June 27, 2011- Chicken Strips and Fruit Salad

A few weeks ago I bought a new kind of chicken strip for Katie.  The strips seemed to be restaurant styled, which Katie usually likes.  The instructions said they could be baked or microwaved.  Well, each attempt to microwave them has resulted in very rubbery chicken that she hasn't eaten.  Tonight I decided to bake them for the whole family.  The chicken was much better baked than nuked.  I suppose I knew that already, but I am glad they were good baked.  

I made a fruit salad of pear, banana, raspberries, mandarin oranges, and grapes for our side dish.  Katie had oranges and grapes.  She is quite fickle about her bananas.  She has never eaten them pre-sliced. She went straight from mashed to whole.

June 22, 2011- Cheeseburgers & Hotdogs

We were planning on going to the home of our friends for dinner tonight, but they had to postpone due to a schedule conflict.  So, we ate hot dogs and left-over cheeseburgers with fruit salad for dinner.  I put frozen raspberries, green grapes, bananas, pears, and mandarin oranges in the fruit salad.  It was quite delicious!  

By the way, Mom and Dad, we've used up the last of the raspberries from last year's harvest:) 

Friday, 2/25/2011

We had halibut and a fruit salad of oranges and bananas for dinner tonight.  I had plans to go play pinochle at church as soon as dinner was over.  Since snacks were promised, I only ate a little at home. I should have brought my own snacks.  The pretzels, gum drops, candy canes, and a mix of animal crackers, raisins, malt balls, and m&m-like candies were fine, but not what I had hoped for. 

Pinochle is a card game typically played by four people.  We started the evening with 6 people, two of whom had never played before.  So, we learned how to play double-deck, five handed pinochle.  The two newbies teamed up to play together.  It took me two hands to figure out how to bid accurately with a double deck, but in the end....I won!  Not too shabby.  What I enjoyed most about the evening was how it reminded me of playing the game with my grandparents:) 

Wednesday, 2/16/2011

We had beer battered halibut from Costco with a fruit salad for dinner.  Yes, this is a pretty common meal for us.  It is hard to goof it up.  The fruit salad was made with a banana, strawberries, and a pear. 

And, just to follow up on the frosting I made for our Valentine's Day cake, microwaving it for 30 seconds did indeed melt the fats enough to drizzle it on the cake like a glaze.  Thanks for the advice dad!

Monday, 1/31/2011

We finished off the buffalo chicken fries for our dinner tonight.  I put together a small fruit salad of raspberries and bananas to go with the chicken.  I cooked up some chicken nuggets for Katie, since she wouldn't eat the chicken we were having. 

Monday, 1/24/2011

We grilled burgers in the rain tonight.  I seasoned lean ground beef with Lawry's seasoning salt, A-1 steak sauce, and black pepper.  I added an egg to help hold everything together.  We made three patties out of a pound of beef.  Ben and I each had one topped with cheddar and bacon in sandwich thins for buns.  Katie ate less than a quarter of hers.  

I made a fruit salad of apples, mandarin oranges, and bananas to go with our burgers.  Katie quickly ate her oranges and wasn't happy that we wouldn't give her more.  Her butt gets raw if she has too much acidic fruit.  (Sorry if that is TMI.)  We held firm with our "no" answer and she eventually gave up:) 

Wednesday, 1/12/2011

Katie and I met Ben downtown tonight for dinner at Ivar's.  We had a great meal there last week and decided some chowder would hit the spot tonight.  Ben and I shared a caesar salad and then each had a bowl of smoked salmon chowder.  Katie did a pretty good job eating her chicken strips and fruit.  She gobbled down the grapes, slurped on the pineapple chunk, and turned her nose up at the melon offering. 

The kids menu is printed on the back of a paper diver's mask with the eyes and nose cut out.  There are rubber bands on the sides that can be slipped over your ears to hold it in place.  Katie enjoyed wearing it, but really liked to make "momma wear" it. 

Saturday, 1/8/2011

I bought a flank steak at the beginning of the week and finally got around to using it today.  It was a close one.  I think one more day and it would have been thrown out.  Once again, I made up a batch of marinade from Grill Mates.  I used the Montreal Steak flavor today.  The recipe says to add water, oil and red wine or white vinegar.  I went with red wine.  Now that I am reading the recipe again, I wonder if it was implying red wine vinegar or white vinegar.  Oh well, too late now;)  The marinade wasn't as thick as most of them we've used.  It didn't seem to stick to the meat as well.  As a result, the flavor was a little light.  But, it was still good.  Ben braved the cold weather and grilled the steak.  Mine portion of the steak was still a bit bloody when he brought it in, so I opted to nuke it in the microwave until it was more done. 

Ben made a nice fruit salad of raspberries, bananas, and pears to go with the steak.  All three of us enjoyed our meal. Katie consumed her berries before Ben and I sat down at the table:)

Tuesday, 12/14/2010

We were looking forward to homemade pizzas at our PEPS gathering tonight.  Unfortunately, we were kept home when Katie developed hives during the afternoon.  We weren't able to identify any source for them and were thankful when they went away several hours later.  Since I didn't have a meal planned for tonight, we baked a few battered halibut fillets from Costco.  We had a small fruit salad to go with it. 

Wednesday, 12/1/2010

Turkey, turkey, turkey.  We still have turkey left over from Thanksgiving.  We heated some of it up for dinner tonight and fixed a light fruit salad to go with it.  For the salad, I cut up a banana, added a small can of mandarin oranges, and some frozen raspberries from my parent's garden.  Katie was very excited about the oranges, until she saw the raspberries.  After that, she wouldn't touch an oranges.  While I was getting dinner ready, she would ask for "two" berries at a time.  She wanted to hold one in each hand.  Her fingers were quite red by the time we sat down to eat:)

Sunday, 11/14/2010

Katie is the only one in the house who ate dinner tonight.  We had our good friends Melissa, Dave and Lucia over for a big lunch after church.  It was so very nice to catch up with them.  The last time we saw each other was Easter weekend.  Yikes...that was a long time ago.  For lunch, we recreated the delicious bacon, chicken sandwiches we made a couple months ago.  We couldn't find the same marinade mix at the store, so we opted for a carne asada chipotle marinade.  It said it was good for beef, chicken, or pork.  Thankfully, it truly was good for chicken:)  We made a banana, mandarin orange, and mango fruit salad to go with the sandwiches.  

For dessert, we had butterscotch, orange oatmeal cookies in bar form.  The directions said to bake the bars for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.  Well, after 18 minutes, they were quite golden.  Unfortunately, they didn't set up very well.  Luckily, they still tasted delicious and held together better a day later than when relatively fresh out of the oven.  

Oh yes, dinner.  Ben and I just weren't hungry for dinner after such a large lunch.  We snacked a bit, but had nothing formal.  Katie was hungry around 5pm.  She had chicken nuggets, dipped in ketchup, of course;) After a quick Skype with my parents, we took her to bed.  Hopefully, an extra hour of sleep tonight will make up for the missed nap today. 

Wednesday, 10/13/2010

We all ate late, big lunches today.  Ben and Katie had a lunch date at Red Robin while I went to an appointment.  I picked up Arby's on my way home with Katie.  The best part about her eating with Ben already was that I didn't have to share my fries;)  

Since we weren't really hungry for dinner, we decided to go for a run on Alki Beach.  We arrived just as Downtown Seattle was being lit by the sunset. Wow, what a beautiful view.  We are so lucky to live here!  I have only run once in the past month due to being sick so much. Needless to say, I had a challenging run tonight.  I had to take a step back in my workout, but still managed to complete it without stopping.  Katie drank milk and ate fish crackers on the run for her dinner.  Ben followed up his run with a pear, and I chose an apple.  I expect there will be some wine and chocolate while we watch Modern Family tonight.  13 minutes and counting!

Tuesday, 10/5/2010

Tonight we had a simple dinner of beef burritos and fruit salad.  We all have colds and just aren't up for anything fancy.  I made the fruit salad out of frozen raspberries from my parent's bushes, bananas, and grapes.  The funny thing is, I think Katie's cold has affected her nose to the point that she can't smell or taste very well.  Usually she passes on taco meat, because it is a bit too spicy.  It didn't seem to bother her at all tonight.  In fact, she insisted on eating the last inch of my burrito.  I was so happy to see her eating dinner that I gladly gave it up.  She also gobbled down the grapes and raspberries in my fruit salad.  I guess she prescribes to the "feed a cold" motto.

Thursday, 9/30/2010

I planned to make meatloaf for dinner tonight.  Unfortunately, I didn't look at the recipe close enough to see that I needed one and a half pounds of hamburger.  I only had one pound.  So, Katie and I did a mad dash to the grocery store to get more hamburger at the last minute.  We got the ground beef and then decided to make hamburgers instead.  The meatloaf would have taken an hour to prepare and bake.  I knew we would be too hungry to wait for another hour, plus the five minutes to drive home.  

It was a good decision to go with the burgers.  They were fantastic!!!  We grilled them with a little butter in the center of each patty.  YUM!  Topped with cheddar cheese and crispy bacon, these burgers were probably our best yet.  I seasoned the ground beef with A-1 steak sauce, Lawry's seasoning salt, black pepper, and a touch of cayenne pepper.  We used sandwich thins for buns and had raspberry, banana, and grape fruit salads on the side.  Katie loved the raspberries and grapes.  She said she wanted "burger", but in the end, it seemed like she just wanted ketchup.  Incidentally, she likes grapes dipped in ketchup. 

Wednesday, 8/18/2010

Tonight was a repeat of last night--homemade pizza.  Ben's quote for tonight, "This is good.  I LOVE this pizza!"  Ok, yes, the dough was purchased, but I did roll it out and put all the toppings on top:)  Katie has not been a fan of this pizza.  She asked for some both nights, but didn't do much more than lick it a little.  I actually was surprised she wanted to eat anything tonight.  We went to our friend Nancy's house this afternoon, and Katie did not stop eating the entire three hours we were there.  She drank milk and water, ate lots of watermelon, two large cookies, and a handful of grapes.  And then, she insisted on eating goldfish crackers the entire 15 minute drive home.  At home, she ate a little bit of turkey deli meat and some fresh peas.  Perhaps she is in a growing spurt:) 

Sunday, 8/8/2010

I went to church with Katie this morning, but we turned right back around after only 5 minutes of worship, because she puked in the nursery.  Dang!  She wasn't sick--just really upset when I left and ended up gagging while crying intensely.  We are pretty sure teething pain was involved too.  Anyway, it made today a "stay at home and get stuff done" kind of day.

We finished off our package of Costco tamales tonight.  I keep thinking that Katie is going to want to eat some, but she consistently turns down our offers to share with her.  PB&J with grapes for her.  Ben and I added hot sauce to our tamales for extra kick:)  For a side dish, I put together a fruit salad of raspberries from my parent's yard, bananas, and grapes.  I tossed mine in a honey and lime dressing.  Yum!  Ben isn't a honey fan; so, he went with the natural fruit sweetness.   

I keep looking at the blackberries on the vines coming over our fence.  I want to pick them.  I want to eat them.  BUT, the vines are FULL of spiders this year.  I don't know why there are soo many.  If you didn't know, I have a terrible phobia of spiders.  Just typing the word and thinking about them is giving me chills from head to toe.  Anyway, this is either God's way of saying "Get over your phobia" or "You don't need any more cobbler".  Either way, those berries are staying put.  

Friday, 7/9/2010

We took my mom to the airport this morning. She was meeting her sisters and mom there. They were heading to Paul, Idaho, for my grandma's school reunion. Knowing that we would just be finishing a week long vacation, I opted to not go this year. It was fun to see them all, until Katie completely melted down. I think the combination of being tired and teething pain got the best of her.


We took it easy the rest of the day. We tried to put Katie down a couple times, but she just wasn't having it. I napped for an hour or so myself. Finally, at 4pm, Ben got her down. It took quite a lot of patience and effort on his part. Thanks Ben! We played games while she napped and woke her up in time for dinner. We had coldcut sandwiches and fruit for dinner with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and orange cream ice cream for dessert. If you haven't tried Oroweat's Sandwich Thins yet, I highly recommend them. 100 calories total for two pieces of bread. We had our sandwiches tonight on a "hoagie" variety. Very tasty!

Monday, 6/21/2010

Months ago, Jennifer, my mother-in-law, mentioned that she had purchased and was enjoying Oroweat's Sandwich Thins bread. I've seen the packages in the store, but hadn't bought them for our family yet. Today, at Costco, there was a big display of them. The price looked pretty good, so I decided to try them out. Ben grilled burgers for us and toasted a couple of these buns. They were great burgers! We were both really pleased with the Sandwich Thins. Good thing, because I purchased a bag at Costco. We won't run out for a while;) I made a mango, banana, and mandarin orange salad to go with it.

The burger went over really well with Katie. I gave her a nice big, mommy-sized bite to work on at the beginning of the meal. Halfway through my burger, I decided I better take a photo of it for the blog. As I tweaked the settings, Katie kept begging for more. By the time I got the photo I wanted, I only had a little bit of the burger left. Looks like a slider. I'm glad she liked it! Oh yes, and, she likes ketchup too:)

Saturday, 6/5/2010

Ben grilled hamburgers for us tonight. He started with lean ground beef and mixed in A-1 steak sauce, kosher salt, Lawry's seasoning salt, black pepper, and an egg to hold it together. He said that burgers usually stick to the grill, but tonight they were sliding all over the place. We topped them with bacon and Tillamook Garlic White Cheddar. We got to taste this cheese while at the Tillamook Cheese Factory on our vacation. We have enjoyed it in omelets and scrambles this week too. Other than being a bit too salty, the burgers were really good!

We had a fruit salad on the side. Katie and I shared a dill pickle, much to Ben's disgust:)

Wednesday, 5/12/2010

I used left over rotisserie chicken to make chicken burritos tonight. This is such an easy dish to make when the chicken is already shredded. Looks like I last made this dish on 4/20, almost made it a month before repeating it:)

We are trying to have more fruit and vegetables with our meals so that Katie will eat them. She eats much better when she is offered the same things we are eating. So, although we would usually go without a side dish when having burritos, I fixed a lovely fruit salad this evening. I used fresh strawberries, pear, and grapes. This thrilled Katie, who gobbled it down. There was a little salad left over. I plan to give it to her for breakfast tomorrow.