Halloween!!!

Yesterday was a huge day for us! James took off some time to come to my doctors appointment and I'm so glad he did...the doctor says she is still breech so she had already scheduled my C-Section for the 7th!! We will be meeting our beautiful baby girl next Thursday :) We are beyond excited. It has felt like forever and I'm so ready to hold her and see what she looks like. Having a c-section terrifies me but I was a c-section baby, my husband was one, so we are just keeping with the tradition haha! She will have a perfectly round head instead of a cone head so her headbands will look extra adorable hehe!! 

So knowing that she is coming in a week I am still trying to cook some freezer meals so I will be prepared and not have to rely on junk food for however long I'm out. I hate knowing that I am going to miss cooking for Thanksgiving but hopefully I'll be fine for Christmas! Plus having baby Zara will make up for everything :)

Last night I made a casserole with a bunch to freeze. It was a Broccoli, Mushroom, Chicken Spaghetti Casserole.

First I took a whole rotisserie chicken and chopped up all the meat from it. Put that in a bowl.

Chopped up half a sweet onion and half a red onion cause that is what I had in my fridge leftover from the night before. I seared that in a pan with a little olive oil and butter.

Then sliced up a whole package of mushrooms really thin and moved the onions to the side and put the mushrooms in. Giving them plenty of surface area to get that nice brown caramelize. Tossed the mushroom onion mixture into the bowl.

I took a box of garlic flavored chicken broth and brought that to a boil with some water. Added a couple handfuls of this thin spaghetti noodles I get from whole foods. It's my favorite cause it's a German brand that is super super thin and delicious! Because it's so thin it only needs like less than 5 mins plus it will cook more in oven. I threw in the pasta with a little bit of the pasta water.

No need to drain it. Then added a can of Cream of Mushroom with roasted garlic soup,

a can of cream of Chicken Soup,

and a can of cream of celery soup.

Microwaved a bag of chopped broccoli.

Shredded half a block of Pepper Jack cheese and half a block of Sharp Cheddar Cheese.

A pinch of salt and ground pepper. Then a drained jar of sliced pimento peppers.

Stirred all of this together. Put in a glass dish for dinner that night and in a freezer proof pan for freezing.

Topped both with more shredded sharp cheddar.

Covered both with foil. Put the glass dish in the oven at 350° for 30 mins and then broiled for 5 mins without the foil till it browned.

Put the other into the deep freeze ready to eat at a later time! 

Tonight is Halloween night but it has been raining all freaking day!! I feel so bad for the kids around here. They better come to our house tho cause we are giving away full sized candy bars!!! Oh yeah that's right! Best house on the block ;)

But all of our lights, strobe lights, fog machine, and dry ice are out because if the rain :( I'm pretty disappointed. Still excited to see some costumes. I'm wearing my last bump Halloween shirt!!

For dinner tonight I am making an awesome Halloween pizza. I pulled out some frozen pizza dough I had made before and I'm going to add a bunch of veggies cut into scary shapes!

For dessert I am making Ghostly S'more Brownies! Um.....yum?!?

Melted stick of butter

1-1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs and 2 tbs of sugar

Bake for 10 mins at 350°

Made a box brownie mix and baked for 40 mins on top of graham cracker crust.

Topped with 2 Hershey bars and some milk chocolate chips 

Ghost peeps put under broiler.

Little too much broil but still delicious!!

And a rich decadent Hot Chocolate while we watch scary movies and hand out candy bars. Can't have a better night, except for if Zara was already here but she will just have to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. Her little turkey butt!

Chicken Tostadas and Vanilla Pudding from Scratch

I had a rough day today. I'm really too pregnant to be going out running errands and stuff. I went to the grocery store today and it was like there was a Zombie Apocalypse! All the shelves and food were cleared out and it looked like people were looting! I'm grabbing a couple things that I could see and was looking around like what the crap is going on?! I finally hear a manager explain that they had a power outage for the whole morning so they were having to get everything out and throw it away. Well I needed all fresh stuff so I put my things back and left that store. Which sucked cause I had to go to the farther store and was starving, I had been hoping for a quick trip and to grab a bite to eat on my way home. Well I finally get to the HEB and it's hot as crap. I'm wearing these new pregnancy tights that just won't stay up so I look like I'm sagging in my crotch area every few steps I take, having to pull them up which was embarrassing enough. It takes me forever to get all the stuff since I was shopping for 2 days. I finally finish and take my stuff to the cashier. While putting my stuff on the conveyer belt I noticed that my chicken has a hole in it so I tell the cashier and she says I need to go get another one and that she will put my cart to the side. So I have to waddle my pregnant butt all the way back to get more chicken. I come back and there are a bunch of people in the line paying so I have to wait and this old man grunts when I "cut" in front of him to finish paying for my stuff. I'm pregnant! Geeze!! Then I load my trunk with the groceries and see a bee that has fallen in love with my car door so I could not get in! Ugh what a day. I'm not leaving the house tomorrow at all!

We went out to eat yesterday and James was saying how much he loved the vanilla pudding they had on the buffet, which gave me the idea to make homemade pudding today! I've always wanted to make pudding from scratch so my kids could have warm pudding after they get home from school :)

Here are the ingredients: 

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups milk

4 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

First I put the sugar in a medium sauce pan.

Then the corn starch

Salt

Whisked to combine

Slowly added the milk, whisking fast to dissolve the cornstarch 

Then added the 4 egg yolks 1 at a time

Put the heat to medium and constantly whisked till it thickened

When it had fully thickened after 10 mins I took a medium bowl and put on a strainer 

I poured the pudding into the strainer and shook it through till it was nice and smooth

I added a teaspoon of vanilla

And 2 tbs of butter

Whisked till it was mixed

Then put a piece of Saran Wrap onto the top to prevent a skin forming, and put in the fridge to cool.

Yumm!

For dinner I made a Chicken "Tostada"

Which was kind of a mix between chicken tostada and nachos. A layer of Marinated Chicken Breast topped with a Refried Bean Sauce, Cheddar and Pepper Jack Cheese, Crushed Tortilla Chips, Roasted Corn Salsa, Avocado, Sour Cream, Cilantro, and Pickled Carrots & Jalapeños.

Here are the ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast

Salt and pepper

Juice of 2 limes

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

About 5 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 small yellow onion, chopped

2 medium ears of corn

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 fresh jalapeo peppers chopped

1 can of refried beans

1 cup water

2 chopped tomatoes

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 Fresno chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped

1/4 cup cilantro, a handful of leaves, finely chopped

1 block of pepper jack

1 block of Cheddar

2 cups lightly crushed thin crispy tortilla chips

1 small can pickled sliced jalapeño and carrots 

First I took the chicken breast and butterflied them by cutting down the side and opening like a book. Then used some Saran Wrap to pound them very thin.

In a glass baking dish I put in a tsp of cumin, a tsp of oregano, 2 cloves of garlic minced, the juice of 1 lime, and 3 tbs of vegetable oil.

Mixed then added the flattened chicken breast to marinate

To make the corn salsa I cut the corn off of 2 cobs. And put a pan on high heat and added 1 tbs of veggie oil.

Threw in the corn to char

Then diced up 2 tomatoes, 1 Fresno jalapeño, and half a purple onion.

And added that to the corn.

In another pan I heated some oil and added a chopped yellow onion and 2 cloves of garlic

Added 1 tsp of cumin, 1tsp of paprika, and a sprinkle of cayenne 

Toasted that in the skillet and added a chopped jalapeño and 1 cup of water. Took a can of Refried beans and put that in a food processor and added the onion mixture and a pinch of salt and pepper. I forgot a picture of this cause I was in a hurry. Sorry :) Then processed till smooth. Put that back in the same skillet I cooked the onions in and heated it till it thickened.

To assemble I heated up a flat skillet to medium high heat and put the marinated chicken onto it and seared for a few mins each side.

Put the chicken on a plate.

Covered with the bean mixture

Shredded the cheeses over that

 Crushed the tortilla chips on top of the cheese

Topped with the corn salsa and cilantro 

A dollup of sour cream, diced avocado, and pickled carrots

Then devoured :) soooo yummy! James absolutely loved it!