Food in the Family!!

It's been a while since I've done a post about food. Admittedly, I spend less time in the kitchen during the summer since we spend much of our evenings outside playing. But I did make some fun meals recently that incorporated some cooking items we recently acquired from our grandma's. I love having family items in and around our kitchen. :)

We got hungry and creative one weekend morning...

Breakfast pizza! I added a salsa flavored greek yogurt dip as pizza sauce. Yum!

Some cinnamon toast, using my grandma's cinnamon sugar blend and shaker. Lola approved! This is also on my grandma's kitchen island which now makes it's home in my kitchen! We LOVE it.

French Onion Soup (from Trader Joe's), in those old soup crocks that not one, but two of our grandma's had! I love having these to use when a warm cup of soup is calling your name!

Panera Eat Your Heart Out

Panera's got some pretty tasty stuff on their menu (have you tried their new Power Chicken Hummus Bowl? Whoa its good).

I like so many things there, but an old favorite on a cold day will always be their French Onion Soup. We decided to try a copycat recipe, and serve it up with a good helping of Caesar salad.

This version was good, but not exactly identical. I thought it had too much black pepper. Serving it with croutons, a crusty roll and shaved Asiago cheese is definitely recommended. And ironically after being reheated for day 2, that it was too oniony. The flavor was still ok but enough broth was either eaten or cooked off that it felt like just eating sautéed onions.

Pleasant Surprises (in the kitchen)

Sometimes I get a little adventurous in my recipe "pinning". Something may look delicious on the computer screen, but when it comes to trying out the recipe my bravery sometimes fades. However, this week I took on a new recipe that was pretty far outside of my domestic comfort zone...a Thai inspired dish. Last night I made this Thai Penaut Quinoa Salad, with a few twists, and I LOVED the result.

source

Here's my changes: I didn't have quinoa on hand for once (we're quinoa fans in this house), so I swapped that with some couscous I had in the cupboard. I don't do cashews, so we subbed in some chopped peanuts. I omitted the basil. I think I added more than the recommended 1 cup of chopped cabbage and just eyeballed how much couscous I added. And the kicker...I sauted some shrimp in soy sauce and garlic powder and added that to the salad so it had the protein we were missing from the quinoa. This was really good. Ava even enjoyed it...I think she especially liked digging her fingers into that couscous. I was so anxious for leftovers, that I may have gotten into them before 11 am today. :)

We've also been working our way through large amounts of garden produce that we have been lucky enough to be given throughout this summer. This week, we put some of the zucchini towards some brownies! While the concept is similar to zucchini bread (replace egg with zucchini for moisture) I'd never tried this in brownie form. And this household loves it some brownies. We tried out this recipe two nights ago, and it hits the spot! They taste totally decadent.

source

Not all my kitchen adventures are successes, so I'll count these two as wins and add them to my cookbook!

Salmon Cakes with Creamy Ginger-Sesame Sauce

I found this recipe SEVERAL years ago, and it stays in our regular rotation (which really isn't that regular). It never fails us, and offers a different take on your standard salmon patties. Its also a quick and easy option to throw together on a weeknight! Also, I'll confess that I didnt feel like making my own breadcrumbs last night so I used prepared breadcrumbs and I was also out of sesame oil. Still turned out good!

Source

Ellie Krieger's Salmon Cakes with Creamy Ginger-Sesame Sauce



Father's Day Goodies

Wynston will be fishing this Father's Day. So, I started cooking and packed him up some goodies. Included in this box-o-yummy was Bacon Jerky (weird), chocolate covered pretzels, Whoppers, Cheddar Pringles, Cheddar Goldfish, smoked almonds, homeade spicy crackers (so strange and addictive!), homeade no-bakes, and homeade Reese's Pieces Chocolate Cookies. I was soo unsure about these cookies when I made them. The recipe is so simple, and the batter is so STICKY! It just wadded up into a giant ball of chocolate. Getting the Reese's added in was the ultimate arm workout. :p But I've been told they turned out good. So try them! Beyond easy to make...just a cake mix, oil, eggs and Reese's.

source

Rustic Dinner

I'm not sure "rustic" is 100% correct for this dinner, but it seemed fitting last night.

I mentioned earlier that I was really missing cooking. Well this week we've finally returned to the grocery store and cooked dinner all week. We've had nachos for dinner, fish and lemony zucchini pasta, shrimp cakes (which were surprisingly good , very dense and filling) with baked potatoes and broccoli, and last night was Kale and Goat Cheese Pizza with Chickpea Soup.

I really wasn't sure what to expect with our Kale Pizza and Chickpea Soup. It was one of those "this is either going to be great or gross" dinners. Turns out it was great!

Instead of making my own pizza dough (I've had very limited success there) I used Pillsbury Whole Wheat Artisan Dough. Totally worth the splurge, since we normally buy generic pizza dough. I repeat TOTALLY WORTH IT. We put a whole bunch of kale on that pizza and I thought "whoa, waaaay too much". Not true at all. It was the perfect amount of kale. One lesson we learned was to crumble and spread out that goat cheese. We had pretty big "discs" of goat cheese spread throughout the pizza, and coin sized bites of goat cheese can be a bit much.

As for the chickpea soup, I would be interested in blending this up a bit next time, but Wynston liked the texture. I also wasn't sure about the bread in the soup, but Martha doesn't disappoint. :)

Both food dishes last night were also a hit with Ava. She was busy munching on chicken, broccoli, noodles and black beans. But she enjoyed our shared bites of chickpeas, pizza crust with goat cheese and kale we gave to her. That girl will eat just about anything!

I Miss Cooking

It's true. I miss it. I haven't had the time to cook more than 1 or 2 real meals a week in so long. Life has just been crazy. It's been full of takeout, freezer meals, "search the fridge for leftovers and throw something together" and egg sandwiches. My waistline is probably reflecting these recent events.

Here's what I HAVE been able to make recently:

source

Little individual garlic monkey breads. These were easy and crazy good. Make these!!

source

Lightened up General Chicken. This was NOT good. Well...it wasn't awful, but it wasn't General Chicken. It was too tomato-y.


Ava's been munching on whole wheat elbow macaroni tossed in either pesto or tomato paste, chicken, edamame, sweet peas, green beans, blueberries and strawberries. That girl hilariously gravitates toward anything green.  During a recent trip to Trader Joe's I picked up the CUTEST tiny ravioli for Ava. It's so adorable.

My Pinterest Fail - Falafel Pie

Wow, my dish could NOT have turned out looking any different than the one on Pinterest. Not sure what I did wrong...they didn't provide a baking dish size, so I used a 9 inch round ceramic baking dish. I also used regular Greek yogurt instead of soy yogurt (which in my opinion should've produced thicker sauce on top, not runnier sauce on top). Hmm. Who knows. Still pretty tasty. If we make it again, I think I'll use more hummus as well. You can never have too much hummus!


Original Recipe



My recreation. Hilarious, no?!



Five Food Reviews (say that three times fast!)

Healthiness, Convenience, Affordability. These are all top priorities in my (cook)book. And while I may not always hit all three, I try.

Here is a round-up of some recent recipes we've tried, and how they turned out:

Freezer Breakfast Burritos:
We assembled these (over two nights because we ran out of tortillas) recently. I've been wanting to add something more nutrient dense than coffee to my mornings, so breakfast burritos it is!

Goat Cheese Stuffed Black Bean Burgers:
Anything "stuffed' intimidates me. This may be the easiest thing I've ever stuffed though! And the recipe left me feeling stuffed. HAHAHA hardyharhar. Sorry. Anyway, even Wynston warmed up to these meatless entrees after the first bite. A little time consuming to make, but worth it on a night you're not in a hurry. Good texture, creamy goat cheese inside, very filling. We skipped the avocado slices the first night we had them, and used pita's instead of buns. I smeared avocado all over my pita last night when having these for left overs and oh my. So good.

Lemon Quinoa Avocado Cilantro Chickpea Salad
Umm is that a recipe title or a grocery list?! While the very descriptive name sounds enticing to me, this recipe was a dud. Dare I say "too much avocado"?! It just didn't have enough texture, it's the wrong season for grape tomatoes. I don't know. She prepares her quinoa differently than I do (a presoak, then boil/simmer). Maybe that led to mushy quinoa. Not sure, but this isn't a keeper for us.

Baked Mozzarella Sticks
This was a "use what's in the freezer" items. We had left over wonton wrappers (still do), so I grabbed four part-skim cheese sticks at the store, and wrapped away. I cut my cheese sticks in half since I had wonton wrappers not eggroll wrappers. I didn't even need the water she mentions. I just nonstick sprayed my pan, wrapped, placed in pan, lightly sprayed the tops with the nonstick butter flavored spray and baked. Flip halfway, bake some more. Enjoy easy cheesiness after 15ish minutes. Yes, I cooked mine longer than called for, and they were still delicious and gooey. .

Zucchini Ribbons with Lemony Bread Crumbs
Sparkpeople is an awesome online healthy living community. It's got trackers (calorie, workouts, etc), tracker apps for your phone, recipes, workouts, forums, and more. Pretty cool. We are big fans of zucchini in this house and enjoy all sorts of cooked zucchini recipes (like this one), but thought we'd try something new. Those lemony breadcrumbs were such a nice surprise. This really turned out better than we expected.

Random Holiday Ramblings

Um....oh my...Christmas is almost here! I feel like I have so much left to do. Never before have my presents sat tucked away, unwrapped for so long. I still have 3 more gifts to buy, with 7 not yet arrived. I have 2 presents semi wrapped. I still need to finalize what food I'm making for family gatherings, do the grocery shopping for that food, and still need to finish and mail my Christmas cards. Yikes!

My motivation is there, but the desire to spend every evening cooking a meal, attempting to pick up a few things, and just spend most of my time playing with Ava or enjoying Wynston play with Ava seems to be getting in the way of my holiday progress. He can make that girl flat out laugh these days! Last night it was with him getting our dog Lily to play with Ava, the night before it was just him helping her "hop" all over the couch. Seriously makes my grin till my jaw hurts.

Here's my Living Room all decorated up...just kidding. I wish.
 Source

Today's agenda will be get.those.Christmas.cards.in.the.mail! And what a day to venture out into wind to head to the post office. The wind howled all night long, and there was a tornado warning a few counties southwest of us. In December!

I did find myself merrily motivated last week and set out to make my Grandma Day's famous holiday Peppernuts. These are the most delicious tiny spiced cookies ever. They are just barely larger than a Scrabble tile. And they are full of nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice goodness. It seems like every year around Christmas we'd end up over at Grandma Day's helping her make a batch or three dozen. :) I decided to make a batch myself this year. The recipe makes a LOT and calls for 5 cups of flour, which I was counting out with a 1/2 cup scoop. Wynston was chatting with my while I measuring, and I must've gotten off count, because my cookies both wouldn't roll out properly and just don't taste the same. Oh well. There's always next year. Or maybe I'll get a wild hair this weekend and try again. But don't count on it...I've got Elf waiting on my DVR!

Peppernuts and Coffee!
Picture and Recipe, however that recipe is not the same as my Grandma's.

Healthy Jambalaya

We had this a couple nights ago. It's so easy and so good. One of my favorites. And if you have to adjust a little to fit what you have, it still works!  I really like a lot of her recipes.

Hungry Girl Jambalaya

We added a bit more shrimp this time, and used some cheddar brats we had on hand, so ours wasn't quite as healthy, but that's ok.

New Love - Brussel Sprouts

I have a new love, and surprisingly, it is brussel sprouts. I had not even tried these adorable little vegetables until earlier this year. I am smitten.

Normally I like them tossed in some oil, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar then roasted. Maybe even topped with some bacon! Ohhh. Recently we tried them roasted, then coated in a dijon vinaigrette and with sesame seeds sprinkled all around (recipe here).

Anyone else out there share my love of these cuties? Anyone have any good recipes to share? I do believe I'm the only weirdo who can think about, let alone talk about eating and recipes the day after Thanksgiving!

Yumm! - Lettuce Wraps

We found another Pinterest recipe winner! Copycat PF Changs Lettuce Wraps

We previously were using a Guy Fieri Lettuce Wrap recipe that we liked a lot. They were tasty but also a drippy mess all over the place. Plus, anything that tastes like PF Chang's is a winner in my book. These are pretty easy, not really messy (aka not drippy), and a good way for us to use some groceries we had on hand (aka a big ol bag of shell on peanuts my brother and sister-in-law gave us).

I will say that we made a few tweaks:

• We added more soy sauce and honey to the sauce.
• I forgot to buy ground chicken, so we diced and cooked two chicken breasts with diced onions. Then we ran that through our food proceessor. End result...the BEST texture of ground up chicken for lettuce wraps EVAH!
• We used some hydroponic butter lettuce. I've learned over the years, that when making lettuce wraps, invest in the nice lettuce that doesn't snap and break on you and holds contents well.
• Next time, I'll use the whole can of water chestnuts instead of half the can. The more the merrier!

Go make this! Easier to make than you think it will be. We made this last night, after a LONG day spent out of town. When we decided to make this, I thought to myself  "I've lost my mind...where's the cereal and milk?" But we whipped this out in no time and it really hit the spot.

Dinner Time

Snacking on a banana in a mesh holder

Now time for some dinner

"Oh no, time to try some more of that squishy stuff. Hope it's not avocado again."

"I'm all ready...let's do this!"

"Oh, it's not green. Good."

"Down the hatch."

"Yum! Sweet potato and pear!"



1 Hour

On a typical night, while making dinner we plop Ava into her baby seat.  This one...

http://www.summerinfant.com/Products/Play/Support-Seats/SuperSeat®-(play).aspx

I love this seat, and as Ava gets bigger, we can remove the orange seat insert and it will grow with her. I recommend this product.

While we make dinner, we get about 15 minutes of play in this seat, then Ava wants out. Like O.U.T. out.

However, last night we may have turned a corner. I put her in the seat and started dinner. Wynston had to work late. I was just chopping vegetables since I figured I'd have to stop and attend to Ava before long. But then Wynston came home and we kept going with dinner. I was in charge of the pasta, he picked up where I left off with a "faux fried" blooming onion. We kept looking over at her, picking her toys up as she knocked them off, cooking, looking over, picking up toys, etc. Pretty soon an hour had passed and dinner was ready. ONE HOUR people! I was in awe. It was amazing. This little lady's mind, attention span and creativity must be growing! I loved peeking over at her as she gazed curiously at her toys, studying, then usually "pouncing" on them and putting whatever she can in her little mouth.

So, one hour of dedicated dinner making later (it doesn't usually take quite that long), we sat down to eat and watch the ball game. I'd purchased some Velveeta recently for a breakfast recipe...which needed approximately less than 1/4th of the pound. Our small town grocery store only carries the pound box! Not wanting to waste that cheese, and knowing I couldn't freeze it, I turned to Pinterest and snatched up a yummy looking pasta recipe that uses Velveeta. This turned out sooo bad! Lol. I dipped a tortilla chip into it and found that quite yummy, but on pasta...blech! After attempting to eat a bowl each (neither of us could) it felt like you had a 5 lb lump of goo sitting in your stomach. Oh well. At least the Blooming Onion was tasty!

More Pinterest Recipes

Here are several Pinterest recipes I've tried over the past few weeks and how they turned out...

Lemon Garlic Shrimp with Chickpeas and Corn Edamame Quinoa Salad

http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/2012/05/lemon-and-garlic-shrimp-with-chickpeas.html,

http://eatingwelllivingthin.wordpress.com/

We must've been feeling adventurous that night! I wasn't expecting the shrimp and chickpeas to be good, but they were great! Wynston and I both loved that dish. The textures were so different but blended very well. And yes, some nights we forgoe plates and just eat straight from the bowls!

 Greek Chicken Pizza





This isn't actually a recipe from Pinterest. When we go to Galloway Station, we often get the Greek Pizza, which is soo good. This was our homeade version...good but doesn't hold a candle to Galloway's. Boo to our nearest grocery store for not carrying Kalmata olives, but yay to them for some really yummy chicken tenders.

Bruschetta Chicken, Roasted Cabbage and Roasted Potatoes 

http://picky-palate.com/2008/04/29/grilled-balsamic-chicken-bruschetta-2/,
 http://www.marthastewart.com/315062/roasted-cabbage-wedges ,
http://pinterest.com/offsite/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpagesfoodblog.blogspot.com.au%2F2012%2F01%2Fyour-new-favorite-way-to-cook-potatoes.html&shatoken=44d1e38e476a19443c9fc9fafe181b0ceac55e07&pin=155444624609638441

I found the chicken recipe last summer and we love it. Easy, works well on the grill or stovetop. We skip the bread underneath the chicken. The cabbage was good too; I added a splash of balsamic vinegar (and maybe some worcestershire) to each slice before roasting. The potatoes were not great...they are hard to cook that way and I prefer to just cube and roast my potates with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Crockpot Salisbury Steak with Mashed Cauliflower/Potatoes

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Salisbury-Steak/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=80079589&prop26=SlowCooker&prop27=2012-03-23&prop28=Main&prop29=Recipe&me=1,
http://www.hungry-girl.com/newsletters/raw/919#mashies


I actually used venison burger for these steaks. Though we liked the recipe (it's a keeper, super simple) I'll make my steaks thinner next time. I also threw in some chopped onion and mushrooms to the crockpot. That was a good decision! The "mashed potatoes" are made from cauliflower and 1 potato (we used a left over baked potato). We've been using this light recipe for years. It's easy, healthy and tastes good!

Other recipes we've tried without pictures (bc my pictures are soooo high quality, haha!):

Chickpea, Feta and Parsley Salad - I'll use cilantro or Italian Parsley next time.
http://simpleprovisions.com.au/2012/07/09/chickpea-feta-and-parsley-salad/

Light Bang Bang Shrimp - we didn't feel like getting the grill out so I did all this on the stove top. Decent but not as good as the original.
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/05/bangin-grilled-shrimp-skewers.html

Crockpot Beef Broccoli - our crockpot runs hot and I let the meat burn in this. Not good!
http://www.bsrecipe.blogspot.com/2012/04/crock-pot-beef-and-broccoli.html

Pumpkin and Sweet Onion Quesadillas - We surprisingly liked this. I served it with a Morrocan Chickpea soup. Yum.
http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/09/pumpkin-and-sweet-onion-quesadilla.html



You Win Some, You Lose Some - Pinterest Recipes

Win:

Baked Ranch Chicken

http://pinterest.com/pin/155444624609442558/

Baked Breaded Mushrooms

http://notecook.com/side-dishes/breaded-mushroom-recipe-2/

Fail:

Crockpot Orange Chicken/Turkey

http://www.examiner.com/article/orange-chicken-the-crockpot

The failure of the Orange Chicken/Turkey was my fault. I spent Tuesday evening prepping two dinners as Wynston played super dad and played with Ava. The ranch chicken and mushrooms were both really good. I also threw some sliced zucchini topped with a little parmesan into the oven, and we had a nice meal all around. I thought I was doing so well prepping that orange chicken (again, we used wild turkey) for the next night. I was working in the office all the next day, so I'd just throw this in the crockpot and be done! But the next morning, I reread the directions...only 4-6 hours on low!! My crockpot never needs the full amount of time a recipe calls for, and I go to work at 7! So if I needed, say 5 hours, my meal would be done by noon, then sit on "keep warm" for another 4 hours! Afraid it would burn up, I decided to add water. Ha....HAHA!  This turned into a soupy, watery, nasty looking mess. Lesson learned. I still want to try the recipe, without my amazingly genius chef skills added in next time. (end sarcasm)

Pinterest Sweet and Sour Baked Chicken

I'd like to use this blog to also document some recipes and meals we try. We like to try new recipes often. Pinterest has only fed this kitchen monster. Some recipes we've tried have been good, others not so much. So here's what we tried last night:

Pinterest Sweet and Sour Baked Chicken with Fried Rice...except I used wild turkey from my dad instead of chicken. He gave us several bags of wild turkey, and it's been really good and noticeably tender this year (wild turkey can often be pretty tough). We've been on a freezer clean out kick, so this recipe is one I thought I could easily swap turkey for chicken on.

The review: The turkey was good. You coat your chicken/turkey in cornstarch, THEN egg. We'd never tried that before, and it resulted in something like a tempura batter. We will be trying this method again next Spring when the morel mushrooms come back up. I also added some vegetables to the mix: snap peas, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, water chestnuts. I snuck in brown rice instead of fried rice, but left out the peas and carrots. The turkey was good, the sauce okay, the fried rice was great. Neither of us are huge sweet and sour sauce fans, so I'm not surprised we weren't blown away. But the rice! That's the best fried rice I've ever made...with no butter needed to boot!

Please note: This is not my picture, but one from the original website.

I'll continue to use my dad's wild turkey in some Pinterest asian recipes. Wynston thinks the sauce is a keeper, if I cook the vegetables seperate next time. I'll keep the batter and fried rice recipes for sure.

Pinterest Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken