This Week's Menu

I've been cooking lately. A lot. It's frightening and completely against my nature!

But along with the coupon and frugal bug I've been bitten with the home maker bug apparently. I've actually ... *gulp* ... been enjoying myself!

Do NOT tell my husband. I'll never live it down.

Last week I made Chicken and Macaroni and Cheese caserole, Enchilada casserole, Ground Turkey Soft Tacos, and Parmesan Crusted Chicken. We had the mac and cheese two nights. And then Friday we both had frozen microwave meals. :)

So I've been trying to plan ahead and think about what we can make throughout the week. It's more relaxing to know that dinner is planned.

Last night I boiled a chicken and made chicken noodle soup. I got the carrots from my grandfather's garden (they are so yummy) and chopped up some celery. The result was super yummy so last night we had soup and sandwiches.

I'm not entirely sure what we're having tonight but hubby is home so he'd better be making dinner tonight. I'm guessing salmon will be involved.

I have a whole Glad container full of chicken from the chicken last night. I'll either use that for another macaroni casserole or Fajitas. I bought two peppers at the grocery store yesterday. I won't actually eat them but they add good flavor. :)

My recipe list is not very long. Since I wasn't raised to cook I am not very creative when it comes to what I should (or can) cook.

What's your favorite recipe? And remember...I am SUPER picky. I don't eat onions, lettuce, celery, tomatoes (except ketchup or soup), or most other vegetables.

Got any suggestions for easy to cook meals?

Stupid STUPID Criminals

Do these MORONS not understand that I want my husband to come home for dinner?!?!? I made dinner (again...I don't know what is wrong with me this week) and now it will be cold by the time hubby gets home.

As hubby drives home, some IDIOT decided he'd pass people in the center turn lane, kick up a bunch of dust, and then try to HIDE when he saw hubby do a U-ey to snag his butt. He jetted into an apartment complex, pulled into a parking spot, and started to get out. Yeah right PUNK.

Hubby handcuffed his A*S and what do you know? He found mary jane so now hubby has to go to the office and file a stupid report. ARG!

Is it selfish of me to want my hubby home? I'm glad he gets another slime ball off the road ... but for pity's sake. I want hubby home for dinner.

*sigh*

Rant over. :)

The dinner smells delicious by the way...if I do say so myself. I had two chicken breasts and found a recipe so easy that even I figured it out (making my own adjustments for lack of certain ingredients). They look really yummy. =)

I just love The Daily Dish. Another great find thanks to Entrecard. Other recipes on her blog that I want to try...Tator Tot Casserole, Crockpot Chicken with Bacon and Cheese, Funnel Cake (because I just can't spend more than $15 on a "kit" from Gooseberry Patch), and this yummy Soda Cake.

I'm really hungry. Do you think hubby would mind if I ate without him? LOL

Wait...My Chocolate Isn't Chocolate???

Where have I been? When did Hershey's stop using the term "milk chocolate" when describing some of its candy??? I am so not that observant.

Check out this story on The Consumerist.

Apparently consumers like the new formula. Yeah, maybe. And I certainly didn't notice (not that I eat a lot of Hershey's candy bars).

But isn't it a little weird...our chocolate isn't really chocolate.

And did you know that there is a Candy Blog out there? I love it!

Please Stop Me!

I feel ill. I just finished my second donut. I think I'm going to throw up. But first I'll feel sick and get a headache. I KNOW better than to eat this crap. Sugar is NOT my friend.

The good news is that I've also already had two bananas today. So that's something.

Yesterday was pizza for breakfast and lunch. My last couple of weeks of eating have not been healthy. :( And I've been feeling crummy.

I need to hop back on the healthy food train. Hubby isn't very helpful. He never wants to eat healthy food. He's eaten out for every lunch this week. *grrrr* That drives me bonkers money wise too.

Hey look...three posts in one day. I'm on a roll! :) Thank goodness it's Friday. I'm ready for the weekend.

National Donut Day

Did you know that today is National Donut day? I had no idea. Something tells me that Krispy Kreme made this one up.

I love donuts but avoid them quite easily. They make me sick to my stomach and leave that weird thick taste in my mouth. All that fat. But I do love Maple glazed Krispy Kremes....*drool*

Contrary to popular belief, cops do not necessarily love donuts. However when hubby is being naughty I say "Bad Cop, No Donut!" He thinks it's funny. And yes, he loves donuts.

What's your favorite donut?

imagesofcolorado.com

Look Ma! I CAN Cook!

So the big joke in my family is that my mom did not do a good job with me because I don't cook. I joke that my mom never taught me how. Her big meal consisted of Tomato soup and macaroni (still a favorite of mine). It's not that I can't cook but I certainly do not enjoy it and I would rather do just about anything else.

Every once in awhile however I get a bug and feel like cooking. Hubby is always shocked when this event occurs. And this week I felt like making Bran Muffins. My grandmother had the most amazing recipe and I altered it a little to make it slightly healthier.

Considering how picky I am it's funny that I love Bran Muffins. At least these!

Trooper decided that the mixer thing was fascinating and he did not leave the kitchen the whole time! Do you like my Apron? Handmade by Momo's Retro Fashions - it is SO cute! For someone who doesn't cook a lot I sure look good in that Apron! hahahaha

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups Sugar (I've also used Splenda in the past and they still turned out good)
• 1 Cup Shortening (I used plain yogurt)
• 2 Cups Boiling Water
• 2 Cups 100% Bran (Grandma's recipe calls specifically for Nabisco brand but I can't find it anywhere so I used General Mills Fiber One)
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Quart Buttermilk (I used 1% lowfat)
• 5 Cups Flour (I used 2 Cups Whole Wheat and 3 Cups White)
• 5 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 4 cups Kellogs All Bran
• Dog Hair is Optional
  

Instructions

• Cream Sugar and Shortening (or yogurt).
• In a seperate bowl pour boiling water on 100% bran.
• Add 4 eggs to the creamed sugar mixture.
• Add buttermilk and bran/water mixture to the creamed mix.
• Fold in the flour (sifted? I never do that part), baking soda, and salt.
• Fold in the Kellogs All Bran until all ingredients are moist.

It should look pretty runny at this point.

Makes 4 quarts! Woohoo! What is great about this recipe is that it is supposed to keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. Now that is with the original ingredients. I don't know if that still applies since I used yogurt instead of shortening. I'll find out. :)

When you are in the mood for some fresh and warm muffins, spoon into greased muffin tin (about halfway full for each muffin) and cook at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Mmmmmm....yummy!

Our house isn't really set up to do proper cooking. There are no electrical outlets in the island so you can see in the first photo my mixer plugged in on the opposite wall. lol Pretty pathetic. But I'm using my mom's mixer (which she got as a wedding gift) that she of course doesn't use. It works great so who needs a new one?

I have one of those big fancy Kitchenaid mixers. Mom got it for me for a wedding gift but I haven't used it yet. It's been more than 5 years! LOL

If you try this recipe let me know how you like it. Hubby has been grubbing on them for a couple days now. I'm going to make them again when we run out of this batch and try to use Splenda and more whole wheat flour. :)

Dinnertime at the Casto Household

Dinnertime at the Casto household can be a very noisy affair. And it can't be done in any sneaky sort of manner. It's an all out event. I've been trying to catch Kodiak and his dinner "dance" but he seems to be camera shy lately. I had hubby help me out and he caught him do his twirl a couple of times. Please excuse the ridiculously messy counter tops. The clutter is just a figment of your imagination!



You may have noticed Trooper's lips curling up at his brother and sister. That is a kind of new thing but we are working on it. Although not in the video. LOL :)



This second video really shows Trooper's drooling. I didn't know we'd gotten a St Bernard...I thought he was a Malamute. :) He drools like that on our legs when he's trying to beg food during our meals. It's gross.

Much Better

I sure was grouchy last night. It's a new day though and I think I'm feeling better - though I'm extremely tired.

If you've never had Maui Gold Pineapple, your life is not complete. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am not a big fan of fruits and veggies. But you cannot keep me away from Maui Gold. I will drive two hours round trip just to pick some up - because it's only sold at a couple of stores in our area.

So last night in my grouchy state I sliced up some of this delicious golden heaven and it was my after workout snack!

Oh heaven!

If Only...

...more people were like me.



I know, I know. How boring that would be!

But when I get on an obsessive kick over something I notice it everywhere.

Hubby and I have started eating healthier. We are avoiding processed foods as much as possible. Organic. Natural. Fruits. Veggies. This is a HUGE lifestyle change for us and it's been fairly painful for hubby. I did manage to find some organic blue corn tortilla chips that aren't too horribly bad for him though.

So we went grocery shopping yesterday (see my rant below about stealing - Same trip) and it's like taking a 5 year old..."Can I have donuts?" "Can I have pizza?" "Can I have a whole loaf of white bread?" NO!

As we're going along in the pasta aisle, where I found some whole wheat lasagna noodles, I saw a woman, who was beyond large, with her young daughter. Their cart was full of Pop Tarts, Chocolate Chip waffles, and all other kinds of sugary processed foods. And I was so sad and a little angry.

I was raised eating like that and that is why I am where I am. I would cook myself dinner all the time - and eat an entire box of macaroni and cheese by myself. You can't do that when you work in an office 8 hours a day, sitting on your butt, and are nearing 30.

And this poor girl was now learning those same bad eating habits. I did not see ONE vegetable or fruit!

Granted, I'm nowhere near perfect and rarely ever used to purchase fruits or veggies. But that woman has a responsibility to her child and she is failing. Her daughter will grow up to be as large as she was (at least 300 pounds).

I grew up with a large mother who was 300 pounds for most of my life. She recently had the drastic surgery that basically made her stomach the size of a walnut. She's now down to a size ten and is smaller than me!!! But seeing how the weight affected her health, even now, helped me decide that I never even wanted to get to the point where I needed surgery in order to walk because I was so heavy that my knees were giving out.

It's so sad. And so I was very huffy last night thinking "why doesn't everyone do this!" Which of course is very egotistical of me. It wasn't a problem until I changed...and now everyone must change.

Where' s my wand? I think I left it by the Harry Potter CDs.

Christmas Cookies!

I love Christmas Cookies. I am not much of a cook or baker but every year I do at least try to make frosted sugar cookies. This year was cutting it close but I finally got to bake this last weekend and I went nuts.

Normally I use a prepared recipe for sugar cookies (the kind you can get in a box at Costco) but when I went shopping at Fred Meyer they didn't have any. The nerve!!! So I ended up looking up a recipe online at the Food Network. It was a LOT more complicated than I am used to and I didn't exactly follow it to a T. =) But I did cook from scratch. That counts for something right?

I didn't have unsalted butter so I didn't use the salt called for in the recipe and figured the salted butter would work just fine. I also didn't use my big ol' Kitchenaid mixer - the one my mother gave us for our wedding and that I have never once used. Why start now?

So I used the really old hand mixer that she gave me ages ago (it's so old that she used it when daddy was still alive ... we're talking more than 20 years!) and it works just fine. Although it didn't really do what the recipe called for - which was to beat until the dough pulled away from the side. Um...yeah the "dough" was all over the bowl! And it just wasn't working.

That's what hands are for right? I dove in and mixed the dough until it was the proper consistency. Phew! I hate getting my hands icky.

The recipe called for two hours in the fridge so I finished up some jewelry and wrapped some presents while watching Monster in Law. Very funny movie by the way.

Another thing that made this process a *little* more difficult - I don't actually own a rolling pin. *blush* Never have. I normally make due with a round glass of some sort. heh Well, the dough coming out of the fridge was REALLY hard so I knew if I tried the glass trick the glass would break with all the pressure I had to enforce. So I used my hands again and beat the dough into submission. That worked quite well and made it soft enough so I could use my poor glass 'rolling' pin.

I got these fabulous cookie cutters from my work Secret Santa - they are Gingerbread men with "bites" already taken out. ROFL One without a head. One with a missing arm and the other missing a leg. I think they're hilarious. And they make really great cookie cutouts. Between those and the neat tiny Pampered Chef cutters I had some really neat shapes.

The frosting event occurred the next day. Some of the cookies "accidentally" broke so of course I *had* to eat them. Needless to say I was on quite a sugar high all day. But all in all I think my work turned out quite well...

Trooper thought so and ate most of this entire plate! He would have continued if I hadn't heard his collar hitting the plate.

Luckily I had taken photos before he could destroy all the evidence of my homemaking abilities. See the gingerbread men? They rock!

And the surviving cookies made it to work where they were promptly devoured by coworkers feeding their sugar addictions. Thankfully I won't do this again for another year.

Sweet Tooth!

I am having one of those days where I am craving sweets. Good sweets. Fudge. Brownies. Cookies. Cupcakes. Oh my!

So I'm torturing myself by browsing around Etsy and finding all these delectable goodies. If only they could transport them directly to me right this second!

Cupcakes in a Jar! What a great idea by Fat Daddy Bake Shop. Gimme one now!!!

And I loooooovvvvveeeeee Fudge! Why make it myself when The Country Baker has done all the work for me?

And I'm fighting myself to not order this amazing looking chocolate fudge pie!

There's always these yummy looking vegan Chocolate Peanutbutter Fudge Balls from Vegan Honey. I'm not a vegan...can you cook stuff like this without milk or eggs? I have no idea and I think I'm willing to try these out to "test" them. :)

*sigh* Did I mention that I was trying to drop some poundage? These photos aren't helping me!