Freebird.

clickmetoseebetter

no words...just a pretty picture.
this seems profound for some reason...no?

Crowd Pleaser

When I say 'crowd' I'm referring to a 4 yr/o, 5yr/o , two 6 yr/olds and 1 super helpful sweet husband. I had the pleasure of hanging with my friend Sara's two kiddos while she jetted off to California for a few days. Luckily they are all super awesome, mostly get along, and no picky eaters. On the last morning they were at my house I treated everyone to  banana parfaits for breakfast. It TOTALLY looks like dessert...in fact you could totally serve it as desert but it is a perfectly acceptable Sunday morning treat..right?..and super duper easy to whip up for a gaggle of hungry kiddos(and one hungry husband)!

Crowd Pleaser Parfait

Low fat Vanilla Yogurt
Granola(I just haaaaapened to have granola with banana chips in it)
Banana sliced super duper thin(for some reason the thinner the better, the kids told me so)
A Teeeeny tiny drizzle of chocolate syrup (or, you know...a lot)
And a quick spritz of low fat whipped cream

oh oh oh... and throw it all together in some sort of non breakfast cereal bowl looking thing.

not a genius idea for sure but the crowd went wild.

Crab Ravioli with Tomato Cream Sauce

*I never really measure anything so I’m sort of guessing here but it’s easy and you can’t really screw it up. This recipe made A LOT of food, plenty for the 4 of us and leftovers for the neighbors

1 package wonton wrappers (use whatever size or shape you like)
1 container low fat ricotta
½ cup shredded parmesan
Large Handful of fresh baby spinach leaves finely chopped(we always keep a bag of this and throw it in everything from pasta to breakfast smoothies)
1 tablespoon garlic(more or less to suit your taste, I used a jar of crushed garlic but fresh would be better probably)
½ of a small onion finely diced
Small handful baby carrots finely diced or shredded (I used my slap chop, you could eliminate this all together but I just like to cram as many veggies into dinner as possible soo..)
1 cup crab meat (I used imitation crab since I wasn’t sure if the kids would eat it and didn’t want to spring for the more expensive stuff, but they loved it and next time I'm going the real deal)
2 tablespoons real butter
Salt, pepper ,Italian seasoning(I have a little grinder and it works great...go get yourself one its good for pizza crust and meatballs and basically everything)
Sauce-
1 can tomato paste (Italian seasoned or garlic and basil if you can find them)
¼ cup sour cream (or fresh cream works too, I just happened to have sour cream on hand)
1 tablespoon butter
1 splash white wine (or not..totally up to you)
First chop and dice all the veggies. In a small pan add 1 table spoon butter, onions, carrots, and garlic and cook until onions are transparent but not brown.
While that is cooking mix together cheeses spinach crab and spices. Add cooked veggie mix to the cheese mixture and stir until evenly distributed.
Assemble Raviolis by laying out about 4 wonton wrappers at a time and add about a tablespoon of mix in each wrapper and wet the edges and press together tightly leaving no holes or air pockets. I used a paint brush to ‘paint’ water on the edges of the wonton wrappers. I laid them all out on a piece of parchment paper . Add them in small batches to a pot of salted boiling water and cook for just about 2 minutes or so.
For the sauce melt butter in a small pan, add cream and tomato sauce and stir until all ingredients are combined. Add a splash of white wine to thin it out a little and serve over ravioli. Yum!
you could also add fresh tomatoes to the sauce

Soooo...do me a favor. If you actually make this post a comment here and let me know how it turned out and if you added or adjusted anything that made it better.

Score of the week

I've been toying with the idea of extending my totally annoying tendency to tell everyone the price of everything I've ever bought here..and so...deal of the week has been born. I figure it can be anything, a rad grocery coupon, cool thrift store find..whatever. Found this gem today at my favorite place St Vincent DePaul thrift store here on the west side. B.J. and I had to skip our movie watching the other night due to a missing remote. Heres my solution, a pretty box to store them in and it cost...drum roll please....$1.95! WOOHOOO

p.s. I am well aware that Wednesday is quite early in the week to definitively lay the smack down on the best deal of the whole week. I suppose next time, and from here on out I'll probably try to do this on a Monday recapping the previous week, but I was so excited about my find and my genius idea (so what if a bazillion other bloggers beat me to the punch on this one) I just couldn't wait..ha!

Valentine

In the tall grass as the day grew late,
I remember the taste in my mouth, metallic and sweet.
I wanted you to kiss me, but you didn't.
You just wrapped your arms around me and pressed your face into my neck and let warm breaths graze my spine.
There were other fearless bold moves but this was the boldest...

It was a good hiding place...and they never found us.

roller fail

so yeah, broken arm...elbow and wrist , cast allows for a perpetual thumbs  up despite my frustration with everything...being left handed is a curse.
with very limited use of my dominant hand I can still manage most things on my own.
such as:
-taking a shower(with the help of an impossibly uncomfortable 'cast bag' over my broken wing that has a water tight seal that squeezes my already swollen arm like a tourniquet and would be a perfect accessory for intravenous drug users.
-getting dressed, totally can do, only requires a ridiculous one handed  hopping sideways wiggle to get my pants up over my chubby hips...real cute.
-earrings in ears, check....necklace?...no go.
-brushing my teeth, got it....shaving my legs..err...not so much....
-deodorant under the left arm check, right arm....ummmm yeah?
seriously..another 5 weeks of this crap?
by the end of this I'm gonna be a furry smelly angry mess....

grub

diced baked sweet potato sprinkled with olive oil, chili powder, paprika, garlic and a little bit of brown sugar. if you put in the microwave for 5 minutes then the oven for ten you've got tasty goodness in under 20 minutes total.

I'm not a food snob, I'm not even really a great cook(not being self deprecating here just really down to earth honest)but...BUT... I love food, I love to eat, I love to put together flavors and presentations that make my family and friends happy. (Some of whom have been nudging me, encouraging me, to start a 'food blog'.) I went browsing through some well known food blogs and found posts about things like sprout bread and almond butter, arugula, and tamarind curry. I am far less sophisticated than any of this but I sorta do alright. My family is always full and happy and I usually only have ingredients available at the lame ass commissary(cause we are poor-ish) So here it is...me blogging about food. I'm not sure I have much to say about food but, I'll give it a try. Perhaps this is a more suitable place for my constant facebook updates about what I'm having for dinner. So, if you've already read it there too bad, I'm putting it here too. Top picture is a family favorite, pastina (teeeeeny tiny pasta) made with chicken soup base corn, carrots and chopped ham. This is our comfort food, Daddy is out of town food, sore throat food, need a little extra attention food. Basically I throw in whatever we have. When the kiddos were tiny I always added a can of sweet peas and carrots and the mushy soft texture was perfect(that is until Logan decided he didn't like peas and started picking them out and throwing them indiscriminately on the floor or at the walls). This morning for breakfast I made some, over cooked and mushy with a little butter, honey and a splash of milk. So..I did it... now it's your turn, you tell me..what kind of comfort food do you make?

p.s. if you look closely at the top picture of  pastina  you'll see a fishing lure adorning the bowl. This is the infamous set of Bass plates my Dad sent me for Christmas years ago. When I first opened the box I thought maybe he had packed something else very heavy and solid inside the Bass Pro Shops dinner wear set box. Nope. I am the proud owner of a full set of leaping bass , fishing lure adorned plates and bowls(I donated the coffee cups and saucers promptly, knowing I'd never use them, but those sturdy, ample plates and bowls are still in regular rotation. I still have no idea what inspired my sweet Father to send such a gift but , Dad, they are still here and I have grown to love them. Thanks.