This is Just Wrong

I was checking out Cupcakes Take the Cake this morning and searching for some yummy inspiration when I happened across their blog post on this baby. 

Photo from bettycrocker.com

Seriously?  This just seems way too lazy.  I will be the first to admit that I'm a bit of a cake snob and I prefer scratch cupcakes over anything from a box (and don't even get me started on canned frosting), but this just seems like absolutely no effort whatsoever.  "Just add water?"  Really?  What about eggs or oil?  What's that going to taste like if all of your fats (which are supposed to hold the cake together) are made from some sort of powder?

I can see the benefits if you have a last minute cupcake emergency, but in general it doesn't take very long to mix up a quick batch of cupcakes.  This reminds me of that pancake batter in the bottle.  That freaks me out too.  I just don't trust foods that are that easy to make.

Out of curiosity, if there's anyone out there who has actually tried this stuff I'd love to hear about how it worked and how it tasted.

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

On Saturday my husband and I spent the day mostly sitting around.  Well, actually we did stuff early in the morning, and in the evening, but we spent most of the early afternoon hours doing nothing but sitting around.  I got a sudden craving for macaroni and cheese so I searched for a recipe that wouldn't require me to go shopping and I went ahead and made it.  I started with this recipe and made a few little changes as I went. 

It came out pretty decently, though it was a little grainy for my taste.  I think it could have used a bit less flour in it.  Next time, I'll cut back on the flour, use a more flavorful cheese (I used extra sharp cheddar, but I think it needs something else), and add something else like yogurt or cream cheese to help add to the creaminess. 

Here's my slightly updated version of the recipe:

8 ounces of pasta (I just eyeballed half a box)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

1 tablespoon mustard

8 oz shredded cheese 

Cook the pasta, drain.  In a separate saucepan, melt butter and add the flour.  Slowly stir in the milk.  Mix until the lumps are gone.  Add mustard.  Stir in the cheese.  Add pasta.  Serve. 

You can add whatever you like to the top.  I added salt to taste, some cayenne pepper, and bread crumbs.  The bread crumbs made it feel a little bit more like the baked stuff and added a nice flavor to it. 

I also recommend shredding the cheese yourself.  Pre-shredded stuff comes with anti-caking agents so that the shredded cheese doesn't clump together in the bag.  It changes how it melts.  It will, however, look like an obscene amount of cheese.  It took up an entire dinner-size plate. 

Enchiladas

About a week ago, I found this recipe for cheesy chicken enchiladas.  Last night I decided to try them.  They are awesome.  DH loved them too so I think this recipe will become part of our regular rotation.

I didn't follow it exactly.  I used half cheddar and half pepper jack.  That's partly because we didn't have Monterrey Jack and partly because I'm not a big fan of it.  I also used canned chicken because I was feeling lazy.  Oh, and my pan only fit 7 tortillas.  I don't think it's a true 9x13.  The only change I would make for next time would be using purees peppers.  My cans had tiny little hard pieces from parts of the pepper you wouldn't normally eat so I'm going to try it with a puree. 

I'm actually looking forward to lunch so I can eat another one of these and I don't usually like leftovers so that should tell you just how good they are.

A Garden

 When we first moved into our place we had a nice little garden out front, but over the course of the last couple months we kinda let it die.  I wasn't thrilled with most of the plants that were in there to begin with and this winter was really bad so we never went out there and took care of it.  It looked like this at the start of last weekend

Yes, that is a fish tank you see.  We use it as the travel tank for our bearded dragon.

A view of the side

We wanted to fix it up and I wanted to grow some food plants, especially tomatoes.  So we made a trip to Lowes and bought a bunch of supplies.

And at the end of the day it looked like this

The purple plant at the top is freesia.  I couldn't tell you what the others are.  I couldn't find zinnias and these were pretty so we planted them.

This is the food part of our garden.  On the left is strawberries (which have grown and now have flowers on them) and tomatoes on the left.

The empty looking corner actually has garlic bulbs, then leftover irises we didn't want to move, and a tiny little zucchini plant.

It looks so much better out there now and I love that we will have fresh food grown from our own garden this summer.  Once we finally buy a house we'll be planting a lot more.  If you haven't tried growing your own fruit or vegetables before I highly recommend it.  The taste is so much better than the stuff in the grocery store and it's much cheaper to buy the plant and just pick what you need from your garden.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  I just love her writing style, even when it's non-fiction.  This book is her family's true account of their year of eating locally grown foods.  They're each allowed one luxury item, but they still try to get it in the most sustainable way possible.  Everything else they eat is either grown themselves or purchased from local sources. 

The book is very inspirational.  It made me want to start focusing on eating things that are grown in my area and eat seasonally.  It also encouraged me to try to grow my own food so I'll be planting a few things come spring time.  I don't think I could kill my own meat though.  I would have a really hard time with that part.

There's a ton of information in this book.  I learned a lot and I've done a ton of research on the locavore movement so just about anyone would find at least a handful of things they didn't know before reading this. 

I also love her argument against vegetarianism.  I won't give it away, but it's a very interesting read.  I'd recommend this book to just about anyone interested in healthy eating or food in general, although it would be nice to see a lot of people read it and maybe make some changes in their eating habits. 

Meal Planning

I've been wanting to get more organized and after reading about the Organized and Inspired blog series starting over here

I decided to try out her first idea.  The first post is about meal planning.  She has some really cute printables available on her blog to help if you're not really sure how to start.  I've been making a list of all the dinner ideas I can think of.  I'm going to do this a little differently than she does.  I'll share my way a little later.  For now, it will be a piece of paper on the fridge, but I'm thinking about doing something to display our meals for the week to make my life easier. 

We tried meal planning a few years ago when we were really trying to budget and try to spend and waste less.  It worked for a little while but then we got lazy.  I'm hoping that having everything easily accessible will help us stick to it this time.

Christmas treats

I spent my day baking and dipping marshmallows into chocolate.  I originally was going to make enough to send snacks to work with DH and still have some leftover for me to bring to work.  That didn't happen.  I was trying to avoid going to the store today and I thought I only had enough butter for one batch of each thing.  As it turns out, I cut out the lemon bars I'd been planning to make so I could have doubled up on the snickerdoodles and had more to bring in.  The snickerdoodles are packaged to go to work with DH tomorrow.  I'd rather share with the people he works with than where I work.  I've snacked on a few and they are delicious. 

I also tried to make brownies, but the recipe I used refused to bake properly.  The edges are really hard and when I cut into it the center is still undercooked.  The recipe (I used the Hershey one) said to bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes.  I had the right temperature and probably ended up baking for 40-45 minutes and they still aren't done correctly so I ate one of the edge pieces, but I'll probably throw the rest out.  I also dipped an entire bag of large marshmallows into chocolate.  Those will also go into the packages for DH's coworkers. 

This will probably be the first year that I haven't made Christmas cookies.  Growing up my mom and I would always make cutout sugar cookies and frost them together.  I loved doing that.  The recipes have changed now that I'm older (I don't use shortening so I don't use the one I grew up with), but I still love the tradition of it.  I just don't have the time this year.

What sort of goodies are you making this year? 

Two things from the list

I attempted to post last night, but thanks to a cut cable, our internet wasn't working.  It wasn't on our end.  Apparently someone wherever our internet connects to found it.  So thanks to whoever cut that.  I just love spending most of the day without internet. 

Anyway, I completed two things from my list yesterday.  The first is going a week without eating out.  I hadn't planned on doing that one.  I honestly thought I'd have to make an effort to not go out, but I just realized it on Sunday afternoon that we hadn't gone out to eat since the Friday over a week before.  I suppose actually doing some grocery shopping in advance makes it pretty easy to stay home.  We had really good food in the house this week.

The second thing I did was to attempt at least one puzzle on each page of an activity book.  That doesn't mean I actually finished it or that I actually completed each of those puzzles.  It just means that I tried.  This wasn't the best thing to put on the list because it makes you feel dumb.  I thought that I had a pretty good vocabulary, but I'm awful at coming up with words from some random description.  I still enjoy the puzzle books though.

So, it's a new week and I'm hoping to find something else to do on the list.  It looks like I actually have a shot at having my Christmas shopping done early this year.  We'll see if I actually finish it by the 1st though.