Dark and Soft Dinner rolls

This is the roll recipe I was supposed to write down the other day.  I guess I skipped it because I didn't go grab the cookbook it was in.  It is from the King Arthur's whole grain baking book.  It is a fun one to try out different grains although this only used wheat flour and regular flour.  It did use some cocoa.  When I made them I tried to speed them along a little.  I think they may have been a little lighter and fluffier if I had #1 weighed my ingredients instead of measured them, and #2 taken the time to do a full first and second rise.  However the flavor was really good.  They would be wonderful if just a little lighter in texture.








Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water
• 1/3 cup orange juice (I think I would warm this next time.  I didn't like that it cooled my dough -especially since I was trying to speed up the process.
• 4 Tablespoons butter cubed
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 1/4 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa  (calls for Dutch-process, but I used regular)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (I did use a bit more.)

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix in a mixer or by hand until you have a medium-soft, smooth dough.  Cover and allow to rise until nice an puffy but not doubled in bulk (1-2 hours.)
2. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
3. Deflate dough and transfer to greased work surface.  Divide dough into 10 even pieces (about 4 oz. each), shape into 5 X 2 inch oval rolls.  Place on prepared cookie sheet and allow to rise covered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  Towards the end of the rise, preheat oven to 350.
4. Bake 25-30 min or until bottoms appear slightly browned.  

Strawberries and cream cake

Benjamin decided he wanted to make a cake for FHE the other day and this is what he picked.  We didn't have fresh strawberries to garnish it, or the strawberry syrup to go in it, but I knew I could do the same thing as a jello cake, so this is a combination of the cream part of strawberries and cream cake and a jello cake.  .  The recipe idea came from a Betty Crocker magazine that I have from last year. It was much more fancy having a strawberry topping of strawberries, strawberry jam, and sugar and lime twists.  We didn't do that part.
This cake was nice because it was cold and it has been hot outside.  The kids had it for snack yesterday and today after school.  This is how we made it.

Ingredients

• 1 box french vanilla cake mix
• 1 1/4 cups half and half
• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 package strawberry jello (I used sugar free because that is what I use.)
• 1 cup water
• 1 container cool whip, thawed

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350.  Spray bottom and sides of 9 X 13 pan with baking spray with flour.
2. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, half and half, oil, and eggs on low until combined, then on medium for 2 minutes until smooth.  Pour into pan
3. Bake (directions say 25-30 minutes it took me more like 40-45) until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 20 minutes. 
4. Make Jello syrup by combining hot water with jello and stirring until dissolved.   Poke cake every inch with tines of a meat fork or a table knife.  
5. Pour syrup slowly over cake making sure to pour into the holes and not down the side of the cake.  Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours until completely cool.  
6. Top cake with cool whip.

slow cooked meat loaf

I actually made this yesterday but we haven't eaten it yet because I forgot we had an awards thing to go to which turned out to be dinner.  I cleaned out my small slow cooker and refilled it  with slow cooked mac 'n cheese tonight.  That is the best home made mac 'n cheese I've had, and it is light for a mac 'n cheese.  Can't wait for dinner tonight.  Hoping the meatloaf is equally as good.  Both of these recipes are slow cookers that only take 3 hours to cook.  Kind of a nice option.

Ingredients

• 1 cup soft bread crumbs (I used 4 pieces of toast, crumbled in the blender)
• 1 1/2 cups spaghetti sauce, divided
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 2 Tablespoons minced onion (I didn't have any so I used some onion powder.)
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 lbs lean ground beef (I had 2.25 of ground sirloin)

Directions

1. The recipe had you line your crock pot by making 4 20" x 3" strips of foil placing them in the crock pot  crisscross so they look like the spokes of a wheel.  It still seeped through the foil, but it made it really easy to remove.
2. Combine all ingredients except 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce in a large bowl. Mix together and form into a loaf.  Place in the slow cooker.
3. Top with remaining sauce.  Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours or until internal temp of 160.   

Turkey bean burgers

x

The original of this recipe is from taste of home's simple and delicious magazine.  I changed things around to make more than 4 burgers.  They were tasty, but they fell apart when cooked.  That is probably totally my fault because the original recipe called for an egg white and I subbed out egg substitute.  Next time I'd use 1 egg for this amount to see if that helped the staying together problem.)  I liked that they had hidden veggies in them.  DH even said he would have never known they had zucchini in them had he not read the recipe and watched me make the burgers.  That is saying something because he doesn't like zucchini.

Ingredients

• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 egg
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1 cup finely chopped sweet pepper (I think I used orange)
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1.25 lb. ground turkey (lean)

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, coarsely mash beans.  Add the egg, zucchini, red pepper, and spices and turkey.  Mix together and form into 6 patties.
2. Grill on the barbecue for 4-5 minutes on each side or until internal temp. of 165.  Serve on buns with lettuce and onion.

beef and bean tacos

This original recipe was from Taste of home's Healthy cooking magazine, but it was hearty pita tacos.  I didn't feel like having them with pitas, but the concept of not using taco seasoning and adding beans and other veggies.  looked good to me.  I also love taco sauce.  I did change some of the spices as well.  There were no left overs if that is any indications.  Only the baby wouldn't eat them.  This was another meal that was really pretty cooking with the color of the kidney beans, the sweet pepper, and the green onions.  I took a picture of that too.


Ingredients

• 1 lb. lean ground beef (I used pre-cooked)
• 1 small sweet red pepper, chopped (mine was orange)
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 can (16 oz.) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2/3 cup taco sauce
• 1 can (2.25 oz) sliced olives drained
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• corn tortillas
• shredded cheddar
• sliced avocado
• sour cream
• additional taco sauce

Directions

1. Defrost beef in microwave for 2 minutes (fry if not using pre-cooked.)
2. Place beef, red pepper, green onion, kidney beans, frozen corn, taco sauce and seasonings in a large frying pan.  Heat until corn is defrosted and mixture is warmed.
3. Spoon into taco shells.  Top with cheese, olives (they were originally supposed to be cooked into the meal, but I forgot.  I liked them sprinkled on top.)  avacado, additional taco sauce and sour cream.  

Tasty and a good dose of veggies without 

cheesy soy veggie wrap

This is my modification of Hungry girl's cheesy beefy supreme wrap.  I don't think it needed the laughing cow.  Not sure what it added, and I don't know how she got 30 g of protein and 8 grams of fiber even with added veggies and a plus taco shell that has more protein and fiber I only ended up with 27.5 g of protein and 6 g of fiber.  My calories were higher with the added ingredients, but still were 339.  The only other things I did were use less taco seasoning, more taco sauce, change the directions..
If I make this again, I think I would leave out the laughing cow and add more cheese possibly.  I would definitely add the veggies again.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ground beef style soy crumbles
• 1/2 wedge The Laughing Cow light swiss cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon taco seasoing
• 1 Tablespoon taco sauce, divided
• 1 flour tortilla (I recommend a pretty large one.  Mine had 130 cal.)
• 1/3 cup shredded fat free cheddar
• 1/3 cup corn
• 1/3 medium sweet pepper diced (mine was orange today.)
• 1 Tablespoon fat free sour cream

Directions

1. Place soy crumbles, cheese wedge half and taco seasoning in a bowl, breaking cheese into pieces as you add it.  Microwave for 1 minute.  Add 1/2 Tablespoon taco sauce, stir and set aside.
2. Put tortilla on a plate, top with soy crumble mixture, corn, and cheddar cheese.  Microwave 40 seconds or until shredded cheese begins to melt. 
3. Top with sweet pepper, 1/2 Tablespoon taco sauce and sour cream.
4. Wrap the best you can.  Mine ended up looking more like a taco.  It was way full.

Tomato-molasses pork loin

This was another tasty dish from Family Dinner Fix. I followed the recipe exactly, so I won't post it, but is in page 154. I liked the meat and sauce. The sauce was a really interesting combination with ketchup, garlic, mustard, chipotle chili powder, sesame oil, Worcestershire sauce and molasses. Like I said, different. Kind of a barbecue flavor with a tiny bit of asian flair and the tiniest bit of spice. Really different and good. I served it over rice with spinach salad and baby carrots.