Meow

Well this week I have been pretty busy and unfortunately haven't had much time to pin and post. I had planned on doing several pins today, but I ended up getting hurt in an unpacking avalanche in the garage. So I have been chilling on the couch watching Psych on Netflix. But I wanted to share my kitties.

Yes I really like black and white kitties and orange kitties. 

Sam and Sara are munchkins, which means they have short little legs and run like ferrets, its pretty freaking cute!

Landon and Cali we raised from kittens. PJ was from a friend who had him as a kitten.

 
Logan and JJ were strays that we took in. Their first pics shows how skinny they were. But they are fat now. ^_^

Sam and Sara were adopted off CraigsList while Connor was adopted from a rescue at my husbands work.

Hope you enjoyed meeting me kitties.

tofu scramble VS scrambled eggs

I came across a recipe for tofu scramble and thought I would try it out. I didn't follow the recipe to a T, mainly because I don't have nutritional yeast or black sea salt. Soooooo...instead I used flour and regular salt and pepper.

The original pin requires mixing:

1/2 cup warm water
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon black sea salt

Instead I used

1/2 cup warm water
2 teaspoons flour
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
pinch of salt and pepper

The flour is needed to thicken the water so its more of a sauce to coat the tofu. Just break up the tofu up into little pieces and heat in a skillet. Mix the ingredients from above and pour over the tofu while still heating. You can add other seasonings like garlic and other things you would normally put on your eggs. Once the "sauce" is absorbed, the tofu scramble should be done.

Now the pin says to serve over squash, which sounds devine, but I didn't have squash, so I sliced up potatoes.  I also made regular scrambled eggs to compare.  I served with cheese on top and with ketchup. 

I was surprised, even though the tofu scramble doesn't taste quite like eggs, I still enjoyed it way more than the eggs.  Comparing them to each other, the eggs just seemed rubbery compared to the soft tofu texture. And no, I didn't over cook the eggs. Although, if you don't like tofu, you should still to your eggs.

TOFU

EGG

Tofu vs egg

Spa Day!

After the long day of pasta and dinner making yesterday I decided to take a break and give myself a at home spa day.. kind of :D I made a hair mask and a facial scrub. Both of which I found on Pintrest! (pin1&pin2). All the items for the mask and the scrub I always have handy in my house! Since moving to Oregon, my hair has just totally hated me.. being dry and unmanageable. I don't like conditioner too often because it just makes my hair heavy and haven't found one that doesn't do that yet. And for the facial scrub.. who doesn't like a good facial scrub every once in a while! I actually love them, always makes my face nice and smooth I just love the feel of my face after! 

I was scared of the hair mask because I have never used one and really wondered if it would work.. Its not like I am using any crazy chemicals so I didn't have anything to lose!

PreCombined

What You Need

1/2 Avocado

1/2 Banana

1 Egg

2 tbs Olive Oil

Plastic Wrap

Directions
Put all ingredients in bowl (except plastic wrap)
Blend all together until completely smooth
Wrap with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes
Rinse out with COOL water. You don't want scrambled egg head.
Wash really well with shampoo

Smooth 

Head Wrap

Pretty hair!

Results: This stuff smells sooo yucky I like all these ingredients alone but together... not so much BUT I will do this again I love the way my hair feels! It is extra soft! Next.. Facial Scrub!

The Supplies

Lemon-Sugar Scrub

1/2 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Lemon Juice

Directions
Mix juice from lemon and the sugar, more or less to get right consistency. Scrub face rinse and done!

Scrub,Scrub,Scrub!

Paste

Smooth!

Results: I loooovvee the smell of lemons so this was amazing. I really like the feel of the sugar crystals massaging my face and it was super easy!

Easy Fresh Pasta & Chicken Alfredo Lasagna Rolls

For the longest time I have wanted pasta maker attachment for my KitchenAid mixer for years but just didn't have the money to get one. This last year I finally got one! My parents bought me one for my birthday!!! Right after I got it my husband got his new job and we got busy with moving and such so no time to test it out... Well today I decided to try it out! I have never made fresh pasta, so this was going to be a pretty big task for me but I was ready! I figured that I would pair it with one of my husbands favorite pasta dishes Chicken Alfredo Lasagna Rolls...Lasagna noodles rolled up with alfredo sauce, mozzarella and shredded chicken the are pretty much amazing. So for the pasta I found this pin. It was helpful, but kind of annoying that I had to keep hitting the "next" button...In the end it worked out. I will also put the recipe for the alfredo sauce and directions for the lasagna rolls because they are so awesome that it would be unfair of me to keep it a secret!.

Pasta Supplies

Easy Pasta

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

Directions

1. Pile flour and then make a well in the middle

2. Crack eggs into the well of flour.

3.Mix the eggs gradually adding flour.

4.Once all combined, knead the dough until smooth. About 8-10 minutes

Just combined

Almost there

 

Done

5.Cut the dough into quarters wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 mins before rolling out.

 6.Use your fancy pasta roller-outter to the size that you want!

Chicken Alfredo Lasagna Rolls                       Directions               
About 3 cups shredded chicken                      1.Preheat oven to 350                 
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese                2.Cook the fresh pasta for 3 minutes. Rinse            
2 cups Alfredo sauce                                      with cold water and pat dry.
6 lasagna noodles ( 9 if using premade dry)      3.Spread about 2tbs of sauce on the pasta 
                                                                   sprinkle with cheese and chicken.

Fancy Roll

                     4.Roll up and put in greased baking pan.
                     5.Top the rolls with remaining sauce and 
                     cheese. Bake for 30 minutes until top is 
                     golden.

                                                                   

 Alfredo Sauce
1/4 cup butter
1 tbs garlic(we like a lot of garlic you can reduce it)
2 oz Neufchatel cheese
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 tsp oregano
2/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
1.Melt butter over medium heat add garlic and cook for 2 don't let it burn
2.Add Neufchatel cheese. Whisk until melted and creamy
3.Add heavy cream, bring to light boil, add oregano and whisk for 12-15 minutes 
4 Add parmesan!

Dax is ready for dinner!

Good luck in your pasta making adventures! I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do!!!

Oatmeal Cookie Bars

 As I mentioned before, my husband and I had nearly nothing except our three cats and a couple blankets (and of course my KitchenAid stand mixer) moving up to Oregon. Luckily my grandfather lives about an hour away! So when when moved into our naked apartment he came down for a visit. He brought us a kitchen table, a couple pots/pans, a camping tent,wind up lantern, some jackets, six pairs of gloves, two sets of smoke alarms both kinds, and an apocalypse size stash of dry/canned food. 

so many cans

stash continued..

In the stash he brought down there were four boxes of instant oatmeal. We don't really eat oatmeal, so I have been trying to find a creative way to use it. I found two pins for oatmeal cookies (pin1&pin2). I bake cookies a lot and neither one of them seemed to look right so I made up my own.

Oatmeal Cookie Bars

7 oatmeal packets (any flavor)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbs oil

2 eggs

1/2 tsp cinnamon

The Supplies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  

Step 2&3

 2.Mix melted butter, oil, and sugar until well combined

3. Add eggs and vanilla

4. Add flour, baking soda, and cinnamon 

5. Fold in oatmeal 

6. Spread into baking pan and bake for 20-25 mins until starts to 
get golden brown

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Golden Brown

Pile of Cookies!

Well I think think they turned out great! The taste and consistency was awesome! You could make them into actual cookies, just cut the time down to 10-15 minutes, I made bars because I only have a brownie pan! I'm glad I found use for some of the oatmeal, now I just need to find a way to use up 42 cans of potatoes! 

Pannukakku

Good Morning! Its Sunday and that means tomorrow its back to waking up at 5 am and my husband starts his work week! Double boo! So today I decided to make my husbands favorite breakfast Pannukakku, which is a Finnish oven pancake.  This is something we have attempted before, but it was never the same as when his family made it. It was always either too eggy or just nothing like it was suppose to be. I have tried a couple from Pintrest like this pin. It was good but just not what we wanted. I had asked Nicholas to ask his grandmother for the recipe and FINALLY after months of bothering him he did yesterday morning so I made it today! Even though Laura and I are 1300 miles away from each other we still managed to make similar breakfasts this morning without planning!!! So here is a true pannukakku recipe from my husbands Finnish grandmother!

The Supplies

Pannukakku

4 eggs (beaten)

1 cup milk

1 cup flour
1 tbs sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter

Directions

Step 2

1. With a mixer, blend eggs, flour, milk, sugar and salt until batter is smooth and free of chunks.

2. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 475.

4. In a 9x13 pan add the butter and place in the oven until the butter is melted. 

5. Remove pan and add the batter

Step 4

6. Bake on the lowest rack for 10-12 minutes until the the middle is set. It will rise WAY above the sides and the middle will be extremely puffy but let it sit for a minute when you pull it out of the oven and it will deflate a lot.

7. Enjoy! His grandma suggests to squeeze lemon, sprinkle with powdered sugar and fresh berries! I used some jam that my dad made and Nicholas used regular pancake syrup!

Step 5

Fresh out of the oven! Already deflating

Finnish-ed Product.. lol

 

Definitely better then any recipe we have tried in the past! 

German Pancakes

This morning I was looking for a nice and easy pin for Sunday morning breakfast. Luckily when I went on pinterest, it was the very first pin on the page! I had made something like this many many years ago in a 7th grade home ec rotation and I hadn't made it since, even tho I rather enjoyed it. So since Husband was on his way home I had him grab a few things, most items tho can be found in your kitchen already.  But here is the original pin. It only needs to cook for 20 minutes in the oven.

My directions are going to be rather vague since the post shows it step by step. Just need eggs, milk, flour, sugar, salt, butter, and powdered sugar if you fancy it.

I used soymilk because I don't like cows milk...the smell just gets to me. It turned out the same in my opinion.

So first you preheat the oven, then mix everything but the butter and powder sugar..the butter is used in the pan to keep it from sticking...although, we had a bit of sticking.

Monster Mountain Cake!

Starting to Rise

Its cool to watch the batter rise, once it leave the over and starts to cool, it will flatten though.

I served it with blueberries, strawberries and bananas. Oh, and a little extra powdered sugar!

I think it turned out very yummy. It does have a thick eggy texture. Its pretty weird, but pretty yummy.The edges remind me of french toast. Overall, great recipe and very easy!