Pinteresting...Cauliflower pizza

 So, I've started doing a fresh produce co-op called Bountiful Baskets, which is amazing, and forcing me out of my comfort zone as far as what veggies and fruits I cook with.  Enter, Pinterest, giving me inspiration for turning potentially less than delightful veggies into delightful meals.  For example, the ever smelly cauliflower.

So, while the local family boys were on a disc golf adventure across the state, the local family girls (Tim's mom, Charlie and myself,) got to work on the cauliflower.

Step one: Grate half a cauliflower and a cup of cheese (we used mozzarella.)  Microwave the cauliflower for 6 minutes, then freeze to get to a temp you can handle.  Once it's cool, mix it with one egg and the cheese and form into an egg on a greased cookie sheet, and drizzle oil over the top to help it brown.  Bake it at 450 for 15-20 minutes, until it's golden brown.

When you've pulled the pizza out, switch the oven to broil.  Add your sauce, (we used pesto), cheese (we used 1 c. mozzarella, and a handful of feta and parmesan), and toppings (we used yellow pepper, tomatoes, and artichoke hearts, 

It was pretty tasty, although it tasted egg-y to me.  Also, we made the crust to thin to support the veggies, but clearly that's something we can fix in the future.  Over all, a convincing pizza that's way healthier.

Charlie wasn't wild about the pizza, but she did claim the yellow pepper as a pet.  Whatever keeps her happy, right?

Pinspired Hair Accessories Catch All

Charlie loves to accessorize.  She is super girly in her wardrobe choices, down to hair bows and jewelry.  I even found her wearing my wedding ring one morning while I was getting ready :)

All her clips and headbands were getting a bit out of control, so I turned to Pinterest. 

You will need:

An empty oatmeal container

Scrapbook paper

Double sided tape or hot glue

 Trim your paper to the size of the canister.  Adhere the paper.  Fill with stuff.  Easy as pie.

 And a few shots of the accessorizing girl in action.

Cooking from Pinterest

I've lately been attempting to take back the kitchen.  You know, fewer frozen pizzas, chicken nuggets, meatballs, fries...the garbage you take from freezer to microwave and then consume.  Thank you Pinterest for making everything look easy and delicious.

My first attempt:
Baked Pesto Chicken

I used:
1/2 c. Costco's pesto sauce, so maybe that's cheating, but it's fresh and so much more delicious than any other pesto I've ever had, so I call it good.
Two fresh chicken breasts (from Costco, they're packaged in groups of two, so it's perfect for us.)
1/2 c. Tillmook mozzarella

That's it.

Super easy:

Preheat to 375
Slice chicken breasts in half lengthwise
Spread your glass baking dish with 1/4 c of the pesto
Lay chicken breasts over the pesto
Spread remaining pesto over the chicken
Cover with foil
Bake 25-30 minutes, or until done
Add mozzarella, cook for 5 more minutes (broil if you want the cheese to brown and bubble)

This probably would have been amazing, if my meat thermometer hadn't been broken (which I discovered after about 50 minutes of baking...as it was, the sauce was good, and the chicken was...chalky. 

Fail.

On the side I made these:
Sliced Baked Potatoes

These cook at a higher temp than the chicken, so I tried to cheat the system by baking them for a half hour at the appropriate temp, then lowering it when I added the chicken and cooking them 25 minutes more.  Guess what happened?  Oh right...they didn't cook properly. 

Anyway, the how to:
As many potatoes as you want (I used 4 golden)
Slice from top to bottom, leaving just enough potato intact on the bottom to keep it from falling apart (I cut it like I would for scalloped potatoes, just not all the way through)
Drizzle with butter, olive oil, salt an pepper

Bake at 425 for 40 minutes

But, we got a pretty good idea of how they should have tasted, and we agreed they need more than oil, salt, pepper and butter.  Like...all the stuff you'd put on a normal baked potato.  But mostly, it needed cheese.  So, there you have it.

So, though this dinner was a fiasco, I have since made several more things that were successful.  Stay tuned!

Follow me on Pinterest!

*Pictures not mine - they're from Pinterest

Easter "Baskets"

Growing up, we had the same Easter baskets every year.  They were simple twiggy woven baskets, natural wood colored, and mine had a little purple ribbon tied to the handle.  They were always filled with Robins Eggs, speckled jelly beans, a giant hollow Easter Bunny and a stuffed bunny.  It was perfect.  I've looked for the perfect basket for Charlie, but haven't found it yet, so this year I went with an alternate idea.

The last few months, any store we go into, Charlie hones in on toy shopping carts and gleefully extends the length of our shopping trip by half as she maneuvers her goods through the aisles.  Her favorite, naturally, is the crazy expensive, but easy to steer, Melissa and Doug cart.

I got the idea to use a cart as an Easter basket, and started coming up with ways to make it happen.  Our local kids consignment store carries new M&D items, and the cart costs slightly less there than other places.  So, I sold a bagful of Charlie's outgrown clothes and shoes, and was able to get the cart for less than half the price. 

All that to say, this year's Easter Basket, ready to thrill a little girl:

Another thing I couldn't find was the perfect stuffed bunny, so I just grabbed a sock monkey instead, cause...well...it was cute.

 Also in here:
Twas the Night Before Easter VeggieTales movie from Papa
Elmo color flash cards from the Target dollar bin
Fisher Price Little People - a girl in an Easter dress and a bunny
Pride and Prejudice board book - yay!
Quack Quack Touch and Feel book
Color Wonder Markers (in a Grover cup from the Target $ bin)
Color wonder Paper
Two foam bunny shaped pairs of glasses from the $ bin at Target
A weird spinny light up egg that she latched on to at Target

Now, Charlie isn't the only one who gets an Easter Basket around these parts. 

I found this mug before Christmas, and have wanted to get it for Tim since then.  So, Ron Swanson becomes Tim's basket.  For myself (cause the Easter Bunny tends to forget me) I just got a little mug at Target that looks like a Bunny's hind quarters. 

Throw in some solid white chocolate bunny's, starburst jelly beans and Reece's Pieces carrots, and you have yourself some Easter love.