Florida!

Mom and I went to Florida last weekend for my early orientation for school, and it was WONDERFUL! I took lots of food pictures, so here they are!

Well, this isn't food... I took lots of cloud pictures too. I LOVE clouds!

Mom and I on the way!

Literally, it was a sea of clouds!

Our feast one night - Domino's, pepperoni and olives with cheese on 1/2, strawberries, triscuits (lo and behold, they have started making these very simply - nothing but wheat, salt and oil, which means I can eat them! Hurray!), oreo sticks (regular oreos have both corn syrup and corn starch in them, but these just have corn starch, which I am pretty lenient on. I was all, YES! Dessert!) and of course diet pop - caffeine free for Mom and a wake-me-up for me!

Me at a FABULOUS place in Lakeland. It's called Harry's, and we got chicken rice jambalaya (allergen-free!) and Eggplant Crabcake Napoleon (or something like that). THAT wasn't very good for me, but it definitely tasted good :-D

I went a little crazy on this trip - I wanted to just enjoy myself while we were eating out every day, so I took benadryl every night and hoped for the best. And it really wasn't too bad! I ate at Cracker Barrel for the first time. It was AMAZZZZZING. Chicken dumplings with breaded okra, carrots and green beans! I'm sure the dumplings had milk or eggs or cornstarch, or all of the above, but I didn't even get a stomachache - YES! Sadly, my only picture of that feast is on my phone, and I'm not really smart enough to get pictures off my phone yet...

My first Dunkin' Donuts! Pret-ty sure that donut wasn't Lexi-approved, but it was good!

Our lunch in the airport. I know ALL HOT DOG BUNS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH have eggs, but I was hungry and pressed for options so I ate it anyway. I can't say much for the giant hotdog, but the peach mango smoothie was DELICIOUS!

My snack on the way home - to my surprise, these ginger snaps were actually really good. Not only that, they were made without any sort of milk, whey, milk powder, eggs, corn syrup, cornstarch, dextrose, or maltodextrin! Wow! Add in diet coke and my puzzle book and I was one happy girl!

Tofu soup and a cute dog

Here is my terrible mismatched rice. I smell a casserole experiment in my future.

So, instead of rice, I put spaghetti noodles in with my tofu, cabbage, onion, celery and peas.

I threw in some minced garlic and ground basil as well, and it was actually pretty good!

It needed more salt or something, though. *Sigh*

Yum!

And for your viewing pleasure... our cute little intellectual!

The Ham: Part II

I made my second ham last night. Ehhh... it wasn't nearly as good as the first. Same recipe as before, but this time I added some ground cloves because it said to put whole cloves in my diamond slices on the surface of the ham - and I couldn't get the container open. It was a bad idea - it also tasted too mustardy, so I wonder if last time I only used half what it called for and forgot?

I guess we ate the pig's butt... ew.

Oh, well. It was still pretty good. :-D

My mess.

Mmmm!

The brown-sugary sauce - WAY too much, and I couldn't even taste the orange juice over the MUSTARD. And the CLOVES. Emphasis on the 'MUSTARD' and 'CLOVES'.

Ham ham ham. I used my camera for some of these pictures and stole my sister's for others, that is why there is such a difference in quality. *Sigh* One day when I am rich I will have a nice camera... hah.

Today I had my FAV for breakfast, Cascadian Farms granola with blueberries and rice milk. And cinnamon sugar cookie coffee! NUM!

For lunch I had PB&J, fruit and veggies with my nanny kids. And a soy milk "Kidz Dream Smoothie". They are a little weird, but not bad. My nanny mom loves me, she stocked up on Almond Milk! I don't think it was for me specifically, but still... :-)

For a snack, this afternoon I've eaten an apricot, an orange, and a piece of fudgesicle pie. Technically it is a frozen pudding pie, but it becomes like a Fudgesicle - SO good! I forget that rice milk won't set in pudding, so when I make this dumb mistake, I have to freeze it and make fudgesicles or pie. The pudding mix has some cornstarch, but no milk = happy Lexi!

I also made cookies with the kids - we used whole wheat flour. I said BLECH, but the kids liked it. They say they like everything, though, so I don't trust them. Cookies aren't supposed to taste healthy ;-) Tomorrow we will frost them and then I hope they will be better!

So, needless to say, I took in some egg and butter this afternoon... can't not sample dough and warm cookies, even if it does taste really... whole.

Tonight I'm going to use up my tofu, and kind of do what I did the other night - tofu, soy sauce, and veggies, but this time I'm making it in soup form! I'm excited!

Tofu Asian Stir-Fry

Last night I decided I needed to do something with my tofu - it's going to go moldy on me soon! Or is it? This is the first time I've bought tofu, so I'm still experimenting. I threw it in the frying pan with some oil, and then added some veggies I found in the fridge - chopped onion, broccoli, shredded cabbage. I thought, "Hey! This seems like it should be something oriental in nature!" so I added some soy sauce from a container we've had in the freezer forever. Just kidding - I added tons of soy sauce. ICK - super salty. This really ended up being a flop. I made rice to go with it, and then realized something I HAVE DISCOVERED BEFORE *knocks self on head*. You DO NOT mix white rice and brown rice. *Sigh* After twenty minutes, the white rice was perfectly scrumptious and the brown was crunchy. It was also way too salty because I cut the amount of rice I normally cook in half and then forgot to halve the amount of chicken bouillon. 

"OH MY WORD!" You are saying. "HOW IS THIS GIRL ALLOWED IN THE KITCHEN?! SHE DOES NOT MEASURE!"

Ah, well. It happens more often than you would think. I gag it down anyway. If I make it again, I'm convinced it'll be delicious. 

Just like the blueberry sauce I made for Helga, my first chicken. ...it's probably better for you not to ask, but if you did, my sisters would tell you it's a meal they'd rather forget.  

It sure looks good anyway, huh?

BBQ Chicken and Fried Potatoes

My dad suggested grilling chicken the other night, and I said YES! I had just gotten a BBQ grilled chicken recipe from Fitness.com's e-newsletter and I was so excited to try it! Naturrrrally, (little sarcasm there) there's corn syrup in barbecue sauce, but I said, "Who cares! I've got Benadryl!" and made it anyway. My dad also fried the potatoes in butter... I dealt with it. My face can suck it, 'cuz they were really good. :-)

We didn't have much time, so the chicken didn't marinate for more than 20 minutes. It was kind of blah on the inside, but still tasty.

Ingredients

4 chicken breast fillets
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I used Vegenaise)
2 garlic cloves, crushed (I used 1 tsp of garlic salt)
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated (I used 1 tsp of ground ginger)

Directions
1. Combine sauce, honey, mayonnaise, garlic and ginger.
2. Add chicken fillets to bowl and until well coated with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
3. Put chicken on oiled grill plate and bbq for approximately 5 minutes each side (longer if using large breasts), brushing occasionally with the marinade.


Fried Potatoes:
1. Scrub and chop potatoes
2. Fry in butter, oil, butter substitute, Pam, or whatever your choice may be- and salt.
3. ENJOY!