and they lived happily ever after

Happy Turkey Day all! So technically I'm writing this on Tuesday (the 24th), but since I always update on Fridays I didn't want to throw anyone off. So this will post itself on Friday (which is obviously how you're seeing it now). So I really can't tell you how our Thanksgiving was since we haven't had it yet, but the plan is that we leave bright and early Wednesday morning to head up to Illinois to spend the rest of the week with Christopher's mom's family! It's been a year since we were last in Illinois and we were only there briefly for a wedding so this will be great!

Monday night this week we had a Thanksgiving celebration with my family and since we're all going to be eating traditional Thanksgiving food later this week we decided to just have appetizers and desserts! It was such fun. I made two new recipes and they both turned out well! Hooray for yummy baked goodies!

Mini Raspberry Cobblers or Individual Raspberry Cobblers were the first thing I made. Simple ingredient list and apparently very tasty (though, of course, due to the sugar content I couldn't find out for myself). The original recipe had them as the individual ones that were regular-muffin sized, but the far more popular ones were the mini ones that I made to go along with the big ones. And as a side note, if you decide to make the bigger ones - you might want to serve them upside down since the bottoms will be open and gooey (see picture).

So I keep seeing this stuff called Monkey Bread that looks so gooey and delicious and lovely, but it's obviously full of sugar and calories and death so I've had to avoid it. However! I now have a similar version of Monkey Bread that's sugar free! Oh delicious yumminess! Now, these were less popular than the raspberry cobblers last night, but it's difficult to compete with that amount of butter and sugar. ;) However, I loved them and Christopher really likes them too (especially once I told him how much butter and sugar were in the cobblers).  

Aaaalrighty, well I'm off to go pack for this weekend (which by the time you read this will be almost over, but that's beside the point). Happy Thanksgiving! Cheers!

Okay, so true to our word - we've been eating lots and lots of Mexican food lately! We have another full week of Mexican meals coming after this, but I can't promise to post next week since I'm not sure if I'll have internet access. So, in advance... Happy Turkey Day! Now, down to business...

I've been meaning to make this Black Beans and Rice recipe for forever (like before I even started this blog) and I just haven't. Mostly because there's no meat in it and Christopher is a meat-aholic (you only think I'm kidding). Anyway, it was EXCELLENT! Very filling and tasty! Of course, Christopher's one suggestion, "Maybe next time we can put some ground meat in it..." :P

One of the healthier things we made (okay, so this is Mexican food so it's not exactly going to be "healthy" per-se, but this one is better than some of the others, lol) was the Quesadilla Casserole Bake. A GREAT way to sneak spinach into a tasty Mexican dish! Scrumptious!

The Oven Baked Burritos that we made were really pretty good, but not as incredible as some of the others. A good way to get veggies, for sure, though! We've decided that in general, if we're going to bake burritos in the oven that we prefer a sauce on top.

Since we were having Mexican food all week I decided to make a dip that in theory should've lasted all week, but really only made it to the 3rd meal. ;) This Black Bean Dip is YUMMY and highly addicting! It can be eaten hot or cold - either way it's delicious!

Yesterday I made cookies for the guys at the Community Life Center where Christopher and I volunteer on Mondays and Thursdays (credit for the idea goes to Christopher, though - he just couldn't be home to make them). I've never seen so many grateful guys in my life. Apparently, the way to a guys' heart really is through his stomach... or at least these guys. ;) This coming Monday we have Turkey Day celebrations with  my family and then Wednesday morning bright and early we're headed up to Illinois for the rest of the week! Hooray for family!  

Today I have love written on my arm. For details on why I do, check out: http://www.twloha.com/

This morning I finished the last muffin (of 12) that I made on Monday afternoon. I'm not going to lie... I ate three that first day. Yes, they are THAT good. Want the recipe? I knew you would... so *drumroll* Meet Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Muffins! They are SO easy and SOOOOO delicious! And can be made very inexpensively if you choose to make them with the sugar-full ingredients. But if you make the reduced sugar version I have on here, you won't miss the sugar, trust me!

I got to see my sisters this past week... all of them at once! It was great!

Oh, oh! And the last time we made sushi... we decided to get the camera out and have a little fun. Enjoy:

Ever have that gut feeling that you just completely ignored God’s leading? I just got home from the gym and I very much have that feeling right now. Tonight, I went to the CLC (our Church’s “Community Life Center” where Christopher and I volunteer twice a week) by myself because Christopher has class tonight from 6-10 for his CPA stuff. With Christopher in classes he’s missed a couple of nights volunteering at the gym and this wasn’t my first time to go alone. But it was the first time I felt like I passed up an amazing opportunity. For those who don't know – on Mondays and Thursdays the CLC’s basketball court is full of guys from the community (none members of our church) eager to play. So while Christopher plays basketball with the guys, some of us girls walk around the track that is built just above the court overlooking them. It is such a blessing and I love this time! I get to work-out while talking to my girlfriends!
 

Anyway, tonight, it was just Megan and I and at 8:30 she had to leave early (usually we walk from 7-9) to get some things done. Since I would be walking alone, I decided to go ahead and leave with her.  As we walked downstairs, I saw a girl named Bethany, who I had started to build a relationship with several weeks ago (that’s a whole other story – it took 3 months to slowly build her trust to get her to even talk to me, lol) with her 2-year-old daughter. Her whole face lit up when she saw me and she immediately let me know how happy she was to see me. She talked about how work had been keeping her so busy that she hadn’t been able to come to the CLC and how she was going to try to be there more often. Equally excited to see her there since she had been gone so long I chit-chatted with her for a few minutes.

And then, when Megan began to politely excuse herself from the conversation to leave, I said, “well, I guess I’ll head home too…” I wish I could have paused time and really taken in Bethany’s face at the time. She looked suddenly sad and almost abandoned, but it didn’t really register with me until after I had walked out of the gym. And all the way to the car I thought to myself, “should I have stayed? Did she need someone to talk to?” but I just thought “well, it’d be weird to go back now, so whatever.” Ugh, I wish I had swallowed my pride and gone back. The further away I got from the CLC the more I knew God had been quietly urging me to stay and sit with her. It’s not that I don’t like her because I really do – it’s just that talking with her takes a lot of careful efforton my part and I guess I was just tired tonight. Regardless, of my excuses, my stomach was tied in knots all the way home.

Now here I sit on my couch and I wonder to myself why it was I needed to stay. Did she just need a friend to sit with? Did she have something she needed to hash out? And please God, don’t let it be that she actually came to the CLC tonight specifically to see me because she needed to talk to me.

This isn’t the first time I’ve missed an opportunity that God presented me with, but it’s not a common theme for me. I hate how I feel when I ignore God’s leading so I try to avoid this as much as possible. I know God will continue to present me with new opportunities and lead me in different areas, but it doesn’t change the regret I feel tonight.

So I’ve decided to post this tonight instead of a recipe tomorrow morning like normal. For one thing, there's a good chance I'll be watching Julia tomorrow (her aunt just went into labor and the family is going to be with her) so I won’t have my Friday morning free like I normally do to write my blog post and for another – well, I just feel like sharing this. So moral of this story - listen to God's leading.

Blessings,

Rach  

Happy Halloween (tomorrow), everyone!! Christopher and I carved pumpkins with some of our friends last weekend and had a great time doing it! Want to see?? I knew you would! Here are our little pumpkins! Christopher's is Darth Vader and mine is Cinderella!

Right, so where there is a pumpkin... there are pumpkin seeds! This year I didn't attempt to save the rest of the inner mush for pumpkin soup like my disaster last year, but we did make some pretty swell pumpkin seeds!

And if it's cold Fall weather, you just have to have apple cider! This was our first attempt at making it sugar free, but it turned out pretty well (especially if you serve it hot)! I think making it with regular sugar would probably taste better, but for those of us who can't have the sugar - this sugar free version of apple cider is pretty tasty!

And finally, this recipe is actually one I made for Canadian Thanksgiving, but I forgot to post it so here it is now! Baked corn casserole! We attempted to make this slightly healthier by using low-sodium cans of corn, skim milk and fat-free sour cream and it still turned out really well! But there's only so much you can do to a recipe like this to make it more health-friendly. ;)

Tonight we head to our alma mater for Homecoming! We're looking forward to seeing friends and family! And of course we're looking forward to celebrating Halloween - what will we dress as? Well, you'll just have to wait until we put up pictures... (okay, okay, I know I'm easy to guess, but you won't guess what Christopher will go as!).

Okay so I think most everyone knows that I have a heart condition that means I have to limit my sugar, caffeine and MSG intake. Either that or you probably think I have diabetes considering the number of sugar free recipes on this website, haha. Anyway, for the most part I don't really miss much since it's been so many years. However, cinnamon rolls have been one thing I have REALLY missed. I made a sugar free version from scratch a couple of years ago, but it really wasn't all that stellar. However, thanks to Hungry Girl I can now have cinnamon rolls again!! This recipe is simple, straight forward and DELICIOUS!

I also added a couple of lunch-type recipes to the appetizer file. These include: Grilled Cheese, Bean Quesadillas, and Honey Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich. Quick little dishes that really curb the appetite.

Right so this weekend is pumpkin carving, apple cider making, and pumpkin seed eating! Have a happy Friday! 

Week two of pizza week was just as good as week one! Unfortunately we were only able to squeeze in two more pizza recipes because we had so many pizza leftovers from the first week! But they were still pretty excellent!

Chicken Gourmet Pizza was first. This was a recipe I found a long time ago and had decided that I wanted to try, but we’re just so attached to our own pizza recipe that I never had. I’m glad we did! It was pretty great! We made several changes to this recipe (our changes are the ones that show up on our recipes – if you ever want an original recipe feel free to ask). Normally we substitute healithier versions of things (like turkey pepperoni for pepperoni or skim milk for heavy cream) to cut down on the calorie count, but for us it just wasn’t worth it to use a lite or fat-free ranch dressing. If any of you try it, please let me know! I’d be interested to hear how it cooks and tastes.

I had some trouble making the Easy Biscuit Pizzas… simply because they were so easy. I kept wanting to add things or change something, but Christopher was like, “Sweets, if you keep adding things to this recipe then you’re taking a quick and easy recipe and turning it into a gourmet dinner!” He was right of course. So my honest opinion on this recipe as it is: it’s okay. Not bad at all. But also not fantastic. However, this recipe gets MAJOR kudo points onbeing SO EASY and so quick! So for those of you who lead crazy busy lives and have kiddos to feed – this will be a pleaser!

Okay, our opinion on ready-made sauces. Normally we’re big buy-cheap people and are all about great value brand, but it’s not worth it this time. The Great Value pizza sauce was pretty awful. A better (but not great) choice would be the Ragu pizza sauce. If you’re not in a hurry, I highly recommend adding AT LEAST Italian seasoning to both these sauces. If you have even a little bit more time then add some marjoram and rosemary as well. And if you have any more time than that then what are you doing using a pizza sauce from the jar??? You should be using our amazing pizza sauce recipe!! ;)

Opinion on crust mixes – We tried the Martha White Crust and Great Value Crust on the same night to give them a fair chance against each other. Martha White's didn’t rise properly and was just a bit too floury. It possibly needs just a tad more water than called for. The Great Value Crust was the opposite – just a bit too sticky. Needs a little less water than called for or an extra tbsp of flour. However, this one rose great! Both crusts tasted okay at the end of the night, though. Since the Great Value one is cheaper, we would recommend it over the Martha White since the taste difference wasn’t much. Jiffy was the last pizza crust mix we tried and oh-my-goodness, it smelled like we were making homemade bread. Our entire home filled with the incredible scent of yeast and flour. The Jiffy crust was our favorite of the crust mixes.

We also tried the refrigerated pizza rolls. This is kind of a tough one. The Pillsbury ones (both the thick crust and thin crust) were far superior to theGreat Value brand. They taste better, cook better, look better, are easier towork with, etc. However, they also cost $1 more. Honestly, if you are trying to save money on this route and have just a little bit more time in the kitchen –I would recommend the Jiffy Crust because it’s still easy, but tastes just as good as this Phillsbury refrigerated crust and it costs $0.50 less.

At the end of two weeks, however, we have arrived at the conclusion that other pizzas may have their high points, but overall – no pizza beats our recipe.Granted, we’re biased, but we’re also the ones who get to edit this site sowhat we say goes.

So we decided to find our inner-college-student (which wasn’t difficult, haha) and have what Christopher calls a “2 Week Pizza Fest.” You know how we just did the whole 2 weeks of white wine meals? Right, well, we decided to be a bit less sophisticated this time. We’re trying all different types of pizzas and pizza inspired dishes – it’s been a great first week. We’re both really looking forward to this coming week as well. Apparently our inner-college-kids aren’t far enough behind us yet. We still LOVE pizza! In fact this morning Christopher and I were chatting about dinner tonight (we’re sticking with our pizza recipe for our official “pizza and a movie night” tonight) and he said: “This pizza fest was a great idea! We are so college kids still… or college has changed us forever. Either way, pizza rocks!” I know, I know, you guys are having a hard time imagining eating pizza every day for two weeks – well rest assured, we do have one day off from our pizza extravaganza. Tomorrow we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving which means Turkey and all the traditional sides! It’s going to be great! Anyway, enough preliminary chitchat – down to business!

The first we made was the Chicken Finger French Bread Pizza. This is a Paula Deen recipe that I got from my sister, Holly. It was also pretty great. Super quick, super easy and not too expensive. Easily a kid pleaser with the chicken nuggets.

The next we made was the Buffalo Chicken Pizza. Now, Christopher and I usually aren’t too brand loyal, but when it comes to hot sauce and ranch – we are. We highly recommend Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and Hidden Valley Ranch. No, neither of these are even remotely good for you, but for us – it’s worth the splurge. This pizza… really good. Granted, we love hot wings so this was really like hot wing pizza. Christopher is already making plans to incorporate this into the next SuperBowl party. Also, a note on this recipe – I left the original measurements for butter and hot sauce on here, but for us – it wasn’t enough. We more than doubled it when we made it and I think we will probably triple it next time.

The final new pizza recipe we made this week was more of a pizza casserole called Upside Down Pizza. I thought it was okay (definitely not bad, just not amazing), but Christopher really liked it. In truth, though, I think he just loved the ridiculous amount of meat and cheese in this dish. I almost had a heart attack just pouring SIXTEEN OUNCES of cheese into one casserole dish… O_O

Next week we will return with a couple new pizza recipes and our opinion on the best pizza sauce in a jar and pizza crust from a mix! See you then.

So I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to hear about the second part of our white wine meals - well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that one of our dishes turned out super fantastic and is a definite make-again recipe. The bad news is that the other one was semi-mediocre when we first tried it, but now we have half a casserole in our fridge going to waste because we just can't bring ourselves to eat it. So... let's talk about the good news first!

Chicken Scampi is a favorite dish of mine from Olive Garden (or really any Italian place) so we decided to create our own version of it! It was fabulous! We found a base recipe from AllRecipes.com (which by the way, I LOVE that website!) and just kind of went wild making it our own!

The bad news... Cajun Shrimp Casserole. Honestly, if we were just going on my opinion - this would be a failed recipe and I wouldn't put it in our recipe collection at all. But Christopher liked it okay and he thinks other people might appreciate the semi-bland taste of it. If you do make this, add some cajun seasoning or something to give it some bite. Christopher has been slowly trying to work his way through the leftovers (I just can't bring myself to eat anymore of it) by putting Franks Red Hot sauce on it so that's another option.

Sorry we only have two recipes to finish out this segment - I made most of them the first week. We tend to make a meal go twice as far by making enough for two dinners (which most of these recipes already do since they're usually made for a family of 4-6). That means that we only cook 1/2 the week and the rest of the time it's leftover days.

So, coming up for the next two weeks... pizza! Christopher and I are convinced that we already have the best pizza recipe out there, but we decided to give some others a chance. We'll see what happens!