Day 14 and 15: Leftover Days

We had a brief one day trip this weekend, so we did have to eat a couple of meals out, but the rest of the time we've been eating leftovers of the Peanut Butter Chicken, Veggie Beef Chili, and the Mushrooms and Fettuccine with Red Pepper Flakes.

Day 13: Blueberry Dumplings

Okay, so this isn't the healthiest recipe, but at least it's healthier than a candy bar... and no preservatives. I found this on allrecipes.com. It's a very easy-to-make recipe with decent flavor (although a few little tweaks to the original recipe would be preferred next time).


Blueberry Dumplings
What you'll need:

2 c blueberries

1/2 c white sugar

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

2 t. baking powder

2 t. lemon zest

1/4 t. ground nutmeg

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

3/4 c milk

3/4 c water

1/2 c half and half

Pour blueberries and 3/4 c of water into a 10 inch cast iron skillet. Stir in sugar. Cook until juice begins to boil, and lower heat. 

In mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, lemon rind, spices, and salt. Stir in milk until dry particles are just moistened. Drop dough by spoonfuls (8 large dumplings) on top of simmering berry mixture, and cover skillet. Cook over medium-low heat until dough is puffed and cooked through. Serve dumplings with berry sauce and cold cream.

 pan-view (fully cooked)

Ratings from the Experts*: 7/10 from both of us. It would be much better if you drop the 1/2 and 1/2 and serve with low fat vanilla yogurt instead. Also, cut the sugar in the blueberry sauce to 1/4 c. and add that 1/4 c. to the dumpling mix instead. I will definitely revisit this recipe though and try to make it better. It's promising.

Day 12: Veggie Beef Chili

I was craving something different and had a bunch of veggies to try to use up before they went into the moldy abyss, so I decided to slice, dice and throw them into the slow cooker. I ended up making a nice, lean healthy chili with organic ground beef, squash, corn, and celery.

Veggie Beef Chili
What you'll need:
1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
1 medium zucchini squash
3 stalks celery
1 can Sweet Corn
1- 4oz can Tomato Paste
4 oz. Spaghetti Sauce
3 T. chili powder
2 T. basil
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
2 c water
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)

Lightly brown the beef in a skillet (don't overdo it or your meat will end up dry once it's been slow-cooked for hours). Next dice the celery, then slice squash into halves then making 1/4" slices. Throw the veggies and beef into the CrockPot with the tomato paste, (be sure to drain the corn). Add in 2 c of water and 4 oz. spaghetti sauce and mix well. Lastly, add in the chili powder, basil, garlic, pepper, and onion. Mix very well. Set the cooker to High for 2 hours. Check squash every so  often to ensure it is softening. Once squash is soft, but not so tender it falls apart, turn the cooker off.

Serve topped with the shredded cheese of your choice.


Ratings from the Experts*: Pending. I tasted last night just after cooking it and found it delightful, but until I eat a full dish, I'm going to hold off judgments. UPDATE: Hubby gave it a strong 8/10. He ate it all in fact... for lunches at work. I'm told it was good. I wouldn't know since I didn't get any. (Yes. That is a hint of sarcasm you're detecting.)

Day 11: Mushrooms & Fettuccine with Red Pepper flakes

I'm baaaaaa-aaaack! And so glad to be in my own kitchen after a good night's sleep. I ate some wonderful meals in Dallas, but I'm starting to like my own cooking enough to want to cook! Tonight I ripped off Cathy at Noble Pig's Mushrooms and Fettuccine with Red Pepper Flakes recipe, except I added a couple of my own twists due to my hi-jinks in the kitchen.

I didn't have enough mushrooms and thus didn't create enough sauce. Plus, my husband likes thicker sauces on pasta as a rule, so I ended up adding a 1/2 c of half and half. I liked the effect on the sauce, but still want to try the recipe with double the mushrooms.

P.S. Artificial light sucks for trying to photograph food. Today was rainy, so there wasn't enough natural light to get a decent shot.

Mushrooms & Fettuccine with Red Pepper Flakes
What you'll need:
8 oz. dry fettuccine
3 T butter
1 T olive oil
2 t. minced garlic
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1 t. basil
1/2 lb. sliced baby bellas
1/2 c red cooking wine
1/2 c half and half
1/2 c grated Parmesan/Romano blend
Salt to taste
Chopped Parsley

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water according to package directions.  Drain pasta; set aside.

Heat butter and oil in a saute pan over medium-high.  When bubbles subside add garlic and pepper flakes; cook 1 minute.  Stir in mushrooms, cooking until they release their liquid and it's nearly evaporated, about 20 minutes.  Deglaze pan with wine, simmering until nearly evaporated.

Add fettuccine to pan and stir in half and half, 1/4 cup at a time, until it loosely coats pasta.  Off heat, toss pasta with Parmesan/Romano and season with salt.  Garnish each serving with chopped parsley and more Parmesan/Romano.


Ratings from the Experts*: Hubby gives it a 7 (less pepper, more sauce) but loved the zing that the pepper gave the dish overall. I give it the same. I'd be happier with more mushrooms too. I will say, if I figure out the right amounts of spice/sauce/mushrooms, this could easily be a 10.

Funday Sunday

Alright. Since I'm out of town and unable to be in the kitchen today, I thought I'd come up with a new regular post.(By the way, we thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's recipes Chicken Bierocks and Healthy Trail Mix on the road trip down!)

Here are some fun food stories from around the web.

Ever seen those mashed potato cakes? Well this is kind of a reverse.
Check out the surreal world of Pizza Cakes!

Ever heard of Stinking Bishop or Bubble and Squeak? Check out this hilarious article on the origins of some very funny food names!

Most people know about the La Tomatina Festival in Spain in which participants hurl tomatoes at each other until all are covered from head to toe in smashed tomato, but did you know there's a CHEESE-ROLLING festival in Gloucestershire, England? I'm not kidding!

Or what about the Battle of the Oranges in Ivrea, Italy? Now that has to hurt!
For more weird festivals go to Weirdomatic.com.

Ever wanted to eat your dinner in a Beijing Jail? What about eating your dinner on the porcelain throne? Check out this blog on Crazy Asian Restaurants.

So... what did you think? Should this become a regular thing? Post in comments below.

Day 6: Recipe 2- Chicken Bierocks

My mother-in-law suggested making Bierocks when I put out a request on facebook for recipes that travel well. I’d made them before and found them very filling… but the problem was that I didn’t have enough ground beef or sausage, as is the customary meat filling. So I came up with my own concoction and I think it turned out well!

Chicken Bierocks
What you’ll need:
2 large boneless chicken breast, cubed
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 can corn
1/2 large onion, sliced
1 - 4 oz. can mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 t. Paprika
1 T. Basil
pepper, to taste

Throw all of this into a CrockPot, mix well. Cook for 3-5 hours on high, stirring occasionally.


Dough

2 pkgs. yeast
1 t salt
1 c warm milk
4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c warm water
1/4 c butter, softened

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Set in warm place. Add warm milk, butter and salt; let stand for 10 minutes with yeast mixture in it. Add flour and sugar and work together with fingers until all of the dry ingredients are worked in well. Let double for 50 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough into a 1/4” thick layer, then cut into 7” circles of. Take cooked chicken mixture and spoon desired amount into the middle of dough circles, then fold dough over and pinch edges down, ensuring all the mixture is contained within the dough. (It’s easiest to do this on a cookie sheet so you don’t have to transfer them once done.) Bake for 20-25 minutes until dough is firm and slightly crispy on the outside.

This recipe yields 6-8 bierocks.

Rating from the Expert*: Delicious! 9/10, only for the fact that I might like to try adding some Thyme and maybe add potatoes to the chicken mixture next time. The dough is sweet and tasty and the dish is very filling overall.

Day 6: Healthy Trail Mix

I found out we're making a bit of an unexpected road trip to Dallas this weekend through next week for my husband's work. Since I'm becoming more conscious about healthy food, I came to the succinct conclusion that Convenience Store Gourmet is not going to cut it for snacks. I did a little searching online searching for inspiration and came upon suggestions for trail mix, but I hate the sodium content in many of the processed trail mixes, so I made my own.


Healthy Trail Mix
What you'll need:
1 1/2 c granola or rice based cereal (I used Aldi's GetBalance Crunch)
1 c Cheerios
1 1/2 c Corn Chex
1 c Almonds
1 c Dried mixed berries (strawberries, cranberries, blueberries)
1 c Semi-Sweet chocolate chips

Put in a large container, shake until well mixed.

Rating from the Experts*: For a much healthier mix, no added salt, and some good sweet stuff I give it a 10/10. If my husband is any indication, he immediately came over and dipped his hand into the tupperware container and started scarfing it down, eliciting sounds of approval.

Day 5: Easy Peanut Butter Chicken

Thanks to a hectic day of a whiny toddler and a lab draw appointment, I was not much in the mood for spending a bunch of time in the kitchen. We tried something very similar to this dish before, but I found this recipe via Stephanie O'Dea's Blog, "A Year of Slow Cooking" and I couldn't be happier with how simple it is to throw into a CrockPot and leave it be, and yet it still tastes like you slaved in the kitchen for hours to make it!

(Easy) Peanut Butter Chicken

What you'll need:

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken, cut in chunks 

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (creamy or chunky, your choice)

1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 lime, juiced

1/4 cup soy sauce (use gluten free--La Choy or Tamari wheat-free)

1/2 cup chicken broth

It's suggested to use a 4-quart slow cooker, but you can use larger. Put the chicken into the bottom of your pot and add the peanut butter. Toss in the vegetables and cumin. Squeeze in lime, and add soy sauce and chicken broth. Stir as well as you can to combine (the peanut butter will be clumpy, and that's just fine). Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for about 4 hours. (Or if you have a larger cooker like I do, expect it to be done quicker! I have a 7 qt. crockpot. I set mine on High and it was done in just under 3 hours.)

Rating from the Experts*: 10/10 from Hubby! He loved it and actually found it delicious with no complaints. I give it 10/10 as well. Easy to make and awesomely good! Paired wonderfully with rice/vermicelli mixture.

Day 4: Leftovers Day

I didn't post any recipes yesterday because after cleaning up the diaper disaster of February 2011 in the morning, and being up for half the night thanks to lactose intolerance, I didn’t want to spend a bunch of time in the kitchen. We had muffin omelets for breakfast, creamy chicken enchiladas for lunch, then (for a rare date night) went out for dinner to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Mekong River.

Day 3: Recipe 2- Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

This simple, delicious recipe was given to me by my mother. It's very easy to put together, but is packed with flavor. Two enchiladas was a bit much per person for us and the recipe yields 8 enchiladas, so it's a dish fit for a crowd.

Another wonderful thing about this recipe is that the ingredients are simple enough even if your cupboards are bare (much like mine today), you're likely to be able to scrounge up enough to fix this! This pairs wonderfully with Spanish rice.

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
What you'll need:
2 c cooked chicken, cubed
1 can low sodium Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Chicken
8 oz. low fat or fat-free Sour Cream
1 c picante sauce
1 c shredded cheese
2 t. chili powder
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. oregano
8 fajita size flour tortillas

Mix soup, sour cream, picante sauce, chili powder and oregano in a large bowl. Mix 1 cup of the picante sauce mixture, chicken and cheese. Spread about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture down center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam-side down in a 9 x 13" baking dish. Pour remaining picante sauce mixture over enchiladas and top off with extra cheese if desired. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.



Rating from the Experts*: Hubby rates it 9/10 (he doesn't like any part of the tortillas to be crunchy, preferring it to be completely smothered in sauce- picky, picky!) I say 10/10 for the fact that I would order it on repeated occasions if it was at a restaurant.

Day 3: Jam/Jelly Muffins

I've been craving carb-y sweets all week, so I found this lovely recipe to satisfy my appetite without adding inches to my hips. It's a very low fat recipe but it doesn't taste like diet food, which I like.

One ironic element is that despite this recipe originally being called 'Jam Muffins', I didn't have any jam, so I used the very last dredges from our grape jelly jar. (I really think it's time to go to the store considering we're out of nearly everything.)



Jam Muffins
What you'll need:
2 cups flour
2 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup skim milk
5 tsp jam (jelly) of your choice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 12-cup muffin tray with cooking spray. Beat egg whites, vanilla extract and sugar for 1 minute in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, add the baking soda to the applesauce and wait for it to froth up. When it does, add it to the egg/sugar mix. Stir in the milk. Fold in all of the flour at one time until just combined - don't beat as the muffins will be tough. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of mixture into each muffin cup, top with a 1/2 tsp of jam, cover with another dollop of mix, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

When reheating these muffins, just be careful because the jam/jelly filling gets hot. Yields about a 1 dozen muffins. 

Rating from the Expert*: 7/10. I'd probably make them again, but definitely worth getting a tasty jam. It's very much a breakfast dish, and should be warmed up and served slathered with margarine.

Day 2: Salsa Cube Steaks

I raised an eyebrow at my husband when he brought home a package of cube steaks from the grocery store the other day, but I shouldn't be surprised considering the fact that every time I send him somewhere for something he always comes back with more than I asked him to. Most of his extracurricular selections are suspect, but some of them are quite genius and inspire me to search for new recipes. I think this was more of the latter!

I love Mexican food, but I also dislike the effect of beans on my husband so I found a happy medium with this vaguely Mexican concoction. Like anything else, smothering it in cheese makes it better, so I added that to the recipe, but I followed everything else to the letter except for some small preferential things like dicing instead of slicing the veggies.

Salsa Cube Steaks
What you'll need:
1 lb. pkg. cube steaks
1/2 t. ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
8 oz. salsa
2/3 c shredded cheese  (I used taco cheese)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the steaks in a 9 x 13" baking dish season both sides of steaks with cumin, and salt and pepper to taste. Scatter diced onion and bell pepper over the steaks, smother with salsa, and cover with foil.

Bake for 30-40 minutes. (I added the cheese about 20 minutes into baking so it wouldn't get overdone.)


Rating from the Experts*: 9/10 It's incredibly quick, simple and smells yummy! The cumin brings out a rich flavor I wasn't expecting. Great when paired with rice (and/or beans if you don't mind the aftereffects).

Day 1: Recipe 2- Crusted Baked Summer Squash

I had a quandary...four yellow summer squash that were soon to be nearing the dark moldy abyss. I didn't know what to do with them since I just cooked their stuffed counterparts last week, so I started looking up recipes online and found a couple that I liked the sound of. Never being a fan of steamed squash (not enough flavor) I was looking for something easy but different. I came across Southern Baked Yellow Squash on Allrecipes.com but something was missing from the equation. Here's what I came up with.

Crusted Baked Summer Squash
What you'll need:
4 yellow summer squash
2 egg whites

1 c dry bread crumbs

1/2 c Parmesan cheese, grated

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 tablespoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the ends off the summer squash and cut into 1/4" thick medallions. Boil squash in a large saucepan for 12 minutes, covered. Squash should be soft and pliable when done. Drain, then mix in 2 egg whites, making sure squash are well coated.

In a large freezer bag, toss in bread crumbs, Parmesan, flour, oregano, salt, and pepper and shake until well mixed. Once mixed, empty squash medallions into the freezer bag and shake until all the medallions are well coated with the mixture. Empty bag contents into a greased 9 x 12 baking dish and distribute into a thin, even layer. (It won't look pretty, but I promise, the taste is worth it.) Bake for 1 hour until browned on top.

Here's the finished product. Now you see why that's not at the top of the post. Ha!

Ratings from the Experts*: for squash 9/10. I might try adding some onions next time but it's got a very full-bodied flavor.UPDATE: This does not save well. It's best to eat in one meal. The breadcrumbs tend to get soggy when refrigerated.

Day 1- Muffin Omelets

After nearly croaking at the idea of using a dozen eggs for one recipe, I quickly started liking this once I saw how easy it was to put together.  Between an oftentimes whining toddler and my phone ringing, I have a need for speed when it comes to recipes. This is so simple. Throw everything in a bowl, mix it up, divide, and conquer...er...bake!

A note on taking the Omelets out of the muffin pan, it's easy to get them out whole if you knife around the edges of the cup, then scoop it out with a large spoon.

I also think this will freeze well, but I will update later if for some crazy reason it doesn't.

UPDATE: They freeze and reheat very well! 1 minute in the microwave warms them up nicely.




Muffin Omelets (adapted from Egg Muffins at Allrecipes.com)
What you'll need:
12 eggs
1/2 c Skim milk
1/2 med. tomato
1/2 med. onion
bell pepper (I used half of one)
1-4 oz. can of mushroom pieces
6 slices of bacon
1/2 c shredded cheese
2 cloves of garlic (or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder)
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 t. thyme

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook bacon, then in a large bowl beat eggs and milk together until well blended. Dice tomato, onion, bell pepper, and bacon and add into egg mixture, then adding mushrooms and mixing well. Fold in cheese, then mix in garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme until evenly mixed.

Spoon mixture into greased muffin pan by 1/3 cupfuls. Bake in oven for 30-35 mins, checking center with a knife until done. Yields 12 servings.

Rating from the Expert*: 9/10 stars. The only thing I think it needs is perhaps a full tomato instead of 1/2, but then again, I'm a tomato freak. Delicious nonetheless!

In the Beginning...

There was one woman,  one blog, and a desire to eat healthier, save money and become the cook she always wanted to be.

I'm a twenty-eight-year-old mom to one rambunctious two-year-old boy and wife to one delightfully snarky engineer who thinks I'm cute when I'm mad. Currently I'm a stay-at-home mom who finds herself waaay too easily uttering one-liners from Veggie Tales movies, so it's high time that I find something creative to focus on besides perfecting my latest vegetable joke.

Given a recent downturn in the economy and a desire to help our monetary situation, I have decided to take on home cooking to a whole other level. There may be blood. There will most certainly be tears (either mine or my two year old's)... but hopefully, there will be some smiles, laughter, and a whole lot of good food!