Piri Piri Shrimp - Monday Yumday

Super Bowl Sunday is known for chicken wings, Lil' Smokies, nachos and chips and dip but our game day meal was a little different. We decided on some Piri Prir Shrimp, and a bunch of other things. Piri Piri sauce is a great African condiment simple enough that anyone can make it and versatile enough that it can be used in many different ways.

We love to skewer shrimp and grill them brushing piri piri sauce over the shrimp just before they finish cooking, then we serve piri piri on the side for dipping. I would also suggest grilling chicken and serving piri piri along side. Piri Piri is a quick, easy and yummy way to add extra flavor and spice to your meals.


4 Anaheim Peppers
1/3 cup olive oil
5 whole garlic cloves
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1/4 teaspoon salt
Juice of one lime

See and roughly chop chilies into 1 to 2 inch chunks. Add chopped chilies, garlic cloves, and oil to medium sauce pan and heat over medium high heat. Cook letting oil bubble slightly until the peppers and garlic become fragrant and soften, about 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and set aside to cool for 15 to 20 minutes.

Add all ingredients to blender and puree until mixture is smooth. Serve warm or cold. Makes about 1 1/2 cups sauce.

If serving with shrimp:

Soak bamboo skewers in water for 30 minutes. While skewers soak warm grill to medium heat. Load shrimp onto skewers. Grill shrimp for 1 to 2 minutes, brush both sides of shrimp with a bit of piri piri sauce and turn cooking for an addition 1 to 2 minutes or until shrimp are pink.

Serve cooked shrimp warm with rice and piri piri sauce.

Other Evolving Mommy recipes you might enjoy:

• Grilled Corn on the Cob
  
• Soy Garlic Marinade
  
• Tangy Citrus Shrimp

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Country-Style Whole-Wheat Pita - Bread Challenge Week 4

Country-Style Whole-Wheat Pita from The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger is taking it's turn in my kitchen's hot seat this week.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with pita bread let me just say you are missing out. For those of you who are familiar with pita bread but only store bought pita bread I would also like to let you know you are missing you out. Warm pita bread beautifully puffed and fresh from the oven is so stinking delicious. Pita bread is a flat bread that puffs while cooking making a pocket in the center perfect for filling with anything you can imagine. Pita is also great for dipping, using like a tortilla and so much more.

We planned a dinner of Moroccan burgers to help test out this whole wheat pita recipe. The wheat flour in this bread gives this pita bread a slightly nutty flavor. Honestly I thought the flavor was lacking a little. This wasn't the best pita I have had or made for that matter. The biggest problem was that about half the batch didn't bake up well and I had to deviate from the directions and improvise to make sure that we would have pita's for our planned meal. Of the 16 pita's this recipe made about half ended up with pockets, the rest ended up as dense flat bread. The pita's that did end up with pockets looked and tasted fine.


Because I know you are all incredibly worried, I feel I need to tell you the Moroccan burgers were delicious. Seriously, oh, so yummy.

The recipe itself is well written, and easy to follow. Unlike a lot of bread recipes there is even additional information about this type of bread along with additional ingredient variations and ways to use your pitas. I love to open cook books and see more than a list of ingredients and a bunch of instructions. I think that is why I like sharing recipes on Evolving Mommy, I always love to read the story behind a recipe and the little changes that the author might make, or even just a little additional information about some of the ingredients. Even though I did not have complete success with this recipe I do think it meets the requirements to get all 5 points in the recipe category.

The Country- Style Whole-Wheat Pita recipe took about 65 minutes of hands on time and about 1 hour and 35 minutes for rising and rest time. Total this recipe took me about 2 hours and 40 minutes from start to finish. It would have taken slightly less on hands time if the suggested cooking method had been successful.

The pitas worked out well for the buns on our Moroccan burgers and we have made some pita chips to eat with hummus too. I think Pitas in general are a very versatile bread. Pita's can be stuffed with just about anything; tuna, veggies, lunch meat, egg salad, not to mention yummy Moroccan burgers, the possibilities really are endless. Beyond filling a pita you can make pita chips of all kinds as well.Pita's chips with cinnamon sugar to dip in vanilla yogurt? A yummy and healthily snack for you and your children. Plain or spiced pita chips for using in dips or homemade hummus? Sign me up! We have also used pitas in our house as a base for individual pizzas, my favorite was the breakfast pizza with salsa, egg, sausage and cheese. So to answer the question, yes pita bread = super versatile.

This is not the first pita recipe I have made so I can honestly say that I will make pita's again, but I probably will not make this recipe. I was disappointed with the dense non-puffed up pita's I got as a result of the directions for cooking from the recipe. I ended up switching from cooking the bread on a pan at the temperature, as the recipe suggested, to cooking them directly on the top oven rack at a very high temperature to get nicely puffed pita loaves.

Luke and Maddy both enjoyed eating the our successfully puffed pita's but because of my disappointment with the bland flavor and the pile of of un-puffed pita's this recipe is not getting my point.

Please don't let my disappointment in this one recipe deter you from making pita's in your kitchen. Pita's are fun to make and kids love to watch them puff up in the oven. I have always had good results from other recipes, and we especially love the Whole Wheat Pita Bread recipe from Epicurious.

Flavor: 3
Hands on time: 1
Total time: 3
Recipe: 5
versatility: 4
make it again: 2
Catherine: 0
Luke: 1
Maddy: 1

Total Score: 21
In case you missed it this is how recipes are scored and what this Bread Challenge is all about.

Stepping up to the "batter's" box for next week: Rye Bread

Why is There a Half Naked 2 Year Old in Aisle 7?

About 6 months ago Maddy's over excitable mommy decided that she seemed ready to potty train, Maddy not her mommy, and so begins our adventure...

Madeline seemed so excited about her potty, peeing in her potty and wearing underwear so we dove right in and unfortunately appearances can be deceiving and we essentially jumped the gun. Luke and I decided that instead of pushing it on Maddy and making things harder and more stressful on everyone we would drop the whole thing for a bit and let Maddy take the lead.

As a result for the last 4 months or so we have only talked about potty related things when Madeline brought it up first, we have encouraged using the potty only when Madeline has already decided to go and we have worked to be as patient as possible. Yes she is about a month shy of 2 1/2 but that doesn't mean that she is behind or slow, it just means that she is making her own way.

I have a confession and I really need to get this off my chest but I need you to promise that you will not tell Maddy.

Okay here goes, I am cool with letting Madeline make her own way but while I would rank peeing in diapers over peeing on my floors as more convenient for me I am over changing diapers all day long. No matter how much I love our cloth diapers I am also pretty over washing them.


Actually I am over all this diaper mumbo jumbo as a whole. Mommy is ready for a potty trained girl. BUT, and this is a big but, we are really trying to have Maddy take the lead here, because no matter how ready I am if she isn't ready then it won't happen. I have already learned that lesson.

I bring all of this up because in the past month or so she has been consistently telling me when she poops or pees in her diaper and asks to be changed, she has also started the interesting habit of hiding behind the curtain to do her business.


This is interesting because it means she is starting to understand what her body is doing before it does it. I have come to the conclusion that she understands her body's cues because on several occasions I have seen her drop whatever she is doing and race to the curtains to do her business. Also this curtain activity makes me think she likes a little privacy, you know privacy like a bathroom could afford her. I'm working on redirecting her to at least stand in the bathroom instead of behind a curtain.


She has also stripped off her pants and diaper a few times to go potty on her own without prompting. This usually happens when our buddy Boo is also around and using the potty, but either way it shows an understanding and desire, right? I should say that she isn't always every interested in the potty, but her interest seems to be growing lately.

So I told Luke I was thinking about letting Maddy have some pant-less time just so she can feel what is happening a little more and to maybe get her thinking about peeing in the potty more since she would be without her diaper safety net.

Our conversation went like this:

Me: "So I was thinking about letting Maddy go without her pants and diaper more to encourage her to use the potty."

Luke: "Where would she be going pant-less? Somewhere other than our home would be best so that she doesn't pee all over our floor."

Me: (said with complete sarcasm) "Um, yeah I was going to take our half naked daughter to the mall or the grocery store so she doesn't pee on our carpet."

Luke: "That's a great idea, we'll take her to the grocery store and when she has an accident we'll just shout 'clean up on aisle 3!' and then run. We'll never have to clean up a pee mess again!"

Yes, ladies and gentlemen I married that man.

By the time he finished his thought we were both cracking up envisioning us running from grocery store employees armed with wet mops and paper towels while simultaneously potty training our daughter.

Since potty training our daughter in the grocery store is obviously not an option I have some questions for you, because you, the Evolving Mommy readers, are the smartest people I know, or don't know for that matter.

I would really like to encourage her to use the potty, but in a way that isn't forceful or stressful for either of us, I still want Maddy to feel like she's the one in the driver seat. I have a very, very smart daughter but she has a fiercely stubborn and independent streak in her just like her mother, so I think the best way is to make her feel like she is in control. Or at least create the illusion of control.

I would love your suggestions, tips and tricks. I would also love to hear what was successful for you and what were complete failures. Did you use M&M's? Maybe you went out and got one of those dolls that pees. Was your child the neighborhood streaker for a while? It may even be possible that you think my husband is a genius and we should potty train Madeline in the local King Soopers store.

If you have posted about potty training feel free to leave the link to your post in your comment. I'm in information gathering mode.

I know that a potty trained toddler doesn't mean the end of dirty diapers, but it would mean a smaller pile, right?

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Silly Ladies

One week ago today I spent the day having fun, hanging out and goofing off with some of my very favorite ladies.

What better way is there to spend time with your sister, mom and daughter than to spend a portion of your afternoon trying on purses, hats, scarfs, and sunglasses in a local Target store? It really is family time at it's finest.

We didn't spend the entire day trying on outrageous or ridiculous sunglasses but it was a highlight.

This week, I'm still laughing about all of our silliness and I'm missing my sister.

It is amazing how funny things can be when you're with people you are 100% comfortable with and who fully get your sense of humor. (and if they don't get your sense of humor they are more than willing to laugh at with you anyway.)

It is also amazing that with some people it doesn't matter what you do, it just matters that you do it together.

I'm so glad have these silly ladies in my life.
(After all, who else would willingly pose for silly pictures in silly sunglasses with me?)

Carrot Raisin Quick Bread - Bread Baking Challenge Week 3

The Last 10 days have been pretty busy. Between my brother's 21st birthday, my sister visiting from Las Vegas, multiple family gatherings, a bachelorette party, visiting with my good friend Michelle while she was in town for the weekend and getting a little much needed hair cut I unsurprisingly ran out of time to bake until today. With the whirlwind week I had a quick bread was definitely in order.

This weeks bread: Carrot Raisin Quick Bread. I found the carrot raisin bread recipe I decided to make at cookingbread.com.


Although it is called carrot bread the predominate flavors in this bread are the cinnamon, raisins and nuts. Which is not a bad thing in my book. The orange of the shredded carrots looks so pretty against the light brown of the bread.

The longest part of this recipe was peeling and shredding the carrots. Other than that it took less than 15 minutes to get the batter ready and have it in the oven to bake. It took about 60 minutes for our loaf to bake and the recipe said it would take 50-55 minutes.

This recipe is written very short and to the point. I like recipes that give me a little background information about the recipe. This one did not include anything extra, but the recipe itself is written well and is pretty easy to understand. I am not always very good about following recipes ingredient for ingredient. I did manage to follow this recipe ingredient for ingredient but I can see many ways that I can add or substitute ingredients.

The batter can be made into loaves or muffins. Quick bread by nature aren't always the most versatile of breads because the number of ways to serve them are limited. Carrot Raisin Muffin? Yum. Carrot Raisin Bread grilled cheese? No thanks! Either way Luke, Madeline and I all give this bread a thumbs up I plan to make this recipe again with the addition of some of my normal additions and substitutions.

Flavor: 4
Hands on time: 5
Total time: 4
Recipe: 3
Versatility: 3
Make it again: 5
Mommy Score: 1
Daddy Score: 1
Maddy Score: 1
Total Score: 27

Coming up next week: Pita Bread

5 Little Things - The Week in review

The last 10 days has been crazy around the Evolving Mommy house. Here are 5 little things that kept me so busy in the last 10 days in 12 words or less.

1. My sister visited and we spent every second possible with her.

2. Kyle is 21! Don't worry Kyle I drank too much too.


3. Family gatherings galore. Which means lots of cooking and lots of eating.

4. Michelle came to Colorado. Yea for girl time!
5. Andrea, the bachelorette, got a night out on the town.

So there are a few of the things that kept me moving the week. I'm tired. Now that we spent the entire day getting caught up on regular life (i.e. cleaning, laundry, cooking, groceries and the gym) I plan to return back to my natural hermit like state in the week to come. Although I like productive days I think I like my Sunday's a bit more lazy.

How was your week? Busy? Slow? Just right?

Alright Moms, How Do You Pamper Yourself?

Don't be too jealous but I'm also a lucky lady because I got to spend an evening with the ladies of Mile High Mama's and Mom it Forward Colorado for some pampering last week at Sephora in Boulder. Yay for #gnopamper! Yay for Haircuts! Yay for getting out of the house and feeling pretty!

Okay now it's your turn...spill the beans!