Thursday, 5/5/2011

I baked mahi mahi fillets from Costco and made brown butter green beans for our meal tonight.  The sea salt and roasted garlic mahi mahi fillets come pre-seasoned and frozen.  Just 25-30 minutes in the oven and they're done.  The flavor is outstanding and all three of us love it.  The green bean recipe came from Cuisine At Home's Weeknight Menus book/magazine.  When I looked up the recipe to see if I had posted it on my blog before, I found that I did a year and two days ago.  I should make it more often since it is quick and easy to make.  The best part is that it only takes two dishes to prepare--a saute pan and a strainer.

Wednesday, 5/4/2011

Ben helped me get the house back in order after last night's PEPS group.  I can't believe how far the toys were scattered in our house.  Crayons were everywhere.  We had left over chicken fajitas for dinner tonight.  Ben added shredded cheese to his and I added a bit of hot sauce.  I was pleased with how well the chicken reheated.  It was still moist and retained some of the smoky grill flavor.  Since I didn't include the recipe for the chicken last night, here it is.

CHICKEN FAJITAS
from The Weber Gas Grill Cookbook

Ingredients for the marinade:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin


Additional ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, about 6 ounces each
1 red onion, cut into 1/2" slices
4 plum tomatoes, cut into 1/2" slices
1 red or yellow bell pepper, stem and seeds removed and cut into quarters
6 large flour tortillas
1 avocado, sliced
Salsa

Directions:
1. In a shallow, non-metal container combine the marinade ingredients.  Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels.  Add chicken to the marinade, turning to coat each side.  Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours, turning occasionally.
2. Remove chicken breasts from the marinade and discard the marinade.  Grill the chicken breasts, onion slices, tomato slices, and bell pepper quarters over Direct Medium heat until the meat is no longer pink and the vegetables are tender, turning once halfway through grilling time.  The chicken and onion will take 8 to 12 minutes and the tomato and bell pepper will take 6 to 8 minutes.  Wrap tortillas in foil and place on cooking grate.  Heat for about 1 minutes.  Cut the bell pepper into strip and slice the chicken.  Place chicken, onion, tomatoes, bell pepper and avocado in warm tortillas and roll up to eat.  Serve with salsa.

Tuesday, 5/3/2011

It was our turn to host our PEPS group tonight. I decided to make chicken fajitas before I knew Ben wasn't going to be home for the evening.  He had a business dinner he had to attend.  I knew I could postpone, but I thought I could handle it on my own.  Yikes, I was wrong.  At about 4:30, I realized that I still had a lot of preparations to do to make the house friendly for five kids to be running around.  The group was scheduled to arrive at 6:30 and the table of craft materials had to go upstairs, the folding chairs had to come downstairs, the bathroom needed cleaned, the diaper pail emptied and moved into Katie's room, the counter cleared and cleaned, the dining table uncovered, toys gathered and arranged for play, etc.  And, I still need to cut up the peppers for the meal.  I barely got everything done before the first family arrived.  Well, I got everything done except for turning on the grill.  That definitely should have been done before they arrived.  I answered the door looking quite frazzled and immediately left Katie with Mike and Naomi while I ran out to turn on the grill.

I placed the marinated chicken directly on the grill and the veggies, tomatoes, red onion, and bell peppers, on a tray on the grill.  The propane tank ran out while I was cooking the food.  I'm not sure when it ran out, but my guess was that it stopped right after I flipped the chicken.  I wasn't confident that I knew how to safely remove and replace the tank, so I asked Andy for help.  Turns out, I would have done it correctly, but I am very glad to have had help.  Anyway, it took me an hour to get all of the food grilled, ready for everyone to eat, and finally sit down myself.  I learned that preparing fajitas on a grill takes a lot of coordination and that timing is crucial.  The flavors were good, but the veggies were cold by the time I ate.  I need to thank the other parents for watching Katie while I managed the food prep and Naomi for cutting the peppers for me.  

This was a meal that just took way too long to prepare, and it was next to impossible to have everything finish cooking at the same time.  Also, I barely had enough peppers and tomatoes to go around. I have tons of chicken left over, but the veggies are all gone.  Oh, and I totally underestimated how much salsa our group would consume.  I thought that one container of salsa would be enough for the chips and fajitas.  Nope.  That was a bad estimate.  By the time I was ready to eat, I was able to scrape maybe one teaspoon of salsa out of the container.   So, never again will I host the group by myself.  I definitely needed my other half tonight. 

At the very end of the night, I did my best to take a group shot of the kids.  Talk about impossible! They wouldn't stop moving, and I chose the wrong lens.  With all of the dinner prep, I forgot to prepare for the photo.  Here's the best of the photos I took.  Again, I definitely needed my other half tonight.  

Monday, 5/2/2011

Katie and I did our weekly grocery shopping this morning, including a trip to Costco.  Later in the month we will be hosting a potluck at our house, and are going to be grilling hotdogs and hamburgers.  I don't want to have to make the hamburger patties myself, so I bought a package of pre-made, frozen burgers.  Knowing that we won't need 25 for the potluck, I decided to grill up a couple for our dinner tonight.  Well, they are not as good as our burgers.  They were pretty bland in fact.  Next time, we will definitely have to add some salt and pepper to the burgers while they cook.  I'm sure they can taste better than they did tonight.  We had a caesar salad on the side. 

Sunday, 5/1/2011

My plan was to make a taco salad for dinner.  The plan went a bit sour when I realized I only had half a packet of taco seasoning in the pantry.  Since the ground beef was already browning in the skillet, I had to improvise.  I added chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, cummin, salt and black pepper.  And then, I doubled it.  The result was a decent substitute.  It was lacking something, but was definitely edible.  While a taco salad was my original plan, we ended up having taco meat with cheese melted on top with a simple iceberg lettuce salad with chipotle ranch dressing on the side. 

Saturday, 4/30/2011

My parents and I got so much accomplished today!  It rained this morning, so we couldn't do much outside.  While mom and I played with Katie, my dad started to organize and clean out the garage.  He took a trip to the local building materials donation shop to get rid of light fixtures we no longer needed.  When he was done organizing, he had given us back three feet of space from side to side in our garage.  Whoo hoo!  When the rain stopped, my mom and I set out to weed the terrace to make room for the raised beds.  Katie spent her time watching Toy Story on my iPod in her stroller.  It's the only movie I have in a digital format, and she loves it.  The iPod gave my mom and I enough time to fill our yard waste bin with extra debris ready to go in next week's bin.  Dad got the structure for the two beds built today.  We'll mix the soil and fill them tomorrow.  

Katie and I picked Ben up at the airport this afternoon.  Katie ran to him, hugged and kissed him, and told him she loved him.  What a happy reunion!  We then met my parents at Anthony's Home Port in Des Moines for dinner.  Katie and my dad had fish and chips.  Ben had steak and coconut prawns.  He was really disappointed in the steak.  While cooked perfectly, it was lacking flavor.  The prawns and his caesar salad were excellent.  My mom and I started with spinach and bacon salads, topped with dill vinaigrette.  The salad was delicious!  I really wish I knew how to make that dressing.  Yum!  We also each had halibut for our main dish.  Mine was pan fried and her's was oven baked.  Both were perfectly tasty.  Dinner with my family-- what a wonderful way to finish a day.  

Friday, 4/29/2011

For Christmas my parents gave me two raised garden beds.  My parents drove over this evening to spend the weekend with us and build the beds.  I'm really excited to see how much I can grow during the summer.  I was busy cleaning and preparing the house for their arrival today, and didn't want to dirty dishes for dinner.  I chose to make a large green salad with some left-over Easter ham on the side for my dinner.  I ate right out the bowl I mixed it in. 

It was so nice to be able to stay with my parents until Tuesday morning this week and then have them visit us this evening.  It has been wonderful for Katie to get to spend so much quality time with them. And, it has really made Ben's time away go much more quickly than usual. He comes home tomorrow, and I can't wait to see him! 

Thursday, 4/28/2011

Our friends Laura and David invited Katie and me to have dinner with them at their new home tonight.  We got a tour of their home and a slinky demonstration while dinner was cooking.  Laura made chicken cacciatore--chicken braised in a tomato-based sauce with onions, garlic, and white wine.  It was my first time having that dish, and I was not disappointed.  It was delicious and seemed relatively easy to make.  Laura was kind to make a dish that was low in carbs to help me out.  I made a green salad with mushrooms and diced bell peppers to go with the meal.  

I brought peas, carrots, and chicken for Katie's dinner.  I forgot to bring her booster seat, so she was a wiggle wart throughout the meal. After we ate, Katie, Laura, and I went to our church choir practice.  The best part of the rehearsal was when Katie decided it was time to start singing.  She stood under the alter and sang at the top of her lungs with the choir.  She wasn't saying any words, but was giving the big "ah" her best.  What a delight to see her starting to "sing."  I wonder how long it will be before she can carry a tune;)

Wednesday, 4/27/2011

Katie and I made it to the grocery store this morning and stocked the fridge for the rest of the week.  I pan fried a pound of chicken tenderloins.  I heated a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a skillet, seasoned the chicken with a lemon, sage seasoning salt, and then fried the chicken until a little brown on both sides.  Katie had some of the chicken with carrots and sugar snap peas for dinner.  I cut up the chicken into a green salad with mushrooms, orange bell pepper, and Italian dressing.  It was pretty darn good for a green salad. 

Tuesday, 4/26/2011

Katie and I drove home this morning.  She did remarkably well on the drive.  Between her books and toys, she was calm for the first three hours.  She started to get restless when we had about 100 miles left in the trip.  I gave her my iPod and let her watch Toy Story for the rest of the trip.  Ben called from Europe the last ten minutes of our trip.  How nice to end our trip talking with him:)

I didn't want to go to the grocery store and then make dinner tonight.  Katie and I went to Endolyne Joe's for dinner instead.  I had a chicken caesar salad and ordered mini corn dogs and a fruit bowl for Katie.  She quickly got to the hot dogs inside the corn and proceeded to put too much in her mouth.  After that first bite, I deconstructed each corn dog, separating the dogs from the corn.  She gobbled down the hot dogs and pretty much left the corn alone.  Too bad I'm not eating many carbs these days.  The corn part looked delicious!

Monday, 4/25/2011

This morning, my parents, Katie and I had the pleasure of meeting my grandpa Norm at the airport.  He is taking a trip to see the World War II memorial, courtesy of Inland Northwest Honor Flights.  What an awesome experience to see my grandpa wearing his uniform jacket, showing photos of himself wearing it 70+ years ago.  Katie made the 6 o'clock news, waiving her flags at the airport.  I'm so glad we were able to stay in town to be a part of it.

Katie, mom and I went out to my brother Matt's house to visit for lunch.  We had tuna fish sandwiches and chips for lunch.  I just had tuna, no bread or chips.  Ben called while we were there, and we were able to Skype with him for a few minutes.  Thanks Matt for letting us use your computer!

I had a small salmon fillet and a side salad for dinner tonight.  I was really pleased with the quality and flavor of the salmon. There was only enough salmon for mom and me to have, so my dad had some ham for dinner.  Katie had a hot dog with ketchup, cheddar cheese, and tried a green bean.  She gagged on it.  Hmmm, she must have gotten that reflex from me.  Sorry Katie!

Sunday, 4/24/2011

Happy Easter!  Christ the Lord is risen today!

When Katie woke up, we let her search for her Easter basket.  She found it right away and was wonderfully thrilled with each thing in her basket.  Animal crackers, straws that turn regular milk into chocolate milk, a book about a lamb, a Dora the Explorer backpack, a flower headband, and a Disney princess coloring kit.  After breakfast we went to church with my parents and grandparents this morning.  We quickly had lunch so that I could get Ben to the airport.  And, after Katie's nap, she got to hunt Easter eggs in the backyard.  What fun!  

For dinner we played a little refrigerator roulette.  I ended up making a ham and cheese omelet with some bell pepper strips on the side.  Other than having to say goodbye to Ben for a week, this was a wonderful Easter.  

Saturday, 4/23/2011

Ben is leaving tomorrow afternoon for a week long business trip to The Netherlands.  Since we aren't expecting to have much time between when church concludes and when he needs to leave for the airport, we had our big family Easter meal today instead.  My grandparents, brother, niece, and my brother's friend, Adam, joined us at my parent's house for the meal.  My dad baked a delicious ham.  We grilled asparagus tossed in a sherry-bacon vinaigrette.  There was a potato salad, rolls, mashed potatoes, and beets passed around the table too.  For dessert, we had an angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream.  Ben and I had ham, asparagus, strawberries, and whipped cream for our meal.  It was hard to pass on the carb filled potatoes and rolls, but we did it and were quite satisfied.

My mom made these most adorable bunny place cards.  We placed a Reese's peanut butter egg in each one.  That will be the only chocolate I have this weekend. 

Friday, 4/22/2011

Tonight we drove to Spokane to spend Easter with my family.  Katie and I met Ben downtown for dinner before starting our drive.  In the past we have headed straight out only to have to stop for a meal an hour down the road.  It seemed, since we were not able to leave before 5pm, that having dinner first would be better for traffic and our stomachs.  We went to a Red Robin just a block away from Ben's office. 

Katie had chicken strips and fries with ranch dressing and chocolate milk.  Ben had buffalo wings and a side caesar salad.  I had a bacon cheese burger without the bun and a side salad.  I ordered the burger in a lettuce wrap.  Well, that was just way too much lettuce.  Yikes!  I ended up pulling the burger out and eating it on it's own.  I sure did miss having ketchup on it.  It is amazing how much sugar is in a tablespoon of ketchup.  Too much for maintaining a low-carb diet right now.  

Our dining and travel plans worked perfectly.  We only had one minor slow down on our way to Spokane and didn't have to stop.  We are looking forward to a lovely weekend with our family:)