Yumminess

Are you into Pinterest? It's a time suck, but I've gotten some really good kids activities, clothes, and (especially) recipes from it. Here are some of my favorites...

Bang Bang Cauliflower

Shopping List (Serves 2-4 as an appetizer)
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup egg whites
1 head cauliflower
Salt & pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
Green onion
1/4 cup coconut oil

Sauce
1/4 cup lite mayo
1/4 cup Franks Red Hot Sweet Chili Sauce or Siracha (add more or less depends on how hot you can handle it)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar

1. Slice your cauliflower florets. Mix salt, pepper and garlic powder into your Panko breadcrumbs in a shallow dish.

2. Set separate bowls aside with egg whites and cornstarch. Dip your florets one by one into the cornstarch, and shake off excess. Then dip into egg whites, and then coat with Panko mixture.

3. After coating all of your florets, warm up your coconut oil in a large frying pan and place all florets in hot oil. Turn with tongs making sure all sides are browned. Set on top of paper towels to remove excess oil. Top with more salt.

4. In a small bowl mix all of your sauce ingredients. Coat your breaded and pan fried florets with sauce, top with sprinkles of green onion and serve right away.

Best Ever Broccoli (or cauliflower)
Preheat oven to 425 and cut broccoli into florets. Make sure broccoli is DRY!

Put the broccoli on a cookie sheet. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. (She says 5 Tbs olive oil, 1 1/2 tsps kosher salt, 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper, but I just eyeballed it.) Now add 4 garlic cloves that are peeled and sliced and toss them in too.

Roast in the oven 20 to 25 minutes, until “crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned.”

I shook the pan around a bit as it went, but not sure that’s necessary.

When it’s done, take it out of the oven–and here’s where it gets really good–zest a lemon over the broccoli, squeeze the lemon juice over the broccoli, add 1.5 Tbs more olive oil, 3 Tbs toasted pine nuts (I left those out), and 1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. She also has you add 2 Tbs julienned fresh basil, but I left that out too.

No-Bake Energy Bites Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup (dry) oatmeal (I used old-fashioned oats)
1 cup toasted coconut flakes
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla

Method:

Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour. Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. (Mine were about 1″ in diameter.) Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Makes about 20-25 balls.

Ali’s Tip:

Substitution ideas can abound for just about any of these ingredients! Feel free to substitute in your favorite nut butter (almond butter, sunflower seed butter, etc.) for the peanut butter. And you could also add in some wheat germ in place of some or all of the flaxseed. I would caution, though, against substituting agave nectar for the honey, as the honey’s thickness helps hold things together.

Some other fun substitutions for the chocolate chips (or an addition to them) could include:
chopped dried fruit (apricots, dates, raisins, etc.)
dried berries (cranberries, cherries, etc.)
chopped almonds, pecans, or sunflower seeds
other chips (butterscotch, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, etc.)

Update: Many of you in the comments have asked about substitutions for other ingredients. The joy of these bites being “no bakes” is that this recipe is super flexible. If you end up needing to omit one of the dry ingredients (such as coconut or flax), just add in some extra of whatever other dry ingredient is remaining (for example, the oats). If you feel like your energy bites are too dry, just add in extra honey or peanut butter. Enjoy!!!

And the last one...
Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Brownies (courtesy of my yoga instructor)

1c peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs

Mix and pour into 8x8 pan. Bake at 325 for 25 min. Enjoy!

4 months

Sweet Collier is 4 months old. He is now turning over from back to front and front to back. (Did it first on March 16th.) He is holding his head up and continues to be a happy, smiley baby. He is still eating like a champ and weighs 16.9 lbs. to prove it. (85th %ile for both weight and height and 65th %ile for head.) He's beating Charlie in all categories at this stage. Except for sleep, of course. Where Charlie was doing 11-12 hours consistantly, we are lucky if we get 7-8 hour stretches from little C.... I know, that's not that bad for a 4 monther.

Way to go, daddy!

Patrick ran his 2nd half marathon on Sunday, The Dallas Rock n' Roll. It was awesome weather and he knew the landmarks, so I'd say it was better than his first go around in OKC. And, we made it better because we could come out and support him. We found an awesome spot at around mile 8.5 at the corner of Mockingbird and Skillman right in front of a donut store.



Patrick finished in 1:41:59.... just 1 second under his goal of 1:42. Way to go, babe! We are super proud of you.

Let's Party

We had Charlie's birthday party the first weekend of March. Now that it is the end of March, let's post some pictures, shall we? This year's party was held at Scottish Rite... the playground is awesome! And for a donation to the hospital, you get to rent out the pavillion for 3 hours! They set up tables, chairs and table coverings... you bring the rest. Seriously, the best deal in town (AND you get to kelp out the hospital... an added bonus!). The "theme" was Rangers baseball... of course!







To see the rest of the pics... go down a few posts and click on the image under "Charlie's Birthday in Pics". Enjoy!

Welcome to 3's

Today, on the way to the Arboretum...

Charlie: "Mom, yesterday I met a girl and we got married."

Intriguing... Me: "Really Charlie? Who was she?"

Charlie: "Well, she was a princess and I was her knight in shining armor and we got married. And there was a big bad wolf who said 'Princess, princess let me come in' and I rescued her from the big dog with the sharp teeth."

Can't wait to hear more stories from this child. Everything that happened in the past happened 'yesterday' and he begins most sentences with 'well...'. Although just today he started sentences with 'Actually...'. Great things to come!

Recent Photos

Who has used Picnik to touch up photos? It's unbelievable! Sadly, it will be shut down (I think) in April. Upload your images to Picasa and touch them up asap!!

Me and my cousin

Charlie and Cooper- Feb. 2012

 

Charlie's 3rd Birthday in pictures

Charlie's Birthday

Charlie's 3rd birthday was this past Saturday. To celebrate Patrick and I decorated the house with balloons and streamers as a birthday surprise for when Charlie woke up. Mission accomplished!
He got to open gifts from us and then we went to the park for a picnic and some play time.

His borthday wouldn't have been complete without some baseball practice!

After nap we had some of Charlie's best buds over for a little bounce house, burgers, and cake.

Happy Birthday love!