Typical Sunday

One of my favorite things to do on Sunday is plan out what my family is going to eat for dinner for the week. I've mentioned before that I love allrecipes.com and that's usually were I go to find some new recipes. I probably try a new recipe at least twice a week. That's how I spent a good 2 hours of my afternoon (maybe I was playing around on facebook as well).

I ended up having to go to the grocery store because we seriously only had eggs and cheese in our fridge. I'm all about saving money so my first stop was at Aldi's. I was all happy in Aldi's...the sun came out, it stopped raining, minimal people, and no waiting in line to checkout. Then after I checked out, I swear, the clouds came rolling in and it just poured and poured. Needless to say, I was drenched and so were all my groceries! My happy mood vanished.

I had to go to Wal-Mart because Aldi's didn't have a few items and I was going to pick up on of Emma's friends a Christmas present. I hate going into Wal-Mart in the months of November and December. There is no such thing as a quick trip. I had 6 items in my cart and waited in line for 20 minutes and to top it all off, I couldn't find a good Christmas present!

After coming home and blowing off some steam (thank you Nathan for listening to me rant and rave)I started cooking dinner. A new recipe...and it came out delicious!

Saturday

I'm a person who doesn't mind change. I kinda have to be okay with it because being an Army wife, life changes day to day. We have to cancel plans, change plans, do things without notice, and move constantly. I love it! One thing that I cannot change is breakfast! I have to eat it or it wrecks my whole day. Sadly, I eat the same thing for breakfast. Oatmeal!!! Oatmeal is delicious and healthy. I sweeten my quick oats with a packet of sugar in the raw, agave nectar, raisins, and I even started adding some chopped walnuts to it.

I seriously snapped this photo then devoured the whole bowl. I don't know why oatmeal gets a bad rep for being boring.

So, today was Fayetteville's annual Christmas Parade and Scooby Doo was the Parade Marshall. Emma and I got to walk in the parade with our taekwondo school (Nathan was suppose to be there too, but he was jumping out of an airplane at the time). The kids were so cute with their Ssahng Jeol Bongs (Korean nunchucks). It was a lot of fun despite being in the rain for 2 hours. We even got filmed to be on the news (too bad we don't have cable). This is a pic of Emma before heading off to the parade.

Did I mention that in 5 more classes she'll have her orange belt (me too)! Pretty awesome, we were hoping someone would start a fight with us on the walk back to the Jeep but no one did :( We want to use our new skills and kick some butt :)

After the parade we came back to the house to find daddy home with his new Chilean jump wings. Way to go daddy! So now we're all chillin' out in the house in our thermals trying to stay warm. I'm enjoying some coffee in my pretty coffee mugs (is it just me or does food taste better when it's in a pretty dish/plate/mug/etc?).

I'm not a big coffee drinker (out of hot chocolate or I would be drinking that) but this is pretty good. I'm using my Jamaican coffee that Nathan and I won at a dance off sweetened with cinnamon, sugar in the raw, and the highly fattening heavy cream (trying to use it up before it goes bad).

What's everyone else doing today?

I love broccoli!

Tonight's dinner was really easy to make...it was "Asian" inspired, came in a bag in the frozen food section, and tasted okay. I'll be honest, I don't know why I even picked it up in the first place; my family and I do not like Asian/Chinese/etc types of food. Maybe it was the little corn cobs, I'm attracted to mini anything (shampoo bottles, deodorant, and apparently mini corn on the cobs). Anyways, the food wasn't worth the effort to take a picture of. So I'll talk about what I ate a few nights ago...

Did I mention that my favorite website is allrecipes.com??? I plan all my meals using this site! It's basically the world's largest cookbook and has recipes for EVERYTHING! My most favorite part of the site is reading the reviewer's comments. You get to read how other people screwed up the recipe...and then what they did to make it better. It just saves you time and money!

Anyways...I found this dish on the website and made it using reviewer's comments, and it was FREAKING AMAZING! I mean, how could it not? Broccoli and cheese, brown rice, and topped with yummy walnuts! This was my main dish and it was very filling. I added a piece of chicken for Nathan and Emma.

I finished off the leftovers for lunch today...I wish I had more. I keep looking at the picture and it's seriously making my mouth salivate.

IHOP has nothing on me

Isnt breakfast food the best? There is just sooo many different types of breakfast foods out there, sweet, savory, cheesy, etc. Every other week or so I plan to have breakfast for dinner and last night was our breakfast night! Homemade crepes topped with homemade whipped cream was on the menu (sounds fancy right...supper easy to make).

Yummy! It was almost like eating dessert. Don't worry I balanced out the meal with 2 pieces of my "Fake-on" or what is usually called Morning Star Bacon. I know, I know all my non-vegetarian friends are being grossed out by the concept of eating bacon that isn't made out of a dead pig, but trust me guys...this stuff is amazing! My family loves it and I even topped some potato skins at a get-together with this stuff and no one knew it was fake bacon.

Look at that close up! I had a leftover bag of frozen mixed berries in the freezer that I pulled out and put in the fridge a few hours before I started cooking dinner. I threw them in a bowl with some sugar and microwaved to knock the chill off. They were perfect inside my golden brown crepes. What goes good with fruit and whipped cream...chocolate! So I ended up drizzling some chocolate sauce over them! I was so excited to eat these that when I took my first bite, an evil laugh escaped my mouth. They were that good!

What's your favorite breakfast food?

Twice Baked Potato

Nothing tastes better than a big ol' potato that came out of the oven! The microwave has nothing on the oven. Twice baked potatoes take me back to high school when in Foods, we learned how to make them. My best friend Kristin and I would would make them when we would spend the night at each other's homes. Yeah, we though we were cool...and we are! I got this recipe for Alicia Silverstone's book, "The Kind Diet" and it's so delicious and filling even my meat loving husband enjoys it!

Twice Baked Potato Stuffed with Broccoli

• 2 baking potatoes


• 2 tsp olive oil


• 2 cloves minced garlic


• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes (I don't have this spice so I don't use it)


• broccoli (I use 1 1/2 bunches)


• 1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash the potato and wrap in aluminum foil. Prick the potato with a knife a few times. Bake for 60 minutes.

To a medium saucepan, add the oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Saute for 1 minute on medium heat. Add the broccoli and stir for 30 seconds. Add the water, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.

When the potato is cool enough to handle, cut it in half lengthwise. Scoop out the inner part, leaving 1/4 inch of the potato on the skin. Add the pulp to the broccoli, blending with a fork until combined. Okay this is where I turn this vegan recipe into a vegetarian one with the addition of sour cream and milk. I add a couple of scoops of sour cream and a splash of milk and blend it with my hand mixer. Refill the potato shells with the mixture. Place the stuffed potato halves back into the oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

I also made some homemade gnocchi. It's just potatoes, flour, and an egg. It's super easy to make and tastes a lot like a dumpling. I added some leftover spaghetti sauce and called it a meal!

Autumn Pasta

I'm trying to embrace my "not normal side" but people make it really hard to do that when they find out I'm a vegetarian. Or how my husband describes me as a "hippie, liberal, vegetarian". People just look at me like they're dumbfounded and then go on to tell me how unAmerican I am. They just can't get over the fact that I don't eat meat. After they question me about it...they go on to ask if I eat chicken (because somehow chicken isn't meat?), after I tell them no...they ask if I eat fish (again NO, fish is meat). It makes me laugh and sometimes I feel like I have to defend myself but the funny thing is these people think I eat nothing but raw vegetables or tofu. I've started taking pictures of my meals to let ya'll know my plate is indeed full and to inspire you to try some meatless dishes, of course you could always add meat if you like killing innocent animals ;)

Autumn Pasta

• 8oz penne rigate (or whatever pasta you have)




• 5 cups cauliflower florets




• 2TBS butter




• 1 cup breadcrumbs




• 1/2 cup heavy cream




• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese




• 2 tsp grated lemon peel (or a squirts of lemon juice)

1. Boil pasta in salted water 5 minutes. Add cauliflower. Cook until cauliflower and pasta are tender; 6 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Return pasta and cauliflower to pot. 2. Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add breadcrumbs and cook, stirring until golden 7-8 minutes. 3. Add cream, parmesan, lemon, and cooking liquid to pasta. Toss over medium heat until sauce simmers, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. 4. Top with breadcrumbs!

Pita Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Take 4 soft tortilla shells and cut in quarters. Lay on foil and lightly rub olive oil and season with season salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and basil. Bake about 5 minutes or until golden brown.

**You can use any seasoning, they always taste great no matter what you use***

I'm Turning Into My Mother

Everyday, I keep acting more and more like my mother. Trust me, I'm not trying to do this on purpose, it just happens. I remember when I was growing up, if anyone told me I walked, talked, or looked like my mom...I would freak out and immediately try to change whatever I was doing to be more "me." When you're a teenager that last thing you want to hear is that you are just like your older, uncool mother. Now that I'm older and uncool myself, becoming more like my mom isn't a bad thing.

I'm such a momma's girl, it's not even funny. Since moving out of the house in college, I call my mom about any and everything. Seriously, I call about EVERYTHING...things like, "Umm, mom do you think I should buy a new couch or not?" or "Hey mom, remember those rolls you made us when I was 10...do you remember the recipe?" It's funny because growing up I was always scared to death of my mom. I was afraid to tell her I was dating a boy or to ask if a friend could spend the night or to tell her I was going to be late and miss my curfew by 30 minutes. Weird how growing up I was fine not getting to talk to my mom but now that I'm older I wish I could help her cook dinner and talk about our days.

So back to becoming more like my mom...the other day I went into TJ MAXX to use up this gift card I had. I really wanted to find something for the home, but they didn't have anything in my price range that I wanted so I went to look at purses. I'm usually drawn to the weird, super colorful, crazy purses but this time I was drawn to a grayish purse. It was so soft and fit great on my arm so I bought it! I immediately took everything out of my old purse and stuffed it into my awesome new purse and continued to Hobby Lobby. When I got to Hobby Lobby, I stuck my purse into the seat of the cart...that's when it hit me. I looked at it and instantly thought of my mom. Trust me, I've seen her purses while out shopping and mine looked identical to hers...I always made fun of my mom's purses, they were no fun! Look at me now, I have my mother's style.

Growing up, mom and dad always made us do things for them...I know, I know awful parents right?! One thing that my brothers and I complained about was always getting them diet cokes after dinner. We told them that we weren't their slaves, that they could go do it because the fridge was seriously ten steps away, but we always did it for them (we didn't want to face what would happen if we didn't do what they said). My brothers and I joked about that when we have kids, we couldn't wait until the day we can make them do things for us...and then the other night I'm lounging on the couch after dinner and ask Emma to go get me something (I think it was a pen) and she turns around to look at me and says, "You always make me do things for you" and I say, "That's why I had kids."

I catch myself a lot saying things my mom says, decorating the house like her, and even buying the same workout DVD's as her. I am becoming more like her and I think I'm okay with that.