Recent Creations

Seems like every post from me starts with apologizing for not blogging more often. so I won't do that this time. IF anyone besides me actually reads this then here are a few of our recent recipes.

Salsa Chicken- just like it sounds, pour a jar of salsa (I like Wal Mart Brand Black Bean and Corn Salsa over chicken breasts). Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until cooked through. Serve with rice topped with a small amount of lefover salsa from the pan. Make lots of extra rice. The best part is that it makes fabuolous lefotvers.

Salsa Chicken day 2- Take the aforementioned extra rice and mix it with the rest of the salsa from the chicken pan. If you have any extra chicken you can chop it up and mix in here too. Place in tortillas and arrange seam side down in a baking dish. Top with a little cheese and heat through (about 15-20 minutes) at 350. SO easy, and pretty tasty too!

Cous Cous with tomatoes and onions- This is an adaptation of a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. I love that site. I finally tried my hand at seasoning the plain stuff- actually Steve did, but I found the recipe for him. Boil 1 1/2 c of chicken stock (I used water and 2 boullion cubes) add 10 oz cous cous and remove from heat. Meanwhile sautee 2 tbsp olive oil, 3 cloves garlic- minced, 1 can diced tomatoes, and 1/2 onion, diced. Allow the vegetables to cook down and the onions to become translucent. Add to cous cous and salt and pepper to taste.

And finally Baked Rigatoni. Cook 1 1/2 lbs of ground turkey. While turkey cooks, boil water for pasta. Add 1 lb rigatoni and cook for 11-13 minutes or until al dente. Drain tuekey and pasta and place in a large bowl. Mix in 1 jar spaghetti sauce ( I used Buitoni Organic Olive Oil, Garlic and Basil from the 3 pack at Sam's) and 1/2 c parmesan cheese. Place in a baking dish. Cheese on top is optional. I happened to have some provolone on hand so I used it, but honestly I used so little that I probably could have just left it out with no ill effects.

Bread Success part two

I HATE wheat bread. I know. I made my comments about the air bread in the last posts, but I ate it anyway instead of the healthier wheat variety. So when I started making my own bread, I did it with the full intention of adding some wheat flour to the bread and trying to make it a little healthier. Well last night I finally did it. My bread did not rise properly, but I attribute that more to the weather than the bread recipe itself. The resulting loaves thought a little on the short side were altogether tasty. I retained the rest of the modifications to the sandwich bread recipe I posted the other day, but added in 2 cups wheat flour. So the flour mixture consisted of 1/2 c flax seed, 2 c wheat flour, 3 1/2 white flour. Steve liked it, and since he is my tester I'll go with it. Yay!

As for dinner, Wednesday night was Salmon Croquettes. I pretty much made up the recipe myself, but it consisted of about 1.2 c bread crumbs and Greek seasoning. Ad egg would have been better, but I didn't have any and I thought I could make it work without one. I was partly right. They tasted pretty good if I do say so myself, but they would have been much more cohesive if I had had that egg. Next time I'll remember to be sure I have an egg first.

Last night I let the Mellow Mushroom do my cooking. Funky Chicken Q pizza and man was it good! We met an old friend there for dinner and a beer.

Tonight was another last minute cous cous and chicken concoction. We went swimming with the same friend this afternoon so I was not particularly prepared for dinner tonight. My husband could have done it since he was home, but I digress... Chopped chicken and Mediterranean cous cous. Would have served a veggie but I was trying to get something cooked in a big hurry because Steve only had about 30 minutes before he needed to leave for work. Gotta love 7 minute meals!

Tomorrow night might be a free for all. Spending the day with my dad and family. My sister is in town from Gainesville with my new nephew. We have also been invited to a swimming party tomorrow night, not sure if I have the stamina to make it. We'll see.

Bread Success

When I was still pregnant with Sara Catherine I started on this crazy Betty Crocker spree. If it wasn't cookies or cakes, it was bread. I was determined to find a bread recipe that could replace the loaf of air and preservatives that I bought from the store every week. My efforts fell flat however, at least with my husband. The recipes I found were too dense he said, to be good sandwich bread. You see while he mostly supports me in my endeavours I think he expects me to be able to make store bought bread at home. Not happening buddy. It takes a lot of air crap ingredients to make bread that light and fluffy. I finally found an awesome french bread recipe and it spurred me to try my hand at sandwich bread again. The result success, finally. The recipe is from Martha Stewart. I follow it mostly, but reduce the salt by half and add 1/2 c of flax meal in place of 1/2 c of flour and I leave out the butter in the recipe. I also use bulk yeast instead of packets and get good results with 5 tsp. Oh yeah and the Kitchen Aid with dough hook rocks. That is all.

2 envelopes active dry yeast
2 cups warm water (about 105°)
1/4 cup honey or granulated sugar
3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter, plus
1 teaspoon melted unsalted butter, for bowl
2 tablespoons coarse salt
6-7 cups all-purpose flour, plus
more flour, for dusting

Directions
Sprinkle yeast over warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
Add honey, butter and salt; whisk until yeast is dissolved.
Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
Add 3 cups flour; mix on low speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Add 3 more cups of flour; mix until incorporated.
On a lightly floured surface, knead dough, adding up to 1 cup more flour as needed; knead until smooth, elastic, and slightly sticky, about 5 minutes (I do this with my dough hook in the mixer).
Let rise in a large buttered bowl, covered with plastic wrap in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400.
Butter two 4 ½ by 8 ½ inch loaf pans.
Punch down the dough; transfer to a lightly floured surface.
Divide dough in half.
Gently knead each piece until smooth.
Shape each piece into a loaf, tucking sides underneath to form a seam down the middle.
Place loaves, seam side down, in buttered pans.
Let rise until dough reaches top of pans, 15 to 20 minutes.
Brush top of loaves with butter.
Bake until golden brown and hollow-sounding when tapped on bottom (briefly turn out loaf to test), 35 to 45 minutes.
Let cool slightly in pans on wire racks; unmold.
Let cool until just warm before slicing.

I am a domestic godess

Come on say it with me, "I am a domestic godess". There now that we've all had our laugh for the day I can get back to reality and apologize for the fact that I am again a slacker. Darned kids and their neediness ;)

Seriously though, I am impressed with myself right now. I am a solid food delayer. I also do not do jarred baby food. I had every ambition of making my own for Will, but turns out he hated all forms of the stuff. So by the time he was 8 months old he was eating table foods with us at dinner despite not having any teeth until he was 10 months old. I honestly beleive this is the reason he eats so well to this day. Fast forward to baby #2. This method worked so well for us that I decided to just go that route for baby girl. Except she had other ideas about solids. Seems she is ready NOW, actually I think it was yesterday but I put her off a bit. She is eyeing my food like a hawk with its prey and even went so far as to try to steal the apple right from my mouth. It was then that I pretty much gave up. I gave her the apple and she tried unsucessfully to derive some source of enjoyment from it. I decided that I couldn't exactly figure out a way to safely share it with her- you know choking hazard and all. The hamster hopped in its wheel and I hit upon the briliant idea of applesauce. Except I didn't have any, and I had no idea how to make it.

I decided to give it a shot anyway, I mean how hard can it be? I cut up some more apple, peeled it- in retrospect I should have done the peeling first- and microwaved it for about 2 minutes with a small amount of water. (I have since been informed that boiling it is really the way to go, so on my second attempt I used the stove.) Once it was soft I put it in my tiny food processor and whirled it around with a
little of the cooking water. Presto, applesauce. It was really that easy, and pretty darned good too. In fact the 3 year old wanted some so I had to make a second batch. So I guess you can add applesauce (and baby puree) making to my resume now. LOL!

Monday Night Dinner

No Memorial Day dinner here. Steve worked last night and again tonight. I still need to go to the store, but that's probably going to have to wait until Friday. I need to do a pretty big restock since the only things I have left are the infamous pork chops and the roast- which is still in the freezer. Need to get that out tonight. Seriously.

Tonight's dinner was another uninspired creation. Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil Cous cous and chicken and broccoli. I still had some shredded chicken in the freezer. Not really fit for a main course if you ask me, but I thought it might do well mixed in with the cous cous. Turns out it did. I served it with some fresh broccoli I needed to use up. My steamer is my new friend. I've had the thing for years, but I've probably used it more in the last 6 months than I have in all the years I have been in posession of it (it was originally my mom's she never used it either). It requires very little effort and clean up, but is the preferred way to cook veggies since it keeps more of the nutrients in than "boiling" them.

Maybe I'll finally get it together and we'll have that roast. Great thing about it is that it will last for at least two meals. I am all about leftovers these days. Saves me time and money. Both are good things to save if you ask me :)

Lunchable pictures

Had to get these off my phone. A simple task, yet....

He still really likes these. He did finally ask about the cookie one day last week, but I still had a good run. He took the disappiontment like a champ though.

Slacking

Okay so I've been slacking. I'm not sure anybody but me reads this thing anyway, but I'll keep blogging as often as I can get around to it. Should probably be easier when we get our high speed back and I can use the laptop instead of my phone.

Thursday night was Mexican. Courtesy of the El Toro restaurant. I am happy to say that we did not blow up despite smelling a little natural gas upon entering. My baby girl got her first taste of real solid food that night. She was eyeing my fork with a vengeance (cue the Geico creepy eyeball commercial music). In the tradition of her brother we are going to skip baby food altogether- more on that later- so I decided to dive in. Now I will say here that I am NOT ready for this milestone so unless her ped insists when we go in on Tues. we will only be "playing" with solids. Nevertheless, she sampled some tortilla and chicken and loved them.

Friday night was left over Minute Steak from lunch on Thursday. Served with green beans (frozen, never canned).

Last night was chicken pot pie from scratch. I had some chicken in the freezer from a mass cooking spree a while back. I defrosted enough to cover the bottom on my 8x8 pan about an inch deep. I poured on the rest of the bag of mixed veggies on top and added a layer of a homemade Bisquick mixture on top (partly because I was out of the real thing and partly because I had been meaning to try a homemade version and now seemed like a good time). It was okay. I was afraid to add much wetness to the bottom layer for fear that it wouldn't cook down and I would have a soupy mess. Lesson learned. The results were still edible, but overall a little dry. In my previous days I would have added a can of cream of something, but I am trying to get away from those as well. Maybe chicken broth next time, and something else. Not sure yet. I got the go ahead to make it again with some tweaking so it must not have been all bad.

Dinner tonight was pork chops again. In a flash of brilliance I bought the big pack of chops that were buy one get one free at Winn Dixie a few weeks ago. The result, about 9 bags of pork chops with 2-3 per bag.

I was feeling rather uninspired but realized about 10:30 this morning that I had not taken the roast out to thaw like I had intended, so that was clearly out for today. I decided to try the chops, but in the crock pot. Easy, no fuss. In went 2 bags of frozen pork chops (about 6 I think) and 2 cans of RoTel. That's it. I put them on high and just left them until I remembered to check, LOL. While I can't say that any great transformation took place (they tasted like pork chops and RoTel) they were altogether pretty decent. I removed the chops and added a little flour and water slurry to the remaining juices and RoTel to tighten it up a bit. Served the "gravy" over rice. Even my 3 year old who has suddenly become a little picky (guess he was used to eating all the crap too) ate it willingly.

Tomorrow night, is still up for grabs. The infamous roast is still frozen solid and I have my doubts that it would be ready to cook by morning, so I might just wing it for one more night. The pantry is winding down quickly so I'm liable to get really creative as payday approaches.