Almost Dinner

So although I haven't posted. I haven't really missed a day on my dinner goal. We had pizza and went out to dinner once and then there's yesterday. Ok, yesterday doesn't count. I was all set up to have a great dinner with friends and even  planned this awesome cake:

Unfortunately, yesterday morning I got super sick. As in throwing up sick. So dinner got canceled and Andrew ended up having to make dinner himself because I was sleeping in bed. Or crouching by the toilet. Anyway, feeling a little better this morning but I don't know if I'll be able to make dinner again tonight. Because it's sickness, I'm not counting these days against my dinner goal. That just wouldn't be fair. 

Not terribly healthy, but this is what Andrew and I had for desert one of these past days. I finally found the photo. Yum . . . . 

 And this is the plate of snacks I put together for Andrew so he could snack during his 15 minute breaks on Saturday. Raspberries, blueberries, cookies, chocolate covered macadamia nuts, chips, roll, celery, cucumber, carrot, olives, and cherries. And a cup of cold milk.

P.S. We have bugs in the house. Lots of them. I just find it kind of ironic that the two newlyweds are dealing with a Love Bug infestations!

The Amazing Slow Cooker

So yesterday, I discovered the amazing device called the Crock Pot. With a little preparation in the morning, I can run around all day long, get back tired and still have a warm meal ready to go. Oh I'm so glad I got one for my wedding. Thank you.

Thursday: No-fuss Potato Soup - from a Taste of Home Slow Cooker Recipe Book I got with my Crockpot


I have a picture, but I couldn't find it when I posted this, so I'll just update when I can find it. It looked way better than the picture turned out anyway.

6 cups cubed peeled potatoes
2 cups chopped onion - So once again, onions from my garden instead. By this day I'm thinking I should have just bought onions.
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots
5 cups water
1/4 cup butter, cubed
4 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper - heck I just shook the pepper shaker till it smelled like pepper everywhere.
1 can evaporated milk
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley - I didn't have any so I skipped this but it sounds good.

Since that amount of ingredients makes enough for 8-10 servings, I cut it all in half. We also ended up adding bacon bits to it (because Andrew likes bacon . . . a lot.)

Just add everything except the milk and parsley together in the crockpot and let it cook on high for 7-8 hours. Then add the milk and parsley, let it cook for another 30-60 minutes and eat.

It was really good, but I'm toying with the idea of adding some sausage next time. It tasted a whole lot like the sausage soup at Olive Garden and I'm wondering what it would taste like if I added some sausage.

Back To Dinners!

Now that we're in the middle of our first real-life as a married couple week, I've begun my goal of making dinner every night. It's actually not that bad so far. Everything I've made has turned out really well and has taken about 30 minutes. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up when school starts.

Monday: Creamy Chicken Noodles - From 101 Things to Do With Ramen Noodles

I forgot to take a picture, but hopefully I won't make that mistake again. It's an easy recipe and uses Ramen! Perfect for college students!

1 package of Chicken Ramen Noodles
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1/4 cup diced onion - I didn't have an onion so I used some chopped green onion from our garden
1 small can of chicken - I didn't have a can of chicken so I just chopped up a frozen chicken breast and browned it

Just cook the noodles (and brown the chicken), combine everything (except the noodles) including the seasoning packet and mix for about 5 minutes to warm, then put it on top of the noodles. The recipe said to put just under 1/2 the seasoning packet in, but when I tasted my food it needed more salt so I just added some more of the packet.

Really easy and Andrew said it tasted great!

Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup - From Allrecipes.com

 

A little bit of a blurry picture but still . . . at least I remembered! This honestly didn't take long. It was another combine all the ingredients and stir recipe and it was sooo good! One of my favorite foods is the Chicken Tortilla Soup at Zupas. Ok, so maybe this wasn't quite that good but it did turn out really well.

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into cubes

1/2 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin - Ok so I didn't have this in my pantry, but if you need it, come borrow it from me.

2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth - I might add another can since it turned out a little chunkier than I'd like

1 cup frozen corn kernels - I didn't have frozen ones so I just bought a can and used that

1 cup chopped onion - Once again, substituted onion from my garden

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 tablespoon lemon juice - Lime juice would probably work better but hey it turned out okay with lemon

1 cup chunky salsa

8 ounces corn tortilla chips

1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional)

 I added a can of black beans, cilantro, chopped tomato, and some slices of lime.

In a large pot over medium heat, cook and stir chicken in the oil for 5 minutes. (I just did it till the chicken looked cooked.) Add the garlic and cumin and mix well. Then add the broth, corn, onion, chili powder, lemon juice, (and beans), and salsa. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes. Break up some tortilla chips into individual bowls and pour soup over chips. Top with the Monterey Jack cheese (, cilantro, tomato, lime,) and a little sour cream.

Honestly so good! It made enough for four servings so Andrew and I had the leftovers for lunch today. I also put some sourdough bread, chips, and berries on the side. It was super good. We also had some peach ice-cream for desert since yesterday was Peach Ice-Cream Day. Got to celebrate them holidays right?

Today: Roast Roots - Originally learned from a Redwall Recipe book

First of all, I would recommend that you get the Redwall Recipe book. I saw it once when I was a kid and have missed it since. If you're an avid book reader, I'm sure you've read some of the Redwall series. If not, shame on you and go find them. It starts with Redwall I think. One of the best series I ever read. In it the author mentions all kinds of recipes. Then one day, he put together a recipe book of many of the same recipes he had written about. So cool! Basically, I recommend getting it because children will love it! 

Number 1: they'll get to make things they'll have read about (plus it may help get them reading). Number 2: the recipes are simple (most of them are designed for children to make). 

Number 3: I'm pretty sure they're all vegetarian (or have some seafood). So you'll be able to get your children eating vegetables. (Heck, if you're like me you still need an incentive to eat your veggies.) The reason they're vegetarian is because the characters in the book series are animals and you can't very well write about animals eating animals casually. 

This recipe was fun because I got to use things that I hadn't tried a lot of. In fact, I couldn't find a Rutabaga in any Walmart so my mom had to go find one for me. 

Salt

1 Small Rutabaga

4 medium parsnips

4 medium carrots

Vegetable oil

Pepper

Super simple directions. Peel and chop up all the vegetables. I'd recommend 2" by 2" cubes but honestly anything works. Keep them bigger than you expect. Boil some water and add a salt. (No specific amount, just be generous). Add the vegetables to the boiling water and cook it for about 3 minutes. Coat an oven pan with oil, transfer the vegetables from the water to the pan, coat them with oil, add salt and pepper to taste, and bake until the vegetables are golden brown. (375 for 30 minutes about. Or if you have an oven as small as mine - 15.) Serve warm.

You'll love the smells your kitchen gets as you prepare this. The vegetables just smell earthy. It can seem to turn things a yellow color (probably from the Rutabaga) but it washes right off. You'll be surprised how good vegetables alone can taste. 

Oh, by the way - that's a berry salad, stick of celery and cucumber, two olives, and two nutella filled strawberries. Kinda found the desert off Pinterest. Way fun. The idea is chocolate covered strawberries without the mess when you try to eat them. Instead of filling them with chocolate I filled them with Nutella. That way there's nothing hard to bite into. Loved it!

Advice in Planning Dinners

Okay, I know. I haven't even been making family dinners for a week . . . but I have some advice. It was actually picked up from someone way more experience than me. Plan at least a week ahead of time and plan generally for a month. What I did is I came up with lots of general categories:

ramen, thai, slow cooker, vegetarian, family recipes, relief society recipes, soup, italian, buffet, picnic, mexican, hawaiian, dad's pick, mom's day off, dinner with friends, Pinterest . . .  

You get the idea. Then I assigned a general category for every day of the month. On Sunday I sat down, went through my cookbooks and picked out specific meals for each day to fit the category. Then I went through my cupboards, looked to see what I needed, and made a shopping list. Monday I bought a week's worth of groceries. (You'll save money because you're just buying things you need. But DON"T go when you're hungry . . .) Then, I've just been flexible. If I don't have time in the morning to make the slow cooker recipe, I swap it with another day. I have all the stuff for the week's groceries so that's possible. 

After each meal, I ask Andrew if it's a keeper and I mark my notes in my recipe books. Eventually I'll use all the things in Pinterest and mark whether I want to keep those or not as well. Anyway, hope you have as much luck as I have with dinners. Heck, I haven't even burned something yet! (3 days in.) I did cut myself today though . . . . it's those knives!

Hawaii: Episode 9 - The End of the Journey

Alas, this is where our journey in Hawaii ended. Luckily we didn't fly out until 7 pm so we pretty much had the whole day. We took half of the day packing again but then we went to 'Akaka waterfall, took a picture with the statue (the one that Andrew had wanted to take a picture with since day 1), ate our last loco moco, and spent the rest of the day/night at the airport.

The waterfall was beautiful! It falls 429' (I think. If I'm remembering correctly) straight down. We also learned about a fish that swims all the way back to the TOP of the waterfall from the ocean in order to mate. Crazy! It has a sucker on the bottom and it basically jumps rock to rock up the waterfall.

The funny story about this statue is that it is a gift from another island. See this King almost ruled all of Hawaii. Thus every island has a statue of him. However, he never ruled a certain island so instead of putting their statue on their island they donated it to the big island of Hawaii. So Hawaii has too statues of this guy.

The end! Thank you all who made it possible for us to go on this trip. It was amazing and so very memorable!

Hawaii: Episode 8 - Volcanos and Lava Tubes

To start the day off, we got to walk through a 42 mile long lava tube. Okay, we didn't walk nearly that far but that's how long the tube is. What happens is lava is flowing along and the lava on the outside cools from the air and the lava inside keeps flowing thus creating a lava tube. Later when all the lava inside has drained out it becomes giant caves. It was pitch black inside so we could take very few pictures but here's a few. The cave wasn't scary . . . unless you're climbing up a 16' ladder while a wolf spider crawls toward you. Yup, other than that it was cool.

The Volcano National Park: cool - literally. We waited for hours to see the glow of the lava. It was cold, but honestly worth it.

We also took the time to drive down to Green Sand Beach. The sand is actually green! There's olivine deposits in the rock and the water has worn them down and included them in the sand. Even cooler was the wicked ride down to it. It was a MAZE of 4 wheel driving. You drive in and you see 3+ trails you can take worn so deep into the sand that the walls would go up to the roof of the car. Each trail can split and sometimes you'll have to back up out of the trail because there's a deep ditch worn from previous cars at the end. It was super fun. When you finally get to the beach, you basically have to climb down a cliff to get to it. It's small, green, and steep. Great fun and worth the drive.

Hawaii: Episode 7 - Beaches

Ah! The whole reason people go to Hawaii right? We crammed all of the best beaches into this one day. Since Andrew has a ruddy complexion, he tends to burn. So we lathered him up with sunscreen all day. End result? Kenzie turns bright purple and Andrew doesn't burn at all. Ratcha-fratcha. 

Beach #1: Hapuna Beach

Beautiful but crowded. Ok, so it doesn't look crowded here but I'm selecting the pictures that show off the beach best. White smooth sand, clear warm water, and sea turtles! What fun! I tried to convince Andrew to let me bury him but he talked me out of it because I lacked a shovel. Lame. We swam, stared at some sea turtles, then wrote our name in the sand . . . then did it again . . . and again . . . and again. (Because the water kept washing it away.) We finally caught this photo below.

Beach #2: Kuki'o Beach

A cool looking name I'm sure. However, it actually means to stand and defecate. Honestly, I have no idea why that it's called that. It was beautiful, maybe a few too many rocks, but we sat behind this tree and were pretty secluded. Here we actually got to swim with a sea turtle for a long way. It was interesting snorkeling because although we could touch the bottom, we couldn't put our feet down because of how many sea urchins there were. Before we left, I took the shells I had collected from the sand and created a heart for Andrew. Naturally, he took a picture of it. :)

Beach #3: Makalawena Beach

Honestly, this was probably my favorite beach. 1st: there was a fun drive down - long and bumpy on lava rock. The road was so nasty, we kept passing people who decided to park and walk the rest of the way. Psh. Sissies. Although the shade was covered by pokey balls and pine needles (right pine needles in Hawaii?) the sand itself was the softest and whitest I had ever seen. There was a little pool of water created by lava rock with about a foot of crystal clear water. We also saw sea turtles here but the water was so full of sand it was hard to take pictures as we swam with it.

The drive home:

This is a beautiful sunset Andrew caught on the trip home.

All in all, a beautiful wonderful sunburny day on the beach.

Hawaii: Episode 6 - Tide Pools and Lava Trees

So there were several things we did this day: snorkeling at Champagne Pond, visiting the Kapoho Tide Pools and New Kaimu Beach, and wandering around The Lava Tree State Park.

These are some of my favorite pictures from Champagne Pond. None of our pictures of the fish really turned out. It was only an $8 underwater camera. But the ones of us are fun. The water was clear (mostly) and warm and best of all, we had it all to ourselves (almost). There were only 3 other people there when we showed up and they got out quickly to sun bathe so it was great!

New Kaimu Beach is interesting. It was previously known as the famous Black Sand Beach until lava came and wiped it out. Because the natives loved it so much they tried to reclaim it by planting palm trees, but honestly they haven't really taken to the barren land. To get to the small portion of 'beach' remaining you have to walk a trail of red sand spread over the lava plain. Pretty cool if you ask me.

After much turning around and bad directions (on my part) we finally arrived at the Lava Tree State Park. It was pretty cool too. Unfortunaltly it was raining so we (as in cold little me) weren't too interested in walking the whole thing. Nevertheless, we got some pretty cool pictures. What happens when hot lava hits a water filled tree? The lava climbs up the tree, burning and killing the tree, but cools around the dying tree, because of the water, and leaves these "lava trees". They can get pretty tall! There were also some deep cracks left from the volcanic activity here too.

When we went to these tide pools, we walked around for a bit and eventually decided that they weren't very interesting. It wasn't until we got home and mom and dad told us we had gone to the wrong place. We saw a few small fish, (a lot of fat swimmers), and dead crabs. If we had gone more the right, apparently there is an AMAZING snorkeling opportunity. Too bad we missed it. It's one of our few regrets and if we go back we'll do it then.

Now, one of my favorite places (mostly because of the drive down). If you drive out in the middle of the rainforest and take a random road you might see another little road carved into hemp bush - if you look closely. (We missed it the first time.) There's literally barely enough room through the bush for the car to fit. It arcs over the top of the car and completely encloses you. It's a 4WD trip down to a lava beach that is pretty much completely secluded. The road is so 4WD, we found a car crashed at the bottom. When we first got there, we shared the area with two little Hawaiian boys who were attempting to fish while snorkeling. They moved on pretty fast though. We were slightly disappointed because in our tourist book the place was advertised as a naturally heated lava pool. Unfortunately, the water was so cold I didn't want to swim in it. Nevertheless, we spent a good long time just sitting on the rock watching the waves crash into the pools contained by lava rocks. We watched the waves grow and only left when we worried it might become dangerous.

It was another fun day in Hawaii. Once again, I have way more pictures than I think Blogger will let me put up. Love you all,

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