zach n kali

I have been having so much fun cooking this week!  Since removing the staples last week, I have been reminded that we eat not only for fuel, but for enjoyment, for memories, and for new experiences.  This isn't a new idea for me, but I seem to have forgotten that these things are not just for entertaining or for large gatherings of families and friends.  I had to dial myself way back when planning Matt's 3rd birthday party - we were having hot dogs and nachos (movie theater food) and I was ready to throw out brats, ciabatta rolls, and carne asada when Zach gently reminded me that we were planning a party for a three year old.  I love food!  I plan any get-together around the food.  But why should weekly dinners get any less respect?  I want my kids to grow up around the dinner table.  I want them to try new foods, to not even look at a "children's menu", and to be excited to come together as a family at night.  Tacos, spaghetti, and turkey bu...

I am in a horrible dinner rut. When I plan our weekly dinners on Sundays, all my creativity seems to leave my body.  It doesn't matter that I have a shelf full of cookbooks, that I am addicted to Pinterest, or that I watch several different Food Network shows.  All I can think of are turkey burgers, spaghetti, tacos, stir fry, pancakes.  Almost every single week.   Even Peyton is eating more interestingly than the rest of us are with her crazy combinations of zucchini and bananas!  I think it's to the point where my family might mutiny. So I'm issuing myself a challenge: for the next month, no staples.  No spaghetti with marinara.  No burgers.  No pizza with chicken sausage, bell peppers, and onions.  I love to cook, but I'm bored with my cooking.  Here's how it will work:  each Sunday I will pull 6 recipes out of my recipe box, which is full of recipes I've clipped from places like Everyday Food, Penzey's Spices, and my mom's own...

The cupboards are looking pretty empty!  But with the addition of bell peppers, heavy cream, and zucchini, we were able to pull together some tasty meals last week.  Using peanut butter and peanuts pulled out of some trail mix (in my opinion, there are always too many peanuts in relation to everything else) we enjoyed chicken satay with peanut sauce.  The next night we had coconut flour pancakes, using peanut oil for the canola, and homemade vanilla-rum syrup.  I made brown-rice pasta with vodka cream sauce, thanks to the canned tomatoes and garlic in my pantry, and on Thursday I used our plain yogurt with spices to marinate chicken skewers that we ate with con tortillas.  On Friday we adventured out to Dang Crabs! for some good ol' cajun food.  What I love about Groupon is that they often encourage you to try things that you normally never would. For me, this was a crab boil.  Thankfully the owner of the restaurant came over and gave us an awesome tut...

Things are getting a bit more interesting.  Today it was rainy and cold - a rarity here in southern California, so I decided to make soup for dinner.  I forget that leftovers are not a common occurrence in a house with growing boys, so I had to revamp my dinner plan.  Raiding the fridge and cupboards I found just what I needed.  That's right, dinner tonight was made out of chicken broth, an onion, dried thyme, mozzarella cheese, and a tortilla.  I call it "Pretend French Onion Soup".  Thank goodness for a Crock-Pot.  Since I don't eat beef and I can't eat french bread, tonight provided the perfect opportunity to try out a classic.  I used chicken broth instead of beef stock and baked a tortilla brushed with olive oil until it was nice and crispy.  I can't tell you what real French Onion Soup tastes like, but this seemed like a decent imitation.  For tomorrow I have some tomatillos that are begging to be made into salsa ver...

Last night I didn't really feel like cooking dinner.  But since I'm always in the mood to bake, I decided we would have strawberry bread (I didn't have any over-ripe bananas on hand) and I would cook up some bacon that my brother had left in our freezer for my boys.  I'm thankful for a husband who doesn't always expect a meat-and-potatoes dinner and for a steady supply of spaghetti-os for my little one. But tonight I need to cook.  Last week I finally hit my limit for eating oatmeal in the morning, and I asked Zach to pick up a box of Chex cereal for me.  He came home with three, telling me that it would be much more interesting to mix and match them instead of being stuck with straight rice or corn Chex.  And then for fun he added a box of honey corn Chex.  That one I polished off quickly, but I am now stuck with two family size boxes of Chex.  Thankfully I have a recipe for a rice and chicken tetrizini that calls for rice-cereal crumbs on top! ...

And so it begins.  Last week's meals were all planned out and shopped for.  Now is where it gets interesting.  Dinner tonight was grilled chicken sausage (leftover from pizza) with potato salad.  I love potato salad because I always seem to have potatoes and I can usually find substitutes for any of the required ingredients.  My no-fail Bobby Flay recipe calls for white wine vinegar and jalapenos, but I used red wine vinegar and red bell peppers.  I have also used pickle relish and celery in the past.  My main problem was that I didn't have any mayonnaise, but I wasn't going to break my challenge and go out and buy something I would never use.  So I decided to make my own!  Eggs, olive oil, canola oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt, pepper, voila!  I have kept my word and dinner was a success.  The rest of the week may be interesting, but thankfully there are plenty of eggs in the fridge for my other no-fail option: the omele...

As I mentioned yesterday, we are moving soon. With this I have given myself a challenge: to use up all or at least most of the edible items in the house. Why am I doing this? Mainly because I hate packing, and well, I have been watching too much Chopped lately. But here is the goal: over the next three weeks to only shop for perishables such as milk and fruits and vegetables and to clean out my cupboards. This began last night with using a bag of quinoa that has been sitting in the back of my cupboard since I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. It has never looked nor sounded appetizing, but tonight it made a lovely base for my chicken cacciatore. Will I buy it again? Probably not. But now I don't have to pack it and allow it to take up space in my new cupboard for the next four to six years. Tonight we will be having quessadillas using the leftover meat from Monday's fajitas and the 100 pack of corn tortillas that you are forced to buy. I will use my blog to keep m...

I love feeding people, especially those who are "fun to feed". The type who take a bite and close their eyes, who say, "Oh my gosh!", who go back for seconds and thirds. The type who keep eating even after they're full because it's just so good. I'm married to one of these, and M is becoming one too. After each bite of food he has recently been saying, "mmmm" and he claps his hands in between bites. Ok, so maybe I'm reading in to it, but it makes mealtime more fun. This is one reason that I have been trying to discover and create gluten-free recipes that are delicious - I want to continue to feed family and friends and have them love to eat, but without having to make two separate dishes. My first steps into the gluten-free world were not particularly pleasant. The diagnosis of Celiac Disease was a major bummer. But over time, I'm learning the tricks of the trade and I love it when people say in astonishment, "This is glut...

I love having people over for dinner. I love the conversation, the warm feeling of being with friends, the laughter, and of course, the food! But I of all people know that there are many of us out there with food issues, and it can be intimidating to cook for us. Fortunately, it's not as hard as it sounds! Last night Zach and I were invited for a lovely dinner with family friends. Everything was delicious and gluten free! I was very impressed and so appreciated the time and effort that Carolyn put in to making a gluten-free dinner for me. I thought I would share some of the things she did to help you feel a little more at ease inviting over those with food issues, specifically the gluten-free ones. She served two wonderful salads - one with green beans, chickpeas, and onions, the other with mixed greens, cranberries, nuts, and what I think was feta. On the table she had several different salad dressing to provide options as well as to make sure that one at least was glut...

Being gluten-free can sometimes get you into a dinner rut. Being gluten-free, meat-free, and fish-free can REALLY get you into a dinner rut (doesn't that make you want to invite me over for dinner!). In our house, the turkey burger wrapped in lettuce has become a staple. A very boring one. So I am constantly experimenting in order to bring some life to this rather dull dish. Tonight's attempt was a steamed turkey burger with colby jack cheese, mango chutney, and carmelized onions on a bed of spinach. In the past I have had a love-hate relationship with mangoes. I love the flavor, but have never successfully cut one. Even after Zach's aunt gave me an awesome demonstration, I had forgotten it by the time I needed to cut one. My favorite mango story is that when I bought one for the first time, I had never cut one. I've eaten them off of buffet trays and in fruit salads, but have never prepared one myself. So I asked my husband, who knows everything, if he kne...