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Fooding

Growing up, I SUCKED at cooking. I set a pot on fire BOILING WATER. I set a frying pan on fire MAKING PANCAKES (and that pan had to be thrown out...there was no saving it). I was bad bad bad at cooking or anything kitchen related.

Now though? I'm on a roll. I'm finding that I have natural instincts in the kitchen and I follow them and it usually turns out good. Time for some food pictures and talk.

Scalloped Potatoes

This was the first time I have ever attempted to make these babies from scratch. I love scalloped potatoes and I always end up adding my own cheese to the boxed stuff anyways, so I decided to give it a go. I looked at a few recipes online just for a basic idea of where to start and so many said 6-8 potatoes. Let me tell you that would make A FREAKING LOT. I used 4 potatoes, but one was very small. Anyways, recipe.

4 peeled and thinly sliced potatoes

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 cup of milk (roughly...I don't measure)

A buttload of cheese

Onion powder

Pepper

Butter to grease the dish

Oven preheated to 425 degrees F

Basically just toss it all together in your dish and makes sure there's cheesy goodness throughout. I ended up baking it for close to two hours, but I could have left it in a bit longer. It was hearty and very delicious. This made enough to serve both B and I, along with a salad.

Spicy Salad

This is the salad I spoke of in my last post. Try it!

Salmon

I'm not a salmon fan, but B is so I decided to experiment a bit.

2 salmon filets (frozen)

Sprinkling of dill 

1/3 of a cup of melted margarine

1 tsp corn starch

Splash of milk

Onion powder

Crushed red pepper

Oven: 350 F

I brushed some of the melted margarine onto the filets (both sides). Next I poured the milk, dill and corn starch into the rest of the melted margarine and mixed it well. I then poured it on the salmon (both sides, again) and then sprinkled the other spices lightly on top. Took about 20 minutes to cook perfectly, and B LOVED it. He saved one filet to take to work for lunch the next day.

Banana Muffins

Usually I make a loaf of banana bread, but these are so much more convenient for breakfasts and for B to take in his lunch to work. So I gave muffins a try and they are even better than my bread. I've been using this recipe ever since we got married.

3 ripe bananas

1/3 cup melted butter or margarine

3/4 cup of sugar (the recipe I originally used way back in 2010 called for a full cup, but I found that too sweet)

1 egg, beaten (today I didn't beat the egg, however, and it turned out fine)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Oven: 350 F

Mash the bananas thoroughly. With a wooden spoon, mix in the melted butter. Then mix in sugar, egg and vanilla. Next, sprinkled the baking soda and salt over the mixture and then stir them in. Finally, add the flour and mix it real good til it's smooth. Butter your baking pan, then pour the mixture in. For a banana loaf, you want to leave it in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. For muffins, 30 minutes will do it. 

I am obviously loving cooking. I find that I have a very 'me' approach to it, and I like it. I need to work on making things more healthy, but I have time to work on that. For now I'm really just enjoying experimenting and creating my own recipes as well as making known recipes my own. And B doesn't mind my kitchen adventures in the slightest. He is a man and he likes to eat. And I like to feed him. And myself. I love eating. 

In G news, she's picking up new words rapidly and is really starting to get into calling me Mama on a regular basis. She's honestly the best kid. I love her so much. 

Back to Business

Today marks the first day of being alone with G again. Time to get back to my job as housewife extraordinaire. It's amazing how much better I feel since the surgery. Unfortunately my appetite came back with a vengeance and I've been eating every thing in sight, but with the start of this new week and new chapter in our lives, I feel inspired to be good with the food. Example of my goodness: Last night I willingly ate a salad for a snack. Yes, I followed with that last final late night bowl of macaroni and ketchup, but I swear it was the last one!!

We recently got cable in our apartment - apparently it was free in our complex but no one ever told us...jeeze - and so that means I've been living on the Food Network and that in turn means that I've been inspired to cook! And more than just pasta! Amazing, I know. Here are some of the things I made last week:

This is...well I guess you'd call it a hash? Anyways, I was craving eggs and I had leftover potatoes from the night before so I tossed them together in the pan with some pureed spinach, onion powder, salt, pepper, and a few chunks of chicken. It was insanely delicious, and all three of us really enjoyed it.

This is baked chicken topped with asiago cheese (soo yummy), cheesy ranch dressing, and Frank's Red Hot Buffalo sauce (I would drink it straight from the bottle if I could). It turned out to be probably the most delicious chicken dish I have ever made. Can't wait to make it again!

Cheesy mashed potatoes, with corn and pureed spinach mixed in. I'm loving spinach lately and am really having a great time experimenting, trying to figure out new things to add it to. 

This week I also made an AMAZING spinach dip and a fantastic 'southwest' salad but I forgot to take pictures. 

Spinach dip: 

1 'thing' of cream cheese. I can't remember how big it was, haha. Just that it was a container, not the blocks.

1/4 of red pepper. I love the taste, hate the texture so I'm stingy.

Grated cheddar cheese (LOTS)

Pureed Spinach. Typically I chop the spinach, but I found that pureeing it gave the dip a much creamier texture.

Asiago cheese sprinkled on top.

Onion powder/Cayenne. Just a bit.

Because I didn't use block cheese, I could mix this dip by hand instead of bothering with the mixer which is a pain and extremely messy. This was very fast to prepare (though it would have been faster if a certain small someone hadn't been crying because Daddy ran out to buy Tostitos). Once everything was mixed together, I tossed it in the oven 375 for about 45 minutes, until the top was golden. I will absolutely be making this again, as much as I can because it was so darn good, and made for delicious leftovers as well. 

Salad:

Lettuce

Grated cheddar cheese

Asiago (grated)

Crushed Tostitos

Corn

Sprinkling of Red Hot

Seriously, for something so simple it was SO delicious. It made me fall in love with salad for the first time like, ever. I want to eat it all the freaking time. 

I wish I could continue writing right now, but I put G down for a nap almost an hour ago and she is still in there chatting away and singing. Round two of nap time now, I guess. Ugh. I may be healing fast, but lugging a fat baby around is still taxing.