Happy Valentine's Day! (with gifts for you!)

Happy Valentine's Day to all my wonderful Smiling Mama readers!

Abel and I will have a quiet Valentine's Day this year. No grand romantic gestures on this, the 10th Anniversary of our first Valentine's day together. And yet, at home with our wonderful two boys, it seems like just the perfect day.

I have a few Valentine's to send your way this year, dear readers...

First, over the past few days, I've posted some great indoor activities to help your family survive Snowpocalypse 2010 over at Out by Ten. Usually I just post about local activities but anyone, anywhere trying to keep sane while snowed in or just looking for some fun new ideas to do with your kids should go over and check it out.

Second, I have a hot tip for you about an amazing Valentine's Day giveaway at Tech Savvy Mama. I've written about her amazing site and incredible giveaways before but these Valentine's Day prizes really take the box of chocolates! I want every single one of them! For example, I was just telling Abel and my mother-in-law about the Toshiba Digital Frame, I think I could get Lucas to do almost all our cleaning if I won the Dyson DC31, and as the days slowly (oh so slowly but spring is on its way!!) get longer, I think the Good Nite Light would help us get Lucas to not pounce on our bed earlier and earlier every day. And those are just a few of the amazing prizes. So, go enter, and if you win, consider it my Valentine's Day gift to you!!


And, finally, I've got a fantastic recipe to share! I've taken this to two pot lucks recently and multiple people have requested the recipe. It is easy and delicious. Enjoy!

Nicole's Thai Noodle Salad

(I have no idea who Nicole is, but the person who gave me the recipe called it this and I feel the need to continue to give Nicole credit!)

Sauce:

1/4 Cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter (I've always used smooth)
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons sesame oil
3 Tablespoons salad oil
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce

Salad:

10 oz angel hair pasta, cooked and drained
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
3 Tablespoons julienned red pepper (steamed or raw)
2 Tablespoons julienned carrot (steamed or raw)
3 Tablespoons chopped green onion

Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Add noodles to a large bowl and coat with sauce. Add remaining salad ingredients and mix well. Chill before serving.

Notes: I'm always very liberal with the cilantro, red pepper and carrots. Also, the most recent time I made this, I also made chicken satay to go with it. I just doubled the sauce, cut two chicken breasts into small pieces and marinated them in a few tablespoons of the sauce, then I cooked them and served a few more tablespoons of extra sauce on the side for dipping. This also left me with probably about 1/4 batch additional sauce to use on the noodles. I can't get enough of this yummy sauce so liked having some extra for the noodles.

I hope you enjoy all these "gifts" and have a wonderful Valentine's Day and enjoy at least one piece of delicious chocolate!


Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Favorite Things Friday: Melissa's Slow Cooker Tacos

Christmas is ONE WEEK away! Who has time to cook? Not me!

For today's Favorite Things Friday I'm pleading with you to click over to Suburban Bliss for the "Did They Eat It?" Slow Cooker Tacos recipe. Seriously. This is one of the easiest dishes I have ever made. (You don't even have to thaw the chicken!) And it turned out to be incredibly delicious. Abel and I both loved it. The next night we even invited some friends to stay for dinner at the very last minute and served these as leftovers. Abel and I loved them even more and our friends raved about them, too.

A few quick notes:

1) I used an entire packet of taco seasoning. (Unlike Melissa, I don't make my own but probably should.)
2) I used a bag of frozen corn and did not think it was too much or too sweet.
3) I would consider using two cans of black beans next time.
4) I think this could be turned into a yummy vegetarian dish by adding even more and different types of beans.
5) We're tortilla snobs and highly recommend Trader Joe's handmade tortillas.
6) On the first night we had Goya Mexican rice as a side, on the second night we made white rice, put it in the tortilla and wrapped them up like burritos. Both were delicious!

Now! Click over, make and enjoy!

Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Amazing Hot Chocolate

Want to know something strange about me? I Do. Not. Like. Hot. Beverages. Seriously. I'll almost always pass on hot tea and very much dislike coffee. The only exception is that when the weather turns cold I love hot chocolate. A tall hot chocolate from Starbucks is my favorite (I can never finish the larger sizes!). So much so that when I developed gestational diabetes when pregnant with Lucas and had to give up hot chocolate from the end of October through the end of December, my biggest request of something for Abel to bring me in the hospital was a Starbucks hot chocolate. Boy did I savor that drink!

The weather has certainly turned cold but these days I rarely get to a Starbucks. What to do? What to do? Try to recreate it at home!

Ghirardelli to the rescue!

I mean unsweetened dark cocoa is good for you, right? (Antioxidants and all that!). The recipe for some pretty delicious hot chocolate is right on the back of that can. I use approximate measurements but it's basically 1 C of milk, 1.5 TBS cocoa and 1.5 TBS sugar. You must take the time to slowly cook/warm it on the stove top while stirring constantly.

Really, I insist. (And go ahead and double that in advance--you'll certainly want more than 1 cup!)

Cooking it slowly on the stove allows the cocoa dissolve nicely and doesn't scald the milk. When it's up to your desired temperature pour it into your favorite mug and then, of course, add a generous helping of miniature marshmallows or whip cream.

Enjoy!

Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Favorite Things Friday: Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Photo of zucchini and husband courtesy Organized Living by Amy

I seem to be determined to do the most unhealthy things possible with my farmer's market produce this week. First, with the amazingly fresh and delicious peaches and blueberries, I made pie. Then, with several zucchinis much smaller than the one pictured above, I made one of my summertime favorites: Chocolate Zucchini Bread. It's my feature for this week's Favorite Things Friday.

This sweet bread was an August staple in my house growing up. There was one unfortunate year when I pureed cucumber rather than zucchini when helping my mom bake and I will never again confuse the two!

The recipe is incredibly easy. I highly recommend making three loaves rather than a bundt cake. The loaves freeze really well.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

3 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

4 eggs, beaten
3 C sugar
1 1/2 C oil

Beat eggs, sugar and oil; mix dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients. Then mix in:

1/2 C cocoa
3 C peeled, pureed zucchini

Grease and flour bundt pan or 3 bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (My oven bakes this in closer to 1 hour; I'd check on it at that mark just in case.)

Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan.

As with all things unhealthy, it can get even more delicious and unhealthy: try a warm slice spread with butter!


Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Ooey gooey amazingness

I don't know what got into me on Saturday but I cooked and baked up a storm. First, I cooked a huge batch of easy sausage jambalaya for a family in town who recently lost their son. Then, I moved on to desserts.

On our way home from the beach, I just couldn't resist the sign for shelled pecans. They just sat on my counter because I just couldn't figure out what to do with them. Finally I cracked my good old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and quickly discovered that pretty much every recipe involving pecans also includes large quantities of butter, sugar, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate or all of the above! I went ahead and chose the most decadent looking recipe.

Oh. My. Goodness.

These things are amazing.

Luckily I was taking dinner to another family with a new baby the next night so could ship some off to them. Our neighbors very kindly agreed to watch Lucas for a few hours last-minute when Abel and I discovered we'd miscommunicated about our separate evening plans so I took some over to them as well.

Otherwise, I'm telling you, the entire pan would have ended up in my belly!

Photo via BHG.com

Chocolate Caramel Bars

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup flaked coconut (I don't like coconut so skipped this)
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
20 vanilla caramels, unwrapped
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup milk chocolate pieces or semisweet chocolate pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust: In a medium bowl, stir together flour and brown sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press onto the bottom of an ungreased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle pecans and coconut over hot crust.

2. Meanwhile, for filling: In a small bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Carefully pour over pecans and coconut, spreading evenly.

3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes more or until filling is set. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine caramels and milk. Cook and stir over medium-low heat just until caramels are melted. Drizzle caramel mixture over filling. Sprinkle with chocolate pieces. Cool completely. Cut into bars. Makes 24 bars.


Trust me. You do not want to know the nutritional value info.

Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Favorite Things Friday: Sweet & Sour Dressing

When my mom was undergoing cancer about treatments two years ago, her friends were a great support. In addition to many other things, they brought meals several nights a week for months. Lucas and I visited often during those months and so reaped the benefit of some great home cooked meals. One night a friend brought the most delicious salad dressing I have ever had. I immediately e-mailed to thank her and--of course!--request the recipe. I've been making it about every other month since then--Abel and I can't get enough of it! And, now, my dear readers, I am sharing it with you for this week's edition of Favorite Things Friday. Enjoy!

Sweet & Sour Salad Dressing

1/2 C sugar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
1/3 C cider vinegar
1/2 C finely chopped onion (I've used sweet onion and red onion before and love both)
1 C canola oil (I've also used olive oil)
2 tsp celery seed (in the spice aisle)

Mix together and then make sure to shake well each time.

Enjoy!

Easy meals

Here are a few meals that I "created" recently which were very quick and easy. I know that I am always looking for easy tips so thought I'd pass these along.

1) Easy dinner

One of our favorite easy dinners is "taco bar"--it's a hit with everyone. I tend to leave out the tortilla and put all my taco ingredients on lettuce to make a taco salad. Abel will eat his on torts and have a salad on the side. Lucas is hit or miss and sometimes just eats the ground beef mixed with some cheese. I've also found this to be a very easy and popular dinner to take to friends in town who have just had babies because everyone in the family can put together their own meal.

Here are some ideas for ingredients:

• Ground beef, browned mixed with a packaged taco seasoning or whatever you want to throw in. And--drum roll, please--here's my big tip and real reason for including this entire meal in this post. Recently, I've been adding a can of beans to the taco meat! So far, I've added black beans and kidney beans (two different attempts). I know beans are really good for you, but struggle with ways to incorporate them into meals. Lucas has consistently turned his nose up at them. But, when combined with the meat and seasonings, no one notices! So, not only do we incorporate beans into the meal, but we also make the meat go further! One note, if you are using canned beans, be sure to rinse them to get rid of all that unnecessary sodium.


• Shredded cheese
• Lettuce
• Diced tomatoes
• Diced onions
• Salsa
• Sour cream
• Guacamole or plain avocados
• Chopped cilantro
• Corn

2) Easy lunch or side

Yesterday I offered to take in a "light lunch" for a meeting that was taking place right after church. I knew one vegetarian would be attending. So, my challenges were that it needed to be something I could make ahead, something that could be served cold, something that was vegetarian. And, I thought we'd have about 5 people there but more could have decided to come at the last minute, so I couldn't just pre-make sandwiches. Late Saturday night, I came up with what turned out to be a really easy and delicious light lunch!

1 package Bertolli Spinach & Cheese Tortellini
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 jar sun dried tomatoes in oil (I chopped them up a bit more)
1 can artichoke hearts (again, I chopped them up a bit more)
Shredded Parmesan cheese

Prepare the tortellini as directed. Drizzle with EVOO, add the sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and Parmesan cheese. Mix and chill.

It worked out perfectly. Not only did it fit all the above criteria, but it was loaded with great veggies. I even have some leftovers which I brought for lunch today and can not wait to eat!

Bon appetit!

Favorite Things Friday: Aunt Gloria's Broccoli Casserole

In today's edition of Favorite Things Friday, I bring you a really great recipe: Aunt Gloria's Broccoli Casserole. I fully realize that one of the main ingredients, Cheez Wiz, might turn you off. But, I promise if you try it you will love it!

Before I give you the actual recipe, I want to tell you why this particular recipe is getting honored as a favorite thing on this, the Friday after Christmas. Well, I'll be honest, I considered writing about my family (definitely one of my favorite things!) or my new phone device (my Christmas gift from Abel that I'm obsessed with!). But, ultimately I settled on this recipe because, honestly, it has helped make this Christmas more special for me.

You see, this year was our year to celebrate Christmas with Abel's family and when we spend holidays with them there are, of course, a few things that I miss. My family is at the top of that list, but right below them are all the special foods that my mom prepares each and every year for Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve or Christmas.

So this year I decided to take things into my own hands. I packed up some recipes and the necessary supplies and brought them with me to Abel's parents' house. I scoped out the pantry and went to the grocery store for additional ingredients and on Christmas Eve afternoon I got to work making sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies (my MIL doesn't bake!). I also made an egg & sausage strata and a crumb cake for Christmas morning and--suddenly there appeared a multitude of heavenly host singing--Aunt Gloria's Broccoli Casserole.

Most of my in-laws didn't try it, but I didn't mind because that meant more leftovers for me. Having that one dish--a dish that is a favorite at every Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family--helped make my Christmas with my in-laws feel just a little more like home.

So, here you go. I hope you can see past the Cheez Whiz and give it a shot!

Aunt Gloria's Broccoli Casserole

1/4 C finely chopped onions
4 TBS butter or margarine
2 TBS flour
1/2 C water
8 oz Cheez Whiz
2 10 oz packages chopped broccoli (thawed and drained and--this is key--squeeze out all the water from the thawed broccoli about a fistful at a time)
3 beaten eggs
1/2 C bread crumbs
2 TBS butter or margarine

Saute the onions in 4 TBS butter. Stir in the flour, add the water. Cook over low heat until thick and bubbling. Blend in Cheez Whiz, broccoli and eggs.

Grease a 1.5 quart casserole dish. Pour mixture into casserole. Cover with bread crumbs, melt 2 TBS butter and drizzle over the bread crumbs.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

(You can definitely make this the day before and re-heat in the microwave! I swear that it is even better as left-overs!)

Eggplant Parm

Yesterday I mentioned that I prepared the eggplant portion of eggplant parmesan. I've made this dish now three times in the past month and a half after literally never making anything involving eggplant before in my life.

Why?

Well because we've gotten eggplants in our CSA share, of course!

With our first eggplant I was a bit stymied about what to do with the eggplant. I knew I'd had eggplant parm at restaurants before and liked it so started looking for a recipe. The problem was that every recipe I found was either:
1) very complicated
2) involved deep-frying the eggplant, or
3) both.

So, I looked at several recipes and modified them to fit three criteria:
1) easy
2) no frying, and
3) involved only ingredients I had on hand.

Here's what I've come up with. Abel and I both love the eggplant portion and Lucas will always eat spaghetti so it is a great recipe for our family.

Smiling Mama's Eggplant Parm

Peel your eggplant and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices. Dredge in egg then in panko breadcrumbs (for whatever reason I had these on hand and not regular breadcrumbs the first time I made it, but I love the extra-crunchiness of the panko so keep using those). Lightly spray baking sheet/dish with olive oil (Pam, whatever you use) and place eggplant slices in single layer in dish. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Flip slices, sprinkle with salt again and drizzle with more olive oil, bake and additional 20 minutes.

In last 20 minutes, make spaghetti according to directions, heat sauce (you know, make spaghetti!). During last few minutes of the eggplant baking, sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top.

Hopefully your spaghetti and sauce and eggplant will be ready at approximately the same time. Add salad and crusty bread for a complete meal.

Yum!

This week's harvest

No, I'm not a farmer, but I do have a farm!

As I've mentioned before, we bought a share of a CSA farm this year. Every Saturday we drive out to the farm to pick up our portion of the week's harvest. Plus there are always lots of bonuses like all-you-can pick flowers, fresh herbs and even some plant seedlings (our black-eyed susans are going to bloom any day now!).

I'm generally not very adventurous when it comes to food--especially when it comes to vegetables. But, I'm loathe to let our farm fresh veggies go to waste so this has forced me out of my comfort zone--with pretty good results.

Along with standard veggies like carrots and green beans, this week's harvest included radishes (I know, I know, they aren't really that adventurous, but I've never had radishes before!!) and a head of red cabbage and regular green cabbage. Abel also cut some fresh dill. And there's one other herb that I haven't identified yet! Abel also cut about a dozen beautiful sunflowers and a bunch of daisys for me.

After a quick perusal of foodnetwork.com I found two perfect recipes. The first is Latin Cabbage and Corn Salad which will use the red cabbage, green cabbage as well as (bonus!) fresh cilantro from my garden and limes leftover from homemade mojitos last weekend. I'm going to serve it with a great cut of grass-fed steak from our home delivery dairy which I'll season with a bit of salt & pepper then grill.

The second recipe is a Red Radish Salad by Rachel Ray. This recipe uses the radishes and dill from the farm and calls for sour cream which we have left over from my sister's visit (she was stunned that we don't keep sour cream in our fridge at all times!). This salad will be served with free-range chicken breasts, again from the dairy, which I'll marinate with a little EVOO, salt & pepper, lemon juice and garlic. (Oh, did I mention we also got 4 heads of fresh garlic in this week's share!?)

I hope they're both great--so that I'm rewarded for trying something new!

Great summer recipes

One thing that has changed about me since becoming a mother is that I've really come to enjoy cooking.

Before I met Abel, I often ate chicken nuggets and cheese for dinner. I'm not kidding. When we were dating we ate out a lot or he cooked. Even after we got married, our meals were generally things that could be prepared in 15 minutes or less.

When I was home on maternity leave I started doing a lot of baking (which I've always loved) and cooking. I poured through recipe books and tried new things. Sure, we still have some some old stand-by quick meals like grilled cheese and tomato soup or cheese quesadillas, rice and beans. And, I love using Trader Joe's pizza dough to make pizza with a big salad. But, I try to cook a real meal at least a few times a week.

On the days I'm home with Lucas, my goal is to prepare dinner during his nap. That way I just have to throw it in the oven or on the grill when Abel's on his way home and we've got a tasty, healthy meal which we can all sit down and enjoy together. If I wait until 4 or 5pm to start dinner then I may as well forget it. I think all parents would agree that is a rough time in a house with kids.

Needless to say, I haven't been doing a lot of cooking lately. The week in the hospital, the week home recovering, a week of meals from friends...brings us to last week when I was able to start to get back into the swing of things. And, I'd love to share two new recipes that really came through for us.


I ripped both of these out of my Mom's June Real Simple. Abel and I loved both of them. And, they were very easy to make.

First, pasta with zucchini and goat cheese. This was a wonderful, light summer meal. The goat cheese sauce was so creamy yet very light. I love zucchini but Abel isn't a big fan. So, I took a bit of a risk serving this but it was a hit! I do believe it even made him into a zucchini-lover! Lucas had maybe two slices of zucchini but loved the pasta and sauce. And, there was enough to provide lunch for all three of us the next day.

Second, stuffed chicken breasts with tomato salad. This was delicious! In fact, I plan to serve it the next time we have friends over for dinner. The tomato salad would make a wonderful bruschetta. In fact, when you plate it, put the toasted baguettes down on the plate and scoop the tomatoes over top. The bread will soak up all the wonderful juices! I actually halved this recipe only because I just had two chicken breasts and two tomatoes. Had I made the entire thing there would have been plenty for leftovers.


Try them out and let me know what you think!