Pin All the Things 4/28/12

This week has been exhausting for me.  I have never felt so tired that I didn't feel like cooking anything at all.  Some how I made it through the week and while I still feel groggy, I definitely feel more energetic today.  As soon as I got up I headed to the library to pick up some books I had placed a hold on.  I had been wanting to look at a couple of America's Test Kitchen cookbooks. They're fun but not as fun as the fiction novels I picked up too.  I've been reading a ton lately...well, when I'm not asleep that is!

I joined a site called Goodreads. It's a site that lets you keep a virtual bookshelf of books you've read and books you would like to read.  It will also suggest books based on your likes and dislikes.  It's a good way to keep track of your reading list and find something new to check out.  You can check out my bookshelf and profile here.  

Pinned this week:

Things to Be Cooked

Source: crumblycookie.net via Heather on Pinterest

Coleslaw.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I fail at making coleslaw from scratch.  I've always been partial to the stuff from KFC.  This recipe looks relatively simple and in appearance reminds of the stuff from KFC.

Source: crumblycookie.net via Heather on Pinterest

I keep posting healthy recipes with the hope that they'll inspire me to eat better.  I have decided to swear off soda, even diet soda!  I'm waiting for the headache now.  Anyways, I tried lentils for the first time while doing Americorp and really enjoyed them and could see my self enjoying them seasoned like taco filling.

I Scream, You Scream

No It isn't a pin-board for scary movies!  It's getting hot down here in Florida and I'm craving some ice cream...

Source: chow.com via Heather on Pinterest

I really like the premise of this recipe.  I was thinking of modifying it by using cantaloupe instead.  I love me some ice cold cantaloupe at the beach.  It'd like the salty air mixes in with each bite full and intensifies the flavor.  Divine!

Source: saveur.com via Heather on Pinterest

I pinned this one for shear weirdness of it.  I'll probably try it bought I dunno.  I think the texture may end up being the deciding factor of weather or not this one is a success.

Blogs I love

Source: thecreativeplace.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Stumbled upon this gem this week while looking for sewing tips.  Found a lot of projects I want to half way complete instead.  (I have a ton of half finished craft projects sadly).

It's Got Sprinkles

Remind me not to make these doughnuts:




But I definitely need that brownie recipe. Yum, yum, & yum!

Livin' La Vida Taco {Taco Bell Review}

I came home from work all set to make some Salisbury steak for dinner.  What I didn't count on was my roommate forcing my husband to go eat some Vietnamese food.  Okay, I'm sure he wasn't forced.  In fact I'm pretty sure he was overjoyed to accommodate our roommate's request.  Except I had already made plans for dinner.  As you can imagine I was pretty ticked off.  I made this known by throwing a fit similar to this 3 year old child:



True Story.  The weight of having to choosing a Lean Cuisine out of the freezer, unwrapping it and placing it in the microwave was just too damn heavy.

At this point my lovely husband offers to get me some food from somewhere, anywhere as long as I get off the floor and stop throwing a fit.  (It's too heavy!)  I can't ever easily decided which fast food joint to eat at.

I finally settled on Taco Bell.  Why?  Because they have a new taco.  An eye blinding atomic orange
creation with Doritos on the label.  The Doritos Locos Taco.  Yes, I believe I am crazy.  Why do you ask?

Anything covered in Doritos cheese dust has gotta be awesome.  I don't even mind that the dust turns my fingers bright orange.  Because I don't mind licking my fingers to get the cheesy goodness off.

Cheesy cheese dust fingers not your thing? Not to worry. It comes in a nifty cardboard carrier that can help prevent your fingers from even touching the stuff.

Other than the nacho cheese coating on the crunchy taco shell there is nothing exciting about this taco. It has the same meat filling, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream toppings as there traditional crunchy beef tacos. Which is no bad thing.

Y U NO LET ME BLOGZ?!

Sorry for no post today.  I had one all planned but when I uploaded my pictures I got a message from Blogger letting me know that I have reached my storage capacity.  Apparently they want me to but some more or some such thing.  I don't have money to spend on a hobby I don't get paid to do.  It would be nice if I did but let's be honest it just isn't going to happen.  I blog because it's fun (for the most part).  It gives me something creative to do.  I'm looking into setting up a Flickr account or something similar to get back to posting.  So I'm going go get that started, mkay?

Pin All the Things 4/22/11

Happy Earth Day everyone!  If you live near a Target stop by today for a free reusable shopping bag.  I try to get one every year and have amassed quite the collection of reusable bags.  I have never paid a dime for any of them, even my snazzy insulated ones!  All you have to do is hit up environmental and health fairs.  There is one of each every year out on Courthouse Square which is really handy since I work at the Courthouse.  I try to remember to use my bags every time I go to the store because many retailers offer a 5 cent discount for each bag you've brought with you.  I also used to shop a lot at Aldi's.  Anyone familiar with that place knows that they charge per a bag if you decide you need one or you forgot your own.  Personally, if I forgot my bags I'd just throw my groceries in the trunk sans bags.  I like to live dangerously.

Besides using reusable bags I also try to be more Earth friendly by limiting my use of Ziplock baggies.  I own many different sizes of reusable containers so try to use them when ever humanly possible.  I don't but a lot of singe serve items.  I'll buy the huge bag and divvy it up into individual portions.  Cheaper that way too!  I also reuse plastic forks and spoons.  Well, actually, I do this because my husband can't stand eating with silverware.  He says it hurts his teeth.  He's weird like that.  We also switched out our light bulbs with those energy efficient ones. They are pretty pricy but they last a long time and pay for themselves in the long run.

What do you do to be more Earth friendly?

So in honor of Earth Day I'm sharing pins that reduce, reuse or recycle:

TV Dinners {Salisbury Steak}

 

When I saw this recipe on the The Pioneer Woman I knew I'd have to make it!  Growing up my most favoritest TV Dinner was always the Banquet Salisbury Steak.  My Great Grandma always seemed to have a couple in her freezer (that and Tyson Chicken Nuggets) and I loved staying over just so I could have that for dinner (and Tyson Chicken Nuggets, lol!).  Usually Mom would let us pick out a frozen dinner for the occasional movie night at home.  It was always a special treat.  I distinctly remember eating Salisbury steak frozen dinner and watching Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure( I also had the cereal and the rad cassette tape holder shaped like the phone booth that came with the cereal).  Occasionally I'd deviate and beg for a kid cuisine lured by the chocolate brownie and sprinkles.  Always regretted it!  That skateboarding penguin was devious liar.  I'm a sucker for penguins (and sprinkles).

My only problems with Ree's recipe is that it is missing two key ingredients needed to make this dish perfect:

Mushrooms, because I love them and they make everything yummy and...

Corn because every single Banquet Salisbury steak meal is served with it.  It was the best corn ever.  Although I do question whether or not as an adult I'd still love that meal.  I know the Lean Cuisine Salisbury steak with it's lame mac & cheese is awful. Hmmm, when I'm feeling bored and daring I'll have to give it a whirl again and let you all know.

AHHHHH, yay? {Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes}

Lately I have been watching a lot of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  Yes, this a show whose target audience is presumably children but so was the movie Shrek and all those Disney movies/shows.  At least I'm not obsessed with the show unlike my husband a self-described:

BRONY [bro-nee] noun:  A name typically given to the male viewers/fans (whether they are straight, gay, bisexual, etc.) of the My Little Pony show or franchise. They typically do not give in to the hype that males aren't allowed to enjoy things that may be intended for females. Other spellings: Bronie, Plural spellings: Bronies

Female 1: Have you seen the My Little Pony cartoon?
Female 2: Yes! It's so cute and awesome!
Male 1: I've seen it as well.
Female 1: You're the coolest brony ever!

Peter made me watch every single episode available on Netflix.  It would have been torture if I hadn't enjoyed so dang much.  This show is awesome!  

Peter suggested that I should make cupcakes based on the MLP characters and I agreed.  I had an idea involving Kool-Aid flavor packets and the coloring and personalities of the ponies would definitely themselves well to cupcakes/cakes/desserts/cocktails.  I had also bought some sprinkles just because they were sparkly and caught my eye.  I'm such a magpie sometimes and I needed a good reason to justify their purchase.

I decided to make a cupcake based on MLP character Pinkie Pie.  Pink lemonade Kool-Aid?  Sounds right up Pinkie Pie's alley.  Strawberry cake?  Yes, please!  Oh, and guess what I found.  Cupcake wrappers with balloons on them!  See:

source

She is pink and has party balloons as her cutie mark!  *Squee*  I was so excited, my plan was perfect.  IN THEORY.  

Pin All the Things! 4/15/12

I've done a lot of cooking this week!  Easter kept me pretty busy.  We went over to my husband's sister's home to meet their new baby.  He is adorable!  We fed them ham, cheesy potatoes and homemade Lion House rolls.  For dessert I created a strawberry lemonade cupcake which I will share later this week.  Speaking of dessert, have you tried the Baked brownie?  I posted about these last week and they really are delicious.  Yesterday found as at a co-worker's (un)birthday party.  I brought homemade pizza bites.  Pizza is always welcome at a party.

This week I pinned in:

Corned Beef Gravy

We always have corned beef to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  It's pretty yummy but leaves a ton left over when only feeding 3.  I tried buying the smallest portion I could find but in general they are all the same poundage give or take an ounce or two.  I hate wasting food but sometimes it is just me and Peter.  I have to try to think ahead about what I want to do with the leftovers and create multiple meals.

 Peter and our roommate were able to make some corned beef and hash for brunch the next morning and they both love it on sandwiches.  Unfortunately this did little to put a dent in our leftovers!  Then I remembered my Dad making us corned beef gravy on toast with those little packages from Budding.  It is so yummy!  A little salty but the plain toast balances it out.  I figured if it tasted good with those little packets of lunch meat it would be fantastic with my corned beef leftovers.

To make corned beef gravy takes a bit of gravy making skills.  Are you up to the challenge?

Just Right {The Baked Brownie}

Okay, I confess.  I love boxed fudge brownie mix.  The kind from BC in the red box.  It's what I grew up on and they have never failed me.  The few times I have made homemade brownies I have always been disappointed.  I even hate my grandma's homemade brownies which are usually made from the recipe on the cocoa container.  They're just so dry and icky.  Not enough chocolate flavor and just downright disappointing.

When trying to find a great brownie recipe it's important to consider what you like the final product's texture to be.  I adore fudgy.  Cake and chewy brownies just don't turn me on like the semi-liquid custard like insides that can be found in the perfectly baked fudge brownie.  I usually achieve this by under baking the boxed brownie otherwise you end up with a chewy brownie.

For some reason anytime I have chili I have to have a brownie for dessert.  Last week I made chili, but uh-oh!  No BC brownie mix!  Oh the horror!  I fortunately had all the ingredients on hand to make a brownie recipe I remembered seeing on the Brown-Eyed Baker.  She raved about this recipe and it had a lot of positive comments so I decided any brownie is better than no brownie.

Happy Easter from Dietetic Sinners!

 

Beef Stroganoff

I find this dish impossible to make with singing a certain line from the movie Anastasia (not! a Disney movie btw).  The part where Dimitri, Anastasia and that fat guy are on their way to Paris to meet the Dowager and trying to teach Ana all the family stories by singing You Can Learn to Do It:

[FAT GUY]
Now, elbows in and sit up straight

[DIMITRI]
And never slurp the stroganoff.

[ANASTASIA]
I never cared for stroganoff!

[FAT GUY]
She said that like a Romanov!

Yeah it's in my head and my husband helps it stay there by repeating the above verses anytime I mention making stroganoff.

Bacon & Egg Breakfast Pizza

Once upon a time I lost my job and since it was a bad time for anybody to be out of a job I was extremely grateful to find a job at a certain Midwest convenience store chain. They have a very wonderful breakfast pizza that you can buy by the slice.  It came in bacon or sausage and the bacon pizza was delicious!  I never learned how to make it while I worked there but I think I made a pretty good guess in replicating it here.  I also learned a few things about being a gas station attendant.  I wrote these all down some time ago and just thought it was fun to look re-read and roll my eyes at my younger self=)

Pin All the Things! 4/1/12

Happy April everyone!  Anyone get any awesome pranks pulled on them today?  My husband has some rigged up to play on our roommate.  Hopefully I'm not in the same room when Foo Foo Cuddly-poops discovers that his bathroom faucet has been saran wrapped!

This week I was able to finally finish up some craft projects I had pinned.  Easter is right around the corner so I made a garland inspired by marshmallow peeps candy.  It was really simple:

 
I also finished up a quilt.  This project was frustrating because I couldn't find any freezer paper.  I had to use contact paper (like the stuff you would use to line a shelf).  It worked but it was a pain to remove later on.  Also, I left my pieced quilt on the table which got mistaken as the tablecloth overnight by my husband and my roommate.  It was all sorts of messed up.  I fixed it up as best as could but after everything got sewn together I found gaps.  I don't think I'll be giving this one as a gift but as a trail run it still came out pretty:

I actually didn't pin too much this week with all the crafting getting done.  I'm working on a new quilt from a book I bought some time ago.  It's a lot more complicated than the one pictured above and has a bit of embroidery too.  I found out my sis-in-law is having a baby girl so the plan is to gift the quilt to her.