With cheeeeese!

Remember my tortilla post? The one where I made a giant chip in the microwave? Well I added cheese to it today...

I shredded some Colby Jack cheese before tossing it in the microwave. Same time of 90 seconds. It came out good, but I wouldn't say that it's necessary. It tastes good with it, but it tastes good without it, too. So I'll do it sometimes, but won't go totally out of my way for it. The nice part though is it cooks on and is hard on the tortilla, not melty and messy. I would say that means it's good on the go... But this snack really isn't. It's so crumbly! But at least the cheese won't get on your hands, as the tortilla crumbles down your shirt ;)

Worth Our Weight

If you watch Food Network, you know who Guy Fieri is. And if you're from Sonoma County, you know who he is. Because he's local. He owns 2 fabulous restaurants (Johnny Garlic's and Tex Wasabi's). Well recently my mom and I were watching Guy Fieri on TV, and he mentioned a place called W.O.W. - Worth Our Weight. We learned that WOW is a culinary apprentice program and that they apprentice people ages 16-24 who have faced major challenges in their lives. The cooks, wait staff, etc are all apprentices and you pay what you think the meal was worth (no tips). They were located in Santa Rosa - one city away - so we decided to hit them up for brunch the next day.

We saw the huevos rancheros featured on the show, and Guy raved about them, so my mom and I both ordered that. It was delicious! Very flavorful. Very authentic tasting. I finished my entire plate. Seriously. The tortillas underneath were so fresh, the pork so flavorful, and the salsa mixture had just the right ratio of tomatoes and herbs.

What did we think the meal was worth? We paid $35 for 2 plates of huevos rancheros and 1 chocolate filled croissant (to take to my grandma). And we will most definitely be back to try other things!

This is what they brought when we sat down - various little bits of yumminess and some preserves. This was after everything (4 different items) were half eaten by either my mom or myself (we split them).

My plate all mixed up and already munched on - because I love to mix things.

My mom's plate - untouched.

Some rockin' pasta

I made a pretty delicious pasta tonight. Granted the sauce was jarred, but still. It was pretty friggin awesome. My brother even had 4 or 5 helpings!

I browned a pound of mild Italian sausage while boiling water for the penne pasta. While the pasta cooked, I continued browning the sausage, added some chopped red bell pepper and diced tomatoes. I also sprinkled on some dried parsley and onion powder. Once the pasta was done cooking, drained, and rinsed, I added the meat mixture and the sauce (Classico brand sun-dried tomato Alfredo) to it and then cooked it together with some more diced tomatoes for a few minutes. While that was cooking together a bit more I sauteed some baby bella mushrooms. I'm the only one in this house that likes mushrooms (and well, I love them) so I did it separate and just added them to my own.

The pasta turned out to be quite good. My brother loved it, my dad (who doesn't like bell peppers) liked it - and he added Parmesan cheese to his, and so did my daughter (she had seconds). I'm looking forward to the leftovers!

Fun twist on a staple item

My brother taught me this, and I love it. It's a fun way to eat a tortilla - essentially turning it into a big ol' chip! My 4 year old thinks it's pretty neat :)

Just take a medium tortilla and pop it in the microwave for a minute and a half - that's it! It comes out crunchy and full of air. It has the consistency of a really thin chip, and tastes just as good but with less salt. I'm going to try to sprinkle some cheese on it before doing it next time, and see how it comes out.

With normal flour tortillas

And with 100% whole wheat tortillas

I like both the whole wheat and flour, but as you can see, the whole wheat has less sodium and carbs while only 1 extra gram of fat, but with also extra protein. The whole wheat is of course the better choice.

Valentines

This isn't something I cooked... But lollipops are food... LOL

I just wanted to share the valentines that my daughter and I made this year. We made 80 of them to give out to her friends and classmates. I got the templates here, and bought some colored card stock at Office Depot. So we printed the flowers on a mix of the red and the pink paper, and the leaves on the green of course. Cut them out (took HOURS and left my hand cramped, and thumb tingly/numb), and then poked holes in the flowers. I tried to use a hole punch, but my punch doesn't go deep enough to fit the flower so I had to use scissors to do it. Then first we used tape to put the leaves on, though they didn't stay very well, so we went back and used glue after that.

Everyone loved these, including my daughter and I. Totally thankful to Skip to my Lou for such a fab idea. 

Sunday breakfast

Today we had a good ol' fashioned Sunday breakfast. Scrambled eggs (Barn Star cage free - not that the non-cage environments are good, because they usually are horrible), ham steak (Farmer John), bacon (Farmer John), and hashbrown patties (Harvest Day). Mmm.

Unfortunately for him, the only thing my brother could eat is the hashbrowns. He won't eat pork or eggs. 

2 servings per can?!

If you've ever looked at the nutrition label on a can of soup, you know that each can is two servings. Granted some cans are larger than others, but really? You're supposed to get two servings out of one can? One can fits in one bowl so to me, that means it should be one serving. But say you need to split a can of soup with someone (because you both want that LAST bowl of minestrone) else, and you know half that can will just not fill you up, then what? Add rice! You'll get a full bowl of food and you'll stretch that soup. You can even make it stretch with yourself - have half the can for lunch and the other half for dinner, or for lunch the next day.

I made some rice in the rice cooker, and put normal size scoops in my bowl. I used a white rice, but obviously you can use brown if you want to be healthier.

Then just tossed on half the can of my "traditional split pea soup" from Progresso

Mixed it together and voila - a full bowl of food for lunch, using only half the can of soup

This is also good for the budget conscious. Between the price of a big bag of rice, and half a can of soup you're talking as little as $0.75 for the meal, up to maybe $1.50 max.