February 2022 Recap

This month was quick which is great because March is my birthday month AND it edges us closer to spring. We wished for more pond ice skating this season but it just wasn’t cold for long stretches.

Our pink cookies were the best thing I made this month. The Strawberry Crinkle Cookies were perfect for Valentine’s Day!

The Three Bite Rule - Strawberry Crinkle Cookies

I love love love grain bowls and the inspiration for Cobb Salad Rice Bowls was to winterize a salad. Plus, the build-your-own aspect gives everyone a bit of what they like (me = arugula, littles = cucumber).

The Three Bite Rule - Cobb Salad Rice Bowl

We made these cute little Greek Chicken Turnovers for dinner with hummus, chicken, tomato, oregano, and creamy caesar dressing. We had them with a little orzo/tomato/cuke/feta salad.

The Three Bite Rule - Greek Chicken Turnovers

The Little Girl:
She’s always packing backpacks with all the toys & books that’ll fit. We saw her do a lot of sock-skating around the house this month too. Lunches packed for daycare have been a struggle – she cannot be fooled with peanut-less pb.

The Big Guy:
He’s currently enjoying school vacation. He really likes school but appreciates getting to stay in pjs longer, and of course more play time at home. He’s 100% into hard boiled eggs right now. All of us have been enjoying nerf battles.

Goals:
Year of nail polish! I got a brick red (this one)
More international food inspiration: Greek turnovers & a little “international night” for the Olympics!
More soups/salads: We had blackbean soup that was so so easy.
More apps: some for the Olympics and some for the superbowl!
More fun drinks: tea – this one is my new obsession
Updating photos: nope
What I’m reading: I read Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu for bookclub – it was ok. Then I read Anne of Manhattan by Bria Starler which was more romance-novel-ish than I expected. Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley Ford was amazing, and powerful – a must read.
What I’m watching: all Olympics, all the time. We were grateful for more sleep once they ended.
What I’m listening to: showtunes with my workouts!

Cobb Salad Rice Bowls

Love a rice bowl – this inspiration was perfect for winter when we want something warmer than salad! Rice bowls are also filling and great to use leftovers! I subscribe to the goal of:
grain + protein + veg + drizzle = grain bowl

The Three Bite Rule - Cobb Salad Rice Bowl

Cobb Salad Rice Bowls
Ingredients: (serves 4)

1 1/2 cup rice/grain
4 breaded chicken tenders
4 hard boiled eggs
2 cups greens (I used arugula)
~3 tomatoes
~6 oz cheese
1/4 cup salad dressing

Directions:
Cook the rice and the chicken and hard boil the eggs. (My rice was in the pressure cooker for 10 minutes and my chicken went into the air fryer.)
While the rice, chicken, and eggs cook, chop the cheese, tomatoes, and greens.

The Three Bite Rule - Cobb Salad Rice Bowl

Assemble as you like and drizzle with dressing.
Enjoy!

Bacon, avocado, and pickles would all be great additions too but my avo decided a few days prior to this meal ‘it was now or nothing’.

The Three Bite Rule - Cobb Salad Rice Bowl

The kiddos had cukes versus greens, and they like theirs separate and to dip into dressing. I stirred some bacon bits into the rice when I made it the first time!

There’s a whole category (over to the right under “rice/grain bowls”). I pack them for lunch all the time too – I just scoop out the raw things and warm the rest and dump back on and drizzle. Voila!

Strawberry Crinkle Cookies

I love a Valentine’s Day treat! At the same time, I admittedly unfollowed an IG influencer who spouted “small” Valentine’s Day gifts for her kids – then the next thing we saw was coloring kits, playdoh sets, puzzles, stuffed animals, candy, play jewelry, and matching pjs. It is their job to get people to buy stuff – but none of us need the expectation out there that we’re showering the kiddos with so much stuff every single holiday. Cookies are the right answer – everyone can enjoy a soft pink cookie.

Strawberry Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients:

1 box strawberry cake mix
2 tablespoons flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
Mix the cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and extract together.

The Three Bite Rule - Strawberry Crinkle Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
Let cookie dough cool at least 10 minutes in the fridge.
Roll golf-ball sized balls (~1.5-2 inches) and gently roll in powdered sugar. Place onto a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray or with a silicone mat each one about 2 inches apart.
Bake 9-10 minutes and let sit on the baking sheet 1 minute out of the oven then carefully let cool on cooling rack.

The Three Bite Rule - Strawberry Crinkle Cookies

Enjoy!

I love these. They are delightfully soft and almost gooey. The strawberry flavor brings some summertime feelings to mid-February.

The Three Bite Rule - Strawberry Crinkle Cookies

Or make some Valentine’s Day Raspberry Muddy Buddies

The Three Bite Rule - Raspberry Muddy Buddy

Cheesecake Mousse Parfaits with Strawberries is a nice one too – with just a few ingredients!

The Three Bite Rule - Cheesecake Mousse Parfaits


Or some pink sprinkles onto yogurt would be the easiest way out yet there’s something about sprinkles that just makes everyone happy. 🙂

Greek Chicken Turnovers

These little turnovers had a few flavors we love, in an easy format, plus the kiddos helped and liked them. We used puff pastry, hummus, roasted chicken, salad dressing, and tomatoes.

The Three Bite Rule - Greek Chicken Turnovers

Anything in crescent dough is good in my book but the hummus in here was great! They would be perfect as an app or we had them with some orzo and some salad.

Greek Chicken Turnovers
Ingredients:
(for 8 turnovers, serves ~4 as a meal or 8 for apps)
1 tube crescent rolls (or crescent dough as a roll would make double sized ones)
1 cup roasted chicken (~1 chicken breast from a rotisserie chicken)
1-2 tablespoons creamy caesar dressing
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or fresh chopped oregano
1/4 cup hummus
1-2 small tomatoes

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350-degrees (or as the package directs).

The Three Bite Rule - Greek Chicken Turnovers

Chop and mix the chicken, the dressing, and oregano.
Unroll the crescents and lay each triangle flat, then spread hummus onto each triangle. Add chicken onto the wide part of the triangle and top with tomato slices and salt & pepper.
Carefully roll the wide end of the triangle and roll over onto itself towards the point.
Place onto a baking sheet.

The Three Bite Rule - Greek Chicken Turnovers

Bake for ~10 minutes (according to your crescent rolls) until golden brown.

The Three Bite Rule - Greek Chicken Turnovers

Enjoy!

We had these with orzo and some tomato/cucumber/feta salad in Italian dressing. They were so fun! The hummus is really subtle but adds some substance and keeps them from being too liquid-y and dripping.

The Three Bite Rule - Greek Chicken Turnovers

Each kid ate one. They’re not always excited about foods all together but these are flavors we like and they were a hit. They’re very, very into feta in salad.

They reheat well too – especially if you undercook a bit (maybe 8 min versus 10) and reheat in the oven or toaster oven. They don’t need to be served hot – room temp is good too!

Need an alternate along the same lines?
Cheeseburger turnovers
Broccoli & Cheese Pinwheels
Chicken, Bacon, Ranch turnovers

January 2022 Recap

January went by quickly! The little boy is 7! I got to work remotely a lot and we were thrilled for some snow for sledding and ice skating. I had so much joy from one single trip ice skating. It felt like an awakening and that we were more solidly in a state of kids versus toddlers. Just going ice skating where each kid could kind of do the activity without as much from us as parents felt like a shift. Getting back to something we haven’t done in years, outside, on a pond….it was magical. I loved it.

My fav dish this month was a sweet potato and bacon hash with an egg and maple aoli on top. We had this for a weekend breakfast but it would be perfect as breakfast-for-dinner. I’ll bow down to you if this were to be a weekday breakfast in your world.

The Three Bite Rule - Sweet Potato & Bacon Hash

I’m in the minority for this dinner, but I stand by it. French Onion Manicotti was so good – I know, I ate the leftovers for days. The fam was not whole heartedly into this one but I liked the flavors and a twist out of the ordinary.

The Three Bite Rule - French Onion Manicotti

I made a dessert too! Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Apple topping was delicious. I never really saw a cream cheese shortage around here so I went for it.

The Three Bite Rule - Cheesecake with Salted Caramel and Apple Topping

Olympics and Superbowl snacks are ahead for me! I’m so excited. I have one sweet treat planned for Valentine’s Day.

The Little Girl:
She’s so hit or miss on meals. Either she’s all in or takes a few bites and doesn’t care about more. Cheese is always a safe bet. I couldn’t believe how much quinoa she ate one night. This girl powered through T’s birthday cake. She love love loves her babies and stuffed animals. She is going to loooove Valentine’s Day since she folding her pictures into “cards” is a pastime of hers and she loves envelopes.

The Big Guy:
He had such a fun birthday! We did a family party and his ideas as a chicken nugget eating contest. He ate 14! Claire ate 5! Wow! Grandma made a Pokemon logo cake. He got nerf stuff and is loving it. He’s still eating hard boiled eggs most breakfasts. He really loved sledding and he’s very into going to the library.

Goals:
Year of nail polish! I got a deep moody navy (this one)
More international food inspiration: nope – unless we count our homemade crunchwraps?
More soups/salads: We had cheeseburger soup and crescents with sesame seeds!
More apps: not really, but Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl are coming.
More fun drinks: tea!
Updating photos: not this month.
What I’m reading: I read Bad Muslim Discount and it was incredible. I slogged through Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty – I love Anderson Cooper but skip the book, or maybe listen to it. Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons was so fun for a perspective I don’t automatically see – a self-help writer for LGBTQ dating sites from small-town Oklahoma.
What I’m watching: Project Runway
What I’m listening to: I really missed all the podcasts who were on break for December.