ICYMI - My Thanksgiving placecards

The Thanksgiving placecards I made a couple years ago are getting a few pins on Pinterest (click here to see my boards - I'm obsessed with recipes and Star Wars) and I thought I'd blog about them again in case I have some new readers who have never seen them.  These cost me a mere $3 to make, and many people would be able to make these for free if they have the right supplies on hand.

I see my old blue and white kitchen in the background!  It almost makes me miss our old house...almost.

Here is my original blog post, complete with step-by-step photos, because these were, like, so complicated to make - $3 Thanksgiving placecards  The fonts I used were Pea Sarah Quick from kevinandamanda.com and Californian FB.

Monday night snack and a Thanksgiving shopping tip

This week's Monday night snack has been postponed to this evening due to the fact that I was sick all day yesterday with a migraine.  When we were at the food coop in Decorah Steve saw some dark chocolate oatmeal cookies that he thought looked good.  Since we try not to buy food items that could easily be made at home, I looked for a similar recipe and came across one on the Betty Crocker website for Chewy Chocolate-Oat Bars.  I made them this morning and I think they are pretty good!  They are similar to a chocolate chip cookie or bar but they aren't overly sweet so I think Steve is really going to like them.  You can really taste the whole wheat flour and it provides almost a nutty flavor.

Thanksgiving is a little over two weeks away - can you believe it?  We are hosting for the 6th year and for the past few years I've divided up my shopping list and purchased the food we need for the big meal over several weeks' time.  

Around Halloween I finalize our meal and write down all the ingredients I need to buy.  Then I take that list with me to the store and buy a few items on the list each week.  It makes my shopping trip a little longer for a few weeks, but it's nice not spending a ginormous amount of money the week of Thanksgiving since everything got divided over the past several weeks.  Usually the first week or two I purchase stuff that happens to be on sale and non-perishables.  The week of Thanksgiving is when I buy perishables and anything else I need that I didn't already buy.  

Usually Hy-Vee has good sales around the holidays, but you never know when they might have something marked down a few weeks before and then have it full price later on.  On Saturday, for example, I bought caramel bits for a dessert I'm making and they were on sale for $1 off.  I had to run into Hy-Vee again Sunday night and noticed the same caramel bits were back to full price.  So I was pretty excited I had nabbed them the day before!

Weekend getaway and Monday night snack

Real trips outside the house have been few and far between since Claire was born.  Yes, I go grocery shopping and run errands, but a lot of days we never step foot outside the house so I tend to go a little stir crazy.  So when we had the opportunity for a getaway last weekend we jumped on the chance.  Steve's parents have a cabin in NE Iowa that we love to visit but we hadn't been there in 18 months.  But Saturday morning we got packed up early and made our way to Iowa's Driftless Region.  We went to Decorah first...we picked up 13 free range chickens from our "chicken guy" we bought from at the CR farmers markets over the summer, got some coffee, went shopping at the Oneota coop (fantastic grocery store!), and had lunch.  Then by mid-afternoon we made our way to the cabin and were able to go on a little walk and Steve was very excited to catch a trout.

I wasn't sure how well Claire was going to like being in the car for a long time and sleeping in a new place, but she was an absolute champ.  She slept great and was, for the most part, a very happy baby.  It was raining when we woke up Sunday morning so we decided to head home pretty early.  It was nice to get away from the real world for awhile and enjoy life in the woods.  Next time we need to bring Larkin with us...she was in her kennel outside while we were gone and while she survived, I know she would've had so much more fun with us.

A few pictures from our weekend:

Larkin was named after this road in NE Iowa:

The wife of our "chicken guy" makes and sells homemade Norwegian lefse (basically Scandinavian tortillas) and kringla (cakey butter cookies) and we bought some of each while we were in Decorah.  Steve and I devoured all the kringla by Sunday evening.  I went hunting online for a kringla recipe so I could make some for our Monday night TV watching snack.  Let's just say I need to leave the kringla making to the experts!  Mine tasted great but looked horrible.  You are supposed to mix together the dough ahead of time and let it chill overnight in the fridge.  Then, you are supposed to take teaspoons of dough, roll them between your hands to make long ropes, and fashion them into figure-8 shapes.  I thought the dough was extremely difficult to wield, and it was very sticky so I wasn't able to make pretty kringla shapes.  I ended up using my cookie dropper so my kringla looked like boring blobs.  Here is the recipe I used if you're interested in giving it a shot.  I'm only about 1/4 Norwegian so maybe there is too much stubborn German in me to learn how to make proper kringla.

Paws in the Park

On September 24th, Steve, Claire, Larkin, and I went to Noelridge Park to participate in Paws in the Park.  This was a new event put on by Cedar Rapids animal control and the proceeds went toward their spay/neuter fund.  We were so excited to see Larkin interact with other dogs and it ended up being such a fun morning.  I'm really bad at estimating, but I would guess there were about 40-50 dogs who participated with their humans.  We had the option of walking or running (we walked) and doing 1 or 2 miles (we did 1 mile...hey, I was pushing Claire and the terrain wasn't the easiest for maneuvering a stroller!).  Larkin had an absolute blast and we humans had a good time, too.  Here are some photos!

 

Every dog got a gift bag and Larkin's included a new bandanna!

Food.

Today I'm going to talk about food, because it's been on my mind a lot lately.  Steve and I have been making a lot of changes regarding the way we eat.  We visited a lot of farmers' markets over the summer, Steve has been trying to eat healthier, I've been trying to get rid of the last of my baby weight, and we've watched a couple food documentaries lately (Food Inc. and Forks Over Knives); all these things have prompted us to consider what we're eating before we put it in our mouths.

Before I go to far I just want to say:  This is not meant to be a preachy, "What I'm doing is correct and you're wrong if you disagree" type post.  I want this to be purely informative, not persuasive.  But if you are wondering why we've decided to make the changes we're making, the movies I linked to above are really great resources.  Also, I've been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma which is also very informative and interesting.

I would say the biggest change we've made is that we are eating virtually 100% grass-fed, free-range, hormone- and antibiotic-free meat.  We've been getting most of our meat from vendors at farmers' markets and the online food coop to which we belong.  This has been a little difficult because a lot of times you are at the mercy of the vendor and what they have available on any given day.  If you want ground beef you might not be able to get it just because they ran out or didn't bring any or whatever.  What we try to do is buy a large cut of meat (or a whole chicken), prepare it (usually roast the beef or boil the chicken), and then freeze the meat into one-meal portions.  So for example, a couple weeks ago I roasted a rump roast one afternoon and once it was done I sliced all of it and packaged it into four different freezer bags.  Then we come up with meal ideas that could use sliced or shredded roast beef.  One night we had beef and noodles.  Another night we had barbeque beef sandwiches.  A couple nights ago we made beef stirfry.  Same with the chicken - all of it gets shredded at once (like how I showed you in my previous post) and then frozen for upcoming meals.  It does require a bit of planning ahead, but it is really nice to pretty much be able to skip a step in the cooking process when we're making dinner since the meat is already done.

Another change we've made is that there hasn't been any pop in the house in over a month.  Steve still drinks it at work (it's free and he's a caffeine addict!), but we haven't been buying it.  I really hate diet pop (I've grudgingly forced myself to like Diet Dr. Pepper but that's it) so I used to consume a lot of HFCS and empty calories.  Steve always drinks diet pop but we had been experiencing quite a bit of sticker shock when buying pop at Hy-Vee.  So we decided to stop buying it.  Now we've been getting a lot of use out of our Brita pitcher and drinking water with Crystal Light or Ocean Spray packets mixed in.  I'm not a huge fan of drinking plain water, but if I mix in a flavor packet I can drink water all day long.  And it is amazing how much the flavor packets cost in comparison to pop, especially if we buy the larger packets that make 2 quarts of beverage.

The last major change has been in our snacking habits.  Like a lot of people, we really like to snack.  Especially while we're watching TV or movies.  But in an effort to cut down on processed, pre-packaged snack food, we've stopped buying most snacks and I've been doing a lot more baking.  This is a win-win because even though we're still consuming sweets and snacks, they are healthier than store-bought snacks, and I love to bake so I've been motivated to pursue that hobby more lately.  Monday night is the only night in which we watch live TV; it's our Dancing With the Stars and Castle night.  At the beginning of the DWTS season, I promised Steve that every Monday I would make a snack for us to eat while watching our Monday night shows.  And so far I have lived up to that promise!  I thought I'd share what I've made so far .

September 19th:  Lemon oat cookies.  I only use 1 cup of sugar instead of the 2 cups this indicates.  I've had my recipe for awhile and when I wrote it down I listed 1 cup of sugar.  These are light, buttery, and not too sweet, which means even Steve will eat them!

September 26th:  Homemade granola bars.  I need to tweak this recipe because the last time I made these they were completely falling apart.  I don't know what the deal was.  I found a different recipe on Pinterest (You use Pinterest, right?  Because it's amazing) that I'm going to try sometime.

October 3rd:  Caramel apple crisp.  I am a sucker for anything caramel apple related, so when I found this recipe (on Pinterest, surprise surprise) I knew I had to make it.  And it was soooooo good.  I halved the recipe since I'm just cooking for two, and it fit nicely into a square glass Pyrex dish.  Also, instead of buying regular caramels, I bought caramel bits so I didn't have to do any unwrapping.

October 10th:  Sriracha peach crisp.  I absolutely love Budget Bytes, the blog from which this recipe comes.  I love crisps.  I love peaches.  I love sriracha.  But for whatever reason, I just did not love this recipe.  Steve wasn't digging it either.  It had so much promise but fell flat for us.  If any of you try it I'd be interested to hear how you like it.

October 17th:  Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  Steve's favorite.  These did not last long!

October 24th:  We liked the caramel apple crisp so much the first time I made it, I decided to make it again!

That's all I have to say about our food journey.  It has been an adjustment, but I would say it's been a change for the better for us. 

Recipe: Make-ahead chicken breasts

Today I'm going to share how I roast chicken breasts in bulk to freeze for later use.  This might be a painfully obvious idea for most of you, but I didn't start doing this until a little over a year ago, so if I can help someone else "see the light" I'm happy to share.

Roasting (or baking...whatever...I'm not going to get into a discussion about the nomenclature of cooking methods) chicken is so super easy, and it saves a lot of time when you are cooking meals, because you have an entire step already done.  Woo hoo!  

Here's what I do:

First, I set my oven to 400 degrees and prepare the chicken while the oven is preheating.  I start by drizzling some olive oil in a Pyrex baking dish, adding the chicken to the dish, and coating both sides of the chicken with olive oil.  Normally I roast much more chicken than this at once (if the oven is already on, why not do a bunch at one time?), but this was all the chicken I had the day I did this.  But there have been times I've done a couple 9x13 pans at once.

Then I season each chicken breast with salt, pepper, and garlic.  I usually keep the seasonings pretty simple so they can be used for a variety of different meals.

I usually do a minimal amount of salt and loads of pepper and garlic, because that's the way we Turleys like it.

Then I cover my pan with aluminum foil, stick it into my 400 degree oven, and then find something to do for an hour or so.  Normally I see that hour as an opportunity to exercise or clean my toilets.  Ha!  Just kidding.  More like eat ice cream and surf the Internet.  Anyway, this is what the chicken looks like after about an hour at 400 degrees:

Then it's time to shred, shred, shred.  You've probably heard of the "two forks" method.  If not...you just take two forks and shred your chicken.  It will be fall-apart juicy and tender so it won't take much effort on your part.

After all the chicken is shredded, I freeze it.  How I freeze it depends on my mood/level of laziness.  Sometimes I get out my postage scale (which also works great for weighing food) and divide the chicken into precisely weighed portions.  More often, though, I take a clump of chicken that looks to be a suitable amount for making a meal for two and call it good.  When I roasted these two chicken breasts, I just put one in each freezer bag.  Make sure to label your bags!  Steve never labels anything and most of the stuff he freezes gets thrown away because we have no idea when it was bagged or what the heck is even in the bag.  I seriously keep a Sharpie on my kitchen counter because I use it all the time for food labeling.

That's it!  Really simple and not at all time-consuming.  It just requires a few minutes before and after the chicken cooks, and you have that entire hour for ice cream eating exercising.

What can you use your pre-cooked chicken for?  For starters, basically any recipe that tells you to cube your chicken and cook it in a frying pan.  I'm sorry, but I think that method is so icky.  I don't think the chicken turns out very well at all and it just looks like a watery mess.  If your recipe calls for cooking chicken in a pan, just throw in your pre-cooked chicken, warm it up, and move onto the next step.  I usually use pre-cooked chicken in:

-Pasta dishes that call for chicken.  Add it to the sauce as it starts to simmer and let it heat through.

-Any chicken and dumplings/chicken and biscuits/chicken pie recipe - basically any recipe that involves making a roux and dumping in chicken, vegetables, and milk/broth until you have a thick gravyish liquid.

-Soup!  It's so easy to dump a bag of chicken into a pot of soup.  You don't even need to thaw out the chicken beforehand; just add the frozen block of chicken and allow your pot to simmer for awhile.

-Mexican food.  A lot of times I'll heat up the chicken in a pan and then add water and taco seasoning as if I was making tacos with hamburger meat.  This pre-cooked, shredded chicken also works extremely well if you are making quesadillas.

Hopefully I gave at least one person out there the idea to roast chicken in bulk to use later on.  It really is a time saver and the chicken is so much more moist and tender than when it's cooked on the stovetop, even after it's been frozen.

Life update and photos

Hey guys.  I can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged.  I haven't even blogged using the new Blogger interface yet.  Anyway, we've all been having a good end of summer/beginning of fall.  Over the past few weeks we've gone to some farmers' markets, roadtripped to Ames to see my parents, enjoyed the beautiful weather as we've gone on walks, and Claire started Kindermusik a couple weeks ago.  I'm so, so glad we signed her up for Kindermusik.  I had some reservations about it since she's only 5 months old; I thought she might not get much out of it.  I was definitely wrong.  It's so fun watching her interact with the other babies and just plain having fun.

The next several weeks will continue to be a little busier than normal.  Some exciting stuff, some not so exciting stuff.  I started a 4-week Bible study at our church this morning (exciting, and nice to gather with other SAHMs).  I went to the dentist a couple weeks ago to get some of my old fillings replaced, and I have to go back and get more work done in October (not so exciting, but painful!).  We are getting Claire's 6-month pictures taken the first week in October, and we're going to do some family shots too (exciting, at least for me).  This Saturday Steve and all three of his girls (Hannah big girl, Larkin the little girl, and Claire the baby girl) are going to an event at Noelridge Park called Paws in the Park.  It is a 1-mile run/walk for dogs and their humans with proceeds benefiting the spay/neuter fund at Cedar Rapids animal control.  The weather should be really nice and it will be fun to see Larkin interact with lots of other dogs.  She still gets jumpy around new people, even when she's got her Gentle Leader on, so I'm a little nervous about how things will go, but maybe she will decide to be on her best behavior so she doesn't embarrass herself in front of all her new doggie friends.  I can hope, anyway.

Here are our last six weeks in pictures!

Claire rolled over for the first time on August 7th:

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit:

Same dress, 1983 vs. 2011

Visiting my parents in Ames:

Labor Day walk at the Morgan Creek arboretum:

Larkin testing her boundaries...we decided to see how well she would do with staying in the sunroom if we took down the gate we usually have up.  She decided to lie there with one paw over the line.  Notice the ominous-looking spray bottle that was ready to get her if she tried venturing any further.

Rice cereal

At the doctor's on Monday, we got the go-ahead to start Claire on rice cereal.  Last night was her first rice cereal meal.  I think the pictures speak for themselves...disgust, followed by bewilderment, followed by cautious acceptance!