Monday night football, I mean food

So with it being fall now (yes, excited woman here craving pumpkin spice lattes, beautiful fall leaves, and hoodies, lots of hoodies) I decided to look up some fall type meals. Nothing says fall quite like an apple, which means pork is going to be paired with it. I tried out this meal 

http://www.health.com/health/m/recipe/0,,10000001188062,00.html

So here is what I changed:

1) didn't measure the pork loin. Used what I had leftover in the freezer from my last pork tenderloin dish

2) as much as I love garlic, I used powder garlic instead. Mainly because I think it's easier to rub

3) no salt or pepper. I may try using pepper again here soon. My husband claimed he doesn't like pepper, but I think that is only when it is very obvious it is in the dish. Experimenting soon!

4) um Rome apples? Yeah my grocery store doesn't carry that, so I had to look up a substitute while shopping and ended up with red delicious.

5) I used more butter

All in all I liked it. I did wish I had made mashed sweet potatoes to go with it, so we had green beans instead.

Achy

So I didn't sleep well last night. I pulled something in my back and still was in pain this morning. So I stayed home and got some much needed sleep plus some quality time in a hot bath and with my heating pad. Luckily I planned on making this fabulous dish that didn't take alot of time or effort.

This was amazing! You can find the recipe here http://www.melskitchencafe.com/creamy-tuscan-pasta-sauce-quick-20-minute-dinner/

I didn't add the pepper or salt, nor did I have fresh basil but it turned out great! I used reduced fat cream cheese and skim  milk and I think it tasted awesome.

Next time, I might try making some chicken spedini to go with it. Two thumbs up!

Not so impressed

So I tried this today

http://damndelicious.net/2014/11/29/garlic-brown-sugar-chicken/?m

Not so impressed. Looks great but here is what I would have done differently

1) brown the thighs longer. I love some crispy skin and 2-3 minutes didn't do the job. 

2) put a lid on while browning the chicken. This helps cook it better

3) cook longer in over

4) pour the sugar honey sauce over the chicken to get more flavor. Having it just soaking at the bottom didn't give a whole lot

I may try this again, but not anytime soon

Yummy beef and broccoli

I made this fabulous dish last night 

http://rainydaygal.com/2011/02/03/beef-with-broccoli/

Wow this was good after a long day! We spent all morning up at Children's Mercy for my son's cardiologist appointment then waited for his prescription and some feeding bags before we finally were able to head out the door. Makes for a long day let me tell you! So this meal was a nice treat. It didn't take me long (the most personal time consuming item was slicing up the meat). My husband and I are more of the medium rare kind of people so I didn't wait until all the pink was gone. My husband's only suggestion was to add some water chestnuts. I'm down with adding more veggies! We had plenty of leftovers for some lunches this week. Enjoy!

Arts and craft day

So today was my last day home with Henry. We made the trek to Target to get diapers (checking prices over the weekend, the Huggies here was the cheapest and I got a $20 gift card since I bought 3 boxes). I decided to try this fun thing I saw on Pinterest earlier http://plainvanillamom.com/2012/04/sensory-bag-for-baby.html

I found antibacterical hand gel on clearance so I bought that instead of hair gel. Plus it was clear. I went to the dollar bin and found some small halloween erasers. And I could only find grey or hot pink duct tape so I bought the grey.

Henry had fun with it, and I am glad I bought another bottle of hand gel to use at Christmas (it is green). Now to just find something fun to put in it.

Mmm Greek lasgna

JSo tonight I made this recipe http://www.bhg.com/recipe/lamb/greek-style-lasagna/

I went with hamburger meat since that's what I had at home. I forgot to pick up feta, so I ran back out to the store to get some along with kalamata olives, because yeah that sounds more Greekish to me. The store didn't have slices of kalamata olives so I bought pieces instead. Also the picture is deceiving. No where does it call for any small green leaf item nor diced tomatoes. I'd recommend half the cinnamon. It smelled awesome but just was a little too much for my taste. I also had to shred my own white cheddar cheese as I was unable to find any in the store. Served with some spinach and bread. I give it a thumbs up and would make it again.

Pork the other white meat

I stayed home today with my little munchkin. It was a good day overall and I am working on getting a nap schedule for  Henry!

So tonight I made this http://www.budgetbytes.com/2010/08/glazed-pork-chops/

I had leftover asparagus from earlier and sauteed that up with some garlic.  Hmm garlic. So my adjustments were I could only find a 3 pack of boneless porkchops, so they may have been over seasoned. They were tasty and had a punch to them with the cheyenne pepper. Overall I'd make this meal again.