Egg Rolls Rolled in Cabbage Leaves

I made these for dinner last night, linked a picture on Facebook and a handful of you guys wanted the recipe.  I feel sorta strange cause I didn't follow a recipe, and when I make dinner I just throw stuff in and cross my fingers!  This did turn out, and I will try to remember the steps I took.

Ingredients Needed

1 Cabbage Head
1/2 Onion (I used a white one)
2 Green Onion sticks (lol)
1 Carrot
1 Celery Stick
Garlic (I have minced in the fridge already to go)
Soy Sauce
Pepper
5 Spice (Chinese Style is what mine says)
Olive Oil

I started out peeling the leaves off of the cabbage.  You want them to be as whole as possible.  Hubby helped with this part as I was getting frustrated.  No real hints other then to go slow and squeeze the cabbage once in a while to loosen up the leaves.  We got 8 good leaves before they got too tightly wound around.  Save the rest of the cabbage for later.

I then filled a big pot about 1/2 full of water, brought it up to a boil, then added the separated cabbage leaves to the water.  Boiled them for maybe 5mins, just long enough to make them pliable, or so they don't crack when you roll them up.

As that was boiling, I chopped up both Onions, and about 1/2 of the left over cabbage (finely) and Celery, and I zested (Not sure if thats the right word, but I used my zester tool) the carrot.  So you get very fine pieces of carrots.  I don't like carrots so I tend to hide them, lol.  I then got a frying pan ready with some olive oil in the pan, and sauteed the veggies.

I had cooked ground turkey earlier in the day, so I added that to the veggie mix as well.  I then tossed in some soy sauce, pepper, and the 5 spice.  No measurements just sprinkled.  :-)  I let that heat up, while I took the cabbage leaves out of the water and laid them out on the counter.

I then took one leaf, put in about 2 Tablespoons (give or take) of the "inside mixture" and rolled up the leaf like an eggroll, tucking the sides in and placing them in a dish/pan.  I did this with the 8 good leaves.
I preheated the oven at 350, and made a topping sauce of olive oil, soy sauce, and brown sugar.  (Probably about 1/2 teaspoon each) and brushed that on top of the eggrolls while they are in the pan.  I then placed them in the oven for 15mins to warm them up again.  Then I broiled them for about 3-5mins or so to get them toasty on top!

And there you have it.  My horribly typed recipe.  Hopefully I didn't confuse anyone, its a super easy throw together recipe...and I probably made it sound hard.  LOL  Any questions just ask away!

Be sure to let me know if you make them yourselves!!!

As Promised

Here is the recipe for the Unbeetable Chocolate Cake I made yesterday...if anyone of you make it let me know how you like it!

http://www.rightathome.com/Food/Recipes/Pages/UnbeetableChocolateCake.aspx


I'll start off by saying, its a very long prep process, but its the best cake I have ever tasted.  And no you can not taste the beets in it at all, but the beets are what makes the cake so so so moist!  Did I tell you its delicious?  :-)

I'll let you read and follow the recipe but I thought I would chime in on a few things.  You could prep the beets earlier in the day or even the day before, that would have been better.  You have to boil the beets until they are soft when pierced with a fork, much like potatoes when making mash potatoes.  Then you have to peel the skin off, which works great using a paper towel...but make sure you have plenty cause I used 1-2 per beet.  And your fingers will turn a beautiful beet color, but does wash off, trust me. 

Be prepared to bake the cake for a while.  It takes all of the 45mins they say it will.  They do offer a glaze for the cake, which I did not do since Mike doesn't like icing, but it sounds tasty.  It says that the glaze will get firm...dreamy chocolate!  Maybe next time.  But I did sprinkle some powdered sugar on top, mainly for looks.  Just a FYI, probably not a good idea to do on a Birthday Cake with Candles that need to be blown out!  LOL  Yeah powdered sugar all over the table....but hey it was a good laugh! 

So there you have it.  A cake that no one will guess the ingredients, as long as you tell them the cake name after they ate it!  :-)

Sorry I have no pictures, I was at my parents house making the cake and forgot the camera!  I'll be sure to bake this one again, and will photograph the process!

Hugs!

Short and Sweet

Tonights post is going to be just that.  Today was my Hubby's Birthday, and boy what a day it was.  I hope he had just as much fun as I did celebrating it together.  It start off for me with a walk to the store to get the fixings for his Pancake Breakfast.  (A tradition that I grew up with, Pancakes when you wake up on your Birthday!)  What pancake isn't complete without Whipping Cream?!  I bought him a donut to hold him over while I made the pancakes from scratch.  Me and Angelina sang Happy Birthday and let him blow out 3 candles that were on the donut.  It so much fun to see Angelina get so excited.

After a relaxing morning at home, we then went to my parents house to watch the Seahawk game.  They had bought Pizza for lunch, which was delicious!  Me and Mom made a cake called Un'beet'able Chocolate Cake, which you guessed it, was made out of Beets.  My oh my was it amazing!  Took 2hrs to prep, and 45mins to bake, but totally worth it in the end!  I plan on blogging about it soon, but I am beat (no pun intended, ok well maybe a little bit) and am ready for bed!

After cake, we enjoyed a nice evening at home.  A nice and simple day, but a special Birthday Day none-the-less!  Happy Birthday Honey!!!!

Food For Thought

As a warning...this isn't going to be a holly jolly post tonight.  This blog is about me, my family, and about life in general.  And some days are just not up to par, I'm sure you'll understand.  :-)

In the last couple of weeks, I have been stressing the point that we need to start eating better, and for the most part I am proud of the direction we are going.  There were weeks where we were spot on, meaning home cooked meals all from scratch...and those weeks were some of my best weeks!  Both physically and emotionally.  I found myself laying in bed after 10:30pm replaying the day, and thinking usually I would be dog tired, or how I like to say it, "Too pooped to poop!"  And there I was, tired, but not exhausted.  And I contribute that to the foods I WAS eating and to the foods that I WASN'T.  Feel great, what how I would explain it.

Well, we sort of slipped back on our day trip to the Ocean, and haven't gotten back to where I want to be yet.  Yesterday at the Fair, we had our share of Fair Food.  Not everything, but more then I should, lets leave it at that.  Then we get to today...well lets back track a few hours.  Before leaving work last night, I bought three packages of Pretzel M&M's.  (For anyone that can eat them, they are delicious, I highly recommend them...Me?  I shouldn't be eating them)  But since I was feeling less then awesome, I thought the M&M's would pick me up.  Knowing full well that wouldn't be the case, but my head didn't listen to that part, and I bought them anyways.  Ok so this morning started off with a bag of M&M's ><  Food has a hold over me, both bad foods and healthy foods.  I'm sure 1/2 of what I'm feeling is guilt but the other 1/2 is just because of the crap that I'm putting back into my body.  And its an endless cycle, I feel good for a bit (sugar high) then I crash and want something to get me going again, and that happens over and over and over again.  I have read numerous books on this, and eating processed foods, makes you crave more processed foods...I am now realizing that this is true for me. 

I ended up getting Chinese Food for a late lunch early dinner, big mistake.  I get all crabby, tired, and selfishly took a nap.  Which then makes me feel guilty both eating Chinese and taking a nap.  Then I had to work this evening and blah blah blah.  Enough said I guess.

An already long story short...I challenge you to really look at your emotional state after you eat certain foods.  Its a real eye opener.  But one that will because a learning tool for me!  I'm determined to take one day at a time, one meal at a time, and I can't wait to feel like I did a couple of weeks ago!  That I have to hold on to!

Thanks for reading, and again I'm sorry this is a bummer of a post.  But maybe I helped someone out by sharing!  Hugs!
Night!

Summer is Truly Over

Growing up, school always started just after Labor Day.  I believe it was my last two years in High school we started at the end of August, some grand idea someone had.  lol  Even though Labor Day Weekend was the last official weekend of Summer, for me Summer wasn't truly over until we went to the Puyallup Fair.  Which starts the Friday after Labor Day and continues for 3 weeks.  We would go at the very least one time, if not two or three, the good ol' days when things were cheaper!  (I still don't know how my parents managed to raise 4 children, a family of 6.  Having a family of my own, I am amazed at all the things we got to do as kids!  Kudos Mom and Dad!) 

I remember thinking on the car ride home every year, ok this is it Summer is Officially over.  I am guessing maybe it was because that was always the last major "thing" we did for the summer. 

Now as an adult I view the Fair a bit different, but it still holds a special spot in my heart.  Maybe because I want Angelina to remember these times as much as I did as a child.  Today was Opening Day of the Fair, and thankfully Mike took the day off work so we could go early in the morning.  Today from 10am-12pm if you brought a donation of food with you, you were able to enter free of charge.  (That was a savings of $21 for me and Mike, and was a lesson to Angelina about donating food for people that need it.)  An hour of traffic after getting off the freeway, and paying for parking ($10 for all day) we were off to the front gates.  It was a perfect day, warm enough but chilly enough for a hoodie...I do love my hoodie.  :-)

This was Angelina's first year of being able to enjoy a Fair Ride or two.  The years past we just didn't bother with the kiddy rides, other then the Old Fashion Carousel.  Boy was she excited, buying her tickets and choosing her rides.  The first ride was a child sized roller coaster, that was big enough for Daddy to enjoy with her.  But after waiting in line and seeing/hearing what it did, she had decided it wasn't for her.  Daddy was a bit bummed, lol.  She then settled for the kiddy swings, which she rode by herself, and my was she proud!  (Momma could have cried)  She then picked the Giant Slide, and that was with Daddy, and the last ride was of course the Carousel.


After the rides we spent some time walking around, people watching, looking at farm animals, and of course sharing some fair food.  3.5hrs of walking and I was tired, especially knowing I would be working in a few hrs after getting home.  Money was spent, feet were tired, but it is all worth it to see our child Smile!!!

I thought I would share a few pictures from our day of fun!  Enjoy!


Ok so I can only get two pictures to show up correctly, I will work on adding the others tomorrow!  Night!

A Clean Living Room Makes...

This Mommy Very Happy!

Many of your mothers can relate to this I'm sure.  And actually anyone living with a significant other, or roommate, I'm sure the scenario is the same!

I spend most of my day cleaning and re cleaning and probably cleaning again.  Whether it be the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms ect.  I also work part time in the evenings some nights, and my wish when I leave is to keep the house the way I left it.  Lol.  But I understand how hard that is, so I don't hold my breath. 

Well the other night when I came home around 10:20pm, the living room was all picked up, and the kitchen was spotless with the dishes hiding in the dishwasher.  I loved it!!  I was so happy!!!  And to make my night even better my husband and my daughter left me this note on the message board!

It says, Thank you and have a fun day off tomorrow!  Love Daddy and Angelina.
Then Angelina wrote, The Living room is All Clean!  And those two people are Me and Her!

*Hearts Melts*  I just knew I had to take a picture and Share it!

Your Body's Natural Sigh

Many of you that know me, already know that I talk about this Natural Sigh alot.  Everyone has this amazing mechanism that their own body's do.  Its a warning sign that we are full, its our body telling us to stop eating...who knew!  Our very own diet couch in each of us!  If we just let our bodies do what they are supposed to, AND listen we'd all have perfect bodies.  Ok well maybe I'm exaggerated a tad, but our bodies are truly amazing!

So what happens is, nearing the end of a meal, our bodies let out a sigh.  You have to be listening for it, and paying attention, but the idea is that when you sigh, you stop eating.  Even if your plate isn't empty.  Hard facts to swallow for some I'm sure, many of us don't like to waste food.  But don't let that be an excuse, ever heard of left overs?  :-)

I have tried to listen to this sigh for many years now, and I usually hear it at least one meal a day, mainly being dinner.  Now that I can hear it and notice it, I need to work on actually doing the other half of the equation, STOPPING!  Most times my food just tastes too good, I guess I'm just too good of a cook.  (I'm sure my hubby would second this)  This is doing nothing for my weight loss though, so I truly need to work on this.

I'm going to pat myself on the back tonight in this post.  I fixed one of my favorite meals for dinner, French Dip.  I think I have a slight addiction to these warm sandwiches.  I fixed 2 each, and a side salad for me, that I ate first.  With my salad down, I was about a bite away from finishing up my 1st sandwich, and there it was The Sigh.  I secretly tried to hold my breath to make it disappear, but as many of us know bodily functions just don't disappear.  Lol 

I thought long and hard about finishing at least another sandwich, they are so good, and what's One More?  But I choose to listen to my body, and stop, cause I was full and satisfied.  I was very proud of myself, I got up... wrapped the whole sandwich (plus the 1/2 that was left from Angelina) and put them in the fridge, for Tomorrow!

I know this might not seem like a very big defeat for some, but this is huge for me.  Its time that I listen to my own best couch!!!  MYSELF!


Have any of you listened to your natural sigh?
Do you listen?
If not give it a try and let me know how it goes for you!