We're Pregnant!!!

We have been holding on to a BIG secret for a while now (5 months, in fact)!!! We're having a little one! After holding on to it for so long we wanted to share our good news with everyone we know through the best way we know how- picture announcements! I swear you would think if you knew us that we're very vain. We have a picture photo shoot for every big thing in our lives (save the dates, wedding, 1 year anniversary, pregnancy announcements). That's not really the case it's just that we have a very talented friend, Nikki, (check out Little Bits by Neoshia) and when we get together our creative juices start following and a small photo opt some times turns into BIG "to do". I am lucky that Nikki loves to take pictures and create props for photos with me. So without further ado here are most of our pregnancy announcement photos:

This is one of Hubby's favorites. This is poses (obviously), but have been battling this for the last 2 months so it's not all that funny. :)

It had rained for the last week before our photo shoot so our nice lakes were a little swampy.

If you need any painted props check out Little Bits, by Neoshia she free hands everything and can paint most requests.

This picture probably would have been better if I had moved arm- oh well, you live, you learn, then get Luvs.

"Falling" back into the habit of posting....

Okay, I know it has been a while since I have posted anything (at least 7 months!!) I admit I am a slacker, and it is just hard for me to get on here at least once a week, or as the past would show once a month, and post things. BUT, I have a lot of exciting things coming up in my life and know that I will want to share all the events with family and friends and this is the best way to do it. So here goes my first attempt at getting back into a habit of posting things in my life and what better way than with the two recipes I made up and tried out tonight. They were amazing! I fixed hubby a couple of his favorite foods ( to show him just how much I love him), which happen to be fall comfort foods and coincidentally it was the first day of fall! What a neat coincidence, right?

First up an earthy fall oven roast:

 Here's what you need:

bottom round oven roast ( I used 1.9 lb)
1 onion, sliced
3 carrots, chopped into pieces
mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, chopped
salt
pepper
Olive Oil
2 tsp of  dried rosemary ( I just shook the seasoning until I thought I had enough. I wanted a nice earthy flavor)
1 tsp of dried oregano (or more/less depending on your liking)
1 tsp of  dried basil ( or more/less depending on your liking)
1 bay leaf
1 14.5 oz can of beef broth
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 packet of onion soup/dip mix

Here's how to do it: 
Preheat oven to 400.
 Put oil in a cast iron pot and turn on heat. Rinse roast and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and then place in pot. Sear on both sides so they are brown (about 5 minutes total)

Meanwhile,  slice onions, chop carrots and garlic and get mushrooms ready ( I bought presliced mushrooms). After both sides of the roast have a brown coloring to them remove the roast and place on a paper-towel lined plate. Add a little more oil, if needed, and add onions, carrots, garlic and mushrooms. Let saute for 5 minutes. 

While that is sauteing,  mix the beef broth, onion soup mix, and cream of mushroom soup in a bowl.  After 5 minutes, add the rosemary, basil, oregano and stir it around. Let the seasoning simmer on veggies for a minute or so then place the roast on top of the veggies and pour the beef broth mixture over the roast and add the bay leaf. Add a lid to the cast iron pot and place in the oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove the lid and continue to cook in the oven for another thirty minutes. Take out of oven let sit of a bit before cutting the meat and remove the bay leaf. I made mashed potatoes and served it over the mashed potatoes. It was delicious!!

 Now on to something sweet...

Normally, I wouldn't post a recipe for apple pie since you can find one just about anywhere, but half way through making the pie (I had already cut and sliced the apples) I realized I didn't have enough sugar so I had to come up with an alternative recipe. It turned out to be even better! Hubby LOVES apple pie, it is probably his favorite dessert. For me, it is fun to make, but just okay to eat.This pie, though, was seriously delicious I could have eaten several slices.

Here's what you'll need to make it:
 Pie crust ( I prefer store bought-sorry)
6 gala apples
1/4 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp and a bit of nutmeg
1 tbsp. of orange juice ( I didn't have lemon juice)

Here's how to do it:
Preheat oven to 425. Place/press one pie crust in a 9 in. pie pan so that it fills out the pan- leave a little hanging over the edge. Wash, core, and slice apples into thin slices ( l did not peel the apples- I am too lazy for that). Place the apples in the bowl then add both sugars, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and orange juice. Stir until the apple are well coated. Place the second pie crust on top. Fold the edges together and crimp the edges using your fingers or a fork (depends on the look you want). Use a knife and make a few small slits on top of the crust so it can "breathe".  Place in the oven. Set the timer for 15 minutes. Take the pie out and cover the edge with small strips of aluminum foil to avoid burning. Place back in the oven and bake for 25 more minutes. Serve warm with/without ice cream. 


Enjoy!


Sarah

Double time, Make-up time

  I know, I know, it has been a long time since I have made a post. Life has been crazy lately! Since the last post, I have gotten a minor cold and had a bout of strep throat. This was the third bout of strep throat in 4 months and the doctor suggested I consider having my tonsils removed. After searching the internet and reading some stories about tonsillectomies, I have officially scared myself into a healthy lifestyle to avoid getting sick again. On that note, I have a 6 things (mostly healthy, some sweet, some crafty) I need to update onto my blog! To make up for my absence, I will treat you, today, to 2 different recipes- 1 healthy, and 1 sweet!

Healthy Stuffed Peppers

Items you'll need:

 Green Peppers ( I used 3, which fed 3 people and I had left overs)

 Ground Turkey

 1 Onion- finely chopped

 1 garlic clove- finely chopped

 1 carrot- finely chopped

 black pepper

 1/2 tbsp of  basil

 1/2 tbsp of parsley 

 1/2 tbsp of oregano

  Red Pepper Flakes (amount desired based on taste)

  8oz can of Tomato paste

  water

  Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Steps to deliciousness:

Preheat oven to 350. 

Finely chop onion, garlic, and carrot. ( I placed all three in my food chopper at once, so it chopped and mixed them.)  Meanwhile, begin to brown ground turkey. Once veggies are chopped, add them to the turkey that is the pan. After a couple of minutes on the heat, add the black pepper, basil, parsley, oregano and red pepper flakes to the pan. (Feel free to add more seasoning. I just shake the seasoning over the pan, so the measurements are really guesstimates.) Cook until meat is light brown and veggies are soft; then add the the tomato paste and 4 oz of water-stir. Let the all items in the pan simmer together for a couple minutes so that all the flavors blend. 

While the items in the pan simmer clean and cut green peppers in half.

Once the green peppers are cut and sauce has simmered place green peppers in a glass dish. Then spoon the meat mixture into the green peppers and top with mozzarella cheese.

 Place in oven and cook for 15-25 minutes. You will know they are ready because the green peppers begin to look tender and are a darker green. See picture above ingredients for what mine looked like when I took them out of the oven. Enjoy!!

Hubby's favorite cookie of all time

My husband is not a huge fan of chocolate. Typically, when I make cookies I would make chocolate chip for me and sugar for him. That was until recently...  A few weeks ago, I was watching my niece and she came up with the great idea to make " a really big cookie". Now, she LOVES chocolate, so I decided we would make a really big chocolate chip cookie.  I used the recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chip bag with a few variations. 

Here's what you will need: 

 2 1/4 cups of unsifted flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp of salt

2 sticks (1 cup) of butter, softened ( I use very soft butter- so soft that when you touch the butter some comes off on your finger)

3/4 cups of sugar

3/4 cups of brown sugar, packed

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips ( in this case Ghirardelli)

1/2 cup mini-marshmallows 

Side note:  The mini-marshmallows happened by accident- when my niece started throwing mini-marshmallows in the bowl. I love chocolate and marshmallow and thought this could turn out to be really good, and it totally was!)

Steps to deliciousness:

Preheat oven to 375. 

Place all ingredients in a bowl. Use a hand mixer to mix the contents of the bowl and blend the butter into the mixture. Then stir by hand to ensure that all dry ingredients are actually mixed together and the batter is moist and sticky. Lightly spray a large cookie sheet with olive oil. Spoon mixture from the bowl onto the cookie sheet and spread to make one giant cookie. Put pan in the oven and cook for 11-14 minutes. Once warm enough to touch without burning myself, I cut into squares and serve.

Donuts and Hot/Cold Chocolate

The weather has been chilly here lately and for some reason when it gets chilly out I am always craving sweets. (Okay, I crave sweets all the time, but more so when the weather is chilly. ) What is a better treat than Nutella hot or cold chocolate and donuts??

Let's start off with the Nutella hot chocolate first, shall we?

This is  pretty simple to make and sooo good. I got the recipe from Pinterest, but who ever came up with this must have taken it down because there is an error code when you click on the picture.  I have made this twice now- once hot and then cold.  It's Florida and you can't expect it to stay chilly for long and who wants to drink hot chocolate when it is hot out?

Here is what you will need for 1 serving:

• Nutella (2 spoon fulls)
•  a little over 1 cup of milk

First:

  Put the milk on the stove and turn the burner up to medium heat.

The first time I made it I put the Nutella and milk in the pot first and then put it on the burner, but the second time I added the Nutella to milk that was starting to get warm and discovered it blended together faster. 

Next: Add the scoops of Nutella. I did 2 spoon fulls for 1 cup of milk. So if you were to make to  2 servings of this you would use 2 cups of milk and 4 spoon fulls of Nutella.

 Then: Stir the Nutella and milk until they are blended and there are no lumpy bits.

When it starts to look frothy, take a whisk and stir through it. This is just to ensure that it is nice and smooth.
* I didn't do this the first time and when I was drinking my hot chocolate a Nutella lump kept floating to the top when I would take a sip. (Very Annoying!)*
At this point you may want to taste a bit. I did this and found it was a little to rich for my liking at added a smidge more milk.

Now:

 If you want to serve this hot, get out your favorite hot chocolate mugs and pour some in to each cup and enjoy!

If you want to serve this cold, take this off the burner and let cool for a bit. Then fill a cup almost to the top with ice and pour the mixture over the ice and enjoy!!

I am thinking this would also be good with whip cream vodka, but I haven't tried it.

On to the donuts!!!

Don't get me wrong, I have always been a fan of donuts, but when it came to a somewhat quick breakfast donuts were not my item of choice. I would usually prefer a bagel, toast, or a Poptart, but for some reason this school year I have been craving donuts!  Sometimes on Fridays, on my way to work, I will go a a little bit out of my way to pick myself up a donut at Publix.   This morning I was craving donuts, but was really not in the mood to get dressed and drive to the store to pick up some. I knew I didn't have any refrigerator biscuits that I could just pop open and fry up. So if I wasn't willing to go to the store and I REALLY wanted donuts they were getting made from scratch! So my desire to stay in my jammies won and I made the donuts from scratch. It really wasn't all that hard,  I had all the ingredients so I saved myself the trip and the money. :)

 Here is what you will need:

• 2 1/4 cup of Bisquick
• 2/3 cup of milk 
• Vegetable oil
•  cinnamon
• sugar
• water

Now here's how it is done:

Put the Bisquick and milk into a bowl and mix until it forms a soft dough. 

Then sprinkle out some Bisquick on a surface and lay your freshly made dough on it and kneed it about 10 times.

Then add some vegetable oil to a pan and put it on medium- medium-high heat. You want enough oil in the pan that about half the donut is submerged in oil.  

 While the oil is warming up, roll the dough out until it is about 1/2 inch thick.

 Next: Using a round cookie cutter or something round (top of  a glass) cut the dough in to circles. I was in the mood for some big donuts and, believe it or not, I don't have a round cookie cutter. I doubt I would have had one as big as I wanted anyway. So, I used a the top of a martini glass to cut out my donuts.

I just cut out as many circles as I could make with the dough I had rolled out. Then, I sat the circles off to the side, balled the dough back up again and rolled it out again until I couldn't make any more circles. The dough I had left over I rolled in to little balls and used as donut holes.

The donuts with the center cut out and  holes on the right!

 To cut out the center of my circles I used a water bottle cap.

 Once all the dough is all shaped and ready to fry I add them to  the pan of vegetable oil.

Once the donut looks like it is golden brown on the side in the oil, flip the donut over to brown the other side. About 1-2 minutes on each side- depending on the temperature of the oil.

While the donuts are frying up, on a plate, mix some cinnamon and sugar together. 

 Once done, place the donut on a plate covered with a paper towel so it will absorb some of the oil. 

Then stick the donut in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Move a round a bit and coat both sides. 

You can also make a sugar syrup-glaze, but be sure to watch it so that it doesn't cook too long and cause the sugar to burn. 

 I usually make the sugar glaze after I am done with the donuts so that I can keep an eye on it. 

Here's the how-to for a sugar glaze:

Put about 1 tbsp of sugar in a pot with 1 cup of water over low heat.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved. I then turn my heat up and let it start to bubble and begins to look syrupy.  Then I take it off the heat.  Using a spoon, I drizzle it over the donuts. I let the donuts rest a bit and soak up the sugar syrup.

Eat, Drink, and be Merry!!

A Happy Hubby

They always say the a way to a man's heart is through his stomach. When it comes to my hubby that couldn't be more true. Recently, I spread my cooking wings and gave my hand a try at cooking some of food that my husband considers comfort food. Being from the Philippians Chicken Adobo is a staple food. According to him,his family would eat Chicken Adobo once a week. Lucky for him, besides the fact that I like to make him happy, I also LOVE chicken Adobo.  So after looking on the internet I found a pretty simple recipe that I thought I would try out. I didn't make a lot of it, in case it was a bust and didn't taste anything like his or my expectations. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, it was awesome and hubby was eating of my plate! I have made this once or twice since the first time I made it because it was so good and incredibly easy. Trust me this is a dish anyone would love!

Here is what you will need:

•   Chicken wingettes as many as you want to eat (or any meat pieces. I also used pieces of pork, but hubby says his family uses any pieces of meat they have handy. Adobo just refers to the sauce and way it is cooked.)
• 1 whole garlic chopped
• 1 tsp of black pepper
•  4-5 whole black pepper corns
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 1 cup of vinegar (white distilled)
• 1 cup of soy sauce ( my in-laws say Kikkonman is the best brand)
• 1 cup of Sprite
• 1 lemon cut in fours
• oil for sauteing 

   Now the steps to deliciousness:
Heat oil in a pot and chop garlic. Add chopped garlic to pot and saute/cook until lightly brown.

  Meanwhile, clean chicken, pat dry and rub with a lemon.

  Place chicken in the pot and cook 5-7 minutes until tenderized.
  Then add vinegar, soy sauce, black pepper, black pepper corns, and bay leaves to the pot and let simmer
  for about  25-30 minutes.
                

    After 25- 30 minutes add the Sprite and simmer for 5 more minutes. ( This is to take some of the bitterness out of dish).

  Mabuting pagkain (good eating in Tagalog)! Serve over rice and enjoy!

*recipe adapted from here

Favorite Food Fridays

Who doesn't love Friday? It is one of my favorite days of the week. At school, I usually try and stack as many fun projects for the kids to do on Fridays and it's also the start of the weekend! I read somewhere that it is a good idea to plan fun things for yourself in the middle of the week so you have something to look forward to. I try to do that, but it doesn't always work. Hubby and I aim for date nights on Tuesdays and in school I have "dessert" day on Monday- a day where students can read dessert items of their choice (items that are too easy for them like picture books, Guinness Book of World Record books, comic books, magazines, or the newspapers) and kids munch on something special during snack. But I still LOVE to put something fun to look forward to on Friday. I think about what's for dinner before I get out of bed in the morning. I love food and for this Friday I decided to try out a recipe I had in my mind for one of my favorite foods- Calzones! This recipe can be made with any toppings that you desire. For this recipe I made a Philly Cheesesteak Calzone for the hubby, and  veggie version for me. A few weeks ago I made this recipe using buffalo chicken. The ingredients and steps for the buffalo chicken calzone can be found  here, or at the bottom of this page, but I did not follow her instructions for cooking it as many people on the blog complained about the inside not cooking all the way through and the outside being burnt. I used the instructions on the pizza dough bag for baking temp and time. So here's the details to make your own calzone (details... get it?)

So here it what you will need:

• 1 store bought pizza crust dough
• 1 garlic clove minced
• "toppings" of your choice 
• Philly CheeseSteak Calzone
• 1 onion chopped (as little or as much as you like)
• 1 green pepper sliced (as little or as much as you like)
• sliced mushrooms (add as many or as little as you like)
• 1/2 clove of minced garlic
• steak strips 
•  provolone and mozzarella (I only used mozzarella because I ran out of provolone)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

• For Veggie Calzone
• Ricotta cheese ( I used 4 oz for half  of the pizza crust)
• a handful and a pinch of mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 tsp of oregano
• 1/2 tsp of basil
• 1/4 tsp of parsley
• chopped onion (as much as you like)
• sliced green pepper (as much as you like)
• sliced mushroom( as much as you like)
• 1/2 clove of minced garlic

 The veggie would also be good as a plain cheese calzone with the seasoning and no veggies. You could also use the cheese mixture and add cooked sausage or burger or pepperoni or ham.

 Directions: Clean, chop, and slice green peppers, mushrooms, and onions. Meanwhile, in a skillet heat olive oil. 

Once veggies are chopped and oil is warm add the garlic and veggies to skillet. Once veggies start to appear tender add the precooked steak strips. (If using raw steak strips add the steak strips first then add the garlic and veggies). Season with salt and pepper.

Skillet on back burner is for veggie calzone, skillet on front burner is for Philly Cheesesteak calzone

While veggies are sauteing, flour a surface and the pizza dough and roll the dough out into a giant circle or oval.

Size of dough after rolled out. 

After dough is rolled to desire size, use a knife or pizza cutter and slice in half. Do this if you are making two different types of calzones. Otherwise, there is no need to slice it in half. You can make one big calzone and cut it to share after baking which is what I did when I made the buffalo chicken calzone.

The dough sliced

At this point the veggies and meats that have been sauteing should be done. Take them off the burn to cool a bit. This will make the rolling process easier later one.

While veggies are cooling mix the ricotta, mozzarella, and seasonings together for a veggie or pizza style calzone.

Cheese "sauce" after

Next sprinkle the dough with the cheese mixture; or if making the Philly Cheesesteak calzone lay the provolone cheese in a layered pattern on the dough and then sprinkle with some mozzarella.

Left side is phillycheese steak. Right side veggie

 Then add "toppings".
After topping have been added roll calzone vertically to the other end and then press the edges shut so that the filling will stay inside once it starts to bake.

Rolling the Calzone

Then place calzones on greased baking sheet and bake according to pizza crust dough directions. In this case it was 350 degrees for 18-25 minutes. I needed to cook mine for about 22 minutes.

Doll rolled, pinched at the edges, and in the oven.

 Your calzone will be ready when the crust is  lightly brown and when you stick a knife in the middle it does not come out doughy.

The finished project!!!

Don't forget if you are making a veggie, cheese, or pizza type you may want marinara dipping sauce ( just marinara spaghetti sauce) on the side.








The buffalo chicken calzone by finding a new life through food blog:

2 boneless chicken breasts1 tsp. olive oil1 pizza dough (I used store bought and let it sit out for about 20 minutes)8 oz. of shredded mozzarella cheese (I used part skim)3 oz. of shredded cheddar cheese1/2 cup of Franks Wing Sauce1/3 cup of ranch or blue cheese dressing
Cut chicken into cubes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Heat teaspoon of olive oil in skillet and add chicken when hot.  Cook chicken completely and then add 1/4 cup of wing sauce.  Stir to coat chicken and let simmer for a minute or two.  Take chicken off heat and let cool.
Roll dough the same why I stated above.
add ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing (depending on your preference!) and remaining 1/4 cup of wing sauce.  Spread across the dough.  Add chicken and then top with mozzarella and cheddar cheese.  You can also add a bit more of the wing sauce on top of the cheese if you want it to be a little bit spicier.
Roll dough and bake as stated above.