No amount of scrubbing...

…will get my hands to smell of anything other than garlic and cilantro again. For real.

Phase II: The Execution

Forgive me for not posting my results yesterday! I brought my camera to work with me but then I completely zoned out on bringing my cord to transfer images! Darn! In any case, I have been awash in delicious and cheap food. There have been many food-gasms over the weekend and the last few days. All I can say is that Beth from Budget Bytes is an honest to goodness genius in this world of blah food. I could go on and on, but let’s take a look at the food…

 

Oh yeah…

Honey wheat bread for the week… it’s so pretty! The bread, not my oven.

Beautiful!

This was one of the easier breads I’ve ever made. The rise time isn’t too bad and you can certainly work on other things while you wait! This was Saturday, the day of much bread. I made the honey wheat bread, pita bread, the naan, & cinnamon chocolate swirl bread. Luckily they all had different rise times. JUST different enough that I was able to work on one while the other two rose, baked one while kneading,  mixed up another while rising… you get the idea. It worked out well!

3 different doughs doing their thing on the counter top… and don’t worry, that spray bottle at the end has vinegar in it. I try never to mix chemicals and cooking.

 

It was at this point that my son decided I needed a sous chef. Well, of course…

Stirring some flour and cocoa powder like the big helper he is!

Naan was next! Now, if you aren’t familiar with Indian style food, naan is your basic flat bread type staple! It is great for sopping up those delicious Indian sauces, piling high with chicken and rice OR even works well as a pizza base. Beth’s recipe uses yogurt in the construction which I find adds to the wonderfully smooth taste in the end product. These were fairly easy to make with almost no rise time. However, I did mess up the first one by not rolling it out thin enough. It came out looking like a giant naan pancake. I neglected to take a picture, but I admitted the mistake, so that will have to be good enough for now!

Naan cooking…

Forgive the blurry image… I don’t have any fancy camera or back lighting and most of my kitchen surfaces are black so don’t provide much of a set. I’m sure the yummy translates anyway!

Fully cooked naan! So delicious!

The naan is being used for sides in Tandoori Chicken next week, so I threw them all in a giant zip plastic bag and tossed it in the freezer. I’m hoping that if I reheat them on a cookie sheet in the oven they will retain their delicious qualities.

On to the Pita Bread! These are without a doubt my favorite thing to cook and eat now. They come out so light and fluffy with giant pocket in the middle just PERFECT for sandwich fixins’ and delicious sauces (great picture of this down below). Next time I need to make a double batch… we are down to three already!

Pitas before…

 

Pitas after!!! Look at how fluffy and big they are!

So much awesome fluffiness.

You can not tell me that these don’t look awesome. And guess what? They taste even better. ON TO THE NEXT ONE!

Cinnamon chocolate swirl bread. I made this essentially to get rid of Halloween candy. My son got an unholy amount of Hershey bars, so this worked out perfectly. I personally think he likes the bread better than he likes straight up chocolate. Me too!

Mmmhm. Yes that IS a chocolate chip peaking out at the end there…

YUM! Breakfast all week!

 

There! That was all the baking! After all this baking I went ahead and made us Beth’s Chicken Enchiladas recipe. It. Was. To. Die. For. The only thing I would change would be to add some corn or some beans to it… then I would slay an entire army to consume them. Because I was so exhausted from the baking, I totally forgot to take pictures of the enchiladas. I am very sorry because they were so pretty! Anyway, that was my Saturday!

Now, I have to backtrack a little to Friday. I wanted to get all the baked goods into the beginning of the post because they did not have a certain date on them when I started planning all this. It was basically, “Do I have several hours of free/ability to ignore other housework time? Yes? Okay, bake!” That happened to be Saturday. Friday I commenced my Budget Bytes eating adventure with Beth’s Quick Sweet and Sour Stir Fry. This was very simple to make… pretty much just throw veggies in and pour sauce over the top. Of course I tweaked it a little. Instead of buying frozen vegetables, I used what I had on hand. Some broccoli, cabbage, carrot, and corn. Still delicious! The sauce didn’t taste QUITE how I expected, but I’m learning to let things like that go when I’m cooking other people’s recipes. Here are my pictures!

Veggies pre-sauce

Veggies simmering in sauce

Definitely not my favorite so far, but still worth eating the crap out of.

Sunday was a fun day. My husband ended up having to work overtime at a holiday boutique in Overland Park, so Milo and I bundled into the car and spent the day tooling around the town, seeing the sights and just generally having a great baby/mommy day. He even took his naps in the car like a big kid. I was very proud. In any case, it was about 5pm when we got home and mommy got cooking. This time is was Sweet Potato Corn Cakes with Garlic Dipping Sauce! Holy God of Yum. Let me tell you something… I HATE sweet potatoes. I had yet to find one that didn’t make me gag. I don’t know why. Maybe I had just never experienced them correctly. Well guess what? These were the best little things I’ve had to eat in a long time. Definitely a 5 star meal!

My bowl of mix…

So darn colorful!

 

Look at them go!

I stuffed mine in a pita with some sauce. YES!

And in case you needed anymore proof that these things are the absolute best…

He ate two in no time

That would be my one year old son, scarfing down his second patty with sauce on top. Granted, my kid is not a picky eater, but he simply INHALED these. Then proceeded to come steal bites of mine, the little thief.

Last night we made another masterpiece… but I think this post is long enough now! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post with two more meals! Chili Beef n Mac & Curry Beef with Peas!