Falafel Waffles

Okay, not really.  But Aidan asked for these again.

"What do you want for lunch Aidan?"
"Waffles. But not real waffles. Those brown ones with cucumbers that we ate last time at dinner."
"Falafel?"
"Yeah, fala waffle."
"Just Fa La Fall."
"Oh. Fa La Fall. fa waffle. fa lafel. falafel. I said it. Can I have that?"

Happy St Patrick's Day

Corned beef is our basic stand-by St. Patrick's Day dinner. The sides vary, but I never make cabbage. I don't like cooked cabbage. Unfortunately for me, corned beef seems to be the same as every other meal in this house, which is some people like it, some people don't.  In the interest of change, I switched it up. We did not have corned beef this year.  Nearing dinner time, I regretted the meal plan. I started thinking that just because my family always manages to complain about something, I shouldn't break with tradition. Lucky for my meal plan, I only have one grocery store in town and I was almost certain I didn't want to buy corned beef there.

I stuck with the plan and we had green food! No dye.  There are plenty of delicious green foods out there without adding dye to food that isn't actually green.  (Also, one year we had green milk at breakfast and  green mashed potatoes with dinner and that did not go over well. Entirely unappetizing to our children *remember, they are "selective".* And to be honest, I found dyed-green food unappetizing as well. No use making unappetizing food if your kids don't even think it's fun or cool or yummy. )

Leprechaun Greens with Pot of Gold

Leprechaun Greens for dinner:
Green Goddess Pasta and Chicken Salad
Cucumber
Spinach Salad

Allie called our Kool-Aid, which was pink, "Fairy Punch" (we don't have Kool-Aid often, and I didn't have green on hand)

Dessert:
Pot of Gold (aka lemon jello cubes)

Aidan came up with an amazing recipe, which you may be at a disadvantage for future lemon-aid stands if I don't share this valuable knowledge.

"To make lemon juice you should have jello and a jello squisher. Then put the jello in the jello squisher and hold it over a cup. Then. Poof. You have lemon juice that's yummy to drink! Or if you don't have a jello squisher, you can just swish the jello in your mouth until it is juice. Then swallow." (We don't have a jello squisher. He is just the patented inventor of that little miracle machine.)

Can you tell we don't have jello that often either?

Chicken Tortilla Soup: So So Deliciously Scrumptious

Hint: It has lime!!!  You know I'm a total lime addict. Seriously...fresh lime, fresh cilantro, cumin...how could you go wrong??!!!
This soup came from Our Best Bites.  If you aren't following their blog yet, you are missing out!  So yummy.  They also have a cookbook out now, so you have no excuse for not savoring every bite of every meal.  I switched up some of the ingredients because ... well, that's how I cook, for the most part.  But, I kept the most important parts in tact.  Click here for the link to their post on this soup or click here for the link to the Taco Chicken! Trust me, it's that good (and it has lime).  After grilling the chicken, Dustin and I reluctantly put most of it into the soup, but the self-control paid off.  This chicken would be good no matter where you put it.
After I made this soup, I had a vague recollection of seeing the ingredients before. Guess what?  I was right. I already had a similar recipe that I had found a couple of years ago. The version I had, though, just used regular cooked diced chicken.  The chicken in this recipe is A-MAZE-ING!  If you want to check out this recipe, which I never made, click here; it was posted by Diana Rattray, and she adds carrots and corn.
I know there are some of you who cook one meal and eat it for however long it lasts, and I am slightly envious.  I could blame it on my husband and kids, but that wouldn't be very accurate: I don't especially languish the thought of eating the same thing at every meal. I want to switch it up, add variety, texture, nutrients. Not so with this one.  I will admit, I ate it for lunch and dinner for a few days after (I doubled it, because...why on earth wouldn't you???)

I am posting the recipe with my alterations so I can remember them. Click the links above to make it in its original form. As she mentions, this recipe is brothier than my Chicken Tortilla Soup standby recipe, just so you know what to expect. Also, despite her insistence on fresh lime juice only, the limes at my store looked aweful, felt hard, and were totally expensive.  I used bottled; still delish!

Chicken Tortilla Soup
(keep in mind I doubled and had leftovers)

1 recipe Taco Chicken (start marinating this in the morning)
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 Anaheim pepper, seeded, diced
4 cups water + 4 tsp Better Than Bouillon, for 4 cups broth
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
1 can black beans (if you're cool and remember to start beans, which I NEVER do, obviously, you could use those)
1/4 c lime juice (opt)
salt and pepper to taste

TOPPINGS:
finely grated cheese (we used
fresh cilantro
sliced avacado
tortilla chips

Grill taco chicken. While letting it stand, sautee onion in a small amount of olive oil, about 4 minutes.  Add garlic and peppers; sautee until softened, not browned. Add chicken broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer 10 minutes. Add black beans; simmer 5-10 more minutes.
Remove from heat. Add diced chicken and lime juice. Serve and top as desired.


Taco Chicken

1 lb chicken breast
2 limes, juiced
A splash of red wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Combine lime juice and red wine vinegar. Add garlic. pour over chicken. Turn to evenly coat.  Turn chicken every hour, or couple of hours, to allow both sides to marinate. Marinate 4-8 hours.
Heat grill. Combine spices and rub evenly on chicken.
Grill about 5 minutes per side, or until just cooked. Don't overcook and dry out the chicken. That would be sad. :)

Rustic Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup With Basil Parmesan Bread

2 (14 1/2 oz) cans Italian-style diced tomatoes
3 c water
2 c loose-pack frozen cut or french cut green beans
1 (10 1/2 oz) can condensed French onion soup
16 oz fully cooked smoked turkey sausage, halved or quartered lengthwise and cut into bite size
2 c pkg shredded cabbage with carrot (coleslaw mix...just DON"T pay extra for the kits that come with gross dressing. get just the cabbage and carrots)
1 (9 oz) pkg frozen cheese-filled tortellini
Shaved or shredded Parmesan cheese

1. In a 4 or 5 quart slow cooker, combine undrained tomatoes, water, frozen green beans, onion soup, and turkey sausage.
2. Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 8-10 hours, or on high-heat setting for 4-5 hours (or if you have my super hot crock pot, 4 hours on low)
3. If using low-heat, turn slow cooker to high. Stir cabbage and tortellini into soup. Cover; cook for 15 min more. Garnish soup with shavings of Parmesan cheese or shredded Parmesan cheese.
Makes 10 to 12 servings.

(This recipe originally came from Yahoo Shine. The original recipe called for refrigerated tortellini, rather than frozen, but I've used both and they turn out the same. Plus, I always have frozen in the freezer. Also, I buy the Butterball Turkey sausage or kielbosa, which comes in 16 oz pkg. The original recipe calls for 8 oz. Our family likes 16; originally, they were supposed to be halved lengthwise and cut to 1/2", but I like to just look at what side the kids are going to eat. Once I've chopped and cooked I don't want to spend the whole meal continuing to cut food for younger ones. The original calls for Italian style stewed tomatoes. I think I hate stewed tomatoes. I like them diced. Don't leave out the French onion soup. It's delish. )

The bread is French bread from the bakery. Slice, butter, garlic powder, basil, parmesan. Broil.

A Nutty Confession

Christmas at our house was lots of fun. We stayed home, so we didn't get to spend the day with LOTS of family, but we did get to talk to them. Lots of chats on the phone helps the distance seem less. I even got to talk to Blake, who called at about 5:30pm, which means 2:30am his time.

Of we got games for Christmas, because we love playing games together as a family. We do a "name rotation," so my sister, Mylie and her family sent some really fun games to each of our kids. We got through a whole game of Bunko, played some Mad Libs (which is always so fun with all our different kids' ages), and a fun game from Sibyl, called Quibbler. It's a sort of Rummy game, but with letter and you get to spell words in short rounds. I played I Spy with Aidan while we all built words.

We live in warm Texas, so we even got to play outside without bundling up in layers and layers and boots and scarves.

Aimee and Allie got "Just Dance" games for wii. Just Dance 2 and Just Dance Kids were blasting in our house on Christmas day as well.

So, between talking to each other, talking to family on the phone, games and dancing, we ate a yummy Christmas late-morning breakfast of brown sugar ham, eggs, toast, milk, and juice.

Here's the embarrassing confession. We didn't have friends or other family coming over, so we didn't have a rush to get dinner ready. When dinner "time" came, we weren't really hungry. And, as it's usually a fight to get our younger ones to sit still and eat, I thought the best solution was a simple one. We had some wonderful Texas pecans on in the kitchen, which seemed to be calling to us. We decided lightly sweetened Pecan-Oatmeal was the dinner of choice.

Lame? Yes. Yummy? Absolutely. And our dinner was peaceful and filled with good conversation.

We actually had grilled Rib-Eye with sauteed mushrooms the following day and a delicious Orange-Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin the next day. But, our Christmas day dinner was Oatmeal. We didn't actually have a big problem with it until Alex got back to school and had to write his Spanish essay about his Chirstmas vacation, including foods, traditions, gifts, and travels. I don't think he did the Pecan Oatmeal justice. Just sayin'....

:)