Spicy peanut Thai noodles

This week has been particularly crazy for the The Hortons!

We hardly ate any of our planned menu this week. With it being my Spring Break we went to a potluck, visited a couple for dinner in their home, went out to dinner with my parents and hung out with friends with rushed dinners before hand that were not on the menu.

So finally...I decided to make Friday night dinner for Sunday lunch/dinner

It was delish!

So glad I made it!

Yum. Yum.

{Ingredients}

-Soba, mung bean, or udon noodles

-1 large bell pepper

-2 cloves garlic

-1 tsp fresh minced ginger (I used ginger powder however)

-2 Tbs chunky peanut butter

-1 Tbs reduced sodium soy sauce

-1 C chicken broth

- 1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce (I used Sriracha, the bottle with the rooster on it) I used 1 tsp

-Grilled chicken (optional)

Prepare your noodles according to the package directions. I used mung bean noodles so I had to soak them for 10 minutes prior to boiling them

Prepare noodles and set aside

In a medium bowl combine the chicken broth, sriracha, soy sauce, and peanut butter

Chop bell peppers and garlic (and fresh ginger if using)

Sautee garlic, ginger, and bell pepper for 2 minutes

After 2 minutes add the chicken broth mixture and cook for an additional 2 minutes

After 2 minutes combine with the prepared noodles and mix. If you are adding chicken add it now!

Serve and enjoy!

So yummy, especially on a chilly lazy Sunday afternoon!

What's for dinner?

Monday

Chicken & quinoa casserole w/ broccoli (like a macaroni and cheese, except with quinoa instead of pasta w/ chicken & broccoli added in)

Green beans (double helping of veggies...woot woot!)

Tuesday

Grilled Ahi Tuna

Garlic buttered pasta

Salad with lemon vinaigrette

Wednesday

Chicken and cheese enchiladas with red sauce

Mexican rice

Thursday

Breakfast for dinner!!

Poached eggs

Toast

Sausage or bacon (hubby's choice)

Friday

Chinese Goyza

Vegetable "fried" rice

Steamed Kale with a red wine vinaigrette sauce 

Saturday/Sunday

TBD...the weekends always are!! I have a mother daughter tea to co-host this weekend on Saturday so probably won't be too hungry after cupcakes and tea sandwiches, and Sundays are always a mystery/leftover night!

What are you having for dinner this week?!

What's For Dinner?!

I am loving this planning ahead for the meals thing! My erasable menu planner has been a life (and time!) saver so many times!

Our days are very busy so we try hard to stick to our menu, and we have been doing a pretty good job, but weekends are hit or miss. We plan meals for the weekends, but often end up eating with friends, or out, or with my parents, etc.

The point of planning meals is to help you...so don't beat yourself up if you get to the end of the day and just cannot bring yourself to get into the kitchen and go out for mexican food instead (Flashback to Thursday night...)

Here is what is on the menu this week:

Monday:

Bachelor night! Homemade pizza with friends!

Tuesday:

Roasted tomato soup 

Open faced broiled grilled cheese sandwiches on top.

Recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and can be found HERE

ummmm....yummmm

Wednesday:

 Bleu cheese bacon burgers with caramelized onions

 Thick cut homemade steak fries

Thursday:

 Grilled chicken

garlic-buttered noodles

Bleu cheese wedge salad

Friday: 

TBD - by this point I am usually pooped, and we eat leftovers from the week.

Saturday: 

Fish tacos again! We cannot get enough...and my hubby just so happens to be an amazing fish-cooker. : ) 

Sunday:

 SUPERBOWL! We will most likely be at a party and will have eaten out weight in chips, dips, and jalapeno poppers...dinner will not be necessary!

What's for dinner this week at your house?

Homemade Frozen Burritos

So I try to make Greg's lunch whenever he needs it (his work provides it 2 days a week)

but with my crazy school hours (waking up at 5am a-thank you) and struggling to make "unique" and "healthy" lunches everyday I have to get creative some times!

So today I made some burritos to freeze that Greg can just toss in the microwave at work

And at around 200 calories each they are way better for you then the frozen ones from the store, which can be almost 500 calories for one tiny burrito!

Ingredients

1. Medium to large Tortillas

2. Fat-Free "traditional" beans

3. 1/2 cup shredded Jack

1/2 cup shredded cheddar

4. Hot sauce or salsa

5. 1/4 cup chopped onion

Since beans are generally pretty bland I added some generous shakes of old Cholula (mi favrito hot sauce!) and a 1/4 cup chopped onions

Spoon beans and cheese into the tortilla, leaving a lot of tortilla around the edges for a good, compact burrito fold.

Wrap that baby up! I am not gonna lie I wrap a burrito better than a 17 year-old Taco Bell employee...let me show you...

A.

fold two sides in over the beans and cheese

B.

now fold one of the un-folded sides over the beans and tuck in to the fold you make previous

C.

Now roll it up and flip it over so it doesn't come apart!

Whew...that was hard...like rocket science...wait, what?

aren't you glad I had a tutorial? ; )

Now individually wrap each burrito in saran wrap and place them all into a freezer sized storagebag

Don't forget to label and date them!

I am not sure how long they will last in the freezer...but I assure you I will never find out, my hubby will be eating all of these in the next week and a half I am sure!

Enjoy those yummy little burritos...so easy!

Homemade Granola

I am trying to shy away from processed foods as much as possible. It is not so much a calories thing, or a refusal to eat junk food thing, it is just not knowing what I am putting in my body and what the TRUE ingredients are.

I am not above chips, crackers, easy grab-and-go snacks by any means, but I want as much as possible to make from scratch any foods that I can and have time for.

Today I whipped up a batch of granola, and let me tell you it was super easy and worth it!

So yummy!

Maybe the granola at the store has truck loads of sugar and salt, I don't really know, but I know for a fact mine doesn't, and that is comforting in a way! To know exactly what I am eating is freeing.

Granola is one of those things you can dress up any way you like, but mine is simple and to the point.

Ingredients

4 cups rolled old fashion oats

2 cups sliced almonds

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup honey
optional: dried fruit or raisins

Prep: 5-10 mins

Bake: 45 mins

Add coconut, dried fruit, cashews, raisins, etc if you want!

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Measure oats and dump in a large bowl

Chop and measure almonds and toss them into the bowl with the oats

In a small bowl combine the oil and honey and whisk together

to make things easier, I dumped my oat and almond mixture into a gallow sized freezer bag and poured the honey and oil on top.

Seal the bag and shake and roll it until all the oats and almonds are coated.

Spread granola out onto a cookie sheet and place in the oven

set timer for 30 - 45 mins (depending on how hot your oven cooks) and bake until oats are golden brown. Stir or flip granola occasionally with a spatula.

Place granola in an airtight container or in a tupperware. One down side of non-processed foods is that they don't last super long, but I will take that over not knowing what I am putting in my body any day! It just means more time to try new recipes and constantly having different snacks in your home!

YUM!

In honor of Fall...Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Nothing says Fall like a baked good chocked full of pumpkiny goodness. Coincidentally one of Greg's favorite things is baked goods chocked full of pumpkiny goodness!

So in honor of Fall and my husband whom I love so dearly, I present:

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9X5 inch loaf pan. 

**disclaimer:This recipe takes about an hour and a half start to finish.**

I halved this recipe so the measurements are a little strange, if you are better at math than me you can probably figure out a better way to write them! : )

Ingredients

1 1/2 C sugar

1/2 can pumpkin puree

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/3 C water

2 eggs

1 1/2 + 1/4 C flour (see what I mean with the weird measurements? Haha the original recipe had 3 1/2 C)

1tsp cinnamon (or more, I put in more)

1 tsp ground nutmeg (or more!)

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine sugar,eggs, water, oil, and pumpkin to stand mixer or bowl with hand mixer.

Combine the rest of ingredients (minus the chocolate chips) in a large large and whisk together

Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and mix until well combined.

Add the chocolate chips to pumpkin mixture, 1/2cup is a rough estimate. 

This just looks like Fall/Halloween to me!

If you have not greased and floured your pan, do so now...I'll wait.

Fill your loaf pan with your pumpkiny goodness. And try not to eat half the batter, like I did.

Pop that loaf in the oven and try to find something to do for an hour so you don't park it in front of the stove salivating and wishing the light sprinkle outside would turn into a torrential downpour with flash-flooding so that you would have nothing better to do than sit inside and eat chocolate chip pumpkin bread alone on your kitchen floor all afternoon

...oh a girl can dream...

You know how the old saying goes "a watched loaf never rises" or something like that...

 so set your timer for 1 hour and stay out of the kitchen.

 There are so very many things wrong with this picture. Namely it is on it's side, and the bread has already been cut into. I apologize for both of these things, but there is no staying sane and taking good pictures when you have a piping hot loaf of pumpkiny goodness on your counter.

Enjoy!

DIY Pumpkin Spice Latte.

It's that time of year again to put on cute boots, long socks and sip a PSL.

Thank you Starbucks for your "Fall in a cup" as I like to call it!

Ok so I may be the most impatient person that I know. I don't like surprises, waiting, or preparation in general. I see something that I want to make/craft/cook and I will cut corners and cut and add ingredients to make is happen as soon as possible! This was no exception! I found the original recipe HERE at 20something Cupcakes and knew I had to try it.

But I didn't have pumpkin pie spice...or regular coffee...or a crock pot (it's at a friends house)

So I improvised! I am sure her version is also way good, and I will definitely be trying it when I have my crock pot back, but I was VERY happy about the way mine turned out! Hope you like it!

DIY Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Ingredients

3 cups milk

4 (or more!) Tbls canned pumpkin or pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sugar (I used half vanilla sugar)

2 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee

2 tsp vanilla extract

Finely grated nutmeg (use your discretion!)

Cinnamon (up to you!)

All-spice (however much you want!)

Or you can just use pumpkin pie spice!

Yum! 

Add all your ingredients to a large pot, except the coffee (and whip cream of course!!) and stir until sugar and pumpkin puree has been dissolved.

 I used the Libby's brand canned pumpkin, not sure I have ever used another kind! This works well for me!

Brew coffee and add to pot with other ingredietns. I used Hazelnut coffee cause that was all I had, like I said I'm impatient...and it still turned out great!

Now heat latte on low, stirring continually. Don't let it sit or it will burn the milk, which is disgusting!

Enjoy!

Add some whipped cream on top, or some more of your nutmeg or cinnamon (or both!)

I had some the night of and for the last 2 mornings in a row, and honestly it has been better and richer each time!

Let me know how yours turns out!

What's on the menu...Saturday Morning Breakfast!

I was going to post this yesterday morning, but eggs and pancakes seems a little to irreverent for the 10th anniversary of September 11th. 

Being a newlywed has made meals so much more fun (I guess that is why they say you gain weight after you get married!) I finally have not only someone to cook for,but someone to enjoy my meals with!

And who could resist this adorable mug in the morning? Heavy metal t-shirt, messy bed head and sleepy eyes.

Yep you guess it that is my knight in shining armor. 

Pancakes:

1cup bisquick

1 Tbs sugar

1 Tbs melted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp baking powder

grated nutmeg

Enough milk to give a "pancake batter" consistency. Not too runny, but shouldn't stick to the spoon when trying to put it into the frying pan.

Don't forget the Mrs. Buttersworth -Greg's favorite.

I prefer Trader Joe's Honey Apple Butter - swoon!

Fried egg 

Toasted leftover bread

Sliced nectarines

A nice hot cup of Jo...thank you Crate & Barrel for your irresistible labeled dishware.

Another Crate & Barrel love.