Dinner Tonight

There were lots of "mmm's" at the dinner table tonight. I tried a KRAFT FRESH TAKE Cheese & Breadcrumb mix that I got this week at the grocery store.  The kids missed out on this part but Andy and I liked it. I got it for almost free and Kraft First Taste is sending me a free one as well. I'm not sure if I would buy it at full price but for free I definitely had no problem making it for dinner. 

I made this to go along with it. The kids were SO excited when I put it on the table! Ellorie could live off of broccoli (don't ask me why, she'll even eat it frozen out of the bag!) and Maddie feels the same way about mushrooms (minus the frozen part, they don't freeze well...). She ate all of hers and asked for more! Throw in some pasta, spinach and cheese? I've got two happy girls! 

Veggies & Pasta

Box of whole wheat pasta, cooked and drained

1 head of broccoli, chopped

8 oz sliced mushrooms

couple handfuls of fresh spinach

1 tbsp minced garlic

pepper to taste

3 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Put all of the veggies, garlic and olive oil in your pan. Sauté on medium until veggies are softened, maybe 3-4 minutes? I don't soften mine all of the way, I like them to still have a little crunch. Throw in as much of your pasta as you would like. I used about half and kept the rest for the kids' lunch tomorrow. You could use more if you had more people or less for less. Really, whatever works. Add cheese and stir. 

You can put in any veggies you want and this recipe would still work well. The girls thought bacon would have been good but they've also had that on the brain all day since Daddy made it for them for breakfast. Ellorie could live off of broccoli and bacon, it's a little ridiculous. Chicken would also be good or chicken AND bacon if your kids are little beggars like mine are. I swear they're like little dogs when it comes to bacon, ha!

I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine did!

My Favorite Things

I've been an internet addict this week, big time. So I thought I'd make you a list of my favorite things. Maybe we'll make it a weekly event? We'll see if I can be that organized ;-)

I think this was probably featured in someone else's favorites week but I'm including it because I think it's awesome. You can download FREE fonts, including Pottery Barn (so cool!) here. If only I were cool enough to figure out how to use them in this post. Maybe next week.

This breakfast nook by Jennifer Rizzo (featured on The Lettered Cottage) was amazing inspiration for our breakfast table, especially since we have that same table! I can't wait to refinish it and pair it with a bench. I'm working on finding a mirror that works for our space. LOVE THIS!

Jennifer Rizzo

And I guess if I'm going to be refinishing my kitchen table I should be reading Centsational Girl's Painting a Kitchen Table. Good tips on how to get it done right.

I have plenty of leftovers in the fridge and I have some round dinner rolls in the freezer that I think would be perfect for this Customizable Bread Bowl Breakfast. I love the idea of having everyone pick whatever they want to put in. I think the girls will love making this! Thanks, Kim @ NewlyWoodwards, for the great idea!

Perfecting the Pairing

And who doesn't love Chocolate Muffins? I'm thinking these will be a huge hit in our house!

Weelicious

I love Weelicious (can we just note how cute that name is?). She has great recipes for kids (and adults) and she always tries to make them healthier using things like whole wheat flour, agave nectar instead of sugar and all sorts of other alternatives that I probably wouldn't come up with on my own. I haven't loved every recipe or substitution (sometimes you have to just use the real stuff!) but I have found quite a few favorites for our house. Check her out!

We made Pink Milk this week, yum! We added spinach on Caroline's advice and it was great! It turned our pink milk a little less pink and a little more brown but the kids didn't really care as they guzzled it down. We even made it again the next day and Maddie said, "Don't forget we have to add the lettuce Mommy!" She was clearly fine with it. 

I'm also thinking of trying the Carrot Ginger Sauce since Maddie is so into the ginger dressing at Sakura. She loves it on salad so I'm hoping they both love it on pasta? 

What are you up to this week? Apparently I'm going to be doing a lot of cooking....

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Did you wear your green today? You know we did (OK, to be honest, I think this is actually the first year I've remembered this holiday but whatever)! 

Maddie looked like this for school on Friday (attitude and all!). They had a St. Patrick's Day baking party. She says they baked a cake, fun!

Got her to smile a little for this one once she stopped posing like the super model she thinks she is.

We ate GREEN pancakes (with Aunt Sarah, yay!) for breakfast.

They were enjoyed by all (even if they were on turkey plates...).

Keeping one eye on Daddy as he makes more.

Even baby Katherine had some (she thought they were delicious, she did the delicious dance!) 

 And we had a nose picker, gross (could you at least wait until after you're done eating???), ha!

After lunch we had a scantily-clad toddler roaming the house performing many costume changes for her adoring audience. This was probably the worst of the bunch but Aunt Sarah insisted we send this to Rob. She actually insisted on a different version (b/c it was hilarious) but I opted for the PG version ;)

I had planned to make green chicken nuggets and edamame for lunch in keeping with our theme for the day. This plan was halted after some awesome 3 year old funness (and when I say I fun I mean awful ridiculous tantruming to the point where Mommy forgot all about making the awesome green lunch...). That NEVER happens at our house, we're always so well behaved ;)

 We had (not green) ham and cheese and Ellorie insisted on eating her entire lunch while holding her foot. 

Well, hello foot....

I forgot to take pictures of our awesome green dinner but I will post the recipes and you'll just have to suffer photoless. 

Green Chicken Nuggets

adapted from Toddler Treats and More

3 small chicken breasts, cooked (think I used 5 oz?)

1/2 box of frozen spinach, thawed

2 eggs

couple handfuls of mozzarella

3/4 - 1 cup bread crumbs, plus more for rolling

Throw all of this in your food processor and mix. The mixture should roll into balls easily, you may need to add more bread crumbs to achieve this consistency. Put some bread crumbs in a bowl for rolling, set aside. I used my small Pampered Chef scoop and dropped each ball in my bowl on top of the bread crumbs. Roll them in the bread crumbs until covered. Place on a baking pan, OK to be close as they won't spread like cookies do. Flatten out with your fingers. Bake at 375 for 5 minutes on each side. Let them cool a bit and serve! We had them with ketchup (because we have to have every meat with ketchup but I think they would be good with pasta sauce, too).

You can also flash freeze these by placing them on a baking sheet and in the freezer for 2 hours. Then throw them in a freezer bag and they're ready to pop in the microwave for next time.

Green and Gold Corn Casserole

adapted from Paula Deen

8oz reduced fat sour cream

1 stick of butter 

(bet you're thinking why even both with the reduced fat sour cream, ha!)

1 can cream style corn

1 can sweet corn, drained

1 box corn muffin mix (I used Jiffy)

some of the frozen spinach leftover from your Green  Chicken Nuggets

green food coloring, a few drops

Mix all of the above in a bowl. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray and spoon casserole into your dish. Smooth out the top and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until it is set in the middle. I usually jiggle the pan to test for this. 

The grown ups in our house had spinach and red pepper stuffed chicken breast, mmmmm. I just used some of the spinach leftover from both recipes and mixed it with a little cream cheese and a bit of red peppers. It was yummy!

Are you drinking green beer tonight? Drink one for me!

$10 off of a $50 purchase at Harris Teeter!

I am a snob and I shop at Harris Teeter, exclusively. At least I'm honest about it. I am not one of the couponers that drive all over town and visit each store to get all of the free/low cost items available at any one time. I personally feel like couponing should make your life easier and better, not be a source of additional stress. Who really needs additional stress? Not I my friend! And I really feel like there is no better place to shop. They have great customer service, at least at my store, and they double coupons up to .99 every day and they even have super double coupons. Really, I love Harris Teeter. Anyone who knows me will tell you this. So I get really excited when I find a coupon as good as the one I got today. RecycleBank is offering a $10 off of a $50 purchase at Harris Teeter coupon.

Have you heard of RecycleBank? It's fantastic and it's one of my favorite ways to get great coupons. They are a website dedicated to teaching about recycling and conservation and if you sign up with them you can get great savings on the products you love. Basically you learn about recycling in a variety of different ways (quizzes, videos, etc.) and you earn points for each action that you complete. Many of the actions have you pledge to do something green, like recycle. It's super easy, I spent less than 5 minutes this morning and I got enough points to earn my $10 off of $50 coupon at Harris Teeter. They offer ways to earn points and then rewards to redeem those points for. The awesome coupon I got this morning was one of those rewards. For 100 points I got a $10 off of a $50 purchase at Harris Teeter. They also have $2 off any Kashi purchase and I have gotten many free items using this (mostly their cereal, which I love). I have even gotten coupons for a totally free Happy Baby item (up to $6.99). You can get discounts on a number of sites with your points but I usually stick with the Harris Teeter coupons. You can't beat it!

You can sign up for RecycleBank here. You won't regret it!

Save Money on Organic Milk and Yogurt

My girls are obsessed with yogurt, it's definitely a contender in our house for favorite food (right up there next to ice cream...). But when I started buying baby yogurts and organic whole milk for Maddie a few years ago I realized very quickly just how expensive those product can be. And it really doesn't matter the brand, they're all pretty comparable in price and they're all pretty expensive.

When we had Maddie we became a one income family and in the past few years I have gotten pretty good at whittling down our budget and making more with less. One of the areas that I have been able to significantly reduce our spending is our grocery budget. I have done so by shopping the sales and couponing. It was important to me to save money but still be buying the foods and products that our family loved and that were healthy and wholesome. I'm not trying to feed the kids a box of processed food every night, even if it is free.

So I was stoked when I found out that Stonyfield Farms has coupons on their website EVERY MONTH for all of their products, including YoBaby Yogurt and organic milk. I shop at Harris Teeter and they typically sell YoBaby Yogurt for $2.79 and there is usually a coupon for .50/1 making it $1.79. Not too bad! I makes it about the price of the other brands of non-organic yogurt, sometimes less when paired with a sale. You do have to sign up at their website but I like this site because they don't send me spam emails or partner emails like some other sites do. And you also don't have to install a coupon printer on your computer either. It prints like a normal webpage would and I find that so much easier, especially for people who don't regularly coupon.

I buy milk in the half gallons (which I know is more expensive without coupons) but they last longer and I still get good deals, usually about the same cost or less than the gallons (which I haven't found coupons for yet). There are also coupons on Horizon Dairy's website for half gallon size milk and the little vanilla and chocolate singles (are your kids as obsessed with those as mine are??). Horizon doesn't have them quite as often as Stonyfield Farms does but they are a good value when they do. Usually .55/1 half gallon or .55/3 singles. I recently got the singles free from Harris Teeter when paired with a sale.

You can save even more money with the rewards program from Stonyfield Farms. I get free yogurt and milk from them several times each month. Yes, I said FREE. They have rewards codes on the lids of their yogurts that you can enter on their website and earn points. You can then redeem these points for your choice of free items depending on the number of points you have accumulated. They have all sorts of things from magazine subscriptions (which I skip over since I never pay for those anyways) and Stonyfield gear to free yogurt and milk and other organic products. I usually just get the free yogurt and milk since that's what my family uses. I just ordered 2 half gallons of free milk last week and then another this morning. They send a coupon in the mail pretty quickly and then you just take it to the grocery store like you would any other coupon and you take home a free item that you would have bought anyways! The cashiers always appreciate it when you make note of the price of the item you will be getting for free since they usually have to write it on the coupon during checkout. And you can use the reward code on the free item you just brought home to earn more points for more free items. It's awesome! I love this program and it makes a huge difference in my budget and I get to buy my kids (and myself!) wholesome organic milk and yogurt.

You can sign up for the Stonyfield Rewards program here.

And in case you're wondering, I was not asked to post about this nor did I receive anything in exchange for posting this. I just thought this might be helpful to pass along and hopefully you can save some money :-)

Happy Friday!

Super Bowl Menu

I'm one of those people who likes the Super Bowl for the food and the commercials, not so much for the football. Since there is way more football on during the Super Bowl than commercials I thought I would take a few minutes (while my husband is talking to/yelling at the TV) to share our menu. Our plans to get together with family were squashed due to never-ending sickness so we were on our own tonight. Since it was just us I didn't really plan much and found myself digging through the pantry and the fridge this afternoon trying to come up with something.

Here's what I came up with:

Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps
Paula Deen

2 chicken breasts cut into 1" cubes
4-5 slices bacon (use a good kind that you really like)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp chili powder

Spray broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray. Mix brown sugar and chili powder in a shallow bowl with a fork. Wrap each cube of chicken with small piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Dredge in the brown sugar/chili powder mixture (I used the fork to pat it on). Place on broiler pan. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and bacon is crispy.

This was the hands down favorite. Andy and I loved it and both girls gobbled it up. Paula does not disappoint! I didn't even use half of the brown sugar/chili powder mixture so this was really not too high in calories. And can you believe no butter?


Franks Sweet Chili Cream Cheese Dip

Bottle of Franks Sweet Chili Sauce
8oz block of cream cheese (or whatever you have in the fridge)

Pour chili sauce over the cream cheese, voila! Serve with crackers.

This was beyond easy and I was pretty impressed. I got 2 bottles for free at Harris Teeter this week (on sale for 1.47 eVic and had a .75/1 coupon). I wasn't really sure it was going to be that good, but we really liked it!



Cucumber Sandwiches

Tub of chive and onion cream cheese
Sour dough bread (we used honey wheat since it was what we had)
Cucumbers, thinly sliced

You can be fancy and cut circles in the bread or be lazy (like I was tonight) and just cut it into squares. Spread the cream cheese on and top with a cucumber slice. This is always a family favorite, especially with the kids!


I also had a frozen Paula Deen Shore Is Good Seafood Dip and an Allouette Low Fat Garlic & Herb Dip as well. We served those with crackers and carrots. The seafood dip was good but I know it was crazy high in calories and not to mention salt. I'm sure you could make something better and more healthy. The garlic & herb dip was great and would be a good buy in the future if you didn't feel like making something.

What did you have?

My newest love in the morning

I have been cheating on my white chocolate & french vanilla. I think I've actually become a polygamist.

This creamer is so thick, it actually looks like eggnog (wait, this might be gross if you're not pregnant, ha!). It's AMAZING. I bought it the other day since I had a coupon and I'm cheap like that. I put it in my coffee yesterday along with my white chocolate and YUM. I was in Heaven!

Note: International Delight is not paying me to post this (although I wish they would send me some free creamer b/c I'm a FAN!). Ha, yes, pregnant and dreaming.

Gnocchi with Shrimp, Asparagus, Broccoli, and Pesto

We had this for dinner tonight and it was yummy and super easy and quick to prepare. It's definitely going to be on my list from now on!

Gnocchi with Shrimp, Asparagus, Broccoli, and Pesto

Adapted from Cooking Light

16oz pkg vacuum-packed gnocchi*

1 lb fresh asparagus (cut into 1 in slices)

Head or 2 of broccoli (cut into smaller pieces)

1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp**

prepared pesto

Boil water in a large dutch oven. Cook gnocchi for 4-5 minutes or until done (it will rise to the top). Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl. Boil shrimp, asparagus and broccoli for 5 minutes or until done. Drain and add to gnocchi. Mix with pesto (however much you want, I used a couple spoonfuls). Voila!

*I found this in the pasta section. It's not refrigerated.

**I used a bag of frozen raw shrimp that already had the tails removed. It was WAY cheaper than going fresh and then you can cook it whenever you want to.

Maddie is 19 months old and wasn't very interested in eating anything but the gnocchi, which is OK because she's cute :-)

All things Peach

Yes, I realize it's been quite some time (like 4 months) since I last posted. I'm a bad blogger but let's just pretend it's not been that long? Many apologies!

On the 4th, Maddie & I (hubby was working) went with the in-laws up to our local peach orchard in hopes of picking our own peaches. They had been over-picked the day before so no picking but lucky for us they had plenty to choose from inside. I love that place, it just smells like yummy peaches and I swear you start drooling as you pull into the parking lot.

We brought home more peaches than any one human could possibly eat all promising to make yummy treats this week. I started with a tuna salad with white peaches, sounds yummy but the recipe really needs some work so you probably won't be reading about it anytime soon. Then I turned to Paula (Deen), who never lets me down. I can honestly tell you this was the best peach cobbler I've ever had, hands down! It was the perfect combination of peaches and cobbler (not too little like most recipes), I was in HEAVEN! Paula really knows her stuff, which is why I love her!

Food Network

Peach Cobbler

Adapted from Paula Deen & The Food Network

Ingredients

4 cups peeled, sliced peaches*

2 cups sugar, divided

1/2 cup water

1 stick butter

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/2 cups milk

ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine peaches, 1 cup of sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Put the butter in a 3-quart baking dish and place in oven to melt.

Whisk remaining 1 cup of sugar, flour and milk slowly to prevent clumping. Pour mixture over melted butter but do not stir. Spoon fruit on top, gently pouring in syrup. Sprinkle top with cinnamon. Batter will rise to top during baking. Bake for 30-45 minutes.

Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!

*I used 10 smaller peaches and probably could have used 12 - 14. You can adjust the number of peaches depending on how peachy you like your cobbler.

I hope your family enjoys this as much as ours did!

Maddie is almost 18 months old and I'm 16 weeks pregnant with our 2nd baby... crazy!

Breakfast Casserole

This is one of our family's staple breakfast recipes for gatherings (formerly known as Sausage Squares) and it's really been known for the sausage, hence the name. Until yesterday. I'm renaming it and revamping it! I hosted playgroup yesterday so I thought I'd try a more healthy take on this recipe and let me tell you, it was a hit! The old recipe just called for sausage, eggs, cheese, and crescent rolls so I decided to add some of my favorite veggies (you can really add any you like) and use some lower fat cheeses.

Breakfast Casserole

Makes about 16-20 squares depending on who's doing the cutting :-)

8 eggs, beaten

1 lb reduced fat sausage, cooked & drained

2 pkg crescent rolls (leave in fridge until you put them on or they are a pain to work with)

1 cup shredded low fat cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (I didn't have low fat but I'm going to look for it next time I go to the store)

1 zucchini shredded

3/4 lb asparagus chopped into about 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 onion

1/2 red pepper

1/2 yellow pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease 9x13 casserole dish (I used fat free Pam). Saute onion and peppers in a pan on medium heat until tender, about 3-5 minutes. Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Put mixture in pan and spread out evenly. Top with crescent rolls (this works best if you break the roll in half and then use the rectangle shapes instead of tearing them into triangles). Bake for 30 minutes covered and about 5-10 uncovered or until full browned and cooked through. Cut into squares and serve.

I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine has!

"Un-Fried" Chicken & Lighter Mac & Cheese

Let me tell you, and some of you I don't have to, I LOOOOOVE Paula Deen. That woman knows how to make a great meal and she never disappoints. I don't think I've ever made anything of hers that I didn't like. She's fabulous. I love to cook and she is almost always my go-to woman for recipes. The only problem is she's not exactly known for her low calorie meals. I am trying to lose the last 20 pounds of baby weight (OK, maybe the pre-baby weight) so I am trying to cut calories in addition to exercising like "they" tell you to do. Paula's son, Bobby Deen, has come up with some lower calorie takes on her recipes and so far they've been great!

Here's what we had for dinner last night:

"Un-Fried Chicken"

Adapted from Bobby Deen

Makes 2 servings (but you can double/triple/whatever the recipe)

2 8oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts trimmed of all fat and cut in half

1/2 tsp Paula Deen House Seasoning (see below)

1/4 cup light mayonnaise

Zest and juice of 1 lemon (I used 2 tbsp bottled and no zest... I know, tisk tisk, but it was fine!)

1 egg white

1/2 tsp hot sauce (I used Tabasco)

1 1/4 cup cornflake crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease shallow baking pan (I used Pam and a 9x13 glass casserole dish).

Sprinkle chicken with House Seasoning. Combine mayo, lemon juice (and zest if using), egg white, and hot sauce in medium bowl.* Add the chicken, toss to coat.

Place cornflakes and a small shallow pan and crunch with your hands. Dip chicken in the crumbs and cover all sides. Place in baking pan and spray very lightly with nonstick spray (I used Pam).

Bake until chicken is golden brown and cooked through, about 30 minutes. Do not turn.

*This will give you much more than you will need for 2 chicken breasts but it's far easier than splitting an egg white, trust me, I found out the hard way.

Paula Deen House Seasoning

1 cup salt

1/4 cup ground black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

Mix to combine. Keep in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Lighter Mac & Cheese

Adapted from Bobby Deen

Makes about 4 servings

2 cups cooked multigrain elbow macaroni, drained

1 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup fat free milk

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/8 cup reduced-fat sour cream

1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/8 cup panko (or regular/seasoned/whatever) bread crumbs

1-2 tsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 8x8 casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Put boiled & drained macaroni into casserole dish and add cheese while still hot.

Combine milk, egg, sour cream, mustard salt and cayenne in small bowl. Add mixture to casserole dish and stir to combine.

Combine bread crumbs and olive oil in small bowl. Sprinkle crumb mixture over macaroni and lightly spray with nonstick spray.

Bake until macaroni is hot and topping is golden, about 20-30 minutes (just check it).

I promise, none of this even resembled healthy or diet food. It was SO good and I'm making it again Thursday!