Baked Oatmeal

I have discovered recently (within the past couple of years) that I really love oatmeal cookies. Not oatmeal raisin, just oatmeal. If nuts or chocolate chips are thrown in, that's peachy, but keep the raisins and craisins and other "sins" to yourself - or at least out of MY cookie!

That got me thinking that I might actually like eating oatmeal now. I used to not like it, but I also used to not like grits (it goes back to my "texture thing") but I love grits now so I might could get on board with oatmeal, too. Still, I'm timid when it comes to trying new things and I like to baby step into it. As I was wasting too much time on pinterest, I found a recipe for individual baked oatmeal cups. Hmm. Baked oatmeal? That sounds at least cookie-related. And it's small so they can be shared and enjoyed over time without needing guests or a huge commitment. So I pinned it and it sat for a while. The recipe I found was super-healthy - no sugar, sweetened by applesauce, including mashed banana. I started losing interest around the banana part, but I read through the comments and found there were plenty of people who were suggesting alternatives or just leaving the banana out. I decided I might could get on board with this after all.

Still, we don't keep applesauce in the house. I'm sure Jeff would eat it, but I had just been to the store not 6 hours ago and applesauce wasn't anywhere on the radar and I wasn't about to go back out just for that. So I started searching the internet for alternative recipes for baked oatmeal that might work. I found one that was much more my speed - butter instead of banana, brown sugar instead of applesauce. Yup. This is definitely sounds more in the neighborhood of "cookie" and less like "healthy breakfast" which I'm totally fine with! I combined the two recipes and made a few changes of my own, and this is what I came up with!

3 c. oatmeal

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

3/4 c. dark brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

1 c. milk

2 eggs

Put cupcake liners into a 12 cup muffin tin, then spray the liners with cooking spray. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each cup and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Verdict: Yeah, I can eat oatmeal like this! I had one while it was still warm with a big glass of milk. Yum! It doesn't even need chocolate! The help with portion control is much needed. I froze half of them and stuck the other half in the fridge for grab-and-go snacks. Jeff gave them a big thumbs up, too!

Buck's Pizza - Alabaster

Remember when I wrote a review of a new Mexican place near our house,  El Potro? Well, they didn't even last a year. A place called PaNYC moved in, but it was so many different things I never knew what exactly is was and refused to try it on principle. It didn't last long, either. The building sat empty for quite a while, but a couple of months ago we noticed the "for lease" sign removed from the front. Then the sign changed and it said "coming soon - not panyc" which immediately endeared us to whatever it was going to be. Pretty soon the sign changed again and announced that Buck's Pizza was moving in, and we waited excitedly. We noticed lots and lots of cars in the parking lot in the past few weeks so we knew staff were being trained and it wouldn't be too long. They finally opened on Monday and the parking lot has stayed pretty stinking full ever since.

We decided Thursday night would be as good a time as any to give it a try. We went early (about 5:45 pm) and were seated immediately, but they were obviously already busy. It took longer than I would have expected for our server to greet us but after a rather awkward first encounter, she took our drink orders and got our drinks pretty quickly. She asked then if we were ready to order, but we asked for a few more minutes. Then she disappeared! It took us maybe five minutes to decide what we wanted and then sat and stared for at least ten minutes waiting for her to reappear. When she finally did appear from wherever she had been, she walked straight past us so we continued to sit and wait several more minutes. Finally, a gentleman we assumed was the owner came by and noticed Jeff's drink was empty and offered to get him a refill. Jeff told him we really just wanted to place our order. Although he was obviously not comfortable with it, the guy took our order. Several minutes later our waitress finally reappeared and asked if we were ready to order and we told her we already had so she just walked away. We didn't even get a "sorry about that, do you need anything else right now?" which kind of ticked me off, but whatever.

Jeff's food came out first. He got a small "Wild Buck" (basically a super-supreme) and we were going to share an order of the boneless buffalo wings, but when they brought it out there was no silverware and only one plate. We asked the guy who brought the food from the kitchen (not our server) for silverware and got a couple of forks and a hand-full of napkins. I just ate a few wings from the basket while I waited on my stromboli and they were really good. They had a nice flavor without being too unbearably hot. The waitress came by and asked if we needed anything before I got my food but we just said no because the guy from the kitchen said it was coming. It probably took almost 10 minutes before mine came (Jeff was at least halfway done) and I immediately noticed a problem. Although I had ordered a CBH special (cheddar, bacon, and ham) I got a bacon cheeesburger, although I didn't know that's what it was until we got the check at the end. I just knew there was something missing (ham) and something I didn't order -  I kind of thought it was sausage, which I normally hate. I tried it and it tasted pretty good, but it just wasn't what I wanted. I didn't send it back because I knew the guy had put it in wrong but it wasn't really his fault since he didn't have anything written down and Jeff had put him on the spot in the first place. I probably wouldn't order it again, but it wasn't bad. I ate half and brought the other half home with me so I'll probably have it for dinner tomorrow or at some point over the weekend. My bigger gripe was that I didn't have a knife and it wouldn't cut with the side of my fork so I just had to kind of rip it apart. I generally don't like doing that, but it beat trying to bite into it, and a bunch of the ground beef fell out while I did that which saved me having to scrape it out, although I still did a little of that too. I ate some of the beef and it did have a good flavor (I still thought it was sausage) but again, not what I wanted.

We didn't see much of our waitress after my food came out. The one time she did appear, I asked for a box. Next time I'll know to also ask for a cup for the sauce because it wasn't offered. I consolidated our two containers of ranch into one and put my extra sauce in the empty ranch cup so it worked out. Our drinks stayed pretty well filled, but that was thanks to several other staff members! After we finished and my leftovers were boxed up, we again were left sitting for quite a while, to the point that Jeff was asking if there was someplace we went to pay or if they were going to bring us a check. I had seen other tables get their check so I knew that from observation. At this point the place was packed and there was a line of people waiting for tables. The busboy stopped by and asked if he could get stuff out of our way, to which we agreed because we were beyond ready to go. We even gave him our drink glasses, which I will pretty much NEVER do. When he asked if we needed anything, we told him we were waiting on our check. He went in the back and told someone, and came back to tell us that it should be right out. Several minutes later, after he had cleared a few more tables he was walking back by our table and noticed us still waiting and rolled his eyes. Obviously he said someone again because the owner came back to our table to ask if we were waiting on the check and we told him we were. Our waitress finally appeared with our check, and we were ready to hand it back to her almost immediately. She walked back and forth in front of our table several more times and I was about ready to have Jeff stick the folder with our check in it out to block her path the next time she came by, but I think she realized I was glaring at her and she came to take it. Again, it took what seemed like an eternity before she came back with our credit card so we could finally get the heck out of dodge!

I'm sure we will return, but it may be for carryout next time. I expected a little bit of dysfunction because this was their first week, but everyone else was very polite and on top of things except for this one girl. I still want to try the CBH special!

*Edit 5/6/12 - We went back for lunch today, and all the little "kinks" from our previous visit seemed to have worked themselves out. In fact, if it's possible, even the food was better this time! I am guessing that, before too long, we'll be on a first name basis with most of the staff at Buck's!

Slow Cooker Gumbo

I'm not a gumbo fan, but my darling husband is. It can be a million degrees outside, but if we are at a restaurant that has gumbo, he's going to order it, complete with hot sauce and saltine crackers (much to my embarrassment at a very nice steakhouse!) Still, I have never tried making it before. After a recent inventory of the freezer I discovered about a hundred things of okra so I decided it was time to try my hand at gumbo to use some of it up.

Now I know that "real" gumbo starts with a roux and all that jazz. But I just didn't have the time or patience for that this time around, so I found a slow cooker recipe from Food Network. However, I knew I wasn't going to stick to this recipe either, it was just a starting place.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - the thing I love best about slow cooker recipes is that there is no "technique". You just get it all in and turn it on. This recipe was great because it required very little prep on my part. The bell pepper was frozen from our garden last year and the tomatoes were canned. The okra was frozen from my in-laws garden. The thyme was fresh from my herb garden right now. The onion broth was a recipe I tried a while back, and while I mentioned making it, I haven't ever shared the recipe, so stay tuned for that. This is probably the closest to "real food cooking" I have ever come and it feels nice!

1 package chicken breasts (about 1.5 lbs), cut into small pieces
1 package frozen okra
1/2 smoked sausage, cut into small pieces
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
6 cubes onion broth
1 pint tomatoes
2 Tbsp cajun seasoning (I used my own blend but there are plenty of good ones from the store)
1 bay leaf
Fresh thyme

Cook on low at least 5 hours. Check on it and stir it occasionally. If you added the chicken breasts whole, start shredding after about hour 3.
Serve over rice (I saw one comment on the original that suggested adding your uncooked rice to the pot about 2 hours before eating if you like the one-pot meal option. I didn't do that but thought I' would pass it along anyway!) Jeff ate two bowls and gave it a big thumbs up!

If you try it, let me know what you think. If you change it up, let me know what you did. Hubby may like your version better!

Info Every Parent Should Carry At All Times

Today people all over the southeast, but in Alabama especially, have been remembering the devastation of the tornados last year. I had a different perspective as an employee at the state's only Level I trauma center so when I think of all that was happening at that time I think about what I encountered at the hospital and what I continue to encounter in other emergency situations.

When I get called to an emergency at our Children's hospital, one of my first tasks is to get some basic info for the healthcare team in the back. More often than not at least one piece of info is missing because someone doesn't have it. Maybe mom keeps up with this stuff but she wasn't with the child when whatever it is happened or worse, she was and is also hurt/sick or at another hospital. Maybe they keep the social security cards locked up where they can get them if they need them, but nobody has time to grab it when they're rushing to the hospital. Even the parents that normally know all this stuff just can't remember it in the middle of an emergency because they are worried about their child. This is absolutely understandable, but it really is important so it helps to write it down and put it in your wallet or type into your phone (or both!)

Full legal name
Date of birth
Social security number
Info about vaccinations (especially if they are on an alternate schedule - what have they had and how many doses?)
Any medications - what, how much, how often, and why (this includes over the counter stuff!)
Allergies - drugs, food, insects, anything!
Previous illnesses, injuries, and hospitalizations - you don't need to list every cold, but it's helpful to know if the child just got over something. Also, any special needs or developmental delays.
Blood type and weight (you probably won't get asked this, but it's helpful to have)
Primary Care Doctor's name and phone number

It's not a bad idea to give a copy of this info to grandparents and make sure it's written down in case a babysitter needs it. If you're worried about someone having access to your child's ssn, put it in a sealed envelope marked "in case of emergency"! If you have a family emergency notebook, put a copy in that, too.

Personally I think it's a good idea to have this on your spouse, too. I know most of this about Jeff, but he will tell you he doesn't know most of this about me! If you don't put the whole vaccine record, at least put the date of the last tetanus shot! If something ever happens to us and someone else has to give this about us, we're both in trouble! We assume that grown-ups should know most of this about themselves and be able to provide their own history and information. For a regular visit to a doctor's office that is true, but what about in an emergency? I can't tell you the people we had in the ER who we knew their name and maybe even had their insurance info, but had no information to contact a family member to let them know they'd been in an accident. Sure, most of them had a cell phone, but a good portion of those phones were password protected. I understand people wanting to do this, but if you do PLEASE WRITE DOWN YOUR CODE AND PUT IT IN YOUR WALLET! Or even better, put contact info for your next of kin in your wallet. It could be something as simple as a business card that you write "in case of emergency please call" with their name and relationship!

I hope and pray that nobody ever needs to use this, for themselves or any other member of their family, but please do yourself and those caring for you and your loved ones a favor and keep it on your person just in case!

Saving at Sea

The cruising infographic I shared several weeks ago presented several suggestions for saving money on the ship (see section 5), and while they were good suggestions, they can stand to be expanded upon and I have a few tips of my own.

Keep track of your drinking and gambling expenses - This seems like a no-brainer, but you can actual control some of this before you ever set foot on the boat.

1. Know yourself - I'm not a huge alcohol drinker. I may purchase two cocktails during the course of a cruise. Don't get me wrong, I'll have a couple of glasses of rum punch during the previous cruisers reception (and let's be honest, they're a lot more "punch" and a lot less "rum" at those things) but it's just not a place that I'm willing to spend a lot of money. What I do love is soda. That is my weakness. I don't drink coffee. I get my caffeine via Dr. Pepper. I figured out that if you're going to drink more than two or three a day, it's worth it to get a soda card. I know on Carnival, you can find out the price online, but I've gotten them enough that I know about how much it'll be. If you do some google searching, you can sometimes find drink menus that include prices so you can see how much your favorite might be.
2. Bring your own - I know on Carnival, each adult who is of age can bring a bottle of wine in their carry-on luggage (DO NOT check it. It will be confiscated and returned at the end of the trip. My mother-in-law made this mistake last time!) There is a corkage fee if you want to take your bottle to the dining room and have it with dinner each night, BUT there is nothing preventing you from carrying in a glass of something from somewhere else. If you order something, just hang on to your glass. Pour up a glass in your room before dinner and just bring it with you! You can also bring sodas with you, but I think it's limited to one case per person, and it's just a headache to try to carry and keep up with that, so I never do. I know several people who have. It's a personal choice.
3. Share - I guess because of people passing around soda cards, the past few times they've been sticklers for swiping it and checking to make sure I'm the one using my card to get a soda, and I'm ok with that. However, even in a restaurant at home Jeff will often pick up my soda and take a sip, and so I am happy to let him do that on vacation, too. This also works the other way when he has a cocktail or something and I just want a little taste of it!
4. Use cash in the casino - until my last cruise, I could always use quarters in the slot machine (which is the only thing Jeff or I have ever played in the casino) so it was never an issue of charging to our account. This last time the quarters weren't an option in the machine but I THINK (so don't be mad if I'm wrong) you can go to the casino cashier, at the very least, to get chips for table games. If that's your thing, just use the cash and avoid using the account. When you're out of money, you stop playing. It's not a hard concept.

Use ship's phone and internet sparingly. Rates are usually steep. - Yes, they really are. However, you don't have to be completely cut off while you're on vacation (although personally I recommend it!)

1. Turn your phone on "airplane mode". If you can't stand the idea of turning it off for the week (or like me, you have games, music, books, and all you "fun stuff" on it) keep it on airplane mode to avoid charges for the call or text message from that person who forgot you were gone or sent something to everyone they know.
2. Use your phone OFF the boat in port. No kidding, you have to get off the boat and usually off the pier for the carrier to change (this was especially true in Mexico). If you HAVE to call home or check messages, it's cheaper to pay for that international coverage than the "cellular at sea" service, which is an option also.
3. Share with someone. The last cruise we took, there were about 12 of us who were all flying home together. And we all wanted to do the online check-in the day before. So rather than everyone individually buying a minimum of 15 minutes (or whatever it was) to do something that took maybe 2 minutes, each person chipped in a few dollars and we had one or two people that took care of checking everyone in online.
4. REMEMBER - IT'LL ALL BE THERE WHEN YOU GET HOME (or when you get back into port)

Always pay attention to your running balance on the ship. - I really don't know that I could break this one down into anything simpler, but I do want to suggest a couple of ways of doing this.

1. Keep ALL your receipts. Yup, even from the bar (for some people, especially from the bar!). At the end of each day, before you go to bed, add them up and see what you spent for the day. Maybe keep a running list in a journal or notebook somewhere so you can also see what you've spent OFF the boat to know your totals.
2. Check in at the purser's desk. There's almost always someone there and they can tell you your account balance at any time. Some ships now also have a sort of "on-demand" in room tv system that allows you to do this as well.
3. Limit charging privileges. You can have everyone in your family linked to the same account but only one or two people have charging privileges. This can help those who are prone to impulse purchases if they must consult with someone else!
4. Carry cash. No, you can't use cash in the gift shop or at the bar. But you can make payments at the purser's desk at pretty much any time. If you want to check in every day and make a payment every day, that's certainly an option. When you run out of cash, you have to stop charging! And if the casino won't take those rolls of quarters, never fear because the purser's desk will be happy to take them and apply them to your account!

A few more thoughts - Here are a few more tips not mentioned on the infographic, but are worth considering.

• If you're going to book a spa treatment, do it during a port day. It's generally cheaper. Also keep an eye out for daily specials
• Although room service is included, tipping for that is not. Make sure you have a little bit of cash for this if you think that's something you want to use.
• Bring your own water bottle to refill. The water on the boat is fine to drink (and take with you to shore) and while you can buy bottles on the ship, they're expensive.
• I always bring my own cup for my sodas rather than buying the cup they're selling (some cruise lines buying the cup is the only way to do their unlimited soda program, so know that before you carry one). I don't ever ask the bartenders to fill my personal cup, and I was warned by one that some wouldn't do it, but many of them will see the cup in my hand and offer so I will happily accept. Even if they don't, I can just dump it immediately from one cup to the next and not have to keep up with the glass! It's also the only way you can take something (not in a bottle) off the ship!

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

This was one of the first thing I decided I needed to try from Pinterest, but I'm just now getting around to it. Part of it was the fact that the original recipe had you breading and pan-frying the chicken before putting it into the slow cooker. Um, no thanks! I've done this before and the breading never sticks and it's just more to clean up. The one advantage may be that the flour would help thicken the sauce a little bit. I decided to do it my way (no frying) and just add a little corn starch to thicken it.

I used about 2 lbs of chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces. The sauce was super simple - 6 oz frozen orange juice concentrate (defrosted), 3 Tbsp ketchup, 3 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, 1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce, and 1 tsp corn starch. Because this was a sort of "trial and error" recipe I didn't do what I normally do, which is throw everything in and just let it go. I put  in the chicken pieces and mixed up the sauce with everything from the OJ to the balsamic in at the very beginning and let it cook on low. After several hours of cooking (probably about 3) I decided to try adding a little corn starch to thicken the sauce. Truthfully I didn't see a ton of difference which could mean that I needed more, but the sauce wasn't unpleasantly thin (at least in my opinion) so next time I will probably not even fool with it. I saved the soy sauce for last, after everything was done cooking (6-7 hours on low). I'm really sensitive to salt (what is normally ok for a lot of people is sometimes too much for me) so I added a little bit at a time at the very end until I found a flavor I liked. I honestly have no idea how cooking changes this since I don't use soy sauce much, but I am guessing it might intensify it some, so just know yourself and your preferences. If in doubt, do like I did and save it for the end. Remember, you can always add more but you can't take it out!

As a personal preference, next time I will also add some red pepper flakes. I like the combination of sweet and spicy, and I think that would really put this over the top. It was good without it, but I would have liked a little bit of kick with it, too.

I served it with fried rice and some steamed broccoli. You could absolutely toss some of your favorite veggies into the pot and let them cook with everything else. I thought about adding some mandarin orange slices, but my hubby gets funny about fruit in his savory food, so opted against it. Maybe next time.

I used the MyFitnessPal recipe builder to figure out exactly how "bad" this is. I guessed there were about six servings, but you may could stretch it even more than that. Using the " six serving" figures it comes out to around 235 calories a serving. Even with my fried rice it was still less than 400 calories for dinner. Not bad.

This would make a great and easy Mama and Baby Love style slow cooker freezer meal. I couldn't find any of the small (6 oz) cans of frozen orange juice concentrate, so I just got the big can and cut it in half while it was frozen and stuck the rest in a freezer bag for later. It would be just as easy to double this recipe and freeze half for later (or freeze both bags for later during a big prep/cooking day!)

Give it a try and let me know what you think! (And yes, I know I'm a blogging slacker because I didn't get a picture. Next time, I promise I will get one and come back to post it!)

Crock Pot Chicken Nuggets

I decided to try combining two different recipes and see if I could come up with something spectacular. The first was a recipe for chicken nuggets in the crock pot. The second was for a copy-cat of Chick-fil-a nuggets.

I started with about 2 lbs of chicken, which was three pretty large breasts cut into bite sized pieces.

I dipped the chicken pieces in a bowl with 4 eggs and about 2 Tbsp olive oil. Then they went into a mixture of italian bread crumbs with onion powder, chili powder, and a little powdered sugar. Since I had probably 1 cup of bread crumbs left in my little cannister, I just tossed everything in that and used it to do my breading since you'll be throwing out the leftovers anyway!

I used one of those liners sprayed with cooking spray. after a layer of chicken pieces, I topped it with a piece of aluminum foil with a bunch of holes poked with a fork. I got three layers and still had plenty of room in my pot for at least one more.

I put the lid on slightly sideways so it's vented and some of the steam could escape with the pot turned on high.

I checked on them after two hours and the small one I tested on the top was cooked all the way through, but it was still a little soggy so I left it for about another hour. When I came back the ones on top were perfect and several on the sides were nice, but the ones in the center of both the middle and bottom layers were still pretty soggy. Since I had the oven on for something else, I just tossed the soggy ones on a foil lined baking sheet for about 10 minutes and they got nice and crispy and perfect.

Verdict: Ehh. The bread crumb mixture was nice, but it'll never satisfy a Chick-fil-a craving. Still, I'll probably use it again. I'll probably do milk instead of olive oil with the eggs though, and maybe only three eggs. The crock pot method just wasn't worth the extra time and effort of layering and waiting. I'll probably make my own chicken nuggets again, but I'll do it in the oven.