Green Smoothie!

I got inspired this morning by my friend Adrien to make a green smoothie.  She often makes green smoothies and posts on Facebook about what she's put it them.  I decided to try my hand at one as I had a couple "odd" greens that needed some using.

I added in a bunch of radish greens (had never eaten those before), a good handful of misc greens from our CSA farm at Portage River Farms, 1 avocado, 1 small yellow mango, some lemon juice, ice and water.

It made about 4 - 8oz cups.  Enough to share, although the kids weren't interested.  I got to drink about 2.5 cups before my daughter came by and spilled it. :-/  The rug must have needed a little chlorophyl this morning.

Next time I should attempt to make a smoothie my kids will drink, or at least try.

Mexican Lasagna

All done with turkey?  Why not make tacos - then make a Mexican lasagna with the left overs for another night.

Layer beef, tortillas (corn or flour soft tortillas), diced tomatoes, and cheese just like a regular lasagna in a large 9x13 pan (or 9x9 if you don't have that many left overs).  Bake until hot and bubbly and nicely toasty on top at 350 or so (maybe about 45 mins).  It got nice and crispy cheesy on top.

Serve with sour cream on top.  Yum!

What Can You Make from 2 Large Pork Chops

I often post what I've been making for dinner, etc on my facebook page.  I got asked today to tell how I made a pork stock for my pork & tortilla soup.  Well, it all started with these huge bone in pork chops that were, well, really really salty right out of the store.  So much so that if we smoked them on the grill they tasted like ham.  Not so good when you just want grilled pork chops!

So, I needed to make them into something we could actually eat.  These two giant bone-in pork chops (probably about 1/3-1/2lb each) made probably about 11 or 12 meals total, maybe more.

Night 1:  I used most of 1 pork chop to make some pork fried rice.  Diced up the large part of 1 pork chop and mixed with a couple cups of day old rice, chopped carrots, celery, fried egg, frozen peas, some chopped onion (1/2 large onion diced) and likely some garlic.  A bit of soy sauce once it's all fried up and poof!  Fried Rice.

Night 2:  I took the pork chop that was left, and the bone from the other one and simmered it in a small-ish pot with some water and taco seasoning (no sodium/salt) until it was very tender and falling off the bone.  I then shredded the pork with a couple forks and  made some corn tortillas for tacos.

Night 3: Took the bones from the pork chops and the left over "juice" from simmering the now shredded pork and put in lots of water for a big pot of stock.  Added in celery, carrots, the rest of that onion from the fried rice, more taco seasoning and simmered until it was stock like.  Added in an appropriate amount of salt (not much since it was so salty to begin with), took out the bones and added the shredded pork back in.  I then brought the pot up to boiling and whisked in a few tablespoons of corn meal into the pot to thicken it up... Not too much or you end up with a big thick pot of polenta.  (Wrong ethnicity for this dish. ;-) )  Mixed in a good serving of shredded cheese.  Served this up with baked tortilla strips (cut the left over tortillas from the tacos in strips and baked them), chopped/diced tomatoes, more shredded cheese, and some kefir yogurt (thickened by draining off the whey) - instead of sour cream.

Ate these same 2 pork chops for at least 2 meals of fried rice - for 4, and 3.  Then tacos for 4, and then tortilla soup for 4 and 4 or 5 the next day (forget if DH took it for lunch or not ;-) ).

So, for chops that were way too salty to just eat as chops, they stretched pretty far.  The same idea can be done with a whole chicken.  Must do that again soon.

Apologies for no pictures, I must remember to do that. :/

Quick Jam

Decided I needed some fresh jam the other day to go with some fresh baked bread.  So I quick attempted a batch.  Had to tweak it a bit, but it worked pretty well after all was said and done.

Used about 2 cups of frozen mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
3 packets of gelatin
1/4-1/3 cup of sugar
little extra water

Brought the frozen mixed berries to a boil and disolved the gelatin in it.  Stirred in the sugar. Poured it into a pint jar and topped it with a plastic cap.  Refrigerate until set.

It was a bit too thick, but I didn't really measure anything much, so I reheated it in the microwave (just for 15 seconds until soft) and put in a bit more water, stirred and it was perfect.  Not too sweet with lots of nice pieces of fruit.

This jam was great with the fresh English Muffins and the home made soynut butter.

Soy Nut Butter

I made soy nut butter the other day in an attempt to not give myself any mouth sores from the peanut butter.    So far my girls don't seem to have the issue, but if I eat too much peanut butter, well, ouch...

So I had some dried soy beans that I had originally purchased for attempting to make soy milk (which I did, but I still don't like the taste very well).  I took some and put them in a pan with some water and salt and boiled them a bit to soften them.  Once the water had all boiled off I put in a few more dried soy beans and some oil and toasted them all up to a nice golden brown.  They popped a bit like popcorn as their skins split in the heat.

Once they were all brown I dumped them into my food processor and pulsed them until they were a nice fine crumb.  I added a couple Tbsp of sugar and about at tsp of salt and pulsed that in, too.  Once I was happy with the crumbliness I set the food processor to run and added some vegetable oil (not much, just a bit to help with creaminess) then continued to run the machine and added some cool water until the soy beans pureed into a slightly smooth yet chunky "butter".

I scooped the warm soy nut butter out of the processor and put it in containers to chill in the fridge.  For lunch I took it out and made great "peanut butter" and jelly sandwiches.  Then took it a step further and melted some chocolate and made "peanut butter" cups.  Those were a huge hit with the girls (and daddy, too, I think).

English Muffins

Got busy this morning and made some fresh English Muffins.  They're surprisingly easy to make.  Just take a batch of bread dough (I used my go-to everyday bread dough recipe from "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day") and took small balls (about golf ball-sized) of dough and placed them on a corn meal covered surface.  Sprinkled more corn meal on top and let them rise for 45 mins or so.

Once they're risen, heat up the oven and a cookie sheet or stone to 450 and heat up a skillet on medium (whatever's good for pancakes I've found works well for these too).  Cook English muffins for 4-5 minutes per side in the skillet until lightly browned.  Then put in the oven on your stone or cookie sheet and bake for 5 mins until cooked through.  Cool a bit and stick around the perimeter with a fork.  Pull apart, and enjoy - toasted or not!

These we enjoyed with home made soy nut butter and home made quick jam.  I'll post those recipes later on ;-)

Crackers!!

So, I've jumped into the realm of making crackers.  They're easier than I thought and I've already started making my own flavors.  Glad I took the plunge.  My kids love them too.

Here are the 2 recipes I've created:

"Battey Crackers"
(named by my daughter)

2-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached white flour (plus more for dusting)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
8-10 grinds of black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil combined with
~3/4 cup water
sea salt for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

In your food processor, mince up the garlic.  Change to a dough blade if you have it and combine garlic, flours, baking powder, black pepper and salt.  Pulse until combined.

Pour in 1-2 Tbsp of the water/oil combination and pulse until all combined, continue in this manner until the dough forms a rough ball.

Dump the dough out on a floured board and kneed a bit until all a cohesive ball of dough.  Cut dough ball into 8 pieces.  Roll out each ball of dough, fold over in 3rds and roll again, then once more to help kneed a bit more.  After final folding, roll out to 1/8-1/16 of an inch (I use a pasta roller down to setting 4).  Place on baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt and pat it into the dough.  Cut with a pizza cutter into cracker shapes.

Bake at 425 for 6 minutes, remove from oven, turn crackers over and cook for another 4-6 minutes until light golden brown.  Repeat with remaining dough.

Cool completely and store for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container (although mine have never lasted more than a week!)

Recipe #2
"Daddy Crackers"
(daddy needed some crackers for work - he hasn't had any yet - hope they last until he gets home!)

1 cup oatmeal
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil combined with
~3/4 cup water

Grind the oatmeal in your food processor until it makes a nice oat flour with some bits of oats left for texture.  Then, follow the directions above to make these crackers.  Maybe rolling them a BIT thicker as these crackers are pretty thin when baked.

Yummy!

Dinner Tonight: Quick Stir Fry

I don't usually like stir fry, but I've finally happened upon a recipe that I enjoy making, and eating.  It's quick, it's easy and adaptable.

Ingredients:

1-2 chicken breast sliced thin (or beef, or pork, or whatever protein you choose)
2-3 small zucchini sliced in moons
2-3 carrots sliced in circles/moons
2-3 ribs of celery
pepper
garlic powder
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2-3/4 cup water
1 Tbsp cornstarch

Optional ingredients:
chopped garlic
mushrooms
onions
spinach, chard, collards or other greens

Slice and chop all ingredients so they're ready to go.  Brown chicken until nearly cooked through.  Add in chopped garlic, onions, (if using) and cook until soft.  Add in the rest of the chopped vegetables and the cornstarch, soy sauce and water (mixed into a slurry).  Cook until vegetables are soft, or leave them a bit crunchy.  Season with pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Serve over rice or rice noodles.  Or just eat alone - it's all good.

Dinner Tonight

Ok, so it was dinner LAST night, but still... It was yummy - had to post!

Ingredients:

3 strips bacon, chopped (already cooked is fine)
2 chicken breasts, sliced into chunks
1/2 onion, chopped (or dried minced works too)
1 good sized bunch rainbow chard, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 can mushrooms
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or cream
Garlic
Salt & Pepper
1/2 cup or so of Parmesan cheese
8oz of spaghetti or linguine - hot/freshly cooked

Boil the water for the pasta - and plunk the pasta in!
In a large skillet - fry chopped bacon until crispy - add in the chicken bits and brown up until cooked through.  Add in the onions and garlic, sprinkle with S&P.

Once the chicken and bacon are cooked through, add in the chard, tomatoes and mushrooms.  Toss, mix, stir until chard is wilted and everything is hot - I had a hard time getting everything to stay in the pan - this makes a lot of food!

While the pasta is finishing cooking and the chard and chicken are getting all hot and happy, whisk together 2 eggs and the milk/cream with some S&P.  Drain the pasta and place back in the hot pot.  Toss quickly with the egg mixture until the noodles are well coated and the eggs have cooked on the hot pasta.  Add the pasta/egg mixture to the chicken and veggies, add in the Parmesan cheese and toss together well.

Finally another recipe! Yummy Chicken and Veggies

It's been waaaay too long since I've written any blog posts.  Life has been happening.   The cooking goes on.

Made a great recipe last week - had to share, especially after my MIL requested the recipe from me TWICE!

Ingredients:
Chicken Pieces (enough to feed the fam)
1/2 large onion chopped
3-5 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
flour
butter
2 cups chicken stock (or 2 cups water and 1 bouillon cube)
Oil for the pan

Heat oil in a large dutch oven - brown chicken pieces until nicely browned.  Remove from pan.  Saute vegetables in a little more oil until onion is a bit browned and the other veggies are softened a bit.  Either remove the veggies or just continue on.  Add in ~3Tbsp flour and mix in well to the veggies until all the oil is soaked into the flour and the pot is rather dry.  Then add in the 2 cups of chicken stock (or bouillon and water) whisking as you go to break up lumps until it's a nice smooth sauce.  Add in salt & pepper and any other seasonings now and mix well.  Add the vegetables and chicken back in and simmer on the stove - or in a 350 degree oven - until the chicken is done.

Serve over rice or mashed potatoes would be tasty too.

Feeds 4-6 depending on how much chicken was cooked.

Bok Choy Stir Fry

2 Tbps vegetable oil
1 lb chicken or tofu
3-4 green onions (or 1 medium onion)
5 or more bunches of baby bok choy
2 Tbsp Terryakki sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2-4 Tbsp Olive oil
1/4 cup peanuts (optional)

Dice chicken or tofu and white parts of the onion. Saute in hot oil until browned and mostly cooked through.

Slice baby bok choy into bite sized pieces (washed well) and add on top of chicken or tofu mixture. Add in sauces and olive oil and mix well. Cook until bok choy is slightly wilted and heated through.

Garnish with green parts of the onion and peanuts (if using)

Serve over rice or by itself.

Leek and Potato Soup

I got a big bunch of leeks from my food co-op yesterday and my DH grabbed me a bag of potatoes, so it's time to attempt my first leek and potato soup.

Ingredients:

6-8 Potatoes, peeled & cut into pieces
1 large leek
2 ribs celery
2 carrots
salt
pepper

I started with a pot of boiling salted water and put in some cubed peeled and cubed unpeeled potatoes. Should have cooked the unpeeled ones first so I could have pureed the soup easily before adding in the "chunky" veggies. Live and learn.

Anyway, cook the potatoes until they start to get soft, then add the washed and chopped leeks. Then puree after it's been cooking a while and the leeks are soft.

Toss in celery and carrots cut up small. Add S&P to taste. Since the water was already salted with a good tsp of salt, I didn't need any more.

That's it. Easy, simple, tasty, vegan even!

Granola with Steel Cut Oats

I got adventurous this last week and decided to attempt to make granola cereal with steel cut oats.  I did some online research into the idea to see if anyone else had done it, and someone said they had.  So on I went to attempt my steel cut oat granola.  Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients:
6-8 cups steel cut oats
1/4 cup oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup honey
1/2 - 3/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups chopped mixed salted nuts
1 1/2 cups chopped dried apples
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 cup dried currents (or raisins, but I had currents)

Mix up the oats and the oil and spread them in a pan and toast in a 350 degree oven until lightly toasted, stirring every 10 minutes. 
Heat in a small sauce pan the honey and brown sugar until liquid and combined.
Once the oats come out of the oven, lower the oven to 250 degrees.
In a large bowl combine the oats, honey/sugar mixture, nuts, apples, flax, currents  - or any other dried fruit and nuts.  Stir until everything is completely coated.  Spread in a 9X13 pan or a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 45-60 minutes until very lightly browned.  Remove from oven and allow to cool to warm, then cut into pieces and allow to cool completely in the pan.

To use, either break into pieces and eat dry, or top with milk for a cold cereal.  My favorite is to put a chunk in a bowl, top with milk and zap it in the microwave for 3 minutes.  Stir and let sit for 5 minutes or so until it gets thick - eat!

Happy Eating!

New Version of Vegan Mac and "Cheese"

Upon my child asking for mac and cheese for the 3rd time in 2 days, I decided to try a vegan version of my own devising.  For the sauce I cooked up some red lentils and pureed them with some cashews, olive oil and some of the pasta cooking water until it was smooth.  Salt and peppered the sauce to taste (we like lots of pepper in our mac and cheese sauce).  Then I put it over the cooked noodles.  Looks just like home-made cheese sauce, has no dairy in it.

I think next time, though I'll either cook or at least soak the cashews to make them blend a bit smoother.  It was good for a quick lunch.

Happy Eating!

What's for Dinner Tonight? 1/7/2010

So, while I'm posting I thought I'd just keep on keeping on... and post the recipe for dinner tonight.

When cold weather hits all I want to eat is soup.  Lots and lots of soup.  Unfortunately not every one in my house is amenable to eating soup every night (and sometimes not at all, kids, sheesh!) :-)  But it's soup night tonight and I had a hankering for Mushroom Beef Barley.

8 cups water
2 - 4 Tbsp beef boullion
1 lb cut of tender steak, cut into small spoon-sized cubes
2 cans of mushroom pieces
2 medium carrots, diced
1 medium diced onion or 1 Tbsp dried minced onion
1 cup barley
2 bay leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put it all in a pot and let it cook at least 1 hour to get the barley tender.  This soup is even better the next day after the flavors have melded well and the barley has made the broth a nice "milky" consistency.

Bread Pudding

I was gifted (by my fantastic mom) a bread baker for Christmas, so here I am now baking bread - 4th loaf since Thursday (it's only Tuesday).  But I also had a mostly dud loaf and some that was in need of eating quickly, so I whipped up a batch of bread pudding.  Remember those eggs from the Co-op?  Yeah, I have a ton :-)  So here's the recipe I made up:

3/4 loaf of day-old hearty white bread (or wheat or whatever would work)
4-5 eggs, beaten
3 cups of milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 -1/2 cup sugar (I used a 1/4 cup)

Cut up the bread into cubes and spread evenly in a 8x8 pan (or the 6x9 works too).  In a separate bowl or large measuring cup (or your blender), mix together eggs, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and sugar.  Pour egg and milk mixture over the bread to coat well.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes until the custard is set and is no longer runny.  It could take up to an hour depending on how much liquid the bread soaks up.

Let cool briefly and serve in bowls with milk or cream poured over the top.  Yum!  For an extra treat, sprinkle the top with sugar before baking for a sweet brown crispy top.

Fantastic "New" Drink Mix

Ok, so I wanted tea - but I wanted decaffeinated and I was out.  Plus I wanted flavor... and not the berry tea bags that I had laying around.  So I invented a new tea... without tea leaves. :-)

Brew in hot water:
2 or more sticks of cinnamon
2-3 cardamom pods
2 bay leaves (yes they're an odd addition but taste lovely)
and a couple strips (2-3") of candied ginger cut in pieces

Put in pot and let steep in hot water for a half hour to over night (or longer).  Strain, heat up in the microwave for a hot drink, or poor over ice for a fantastic refreshing drink!

Ok, back to sipping...

;-)

Baked French Toast and Variations

I belong to a food buying co-op and currently we have an abundance of eggs and bread - both of which we are getting more of tomorrow in our share.  So had to get a good recipe to use some of it up.  Here it is:

Baked French Toast
Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients

Loaf of Bread (any bread will do)
2-6 eggs (depending on how creamy you want it)
Milk (or combination of milk and eggnog) to make ~4 cups liquid
Cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, etc for tasty flavorings


Method
Beat together eggs, milk and flavorings of your choice.  I prefer cinnamon and vanilla.

Layer defrosted bread, with or without crusts, (I leave them on) in a 9x9 pan. 

Pour egg mixture over bread layers slowly.  You may have to wait until a bit soaks in before adding the whole 4 cups.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.  Press down on the bread so it all gets into the egg mixture.


Bake 350 for 30-45 minutes until puffed up and baked through.  A knife inserted will come out clean.


Top with syrup, fruit topping (slicing apples, cinnamon, sugar and heating in water with some cornstarch to thicken), yogurt, etc.


Variations
Layer cottage cheese or ricotta cheese with the bread, not too much.  Makes a stuffed-type french toast.

Whisk plain, fruit, or vanilla yogurt in with the milk and eggs.

Beef and Gravy with Mashed Potatoes

Decided on a different dinner this evening.  It's been ages since we've had mashed potatoes (probably since last Thanksgiving) and I don't think I've ever made Beef "Tips" and Gravy since I was married, so I thought I'd give it a go from scratch.  It was quite easy.

Beef and Gravy
2 Small Steaks (I used two small NY strip steaks)
Flour
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
1 Chicken Bouillon Cube
2 Tbsp corn starch
2 cups water
Dried minced onion
1 can mushrooms (optional)

Mix together a few Tbsp of flour with garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Cut 2 steaks into small strips (bite sized).  Coat the steak pieces in flour mixture.  Brown steak in batches in a skillet with a bit of olive oil.  Once all the meat is browned put back in pan on med-low heat, sprinkle in some dried minced onion.  Mix corn starch with bouillon cube and water until smooth and combined, pour over beef, add in mushrooms if using, and cover.  Simmer until thickened and bubbly.

Serve over mashed potatoes.

Mashed Potatoes
potatoes (I used 6 tiny potatoes and had mounds left over from the 3 of us)
salt
water - fill the pot 2/3-3/4 full
butter - 1/4 cup ish - more if wanted
milk - enough... don't know how much.

Boil potatoes in a large pot of salted water until soft (if you stick a sharp knife in and lift up a potato it should fall off).  Drain off water, mash potatoes in the pot skins and all.  Add in 1/4ish cup butter mash until melted.  Pour in milk and mix until creamy.


We served this tonight with steamed baby carrots.  Hit with the now 3 year old (or will be in 2 days)!

In Pursuit of Strawberry Cake (Vegan)

I've been looking for the past week and a half for a good strawberry cake that is vegan.  That means no jello mix.  The 2yo turns 3 in a week and a half and requested a strawberry cake.  I like to make the cakes vegan so that everyone in the family can enjoy without making two cakes :-/  So, the inventing began.  Couldn't find anything that I had all the ingredients to, so I adapted my chocolate cake recipe as a starter.  This is what I came up with:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 oil
2 tsp ground flax seed mixed with 1/4 warm water and whisked until thickened like eggs (binder)
3/4 cup berry puree (I used mixed berries for starters because I have more of those)
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1Tbsp vanilla
1 cup cold water

Bake 350 in 9" round pan or in cupcakes (I did both for this experiment) for 20-30 mins.  The cake took 25, the cupcakes took 20.  I got 1 9" round and 10 cupcakes.  The cake is light and fluffy and dark purpley blue. (The mixed berries had blueberries, raspberries, and black berries.)  Tastes great, just sticks to the cupcake wrappers.  Not sure about how to get the cake version out of the pan as I forgot to grease and flour it... :-/  There's always tomorrow for another experiment and this time with flour and grease!

UPDATE:  Once the cake was tasted (she liked it, btw), she said, "Well, maybe chocolate..."  Ugh!  2yos! :-)  Also, the cake came out of the pan VERY easily!  Yay!!!

Birthday girl with her cake ready to blow out candles.

Cake and ice cream - you can nearly see the strawberry red center layer.  I went for a chocolate and strawberry cake just to cover all my bases.