Pure Beef

Because I just really wanted to run out and buy, like, everything from Taco Bell last night (but I wont allow myself to do so) I decided to make a quick Mexican dinner.  I started with this new ground beef.  It will be the first time ever trying "humanely raised, all natural, chemical free" kind of meat.  I was quite impressed with the all natural eggs, so Pete and I were excited to try this beef. 

I started by frying up the ground beef.  Let me just tell you... it was not the consistency of "ground beef".  It was more like ground lamb... soft and crumbly, and you didn't have to work to break it apart.  It looks amazing, doesn't it? (Therefore, it passed the first test... it wasn't like the "regular" ground beef).

This meat wasnt cloned!! Yay!

Once it was finished I added some frozen homemade enchilada sauce to the meat for spiciness and flavor. And... FYI... after tasting this magic meat, it tasted nothing like regular beef.  I have decided from now on I will not purchase "regular" beef, eggs, or bread, because the difference in products is just so shocking!

Next, on a tortilla shell, I added some shredded cheddah, some meat, black beans, and jalapeno peppers. I added olives to mine... because who doesn't looove olives in everything?! I added more cheese, another tortilla, and cooked 'em up in a frying pan for a few minutes on each side.

On the side I decided to make nachos, however, I didn't have any tortilla chips, except for a teeny tiny free sample bag. I took about a handful of both the sea salt and salsa flavored chips, mixed them with the tostitos, and threw them on a baking sheet.  I added meat, beans, jalapenos, olives and cheese, and baked them in a 350 oven for not even 10 mins.

Dinner was done!

To make it a bit healthier without making more work for myself, I added tons of chopped spinach and tomatoes, and garnished with sour cream and lots of salsa.

Mile High Nachos

Because my husband is 'da bomb, he made a late night Stewart's run for me.  That's right, after all of my complaints I decided to just be pregnant and eat a Stewart's ice cream bowl... because sometimes you just have to be pregnant and enjoy it :)

Ice Cream Goodness

 Cookies n Cream and Raspberry Fudge Torte ice cream, complete with chocolate syrup, whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles.  Delish!!

....And now its time to prepare for the 6-12" of snow we are supposedly getting overnight!! Happy Spring, maybe its just a horrible April Fool's joke?!

SBLT's

Since the hubster and I really enjoyed last nights BLT's, he suggested SLT's for dinner.  (The S is for shrimp!).  What a wonderful idea. I cooked the shrimp by baking them for 10 mins in the oven, preheated to 425, seasoned with olive oil and spices.  Once they came out, we took about 1/2 lb and sliced them thin (in half, the long way).  I also cooked my last two pieces of butcher bacon to add to the SLTs, thus making them SBLT's.  We made it on our new favorite bread, and added some mustard.  (Instead of lettuce we used spinach, so I suppose we actually made SBLS's - yes, I amuse myself). Anyway, they were delicious! I've never actually put shrimp on a sandwich, and it was so good, I thought it would be a wonderful summer meal.

We also made Shrimpy Couscous on the side with the other 1/2 lb of shrimp that we cooked, along with french cut frozen green beans, roasted at 425 for 20 mins, with lemon, olive oil, and garlic.  So good and filling!

I ate before I snapped!

Can you believe with how healthy I eat (or feel that I eat) I gained 31 lbs so far this pregnancy?? That's up 3 lbs from last month.  I know I'm supposed to gain weight, but its totally unfair that I "pig" out on grapes, and apples, and spinach salads, and roasted veggies, (and pasta!)...... instead of what I really want... like nachos, big ice cream sundaes...etc... and I still gain so much! I just want to whine and stomp my foot because I think its so unfair!! It makes me think, if I was actually eating what I wanted to eat, would I gain 60 lbs like I did with Mikayla? I bet so.  I think I just have a body that likes to store weight during a pregnancy. I project my delivery weight to be +45 lbs total.  Oh well, what am I gonna do, ya know?

I know... Smile!! Because I already have an amazing princess, she is showing off her new sparkly sneakers her Nana bought her on Saturday.  Its necessary to have sparkly things if you are a kindergartner.

I don't know if you can see this or not, but thanks to my Price Chopper fuel advantage $2.50 off per gallon discount, I paid $15 to top off my gas tank... that's 12 gallons of gas for $15 baby... circa 1995 fill up prices!! 



Quiet Mornings & Baby Doctors

Breakfast today was a Van's waffle, topped with sliced naner and walnuts, and of course, lots of pure maple syrup! I also enjoyed small side of blackberries that Mikayla picked out from the grocery store yesterday.

My lovely second breakfast is already prepped - its a cereal bowl! In the mix was Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, Raisins, Fiber One, All Natural Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and two kinds of Granola Cereal, which will all be topped off with some Vanilla Almond Milk. Yummm!

When my lovely mother and I went out shopping over the weekend, we picked up a few more types of cereal, since Im lovin cereal this pregnancy (and its so easy to find healthy, natural cereal, believe it or not)

The Oats and Honey Granola cereal is just SO GOOD! Its also delicious on top of Chobani yogurt, it gives it that nice, sweet crunch.   I also found, at Target, this amazing box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch - all natural, for my mini-me, which I am just SO happy about, because Mikayla just loves Cinnamon Toast Crunch so much!

Can you believe that box of cereal was around $3 at Target?? I am amazed, cereal always seems super expensive to me, and this just isn't.

Today is filled with errands and a trip to the baby doctor, so he can obviously tell me how fantastic my pregnancy is going!

Trips to the Grocery Store

After work today my family (Pete, Mikayla, and of course the 2 puppies) met me at Price Chopper so we could do some family grocery shopping.  Pete and I vowed to never eat high fructose corn syrup again... at least not to our knowledge.  (I'm pretty sure all these lil chocolates I ate today were so healthy... )

right.  Multiply those chocolate wrappers by a lot, and you can figure out all of the chocolate I snuck myself during work today!! (but it was sooo good!).   Anyway, we really are trying to eat healthy, which makes grocery shopping a rather difficult task.  Today wasn't too bad, we spent about $85 on this: 

I tried a few new things today, including this no ingredient bread (it has like 4 or 5 things in it!)

Its Heidelberg Brand, and it was really good! We also decided to try a new kind of ground beef, it is organic and humanely raised.  It wasn't more expensive than regular ground beef which was surprising... it was $4.99/lb with $1 off coupon... so $3.99 for one lb!! Score! We also bought a different brand of chicken sausage, one that I have never tried before.

My purchase of the day were these amazing eggs. Okay... they were honestly $1 more than the cheap supermarket eggs, and 50 cents more than the Land O'Lakes Cage-Free eggs. 

Can I just tell you how wonderful these eggs really are? It was so interesting, when I cracked the egg in the frying pan tonight, I hardly had to touch the eggs to the side of the pan, the shells just broke. So easily.  When they landed in the pan, they were so much higher, and fluffier.  I was happy.

After the egg was cooked, the whites were so.... white! And the yellow was so.... yellow.  It was so different than a "regular egg", it was pretty unbelievable.

(Mikayla's egg).  The taste? was SO different.  It was like eating an entirely different food.  The texture, the taste, the color... I'm sold! My egg tasted so yummy on top of tonight's BLT's.  I cooked up some butcher bacon (so much tastier than anything you will ever, ever find pre-packaged), and added lots of fresh spinach, sliced tomato, and yellow mustard on my new bread, toasted

On the side I roasted broccoli and some green beans.  Delicious, quick dinner!

I am just so happy that Pete and Mikayla are on the same healthy page that I am on! It would be so difficult if either one of them resisted, but its quite the opposit - Pete really wants to change his eating habits and eat healthy, so much that he came to the grocery store with me to help pick things out and read labels/ ingredients. Mikayla, my lil princess, asked me if we could make yellow granola bars.  (Her interpretation of the banana oatmeal cookies we made).  My family is so great, I cant wait to add another into the mix!

Breakfast Pizza on Sunday morning

I haven't blogged in a few days because I have just been so super duper busy!! Petes knee surgery went well, he is up and moving (thank god) and takin care of his pregnant wife once again.... whew! This morning we woke up and I decided to get a lil creative in the kitchen and make a... breakfast pizza!! Obviously we love pizza, but nothing beats a good breakfast pizza, and Ive never attempted to make one.  (It also helped that I had 4 pizza doughs staring me in the face every time I open the fridge).

First, I preheated the oven to 415, rolled out the dough, sprinkled it with spices and cooked it for 8 minutes on a pizza pan.  While that was cooking I fried up some all natural (but probably not humanely raised) breakfast sausages

I only really used 4 and ate 2 when they were done cooking.  (I let Pete eat one!).  On the other side of the frying pan I sauteed sliced and diced mushrooms.  I sliced up the 4 sausages and added them and the shrooms to the baked pizza crust.

Then I added a generous handful of shredded cheddar cheese

And scrambled 5 eggs.  5 was either too many, or I need to figure out a better way to dump them on the pizza, because once I added them (slowly too!) they oozed over parts of my pizza crust.

Oh well.  As the pizza baked they kept spilling over the side.  Still edible and yummy, just not as pretty. I baked the whole pizza for 17 mins, then took it off the pan and baked it for 3 more.  We like crunchy crust pizza though, if you wanted a more doughy pizza you should keep it on the pan and probably not pre-bake the crust.

Not very good photos, but the pizza did come out really good! I will make this again but definitely use some bacon next time, because bacon makes everything better.
After breakfast Mikayla went to a birthday party (Collin's) at a bouncy-bounce (and ate more pizza) Here's a photo from the party

And here is Mikayla with her best friend Delia



L to R: Sarah, Jillian, Mikayla, Delia, Matthew

 Mikayla is so excited because Delia is going to ride the bus home with her on Friday and come over to play!! Kindergarten play dates are awesome!!!

Off to relax and enjoy the last night of my weekend, which just FLEW by this time. March is just such a long month for teachers because there isn't a vacation to look forward to, and April vacation just seems so far away.

Full Plate Thursday This Weeks Cravings

Long Days

Yesterday and today were both such busy days... I was out at least 12 hours both days, yuck-o! Today Pete had knee surgery (he is doing great!) so I literally sat at the hospital for 7.5 hours.  The waiting is the hardest part - the waiting to actually see the doctor.  His surgery was scheduled for 1:30 but didn't go in til after 3! On the bright side, I ate well today.

I had a nice, hearty breakfast of one Van's waffle drizzled with pure maple syrup, banana, and walnuts. On the side I enjoyed one egg smothered in Tabasco sauce. Mmmm.

Shortly after breakfast #1 was breakfast #2... a whole wheat Breuggers Bagel with Olive Cream Cheese, Lettuce, tomato and cucumbers.  I didn't have any time to pack food today, so I knew I would be buying food since I cant go too long without eating.  I only packed a bag of grapes! I bought a bag of these chips in salsa and of course a pack of Twizzlers, because I knew I needed something to munch on during the long hospital hours.

Lunch was eaten at the hospital cafeteria... a bag of my favorite Jalapeno chips (all natural)

And a grilled chicken wrap on spinach wrap with roasted red peppers, lettuce, tomato, onion,olives and jalapenos. No cheese and a lil mustard.  Also enjoyed was my new fav Vitamin Water Zero - they also gave me four pickle.  I know I'm pregnant, and pregnant women are supposed to love pickles, but they honestly make me sick to my stomach!!

My wrap was HUGE and I could only eat half of it! It also only cost $3.10, which was amazing!! Dinner was crab, shrimp, tomato and mozzarella cheese pizza, which I took photos of but are too lazy to post.  I never had crab on my pizza, it definitely made it seafood-y, which I'm unsure I really like.  I do love love love shrimp on my pizza, it rocks my world!

I'm beat, so I'm calling it an early night.

Sausage and Apple Stuffed Chicken

Its no secret that I enjoy food, cooking, and eating.  I dont enjoy eating "boring" foods, because if you have to do something in life you might as well make it fun and worth while.  I love foods that are layered or stuffed... I enjoy always finding a special surprise with every bite.  Last night was another one of my "make everything mondays", which is where I basically come home from work and just want to cook.  I made Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (prepped it) nights dinner only using up a few hours.  Last night I made an old fav... stuffed chicken! I made this different that my norm, I usually use chicken thighs and stuff 'em with stuffing, sausage, tomatoes, spinach and mozzerella cheese. Last night I decided to use stuffing, sausage, and apples.    

First we boiled sausages, then fried  3 of them in a pan after they boiled for about 25 minutes.

In another bowl I mixed Stuffing with one diced up Red Delicious Apple.

Added the Sausage, and some olive oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, and some salad dressing.  I used Champagne Vinegrette, but usually use some sort of italian.

I cut the chicken into pieces and pounded it as flat as I could get it.

Then I added the stuffing and rolled it up.  I like to add a ton of stuffing because it always falls out when I roll it up anyway, and the stuffing is the best part! I squeeze it with both hands as I roll up the chicken too, just to make sure its tightly rolled and stuffed.

Place the chickens in a greased pan

I added one extra spoonful of dressing on top of each one, for some flavor.

(I also baked the left over stuffing in a small pan covered with alumium foil on the side)

Baked for 30 mins, check it, baked for 15 more, added cheese, and left it in until the cheese melted.

So good!

Full Plate: Side of Roasted Broccoli, Broccoli Slaw, and extra stuffing.

Sausage-Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts

3 Chicken Breasts, Sliced and Pounded

6 oz Stuffing

3 Sausages

1 Apple, Diced

1/4 cup Olive Oil

2 tbsp Apple cider Vinegar

1/4 cup Salad Dressing (I used Champagne Vinegrette) + 1/4 cup for the top

1/3 cup shredded Mozz cheese

Cook the Sausage.  Mix the sausage with stuffing and apple, add olive oil, vinegar, salad dressing.  I also added about 1/3-1/2 cup of water to make sure the stuffing wasnt dry.  You can make this as wet/dry as you want, I like to make mine pretty moist. Place a generous amount of stuffing on each chicken breast and roll up firmly beginning with the smallest end.  Place seam side down.  Add extra dessing/ flavor of your choice to the top of each chicken breast.  Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Check and bake for 15 more.  Add cheese and bake until melted. 

You should probably also add chopped onion and raisins to the mix. Delish!

Full Plate Thursday Mangia Mondays