New Beginnings

I've entered a once a month photo challenge over at Clickin Moms.
Once a month you'll see what I've come up with for the theme we've been given.

For January our theme was New Beginnings.
So many people make resolutions for the new year. I have been known to do that in the past. What I haven't been known for is sticking to them. So instead of having year long goal resolutions, I aim for daily ones. If I can commit to making good decisions for ONE DAY that's all I need to do.
There's one very strong indicator of what kind of decisions I'm going to make in a given day. Breakfast. Sitting down with breakfast gives me some time to think about my goals for the day. When I skip it, I skip that opportunity to reflect on the type of decisions I intend to make. I'm trying to get better about having breakfast everyday. I'm also trying to make sure I'm not just eating poptarts and a cup of joe.

I present my interpretation of New Beginnings



Check out the other members of our group by clicking through all of our links!
Check out Lacey's blog next!

Lemon Blueberry Loaf

I love browsing Pinterest. It's my latest addiction. My husband chides me for looking at so much food porn. But honestly it's motivated me to try a ton more recipes in a way that my cookbooks never have. (The only exception here is my Bon Appetit subscription. I love making stuff from those!)

Recently I came across this gem. Since I'm trying to make an effort to reduce my sugar intake this week I was hesitant about making it exactly as is.

So I cut out the syrup and glaze and halved the sugar. I made a few other small changes as well. I added extra vanilla and reduced the lemon zest.

Blueberry Lemon Loaf, adapted from here


1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
10 oz blueberries frozen

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of one 9 x 5-inch loaf pans; dust with flour, tapping out excess.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing loaf to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.

Apricot and Almond Balls

I've been pinning a lot of recipes lately. I was moved to try making these fruit and nut balls by this pin promising homemade Larabars.

To make them I mixed 1 part dates, 1 part apricots and 1 part almonds. I started with 1/2 cup each but ended up adding more. My food processor is rather large.

They are very sweet and despite my sweet tooth (and no added sugar!) I can only eat one or two at a time. They're about an inch in diameter. I was going to wrap them up in waxed paper like little candies but we ended up eating them all before I got around to it.

Guiness Pie

We had a friend over the day I blogged last. Since then things have gone bananas over here, sick babies etc. I haven't made the time to blog. But here I am now!

The Guiness Pie wasn't as amazing as I'd hoped but I have a few ideas of how to change it. Don't get me wrong, it was good, it could have been better though.

This is the recipe I used. I loved the crust and the general flavors were great. I'd like to try it with roasted garlic in there next time.

Ever heard of Once A Month Cooking....

I'm not going to get into it that extreme. I do want some options available to us in my freezer. Options that aren't the crappy store bought pizza or lasagnas that never have enough cheese...

Today I'm tackling the recipes I posted on this pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/khoos/food-i-m-making/

Tonight we're going to have the Guiness Pie. I'll come back and let you know how I did tomorrow...

My Top 11 of 2011

There's an awesome contest going on over at Click it up a notch.
They challenge you to find your top 11 images of 2011.
So here I go giving it a try...

11. Trillian wouldn't give me a genuine smile for most of the year, and it wasn't until the very end of the year that I discovered I could tell her to laugh with me, and do a big fake laugh with her to get a real smile.


10. We had christmas lights for the first time, so I wanted to play with what happens with them as the light source. I got a ton of great pics of D from this adventure.

9. Dahlia in her Halloween Costume - She loves it so much she still puts it on a few times a week and wanders around our house dressed like this.


8. Trillian's First Day of School


7. Dahlia is my Climber. She didn't hesitate when she came across this fence


6. My sister and my nephew - My sister NEVER lets me photograph her. I love this shot of them so engaged with each other


5. My darling husband - Since I was in charge of the cameras at my mom's wedding, we made sure to bring ways for Justin to entertain the girls. I love this photo of him.


4. Taste the rainbow - As an artist Dahlia thinks outside the box


3. Trillian blowing bubble for Dahlia


2. Dahlia had snuck into the raspberry bush and picked it clean


1.

Mushroom Pies

We went to an AMAZING Tupperware party early in December hosted by Aunt Barbara. She is a drag queen and an absolute riot. When she was demonstrating the can opener my husband got to go up and "handle her cans". As a prize he got a bottle of colon cleanse. (Which later we traded for a scoop)

One of the things we bought was a pie maker. This thing is so neat. One side cuts the dough the right size, the other side is the perfect way to fill and crimp the pies.

I made calzones one night, turns out the pizza dough recipe I have is a little too sticky. But I had a box of Pillsbury pie dough an I decided to make some lunches. They were such a hit that I made another ten of them today.

Mushroom Onion Handheld Pies (yield 5)

8oz sliced mushrooms
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 T butter
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella
single crust pie dough

Melt the butter in a skillet, saute the mushrooms and onion in the butter. Roll out the dough and cut it into large circles. (A single crust will yield 5 circles) Put 1T of mozzarella centered on a dough circle, add 1T of the mushroom mixture. Fold the circle in half and crimp the edges with a fork.
Bake at 425F for 20 minutes or until pies are golden brown.