Bread Bowl

Yesterday was Tuesday, my self-proclaimed "No Cooking" day. The hubby had to work late and the oldest kid had Culinary School... so, the middle and the youngest and I were on our own.

I wanted Panera Bread, middle wanted*gag* McDonalds and little doesn't care what he eats, so he was open to anything.

I went to Panera and got a half sandwich and a "Bread Bowl" of soup. I got my order to go so I could get middle her Micky-D's. Little had "real" food at home. Real food that included something from each of the 6 (?) food groups.

When we got home, I sat at the table, overly excited about my Bread Soup Bowl... I pulled the center out of the pre-cut bowl, emptied out some extra bread, and poured my soup into the hole. I was WAY excited to see that there was going to be extra soup... until I started eating. That's when I realized the worst of my fears... there was more bowl than soup. As much as I tried, there was always going to be more bowl than soup.

It really ruined it for me. I will never be the same.

A-B-C-D- Etc....

I made a scrumptious soup last night. My 17 year old ate it like he had never eaten before. We must remember though, that he is 17 and if he goes longer than 3 hours without eating, he is "starving to death".

Anns (easy) Alphabet Soup

12 cups water

10 Chicken Bouillon Cubes

6 Carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

6 Celery Stalks, cut into 1 inch chunks

1 Onion, sliced

2 8 oz Packages cooked chicken strips

1 Small Can Chicken Broth

3/4 Box of Prince Brand Alphabets

Fill large soup pan with water, add carrots, celery and onions. When it begins to boil, add bouillon cubes. Let simmer for about an hour or until the veggies are soft. When veggies are soft, add can of chicken broth, chicken strips and Alphabet Noodles. Cook for about 7 minutes or until noodles are done to your liking.

I served this with a loaf of crusty bread.

It made a lot of soup. Enough to feed my family of 5 with a little left-over for my sons lunch today.

ENJOY!

Blue Turkey...

There is a Sub Shop near my house that makes the most amazing subs. Seriously amazing.

I created this recipe after craving my favorite sub from the shop. It's truly delish!



BLUE TURKEY PANINI

2 pounds sliced deli turkey
Danish Blue Cheese
Fresh Spinach Leaves
Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Red Onion, sliced
Honey Mustard
Panini Bread

Lay bread flat and spread on Honey Mustard... top with turkey, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach leaves, red onion and blue cheese. Fold over and throw on heated panini maker. Cook until it is warmed through. Delish!

If you don't have a panini maker, you can use regular sub bread.

I made these last week thinking there would be enough stuff left-over that we could eat it for lunch the next day. Didn't happen.

Goat Cheese

I am a total geek when it comes to themed meals. For example; on Fat Tuesday I made Jambalya. If there is a holiday that has food incorporated into it, I am all over it.

So, for the Oscars, I decided to make Oscar type foods. OSCAR Meyer wieners, BrokeBack Mountain Dew and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups... then my mind drew a blank. When I couldn't come up with anything else I just decided to make my favorite dips.


I made a fantastic dippy thing with Goat Cheese. It was heavenly! Goat cheese in the bottom of a casserole dish... marinara sauce poured on top... throw it into the microwave and VIOLA! A delicious dip. Eat it with some soft French bread. Yumm!

Panini Crazy

Once again, time has gotten the best of me. I bought a new computer with super speed, super memory and super fun things to play with and try, totally keeping me away from my blog. Then, my sweet daughter had her tonsils out last week and I played mommy-nurse for 4 days straight. The hardest thing about having a child that will not talk is yelling, "DO YOU NEED ANYTHING?" only to realize that she isn't going to answer. I must have walked a mile in my house on Wednesday. The best part of having a tonsil-less child... the naps! I napped when she did and it was fantastic.

Anyway, on to the Panini's. I have become the queen of Panini's. I bought my husband a Panini maker for Christmas. He loves the Panini's at Panera bread... I thought he would love to make them at home. Who was I kidding? So, a couple weeks after giving him the device, I decided to get it out and try it. I have had a blast creating different Panini recipes.

Lets hope I can remember a few so I can post them. Lets also hope I can figure out how to add pictures of my Panini's.

Blog Angst

I have been trying for what seems like forever to upload (or download, who knows) a picture to my profile. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it, so the picture used isn't new like the caption says, it is a picture that is almost a year old. It was the third time I tried to post it and I was getting tired of typing "FoodieWife and FoodieBaby", so I typed, "new picture" and gave it the old Fonzeroo. It worked! I finally have a face to put with my words, even if I am the only person that reads this.

I know I am not the only person. Hi Tom... love of my life. :)

To tie this in with the Foodie Theme... I am eating Honey Maid Chocolate Graham Sticks. Yummm. I bought them for the baby, who is no longer a baby, but a walking, talking, climbing one-year old. I didn't realize when I grabbed them off the shelf that they were chocolate. I thought they were regular graham cracker flavor... so I hid them in my secret stash of "Mom Foods" and have been enjoying them ever since.

new picture 

Me - the Foodie Apprentice...

My mother tells me that when I was born, I was small enough to fit into a shoe box. I am not sure if this is something I want to believe because it seems I may need therapy if it is true. She also told me that she and my dad would put me to sleep at night by driving their Volkswagen Beetle on the Autobohn... probably the reason I cannot drive more than 5 miles without feeling like I am going to fall asleep behind the wheel.

I started out small and stayed that way for a long, long time. In high school I was a size 7, which is considered smaller than... I don't know, someone bigger. My best friend in high school was a size 14. Not a "normal" size 14, a I-need-to-go-to-the-little-girls-6X-to-14-area, size 14. It was sick. In my eyes, my size 7 body was fat. Oh, how I wish I was a size 7 now!

My first marriage started with me being a cute-as-a-button-and-oh-so-happy size 10... it ended with me being an angry-soon-to-be-ex-wife size 22. Yes... indeed. I had some fertility issues and during my darkest days Dark Chocolate Dove Bars became my best friend.

I left my first marriage with the determination and drive to do something about myself. I went on a very healthy diet of Altiods and Mountain Dew. I dropped weight like this *snapping fingers* and snagged myself a Foodie!

On one of our first dates, my husband rattled off a list of his top ten favorite meals of all time. Oh. My. God. A top ten list of favorite meals??? WHAT?? Are you kidding me? People make lists? Not only did he have a list, he knew where he ate it and in what month and year and what he was feeling when he ate it.

For the first time in my life, I knew I was in Foodie trouble.