Recipe 6: Cornmeal Pancakes

I have a confession to make: I live with a bunch of pancake fiends. My husband and son would probably eat pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a week if I let them. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but they love pancakes, alright?

I like pancakes. I am lazy, though, and cooking individual pancakes sometimes isn't fast enough for me. Given the choice, I'd probably make a batch of waffles instead. We have a great griddle/panini press combo with waffle plates, so I can make a bunch without babysitting them.

BUT. Last night I decided to make a batch of cornmeal pancakes for dinner (along with the pizza I already had thrown in the oven, because...why not?). I have two containers of yellow cornmeal in my pantry currently. I'm sure at one point I thought I didn't have any cornmeal at all. Amid organizing my pantry shelves (still a work in progress), I discovered both containers, so I'm on a mission to use up one.  Enter...this recipe: Cornmeal Pancakes

These are SOOOOO good! They are so pretty! They use up a lot of cornmeal! 

Yum, yum, and yum. It  tastes really similar to the Jiffy cornbread I grew up eating - slightly sweet, soft, good corn flavor. I have to admit...since living in Texas, I still haven't fallen in love with savory cornbread. I much prefer sweet cornbread. We used to eat it with syrup and butter and my brother and I would fight over who got the very middle piece from the pan (no dryer edges).

This recipe calls for blueberry syrup, but I didn't make it. These honestly don't even really need syrup. A little butter would be good for me, but if you're going full on breakfast, add some syrup and eat up! Our son loved these (he's never met a pancake or waffle he didn't like, and we don't even serve them with butter or syrup for him) and my husband said they were "really good." But, being the pancake purist that he is, he still prefers regular ol' pancakes. I would gladly have these more often than the plain variety...I love the texture. Enjoy!

2 months later

Did I warn you guys or what? It's been 2 months (almost to the day) since our second bundle of joy joined us in this world, and I've obviously fallen off the face of the blogging earth for a little while. I'm BACK! And am going to be posting a little more than just the recipes I've been making. I'll still do that (I made an insanely good veggie stew that will be in a separate post), but I'll also be talking about random things.

Like...New Years Resolutions? Ok, so I'm not one for making these or keeping them. Mine last year was read a book a month and I failed MISERABLY! I even still have the stack of the books I was going to read on my nightstand...collecting dust. Anyway, my goal this year is the same (read at least 12 books), but so far I'm doing pretty well. I am starting with an organization book called "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. I saw someone I know from Purdue post that she read this book. It piqued my interest immensely since when my mom and stepdad were here visiting (after baby 2 came), I went through a major purge. We have a 4 bedroom house and the room that was in need of purging is now our guest room. The former guest room is now going to be our older child's room. Once we move him in there. Which is TBD. But the crib is set up in there so...progress! Maybe once our littler little decides to sleep somewhere besides on mom and dad. No joke. Blogging as we speak with a sleeping babe on my chest. Left wrist currently supporting the baby.

Anyway, I'm halfway done with the book, which I got on my Nook YESTERDAY. Impressive, really. I forget how handy my Nook is...just touch the screen to turn the page! Perfect for the endless bottles happening right now. The tidying up method sounds fantastic, if not daunting. You don't even get to think about organizing stuff until you get rid of things. It's been tough for me to not dump my whole closet out on the living room floor and jump in, but I'm trusting the method, finishing the book, and will then decide when a good time to start is. 

But...THIS 

THIS IS A GEM. I have such a hard time getting rid of stuff. I am one of the worst I know, especially when it comes to things I deem sentimental. Which is like everything. I think it's in my blood, because my grandma is worse than me and my dad was bad too. Not to blame them but...really. It's gotta be at least a little hereditary. I am so guilty of hanging on to things only for sentimental reasons. Enter...our (now) guest room that was littered with boxes that had been there since we bought our house and moved my stuff to Texas (literally it was 2014). Anyway, the purge while my parents were here was good but I know I have a ton more work to do. Will update once I finish the book and decide to take the plunge. I'm scared. I'm excited. I'm energized about it. 

A related note, there is this new app called "letgo" and it looks like this:

I've already posted a number of things on it (waaaaay easier than Craigslist to post). No bites yet. See something you want? My crap can be your crap! Just kidding...sort of. I recently was "selling" a juicer I had taking up space in my pantry but once I posted it on FB, my husband's coworker messaged me saying her daughter might be interested. It was awesome to just give that thing away. I know she'll use it! And if not...who cares! It's out of my house! What I'm trying to say is...if you see anything I posted on there and want it, let me know. I'll likely just give it to you. I'm not out to make money while I'm getting rid of my excess stuff...I really just want it gone but hate to be wasteful. I would much rather give stuff to people who think they will get use out of it than take huge boxes to Goodwill because I feel like Goodwill is basically the glorified version of throwing away stuff in a dumpster. Yes, I'm sure people have bought things I've "donated" to Goodwill over the years, but I think we (collectively speaking) treat Goodwill like a giant dumpster. Plus, they probably throw out a ton of stuff too, which I feel guilty about. Ah...Catholic guilt. I had it before I was ever Catholic (true story).

Happy New Year, everyone! 

Recipe 5 - Seedy Date Bars

A note on the below post...it's been in draft form for over 2 months so...I hit publish. Recipe was good and from Alton Brown's newest cookbook. And yes...I did in fact make something that was recipe 4, but I have no idea what it was now. Hence the title of this post. Enjoy my rambling of pre-baby #2's arrival!

In reading the first 2 ingredients of this recipe (dried pitted dates and dried apricots), I immediately thought "Ooh, this my shhh, this my shhh." And don't even pretend you don't know the song I'm referencing. It was at it's peak of popularity in fall 2005 when I was just beginning my senior in high school. That's right. Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" - that hit that made all girls feel gangster for singing it and also taught the world to spells bananas. I would be willing to bet you still have the tune in your head whenever you're writing/typing out bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Me too, friends. This hit was so big, we even had it on our senior girls tshirts (that were horrific hot pink and green) - they said "We ain't no hollaback girls" or something to that effect. It's in my closet somewhere....longing to be made into a tshirt quilt. Years from now, I'm sure our kids will have no idea what this reference is to, at which time I can play them the song that would be classified as an "oldie" by then.

Anyway, back to this recipe. I was super pumped to try it, minus the fact that it had some weird ingredients that I never, ever buy/use in recipes (flax seed?? chia seed????? crystallized ginger?). I imagined having to go to Trader Joes and buy giant bottles of these things that will just go bad since the recipe only calls for tiny amounts of them (but I definitely couldn't leave them out). Also, people actually eat chia seeds? The only thing I know about chia seeds is they are probably the same thing as "Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia." Meaning the iconic Christmas gift where you soak the seeds then spread them on some terra cotta character head and it sprouts like "hair." No, I've never had one, but I'm pretty sure that's how it works and I'm pretty sure the seeds are the same. What was I going to do with a whole jar of chia seeds? Then I remembered the aisle at H-E-B (our grocery chain down here for my Indiana friends) that I never, ever go in that has a billion bins and weird stuff in them that you buy by scooping out however much you need, weighing it, and printing the sticker. Surely they would have these flax seeds and chia right? Bingo! They even had crystallized ginger (which, I'll be honest with you, I wasn't sure WHERE I would possibly get my hands on the stuff). My poor child was with me on this fateful grocery trip and he got very impatient with how long it took me in this aisle looking up and down at the labels of all the bins and then trying to figure out how many ounces I was getting based on the scale in pounds. Yes, I asked if the scale could be turned to ounces. No, it couldn't. He was beside himself with boredom by the time I was done, but I managed to secure all the weird seeds/nuts I needed for this recipe! Nevermind that I totally spaced on even looking for unsweetened coconut flakes (so those I omitted instead of going back in the aisle to try and find them).

Recipe 3: Potato Soup

Recipe Number: 3
Cookbook: Dinnertime by Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman)
Cuisine: American
Category: Soup
Pros: Pretty simple to make, makes a large amount (enough to eat and enough to freeze), tasty comfort food
Cons: crappy Iphone photo, had to peel potatoes (which is like the number one reason I rarely cook with potatoes)

So I've been slacking on the blogging in the past week, but have still been meeting my goal of cooking 2 new recipes a week! I made this on Sunday the 16th so it totally counted for my second week of the challenge. 

I had been craving comfort food and soup all week long, and with a slight dip in temperatures in the evenings, this seemed like an easy match. I even got my sous chef to help me a little by using the "if you help me, you get to eat faster" motivation. My husband cooked and drained the chopped bacon for me while I finished chopping all the veggies and peeling/dicing the taters. Recipe calls for 6 pieces of bacon, which he was surprised to find didn't yield many bacon bits to top soup with. Agreed...bacon needs to be bigger/less pricey for the good stuff. 

This recipe is pretty simple overall, and didn't require hours of simmering like some soup recipes do. Don't be alarmed that it doesn't look very creamy at first. You basically saute the veggies and taters for a few minutes, add stock and boil it until the potatoes are done. Then you puree it (in my case, I blended it since I don't have one of those fancy immersion blenders). So, it didn't really resemble a cream of potato soup like what's in the picture until the end, but that's ok! I opted to blend the entire recipe of soup (instead of a few batches) because I like creamy potato soup without chunks of tater. The Pioneer Woman said you could do it either way - either blend half and leave chunks or blend the whole thing. 

This makes quite a bit of soup! The two containers pictured above are after my husband and I had dinner - and I think we each had 2 bowls apiece. I threw one in the freezer because to be honest eating soup for lunch and/or dinner is overrated after a day or two. You get sick of it and that's sad because food should be loved and appreciated!

Rating: will likely make again if the weather ever gets cold...and hey! I have some in the freezer to pull out for a quick dinner one night. 

On another note: some have suggested I post the recipes that I'm making on here, but I think there is likely a copyright legal something or other that would prevent me from doing so. Plus, what is the point of buying a cookbook if you can just find the same recipe online? I like supporting the chefs whose cookbooks I buy, and so besides the legal mumbo jumbo, I would like to protect their hard work. 

Recipe 2: Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies (gluten free)

Recipe Number: 2
Cookbook: Everyday Cook by Alton Brown
Cuisine: American??
Category: Dessert, Snack
Pros: Extremely simple, you probably have all the ingredients already in your kitchen (I did). Doesn't use chunky peanut butter or added chopped peanuts (which I don't care for in peanut butter cookies). Gluten free (I don't care about this at all, but I know many people do nowadays).
Cons: crappy iPhone photo, other than that it was perfection!

So, the reason I decided to make this recipe is because 1. I had all of the ingredients already and since it's Friday night and I have my PJ's on, I knew a trip to the store was out of the question and 2. I really love peanut butter cookies (and desserts without chocolate). Not that I have a problem with chocolate, because I don't. I just very rarely think to myself "Hmm, I could really go for some chocolate right now" be that candy, cookies, cake, hot cocoa, etc. What's hilarious is my twin brother DESPISES chocolate (I'm pretty sure there was a point he claimed he was allergic to it) and has since we were young. Now I can definitely identify as a non-chocoholic.

Anyway, this recipe was awesome too because there was barely any cleanup! You mix the ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon (which made me nervous because I'm so far along in my pregnancy that pretty much everything makes me winded) and then roll into balls and push out with fork tines. Everything was surprisingly easy to mix together (probably because there was no flour).

The batch only made 16 cookies total, but for me, that's a perfect amount. My husband has zero sweet tooth at all (I don't have much of one either, to be honest), but this will allow me to munch on a few and either donate the rest to the bake sale at church on Sunday or take them in to my coworkers on Monday. No, our 1 year old will not be having one.

They are gluten free since there is no flour in them, so I guess that might make them paleo friendly too?? I don't know. Alton Brown admits he didn't care at all that this recipe turned out to be gluten free, he just wanted to eat cookies. I'm the same way - I don't seek out gluten free options in anything, but if something happens to be gluten free then cool. I don't know what the difference between gluten free, paleo, flexitarian, or any of those other things are and I don't follow any of those restrictive eating plans. But, if you do need/want a great gluten free peanut butter cookie, this is it!

The cookies baked quickly and evenly and look really pretty, despite them looking not appetizing when I rolled them into balls. They are pretty soft, even after cooling completely, so you have to be careful when transferring to the cooling rack. That's just how I like my cookies - soft!! 

Recipe 1: Sesame Chicken Noodles

Recipe Number: 1

Cookbook: Cravings by Chrissy Teigen

Cuisine: Asian-ish

Pros: Super easy! Tasted delicious, and not too many ingredients I didn't already have.

Cons: My crappy Iphone picture, I mixed in the garnish, no vegetables

For those of you who know me, you know I am an absolute pasta freak. Like....would eat some form breakfast, lunch, and dinner for weeks (probably). This was a great dish to start with since it didn't use any of those Asian type noodles that need to be cooked differently than my beloved Barilla. I had most of the ingredients to make the sesame "dressing" as the author called it. I've been wanting to try other similar dishes, but have been hesitant since many call for peanut butter in the sauce and for some reason I have a brain block against that idea. I love PB but the thought of it in a savory dish kind of grosses me out. This recipe uses tahini, so that was great. I'll admit that instead of 8 oz of pasta, I made the whole box (16 oz), and held some of the noodles back. I also didn't use all of the sauce for the first batch of noodles for dinner because I despise having anything Asian that is swimming in sauce. Thankfully, the amount of chicken was perfect as were the green onions (that I mixed in instead of "garnishing" with because....I was feeding myself and my husband). I can't remember the last time I garnished anything....

Anyway, this recipe was super quick - all you had to do was cook the chicken and noodles and mix up the dressing. You rinse the noodles when they're done cooking to cool them down (a big no-no in my kitchen when I make Italian type dishes), but for this, it worked. Served it at slightly more than room temperature since the chicken was still warm as were the noodles). I liked it at that temp, but to be honest, I brought some leftovers for lunch and will be nuking them to see how it compares. 

Overall, a good dish to start with since it was super easy to make and didn't take much active cooking time on my part. My husband said the "noodles are too al dente" which is his general comment any time I make noodles because I use the time on the packaging instead of boiling the heck out of them til they're mushy. Personal preference. Other than that, he liked it. Dressing was a little bit spicy but not overwhelming, just an enjoyable hint of heat. 

Rating: Probably will make it into my general rotation of meals since it's easy. Needs to be served with a salad or side dish with vegetables because it doesn't have any...and every meal needs vegetables! 

New Goal and a little background

Hello interwebs! I figured I'd start a blog because I don't have enough going on in my life and needed to add something in (sarcasm...). But really, I just need a way to keep myself accountable on this new goal I have. My husband said to me the other day "You know, you have a lot of cookbooks, but how many of the recipes have you actually made from them?" This got me thinking that 1. He was right (as usual) and 2. I should really start trying out all of these recipes I have at my fingertips to find things I can add to my repertoire/feed my growing family well/relieve some stress since cooking is fun for me. So here we are! 

The goal: make 2 new recipes a week. That's it. Nothing fancy...doesn't have to be 1 side dish and 1 main course. Can be 2 desserts a week if I feel like it. Just get to cooking new recipes from the cookbooks I already have. 

For full disclosure to my (currently nonexistent) readers, I am due with our second baby in less than 5 weeks, so it's likely there will be some time coming up where I'll be missing out, but I'll be back once things settle down again. I didn't do much cooking (in fact, hardly any) after our first baby came and I think it would have helped me tremendously once all our freezer casseroles and things were finished.  

So without further ado....