It's been too long...

Wow, time sure does get away from us, doesn't it? I've been wanting to post to my blog for a while and keep getting side tracked. Life's been great, been trying some new recipes from Pinterest and hoping to find some new family favorites. Alas, with the eating habits of my family, its next to impossible. I will eat just about anything, aside from snake or brains or weird insects. By anything I mean, I'm pretty open to trying new foods and flavors. I'm trying to get on a healthy kick, gained a lot of weight since 2011, and it needs to be shed ASAP!! Summer is coming up, and for once in my life I would like to go to the pool and enjoy the sunshine with my kids.

On that note, I've tried quite a few recipes from Pinterest in the last couple months and only found 2 so far that I would make the effort to make again. I tried a lemon blueberry loaf that is to die for, and blueberry muffins that are the best I have ever eaten, both with fresh blueberries, not canned or frozen. I am looking to find some clean eating recipes that my kids and hubby will eat, but again, therein lies a challenge like no other!!

I am hoping to find something this week to share. Wish me luck on my quest to lose these extra pounds thru healthy food and exercise. Daily walks start back up tomorrow, now that the weather is cooperating a little bit. Take care, wish me luck and talk to you soon!

Turkey meatloaf with feta and sundried tomatoes!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, my range/oven broke and I was outta commission for a week. Needless to say, all is up and running now, and the weather is cooling off, so I will be cooking again, yippie. Got some good soups and cookie/bread recipe's to try, so hopefully I can get back to doing something new once a week. The patient 9 month old...well, he's 10 months old now and not as happy to sit in a chair while mommy cooks, so I might have to get creative with my timing. Has anyone tried any of the recipe's that I have posted? If so let me know how they turned out for you, or if you did anything different to them, would love some feed back. 

I totally forgot to take a picture of this one, but once you've seen one meatloaf, you've seen them all!! The whole family ate and enjoyed this one. Easy and quick to make.

I did a side dish of roasted carrots and parsnips, and quickly learned, I don't like parsnips!! They made the house smell weird too. So maybe just carrots next time, or a nice green salad, like a spinach salad, I bet that would have been nice, especially if you want to keep it light. I also served it with mashed potatoes too.

Here's the recipe, my friend Karla shared it with me, and it came from Giada De Laurentiis.

Turkey meatloaf with Feta and Sundried Tomatoes
4-6-servings

vegetable cooking spray
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley (I used dried)
1/4 cup chopped garlic and herb-marinated sun-dried tomatoes (I used regular ones)
2 cloves minced garlic
2 eggs, at room temp, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons whole milk (I used low fat)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground turkey

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Spray a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray

In a large bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, parsley, tomatoes, garlic, eggs, milk, feta, salt and pepper. Add the turkey and gently stir to combine, being careful not to overwork the meat.

Carefully pack the meat mixture into the prepared pan and bake until the internal temperature registers 165F on an instant read thermometer, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve.


Hope you enjoy this nice twist on meatloaf!

It's almost here!

Fall, that is! I am getting excited. There is a certain smell, breeze and feeling in the air when fall is coming, and I felt it this weekend. Its already time for apple picking, and visits to the farm. It's almost time for the pumpkin patches to open too! Okay, well almost. LOL All the stores are starting to get their Halloween decorations out and it makes me smile like a kid in a candy store. I can't completely explain the feelings that fall gives me, but its amazing, its the only time of year I feel completely at peace. Your probably thinking I'm crazy, its just a season, and California doesn't see all that fall has to offer anyways, but its more than that to me, its holidays and celebrations, fun family activities and pictures. Only a few more days until the official first day and for me it can't get here fast enough!

I'm working on collecting some more recipes to try, I have a few in my back pocket. I have some amazing fall soups I can't wait to try, and a chocolate chip cookie recipe that blends chewy and soft all into one cookie, I'm hoping to try that one this week.

Go outside, stand there for a minute, wait for a light breeze to go by, and tell me if you feel it too!

Success!! Root Beer Bundt Cake=YUMMY

FINALLY! I bake something and it comes out exactly how it is supposed to. I'm so excited. Phil took one bite and had that look of pure bliss on his face (the G's liked it too!). It was such a nice way to end my day, and what a day it was. I cleaned the entire house, did all the laundry, folded and put away, and still managed to successfully make the root beer cake. Love spending Saturday's home with my family, even if it is cleaning! I've been going thru a lot of recipes and finding all kinds of good stuff to try, its such a nice break from the same ol thing all the time. I hope my family is enjoying it as much as I am.

My handsome baking partner!

Here's your spatula mom!

YUMMY

So here's the Root Beer Bundt Cake recipe, courtesy of TV Food Magazine.

Root Beer Bundt Cake

1 stick unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 1/2 cups root beer (I used A&W)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt, plus a pinch
3 large eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven 325 degrees. Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan; tap out the excess flour.
2. Heat 2 cups root beer, the cocoa powder, chocolate and 1 stick of butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Combine 2 cups flour, the baking soda, allspice and 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Whisk the eggs into the root beer mixture, then gently fold in the dry ingredients (the batter will be slightly lumpy).
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, 55 minutes to 1 hour, rotating the pan halfway through. Transfer to a rack. Gently poke the cake all over with a skewer and pour 1/4 cup of root beer over the cake; let cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert cake onto serving plate and let cool completely.
5. Meanwhile, make the glaze: whisk the remaining 1/4 cup of root beer, a pinch of salt,, the confectioner's sugar and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Drizzle over the cake.

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake=Epic fail

I have to laugh at this one, it just proves that I SUCK at baking! I totally screwed up the chiffon cake. First of all I did it in a bundt pan cause that was all I had, second of all I didn't take it out of the pan in time for cooling, thanks kids, so it totally sank into itself! Although it looked like a hot mess, it actually tasted pretty good. Just came out more like a pumpkin bread than a light and fluffy chiffon cake! I didn't take a picture to spare myself the embarrassment, but I probably should have just for the comedic factor. I wanted to share the recipe and invite someone to try a go at it and let me know if it works.

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

Serves 12

1 cup flour

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs separated, plus 5 egg whites (9 egg whites total, 4 yolks) at room temp

1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree

Confectioners sugar, for dusting

1. preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, the pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, combine the egg yolks and pumpkin puree. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture until smooth.

2. Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, whip the 9 egg whites at medium speed until foamy, about 2 minutes. With the machine on, gradually whisk in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar; increase speed to high and beat until stiff but moist, 1-2 minutes.

3.Add one-quarter of the egg-white mixture to the pumpkin batter, folding with a rubber spatula just until no streaks remain. Repeat with the remaining egg-white mixture. Pour batter into a 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom. Bake until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes.

4.Let cool for 5 minutes, then invert the pan onto a narrow necked bottle; let hang upside down until completely cool, about 1 1/2 hours. Place the cake right side up and remove pan. To serve dust with confectioners sugar.

(As I was typing this I realized another mistake I made, I didn't measure out the pumpkin puree, I just used the whole can! OOP'S...See kids, follow directions and read them CAREFULLY!! HAHA)

Let me know if you try it and how it comes out, it tasted good, but like I said it came out more like pumpkin bread, so I'm curious how it would taste if made by someone who reads the directions!

Lots of good stuff coming up.

I went thru my mounds of recipes this weekend, and countless magazines to find something new to try. Between the constant callings for "mommy", and the little fingers of the boy trying to rip all my pages, I did manage to come up with some stuff to share this week and upcoming weeks. So, stay tuned, I may not post every day, but I will at least try to make something new twice a week.

Coming up...

Pumpkin Chiffon cake
Potato leek gratin
Harvest soup

My Autumn wreath

Before

After

I love going to my local Homegoods this time of year as they are setting out all the Fall and Halloween stuff. I scored some really cool dishes that you will see in upcoming posts and I also scored a wreath that needed a little TLC. I really enjoyed fixing it up. It looked pretty to begin with, but needed a little something extra.