menu Nov 12th-Nov 20th

haven't made a menu in a long long time...

and it's showed in our nightly dinners...

nachos 

bean soup 

nachos

breakfast burritos

nachos

cereal

nachos

candy & popcorn (oh, yes we did...blog to follow)

I also have a confession to make...

My name is Kiera, and I am a pintrest addict...

a part of my self-induced therapy is to actually 'create' some of my 'pins' 

and thus...the pintrest menu was born!

Saturday night: Lasagna Soup

Monday night: Chicken Tikka Masala

Tuesday night: black bean taquitos

Wednesday night: Chicken in Basil Cream

Thursday night: Honey Lime infused Chicken

Friday night: Zuppa Tuscana soup

Saturday night: Phyllo Dough Pizza

there you have it...

now off to grocery shop...something else that I've been failing at since I haven't been making my menus...

did she really just say that

okay, so we have a girl child.
I've mentioned her a few times...
she's an amazing girl...
     loving, compassionate, funny, joyful, quirky...
she's just amazing...

trying to get a picture of Halloween hair and makeup-take 1

and
she's also the opposite of me at 10 (almost 11)...
or at least the 10 (almost 11) year old me I remember myself being)...
she has some boy crushes,

take 2

    would hang a picture of her teen idol in her room if we allowed...
         her teen idol...no, not Justin Beiber or Zac Efron (sp)
.....no her teen idol is Shawn Cassidy...
          yes we know he's 50 something
...she begs us to watch The Hardy Boys on Netflix
       has a 1977 Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew book with pictures of Shawn in it that she carries in her backpack...
...and yes, she has his LP
     (that's a record for those that aren't cool retro)
....I love that her friends all think she's crazy for 'crushin' on Shawn yet she still does!

'Say Shawn Cassidy' Take 3

anyways...that was a tangent...

so two things happened this weekend to make me realize that she's almost 11...

1st ...I asked her want she wanted to do for her birthday, (4 weeks away...yikes)...
her answer, "Um, can some friends and I just hang out at the mall?"
did she really just say that?!?!?
voice inside my head..."UM NO...and again NO, NO, NO...HECK NO!"
outside voice, "oh, um, I'm pretty sure you can't do that until your like 18..."

don't smile...take 4

2nd thing...she needed a jacket...a few years ago I would have picked one up that was pink and that would have been good...last 2 years while she was with me we'd wonder thru the coat section at Target or WalMart and grab one that she liked...
this year, Friday I'm in WalMart, I take 4 pictures of coats that I think she'll like and send them home to Beau (who's home with the girl child), she chooses one, I buy it and come home...end of story...not likely...
she thinks it's too green, it's too puffy, and not enough pink (I actually mentioned the lack of pink about 5 times on the phone, "really, she's sure that's the one she likes, there is barely any pink")....
so Saturday...off we go with the too green, to puffy and not enough pink coat back to WalMart...
She tries on about 6 coats at WalMart...all too something or other...puffy, shiny, crunchy (she actually said a coat was too crunchy when she moved her arms...)...

okay no biggie, I need to go to Target anyways, we'll grab a coat there...

(did I mention that our fall was only 3 days long and now we are in freezing winter temps...freezing for Redding anyways and the girl NEEDS a coat, this isn't a want thing...)

Target...no go...all to furry, fuzzy, animally, punky, black, puffy and yada yada yada...
and we came home, she had a too small coat from last year that she could wear to church today and then we'll go out again on Sunday...we'll get a coat no biggie...

so my afternoon...
Kohl's ...too weird, too plastic, too bright pink, too furry, too puffy
Old Navy...too straight, too scratchy (the outside not inside), too furry, too puffy
JCPenny's...too shiny, too puffy, too plaid
Sears...too plastic, too puffy, NOT pink
Macy's...she wouldn't even try any of them on here,
     she walked around the racks, said, "yeah, NO."
Costco....bingo...we found it...pink, but not too pink, just the right amount of furry, and not puffy at all...
(by the way furry & puffy is a look this year)
but for REAL...8 stores...and I was out of stores...I am so thankful that I remembered Costco...
come on girl we live in Far Northern California...
these are the ONLY stores we have, I have NO other options...

and bingo...the girl is almost 11....
and 100% all pre teen girl!

take 5....love this girl!

A Little Bit of Magic

okay, so last night I went to a
"welcome to the holidays"
party...
we were asked to bring a holiday snack munchie food
I decided to do the whole caramel corn thing

I found two recipes on my pintrest boards

Addictive Vanilla Caramel Corn source: Oh My Sugar High

Corn Syrup FREE Caramel Corn source: Amy's Food Room

so using the microwave popcorn trick from yesterday I made a boat load of popcorn
and then I combined the two recipes from my two pins...
I wanted a 'healthier' version so I made the corn syrup free version but then really liked the vanilla and sweetened condensed milk version...
so I guess taking out the corn syrup and then adding the sweetened condensed milk sort of makes it not as bad as it could be for you rather than maybe calling it healthy...
...creating...

Creamy Vanilla Salted Caramel Corn
16 cups popped corn, any unpopped kernels discarded, in a very large bowl (or split between two large bowls)
The caramel:
2 cups (1 lb.) brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2-3 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
sea salt (to taste)

1. In a large, microwave safe bowl combine the brown sugar, butter, water and salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring at a minute and a half.  Continue cooking about 3 more minutes until mixture starts to thicken.

2. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.  Put back in microwave for another 2 minutes.  Remove from microwave and add baking soda. The caramel will bubble and puff up as you do this -- keep stirring. Working quickly, but carefully (since the caramel is very hot), pour the caramel over the popped corn kernels and stir gently to coat. (I put the popcorn into a large paper bag and shook it all around)...

3. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two cookie sheet pans with parchment paper. Divide the caramel corn between the two pans, salt generously with sea salt (if you want salted caramel...this is optional) and bake for 45-60 minutes (depends on if you want a little chewy or all crunch, 45 for a little chewy, 60 for all crunch!). Stir every 15minutes. Cool briefly, then watch out...you need to pace yourself otherwise you might eat this all in about 7 minutes...

my kids kept saying, 'Wow, mom you really made this?'
guess that means it was good...

You've Got To Be Kidding Me

Okay, so I've heard rumor that you can make microwave popcorn with...
ready for it...
popcorn and a brown paper bag...
I have even pinned it over on my pintrest board

source: Squawkfox

yep...that's all...

so I researched this crazy idea on the intranet...
(ps Beau hates when I call it that)
Beau thought it was all just one of those things that you read online and shouldn't believe...
he laughed at me...


turns out it's totally true...
so, you can believe some things you read on the intranet...
(said that to make him cringe)


this was so easy that I'm not going to give you the tutorial in pic not words...

okay, so I will use some words...use just under 1/3 cup of popcorn

take it out when the popping gets to about 3-5 seconds apart

and bonus...you can reuse the same bag, over and over...

this was 5 popped bags...one bag, 5 times through the microwave...

okay...so, lets break this down...

1.  ingredients that you're feeding to yourself and your kids...

White Pop Corn...or Yellow ...depending on what you buy...that's IT...pop corn...

or you can feed them this 

and this is Jolly Time Healthy Pop Butter, 94% Fat Free

and you can choose to put your own butter and salt (or whatever you like)...

just butter and salt...

no partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Flavors (really, you can't even tell me which ones, just natural?), Annatto for coloring (cuz I like a good color on my popcorn), Soy Lecithin, Egg and Milk (yep, in my popcorn)....

2.  One bag put into the recycle or green waste bin (not into a landfill, can you imagine how many microwave bags are in our dumps)

3. Cost $1 on 50 brown bags  $1 bag of popcorn...$2 total for who knows how many HUGE bowls of popcorn...

4.  Husband finally realizing that you are a genius!  Who's laughing now

Meatball.Soup.Yum!

I have had meatball soup just a few times in my life and it was always some sort of grocery store deli version...
which I've always liked...
and normally grocery store deli soups aren't the greatest...
So that got me to thinking...
if I like the grocery store deli version then how about I take a stab at making a homemade version...

so I searched for a few recipes online ...there are a ton...

source: For the Love of Cooking

and had one in a cookbook here at home...
so in true-to-me fashion...
I made a combo version using ingredients that I had on hand,
making a recipe for the very first time, and not sticking to the recipe...

Hearty Meatball Soup
Meatball recipe*
1 lb lean ground beef
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 egg
1 cloves of garlic, grated or chopped
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
Dried oregano, to taste

Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs together and form small balls, I made them smaller than I would make meatballs, more bite sized. Chill for 30 minutes.

Soup
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sweet yellow onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
2-3 stalks of celery, diced
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp Dried oregano
1 bay leaf
6 cups of beef broth
1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1 can white kidney beans or garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup pasta of your choice (my choice, orecchiette, the ones shaped like yamaka)
2 cups spinach rinsed and chopped
2 cups of green cabbage, chopped
Parmesan cheese, garnish


Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat, add the meatballs and cook for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned all over. Remove the meatballs to a plate. Cover with foil and set aside.

Turn the stove down to medium low and add butter, onions, carrot, & celery. Cook stirring occasionally for 4-5 minutes, scrapping the meatball goodness off the bottom of the pot. Add the bay leaf, beef broth, tomato paste to the pot, season with oregano, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Cover with a lid and let the soup simmer for 1 hour. Add the meatballs, pasta, beans, spinach and cabbage to the soup, cook until pasta is done (depends on the pasta you use) taste and re-season, if needed. Serve topped with Parmesan and some good crusty bread for dipping.

the family ate this up...it will for sure be on our menu a few more times this winter...
and bonus, we had enough for a few leftover meals this week!

*in a hurry, use frozen meatballs.

I don't mean to scare anyone

but I figured with Halloween 3 days away it was okay to post this...



you may need to ask small children to turn away...


the picture you're about to see is.

so..


very....


VERY...


disturbing...

If you have nightmares you may not want to scroll down and see...

have you removed all little children from the viewing sight?

okay...


it it just me or is this beyond creepy!

I totally get the pillow pet thing...

totally wish I would have come up with that million dollar idea...
it's a pillow...it's a pet...it's a pillow pet...now give me $20 for one!!!

but really...Dora?  creepy!

irony

one of those things that drives me crazy...

the boy child leaves his shoes in piles around the house, usually with a day or two of dirty socks...
I'm always tripping over that kids shoes...

bigger picture...
OUCH!

wonder where he's learning his shoe-putting-away skills...
yep...all mine...
but if you notice mine aren't in a major traffic area and his are!
   
so I am totally justified for yelling at reminding him to put his away...
while my pile sits all nice and out of harms way...

I think I will start offering parenting classes soon...