Dreams of Being a Chef

This weekend I took on some exciting cooking challenges. I'm still riding the wave of being a good stay-at-home mom for the time being and besides, I've always wanted to go to culinary school so I really enjoy having the time to cook new things. If I ever get rich, I'd have multiple awesome properties and switch careers to own a little B&B and spend my time welcoming strange and interesting people with delicious breakfasts, violets on their pillows, and sweets by the bed. I'm pretty sure there's a movie like this and the main character has a beautiful child and nothing ever goes wrong. Or maybe it's just the Gilmore Girls...ah, I miss Rory. 

Anyway, I spent most of Saturday trying to be an extreme couponer but I think I only used one coupon all day. I went to the nearby Farmers' Market and got a ton of amazing veggies. Then I decided to try a new-to-me grocery, Sprouts. It was pretty nice, with lots of organic veggies and good quality meats, all at pretty good prices. It reminds me of Trader Joe's but I must say that I still miss Trader Joe's. Then, I finished out my shopping at HEB, a standard grocery store where I picked up cheap basics. 

On Saturday night I baked bread and used our new dehydrator to dry figs (I love wedding presents!). The bread is a dill bread that my Mom makes and it's super light and fluffy with a mild dill flavor. It makes two loaves but after only two days, we have nearly finished a whole loaf. Yesterday, I slow-cooked a roast for about six hours and served it with mashed potatoes for dinner. It turned out so well and I don't think I've ever made a roast before. It was falling apart when I took it out to serve. 

I also made my own granola bars yesterday. I first did this when I was in the Peace Corps and wanted something easy to take with me on long trips to visit friends. I must say it's a ton easier to make these in an oven instead of over a fire! These are also a great pregnancy food because I was able to mix the ingredients so I could load them with things that I need. My parents got me a book for my birthday called, 100 Best Foods for Pregnancy by Charlotte Watts. I love it because for every food it mentions, there is also a recipe and a photo of the dish. Under the Sunflower Seeds page, the is a recipe for Apricot, oat and sunflower seed bars. I could have used this but I wanted to include some other flavors so I went to a granola bar recipe in Better Homes and Gardens. The main thing I did differently was rather than use a whole cup of chopped nuts like the recipe called for, I used 1/4 cup nuts, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup coconut flakes and 1/4 cup flax seed. They turned out great. The only problem is that I want to eat them all right now! 

The nice thing is that I now have a lot of great options for foods that are easy on my stomach. The bad news is that I can't tell if I ate too much or if I'm starting to get a belly bump!