Grow.Make.Brew.Eat

I wrote this post 2 weeks ago. It's been 2 weeks since I've had 10 minutes to sit down and put some pics with this post. The pizza was really good.... It's been forever since Andy & I have really cooked together.  He cooks a lot, especially during the week because the evening after Augie goes to sleep is my prime exercise time. Finally after months of trading dinner and playtime or exercise time we made a pizza! And it wasn't your regular run of the mill frozen deal. We made a gluten free Prosciutto, mushroom, spinach, onion and goat cheese pizza on a garbanzo  bean flour crust. Note: you can still see my swollen lip from my recent dental surgery...  We started with a  quick crust  and tripled it, using a little less water and adding yeast.  We let it sit 30 min as suggested, spread it on our pizza sheet (with aluminum foil because it wad a bit thin) and tossed it on the grill. We threw on some garlic powder, sage, dill and dried gee...

So I eat oatmeal most days of the week...sometimes for dinner too. On the weekends we like to change it up a bit and frankly, I love breakfast foods. I have not been eating eggs or other dairy for several weeks, so what's a girl to eat? Well, we can still make a pretty mean smoothie. Check out this Chocolate Cherry Banana Smoothie. The ingredients-in any amount you want:  Rice milk Frozen cherries Frozen banana Dark chocolate cocoa powder (milk/lactose free) And if you have never tried Van's Gluten free products-you should. I was surprised at their choices and both their waffles and french toast sticks are phenomenal...seriously, they are. Below is a pic of the french toast sticks with some toasted walnuts and coconut and a smearing of honey. YUM. Can't end a post without a pic of the dude, right? 

Oh this is a fun recipe we tried last week that I found on Pinterest . It's a  roasted grape, goat cheese and honey baked sweet potato . Who knew you could roast grapes? The disch was really good. We didn't scoop out the potato and mix in the goat cheese this time. Instead we just cut up the sweet potato and loaded everything on top.  Both Andy & I thought that adding some toasted walnuts to the mix might add a different dimension of flavor. We also agreed that this would make a great Fall meal. We will be having this one again and will try the "twice baked" style... In other news...Augie likes to "scream".  It makes us smile ;-)

Augie is just over four moths old now! Wow how time flies and how he continues to change. He's had a cold and a bit of a cough but that seems to be dissipating. He's such a little ball of fun. He almost mastered rolling from back to stomach. He still loves to grab things and is now reaching to hold items with both hands. Daycare continues to go well. Sleeping was improved for a while, but with his cold and with his four month shots, our/his "schedule" got all discombobulated. We are still trying to get back to longer sleep times at night. Overall the little man is happy, which makes us happy too! Our food adventures continue. I have pretty much cut out eggs now and am eating as little processed foods as possible since I have no clue what chemical ingredients are in things (even though there are ingredient lists on foods there are still those phantom ingredients that might not be listed). I've been reading more about the Paleo movement (eating like the cavemen u...

Over the past several weeks I've changed my diet drastically. The wee one is a gassy little man and as I have adjusted my diet, I've noticed things have changed for the better. There is a lot of information floating around about eliminating certain foods from your diet which can irritate babies digestive systems. The major players that can affect infants are dairy, wheat, soy, eggs, beans, broccoli, spinach, peanuts, and citrus fruits, among a few others. I have cut all of these out of my diet except for eggs. This means no cheese, greek yogurt and other good things that I love to eat....however I've noticed that with cutting these things out, not only is Augie's digestive system happy...so is mine. It's a win win. Of course I still miss eating a few of these things (specifically cheese, greek yo and peanut butter!), but I feel pretty good with the whole process.  So, with undertaking this adventure we have embarked on some new dishes in the kitchen. We are still...

Not much innovative cooking has been going on in our kitchen over the past several months. Andy has been amazing at whipping up dinner on most nights since our evenings have been unpredictable. It's been wonderful and he's a great chef, but we've stuck ourselves in a bit of a rut out of convenience mostly. And based on the fact that I have basically gone gluten free and dairy free & cut out many other foods due to Augie's sensitivity to them, we've run out of options.  It's been a challenge to make sure I'm eating enough throughout the day, since my old staple snacks of cheese & crackers, peanut butter & pretzels, etc are now out. We tend to eat a lot of corn chip taco bowls with a variety of different proteins and veggies and a lot of Asian inspired bowls with rice noodles, veggies & egg. They are great, but we are looking for a little change.  The past two weeks have been great as Augie has fallen into a pattern of going to bed between...

Andy is off work for Presidents' Day today. It's been nice having a three day weekend with the whole family. Today we are just spending the day cleaning up the house and organizing and just enjoying each other's company. Since we weren't in a rush this morning we decided on a more involved meal: Nutella French Toast. I saw a pic/recipe for this on Pinterest but never actually read the recipe. I figured we could figure this one out on our own. It was easy AND really good. Who doesn't love Nutella? Here's what we did- Mix up some eggs with cinnamon and brown sugar Soak the bread in the eggs Slap it on the griddle until cooked Layer french toast with a little Nutella and walnuts Top with cinnamon, a dash of brown sugar and just a teeny bit of maple syrup Serve with a side of fruit and there you have a great breakfast for a nice day off Augie even helped...Today he's 5 weeks old!

We debated on having a left over pizza scramble or frittata this morning for breakfast. It's one of the best uses of left over pizza of any kind. But I had talked a big game about making scones this morning to have for the week and I felt compelled to pull through. Last night I came up with the idea of using our scone recipe from last weekend and changing the ingredients. Instead of apple cinnnamon drop scones , I made fig & oat scones. Their kind of more like a biscuit, in that they are shaped differently and aren't quite as "hard" as a scone. Regardless they did not dissapoint. The recipe consisted of many of the same basic ingredients all baked in the oven for 10-15 min (or until golden brown) at 400 degrees. 1 cup spelt flour 1/8 cup oat flour 1/4 cup oats 1 tsp cinnamon 4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder dash of sea salt 2 tsp honey 1/4 cup oil 1 splash of apple juice (maybe 3 tbsp)  1 cup Greek yo Juice 1/2 an orange 1/3 cup chopped fi...

We love the grilled pizza...especially when it's somewhere between 10-15 degrees outside! Last night we whipped together a savory pizza that was really, really tasty. We blistered up some peppers in the oven: Sauteed onions and mushrooms: Cut up some prosciutto: Sprinkled on a little goat cheese: And cooked the sucker up on the Weber: The peppers were amazing and had a lovely roasted flavor. Throw on a little malt vinegar and some sriracha and a super tasty dinner. It was enjoyed by A w/a Southern Tier IPA (one of our fave breweries) and by my with a Kiddie cocktail of massive proportion (club soda, cranberry & apple juices, splash of OJ, squeeze of lime). For desert I made some pudding w/milk and almond milk and layered graham crackers, pudding, bananas, and whip cream with a dash of cinnamon on top. This was a fantastic chocolaty treat post dinner.

We love a good breakfast. This morning we slept in and are still hanging in our pajamas and it's after 10am. We're listening to some good tunes...Andy playin' DJ. We've run the gamut from Black Keys, to Da Yoopers, Life Aquatic Soundtrack to Newcleus....now it's switched to some Dub Step (the dub step version of I Whip my Hair Back and Forth  to be exact). Yeah it's been a fun morning of music and good food. While I was blogging about last night's Date Night, Andy made One Eyed Bobs . We've heard them called Lazy Eyed Susans, but after watching Monsters v. Aliens one too many times and having a niece who loves the movie, they have morphed into a new name. We've made them many times in the past and they are a good, easy breakfast. Just a little buttered toast, a hole cut in the center and a cracked egg cooked up in a skillet. Andy added a little asiago and parmesan crispy to the mix today along with a good cup o' Joe. Yum.