No Fry Zone Eggplant Parm

This is a variation of eggplant parm that my neighbor makes.  Both she and her husband are vegiterians and have made this for us and I loved it was a no fry recipe.  I hate frying things, it's so unhealthy, and I always love doing a lighter version of things.

Baked Eggplant Parm

1 Eggplant
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 Cup Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs
1/2 Jar Tomato Sauce
Parm Cheese

First wash your eggplant.  I'm not sure if this step is necessary but for some reason I like to do it and eel a quick rinse helps to clean it off a little bit.  Next you will want to slice your eggplant as thin as you can. I do this by hand and generally my slices are about 1/4" thick.  The thinner they are the crispier they will be when they come out of the oven, but after you bake everything together you generally loose crispiness anyway.

Next, brush olive oil on each slide of a slice of eggplant and dip into the bread crumbs.  Do this for each slice.

Place each slice on a baking sheet.  I prefer to have my baking sheets covered in foil for easy clean up and also spray the foil with cooking spray to prevent any sticking that could occur.

Bake for 20 minutes or until they begin to crisp up, at 400 degrees flipping each slice over about halfway through.

After they come out of the oven take a loaf pan (of course, foiled and sprayed) and beginning assembly.

 

 

To prevent further sticking, and add flavor, pour a bit of sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Then begin assembly: Eggplant slices, sauce, parm cheese until the pan is filled.  Cover with Foil to bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Lunchies Week of 2.25

Here are #1's lunches from this week.  You might wonder why I'm posting the weeks lunches already, well #1 only goes to school Monday and Wednesday and I am a huge proponent of making lunches the night before.  Thus, by Tuesday evening I'm done making lunches for the week and since the winter session of tennis is over 21 hours until my week is over and my extended weekend begins.  You know, because weekends exist when you have kids!

Monday

As always I have stuck to my usual formula: a sandwich and dairy item in the main compartment, fruit in the larger side compartment, and some sort of tummy filler/carb item in the smaller side compartment.

This lunch has a blueberry Gogurt and a Smiley face egg salad sandwich.  I allowed #1 to choose her carb and the only choices were PB Cheerios or Annies snack mix (DH bought this and for some reason neither girl is a fan, which I totally do not understand.  Pretzels and cheese crackers, what's not to like).  She went with the Cheerios.  Her fruit is apples.  Both kids hate the skin on the apples so I always peel it off or it doesn't get eaten.  This is the first time I have included apples and probably the last as they only sat in the container for the time it took to make the egg salad (no more than 25 minutes) and they looked horrible.  But, even after I saw this I kept them in there as it was Sunday night-the time of the week when we have the least food in the house as I go shopping Mondays at 9 AM.  And, of course, a bottle of water.  Even though, I didn't love this lunch, at least how it looked, when I picked #1 up from school that afternoon her teacher went on and on about how Jema couldn't get enough of her lunch and devoured it in a matter of minutes.

Wednesday

Grandpa Z came for an overnight visit and of course he always brings treats and most of what is in this lunch.
Goober and Grape (strawberry) PB&J crown sandwich.  Generally, a product I would never buy, but he took #1 to the store today and she picked it out and it's what she wanted.  String cheese, grapes, and Annies whole wheat crackers (also brought over by Z).  These I tasted and they taste like bunny shaped Wheat Thins.  And the bottle of water that usually comes home with only a few sips taken from it.

Garlic Bread Pull-Apart Grands

I have been trying to make a point to use more coupons lately and have been getting them through this site I use called Inboxdollars.com.  On this website you can get paid to take surveys and if you print your coupons through them they will give you $.10 for each coupon you use through them.  This has also led me to use coupons that I might not normally clip.  I'm generally not a huge Pillsbury bread person but I will buy them from time to time to make a special treat for everyone.  I recently came across a coupon for $.40 off when you buy two Pillsbury Grands or Sweet Rolls.  This combined with double couponing and a sale that week on Pillsbury I deviated from my normal shopping items and bought a container of cinnabuns (featured here)
and one container of Grands.  I have had this tube of Grands sitting in my fridge for almost two weeks trying to decide what to do with it when the other night I was making Italian chicken (boneless/skinless breasts marinated in Olive Garden's Italian dressing) with a salad when I decided I needed something else to go with it.  I didn't want to just make the Grands and trying to stick with my Italian theme wanted to do a garlic bread sort of thing with them.  I spent maybe 20 minutes searching for a recipe and really could not come up with much until I found a picture of them in a bunt pan on Pinterest but every link for them I clicked on took me nowhere.  So using several pictures and their descriptions I found via the search feature I put together this recipe.  Keep in mind as reading this that I rarely measure and prefer to eyeball things so these measurements are estimates and you should use your own discression.  If you don't love garlic, don't put as much or if you love it put more, etc.

Garlic Bread Pull-Apart Grands

Tube of Grands
1/2 Stick of Butter
1/4 Parm Cheese
2 TspGarlic Powder
3 Cloves Fresh Garlic
2 Tsp Onion Powder
Salt
1/4 Cup Pizza Cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 and also to save time I put the bunt pan in there for 10 minutes while the oven was heating up so it would be warm enough for me to throw my butter into and it would melt faster.

While the preheating was going on in a mixing bowl combine all ingredients except the butter and the grands. I hate cutting garlic-it makes my hands sticky and smelly and also requires me to dirty (and wash) and knife and cutting board.  This is a trick I have seen Rachel Ray do and I love it.  Peel the clove and just grate it!  I do this right into the pan or in this case the bowl.  Give the ingredients a quick stir to just combine everything.

Next take your Grands and quarter them.  This was a great task for #1 to as she LOVES to help and can handle a butter knife.  Once all of the biscuits are quartered throw them into the bowl of garlic and cheese and toss to coat them.  Also, by this point your oven should be heated, your pan warmed, and you butter that is in it melted.  I swirled the pan around a bit to spread the butter and help prevent sticking.

Throw all of the pieces into the buttered bunt pan and then pour the remaining garlic/cheese mixture over the top.  I baked these for about 20 minutes (in the same oven with my chicken) and when I pulled them out they  looked done but when I pulled a piece off it was not quite there yet.  I would say probably 25 minutes would be sufficient but since DH was running late I just turned my oven off and let them sit in there until he got home 10 minutes later.

I flipped it out of the pan onto a plate.

I would say it is definitely not the prettiest thing in the world but it tasted delicious and would also make a great appetizer since it pulls apart so easily and would be awesome dipped in marinara sauce.

Lunchies

This is actually a pretty quick post.  Since #1 has started school I have made a point to make her special lunches.  I never really thought much about it and was really only doing it so the night before school when she saw her special lunch she would be excited to eat it the next day at school.  It didn't even occur to me that I should be taking pictures of them until the week before break when her teacher commented on how she looks forward to seeing #1's lunch everyday.  So I decided in addition to my regular posts I will start to post her lunches.  #1 only goes two days a week and since it was presidents day this week there is only one lunch to post.

Generally I only like to send sandwiches as I feel they hold up the best.  And, even though, she is not a picky eater most sandwiches come back unless they are egg salad or PB&J and lately she has not wanted egg salad (which is fine with me as it takes much longer to make).  For her drink I always send a bottle of water even though I know she barely drinks any, but it's better than Juice and sometimes as a surprise I will send a milk.  I the top compartment is usually a cracker of some kind and in the bottom larger area is always fruit (this largely depends on what I have on hand).  And, along with the sandwich as long as there is room I always include a dairy of some sort, usually a gogurt or a cheese stick.

This week it was Koala crackers (something my dad had brought for the kids when he visited last).  Strawberry and banana fruit salad.  A strawberry gogurt and two PB&J "J" sandwiches.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

I have been MIA for several days now due to sickness running rampant through my house.  It started with #1 and a strange virus that kept her under the weather for about a week following a week where she had a cold.  Just as everything was dying down with her #2 came down with a cold-no big deal.  It was also around this time that husband had to leave for a week for a business trip, which is generally a rare occasion.  The night before he left I was just feeling run down and tired and when I woke up the next morning I was still feeling that was and had a headache.  My mother came to pick me and the girls up to go to her house for a few days.  My parents had not seen the children in about a month and any time husband is out of town is a great time for them as they have said several times they love our kids so much and have hinted at us they can do without.  Though, this is all a story for another day or at the very least a therapist.

Well over a week ago #1 had her Valentines party at school and I had volunteered to make treats for it.  I has actually signed up to make a surprise, the other options on the list were Jello, cookies, strawberries, and various paper items.  I, personally, always like to make a surprise because I like to do more than the bare minimum.     I didn't want to go too out of my way as I did that for Christmas and it didn't seem like any of the other parents did and I just didn't feel it was necessary.  After searching Pinterest for several days I finally decided on blondies!

My husband, believe it or not, is NOT a fan of chocolate, actually, he hates it!  And, of course, it's always a disappointment to him when he comes home and smells something yummy has been baking and finds out it's chocolate based.  These blondies are from scratch and super easy-you actually probably have all of the ingredients on hand right now.   The Valentine's Day twist to these was I added Valentine's M&Ms.  And, as I have admitted before I am not a scientist in the kitchen and do not generally make up the recipes I use and  I copied this to the tea from this blog http://www.bakedperfection.com/2009/02/brown-sugar-blondies-for-valentines-day.html

Also, I will note that I needed enough for her class of 16 as well as the two teachers so I doubled this recipe which worked out in my favor because I do not own a 1/8 tsp!

Ingredients:
1 Cup of Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/8 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/3 Cup Butter
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 Tbs Vanilla
1 Cup M&Ms*

*though there is more than 2 cups in the entire bag I just used all of it, sans what #1 and I ate while we were making them.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish.  I actually prefer to cover the dish in foil to minimize cleanup and I use Pam to grease it.

Beat melted butter and sugar until well blended.  Then, add eggs and vanilla.




I know you are supposed to pre-mix all dry ingredients and add them already combined to your wet mixture, but who has time for that and personally I think it ends up all the same.  So, now you add all of yoru dry ingredients however you would like as long as they all get in there and are mixed well.  Once everything is combined add half the bag of M&Ms mix and the batter is ready to be moved to the baking dish.

Here is where you would add the rest off the M&Ms but I had some red sanding sugar left from Christmas and thought why not add that on top to make them a bit more festive.  Plus, #1 thought it was fun!

 After the sanding sugar, add the rest of the M&Ms and push them down a little bit to make sure they stick to the batter.  Bake at 350 until they are set and a toothpick comes out clean, this was a little over 30 minutes for me.

And this is what you end up with.  After cooling in the pan for about 10 minutes I pulled them out with the foil and let the cool on the counter hoping this would help it happen a little faster.

Cut and Viola!  They were delicious!!!

Everyday I'm Swiffering

For probably close to three months now I have been out of Swiffer dusters.  In my search to find the cheapest price on refills I came across, on Etsy, washable/reusable Swiffers.  I am most certainly not a great sewer, I can barely go straight and usually don't, but I thought how hard can this project be.  The Etsy sale was for two washable and reusable dusters for $9-not a bad deal when a box of 10 is $7 and that only lasts 3 months if you change them with each dusting and dust weekly...ummm like I do?  Ok, maybe they last a lot  longer here considering dusting is my Sunday chore and I'm always making excuses not to do my Sunday chores.  They looked simple enough to make, I have plenty of micro fleece around the house (large pieces of fabric purchased at Walmart and used as couch and picnic blankets), and even better I already had a template (an old used nasty duster).  But, every time I went to sit down to make my washable duster, which included getting out a scissor, the fleece, a measuring tape, and going to the basement to get my sewing machine (have I mentioned before I need a craft room) I talked my self out of making them by saying to myself why cut up a blanket and spend ALLLL of this time, the dusters cost merely more than pennies.  Then, of course, every time I was at the store and about to go down the aisle that had dusters I would talk myself our of buying them, saying why spend the money when you can make them so easily in a few minutes.  Well, this internal debate of being cheap and lazy went on for far longer than it should.  This past weekend, feeling a little restless and without a project to concentrate on, I was finally industrious and sat down with all of my supplies and started to make my knockoff, environmentally friendly, washable, reusable Swiffer Duster.

First the supplies

An old Swiffer Duster Wand
Sewing Machine-Though this could easily be done by hand at a much slower pace
Micro Fleece-I used a section of an old blanket
Scissors
Measuring Tape
Chalk

It was around this point when I was getting my supplies out that I realized I did not have an old duster to use as my template.  Imagine that I had a dirty old dusting cloth and threw it in the garbage?!  Crazy I know!  So at this point to get the measurements I would need I just googled how to make a Swiffer duster and came across the page you see in the picture.  http://littledeartracks.blogspot.com/2010/06/better-than-swiffer-dusters.html  This isn't the exact site I used but I looked at several including this one for the measurements.  Basically, what you need are 3-4 8.5"x4.5" pieces of fleece.  I used three and made one o then half sized as i thought this would help in collecting more dust.  To cut the pieces I used my tape measure and a piece of sidewalk chalk and  make several tick marks 4.5" in going up the size of the fleece from the edge.  I then folded the fleece along these dots and cut.  I laid out my 4.5' wide strip and cut 3 8.5" pieces.  As you can see from the picture the edge of the fleece had writing on it so it was no big loss to cut it off the blanket.  And, just in case you were wondering, that is in fact a Yoda blanket I'm cutting up.  Granted, I like Star Wars as much as the next person but really, again, no big loss here.

The next step was to make my pattern to sew on.  I'm sure most sewers cold do this step with out the guides, but as I said earlier sewing straight is a talent I lack.  I made three likes about 2/3 o the way up.  The first line I made was down the center and for these I used my measuring tape and a straight edge.  From the center line I made two more lines, one to the left and one to the right that were approximately .75" away.  These were my guides as to where to sew, but you should always measure twice.  At this point hold the Swiffer wand against the lines to make sure they will line up properly and the wand will fit into the pockets you are making for it.  Now it is time to sew.

First, I sewed the perimeter, the two sides and top all at once-Remember to sew the end and beginning forward and back a few times to secure your stitches! 

 Next, I Sewed the middle line making sure to leave about an inch at the bottom, as this is how the spokes on the wand are shaped.  

Then, finally, all you need to do is cut slits in your fleece to make "dust grabbers," slide onto your wand and dust away!

I was also thinking something even easier to do would be to trace your hand and cut out 2 mitten shapes and you would have a hand duster, though I think the wand style with "grabbers" is far superior.

I actually used this right away to make sure it worked and it was great and since I had some laundry going i threw it in with a load and it washed beautifully and is ready for next Sunday when I make a new excuse not to dust.

What's Cookin...Oh just some Play-doh

#1 LOVES to play play-doh.  I'm not the biggest fan because it is an activity that #2 cannot do and really cannot even be out when #2 is awake due to the mass amount of debris that ends up on the floor.  Somehow a half hour play session results in enough Play-Doh crumbs on the floor to fill at least two containers.  Which isn't the biggest deal, except for the fact that #1, like all 3 year olds, lacks the ability to sit still.  Thus, the mass amount of minuscule pieces of Play-Doh on the floor end up suck to her socks and tracked around the downstairs.  Plus, after about 5 minutes I get bored of the stuff but #1 likes me to sit there and assist.  For quite some time #1 has been begging me to make Play-Doh from scratch-ever since she saw a video of it on You Tube.  #1 must have watched that video on repeat 10 times a day for weeks, but we never made Play-Doh because what seemed like a very important ingredient, cream of tartar, was never on stock in our house.  Really, I'm not even sure what it does and I'm certainly not the type to have fancy ingredients around the house. I actually only had the stuff on hand because it was an ingredient in the French vanilla cookies I make as favors for the girls' birthday party and my mom thought it was necessary and bought it.  And really, a can of Play-Doh is like $.50 it's definitely not worth the effort (or mess) to make it.  But, this week #1 was sick-nothing major just a cold with a low grade fever, which according to the doctor didn't even count as a fever because it was so low-and I was more than willing to indulge the poor little sick thing.  Nothing is more pathetic than a sick child!  So, using a recipe I had been saving on Pinterest we cooked up our first batch of Glitter-Doh.  I'm by no means a kitchen scientist and i got my recipe here http://thecreativemama.com/how-to-make-glitter-playdough/ and followed it to the tea.

First step the ingredients...#1 loves to help so usually what I do is measure everything out all at once and line them up and let her pour them into whatever vessel we are using.

The ingredients:
1 Cup of flour
1 Cup of Water
1/4 Cup of Salt
1 Tbs of Vegetable Oil
2 Tsp of Cream of Tartar (whatever this is)
Food Coloring-We used a little bit of red as pink is #1's favorite
Glitter*

*Generally my favorite glitter is Martha Stewart's which I absolutely love!  The fact that it is so fine makes it look amazing on any project, but it's also quite pricey.  For this project I happened to have on hand a large container of cheapo craft stuff that is probably 1/8 the cost of Martha's stuff.  I'm pretty sure it was left over from about a decade ago when DH was in law school and played softball and I used to make terribly inappropriate and cheesy signs for him.

Next my little helper getting everything into the pot and mixing.

The next step was for me as it require our mixture to be cooked and constantly mixed while on the stove.  This was my least favorite part.  It took about 5 minutes and clearly my arms are not in shape to be stirring that long.

And of course the finished product...

#1 was super into this and loved playing with it.  The smell wasn't horrible but not all that great either.  I think if we do this again I will go with the Kool-Aid method to give it it's color and add a pleasant smell.

Two notes on this:

1) The glitter gets everywhere when you are playing with it so if you don't want to deal with that mess skip the glitter step.  Since, I always need to do a quick sweep and table wipe after Play-Doh it wasn't a big deal to me, but if you have a Play-Doher in your house who is neat and no clean up crew is required afterwards-skip the glitter.

2) This recipe makes A LOT of Play-Doh.  The original blog I read suggested dividing up the recipe and making different colors.  To me it's still too much and cutting the recipe in half would be fine.  Though, if you have more than one child playing with this, it's a great amount to divide among 2 or 3 kids.

No negative needed

Well, my plan was to wait until tomorrow to take my second test, but as of this morning there was no need.  I guess there isn't too much to say about this except that maybe I should not have assumed that because it was so easy the first two times that it would happen right away this time around.  Between two kids being sick this week and being a little sleep deprived this is definitely a much larger blow that I would have expected it to be.  Or, maybe it's just because I really did think this was the month.  With two perfectly healthy kids who came into this world in the calmest and easiest of ways I definitely do not feel justified in feeling so sad.  If I have ever felt 31 today is the day!  My plans for the day will definitely consist of taking down all pictures in the guest bedroom that have been posted on the walls as decorating ideas and hopefully something super fun with my sicky-poos to get me out of my funk.  Here's to trying to look forward to next month!