salad. it's what's for dinner.

So, shit's gotten real lately.  I haven't been nearly as domestic as I'd like, and that actually pisses me off a great deal.  Between the usual end-of-the-school-year chaos, a bunch of pending court crap versus my ex-husband (after ten years of never asking him for a dime, I'm actually pursuing child support), and my last class EVER for my MBA?  Sleep and other silly things are at a premium.  


Anyhow, here's what I'm making for dinner tonight.  It's a lovely summer salad, and a great way to sneak in some spinach.  Enjoy.

SPINACH STRAWBERRY SALAD 

1 bag baby spinach, topped with: 

1 pint strawberries, cleaned and sliced 
Sugared almonds (below, I always make lots of extras) 
Dressing (You can either buy some poppyseed dressing from the store, or use the recipe below. I usually double the recipe because it makes a great marinade for salmon or chicken too) 
1 marinated boneless skinless chicken breast per person, cooked on the grill or on the stove (marinade recipe below)
Any other stuff you want - popular things in my house include mandarin oranges and pineapple cubes.

SUGARED ALMONDS 
1 bag slivered almonds 
1 egg white 
White sugar 

Whip egg white until frothy (not quite peaked), fold in almonds to coat. Remove coated almonds from bowl, stir coated almonds in sugar to coat, spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 350* for about 10-15 minutes (watch carefully!). When you take them out of the oven, stir the almonds every minute until cooled, set aside. 

Tip: use foil on the cookie sheet.  It makes it a whole lot easier to get the sticky almond mess off of the pan without resorting to a bunch of cussing and a chisel.

DRESSING 
1/2 cup sugar 
2 tblsp. Sesame seeds (optional) 
1 tblsp. Poppy seeds 
1/2 tsp. Minced green onion 
1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 
1/4 tsp. Paprika 
1/2 cup salad oil 
1/4 cup cider vinegar 

Combine together, and pour over salad shortly before serving. 

MARINADE FOR CHICKEN
1 tsp ginger
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, put through a press twice so that it's damn near liquified
juice and zest of one half of a lemon
juice and zest of one half of a lime
1/4 - 1/2 tsp of Siracha sauce (the red shit with the rooster on the bottle - this is optional)
1/4 tsp Chinese Five Spice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
Orange Juice
Pineapple Juice
(or you can take the lazy way out and buy some of the yummy Tropicana Pinapple / Orange / Banana juice and use that - it also is delicious with rum, just sayin' ...)

Throw a chicken breast for each person on the cutting board.  Trim any of the fat off of it, and stab it repeatedly with a fork to pierce the flesh.  This will help the yummy marinade seep in.  

Put the stabbed chicken into a gallon ziploc bag.  Throw all the rest of the ingredients except the juices in there.  Smoosh the chicken around to distribute all of the good stuff evenly.  Then dump enough juices in there to cover the chicken.  Smoosh around again, and let sit for at least an hour before grilling or frying in a pan.  Use the extra liquid to baste / brush on the chicken while grilling.  Slice up the chicken into either strips or chunks to put on top of the salad.

i have the plague

So, help me understand something.

Why is it that when MOMMY is sick, no one does a damn thing around the house?

My house was social worker clean yesterday.   We had our home study for the adoption of my stepdaughter yesterday.  We passed with flying colors, and I can only assume it's not because I'm a decent parent and shit.  Oh, no.  It was because my house was SPOTLESSLY clean for the social worker to view.  As in - she could have even opened closets and cabinets and not been pelted by an avalanche of crap.  I was so proud!

And in a scant eight hours, my children destroyed it.

My kitchen is a mess.

My living room is a mess.

Their rooms are trashed again.

WHISKEY. TANGO. FOXTROT.

Seriously, this is horrid.  Mommy just went on a congested hissyfit streak.  They're now doing the dishes.  And I may or may not kill them.

Have I mentioned that I'm overly dramatic and bitchy when I'm sick?

i'm just one short of "crazy cat lady".

I love my pets.  In our house, we have the following menagerie:

1 dog.  Coco is a Yorkie-Bichon mix and he's just about the cutest thing going.  That's his little face on the blog's header.

3 cats.  Sammie wandered in our house two days before Panda and I went off to Jamaica and got married ... we think that her former family moved and dumped her.  She was living on bugs and rain water.  Max is adopted from the Logan County Humane Society, and he charmed me with his purrs and kitty-flops on my birthday (April 4) of 2009.  Dooney charmed Panda with his super-lovey routine and we brought him home from the LCHS too.

2 snakes.  Baby Panda (my 10 year old daughter) has an albino corn snake.  It's a lot like her ... little, fast, brightly colored, and demands attention.  Panda Jr. (my almost 13 year old step-soon-to-be-adopted daughter) has a ball python.  She's pretty shy, just like her owner.

1 praying mantis.  We had a different one, but Coco decided to knock the cage down and eat it.  No, I'm not kidding.

So yeah, we have a bit of a zoo around here.  And so it greatly upset me when I heard about this:

 

We had the Canyon Creek treats in our house, and the Beggin' Strips!  Nice.  I threw them out, because I didn't want to kill my pets.  It was a shame too, because the cats and the dog just loved them.  So, now what's a quasi-domestic furmomma to do?  Much like Cheech And Chong, I just decided that it was best to roll my own.

 

 

I'm a budget shopper.  I refuse to pay full price for just about anything (my Bowers + Wilkins subwoofer excluded).  So, I put my mad coupon skillz to good use.
 

I had a 20% off coupon to Bed Bath and Beyond.  I took my happy ass in there when they were having a sale, and I bought a dehydrator.  I did some research, and the Nesco was the best value at the sub-$100 price point.  So the regular price for the Nesco dehydrator was $59.99.  I then whipped out my 20% off coupon ... BAZINGA! I was out the door with tax and everything for less than $55.00.  And of course, I had to stop and get some meat to try it out.  My first try included some chicken breast and some stew beef.  I chopped them into thin strips, laid them out, turned on the dehydrator, and waited for the magic to happen.

And oh.  Did the magic EVER happen. 

Now, when I'm running low on treats, I stop down at Mosley's and get a pound of stew beef for about $5.  I get home, trim the fat and cut it into 1/2" pieces, and let the dehydrator do it's work for about 6-8 hours.  I then have bagfuls of treats for about $6, including the electricity it took to run the appliance. 

Not to mention ... I like to dehydrate bananas for the dog.  And the kids.  It's a quick (and cheap) treat for them.

If you have pets, and want to keep them healthy, I can't express how easy and quick it is to make your own treats.  No sodium.  No additives.  No chemicals from China that are going to kill them.  Just delicious treats, made with love by the momma.