I'm Lovin' It: Food Edition

When I first came up with this post idea, I had great plans of including all kinds of things I'm totally loving right now.  Then I realized that everything I was coming up with was . . . food.  Show of hands on who's surprised!  Bueller . . . Bueller?  Yeah, thought so.

Anyway.  Food edition of things I just cannot get enough of right now.

1) Roasted Zucchini - Mannnnn.  Y'all. Why did I wait so long to realize what an AMAZING vegetable zucchini is?  It is DELICIOUS and it is versatile!  I've fixed it all kinds of different ways but my favorite, my old standby, is to roast it with garlic.  Hello, delicious!  I seriously eat roasted zukes at least once a day.  Sometimes more. 

2) Twice Baked Cauliflower - So, zucchini is an amazing vegetable.  Cauliflower is not.  I mean, I love that you can blend it with potatoes and get more veggie bang for your buck.  But it generally doesn't taste that good.  Exception: twice baked cauliflower!  It's a lot like twice baked potatoes without all the carbs.  Love this stuff!  (This is a good recipe though I don't use the cream cheese).

This is my dinner last night -- twice baked cauliflower, mini crescent roll, green beans, roasted zucchini, and "Rendezvous style" turkey sausage with cheese.  Notice that 3/4 of that plate is VEGETABLES?  Proud of myself!  Maybe I should be embarrassed for being proud of myself for being 32 years old and finally coming arond to vegetables but whatever.

3) Mio Energy Green Thunder flavor - So, I'm really weird.  Anything "energy" makes me really jittery.  Like, the Crystal Light on the go packs that are "energy?"  Yeah, I love the wild strawberry flavor.  Makes me soooo jittery.  I picked up this Mio (I love Mio!) because the commissary had it on sale for just $1.44 a bottle.  I tried it and guess what?  No jitters!  None!  The taste is kind of . . . not bad, but I'm not sure how to describe it either.  I usually chug a bottle of it in the morning.

Okay, seriously, with all this "health" food.  Let's shift gears.

4) Jalapeno flavored Pringles - I go through "phases" with my chips.  A few months ago it was the Lays Stax Adobadas flavor.  I used to be all about the jalapeno Cheetos.  And, once upon a time, it was the Pringles Mexican Layered Dip.  But now I'm loving these jalapeno flavored Pringles.  They are SO good.  And there is pretty much always a can in my pantry!

(By the way -- on the "jalapeno" flavor and chips subject -- jalapeno potato Pop Chips are DISGUSTING.  Ugh.  No.  No, no, no, no, no).

5) Subway - Actually, a particular Subway sandwich -- the roasted chicken, toasted please, with pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, Ranch dressing, and the southwest chipolte sauce.  Best thing about this is that it's a $6 footlong which means for pretty cheap I can have lunch for TWO days!

6) Cupcakes - Nothing new here.  I've always loved me some cupcakes but, lately, those little morsels of delicious have been finding their way in my bell-ah more and more often.  I recently discovered that Swagbucks has a BOGO deal with my local Gigi's so you best be believing we've been cashing in Swagbucks for a free cupcake!



I canNOT wait to get to New York and try some Crumbs for the first time!

7) Barefoot Pink Moscato - Look, I've never shied away from being exactly how I am: a cheap bitch.  I love me some Barefoot wine.  Let's be real: I love any wine that's cheap, tastes decent, and gives me a buzz.  The pink Moscato is my current favorite.  The fact that, using my military discount, I can get an entire (big) bottle for just under $12 gives me all kinds of happy.  Glorious, glorious, wine lush type of happy.

I Hope My Neighbors, Family, and Friends are Ready for Some Diabetes!

So you've no doubt seen one of the 68964 "How to Beat the Holiday Bulge!" articles, right? They say things like, "take carrot sticks to that holiday party and munch on those while you pass by the tray of chocolate truffles" and "eat a healthy meal before you go so that you're too full to stuff yourself with reindeer shaped cookes." Yeah. Then there's me who's all, "here, have a cookie" and "the world is supposed to end today. Let's go out fat and happy!"

Yes. Baking-palooza 2012 officially kicked off yesterday. The unofficial kickoff was Wednesday when I mixed up five different types of cookie dough in order to save time and my dishwasher's motor. Yesterday, though, we dove elbow deep into flour and frosting and got our "cookie" on. Today we'll tackle the candy side of things. Yum, yum.

If I had to choose one Christmas tradition to pass along to my children it would easily be our baking days.  There is something that just seems right about rolling out and frosting and melting and dipping  while Alabama sings Christmas in Dixie.

Every year I say I'm not going to do as much, not going to go all out.
Every year I lie.

This year I had planned on a batch of fudge and some peppermint bark and, of course, a round of sugar cookies for the kids.  In the end it was . . . well, it was Baking-palooza.  This is what we are making, have made, or will make:

Sugar cookies
Gingerbread men
Chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Rolos (better in theory than in taste, FYI)
Chocolate chip M&M cookies
Tuxedo cookies
Peanut butter blossoms
Hello Dollies
Chocolate covered Christmas crackers (named by Jaidan last year -- these are Ritz crackers with peanut butter, dipped in chocolate and they are my most FAVORITE THING EVER ABOUT CHRISTMAS.  Presents?  The joy on my kids' faces?  Meh. Give me my Christmas crackers!)
Oreo peppermint bark
Chocolate covered Oreos
Chocolate dipped pretzel rods
Cake balls
Fudge
Ranch oyster crackers

Overboard? Me?  Nah.

My main helper in Baking-palooza is six-years-old (the four-year-old could pretty much care less and the two-year-old is a FABULOUS taste tester) so most of our stuff looks rather, shall we say interesting.  But it's the memories we're making that matter.  It's the fact that maybe, one of these days, these kids will be in the kitchens of homes they own with children they made rolling out and frosting while Alabama sings Christmas in Dixie.  Oh, and it's also a great big mess but we don't have to talk about that.

** Part of our goodies were handed out yesterday to our mail lady.  We'll be giving some today to the sanitation workers and also plan to take a meat and cheese tray to our local fire department (I figure they're probably sick of sweets!) Please consider doing something - anything - as a random act of kindness in honor of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.  You can read more about the #26acts campaign right here.

Boo!

I totally think you're lying if you try to tell me that you never look at things other mothers do and roll your eyes and think "THIS bitch" and "hey, why don't you just go join OVERACHEIVERS ANNONYMOUS and get it over with, mmkay."  If you read blogs, it's a pretty good bet that you think things like that on the daily.

With that said, I can go on ahead and admit that sometimes I approach "THAT mom" territory.  When it comes to food. 

I love holidays.  I love the who even cares holidays (groundhog day, anyone?). I love the big holidays.  Even more so because I have children.  What do I love more than holidays?  If you've read my blog anytime at all then you arrdy done know . . . FOOD.  I love food.  I love holidays.  And I love making food fun for the holidays.  You're probably not going to catch me making things like sandcastles out of sandwhiches for my kids for lunch.  But I do love to get creative with food when holidays roll around.

And Halloween?  Totes my favorite fun food holiday!  That being said, I thought I'd share some of the fun things I've done.  (Just as an FYI: very, very few of these ideas are mine.  Most of them came from that lovely mecca of creative we all know as Pinterest).

We did this one last year.  It's a grilled cheese sandwhich made into a spider, witches broomsticks (the pretzel sticks), moster mouth (apple slices, peanutbutter, marshmallows), a ghost and ghost poop, and one lonely moster eyeball.  Monsters totally have square eyeballs, ya'll.

 

This was dinner a couple weeks ago (I can get wayyy  more creative with dinner when the husband doesn't eat with us!)  Mummy Dogs are a Halloween tradition at our house and Jaidan usually starts asking for them around October 1st.  We also had spiders, witches fingers (baked zuchinni fries), and a little banana ghost.  We'll probably have some version of this for dinner tonight.

 

Last night's dinner!  The jack-o-lantern quesadilla looks totes appetizing, no?  I also colored a jack-o-lantern face on a clear cup and then filled it with orange soda (oh, shut-up, it's a holiday and I can give 'em soda if I want to!).  They LOVED this.  Even my stepdaughter, who is 12 and mortified by anything that's slightly childish, thought this dinner was fun.  (And, just in case you're wondering, they also had chips and salsa and baked apples with the dinner -- neither of those were all that Halloween-y, though, so Jaidan made his chips into hair for his quesadilla and then decided the apples were witch warts).

 

Now, let's talk about this morning.  I had every intention of getting up and making ghost pancakes for the kids.  Yeah.  The kids ate (formerly) frozen waffles and I'll scarf down something at some point.  School mornings are all kinds of cray-cray at our house.  I spent my morning saying things like "seriously, just EAT!" "You have five more minutes."  "Um, it's still at least eleven hours until we go trick-or-treating."  "The school said no costumes so, no, you cannot just wear your mask."  "Because your mask is part of your costume."  "Because I don't want you to lose it."  "Yes you will."  "Yes you will."  "Yes you will."  "HOW ABOUT BECAUSE I SAID NO, OKAY?"  "That's great if Jayla's mom will let her wear her mask.  I'm not Jayla's mom."  "Nope, sorry, don't know what Rudy is going to be for Halloween."  "Can we please just get out the door?"  Anyway.  Good thing I put most of J's special Halloween lunch together last night.  I had so much fun doing this!  I hope he gets a kick out of it when he opens it up and sees all his fun Halloween food.

His sandwhich is shaped like a ghost.  He has those peanut butter cracker spiders, an orange jack-o-lantern, ghost poop and bat wings (raisins and marshmallows), goblin fingers and witches brew (celery sticks), and a monster mouth.  I'm sure you're glad we're doing our part to destroy the environment by using all those plastic bags . . .



 

My favorite part of his lunch?

The three-eyed moster juice box!  How cute is this guy?

By the way, if it seems like J had a bunch of food it's because the poor kid eats lunch at 10:10 and they don't have a snack.  So he doesn't eat again until we get home some time around 3:15.



 

And that's a little glimpse of how we do Halloween food in our house.

 

Happy Halloween! 





There's a Party in my Tummy . . . So Yummy, So Yummy

Truth: the #1 reason we congregate in Vegas (and New Orleans) every year is for the company.  We want to see each other.  We want to hang out.  We want a break from reality for a little while.  The reason we choose Vegas (and New Orleans)?  The FOOD, baby.  The food.  New Orleans beats Vegas, hands down, in the food department.  But Vegas IS the buffet capital of the world and, well, no complaints here.

Posing - and sucking it in - before throwing down on some brunch



We are fans - big fans - of the Buffet of Buffets pass.  $45 (with a player rewards card) gets you access to six different buffets during a 24 hour period.  Some years we've managed to make it to four different buffets using this pass; sometimes it's just three.  Even when it's three -- that comes out to $15 a meal for all you can eat.  Come on, now.  Can't beat that!

We started Saturday with the mimosa brunch at Paris.

I heart food.

I big pink puffy heart food.



Since it was, you know, brunch and all I started out with breakfast foods.  Then graduated onto lunch.  Then some dessert.  I looked like I was about six months pregnant when I left the buffet.  Get in my belly!

My favorites were the eggs benedict, corn beef and hash, pork roast, and CREME BRULEE.  Ermagerd.  The creme brulee was a mouthgasm.  They also served quiche (I wasn't in love with it but a friend of mine really enjoyed it), made-to-order crepes (I just couldn't stand in the long line), and had a cheese tray (oh, come to Mama).

Would you believe we weren't hungry again for SEVERAL hours?  I KNOW!

Dinner that night was at the Rio.

Please notice the BROCCOLI on my #TEAMCARBS plate.  Kthanksbye.



This buffet literally  has pretty much every type of food you can imagine.  I - obviously - stuck with American food (ya'll!  I had FOUR different types of potatoes on my plate!  And a corndog!  And buffalo wings!) but my dessert was some muy delicioso gelato.  I couldn't decide between flavors so I went with chocolate and mango.  The chocolate kicked the mango's ass but then I tried Sally's coconut and, well, it gave the chocolate a run for it's money.

Our final buffet stop was Sunday morning's brunch.  We stayed at the Flamingo and decided to give their breakfast a go.

To give you some perspective - we waited in a long line to eat at Paris on Saturday.  A long line.  There was no line at Flamingo.  Shoulda realized.

Complaint #1 - Mimosas were not included with the brunch.  You could purchase them individually -- at $4 a pop.  Or you could buy an "unlimited" amount for $10.  I went with the unlimited.  Big mistake.  It took for-freaking-ever for me to even get my first mimosa.  Then four weeks past forever to get the second.  And, yeah, that's all I had.  TWO.  I got gypped, ya'll!

Complaint #2 - The food.  It was . . . it was not good.  The breakfast-y foods were all right but everything else was either so-so or downright yuck. 

Complaint #3 - THERE WAS NO CHOCOLATE IN THE CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN.  How?  How, how, how do you have a chocolate fountain with no chocolate?

So The Buffet Tour 2012 came to a dismal end but the Paris and Rio buffets definitely made up for the Flamingo!



Dahlia and I were the only two left Sunday night -- for our final meal.  We declared it Mexican Night (Ole!) and decided to check out the fun that is Carlos 'n Charlie's and Senor Frog's.  I have been to both in Cozumel, loved both, and was SO EXCITED.

Let's talk Carlos 'n Charlie's first.  Oh, CnC's!  You disappointed me so much!

D and I each had a margarita and those were Pretty Damn Good.  We decided to split the appetizer sampler plate (a sampler plate that had a $25 pricetag!!!) and were so, so disappointed.  The mozzarella sticks were good.  Everything else was just . . . no.  They put canned cheese sauce on their nachos, people.  CANNED CHEESE SAUCE.  I'm talking the kind of cheese you find on the nachos you buy at a junior high basketball game.  WHO DOES THAT?  So the food was bland and the atmosphere?  So not what I was expecting.  Maybe we went to early, who knows, but there wasn't a whole ton of fun going on while we were there.

On the flip side, Senor Frogs?

SO MUCH FUN.



I was really tired - don't ask why - which was a serious shame because had I really been feeling like myself . . . oh Lard. 

Shortly after we walked in the door, the infamous Senor Frog's conga line started and we had tequila shot into our mouths.  Balloon hats were passed out.  The band was lively and the crowd was fun.  Shortly after we were seated, the tequila shots came out again.  My chair was tilted back and they shot (very weak) tequila right into my mouth.  Again: SO MUCH FUN.

We ordered chicken nachos and were delivered a HUGE ASS plate of nachos that we couldn't even begin to make a dent into.  They were much tastier than any of the slop they tried to feed us at CnC's though.  Senor Frogs won the battle of Mexican night hands down.  The food, the atmosphere, the fun. 

Just Call Me Mrs. Freeze

I'm 'bout to be all domestic and shit up in this mofo!

^ I feel like I have to throw in some "gangsta" to balance out the overwhelming amount of Betty Crocker in the remainder of this post.  I feel like I should post some Gucci Mane or Rick Ross video.  If it was 2004, I could just enunciate everything with a Lil Jon style "YEAH" or "OKAY." Because, YEAH, it's THAT domestic.  OKAY?

I have turned into the freezer queen.

I suppose it's Pinterest inspired.  I don't know.  But I've been preparinig freezer meals like crazy.  And not just meals either.  Things like french fries (did you even KNOW you can freeze oven fries?  I totally didn't!  I thought you couldn't freeze potatoes) and onion rings and summer fruits and veggies and beans.

We bought a deep freeze several years ago, back when we still lived in Texas.  Other than occasionally - and not often enough - stocking up on meat found at a good price, we haven't really made the most of it.  Honestly, it's generally been used to store frozen pizza and popsicles.  No more, though!  I have all kinds of things stocked in there these days -- lasanga and chicken enchiladas and chicken taco soup and breakfast burritos and pancakes and mozarella bites.  Just to name a few. 

Since this whole freezing thing has gone so well for me, I thought I'd share a few tips and hints and websites I've found that have helped me out.

1) Pickyourown.org has a FABULOUS tutorial on freezing squash and zukes.  I've developed a love affair with both here lately and the thought of not being able to have roasted squash in the winter was giving me a serious case of the sads.  I bought extra last time I hit up the grocery store and blanched and froze more than half of what I bought.  I plan on doing the same thing the next time I go to the grocery store too -- I want to have as much as I can stored up for winter.

2) I used this tutorial when it came to freezing my peaches.  Most tuts I found involved canning and that sort of thing -- I don't have the time nor do I have the want to.  This way of freezing peaches was pretty simple and not very time consuminig.

3) Meals4Moms is an ahhhhmazing website and their potato plan changed my life.  Dramatic much?  Probably.  But.  I love oven fries.  We have them often.  But as much as I love them I kinda hate making them.  Washing the taters and cutting them into fries and blah, blah, blah.  It's not something you can do if you need fast, quick, and in a hurry.  Frozen fries are so much more convenient.  Which is why I'm so so so so glad that you can, in fact, make your own frozen fries!  Now, whoever wrote the potato plan bakes her fries much longer and at a higher temperture than I do.  Maybe she cuts them much thicker (and I thought my fries were pretty thick!).  I don't know.  But I baked mine for half an hour at 425 before freezing.  From the freezer, I baked them for an additional half an hour and also at 425.  They baked up perfectly!  Super yummy.  Now I just make up a bunch of fries as soon as I buy potatoes.  It's time consuming but it's a one time thing, you know?  The next several times I make oven fries, it only takes half an hour!

4) Ya'll.  Can someone please explain to me why I've been buying canned beans all these years?  Dry beans are the way to go!  The hands on time to cook them is practically nothing and they go so much further than canned beans.  And!  They tast better too!  Budget Bytes has a tutorial on cooking them if you're a dry bean virgin, as I was.  I now have black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, and lima beans all stocked in my freezer.  It'll be a while before I have to make any again.

5) If you're on Pinterest, I know you've seen the frozen breakfast burritos so this one is probably nothing new to you.  I decided to give them a try so we could have an easy and filling breakfast for school mornings.  She only made eight in the tutorial but I was able to stretch the filling (I used sausage, egg, and cheese) to make 12.  Jaidan and Eddie both love them!  Another breakfast favorite that can be frozen is pancakes.  I can't remember the website I used as a guide but these were pretty much a no-brainer.  The past few times I've made pancakes, I've made some extra.  After the extras cooled, I did a flash freeze on them.  Once they were frozen, I wrapped them in plastic and put them in a freezer bag.  They can be reheated in the microwave or toaster and still taste delicious.

6) Life as a Mom has tons - tons - of tips on freezer cooking.  Seriously.  What you can and can't freeze, various tips, storage, etc. 

Veggie Tales

Some of my girlfriends are in the middle of a weight loss competition (think Biggest Loser style -- but without the sexy that is Dolvett Quince.  And, total tangent here, but if I was a male trainer and I was that hot, I would drop the "Dolvett" and just go by "Quince."  Wouldn't you?)  I'm not competing in the challenge but I am a part of their group.  So I still see what's going on and it helps to keep me motivated.  I'm not trying to lose weight but I'm working every single day toward a healthier lifestyle for me and my children.  Anyway, a few weeks ago one of the girls proposed us each setting a mini weekly goal to try to acheive.  Mine was to add more vegetables to my diet. 

Ya'll.  I'm totally an 8-year-old when it comes to vegetables.  Give me a can of french cut green beans (and throw in a beef cube, please, for added flavor) and I'm good.  I've never been a big veggie eater.  Green peas were a big part of family dinners growing up.  I hate green peas.  Know what I would do?  I would either toss them into the heating vent by my chair or put a big spoonful in my mouth, bring my napkin up to my mouth, and then spit them into the napkin.  I was anti-veggie.

I'm realizing that as I get older either my tastebuds are changing/ have changed or some veggies aren't as bad as I thought.  Or maybe I'm just growing up.  Regardless, I've kind of been kicking ass when it comes to this whole vegetable eating thing.  And this is good - it's great, even.  I want to raise my kids to be as healthy as possible and I know that the best way to do that is setting an example myself.  I'm already raising one picky eater (Karis is currently being picky too but I'm not sure if she's legitimately picky or just going through a stage) and my stepdaughter is pretty picky as well.  I can't stand it!  I want Kyan and Zhariah both to broaden their horizons and be willing to try new things and realize just how many great foods - even great healthy foods - there are out there.  I wish I hadn't been so picky.  I wish I wasn't in  my 30's and just now realizing that, hey, vegetables aren't so bad.

Here are a few things I've done to make veggies more palatable for me:

1) I've discovered things that I never tried or don't remember trying.  Asparagus is one of these.  I don't know that I'd ever eaten it prior to a year or so ago.  I just had in my head that I didn't like it.  But you know what?  Asparagus is GOOD!  I DO like it!  Same with eggplant.  How versatile a vegetable is that?  And cucumbers.  And zucchini.  Sugar snap peas.  There are so many vegetables that I only thought I didn't like.

2) I'm learning to season things the right way.  I made broccoli to go with our dinner last night.  I have never been a broccoli person.  Ever.  (And, it would be quite a stretch of the imagination - still - to classify me as a broccoli person).  But I mixed in a packet of ranch dressing mix and  you know what?  I had a pretty good size serving!  It's not something I would've picked off a menu and ordered but it made the broccoli tasty for this non-broccoli person.

3) I'm "sneaking" veggies into dishes.  Spinach in pasta dishes.  Cauliflower in mashed potatoes.  Carrots shredded into spaghetti sauce.  I've gotten to where I almost always chop an onion to add into ground beef/ ground turkey dishes.  (Sidenote here: I probably would not eat red meat very often at all, exception being a big, greasy burger, but my husband . . . meh.  He's a meat and potatoes man and, in his mind, ground turkey does not count as meat). 

4) I'm making vegetables into snacks.  Dipping onion rings (or onion strips) into egg beaters and then coating in panko and baking -- instant onion rings.  I love onion rings!  I make kale chips -- Jaidan and I are both big fans of these.  They are really good and a decent alternative to potato chips.  I chop up onions and red peppers and put them on top of my English muffin pizzas.  Easy - and yummy - ways to add veggies to any diet.

Please, don't get me wrong.  I'm not going to go to a potluck and load my plate up with veggies (except macaroni and cheese which totes counts as a veggie in the south) and you'll be hard pressed to find me with a side salad at a restaurant.  I still don't like cauliflower and carrots -- two reasons I have to sneak them into dishes!  And those canned green beans make their way onto my dinner side rotation a couple nights a week.  But I'm doing so much better and, seriously, I'm so proud of myself.  Point: Brandi!

NOLA 2012: FOOD

Warning: do not look at this entry if you are on a diet.

Hands down, the best thing about New Orleans is the FOOD.  The second best is, of course, the slushy drinks.  But the food . . . oh.  Come.to.Mama.

Our first New Orleans Mouthgasm came courtesy of Mother's.

Becky and I split a John G with debris and a side of fries.

HEAVENLY.  It was so good, ya'll!  I wish I could find a sammich like that here in Memphis!  On second thought, maybe I don't.  Cause I'd be as big as a house.

Saturday's First Food Stop was Frank's.  I've said this before; I'll say it again.  You MUST go to Frank's if you're ever in New Orleans.

The four of us split a muffaletta (best muffaletta ever!), crawfish cakes in crawfish sauce, crab stuffed mushrooms, and a shrimp po' boy).  DELISH!  It was an absolutely wonderful meal.

Seriously, I'm salivating at my keyboard just THINKING about that muffaletta.  Mmmm.

My friend Casey did not make it to New Orleans with us this year.  But she did go last year and she did eat at Frank's with us.  And Casey, bless her heart, she got down and dirty with the po' boy she had.  Of course, someone had to reenact her love makin' with the po' boy:

Since we didn't eat too much *ahem* at Frank's, we headed over to the Market where we purchased an alligator sausage (on a stick!)  and some oysters creole from vendors. 

We knew the alligator sausage was good.  Ate enough of that last year.  The oysters were something new and only picked up because they were all out of soups -- including the crawfish bisque we'd been dreaming about for the past year.  Buuuuut.  The oysters were fanTAStic.  So good!

A little later in the afternoon, we headed down to the Old Nawlins Cookery (no website I could find for that one). 

Becky and I split a fried alligator po' boy (pictured above is just MY half!).  It was really good -- the meat was delicious and it had a yummy sauce on it.  However, it didn't hold a candle to the catfish etouffee that MoMo ordered.  Ummmagumma.  GET IN MY BELL-LAY. 

Technically that was my last meal of Saturday but before I went to bed that night I had a BBQ Bacon Burger from Yo Mama's.  (I also had a bite of Carly's Bacon PEANUT BUTTER burger -- interesting).  The burger was good.  It was too big to finish by myself.  They don't serve burgers with fries -- just baked potatoes.  I love a baked potato as much as the next person but come on.  A good greasy burger BEGS for good greasy fries.

For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the place we ate at Sunday morning!  I think it had River in the name but don't quote me on that. 

I had a ragin' Cajun omelet.  The omelet in itself was pretty good but the "creole sauce" on top . . . meh.  It tasted like salsa mixed with marinara.  Not what I was expecting in the least.  It was served with grits.  I'm a bad southerner who doesn't like grits so these went untouched but I did throwdown on the garlic potatoes Kira ordered.  This was easily the worst meal we ate the whole trip -- and it was still decent!

We drank our lunch on Sunday and that evening it was Pat O's for one of my personal New Orleans favorites . . .

Fried Alligator!

By the way: Jaidan is snuggled up in bed next to me as I write this and said, "Oh, that looks good!  Can you make some for dinner tomorrow night!"

I told him it was alligator thinking that, you know, maybe he would "eww" and drop the subject.  I forgot this is the kid who has eaten calamari and oysters.  When that didn't deter him I told him we didn't have the meat to make it.

"Think maybe you can pick some up the next time you go to the grocery store?"

Uhhh.  Sure, son.  I'm sure every local Kroger and Walmart here in Memphis sells alligator!

Dana ordered us a little bit of bread pudding while at Pat O's.

I swear I can still taste this stuff in my dreams!

That concludes the food tour portion of this year's trip.  Here's hoping next year tastes just as delicious!

They Ain't Pretty

My friend Jenn said the other day that crescent rolls are the bacon of refrigerated breads.  Has there EVER been a more truthful statement?

Crescent rolls.  They're where it's AT, y'all.

I had some crescent rolls on hand and decided to throw together something that we'll call jalapeno chicken packets the other night.  I came up with these ALL BY MYSELF.  Which probably means that everyone else is already making them and I just haven't happened to stumble across them on the internet (and by "the internet" I mean Pinterest) yet.  Like the chicken taco soup that I always claimed to be "my" recipe.  Now that we have Pinterest in our lives I know that EVERYONE makes chicken taco soup just exactly like I make it.  It's not "my" recipe.  It's the entire western world's recipe.
These jalapeno chicken packets . . . they are ugly.  And I don't have a fancy camera to try to make them look pretty.  But they were also absolutely delish.  Like, so good that I had to log on to one of my Facebook groups approxomately 2.6 seconds after I'd taken the last bite and tell everyone just how good they were.

See?
They Ain't Pretty!

Here is what you need:
Crescent rolls (I used the reduced fat ones and guess what?  The calorie count is the same as the full fat ones.  Explain please).
Weight Watchers pepperjack cheese spread
Chicken, seasoned to your preference, grilled, and cubed (or you could just "pull a Brandi" and buy these)
Jalapenos
Shredded Cheese (I used low fat cheddar but I think any kind will work -- and I wish I had some Mexican blend on hand)
Roll out crescent rolls.  Spread half a wedge of the pepperjack on each one.  Top with chicken (I used 1.5 ounces per two crescent rolls), jalapenos, and one tablespoon of shredded cheese.  Roll up and shape into a packet.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until crescents are golden.

So simple . . . so ugly . . . so delicious. 

I served them with black beans and apple slices.  The entire meal (two crescent rolls - using a total of 1.5 ounces chicken, half a cup of black beans, half an apple) was only 485 calories.  The packets themselves are 165 calories each.

Next time I make them I'll shake things up and ADD SOME BACON. 

I leave you with this:

Chocolate icecream with whipped cream vodka

You should make one of these.  TODAY.

Let it be Christmas: Baking Edition

First things first . . . obligatory Santa photos were taken last night.

Did you know Bass Pro Shop does free Santa photos?  We've gone there three years now.  The background is a little "Country Boy Can Survive" but it works for a FREE photo.  And since we only do the photos for us and not to hand out to anyone (for some reason I don't think our family and friends are too much about a picture of our children with some fat, judgemental bastard [yeah, stole that one from something I found on Pinterest]) it just makes sense to head to BPS and save the roughly $92 you pay for one pic at the mall.

Nobody screamed or cried or freaked out in anyway.  Which was cool but made me feel like I've been cheated out of That Moment in parenting.  We've yet to have a major freak out involving Santa (just a small one the year Jaidan was two).  So no hillarious Santa pics to pull out in years to come.  Next year Karis will be going on three so we're probably over the freak out years.  Just not going to happen for us.  *Tear*

Now, on with the meat (or, uh, the cookie) of the post!

I'm a parent so, obviously, my favorite thing about Christmas is the joy and awe and blah blah of my children.  But my second favorite thing about Christmas?

THE FOOD.

Show of hands on who's surprised.  No one?  Huh.

One day next week, all four kids and I are getting in the kitchen.  We're going to roll up our sleeves, pull out all the ingredients, and get busy.  I thought I'd share the recipes (or links to the recipes) for everything we'll be making and baking.

Chocolate Covered Christmas Crackers
Named by Jaidan
These are just chocolate coated peanut butter Ritz crackers.  Make a peanut butter cracker.  Dip it in chocolate and let it set.  This has always been one of my favorites!

You can also let the kids attack them with sugar crystals but that's definitely up to you . . .
 We also tried a Paula Deen by doing chocolate covered potato chips -- not a fan
The other little brown things are "reindeer poop"  (aka chocolate covered marshmallows)

Peppermint Bark
Melt one package of white chocolate almond bark.  Crush two boxes of candy canes.  Mix candy canes with white chocolate.  Pour onto cookie sheet and let set then break into pieces.  So easy and so good!

Fudge
Courtesy of the back of my jar of marshmallow creme
You need:
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 can evaporated milk
1 1/2 pkgs Baker's chocolate, chopped (12 squares)
2 jars marshmallow creme (I lie.  You only need one jar for the fudge.  But it's good to have another jar around to stick your finger in.  Mmmm).
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together sugar, butter, and milk over the stove.  Bring to boil and allow to boil 4-5 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Add chocolate, marshmallow creme, and vanilla.  Stir until melted..  Pour into well greased pan (I usually line a pan with wax paper or aluminum foil).  Allow to cool and set.

This is on the back of every jar of Kraft Jet Puff marshmallow creme.  It's called Fantasy Fudge and, believe me, it is the stuff fantasies are made of.  I.love.it.  Best fudge ever.

Sugar Cookies
Disclaimer: Given (a) the age of my children and (b) my level of patience, we will be doing the PRE-CUT CHRISTMAS SUGAR COOKIES this year.  You know, the kind that come with the tiniest packet of red icing that Kyan squeezes onto precisely three cookies?  Yeah, those.  But this is my favorite if-we-were-doing-them-from-scratch sugar cookie recipe.
Need:
1 cup white sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup vegetable oil
* Yeah, these are SO TOTALLY healthy*
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour

Do:

Mix together sugars, butter, oil, and salt.  Add in the eggs and dry ingredients.  You can cook them now orrrrrr . . . you can chill the dough just a bit, then bust out some more flour, roll them out, and cut them into shapes.  Fun.  But make sure to add "tons of patience" to your ingredient list.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.  Cool and frost.  Leave for Santa.  (And, in our house, he request a Coke Zero with those cookies rather than a glass of milk.  Lactose intolerance).

Andes Mint Brownie Sandwiches

Just too easy!

All you need for this is a brownie mix (or your favorite brownie recipe) and a package of Andies mints.  Mix the brownies according to box directions.  Spread VERY THIN onto a prepared cookie sheet and bake according to directions.  (Since they're thin,  they'll probably not take as long to bake so be sure to watch them closely!)  Slice into rectangles roughly the size of Andes mints.  Top half the brownies with a mint and them put the remaining half the brownies on top.  Makes a little sandwich that is soooooOOOooo good.

We're also planning to make:

Peanut butter fudge - We made a batch of this last week.  It's good stuff.  It's also the first peanut butter fudge I've made ever that's actually set!

Christmas Crack
Ranch Oyster Crackers
Cake Balls

And just because it's the season of giving and I feel like being nice, I'll pass on a few more favorite holiday recipes that we've loved in the past.

Pecan Clusters - these are so good!  But pecans are horribly expensive this year.
Tuxedo Cookies

Brownie Covered Oreos
Cayenne Pretzels
Paula Deen's gingerbread cookies - I cheated and bought a roll of gingerbread dough this year.  But these are good!

Now.  Eat all that and then join back with me on January 1st for a course in Diabetes 101!