Food Friday

Welcome to the second edition of Food Friday. 

Before I tell you what's been cooking, I have to tell you about my family's latest snack obsession. 

Yes, they're called "Everybody's Nuts!.  Go ahead and giggle, I'll wait.  These salt and pepper pistachios are delicious.  Oh and did I mention I don't like nuts?  Except peanuts, obviously (hello, how would Reese's and I can continue our love affair if I didn't like peanuts?) but even peanuts I usually prefer only in peanut butter form in the middle of my Reese's eggs.  Or while waiting for the real food to arrive at Texas Roadhouse.  But these pistachios have rocked my world.  It's almost like a potato chip flavor (they have a really bold salty flavor) in a nut form.  I knew GI Joe would like them because he likes nuts in general, but I think we knew already that given his choice in spouses.  What surprised me though, was how much the kids like them.   We bought a 4 pound bag at Costco on Saturday, which by the way is the best place to buy them because they are a little spendy, and today that bag is empty.  The kids have been eating them in their lunches, as after school snacks, every time they walk into the kitchen, every time they walk out of the kitchen, you get the idea.  They don't even realize what a healthy snack they're eating.  And getting to see how many play on words we can come up with using "Everybody's Nuts" is just an added bonus, especially when you have 3 males in the house.  Because really, hearing, "Ryder, quit eating EVERYBODY'S NUTS!"  never gets old.  Really. 
The moral of the story here is try them, you may just like them and apparently, nuts are a slightly healthier snack than say, Cheetos. 

Now on to the other food.  The ONE thing, and only ONE, I enjoy about cold weather is soup.  I love soups.  I especially love when my Baptist church celebrates the first day of Lent, not by giving up chocolate or caffeine or sweets (it's during Lent that I'm especially glad I'm not Catholic), but by having a potluck called "Soups and Sandwiches" before our Wednesday night service.  I'm sure it's Biblical.   You can pretty much count on there being a potato soup and a chili so I like to be the rebel and bring something a little different.  This year that soup was Minestrone. 

This soup is a family heirloom passed down from generation to generation and given to me by my Italian Nana on a recipe card tattered by the winds and the waves they encountered on their voyage by boat across the sea from the homeland.
Oh oops, I'm not Italian and neither are my grandmothers.  But this recipe is good stuff and I'm going to pass it down to my sons and daughter while making hand gestures and yelling "meat-A-balls!" and maybe I'll even take a boat across the pond to give it to them, so there. 

So the recipe may not have come from my Italian grandma but it did come from another one of my favorite blogs  http://www.iowagirleats.com/.  It was super easy and filling and get this, even though it was chock full of veggies the kids ate it....and LIKED it!   You absolutely can't go wrong with a soup that has marinara sauce in it's base.  Add in sausage and Parmesan cheese and fughettaboutit.

I apologize for what I'm about to show you, but I'm doing it because I care, because I love you.  After you've eaten your very nutritious, veggie laden, minestrone soup, pat yourself on the back for eating so healthy and then make THIS.

CAKE. BATTER. MUDDY. BUDDIES.

I KNOW!  I saw this recipe on Girl Who Eats Everything's blog this morning and immediately started obsessing about it.  I could not stop thinking about it.  So I went on my lunch and bought the supplies to whip this up tonight so that I could sleep in peace having tried it.  Except instead of sleeping in peace, I'll be popping Tums all night because I may have sampled just a *little* too much of this stuff.  Self control much?  Not this girl.

You guys?  It is AH-MAZING.  The first thing that popped in my head when I took a handful was  "It tastes like a baby shower!".  Which is an odd comparison since I've never, umm, you know, eaten a baby shower.   I think what I meant is it's sweet and girly (that could've been due to the large amount of hot pink sprinkles I used in it)  and pretty, NOT like baby powder and dirty diapers, just to clarify.  The really scary part is you can whip this recipe up in about 5 minutes.  5 MINUTES.  This is bad, really bad.  But if Cake Batter Muddy Buddies is bad, I don't want to be good.  If you're going to have one dietary splurge this weekend, it should be this.  Trust me. 

Happy Friday all!