The Peanut Gallery

Hello Folks...

Well as I write this post I am laid up on the couch with ice on my ankle. Why you might ask...well it seems that I am not strong enough to move large heavy objects (like TV's) and happened to drop the TV I was moving on my ankle. Thankfully it sort of just went down the side and not directly on top of my foot, but I do have a nasty gash and a little swelling. However...today is the 14th which means its posting day for Daring Cooks, and because I really enjoyed this challenge, I wanted to be sure to get it posted on time!

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

I had NO idea how fun, and super easy, it is to make your own nut butter. I chose to do peanut butter, but I have lots of recipes bookmarked for all sorts of butters. But because we are moving next month, I didn't want to go TOO crazy making stuff that we would then have to try and hurry to use up. Here are a few pictures of my peanuts and butter...forgive the poor quality, I used my phone to take these pictures because I didn't want to go up and get my camera...I know lazy, but sometimes that's just how I roll.

The recipe I made was delicious. I sort of used a combination of two different curry recipes that I had on hand. I only had about 1/2 the ingredients for each, so I did a combination and it turned out wonderful. AND the whole family loved it, which is always a plus. It's a chicken and vegetable curry and at the end I tossed it with some noodles (we didn't have any rice)...YUMMY!



I still have some of my peanut butter left and I've been using it in my oatmeal, on crackers, celery, really anything you can put peanut butter on, I've been using it. I think after the move, homemade nut butters will become more of a standard in this house! :)

Okay folks, if you are interested in the directions for making your very own nutty butter wonderfulness, you can check out the info HERE. I highly recommend giving it a try!!

This post is going to be short and sweet. I should probably take the ice off my foot and check on the swelling, so with that I'm off. I'll be back soon though - later gators.

Cozy Comforts...

Another day down...another day we did not leave the house. Not that I could have ventured out in our lovely weather (currently 1 with a "feels like" temp of -12) even if I wanted to because the hubs took my car to work today. It seems that Jasper (the Jetta TDI) isn't so much a fan of the negative teens and doesn't really enjoy starting, so to avoid a trip out later to go pick the husband up from work because his car won't start after sitting in a parking lot all day, he took my car and the kids and I are - or were as it is now - once again - house bound.

So - what did I do?? Other than play board games, and the wii, and other randoms...


And no...being inside with my kids all week didn't drive me to start drinking mid-morning. This was the start of my stew that we had for dinner. Guinness Beef Stew. Delish. This is the second time I have made this, and it's a big hit. Even the boys love it.


It has a little prep-work in the begining but after that's all said and done you throw it in the slow cooker and go about your day. Really it doesn't get any better than that.

My big helper above...and yes he's still in his pj's but I did eventually dress my children today, it just hadn't happened yet at this point...

And on a cold night like tonight - our low tonight is -23 by the way (without factoring in any wind-chill) it was nice to have some good comfort food. If you're interested you can find the recipe here.


And speaking of comfort food...that got me thinking of other cozy comforts that I can't make it through the winter without. In no particular order:

- my Uggs (both the slippers and my snow boots)
- turtle neck sweaters
- flannel pj pants
- chap-stick
- our oh-so-convenient flip of a switch fireplace
- working furnace :)
- a good book (or a stack of good books really)

Just to name a few. Okay, well it's time for me to wrap this up. I know I've been pretty "food heavy" since my return to blogging, but we really haven't been anywhere and I don't think you want to see pictures of my laundry (which is the other thing I've been doing a lot of). Next week it's going to be in the 30's so hopefully we will venture out a bit more! Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Getting Creative

This always happens to me...I'll go to the store, and pick up a bunch of veggies and other cool stuff that I have the best intentions of using up, but I end up getting WAY too much, and then one day I open the fridge and realize that 1/2 the stuff in there needs to be cooked ASAP or it will spoil and have to be thrown away.

This was the case last night...which lead me to this:

...and the funny thing is most of the day I was just going to order pizza. So what is this? Well the veggies you see are summer squash and zuch that have been in my fridge for awhile. One of my favorite ways to eat them is to slice them up, along with a medium onion, spray a pan with cooking spray, add the veggies, some salt and pepper, and cook on medium until soft but not too squishy (stirring occasionally) and viola - a yummy and healthy side dish:

To go along with the veggies I dug around and found a bag of frozen butternut squash ravioli that have been hanging around the freezer for awhile, and some turkey sausage. So, I threw together a quick and pretty easy pasta dish which is what you see below. I'll include my "recipe" but I'm sorry to say it's not very exact.

Butternut Ravioli with Turkey Sausage

Ingredients:

• 1 package lean sweet Italian turkey sausage
• 1 bag frozen ravioli (any kind you like but I had the squash)
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 10 sage leaves (more for garnish)
• Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cook turkey sausage according to package directions, remove from heat when done and slice. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside. Melt butter in large pan, add sage when melted and remove from heat for about 10 min. to let sage infuse into butter. Put back on heat, and mix in milk and cheese, let bubble slightly and stir. Add in the pasta and sausage, stir to evenly coat. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

I chose to leave out one of the links of sausage and slice it up and put it on a salad. It was delicious, I used spinach, the meat, and then topped it with yellow bell pepper and the veggies from above. Nice and light and YUM!

As you can see...we were ALL happy campers!!

Okay, well once again I need to jet out of here, if we're not on our way to one place we're on our way to another. But I am impressed I actually got two posts in one day in! WOAH! Time for us to hit the gym then it's off to soccer camp.

summertime smiles

Things here are good...I mean just look at this little face - how could things not be good when you have these sweet little smiles to look at everyday!

So, things around here are good (we've established that) and summer is in full swing. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but I joined a gym - one with childcare - and it's FANTASTIC. Not only do they "watch" the kids, but they actually do stuff with them. They have story time, arts and crafts, and best of all, they get them doing active stuff, like playing basketball, or take them outside to jump rope and color with sidewalk chalk. So, in the morning the kids and I usually spend some time there, then after I am done working out we get suited up and hit the pool! They are both water babies and the big kid is swimming on his own now - which makes his swim teacher lifeguard mama so very proud!!

So, in addition to that, big kid started soccer camp tonight, will start swim lessons in about a week, and we have lots of play dates and fun things to do set up. Sounds busy, but really its the perfect amount of things to do so we don't get bored but we're not so busy that we can't enjoy the more laid back feel of summer. Summer is so much fun. BBQ's, hanging by the pool, playing outside with the kids, camping in the backyard, fishing, etc.

The one thing I don't like is my HOT kitchen. The afternoon sun goes right into our sun room off the kitchen, which makes cooking dinner very uncomfortable. So, in the summer we do lots of grilling and dishes that don't have to stay in the oven a long time (or at all) to keep the temperature down - and me from getting too grumpy! I stumbled across this the other day in one of my Clean Eating mags and we tried it out. It's quick, pretty easy, and can be done on the stove. It goes great with fresh veggies.

Lemon-Artichoke Chicken

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tbsp dried oregano

fresh ground black pepper, to taste

1/4 tsp sea salt plus additional for seasoning

1 lb thin chicken cutlets

olive oil cooking spray

1/2 tsp EVOO

1 medium onion, cut lengthwise and thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup chix broth

1 14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and cut

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped for garnish

ONE: Combine flour, oregano, salt and pepper in bowl. Dredge each cutlet through and shake off excess flour, place on plate.

TWO: Coat large non-stick skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium to med-high so skillet is hot but not smoking. Add 1/2 chix strips, cook 3-5 min per side, until light brown and cooked through. Transfer to clean plate, and repeat with remaining chicken, coating skillet once more with cooking spray. Cover serving plate to keep chicken warm.

THREE: Turn temp down to med-low and heat oil. place onion in pan and cook, stirring frequently until soft and golden, 5-6 minutes. Add garlic, cooking for 1 minute, stirring constantly; then chicken broth, bringing to a simmer. Follow with artichokes, lemon juice and zest, simmering 2-3 minutes until heated through and slightly thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

FOUR: Pour mixture over chicken and sprinkle with parsley. Serve and enjoy.

I served ours on spinach which went really well with it! I love lemon in the summer - so light and fresh. We will for sure be making this dish again - and soon!