Brittany's PantryCurrently…
Brittany wrote this on 20 February 2015
Snapping…pictures of the sunrise. A few months ago, I realized that the sunrise out the patio door of our rental house was heart-stoppingly beautiful 99.9% of the time. I started taking a picture every morning. We are moving at the end of March into our much anticipated dream home so I hope I find a great new spot to observe from!
Laughing…at the TV show Hart of Dixie. Thank you, Netflix, for allowing me to watch and fall in love with shows I have never heard of before and to do it at my leisure. This busy Momma appreciates it.
Nibbling…on these yummy, crunchy clusters from Brookside. If you follow me on Instagram you know that I have been kind of addicted to them lately. I get mine at Target, but I have found them just about everywhere. Including, once, at a random little gas station in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.
Waiting…for the completion of our dream home! We are about a month or so away from moving in and 101 daily decisions on paint, lights, and finishes are keeping me up at night. So fun. So stressful. Sooooo hard to wait.
Writing…a lot lately! And as you may have guessed, its about food. I have some fun announcements coming up soon so stay tuned!
Reading…as much as I can! I started a book club when I moved to South Carolina and because my life just is not busy enough, I thought it would be cool to do a reading challenge as well! I found this list on Pop Sugar and thought the different categories are kind of awesome. I am reading a different book for each one-no doubling up-and am having a blast researching obscure titles. I mean, come on. A book written by an author with my same initials? A book with bad reviews? Sign me up! I even started a Facebook group to help keep anyone interested in the Challenge motivated and full of ideas! Find me on Facebook if you want an invite!
Hoping…I didn’t make a HUGE mistake when I signed up for my first 5K. Eeek! One Run Columbia is at the end of march and in an effort to deal with some health issues, I decided that taking up running was a good idea. Clearly I was not in my right mind when I registered, but that is beside the point now. I have too much pride to walk it, so…let the training continue!
Realizing…that I use way too many exclamation points in my writing.
Organizing…my life! My house is good, but you know all those hand dandy printables that I see on Pinterest that are all cute and decorated and coordinated with each other? Yeah. So not me. I don’t want my stationary to match my outfit or my daily tasks to be color coded by priority. But I DO need to keep better track of appointments and my online obligations. So what did I do? I printed out one copy of every single style of free calendar that I could download. These next few months will be an experiment in organization methods. I’ll keep you posted on what works. Ha! Get it? Posted? Heh heh.
Exhausted…by my (almost) three year old, Lane. My husband calls him the destroyer. This is not an exaggeration. Here he is in his dormant state. Its a good thing he is cute…
Obsessed…with pimento cheese. I had no idea what I was missing out on, all those years living in the north. As a recent transplant to the south, I am really really really enjoying the quest for finding the perfect pimento cheese. Which will no doubt turn into a major marathon of recipe developing. If you aren’t familiar with it, pimento cheese is a kind of cold dip that is, as far as I can tell, shredded cheeses, maybe some mayo, cream cheese, minced pimento, and spices. I am telling you guys-this stuff is da BOMB! My mouth is watering as I write this.
Starting…this book. Looks fun, don’t you think?
What are YOU currently up to? Anything exciting?
You can never have too may side dishes in your menu arsenal. You can also never have too many quick and easy side dishes that go with everything. As you may have guessed, that is what this is. It never hurts to state the obvious.
It is easy to slip into a rut when it comes to meals and making the same old veggies or potatoes with your meal is a common gripe I get emails about. As a gal who is kind of addicted to variety in my food, I totally understand. I don’t mind leftovers, but I often will wait several months before making a dish a second time. There are just too many foods out there to try and make and experiment with and enjoy! Why limit yourself and repeat?
That said, I run into the same issues everyone else does. Budget, time limits, busy lives, etc all play a factor in my menu planning. Earlier this month I shared a recipe for jazzing up store-bought marinara sauce. I pull out that method when I am in a hurry and have limited ingredients. This side dish is similar, in that it uses pantry ingredients and is incredibly inexpensive. While my husband and I continue to build our new home, our schedules are often interrupted, thus ruining my careful planning. I am also faced with the current challenge of trying to feed our family of five on a fairly fixed budget. To that end, I am trying to take advantage of what I already have available in the house. That has been my goal recently and this dish couldn’t be more perfect.
I have been making it for a few years now and it never fails to fill in any gaps in my menus. Kids love it, adults love it, and the simplicity lends itself to just about anything you can think of to serve it with. Exactly what I need. Think of it as a rice and noodle lifeline that you can tie together into a little rope to pull you up and out of that menu rut you may be in!
Rice & Noodle Pilaf
Recipe adapted from Mad Hungry
2 T butter
1 small onion, diced small
1/2 c dried angel hair, vermicelli, or thin spaghetti noodles, broken into small pieces
1 1/2 c white rice
3 c chicken broth or water
salt and pepper to taste
In a large saute pan with a lid, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent and cooked, about 5 minutes. Don’t let them brown! Add the dried pasta and stir it all together until toasted and fragrant. Add the rice and stir in the liquid. Bring to a boil stirring often, then lower the heat to slow simmer, cover, and let bubble until cooked and all the liquid is absorbed-about 20 minutes. Be sure the heat is low enough so that it won’t burn, but keeps it cooking! When it is finished and cooked through, stir and fluff, then taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as necessary. Enjoy!
Honey Peanut Cereal Bars
Brittany wrote this on 9 February 2015 cereal, cranberries, honey, peanut butter, peanuts, raisins
I have kids.
Ere go, I have purchased an alarming number of boxes of little ‘0’ cereal made of oats, such as Cheerios or something similar. Cereal that shows up in my couch cushions, on the bottom of my purse, and in my laundry. This kind of cereal is always around so anytime I can quickly throw together a fun snack or treat with items already in my kitchen, I consider it a good thing. If they are so scrumptious even my husband and I can’t stop eating them and we end up trying to hide them from our kids, well then that is a VERY good thing. I mean, you know. In a joking, I’m-not-really-hiding-food-from-my-kids-sorry-not-sorry-kind of way.
I have had bars like these before but I haven’t actually made them myself since God was a boy. I couldn’t remember the exact method or ingredients to make them stick so I turned to that necessary evil (I speak of Pinterest) and searched out some good ones. I settled on this version here from a blog called Chew Out Loud and they were exactly perfect. Just as I remember them. Better actually.
I do believe that it is the combo of the crunchy cereal with the chewy cranberries that really keeps me hooked. Also, is it weird that I think these bars just look friendly? I want to make huge batches of them and wrap them up individually and tuck them in everyone’s pockets. Then when they discover them later they have a snack that makes them smile. Corny, yes. But still a good idea. Such a good idea, I bet it will make you run out and buy cereal to make these, wether you have kids to throw them onto the floor of your car or not.
Honey Peanut Cereal Bars
Recipe from the blog Chew Out Loud
4 c oat ‘o’ cereal
1 c dried fruit, such as cranberries, raisins, or a mix of both
1/2 c dry roasted peanuts
1/2 c honey, preferably raw
1/2 c creamy peanut butter
Spray an 8 inch square pan or line it with parchment paper or wax paper. In a small microwave bowl, heat the honey and peanut butter together until melted together. Stir until smooth and runny. Meanwhile, mix the first three ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour the melted honey mixture over the cereal mixture and mix will with a large rubber scraper. When it is all coated evenly, pour into the prepared pan and press evenly to compact the cereal a bit. Press firmly so that the gaps are filled. This ensures the bars will hold together once they are cool. Let set completely, cooling at room temp or in the fridge. Cut into bars. These will keep for up to three days, sealed tightly. Enjoy!!
Love a Good Recipe?
Then you’ve come to the right place! I’m Brittany, and I share tested, trusted recipes you’ll love. I prepare & photograph food, obsess over the perfect recipe, and enjoy grins of delight when I serve up something awesome. Enjoy!
