Winning

Last night there was quite a hullabaloo over what to do for dinner.

You see, there is a LOT of food in this house. Quite a lot. We have plenty of things to eat, and plenty of meals and treats that could be made as well. We do, however, seem to be quite lacking in the easy, grab off the shelf food. (This is because I believe FOOD doesn't come in a package. PRODUCT comes in a package. I have a whole soap box I like to get out, brush off, and preach from every now and then when my kids complain about snacks.) ANYWAYS.

I told my family that we have plenty of food, and I don't want to go to the grocery store, and I think it's silly to even go to the store when we have plenty of things to eat at home already. (Seriously. An example: There was a fantastic sale on boneless/skinless chicken breast a while back, and I bought 40 POUNDS. It was a killer deal.) Plus we have all the delicious food from our garden that is canned or frozen and my goodness gracious, I REFUSE TO GO TO THE STORE. So we are having our very own pantry challenge, and it's going to be great. Tonight's dinner is honey-garlic roasted root veggies, with honey-garlic grilled chicken. I do like to have green food with every meal, so I might open up some green beans, but then again, I might not. I HAVEN'T DECIDED. I feel like root vegetables are super filling, so we don't necessarily need another vegetable, but I also have GIGANTIC TEENAGE CHILDREN who eat so very much food. Maybe I'll add a bread, hmmmm. But do you see? There just is no reason for me to buy more food. I WILL check the ads and see if anything is on super sale, but I'm not just going to go because I'm in the habit of a weekly shopping trip.

Speaking of food, my seedlings look awesome! Most everything has popped up, though I'm still waiting on the husk cherries. Confession: I can't remember for sure that I actually put seeds in the grow box, so I added more seeds yesterday, because I think that maybe the reason they're not growing yet is because I maybe forgot to plant them. Hooray for cognitive brain dysfunction! It is seriously getting bad though, guys. And also today at church, when they were passing the roll around, I couldn't even turn the page. It took a ridiculous amount of time for me to get that dang paper to unstick to the one behind it, and I almost gave up. BUT THEN I DIDN'T and I ended up turning the page all by myself so I win at life.

Black Bean and Corn Salad

Black bean and corn salad is my family's favorite meal, EVER.

I always have all the ingredients on hand, and my kids love to help chop and mix everything together. Then they proceed to eat it by the spoonful.

The great thing about this concoction is that it can be a stand-alone dish, or you can use it to top a salad. We also have used it in lettuce wraps, we've wrapped it in a flour tortilla and fried it like a chimi, and, of course, we can always use it to dip tasty chips int.

Basically, there is no wrong way to eat this stuff. It's like heaven in your mouth.

YUM.

Black Bean and Corn Salad

• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup corn
• 1 cup spinach, chopped (optional)
• 2 roasted red peppers (or 1 fresh) chopped 
• 1/4 cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 green onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• juice from 2 limes, plus 1 tsp zest
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in bowl. Chill for extra flavor. Enjoy.

Raspberry Crumb Bars

YOU GUYS: I have to share one of my favorite recipes today. Long, long ago, before the days of pinterest, I used to tear pictures and recipes out of magazines, and this one... this one has become a family favorite.

Raspberry Crumb Bars

• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 cup almonds (about 4 ounces) 
•  3/4 cup butter, at room temperature 
•  1 teaspoon vanilla 
•  2/3 cup sugar 
•  1 egg 
•  1 jar(12 ounces) raspberry preserves

Directions: 

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.

3. Whirl almonds in food processor* until finely ground. Add butter and vanilla. Whirl until well blended. Add flour mixture and the sugar. Whirl to mix. Reserve 1/2 cup mixture for topping. Add egg to remaining flour mixture in container of food processor. Whirl until well combined and dough forms. Press dough over bottom of prepared pan.

4. Bake in 375 degree F oven 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; cool slightly.

5. Spread raspberry preserves over dough. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture on top.

6. Bake 12 minutes more or until top is golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars to serve.

*I do not have a food processor, so I whirl my almonds in the blender. Whatever works, right? 

too many tomotoes

Before the first frost set in I picked a bunch of super really green tomatoes from my garden.  I know that you can finish ripening a tomato on your window sill, but I wasn't super if that would work with these because they were just so very green.  But there was like 10 of them, and I wasn't going to just let the frost get them.

Well, good news, really green tomatoes will, in fact, ripen on your window sill.  It just takes FOREVER.  At least mine did.  But eventually I had juicy red tomatoes, and I had TEN of them at one time.

Some people might be able to use 10 tomatoes quickly enough without them going bad, but no matter how much I try my family just aren't big tomato lovers.  (Sometimes my boys claim to love them, but that's when Venus is in retrograde and the north star points west, or in other words, it's RARE.)

So I had to do a little tomato saving trick that I learned from a friend a few years ago and I wanted to pass it on to anyone else who ever finds themselves with too many ripe tomatoes at one time:

And there you have it.  You can easily save your extra tomatoes before they go bad. 

Plus it makes cooking super duper easy later because you don't even have to remember to thaw the tomatoes out before using them - just open a frozen baggy toss them in the pan while you're cooking sauce or whatever.  They thaw and cook quickly.

Fun Food Bingo Game Printable

We like playing bingo at our house.  Especially when we get to mark the squares with candy or cereal or something.  Because then, when you win, you get to eat the treat!

Here is a fun food bingo game printable for you and your kids to enjoy - it comes with 5 different player bingo cards and all the calling cards (so you can put them in a pile upside down and pick the next square to mark at random by drawing one card at a time).  Just click to download:

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This bingo set was made with the Yum Digital Scrapbook kit, found here.

Delicious Mexican Rice Recipe

Meredith the newlywed has requested my Mexican rice recipe, mostly on account of it’s deliciousness. So today, I’m going to give you my TO DIE FOR Mexican Rice recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups white rice
• vegetable oil
• 1/2 bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cubes chicken bouillon
• 1 heaping tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 4 c. water

DIRECTIONS:

Pour rice in a large pot. Add enough oil to cover every grain. Toast rice over medium heat, stirring constantly, being careful not to burn the rice. (Takes about 15 minutes) Once rice is browned, add in peppers, onion, garlic, and bouillon. Cook until onions are tender and garlic is fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add spices, tomato paste, and water. Stir until just blended. Cover pan and heat to boiling. Once boiling, turn heat to low and let rice simmer until all liquid has evaporated (about 30 minutes). DO NOT REMOVE LID. Once all liquid has been absorbed, remove from heat, and fluff with fork. Serve alone or as a side dish!

And now we’re going to pretend there’s a mouth-watering picture of my rice.

That’ll do.