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.

Oatmeal Fail.

I woke up this morning in a grumpy mood, because I have a cold and didn't sleep well.  Little one was excited to see me, but still.  Grump grump grump.

So, we got out to the kitchen and I got her all settled in with breakfast and then realized that I was out of the instant oatmeal I've been eating.  Doh!  I'd been meaning to try to make some oatmeal with oats that I've had in my pantry, so I figured 'Hey, why not?'.

Not.

It may not look half bad, but trust me, it was all bad.  They were old-fashioned oats (which I heard makes a difference because they are thicker than steel cut?) with some honey, sliced almonds, and raspberries.  I took a bite, almost vomited, and then added some blackberries and blueberries as well.  Bleck.  How do people eat this?

Gross.

So, I put it out there on good ole' FB this morning and some lovelies suggested adding brown sugar, cinnamon, apples, pumpkin, raisins, craisins, agave, baby food, sliced bananas, maple syrup, etc.  Apparently steel cut oats are amazing?

You know what I did tonight?  I bought more instant oatmeal.  Rest easy, Alissa, good oatmeal is coming in the morning.  :-)

How do YOU make oatmeal?  What did I do wrong?  Is it really just supposed to be that disgusting?

Anyway...

Dinner tonight!  It was yummy!  Here are some pictures!  :-D

Summer Tomato Soup

I got this recipe out of a book called 1 Stock, 100 Soups by Linda Doeser.  I haven't actually used this book much, but thought I'd venture out into soups again.  There are so many different ways to make your own tomato soup!

Red Onions, Scallions, Celery, and Garlic simmering...

Add Tomatoes...

Cook for a while...

Blend.  Oh!  This might be tough if you don't have an immersion blender...
(Got one for Christmas!)  

Season it! 

Sorry, I don't think I can be much more specific than that without violating copyright laws... and I did tweak a few things to make the soup lower calorie when I made it.  You can make your own vegetable stock or buy it, add any kind of veggies (which might make it less of just a tomato soup, but who cares?), and of course season it the way you like.  Experimenting is fun.  :-)

To go with the soup, I may have made some tuna melts... not really Alissa-style because they had celery in them.  I NEVER add celery to my salads.  Why did I this time?  Eh, I figured it was a good way to get some good veggies into dinner... *sigh*  Who am I becoming?  Hehe.

White Albacore Tuna in Water (60 cal per sandwich)
Then I added a teaspoon of light mayo, a stalk of celery,
and I would have seasoned it with Old Bay, but I forgot.

Lay them on a tray and add cheese if you desire it!

Alissa's Tuna Melt

As you can see, I often desire cheese.  I'm working on that.  In the meantime, it was pretty darn delicious and the whole dinner was about 557 calories.  Works for me, but if you need to lighten things up, as I said, there are lots of ways you can do it!

How do you like to eat tuna?  I used to only eat it with pretzels.  Little salty ones.  Oooooh, with dill relish mixed into it.  Mmm... tuna.  ;-)

Finding a Balance

Well hello friends!

Remember me?  

Your good buddy who used to cook and blog about it?  

No?  

*sniff*

Well, I've decided to come back and blog more often.  I know I've said that before, but I'm revamping my lifestyle (and that of my hubby and daughter) and want to share some new recipes as I try them out.  Here's the deal... my daughter is 18, almost 19 months old now, and I gained a ton of weight when I was pregnant.  In the past almost 19 months, I've lost about 84 pounds.  How did I do it?  A little bit of Weight Watchers, a whole lot of exercise (Stroller Strides, which is apparently now called Fit4Mom, and TurboFire), and most recently, calorie counting using an app and website called Lose It!  (I may have ditched WW when I discovered that calorie counting worked better for me... to each his own!)

I buckled down with the hubs around Thanksgiving and took off a chunk of weight that I've been struggling to lose forever.  I'm still not quite where I'd like to be, so I'm continuing the journey, just trying to invite more vegetables and grains and healthy things into our lives.  Welcome veggies!  Welcome grains!  It's good to see you!

Trying to balance protein, carbs, and good fats has been a struggle for me, but I think an important one that I need to address for my body.  So, here's what I ate last night... sorry, it's not the best picture!  

Alissa's Mexi-Rice Bowl (570 calories)

1/2 c. Brown Rice
3 oz. Ground Turkey (spiced like taco meat- you could use a seasoning packet, but I make my own)
1/4 c. Scallions
2 T. Salsa
2 T. Sour Cream
4 Grape Tomatoes (chopped)
1/4 c. Black beans (drained and rinsed)
1/8 c. Shredded Cheese (any kind- I used a Mexican blend because it's what I had!)

Now, if you wanted to cut calories even more, you could ditch the cheese or use less rice and add other things like spinach leaves or mushrooms.  Avocado or guacamole would be a yummy addition, and if you really wanted to, you could put it all in a giant burrito shell.  You could ditch the meat entirely if you are vegetarian or use Morningstar crumbles (which I sometimes love).

That's what's great about Mexican food.  It's good any way you eat it.

I also wanted to share some pictures of my new tomato and strawberry plants... now that we have a house *gasp* and it has a deck *gasp*, we have space for things like plants!  :-)

Goals:
1. Don't kill them.
2. Keep other animals away from them so we can eat the fruits!

I added the second goal yesterday when we saw two little red strawberries sitting on the railing of the deck.

Can you see them?

Who took a bite and left it there???

I was happy to see that there was a little red strawberry still in the plant, so I picked it and shared it with my loves at breakfast.  ;-)

First Strawberry Success!!!

I checked the deck railing this afternoon and the two strawberries on the railing are both gone.  Squirrel?  Bird?  I hope you enjoyed them!  You won't be getting any more!

On that note, how do I keep birds and squirrels from getting more?  *Keep in mind that I've never been successful with plants.  Ever.  In my life.

I'm hoping to change that.

Happy cooking, friends!  :-)

Reminiscing...

So, I remember my mom making something like this when I was little...

Tortilla Rollups

We always had them for parties and I remember them being delicious.  I wish I had her recipe... actually, maybe someone out there who reads this blog does have it!  If you do, I'd love to know what she put in her little rollups. 

I went hunting for a recipe via the Internet and came up with "The Pioneer Woman's" recipe.  I'll call it a recipe because there were some instructions, but really you could make these rollups anyway you want.  In her recipe, she used a whole lot more veggies.  My mom's weren't like that... they were more like how I made mine. 

Basically, I put RF cream cheese, scallions, chopped green olives, and cilantro in a bowl.  I mixed it up, spread it onto the tortilla and added a little freshly shredded cheese. 

Next, you roll and wrap with saran wrap to put in the fridge for about two hours.  I guess it could be longer, but that was all the time I had.  :-)

Take them out, chop them up, and eat!  Really easy... I took them to a housewarming party and they were literally gone in about 10 minutes.  I think I got to eat one!  Haha.  Mmm... I'd say they were a hit.  I'll have to keep playing with the recipe, though, to see if I can perfect it.  There's just something about having a food that reminds you of your childhood.  Am I right?  I don't know... maybe I'm crazy.  ;-)

Omelet Folding

I'll make this quick.  For all the times that I've made yummy scrambled eggs, I've never thought to make an omelet.  Mainly because I can't fold them correctly.  See?

There's a little bit of omelet fail going on there.  I can apparently fold them in a haphazard way...  but the perfect omelet fold eludes me.  I even waited until the omelet looked a little bubbly before trying to fold it.  Does anyone know if adding milk to it helps?  Any tips or suggestions to perfect my omelet skills are welcome!  

Alissa's Scallion, Mushroom, and Cheese Omelet