Long Time, No See

It has been far too long since our last blog update. My husband and I moved to a new home, I had my daughter, Jordan started her new job. Things have really changed around these parts.

Okay, I lied maybe a little. Things haven't really changed that much. We literally moved down the street to a bigger house for a cheaper rent. The addition of an infant hasn't changed too much since the hubs and I were already homebodies. I'm sure the new job has brought on an entire slew of changes for Jordan, the biggest of which may have been finding a sitter. Let me tell you, there are some real winners out there trying to scam you out of your dollar for the substandard level of "babysitting" these sitters offer. However, that's neither here nor there.

Jordan and I decided today that we really need to work on reviving our blog. This was a great way for the two of us to connect and enjoy some adult time while our husbands were deployed. We aren't sure where this next year will take us so we're going to live it up while we have our time. It's been a long time since the two of us have been able to get together without distractions from a toddler or an infant. Don't get me wrong, children are amazing. I never knew how incomplete my life was until my daughter entered into it. I will not lie, though, sometimes it is just nice to have adult conversation.

Tonight, I was able to do something I haven't done in a loooong time. I played with make-up! Almost all of my eye make-up has been due for a chucking and needed to be replaced for at least a month now. I finally decided to take the plunge, spend the money and do what needed to be done. It's not an easy thing, throwing away make-up just because it's older than 6 month. Especially when you know how much you'll need to spend to replace it. The plan had been to find some other women to purchase some MK products so I could place an order and fill my needs through them. That plan didn't work out so well. Long story short, I will no longer be any kind of MK consultant. That's when I decided to try to find a store nearby that sells ELFcosmetic products. Target is my hero. After a quick search on the ELF website, I found not just one but two local Target stores that carry ELF. I visited both to see which has the better selection. Sadly, neither had everything I needed but, between the two, I was able to get enough to hold me over until my order from the online store arrives. That story I will save for another day. It's a good one!

Now onto the make-up. I wanted something quick, easy and natural looking for a casual luncheon I had to attend. I wanted to look polished and put together without looking like I was wearing any make-up. Here's how it turned out:

This look is almost entirely ELF cosmetics, using only an eyeliner crayon and mineral foundation from MK (2 of the items I was able to keep and continue using).
Always be sure to wash your face. You wouldn't paint on a dirty canvas, don't apply make-up to dirty skin. After washing my face, I started with tone correcting concealer under my eyes. My daughter is going through a growth spurt and you can really tell by looking under my eyes. Next, I lightly applied MK mineral foundation all over my face. In the picture below, you'll see my brushes lying directly on top of two eye shadow colors in the eye shadow palette. Those would be the colors I used on my eyes, along with the brushes I used to apply the shadow. Taking my eye shadow brush, I applied a light, matte brown over my eyelids. Using the crease brush, I added just a small amount of a matte white to the center of my eyelid (think wanting to create the appearance of light naturally reflecting off the eye), to the inner corners and just under my eyebrows. I applied the MK eyeliner crayon in bronze to my tightline (also referred to as "waterline," the inside line of your eyelids). Using the ELF waterproof eyeliner pen in black, I applied a very thin line of eyeliner above my lashline on my upper eyelids. I finished my eyes with ELF waterproof lash lengthening and volumizing mascara. I used the ELF eyebrow kit to darken my eyebrows, applying first the lighter powder and then the darker waxier color to set my eyebrows in place. I finished the look with ELF hypershine lipgloss in berry cherry.

After playing with my own make-up, I had the itch to keep going with something fun. After spending the afternoon together, I convinced Jordan to come have dinner at my house and let me play with her face. She's never turned me down for a free make-up application. Knowing we had nowhere to go, I wanted to play with cotton candy colors. I absolutely love bright color eye shadows and my ELF 100-piece eyeshadow palette has plenty of bright colors to choose from!

I started this one with a shimmery peach (5th from left, 5th from top in palette) over her eyelids followed by a medium purple hue (6th from left, 2nd from top in palette) in her crease and her outer corner. I found the perfect cotton candy blue (4th from left, 5th from top in palette) for the outer corners of her lids and lined the outer corners of her bottom lids with a deeper blue (4th from left, 3rd from bottom in palette), using a pale shimmery pink (1st on left, 2nd from top) to highlight under her eyebrows. I also used the eyebrow kit on Jordan's eyebrows just like I used it on my own and had her finish her eyes with the ELF lash lengthening and volumizing mascara in black (disclaimer - do not share applicators! As a former make-up consultant, I have a slew of leftover disposable applicators for just about everything. Man, am I going to miss that convenience).

Always be sure to keep your brushes clean! ELF has an anti-bacterial brush shampoo that I recently purchased and fell in love with. For just $3 a bottle, too! That is totally affordable. No excuses! You don't want an eye infection, do you?

Failed Cinnabonrolls and Canned Tomatoes

OH, failed Cinnabonrolls! Yesterday, Jordan and I volunteered to bring dinner to a local family that is in the middle of a family emergency. We wanted to bring something for breakfast, as well, and chose cinnamon rolls. The recipe gets 5 stars out of some 3,000 reviews and boasts tasting identical to Cinnabon brand cinnamon rolls (hence the Cinnabonrolls). I will be the first to say that if a recipe boasts a big talk like that and doesn't follow through, I will NEVER make the recipe again, regardless of how delicious it might be. I'm pretty sure Jordan feels the same way. Well, these Cinnabonrolls did NOT taste like Cinnabon in the very least. The worst part was how the cinnamon filling hardened to rocks on contact with saliva. They were tasty but not anywhere near Cinnabon quality.

Jordan and I have an inside joke but I'm about to go public on her with it. Canned tomatoes. We constantly joke each other about the use of canned tomatoes in Italian food and whether they make the food substandard. Of course, neither of us believe that. We both know Italians that use canned tomatoes. It's purely a cost and time-effective method to cooking that just wasn't available in the "good old days" of our great-great-grandparents. I think our jesting confuses some people, though, especially when we choose a public forum to pick on each other. It's nice to have met someone who was raised with the same, "I pick on you because we're friends" mindset that I was raised with. If my Dad doesn't make fun of you, he doesn't like you. Plain and simple. I guess the same goes for me. I take a minute to be sure I won't make someone cry with my joking, as I recognize not everyone was raised the same way, but if I know you well and I haven't cracked at least one joke, I probably don't like you. Then again, I might crack MANY jokes at your expense if I despise you. You'll know the difference.

Nostalgia, Shopping and Yummy Food

I remember my getting my very first cookbook. It was in 9th grade and I got it as part of the curriculum for the Home Economics class I had to take. I think that might have been the beginning of my addiction to cooking and baking. Part of the class required hosting a dinner party, a tea and a brunch as well as learning and being tested on table etiquette (i.e. where the water glass goes in relation to the dinner plate and which fork is used for salad as opposed to shrimp). I haven't touched the cookbook in a long time in favor of newer, glossier and less-worn cookbooks but I recently came back to it out of pure nostalgia while looking for a dessert recipe. I've been craving lemon and my husband has been craving anything rich and decadent, since he lacked anything halfway decent while deployed. Tonight, we settled on lemon pudding. I'll be honest, I've always shied away from traditional custards and puddings due to a fear of scrambled eggs floating in a thickened, sweetened milk sauce. Cooking show hosts always stress carefully adding the hot liquid to the eggs to avoid cooking the eggs. Most likely due to the fear induced by these strong warnings, I managed. If you've never made a custard or pudding before, I'd suggest having a friend or family member their to help you, especially if you're as nervous as I felt. Definitely don't plan on multi-tasking since the saucepan needs constant attention and stirring while cooking. Without further adieu:

Lemon Pudding
Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook: Everything You Need To Know To Cook
1/3 cup of sugar
4 TBS flour
1/8 tsp salt

2 cups of milk

2 TBS lemon zest
2 TBS lemon juice
2 large egg yolks
2 TBS butter, softened
2 tsp lemon extract (optional)

Lightly beat the two egg yolks in a medium bowl. In a medium saucepan, stir together sugar, flour, salt and lemon zest. Slowly whisk in milk, cooking on medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Stir in lemon juice. Boil and stir constantly for 1 minute. Very slowly and carefully, whisk half of the milk mixture into the bowl of egg yolks. Whisk the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk mixture. Boil and stir constantly for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in butter and lemon extract. Pour into a bowl or dessert dishes, cover and refrigerate until serving.

I, personally, thought the pudding had a wonderfully light lemon flavor without the lemon extract but Luke wanted something a little stronger. You could also add more lemon zest instead of extract for a heavier lemon flavor.

I recently decided that I will no longer write up a meal plan each week based on what I feel like eating but, instead, will use the grocery store websites and coupons to determine what is discounted or on sale and will make meal plans based entirely around those items. This week, Luke and I ended up buying only 1 item that wasn't discounted or on sale! I was excited. I need to get better at couponing but I managed to get two weeks worth of food for what it usually costs us in groceries each week. AND we impulse-shopped a few items (read: Luke impulse shopped. It's okay, he was deployed, deprived and what he wanted was on sale anyway). Thanks to our local grocer, I was able to try my hand at Carrot Soup. There was a  pretty amazing sale on carrots and College Inn brand chicken broth this week and I had some fresh dill leftover from a few weeks ago (I was on a dill-kick prior to the lemon kick and bought and froze a ton of fresh dill). Normally, I'd suggest homemade chicken broth for any soup recipe but I used my last container a few weeks ago when I was sick. Also lucky enough, the grocer had an awesome sale on whole roaster chickens so I bought one to double for dinner AND chicken stock! Anyway, back to the carrot soup. I'm not actually a huge fan of carrots but this soup changed my mind entirely. I'm so glad I still have more carrots and broth so I can make it again in the next two weeks, the next time adding a few more carrots.

Dilled Carrot Soup

Recipe adapted from the 2006 Edition Taste of Home Cookbook
4 cups Chicken Broth (I suggest College Inn brand)

6 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

4 TBS lemon juice, divided

3 TBS dill, chopped and divided
1/2 cup heavy cream
Black pepper, to taste

Combine the carrots, 2 TBS dill, 2 TBS lemon juice and chicken broth in a medium saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Cover and simmer until carrots are tender enough to be pureed. Remove from heat and puree carrots (we used an immersion (hand) blender but you can also use a food processor or standing blender). Return saucepan to medium heat, stir in cream, remaining dill and lemon juice. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes. Add black pepper to taste and serve.

I'm a big fan of the brightness of the dill and the clean flavor the lemon adds. The soup tastes very mildly of carrot so I definitely plan to make it again using a few more carrots next time. If you want a strong carrot flavor, I'd suggest cutting the amount of lemon juice in half and adding 2-3 more carrots, though I haven't yet tested this theory.

Now, go eat!

ReUnited!

My husband is home!!! YAY! I'm so glad our first deployment was a short deployment. I cannot express how glad I am that Luke is finally back here with me. It's kind of weird to not have Luke here to talk to about everything at the end of the day. The car ride home from the airport was pretty awkward but, as soon as we got home, things felt right again. I think the car ride was only awkward because my driving the car was very out of the ordinary for us. Luke hates sitting passenger. Anyway, he's home and I'm happy. It's been wonderful to have someone here to eat my cooking. I'm not sure what he was fed over there but it couldn't have been good. I say that mostly because he tells me it wasn't good but also because I've never seen the boy inhale so much in one sitting than he has at each meal this week. He's actually been eating himself sick. I don't mind the compliment to my cooking.
I may or may not have said this in this blog before but I love baking. I bake anytime I feel any extreme emotion, whether it's happy, sad, frustrated, excited... You get the point. Of course, I wanted to bake something this week. THEN we went to Bath and Body Works and they were having a wallflower sale. I found this delicious smell, "Creamy Nutmeg." I'm a nutmeg fanatic. I put it in almost everything. It has such a universal scent and flavor, it can go in savory dishes or sweet. I had to plug it in as soon as we got home. My diningroom and kitchen are filled with the amazing aroma of baked-sweet-nutmeg which only added to my desire to bake. I caved last night and made vanilla cupcakes with a light lemon frosting. The cupcakes are vegan but you'd never know. They are HEAVENLY! I took the recipe out of a vegan cookbook I own and tweaked it after realizing I didn't have some ingredients (I know! ME out of baking ingredients?!?! What has the world come to?).

Vanilla Cupcakes (makes 6 cupcakes)
Recipe adapted from 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson

3/4 cup Very Vanilla Soy Milk

1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups All Purpose flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 and prep a 6 cup muffin pan.
In a small bowl combine soy milk and apple cider vinegar. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil and vanilla. Mix in soy milk mixture. Mix in flour mixture (it will be thick). Bake until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean (about 25 minutes). The end result is a moist and dense cupcake.

I also have a few bananas sitting on the counter, ripening for banana bread. I couldn't find my bread pans (it turned out they were sitting exactly where they should have been and where I'd searched 3 or 4 times) so I made muffins instead. I've never made banana bread before so I decided I should probably look up a recipe. I found a basic one and decided it was horrible but didn't want to keep looking so I decided to wing it and see if I could manage. Guess what? I DID! The banana muffins came out light and fluffy, perfect for a snack.

Banana Muffins (makes 12 muffins)

Recipe by Deborah Schiefer

4 bananas, mashed

1 egg, beaten

5 TBS unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp Vanilla extract

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 cups All Purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray or line a 12-cup muffin pan.

Mix together the bananas, egg, butter, vanilla and sugar. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients. Combine the banana mixture with the dry ingredients. Pour into muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove to wire rack to cool (or eat them warm with butter).

The last recipe I'm posting today is for Spicy Beef and Broccoli. Luke and I decided that we wanted to eat "take-out" tonight without having to order or go somewhere. Besides, restaurant Beef and Broccoli almost always has a sweet sauce and I'm not a huge fan. I also don't tend to like the texture of the low-quality beef and I've been really excited lately for making home-versions of restaurant meals so we started with this one. It came out SO well! The broccoli stayed crisp and the meat tasted (and felt) like beef. The sauce wasn't overly sticky (due, in large part, to the fact that it wasn't sugary) and I could control just how much sauce made it to the plate.

Spicy Beef and Broccoli (feeds 2-3)

Recipe by Deborah Schiefer

1 sirloin steak, thin sliced against the grain

4 cups heads of broccoli florets

1/2 red onion, thin sliced

Sauce:

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup Low Sodium soy sauce

2-3 TBS Sriracha (you can omit this if you don't like spicy food)

5 garlic cloves, minced (you can also use less garlic for less spice)

1 cup water

Whisk all ingredients for sauce in a bowl. Pour just enough sauce into a frying pan or wok to coat the bottom of the pan. Brown the steak slices in the sauce. Drain sauce and replace pan. Add broccoli and onions to pan and pour in remaining sauce. Toss broccoli and beef to coat with sauce. Cover and let steam for 5-10 minutes, until broccoli has reached desired tenderness, stirring occasionally.

You may need to add water if the sauce steams out. Once the broccoli was cooked, I transferred the beef and broccoli to another plate using a slotted spatula so our dinner wouldn't be swimming in sauce.

Luke and I both decided we definitely prefer my version of beef and broccoli to anything we've eaten outside of the house. The best part was we knew exactly what went into our dinner (no MSG! Yay). Oh, and we still have leftovers. I made fried rice with it but I switched up my recipe and it didn't work so we'll save that for another day when I can post a pretty picture to go with my original recipe.

Stop reading and go make your dinner or cupcakes or banana muffins. Go! Now!

Healthy Eating Done Right

Part of Jordan's Christmas gifts this year was a gift card to Williams and Sonoma. We both live in apartments and cannot have a personal grill so she's been salivating over the All-Clad Indoor Electric Grill for more than a year now and was finally able to get it. The ordeal was crazy, drawn out and ridiculous due to the customer service representatives at the Williams and Sonoma catalog end of the company. After finally leaving the local store with her grill in hand (really, in arms. That thing is huge), we decided to celebrated with some delicious, grilled vegetables and made a short trip to Whole Foods.

So many people these days have lost the joy of cooking vegetables, opting for overly seasoned and flavored or canned for the flavor of the veggie, itself. The most additional flavor I like to give to my veggies would be olive oil and mild spices but today, after craving veggies so badly, we opted for the deliciousness that nature offers, adding only the smokiness from the grill.

The process couldn't have been any simpler than it was. We chose to keep it simple with red bell peppers, grape tomatoes, garlic, cremini mushrooms and purple onion. When washing your mushrooms, don't leave them in water for too long as they absorb water and lose flavor. The best way to wash them is to use a damp paper towel and wipe each clean but sometimes that just isn't the best option for your time frame. Many cooks say it won't hurt anything to rinse them as long as you do so quickly. Snip the top off your garlic clove and cut it in half for a faster grill time. The softer the garlic is when removed from the grill, the milder the flavor. We cleaned our bell peppers and onions, cut them in quarters in grill those that way. No olive oil, no seasonings, no marinades and no spices. It was absolutely delicious, flavorful, colorful and smelled wonderful. The grill worked amazingly and I would definitely recommend it, especially since it's on sale right now for about 2/3 the normal price. It has a large grill surface and would work well cooking for just one or two or for feeding company. This was my first experience with anything Williams and Sonoma and I definitely approve.

We added to our dinner a small baguette that we sliced and served with olive oil seasoned with dried rosemary, garlic powder, salt and fresh cracked pepper and a simple tomato salad. For the dipping oil and bread, be sure to allow the seasonings to rest in the oil for a few minutes for the flavors to mingle. The longer the oil rests, the more flavorful it will be. As for the tomato salad, I'm not really sure you could even call it a salad. We bought a few heirloom tomatoes and chunked up some delicious parmesan cheese and drizzled it all over with basil infused olive oil.

On a side note, you'll need to bear with our photos for a little while. Jordan's camera kicked the bucket and I left my camera in North Carolina so we are currently using Jordan's Android phone to take photos of the food we make.

That's all for now. Peace out, hommiiiiiiiieeee!

Happy New Year!

Is 2010 really coming to a close already?!?! Oh. My. Geez. It seems like we've barely started the year. I found myself wondering, two days ago, if it was really 2011 that I would be signing on checks after tonight. Well, Jordan and I created this blog and we've barely used it at all in the last few months. Let's hope 2011 brings us diligence in keeping in touch with the techonological world (outside of Skype and Facebook. We're pretty good at staying connected there).
I don't know about the rest of you but I, personally, don't do New Year's Resolutions. There's this whole psychological thing about wanting to break rules and so many people create resolutions as if they are guidelines, or rules, for the new year. I don't enjoy setting myself up for failure. I've never met someone who actually keeps their resolutions. Sure, there are things I'd like to accomplish but I refuse to hold myself to some silly standard just because it's expected.
Enough of that, no one wants to read my prattling about my views on New Year's resolutions. Have a Happy New Year! Jordan and I both wish you the best in the upcoming year! If you are the type to make resolutions, good luck in your endeavors!

Turkey Day Catch-Up

I know, I know, we just posted one of these last night but we're playing a little catch-up here and it was too late to write too much last night. Besides, we can't exactly leave out the turkey from Thanksgiving and it would be weird to not have it posted at least by the end of 2010! At first, I'd wondered if the turkey should even go up on the blog. I mean, we are horribly late posting the recipe, but it can be easily changed over to be used in a chicken and some people eat turkey all year round, right? So without further adieu, the turkey (with a few other recipes).

Thanksgiving 2010 Turkey Awesomeness (feeds 15)

1 (20 lb) turkey

3 lemons, zested and quartered with the zest separated

2 onions, quartered

10 garlic cloves

3-5 sprigs fresh rosemary

3-5 sprigs fresh thyme

1 TBS dried rosemary

1 TBS dried thyme

2 tsp fresh cracked pepper

2 tsp ground sea salt

Combine all dry herbs with the salt, pepper and lemon zest in a small bowl. Remove the gizzard bag and neck from the inside of the turkey. Squeeze the lemons into the inside of the turkey and leave them in the cavity with the onions, garlic cloves and fresh herbs. Rub the turkey skin with the dried herb and lemon zest combination. Cook in oven according to turkey packaging directions. In the last hour and a half of roasting, use turkey juices to baste turkey for a golden brown skin.

Of course, you can't just have turkey on Thanksgiving but, due to the size of the group we were feeding, we opted for a slightly simpler approach and decided to soup up some boxed and canned foods. We did, however, make homemade potatoes and homemade cranberry sauce with a really awesome souped up stuffing. I really wish cranberries were sold for longer than a few months every year. I'm sure it's not one of those fruits that are easy to grow in a greenhouse, like oranges, but I'd much prefer cranberries to oranges, year round. For now, I'll have to settle for for cranberry juice throughout the year and wait until November to eat cranberry sauce.

Cranberry Sauce

1 (1 lb) pag of cranberries

1 1/2 cups water

1-2 cups sugar (depending on how sweet you like your berries)

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4-1/2 tsp cloves

Boil all ingredients together on the stove until the berries have split and the liquid has thickened. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

Loaded Mashed Potatoes (feeds 15)

2 lbs baby red potatoes

2 lbs russet potatoes

5-8 garlic cloves

1 cup sour cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided

1/2 cup chopped scallions

1/2 cup crumbled bacon

Salt and pepper, to taste

Wash, peel and cube potatoes. Boil, with garlic, until a fork easily pierces through potatoes chunks. Drain and place in a sturdy mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat potatoes and garlic with sour cream, heavy cream, 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, scallions and bacon, reserving just enough of the scallions and bacon to garnish. Once well blended, top with remaining cheese, bacon and scallions.

Souped Up Stuffing

2 (14 oz) stuffing

3 sprigs fresh sage, torn

1 onion, chopped

3 celery stalks, chopped

2 (14.5 oz) can turkey gravy

1 TBS olive oil

Sautee onion, celery and about a quarter of the sage in olive oil until onion becomes translucent. Place stuffing in a baking dish and stir in the sauteed onion mixture with remaining sage. Pour the canned gravy into a bowl and add one can of water, mix well. Pour over stuffing, mix well and bake according to stuffing packaging directions.

In other news, the New Year means a ton of post-holiday crash dieters. Not so much fun for Jordan and I, as all of our food will soon be disappearing off the shelves of the local grocery stores. With husbands gone, our diet consists primarily of Healthy Choice meals with the occasional home-cooked meal. Thank God for stores like Whole Foods! I'm already looking forward to the end of February and March when the "Biggest Loser" competitions will be over and when people fall off the New Year bandwagon so I can shop cheap at Wal-mart again, visiting Whole Foods only occasionally for the special home-cooked dinner. I must admit, though, it's been so long since I've been in a real grocery store, I do kind of look forward to visiting Whole Foods.

Chocolate Makes the World a Better Place

It's been a while since our last post but, due to the hour, I'll be making this a short post. Jordan and I have been ALL over the place the last few months with holiday preparation but that doesn't mean we haven't had time to cook. Actually, holidays gave us reason to cook more than usual. We managed a full Thanksgiving meal for 15 people and Christmas Eve dinner for 11. You might think we're crazy, and on Thanksgiving, we kind of were, but Christmas Eve was fairly easy due to the nature of the meal. Christmas Eve was almost entirely a one-man show, cooking simple Italian and splurging on the sauce. Some people are entirely opposed to the idea of Italian cooking, though it isn't nearly as terrifying as one may assume. To make it less intimidating, we'll start with an easy Faux-talian lasagna recipe.

Easy, Cheesy Faux-talian Lasagna (feeds 4-6)

2 lbs lasanga pasta*

2 lbs mild or hot ground Italian sausage

1 (16 oz) container ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
3 jars pasta sauce (I personally like Bertolli brand Vidallia Onion, Arrabbiata or Olive Oil and Garlic)
1 (4 cup) bag shredded Italian cheese blend
Dried basil, as needed (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and boil the lasagna according to packaging directions. Do NOT drain or the noodles will stick together. Mix the egg, ricotta and bread crumbs in a small bowl and brown and drain the sausage. Coat the bottom of a deep dish lasanga pan with pasta sauce. After the lasagna has cooked to just before al dente remove from heat. Line the bottom of the pan with lasagna noodles, drop spoonfuls of ricotta mixture onto the pasta and spread evenly. Sprinkle over with sausage and pour sauce over before repeating the layering process. When the pan has about 1 inch of room left, sprinkle with half of the cheese, basil and remaining sausage. Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, top with remaining cheese and return to oven WITHOUT the tinfoil for another 30 minutes. Allow to rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
*I suggest making more pasta than you'll actually need only because I refuse to use the pieces that are horribly broken and mangled. Also, there's a chance some of your noodles will stick together so I like to have extra so I don't have to peel it apart. If you don't mind using broken pieces, 1 lb is usually plenty, depending on the depth of your pan.

Now, mostly for pure excitement at FINALLY perfecting a recipe, I'm going to add a picture of my cupcakes. I can give you the recipe for the "frosting" but, unless I have a child that inherits my love for baking, the cupcake recipe with follow me to the grave. Okay, that's a bit drastic, but I DO need to keep it TOP SECRET in case I have my own bakery one day. Not in case, for when I have my own bakery one day. Anyway, the "frosting."

Raspberry Cream Frosting (basically whipped cream)

1 pint whipping cream

1 1/2 tsp raspberry extract

1 stick (1/2 butter), softened*

powdered sugar, to taste

Beat butter on medium speed until creamy. Add in raspberry extract and beat until well incorporated. Slowly add in whipping cream, beating on slow speed, until ripples begin to form in the cream. Add powdered sugar to taste and increase speed to medium. Beat until stiff peaks form.

*Omit for whipped cream 

Well, that's all folks. I'm going to FINALLY get some sleep!

Fresh Start

I like to think of what we are doing right now as a fresh start. We did start to eat healthier but that was before vacation. Before we were stuck indoors due to a tropical storm when we should have been out at the beach. Before we ate FAR too many potato chips, handfuls of Dirty White Trash (refer to previous blog), plates of cheesy goodness and bowls of delightful sweets. We’d both be liars if we said we didn’t gain any weight while vacationing. It’s okay, though; the weight is already starting to melt off of our bodies. Vanity is a sin but I am of sinful nature. I try to be humble and sometimes I don’t but either way, I know my vanity is wrong; I just can’t seem to shake it. I guess there are worse things to feel. At least vanity keeps me healthy.
Speaking of healthy, I just came up with a new recipe for a dairy-free protein shake. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I’m not only lactose intolerant but also allergic to whey protein. That makes commercial protein shakes a double-no for me. That’s where almonds come into play. Almonds are a nutty protein powerhouse. This shake is definitely superior in flavor to that powdery junk they sell at GNC (just because it isn’t the best thing for my body doesn’t mean I haven’t tasted it) and it has the consistency you chose since you add the ingredients (mine was like a very thick milkshake). It probably doesn’t have the amount of protein commercial shakes contain but it also wasn’t formulated in a lab.

Banana Nut Protein Shake
Recipe by Deborah Schiefer
1 1/2 bananas, frozen and cut into chunks
½ - 1 TBS almond butter
1 cup almond milk
½ TBS cocoa powder
½ tsp cinnamon
Blend it all together. Cocoa powder can be omitted. Nutmeg can be added. Only you can decide exactly how you want it to taste so have fun with it!
Due to the probable caloric content (I guestimate around 350-400 calories based on average caloric content of bananas, calories in almond butter and almond milk), I would suggest drinking it as a meal replacement instead of a supplement. That’s actually how it came into existence, anyway. I was craving a milkshake at lunch (instead of healthier options) but didn’t want to kill my digestive track with dairy. Watch the sodium content on your almond butter. The brand I bought has higher sodium content and the flavor of salt was almost overpowering. Okay, not quite, but I’m a salt-aholic and can taste the stuff in chocolate so I could definitely taste it in my shake.

Now just because we eat clean doesn’t mean we always cook and bake clean. Both of our husbands are deployed and missing out on any and all home-cooked goodness. If you’ve ever had a loved one deploy you have an idea of what a box of goodies means to our military men. Jordan and I decided that we needed to go on a baking spree and fill a few containers with goodies for our men to share with the soldiers they work with. Oh, and by a few containers, we mean five containers each. Not all of the cookies were terribly memorable, in fact, one even flopped since we didn’t have eggs and had to substitute banana. We don’t discuss that cookie. There were, however, three cookies that left a mark on our taste-buds. The first being a recipe for Oatmeal Scotchies from the back of a Nestle® brand butterscotch chips, the second being from the back of an Andes Mints® brand bag of mint chips and the last being a recipe for caramel apple cookies that was adapted from an online recipe. Of course, the boys will be happy to eat them regardless of how memorable the cookies are; they are the only home-baked goodies the boys get right now. However, we don’t think we should fill our space with cookies that are less than divine so only the best make the blog. The caramel apple cookies will need to be added at a later date since the recipe needs some perfecting but I thought I might give you a sneak peak as to what recipes are in store for future blogging.

Oatmeal Scotchies
Recipe by Nestle® Toll House
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 stop baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 (11 oz) package Butterscotch chips
½ (11 oz) package mini chocolate chips (optional; added by Deborah Schiefer)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in a larger bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and morsels. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 7-8 minutes for chewy cookies; 9-10 minutes for crisp cookies.

Andes® Crème de Menthe Chunk Cookies
Recipe by Andes® Candies
½ cup salted butter; softened
¾ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 (10 oz) package Andes® Crème de Menthe Baking Chips
2 2/3 cups sifted all purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat butter, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and eggs until mixed. Stir in Andes® baking chips and then flour. Chill approximately one hour in the refrigerator. Roll dough into balls and flatten slightly. Raise oven rack one level above middle and bake on non-stick baking pans for approximately 8-10 minutes.

Pictures will be up as soon as Jo can get caught up with her photography.  With S (her hubby) deployed, she has less time to work on editing and making her photos pretty AND she's been busy snapping away with the camera to take pictures of the angel to send to S.  Don't get your panties in a knot quite yet, the pictures will be posted, you'll just have to come back and see them another day. 

We’re BAAAAACK!

All good things must come to an end. When it comes to vacations, sometimes it’s nice to pack up and go back home. I’ll be the first to admit I missed my bed and my dogs. I even missed Jordan’s snakes. I know she missed her home and her dog, too. Actually, I think Freija missed her more than anyone missed anything. She was the most pathetic little beastie on the ride home, stretching herself out to be close to anyone who would pet her and pay attention to her.
Not too much happened since the last blog. We spent most of our time indoors due to a tropical storm. There was PLENTY of room in the house and somehow we still all managed to get a little cabin fever. Jordan, Analeigh and I all share the same love for being outdoors, out of the house and on the move. We did make it to the beach once in between rainstorms and at the end of the week, the skies finally cleared long enough take a wild horse tour. Our tour guide brought us to the beach in a jeep where we did some off-roading while watching for the wild horses that populate the island after a Spanish ship banked on a sandbar off the coast over a century ago.
We were given a break from cooking for the last few days we vacationed. We still covered breakfasts but other family members took cooking duties for the last few nights. I tried pinto beans southern-style for the first time ever. Nothing goes better with pintos than chopped dill pickles and salt. I know it sounds a little crazy but you’ve really got to try it if you never have. The one breakfast we cooked that was (a) worth talking about (b) not entirely from a box was a breakfast scramble served over biscuits. The biscuits were from a “box.” A roll really. Pillsbury roll to be exact. We actually made this twice, adding a few more ingredients the second time around, improving the scramble. It’s an easy breakfast for a large crowd, though the eggs can put it on the slightly more expensive end, depending on where you live and how many you’re feeding.

Breakfast Scramble
Recipe by Jordan Carey and Deborah Schiefer
2 lbs bacon, diced (you can use sausage if you dislike bacon)
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
½ onion, finely chopped
18 eggs (plan 2-3 eggs/person)
Half tsp each garlic powder, salt and pepper (you can add more of any if you’d like)
3 rolls refrigerated Pillsbury biscuits (24 biscuits total)
Hot Sauce (i.e. Texas Pete, Frank’s RedHot) for serving
Bake the biscuits according to package.
Cook the bacon in a skillet, adding the bell pepper and onion once bacon has begun to crisp. Remove from skillet and drain, reserving some of the bacon grease to cook the eggs. You can use butter or cooking spray, if you prefer, but the bacon grease adds flavor to the eggs. Scramble the eggs in the skillet with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Once the eggs have begun to set, add the bacon and veggie mixture scrambling and cooking until desired doneness. Serve the eggs sandwich-style over biscuits with hot sauce. The hot sauce can be added to the eggs during cooking, if desired.

The first order of business, post vacation, was restocking our own pantries and refrigerators. Man it was nice to shop for myself and myself only again! I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting it is to restart clean eating. After a week of eating endless amounts of crap, my body is screaming at me for fruits and vegetables. I guess this is where it all really begins. We kick start our hardcore clean diet tomorrow. The count-down to healthy bodies starts now. Wish us luck!

Such is The Life

            I’m taking a break from our usual-style of blog writing for a slightly different blog.  As our profile states, we are both military wives.  Jordan is wife to an amazing soldier and I am wife to a spectacular Airman.  While the careers of our men are entirely different, the life-styles are very similar, the only difference being that I am just entering the life of a military wife while Jordan is a seasoned pro.  Not to say that she’s old, actually I am older than her, she just has years of military wife experience on me.  I love this life and I wouldn’t ever choose anything different.  I love my husband and wouldn’t leave him for the world.  I know for a fact Jordan feels the same way I do.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking for your sympathy, just for your understanding.  The two do not have to go hand-in-hand.  You don’t have to feel sorry for the military wife just to understand the life she lives.  Watching my husband leave for his first deployment was NOTHING like watching Jordan’s husband leave for his 5^th, 6^th or whatever number deployment it is.  Both are hard but I know my husband is not going to miss his first child’s first full sentence.  I know he won’t miss Christmas with her or Halloween or Thanksgiving.  I know this because we don’t have kids on earth.  I watched Sean gravitate toward Ana with this emotion in the atmosphere that was too strong and too heavy to deny. 

            Don’t kid yourself by prattling on about how the man or woman knew what (s)he was getting him or herself into.  Most teenagers don’t join the military with joyful plans to find their spouse, have children and then leave them home while they travel to hostile countries to fight a war.  Notice the use of the word “joyful.”  It plays a key role in that sentence.  Most people join because it’s the only life they know, they needed college funding, they couldn’t find a job, their job didn’t produce enough to support their family, they lost a sibling in war and a whole slew of other reasons that could fill a novel.  Military spouses are produced when a woman or man falls in love with a military member.  You can’t help who your heart adores and you aren’t going to leave their side because of his/her career.  You might have an understanding of what you are becoming involved in but you cannot truly understand it until you have lived it.  That goes for both the military member and the spouse.  I can say that, I’ve been on both sides, now.

            So next time you see a wife (or a husband) leaving her spouse for a deployment or when you hear a wife sob while watching the news, don’t roll your eyes and don’t blow her off.  She’s sacrificed so much for your freedom.  You don’t have to agree with the mission and you don’t have to support the war but you can still support the troops.  Remember the soldier who left is someone’s Dad, Mom, sibling, aunt or uncle.  Remember the spouse is missing half of their heart.   Remember a child is missing their parent.  Remember a parent is missing out on watching their child(ren) grow.

The Crab Says (Click, Click, Click)

I hate to break your hearts but Jordan and I have taken a hiatus from cooking for the day and will be back at it again, probably in time to add the recipe for Enchilada Bake (totally NOT clean, but hey, we're on vacation!) to this blog. It’s not that we don’t like to cook or we don’t want to cook, it’s just that the fresh seafood was calling so we took the opportunity to eat some crab… and shrimp. It was delicious. Pictures of the spread will be posted as soon as possible. There was crab, shrimp, lobster, mussels, hush puppies, ribs, mashed potatoes, corn, slaw, pasta salad and key lime pie. We quite gorged ourselves. I’m pretty sure I ate (minimum) 1 lb of shrimp on my own and Jordan ate (minimum) 2 lbs of crab. I would say I could never look at another shrimp or crab again and be content but I could definitely kill another pound of shrimp right now, if the opportunity presented itself. I’m sure Jordan feels the same way about crab.
The thunderstorms came rolling in, giving us some of God’s beautiful creation to watch in all of its powerful glory. There is nothing more beautiful than watching a storm come creep across the ocean, seeing the rain as it comes nearer and nearer until it’s pouring down, drenching you in delightful chill. There is nothing more relaxing than the scent and sound of rain mingling with the smell of the salty ocean air.
In the time between storms, we were able to sneak away to a few different shops to buy flavored, seasoned nuts and stamps so I could mail my bills which I hadn’t gotten to mail at home since they came so darn late. Among the nutty purchases was a bag of what the store calls “Dirty White Trash.” While the ingredient lists makes an attempt at vagueness, anyone with taste-buds could tell the main ingredient (aka: convection coating) was white chocolate. Here’s the low-down on the divine deliciousness called Dirty White Trash:
Chex Cereal
Pretzel Rods
Pecans
White chocolate
Confectioner’s sugar
Milk chocolate
It appears as though the cereal, pretzels and pecans are covered in melted white chocolate, dusted with confectioner’s sugar and drizzled with milk chocolate, made much like Puppy Chow. Jordan and I are already planning our own take on this delightfully sinful treat so we have something naughty to enjoy during our Fat Tuesday weekly ritual. Speaking of, I’m not sure we’ve told you about that yet. Every Tuesday night, The Biggest Loser comes on. Jordan and I have a weekly ritual of rooting for our favorite contestants (this year, I’m rooting for everyone since the person I root for always ends up losing. They can’t all lose) while eating the most fabulously calorie-laden naughtiness. Granted, we work our butts off exercising that day and the next to make up for some of it but you need to feel like you’re cheating every now and then in order to maintain sanity. To us, it seems most appropriate to cheat on Fat Tuesday. Besides, why must Fat Tuesday only come around once a year? I think it’s FAR better to celebrate the holiday once a week.
In other news, Analeigh has come a LONG way in learning her animal sounds, numbers and letters. She likes to count to 5 with Mommy or Auntie Deb Deb and loves to listen to the ABC’s. The newest additions to her repertoire of animal noises are the crab and the goat. The goat has taken a little while to remember; for the longest time, the goat said “goat.” Now the goat says “Maaaaa!” and the crab says “Click, click, click!” all while making crabby-grabby motions with her hands. The child is superior to most other children her age… she’s pretty darn cute, too.
The first meal made post-cooking-hiatus was Jordan’s Enchilada Bake. I will be honest, at this point, and let you know that I had absolutely no hand in cooking this meal. It was quite exciting, though, as I’ve been craving Tex-Mex and this is about the most delicious Fexican (Faux-Mexican) meal you’re going to get in your own home. Okay, well I’m sure there are equally delicious Fexican meals BUT this is quite tasty (and it smells awesome, too)! There are very few ingredients which MUST be present in the dish. Those that are optional will be noted with an asterisk (*) in the recipe. Anything added to Fexican meals that you might want or anything you want to remove from Jordan’s recipe that is marked (*) will be perfectly acceptable. I’m sure you will still be quite pleased with your end result. We know that some people are kitchen-impaired so the recipe will be with suggestions from Jordan for your palatal pleasures.

Enchilada Bake
Recipe by Jordan Carey
1/3-1/2 of a 73 oz package of corn tortillas, cut in half; DO NOT USE FLOUR TORTILLAS, THEY WILL FALL APART
3 lbs ground beef
3 packets of taco seasoning
½ onion, diced
1 can cream of mushroom soup, do NOT add water
2 (10 oz) cans enchilada sauce
2.25 oz can sliced black olives
4 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
1 or 2 (15.5 oz) cans refried beans*
2 (15.5 oz) cans black beans, drained*
Sliced pickled jalapenos*
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground beef in a skillet. Jordan swears the best way to brown the meat is to brown it while still frozen. She says it gives a smaller crumble on the beef. Drain the ground beef and add it back into the skillet. Add the taco seasoning and diced onion to the skillet and sauté until the onion is just slightly softened and according to the directions on the taco seasoning packets. Mix the enchilada sauce and the cream of mushroom soup into a bowl. Spread a thin layer of the enchilada sauce mix onto the bottom of a 13x9 inch baking dish. Add all other ingredients, with the exception of the refried beans, to the enchilada sauce mixture. Place a layer of corn tortillas on top of the thin layer of enchilada sauce in the baking dish, followed by a layer of refried beans, a then a layer of the enchilada sauce mixture, finishing with a layer of cheese. Continue layering ingredients, in that order, until you’ve run out of room or run out of ingredients. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes, top with cheese and bake an additional 10 minutes, until cheese has melted. Place a sombrero on your head, do a little Jarabe Tapatio (that’s the Mexican Hat Dance for you non-cultural folks) and serve up your Enchilada Bake with a little Fexican flare.

Away From It All

                Tis the season for a truly relaxing vacation and being so, we will need to be catching up on our adventures.  Anyone who has ever lived in a tourist area knows that the true prime vacation time is just before the location’s tourist season has begun or just after it has ended.  The majority of shops are still open, the majority of the tourists have left, rates may be just a little lower, the locals are very friendly (due to needing your money to be spent at their stores now that the annoying tourists have left) and the opportunity to kick back, relaxed and left alone seems to constantly present itself, regardless of where you are.  This is the time of year that Jordan’s family retreats to a very prime tourist location for a week of relaxation.  This year, I was lucky enough to be invited along with them.  The view is gorgeous, the food is delicious, the weather is beautiful, the pool is spectacular and the house is amazing.  Pictures will be up in no time.  What can I say? We like to gloat.

                Along with vacation comes guiltless eating.  We’ve both decided that this week we will eat what we feel like, not even considering the caloric count or dietary content in our meals.  We’ve divided up meal-duty, Jordan and I choosing to provide a few dinners and breakfasts.  We’ve made Chicken Parmesan and Bruschetta for dinner and a delicious breakfast casserole for breakfast.  The Chicken Parmesan is easy and delicious.  My name is Debi, I’m a half-breed Italian and I approve of this meal.  Granted, it’s not Grandma’s Chicken Parmesan BUT it is a deliciously simple meal when you’re strapped for ingredients or need to feed an army.  Bruschetta, for you non-half-breed-Italians, is a little piece of toast that is brushed with olive oil and baked to a crusty perfection.  My version is topped before baking so the ingredients for the topping have the chance to meld together in delightful harmony. 

Chicken Parmesan (Feeds 8-10)

Recipe by Jordan Carey and Deborah Schiefer
About 10 chicken breasts (the frozen “bag” chicken breasts work just fine but be sure to thaw them first)

3 jars of delicious pasta sauce (We used two Bertolli Arrabiatta sauces and a Bertolli Garlic and Olive Oil sauce)

4 eggs

Italian flavored Bread Crumbs

Oil

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

4-5 firm Roma tomatoes; sliced

Salt, pepper and basil; to taste

2 boxes of Linguine (we used DeCecco brand)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 13x9 inch baking pan and line the bottom with the sliced Roma tomatoes.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and basil to taste.  Set aside.

Pour enough oil into a frying pan to fry the chicken breasts.  Coat the chicken breasts in egg and then in bread crumbs and fry 3-4 minutes on each side, just until golden brown.  Lay chicken over the Roma tomatoes in the baking dish and top with two jars of pasta sauce.  Bake for 40-45 minutes.  Top with Mozzarella cheese and bake additional 15-20 minutes, until juices run clear from chicken when pierced.  In the last 15-20 minutes of baking the chicken, set a pot of water to boil on the stove.  Cook pasta according to directions on packaging and heat the remaining bottle of pasta sauce.  Serve chicken over linguine, with additional sauce or cheese, as desired.

This, by the way, is not Jordan’s original easy-peasy Chicken Parmesan recipe.  We were lacking in the spice-department so we had to go with what was cheap, fast and easy without needing to by a million little spice bottles.  The original recipe will be posted at a later date. Try this one now and try the original later and decide for yourself which you prefer. 

Bruschetta

Recipe by Deborah Schiefer
1 loaf Italian or French bread

4-5 Roma tomatoes; diced

1 sweet onion; diced

1 green, yellow or orange bell pepper; diced (I don’t use red bell pepper since I already have the red tomato.  Remember, you eat your food first with your eyes.  You want your meal to be as visually appetizing as it is tasty)

Sliced black olives

Leaves of 1 bunch of basil; julienned

Olive oil

Salt, pepper, garlic powder; to taste

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

At least 30 minutes before baking, combine tomato, bell pepper, onion, basil and black olives in a bowl and add salt, pepper and garlic powder, to taste. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Slice the bread into oval shaped slices and brush with olive oil.  Top with bruschetta topping and sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes, until bread is crusty and cheese has browned to a deep golden.  Allow to cool slightly before serving.

                Back to breakfast.  A breakfast casserole is something delicious and easy.  It’s the perfect meal to bring or serve at a brunch, perfect for the family that doesn’t like to get up early enough to eat a real meal, perfect to serve when you need to feed multiple people and perfect to serve when you want to start breakfast and watch TV while drinking coffee while your food cooks.  There are so many ways you can cook this meal so use your imagination.  It can be made into a very well-rounded meal, served in one dish.  The best part is that it’s so easy to manipulate to feed different size crowds and different palates.  You can use bacon or sausage; it just needs to be cooked first.  This casserole was made for a large crowd so we used more inexpensive ingredients.  The next time we cook it, we plan to use asparagus, basil, spinach, garlic powder and maybe some artichoke hearts.

Breakfast Casserole (feeds 4-6)

Recipe by Deborah Schiefer
10 extra large eggs or 12-14 large eggs

1 bell pepper; diced

1 onion; diced

4 slices of white bread; pressed flat

½ lb of bacon

Salt and pepper to taste

Sliced cheddar cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fry bacon and crumble.  Sauté the diced vegetables in the bacon grease until tender-crisp.  Meanwhile, grease an 8x8 inch baking dish* and lay bread slices flat on the bottom of the pan.  You may or may not need more bread slices, depending on the size of the slice.  The bread needs to cover the bottom of the pan.  In a separate bowl, whisk eggs with salt and pepper.  Pour just enough egg over the bread to coat the top of the bread.  Top with bell pepper and onion and then pour the remaining egg.  Top with crumbled bacon and cheese.  Bake for 30-45 minutes, until eggs have set and a knife inserted into the center of the casserole comes out clean. 

*You can use any pan you choose, really, just be sure the pan will hold the proper amount of food for the crowd you are feeding.

                I’m sure at this point you are wondering to yourselves, “Exactly what have Jordan and Debi been up to? We went to hear more about this vacation!”  Okay, you’ve twisted my arm.  So far, it really hasn’t been anything all too exciting.  The house is huge and it’s near the beach.  The pool looks like something you might see in a celebrity magazine or in some posh, high-end renovation catalog.  There’s an attached cabana with a grill and bar stools that actually sit IN THE POOL.  A deck on the third floor that’s open to the sky for some prime sun-bathing (in this house, we wear SPF. Neither of us is fans of looking like leather handbags, as it seems some of the people we know are (and do)).  I wish I could tell you we’ve done all kinds of exciting things but, to be honest, we’ve done more lounging and book reading than anything.  I find it entirely relaxing and wonderful. 

                Speaking of relaxing, I think I’ll cut the blog here, go find a book, curl up and read. 

*Pictures to come

A Day in the Life of a Potty Trainer

  As I mentioned in an earlier blog, both Analeigh and I are lactose-intolerant. I am also allergic to whey protein. I can deal with eggs, though they disagree with my body for other reasons. On the other hand, Analeigh cannot handle eggs. To better our health, we’ve decided that we are really going to work on cutting dairy, both for my health and for the ease of feeding Analeigh (Jordan is pretty strict with Analeigh’s dairy intake while I have a tendency to suffer through the effects of dairy on my body. I’m not a very good patient). Jordan’s enthusiasm for finding delicious recipes for sweet treats that her daughter can enjoy has renewed my enthusiasm for eating a diet that treats my body well. We’ve started this adventure with a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe. The cookbook we used called for Ener-G brand Egg Replacer but we didn’t have any so we checked the front of the cookbook to find what other egg replacers could be used and found that flaxseed is a good substitute. Since we had some ground flaxseed, that’s what we used. It did work as a substitute and lent a delicious, nutty flavor to the cookies but they also fell flat, though they did stay soft. Banana also can be used as a substitute for eggs, so the next day, I made a batch with banana. I have never seen or tasted fluffier, softer cookies in my life! The banana didn’t give too much flavor to the cookie, though there was a delightful hint.

Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies (recipe adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cook’s Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

4 ½ tsp Ener-G egg replacer (equivalent of 3 eggs, ¾ medium banana or 3 TBS ground flaxseed and 9 TBS water)
6 TBS water
1 cup water
1 cup non-hydrogenated, non-dairy butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup firmly pack brown sugar, light or dark
2 tsp vanilla extract (we used 3-4 tsp)
2 ¼ cups un-bleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (we used ½ tsp)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups non-dairy chocolate chips
1 cup chopped almonds

(Side note from Jordan: Deb and I thought it might be fun to try substituting the eggs with a mixture of Banana and Flaxseed (2 parts banana, 1 part flax) on our next attempt on these cookies, in order to keep the fluffiness AND the nutty flavor. We will tell you how that goes when we do it in the future. If you don't feel like waiting for us to try it, do it yourself and tell us the outcome!)

Preheat oven to 375. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or use a nonstick pan. In food processor or bender, whip the egg replacer and water together until thick and creamy (I did the same for the flaxseed).In a large bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Add the egg replacer mixture to the wet mixture, and thoroughly combine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat the four mixture into the wet mixture until it begins to form a dough. When it is almost thoroughly combined, stir in the chips and nuts, if using. Bake on the cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes: Remove to wire racks and cool completely

  Regardless of how they were baked (banana or flaxseed), they were delicious! We hope you enjoy them as much as we did! This was Analeigh’s first experience with chocolate chip cookies and they definitely gained her stamp of approval. I wish all of you could have seen her chowing down! Our next vegan baking adventure was to branch out with Chai Spice Cookies and Coconut Lime Cookies. Now, I’ve created a recipe for non-vegan Chai Spice Cookies and these vegan ones tasted EXACTLY the same. You cannot tell the difference between the buttery, dairy and egg-laden cookies and those that were dairy and egg-free. I highly suggest making them if you like a spicy, delicious cookie to dunk into your tea or coffee. They would be wonderful slightly warmed and dunked into a glass of Vanilla Hazelnut Rice Milk on a cool fall day. The Coconut Lime Cookies were equally scrumptious. There is a chance that these were the tastiest cookies I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. I could gorge myself on those babies and I’m not exactly the type of person that can eat tons of sweets; definitely a salt-aholic.

Chai Spice Cookies (recipe from 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson)

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground fennel seed
1 tsp Nutmeg (optional: Jordan adds this to the mix for an added zip!)
½ tsp salt
¾ cup vegan margarine
¾ cup butter
2 TBS plain or vanilla soy milk (I recommend NOT using soy milk and using rice or almond milk instead. I’ll explain later in the blog)
2 TBS agave nectar (pure (or fake) maple syrup does the trick also)
2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, fennel seed and salt. Mix to combine well. In a large bowl, beat together the margarine, sugar, milk substitute, agave nectar and vanilla until well blended. Add the flour mixture, stirring well to form a smooth, stiff dough. Pinch off small pieces of dough and roll them between your hands into balls. Place the dough balls on an ungreased baking sheet and use a metal spatula or fork (Jordan dips the fork in Sugar to add some additional sweetness and uses a "X" design to flatten them down) to flatten the cookies to about ¼ inch thick. Bake until lightly browned at the edges, about 15 minutes. Cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

  Now for the soy milk debate… I’ve read multiple studies that show the phyto-estrogens in soy milk act the same way, in your body, as estrogen would. I’ve also read studies for the other side of the debate that states that they don’t affect your body. I tend to lean toward the first argument, only because I watched my dad grow moobs (man-boobs) when he went crazy drinking soy milk and eating soy cheese while trying to lose weight. The growth of said moobs stopped immediately upon his halting of the consumption of copious amounts of soy, after his doctor warned him of the effects of large amounts of soy on the body. I’ve read a few interviews and articles from soy-advocates that have stated that soy consumption should be limited to 2-servings/day. I’ve also read that doctors recommend that menopausal woman consume soy milk instead of hormone treatment. I’m taking that to mean that we don’t quite understand how phyto-estrogens effect our bodies yet, though it seems they have a negative effect, so take it easy. Rice milk and almond milk are far tastier than soy (and superior, in my opnion) so I will be sticking with those. Honestly, it’s your opinion and choice. If you want to risk growing moobs, getting a high-pitched voice and subsequently losing your man-card (if you’re a guy) or risk hormonal issues as a woman, that’s your deal. I’ll play it safe.

Coconut Lime Cookies (recipe adapted (entirely by Jordan) from 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. Original recipe was for Vanilla Walnut Cookies)
½ cup vegan margarine
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
3 TBS lime juice
2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup unsweetend coconut flakes
½ cup sweetened coconut flakes, plus additional for sprinkling
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, beat together margarine, sugar, and lime juice until well blended. Add the flour, coconut, baking powder and salt and stir well to form a smooth dough. Pinch off small pieces of dough and roll them between your hands into balls. Place the dough balls on an ungreased baking sheet and press down to flatten to about ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle with coconut, pressing the coconut into the dough. Bake until lightly browned at the edges, about 15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. If you choose to use chocolate chips, press chips into cookies immediately after removing the cookies from the oven.

  I, personally, feel that the Coconut Lime Cookies tasted even better the day after baking them, after they’d sat in the container with the Chai Spice Cookies. They slightly absorbed some of the flavor from the Chai Cookies which added a whole new dimension to the coconut and lime. The next time I bake these cookies, I am going to try to (very lightly) flavor them with Chai spices to add that flavor without needing to bake the Chai Spice Cookies.
It turned out to be a very fitting thing that we began vegan baking for both my sake and Analeigh’s sake this week.
  Two days ago, Analeigh brought Jordan a fresh diaper and asked to have her diaper changed, for the first time ever. Did I mention that Analeigh is 14 months old? Last night, Jordan, Sean and I made a trek to Target to let Analeigh pick out her training potty. The darling girl picked out the plainest, reddest potty I have ever seen in my life but she does love it. In fact, she kissed the bowl in the middle of Target. It turns out Analeigh was more than ready to begin potty training. A total of SIX times today, Analeigh went to her potty, pointed at it, pointed at her diaper and said, “Potty!” Each time, Analeigh would get her diaper off, sit on the potty and pee. This child is SMART! I’m pretty sure the only time she peed in her diaper was when she was napping. Now, if only, she would poop in the potty, too.
  Today was also Sean’s birthday. Jordan out-did herself with dinner tonight. She made an amazing, smoky chipotle-citrus marinade for some smoked pork chops and let them sit in the fridge overnight. The result was voted the best pork chops we’d ever eaten. She also tweaked her recipe for Spicy Vinegar Green Beans, creating the best batch she’s ever made. The plan was to have jalapeno cornbread but she accidently made Jalapeno Johnny Cakes instead. That turned out to be quite an appetizing mistake. I’m not sure I will ever eat cornbread again, choosing Johnny Cakes in its place.

Smoky Chipotle-Citrus Pork Chops:
Recipe By Jordan Carey


4 Smoked Pork Chops (Bone-In about 1/2 an inch thick)

1 1/2 Cup Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce, Original #7
2 Cloves fresh Garlic (Coarsely Chopped)
1 1/2 Tbsp Chipotle Tabasco Sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp of McCormicks Grill Mates Spicy Montreal Steak Seasoning
1.5 Tsp of Garlic and Onion Spice Blend from the Gourmet Collection
1.5 Tsp of Chili and Lime Spice Blend from the Gourmet Collection
1/2 Cup Lime Juice
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
Salt
Pepper
1 Section of finely Diced Shallot

To prepare Marinade for Chops, mix all above ingredients in a Ziplock Bag, close and shake until blended. Place Chops inside said bag, make sure the marinade covers all the chops and let them marinate overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350˚. Place chops on a greased pan and bake until cooked all the way through. About 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check meat before removing it from oven as cook times do vary depending on the age/model/altitude of oven. 

Spicy Vinegar Green Beans (recipe adapted by Jordan Carey from FoodNetwork.com)

1/8 pound slab bacon, diced
1 Shallot, Coarsely Diced
2 Cloves garlic, Coarsely Diced
1/2 Red Bell Pepper Finely Diced
1 lb Green Beans
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes (I like to feel the burn! For a less "in your face" flavor, use 1/4 tsp Red Pepper)
Salt
1/2 Cup Boiling Water
2 Tablespoons White Vinegar
Fresh Ground Black Pepper

(I like to season my beans with salt, pepper, sliced shallot and diced garlic a few hours before cooking, just to get a bit of that flavor on the skin of my beans. However, That is entirely optional!)

In a large deep skillet, cook the bacon over moderate heat, stiffing, until golden. Transfer the bacon with a slotted spoon to a plate. Add the shallots, garlic and bell pepper to the skillet and cook, stirring, until softened. Add the beans, pepper flakes, and salt and saute over moderately high heat, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Add the boiling water and cover the skillet immediately. Steam the beans, shaking the skillet occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until just tender. Add the vinegar, and salt and pepper and stir until combined. Sprinkle with bacon.

Jalapeno Johnny Cakes

1 Box Jiffy Corn Bread Mix (Please note: I substitute Original Flavor Silk Soy Milk for Regular Milk. This makes the recipe that much better for you!)
1 Tbsp Dried Jalapeño Flakes

Follow Recipe on the side of the Jiffy Box for Johnny Cakes but add the jalapeños to the batter. Cook and enjoy!


  After tonight’s dinner and the recent baking, Jordan and I have decided we are perfectly capable of opening our own restaurant. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll see us on the Food Network Channel. Guy Fieri would so not be able to resist our delectable deliciousness.