Going Green

Ahhhh, St. Patrick's Day. The day when anyone with a smidgen of Irish blood in them goes all out to show that they are green through and through. And moms who aren't even a bit Irish go all out showing how crafty they can be with green.

Some moms out there woke up early to make a fun Green Eggs and Ham breakfast. Or maybe made green pancakes with green pineapple syrup and green milk.

Me? I let my kids eat Captain Crunch Berries so their poop would turn green.

Some moms made sure to get to Old Navy's the day after Valentine's day to be sure that they got a cute, sparkly, and very fashionable, "Kiss Me I'm Irish," shirt for their kids.

Me? I gave Sweet Terror (the only kid who owns nothing with green on it) one of her white shirts and a bowl of green food coloring. Have at it, kid.


Some moms started baking last week so that they could send yummy green cupcakes to their child's classroom party.

Me? I went a step above that and picked out all the green fishies from a bag of rainbow Goldfish crackers. Now that is faaaaaancy.

Some mom's make sure to read several educational books to their kids all about the history behind this important day.

Me? I made sure to throw some orange into my kids' lunches and told them to make sure the Greens won. I kind of stacked the odds in the green's favor. Only one orange fish against a whole army? That poor little thing doesn't stand a chance.

And my fancy dessert for dinner tonight? Green Peeps. Awwww yeah!

Happy St. Patty's day, everyone. I hope your cabbage is extra delish tonight. ;)

I Love Mayonnaise

I love mayonnaise. I know it's bad for me, and I try not to eat it often, but when I do I really go to town. Take any condiment in your fridge and add a little mayo to it and it suddenly becomes a heavenly dip for all sorts of potato thingies. Mix it with chopped pickles and onions, lots of dill, some lemon juice, and salt and pepper and you have a tartar sauce so yummy you won't need a fish stick to want to eat it all in one sitting. Need a quick white sauce for pizza? Lightly spread your pizza dough with mayo and sprinkle it with Ranch powder mix and garlic powder, then top with cheese and veggies (or just cheddar cheese for awesome cheesy sticks). But only do these kind of things once a year, or you'll end up having to do a Jillian Michael's exercise DVD every morning and you will hate it. Uh... that's what I hear anyway...

This week has been an interesting mayonnaise week. I ordered some pizzas from Dominos (you know, because they are supposed to be all new and improved), and one of them was supposed to have a white sauce on it. White sauce on pizza is usually like an Alfredo sauce, yummy. They must have run out of Alfredo because what I got was a bacon, tomato, and mushroom pizza with a thick, slimy layer of plain ol' mayo oozing out from under the cheese. I kept trying bites trying to be sure, but it was so nasty I couldn't get through a whole slice. Good news is Domino's gave me store credit for a new pizza anytime I want it. Bad news is it would still be a Domino's pizza.

The other funny thing is that Cookie went to make a batch of Cookies and was unable to see the 2 big 18 count egg crates in the fridge. Being the smart girl that she is she searched through my cookbooks to find a proper egg substitute and came up with 3 tablespoons of mayo = 1 egg. 12 tablespoons of mayo later she had a big ol' bowl of yummy cookie dough. The dough's consistency was drier than usual so I was kind of worried, but they turned out light, buttery, and melt in your mouth yummy. Mr. Hotness told her she needs to use the mayo substitute more often.

So now I can add free pizza and yummy cookies to the list of reasons why I loooooove mayo. Why do you love it? Or do you hate it? You probably don't have to wake up at 6 to sweat with Jillian, do you? Lucky.

Not All That Glitters is Gold

While hitting the Christmas clearance sales the other day, Sweet Terror came up to me holding this ginormous lollipop. Her eyes were big and shiny as she guardedly asked, "Mommy, can I have this?" I could tell she was too experienced to hope much, and I almost said no right away, but then I looked at the price, calculated the clearance discount, and thought, "Why not?" I said yes, and the joy that flooded that little girl's face was well worth the 25 cents and any inevitable cavities.

To everyone we encountered in the store she would proudly show her lollipop, declaring that her mom was going to buy it for her. Each time she asked me to buy a toy that she saw in the store all I had to do was remind her that she was getting a lollipop and she would smile and say, "Oh, right. I love my lollipop." She obediently waited till we returned home and ate our lunch, even eating every carrot on her plate, until it was finally time to open the luscious confectionery swirl of joy. Upon sinking her teeth into the top arch, she reeled back, spit a little and said, "Mom, it tastes like play-dough. Yucky play-dough." (Is there a yummy kind?)

Thinking it might just be a bit old I told her to give it a few more licks, you know, to get past that first wrapper scented layer of candy. She tried but could only manage one more lick before declaring that she no longer wanted it. "I'm sorry you don't like it, sweety, go ahead and throw it away."

Later that day I went in the kitchen and found her lollipop sitting on the counter. I picked it up to see why it was so yucky. It smelled more like perfume than candy, and then I noticed the tag:

Sweet Shop Fun Soap

I guess we got suckered. And I will be less likely to tell my kids to retry things they say they don't like in the future.

My Goals

My goals for this year:

1. Loose enough weight to be able to take off my wedding ring. Not that I want to take it of, I just want to be ABLE to take it off.

2. Sell something on Etsy. No, I don't have an Etsy shop, but I fantasize about it so much that I think I ought to give it a try.

3. Start entertaining again. For the first time in 7 years we didn't have our Christmas party and I have yet to have anyone over for dinner since we've moved. I need to get back into the habit of having people over because it really is something I enjoy.

And that is it. Short, sweet, and hopefully doable. I flirted with the idea of going off sugar, being more organized, following a personal chore chart, exercising everyday, writing a novel, etc, etc, etc. Then I laughed till I cried, ate a cracker dipped in ranch with pimento olives (don't ask), and used my sock to wipe up some spilled milk. I think 3 goals is plenty in my current state of mind.

And yes, I know ranch and pimento on crackers isn't going to help me with my wedding ring. I was going through a snack food withdrawal after the big New Year's Eve binge-a-thon. Desperation does ugly things to me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

1st Day of School

Most mom's are posting cute pics of their kids in spanking fresh new outfits and super cute Gap kids hairdos and writing about the tears shed over children leaving home, or shouting for joy over their new found freedom. This morning I made sure my kids were just as spanking fresh, and I even moussed my boys' hair so that it would hopefully retain its Gap kids spike in the front. I packed their half-day snacks in monogrammed brown bags, and reminded them not to participate in dirty jokes or bad language. I marveled at the maturity of my oldest as she she came out of her room looking so hip and so beautiful. I said a million little prayers as I dropped my boys off at the door because I couldn't find Sweet Terror's shoes so we couldn't walk them in. But the one thing I forgot to do was take a 1st Day of School picture. *sigh*

So all I have to show you today is this:




A picture of the cookies I am stuffing in my face, as I curl into a fetal position on my couch, and mutter calming words to myself. No, I'm not worried about my kids (even though one was lost this morning and no one at the school could find her... but they eventually did and forgot to call me to tell me that they did, and then finally called me back after I called them a million times and was about to start a search party). No, I'm just so glad that it is all over and can now try to recover some of my sanity. I've never been through a more complicated, stressful, and rushed event in my life as I have these past 4 days.

Things I've learned:
1. The East coast LOVES its paper work.
2. The East coast loves its rules.
3. Orange Milano cookies can lower blood pressure like nothing else I know.

A Beautiful Ice Cream Moment

This is what I had for breakfast this morning: It's what I've had for breakfast for the past 4 days now. It's so yummy, so nutritious, so not creamy and caramely and cold,
so....
so....
so not this:




While Mr, Hotness and I were looking for our new home we drove all over North East New Jersey, South East New York, and South West Connecticut. While in Connecticut we happened upon a Friendy's. I think I scared poor Mr. Hot-stuff when I grabbed his arm, squealed in delight, and shouted, "Friendly's, Friendly's, pull in, pull in, we have to eat at Friendly's, I have to have a Reeses Pieces sundae, it's HUGE and I have to have one. Please, please, please!!!"

For some reason I have very intense reactions to childhood memories and poor Mr. Hotness is often caught unawares by them. In this case it was my memory of Friendly's, an ice cream shop and diner that was a special place to go when I lived in Saratoga, NY. They had this sundae that came in a ginormous goblet and try as one might, one could never finish one of those bad boys by themselves. Trust me, I tried many times. It was like an obsession with me. I had this dream that someday I would be able to order, eat, and finish the most yummy sundae of all time: The Friendly's five scoop Reeses Pieces sundae with fudge and peanut butter swirls and little chocolate sprinkles. Yes someday I would be the David who slays the mighty giant.

That day was upon me and it was time to try again...

And I won!

I won!

I won!

I won!

Never give up on your dreams, people, because eventually you will be ready, and they will come true. And you will be so proud of yourself that you will go back and eat that dream again and again... oh yes, and again!

And then you will have to drink V8 for breakfast everyday for the next 20 years to recover from that dream.
'

But it will be soooooo worth it!

I Love My Fat

First, I want to thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes. I had a great birthday, and much cheesecake was eaten, and I did make it till after the candles were blown out. I think that shows that I'm finally maturing a little bit in my old age. =)


Today I want to talk to you about something I hold very near and dear to my heart: fat. No, not the fat on my chin or hips (though I'm sure it has helped all areas of my body grow in bad ways). I'm talking about the kind of fat you ask Santa to give you for Christmas. The kind of fat you'd be just as happy to get as a new diamond ring, maybe. The kind of fat that just makes EVERYthing better. I'm talking BACON fat people. I'm talking smokey, rich, buttery bacon fat.




Do you cook with bacon fat? You should, you really should. Just don't do it everyday, or even every week for that matter. It could kill you if you did that. But every now and then you really ought to try using bacon fat in your homemade bread, put it in your garlic black beans, use it to fry up an egg or two, or to grease the pan for your french toast, and if you want to make a man smile just try cooking his next steak in it. Ho-boy!





Now, you can get bacon grease anytime you cook up some bacon, but I've found that baking your bacon provides the cleanest and most stable bacon grease, not to mention the fact that baking your bacon is fast, less messy, and frees your stove top up for pots and pans of pancakes, eggs, and syrup.



To bake bacon lay bacon out flat (you can overlap the slices a little) on a rimmed baking sheet. Make sure it is rimmed so you can capture all that lovely fat (and so you don't start an oven fire with dripping grease) and bake on the middle shelf in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Be very careful taking pan out of oven, remove bacon to a paper towel lined plate, then pour the fat through a fine mesh strainer into a clean, sterile canning jar. Voila! Store this in your refrigerator or freezer and use it anytime you need that "essence of bacon."

Isn't that a pretty sight? I love it!

The only thing better than bacon fat is BABY FAT!!! Good golly, is there anything cuter than a naked fat baby?

(That mirror that he has his pudgy little hand on is a mirror that has never gone a whole day without smears, fingerprints, and lick marks. So gross.)

Sour Cream Lemon Pie

Holy Hannah we have been eating good around here this week. I have been sticking to my menu and loving every bite (let's just forget the fact that I posted about calorie counting earlier). I had this lovely vision of posting recipes everyday and have been photographing everything I eat so I could do just that. But to write a post means I have to put my fork down... and that is asking a lot. But the recipe for this pie is so easy I thought I'd post it in between bites.

.

Lemon Sour Cream Pie

1 fully baked and cooled pie crust

your favorite lemon meringue pie filling (I used a recipe from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook)

16 oz sour cream

3-4 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Whipping cream and extra sugar

.

Mix sour cream, sugar, and vanilla together and set aside. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Cook your lemon filling. Fill pie crust with lemon filling and top with sour cream mixture (starting at the crust and working your way in) smoothing to completely cover top of pie. Bake for 6 minutes. Remove and let cool then chill in the fridge overnight. Let sit at room temp for 15 minutes before serving. Or just eat it whenever and however you want.

.

Now, if you didn't forget to buy whipping cream and you aren't too busy changing diapers and yelling at kids you can top your pie with whipped cream and lovely little lemon slices. I just had enough time to slap some slices on plates and call it good. And boy is it good. So very very very good. Mmmmm, that slightly sweet and cool sour cream is the perfect sidekick to the tangy, sugary filling held together by the salty crust. Oh, baby! And if you wake up early enough you can eat the last two slices for breakfast and then tell the kids that daddy must have eaten them while they were sleeping.

.

Not that I would ever do that.

.

I Need A Custom Calorie Counter

Lately I've been a bit concerned about loosing my baby weight. No, not the weight I gained while pregnant with Cheeks. I lost a good bit of that shortly after he was born. I'm talking about the weight I've gained since then as a result of having a baby in the house. You know, the cookies I eat because I can eat one while changing a diaper instead of toasting a whole grain English muffin with a spritz of zero calorie "butter." And the ice cream I eat because it is faster than washing and coring an apple and spreading it with a tablespoon of protein rich peanut butter. And let's not forget the salad I didn't eat when opting for 3 helpings of last night's lasagna in my bathrobe today simply because I was feeling frumpy and hopeless.

Oops, I think I've said too much. Sorry, lasagna does that to me.

So, I decided to copy my sister who is loosing lots of weight on the SparkPeople program. I signed on, set up my profile, input my personal health stats, and went to plan my day's menu in the calorie counter. This is where I had problems. I couldn't find "left over lasagna with extra cheese and sauce" anywhere on their food lists. And, HELLLOOOOO, where is the ice cream list? And I scoured the snack section and couldn't find any calorie info for the little burnt remnants of cheese that I scraped off the pan and snacked on after making grilled cheeses for the kids today. And do I count Sweet Terror's frosting-less Oreo remains I ate today because I was worried about the starving children in China?

.

I want this SparkPeople thing to work for me, really I do, but they need to make a realistic menu calorie counter for the everyday women like me. You know, the half crazed, mom of too many, unwilling to face reality, eating ice cream in my closet, kind of woman.

.

Or maybe I could just learn to eat like a normal person.........

.

(Dear SparkPeople, if you need help setting up an ice cream calorie counter, give me a call.)

Puffed Rice

If you were born in the 70s, chances are you've experienced Puffed Rice. Ah, yes, those tasteless, rubbery, instantly soggy, somewhat styrofoamy little nodules of nastiness. Anytime I was made to eat Puffed Rice I would try to mentally escape into an alternate reality of marshmallows, sugary coatings, and hidden prizes but, try as I might, I could never fully psyche myself into believing I was eating Lucky Charms. Seriously, if rice is so healthy I would much rather eat a bowl of regular boiled rice for breakfast than have to force that stuff past my gag reflex ever again.
.
Thanks mom, I know you were just trying to be a healthy mom. I love you for that, I respect you for that, but really those things were NAAAAAAAAASTY!
.

See these things? Have you tried Jumbo Crispies yet? I was eating some yesterday and a friend of mine thought I was eating Puffed Rice. Au contraire, mon amie, Jumbo Crispies are Not Puffed Rice, but they aren't just bigger Rice Crispies either. The closest thing I can compare these to are probably Kix cereal. But they are better than Kix, a lot better than Kix. Buy them, try them, and then call your mom and tell her you forgive her for ever feeding you Puffed Rice as a kid. Moms need all the forgiveness they can get, and maybe if we can forgive our mothers our kids will someday be able to forgive us.




HA! Fooled you, didn't I? You thought you weren't going to have to read another For Just One Week post, didn't you? Sorry, but there is no way I was going to miss it this week because I totally rocked the house on this week's goal! Remember, I said I was going to play Pablo's Healthy Game and try to win everyday. I played it and it was awesome. The best way to explain what I love about his little game is to compare it to Weight Watcher's point system. The WW point system is really just a simplified way to count calories. Instead of keeping track of 3-4 digit numbers, you only have to tally 1 digit numbers. Well, this Healthy Game of Pablo's is like journaling but instead of writing words all you do is check things off. And the two progress bars give an instant visual on how you are doing. It was tough at times but I gotta say that I really liked who I was and what I accomplished this week. My house was clean everyday by 10am (I don't remember the last timet hat happened) I ate more fruit and drank more water than I have in a very long time. Really, folks, you ought to try it. I emailed it to a few of you and some of you said it came out kind of wonky. I've converted it to an image so it won't do that, and if anyone wants me to email the fixed one just let me know in the comments.

I loved this so much that I've decided to play the game again this week but with a few changes. I've pretty much made it a consistent habit to drink just water, not talk bad about myself, not eat fried food, and go to bed before 11, so I'm going to change those and add some new unhealthy things and change up the Healthy side as well to encourage some more creative actions in my day. On the Healthy side I've added being creative for 15 minutes. On the Unhealthy side I've changed 1/2 hour sitting to 1 hour straight sitting, and I've added watching TV for 15 minutes, eating alone (like when I pour myself a bowl of Jumbo Crispies and go hide in my room to eat them), and yelling or speaking meanly to my children. If you want a copy of this chart just say you want chart #2 in the comments.
.
And if you want a blank chart where you can fill in your own healthy and unhealthy goals/issues just say you want a blank chart and I will send you one.
.
Now lets see, I've been typing for 1 hour (I'm a slow blogger). This means one check for sitting but 4 checks for being creative (Hey, I "created" a blog post so it counts in my book). So far I'm winning. Now I'm off to sautee spinach, red peppers, onions, and mushrooms with a sunnyside up egg for breakfast. That is another healthy check right there! BOO-YAH!
.

So, what goal or goals are you working on this week? If you've blogged about them share them with us here:

Fad Diet Ideas

When I first started blogging I started several blogs but couldn't remember my passwords, usernames, or new "blog only" email addresses. For example, the original My Ice Cream Diary has the word "my" in its web address. But I forgot the username and corresponding email. So there it sits, with only one lonely post, all on its lonesome. But that one lonely post is something I still find kind of funny, so I'm going to repost it here so you all can see it.

I read some where that if one diet doesn't "work" you should keep trying until you find one that you like. I've tried a lot of them but so far with very little success. So, I came up with some fun ones to try that I think are GUARANTEED to make you eat less. Here they are:

1. Terrible Two Diet: You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want but you must do so while holding a 2 1/2 year old child in your lap.

2. Car Seat Diet: You can eat whatever you find in your children's carseats. Don't worry there is enough food in those things to sustain life.

3. Mystery Diet: You can eat whatever is hiding in the back of your fridge in an unmarked tupperware container. A bit risky, but you never know when you might get lucky.

4. Preschool Dessert Diet: You are only allowed to eat sugar when surrounded by a group of preschoolers. Don't forget to set a good example by sharing. You will never be able to save enough for yourself so all desserts are guilt free =)

5. Vegemite Diet: You are allowed to eat anything you want on this diet as long as you spread it with a 1/8 inch layer of vegemite.

6. Daily Milkshake Diet: You can eat what ever you want on this diet. The only requirement is that you take all your meals/snacks/desserts for that day and blend them all together in a big milkshake and consume through a straw. Imagine your appetite after a few sips of Cocoa puffs/cookies/tuna sandwich and a side salad/hamburger with french fries and onion rings/and some mid-night-ice-cream milkshake. Best of all this diet is very portable, just pour into an empty water bottle and take it with you.

I hope this helps anyone out there who is looking for a new diet to try. If you think of any others please share them. =)

Mr. Wrong or Mr. Right?

"Hey, you. How you doin'? You are lookin' good, baby. Check out the nice fit of those jeans. All that time at the gym is really paying off. Now get over here so I can reward you and help you celebrate your success. Come on, honey, all work and no play is a terrible way to spend the day. Gimme just one little nibble, then. Come on, you know you want me. You deserve me, baby."

I hate it when cheesecake talks to me.

.

.

.

.

The Pop Tart Solution

I remember being shocked when Pop Tarts first came out with the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon flavor. I think I was about 9 at the time and my cousin and I bought a box to share. It was like bad pie crust stuffed with a sickeningly thick layer of greasy sugar and cinnamon, topped with petrified icing. We ate the whole box in one night and felt so sick afterword. I remember just laying there, holding my stomach and groaning, thinking there was no way that what I had just eaten could be considered, "Part of this nutritious breakfast." (Don't click that link unless you loved G.I. Joes as a kid in the 80's)

Now I think Brown Sugar and Cinnamon is probably one of their more nutritious flavors, what with new Banana Split, Hot Fudge Sundae, and Smores flavors.

But the lure of a quick, low mess, grab and go meal has made me (regretfully) buy a few boxes of this stuffed cardboard junk for my kids. Each time I quickly realized my mistake as I mentally tallied the cavities, child onset diabetes, and carbon footprint damage each one of those individually wrapped monstrosities was causing and I soon vowed never to be guilty of such waste ever again.

So, what's a busy mom to do when a quick grab and go meal is needed? What can I keep on hand for those mornings when I sleep in (I wish) and am late making the kids' lunches, or I wake up and remember why Grocery Shopping was on yesterday's to-do list, or I actually decide to be spontaneous super mom and quickly throw together a picnic lunch and head to the beach with my kids? I have found the answer in one of my new favorite blogs: The Muffin Mom. My sister has been rockin' the muffin scene for years now and has been inventing meals in a muffin that are perfect for freezing and keeping on hand for quick and convenient, grab-and-go food. and has finally devoted a blog to sharing her genius.

Check out these awesome "flavors":

Loaded Baked Potato

Raspberries and Cream

Sausage Maple Pancake

Breakfast Bites

Tuna Melt

And Yogurt Wheat Blueberry

Bake these up, freeze them, and next time you have a day full of in-the-car activities just grab some to go and leave the Pop Tarts and McDonalds drive-through behind you forever. And yes, she is working on a muffin cookbook.

Valentine's Day Continues

I said I would post everyday this week. It is 11:20pm. I made it!

Who says Valentine's day has to be a one day deal? With a baby and all the regular stuff in life I find that I never even come close to doing the things I plan to do every holiday. But I really really wanted to have a nice Valentines day to make up for my wimpy Christmas. We started V-day stuff last week and it is taking me FOREVER to even get half way through my Valentine's Day list. I obviously plan way too much.

Today, after church and in my jammies, I did most of my baking/cooking that I simply couldn't get to earlier. Set a fancy table for dinner. Matching glassware counts as faaaaaaancy in our family.

Love note to the family.

My gift to Mr. Hotness this year. Baby back ribs, broiled asparagus, and creamy thyme mashed potatoes with caramelized red onions. I make killer ribs. Too bad I don't really like meat. Good thing I love asparagus.

Chocolate red velvet cake.

It has a layer of twinkie filling and Heath Magic Shell (Sooooo good) and is covered in milk chocolate Ganache. I was told it was really really good. I thought it was ok, but I don't like cake or chocolate.

Now, maybe tomorrow I can finally deliver some Valentine goodies. At this rate I just might finish Valentine's Day in time to start St. Patrick's Day. Sheesh.

Saucy Salad

Instead of this:

I'm eating lots of this:

Because I'm cheating on this:

And having a love affair with this: And if eating salad for dessert is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

Freaky Mormon

Warning: Unless the thought of white buckets makes you giddy I highly recommend you stop reading now. But if you are a Mormon Nerd like me, proceed.
If you know what these are you might be a Mormon.
If you have more than one of these in your home you are Mormon, or soon will be (resistence is futile).
If you have 20 or more of these in a climate controlled room and they have been packed using a dry ice method... well, there is just no hope for you. You are a Freaky Mormon.

Me? I'm a Freaky Mormon wannabe, just a Mormon Nerd. I only have 18 buckets, and they aren't all 6 gallon size. I don't pack mine with dry ice. And I don't have a climate controlled food storage room to enshrine them in... yet. =) If you aren't LDS you might be wondering what is with the bucket madness. FOOD! I have wheat, oats, rice, salt, sugar, flour, honey, and hot cocoa in my buckets. We nerdy Mormons like to fantasize about the economic system of our country crashing and then showing everyone how smart we were for keeping a mini-mart in our cupboards and closets. Hey, don't knock it. Have you watched season 1 of the TV show Jericho? It could happen.

Anyway, I'm here to share with you my favorite trick for being a thrifty Mormon Nerd. Buying food buckets can be pricey, especially when you need a lot of them. But did you know that bakeries go through myriads of food buckets a day and just toss them? And did you know that if you call these bakeries, and ask nicely, they will often give you their buckets for free? Sure, you will have to clean them real good before using, but you have to wash the clean ones you buy anyway. And the 3 gallon bakery buckets fit in my sink a lot better than the big ones do.

I usually call my local grocery store's bakery and say, "Hi, I was wondering if you give away your empty icing buckets? You do? Great. Do they have lids with them? Would you mind if I come pick them up in the next 15 minutes?" Albertson's recently tried to charge me for their buckets so I called Safeway and they were more than happy to give me five buckets with lids absolutely free of charge. Make sure you don't use pickle, vinegar, or garlic spread buckets because they can give the food you store a bad flavor. But if your rice, flour, or sugar has a very mild (I've never noticed it) taste of chocolate, maple, or vanilla it really won't hurt a thing.


And see these lids? They have a black rubber gasket that makes them air tight. When you buy food buckets you have to pay a premium to get lids with gaskets.



Here is the rice that I bought back during the big rice scare of 2008. To quote my husband when I asked him if we should join the rice rush, "We have no need to panic... but we don't want the panicked people to get all the rice." Those yellow bags are medium grain rice from California that is especially good for making sushi rice. Because it has special cooking instructions I make sure to cut the instructions out and tape them to the side of the bucket.

Behold, my cheap nerdiness.

Are you one of those super cool Freaky Mormons? You know who you are. I bet you have blogged about your buckets. If so, share the link in your comment.

Still PMSing

Apparently my kids are brand loyal. They don't like Kraft Mac-n-cheese because it is too rich. They prefer generic but can tell a difference between store brands. So far their favorite generic mac-n cheese comes from WinCo Foods (Flovorite brand) and Grocery Outlet (something that comes in a red box). They dislike being forced to eat the yummy homemade stuff (you know, the kind with 3 different cheeses, real cream, and bacon) and refuse to eat anything made with the cheese powder from the bulk bins. Today they are eating Haggen brand from Top Food and Drug. It is acceptable, but smells different, or so they tell me.

There was a time when I tried to fight the Mac-n-cheese battle. Logically it is all the same, right? But my children are mac-n-cheese connoisseurs and will not be tricked. Not even with bacon. I've learned to dish it and run. I don't look at who is sitting where so I don't know who ate what and I don't try to force the matter. The only reason I serve mac-n-cheese in the first place is because I don't have time (or the inclination) to make heart shaped PB&Js with flower shaped carrots and cucumbers and sprigs of red grapes.

I once heard that LDS missionaries call Mac-n-cheese Yellow Death (with cut up hotdogs it is Yellow Death and Dogs). Well, I think Yellow Death perfectly describes my mood anytime I have to try to convince my children to eat any unacceptable form of salted orange food coloring over boiled flour formations and butter.

Can you guess what we had for lunch today? And can you guess that I'm still PMSing? My next post won't be so acidic... I promise. =)

Bon Appetite!

Pineapple Juice

Do you ever have those moments where you think, "Good heavens, I. Am. A. Genius!" Really you know that you are probably just the last person on earth to figure it out but you don't care because it is so brilliant that you can't stop practicing your interview with Oprah ('Cause you know she is going to be calling you about this one).

Well I've just had a brilliant moment in my kitchen tonight. I was draining some pineapple tidbits for pizza and went to grab my usual glass with ice. You know, to receive the honey sweet nectar pineapple juice for drinking. But then I started to think, "I really don't need the extra calories, and surely my children could never fully appreciate it's goodness (I'm so selfish), but I can't just waste it..." And then, like a bright light from above with angels singing, it came to me. I can freeze the juice in an ice cube tray and save them for later. Cha-ching! Now I have yummy pineapple ice cubes to plop in my morning orange juice, to sweeten my teryaki sauces, and to stir into jello to help it cool down. Think of all the wonderful pineapply possibilities!

What else could I do with my wonderful invention?

Candy Conundrum

I know for a fact that I could never eat an entire 1 pound brick of almond bark in one sitting. I'm sure my body would reject it after the first 10 bites.

I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to eat a 1 pound bag of party pretzel twists in one sitting either. Or maybe I could (if I had enough water to wash it all down) but I certainly wouldn't want to.

But for some unknown, and quite unsettling, reason I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with eating 2 pounds of almond bark coated party pretzel twists in one sitting.

*shudder*

Happy New Year !!!

But Mom, You Promised

Yes, I promised we would make gingerbread houses this year. Next year I will just promise to eat more ice cream instead. Or maybe I will promise to spend all of our Christmas money on these easy gingerbread house kits instead of on Christmas presents.

But nooooo, this year I made a promise. A promise that required a double batch of cookie dough, a salmonella batch of royal icing, and letting Mr. Hotness buy all the candy (Have you ever let your man loose in the bulk candy bins before? 12, count them, 12 different kinds of candy. Of course by the time we actually got around to making the blasted, I mean, adorable little things we only had 5 kinds left) and one heckuva mess.

BEHOLD THE MESS:

Who would have thought that something as innocent as cookies would require such dangerous tools?

Hard candy stained glass windows? Baaaaad idea.

2D instead of 3d candy houses? Brilliant idea that kept me from having a total nervous breakdown in front of my kids.

The candy houses are cute, they taste way better than the ones that come in a box and look way better than the graham cracker ones we used to make. Were they worth it? Ask me after I finish this pint of Ben and Jerry's.

Dave Mattews Band Magic Brownies: Black Raspberry Ice Cream Swirled with Sweet Cream Ice Cream & Fudgy Brownies
(And you might want to wait till my eye stops twitching and my blood pressure goes back down too.)

(P.S. I don't like brownies, as a general rule, but the brownies in this are buttery and chewy and so so good.)