Homemade Dinner Baby Food! [FOOD, MOMLIFE]

Ingredients:

Avocado

Rice

Chicken

Broccoli

Milk

Purée the first four ingredients in a blender sparingly with milk. Add milk little by little until smooth.

Baby loved this! I got a small, personal-cup-sized blender this weekend and baby will be eating what we eat (as often as I can), going forward.

This made about 1 cup of food and she ate almost all of it. Super impressed. She's growing. So fast that I'm hoping this will stick in her belly to make it through the night :> xo

Toddler Chef Caesar Salad! - VLOGMAS 4, 2014! [VIDEO]

Weekend Mornings In The Kitchen! [MOMLIFE]

Weekend mornings are about the kitchen. :> Whenever I ask Nui Nui what she wants to do on the weekend, she says play kitchen together and she is always eager to make me a meal. As you can see in these photos, she literally just woke up :>

How do you like to spend your weekend mornings? Share in the Comments below, we'd love to hear! :> xoxo

Havarti + Tomato + Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich! [RECIPE]

After making this grilled cheese sandwich, it made me think of two things.

1. My culinary skills have not deteriorated— once a cook, always a cook.
2. mmm, I should open my own cafe :> (jk)

Recipe at bottom :>



Recipe time!

Ingredients:

Sliced bread, without holes (ie. ciabatta isn't great for grilled cheese sandwiches)

Butter

Havarti cheese, or any good melting cheese, ideally room temperature

Tomatoes, sliced

Pesto

Directions:

1. If you store your bread in the freezer (like I do) lightly toast your bread slices so it warms up but doesn't actually start to toast. You basically want to warm it up and get some of the moisture out of it, nothing more.
2. Generously spread butter over one side of each slice of bread, flip slices over once done (the buttered sides will be on the outside of the sandwich and will give it the crispness you want)
3. Spread pesto on each non-buttered side
4. Layer sliced cheese on each side. Be sure the cheese doesn't hang over the edge. If it does, the cheese will melt onto the pan when cooking and may be a pain to clean up (depending on pan type and cooking method); easier to just not let it go over.
5. Arrange sliced tomatoes on only one side
6. Flip the other bread/cheese side onto the tomato side with cheese facing down, onto tomato
7. Heat pan— either nonstick or cast iron— to about medium
8. Place sandwich in pan
9. Cover with lid— the lid will help seal the heat while the pan heats up to toast the outside bread, while warming and melting the inside of the sandwich
10. Be sure to check the progress of the sandwich. Butter is good when it's toasted but quickly burns when heated
11. Carefully flip sandwich when first side is cooked to liking. Press the sandwich down with your spatula, like a panini grill would, helping the melted cheese act like a glue to hold everything together and make a flatter sandwich. Recover while cooking.
12. Once the other side is pan-fried to desired consistency, take it out, run a knife down the middle and enjoy!

If you make this, send us a photo on Twitter or Instagram or via the Comments below. We'd love to see how it turned out! xoxo

Prepping Our After-Dinner Fruit Together! - VLOGUST 8, 2014 [VIDEO]

Every night, after dinner, we eat fruit. It's just something we always did when I grew up, and I guess you can say it's something we're passing down to Nui Nui. She almost always wants fruit after dinner. Recently, she's been very eager to help me prepare the fruit— grapes and strawberries are her current favs.

What's your favorite after-dinner treat? Share in the Comments below, we'd love to hear! :> xoxo

First House Guest + Homemade Pancakes!

It's odd to think but we had our very first house guest this morning since moving many eons (months) ago.

I made homemade pancakes for the occasion and they turned out decent, according to all. Auntie P was surprised I knew how to cook and do dishes. smh... :> And, no, no boxed mix or water added, this was from scratch and made with love :> lmfao.

Now that we are a little more settled, it was a good time having Auntie P in our home, which really feels like it (home).

(Cooking video with Nui Nui will be up hopefully soon! Be on the lookout for that :>) xoxo

What do you serve when you entertain in the morning/brunch-time hours? Would love to hear because I want to do this again! Share in the Comments! :> xoxo

Playing With Melissa And Doug's Stir Fry Slicing Set!

This holiday has been full of culinary cheer! :> With all this practice, I can't wait til Nui Nui can actually make me something to eat! :> xoxo

Beautiful Sky, Instant Oatmeal, Pasta Pasta, Tree Decoration! Kisses - VLOGMAS 16, 2013

Holiday Gift Idea! Star Wars Pancakes!

May the holiday carbs be with you!



Ok, so the gift doesn't exactly come with the fluffy delicious carbs but it is a gift that keeps on giving when you're making Sunday brunch for the kiddies (big and small) :>

Normally, I'm not a fan of playing with your food but these are too cute to pass up sharing. Rather than make the pancakes as such, though, I think I'd use them as pancake-cutters (analogous to cookie cutters) instead— make the cakes, then cut them out :>

It's affordable too! :> Williams Sonoma, On Sale now, $7.99.

We heart the holiday season! Have more cool gift ideas?

Share them in the Comments below, we'd love to hear! :> xoxo

Baked Chicken Drumsticks :>

Evidence I still know how to cook... :>



Since Mom's been away, I've actually cooked a little more than I thought I would. Honestly, I haven't cooked meat in a real long time. I only started eating it again when I got pregnant and before that I was vegetarian for nearly a decade. While I enjoy meat now, I realized why falling into vegetarianism was so easy.

In college, I was able to go the local market in NYC and buy a quarter pound chicken breast— it fresh for one sitting and I'd be done with it. Here, in the burbs, that is just not possible. I picked out the smallest package I could find but, still, it had 5 drumsticks. Between me and my daughter, we're not going to eat it all in one sitting and honestly, I'm not a huge fan of leftover chicken. I just don't think it keeps well. I'm sure there are a ton of crafty ways to deliciously reuse it but frankly, like in college, I want to eat it, cook it, and move on. Tomorrow is another day, full of potential, and the last thing I need is to have to deal with leftover chicken. Dramatic, I know, but really, vegetarianism is much easier when you're single (and lazy).

So, the recipe is simple.

Baked Chicken Drumsticks

Preheat the oven to 425degF.
Heat a pan with oil— medium-to-high heat.
Rinse and pat dry the chicken.
Carefully place in pan, covered or slightly covered.
Brown on all sides. My mom does 4 sides, I did 3-4.
Place on parchment-lined baking sheet after browned.
Sprinkle with some ground black pepper and the tiniest bit of salt.
Pop in oven and cook it until it reaches a safe-to-eat temperature (180degF).
Voila!

Suggested accompaniments: buttered corn, corn bread, pan-roasted broccoli, bread and butter, caesar salad.

What would you eat with this chicken?

Share in the Comments below, we'd love to hear! :>

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