Key Lime Bars and Homemade Rolls

So, the problem with me blogging a day or two after making something is that I'm too tired to actually type up the recipes.  I'm sorry.

On Saturday, I made an early V-day gift for my spouse (who hates chocolate) - key lime bars from last month's Taste of Home cookbook.  It's got a crust of vanilla wafers and nuts and butter, a first layer of cream cheese and sugar (and I added the zest of the limes), and then an egg/lime juice layer.  Very tasty, but could be a bit tarter.  I can't imagine what it would have been without the lime zest (which wasn't called for in the recipe).

Last night we had soup and rolls.  I was going to make Split Pea Soup, but had a bit of food poisoning or something from a bad burrito on Friday night.  Or maybe I just have a sensitive stomach.  But really, I generally have an iron stomach.  Instead I opted to make the rolls using the bread machine recipe and open up a carton of Imagine garden tomato soup (low sodium).  With kale chips.

Tonight I roasted a bunch of veggies...fennel, beets, brussels sprouts, and onions (can you guess what we got from the CSA?)  Turns out, my kid doesn't like fennel either.  Hub and I don't care for it either.  Served with rice pilaf from a box and frozen breaded chicken.  A working mom's best friend.

Black Bean Chili and Beer Bread and GREENS

Lots of greens this week from the farm.  And I had a head cold most of last week, so I wasn't feeling the green veggies.  So I'm playing catch up.  Salad for lunch with "spicy greens" - which my coworker said looked like lawn clippings.  Tasted a bit like it too. :)  Actually, there was probably a little dandelion in there.  I topped it with leftover tri-tip and some balsamic vinaigrette.  I keep some Trader Joe's dressing in my work fridge.

Broccoli and bok choy, with a cheese and tri-tip quesadilla

I've also been catching up on other greens.  Yesterday, it was kale chips (with the beer bread and black bean chili).  Today, it was stir-fried purple broccoli and bok choy (and leftover potato kale/cabbage soup).

Spicy greens, broccoli, kale, chard, red cabbage, bok choy.  I've been going nuts with the greens.

Kale chips and beer bread (with cheese and dill)

Black bean chili

For the Super Bowl, I decided to make two recipes that came via email from Farmgirl Fare. They looked perfect.  I'm not a huge football fan (unless we're talking the Steelers), and truth be told, we turned the game on around half time (I was cooking dinner and said "is that MADONNA? What decade is it?", and started watching somewhere in the 4th quarter.  Spouse isn't a football fan either.

These recipes were delicious.  The beer bread was tasty (and is the only way I'm gonna get beer for awhile), and the chili was awesome too.  I added some roasted poblano peppers, because I found them in the freezer.  I get a ton of them over the summer at the farm, and roast and freeze, then forget about them.  Some are really spicy and some are not, and I'm leery of adding too many to my food because of the kid factor.  Me, I love spice.

Oven Roasted Tri tip

Now, I didn't remember to take a picture.  Dinner was running a bit late.  But you know...it's tri tip.

I googled oven roasted tri tip, and got a few new recipes.  Wasn't sure where the old one was.  Most recipes call for roasting at 450F for a short period of time.  Brown on the outside, rare on the inside...yum yum.  Like on the grill.  2 problems with that:

1.  I'm pregnant.  Gotta make sure it's cooked through.
2.  If we cook meat in our oven at 450F, our smoke alarm goes off.  Every time.

So I found a new recipe on allrecipes.com that called for low and slow and a dry rub.  350F for an hour.  I keep forgetting that my grassfed beef tri tip comes in a package of two.  You'd think I'd know that by now.  Anyway, I put on the rub on both and tossed it in the oven.

"Safe" is medium rare and 145F.  Medium is 160F.  Ours came out at 160F.  And you know?  It was tender and delicious.  I think.  Because I'm still congested.  And I can't taste anything.  But my boys gobbled it up.  And my son's not much of a meat eater (probably because I was mostly vegetarian when I was pregnant).  But he loved it.

Served with a winter favorite soup of potatoes and dark leafy greens.  Today spiced with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.  Couldn't taste it either.

Whole Foods Apple Berry Baked Oatmeal

I have been baking a lot lately. I'm not quite sure why.  For sure, I love fresh-baked goodness for breakfast, and it's nice to control your ingredients.  For example: my bread machine (Panasonic) has a sunflower cracked wheat bread recipe.  The recipe calls for 100% whole wheat flour, but I've always subbed about half bread flour, figuring that I wouldn't like the taste/consistency of the 100% whole wheat.  That has always been my experience.  But recently, we were out of bread flour, so I made it as intended, and it was DELICIOUS!  Score!

In any event, since I have energy to bake now, I've been trying lots of new things. One of my friends posted a link to this recipe on her facebook page, and I thought it sounded yummy enough to try.  And it was!  It's great warm with some Greek yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Here's to hoping my energy level stays for the rest of the pregnancy.  I'm hoping to have enough energy to fill my freezer with meals before I go out on mat leave.  First I have to get rid of this cold.

Frugal Healthy Simple + 1 - and my 600th post!

Well, if you were wondering why I had a string of months where I just wasn't posting that often and my meals seemed uninspired...there was a reason.

We are adding to our family this summer, and our dear kindergartener is getting a baby brother.  The first trimester really takes it out of you.  The second trimester has been MUCH better.  But now I have a cold.  Ah well.
Yikes!  Hold on tight, it's gonna be a crazy ride!

Pork and Rice

One of the leftover dinner nights was the pork chile verde over rice. When we finished the chile verde in the crockpot, it was very wet.  I separated it into the "meat" and the "juice/sauce".  When I made the rice tonight, I used half water and half "juice/sauce".

That, with leftover pork, cheese, avocado, salsa, and sour cream (you can see my packed up lunch leftovers here) was DELICIOUS!!  Good lord, I forgot how good rice and a little meat can taste.  Especially Mexican flavors.

Roast Vegetables and Stir-Fry Asian Greens and COOKIES!!

I love vegetables.  I bet you didn't know that. :)
This week from the CSA we got some baby beets, baby scarlet turnips, and cauliflower.  I decided it would be tasty to roast them all in olive oil with some onions and garlic.  But the baby beets were so...baby...I mean, they were all beet greens, that I was perplexed.  So.  I composted them.  The remaining veggies were great!  I roasted for about 40 minutes at 400F.

We also got some great Asian greens.  Kale, baby bok choy, tatsoi.  I love baby bok choi and tatsoi.  I stir-fried them quickly and put some of Trader Joe's Island Soyaki sauce on them delish!  And in the same Trader Joe's vein, we had breaded chicken cutlets.

I was also craving something sweet yesterday.  Bad me.  I thought about cookies, and where better to look than Love Veggies and Yoga.  I mean, all the desserts Averie makes - she's a pro.  I found her recipe for Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies, and the rest was history! I cooked mine a little longer than she did, but they were still tasty.  My only regret is that I made bagels on Saturday and needed only egg white for that, but I needed an extra yolk on Sunday for the cookies.  Next time, I'll make them on the same day.