Another reason

That I can tell marathon training has commenced ... I am STARVING.

We aren't even doing any major miles yet. My run this morning was only 3 miles, but I feel like I could have eaten all day.

I tried out overnight oats that had intrigued me. You can google "overnight oats" or "overnight oats in a jar" and find several recipes. I'm on the fence about them and not happy considering that I paid $9! for a bag of chia seeds at Whole Foods. I'll give them another try, and I think I will add some crunchy granola on top to balance out the mushy texture.

I went to the grocery and loaded up on healthy items like greek yogurt, almond milk, fresh fruit, miniature ice cream sandwiches, english muffins, granola, black bean burgers, etc. Hoping that if I am stocked full of healthier/filling foods, then I won't run 3 miles and eat a bag of chips.

I know some people would say, but you are running X number of miles a week ... eat what you want! As much as I would love to do that, I don't feel as good when I do and running those longer distances is always easier when I'm down a few pounds. No worries - there will be splurging on occasion ... just not every night!

Any good filling/protein filled recipes out there?

Blah, Blah, Blah

My rambling Thursday thoughts ...

• I have become slightly obsessed with making smoothies. I'm back on ol' WW, and for 1 cup of milk, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, 1/2 a banana, and 1/2 cup ice, it's only 2 points and yummy ... plus, it's dairy and fruit! Yes, I realize that it's 34 degrees outside, but I seriously want one everyday. I feel like I should be adding protein powder, or whey powder, or something to it. Do any of you use protein powder? I know it would make it a little more filling.
• I'm trying a new Cooking Light recipe tonight ... slow cooker meatloaf . It smells really good. I'm just hoping that I didn't screw it up by using cremini mushrooms instead of shiitake.
• Our schools have been closed for 4 days due to the snow that we had on Monday. I think everyone is a little stir crazy and ready for kiddos to get back to a normal schedule. Even Libby has been asking if she was going to get to see one of her classmates today.
• I realize that when I'm driving the huge double-seater shopping cart at the grocery, I look very large and in charge. I promise you that I'm not trying to run you over. Yes, that is directed at you, woman in the soup aisle with the big 1980's eyeglasses.
• My running shoes miss me, or they miss running. I've been working out nearly every day, but have only run 4 miles in the last 2 weeks. I'm hoping to change that soon.

Pumpkin Spice, oh yeah

A bag of Betty Crocker pumpkin spice cookie mix fell in my shopping cart a couple of weeks ago, and I'm so glad it did.

I made these cookies tonight and they turned out to be very good. Kind of cakey in texture, and when paired with homemade cream cheese frosting, you can't really go wrong. Paired with milk or coffee and they would probably be even better.

Of course, the cookies are very easy ...they do come out of a pouch. All you do is add an egg, butter, a little water and mix it up. The frosting took a bit longer because you, or your Hubby has to sift 2 cups of powdered sugar, but it's definitely worth the effort. Don't buy the stuff in the can because the homemade is so much better. Just ignore the fact that the ingredients are cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. I'm definitely not looking up weight watcher points for that one.

Happy Fall!

Clean livin'

We've been trying to eat healthier, more local, and a bit cleaner/less processed here at the D. household. By no means are we perfect ... Goldfish crackers still invade on a weekly basis and I'm not sure who eats more of them. I love supporting the local farmers at our farmers market, plus the produce is so much better than what we can find at our grocery stores. I really don't think I can buy eggs at the grocery store ever again, because the quality of the local/farm-fresh is so much better.

I tried to bring this style of eating into my running fuel. I find myself needing a little boost on longer runs and I've always used Gu products before. Same with post-run, there's nothing like an ice-cold cup of Gatorade to quench your thirst.

I was at my local running store and picked up some Stingers. These are organic, made with honey, energy chews. I liked the taste and the texture, but they just didn't seem to give me the extra "boost" that the Gu Chomps do. I think I was missing the caffeine. I'll definitely try them again and see if maybe I need to eat more of them than I do with the Chomps.

I think my biggest fail was the natural sports drink I heard about from one of my running buddies. It's called Recharge and was available to Earth Fare, our "healthy" grocery store. She had actually found it for a $1/bottle at Big Lots so I stopped by to pick up a few. Yuck. Not good and I'm definitely not giving up my sugar laden Gatorade for this. Has anyone else tried it? Do you have any good sports drinks that you would recommend? I know that Gatorade is supposed to be the Kool-Aid of Sports drinks and while (I think) it tastes good, I don't know if it's doing anything to replenish me after a long run.

So, as I prepare for 10 miles tomorrow, I'm packing my bag with Gu Chomps and sticking a bottle of G2 Gatorade in the fridge.

Happy Independence Day!

Here's my attempt at patriotic star cookies for a cookout later today. Libby hurt my feelings by proclaiming "flowers!" when they were cooling. Yep, she's right ... my stars spread out into flowers, but they are still yummy sugar cookies nonetheless.

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Why does snow

make me want to eat?

All I can say is it's a good thing that I don't live in North Dakota.

I was "that girl" at the grocery yesterday who really did need to buy milk. When I'm lugging my gallon of organic Vitamin D, I feel like I should proclaim "I really do need this ... I have twins at home!"

Hubby is back braving the crowds and snow for the rest of our supplies since I was planning to do the grocery shopping today.

On tap to make this weekend:

Taco Soup for today ... a mix between a tortilla soup and chili. Yum! From my friend, Kelly

3 FROZEN chicken breasts (or ground beef or turkey)
1 envelope ranch dressing mix
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
1 medium onion, diced
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 can black beans 1 can cannelli (or any white) beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can vegetarian baked beans
1 can kernel corn

Put everything in crockpot in order listed. Do NOT rinse or drain beans. Add a little chicken broth as needed.

DO NOT STIR. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Take chicken out and shred with two forks. Put chicken back in, stir, and eat.

It's A LOT of beans, but you can always use what you have and not follow the directions precisely. I'd love to try to make this with dried beans so you don't have as much sodium. It's really good to top with a bit of shredded pepper jack cheese, sour cream, and a few tortilla chips!

Chicken Cordon Bleu, ala Weight Watchers
Ingredients
4 spray(s) cooking spray, or enough to coat chicken
1 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4-oz pieces
3 oz Boar's Head Smoked Ham, or other brand, four 3/4 oz slices
3 oz low-fat Swiss cheese, four 3/4-oz slices
1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup(s) honey mustard
1/2 cup(s) seasoned bread crumbs, Italian-style

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.
Place chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound to 1/4-inch thickness; remove plastic wrap. Arrange 1 slice of ham and 1 slice of cheese on each chicken breast.
Starting from shorter end of chicken, roll up breast into a tight pinwheel. Tuck in ends. Secure with toothpicks.
Place flour, honey mustard and bread crumbs in 3 separate shallow bowls. Add chicken to flour; turn to coat. Transfer chicken to honey mustard; turn to coat. Place chicken in bread crumbs; turn to coat.
Transfer chicken to prepared baking sheet and coat with cooking spray. Bake until chicken is golden brown and cooked through, about 40 minutes. Remove toothpicks and serve.

This has been one of our favorite WW recipes ... great flavor and it's really easy to make.

Apricot Pork Chops, ala Cooking Light
5 1/2 cup apricot preserves
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic (I use a garlic clove and mince it myself)
1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
4 boneless pork chops

Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl; set aside. Combine salt, cinnamon and pepper, and sprinkle over both sides of pork. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove skillet from heat; add apricot mixture, turning pork to coat. Place 1 chop on each of 4 dinner plates; spoon remaining apricot mixture evenly over chops.

This may be a new favorite - the flavor of the sauce is good. The recipe doesn't call for it, but I think the apricot sauce would be good to warm it up instead of leaving it cold.

We also decided if a bag of dark chocolate chips just happened to fall into the shopping cart, that a batch of chocolate chip cookies wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

My helpful Heloise moment

I've been baking today. I know ... it's often scary, but usually I do OK as long as I have recipes.

I made cheese straws and lemon snap cookies, along with a meatloaf for dinner. Actually, only the cheese straws are out of the oven. The dough for the lemon cookies is in the fridge, and the meatloaf will go in the oven to bake. I'll bake the cookies tonight and cross my fingers. Waiting on the cheese straws to cool, but they smell yummy. They don't look store bought, but I guess they really shouldn't.

Anyway, I was trying to scrape the dough off my mixer blade and I never have a small rubber spatula. Guess what came in handy? Those little rubber tipped baby spoons. Perfect. Even if you don't have kids, buy a pack and keep them in your drawer.

So, there you go my friends. Aren't you glad you stopped by for that piece of entertainment today?

And other ways

that I torture my children.

I take a lot of (good-natured) teasing from some of my friends about the foods that I make for Maddy and Libby. I'm proud of the fact that they are 15-months-old and have never tasted a chicken nugget. I'm proud that they devour avocado, fresh fruit, tomatoes, peas, and various other foods that I probably would have spit out when I was their age. Or at 36. Peas. Blech.

By no means am I an all-organic hippie mom, growing her own veggies, and only serving all natural unprocessed foods, but there are days that I wish I could live that simply and be better about being a "locavore." I also don't mention the bag of Halloween candy that I bought yesterday and it's already short a few pieces. I'm not trying to save the world - just trying to find a good variety of healthy foods for my family.

I feel strongly that as a parent, I am charged to keep my children healthy, happy, and loved. I think by offering a variety of healthy foods at an early age can only do good for them. Sure, they still get cookies after lunch, but I try to make sure that they are somewhat healthy and not totally loaded with sugar. They have many years ahead of them to start buying Halloween candy in September if they choose.

I am always looking for new veggies or new ways to introduce veggies to Maddy and Libby. I'm sure peas for lunch every day would get a little old. Now that they are a bit older and are great self-feeders, I was happy to find Wholesome Toddler Foods. I loved their Baby Foods website and found many of our puree recipes from their site.

One that caught my eye were the spinach nuggets. I didn't have all the required spinach on hand, but I did have broccoli so I decided to improvise. After all, who doesn't want their kids to eat another veggie and serving of dairy?

Freshly grated Cabot extra sharp cheddar.

Choppin' broccoli.

Here is the recipe (adapted) from their site:

Spinach (or Broccoli) Nuggets

1 16-oz package frozen chopped broccoli, cooked, drained, and chopped further if needed .
1 cup bread crumbs
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese *I used Cabot Extra Sharp cheddar, because it is the World's best cheddar!
3 Large eggs

Heat oven to 375F

1. Lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil and set aside.
2. Combine all remaining ingredients and mix well. *Add seasonings if you like - garlic powder, pepper, extra basil & oregano for example. Add a fruit or veggie puree to substitute for the eggs if desired*.
3. Shape mixture into nuggets or fun shapes such as squares or squigglies etc..and place on baking tray. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, turn nuggets over after 15 minutes. Serve warm

You can "roll" this out and then try using small cookie cutters to make these into fun shapes!

I tried to roll out the "dough", and make heart shapes, but just ended up forming them into circles instead. It seemed a little too sticky so I just did spoonfuls.

Ready for the oven.

So, here are a few "after" photos. Happy girls, don't you think? And, I'm pleased to report that they ate all of their "nuggets." Unfortunately, they still left the sweet potatoes on the tray. They used to love them as a puree, but baked and diced, not so much.

Libby chowing down.

Maddy loves 'maters.

By the way, the nuggets were really good. I had a couple for my lunch too. Hmmm, maybe it would work on Hubby.

I can admit

I think y'all know that I've been on a kick trying out new fruits and veggies with Maddy and Libby.  Kiwi?  Love it.  Mango?  Ditto.  Avocado?  Yep.  I saw a recipe in one of my baby books for brussel sprouts and I thought I would give it a try.

I will admit as a thirty-something-year old, I have never eaten a brussel sprout until today.  Growing up we ate a variety of fruits and vegetables, but they were all what I will call the "normal" variety - corn, lima beans, bananas, strawberries, green beans, etc.  Honestly, I ate a lot of grilled cheese up until high school, so I probably didn't eat many veggies until then either.  Not that my Mom still didn't put those 5 damn green beans on my plate every night.

The recipe I used said to trim the bottoms of the sprouts, but to keep the leaves intact. Next I washed and dried them.  I put a little EVOO in a container and threw my sprouts in.  Coated them and put them on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.  I added a little salt and pepper and popped them in a 425 degree oven.

The original cooking time was 15 minutes and flipping them at the halfway point.  I didn't cook nearly as many as the recipe called for, so I cut my time in half.

When I pulled them out, they were crispy on the outside and still tender inside.  They had a good cabbage-ish flavor, but I loved that crispiness to them.  

I added them to M&L's lunch today, so they enjoyed baked chicken, rotini pasta with cheddar cheese grated on top, tomatoes, the brussel sprouts, kiwi, and plums.  Oh and a little milk.  And a few Annie's graham bunnies for dessert.  Thanks, ET!  

I was a little nervous that they may throw them on the floor.  There were a few funny faces, but they seemed to enjoy them and maybe left one on their tray.  

If you're like me and had never eaten a brussel sprout, try them out.  I think they would be yummy to roast some with new potatoes.  

Where I'm from

We would call this kind of contraption "beer butt chicken" and there would likely be a can of Bud Light holding up the chicken.  And while I love kitchen gadgets more than I really should, I don't think I'm shelling out $30 for this anytime soon.

However, if you want to buy me a present, I would gladly accept any of the following.

Avocado pitter and slicer.  

The Meyer Lemon hand soap.

Botanical Hand towels, to go along with my lemon soap.

Mmmmmmm

I think I really want this book for my cookbook shelf. If for no other reason because the cover rocks and it would make me smile whenever I saw it.

Oh, and I'm sure there are some mighty fine recipes.

lemon bars

Martha must have some sort of tracker on my craving for the day. I was thinking about lemon bars and (poof) an email appears with her best lemon recipes, including one for lemon squares. It's magic ... just like those ads on google!

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/lemon-squares?xsc=eml_edf_2009_03_24

Don't they look good? I think I may need to pick up lemons and the rest of the ingredients on my grocery store trip tonight so I can try to make them tomorrow.

Other staples in our house that we are either out of or as we say, "on alert" that we are almost out of ... coffee creamer, peanut butter, oatmeal squares cereal, whole wheat bread, bananas. I'm sure there's a dozen other things too. Hmmm, maybe it's selfish that the things always replenished are items that I always need for my own breakfast and lunch. Well, Hubby eats the peanut butter too, so I guess that counts for something.

I also want to pick up some blueberries for Maddy and Libby. They are into feeding themselves, so I'm going to try to "smoosh" the blueberries and cut into pieces to see what they think. So far, cheerios are the favorite, but they'll also eat bananas, sweet potato, and baked apples cut into tiny bits. The dogs think it's great too, because there is usually about a 70/30 ratio on what actually makes it into their mouths.

Is it wrong ...

That I have been eating nachos, frozen pizza, jelly beans, and vanilla wafers while my children have been eating fresh, organic sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, butternut squash, and apples?

I think it's time to reevaluate my eating habits and start eating more like my babies!

Homemade applesauce

Homemade applesauce is so easy to make for your baby, or babies. Plus, it makes a good amount and is easily frozen. Oh, and did I mention that it's really easy to do? It tastes really good ... I would eat this as is. It's plain, sweet, and yummy.

I started with six organic Red Delicious apples.

Peel the apples.

Next, core the apples. One of these apple corers really does help save time.


Chop the apples and place them in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add two tablespoons water or unsweetened apple juice. I opted for the water. Cover and heat on low, for about 6-10 minutes, or until the apples are soft.
Puree until all of the apples are blended and no chunks are left. I use a Cuisinart stick hand blender. Spoon the applesauce into ice cube trays for freezing. I let these freeze for about 24 hours, then pop the cubes out and store in a freezer bag. Or if you have a hungry baby, spoon a little into a bowl for immediate serving!

Baby Food Making, Attempt One

Well, I guess it's really my 2nd time ... I baked and pureed a sweet potato for the girls last week. Today, was butternut squash. I know I've never bought a butternut squash and I may have tried one, but I think it was in a ravioli?

The one I bought looked like a gourd and I wasn't sure if to use the stem part, so I didn't. It smelled and felt like a pumpkin when scooping out the seeds. I just used the round part and I was surprised that I didn't end up with more "meat." Maybe I should have used the stem. I cut it in quarters and baked it for 45 minutes, then scooped out the meat, and gave it a blend with our hand-held food processor thing.

Sorry for the blurry photo ... aren't the pink ice cube trays so cute?

Anyway, here it is pureed and in the cute little silicone ice cube trays, ready for the freezer. I saved a portion to use for dinner later on today. I guess to get 9 servings out of one squash is still very cost-effective. The squash cost $3.00, so about 33 cents a serving. The organic squash baby food was $1.49 a container, which is 2 servings, so about 75 cents a serving. I'm not trying this out solely for cost savings, but also that it seems pretty easy to do, plus it's fresher and not sitting on a shelf for two years.


Now, don't get me wrong ... I still consume plenty of processed and packaged foods and I'm sure the girls will later on in life as well. Which we really shouldn't eat the crap, but I guess I would rather start the girls out with as fresh and healthy of foods as possible. If they turn out like me, I'm sure they will discover Wheat Thins and Hot Tamales all on their own!

Chili Day

Just like in elementary school ... well, I wish! I can remember back in Elementary School when it was the day that they were serving Chili for the school lunch, they would also serve a cinnamon roll for dessert. Yum! I think that was about the only day that I would eat the school lunch.

I've been wanting to make chili lately, but haven't wanted to make the time to find a good recipe and let it simmer for 6+ hours. I lucked out yesterday when I went to my favorite place for when we need something good for dinner, but again have no time to cook, which is often lately. Best chicken pot pies, ever! Anyway, I found out that Saturdays are "Buy one, get one 1/2 off" soups and entrees! I bought two types of chili - regular and southwest and plan to have the regular later today.

Do you eat in plain or with toppings? I think it's great with cheese, Frito scoops, and maybe a little sour cream or jalapenos on top.

My day of "cooking"

One of the hardest things for us to figure out since the girls arrived on the scene is what to eat for dinner. When my parents were here after the girls came home, Mom had dinner on the table by 5:30 PM sharp. I don't think we've eaten that early since we were kids. It was wonderful to say the least, but they've been gone and we've burned through all the meals that were brought to us by friends. (Thank you - they were yummy.) I would try to cook something before Hubby gets home, but the timing is usually off and I'm feeding the girls, or um, playing on Facebook. So, we often find ourselves looking at each other at 7PM, asking the dreaded question, "What's for dinner?"

So, we decided to make a trip back to Let's Dish and this time we are being extremely lazy and choosing the "dish and dash" option. That means someone else even prepares the food for you. For an extra $10 and when I'm on limited time when I'm out sans children, it makes sense. So, later today, I'll be picking up chicken breasts with cranberry chutney, mini mozzarella stuffed meatloaves, a pork tenderloin, and a beef roast. We have the portions divided, so we typically can get 2-3 meals out of one dish. We've had the meals before and have found them all to be very good.

So, that is my cooking for today. One day, I really do hope to cook again on a regular basis. I mean, I do watch Martha for new recipes and subscribe to three food related magazines ... doesn't that count for something?

We're on the charts!

At our 4 month appointment today, we were excited to hear that Maddy and Libby made it on the growth charts. Maddy is up to 10 lbs, 8.5 ounces and 22 3/4 inches long and Libby is 11 lbs, 8.5 ounces and 23 1/4 inches long. This put Maddy in about the 5th percentile for height and weight and Libby in the 7th for weight and 10th for height. Whoo-hoo! At their 2 month check up, they didn't even show up on the charts. Our Pediatrician was very pleased with their continued growth and development. We had another round of shots (glad that's over) and they are both still snoozing after a good bout of crying.

We left with the go ahead to try rice cereal, vegetables, and fruits if we would like. I think we may try a little rice cereal this weekend and see how that goes first. Does anyone out there make their own baby food? I think I may attempt to try - my biggest problem is that we aren't the best about eating vegetables ourselves ... especially ones liked cooked carrots, squash, and peas - some of the veggies that are on the list to try. This may just force us into cooking (and eating) more veggies ... not a bad thing at all. I think it would be better for them if we make the food and also more cost effective. I know I saw a cookbook in the Williams-Sonoma catalogue ... does anyone have any good recommendations for baby food cookbooks or websites, otherwise all I'll end up making are sweet potatoes!

So a good appointment, and we left with 2 cans of our NeoSure formula. Always excited for samples, especially ones that retail for almost $20 a can and seem to be scarce on the shelves lately.

Dinner and shots

Not those kind of shots, but Synagis for RSV. The girls were approved to receive this shot and while I wasn't excited about the idea of adding a monthly shot for several months, if it will keep them from getting sick during flu season, then I'm all for it. They were little troopers and cried just for a bit and then both fell soundly asleep in their car seats while we sat and patiently waited for 20 minutes to make sure they didn't have a reaction. No reaction ... thank goodness. We did find it interesting that our insurance didn't approve them on the basis that they are twins, or were born prematurely, or their small birth weight, but because I have asthma and we have a wood burning fireplace. That we never use, but shhhhhh, don't tell.

The dinner part of my post is the goulash that I made last night. The change in temperature here has made me looking up recipes for comfort food. On my list has been goulash, brownies, shepherd's pie, chili, etc. Anyway, I forgot to take photos of my dinner making in progress, but if you are looking for a good and easy recipe that will make enough for 3 hungry adults with plenty of leftovers, you can find it here. It is great with crusty bread and salad. Oh, and red wine, but sadly I settled for water last night.

Do you find yourself changing your menu when the weather changes? What is your favorite comfort food?

Cookie candy recipe

I promise this is so easy and addictive. I make this for pretty much any party that we attend and there are only crumbs left. I believe the real name is called Cookie Candy, but we typically call it "crack rock"

You will need:

1 sleeve of saltine crackers
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can substitute dark chocolate or whatever you like)
12 oz. Skor bits, toffee chips, or butterscotch chips (I've tried peanut butter- not the same consistency, but still pretty good)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Directions:
Line a baking pan with foil.
Place one layer of saltine crackers in pan.
In a saucepan, mix butter and sugar over medium heat until combined.
Boil for 2 minutes, then pour mixture over crackers.
Bake for 6-7 minutes at 400 degrees.
Remove pan and sprinkle chocolate chips & Skor bits over crackers.
Set for minutes and spread to blend.
Refrigerate for 2 hours and break into pieces.