Lunch fish tacos!

Well I am now officially a mother of two! Enjoying every minute of it! I find myself moving a bit slower these days; today I rolled out of bed at 9:30am. Thanks to my wonderful husband I do the night shift and he takes the morning shift; team work at its finest.  

We are almost two weeks in to this new routine and thanks to friends and family I really haven't had to cook much.  This morning I was craving getting into the kitchen and putting together some yummy fish tacos.  So at 10:30am I began preparing lunch for us....coffee in hand!

This was my lovely view from the kitchen.

First I got some fish from the freezer and put it in the sink in some cool water.  The fish is so thin it thaws in minutes.

I took them out of their packages and left them damp.  I coated them in a mix of cornmeal, taco seasoning and salt.

I baked them on a parchment lined cookie sheet with olive oil at 400F convection for about 12 minutes. 

Meanwhile the fish was baking I organized the toppings.  

I sautéed onion, yellow pepper, and spinach with a sweet and spicy mango lime salsa.  I find that this goes really nicely with the fish. 

I usually make an avacodo, cilantro, green onion and lime topping but since limes are $1 a piece these days we haven't been buying them.  

Today I decided to make an avacodo cream.  I mixed avacado  with Greek yogurt, salt, lemon juice and a touch of chipotle Tabasco. 

I also served this with sharp cheddar and salsa. 

And now we eat!

As soon as we sat down our little man woke up.  

This lunch was thought of, made and eaten within less than 90 minutes.  Such a simple but satisfying lunch! Now our next mission will be to get ready and out of the house before 4pm. 

Fruit cocktail cake

Aubrey and I spent the day at my moms. We all seem to be on high alert waiting not-so-patiently for baby!

While I was at my moms I thought I mine-as-well be productive; so I decided to make the dessert for her meeting she was having tonight.

Fruit cocktail cake is a classic in my moms baking repertoire and one of my most recent cravings....so win win!

It's super simple:

Mix 

2 cups flour

1&1/2 cups sugar

1&1/2 tsp baking soda

1&1/2 tsp salt

1-14oz can of undrained fruit cocktail (I use fruit cocktail in water)

1tsp vanilla

2eggs

Mix together and pour into a greased bundt or spring form pan.

Bake a 350F for about 45-60minutes. Toothpick should come out clean.

For the sauce:

I do this close to serving time so it's served warm.

Mix:

3/4cup sugar

2tbsp flour

1/2 cup butter

1&1/4cup milk

1&1/2 tsp vanilla

Boil for two minutes or until thickened. 

Pour sauce over.

I decorated with toasted coconut.

This is best served fresh and warm but can be reheated if need be.  It's best to not top with the sauce until serving time.  The sauce can be made ahead and reheated at serving time and then poured over.  

Delicious! This did not disappoint!

Lasagna; meat sauce with sautéed Kale, spinach, and mushroom

Jeff woke up today dreaming of lasagna for dinner.  This was particularly nice to hear since he wanted to go get all the groceries, make enough for dinner and put two in the freezer.

He made a beef meat sauce, this had onions, garlic, fennel seeds, salt, pepper, one large jar of preggo sauce, worcheshire, and fresh basil at the end.  He would of added oregano but we didn't have any. He brought this to a simmer for about 15 minutes and set it aside.

He made a filling of drained cottage cheese combined with sautéed mushrooms, kale and spinach which he also drained in a sieve. 

Now for the assembly line.  This is when Aubrey and I were summoned to help!

We grated a mixture of old cheddar and mozerella. 

In the pans we layered sauce, noodles, sauce, grated cheese, noodles, spinach kale cottage cheese filling, noodles, sauce and finished with a generous amount of grated cheese.

I am thrilled to put these two lasagnas in the freezer.  I am also excited to have a yummy dinner ready for tonight! This was such a fun way to pass the time and have a memorable family activity. 

German apple pancake breakfast

This morning we thought we'd make a nice breakfast with Aubrey.  Looking through one of our cookbooks we came across this apple pancake recipe.  Jeff said it reminded him of something his mom made when he was a child.  I'm the first to admit that I love nostalgic  recipes; so we thought we'd give it a try.

I mixed the 1/2 cup and 2 tbsp flour with the 1/2  cup and 2 tbsp milk and three eggs. This made a crepe-like batter; which I set aside.

Jeff chopped up two apples and to this we added the suggested 1 tbsp of lemon juice and 1 tbsp of sugar. We also set this aside.

Then I mixed the 6tbsp sugar and 1/2 tbsp of cinnamon together. 

Jeff only used 2 tbsp of the butter; once it was bubbly he added the batter.

Then they added the marinaded apples. 

Next they sprinkled on the sugar mix; Jeff said they barely used 1/2 of it. 

They put it in a preheated 425F oven on the convection setting. 

This baked for 17 minutes; just enough time to make coffee, and set the table.  We served it with Greek yogurt and REAL maple syrup.  It was delicious!

Aubrey really enjoyed it! I'm sure we could of added powdered sugar to it as well but Jeff and I enjoyed it as-is.  The cast iron pan created such a yummy crispy edge. We will definitly make this again and probably play with the recipe a bit; Jeff wants to try it with bing cherries.