Fun with Cauliflower

No really. This week we have been trying some new recipes with cauliflower. And both were pretty good! The best was - roasted cauliflower. A bunch of friends had tried this and proclaimed it great, so we gave it a shot. It is really easy - first you cut up the cauliflower into little florets. Put them all spread out on a cookie sheet. Then cover liberally with olive oil, salt and pepper (we use Crazy Salt). Roast at 425 for about 25 minutes. If you can turn them once, that's good. YUMMY!! These were so good. Little roasted salty goodness. I personally think the cauliflower is just a delivery method for the oil and salt - but whatever. Yummy.

Also, with my low-carb thing, I have a hard time with my dinner plate. I am a traditional - meat, veggie, starch girl. That is what a dinner plate looks like to me. Well, I am not eating starches at dinner. So my options are to serve it, and just leave a gap on my plate - or come up with alternatives. One I found this week was cauliflower "rice". Basically you use a cheese grater and grate some cauliflower down to little grains (like rice). Put them in a bowl with a cover and microwave for 4-5 minutes. Remove, add some butter and maybe soy sauce - and its kinda like rice. Definitely still has a cauliflower flavor - but not bad.

So there you go - fun with cauliflower. Enjoy!

Snow Day

We had the first real snow yesterday. And it wasn't much - an inch or two (which is now covered in ice!). But the kids loved it. Here they are playing when we got home from work/school (in the dark!).
And of course it had to be followed up with hot chocolate. Except they don't like hot chocolate. (well, Big Man does). So we had Disney colored "hot chocolate drink" - it comes in pink, blue and purple and tastes more like hot vanilla. But only Big Man liked his - but they all liked the idea, which I guess is what counts. DH finished the girls ones for them!

Valentine Day Gift Ideas

So if you are looking for something to get your wife/girlfriend/partner for Valentine's day - I have the perfect thing. I don't know if any husbands (other than my DH) read this blog, but here we are. I already have this, so DH is off the hook. But ladies - buying it for yourself works too!

Mommy Tags (well that is what I call them)- these are great necklaces with the names of your kids on them. Love mine, wear it alot, and very reasonably priced. Hop on over to Lisa Leonard. http://lisaleonardonline.com/


Another great one are these - I LOVE these. They are really cute necklaces, and my girls love em. Got them new ones for Valentine's day. Also got them for many little girls I know - so if I know you IRL, check with me before you buy! These are DIRT CHEAP too, and so CUTE! visit the girlie shop at http://fourgirlieshop.blogspot.com/

That's what I got for now!

A Week in My Life

So this week I am tackling an interesting scrapbooking project - A Week in My Life. The idea has been well fleshed-out by Ali Edwards, a scrapbooking author. It looked like fun, so I thought I would give it a shot.

I have been carrying my camera around everywhere and trying to take as many photos of my life as possible. My biggest fear is that this will demonstrate how completely boring my life is. Oh well...I think it will be interesting to see. Shutterfly even has a cool kind of kit to help you make a digital scrapbook.

Will let you know how it turns out. But in the meantime, if you see me taking pictures of random crap - you know why!

Totally Rad

We went to see the Legwarmers again on Saturday night. It was really great. I had found some awesome 80s fashions at Goodwill last week, and so was all decked out. I made a Flashdance sweatshirt and wore it with a bright blue tanktop, had dozens and dozens of metal bangles, a bright yellow bow in my hair, the world's smallest black flared miniskirt, black lycra leggings with lace, pink legwarmers and lovely white pumps. The music was great (it was scary how many of the songs our kids sing in RockBand), and we danced for hours. Here are some pics.

Contested Cooking

So I love to cook. I don't get to do it often, but I really enjoy it. For years I have wanted to enter the Pillsbury Bake Off. And this year, I am going to do it. By posting it here on my blog, I hope to guilt myself into definitely entering this year. They even have a great category for me - "Dinner Made Easy". That the only kind of dinner I do. I have a few ideas I am going to start working on. I have until April 20th, so I should be able to make it. I don't have any dreams of winning (well, ok, I do have a DREAM of winning - but not an expectation), but I finally want to enter.

I may also enter the Betty Crocker Mix It Up contest - but I have to get a move on - deadline is February 15th. That one is doctoring cookie mix. I can DEFINITELY do that.

Anyone else in with me? I will share my recipes here once I am not selected as a winner.

Love for the Mouse

We had a blast at Disney without the kids! We only ended up with a few hours at the Magic Kingdom on Friday (I hit a traffic jam on the way back from working), but we made the highlights - Buzz Lightyear, Stitch's Escape, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Snow White and of course, Wishes - the fireworks show. We also made our own custom Mickey ears. Mine were pink with fake fur on the edge - silver ears with rhinestones all around the edges, Minnie on each ear, and an "Its my birthday" sticker with a crown on top. Kathy's was similar.

We each got a "its my birthday" badge when we got our free admission - which caused every single "cast member" (employee) to say "Happy Birthday Megan" all day long. What fun!

On Saturday we had a blast at Disney Hollywood Studios. We woke up early for Extra Magical Hours and managed to ride 2x on the Rock n Roller Coaster - oh my Gosh- amazing - 0 to 60mph in like 2 seconds. AWESOME! We also got on Toy Story Mania - SOOOOOOO FUN. You get to shoot at carnival style shooting targets and play against your riding partner. It was really fun. We also saw the High School Musical 3 show, the parade, rode the Great Movie Ride, saw the Magic of Animation, Muppets 3d (welcome to my paaahhhk), etc. We didn't do Tower of Terror, as I am just not into falling rides.

I highly recommend the Disney free on your birthday gig. It was really great, such a blast!