The salad bar that is! Today I put out a big bowl of green, hearts of romaine lettuce leaves, washed and torn. Smaller bowls containing baby carrots, shredded cheese, Bacos (soy bits), croutons, goldfish crackers, cherry tomatoes, onion slices, broccoli,chopped mixed nuts and thawed frozen kernel corn. I let the kids and the hubby graze according to their preference. We also had a small selection of salad dressings. Thus fortified with vegetables I let them have a slice of pizza and a juice box that was provided at our monthly library PTK night. PTK stands for "parent to kid" and is a chance for kids to read with and to their parents and then put their name into a drawing for free books. Every kids that attends receives a free book of the next day during lunch too. It is a great program!
What are your kids favorite salad fixings? Are they more fruit than veggie eaters? Are they currently living on Flintstones vitamins and air? If your kids won;t touch ANYTHING green; ask them to grate a bunch of carrots and have them help you make this recipe.
Carrot-Raisin Salad
2 c. grated raw carrot
1/2 c. raisins
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 c. diced celery (optional)
1/4 c. chopped nuts (optional)
Salad dressing to taste (recipe to follow)
lettuce leaves (optional)
pineapple pieces (optional)
sesame seeds (optional)
Dressing: Mix 1 C vanilla yogurt with 1 TB of honey (or less) and 1/4 C of either orange or pineapple juice, whisk together. YUM! Add more juice if you want to make it thinner. Also good with bottled honey-ginger dressing.
Grate or even better peel in long strips with a vegetable peeler about 2 C worth of carrots. Toss with raisins and lemon juice. If you want you can also add the optional ingredients. Serve on lettuce leaves if your kids will eat them.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Parmesan Crusted Chicken -- an experiment
I have never made this particular dish before, heck, I've never even HAD this particular dish before, but my husband saw it on a commercial for an Italian eatery that is at closest a 2 1/2 hour drive from here. (Seriously, I live closer to Cuba than I do a Walmart; but I digress.) Anyhow, through the wonders of the internet I was able to find some promising sounding recipes. I cobbled a recipe of my own from about 3 different internet links since I didn't have ALL of the ingredients in any one, or I wasn't willing to do something (like pan-fry) in another.
So without further ado, Parmesan Crusted Chicken!
I flattened 2 chicken breasts to a uniform thickness by placing the chicken in between two pieces of cling wrap and pounding them with the underside of my iron skillet. Then I salted, peppered and onion powdered the breasts. Then I took them through a standard 3-step dredge, first flour (shaking off the excess) then 2 beaten eggs, and finally my own bread crumb mixture, a blend of dried parsley flakes, oat meal, bread crumbs and freshly, finely grated parmesan cheese. Then I placed the breasts into a baking dish, lightly lubricated with olive oil. I popped them in the oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes.
For side dishes I am making some sauteed spinach with chopped onion and finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Also a simple steam in a bag mix of veggies, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. Should be good. I will let you know how it comes out.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Quick hit -- Apple Brown Betty
I made the title of this post a link to Cooks.com where I found a recipe for a pressure cooker Apple Brown Betty. It reduces the cooking time from 45 minutes down to 15 minutes! Every day I love my pressure cooker more, I swear.
This recipe required butter and graham cracker crumbs, if one were to make this vegan you could use margarine and some sort of egg-less bread crumb. I think that next time I will sub out some of the graham cracker crumbs for old fashioned oatmeal. Also I would use more cinnamon than the recipe calls for and I would take the 1 cup of crumbs and butter and parcel it out into 1/3 C measurements, since you need three layers of crumbs all together.
We served the Apple Brown Betty warm in bowls topped with a wee bit of whipped cream. YUM! Plus a good dose of apples and raisins are always welcome. The kids ate it up and it made a nice amount for a family of 4, not too much at all!
This recipe required butter and graham cracker crumbs, if one were to make this vegan you could use margarine and some sort of egg-less bread crumb. I think that next time I will sub out some of the graham cracker crumbs for old fashioned oatmeal. Also I would use more cinnamon than the recipe calls for and I would take the 1 cup of crumbs and butter and parcel it out into 1/3 C measurements, since you need three layers of crumbs all together.
We served the Apple Brown Betty warm in bowls topped with a wee bit of whipped cream. YUM! Plus a good dose of apples and raisins are always welcome. The kids ate it up and it made a nice amount for a family of 4, not too much at all!
Failed Dinners
Okay, so I think I used the wrong cut of beef last night on my brisket because although it looked and smelled JUST LIKE every other time I have made it-- it tasted exceedingly bland! I just used the roast I had on hand and did not go and get a brisket, so I have only myself to blame. But here's the thing; I can eat a mediocre meal one night, but then I have the leftovers to deal with and you have to figure out what went wrong and fix it.
But first you have to start cooing the item that takes the longest to make. There was a leftover bag of collard greens from my husband's lonely little New Year's Day feast (the kids and I were out of town) so I fixed those in my pressure cooker. To the bottom of the pressure cooker I added 1 chopped onion, 1/2 C of vegetable broth, 3 cloves of garlic minced, 2 TB of ketchup, 1 TB of balsamic vinegar. I rinsed and picked over the pre-chopped bag of greens and removed any large stems or blemished leaves. I tossed the leaves with 2 TB of salt and 1 TB of sugar. Then I packed them down in the pressure cooker and cooked them on high for 20 minutes.
So last night's "meh" brisket got thrown into a sauce pan and covered in BBQ spice rub, then I added some BBQ sauce and heated the whole thing up. Instant pulled beef sandwiches, just add buns!
I just took some frozen corn niblets and microwaved them with salt, butter and 1 TB of water, just like you do. They were fine.
I threw the buns on the plates, added the BBQ, side of corn, side of greens. My baby wanted cheese on her sandwich, my 8 year old requested some pickled okra on the side and we were ready to eat.
The greens were so dang good I think I might make them that way from now on. The kids loved the sandwiches. My husband loved ALL of it and no one had to eat any under-spiced brisket for dinner! YAY!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Crockpot Mexican Brisket and No-Fail Beans and Rice
Crock pot beef is my favorite food to eat at Christmas, well, maybe tied for first with tamales. My Mom's crock pot beef, oh dear Lord, the smell of it is filling the house right now and causing my mouth to water in an alarming way. Anyhow, here is how you make it. Trust me, you're going to love this.
Buy a piece of beef labelled as a "brisket", if you do not see one ask the butcher what you can use. The genius part is that an expensive cut of beef will not work, it has to be a tougher and cheaper piece of beef to withstand the crock pot and break down into yummy delicious pieces.
Place your brisket into a proper sized crock pot, (not too small). Then season it all over with the Adobo "con pimienta" and then get to adding cut up red, yellow or green peppers (as you like, or mix them up), at least one good sized onion, 2 fresh cloves of garlic, smashed, and enough water to cover the brisket. Set that sucker on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 8-10 hours and when it is done cooking it will fall apart into flavorful shreds, much like a pulled pork. Honestly though, you can't really overcook this, it just gets more and more tender and the flavor gets more and more concentrated. You serve this on tortillas with your favorite taco fixings.
I usually serve black beans with this as well and I always make my beans from scratch. Here is my basic method.
Sort your beans and discard shriveled, busted or discolored beans, rocks and other foreign objects. Rinse the beans in a colander and place into a stock pot. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then turn off heat and let beans sit, covered for one hour. This is the "short soak method." Alternatively you could soak them overnight without boiling at all. Just discard the soaking water whatever you do and cook the beans in fresh water. To the beans I add a smashed garlic cloves, onion, and carrot at a bare minimum. DO NOT ADD SALT until the beans are nearly done. Added too early this can make your beans quite tough!
I always make my beans and rice vegetarian for 2 reasons. 1) You never know who might come to dinner and it is always a good thing to have options for your guests. 2) I never really notice the meat being gone on black beans, so why bother?
Yellow rice is my go-to for Mexican food as well. I buy the yellow plastic tubes of Mahatma rice from Costco in a 6 pack I use it so much. Here's how I make it. I chop up fine some carrot and onion. I open a can of tomatoes and drain them into a measuring cup, reserving the juice. To the juice I add enough water and salt to make the recipe and I microwave it all together to get it hot. I lightly toast the rice in an oiled wrought iron skillet. Then when it is sizzling I add the liquid to the rice as well as the chopped carrot and onion and the tomatoes from the can. I stir it all together and let it boil for one minute and then cover and reduce the temperature to low for 20-25 minutes. Depending on what I am making I have also added frozen green peas to the pan in the last 4-5 minutes of cooking time. The kids eat it up and ask for more. The tiny cubes of carrot and the round green peas are are lovely pops of color in the cheery yellow rice and the tomatoes pretty much cook down to nothing and help flavor the rice really well.
If I am making a vegetarian meal, I let the beans and rice take center stage and make a side dish of sliced sauteed zucchini and yellow (crook-neck or summer) squash, mixed with chopped onion and tomato and seasoned with salt, pepper and cumin. It is all sauteed together in a hot pan with olive oil and then deglazed with a bit of vegetable broth and allowed to steam for a few minutes until the vegetables are soft and the flavors have melded. You can serve that just as is for a vegan meal or add a bit of queso blanco (a soft white cheese) to the top for added flavor. Really let the veggies get some good brown sear before you deglaze to get the best flavor! It is sort of a Mexican ratatouille if you can imagine. :)
That's about it for me today. I need to go dive head first into some other project so that I am not tempted to lift the lid on the crock pot and start "tasting" the brisket. Happy Sunday everyone!
Buy a piece of beef labelled as a "brisket", if you do not see one ask the butcher what you can use. The genius part is that an expensive cut of beef will not work, it has to be a tougher and cheaper piece of beef to withstand the crock pot and break down into yummy delicious pieces.
Place your brisket into a proper sized crock pot, (not too small). Then season it all over with the Adobo "con pimienta" and then get to adding cut up red, yellow or green peppers (as you like, or mix them up), at least one good sized onion, 2 fresh cloves of garlic, smashed, and enough water to cover the brisket. Set that sucker on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 8-10 hours and when it is done cooking it will fall apart into flavorful shreds, much like a pulled pork. Honestly though, you can't really overcook this, it just gets more and more tender and the flavor gets more and more concentrated. You serve this on tortillas with your favorite taco fixings.
I usually serve black beans with this as well and I always make my beans from scratch. Here is my basic method.
Sort your beans and discard shriveled, busted or discolored beans, rocks and other foreign objects. Rinse the beans in a colander and place into a stock pot. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then turn off heat and let beans sit, covered for one hour. This is the "short soak method." Alternatively you could soak them overnight without boiling at all. Just discard the soaking water whatever you do and cook the beans in fresh water. To the beans I add a smashed garlic cloves, onion, and carrot at a bare minimum. DO NOT ADD SALT until the beans are nearly done. Added too early this can make your beans quite tough!
I always make my beans and rice vegetarian for 2 reasons. 1) You never know who might come to dinner and it is always a good thing to have options for your guests. 2) I never really notice the meat being gone on black beans, so why bother?
Yellow rice is my go-to for Mexican food as well. I buy the yellow plastic tubes of Mahatma rice from Costco in a 6 pack I use it so much. Here's how I make it. I chop up fine some carrot and onion. I open a can of tomatoes and drain them into a measuring cup, reserving the juice. To the juice I add enough water and salt to make the recipe and I microwave it all together to get it hot. I lightly toast the rice in an oiled wrought iron skillet. Then when it is sizzling I add the liquid to the rice as well as the chopped carrot and onion and the tomatoes from the can. I stir it all together and let it boil for one minute and then cover and reduce the temperature to low for 20-25 minutes. Depending on what I am making I have also added frozen green peas to the pan in the last 4-5 minutes of cooking time. The kids eat it up and ask for more. The tiny cubes of carrot and the round green peas are are lovely pops of color in the cheery yellow rice and the tomatoes pretty much cook down to nothing and help flavor the rice really well.
If I am making a vegetarian meal, I let the beans and rice take center stage and make a side dish of sliced sauteed zucchini and yellow (crook-neck or summer) squash, mixed with chopped onion and tomato and seasoned with salt, pepper and cumin. It is all sauteed together in a hot pan with olive oil and then deglazed with a bit of vegetable broth and allowed to steam for a few minutes until the vegetables are soft and the flavors have melded. You can serve that just as is for a vegan meal or add a bit of queso blanco (a soft white cheese) to the top for added flavor. Really let the veggies get some good brown sear before you deglaze to get the best flavor! It is sort of a Mexican ratatouille if you can imagine. :)
That's about it for me today. I need to go dive head first into some other project so that I am not tempted to lift the lid on the crock pot and start "tasting" the brisket. Happy Sunday everyone!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Every day is a celebration.
My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed and injured today in the terrible shooting in Arizona. I cannot imagine how harrowing and devastating this has been for all involved. The title to my post pre-dates this tragedy, but I find it more important now than ever.
Today we were reunited with the our closest friends here in the Keys. Due to all of the holiday busyness and our travel schedule it has been over 2 weeks since we last saw them. They have lovely twin daughters the same age as our older daughter and the wife of the couple is Godmother to our younger daughter. Our husbands get along "like a house a'fire" as we say down South. It's just really, really cool when you are friends with the parents of your child's friends.
Anyhow, our daughters had their first day of Municipal Basketball practice today, a skills test/lesson and a chance for the coaches to see the kids and assess their skill levels so they can be placed on teams. We saw a lot of parents we know this morning, out supporting their kids, enjoying the gorgeous weather, chatting and catching up. The park where we were at is beautiful and tree lined and shady. At times the atmosphere seemed almost like a convivial cocktail party with people laughing and talking and mingling. Some of us decided to go get lunch all together at a seaside burger joint with gorgeous unimpeded views and an ocean breeze.
At lunch I decided to invite the whole clan to dinner at our house on the spur of the moment, since our husbands would be at softball practice together that afternoon, anyhow. After softball I came home and made spaghetti and red sauce, steamed green beans, some frozen heat and serve french bread. I am sure you all have your own favorite spaghetti recipe, but I encourage you to bring it out when you are feeding a big crowd. One box of spaghetti, a can of sauce, a can of tomatoes, some chopped onion and garlic is a pretty economical (and kid pleasing) way to feed a crowd. We asked out friends to stop by the store on the way over and pick up ANYTHING they liked dipped in chocolate for a surprise dessert!
For Christmas we received a small Chocolate Fountain (cue choir of angels: ahhhh!). Let me tell you, if you have ever harbored Augustus Gloop levels of fantasy about chocolate, as I have, you can well appreciate the awesomeness of the aforementioned Chocolate Fountain (ahhhhhhh!) It is simply the most fun you can have fully clothed and in the company of minors. (Ahhhhh... hem.)
Our friends brought bananas, blueberries, strawberries, dried mango, marshmallows, pretzel sticks and apple slices. These were all lovingly bathed in glorious chocolate and consumed with much "mming" and "ahhing" and some more unintelligible grunts of pleasure. The kids all took turns, the big kids helped the little kid spear her blueberries, there wasn't much spilled on the tablecloth; and then after we were fully sated on fruit and endorphins the grown-ups played MarioKart and the kids played dress-up.
All in all a pretty normal day, laid back, nobody did anything crazy or remarkable, but I promise you I will always remember it. One of the few things I know for sure is it doesn't much matter WHAT you do as much as it matters who you are with when it happens. Few things in life are as pleasurable as sharing a meal with folks that really get you, your husband, your sense of humor and your love of oregano. Few things in life are amazing as being around other adults who think you have really awesome kids and you love their kids in return. Few things are as precious as the time we spend with those we love. Friends are the family you make and that should be celebrated; on birthdays, holidays and even random Saturdays.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Beef Stew and Beer Bread!
I love my pressure cooker. I think I have mentioned that here before oh, maybe eleventy million times. I did have a big hunk of roast beast to deal with today, a beef round tip roast. It was approximately the size of 2 regulation basketballs put together. We got 2 nice sized roasts out of it and 3 bags (at 1 pound each) of stew meat. We had just under a pound of meat left so that went into tonight's stew.
This is the basic preparation method.
Dredge stew meat pieces in seasoned flour (salt and pepper). Then brown it in 1 TB of oil in your pressure cooker. Let the meat really sit there and sear to get the maximum flavor. Turn and let the other side brown as well. To this add 1 small chopped onion, 2 C of beef broth (or water, or water with a bullion cube in it) 1 TB of Worcestershire sauce, a couple of shakes of liquid smoke (optional), and a tsp of dried marjoram. Put the lid on your pressure cooker and bring it up to high pressure for 15 minutes. Release the pressure and add your choice of stew vegetables. Add any or all of the following, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, celery, garlic, mushrooms, green beans, hunks of zucchini, yellow squash, and 1 can of diced tomatoes (or of course, fresh chopped tomato in season). Put the lid back on and then bring up to high pressure for 5 more minutes. The stew is ready in about 30 minutes total and tastes like it simmered all day!
Easy Peasy Beer Bread:
3 C of flour (can be half and half white and whole wheat)
1 TB of sugar (optional)
1 t salt
1 TB of baking powder
1 12 oz bottle of beer
1 cup of finely grated cheese (I did 4 cheese Mexican blend)
2 tsp of chopped fresh or dried rosemary
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, add the beer, mix together and pour into a greased baking pan and bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. SUPER YUMMY! Bread is done in about an hour counting baking time! Please try it sometime, because it is quick and easy and delicious!
This is the basic preparation method.
Dredge stew meat pieces in seasoned flour (salt and pepper). Then brown it in 1 TB of oil in your pressure cooker. Let the meat really sit there and sear to get the maximum flavor. Turn and let the other side brown as well. To this add 1 small chopped onion, 2 C of beef broth (or water, or water with a bullion cube in it) 1 TB of Worcestershire sauce, a couple of shakes of liquid smoke (optional), and a tsp of dried marjoram. Put the lid on your pressure cooker and bring it up to high pressure for 15 minutes. Release the pressure and add your choice of stew vegetables. Add any or all of the following, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, celery, garlic, mushrooms, green beans, hunks of zucchini, yellow squash, and 1 can of diced tomatoes (or of course, fresh chopped tomato in season). Put the lid back on and then bring up to high pressure for 5 more minutes. The stew is ready in about 30 minutes total and tastes like it simmered all day!
Easy Peasy Beer Bread:
3 C of flour (can be half and half white and whole wheat)
1 TB of sugar (optional)
1 t salt
1 TB of baking powder
1 12 oz bottle of beer
1 cup of finely grated cheese (I did 4 cheese Mexican blend)
2 tsp of chopped fresh or dried rosemary
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, add the beer, mix together and pour into a greased baking pan and bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. SUPER YUMMY! Bread is done in about an hour counting baking time! Please try it sometime, because it is quick and easy and delicious!
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