asian inspiration

I love soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and noodles. But, since I am trying to eat very healthy, I try to stay away from take out. A lovely friend from work shares her Real Simple magazine with me (a great frugal tip).And I tinkered with a recipe in there for dinner the other night.

Here you go:

8 ounces soba* noodles
1 pound boneless chicken breast
2 cups shredded red cabbage
5 tablespoons canola oil, divided
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ginger

In a saucepan, cook chicken with 2 tablespoons canola oil over medium high heat. Cook 8 ounces soba* noodles, cool, and toss with chicken, cabbage, 3 tablespoons canola oil, rice vinegar and soy sauce. Sprinkle with ginger and toss.

*Soba noodles are Japanese Noodles made from buckwheat and wheat flour, which gives it a dark-brownish gray color.

Where has the summer gone?

I didn't make the cucumber soup yet. For some reason I can't get to the grocery store to get the sour cream. It's so hot today. I wanted to go swimming, but I feel to hot to do anything other than lay on my air contitioned room and read. When I took Moose to the vet today, the car seat burnt my legs.

This is how my summer went. My thoughts are all over the place. I have grand ideas and big plans, but I end up getting little done. I did find a summer to-do list I made during the school year and I hit almost every thing on it. But for having 10 days off, I didn't really accomplish all that much. I hope I can me more committed and organized during the school year. I certainly didn't keep up with this blog like I wanted to.

I did make tuna steak for dinner. It was yummy. I marinated 1 pound of tuna steaks(bought frozen at Giant) in this mixture:

1/4 cup vegetable oil, half of 1/3 cup of soy sauce, tablespoon of garlic, tablespoon of sesame oil, and teaspoon of ground ginger.

Then I broiled it on high for 15 minutes, turning it once and adding more marinade a few times through! Yum. I love, love, love tuna. I ate it with wasabi may (a mixture of wasabi powder and mayo) and pickled ginger.

Glorius garden treasures

I ventured out to the garden this morning and what I found was a jungle of green vines entangled among each other. The tomato and cucumber plants have taken over everything else in the garden. I think the green beans and zucchini are finally done producing, which gives me time to focus on the peppers that are dangling from the plants. The tomatoes are going to inundate me in a few days. With Nate keeping an eye on Moose, I had some time to tackle the over abundance of fruits and vegetables I have been collecting.
I blanched the green beans and froze them. I chopped up the hot yellow peppers and froze those, too. I gave away some cucumbers when I was at school for meetings, but still found more this morning. I am going to try this recipe from Real Simple for Chilled Cucumber Soup. I mean, a girl can only take so much cucumber salad.

Here it is:

3/4 cup sour cream
4 scallions, roughly chopped
2 jalapenos, seeded (which I happen to have a ton of growing in my garden)
1/2 cup fresh basil (another ingredient that has gone ape wild in my garden)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3 pounds cucumbers, about 4 peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
Kosher salt and pepper

In a blender, puree sour cream, scallions, jalapenos, basil, lime juice, half the cucumbers, 1/4 cup water, 3/4 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add the remaining cucumbers and puree, adjusting the consistency with water as necessary, until smooth. Serve with baguette slices, thin slices of salami, feta and olives.

Proud of my dinners

I apologize ahead of time for my lack of photos. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I really mean to take photos. But, in the heat of the moment, dinner is done and we're hungry, and we eat. I've been trying to make new and different meals since I am home and have a little time to do my homework and dig through recipe books. One day this week, I made Parmesan-crusted chicken. I mixed bread crumbs, grated Parmesan cheese, and a mix of spices such as oregano, parsley and the like. I dipped the chicken in egg beaters and rolled it around in the mixture. I baked it for 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Meanwhile, I cut up three potatoes into wedges. I sprinkled them with a mixture of salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper and garlic powder and baked them for about 30 minutes at the same temperature. What a quick and easy dinner.

The next night, I made Cuban sandwiches. YUM! I had made some pork in the slow cooker earlier in the week, so I sliced the leftovers as thin as I could. I laid a hamburger bun open on the counter and spread one side with mayo and the other with mustard. I layered provolone (the recipe called for Swiss, but we don't really like that), cooked ham slices and the pork on the bun and a layer of dill pickle slices. I smashed it all together (recipe said 1-inch thick) and buttered both sides of the bun. I grilled each side about 3 minutes and voila, dinner was done. Nate asked for seconds and I thoroughly enjoyed my first.

And on another note, I found the problem with my flat cookies. I've been puzzled as to why my chocolate chip cookies have been thin, flat and crispy. Through advice from many sources (namely my mom, stepdad and mother-in-law) I added a little more flower and used shortening instead of butter. And, wouldn't you know it? It worked. I must have eaten 2 dozen cookies in the last two days. They remind me of my mom's!

And the zucchini is still cranking. I peeled and shredded up the ones I have and will freeze them in 2-3 cup bags so I have them to make zucchini bread and cake and muffins and all that this winter! Man I love not wasting and saving money!

Zucchini out the wazoo!

So the one zucchini plant I put in the garden is seriously on steroids. Being one that hates to waste, I have been trying to use it. I have basically been baking as much zucchini bread as I can. I will be trying to distribute it soon.

Here is the recipe:

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup crushed pineapple
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Sift flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder together. Mix eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla, crushed pineapple, walnuts and zucchini together. Mix in dry ingredients. Grease and flour two loaf pans. Pour batter into pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Check with toothpick to see if done.


Here is another recipe I use. It's for Poorman's Crab Cakes. It doesn't taste like a crab cake, but it's really yummy. And fairly healthy. Nate actually liked it, which is rare!


Poorman's Crab Cakes

2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste.


Combine ingredients and shape into cakes. Fry in a skillet until golden brown.

Yay beans!

We have green beans! The garden is in full bloom. Well, sort of. Zucchini is definitely producing many fruits a day. Nate picked at least a quart of green beans last night for dinner. We also picked two cucumbers, which I used for cucumber salad. I really wish some tomatoes or peppers would show face. We had a really yummy dinner last night. I stopped at Giant for fresh a pound of fresh Catfish for about $5. I sprinkled some Cajun seasoning on it and cooked it in foil on the grill for about 20 minutes.
We sauted the green beans in olive oil, garlic and onion and covered them to help soften. And then because my potatoes were seriously rotten (I mean oozing white creamy goop), we had to opt for instant mashed potatoes.

Here is my recipe for Cucumber Salad if you need a use for ALL those veggies!

Cucumber Salad

1 medium cucumber, thinly sliced
1 medium onion sliced into rings
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Combine vinegar, sugar and salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the cucumbers and onions. Chill for 24 hours before serving. YUM!

So much to do

So here it finally is, summer. I sort of knew I would find myself with millions of ideas of projects to do and little motivation. I've been spending some time at Cracker Barrel serving, so I haven't been completely off.
I have totally enjoyed being able to go for a morning bike ride (I did 50 miles in two days) or run without the pressure to get home and ready for work or something else.
My first project is the downstairs bathroom. Nate and his brother installed a door. What a relief. That was something that I hoped to have done before our housewarming party. Now, I am charged with decorating it. I have this idea to do a Bermudian-inspired room with light, cool colors since the fixtures in the bathroom are white and I am not in the mood to do any demolition.
I looked around a little on the Internet. I am building the design around a watercolor we bought in Bermuda while on vacation. I found a white shelf, white stool and some colored bottles and a few other items in boxes and around the house that will go great. I was hoping to use leftover paint from other rooms in the house, but I am not sure that I have enough. We will see!
I am also looking for ideas to make the door fit in a little better. It looks a little cheap (probably because we got it at Restor York for $6), but it totally works. It's kind of like the fake wood. I am thinking about painting it. Thoughts?
Today, I also tried to clean up and patch the holes in the wall from removing the large cabinet in the bathroom that prevented the installation of a door.
I made some chili for dinner and Cannellini bean salad for a cool summer snack.
What a random day! Now I am off to Cracker Barrel for a fourth day in a row.

Here is the recipe for the bean salad from Better Crocker

2 (19 ounce) cans of Cannellini beans
1 medium tomato seeded and diced
1 red onion diced
1 medium red pepper diced
2 tablespoons fresh basil (*my first use from the garden this year)
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the ingredients together. Serve with lettuce.


**Hopefully a post to come on my adventures in gardening.

At-home Chinese cuisine

I had some time over the weekend to cook. I am pretty proud of the General Tso's with fried rice that I made on Saturday. Nate was pleased, too. Of course, no photo, because we ate it too fast and the leftovers don't do it justice.

Here is the recipe/process I used:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
1/2 cup corn starch
3 eggs, beaten
Canola, olive or some other healthy variety of oil
General Tso's glaze and sauce (available in the ethnic food aisle at Giant for the low price of $5)

Pour 1-2 inches of oil in a wok or skillet. Mix the corn starch and eggs. Coat the cubed chicken with the batter mixture and fry at a high temperature just until the chicken is cooked through. Drain it on a paper towel. Lower the heat of the pan and toss the chicken and sauce together in a pan until heated through.

For the rice, I purchased a fried rice seasoning packet (also probably available in the ethnic aisle at Giant.) Cook 3 cups of rice (brown or white) and cool. In a skillet, heat about 1-2 tablespoons oil. Add the rice and chopped onion or scallions. Add 2 tablespoons soy sauce and the seasoning packet. Stir fry for 1 minute. Push the rice aside and add 2 beaten eggs. Let them scramble and mix it into the rice. Add cooked peas or carrots and meat if desired.


It really didn't take that long and it was really tasty. Although I can say it wasn't a healthy choice, I bet it had much less calories in it than the store-bought kind. If you want to lower the calories, use egg beaters instead of eggs. No one (by that I mean Nate) will know the difference.

Pasta perfect!

Nate and I don't eat a lot of pasta dishes, yet I have accumulated boxes and boxes of pasta in all shapes and sizes. As you learned yesterday, I love cold salads. So, I make pasta salad. It's much cheaper than the store-bought stuff and you can tailor it the way you want it. For the last batch, I boiled tri-color noodles and added a packet of Good Seasonings salad dressing. (SO good on sandwiches, salads, etc.) I added peas and onions.

For the second batch (at left) I used bow ties. I added pepperoni, little pieces of provolone cheese and finely diced onions.

Other add in if you have them are carrots, broccoli, corn and beans.

Asian Rice Salad

I love sushi and the flavor the rice has (which comes from rice vinegar and sugar). I also love cold salads with lots of vinegar. The more, the better. I experimented with this Asian Rice Salad. The photo is a little dark...I definitely need a new camera..but you get the idea.

2 cups cooked brown rice, cooled

1/4 cup chopped water chestnuts

1/4 cup shredded carrots

1/4 cup thinly sliced celery

1/4 cup frozen peas

1/4 cup frozen corn

1 tablespoon chopped peanuts

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

Mix it all together and enjoy!

I think it need a little more vinegar. It's a little plain. But I do like the crunch that the water chenstnuts and peanuts give it.

Chicken Corn Soup

Whole chickens were on sale at Giant Thursday, so I decided it was a good time to make chicken corn soup. I use my mom's recipe. I just sort of wrote it down. There aren't really measurements or any real directions. But, I love making it. It makes the whole house smell good, and I enjoy chopping, dicing and adding ingredients. It was a great way to spend a Saturday. I also made Asian Rice Salad...but that's for another day!

Here's what the directions say:
Cook whole chicken off with diced onions and celery and chicken bouillon cubes. Once cooked, remove chicken to cool and put diced potatoes in the broth. Bring to a boil. Throw in frozen corn, chicken and sliced hard boiled eggs. For dough balls, crack an egg in a bowl. Add flour and water until consistent. Make sure water is boiling when you add the  dough balls. Add parsley, pepper and salt.

I like to let my simmer all day to fill my house with the awesome smell. Enjoy.

Cold weather food

Soup season is almost over. As much as I love winter, I am ready for some warmth and sunshine. I think that my emotions need it.
But since it's here, I took advantage of the cold weather and made some soup in the slow cooker yesterday. I am still learning how to make thick soup. All of my batches are always thin.
I attempted to make corn chowder. I added a can of creamed corn to the crockpot. In a skillet, I cooked some bacon, then added diced potatoes and onions with a little water until the potatoes were cooked to a little soft. I added butter for some flavor. I dumped the skillet's contents into the slow cooker. I added evaporated milk (probably why it's not thick) and a cup of chicken broth. It didn't look chunky enough, so I added some frozen corn. I cooked it on low ALL day. The bacon and chicken broth made for a great flavor, but I wasn't satisfied with the texture. I'll work on that next time.

Yummy dinners

I have been making some tasty dinners lately, but of course it isn't until I am putting the dishes in the sink that I remember to take a photo. By then, it's too late.
We had fish on Monday, which as easy as sprinkling seasoning on frozen fillets and cooking it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
Tuesday, I made one of Nate's favorites, BBQ Nachos. I used to make Nate nachos all the time when we were dating, by my parents introduced us to the BBQ kind while dining at Smoky Bones and The Works.
Even though we have tons of pork left from the wedding, I used the store-bought stuff. It's pretty easy to throw in a saucepan and heat up. I layered blue and yellow tortilla chips on a plate and sprinkled mozzarella cheese on them and popped them in the microwave for 35 seconds to melt the cheese. When the pork was warm, I dropped little piles of pork on the nachos followed by a sprinkle of chopped lettuce, and finely diced tomatoes and onions. I also added sour cream, green salsa, guacamole and jalapenos. I promise you, even though I don't have a photo, it made for a colorful dish.
Wednesday I made an Olive-Garden worthy pasta dish in about 10 minutes. I have so many pasta noodles, shapes and sizes in my cupboards, but neither of us is a big pasta eater. I realized it was time to start using them.
So, I boiled garlic Parmesan fettuccine noodles in salted water. In the meantime, I sauted garlic, onion, mushroom, tomato, shrimp and imitation lobster meat in olive oil in a sauce pan...just enough to make it soft and warm. I sprinkled in a little pepper and sweet basil for some taste. We just served the veggie/seafood combo over the noodles! YUM. I will try to start taking more photos, I promise.

Planning dinner

Since I have been working earlier, I have had a lot more time to make dinners. I keep forgetting to take pictures when it looks all yummy and delicious. I opted for no pictures to pictures of leftovers (which we have a lot of.) I've been making a list of meals for the week, planning out what I will make and making sure I have all the ingredients. It makes life so easy. And if something doesn't work out, I just switch out days. It's hard to come up with recipes that I can leave in the oven or on the stove on warm for when Nate gets home late. But, this week I made something called a cassoulet, which according to the Web is a slow cooked bean stew. It was basically a lot of adding and cooking. Nate loved it. And I have to say it was pretty tasty.

Here is what I did:

I chopped six pieces of bacon and fried them in a dutch oven (which my mom tells me is just a large pan with a tight lid) until they were crisp on medium high heat. I cubed a 2-pound pork roast and added that to the pot and cooked it until it was white. Then, I added slices of kielbasa and cooked it for about 2 minutes. Then I added one medium onion chopped, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper as well as a can of diced tomatoes with onions and garlic. I think I added a little water and then to top it all off I added a can of Northern white beans and a can of black eyed peas. The recipe called for something else, but I had those random cans of beans that I wanted to use. Then you stir and let the whole pot warm. The night I made it at 5 p.m., he didn't get home until 1:30 a.m. and it was still good. I just put it on the stove's warmer on low. It makes great leftovers if you can get past the bacon fat that congeals on the side of the bowl when it gets cold.

So far, so good

Well, it's been one whole week since I left the YDR. I do miss it, but I am keeping in touch with my friends. Do I love teaching? Absolutely. I am sure there are hard days to come, but I haven't had a bad day, yet. Challenges? Yes. Like today I had to teach conversion of quarts and pints to gallons. That isn't easy stuff, even for an adult. But the students are helpful and understanding. The two classroom aides were understanding and accepting of my lack of math knowledge. But I got to read a chapter to the class. I LOVE reading aloud. Amy never let me do it for her ;-) It was just all around a busy, but fun day. I can't wait to see what's in store next week!

On the dinner front, Nate wanted to order out. I reminded him that our income has been bumped down a few brackets. I talked him into letting me make him a pizza. I use Betty Crocker crust. It's powdered and comes in a packet. It's 75 cents. All you do is mix it with water, let it sit for 5 minutes, then spread it out. I added sauce (I buy the Delgrosso sauce usually on sale for 99 cents. It only takes 1/3 of a jar to make the pizza.) Then I top it with cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions and peppers. It's a fraction of the cost of ordering out and probably much, much healthier. I ate leftovers...again!