Pregnancy and Cooking

...are just two things that don't always mix!

I'm sorry for my absence, but I sure do hope that makes your heart fonder.  <3

Here's the skinny on what's been happening...

1.  I have had NO time to blog.  I started a crochet business called Made by Magissa and it boomed during the Fall.  A wonderful thing!  Just didn't leave much time for anything but crocheting and being a momma during what "free time" I have.  (I'm kinda okay with that.)

2.  I'm pregnant with Baby #2, a BOY this time!  He is due on May 16th and is currently the size of an ear of corn, to give you some perspective:

3.  This pregnancy has been tougher sickness-wise and cooking-wise, if you thought the last one was bad!  Though, that was mainly in the first trimester.  I'm happily sailing through the second trimester and have been doing lots of cooking to try to keep some of those inevitable pounds away (one of my New Year's resolutions).  I'm currently determined to add spinach back into my diet in the form of lots of yummy salads.  Stay tuned.

4.  I haven't forgotten about the blogging world!  I've been taking pictures of some things I've been making, just haven't posted.  Feast your eyes on these... can you guess which are pregnant cravings and which are attempts to be healthy?

I'll be honest, I don't remember what this is...

Seriously.  I've been sitting here looking at the picture and thinking about what it could have been.  Maybe a meatball sub?  Perhaps a cheeseburger attempt on a hot dog bun?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Pretty sure that's meat, cheese, and tomato at least... so... yeah.

Crockpot Maple Ham

This was sooooo easy to make.  Good, because I didn't want to be smelling everything!  Basically, you put a layer of carrots and sweet potato in the bottom of your crockpot... put a 1-1 1/2 pound ham on top of it... and pour some maple syrup over the whole thing.  It ends up cooking for about 6-8 hours, depending on whether you put it on low or high.  Yummy!

Yes, I know that wasn't pictured in the crockpot.  At least I remembered to take a picture as I portioned it out for my lovely hubby's lunches!

Mac & Cheese on a Stick

I did not make this.  I bought it at a Renn Faire.  It was A-MAZING.  Jealous?

Egg Salad Wrap

Just like it sounds... there are tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and spinach on there, too.  Maybe avocado?  I love all things avocado.  Guacamole, especially.  Mmmm... guacamole...

Enjoying my favorite!

Blueberry Oat Pancakes

You've seen the Oat Pancakes before.  Still an all-time favorite in our house.  We added blueberries because my daughter had been obsessed with "Curious George makes Pancakes" and wanted to add blueberries to them like he did in the book.  *heart melts*

My lovely helper!

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Mine were topped with peppermint marshmallows... just because it's what was in the pantry!  These were tasty, but got a little moist when covered up for too long.  I will say that I didn't add all the butter, but substituted applesauce for some of it instead.  That tends to make cookies a little more cake-y.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Recipe came DIRECTLY off the bag of Hershey's kisses.  Yum.  Yep, just yum.

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These were good, but also a little cake-y because of my butter substitution.  Don't worry, they still got eaten.

Soft Pudding Monster Cookies

BEST.  COOKIES.  EVER.  Pregnant me ate most of them.

Eggplant Parmesan

I cannot divulge my recipe, as it is from my wonderful uncle!  Come on over sometime, I'm itching for a reason to make this again.  Mmmm...

My helper, at it again!

Egg Salad on a Waffle

Haha, had to throw it in here... oh so good.  If there's hard-boiled eggs and waffles in my house, this is my go to lunch.  :-)

Okay, so I can explain all of the cookies like this... if you can't eat cookies when you're pregnant, when can you?

Happy Cooking, folks!  Hopefully I'll be back again before baby comes.  No promises.  ;-)

Fondue and Grilling Fun!

I hope you had a nice weekend... it was a busy one for us!  We went to a cookout, had a fondue night (just barely!), had lots of playground time, worked on the house, bought a new sofa, and I feel like the list goes on and on... 

I feel productive, yet exhausted.  Though I didn't feel exhausted until today.  In the rain.  The gloomy, gloomy rain.  Why does rain make you feel like that?  Is it just me?  I wasn't even all that tired today (and I do know tired), but I could probably have taken a solid 2-hour nap.  If I napped well.

I digress.  

It's the food you're here for, isn't it?  

First off, Fondue Sunday with Neal and Casee!  :-)  

They sure do look like a weird bunch, don't they?  (Love you guys!)

Things I learned on Fondue Sunday:

1. You can solder a cord and finagle it so that it works (if you can't find the real fondue pot cord because you moved).  Thanks hubby!

2. Hard cider is delicious.  Seriously, Angry Orchard?  Do it.

3. There's a fine line between cheese fondue and a big lump of gooey cheese that barely counts as fondue.

4.  Fondue pots are not easy to clean when they are filled with gobs of cheese.

5.  You cannot take a picture of someone stirring fondue without it being a blurry, action shot (See below).

We used a vegetarian broth base and then added some garlic, Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard, and cheese (Sharp Cheddar and Colby Jack).  Now, it's been a long time since we've had a fondue night, but I've found that pretty much whatever you put into a cheese fondue is delicious.  Tomatoes, mushrooms, tofu, apples, carrots, celery, oh, and crusty bread.  Rock on.

I heart fondue.  :-)

Oh, and yes, Jimmy did indeed solder a cord to make our fondue pot work.  We probably spent an hour looking for the cord and couldn't find it!  Ugh.  (I still haven't found it, for the record.)  I thought for sure it would show up immediately after we made the fondue.

Next up... last night's dinner.  I would say that this was something I would never have eaten as a child.

Chicken Sausage with Grilled Onions, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Carrots

I'll be honest.  Not my favorite.  Here I was, trying to like sausage.  What was I thinking?  I'm just not a fan!  With the exception of the Hot Creamy Sausage Dip my mom used to make.  Click here to see the blog post where it was included.

By all means, if you enjoy sausage, cook some up!  I got chicken sausage that was already de-cased or whatever you call it.  I HATE de-casing sausage.  It's icky.  Anyway, since the sausage was already de-cased, it was certainly one of the easiest meals I've made in a long time.  Just chop everything up and throw it on the grill pan.  Enjoy!  :-)

Okay, this post is getting out of hand.  Bear with me!  Here's what I had today...

Moooooore Eggsalad!  (On an Arnold Sandwich Thin)

Can I tell you that it was amazing?

For dinner, I was going to make Grilled Eggplant with a side of Red Pepper Sauce.  Then I realized that you actually need to have a real grill to make that happen.  So, I chopped up an eggplant and grilled it with some mushrooms and red pearl onions (better than the white, yum!) and applied it to some spaghetti noodles with tomato sauce and roasted red peppers.  Mmmm...

Eggplant Spaghetti?

Not exactly the prettiest dish, but it was delicious.  AND... it made enough leftovers so that the hubs has lunch for a week.  I'm not kidding you.  A WEEK.  Score!

Until next time...   

What's Your Favorite Food?

I'd like Friday night to be Pizza Night.  

It's funny, most of the time if you ask people what they're favorite food is, they say pizza.  (Is it your favorite food?)  I don't know if it's because they can't think of any other foods when they're asked the question or what.  I wouldn't say that pizza is my favorite food, but I sure do like it.  

Anybody else have a pizza line in high school and eat pizza every single day?  With tater tots?  Mmm.  *mouth waters*

*Side note: I was recently introduced to the idea of crab tots, which sound amazing.  I've never had them, but I may have to try them for the blog's sake.  Don't worry, I won't feed them to my shellfish-allergic husband.  

Back to PIZZA!  I made one tonight using a whole wheat pizza crust.  

 

Add chunky pizza sauce and pizza cheese... 

Add sliced up turkey bacon...

Add mushrooms for ME and ham for the hubs...

Um... a touch more cheese...

Cook!

Something kinda funny... I may have gotten that pizza pan from a delivery place years ago.  When they delivered the pizza, the pan was definitely still in the box.  Thank you for the pan whatever delivery place gave it to me with my pizza!  I hope I tipped you well!!!  

You know as well as I do that you can put anything on pizza.  That's why it's so amazing.  Lately I've been doing lots of English muffin pizzas for my little one.  It's a great way to keep the portion size smallish.  I think she kinda liked this pizza tonight though... she definitely ate all of the toppings right off it.  Can't say I blame her.

Oh!  ...and for your viewing pleasure... I present to you... *dun dun dun!* ...my favorite way to eat MY favorite food (and my lunch today)...

On Waffles!  ;-)

Surprised by my favorite food?  Shame on you.  

What's your favorite?  :-)

Best. Eggsalad. Ever.

Sorry friends!  I was almost too busy picking out paint colors to remember to blog.  Almost.  Here I am!  I have been de-wallpapering our basement from this terrible atlas wallpaper and looking forward to painting the walls something fabulous.  

I hope you didn't miss me too much... I mean, I haven't really given you much chance to miss me this week, have I?  I'm on a roll, but I can't promise anything over the weekend.  You just never know what will happen on the weekend.

For now, here's a picture of the best eggsalad in the world:

Alissa's Eggsalad

It certainly is not the best picture of an eggsalad sandwich, but I think that I've officially mastered eggsalad.  Should I reveal my secrets?  To you?  Hmm... mayhaps.

First, I will say that if you know me at all you know that my all-time favorite way to eat eggsalad is on a waffle.  A homemade Belgian waffle made with the Bisquick waffle mix.  That's normal, right?  I've made other kinds of waffles, but Bisquick is best.  Just my opinion.

I generally don't like anything crunchy in my eggsalad (or tuna, for that matter, but I did break that rule last night!).  Celery is not allowed near my eggsalad at all, so if you're a celery-lover, leave now.  I've also been trying to add veggies to everything I eat, so there might be fresh spinach and scallions on the sandwich, which breaks all kinds of Alissa-laws.

Anyway, you hard-boil some eggs.  I always put a pot of water on my stove and add the eggs right away.  Once it's boiling, I let the eggs sit in the boiling water for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, I turn off the heat and let them sit there until the water stops boiling.  I scoop them out with a big spoon and put them into a container in the fridge.  I NEVER have to worry about the eggs being hard to peel... and there's something nice about knowing how your eggs got hard-boiled *ahem ahem* (you know who you are).

Alissa's New Eggsalad Recipe
2 Hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1 t. Light Mayo
1 Laughing Cow cheese wedge (any kind, except blue cheese or swiss-yuck?)
Season with paprika, pepper, Old Bay, and ground mustard (or none of the above if you don't like them)

Put all of the above into a bowl and mix and then add to your waffle... er, sandwich.  Pita?  Flatbread?  Whatever.

Add tomato, avocado, spinach, scallions, etc. if you're feeling particularly adventurous.  It's really that easy.  Mmm... :-)

For dinner, I may have made some more Mexi-Rice Bowls, but with organic beef and a ton of grilled veggies.  I got compliments from both my dad and hubby.  Score!  Little did not seem at all interested.  She spit out the pearl onion, part of a red pepper, and the avocado I had her attempt to eat.  She did like the meat, though.  Baby likes meat.

Grilled Mushrooms, Red Onions, Red Bell Peppers, and Pearl Onions

Alissa's Beef Mexi-Bowl

So, brown rice, organic ground beef, avocado, fresh salsa, black olives, light sour cream, scallions, pearl onions, red onions, red bell peppers, and mushrooms.  Ahhhh-mazing.  

Have I convinced you to try it yet?  I love Mexican food.

Four Months Later...

Methinks you'll have to get used to once-in-a-while appearances from me from now on... I just can't keep up like I did before!  It might be a mix between having a toddler and not trying as many new recipes now that I have some cooking skill.

Since Thanksgiving, the hubs and I have been calorie counting and really trying to whittle down our weights.  I've been looking for lots of low-cal, delicious recipes and have tried a few things recently I thought I'd share with you.  So far I've lost about 16 lbs and am officially back down to pre-preggo weight (it sure took me long enough!).

Southwestern Egg Rolls

Alissa's Alfredo Lasagna

Okay, so this might sound like it's not-so-healthy.  It really depends on what you put in it.  I made it with RF ricotta cheese, a TON of spinach, lean ground beef, mushrooms, light alfredo sauce, and no-bake noodles.  If you portion it out, it's delicious and you don't have to feel guilty about it!  :-)

Pretty picture, right?

I have discovered the secret to yummy, light scrambled eggs... and I'm going to share it with you right now.  Are you ready?  Laughing cow cheese.  I've had this lunch almost every day for the past two months and it's filling, full of protein, and worth every calorie.

I use 1/2 c. of egg beaters, 2 wedges of any kind of laughing cow cheese, Old Bay, and pepper.  Sometimes I add mushrooms, spinach, a touch of lean ground beef... really, anything your heart desires in scrambled eggs is okay.  I like to put it on an English muffin (high fiber) with a Mushroom Lover's Morningstar veggie burger on the side.  I'm addicted.

Top with fresh salsa and a little guac or fresh avocado.  Heavenly.

Seriously.

Quinoa Pizza Bites

These were good, but I would recommend using pepperoni slices as suggested in the recipe.  They were good without, but needed something!  I also didn't have a tiny muffin pan, so I just baked them like cookies.

Alissa's Split Pea Soup

I made this with a bag of split peas... which I didn't realize would actually split or explode all over the pot as they started cooking.  I didn't take an after picture, but I should have!  I added potato, corn, chicken/veggie broth, mushrooms, and some spices.  It ended up thick and pretty tasty.

Next up...

Green Smoothies!  I've started having these more often lately.  Usually I add whatever we have in our house... banana, apple, strawberry, blueberry, etc.  Then you load it up with spinach or kale and add ice to get it the thickness you want.  I've been making them with soy yogurt and vanilla soy milk so that Liv can drink some, too.  Always yum.

Tilapia with Salsa and Black Beans

This is exactly what it says.  I made brown rice and mixed salsa into it, added black beans, and topped with tilapia (seasoned however you like).

Homemade Mexican Pizza

We are huge fans of Cheeseburger Pizza and just switched the toppings a bit to make it Mexican.  On this pizza, I used taco seasoned lean ground beef, fresh avocado, grape tomatoes, black beans, corn, and shredded cheese.

Broccoli, Cheese, & Potato Soup

Tomato Soup

I couldn't find the exact Taste of Home recipe that I used for the tomato soup, but there are so many there!  I might have to try some others.  :-)

For Christmas, I got an immersion blender... and it's AWESOME!  Here I am using it!  :-)

Smooth soup!

Sorry that this post was so random.  I'll try to post new recipes as I make them so I don't have to have crazy posts like this one!

Hopefully you see something you'd like to try... enjoy!  :-)

How Do You Roll?

Ahh... summer break... I can cook again!  (Not that I haven't been cooking... I just haven't been cooking too many NEW things and/or blogging about them.)  It's actually been kind of nice to have a repetoire of go-to recipes to make. 

I do like to try new things, though. 

I found this particular recipe on Pinterest:

Peanut Butter Rollup

I imagine that you make it in a similar way to making a pizza... except that you don't bake this... and you don't roll up a pizza.  I did say similar, not the same.  I've never made a pizza.  Maybe I should try that sometime!  I did once get a pizza delivered to my house that was still on the pizza pan.  Weird, huh?  Have I mentioned that I love Pinterest?

Anyway, these rollups were really good!  I liked them a lot with the jelly, but I would say that if you use jelly you should eat them the same day you make them.  Otherwise the jelly makes everything soggy and starts leaking all over your refrigerator.  Trust me on that one.  They just aren't as good without the jelly, in my opinion, so just keep your timing in mind.  I made them with jelly and then they were fantastic the next morning... but the NEXT morning, they weren't as good.  Does that make sense? 

Why do I feel like I'm rambling tonight?  I think I used the word jelly way too many times!  It's been a long day.  :-)

Happy Father's Day, by the way!  (If you're a Dad, of course).  I made my hubby some waffles from scratch, which I've actually never done before.  I usually use Bisquick for waffles.  I just like how they taste.  These were alright... but just not up to the Bisquick fluffiness standard that I've set for myself. 

Waffles from scratch!

Below are two salads I made this week... the first is a little overloaded in that bowl.  Haha.  I should have done it on a plate for a better picture.

Alissa's Crazy Salad

Alissa's Crazy Salad
Spinach leaves
Cherry tomatoes
Mushrooms
Broccoli sprouts
Hardboiled egg
Tofu
Cauliflower
Avocado
Ranch-flavored almonds
...with a little drizzle of ranch dressing on top. 

It's actually really good... despite all of the randomness that's in it.  ;-) 

I made this salad tonight:

Alissa's Taco Salad

Alissa's Taco Salad
Blue corn chips
Spinach leaves
Mushrooms
Grated cheddar cheese
Seasoned ground beef
Fresh salsa (YUM!  I discovered it this week... so good.)
...and whatever else you want to add.  I added a dollop of taco sauce, sour cream, and guacamole right on top.  I would have added some black beans and corn if I'd had any in the house.  I looked.  ;-) 

Thank you readers, if you're out there, for sticking with me through 100 posts!  :-)

Until next time...