HOMEMADE MOZZARELLA STICKS (and bread crumbs)

I KNOW. I can't believe it either. WHY have I never made mozzarella sticks at home before!? So many wasted years...

I don't particularly like "string cheese" or any processed cheese for that matter, but let me tell you, breaded and fried? AMAZING.

We happened upon some such cheese this week, and since I didn't want to eat it cold, I fried it up.

Frying goodness

We also didn't buy bread crumbs this week, because Trader Joe's only had organic, and that seemed a little crazy (and overpriced) for us. SO, we made that too! The BF toasted a loaf of bread in the oven, then I broke off pieces, put them in the food processor and pulsed for about a minute until it was crumbs. I didn't add any spices, I'll just add those when I cook.

The bread, before it was crumbs

AND THEN, I made the mozz sticks...

I cut the "string cheese" sticks in half, dipped them in milk, then rolled them in my bread crumb mixture (below), then in the milk AGAIN (yes again) then in the bread crumb mixture again.
Next, I fried them for about a minute on each side, in a small amount of olive oil, on medium heat. They're done when they start to 'unfirm' and look a little melty.

Here are the ingredients for the breading. It made about 10 mozzarella sticks.
~4 heaping TBS. breadcrumbs
~2 heaping TBS. flour
~1 heaping TBS. cornstarch (my secret ingredient for frying)
~ a pinch each of garlic powder, oregano, basil and parmesan


I INSIST you make these next time you happen to have string cheese in your house. I also won't tell anyone if you buy it just to make mozzarella sticks. It's totally worth it.



I wish I hadn't eaten them all so fast...

Teaching First Grade

I probably won't blog much about teaching (my actual job), because this blog is suppose to be fun, a hobby, something I WANT to do! Teaching is great job and all, but work is work, and nothing is as fun when you HAVE to do it.
(I have a secret life plan to make teaching less work and more fun, but more on that in the future).

Anyway, I made some charts this week that I thought came out pretty good (or are good ideas at least) and since I found some of the ideas online, I thought other online people might want to see mine too.

The first one is for transition (or sequence) words for writing:

Transition Words for Writing

My kids really liked the visual of the traffic light for this one. I think it will definitely help them to write in sequence more, and explain the sequence of events more clearly.




The second is for adding dialogue to their writing:

Before

After

A very tricky topic for a lot of my students (ELLs and non-ELLs alike) --> I have 17 ELLs (English language learners) in my class of 26. The first picture is before we talked about how to add dialogue and use the checklist, the second is the after picture. We worked on adding all the things on our checklist together.



If you're a teacher, I hope this was helpful/useful! If you're not a teacher, I have some really good cookie recipes on here you should try :-)

Glazed Baked Doughnuts

I was originally going to make Irish Soda Bread this weekend to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but then I just really (really) wanted a (lot of) doughnut(s).

And if I dye the doughnut icing green, that makes them Irish, right? (Note: the food coloring did not work out so great on these....they do not look green at all, so go ahead and ignore that part...thanks..)

I found this recipe on another blog called MomAdvice , but tweaked it a little.

Here are my Ingredients:

2 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup organic (unbleached) sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup coconut milk (this kind from Trader Joe's)
2 organic cage-free eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/2 tsp. almond extract (or you can use vanilla)


Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray doughnut pan. Combine dry ingredients. Mix in wet ingredients with a wooden spoon or mixer. Spoon into doughnut pan. Bake for 10 minutes. This recipe makes a dozen doughnuts, 2 pans of 6 each.
Let cool slightly, then flip onto a cooling rack with foil or wax paper underneath. Mix icing ingredients together. Dip doughnuts (or drizzle) with icing. The foil will catch any icing that spills over the sides.

Pretend these are an Irish tradition and you didn't just want several doughnuts.... and enjoy!

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

I cannot wait until this school year is over and I actually have time to write thoughtful posts. For now, here is a recipe I made up for chicken soup in the crockpot. I used mostly organic ingredients (because that's what we buy when we can). It's actually a lot more affordable than people think if you shop at Trader Joe's (the only grocery store we go to because they are so awesome).

Give it a try tomorrow when it will some how be snowing ❄ in New York again...

Ingredients: 

1/2 an (organic) onion

1 TBS crushed garlic 

3 (organic) carrots

5 small (organic)potatoes

4 (organic) celery stalks

1/2 cup dried pinto beans

4 cups chicken stock

3 cups water

1/2 cup frozen (organic) corn

1/2 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. basil

2 bay leaves

1 (organic) chicken breast (2 if you want a lot of chicken)

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Scrub the carrots and potatoes with a veggie brush (I use one similar to this). Or peel them if you prefer. Rinse the celery. Chop the onion, celery, carrots and potatoes. Put the dry beans in the pot, then throw in the chopped veggies and corn. Put in the garlic and other spices. Put the chicken on top. Pour in the stock and water. (It should come close to the top but not TOO close. You can use less water if needed).
Set crockpot to low for 10 hours (or until veggies are tender). It took mine about 12 hours to be done because I used frozen chicken.


I like making dinners like this when I know I'll be at work all day anyway. I chopped everything the night before, put it in the pot, and then the BF poured in the liquid and turned it on in the morning before work. It was done when I got home!

Leave a comment if you think you'll try it or when you try it! :) Thank you!! 

My (soon to be famous!) Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Today, I successfully convinced my boyfriend that it would be much wiser to allow me to bake him cookies instead of going to the gym together.
Best argument win ever.

Anyway, cookies = blog post! YAY!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)

2 eggs 

1 cup+1 TBS. brown sugar

1 TBS. vanilla extract

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

6-12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (I used ~6 aka half a bag)

1/2 pecan pieces (optional) 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375℉. In a mixing bowl, use a mixer to beat the softened butter and brown sugar. Add in the eggs and beat until fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture a little bit at a time.  Add in the chocolate chips and nuts (we happened to have pecans some so I used them). Drop by small rounded spoons onto sprayed (we use a Misto filled with olive oil) cookie sheets.  Bake for about 9-10 minutes. EAT.