Since my kids have been out of school I have been trying to make lunch time fun and not so monotonous! Today I decided I was gonna try my hand at making warm panini style pb&j sandwiches with a side of copycat style Cool Ranch Doritos©.
The seasoning mix is quite easy to throw together once you have your tortillas cut and fried.
And with this recipe you can control the use ingredients by using natural ingredients that don’t contain chemicals or have MSG in them.
I love making homemade tortilla chips — it reminds me of the authentic Mexican Restaurants I love to frequent. And they are really simple and quick to make. They go wonderfully with Guacamole or salsa or just to be eaten plain all by themselves.
Ingredients
Directions
Heat 1-inch of oil in a large frying pan or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. If your oil is smoking you have the heat up too high.
Arrange the tortillas in a stack and cut into 4 equal wedges. Fry a batch of chips at a time, not to crowd pan, turning occasionally with tongs, until crisp and lightly browned, about 1 minute or less. Drain chips on a paper towel-lined plate; sprinkle lightly with salt and store in an airtight container.
My family loves honey butter, what can I say?
Honey butter is one of those sweet and salty delights that pairs very well with cornbread, bagels or even toast.
Tonight was a stew kind of night, and what goes well with stew is cornbread. And of course I had to make honey butter to go with the cornbread as stated above. 😀
On our way home from the beach on Friday we stopped at this trendy restaurant in Santa Clara called World Wrapps. While we can’t eat the wraps/burritos, I can have them make a wrap into a rice bowl instead. The kids and I had their Polynesian Pork Wrapp which was really tasty. It consisted of Pulled-Pork served with Jasmine rice, a tropically inspired lemon slaw, and a Pineapple BBQ sauce. Now who wouldn’t think this was wonderful?
Today I decided I was going to try my hand at this dish with some leftover barbequed Turkey instead.
I took a can of pineapple tidbits and tossed them into the food processor with a cup of Kinder’s Mild BBQ Sauce to create my base sauce. I then cooked up some white rice and made a batch of coleslaw.
The sweet barbecue sauce with the flavors of the coleslaw go well together with the meal. It may not look like all that, but the flavors are spectacular together well you take each bite.
Back in January I brought my iPad to the Dentist office. Yeah, not for a check up, but to keep my youngest occupied since it was his first Dentist visit.
As the receptionist called our names and we were walking towards the hygienist, my son dropped my iPad (by accident) on to the tile floor. I instantly heard the glass break. I think my heart stopped for a second and I most likely gasped. As I picked the iPad up off the floor I instantly saw that the screen was shattered. I touched it to see how bad the shattering was and unfortunately cut my finger.
Since, the hygienist didn’t offer me a bandaid, I had to sit there in the dental chair while they cleaned my teeth all the while with glass stuck in my bleeding finger. Wonderful, huh?
Anyhow, once I got home I fixed my finger, yet would take months to get my iPad fixed. I needed the app on it to help my daughter to sell Girl Scout Cookies. The app was to keep track of her sales basically.
So I placed the iPad into a gallon sized ziploc bag and used it as normal. Unfortunately, a cracked was across the lens area so I was unable to use the camera. Eh, no big deal.
So yesterday my husband, kids and I trekked many hours across the the sierra mountains to the shining sea. It was around a good 5.5 hours to get to the beach.
My kids and myself love the beach, sand and the wonderful sea air and try to get to the beach once or twice a year if our schedule permits. But in all reality I try very hard to schedule a vacation months in advance.
Nevertheless, we are here having a fabulous time for a few days. However, I am tired and the sea air seems to make it seem more so to where I just want to lay down for a nap soothed by the thunder of the waves.
We arrived in Aptos, California around 2:30pm. The kids were instantly playing down on the beach. They took a break for dinner and then were back on the beach again until night fell.
The moon came out and was a day shy of being a full moon. It was a spectacular site shining over the Cement Boat the SS Palo Alto.
The next day was gorgeous. The sun was shining and everyone was having a wonderful day.
We rode bikes to the Cement Boat and took a look inside the Visitor’s Center.
I have been coming to this beach since I was a child and love that I can bring my children here. It is one of my favorite places and am very lucky that we are spending our vacation here with my parents and generous Aunt JoAnne.
I loved Chicken Marsala. But since I was diagnosed gluten and chicken intolerant, I haven’t had Chicken Marsala in years. I came up with a clever idea that I was going to make my own with Turkey. I had bought pre-packaged turkey tenderloin. And while I did everything the same and just substituted turkey for the chicken and gluten free flour for regular flour — it came out dry. So I really didn’t try making it again for A LONG WHILE.
We usually buy whole turkeys and fill the deep freezer with 3 or 4 at a time. Normally I roast up the whole turkey and make turkey salad sandwiches with the left over meat. However, this time I decided I was gonna change it up and basically cut the raw turkey up.
I removed the drumsticks with the thighs still attached. Then I removed the breast meat with the wings still attached and threw everything into large container and was thinking I could get a good 4 meals out of this.
I immediately took the carcass which still had some nice raw turkey still attached to the bones and tossed it into a stock pot and made Turkey Noodle Soup.
Also, that night I made Turkey mirin because I didn’t have any Marsala wine in the house. And to my surprise EVERYONE LOVED IT! Normally my kids and husband tolerate my Marsala Sauce… but everyone said it was delicious and wanted seconds!
AND it was oh so MOIST!! I couldn’t wait for lunch leftovers that how delicious this meal was!
So today is my kids Last Day of School and tomorrow will be first day of summer vacation! Three months of freedom until school is back in session…
This summer will be BUSY! On Monday we leave for a much needed vacation to Santa Cruz, California. Beach, sand and sun for a few days! I am counting the minutes!
The middle of June I am having a Girl Scout campout in my backyard. I am quite excited and can’t wait!
At the end of June, beginning of July my husband and I will be in Washington D.C. for a conference and staying extra days to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. I hear the fireworks display for the fourth of July is spectacular!
Then you have July. It is just packed to the brim… my daughter will be attending Girl Scout Camp. We’ll be working on our roof. Making all the repairs to it from when we had that massive wind storm back in February. We also have our 6-month dentist appoints squeezed in there as well.
Then towards the end of July the kids and I head down to my parent’s house for 12 days. And a week later the kids are back in school!
Anyhow, in about 2.5 hours summer begins at the Armstrong house and we will be taking it on by storm!!
I made the teachers and their aids an end of the year thank you gift today — an Acrylic Tumbler with a Straw stuffed with a pen, a sanitizer bottle, a glue stick and as much candy I could fill it with! I hope it is a good present that they will like. I just couldn’t think of what to do this year.
I had to make five of these gifts for 3 teachers and 2 aids.
I love quiche and would always buy frozen quiche before I was diagnosed gluten intolerant. And even though making quiche is a rather easy meal to make – I have never really thought about making it from scratch until now.
I have an abundance of eggs and why not use them for an entrée like a quiche!
I also used my Pie Crust recipe that I used previously for pies. Of course as soon as it was out of the oven I had to have a slice! And it was oh so delicious!
Small Town Living in Maryland 