Bacon Cheddar Risotto

My boys love Mac & Cheese! If they were allowed, they would probably eat it every day of their lives! I have to this day never found a homemade mac & cheese they approve of. I cannot do the out of the box with powdered cheese stuff, but they love the Kroger pop in the microwave kind.

I found this recipe and the first sentence intrigued me. "Think macaroni and cheese on a pedestal." Umm, yes please! I kept reading and saw it called for bacon grease instead of cooking oil. Ok I'm sold, sign me up! Last night I gave it a try and let me tell you, its awesome!! Both boys loved it. I mean, what's not to love? Cheese, bacon, & risotto, Yum x 10!

This may not be the most appetizing picture, but I promise you, it was heavenly!

Topped with a little more bacon. Yes!

The best part was we got to eat outside, while wearing flip flops!

Oh spring how we have longed for your arrival!

I realize there are no vegetables with this meal, at all!!! This would have been great with a salad, but I used all the veggies for the salad the night before! Oops! We will pretend bacon is a vegetable this time around!!

Tortilla Bowls

I ran across the most simple yet brilliant concept the other day, homemade tortilla bowls. I knew instantly I had to try it myself. Let me tell you, they were even better than I thought! I haven't ever been a huge fan of the super hard and crunchy edible bowls. These are nothing like the bowls you get at a Mexican restaurant, which in my opinion is a good thing! These tortilla bowls are crunchy, but still have a bit of soft chewiness to them as well. I love love loved dinner tonight!!

Stick a burrito sized soft tortilla in an oven safe bowl and bake. The end! Why have I never thought of this before?

I added a little pam to the bowl just to make sure the tortilla 

didn't stick, but it probably wasn't necessary.

3-4 minutes before the tortilla is done add a little cheese, this makes it heavenly!

Or maybe the pico de gallo is what makes things heavenly! I didn't have any lime juice (what is wrong with me?!) so I played around with a few spices and it turned out wonderfully!! I added a little cumin, because it's amazing, a little paprika, because it's amazing, a little pepper and a little sea salt.

Once the bowl cooled I added lettuce, pico, black beans, a spoonful of sour cream, 

a spoonful of our favorite Peruvian green sauce, and huge chunks of avocado.

The very best part was eating the bowl at the end with the last little bits of pico! Yum! Will be doing this again for sure!!

And this is what my children ate. Don't judge. I had to explain to Santi what a corndog was, then had to explain what a hot dog was. Lets just say HE LOVED IT! Luca on the other hand only ate the breading, no hot dog for him! Oh well, I guess it's not a bad thing for him to reject!

Tortilla bowls:

Use burrito size soft tortillas

Bake at 375 in oven safe bowls for approximately 10 minutes

Add a small amount of cheese and bake another 3-5 minutes

Remove from oven once cheese has melted and the tortilla is as crispy as you like

Cool on rack

Add whatever toppings or salad you choose

Homemade Granola

Anyone who knows my mom knows she is one of the greatest cooks on the planet. The problem is, she has been cooking for so long she no longer uses recipes. Not using a recipe isn't really a problem for her, but it is for you when you eat one of her fantastic meals and want to recreate it.

For several years now, mom has been making her own granola cereal. Her granola is to die for!!!!!  Not only is the granola to die for, but the smell of her house the day of cooking the granola is insane, you want to lick the air! I honestly think the smell of cooking granola is on par if not better than freshly baked bread, and that says a lot!!

My mom and I were talking the other day about the breakfast burritos I had made and her granola came up in the conversation. I decided I wanted to give it a shot. If I make the granola, it will give Nolan a break from the burritos so hopefully he won't get sick of them!

Granola isn't the cheapest thing in the world to make because both nuts and dried fruit can be pricey, but with a Sams/Costco membership it ends up being lots cheaper than a regular grocery store. I will be able to use the same huge bags of pecans, craisins, etc for several batches. Cereal is almost $5 a box these days, so in the end granola really isn't more expensive, and it's much much better!!!

The ingredients.

Mix the oats with oil, honey, molasses (if using), coconut, and all nuts.

Once baked, add dried fruit. Notice the color change, nicely toasted!

Place in containers immediately, but leave lids off.

After several minutes put the lids on and flip upside down to cool completely.

Santi wanted to help taste test right away!

Kid approved! He ate every bite without ever looking up!

The milk changes colors as the oats soak which can mean only 

one thing, you have to drink the milk at the end!

Mom's recipe: This changed several times as mom remembered one thing or the other. She just dumps a little of this and a little of that. She is a true cook!

1 box old fashioned uncooked oats (not quick oats)
1 cup olive oil
1 cup honey
(sometimes she adds 1/4 cup molasses as well)
3/4 cup coconut (either sweetened or unsweetened)
walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds (any or all to taste, enough to cover well)
cranberries, raisins or craisins, dried cherries, apricots (any or all to taste)
*cinnamon sometimes

Preheat oven to 350
Stir together all ingredients except fruit
Bake 30 minutes

Stir & bake another 15-25 minutes (depending on desired toastiness) in 5 minute increments stirring each time.

Remove from oven, stir in fruit and place in storage containers immediately (without lids).
Once somewhat cooled (approximately 10 minutes) put lids on and flip containers.
Cool to room temperature.
Freeze what will not be eaten in a few days.

Enjoy!!

Beer Battered Fried Pickles, PW Chicken Spaghetti, & Creamy Garlic Mushrooms

Anyone who knows me, knows I am not a fan of cold weather, it's just too cold! I do love a good snow, but only one or two a year. I am a true Texan at heart, we don't do cold! We have had a surprisingly mild winter up until 2 1/2 weeks ago. All the sudden we have been punched in the face by winter, like really hard! First we had a week of ice, then it finally got up to 64 two days ago, it was heavenly. Then, this morning I woke up to 4 inches of snow. The ice had JUST melted off the front bushes yesterday. At least it is mostly snow and not ice, but STILL! Also, the boys aren't sick this time around, so we actually got to go play with friends, but STILL! 

Desperate snow days call for desperate measures; in come the beer battered fried pickles. I have wanted to make these for a long time, but haven't ever gotten around to it. I found a super yummy recipe on Pinterest probably a year ago. When I went to look for the recipe, the website was gone, the downside to Pinterest. I still wanted to make the pickles, so I found another recipe that looked pretty good. Here is what I found.

I have to say, the whole process was a lot easier than I thought, which is normally the case. Sometimes I get it in my head that something is going to be really hard, so I don't even try it. When I finally get the guts to try said "hard" thing, most of the time I’m surprised by how easy it was.

I like a thicker batter on my pickles, so I only added 1 cup of beer.

This was interesting to me, flour first, then batter. In most situations you add 

batter first, or egg, then flour. Totally makes sense though!

They fried much quicker than the recipe said. Maybe the oil was too hot?

Yummy! They were fantastic! I ate some with ranch, but the majority I ate all by themselves. Just an FYI, if you eat too many you may feel sick to your stomach for a good 20 minutes, not that I would know anything about that! I know how to control myself and only ate 3, I lie!

The fried pickles were fantastic, and I will make them again, but with Dill pickles. But after soooo many snow days, yes I get it, I’m a southerner, I needed more. I needed a fantastical dinner! And so I made Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti. I don't normally make so many PW recipes, but I have been on a kick lately!

Feeling much better after eating entirely too many pickles with lunch, this spaghetti was wonderful, and warm, and happy, unlike outside! I didn't have any pimentos and I used leftover chicken I had from the other day, but it was awesome! Plus it’s Pioneer Woman, so the recipe is huge. I cut it in half and put the other half in the freezer right next to my beautiful white chicken lasagna that is my all time fav!

The pretty ingredients before the pasta was added.

It was really good! And this is half! We still have leftovers from half! Happy dance!

This is a new one too, but I thought it looked amazing and would go well with the pasta!

Creamy Garlic Mushrooms. I like food, a lot!

The low tonight is 6, but the high Saturday is 51. The 10-day forecast has all 50's and 60's after tomorrow! We can do this!

English Pea Salad

Besides Puckett's Strawberry Field Salad with grilled chicken, English Pea Salad is my all time favorite! English pea salad, also called 7-layer salad, is the easiest thing in the world to make, but super yummy (my two favorite things, easy and yummy)!

I’m not sure what the ingredients are technically supposed to be. Growing up we always put lettuce on the bottom, then frozen peas straight from the bag, then diced tomato, then a thin layer or mayonnaise (I know, that sounds like the nastiest thing on the planet, but even people who won't touch the stuff love the salad). Then start the layers over, lettuce, peas, tomato, top with mayo. Depending on the size of your bowl, you could either keep adding or if you are near the top then after the last layer of mayo add water chestnuts, crumbled bacon and cheese (I forgot to add the cheese and it was still really really good)!! I also threw in some celery just because. It is really good the next day too! I love it the second and third day, if it's still around by then!

Isn't she beautiful?! Don't skimp on the bacon!

Lets face it; it isn't often that the salad is the best part of the meal, when it

 is, embrace it! I just love water chestnuts!

It rained all day today, it's 34 degrees outside right now, and schools in the area are already cancelled for the morning. That means two things, dropping temps and lots of ice. I plan to wear sackcloth tomorrow! I am very very over winter!

Breakfast Burrito

I am not a breakfast eater. I have heard my whole life that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I just don't wake up wanting food! I am normally hungry for lunch by 11:30, which is earlier than some, but I don't want food before that. Nolan on the other hand likes a small breakfast. He normally takes a packet of crackers to work with him. I feel bad, I know that if I made him breakfast he would happily eat it. I am not a morning person and really don't want to make anything when I first get up! Lets face it, I already have to make breakfast and feed two kids!

I found this recipe the other day and was thrilled!!! I was able to make 12 large breakfast burritos out of the recipe and stick them in the freezer. Honestly, it took a while to make everything, longer than I would normally spend. BUT, since the recipe made 12 I think it will be worth the time.

On a side note. I learned a super helpful trick that I got to try while I was cracking my dozen eggs for the recipe! If you drop some eggshell in with your eggs, instead of chasing it around with your finger for an hour, just pick it up with half of the shell.  I tried it and the spec of shell almost jumped into the shell. I was so impressed I tried it again, same thing! Why did I not know this trick before???

Beautiful beginning to yummy burritos!

After cooking the peppers and onions, I then cooked sausage, then threw it all in the pot with cubed potatoes I had boiled. Stir around a bit then add a dozen eggs with some spices and cheese.

I filled each burrito pretty generously! I mean, whats the point of all that work if 

the darn burrito doesn't fill you up.

I then wrapped each burrito in a paper towel and popped them in a zip lock bag 

and stuck them in the freezer! The end!

My husband will be thanking me in the morning...before I even get up! Everyone is happy!

Crispy Chicken Nugget Secret

All kids love chicken nuggets, it’s just in their blood or something. Most mothers on the other hand are not huge fans of the nasty fake chicken whateverness that comes in nuggets. I do take the boys to Chick-fil-A and get grilled nuggets every once in a while, but I just CAN NOT take them to McDonalds. I have no idea why Santi has an obsession with McD's, but every single time we pass one, every 4 miles, he begs to go to "Old McDonalds". I literally tell him every time, "no, its nasty! Its so gross!" Every once in a blue moon when Nolan is home with the kids alone, he will take them to "Old McDonalds" to play and eat grease. One day I came home and asked Santi what he and Luca and Papi had done that day, he looked at the ground and didn't answer. I looked at Nolan. He told me Santi was embarrassed to tell me they had been to McDonalds "because Mama says its nasty"! Oops, maybe I need to chill out a little.

So instead of depriving my children the fried nugget of childhood, I make nuggets, with real chicken! I make breaded chicken strips with a little milk and egg in one bowl and flour, a few spices, and sometimes breadcrumbs in another, dipping them in the liquid first then the dry. The boys love it, and so does Nolan!!

To make things even better, I just read a secret about how to get the crispy perfect outside and juicy inside. Or maybe it’s not a secret; maybe I’m the only one who didn't know. Cornstarch! No breading needed! Put a little milk and a few egg whites in a bowl with some cornstarch, mix, and then dip the chicken in the mixture. The second the chicken hits the oil; it is beautifully crispy, fry until golden brown on each side. Seriously?! That’s it? Why did I not know this before?

Beautiful crispy REAL chicken, chicken nuggets. This may not be the healthiest meal, but I feel
soooo much better about it than fast food!

PLUS, if this is what you are adding the chicken to, you can feel a little
bit better about serving fried chicken nuggets, right?

On a total side note, I find it completely rude that my 3 year old no longer likes to eat my bread. He licks the peanut butter and jelly off his bread, or eats the ham and cheese out of the middle of the sandwich. I tell him there aren't many people who get to eat such yummy fresh bread all the time. He could care less! He is on a fresh bread strike! Who does that? Seriously? So rude! I think I love bread too much, maybe I have a problem!

At least I have one little guy who loves the freshness straight from the oven!

Luca likes my bread with or without anything on it!

I will win Santi back, he will love my bread again!