Thursday, July 15, 2010

Baby Girl


Here is Ariel Moriah at our 21 wk ultrasound last week :)

She weighs 13 oz and loves to float and kick in my tummy!

Monday, July 5, 2010

4th of July Poke Cake

So I have honestly never made a cake from scratch...I have made icing but never cake - so this was an experiment for sure! It came out great and looked great too (once I get the pic from the cake cutting I will post it).

The recipe comes from, How To Eat A Cupcake.

Super Easy Stove Top Mac N Cheese

I love, love mac n cheese especially from scratch :) Here is a great recipe that I found - Enjoy!

Necessities:

2 cups large elbow Macaroni, uncooked
2 cups low fat Milk
if needed, additional 1/4 cup milk or water for final cooking
1 tablespoon Butter, for flavor
1/2 teaspoon Mustard powder, I used 1 tbsp of brown mustard
1 teaspoon Salt, plus additional for final season later
generous dash of Nutmeg
1 cup Grated Cheese


Assembly: 


1. Place raw elbow macaroni in colander and quickly rinse under water. Let drain.
2. In medium sauce pan (about 3.5 qt), add milk, raw elbow macaroni, salt, butter, mustard powder and nutmeg.
3. On medium heat, slowly bring milk/macaroni mixture to a simmer, stirring the macaroni frequently as it comes up to a simmer. This will separate macaroni and keep them from sticking together. DO NOT LEAVE THE STOVE! The milk mixture will come to a boil very quickly and leaving it unattended will leave a big mess on your stove stop.
4. Once mixture comes to a simmer, immediately turn down heat to LOW. Macaroni will slowly cook in the milk. Having your heat too high will evaporate the milk too quickly!
5. Continue to stir the mixture frequently so that macaroni will cook evenly and absorb milk evenly. If you don’t stir your mixture frequently, you will get a big clump of macaroni in the end! Stir, stir stir!

6. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until milk has been fully absorbed. If macaroni is not cooked fully, add a little more milk or water  to mixture ( in small amounts) until macaroni is fully cooked. This will take about another 5 minutes.
7. When milk has evaporated, stir in grated cheese of your choice. Stir the  cheese evenly into the macaroni.
8. Turn off heat. Place lid on top of pan and cover for about 5 minutes. This rest period will allow macaroni to plump up and absorb any excess milk.
9. Take a final taste and add additional salt to taste. Before serving, stir one final time to mix everything together.
10. I mixed together 3 tbsp of melted butter and enough bread crumbs to make a crumbly mix to put on top of the mac n cheese

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Strawberry Ice Cream

What better way to celebrate the 4th than with homemade strawberry ice cream!

Necessaries:

2 cups cleaned/hulled strawberries
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream

Assembly:

-Mix the strawberries, lemon juice and 1/4 cup of sugar together and put in fridge for 30 minutes
-Add the rest of the ingredients together and then once strawberries are ready food process them to a nice smooth consistency then add them to the rest of the mixture
-Place mix into ice cream maker and mix for 30-35 minutes
-Once done mixing add to a sealable, freezer container and freeze

I have found that the ice cream usually takes a day and a half to harden

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Healthy Burritos...Look Out Chipotle

So as I started my new job today all the guys in the office were raving over Chipotle...while I am not a huge fan I do love a good burrito...so tonight's dinner is inspired by the guys :)

The Necessaries:

1 lb ground meat - cooked and drained of most of the oil
Pepper, Onion & Zucchini chopped up to equal about 2 cups ( I used my Pampered Chef food chopper)
2 cups of cooked white or brown rice
Taco seasoning to desired liking
salt and pepper to taste
About 1 cup of sour cream
Toasted burrito shells

Assembly:
Mix all ingredients together
Add mixture to center of toasted shell and then wrap up the burrito

This is so good and since I still like my food spicy and the baby doesn't seem to mind I add some hot sauce to my burrito.

Enjoy