Fears' Food

heart shaped hand pies

2012-02-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

For valentines day I totally wanted to make something simple and chocolate. I was really leaning towards this (chocolate) ....but I didn't have almond meal.... and we had already had this (more chocolate) for breakfast. Then I saw this post at our best bites. I opted to go with the sweetie pie pops, but #1 I had no lollipop sticks. #2 - wouldn't have mattered, there was no way I was taking that much time to make something so tiny and cutsie. Boys just don't appreciate it. However towards the end of that post, they did mention you could make them hand pie size. That size 1 recipe of pie crust will make 6 hand pies. Perfect. I really wanted to make apple but alas, my apples were past usable, so I opted for cherry (DH's vote.) They really weren't to hard to make, and turned out super cute. I did use our best bite's pie crust recipe -because it was easier than anything else, and I used the idea for filling from their site as well -found here - you must scroll to get to this part. Here it is all put together the way I made it. Of course if you want super wonderful directions and pictures click any of the links to our best bites. I still have no photos on my current computer so my blog remains photoless.
These were pretty good. I liked them quite a bit. How well they were received by the kids depended on how much they liked cherries. :)

Pie crust (Make while you toddler is napping and put in the fridge for later. :)

1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon shortening (I used butter flavored)
1/4 cup ice water

Directions

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in the shortening until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Add water a Tablespoon at a time and toss until the dough comes together.
Pat into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and put in the fridge until ready to use.

Cherry filling (certainly you could spice this up some, but I was going for ease. -you probably only need to make about 1/2 this much for just 6 pies)

2 cups cherries (I used frozen pie cherries which I defrosted in the microwave -no pre-planning on my part)
2 or 3 Tablespoons sugar (I think I used 2 heaping Tablespoons because the cherries are a bit tart.)
2 -3 Tablespoons flour (again, I used heaping Tablespoons and I think 3 this time because the cherries were plenty juicy

Directions

Mix together in a bowl.

To make the pies

Roll out dough on a floured surface and cut out 12 heart shapes with a cookie cutter. Mine was about 3 1/2 inches across.
Prepare a cookie sheet by lining with parchment paper. Place 6 of the hearts evenly spaced on the parchment. Add a little cherry filling. Notice the key word. I thought I was putting a little and leaving enough room for the top - wrong! They leaked out all over the place. Of course I took advantage of that and brushed the juices over the top of the pies so they had a sweetish pink glaze, but that is beside the point. I was super glad they were on parchment because they made a mess. My fault to be sure, but messy.
Top the pies with the remaining 6 heart shaped crust pieces. Now, if you didn't make a juicy mess, you may need to wet the edge with water to seal the hearts closed. I certainly didn't. With or without the water, seal the edges of the heart pies together by pressing down all around the edge with the tines of a fork.
Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes. (Sorry not sure exactly how long they ended up taking. I'm thinking it was closer to the 30 end for this size.)

Note -with my remaining cherries and crust I did make 1 pie in a jar. I just pushed the crust into the bottom of the small canning (jelly) jar and filled it as full as I dared with cherries. Pretty sure mine was 1 size smaller than those used on our best bites. While I'm hear, I have to say I just clicked on their cupcake link. Now I need to try those. Yum!

bacon quiche

2012-02-15T17:58:00.000-08:00

So, one of my freezer meals was supposed to be a quiche. I never made it. I had it on my menu for this evening and planned to just make it normally, but the thing called for 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup milk and only 3 eggs (for 2 quiches) I just couldn't imagine making a quiche with mayo and it tasting good. I went to our best bites to check out their ideas and found a zucchini quiche. Although I like zucchini and have one in the fridge, DH doesn't like it and I felt like sparing him. Plus I'd rather toss the zucchini in some muffins or waffles. Point being, their quiche used no milk. I liked that idea because my problem with quiche is that it always comes out too moist for my liking. I figured no milks, no extra moisture right? So, I kind of ended up just making up my own recipe. Turned out to be the best quiche. Everyone loved it (except Aaron which surprised me because he likes eggs.) So I'm actually blogging this right away so I don't forget it.

Ingredients

2 store bought frozen pie crusts, thawed (remember I had some of the ingredients from the original recipe which was a freezer meal. Feel free to make your own crust. I personally love my push in pie crust - totally no fail. -You could probably leave out the sugar for this recipe)
4-6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (or buy precooked and cut with scissors)
2 teaspoons butter
1/2 onion, diced
2 teaspoons garlic
dash garlic and herb seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
dash of oregano
6 oz shredded swiss cheese
8 eggs

Directions

Saute onions in butter until fragrant. Add the garlic and saute a minute or 2 more. I added my salt and pepper here too, but you could just add that to the eggs. Remove from heat and set aside to begin cooling.
In a large bowl (I always use a measuring bowl with a spout so it is easy to pour.) Beat eggs, with seasonings. Add Cheese and whisk again. Add bacon and onions and whisk again. Divide evenly between the 2 pie crusts.
Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. (both my recipes said 40-50, and I checked at 30 thinking I was just going to cover the crust. I left it in for 5 minutes more, because I'm so used to quiche being to moist for my liking but I could have taken it out after 30 minutes. However, it was not rubbery or anything after 35.)
Let cool slightly and serve. (I let mine cool while I made green smoothies.

Chocolate cherry puff pancake

2012-02-14T13:01:00.000-08:00

So, last night I saw this recipe at two peas and their pod and decided to do my own spin on it for breakfast this morning by making it more like our peach puff pancake which everyone really likes. Aaron didn't care for it, but Benjamin couldn't get enough of it. It wasn't overly sweet, and no one put syrup or even powdered sugar - nothing on it. (Maybe Aaron would have liked it more that way.) I thought it was a nice change to peach puff. I liked the cherry/chocolate flavor, but then again, I really like cherries, and I really like chocolate. :)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups milk
6 large eggs
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups cherries (I used frozen pie cherries - just regular cherries, not cherry pie filling)
1 Tablespoon sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 425. Toss the cherries with 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Place butter and sugared cherries in the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan and put in the oven until butter has melted. (it is fine if the oven is still pre-heating)
While the butter melts, Combine remaining ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth, scraping sides if necessary.
Once butter has melted, pour chocolate mixture over the butter and cherries. Bake for 25 minutes or until set in the center and puffed on the sides.

Barley and Almond Casserole

2012-02-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

This recipe is from another new book I got at Christmas. I can't say that I have used it as much. Mostly because I've been doing a lot of freezer meals. However, this is the direction I want to go with my cooking. It is called A word of Wisdom; Seasonal grain Based, low animal product, whole food recipes. I have only made 2 recipes from this book. This one was delicious. Loved it. The other one was gross. I actually wrote in the cookbook -Yuck! -1 Star. In theory it looked good - they were cabbage rolls. I've had some that are delicious, but this one didn't have you boil the cabbage first, so it didn't end up getting cooked well, and was therefore hard to eat. I can eat raw cabbage, I can eat cooked cabbage, but something about half way in between cabbage just makes it difficult to chew and eat. Then the sauce had tomato, lemon, honey and allspice. I thought it sounded interesting. I never recommend that combination. To me the honey and the lemon with the allspice ended up tasting something like a cough drop, so it was like a tomatoey cough drop. YUCK. Anyway, that was the recipe I didn't like.
This is the recipe I did like. It was so good and made the house smell so wonderful when it was cooking.

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup slivered almonds (I used sliced)
1/4 cup butter
1 cup barley (I used whole barley, not pearl. I worried about that, but it turned out fine.)
1 onion, diced
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cup stock (I used vegetable)
1 cup minced chives or green onion (seasonally optional) I only used a couple of green onions -maybe 1/3-1/2 cup)
1/2 cup minced parsley (seasonally optional, I used maybe a Tablespoon or 2)

Directions

Heat 2 Tablespoons butter in a saute pan. Add almonds and toast. Set aside. Melt 1/4 cup butter and add barley and onion. Saute until tender. (This part smells soooo yummy)
Add almonds, parsley, chives, salt and pepper. Add stock. Bring to a boil and pour into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish.
Bake at 375 for 1 hour. (I think I probably covered this with foil. Directions don't say to though.)

I remember I worried about this having enough stock because usually you need 2-1 ratio. I can't remember, but I probably did up the stock to 2 cups especially since I was using whole barley, not pearl. (This is why I should blog more regularly) I have modified the directions to how I made it.

The original also had an optional white sauce. It was an extremely basic white sauce and I chose not to make it.

Lemon chicken {freezer meal} + book review

2012-02-13T14:27:00.000-08:00

Blog? What blog? I have gotten very bad at blogging as of late. A fact that has bitten me in the rear a couple of times when I went to look for a recipe I had made to see how I had changed it and low and behold, I hadn't bothered to even blog it. Oops. Part of my problem has been a husband who has been exponentially more busy at work lately - lots of trips to china, late hours..... That equals 1 mom at home with 4 busy boys much of the time alone. 2 of my busy boys were involved in school sports until last week. One was in cross country, followed almost immediately by basketball, the other was in wrestling which started practicing the second week of school. Between games and busy life, blogging sadly fell by the wayside. Well, happy day, Basketball is over! Wrestling is over! I can't tell you how much more time I have in my day not having to go to pick up my boys at 5:00 everyday. Tons more time. Of course now I've volunteered to be soccer coach for the next one down. :) However, that is low key. Practice is 1 day a week not 4-5, and games are 1 day a week for 1 hour, not 2 hours - some of the wrestling tournaments that were 13 hours long.
So, enough of my busy life, point is, I actually stopped cooking quite a bit. I got a book at Christmas that was some Freezer meals and for DH's last 2 trips to China, we've had freezer meals most nights. Life saver. I love the book I have. It's called Once-A-Month cooking Family Favorites Can't say all of the recipes are the greatest in the world. We've had our definite favorites, and the ones we haven't cared for as much, however, I love the setup of the book. It is different from other types of freezer meals because it is just 30 different meals, not make a quadruple batch of 3 recipes. For a 1 month cycle you make 30 meals. It does take all day, and it is better to start the day before, but I love the convenience once the meals are done. I also love how the book has everything set up for you. If you want to choose to do an entire cycle, the grocery list is done, and there is even a list of how to process everything. For example it will say dice 5 onions (13 cups), dice 2 bell peppers (2 cups)... The ingredients are to be used throughout the many meals made, but all the chopping is done at once. Then you chop meat, and it will tell you, Slice 8 chicken breasts into strips (4 for this meal, and 4 for the other) Then it gives you steps to cook the meals so you have some simmering while you are just tossing others in a bag. I will say I followed the directions well for the first 2 week cycle I did, but the second 2 week cycle I'd already made 2 of the meals just as regular meals, and I didn't follow the directions as well. I did a bunch of quick chicken meals the night before, rather than between simmering.... You can rearrange as you see fit, but the first time, I was all about sticking to the directions.
So, I do like the book. Our meal this evening is from the book. I do have to say that the meals do not always include any vegetables or anything, so I do usually have to add a veggie and/or fruit, and/or green smoothie to our meal, but that is easy enough. I always purchase fresh fruits and veggies weekly. I also have to say that this makes shopping super easy. I only have to buy fruits, veggies, milk and eggs a lot of the time. I didn't even go to the grocery store last week because I did bountiful baskets and got milk, eggs and cheese at costco. Wahoo. Such a time saver in more ways that one. OK, enough gushing about the book. On to the recipe right.
I chose this recipe because #1 it was absolutely delicious. Super tender chicken. Which was an absolute surprise because the chicken was microwaved. Originally I looked at this meal, and even commented to my neighbor - the chicken tonight is microwaved, I'm afraid it will be rubbery. So far from the truth. I keep having dry chicken or pork from the oven. Keep buying thermometers. I'm determined mine are off. By the time the meat is up to temp, it is dry. Anyway, total tangent, but because of that, I was even more impressed with this chicken. I also liked it's lemon flavor. It was pretty strong, and relatively tart, but I really liked it like that. A lemon chicken that tasted like lemon, and not a lemon pie. :) This was also a super easy meal to prepare. -SUPER EASY. Not only the actually cooking, but also the prep of putting it in the bag to freeze. How can you go wrong? Easy to prepare and delicious. YUM

Oh, and also forgot to mention that on one of those China trips the thing that died while my husband was gone was the computer. (also a huge reason I haven't been blogging - can't do it from the ipad.) The worst thing about that is that I don't have any of my pictures. Hopefully that will get remedied and I can go back to posting pictures, but until then, I'm using an old work laptop and I'm not installing picasa or worrying about adding pictures here. Good thing I have 2 memory cards that are 16 GB each right. I should be good for quite a while.

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (I did cut mine in half because they were very large, but I still used 4)
1/3 cup lemon juice (I did squeeze mine fresh)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons chopped sweet peppers (I always buy the mini sweets at costco. original recipe just called for red bell pepper)
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic (I used jarred here)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a 1 gallon freezer bag; Label and freeze. (Could it be any easier? -I do recommend freezing it flat or it won't defrost in 1 day in the fridge)

To serve

Take out of the freezer the night before and put in the refrigerator to thaw.
Place in a microwave safe dish and cook on high for 5 minutes. Baste the chicken with the juices, turn, and microwave for 3 more minutes. (I do have to say, this took a lot longer than 8 minutes for me. I just kept doing 2-5 more minutes depending on how pink the chicken still was, and/or what it was measuring on the thermometer. I think it ended up taking something like 16 minutes rather than 8. Still quick though.)

I Served this over brown rice. Can't remember what veggie we had - probably a green smoothie, and maybe something else like green beans or something. I just can't remember. What I do remember is how tender and juicy this chicken was.

Whole grain chia waffles

2012-01-18T20:01:00.000-08:00

These I make different every time I make them. I have way too much fun with them. I will write the recipe we were given by Amoreena, but will add my notes.
As far as waffles go, these are just fine - they are waffles. I figure they don't have to be spectacular if you are going to put some maple syrup on them. They were also good with strawberry chia jam. Now when I added some mashed banana (2) and some mini chocolate chips, then made a "syrup" that was 1 part maple syrup, 1 part peanut butter, melted in the microwave. Now those were scrumptious and got remade a few times in a row. Yummy!

Ingredients

2 cups of flour - really any combination will do. My original says 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup spelt, but I've made them with lots of combinations of spelt, oat, wheat, barley, brown rice, and even probably bean. Have fun. I just usually keep at least 1/3 wheat.
2 Tablespoons coconut sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chia gel
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 1/2 -2 cups almond milk (I usually use vanilla if I'm using almond. Any milk would do)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Mix dry ingredients. Then add the rest. When adding milk, add until you get a nice pouring consistency. The batter will still be thick. Cook in waffle iron.

chia jam

2012-01-18T19:49:00.000-08:00

This is probably my favorite way to use chia so far. But truth be told I haven't experimented much, and most of what I did was before the holidays hit, and before DH started traveling a lot. I do remember this jam, and made it more than once. So simple, so tasty, and so healthy. YUM! Oh, and I forgot to mention super quick - no slaving over the stove. You can realistically make a batch at a time when you need it. Again, thanks to my friend Amoreena who fiddled with this recipe and came up with correct proportions. This is her favorite combination for strawberries.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup strawberry puree -I just thawed some frozen strawberries and pureed them in my blender or food processor, or with my immersion blender - can't remember which.
1/4 cup chia seed
2 Tablespoons agave

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a pint size jar (or other container)
Let set until thickened. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or freeze.

Can it possibly get any easier?

You can use any fruit and/or sweeteners, but you need to adjust amounts to suit your tastes. Strawberry is nice and sweet so it doesn't require much added sweetness.

Love this on waffles, toast, pancakes, french toast, rolls, bread...

Chia

2012-01-18T19:42:00.000-08:00

I have a group of friends through church that started a "healthy cooking" group. Each month someone picks a topic and hosts at their home. We've done green smoothies, quinoa, veggies, home made yogurt, and the last one was chia. I have to say chia was very new to me, but good stuff. I have started using it more often. In fact. I often make chia waffles now. (I just wish I could remember the exact recipe I was using for the chia/chunky monkey waffles I was making back at the end of Nov/beginning of Dec. Time for some more experimenting. :)

Normally I don't do a post that is just information, but I love this, and don't want to lose it. Truth be told, it is rather miraculous that I still have the paper since we did this class back in November. That is a long time for something to hang out in my kitchen and not get spilled on, used as a grocery list, and/or thrown away.

This class was taught by my friend Amoreena. I'm just retyping the wonderful information she gave us. It includes some fun historical facts as well as some great nutritional facts about chia. If you'd like to try chia, I'd suggest ordering on Amazon.com. At least in my area that is the easiest and most economical option.

Chia Facts

The chia plant (salvia hispanica) sometimes referred to as the chia sage, originated in the central valley of Mexico and is a member of the mint family.
Records indicate chia seeds were used as a food source as far back as 3500 B. C.
It was the third most important crop of the Aztecs, who recognized it as a "superfood" and prized it so highly that it was often used as currency
Aztec warriors and runners are believed to have sustained themselves for an entire day on just a tablespoon of chia.
After the Spanish conquest, chia seed nearly disappeared as the Spaniards banned foods that were linked in any way to Aztec religion or tradition and virtually wiped out the complex agricultural system extablished by the Aztecs in order to grow foods that were popular in Spain instead.
Chia seeds have more Omega-3 fatty acids than any other plant food, including flax seeds.
Chia seeds are about 20% protein. Most nutritious plants are incomplete proteins. Chia however, is a complete protein like meat, but without the high levels of saturated fat. Being a complete protein, chia has all the 9 essential amino acids in proper proportions including other nonessentials.
Chia is hydrophilic and can absorb more than 12 times its weight in water. This makes it helpful in maintaining body hydration, something that is especially beneficial for athletes who need to remain hydrated during races and endurance activities.
Chia seeds when soaked in water for 30 minutes form a thick gel. This gel also forms in the stomach when chia seeds are consumed. Bad?? Nope, researchers believe it actually slows down the rate at which digestive enzymes turn carbs into sugar, making it especially beneficial for diabetics and others with blood sugar issues.
Chia gel can be used to replace eggs and oil in recipes. (see below, recipe posts to follow)
Chia seeds are so high in antioxidants that they do not spoil easily and can be stored for long periods, unlike flax seeds.
Chia is high in fiber. Two tablespoons of Chia contains 2.3 grams of high-quality fiber, which is equivalent to 41% of your suggested daily fiber intake. According to nutritionists and dietitians, the ideal ration of insoluble to soluble fiber should be about 5:1. When compared to other good sources of fiber, Chia reigns supreme because it comes with 5.3 grams of soluble fiber and 35.0 grams of insoluble fiber. That would be a 6:1 ration, so pretty close to perfect.
Chia is a great source of vitamins and minerals. Organic chia seed Has 6 times more calcium than milk, 11 times more phosphorus and 4 times more potassium than milk. It has higher vitamin b and more niacin than soy, rice, or corn. 2 Tablespoons of chia will satisfy 22.25% of your daily calcium 32.5% of your recommended magnesium intake, 29.25% of your iron, 6% of zinc and 33.25% of phosphorus.

So, for a tiny little seed, it sure packs a punch right? Now, how do you use it?

Mix it with what you already eat.

smoothies, sauces, oatmeal, yogurt, salads...

Use chia gel (1 part chia, 3 parts water - mix and let set.)

1 egg +1/4 cup chia gel or 1 Tbsp. chia seeds, 3 Tbsp. water
can replace up to 50% of the oil used in a recipe
can be frozen or will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks

peanut butter fudge

2012-01-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

Unlike the other peanut butter fudge on this blog, this was not a chocolate fudge with peanut butter. It was an all peanut butter fudge. It also came from the little booklet in my food network magazine. My only beef with this recipe was that the peanuts didn't stick really well to the top of the fudge. Kind of made it messy. I think I'd just leave them off next time. (Or stir them in if I really want the crunch.) The fudge itself was also a tad bit crumbly. Yummy, but crumbly. Made it hard to cut into pretty pieces - maybe too much powdered sugar? My scales may or may not have been broken at the time. - I could have looked up a cup equivalent to the pound of sugar.
The verdict - If feeling like peanut butter fudge, I'd definitely try this again. It was simple and quick.

Ingredients

2 sticks butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup chopped peanuts.

Directions

Line an 8 inch square pan with foil.
Melt the butter and peanut butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and powdered sugar.
Spread into the pan. Press peanuts into the top of the fudge if desired. Chill until firm.

chocolate mint candies

2012-01-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

These are super yummy!!! Think andes mint. Originally they were supposed to be peppermint, but # 1. I prefer regular mint. #2 I had mint extract and not peppermint extract already in my cupboard. These too are from the little insert in my food network magazine, and although they had more instructions than some of the recipes, they were still ~~a bit on the tedious side~~ extremely tedious. Delicious, but tedious, and made me feel like I'm not at all artistic. Which is actually the truth - I just don't need to feel that way while making candy. There is a reason I cook, and make candy, but don't make cutesie cupcakes or cake pops or any number of items where artistic ability is required.
Really, I was trying to pick easy recipes. I don't have a lot of extra time at the holidays, and much less this year with 2 kids in 2 different sports and a hubby who has been traveling a lot, and working late. I thought these would be quick. They seemed simple enough. Cut the dough out with a cookie cutter and dip in chocolate. No artistic talent required right?? .... Wrong!! (if I'm making them at least.) I somehow made it one of the most difficult things I made this Christmas. - This was after the Chocolate-hazelnut crunch balls which I couldn't get to stick together until the very end.
I did make some modifications that made things easier - #1 I quit using stars and started using a tree and a bell. Those were soooo much easier to deal with because I didn't have 5 points all trying to go askew when I dipped them. My only issue with them was that I felt like they ended up looking like triangles and not being worth the work. In the end I made the last bit of the dough into something that resembled an Andes mint. I just rolled out all of the dough. Dipped one side in chocolate, then the other. Chilled and cut them with a pizza cutter - or something similar - it could have been my dough scraper for all I know, but you get the idea. By the time I got to this option, I probably should have re-heated my chocolate for the who knows how many'th time, but I didn't, so they didn't turn out pretty. However, if making these again, and trying to save time, I would definitely think about making them like an andes mint. Honestly, the middle is super simple to whip up, it just really only is easy to work with if it is super frozen, and working with it thaws it out and makes it really sticky. However, you could roll it out, freeze it, Paint on some melted chocolate, freeze again, flip it over, paint on some more melted chocolate, and whah-la.... Super simple mint-chocolate candies. Did I mention these were tasty???? Why else would I go to so much trouble trying to figure out how to make them (only easier next time.)

Well, I started writing this 2 weeks ago, never got to finishing, and 2 days ago my computer decided to crash and it doesn't look like I have any pictures left. :( Here are the directions anyway. That's what I get for being a procrastinator. But honestly, who cares about the food pictures, I'm sad I don't seem to have any family pictures either. Must find a computer guy soon to see if this problem can be remedied.

Ingredients

2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/2 Tablespoons softened butter
2 teaspoons milk
1 teaspoon mint extract
8 oz chopped semisweet chocolate
2 teaspoons shortening (I probably used coconut oil)

Directions

Beat powdered sugar, corn syrup, butter, milk and mint until smooth. Chill 30 minutes. (or roll out to 1/4 inch thick and freeze.)
Dust with more powdered sugar and roll out until 1/4 inch thick. (Read thoughts above for ideas to make this easier.)
Cut into desired shapes and freeze until hard.
Melt chocolate with shortening. Let cool to room temperature.
Dip stars (or whatever shape you made) into the melted chocolate and sprinkle with nonpareils if desired. Chill until set.

truffles, truffles, truffles?

2011-12-29T12:50:00.000-08:00

Blogging goal for today -blog about Christmas. Yea! For the food blog that means I get to post all of the goodies we made to put on goodie plates this year. They need blogging before I forget all of the tips I had. Many of them came from came from the little 50 Edible Gifts insert in my Food Network magazine. They came with the simplest of instructions - the entire recipe usually consisting of 2 lines. Hint... They needed more than that. Here are the recipes with some helpful hints. Going to start with the truffles. The first 2 are actually truffles, the third is a ball because it is crunchy. All 3 are good. I'd give the chocolate truffles a 5, coconut almond 3.5-4, and hazelnut crunch 4.5 (only because they were a pain to make - helpful hints I've added ought to make them more like a 5 star next time.)

balls left to right are chocolate-hazelnut crunch,
coconut-almond truffle, and chocolate truffles.

Chocolate truffles

Ingredients

1 cup cream
1/2 stick butter (4 Tablespoons)
1 pound finely chopped chocolate. (I used semisweet. I think I used 8 oz of box and 8 oz of chocolate chips to tell the truth.)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder (optional)
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar (optional)
(original recipe called for these to be rolled in crushed peppermint candies, chopped nuts or cocoa powder - I used the cocoa powder/powdered sugar mix above, but any of these would be good.)

Directions

Bring cream and butter to a boil in a saucepan. Place chocolate in a boil and pour hot cream mixture over chocolate. Stir until melted. Add vanilla and stir until smooth.
Refrigerated until firm.
Mix powdered sugar and cocoa powder on a plate. Scoop chilled truffle mixture with a spoon (or handy cookie dough scoop) and roll into balls. Roll the balls in the cocoa/sugar mixture. Chill.

Coconut-Almond truffles

Ingredients

3/4 cup almond butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup shredded coconut (original called for unsweetened, and I think that nice fine shred would have worked better than the sweet stuff, but I used what I had in my pantry. It worked, but I think the other would be better.)
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
additional coconut for rolling

Directions

Mix all ingredients together until they form a dough. Chill until firm. (original recipe doesn't do this, and maybe if you have some stiffer almond butter than mine, you won't find it necessary, but I did.)
When firm, roll into balls, then roll in shredded coconut. Chill

Chocolate-Hazelnut Crunch Balls

Ingredients

3/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts. (I just toasted mine in a pan on the stovetop.)
1 cut crisp rice cereal
1/2 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread (Nutella)
powdered sugar for rolling

Directions

These need the most help when it comes to directions - according to the book you just mix the stuff together and roll into balls, and roll in the sugar. I've got news for you, they don't stick together like that. Even once refrigerated they don't stick together well like that, so here is what I learned.

Mix ingredients together.
Refrigerate until a bit more firm (still won't be very firm)
Make something that resembles a ball, but don't try too hard ....yet anyway.
Toss that ball-like blob in the plate of powdered sugar to give it a good dusting.
Then, when it isn't going to stick to you like crazy, shape it into a nice ball.
Chill.

Following my directions, these actually became easy to make. Although I have to tell you the first 2/3 of the batch drove me absolutely batty. When super cool, they would sort of stick, but not really. Tossing them in the powdered sugar before trying to form them all the way was totally the key. I suppose I could have just added powdered sugar to the mix, but I was worried about them being too sweet. This way they were wonderful.

Gingerbread Nativities

2011-12-27T15:43:00.000-08:00

Although I haven't blogged in almost a month. (Shame on me) I have done some fun kitchen activities. I'm going to try to attempt to get the best ones on the blog before DH heads out of the country again next week, and life goes back to crazy with wrestling and basketball everyday after school. :) At least all of the Holiday baking and shopping is done. Honestly I thought I'd get caught up a bit more quickly but I'm enjoying spending time with my kids too much. Right now they are headed fishing though, so I'm taking advantage of the free time and playing catch up.
This wins as my first post because it was sooo cute. I found it over at recipe shoebox. I'm not going to write out all of the directions, but I will post my pictures and do mini directions. Go check out recipe shoebox for step-by-step directions. Loved these. If I am less busy next year (ha, ha!) then I would love to try these with actual gingerbread.

This is the one I made with the 3 year old.

Ingredients

Gingerbread or graham crackers (1 package was plenty for 4 scenes)
tootsie rolls
soft fun size candy bar like milky way or 3 musketeers (we used milky ways)
2 packages large gumdrops (I only found small packages so I needed 2)
1 package small gumdrops
fruit roll ups
icing (I used a store bought can that came with tips that screwed on - could not have been easier)
Black licorice (I used nibs and didn't have to cut them as much as she did.)
1 cup shredded coconut
yellow food coloring
large marshmallows
mini candy canes
Although not listed at recipe shoebox, she used a white jelly wreath for the angels. I liked that but had not bought them because they weren't on the list, so here they are for next year
round toothpicks
kitchen scissors
cardboard pieces (1 for each stable to use as a base)
foil

Directions

The 12 year old's. He got fancy and added a star, but then left
hay?? Looks like someone has some yellow hair though. :)

Cover the cardboard with foil. (Optional, I just wanted them covered.)
Mix coconut in a bowl with 5 drops food coloring.
Using picture as a guide make stable with graham crackers (or gingerbread.) Start with walls and roof, then add the back.
Make the manger by using 3 quarter pieces or graham cracker. Frost 2 into a v, then stick them on the third piece as a base. Add some yellow coconut to the bottom of the manger to look like hay.
Make remaining figures by

Donkey - Cut 2 tootsie rolls in half to make 4 legs. Attach to the candy bar using toothpicks (you will have to cut the toothpicks smaller) Add 2 more tootsie rolls as a neck and head, and yet another as a tail. Again, attaching with toothpicks.
Baby Jesus - stick 3 white gumdrops together using a toothpick (you will need to cut it) Wrap in a small strip of fruit roll up and lay in the manger.
Mary, Joseph, shepherds, and angel - stick 2 large gumdrops together with 1 matching small gumdrop as the head. Use fruit roll up strips as hair or headdress for Mary, Joseph, and the Shepherds. Use a jelly roll cut in half for arms/wings of the angel - or candy canes if in a pinch. :)
Sheep - Make 4 slits in the bottom of a marshmallow (with a knife or scissors.) insert the licorice nibs in the slits as legs. Make another slit in the front and add a licorice nib head.

Here is the 5 year old busy at work. He did have help from Dad.

Cheesy animal crackers

2011-12-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

Blog, what blog. Something made it up yesterday but only because I started adding pictures and for some reason I had only saved a draft of the recipe. In all actuality, this recipe was typed in over a year ago when I checked this sneaky chef book out from the library. Fast forward a year, and I checked it out again and actually made the recipe.
I've wanted to try making my own crackers and over the course of the year have seen a lot of different recipes. I chose this recipe because it actually used real cheese, not powdered. I worried about how that would work into a dough, but thought it would have better flavor than a powdered cheese. I'm pretty sure I was right. Of course I'm sure it also helped that I had some tasty Parmigiano Reggiano and not the cheaper Parmesan.
These were devoured in a very short time. Not sure if they were worth the work for as quick as they were eaten. However, they would be lots quicker using the method I wrote about at the end of the recipe. I could double the batch and make them that way.

I flipped some upside down to show both sides. You can see they
are made with actual cheese. YUM!

Ingredients

1/3 cup chickpea puree (exactly what it sounds like - puree a can of rinsed and drained chick peas using a Tablespoons or 2 of water if necessary. I like my immersion blender for this task.)
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika (not sure if I used this today)
1/3 cup flour blend (equal parts white flour, wheat flour, and wheat germ in the book - use whatever blend you like. I used the books blend this day, but wouldn't hesitate to make them again using a blend of any flours ie, wheat, spelt, barley, or brown rice, spelt, oat....)
small animal shaped cookie cutters - I got some of these, but the kids wanted to make them using some cute mini Christmas shapes I also bought

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment or spray with cooking oil.
In a mixing bowl, combine chickpea puree with cheeses, oil, salt, onion powder, and paprika. Add flour blend and mix until well blended. Remove from bowl and shape into a flattened ball using hands. If dough is too crumbly add 1 teaspoon of water at a time until it holds together.
Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 min.
Let dough soften slightly at room temperature and roll out onto a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin until about 1/16 inch thin. Cut out fun shapes using cookie cutters. Place on prepared cookie sheets and bake until golden brown on the edges, about 10-12 minutes, peeking occasionally to make sure they are not burning. Transfer to a rack to cool.

As an easier option, just roll them directly on parchment, cut into 1 inch squares with a pizza cutter, poke a hole in the center with a tooth pick, transfer the parchment to the cookie sheet and bake. WAY EASIER than the cookie cutter method. However, the kids enjoyed playing with the cookie cutters. We made it through about 1/2-2/3 of the batch cut with cookie cutters and finished the rest in just squares.

Here are the squares. You can tell I did them quickly and didn't pay
close attention to thickness. The edges were a bit thinner and are a bit toasty.

chicken cannelloni

2011-12-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

This is another recipe from double delicious. Can you tell I only have it for 2 weeks and have to quickly try everything. :) I spiced this up by really adding to the tomato sauce, and even at that, I found it to be a bit lacking. I think it just felt dry - maybe some added mozzarella in the center of the roll, or maybe more of the tomato sauce?? The meal was OK, just lacking something - maybe a bit of Italian seasoning in the chicken mixture?? Mostly I think it just felt dry. However, I didn't at all mind the amount of cauliflower puree that was mixed with the ricotta. Maybe it just needed a bit more ricotta?? Again, not too sure exactly what was lacking only that it was lacking something.
I did like how these rolled up. It seems like I have tried a cannelloni or manicotti made with lasagna noodles before, but somehow it just seemed easier this time.

Ham and pea pasta

2011-12-03T19:49:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe over on deals to meals. I actually don't think I changed the ingredients any. Directions some, but that is it. I really liked it. It came together super quick and I was in need of a quick meal the evening that we had this. As I'm typing this, I'm thinking I probably could have also tossed in some pureed cauliflower and not compromised anything. An idea for next time.

Ingredients

1 8 oz. package cream cheese (I used the light)
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cups milk
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese (I've had some delicious Parmigiano Regianno the past week or 2 It has made some tasty recipes. YUM!)
1 teaspoon garlic (I used jarred)
1 teaspoon basil
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb fettuccini noodles
1 cup (or so) cubed ham (I just used 1 package of how ever much I had frozen)
8 oz. frozen peas (or so - I just added a good amount. :)

Directions

Cook noodles according to package direcions.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, heat cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, butter, seasonings and milk. Stir until all ingredients are melted and well combined.
While that is warming, saute ham and frozen peas in a large saute pan until warmed through. Add pasta and cream sauce to the saute pan and stir until combined. Serve.

"kids love it" casserole - spaghetti flavor casserole with spinach (and extra veggies)

2011-11-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe on myfoodstoragecookbook.com but it was all written out like a food storage recipe so I went to the source which was taste of home. Then I changed it up plenty from there. It turned out pretty well.
My changes - lots - too many to list really, sauces used, spices, extra veggies, less meat...
Verdict - older kids ate it fine, and I thought it was fine. 5 year old ate it with no complaint (he griped about orange chicken yesterday but ate it.) However, he left little piles of ground beef on the plate. 3 year old actually ate it - totally surprised me. I thought he would gripe about the green things, but he griped about the red things. He actually ate some bites of spinach. He did leave the more heavily covered pieces of pasta on his plate. I think he disliked the ground beef as much as the spinach. Other than that, it seemed well enough liked by everyone. Nothing spectacular, but likeable, full of veggies, and easy to prepare. Not to bad for the crazy day I had around here. (House alarm battery dead, no one in town has a replacement. 2 hours later I finally have one.... this after being up half the night with the thing beeping due to the dead battery -oh, and did I mention DH is out of town. Yes, I was glad to have a simple to prepare dinner. Probably why I streamlined the directions so much, but hey it worked, so it's all good right?)
So ideas for next time - puree the spinach, and the crushed tomato sauce to leave no trace of either, just a color to the sauce, and possibly leave out the ground beef?? Neither of the little 2 liked it.

Here's what I did today.

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef - I used 1 contain pre-cooked with onions, salt and pepper.
1-2 Tablespoons dehydrated onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic (I used jarred)
2 (15 oz.) cans crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup cauliflower puree
1/4 cup sweet potato puree
1-2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning (Not sure if I threw in 1 or 2, but it could definitely use 2
1/2-1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon each thyme, oregano, and basil (added because I couldn't remember if I used 1 or 2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning and I wanted plenty of flavor.)
about 10 oz frozen chopped spinach
about 10-12 oz small pasta (I used a wagon wheel)
2 eggs, lightly beaten (I didn't feel like worrying if these would cook when I tossed them in hot casserole so I used 3 Tablespoons powdered eggs
about 1 cup sharp cheddar
1/4-1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.
Meanwhile, to a saute pan, add cooked beef, onions, garlic, spices, spinach, crushed tomatoes and purees, (I just tossed both purees and the spinach in frozen and let them thaw while the sauce heated up.) Heat through. Simmer as the pasta cooks, adding a bit of water if necessary to keep it from being too dry. (I think I added about 1/2 cup water during the cooking process.)
When the noodles are ready, stir in the cheese and egg (or egg powder.) Add the noodles and stir to combine. (I probably cooked closer to 12 oz past, but added closer to 10 oz.) Pour into a greased 9 X 13 pan, top with Parmesan, and bake at 250 for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

THousand Island dressing

2011-11-27T15:45:00.000-08:00

HEre is a super simple THousand Island dressing to make if you are totally out of dressing at your house like we are. (I'm trying to just get to where I make my own. Works well when I run out.)

This is from a book called Quick-Fix Healthy mix. Probably the first thing I've tried because despite the title, I don't find the recipes very healthy at all. This isn't particularly healthy or anything, but it worked in a pinch. :)

Ingredients

4 parts mayonaise (we made just 4 Tablespoons - original recipe called for 1 cup)
1 part sweet pickle relish (1 Tablespoon in our case)
1 part taco sauce (we used 1 Tablespoon as well.)

Directions

Mix all ingredients together until well combined. I actually added a bit of water to mine to thin it out a little, but DH used it just as it was. We both liked it.

orange chicken (with hidden veggies)

2011-11-27T15:41:00.000-08:00

I guess I'm getting way too into the hidden veggies thing. I pulled out this orange chicken recipe to make and went and made it a bit healthier by using agave rather than brown sugar, and adding some veggie puree. No one was any the wiser. Still tasted great. I was also super lazy today and just used Orange juice, dehydrated green onion, and tossed everything in the pot together. No problems. Makes for a quick and easy meal. I served this with sweet brown rice. That rice is so tasty. Sticky, but tasty - for brown rice anyway. :)

ngredients

about 1 lb precooked chicken, defrosted
2 cups orange juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon orange zest - I just used the zest of 1 orange - no measuring
1/4 cup cauliflower puree
1/4 cup sweet potato puree (could probably have tossed in 1/2 cup, and would use carrot interchangeably. I'm just out of carrot.)
3/4 cup agave
1/2 teaspoon finely minced ginger-I just grated some over the pot - no measuring today.
1 teaspoon minced garlic -tossed in garlic powder here today
2 tablespoons green onion - I used dehydrated and just tossed them in the sauce.
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water
3 cups rice

Directions

In a medium saucepan combine orange juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, orange zest and whisk over medium heat for a few minutes. Then stir in purees (I just tossed them in frozen and let them defrost as the sauce heated.) agave, ginger, garlic, and green onion and let it come to a boil. Combine cornstarch with water and let it dissolve and add it to the sauce until thickened. Remove about 1/2 of the sauce to a bowl (I used my gravy boat.) Add the chicken to the remaining sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer while preparing rice. (I just made min in a rice cooker. 3 cups lets me fill it up to line 4.) Serve the chicken mix over rice with extra sauce for the rice.

Enchiladas (with hidden veggies)

2011-11-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

I made so many changes to this original recipe that even with my notes, I'm typing it up as it is cooking in the oven. (course I may not finish because it only had 15 min to cook and I just took half of that time putting ingredients away.) But, at least I hope to get the ingredients down.
The original recipe came from The sneaky chef every day, BUT - I have only purees in single veggies not her colorful mix of veggies, AND her sauce looked like it would be bland, especially with the added veggies. So I combined my own mix of veggies, and my sister's red enchilada sauce, with the recipe in the book and this is what I came up with.

So I did get the ingredients down before serving this, but not everything. Just ate it and it tasted great. I'm pretty impressed because of all the combining and the many different veggies I threw in there. Tomatoes, cauliflower, carrot, sweet potato, yellow squash, spinach, and the tomato from tomato sauce. Not bad if you ask me. Aaron at 1/2 of his, which is pretty good considering #1 he is always super picky, #2 he actually has strep. I'm not complaining at all. :)

Ingredients

1 container of pre-cooked beef (or 1 lb lean ground beef, cooked with onions, salt, and pepper and drained)
3 8 oz containers of tomato sauce
3/4 cup orange or lighter color pureed veggies -book called for "orange" (carrot and sweet potato) or "white"(cauliflower and zucchini). I used 3 T carrot, 5 T sweet potato, and 1/4 cup cauliflower = 3/4 cup (*see note)
1.5 Tablespoons chili powder
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 Tablespoon sugar (I'd probably leave this out - I forgot that the carrot and sweet potato would sweeten the sauce and I don't feel it was needed with the additional veggies)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup green or darker pureed veggies -I used 5 T spinach and 3 yellow squash
1 1/2 -2 cups shredded cheese - I used sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack
tortillas -I used 7 flour and 7 corn

* I froze my veggie purees in 1 Tablespoon (ice cube trays), 1/4 cup (muffin tins) and a couple 1/2 cup (plastic kiddie cups) increments. I just happened to have 3 ice cubes of carrot left, then added the rest. Same with the spinach. If I had still had some broccoli I probably would have used 1/2 broccoli and 1/2 spinach, but I was out of broccoli. In other words, feel free to add whatever puree you have handy. The dark color hides well in the beef, and the orange or light color can hide anywhere. The flavor will be covered by the sauce.

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 and spray a 9 X 13 pan with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine tomato sauce, orange/white/light colored veggie puree, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, sugar, salt and pepper.
Toss pre-cooked beef into a skillet. (or cook and drain beef in a skillet) Add green/darker veggies puree, 1 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce, and 1/2 cup of cheese to the beef. Heat through. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat tortillas. Coat the bottom of the 9 X 13 with red sauce. (I used about 3/4 cup)
Fill each tortilla with about 1/4 cup meat mixture (total guess there) Roll up filled tortilla and place seam side down in the sauce. (I actually rolled mine a little in the sauce, adding a bit more to the bottom as necessary, but I can't say that was necessary. I'm sure I could have coated the sides and top with the left over sauce.) Pour remaining sauce over the top of the filled tortillas. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly. (This really only took 15 minutes)

pumpkin ravioli (flop)

2011-11-22T08:12:00.000-08:00

I went to a church activity the other day where a girl was showing all of the things she had done to use food storage. She demo'ed how she made ravioli. I thought it would be a great idea to try the home made dough and try making my ravioli, but it was not such a great idea. Apparently I made my dough too sticky. (At least that is my guess in looking more closely at her pictures. I think it came from my trying to use egg powder. My egg powder can says 1 egg is 2 T egg powder and 4 T water. I didn't use that much, but I think I ended up using more that the original post which is here. Anyway, the pumpkin middle was from double delicious. I thought the flavor was only OK. It felt a bit too mushy to me. Maybe needed a bit more ricotta. Overall I was under impressed and it took me absolutely forever to make. I hate that. Waste hours for food that isn't very tasty. Blah. I did think that the double delicious idea of using wonton wrappers was cute, and I totally should have done that, but somehow after the demo home made noodles looked sooo easy. Ha, Ha, Ha. One day I will learn how to make them properly. Saturday just wasn't that day. :( I do have to say that Tavio seemed to love these. Had seconds and thirds. I however just managed to make it through my firsts.

Tortellini with crisped bacon and peas

2011-11-22T08:03:00.000-08:00

This meal was super simple. I mean SUPER simple. And the surprising thing - all the kids seemed to like it (or at least they ate it without complaint.) I was sure it couldn't be very tasty since it was soooo simple, but alas it was. Loved the crisp bacon. It totally made the dish.
I also found this at the 6 o'clock scramble. She suggests serving this with roasted brussel sprouts - I didn't even attempt this. We served this on a night when we had a wrestling match meaning we were super busy. I loved the simplicity and didn't feel like complicating my life with a side dish. :)
Here is how I made it

Ingredients

6-8 slices pre-cooked bacon (can use regular, I'm just lazy.)
24 oz package cheese tortellini
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions

Cook tortellini according to package directions. Add peas during last minute of cooking time
Meanwhile, chop bacon into pieces (I just take all 6 slices and chop them with my kitchen scissors.) Toss in a pan and cook to crisp it up. -or you can fry up some bacon and crumble it.)
When pasta is done, drain, and toss with olive oil, bacon, and Parmesan cheese.

Indian spiced lentils with rice

2011-11-22T07:51:00.000-08:00

I really liked this meal. Loved the mild curry, and the sweetness of the raisins. However, it wasn't a huge hit with the kiddos. Gets a blog post because I liked it and have finally finished all of the left overs for lunch. (sure sign that I really liked it.) YUM! I found the original on 6 o'clock scramble. I did modify it knowing that curry isn't a popular flavor in my house. The modification was good enough that DH ended up liking it, and our oldest ate it and had seconds, but the rest of them were not impressed with the curry even though I cut it in half and added extra cumin. Oh well. They all tried it though. Even Mr. Picky toddler ate 2 bites for me. Happy day. :)
The suggestion at 6 o'clock scramble was to serve this with a cucumber/avocado salad. I wasn't a fan of that, but then again I'm not a fan of avocado (unless it is in guacamole.)

Here's how I made the lentil dish

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons coconut oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup brown rice
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoons cumin
2 bay leaves
1 cup lentils
4 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 cup raisins
greek yogurt for serving

Directions

In a large stockpot with a tight fitting lid, heat coconut oil over medium high heat and saute the onions, uncovered for about 5 minutes until they start to brown.
Ad dthe rice, curry powder, cumin and bay leaves and stir for a minute to coat the rice with the oil. Add remaining ingredients (except yogurt) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until water is absorbed and the rice is tender, 50-55 minutes. (I did 50 minutes, my water was absorbed, but my rice was not tender enough, so I added about 1/2 cup more water and simmered for 5 additional minutes)
Remove bay leaves and serve topped with yogurt if desired.

Macaroni and Cheese (with hidden veggies)

2011-11-22T07:37:00.000-08:00

This started out as a recipe from Double delicious but I really had to add a lot more cheese to make it taste anything like macaroni and cheese. I also didn't feel like doing the extra step of throwing this in the oven so I left that out. Honestly for a mac and cheese recipe with veggies - I'd still go back to the nacho's recipe and just leave out the jalapenos. I did that the other day and liked it as well if not better than this recipe. This recipe was OK though, and the kids all ate it which automatically wins it a post on the blog.
I also did some funky things like used bean flour rather than regular - feel free to use regular. Bean flour was just me experimenting. :) The cheese measures are approximate because I just kept adding until it tasted good. I'm just guessing as to about what I ended up using. The original only had 1 cup of cheddar with 2 T of Parmesan sprinkled on top for the oven. So you can see how much cheese I added. With only 1 cup you could have just called the dish orange macaroni and milk. Of course it isn't as "healthy" with added cheese (and I didn't use the reduced fat called for either) but I like flavor and so do my kids. :)

Ingredients

1 pound pasta
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 Tablespoons bean flour (or regular)
2 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 -3 cups cheddar cheese
1/4-1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup carrot puree

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
Meanwhile heat the coconut oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Whisk in the bean flour to form a paste. Slowly whisk in milk to prevent lumping. Bring to a boil and cook until the mixture thickens slightly. (about 5 minutes) Add remaining ingredients (both cheeses, salt, and carrot puree.) Whisk until smooth.
Stir the cheese into the pasta and heat through. Serve.

pumpkin doughnuts

2011-11-13T12:20:00.000-08:00

This recipe isn't from double delicious, but it is from Jessica Seinfeld's first book deceptively delicious. I wasn't nearly as impressed with this recipe as the previous recipes. The donuts had a weird texture to me - almost too soft?? Hard to explain. They win a post because Mr. Picky 3 year old also gobbled these up. I did have to make some modifications though. The original dough was just way too thin. I also thought the first batch was just way too heavy on the pumpkin/sweet potato flavor so I added more cinnamon to the rest of the batch.
This is how I made them - with extra flour and cinnamon, and instructions written for a doughnut maker.

Ingredients

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sweet potato puree (certainly you could just use another 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, but I had sweet potatoes to use up so I had made sweet potato puree)
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 large egg white
1 Tablespoon tub butter, melted - I would probably omit this next time and just add the whole egg.
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unbleached flour (you could use wheat, but I didn't have any ground and didn't want to wake anyone up just yet with the noise of the grinder)
1/4 cup barley flour (again, just me being experimental, feel free to use regular flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon (possibly more next time)
powdered sugar for dusting if desired

Instructions

Plug in doughnut maker to pre-heat. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, pumpkin, sweet potato, buttermilk, egg white, tub butter, and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix until incorporated.
Using a cookie scoop, scoop dough into doughnut maker. Close lid and let cook for 5-6 minutes. Remove. Let cool and dust with powdered sugar if desired.

Sweet and sour meatballs (with hidden veggies)

2011-11-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

This is yet another from double delicious. Again I have to kind of laugh because this recipe was specifically mentioned in negative reviews for a couple of things - a typo - says to pre-heat the oven to 350 then never uses the oven. There were also a lot of gripes about the texture of the meat being so soft. I had no issues with either because #1 I didn't even try to pan fry the meatballs. I stuck them all on a cookie sheet and baked them all at 400. I didn't try rolling them by hand, I just scooped them out with my cookie dough size scoop. Didn't have either problem.

However, my super picky 3 year old at 3 of these meatballs. Remember he is super picky. He won't eat ground beef - wont even try it. So I really didn't have super high hopes of him liking this one, but maybe the softer texture of these meatballs agreed with him. I don't know, I'm just happy he ate 3 and got some great protein and even some veggies mixed in.

I also have to say I loved the sauce. It reminded me of a sauce I've had on a chicken dish from a low fat cookbook. It too used some orange marmalade and steak sauce. Apparently I like that combination. YUM!

I also have to say that I did double this recipe from the original (feel free to 1/2 it) I used greek yogurt not regular (maybe that helped the texture?? - they were still super soft for a meatball) and I used ground beef not chicken or turkey.

Here is my version

Meatball Ingredients

1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 large onion, finely chopped (use 1/3 for the meatballs, 2/3 for the sauce)
1 teaspoon garlic minces
4 slices wheat bread, crust removed, torn in pieces (I used my home made wheat)
1 cup greek yogurt
2 eggs
1 pound lean ground beef (93%)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Sauce ingredients

1 Tablespoon coconut oil
rest of onion (see above)
1 1/2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup beef stock
2 Tablespoons ketchup
4 teaspoons steak sauce (1 T + 1 t)
1/2 cup crushed pineapple in juice
2 Tablespoons orange marmalade

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Heat coconut oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook until soft and fragrent. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
Place the bread in a large mixing bowl. Add the cooked onion and garlic, yogurt, broccoli puree, egg, beef, salt, nutmeg, and pepper. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. (I found that this seemed to pull out the fat in my meat or something. I ended up with some globs which I removed. It was actually kind of gross. Not sure if I'd want to beat it soo much next time. :)
Line a large baking sheet with parchment or a silicon baking sheet. Scoop meat mixture onto cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce by heating the coconut oil in a pan. (I just used my onion pan since it was empty and I was just going to saute some onions again.) Add onion and brown sugar. Cook 7-8 minutes stirring occasionally until the onions are soft and starting to brown.
Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, and cook 1 minute more. (Surely I cooked mine a lot longer than necessary because I was heating as I was measuring and adding and the sauce was winning --boiling faster than I was finishing adding ingredients. :) Puree with an immersion blender or food processor until smooth. I put mine in my immersion blender container and blended it there. Then it was in a nice container I could pour out of when I served.
I served this with a bit of linguini noodles, some meatballs, and some sauce on top.

Balsamic chicken sandwich (with hidden veggies)

2011-11-13T11:45:00.000-08:00

OK, I have to say that I'm totally loving this double delicious book I have checked out from the library. I may have to purchase this one. It's definitely on my wishlist now. I have to say, I was reading reviews and saw a bad one for this sandwich. I do have to agree with the person that posted it, this sandwich ended up with a lot of liquid. I would probably add a bit less beef broth next time, but only a little. I added a lot of the sauce to the sandwich because the crusty bolillos we got could easily absorb a bit of liquid. I also caught a child wiping the extra liquid off of his plate with his finger and licking it. I'm not complaining because that is where the hidden veggies were.
I do have to agree with many of the commenters at amazon, you aren't getting a ton of veggies in there, but I'm super happy that my super picky, non vegetable eating 3 year old has eaten all 4 of the things I've made from this book. He ate a whole 1/2 of this sandwich which is truely saying something for him. He is super picky - has texture issues, color issues.....
I did of course have a couple of changes, but not many - just used barley flour instead of wheat, and I actually used a bit more than called for in the original. Here is what I did

Ingredients

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed (I used 3 larger sized chicken breasts - not sure of the weight)
salt and pepper
1/3 cup barley flour (can use wheat or white as well, I just wanted to try barley)
2 Tablespoons oil (can't remember if I used healthy blend or coconut this day)
1/2 teaspoon garlic minces (been really lazy with garlic lately)
1 cup chicken stock (this will make a lot of sauce. I might reduce this to about 3/4 cup next time -or just have lots of sauce. I'm undecided at this point)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
6 Tablespoons dark brown sugar (mine was a brick so I guessed.)
1/2 cup steamed and pureed broccoli (I made this earlier in the day -during nap time)
1-2 Tomatoes sliced (depending on the size of your tomato)
6-7 Bolillos or other type of crusty roll
Mozzarella cheese

Directions

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Toss chicken with flour to coat (either in a ziplock bag, or on a piece of wax or aluminum foil - or in a bowl.)
Warm oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken. Cook until chicken begins to brown adding garlic in the last minute or 2.
Add the stock, vinegar and brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. (If I didn't add less stock next time, I would boil this uncovered to reduce the sauce a bit.) While this is simmering, preheat the oven to 350 and cut the buns in half. (I found that I liked not cutting all the way through the bun because it caught all of the juices better and held together better in the oven - think cut it like a hot dog bun.)
Add puree and cook 2-3 minutes more (I simmered it a bit longer to reduce the sauce some this time since I had left the pot covered in the previous step.)
Place the bread on a cookie sheet. Top each with tomato and chicken. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake until the 3-4 minutes until the cheese begins to melt. Change oven to broil and broil for 45 seconds to a minute - just until the edges begin to brown. Serve.

Cheese Nachos (with hidden veggies)

2011-11-11T04:22:00.000-08:00

Update 11/13 -yes I realize this is my very last post and I just posted it 2 days ago but I just made this cheese sauce again today - I used it for nachos and put it over noodles to make "mac and cheese" for my 3 year old. Lunch for 4 people and it had veggies in it. Posting to say that after making this the first time I got the idea to use bean flour in this instead of regular flour. I think my first thought was just plain adding beans to the nachos, but then I though - hey why not use bean flour to thicken the sauce. I tried that today. Worked great, so definitely an option to make it gluten free, or add a bit of fiber and protein. :) I was also lazy and just tossed in frozen carrot puree, let it thaw/heat, and then threw in the cheese. Also worked fine.

This week I have checked out the hidden veggies books. -Deceptively delicious, double delicious, and the sneaky chef. Yes I've done this before in an attempt to get any type of veggie into my youngest, no it didn't work well then because he also doesn't like many things with any kind of texture I could hide something in but lately I've been feeding him a macaroni and cheese with hidden carrots (sold at costco) and he loves that so these nachos really caught my eye. They have cauliflower hidden in the meat sauce and carrots in the cheese. (couldn't get him to try the meat, but he loved the cheese.) I did have to do some editing on the cheese sauce. The way it was made in the book was super sweet from the carrots and didn't taste anything like cheese, so I had to add more cheese. (hence actually coming and blogging the day after I made it.) I did really like the flavor of the meat. Could use this for tacos as well and it would be very tasty. It had just the right amount of spice for me and my kiddos.
I almost rated this 4.5 star, but bumped it up because all of the kids liked it. Tavio typically doesn't like a cheese that starts as a white sauce, but liked this one. Both Benjamin and Aaron ate the cheese and loved it. Even Brandon liked it. Not too often to I find something that everyone will eat and enjoy, so this definitely moves up the scale to 5 stars.
Here is my adaptation of the original found on page 119 of double delcious.

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef (I used 93% lean)
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder, divided (original called for less but I didn't pay attention that it got divided. :) I ended up using 2 teaspoons but really loved the flavor. Not sure I'd change it.
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup cauliflower puree (cooked and pureed cauliflower)
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1 Tablespoon oil (I used my healthy blend this time)
2 Tablespoons flour (white, wheat, or bean)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup carrot puree (cooked and pureed carrot)
1 1/2 -2 cups grated cheese (I used a mix of sharp cheddar and Monterrey Jack)
1 Tablespoon chopped pickled jalapenos. (I did choose ones with no seeds)
tortilla chips (I used some food should taste good multigrain chips. (also found at costco) those were tasty. Kiddos had regular tortilla chips.)
any other desired toppings, salsa, sour cream, more jalapenos,... We just ate them with meat and cheese -some of the kiddos with just cheese.

Directions

Cook beef with the cumin, chili powder, 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, salt and oregano until cooked through. Drain fat. Take off heat and add cauliflower puree and tomato paste. Stir in until well combined. Set aside.
Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Add the flour and stir until it forms a paste (this happens pretty quickly so have your milk measured and ready.) Whisk in milk until smooth. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and whisk in carrot, cheese, jalapeno and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. Heat until the cheese has melted.
Serve with chips.

Pumpkin waffles

2011-10-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make something pumpkin themed for breakfast this morning, and I have a few things marked that are pumpkin but they were going to take a while. When I asked Brandon what he wanted he said pumpkin waffles. The recipe I had seen for those had 1 2/3 cups sugar. I wasn't about to do that, so I searched for a new one and found this one. I mean when the site is called pumpkinwaffles and says the guy has tried 80 + recipes what can you do. However, I still altered this to my liking. I subbed out some wheat flour, used 1/2 the sugar, used coconut oil, and not as much .....
These were loved by all. Tavio and I ate a full waffle, no syrup, while cooking the rest. Aaron ate 2 squares. These were not tiny squares I have a calphalon waffle iron, It takes me 2 cups of batter to make 1 batch of 4 waffle squares - so that is 1 cup of batter for a little guy who doesn't always eat a great breakfast. I was super happy because I made these super healthy. I used an additive that adds fiber, some greek yogurt to add texture and protein, and still used 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white flour. Not to mention they had pumpkin in them. Not only were they decently nutritious for a waffle, but they were also just a good waffle. Tavio gripes that the waffles I usually make are too heavy. (And they are.) These were nice and creamy in the center. (sounds like a weird word to describe a waffle, but that was what I could think of.) Nice and light. Just the right amount of pumpkin and spice. Only think I would have liked a bit more would be a bit crispier on the outside, but I actually baked one a tiny bit longer and that helped.
I did not take a picture and I'm pretty sure that there are no left overs, but they are a waffle. :)

So this is how I made it.

Ingredients

1/4 cup brown sugar
6 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 cups unbleached flour
1/4 cup hi maize resistant starch (most people don't have this so just add 1/4 cup flour -this just adds fiber. Not sure why I bought it but I use it when I use white flour a lot.)
1 cup wheat flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaping Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
4 large eggs
2 cups 1% milk
1 can (15-16 oz) solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup greek yogurt
6 Tablespoons coconut oil, heated just enough to be liquid (It was actually a cold morning so I had to warm it.)

Directions

Heat waffle iron.
Combine brown sugar and corn starch in a bowl. Whisk together to break evenly mix. Add remaining dry ingredients and whisk to blend.
In a medium bowl, whisk pumpkin and coconut oil until smooth. Separate eggs putting yolks into the pumpkin mixture and whites into another bowl (to be whipped.)
Whip egg whites until stiff peaks form. (I did this in my kitchen aide while whisking the other wet ingredients)
Whisk yogurt and milk into the pumpkin mixture. Mix the wet and dry ingredients just until combined. Gently fold in the egg whites until well combined.
Bake according to your waffle iron instructions. -My Calphalon waffle iron beeps at me when it gets to my selected doneness.

Balsamic pork loin

2011-10-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Apparently if you are on pintrest, this recipe has been around. I however am not. I saw it over on Mel's kitchen cafe. As with most of her recipes, it did not disappoint. Delicious. I loved the sauce. I think everyone actually liked the meat portion of this meal (this recipe) Yea!
As and extra bonus it was cooked in the slow cooker. I even tossed my pork loin in there frozen in the morning. No problems. :) Couldn't be easier.

Ingredients

2-3 pound boneless pork loin roast, trimmed of large fat pockets (can't say that I did this trimming ahead of time since I tossed it in frozen. I just trimmed it off as I shredded)
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic minces
1/2 cup water

Glaze ingredients

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub the spices all over the roast. (Here is where a non-frozen roast would have been better because the spices would have stuck better.) Place roast in slow cooker and pour in the 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours - or until completely done and shredable.
Near the end of the cooking time, combine the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until it thickens. Stirring occasionally. (I think I actually did this part while shredding the pork - stir, shred, stir, shred...)
Serve pork with glaze drizzled on top - or just mix it all in (what I did with the left overs.)

chicken pasta salad

2011-10-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

Here is yet another recipe from recipe shoebox. This one was OK. I think I would have liked it better if there were less pasta. It was better the first day than as left overs, and it made a lot, so I may 1/2 the recipe next time. The left overs seemed like they absorbed the dressing and were a bit dry. Of course I did cut the oil way down. Certainly more oil would have helped. :)

Ingredients

1 container pre-cooked chicken
1 pound rotini noodles
2 heads broccoli, finely chopped
1 cup diced red, yellow and orange bell peppers (I use the baby ones -it would be about 2 regular size)
1/3 cup diced onion
1 can sliced olives
1 cup shredded cheese (optional - I did not use it)
1/3-1/2 cup ranch dressing

Dressing ingredients

2 envelopes dry Italian dressing mix
6 Tablespoons cider vinegar
6 Tablespoons water
6 Tablespoons oil (you may want to use more - original was 3/4 cup, but a bit less water too)

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Rinse with cool water to cool. I did this while chopping all of the veggies.
Combine chicken, chopped vegetables, and olives. Set aside. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over vegetables and chicken. Mix together. Add ranch, cheese if using and pasta. Fold together. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving if desired. (I did not.)

Mexican pizza with quesadilla crust

2011-10-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe that I found on salad in a jar. It appealed to me because it looked quick and easy. I also loved the fact that she used feta and made them look so sophisticated yet so simple.

Unfortunately at my house when I made these it was a crazy day and I was out of feta. I would love to try them again with feta. I also certainly didn't use all of the ingredients that she did. I did however make some of them with shrimp for our shrimp lovers. The rest of us ate them with chicken. They were well liked. Definitely check out the link above because #1 her pictures look way better than mine - she must either have a camera that has a flash - or finish making dinner before it gets dark. (like I said it was a crazy day.) She also has a great list of ingredients and tips - like using the costco uncooked tortilla shells. I had others that needed to be used, so that is what we used. Here is how we made them - quick and easy. Honestly you could use any toppings to suit your fancy. We did keep with the Mexican theme though.

See, I'm telling you -sad photos when it is dark outside by the time
dinner is ready. Boo.

Ingredients

Tortillas (I made some with flour, and some with corn)
cheese - I used cheddar and monterey jack
corn (I used canned for ease)
green chilies
black beans
diced tomatoes (I used canned here too)
salsa
shrimp
chicken
sliced red, orange and yellow peppers (I used the mini ones)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Place 3 tortillas on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with your choice of cheese (I used mostly cheddar for the center of the quesadilla part.) Top with another tortilla. Spread a thin layer of salsa on the top of that tortilla. Add remaining toppings in order/amounts desired. I always ended with a little more cheese on top.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until desired doneness.

Cowboy Spaghetti

2011-10-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

Whew, what an undertaking. I sat down to try and catch up on a few recipes last night and saw how grossly behind I was in actually adding pictures. 2 months. August 28 contained my last picture. Needless to say I spent the evening posting pictures. Now to try and catch up on the posting of recipes for the week.

And again, could I get any more side tracked? Now I just posted a bunch of failed recipes - I figure I better know not to try those again. :) So I'm finally up to a picture of a meal that I made that wasn't a fail, and that I still have the recipe to so I can post it. Yea! It's only taken me what? 18 hours?

This is just a variation on spaghetti. Most variations on spaghetti seem to go over well at my house. I guess because they look like something familiar that they like. My picture doesn't even look half as good as the one over on Taste and tell - certainly you should go look at it if trying to decide to make this recipe. She did not mix the sauce with the noodles, and her presentation is just pretty. But then again, she does a professional blog and mine is a hobby to help myself organize. :)
Somehow I didn't have any bacon to go on top. I buy a huge costco sized bag but I have 4 boys and 1 husband all of whom LOVE bacon and someone used it up and didn't let me know I needed more. I'm sure that would have made this. Here is how I made it - using pre-cooked beef to make it even quicker. I can't remember exactly how much everyone liked this dish, but I'm sure it was pretty well received. I did wish I would have kept the other teaspoon of hot sauce, but I'm afraid it would have been a bit spicy for some of my anti-spicy kiddos.)

Ingredients

1 pound spaghetti
1 medium onion, diced
1 pound lean ground beef or ground sirloin (I used pre-cooked)
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped (I may have used garlic minces)
pepper
1 teaspoon hot sauce (Original called for 2 and I would have liked 2, but I'm not sure my littlest would have.)
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup beef stock
1 can (14 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 (16 oz) can tomato sauce
3 slices bacon, chopped (I didn't use this, but would definitely consider it next time.)
cheddar cheese
chopped green onions

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.
Meanwhile, defrost pre-cooked beef (or cook ground beef) Add to a large skillet along with onions and garlic (salt and pepper if your using not cooked ground beef - my pre-cooked has it.) Saute until onions begin to soften. Add hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and beef stock and heat through. Add the tomatoes and tomato sauce. Let simmer while noodles finish cooking.
Serve over noodles or add them to the sauce and mix to combine. Top with grated cheddar cheese, sliced green onions, and crisp, crumbled bacon. (I'd probably make this by taking pre-cooked, chopping it, and tossing it in the microwave for a few seconds to get it to crisp back up.)

Mexican Bowtie pasta with chicken

2011-10-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

This recipe wasn't a total failure, but I no longer have the recipe (turned the book back into the library yesterday.) It is from Family Feasts for $75 a week. (page 155 if I ever get the book again.) I liked that it made a ton - I froze half of it. - that is how much it made. It was also a typical mexican flavor dish but with the addition of cream cheese which made it creamy and more mild that some dishes. In this picture you can also see that I served it with grape salad. I did in this case use 1/2 of the cream cheese mixture as mentioned in the original post. You can see that it was plenty saucy.

my favorite way to chop spinach (using fresh in place of frozen spinach)

2011-10-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been buying the big costco bag of spinach to make green smoothies. However, I somehow don't manage to make them as often as I want to and so I usually end up with extra spinach that goes bad. Sooo, when I have a recipe calling for frozen spinach, I often just chop up some regular spinach and toss it in the pot. I either just fill the pan and chop with scissors or fill a cup like this and chop. Just be advised that by weight that small little box is a lot more fresh spinach than you think. See the white colander in the picture? I used that to weigh the amount of spinach I needed and I probably filled the colander. Don't worry, cooked it wilts and turns out just fine.

Cheese tortellini pesto pasta salad - Fail

2011-10-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

I had such high hopes for this pasta salad. It looked delicious. The ingredients sounded great, and it came from recipe shoebox and I usually have wonderful luck with her recipes. However, I'm not sure what happened with this. I think we just had a pesto that we didn't like. Plus I had a bit of bad luck with both of the garlics I bought around this time being super strong. Between the 2, it just had a pungent flavor that was overly strong for a pesto pasta salad. I wouldn't mind trying this again with milder garlic and possibly my own pesto. It truly looks and sounds like it should be delicious. Click the link to recipe shoebox for the recipe if you'd like to try it.

Looks good right?

Curly noodle and lentil soup - Fail

2011-10-28T07:08:00.000-07:00

My older boys disliked this meal so much they were downright rude. Honestly I must be fair, they usually try everything and are fair enough sports with our crazy eating. Tavio (s2) doesn't really like it. I think he'd be perfectly happy with a rotating menu of 7 favorites - one for every day of the week. But that isn't what I like to do and he's stuck with my cooking for now. Back to this recipe - they both folded their arms and refused to eat. I made them eat some, but ended up feeding them an alternate food. I can't say it was that bad - really it wasn't. I thought the flavor was just fine. However, the lentils (or something) gave the pasta a bit of a gritty texture that I didn't care for. I actually had seconds of this at dinner, but didn't save the left overs at all. The recipe is from Family Feasts for $75 a week. She had the greatest description of the lentils floating or bouncing off the curly pasta - no amount of cute would have helped my teens eat this - oh, and it was NOT cute.

Chili corn pone pie -Fail

2011-10-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

Here is one we didn't care for. No recipe here. Looks great, and I really like the idea of a taco type bottom layer with a corn bread type upper layer, but this cornbread was too dry and I wasn't a fan of the flavor combinations in the bottom either. The recipe was from Family feasts for $75 a week.

Ratatouille

2011-10-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I joined a local CSA (community supported Agriculture) for the fall season. Well, Tuesday was my first day to get a shipment of veggies. I got a red pepper, a pipian squash, and an eggplant. So, I decided to use them to make Ratatouille. I looked at a couple of recipes for ratatouille and decided to mostly follow the one I found on smitten kitchen because it looked like the ratatouille from the movie. I also looked at the ratatouille recipes on allrecipes.com, and took the addition of parmesan cheese from there.
I served this over a new red rice I saw at the fiesta and decided to try. It was a good rice. I think the overall presentation of the meal would have looked better on a lighter colored rice, but the flavor was great. I also must say that the pipian squash was good. Sadly I'm not sure when I'll see another one of those, but I have the left overs in the freezer.
And the verdict - my older boys loved this. I currently have a second batch in the oven - which makes me happy because it gave me something to do with the other veggies I had sitting there. On this one I put way less pepper in the tomato sauce on the bottom, and added Thyme and a dash of Italian seasoning and olive oil to the tomato sauce as well. (However I forgot the sprinkling of olive oil on the top.) I also liked the dish - other than I thought the tomato sauce was too peppery and not flavorful enough (hence the added ingredients in batch 2.) I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I liked this. I have only tried eggplant once in eggplant lasagna or something (that I didn't make.) It was gross and I have been afraid to try it again. Would never have chose to buy one at the store, so it is probably a wonderful thing that I signed up for the CSA so I felt an obligation to try the veggies I had paid for. Now to find something to make with the HUGE chinese cabbage I got and the okra. Nothing like random veggies to make me branch out of my comfort zone. :)
Here is how I made it.

Ingredients

1 can crushed tomato
1/2 teaspoon garlic minces
about 1-1 1/2 Tablespoons dehydrated onion
1 eggplant (although I only used about 1/2 of it.)
1 squash -I had a pale green variety called pipian
1 red bell pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper
thyme
Parmesan cheese

Directions

Slice the squash, eggplant and red pepper very thin. (on a mandline or in a food processor would be easier. I used my food processor so I chopped my eggplant and squash down the middle - wasn't as cute as circles, but it was so much quicker and easier to cut. I also sliced mine in the thin side of my cutting disc - I would probably use the thicker side next time to get more veggies in the dish with less layers)
Pour the crushed tomatoes on the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish. Mix in garlic, onions, salt and pepper to taste (I used 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper -was definitely too much pepper)
On top of the tomatoes, layer eggplant, squash, red pepper and repeat making a nice oval pattern around the dish.
Sprinkle olive oil over the veggies. Sprinkle veggies with salt, pepper and thyme. Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, Bake an additional 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted and veggies are cooked through.

apple cider spice donuts

2011-10-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

Man, I started writing this over a week ago. Not sure why I didn't finish. Good think I saw it when I was blogging like crazy yesterday. I knew to come back and finish it up today.

Here is another recipe I've had marked in my evernote app for a while. It is from Our Best Bites.
I had actually started on these the other day because you are supposed to simmer down some apple cider for use in the dough. Got that done, but then didn't want to have to make the dough, roll it out, cool it.... So today I got really lazy with the whole process and I loved the process. I have a cute little donut maker (similar to this but made by babycakes.) So I ended up just scooping out a scoop of dough right onto my little donut maker. I didn't even try to shape them. The machine pressed them down and they turned out perfectly cute. Sure their whole didn't go all the way through, but for the ease, it was totally worth it. They still look like a cute donut.
I of course tried to help this recipe be healthy. It was all good except for the fact that I found them to be a bit dry. I preferred them with a bit of glaze just because they seemed dry when plain or with just cinnamon sugar. I'm sure I could fiddle with the dough a bit and make it more moist. The flavor was good, but I didn't think the apple was quite strong enough. Next time I'd probably add some apple sauce or diced apple or something - it would both add moisture and flavor.

Here is how I made them today -

Ingredients

1 cup high quality apple cider (or 1/4 cup apple juice concentrate)
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons coconut oil (original had 4 Tablespoons butter flavored Crisco but I didn't have any)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup splenda
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup white bean flour (or another 1/4 cup white flour)
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
glaze or cinnamon/sugar if desired.

Directions

Had to add a picture of how easy these were to make in the
doughnut maker.

In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring apple cider to a boil. Continue to cook over high heat for 7-10 minutes or until it's reduced to 1/4 cup (I actually did 3 cups and reduced it to 3/4 cup and it took probably closer to 20. I had to come back and finish later because I was going to make the dough the day before and refrigerate like the original. I didn't. I just made the reduced apple cider and stored it in the fridge.) If not making this the day before, remove from heat and allow to cool. \
While the cider is reducing (or cooling for that matter - or the next day like I did.) Combine oil, butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on high for 2-3 minutes or until light and fluffy (using coconut oil, I did have to scrape down the sides a bit -original had 1/4 cup butter flavor crisco but I didn't have any) Add eggs one at a time, beating completely after each addition.
Add reduced cider and buttermilk and beat until combined
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Add flour mixture to the liquid and mix just until blended. This dough turns out about the consistency of cookie dough. Super nice for scooping onto my doughnut maker.
If you are baking them, scoop dough onto the doughnut maker and let it do it's job. So simple. If you want to dip them in cinnamon and sugar you will have to give them a spritz of spray butter or dunk them in melted butter or something to get the sugar to stick. Or you can make a simple glaze. My favorite was a simple powdered sugar, cinnamon and milk glaze that I had made. OBB had you make a pumpkin pie spice sugar, but that was actually my least favorite of the ways I ate these. I liked glaze, cinnamon sugar, and plain better. :)

To fry these, go check out the instructions on our best bites. You have to refrigerate the dough, then roll it out and cut it out, and fry it.

Strawberry-coconut rice pudding

2011-10-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

Really I came to the computer to post this recipe. I just got here and saw the screens I had up searching for the play dough recipe and looked again.
This recipe is from 366 Delicious Ways to cook rice, beans, and grain. This book is definitely going on my wish list.
Being a person who rather enjoys her rice pudding, I was surprised (actually quite surprised) to find a new way to cook rice pudding. This one started in a double boiler - who knew you could cook rice that way - not me. Just a warning - the actual rice never seemed to boil (and I checked on it a few times wondering when it was going to simmer.) It didn't, just the water underneath, but magically the rice absorbed all of the water and on we went with the recipe.
After the rice was made, the pudding was made separately and added to the rice, and the strawberries. Very effective, but also a bit on the time consuming side. Luckily the longest part is cooking the rice and it only needs to be slightly baby sat to ensure that the bottom of the double boiler doesn't boil dry. (Mine did while I taught piano lessons. Luckily it didn't scorch. I think it had barely boiled dry. Whew!!
And the important info - was it any good?? Great flavor and texture. A little too sweet for my liking. As a dessert, it was great tonight, but typically I like to eat rice pudding as breakfast, and this would definitely be too sweet for me for that. Next time I will probably try this with 1/2 the sugar/sweetener and sub out some agave. -I made myself some notes in the recipe below.)

On to the recipe.
Did I mention this is time consuming? Start early :)

Ingredients

1/2 cup uncooked Arborio rice
2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar (I used 1 Tablespoon less, and would probably use a lot less next time.
1 pint fresh strawberries
1 can (14 oz) light coconut milk
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 large eggs

Directions

In the top of a double boiler, combine the rice, water, and 1/4 cup of the sugar. (Use 1-2 Tablespoons agave here next time??) Simmer until the rice is completely tender and most of the water has been absorbed. (About 1 1/2 hours) Set aside to cool
Meanwhile, wash and hull and slice the berries. Place in a bowl with another 1/4 cup sugar. (Use less next time) Mix and set aside.
When rice is ready (or almost ready) heat coconut milk in a heavy bottomed, medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cornstarch (Here is where I took out 1 Tablespoon of sugar -debated more and should have taken out more -next time.) Whisk cornstarch/sugar mixture into the coconut milk. Continue whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth. Add about 1 cup of the hot coconut milk mixture to the eggs whisking continuously. Slowly pour the eggs back into the saucepan, again whisking continuously. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. (About 10 minutes - it will look bubbly at first, but it gets to looking nice and puddingy (you know smooth, thick and creamy) That does take just about 10 minutes. I went back and froth from whisking and using a silicon scraper spoon that I like to stir with. Whisk kept the pudding smooth, silicon spoon kept it from sticking anywhere (sides or bottom.)
Stir cooked rice and strawberries with their juice into the pudding mixture.
Set aside to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until chilled.

My favorite play dough

2011-10-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

As I was labeling my last post about peanut butter playdough, I realized I have no craft type recipes (no category, so no recipes.) I couldn't believe that since I have made all sorts of stuff from slime to play dough to different types of paint. I mean I'm an Elementary Ed major with an Early childhood minor and I taught kindergarten for years. This is my all time favorite play dough recipe. The jello in it gives it color and smell and the large amount of cream of tartar gives it a great texture and makes it last forever. This one took me a while to find because I haven't actually made it in years. Maybe for the next playgroup. If I find my other favorite playdough I'll post it too. I used to make it each year at the beginning of the school year as a 1st day of school activity. I know where the recipe was (in a Mailbox magazine) but I gave those all away when I quit teaching. :(

Ingredients

0.3 oz package of sugar free fruit flavored gelatin
2 cups four
1 cup salt
4 Tbsp cream of tartar
2 cups boiling water
2 Tbs. cooking oil

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients in a pan. Add the boiling water and cooking oil. Stir over medium-high heat until the mixture forms a ball. (This usually happens immediately when you add boiling water.)
Place the ball on waxed paper to cool. Store in an airtight container. Use different flavors to make different colors and smells.

I do suggest adding a little food coloring to lighter colored Jello if you want a brighter colored dough.

peanut butter playdough

2011-10-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was finally my turn for playgroup at my house. We have 6 toddlers (2 1/2 to 3 years old) in the group, and we are house #6 so it has been a while before it got to us. Somehow Monday night or Tuesday morning while laying in bed I got the great idea to do peanut butter playdough with them. However, I didn't manage to get to the finding a recipe and making it part until.... you guessed it Thursday morning. There sure are a lot of peanut butter playdough recipes out there in case you were wondering. They have varying quantities of peanut butter, nonfat dry milk, honey, and/or powdered sugar in them. I chose a recipe that used very little honey and no powdered sugar. I was actually overall impressed with the flavor. It was quite tasty. (To be honest I was afraid of the powdered milk tasting to strong.) I'd definitely make this again for fun and/or snack. The kids loved it. Most didn't play too much with it - just mine. He played forever, then played with it again in the afternoon. They all had cute little grins when they tried eating it since they all informed me eating playdough was a no no. :)

Unfortunately Brandon made this and I think he used equal parts peanut butter and dry milk. I tried to add lots more (almost another full cup) of peanut butter and a bit more honey, so definitely start with the lesser amount of dry milk so it doesn't get too dry.

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter
2/3 -1 cup nonfat dry milk
2 Tablespoons honey

Directions

Mix all ingredients adding enough powdered milk to make the playdough dry enough to handle but not crumbly.
We just smashed ours flat and cut things out with cookie cutters. I've added some other ideas below.

Other ideas

Add raisins to make a face
Stir in chow mein noodles and make a bird's nest.
Stir in chocolate chips or cheerios..... (you get the picture)
Try a nonfat chocolate milk mix to make chocolate peanut butter mix.
I read on comments to this blog that this mix could be cooked. Someone said they made halloween witches fingers with it - even putting a pretzel in the middle for a bone (almond slice for fingernail.)

Strawberry-Banana pancakes

2011-10-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

Here is the other recipe I tried out of the 366 delicious ways to cook rice, beans and grains. I had to make a few more modifications to it because I couldn't find wheat germ at the store the other day and I had greek yogurt, not regular. They still ended up tasting delicious. I liked that they were whole grain and contained some fruit. I also liked that they had corn meal in them. Gave them a little different flavor/texture from your regular pancake.
This is what I ended up doing this morning.

Sorry for the sad pic. I don't always think to take a picture of pancakes.
These are day old cold out of the fridge, but you can still see the Strawberry chunks. Yum!

Ingredients

1 cup yellow cornmeal (I use home ground popcorn)
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3 Tablespoons brown sugar (I'd probably use agave next time - not sure why I didn't change that today -I was in a hurry though.)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup greek yogurt (If using regular, you probably will need less milk)
1 1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons oil
2 large egg whites
1 banana, diced
1 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries

Directions

Combine cornmeal, flour, wheat germ, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.
Add yogurt, milk and canola oil. Stir until evenly moistened. Stir in bananas and strawberries
Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold in the remaining batter.
Cook on a pre-heated griddle using 1/4 cup batter for each pancake.

Syrian Rishtah

2011-10-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

So I have yet another cookbook checked out of the library. (OK, so I have 3 or 4 out) But one in particular I really like. It is called 366 Delicious ways to cook Rice, Beans, and Grains (unfortunately my Amazon product finder is not working so no cute little picture.) Anyway, it if full of tons of ideas for cooking grains and beans (imagine that.) Not a great book if you are looking for something with tons of pretty pictures, but as a resource for new ideas I'm loving it. Now if I can just find a place around here that sells amaranth I'll have a bunch of new recipes to try. :)
Last night's dinner and this morning's breakfast both came from this book, and I have tons more with little pieces of paper sticking out to try. I've already put them in my menu for then next few weeks. I'll start with last night's dinner. I chose this because I've had good luck with lentils in the past, and I thought the combination of spices (cumin, allspice, and coriander) sounded interesting. It turned out really good. I loved the flavor. I thought the sauce ended making the noodles a bit grainy, but I used regular green lentils rather than the French lentils called for (couldn't find those) I think this problem could be solved by 2 things if using the green lentils - 1 cook them a little less time originally, and 2 not adding the cooking water, but fresh water or more stock. Definitely what I would try next time. I'd make this again, and actually sent the left overs to school with my 5 year old, so I can't have been that bad if he was willing to eat left overs. :)
This is how I made it. (Adapted a bit from the original in the book.)

Ingredients

1/2 cup dried French green lentils, rinsed (I used regular, see above)
2 1/2 cups water
1 Tablespoon butter
2 small (or 1 large) onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced (I used the dehydrated minces, the fresh garlic I have has been particularly spicy lately and I didn't want the dish ruined by pungent garlic I actually sauteed onion and garlic but it was so strong smelling that I started over and used the minces)
1 can (15-16 oz.) petite diced tomatoes (undrained)
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup chicken stock (could also use vegetable to keep it vegetarian. I just had chicken in the fridge that was already opened)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional - I left this out because of the kiddos but served them on the side for DH)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 lb fettuccine noodles

Directions

In a medium saucepan, combine lentils and water. Bring to a boil. REduce heat and simmer, covered until lentils are just tender but still retain their shape (25 min - maybe a bit less next time for regular green lentils -see above) Set aside but do not drain.
In another saucepan, heat butter over medium heat. Add onions (and garlic if using fresh) saute until onions are golden (about 10 minutes.) Add garlic minces towards the end of the 10 minutes if using dried.
Add the lentils, cooking liquid, tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, cumin, allspice, soriander, red pepper flakes (if using) salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and toss with the lentil mixture. (I made 1 lb of noodles but didn't use all of them. I used most of them, but not all - didn't want the pasta to be too dry.)

BBQ chicken salad with cilantro lime dressing

2011-10-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

This was delicious. Very reminiscent of Cafe Rio salad but way easier to make -and actually probably healthier since it doesn't have the tortillas or rice. I found this recipe on recipe shoebox.
(I've actually got this new little app called evernote on my ipad and computers. It lets me just clip a webpage into it so I can keep track of things. I'm thinking it is like pintrest but not nearly as time consuming since I'm just seeing my own stuff. I'm loving it because it actually gets some of the recipes I want to make marked. It is making menu planning a breeze and letting me try lots of new stuff without losing the webpage it was on. So loving it. Anyway, I digress, back to the recipe.)
Not much to say except this will definitely be making a more regular appearance at our house. One of the best ways to get my older boys to actually eat salad. And as an added bonus, they even like it. Tavio rated this 9/10 stars. Wahoo!

Ingredients

1 package pre-cooked chicken (usually 12-16 oz.) Can be chopped or shredded. (I used shredded - made my pre-cooked chicken in the smoker this time around and a couple were so nice I shred them.)
BBQ sauce - to liking - I used 1/2 cup give or take a bit. (we like sweet Baby Ray's honey BBQ sauce)
2 hearts of romaine - chopped
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 bag cherry or grape tomatoes
mozzarella cheese (we used it, but it could totally be optional to me. Not really high on the bringing flavor to the party list in my opinion.)

Dressing ingredients

1 envelope ranch dressing mix
1 cup mayo
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 bunch cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
1 clove garlic

Directions

Blend all dressing ingredients in a blender until smooth. Set aside.
Combine shredded chicken and BBQ sauce.
To serve, place lettuce, corn, black beans, cheese, BBQ chicken, dressing and tomatoes on a plate. Enjoy.

Lemon Lime Jello

2011-10-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

Along with the lime chicken I made yet again another jello salad. I don't know what my facination is with making these. I guess I feel like I made a dessert which of course my kids love. They are in no way healthy though - although I have an Idea to try this but in a healthy version - I'm a little worried though. Anyway, the idea for this came from Deals to Meals. I thought is was so strange to combine jello and pudding - probably what possessed me to try it - I couldn't even imagine the result. It turned out ok. Pretty tangy with these lemon/lime flavors. I'd love to see a chocolate pudding with strawberry jello. (That is my goal for a healthy version - we'll see) Here is how to make this one. -Oh, I was going to go without putting the cool whip on top, but trust me, it needs it. Kind of takes off the super strong tangy/sweet artificial lemon/lime flavor. Sorry, I know I'm not making it sound appetizing. It is my healthy side taking over the typing fingers. The kids loved it though. Tavio chose to have 1/2 pudding and 1/2 ice cream for dessert last night, so it really isn't all that bad. :)

Ingredients

1 large box cook n'serve lemon pudding
1 large box lime jello (I used 2 small)
1 tub cool whip (I only used about 1/2 the tub

Directions

Make lemon pudding according to package directions. Set aside. Make the lime jello according to package directions, minus 1/2 cup water (I do have to say I did it the quick way using ice for the cold water so it would be cool and start to set.)
Whisk together the jello and pudding. Pour into a 9 X 13 pan.
Let cool in fridge for 3-4 hours until firm. When firm top with cool whip.

Korean glass noodles

2011-10-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

Yeah, finally a new recipe that wasn't gross (had a couple of those last week. One the big boys just refused to eat.) This one everyone ate. I even got Mr. Picky 3 year old to eat 5 bites that contained flecks of green (wouldn't eat a carrot though, but I have to at least admit that carrot was the one baby food he didn't like, and eating the spinach pieces made me happy.) Mr. 5 year old ate all of his and asked if he could take any left overs to school in his lunch the next day. That is saying something. He's not a left overs dude.
The other bonus - other than chopping the carrots, (and onions, but mine were already chopped in the fridge) the meal was pretty simple to prepare. Gotta love quick, easy, and liked by everyone. The original recipe came from Family Feasts for $75 a week. This is my adaptation of the recipe.

Ingredients

8 oz. vermicelli or cellophane noodles
12-16 oz. lean ground beef (I used a container of pre-cooked)
1/2 -1 teaspoon garlic minces (I didn't measure, just sprinkled some on.)
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
1/4 -1/3 cup chopped green onions
4-5 mushrooms, sliced (I used a small handful of dehydrated which I crumbled in my hand to equate chopped)
1 packed cup coarsely chopped fresh spinach
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Directions

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain, then rinse under cold running water.
Meanwhile add beef and garlic to a large skillet (cook beef if raw, or just heat up if previously frozen pre-cooked beef.) I added a bit of water at this point to help rehydrate the garlic minces. Add carrot and green onions, cook 3-4 minutes, stirring a few times. Add mushrooms and spinach. Cook 2-3 minutes until spinach starts to wilt. (again adding a bit of water if it looks too dry.)
In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and sesame seeds. Add to skillet and toss. (I needed lots more water here so I added about 1/4-1/3 cup to the bowl I had stirred the sesame mix in to rinse it out and tossed it in the pan. Really helped give the meal enough liquid to not be dry.) Add noodles and stir until well coated.

Bread topped hamburger casserole - the I'm glad I have food storage way

2011-10-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

This post is purely me writing about how my food storage saved my bacon yesterday. Feel free to skip it, or read on to see how helpful having some food storage can be.
Go back to Wednesday -- I was supposed to have made my grocery list so I could shop on Thursday - didn't get done between a training I had to attend, grouchy kids, laundry, wrestling practice, cross country meet, and scouts - you know all the fun mom stuff you get to do in a day. Soo I got to Wednesday night and was super stresses - what was I going to make for dinner, I wasn't going to get shopping, I hadn't been able to make some chicken items last week because I was out of chicken in the freezer (who knew - both pre-cooked and chicken breast) Soo, to calm down I finally thought - hmm, I do have pre-cooked hamburger in the freezer, I can make bread topped hamburger. It is quick and easy, can rise while I pick up Duncan.... I don't need to go to the store.....
Fast forward to Thursday - I'm making said bread topped hamburger casserole - because I have all the stuff right?? wrong! I have since run out of milk, never had cream of mushroom soup, don't have celery (rotted) or bell pepper (used them all up.) Soo, I improvised with food storage and was grateful to have such things.
Here is the original with my substitutions written to the side

Hamburger mixture ingredients

1 lb hamburger
dried onions
1/4 c diced bell pepper (dried red and green pepper)
2 stalks celery, diced (freeze dried celery)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (1/2 cup this mix plus 1 Tablespoon beef bouillon and dehydrated mushrooms plus 1 1/2-2 cups water)
1 can vegetable beef soup
1 tsp sugar
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce (I almost subbed tomato powder just to make it really powder based but didn't.)

Bread topping ingredients

1 pkg. Yeast or 1 Tablespoon
1 1/2 cups flour
2 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup scalded milk - turned into a little over 1/2 cup warm water plus
1.5 Tablespoons powdered milk
1 Tablespoon powdered butter
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano

Directions

~~Scald milk by putting in microwave with butter until the butter is melted. Set aside to cool to lukewarm~~. This was actually nice. I didn't have to do any of this because I used powdered milk and butter.

Fry hamburger with onions (or use precooked), I put the pre-cooked, tossed all of the ingredients on top then stirred it all together. . Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer while preparing the bread.

Place bread ingredients in a bowl =I put warm water, sugar, yeast followed by flower, powdered milk and butter, spices.. Beat 3 minutes.

Pour hamburger mixture in 9 X 13 pan
Pour bread mixture over meat. -Let rise 30 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Butter lime chicken with brown rice pilaf

2011-10-07T05:22:00.000-07:00

I saw this recipe on Deals to meals. It looked like a great recipe for a super busy day because it could come together very quickly using pre-cooked chicken. It did come together quite quickly, and it was tasty. I'm not sure what kind of tasty judge I am this week though because I have been congested and therefore not able to smell or taste as well as normal. However, I think I could taste this one. The kids didn't complain about it either, and I actually got my pickiest to eat a good deal of it. He ate his first serving of chicken with no prompting and I got him to eat more chicken and even the rice by bribing him with jellybeans. (horrible mom, I know, but what are you going to do. He got 1 jellybean for each bite of rice. Even got in some veggies with the rice. I'll take it for the 7 jelly beans he ate.)
Also on a side note to self -- I made my pre-cooked chicken in the smoker this time. While it is super tasty, I'm not sure I want to do that again. (or at least I guess I'd better use less wood chips.) The chicken had a powerful hickory flavor. Again, not bad, just strong. Not sure it will go with all recipes.
Finally, I made this with a super simple rice pilaf. My goal was -something that my 14 year old (not good in the kitchen or following directions) could start while I was gone so that the boys could eat between activities. So, I tossed a bunch of dehydrated veggies in with the rice and left it in the rice cooker. (he just had to add broth - sadly he didn't add enough and the 12 year old wanting to attend his church activity left to it hungry but what can I say. I tried hard - didn't help that there was a wreck on the way home from the cross country meet, but that is another blog right?? Suffice it to say, this was a super simple meal that came together quickly. I was so impressed with how well the pilaf went with the chicken that I'm including the recipe.

Chicken
Ingredients

1 package pre-cooked chicken (12-16 oz) -or saute some chicken in a pan before starting
2 limes, juices
1 stick butter (could probably reduce by 1/2 - there was a LOT of sauce and we didn't use it all.)
2 green onions, sliced
1/2 teaspoon dill
1/2 cup chicken broth

Directions

In a frying pan, cook juices of limes over low heat until it begins to bubble Add butter, stirring until butter becomes opaque and forms a thickened sauce. Stir in chicken broth, chives, and dill. Add chicken and heat through. Serve over rice.

Simple rice pilaf (in a rice cooker)

Ingredients

2 cups brown rice
varied dried veggies -I just tossed in maybe 1/4 cup of each - more or less I mixed it in with the rice and went by how it looked. I used

a veggie flavor mix which included onion, garlic, red and green peppers and celery (I see that is not posted here. I may have to give it a post. It was handy and added a lot to the flavor.)
peas
carrots

1 32 oz container of chicken stock

Directions

Combine ingredients in rice cooker and push button - can't get easier than that.

Roast beef and vegetable bake

2011-10-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm debating posting this one. It was tasty, but basically just a pot roast with the beef cut in cubes to cook faster. It did have a couple of new things in it that I liked - like it added cabbage. I had some that I had bought for something else and was perfectly happy to have another reason to use it. I would never thought of adding that to a pot roast type dish. It also had both regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. While I love this idea, I've never been able to make it work effectively. My sweet potatoes always end up getting overdone. That being said, I've decided maybe I should go ahead and post it because it did have a different flavor -dash of cinnamon and dash of cloves. That was actually nice. It was a bit spicier than I would have liked and I even backed off the pepper just a tad because an anti-pepper child walked by as I was putting it in. I think I'd cut it in half. While I liked some spice, I think this was just a bit too much and too over the little pinch of cinnamon and cloves more than I would have liked. Here's my adaptation of the recipe with notes to make it better next time. Original was from Family Feasts.

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon oil
1 1/2 -2 lbs beef cut into 1 inch cubes
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, sliced
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 cups finely chopped green cabbage
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper (I used a little less and would probably take it down to 1/2 teaspoon next time)
pinch cinnamon
pinch cloves
2 cups beef stock
4 -5 potatoes sliced (I used some red I had -next time I think I'd cube these. They too were a bit overdone.)
1 large sweet potato, peeled and sliced (I'd definitely cube this next time, and in bigger cubes than the potato since it seems to cook faster.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Coat a 9X13 with cooking spray. (I'd use a large pan next time too - probably an old crock pot - or just cook it in the crock pot all together.)
Heat oil in a large skilled until hot. Add beef and cook until evenly brown on all sides. Transfer to a plate leaving juice in the pan.
Add bell pepper, onion, carrot, celery, and cabbage. Cook, stirring occasionally until veggies soften. Return beef to skillte. Add paprika, salt, pepper, cinnamon and cloves. Stir in broth. Simmer for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, layer bottom of prepared dish with potato and sweet potato slices. Pour beef and vegetable mixture over the potatoes. Bake, covered with foil until potatoes and beef cubes are tender, about 45 minutes (I should have probably started checking at 30 minutes.)

Cheddar-Pear pie

2011-10-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

And finally for the pie that went in the previous post (push in pie crust) This too come from Family FEasts for $75 a week. I did my normal healthier tweeking - bit of extra fruit here coconut oil there... Even added (not bean flour :) which is surprising lately, but a high fiber starch that I have - just subbed out 1-2 Tablespoons for the regular flour but I don't expect most people to have that so I'm leaving it out of the recipe.) I probably also made some sort of sugar substitution but at this point I can't remember. Maybe not because I increased the fruit.
I loved this pie. (Actually there is a piece left in the refrigerator - I know what my reward for making it thorough this last day of DH being out of town will be. Sorry Brandon, there will be no pie for you to try.) I was of course skeptical about this pie. I always am when it is something new. I was worried about not liking pear - would it get too mushy? I worried about not liking the cheese on top. I've heard of apples and cheese and even enjoyed the 2 together once or twice but for some reason it still sounds weird to me. Well, I was pleasantly surprised with how this turned out. I loved the flakiness of the crust, and the little crunch the toasted cheese on top of the pie gave it. The cheese also added just enough savory to the sweet. It was such a nice combinations. If pears are on sale this week where you live like they are here, you should definitely go try this pie. In fact, maybe I'll have to buy some more and make this for DH to try - wouldn't want him to miss out right?? :)

Ingredients

1 Push-in pie crust
5 medium-large ripe pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
dash of salt

Topping Ingredients

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup sugar
dash of salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.
Press crust into a 9 inch pie pan (I used a deeper dish pyrex to accommodate the extra fruit)
In a large bowl, combine pears, sugar, cornstarch and salt. Pour into pie crust.
Be lazy like me, scrape the bowl well, and use the same bowl to combine the topping ingredients until nice and crumbly. (It seemed easier to me to work but the cheese together and then add the cheese, so that is what I did.) Sprinkle evenly over the filling.
Bake until crust is golden and cheese is melted, 25 to 35 minutes. (I didn't think the topping looked done enough at 25 but the edges of the crust were browning too much so I tosses a little crust cover over it and baked it the remaining 10 minutes.) Let cool 10 minutes on wire rack. Serve warm

-- I thought it sounded lovely with vanilla ice cream, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't super warm by the time we ate it. It was plenty good just plain. :)

push in pie crust

2011-10-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

This was the easiest pie crust ever. My 5 year old helped me make it and was perfectly happy to do so. (Not to mention capable.) I found the recipe/idea in Family Feasts for $75. I changed it to use coconut oil and couldn't help myself but throw in some bean flour. Getting crazy with my experimenting lately. It really had a great texture.
It was very odd to make because I mixed in all of the coconut oil first (before adding the milk) so that it wouldn't clump. It seemed very moist and I honestly debated adding the milk, but each Tablespoon actually firmed up the dough a bit (I'm thinking because it solidified the coconut oil a bit.) I thought it was kind of cool, but I'm kind of geeky in the kitchen like that. :)
It's ease combined with the nice texture are winning it a 5 star from me. I think this will be my go-to pie crust for any pie other than special occasions or further experimenting (like different grains.)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour (I subbed out 2 Tablespoons regular flour for 2 Tablespoons pinto bean flour)
2 Tablespoons sugar
pinch salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 Tablespoons milk

Directions

Toss flour(s), sugar and salt in the bottom of a pie pan. Mix with a fork. (Watch out, 5 year olds mix it right out of the container. ;) Add oil and mix through. Add milk and mix again. (If using another oil, you could certainly add the milk and oil together. I just didn't want to with coconut oil. My house is warm enough in summer that my coconut oil is always liquid and I wanted it mixed with the flour that way.)
Press dough around the pie plate with fingertips. (I find that my palm works much better for the bottom of the pan.) I didn't bother making a scalloped edge, but you can.
If using the crust for a pudding-type pie, bake empty pie shell in an oven pre-heated to 425 for 10 to 12 minutes. Otherwise follow directions of your recipe.

Sour cream donuts

2011-10-03T04:32:00.000-07:00

These donuts turned out better than the chocolate in my opinion. However, Benjamin preferred the chocolate. I will warn you that I was having a bean flour day yesterday - subbing a couple of Tablespoons into everything, so these got some too. They were still tasty and nice and cakey.
I wanted to just sprinkle these with a little cinnamon/sugar, but it wouldn't stick so I ended up making a glaze with powdered sugar, cinnamon and milk.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup flour (I subbed out 2 Tablespoons pinto bean flour -couldn't find my white bean flour or I would have used it - I just put 2 Tablespoons in the bottom of my measuring cup then fill it the rest of the way with flour.)
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla.

Directions

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. (I would actually then add the coconut oil to the dry ingredients and mix until crumbly because it does clump when it hits the cold liquids. I tried adding it first and whisking in the colder ingredients but still ended up with lumps. Luckily this dough goes into a zip top baggie to be put into the donut wells so I just squished the lumps out with my fingers.) Add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth.
Fill each donut spot and book for 3-5 minutes.
Coat with glaze, powdered sugar, or cinnamon-sugar.

chocolate donuts (draft - needs tweeking)

2011-10-03T04:24:00.000-07:00

I had quite the baking day yesterday. 2 new recipes from breakfast, and 2 for dinner. This was the first I tried. I must admit, they aren't perfected yet. They get a post because I have to know what I did to work on tweeking them until I like them.
First of all I got a new little donut making gadget. Like a waffle maker but makes cute little donuts. This recipe is from the book included with the maker, but of course I was trying to make it at least a little more healthy, and like I said, it still needs some work. These were not sweet enough - or at least not sweet enough to balance out the bitter of the cocoa. I need to either use less cocoa, or more sweetener (the first option appeals to me more or course.) I do have to say, I had children that liked these, but I did end up dumping them in powdered sugar to give them a bit of sweet. Not sure if I want to improve on this version or just try making a new version all together (maybe based off my chick pea cupcake recipe.) But that is to be decided later.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup wheat flour (I'd probably grind this on pastry next time for texture.)
1/2 cup cocoa (less??)
original was 1/2 cup sugar - I used 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar, 1 Tablespoon truvia, 1/2 Tablespoon honey and about 1 Tablespoon agave -crazy I know - I'd stick with just 2 sweeteners next time, and probably make them honey or agave and truvia.
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and blend until smooth.
I just had to fill each little donut spot with batter and cook them. The were done in 3-4 minutes.
glaze or coat with powdered sugar if desired. (I'm hoping to get the recipe down well enough that they don't need a glaze or dip.

Lemon Steak Pitas

2011-09-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here is another recipe I tried last week from deals to meals. It was pretty good. The onion yogurt sauce made way more than needed and was a bit runnier than I would have liked. Could easily have been solved by using Greek yogurt, or draining/patting my shredded cucumbers. Other than that it was good.
I was impressed that the marinade gave soo much lemon flavor. Here is our version of the recipe.

**Serves 6
**Needs to marinate all day**

Ingredients

2 cups finely shredded cabbage
4-5 small sweet peppers, sliced. (or 1 large cut in to thin strips)
1 large tomato, cut into thin strips
pita pockets or flat bread

Onion yogurt sauce

1 envelope dried onion soup mix (or try 3-5 Tablespoons of this mix)
1 16 oz container of plain yogurt (definitely recommend a greek if you want a thicker sauce)
1 cup shredded cucumber (that was 1 large English cucumber for me.)

Marinated steak

1.5-2 lbs boneless steak, cut into thin strips (I used a flank steak sliced thin)
1/2 cup lemon juice (I used fresh squeezed)
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

In the morning, mix the steak marinade ingredients in a zip top bag. Refrigerate and marinate all day.
When ready to serve, mix together the yogurt sauce ingredients. Keep cold until steak is cooked.
Pour steak and marinade into a large saute pan. Cook on high heat until steak is tender and cooked through. (do not over cook.)
To serve, place steak, cabbage, bell pepper, and tomatoes in a pita. Top with yogurt sauce.

Orange cottage cheese salad

2011-09-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I have to admit I'm a bit wacky. I go on these "we should eat healthier" kicks and then I post a recipe like this. But hey it is a fruit. Actually I checked out deals to meals and did a free trial and actually made 1 week of their food. This recipe is from there, but in no way original I'm sure. I've seen it at a multitude of church functions. I'm actually not sure how I've never managed to make (or possibly even eat) this salad before. I think I've had the orange jello salad with marshmallows but never the cottage cheese version. I actually really liked it - as did all of the kids (except picky toddler.)

Ingredients

1 16 oz cottage cheese (IMHO it has to be Breakstone - one of the few ingredients I'm super brand specific on.)
1 small package orange gelatin
1 8 oz container cool whip
1 8 oz can pineapple tidbits, drained
2 11 oz cans mandarin oranges, drained.

Directions

Pour cottage cheese and jello into a bowl. Stir and mix until jello is evenly mixed into cottage cheese.
Fold in drained fruit and cool whip. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

soup mixes

2011-09-30T18:21:00.000-07:00

So, somehow in the last 2 days I've managed to be out of 2 different soups/mixes that I needed for various recipes. One was lipton onion soup mix. I thought I had 3 in the pantry, but was mistaken. Thank goodness for the internet there. I found one at food.com. The other was cream of mushroom soup - I've actually been trying to eliminate using those so I haven't bought anymore and I forgot the recipe I decided to make on a whim called for it (more on that next post.) Luckily I found a great substitute in a book (family feasts for $75 that I have checked out of the library. So, here are my 2 soup mix substitutes with my commentary.

Onion soup mix

Ingredients

3/4 cup dehydrated onion
1/3 cup beef bouillon powder
4 teaspoon onion powder (I actually had less because I ran out but it was still fine)
1/4 teaspoon crushed celery seeds (I don't know about crushed, mine just say celery seeds and are very tiny already.)
(original called for 1/4 teaspoon sugar -I couldn't see the need to add this so I didn't.)

Directions

Combine all ingredients and store in and airtight container.
About 5 Tablespoons are equal to 1 package store bought. (I used 3 rounded Tablespoons for the recipe I was making and it was plenty strong but I think the bouillon I have is particularly flavorful.)

Cream of anything soup

Ingredients

3 cups powdered milk
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup powdered chicken bouillon (I actually didn't add this when I used it last night and I don't think I would add it next time. see directions below)
2 Tablespoons onion powder (actually didn't have this at all (see above recipe I had made the night before :) I just tossed in some extra dehydrated onions to the actual recipe.)
1 teaspoons thyme
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 Tablespoons butter powder (optional - didn't have it for cream of mushroom last night.)

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Store in and airtight container at room temperature up to a year.)

To make soup:

In a medium-size saucepan, combine 1/2 cup dry soup mix with 1 1/4 cups water, 1 Tablespoon butter (if you didn't put butter powder in the mix), and desired flavorings (see below)

Cream of chicken - no extra seasonings - although my plan in the future is to make it with chicken stock and not add the bouillon to the mix. I just didn't think it through last night as I was hurriedly trying to get dinner prepared.

Cream of mushroom: Add 1/2 cup minced mushrooms. I actually added the mix (no bouillon) a Tablespoons of beef bouillon, water, and dehydrated/freeze dried (not sure which I have) that I just crushed in my hand. It was really good that way (in the recipe at least)

Cream of celery: Add 1/2 cup minced celery. You can puree soup when it cools if necessary

High protein apple waffles/pancakes

2011-09-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here is another recipe from the bean book I'm borrowing from a friend. I don't think it was all that much different than the mix I am currently using, but it did have a higher percentage of bean flour = higher protein and fiber so more nutritious. They also have a slightly nicer texture than the mix pancakes but I would say that is 90% due to the fact that you mix them with stiff egg whites. How are they not going to have a nice texture? Like the other recipe I made from the bean book, these were super filling.

The only problem with them is that they stuck pretty bad to the waffle iron. Usually with my nice waffle iron, the first will stick on a recipe, but after that the rest will be fine with no cooking spray. These had to be sprayed well for each waffle or much sticking ensued. Next time I would just make them as pancakes. The recipe does say they can also be made into Ebelskivers which I had to google to find out what were - Danish pancakes for those not familiar with the term. But apparently they have their own special pan, so they aren't something I'll be trying in the near future.

Be warned that this recipe does make a ton of waffles/pancakes. If you don't plan to refrigerate or freeze for later, I would suggest cutting the recipe in half. Also the warning is nice for choosing a bowl size. My normal 8 cup bowl did not work. Not a problem, I just added the ingredients to the kitchen aid bowl that had whipped the egg whites.

Ingredients

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup fine white bean flour (I have a mill and grind my own)
1 Tablespoon baking soda
1/2 cup dry milk powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons honey
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups warm water
3 Tablespoons oil or applesauce (I used applesauce, but added 1 Tablespoon of oil mid way through cooking due to the sticking issues. Next time I'll just add the oil rather than the applesauce)\
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks
1 large grated apple (I'd probably add 2 next time - you really couldn't taste the apple even though I used applesauce too.)

Directions

Combine dry ingredients. Add honey, buttermilk, water, oil and egg yolks and stir until well combined. Fold in egg whites and apple.
Bake as pancakes or waffles.

Grape salad

2011-09-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

This salad was simply delicious. It is basically the dip that I've seen at numerous events, but with the fruit stirred in. If you ask me, there was a bit too much dip for the amount of grapes, and we used probably double the amount of grapes called for. This would be delicious with any type of fruit. Top on my list to try would be strawberries.
Next time I would probably just make a 1/2 batch of sauce.
Update 10/27. I have made this a couple more times cutting the cream cheese mix in half and it was great that way. (One time that I paid attention I actually had 3 pounds of grapes and I still only used 1/2 the cream cheese. Much better than the original 1-2 pounds for the entire batch of cream cheese.) Forgot the almonds/pecans both times though. And purposely didn't add the brown sugar. :)

Ingredients

2 bags seedless grapes (we used a black and red)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
optional - sliced almonds or chopped pecans

Directions

Wash, separate and dry the grapes.
In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla. (I like an electric hand mixer for this) Add grapes and mix until evenly coated.
Sprinkle with brown sugar and nuts (oops I added my brown sugar to the mix and thought it was just plumb strange to call for 2 types of sugar. I should so learn to read directions. :) Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Beefy Tex-Mex (taco salad)

2011-09-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

For a super busy Sunday (and fast Sunday at that) we sure managed to do more than our share of cooking yesterday. 3.5 desserts a meal and a fruit salad (the .5 dessert.) Tavio did make the cookies for the court of honor. Brandon made the 2 desserts - one for us, one for someone who helped him out with his brakes on Saturday. I made the meal and fruit salad. So at least it wasn't one person in the kitchen all day - definitely still too hot for that unfortunately. Everything turned out pretty well. I'm starting with dinner because I actually made some changes there. (Plus of course I actually made it.) Everyone really liked it -whose to say if it is because they had been fasting all day and were hungry, or if it was super good. I guess I'd have to go by the fact that the 5 year old ate it with no complaints. (Of course the 2 year old just dipped some chips in sour cream and left the rest on the plate - didn't even eat his cheese. The boy kills me. He wouldn't even try the grapes or the sauce on the grapes... But that is another story.)
This recipe is originally from Rachael Ray, but I found it on dealstomeals.com. Here is my adaptation to make it speedier and less spicy.

Ingredients

1-2 Tablespoons butter
2 cans mild diced green chilies
1 onion diced (I used about 1/2 but I had a very large onion - probably 1.25 cups)
1 1/2 Tablespoons chili powder (this was perfectly mild for kids. If you like spice, you can double this.)
1-1.5 lbs lean ground beef (I used pre-cooked, DH had packaged this batch and filled them a bit fuller than I do - hence the 1-1.5 lbs. We probably had about 1.25 lbs.)
1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
2 tomatoes, diced
chopped lettuce (I just grabbed a jar from the fridge)
tortilla chips, slightly crushed
shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream
any other optional toppings like cilantro, salsa, olives, avocado or guacamole, I even put some red and yellow pepper on the left overs at lunch today.

Directions

Melt butter in a large skillet. Add onions and saute until fragrant. Add green chilies and chili powder and cook and stir until well combined and heated. Add defrosted meat, beans, and tomato sauce and cook until heated through. (If not using pre-cooked beef, add it first and cook it until done, then add the beans and tomato sauce.) I then let this simmer while I got the rest of the meal together (finished dicing tomatoes, set the table, and made a grape salad.) I just kept an eye on it and turned it to very low when I got worried it might get dry.
To serve, place tortillas on a plate, top with meat/bean mixture followed by cheese lettuce tomatoes and any other optional toppings.

Creamy curry cauliflower and broccoli soup

2011-09-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

So, this week I tried something new. I actually went to dealstomeals.com and did their free trial and let them plan my menu and do my grocery list. I'm apparently a big goober because somehow I never found the link for the grocery list. I'm not sure if I'll continue to do that, but for this week, it was simple -even with making my own list.
I ended up checking out the site yet again because she had a sun oven giveaway going on. That is definitely worth checking out.
So the first recipe I tried out this week was a curry cauliflower broccoli soup. I did worry about the curry, but had the 2 children at home for dinner that evening smell it and they said they would like it so I went ahead and threw it in. I liked it just fine. I don't think either of them did. I think you could make this soup and omit the curry, but maybe add a bit more garlic and onion. Maybe some oregano?? Something to give it a different flavor. DH came through and sampled a bite (he was eating elsewhere with DS1.) He definitively didn't like it with the curry, but he is not a curry fan.
I found the directions on the site a bit hard to follow - like it wanted you to combine flour and milk but never said how much flour. I actually used white bean flour to thicken it a bit. That worked well and hey, it added some protein and fiber. :)
Here is my version of this soup

Ingredients

4 cups chicken stock (1 32 oz. container.)
1 cup finely diced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced (I was out and used 1/2 teaspoon garlic minces.)
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 head cauliflower, finely chopped (It seems like a ton finely chopped but it works.)
2 broccoli crowns, finely chopped
dash cayenne pepper
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons white bean flour (or regular flour - although I may start with less on the regular flour)
2 cups (or handfuls if you measure like I do) cheddar cheese plus more for serving.

Directions

Melt butter in a large stock pot. Add onion and garlic minces and saute until onion is tender and starting to brown. Add salt and pepper and the chicken stock. Add the cauliflower, broccoli and cayenne pepper. Simmer until vegetables are tender.
Mix in milk and white bean flour (If using regular flour, whisk it into them milk first then add it to the soup. Cook and let thicken slightly. At this point I also stuck in my immersion blender and blended up maybe 1/3 of the broccoli/cauliflower. That made the soup thicker.
Add the cheese and stir until combined. Serve in bowls. Sprinkle with more cheddar cheese if desired.

Banana nutella rolls

2011-09-23T04:54:00.000-07:00

I had these on the menu forever before actually trying them. They were pretty simple to make. Not sure how much I really liked them. They sounded so yummy - nutella and banana, but I'm not a huge fan of mushy banana (although I do like them fried so I thought this would be good. I do however think this would be excellent with another fruit that maybe wouldn't get mushy, and if you are more of a banana fan, I'm sure these would be great. I'd love to try them with sliced strawberries or even raspberries. YUM!
I found the recipe in my Rachael Ray magazine. Not many changes except I didn't dust mine with powdered sugar and she did. You could try that if you wanted something sweeter. I also tried making a couple with just cooking spray (not brushed with butter - mostly because I had 2 left and no more melted butter. They are still good, but obviously better with the butter.)

Sorry for the picture -I totally need a new flash. This also must have
been the week I had no dishwasher since it is on a paper plate. I chose
this picture rather than a powdered sugar one to show the bananas
and nutella inside.

Ingredients

8 egg roll wrappers
3 bananas, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
3 Tablespoons Nutella (didn't measure this at all and probably used more)
2 Tablespoons melted butter

Directions

Working 1 at a time, spread 1 teaspoon (more or less) of nutella down the center of the egg roll wrapper (leave room all around to roll up) Top with 4 or 5 slices of banana.
Brush edges with butter. Roll up like a burrito.
Brush the outside with butter and cook in a nonstick skillet over medium heat 4 minutes per side or until nicely browned.

bbq chicken tortilla pizzas

2011-09-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

Here was another totally easy, super quick idea that I loved from my Rachael Ray magazine. To be honest, she did make hers more high class by using gouda and red onions. I used either monterey jack or cheddar and sweet onions because that is what I usually have around my house. I also loved that these used corn tortillas. I love corn tortillas. YUM! These would make a great quick lunch, but we had them one day for dinner. I'm not listing quantities because it isn't like I measured anything. Rachael Ray had it for 4 corn tortillas. I think I made 16 or so for dinner. However many it took to use up my 12-16 oz. package of pre-cooked chicken. I also didn't add the onions to all of them. Probably about 1/2 for my kiddos who don't like onions. They were still tasty.

Ingredients

corn tortillas
cream cheese
pre-cooked chicken
Barbecue sauce
shredded cheese (we used Monterey Jack, cheddar or a combination of both)
diced onion

Directions

Toss chicken with Barbecue sauce. Preheat oven to 375.
To make each tortilla, Spread with a thin layer of cream cheese, add some of the bbq chicken, sprinkle with cheese and onions if desired.
Bake for 15 minutes.

Sweet bean burritos

2011-09-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

I found this burrito recipe in my Saving dinner book. I think half of the time I try something because it sounds different and I can't decide if it will taste good. Then I'm apprehensive to actually taste what I've made. This would be one of those meals. Sweet potato with black bean? I would have never thought to stick those two together.
Unfortunately for me, I can't remember how much we liked them, or exactly how much spices I added. I do remember that they were better than I expected. The sweet potato did make them sweet, but it was still good. Went well with the cumin.

Ingredients

1-2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, pressed (I may have just used garlic powder - I can't remember)
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
2 medium sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed (I made these in the microwave to make them quick and easy - had them cooking while sauteeing my onions)
1 teaspoon cumin (I may have added more)
cheddar cheese
tortillas

Directions

In a skillet, saute onions in butter until soft and fragrant. Add garlic and saute an additional minute.
Add the beans, mashed sweet potatoes and cumin and mix well.
Heat tortillas. Put bean mixture and cheese in each burrito and roll up.

Pork milanese

2011-09-19T04:26:00.000-07:00

Why have I never discovered Rachael Ray before? I think because I've seen her shows and they have never really impressed me much or something. However, I picked up her magazine at costco the other day and I have really enjoyed it. First it has a lot of recipes. Second, they seem semi healthy (which somehow I though Rachael Ray was not.) and Third, they look (and so far taste) pretty good. I think I've found my food magazine subscription for next year. :)
I was really impressed by how colorful this particular meal was in the picture in the magazine. Unfortunately, mine just wasn't as colorful because I didn't go and spend 3 times as much for heirloom tomatoes or purple onions. Sorry Rachael Ray, but my boys just don't care, so I'll go with what is convenient at my grocery store. I did go with the organic tomatoes, but that is the best I did for this meal.
The meal was absolutely delicious (and I didn't even use fresh thyme) but it was a bit time consuming (even though the magazine said I could make it in just 30 minutes. HA!!! - luckily I knew better before starting. - and I didn't even have to pound my meat because it was a milanese cut I had in the freezer - actually picked the meal to use the meat - and because it was pretty.)
So, here is how I ended up making it - I'd probably make it the same way if doing it again. Rachael Ray did did things way more sophisticated, used more Parsley, and fresh thyme, "heirloom tomatoes" a fresh ear of corn..... - Unreal that it said you could get it done in 30 minutes. I guess that would be possible with 30 minutes previous prep. Anyway, it was still delicious, and I'd love to make it again - the same way we made it this time.
This would have gone great with a rice pilaf or something similar. However, I just served it like this.

Ingredients

1 cup flour
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups plain breadcrumbs
1 lemon, zested
2-3 Tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
2-3 teaspoons dried thyme
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1-1.5 lb. pork tenderloin pounded to 1/8 inch thick - or just buy the Milanese cut
oil for frying
3 tomatoes, diced
1 can corn drained
2-3 Tablespoons finely diced sweet onion
1/2 cup basil leaves, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 300. Place a rack on a baking sheet. Place the flour, eggs and breadcrumbs on 3 plates. Combine the lemon zest, parsley, thyme and garlic on a cutting board and finely chop together to form a gremolata. Add to the breadcrumbs along with the cheese and mix together.
In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, corn, onion and basil.
Season the cutlets with salt and pepper, then coat in flour, eggs and breadcrumbs. In a large skillet, heat a Tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat.
Fry the cutlets in batches for 1.5-3 minutes per side (depending on thickness -ours were super thin so only needed 1.5-2 minutes per side) Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and keep warm in the oven as you finish all of the batches.
Serve topped with tomato-corn salad.

Spinach pasta casserole

2011-09-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

Somehow I ended up with a baked rigatoni and spinach pasta casserole only 2 days apart in my actual menu plan a couple of weeks ago. (both pasta sauce based meals) I don't think I'll blog about the other because this was the better of the 2. They were very similar only this one also included spinach -giving it more veggies and in fact was vegetarian. I ate the left overs a couple of days and so did Duncan - cold even in his school lunch. That is my new judge of how good a meal was - will anyone eat the left overs? This meal passes that test.

Ingredients

10 oz pasta (I used a twist pasta, but any would do)
1 egg
1/8 cup (2 T) oil (I use a healthy blend)
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained - or 10 oz fresh, chopped and sauteed until wilted (that is what I did, but I always have fresh spinach I need to use. frozen would be quicker and easier.)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 39 oz jar pasta sauce
8 oz mozzarella cheese (although I didn't measure and probably used a bit more)
small sprinkle of Romano cheese (you could certainly use more, I just worried about some picky eaters and only used a little)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350
Cook pasta according to package directions, drain, and place in a large bowl
In a small bowl, mix together egg and oil. Add to the pasta and toss. Add the spinach, bread crumbs and Italian seasoning and toss again.
On the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish, pour half of the spaghetti sauce. Add half of the pasta mixture. Sprinkle half of the mozzarella. Repeat the layers, topping with a bit of Romano.
Bake for 45 minutes till bubbly and slightly browned on top.

crock bean soup with kale

2011-09-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

I knew I was behind but this is ridiculous! I just counted, and even with my only intermittent cooking lately and the use of tried and true meals and take out pizza a little too often :) I'm still 10 recipes behind in my posting. One more today and I must get doing other things for the day.

I chose this one just because it was very different for me. It is the first thing I have actually made with kale. I have bought kale a few times before and thrown it in my green smoothies, but I have never made a meal containing kale. This made me excited to try this and of course a little apprehensive wondering if A it would taste good to me and B my kids would eat something with green stuff in it. It went over pretty well though. I liked it. I did feel it needed just a bit more flavor. I added extra salt and pepper to mine and it was fine. I think maybe next time I'll add additional salt at the beginning of the cooking time - maybe let some sink into the beans. I've read a lot on adding salt before, during or after to cooking beans, but I just felt like the center of the beans were a bit bland. The overall soup was better (again with the extra salt and pepper.) Some of the family loved it, some hated it, and others thought it was OK.

I found this recipe in my Saving dinner book. I added more veggies and changed the beans - originals were cannellini, but in my grocery store those were $9 something a pound. Kidneys were $.99. Plus I'm not as big of fan of white beans anyway so kidney it was for us. I did do another dumb thing and try to soak these in a quart jar ---Don't do it!!! They grew way too large and then just got stuck in the jar and I had to dig them out. No fun. Seriously. Choose a larger container. Quart jars work great for 1 cup of beans. I have no idea what made me think 1 lb would be fine. Probably the fact that they fit in there just fine dry - only take up a little more than 1/2 of the jar. Silly, silly me.

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons butter
1 extra large onion, chopped
4-5 carrots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 bunch kale, trimmed and sliced
1 pound kidney beans, soaked overnight
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (could have doubled this too I think)
40-50 oz chicken stock (this is approximate - I used a 32 oz box and whatever was left in my other container maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of that box -original just had 3 cans of chicken broth - it depends on how soupy you want the finished product - more like soup, or more like chili)
1/4 cup tomato sauce (I actually used a Tablespoon of tomato powder because for some reason I was out of tomato sauce -same thing just not reconstituted and I had used a bit extra stock so I didn't want/need any more liquid)
salt and pepper (needed lots)

Directions

In a large skillet, saute onions, in butter until soft, add carrots and garlic and continue to saute until carrots soften a bit or onions get nice and golden. Add kale and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes.
In a slow cooker, place soaked beans, red pepper flakes and the contents of the skillet. Cover with stock. Cook on high 8 hours or until beans are tender. Once beans are tender, add the tomato sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

agave-peanut butter popcorn balls

2011-09-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

These are not next on my list if going backwards. Truthfully I made these for the first time probably a month ago but I was out of agave and used honey and I've wanted to try them with agave before posting. I was much more pleased with how the agave ones turned out. I worried that I would have trouble with the mixture spreading to all of the popcorn, but I just kept mixing and it spread out just fine.
Also, the first time I made these I tried adding some chocolate chips. Of course they just melted and ended up making a mess. I ended up making about 2/3 of the batch of popcorn balls and the last 1/3 got turned into popcorn 'muddy buddies' because they were so covered in melted chocolate by that time that they would no longer stick together.
This time I used chopped dried cherries as an add in and rolled them in coconut. Soo yummy. I'm sure I would have devoured all of them if I hadn't made these evil creatures and devoured them instead. The popcorn balls are actually still around because I packaged them in baggies and put them at the bottom of the snack bucket. I can't easily get to them - out of sight, out of mind -but no less delicious. :)
The original recipe came from Eating well magazine. I actually double it because that is how much popcorn I make in one batch in my air popper.

Ingredients

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1/2 cup agave
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Optional ingredients

1/2 cup add ins (like dried fruits or nuts or pretzel pieces) I used dried cherries this day - didn't measure 1/2 cup though
1/2 cup roll-ins (coconut, sesame seeds, finely chopped nuts, finely ground granola...)

Directions

Pop popcorn kernels in an air popper and remove any unpopped kernels. (should yield 12-14 cups popped) Place in a large bowl and pour any add-ins on top of the popcorn. Prepare a large baking sheet by lining with parchment, wax paper, or a silicon baking mat.
In a small saucepan, combine the agave and peanut butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it starts to bubble. Continue cooking and stirring for 15 seconds more.
Immediately stir into the popcorn mixing until well coated.
Spray hands with cooking spray (or dip in ice water - I've tried both and they both work) Quickly and firmly press popcorn mixture into balls. Roll in any roll-ins you may be using. Place on prepared baking sheet.

Salsa black bean burgers

2011-09-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

So far, I'm just going backwards in my playing catch up. These were last night's dinner. I'm thinking they would have been better if I had not been such a goober and actually followed the directions, but hey they still turned out great -thanks in large part to the wonderful home made guacamole Brandon made. He used lemon this time rather than lime, but I really liked it. I included the recipe below. He also thought it was a bit salty, but I thought the burgers turned out to be lacking something - probably salt. All put together the meal was delicious. It's rating is as a whole - by themselves the burgers would have been a little bit lacking in flavor, but together it was wonderful. Of course I worried at first - always do with a vegetarian meal at my house. :)

I did double the original recipe, and changed the pepper from jalapeno to poblano since I have some anti-spicy kiddos. Feel free to cut it in half if you want to only make 4 burgers) I served them on these buns which are now my go-to buns (although I'm getting creative in my uses of flours - today I used 5 or so Tablespoons of brown rice flour (whatever was left in my container), a couple Tablespoons of gluten, some wheat flour (2 cups plus maybe a tablespoon or 2 can't remember), unbleached white flour (1 cup), and 2 Tablespoons hi-maize starch)

Yield: 8-9 burgers

Ingredients

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/3 can dry bread crumbs (I ended up using more, but that was from my mistake of adding oil)
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped (make sure they are seeded. You don't want extra moisture in your mix.)
2 eggs
1 poblano pepper, seeded and finely chopped (I ran this through the food processor)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (would definitely use garlic salt next time and probably twice as much)
2 Tablespoons olive oil (to fry in - do not add to the mix!! -this is totally for me next time I make this. I'm such a goober somedays.)
buns
optional toppings - we used taco sauce, sour cream, guacamole and cheddar cheese. I also sat out salsa and ketchup which I think some of the kids used.

Directions

The recipe had you mash the beans in a food processor. Mine didn't do a good job, it just threw them to the side then I had to keep scraping them down which is a chore because in a bosch food processor you have to take the whole thing apart and off of the machine to open it and scrape it down. Such a pain, but totally another subject -just don't get a bosch food processor - enough said. I recommend just mashing your black beans with a potato masher. That is what I have done for other recipes and it works great. Either that, or maybe an immersion blender. Either would work much better than the food processor. (Unless of course you have one that works better than mine.)
Place mashed black beans in a large bowl and add bread crumbs, tomato, poblano, egg, and garlic. Mix until combined. Shape into 8-9 patties. (I did add the oil and added extra bread crumbs and even some instant oatmeal to help my patties form. If your patties are too sticky and moist that is what I suggest.)
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet and cook patties in batches 4-6 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. (I actually cooked mine on a large electric skillet sprayed with cooking spray (since I already added the oil. That allowed me to cook all 8 at once.)
Serve on buns. Top with sour cream, guacamole and cheddar cheese if desired. I put a squirt of taco sauce on the bottom bun.

To make our home-made guacamole last night, My husband smashed up 2 avocados, added 1 seeded diced roma tomato, a couple tablespoons finely diced onions, salt and the juice of 1 lemon. That's it and it was tasty!!!

Cranberry Orange breakfast squares

2011-09-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

Must. Stop. Slacking!

Ugh. I can't believe how big of a slacker I've been in cooking, but especially in posting. It started with couches in my kitchen - followed immediately by a broken dishwasher, but all excuses are gone. I must get back. I don't like it when I don't remember what I did or can't find a recipe. Love my blog for that.

So, I'm starting with what is in the oven right now. I'll come back and add some details. This recipe is from a book I'm borrowing from a friend. It is called Country Beans by Rita Bingham. (Don't know why but my Amazon thing is not working so no picture or link of the book today.)

I only changed a little in the recipe, but as always, it is better to write it down before I make something else and forget what I did here.

Since starting, these came out of the oven, and were quite tasty. They got between 4 and 5 stars from everyone. The topping was like a granola but I loved the addition of the coconut flavor to the cake. My silly teenage boys decided it looked like it would be good with milk, so they ate their second piece in a bowl with milk. I'm not one for soggy cake so it looked gross to me, but they assured me it was delicious that way.

Ideas for next time - make them as cupcakes to cook faster. Make them using my regular waffle mix - I actually want to compare the recipes. They seem to be quite close. If they are different, I could just add more bean flour, or make a separate mix. Either way it would make them be much quicker for breakfast.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white bean flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dry milk powder
1 generous Tablespoon frozen orange juice concentrate (they would also be great with some added orange zest)
3/4 cup warm or hot water
3/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 cup whole, raw cranberries (I actually pulsed mine in the food processor to break them up a bit because I wanted smaller chunks)
1 cup chopped pecans

Topping ingredients

2 cups quick oats
1 cup white bean flour
1 cup shredded coconut
4 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons coconut oil

Directions

Mix dry ingredients (first 5) in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients (next 4) in another bowl.
Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in nuts and cranberries. Pour into a 9X13 pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Mix topping ingredients together. Sprinkle over cake. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (mine took 25) or until cake tests done.

Fruit and nut cereal bars and Giveaway winner

2011-09-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

Since my last post was all about snacks, I've wanted to share 2 different recipes I recently found for snacks. I made both last weekend, but they have had to wait to have their turn on the blog because my home was a little crazy with our floors being re-done. I actually spent Monday and Tuesday with my couches in my kitchen. Such fun. Not really. Hard to cook with a couch in front of the oven. I could get to the microwave and stove top though. But was highly un-enthused. Add to that the fact that my dishwasher decided to stop working AGAIN. Who wants to make a ton of dishes then hand wash them all. Not me. Top it off with a bit of sickness at our house this week and I really haven't wanted to cook much. I guess I'm really glad I have a couple of items waiting to be blogged. :) I'm also glad my last post was a giveaway that I didn't mind if stayed up all week. Yea!

Speaking of giveaway, my winner is Marissa - post number 1 again - not sure what is with random.org liking post number 1, but that is what it said again. Believe me, I tried a few more times to make sure it was working. :) So, Congratulations Marissa!!! You should be receiving your package in a couple of weeks.

I happened to love Marissa's comment she said. "We love fresh fruit and air-popped popcorn. However, we just recently discovered "energy bites." The kids call them "energy packs" because they are totally obsessed with video games and they think these give them super energy. :) I just use whatever I have on hand, but the recipe is at http://fooddoodles.com/2011/06/28/one-bowl-all-natural-no-bake-energy-bites/. They all loved them so much, that the neighbor kid that comes over after school asked me to write the recipe down so his mom could make them!"

I just checked out the link and now I have one more recipe to try for snack. Thanks Marissa!

On to the post for today. I found this recipe in my June/July simple and delicious magazine. I liked the varied healthy ingredients in there, but then they were just stuck together with marshmallow. (not that I'm complaining - just surprised me.) So I ended up just calling them beefed up rice crispy treats. The thing is, with all that marshmallow, they were super tasty. They disappeared so quickly. (with me eating more than my share.) I loved a lot of things about them. #1 I really needed to use up some corn flakes. :) #2 I had just bought a ton of dates and this helped use up some. #3 They really did make a nice little quick, energy bar for me after my Summer of Seals event (500 m swim, 2 min push-ups, 2 minutes sit ups, 2 min pull ups, 1.5 mile run.)

Oops - I didn't take a picture of these - Aaaw, I guess I'll have to make them again. ;(

Suggestions for next time - add any dried fruit or nut. dates and apricots were super sticky to chop. They were also time consuming. I'd consider exchanging one of them for raisins on future batches. The peanuts could be easily substituted for other nuts, and the sesame seeds could easily be substituted with any other seed - making this recipe incredibly versatile.

On to the recipe...

Ingredients

8 cups cornflakes
1 package (6 oz.) dried apricots, chopped
1 cup dry roasted peanuts
1 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup butter
1 package (16 oz.) large marshmallows

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the cornflakes, apricots, peanuts, dates, coconut and sesame seeds.
In a saucepan over low heat, melt butter and marshmallows - stirring until smooth.
Pour over cereal mixture, stirring to combine.
Press into a greased 9 X 13 pan. Cool, cut into bars.

New snack ideas and a giveaway

2011-08-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

So, I had every intention of posting this last Monday to coincide with the first day of school here in Houston. I obviously didn't manage that. Somehow the first week of school totally kicked my butt. 4 kids in 3 schools with one left at home will do that to you.

First, I have to share a new idea I have had with snacking. Throughout the last school year I have tried to get snacks somehow organized. I started posting a piece of paper listing what the kids could have on the fridge about mid way through last school year. That was nice, but never intended to be permanent, just a trial. I liked it and ended up keeping it through the school year. The only problem with it was that it was just paper and not easily changeable. With this give away I got a wipe board which just took the place of the paper. Why didn't I think of that before???? I'm actually thinking of eventually getting a new one for lunches, but that is another time and post - it is my next goal. (Sorry for the super sad picture of the wipe board - I had 2 pictures that were better but tried to turn them clockwise and they disappeared. Not sure where they went. I will tell you that I have 3 columns - make is small under the logo, green bucket in the center and fridge. I just change what is under each topic by what I have available.)
My other big idea (for me at least) was my new dry snack bucket. In the bucket there are all sorts of dry snacks - chips, pretzels, home made trail mix, fruit bars, or whatever I've made or bought. I did that last week and loved it. It works for a snack inside a lunch, an afternoon snack, or dry snack for the kindergartener to take. This has solved lots of problems. Although I have a list posted, kids always come in and ask what they can have. I refer them to the list (which includes bucket items, fridge items like yogurt or string cheese or items they can make like popcorn or smoothies.) That saves time in the afternoon and also when packing up for school. I also like that it portions food items. Last week I went through a large costco sized bag of potato chips in 2 days because no one has portion control when eating chips. (No one else has that problem right?) Anyway, I'm loving the organization it is giving me. Next goal - somehow streamline the home lunch making.

Now for my giveaway.

This is a perfect giveaway for the beginning of school/snack post!
I have the following to give away

The prize pack is for the treats -one package of Lucky Charms, and one package of Golden Grahams. I tried to save these treats for the first day of school, but they didn't make it. (Actually I was fine with that since I had hoped to post this on the first day of school and wanted the kids to try them.) Of course the kids loved them because they are what they say - treats. The Lucky Charms one is marshmallow, and the Golden Grahams one is chocolate. These did go in the snack bucket and of course are gone already. They were fun and tasty. Plus if you collect boxtops for your school, each box has 2. Extra added bonus.

I actually liked the rest of the prize pack as well. In addition to the snacks, you get

colored pencils (these look pretty interesting - I think they are made out of paper or something - they have a swirly design. Lots of fun.)
wipe board - I already mentioned above that I'm using this for my snack list as we speak. Very handy.
an insulated bag. This bag looks very nice, but would be for something like a picnic or snacks for the soccer game or something because it is a medium large size. It will come in very handy - I just haven't used it this first week of school.

"Disclosure: Cereal Treats Bars, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark." I received the same prize pack I am giving away but my opinions are my own.

My giveaway question is totally selfish today. I'm always on the lookout for new snack ideas for myself and my kiddos. Sooo....

To enter the giveaway,

leave a comment telling me your favorite snack (for yourself or your kids.)

Contest will run through Friday at noon. Winner will be chosen by random.org. Good luck!

I'll start off with what is listed on our wipe board right now - not that any of these are my "favorite"
Make - smoothies (I usually make green smoothies with lots of fruit.) or popcorn (I air pop it, top it with spray butter then salt, cheese mix or 'pizza' mix)
Snack bucket - chips, trail mix, popcorn balls, veggie straws, craisins, raisins, peanut butter pretzels
Fridge - string cheese, apple, orange, plum, yogurt, celery, carrots

If I had to pick a favorite of the kids for my oldest ??? My second - definitely smoothies, my 3rd - pizza popcorn, and the youngest ?? depends on the day. He likes yogurt a lot and freeze dried fruit. I myself am partial to yogurt or trail mix, but that too depends on the day.

Green Bean Spaghetti Carbonara

2011-08-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

This was a super simple, tasty meal. I loved it. Loved even more that DH cooked it last night. :) This is definitely a keeper for a quick and easy meal. I also happen to think this would be great (actually better) with asparagus.
Oh, the recipe is from Everyday by Rachael Ray. Don't know why I've never tried that magazine before, but I like it. Looking forward to trying more recipes from it.
Also, be on the lookout for a back to school giveaway on Monday.

Ingredients

1 lb spaghetti
1 lb green beans
1/2 lb bacon, chopped (I used pre-cooked and chopped it with scissors)
1 Tablespoon butter (if using precooked bacon)
1 medium onion, diced
2 eggs
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions adding beans halfway through cooking time. Drain reserving 1/4 cup cooking water.
While pasta is cooking, saute the onions in butter until fragrant. Add the bacon and crisp up. (if not using pre-cooked bacon, cook the bacon first then saute onions with the bacon. -So that is how I would do it. DH said he did onions and bacon at the same time.) Deglaze the pan with the reserved pasta water.
Whisk eggs with cheese. Off heat, add pasta, beans, eggs and cheese to skillet and toss. Season with salt and pepper.

Asian apple-chicken salad/dressing

2011-08-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

I found a new food book at the library yesterday. Surprise, surprise right? This one is called 5 a day the better health cookbook. It had a few interesting recipes that I stuck in this week's menu. The first being this one. It really is just a run of the mill salad - nothing super special EXCEPT the homemade dressing. It was simple and reminded me of the Newman's Asian dressing that we normally buy. I secretly have a goal of getting rid of all of our salad dressing bottles and making fresh. It would be totally possible with a dressing as simple as this.

The rest of the salad was simple too. I used my pre-cooked chicken -just had to defrost and my already chopped salad in a jar. I just had to chop an apple and mix the dressing.

Truth be told, the original recipe did have some extra stuff. It had mirin - don't know what it is and I couldn't find it in the Asian aisle so I left it out. It also had parsley and cilantro, but those aren't my favorite so I opted for ease and left them out. I didn't miss the chopping or the flavor, but if you like them, add them. I also left out the green onions. I would probably throw them in next time. The salad did seem to be missing something - not particularly the green onions. Actually I think it was missing a crunch. I almost added some sunflower seeds, but just didn't want to get up again. They would be a nice addition next time though.

As a complete salad this probably gets a 3 star, because it really was missing something - guess I'm getting spoiled in my salads. I like to put lots in them. However, I did really like the dressing and would totally make it again. That gets a 4 or 4.5 star.

Oops, I totally forgot to take a picture - nothing super amazing though. Just a lettuce, chicken and apples.

Ingredients

1 package cubed cooked chicken breast (I grill and freeze mine then thaw as needed.)
2 large apples, cored and cubed (I used red delicious)
2 Tablespoons lime juice (1 lime juiced)
2 Tablespoons orange juice (I had a juicy juice orange tangerine - really had more apple than anything.)
1 Tablespoon light soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon grated ginger (I used a jarred ginger for quick and easy)
1 large head lettuce. (I used about 1 1/2 romaine hearts. The original actually called for 1 lb baby spinach but I wanted to use up my romaine -would be good with spinach though)

Directions

In a small bowl whisk together lime juice, orange juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger.
Toss with apples and lettuce either in a large bowl, or on individual plates.

Brown rice pudding

2011-08-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

This is just a combination of 2 rice puddings I have on this site. (This one that was too dry but convenient to make and rizogalo that was awesome flavor and texture but took forever of stirring to make.) I think next time I'd put 2 lemons worth of lemon zest in it, but other than that I really liked it. No picture because I just didn't take one. It looks a lot like rizogalo.

Ingredients

3 cups cooked brown rice (I used left over for dinner the night before - I had purposely made extra).
3 cups milk
1/4 c coconut palm sugar - or any type of sweetener - sugar, brown sugar, honey.. (It would be tasty with honey)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Zest of 1 lemon (I'd use 2 next time.)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg white

Directions

In a large saucepan, stir together rice, 2 cups milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and lemon zest. Bring to a boil and let cook at a rolling boil for 8 minutes.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg white and 1/2 cup milk. Stir mixture into the cooking rice. Reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Serve

zucchini chocolate cake with sour cream icing

2011-08-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

I came upon a recipe for zucchini chocolate cake with orange glaze in my Taste of home healthy cooking magazine. I really wanted to make it and so I had every plan to and bought the zucchini. I had a ton of tangelos so I figured I was good. However, my boys ate through the tangelos like crazy eating 2-4 at a time and they ended up gone for this and a previous post. However, this week I also saw a recipe on Jami cooks it up for a zucchini cake with sour cream icing. Both cakes were actually quite similar -both even cooked in a fluted tube pan, but Jami's wasn't chocolate. However I did decide to modify and use her sour cream icing idea. Wish I could have made my cake look as good as hers. :) Here is the cake I came up with - mostly the Taste of home cake - minus walnuts and 1 T orange peel - I'd love to try this again with the orange peel and orange glaze. I left the nuts out to make sure all of the kids would eat it - and they did - and loved it. ONLY way to get zucchini into my toddler. (and this cake actually had a good deal.) I even used over 1/2 wheat flour - I could tell I did that, but no child had any complaints - couldn't taste the zucchini at all. This would be great without the wheat flour. I also think it would taste wonderful with chocolate chips.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar (I actually used 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup splenda. I'm not a huge artificial sweetener fan anymore, but I still have a bag of splenda so I decided to use some here.)
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 1/2 cup white wheat ground on the pastry setting in my grinder and 1 cup white)
1/2 cup cocoa (I used dutch process)
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tesapoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup milk (I had 2 % today)
3 cups shredded zucchini - I had 3 medium and it was only about 2.5 cups shredded

Icing ingredients

1/4 cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Coat a 10 inch fluted tube pan with cooking spray and sprinkle with flour. Preheat oven to 350.
In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in applesauce and vanilla.
Combine flour, (or flours if using wheat and white) cocoa, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and soda; add to the creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Fold in zucchini.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes (mine took 60) or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack to cool completely.
In a medium bowl beat icing ingredients together until smooth. Frost.

Creamy Spinach Lasagna Roll-ups

2011-08-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

I made these for dinner the other day, but the left overs as still sitting in the fridge. Doesn't make me want to write out the whole recipe. I will still add the link and a few notes for next time.

First of all, I'm not sure why I chose this, I'm not a huge fan of Alfredo sauces, so don't take all my negative commentary as a fact that these are no good. You may like them. I just didn't care for them much. The sauce ended up just being a simple white sauce which was fine, but I ended up wanting it to have more flavor, and if making this again, I'd probably add some Parmesan to the white sauce. I also thought it needed more sauce, or that the sauce should be thinner. The recipe said to slightly undercook the noodles so they didn't break - which I did. I assumed they would completely cook in the sauce, which they may have a little, I can't actually remember. What I do remember is feeling like the sauce was sticky and needed to be a bit thinner and a bit more plentiful for my tastes.

The original recipe from Recipe Shoebox would make a ton. I tried to make less. Used about 2/3 of everything, but then 1/2 the garlic powder and the same amount of Italian seasoning because I like that... I didn't however cut the white sauce down by any and I still wish there was a bit more - or maybe add a can of tomato sauce to the white sauce with some Italian seasoning and make it a mix of white and red sauce - not sure - these are just ideas because I did like the idea of a lasagna roll up. They were cute. I also liked that they were vegetarian. I liked the spinach, mozzarella, and Parmesan on the inside. It really was the white sauce that ruined this for me. I could make it again with some modifications.

Mango quinoa salad

2011-08-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a recipe I found on Mel's kitchen cafe, but it originally came from the biggest loser and was also posted on Our Best Bites. So, obviously a popular one. With a pedigree like that you'd think I'd leave it alone, but I cut out a bit of vinegar and half of the oil, and definitely left out a good deal of the cilantro. It was still very tasty, and colorful. I love a meal that looks pretty.
It was definitely tasty. I even ate the left overs the next day for lunch. Always a good sign. :)

Ingredients

2 cups cooked quinoa (3/4 cups dry) cooked in vegetable or chicken broth, at room temperature or chilled
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium mango, peeled and diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 green onions, white and green parts thinly sliced
1-2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

In a small bowl whisk together vinegar, oil, lime juice, salt and pepper.
In a large bowl combine the remaining ingredients. Pour dressing over the top and stir to combine.

Menu 8/12/2011

2011-08-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

Menu wins a post on the blog again this week.

Dinners
Orange chicken
Strawberry salmon
Crock pot cabbage rolls (didn't get to these last week)

Lime chicken fajitas

Veggie burgers - whole foods p. 66 & p. 154
Will be trying my hand at making soy milk in preparation for the veggie burgers - p. 153
Chili p. 109
Refried beans -p109
Hummus p. 109

I'm winging the rest. Even though I had a plan for lunch and breakfast last week I only semi followed it. Plus I'd like to get grocery shopping done soon. :)

Quick wheat pizza dough

2011-08-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

So I decided to do movie night with pizza as a bribe to get my kids to work really hard on cleaning the playroom. They did a decent job helping and the room looks ton better so I had to make good on my promise (not to mention the meal I had planned for today was slow cooker, so when I made the bribe I really hoped they followed through.) However, planning pizza on short notice doesn't work for our favorite pizza dough recipe, so I looked for a new one. What I made was a cross between a quick recipe I had in a book and one I saw on Mel's kitchen cafe with my own twist of agave because I like to sweeten my wheat bread with agave. I made a lot because typically my family can go through a lot of pizza. We did end up with a decent amount of left overs, but DH is out of town, and DS2 didn't eat quite as much as he normally does - could be that we made some tasty smoothies to go with our meal. -Our new green smoothie ingredient thanks to that same DS- Ovaltine. He got fancy when I wasn't looking yesterday. But, that's another post (maybe.)

Here's how I made the pizza dough today - It made 3 large pizzas.

Ingredients

2 cups warm water
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 Tablespoons agave
1 teaspoon garlic salt
5 1/4 cups wheat flour (more or less)

Directions

Preheat oven to 500. Combine all ingredients in a mixer. Mix with a dough hook until smooth and pliable. Let rest/rise while preparing sauce/toppings.
Punch dough down. Divide into 3 balls. Roll each out to desired size/thickness. sprinkle a pizza peel with cornmeal. Roll up the edge of the dough. (this will form the crust when flipped over.) Gently flip the pizza crust over onto the pizza peel. Give it a shake to make sure it will slide - if not add more cornmeal underneath before topping. Top pizza as desired.
Bake for 5-6 minutes. (I did all of mine 6, but they were slightly overdone, so I'd probably do about 5 min 30 seconds or something.

Wheat rolls

2011-08-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

I made a turkey burger from Mel's kitchen cafe the other day only I didn't have turkey, but did have some sirloin steaks that needed to be used. So we ground the meat and made burgers with her slaw. It really wasn't my favorite and I'm still debating posting. I have to wait for input from Brandon because he made the burgers and had some substitutions. I made the slaw and basically just doubled the recipe. Still it was too tangy for me. I'm just not a slaw person. I thought I might enjoy it because it was made with romaine instead of cabbage, but it is definitely the vinegar/mayo dressing that I'm not a fan of. Anyway, I may end up posting it when DH returns from China, because he is a slaw fan. I'll have to see how much he liked them. What I do want to post are the buns I made from her site. They were great, and according to her, she uses them for every type of bun or roll. They worked great and I liked them for our burgers. Plus they were pretty simple to make.

Oh, I also have to add, she had a great tutorial on making buns. I thought I knew how to roll my dough in a nice circle, but of course out of curiosity I had to check out her tutorial and try it. I really liked it. Made perfect little circles.

Sorry about yet another tangent. Now on to the recipe. I slightly adapted Mel's recipe. I'm not putting super detailed instructions. If you would like those, definitely click on the link above to her site. In addition to the link about shaping dough, she has a nice one about yeast dough. Definitely one of my favorite blogger.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water
3/4 Tablespoon instant yeast
2 Tablespoons agave
2 Tablespoons oil (I used a healthy blend oil)
4 cups fresh ground wheat flour, give or take a few Tablespoons. I think I used 4 cups 2 Tablespoons
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Combine water, yeast, agave, oil, 3 cups flour and salt in a mixer with a dough hook. Knead until well mixed. Gradually add last cup of flour until dough pulls away from the edge of the bowl.
Let the mixer continue kneading until smooth and elastic (about 5 more minutes)
Cover and let rise until doubled. (About 1 hour.)
Once risen, punch dough down, divide into 12 portions and shape as desired. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until double. Bake at 400 for 12-14 minutes.

Banana muffins

2011-08-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't even pay attention to my own blog to know I had already tried a banana muffin with waffle mix, but I made this one differently, so I'll go ahead and post it as well. It too was good. I had no trouble getting people to eat them. I was really trying to get the right amount of mix to fill 12 muffin tins, but this time I was a bit over.
I again was following the 3 parts mix, 2 parts fruit, 1 part yogurt, 1 part sweetener (but I use way less) rule. This time with 3/4 a cup which was a bit more tricky, but doable.
Here is a link to the others I made. I can't say which I liked better because obviously I don't remember the last ones. In my defense I did make them while DH was at scout camp, and that was the entire summer ago. :)

Ingredients

2.25 cups waffle mix
4 medium bananas, smashed
3/4 cup yogurt. (I used a 4 oz. vanilla cup, and a 3.5 oz chobani honey nana - it stirred down to not be much. Together they were 3/4 cup)
2 Tablespoons agave
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Mix ingredients together in a bowl. Divide evenly among 10-12 greased muffin tins. Bake at 375 for 18-22 minutes.

sweet corn bread

2011-08-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

When we made three bean chili the other day, Brandon wanted to make corn bread. It is actually very traditional for us to make cornbread with three bean chili, so I looked for my regular recipe on the blog and it wasn't there. I couldn't believe I had never posted it. This is my favorite corn bread recipe. It is the one my mom used. She has called it Marie Calendar's corn bread before, but in my mom recipe book it just says sweet corn bread.
Normally we make this in a 8 X 8, 9 X 13, or if we want to be quick, in a cup cake pan, but this day, Brandon decided he would make these as waffles. They worked out fine that way. A bit drier than usual as a waffle, but super speedy to make that way.

Ingredients

1/2 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar (or 1/2 spenda, 1/2 sugar, or other healthier substitute)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
3 Tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk

Directions

Mix dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt). In another container mix wet ingredients (oil, butter, eggs and milk.)
Mix the wet and dry ingredients. Pour into greased 8 X 8 pan or double and use a 9 X 13 pan (or use muffin tins or make as waffles) Bake at 350 for 35 minutes (8 X 8) or 45 for 9 X 13 - I think muffin tins take around 20 minutes.

One pot chicken and rice

2011-08-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Here is the one pot chicken and rice meal that I tried from Mel's kitchen cafe this week. I tried to change it and use brown rice rather than white. To make up for the additional cooking time needed for brown rice, I just added my chicken partially frozen. None the less, the chicken ended up dry. It was much better when I shredded it up, stirred it in the rice and had it that way for left overs today.
This was quite tasty. I would make it again, but would probably just defrost some pre-cooked chicken and add it at the end with the corn and beans. I could also see myself making this vegetarian and using an additional can of black beans. As it was I only used about half of the meat the original called for. (which was plenty)

Here is how I made it.

Ingredients

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 lb -I cut mine into a 4-5 pieces)
2 Tablespoons butter
1 sweet onion, diced
1 teaspoon garlic minces (or powder)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 cups brown rice
1 32 oz container chicken stock (4 cups)
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups frozen corn
1 cup cheese (I used cheddar jack)
cilantro (if desired - I forgot it and wasn't sad)
salsa and sour cream for serving if desired (I tried it like that - it was OK, but not necessary in my opinion)

Directions

In a large pot, saute the onions in butter until golden. Add chili, cumin, and garlic minces. Stir to combine.
Add the rice and saute until rice absorbs the remaining oil. Add chicken stock. Bring to a simmer. Add chicken. (I'd actually wait to add the chicken until about 1/2 way done next time.) Cover and simmer for about 50 minutes (until rice is done, adding chicken after about 25 minutes -next time of course.)
When rice is done, remove chicken, add beans, corn, cheese and cilantro. Heat through. Serve with chicken, adding sour cream and salsa if desired.

Well, I'm back from vacation and trying to get a menu and grocery list put together quickly. I know I haven't posted a menu in ages. I've been keeping them in a calendar. However, it was one of those school year calendars, and it is out of pages, so back to the blog I go. Funny how since I'm posting this on the blog, I'm actually checking out other blogs for meal ideas. When I write it down I tend to look in cookbooks more.

Breakfast Ideas
Homemade granola
Waffles and/or muffins using waffle mix
omelets
crepes (try with waffle mix - I haven't attempted this yet.) Use berries and/or make berry/agave syrup for topping
English muffins (try with whole wheat and agave)
mini german pancakes
french toast

Dinners -many coming to you from Mel and Mel's kitchen cafe. LOVE that site - and have I mentioned that if you comment, she always seems to comment back. So nice. Anyway, got multiple things that I'd love to try from there.
Turkey burgers with romaine and carrot slaw
Mango and black bean quinoa salad
one-pot southwest chicken and rice

And a new one from recipe shoebox
Spinach lasagna rolls

And some 5 stars from here
Crock pot cabbage rolls
3 bean chili

lunches
left overs, quesadillas, peach and black bean soup
tuna salad, cucumber sandwiches with chickpea salad (but make it white bean salad)

Other things to try

zucchini chocolate cake with orange glaze HC p. 20

Winner

2011-07-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

I am currently on vacation and don't have a new post, but I do want to say congratulations to the winner of the Land o lakes giveaway - poster #1 Jen who said "Um...I LOVE cinnamon and sugar on my french toast! Cinnamon roll french toast from Ruby's is my favorite & I bet I could replicate that pretty easily with this!"

Congratulations!! I will be contacting you shortly to get your shipping info.

I'll be back to posting when I get back from vacation next week. In the meantime, definitely check out these cheese enchiladas. We'll be making those for family tomorrow night. Third time in a month - sure sign of a winning recipe for us. :)

Land o lakes cinnamon sugar butter giveaway

2011-07-26T05:31:00.000-07:00

Guess what?? I am doing my first giveaway!!

So a while back I signed up at my blog spark to do surveys and giveaways. I couple of weeks ago they sent me the opportunity to do a giveaway. I have to say this was so much fun!
First of all, the product I was sent was Land o Lakes cinnamon sugar butter. This stuff is so tasty! If you like cinnamon toast, you'll love this. Basically they took the toppings of cinnamon toast and mixed them up in one easy to use spread with all natural ingredients. My husband says I'm addicted to it.

This prize pack also included all of this stuff.

The little waffle iron makes waffles, but like pancakes - I tried the recipe on the back for super simple buttermilk waffle pancakes. They were pretty good. The red spatula worked perfectly to flip the waffles. (As a tip if you are the winner, do NOT overfill the squares. Leave space in between the waffles. It isn't too bad to turn them one at a time, but trying to turn 4 at a time was a chore. The waffles turn out pretty cute because the squares are so tiny. (Oh, and the waffles were good with cinnamon sugar butter.)

I have a very similar heart shape cookie cutter that I used last week to make English muffins. I'm actually glad to have a second because everyone (at least the kids) wanted the heart shaped English muffin the other day. Yum!

Back to the butter, We've had this entirely on bread products. (fresh bread from the oven, toast the next day, waffles, and crescents - I wish I had a picture of the crescent rolls, but that was totally spur of the moment snacking. We opened them up, spread the cinnamon butter on them and rolled them back together. Think of an easy cinnamon roll. YUM!)

The package suggests some other uses -try it on hot cereal, baked apples, vegetables and more.

To enter the giveaway, leave me a comment telling me how you would use the cinnamon butter and/or another flavor of butter you'd like to see. You have until Friday night (7/29) to enter. Winner will be chosen by random.org and posted on Saturday morning.

For an additional entry, post about this giveaway on your blog or facebook and leave a comment letting me know that you did.

Good luck.

Now I'm off to find the waffle recipe that came on the little waffle iron. (Yes, I've lost it already - surely it was thrown in the trash. I hope Norpro posted it online. It was so simple. Should have blogged it. :)

Disclaimer: Although I was provided with the same prize pack I am giving away, the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

English muffins

2011-07-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

Brandon wanted me to make Eggs Benedict for either father's day or his birthday, and it just didn't happen on either of those days. (with home made English Muffins and everything.) However, I did finally get them done. We had wanted to try an Alton Brown recipe we had seen on Good Eats, but on the day we finally decided that we had time to do these we hadn't started the dough the night before. However, we found another good recipe on The food network to try and it worked out great. It is yet another Alton Brown recipe - just not the overnight one. Just click on over to their site. Brandon made the dough. I scooped did the baking after it had risen. I highly doubt he changed anything, so no need for me to post my version. :)
I did like making them in fun shapes. Everyone wanted the heart shaped one.

I definitely want to try these again. They were not overly difficult. I'd love to try them in a wheat variety. I'm also pretty sure that this is from the muffin man episode and he did some flavored ones (like blueberry or something) that I'd love to try. Certainly I'll think twice before buying them at the grocery store. (Although I do need to get another set of rings.

crescent rolls

2011-07-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is the roll recipe I used to make the chicken squares the other day. I actually didn't change anything from the original recipe over at Mel's kitchen Cafe. (I can't say enough good things about her site. I love it.) I did only use a 1/2 batch for the chicken squared and used the other 1/2 batch to make crescents. I just rolled out all of the dough and cut it into 12 triangles (as opposed to Mel's 3 batches with only 8 wedges each.)
Here is Mel's recipe + my commentary.

Ingredients

2 cups milk
2/3 cup yellow corn meal (I used ground popcorn with no problem)
1 ½ tablespoons instant yeast
½ cup (1 stick) butter (I used a frozen stick from my freezer -helped cool my corn meal mix)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
5 ½ – 6 cups flour (I used all 6 cups)

Directions

Heat the milk to just below a boil so bubbles are just appearing around the edges. Add the cornmeal and cook and stir until thickened, lowering the temperature if needed so the mixture doesn’t boil (she has a lovely picture of the consistency here. Pour the cornmeal/milk mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl and let cool until lukewarm. (or be lazy like me and add frozen butter and let that melt in/cool your mix.) Add the yeast, butter (If you weren't lazy) and sugar. Mix. Add the salt and eggs. Mix well. Add the flour gradually until a soft dough forms. Knead for 5-8 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl covered with lightly greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled.

Divide the dough into three portions and roll each into about an 8-10 inch circle. Brush the top lightly with butter. Cut into 8 wedges and roll each wedge up starting from the wide end so it forms a crescent roll shape. Place each roll on a lightly greased or silpat- or parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing about 1-2 inches apart to allow for rising. Cover lightly with greased plastic wrap. Let the rolls rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Brush with butter while still warm.

Wheat berry salad

2011-07-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yet another recipe I picked, but then worried if I or anyone else would like. Luckily I was pleasantly surprised. It was tasty. I had seconds and DH did too, but I do have to say, the left overs are not calling my name.
This meal comes from a book I have called healthy meals by Jonni McCoy. A lot of her recipes will do something like call for 2 cups meat, or 3 cups veggies - with some suggestions of what to use. This recipe was that way. It called for 3 cups diced veggies with suggestion to use broccoli, carrots, celery, bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, leeks, etc. DH chose leeks. I wasn't the hugest fan of the leeks but I think I probably overcooked them a tiny bit. Other than that, the flavor of this dish was nice - a nice Italian red sauce flavor. I doubled the original and of course adapted it.

Ingredients

1 cup wheat berries
4 cups water
3 leeks, chopped (I only chopped the white section and barely into the green because I didn't feel like washing the dirt off each individual strand.)
3 carrots, sliced
5-6 tiny sweet bell peppers, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes (I may have used 2 cans - original was 1, and I wrote notes in my book of all my changes, but not that I used 2 cans of tomatoes. Hmm. Would be good with 2.)
2 teaspoons lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)
4 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Heat wheat and water in a sauce pan until boiling. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until berries are tender.
Meanwhile, in a separate sauce pan, cover the carrots with water, bring to a boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes then remove from the heat and drain. They should still be a bit crisp.
In a large skillet, heat butter and coconut oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until onion is clear. Add remaining veggies and continue cooking until veggies are desired doneness. Drain the berries and add them while stirring. Add tomatoes, lemon juice and seasonings and cook until heated through - 2 to 3 minutes.

Simplifying and an announcement

2011-07-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

I feel like I should be behind in my posting, (and I am a bit, but only by one post.) I guess because it is summer and I'm a little lazy, or maybe because I'm actually using my blog the way I originally intended (looking for recipes our family has rated 5 stars) to plan my meals, but probably a combination of the both. Sure has been nice not to post nearly as often. (After finishing this post I have decided it comes down to simplifying - which I ended up using to title the post.) Below are 2 of my favorite new ways to simplify. I'm still trying new things all the time, but sticking with a simple base of something.

The first thing I have been truly enjoying -that I don't post always is the waffle/muffin mix. I love that for breakfast. I can make waffles, pancakes, or muffins of any flavor. Most have been good. (Although I tried some with lime yesterday that were too tangy for me.) Anyway, I love that. It has accomplished 2 of my latest food goals - eat more healthy, and simplify.

The second thing that I have really liked this week has been salad in a jar. I made a super simple dinner last night of ham, salad and mashed potatoes. Since there was nothing to do for the ham, I chopped various salad toppings to go on the lettuce that I had chopped and put in the jar. I don't consider myself a real big salad person. In fact they often don't seem to appeal to me (except at a restaurant. -could have something to do with the prep work involved.) So last night I chopped sweet peppers, shredded carrots (3 jars worth - 2 for muffins, 1 for salads.) Point being, I had a great salad with lettuce, spinach, sweet pepper, sliced almonds, shredded carrot, and freeze dried strawberries. I couldn't believe how yummy it was. The best thing about it - if I want to do it again, everything is already ready in the fridge. Maybe one day if I get better at this salad business, I'll do a post of my favorite salad toppings, but for now, I'm very happy with that way to simplify. My new goal for the week - use all of the salad I put in jars by replacing cooked veggie side dish with a fresh salad. Baby steps for us at our house. We may end up eating healthier yet.

ANNOUNCEMENT
I will actually be doing a give away on this blog either later this week or next week, so stay tuned.

Cheese enchiladas

2011-07-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

Update - yes, I did just post these this past week and they have an update already. They were really good and we made them again this week. Much better with store bought corn tortillas. Wish I could make those properly, but I can't (yet anyway) This time we did add the pepper, and used 4 8 oz cans of tomato sauce. I updated the recipe accordingly. Still very yummy.

So, I have wanted to try this enchilada sauce on my sisters food blog for ever - (seriously, for like over a year - it was posted in May of 2010.) Anyhoo,(wow, that only stays and doesn't get edited because it is so something my sister would say, so in honor of this being her recipe, Anyhoo...) since I've been doing more vegetarian meals, and decided to do cheese enchiladas. I remembered this home-made sauce, so I decided to try it. I ended up changing it a bit. It still turned out well. I think I could have added more spice. I had planned on doubling the chili powder (from what I added -which was 1/2 the original.) but I ran out. I also debated adding 1/2 teaspoon pepper to add some spice but didn't. This turned out to be a wonderful mild sauce. You could always add more chili powder or black pepper to make it spicier. This is great for little ones who don't like it too hot.
I also tried to make some tortillas out of maseca - that was a failure. They turned out like mush in the enchiladas (not to mention the fact that they were insanely hard to make because the dough was stickier than with flour tortillas.)

Ingredients

1-1.5 Tablespoons butter
1 large onion, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2-1 teaspoon salt
1.5 Tablespoon chili powder
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 29 oz can tomato sauce (or even 4 8 oz cans)
1/2 cup water
tortillas (enough to fill the pan. I made probably around 16 or so - I prefer corn, so I made some corn and some flour)
cheese - enough to go inside and on top - 2-3 cups or so

Directions

In a large saute pan, Saute onions in butter until softened. Add garlic and salt and saute for another minute or 2. Add chili powder, cumin and sugar. Stir another minute - until fragrant. Stir in tomato sauce and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes (I did this while making some tortillas)
To make enchiladas, pour a bit of the sauce in the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan. Dip the tortilla in the sauce (the sauce in the saute pan.) Add a handful of cheese. Roll up and put in the pan. Continue until the pan is full of tortillas. Pour remaining sauce on top. Top with additional cheese.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

My new playtoy

2011-07-14T19:10:00.000-07:00

Update 9/26/2011 - I love this jar sealer. I now always buy my lettuce in bulk at costco, bring it home, chop it and put it in the jars. Makes meal time so much quicker and makes me more likely to eat salad. I also seal my brown sugar (keeps it from going hard) my brown rice (hoping this keeps it from going rancid since I bought 25 lbs - it is not something I normally store because when it gets old it is bad.) Same for nuts - I have pecans, walnuts and almonds that got to move out of the fridge opening up a lot of space there. I also have some other grains that are prone to get bugs in them stored in jars. Then there are the mixes I have stored in there -a taco seasoning that I made, a veggie mix of dehydrated veggies..... Very useful ~~toy~~ tool.

Update: - The spinach didn't work so well, and it kind of ruined the salad. It got all wet and mushy. I'm trying again this week with just spinach and just salad (seperate jars) and tried to dry the salad a little better. Will post results next week. I've also tried chopping some bell peppers and shredding some carrots - in other smaller jars. Will post how that goes as well.

So I finally broke down and bought a foodsaver the other day. Then I got a wide mouth jar lid attachment. Totally my new favorite toy. A friend of mine told me about this salad in a jar blog, so I had to try it. I already buy the spinach in the huge bag at costco hoping I'll make green smoothies out of it, but inevitably (every time but 1 I think) I end up tossing a good portion of the bag. I'll never buy the lettuce because I know it will go bad. However, with the foodsaver at home, I bought both the huge bag of spinach, and the 6 romaine hearts and turned it into this.

So far so good. I've used a couple on Cafe Rio pork salad that we had yesterday and the day before. I have to say it was so nice to have the lettuce/spinach mix all ready and just have to pop the top. I made a bunch of lettuce/spinach mixes for salads and then a few pure spinach for smoothies. Hopefully that will cut down on my waste.

I also packed my nuts in these and took them out of the fridge - Yea, more fridge space. I now need to go and pack my brown rice. :) Like I said, my new favorite toy.