A Decade!

The Three Bite Rule turns 10! Can you believe it?!?! Crazy!

I’m so grateful for YOU! I love hearing back when somebody made a recipe or when something caught your eye. This lil blog is for fun and is my passion project.

Superlatives!
Most popular (aka, repeatable): Roasted Garlic Honey Sauce! This is a monthly recurrence here. I roast garlic even just in the toaster oven and mixing with honey, olive oil, and butter. This sauce is to-die-for. We put it on a white pizza quite often or it is great on roasted veggies or on a panini or it freezes well too!

The Three Bite Rule - Honey Garlic Sauce Pizza


Most photogenic: Easy Homemade(ish) Ramen it uses shredded chicken, mushrooms, soft boiled egg, along with a ramen packet and Thai seasoning packet. It is so good and a great use for some small bits of chicken.

The Three Bite Rule - Easy Ramen


Best Sweet Treat: Easy Chocolate Mousse which doesn’t exactly need a recipe, but is such a winner!

The Three Bite Rule - Easy Chocolate Mousse

Most Loved on Insta: the outdoor pizza oven was our best quarantine purchase! Our ooni is so fun and cooks in 90 seconds! We’ve been using weekly!

I don’t know what’s next. I’ll just keep going as long as it is fun! I think especially in these strange times, something I can control has been nice.

Goals for next year:
Year of the ______: this has been my treat for myself each month. Last year was home self-care items. This year, I’m going to do a year of flowers or plants! We’re keeping the little ones alive, I’m ready for some plants!
More breakfasts – we’re home all the time now so why not add some other options.
Lunches coordinated or prepped in advance – almost every day I have turkey and arugula because I like it, but also because it takes a question out of the mix during a hurried time.
I’d like to get the house a bit neater. Sometimes the small spaces add up to have a good impact and I always surprise myself what we can do in a few minutes.
Bullet journal
What I’m reading: I read 24 books this year! I’ll aim for the same goal this year I think. Digital library loans are the key to my success!
What I’m watching:

Mushroom Risotto

The Three Bite Rule - Mushroom Risotto

I’m all in on mushrooms for this one. I made just 2 servings (both for me!) and loved it. I’m the only mushroom fan in our fam right now so I made it to be lunch 2 days! Mine went into the pressure cooker, but there are stovetop directions below too.

Making risotto is a great home project. It isn’t quite as fussy as it seems to be. It takes some time (on the stove) and some stirring, but it is worth it.

Mushroom Risotto
Ingredients:
~1 cup baby portabello mushrooms
~1 cup crimini mushrooms
1 cup arborio rice
1 cup broth (vegetable or chicken)
1/2 cup Golden Mushroom soup
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons butter


Directions:
Chop the mushrooms leaving half of each kind as slices, and the other half diced of each kind. Reserve the diced ones. Saute the slices in butter, in a heavy pan (not a nonstick pan, if possible) over medium heat until caramelized.
Saute the arborio rice in a drizzle of olive oil for ~3 minutes until translucent in the pan it will cook in.
If cooking on a stove top, heat the broth and mushroom soup and sherry in a separate pot. If cooking in a pressure cooker, add the broth, soup, and sherry into the pot of arborio rice.
If using a pressure cooker, add in the diced mushrooms, seal it, and set timer according to the cooker- mine was 8 minutes on high then pressure release.
If cooking on the stove, add in the diced mushrooms, then add a ladleful of liquid to the rice and cook over medium heat until absorbed – repeat for all the liquid, about 30-40 minutes.
When fully cooked, top with the cooked slices of mushrooms. Sprinkle with parmesan and enjoy!

I loved this. The golden mushroom soup MAKES it. The ones cooked in the risotto are so good and the caramelized ones are buttery and give an alternate texture.

When you have leftover Golden Mushroom Soup, freeze it, and use it in:
Chicken & Golden Mushroom Sauce in the Crockpot
Sausage Stuffing
– or as mushroom/veggie broth

The Three Bite Rule - Mushroom Risotto

October 2020 Recap

October seemed to go by so quickly! How have we been home 7 months?! September and October were hefty for virtual work events which makes it feel busy. Work is, well, uneasy right now.

T started going to school for a hybrid schedule! It has been amazing. He did tell me “it is a little not good to not have a nap or rest”. That’s my boy! 😉 He loves it but it definitely tires him out. C doesn’t love when big brother is home doing school the other 3 days- she just wants him to play.

I focused on comfort foods for October.

I made these Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes. I was a fan. The kids were so-so on them. For some reason they don’t always want the bread portion of sandwiches.

The Three Bite Rule - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe

These Funfetti Waffles were so fun and definitely a morning comfort. I used some funfetti mix (and have an idea for the remainder) and I’d be interested in playing around to try to make in other ways too.

The Three Bite Rule - Funfetti Waffles

I made a quick dinner of Ravioli with Brown Butter, Corn, and Sage. I loved the fall vibe-without it being pumpkin!

The Three Bite Rule - Ravioli with Brown Butter, Sage & Corn


The Little Girl:
She misses her brother when he’s doing school! She is quite into our toy trains and likes tucking in her stuffed toys to sleep and driving vehicles around. She’s zooming around on the scooter and is ready for more on bikes. Her fav food is definitely any kind of cheese, pizza, and oatmeal. Since she’s underweight, we’re trying so hard to keep her eating and getting dense nutrition into her. She’s totally 2 and still easy going but now we also hear “I don’t want that” or “still using that”.

The Big Guy:
He looooves school. We’re so proud of his can-do attitude and how hard he’s working. He goes to kindergarten 2 days a week and virtual the other 3. Managing the timing and assignments takes attention from us. It has been fun to see what he’s learning! A new favorite lunch is grilled peanut butter and fluff.

November brings my blogaversary! I’ll need to think carefully about goals. I’m hopeful but scared about what’s ahead. Get out there and vote. For the sake of humanity, please go vote.

This Year’s Goals:

Year of beauty/self-care: I got this skin scrub
Prep intentional sides and veggies: nope, not really
Eat more fish: Salmon!
Blog some series: Oct is comfort foods!
Focus decluttering/organizing to an area: I passed along some too-small kid clothes to the next wearer.
Share more books on instagram: ehh. A few.
Prioritize workouts: I looooved a month mash-up incorporating 4 different programs and now I’m doing a ‘muscle burns fat’ one that’s OK, not my fav.
What I’m reading: I read The Other Mrs. Miller – and that’s it. I haven’t read much at all lately.
What I’m listening to: 
a podcast on the occasional stroller ride for the girl.
What I’m watching: We found a series called Manhunt about the unabomber and it was captivating! I loved the most recent Brother vs. Brother.

Ravioli with Brown Butter, Corn & Sage

Fall coziness brought to you by way of 4-5 ingredients! I loved that this one not being too heavy since we’ve had some 70-80 degree days lately plus, fall flavors don’t have to mean pumpkin!

The Three Bite Rule - Ravioli with Brown Butter, Sage & Corn

This comes together soooo fast – the longest part is waiting for the water to boil!

Ravioli with Brown Butter, Corn & Sage
Ingredients: (for 4 servings)

6 tablespoons butter (real butter, not margarine/substitute)
24 oz package cheese ravioli, frozen
1 cup corn
4-5 sage leaves, fresh
grated parmesan

Directions:
Bring a big pot of salted water to a boil.
In a large skillet or pan, melt the butter over medium low heat.
Add the ravioli into the water and cook for about 5-minutes, or as the package instructs.
When the butter bubbles and foams up, carefully keep stirring. The butter browns quickly and gives off a nutty flavor. (Don’t let it burn! Try a le creuset/pan with white inside or a white/light colored spatula to stir)
Add in the sage to the butter and be sure to remove the pan from the heat once it starts to brown. Toss the corn in too to warm.
When the ravioli begin to float, they are cooked. Scoop from the water directly into the brown butter sauce, give a sprinkle of salt and pepper and toss well.
Sprinkle with some grated parmesan.
Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Ravioli with Brown Butter, Sage & Corn

I loved this. The brown butter has so much flavor without looking like much. The kids liked it but for whatever reason, the kindergartener wasn’t interested in the corn. We cut from the ear and froze it back in peak farmer’s market corn season. It was about 50% thawed when I threw it in. We all like pasta and I always want the little ones to experience all the shapes pasta can take, all the sauce types, etc.

The sage leaves were whole because a little sage can be a lot to me so they were easy to pick out or whatever. Adding them to the brown butter brings some good flavor without a punch in the face. Our sage plants are flourishing so in it went.

This would be an easy one to make for a big crowd- do people see big crowds these days? It also would be great halved for a meal for 1!

Funfetti Waffles

Comfort food month continues with these funfetti waffles! I made mine as waffles but the same works for pancakes! These have waffle mix plus funfetti mix plus a little vanilla protein powder.

The Three Bite Rule - Funfetti Waffles

Funfetti Waffles
Ingredients (for 4)
1 cup pancake/waffle mix
1 1/4 cup funfetti cake mix
1 egg
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla protein powder (optional)
1 tablespoon sprinkles (optional)

Directions:
Mix everything together.

The Three Bite Rule - Funfetti Waffles

Pour into the waffle iron and cook! Keep them warm between rounds.

The Three Bite Rule - Funfetti Waffles

Serve with syrup & whipped cream!
Enjoy!

I loved these! The extra sprinkles were for the kids, the protein nudge was for me. Sometimes I’m hungry shortly after a sweet breakfast of waffles or pancakes!

The Three Bite Rule - Funfetti Waffles

Make extra and freeze them! They reheat well in the toaster or oven!

When you make these, you’ll have leftover funfetti mix which you can use for Dunkaroo Dip! I might put some of the remaining funfetti mix into energy bites!

Orrr you could skip the funfetti mix completely and go with more vanilla protein powder and extra sprinkles into pancake/waffle mix for the same effect!

Up next I have a comforting dinner! Stay tuned!