Some Puerto Rican food

After going to a great restaurant a few days ago, Papa and I have been craving rice with plantains. So we decided to make an extra yummy dinner tonight.
Yellow rice with plantains
 

Tostones

Papa also made salsa, guacamole, and a lemon glaze in the molcajete as well.

We had tortilla chips so we didn't make any tonight. No complaints here!

mini tacos

Continuing with our muffin tray kick, we decided to make mini taco salads today.

We used:
Pam spray
4 inch circle cookie cutter

12 La Banderita Flour Tortilla - Ricas Flour Tortillas - Small Size
Kraft - Shredded Fat-Free Cheddar Cheese,  42g
Old El Paso - Spicy Fat Free - Refried Beans,  181.56g

& our Individual toppings- lettuce, salsa, sour cream, avacado, ortega sauce



Now What?

First, we used the 4 inch cookie cutter to cut out the taco bowl from the tortilla.

(*Side Note* We then put the extra tortilla on a cookie tray with foil and a little salt and baked it at 350 until crispy to make chips which we keep in a big zip-lock bag and add to as we make them)

(*Extra side note, my camera died so I don't have pictures of the next few steps.)
Then we sprayed each muffin tin cup with Pam spray and put a tortilla circle in each one. Then we put 15.13g of refried beans and 3.5g of shredded cheese into each shell.
Next, we baked them at 350 for 20 minutes (until the tortillas are crispy)

When they came out of the oven, I popped them onto the plates and added whatever topping we wanted. For myself and Pudge, it was lettuce,sour cream, and salsa!
 

Breakfast muffins

I've been on a breakfast muffin kick lately. Today the kids helped me make

 Spinach, Green Pepper, Mushroom, and Cheddar Cheese muffins.

(12 muffins)

We used:

Eggs - 10 large

Baby Bella Mushrooms, 2 oz

Green Bell Pepper, 57 g

Spinach, 0.5 cups

Sargento - 4 Cheese Mexican Reduced Fat Cheese

42 g (1/4 cup)

Black Pepper, 1/2 tbsp

Oregano, dried, 0.5 tsp

Now What?
We used the food scale for some of the ingredients so that Jorge could help make sure that we had the right amounts by weight vs. using measuring cups. So I cut everything up and then we had a bowl that we would zero the scale out with it on and then fill with whatever we were measuring.

 

Then we mixed all of the dry ingredients in the bowl that we had used to weigh and then filled the muffin cups evenly (as evenly as we could...)

 

Next we broke 10 eggs into the bowl, mixed them together, and then poured them into the muffin tins.

Baked at 350 for 20 minutes. And ended up with this goodness:

We had originally made them to take with us in the mornings however Papa and Pudge got into them after dinner leaving only a few...

Parfaits for breakfast

The kids asked for parfaits this morning so we through some together for them. Since Little Bear can't have dairy (or soy), we used his coconut yogurt and then added some vanilla granola and blueberries. Little Bear and Pudge both asked for more!

 

 

Fish and Chips

The kids and I had bought walleye at the farmer's market and Papa Bear immediately wanted to use it to make Fish & Chips. So tonight, he filleted and beer battered the fish and then chopped and fried some yukon gold potatoes to make fries. Then we steamed wax beans and corn on the cob

The kids all loved it. Little Bear wasn't too sure about the wax beans but soon he started dipping then in ketchup and asked for more! Pudge loved the corn on the cob and Papa Bear taught him how to eat it like a typewriter (complete with the "Ding!" at the end of each row). Pequeño had a little variation of everything (pureed corn & beans, fish without breading, and the inside of the fries) and was grunting for more before his tray was empty.

Today's good

Days like today (the 8th anniversary of my cousin Dulcey's death), it's hard to remember the good things. But thanks to my munchkins and wonderful husband, we had quite a few good things happen today.

The kids and I spent the afternoon at one of the farmers markets and stocked up on lots of goodies.

Then later tonight Little Bear and I watched the township's fireworks from our deck while the younger kids slept.

Then, Papa Bear came home after the kids were asleep bearing a gift of mini roses.

Impromptu Van Picnics

Today was one of those days where we were running around trying to get a million things accomplished and the kids were not on the same page. So when we pulled into Home Depot (which has a hotdog place attached to to store) and and the kids started whining that they were getting hungry (after having eaten a fruit salad and pretzels snack less than ten minutes beforehand), we gave in and had a picnic in the back part of our van. This (and the 7 hours a week we spend playing here with toys while Little Bear is at his therapy school) is the reason that we don't have one of the middle seats in the van. Instead, we lay a blanket over the open space and sit down to have impromptu picnics.

No, these are not healthy food choices.

Stovetop Jiffy Pop!

When the kids went grocery shopping with Papa Bear, they came home with a few treats. One was popcorn that could be cooked over the stove or a campfire. Since we aren't going camping for a few weeks and the boys (Papa included) are all too impatient to wait that long, they made it over the stove top for a snack. At first, they weren't too impressed but as the foil started to grow, it became awesome!

Little Bear was concerned that it was going to explode but his fears were easily calmed. Once it  finished popping, we all dug in. It was determined that it was a "much better" way to cook popcorn than in the microwave bags but Little Bear wasn't quite sure whether or not it was cooler than Abuela's popcorn machine that "spits out" the popcorn. Either way, we plan on bringing some of these on our camping trip.