Yummy Things

Yesterday I decided we needed some snacks at our house being that we are woefully lacking.  I've made these No-Bake Chocolate Chip Granola Bars before and I always have trouble with them crumbling even with the changes noted on the recipe.  C'est la vie.  They are still good.  Now my husband loves the cheap Sunbelt chocolate chip granola bars. He thinks partly because they have coconut in them.  So this time I bought some shredded coconut and added about 1/4 cup of that along with the other dry ingredients. I also threw in a handful of chocolate chips (I use the mini-chips) into the dry ingredients. Doing this will make some of the chocolate melt. Not a problem for me but if you want to have chips then you might want to want til after you pour your hot liquid.  I added a handful of chips to the top of the granola bars and put it into an 8x8 pan. They still didn't stick like they are suppose to but are still delicious to eat. I also found out this morning that it is good to eat in a bowl with milk.

Chocolate Chip Granola

The other yummy thing I made was chocolate peanut butter popcorn.  This was very simple. I just melted about a 1/4 of cup of chocolate chips til smooth and then added a tablespoon of peanut butter to the chocolate then poured it over the popcorn. We have an air popper popcorn bowl so I made a 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels (about 5 cups of popcorn).  It was pretty good. I wish I'd added more peanut butter. Oh and we have some chocolate jimmys so I threw some in there as well. I wished I'd had marshmallows because then I would have made s'more popcorn. Maybe that will be on my list of things to try next.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn

Waffles

We got a waffle maker for Christmas last year. Well, technically we got a gift card that lead to us getting a waffle maker, but still. I love waffles and I was sad that we did not have a waffle maker. BT wanted to make chicken and waffles. You see where this is headed.

Anyway, I was on Pinterest (of course. Damn I love that site) and I saw Waffled Cinnamon Rolls. Bing! I also love cinnamon rolls. What a coincidence! My new waffle make and I were going to be best friends. Waffled cinnamon rolls are so easy and quick. I love them a lot. This has lead down a waffley and delicious road. I've tried muffin waffles which are a big hit at my house. Cookies did not turn out so well but I think that is because I used pre-made cookies. I would not recommend this. Brownie batter worked out much better though I need to thin it out a little more.

Triple Berry muffin waffles

The other day I tried biscuits and they were delicious. The first time I used Grands Flaky and dipped them in cinnamon sugar. The second time I used regular Grands biscuits and sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on top. I like how the flaky biscuits turned out but with the sprinkling rather than the dipping. I froze them and they are great heated up in the microwave in the morning.

Biscuit waffles

I've learned that pretty much all you need is a batter and it will cook in the waffle maker. I've yet to try cake batter in the waffle maker but guess what is next up in my waffle experimentation. I think you can guess.

Feeding myself

I'm not good at feeding myself or my child for that matter.  And by that I mean that when it comes to cooking for us, I do a poor job.  For a long time, my husband feed us every night.  He likes to cook and is great at it.  But he has a new job and isn't there to feed us half the time.  So it's up to me.  We eat a lot of ready-made food.  Not great but then not as bad as fast food.  Frozen dinners and mac and cheese and we go to my mom's at least once during the week (not for the food but she will give us things to eat).  Today I've been trying to figure out what's for supper.  This is hard though and I am starving right now.  I'm always hungry these days so going to the store is not pretty.   Anyway, I will persevere and we will eat something by the end of the day.  I just don't know what.

Dat's good, yeah

So it's been cold down here and that inspires some warm food.  Last Thursday my husband made a gumbo, Saturday we had boiled shrimp with potatoes and sausage.  And Sunday we had red beans and rice with cornbread.  These are all traditional Cajun foods and I love 'em.  Now BT is from the North, specifically Massachusetts, but that boy can cook, yeah and he makes some fine Cajun food despite being a Yankee.

So he learned to make his own roux, which is the base for gumbo and some other Louisiana dishes and he takes pride in the fact that he makes his own roux.  He has also learned to save the ham bone for his red beans and rice so that in addition to the sausage, it adds some nice ham meat.  Mmmm, c'est bon.

HSM3 & New Orleans

Among all the other things I did, I saw High School Musical 3 this weekend. First of all, though, I went to New Orleans with my husband to celebrate our anniversary. Except that Thursday I started sneezing and couldn't stop and woke up on Friday like crazy sick. I brought Bubs to daycare even though driving wasn't the best idea I but he needed to get there and then went home and rested. We had a nice time but it wasn't what either one of us had in mind. We had dinner at the Palace Cafe and it was excellent but I could only taste like half of the food b/c my nose was so stuffed up. Then I offered to go to Bourbon and walk around but thank God BT took pity on me and said to just go to sleep which I was practically doing anyway. The next day we had breakfast at Cafe du Monde and I got to hear people mispronounce the easiest words that we have here in Louisiana, like Baton Rouge or Monde. For some reason, the hilariousity of how people pronounce our words is never lost on me. BTW, Cafe du Monde must use, like, a box of powdered sugar on each order of beignets.

So Sunday, feeling much better, I went to see High School Musical 3. I enjoyed it but I would have enjoyed in more in the comfort of my home more. The songs didn't fit into the movie as easily as they did in the first one and, to some degree, the second. It was a cute story and everything worked like it was suppose to, of course. One of the girls that was with me asked if Ryan and Kelsey were dating now and I said no, they were just going to prom together b/c frankly Ryan is the gayest thing on that show, except for Troy's dancing, and I know that it's Disney but he (Ryan) is seriously gay and that's okay but let's not pretend otherwise. Also why was Troy giving a speech at graduation. There is no local reason for that. At least he wasn't wearing man capris b/c that and the dancing *head shake*


Also the little British chick can't sing and if they think they are building a franchise around her and the annoying surfer-hiphop-basketball guy than they have another thing coming. Because, at least Troy and Gabriella are likeable unlike these two idiots.

Also the fact that Martha, the bigger smart chick, is valedictorian and the head cheerleader and the best dancer is totally the best. See that's a lesson that we can take home without being beaten over the head with it. I think Martha personifies the whole point of these movies and she doesn't even sing about it. Okay, there was that one time, but still.