Skip to content

ANDI HAYS

— my little corner of randomness —

Menu
  • Here’s What I Have to Say
  • Tidbits About Me
  • Sites I’ve Helped With
  • Disclaimer
Menu

Category: Food

Num Num Num

Posted on March 24, 2014March 21, 2014 by Andi

Dannie loves eating. I took a quick video of her eating lunch last week. She wanted the banana I was eating and kept saying “num num num”. She was cracking me up.

Dannie is such a ham in front of the camera. I am sure she is going to be our comedian!
 
Andi_2_0_thumb_thumb1
Read more

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Andi

The other night we made these Mexican Stuffed Peppers. They were really easy and really tasty. We had them for dinner, I had them for lunch and then we had some with dinner tonight. And we still have a couple left (I know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow!).

First you cook the onions and quinoa.

i-BRtxJCD-XL

While the onion/quinoa cooks, add the enchilada sauce to a pan, cut and prep the peppers and prep your other ingredients.

i-CxwtfRD-XL

i-hzwgdz5-XL

Then mix everything together.

i-khP8J4Q-XL

Then stuff the peppers with your tasty stuffing mix.

i-Hs4BVdV-XL

i-KvRtBPP-XL

Then add cheese, cover and put into the oven to bake.

i-JRsnbWg-XL

After they are done, uncover and enjoy!

i-LbZ2dgc-XL

i-bV7vdrs-XL

Chuck thought they needed a little more spice, but I thought they were perfect. I would love to make this for dinner for people that like Mexican food. I know we will be making these again!

Andi_2_0_thumb_thumb1

Read more

Mushroom & Wild Rice Soup

Posted on March 9, 2014April 7, 2016 by Andi

I’ve been in a bit of an eating rut and decided to look up some new recipes to get me motivated. When I found this, it was FREEZING outside (today we got up to 40*!!!!!) and I was hankering for some soup. 

Here is the recipe I found and used.

It was really easy to make. First you chop up the onions (I added carrots and celery, so I chopped those up, too).

IMG_0684

Then you chop up the mushrooms. I used two portabellas and one package of baby bellas. We had a second container, but that looked like WAY too many mushrooms. I was already freaking out at the amount I was adding.

IMG_0685

Then you add the butter and vegetables to the pan and cook until tender, add the garlic and cook for a little bit, then add the mushrooms and let them all cook together a little.

IMG_0686

Then you add the rice, seasoning packets (we used Uncle Bens mushroom flavor wild/brown rice packages) and broth and let it simmer.

IMG_0687

Then add the cream, stir around until it gets heated through and then eat up!

IMG_0688

It wasn’t as soupy as I was expecting, but it was really good. Chuck said he preferred it this way. I ate mine with some crackers because I was still thinking of it as soup. I will say I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it. The recipe made a ton of food, so we ate it for dinner, I had it for lunch for two days, Chuck had some with lunch one day and we still have a bag we froze in the freezer.

Overall, we will definitely make this again. I am glad I started looking for some new recipes. Next up to try is a stuffed pepper recipe. And Chuck found a sloppy joe recipe that doesn’t use meat!

Andi_2_0_thumb_thumb1

Read more

My Little Baker

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Andi

Maddie loves to bake. Muffins, cookies, heck, she just likes to help out in the kitchen. She gets giddy to set or clear the table for meals.

Maddie loves making muffins. And since I am lazy, I buy muffins that I need to add only water to. She likes to stir, put the batter into the tray, eat the batter and then devour the muffins.

i-mX46GW6-XLi-ghgXLQW-XLi-XCcs58n-XLi-NQq5JDZ-XL

At Christmas, she did a great job cutting out cookies and decorating them.

i-CPdgfSM-XLi-QQKQfxV-XLi-LqtMppt-XL

And one night when Maddie was sick, Chuck made Ninja bread Men with her. She didn’t have a voice, but she was sweet as could be! And there’s something about dads doing activities with their daughters that just melt my heart!

i-2Jp6BBf-XLi-D9vnKBF-XLi-rW7SwBN-XLi-BzxN3pD-XL

I was dubbed the icer and Maddie was the sprinkler. She took her job very seriously!

i-RqxppjF-XLi-gpp5fDK-XLi-nRC9qQf-XLi-vxLT7ZD-XLi-hQzDV7t-XLi-Zrt96Lr-XLi-PMVK6RM-XL

So if there’s something to bake, stir, mix, pour, or decorate….Maddie is your girl!

Andi_2_0_thumb_thumb1

Read more

Cheesy

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Andi

One night at dinner we were laughing at Dannie. She was sitting there with loads of cheese hanging out of her mouth.

i-WxVX6pK-XL

i-MPFVszp-XL

i-cXDK5d8-XL

Maddie thought it was funny, too and tried to make cheese hang out of her mouth.

i-pRRVBdV-XL

She wasn’t very successful, but she was really cute trying.

i-Fq4Wff3-XL

Andi_2_0_thumb_thumb1

Read more

Cupcake

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Andi

A new Cupcake store opened and MOMS Club went there one morning so we could check it out and eat cupcakes. The girls picked out cupcakes to eat. They were very pretty and very yummy!

i-zM2dB8s-XL

i-RxWJj8d-XL

i-xhh4dPV-XL

i-jhF5648-XL

i-r9gpd3c-XL

Some friends and I also went there for dinner one night. They have a restaurant attached called “The Mason Jar”. The food was really good and I can’t wait to go back for more food and more cupcakes! If you are in the area, I highly recommend checking it out.

Andi_2_0_thumb

Read more

Vegetable Soup

Posted on January 9, 2014January 9, 2014 by Andi

I had been looking for a crockpot vegetable soup that didn’t have meat in it and I came across this recipe. I think I found it on Pinterest. There were a lot of ingredients, but it was really simple to make. You just need to give yourself enough time to chop all the veggies.

First you sauté the veggies a little.

i-pctvbkk-XL

Then you let your toddler help stir the vegetables because she insists on doing so.

i-CxdVgrc-XL

Then dump the rest of the ingredients into the crockpot.

i-Vz4zvjF-XL

Then move your toddler to a different location to do more stirring and keep them busy by having them name all the vegetables she can find on the spoon.

i-DJJsTH5-XL

The soup tasted really good. I was very pleased. This time I added some frozen corn, a can of white beans, a can of peas and half the amount of green beans. I also used petite diced tomatoes because I don’t like big chunks of tomato in my soup (or in general) and vegetable broth to make it vegetarian. The recipe said to add the pasta right away. This made the pasta a bit mushy and I would either cook it first and add it at the end or skip it all together. It didn’t add a whole lot to the soup for us.

Modifications I will make the next time I make this:

  • use sweet potatoes instead of red potatoes
  • make my onions and peppers a little bigger (Chuck likes more variety in size and texture in the soup)
  • omit the pasta
  • stick with adding white beans, corn, peas, petite tomatoes, veggie broth and half the green beans
  • invite a small army over to help us eat it all

It was also very good frozen and then reheated. Overall, I highly recommend this for a yummy veggie soup. Let me know if you make it and if you make any notable changes I should consider the next time I make it. Mmmmm….now I’m hungry!

Andi_2_0_thumb_thumb1

Read more

Winter Playdate

Posted on January 7, 2014January 7, 2014 by Andi

My friend Tricia hosted a MOMS Club playdate early in December. She always makes the most adorable snacks for playdates! Check out these cute snowmen.

i-D8sPQrw-XL

The kids enjoyed eating them. Maddie liked the chocolate chip eyes and the M&Ms the best. Dannie was all over the donut! Smile

i-GmmCDSB-XL

i-GpP2fBR-XL

i-XCc2g8S-XL

i-LTvTMSC-XL

Andi_2_0_thumb_thumb1

Read more

What We’ve Been Eating These Days

Posted on September 9, 2013April 7, 2016 by Andi

A few people have been asking what we’ve been eating since we overhauled our diet a number of months back. I sent a long email of ideas to a friend and thought some of you might be interested as well. Maybe this will help some of you get some new meal ideas.

Zucchini Chips

Onion Rings

Lettuce Wraps – we have added carrots and have even made them without meat before.

Szechuan Green Beans

General Tso Chicken Love this one with brown rice. We ate it last week without the rice and just had sautéed veggies with it.

Turkey Burgers – we made a twist on these and froze them for Maddie. But Chuck and I loved them. We used ground chicken and added shredded zucchini and shredded carrots. So yummy! We splurged once and had them on pretzel rolls! 

Wild Rice Burgers – my new favorite!

Kabobs – we make kabobs a lot when guests come over. If you have time to prep them the night before, you would save time when you get home from work. We add cherry tomatoes, peppers, onions, and sometimes chicken that was marinated in a teriyaki sauce. But usually the chicken is left off for us and we eat the veggies. I will sometimes make some wild rice to go with it.

Quesadillas Chuck used to make quesadillas when we first started eating this way, but we started making tacos instead because it was faster. But for lunch, I will take a whole wheat tortilla, add peppers and onions, some salsa and cheese and microwave it. If we have been to the farmers market, I will add some black bean hummus to it. 🙂 Very fast, really tasty.

We make veggie tacos a lot. Cut up peppers and onions, sauté in a little olive oil until tender and add taco seasoning. Then use toppings as usual.

Veggie pizza – whole wheat Boboli pizza crust (in pizza isle), sauté some peppers and onions until slightly tender, add pizza sauce (or salsa) to the pizza, top with veggies and cheeses and bake until lightly brown. Chuck has also learned to make his own pizza crust…yum!!

We also sauté peppers and onions and add some soy sauce to season as they are cooking. Then we eat them with salmon (which we bake on a cookie sheet for the package’s suggested time, brushed with a little olive oil and a little cayenne pepper).

Some useful tips: cut up a bunch of peppers and onions when you have time and keep them in a container it the fridge ready to use. 

We use yellow and red onions and all colors of bell peppers almost every day. 

Soy sauce makes veggies yummy! Yes, there’s some salt, but get low sodium and don’t worry too much about it. 

We also eat a ton of fruit, strawberries, pineapple, apples, berries, watermelon…anything you want. We have a fruit with all our meals. 

We buy Annie’s food for Maddie. And there are a bunch of soups by Amy’s that I really like. They are a good lunch. 

We eat a bunch of nuts for protein.

Mostly, look for products with a very short list of ingredients. Triscuits have only three ingredients. At least look for ingredients that you can pronounce. 

I have been taking lots of pictures of my meals. Here are some of the pictures from my phone of meals we have eaten. I apologize for the poor quality. And these have been taken over many months. For instance, we don’t have rice in our tacos anymore. Smile

Veggie tacos.

20130425_175355

Veggie quesadilla. I have these many days for lunch since there are usually chopped veggies in the fridge already. Today I added my Black Bean and Chioptle Hummus to it! YUM!

20130427_120113

More veggie tacos. Chuck will add zucchini into the cooked veggies, too.

20130430_181442

Amy’s Vegetable Barley soup. I have bought it at Target by the soups and Cub in the Organic section. It comes in a green can and I LOVE IT!

20130505_120007

Soup and salad.

20130505_120128

More quesadillas.

20130512_115753

Salad, fruit and nut crackers that I brought to a picnic lunch. On our last picnic, I filled the large section with chips, the small section with our homemade salsa and the medium one with fruit. That is my favorite picnic lunch!

20130524_120015

Turkey burgers. We froze these in hopes of Maddie eating them, but she didn’t like them that much. We ended up eating them one night on a splurge of pretzel buns. It was delicious!

20130526_125730

Sautéed veggies, pineapple, onion rings and turkey burger on a pretzel bun.

20130711_181555

My favorite onion rings. I really like them dipped in BBQ sauce! I could eat these every night!

20130605_183028

Another quesadilla.

IMG_20130617_122426

My favorite pizza! This was a crust that Chuck made. It was delicious and so filling. I like using salsa instead of tomato sauce and I like pepperjack cheese.

20130702_181230

Zucchini chips. Yum! They have a little spicy kick to them.

20130702_181233

Lettuce wraps with lettuce from our garden. This was made with chicken, but we have made it with tofu and just veggies, too. Did you know that Noodles has an amazing order of lettuce wraps? I get them every time….with some potstickers!

20130709_180828

Szechuan green beans. So flavorful and the only way I will eat green beans.

20130725_174700

Szechuan green beans, pineapple and pan fried walleye. I at lots more walleye than this!

20130812_180820

Sautéed veggies, salmon and zucchini noodles. (We tried the noodles a couple times and a couple ways, and I don’t really care for them. Chuck thought they were really good, though.)

20130827_175102

Wild rice burgers!!! Chuck’s newest meal and my new very favorite! I want to eat this for every meal. It was so good and melted in your mouth.

20130906_175829

Melty pepperjack cheese on my wild rice burger! So good!!!

20130906_180905

I hope you find something on here that you might be willing to give a try. I am so grateful that Chuck likes cooking and has done all the grocery shopping, cooking and dinner clean up. He’s amazing and I am eating so much better because of him!

Happy eating!!

Andi_2_0_thumb

Read more

Farmer’s Market & Como Zoo

Posted on September 8, 2013September 8, 2013 by Andi

This morning we went to the Farmer’s Market and then Como Zoo. We haven’t been to the Farmer’s Market in quite a while. It was so nice to go now that there are so many fruits and vegetables there! WE got the most delicious watermelon, a cantaloupe (because Maddie LOVES them), green beans (because Chuck makes really yummy ones) and the black bean and chipotle hummus that I like. I can’t stop eating the watermelon. SOOOO good!

We also saw the cutest food ever! Check out these baby cucumbers!

20130908_094603

Maddie got a bag of popcorn and we were off to the zoo. She had a good time riding on Chuck’s shoulders today.

20130908_102838

She was able to get a good view of the baby giraffe! So very cute. It was 130 pounds when it was born. I think the volunteer said it was only 5 days old!

20130908_102845

These cute little Spider Monkeys were snuggling!

20130908_114617

And the tiger was hanging out in his pool.

20130908_103531

The antelopes were fighting, the zebras were walking around, the wolves were chasing each other, the seal was being trained and doing fun tricks, the polar bear was swimming all over in front of the glass and the orangutan was wearing a box to entertain its baby. It was a great trip to the zoo!

Dannie loved it, too!

20130908_104648

20130908_104652

The girls went right down for naps. We wore them out! That’s the sign of a good Sunday morning! And who knows what adventures we will have this afternoon. Weekends are the best!

Andi_2_0_thumb

Read more

Posts navigation

  • Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • …
  • 19
  • Next
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Instagram
GitHub

Instagram

minihays

⛸️❤️
#hayskidsyearlyphotos #hayskidsyearlyphotos 📸
10 Alex turned double digits () ❇️10❇️ 

Alex turned double digits (😧) a little over a week ago and celebrated with some friends over the weekend. He is the happiest guy around and we hope he never changes! 💚💙🎉
12 I’m almost two weeks late posting abo ✨12✨ 

I’m almost two weeks late posting about Dannie’s bday, but she had a fabulous day celebrating various times with friends and family She was thoroughly spoiled and is so very loved! 💗🎉

minihaysreads

Anyone else use @loopearplugs? I got a pair last y Anyone else use @loopearplugs? I got a pair last year and I love them so much. They are wonderful in so many situations and really help me focus when there are lots of noises around.
Books & Bracelets! My new favorite activity has be Books & Bracelets! My new favorite activity has been creating bracelets to go with some of my favorite books. This was my first little and I loved these books and their little wrist friends so much. 🤩😍

More little creations are being added to @technicallyscattered.
When you volunteer at the book fair, you’re obvi When you volunteer at the book fair, you’re obviously going to come home with some new books! I think there was only one I regret not buying. Next time!
My youngest might have found our new favorite way My youngest might have found our new favorite way to read together! Under a blanket with a reading light!💡

haysonthelake

The new dock stacks so nicely on the shore! The le The new dock stacks so nicely on the shore! The legs even store inside. So smart!
Chuck’s dad came to help us take out the dock an Chuck’s dad came to help us take out the dock and Alex wanted in on the fun, too. It was so cute to watch three generations of Hays men hard at work. 😁 (Don’t worry…I helped, too!)
#the jet ski lift has been so helpful for moving around the dock sections and it turns out it’s fun for rides, too! 💦
Cleaned up the space under the porch and deck a fe Cleaned up the space under the porch and deck a few weeks ago for the winter. I love the kayak hanger Chuck found!
It’s spooky outside…Mother Nature sent us tric It’s spooky outside…Mother Nature sent us tricks today. Hopefully the neighbors are giving out treats tonight! 🎃❄️

Links

  • MadeByChuck.com
  • My Wish List
  • Our Photo Gallery
  • Wish List – Alex
  • Wish List – Dannie
  • Wish List – Maddie

Categories

Alex Baby Journal Books Crafts Dannie Food GiST Glendalough Lake House Lessons Maddie Parenting Products & Places Randomness Seattle Social Distancing Tech

Archives

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© 2025 ANDI HAYS | Powered by Superbs Personal Blog theme
Menu
  • Here’s What I Have to Say
  • Tidbits About Me
  • Sites I’ve Helped With
  • Disclaimer