the most important meal of the day

Errrrbody's gettin crazy up in the kitchen these days, and by errbody, I mean just me! It used to be that Brian was the master chef in the family, but when he got incredibly busy last summer I started taking the reins and somehow the power never shifted back to its rightful owner. Which is a disservice to all of us, considering once he told me that I should be on Worst Cooks in America (a real show) because I would win. He thought he was complimenting me.

BUT I got sick of my ever-reliable trio of baked chicken / stir fry / frozen pizzas, and started paying attention to my Every Day With Rachael Ray magazine (which I get by happy accident), and a little bit of magic has happened along the way. We're talking experiments, recipes, new genres, meal planning--which incidentally requires thinking, lists, research--NOBODY WARNED ME.

It also includes packing lunches for the week on Sunday, whipping up desserts on the fly (see incredible dark chocolate brownie recipe here), and my favorite, breakfast experiments. Mmmmm breakfast.

So, one of the worst things to happen when we moved from Texas was the taco trucks didn't follow us. How ruuuude. I was on an anti-tortilla kick for a while which I will later refer to as my temporary insanity so I'm only recently back in the taco game, but damn Gina, have we got this one nailed.

both with eggs, southwest hash browns, special hot sauce from a family friend and cheese; top with avocado and bottom with black bean dip

Next, we got a Ninja a few Christmases back and it's only now seeing its true glory...two wasted years we could've spent together! But now we're in full swing making a couple of these bad boys for breakfast each week. I'm still trying to nail the best balance between being healthy and delicious, so if you have any good recipes, please share! I pretty much blend 4-6 fruits/veggies together every time so no smoothie takes a particular flavor, but I think if I could limit the ingredients then I'd start to differentiate them, which might bring some pizzazz. Yeah I said it. Motherf&@(n pizzaz.

rainbow of deliciousness

Then, this month I was reading the Rachael Ray breakfast issue at the gym, and I got all fired up about french toast--which I've never made in my life--and ran straight home from my workout into a tub of sugar. A half hour later, I came to from a blackout and this was on my plate. Whaaat? It was a culinary victory for me for many reasons, mostly that we somehow had all these ingredients in the house and that I actually took that into consideration before I began cooking. That, my friends, is what we call progress. 

cinnamon sugar french toast with a peach/syrup compote

And finally, one of my recent favorites: Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits! This was my first foray at a bread, and I was surprised to find that you didn't need yeast or self-rising flour or SOMETHING weird/different. Again, mostly things we had in the pantry...except buttermilk...tend to not keep that on the daily menu. They were pretty delicious and simple to make; I'd definitely do it again but halve the recipe, because now it's been biscuits-all-day-every-day-and-even-a-Texas-girl-needs-a-break-from-that-shit. Here's the crazy thing about the biscuit experiment. I was on a high after I made them, so in a super hipster moment I made this chia seed jam to go with them. Unfortunately I violated my only cooking rule of following the recipe first before making adjustments, so my wacko raspberry lemon jam was a major fail (tart x 10), but the chia seeds actually gave a good consistency, so I would try again. Not sure I'll ever start canning, but it's nice to know we could make something at home if the zombie apocalypse wipes out all the Smuckers. 

I also found a heart-shaped cookie cutter in my grandmama's old cooking stuff. Huge win! 

Here's to keeping the experimentation (and failures) going!