This Ends Today

I work a lot and every now and then I get a Thursday off. Just a lonely Thursday, I have to go back to work on Friday (stupid, huh?) Anywho. I woke up at 7:30 and my auto pilot was freaking out thinking I was late to work, but my body was like F you...we're off today. So I let the dogs out and we lounged in bed until about 10. I dragged myself out of bed, took a shower, and went to meet my friend for lunch. My hubs calls while I'm on my way to meet her and tells me to go check out a rug sale in the parking lot of the mall, kinda weird, but ok. No go on the rugs so I stammer inside the mall. Pick up a CD and a few t-shirts and then it hits. I want to buy something really cool, something cooking like...something at Bed Bath and Beyond! I still have $100 and some change in gift cards left from my wedding. (I know, how?....it just happened) They haunt me. They taunt me. They rule an entire pocket of my purse. I can't decide. I walk in there and just can't decide what to get. Do I buy the entire wall of gadgets? Save it and get that really expensive Dyson? I just don't know. Well the bug hits me at the mall and I B-line to my car to head off to BB&B. This Ends Today I say to ChiChi! (Side note: ChiChi is my car, she's bad ass) We blast the new rockin' CD we bought and zip on over. I will spend all the gift cards and get just stuff I want/need/whatever. I'm hopeful, excited, giddy, if you will. I walk thru the whole store. Hmm, kitchen mats, cheesecloths, gadets, plates, napkins, placemats........it's like Disney World for foodies! So I just puruse and see what's on sale and what I want. So then I'm thru....done w/ the whole store and I have nothing, nothing. So I walk back thru the store and pick up things here and there and it's not $100, but it's something. I walk to the front to pay and put my basket down and walk out. I buy nothing. I don't understand what the hold is these cards have on me? Why can't I spend them?! Seriously, is there a store in the world that you walk in and can't find ANYTHING you want? Unless it's like Baby Gap I pretty much have a want for everything! Therefore, I still have the gift cards and this is not over. I will overcome you BB&B Gift Cards.

The Grocery Store

Have you ever noticed you plan out a party, weeks meals, etc etc and you have this mental shopping list you've been preparing for days or even weeks, you go over it again in your head while driving in the car to the store...Chicken, sour cream, cheese, rice, etc etc. Then you grab your buggy, cross the threshold into said store and boom.......your mind is blank. What am I here for again? Do I have eggs? God those green beans look good. Did I need eggs? Is that my neighbor? What am I making Tuesday? Seriously! What happens in your noggin? Is it an over load of your brain when it sees all the stuff you could buy or is it some special grocery store conspiracy so you'll buy more? Whatever it is, you promise yourself that next time you will bring a list. But it's too late for that so you have to go isle by isle scanning everything to make sure you don't miss anything and end up buying three times as much as you needed. Your list was short! It had maybe 20 items on it and now you need another buggy and an assistant (my friend hates it when I call a shopping cart a buggy, I'm gonna see if I can type buggy like 15 more times before I'm done....buggy buggy buggy buggy buggy!) Anywho, back to what I was saying. You now have enough stuff to feed a 3rd world country and make dinner for the next week. So you walk to the front to pick an line, damn it! I need crackers, which is like 15 isles back, but you're here and you need them so you trot back to the back and get the stupid crackers. Well by this time everyone else in the store has decided to check out now. You don't know how or why, but it just happened you spent 2 hours at the store and spent a billion dollars. Now, load all this mess into your car. You're exhausted by this point because it's Florida, it's hot and you just loaded 1/4 of the store in your car. You plop down in the front seat and.......Shit! I forgot the rice!

Mega Breakfast II

Prepare yourself....Mega Breakfast is baaaaaack! This Saturday, maybe Sunday. Not sure yet, but I've been planning the menu for a week. Be prepared pics, posts, and stories to come this weekend!!


Oh, and here's me making a funny face during the ceremony at my wedding. Christopher and I have several pictures where we are making some crazy faces.

Grilled Chix Teriyaki and Fried Rice

So I kinda made something similar to this w/ the previous pork chop post, however, I did not have enough soy sauce and so I improvised! You like that?!? Just on a Wim? :)

Chicken
1 Bottle of cheap Teriyaki Marinade
1 Tiny can of Crushed Pineapple
2-4 TBS of Brown Sugar
Chicken (of course!)

Fried Rice
3 Cups of Cooked Jasmine Rice
Soy Sauce
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Cayenne
Butter
3 Eggs
A lil Veg Oil

Combine pineapple, teriyaki, and brown sugar. Heat on low until bubbles. Grill chicken, however you grill it, about 10 minutes before it's done start basting w/ new and improved teriyaki sauce. Take off grill and pour the remaining sauce on top of the chicken. Make the Rice yo!

Rice:
Heat butter and scramble eggs, set aside.
Heat a few TBS of veg oil and then dump in the rice, movin around a big to brown. Add spices, soy sauce and sesame seeds (yeah, I forgot sesame seeds and I'm not scrolling back up to add them.) Shimmy shake it all around until brown.

Corn:
Shuck corn and smear w/ butter. Shake some Creole or Cajun seasoning . Roll up in Tin Foil and throw it on the grill.

Husband rated the Chicken 5, Rice 4....dinner overall 4. (altho, I feel the average should have been 4.5. Ya know, but whatever.) Everything I dropped the dogs ate up like they hadn't eaten in days. I guess thats not really a compliment seeing how they eat their own poop. Whatever, stop bursting my bubble!!

Taco Lasagna

My taco leftovers went incognito so that Hubby would eat it a second (and third night because it turned out so well) We ate it before I could snap a picture. Hey, it was late and we were hungry, don't judge me!

4 soft shells
left over taco meat
can of corn
southern style hash browns (they were also left over)
salsa
sour cream
cheese
jalapenos

spray a round pan just big enough to fit your shells. lay down first shell and spread w/ sour cream and then layer the meat, cheese, corn, jalapenos, salsa and cheese. repeat layers like lasagna!

Pizza Pizza!

I had some left over chicken from Cracker Barrel and some sausage I needed to use up therefore, these pizza's were born, or made, assembled, whatever.

Preheat to 350.

Honey Mustard Chicken Pizza:

1 fried chicken breast (left over from dinner the night before)
2 TBS Honey Mustard
Handful of shredded cheese

OR:

2 TBS jar pizza sauce
1/4 cup of sliced fried sausage links
1 TBS chopped pickled jalapeno
Handful of shredded cheese

It doesn't take a genius to figure out the rest of it. Bake until cheese is melted.

Husband loved the chicken and honey mustard one!

Mega Breakfast!

Meet: Mega Breakfast. My neighbors and I had planned this mega breakfast for a week. We were so excited we even planned to eat it in our PJ's. Most people followed the rules. There were 7 of us eating this meal. So please don't think it was just 4 fatties, there were 3 more plates.

We had the basic bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs. (I know, we were missing grits, but I thought I was the only one who wanted them, turns out that was a BIG disappointment!) Allison made her amazing Chocolate Chip Pancakes and I also added hashbrown casserole and some mini quiches.

Recipes to follow.

Grilled Pork Chops

These are guestamets here on the ingredients. I forgot to measure.

1/2 cup of soy sauce
5 tbs of brown sugar
1 tiny can of crushed pineapple w/ juice
Thin cut pork chops (I used 2 packs and it made about 10ish)
Salt and Pepper
Corn starch slurry

Combine soy, brown sugar and pineapple in a pot and bring to a boil. Add corn starch slurry to thicken (i used about 1/4 cup water to 2 tbs of corn starch.

Season chops w/ salt and pepper and grill. When they are almost done brush both sides w/ sauce. Serve w/ sauce.

I served these at a BBQ this evening and they turned out great! My friends raved! I didn't take a picture...sorry guys next time!

Sausage n' Rice

I've been working.....a lot. I got a new job a year ago and they just switched me to a new position, Therefore, I am trying to figure out what in the deuce I'm doing and it's causing a little stress and fatigue in my life right now. I made this Sunday night (my only day off this week!) After going to the store and running errands all day I didn't feel much like cleaning a huge mess. Plus, Monday night football tomorrow and we've got peeps coming over. This was probably one of the easiest and cheapest meals I've made in a while. I'm about to feed it to the husband so we'll see how he likes it. I however, think it's great!

1 package smoked sausage
1 Package of yellow rice dinner (the kind w/ the seasoning stuff in it. I use Winn Dixie Brand)
2 1/2 cups water
Cayenne Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Parsley Flakes
Salt n' Peppa

Slice sausage and fry until just browned on both sides in a big ole pot.

Add water and seasoning and bring to a boil.

Add rice package and stir for a minute to make sure all that stuff is combined.

Turn down to low, throw a lid on it and come back in 20.

I served it w/ a fork! :)

Husband gave it a good review! Shazaam!

Chili Cheese Tots

I made this one night because we had tacos for dinner, then for lunch at work and it was still left over for the next nights dinner and if I ate one more burrito I may have turned into one!! Hubby wasn't keen on eating it again either so.......the taco meat went incognito!!

I can't tell you how much of this, that, or the other went into it, but I put the left over taco meat in a pot (go figure, if u use the microwave it's too much like left overs and I have to tick DH!) Anywho. I added garlic powder, tons of onion powder, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup. Yep! Ketchup! It sounds odd, but it really adds the sweet-tomatoey flavor that really changes it.

Bake your tots and top with meat. Christopher and I have 2 very different topping routines.

His:

Cheese

Sour Cream

Jalapenos

Scallions

Hers:

Ketchup

Cheese

Jalapeno juice

Sounds awful, but we really like it! I'll get you a photo next time I make it. Probably not the most figure friendly, but now a days I just try and get by! Don't judge me!