Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

I found this recipe as I was browsing on Pinterest yesterday and decided to try it.  Its super cheap, healthy and EASY!  But would it be just as tasty???

YES! 

I loved it!  I actually wished I had more of it to eat and not my actual main dish.

This comes to you highly recommended by yours truly.

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

• Cut a round tomato in half horizontally and place on baking sheet with cut side up
• Top with fresh shredded parmesan cheese
• Sprinkle a little oregano on each half (about 1/4 tsp)
• Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• Drizzle a little olive oil
• Bake at 450* for 15 minutes

Nutition facts per serving (1 half tomato): 91 calories; 6 g fat ( 2 g sat , 4 g mono ); 4 mg cholesterol; 6 g carbohydrates; 3 g protein; 2 g fiber; 375 mg sodium; 363 mg potassium
Click here for the original recipe

Competition

I've been off sweets now for 9 days.

I had the grand idea last week to give up something during Lent, simply for the sake of a challenge. I'm not changing religions or anything, I just like the idea of Lent.  It's like a spring new year's resolution that only lasts 40 days!
So, I chose to not eat sweets.  Its a tough challenge, but very doable and certainly its good for me.  I've been fluxuating around the same 3 lbs for over a year now and I definitely need to push myself more.  This challege can only be good for me.

After the first day, I invited my mom to join me.  I couldn't convince her to do a self vs. self challenge so out came the wagers. :)  That's right, I challenged her to a Rachel vs. Mom competition!

The wager: Pedicures. We will go together to get Easter pedicures.  If we are both successful, then it is just a fun excursion with each other.  If one of us fails, we pay for the other person's pedicure.

The Exception: Because we know our history with sweets, we decided to have one exception each for the days that is seems simply unbearble! Mom chose dark chocolate chips and I chose Red Mango, with fruit toppings only.  Both are things we won't eat in excess.  They are both about as healthy as sweets can be and still satisfy our sweet tooth on those dark days, which is much better than completely giving up!

So how is it going so far? Well, I feel much better without the sweets; and just importantly is the pride I feel when I know I have successfully evaded the food pushers that want me to eat this cake, and that cookie, and these treats. I can't deceive myself though. I know I miss the sugary goodness of Smart Cookie and the happy socializing I once did over sweets at church functions and at work. I've even had dreams that I ate candy, and for the next 24 hours I had to revisit what I did the day before to make sure it was in fact a dream.  But the sweets had to come to and end eventually, and I'm sure this change will be well worth it.

Interestingly enough, the socializing is just as good without the sweets!

New Year's Eve 2011

This year, we had an INTERNATIONAL BUFFET for dinner.  Since many members of our family have served missions abroad or lived internationally, we decided this would be a fun switch up to our standard dinner.  Here are a few items we got to try.  Sure wish I'd taken my own pics of these.

• Norwegian Brunost (goat cheese) on bread: Will served his mission in Norway

• Egyptian Koshary: Dave and Shirlee spent 2010 living in Cairo, Egypt >> wiki description

 

• African Ugali/Posho: Neil served his mission in Uganda, Africa 

  

 

• Czech Knedlicky: Lance served his mission in the Czech Republic

The ones we had were filled with fruit, cream cheese, cinnamon, and then steamed.
After being steamed, they were topped with powdered sugar.  Yumm!

 

• Arvy family was overtaken with illnesses so they did not join us

• Since I've never been out of the country (which is going to change very shortly, wahoo!), I had no international cuisine to add.  Instead, I went with the Japanese-created Wii system!  Lol, someone needed to bring the entertainment if we were actually going to stay up until midnight! :)  If you haven't had the enjoyment of playing Just Dance yet, I highly recommend it!  I saw people dancing that I've never seen move before.  It was hilarious!  Even the kids were totally getting into it!  Watch the short clip below (though this does not do justice!)

Happy New Year to you all!

Christmas

This year was an "on" year for our family during Christmas.  Unfortunately for me, the siblings now have old enough children that they all prefer to do Christmas morning at their own homes.  This would leave me and the 'rents only.  Don't get me wrong, I love my parents, but Christmas without kids is only so fun for so many years.  But... this year my brother and his family are between homes (more specifically between countries) over the holidays so we had a few more bodies for Christmas morning! 

But, before the awesome pics from Christmas morning, let me humor you with something totally awesome from Christmas Eve!  Because of the "on" year, we had a big Christmas Eve dinner, complete with a crown roast, unique stuffing, delectable salads, mashed potatoes, and my dun... dun... dun... cherpumple.

Success!
Can you believe I finally pulled it off after a mere 3 tries?

 

Sadly, the two hours following my successful construction were spent eating dinner and chatting.  During this time, the weight of the two top layers took out the bottom layer so you can only see the top two in the above picture.  Regardless, it was totally awesome!  Probably not worth the time, but awesome nevertheless!

I would maybe consider a "pumple" again in the future, but not all three layers.

For all you ambitious chefs our there that might possibly want to make this, or part of it, here is how you do it.

1. Bake frozen pies as directed on the box.

2. Let cool really long.  For instance, put in the fridge over night.  This avoids loosing the pie during the cake transfer.  Trust me...

3. Mix the cake batter just as directed on the boxes.  You can make a combination of any that you prefer.

4. Cover the bottom of a greased 9" round cake pan (extra high sides) with cake batter.  Carefully transfer the cooled pie into the cake pan, without the tin of course, and pour a layer of cake batter over the top.

5. Bake the cake for 1.5 hours at 345 degrees.  TAKES FOREVER!

6. Let cool, or better yet, put in freezer to solidify.

7. Carefully remove from cake pans and stack using cream cheese frosting between layers and around the edges.

8. Cut soon and serve your awesomeness!

Next post, the legit Christmas pics.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Love, Rachel

Kitchen Successes & Failures

Wow!  Has it really been almost a month since my last post?  A lot sure has happened since then.

First, you should all know that I got released from being Relief Society President in my ward.  It was a long, but fantastic 2 years!  Now I get to relax a little.  Haha, who am I kidding?  This is me we're talking about it!  It only took one week before I'd completely filled my life with new adventures.  There is just something about feeling productive and busy that makes me happy.

On my list of new adventures, I decided it was time to try honing in on my cooking skills.  I've never done a whole lot of cooking for lack of time and desire, but that has changed now.  In Oct/Nov, I spent a couple Saturdays with my mom and sister, Rebecca, and her son, Gus, canning applesauce from our very own Golden Delicious Apple tree in the backyard.  I haven't done any canning since I was a wee child, and let's be honest, I probably didn't do much then either, except maybe create a mess for my mom...

Blueberry sauce and me as a 1 year old probably aren't the best mix :)

This year was different though.  We canned a whopping 40 or so bottles of homemade, perfect applesauce.  It is the most delicious applesauce!  My mom prides herself on the fact she doesn't put ANYTHING in to sweeten or preserve the applesauce.  It is as pure as applesauce can be.  Let me tell you, its the best I've ever hard!

Note: I've chronologically placed my pictures from canning more for my remembrance in future years than anything else...


Step 1: Pick apples            Step 2: Slice the 8 boxes of apples

 

Step 3: Render (or boil down) the apples

 

Step 4: Smash the apples in the cool tool that I can't remember its real title

 

Step 5: Pour into many bottles and place the lids on tight

 

Step 6: Seal the bottles in boiling water, then carefully remove so they don't break



Step 7: Let cool and finish sealing.  Long day, but the taste is worth it!  No added anything, pure applesauce.
Day 1 is complete!

 

Mom and me in the kitchen

 

Gus "washing" the apples.  Aka, dropping them in the water

 

Day 2 finished products, including three cinnamon applesauces


Also on the "Must Bake" list is the incredible Cherpumple. The name stems from a combination of CHERry, PUMpkin and apPLE.  I saw this on msn.com one day and thought it would be fun to try. 
A Cherpumple consists of a Cherry pie baked inside a white cake, a Pumpkin pie baked inside a yellow cake, and an Apple pie baked inside a spice cake.  All 3 layers are to be stacked and cemented together with cream cheese frosting.  In a perfect world, it would look like this.

Apparently someone did have a perfect world, and therefore a perfect cherpumple.  Just not me!

Here is the history of Rachel's Cherpumple attempts

• Attempt #1 - A complete and utter disaster!  Ended with cherry pie filling dripping down the side of the countertop and down my front (reminder: ALWAYS wear aprons!).  Also not where it belonged was the pumpkin pie strewn across the floor and down my mom's front  Sitting on the countertop were two seperate bowls of cake batter, mixed but then untouched, and burnt cupcakes forgotten while cleaning up the pumpkin pie. On the up side, the apple pie was a hit at my FHE Pie Night after I decided to scratch the idea of continuing this cherpumple!
• Attempt #2 - Two weeks later and surrounded by friends for a hilarious night of grilled tri tip dinner and dessert.  My cherpumple came close to awesomeness, but ended in a presentation failure!  Sure tasted good, but the look left much to be desired...and a lot to be cleaned up. 
• Attempt #3 - Has not happened yet.  But, the list of those wanting to see the completed masterpiece is growing.  Before I know it, I'll have the whole ward waiting for the grandiose completion or the comedic destruction of my 'tri-pie' #3.

Documentation of my failure...

Parmesan Pea Risotto

Who knew risotto was so good?

I had it for the first time a few weeks ago and was determined to make it myself.
I found a great Weight Watchers recipe and put it to the test.

Risotto is a very slow cooking food, but totally worth it in the end!  

Creamy and delicious!

Cravings

Sometimes I crave this, and more...

Good thing my boss keeps these on his desk.

The key is only having 2

Downtown Farmer's Market

NEW for this week...

After my morning run today, I headed down to the Farmer's Market downtown at Pioneer Park with my roommates.  The Farmer's Market is held every Saturday morning, 8am-1pm, during the summer.  I've never been before, but am always curious and want to check it out.  So we did!

There is so much fun produce available, jewelry, clothing, music, flowers, and various food products, like honey and hummus. 

Everything at the farmer's market is locally grown and I think its all organic.  Today, the cherries were delicious! I couldn't help myself, I had to buy a small bag.

I also tried a sample of Fire Roasted Hummus.  It was surprisingly good!  I've never tasted hummus before.  What???  How is it that I've never eaten it?  Frankly, it looks gross so I just never tried it.  But, this one had so much flavor to it!  I'm sad I didn't purchase any.  I hear its good for you too. Maybe I'll go back next week and find the vendor again so I can buy some.

We walked around for about an hour in the sweltering heat before heading across the street to Bruges Waffles and Frites for delicious liege waffles.  If you haven't been there before, GO.  I've never had a better (and authentic) waffle!  In late August you can get it with peaches and fresh cream, then it tastes like peach cobbler almost! That's when it is my favorite, but its also amazing with strawberries.

It was a great morning!

RE: The Holiday 20

Recently, I read a post dreading the "holiday 20" lbs. Isn't it so true that if we're not careful, we WILL gain 20 lbs every holiday season? Well, I guess guys don't have the same difficulty, but seriously? Why?

Something I heard a couple weeks ago really stuck with me. We have two mental options this season. Will Power vs Choice Muscle.

Will Power implies we have it or we don't. So many of us don't. But our Choice Muscle? What is that? Its the ability to say NO to the extra cream puff, the ice cream that covers the apple crisp, and that last chocolate covered caramel. But every time we say no, our muscle is being worked and is getting stronger. May we all grow our Choice Muscles this winter! Let's beat that Holiday 20!