Chickpea salad with parsley, lemon and sun dried tomatoes

Sorry I've been so MIA lately. Sheesh.

My cousin had a dedication party for my nephew Noah two weekends ago. With less than a week to prepare it was a little crazy but we managed.

I was in charge of the cake and making salads. I made a vanilla cake with a cookie dough center and I also made a tortellini salad as well as a chickpea salad and all were a huge hit.

I'll post about the cake another day, this cake came out well but not exactly as planned. Noah's birthday is coming up in a little more than a month and I'll be doing a similar cake but with a twist.

I went and doubled both salads but about half an hour in I'd realized that clearly wasn't enough. Next time I'll have to multiply the ingredient list by probably 4-6 times.

Chickpea salad with parsley, lemon and sun dried tomatoes
(From Bon appétite)

1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbs cumin seeds

2 15.5oz cans chickpeas
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/2 C chopped fresh parsley
1/3 C thinly sliced oil packed sun dried tomatoes (I found them already julienned in a jar)
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper

Combine oil and cumin seeds in a small, heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool completely.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add cumin oil and toss to blend. Season salad with sea salt and pepper to taste.

Best if made the night before. Bring to room temp before serving.

*the next time I make this I'll probably add a little red onion and instead of canned use dried beans that I've prepared in advance.

Lalala Lemon Bars make me happy :)

Look at this sunshiny yellow, how could this Not make you happy? 

(Ok, granted, I hate yellow, but I LOVE lemon)

I went to the local wholesale store with my sweetie last weekend on a grocery/stock up run and they had lemons for $2 a bag (8 lemons in a bag, that's a bargain considering at the grocery store they're up around $.75 each)  I knew I wanted to make lemon bars, I haven't made them in ages!! Today when I left to do my regular Saturday chores I took 2 sticks of butter out of the freezer and knew by the time I was back they'd be up to room temperature so I could get the lemon bars dome when I get home.

This recipe is super simple and So good!

Crust

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 lemons, juiced



1. Preheat oven to 350°f
2. In a medium bowl, blend together softened butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and golden. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice. Pour over the baked crust.
4. Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven. The bars will firm up as they cool.

Home with sick kid... what to do?

The kid hadn't been feeling well the past few days but when he called me on Wednesday afternoon and said he felt horrible and didn't want to even play basketball with his friends I knew he wasn't feeling well.  When I came home from work and he was in bed sleeping I knew he really was sick.  My kid never sleeps during the day after being up and about.  I felt his forehead and he was burning up :(  My kid rarely gets sick but when he does, it hits him hard.

After sleeping most of the afternoon Wednesday and then getting up at 2am with him tossing his cookies and with yet another blazing fever (we don't have normal fevers in my family, the first fever this kid ever had was 104 when he was a year old and I rushed him to the ER).  I called his pediatrician yesterday morning (and seriously, I LOVE his Dr.  She is the best, never overbooks and never has patients waiting more than a few minutes for her) She called him in and not 5 minutes later walked out and said he's got the stomach flu.  Lovely.

Since there's really  nothing she can give  him she said just lots of fluids and no dairy for the next few days.  We stopped at the grocery store for Gatorade and ginger ale and as I was putting everything away when I got home I had an idea.  Since I was home I may as well clean out my pantry.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm horribly disorganized.  I try, but sometimes I just get lazy.  I was home, I had really nothing to do so I may as well do something productive.  I started to pull all the junk out of the pantry and realized that I have a bit of a problem when there were bags and bags and a box of shopping bags.  Sometimes I just toss them in the recycle bag, but sometimes I shove the bags in other bags and wind up with a thousand grocery bags, well.. they're all gone now, out with the recyclables that got picked up this morning.  

I neatened up the shelves, moved the big heavy mixer onto the floor since the shelf I had it on seemed a little wobbly and put the Gatorade I got the kid onto the top shelf (He's tall at almost 6'2 and still growing) I keep most of the bottled stuff on a lower shelf but considering he's already gotta duck to get into the pantry I'd do him a favor here  ;)

My pantry is a little bare.  I need to hit the wholesale store soon to stock up on non perishables really soon.  I have a pantry stock checklist that I need to print out and work on because it really is a lot easier to make a quick dinner with a well stocked pantry :)

Little holes in all my shirts... now it all makes sense...

ALL of my shirts have little holes in them, right at the bottom.  This has plagued me for years and I had no idea what was causing it.  Cheap shirts? Poor quality? Possibly.  I buy most of my shirts at Old Navy, or at least I used to.  Their selection lately has been less than flattering clothing and with me shrinking into a size Small in old navy shirts nowadays I've gotta go shopping for new clothes soon.  But I digress.

The little holes plaguing all my shirts like this

It didn't even cross my mind that it could be my kitchen counter causing this until I was reading through this article at lunchtime from Faith in The Kitchn and saw this Is Your Kitchen Causing Holes In Your Clothing?

I have plenty of aprons and kitchen shirts and I'm not opposed to wearing them regularly, but I really only use them when I bake.  I suppose that's gonna change now (or as soon as I revamp my wardrobe, which will be very soon!)

Quaker real medleys

Running through Walgreens I stopped and thought it might be a good idea to grab some cereal or something because I tend to not eat in the morning. I saw these Quaker real medleys and thought oatmeal is always a good idea.

Holy cow was it fantastic!! Apple walnut oatmeal+ was the one I grabbed an it was loaded with bits of apple, big pieces of walnuts and big dried cranberries. It was quick to pop into the microwave with some milk (I do not like water in my oatmeal).

This was a good filling breakfast and I will definitely buy this again! Totally worth the $2.

It probably would have been a good idea to show a picture of the full oatmeal, but I didn't think of doing a post until it was almost gone. Oops. It's good stuff 😊