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.

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.  ;-)

Casseroles for Baby

With baby on the way, I started making casseroles... I figured at least if I could freeze a few casseroles for later, we wouldn't starve.  Here are some pictures! 

Beef & Tater Bake

Who doesn't love tater tots?  I'm a fan.  Remember, though, I am in general a fan of things all jumbled together in a yummy mess.  Plus, I was pretty pregnant when I made that.  Regardless, it was tasty.

This next casserole is for any fan of pizza.

Spiral Pepperoni Pizza Bake

A little warning... either don't fill your dish quite so full of mozzarella OR put the dish on a cookie tray so that the cheese doesn't bubble all over your oven.  I love my darling husband who cleaned our oven!  <3

This last casserole is completely designed by me! 

Alissa's Mexican Polenta Bake

Alissa's Mexican Polenta Bake
1 can refried beans
1 roll of polenta, cut into rounds
Corn (canned or frozen)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
Green chiles
1 lb. ground beef, turkey, or chicken (I prefer beef... but you can use what you like!)
Taco seasoning (Packet or make your own!)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 jar salsa con queso
Other toppings... grape tomatoes, black olives, mushrooms, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, sour cream, guacamole, etc.

Cook the ground beef in a pan and toss in the onion.  Add the taco seasoning.  *Just a side note... I made my own taco seasoning the other day without a packet (because I didn't realize I was out of them).  This works just as well! 

Spread the refried beans into a 13 x 9 pyrex dish.  Sprinkle some of the corn and black beans on top.  Add the polenta rounds spread out evenly.  Add more corn and black beans.  Add the seasoned meat and onions.  Add mushrooms or banana peppers if you're going to do so.  Add more corn, black beans, green chiles, jalapenos, etc.  Top the dish with the jar of salsa con queso. 

Bake in the oven at 350 for about 20ish minutes.  Top with anything else you want!  See... easy.  For all of you who are watching your weight... this was about 9 WW pts for 1/8 of it.  Not too shabby.

Please note that I am writing this almost 6 weeks (tomorrow) after baby arrived! Did I manage to make and freeze these casseroles prior to baby arriving? NO. Baby came 3 weeks early and surprised everyone... especially me and Jim. 

My sweetie at 1 month.  :-)  Love!

Fluffy White Stuff :-)

Snow day!

It was a surprise snow day, too!  That made it even better than a normal snow day.  As far as we knew, it was supposed to snow anywhere from not-at-all to holy-cow-that's-a-lot-of-snow.  That's just how specific the meteorologists were being.  Waking up to a few inches of that fluffy white stuff was pretty sweet.  Below is a picture of where my husband threw a snowball at me from outside as he was leaving for work.  Good aim, honey... but I still got to crawl back into bed.  :-)

I wasn't completely lazy today...

I tried two new recipes (surprisingly, both were fluffy and white!):

White Bean Hummus

We've been on a crazy hummus kick lately.  I say "lately", but I really mean since we've discovered the awesomeness that is hummus.  We love hummus.  My favorite lately has been greek olive hummus... Jim's has been supremely spicy hummus.  Today, I made white bean hummus.  Please keep in mind that there are bunches of recipes for white bean hummus.  All I put in mine was cannellini beans, tahini, and lemon juice (fresh citrus!).  You could add any number of seasonings to the hummus and make it your own.  Cumin, oregano, green onions, rosemary, garlic, etc. 

I think the next time I make hummus I'm going to put green olives in it.  Mmm.  I'll keep you posted!  :-)

I also made this today:

Creamy Cauliflower and Bacon Soup

You could easily make this vegetarian by not putting any bacon in it.  I do have to tell you that Jimmy came home from work and asked why the house smelled so awful.  (He hates broccoli... and cauliflower isn't far off.)  This might be the worst smelling soup ever, but it tasted really good!  Jimmy even said so!  Does that even make sense?!  Cauliflower just doesn't smell good.  Sorry cauliflower.  I still love you.