Things that make you....

Go hmmmmm..... ok had to do it.  But really this post is about today and the things that made me smile....

1. Hearing "Tainted Love" on the radio.  Not only is it a fantastic song, but it also was a song that came on the radio in the OR while R was being born. EMX doesn't remember it that way, but I definitely remember making a comment about how much I loved that song.

2. Exercise! I haven't been able to work out (besides walking) in over a week and it felt awesome to do Turbo Kick, Hip-hop and Booty Bounce tonight.

3. Coming home to talk to R before bed. He asked if I exercised and I told him, "yes, I did turbo and hip-hop." To which he replied, "who is hip-hop?"  Love that kid.

4. Grape tomatoes and green beans from my garden in my salad.

5. Followed by an egg roll and a banana bran muffin. Eclectic dinners are awesome.  Also known as eating leftovers so you don't waste food.

6. Typing up this post on my phone because EMX is editing pictures on the big computer.

What made you smile today?

Anything Goes Frittata / Egg Cake

An easy way to get rid of leftovers and have a yummy and nutritious meal is to make a frittata.  A while back, I was all about the quiche, but I would either have to make a pie shell or have one on hand.  I've found the frittata to be an easier/quicker alternative and it's just as delicious - if not more so.

In our house, we call it egg cake so R will eat it.  It was the first egg dish/item that I could get him to eat.

My normal "recipe" is eggs (duh), milk or cream, sauteed red bell peppers and onions, bacon, breakfast sausage, broccoli and cheese, but you can use whatever you want! 

Start by cooking your sausage and bacon and breaking into small chunks. I really like to bake the bacon.  Weird I know, but it is so much cleaner and easier and makes the bacon perfectly crispy every time.

Saute your sliced/diced peppers and onions in butter or olive oil.

In the meantime, whisk together eggs (I like to use a few whole eggs and the rest egg whites) and your cream or milk and season with salt and pepper.  Sometimes I get wild and crazy and put a dash of garlic powder in, or parsley.  (I'm daring, I know.)

When your veggies are nice and cooked through, add the meat and broccoli and cheese.  Then add the eggs.

Try not to disturb the eggs now - let the bottom start to set.  After about 10 minutes or so, place your pan in a preheated oven to finish cooking.  (375*)

(If you don't have an already oven safe frying pan, you can wrap the handle in aluminum foil to make your pan oven safe.)

The eggs will puff up and finish cooking through in about 5-10 more minutes.

Remove from oven and let it sit for maybe 5 more minutes to let it all settle.  Then flip onto a serving plate.

The bottom (now the top) will be all golden brown and caramelly looking.

Serve wedges of egg cake with toast, or croissants, fresh fruit, mimosas, etc.  I actually use this meal for dinner pretty regularly because it's a nice way to get (sneak more) veggies into R-ster and EMX.

Anything Goes Frittata / Egg Cake

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

8 eggs (whole or combination of whole eggs and egg whites)
1/4 cup milk
Assorted veggies and meats
Assorted cheeses
Salt/pepper to taste
Seasoning of your choice (pinch) ie garlic powder, parsley, etc.

Saute vegetables and meats until cooked through in a frying pan.  Add cheese.  Whisk together eggs and milk and pour into frying pan.  Cook until bottom starts to set.  Finish cooking through in a 375* oven for about 5-10 minutes.

Remove from oven and let the frittata rest in the pan for 5 minutes.  Flip onto serving plate and cut into wedges for serving.

ups and downs

So again, here I am - having to explain my absence!  Whoops.  It's so cliche', but there has been A LOT going on that has kept me from posting.  Things that have happened in the last 3 months:

• EMX was laid off from his job.

• R turned 3!  He had a fabulouso Cars themed birthday party.

• My littlest sister L got engaged!

• My middle sister J closed on her new house!

• We had to make a very difficult decision to put our dog Dakota down.  

• EMX was offered 3 positions within a 2 day period.  Another very difficult decision.

• EMX accepted a position locally - We don't have to move!

• We went to NYC for a long weekend to visit some friends that we haven't seen in 3+ years and go to a concert and had a blast.

• I lost some weight by tracking what I ate.  Not very fun when it comes to cooking, but that helps to further explain my absence.  It's not fun to cook and write about glorious food when you are really trying to learn and limit foods that are not great for your body!  BUT I'm finally back to wedding weight.... which is a good 10 lbs less than pre-pregnancy weight.  

We've had a lot of ups and downs.  Things are finally starting to settle down a bit.  I should be able to get back on track with cooking and posting.

A very big THANK YOU to all of our family and friends who offered us support and prayers during the past several months.  Here is to hoping the second half of 2011 is more UPs than downs!

I'll leave you with one of my favorite semi recent pictures of R.  This was on his 3rd birthday (not at his party), singing while wearing his birthday crown that the kind people at Toy R Us gave to him while shopping with his Mama (Grandma OO)

Seriously, this kid cracks me up.

My Review of NINJABREAD MEN COOKIE CUTTERS

Originally submitted at Perpetual Kid

They're cut out for action! These stealthy shinobi warriors are set to sneak into your kitchen and stage a cookie coup! Cut, bake, decorate and then watch them disappear! Add swords, nunchaku, and shuriken stars with icing and toothpicks for more ambiance

NINJABREAD MEN COOKIE CUTTERS

SO COOL!

By Chelleybelly from Rochester, NY on 6/29/2011

 

5out of 5

I bought these cookie cutters as a gift for our Ninja friend. I wish I had purchased some for myself! Thanks for offering a great product!

(legalese)

Mondays come way too fast....

I should first give credit to my buddy Mikey for giving me an idea for this blog post.  (Thanks Mikey!)

We've been SUPER CRAZY busy the last few weeks.  To give you an idea of what we've been doing, I'll give you a little run down.

R has soccer Saturday mornings, which thankfully, EMX takes him to, so I can go to some of my favorite exercise classes of the week - Bootcamp and Piyo.  Love them both.  I actually had to skip one week because we want to get a head start on the painting project of that weekend.

EMX also plays soccer one weeknight.  I've been trying to make as many other exercise classes as possible on every other night, while also making (semi) healthy dinners for my two darling boys (EMX and R) and trying to maintain some sort of sanity/cleanliness/order in the house.  (Which I have to say, isn't going very well.  Who wants to come and clean my house?  Because yesterday I glanced quickly at the shelf in our living room and was completely grossed out and embarrassed by the amount of dust I found....  I should really do something about that....)

In March, we painted the mud room, the kitchen, the downstairs hallway, the master bedroom, R's bathroom and the upstairs hallway.  When we decided to go with a model WITHOUT an open foyer, we thought that we had saved ourselves from painting difficult to reach spots.  Guess again.  That spot over the stairs going to the 2nd floor?  YEAH - really difficult to paint.  Thankfully we had the help of my awesome in-laws.  (Thanks guys!)  EMX also reorganized the basement and I baked a gazillion (OK, fine, not a gazillion...) cookies, truffles, goodies in March.  We also attended 2 birthday parties, had a girls night painting pottery and I think EMX even had a night out with the soccer guys?  Oh and their soccer team WON last week!  (Raise the roof motion!  YAHOO!)

So yes, as a whole, March was very productive, but I've been slacking quite a bit when it comes to this!  I found myself this weekend having to stop and think about what day it was because we have managed to cram so much into every weekend, they are starting to blur together.

Moral of this post?  Anyone want to come and clean my house and/or paint the next room?  :)

Pan Seared Salmon with Creamy Vegetable Rice (and a Dance!)

One of the tastiest dinners that I make fairly frequently is also one of the easiest.  EMX LOVES salmon.  This meal is a combination of a couple of recipes that I have refined into my own take on things.  The nice thing about this meal is it doubles or triples very easily.  While you are making it, the dance is optional, but highly recommended.

Easy to follow directions are at the bottom of the post.

THE INGREDIENTS:

THE SALMON:

I usually buy individually frozen salmon from Wegmans, but you could certainly do this with fresh salmon.  I always check for bones just in case they were missed in packaging.

Sprinkle salt and pepper on each side of the salmon and place in a medium-high heated skillet/frying pan with a drizzle of oil.  Now, DON'T TOUCH IT!  Seriously.  Leave it until the first side is nice and lightly brown and slightly crispy.  You'll thank me for that when you dig in for your first bite.  In case you missed it... DON'T TOUCH IT!  Leave it alone.

Then when the first side is easily released from the pan, flip it and then.... wait for it.... DON'T TOUCH IT again.

It should look like this:

Trust me... you'll thank me for telling you not to touch it. 

THE RICE:

Now, you can use whatever veggies you like for this.  It started as a creamy rice with tomato recipe that I found in one of those Kraft Foods magazines, but I've omitted things in the past and added different ingredients and this rice is always delicious!

Start by sauteing one diced onion in a tbsp or so of either oil or Italian dressing.  Add salt/pepper to taste.

Add in whatever other veggies you want at this time that need to be cooked through.  I'm adding zucchini and tomato tonight.  This time I'm also adding chopped frozen spinach but I'm going to wait until the end to add it since it just needs to be heated through. 

After the veggies are starting to soften, add the rice and then the chicken broth (or vegetable broth or even water) and simmer until the rice is cooked through and most of the liquid has dissolved.  Next, add the frozen (but defrosted by now) chopped spinach.

Now comes the creamy part - add the cream cheese and Parmesan cheese and stir through.

 
Plate and serve!

THE DANCE:

The Chemical Brothers - The Salmon Dance




R loves the Salmon dance!

Pan Seared Salmon with Creamy Vegetable Rice
Printable Version

Ingredients:

Salmon (duh)
1.5 cups White or brown instant rice
1.5 cups Water or broth
2 tbsp cream cheese
2 tsp Italian dressing
Parmesan cheese to taste
salt/pepper
diced onion, tomato and any other vegetable you like

Pan Sear Salmon in a frying pan with a drizzle of oil - a few minutes on each side until each side is crispy and light brown.

In a separate pan, saute onion and selected veggies in 2 tsp Italian dressing until tender.  Add rice and liquid and simmer until rice is cooked through.  Add Cream cheese and Parm cheese and serve!



You know you're gonna love it if you give it one chance!

It's Friday, I'm in Love... and other random thoughts

LOVE this song from The Cure.  Every Friday morning, I listen to the FMS on WBER and at 7ish they play this song.  Lately I've been missing it, which totally puts me out of sorts for the day.  :(

R has been potty training up a storm!  (Which explains my long absence... every free moment is spent in the bathroom with him lately.)

I'm going to be "trying" to organize my recipes soon.  I have a bigger binder and need to get them sorted into some kind of usable system again.

EMX and I painted R's bathroom this past weekend.  Pics to follow.  Preview of color.  I now have the painting bug and can't wait to start the next room(s).

Had a super busy week, baking, turbo kicking and hip hopping, more baking, tapping.... Last night we had plans to take a family walk since it was so nice out, but we ended up talking/playing with our neighbors instead.  It was nice to catch up and meet one of the new babies of the neighborhood. 

I've been tracking my caloric/fat/protein intake this week just to see what I'm taking in daily and I was pretty disturbed that my lunch of a very small bowl (1 cup) of cheerios, 1% milk, a banana and an apple was ~600 calories!  Seriously?  Not sure I like knowing that information.  I might just go back to not paying attention to that kind of stuff.  Ignorance is bliss I suppose.