Friends and Family Weekend

May 5, 2014

What an absolutely fabulous weekend. My best friend Kristyn came into town with her husband and adorable baby. He is already four months old and this was our first meeting!! He stole my heart. Such a sweet baby. Look at this face. I couldn’t stop kissing it.

Friday night we celebrated their visit. We ate, drank and talked too much. It was perfect.

I guess I had Cinco de Mayo on the brain. Shrimp and Carnitas tacos, rice and lots of yummy toppings.

Plenty of drinks too 😉

It was a fabulous night with the girls I love and their families. I couldn’t ask for better friends in this world. Love them dearly.

Sun and Fun

April 30, 2014

I can’t believe it has taken me until Wednesday to do my weekend post. Such a busy week so far and it is only going to get busier! Sheesh!

This weekend was exactly what I hoped it would be. We grilled and chilled and had a great time. We were able to spend most of the weekend at my aunt and uncle’s taking advantage of the great company, awesome backyard and pool. The weather was beautiful and the pool was the perfect temperature for the kids (still a little chilly for me).

She is showing her muscles because she scaled the whole perimeter of the pool using her hands. She doesn’t know how to swim very well yet, but she finds a way to get around.

We grilled hamburgers topped with Chipotle Gouda and White Cheddar. Grilled buns, veggies, pasta salad, and sweet potato tots. Perfect warm weather meal.

Spot the avocado?

Just as good as I remember.

The kids watched from the driveway as a neighbor drove a remote controlled car.

Grassy toes.

Another great one in the books. Looking forward to this weekend. I will need it to get here quickly, this week has been a bear!

Happy Friday

April 25, 2014

What a busy week! This one has certainly flown by. We’ve been sticking to our Paleo-dinners-during-the-week and have really been enjoying it. We had two nights of carnitas (not pictured) which I think has become a new weekly thing. It is just so easy to throw some pork in the crock pot, shred it up when it is ready and you have dinner for at least two nights. Boom.

Another night it was roasted chicken with Tandoori spice, sautéed zucchini with onions and tomatoes with avocado on the side.

Picadillo- grass-fed beef, onions, bell peppers, tomato paste, a boatload of spices and green olives. Roasted sweet potatoes and avocado (I have a problem) on the side.

I even got a picture of one of the kids dinners which is rare because they normally eat faster than I can grab a camera. (Disclaimer: kids are not on board the Paleo train)

“Chicken and Waffles”- Chicken nuggets with the whole wheat waffles, (I made a big batch one weekend and put a bunch in the freezer) with maple syrup, corn, applesauce and cheddar cheese. The kids thought eating waffles for dinner was hilarious. Hey, whatever works.

So there is a little peek into what it looked like on the dinner front over here this week.

We are looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. Tee Ball game and beautiful weather. Sounds good to me.

Here are a couple other things I’m looking forward to.

As I mentioned before I am a big fan of meal planning. It really helps keep things running smoothly during the week which is huge for me. We recently signed up for Cook Smarts which I am really excited about. I love that I can tailor the plans to be Paleo or Gluten Free. I am also a fan of having the shopping list emailed. I will let you know how it goes.

I was excited to find this wine again in my grocery store.

My aunt and I really enjoyed this for a while but then it wasn’t available. I’m glad it’s back and I can’t wait to give it another try.

So there it is for this week. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Easter Weekend

April 22, 2014

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. Ours was jam-packed and I can confidently say we are still recovering.

Friday was date night so sushi it was. This is one of our favorite places and we never leave disappointed-or hungry. Sheesh, I think we ordered everything on the menu.

Saturday was Tee Ball and a lazy afternoon. Getting us all ready for the festivities on Sunday.

My sister had us over to their house for the most amazing brunch.

Bloody Mary Bar anyone?

Mimosas too!

Sweet things.

Not so sweet things (but equally amazing). These chicken sausages were awesome.

Steak which was also delicious.

I had a little bit of everything on my plate. There was also bacon, eggs, corned beef hash, croissants, fruit and a hash brown casserole my sister made that was incredible.

The kids had such a blast!

It was a great weekend. Hope your Easter was just as fun!

Birthday Weekend

April 15, 2014

This weekend we celebrated my Mom’s Birthday. It was a great day filled with great food and even greater company. We even got to play with this sweet little face.

Cheese and fruit appetizer.

Then the main event. My Mom decided she wanted a seafood boil to celebrate her special day. Ours had crab legs, shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes. The guys manned the fire and it all came together pretty quickly. Every 10 minutes something new would go in the pot.

Potatoes first.

Then the corn.

Sausage and lemons next.

Finally the shrimp and crab. They turned off the heat and let steam for about 10 more minutes.

Time to eat!

We finished the evening off with a few different desserts from our favorite bakery. Cheesecake, Carrot Cake, Rum Raisin Bread Pudding and Mom’s favorite Tiramisu.

It was such a great day celebrating my wonderful Mama!

Love you Mom!!

Blame it on the Beach

April 11, 2014

Living in Florida, we are able to get to the beach a lot. I know when my sister and I were little our parents would take us quite a bit. We would sometimes rent a house and stay for a week. Ahh, those were the days.

I remember snacks always being super-important when we headed to the beach. Must be the salt and sea air that would make us extra hungry. My sister and I were big snackers when we were young. We loved chips and crackers (Funyuns-yelp), candy- anything quick and easy. Snacks + beach = awesome.

For some reason one particular trip to the beach sticks in my memory. It was the summer before I was going to start high school. We were staying at a hotel-type place on Daytona Beach. It was busy and I remember having to wake up super-early to go put towels on chairs to hold our place once we were ready to head down. The days would consist of this, wake up, eat breakfast, head down to the pool. Swim until it was lunchtime, head up to the room to eat, go back down and play at the beach until the sun started to set. On this trip my mom made brownies to take with us. One day after swimming all morning, I was particularly hungry, (considering I probably ate a cinnamon roll or something equally as sugary and non-filling for breakfast). I was so famished I remember grabbing a brownie, shoveling it into my mouth and chasing it with a handful of salt and vinegar potato chips. Hope you are still with me. I did say salt and vinegar potato chips. I have no idea how this combination came about, but knowing my sweet/savory fondness it really doesn’t surprise me all that much. Can I tell you my mind was blown. The combination of fudgy chocolate with the super-salty-sour-crunchy chip was so good. You are probably thinking I wrote this on April 1 and forgot to publish, but I am completely serious. So good.

It is so funny how food can bring back such intense memories. I am hoping I ate something other than that for lunch (probably a sandwich of sorts) but I don’t remember. All I remember is that crazy-stoner-type-food-combination that was so delicious.

That brings me to what happened this week. I don’t know if I was feeling nostalgic or maybe just hungry (when will Paleo get easier?) but I needed the chocolate/salty-sour combo STAT. I should have saved one of my Dark Chocolate Brown Butter Brownies for emergencies but who am I kidding? Those puppies were gone in two days. I didn’t have the foresight or patience to make/keep brownies so I melted some dark chocolate in a bowl and dipped flipping salt and vinegar potato chips in it. Dead.

I have seen lots of chocolate covered potato chips out there so the combination isn’t so crazy (I’ll just keep telling myself that), but I didn’t see many where salt and vinegar chips were the vessel. It is definitely the way to go. This combination is really good. You get the sweet-bitterness from the chocolate and the salty-vinegary crunch from the chip. I used kettle cooked but you could use any type (as long as they are salt and vinegar flavored).

Our beach snacks these days are more fruit/cracker less chip/brownie but let me tell you, if I came home from a day at the beach and had a bag of these babies, I would surely devour the whole thing.

Don’t be afraid. Try new weird things! You’ll realize maybe they aren’t that weird after all and they might even turn out to be delicious!

Do you have any crazy food combinations that ended up being tasty? Tell me!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Another Weekend Here and Gone

April 7, 2014

In what seems to be the new norm, our weekend was full of food and fun. Here are some highlights.

We headed to the beach after Tee Ball on Saturday. Perfect day for it. The water is still way too cold for me but it certainly didn’t stop the kids from jumping in. When we were done with sun and sand, we grabbed a bite to eat.

These nachos definitely hit the spot.

My husband ordered this Pizza Burger. It was no joke. Had mushrooms, pepperoni, cheese, black olives and tomato sauce. Perfect pizza-burger love child.

Sunday I took the kids for an early lunch before heading to a friend’s birthday party. I had egg salad on an everything bagel and it was delicious. Potato salad on the side.

Bounce House fun

Since we were near my parents house, after the party we stopped by for a visit. I love going to my Mom and Dad’s. The kids love it too. We had so much fun and ate well of course.

Burgers.

Cookies too 🙂

Needless to say we were tired and full come Sunday night but it was so worth it. Another great weekend.

Too bad today started with a dead battery in one vehicle. Happy Monday to us. Hoping the rest of the week is smooth sailing!

Hope your weekend was great too!

Dark Chocolate Brown Butter Brownies

April 1, 2014

Some days call for butter, sugar and lots of dark chocolate. It could be the weather, it could be because you need something to fill the void left by the terrible How I Met Your Mother finale, or it could be for no reason at all.

I choose number three.

I’m late to this game but I am happy to jump on the brown butter bandwagon. It has such a great flavor. You can add it to savory and sweet dishes and it just makes them nuttier and better. These brownies are super-dark, super-dense and super-brown-buttery. I am certainly a fan and will not admit to how many I ate. My kids on the other hand, were not fans. “Mommy they smell delicious but do not taste delicious”. Oops. More for me.

While I do think they are delicious, I will warn you if you aren’t into dark chocolate (e.g., my children) you might not be crazy about them. I am a little obsessed with all things dark chocolate so these are my new favorites.

The brown butter is a bit of a labor of love. You have to babysit a little bit but once you do it a couple of times it is easier and you won’t be like me, paranoid that I was going to burn it at any second. I actually found this post super helpful. Once the butter is melted it foams and then when the foam starts to subside is when the browning is really happening. When you are done you are left with some brown bits in the bottom that give the great flavor.

I know this pic isn’t the best but those are the bits!!! They are the good stuff.

This is the Himalayan Pink Salt. It has great flavor and it a bit more subtle than kosher salt.

I used larger chocolate chips. You may want to chop yours if you like smaller bits of chocolate.

I really didn’t want to wait for them to cool to cut but miraculously something distracted me so they were safe until I cut them (I won’t mention what happened to the mixing bowl/spoon). I got 12 brownies from my 9×13″ pan.

See how they are super-dark? That makes them super-good!!

Here is the recipe! I hope you make them for no reason at all!!

Dark Chocolate Brown Butter Brownies

2014-04-01 10:29:50

Yields 12

Super dark, super dense with great brown butter flavor.

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Ingredients

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter cut into pats
1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I used 60% cacao)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp Himalayan pink salt

For the Brown Butter

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat until foam is gone and brown bits appear.

For the Brownies

Add butter, and both sugars to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and mix until fluffy (about 5 minutes at Speed 3).
Add vanilla and then the eggs one at a time (mixing between each addition until combined)
In a separate bowl combine cocoa powder, flour and salt and stir with a wisk.
Add half the dry ingredients to the wet until combined, then add the remaining half until everything is incorporated.
Remove bowl from mixer and then stir in the chocolate chips.
Pour into a 9x13" baking dish lined with parchment paper and greased (I used Pam).
Bake at 350 degrees for 26-29 minutes.
Let cool and then cut.

Adapted from Something Swanky's "Browned Butter Brownies"

Steph in Symmetry https://stephinsymmetry.com/

Weekend Fun

March 31, 2014

Happy Monday and happy end of the month. March is over? Really?

We had a great weekend. The weather was a little scary Saturday afternoon (crazy thunderstorms), but Sunday was absolutely gorgeous, so the weekend wasn’t a complete wash-out.

Here are a couple of eats and drinks from the weekend.

Sunday we met my mom, sister and her family for pizza. We went to Mellow Mushroom. We all shared a couple of appetizers, a salad and two pizzas. I also had an Orange Blossom Pilsner and it was delicious.

Mellow Balls

Meatball Trio

Holy Shiitake

Philosopher’s Pie

Greek Salad

This was the best part of lunch though. I can’t take it. They all love their Gigi so much!

We also celebrated my cousin’s birthday. The food was great as always. My family likes to cook!

Ribs, pulled pork with coleslaw, smoked chicken, baked beans, garlic bread, salad and macaroni and cheese.

Can’t forget the Strawberry Lemonade Gelati.

It was a beautiful afternoon spent with friends and family.

We ended the weekend watching The Walking Dead season finale. It was such a great episode. Very intense! I can’t wait for Rick to kick butt in the next season. I just hate that I have to wait so long!

Hope your weekend was wonderful!

Recent Dinner Adventures

March 28, 2014

This week we were all over the place. My computer decided to stop working which took two days to fix. I am completely lost without it and needless to say today I am trying to play catch-up to make up for lost time. It is a little scary how dependent we are on technology. Luckily it was an easy (and somewhat inexpensive) fix. Anyhoo, on with the food.

Spring Break was also this week so our meal plan was a little lax. I went with the flow a little bit and I am suffering now because of it. I just hate to make multiple trips to the store during the week. It saves so much time and money to make one big trip for the week and maybe one more small stop (we always need bananas mid-week) as opposed to stopping each night or worse, eating out because there was no plan.

Since I had Little Man with me for Spring Break we ate out lunch almost every day so I tried to lighten-up our dinners. Monday we went to the movies and I ate my weight in popcorn and Raisinets (did you know they have a dark chocolate flavor? I will neither confirm nor deny that the box was empty when we left.). Since I was in a movie-food coma dinner was light. I made a frittata with zucchini, mushrooms, spinach and Parmesan cheese. I also mashed up half of an avocado to put on top of toasted whole wheat mountain bread. Tomato topper and called it a day.

Tuesday I took the kids to Gatorland. They had a blast. On our way home I grabbed some meatballs that were on sale from the grocery store. These were Teriyaki Pineapple flavored so I decided to have Asian-inspired dinner. I sauteed them in a little olive oil to heat through and then added, a small onion, zucchini and bell pepper. I combined some Tamari, honey and rice wine together and added at the last minute. I served this over rice. On the side was an avocado drizzled in a combination of sesame oil and lime juice. I also drizzled a combination of mayo, sriracha and ground ginger over the meatballs. I really enjoyed this. I think next time I will make cauliflower fried rice instead of white rice to amp up the veggies.

Wednesday I found spinach buy one get one at the grocery (yes if you are keeping track I have been to the grocery store every day this week so far). I use spinach for all sorts of things, salads, smoothies, and sometimes I will just put some at the bottom of whatever bowl I am eating dinner out of to add some nutrients. I had two containers so I decided to try and make pesto with one. I roasted some almonds in the oven and combined them with Parmesan cheese, garlic, the spinach and olive oil. I then added a little of the pesto with some mojo pork I got at the grocery and tossed in some baby bowtie pasta. I loved the spinach pesto, but I think I went a little heavy on the garlic. Oh well, live and learn.

Thursday the boys went to a hockey game so Princess and I ate together. I mixed the leftover mojo pork with some black beans. Topped with lime juice, bell pepper, sour cream and avocado. I also put some spinach at the bottom of my bowl.

Tonight is date night so we will eat out. Hopefully this will conclude our eating out/Spring Break festivities so we can get back to business-as-usual next week.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.