I Wanna Be A Caterpillar

I wanna be a caterpillar.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I do.  I LOVE being a human, but when that all important question comes up, "If you could be any animal, what would you be?"  My answer is, "I wanna be a caterpillar."

In case you are wondering why, I'll tell you.  If not, just skip to the recipe below.  Recently, we have "adopted" some caterpillars.  The Tiny Teen was begging for them for her recent 5th birthday.  Lucky for her, her godmother obliged.

So last week, caterpillars arrived in the mail.  In the short time these critters have called our house a home, I have watched them eat non-stop.  They have at least doubled in size in this short time.  They are preparing to form their chrysalids, where they will sleep for about a week, and then emerge as stunning butterflies.  To add it all up simply, they get to eat non-stop for a week, then sleep for a week, and then they become one of God's most beautiful creatures?  Hello, that is AWESOME!  I could easily get on board with that plan.  However, if I ate non-stop for a week, followed by a week long nap,  I'm pretty sure "stunningly beautiful" would not be a descriptor of mine. (PS-My science might be off.  I can't seem to get a clear picture as to whether caterpillars sleep during their transformation or if they are busy in there.  Food's my thing, not science as much).

If I were going to have a caterpillar week though, and do some non-stop eating, there would be baked goods.  So, let's pretend for a moment that we are indeed caterpillars and do a little eating, shall we?

How do "Funfetti Cookies" strike your fancy?

They strike my fancy real nice.  I saw this recipe just today on one of my favorite food blogs, Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body."  Yes, just today.  The princesses are in preschool today, my husband is super busy at work, and my trainer cancelled because he is ill.  For once, I had little else planned today.  What else was I to do, right?  Certainly not the laundry!

After dropping the princesses off at school, I stopped by my favorite big box store and grabbed my ingredients...and in no time at all...I had these yummy fellas in my belly.

Besides being tasty, these cookies are easy to make.  The batter is fantastic.  It is so easy to work with, you could even use your hands.  I've worked with some batters that stick to everything, but this one was perfect.

The recipe (below) calls for 14 large cookies to bake about 15 minutes.  I cut those cookies in half and made 27, and I baked them for 8-10 minutes.

It's been quite the sprinkle party at the Mowrys this week!  Even better, my girls have been super happy this week.  Coincidence?  Of course not!  Brighten up your week with some sprinkles too!  Enjoy!!

Link to Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body's Funfetti Cookie Recipe

Wanna Smile?

 

An image of pure bliss, am I right?  I cannot look at a yellow cupcake dolloped with chocolate frosting and a generous dash of festive sprinkles without smiling.  Can you?  Doesn't this just bring you back to the basics of life?  Of your childhood?  Whether it reminds you of a birthday party, or of a fun surprise, these basic cupcakes bring out smiles.

While I have recently fallen in LOVE with chocolate cupcakes, mostly because I found the dream recipe, yellow cupcakes will always have my heart.  They are the basic tenet from which my love of cupcakes has grown.  All other cupcake love begins with this basic choice.  Yellow cake, chocolate frosting, bright and colorful sprinkles.

With this being so, it is far past time that I find the perfect yellow cake, don't you think?  This past weekend, I set a course for exploration into the world of the yellow cupcake, to search and experiment in hopes of finding a worthy upgraded yellow cake.  I took what I learned from the "My Baking Addiction" blog in her chocolate cupcakes, and I applied those principles to the yellow cake.

In my opinion, I found these to be SO yummy and SO moist!  And SO, so perfect!  Are you ready?  Here's the recipe...

Ingredients:

• A Box of Yellow Cake Mix (I chose "Butter Yellow")
• 5.1 oz. Instant Vanilla Pudding mix
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup of unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup of warm water
• 4 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the yellow cake mix powder and the pudding powder with the sour cream, oil, butter, water, and eggs.  Mix until well blended.  Pour into your muffin cups.  If you like to have your cupcakes bake just to the top,  fill your batter just past halfway into your cups.  If you fill them 3/4 of the way or more, you will end up with cupcakes that look like jumbo muffins.

An overfilled cupcake resembling a jumbo muffin...OOPS!

Bake about 18-20 minutes.  The cupcakes may still look like they need more baking time, but you must check with a toothpick.  Because these cupcakes are so moist, they may appear to need a few more minutes, when they really do not.  Your toothpick once inserted, should come out with crumbs.  If it comes out with clinging batter, you must bake them longer. 

You should end up with more than 2 dozen cupcakes.

Lastly, you must decide what to top them with, and this, my friends, is where I need some help!  I decided that while I was experimenting in the kitchen, I'd try and whip up my own recipe for strawberry frosting.  While it was delicious, it did NOT look pretty.  If you look close enough, you'll see that it doesn't look very frosting-y.  

So I ate 1 or 2 of those, and scrapped the frosting in lieu of yellow cake's bestie, chocolate frosting.  If you lean in real close, I'll tell you a secret about my chocolate frosting...

I bought it.  I was so elated at how tasty the yellow cake was, that I didn't want to push my luck any further.  So that frosting comes to you straight from a jar, straight from my local supermarket.  You know what?  It's reeeaaaaallll GOOD!

I'll work out the frosting details later.  For now, I'm one happy camper to have found an ultra moist and delicious yellow cake recipe.

I encourage you to make your people smile this week.  As you can see, I sure did make that Texas Tornado smile!  That sweet chocolate face made me smile right back.  See how awesome these cupcakes are!  Like a little cup of world peace...if even only temporarily.  Enjoy!

Side note: If you want "Rach and Me" posts sent straight to your email, please enter your email address to the right where it say "Follow by Email."  Then you must enter a 6 character code.  The last step comes to you via email, and then you must open and verify that you really want "Rach and Me" coming to your inbox.  I just wanted to let you know that was an option.  Thank you again for reading and sharing "Rach and Me!"

Philosophical Random Thought

Let's kick around a little philosophy this fine Friday morning, shall we?  I mean, when is philosophy more grand than when one is exhausted and under-caffeinated?  In other words, I'm sleepy, and my mind is only producing random thoughts.  

Our random thought, ahem...I mean our philosophy to consider this morning is this...  

If breakfast and lunch equal brunch, than what can we call a meal that can happily appear at any time of the day: breakfast, lunch and/or dinner?  Brunchner?  Brunner?  Dunchfast?  

As you can see, I'm not coming up with the most inventive words.  I've never been one to blend words well.  Where's the originator of Brangelina?  Now that was a word blend that the world has never forgotten!  I could use her help, and yes, I believe it was a "her."  If not, then it was definitely the staff over at TMZ.

I need this new blended word to describe today's recipe, because it would be perfect for "dunchfast."  Today's recipe is the Croque Madame.

 
This sandwich is a staple over in France.  Something that I ate quite frequently during my short time there.  If you simply remove the egg, it quickly changes the name to Croque Monsieur.  For those of you who are not lovers of the French language, "Madame" refers to a woman, and "Monsieur" would be in reference to a man, a Mr.  So, if we wanted to dip our toe even further into the philosophical pool this morning, we could wonder what an egg topper has to do with things being male or female, but I feel that may land us in weird territory.

Moving on...

This sandwich is essentially a super fancy ham and cheese sandwich.  If a ham and cheeser rings your bell, than I say treat yourself to this classed up version.  You can find this recipe in the most recent issue of the EveryDay with Rachael Ray magazine.  It is listed as Croque Monsieur.  The only changes I made were to make it a "Madame" with the egg, and instead of using swiss cheese, I opted for gruyere.

 This only takes a few minutes longer to prepare than your average cold ham and cheese sandwich,  due to the speed of broiling, so why not treat yourself and your family to something extra sassy this weekend.  I say, eat it which ever meal you choose!  You deserve something this tasty.  You survived another long week!  Enjoy!

Link to EveryDay with Rachael Ray's Croque Monsieur Recipe

Stop That Speedy Clock!

An Oreo birthday cupcake, just as the Tiny Teen requested.
Click here for the recipe.

As much as I begged and pleaded against it, yesterday the inevitable happened.  My sweet 4 year old princess became my sweet 5 year old princess.  Why does this keep happening?

While I have no intention, or capability for that matter, to turn back the clock to her infancy, all I'm asking is for a slower clock.  One where my baby gets to stay a baby for as long as possible.

Somehow though, I must accept that I'm out of luck in this proposal.  I know this for sure because here's some evidence quoted by my newly crowned 5 year old daughter just yesterday to prove that my baby is still a baby, but yet a baby who dreams of being a big girl...

Piece of Evidence #1: Marriage

"Mommy, I know who I'm going to marry.  I'm going to marry Luis, because he is nice to me."

***While I'm thrilled that her criteria in spouse picking is that "he's nice," my heart just can't handle planning my 5 year old's wedding.


Piece of Evidence #2:  Her First Home

"Mommy, wouldn't it be awesome if our house was a dinosaur, and we lived inside of it?"

***Since this comment came exactly 4 seconds after the "Luis" comment, I can only imagine she is planning this dino house as their first home.


Piece of Evidence #3:  Her Super Sweet Sixteen

Me:  "Sweetie, can you believe that you are 5?"

Tiny Teen:  "It'd be better if I was 16."

***Ugh.


Clearly, the Tiny Teen is in cahoots with that speedy clock.  I'm not giving into their powers though.  I will hold on and treasure every second I can with my sweet, now 5 year old, Tiny Teen, because in my heart I know that all of her big girl dreams will come true faster than I'm ready for.  So today, I'm going to play princesses and Barbies, and all of the other 5 year old fun and fight that speedy clock off as best I can!

Two Awesome Adjectives: Buttery & Brulee

Life has been chaotic lately.  In just the last week alone, we took a family vacation to Florida,  and we had a Chuck E. Cheese birthday blow out to celebrate my almost 5 year old, the Tiny Teen.  Add to these already busy times, just the every day chaos of keeping up with life.  I will say that my health regimen has gone off course a bit...ok, a LOT.

I would like to say that I'm getting things back on track this lovely Monday morning, but the Tiny Teen's actual birthday is tomorrow.  With that being said, I've got a chocolate cake in my fridge as we speak ready and waiting for tomorrow to get its 5 celebratory candles.

Hello cake...meet my waist line.

Why does dessert so often ruin my hard work in the diet and exercise department?  Oh yeah, that's right, because it's DELICIOUS,  but often too calorie packed.

Not today my friends, not today.  Today, I've got quite the tasty dessert treat from Rach and me!  Something that provides that necessary sweet taste after a delicious meal without adding too many calories to your daily intake.  Sounds good, right?  I'd like to think so...

Today we take grapefruit out of its comfort zone a bit, and we turn it into a delicious "Buttery Grapefruit Brulee."  Yes, I said buttery.  I heard it too.  Even with the "buttery" part, this recipe comes in at under 200 calories a serving.  I guarantee you that is far lower than my chocolate cake.  Since you are in the driver's seat in the kitchen, you can modify this recipe to get your caloric numbers lower. As you can see in the above picture, that's quite a bit of butter.  If you want to lower it, you can also lower your calories.  You can do the same with your raw sugar if you like.

The beauty of this recipe, is that it can be prepped ahead of time, and it takes mere minutes to broil.  I like to serve this dessert after the meal in my previous post, the Crustless Leek Quiche & Green Bean and Shallot Salad.  It's a complete meal where you can walk away with a satisfied tummy, and a good feeling in your heart knowing you did your best at getting those 5 daily fruits and veggies.

The entire meal comes out so nicely, it could be something you could proudly serve while entertaining. Even better, the entire meal can be prepped almost entirely in advance, truly making it an ideal option for a more stress free entertaining experience.

If you are like me, and are trying to make some healthier choices without eliminating the fun of dessert all together, I invite you to give Rach's "Buttery Grapefruit Brulee" a try!  Enjoy!


Link to Rachael Ray's Buttery Grapefruit Brulee Recipe

Storms and Spring

Spring.  Flowers.  Easter.  All wonderful things that represent this time of year.  If you live where I live, you can count "Storm Insanity" on the "Not So Great" list of things that also represent this time of year. 

Last Tuesday on your evening news, you may have seen semi trucks flying through the sky as if they were feathers.  That's spring in Texas!  As sad as the footage is from Tuesday and all of the communities trying to process the damage and loss and move on, another less newsworthy storm passed through yesterday.  While this storm didn't yield horrific pictures splattered across your evening news, it did cause damage and loss right in my neighborhood.  Our very new neighbors had their home struck by lightning yesterday.  This lightning strike caused a fire that rendered their home unliveable.  It is a true reminder of how powerful storms can be, as well as how quickly and unexpectedly life can change.

Every year during spring, I try and mentally prepare for the "what ifs" the weather may bring.  For instance, I try and have an extra frozen pizza in the freezer just in case the weather is too dangerous and we must remain home for the day.  I also try and have candles on hand and my weather radio with fresh batteries.  However this year, this week even, has brought weather that my preparation can't even touch.  Nonetheless, if you've ever spent a July day in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, you know that spring weather besides being horrific, it can be the best you're gonna get!

With that in mind, I try and enjoy the good things about spring when the weather's right.  I did this just last week.  I made two spring time dishes to end one of those lovely spring days.
Both recipes come from the Rachael Ray magazine.  Even though they were presented as brunch food, I prepared them as dinner.  I guess what's perfect about them, is that they can be enjoyed at any time of the day!

Green Bean & Shallot Salad on the left.
Crustless Leek Quiche on the right.

I highly recommend Rachael Ray's Green Bean & Shallot Salad paired with her Crustless Leek Quiche.  What a light and wonderful meal for spring!  Even better, is that both can be prepared ahead of time.  This makes it ideal for entertaining...or for those of us with small kids who try and make the most of the beloved institution of "nap time."

I've never cooked with leeks before.  I honestly didn't even know if I would like a leek.  My opinion of them is that they remind me of really big green onions in look, texture, and even taste.  I also love the cheeses in the quiche, both goat cheese and brie.  As for the green bean salad, the green beans hold a wonderful crunch.  This offers a nice contrast to the mushiness of the quiche. Although the best part is the dressing that the beans and shallots are tossed in.  DIVINE!!

If you find yourself enjoying a wonderful spring day this week, I urge you to prepare this meal.  If you are a goat cheese and brie fan, you are going to especially LOVE the quiche!  Enjoy!

Rachael Ray's Green Bean & Shallot Salad Recipe

Rachael Ray's Crustless Leek Quiche Recipe

What. A. Day.

That's right.  Three separate sentences for that title.  What. A. Day.  Yesterday was a day where semi trucks flew, a day where houses crumbled, and a day that sucked every morsel of energy from everyone I know in the DFW area.  While I believe that everyone I know is safe, my heart goes out to those who had a complete life shift yesterday.  One that they never saw coming while peacefully drinking their coffee that morning.

Everyone deals with this level of stress in different ways.  I chose to eliminate my stress via cooking.  I made quite a few things yesterday to manage my stress, so let's just look at one.  Shall we?

Enter Asparagus and Prosciutto Risotto topped with Baby Scallops with a Balsamic Glaze, or as I like to call it...the perfect end to a crazy day.  I've made Asparagus Risotto more times than I can count.  It's a delicious way to enjoy asparagus in my opinion.  In the past though, it has always been a creamy, delicious side...not a meal's headliner.  Last Saturday though, I dined with some friends at the cutest restaurant in downtown Dallas.  They had 5 risottos to choose from on their dinner menu.  We chose the asparagus and prosciutto risotto, and it was wonderful.  It then became my mission to recreate it.

Truth be told, the risotto wasn't apart of yesterday's "Cook-a-Palooza."  I actually made it Monday.  Last night though, I added some very small baby scallops, and boy that took an already incredible risotto to a whole new level!

How can you enjoy this amazing meal straight from your own kitchen?  See below.

1. First click on the recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fresh-asparagus-risotto/
2. Next you can tailor this recipe to how many servings you desire.  I always stick with 6, as I LOVE to have leftovers of this dish.  You can also easily reheat the risotto in the microwave the next day.  I haven't noticed any loss of creaminess in the several times I have done this.
3. Now, onto preparing this meal.  I follow the directions mostly.  The changes I make are: 
1. When it says to use "dry white wine," I use whatever white wine I have on hand.  Then I pour myself a little glass to enjoy while cooking, turn up the radio, and live it up!  Back on topic...
2. When it says to use heavy cream, I use whole milk.  Heavy cream would undoubtedly make it creamier, however, I always have whole milk on hand.  Count it as a caloric/fat blessing.  Whole milk is much kinder to the waist line than heavy cream.  I've always made it with whole milk, and it is delicious!
4. Other than those simple changes to the original recipe, I did everything else the same.  When it came to adding the prosciutto, I used a 3 oz. package of prosciutto and chopped it up.  At the end of the risotto recipe, when you are adding in the asparagus, the cheese, etc., this is when I added in the prosciutto.  With the final 2-3 minutes of stirring, it cooked up perfectly.
5. As for the scallops, I sauteed 1/4 pound in a tablespoon of olive oil on medium-high heat for a minute or two, then I added 1-2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar for the final minute or 2.  I kept the scallops moving for the most part.  I did let them sit on the pan long enough to get some lovely glazing.  Those are not burn marks on the scallops, that's yummy glaze.

***A side note in regards to risotto preparation of any kind. Upon each addition of broth/water to the rice, be sure to stir vigorously for one minute.  While risotto does need nearly constant stirring, stirring constantly after each addition creates a creamier risotto.***

That's it.  I reheated my risotto from the night before in the microwave, and then topped it with my ever so delightful baby scallops.  It was PERFECT!  It was top notch comfort food to bring comfort to a topsy-turvy day.

My heart and thoughts go out to everyone in the affected areas of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I sincerely thank God that we were spared yet again.  

Firsts

Firsts.  My first baby is going off to kindergarten in the fall.  This morning was the morning that I signed her up.  Waves of nervousness and excitement consumed my every footstep as I walked into her soon to be new school for the first time.  Within moments though, I was calm.  I knew when I walked in that this was the right spot for her.  I've already been through a horrible school in her short academic career.  I know what horrible feels like, and I know what "the right fit" feels like too.  I researched, did my homework, and felt like this was "the right fit."  I couldn't have been more pleased when my "Mom gut" agreed.

Once I finished enrolling her, I quietly surveyed this new place our family was soon going to become apart of.  This place where my "preschool" baby was going to become a "big kid."  While I'm not quite ready for this big transition for her, I take peace in knowing that she's ready.  All I need to do is relax, and come fall, paint a big smile on my face as she takes this next step.

Today holds another first.  This, I believe, is the first time I've ever shared a recipe with you of something someone else has cooked!  I was at my friend's house last week for dinner, and she made a recipe from the most recent issue of the EveryDay with Rachael Ray magazine, Quick Chicken Vesuvio.  It was SOOOOO good!  As you can see by the picture, I ate most of it before I even thought about grabbing the camera and taking a pic.

It is essentially sliced potatoes, peas, and chicken with garlic and magic.  Yes, there has to be magic because I don't think that just chicken, peas, potatoes, and garlic were meant to taste SO SO good!  I can offer you no helpful hints since I didn't make this one.  I did want to share it with you as soon as I could though, because it's so delicious.  I want you to enjoy it too!  Enjoy!

Link to Rachael Ray's Quick Chicken Vesuvio Recipe