I'm not talking to you anymore

Ok, I'm just kidding. But really folks, let's have some dialogue. You are hurting my blogger feelings. Let's stir up some fun. Let me know what you want to know, or share a great recipe with me.

Dignified Snacking

There is something gratifying when you find a quick and easy snack food, that you don't feel like a glutton eating. When I open a bag of cheetos and lick the orange pseudo cheese off my fingers, I begin to regret my snack choice. Of course, it is always after I have eaten the bag. So, I love it when I have something that is not only tempting to eat, but guiltless. Try it, take it to a party...enjoy.

Baked Bruchetta

8 roma tomatoes hulled and diced very small
1 small red onion diced
1 small can chopped black olives
2 roasted bell peppers
2 tsp. chopped garlic, roasted
basil
salt and pepper
4 Tbsp. Basalmic vinegar
1 Tbsp. Olive oil
¾ cup parmesan
½ cup mozzarella, grated
baguette sliced thin
garlic oil

Brush slices of baguette with garlic oil and sprinkle with ¼ cup parmesan. Toast in a 350 degree oven until golden brown. Combine tomato, onion, olives, roasted peppers, garlic, vinegar, oil, and salt and pepper together in a gratin dish. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes until very hot. Lastly, add the cheeses and bake until golden and bubbly. Serve with toasts. * this is also very tasty if you don't bake it. **omit the cheese if you want to reduce calories.

Power Waffles

Hi everyone. I apologize, I have been away at another horse show for Sterling. But I thought I would just pop in and give you a great waffle recipe. This recipe is tasty, but you get that satisfaction that you are eating "well" too. Try it and let me know what you think.

POWER WAFFLES

1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup oats
3 tablespoons wheat germ
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
3 egg whites
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup melted butter (you can substitute ¼ cup as oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups skim milk

Preheat your waffle maker according to instructions.
combine the dry ingredients and whisk them together. Beat the egg white until fluffy. Add the oil, milk, egg yolks, butter and vanilla and gently stir. There might be a few lumps. Fold in the egg whites carefully but thoroughly. Cook in waffle maker according to instructions.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Hi everyone! What is it that you have always wanted to serve up? Is there an old recipe you are hoping to find? Or do you have a recipe that you have just got to share? I would like to invite you to to share with all of us. I would love to know what's on your mind or what recipes you would like to see in the future. Do you have questions...ask them - If I can't answer someone will be able to. So let me hear from you soon, I am looking forward to it.

Confucious says "This is Tasty"

This time of year can be so busy, with all of the recitals, sports, and end of school year activities. It's so nice to have a few recipes that you know you can throw together in minutes and still feel like you are eating somewhat well. I love this pasta - It is totally kid friendly, I hope you enjoy it too.

ASIAN PASTA

1 package of pasta
Sesame seeds to sprinkle
3 scallions sliced on a bias
Handful of green beans sliced at a bias
Red, green or yellow pepper julienne
I can water chestnuts sliced
Small bunch brocoliini cut into bite sized pieces
1 tsp. Ginger
1-3 cloves crushed garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tsp. red chili paste
2 tsp. Sesame oil
4 Tbsp. plum sauce
4 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 cups shrimp or chicken

In a very hot, lightly oiled wok, stir fry the chicken until just barely cooked. Add the vegetables and saute until just barely soft to the teeth - Only cook for about three or four minutes. Then add the garlic, ginger. In a small bowl mix together plum sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Add the cooked pasta and sauce and toss over heat for just about two minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Sunrise Smoothie...Vodka optional

SUNRISE SMOOTHIE

1 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup orange or pineapple juice
1 bananna
1/2 cup yogurt
3 1/2 ounces soft or silken tofu
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the Smoothie: Combine all the ingredients in a blender and pulse to chop everything up. Flip the switch to high and blend until smooth.

Bad mom

My eldest, she doesn't particularly love to eat breakfast. My mom gave me the fantastic advice to make her a smoothie daily. Great idea, I make smoothies pretty much daily (yogurt, fruit, juice) and it solved the problem. Yea! I also partake of the morning boost and I find it quite rewarding to blend up that daily shake and toss my kids a vitamin, knowing they will go to school nourished.
Soooo...yesterday, I blended up my daily concoction and left the kitchen to perform some mundane morning ritual, leaving my daughter to drink her shake in peace. When I came upstairs again, she informed me that it was an extra delicious smoothie today. I informed her that it must have been the perfectly ripe bananas. I grabbed my smoothie and took a swig just as she sucked up the last sip through her straw...hmmm.... interesting flavor, zesty, sparkly. Sparkly? Why? Orange-banana-strawberry juice, banana, fat free yogurt, frozen berries...there's no sparkle. I checked the expiration on the juice (June 12), I opened it up, tasted it. OOOh yes, sparkly, bad sparkly, fermented sparkly. "See you mom," as she bolts out the door.
AAAAAgh! I just sent my daughter to school possibly inebriated? Either that or she is going to have a really bad bout of food poisoning in a couple of hours. Well I didn't get the call that she was sick so I figure that she had an extra special "happy" day yesterday. I wonder if the teachers noticed?

Chocolate Fluff Cake

If you love cupcakes, this one is for you. It's really just a giant cupcake. Yummy-enjoy.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)**
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups water
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour an 8-inch square cake pan (2 inches deep). Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat together butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well, then beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture and water alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined.
Pour batter into cake pan and smooth top, then bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes.
Combine frosting ingredients with a pinch of salt in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with a handheld electric mixer at high speed until frosting is thick and fluffy, 6 to 7 minutes.
Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat until slightly cooled. Mound frosting on top of cake. Dust with additional cocoa powder.

Un-important rants:

So....I was watching the sports news tonight, and during the Cavs-Celtics game, Lebron James and Paul Pierce got kind of twisted up court side. You ask, "What are you telling us this for, Sara." And I will tell you to watch the clip below. It just so happens that Lebron and Kevin got tangled up right by Lebron's mom. She seemed to be yelling at Pierce for fouling her son so hard and what does her son do? He tells her to "sit your butt down!" Naughty, Naughty, Naughty.....Lebron...you shouldn't speak to your mom like that!




Next up, Kathy lee Gifford, I am sure there are those of you that disagree with me, but she really does and always has irritated me. Irritated like jeans made from angora....like empty ketchup bottles that are red so that they look full but are actually empty....like trying to make an important phone call when I think the kids are to busy to interrupt, and having them scream and fight as soon as the person on the other end answers....you get the idea.
She reminds me of the neighborhood gossip, no one really likes her, but everyone goes to her for the dish. She is now the co-host for the third hour of the Today Show. Why rant about her today? Because she has an opinion about "mommy blogging", she feels that it invades the lives of the bloggers children. Well, yes agree, there is a fine line. However, is this coming from Kathy Lee Gifford? Is there anyone who doesn't know her children are Cody and Cassidy, the children she paraded daily on Regis and Kathy Lee. So I say "Kathy lee...people who throw stones, shouldn't live in glass houses."

Couldn't have said it better myself.....

If you give them an inch...

They will eat the whole box. So now the cereal must go into hiding.
I was raised in a home where the treats were not readily available. My mom would buy Girl Scout cookies, Twinkies, Capri Suns and such, and "hide" them in her closet so she could divvy them out for our lunches. I thought when I was a child that this was terrible, not only because I wanted to eat it all but because there was a faint taste of perfume in all of my lunches. But as an adult I realize she would have had to take out a second mortgage to keep treats in the cupboard.
So, I of course, in that eternal struggle to not be just like our moms, have tried in vain not to hide treats and such....to no avail. It is no secret that we are really the fattest nation in the world..right? My theory: COSTCO. Now don't get me wrong, I love Costco just as much as everyone else. Where else can you go and spend an entire paycheck on things you never knew you needed. I mean who doesn't get excited over a five pound can of nacho cheese? But really, if you are going to buy a 25000 piece box fruit snacks, you should expect them to all be eaten by the next morning. If we feel like we have an endless supply of food we will eat it. Thus the fat. So I truly do try not to buy a lot of sugar snacks, sugar cereal, chips, etc. for this reason. Besides, If I hide it in my closet, I know I will just eat it!
So I had another class last night, you can usually count on me having a pretty good story the mornings following a class. When the cats away....the mice will tear up the house, eat all the food, and go to bed with their clothes on! OK, it's not always quite that bad, but the good cop IS on duty. So...you know I bought a whole bunch of cereal yesterday-not even sugar cereal. They ate one and a half boxes last night! Now come on, this family isn't starving! I left pizza for them- which they ate. But honestly one and a half boxes?! I've never been a big cereal eater so I really don't get it.
So back to my over eating theory: 1. We eat what is available to us like mindless zombies. 2. We eat too much when we are bored and tired. 3. We eat for emotional reasons, and clearly my family missed me last night!

I Can Barely Contain My Excitement!

A friend of mine,I will call her the "Seinfeld" of my friends*, notified me yesterday that Albertsons is having a great deal on Cereal. Now, those of you who know me, know that I am not Albertson's biggest cheerleader**. However, today, Hooray! Anyway, 10 boxes of General Mills cereal for $10.00! That is all cereal priced regularly at $3.99. This deal also includes Nature Valley granola bars and Fruit Roll Ups. And the best part is that you can use coupons as well! So I just bought 10 boxes of Cheerios, 10 boxes of Kix, and 10 boxes of granola bars for under $30.00. Now, I have no idea where I am going to store them all but I definitely got my "good shopper" high. They told me I saved over $90.00 Ha! I can go buy an expensive pair of shoes. LOL! So If we have a famine anytime soon, I suppose my family can live off of cereal for a while.
Take Care

* If you haven't watched Seinfeld, he always has a stockpile of cereal in his kitchen.
** I am not in the mood to go into one of my rants about Albertsons, it can be quite lengthy. But I am sure I will post one in the near future.

WHAT ARE YOU HAVING FOR DINNER TONIGHT?

This is an easy and tasty one dish dinner. I make it in the morning on days I know I will be to busy to cook.

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

3 pounds chicken
¾ cup flour
2 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup white onion, sliced
2 cups carrots, sliced
1 cup celery, sliced
1 cup leeks
1-2 cups snap peas, cut in half
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken broth


1½ cups flour
½ cup cornmeal
1 Tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. parsley
½ cup grated Colby jack cheese
1 cup half and half

In a large skillet, melt butter and olive oil. Add the chicken and onions and cook for about five minutes. Remove the chicken from the heat and place off to the side. In the same skillet, sauté the carrot, peas, celery, and leeks. Add chicken back to the vegetables and add the chicken stock and cream. Reduce and simmer for 20minutes.
Meanwhile, In a bowl, sift together the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder. Stir in the ½ & ½, cheese, and parsley with a fork. Drop by the Tablespoon-full into the simmering mixture. Simmer for ten minutes covered.

LOVE

Well, I hope that you have all had a little laugh at my expense over the drama of last week. I have to admit that I have grown quite fond of the girls new "styles". I don't think I have spoken to one person who cannot sympathise, due to the fact that they themselves were self proclaimed "beauty technicians" or one of their children is. I love you all for helping me through it and not telling me directly how silly I am.
So tonight I celebrated my oldest daughter Sterling's thirteenth birthday. Yes, can you believe it THIRTEEN! Sometimes I feel like I couldn't barely be older than her. Do you ever feel that way? So, we celebrated in true Cinco de Mayo style, as always. I always laugh that we are the "whitest" people in town celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Rob's grandmother asked me, in dismay, a few years back, why I insist on serving Mexican food on Sterling's birthday, and wasn't I worried she would become culturally confused. I teased her and told her that I was contemplating renaming her Rosarita Bonita Voortmeyer, so that she would feel more comfortable with it. What could she say to that? I told Sterling that I would make something else this year if she wanted me to, but she told me she loves it. Anyway, this is her first year of taking Spanish at school, so she especially loves it!
But on the subject of daughters, I just wanted to send out a thought to you all this week before Mother's Day. Yesterday, at church, a daughter of a much respected member, stood to bare her testimony. Although I cannot tell you much of what she said, because I was so focused on another thing. I was watching her mothers face. How softly she gazed at her daughter with eyes brimming with admiration, and how sweetly her lips were turned upward, and how I could feel the warmth and love radiating from this mother for her daughter. All I could think of at that moment was "does my daughter (or son) know how I feel for her." in all the business of our days, the cooking, the cleaning, the running, the fighting....are we sending the most important messages to our children? Of course, I tell her every night as I tuck her in that I love her...as I do with all of my children, but does she feel it, does she know it, and can others sense it as I did yesterday? Just a thought.
This little moment yesterday reminded me of a lovely quote I had heard from Erma Bombeck, written after she found out that she was dying from cancer. I wanted to share it with you...

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.
I would have talked less and listened more
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment
growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner." There would have been more "I love you's"
More "I'm sorry's."
But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize
every minute...look at it and really see it . . live it and never give it
back.