{February Foodfest} Staples

Like I mentioned, in our first world crisis this month, we have food, but I just haven't planned any meals out ahead of time and we are now officially down to: 77.74 pounds left in our budget after replenishing our fruit supply and meeting my pregnancy craving for bruschetta.

I've gotten pretty good over the years about knowing what staples are needed in the Ince household, so I have those to work with but usually have a bigger budget to build my meals around them.

Here are our must haves:
whole milk
1% milk
eggs
bread
cheddar cheese (I buy a huge block at Costco about every other month)
lemon juice
Worcestershire sauce
stuff to make salsa
stuff to make spaghetti
stuff to make granola bars
romaine, croutons, and homemade dressing (a garlicky one and a sweet one) - we eat salad almost every night
frozen chicken
frozen salmon
frozen peas
taco seasoning
rice
black, kidney, and cannelloni beans
canned chopped green chiles
cream of mushroom soup
cream of chicken soup
sour cream
bananas
green apples
brussel sprouts (I know, right?!  My weirdest pregnancy craving - I will devote a whole post to this soon.)
coffee

On any given day I could typically put together spaghetti, Italian stir fry, chicken enchiladas, some sort of meal with salmon as the main course, pasta e fagioli soup, taco salad, or if worse comes to worst grilled cheese.  Not that I have anything against grilled cheese - give me just about any carb paired with cheese and I'll be happy.  It just doesn't scream dinner to me and apparently I like loud food for dinner.  Or something like that.

What, you ask, is Italian stir fry?  Only the easiest dinner known to man.  Yes, I will gladly share the recipe.

Italian Stir Fry 

(This recipe was made up in college by my friend, Audrey, and perfected by my mom)

For this recipe to work for you, your own household food staples must include:

chicken breasts (for this recipe, you need 4 - I exclusively use boneless chicken breast for all of my recipes calling for chicken - it has to do with my weirdness when it comes to poultry and a severe dislike for dark meat)
diced tomatoes
dried or ground oregano (I prefer ground, but can't find it here)
garlic salt
Italian dressing (I make my own - recipe to follow)
rice or some type of pasta for four (I prefer rice - it is less maintenance than pasta.  Wow, I may have just reached a new level of laziness. My mom makes it with bow tie pasta which is great too, but more work - you know that really complicated extra step of having to transfer the cooked pasta to the strainer?  On a less ridiculous note, I also prefer rice because it soaks up the sauce better, but even though my mom and I use the same recipe and she uses pasta - hers tastes way better than mine)

Disclaimer:  I don't have precise measurements, so for this to be a helpful recipe, you have to be confident about using spices.

1. Start rice.

While rice is cooking:

1. Cube chicken, fretting about all of the raw chicken you are touching and how you're going to turn on the faucet to wash your hands without contaminating something else along the way.  No?  Just me?

2. In a large skillet, heat up Italian dressing (this will act as your olive oil) on med-hi heat.  Add chicken.  Stir every so often and season with garlic salt and oregano (use as much as you think your family would want - we love garlic in this house, so I use a lot.)

3. Once chicken is cooked through, dump in can of diced tomatoes.  Add garlic salt and oregano until it seems like the right amount.  Once it is seasoned to your liking and heated through, serve on top of rice, pair a vegetable with it and voila!  dinner is served.

Italian Dressing

(This recipe is adapted from Taylor's Paw Paw's Caesar salad dressing - I just omit the raw egg yolk because I'm pregnant, and let's be honest, I fear all things poultry related that are uncooked)

3 cloves garlic, minced - I use huge cloves

1/4 c olive oil (aka EVOO - I only use extra virgin, but not entirely sure why - apparently I take Ina Garten's every word as gospel and have adopted Rachael Ray's food slang)

1/4 c vinegar (I change it up every so often.  The original recipe uses apple cider, but I prefer white wine or balsamic)
5 shakes Worcestershire sauce
1 lemon, juiced (I use a heaping table spoon of lemon juice from the bottle)
egg yolk (I omit - apparently if you put the yolk in first, then pour the vinegar over it it "cooks" it.  Call me skeptical.)

Sorry for the lack of photos in the post.  I think I do have pictures on my camera of this meal, but my camera battery is dead and, "I can't believe I can't find the charger!"

P for the c!

What are some staples you have to have in your fridge or pantry?  Wish I knew how to do a linky so we could share that better!

{February Food Challenge} Trifle is NOT a trifle

In Britain, we celebrate the Super Bowl on the Monday following it.  That is if we aren't committed enough to stay up through the 5 hour time difference to see two teams we have no connection with play each other in the biggest game of their lives (at least for this year).  Who am I kidding? Taylor and I would still probably wait till the next day to watch it at a normal hour even if it was the Texans v. the Cowboys.  So yeah, being the football fans that we are, the Inces are 2 for 2 in Monday Super Bowl watching.  I am proud to say that I did stay off of Facebook all of Sunday and Monday to make sure that I didn't find out ahead of time who won.  The sad thing is,  we left before the game was over in order to put to Seth to bed on time, and it was days later that I even remembered to ask Taylor who won.  But this post isn't about football, it's about food!

What I was really excited about with this whole Super Bowl business was having a fun excuse to get together with our American friends and share good food and fellowship. Though I am not usually tempted by sugar - I have more of a "savory tooth" (wow that sounds like some sort of prehistoric animal, scary) than a sweet tooth - this pregnancy has changed all of that.  You see, I'd typically forego dessert to have room for a second helping of the main course.  Not anymore.  I had a feeling this baby was a girl with my newfound affinity for all things sweet.

I had seen a recipe for Berry Trifle on my friend, Elizabeth's blog, and it immediately grabbed my attention because my grandmother makes a killer trifle, and I already had half a pound cake leftover from dinner with friends a few nights before that I knew needed to be taken care of quickly before I took care of it

all.by.myself.

I am all about not only cooking/baking to satisfy my cravings, but also practical cooking.  Half the dessert was already made.  No brainer - trifle it is!

I made my grocery order complete with the 2 pounds (as in weight not currency) of berries it called for though it considerably increased how many pounds (currency not weight) I spent on the order.  I think this may have contributed to the predicament I have put us in this month.  Since berries are a luxury item in the Ince household, I gently reminded Taylor not to eat them in his oatmeal as they were all needed for my Super Bowl dessert.

I made the trifle with a few changes:

Berry Trifle

omitted the liqueur
used almond pound cake instead
didn't refrigerate 4-24 hours before serving because that would have taken too much forethought.  One hour in the fridge turned out to be enough though I am sure it's better if you can leave it in longer.

Almond Pound Cake (you will only need half of it for the trifle):

1 1/2 c butter (3 American sticks)
3 c flour
3 c sugar
6 eggs
t almond extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Put all ingredients in Kitchen Aid mixer using paddle attachment for about 4-5 minutes (or if you're in Britain lamenting that you had to leave your Kitchen Aid in a box in your parents-in-law's attic, use your pathetic one speed, 4 pounds sterling Sainsbury's Basic mixer until it all looks mixed or your arm feels like it's going to fall off).  Pour in greased bundt cake pan.  Bake for 1 hour.





Patting myself on the back, I even cut out the pieces of "sad" cake for Taylor to eat later.  Almond pound cake is one of his favorite desserts, and I was so proud of myself for how thoughtful it was of me to set it aside for him. Hmph - I am sensing a theme in my life lately.

We took the trifle to the party, and it was a hit.  Our gracious host even tried to talk Taylor into leaving the rest of it at their flat, and they'd return the bowl later in the week.  Quickly I found some tupperware and left a heaping portion for them because I wasn't about to leave all of it.  This baby needs trifle!

We had enough leftover to offer some to our babysitter the next night (Tuesday).  I only slightly panicked when she texted me:

"Just gonna say don't invite people back for dessert because there may or may not be any..."

I immediately had inner-dialogue going on about how I expressly left it for her, she deserved all of it because she babysits for free, I can make some more...I bet there is at least some left.

I was able to contain myself and wait until she was gone to check and see if there was any left.  There was - victory!  I noted there was a little more that one serving and that Taylor and I could share it after dinner one night that we didn't have guests over.

By Thursday, the trifle was calling to me.  I really wanted to eat my portion after lunch but decided that I should practice self-control and wait to share it with Taylor after dinner.  I had the passing thought, what if he gets to it before then and eats it all by himself?  I quickly dismissed it as silly and neurotic.  He wouldn't do that to his pregnant wife.  I had saved it all of this time for the both of us, surely he wouldn't just eat it all himself.

Thursdays Taylor works from home.  After our team meeting for our job, we took turns watching Seth so that we could each work a bit.  When I handed Seth off to Taylor so that I could start dinner, I noticed one of my pet peeves.  A sink full of dirty dishes before I started cooking.  As I approached the sink, imagine my horror (highlighted by my pregnancy) to see the empty trifle bowl sitting there, full of water swirling with whipped cream/folded together with mascarpone and lemon zest.  I'll leave my reaction up to your imagination.  And no, there wasn't any profanity involved just righteous indignation.  Lord, help me.

Taylor was dumbfounded.

"You don't even like dessert, Robin."

"I am pregnant Taylor.  I like everything!"

Y'all.  I cannot tell  you how sad I was at the prospect of missing out on this trifle and how mad I was at Taylor.  How could he do this to me?  I thought pitifully to myself.  While I am thinking this, our buzzer rings.  Taylor, seeing a chance for escape, grabs Seth and heads downstairs to open the door because "our unlock the door button didn't work."  Our neightbor, Liz, had stopped by and was holding out the largest, gooiest piece of chocolate cake leftover from her birthday the night before and was wondering if we might want it.

"Um, yes please!"Taylor said as he whisked the cake away and ran back up the stairs triumphantly handing me the peace piece offering sent straight from God through his precious messenger, Liz.  I bet she had no idea how much a piece of chocolate cake would bless a prenant woman and her marriage that day.

After dinner, we shared it.  And y'all.  I'm pretty sure I haven't ever been more excited about a piece of chocolate cake in my life.

For those of you who don't think the Lord cares about the little things, rest assured that the proof is in the pudding.

{February Foodfest} Valentine's Edition

Happy Valentine's Day!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I cooked breakfast for my two Valentines.

This may not seem like a big deal, but in order to stay sane, this wife and mama does cold breakfast during the week.  Read: yogurt, granola, fruit, and toast though I do always have a loaf of banana, pumpkin, lemon, sour cream maple, or other type of breakfast-y bread in the fridge which can be heated up in the microwave if anyone is feeling the need for a "hot breakfast." Oh and instant oatmeal is an option too.  I am just not a morning person and need my cup of coffee before I can handle demands or conversation of any kind.  My boys wake up ravenous on most days, so a Continental Breakfast works for all.  I stumble around the kitchen pouring Seth's granola into his yogurt as Taylor makes coffee as fast as humanly possible.

This morning I got up at the usual 7 am and amazingly had time to put together a breakfast taco for Taylor and Nutella Puff Pastry Treats for all before the boys asked for a morsel of food, and all this before my cup of coffee.

It was a Valentine's Day Miracle.  

My cute Valentines! I love you to pieces!

Unsure about his Nutella treat

Finally made his way to the filling - jackpot!

I think he liked it...

Valentine's Day "John John"

He kept repeating, "John John" as he would look down or grab part of his outfit.
I am going to be sad once he turns two and is too old to wear them anymore!

But God demonstrates His own LOVE for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ DIED for us.

Romans 5:8

I can't think of a better example of love than that - my prayer is that whether or not you have an earthly Valentine this year, that you would know the love of the Father for YOU.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Click here for my Valentine's Day Post from last year written by my friend, Pam,

If you missed it, read it for a good laugh!

{February Foodfest} A Brief History

So for my first post, I give to you a brief history of food:

Those of you who know me well know that I LOVE to eat (and not just when I'm pregnant).   My guy friends in high school got a kick out of suggesting that we eat at Taco Bell during off-campus lunch to see how many tacos I would consume in our 25 minute window between Health and Yearbook (in case your curious that would typically be 3 taco supremes, 1 chicken soft taco, and a chili cheese burrito...or two).  And for an ironic side note because those that don't know me are probably now wondering about my weight in high school, I totally won the top student award for health class at awards night that year.

This is the only high school picture I could find (I'm on the left).

This is really the reason why I like cooking today. Because I love being in total control of what's for dinner not my affinity for Taco Bell or health class.

I grew up with a mom who is a great cook and a dad who is a master at the grill.  Family dinner around the table was non-negotiable during the week, and my siblings and I eagerly complied with this tradition.  All six of us (plus at least 2 or 3 friends who wanted to "miss the traffic" on their way home from school) would crowd around the table passing the guacamole, dropping silverware, singing crazy versions of Grace (Adams Family rendition anyone?), and devouring our food with minimal conversation because who wanted to stop long enough between bites?  I am a steady person, uneasily ruffled even as a teenager, but the one thing that could change my mood faster than anything in my adolescence was getting home from sports practice, walking into the house by which I could immediately detect the menu by the smell wafting through the door, and deducing it was something I didn't like.  Because I loved almost everything my mom made, I would get so disappointed every Blue Moon this happened (read: meatloaf - which to her credit is more edible than any other meatloaf I've come across and Cornish game hen - my husband thinks I'm totally crazy not to like this).  So you could kind of say food is my Achilles Heel.  Maybe I shouldn't let out such a big secret...

Eating around the dinner table (obviously middle school - yikes!)

As soon as I moved into my first apartment my sophomore year in college and realized I didn't want to hate Chick-Fil-A by the end of my college career, I got on the phone with my mom and learned to make a few recipes myself.  She was thrilled that I was finally showing an interest in cooking.

My college roomies and me (right)

By the time Taylor and I were married 5 years later, I had all of my favorite recipes of my mom's down except for tacos - fear of hot grease spitting at me has won over my longtime love. I'm sure that my waistline and more importantly my heart are thankful for this.   Soon after I astonished Taylor with my cooking ability (you see, when my mom's around, I don't have the need to cook, so since I was living with my parents while engaged, he didn't even know I knew what a spatula was), I ventured into finding recipes on my own.

I quickly realized I knew nothing about food.

Every time I cracked open Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals, I would be at a loss to find one recipe that I already had all of the ingredients for.  Many times I hadn't a clue what that particular missing ingredient even was - chipotle's in adobo sauce anyone?  And we're talking Rachael Ray here not Julia Child.  She is known for being everyday cook-friendly.  So not only was I humbled by my lack of food knowledge, but it would take me 3 hours to make a 30 minute meal.  Not kidding.  Taylor was so patient with me after we learned the trick of eating an appetizer and drinking a glass of wine while we cooked.

Our first year of marriage
Eating in Germany,

Eating in Prague,

Eating in Austria

Today, I am still no Julia Child, but I am confident in how to stock my fridge, freezer, side freezer, and pantry to be able to make most recipes I find online or in 30 Minute Meals...though it still takes me a full hour.  Personally I think it should be renamed "30 Minute Meals if you have your very own Sous Chef." Maybe I should write Rachael a letter...

So even though we're in a grocery budget mini crises, it's absolutely a first world food crisis.  I mean, thankfully our fridge, freezer, side freezer, and pantry are packed (and should be seeing how I already spent most of our budget), but the challenge is being creative enough with what we have to make meals for the next 16 days.

Our British sized fridge
This is actually twice the size of most we see here -
one of the redeeming qualities of our otherwise uninspiring flat 

Pretty stocked as of today

Our fruit bowl is looking pretty sad already.
Seth is holding one of our three remaining lemons - no scurvy for this house!

And as I mentioned before with my food related mood-swings (and being pregnant to boot), it will be interesting to see if I can pull this off and still make food worth eating.  We could just eat beans and rice all month (and will if that means staying on budget), but I think I am up to the task to avoid that at all costs.  This will make February much more pleasant for all members of the Ince family.  And it is the month of love, right?

PS - Happy 21st Birthday to my brother Craig!!!!

{February Foodfest} Budget Blunder

My blogging has been rather abysmal in 2012, so I've decided to do a revised version of The Nester's 31 Days Challenge.  In October, she encourages you to post every day about the same topic for a whole month to help get in the writing groove which I am obviously in desperate need of.  I missed my chance to do that back in the Fall  because I spent too much time creating my "button" for it and didn't have enough leftover energy to actually write anything - I blame it on pregnancy.  So here is a go at it for February.

Hey, I know it's already 10 days into the month - I've never claimed to be a perfectionist, People.  I won't even be posting on Sunday (and maybe not Saturday either), so if you were freaked out before at the thought of one topic for a whole month, may your fears be allayed because seriously it will be like "18 Days" "12 Days" instead of "31 Days" or something lame like that.  And February is a short month to boot.

Baby steps.

So drum roll please.  My topic is (for those of you who didn't read the title)...



Food.


I'm 34 weeks pregnant.  It's all I think about.


And to be completely honest, the real culprit for inciting my February Food Blogfest is my grocery budget.  A few nights ago, I realized to my horror that a week into the month, I had spent almost our whole grocery budget.  Oh Costco, what have you done to me?! Like we're talking I have 84 pounds left to spend for the whole month.

84 pounds.

(That is 84 British Pounds Sterling not 84 pounds of money).

And I'm no math genius, but I have never done anything remotely like this before in case you're wondering.  I have a system!  Where did I go wrong?!  In January, I had an 80 pound surplus in my grocery budget!

Pride goeth before the fall.

I'm still quite in shock actually, but I thought it would be fun to chronicle how I am able to stay within the budget for the rest of the month.  And to get tips from you guys.  And accountability.  And garner sympathy so that you'll invite us over for dinner.


So for the rest of the month get ready for everything food at the Ince Household - recipes, meal planning, cooking in a foreign country, pregnancy cravings, and advice on labeling homemade dessert in the fridge so your husband doesn't eat it before you get the chance - all the while staying within my 84 pound budget.  Pray for me.


Bon Apetit!

{Embrace the Camera} Mama and Baby Girl at 33 weeks

My friend, Sarah, is an amazing aspiring photographer.  She was kind enough to take over shooting Seth's month to month photos for the first year of his life once we moved to Edinburgh. I had grand  plans of posting my favorite from each month under my photos button, but I hate uploading photos onto blogger, so yeah, he's 20 months old now, and I've done zero.  I'm sure once Baby #2 comes, I'll be on it.

Right.

Anyway, Sarah is building up her photography portfolio and asked if we could do some fun pregnancy pics, and being obsessed with photos, of course I said yes!  I was not on top of this when I was pregnant with Seth, so I was thrilled at the chance to get some with Baby Girl.

Here are some of my favs:

She knows my obsession with nests well!:)

Headband I got Baby Girl on Etsy - it will be fun to post a pic of her actually wearing it in the coming months!

33 week bump 

Seth already loves his little sister
Sarah had a tough time getting this shot because he kept kissing my tummy over and over - so precious!

Check out the red nose - it was freezing outside when we took these!

Love that sweet boy

Oh and please leave a comment if you have fun ideas for newborn pictures once Baby Girl comes in March!  Thanks Y'all!

Embracing the Camera with Emily today:

30 years.30 weeks

On Saturday I turned 30.  

30.  

I keep rolling it around in my brain waiting for a reaction.  It's hard to believe I've entered a new decade, but I have to say the transition has been surprisingly smooth.  I'd been wondering all year how I would take it because I totally freaked out when I turned 26.  

I mean 26?  

Because that's a milestone.  

For some reason 26 felt as if I was hurtling towards my thirties - the horror!  And now that I'm here, it's no big deal.  I mean, husband's been 30 for almost 3 years, we have 3 kids and live in a different country...I better be ready for 30 by now,  right?   

And how fun is it that the Lord chose for me to be 30 weeks preggo with Baby Girl on my 30th birthday? 

So I thought for Embrace the Camera this week it'd be fun (and possibly a little depressing) to walk down memory lane.  Here is a photo from back in 2010 when I was 29 weeks preggo with Seth followed by a photo from today of me at 30 weeks with Baby Girl.

To be fair, I will be 31 weeks tomorrow, so this picture isn't quite accurate!
But it's obvious that this sweater needs to be put back in the maternity box for next time.