Time to announce the winners of the $100 ProFlowers gift card giveaway! Drum roll, please…

Liberti, who said: “Nothing beats a beautiful bunch of fresh flowers! YAY!”

and

Mawa, who said: “I’m a mom with a mom and with a daughter who is a mom too…hope it’s me this time!”

Congratulations!  If you are not one of the lucky winners…don’t worry, you’ll get another chance! And you can click here for a 15% discount at ProFlowers…there’s still time to order for Mother’s Day!

Here’s a snapshot of dinner preparation hour in the Maynard home: Mom trying to get food on the table as quickly as possible, Cate & Anna playing in their room.  Rarely do I figure how to get Cate involved in the food prep process (Anna is still too young).  I know Cate loves helping me cook, but I’m usually in a rush and not creative enough to get her involved.

Last night we had english muffin pizzas. She helped me “chop” (with a butter knife, which she THINKS is a sharp knife) mushrooms for the pizza and strawberries for the salad.  She helped put toppings on the pizzas and adding ingredients to the salad.  I could tell she was in HEAVEN, so happy to be at my side, cooking like her mom.

It’s pretty easy to get kids involved with baking since there is lots of dumping and stirring.  But what about other types of cooking, especially at dinnertime?  I would love to get Cate more involved with cooking, beyond cookies and english muffin pizzas.

So, a call to all the parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents/friends-to-little-ones out there: Please share your fantastic, safe, and fun “Cooking wth Kids” tips!

You have until Midnight PT TONIGHT to enter the ProFlowers giveaway. It’s free.  What are you waiting for? Click here to enter!

This is my new favorite yogurt – European style from Trader Joe’s.  I like it better than the Greek style, even.  It’s not as thick as Greek, but it’s smoother.  Absolutely PERFECT for frozen yogurt. I may be facing addiction once again.

Okay, menu time!

MONDAY:
- Meatball subs
- Salad

TUESDAY:
- Chicken Masala (TJ’s simmer sauce)
- Naan Bread (from TJ’s frozen section)
- Salad

WEDNESDAY:
- English Muffin Pizzas
- Salad

THURSDAY:
- Breakfast for dinner or leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Eat out

SATURDAY:
- Hamburgers on the grill
- Fresh Fruit
- Sweet potato fries (discovered these last week in the TJs frozen section…so good!)

SUNDAY:
- Soup of some kind
- Crusty bread

Bring on the menus! I browse your menus EVERY WEEK when I’m planning things out. I’m grateful so many of you share each week – thank you!

Be sure to enter this week’s ProFlowers giveaway, if you haven’t already.  It’s a good one!

This giveaway is now closed.  Thank you!

One of my favorite things about having this blog is knowing that when a holiday is coming, I’ll find a ProFlowers box on my porch with yet another beautiful or tasty thing to share with you…and that all of you will get a chance to win a $100 gift card to use on their site.  It’s a win-win-win-win-win!

Mother’s Day is just a few weeks away (can you believe it?!?!).  If you send your mom this Monet’s Garden bouquet, she’ll be thanking her lucky stars she raised you so well. Seriously, this is my most favorite ProFlowers bouquet so far.  It smells wonderful, the mix of flowers is gorgeous.  Basically, I’m in heaven right now.

And now, for the giveaway! TWO lucky, random TWFD readers will each win a $100 ProFlowers gift card…to spend on dear mother.  Or yourself…don’t worry, I won’t tell.

Just leave a comment on this post by Midnight PT, Wednesday, April 29. Only one entry per person, please.  Two winners will be randomly-selected and announced next Thursday, April 30.

Be sure to visit the ProFlowers site through any of the links on this post to receive a 15% discount.

Good luck to all!

Happy Earth Day, everyone!  It’s actually perfect that it’s Earth Day because I was going to write about Project Tandem this week, and they are ALL about the environment.

What is Project Tandem?  Nate’s cousin, Morrigan, is currently on an 11,000 mile bicycle ride across the United States.  She and her colleague, Alan, are collecting “overlooked stories of everyday Americans and their opinions and actions regarding the environment.”  Mo and Alan are about 7,000 miles into the trip and happened to ride by our neck of the woods this week.  Yea!

We met them at the Half Moon Bay Coffee Company for breakfast (this place was good and affordable, by the way).  Sadly, I ate the biggest breakfast…but I’m not the one biking 1000’s of miles. Shoot.

It was so good seeing them and really fun to hear their stories from the trip.  I can’t wait until the Project Tandem documentary is complete…it’s going to be awesome!  To read more about their trip, find out how to donate, and more, visit their website.  They are also updating the Project Tandem blog from the road.

Look at those bikes!  Morrigan is carrying 90 pounds of equipment, Alan 110 pounds.  I can barely ride a bike with just myself down the street! (That’s kind of not a joke…I tried to ride a bike for the first time in a long while last year and what they say is NOT true…it was absolutely not like riding a bike! How embarassing.)

Now go do something nice for Mother Earth.  Maybe Morrigan and Alan will catch you at it as they ride by your town!

I don’t normally just send you off to another website, but today I’m going to because it’s a good one!  Click here for meatless meal ideas from Everyday Food. (Photos from Martha Stewart.)

I’m not a vegetarian and I don’t plan on becoming one.  But I have thought a lot about eating less meat lately…both for economic and environmental purposes.  Seriously, if we all ate less meat the impact on the enviornment would be huge.  But I won’t get into that.  Needless to say, I’m excited to incorporate more meatless recipes into my dinner repertoire.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

I was {finally} going through pictures from my dear friend Karen’s baby shower last November (yes, I’ve held on to them a little long).   I forgot how beautiful the cheese was at that party.  Seriously, look at that cheese!

On to the menu for the week!

MONDAY:
- Pork chops (we didn’t eat them last week)
- Rice
- Salad

TUESDAY:
- Chicken Salad sandwiches
- Fresh fruit
- Chips

WEDNESDAY:
- Tacos

THURSDAY:
- Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Frittata

SATURDAY:
- Eat out

SUNDAY:
- Meatball Subs
- Salad

Alright, people.  The holidays are over…get back to planning and let’s see your menus!  Remember, we accept all kinds of menus here at TWFD.  It’s called equal opportunity menu planning.

I only have three batters in my lunchtime line-up: PB & Honey/Jam, Chicken Salad, and Grilled Cheese. PB & Honey is batting around 1000 right now, which I suppose is good for his career, but I’m kind of sick of him stealing the spotlight.

Even when I’m not in a PB & Honey rut, I dread lunchtime.  I always have…in college, at work and at home. It’s just hard to come up with something fast and easy but still tasty.  Oh, and I suppose healthy would be good too!

Do you get in a lunchtime rut?  Or do you have some great lunch ideas?  I need inspiration (and I’m probably not the only one)!  Lunch is three hours away…so get your comments up here stat!

Seriously, someone take away the Easter candy.  Specifically these Chewy Sweet Tarts.  What could be better?  Well, besides the Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs, of course.  But they’re gone already, and I have NO idea where they went.

Happy Easter!  May your day be filled with baskets, loved ones and chocolate.

MONDAY:
- Leftovers

TUESDAY:
- Pork Chops
- Wild Rice (Rice-a-Roni, please!)
- Veggie

WEDNESDAY:
- Paninis of some sort (Cate just gobbles these up!)

THURSDAY:
- Canneloni (I need to use up the ricotta cheese!)
- Salad

FRIDAY:
- Orange Chicken
- Dumplings

SATURDAY:
- Eat out

SUNDAY:
- Lentil Soup
- Crusty bread

It may be a holiday today…but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to eat this week!  Plan a menu and share it with the rest of us! (PS – Thanks again for your menus each week!!!!)

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a sweet grapefruit junky. Nate went to the farmer’s market last weekend and discovered my new favorite grapefruit variety: Oroblanco. It’s actually a cross between a grapefruit and a pommelo…and what a DELICIOUS cross it is.  Sweet, not as acidic, milder in flavor.

It’s also huge. I photographed the oroblanco (yellow) next to a normal sized grapefruit, a navel orange and a ‘cutie’ just to give some perspective on the ‘giantness’ of this grapefruit. The rind was really thick, so the actual fruit yield was about the same as any other grapefruit.

Anna just couldn’t resist being a part of the big photo shoot.

Cannelloni is one of my favorite things to order at an Italian restaurant.  Which means I had to figure out a way to make it at home, of course!  I gave it a try this week and it was so so yummy.  Here’s what I did!

Cannelloni
FILLING: will fill ~8 cannelloni, maybe up to 10
- 1 chicken breast, cooked & shredded
- 1/4 C fresh, shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 C ricotta cheese
- 1/2 C shredded mozzarella
- 1 Egg, beaten
- 1 garlic clove, minced or use garlic press
- 1 T chopped fresh basil (maybe a little more than 1 T)
- 1/4 t pepper
- 1/2 t salt

SAUCE:
- 1 1/2 C jarred marinara (you could make your own, but this is faster and tasted great)
- 1/2 C cream
- 24 grape tomatoes, smashed up a bit (I pulsed in the blender a few times)
- 1/4 – 1/2 C shredded asiago cheese

SHELLS:
Ideally I suppose you make your own pasta, roll it into thin sheets and cut into rectangles. Yeah, THAT’S gonna happen around here….so, I tried two readily-available pastas.

Barilla No-Boil Homemade Style (Flat) Lasagna Noodles: These were PERFECT. Boil 3 minutes, CAREFULLY remove from the water (it’s easy to crack them in the middle, so be gentle!). Filling them is a cinch…just lay the rectangle out portrait (you know, tall-wise), lay your filling across the noodle near the end, then roll up! (I had a few cracks when I took them out of the water, but the noodle overlaps itself when you roll it up, so it wasn’t a problem) Pictured RIGHT.

Manicotti Shells: I also tried manicotti shells. They didn’t taste quite as good, and they’re harder to stuff. So, I will definitely do the flat, no-boil lasagna noodles from now on.  Pictured LEFT.

DIRECTIONS:
Mix filling ingredients.

Mix sauce ingredients and warm on the stove (doesn’t need to cook too long or get too hot).

Spray a rectangular casserole dish or metal cake pan with spray oil. Stuff cannelloni (see noodle descriptions above). Place stuffed cannelloni in the pan. Cover with sauce.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Mangia!

Makes approximately 8 cannelloni…Nate and I each ate 2, and the girls had 1 each.  Fed our family of 4 with 2 cannelloni left over.

Tomorrow evening (Wednesday) marks the start of Passover. I thought it would be fun to get some recipes from a few of my Jewish friends and share them with you.

One thing that I like about the Passover Seder is how important the food is to the celebration. It’s very symbolic and plays a key role to the festivities. It’s all very fascinating to me. If you’d like to read more, this web page has lots of great information.

I will not be preparing a traditional Seder, but I am going to try a few recipes. I’ve got my Kosher ingredients all ready to go! Speaking of which…when I was at Safeway today, I was trying to find some matzoh bread. I’m not Jewish, so I was going to go quietly about my business in the Kosher food aisle and hope no one noticed I didn’t know what I was doing. Well, I couldn’t find any matzohs and overheard a woman ask for it. To make a long story short, Gentile Jane ended up on a store-wide matzoh quest with about 5 other Jewish people. So much for staying under the radar. I just kept my mouth shut, used as few words as possible and hoped people didn’t realize I was an impostor! And, after all of that, Safeway was completely out of matzohs! Oy Vey!

Big thanks to Ciaran Blumenfeld, a dear blogging buddy, for providing us with so many wonderful family recipes!  And another big thanks to my friend Michele Wang for sharing her mother-in-law Sherry’s great Chocolate Walnut Spongecake recipe.

Click “more” to see the recipes, including Jewish Penicillin (intrigued? read on!).  It’s worth a read-through, and Ciaran’s commentary is great! And, as always, if you have your own seder-friendly recipes to share, please do!

(more…)

I planted my first tomato plant yesterday, which I am very excited about! The tomatoes will be grape-sized, sweet and yellow…assuming I don’t kill the plant.  I can’t wait to eat them!

Yeah, I know, I have repeats on the menu this week. I didn’t do as much cooking last week as I had planned. Although, we only ate out once. I’m not entirely sure WHAT we had for dinner every night…I know we ate food. Anyway, it has just been one of those weeks…I was swamped with work (which I’m grateful for!) and Nate was beyond swamped, at one point working for 24 hours straight.  YIKES!

MONDAY:
- Meatball Subs

TUESDAY:
- Grammy’s Orange Chicken
- Brown rice & Salad

WEDNESDAY:
- Waffles or some other easy breakfasty food

THURSDAY:
- Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Eat out

SATURDAY:
- Chicken Piccata
- Pasta or Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- Salad

SUNDAY:
- Pork chops on the grill
- Wild Rice (yes, from a Rice-a-Roni box!)
- Veggie

Time for you to post your menu for the week! If you haven’t posted before, go ahead and give it a try – all menus are welcome! It doesn’t have to be fancy. This is ME you’re talking to, here.

Thanks everyone! Have a great week!

Remember Lindsay?  I think it’s about time I start sharing some of her recipes with you!

Today it’s Aaron and Lindsay’s Chicken Tortilla Soup Extravaganza! I’m going to start adding the word “Extravaganza” to the end of all my recipes.  It’s just so festive! (Aaron is Lindsay’s husband, by the way…who is one of the maybe five male commenters on this site.  Thanks, Aaron!)

Lindsay actually fries up her own tortilla strips for the soup. She is WAY more gourmet than I am.

Lindsay has the most beautiful spices.  She puts them all in matching containers.  And how cute is her bowl of salt?  I always feel like I’m in the audience of a cooking show at her house.

I no longer live next door to Lindsay.  I so miss our afternoons of her cooking and me photographing.  Those were the days…

And now, for the recipe!

Aaron and Lindsay’s Chicken Tortilla Soup Extravaganza
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- olive oil
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 2-3 tomatoes, chopped
- ½ bag frozen corn
- 1 large chicken breast
- 1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
- 1 lime (one extra for garnish)
- 1 handful cilantro, chopped
- 4-5 corn tortillas, cut into strips
- 1 avocado, diced
- cayenne pepper
- chili powder
- cumin
- salt and pepper
- cheddar or jack cheese, shredded
- sour cream

Sautee onion in olive oil until soft, then add garlic, green onions, cayenne, chili powder, and cumin. Sautee until fragrant (a minute or two). Add chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Add tomatoes, corn, black beans.

Grill up chicken spiced with cayenne, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. (You can also pan-fry it, but it won’t add the smokiness that the bbq does). Cut up or shred chicken and add it to the soup. Try the soup and add more seasonings according to taste, if needed. Add lime juice, cilantro, and avocado.

In large fry pan over medium-high heat, crisp up tortilla strips. Add salt. You may do this with oil or cooking spray. (For a shortcut, use tortilla chips instead).

Serve soup garnished with cheese, sour cream, tortilla strips, fresh cilantro, and a lime wedge.