Shrimp and Grits

Since we live in the South now, Mom thought she would make something for Mimi that was authentically southern. My vote was for fried chicken, or barbecue, but since I didn't actually vote ahead of time and instead voiced my opinion after dinner was served, it looks like I was overruled. I blame Mom for not anticipating my needs.

So here it what Mom made - shrimp and grits.  The grits part I don't really understand, but they had some cheese in them and Mom said they were basically like Mac-N-Cheese.I was seriously dubious about this meal.

She was wrong about them being like Mac-N-Cheese, but I ate them anyway, after my broccoli was gone.

And hey, they were actually pretty good. Mom said she didn't stick with all the cream that had to go into the recipe and used milk instead. I'm not the one in this house watching calories, but I'm also not the one doing the cooking so I guess it's fine.

Here's the girl making a face at Mimi. She liked the grits part, but she kept trying the shrimp over and over and I think it was too spicy for her. She must have been hungry to think that each new bite of shrimp wouldn't be spicy. Me, I don't go for that kind of nonsense and instead stuck to eating just the grits.

So the grits are approved and if you'd like to make the shrimp part to go with it, I can't stop you. Click here for the recipe.

Loaded Baked Potato Keesh

When is enough, enough? Probably when your mom keeps making keesh even though you don't eat it (see here and here). This time, my Mimi was in town and I thought we'd be safe with her because she makes excellent dinner choices evidenced by her bringing me a gift of matchbox cars and M&M's (this lady just gets me).

But no, mom made a keesh again. This time she said it was a "Loaded Baked Potato" keesh. I'm not sure why that makes it better since I'm certain I wouldn't like a baked potato anyway, although it is funny to listen to Mimi say "bodado".

 As you can see above, it also involved ham being inside. Mom put out some extra bacon bits for everyone to put on top, but I'm pretty sure those were just meant for me. At least after I ate them all no one seemed too upset that they were all gone, except maybe Daddy, but that guy eats just about everything so he'll probably get over it.

See, those are all my bacon bits transferred to my plate before anyone else could eat them. The trick is that if I put them on my plate and then eat those, my plate looks more empty than before and then Mom thinks I've eaten something and will allow me to have the M&Ms Mimi brought for me. Aren't I a genius!?

The girl hasn't figured this step out yet. So she actually ate some of her keesh. What. A. Chump. Plus, she got to sit next to Mimi so you know Mimi would have covered for her if she didn't want to eat anything. I try to teach her these things, but if she's not even willing to help herself then I can't really do anything for her.

Anyway, only the bacon part of this is approved. If you'd like to make it yourself, click here.

Chicken Again! - PB2 Slow Cooker Thai Chicken

Every now and then something comes along that makes my mom get all giddy and excited. She tells people about it and gets excited when the want to talk about it. For some reason right now she's excited about peanut butter that is powdery? I don't get it. peanut butter is perfectly fine as it is, but for some reason she thinks this is great.

The only real upside for me is that Mom has been putting the peanut butter powder in her protein drinks, and usually she tells me I can't drink any of it, but if I pretend I'm interested in the peanut butter powder, well then that's a whole new story and she lets me have a drink.

So I shouldn't have been surprised when the new favorite of my mom's started turning up in our dinner recipes.

This is a photo of Mom's plate. She doesn't let herself has as much rice as we get, so you can't really see it under her chicken. She said the chicken looked a bit like dog food - she was supposed to crush up some peanuts to put on top which would have assisted in de-dogfooding it a bit, but I didn't mind. I actually really liked this.

I didn't even just eat the rice this time around. I ate the noodles too. Daddy said something about them being made with zucchini, but I don't see how that's true since noodles are not made with zucchini, everyone knows that. I ate them happily. It was a good peanut butter flavor, I'm not sure what happened to the powder.

Even the girl ate it.

So give it a shot. Pete approved. You can find the recipe here.

Sausage and Green Beans

Folks, there are few foods more perfectly formed in this world than sausage. It's like someone took the tasty bits of the meat and put it in a tube for us to enjoy - I'm sure it is amazing to watch it being made. Maybe I'll ask Mom to take me to a sausage factory soon. Anyway, I've talked to you about smoked sausage before (see here). And even though it was soooooo long ago, I still love it. And the girl loves it too. So we tried to eat all the sausage before it went into the pot, but Mom was on to our game. Wait, what? She's telling me it was TURKEY sausage? I feel lied to, I feel... eh, I don't care it was still delicious.

Sorry this is not the way it was supposed to look in a plate, but admittedly, Mom was dodging my hands as I tried to grab the sausage off her plate.

I think when we've had this before Mom used white potatoes, but she read somewhere that sweet potatoes are better for you or something. It doesn't really matter because it's not like I ate the potatoes anyway. I'm here for the sausage you know?

I did eventually eat some of the green beans too. I'm a worldly type of guy you know. I can eat green beans. Plus, I was assured that there was no more sausage to be had.

Even the girl ate some of her green beans. Don't mind those goldfish on her tray, those are probably mine, or at least I determined they were mine once I saw them and leaned all the way across the table to grab them.

I almost knocked over Mom's glass of what she calls "Mommy grapejuice" but she acted like I was about to spill liquid gold all over the table. Sheesh, I was just trying to get MY goldfish. Sheesh.

The sausage part of this one is approved.

You can make it here, even if you want to try to trick your family by using turkey sausage and sweet potatoes.

Sugar Hamburger - Korean Beef

I have this really great knack for helping Mom in the kitchen when she's trying to make dinner. She really couldn't do it without me. Well, maybe she could, but would she really WANT to? I think that question answers itself. Sometimes, helping to make something can yield unexpected rewards, like licking the brownie bowl (see here) or eating left over crushed cookies (here). This time, turns out, you put brown sugar INTO THE HAMBURGER. I found this hilarious until I discovered how amazing brown sugar was, then I wanted more of it to go into my belly instead of into the hamburger. Mom says maybe she'll cut down on that next time, but it was super exciting.

Hiding in that beef is a bunch of brown sugar. I had to be reminded of this fact in order to eat the beef. I was certain it was going to kill me. So I ate all my broccoli first.

 Then, when that was gone and I was assured there was no more and NO I was not allowed to eat the girl's even though she wasn't eating it, I tried the beef.

It was actually good. And I ate a bunch of it, but was pretty full from all my broccoli so I didn't finish it all. Daddy finished it for me. He's handy to have around.

The girl ate some too, but look at all that wasted broccoli on her plate and also it kind of looked like the keen-wah exploded all over her tray.

Anyway, this is Pete approved and you can make it here. Save me some brown sugar though. I'll come over and lick it off your counter if you need help cleaning up.

Tacos! - Barbacoa Burritos

I'm not sure if you guys have ever had Tacos before. We have them sometimes. They are pretty good. It takes some assembly and I get pretty upset when my taco doesn't stay together, but I do like trying it out.

Mom made this in the morning before we left for school and when we came home I thought we'd just get right to eating, but turns out she wanted to make some rice, and cut some tomatoes and lettuce. It was exhausting for me and the girl. We made sure to each cling to one of Mom's legs so she would know we were hungry. And if that didn't do it, we both alternatively practiced our screaming so she would really know. I'm not sure how long rice takes to make in our rice cooker, but we kept it up for about that long.

But the results were worth it. I noshed hard on these once they were all rolled up, even though I declared that I was not going to be eating any of the beef filling. Once it was inside the burrito it was fine. See, it becomes part of the taco then, and tacos I like!

The girl ate hers without rolling it up. What. A. Chump.

If you want to make them, you can find them here. Hope you don't have more than two kids, because what leg would the third one grab on to in order to let you know they were also hungry?

Pete approved.

Sausage and Red Pepper 'Keesh'

I know that I love red pepper. Sometimes I request red pepper for breakfast and Mom will cut them into little strips and put them next to a baggie so she can save what I don't eat for eating later with hummus. But she's crazy because I don't leave any left overs when it comes to eating a red pepper. So Mom thought it would be a good idea to take the red pepper and cut it up smaller and put it in a Keesh. Why would anyone do this to a perfectly good pepper?

It came out of the oven looking like this, which had promise (but she's tried to fool me before by making something look like a pie - remember this?). Eggs I like, sausage I like, and red pepper, see above.

I did eat it, but I was very busy asking why I couldn't run around in the back yard instead. I have priorities and sometimes they don't involve eating dinner. I did like it though, except for the crust, which Mom says she made a whole wheat version instead of using the traditional kind. Whatever that means. I wasn't a fan and Mom did admit it was a little overpowering on flavor. (You can find the recipe here).

The girl and I are both going through a phase where we expect people to feed us. I am doing it because I want to make sure Mom is fully committed to my upbringing. I suspect the girl is doing it because she likes doing everything I do. And I do mean everything!

Since Mom seems to want us to eat healthier (e.g. the whole wheat crust) she also used turkey sausage. I don't understand what this means. What is sausage made out of usually? I didn't notice, I stuffed my face with it and it tasted like regular sausage to me.

Anyway, the top part of this recipe is Pete approved. You can make it yourself here.