Kale Orzo Pasta Salad

When we lived out west we were absolutely in love with kale.  Surprisingly I had never had it until we moved out west.  Today I decided to make it for the first time in a pasta salad.  It was way easier than I ever thought it would be.  Going to Whole Foods with my "L" was the hardest part.  This is a great salad that really keeps you full all day long.
Below is the link to the recipe:  ENJOY!
Kale Orzo Salad

Strawberry Mango Salsa

Because i'm thinking of summer and i'm hoping we skip through this crappy winter/spring the midwest has been putting up with I decided to make a summer salsa from one of my favorite bloggers:  Jenna from Eat Live Run.
Below is the link to her site:
Strawberry Mango Salsa
Strawberry Manga Salsa...YUM!

Butternut Squash Baby Food

I'm baaack!  Well it's been about a year since my last post...what could I have possibly done in the past year:
1. moved out west
2. got pregnant with twins...yes twins...
3. gave birth to twins...yes twins...
4. moved back to the midwest to be near family
5. survived one of the snowiest winters in the midwest in years

Well, here you all go with my first post back as a mother of 3 kids!  I'm not too sure how many posts on cooking i'll have since i'm just trying to get back into cooking after having the twins, but for sure the beloved pop culture posts will be abundant (since that's all I watch in the middle of the night while feeding an infant).
When I had my first child I made all his baby food.  Call me crazy, but I have decided to do the same for my twins...I may be crazy after all...  Anyways C doesn't like rice cearal and L loves any food you put in front of her so first pureed food is Butternut Squash.

Pureed Butternut Squash for babies
Ingredients:
Butternut squash (big or small)
8oz of water

Directions:
preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or one of those silicone baking mats.  Slice the Butternut in half and remove all seeds.  Place on parchment paper or baking mat cut side down and bake for about 1 hour (until the squash gets bubbly).  Put the squash and water in blender or food processor and puree until desired consistency.
I take an entire weekend and puree food and just spoon them in tons of ice cube trays and pop them in the freezer (covered in plastic wrap).  So easy and great for baby!

Pineapple Chicken Skewers

This recipe is sooo easy.  I'm not 100% sold on it, but i'm also not a fan of chicken.  I feel like I just need to have it once a week so I'm always in search of that one recipe that will blow me away.  This was was okay.
Below is the link to the recipe on allrecipes.com
Pineapple Chicken Tenders

P.S. I apologize for the terrible picture.  I was super hungry and really just wanted to eat...

Giada's Lemon Spaghetti

Okay I love lemons, but this recipe might only be good for someone who really really loves lemons.  I think I made that sour face you do when you bite into a lemon every time I tasted this pasta.  I even thought I was being adventurous and added tomatoes and asparagus to the dish.  I'm not sure if I did someone wrong, but you can bet that we will not make this again in our house. 

English Muffin Pizza

What do you do for lunch when you have no food in the house.  Well you make something you did back in grade school.  Yup, English Muffin Pizzas.  Super easy and fast...

English Muffin Pizzas
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Split the English Muffins in half and place on cookie sheet.  Top with pizza sauce (I used spaghetti sauce), cheese and pepperoni (of course I did not have pepperoni so these were just cheese pizzas).  Pop them in the oven for about 8-10 minutes or until the cheese has melted on top.

Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken and Green Beans

Well...Someday I will get grilled chicken right.  Almost every time we grill chicken it comes out dry and tasteless.  Tonight was that night.  Just blah!
And to top everything off the green beans that we got at the farmers market had no taste what so ever!  Definately not Grandpa Bud's green beans (my mouth starts watering when I think about them). 
Note to self: remember to ask my parents to ship me some of Grandpa Bud's green beans this summer.
Honestly the only good part of this meal was the grilled sourdough bread....Ah well...