Baked Mozzarella Sticks and mass chaos!

First, let's set the mood! It has been a very busy day: lots of errands, a potty training 3 year old and a teething 9 month old... did I mention that my husband is out of town for work?!?

I set some pork chops out to thaw earlier and had every intention of finding some fabulous way of cooking them...as the migraine started to set in, I quickly changed my mind. Especially considering the fact that my kids aren't going to appreciate a great deal of effort.

The pork chops got put in a Sesame Ginger 30 Minute Marinade that I bought at the grocery store. While they were cooking I decided to make some homemade baked mozzarella sticks. I have no idea where I got the recipe - I have intended on making it several times, but never got around to it. It was about at this point that baby C lost her mind and started screaming. It was a long 30 minutes with her screaming in her jumper, p
but I was determined to make some cheesy goodness. About this same time, I told S & J to go take quick showers. As I am in the middle of breading the cheese sticks, I hear a thud from upstairs. J decided he needed to go to the bathroom and got out of the bath tub. He ran to the toilet and then was running back to the bath tub when he slid on my floor and hit his head... seriously?!? When I asked him why he was running, he said it was so that he didn't turn into a merman before he got back in the water. Yes, it is true - my children think they are mermaids! They have been watching a show called "H2O - Just Add Water", it is a show out of Australia and all 3 seasons are on HULU. Thank you dad for finding this show! They all think they have powers and are mermaids now. When I make L mad, she puts her hand out and starts turning it, thinking that she is going to use her powers to freeze me in place - it has yet to work on a mad mom!

After kissing his head better and helping him wash, I headed back downstairs to the screaming baby. Ahhh, the glamorous life of a mother :-) And now for the recipe (like I said, I have had it printed out forever and no URL printed on it, so I have no idea where I got it)

Baked Mozzarella Sticks


Ingredients:
 8 mozzarella string cheeses
2 T. Flour
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 C dry bread crumbs (I used Italian Seasoned)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Marinara or Ranch sauce for dipping

Instructions:
Place the string cheese in the freezer at least 1 hour before you plan to make these. These will lessen the oozing of the cheese. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the flour, eggs, and crumbs in 3 separate dishes. Season the flour with salt and pepper. Cut the cheese strings in 1/2 widthwise. Dip one cheese stick at a time into the flour to coat, then into the egg whites, and then the crumbs. Dip it into the egg again and then the crumbs again, squeezing to help them adhere. It'll be messy, but try to cover the cheese completely. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or sprayed with cooking spray. Repeat with all of the cheese.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Serve immediately with warmed marinara sauce.



My experience:

Like I said, I had every intention of making these for awhile, so my string cheese has been in the freezer for 5 days :-) That being said, it may have impacted it. The flour didn't stick to the cheese at all, not quite sure the reason for that first. As far as the mess - they weren't kidding! It was pretty nasty and all over my hands.

Here is a picture of the mozzarella sticks prior to baking:

And after baking:

That's right, 5 days in the freezer did not prevent any cheese oozing! It was all over the pan!

The final dinner plate:

VERDICT - Mom

I may try again with Panko breadcrumbs, no flour, and only 1 hour in the freezer. They actually tasted pretty good, once you got past the appearance. The pork chops were yummy!

VERDICT - Kids

J - liked the crumbs, but not the cheese. Go figure! He actually picked the crumbs off and ate them alone. He did like the pork chops - hallelujah! 

S - liked the cheese, but not the crumbs. Of course! She let him pick off her crumbs and then ate the cheese. She did not like the pork chops, however, she didn't cry during the meal and I consider that a win.

L - said that everything just made her sad and asked if she could call her daddy *sigh*, you can't win them all.

C - just sat there looking pitiful and cried.

Time to go to bed and remind myself that tomorrow we are going out to dinner and I don't have to face the critics until Friday night with my next dinner of torture...

Thin Taquitos with Cilantro Cream

I used a recipe from Once Upon a Plate to make homemade taquitos on Sunday. I did a few things differently than the recipe:

Instead of chicken, I used left over roast beef from some French Dip sandwiches I made on Saturday - amazing by the way! We also made a few plain cheese ones to satisfy the picky kids.

Also, it is way to much grease for me to dip the tortilla on both sides into oil, I only dipped the outside and it worked great.

We loved the Cilantro Cream recipe that came with this as well - although my kids told me there was something wrong with my ranch :-)

Cooking Adventures

If you have read any of my posts on Facebook, you know that feeding my family is a challenge! You can even just ask any of my neighbors : ) Often we have tears, fighting, and wailing - but I am determined to find things that they will actually eat. I have decided to include some of my favorite things on here and also put in what I had to do to modify them to get my picky group to eat them. Most of these have been found on Pinterest - of course!

What a crazy couple of months!

I had every intention of beginning to blog, then life happened! However, I am beginning to think that it is the best way to maintain my sanity. I guess I can just update everyone on what is going on.

As many of you know, we moved three days before Christmas - would not highly recommend it! I am glad that we love our new house, because I have no intention of moving again!!! As we were unpacking, we found out that Samantha was afraid Santa wouldn't know where to find us, because we didn't have any decorations up. This resulted in not having beds up, but there was a beautiful Christmas tree amidst the boxes. Thank goodness - Santa did find us, but so did the flu. Do you know how hard it is to clean up after puking kids (and mom) when you don't know where anything is??? It definitely made things interesting!

After we were getting settled, Kerin discovered that his stomach hurt and there was a weird bulge by his belly button - yup, hernia! So, that resulted in surgery for him the beginning of January. When they went in, they actually found two of them - but both were repaired and are healing well.

Kerin was off of work for the months of December (vacation) and January (surgery), but that ended in February... wouldn't you know, his first week to travel was also the first week that the kids are off track. You read right - we are in year round school. I was kind of worried about it initially, but I have had a great time with them so far. Only another week and a half and they are back in school.

Samantha is loving 3rd grade and is doing well. She also loves our new house and the many little girls that are around for her to play with. Thank goodness, she has also picked up my love for reading and she is going through the Roald Dahl books now - Matilda is a favorite!

Jace is having a harder time - he is surrounded by girls and very few boys live around. As a result, I have gotten pretty good at playing Lego Pirates of the Caribbean on the Playstation : ) He is such a joy and loves doing things with me. This morning he did a 45 minute exercise video with me and told me that he was going to start training to be a ninja. At least he has goals!

Alexa is going through the "Trying" 3's. She knows more than I ever could and is also refusing to potty train - hopefully she gets over it soon. She is also a lot of fun and pure girl. She also loves Matilda - we watched it 3 times a day for awhile.

Callie is now almost 9 months old and is quite the demanding little one. Thank goodness she smiles a lot! She just got her first tooth and the second one is trying to come through. She has also learned to crawl - I am making good use of the vacuum I got for Christmas. I would be happy if she would quit getting up 2-3 times a night!

I am doing good most days, just trying to figure out this domesticity! It is much harder than I thought and there are several times a week I contemplate going back to work (but just for a couple of minutes - it passes quickly)!

My sweet sister-in-law, Nicole, introduced me to Pinterest when she was visiting in September and I am a fullblown addict! However, I committed to myself that I would also start trying some of the things that I am pinning. You are going to start seeing some of my successes, and definite failures, as I go along. Hopefully I try some of the things that you are thinking and can share some ideas. Much to my children's dismay, a lot of them are recipes : )