Meals delivered to your door.....

Well....sort of....nowadays people can have virtually everything delivered to their door. If you live in the city....game over!!! I mean one hour Amazon delivery?! Faster than 2 days?! Yes, please!! Sadly in our Washington, D.C. Zip code it is still not available. I suppose that is for the better because do I honestly need those Christmas lights that fast, or a industrial strength stick backvelcro?!  Probably not! I've received coupons for Mini Bar which guarantees any alcohol delivered to you in an hour. Am I that desperate?! You have snacks delivered, bark boxes for dogs, you name it and I am pretty sure you can have it delivered.

Those hard working families don't always have time to prepare meals, that is where all these meals on wheels programs come in. We have Galley which deliver hot meals. I am not rich enough to afford my own personal chef....and I also don't need meals prepared for me everyday. I am not that busy. So when someone offered me a code for a free week of Blue Apron meals I thought, why not? I mean free being the key word. I signed up and could choose which day of the week I wanted delivery. I could also choose which week I wanted my meals to start. 

Blue Apron usually posts about 4 weeks worth of meals at a time so you can peruse. They also have you check meat options or if you are vegetarian. I checked no seafood(sadly the hubs is not a fan). 

The week that I chose came with the following 3 recipes:  seared chicken with sautéed purple potatoes, kale and apple, zucchini and parmesan quiches with red leaf lettuce salad and pink lemon vinaigrette. The last item was grains of paradise-crusted steak with mashed plantain, collared greens and ginger peanuts. The nice thing is if you stay on top of your game you go into your account to view upcoming meals and skip those that you do not care for. We are on the 2 person plan which runs about 60$ for three meals. Twenty dollars for a meal isn't awful, but it also isn't the cheapest. Our dietary plan is omnivore. 

When the box arrived I hurriedly opened it and found......

The recipes for all three meals, as well as a little blurb about the apples and what wine to choose- kinda disappointed that the wine wasn't included....haha

I ended up making two of the three meals while my husband ended up making the seared chicken dish. I will say that some require a lot more prep than others.
*Note: make sure to read through all the directions. Sometimes there are ways to cut corners. For example the quiche called for me to cook the spinach, zucchini and garlic separately- too many steps in my mind. So...I cooked zucchini with garlic first and then added in the spinach(which I had already chopped-Blue Aprons directions say to cut after sautéing).

I didn't take pictures of all the meal preps, but I did do the steak one.....

I like that the extra "little" ingredients come in a bag labeled knick knacks. 

I don't know if I would have needed all these bowls to prep the ingredients, but being a first time user I decided to do exactly what they said and did on their recipe card.  

I didn't actually think one plantain would be enough....but surprisingly it was....guess the people at Blue Apron know their portions better than greedy America ;-)

The steak was tender, even my husband who was wary of the mashed plantains ate all his helping and helped himself to more!! WIN! I think next time I would use less ginger, it seemed to be a little too much compared to everything else.   

Finished seared chicken curtesy of the hubs. 

Finished Quiche
One quiche for the two of us was enough. Thus allowing us another night of quiche. It was delicious! There wasn't as much cheese as I usually put in my quiches (perhaps for the better). The recipe had me split the 3 tablespoons of shaved Parmesan cheese. Instead I added it all to the quiches. 😊

Al the meals were delicious!!

Pros: 

-takes the guess work out of dinner 

- very well portioned out 

- well packaged-great ice packs 

- ability to skip weeks
- you can sign up for wine deliveries 6 bottles for and est. $66/month, or $11/bottle
- after several orders you get free meal codes for friends
- everything was fresh.....I didn't even make all the meals that week
- You can pretty much recycle everything they send you (at first I was a little overwhelmed by all the packaging) and....if you don't have recycling abilities you can send it back to Blue Apron by printing out a free shipping label- that's pretty Awesome!!! 

Cons:

- more expensive than I typically spend on one meal for the family comes to $60/month or they say $9.99/serving

- more prep than expected
- no leftovers (for lunches, or another dinner)

If you are interested in trying....check out Blue Apron  

Mug Cake- Yup, it is what it sounds like!

There are times when I crave a good dessert.  The problem is, we shouldn't have them in the house and buying a whole box of cookies means eat them, or they go stale.  You see the problem here. So we try and limit the cookie buying/making and brownie making to when guests come over(which is almost never).  If we go out, chances are, if they have a good dessert, I will get it! Creme brûlée forget it- GAME OVER! The thing about getting a dessert when you are out is that chances are it won't make it home, or if it does there usually isn't 1)enough to share 2) enough for more than one night thankfully!

However, as I was cruising around pinterest the other day(or just this morning) I stumbled across someone mentioning this "mug cake" idea....so I pinterested that baby and so many things popped up and I of course had to repin many of them to my pinterest.
I mean....don't y'all have these ingredients laying around?  Oops forgot to include the cocoa powder....

I present to you my Chocolate Mug Cake- no milk, butter, or eggs...it's pretty ingenious and they are all ingredients I have lying around at all times (because I do love to bake!).  The best part....other than the easiness is that it is a single serving! WIN!
Next time I will mix the ingredients in a separate container- doing it all in the mug allowed less clean up, but I still wasn't able to mix everything and so therefore, there was still some unmixed flour in the bottom.  

 I'm not sure why you are supposed to form these three "wells" in which you pour the oil, vinegar and vanilla

I added some semisweet chocolate chips that I had, I did feel that this cake was missing something.  The chocolate chips helped, but I wasn't able to finish it- maybe whipped cream? Maybe some Nutella or caramel? 

I also made Snickerdoodle Mug Cake- not on the same night and this one I finished- maybe it was because it wasn't overly chocolatey?

Snowed in means.....Homemade Pretzels

So, last winter I planned on making pretzels each snow day, but then we didn't get very many and I also had a 4 month old, so it wasn't exactly practical.  I decided this year we would try again, of course we've already had about 4 snow days, but better late than never.  I am a big fan of traditions, so when PC is a little older hopefully she will enjoy this....and hopefully I will also be able to perfect them.  I mean, who doesn't want to eat a fresh warm pretzel as they watch the snow come down? I mean other than gluten free people.....and since we aren't, bring on the white flour! LOL, actually the last time I made them I only had whole wheat flour and while they were good, I bet these will taste even more glutinous! I also didn't boil mine last time, you know like they do with bagels?

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, approximately
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil, for pan
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
• Pretzel salt

I got the directions from here, but you can also find the recipe from Alton Brown from here

I have to say that my dough just never seems to double in size, maybe that's why my pretzels always seem so dense and not light and airy.  I still have to perfect this. If anyone has any suggestions.  They say to put the dough in a warm place to rise, so I placed it on the stove. Maybe too warm?

I will say, I enlisted my hubby to help with rolling out the dough- also they suggested breaking into 8 sections. I might do more so that the pretzels are not soo thick.  Anyway, he ended up doing a fantastic job.  The job is now his, until PC wants to help:-)

 Boil in the baking soda/water mixture for 30 seconds- we were literally timing it.

 Brush after boiling with one egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp water.

 Salt with pretzel salt- which we didn't have, so kosher salt it is

 Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown

 We also decided that, being a snow day, why not also make a dipping sauce. We are not mustard people.  So, the hubs whipped up a batch of beer cheese dip.  If there are two things that we ALWAYS have it is beer and cheese.  Although- I might add less beer, a little too boozy for me...haha- we also added a little hot sauce for some heat and some paprika to make it pretty. Hubby got the recipe here- it was real easy and he whipped it up super quick!

Meatless Monday

It's Tuesday,  yes, I realize that.  So, this post is a little late in coming, but meatless Tuesday just doesn't sound the same.

As part of our 21 day fix I have been trying to add variety to our meals, so why not make Chana Masala.  I mean, I looove Indian food, plus I could just add all the ingredients to my wondrous crockpot! Best device ever, although I am saving up for a 7-1 Pressure Cooker, which does that, plus rice cooking and sautéing as part of the deal! WIN!

To make it healthier, I made brown jasmine rice (in our rice cooker) and we bought some whole wheat naan from Trader Joes. I've actually made whole wheat naan before, I just didn't have the time this time.  I got the recipe for my Chana Masala from here.

Ingredients:

• 4 C. water ( I changed it to 3, based on comments, I still thought it seemed a little watery so I thickened it up*) 
• 1 large onion, diced (I also sautéed this up first to break it down and then added it to the pot- actually about half way through)
• 1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 6-oz. can tomato paste
• ⅓ C. chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 tsp. garam masala
• 2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. cumin
• ½ tsp. cayenne pepper (more if you like more of a kick)
• 1 tsp. ground coriander (I omitted because we didn't have it, but the garam masala had some in it already)
• 1 tsp. turmeric
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 2 cans chickpeas (I added three because we love chickpeas and I just felt two didn't seem like enough, plus we wanted to have left overs.  
• Serve over Basmati Rice, or brown jasmine rice in our case
• Cook from 6-8 hours ( I did 8, because I wanted to let it really soak up all the flavors)

*to thicken it I mixed 2 tbsp. corn starch with 2 tbsp. water

Today's Toddler Play Brought to you by....Playdough

Yesterday Ms. PC had a little bit of a temperature and was not her usual chipper self, although she still played, she was just more cuddly and a little more whimpery than normal.  Now, if it were the hubs he would be incapacitated lol.  I will take more snuggles with her any day, even though it does mean she is under-the-weather.  She apparently also is fighting off an ear infection.  We would never have known if the doctor hadn't told us.....well maybe we would have it it had ruptured or something. She's a trooper that's for sure!

PC had her 18 month appointment on Wednesday, complete with shots. Again, the lil trooper only had one little whimper. Good girl! Her stats: She is 19 lbs on the dot still in the 8th percentile, which is normal for where she's been on the chart and her height is 30 1/4 inches which places her in the 10%.  No shocker as her father and I are NOT giants.

So, with it being wintery/icy mix out today we stayed home from Church and didn't venture out into the city, for the sake of her, as well as road conditions.  I haven't done too many toddlery activities with her, as her attention span isn't very long and she still tries to put most things in her mouth.  However, with her dad at home, I decided to try and make some edible no-cook playdough.  The less time it takes the better, as well as the fact that we had all the ingredients here in the house, otherwise we would have tried some other activities, but we don't have xantham gum or borax- guess I need to add that to our shopping list.

I pulled out all the ingredients, vegetable oil, flour, salt, food coloring, cream of tartar. I got the recipe from Pagingfunmums.  P.S. This recipe literally takes all of 5 minutes! WIN!!!

Mix all the ingredients except boiling water and food coloring.
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tbsp of cream of tartar
1 tbsp of oil

Then add 1 cup boiling water- with the food coloring mixed in (I didn't add enough to make it bright. Maybe I need the neon food coloring.) Mix together

 We tried using a stool at the counter, but it didn't work and we were afraid she was going to fall off.  I found toddler step stools online, but $200 no thanks!

 So, we put her in the highchair...I'm a little worried that she will start associating playing in the highchair and then start playing with her food, but this contained her, no fear of her falling and it's easy peasy to clean up!

 I originally gave her a fork to play with- disposable Great! However, after second thought I did take it away so she would not try and eat the dough (even though it is edible). Fork=eating in her mind

Note: The next time I make it, I might add either jello or Kool-Aid to the mix for coloring, as well as great smell!

Fall Goodies!

It's fall, which means time for some fall treats!

With all the apples we picked at the Orchard the other week I figured I needed to do something with them, use them before they went bad.  I had planned(still planning) on making applesauce because lil miss PC LOOOOVES her some applesauce! However, we still had a bunch, so enter..... apple crisp! MMMM....if only I had some homemade vanilla ice cream, actually any vanilla ice cream would have worked.  I do wish that I hadn't put oatmeal on top, it was initially fine, but when it gets wet it gets that soggy oatmeal quality- Not.a.fan!  I also wish I had sliced the apples thinner, I don't like crunchy apples in my apple crisp, or apple pie. However, that being said, we ate it all.....over the course of a few days ;-)

I also had to make a chicken pot pie.  There is something very comforting about pot pie. I love eating a nice slice of warm pot pie on a brisk fall evening.  I think it may even taste better in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, but maybe that's just me :-) 

Good Eats and Good Times!!

So the hubs and I celebrated 8 years of marriage the other week, June 24th to be exact.  Amazingly it has taken me one whole week to post about it. You'd think I would have TONS of time, this being the summer and not working and all. I have no excuses really. 

We decided to introduce PC to a local "beach." In a couple of weeks we will be spending a whole week at the beach...of course this will be a whole new experience and probably not as relaxing as we are used to.  But....it will be another memory to add to the books, so for that I am definitely excited! PC had her first experience of a "wave." As well as her first taste of sand - blech! I'm hoping that the sand was a negative experience.  

 Sunglass Friends!

" I'm not eating the sand I promise!"

For dinner we decided to eat in, we typically do, usually G makes dinner, but this year we decided to co-make the dinner. I made bruschetta (the appetizer) and dessert (creme brûlée). G made homemade gnocchi with a brown butter sage sauce and grilled asparagus! DELISH!

Brushetta recipe:
2 tomatoes diced up
2 garlic cloves (you can add red onion instead, but I am not a fan)
freshly chopped basil
salt/pepper to taste
1 tbs of EVOO
2 tbs of balsamic vinegar
diced up mozzarella
sliced up and toasted baguette sprinkle with EVOO before toasting

The "snakes" that's what G called them....

 Waiting to be boiled

 Brown Butter flakes sticking to the gnocchi perfectly- I almost licked my bowl clean, but I stayed classy!

 Ohhh and the vino was from our 5 year anniversary trip to Italy- it was amazing(both the trip and the wine...mmmm......)

 See the specks?! Not pepper! Fresh Vanilla bean   

       Topped with white sugar

 Mmm...the sugary crust

Fresh strawberries- shoulda made homemade whipped cream, next time! 

Creme Brûlée for Two!
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup white sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 vanilla bean

1) Mix white sugar and egg yolks with whisk until light yellow and creamy
2) bring heavy whipping cream and vanilla bean to a slow boil
3) Add the cream a little at a time stirring continually
4) Pour mixture into two ramekins
5) Place ramekin in a large cake pan, or I used my pyrex casserole dish- pour hot water all around until the water comes up half way
5) Bake @ 325 F degrees for 40-45 minutes until creme brûlée is set, but still trembly in the middle
6) Place in fridge to set 2-3 hours, or overnight
7) Remove from fridge add white sugar to the top spread evenly (I kind of shake the dish around-let sit out for 20 minutes)
8) Broil the creme brulee @ 500 degrees F for 1 1/2- 2 minutes- monitor to avoid burning