happy snackie time

so, last night i made myself something delightful!

1 banana, sliced into roughly1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup rolled oats (uncooked oatmeal)
chocolate syrup
ice cream

toss the banana pieces in the oats.  top ice cream with oat-y bananas.  top both with chocolate syrup.  nom.  nom. and nom some more.

eric and i have come to the conclusion that trader joe's dishwasher powder is the best stuff ever.  it works better than every other dishwasher liquid or powder we've tried in the 3 years we've been here.  of course, all are combined with lemi-shine since we've got crazy hard water, but all others still left spots or cloudiness.  no more, my friends, no more!  plus this stuff is 'green' so i don't have to worry about what kind of crap is on my daughter's bottles, bowls, and spoons, as well as out in the environment.  

trader joe's liquid laundry detergent is also fabulous.  it smells amazing, because of the lavender oil, and its rated very highly for use on cloth diapers.  w00t!  no expensive detergent for us, we got this all under control on the cheap!  we've become very good at that.  

now, i realize neither of those things are food, but both are bought in a food store, and both are used on things that in some form or another interact with food.  to make things matchy matchy though, i'll post about food, too.

TRADER JOE'S COOKIE BUTTER!  GO GET SOME!  NOW!!!!  

another round at trader joe's

well... we tried trader joe's polenta provencal.  it wasn't bad.  but i don't think i would buy it again.  the little polenta balls didn't really taste like anything,  and there wasn't nearly enough spinach.  the cream sauce was also a little strange.  all in all, not a waste, but not a repeat buy, either.

trader ming's spicy szechuan style beef & broccoli, however, is bangin'.  that i highly recommend.

what a twist!

tonight i write from my kitchen.  that's right.  lizzy is in the kitchen, and not just to get something from the fridge.

lizzy made dinner.

don't get scared, now, the house is still standing.

in the oven as we speak is ina garten's mac and cheese.  fancy, no?

i'm pretty sure i screwed up somewhere along the way, as the cheese sauce was not as cheesy as it was saucy with pieces of cheese in it, but i mixed it in with the pasta, and put more cheese on top before adding the tomatoes and breadcrumbs. (yes, i made them myself.  aw snap!)  hopefully it won't kill us.  better still, it might just taste good.

but i will have to get back to you on that one.

don jose

a friend of my mom and russell said don jose was their favorite mexican restaurant.  so, the other night, we decided to go there instead of driving all the way to tinga.  i had been there once before and was not impressed, but i thought perhaps it was worth a second try.

i was definitely underwhelmed.

everything was just... alright.  except the refried beans.  they were really tasty.  everything else just kind of fell flat.  my beef enchiladas were good, but lacking in flavor besides salt and cheese.  i expected the red sauce to taste like more.  eric got one of the platters, a chicken tamale, a chili relleno, and a cheese enchilada.  he liked the cheese enchilada the best out of the 3.  i tried a bite of the chicken tamale, it was better than my beef enchiladas.

in the end, we were full, but not satisfied.  next time, we will just make the trip to tinga.

lovey's pizza

i am a big fan of lovey's white pie with spinach.  it's a yummy thing.

(their plain pizza is also quite delicious, if you're not into the whole sauceless pizza thing.)

today's episode: tomatoes and challah

yes, i realize these things don't entirely go together.  but they are two of our recent purchases at trader joe's.

first lets start with the trader joe's whole peeled plum tomatoes with basil.  they fit the bill so far for puttanesca.  though, recently, we discovered something about canned tomatoes.  when you look for a brand of canned tomatoes, you want the ingredients list to read 'tomatoes, salt.'  unfortunately, trader joe's felt the need to add citric acid and calcium citrate.  this will be our only adventures with these tomatoes.  (the tutto rosso we usually buy also have citric acid in them.  my goal the next time we need tomatoes is find a brand that's just tomatoes and salt.)

our next new adventure in TJ's is the challah rolls.  they're quite lovely!  slightly sweet and soft, yet dense, with that nice shiney challah crust.  great for sandwiches, dinner rolls, buttered roll for breakfast, whatever you need. i highly recommend them.