Recipes

Today I made some really yummy new recipes, so I thought I would share!

The first is a recipe for "Baked Southwest Sandwiches" from my friend, Louise.

Baked Southwest Sandwiches
1 Can chopped black olives, drained
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup low fat mayonaise
1/3 cup fat free sour cream
1/3 cup chopped green onions
8 slices Italian bread (or hamburger buns)
3/4-1lb thinly sliced turkey
2 medium tomatos, thinly sliced
2 ripe avocados, sliced
3/4 cup shredded mozarella cheese
3/4 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese

In a bowl, combine olives, chili powder, cumin and salt; set aside 2 tablespoons. Add the mayonnaise, sour cream and onion to the remaining olive mixture. Place bread on an ungreased baking sheet; spread 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise mixture on each slice. Top with turkey and tomatoes. Spread with another tablespoon of mayonnaise mixture; top with avocados and cheeses. Sprinkle with reserved olive mixture. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 8 servings






Almost No Fat Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 egg whites
1 cup banana, mashed
1/3 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add egg whites, bananas, applesauce, vanilla, almond extract and salt; stir just until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean. Turn out onto wire rack and allow to cool before slicing.

Snolls

So I made calzones tonight for supper, they turned out great except for the chicken. We bought a bag of cheapo frozen chicken breasts and EVERY (if only you knew the force with which I typed those letters...) time I eat them I get some nasty piece of gristle. I have a friend that calls them "snolls" and I think it's the perfect term to describe them. Anyway, just a random post to say that I think I'll go ahead and "invest" the extra money in the "snoll-free" chicken.

We can't delete pictures!

I was looking through Picasa today (we use it to keep track of all our pictures), and realized how rediculously many (nearly) duplicate pictures we hang on to. They're all so cute though, how could you bring yourself to delete one?

We had a great Valentines day! Ben took Atalie out for a "Daddy Daughter Date" and she was very excited about it. :) He took her to a toy store, and showed her all sorts of fun things... then he took her to the carwash! :) With all the ice we've been having the car was really needing to be cleaned and Atalie loved all of the different noises and colors. :) Too cute. He came home with flowers for both of us-- pink for Atalie and a red rose for me.

This sweet little outfit was given to Lisa from Grandpa Dahlke -- in hopes of a little girl. :) Lisa passed it down to us for Atalie and it's just too precious. Thank you so much. It's such a treasure, and so special for Ben to see his daughter in something worn by his birth mother.

Ice Storm part II

Day three, and the sun finally made an appearance. Yesterday was more snow, sleet, and ice - I finally decided to use a hammer on the car to break the ice off - it worked! We think it was coated all around with about a 3/4" thick sheet. Anyway this morning seeing the sun I knew this was my chance to get outside and get good pictures, and I'm glad I did, because as I'm writing this most of the good photo ops have melted off.


This little bird visited our balcony yesterday. We have a bird feeder set up and he's our first visitor.




We took a trip down to Branson this morning. When we got back, all of this ice was gone.


When we tried to move the car, we heard a terrible scraping sound underneath. I pulled this solid ice boulder out from under the front bumper!
Atalie loves snoozing on car rides, she didn't even notice the hat.

The Ice Storm cometh

It's here, the craziest weather of all ... the annual ice storm. Last year I didn't think I would ever see so much ice, covering everything. But it's back and better than ever, on everything you can imagine. Even blades of grass get a nice coating. I tried to get in the car at about noon to make a supply run to walmart. Using the business end of a spatula I fought past the layer covering the door handle, and with a few good tugs I was in. At this point I realized the extent of the ice problem - 0% visibility. All windows covered ... luckily I keep my handy ice scraper in here, right? It might as well have been a toothpick. After 20 minutes of scraping, here are the glorious results:

Oh yeah, and my ice scraper broke. So I guess we're walking for a while. :)

Moody weather

So yesterday morning we woke up (under 3 layers of blankets), and the house was blazing hot. Inexplicably we had a hot summer day - complete with humidity, sunshine, and warm breeze. We had to crank on the a/c in the car for the first time in months, and also got to leave the jackets at home. We even discovered what Atalie looks like without socks on! :) Well, this morning we were treated to an icy wind when we stepped outside. Throwing on our light jackets, we didn't realize the full extent of the cold until we reached our completely iced over car. With all our mightiest tugging, we only managed to get one of the four doors open (the back passenger). After scraping the windows in a few key places, in I went, scrambling over the middle console into the driver's seat. Gina, seeing my maneuvers decided to stay next to the baby in the back. Just a little unexpected to go from 75 to 20 in one day.

Anyway just to keep up with the tradition of posting Atalie pictures all over the place, (why stop now?) here's a new one.

And I can't resist posting this one.