I purchased some blueberries this past week but they have an odd texture to them, like they aren't quite ripe or something. I can't figure it out but I didn't want them to go to waste so I thought I'd use them to bake. I found this recipe on Pinterest and I think it turned out great! I can't even taste the weirdness with the blueberries and I'd be interested in trying it with other berries as well.
I did make a few changes, as usual. Instead of lemon zest, I used lemon extract. I also didn't coat the blueberries in flour. I never understood that step. I have skipped it in other recipes and I have done it for other recipes and I can't figure out what it's supposed to change. Nothing seems different to me so without doing it, it's less work and less wasted flour.
I also don't think my butter was quite up to room temp by the time I used it because it didn't mix smoothly but it turned out okay. We baked it for 35 minutes and tested it with a toothpick. The toothpick came out clean so we waited the 15 minutes before cutting it. Turns out, it wasn't done afterall. It was a little soupy in the middle. Since it just has the one egg and we don't worry about Salmonella as much as we probably should, we've been eating it anyway. It still tastes great but I would recommend cooking yours all the way through.
Also, I don't usually add the sugar topping to recipes like this because I don't like the "crunch" of the sugar crystals but it works really well with this cake. This is perfect to serve for breakfast. I actually had it this morning with a side of yogurt and it was excellent!
I would definitely make this again and I'd be curious to try it with strawberries. With a bit of lemon, it might be like strawberry lemonade!
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Monday, February 23, 2015
(Vegan) Eggplant Meatballs
Now that it's Lent, I have to have a meatless meal on Fridays. Of course, I am allowed to have fish but being pregnant, I have to limit how much fish I eat. We also had to eat meatless on Ash Wednesday. This means, last week I needed two meatless meals. I did do fish on Wednesday but I wanted something non-fish for Friday. I decided on this recipe. I actually had everything on hand, except the eggplant but that just happened to be on sale at the store that week! My husband doesn't like eggplant so I was hoping for the best.
I used garlic powder instead of real garlic but I believe that is the only change I made. I was surprised you couldn't taste the peel of the eggplant but it sure saved a lot of work. We served this on ciabatta bread with spaghetti sauce and I think it turned out great. It didn't taste like meatballs to me, but I'm not sure it was supposed to. David wasn't impressed with it but at least he couldn't taste the eggplant. We had it leftover the next day and he thought it was much better. I will be making this again sometime!
Our mixture seemed wetter than the pictures showed and we took the full 30 minutes in the oven. The bottom's got a little browner but they actually tasted really good. The rest of it wasn't as crunchy as I thought they were supposed to be but I still think it worked. Next time, I may add more bread crumbs to thicken it up. Comments on the recipe suggested using half breadcrumbs, half parmesan cheese, so that would be an option too (if you aren't keeping it vegan).
My one year old daughter even liked these and we struggle to get her to eat any vegetables. We are pretty sure she thought they were actually meatballs when we gave one to her. Otherwise, she somehow is smart enough to know which part of the dinner is a vegetable and picks that part out. We can't figure out how she knows but she does. This is a recipe to sneak more veggies into her diet.
I really recommend serving these with sauce, but I never eat meatballs plain either. I will mention that my daughter ate hers plain (to keep her less messy).
I used garlic powder instead of real garlic but I believe that is the only change I made. I was surprised you couldn't taste the peel of the eggplant but it sure saved a lot of work. We served this on ciabatta bread with spaghetti sauce and I think it turned out great. It didn't taste like meatballs to me, but I'm not sure it was supposed to. David wasn't impressed with it but at least he couldn't taste the eggplant. We had it leftover the next day and he thought it was much better. I will be making this again sometime!
Our mixture seemed wetter than the pictures showed and we took the full 30 minutes in the oven. The bottom's got a little browner but they actually tasted really good. The rest of it wasn't as crunchy as I thought they were supposed to be but I still think it worked. Next time, I may add more bread crumbs to thicken it up. Comments on the recipe suggested using half breadcrumbs, half parmesan cheese, so that would be an option too (if you aren't keeping it vegan).
My one year old daughter even liked these and we struggle to get her to eat any vegetables. We are pretty sure she thought they were actually meatballs when we gave one to her. Otherwise, she somehow is smart enough to know which part of the dinner is a vegetable and picks that part out. We can't figure out how she knows but she does. This is a recipe to sneak more veggies into her diet.
I really recommend serving these with sauce, but I never eat meatballs plain either. I will mention that my daughter ate hers plain (to keep her less messy).
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Annoying Taxes
This is my third year of doing taxes on my own. We have to file federal, Wisconsin, and Minnesota since we live in Wisconsin but David works in Minnesota. It's actually quite a hassle but manageable. It's also easier with only one income, therefore only one W-2. There are some extra forms involved and we will always owe Wisconsin money but oh well.
We always do our taxes on paper first to make check over everything and make sure it comes out right. Then, we file online and see that our numbers of refunds (or what we owe) match. In addition, we have David's parents check over everything since they have far more experience than we do and really helped us out a lot our first year of taxes.
Our taxes have been done for two weeks now but only on paper. Last night, we decided to officially file (online). I picked a company that does the federal for free, since you always have to file that first. It cost us money to file our states' so I picked a different website for those. However, you can't file state without filing federal with the same company. After deciding it would be an awful idea to file federal twice, we decided to mail in the state taxes for both states. What a pain! Next year, I will hopefully remember to look up a company that does state for free since everyone seems to do federal for free. Then we won't hit this snag in the road.
Because they are going out in the mail today, we actually aren't all that late in filing but normally we get them out sooner than this. This is our first year with a dependent (our daughter) so we are getting over $5,000 back! We are trying to decide if we should save it for a vacation/something fun or if we should replace our much-needed-to-be-updated furnace. This would only be about half the cost of the furnace but of course, any amount helps.
I wonder what most people do if they get a big refund back. According to all the sales this time of year, people expect you to buy furniture or mattresses but I wonder how many people actually do. What do you do with your refund?
We always do our taxes on paper first to make check over everything and make sure it comes out right. Then, we file online and see that our numbers of refunds (or what we owe) match. In addition, we have David's parents check over everything since they have far more experience than we do and really helped us out a lot our first year of taxes.
Our taxes have been done for two weeks now but only on paper. Last night, we decided to officially file (online). I picked a company that does the federal for free, since you always have to file that first. It cost us money to file our states' so I picked a different website for those. However, you can't file state without filing federal with the same company. After deciding it would be an awful idea to file federal twice, we decided to mail in the state taxes for both states. What a pain! Next year, I will hopefully remember to look up a company that does state for free since everyone seems to do federal for free. Then we won't hit this snag in the road.
Because they are going out in the mail today, we actually aren't all that late in filing but normally we get them out sooner than this. This is our first year with a dependent (our daughter) so we are getting over $5,000 back! We are trying to decide if we should save it for a vacation/something fun or if we should replace our much-needed-to-be-updated furnace. This would only be about half the cost of the furnace but of course, any amount helps.
I wonder what most people do if they get a big refund back. According to all the sales this time of year, people expect you to buy furniture or mattresses but I wonder how many people actually do. What do you do with your refund?
Monday, February 16, 2015
Squash and Spinach Lasagna
My mom came up this weekend because my brother had an interview at a college nearby. She always brings vegetables with her in the chance that I can use them in our dinners, since they won't get eaten back at home without her there. This time, she brought me half a bag of spinach. I searched around and decided on a lasagna. Here is the recipe.
I happened to have the 2 cups of squash puree in my freezer already from fall. I basically had to buy the rest of the ingredients to make this, even the lasagna noodles but I got lucky and most of it was on sale this week. I did substitute cottage cheese for ricotta because it's cheaper but I think that's the only change I made. I will also mention that I used regular lasagna noodles, not the no-boil kind.
This turned out GREAT but I think my squash sauce was a bit runnier than the pictures showed (it worked out just fine though). I also didn't have as much of a spinach mixture as the pictures but it had enough cheese that it worked out okay too. I'm not sure if I used less spinach than was called for or not; I just had that half a bag and I cooked it up ahead of time so it got even smaller.
I prepped everything before I had to go to church and then I put it in the fridge and baked it when I got home. This was such a time saver because the prep took longer than I was expecting. I know the recipe says an hour but I somehow didn't think it would take that long.
My husband wasn't feeling good but ate this anyway. He rated it a 9/10. He thinks that if he wasn't sick, it would be a full 10. My mom also loved this, but that was to be expected. My brother doesn't like any sort of vegetables, lasagna, or even cheese (he's really quite picky). I did convince him to try a half a slice and he actually had about 3 bites! Of course, he still said he didn't like it but I was just ecstatic that he tried it, because with him, even trying something is a big deal.
I will very likely make this again but now I have to wait til fall because I'm out of squash and it's not really in season anymore. It is time consuming but it's quite simple to make. I definitely recommend this recipe!
I happened to have the 2 cups of squash puree in my freezer already from fall. I basically had to buy the rest of the ingredients to make this, even the lasagna noodles but I got lucky and most of it was on sale this week. I did substitute cottage cheese for ricotta because it's cheaper but I think that's the only change I made. I will also mention that I used regular lasagna noodles, not the no-boil kind.
This turned out GREAT but I think my squash sauce was a bit runnier than the pictures showed (it worked out just fine though). I also didn't have as much of a spinach mixture as the pictures but it had enough cheese that it worked out okay too. I'm not sure if I used less spinach than was called for or not; I just had that half a bag and I cooked it up ahead of time so it got even smaller.
I prepped everything before I had to go to church and then I put it in the fridge and baked it when I got home. This was such a time saver because the prep took longer than I was expecting. I know the recipe says an hour but I somehow didn't think it would take that long.
My husband wasn't feeling good but ate this anyway. He rated it a 9/10. He thinks that if he wasn't sick, it would be a full 10. My mom also loved this, but that was to be expected. My brother doesn't like any sort of vegetables, lasagna, or even cheese (he's really quite picky). I did convince him to try a half a slice and he actually had about 3 bites! Of course, he still said he didn't like it but I was just ecstatic that he tried it, because with him, even trying something is a big deal.
I will very likely make this again but now I have to wait til fall because I'm out of squash and it's not really in season anymore. It is time consuming but it's quite simple to make. I definitely recommend this recipe!
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Our Daily Schedule
I have seen some sample schedules for certain aged babies online but none of them seemed very realistic to me. I don't know if my kid just isn't the norm or if these other ones are fake. I thought I would share mine with you to see if any other parents have a similar schedule.
In case you don't know, I am a starting-to-wean but breastfeeding mom to a 12 month old. Of course, some days we have play dates or story hour at the library so this is a day we don't have anything else going on. I will also mention that she normally gets a nice walk outside but with it being winter, that isn't a part of our schedule right now.
5:30am-6:30am: Sometime within there, Baby wakes up and breastfeeds (she doesn't sleep through the night but we are working on it. This feeding will eventually be replaced with milk). Then, if my husband is working from home that day (a fairly common occurrence), he takes her downstairs and they play.
7:00am: My husband starts work so he puts Baby in bed with me. In other words, I wake up. I bring Baby back downstairs and we have breakfast together (usually fruit (like bananas), waffles or toast, or sometimes just cereal).
7:30am: We come into the living room and usually watch one episode of Curious George (I know they're not supposed to have screen time until age 2 but this is our cuddle time. Please don't judge me on this. She's my child.)
8:00am: Baby plays with her toys, usually by herself so I can clean up the kitchen a little bit from breakfast (I can see her playing from the kitchen).
8:30-9:00am: Sometime within there, Baby gets tired of playing so we go upstairs and get ready for the day. We both get dressed. Sometimes I have to breastfeed her again.
9:00am: We go to the gym. I workout and they watch her for me (for free!). She loves going and actually gets cranky if we miss this.
10:00am: We come home and she takes her first nap of the day, usually for 40 minutes.
10:40am: We have snack time (Cheerios, yogurt, cheese, Goldfish, etc) and she may breastfeed again.
11:00am: We play again. We alternate between her toys in the living room, our bedroom, and her bedroom. She has a lot of toys! This also includes reading books, looking out the window, etc.
12:00pm: We have lunch (usually leftovers from dinner the night before).
12:30pm: We go upstairs to visit my husband and our bunny (they're in the loft and he's not usually too busy to say hi to us. We play up there a little bit while he works)
2:00pm: She takes her afternoon nap. This time varies a lot. Sometimes it's 20 minutes, sometimes it's an hour or more.
3:00pm: My husband gets out of work (if he's at home) and takes over Baby duties. Baby wakes up and usually breastfeeds and has snack.
The rest of the night consists of David playing with Baby, making and eating dinner, then bath time and bedtime for Baby. She typically goes to bed around 5pm but we are trying to get it later, more like 7pm. We just can't keep her up any longer!
As you can see, unless she is playing by herself, I don't have much time for cleaning up the house or doing laundry but somehow I just make it work. Or, I do it when David gets out of work and takes over Baby duties, or even after Baby goes to bed. Days can be exhausting but I typically start winding down around 8pm and read in bed for a bit; early, but not as bad as it sounds.
In case you don't know, I am a starting-to-wean but breastfeeding mom to a 12 month old. Of course, some days we have play dates or story hour at the library so this is a day we don't have anything else going on. I will also mention that she normally gets a nice walk outside but with it being winter, that isn't a part of our schedule right now.
5:30am-6:30am: Sometime within there, Baby wakes up and breastfeeds (she doesn't sleep through the night but we are working on it. This feeding will eventually be replaced with milk). Then, if my husband is working from home that day (a fairly common occurrence), he takes her downstairs and they play.
7:00am: My husband starts work so he puts Baby in bed with me. In other words, I wake up. I bring Baby back downstairs and we have breakfast together (usually fruit (like bananas), waffles or toast, or sometimes just cereal).
7:30am: We come into the living room and usually watch one episode of Curious George (I know they're not supposed to have screen time until age 2 but this is our cuddle time. Please don't judge me on this. She's my child.)
8:00am: Baby plays with her toys, usually by herself so I can clean up the kitchen a little bit from breakfast (I can see her playing from the kitchen).
8:30-9:00am: Sometime within there, Baby gets tired of playing so we go upstairs and get ready for the day. We both get dressed. Sometimes I have to breastfeed her again.
9:00am: We go to the gym. I workout and they watch her for me (for free!). She loves going and actually gets cranky if we miss this.
10:00am: We come home and she takes her first nap of the day, usually for 40 minutes.
10:40am: We have snack time (Cheerios, yogurt, cheese, Goldfish, etc) and she may breastfeed again.
11:00am: We play again. We alternate between her toys in the living room, our bedroom, and her bedroom. She has a lot of toys! This also includes reading books, looking out the window, etc.
12:00pm: We have lunch (usually leftovers from dinner the night before).
12:30pm: We go upstairs to visit my husband and our bunny (they're in the loft and he's not usually too busy to say hi to us. We play up there a little bit while he works)
2:00pm: She takes her afternoon nap. This time varies a lot. Sometimes it's 20 minutes, sometimes it's an hour or more.
3:00pm: My husband gets out of work (if he's at home) and takes over Baby duties. Baby wakes up and usually breastfeeds and has snack.
The rest of the night consists of David playing with Baby, making and eating dinner, then bath time and bedtime for Baby. She typically goes to bed around 5pm but we are trying to get it later, more like 7pm. We just can't keep her up any longer!
As you can see, unless she is playing by herself, I don't have much time for cleaning up the house or doing laundry but somehow I just make it work. Or, I do it when David gets out of work and takes over Baby duties, or even after Baby goes to bed. Days can be exhausting but I typically start winding down around 8pm and read in bed for a bit; early, but not as bad as it sounds.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Good News!
Hey everybody. I have good news! I am 13 weeks pregnant and due August 11th!!!!! Of course, I have known since week, like, 5 but we like to wait until I am farther along in case something happens. I'm sure those of you that have been pregnant before understand.
This was a planned pregnancy that we are very excited about. I remember when our daughter was first born (a year ago!!) we thought it was crazy that we ever wanted more than one child and why would people possibly do that but around 6 months, things got less chaotic around here and we fell into more a routine. It all got simplified. Now, don't get me wrong, raising a child is still a lot of work and responsibility. But there aren't as many sleepless nights (although our little angel still isn't sleeping through the night. We are, however, working on night time weaning and it's going surprisingly well), things are more predictable, and we are on a bit of a schedule (at least on most days). So, we feel much more ready than those first few months. I don't know if you can ever be 100% ready for a child but that's just life. You have 9 months to prepare and get ready but sometimes it seems as if you could have another 30 years and it's still not enough. Does that make sense? Either way, we feel prepared and are just so excited!
Unlike with my first pregnancy, I am feeling fantastic! I am more tired, but probably because I have a one year old to take care so I don't get to nap as much. I have only had two episodes of throwing up and my nausea is general is much less than the first time around (5 1/2 months of constant throwing up...not fun!). I do find myself more emotional though. Because of all these differences, I'm pretty much convinced I am carrying a boy (but I am not rooting for a boy or a girl. We would be happy with either). David still thinks it's a girl though. I think he just likes girls better now that he already has one.
Unrelated to pregnancy but something I feel like I should mention: I am going to start putting ads on this blog. I'll try to keep them from taking over but I felt it was time. I have been ad free for over two years but you always hear about how many people can make a good amount of money from ads on your blog. I don't want to sound selfish or greedy but if I'm spending the time to blog and share my thoughts, recipes, sewing patterns, etc with you, don't I deserve a little bit of something for my time? I hope this doesn't keep any of you away and I hope you understand. Thanks.
This was a planned pregnancy that we are very excited about. I remember when our daughter was first born (a year ago!!) we thought it was crazy that we ever wanted more than one child and why would people possibly do that but around 6 months, things got less chaotic around here and we fell into more a routine. It all got simplified. Now, don't get me wrong, raising a child is still a lot of work and responsibility. But there aren't as many sleepless nights (although our little angel still isn't sleeping through the night. We are, however, working on night time weaning and it's going surprisingly well), things are more predictable, and we are on a bit of a schedule (at least on most days). So, we feel much more ready than those first few months. I don't know if you can ever be 100% ready for a child but that's just life. You have 9 months to prepare and get ready but sometimes it seems as if you could have another 30 years and it's still not enough. Does that make sense? Either way, we feel prepared and are just so excited!
Unlike with my first pregnancy, I am feeling fantastic! I am more tired, but probably because I have a one year old to take care so I don't get to nap as much. I have only had two episodes of throwing up and my nausea is general is much less than the first time around (5 1/2 months of constant throwing up...not fun!). I do find myself more emotional though. Because of all these differences, I'm pretty much convinced I am carrying a boy (but I am not rooting for a boy or a girl. We would be happy with either). David still thinks it's a girl though. I think he just likes girls better now that he already has one.
Unrelated to pregnancy but something I feel like I should mention: I am going to start putting ads on this blog. I'll try to keep them from taking over but I felt it was time. I have been ad free for over two years but you always hear about how many people can make a good amount of money from ads on your blog. I don't want to sound selfish or greedy but if I'm spending the time to blog and share my thoughts, recipes, sewing patterns, etc with you, don't I deserve a little bit of something for my time? I hope this doesn't keep any of you away and I hope you understand. Thanks.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Homemade Turkey Pot Pie with Biscuits
I have made a homemade, from scratch pot pie before but I didn't save the recipe. I have blogged about it before and it was quite a time consuming recipe (about 3 hours if I remember right). I would've gladly made it again because my husband had rated it a 10/10 but no matter how I searched, I was unable to find the recipe again.
Because the crust is the hardest part for me and we had a biscuit mix to use up, I decided to top it with biscuits instead of a full crust. This is a common thing but I'm not sure if you can still call it pie then but oh well. For the first time ever, I made up my own recipe for something complicated (I've done pasta dishes, stir fries, soups, etc before but the pot pie seems more difficult).
Ingredients:
Because the crust is the hardest part for me and we had a biscuit mix to use up, I decided to top it with biscuits instead of a full crust. This is a common thing but I'm not sure if you can still call it pie then but oh well. For the first time ever, I made up my own recipe for something complicated (I've done pasta dishes, stir fries, soups, etc before but the pot pie seems more difficult).
Ingredients:
- cooked turkey (I used our leftover shredded turkey from Thanksgiving. I'm not quite sure how much turkey it was but it's up to you how much you want to use. I will guess about 1 1/2-2 cups)
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup (or whatever cream of you want), not diluted
- 2-3 good sized potatoes, chopped in bite size pieces
- a can of peas (I actually don't really like canned peas but I had bought them once when frozen just wasn't going on sale. I ended up not making the recipe I had bought them for so now they were just taking up space in the pantry. You can easily substitute in frozen)
- corn, about 1/3 of a bag
- 1 cup water or broth
- carrots, about 2 whole (chopped)
- garlic, to taste
- salt, to taste
- onion powder (I was too lazy to chop up an onion. You can use either)
- biscuit mix
- Add the potatoes, water, and frozen ingredients (for us, this was the corn, carrots, and turkey) to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally. Cook until potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes.
- Add remaining non-frozen vegetables or meat (for us, just the peas).
- Then stir in the seasonings and cream of mushroom soup. Stir until everything is well coated. Be sure to taste for the seasonings. I ended up using a lot more salt than I thought I would. (I assumed the soup would take care of the saltiness but it didn't work out that way).
- Turn down to a simmer and continue to stir occasionally.
- While that simmers, make your biscuits according to the mix directions.
- Grease a 9x13 pan. Preheat oven to 375.
- Add the soup/meat/vegetable mixture to the pan and top with biscuits. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until biscuits are browned. Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)