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!

Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes

Let’s chat comfort food. I’m glad fall is in the air and I’m ready for some foods to give us a little hug. I took the flavors of a burger into a speedy sloppy joe- the extra mustard and addition of relish and liquid smoke gives it all the burger flavors. I used meatless but any ground meat/meatless works!

The Three Bite Rule - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe

Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes
Ingredients: (for 4)
3/4 pound ground meat (I used Gardein Meatless Crumbles)
4 burger rolls
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 teaspoon relish
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)
4 slices of American Cheese

Directions:
Add ground meat (cooked through if using beef/chicken/pork), brown sugar, ketchup, mustard, relish, and onion powder to a large skillet over medium-low heat. (I used meatless crumbles which can go into the pan frozen.)

The Three Bite Rule - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe

Add in worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke (if using), and a splash of water.
Cook for 5 minutes until well incorporated and bubbling.
Toast the buns.
Spoon the sloppy joe onto each bun and quickly top with cheese to melt it.

The Three Bite Rule - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe

Add some pickles and extra ketchup and mustard, if desired. Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe

I loved this! Sloppy Joes cook SO quickly and are easy to stretch meat a bit further than a patty might. These are a great way to use a meatless product too.
Mixing some shredded cheddar would be good too- though maybe not so photogenic. Liquid smoke is a fantastic addition to these, in chili, in burgers, and any sauce or spread that has bacon in it! I find it on amazon but may have seen it at the grocery store too.

September 2020 Recap

I don’t even know what end is up. September is just bananas. I cooked some fun things but we are treading water to adjust to our new schedule. Virtual kindergarten is going great but working full time, monitoring remote school, keeping the 2 yr old occupied/away and juggling these short time blocks has our brains spinning. I’ve felt more stress these last few weeks than this whole quarantine time- if I’m on top of work, then I’m lacking for the kids/home/friends and vice versa.

This month Mr. J and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary so that was our bright spot! We went to dinner and I had the best meal I’ve had in for-ev-er. We ate outside at Il Massimo and I had scallops over corn risotto with brussels sprouts.

For dishes from my kitchen, I made these pesto risotto stuffed tomatoes and loved them- they’re also great for grocery store tomatoes as we exit the prime garden tomato season! 
The Three Bite Rule - Pesto Risotto Stuffed Tomatoes
These Chicken BLT Grain Bowls are so ideal for a quick and balanced lunch or dinner. Plus if the grain is prepped ahead of time it saves so much time. I went with quinoa but normally choose brown rice or farro.
The Three Bite Rule - Chicken BLT Grain Bowl
Our littlest one needs a bit more dense nutrition- so I made some pb&j energy bites as a little but powerful snack. They were a great use of some freeze dried raspberries nobody was interested in!
The Three Bite Rule - PBJ Energy Bites
This cape codder themed burger with dried cranberries and lime aoli!
The Three Bite Rule - Cape Codder Burgers

The Little Girl:

Her newest words are “yup” and “nope” which just sounds funny. She’s so itty bitty so we are focused on upping her calorie intake and retesting some of her lab work next month. She’s doing pretty well with pediasure and needs to bulk up a bit to hit the chart. Her fav foods are cheese of any kind, pb&f, and anything she can dip. She’s playing a ton in the play kitchen and with the trains. She zooms down the driveway on her bike. This gal is fearless. She did fantastic wearing her mask for her whole physical and for labwork.

The Big Guy:

IMG_7952He loves virtual kindergarten! His teacher is fantastic and he impressed us day 1 mastering the computer mouse and the mute/unmute rules. I’m so thankful he’s good at playing for his his breaks and getting right back to it when his next session is starting. The in-person hybrid schedule should start soon so we’re looking forward to him going 2 days a week. He’s still loving pizza and pasta. His favorite lunch is PB&F or “snacky lunch” of salami/string cheese/etc. We transitioned to quiet time with a stack of books on the couch or his bed instead of naps and he looks forward to it!

This Year’s Goals:

Year of beauty/self-care: not really
Prep intentional sides and veggies: nope, not really
Eat more fish: Lobsters!
Blog some series: nope, but Oct is going to be comfort foods!
Focus decluttering/organizing to an area: not at the moment.
Share more books on instagram: ehh.
Prioritize workouts: I loved a lifting workout program and looooved it. Now I’m doing a month mash-up incorporating 4 different programs it is has been great for the ultimate in variety.
What I’m reading: I read The Yellow House since it is the summer reading at work for students and the community. It is about New Orleans and the city dynamics pre and post hurricane Katrina. I loved it, though at first I was overwhelmed by the number of people’s names without a family tree chart. Then I blew through Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and the Conspiracies to Protect Predators which is a forever reminder how critical the free press is. 
What I’m listening to: 
a podcast on occasion.
What I’m watching: America’s Got Talent wrapped up and I’m thrilled the spoken poet won- it literally restored some hope for America voting. We found a series called Manhunt about the unabomber and one season about the Atlanta Olympics bomber. It is very well done!