What I Ate Wednesday

Breakfast

Today I started my day off with my current favorite breakfast at 9 am. I had blueberries and strawberries with organic plain lowfat yogurt.

Lunch
For lunch, Peter and I tried a new Thai restaurant called Hot & Spicy Thai. We shared a dish called spicy sole fish and also mixed veggies. We ate it with rice. I had lunch at 1:30 pm.

Snack

I had some leftover macaroni and cheese for a snack around 3:30 pm because I didn't really eat much at lunch. Peter liked the Thai food a lot more than I did. 

Dinner

For dinner, I made ground chicken taco, yum! I had two fried corn tortillas filled with ground chicken, cheese, avocado, lettuce, and cabbage. We ate around 7 pm. 

Dessert

I had a bowl of chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream for dessert at 8 pm. 

Coconut Oil Face WIpes

I found these face wipes on Pinterest and I just had to make them. I use coconut oil to take off my makeup, for moisturizer, and even to make my own homemade deodorant. I LOVE coconut oil! I knew I had to try these out as soon as I saw them. They don't have any alcohol or scary ingredients in them, just coconut oil, water, and tea tree oil! So they shouldn't dry your face out, but will leave it clean and moisturized. 

Before I came across these I had been thinking that I needed to find a way to get my face extra clean. I feel like just washing my face at night hasn't been getting off all of my makeup. I saw these and thought they would be just what I was looking for. 

This recipe comes from MeganMeCrafty.  It's great because you can adjust it to your skin type. You can add more coconut oil for dry skin or less for oily skin. The tea tree oil can help to balance your complexion and keeps the wipes from molding. I have dry skin so I just used two really big scoops of coconut oil instead of heaping tablespoons.

To make the wipes you will need:
2 cups of warm water (the recipe calls for distilled, but I just boiled tap water)
2 heaping tablespoons of coconut oil

10 drops tea tree oil
1/2 a roll of select-a-size paper towels
7 cup container with lid (like a Tupperware or Rubbermaid container)

The recipe states that you should rinse out your container and measuring equipment with boiling water to be sure that your wipes do not mold. I went ahead and did that since I was boiling water to use anyway. I like making sure that anything I use on my face is extra clean!

The first thing to do is to cut your roll of paper towels in half with a sharp non-serrated knife. You can keep the other half of the roll to use when these run out.

Then, take your warm water and mix in the coconut oil until it is fully melted and combined. Next, add in your tea tree oil. ONce everything is mixed together, add about 2/3 of your mixture to the bottom of your container.

Then, place the paper towels in, cut side down. Pour the rest of the mixture over the top of the paper towels and seal the lid on tight.

Flip the container upside down to ensure that the liquid soaks into the paper towels. I had my doubts that it would fit and get saturated, but it really does work!

After about 5 minutes you should be able to easily pull the cardboard center out of the roll of paper towels. If it seems too difficult the replace the lid and flip the container over for a bit longer.

Then, you can pull out the center towel and use them like pop-up wipes! Store them tightly covered with the lid so that they stay moist.

This recipe was so easy that I think I will use it over and over again.The wipes felt oily, but in a good way, like they will moisturize my skin instead of drying it out.  They are also inexpensive. You can buy huge jars of coconut oil at Costco (it's unrefined, cold pressed, AND organic!). And a small jar of tea tree oil should last forever since you will only need to use drops at a time.

Pasta Primavera

I love this dish! It is originally from the "Cook Yourself Thin" cookbook and TV show that was on Lifetime in 2009. I bought it because there were so many recipes that I wanted to try out! I have made some changes to the dish that make it a little more filling and switched out some vegetables for ones that I like better. I have also added some chicken for extra protein. This can easily be made vegetarian by swapping the chicken stock for vegetable stock and leaving out the chicken. Just skip over the chicken steps and start right in with the asparagus!

I think this dish is pretty easy to make and doesn't require much prep time.

My picture is missing the chicken breasts, but I used 3 large chicken breasts. While starting the rest of the recipe, get a large pot of water boiling to cook the pasta. Once it is boiling and you have added the pasta, cook it about 2/3 of the way (about 6 minutes). Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water and the drain the pasta.

After slicing the chicken up, season with salt, pepper, and garlic and brown it up in a pan with enough olive oil to coat the pan. 

Once it is browned, add about 1/2 cup of white cooking wine. Let the wine cook out for about 4 minutes. Then, transfer to another bowl or dish. 

In the same pan, add the asparagus and 1/4 cup of chicken stock. Cover and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes so that the asparagus is still crisp. Transfer the contents of the pan into another bowl or dish. 

In the same pan (again!), heat the olive oil and then add the garlic. Brown for about 30 seconds to 1 minute over low heat. I added some red pepper flakes to make it a little spicy!

Add the pasta into the saute pan along with the rest of the chicken stock. Add the asparagus back into the pan...

Along with the spinach and peas. If you need ore liquid you can some or all of the pasta water back into the pan. The reason for using the pasta water instead of more stock or just water is that the starches in the pasta water thicken the sauce as it reduces down during cooking. 

Once the spinach, peas, and asparagus are mixed in and starting to thaw add the chicken and juices back into the saute pan. Reduce the liquid bay half, about 2-3 minutes, and add in the parmesan cheese. 

Bon Appetit!

Pasta Primavera

3-4 large chicken breasts

1/2 cup white cooking wine

salt, pepper, and garlic to season

1 lb. pasta, in any shape (penne, farfalle, or shapes that size work best)

1 bunch asparagus, tough ends cut off and remainder cut into 2-inch sections

15 oz. chicken stock

about 4 tablespoons olive oil

5 cloves garlic

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen spinach or 6 oz. fresh baby spinach

1/2 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese

This recipe can serve at least four, but probably can feed 5-6 without leftovers.

*A delicious addition are sun-dried tomatoes which can be chopped and sprinkled in right at the end of cooking. I didn't have any so I didn't add them, but I wish I did because I love them!

What I Ate Wednesday

This is my first what I ate wednesday post!

Breakfast

I had a piece of toast with organic peanut butter and a drizzle of raw honey. I also had some blueberries and a cup of green tea. I ate at 8:30 am.

The bread I used is a 21 grain organic bread that is hearty and tastes yummy too. We get it at Costco.

Lunch

Peter and I tried a new French sandwich place for lunch. I had a half of this sandwich for lunch. It is on French bread with pesto, goat cheese, and seasoned greens. I ate lunch at 12:30 pm.

Snack

I had a piece of a chocolate danish we bought at Trader Joe's a few days ago. I ate my snack around 3 pm.

Dinner

I made a family favorite for dinner: Pasta Primavera with chicken! This is one of my favorites! The recipe will be up on my blog this week. I had my dinner around 7:30 pm.

50th Birthday Cake!

This past weekend my mom and I made a cake for her best friend's 50th birthday. We have been getting some practice making cakes which I like! We are really learning a lot about baking, filling, stacking, and decorating cakes.

The birthday girl, Mary Jo, wanted a cake to feed 40 people. So we made it a two-tier cake, a 6-inch tier on top of a 9-inch tier. She also wanted each tier to have a layer of chocolate and a layer of vanilla.

We filled the top tier with chocolate cream cheese frosting just like this cake.

And we filled the bottom tier with buttercream and strawberries. The buttercream recipe is the same as the one we used on this cake.

We covered the cake in buttercream and added fresh flower details.

Everyone loved the cake and thought it was delicious!

We also brought some petite sweets with us because we know everyone loves them!

Baked Parmesan Chicken with Salad

This baked parmesan chicken is a very versatile recipe that my mom usually makes for salads, but can also be eaten with pasta, veggies, with or without a sauce, or anyway you want!

This time we ate it with salad. We start with two to three large chicken breasts sliced and pounded thin. 

The bread crumb mixture contains 1/2 cup plain (or italian or parmesan flavored!) bread crumbs, 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (we love it extra crunchy!), 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/2 tsp basil. 

The chicken can be dipped in egg or milk before being dipped in the bread crumbs, but it isn't necessary. Sometimes my mom and I do dip it in liquid first, this time I didn't. 

My mom has devised a way to cook the chicken in the oven without it getting soggy. The chicken is surrounded by heat in the oven and clean-up is easy because of the foil. It doesn't need to be fried on the stove first (but it definitely can be for a browner color).

She stacks a cooling rack with legs on a baking sheet lined in foil.

Baked Parmesan Chicken Recipe

2-3 large chicken breasts

1/2 cup bread crumbs 

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp basil

Mix the last 7 ingredients together and coat the chicken in mixture. Bake at 450 degrees F for about 1 hour, flipping the chicken over halfway through cooking. 

Vietnamese Iced Coffee

Peter has become obsessed with vietnamese iced coffee! He loves it. He has tried every iced coffee that he can get his hands on recently. So today I tried making him some myself!

We went to Lee's Sandwiches to pick up this coffee filter that is traditionally use to make Vietnamese coffee. It was only $3.50! I think that's a pretty good deal. 

I put about 1 tablespoon of coffee grounds into the filter to make about 4 ounces of coffee. I think that was a good ratio, but next time I might run it through the filter an extra time to make it really strong. 

I put about 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk into the glass and filtered the coffee directly into it.

I stirred it up and then poured it over ice.

Peter liked it so I think it was a success!