I don't know? I'm tired

Well. I'm tired. It's almost October and a Thursday, which is the MOST tiring day of the week. So naturally I decided today would be a good day to make baked chicken fingers and tornado potatoes (saw it on fb). I mean, WHY WOULDNT I TAKE OVER AN HOUR TO MAKE DINNER? So. Let's start with the tornado potatoes. You skewer the potatoes and then spiral slice them. Clearly, I am not gifted at this.  

I coated them in olive oil and salt and pepper and Italian seasoning and the baked them in my toaster oven because my regular oven is acting wonky and also I was going to cook the chicken in there...

 

They came out ok, a smidge undercooked but overall who doesn't love a potato? Right??? Also, thanks reef, my toaster oven works awesomely! 

While my potatoes were cooking, I made a breading for my chicken.

 

Eggs (liquid because that's what I had) and breadcrumbs mixed with Parmesan cheese. 

 

Pretty big chicken fingers, but overall good. 

 

I forgot to take photos when all of them came out but they were decent. A little blah for me, but I jazzed mine up with hot sauce.  The kids liked them and my one kid I allowed to ketchup himself....

 

 

Yes he ate all of the ketchup. Yes he is ridiculous and also 7. Ha! 

I also had this delicious delight.....

 

My beloved Jeremy got these for me. They are nutty and chocolatey and overall smooth to drink. I do love a porter. Mmmmmm ok fine. I had two. It's all good. It's a Thursday. My kids didn't love the potatoes (which is weird because they actually LIKE potatoes) but it's cool. I won't make the tornado potatoes again because it was too much work for me. 

Ok. I'm exhausted now and I barely did anything. I couldn't even be funny on this because tired. Ha! But, I bet these chicken fingers would freeze well! (That was for you Reef!). 

Hopefully my oven will get fixed so I can get back to regularly scheduled baking this weekend. The pumpkin items aren't going to make themselves! 

Leftovers: The Round Two of dinner

Over the course of last week I had made the caponata receipe- the same one from a blog I did back in August. Karen really liked it and illness or not she was going to put me to work. LOL Just kidding she said we should have it again and like a dork I decided to make it. No worries I did not sneeze or cough into it. I maintain my professionalism..well semi-professionalism as blasting music and probably other antics probably aren't full professional like. 

That recipe makes quite a bit and like any leftover you kind of think "what else can I do with it?" I know Tina enjoys freezing things which you would think would transfer over to my mindset but it doesn't cause I'm forgetful. Actually just had a realization that the way we grew up is the real reason.  My mom or dad would make a big meal that would last for a couple of days. So we actually would eat the same dinner/meal for the next day or two. There was no freezing of anything outside of pita bread we would buy. Not sure why that passed the don't freeze rules but it did. Anything that lasted after a couple days- which was hardly ever- was tossed out. Guess that's always stuck with me. 

As far as the leftover caponata, the logic from what I remember was "it has tomato paste in it and kind of marinara consistency...how about pizza?" So a caponata pizza was born. Ran out and got some individual thin pizza crust. Put a good layer of caponata as the sauce, added Italian blend cheese, goat cheese, and some parmesan cheese. The outcome:

Disregard the bite mark as I was hungry: Caponata Pizza

Came out pretty good. I think next time would like to try it out with some cheddar or some stronger cheese. Still very good. Props to Karen who put it all together as she's the cheese master in this house. Unless you count my jokes, then I might be the cheesiest person in this place.

Somewhere in the week I ended up at Walgreens - mostly to pick up a drink after a dentist visit. I ran across this as i was waiting in line:

Trail Mix

I don't typically buy trail mix cause mostly that stuff is calorie killers so out of habit I typically stay away. I think this intrigued me because I've never seen or heard of a pecan pie flavored/blend of trail mix. So while the old lady in front of me took forever to ask and pay for her cigarettes, I picked up and figured it needed to be bought. The final verdict was very tasty and enjoyable. Does it taste like pecan pie? No friggin' clue as I don't really eat pecan pie. Either way definitely has been added to the buy again list. Calorie wise for you health nuts (no pun intended) its was 190 calories for the bag so not too shabby.

Also during the week had ventured to get some items for the Caponata, we ran across a new flavor of Twinkies. Not sure I know anyone personally who hates Twinkies. Going to guess they will speak up as of this blog to be that person but as I write this I had no idea. Sorry for not asking. LOL. Anyway you add the love of Twinkies and Karen's love of pumpkin spice and this was a no brainer. 

Pumpkin Spice Twinkies

Karen absolutely loved these. I can concur they actually are pretty tasty. Then again most Twinkies are. PAUSE. On the top right corner you will see one of my kryptonite "Limited Edition".  Works every damn time. Curse you marketing/design folks. Curses. Actually have bought them again for a 2nd time so they have to at least be decent if you're keeping track.

As previously mentioned in another blog, when I'm sick all I want is soup and orange juice. I'm always wanting to make fresh soup like everyday during this time and Karen is always shaming me. A part of that is her saying we have some frozen turkey soup in the freezer. Who knew? Not me. Well Karen did and she took over the defrosting as I have no experience with such things. She also made beer bread- which is fantastic. So our dinner tonight:

Beer Bread and Turkey Noodle Soup

I will go on record as saying I don't mind frozen soup. That stuff keeps real well and had no complaints about it. Maybe one day I will venture into "Hey maybe I should freeze this?" thinking....OR.... just leave it up to Karen as she will take care of it for me. I'm thinking option B will continue to win that battle.

#LeftoverGoals,

Reef

Happy Birthday Mama Dinner...Not At Gemato's

I've officially become older than my mom. How is that possible? Well she's been 35 years old for about 1/2 my life or so. Every year since forever- I'm going to guess 5th grade- its been the same question and answer:

"Hey Ma, how old are you?"

"Well I'm 35 now..."

Me with a raised eyebrow: "Okay..."

I suppose the saying "you're as old as you feel" applies here so who am I to argue? Happy Birthday Mama! Being that it was her birthday decided to celebrate by doing dinner by her choice of course. Funny enough she said either Gemato's or Riverside Cafe. Typically Gemato's is the go to place for all special occasions but Riverside Cafe won but I think it was because she didn't want to go far as it's only 10 minutes way.

Riverside Cafe is located in Montgomery, IL on Route 25 (http://riverviewdiner.com/). Don't recall when was the first time we went there but  do remember it was in an old pizza hut. Had the unique Pizza Hut shape and layout. Everytime we have gone there the place has been packed. This turned out good for them as they actually expanded by buying the property next to them and built a bigger more accommodating building.  Last night was no different as the place was pretty filled but we managed to get a table right away.

I started off with an appetizer none of us had ever tried at Riverside Cafe: Corn Fritters. These bad boys/girls were damn tasty. I thought maybe they were going to be like hush puppies - more bread like. These were not that. They inside was actually a cream corn filling while the outside was crispy. They also topped it with powdered sugar. Was totally something I would just go just to eat those.

Corn Fritters

Since it was the birthday girl's dinner, we'll start off with her choice. My mom, during her decision making on where to eat, was hyping Riverview's pork chops. Unlike other folks I know, she actually was very committed to getting what she was talking about. I didn't try them but they did looked and smelled delicious.

Birthday Girl's Pork Chop selection

Their menu is pretty extensive as most diners and offers a plethora of options from breakfast food to Mexican food. Being a last minute decider I closed the menu and waited for my turn. The winning choice- which was a new item to me- was the Chicago Clubhouse. It came with a side of soup- which I ended up picking French Onion Soup.

French Onion Soup after I remembered to take a pic

I'm not an expert on French Onion Soup but this one was very good. Not sure if its cause I've been having soup all week but this one hit the spot yet again. I would be inclined to come back and order a bowl of it on its own.

Chicago Clubhouse

The Chicago Clubhouse was a triple decker made of grilled chicken breast, avocado, lettuce and tomato. I'm not really sure I've seen that offered as a triple decker but it sure hit the spot. Highly recommend it if you're into chicken and avocados. Otherwise pick something else.

Karen was all over the place prior to decision time. She ended up wanting to go breakfast and ordered the Denver skillet. It comes with ham, green peppers, and onions.  It also came with a side order of pancakes. Karen got it minus the onions because they are her arch nemesis. Unfortunately they forgot and left the onions in it. I did try it and thought it was fairly tasty but my opinion does matter as it wasn't my meal.  What did Karen thing? (insert drum roll here) She liked it! Obviously she ate around the onions.

Karen's flapjacks

Denver Skillet

Lily went off the kid's menu and got a hot dog and fries. Really is hard to screw up hot dogs I think. That's like the ultimate safe option for kids.

Hot Dog and Fries

I will say their fries were pretty good. Thinking they were frozen and not freshly made, but that being said they held up pretty good. And as previously discussed in other blogs there are terrible fries out there. These weren't too shabby in comparision.

For dessert Karen actually made a homemade dessert bar called "Layers of Lemonly Love". She got the recipe off of a can of lemon filling . It's like a creamy version of lemon square. She had made the step-dad's dessert for his birthday a couple of months ago and didn't want my mom to feel left out...or she wanted to try the recipe for the first time. The jury's out on that one. Just kidding she wanted to make it for my mom out of LOVE as the name of the dessert implies.

Layers of Lemonly Love was truly lovely

Definitely will put it on the make it again list for Karen. Hits the spot and isn't too filling (no pun intended) after a good meal. Its safe to say it lives up to its name.

Outside of suffering from being sick and allergies dinner was fantastic celebrating my mom's birthday. Maybe we should do it again next year...

#FamilyTimes #NotUrkel,

Reef

Oh Cauliflower? Oh ok.

I wasn't going to blog about this, BUT FINE I WILL. I will admit per Reef and his trolling (yeah, I KNOW I caved Reef. *sigh*) that I mostly don't like Cauliflower. However, if it's in something I'm cool with it. Remember when I made the bacon and egg fried rice? No? Because I didn't blog about it? Goddamn it. 

Anyways. I made it a several weeks ago and it was delicious. I mean, you can't go wrong with fried rice. 

Basically, you cook up some bacon, scramble some eggs and sauté and onion. Once your rice is done you put it all back in the pan and add in some soy sauce and sugar. Mmmmm. Well hey guess what? Aldi sells riced Cauliflower. Normally I'm too cheap to buy stuff that's pre cut or whatever but getting out my food processor is annoying. Plus it was like $2. 

Anyways. I cooked my bacon. I scrambled my eggs while cooking the onion in bacon grease (because lazy) and then threw in my riced Cauliflower. (I don't know why my phone keeps captilizing Cauliflower and I don't care enough to change it).  Voila dinner done in less than 10 minutes. Woot!  

 

*i might be grouchy again today* #sorrynotsorry

Skinny But Delicious...Thanks You Ain't Too Shabby Yourself

Been sick this week thanks to getting a flu vaccine last week. I find that ironic that you go get something to prevent you from getting an illness/virus/cold/sickness/whatever you call it and end up getting sick because of it. Still I'm not sure that this has happened on a yearly basis so can't complain too much. With that being said there's two go to items in my mind when I'm sick- orange juice and soup. Went pretty standard store bought cans of soups which were okay. While they're very convenient they tend to be overloaded with salt. That being said nothing beats a homemade soup.

During my "hey fattie how about we get healthy" kickstart a couple years ago, I roamed the internet for various healthier options. One of the items I found for the colder and or sick times was this 5 ingredient Cauliflower soup on Skinnytaste.com: Dad's Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Extremely easy to make, cheap on the wallet, low calorie, and pretty tasty.  Can't go wrong with that. Unless you hate cauliflower like some folks I know but shall not be named...who apparently loves to go on cruises...BUT I DIGRESS.

Cauliflower Ain't nothing wrong with that

Butter + Flour = Roux

4 cups of on-sale Chicken Broth

Sweet Onions are to Karen as Cauliflower is to mystery person

All mixed in getting the hot tubbing in

Use of Kitchen Gadets= FUN TIMES

Finished Delicious Product

Anyway this soup is super easy and as Karen likes to alter her order at restaurants, I had two alterations based on not being big on salt and pepper. I added Adobo and Sazon seasoning. I'm fairly certain I've glorified those two items in previous posts. Absolutely brings out more flavor in anything.

Not brings the flavor but also adds some color

 So yeah if you're in the mood for a quick and easy soup- I highly recommend this soup...outside of that who shall not be named that is not Voldemort. Definitely one of those meals that helped me through weight loss and sick times.

#ExpectoPatronum,
Reef

A little soup. A little bread. A little delicious.

Tonight's cooking fun is brought to you by the following things: 

1. Me being starving and also somehow able to recall what ingredients I have in order to make delicious dinner 

2. A crazing for soup. Crazing is a word I literally just made up because I'm a little tired and a little teensy bit  buzzed and sometimes typing is hard. At any rate, it's a craving + crazy hungry. Or something. I don't even know. 

So. I decided I would like to make/had all ingredients for this Copycat Panera Cheddar Broccoli Soup. It's totes delicious and IN MY OPINION tastes better than Panera because it's fresh, (versus Panera who gets their soup in a bag and then heats it up) and is HOMEMADE which TO ME is always better. 

Behold. Mmmmm prior to the cheddar....

 

 

I do try to chop the broccoli pretty small, since I actively hate broccoli. I also frequently purchase carrots and celery ahead of time so I can cut them and freeze them so I always have veggies for soup on hand. 

 

Mmmmmmmmm. Then I melted this butter for the Garlic Cheddar Beer Bread (which if I haven't yelled at you about before, please make it. You will thank me.) 

 

That's the only picture I took of the bread while making it. But then I decided I should have a beer too, so I did....

 

Meanwhile, my soup completed itself....

 

I know. Not that pretty. But OMFG SO GOOD. Obviously I ate a whole bowl and two slices of bread when it was complete because I AM A MONSTER. I also had a second beer because Tuesday. 

All in all, it's been a good Tuesday night. 

This has been drunk cooking with Tina. Ha! 

 

Attack of the New

After reading various posts of folks getting sick right after getting a flu shot, I got sick after I got a flu shot. Not sure if I should say JINX or how that works but I can confirm that its not fun. Knock on wood/anti-jinx its fairly just the basic illness/cold/death  so I'll live. Luckily I got my shopping in prior to it kicking in and had a fun adventure at Meijer this past weekend.  I imagine I shop at a grocery store similar to how Tina shops at Sephora or maybe Karen at Bath & Body Works. A lot of perusing and out loud comments of "oooooo" or "well hello there..." I mean they probably don't say that out loud but I do. But you know they think it. Anyway had a bunch of items I found with the required "NEW" or "LIMITED EDITION" wording on it.

The first item actually was a good buy having gotten sick and in need of some soup. I was perusing the Hispanic/Asian/Cultural aisle that is mandated in major chain stores. I believe Meijer has Jewel beat because it's cultural aisle contains Greek, Middle Eastern, Hispanic, Creole, and Asian type items in it. While there checking out the wares, I ran into this:

Maruchan Chicken Tortilla Flavor Ramen Noodle Soup

First off you'll notice the word "NEW". Second who doesn't love Ramen Noodle soup? And Third you're combining Asian and Hispanic food into one item. I mean it basically jumped into my shopping cart on its own. Originally it was to be used for colder weather time but considering I got sick it was one of the first things I ate. Typically I get sick you'll see me load up on orange juice and soup. Not sure if there's other things but my standards and practices resorts to those items immediately.

The final version of Chicken Tortilla Ramen Noodle Soup

The Chicken Tortilla soup flavored Ramen Noodle Soup was actually pretty good. I mean its Ramen Noodle Soup so lets not get crazy with our expectations here. It was very flavorful and much like the college days satisfying. Had I thought about it and not been as lazy I probably would have added more to it as it was just the noodles and flavor packet. Maybe some corn, carrots, black beans, and cheese to make it more tortilla soup like. With that being said I always want to try stuff in its original presentation so most likely it was all planning for next time. Still I really actually liked it and would definitely buy it again. If you're salt conscious you may want to avoid it as it was pretty salty.

The other item I ran across while perusing the cracker/cookie/chip aisle also trapped me with the "LIMITED EDITION" on the label: 

Chips Ahoy Cinnamon Donut Chews

I am pretty sure the other folks in that aisle stared at me cause I might have uttered something like "What the f*ck do we have here?" For clarification that was meant in the positive way much like "well hello there" but with more surprised/lack of full understanding at what I was staring at. I was in full curiosity mode so they had to be bought.  

I'm fairly certain everyone has eaten Chips Ahoy cookies and I have yet to run across anyone who's hated them. I mean they not Puleo Pastries cookies but are enjoyable. I"m fairly certain my mother-in-law is addicted to them. Growing up we use to buy the regular Chips Ahoy Chews. That being said it has been quite a while since I've had Chips Ahoy on my own. These cookies were really good as they tasted more like apple cinnamon donuts. Not sure if that is much of a difference but actually enjoyed them. Karen liked them too so that has to count for something. I did introduce her to an old routine we use to do back in the day. You take the soft baked type chips ahoy and microwave them for 30 seconds. It melts up the chocolate and makes them more gooey . #TheMoreYouKnow.  Definitely would buy these again... if I couldn't get a hold of Puleo Pastries that is.

Have some other things I ran into but I'll save those for another blog a.k.a "cliff hanger" or is it "cliff hangar"? The world may never know and I may never care... just kidding I know some grammar aficionados who will correct me.

Til Next Time,

Reef 

Can I make anything into a nacho?

So one day last week I was tired and the kids and I had a bunch of chasing around after work/school so we got some Los Burritos Tapatios for dinner. It was an easy dinner, kids had quesadillas, I had some al pastor tacos. I don't even think I took photos of them..... 

I didn't. But I did wear blue lipstick inside work to be funny so that happened. 

The kids quesadillas came with shredded lettuce and tomato (why? I don't know). So. Like the good mom/not waster of stuff I am, I brought it work. I had random amounts of El Ranchero chips left (like two servings) and some shredded cheese left over as well as some leftover taco meat that I had brought to work and thought it was quinoa. Sadly (yet fortuitously) it was taco meat. Woot! 

I also had leftover limes and hot sauce from my tacos. That's right, they gave me TWO hot sauces for TWO tacos. Mmmmmmm

 

 Mmmmm El Rancheros.....

I'm pretty sure this was my favorite lunch of the week. Seriously.

 

 A secondary view!!!

Now. Let's shift gears for a few. Friday night I had to go to Ace Hardware to get some ant traps (because f*ck you grease ants) and then we went to the oldey old Little Caesar's.... 

 

 I got the kids a $5 pepperoni pizza and myself these AWESOME Loaded Crazy Bites. Crazy bread bites with cheese and bacon and jalepeños. 

 

No clue on the calorie content, but they are DELICIOUS. I would totes recommend them. Also: $4. I don't think they should be $4 but I get it. Mmmmmmmmm never enjoyed Little Caesars so much. OBVS I ate all of those, and two pieces of pepperoni pizza. And a beer. And then I was basically comatose. Because yum. And salt. 

New Adventure and Redemption All In One

Had an impromptu lunch meetup today with Tina and her kids. They were going to be in the area so decided we should get lunch. Tina's suggestion for lunch was La Chiquita because "Brenda" had suggested it. Who is "Brenda" you might be asking? I don't know but she had tried La Chiquita's restaurant and enjoyed it. In case you're wondering yes that La Chiquita Hispanic grocery store by my house. They have a little restaurant section serving Mexican food: La Chiquita Menu

I was kind of sketchy of it as I had tried it once when they first opened up and thought it was pretty bad. Tina tried to sell me on "Brenda's" credentials on Mexican cuisine to which I was very inquisitive about. "Brenda" had also mentioned Salsa Verde which got me even more skeptical as having tried that place as well NO ES BUENO! Still Tina defended "Brenda's" honor and was fairly convincing so I decided to give it another shot and add to our squad goals.

Drink wise Karen and Lily went with the restaurants freshly squeezed orange juice. The rest of us were boring and went with some high quality H2O. I didn't give the orange juice a try but it appeared that both of them were huge fans of it as they topped them off fairly quickly.

Half of the Fresh Orange Juice.

For an appetizer I ordered some Guacamole which was definitely freshly made. Me and Tina highly enjoyed as the wonder twins that we are. Karen semi-liked it as she was not a fan of the onions and/or random big chunks of peppers. I think the kids as expected were not really into it as much as they were into the tortilla chips. Definitely would go back and get this.

Guacamole

Let's start off with the kids choices as they were pretty standard. Gavin was the only true adventurous one of the three as he got Pork Tamales. Lily got hot dog and fries and Owen got a hamburger and fries.  The only thing I can vouch for were the fries as that was the only thing I tried. They were really good and you can tell they cut and make the fries themselves. Very enjoyable. All the kids polished off their food so I'd have to imagine they all liked it. Well maybe not Owen as he's got to be the difficult one. #SHAMED

Pork Tamales

Hot Dog and Fries

Hamburger and Fries

Tina went with one of her favorite options for Mexican cuisine: Chilaquiles. I think there might have been a mix up in the ordering process as I looked at the menu and you can have it with eggs or steak in red or green sauce. I think the waitress asked eggs or steak and Tina replied  with "no". Thus Tina's meal came out with neither egg or steak.

Chilaquiles mins egg or steak in red sauce w/ rice and beans

Having sampled it I thought it was fairly decent myself. Interested to see how it would have turned out with eggs. I'd have to guess very good in that instance. The rice was okay/nothing to write home about. The beans I enjoyed but really they were "basic as them young kids and snarky mean girls would say. I think Tina would agree with this assessment. Bonus points for her showing Karen love by sharing the sour cream she was given. #100PointsGryffindor

Karen went with the taco dinner plate. She choose three different types of tacos- Al pastor, steak, and chicken.  She was being adventurous in wanting to try different kinds and narrow down a standard for ordering there at some future point. Her meal also came with rice and beans. 

Taco Dinner Plate

Of the three she enjoyed the chicken taco the best. She thought the Al pastor was way different than the one I got (see below). She didn't care much for the rice or beans. Luckily she hates onions so I was able to take 3 of the 4 grilled onions off her place. Also stole the tomatoes as she's not a big fan of them by themselves.

The solo onion Tina was able to capture before Reef ate them all

For my selection I decided to go with an Al Pastor torta. Now my go to meal is typically steak tacos. However since I didn't like them last time I applied some "crazy" logic for my decision. I had seen a special item they had for this past Monday of a Hawaiian torta. This triggered the thought that if they do out of the ordinary types of tortas then all their tortas must be pretty good. The rationale is based on the fact that I have gotten some fantastic tortas from hole in the wall places. I'm talking like a plug in griddle on a counter inside of a gas station. Pretty much think that means that its their try hard menu item. So with that thought process I figured it was a safe bet on being good.

Al Pastor Torta

I highly enjoyed this Al Pastor torta. It came with Al Pastor, avocado, cheese, tomatoes, beans, and mayo. Unlike Karen's al pastor taco, this was cut into better pieces and included pineapple. I think it's safe to say my crazy logic paid off as I believe everyone who tried it liked it.  I definitely would go back for a torta.

For dessert we decided to hit up the bakery of the grocery store and grab some pastries. Unfortunately I couldn't even tell you what anything else cause I have no clue and they don't label anything. What I do know is that the orange colored ball things are fantastic and shockingly coconut flavored. If you hit up a bakery and see one of those you should give it a try...unless you hate coconuts, are on a strict diet, or voting for the giant Oompa Loompa. 

Pastries

It was a good lunch so I have to give kudos to "Brenda" and Tina for pitching the idea of eating there. I think La Chiquita redeemed it's restaurant side.

#Squadgoals,

Reef