Soaking-An Update

Last week, my baby step was to try my hand at soaking grains.  Of course we all know that while I have good intentions, my follow through lacks on occasion (especially given the super busy time of year).  I did do a bunch of reading on the reason behind soaking grains and I found a couple recipes that I wanted to try. 

Last night I set to work getting my prep work done for soaked whole wheat pancakes and soaked whole wheat bread.  For the pancakes I used this recipe from Kitchen Stewardship.  I was a little skeptical this morning when I thought the concoction smelled funny, but they tasted awesome.  This recipe made 21 pancakes approximately 4" across.  Next time I will make mini pancakes and let the kids dip (I think they eat more when dipping than forking).  Each of the kids ate 2 (and Little Man ate 4), but there were still 7 left to freeze for a morning when we're rushed.  Gotta love that.

I also made whole wheat bread.  I had picked out another Kitchen Stewardship recipe to try, but abandoned that idea last night in favor of using my own whole wheat bread recipe. I used the principles that Katie (from Kitchen Stewardship) laid out when making her own bread and applied them to my recipe.  Basically, add all your wet ingredients (making sure that there is a somewhat acidic liquid) to the flour and then add yeast and salt the next day.  I used 1/4 cup lemon juice as part of my warm water and used 6 cups of flour.

This morning, I wondered how I was going to get the yeast incorporated into the bread and activated since my kitchen was a cool 61 degrees.  I activated the yeast in a 1/4 cup of warm water and dumped it on top of the pile of goopy, soaked dough with the salt.  I mixed it in as well as I could (which didn't seem to be near enough).  Once again, it was covered and I placed it on top of my stove with the oven preheating-I hoped that the stove top would get warm enough that the dough would rise.  An hour later, the dough had risen some, but not much.  I was about to consider the whole thing a failure and dump the bowl.  I decided that since I'd already used 6 cups of flour, another cup wouldn't be that more to waste.  I dumped the dough out on my counter and kneaded another 3/4 cup of flour into the dough, placed the dough in bread pans, covered and waited for the second rise-again on the stove top.  The rise was much better this time.  I let it rise for an hour before baking and it came out of the oven looking like any other loaf of bread I've baked.  At this point I was getting a bit more enthusiastic.

Once cool, I cut a mini loaf for the kids' peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  I did thin slices (think cocktail bread) and it didn't crumb very much at all.  The crust was tender and the bread was soft, but not doughy.  The taste is a tad on the sweet side, which was fine for pb & h, but I'll probably want to measure the molasses next time I make a loaf-this time I just eyeballed it and probably got a little too much.

Overall, I've been impressed with my soaking efforts.  Assuming the mini pancakes turn out as good as the larger ones (and I can't see why they wouldn't), this will be make go-to pancake recipe.  I'll tinker with the sweetener in the bread (like actually measure) and see if I still like the bread as well, but I think soaking helped the texture of the bread and made it better for sandwiches.  If I find this to be the case, it will be my top bread recipe.

I didn't get around to making my steel cut oats.  Maybe that will be breakfast tomorrow-we'll see.

Hamburger Stroganoff

In an attempt to get out of my some 'ole recipe slump, I've started going through my recipe binders and few remaining cookbooks (in a big de-clutter last year, most didn't make the cut).  Several years ago, my mother-in-law made a family cookbook for each family for Christmas.  This recipe was submitted by Hubby's Aunt Marlene.  It looked good and I thought Little Man might like it-he's going through quite the picky phase right now.

Anyway, it was ready in a jiffy and the kids liked it. Little Man ate most of his serving.  I thought it was good, but next time I'll add cheddar cheese.  Cheese makes everything better.

1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced (again, I'm a jar girl)
4 oz. mushrooms, chopped (the original recipe called for a can, but I used fresh)
2 Tbsp. parsley flakes
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 cups milk
1 cup sour cream
12 oz. egg noodles, cooked and drained

In a large saucepan or small stock pot, heat water for cooking the noodles.  When boiling add noodles and a little salt.  In a skillet, brown the ground beef with the onion, garlic, mushrooms and parsley.  When the onion is soft and the beef thoroughly cooked, dump it into a colander to drain (or however you drain meat, but empty the pan).  Leaving the pan on medium high heat, melt the butter, then add the flour, salt and pepper.  Whisk together and allow to brown slightly.  Add milk slowly and whisk in to incorporate, continue whisking to get rid of any lumps.  When thickened, add the sour cream and stir it in.  Then add the meat mixture back in.  Stir together and heat through.  This is where I'm going to add a cup or so of cheddar cheese next time.  Serve over cooked and drained egg noodles.  I dumped my sauce over the noodles in the stockpot and mixed them that way.  I just have visions of noodles all over the table as my kids try to stir it together on their plates.  That might just be me though. :)

Note:  The original recipe called for a can of cream of mushroom soup, but since I don't use that, I just incorporated making my own soup into the directions for the meal.

Rockin' good Potato and Leek Soup

A couple weeks ago, my "baby step" was to try new produce.  Leeks were at the top of my list because it seems that all of the cool cooking shows or fancy food magazines have recipes using leeks.  And we all know that I'm secretly striving to be like Paula Deen.  NOT!  I really just think they are cool looking and wondered what they tasted like (and if I could get my family to try them).

My organic leeks arrived last Friday in my Azure Standard order, and due to some unforeseen activities, I didn't get to make my soup until last night (Tuesday).  I can't believe I waited so long.  It was awesome (like both of my kids ate 4 bowls awesome)!

Granted, in the past couple of weeks I've read about 40 different recipes for potato and leek soup and similar variations.  I didn't find one specifically that I thought would be better than others, but I saw definite elements in some that I knew I would love.  Last night when I started cooking, I started throwing things together and ended up with a masterpiece.  It would be nice to have a picture of this masterpiece, but my camera is on its last leg and isn't taking very good pictures at all.  You'll just have to trust me.

2 tablespoons bacon grease (oil or butter would work, but the bacon adds flavor)
2 leeks, sliced/rings separated, soaked and spun dry
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (I still do the jar kind.)
8 cups chicken broth, divided
6 Russet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and cut in coins
1-2 stalks celery, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. cream cheese (optional)

In a large skillet (I used a 10 inch cast iron and it was on the smallish side), saute the leeks, onion and garlic in bacon grease until softened.  Add 1 cup of chicken broth and simmer until completely soft.  Meanwhile boil the potatoes, carrots, and celery in the remaining chicken broth until potatoes are cooked through, but not mush.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

*Puree the leak mixture and cream cheese adding a little broth from the potatoes if necessary to thin (I used my new food processor).  Add the puree to the pot of potatoes and stir to thoroughly incorporate the puree.  Heat through.

If you desire a more blended soup, you can scoop out some of the chunks and run them through the food processor and return it back to the pot.  Or, for a completely smooth soup, you can use a stick blender and blend the soup in the pot.  I chose to blend some, but leave lots of chunks (I thought the pureed orange of the carrot might make the coloring of the soup unappetizing.).

*I added the cream cheese to the main pot after incorporating the puree and it didn't melt completely.  It tasted fine but had tiny white pieces throughout.  I'm thinking that pureeing it along with the leeks will melt it completely and eliminate that.

Last night we topped our soup with shredded co-jack cheese, but today I had it plain and it was equally yummy without it.  I can imagine that adding crumbled bacon would also be nice.

Link up at Penniless Parenting's Hearth and Soul Blog Hop.

Apple Zucchini Muffins

I am a week and a half into my 60 pounds of apples from Azure Standard and I'm sort of tiring of apples.  Don't get me wrong, I love apples, but I'm tired of the same applesauce, apple butter, dried apples, apples for eating... you get the idea.

I thought I'd shake things up last week by having zucchini muffins.  Woooo!  I'm definitely thinking outside the box now, right?  I didn't matter, because as soon as I started making them, one of the daycare kids was hanging on me clutching two apples.  "Can you please make apple muffins?"  Who am I to say no to a kid who wants to eat more apples.  So, we constructed a new recipe on the fly.

Apple Zucchini Muffins

1/3 cup butter melted
1/2 cup sugar (I use evaporated cane juice.)
1 egg
1 cup shredded zucchini
2 apples-peeled, cored and chopped (Although I think leaving the peel on would be fine too.)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups whole white wheat flour (I'm sure you could use all-purpose or bread flour too-I just don't.)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine wet ingredients in a large bowl.  Then add baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Stir it in.  Add the flour, stirring until just combined.  Fold in nuts if you are using those.  Spray muffin cups with non-stick spray or just rub some oil in all of them.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.  Bake 15 - 20 minutes.

These muffins came out super moist and the kids each ate two.  That is success if ever I saw it!

Linked up with Muffin Monday at Talking Dollars and Cents

Shepherd's Pie

I sometimes forget that we like Shepherd's Pie.  It's one of those dishes that I plan for once every two or three months, but should appear more often.  I made it tonight and the girls ate 2 helpings each.  Even Little Man, who doesn't typically care for casserole type dishes, ate it if I agreed to feed it to him (and pick out the peas).  Hubby had to restrain himself by only taking a small portion, so some would be left for lunches tomorrow.

I don't have a particular recipe.  It's one of those "clean out the fridge" kind of dishes.  But here's what I used tonight.

4 potatoes, peeled
2 Tbsp. oil
3-4 carrots, peeled and finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1/2 a medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup diced green pepper (I have some already diced in my freezer, I just dumped some in)
1 pound ground beef
2 cloves of garlic (I use the already minced kind-about 2 Tbsp.)
1 1/2 cups tomato juice (or 1 can tomato sauce if you have that)
seasoning to taste (I added salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and a few dashes of chili powder)
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 Tbsp. butter
Milk if needed
Shredded cheddar cheese, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Rough chop the peeled potatoes and place in a large glass bowl.  Fill with water until potatoes are covered.  Add salt if desired.  Place in microwave and cook until potatoes are tender (for me, that's 25 minutes).

While the potatoes are cooking, heat oil and add the carrots, celery, onion, and green pepper.  Stir frequently until the veggies start to soften.  Add the ground beef and garlic.  Stir together and break up the meat so it is mostly smaller bites (I have one of those handy dandy Pampered Chef star chopper things that works great.  A spoon work too! :) ).  When the meat is done and the veggies are cooked, add the tomato juice, desired seasonings, corn and peas.  Continue to simmer for 10 to 20 minutes allowing some of the tomato juice to evaporate and the corn and peas to cook.  If you use tomato sauce, you probably won't need to simmer as long.

By this time, the potatoes should be done.  They can be drained and mashed, adding the butter and milk if needed.  Set aside.

Pour the meat/veggie mixture into a medium sized baking dish.  I used a 9 inch deep dish pie plate.  A 9 x 9 baking dish would also work well.  Spread the meat out evenly into the pan.  Top with mashed potatoes and spread them over the meat getting as close to the edges as possible.  Top with cheddar cheese.  Place in the oven for 20 minutes.  Upon removal, allow the dish to sit and rest at least 5 minutes before serving.

Linked up at Hearth and Soul Blog Hop-Penniless Parenting

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Creamy chicken enchiladas with homemade Spanish
rice and a dallop of sour cream.  Yum!

I love Mexican food.  Seriously, I could probably eat Mexican for all three meals for weeks on end, but I don't do that for a couple of reasons.  Too much tomato doesn't agree with Hubby's digestive system and Little Man detests food that is mixed together.  If I separate the ingredients on his plate, it looks like he's eating the same thing every night and he would only be willing to do that for 2 or 3 days tops.  To feed my love for Mexican and overcome the above mentioned obstacles, I'm always on the look out for new recipes... and I found one.  This recipe was found in an All You magazine.  It is from Campbells, so there is the obligatory can of "cream" soup-unless you are me and make your own.  Here is my take on this yummy chicken recipe.

2 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. flour

1/2 cup milk (can sub. the milk for chicken broth if desired)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup  salsa

2 teaspoons chili powder

2 cups chopped cooked chicken 

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided

8 flour tortillas (6-inch), warmed (I made these using my tortilla recipe.)

1 small tomato, chopped (about 1/2 cup), optional

1 green onion, sliced (about 2 tablespoons), optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter.  Stir the flour into the butter and let cook a few minutes.  Whisk in milk and broth and bring to a boil.  The mixture will thicken.  Remove from the heat and give it a few minutes to cool.  Stir in the sour cream, salsa, and chili powder.  In a mixing bowl combine 1 cup of the soup mixture, chicken and 1/2 cup of the cheese.  Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with Pam or some other spray and pour 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the soup mixture in the bottom.  Shake the pan around until most of the bottom of the pan is covered with soup.

Next a tortilla and spoon some of the chicken mixture down the center of the tortilla and roll it up.  Place it seam side down in the baking dish.  Continue doing this with the remaining tortillas trying to divide the chicken mixture equally among the tortillas.  Once all the tortillas have been filled and placed in the pan, cover them with the remaining soup mixture.  Cover the dish with foil or glass lid and bake 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of cheese over the top.  Place back in the oven to melt the cheese.  Take the enchiladas out and let rest for 5 minutes.  Top with chopped tomato and green onion if desired.

I was a little skeptical with the cream soup base, but these were awesome!  Everyone had seconds and I had to hold them back so they didn't take the rest as I needed leftovers for the next day's lunches.

Linked at Penniless Parenting's Hearth and Soul Blog Hop

Sorry about the funky indent.  I couldn't fix it and gave up!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I started this post last week (during sugar week), but life got in the way as usual and I just now found it.  My mother would say "it's a good thing your head is attached or you'd surely lose it."  Yep, Mom, you are right again!



The recipe made close to 40 mini cookies, but
by the next morning, this is all that remained.  Like any good
mother, I hid them and ate the rest sneaking them one by one.



Oatmeal raisin cookies are my absolute most favorite cookie, and my favorite of all oatmeal raisin cookies is Smitten Kitchen's version.

The recipe goes like this (with my modifications in red)

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed 1/3 cup evaporated cane juice

2 tsp. molasses
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour 3/4 cup whole white wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt (I often use a half teaspoon, but I like more salt in my baked goods)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional) I skipped these because I cannot get those daycare kids to like walnuts.

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Cream together the wet ingredients.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, soda, cinnamon and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and when well incorporated, fold in the oats, raisins and walnuts if you get to use them.

Bake 10-12 minutes on a prepared cookie sheet (either greased or lined with parchment paper).  Allow to sit for a couple minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

I was worried that there wouldn't be enough sugar, but much to my delight, they were still awesome and everyone loved them.  No one said a word about them not being sweet enough.  Why have a been waiting so long to do this.

Tortillas

Last night it was as if the clouds parted, a choir of angels descended and began singing, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!  She did it.  Made tortillas!  Hallelujah!!!"  Ok, I might be exaggerating a tad, but seriously my quest for decent from scratch tortillas has been a multi-year quest.  It has finally come to an end.

I have tried several recipes and while they were all tasty, I hadn't found "the one."  Most of the time, I couldn't get them rolled thin enough and they ended up being more like flatbread than a tortilla.  I posted my problem on the kitchen forum on Diaperswappers a while back and Nikki offered her recipe.  It was super simple, required no special ingredients, was whole wheat... what more could I ask?  Tortilla making has been on my "to do" list for a while and last night I finally got around to making them.  The dough mixed up very easily, and rolled out really well.  I don't think I had my skillet hot enough for the first couple tortillas, but once I got going it was super easy.  While I had one cooking in the skillet, I rolled  the second and so on.   Once I was finished, I made myself a bean and cheese quesadilla that was so yummy.  It was just refried beans, cheese and tortilla.  Please do keep in mind that it was nearing 9 pm and I still hadn't eaten, so that could've been part of the reason it was soooo good.

I bagged those bad boys up in a Ziploc bag and into the refrigerator they went.  I was a bit worried this morning when I pulled them out and there was condensation all over the bag (oops, didn't let them cool completely), but when I got them in the pan this morning for sausage, egg and cheese quesadillas, they crisped up nicely.  I also had a little extra spaghetti meat from earlier this week and thought, "Heck, why not?"  So I made up some egg, meat and cheese burritos.  Now, it's not something I would have every day, it wasn't half bad.  I added extra cheese and we all know that cheese makes everything better!

So, without further adieu, I present my tortilla recipe (and Nikki's and anyone else who might have decided to try it)!  LOL

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. oil (I used EVOO)
2/3 cup warm water

I placed the flour and salt in my food processor and gave it a quick whirl to combine it.  Then I drizzled in the oil, followed by the water.  The dough was slightly sticky when I pulled it out of the processor, but a quick dusting of the counter and kneading it a couple of times, it became very workable.  I rolled it into a ball, placed it in a bowl, covered it with a towel and let it sit on the back of the stove for 20 minutes. 

When the 20 minutes was up, I scooped the dough out of the dough and kneaded it a few times.  Then I separated the dough into equal portions.  I even went so far as to weigh the dough and divide it into 11 equal portions (but you definitely don't have to do that)!  Roll each portion into a ball and place on a plate, cover and let rest for 20 minutes.  I just threw them together in a pile on a salad plate and well they REALLY stuck together.  In the future, I will be sure that the dough balls don't touch.

OK, 20 minutes is up and you are ready for some tortilla making.  Let your ungreased skillet get hot, and by hot, I don't mean warm, been there done that!  Take a ball of dough out and on a lightly floured surface roll it out to a 6-8 inch circle.  I didn't need to flour the counter, they weren't sticking so I skipped that part.  Also, my tortillas weren't really circles, but I figure  practice makes perfect on that.

Lay the tortilla in the skillet and grab another piece of dough to roll out while you count to 20.  Flip the tortilla in the skillet, continue rolling and count to 20 again.  Remove the tortilla from the skillet and place on a plate and cover with a towel.  Place the tortilla you've been rolling into the skillet and start all over.  Toward the end, my skillet was hot enough that it only took 15 seconds to adequately cook a side, so I was speed rolling to keep up, but all of them managed to get done and I didn't burn any (surprise, surprise)!

McGriddles Knock-off

I can't say that I've ever had one of those McDonald's McGriddle sandwiches since I'm a Dollar Menu kind of gal, but the idea of a pancake sandwich has always appealed to me.  This morning when I was making mini pancakes, I was struck with the urge to experiment.  Wow, am I glad I did!

I altered my regular pancake recipe a bit and came up with this.

1 cup whole white wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 cup milk (if I'm doing dairy free, I use rice milk, but today I used regular whole milk)
2 eggs
1/2 cup of pork sausage, already browned and drained

I measure the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and then measure out the wet ingredients. I have a measuring cup with graduated measurements, so I use the 2 cup one and add the milk then eyeball the maple syrup (2 tablespoons is 1/8 of a cup or halfway between 1 and 1 1/4 cup if I'm using my measuring cup. :) ).  Then, I add the eggs and whisk it around to break up the yolks before dumping all of the wet ingredients into the dry.  Whisk until everything is pretty well combined.  If you have a few lumps, don't worry about it.  Fold the sausage into the batter.  I suggest using something besides your whisk or you'll end up with sausage pieces stuck in the middle of the whisk.  I know this happens yet I do it every time!  Sometimes, I am a seriously slow learner!.

Get your griddle or skillet hot.  I have a cheapy one, so at 250 degrees, mine will burn the first batch but undercook the second.  Then I have to turn it up to 300.  So, use whatever temperature works for you (or read the directions if you are REALLY aren't sure-I try to limit that to emergency situations only though).  Using a 1/4 cup measuring device, I have a scoop, ladle out the batter on to the griddle.  You can do as many as will fit in your space.  When bubbles start to form on the top, pop and stay open, the pancakes are ready to flip.  Depending on how much sausage was in each pancake, I noticed that some didn't get the number of bubbles they usually do, so then I watched the edges of the pancake and flipped it when the edge was golden brown and started to lift away from the griddle.  Cook the second side 3-4 minutes or until it is golden brown as well.  This time I made half a batch and it made 6 four inch pancakes, so I'm guessing that a regular batch would make 12-at least that's what one would think.

While the pancakes are cooking, I cooked my egg for the middle of my sandwich.  I found a bowl that was the relatively the same size as the pancakes and generously sprayed it with olive oil spray.  Then I cracked one egg in the bowl, added a bit of salt and pepper and whisked it all together with a fork.  The bowl went into the microwave and 1 minute later I had a perfect circular egg "patty" for my pancake sandwich.  I grated some cheddar cheese on top of the egg and returned it to the microwave for 10 seconds and then left it in there while my pancakes finished cooking.  When the pancakes were finished, I scooped the cheese covered egg out of the bowl and placed it on the bottom pancake.  I topped it with a second and voila-a McGriddle. 

I think it tasted wonderful.  The only thing I am wondering about is if in the actual McDonald's sandwich, the pancakes are crisp on the outside.  Mine were a little spongy, like pancakes are.  But, I'm thinking that if I were to freeze them and then toast the pancakes to thaw instead of microwaving them, that it would crisp them up nicely.  Whatever the case, I thought it was yummy.  I froze enough for 2 more sandwiches and I hope to get the girls to try it out before school tomorrow.  I'll update with their feedback.

Chocolate Zucchini Cookies

I've decided (out of necessity) to cook mostly from the pantry this week and next week too, if I can pull it off.  So, as snacktime was looming, I was desperately trying to come up with something new and exciting (with ingredients already on hand) to eat.  I located a zucchini in the back of the fridge that needed to be used and I know the kids wanted cookies-they always want cookies.  A hunt on allrecipes.com was on!  Right away I came up with this recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cookies.  After reading through the reviews, I came up with my own version.



1/2 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. molasses
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cups whole white wheat flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup of chocolate chips

Mix the wet ingredients.  Mix the dry.  Add the dry to the wet and then fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips.  Now, if you use my method, you will just dump it all together and mix it up.  I find that it still turns out fine.  I probably didn't use a full cup of chocolate chips, I just dumped the last chips out of two bags and then chopped up the lone semi-sweet baking chocolate block that I've have for eons.  It was more than enough.

The dough was really dry and crumbly due to the coconut oil solidifying when I added the flour from the freezer.  I just kept folding in the zucchini and eventually the moisture of the zucchini prevailed and I had a nice dough-almost too moist even.

Bake 8-10 minutes in an oven preheated to 350 degrees.  I used a tablespoon scoop and the recipe made about 55 cookies.  It was enough for 3 each for all of the daycare kids and my kids and they will go in lunches tomorrow and I'll still have some to freeze for a picnic lunch on Saturday.  Pretty cool in my opinion.

The kids loved them and even complained when I cut them off at three cookies each.  This recipe if for sure a keeper!

Chicken with Wild Rice Soup

This week the weather is significantly cooler.  Thank goodness!  I don't mind the heat, but we've had a REALLY hot summer and 70 degree weather is a Godsend.  With the cooler weather, I was inspired to make soup.  Of course I couldn't just make any soup.  I made chicken with wild rice. 

For over half of my nearly 40 years, I didn't care for soup.  It was ok, but I would have much rather had a sandwich.  All that ended when I took a job at a local mall in college.  The smell of soup and freshly baked bread drifting down the center of the mall was intoxicating.  I became hooked on St. Louis Bread Company's (now Panera) chicken with wild rice soup.  I shudder to think of how much money I spent purchasing the "You Pick 2" special.  I tried two or three times to replicate the soup and finally gave up as the ingredients were expensive.

One day last year I happened upon this recipe.  It seemed like it might be a possibility.  It had things in it that I already had around the house or could pick up easily at the store so I gave it a whirl.  It was good-not as good as my beloved St. Louis Bread soup, but I decided that I could've built that up in my mind (it happens a lot to me).

This was before my "health kick," as my Mom affectionately calls it.  Pulling out the recipe the other day, I realized that I would have to make some alterations.  Here's what I ended up with.

4Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
3 cups milk, divided
4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2" cubes
1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic

3 large carrots, peeled and sliced into coins

1 cup wild rice
3 cups of chicken broth (more if needed)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 very large chicken breast, cooked and diced

Begin by melting the butter in a medium saucepan.  Once butter is melted, add the flour and whisk it in allowing it to cook down for a few minutes (5 or so).  Add the salt and 2 cups of milk whisking vigorously to get rid of any lumps.  Allow to simmer until thickened, making a roux.  While that is thickening, prepare the veggies and throw them into the crockpot.  Add the rice, roux, 3 cups of chicken broth, pepper, and chicken pieces.  Stir thoroughly and cover.  Set crockpot on low and cook 7-8 hours.  I checked it every couple of hours and stirred it.  If the rice is taking too much liquid, you may need to add more chicken broth.  With about 30 minutes left before serving, add the remaining cup of milk and allow it to heat through.  You could use half-n-half here and it would make it creamier, but I didn't want to buy half-n-half.  It seems that when I do, it always goes bad or I'm scrambling around the day it expires looking for a way to use it.  The milk worked fine.

This amount fed the 5 of us dinner, our neighbor who recently had surgery, lunch for Hubby and the girls the next day and 3 breakfast portions for the girls before school.  I had grand notions of taking a beautiful picture to share, but when I got the bowl out of the fridge, this is what I found.  Sorry it isn't glamorous.

Cookie Sticks

The other day in the check out line I got suckered (well, besides the fact that I was there for the upteenth time last week).  It was taking the checker forever to get the person in front of me finished and I started looking at the cookbook magazines-you know, the Betty Crocker and Taste of Home ones.  Usually I'm really good at not purchasing them.  Taste of Home has all of their recipes online, so if I see one that looks good while flipping through, I jot the recipe name down on my grocery list and look it up when I get home.  The "Back to School" edition got me though, and in a weak moment, I bought it.  We'll just add that to the very much blown grocery budget.

Later, the girls were flipping through the magazine and found "Cookie Sticks" and begged to make them.  I've sort of been putting them off, but having bought chocolate chips this past weekend and having already celebrated a daycare birthday this week, I ran out of reasons to put them off!  So this morning we cranked out a batch of cookie sticks.

Sitting here eating one, I have to say they are pretty good.  I think I might have gotten a little carried away with the chocolate chips, but I'm not a huge chocolate person so don't hold that against them (or me).  Don't get me wrong, I like chocolate, but not large quantities of it at once.

Of course you know that I won't leave a recipe alone, so here's how I changed it.

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• at little less than 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups whole white wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional (I opted no.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet a little at a time stirring together as you go.  Divide the dough in half and press into rectangles approximately 15" x 3" on a cookie sheet.  I used two cookie sheets because I wasn't sure how much they would spread and while you could get away with one, I'd use two just to make cutting them easier.  Once the dough is pressed out, add chocolate chips and press them into the dough.  If you are using nuts, do those the same way.  Bake 7-8 minutes (the recipe says this make crispier cookies, but I thought they were still plenty soft and at 5 minutes they still looked uncooked to me).  Cool 5 minutes then cut with a serrated knife.  I used a pizza cutter and I wouldn't recommend it.  The first batch cut fine, but by the time I got to the second batch, there was a lot of melted chocolate on the cutter and it tore the sticks up pretty bad.  Maybe at some point, I should follow all of the directions.  Or, I'll just aspire to be a direction follower!

Sloppy Joe Pies

With all the dairy free we've been doing around our house lately, I haven't been making many new things-just reconstructing old ones! :)  Today I didn't feel like making buns for our sloppy joes, so I whipped this up.  It's a winner!

I made stomboli dough for the crust (recipe following).  Then using a 3" bisquit cutter, I made circles which got pressed into my regular-sized muffin pan.  I added a scoop of sloppy joe meat and topped some with a small amount of sharp cheddar cheese.  I made a double batch and got 24 pies, with some dough leftvoer-probably enough for 3-4 more, but I was out of meat, so no more pies.  That fed 13 kids with three leftover for Hubby's lunch.  Most of the smaller kids only had one and all of the bigger kids had 2 (or 3, although no one will willingly admit it!).  I think these would freeze well.  Next time I'll have to pull out a few before anyone else sees them, so I can test out a freezer version.

Stromboli Dough
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp. yeast
3/4 T. oil
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Mix warm water and yeast and let sit for 5 minutes.  Add oil, salt and flour and mix until a firm dough is formed.  I often have to add a tablespoon or two of water here b/c the dough always seems to stiff-maybe it's just me! LOL  Knead for 5-8 minutes and let rest in a covered bowl for 20 minutes.  Roll out to about 1/4 inch and use biscuit cutter to make as many circles as you can in the dough.  Gather dough scraps up and re-roll and cut them.  Place 1 dough circle in each greased muffin cup and press dough into the bottom and up the sides.  Fill with one scoop of sloppy joe meat and top with cheese if desired.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  When finished, remove from pan and let cool on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then serve.

As far as a sloppy joe recipe, I figure there are thousands.  I don't think I make it the same way twice, usually because I'm cleaning out the fridge when I make them, so who knows what might show up in it.  The standard items are ground beef, chopped onion, and ketchup.  I've also added shredded carrot or zucchini, chopped green pepper, garlic, mustard, and tomato sauce or juice or once even salsa (made it more like taco meat).  Just make sure you like how it tastes before you add it to the cups.

Happy baking everyone!

Chicken Nuggets

Preface
I'm really getting tired of not being able to use our camera.  The downstairs computer isn't able to handle the photo software without shutting down, so until we are able to replace our good computer, I stuck without pics.  That's a bummer because this would be the optimal post for pictures!

I like the idea of chicken nuggets.  They're quick to fix, portable, great in a lunchbox and all that fun stuff.  The downside is that they are usually full of preservatives and many times milk.  Since we're trying to be as dairy free as possible, eating chicken nuggets in front of Baby Girl isn't very nice.  Usually I cut chicken breasts into chunks, dip them in egg, then flour and fry them up.  Many times they end up very dry. Today, I tried my hand at making a more commercial type version of them.

I purchased boneless, skinless chicken thighs (on sale).  I broke out the food processor and essentially pulverized the meat into goo.  Then I added salt, pepper and a handful of coursely ground oats (had no bread crumbs and thought flour would be too fine).  I pulsed it again to mix the seasonings up. 

Using a small scoop (about 1 tablespoon), I scooped out a glob of the mixture and dropped it in a bowl of more ground oats.  Once it was coated front and back, and smooshed a little into a chicken nugget shape, I placed it on a baking sheet sprayed with olive oil spray.

When the tray was full, I sprayed the tops with the olive oil and slid it into the oven to bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.  Once finished, I flipped them over and baked another 5 minutes.

This is a work in progress.  The meat flavor and texture was spot-on!  The breading could use a little work.  I'm planning on using bread crumbs the next time and will consider pan frying the nuggets.  The question on that is whether or not I can fry them long enough that they are cooked through without burning the coating.  Only experimentation will tell!

Hopefully by the time I get around to making them again, I'll be able to take pictures. :)

Oh, and we were able to retrieve everything on our hard drive, so YAY on that one!  Now, we just have to fund a used laptop.

BBQ, anyone?

I love barbeque!  It embodies all that is good during the summer months--being outdoors, pleasant smells, and yummy food.  Being rushed for time, as we all are, I use my crockpot to make "pseudo" bbq.  Pulled pork to be exact.  Last night I tossed a piece of frozen pork shoulder roast in the crockpot and turned it on low.  This morning at 6:30 it was wonderfully cooked and was fork tender.  I switched the crockpot to warm and forgot about it... until 20 minutes before lunch.

In the old days, I would've grabbed my bottle of KC Masterpiece out of the fridge and piled on the saucy goodness.  More recently though, I've learned that the "saucy goodness" is far from good with high-fructose corn syrup being one of the top ingredients plus artificial coloring and flavorings, soy products, oh, and tomatoes.

Now that I've ditched all my condiments and opted to make my own, it's not something you do on the spur of the moment.  I have to plan because without all the preservatives, homemade condiments usually only last a week or so.  So, there I was with 20 minutes before lunch was supposed to be on the table and no BBQ sauce.  Enter allrecipes.com.  Seriously I wonder how I ever cooked before the internet.  I found a fairly high-rated recipe called Buzzsaw's BBQ Sauce.  With a name like that, it had to be a winner, right?
LOL

Of course I did make a few changes.  I am out of ketchup, so I used about 3/4 cup tomato juice and 1/4 cup of sugar in place of the ketchup and water.  It ended up a bit thin, but I'm sure I could've added more cornstarch to thicken it up.  I really didn't care though, since I was coating the pork.  In a grill situation I probably would've wanted it thicker.  Also, I used sugar because it was handy.  I'm out of honey and the maple syrup is in the downstairs fridge.  Either sweetener would've been fine (and unneeded if you use ketchup which already has sugar in it).

Here is the original recipe.

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

3 tablespoons vinegar

2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup cold water

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Saute the onion in the oil until soft.  Add the garlic and saute a couple minutes more-don't let the garlic burn.  Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and simmer for 10 minutes.  Sauce should thicken as it heats through.

This sauce was a definite success.  All of the daycare kids ate the pork roast and many asked for seconds.  Hubby only gets a small serving for lunch tomorrow because there wasn't much left.  Hopefully he'll give a thumbs up and this will become our new BBQ sauce-and since it takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish, I can whip this up quickly each time we grill. 

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I read quite a few blogs.  Most of them I read because the blogger has ideas similar to mine.  Occasionally I get sucked into reading the blog rolls of the blogs I follow.  Then, three hours later, I emerge with a few recipes that I want to try "sometime."  Well, life gets in the way, and I forget about them for a period of time. 

Then, one Saturday afternoon I am wracking my brain to come up with another breakfast idea that's not the same 'ole, same 'ole and out pops cinnamon roll pancakes.  I know I'm not clever enough to come up with this all by myself, and a quick search confirms that I had read about them on a blog, Recipe Girl to be exact.  Her recipe for Cinnamon Roll Pancakes included a cream cheese glaze that probably made them more of a dessert than breakfast and yummy as they looked, I wanted something that I could kind of pretend was healthy.  Realistically, I know these aren't the epitome of health, but on a scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being the healthiest, I would rate these a 5 (whole grain and glaze free being the main selling points).

I used my regular pancake recipe and used a larger scoop (1/4 cup I believe).  For the cinnamon roll filling, I used 1/3 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.  I melted the butter in a bowl and stirred the sugar and cinnamon in.  Then I dumped the filling into a sandwich-sized ziploc bag and snipped the corner with scissors turning my ziploc into a mini piping bag (hindsight says I should've taken a picture of this). 

After pouring the pancake batter on the griddle, I used the piping bag to make swirls on the batter.  Well, that's what I was tring to do!  When the bubbles on the pancake began to pop, I flipped the pancakes.  I let them cook on the second side a bit longer than I normally would on regular pancakes.  It seemed to give the cinnamon-sugar time to caramelize a bit and they had just a tiny crunch when you bit into them.  Sheer bliss I'm telling you,  so yummy! 

I made a double batch of pancake batter and a single batch of the filling, so I ended up with 16 cinnamon roll pancakes and 10 regular pancakes.  I only had 5 kids eating breakfast this morning, so I had quite a few leftovers, despite everyone having 2 (a limit I imposed, otherwise those kids would've eaten them all!).  I laid them on a cookie sheet to flash freeze.  As soon as I have a chance to reheat and eat them, I'll update as to how well they stand up to freezing.  I'm hoping it will be a success so I can have a quick sweet fix occasionally while the kids are napping in the afternoon! :)

Homemade Yogurt

Way back in the beginning of my money-saving endeavors, I spent a few weeks tracking my grocery lists to see what I spent the food money on.  The plan was to see if I could make some of those items that we spent the most on or find a way to buy them cheaper.  At that time, I found that we were buying quite a bit of individual flavored yogurts and those quick Go-Gurt tubes.  I remedied that money drain by purchasing quart tubs of vanilla yogurt instead.  Then I patted myself on the back for a job well done.

Later in my thrifty quests, I found that people actually make their own yogurt.  I dismissed that as I figured only hippie-kooks made yogurt.  Well, give me another year or so and I became the hippie-kook that was making my own yogurt (and lovin' it)! :)

I first started with the recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking.  Affectionately called "crockpot yogurt," one simply heats the milk to the appropriate temperature in the crockpot, let it cool, add your starter and insulate the crockpot so that the bacteria in the milk grows and becomes yogurt.  I found that the end product was quite tangy and a little too runny to be eaten in its original form.  However if I drained some of the whey off, and added some sweetener (usually strawberry jelly), it was very palatable.  I also made mock sour cream by draining off most of the whey.  I did this for over a year and while I was pleased with the results, my kids weren't.  They thought it was still too runny and didn't want to eat it.  I had come to the conclusion that even if it was cheaper to make my own yogurt, if it wasn't being eaten, then it was still wasteful.

A few months back I came across a different spin on homemade yogurt.  Jen, at Bacon in My Pocket, researched several recipes and came up with the best of all of them and I would have to agree.  Jen's yogurt recipe yields thick and creamy yogurt that can be tailored to your specific tastes.

Here is my version (please check out Jen's version-she has pictures!)

Pour milk in a large saucepan.  I usually use 2 quarts of milk at a time.  Heat to 180 degrees, stirring occasionally.  Once the milk has reached 180, remove from heat and allow to cool to 110-120 degrees (if you want to speed the process, you can place the pan in ice water).  In the meantime, open an 8 ounce container of plain yogurt with live cultures.  This will be your starter.  Pour it into a small bowl.  When the milk has cooled sufficiently, place a few tablespoons of the warm milk in the bowl with the starter.  Stir until smooth.  Add the starter into the saucepan of milk and whisk until thoroughly incorporated.  From experience, if you leave clumps of yogurt, your end product will be grainy and while it's still edible, smooth is tastier.

For plain yogurt, fill clean glass jars with the milk and then cap.  Place in a cooler filled with 120 degree water-filled full enough that the water covers the jar(s).  Close cooler and let sit for 4 hours.  Remove jars and immediately place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours.

If you are wanting flavored yogurt, you can add sugar and flavoring to the milk (about 1/2 cup sugar for 2 quarts of yogurt and I use 2-3 tablespoons of vanilla extract for flavoring.  I'm sure other extracts could be used, I'm happy with vanilla though).  Procede in the same manner as with plain yogurt.

And, ladies and gentelmen, there you have it.  Yummy yogurt that is healthy and easy on the pocketbook.

Trail Mix

Trail mix is one of those snacks that I make when I have a lot of miscellaneous items in the pantry.  While there's variety, there's not a lot of quantity to make it be a snack by itself.  The items that can go in trail mix are endless, but here's what ended up in our road trip trail mix.

walnuts
almonds
cashews
raisins
sunflower seeds
braided butter pretzels

Many times chocolate of some kind make it into the trail mix, but since we were going to be on the road and I didn't know how well the cooler would actually keep things cool, I skipped it this time.

Other foods that go well in trail mix...
Craisins or any dried fruit cut up in small pieces
pumpkin seeds
pecans
peanuts
bite sized cereals
chocolate chips or m&ms

What do you like in your trail mix?

BBQ sauce

Good morning everyone!  We are on vacation, but I got this picture before I left on Thursday.  The daycare kids had BBQ beef quesadillas for lunch and of course we've used all of our store bought barbeque sauce, so I had to make my own.  I did a quick search and found this recipe on about.com.

My changes are in ().

• 2 cups ketchup (1 cup ketchup, 1 can diced tomatoes, drained and pureed-a fresh tomato peeled, seeded and diced would work well and that's what I'll do next time)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (1/3 cup evaporated cane juice, 2 tsp. molasses)
• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (only about 1/4 tsp. b/c I ran out of cayenne)

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over a low heat. Stirring occasionally and simmer for 20 minutes. Sauce should be thin, but not watery. Allow to cool. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate. Sauce is better if allow to sit for a day.

 

We all know that I didn't actually measure the ingredients (I'm more of an eye-ball it kind of gal.), and I was super busy getting ready to leave, so the sauce ended up too tangy to start with-it appears that I got a little carried away with the vinegar.  Oops!  I added a little more of everything and ended up with a pretty sweet sauce.  It was ok, but I think it would've been better if I hadn't been quite so distracted and actually came closer to the amount of the original ingredients.  Another change I made was to sub one of the cups of ketchup with my last can of diced tomatoes, drained and pureed.  I was too cheap to use 2 cups of my organic ketchup-that stuff is expense.

 

I will definitely keep this recipe and tweak it a little more to make it tangy, yet sweet, but not overly one or the other.  I don't want much do I? =)

 

 

Cookies for Breakfast?

My kids have a bit of a sweet tooth.  It's hard to tell if they got it from their mother or father, since we both like our share of sweets as well.  As I move to a healthier diet/lifestyle, I am trying to move away from refined sugars when I can. 

SIDE NOTE:  I am nowhere near ready to give up all refined sugar however wonderful that may be for me.  Granted, there are still 30 weeks left of this transformation, so who knows, but I love me some sugar!

Anyway, I wanted to give the kids options for something a little sweet, but also something that, when eaten, wasn't going to send the kids into sugar overload.  A breakfast cookie is just the ticket.  I first read about these cookies from Mari at Green & Thrifty, but the original recipe came from Heavenly Homemakers.

To, Heavenly Homemakers is where I want to end up in this journey, so to say that I changed a recipe that came from there is almost blasphemy.  But, it did it anyway.  I cannot lie.  I was out of honey, so I subbed maple syrup.  But, ya know what, they are good.  I've also made them with the honey and they are good that way too.  Hopefully no one will come beating on my door in the middle of the night to take me away for my evil deeds.  LOL

Here's the recipe.
1 cup butter, melted
¾ cup honey (or maple syrup)
2 eggs
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla
½ cup buttermilk
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups whole rolled oats
1 cup raisins or chocolate chips (while I love raisins, the girls don't, so chocolate chips it is)

Mix it all together and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.  Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

I made these early in the morning and got them cooked and into a ziploc bag in the freezer before they were spied.  Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have any to take on the trip!  =)