Last year I found the best Pumpkin bread recipe. It was supposed to taste just like the Pumpkin loaf sold at Starbucks, and it did. It is wonderful. I made it last year and again this year. You can find the recipe here.
I took several pieces to Jazzercise this morning to give away and it was a big hit.
A new food for you to try: Amaranth. It is a grain that is extremely high in fiber and protein. One of my friends eats it every morning for breakfast in class and it always smells so good, so I asked her how to make it. First off, I had to go to Whole Foods and buy 1 cup of Amaranth grain. It wasn’t expensive at all. To cook Amaranth. Boil 1 cup of Amaranth with 2.5 cups of water and several shakes of cinnamon for 18 mins and then let sit in the pan. The Amaranth will absorb all of the water, so you will end up with more than three cups of Amaranth. Usually I let the Amaranth cool, then I put it into a large container to use throughout the week. To warm up for breakfast: I scoop out three large spoonfuls, add one large spoonful of Organic Almond Butter, and one cut up banana. Oh my goodness, it is so good. It has 14grams of Fiber, 15 grams of protein, and no sugar except for the natural sugar of the banana. My husband eats this up. We both really like it.
While in Branson, MO, this weekend we went to Silver Dollar City. We had so much fun. If you haven’t been to Silver Dollar City in a while, you need to go back soon. They just opened up a Culinary Craft School. It is amazing but you have to pay $10 extra to book a spot. It is basically a cooking show where everyone gets to taste the final product. Despite the fact that I only went home with two new recipes, I will definitely take another class at the Culinary Craft School. It was fun to sit in a brand new gourmet kitchen and watch food be made.
One of the recipes that was demonstrated while we were there was this Apple Salad. I have made it TWICE since getting back.
Ingredients:
7-8 apples (I used Gala)
1 can crushed pineapple
1/3 bag small marshmallows
Nuts (I like Walnuts)
*optional* cut up orange slices
1 cup fat free half and half, give or take
small container of light cool whip
Directions:
Drain can of pineapple into large bowl and fill the bowl up half way with water.
Cut up all the apples in to small pieces and place in bowl with pineapple juice.
In another large bowl, whip up cool whip, crushed pineapple, and half and half.
Stir in nuts and orange slices.
Add apple pieces, stir, and store in fridge for up to a week.
Notes:
The orange slices make this salad really sweet. I would prefer the salad without them, but my husband likes them added. The teacher at the culinary craft school said that she adds different types of candy depending on the holiday. Orange slices are good for Halloween, etc…
Every once in a while I get a hankering for Thai food. Why? Who knows…considering I am a farm girl from Kansas. Anyway, when this rare craving gets the best of me, I make my husband take me to Lanna Thai on Memorial and 71st. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but the inside is large and nice. It is cleaner than most Asia eateries and boasts live music on weekends. We have never been for the music, but I have heard that it is good. Usually I order fried rice but this time I ordered Pad Thai. It was wonderful. The portions are huge, the food is great, the service is good, and the bathrooms are always clean (at least when I have been there). What more could one want??
Last night at Walmart I was picking up a few items including cantaloupe and honeydew when I spotted something I had never seen before. It was beside the cantaloupe and honeydew melons and was labeled as a Juan Canary Melon. It was a bright yellow melon that was larger than both the honeydew melons and the cantaloupe that surrounded it.
forums.gardenweb.com
Always ready to try something new, I plopped it in my cart. At home I cut the melon open exactly like a honeydew. To my delight the melon smelled amazing. It smelled very sweet like a ripe cantaloupe but the coloring looked more like a honeydew. I cut it up and tasted it…I must have gotten one that was the perfect ripeness because it smelled delicious and was very very tasty.
What have you tried recently that you have never tried before??
After going through our finances two too many times and finding our “Snack” category in excess of $200/month on Quicken, I set out to do something about it. Any type of coffee drink, soda type drink, or food snacks are categorized as “Snacks” in our budget. The majority of our “snacks” were non-fat mochas and Frappuccinos at Starbucks. I am not proud of this at all!! Anyway, I talked to my husband about it and he agreed that this was not an acceptable way to spend our money so we needed to make some adjustments. I said I could do without Starbucks, but the hubby said he didn’t want to give it up completely. SO ~ I started researching espresso machines. After my research we decided to buy at Starbucks Sirena Espresso Machine.
As you can see this is a very nice looking machine. That is probably due to the fact that it was designed by BMW. A whole website is devoted to the consumer use of the machine. After getting the machine home, taking it out of the package, and setting it up, I realized that the dang thing didn’t work. So, I had to take it back to Starbucks. By this time, I didn’t know if I even wanted another espresso machine. But then I thought about my husband and decided I better go ahead and get another one. So, I traded the Sirena for a Via Venezia (below) both made by Saeco. After using my new Via Venezia with ease for the past couple of months, I can honestly say that it has already paid for itself. Our “Snack” category is almost a ghost category now and the lattes we are making at home are better than those from Starbucks. AND best of all, we don’t have to drive anywhere to get one.
Here is how I make a shot of espresso:
To Make a Latte simply follow the instructions above, steam your milk with the steam wand, and add the syrups you like to sweeten. We like to dink plain lattes with no sweetener.
Cleaning the Via Venezia is a snap once you have done it 5-10 times! 
**I wrote this blog before we had some friends over for supper the other night. My husband decided to make some espresso and asked our guests if they would like to taste it. They said sure. Everything that could possible go wrong went wrong for us as we tried to make espresso that night. Our friends probably think we are crazy espresso makers! hahaha….By the time we were down the trash was FULL of paper towels used to wipe of coffee and milk, there was mocha powder all over the floor and counter top, we had dirtied 4+ glasses, and I had espresso spilled on my shirt….on my chest if you know what I mean. Still, don’t be alarmed. If you drink a lot of espresso drinks and find yourself driving to Starbucks 3-4 times per week defintely consider buying an espresso machine for your home.
I don?t typically write reviews on large franchise eateries, BUT I have to share Firehouse Subs with you. It is my second favorite place to eat in Tulsa. The Tulsa location is at 66th and Memorial Drive in the same building as the new Gold?s Gym. I have heard that the franchise owner of this location plans on opening 3-4 more stores in the Tulsa area. Some friends of ours wanted to take us to Firehouse during their grand opening. Before that, I had never eaten at or even heard of Firehouse Subs.
First off, the sandwiches are amazing. The Engine Company Sub is my favorite. On the rare occasions that I am watching my calories, I order it without mayo or cheese. Usually, I just order it without mayo, but it is great with the mayo as well. Firehousesubs.com is easy to navigate and find nutritional information if you are curious. My husband always orders the steak sub.
We have been in the store 6-7 times and the place is always very clean. I have been in the bathroom several times and it has always been very clean and well stocked. When we have been there, the employees looked clean and well groomed. Also, the employees are always super friendly and efficient.
If you are a condiment fanatic then listen up. Firehouse Subs has a ton of different hot sauces to put on your sandwich. There are probably 20 different sauces to try. They have everything from super super hot to their own signature sauce which is not hot just tangy.
The next time you are headed to your dirty, unfriendly, neighborhood Subway, turn your vehicle around and head to 71st and Memorial for a truly tasty sub in a clean and friendly environment.
If you will remember I made spelt bread not very long ago. Well I found out that Great Harvest sells spelt bread so I went in with my mom this week to try it. The verdict: mine is way better. Mine is probably not as good for you as I use sugar and they don’t, but mine is way better.
Today I got hungry for some fresh bread – more specifically Great Harvest bread. If you have not been to Great Harvest Bread Company in Tulsa and you like fresh bread, you are missing out. They mill their flour every morning and use all whole wheat flour. Anyway, I had a buy one get one free coupon and was so excited to get some fresh bread. Before I went I made sure that they would be open since it is a holiday weekend. The website said the store would be open on Saturday. Well, when I got there they were closed. I was so bummed, so I went home and decided to make my own homemade bread. My mom gave me some organic whole spelt flour a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to make organic whole spelt bread. I didn’t have a recipe for spelt bread so I used my recipe for white bread. So, it was all kind of an experiment. After making the dough, I decided to taste it . Yes, I always taste my bread dough which is probably weird and not healthy but what the heck. Anyway, it was soooo good. It had a great flavor and a very similar texture to my regular white bread. It baked very nice and it tasted wonderful. I made two loaves and one pan of cinnamon rolls.
Spelt flour is supposed to be better for you. It is typically organic because it has a short growing cycle and doesn’t usually need to be sprayed for bugs or weeds. It is supposed to contain more vitamins, fiber, and protein than regular white flour and also whole-wheat flour. I used whole spelt flour, but my mom said she usually uses white spelt flour. Yesterday she made bread out of white spelt flour and my brother thought it was Sara Lee. lol
I would have taken pictures, but my poor camera is in Kansas. Last summer I left my camera in San Antonio -Ryan was NOT happy (It was actually his expensive camera he had before we were married). This summer I left our new expensive camera at my mom’s house -Ryan was not happy. Luckily, we will get it back this summer. Then when I was making the bread today I tried to move our espresso machine with the shot glasses on it to another counter….not good. One of the espresso shot glasses fell and broke into a million pieces. Sophie was on the situation ASAP unfortunately. No she didn’t eat any, but she did want to help pick up. After I swept the floor twice she went right over to two pieces I missed and looked at me, so I swept again and once again -Ryan was not happy. Feeling like a failure of a wife, I finished with the bread. When I pulled the beautiful loaves of organic spelt flour bread out of the oven and my kitchen was filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread -Ryan was very happy.
So, if you all would like to know why I have this recent interest in going organic here it is:
I must warn you — it is very hard to watch.
I don’t even know how I found this video. One night I was just surfing around on different blogs and found this. After watching it, I told Ryan he needed to watch it. He dragged his feet (very busy- as always ), but I got him to watch it. He was repulsed as well. After watching the video clip, I began thinking about the foods that Ryan and I eat the most of. Chicken was among our top five food choices. Even though this video was made about Kentucky Fried Chicken farms, all other large chicken farms are most likely very similar.
