The Coconut Cake...

The finished cake

I completed the cake.  The frosting was yummy, and it actually looks okay besides being a little crooked.  It is a three layer cake. 

Thank you for those of you who offered me different recipes.  Had I had time and the appropriate ingredients, I would have tried them out.

Dinner Tonight

When I spent a summer in Oregon back in the college years, I got to eat fresh yummy salmon a few times and fell in love with it even more than I already liked it.  I hated salmon crochets as a child, but fresh salmon, though an acquired taste, is delish.  Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon (tastier and healthier than farm raised) was on sale at Publix this week, so this is what we had for dinner:

Pecan brown sugar glazed salmon, brown rice, and broccoli.

It was yum-yummy.  Speed Racer did not eat much of it, but Princess made her plate all clean.

Our friend, Ms. Jill, gave us some peaches, okra, and tomatoes from her grandfather in law, so I made a peach cobbler for dessert.  Thank you, Jill!  Fresh fried okra will be on the menu soon!

It's all from scratch!  (not the prettiest)

A Trip to Alfredo's

I stink at meal planning and am even worse at it when I'm pregnant. I'm frankly not good at much of anything but being pregnant when I'm pregnant and in the final stages. Hubby has been improvising on meals a lot of nights. Last night we went to Alfredo's Pizza Cafe in Pelham. It's inexpensive and if you know what to order, you can get some pretty good food too. But that's really beside the point.

Hubby gets Baked Ziti. I get a spinach and meatball calzone. Princess gets a slice of cheese pizza, and Speed Racer gets a slice of pepperoni pizza. Unless we have a coupon, these are the things we would always get. Very often the kids are forced to try things out of their comfort zone due to our frugality. Last night we had no coupon, so no forcing of new things was endured.

Hubby very often likes to use his straw paper as a projected missile towards my cleavage. He very rarely rings said target, so it is always a fun game for him. Last night, he launched the missile, and Princess saw the paper being hurled toward her mommy. She said very adamantly:

"DON'T THROW THINGS AT MOMMY! SHE'S YOUR GOOD WIFE, AND YOU LOVE HER!!"

Then she proceeded to ball up her own straw paper and hurl it at hubby and said,

"NOW. IT IS FINISHED!"

We got a good laugh at her defensiveness of mommy.

I didn't realize I was about to encounter another bloggable moment, BUT I did.

The food arrives, and hubby grabs a napkin and begins to blot Speed Racer's pizza. Unfortunately or fortunately, I'm not sure, this is one of hubby's quirks. He always blots the pizza before eating it, especially if said pizza is of the pepperoni variety. So he was thinking that it was an act of kindness to be blotting of his son's pepperoni pizza. Then Speed Racer grabs his own napkin and begins to blot his pizza on his own. Daddy lies and tells him it was only to help cool down the pizza. All of the food is piping HOT, so then Princess decides to grab her own napkin and begins blotting her pizza to help cool it down.

I am literally just staring in amazement at what is going on. Hubby is slightly embarrassed, and I have to explain that no blotting does not really cool down the pizza. Hubby then explains that he just wanted to get the grease off of the pepperoni - that Princess really has no need for blotting. It was a very strange moment. I'm not sure if I would like my kids to follow in the blotting tradition, but they were very blindly doing what daddy does, which had some sentimentality attached to it.

{My brother in law and I are known for ribbing Hubby for his practice of blotting, even though I do understand that sometimes it is necessary with pepperonis.}

Caramel Chocolate Apples

Today we made caramel chocolate apples. We made the caramel from scratch, and it was quite tasty. Even though it is an extra effort to make it from scratch, I think I will do it again because it was so flavorful. I am not a candy connoisseur, but the recipe I followed made it very easy to make the caramel. However, I did not quite get the chocolate right. You can see in one of the photos that it is starting to slide off of the apples. I'm not sure why. I saved them by putting them in the refrigerator to set. Of course, I will try it again, but I think it is because I got the chocolate hotter than recommended and there was not enough fat in the chocolate. I tried to temper it with no success. Whatever the case, I still think they look appetizing, and they are definitely quite yummy as well! According to Daniel, they cut nicely, and all of the caramel and chocolate stayed on instead of falling off.

The kids LOVED them! And even though it was a time consuming process that was not the kid friendliest, they loved loved loved eating the caramel as I dipped the apples.

Princess is very excited because she is sending one to her teacher, Ms. Melanie, tomorrow.

You can find the recipe I used here. For tips on tempering chocolate, you can visit here.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today the kids and I made cookies. Warning: They are really tasty, but not too healthy! Last Friday, the kids, my mom, my sister, and I went to Homestead Hollow, and I bought the kids aprons. As an aside, Princess bungee jumped! Back to the cookies - we were all suited up and ready to go, when I realized we were out of sugar. We made a quick run to the store, and then came home and baked these delicious cookies from a recipe I found inside the butter box. The kids helped me put the groceries away, and we had so much fun doing it. I have been trying to get them to help me all the time, because they really seem to enjoy helping me, and it keeps them out of trouble. I used a mix of whole wheat flour and regular all purpose flour, but other than that, I stuck to the recipe. They are Jumbo sized and very delicious. The kids got to wear their new aprons. Pea was a little distracted after going to the store, but Princess was solely focused on the cookies.

Pork Flautas

I am an aspiring granola girl, which means if I could do everything most naturally, I would try to attempt this, just because I tend to think that it is healthier that way. BUT, with that said, I am no granola girl, and from all appearances I probably don't even look like I am aspiring to be one. Very rarely but occasionally I buy organic foods. I would love to eventually go to whole organic foods, but it is a slow process for me. Some "green" things that I do are: use reusable shopping bags, use CFL light bulbs (though these have not lasted even a year), only wash laundry in full loads, turn the water at about 50% of its full flow when I shower, buy free range and grain fed eggs when possible, attempt to eat all the leftovers when we cook meals, buy consigned clothing and toys (though not every piece), keep and use things until they are useless or donate items we can no longer house, unplug all nonessential items (even a cell phone charger that is not charging is using electricity), and of course, turn the lights off when I leave one room to another. So just your average run of the mill "green" person here.

Eating all the leftovers is challenging because my children, especially Princess, do not like leftover food. I am terribly uncreative at re-inventing foods too. However this week Boston butt pork roasts were on sale at Publix. Yesterday we had pork roast, spinach, and butter peas for dinner. Tonight we had pork flautas (or taquitos) with black beans (shown above), and tomorrow night we will have bbq pork sandwiches with wheat buns and a veggie. Then the roast will be fully consumed. Maybe next time we will freeze a portion of it, but really we've had so much variety, even I have not dreaded eating the leftovers.

Roasts are an easy dish for a busy mom. You can just put them in the crock pot or oven for hours, and they come out nearly perfect every time. And the pork flautas are probably not the healthiest, but I am sure they are healthier than a prepackaged version. Here's what we did. We took some of the pork roast, shredded it, and sprinkled it with lime juice and garlic powder. Next time I think we will use more of the taco seasoning spices. We took some "raw" corn tortillas, which you can get at Wal-Mart or a Mexican market, and rolled the meat inside the tortilla. We used a toothpick to secure the roll, and then we placed them in hot oil. (We only use canola or olive, and olive heats too fast to fry well.) They would be better deep fried, but we shallow fried them and they turned out well. We served with taco sauce, sour cream, and shredded cheese, and they were Yum-Yum!

The idea was a combination of mine and Daniel's. He has taken to ordering pork when we eat Mexican out and suggested pork tacos. I bought the corn flour wrappers on a whim and thought it would be fun to try making flautas. It turns out that he could wrap them the best, so I cooked them as he wrapped them. Teamwork! I don't say this often enough but he is my best friend, and I think we make a great team!

Our dinner....

I have been dieting,

so Daniel has been eating some interesting creations this week.

Usually I make the kids eat the same thing,

but they had their own dinobite meal instead.

We thought this one was pretty, and it was pretty delicious too.