Fondue Night

Jason and I had a date night in, on January 12. 

I used this chocolate fondue recipe except that I used a small bottle of irish cream instead of orange liqueur. 

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,171,144187-227196,00.html

Preschool Snack

This is what Bella and I made for her 1/2 Birthday snack at preschool, on February 2nd. 

Lunch!

Most days, I give my girls a few options for lunch and its like pulling teeth to get them to make a decision.  Then they hear what the other one picks and they change their mind. 

This is what I did on Febuary 3rd.  Bella's response was "you're cool mom!"

Homemade Pop Tarts

My girls love pop tarts.  All that high fructose corn syrup and 16 g of sugar!  How can we not love them? 

After threatening to never make them again.  I decided to make my own.  I used a recipe from smitten kitchen. 

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/04/homemade-pop-tarts/

I made a few different sizes.  The girls seems to enjoy the smaller ones. 

I used the cinnamon filling and it got nice and gooey just like real poptarts. 

I have two tips for this.  #1-Assemble the poptarts on the pan that you plan to bake them on.  There were quite a few that I assembled and then the filling spilled out when I was moving it. 
Because of that, I learned by accident....
#2-Put some of the filling on the table, with the flour that you're rolling the dough in.  It gives the dough a little extra flavor. 

Here they are right before they went into the oven:

2/24/12

The Beginning...

I've been resisting blogging for a long time. Mostly because I didn't think it would be something that I'd stick to. I've given in because I'm sick of having to search my favorites, emails, hard drive, etc, every time I want to find one of my favorite recipes. This will be a place for me to save things for myself, and easily share it with my friends. When I'm looking for recipes, I'm usually looking for something healthy, and cheap. I enjoy re-making unhealthy and processed foods, into a healthier version that I can make myself. Most of the recipes aren't my own creation but I usually make some changes.
Anyway, I'll start with today.

This is what the girls had for lunch. Looks like cheesy bread. Its really sandwich thins, smeared with carrot and sweet potato puree and hidden with shredded cheese.















While the girls ate that. I made terriyaki sauce. I needed some for a recipe and I didn't have any. I also thought that making it myself, might be lower in sodium.

I used this recipe:
http://www.food.com/recipe/restaurant-teriyaki-sauce-133751

I thickened it the way my mama taught me to thicken sauces.
I put the water and cornstarch in this container and shake it. When the sauce started to boil, I poured the starchy liquid in very slowly, and stirred continuously.

Here it is. It's all ready for the Rainforest Cafe Blue Mountain Grilled Chicken Sandwiches that I'll be making for dinner.