Hummus time!

I bought the red pepper hummus from Whole Foods last month. It was the first time I had ever tried it. It was delish!  So after looking at various different recipes on the internet, here is my take on it.

I used:

·         Garbanzo Beans

·         White Beans

·         Organic Sesame Seeds

·         Olive Oil

·         Salt and Pepper



Both sets of beans were washed and ready to be thrown together.

Yummy goodness.

In the fridge it went.  Two cans sure made a lot!

For breakfast I made the usual.

And as usual it did not disappoint. It is super filling and carries me to lunch without a problem. Love it!

Is that a stick in my drink?

When’s the last time you had some cinnamon in your water?  Well, I think it’s about time.  Nothing like a cold winter day to enjoy a warm cup of it!

 You will need:

• Water
• 3-4 cinnamon sticks
• Milk
• Sweetner - I love agave but you can also use honey or sweet condensed milk.

And your FAVORITE cup!

Simply, fill your pot halfway with regular H2O. Bring it to a boil and add 3-4 cinnamon sticks into it.  The water will soon turn into a dark reddish tone and your house will smell soooo good! Let it boil for 15-20 minutes.

Fill your cup up with the cinnamon water.  

Add milk.

Sweeten it!

And enjoy! So good!

Tofu Time!

Lunch time came around much too quickly for this household. We ate breakfast and headed out, we officially become mall walkers!!! yay!  It was as though we owned the mall!! Along with the other walkers of course! For the first time EVER we had the whole kids playground to ourselves!! She could actually move around for a change! We stopped for a music notebook at Music & Arts were I saw the exact same piano for $1400.00 WOW, I got a great deal!!!

We were ready for lunch after putting the baby down for her morning nap.  I had never prepared tofu before. It was super super easy and it takes so good.

I cut the tofu block into 8 slices and placed them inside a few napkins with the cutting board and two gallons of water to take the extra water out.

                               I stacked them and cut them down into little 1 inch cubes.

They went into the hot pan that was sprinkled with olive oil. I waited 5-8 minutes until the bottom side was nice and brown. I then turned them over.

              Sprinkled some salt and pepper. And waited for the other side to brown nicely.

Ta-da!!!! So easy to make and it was great with the salad.

What's for lunch?

Tomorrow's lunch is ready! It was one of those evenings that we ran around shopping after going out for dinner. I was in no mood to cook anything for tomorrow. But I forced myself off the computer and into the kitchen.  For lunch I will be having Tilapia seasoned with a little pepper on a bed of collard greens.

I sauteed garlic, added the greens and waited for the wilting to begin. Delish! Simple but good.

For snacks I am taking a cheese stick and some of these buddies. Yummy!

Via Colori!

Today was the Via Colori street painting festival in downtown.  It was AMAZING!!!!

Wow!

Organization!

For me, I like seeing everything that I have right away.  I started to make this happen with this pantry idea. Take regular 2X4's, spray paint them, stack them and ta-da! Instant organization! No tools required, the board were cut at Home Depot for me! No more guessing at what is hiding in there!

 My love of labels knows no end! My daughter's kitchen area was starting to get chaotic. I found these baskets in the back to school aisle at Walmart. Now everything is in its place and easy to locate.  We love these small glass bowls to heat up her food in the microwave, no BPA for us!

Taking it a step further, I got inspired to make more bows.  A semi-forced inspiration since most of my daughters bows are somehow missing!!!

I looked in the craft bin and found this mess!

But thanks to these handy plastic bands, I was able to give this drawer a makeover!!!

Its much better now!

What are your organization musts?

To market, to market!

The farmers market goodies are organic mangos and flavored goat cheese. I learned that my Cabrietta cheese would not be available until Jan or Feb! Gasp! I can make, I can make it....I think.

My daughter is a lover of hot cereal and fruit in the mornings! It's her favorite. It's filling and healthy so no biggie. But in trying to introduce new food. I will give her french toast tomorrow morning.

I took the following items. Bread, cinnamon, salt, egg and honey.

Wisked together and cut the bread into little "sticks".

Into the heated butter they went.

And out the delicious sticks came out. I hope she likes them. For the recipe please go to http://www.weelicious.com/ the best source for kiddie recipes.

Yummy Goodness!

Breakfast
This is so quick and easy that I am finding myself making it almost everyother day.

Spinach with onions go into the pan with egg.

In an effort to use something other than bread, meet my new friends.

Ta-da! Oh yeah, some cheese made its way in there! Gooey goodness

Lunch

Again the wraps made their way into lunch. Chicken with salad lettuce with a few black beans sprinkled in. That the only thing with being a small family and really the only one to eat some of these things I buy. I find myself making alot of repeats throughout the week in an effort to not let things go to waste.

And lunch was ready for work.

The weather is really changing. I cannot wait to eat oatmeal. I LOVE oatmeal. I love all the stuff you can put inside of it. Crunchy nuts, almond butter, honey, yyyyyuuuuuummmmmm. I think next week we will start. I am also debating on whether I should be making this oatmeal at work. I find myself taking the egg with me and eating it on my drive it. Impossible to do with oatmeal, so perhaps I should just have it at work. Besides I am the only one on my floor for at least an hour and half. What's the harm. We will see.

Updates Updates!

Lunch
Wrap with chicken breast, mushrooms, lettuce. Side of guacamole. Chili with crackers. And the never to be missing, cucumber water. This was so filling!



Dinner
Oven baked breaded chicken breast. Side of guacamole, black beans and canned corn with mayo and parmesean cheese. How I wish the corn would have been roasted, takes me back to my visits to Mexico.



Weekend Update.

This weekend was so great! We started Saturday with a walk to the grocery store to pick up a few things missing for lunch. Then we continued the walk towards the park. She loved it. She loved pointing out at the birds and she ran after all the dogs she saw at the park.

We visited the Highland Village Farmers Market and the Urban Harvest Eastside Farmers market! The farmers market bug bit us hard! We were on a mission. And now I am addicted to:

Cabrietta goat cheese, yummy. I have spread it on bread, as a side to my salads, with breakfast eggs and straight from the container. YUMMY. I must have more!!! We arrived two hours after opening time at the Highland market and still found alot of parking. So convenient and everyone was so friendly and informative! The setup was great and ample for me to navigate with the stroller.

The eastside market was a little chaotic. A wider selection of goods and veggies. I noticed that the same indian food and goat cheese vendors were there. There was alot more veggies and alot more energy. Serious shoppers rolling their ice chests behind them. Now that is dedicated! I might just have to copy them since I had to bring my eggs in a plastic bag with ice cubs. There was a mobile food truck, a juice bar, and more spices and flowers. It was nice to have such a greater selection but I prefer the quietness of the Highland market.

I bought 4 cucumbers for my water, organic mango snacks, water spinach and eggs.

How is that for authentic?

We had such a great time sampling so much food and buying our goodies. The chicken samosas were devine! I will definately get some this weekend. Since the weather here in Houston is cool, it is perfect for making the farmers market "our thing" to do on Saturday mornings.

Last night I prep'd these Turkey Pesto Meatballs, they are awesome. Since I have lots of leftover pesto I will make some more and freeze them. Its relatively simple to put together, simply get the turkey, add breadcrumbs, basil and cheese. Mix it all together and form balls, that's it.

You can see the prep'd meatballs in the picture below. I prep'd some veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper. We put it in the oven the next day for 30 minutes and they were delish!

Breakfast on the go. Mornings are usually very hectic, since the snooze button is my best friend. So I premake breakfast so that I can just heat and go. Here we have one egg, handfull of spinach, diced onions and diced green bell peppers.

One of my co-worker's last day is tomorrow. We all headed out to Luby's for lunch. Livers and onions, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. I usually always drink water with lemon when I go out. A big change from my used to be usual Dr. Pepper. But I cannot resist the sweet tea of Luby's. I am addicted.

Dinner- Turkey Pesto Meatballs with a side salad and yes, again with no dressing.

And of course, there was alot of water with cucumber @ the office. This was taken with my phone, please excuse the brightness, it is not that bright in my office.

And lastly, while running errands after putting the baby to sleep, i found these pretty big tote bags at the Dollar Store her in Sugar Land off of Hwy 6. I hope they turn out to be semi-reliable. Hubby is going to school on weekends to get a real estate license. So that means it will be a girls weekend from now on for a while. I am already planning what to do and that includes finally making it around to visiting the farmers market in Houston. The drive in with the baby was always intimidating before, but now that we are really starting to put together alot of healthier recipes that include more produce than I had ever imagined to be using per week. I want to support our local farmers, I hope I find some that are organic, but either way I want food that is locally grown. These bags are perfect for the farmers market. I bought two extra ones for my co-workers who have agreed to go with me.

Thank God, for leftovers! No cooking tonight, wait there is breakfast, off I go.