Finally getting to it

Sorry for the delay. My house was a disaster. I spent all yesterday doing laundry and today I'm cleaning the house. Not that I'm too worried since there are only about 5 people who read this.

I got bananas and grapes for our fruit this week. E as been refusing eggs a lot so we're eating overnight oats and chocolate chip scones mostly for breakfast. He's also become obsessed with cheese, but he still hates milk. So I don't know what is going on there.

OK on to the good stuff. First up, broccoli and rice with onion gravy. Husband is out of town on business for a couple days so I take the opportunity to get in the broccoli. Unlike E, I've gotten tired of cheese so I'm going with the gravy. I know the recipe calls for the vegan gravy, but I already had everything for onion gravy so I'm swapping.
http://myplantbasedfamily.com/2012/08/23/brown-rice-and-broccoli-casserole/
http://www.kitchentreaty.com/vegetarian-onion-gravy/

I love chicken thighs because they are cheap. Cheap is good. It gets me out of eating beef. I swear my husband is programmed to eat nothing that is good for him and it drives me crazy. If it were up to him we would eat steaks every night. Not a fan. Thank goodness I get to do the shopping so we have yummy garlic ranch chicken and bonus: only uses one pan. Cooked with baby red potatoes and carrots (both compromised favorites in my house) this is a hit.
http://damndelicious.net/2015/05/08/one-pan-garlic-ranch-chicken-and-veggies/

Next is burrito bowls. I love them because they are so customizable. Like my husband puts cottage cheese on his (gross!) and I like tomatoes, ranch, and avocados if I can manage them. They're freaking expensive. I did not manage them this week sadly.

My husband likes to buy beer and not drink it. I'm not sure why, but we ending up using it in our food. Speaking of which I may end up making beer bread to go with this...so good. Anyway I'm trying my hand at making risotto and not just risotto, but beer risotto. I know it sounds totally healthy right? As it stand right now I'm sitting on around a 700 calorie deficit every day and that's just from food. That's not even counting my burned calories. I didn't set out to do that and I'm pretty sure they only recommend a 500 calorie deficit. I figure I can afford to up my calories a bit if I feel like being bad. So here's to beer risotto. I couldn't find a spicy sausage like they used so I just got smoke turkey sausage. So it's not so bad.
http://cherryonmysundae.com/2014/03/beer-risotto-with-sausage-and-gouda.html

Ta da! Now to finish cleaning. I have to wait for nap time to mop the floors and then I'm done after that. Yay!

Cheeky snails

My son told me he was one as I was thinking of a title. It's one of his favorite things to say. He loves Peppa pig. So my husband decided to take it upon himself to cook me a birthday dinner. The problem with my husband is he's kind of like. He thinks that because it's something he would want, other people want it too. So we had porkchops, italian sausage, and french fries. I wasn't entirely thrilled. I'm not a huge fan of pork and I would have rather had what I had planned on cooking. I ate it. It was nice that he made the effort. He's just excited about his new grill. I've taken that into account this week and offered him a healthier alternative.

Now I had actually planned on some pork this week, but I just can't get thrilled about them now. So I revamped the grocery list.

Sesame noodles are so easy and we all love them so made the cut this week.

I'm picking up dried apricot and white chocolate chips to put in my scones. They say that sweets in the morning helps curb cravings later in the day. My son is also boycotting eggs again so I have to get stuff he will eat. I had trouble getting him to eat eggs for the longest time and he apparently doesn't like them again.

Also doing beans rice and veggies again. I enjoyed it and it's really cheap. Using different veggies this time tho.

Next up is chicken kebabs. I'm using red peppers, green, peppers, onion, and mushroom. Use whatever veggies make your family happy. I believe I'm using a balsamic honey marinade which is just that plus garlic. To your own taste.

Last is some teriyaki chicken casserole. This is a new recipe, but it sounds so good. I'm doubling it. We like Chinese food in my house and my husband likes to stack his noodles with his rice so it's perfect. I figure grabbing a big pack of chicken breasts will work for both meat meals.

http://www.ohsweetbasil.com/teriyaki-chicken-casserole.html

I think im getting apples and grapes for fruit, but those mangos were delicious and there's a grapefruit recipe I want to try so we will see. Well I actually need to get our lunch for today so I'm off.

Sick baby

Yesterday was bad. My baby was sick. He had a fever and ended up vomiting. So I didn't get a whole lot done. You probably don't want to hear about that though. He's feeling much better today just so you know. He rarely gets sick.

So to combat my little ones yucky tummy we had fried rice for dinner. Everyone has their own recipe for fried rice. Sometimes I use quinoa and this time I didn't use meat. I kept it pretty bland, but still yummy. I was also able to cook rice successfully for the first time ever. So that was pretty exciting.

This morning I tried making overnight oats. There are a ton of recipes. My sister sent me the one I used. She's really into the make ahead meals right now. This one calls for chia seeds, but I used ground flax seed because I already had some. Plus I'm not sure how the boys would feel about the whole seeds. We topped it with banana, strawberry preserves, and granola. E was a little hesitant about it, but after I let him stir he was all for it. I bought some pint jars for $5 to make ours in.
http://www.katheats.com/recipage?recipe_id=6000086

For dinner tonight I'm making turkey burgers with baked sweet potatoes. My husband hates that I don't use beef, but I'm just not a fan of ground beef. I think it tastes awful. Plus ground turkey is cheaper. This is another one of those things where everyone just makes them the way they like. I do recommend adding extra seasoning to ground turkey. It seems to need that little extra or it's too bland.

Next I'm making cauliflower mac and cheese in the crockpot. I love anything I can make in the crockpot. Plus getting my husband to eat more vegetables. Always a plus. I'm sure the boys will eat hot dogs with it. I always keep a pack of turkey hot dogs in the freezer. I got enough to make it twice. I always underestimate how much I'll have leftover.
http://spicysouthernkitchen.com/crock-pot-cauliflower-cheese/

Last of all I'm making Ritz ranch chicken tenders with corn. Corn was 12 cents a piece and asparagus went up to $4 a bunch. So I got corn instead. I'm making it in the crockpot again. It was really good last time. Ritz chicken is a husband favorite. I figure I owe him a little for putting up with my vegetarian food.
http://www.mylifeasamrs.com/2013/01/easy-3-ingredient-ritz-cracker-chicken.html

So that's what we're eating this week. Oh I grabbed grapes and bananas for our fruit. I also grabbed some more raisins to make scones and some string cheese for snacks.

Takeout is garbage

Due to my dietary change my husband has been wanting take out more. I love Chinese food so we got some last week. It was terrible. I felt like garbage. I literally felt like a lumpy bag full of rotting food and rubbish. I felt unmotivated and tired. When you are eating well fast food can make you feel awful. I did get promised some red lobster tho. Snow crab legs are my favorite and haven't had any since I was pregnant. I think it's better to make copycats of your favorite take out food.

So instead of my grocery list, I think that may have been rather dull, I'm just going to be talking about my menu.
I will tell you we got apples and halo oranges for our fruit this week. Apples are one of those fruits that you really should buy organic. My son loves the pink lady apples. There are 6 in each bag. The non organic apples have 9, but they are half the size. Since they mostly get used for apple pancakes I don't mind getting size over quantity.

I've become a big fan of making scones for breakfast. I think they are better than my prepackaged bag muffins, but with the cost of fruit I tend to lean towards the chocolate chip and peanut butter variety. I'm not a huge fpan of eggs. My husband only likes scrambled and my son is still wary of runny eggs. Breakfast has always been my least favorite meal. I'd eat smoothies for breakfast if I could. I'm working on finding better breakfast ideas.

Scones are actually pretty simple and my kid loves them. I do most of my mixing by hand. I lack a stand mixer sadly, but it's convenient because anything I recommend requires no special equipment.
http://www.mlovesmblog.com/search/label/recipe?updated-max=2013-07-05T09:04:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=8&by-date=false&m=1

I think I say it a billion times...I love leftovers. So I try to make it so I have enough leftovers that I only have to cook 4 days a week. Thanks to the takeout I never ended up cooking spaghetti so I now have that in reserve if I need it.
Last night I made alfredo with spinach. If you like to make your own alfredo, go for it. Here it's hot and we don't have central air. So my kitchen is like hades and the less time I spend over a stove the better. Just cook your pasta and let it sit in the strainer while you wilt the spinach. Then toss together with you're alfredo and you're done.
It also requires very few dishes which is a plus. One pot meals are a mom's best friend.

Tonight I'm making foccacia bread pizzas. I'm making two. One is for D and one is for me. E just shares everything we eat so he'll get what he likes. Mine will be broccoli and onion with cheddar and D's will be half pepperoni half cheese. That way everyone can have what they like and I don't get any complaints about lack of meat. I'm making the foccacia myself, also by hand, hoping it works out. All my baking has to be done Amish style so it's work, but I'm just going for it and hoping for the best. My family are good cooks, but very few bake.
http://www.handletheheat.com/focaccia-bread/
I'm not using the rosemary in this recipe, but I'm adding some garlic. It's been ages since I made a pizza at home so I'm par cooking the dough by reccomendation of my father.

I feel like I'm eating a lot of carbs this week, but it all sounded so delicious. This week's theme is simple and delicious. Next is a vegetarian pot pie. The nice thing is the meat is easily added to this and who doesn't love pot pie?
http://momstestkitchen.com/2014/03/easy-vegetable-pot-pie.html

Last, but not least one pot chicken, carrots, and potatoes. Chicken thighs, carrots, and potatoes seasoned and roasted in the oven. I'm using bone in, but you could easily substitute boneless thighs. I like chicken thighs because they are cheap and have a lot of flavor.
http://letthebakingbeginblog.com/2014/05/one-pot-chicken-potatoes/#_a5y_p=2054833

If you're ever wondering what we eat for lunch it's usually more leftovers. I need to get better at lunches. I actually want to do some cucumber sandwiches sometime.

Well I'm off to get working on my foccacia dough and get my 30 days done. Wish me luck with my dough.