Foodie Pen Pals

Earlier this month, I discovered Foodie Pen Pals created by Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean. Basically, you sign up for the program and, kind of like drawing names for Christmas gifts, Lindsay emails a list of whose name you have for that month. With a budget of $15, your job is to create a foodie gift box for your pen pal.  You in turn receive one from someone else.  The possibilities are endless!

For my first time as a recipient, I was thrilled with my package from Nicole at Apples and Arteries.
As soon as I picked up the box, the scent of cinnamon was overpowering...in such a good way! I was excited before I even opened it. To my delight, Nicole had created "breakfast in a box".

The breakfast themed goodies inside were:

• Penzey's Cinnamon Sugar (a local spice manufacturer in Wisconsin)
• Dried apple slices from Oakwood Fruit Farm, her favorite local orchard
• Sven's Coffee (another local WI product)
• Bob's Red Mill apple, cinnamon and grain hot cereal
• Barney Butter almond butter
• Tazo passion tea
• Tazo refresh tea

 The first product up for use - the cinnamon sugar. My son had requested French toast for Saturday breakfast, so what a great way to try the cinnamon sugar.  It did not disappoint - we will definitely find ways to incorporate this gem into our spice rotation! The French toast recipe will be posted tomorrow for Midweek Munchies, so stay tuned!

I couldn't resist the apples and snuck one out of the package right away - so sweet and tender. Taking Nicole's suggestion, I used the remainder of the apples heated in the cereal.  Such a great, quick hot breakfast for a weekday morning.  I will be purchasing more of this, especially as fall rolls around.

I like almond butter but had never tried Barney Butter - love it! I had this as a snack with a fresh apple to add a sweet, protein packed punch to a workday afternoon.

Tazo passion tea is one of my favorite teas, along with their Zen green tea. (Thank you, Starbucks, for the introduction!) I had never tried the Refresh, but it was exactly that...refreshing! I made it iced, and as you know, Texas summers are swelteringly hot, so the minty tea provided great refreshment on a July afternoon.

I absolutely LOVE the Foodie Pen Pal program, and look forward to next month's.  Thank you, Lindsay for creating it! I can only hope that the recipient of my Louisiana themed package enjoys her goodies as much as I have enjoyed mine.  'Til next month...  :-)

Sunday Fun-Day

You would think that we would be confined to the great indoors eating ice cream with the temperatures soaring to 108 degrees this weekend here in Texas, but we have fired up the grill twice today.  We just can't help ourselves, we LOVE to grill all year, but especially during the summer (and for the record, we have eaten ice cream today, too!)  The best grill fare of the day was an experiment of mine - balsalmic chicken.

Why experiment with balsalmic chicken?  Well, if one were to peek inside my pantry, it would quickly become evident that I have a joy of cooking, and like to try different oils and vinegars...I have quite a collection! I began experimenting heavily with infused oils and vinegars when the Grapevine Olive Oil Company opened a couple of years ago.  I dearly love this little boutique, where you can taste oils and vinegars with fresh bread to your heart's content.  They also provide information on pairings and recipes, which is very helpful.  I leave feeling inspired every time I visit!

Tonight's dinner was amazing with the balsalmic grilled chicken, caprese salad, and ciabatta (served with balsalmic vinegar and olive oil for dipping).  Such a simple, delicious, healthy meal!

Balsalmic Grilled Chicken
1/4 c garlic infused olive oil
1/4 c balsalmic vinegar (I used black mission fig balsalmic)
2 large or 4 small basil leaves, torn into small pieces
4 T water
salt
pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
** Note - you can substitute regular olive oil and 1 clove of garlic for the infused garlic oil, and regular balsalmic vinegar for the fig vinegar.

Combine all ingredients except the chicken for the marinade (I halved the recipe since we were only grilling 2 chicken breasts.)

Add the chicken breasts and toss to coat.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Grill the chicken over medium to medium-high heat (or you can bake in the oven) for approximately 20 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.  Serve with caprese salad and ciabatta bread to round out this grilled Italian feast. (Caprese salad is very simple - slice a fresh tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese, and layer the slices with basil leaves.  Drizzle with olive oil and balsalmic vinegar.)

Now back inside for a cool, air conditioned evening and a glass of wine!

So I'm A Food Co-Op Newbie...

A friend of mine recently told me about Bountiful Baskets, a food co-op with locations across the country, offering both conventional and organically grown produce and breads. Several years back, I had searched online for such a co-op, and much to my dismay, only found one about 50 miles away, so I continued to buy my produce at Market Street and Whole Foods stores (which both have great produce, by the way). 

Today was my first pick-up with Bountiful Baskets,and here is my loot:

This week's baskets contained a pint of raspberries, one pound of strawberries, broccoli, two English cucumbers, grapes, carrots, butter lettuce, 5 plums, 4 ears of fresh corn, and a cantaloupe.  For $15 conventional or $25 organic, I am pleased with the value (considering that I spent $40 last week on produce!). 

I think I am officially a "co-op convert"! I can't wait to see what will be in store next week.  To find a location near you, visit the Bountiful Baskets website.

Midweek Munchies

Mongolian Chicken

My husband and I have a long-standing love affair with the Mongolian chicken from Pei Wei...it is what we order every.single.time.  So, imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this CopyKat Pei Wei Mongolian Beef recipe.  I tweaked it just a little to kick up the garlic, add broccoli, and substitute chicken for the beef.  It was delicious!

Here's what you need:
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4T cornstarch
4T canola oil
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp ginger
3 cloves minced garlic
1/3 c soy sauce
1/2 c water
1 tsp Maggi seasoning
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 pkg small white or crimini mushrooms, halved
1/2 pkg frozen baby broccoli florets, thawed (optional)
4 scallions, sliced
Brown rice, prepared (4 servings)

Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Slice the chicken breasts cross-wise into thirds, then slice the chicken into thin pieces, no more than 1/8" thick. Place the cornstarch in a ziploc bag and toss the chicken pieces to coat.  In a large skillet (because I don't have a wok), heat the canola and sesame oils over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning until both sides of the chicken are golden brown.  Remove from skillet and drain on paper towel lined plate. Add the garlic and ginger to the pan and stir into the hot oils.  Add the soy sauce, water, Maggi, brown sugar, and vinegar, stirring to combine. Cook until the sauce begins to thicken, about 3 minutes, then add the broccoli if you choose to use it, along with the chicken and mushrooms. Cook for a couple of minutes until the vegetables are heated, then stir in the scallions.  Serve over brown rice.

** I ordered the Maggi seasoning from Amazon (link above), but have read that you can use Bragg's Liquid Aminos as a substitute.  I was not able to find the Maggi in local markets.

Master Bathroom Progress

Color My World...

This week's project in the master bathroom was to liven up the tiny toilet room with wall color.  I am obsessed with dark, dramatic grey hues right now...ok, if we're being honest, I've been stuck on this one for at least a year, but it hasn't worn out its welcome yet.  I selected the paint color "Brown Taupestone" by ColorPlace at Wal-Mart. Because we were painting such a small area (10 feet high x 3 feet wide), it only required a quart of paint, and that means only $12 for the paint!!

The stone in our bathroom is a beige color with grey undertones, so the color in the toilet room will still tie in to the rest of the bathroom. Because the room is so tiny, I elected to paint only the back wall to avoid shrinking the room.  In addition to painting the wall, we (meaning my handy hubby) installed 24" wide floating shelves in espresso finish from Target for $15.99 each. I forgot to snap a "before" photo, but the wall was the same color as the cream wall that you see on the right side.

BTW, we used a handy painting tip that I found on Pinterest - wrapping the toilet in Saran wrap really does work, and clean up was a breeze!

We have oil-rubbed bronze fixtures throughout the house, and I chose the espresso finish shelves to highlight that element in this room.  To add more dark accents, I found this oil-rubbed bronze finish toilet brush and plunger from the Better Homes and Gardens collection at Wal-Mart.

They were a bargain, at about $35 for both, and I love the detail around the top and bottom edges:

So, the weekend project list continues!  I will close with one tip that I have learned over the years in painting, which is to tear off the paint chip that was used, containing the name and number of the color and tape it to the top of the paint can.  This makes re-orders from mass retailers much easier!

Midweek Munchies

Meatballs and Spaghetti

Yes, I have the name of the dish backwards, because the meatballs are the star here, and there are lots of them.  I also found the most amazing jarred marinara sauce EVER last year and it beats any recipe for homemade sauce that I have tried. So, with jarred sauce, albeit great jarred sauce, I don't think it's fair to put the "spaghetti" before the "meatballs"!

Meatballs and Spaghetti
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb ground pork (you could substitute 1/2 lb pork and a 1/2 lb Italian sausage for more robust flavor)
1 small onion, diced
2 eggs
1/4 cup parsley, chopped (please, please don't use dried...fresh herbs are so much better!)
1/4 cup grated parmesano reggiano
2 slices bread
3 T milk
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
Olive oil
1 lb spaghetti pasta
2 jars marinara sauce - (or if you have a homemade sauce recipe that is better than this sauce, please please share with me!)

In a large skillet or dutch oven, drizzle olive oil and saute the onion over medium heat until tender.  Remove from the pan. Place the milk in a bowl and soak the slices of bread (great way to use the ends of the loaf that no one eats in my house!) in the milk. In a large bowl, crumble the wet bread slices, and add the ground meats, onions, eggs, parsley, parmesan, garlic, salt, pepper, and garlic salt. 

The best way to mix this is to get right in there with your hands...sometimes it's good to get down and dirty!

Shape the mixture into meatballs, about 2" each.  I make about 30 meatballs out of the mixture.  Pour enough olive oil to just cover the bottom of the skillet/dutch oven, heat over medium heat, and place the meatballs in.  It takes me two batches to cook the meatballs, but if you have a pan large enough for the whole batch at once, go for it! Also, if you prefer to truly fry your meatballs, add more oil; I would suggest a combination of olive oil and canola oil, so that the olive oil does not overheat.

Once the meatballs have browned on the first side, turn them over, cover the pan and reduce heat to medium-low.  The steam will help them cook through and will retain moisture. 

Turn the meatballs through cooking, to ensure that they are browned on all sides. Entire cooking time is approximately 20 minutes, but I cut through a meatball to check for doneness. Remove to a paper towel to drain.

At this point, I place the second batch of meatballs on and cook the pasta according to package directions - al dente. Once the meatballs have drained, add them to a pan along with marinara sauce and heat over low heat until warm. 

As I mentioned earlier, I discovered an amazing jarred sauce that does not taste "canned" like so many other jarred sauces out there....Mezzetta makes not only great pasta sauces, but also jarred olives and pepperoncinis that are of high quality.  We haven't tried any of their products that we have not liked (the Tomato Basil sauce is good enough to eat straight from the jar!)

Serve the meatballs and sauce (or "gravy" depending on what part of the country you're from!) with the cooked spaghetti.  We love to top ours with cheese, of course!

Sunday Fun-day

Bonus Weekend Recipe - Mom's Famous Banana Pudding

Every southern girl must have a go-to banana pudding recipe in her back pocket. That being said, I have never liked banana pudding, at all, with the exception of this one. It is my mother's recipe, and is requested over and over by everyone who tries it. It is very rich, and I have never bothered to count the calories, but if you like banana pudding, the caloric splurge is totally worth it!

Ingredients:
1 box Nilla brand vanilla wafers
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 large box Jello instant vanilla pudding mix (6 oz)
1 tub Cool Whip topping, thawed
4 large bananas
2 cups milk

Whisk together the pudding mix and 2 cups milk in a bowl until thickened to a pudding consistency.

Stir in the sweetened condensed milk

Fold in the Cool Whip

Reserve 12-16 vanilla wafers (with nice, round edges...not the ones that are crumbly!) for the top and set aside.  Using the remaining vanilla wafers, place 1/3 of them on the bottom of a trifle dish or serving bowl to form the first layer.

Slice the bananas.  Layer 1/3 of the banana slices on top of the vanilla wafer layer.

Pour 1/3 of the pudding mixture over the bananas and wafers. Repeat two additional times, so that there are three complete layers.

Top with the reserved vanilla wafers and refrigerate for at least 4-5 hours before serving (I prefer to refrigerate overnight).

I guarantee you this will DISAPPEAR! Enjoy -

Master Bathroom Progress

  Master Bathroom Window Treatments

I completed a few projects before I decided to record the process in a blog, and well, let's just face it - window treatments take priority in a newly built home (unless you like peeping toms, I suppose!). As a basic measure, my hubby installed 2" wide faux plantation blinds from Home Depot (to replace the brown paper that we placed over the windows during our first week!).

The walls throughout our house are a bright, neutral cream and we love the airy, light look and feel of the color. With the cream as a foundation, I wanted to add a bold splash of color in the bathroom. I am teaching myself to sew, and had planned to make a swag for the window, but could not find the right fabric.

On a trip to World Market for some other items, I stumbled across the "Tree of Life" curtains and fell in love with the print.  It had exactly what I was looking for - a bright, fun color combination in an interesting pattern.  (It also didn't hurt that it has chocolate brown and bright pink in the pattern, which are the colors of our current towels.)  The curtain panels were the standard 84" long panels priced at $34.99 each.  I waited to purchase them until I had a 20% coupon through their Market Explorers rewards program.

The window is 47 1/2" wide, so I purchased two curtain panels in order to create a longer drop on both sides of the swag (I used one and a half panels). To add interest and texture, I purchased two types of trim from Hobby Lobby, using the weekly 40% off coupon. I wanted a trim that hung down over the edges of the swag, originally planning to pick up pom-pom trim, but settled on a beaded one instead. I wanted a more sophisticated edge on the trim than the plan woven one standard on beaded trims, so I found a beautiful chocolate brown. 

To begin the project, I cut the second curtain panel in half cross-wise, and sewed it to the other whole panel, lining up the pattern as best I could. Note: I kept the wide seams in back aligned so that I could thread the curtain rod through the long side of the curtain later.  This was the top of the swag.

Next, I attached the beaded trim to the opposite long end of the fabric, to form the bottom of the swag.

I then sewed the fancier trim on top of the beaded trim for a more finished look.  Each of the curtain panels came with one tieback.  I had another use in mind, so I also attached this top brown trim to both sides of the tiebacks.

To hang the curtain, I used a 48" cafe curtain rod from Wal Mart, a rod thin enough to fit through the hems which were already sewn (as side hems) on the purchased curtain panels. In addition to the cafe rod, we hung two hold backs ($9 each, also at Wal Mart) underneath the cafe rod at the corners of the window frame. (The rod holders are flush with the holdbacks.) For correct placement, I centered the fabric over the window, allowing to rest in the holdbacks, then marked the areas on the back of the curtain for the locations to create openings for the rod. I then cut the openings and threaded the rod through the middle section of the top of the swag. After draping, I wanted to hide the holdbacks while also adding interest and dimension to the swag.  Using a hot glue gun, I attached the tiebacks to the holdbacks:

The finished product is bright, fun, and whimsical and we love it.

As the bathroom progresses, I will add more, but we have family visiting for the weekend, so I'm off to make my mom's famous banana pudding :-)

Midweek Munchies

Southwestern Chicken & Rice

In addition to decorating, I love, love, love to cook...so, I am also going to post one recipe per week that has been our family's favorite (for that week, anyway - we try new things and quickly arrive at new favorites!).  This week I created a new dish - Southwestern Chicken & Rice.  It is so easy and only dirties up two, count 'em, two pans!

Southwestern Chicken & Rice

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or 4-6 chicken tenderloins)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 box Success boil-in-bag rice
2 pablano peppers
3/4 tsp garlic salt
1 cup sour cream
8 oz shredded pepper jack cheese
1/2 can low sodium chicken broth
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp Tony Chachere's creole seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400.  Line a 9x13 baking dish with foil and place peppers in dish.  Bake until skin is blistered, turning so that each side blisters.  Remove from oven and rinse peppers under cold water until cool enough to handle.  Peel the thin layer of blistered skin (it is a clear, filmy layer) off of the peppers. Remove the stem and seeds. Dice the peppers. Reduce oven heat to 375 and discard the foil. Meanwhile, boil 3 of the bags of rice according to package directions. (The box of Success boil-in-bag rice comes with 4 packets, so one will be left for another use). Once rice is cooked, drain the water from the pan, remove the rice from the bags and pour the cooked rice back into the empty pan. Stir in the black beans, pablanos, garlic salt, sour cream, chicken broth, 3/4 of the cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.  Spray the 9x13 pan with cooking spray and transfer the rice mixture into the pan. Top with remaining cheese and lay chicken breasts on top.  Sprinkle Tony Chachere's on top of the chicken breasts (use more if you like it spicier!).  Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

We moved into our newly built house a few months ago, and are beginning our journey of transforming this house into our home, full of warmth and style, on a budget! We most recently lived in a two bedroom apartment, and have now tripled our square footage, which means lots of empty spaces....or blank canvases, as I like to think of them. While I do have visions of the end results that I want to achieve, I have accepted that this transformation will not be one of instant gratification; it will be a process - a long, creative, rewarding one. This is my personal way to record this phase of our lives and to compile a photojournal of the journey (I am a newbie to blogging!)