kelly lynn creations

rice crispies and fondue - who knew!

This week was Wine Wednesday with the ladies. It's been awhile since we have gotten together and we kicked it off with our typical Fall Fondue night - just a few months behind schedule. As usual, it was a great evening filled with lively conversation and plenty of food.

My co-worker is a fondue expert so I chatted with her in preparation for my chocolate fondue and all the fixings. To my surprise, she included her husband in the email string since he is the dessert expert of the house. Impressive! Well, I must say his suggestion was a huge hit. I brought rice crispy treats to dip into chocolate fondue. That's right, the classic rice crispy treats. It was delicious and there wasn't even a crumb left from my tray of treats when I left. 

The night before, I enlisted the kid in making the rice crispy treats. It wasn't hard to figure out what he was after. He gobbled up quite a few marshmellows along the way!

Good times! One of my favorites was dipping bananas into butterscotch fondue. Yum. The dark chocolate and amaretto fondue was pretty delicious as well. I hope the next Wine Wednesday comes sooner then the year and a half hiatus we just had.

After getting rear ended on the way home from work, it was nice to have a night of dipping yummy treats to take my mind off it. Luckily, I was at a stop so there is little damage to my car - although I had quite a headache after it happened. Now, I just have to go get my car and myself checked out with all my spare time!

cooking: crockpot part 1

I've heard my friends go on and on about how much they love their crockpot. Well, guess what I got from Santa? I've managed to try an artichoke dip and a classic pot roast and they were pretty tasty. When I got ready to try my favorite - pulled pork, here is what happened:

After prepping the recipe and placing everything into the crockpot, I noticed some broth had spilled onto the display. I quickly wiped it off and realized the unit turned off. Not a good sign. Sure enough, I could not get it to turn back on again. I unloaded everything, put it in yet another dish and set it in the fridge and then managed to find my receipt to return it.

Thankfully Bed, Bath and Beyond let me return the item and I just bought a classic crockpot. Once I got home I had to setup the ingredients in the new crockpot and then clean my dish that I had been storing everything in. Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated at this point.

It's a good thing the pulled pork turned out as good as it did after all that! So far everyone seems to like what I've made, I just need to plan ahead to use it. I'd like to use it once a week to make enough for leftovers. I've found several recipes on this site and I really like that the recipes don't contain processed ingredients which so many of the crockpot recipes do. 

making nachos

The kid loves nachos! This summer, we got into the habit of going out for nachos after our evening swimming routine. It was a great way to sneak foods in that the kid didn't really know he was eating.

I've been meaning to make some at home and when I found this recipe that is just what we did. Here he is putting the bean dip on the chips. 

I wasn't able to convince him to add the guacomole to his chips, but he did eat his entire plate and he was really excited about making his very own nachos.I will have to involve him in the kitchen more often!

the revolution

Have you joined the revolution yet? We've been talking about Jamie a lot at our house lately. Both hubby and I have been watching his show. If you've missed any you can watch them here. We have even involved the kid in Jamie's Revolution. Check out his recent quotes: 

"What would Jamie say if he found out we just ate a donut!"

This totally cracked me up. We have a favorite donut spot that we stop at on occasion with the kid. After my 11 mile run this week I was seriously craving a donut, so we made the stop yesterday. We told the kid that Jamie would be fine as long as we weren't eating donuts every day. I honestly can't remember the last time I ordered a donut for myself, the kid on the other hand probably eats more then he should.

"I think Jamie should come to my school because their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches come in a bag!"

We have a wellness team at our school and I know they are trying to make changes in the cafeteria, but it is really tough due to budget constraints. We used to let the kid chose 2 days a week to have hot lunch and now I only offer it when I run out of time to put a sack lunch together. So far he isn't complaining...

I may have to test out Jamie's app for my Itouch, I can't cook without a recipe and this could really help when I'm trying to figure out what is for dinner. Go Jamie!

ellie krieger's so easy: review

I picked up Ellie's cookbook today at the library. (I actually forgot I had it on hold. I had ordered her other cookbook a few weeks ago and nothing really jumped out at me.)

This cookbook was different. I made two recipes from it the first day I brought it home from the library.

recipe #1: cheddar apple quesadilla

I get tired of making sandwiches for lunch and the photo looked good, although I was only able to find orange sharp cheddar not the yellow cheddar as shown in the photo. The recipe is simple; granny smith apples, sharp cheddar cheese and whole wheat tortillas. Heating up the apples gives them a great texture and the combination of the cheese really hit the spot. I will be using this for future lunches. (Hubby is voting for brie cheese to replace the cheddar - that would be good!) 

recipe #2: beef taco salad with chunky tomato dressing

I really like taco salad and I'm always looking for a taco recipe that eliminates using a package taco mix. The recipe was really easy to put together. Next time, I would add a few more spices and consider using it as my taco filling instead of a salad. I served the kid a cheese quesadilla and meant to give him some of the black beans, but I forgot. Lately he has been loving beans, so I've been trying to incorporate them more in our meals. 

When I'm trying out these new recipes my goal is to feed our entire family, which includes a finicky 5 year old boy. I always put things on his plate that I know are winners, but he is also expected to try new things along with Mom and Dad. So far it is working out pretty well and we have found some new foods that he has really liked. 

recipe #3: wheat berry salad with lemon-cumin grilled chicken

I have never used wheat berries before and was interested in giving them a try. Since the wheat berries take an hour to cook, I got them started right away. While they were boiling, I prepared the chicken and the rest of the salad. Hubby grilled the chicken and we were good to go. The cookbook actually put this in the lunch section, but we had it for dinner and then added pita bread for lunch leftovers the next day. The kid wasn't as wild about the salad, but he did manage to eat some of the chicken.

I still have several other recipes I want to try out in Ellie's cookbook. This post from Gluten-free Girl and the Chef has some high praise for a number of Ellie's recipes that I have yet to try. This may be another cookbook I need to pick up, along with Jamie's Food Revolution...