Happy Friday

June 27, 2014

Sorry for the radio silence over here. I’ve been busy splitting my time between summer fun with the family and work. It’s all about the balance right?

Some random things for a Friday.

We are trying to check things off our bucket list and have been pretty successful but we still have quite a few left.

We finally have a Trader Joe’s!! The store opened today. I can’t believe it has taken so long for us to get one. I am very excited and might even go this weekend to be part of what I’m sure will be a very busy opening!

I am trying to think of some fun recipes for July 4th! I have a pasta salad in mind that I might just try.

The kids are having such a great time so far this summer. Here is basically a photo dump of what we’ve been up to.

Some beachin’.

Some poolin’.

Some grillin’.

~~Tons of~~ Some restaurant eatin’.

Some ice cream makin’.

And lots of family funnin’.

Hope you are having a great summer too!

2014 Summer Bucket List

June 5, 2014

Today was the official last day of school for Little Man. I cannot believe he is done with kindergarten. I have been very emotional today so to take my mind off things I decided to jump on the Summer Bucket List bandwagon.

I keep seeing so many great ideas on Pinterest and all over the internet so I thought we would join in on the fun. Since I will still be working full-time, Little Man will be in camp for most of the summer, and The Princess will continue with daycare, our list will have things that can be done in the afternoons/evenings and on the weekends. I found this great printable.

I printed it out as a full-size photo on 8 1/2 x 11 paper and trimmed it a bit on the edges to fit in an 8×10 frame. I just used a dry erase marker right on the glass to write out our boxes and list.

Here are some highlights:

Make homemade ice cream

Go to the pool

Fish in the lake

Family Game Night

Eat outside

Clean rooms/playroom and donate toys

Dollar Movie

Little Man to read 6 Junie B Jones books

The Princess to practice writing her letters

Sidewalk chalk

Food Trucks for dinner

Beach

Breakfast for dinner

Mini golf

Feed ducks

Batting Cages

Ice skating

Outdoor movie or concert

Attend baseball game

Whew. This seems like a lot but I think we can do it! Little Man will be going on quite a few field trips during camp and The Princess has water day every Friday so there will be no shortage of fun things going on. Not to mention our family vacation to the Keys.

I look forward to a busy and exciting summer. Mainly to keep my mind off the fact that my oldest will be in first grade come August. Ugh.

What things are on your Summer Bucket List?

Roast Chicken

May 22, 2014

I can pretty much say this is the go-to meal at our house. It is perfect for during the week or even for entertaining. I think my family knows that if they come over for dinner on a Saturday night there is a 50/50 chance this will be on the menu (the other option is normally pasta of some sort). They are probably sick of it, but they haven’t complained yet.

Chef Jonathan Waxman really knows what he is doing. My husband and I watched him make this on TV once and thought, that looks so delicious, and really not too difficult. Proving again that if you have really good quality ingredients, making food delicious is pretty easy. The key is committing to basting EVERY 8 minutes. I’m not sure why it is 8 and not 10, but who am I to question Obi Wan Kenobi? He knows things, I tell you.

The skin is so delicious you will swear it was seared first. It gets so crispy and since the chicken is cut up into pieces, it cooks really quickly.

We have made tons of variations on this. Sometimes we change the citrus from lemon to orange or lime, add different herbs (rosemary, thyme, etc) once I used Tandoori spice and it was awesome.

You can change this up so many ways and it will come out delicious every time. I promise. If it doesn’t, come over to my house any given Saturday night and I will apologize personally by serving you roast chicken.

This is the tandoori spiced version.

Make sure you use a cast iron skillet. They work the best!

Roast Chicken

2014-05-22 11:14:20

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Ingredients

1 whole chicken, cut in pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lemon, cut in half
Salt and black pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Rinse the chicken and pat dry.
Pour 1 tablespoon of the oil into a large cast iron skillet.
Rub the other tablespoon of oil onto all the chicken pieces.
Sprinkle both sides of all pieces with a generous amount of salt and pepper.
Cut lemon in half and place cut side down in the pan.
Place chicken in oven and baste every 8 minutes until chicken is fully cooked (165 degrees). This normally takes about 35-40 minutes.
Let sit for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Notes

There are so many variations on this. Make it your own! You can use any seasonings you like and any high-temperature oil. We actually used duck fat once and it was amazing.

Adapted from Jonathan Waxman's Roast Chicken

Steph in Symmetry https://stephinsymmetry.com/

Mother’s Day Weekend

May 13, 2014

Such a wonderful weekend spent with family and loved ones. We decided to spend Saturday with my mom to celebrate with her. It was wonderful as always. I told her I would cook and she would be in charge of the beverages. I made shrimp and grits and this salad.

My Dad took over beverage making and made delicious margaritas.

My Mom has some beautiful gardenias growing. They smell amazing.

We ended the day watching Little Man play golf on the green behind their house. I hope he enjoys golf as much as we do.

Sunday we spent the day celebrating my sweet Mother-In-Law. It was a great time with yummy barbecue (I forgot to take a picture) and mimosas.

It was a perfect weekend and I just love the Mother’s in my life. I hope you enjoyed your weekend and showered your Mama’s with love.

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!

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!!

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/

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.

Busy Weekend

March 3, 2014

Hard to believe it is already Monday again. This weekend was jam-packed for us. We decided to take advantage of the weather and spent almost the entire weekend outside. Here are a few highlights.

Saturday morning started with a trip to the bakery. We have tried going to this bakery before but we always seem to think of it on Sunday’s when it is closed. So Saturday we woke up early and I took the kids to check it out. This will definitely not be the last time we go here. They have so many different things to choose from. We got two cinnamon rolls, one maple bacon cinnamon roll and a berry cream galette. Everything was awesome especially the maple bacon cinnamon roll. Make sure you get there a little early because I think they sell out of them pretty quickly. I certainly know why!

After that we had the first daytime Tee Ball game of the season. There are so many players this season that we actually have two games a week. One during the week in the evening and then another on Saturday. We are definitely going to be at these fields a lot over the next couple months.

The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. Little Man had two really good hits. The Princess and I cheered them on.

Goldfish break

After the game we headed to the coast again. It was really windy but the kids had fun again walking on the pier and playing in the sand.

I know this is out of focus but I couldn’t resist. They are so crazy.

Beach Toes

Sunday was all about the Florida Strawberry Festival. We got up somewhat early and made the drive which took a little over an hour. It was really busy and really hot. The kids had such a fun time though. We decided to get our Strawberry Shortcake first as the lines tend to get really long once the day wears on. So delicious. The rest of the afternoon was spent riding rides, eating Amish donuts, corn dogs and more lemonade than I’ve had in a year. It was a really great time, although I’m hoping next year we can sneak over during the week when it isn’t as crowded.

“I want to go on the America-Round”

“Mommy, I see you in my glasses”

So as you can see we had a busy weekend of family fun. Now back to work and a healthy meal/exercise plan to make up for all the shenanigans this weekend.

How was your weekend?

Anyone ever been to the Florida Strawberry Festival? What was your favorite part?