Fajit-wich

Oh my gosh,
I've invented a new word,
and if you've heard it before,
you can't tell me because I want to
go on believing I've invented
a dinner phenomenon!

It came to be completely by accident,
and now I'm obsessed.
Completely and utterly obsessed!

It all started because we were going to
spend the day at the beach,

 and I didn't have any bread.
But I did have these wonderful little flat breads,
and I had chicken that we had grilled up

the day before for chicken salad,
and I had peppers.

and fresh salsa

and guacamole,

 add some cheese & lettuce

and I realized I had myself makings for
a Fajita Sandwich!
or FAJIT-WICH, which is what we call it now.

They are easy & packable
or eatable at the dinner tab-able.

Fajit-wich

Grill your chicken however and with whatever you like
Julienne a red, yellow and orange bell pepper
Julienne 1/2 red onion
Saute the onion and peppers together,
adding sea salt in the final few minutes

Pile your wrap with chicken and pepper mixture,
top with monterrey jack cheese, salsa and guacamole.

Some of the folks here added lettuce, beans
and cilantro rice to their wraps.

Serve with black bean and corn salsa!
It's a yummy Tex-Mex style sandwich.
Ole

Orange Scented Green Beans

I recently read that using citrus zest in your food
helps to eliminate belly fat :)
I don't know,
what do you think?
I'm not generally a believer in such food
rumors or fads,
but anything that gives me a reason
to use citrus zest-
and you'll hear me sing
"I'm a Believer"
(Shrek instrumental begins now)


 I found this recipe while searching for a
yummy side dish to serve at a church holiday dinner-
and now it is a staple at our table,
this is a slight modification of the original,
and oh so yummy-

Sautéed Green Beans & carrots

1 tsp. Olive oil

1 medium shallot, finely diced

¾ lb. Green beans, trimmed

2 medium carrots, julienned

1 large orange, zested and juiced, divided

2 tbsp. sprigs fresh dill, chipped

1/4 c. slivered almonds

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan. Add shallot, beans and carrots; sauté stirring often, 3- 4 minutes. Add orange juice & almonds to pan and stir one minute, cover pan with lid and steam for 1- 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add orange zest and dill. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Know Your Support Staff

I'm reading a book right now that I WON'T recommend,
but it has one line in it that I want to share-
one of the characters is reflecting on a time when she
had surgery as and adult. She needed her mother for
absolutely every part of daily life- eating, bathing, pottying!
Well, she got a little stinky and a lot picky with her mother
and her mom left.
After about 30 minutes, the character had to sink into some
level of humility, and call her mom back to beg forgiveness
and ask her to come back.
She said to her mom in misery "I'm sorry, I'm helpless"
Her mother responded with the line I love,
"That's where you're wrong. You're not helpless.
You need help. There's a big difference."

I guess I love it because I NEED HELP-
and a lot of it at that.

Last week in Yoga,
I pushed myself to hard.
I was sure that if I worked through the pain
in my shoulder and back,
I would come out better off than if I
continued to baby these injuries.
But alas, my body had another think,
and it wasn't a good one.
So I had to stay after class and ask for
a little help working the kinks out
that I had so stubbornly forced upon myself.
As I walked out of the studio,
I was so glad for Help.
For someone who knows better than I
what is best for me in the moment.

Yesterday I went to the store.
It was one of those errand running days
where I am timed to the minute and have
no room for any sort of delay.
Well, I had our BIG vehicle-
who thought it was smart to put the
MOM in the BIG vehicle???
Especially the MOM who finds Reverse to be
TRES DIFFICILE!
As I return to my car, I see an even BIGGER
truck parked in the stall directly behind my car.
Oh my gosh, panic mode, how am I going to
navigate out of that parking spot.
I think Big, Gruff, Mountain type Man sensed
my panic and waited for me to get in my car.
As I began my reverse momentum,
and prayed silently that no harm would come
to me, my car, him, his car, or anyone
or anything nearby,
I noticed that he was guiding me on...
and he kept guiding me,
and encouraging me to continue-
even though my brain was screaming-
STOP- let's just make this a 28 point reverse attempt.
I finally opened the window and said
"Are you SURE I've got room?"
"Yup" 
"It doesn't look like I've got room, your 
making me a bit nervous"
"You're fine. It's a new truck, you've got room"
(like the new truck line added COMFORT to the situation)
"Are you sure you don't just want the insurance payout?"
"Ma'am you're fine, just keep 'er comin'"
Okay, MR. MCBUFF, if you think you've got this,
and minutes later I was out,
and free of my parking headache
and off I went,
into the wild blue yonder,
Thanks Mr. Stranger man for helpin' me out back there!

So there is a lot of Help out there
in this big, wide world we live in.
Sometimes the Help comes from
the amazing people we live with.
Sometimes it comes from those
nearest and dearest to our hearts.
Sometimes it is just someone who
honestly and genuinely knows more
than we do-
and sometimes it comes from a complete
& total stranger,
who just walks into our lives,
long enough to be a bit of a support,
and off they go, barely a dent in our day.

With all this Help floating around,
it really makes me wonder,
why do we try to do so much
ON OUR OWN?
I vow to acknowledge the difference
between
Being Helpless,
and Needing Help!
You should to!!
Get started today,
look around,
Whose on your Support Staff??

Spicy Orange Chicken

This was seriously the best chicken
I have accidentally made in a long time.
It started because I had thawed chicken
and needed to marinade it-
I knew my dinner time prep would be at
a minimum.
But since Old Mother Hubbard has
taken over my cupboards right now,
I didn't have the things that I usually
use for my favorite Lime Chicken!
So I improvised
First, I used an orange flavored balsamic vinegar
just a bit and some olive oil,

you can see it on the right there, I buy it at Sprouts

than I added the zest and juice of 1 orange,
and I cheated by adding one of my favorite
store bought spices- it's called Kickin' Chicken'
and I use it a lot.

Hot off the grill, it was hard to keep our hands off of it

We all LOVED it and wanted to eat a LOT of it.
But alas, for this dinner,
we were cutting it into bite size strips to use

on a fajit-wich-

that's one big fajit-wich

or in a salad

sorry about the fuzzy picture

or in a soft shell taco-

YA it actually got pretty out of control here

I can't wait to have this chicken again.
It would be green salad with berries & pecans,
hot off the grill,

or with napa cabbage, mandarin oranges & slivered almonds!
I can't stop thinking about it!

Pumpkin Shakes

I'm actually trying to decide how I feel about
this shake!
Is it healthy, not really, because it has ice cream,
but that is a dairy product,
and it does have pumpkin,
isn't that a member of the squash family-
and isn't it really hard to get kids to eat squash?

Well my kids LOVE this shake,
so in the fall, I tempt them to do their homework
with the promise of a pumpkin shake as an
after school snack.
Hey if Bill Cosby can do Chocolate Cake
for breakfast, I can do
Pumpkin Shake for snack.

Pumpkin Milk Shake

Two scoops vanilla ice cream                               4 TBSP. canned pumpkin

1 c. milk                                                                        2 TBSP. maple syrup

2 TBSP. caramel syrup                                            1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Combine in a blender. Top with whipped cream and a dash of nutmeg or cinnamon for added appearance.

New Take on Hot Cereal

There is a lot of hub bub about Quinoa in

the healthy world. It is one of our favorite

for side dishes now that I'm trying minimize 

how much pasta we eat. 

This is perfectly creamy, and tastes great.

All of my kids who will eat oatmeal,

will eat this.

Breakfast Quinoa

2 c. milk

1 c. quinoa

3 TBSP. Brown sugar

1/8 tsp. Cinnamon

1 c. fruit (blueberries, apples, etc)

Bring milk to a boil. Add quinoa. Return to boil. Reduce to low and simmer. Cover & cook about 15 minutes. Some milk will not be absorbed. Stir in sugar & cinnamon. Cook till all absorbed- about 8 minutes. Add fruit for 30 seconds.

Baked French Toast

This is a TOO DIE FOR 
French Toast Recipe.
I love that you prepare it the night before,
and it is ready and beautiful for 
a Weekend breakfast with 
the family-

I am pretty sure that this is a 

Paula Deen recipe,

but I got it from my sister,

who got it from her friend,

who...

well you know how it goes!

Regardless of where it came from

it is one of our favorite breakfasts. 

It has been requested by my kids'

High School to be the breakfast item

I bring once a month to the teacher

appreciation breakfast.

 Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup

1 loaf French bread (13- 16 oz)                  8 large eggs

2 c. half and half                                         1 c. milk

2 T. Granulated sugar                                  1 t. vanilla extract

¼ t. ground cinnamon                                 ¼ t. ground nutmeg

dash salt

Praline Topping; recipe follows                   Maple syrup

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1 inch thick. 

Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 x 13 inch flat baking dish in two rows, overlapping the slices. 

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. 

Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk- egg mixture.  

Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. 

Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.  The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.  Serve with maple syrup.

** Praline Topping **

½ lb. Butter                                       1 c. packed brown sugar

1 c. chopped pecans                          2 T. Light corn syrup

½ t. ground cinnamon                        ½ t. ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well.  Makes enough for Baked French Toast Casserole.