That Costco Broccoli

Costco sells this big bag of already cut up fresh broccoli...it's pretty inexpensive, I think $4 or something like that.  With that said, my cute husband always was to get it with high hopes of using all of it.  Sadly, I have to report that 4 out of the 5 or so times we've gotten it, it's gone bad.  We don't use it in time.  All of our well-meaning plans go by the wayside.  And shamefully I have to report that ONE time we didn't even OPEN it at all before it went bad!  Yikes!  I know $4 isn't a lot of money, but still, we can't afford to spend so recklessly.  Anyway, now is such a time in which we have a big bag of Costco broccoli sitting in our fridge...we made steamed broccoli with our salmon one time, and that's it...it's just been sitting there.  Soooo I took to Pinterest to come up with ideas...actually this recipe just happened.  It is titled Broccoli Bites for Kids...I had all the ingredients in the house so I attempted to make them.  I must say, the directions were scant and unclear.

Overall, the ingredients are good...broccoli, cheese, breadcrumbs, etc.  So even though they didn't exact come out, they still tasted good because all of the ingredients together just work.

Here's what I will do differently the next time (yes, I'll make them again)...I will cut the broccoli into relatively small pieces.  I think that was one of my major problems...I couldn't make "patties" because the pieces were too bulky.  I actually cut them up partially before I started, but next time I'll do it way more.  I use mild cheddar because I don't really like cheese...but I can handle a little bit of mild cheddar.  I would put more breadcrumbs...oh and I used plain breadcrumbs and added Italian seasoning.  What I'll probably do next time is make my own breadcrumbs...I make at least one loaf of homemade bread each week, so I'd just take some of that, pulse it in the food processor, and maybe add a couple splashes of milk to the final mix.

I'll make these again.

Excess Avocados

One of my favorite things to do is to take all the weekly grocery ads, go through them, and make a list of all the things I could potentially want to buy.  I do this with the idea that I'll go to Walmart and have them price match these items.  I don't always get to Walmart to get all these items (for one reason or another), but I still love doing it.

 

With that said, I bought a couple of avocados (one of my favorite foods!) from Walmart.  THEN we went to Costco and bought 5 more beautiful avocados because the price was so right.  When we bought all of these avocados they were days from being ripe...then somehow they ALL became ripe within a day or two of each other!  So I needed to figure out what to do with them before they went bad.  We made salads a couple times with avocado on top, I made quick and simple guacamole (another favorite!), then I saw this recipe on Pinterest.  They are called Avocado Cream Cheese Puffs...and I decided to make them because I happened to have all (well, almost all) of the ingredients.  They look fantastic in the picture, so I thought I'd give it a go.

 Now the recipe is, in essence, puff pastry, mashed avocado, mango salsa, cream cheese, salt and pepper.  I read the blog and the blogger said her husband raved about them.  So, since I had ripe avocados begging to be used, I decided to try it.  Although, I must admit I was skeptical that it would really be that good...so instead of my precious puff pastry I used a rolled tube of Pillsbury Crescents.  I followed the recipe pretty closely...mashed avocados with a little salt, pepper, and lime juice, small bit of cream cheese, and salsa.  I made 8 total (from the tube), 4 with mango salsa, and 4 with regular salsa.  I cooked them at 375 for about 12 minutes.  Anyway, they tasted exactly how you'd think warm salsa, avocado, and cream cheese would taste.  Nothing special.  And the texture was just too much to get over.  And my husband, bless his little heart, said, "can I be honest with you?...I don't really like those crescent things you made."  =)  That's okay I didn't really like them either.  I don't love cream cheese to begin with so that wasn't great, and I really just couldn't get over the warm avocado taste.  So I will not be making them again, but maybe someone will.

The Great Wife

Ralph Waldo Emerson, taking from Goethe said, "Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become as should be."

I was watching this documentary on Netflix the other day about food, diet, and eating right.  It went into the idea that you can improve your health, well being, and seemingly your longevity through eating the right foods.  And at one point all of the "authorities" in the documentary agreed that LOVE is a key component to great health.  In fact, it is love of self that one needs to start with.  One of the doctor's said that she "prescribed" all of her patients an affirmation.  Twice a day they were to say out loud, in a mirror, "I love myself unconditionally right now."

This got me thinking...at the behest of my mother-in-law I started a new blog.  I created it months ago.  It's gone through various names, but nothing seemed quite right, until now.  I wanted a blog that highlighted all the things I do.  Now, I guess this should be the point in which I tell you, I don't really do anything special or extraordinary.  But I am a wife and a mother and a pinterest lover and a workout girl and a would-be scholar...and well anything I need to be.

Which brings me to my title, The Great Wife...let's face it, I'm not great all the time...but I try to be, and I'm great some of the time...and in the spirit of positive affirmations, I'll tell myself I'm great all the time.  So, why not name my blog something positive.  We are who we think we are.  Therefore, if I think (and tell myself) I'm great, then I'll be great all the time.

So this blog will document the things I do over here in the middle of the country.  I'll post recipes and workout information, crafts and kid updates...anything that I want the whole world to know about! 
; )