This week at the CR Jackson household. . . 1.0

What a week.  Upside: two free tickets to the Roughriders hockey game on Wednesday which meant an impromptu date with my permanent roommate.  We both enjoyed the mid-week break and the chance to do something fun for el-cheapo.  

@ the game!  We had AWESOME seats.

The rest of the week was down hill from there with over tiredness and work stress.  Ben picks me up after work each day and on Friday showed up with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers on the passenger seat.  They were a complete surprise and made me a little weepy.  Such a sweet husband, I have.

We went to happy hour with Johnna, Danny & Maelynn at the Irish Democrat where I indulged in a much wanted/needed key lime pie martini.  I always love spending time with that little family. :)

Ben and I did fairly well this week with maintaining a healthy diet and exercising.  Well, sort of.  We find that it is hard to balance social life with exercising.  Since we get home a little after 5 p.m. and we generally like to be in bed around 9 or 9:30 p.m. to read and unwind from the day, it is a bit of a crunch to try and fit in both the gym and an evening activity.  For example, we normally change to go to the gym, get there around 5:45 p.m. and leave about an hour later.  Then there is supper.  And if we were going to go somewhere we'd want to shower.  Then o poop, it's time we get in bed. . .  I refuse to sacrifice having a social life just to go to the gym, so we are working on figuring out a good balance.

Going along with all that jazz, I have also ordered a couple of books to start educating myself on nutrition so I can decide what is really best for me instead of following some guru's diet plan.  I'm looking forward to those arriving in the mail soon!  One is on health and nutrition, and the other is on essential oils.  I've read on other blogs about all of the homemade junk you can make using essential oils and other expensive crap, and I kind of want to give it a try.  It is better to go natural than continue to expose myself to all the chemicals in store bought things.  I.e. natural house cleaning products, hair products, etc.

To end this post, I will leave you with a couple of recipes that I used this week and L-O-V-E.  First is a smoothie that I threw together that satiated my "need" for something sweet AND it tastes like a Tootsie Pop. Awesome!  Second is a salad that I threw together because apples and avocados were on sale and I was in the mood for some greens.

Tootsie Pop Smoothie

You need:

Frozen mixed berries

Almond milk

OJ

1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder

4 or 5 ice cubes

1 T honey

To do:

Mix everything together in a blender or smoothie maker.  Serve right away. 

Apple &Avocado Salad (for 2 people)

You need:

1 Apple, diced

2 Avocados, diced

2 oven-baked chicken boobs

Spinach

Romaine Lettuce

Walnuts

Panera Bread Poppy Seed Fat-Free Salad Dressing

To do:

Toss spinach and lettuce together.  Grab what you want for your bowl.  Add all the other crap to your liking.  EAT!

NOTE:  Let's do a little comparison here just for fun. . .

Panera Poppy Seed Dressing:

2 T = 15 Calories, 0 from fat

0 g Fat

0 mg Cholesterol

150 mg Sodium

HyVee Buttermilk Ranch: 

2 T = 120 Calories, 110 from fat

12 g Fat; 2 g Saturated Fat

10mg Cholesterol

300mg Sodium

Peace out.

Taste of Fall

My mums are finally blooming!

Fall is my most favorite time of the year!  The weather is lovely, the colors are absolutely stunning and food just seems to taste better.  And of course you can't forget Hawkeye football!

I recently found a recipe via allrecipes.com that I tweaked a bit and had to share it!  It sounds a little weird to those of us who are steak and potato kind of folks, but by-golly it is damn delicious.  Best part? SO EASY!

Pumpkin & Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

2 T EVOO

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 C low-sodium beef stock

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, in juice

2-3 cans black beans, drained

2 cans (15 oz) pumpkin puree

1.5 C heavy cream

1 T curry powder

1.5 t ground cumin

1/2 t cayenne pepper

salt

Directions:

Heat a soup pot over medium heat.  Add oil and saute onions for five minutes.  Add broth, tomatoes, black beans and pumpkin puree.  Stir to combine ingredients and bring soup to a boil.  (Be careful - prone to splatter).  Reduce heat to medium low and stir in cream, curry, cumin, cayenne and salt, to taste.  Simmer five minutes and adjust seasonings as needed.  Serve and garnish with chives (if desired).

I used canned tomatoes from my mother-in-law's garden instead of canned.  The original recipe also only called for 1 can of black beans and that was not near enough in my opinion. I would say use 2 or 3 depending on how much you love fiber.  I served the soup with some homemade biscuits and it was a hit with my hubs. 

This soup is so hearty!  It is excellent reheated and I have received many inquires and compliments on it at work!  

My little lovebug turns 4

Grover: 'Why you make me wait?'

It is hard to believe my little nugget is another year older!  This makes 4 wonderful years of his existence. (May 10, 2009)  Since we are paying out the butt to get him home from Dubai, we did not get him extra treats or a new toy this year.  

BUT I couldn't just do nothing. . . So I baked my little Grovie a cake!

Grover: 'I go meow!'

He wasn't sure what to do with the big piece, so I made it into small pieces.

The PB made him thirsty.

Grover: 'Me want more, please!'

I was worried he wouldn't like it because he can be a picky little poop, but he ate it right up after I cut it for him!  

Here is the recipe I used:

Doggie Bday Cake

Ingredients:

1 egg

1/4 C peanut butter

1/4 C cooking oil

1 t vanilla extract

1/3 C honey

1 C shredded carrots

1 C flour

1 t banking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine first 5 ingredients in a medium sized bowl.  Stir in carrots and mix thoroughly.  Combine flour & baking soda & fold into carrot mixture.  Spoon batter into greased muffin pan.* Bake for 25-30 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.  Let cool for 10 minutes and spread thin layer of PB on top.

*I used a small casserole dish, but little muffins would be adorable!

Mulligatawny Soup - Seriously AMAZING

Found this recipe online, tweaked it a bit, and holy cow do we LOVE it! It is so easy and full of flavor! I was skeptical of the apple, but holy bajeezes it makes for a taste explosion!

 

I made this in about an hour and a half, but most of that time was spent doing something else and stopping by the pot to stir. 

 

Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 carrot, diced

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 T flour

3 t curry powder

4 cups chicken broth

1/2 apple, cored and chopped*

1/4 cup white rice

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts**

salt and black pepper to taste

1 pinch dried thyme

1/2 cup heavy cream, heated

Directions:

1.  Saute onions, celery, carrot and butter in a large soup pot.  Add flour and curry, and cook five more minutes.  Add chicken stock, mix well and bring to a boil.  Simmer about 1/2 hour.

 

2.  Add apple, rice, chicken, salt, pepper and thyme.  Simmer 15-20 minutes, or until rice is done. 

 

3.  When serving, add hot cream.


* I used a Granny Smith apple because that was what we had in the fridge.  Use what you choose!

 

** Chicken:  There were no specific instructions on how to prepare the chicken, so I cooked them in a fry pan with a bit of olive oil for a bit and then threw them in the oven.  The chicken was incredibly tender and juicy!

 

 

This is excellent reheated as well!  The flavor only seemed to increase.  I can say this with certainty becaue I am writing this post during my leftover soup lunch!  YUM. Also, I absolutely love having a chopper thing for veggies! The onions, celery and carrot were chopped and ready to go in no time!

 

Enjoy!

 

Taco Bake Deliciousness

I have recently perfected a delicious taco bake recipe that I must share with you!  It is SO tasty and crazy easy, yo!  It isn't exactly healthy, but most things delicious aren't. . . Just have a side of veggies to make you feel better about it! :)

 

 

Taco Bake:

 

You need:

 

1lb ground hamburger

2 pkgs taco seasoning (the cheese flavor is my fave - I've also used mild)

1 8oz pkg cream cheese

2 C water

Mexican shredded cheese

Penne pasta

 

To do:

 

Brown hamburger and drain grease. Add the 2 packages taco seasoning and stir until meat is coated.  Add 2 cups of water and the package of cream cheese.  Stir and heat until all ingredients are mixed well.

 

Cook pasta.  Drain and toss with 1 cup of Mexican shredded cheese.  Pour into medium sized casserole dish.  Spoon hamburger mixture over the noodles, covering completely.  Toss pasta so it is evenly coated in the mixture.  Evenly distribute the remaining shredded cheese on top.  Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Enjoy!

 

*I just eyeball it for how much pasta to use. 



 

 

 

 

Our 1st Thanksgiving as Husband & Wife

Friends Season 10 - The One With the Late Thanksgiving

We had two Thanksgivings this year.  The first was on the beach with some of Ben's, David's, Naomi's and Casey's friends from their masters class.  It was great to meet new people and they were all so welcoming and sweet.. Good people. :) They also loved and raved about my homemade biscuits so that won them all bonus points as well!

On Friday after Thanksgiving, Naomi and I prepared a Thanksgiving feast for our Dubai family. (Dubai family = Naomi, Casey, David, Ben & me).  We put a lot of last minute thought into what we wanted to do (probably should have started planning a bit earlier....) and everything turned out wonderfully. We got together around 9:30 a.m. to finalize our menu and went to Lulu's (grocery store) to pick up what we needed.  Naomi and I cooked our first turkey together with the help of conversations with our mothers and MIL's and the internet. The turkey was kosher so we didn't have to brine it which was nice.  We made Ben take out the innards because neither of us wanted to stick our hand in there. I cut up an onion to put inside and was throwing the pieces in until Ben came over and just shoved them all in. He he..... We forgot fresh rosemary, so we sprinkled some dried rosemary inside and on the outside of the turkey. We also melted some butter and poured over top of the turkey and then shoved it in the oven! Aside from turkey we also had stuffing, roast sweet potatoes (which were put in the microwave to be reheated and left until the next morning....oops.), homemade biscuits, turkey gravy, sweet potato pie, snow pie, [made by Ben/me], mashed potatoes [made by David], green bean casserole, corn casserole, cranberry sauce, apple crisp and a couple appetizers [made by Naomi/Casey]. We hosted supper at our place and ate 2 hours later than expected and then did dessert, homemade hot chocolate with Baileys and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation at the K's. It was really quite wonderful.

While we missed our family and friends, it was truly a great Thanksgiving!  It was a learning experience in having to cook everything ourselves, but it was a lot of fun to cook everything and prepare a large meal with my loving husband.  We work very well together in the kitchen and we really enjoy cooking together.  Part of the way through cooking Ben took over getting things in and out of the oven.  I tend to burn myself a lot and he doesn't.  I happily accepted his help.  We also learned how expensive it is to put together such a large meal and how much time and effort is put into getting everything ready.  At the end of the day both Ben and I were ready to just sit/lay down and relax.  My old lady body was aching and Ben said he was sore from everything as well.  Kudos to our mothers.  This experience was yet another thing that makes me marvel at how much of a rock star my mom is. 

Shopping for all of the food was a bit of a challenge here.  Naomi and I went to Geant and got some of the things we needed on Thursday.  On Friday morning we went to Choithrams, a British grocery store, and got the remainder of what we needed.  I was excited to find Cool Whip but disappointed that they didn't have Pillsbury frozen pie crusts.  Those taste almost as good as homemade crusts and are much easier.  Ben kind of scoffed at me for wanting pre-made pie crusts, giving me the, "Well my mom always makes her own...", bit.  (FYI - my mother-in-law is the queen of pies... SO good!).  I appointed him pie crust maker for our two pies and he quickly learned why I wanted to get the pre-made.  We didn't have much time to get everything done and I wanted to cheat and have those already done.  He did a great job.  The pie crusts were delicious, but I'm pretty sure he plans on never making a pie crust again unless absolutely necessary.  :)  He's more of a meal maker rather than a baker.  I'm the baker in this duo.

While we did our cooking we had Christmas music playing, the windows open and a candle burning.  We sang, danced around and really enjoyed ourselves.  I'm excited for future holidays and having fun together while preparing everything.  I'm also excited to host our families in our home in the future!

 

Banana/Brownie Wonderfulness

It is no secret that I love to bake.  That being said, I finally found the perfect banana bread recipe I must share and a quick and easy brownie that actually tastes good instead of tasting like chalk.  See the following:

Banana Bread:

You need:

4 large over ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 C melted butter
3/4 C sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 C flour

To do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix bananas and butter in large bowl.  Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla.  Sprinkle mixture with baking soda and mix in.  Add flour last.  Mix.  Pour mixture into buttered pan.  Bake for 50 mins - 1 hour.

*  I did not have a loaf pan so used our smallest casserole dish and I think that was part of the deliciousness.  It was more of a bar than a loaf of bread.  I also added almost a full bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Amazing.

Yummmmm!

Mug Brownies:

You need:

4 T flour
4 T sugar
2 T cocoa powder
2 T vegetable oil
2 T water
dash salt

To do:

Mix all ingredients in a microwavable mug.  Microwave for 1-2 minutes, depending on your microwave, and devour!

* Seriously delicious!  The ingredients as shown are good for sharing.  If you cut it in half it is perfect for one.  I like to add milk to mine.  Ben eats it plain and enjoys it.  These are dangerous - once you realize how tasty they are and how easy they are to make you're screwed. . .  You're welcome! :)

Dinner by Ben

Last night was my turn to make dinner. This is Ben speaking, making my premier on the B&L blog.

I really enjoy cooking. I was saying to Lyndsey last night as I was making the dish I prepared that one of my favorite things to do is put on Nat "King" Cole or Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra, grab a glass of wine (red or white doesn't matter to me) and go nuts in the kitchen. This is specific to cooking only. I'm not a baker...too much at stake at getting the exact amount of ingredients in the bowl to make it come out right. I like the freedom to throw stuff in that I think may help enhance the dish.

"This needs a little more kick? Let's add a pinch or two of cayenne pepper."

"This just needs more salt..."

There is a freedom that you get from cooking, while listening to the classic romantics sing about love and regret back in the day...

Smile though your heart is aching....

Defrost the chicken and prepare to cut it up, and get all of your veggies out and prepared. This of course takes the most time and this is where the wine comes in.

This is, of course, better when you're cooking for someone else. This has already proven to give me greater incentive to cook this year as opposed to last. I cooked a lot for myself, and followed this same pattern, but it just wasn't the same. Now, I occassionally hear Lyndsey's voice mixed in with my own, since we share a liking for this style of music, and it's nice to call out "Hey, would you like some wine?"

It's definitely not all lovey-dovey though. I just can't get enough of that big band sound. Take "Day In- Day Out" performed by Nat. Before the man even starts singing you just get the brass cry out "ba-bwaaaa" and you just can't help yourself, you've gotta dance along.

So, nothing finishes off this thing like good food, prepared and made to perfection by you. Yesterday's menu was "Curried Chicken with Rice".

Serving 4:
2 1/2 lbs. chicken breast
Olive oil
3 tsp. curry powder
1 jar chutney
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 lime, cut into wedges
1/8 cup chopped green onion, for topping
1/4 cup chopped peanuts.

Rinse chicken and cut to your preference (I cubed mine last night). In a large skillet heat oil until almost hot. Add the chicken (and watch yourself because the oil tends to jump up and bite you) and cook until done. Add curry powder, chutney and pepper. Simmer 30 minutes over medium low heat.

Cut lime into wedges, chop onions, and peanuts. Serve, adding lime, onions and peanuts as you wish as topping.

Put over rice and enjoy.

Notes:
- I substituted the red bell pepper with an orange bell pepper.
- Chutney is an interesting thing (I've never used it before) but its like a jelly like substance and is flavored. I chose the mango flavored and I got the smooth (you can get a chunky kind as well). This is also why I chose the orange pepper, because of the mango chutney, I thought it would be better together.
- I added the onions and peanuts to the mixture all together so the flavor would get mixed in, instead of as a topping and it worked out well.
- Next time I will add steamed broccoli to the mix, because that would make it just heavenly.

Now, I've had curried chicken (living in the Middle East, it's hard not to eat quite a bit of it) and this did not taste like curried chicken from my memory. This tasted more like Sweet and Sour Chicken but Lyndsey and I both agree it was delicious, and well worth it.

I hope you are all doing well, and that you enjoy!


Ben

Guac Talk

I have recently discovered that I like avocado.  This revelation comes after YEARS of hating it, although I don't think I had legit ever tasted it.  The first time I ever tried avocado was with sushi (it was also my first time of sushi).  The flavor which I disliked in the mix of things was what I now know to be wasabi.  I didn't put this together until trying avocado again this summer when Ben was eating a burger with a ton of guac on it and realized that crap is pretty good. 

To celebrate my new found liking of avocado (growing into love - I still can't get over the fact that I hated it for so long. . . ridiculous) I decided to make my own guac and it turned out superbly!  I definitely cheated - I simply mashed up an avocado and mixed it with salsa - but whatever!  It tastes friggin' delicious!  I highly recommend my incredibly complicated recipe to anyone who wants a quick chip dip.  I used one jar of salsa and one avocado.  Of course if you get a larger jar (mine was one of the medium sized - sorry, already threw it out so I can't check ounces) you're going to want to up the avocado.

Having successfully made my first batch of guac, I decided to take the pit and grow my own avocado tree.  Ben and I are in desperate need of plants in our apartment, so why not give it a try?  Unfortunately, after much searching, I was unable to find toothpicks to hold up the pit so I went with forks instead.  It is working quite well at the moment, but on our next grocery run toothpicks may be on the menu.  I am usually pretty good at killing plants, so my hopes are not high for this pit, BUT fingers crossed.

While Ben is at school working on getting his room in order and figuring out things for the year, I am working on the job hunt.  I have sent my resume to three different firms, although none of them listed any current availabilities.  One of the teachers Ben works with also got me in contact with an attorney in Dubai and I have emailed back and forth with him a bit hoping for a job opening.  He passed my resume onto HR, so here's hoping! Ben has five days until he starts school so I would very much like a job to fill my time and our bank account!

Another good thing about getting a job - aside from stimulating my mind and $ - is the potential to go through my employer for my Visa.  Yesterday Ben and I made a trip to talk with one of the women who makes the Visas happen at his school and she informed us that we need an attested copy of our marriage license.  It has to be attested by the U.S. AND by the U.A.E.  ALL the research I did when looking into being sponsored by Ben said we needed a certified copy of our marriage license - which we have and brought with us.  This is a new snag that we are working to figure out.  We will have to go to the U.S. Consulate and have them attest the marriage license, then go to the U.A.E. people who do their thing, then we can go back to this lady and have her send in our paperwork.  This may not seem like such a horrible process, except it takes 10 years to do one simple thing here.  What I just described is an all day, if not two day, excursion to complete JUST to obtain the attestations.  Oye.... So, needless to say, it would be a bit less of a headache to have a Visa through employment.  We'll see how the dice roll.

Domesticated

New duvet - yay!

Ben and I have continued to settle into our apartment. As mentioned previously, we made a trip to IKEA last week and picked up a couple of things.  While we have been trying to be very frugal, I am thrilled that we went ahead and purchased a duvet and side table for the bed/bedroom.  It has really made a difference in the room and makes it feel more warm and homey.  You can see a more full view in the picture below.  I really like that the windows in our apartment go all the way to the floor.  Grover enjoys it as well because he can easily see out and growl at everything - birds, people, his reflection, etc.


View of our room.

We have also done a bit to the bathroom in our room to make it a bit more attractive.  Last year when I came to visit Ben, there was only a clear plastic shower curtain that I wasn't exactly fond of.  The snob in me prefers the cloth shower liners with an attractive, decorative curtain for show.  Before leaving the States, I picked up a gender neutral shower curtain that just so happened to match the bathroom (unintentional).  With that up and a couple of shelve things under the sink for storage, I think the bathroom looks pretty good.  Unfortunately our shower leaks buckets of water allllllll over the floor every time we shower.  We have bathmats to soak up some of it for the time being and we are going to figure something out soon in the near future to get this problem to stop.

Another issue we have with the bathroom is the plumbing.  While it gets the job done, you can still SMELL stale pee and poo.  That may be TMI, but it is something we have been dealing with.  Yesterday we picked up a couple of those clip on toilet bowl cleaner things hoping that the scent from that would mask the disgustingness and it has for the most part.  I haven't really noticed it today and it leaves bubbles in the toilet after you flush.  Bubbles are always fun!

Stinky

Garlic bread

Prepare avgolemono

Ben and I have made Saturday our official "date night".  Last week we went to the marina and ate out and had juice.  This week we decided to grab groceries and cook something for ourselves and stay in.  I grabbed a cookbook off of the very, very high shelf in the kitchen and sat down to plan.  I love making soups, so true to form I chose a soup for us.  We made out our grocery list, went to the store, still grabbed a fresh juice, and headed home.  The soup we were getting ready to make is called avgolemono.  According to the cookbook it originated in Greece.  It is very easy to make and has a very rich and delicious flavor. 

I also grabbed a loaf of cheese bread at the store and made garlic bread with a very different recipe than I had ever used.  You simply crushed garlic and put it in the center of a piece of tin foil, drizzled some olive oil on it, sprinkled on sea salt, then placed the bread on top of that to cook in the oven.  The flavor was more in the bread rather than slathered on top of it.

The recipes for the soup and garlic bread are as follows:

Avgolemono

You  need:

1 1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp cornstarch
6 egg yolks
7 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cup rice
1/4 cup butter
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1/4 lemon juice (or to taste)
finely grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

To do:

Stir the milk and cornstarch together until smooth.  Beat in the egg yolks.  Set aside.  Bring the stock to boil in a large pot, and add the rice.  Cook, covered, over low heat until the rice is puffy and tender, about 25 minutes.  Remove the soup from heat, and add the milk and egg mixture very gradually, stirring constantly to prevent lumps forming.  Put the soup back on the burner and continue to cook for a moment, stirring, until it thickens.  Remove from the heat again and add the butter, chopped parsley, lemon juice and finely grated lemon zest.  Season to taste with salt and pepper, stir once more and serve immediately.  Serves 7-10.


Garlic Bread

You need:

1 head garlic
olive oil
sea salt
1 large loaf of good rustic bread

To do:



Finished product!








Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Crush the head of garlic and place it (skin and all) in the center of a large piece of aluminum foil (large enough to encase the loaf of bread).  Drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt.  Place the loaf on top of the garlic, fold the foil over to create a parcel and bake for about 5 minutes (long enough to allow the garlic flavors to permeate the bread).  Serve warm.  Serves 4-6.






Both of these recipes are from 500 Mediterranean Dishes by Valentina Sforza.  I have many more recipes from this cookbook that I would LOVE to try!!  While deciding on what we wanted for supper, we ran across a couple recipes that had ingredients such as rose water, that we hadn't ever used in cooking before.  When we came across things that were unheard of to us, we thought that if we could find them at the store then maybe we would make them.  We are both so used to doing grocery shopping in the US and not seeing these different ingredients unless you go to a specialty store, so we weren't holding our breath.  When we were at Geant, the grocery store, we were walking down one aisle and there Ben pointed out rose water!  Then it dawned on me - and this is total common sense I guess, but I still didn't think about it - we are getting recipes out of a cookbook based around dishes that would be common in this area.  DUH they are going to have the ingredients we would need at the grocery store....

Aside from getting settled and cooking, Ben and I are also getting out and seeing people as they return to the country.  We went with the K's to meet Sue and her daughter Zoe (2 years old) for lunch the other day and caught up with her.  The food was pretty good - I had a fruit plate with cottage cheese and coffee and Ben had a tuna sandwich and coffee - and the company was even better.  Zoe has gotten much bigger since I saw her last when I came for a visit in January.  She is adorable!  We also have had the K's over for dinner and games and went to the K's for the same. 

View from my lounge chair!

Ben and I have made it a point to go to the gym semi-regularly.  It has been difficult because of Ramadan (you aren't allowed to eat or drink in public, which means no water at the gym), but we have gone several times.  The main attraction for me is the pool!  It is very nice and cooled so that it isn't like stepping into a hot tub.  Ben and I have been working to improve our different strokes by swimming laps.  It is also an execellent source of exercise for the whole body, so that is a bonus!! 

We will keep you updated as more happens!