Our Grilling Experiments

I have ALWAYS loved grilled food.  It could be anything completely mediocre and I think the grill gives it that extra little nudge to be sooo tasty!  I wanted a gas grill, mostly for convenience.  But Travis convinced me that a charcoal one would be best (plus way cheaper)!  So we finally got one and have been using it so much.  I don't know how we haven't had steak yet? 

Atomic Buffalo Turds

My brother gave me the recipe, I didn't name them that.

BBQ Chicken and Grilled Pineapple Quesadillas
from Pioneer Woman

Roadside Chicken
another recipe that I got from my brother.

Kroger Brand, frozen hamburger patties!  Look at that flame from those juices!  Travis tells me that means they are done.

These are extremely delicious and juicy and they don't need any extra seasoning. These ones were Cheese & Bacon. There are others, Blue Cheese & Black Pepper and Swiss Cheese & Mushrooms. I usually don't like blue cheese or mushrooms but I'll eat these.

And in my opinion, all burgers are best with the deli-made onion buns, or onion rolls.

Carson loooves these "hamboogers!"

Inspired by my brother, Ethan, who is excellent at smoking food--my first attempt at using our grill to smoke.  We chose ribs.

We used a rub recipe that he gave me, and I used my favorite, sweet bbq sauce recipe from Rookie Cookie.



Some other things we have done are various types of grilled chicken, hot dogs, and pizza.  Pizza is one of my favorite things grilled--just basic, margherita pizza--roasted tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella!  Oh man I am so hungry.

My weekly menu is expanding and I love it!

Homemade Baby Food

I started making baby food again. 

I did it with Carson and he only had those nasty jars of baby food once he got to the meats stage, but still didn't really have teeth to chew.  And he only ate them once a day for a month or two.  Carson was/is an awesome eater. 

For Porter, I started making it, but for some reason just didn't do very much and started getting the jars for him.  He was a horrible eater and didn't even eat food until after his 1st birthday.  He still doesn't chew and is super picky.  Poor, Porter!

So I got off of my lazy butt and started making it for Hudson. It is so much better and cheaper.  I made all of this food and it probably took me total of an hour (Hudson has been eating for a little over a month too, so there was more).  The hardest part is running the blender or magic bullet because Porter cries every single time he hears it. 

I use www.wholesomebabyfood.com for ideas and suggestions on when to try what foods.  I have never done my own oatmeal before.  I always just get those rice cereal, oatmeal, barley flakes.  I still have that  because it is an easy way to make the food thicker.  The oatmeal has to be cooked before giving it to baby.  But I just bought a can of steel cut oats and blended it up and put it back in the can, ready to get a spoonful and cook it.  Same with regular oats.  

In the picture I have butternut squash (1 butternut squash), peaches (2 frozen bags of peaches), prunes (2 bags of prunes/dried plums),  sweet potatoes (3 large sweet potatoes), pears (about 2 lbs. of pears, it was probably 5 or 6), acorn squash (1 acorn squash). 

Each cube is a feeding, for now, until he starts to eat more at once.  You pretty much just cook, blend and put in an ice cube tray to freeze.  It's so easy.  And the wholesomebabyfood tells you the best way to cook to keep the most nutrients. 

If you have a little baby, you should make your own food.  They will love it.  Plus it makes the transition to "real" food that is healthy, much easier when they get older because they have already eaten it.  Instead of something where the only resemblence to real food might be color.

Plus, for a couple minutes each day, I kind of feel like Martha Stewart.

And look how happy it makes them!  How could you resist those cheeks!

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

That is what Pioneer Woman called her cake.  It looked so good on her blog, so I made this strawberry shortcake on Memorial Day.  I stayed up while the kids took naps and slaved away!  I was so excited.

Travis and I took two slivers and started eating.  Carson spit his bites out (he loves strawberries) and neither of us could even finish our cake.  I usually really enjoy Pioneer Woman's recipes.  But this one just wasn't for me.  I don't think the strawberries were quite ripe enough and the frosting was a little too sweet for me, kind of making me feel sick.

We ended up just throwing almost the whole thing away... tragic!  I made salsa burgers Monday night to try to redeem myself and I am pretty sure they turned out the best they EVER have.  So it's all good!

Pictures from Easter weekend

On Friday night, my friend, Brittany, and I decided to have an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Her daughter sat there, Porter walked all over the sidewalk with eggs in each hand, and Carson found a couple of eggs and just wanted the candy. It was fun, even though they didn't get it or care. Some pictures are doubles, I had fun playing around with editing.

I think Carson was yelling "airplane" and Porter was checking it out.

On Saturday night, while the guys were at the Priesthood session of General Conference, we dyed some eggs and had another egg hunt in Grandma Grover's backyard. We did it with Carson and Porter's cousins Logan, Jaxon and Aunt Trina. Carson found 1 egg and ate the candy out and didn't care about finding more. He still didn't get it. Here are some pictures from that.

On Sunday we went over to my brother's house and ate the best ribs I think I have EVER had in my entire life. I got pictures of the ribs, but not of any of their family, which was why I even took my camera. Next time, I guess.

It was a fun, busy Easter weekend.

On The Menu

Today for lunch Carson refused to eat the chicken alfredo pasta that I had made last night and reheated for him. I didn't think it was that bad. I only had 4 ice cubes left of peaches, (Yes, the kid still loves pureed food--if that is how he will eat it--fine) so he ate those. And then he had about 1/2 a box of cheerios. On the box it says, 19 servings per container. I am pretty sure he ate about 10 of those for lunch. My lunch isn't much better. Two turkey sandwiches, (with half frozen turkey because I keep our fridge way too cold) potato chips and a coke (too cold of fridge=delicious coke). Today is just one of those days. I guess it is better than last night when I made snickerdoodles and ate one from each batch that came out of the oven... for testing purposes, obviously. Ugh! The pre-holiday, should be kind of chilly out but is still almost 90, bored out of my mind funk has begun. Maybe today I should get out of my pajamas and take Carson to see the light of day! I really wanted to take him to the library to pick out some new books but lets be honest, that would require me putting on a bra. Maybe the coke will kick in soon!

'tis the season...

...to be jolly? It isn't Christmas yet, but sure! Really, 'tis the season to make things made from pumpkin! I love it! I love the taste, the smell and just baking! Right now there are 2 loaves of pumpkin bread in the oven and pumpkin pancakes on the griddle. The pancakes are for Carson, hopefully he likes them. I think he will. In the last 2 weeks I have already had pumpkin pie, a pumpkin gooey cake and pumpkin bread. What are some other fun things to make with pumpkin?? Any ideas? I can always get a pumpkin pie blizzard at DQ... the best of both worlds.

Venting

So about a week ago, Travis yelled at me (I used the word "yelled" but he never really does that) and said that I needed to be more organized about making dinner. I was talking to myself in the kitchen about how I am sick of always thinking about food. I wake up and I think what will Carson eat for breakfast, then I think what should I eat--I don't really feel like anything but I shouldn't go without eating (I will say I think that because I am pregnant, but I honestly don't really skip meals... ever!) then the same thing happens for lunch and then for dinner. This is also after the day that I woke up and walked straight into the kitchen to make Travis eggs with bacon, green peppers, ham, onions and cheese and pancakes for breakfast(so ungrateful sometimes). Anyway, it made me a little mad that he said that I needed to be more organized. When in reality what I needed was for him to make a stinking decision about what was for dinner and either go buy it or make it... that didn't happen. So that night I made a menu for the next two and a half weeks (and yes one of the days hamburger helper is the menu item. I love it, so sue me) and the next day I went grocery shopping. So now for 11 nights in a row we have had a home cooked meal. Last night we went to my brother's house for gumbo and lemon ice box pie? They were soooo tasty, Carson liked the gumbo but wouldn't try the pie--surprise, surprise! But that was a planned trip so it even said "Ethan's House" on the menu. I am so proud of myself for making dinner all of these nights. Even when Travis brought home food from his parents house, I still made tacos. Even when we were in downtown Mesa on Saturday night at dinner time and Travis said we should just go to Oregano's, I said no because I was already planning on making something. I turned down Oregano's!! But I did feel much better after I ate knowing I didn't just spend $30 on a meal. It is just so nice to know what I am making ahead of time and know that I have all of the stuff for it. It also helps for lunch because we have so many leftovers and when I actually do some grocery shopping there are things in the fridge for lunch too. So I guess he was right, I needed to get a little organized and things would be easier. He could have been nicer about it, or maybe could have helped, sheesh!

"The Best Lasagna Ever"

If you aren't familiar with The Pioneer Woman, get acquainted! Her website is http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ and it is fabulous. She is awesome at taking the pictures step by step and showing you everything. I love how easy she makes it and all of the things that we have tried so far have turned out really good. Plus she tells funny stories. I have been dying to make her lasagna recipe which she names "The Best Lasagna Ever". So last Friday, when I had a little bit of extra time, I made it. It turned out really good. We all had seconds. (We had some friends over, they could have just been being nice?) And while I was cooking, the meat and sausage and tomato mixture was making my house smell so good! It turned out very cheesy and gooey and I hardly noticed the noodles (my least favorite part). And the sausage gave it a kick. It was a success!

This is what it looked like right before going in the oven!

I can't even make it look pretty but look at all of those yummy layers!

Next thing we are trying... the cinnamon rolls!