Favorite cooking tool: My big bowl

My mom got me this bowl from Goodwill when I was in grad school. My husband got violently ill after eating buttered popcorn at the movies about SIX years ago (when we were still dating) and he still can't stand the smell or even consider eating popcorn again, so my big bowl gets used for other various things because of how big it is. I mix up bread batter, serve big salads, chips, I love how much it can hold! It's a pain to handwash sometimes because it's a bit heavy, but I use it weekly!

When Starbucks quits offering pumpkin bread ...

...the pregnant lady gets baking on a lovely warm June day. Sigh.

I love this recipe (click here to see it). It's so easy ... you just dump all the ingredients in a big bowl, combine, and bake!! It's not Starbucks pumpkin loaf, it's much cakier and doesn't have frosting or nuts, but it helps with my pumpkin craving. These freeze well. Since the recipe makes 2 loaves I'll freeze one for later. My mom and sister are visiting this weekend so it'll be a nice treat!

Dry ingredients:

Don't forget the pumpkin (I almost did):

Everything in the bowl:

350 degrees for 1-1.5 hours:

Couscous salad with spiced mini burgers (from RealSimple)

I've been holding on to these pictures for about a month. I made this recipe for John and it was a hit! He loved it! My stomach didn't tolerate the spices too well (dang pregnancy!) but the leftovers didn't last long. The recipe made a HUGE bowl of the salad that fed John for days (it helps that he loves leftovers!!)

Here's the recipe link.

This is a great fresh meal if it's hot where you live and you're sick of traditional salads!!





Sometimes to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs, huh? I forget how messy I can be when I cook!

What's for lunch?

Lately lunch has been an unimportant and ignored meal. I coach track, practice starts at 1:15, and I usually have a late-ish breakfast. Unfortunately, somewhere in the middle of practice I get RAGINGLY hungry! I'm committing to making lunch more of a priority for my pregnant self's sake (oh I guess the baby's sake too, hee hee!). I only had a carton of yogurt and some decaf tea with half-and-half and sugar for breakfast so I HAD to have a substantial lunch today.

I had Trader Joe's organic Shells & White Cheddar, prepped according to the box directions. And yes, I ate it all!

A New Leaf

Hello, hello food blog!! I haven't visited you in a long time. Why you ask? Well, unfortunately, I haven't been cooking much lately because pregnancy makes you a tired, lazy, take-out orderer. I've made a resolution, though, that I'm going to start blogging about food in an effort to light the fire under myself to do more real cooking before the baby comes.

I'll start with tonight's dinner, which was simply salad and steak! The thing I'm kicking myself about right now is how EASY and CHEAP it is to cook at home and how much better the food is for you. I went to Trader Joe's today and loaded up on fresh veggies and meat, came home, and had dinner on the table in less than 20 minutes. It's just pathetic how easy it was.



First I made the salad. I tore up one romaine heart (it's cheaper than the bag-o-lettuce) threw it in a colander, and rinsed. While that was draining I cut up a tomato, half an English cucumber, and a green pepper. To assemble the salad I blotted the lettuce with a paper towel, then arranged the veggies on top. For a little added protein I grabbed a handful of ciliegine mozzarella balls, squeezed them gently to remove the extra moisture, and then cut them in half to top the salad (a handful on each salad was perfect, and the cheese was definitely domestic so I didn't have to worry about pasteurization). For dressing, I used a drizzle of olive oil, then a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, then salt and pepper. Yum!

Then the steak: I have a great Teflon pan so I love pan-searing steak on the stove. I got some extra-virgin olive oil hot, then prepped the steak (lean Angus sirloin, yum) with some prepackaged Montreal steak seasoning. I cooked the steak about four minutes on each side to get mine RARE and a little longer to get John's medium rare. I think they turned out well!

That was dinner tonight! So easy!

Tomorrow I'm going to try Real Simple's Spiced Mini Burgers and Couscous Salad.

I want to try this recipe!

Arwen posted this on her site recently. I'm going to try it out the next time someone has a birthday.

Starlight Yellow Cake (from Betty Crocker)

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
1 ¼ cups milk
3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour bottom and sides of rectangular pan (13-inch x 9-inch), or 2 round pans (9-inch diameter), or 3 round pans (8-inch diameter).
2. Beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pans.
3. Bake rectangle 35-40 mins, 9-inch rounds 25-30 minutes, 8-inch rounds 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool rectangle in pan on wire rack; cool rounds 10 minutes, then remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
4. Frost as desired.

I can't really think of a frosting I've tried and didn't enjoy, but the frosting I grew up with is buttercream. It is tooth-achingly sweet but delicious. It is what frosting from a can aspires to be.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (from Betty Crocker)

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla 1 to 2 tablespoons milk

1. Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the milk.
2. Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.

(For Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, increase the vanilla to 2 teaspoons and the milk to 3-4 tablespoons. Follow directions above, adding 3 ounces melted and cooled unsweetened baking chocolate with the vanilla.)

Recipes from Kara

Over the holiday we visited with our dear friends Nate and Kara and Kara was kind enough to send me these recipes that I'm dying to try!! They told us all about these Governor Bars ... I can hardly wait until Christmas to try them out (we're on a STRICT South Beach Diet until then, dangit). She made us the casserole for breakfast and it was SO GOOD. Why does food have to be SO GOOD sometimes?? AHHH!
--

Governor Bars:
1 cup honey
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
6 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate chips
12 oz. Butterscotch chips

1. Put Rice Krispies and peanut butter in a bowl.
2. Put honey and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil (just so it bubbles once).
3. Pour honey mixture into bowl with rice krispies/peanut butter and mix it with a spoon.
4. Put mixture into a 13x9 greased pan. I press it down a little bit...not to much.
5. Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in the microwave (about a minute or so) and stir until all melted and mixed together.
6. Spread on top of the rice krispy mixture.
Done! YUM!


Sausage and Rice Casserole:
2 lb. rolls bulk pork sausage
1 lg. onion chopped
2 1/2 c celery sliced
1 1/2 c rice
2 pkgs Lipton chicken noodle soup
5 1/2 c water
1 tsp salt
Toasted almonds slivered

Preheat oven 375
-Brown and drain sausage. Add onions and celery. Cook 5 min till softened.
-Meanwhile, boil water, add rice and soup, cook 20 min covered. Stir a few times, will be moister then regular rice.
-Combine all together in 9x13 casserole. Sprinkle with almonds and bake 20-30 minutes. Can also refrigerate and bake one hour.