Homemade Onion Rings

Homemade Onion Rings.

Another great recipe from my MIL vault.

The recipe doesnt have exact measurements, only because she gave me this, like many others, from pure memory... so I am going to describe and estimate to the best of my ability, so if you want to make it.. you may need to eyeball and adjust things to your liking.

 

 

I will say this.. one medium onion makes A LOT for two people.

 

You'll need 2 large bowls..

The first mixture you will let the onions soak in buttermilk & the following...

 

Mixture 1:

 

2 cups buttermilk

Chili Powder

Cumin

Cayenne Pepper

 

should look like this (below)

I let the onion mix soak in the fridge for an hour.

 

 



This is the end result.. so even if this is a lot of steps coming up.. believe me.. it will taste super yummy!

 

Mixture 2:

 

2 cups flour

2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp fine salt



You will take the soaked Onion Rings and dredge them in the flour mixture in batches as you get ready to fry them. Small batches.

I started by dropping in a handful of rings.. and waiting till they were a slight golden color..



Drain on paper towels, and serve with Bloomin' Onion Sauce.

 

Sauce:

1/2 cup hellmans mayo

2 tbsp. ketchup

3 tbsp. Sriracha sauce (more or less depending how spicy you like - I add as I go and taste)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp paprika

dash of pepper

cayenne pepper

 

That night we had Chicken Burgers & Roasted Cauliflower and it complimented the meal so nicely.. 

This & That

This week we didnt do anything too exciting.. and the weather turned awfully cold.. boo...

We did some spring cleaning and purging, which felt great.. and lots of cooking and baking to cozy up the house as always..

 

I guess I missed that he turned 13 months a while ago...

To be honest, I think Im just gonna jump in when I can.. Im not gonna go backwards.. so maybe I'll catch his 14 month post before Easter.. we'll see.

 

These days he's a lover of juice and dogs, as you can see below.

He says "ju ju" for juice, and "bow wow" for not only dogs, but any animal he sees on TV,  in books, in person.. everything makes the noise "bow wow".. we're working on Meow and Moo..

I can tell he's getting ready to drop his 1 nap.

Some days he takes 2 still if we run errands and takes a small nap in the car..

But days like today when we didnt go anywhere.. he took a 2 hour nap, and thats it.. we couldnt get him down again... and then he was asleep by 8.. but he was super super cranky... so he's transitioning..

He DOES sleep through the night.. good sweet lord jesus, did I ever think I'd see the day? No way.

MOST nights... but he still does wake up, and I'll rock him, and I can usually get him back down or if its after 6am, Ill bring him downstairs,

He's a bruiser.. Falling and tripping, slipping, climbing.. we've got new scrapes and scratches every day.. I sortof jokingly said to Mat, "We'll be in the ER at some point with this one.. so prepare yourself"... God I hope not.. but he is scary and fearless..

He is the sweetest thing ever.
I never ever in my dreams imagined having a boy that would be so sweet and love hugging and loving as much as he does.. He melts my heart every day.

 

Meal Planning has commenced. We're trying to be creative and organized when planning meals.. Otherwise Im scratching my head at 4pm, and saying "Um... should I just make a pizza?"

 

BBQ Baked Chicken, Honey Cornbread, Beans, and Salad

Banilla Sandwiches..

Just Mini Nilla Wafers, Banana Slices and rolled in sprinkles.

Samantha loved this little mid afternoon snack ..

Cabbage Soup & Artichoke, Mozzarella & Tomato Ciabatta Toast  

Next week we've already charted our meal plan:

Chicken Burgers

Sauce (Already Frozen) & Noodles

Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos

Oriental Chicken Salad

Thai Coconut Chicken

Egg & Potatoes over Greens

 

This week these adorable clips I ordered for SJ came.

Rapunzel and Cinderella..

I was going to originally stick them in her Easter basket, but I couldnt resist..

They are so cute.

Im already inspecting them to see how hard it would be to make them myself.

I finally finished the kids Easter baskets today!

Well, the handle on SJ's needs painting.. but the liners and main part are done..

I am so happy with the way they look.

Now I have to pick up a few more small things to add to the loot I've been storing.

Oh yea.. and I tried a new Cookie Recipe today.

These are Martha Stewart's Carrot Cookie Sandwiches with Cream Cheese Buttercream ... OMG..

I need a separate post for this one.. I took so many yummy step by step pics

They are good... real good. Somehow I convinced myself that because there are almost 2 cups of carrots in there.. that perfectly ok to eat a whole bunch and not feel as guilty... ha.

New Dinners & Desserts



Crockpot Whole Chicken/Rotisserie Chicken

I found this recipe HERE.. on Pinterest of course.

So very simple.

I bought a small whole chicken and cleaned it.

 

Then got out a load of different spices.. Onion Powder, Paprika, Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Cayenne Pepper, Garlic Powder.... geez..

Mix all the spices together.

Put the chicken in the crockpot

Rub spices all over chicken.

Turn on and thats it.

I cooked mine on high for 3 hours, and low on 3.



If you like the kind of chicken that is super super moist and falling off the bone.. then this is a great recipe. The only thing that wasnt like a Rotisserie Chicken was no crispy crust. But I dont really eat the crispy skin part anyway. The whole family liked it .. even picky eating Andrew.

 

We're using the bones and dark meat to make soup stock tomorrow.. so it was a cheap meal, and its going to make us another meal tomorrow!

(served with steamed corn, and chicken stuffing)

I served the chicken with the Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Cobbler.

Amazing..

If you have Flour, Sugar, Butter and about 1 cup of blackberries.. thats all you need.

My hubby really liked it too.. as he claims he doesnt really like sweets.. yea right...

 

Easiest dessert I've found in a long time.. took a whole 4 minutes to put together.



 

And to add to our sweet tooth coma...

I wanted to make these for Valentine's Day but ended up with brownies instead.

 

Milk Chocolate Cupcakes with Cherry Buttercream Frosting

 

(via pinterest)



 

You can find the recipe HERE.. via Pinterest.. 

I made the cupcakes & then performed some cupcake surgery.

I realized I have no small heart cookie cutters... I need to fix that .. very soon...

So I found a tulip & flower instead.

Cut them out from the tops..



The cherry frosting was so good... I halved the recipe..





Cupcake in a jar.... I had a little time on my hands .... 

After my cupcake creating .. I made some pizza for dinner.

 

Oriental Chicken Salad

I'd like to file this recipe under "tastes from my past"

Back when I was a single gal living in Ohio ...

The big question at work was, where are we going for lunch?

I would often bring my own lunch... but 3 days a week I'd guess I would eat out, or go to lunch with a client. One of my favorite things I would order again and again was Applebee's Oriental Chicken Wraps.

 

I found this recipe on Pinterest.. so we had it for dinner last week.

 

Ingredients... Crispy Chicken Strips, Salad, Broccoli Slaw, Mandarin Oranges, Chinese Noodles, Sliced Almonds, and the dressing,..

 

I assembled the salad, and toasted the almonds, and cooked the chicken

 

Dressing:

3 tbsp honey

1 tsp dijon

1/4 cup mayo

1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar

 

Whisk and chill while you assemble salads

 

It tasted pretty close.. although its been years since I've had the original.

And it felt healthy to eat a salad for a change!

 

 

 

A Better Day...

Today was a better day.

Well how could it have been worse than yesterday, right? just kidding.

I tend to stress about my kids when there is drama, but what Mama doesnt? I think it comes with the territory of Motherhood.

 

I got a comment that menitoned someone else was going through the same school ordeal as we are.

Thank goodness! Any tips/advice..? Im all ears.

Im feeling better about things today and know that like all things it is just a phase and we'll get through it... but I cant help in the moment of these times to fester and think and over-think it way too much ...and it makes me crazy!

 

We had a pretty good day though.

Andrew took a morning nap and SJ and I ran to Target while Daddy worked, and he slept.

He was in SUCH a better mood today after "unloading" all day yesterday and into today.

He's totally a monster. We lowered his crib mattress AGAIN today.

 But he is totally sweet just the same.

Today I was laying on the couch and he was standing/holding the back cushions and I kept saying "come to mama," and he would fall into me and just hug me and stay still for about 10 seconds and not move a muscle.. I totally needed that today...

 

We had a little pizza party tonight

I always make homemade pizza dough in my breadmaker

I used Whole Wheat White Flour, and the crust came out very very tasty.

 Getting mail helps make any day better as well.

I ordered this bib for Andrew and it came today.

I realized I have SO many monogrammed and embroidered shirts/bibs/dresses for SJ, and hardly anything for my little man.. time to dress him up a bit.

 My new thing lately is making my own favorite non-coffee drink from Starbucks.

I cant always jump in the car with two kiddos, so I bought a box of Passion Tea and the directions for how to make a Passion Tea Lemonade are right on the back

It tastes EXACTLY like Starbucks..

You brew the tea and then combine the tea with regular lemonade.. you can add sugar/sweet syrup to make it a little more tasty

 To end the evening we took a little stroll around our neigborhood.

And now we're all heading for bed..

So glad tomorrow is Friday!!!!!!!!!!!

Wonderful Wednesday! {Recipe Too!}

 

 Today was a very big day ...

Well for SJ it was..

We started off our morning here...

We needed wipes, and coffee.. and I scored some skinny red jeans, 2 pairs of pj pants, and a pink sweater...all while WITH both kids whom were both awake... Ahhh it was great...its the little things...

Andrew fell asleep in the car on the way home...

 But me and Sassy were hungry...

We went through the drive thru at our local Bagel place, and I crawled in the back seat and we split a Sesame Bagel with cream cheese while brother caught some zzzz's...

I forgot to eat breakfast and she didnt have a very big one at all..

We headed home to pick up Daddy who was busy cleaning the house all morning ... and we headed to "Sassy's School"...her Preschool.

The teacher sent out a letter saying they would be open today for about an hour in case we wanted to visit  to prepare the kids for their first day.

 It was adorable. Im so excited, nervous, unprepared, prepared... ahh its so emotional! My baby is going to school?? NO NO NO Im not ready!! I have never put her in Daycare, or had her in a full time school or any program. We had a Nanny that came to our house.. for only about 4 hours per day.. and thats it! Im so happy for her and she looked so happy at school.

I saw another good friend of mine while I was there, her son will be across the hall from Samantha in the 4's. I've heard nothing but excellent things about the school and many of my family members/cousins have gone here and had Samantha's same teacher.

Her teacher(s) there are two... were just so wonderful today.. so nurturing and patient.. It will make this all so much easier for me to take as a momma letting her baby go.

Monday is her first day.. and today she didnt want to leave, so that was a good sign. I just dont want her to be scared or cry.. even though thats what I'll be...

So Daddy had the day off today.. and both kids napped from abouy 1:30-4pm.. Heaven..

So I got in the kitchen ... I really miss cooking and baking

I tried a Pinterest recipe

Homemade Naan Bread

If you google "Budget Bites Naan" thats the recipe I used.

It was fairly easy, and so so amazingly good.

I probably wont ever buy Naan again from the store.. It was seriously so so good!!

 I made homemade soup with carrots and parsley from our garden , and a batch of my homemade granola bars with pecans and reese's pb chips.. (that recipe will have to be for another post)

 After dinner we headed for gas for the car and yogurt.

Samantha was in such a good mood.. giggling and laughing and being silly..

I just love my girl so much..

She's so grown up lately

I cant beleive the change from 2 to 3 and how monumental it truly is..

Oh my Momma tears will be flowing Monday for sure...

Randoms {Jogger, Puffs, Daddy's Dinner}

After his shots.. little man was pooped..

Totally not himself on Friday or Saturday...

Good thing sister was home to help.

She calls herself a "nurser".. not a nurse...ha!

So she got her brother a nice Cinderella bandaid for his boo boos

I took Andrew for a little walk but you can see in his face he was totally dazed.

He hasnt been sleeping as well as the last few weeks.

Waking up 2 times a night rather than 1 or even sleeping through.

Its worse I think when they start sleeping through the night.. and then they dont... Im so much more tired...ugh.

Saturday we gave Andrew some puffs..

I started with a new brand.

Plum Organic

They stuck to his fingers, and I think he almost gagged on the one that he finally got in his mouth.

But every day since has been getting better.

We picked some crops from our garden this weekend too!

Daddy did a good job growing Corn!

And he made the ENTIRE dinner Friday night, and all the veggies you see on this plate.. From our very own garden! So so yummy!

During dinner Friday,

My newest love arrived.

A double jogger!

We soooo needed one.

We take a lot of walks.

I absolutely love it.

And I think the kids do too!

Grilled Pizzas

We love making homemade pizzas.

But its way too hot to fire up the breadmaker

So I bought two kinds of Naan Bread, and we had all the ingredients on hand

We decided to try grilling them!

First Up:

Barbeque Chicken Pizza

BBQ Sauce

Cheddar Cheese

Chicken Pieces (cut or torn)

Chopped Scallions/Green Onions

Assembled and ready for the grill

Second Pizza:

Mushroom and Pepperoni

Pizza Sauce

Pepperoni

Mushrooms

Mozzarella Cheese

Oh, and a sprinkle of Oregano at the end..

The grill was on low, and we moved them to the top rack shortly after b/c the bottoms were getting burned. Next time we're gonna start on the top rack and move to the bottom to finish them off...

They turned out super crispy and delicious..I definately see us doing more of this soon!