Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween- Hatzis style 2011

Man, did I ever struggle with thinking of Halloween outfits this year for the kids. Throwing a third kid into the mix made things a bit more difficult, since it's so much easier to think of famous pairs to dress the kids up as. Remember these two adorable things from a few years ago?
I think it's gonna be hard to ever top those costumes. So I thought long and hard about what I could dress all three kids up (and still have Conner and Elizabeth somewhat excited to wear the costumes). My first idea was going to be Hansel, Gretel, and the Gingerbread Man. 
See, how cute Nolan would have been as a gingerbread man! Turns out though, the only Gretel costumes that are sold are the sexy Gretel that we all know and love from this classic children's story. Strike one. I then gave up on trying to dress up the kids as one theme and decided to let Elizabeth go as Madeline, because she really was destined to be a French little girl (minus the orphanage).

As for Conner and Nolan, dressing them up as Batman and Robin was the final call. And even though Conner didn't know who Batman was, he was more than excited to see the big muscles on his costume. And we did show him a movie about Batman and when he told his class at school why he chose to dress as Batman he said, "Batman saves the good people from the bad people". Aww, sweet boy looking out for those who are good. 
And just look at those two staring into each other's eyes! How can you deny that they're just the perfect crime fighting duo. 

And Chris and I even dressed up for Halloween this year. We actually went to a costume party much earlier in October. Since the kids had just finished learning all about Ancient Egypt in school, we thought it would be fun to dress as King Tut and Cleopatra. The kids loved it!

Happy Halloween to all of you! And it's never too early to start planning for next year so if you can think of any cute trio costumes, send those ideas my way! Or if you ever see a non-sexy Gretel, I haven't given up on that idea yet!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

7 months

Seriously, how can you not just want to kiss those cheeks? Okay, you can now take your lips off the computer monitor. 7 month old Nolan is a joy! Sleeping through the night, eating us out of house and home, and saying da da da.... He also is starting to push up on his arms and legs pretty well so he might get up the courage to explore the house on all fours soon. I don't think Chris and I are ready for the zone defense that we are going to have to play with three mobile kids!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Week 5- What I Made and Ate This Week

My apologies for this post coming almost half a week late but I have several great excuses. 1) I had company in town this week, 2) I'm sick, and feeling pathetic (and whining a lot), and 3) I had this post completely typed out and then my dog... (you know the rest). So two of these excuses are true and while the third is false, I'm hoping the first two are compelling enough for you to forgive me. I could have just skipped this week but I really cooked and ate some delicious things that were too good to not share.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday: Leftovers, seriously I think we ate chili for what seemed like forever. But in the food world 5 days is pretty much forever (and touching on the verge of food so spoiled you just need to throw it out).

Thursday: Stuffed buttercup squash (V)
It's about time I cooked something this week. I had a buttercup squash sitting on my counter which made me think about the year we made stuffed squash for Thanksgiving. And I was still thinking about cranberries after the Indian shepherd's pie from last week. I didn't follow a recipe for this and surprisingly it still turned out really good!

Stuffed squash:
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water (or veggie stock)
1/2 cup toasted pecans
1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 buttercup squash (or you could use two acorn squash)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. First, in a medium saucepan place the quinoa over medium heat. Toast the quinoa for 3-5 minutes until it is light brown. Add the water or stock to the quinoa and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, turn the heat down and simmer the quinoa for 20 minutes (exactly, so turn on your kitchen timer). While the quinoa is cooking, prepare your squash. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. If you When 20 minutes is up take the pan off of the heat and let sit for 5 minutes before uncovering. After 5 minutes you can fluff the quinoa with a fork if you like. Into the quinoa add the cheese, toasted pecans, cranberries, and salt and pepper. Just heat until the cheese starts to melt. Now take the quinoa mixture and divide evenly among the squash, smooshing it into the spots where the seeds once were. Place each squash in a shallow pan with a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan. Cover with foil and place in the oven. Cook until the squash is tender, mine took about 40 minutes.

Saturday: Butternut squash soup and Spinach, tomato, and gruyere crepes
Saturday morning I had some very special visitors come over for brunch. And given that it was rainy and cold outside, I thought some warm fall soup would be just the thing to serve. A perfect pairing on the side seemed to be a savory crepe and of course a mimosa to wash everything down. The soup recipe called for a roasted red pepper puree and after tasting my soup both with and without the puree, I was more a fan of the soup without the puree. And the recipe I linked to for the crepes is just a basic crepe recipe so you can put whatever you like into these crepes. Because you know that a crepe filled with Nutella would be incredible! Especially when eaten on the streets of Paris!



Saturday, October 1, 2011

Week 4- What I Made and Ate this Week

Sunday: Southern Indian Cabbage with Yogurt (V, VG if you don't add the yogurt but the yogurt really added to the dish) and Indian Shepherd's Pie (VG)
After the kids brought home a plethora of vegetables from the farm I had to figure out what to make with all of them. I had a head of cabbage, green beans, beets, a few sweet potatoes, onions, and some potatoes. I used up almost all of the vegetables in these two dishes. For the Southern Indian Cabbage I made it pretty much just as the directions said, except adding in some cooked green beans. As for the Indian Shepherd's Pie, the inspiration for this dish came from the cookbook Peas and Thank You. The author explains that this recipe came about when she had leftovers from her meatless Thanksgiving and she threw all the leftovers together into a dish. Here is the general recipe for what I made:

2 sweet potatoes
1 Tbsp margarine
2 Tbsp soymilk
2 tsp cinnamon
3 beets
1 can chickpeas
Green beans
2 carrots
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp dried cranberries
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup cooked lentils
1 Tbsp turmeric
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp garam masala

First, peel sweet potatoes and cook until soft (using whatever method you like). Mash up the sweet potatoes with some cinnamon, a bit of margarine, and some soymilk. Cook your beets and green beans, again using whatever method you choose. Also cook your lentils. In a large pan, saute onions and garlic. Add carrots, chickpeas, beets, green beans, cooked lentils, broth, and spices. Cook for 4-5 minutes. At the last minute add dried cranberries. In a 2 quart dish, put vegetable and lentil mixture from pan into dish. Top with mashed sweet potatoes. Cook in 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes.

This dish was good and made a ton of food, but it was very labor intensive to make. Lots of veggies to cook and lots of pans to wash. I can see how it would be much easier to make if you already had all the vegetables cooked and leftover from Thanksgiving. And I wish that I skipped the Indian spin on this and just made it more like a Thanksgiving dish. The best parts really were the cranberries and sweet potatoes, just like those are the best parts of Thanksgiving (besides the stuffing!).

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Smoked paprika almonds (VG)
So you may have noticed that I get recipes from this blog a lot. And funny thing, the girl who writes the blog lives in Fort Collins, which is how I found the blog. And this week I actually met her as she was handing out samples of granola at Whole Foods. It's always a weird thing meeting someone in person and not wanting to come off too "stalkerish" telling them that you read their blog and try a lot of their recipes. Maybe someday I'll run into a stranger who reads my blog, and don't worry, I won't think you are a stalker- unless of course you show up at my front door. These almonds came out just okay, not as good as my tasty nuts. The smoked paprika lost its flavor when the almonds were roasted and the smokiness just didn't come across in the finished product.

Wednesday: "Chicken" fried rice (V)
You could call what I made "chicken" fried rice or maybe it would be better described as "chicken" fried risotto. Either way, it was delicious and easy.

"Chicken" fried rice (risotto)
2 cups rice, ideally cooked the day before so it can dry out a bit
1 package chicken style seitan
Frozen peas
Broccoli
Green onions
Carrots
2 Tbsp. Soy sauce
1 Tbsp. Sweet chili sauce
1 tsp. Sesame oil
2 cloves garlic
2 Eggs (optional)

In your wok or big ol' pan, heat up some peanut oil. Saute your garlic until fragrant. Add the seitan and let brown. Next add carrots and broccoli and cook for about 5 minutes. Now, here's where I messed up and ended up with something more risotto like*. Add your eggs and stir every once in a while so they end up scrambled. Add the rice and green onions, cook for about 5 more minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl mix the soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, and sesame oil. Pour over rice in the wok. And there you are, done.
*I accidentally forgot to add the eggs before the rice and knowing that it probably wouldn't work I added the eggs once the rice was in the pan. The eggs ended up cooking into the rice making it sort of a sticky rice type dish. But it still tasted good.

Thursday: Leftovers and whatever the kids didn't eat off their plates

Friday: Baba ganoush (VG)
I love baba ganoush and I've tried buying it already made in the store and it always is terrible. I think you've got to make this at home or get it freshly made at a restaurant. There was a Mediterranean1 restaurant back in Winston-Salem that made great baba ganoush (and really good falafels) and boy do I miss that place. I've yet to find good falafel or baba ganoush out here so I decided to put the eggplant sitting in my fridge to good use. I always like to add some Liquid Smoke to mine to up the smoky flavor.


Saturday: Chili and cornbread (V)
The Huskers had a big game on Saturday night and whenever I think about watching a nighttime football game, I immediately think about making a big pot of chili to accompany the football watching. Chili is one of those things that you can mess around with and it almost always comes out great. I did once make the most wonderful chili and since I wasn't following a recipe I have no clue what made it so great. But I think it might have been the sweet potatoes. Here is the general recipe for the chili I made this week:

Badger meat chili (no Badger meat in here, just referring to what I hope the Huskers do to Wisconsin, and I can't wait to see who comes to this blog after googling badger meat chili):
1 package tempeh
3 cups veggie broth
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
1 large sweet potato
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
Corn (from my endless supply in the freezer)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can fire roasted tomatoes with chipotle peppers (Muir Glen makes these)
Cumin (I used a lot, probably 2 Tbsp)
Chili powder (2 Tbsp at least)
Onion powder (1 tsp?)
Celery salt (1 tsp)
Salt and pepper

First I like to steam the tempeh by putting it in a shallow saute pan with a little bit of water. Steam for 10 minutes, then it will crumble easily once it cools off. Saute your onion and a few cloves of garlic. Peel and cube the sweet potato. Throw everything into one big pot and cook for about 30 minutes. Open a beer, ladle up a bowl, plop down on the couch, and watch some football!

Go Huskers!