Leprechaun Madness

This post isn’t food-related, but I wanted to share the fun we had yesterday morning.

Carter decided a few nights ago that he wanted to make a leprechaun trap and said all he needed was construction paper and tape.  I gave him his tools and left him to work on it.  When he was done, I asked where he got the idea for the trap and he said it was in the Night Before St. Patrick’s Day book Grandma gave him last St. Patrick’s Day.  A YEAR AGO. This child remembered seeing it on one of the pages in a book he hasn’t read in a year. Wish I had that memory!

Here’s the trap after the leprechaun visited:

trap

This is what the note says:

note

The leprechaun left him some trinkets, a coloring book, a big pen (that he’s already broken by taking it apart and losing a piece from inside), and a plastic green mug (which rang up as a beer mug at the register).

mirror note

So how did our feisty little creature escape the carefully-planned trap?  He burst through the back wall!

escape

Carter closed his eyes because it was first thing in the morning and he hates bright lights, especially when I use flash. And he just got that TMNT sword yesterday so he had to use it to hold the trap because it’s practically surgically attached to his hand.

Did you do or make anything fun this weekend?

Healthy Sausage McMuffin copycat

mcmuffin

I’ve thought about making these egg and sausage sandwiches for quite a while now, ever since I saw Kim’s post about them.  I haven’t gone so far so to make a large batch to freeze, but I bet they’d be just as delicious reheated in the microwave.

I don’t eat the real Sausage McMuffins from McDonald’s because I don’t eat red meat or pork, but I do get regular McMuffins with no meat on them, and love it. So to be able to make them at home, and make them healthier, is a no-brainer.

I bought these egg rings at Wegman’s and they’ve worked out really well.  They’re nonstick so they’re easy to clean, and they are the exact right size for a Thomas’ English Muffin. If you click the picture below, you can order them from Amazon (and I make about 2 cents from your purchase).

There’s really no recipe here; it’s more of an “assemble” kind of thing.  Here’s how I made them:

 

  • 1 whole wheat Thomas’ English Muffin
  • 1 egg
  • 1 slice American cheese
  • 1 turkey sausage patty (I used the Jimmy Dean frozen ones)
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  1. Microwave sausage patty for 30 seconds, or until defrosted.
  2. Toast the english muffin to desired darkness.
  3. Spray a nonstick pan with cooking spray and place your egg ring inside. Crack the egg directly inside the ring and use a fork to break the yolk. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Cook the egg until almost set on top, and then remove the ring. Flip the egg over and finish cooking the other side.
  5. Place sausage patty on the bottom of the English muffin, put the cooked egg on top, and top with cheese. Add the top of the English muffin and enjoy!

 

Total Dinner FAIL (Easy Garlic Chicken)

Food bloggers are supposed to post beautiful photos of their culinary creations, right?  Yeah, not this time.  Last night’s dinner was such a bust.  I’d had this recipe bookmarked for a while and finally was going to make it.  I defrosted the chicken, mixed all my ingredients, and cooked it to the specifications.  The only mistake I can think of that may have been made on my part is that the chicken was frozen and only 2/3 defrosted when I started cooking it.  Maybe that poached it too much?

Regardless, this is what it’s supposed to look like:

chicken

(source)

So pretty, right?  Sticky and sweet and a little savory.  I couldn’t wait to eat it.  Until it came out of the oven looking like this:

chicken2

Vomit.  Looks like poached disgusting fish.

And there you have it, the reason we went out for Chinese food last night.

Fancy up your Lunch

Lunches for me are difficult.  I’m really lazy about packing a lunch so usually I’ll just pack leftovers when I’m cleaning up the night before, or head out to ChickFilA for a sandwich crack. It’s not too often that I actually buy a frozen meal to eat because most of them are just so…blah.  And really freaking high in sodium.  (Why IS that???)

However, recently when I was at Target during lunchtime running errands, I picked up one of the Chef’s Picks from Lean Cuisine. Typically if I get a frozen meal I’m likely to choose Lean Cuisine because historically they’ve had better choices than some of the other brands.

This time I picked the Glazed Chicken. I wasn’t sure about the lemon-tarragon sauce, but the picture just looked so good I figured I’d give it a shot. Pretty, isn’t it?

lean cuisine 1

Of course, it never looks as pretty when you make it at home (as evidenced below), but I’m really glad I decided to try this one. This may actually be my very favorite frozen meal EVER. Seriously. I should have gotten two because now I’ll be craving it every day  for the next 2 weeks (pregnancy cravings are an odd thing, aren’t they?).

lean cuisine 2

The cool thing about these Chef’s Picks entrees, is that they’re created by real chef.  Like, ones you may have actually heard of (Michelle Bernstein, anyone?). So the flavors are layered and interesting, and really freaking good.  Try it.  I promise you won’t be sorry (at least, if you get the Glazed Chicken, that is).

I have partnered with Lean Cuisine through DailyBuzz Food to help promote their new line of Chef’s Pick products. I have been compensated for my time commitment to work with this product. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments. Thank you Lean Cuisine!

BOLD Organics Pizza Review

Do you keep “convenience food” in your freezer?  Typically, we don’t.  Except for the Tyson dinosaur nuggets that have saved many lunchtime disasters.  I especially don’t usually keep pizza in the freezer because it takes up so much space.  Yes, it’s flat space, but it’s space nonetheless.

However, when BOLD Organics asked me to try their pizza for free and give my opinion, I couldn’t say no.  Hello?  Free food? Sign me up!

The best part was that a new MOM’s Organic Market had just opened up in the next town over, and that’s one of the few stores that carries this brand.  A perfect opportunity to check out the new store, and get a (hopefully) yummy lunch in the process.

(As an aside, the store was just…meh.  The prices were pretty high, and it smelled heavily of patchouli and earth. They did have a large variety of produce, though, so we had fun poking around there. And we picked up some bulk split peas for soup for a good price.)

bold pizza

Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?  The BOLD Organics pizzas are gluten-free and dairy-free, which usually scares me off. But I forged ahead and it actually was pretty good. The crust was actually quite excellent; I never would have known it was gluten-free.  The seasonings and roasted veggies were great, also. One complaint (and it may have been user error) was that the cheese/sauce was a little…slimy.  The directions say to broil the pizza at the end of the cooking time and I didn’t do that, so perhaps that’s why the texture was that way.  I don’t know.

My other complaint was the size of this pizza.  I bought it with the intention of my husband and I splitting it for lunch, but it was not nearly large enough. The box is quite a bit bigger than the pizza, so that was a little disappointing.  Maybe if we’d had a huge salad or something with it we could have stretched it to feed both of us, but not on its own.

If you want to try the pizza, there’s a coupon on their Facebook page.