Meatless Monday: Grandma's Wheat Pancakes

It was a fun weekend. Sunday was Chad's half birthday. We are not the people that celebrate half birthdays or even know when our half birthdays are or any of that jazz. Which made Sunday that much more surprising, it was Chad's half birthday.

I woke up early and let Chad sleep as I ran around the house decorating, baking a cake and setting up a mini scavenger hunt that ended in our living room. I was going to decorate our guest room.... but then Penny peed on the bed. Then I was going to decorate our bedroom.... but then we were naughty and skipped church so Chad was in the bedroom sleeping. This made the scavenger hunt pretty anticlimactic as he went from the guest room back and forth to the bedroom a couple times and then finally downstairs to the action. We had a fun day celebrating his pretend birthday, eating cake and relaxing from the week!

As a side note does anyone watch The Walking Dead? OMG. That is all.

My Grandma makes the best whole wheat pancakes. Now she has a wheat grinder down in the basement which made her wheat pancakes even more rockin'. But they are pretty darn good even with the regular ol' whole wheat from the store.

Pancakes seem like one of those things that should be a no brainer, but we haven't had the best of luck making them. I love the pancake mixes but to help out the grocery budget I leave it out since we already have everything we need to make them! Somehow though they always end up too thick and dense and blegh.

Finally I remembered that I had my grandmother's recipe and Wa-la! Tasty, light, fluffy and nutty whole wheat pancakes. I don't have any of her homemade choke cherry syrup, but I did have some strawberries and raspberries already blended up for yogurt. I warmed that up and along with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and syrup, it was a great Saturday morning breakfast.

Grandma Portela's Whole Wheat Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 c coarse Wheat Flour - I just use more regular whole wheat flour again
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 3 T honey or sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 c milk
• 3 T oil
• 2 stiff egg whites

Directions:

1. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form
2. Mix remaining ingredients together
3. Fold in egg whites
4. Cook on a hot griddle! Makes 16 pancakes

Meatless Monday: Minestrone Soup

Remember how we had to wait until just last weekend to get some Fall in our lives? Well, apparently "Fall" lasts for a whopping 1 week around here because we are past fall and into winter guys. My body must have adjusted to the 110 degree heat because it's 53 degrees today and I feel like I'm living in the Arctic!

No, really, it's not that bad, but the temperature did drop quite a bit though and it is feeling quite chilly. It even snowed Saturday! What?! For about 5 minutes it flurried and then the sunshine came back and all was right with the world ;)

So what does one do when faced with cold and chilly weather? Slap on your warmest pajamas, snuggle up with all of your animals in your bed and vow to drink hot chocolate until the spring? Close... we made a giant pot of soup.... and all of the above.

This soup is one of our favorites! If not our absolute favorite. Chad had a second bowl Sunday night at 1am. Yup, he ventured out of the warm bed all the way down the stairs to get a second bowl, that's how good this is. Then we had it as part of our dinner last night as well. Then we snuggled up in our bed with hot chocolates and hot ciders and didn't leave until our alarms went off this morning, hence this Meatless Monday on a Tuesday.

Snatched from Olive Garden, this recipe tastes very similar/exactly like theirs!

Minestrone Soup
The best part about this recipe is that it is a great way to use up anything on the verge of "going" in your fridge. It's also very forgiving. Don't like green beans? Leave them out and throw something else in! Really like carrots? Throw in 2 or 3! Go nuts and make it your own!

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup minced white onions (about 1 small onion)
• 1/4 cup chopped zucchini
• 1/4 cup green beans
• 1/4 cup minced celery (about 1/2 stalk)
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 (15 ounce)can red kidney beans , drained
• 1 (15 ounce)can small white beans or great northern beans , drained
• 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup carrots
• 1 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups hot water
• 3 cups fresh baby spinach, chopped
• 1/3 cup small shell pasta

Directions:

Heat Olive Oil  over medium heat in a large soup pot.

Saute onion, celery, garlic, green beans, and zucchini in the oil for 5 minutes or until onions begin to turn translucent.

Add vegetable broth to pot, plus tomatoes, beans, carrot, hot water, and spices.

Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

Add spinach leaves and pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until desired consistency.

Meatless Monday: Brownies

On Thursday Chad scurried to my work from his mountain biking class, picked me up, drove home, dropped me off and then sped back to school for his Japanese class at 5:15. Since he's running around like a crazy person I try to have dinner made for him when he gets home, and not pass out on the couch until Rukia wakes me up announcing that dad's home. Because that never happens.

On this particular Thursday we had nothing to make for dinner. Seriously. We didn't buy groceries for the week and had managed pretty good so far, but I just couldn't handle eating another salad for dinner. We didn't even have bread for PB&J, things were looking grim.

Chad and I love brownies. L-O-V-E. We have our favorite, right out of a box. They are awesome! We haven't tried a recipe yet that even compares to these lovelies. We have been on the hunt though.

I decided that Thursday would be a great time to try out another recipe, hopefully it would be wonderful and distract from the lack of dinner. Much to our surprise, they were! They weren't dry, or tasteless or crumbly, they were lovely. They were quick and easy, and really are The Best Brownies. Don't you just love when you find an awesome recipe on someones blog!? I feel like it's a green flag to the rest of their recipes, letting me know that all the recipes they post will be something amazing and delicious. I can't wait to try out more recipes from Everyday Reading!

Photo courtesy of everydayreading.com

The Best Brownies

 

(from everydayreading.com) 

 

Makes one 9x9 pan

 

Ingredients:

 

• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup flour (I always use white-wheat, as if that makes them at all healthy)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9x9 baking sheet with tin foil (with enough overhang on two edges that you can pull the brownies out after baking) and spray with cooking spray.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in large-ish saucepan over medium-low heat until completely smooth, stirring very frequently to keep from burning.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar and vanilla.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each one before adding the next. Whisk until mixture is completely smooth.
5. Add dry ingredients (with the salt and baking powder on top of the flour), and stir until well combined.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan; bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in center comes out with wet crumbs, 35-45 minutes (it's always 35 minutes for me).
7. Cool brownies in pan on a wire rack for five minutes. Use foil handles to pull brownies from pan. Cool on wire rack for at least 15 minutes.
8. Cut into 16 squares and serve warm or at room temperature.

As a side note, it's Monday morning and an old confused lady has already attempted to punch me in the face. Hopefully your Monday is shaping up slightly better. If not, make these brownies tonight!

"Fall" & Meatless Monday: Banana Bread

Sunday afternoon we decided that if Fall wasn't going to come to us then we would just go to Fall! We packed up a picnic, grabbed our cameras and dog and headed out to Cedar City, about an hour north.

Apparently Fall has come and gone for Cedar City. It was a giant fail. We still had a picnic by the river, Rukia ran around to her hearts content and we snapped a few pictures anyways.

Need something to make your Monday better? This will definitely do the trick! I made 2 loaves of Banana Bread last week and threw one in the freezer for this week. I broke that guy out of the freezer on Wednesday and it was finished up on Saturday. We love our banana bread, even more if it's got some chocolate chips thrown in ;)

Best banana bread trick? When your bananas start to get real ripe, like brown, throw them out there no good here come the flies, brown... peel them open and throw the guts into a plastic Ziploc baggie and then throw that guy in the freezer. No wasted bananas and banana bread anytime you like without waiting for ripe bananas.

Banana Bread:

Ingredients:

• 2/3 C Shortening
• 1/2 C Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 3/4 C Flou
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 c mashed banana
• 1/2 C walnuts... or chocolate chips :)

Directions:

1. Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs and beat well
2. Sift together dry ingredients. 
3. Add dry ingredients alternatley with bananas, blending well after each addition.
4. Stir in walnuts or as many chocolate chips as you want! Or both...
5. Pour into a well greased loaf pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes

Meatless {& Toothless} Tuesday: Tortilla Soup

This past weekend we kicked it into overdrive and got a lot of things done.

Clean the whole house? check
Bath for the pup? check
Haircut for the pup? check
Go through paperwork accumulating on top of fridge? check
Clean appliances that are sitting and acculmulating dust? check
Laundry? check
Put Laundry away (always the part we suck at)? check
Pay Bills? check :(

As per our usual routine we watched movies, ate too many donuts, and stayed up waaaay too late. Monday mornings are not kind at our house.

This morning I got my last widom tooth pulled. True to my character I was freaking out. It's what I do and I do it well. After a little happy gas I was feeling much less nervous :) A few minutes later my tooth was gone! Check! Now I get to eat ice cream, pudding, and jello to my hearts content!

If you happen be able to eat solids let me recommend this little beauty for you...

OMG Tortilla Soup!!! Is there anyone who doesn't like love tortilla soup? I had been hesitant to make any since our venture into vegetarianism, all the chickeny broth and shredded goodness seemed to really make up the bulk of it in my mind. Then I decided to give it a whirl. What's the worse that could happen? Throw it out and order pizza instead? Not the worst outcome ever.

I hopped onto one of my favorite recipe sites OhSheGlows, and found a recipe. I tweaked it to what I had and what we liked and OMG SO GOOD! It was spicy and delicious, even without the chicken ;) So if you're in the mood and are looking for another way to use up all the veggies that are quickly going bad in your fridge, give this a try. You won't be sorry.

Oh, before I forget, don't get lazy on me and skip out on making the crispy tortilla strips. They're bangin'. Seriously, so good. Like, eat all of them off the pan before they make it to your bowl of soup good.



Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1.5 cups chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 bell peppers, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1/2 cup green onion, chopped
• 3 tbsp ground cumin
• Two 28-oz can crushed tomatoes with chili peppers
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1.5-2 cups cooked black beans (or beans of choice)
• salt & pepper & crushed red chili pepper, to taste
• Fresh lime juice, to garnish on top
• avocados
• cheese
• sour cream
• Tortilla strips (FLOUR tortillas with chili powder, garlic powder, olive oil)

Directions:

1. In a large pot over medium to low heat, add the olive oil, onion, and garlic. Sauté for about 5 minutes. Preheat oven on medium broil setting.

2. Meanwhile, chop the peppers, zucchini and green onion. Add the veggies into the pot and sauté for another 5-10 minutes.

3. Add in the crushed tomatoes, cumin and broth. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Simmer on low-medium heat for 25-30 minutes. Stir in drained and rinsed beans just before serving.

4. Meanwhile, make your tortilla strips. Use flour tortillas kids. I tried corn ones the first time since that's what I had and they were meh. The flour ones however, rocked my world. No lie. Slice flour tortillas into long skinny strips. Place in a small bowl and drizzle with olive oil to coat. Sprinkle on garlic powder and chili powder (to taste) and mix well with hands. Place on a lined baking sheet and broil for up to 3 minutes on medium. Watch very carefully. Let me repeat: VERY CAREFULLY. It too me two tries to not burn these little guys. When golden, remove from oven. Try not to eat all of them before you get to the actual soup.

5. After the soup simmers, ladle into bowls, and top with chopped avocado, fresh lime juice, cheese, green onion, sour cream and  tortilla strips. Serve immediately.

All photos from Oh She Glow. We tore into this soup as soon as it was done and devoured it before I could even think about taking pictures.

Meatless Monday: More Muffins

Oh Monday... Why can't you be more like Saturday?

Friday we drove Nikki and Matt back down to Vegas. We walked the strip, looked at things we couldn't afford, gambled away a grand total of $6 between the four of us and then cried all the way home from the airport. Chad and I were hoping we could convince Nikki and Matt to stay forever with all of our sno cone goodness and awesome National Parks. They had three better reasons to go back home :)

Best Picture Ever? I thought so too. Other people take beautiful pictures with their camera phones, I take these.

We got home Saturday around 2am. We slept in and stayed in our pajamas the majority of the day. We used our weekend to relax, grocery shop, do a ton of laundry, watch too much TV, and cook. We were also going through family withdrawal so we called a few people on skype and chatted for a long while. Some days we are bummed we are soooo far away from every one, yesterday was definitely one of those days.

Saturday we also got a Fall Package from my Mom and Dad! Is there anything better than getting surprise boxes in the mail? We put up holiday decorations they sent, ate all of the chocolate, and made Bran Muffins. My mom sent me everything I needed to make these muffins and easy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Those are on the list to make tonight! :)

These Bran Muffins are awesome. Not only do they taste great but you can make up the whole recipe and store it in your fridge for up to 6 weeks. Feeling like muffins? Pull out the batter and bake some up! The longer you let it sit the better the batter gets, breaking down all the cereal. I can never wait though and made a half batch on Sunday afternoon with raisins and chocolate chips.

Thanks Mom and Dad! ;)

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

Ingredients:

• 5 t baking soda dissolved in 2 c boiling water
• 1qt. buttermilk (if you don't have any add 4T lemon juice or vinegar to milk, walah!)
• 4 beaten eggs
• 2 c sugar
• 5 c wheat flour
• 1 c shortening
• 1 t salt
• 3 c All Bran
• 2 c Bran Flakes

Directions:

1. In a large bowl sift together flour, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles crumbs.

2. Mix eggs and soda water together and add buttermilk.

3. Stir in the cereals and mix until just moistened.

4. Store in the fridge in a covered container until ready to bake. Will last for 6 weeks.

5. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. 

Meatless Monday: Camping & Parmesean Tilapia

 
Phew! It was a whirlwind of a weekend! We headed out on the five hour drive to Arches National Park on Friday morning, after gorging ourselves on Kneaders French toast of course. The drive was long and hot and windy in our car without any A/C but we made it!

The weekend was full of destroying precious dirt, flashing teenage boys, cooking on the car's engine, and getting lost on the way home (on the one road that goes south). We survived despite forgetting pillows, very cold nights, and the threat of being eaten by wolves, cougars, and bears (oh my!). There are many stories and pictures on the way!

There were a few challenges on our meatless camping trip:

1. No meat, duh! I don't know about you but when I camp I eat hot dogs. If we decide to get really fancy we eat hamburgers. There is also a lot of beef jerky involved.
2. While the fire ban has been lifted around here it is still in full force up north. No fire makes it slightly difficult to cook anything.

We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, trail mix, cliff bars, and lots of these wonderful little fruit packs. We brought boca burgers to have for dinner one night but the no fire thing squashed those dreams real fast. The first night we made nachos. Chips, cheese and refried beans. Spread it all out in some tin foil and through it on top of the fire. We had to improvise and use the car engine. A fire would probably work better and a whole lot faster. And when I say probably, I mean definitley. As for dinner the second night. After a 4 hour hike in the desert sun a peanut butter and jelly wasn't going to cut it. We drove into town and pigged out on pizza! :)

First camping trip without our beloved hot dogs and jerky was a success!

For this Meatless Monday I thought I would share Chad's new favorite dinner with you! We definitley go through eating spurts and get stuck on one food for a while, and this is the latest. Now before anyone decides to lecture me on what a vegetarian is let me explain ourselves :)

Obviously if you've been following along you know that we do eat fish. So I guess technically we are called pescatarians. Thanks Tay! ;) Fish are full of healthiness so we add them into our diet.

Ok, ok, on to the recipe! I found this on pinterest a while ago and we've loved it ever since. I bought the frozen tilapia fillets at Costco and thought I would try new recipes on all of them. Wrooong. We found this recipe and haven't tried anything since! Ha!

So give it a try, it's cheesy and delicious and goes great with a side of pasta, twice baked potato, salad, or garlicy green beans. We've tried it with the Walmart frozen tilapia fillets but found those to be smaller and much more fishy. So if "fishy" isn't your thing, is it really anyones?, try the frozen tilapia from Costco!

Tilapia Parmesan

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs tilapia fillets (orange roughy, cod or red snapper can be substituted)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
• 1/4 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• black pepper
• 1 dash hot pepper sauce
• Panko bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil (hello easy cleanup!). Lie your fillets down flat and brush the top with lemon juice.

2. Bake the fish for 15 minutes. 

3. Meanwhile mix together the remaining ingredients, except Panko. Spread this cheese mixture on top. Sprinkle top with as much panko as you like and continue cooking for 5 more minutes.  Turn your oven on broil for the last minute just to get the breadcrumbs toasty and crunchy! Keep an eye on them so they don't burn though!

Meatless Monday: Game Changers

 I've got two extremely important announcements for today:

#1. Your workout wedgie woes have been solved. (What?! You don't have this problem?)

#2. I'm pregnant!

Ha! No I'm not, but didn't it seem like I was going there? Around here important announcements are about underwear and food. Soooo: #2. I've found the best and easiest peanut butter cookie recipe e-v-e-r. Your welcome.

Let's start with a little story about a girl who gets a wedgie every single freaking time she runs. Every time. There is nothing classier than a girl huffing and puffing, jogging down the road with a bright red face, dripping in sweat, attempting to casually unpick her wedgie. This underwear though, has grippy strips along the backside keeping everything in place. OMG it is fantastic. Now I can focus on my burning calves, racing pulse and gasping for air.

My awesome new underwear courtesy of the sale section of Target. I found these 2 packs on sale for $3.88 a pair and I scooped up a few. So for all you other girls who are plagued with wedgies when you work out run over to Target and pick up a pair, it'll change your life!

We rocked it out, running this week! We ran 3 times, a 3 miler, 3 miler, and 6 miles Sunday night. High Five to us!!! I owe it all to the magical wedgie free undies :)

On Thursday I was having a no good, awful, very bad day. A slam your head against your desk, get so mad your face turns burning red, need a punching bag day. So I came home, made a giant pot of spicy tortilla soup and found this little gem of a recipe online.

It's for peanut butter cookies. It has 4 ingredients. What?! With only 4 ingredients it barely even qualifies as a recipe. I had little to no faith in these cookies turning out. Really, I thought they would be gross. But I figured if they were mildly decent it would be worth it just because they were so easy, if they were horrible, well at least it took no time and no ingredients really.

Now based on the ranting and raving I did about our favorite Mac and Cheese you may be thinking I just like to oversell these recipes I share with you, but I swear that I am just sharing our favorites and they really are that good. Mind blowingly, deliciously tasty!

If you are in need of something sweet and love peanut butter these are for you. They stay super soft and moist on the inside and get a nice crust on the outside. Perfect really. And without the flour you really get all that peanut buttery flavor! Trust me when I say that you need to try these.

Easiest PB Cookies Ever!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Smooth Peanut Butter
• 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 t baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix everything up!
3. Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture about 1 inch apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Flatten the mounds with a fork, making a criss cross pattern on the cookies.
4. Bake until golden brown around the edges, about 10 minutes.

Mix it Up: Try mixing in chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, rolling them in sugar or sprinkling with some sea salt

Meatless Monday: Blueberry Muffins

While we didn't go out night shooting this past weekend Chad had his first photo shoot! First photo shoot with someone other than family that is ;)  I was his lovely assistant and he rocked it. Now he's editing photos while studying for tests. Hopefully he'll have some pictures to share soon!

In other news Chad is being social and making friends in our ward, finally. I am still struggling to survive the nursery. Another lady is now working in the nursery, so there are three of us. She is super excited about it though and loves it! Which works out well since me and the other girl have exactly the opposite attitude.

Sunday afternoon was spent watching the best Peter Pan made for TV special ever. Neverland. Chad found it on Netflix. Seriously, this was good stuff. Now, it was long, it literally took up our whole Sunday. But only because we took a nap during it, make a donut run, and just took our dear sweat time in general. If you don't have 3 hours to kill it's worth it to at least watch the part where Peter "flies". Pure Awesomeness. The boy looks like he's having a seizure in the air. Chad and I reenacted it after the movie until I was in tears and Chad was convulsing on the ground yelling in a british accent.

Here are my favorite Blueberry Muffins! My mom would always make us these for Christmas morning, who wants to sit and eat a big breakfast when there are presents to open? I was lazy last Sunday and didn't make muffins, which required us to get up earlier to make our own breakfast, which means that we didn't eat breakfast last week :(  Lol.

So yesterday I whipped up a double batch of Panera's Mac and Cheese for Chad's lunches and a batch of these awesome Blueberry Muffins! I forgot that I halved the recipe last time so we now have muffins coming out of our ears. They are so good though that we'll blow right through them in no time. If anyone lived close I'd bring some over to you but sadly no one does so we will sacrifice and scarf them all down ourselves!

Mom's Christmas Blueberry Muffins:

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 2 c sugar
• 1 c vegetable oil
• 1 t vanilla
• 4 c flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking soda
• 2 c sour cream (I used plain greek yogurt)
• 2 c blueberries

Directions:

1. Beat eggs and gradually add in sugar.
2. Add oil and vanilla.
3. Combine dry ingredients.
4. Add dry ingredients, alternating with sour cream.
5. Gently fold in berries
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes

Oooh, I almost forgot, this is really the best part! Combine 1/2 cup of well chopped nuts, 1/4c brown sugar, and 1/2 t cinnamon to make a topping for your muffins! I didn't feel like chopping up nuts so I just mixed together brown sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle on top before baking them. Mmmmm.

It's too HOT for Meatless Monday cooking

I don't know how it is where you live but it's ridiculously hot here. And it's been ridiculously hot forever. And if it's not crazy, stupid hot where you are I don't want to hear about it.

"But it's a dry heat...."

Yeah, well, when it's 110, it's 110. And when the air in your car doesn't work and you get 3rd degree burns on your hands every time you try to drive and even your fabric seats heat up so much that your poor bum is burnt, it doesn't really matter if it's a "dry" heat.

I've taken to hiding in air conditioned places. Work, home, movie theaters. Our "mall" is a horrible excuse for a mall. No matter how hot it is I do not want to go to there.

By the time I get home from my wonderfully comfortable job I am ON FIRE. For real people. I manage to make it in the front door before I start stripping off ALL of my clothes. TMI? It's just that hot. The rest of the evening is spent in as little clothing as possible. While the heat is slowly pushing me to the brink of insanity Chad is handling it much better. Probably because of my whole not wearing clothes thing. ;)

Ok, enough naked talk. Because of the unnecessary heat though I am avoiding cooking at all costs. If it requires turning on a stove or oven I throw giant tantrums. The only meal that was worth turning on my stove for? The Panera Mac and Cheese. Do I sound like a broken record yet? It's that good people.

On Sunday we channeled our inner fatties and made a grilled macaroni and cheese sandwich. Made with the above mentioned best mac and cheese in the world it was awesome. We put another slice of cheese on (to hold it together of course) and some tomato slices. It was divine. Funny how that was the moment I said we were acting like fatties, not when we later decided to each make our own dessert that night and eat candy bars while we waited for them both to cook.

I managed to put on my big girl pants (not literally of course, I wasn't wearing pants all day) and turned on the oven for dinner. I heated up some frozen twice baked potatoes and whipped up a quiche. I L-O-V-E quiche. It's cheesy, eggy, and all in a pie crust. Who doesn't love pie crust?

4 eggs, a chopped tomato, chopped fresh spinach, a splash of milk and a cup or so of cheese later we had quiche! Mix it up, dump it in a pie crust and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Done. By the time I thought to take a picture I was halfway through it sooooo, here's an old picture of an equally yummy quiche from earlier this year.

Meatless Monday: Panera Mac and Cheese

I've mentioned our recent obsession with Panera's Mac and Cheese, or Paradise Bakery as they call it out here. Whatev. After seeing a bunch of pins on how to make it at home we decided to try it out. Chad googled it before I could look it up on pinterest. It's a good thing too because he found it. He found Panera's recipe because they have it posted on their website! Score!

We were extra motivated to try it since it was closed on Sunday when we went there to buy some :)

We also made chocolate chip cookies. Because you can't have anything from Panera without having their cookies. They are the best. ever. end of story. I finally tried the oatmeal raisin ones on Friday and they are life changing.

The mac and cheese is super easy to make, and makes a ton, which means I get to eat it for lunch all week! It's super creamy, rich, and smooth. It also has a little kick from the red pepper that we added. We like our food to have a little kick. It took no time to whip together and was just as good as Panera's, probably because they told us how to make it :)



All of our silverware was in the dishwasher so we used our handy dandy frozen yogurt spoons :)

Like I said we got the recipe from Panera's website, but here it is, easy access in case you want to give it a try. And you really should. We didn't have hot sauce or dijon mustard. Instead we squirted in a little of good ol' regular yellow mustard and used hot pepper flakes. We will definitley be making this again!

Panera Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 (16-ounce) package of rigati pasta (or other small pasta shells)
• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 2½ cups 2% reduced fat milk (or cream)
• 6 slices white American cheese, chopped
• 1 cup (8 ounces) shredded extra-sharp white Vermont cheddar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon hot sauce

Directions:

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.

2. Melt butter over low heat. Whisk in flour and cook 1 minute, whisking constantly.

3. Gradually whisk in milk (or cream); cook over medium heat, whisking until mixture thickens and bubbles. Remove from heat.

4. Add cheeses, mustard, salt, and hot sauce, stirring until cheese melts and sauce is smooth.

5. Stir in pasta and cook over medium heat for 1 minute (or until thoroughly heated).

Serves 4 to 6

*UPDATE* The Dijon Mustard makes this dish! Don't leave it out and don't think the yellow stuff is a good enough substitute like we did. We re-made this with the Dijon and it is spot on! Cayenne pepper was a much better substitute for the hot sauce then the red pepper flakes. Now go and make some of your own!!!

{Sleepy} Meatless Monday: Brocolli Cheese Soup Fail

It was a whirlwind of a weekend here. It started out in the dead of night with a photography date and ended with us picking up Will at the airport last night/this morning :)

On the way to the airport

Chad and I headed out to a ghost town about a half hour away from us to take pictures. Who needs dinner and a movie when you can take pictures at 3am? Luckily we didn't alarm anyone, no police showed up wondering what we were doing, and we weren't abducted. Around 3am we started hearing weird noises in the distance. Chad wanted to go check it out, I wanted to get out. I won. I've seen these movies and they end in tears my friends.
 

 Sunday was spent cleaning, even though Will has seen our apartment at it's absolute worst, and cooking. It's a good thing the freezer is full and there's a giant container of soup in our fridge because there's no way that I'm cooking after work after 4 hours of sleep last night. It's frozen meals for us! That or we'll use this as an excuse for Cafe Rio, whatev.

We headed out to the airport last night, missing Breaking Bad - that's how much we love you Will. We ended up getting there around 9, his plane got in around 8:30. At least that's what we thought. We parked in short term parking and attempted to find him. After checking the arrival board and his itinerary again we realized he plane really didn't get there until 10:15. Boo. So we got gas, drove around aimlessly, parked in short term parking again and waited patiently. We wandered around the strip for a little while and headed back home. We were all falling asleep so we stocked up on sugar at our favorite gas station and made it home around 3:30am. phew.

In addition to lasagna rolls and twice baked potatoes I made a big pot of Broccoli Cheese Soup. I love a good broccoli cheese soup! I decided to try a new recipe, mostly because I saw someone make it on food network and it looked delicious and awesome. So I thought I would give it a go. Last Sunday I burnt it so this was round 2. Round 2 wasn't really a fail, but it wasn't a giant success.

The consistency is a little wierd and even though I dumped in a LOT of cheese, it's not as cheesy as I would like somehow. It's not bad enough to toss out but it's not delicious enough to share. My favorite Broccoli Cheese soup? The kind in the Kroger soup bar. I'm fancy like that. So if you want a bowl of really good soup just pick up a cup next time your out grocery shopping. It will surprise you how tasty it is. Until I'm near a Kroger again though I will have to keep searching for a better recipe.

A Spooky Meatless Monday

Remember that whole, "we should celebrate Friday the 13th with all it's spooky fun" nonsense I was going on about? Yeah, I take it back. Friday was ridiculous. Instead of a scary movie we dealt with things going wrong. Boo. Nothing serious, more just annoying.

It all started when I was grabbing something for breakfast in the kitchen. I stepped in front of our fridge and into a giant puddle. My sock was soaked, even the bottom of my scrub pants were soaked. Thanks dishwasher. You're swell.  Then Chad's phone decided to crap out on him. It wouldn't turn on, it wouldn't charge, it was not kind. Then I found a cockroach in my workout pant... as I was putting them on. Gross, nasty, yuck. I jumped on the bed and hid from the dead bug until Chad flushed it. As we were wandering around downtown that afternoon we stopped and helped out another couple that was having car troubles. I made a lovely little list of all the craziness of that day but my phone decided it wasn't important and deleted it. Thanks Friday the 13th for all the NO fun.

Then next day everything was fine. We re-ran the dishwasher and it worked fine, and has continued to be fine. Phew! Chad's phone finally charged and started up properly too. Next time I'll just take a scary movie and some popcorn over things trying to break and creepy crawlies hiding and waiting to get me.

On a completely unrelated note did anyone watch Breaking Bad on Sunday? I'm overly excited for this season. I even watched the weird Local Security (or whatever it was called) afterwards to see next weeks preview. They of course threw in a nice long preview for the next Walking Dead. Best shows ever, seriously. Sunday nights are the BEST nights for TV.

Alright so this Meatless Monday is a bit sad. Last week we skipped the whole "buying groceries" thing. So it was a week full of repeats. Lots of freezer lasagna and freezer twice baked potatoes. There were more than a few tuna fish sandwiches as well. This week should be much more exciting food wise, unless of course we skip grocery shopping again tonight ;)

The lasagna roll ups were actually pretty fun to make, messy, but fun. And the fact that they were single servings were a much better option for us than making a whole lasagna. We've wasted many a lasagna in the Lewis house :(

The twice baked potatoes were also a big hit. Instead of using sour cream I mixed in plain Greek yogurt, that way I didn't feel as bad about the massive amount of cheese I put in :) We've been brushing the bottom with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt before cooking them and it's been the best idea, good one Chad. They get nice and crispy and salty, it's a good time.

Does anyone else have some great go to freezer meals that they love? I'll defintley be whipping up another batch of both this next Sunday! The veggie burger mix freezes great too! Now I just need to throw some other freezer meals into the mix!