Mac-n-cheese test!

So I am always telling my hubby how easy it is to make things from scratch that you can get out of a box at the store. Today I challenged Mac N Cheese. I made it for all of us at lunch time but, because I am a foodie I made Jordan and I a "real" version of it. It takes about 20 minutes start to finish to make a box of mac n cheese and it taste like cardboard dusted with this bland powder and drenched in again, bland milk.. YUCK! My version was 20 minutes also.. Easy peesy..

 I hate boxed food. When I was a kid my mom made a ton of it but my dad was pretty big on not using them in his cooking. Thanks dad!! My Grammie is awesome with food too! She grows herbs and veggies and only buys the good stuff! She is such an awesome cook and someday I hope to be up on her level in the kitchen. I mean the woman used to grind her own wheat into flour!! That is so cool!

Anyway.

While the kids were eating (I made ours separate becuase I couldn't figure out what I wanted to eat yet) I made ours.

I started by boiling water. DONT FORGET TO SALT YOUR WATER! If you want noodles to taste like cardboard go ahead... skip the salt..

Then added the noodles which take about 10 to 15 minutes to cook so while that is going on 
Grate your desired cheese. I used Swiss, cheddar and jack. Whatever I had. If you wanna cut the time even more. Use pre-grated cheese!

Then I started on my Bechemel sauce (thats fancy talk for white sauce!)

I large skillet with raised sides (see picture below) on med high heat I used 1tbs of olive oil, 2 tbs of AP flour, 1 1/2 cups milk. Make sure that you make a roux first. Thats where you heat the oil just a bit and wisk in the flour until it starts to bubble. Tada.. Roux done. Then wisk in milk and bring to a boil. Should only take like 2 minutes if your pan is on about med-high. Add in the cheese and take off heat. stir it in till all melted and there you have your cheese sauce. Season to taste. I added pepper and salt to mine. It's up to you!

Your noodles should be done by now so drain them and Add them to your cheese sauce. Right in the pan works!

Yum Yum! So you can eat it like this. And it would take you about 10 to 15 minutes to make it! or you could go a step further and add a bit of crunch..

All I did to make the topping was pour a bit of panko bread crumbs on top and sprinkle a bit of paprika and spray with Pam. I put it under the broiler for like 2 minutes and it was done. I topped it with some of my Grammies dried Oregano from her garden! Its so good!

There are a lot of ways to make this your own. If you like that hamburger helper cheese burger macaroini add some ground beef and tada you have your own cheese burger macaroni that tastes better and is just as time saving.

If you want low  - fat then add all ruduced fat cheeses and non fat milk.You can use smart balance for the roux too. Make it your own and Have Fun!

Thrifty Thursday! ~ Personalized Easter Baskets

Yay! It's Thursday again and this is what I have for you all! I was looking through etsy at easter baskets for my girls and I came across a few that were embroidered and all cute and I though.. wait! I have a better idea! wood letters on a wood basket. My kids will get that dye all over the basket and it will be a huge mess and I will probably not use them again. These I can just spray out and keep FOREVER! Or well till they figure out Mommy is the Easter Bunny anyway lol.

So here it is! I am making two because I have 2 girls this Easter so my cost was a bit higher. Here is the cost for one.

Basket - Michael's 40% off for $7.19
Paint - Michaels .59 cents reg price!
Paint brush - Michaels $1.00 (or dig in your kids art supplies they dont have to be fancy!)
Letters - Michaels - $3.99 a bag ( you will have enough in one bag to make like 4 names so about 1 dollar on this project.. )
Glitter Glue - Wal Mart - .49 cents..

Grand total is about 10 dollars. The monogrammed ones on etsy sell for 39.99!! Thats a savings of... wait for it..... almost 30 bucks!!

First thing to do is paint these babies.. I chose white because it went well with this basket. Any color you like is good.

All painted! make sure to tape them down so you don't have to make a huge mess.. and paint the sides too. I didn't bother with the back at all.

Next get to glueing! You can buy letters pre sparkled but they cost a dollar a piece and for this whole set up here it was about a dollar to make so I went with this method. They look just as good!

So I took off the bow to reposition it and because I am a perfectionist when it comes to bows I couldn't let it look like it did. I tied it into a smaller simple bow and added a thicker ribbon bow behind it to look a bit more boutique - y! Cuz that's how I roll..

Here is the bow. It isn't finished or trimmed yet but it turned out pretty..

It looks so much better than that stupid little bow that was on there before. By the way if you were wondering I hot glued it on LOL.. Almost forgot to put that part in..

Next you jus glue on the letters (after they dry) where ever you want them to go and TA-DA! You have a personalized easter basket that will last. If a letter falls off or something you know how to fix it because you made it. If you wanna keep it out year round you can cut off the handles and put toys in it or something and put it on a shelf.. Do what you want to with it!  Most of all have fun!!!

Incase you were wondering this is how Stephie's turned out.. She loved it so much she is playing with it as I am writing this.. LOL.

Poducts I love!

Have you met the new love in my life? Her name is Chi and she is a stunning shade of hot pink... She and I are very close.. LOL! This is a Chi Air hair straightener and if you do not have one go get one! They are spendy though so make sure you have money then go get one lol! Mine was about 108 after tax..

 I bought a pink one........ duh......

It has a great THERMAL case to store it in so it's easy to take with you anywhere you go! I always tell the Hubby that you pay for quality and that most certainly is the case here! My old straightener, may it rot in straightener hell, used to not heat up or pull chunks of my hair out and it didn't have a nifty case and I was always worried that it would burn a hole into my counter top.. (random fun fact for you.. my old one was pink too.. This chi is my 3rd pink straightener! Don't you just feel special now that you have been let in on that gem of a factoid?) Anywho.. The cord is uber long so you could probaly straighten your hair in the other room if you wanted to.. and it has a velcro strap that goes around the wound up cord to keep it in place! Qua - li - ty!

This is what my hair looks like when I take it out of it's ni night bun.. I don't blow dry my hair unless I have to. Having curly hair it is just a BAD idea.

Sorry about the ugly picture quality here they were taken in my Bat Cave.. aka my bathroom..

This is it when I brush it straight.. Looks somewhat better.. Can you see why I need a good straightener to tame this mane? Jordan calls me a Lion all the time... He's a peach sometimes.
On another note.. I look so pregnant it's rediculous!

After only like 5 or 7 minutes this is what you get! I am so inlove with this little wonderous machine!

Now I can go diva it up at my baby's orthapedic appointment!! Yeah! lol..

The best place I would say to buy the straightener is at Target or on ebay.. I have only seen in at Target and Best Buy in our area but if you buy it online you can probably find it on sale or you can get free shipping and no sales tax. My hubby brought this home for me from Target so that's why I (or rather he) paid that much for it! I think it is worth every penny so I wasn't worried about it!

Happy shopping ladies!

Sunday dinner with the Bradford's!

This afternoon as we were watching Chopped on the food network a comercial for Rachel Ray's something or other and she showed her chicken and mushrooms over polenta! Yum-o. Jordan raced over to Foodtv.com and printed out Rachels recipe lol. The man know's what he wants to eat. So we had everything but polenta and a few little things so we headed over to Haggen to get the stuff. The kids were down right aweful s we weren't very happy by the end. Cool thing was that the people in front of us werent playing monopoly so we got 20 new little booklets! whoop whoop! Anyway. You'll have to head over to foodtv.com to get the recipe or check out my boards on Pinterest.com. It'll be in there!

 cooking the veggies! Love to taste them at this point.. They are always so good!

 I tried browning the chicken but it was boneless skinless so it would've ended up tough and jerky like so I just kinda went with my gut here..

It's a dirty job...

 This baby has a lot of steps! It was pretty time consuming.. Cooking polenta is a chore too but well worth the effort!

Polenta is pretty cool. They call it corn grits which... tada... it is.. I put cheese in it because I like the texture. Make sure to salt the water or use chicken broth to give it some flavor. Polenta will take on any flavor you put in. So I used chicken broth and cheddar to flavor mine.. I didn't put butter in the polenta which if you read anywhere they will tell you to do but I didn't wanna deal with feeling bad about it.. It was pretty fantabular anyway!  

Another thing that isn't in her recipe is my addition of a couple ingredients to make the sauce a bit thicker and make it less of a soupy consistency...

I took a slotted spoon and took out all of the contents of the pot and left only the broth. In a mixing cup I mixed 2tbs cornstarch and 1/4 non fat milk (if you aren't calorie conscience use whole) and wisked it till it was all incorporated together. I poured it into the broth and let it come to a boil. Then with the wisk still I continued to stir it till it was thickened a bit and I took it off the heat. I added a good bunch of chopped parsley to the sauce and spread it over my chicken, veggies and polenta. It was purty darn good!

Anyway have fun with it and HAPPY COOKING bi*ches..

Thrifty Thursday - DIY for less!

So my sister in law is getting married in June. I was invited to her bridal shower in April so I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do for a gift. We are poor so I can't just go and buy a 50 dollar gift but I sure as sh*t can make one! lol. This is what I came up with......

Pretty cool huh. It's a hanger to hang her wedding dress on. She can have it photographed in it too.. It's pretty rough because I had never bent wire before but I made it and I think it turned out well considering I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing! lol..

To get started you wanna gather the stuff you need. I bought it all at Wal-Mart this morning for about 15 dollars. I got enough supply to make about 4 of them so it's not really expensive when you look at it that way.

Hangers I found in the laundry area, paint pen and ribbon in the craft area and the wire in hardware right next to the picture hanging supplies. Make sure to get the heavy duty stuff. 14 gague. The higher the number on the gague the weaker it will be and 14 is tough to work with but it will hold forever.

First thing I did was make the hanger pretty with the pen. Make sure to practice and DO NOT push hard while drawing. It will smudge all over and be a big mess!

Remember to practice your design on paper (or what's handy.. for me it was a boogie rag..) so you don't mess up and have to start over.

Next I started to bend the wire while I let the paint dry.. There is literally no science to this at all.. Just go with it and if you don't like it unbend it and try again..

I had to unbend it a few times but eventually I got in the rhythm and it worked out.. Make sure to leave some wire in front of the M for wrapping around the hanger. I left like 5 inches. I would recommend leaving like 10 because you can cut it later.

So here it is finished.. from S on in Eyestone was a disaster.. He has a super hard name to make.. lol.. Why couldn't it be like Smith.. LOL.. Oh well.

Next thing I did was put the Bow on the hanger. I just tied it on then cut it and heat sealed the ribbon so it won't fray.

Tada! I ended up cutting it even more so the wedding bells weren't covered..

Next you just position the name where you want it and wrap your ends around the hanger.

And Viola... 

Cool right!!!?? I wish I would've had cool stuff like this when I was getting married.. But we got married 4 years ago and there wasn't this much stuff out there for photography.. I think it's pretty great and I am even more excited to have made it myself... Even if she doesn't like it..

Pregnancy Weight Management

So I know that not too many people follow my blog but I thought I'd share some of my secrets for keeping pregnancy weight gain to a minimum without starving! Here is our first subject:

Turkey BLT on whole wheat with jonagold apple slices. I know what you're thinking... BLT... No way is that healthy.. That's where the turkey part comes into play.. I made with with 3 pieces of extra lean turkey bacon by Jenny-O. I found it at Haggen today and it was only 2.99 per package. Which in the bacon world is pretty cheap. So the "recipe" goes..

2 slices whole wheat bread - I used earth grains because WIC covers it and it's all natural.
1 full tablespoon low fat mayo - I used some off brand that isn't half bad..
4 thin slices of roma tomato - obviously I used a ... roma tomato lol.
1/2 cup or so of shredded iceburg - if you want more of a nutritious lettuce like red lettuce or green leaf be my guest.. They all have very low calorie values and taste about the same.. I am a lettuce snob so I like mine to be extra crunchy and piled high on sandwiches..
1/2 large jonagold apple.. or whatever you have..

All of that equals to 390 calories! That's nothing and the wheat bread is big so you get a pretty hefty sandwich and a good amount of apples for under 400 calories!

I am hoping to gain 12 to 15 pounds this pregnancy so I can keep diabetes and hypertension at bay.. I gained 16 with Avery and I was pretty darn proud of myself for keeping it in check! If there is anyone out there that needs some encouragement I am here and living proof that you don't have to starve to keep your weight down...

 Aint she a beauty! It looks kinda funny because the soup was so hot it melted the cheese before i could get it under the broiler..

 The mess... yeah...

 I should've taken a picture of it after I added the beef broth.. It turns out much darker than this.

Tonight for dinner we are having my famous French Onion Soup and Green Salad and I can't be more excited! I carmelize sweet onions in a bit of smart balance light and a touch of olive oil to give the soup a deeper level of richness without adding a bunch of flavorings. (be careful with olive oil because one TBS has a whopping 14 grams of fat in it! However it is good for you so don't cut it out all together.) I top it with a slice of toasted baguette and 1/2 cup of grated Gruyere cheese (gruyere is about 20 a pound so it's kinda like a special ocasion thing for me lol. If I don't have it I just use regular swiss cheese that I get with WIC every month.. No biggie.) As for my salad I just throw in a bunch of greens like today I have green leaf lettuce, romas, celery, and olives so that's what will be in it.. Also I have fallen in love with Ken's Steakhouse Honey Mustard dressing so I will be resisting the temtation to slather it all over and just used 2 tbs.. lol.. I seriously freaking love it.. Like I could bathe in it.. Just kidding lol... Or am I???

The recipe:
3 huge sweet onions of 5 medium
1/2 to 3/4 cup white wine
3 cups chicken stock
4 cups beef stock
baguette for topping
1/2 to 3/4 cup gruyere cheese

In a large pot or dutch oven heat about a tablespoon of oil and a tbs of smart balance or whatever you like to use. Chop onions in half and in half again. Slice into thin strips and throw into the pot. cook over medium heat (I did 6 on my stove) until they start to turn a golden color. Pour in wine and simmer for about 10 minutes. Pour in the stock's and simmer for another 10 minutes or so. Salt to taste. To serve pour desired amount into ramekins and top with baguette slices and gruyere cheese. Place under broiler until cheese melts and starts to turn golden brown. There you go!~

Our dinner tonight had about 712 calories in it.. Which isn't bad in my book.. Not for a dinner.. When you can drive down to red robin and get a bowl of the same thing that has under cooked onions and no flavor with more calories.. Takes me like 30 minutes to drive to red robin and about 25 to get my homemade soup made..

Top of the morning to ya!

 Today is a sick day lol.. I can't seem to feel better at all! No matter what.. I am trying to keep my fat booty from getting any fatter this pregnancy so I have been tracking my food and trying to only put in what I should be eating and not what I WANT to be eating.. Boo... For most women pregnancy gets to be fun and a time to not care but not for me.. It's kinds frustrating but it's not my first rodeo so whatev.. Anyway I was bored so I took some lovely photos of my breakfast this morning! here ya go!

yum right... well it wasn't donuts.. That's what I have to say! lol..

in other news.. it poured snow again for a while.. it was a pretty cool surprise!

it was really coming down! I will miss it when it finally decided to be gone for good lol!

Anyway can ya tell I love the snow???

Wow.. I just sneezed with a mouth full of eggs.. That was fabulous.. I am not a huge fan of spring because I turn into a sniffely, sneezy big swollen bag of mucous and it's really un attractive.. No amount of allergy medicine seems to help either.. Just makes me cranky.. And all that know me know that is not something that I should be taking!

Yesterday Jordan and I went to the Crab pot in Bellevue.. Which by the way is a LOOOONG drive.. It was such a dissappointment it wasn't even funny.. and 87 dollars later we were pretty pissed.. The only thing that was worth eating was the crab legs.. They were like a fond memory from my childhood! lol. As odd as that sounds my Dad is a HUGE seafood fan and when I was growing up we would have some form of seafood with a good majority of our meals. Crab was a special thing though that we would have on holidays and such. Jordan doesn't remember having crab very often as a kid so he isn't as fond of it as I am lol..

So they hand you a bib, mallet, crab cracker, teeny fork and a wooden board to annialate your food on.. It was pretty cool! I felt like a crazy butcher or something going all kamakazi on these crab legs! It was so awesome! The only thing good about our meal was the crab.. we got shrimp that was hrribly over cooked and muscles and clams that were so tough we didn't eat them!

Our appetizer too was rediculous. We ordered a 10 dollar appetizer that was called "grilled scallops" and for 10 bucks I expected a portion for atleast 2 people.. NOPE! They brought us out 3 scallops.. yep.. 3.. They were so tough on the outside I gagued.. and raw on the inside. I was pissed.. lol.

As far as everything else is going in our lives.. well.. just keep reading my blog! MUAHAHAHA!

Yummy Yummy in my tummy!

This was our dinner tonight! yum-o! It's Salmon Cakes with zesty lemon dill sauce! So good. I rounded it off with some good ol fashioned brocolli! Cuz I am awesome.. lol.. No really this was a big acomplishment for me lately.. I have been so sick and tired and stressed and mad at the world (well.. that's kinda always but ya know..) that I can barely cook. Tonights dinner was the second dinner in a row that I have made dinner at home! Cool beans..

This unfortunately is what happens when I cook.. I sorta need like a crime scene clean up crew when I am done.. I am sure there are a few vegetables that were massacred in that heap of stuff there.. But my thing is.. If you want it on the table ALL hot at the SAME time then deal with the resulting tornado! My dad used to say that you could tell I had been cooking if A. there was sugar all over the floor or B. The oven was left on.. Both sadly.. TRUE.. I do it all the time and still sugar and ice cubes just end up on the floor.. sorry.. sh*t happens..

So we enjoyed our dinner and then tried to bathe a baby in a cast.. Seriously not a fun venture..

So the moral of our story here is that when life hands you salmon.. make cakes!