Smoothie

It has been pretty muggy and humid here in Rockford, IL. Perfect weather for smoothies! I made one yesterday for a snack for the girls. It turned out great and Jacob even said it reminded him of Jamba Juice (which we don't have here in Rockford). This smoothie is great for me because there are no dairy products used! And this is a great way for the kids to get their serving of fruit. Here is what I put in our smoothie:

We have a magic bullet so we just put it straight into the cup we drink out of... so I don't really have any real measurements.

2-3 big frozen strawberries
1/2 frozen banana
a handful of frozen grapes (I used both red and green grapes)

Put into blender and fill it half way with water and then pour in juice until the fruit is all covered. I used Welch's 100% white grape pomegranate juice. The girls and Jacob totally downed the whole smoothie... at least I was able to get a couple of sips in between their sips. =)

Pineapple Fried Rice

Slow Cooker Lentil Soup

We have a lot of lentil, split peas, and dried beans from WIC so I try to come up with different ways to use them. Here is a slow cooker recipe for lentils. Great with corn bread on the side.

Ingredients:

2 c. dried lentils
1 c. water
5 c. chicken broth
1 1/2 c. diced cooked ham
4 roma tomatoes chopped
1 medium onion chopped
1 c. chopped celery
1 c. chopped carrots
1/2 t. dried basil
1/2 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. dried thyme
1/4 t. black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 T chili powder (optional)

Put everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. The chili powder gives it a nice kick, but if you have kids that can't tolerate any spice, better to leave it out (or use less).

Taco Pasta

So I got the taco pasta idea from Rachael Ray. I love how you don't have to have taco shells and eating it with pasta makes it less messy for the kids.

This is Rachael's recipe:
http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/taco-pasta-toss/

Here is my version of her recipe (sorry, forgot to take a picture):

Ingredients:

1 lb. medium shell pasta (I would have used whole wheat if I had it on hand)
1 lb. ground beef
1/4 c. taco seasoning or 1 packet of taco seasoning
1 medium onion chopped
2 tomatoes (or you can use 14 oz canned tomato, drained)
1 bell pepper (I used half green and half yellow), chopped (my kids don't like bell peppers so I put it in the blender with the chicken stock and puree it... and then the kids will never know! =))
1 1/2 c. chicken stock
1 c. frozen corn
salt
2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Toppings:
(you can use anything that you would put on a normal taco, but here is what we had...)

Lettuce, chopped
Tomatoes, diced
Onions, chopped
Green onions, chopped

Directions:

- Cook pasta as directed on box. Drain and set aside.
- While pasta is cooking, brown the meat.
- Then add the onions, tomatoes, and taco seasoning. Cook until the onions are tender.
- Preheat broiler.
- Puree bell pepper with chicken stock (if your family is okay with bell peppers, then just toss it in). Then add to the meat.
- Add the corn.
- Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Then add the pasta and stir to combine.
- Taste the pasta. Season with salt if needed. (I had to add some salt to mine.)
- Transfer pasta into an oven safe pan and sprinkle on the cheese.
- Put under the broiler until the cheese is melted (it took me about 4 minutes in my oven)
- Serve and top with desired toppings!

The kiddos loved it. Even though they didn't want any toppings, I knew that they were still getting some veggies from the pasta! I think our Natalie ate more than Jocelyn when we had this last night!

This heats up really well too!

YUMM!!!

Jacob and I wanted some soft pretzels like the ones in the mall... and those are too expensive so we decided to make some at home! It tasted like the ones at Auntie Anns =)

Here is a picture of my Thai Basil Chicken I made last night. It was so delicious!

Chinese New Years

These are homemade potstickers. I made the pork and vegetable filling and Jacob helped me wrap all 200 or so potstickers!

These are sesame bread with green onions. Jocelyn helped me roll these out and put on the green onions and salt. We ate these with the X.O. sauce. YUM! The kids loved it too... even with the green onions.

This is the X.O. Sauce that we ate with the bread and the potstickers. This is a must have sauce... too bad my tummy can't handle anything spicy anymore. =(

Strawberry boba drink! This was my recipe that my dad used for his Chinese restaurant. The kids loved this too... so do the adults =)

I also made some red bean dessert.

This is us on Chinese New Years! Thanks Jacob for taking these pictures!

I'm So Lucky!

This was my Valentine's gift from Jacob! He made the pancakes and I plated it =). My favorite way to eat pancakes... with lots of berries! These pancakes are from Alton Brown. They are so easy to make and you make your own dry mix and just store it in a container... so it makes it fast and easy in the mornings when you want pancakes. I am so lucky to have a husband that cooks for me too.

Valentine's Day CAKE!

Jocelyn helped me make this delicious red velvet cake with cream cheese filling. I got this recipe off of foodnetwork from Paula Deen. YUM!

Yummy cake and cupcakes I made!

Chocolate Cake and white cake cupcakes.... I won a dessert contest at church and received a golden pineapple!

Tomatoes

These are the tomatoes from our plants out on our patio! YUM! Jocelyn helped us pick the tomatoes today and when she tried to pull off the big tomato, it rolled off of the patio onto the grass below. Jacob ran downstairs and rescued our tomato. It turned out that our tomato survived the fall.... haha =)

Natalie's Baby Blessing in Arizona

These are the men who were invited to participate in the baby blessing. (Jacob, Grandpa Steve, Bishop Larsen, and Uncle Tom).
I got to make a baby blessing dress for Natalie. I semi-finished the dress the night before we flew out to California. I finished everything except for the buttons. Grandma was nice enough to help me finish sewing the buttons on the dress on the day of the baby blessing. Thanks Mom!


It was nice to be able to bless Natalie in Arizona with our family there. We blessed her at Grandma's and Grandpa's house on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. The spirit was so strong in the home when we bless Natalie and I am so happy that we waited to bless her there.

This was the yummy chocolate cake that I made for the baby blessing and we also had a pecan pie and a strawberry cream pie that were in the fridge.

This was the beautiful table scape that Grandma Mary did for the baby blessing.

Mama's Vietnamese Beef Stew

This is a picture of the beef stew I made for the first time. My mom usually made this for us on Sundays. I thought I would give it a try and make it with the help of Jacob. I was scared to make this for Jacob because he was use to the good stuff that my mom makes. Luckily it turned out great and it brought back good memories of being with my family. We will definitely make this again! YUM! (and a special thank you to my sister-in-law, Lauren, for being the brave one and making this dish first and typing up exactly everything she did)