Chive-Mustard Vinaigrette

Chives are so wonderful and definitely underused in my kitchen. They have such delicate flavors that add the perfect touch of onion to any dish. Usually when I make a vinaigrette, I make my go-to Creamy Basil recipe, but after my mother-in-law gave me some leftover minced chives from our Easter supper, I had to put them to good use!

 

Hello Fresh {Review}

After having such a great experience with Blue Apron, I have totally become sold on the concept of boxed meal delivery services. So when I found a coupon code for Hello Fresh giving me $30 off, I had to give that one a try too!

HINT: If you download their app on your phone, use the code FRESHAPP at checkout to get the $30 off!

It couldn't hurt to get 3 meals for 2 people for $39 instead of $69, right?!?! That's only $6.50 per serving! You can't even eat take-out for those costs. I know this because the other day I went to get take-out for lunch and a salad cost me $8!!! And it wasn't even a good salad. It was just an okay salad. So if I can have a healthy, fresh and fun dinner...then heck yes I'll try it!

Prior to the delivery arriving we were given five options of meals to chose from and got to pick three of those for the week. Dusty and I selected:

• Lemony Pan-Seared Chicken with Pesto Potato Salad and Peas
• Fiery Pork Fajitas with Blistered Peppers and Guacamole
• Jamie's Oozy Zucchini Risotto with Buffalo Mozzarella and Fresh Basil

There were two other options that week of: Salmon en Papillote and Lasagna Penne Bake. We chose the three recipes above because they sounded the most interesting and unique out of the group, plus I wanted to try the risotto since it was a Jamie Oliver recipe. He contributes one recipe each week and they all look fabulous and a notch above the rest!

Fresh Horseradish Cream Sauce

One thing that has been on Dusty and my "to-do" list for the longest time is to make homemade horseradish. What sparked our interest was a  year or so ago we watched an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown made a horseradish cream sauce to accompany an oyster dish he was featuring. Forget the oysters! After drooling through the entire episode, we both agreed that we needed some fresh horseradish in our lives. The only problem was that we have been unable to find fresh horseradish up here at any of our grocery stores since watching that Good Eats episode. Therefore, our dream of many freshly grated horseradish and creamy horseradish faded away to the back burner.
 

Our First Blue Apron Experience

Is it just me or does it seem like groceries are costing more and more with each passing week? I remember when we lived in Billings a few years ago that we could get by on $80 a week for a weeks worth of groceries and have some really great meals. Then we moved up to the Hi-Line and it seems like our grocery bill doubled overnight. Besides inflation, it must have to be so ridiculously high due to the fact we are out in the middle of no-where. Grocery shopping use to be one of my favorite activities to do each week and now it has just become depressing. I walk out of the store each time irritated and frustrated that I've spent that much on food for a small family of three. The sad thing is, I'm not the only one...most people I talk to around this area say they spend anywhere for $150-200 a week at the grocery store....yikes!

Enter Blue Apron.

When I first read about Blue Apron, I initially thought it was a frivolous and luxury service. Three meals for two people costing $59 a week sounds like a lot of money. But the more I crunched the numbers and read reviews, I thought this could actually save us money as well as provide three extremely fresh and healthy dinners each week. So we gave it a try....

Forgive the pictures please....I used Snapchat for taking pics :/

Baby Food 101: Introduction

Nolan started eating baby food at approximately 5-1/2 months old. We knew he was ready because he would try to steal food off our plates, stare us down while we ate and tried to take any food or drink out of our hands. We took that as a huge sign of being ready to have baby food!

First we started rice cereal and basic purees such as apple, pear, green beans, peas, banana, etc. Nolan loved them all! Then we advanced to combination purees such as pineapple pear, mixed veggies, pumpkin apple, etc. Basically Nolan has tried and loved any combination of baby food out there. He is not a picky eater at all (Hallelujah!)