Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce

I pinned this recipe a little while back on Pinterest, and finally tried it out. I have to say, I'm very happy with it!

My husband is extremely picky when it comes to vegetables. He is a meat and potatoes kind of guy! He really only likes onions and peppers. He will eat a garden salad, but only with lots of dressing on it. As for broccoli, cauliflower, corn, carrots, peas, beans and all that good stuff... Forget it!  Sometimes I can get away with mixing them in with other things, but if the pieces are big enough, he'll pick them out. So when I found this recipe for a cauliflower sauce that supposedly tasted very similar to real Alfredo sauce I thought I had to give it a try. Guess what?! Hubby ate it!!! 

The recipe calls for vegetable stock or water, and unfortunately I didn't have veggie stock so had to use just water. I did find that it resulted in a slightly bland sauce and that was my husbands only comment, but I am positive it would taste all the more better if the stock was used instead. The fact that my husbands only comment was that it was on the bland side, and not "Yuk, that tastes like cauliflower!" is a huge win in my books!! So needless to say, I will be making it again and I will be sure to have vegetable stock on hand. 

I made fettuccini noodles and cooked cubed chicken to eat with this sauce. After my 21 month old daughter ate her helping, I asked if she wanted more, she shook her head no but kept scraping her spoon on her plate and licking the sauce off that she collected. So I grabbed a small bowl and put some of the left over sauce in it, and she ate it by the spoonfuls! Double win! Extra vegetable helpings, I'll take it! She won't eat chunks of cooked cauliflower, not that she doesn't like the taste, but I think she just doesn't like the look so refuses to try it. Since I know she'll eat this sauce, I saved the leftovers and plan on mixing it in with macaroni and cheese to make it more healthy. 

I can't wait to try some more recipes out to use with this sauce! There are more meal ideas on this blog. Check it out!

Fried Rice and Chicken

Hello everyone!

I've been sick for a week with a nasty cold, unfortunately, my daughter has been too. So on top of feeling crumby myself, I've had to deal with a cranky toddler too. Not fun! I was having a crappy weekend, I was so grumpy and so OVER being sick but each day was worse than the last. There seems to be no end to this cold. Since I'm pregnant I can't take any medication, so having no quick fixes added to my pity party. Having no immune system from being pregnant doesn't help either!

I've been drinking hot water with lemon to sooth my throat and having some tea. Little Monkey has been getting straight juice to increase her vitamin C intake. I usually water down her juice when she gets any, but this week she gets full strength! 

Anyway, I kept reminding myself that I was in charge of my emotions and could choose to be happy, but it wasn't working! Haha! I'm in better spirits today though.

I have another recipe to share.... Fried rice with chicken. It's very simple to make and the beautiful thing about this recipe is you can change it up so easily by substituting different vegetables, or using beef instead of chicken, or not adding meat at all. Adding more veggies to make it a full meal or keeping it simple for a side dish.

4 cups cold cooked rice

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 clove garlic, minced (optional)

2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion

2 cups cooked and cubed chicken (optional)

2 cups cooked veggies (optional)

2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as vegetable or canola 

Heat a wok or large non-stick skillet over high heat.

When oil starts to "shimmer", turn the heat to medium-high.

If using garlic and/or green onions add to oil now and stir.

Add chicken and vegetables if using and mix well.

Quickly add rice and continue to stir until rice is separated and coated with oil or mixed evenly with chicken and veggies.

Sprinkle soy sauce over rice and stir until distributed well throughout rice.

Loop Baby Toy

I feel like I should apologize for all my crochet craft posts! I'm just so obsessed with this art form that its been the only crafting I've been doing lately. I'd like to say I'll be trying out some different crafts soon but from now until Christmas, I'll be busy crocheting. Between Christmas gifts and items for the new baby, I have a long list of patterns I want to get done!

Here is a quick baby toy I made up for a friends new baby. She has supported my crocheting by buying a lot of booties and other baby items so I wanted to give her something to open up for baby when I visited her in the hospital. She had kept baby's sex a secret, so when she announced the arrival of her baby boy, I needed something I could make quickly in boy colors so I could take it to the hospital that day. 

If you'd like to make this baby toy, follow the link to the pattern.

Almond Sugar Cookies

One of the lovely blogs a follow posted about these cookies. It's a rainy day here and I'm babysitting, so while the kids played and kept each other busy,  I figured I'd try them out.

They turned out wonderfully. They have a lovely taste with a hint of almond extract.

I had to alter the recipe because I did not have cake flour or shortening. Instead I used all butter when it called for butter and shortening and all-purpose flour in place of the cake flour. I also didn't have raw sugar so I rolled the cookies in regular granulated sugar. Worked perfectly!

Check out the recipe here  if you want to try them out for yourselves. I'm sure you won't be disappointed if you do!

 

Both kids are napping right now so I get some time to myself to blog and indulge on fresh cookies! Ha ha. 

Life is good!

Monkey Love!

I finally got around to making the monkey from the same pattern as the doll I made recently. If you missed that post, you can check it out here!

I had wanted to make the monkey in a deep pink yarn, but didn't think I had enough of it, and didn't want to run out mid-project. So I looked through my yarn stash and decided to go with this bright deep blue. It seemed to have a bit of a shimmer to it, so I thought it would look very cute.

 

I made a small rosette to add a pop of pink. It ended up being a little too big for my liking, but its not too bad.

 

 

I still want to make an all pink one, so I'll have to do that after I get more of the pink yarn. I am going to give this fun monkey to my daughter for her 2nd birthday. She caught a glimpse of it when I finished it and already wanted to play with it. I'm hoping after its put away in a closet for a few months she'll forget about it and still be surprised on her birthday!

 

 

Have a great long weekend everyone!