Cooking for One

It's time for another food post!  With Marshall switching back to 12 hour shifts on nights, I have to once again sharpen my creative cooking skills and learn how to cook for one (and a half if you count Jill, hee hee).  Tonight was the kickoff of my culinary sharpening, with me running around peeking in the cupboards to see what I can scrounge up.  Tonight ended up being a slight revamping of a recipe I made up a couple months /\or so ago.  It's my very own pasta dish, tonight with whole wheat penne, chicken breast, and bell peppers in a fettuncine inspired sauce.

While the penne pasta was cooking, I cubed a chicken breast and placed in a skillet with olive oil over medium heat.  I used pepper to season the chicken, and browned it in the skillet.  Then, I added in half each of a red, green, and yellow bell pepper, when the chicken was 3/4 done.  Cook until chicken is finished and peppers are crisp tender.  I added in around a half teaspoon of prepared chopped garlic, and sauteed for just long enough for the garlic to turn clear.  Set aside.

Strain the pasta.  Using the same saucepan the pasta cooked in, and over medium heat, I added in 1/2 an 8 oz. tub of regular cream cheese, a just about equal amount of sour cream (I just added a couple heaping scoops with one of my large silverwear spoon), and 1 cup of milk.  This ended up making way too much sauce for what I needed, and would definately be enough for a regular 4 servings of pasta.  (This means I got to keep some extra for later!)  I added in a pinch of red pepper flakes, some pepper, a Tablespoon of dried basil leaves, and a teaspoon of garlic.  After the ingredients combines, I added in 1/3 cup of shredded parmesean, and stirred until completely mixed.  Lastly, and the most deliciously, I added in the zest and juice from one lemon.

Let the sauce cook, stirring frequently, until slightly bubbly.  Add in the chicken and peppers and the pasta, then stir.  Voiila! 

Quick, easy, and delicious.  The picture definately doesn't do the dish justice!  The lemon really brought the sauce up a notch.  The great thing with this, too, is that you can sub in other veggies if you'd like.  I really liked the sour cream in here also, it really made the sauce creamy.  And I accidently made enough to have leftovers for a midnight snack tonight.  Yummy!

Baby shower and Band Gig

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at the Ackley house.  We've been working hard on getting Jillian's room together.  It's funny to be getting someone "settled in" who's not quite here yet.  The more we work on her room, the more excited we become.

Last Sunday, the 7th, I had my baby shower.  It was a two-parter, with a shower being thrown here for me by a friend (thanks, Nikki, you rock!), and one being thrown for me simultaneously by my mom and sister back in Ohio (you guys rock, too!).  We used Skype to webcam the shower so everyone could see me open the gifts, which arrived by mail a few weeks ago.  It was a great time.  I felt very pampered and spoiled by all the attention, and I loved seeing Jilly get spoiled by everyone else.  I never realized how much fun it is as a mom to see other people love on your child and celebrate her life. 

I only took a few pictures, and I'm still waiting on some from the stateside party and the party here (hint, hint).  Here's a couple of the food and decorations.  Nikki made me a diaper cake that was absolutely adorable, and made a great centerpiece for the party.

Jillian got so many great things at her party.  Thanks to everyone for all the lovely gifts!  I can't wait to be able to use those gifts for her.  Only 11 more weeks or so until I'll be bringing her home.  She's a very lucky girl to have so many people who care for her and love her already. 

Last night Marshall and I had a gig with our band, Six Demon Bag.  I was super nervous, since it was our first gig as a band and my first gig pregnant.  It was a blast, and went great!  We got a lot of positive feedback from people, and everyone seemed to enjoy rocking out to our music.  I did wake up this morning and felt like I got hit by a train from all the dancing around yesterday.  I wouldn't change a thing.  Here's a couple candid pics of us rocking out.  Jilly seemed to enjoy herself, too.  She added little kicks and nudges throughout the night, and I'd like to think that was her way of encouraging me on. 

I'm definately taking it easy this evening.  In fact, I'll probably take it easy most of the rest of the week!  We'll see what this weekend has in store for us, but it sure won't be as eventful as last.  We'll probably start cleaning and preparing for my mom's upcoming visit in two weeks.  Can't wait to see her!

Halloween

Halloween was last night, and to celebrate we had some friends over for dinner on Saturday (Marshall had to work last night).  It was a great time.  I chose another Kraft foods healthy living recipe.  Can you tell I'm partial to their website?  I forgot to take a picture this time since I was busy doing other things, but you can check it out for yourself.  I made bruschetta and cheese stuffed chicken breasts.  They're really easy to make, and look really fancy when their done.  Soooo yummy!  To go with it, I threw together some organic spaghetti noodles, fire roasted tomatoes, some olive oil, fresh chopped basil, and a couple pinches of red pepper flakes.  I wasn't a huge fan of the noodles, but it was alright, and tasted good if eaten with a bite of chicken.  Of course, no Italian inspired dish would be complete without a loaf of mozzarella garlic bread.

We carved pumpkins this year, too.  This is our third Halloween as a married couple (although Marshall was in tech school in Texas for the first one), and our fourth Halloween living together, and we've never carved a pumpkin together before.  Marshall did the carving while I took pictures, since I think pumpkins are disgusting inside and am a baby about getting dirty (ask me again next year when I have a little one I'm chasing after!).  Here's what he carved.

Our friends each carved their own pumpkin also.  Here's Caitlin's:

And Alan's:

Their daughter Scarlet enjoyed the carvings also (in Jillian's high chair, it got a test run!):

And we convinced Marshall he should probably hold a baby before Jillybean gets here.  What a natural!

Our pumpkin carvings were a success.  We lit them up out on the balcony, and they looked very nice!

It was a good night.  Unfortunately, both Marshall and I had to work on Halloween, so we didn't get to pass out candy to the trick or treaters.  I did get home from work right about the middle of the timeframe for it.  Our neighbors were all decked out, and the husband was jumping out of a bush with one of those fake chainsaw things dressed as Mike Meyers and scaring the bejeesus out of the kids.  There was lots of high pitched squealing filtering in the house.  We've only got one Halloween left here in Germany before we move on to our next base, wherever that may be.  We enjoyed our last Halloween with just the two of us, and are excited that next year there will be three of us!

Chili and Cornbread

Well, I had fun writing about my dinner yesterday, so I decided to make a post about tonight's culinary fares.  And nothing's better on a fall day than a pot of chili with a side of cornbread.  Yum!  And it turned out quite well, despite the fact that I had to take a hiatus in the middle since I didn't realize I was missing an ingredient.

I got the recipe for Three Bean Turkey Chili from my sister-in-law Jenny shortly after moving here to Germany.  Since then, it's become a bit of a staple in our house.  Marshall loves chili, and it's kind of a comfort food of ours, especially in the winter.  Recently, I saw it in my Fall edition of Kraft Food & Family Magazine.  The ingredients are all the same, but the method of cooking is different.  Where the Kraft version calls for using a slow cooker, my sister-in-law's version, and the way I cook it, uses a saucepan.  You can find the recipe here.   

Over the past year and a half or so I've been making this, I've done quite a bit of experimentation with the recipe, and while the basic formula is the same, I've added a few things to it (big surprise, huh?).  First, I use a 2nd can of kidney beans.  Because there's more beans in what I make, I add a small can of plain tomato sauce into the mix also.  This is an addition I especially like, because I like my chilis tomato based and on the thinner side.  On top of all this, I use a 1/2 Tablespoon of each the chili powder and cumin instead of a teaspoon.  It's not a big change, but eh, it's a change nonetheless.  I also chop up some fresh cilantro to add into the mix, and keep a little bit on the side for a garnish in the end.  I let it simmer in the pot for about 20-30 minutes before serving, then add cheese and garnish with some chopped cilantro.  Marshall likes his with a dollop of sour cream, and I admit that sounds tasty, so next time I'll make sure to have some on hand, too.

And voila!  This is so simple to make, and so delicious.  What's not pictured here is the small side salad I made to go with it, which I ended up eating as this finished simmering.  (What?  Baby Jilly was hungry!)  As always, I try to choose meals that are healthy for us in addition to tasty.  The ground turkey is surprisingly yummy in this dish, although both Marshall and I have a thing for ground turkey.  The best part about chili: the leftovers!  I now have an excellent lunch for tomorrow before work!

Our first post!

Hey everyone!  I never thought I'd jump on this blogging bandwagon, but with us being so far away, I decided why not?  That, and I've had quite a few people asking me about my recipes and cooking and such that I decided to use this to share what I've been cooking.  So, this is kind of a cross between a blog about cooking and a blog about our little family.

As of today, I'm 26 weeks pregnant with baby Jillian.  That means in hopefully 14 weeks or less we'll be bringing home our little bundle.  We're both getting pretty anxious to see our Jillybean.  I'm getting quite a bit poofy myself.

As my 2nd trimester is now in it's final 5 days, I'm starting to feel a bit of the pains associated with being pregnant.  Poor Marshall is slowly transitioning to sleeping on the couch.  I keep trying to get him not to, but between me, Jillian, and the assortment of pillows it takes for me to get comfy, I can't say I blame him for wanted to sleep somewhere more comfortable for him.

Like I said before, this blog will also center around food.  I love food (that goes without saying), and one of the things I've learned about myself since moving to Germany is that I really love to cook.  I've also learned that I'm not too bad at it, and have really developed a passion for it.  My mom especially is always asking about things I'm cooking.  I do have one problem: I tend to improvise from recipes, so when people ask me for a recipe it takes me forever to explain what I change from the original.

Tonight I made Aloha Pork Chops from Kraft Recipes.  I did change it up quite a bit (as usual.)  I used boneless chops instead of bone-in.  I made a glaze to put on the chops before frying them, using about 1/4 cup of honey, 1 Tbsp. soy sauce, and a pinch or two of red pepper flakes.  I'm always slightly intrigued by the combination of honey and soy sauce, probably because I can't stand either of them by themselves, but they sure make one nice glaze!  After brushing the glaze on the chops, I added them to the skillet.  I used medium heat instead of med-high like the recipe calls for because it's been my experience with pork chops that the outsides tend to get slightly burnt before the insides are done and they tend to lose a lot of moisture.  I also cooked regular rice in a separate pan instead of using instant, since I do not like instant rice.  I added a bit of the chicken broth to the water when I made the rice to tie it all in together.  I also added a Tbsp. of soy sauce to the sauce after I got it mixed together.  Other than that, I pretty much followed the rest of the recipe.

Some things did go wrong for me with this dish.  Because I didn't use instant rice, the sauce was way too watery.  I ended up having to drain some of it off.  I think next time I'll use only 1/4 cup of chicken broth instead of 1/2 cup.  There's enough juice from the pineapple to make up for that easily, and I think it'll still taste the same for the most part.  In the end, though, this meal was tasty and delicious, and I would definately make it again.  It had a sweet and sour pork kind of vibe going on that I really enjoyed.  So did Jillian, who has been kicking and rolling nonstop since dinner, a good sign for sure.  I steamed up some organic broccoli to eat on the side, but found myself mainly ignoring that and sticking to the main course.  Between the pork, rice, peppers, and pineapple, there was enough variety that I don't feel a side was necessary.  Plus, it's one of Kraft's healthy living recipes, and provides a variety of food groups all in one: grains, meat, and fruits and veggies.  Add a nice glass of milk, and you've got a pretty balanced meal!  The peppers and pineapple were actually my favorite part of this dish. 

Marshall is working tonight, so the verdict will be out until he gets home on whether or not he enjoys it.  He doesn't like the texture of pineapple, so we've got that against us already, but he does like the flavor.  You got a lot of sweetness from the pineapple, but that's about it, the flavor is not overwhelming.  I think the Tablespoon of added soy sauce neutralized it a bit.

And here's the finished product.  Yum!