June 2016 Recap

This was such a good month! It was good for food, good for the little one, good for some fun family time, and such beautiful weather. I’m really loving this summer. The babe is such a fun age and he’s so happy to play, and go outside, and see things. It is so lovely not to be stressed about work events. I’ve been so glad to have some fun weekend plans and pool time. Mr. J is on an earlier train home which is ahh-mazing.

Mr. J’s annual birthday burger was a hit! I made a mac & cheese stuffed burger topped with caramelized onions & tomato.
The Three Bite Rule - Mac & Cheese Stuffed Burger
I seemed to be all about the breakfast with these sleepy pigs and blankets.
The Three Bite Rule - Sleepy Pigs in Blankets
And this peanut butter & nutella stuffed french toast.
The Three Bite Rule - PB Nutella French Toast
I don’t always focus on the side dishes but this quick bacon blue cheese pasta salad was a fun one.
The Three Bite Rule - Bacon Blue Cheese Pasta Salad
The little One: 
He’s so into playing outside. I got a lawn mower toy at a yard sale for a $1 and he loooves “mowing” the driveway. More than that, Mr. J assembled such a sweet swing set area for him just the other day. T could play there forever. We’re reading books non-stop. He’ll read about 7 in a row! He has more and more words coming. He starts waterplay at daycare and I know he’ll love it. He’s eating all things (minus eggs). Strawberry picking was a HIT. He ate his weight in strawberries.

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2016 Goals:

The Year of the: Seasonal Decor I got a red/white/blue bucket to be a napkin holder. My town is seriously into flag day so I’ll have to stock up.
do something a different way: I fit in more weeknight activities which helps me feel like I’m making the most of the summer.
drink more water: yes, I got a new water bottle and it has me totally drinking about 20 oz more water than usual each day.
make more interesting side dishes: yes! These corn & zucchini fritters were fun.
cook more soups & sauces: uh-huh! This sundried tomato pesto sauce was really great.
watch more movies: we watched Our Brand is Crisis
make working out a higher priority: I’m trying to not hate running. I’m keeping the runs short and do-able. I’ve spaced them out and am listening to my fav podcasts. So far so good. We’ll see what happens.

Root Beer Barbecue Sauce

I made this root beer barbecue sauce and made it very heavy on the root beer. Seriously root-beer-y. I think it jazzed up a weeknight, and definitely woke up these pork chops.
The Three Bite Rule - Root Beer BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 1/2 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
salt & pepper
2 cups root beer, and 1/2 cup reserved

Directions:

In a heavy pot, saute onion in a little olive oil over medium heat. Cook for about 5-minutes, until softened and translucent.
The Three Bite Rule - Root Beer BBQ Sauce
Add in garlic, ketchup, mustard, molasses, mustard, brown sugar, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar.
The Three Bite Rule - Root Beer BBQ Sauce
Add in pepper, salt, and root beer. Stir well and simmer for 45 minutes.
The Three Bite Rule - Root Beer BBQ Sauce
Add in the last of the root beer and remove from the heat.
Allow to cool, and enjoy!

I loved this! I think it had the root beer flavor, especially the sauce that we added after the cooking. We served it with our fav raw broccoli salad with raisins. I’m not so into cream soda, but I can see that being a hit in this too with a few tweaks.

The Three Bite Rule - Root Beer BBQ Sauce

Peanut Butter & Nutella Stuffed French Toast

I lean savory for breakfast 99% of the time but then I got this pb + nutella + french toast in my head and just couldn’t shake it. “I mean I could but why would I want to” . Sorry, that part of the song gets stuck in my head so I figured I’d stick it in yours.
The Three Bite Rule - PB Nutella French Toast

The easiest way to stuff french toast is to make a sandwich, and french-toast-ify it. Yup, that’s a thing. I made this for breakfast on Father’s Day..though it was just Mr. J and me for bfast. The little guy slept until 9:45am that Sunday. We’re so lucky. Normal is a bit more like 8am, which is also lovely. This was such a fast breakfast to make. It doesn’t even need to be a special occasion!

Peanut Butter & Nutella Stuffed French Toast (for 2)

Ingredients:

4 slices of bread (I used oatmeal bread)
4 tablespoons of peanut butter
3 tablespoons of nutella
2 tablespoons of butter
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
2 tablespoons maple syrup (plus more for serving)

Directions:

Assemble the peanut butter and nutella sandwiches.
The Three Bite Rule - PB Nutella French Toast
Preheat a large skillet or griddle pan to medium heat and add in the butter.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, cinnamon, extract, and maple syrup.
Dunk each sandwich into the egg mixture, flipping once, to fully saturate.
The Three Bite Rule - PB Nutella French Toast
Pan fry in the butter, flipping once to fully cook each side.
The Three Bite Rule - PB Nutella French Toast
Serve with more syrup and enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - PB Nutella French Toast
We enjoyed this on the deck with coffee (and the baby monitor) on a beautiful morning. I love these two flavors together and thought it was a really great treat. It fueled us up before an adventure to pick strawberries. Yum.

The Three Bite Rule - PB Nutella French Toast

Sundried Tomato Pesto Sauce for Pork Chops

I head to the grocery store with my meal plans in mind. “Plans” might sound intense, but one of those could include a sandwich or something easy though one of my last trips still had a hole needing another meal. I saw these nifty packages in the meat department of pork cutlets with capers, sundried tomatoes, and some sort of finishing sauce. I almost grabbed it and then I cheap-ed out. The price definitely included the convenience so I decided I could replicate on my own, for wayyy cheaper.
The Three Bite Rule - Sundried Tomato Sauce for Pork

I grabbed some thin-cut boneless pork chops and remembered a jar of sundried tomato pesto in the fridge. I skipped the capers. Couscous cooks in 5 minutes + some salad. Yay for dinner!

Ingredients:

4-6 boneless thin cut pork chops
1 cup flour
1 tablespoons garlic powder
salt & pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons of sundried tomato pesto, or diced sundried tomatoes
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 cup red wine
2 tablespoons fresh oregano (optional)

Directions:

Preheat a large skillet to medium heat with a few generous glugs of olive oil…about 1/4 cup.
Season the flour with garlic powder, salt, and pepper then dredge the pork into the flour and add to the pan.
Cook about 4 minutes before flipping to cook another 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and finish searing all the pork.
The Three Bite Rule - Sundried Tomato Sauce for Pork
Drain the oil and discard.
Deglaze with the chicken broth scraping the brown bits off the bottom of the pan then add in the garlic, sundried tomato pesto, salt, pepper, and a glug or two of red wine, and chopped oregano. Cook for two minutes on medium heat.
The Three Bite Rule - Sundried Tomato Sauce for Pork
Then add the pork back into the pan. Flip each one to cover in sauce. Reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes.
Then add the pork back into the pan.
Serve over couscous, rice, beans, pasta, or however you choose. Enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - Sundried Tomato Sauce for Pork

I liked jazzing up some ready-made sauce to make it a bit more interesting. I don’t use sundried tomatoes all the time so it was nice to have flavors we don’t eat weekly. The sauce is a little bit oily but tasty. The pork cooks quickly and using the same pan is totally the savior for this!

While I was searing the pork, our new & nifty Nest smoke alarms were notifying us on our phones that there was smoke accumulating. I hadn’t noticed my phone but Mr. J was able to quiet it from his phone, while tub-side with the little one. Phew! The last thing we needed during the bewitching hours was Mr. J having to get T out of the tub all soapy, while dinner burned, while I got the dogs to ease their panic. I guess these things are worth it!

Food Traditions

I saw that Dinner: A Love Story came out with a new book about How to Celebrate Everything which is such a fun concept. It got me thinking about food traditions and I was feeling like by not really hosting the big family holidays at my house that I don’t have that many food traditions and then it hit me: Friday-Takeout-DVR is totally a food tradition for my little family!

For years now…at least 5 years, possibly longer, on Friday nights Mr. J and I order take-out and catch up on some DVR. It started back when there was a chance of us going out but instead we chose to stay in, ordered delivery to our 3rd flood apartment, and watched some DVR from the week. Fast-forward to now where we plan, and more specifically, look forward to this tradition. The little one will think we’re dinosaurs when we describe that back in the day we sometimes would go pick up burritos, then pick out a movie at a movie place called Blockbuster. Ancient concept I tell ya. We schedule meals Monday – Thursday and Friday is our standing tradition.

::in my head I’m singing Tra-dition! Tradition!! a la Fiddler on the roof::

I think the combo of time for just the two of us together + the treat + the convenience of somebody arriving at our home with a sack of some deliciousness all wrapped up + DVR = now time-honored and just so special to us. The little guy goes to bed anywhere from 7:30-8 and falls asleep quickly so by then we’ve sat with him for his dinner, maybe played outside a little bit, got him into jammies and ordered food all timed so it’ll arrive once he’s in bed. I looooove family dinners when we either all eat together but this one night a week, adult dinners are set on the coffee table with the remote between. It is so fun for us home-bodies.

My fav parts:
1) the take-out selection:
A complex algorithm Sometimes this involves figuring who ate what for lunch so we don’t order the same category for dinner. Sometimes we narrow down by a few ideas texted with emojis. Sometimes we look towards the weekend to determine if we want leftovers for Saturday lunch. There’s only one place I can get a good Buffalo Chicken Wrap, so, there’s that.

2) the anticipation of food’s arrival
We peek out the windows, rationalize that it has to come soon, and judge the slow cars as possibilities. One person signs for it and this also includes somebody playing defense to keep the doggies away from door so they/Bailee doesn’t bark her head-off waking the little one.

3) Barely-any clean up. Enough said.

4) Amazing Race/Cutthroat Kitchen/Treehouse Masters/etc on DVR. Mutually agree-ed upon shows…no Bachelorette or River Monsters. It is a mindless few hours before seeing if I can stay awake for Dateline…also known as, the only show we ever watch-live.

I love the evolution of this. It started when we were young, was much appreciated while I was pregnant, and is equally cherished after putting the little guy to bed. What’s not to love?

I have a few food traditions in mind:
Father’s Day: the little one to picks out a fancy dessert for Father’s Day + a card/homemade card, in lieu of gifts
Mother’s Day: is it approved that I should ask for a breakfast sandwich + card/homemade card, in lieu of gifts?
First Day of School: sugary cereal that isn’t normally an option
Birthdays: Individually selected personal-treat-stash isn’t normally an option
Summer surprise night of going out for ice cream sundaes for dinner when it is just. too. hot.

Hmm. I might need a doughnut birthday cake for the weekend-day closest to my birthday. You know, I live for birthdays.