Garlic Mushroom Couscous
Makes about 2 cups.
INGREDIENTS
1 Tbl. butter or olive oil
1 Tbl. minced garlic
2 medium shallots
1/4 cup chives
1/2 to 1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup chicken broth, reduced sodium
1 cup couscous
Header
|
||
|
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Garlic Mushroom Couscous Recipe
Garlic Mushroom Couscous
Makes about 2 cups.
INGREDIENTS
1 Tbl. butter or olive oil
1 Tbl. minced garlic
2 medium shallots
1/4 cup chives
1/2 to 1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup chicken broth, reduced sodium
1 cup couscous
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Healthier Traditions in 2012
New Year's has never been a big deal to me so it didn't seem that important of a date to change my life over by making shallow resolutions. My birthday, especially big ones, are great days to make goals for myself. However, now that I'm married and we have combined goals it makes more sense to set goals at the beginning of the year. This is the first year we've decided to set goals. Last year, our first year of marriage, was spent celebrating, redecorating, and generally getting used to each other's schedules. Now its time to get our married life organized.
Our first goal is to live a healthier lifestyle with more activity and more home cooked meals. We're starting breakfast with some great products I've discovered recently. Both my husband and I don't really eat breakfast during the week, something I've learned isn't that healthy as you should be eating more than 200 calories for breakfast. My husband's solution was LeanPockets but I've convinced him to have fruit smoothie and english muffin.
We discovered Orrowheat's Double Fiber English Muffins while visiting my in-laws. They are filling, give us the extra fiber, and taste a bit sweet because of the wheat just at 120 calories per muffin. A spray or two of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Spray give it a perfect hint of butter with just 1 calorie per spray.
A post-Christmas shopping trip to Bed Bath & Beyond led me to the Cuisinart SmartPower Compact Blender with 4 16oz travel cups and lids, chopper, and blender bowl. At $70, it's more expensive then other compact blenders on the market (like $20 ones at Target) but it has larger travel cups, more of them, and a trusted brand name. If you get it at Bed Bath & Beyond you can use a 20% off coupon and there is a $20 mail-in rebate making it about $40!
The blender is perfectly matched with Jamba Juice Smoothie Kits I found at Ralphs. For a 16oz smoothie at 120 calories, add 1 smoothie kit bag of frozen fruit and a cup of juice or milk in a travel cup and blend. It's that simple! If I can't finish the smoothie that morning, I save the travel cup in the fridge then add more frozen fruit to thicken it up the next morning. I also got a few Yoplait Smoothie mixes but I haven't tried them yet. Next thing I'm going to look for are smoothie boosts like Jamba Juice has in their shops to add protein to the morning smoothie mix.
All together that makes about 245 calories for a healthy breakfast of fruit and fiber!
Our first goal is to live a healthier lifestyle with more activity and more home cooked meals. We're starting breakfast with some great products I've discovered recently. Both my husband and I don't really eat breakfast during the week, something I've learned isn't that healthy as you should be eating more than 200 calories for breakfast. My husband's solution was LeanPockets but I've convinced him to have fruit smoothie and english muffin.
We discovered Orrowheat's Double Fiber English Muffins while visiting my in-laws. They are filling, give us the extra fiber, and taste a bit sweet because of the wheat just at 120 calories per muffin. A spray or two of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Spray give it a perfect hint of butter with just 1 calorie per spray.
 |
| Cuisinart Compact Blender |
The blender is perfectly matched with Jamba Juice Smoothie Kits I found at Ralphs. For a 16oz smoothie at 120 calories, add 1 smoothie kit bag of frozen fruit and a cup of juice or milk in a travel cup and blend. It's that simple! If I can't finish the smoothie that morning, I save the travel cup in the fridge then add more frozen fruit to thicken it up the next morning. I also got a few Yoplait Smoothie mixes but I haven't tried them yet. Next thing I'm going to look for are smoothie boosts like Jamba Juice has in their shops to add protein to the morning smoothie mix.
All together that makes about 245 calories for a healthy breakfast of fruit and fiber!
Monday, December 26, 2011
2011 Christmas Celebrations
Our Christmas Celebrations are always jam packed with activities, family and food! This year was no different.
Christmas Eve Afternoon
We spent the afternoon at my grandparent's for lunch and games. Grammy has the most beautiful china and always gets to set a lovely table. She also researches great games, puzzles, and trivia for us to play to bring back great childhood memories, learn more about the history of Christmas or just have fun. She served her famous Swedish Meatballs that take forever to cook and she hates them for months after serving them but they always are a huge hit with everyone!
Christmas Eve Night
We spent the evening after church at my parent's house. We enjoyed playing BuzzWord and snacking on a wonderful Bass spread of Christmas jello, clam dip, chips and dip, cheese and crackers. After the game we opened our yearly Christmas Pajamas and Ornaments.
Christmas Day
The morning each family spent at their individual homes unwrapping presents. The afternoon and evening were spent at my house for games and dinner.
Every Christmas Dinner I like to try a different recipe but always with lamb. This year was Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb with a Cabernet sauce served with Roasted Carrots, Mushrooms and Brussel Sprouts and Mashed Potatoes. My sister and I artistically plated each serving and provided extras family style for people to have seconds. After two years of rack of lamb its been decided we will try a different cut of lamb next year to spend less time getting to the meat ;) I still think two chops look the best and so elegant on a plate.
For our wedding we received a large trifle bowl as a present but it cracked in shipment. I returned it and decided to get 12 individual trifle bowls from Pier 1 instead. I love them for entertaining. I wanted to make a family favorite, Raspberry Trifle, but my husband doesn't like fruit deserts. He wanted chocolate. So I ended up making half Raspberry and half Chocolate. Not only do the deserts look delicious, they are much easier to make then they look and with Sugar Free or Fat Free options can be a nice lighter desert.
The best part of hosting a party is seeing all the empty plates and licked clean bowls of desert. We all enjoyed a round of Disney Apples to Apples, a Christmas present opened that morning, while moaning at how wonderful the meal and the entire day was.
Christmas Eve Afternoon
We spent the afternoon at my grandparent's for lunch and games. Grammy has the most beautiful china and always gets to set a lovely table. She also researches great games, puzzles, and trivia for us to play to bring back great childhood memories, learn more about the history of Christmas or just have fun. She served her famous Swedish Meatballs that take forever to cook and she hates them for months after serving them but they always are a huge hit with everyone!
 |
| Grammy's beautifully set table |
Christmas Eve Night
We spent the evening after church at my parent's house. We enjoyed playing BuzzWord and snacking on a wonderful Bass spread of Christmas jello, clam dip, chips and dip, cheese and crackers. After the game we opened our yearly Christmas Pajamas and Ornaments.
 |
| Jeanine's famous Christmas Jello |
Christmas Day
The morning each family spent at their individual homes unwrapping presents. The afternoon and evening were spent at my house for games and dinner.
Every Christmas Dinner I like to try a different recipe but always with lamb. This year was Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb with a Cabernet sauce served with Roasted Carrots, Mushrooms and Brussel Sprouts and Mashed Potatoes. My sister and I artistically plated each serving and provided extras family style for people to have seconds. After two years of rack of lamb its been decided we will try a different cut of lamb next year to spend less time getting to the meat ;) I still think two chops look the best and so elegant on a plate.
 |
| Table set for Christmas Dinner |
For our wedding we received a large trifle bowl as a present but it cracked in shipment. I returned it and decided to get 12 individual trifle bowls from Pier 1 instead. I love them for entertaining. I wanted to make a family favorite, Raspberry Trifle, but my husband doesn't like fruit deserts. He wanted chocolate. So I ended up making half Raspberry and half Chocolate. Not only do the deserts look delicious, they are much easier to make then they look and with Sugar Free or Fat Free options can be a nice lighter desert.
 |
| Raspberry Trifle and alternative Chocolate Trifle |
The best part of hosting a party is seeing all the empty plates and licked clean bowls of desert. We all enjoyed a round of Disney Apples to Apples, a Christmas present opened that morning, while moaning at how wonderful the meal and the entire day was.
 |
| Clean bowls and fun games! |
2011 Christmas Ornaments
Another tradition our family celebrates each Christmas Eve is opening our grandmother, Baba's, yearly ornaments. Each year she spends most of the holiday shopping seasons hunting for the perfect ornament to portray a special moment of the year or special significance.
This year's biggest hit was the Hallmark 2011 Peanuts Wireless musical boxes. They each have 2 songs that play and can link together wirelessly to compliment each other's songs. Check out the video to see how neat they are.
Baba confessed she held off wrapping them till the morning of Christmas eve because she was having too much fun playing with them herself! The family liked the 3 she gave to us (1 for my dad, 1 for my sister, and 1 for her boyfriend) but they might never be all in the same place again so Baba is going out after Christmas to buy sets for each household.
This year's biggest hit was the Hallmark 2011 Peanuts Wireless musical boxes. They each have 2 songs that play and can link together wirelessly to compliment each other's songs. Check out the video to see how neat they are.
Baba confessed she held off wrapping them till the morning of Christmas eve because she was having too much fun playing with them herself! The family liked the 3 she gave to us (1 for my dad, 1 for my sister, and 1 for her boyfriend) but they might never be all in the same place again so Baba is going out after Christmas to buy sets for each household.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Christmas Eve Pajamas
One of our biggest holiday traditions was started by my mother, Jeanine, in 1982. She made me my first Christmas Eve pajamas for my first Christmas. Since then she's been making the family PJs every Christmas.
At our family gathering Christmas Eve we open our Christmas PJs. We always know we'll get them but we never know what kind of flannel fabric mom picked out for all of us 4 kids and my dad. Usually she tries to choose holiday themed fabric, like snowflakes, or something of interest to us, like trains, butterflies, or camouflage. Children and adults get flannel PJ pants with matching shirts while babies get footed PJs.
As our family grew up, kids moved out, went to college, got married. and started their own families. In 2008, we were lucky enough to all be home for the holidays and took this Christmas Eve family portrait in our pajamas. This year mom started to add more PJs to her annual to-do list. This year she has made 10 for her husband, 4 children, 3 in-laws, and 2 grandchildren.
In 2009, I realized we all got Christmas Eve pajamas except my mother. She had worked so hard all those years making our pajamas but she never made one for herself. That didn't feel right to me so I started making her Christmas Eve pajamas. She preferred an old Simplicity nightgown pattern over the PJ pants (you can see the style in the family portrait). The first year I made her 2 Christmas themed nightgowns to make up for so many Christmas Eves that she went without. I spent a few hours this morning making her 2011 nightgown. My favorite part is embellishing it with lace, ruffles, ribbon and rick-rack. She doesn't usually go beyond the average for herself so I really like making her something super pretty for her Christmas Eve pajamas.
At our family gathering Christmas Eve we open our Christmas PJs. We always know we'll get them but we never know what kind of flannel fabric mom picked out for all of us 4 kids and my dad. Usually she tries to choose holiday themed fabric, like snowflakes, or something of interest to us, like trains, butterflies, or camouflage. Children and adults get flannel PJ pants with matching shirts while babies get footed PJs.
As our family grew up, kids moved out, went to college, got married. and started their own families. In 2008, we were lucky enough to all be home for the holidays and took this Christmas Eve family portrait in our pajamas. This year mom started to add more PJs to her annual to-do list. This year she has made 10 for her husband, 4 children, 3 in-laws, and 2 grandchildren.
In 2009, I realized we all got Christmas Eve pajamas except my mother. She had worked so hard all those years making our pajamas but she never made one for herself. That didn't feel right to me so I started making her Christmas Eve pajamas. She preferred an old Simplicity nightgown pattern over the PJ pants (you can see the style in the family portrait). The first year I made her 2 Christmas themed nightgowns to make up for so many Christmas Eves that she went without. I spent a few hours this morning making her 2011 nightgown. My favorite part is embellishing it with lace, ruffles, ribbon and rick-rack. She doesn't usually go beyond the average for herself so I really like making her something super pretty for her Christmas Eve pajamas.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Christmas Present Wrapping
The Christmas season doesn't officially start for us until my little sister and I have our traditional Starbucks and Gift Wrap Wonderland adventure. Every year we visit Metro Point in South Coast Plaza, grab a coffee or cider and walk around Container Store picking out wrapping paper. I decorate all generic gifts, that would go under our tree, with more classical paper accented with red, green and gold. I love Container Store's crinkled gold paper ribbon, it adds so much elegance to packages. I also use craft accent tags in Victorian designs.
Other gifts we wrap in person-specific paper. My little sister always gets to pick out her own, usually something pink and glittery. Then there is fun paper for my 5 nephews. This year I was super lucky to find the perfect Christmas Train wrapping paper for my Foamer dad at Container Store.
 |
| Cut items from expensive paper and use to decorate other packages. |
 | |
| Use tulle, available in wedding craft aisle, as ribbon. Tie a bow, then cut the loops and tails to make a snow ball. Cut items from paper and attach to marking tag to make matching tags. |
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Seasonal Decorating: Christmas!
Christmas is my favorite holiday! I love the warm fuzzy feeling you get when its cold out, you're all bundled up, holding hands with your loved ones while you hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. Decorating the house as we grew up was so much fun; turning the house into a winter wonderland!While this is the last post of our Seasonal Decorating blog series, the decorations were actually the first I made to celebrate our Christmas two months after I got married. I fell in love with Debbie Mum's 2010 Ornament fabric and used it as the basis for all our Christmas items.
As you've seen in our other Seasonal Decorations Love always plays a big role, so it had to be a big part of Christmas time too! Santa Claus has never been a big part of my family Christmas so choosing the Peace, Love, Joy theme was perfect for us. For Peace I used a dove icon, for Love a heart, and for Joy a star.
 |
| Mantle decorated with fabric trees, candles and hanging stockings. |
 |
| One of three handmade ornaments, the peace dove. |
 |
| Christmas pillowcases with Peace, Love and Joy and Ornament fabric. |
 |
| Our Love jars, pine cones, and cream and gold candles. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)