we made popsicles.

when your oldest toddler won't go to bed, you find fun things to do to keep him quiet so he won't wake his sister. like making homemade popsicles. 

cranberry juice ++ strawberries ++ frozen blueberries

what's for dinner?

oh dinner. how i loveth thee. and how i hateth thee at the same timeth. 

i love food. i love cooking. but sometimes i'm just not thinking about dinnertime until it's too late. 

and then we're all hungry and everyone is looking at me. 

whoops.

here's something my dad used to cook all the time. {he was the dinner chef at home. my mom's "dinner" options were hamburger helper, tuna casserole, or baked cod.}

there's no name for it. it's incredibly simple. 

only five six ingredients.

twenty minutes cooking time.

perfect if you've JUST realized it's 5pm and your significant other/family is about to walk in the door and you have NOTHING ready to go.

ingredients:

1lb beef stew chunks <<

1 head of cabbage <<

1 small - medium size white onion  <<
hand full  crimini mushrooms  <<
2 cloves of garlic <<
red pepper flakes  {optional}   <<
{salt and pepper to taste} <<

 take beef chunks and chop chop chop!!
{you'll want to do this because they'll be HUGE otherwise.  and you want to stretch your $$ right?}
toss chunks in a heated skillet with a little olive oil.
{sizzle, sizzle}

 when your beef is aaaaalmost done cooking, toss in some roughly chopped up onion.

{the more random chops, the more "rustic"}<---i kept telling myself that, so now i believe it.

let those  cook until they're translucent.

chop up your mushrooms. 

{again, think rustic}

toss those in too.

let that cook down more.

season with some salt and pepper.

{i prefer season-all}

and be liberal with your seasonings...most of them will be sticking to the pan and not on the meat itself. 

 tear off a few leaves from your head of cabbage.
get tah choppin!
{*ahem* rustic}

let it all simmer. 

but only for a short while! 

just let the cabbage "green-up",  so it still retains some of that crunch.

it's more tasty. i proooomise.

if you're brave, put a few dashes of crushed red pepper flakes in there.

i did.

and the kids loved it, btw.

now this is where i should be showing you a picture of it all on my plate, ready to be devoured.

um...

i devoured it before i remember. my bad. :/

so go ahead. make this easy, simple, delicious meal for your family. it'll become one of your staples. i promise.whenever i go grocery shopping, i make sure i ALWAYS get a head of cabbage and a pack of stew meat. so i can always make this in a pinch. 

//enjoy. &hearts;

xo

chicken tortilla soup....thanks to the Pioneer Woman!

the other night the fam went to Red Robin and instead of my usual clam chowder i tried the chicken tortilla soup. and it was AMAZE-BALLS. so then i went to school yesterday and they had it in the cafeteria. i tried it and added some cilantro to it. AMAZE-BALLS. so much so, that i had another bowl to bring home and chair with charlie. needless to say...i'm on a chicken tortilla soup craze.

so what do you think i made for dinner tonight? YOU'VE GOT IT- amaze-balls chicken tortilla soup.

i googled a recipe and saw that the Pioneer Woman and my idol, Ree Drummond had a recipe. i've never tried one of her recipes before, but i keep hearing they're straight up {yea, you guessed it.} amaze-balls. so i was all over it.

 here's my ingredients {minus the chicken}

seasoned two chicken breasts with taco seasoning.

no measurements...just liberally.

grilled those babies on the george foreman.

sauteed some one whole onion and one green bell pepper

seasoned with more taco seasoning.

additional ingredient alert!

we love mushrooms here!

added the chicken {after shredding it}, rotel, black beans, and chicken stock let that baby boil!

30 minutes later...mmmm.

chop chop chop some corn tortillas. they're my fave.

turn off the heat. mix it up.

garnished and ready to NOM.

{cheese, sour cream and cilantro}

CLEARLY AMAZE-BALLS.

love this stuff!

so glad i made enough for tomorrow!

homemade.

delishus.

mildly healthy.

delishus.

easy peasy.

all thanks to the Pioneer Woman!

check out the original recipe here!

closet fat kids.

back in 2005, i met a few ladies who made the crazy decision to go to music school. who knew that the tall curly blond girl with the most angelic, smoothest tone around, the super sophisticated girl with super long brown locks {at the time} and a deep, hypnotizing jazzy bluesy voice, and the gorgeous, thin, and tall classical voice major who's voice and raw talent makes it possible for me to sit through an entire two hour concert would become my very best friends in the whole world. 

did you catch all of that?

seriously....these ladies and i...we go back. and just because i love them so much, here's a few flashbacks for your enjoyment!

2007

 2008

2010

2006

2007

2009

so after, what eight months or so, we finally got together. it took some coordinating, but we're all pretty good at the facebook mass message. lol i was suuuper excited. i miss these ladies so much, you have no idea. i have other friends and so do they. but there is just something about BEST friends. i can't explain it. i trust all of them with my life, my heart, and my well-being. i know that they'll never say or do anything mean or hurtful. they'll always tell the truth, even when i don't want to hear it. and they accept me for exactly. who. i. am. no reservations, whatsoever. and i LOVE that.  they've been by my side through hell, high water, great times, AMAZING times...you name it...they've been my rock. okay..enough gushing.

of course with us, there's lots of food, wine, and shenanigans. lol i wish i could post some of the things we talked about, but really---it's not appropriate..like  AT. ALL. hahaha. and we go off on the most random tangents. there's always so much catching up to do and we just pick up right where we left off. we stopped at the local farmers market. we went to this amay-zing  sushi joint called Ototo {oh to-to...we're not in kansas anymore....lol } where we received the extra-special treatment because my girl Lauren practically RUNS the joint. i tried sake for the first time and hated it. from what i hear, you have to try it warm. i walked in wedges that were just a smidge too tight and have the blisters to prove it. but the smile that radiates from deep within my heart is totally worth it.

the food we demolished BEFORE dinner.

 miss maggie - her voice is like BUTTAH.

miss susan- she's my fashion idol.

miss lauren- i'd bring her if i was on a deserted island..bc she knows everything.

and she carries a LOT of essentials in her bag!

lol

just a few hours with these ladies makes me a better person. and i love them for being in my life. 

oh. and as for the title of this post. lol we call ourselves CFK...closet fat kids. i even wrote a song for us. why CFK? because we're those kids at summer camp {fat camp} who get caught in the middle of the night surrounded by empty cupcake and candy wrappers and stuffed cheeks. we LOVE to eat. all of our get togethers are planned around food. who's house, who's cooking, what restaurant, what do we need to bring, split tabs, parking, etc. we just LOVE food.