My grandma, who we called Ma, made the BEST corn bread stuffing.  I still make it every year for Thanksgiving and made it again this weekend for some Stuffing Bombs. This recipe is enough to serve 6 on Thanksgiving with leftovers.

Ingredients:

–Corn bread
-1 loaf of sprouted grain bread
-1 large onion chopped
-1 bunch of celery chopped (including leaves)
-1 TBSP dried sage
-1/4 cup torn fresh sage (optional)-if not using, up your dried sage
-1 16 ounce carton of chicken broth
-S+P

Instructions:

2 days before the stuffing needs to be done, set your breads out to get stale.  I like to do this on a wire cooling rack because the air flows on both sides. Alternately, cut your bread up into bite size pieces and put on a cookie tray in one layer. Bake in a preheated 300* oven for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Spray a pan with nonstick spray, or use a little butter or olive oil.  Sauté onions and celery until translucent.

In a large bowl, combine the celery/onion mixture with the bread mixture.  Add the sage, S+P, and chicken stock.  I eyeball the chicken stock and stop adding before the stuffing gets too soggy.  Taste the stuffing and adjust spices as needed.

Bake in a preheated 350* oven for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

I altered the recipe that’s on the back of the Albers Corn Meal box and I think it’s delicious!

Ingredients:

-1 cup corn meal
-1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
-1 TBSP baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-3 TBSP agave necter
-2 TBSP honey
-1 cup rice milk
-1 egg, lightly beaten

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400*. Non-stick spray an 8-inch-square pan

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix. In a smaller bowl combine the wet ingredients and mix well.

Add wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Pour into prepped pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

I just got a sneak peak at the pictures we did 2 weekends ago.  I only got one but I love it!

Natalie at www.nyfotography.com did them.  I can’t wait to see the rest!!!

…just barely.  But I DID make it.  I had to run.  With all this stuff:

And yes, I need all that stuff.  It’s my purse, my computer bag, my lunch bag and my water (well and my foot :).

But San Mateo is sliding by with ME on the train.

How cool-I got the bike shop in the picture =D

Wow was the gym ever hard this morning!  First thing I woke up and wondered “how early is it?” (I have a nasty habit of waking up at 3:30 ready to go and then by the time 5:30 rolls around I’m a zombie). I looked over at the clock and it was 5:29-SCORE!

I took a boot camp class this morning and she had us set up steps with 2 risers on each side.  She had us jumping up on the steps and doing all sorts of running and jumping on the steps-it was H.A.R.D. Then she had us do yoga flow using the step. Imagine doing chataranga with your feet on the floor and your hands on the step.  Downward dog too and lunges-front foot on the step, etc.  It was insane. Then? She had us pick up weights and we used weights while we did warriors and balance poses. Bicep curls mixed with tree pose mixed with sitting in a chair pose. Insanity.  Then she mixed in some crazy martial arts stuff.  Why is it that she looks so much better doing this than me?  I burned 300 calories in 45 minutes so I think it was a success.  I really liked it too.

Oh! Yesterday my friend sent me a gift.  Look how cute:

Love it!  Thanks Ashley!!!  It’s from a designer that I found on Etsy.  Amy Cornwell.  I’ve bought 7 things from her, all gifts.  So I’m very excited to have my own.  I should have worn it today but I was in such a rush that I forgot 🙁 boo-tomorrow!

I do have one of my pretty scarves on today though.  And? I still love my hair. YAY!

In other very exciting news, Shaun let it slip that I’m getting a juicer for Christmas.  I’ve had juicer envy for quite some time!  I little frightened by how much space it will take but I’ll figure it out.  I’m in charge of getting my stocking stuffers (my husband is wonderful, but a shopper he is not-I do all the shopping in our household-the groceries, Target, Costco, I even buy his beer-I mean all the shopping).  I’m thinking I’m going to get some kale, limes, apples, carrots, etc. for my stocking so that I can juice that morning.  We’re leaving for Idaho on Christmas Day so it’s my only chance to use it for like a week.  Yippee!!!

Off to go enjoy this:

I worked up quite the appetite at Boot Camp.  Nothing a little pumpkin butter and peanut butter won’t fix!

This was a yummy creation that I created yesterday.

Ingredients:

-1.5 pounds chicken breast
-1 small onion chopped
-2 cans of chopped tomatoes with chilies
-2 cans of great northern beans, rinsed well
-1 can of whole kernel corn
-1 can of creamed corn
-1 cup chicken stock
-1/2 a bottle of beer
-Juice of 1 lime
-2 tsp cumin
-1 tsp chili powder
-1 tsp garlic powder
-1 1/2 tsp salt (use less if you didn’t use low sodium/no sodium above ingredients)

For Garnish:

-Plain Yogurt
-Cheese
-Hot Sauce

Instructions:

Dump all the ingredients into a crock pot and stir.  Cook for 4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. Shred/cut chicken up before serving. Enjoy!

Shaun’s:

This was fantastic last night (I gave it 3.5 stars) but even better for lunch today.  Sooooooo good! Up to 4 stars the day after.  Shaun doesn’t like chicken or soupy type things and he gave this 2.5 stars.  His comments, “It was pretty good, but chili isn’t really my thing.  For chili, it was good.”

I served it with corn bread that I used tonight in my Turkey and Stuffing Bombs.  Recipe tomorrow!

Here’s one dedicated to food-type stuff and Lu of course!

Follow Me!

www.twitter.com/beingchelsea

Love me some classic Madonna!

Anyway, I went shopping this weekend-for MYSELF! I was SOOOO tired of feeling frumpy and decided to go buy some basics and then some accessories.  If I shrink out of the basics (hopefully!) it’s okay because I only bought long sleeve tees and they’ll basically be dead after this season anyway.  I bought 2 sweaters but they’ll probably still fit in 25 pounds.  The accessories?  Will ALWAYS fit.  I’ve never been an accessories girl and had to ask for help.  I really like what I got though. Here’s a bad picture of all the loot:

And some close-ups.

A beautiful headband that I’m wearing today:

Another awesome headband:

Some necklaces:

And scarves:

And PURPLE shoes!

Which I’m wearing today:

(thank god my floor is getting mopped today-I had an epic cooking weekend and you can really tell in that picture!)

What I look like today:

It’s not the most flattering picture but oh well-you get the idea! Amber-what do you think? 😉

My table also got a make-over:

As did Lucy’s feet:

(taken at a stop light from the front seat-don’t worry I know how long this stop light takes and the camera was put away before it even thought of being green). The shoes are a little too pink for my taste-I’d love if they were fuchsia-but they were on mega sale and we wanted her to have tennies for Idaho.  Even the non-sale ones were kinda pukingly pink or white.  I’m sorry, I’m not buying my 1 year old white shoes.  They’d be brown an hour later.

I also found an Arkansas Black Heirloom apple at Whole Paycheck (oh how I’ve missed thee! The local market didn’t workout).

It was GOOD.  Nice and firm, kinda honey and vanilla tasting, not quite crisp enough though. YUM overall.

And lastly, there was lots of hanging out with my favorite peeps this weekend:

Lucy says YO YO!

My friend Mel asked for an oatmeal tutorial.  My first thought was “I can’t do an oatmeal tutorial, that’s Kath’s thing.” But then I realized that I have my own method, and I’ve been making them this way (with a few tweaks) since college, so here’s my how to.  For a complete tutorial on Kath’s method, check out her Tribute to Oatmeal. She even has a video!

First the ingredients:

-Old Fashioned Oats (not quick cooking)
-Banana
-Milk (I use Rice Milk because of my lactose intolerance)
-Water
-Salt
-Vanilla
-Cinnamon
-Nutmeg

Instructions:

Before we get to the actual instructions you’ll want to figure out how much you want.  The basic ratio is the same as with rice-1 part oats to 2 parts liquid. If I’m really hungry I do 1/2 cup of oats or if I’m not as hungry or I’m going to put a ton of toppings on I do 1/3 cup oats.  Today I did a double batch of a 1/3 cup serving.

1) Mash your banana up until it’s glistening. I use 1/2 a banana per serving.

2) Add your oats, liquid (to cut calories do 1/2 milk and 1/2 water-so today since I did 2/3 cups oats, I did 1/3 cup milk, and 1/3 cup water-when I was preggers I did all milk, no water), and spices. For the spices I just eyeball it-a dash of salt, about 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, about 1/4 tsp of nutmeg, and a splash of vanilla.

3) Cook on medium to medium/low heat, stirring occasionally. If you cook them at too high a heat they stick and burn-boo!

4) After about 10 minutes, they get to this consistency:

(I should have taken a better close up) When they’re almost at a consistency that you like, turn off the stove and let them sit for a minute or so-this helps them not to stick to the pan and makes clean up easier.  If you have Teflon you probably can just cook them to where you want them and don’t have to worry about this step.  We can’t have Teflon or any nonstick surfaces in out house because it’s potentially lethal to birds.

5) Dump into a bowl and top with whatever.  Today I just put some pumpkin butter and almond butter on a spoon.  Kath made a very important discovery to oat eating that if you put your nut butter on a spoon and eat the oats off of that you get a bite of the butter with every bite.  If you mix it in, the flavor gets lost. Other toppings that I love: coconut, granola, berries, maple syrup-be creative!

6) In my house, you can’t forget the bird!  She knows what oatmeal making looks/sounds like and she BEGS for hers.  She get’s a serving (notice the dab of almond butter for her):

She eats it greedily:

I hope you enjoy!  I now make a big batch on Sundays and just reheat it at work.  It’s not quite as good as freshly made but it’s still better than instant!

Finally right? It was worth the wait!

Ingredients:

-1 lb leanest ground beef
-2 tsp olive oil
-1/2 onion chopped
-4 cloves of garlic chopped
-1 carrot chopped
-~1/2 lb of green beans trimmed and chopped
-2 cups frozen peas
-Worchester Sauce
-1/2 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
-1/2 tsp fresh thyme de-stemmed
–Tony’s Seasoning to taste
-S+P to taste
-1 bouillon cube + 2 cups of water or 2 cups of stock
-Flour to thicken
-Mashed sweet potatoes and/or mashed white potatoes

Instructions:

-Preheat the oven to 350*

-Over medium high heat sauté onions and garlic in olive oil. Once translucent, add meat and brown.  Once meat is browned, drain.

-Add carrots and sauté for about 2 minutes

-Once carrots start to cook, add green beans and cook for about 5 minutes.  Add all spices.

-If using bouillon, add water and bring to a boil.  Once water is boiling, add cube. If using stock, add and bring to a boil.

-Once bouillon is fully mixed in or stock is boiling, add flour (I like to use whole wheat) and mix (trying not to get any clumps of flour) until you reach a gravy like consistency. 

-Add peas.

-If using a pan that can transfer straight to the oven, top with mashed potatoes.  If not using a pan that can transfer, transfer meat/veggie mixture to a casserole and top with mashed potatoes.

I used frozen mashed potatoes from TJ’s for Shaun and I mashed my own sweet potatoes for me.  Next time I would prepare the frozen potatoes per the package and then put them on top.  I thought the little balls would melt down, and the really didn’t.

-Place in the oven and cook for 30 minutes.

-Serve and ENJOY!

Shaun gave it 3.5 stars and I give it 4.5-I REALLY liked it.  Lucy ate an entire serving (what you see above). She LOVED it.

I was supposed to make Sheppard’s Pie tonight for dinner but I left work a little late and then traffic was HORRENDOUS.  I didn’t get home until 6:20 🙁 I made scrambled eggs and peas for Lu and then put her to bed.  When I got home I saw that her clothes from daycare were in a bag.  I asked, “Did she have a blowout today?” Shaun tells me, “Even better, I guess they had tuna for lunch and ALL the kids got it all over each other and they were covered in tuna.  All the kids were in ragamuffin clothes when I got there-it was hilarious.”  Here was Lucy’s ragamuffin clothes:

I still think she looks pretty cute 🙂

After putting her to bed, I asked Shaun what he wanted and he said that he ate a late lunch and had a party at work so he didn’t want anything.  It was the perfect excuse for TOFU!  Shaun hates tofu so I can only eat it for lunch or when I’m not cooking for him.  I looked in my cupboard and found this:

This stuff is awesome and is a staple when we go camping.  We usually do chicken with peppers and onions over couscous. I didn’t have any couscous and I didn’t want to wait for rice so I decided to just do some onions, carrots and green beans with tofu over spinach.

Here everything all ready to go:

I drained and pressed the tofu for about 10 minutes while I chopped the veggies.  I put all the veggies in the pot:

and steamed:

(LOVE my Le Creuset that my Aunt got me for Christmas last year).

Once they were tender I added the tofu and 1/2 cup of the curry with a little water and steamed for about another minute.

I think I should have used a bigger bowl 🙂

It was delicious. Shaun has NO CLUE what he’s missing!