So the holidays and a couple of viruses got the better of us (Colton first,then me) so that I didn't get to post these past weeks. However, I'm back and ready to share!
For Thanksgiving, we decided to host the meal to save us the trouble of packing and driving across Texas with two very small children. We made the traditional feast of stuffing, turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls and of course, gravy. However, the prep was anything but traditional. Have you ever heard of working smarter, not harder? Well, that's me to a "T". For the stuffing, I didn't feel like cutting all the vegetables, so I got a "stuffing starter" from HEB (cut up veggies and spices) and then tweaked it to my liking. It turned out perfectly! Another cheat-I bought a pre-cooked turkey and warmed it in a roaster with chicken broth. Then, the night before and morning of the big day, I came down with a violent stomach virus. My mom and mother in law, and my Dad and step-dad and hubby stepped in and saved the day. Everything tasted great! (a day later when I could finally eat again, that is.)
I'm going to plug HEB here, but I bought almost all of our Thanksgiving supplies for <$50. My mom made the cornbread for the stuffing and the pumpkin pies, but I bought the turkey (~11lbs), canned goods, and stuffing starter, broth, potatoes, etc. The store does these deals where you buy the main thing and get so many items for free. This time, I bought a turkey, and for free, I got salad, ranch dressing, cookies, aluminum disposable roaster, and something else I can't remember now. At the end of the receipt, it said I had saved more than $26 over the course of all the BOGO deals, brand savings and the meal deal. I love my grocery store!
In summary, my family and I were able to pull off a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner while having a stomach virus, and all for around $50!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Time to step out of my comfort zone
I have felt trapped recently with my standard meals, most of which I have cooked since I was in middle school. To get out of my 'recipe rut', I have started to look for new recipes. Pinterest is my best friend for this task. This brings me to my next improvisation.
I tried this recipe tonight, a crawfish rice dressing:
http://www.deepsouthdish.com/2010/12/crawfish-rice-dressing-recipe.html
True to form, I have modified the recipe significantly. First, I used grocery store brand long grain white rice, not the specified brand. Then, I could not find cream of onion soup at the store. I may be blind, or it could just be that it was Sunday afternoon and I could only see about a foot of the humongous soup display at a time because it was so crowded. For the onion soup, I substituted dry onion soup mix combined with milk in the can from the cream of mushroom soup I used. As usual, then it snowballed. Because this substitution was so much less solid than what was originally called for, I was afraid the rice would be too mushy or the liquid would not absorb into the rice fully. SO- I cut the amount of chicken broth called for down to 1 cup from 1.5 cups. Additionally, the season is wrong for crawfish, so I used 1 pound of cooked, frozen salad shrimp, and more than doubled the amount of hot sauce called for. I also chose to omit the crab meat entirely. Once it was assembled, I finally put it in the oven. At the 1 hour mark, the pan was still very moist with liquid pools across the length of the dish. I chose to let it cook for another 15 minutes, checking after 5 minutes. I still had to remove the foil the last 10 minutes of cooking for all the liquid to be fully absorbed into the rice. The rice was a little mushy, but not inedible. After all that-it was super simple to assemble, and I think it has potential to be one of our family favorites. I will definitely be adding it to my repertoire on a regular basis. I will make a few further modifications, though. It needed more cajun seasoning and more bell pepper. However, instead of bell pepper, I think a poblano would add a better flavor. It could probably use a little more hot sauce too. It sounds like I like hot stuff, but that's not necessarily true. This dish had no heat whatsoever-If I thought he would eat it, I would feed it to my 3 year old. I am not sure, but I think the rice or the shrimp might have absorbed some of the heat. or something.
Bonus: It made enough for 2 meals for us!
----------
Additionally, for breakfast, I made this baked oatmeal today: http://www.sohowsittaste.com/2012/06/blueberry-raspberry-baked-oatmeal.html
I made it almost according to the recipe, closer anyway than the crawfish thing. I subbed honey for maple syrup and peaches for bananas and omitted the walnuts and raspberries. I think the walnuts would taste wonderful; I just didn't have any. If I'd had more time, I would've chopped some almonds and subbed those instead. As it was, the children were in the process of destroying my house and maiming each other, and I figured I should cut my losses and move on. All told, it also turned out awesome. I will definitely make this again as well.
So, today was exceptional in that I tried two new recipes and modified both on the first pass. I must be getting more adventurous or a better cook. or lazier. or maybe, just maybe, all 3.
Happy improvising, y'all!
I tried this recipe tonight, a crawfish rice dressing:
http://www.deepsouthdish.com/2010/12/crawfish-rice-dressing-recipe.html
True to form, I have modified the recipe significantly. First, I used grocery store brand long grain white rice, not the specified brand. Then, I could not find cream of onion soup at the store. I may be blind, or it could just be that it was Sunday afternoon and I could only see about a foot of the humongous soup display at a time because it was so crowded. For the onion soup, I substituted dry onion soup mix combined with milk in the can from the cream of mushroom soup I used. As usual, then it snowballed. Because this substitution was so much less solid than what was originally called for, I was afraid the rice would be too mushy or the liquid would not absorb into the rice fully. SO- I cut the amount of chicken broth called for down to 1 cup from 1.5 cups. Additionally, the season is wrong for crawfish, so I used 1 pound of cooked, frozen salad shrimp, and more than doubled the amount of hot sauce called for. I also chose to omit the crab meat entirely. Once it was assembled, I finally put it in the oven. At the 1 hour mark, the pan was still very moist with liquid pools across the length of the dish. I chose to let it cook for another 15 minutes, checking after 5 minutes. I still had to remove the foil the last 10 minutes of cooking for all the liquid to be fully absorbed into the rice. The rice was a little mushy, but not inedible. After all that-it was super simple to assemble, and I think it has potential to be one of our family favorites. I will definitely be adding it to my repertoire on a regular basis. I will make a few further modifications, though. It needed more cajun seasoning and more bell pepper. However, instead of bell pepper, I think a poblano would add a better flavor. It could probably use a little more hot sauce too. It sounds like I like hot stuff, but that's not necessarily true. This dish had no heat whatsoever-If I thought he would eat it, I would feed it to my 3 year old. I am not sure, but I think the rice or the shrimp might have absorbed some of the heat. or something.
Bonus: It made enough for 2 meals for us!
----------
Additionally, for breakfast, I made this baked oatmeal today: http://www.sohowsittaste.com/2012/06/blueberry-raspberry-baked-oatmeal.html
I made it almost according to the recipe, closer anyway than the crawfish thing. I subbed honey for maple syrup and peaches for bananas and omitted the walnuts and raspberries. I think the walnuts would taste wonderful; I just didn't have any. If I'd had more time, I would've chopped some almonds and subbed those instead. As it was, the children were in the process of destroying my house and maiming each other, and I figured I should cut my losses and move on. All told, it also turned out awesome. I will definitely make this again as well.
So, today was exceptional in that I tried two new recipes and modified both on the first pass. I must be getting more adventurous or a better cook. or lazier. or maybe, just maybe, all 3.
Happy improvising, y'all!
Friday, November 2, 2012
Costume Procrastination
I hope you all had a lovely Halloween. I know we did!
So, Tuesday came and went and I still didn't have a costume for myself or the baby, and Colton's was only about 90% complete. Therefore, Wednesday was my complete Halloween Improvisation Day! I have to say, I am impressed with myself, both for my procrastination skills, as well as my pull-it-together-at-the-last-minute skills. Here's the play-by-play:
Last week, I found a Cowboy costume set at Wal Mart for $5, including a hat, Sherriff's badge and bandanna. Colton agreed to be a Cowboy and so that's where we started. He has several pearl-snap western shirts and jeans. All I needed was boots to complete the costume. After noon on Wednesday, I dragged both kids out to Payless to buy the cowboy some boots, and to Wal-Mart for last minute grocery shopping (can't afford to run out of baby prunes in my house!). Luckily, the first Payless closest to the house had the boots I wanted in stock in the right size. However, I had not even thought of a costume for the baby, so I perused the picked-over options at Wal-Mart during the grocery trip. I found a onesie that had a sherrif's theme that would've matched Colton's cowboy costume, but there were none in the baby's size. Boo. So, I settled for a clinical green onesie that had a surgical mask and stethoscope printed on it with a screen-print picture of a pocket with bandage scissors and syringe in it. The best part is it was only $3.25. See? Procrastination can pay off, sometimes.
We arrived home around 3pm and I nursed the baby and put the older one down for a nap. During naptime, I prepped dinner (he needs SOME real food before the candy glut). By the time they got up, I was ready for them, and we had no trouble getting out the door. We visited a local Table Trick Or Treat, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce where businesses set up tables on Main to hand out candy to the kids and business cards to parents, and it's closed to vehicular traffic. After that, we visited some friends' houses and hooked up with one to go random house-to-house trick or treating. This especially fascinated Colton because that's the kind of trick or treating he sees on tv. Afterward, at home, Colton got his two treats, and then the hubby and I divided up the rest between us and what Colton could have on subsequent days and went to bed. Two days later, Colton is still wearing his costume pieces and pretending to trick or treat. I'd venture to say he had a good time!
I didn't get a pic of the baby in his costume because the bib and the stroller rendered a costume unnecessary anyway. (Hey, I tried!) Here's a reasonable facsimile of what he wore though. It wouldn't let me copy the pic, but here's the link.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Rubies-My-First-Halloween-Doctor-Onesie-Costume/21867034
Here's my cowboy. (Sorry the pic is blurry. It's like taking pictures of an earthquake to get him to stand still long enough. You can't tell it, but my husband has a death-grip on his head to keep him as still as possible and to keep the hat on-he didn't want to wear it at first.)
So, Tuesday came and went and I still didn't have a costume for myself or the baby, and Colton's was only about 90% complete. Therefore, Wednesday was my complete Halloween Improvisation Day! I have to say, I am impressed with myself, both for my procrastination skills, as well as my pull-it-together-at-the-last-minute skills. Here's the play-by-play:
Last week, I found a Cowboy costume set at Wal Mart for $5, including a hat, Sherriff's badge and bandanna. Colton agreed to be a Cowboy and so that's where we started. He has several pearl-snap western shirts and jeans. All I needed was boots to complete the costume. After noon on Wednesday, I dragged both kids out to Payless to buy the cowboy some boots, and to Wal-Mart for last minute grocery shopping (can't afford to run out of baby prunes in my house!). Luckily, the first Payless closest to the house had the boots I wanted in stock in the right size. However, I had not even thought of a costume for the baby, so I perused the picked-over options at Wal-Mart during the grocery trip. I found a onesie that had a sherrif's theme that would've matched Colton's cowboy costume, but there were none in the baby's size. Boo. So, I settled for a clinical green onesie that had a surgical mask and stethoscope printed on it with a screen-print picture of a pocket with bandage scissors and syringe in it. The best part is it was only $3.25. See? Procrastination can pay off, sometimes.
We arrived home around 3pm and I nursed the baby and put the older one down for a nap. During naptime, I prepped dinner (he needs SOME real food before the candy glut). By the time they got up, I was ready for them, and we had no trouble getting out the door. We visited a local Table Trick Or Treat, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce where businesses set up tables on Main to hand out candy to the kids and business cards to parents, and it's closed to vehicular traffic. After that, we visited some friends' houses and hooked up with one to go random house-to-house trick or treating. This especially fascinated Colton because that's the kind of trick or treating he sees on tv. Afterward, at home, Colton got his two treats, and then the hubby and I divided up the rest between us and what Colton could have on subsequent days and went to bed. Two days later, Colton is still wearing his costume pieces and pretending to trick or treat. I'd venture to say he had a good time!
I didn't get a pic of the baby in his costume because the bib and the stroller rendered a costume unnecessary anyway. (Hey, I tried!) Here's a reasonable facsimile of what he wore though. It wouldn't let me copy the pic, but here's the link.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Rubies-My-First-Halloween-Doctor-Onesie-Costume/21867034
Here's my cowboy. (Sorry the pic is blurry. It's like taking pictures of an earthquake to get him to stand still long enough. You can't tell it, but my husband has a death-grip on his head to keep him as still as possible and to keep the hat on-he didn't want to wear it at first.)
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