A Touch Of Tyrell

Everett is such a good kid.  He really is.  He is talking so much these days and it's great.  Like most kids, Everett doesn't really eat a wide variety of food. On the GIANT list of foods he doesn't like is nuts and/or nut butters.  In my attempt to get him to eat nuts I spread the tiniest bit of peanut butter in his jelly sandwiches and I also spread almond butter in celery and put mini chocolate chips on top.  Then the other day I found a recipe for almond flour muffins .  So I stuck some almonds in my blender to make flour, added eggs (which Everett also refuses to eat) and a few other ingredients and then the cutest, little almond flour muffins were born.  And Everett loves them.  He calls them pup-takes. (Cupcakes) When I picked him up from preschool the other day he found a pup-take wrapper in his carseat and wanted to go home and make pup-takes.  He fell asleep as we pulled into the driveway....

Last August Jake and his good buddy moved everything we owned from WA to AZ... including the last 8 jars of raspberry jam I made from Pam's raspberries.  Once you've had homemade freezer jam, you'll never want to eat any other type of jam. At least that's the way it is for Jake and I.  The other day we realized that we only had a tiny, tiny bit of raspberry jam left and I started to fret. There's no way I could buy enough raspberries here (at a decent price) to make more raspberry jam so we decided to make strawberry instead. A few years ago, Pam (my mother-in-law) taught me how to make freezer jam. The directions in the box are very clear but it's always nice to have someone show you how to do it the first time.  You'll need your fruit (some recipes in the box call for a little fresh lemon juice, too), sugar, and pectin. I've always used the reduced sugar pectin in the pink box. It's usually found in the same aisle as the sugar,...

You wouldn't really expect a recipe off of a coupon add to be amazing.... but these mini pumpkin muffins were TAAAAASTY!  They're made with whole-wheat flour, pumpkin puree and topped with granola so they seem to be a tad bit more healthy than lets say.... the costco muffins (their first ingredient is sugar!) although these muffins do have their share of sugar.  Mini Pumpkin Muffins 1 cup whole-wheat flour 1t pumpkin pie spice 1/2 t baking soda 1/2 t baking powder 1/4 t salt 1 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 can (15oz) pumpkin puree 2 large eggs 1 cup lowfat granola cereal, crumbled Combine first 5 ingredients, set aside Beat sugar and oil until blended Add pumpkin and eggs; beat well Gradually stir in flour mixture Spoon batter into prepared mini muffin cups and top with granola.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  They are seriously SO good. 

We have a giant, fruitful lime tree in our backyard. Our landscapers walked away with a shirtful of limes the other day so I figured it must be time to pick them. (I have no idea how to tell when they're ready!) So Everett and I went out yesterday morning and picked 50 of them because I was going to make pie. There literally must be over 500 limes on there right now.  I had no idea how pokey a lime tree could be! It got me pretty good a few times. You can see a few thorns above the lime in this pic: Turns out I only needed 8 limes to get the juice and zest I needed. I was really feeling the burn as I was juicing those times.... man oh man. The juice found every tiny little cut on my hands and forearms that I didn't even know I had.  But in the end, a delicious lime pie was born... and Jake is in love.  He is a man of strong flavors and this is right up his alley. As for me, I love it too but I have to cover mine with whip cream to tone it down...

A few years ago I ripped a page out of a magazine that had some 'super foods' listed on it (and why they were good for you) and I put it on the side of my fridge. Since then I've tried to eat at least one food on that list a week.  Some of the foods on the list were: Spinach Sweet potatoes/carrots/butternut squash Flax seed Olive oil Avocado Salmon Broccoli Beans Turkey Red grapes Almonds And several others that I can't remember (my list is long gone... if you saw our kitchen you'd understand :) Yes, eating at least one of those foods seems like a super attainable goal, but I'm sure some weeks I didn't make it. But over the years I've learned how to eat/cook a bit healthier and I'm almost positive I eat at least one super food a week... even though I've started to try to eat them daily.  I'm pretty proud of myself actually.  Here are some of my favorite (and almost picture-worthy) dinners... (90% of...

If you new years resolution was to exercise.... then I have the perfect recipe for you! Chewy Caramel Popcorn It's the most delicious thing ever and your mouth will be doing a lot of exercise :-) I got this recipe when I was a freshman in high school when I took Foods 101 1 to 2 bags of popped popcorn 1/2 cup butter 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup corn syrup 1t baking soda salt to taste Put your popped popcorn in a very large bowl and set aside.  Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan. Add the brown sugar and corn syrup and mix them in.  Bring it to a boil and let it boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1t baking soda. It will start to look like a science experiment. Stir it until it looks like it's all mixed in and then pour the mixture over your popcorn.  Mix it all up and eat it as soon as it's not hot anymore :) It's delicious. And chewy... that's where the 'exercising' come in! You're welcome ;-...

So I got this totally cute text from a friend today who wanted the "recipe" to the caramel apples we made. I told her that she'd die when she found out how easy they were. So here is the "recipe". 6 Granny Smith apples 2 T water  1 lb of caramels... like these bad boys I got from the bulk candy section at Winco: You'll also need sticks, toppings of your choice (crushed into pieces), and chocolate. (A good way to crush candy bars/cookies/graham crackers is to put them in a baggie and smash them with a rolling pin. Works every time!) You unwrap all 10 million of the caramels and stick them in a bowl with the 2T water and melt away. (Melt however you like to melt. I chose to do the double boiler method... put the bowl over a pot of boiling water and stir. But don't let the boiling water touch the bottom of the bowl.) Stick a stick (we used kabob skewers because that's what we had) into the apple and then dunk it in the melted caramel. (We spooned ...

I bought 30 boxes of cereal this week. Call me crazy, but I love cereal. And this was an essential step towards building our food storage... store what you eat and eat what you store, right? Right! AND I had tons of coupons so I got all 30 boxes for a sweet price. We get the YES! paper in our driveway some Sunday mornings. It's a free Sunday insert paper (the coupons and ads) that magically shows up in our driveway. Some Sundays our neighborhood gets it and sometimes we don't. Also, on Tuesday the grocery store ads come in the mail and sometimes there's a pack of coupons in there too! Well, our neighborhood got the YES! paper (in our driveways) and the pack of coupons (in the mailbox) last week. Our neighbor has been out of the country for 4 months and asked me to pick up any paper that he gets... so  I got his YES! paper too. I took the boys for a bike ride on Tuesday and decided to do a little neighborhood clean-up and picked up 3 more YES! papers from abandoned/f...

 Pictures from the family reunion I saw a recipe for Chocolate Scotcheroos on the side of a Rice Krispies box and I had to try it. I made them for our 4th of July camping trip and then again for our family reunion last week. They are delicious and I've had tons of requests for the recipe... The recipe right off of the box: 1 cup light corn syrup 1 cup sugar 1 cup peanut butter (I like crunchy) 6 cups Rice Krispies 1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels 1 cup butterscotch chips (Now you can see why they are amazing. Sugar. Sugar. Sugar. Sugar.) Step 1. Place corn syrup and sugar into 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter. Mix well. Add Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until well coated. Press mixture into 13x9x2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Set aside. Step 2. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Sprea...

I'm a big fan of the library- no secret there- and I got a few cookbooks the last time I went. Two of them were baby cookbooks. Everett is a pretty picky eater already and I was at somewhat of a standstill. I had no more ideas on what to feed him. I found a few recipes in these books that he just loves. #1) Fruity Smoothie Everett hasn't opened his mouth for a puree in a loooong time but he does love this smoothie. It's super easy and super good. (I used a fresh banana and frozen peaches) Like everything else, Everett eats his smoothie with his whole body . This is Everett on our morning walk with flaxseed smeared in his eyebrow and on his forehead and cheek #2) Root Veggie Medley. This is delicious and makes the perfect side dish. 1 sweet potato, 2 parsnips, 2 carrots, olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. 400 degrees until soft...probably 45 min or so. It's seriously good. (Parsnips look like big white carrots and taste wonderful). #3) Chicken and Apri...