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.  ;-)

Eating More Plants

Happy August!  I can't believe it's August already... once August hits, it always seems like the summer is going fast (even if it's not).  I think this summer has felt very long, partly because I've been staying home with my sweet baby girl and she's grown so much!  We've been keeping super busy, too.  It almost seems like we are busier than we were during the school year, thought I know that can't possibly be true. 

On that note, I'm sure it will seem like summer is even longer than it already has been when I don't go back to school this year.  I'm a pretty lucky girl to be able to stay home.  <3

Anyway, with summer in full swing, I've been trying to eat more plants.  Plants are tasty!  Good for roasting, grilling, salad-making, etc.  I've been thoroughly enjoying corn-on-the-cob, which I've never really appreciated before this summer.  Why?  I don't know.  It's delicious! 

Spicy Black Bean Burger, Corn-on-the-Cob, and Grilled Eggplant

I also have a new appreciation for veggie burgers.  I know, right?  Who am I?  What have I done with Alissa?  Veggie burgers?  What's the world coming to?  Yeah... so, Morningstar products (at least the ones I've tried) are pretty good. 

You're probably wondering how I cooked everything.  I'm glad you asked!  I cooked it all on my grill pan.  Have I told you lately how much I love my grill pan?  I have?  ;-) 

The picture below is dinner I made tonight.  I'm not even sure what to call it... I kind of threw some things in a pan and cooked them up.  It consists of ground chicken, cream of chicken soup, pinto beans, frozen corn, garlic, and some seasonings (cumin, cayenne pepper, poultry seasoning, red pepper flakes, and a touch of garlic salt).  It's scooped over some brown rice and next to some grilled potatoes and mushrooms. 

I must also say that that's the saddest salad I think I've ever made.  It's just baby spinach and tomatoes... but it worked.  Initially I was debating about adding the spinach and mushrooms to the chicken mixture.  It probably would have been just as good.  By the way, this was a success!  Hubby liked it and even went back for seconds.  :-)  That's always a good sign.

Untitled Dinner...

These are just blueberries covered with strawberry yogurt (it's what I had in the fridge) and put in the freezer.  I found this idea on Pinterest.  :-) 

Yogurt-covered Blueberries

I hope you're making something amazing in your kitchen!!!

Smooth and Creamy

I miss Jamba Juice.  :-( 

We went to NYC in July and I've decided that they have the best smoothies.  No ice cream, but good smoothies.  Did you know that this is apparently the only way to get ice cream in NYC?

I'll be perfectly honest.  For National Ice Cream Day (July 17th), I was hoping to find an awesome ice cream shop and get order something amazing.  I wasn't expecting to have to chase down an ice cream truck.  I could do that at home!  Hehe, so we noshed on some Jamba Juice smoothies.  Mmmm... like heaven in a cup.  Too bad there aren't any around my house.  Sad.

So, here are two attempts at smoothies I've made:

 


I'm not going to give you exact measurements because that's not how I made these smoothies.  I just added stuff to them until they tasted yummy.  Real precise!  Haha.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie (On the left!)
Strawberries, hulled
1 banana
1 c. of yogurt (I used a cherry-flavored one)
Dash of skim milk
...and then add ice until it's smooth and creamy enough for you!  You could also add blueberries, raspberries, or any other kind of fruit that you like.  I topped it with a spoonful of lite Cool Whip. 

Mango Pineapple Smoothie (On the right!)
1 mango
1 c. pineapple chunks
Handful of blueberries
1 c. Greek yogurt (I used a honey-flavored one)
Dash of skim milk
Several squirts of honey
...and again, add ice until it's smooth and creamy.  Not terribly difficult.  Pretty tasty!

Have you ever tried making a smoothie?  What do you like to put in it?  I'm open to suggestions!  :-)

Cooking Smells

Hi everyone!  Remember me? 

I know, it's been almost two whole months and I haven't posted any recipes because cooking is smelly.  Even more so when you're pregnant.  Yep!  Surprise!  :-)

Baby is about the size of a lime!

Smells haven't been nearly as bad lately, so I'll try to do better!  I was actually looking back at some of my food pictures and thinking that I could eat some of those things again.  Pretty exciting!  I've been avoiding all things green and leafy and have had some random things that I've been wanting.  You know, like steak subs and cottage cheese (not together).  I don't think I've eaten anything Mexican in quite a while... which if you've been reading my blog at all, you know is insane. 

So, here are a few pictures from the past two months...

Please note that this is what happens to onions when you leave them in cool places for long periods of time.  I brought it to school to show my kiddos.  To be honest, I think I was more fascinated than they were!

Look who made blueberry muffins!

Yeah, he's awesome like that.  I don't remember what brand of muffins these were, but they were packaged and had like a sugar crumbly mess of delicious on top. 

They were soooooo good.

Best muffin ever.

So, seriously... I've only cooked a few things in a long while.  Here they are below:

Blueberry Oat Pancakes

I actually made some of these this morning!  It's the same pancake recipe I've blogged about before... just add blueberries.  Sounds hard, right? 

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Okay, I call this "cooking" only because it's the closest thing to cooking I've done in a while.  I literally cooked a package of whole wheat noodles and dumped in a jar of the Ragu Garden Combination (because it said it had servings of veggies on the bottle and I haven't been eating those).  Then, I cooked up some beef, added it to the spaghetti with some garlic and pepper.  If you're looking for an easy dinner... you've found it!  Look no further!


There we are!  :-)  Pretty excited!


Oh, and baby is due on Thanksgiving Day.  As long as I still get to feast on all the great things about Thanksgiving, I'll be a happy girl.  Somebody better save me some stuffing!  :-)

Parfait?

Have you ever made a parfait?  There's something about them that's so amazing.  Mmm...

Look how pretty it is with fresh blueberries, chunks of banana, and vanilla yogurt.  Oh, and vanilla granola.  Have you ever tried chocolate granola?  Yum.  It's funny... I've found some good ways to eat yogurt and I don't mind it as much as I once did.  I used to hate it and now it's one of my go-to foods. 

Okay, so in that picture it kind of looks like all the fruit is taking over the yogurt.  Maybe it is.  :-)  It's also not in a tall "parfait" shaped glass... but it's layered and delicious.  Isn't that really all that matters?

How do you like to eat yogurt?  

Three things I just learned about parfaits by googling it:

1.  "Parfait" means "perfect" in French.

2.  Parfaits are often frozen and can include ice cream, custard, or gelatins.

3.  People make parfaits of mashed potatoes, pork, and BBQ sauce!  (What?!) 

Just Desserts

I decided that I'm going to make this blog just about desserts that I've made.  Everyone likes dessert, right?  You really can't go wrong.  Unless you call it desert.  That's where camels live.  Get it right.  ;-)  (Does that bother anyone else?)  Hehe. 

I made this tonight to bring to a little book club party I'm going to tomorrow:

Pumpkin Pie Dip

I used my little handheld mixer!  :-)  Love when I can use the right tools.  You're supposed to put it on gingersnaps... I don't know how I feel about that.  Gingersnaps are okay, I guess.  Eh.  Not my favorite.  Maybe this dip will change my mind.  Pretty tasty.  Hopefully everyone else will think so!

Here are some other great desserts that I did NOT make tonight.  I repeat, did NOT make tonight.  What do you think I am, insane?  (Don't answer that.)  I think I already blogged about the third one, but it bears repeating... it was delicious.  These are all WW recipes and got rave reviews, so don't knock them til you try them! 

Mixed Berry Crumble

Lemon Raspberry Bread Pudding

Apple-Pear Crisp

Enjoy!  :-)