Kitchen Cobwebs + Graham Cracker Recipe

My kitchen gets used all the time. Nonstop, really. It's the hub of the house and I wouldn't have it any other way. I literally just spent 30 minutes cleaning it as there was mail strewn on the island, milk spilled on the floor and dishes galore.

Unfortunately, it's not seeing a lot of creative love lately. I still cook some nights (and other nights are eating out or freezer hunting... I'm not ashamed) and the dishes never seem to end. Like the laundry. I swear they get together and talk about how to be ultimate time suckers.

When my friend Brie posted on IG about making homemade graham crackers, I didn't contemplate making them but got right to work! Some things just warrant dusting off the pots and pans for immediate attention. I also made my favorite Spanish rice recipe for a teething Benjamin. He loves rice and the more fat I can add, the better. This is the ultimate comfort food for a Mexican-food-loving girl like myself. So naturally, I pass on these traits to my rice-loving toddler.

Back to those graham crackers though. Amazing. Six ingredients, quick to bake, no eggs or sugar and you most likely have all of the ingredients on hand. And really, there's nothing like taking a bite out of them fresh out of the oven. I recommend it.

Recipe from its source.

2 c wheat flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c honey
1/2 c butter, melted

1. Mix dry ingredients. Set aside.
2. Mix wet ingredients, then add to dry ingredients. I used a fork.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. Press cracker mixture onto 12x17 cookie sheet. I used my mini roller for this. Make fun fork marks just for cute factor.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes. I baked for 8.5 minutes and would not go over that for my oven. After 8 minutes, watch them. They will be soft but harden as they cool... though I wanted them to remain slightly soft.
6. Cut immediately from oven. I used a pizza cutter and a butter knife to finish off the edges that the pizza cutter could not get to and then put them on a drying rack. Not sure if the drying rack was necessary.

I bow down to the maker of this recipe. Delicious.

General Updates and Such

• I'm making cabbage rolls tonight. Never made them before, and I'm following about 3 recipes that I'll morph together, plus a little creativity on my part. It's also a clean-out-the-produce-in-my-fridge meal, so it will be unique.
• I bought a bunch of cabbage at the store last week and have been making a cabbage salad every few days. 1/4 head of cabbage sliced thin, 1/4 red onion sliced thin, handful of cilantro roughly chopped, handful of baby carrots sliced thin (or julienned), 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp sesame oil, dash of soy sauce, 1 tsp grated ginger, salt & pepper (make dressing separately). It gets even better after a day or two. Mmmm.

• Also made dragon noodles recently and loved them so much, I made them again the next day! I made with different noodles each time and omitted the egg because I think they're gross. And also, I don't buy them.
• B has his fourth tooth officially. I've felt it since the weekend, but I can now officially see it well enough to confirm that it's broken through.
• Thank God. 
• The cold is still here and in full-force. My Nose-Frida is taking her sweet time getting here and I'm getting impatient. 
• B is also getting up on all-fours and rocking a bit, but he still does the airplane and gets pretty pissed that doing the airplane doesn't actually make him fly. He manages to scoot all over the map though with his roll and 360 degree turn technique.

New hat! Thanks Ceil & Helen!

• We took B to vote with us last night. Why I had to use a half-dried up pen to bubble in my choices like a scantron as opposed to the punch stamps like past elections? I felt like I was voting in a fake election. And they were out of stickers? I mean... really.

• We're like this close to finishing our basement. We took a pilgrimage to Home Depot last night after voting to buy paint. The light is finally seen at the end of the tunnel. Good heavens. Hooray. Renovation post to come.
• Every night for the past few months (+ randomly over 1.5 years), Ray has been going down into the basement after B goes down to bed for the night and working until midnight and later. I've been joining him once the primer/painting started up. 
• And bonus, B decided to start waking up randomly (dang cold!), making for a sleep-deprived family.
• We scheduled to have our floor epoxy done the week of the 18th! We've never been more excited to spend thousands of dollars on flooring. Hah. It will look similar to this. We chose the brown.
• We bought a mattress for the basement and plan to buy a mattress encasement so it stays moisture free. Our basement is the cleanest basement around, so I'm not too worried, but I like peace of mind. We're also thinking about a metal bed to hold said mattress and we like this one for an affordable, yet classy option. 
• We also really want a treadmill for the basement, but we don't want to spend the cash right now. Anyone have one and love it? We're runners (albeit slow), so it would have to be durable.
• Ray just finished the Steve Jobs Biography and I'm excited to read it. 
• I'm gonna need a Halloween candy eating intervention. We have gone through like 50 various chocolate items in the last week. I'm averaging 3+ a day, people. 
• It's Wednesday and nap #1 of 2 is fleeting. Off to accomplish!

Adventures in Baby Food Making, Take Two

I have a couple posts coming at you this week. I missed Insta-Friday and I'm not sure I'll keep doing that. Unless you guys enjoy it? I just feel so redundant. But the reason I missed it? We were in Boston! Another travel post to come on that in the next couple days. And that would be the reason I run ads on my blog. Because, y'all. We like to travel and travel isn't cheap! Hah.

But for now, I'll discuss baby food. Because I currently live in the land of messy baby is eating real food and pooping something cray-cray. And it's my excuse to cram another food post on this here blog.

Here are the photos I have going on of the little person's food supply:

spinach

cubed up

cherries!

cubed up

sweet potato

I've been really slacking on the photo-taking of the food making, but so far I've blended up the following items for freezer storage in ice cube amounts: carrots, yellow squash, cherries, blueberries, oatmeal, pears, sweet potatoes, bananas, spinach, apples. There are so many other items B will be exposed to, but I just haven't bought those up yet. I've also cheated and purchased the Ella's Organic, HappyBaby, Plum Organics & Gerber Organics squeeze pouches for travel and occasional convenience. They are pretty tasty as we've been known to finish them off when he's had his fill. Hah. He's also eaten some of those HappyBaby banana puffs that, for the record, don't taste anything like banana. We know. We both tried them out. And since I might hear the riot act from someone about the size in his wee baby throat... we literally break them up into about 6 pieces to serve him. And watch him like a hawk when eating. It's pretty much the only way to get through a 2.5 hour flight with this kid without breaking out every shiny object in the world to entertain.

So a few topics of conversation about baby food making in general. I still use my blender and love it to pieces. I've also used a hand baby food maker (like the magic bullet) for smaller amounts like cherries that is currently on lend to a friend for her son's food making. He was actually born 18 hours before B, but is obviously much older gestationally. And... they will be in the same grade at the same elementary school. Crazy.

Back to food talk. I happened to buy too many cherries we couldn't possibly consume fast enough and decided to blend them up. I only had about 20 cherries, however, and that amount is simply too few to place in the Blendtec. You need a smaller processor for that if not mixing with a more substantial amount. So for the cherries, I used the hand bullet blender thing. I don't know the brand. It came in a baby food maker pack, but it doesn't appear to be printed anywhere and it was here way before Andrew, so my mind shut all of that information out. No brand plugging there, sorry.

The oatmeal cooking and freezing turned out to be completely unnecessary. From my last post, I could've just saved the oat flour (which I did some), add water, and microwaved for literally seconds to achieve cooked oatmeal at that fine of a consistency. So no need to boil a huge batch of it again unless I want to eat it myself. I plan to make more oat powder soon because I want to eat some and because B likes it.

On the oatmeal talk. I did break down and buy B some fortified organic oatmeal at the grocery store because his new Ped was explaining the importance of vitamins. He is already receiving Poly-Vi-Sol with Iron a couple times a week and I am still breastfeeding regularly, eating well, and taking prenatals... so I'm not convinced he needs the fortified oatmeal, but it's really not much harm. It's still better than the rice cereal to me. I feed him some of our steel cut oatmeal and some fortified on a mixed basis. No real order for that.

Bananas aren't necessary to blend and freeze. I usually just take a too-ripe banana and cut them in thirds and freeze them for smoothies for myself. Now I serve B bananas that aren't frozen or if we're out, I take a third out of the freezer in my smoothie stash to feed him by adding to his oatmeal usually. And a bonus to serving warm oatmeal and a frozen banana is that I just plop the frozen piece of banana into the just heated (hot!) oatmeal and it cools it down instantly and the banana is smashable in mere seconds. A certain baby isn't so patient, so seconds are way better than sticking hot oatmeal in the freezer to cool off.

I've been adding cinnamon to almost everything he eats (if it's a fruit/oatmeal blend. I even added to carrots last night!). I'll be working on exposing him to spices. Not spicy, but spice blends so he hopefully develops a more sophisticated flavor palate early on. I happen to love a plethora of spices and cook often with them. It would be oh-so-lovely if B liked my cooking.

As for his feeding schedule... it's changed a bit. I imagine I'll be changing it frequently until he's on solids for each meal. Currently he's being breastfed about every 3-5 hours, depending on his needs. He usually gives me cues when he wants to be fed (whines incessantly, pulls himself toward my chest, starts sucking on his/my/Ray's arm or something). He has only breastmilk until about lunchtime when he is fed some small finger foods usually in his high chair. We're hoping to incorporate some of the baby led weaning techniques and get him used to texture. He has two teeth now, so we're thrilled that he'll be on the train to chomping down or gumming soft foods in small amounts. Lunch foods might include chunks of banana, small bits of pasta, quinoa, steamed veggies, some of whatever I'm having, etc. Dinner for B has been served at the beginning of his bedtime routine (dinner, bath, nurse, bed). It's usually oatmeal + 1 cube of something. It varies, but he obviously loves the sweeter items like oatmeal-banana and especially loves oatmeal-apple with cinnamon.

Our hope is to get him eating at the dinner table with us soon enough. I can't wait for family mealtime where we're all eating. Come on pincer grasp! I've already started blending things a bit chunkier because I know he has a strong ability to gum foods now.

We haven't tried spinach yet. I'm scared. Though I'm not sure why, considering he has liked everything we've served him (including pickles!) to date, except a really sour batch of blueberries which I will now be adding to my own smoothies instead. The joys of serving your kids "baby" food you'll also eat!

Speaking of the spinach... I actually made it (5 cups loose spinach + 1/4 water = 1 ice cube tray) only because we always seem to have an excess around our house and I didn't want it to go bad before consumption. So... I blended, cubed, and froze.

We're having a lot of fun with the feeding stage, but notsomuch fun enjoying the diapers that come along with it or the dirty clothes! It's nearly impossible to get the simplest of food stains (banana? who knew?) out of light clothing. I feel like I need to advocate for a no white clothes on babies act soon or something. Because heavens, people. Mom be doing way too much laundry. Do not fear... I realize my grammar was poor there.

No joke about those diapers, though. While fewer blowouts because of the sheer (somehow that seems like a poor choice of words here) thickness of them and less propulsion abilities, they are indeed something special. So much that we had to literally exit a T train in Boston to change his diaper and hop back on a few trains later to reach our destination. It was that stinky.

He doesn't seem too embarrassed about it, though.

The Pie Hole Proposition

Okay, so I've been thinking about food lately. Obviously, right? I practically post like a food blogger lately because it's become so much more of a hobby, especially since I'm staying home with B.

I've given up sugar for months at a time now in the last couple years and really like how that makes me feel. I feel in control and more conscious of what I'm eating. We're not the healthiest of eaters (despite my vegetarianism which does not mean I'm vegan, btw!) but we're not terrible either. We eat a mix of whole foods and some processed foods as well. I was thinking today that since I finally feel like I have this whole yeast and rising thing down in breadmaking that I would stop buying loaves at the store. I just love homemade bread and the store bought stuff just doesn't really compare. Then it got me thinking about other things I've been eating that I could probably consider modifying or making myself rather than buying ready-made.

A friend of mine has been going strong for 2 years on a plant-based diet and dropped all of the heart and blood pressure meds he was taking and lost tons of weight. While I'm not quite ready to go entirely plant-based as I couldn't possibly give up cheese at age 29 with perfect health otherwise, I would like to eat less of the fats, oils, and cheeses and more veggies, fruits, and grains. I just plain don't know how to do that.

Because y'all, I love cheese so. freaking. much. And ice cream. Oh, ice cream. Life is sort of about the indulgences every now and again, I think. And since life's far too short, I don't want to spend my whole life worried about everything I consume either. My kid will be given money to buy from the ice cream truck. And I will not stop eating Magnum ice cream bars or Snickers. But I'd like to make some changes.

What about you all? Ever attempted a plant-based diet yourself or given up certain foods just because you wanted to live healthier? I'm curious.

p.s. From the last post, I just want to add that I am not against attachment parenting and actually follow some of the practices myself. But I just wanted to reiterate that I wish all mothers could encourage one another. Plain and simple. It's a hard enough job as it is without feeling like you're always behind the curve.

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Hey Good Lookin', Whatcha Got Cookin'?

Well, thanks for asking. Hahaha.

I was in the market the other day and green bell peppers were on sale for super cheap. I'm all about seasonal vegetables because there will always be variety, they force creativity, and they're cheaper! All that said, I have no idea if peppers are "in season" during early spring, but the market peeps seemed to think they were. As I stood there selecting the best of the bunch, a woman next to me was doing the same thing. She was one of those people that no matter what, she is going to tell you what she is going to do...and in this case, it was pertaining to her bag of discount peppers. Well, she let me know that since they were large in size, she planned to make stuffed peppers. Thanks for the idea, lady! Then she proceeded to explain how she cooks them and that's when the uh huh's started coming out.

But I have her to thank for tonight's dinner, because I've never made stuffed peppers and did for the first time tonight! I would've normally made a veggie and meat option for my carnivorous husband, but since he just returned back from Germany (aka Land o' Sausage), he requested veggie-only. I quickly Googled my way to a recipe and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Thank you very much, Vegetarian Times! It's rare that I follow any recipe exactly and tonight was no different... but I did follow most of it...

Here's the recipe with my added commentary in blue.

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (1 cup)
• 2 Tbs. olive oil (or 1 Tbsp....)
• 2 ribs celery, finely chopped (1/2 cup) (omitted)
• 1 Tbs. ground cumin
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
• 1 10-oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (omitted)
• 2 15-oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved (used 1 can, seasoned tomatoes instead)
• 1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 cup quinoa (one of my most favorite grains. Protein-rich, delish, and versatile!)
• 3 large carrots, grated (1 1/2 cups) (food process that baby and get 'er done!)
• 1 1/2 cups grated reduced-fat pepper Jack cheese, divided (used a mix, but wish I had pepper jack!)
• 4 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs removed (used green and only 2)

Directions

1. Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and celery, and cook 5 minutes, or until soft. Add cumin and garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Stir in spinach and drained tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated.

2. Stir in black beans, quinoa, carrots, and 2 cups water. Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Stir in 1 cup cheese. (prefer only on top since it can't be tasted well, anyway) Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour liquid from tomatoes in bottom of baking dish. (oops. poured it all out. I used water and mixed with chili powder, garlic, onion powder, cumin, various spices.... purpose is really just to steam the pepper while baking)

4. Fill each bell pepper half with heaping 3/4-cup quinoa mixture, and place in baking dish. Cover with foil, and bake 1 hour. Uncover, and sprinkle each pepper with 1 Tbs. remaining cheese. (if you like it cheesy, maybe a full slice of cheese as a topper?) Bake 15 minutes more, or until tops of stuffed peppers are browned. Let stand 5 minutes. Transfer stuffed peppers to serving plates, and drizzle each with pan juices before serving. Serves 8. (I stuffed four pepper halves and had about a cup left from the mix I made. I omitted spinach, celery and one whole can of diced tomatoes but added in about 1/4 cup of corn for color and sweetness. I recommend serving with salsa or Sriracha. I <3 Sriracha)

Here are a few photos from the creation:

Unrelated, but did I share what my amazing husband sent while he was away in Germany this past week? Since I'm doing that crazy challenge (sure glad, because otherwise I would've been consuming my weight in margaritas this week!), he made sure to ix nay the chocolate. I bet that doesn't happen all that often! Haha.

Isn't he wonderful? He's back, in my arms, and here to stay. Well, at least until Thursday when he leaves for Texas!

Soup. It's What's for Dinner

I decided to make chicken tortilla soup last night for dinner. In case you're wondering, it was 30 degrees and snowing yesterday in this great state of Illinois. {...and in my head I'm begging God to fast-forward to SPRING.} We had friends over and I enjoyed cooking for all of us. We needed the distraction and our friends know all too well what it's like to have a date to remember our babies by, but no babies to hold. I guess we have that in common. Not something we wished were the case, of course. I digress... I've attempted tortilla soup only one time prior, so this was attempt #2. It was just as delicious as the first! Here are the ingredients:

For 4-6 servings, I used the following:

• 3 cans diced tomatoes with green chilis (or cilantro-lime, or even fire roasted. All would be delish. You can also use a can of green chilis with fresh tomatoes if you happen to have those on hand instead.)
• 1 1/2 packets of taco seasoning (or... if you're not a fan of all the sodium, use chili powder, cumin, ground garlic, and cayenne pepper. There are recipes out there, but I'm too lazy and shamelessly love salt. It's my vice, actually. Try this one if you're cutting it out or aren't lazy like me.)
• 8 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I used bouillon, whatever you've got-- but remember it also has sodium)
• Veggies for the filling. I used 2 small diced zucchini, 1 can sweet corn, 1 diced onion, 1 yellow pepper, and 2 diced serrano peppers for a little kick.
• Shredded chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken from the market. Already cooked, only needed shredding)
• Toppings: diced avocado pieces, cilantro, lime wedge (squeezed), crushed tortilla chips (not pictured)

Directions are pretty simple. Dice all veggies (except avocado, lime, cilantro since they're toppers) and throw them in a pot to saute for a few minutes. Add canned tomatoes and saute for a few more minutes. Add broth, taco seasoning, and chicken. Allow to simmer and heat. It's doesn't need to be heated forever like chili because you are targeting more of a broth than a stew consistency.

It didn't photograph well, but here's the finished product (minus the avocado slices) because we ate them all! 

It was my first time using serrano peppers, so I was excited. I've recently experimented with poblano peppers in spicy cornbread muffins and thought they were delicious. Serrano peppers are different, though. They are higher than jalapenos on the Scoville scale. I added two (about 1/2 pepper for each serving) and it was just right for those of us who like a little kick.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of those peppers in my fridge! When I went to purchase them, they only sold them by the package! I bought the smallest package and still had about 10 peppers! My friend Liz (she's married to "Gourmet Husband", as we call him. He likes to cook and has quite the knack for it) recommended making classy pepper poppers using them.

Serrano peppers, seeded, halved, stuffed with goat cheese and topped with cilantro. They would probably be fantastic roasted on the BBQ and then stuffed and finished in the oven. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds perfect. I'm not a goat cheese fan, but I love cooking new things, so I'd be willing to give it a shot!

And since I just typed the abbreviation BBQ and thought perhaps BBQ sauce would be delicious with Serranos! Serranos on a burger? The sky's the limit!

And finally... in case you're wondering how this vegetarian eats these meaty dishes, it's simple. I cook without adding meat, take a portion out, and then add the meat in for the rest of the meal to be complete. Of course that also means we have leftovers now and it's only to be eaten by my carnivore husband.

Well, he's not complaining.

Cooking Machine

I've made a few recipes recently that we liked enough to blog about. I'll definitely be making these again soon.

First one... pot pies. I love pot pies but have an impossible time finding ones that are both vegetarian and not 100 grams of fat each. I had never attempted the creation of one myself, but felt that the fall weather we've been having was the perfect time.

I felt a bit like Sandra Lee of Semi-Homemade Cooking when making this meal because I used mostly store bought items to save time. The recipe follows the photo...

Using our Crate & Barrel ramekins I love so much, I made these. Here's the recipe:
Semi-Homemade Chicken & Veggie Pot Pies 
Ingredients:
Crust: 
1 can of 8 low-fat croissants
Filling: 
- 1 breast cooked/chopped chicken
- 4 cups of cooked vegetables (I used 2 sliced carrots, chopped broccoli, diced green bell pepper and sauteed them with a touch of soy sauce/covered to steam the rest of the way)
- 1 can Cream of Potato soup (eliminates the need to cook potatoes, too!)
- Cheese of your choice. I used mozzarella, cheddar, and parmesan
- Chives, pepper, salt, season to taste. I don't measure... I just throw in.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to whatever the croissant container tells you to. :) 350 degrees I believe.
2. Unravel croissants but do not separate. Leave as two long rectangles. Use a rolling pin to thin them out as much as possible. Cut your thinned dough into 8 squares total.
3. Line the bottoms of the ramekins with a square piece of dough in each. Cook for about 5 minutes until a hint of golden appears. This is done so the bottom does not stay soggy when you add ingredients and cook again.
4. In the meantime, cook veggies and chicken.
5. Mix veggies, chicken, can of soup, and just enough water to give a smooth but not soupy consistency (about 1/2-3/4 cup depending on how much of the other ingredients you've added). Add cheeses-- whatever amount you'd like. Eye-ball it. Heat in a saucepan altogether until cheese melts into mixture.
6. Spoon mixture into each ramekin (at this point the bottom dough is a bit cooked).
7. Use the remaining 4 squares of croissant dough and cover each top by pinching over just as you would in making an apple pie.
8. Bake until golden.

Yields 4, 10-ounce ramekins = 4 meals ... but in our case... 2 very, very full people who love croissants a whole lot. Haha.

The next recipe was born when my friend Liz asked me to make a "bean" salad to bring over for dinner at their house. Bean salad? I'd honestly never made one! She of course knew that I am a veggie and figured I would find this task easy. One would think. I quickly kicked into gear and wanted to use my absolute favorite new protein/grain, Quinoa. This stuff is delicious, versatile, and incredibly good for you. It tastes just like white rice and has an airy consistency. I am not a fan of brown rice and this far surpasses that and is still better for you! I found recipes on the internet for quinoa and black bean salads but wasn't entirely pleased with any of them. So... I used some of their ideas but made my own rendition.

Black Bean & Quinoa Salad
Ingredients:
- 2 cans black beans, drained
- bell pepper, diced (any color--I used red)
- 1 large tomato, diced
- 2 cups cooked and cooled quinoa (Hint: I cook with 1 cube of boullion or some stock instead of plain water. It makes for a much tastier result)
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 bunch chopped green onions
- 1 cup sliced or chopped black olives
- 1 cup corn
- Chopped jalapeno pepper (I also added some of the jalapeno juice to the dressing)
Dressing:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3-4 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon chopped/minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon jalapeno juice (if using canned jalapenos, use jar juice-- or from peperoncinis jar)
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients & serve cold

That evening, we had a great dinner at the Allen's house. We brought our salad and they made beef cabernet burgers with ciabbata bread as the buns (toasted and delicious), homemade spicy black bean veggie burger for me (SO delicious and so thoughtful), and spicy sweet potatoes (I don't like sweet potatoes but these were not sweet and I actually enjoyed them!).

...and let's not forget to mention a Thanksgiving package that showed up at our doorstep this week! Ray's parents sent some Thanksgiving love from Maryland. Thank you, MD Wilsons!