Mexican Pizza

Since Chris is working evenings and I am solo to prepare dinner and watching the kiddos, so dinner has been dumbed down a bit. I know once a week I make pizza with pre-made pizza crust. They are little personal sized crusts, that come in a three pack. I dig them. At least for now until I can make my own again.

But having a small cheese pizza every week has already started getting old, but I love how simple it is and Devon gets to make her own. She only eats half though, but I just put the other two pieces in her lunch for the next day. So it works out well. No wasting food. I decided to try to make a "mexican style" pizza. I love black beans and have been itching to use my cilantro from the back yard, so that's what I did. I played with the idea of using salsa instead of marinara sauce, but then I thought it would drown out the fresh cilantro taste. So wa-la! Here is my idea.

Marinara sauce with black beans, and fresh, yummy cilantro. I'm am totally digging the fact that I can just walk out to the back yard and Wham! here's some yummy cilantro and soon other veggies. It's incredible.

And then I put a mexican four cheese blend on top. It was pretty tasty and Matthew even ate a piece, but his didn't have cilantro on it. The third pizza I made was half black bean and mexican cheese and half mozzarella. Next time I will definitely add more cilantro, man I love that stuff, and maybe diced bell pepper and jalapeno. Very yummy stuff.

Little Pizzas

A long while back, I volunteered to bring some food to our home fellowship group for everyone to munch on. But then forgot and had to pick up something last minute. So I grabbed a huge box of bagel bites. And of course everyone loved them, especially Devon. From then on, she has always referred to them as "little pizzas."

I have a few personal problems with bagel bites. One they are on white bagels, which to me have no flavor. Two they are chewy whether you bake them or zap them in the microwave. Third, I'm not too sure about the cheese they use. I prefer 2% and since it is more expensive I doubt they use it. And fourth, they are pricey!

So of course I set out to create my own version with more nutrition and taste. Well, let me tell you, they are a cinch to make and have become the current must have food in our house. They are eaten for snacks, I put them in Devon's lunch, and Chris and I have had them for our lunch.

For the basic bagel bite replica, all you need it mini bagels (I used whole wheat of course), pizza sauce (or spaghetti if you run out from popular demand!) and shredded mozzarella cheese (I use 2%). But of course you can get fancy and put veggies on it, pepperoni, whatever floats your boat. Pop it in the oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes.

They taste much better because there is flavor and they are not chewy because they haven't been in a freezer for months (or longer.....eek!) I'm willing to bet they are just as good with normal sized bagels, but I'm a big fan of cute food and to me nothing says cute like "mini food." Although technically a regular bagel is little compared to a pizza, but that's getting picky.

Einstein bagels has an asiago cheese bagel that is awesome! I bet they too would make great little pizzas. Super Target carries Einstein Bagels in there bakery section, in case your interested.

So I'm done talking about bagels now, go make some of your own. You'll be hooked.

Bed Time Schmed Time

Well, today was exciting! It was very chilly and it was a Saturday which means Farmers Market day, Hooray!! My favorite. We get out there and it is so windy that most of the vendors took down their canopies, but I wasn't worried because we were all bundled up.

Matthew had on two pairs of socks, sweat pants (that are huge on him!), a onesie, a sweatshirt, a beanie, and he was snugglied to me with a blanket over him. We were warm. Devon was sporting her new coat I bought on Friday while she was in school. I'm so proud of myself for paying attention to the weather forecast and snagging a coat before they were all gone.

So we walked around and got the veggies we will need for next weeks meals and had some lunch. Then we headed over to the library for new kid books and cook books. I'm two pages away from starting on spiral number three for all my recipes. Then back to home. It was almost one by the time we got home and we were all pretty pooped. I made some grilled cheese, since we ate lunch at 10:30 like Devon is used to doing at school and then Matthew was ready for his afternoon nap.

I popped in Cars and we all snuggled on the couch. Matthew was the first one asleep, nursing knocks him out quick when he's tired, then me and at some point Devon even fell asleep. It was cute! I woke up at the end of the movie to both my sweeties sleeping on me. It was heaven. But I knew I would have to wake them up. It was 4:15 and if they nap too late, then they won't got to bed. So we woke up and then went to wake up Chris.

Tonight I went out on a limb and made something I wasn't sure Devon would like at all. I made crunchy chicken and blackbean tacos. Turns out if you put anything in a crunchy taco shell, Devon will eat it eagerly!! I'll store that bit of info for future meals. Every bite she took, she dramatically mmmhed. It was great.

So now, it is 8:30 and while I should be having quiet Mommy time, Devon is now hanging out in the living room reading her knew library books because she is not tired. Big surprise there! So I'm going to join her on the couch and read her the new books until 9:00 and then I will have to put my foot down for bed time. It's ok to fudge the rules from time to time, it's all for the love of reading!

Granola! I Love You!

Today was a good day for baking. It was cool enough outside to leave the backdoor open with the screen shut so the oven wouldn't heat up the down stairs.

But before my baking fun began, I went to Sun Harvest, which is like a mini Central Market, to grab some Fenugreek and check out the bulk bins. Boy did I hit the jackpot! Well, that's exaggerating a bit, I just happened to find a few items that central market didn't carry in bulk. I snagged a mother-load of organic rolled oats, some barley (for baby food), sliced almonds (mmmmmm) and lots of wheat germ. The wheat germ was definitely the best buy. I got about one and a half times as much as you get at the grocery store for about $4 for only $0.55!! Woot!! Sorry I get excited about bargains. It runs in the family......

So back to the granola. I got the idea a couple of days ago to make my own granola bars when I realized I would have to go back to the grocery store to get more for Chris because he is working seven days straight this week and I didn't buy enough during my last grocery visit. So I went to one of my favorite recipe websites (http://www.allrecipe.com/) and browsed about the different ways to make it.

It really isn't as complicated as it sounds. You just mix everything up and slap it in a baking pan. I don't know why I assume most things would be more difficult to make from scratch. Perhaps the food industry has something to do with it. Have you seen the commercial stating that peeling a potato is hard work??? It takes like five minutes to peel enough potatoes for mashed potatoes! Slimey corporations.... Sorry. Tangent.

So yeah. I did it. I made my own granola bars and they're pretty yummy. They turned out a little crispy for my taste, but that's my fault for not checking on them. Mine are flavored with honey, craisins and almond slices. Oh boy, tastey and healthy! Don't you just want to grab one?

Test Kitchen #2

Well, I did more cooking from scratch last night. I made chimichangas! Which I have done one other time, but they weren't too fantastic. But last nights batch was awesome. Chris was very impressed, which is hard to do. So Hooray for me!!!

These had beans, meat and cheese, and yes I do mean my homemade "refried" beans that are not fried. Devon even liked them, until she heard me call it a chimichanga instead of burrito. Why that made a difference I'll never know, but she sure did finish it.

Test Kitchen #1

Well, for the last couple of months I have been collecting tons of new recipes and many of them oddly enough call for the ingredients of fall. Such as squashes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, mmmm. I have had a butternut squash hanging out in my cupboard for a few weeks and I've been pretty anxious to use it in something.

Monday, for some insane reason, I decided to go ahead and cut it up to encourage me to use it soon. So for dinner Monday night I decided we were having pasta with butternut squash and brown butter sauce. So I take the cubed squash out of the refrigerator and pop it in the oven and start cooking the pasta and the sauce. Well, I wasn't very confident with how the sauce turned out so I didn't use it. I just put a couple of spoon fulls of butter on the pasta after I drained it and then added the squash and mixed a pinch of nutmeg.

The verdict. I think the squash should have been cubed a bit smaller (my bad) so it would have cooked a little more tender. BUT it did look so appealing that Devon popped a piece of squash in her mouth without me having to make a bargain for her to try it. She said she didn't like the way it felt in her mouth. Once again my bad. But she did eat all of her pasta which had little tiny bits of squash on it from mixing, so haha she ate it without knowing it, even if it was just a little bit.

I liked it, but I didn't eat all the squash because it wasn't cooked enough for my liking. Oh well, next time I will know better, which is good because hopefully next time Chris won't be sick and will maybe try it. Good thing I worked the kinks out. Now I just need to get a handle on cooking sauces. Anybody want to volunteer to teach me?

I'm Bringing Bulky Back

Shortly before we moved to Austin I discovered an awesome place that is pretty well known to most, Central Market. And when we moved here I was so excited that there was one pretty close to our apartment complex. Then I found a second one downtown! It was heaven. Then I looked at the prices and got less excited. Regardless, they have some awesome food! And I love even to just "window shop" (it's odd to call it that when I'm talking about a grocery store).

Recently a friend mentioned that she buys her spices in bulk. And silly me pictured her buying a five pound bag of paprika. Then I found out that she meant from bulk containers. So I went to Central Market to check out their bulk bins. Wow came to mind pretty quick. You can get dried fruit, grains, spices, coffee, sweets, cereals, beans, nuts, sugar, and a whole lot more. Most of this stuff even has an organic option that is only a tad bit more in price, and I do mean like a few cents.

So with some birthday money I recently received, I went to town. Don't give me that look. I can spend my birthday money on whatever I want. *sticking tongue out*

I came home with

some organic rolled oats (for making muffins, cookies and oatmeal pancakes mmmmm) I've already used half of it. :)

a salt and kosher salt,

organic pinto beans,

granulated fructose (which is sugar that is processed less than regular sugar)

and a few spices that I racked my brain to remember the most recent recipes I had jotted down to know what to get.

It was very fun. I can't wait to go again!

Raising the Bar

During the past few months I have been consuming all sorts of information about nutrition and health. I just can't get enough of it. Who knows maybe I'll become a nutritionist and conquer the school lunch systems out here. (when I find the time)

But anyway, my new found hobby is finding new recipes to cook. I've been scouring the rows and rows of cookbooks at the library, searching recipe websites online, and taking notes from friends. I'm even borrowing a technique from my grandma where I copy down all the recipes in a spiral and then make a table of contents at the beginning. It's quite fun and I'm not waisting money on cookbooks that I might only use a few recipes from.

Unfortunately this also means there is potential for yucky dinners from poor recipes, and the only way to know if it is bad is to make it. And there are some pretty bad ones out there. I have attempted twice now to make mac and cheese from scratch and both were horrible. But I'm not giving up! Mac and cheese from a box is insanely processed and I KNOW I can outdo a box.

I have made a few dishes where I surprised myself. And if you know me, then you know I hate to have to touch meat, aside from cutting it. I don't like to eat meat with bone in it so I don't cook meat with bone in it. Poor Chris, this really limits my meals. I have been making baby steps though. Last week I made pan fried tilapia, and it was actually good. I've also made chicken nuggets, chimichangas and my own refried beans. Which I must add that Chris said, "These are better than the can." SUCCESS!!

So maybe I'll get really bold and post some pictures of my new found culinary skills. Although they will never compare to the great Bescow, Chris's best friend. He is actually attending the top culinary school in the US and his pictures of food he prepares makes me drool. Shoot, I am still trying to figure out how to mince garlic properly. One of these days I'll get it right.