Taco Bake Thing

This was mostly me experimenting with food. I liked the idea of this recipe, but i didn't have everything for it.

I really liked the sound of to where i decided to see if i could attempt anything close to it instead something i knew i could make. Pretty much just had some ground beef that needed to be used. I used condensed cheddar cheese soup instead of tomato sauce, figuring that it would just help make it cheesy. I didn't have crescent rolls but i had biscuits, so i flattened those the best i could for along the bottom. I did have the Doritos and cheese though.

Surprisingly, over all it tasted pretty alright. Crescent rolls might of been alittle better for it and a little more meat, but it was like nachos on a biscuits. I had to add like a lot of taco seasoning because either mine was just old and was losing flavor or it just wasn't as good as other ones we have had before. It had a taco flavor but i added some chili powder to it to give it the spice i felt it was missing.

I have no real amounts used for this, since i was experimenting, it was just thrown together.
my pan used all but one of the biscuits when they were flatted, and ripped into a few pieces on the last few to fill gaps.
Used most of one can of the cheddar cheese, probably could use the whole can, i just scooped a bunch out and ended up with a little left in it.
Not sure how much meat was used, it was just half of what was left from the pack my mom bought before. It was at least enough to get a layer in the whole dish.
Taco seasoning and chili powder were to taste.
Shredded cheese was a few handfuls.
Chips can really just be how ever much you want, i think i should of used less.
Was cooked for 20 minutes at 375? pretty sure it was that lol.

There's what my piece i had looked like.

My mom doesn't get to try this one but made comments that sound like she'd want me to make it again so i'll try and figure out better what i'm doing for it the next time.

I like just experimenting when cooking. Though a fair bit of the time when i do that, the food looks not that great but will taste nice lol.

Honey Banana Thing + Chocolate Bar Attempt

I had some ripe bananas i needed to do something with or else they just would of been thrown away. I asked in a facebook group i am in for recipes (link) for ideas of what to make with them. There was some good ideas, but i ended up just going with experimenting with my own version of the honey fried bananas.

I used coconut oil for the first cooking the bananas, ended up using too much so i thought i'd sorta try the chocolate bar thing i've seen before. But first still with the bananas, after i took the bananas out of the oil and got a good amount of the oil off of them, i put the bananas back into the pan. I added some honey, some brown sugar, and a little bit of cinnamon, i just eyeballed the amounts. Mixed them together while cooking a little longer. It doesn't look the best, looked kinda gross once in the bowl, but was really tasty and  it would be good for like pancakes or something as topping.

Now with all the oil that was left, i thought i'd try the chocolate bar thing i saw before, though doing it completely different and on my own because it already was different from having the oil used for the bananas.

It seems to be alright from the first look of it. Not sure if it's the cocoa powder i have or if all of the powders have a bitter bite to them. Anyways, i put it in the freezer to try and harden up and see what happens for it. It's sorta bar like, though because of the banana, i think, it's a little softer than i think it would be as it warms up. I wasn't really expecting much of this because it's just me playing around with stuff mostly. i will still be trying the chocolate bar recipe i have saved. This chocolate though does have a slight banana taste to it.
Here's how it looked out of the freezer.

No Pudge! Fudge Brownie Mix

I got this brownie mix because it sounded interesting. A brownie mix that only took adding yogurt. The Fat free part was interesting too. So well being me, it was new and interesting, so i wanted to try it. I got this at Natural Grocers, a healthy/organic type store.

After i bought the yogurt to use for this and got home, i realized i got a greek yogurt. Doesn't seem to make much difference after making it, but makes me a little interested to see a difference with using non-greek yogurt.

Now in the directions, it says that it will be thick while you mix it....I didn't think that it would be so thick.

There's the spoon not even leaning while in the bowl. My arm started to hurt so bad from trying to stir it, an electric mixer might be easier. Was alright with getting into the pan to cook in, but not as easy as normal brownie batter. Directions also said to use a metal pan, but i think i heard somewhere that you shouldn't cook things with yogurt in them in a metal pan because of chemical reaction or something that makes it taste different, so i used a glass one (also because that's our only 8x8 pan).

Made a little X design in it because my daughter wanted me to.
After cooking it, it looked like brownies. Then i tasted it, it tastes like a brownie. It's a moist brownie too. It doesn't really taste like it's a 'healthier' brownie. So you'll get a goodness of brownies just without it being as bad for you.

Here's some nutrition facts to show the difference

No pudge brownies made
Servings: 12
Calories: 119
Fats: 0g
Carbs: 29g
Fiber: 1g
Protein: 3.2g
(amounts might not be exact)

Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie made (Where i got my info)
Servings: 16
Calories: 147
Fats: 4.1g
Carbs: 26g
Fiber: 1g
Protein: 1.4g
(Amounts might not be exact)

So the No pudge sounds better, slightly higher carbs though. The second one says it makes 16 servings, but both say that a serving size is the same about of mix, 32g, so i just assume that the second one makes more? Anyways, up to you to judge what you think about the nutrition facts, it does also matter of what the ingredients are of what makes something healthier. No Pudge has all natural ones. Also only about 8 ingredients in just the mix, the other has maybe at least 14? I got confused in trying to count because of how the stuff is listed. Which i guess it shows that you should be paying attention to what you are eating.

The stirring this is probably the hardest and annoying part of this product. But if you are wanting a healthier option for a boxed brownie, i say give this a try.

McDonald's Triple Cheeseburger

Doesn't really look the prettiest, but it's pretty good. I usually get the quarter pounder but sometimes a cheap burger sounds good. Was definitely more filling than just the single or double and was nicer than having to eat 3 singles that would of also included the buns. I don't get mcdonalds all the time, but just sometimes a "crap" burger sounds like the best thing in the world lol.

Mandarin Orange Chicken

Got this at Trader Joe's, my mom wanted to try it.

The chicken was really good, i didn't like the sauce though. luckily the sauce was on the side so that i was able to have the chicken with some sweet and sour sauce we have left over from Safeway Chinese lol.

Not even really sure what it is i don't like about the sauce...could maybe be the ginger that is in it. But don't think we'll be getting it again.

Breakfast Burritos from Trader Joe's

First thing, I got it at Trader Joe's, but makes me laugh a little that it says "Trader Jose's" on the burritos.

I thought this might be nice because it looks like fresh made burritos instead of the mass produced little ones. Sadly though, i didn't really like this one. I felt it was a little dry, like too little cheese and too much potatoes. Could of used salt or something too.

Probably won't buy them again. I mostly just wanted to try it because it had bacon, even if turkey bacon, since a lot has sausage in them

Trader Joe's

It was a little while ago that i got to go here, but it was my first time there. It's not really close to where i live, so it's basically a special trip out there if we want to get anything from there. It's a little small but all the workers are so nice, nicer than a lot of other places. I would of probably found a lot more things i'd want to buy if i wasn't so focused on my daughter while shopping.

They had mini carts for kids in there and my daughter was loving it, but she started to just grab random things as i'm sure that's what it looks like i do through her eyes.

Best picture i got of her with the cart. I really wasn't sure who was more excited to see them, me or her lol.

I got a lot of fun stuff to try while there, probably still have more things left to try. I wish i had taken a group picture of everything i got because i don't want to upload each picture of each item onto this post. But i'll be trying to remember to make blog posts about trying the stuff so they'll be posted there.

Don't think i will go a lot, mostly from the distance it is. I would love it if they were a lot closer. At the time, it was the only place we could find Chia seeds, but since i've been there and now writing this, found a closer store that i'm able to get  some chia seeds at.

A fun story about my visit at the store has to do with my daughter. They have a section that they were giving out free samples, i only noticed and tried the cheese they had out. Later on, my daughter started to say that she was hungry and thought the area was a little kitchen where she could order food at. I let her try the cheese and she actually tried it and liked it. Then we noticed that they had this green juice to try, and it was pretty good, and my daughter even liked it. I guess they also had some coffee to test because i heard someone talking about it. But it was just cute how my daughter walked up and was like trying to say what she wanted to order. The person doing the samples was nice about it.

Last thing, i was talking with the cashier while checking out and it came about that it was my first time into there and he gave me the bag in the top picture for free. That was really nice. It was just a .99 worth one but either way that was nice.