Catch-up and Weekend Plans

Well, this week I was forced into some simplistic cooking. I hadn't gotten all the ingredients I needed for one meal, and the heavy rains made it darn near impossible to get to the store. So I had to shuffle some recipes around and come up with some quick substitutes. Wednesday night I didn't have anything planned since the weather caused such upheaval, so I threw together a super fast, super easy, and definitely not all that healthy meal. I have a myriad of boxed products in the pantry, remnants from the days that dinner equaled some meat on the foreman grill, a canned veg in the microwave, and either another veg or one of those boxes. Now, while these meals weren't anything impressive, they were incredibly fast. Often times all I needed was 10 minutes and we'd be ready to eat. I have to say that sometimes I wish things were still that easy, and I got my wish Wednesday night. I had half a package of turkey sausage leftover from the jambalaya I made Monday evening. I heated that through and served it with canned green beans, canned corn, and instant mashed potatoes. Yes, I said instant. Confession time: I have so much trouble peeling potatoes that I used to buy instant all the time. Now I just keep the skins on them and pretend I do it solely for nutrition, ha.

Last night I was going to heat up some vegetable marinara I had pulled from the freezer the day before. For whatever reason though, all day long I kept thinking about buttery, garlicky, spaghetti totally sans sauce. When I got home and peered at the watery looking sauce that came forth from the fridge, I knew I wanted it even less. So, I opted to melt 4 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, and heat 2 pressed cloves of garlic with plenty of cracked black pepper. It was so yummy, not to mention incredibly cheap! I used my .25 cent package of made-in-Mexico spaghetti, and I'm not gonna bother to do the math on how much half a stick of butter and 2 garlic cloves cost, but I'm pretty darn sure it's not much.

This weekend I've got lots of plans. I'll be grocery shopping after work and I'm hoping to toss together a pizza tonight before Josh runs off to band practice and I work on organizing the pantry. Tomorrow morning I'm hoping to try out a recipe from a blog I just found this week. Saturday night we've got a dinner date with Steph and Rodney. Steph and I are going to go shopping for our ingredients and cook together, and the boys of course will do the dishes! Lastly I am really hoping to find time to make some granola on Sunday. I hope my weekend is as productive as I'm making it sound. And I hope you guys have a great weekend too!

Shopping Tip

Not every grocery store might have one, but the next time you're wandering through your shop's aisles check out the Mexican/Latin foods section. While perusing the section myself I spotted some pasta. I strolled down the aisle to the regular pasta section and compared products. To my surprise I could get the same kind of spaghetti for only .25 cents in the Mexican foods section! So, don't forget to check the little spots in the grocery store you may normally pass over. You just might find a fantastic deal!

Family Recipes

Lately I've been trying to go through my grandmother's old recipe boxes to see if I can find any interesting things to try. A couple weeks ago I had a strong craving for peanut butter cookies. The last time I attempted to make peanut butter cookies I followed a Martha Stewart recipe, and things didn't come out so well. Call me crazy, but I just don't see why the recipe has you bake them for 18-22 minutes. I kept reducing the cooking time with each batch, but they almost all burned. They were edible, but nothing I even bothered blogging about, I don't think. This time around I decided I should find the cookie recipe my grandmother used. My mom told me she didn't know exactly where it was, but once I found Aunt Minnie's recipe I had the right one. Luckily it didn't take too much searching to find it. These cookies came out much, much better than the previous attempt. I should have added more flour, I think, as the cookies spread to the point that you could barely tell I had fork-pressed them. That didn't affect the taste though, and as soon as I took a bite I new these were the cookies from my childhood. Josh really loved these cookies, and his dad liked them a lot too. I'm going to try and make some more soon, half a batch with peanut butter chips and half with chocolate chips. I didn't even think to ask my mom who the heck Aunt Minnie was until after I had made the cookies. Turns out she is my great, great aunt- my great-grandfather's sister. And turns out she made a mean cookie.

Aunt Minnie's Peanut Butter Cookies
3 cups sugar- half white, half packed light brown
1 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
3 eggs
3 cups of flour or more
2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water

• Cream shortening and sugars together. Add peanut butter and mix until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add flour slowly, mixing after each addition. Add baking soda water. Add any additional flour needed until dough is desired consistency.
• Roll dough into small balls, place on parchment lined baking sheet, and press out with fork. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire rack or paper towels.

My notes: I don't really understand the whole soda/hot water thing, but I did as it says and the cookies came out good. I described the way I mixed the dough together because the actual recipe just said roll into balls, press with fork, and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. These cookies are honestly different, not to mention better, than any of the other peanut butter cookies I've ever had. I don't bake enough to be able to tell you what it is about the recipe that makes them that way. But really, give them a shot and see how you feel about them. I don't think you'll regret it.

Today's menu

In my continuing effort to try and eat a bit better, here is what today has consisted of:

Breakfast: Bowl of instant cinnamon oatmeal and an apple
Lunch: PB&J on double fiber bread, low-fat vanilla yogurt, and a nectarine
Snack: Red seedless grapes and string cheese

Tonight I'll be making beef & broccoli with brown rice, and I think I'm going to go ahead and toss some of the leftover zucchini & squash in with it. I gotta do something with this stuff!

Fresh Ingredients

This week Josh brought home some goodies from the Garden Fairy, a.k.a. his dad. So, I changed up my weekly menu a little bit to make good use of some of our fresh-from-the-garden veggies. I had been thinking about doing the Zucchini & Yellow Squash Gratin that I made last month, but then at some point during the day I decided to change it up and go out on a limb. The squashes I got from John are really big. So, I thought I would sub them for Eggplant in my Baked Eggplant Parmesan. I sliced the zucchini and squash into rounds, and breaded and baked them according to the recipe. I baked them for 15 minutes, then flipped and baked for 15 minutes more. I layered them in the baking dish in alternating fashion so you would get both zucchini and squash in a serving. While the whole dish bubbled and baked in the oven I boiled up some penne to serve with it. This was really pretty good. It wasn't drastically different from the eggplant version, but a little more colorful and overall a really good use for some of the great produce we got from the Pop-In-Law.

Healthy Eating Help

Two posts in one day, have I lost my mind? Thrown all caution to the wind? Consequences be damned!

I'm trying to improve my healthy-ish eating ways, but I feel a bit stumped on just how to do that. The main thing is working in more vegetables and fruits. I'm definitely improving in the fruit area, but probably have a ways to go in the vegetable section. What ways have you added more vegetables to your diet? What are some of your favorite items in the produce section? I'm sort of concentrating on breakfast and lunch. I eat 2 out of three meals a day in my office on work days, so the easier something is the better. So, come on peeps, I need some help/advice/suggestions. Below is what I've been doing this week, as an example.

Monday:
Breakfast- Bowl of Frosted Shredded Wheat with 1/2 cup 1% milk
Lunch- Leftover Penne with Zucchini & Feta and a nectarine
Snack- Handful of shredded wheat, cause I forgot to bring a snack.

Tuesday:
Breakfast- Bowl of instant cinnamon oatmeal and an apple
Lunch- Can of Progresso vegetable soup, slice of double fiber bread with appx. 1 tbsp. peanut butter
Snack- Nectarine and string cheese

Today:
Breakfast- Bowl of instant cinnamon oatmeal and a large orange
Lunch- Peanut Butter & Jam sandwich on double fiber bread, baby carrots, low-fat vanilla yogurt
Snack- Red seedless grapes and string cheese

Two Left Hands

Sometimes I feel like the biggest klutz in the world. Lately even the simplest things seem to take me HOURS to make. Last night round 2 of Orange Ricotta Pancakes was a huge hassle, bordering on a disaster. The first 3 pancakes into the pan weren't cooking at all. I don't know what these people at Everyday Food mean by saying large skillet, but when I put my largest skillet on the stove I imagine it should be enough. 3 tablespoons of oil? Are you people crazy? And at medium-low heat, how do you expect my pancakes to cook in 1/4" of oil. After completely dumping the first 3, along with all the dang oil, I started over. I turned the heat up to medium, and rubbed the pan with an oil soaked paper towel. I also set the kitchen timer, to help ensure that I didn't try to flip the pancakes too soon. I seem to do that often. That helped a great deal, but things were still annoying. And then I burned my left hand, which sucked. Once again, they tasted great, and some of them actually came out looking pretty good. But not pretty enough for a photograph, ha. I'm sure it will be another 2 months before I forget about what a pain they are, only remember how good they taste and decide to make them again.

Weekend Food Fun

Okay, sorry I haven't posted for a little bit, but I did a couple of repeat recipes last week so wasn't much to write about. However we went to Blue River this weekend, which you can soon read more about over at On This Harvest Moon. We had an awesome, fresh, summer dinner though, so I gotta share that with you. The Pop-In-Law had gone up to Blue River in Oklahoma Friday night, and so when we arrived just after noon on Saturday he had already been up early that morning and caught several catfish. So, for dinner we had a real seasonal feast:
-Fish fresh from the river, cornmeal battered and fried
-Red Potatoes roasted on the grill
-Grilled ears of corn
-Yellow squash, some grilled and some fried
-Homemade Coleslaw
-Green Bell Pepper

The squash, bell pepper and coleslaw ingredients all came from Pop-In-Law's garden. We drizzled the potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh parsley (also from his garden) and cooked them on our portable propane grill double wrapped in foil for 25 minutes, turning once or twice. We rubbed the corn with a little butter and just grilled it directly for about 8 minutes. Everything was so delicious! We just sat around eating, and talking about how much we loved what we were eating. :) After dinner we went down to the river to cool off a little bit, and when we got back to our camp base we had strawberry shortcake for dessert. The perfect end to a great summer meal!

I'm just crazy bout 'Cados, 'Cados crazy bout me....

Last night's dinner was a variation on something I'd done before. You may recall the Southwestern Turkey Clubs I blogged about in March. This time around I decided to eliminate the middle slice of bread, resulting in Southwest Turkey BLTs. Equally delicious, slightly easier to eat, and less calories since removing the middle slice of bread also eliminates the need for extra bacon and applying multiple layers of the avocado spread. I served these up with Chili Roasted Sweet Potato Fries. An easy and enjoyable dinner for our Monday evening.

Southwest Turkey BLTs
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart; Serves 2
4 slices whole wheat bread
1 avocado, pitted and peeled
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 to 2 tablespoons pickled jalapeno, chopped
coarse salt and ground pepper
4 slices bacon
4 slices peppered turkey breast
1 Roma tomato, thinly sliced
torn lettuce leaves, I prefer romaine

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Bake bacon for 20 minutes, turning slices halfway through cooking time. Remove from baking sheet and place on paper towels to drain.
• While bacon is cooking mash avocado, jalapeno and lime juice together in small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Toast bread. Spread one slice with avocado mixture. Top with lettuce, tomatoes, 2 slices bacon, 2 slices turkey and second piece of bread. Repeat for second sandwich.

Chili Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4
1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes (2 to 3 medium)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
coarse salt and ground pepper

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut each potato into 8 wedges lengthwise; halve long wedges crosswise.
• On a large rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper, toss potatoes with oil, sugar, chili powder, 1 teaspoon coarse salt, and 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper, until coated. Arrange wedges, cut sides down.
• Roast potatoes until browned and tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Season with additional salt, if desired, before serving.

My notes: Like I said, this sandwich is just as good, and even easier, than the original it was inspired by. I forgot that last time I decided it was too limey, and had similar results this time. Still good, but very limey. Next time I will only use half the amount. And I only used 1 tablespoon of jalapeno. I think I will try 2 next time. As far as the wedges go, I typically mix everything in a bowl with tongs and then transfer to the baking sheet. This time for better coating I added each ingredient one at a time and tossed after each addition. I think they were definitely coated better this way. Also I cut this recipe in half, since there is just the two of use and I even have a few wedges leftover to go with my lunch today.

Comfort Food

After a difficult night in the kitchen on Wednesday I was ready for something easy and comforting. Thursday night I went with what is probably the most comforting recipe in my repertoire, Bolognese Pie. I made Bolognese Sauce a few weeks ago, so I had the extra sauce I needed for the pie in the freezer. I did however forget to thaw it in the fridge, so I had to thaw it in cool water, which too awhile. That aside, this was the easy recipe that it normally is. I have posted about Bolognese Pie on here before, having used it as a blog event entry. That time I adjusted the recipe, covering the top completely with the biscuit dough. This time I followed the original recipe, dropping the dough across the bolognese mixture. Josh was very happy to see this fresh out of the oven when he got home, since this is definitely one of his faves. We were both comforted after our long day.

Real Simple?

Last night I was planning on making a recipe from my latest issue of Real Simple. I honestly didn't think this recipe would be that hard, but then again I didn't take my total lack of motor skills or mental concentration into account. I really am not that great at multi-step cooking. Now I'm sure you're wondering to yourself, "Aside from toast, doesn't most cooking require more than one step?" And yeah, you'd be right. But the fact remains that since this recipe required me to put things in a skillet, remove them, add more things in the skillet, move to oven, and then back to the skillet with more ingredients that I should probably have realized I would be doomed. The outcome tasted good, but if you think that it looked anything like the picture below, you are sadly mistaken. I would recommend this recipe if, you know, you're not task-handicapped like me.

Sauteed Chicken With Corn and Edamame
Recipe from Real Simple; Serves 4
4 ounces sliced bacon
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 6-ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
2 cups frozen shelled edamame, thawed
1 1/2 cups corn kernels, fresh (2 ears) or frozen

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• In a large skillet, over medium heat, fry the bacon until crisp, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Discard the drippings. Wipe out the skillet and heat the oil over medium-high heat.
• Season the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a baking dish and roast until cooked through, about 8 minutes.
• Meanwhile, add the onion to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the edamame and corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes. Break the bacon into pieces and add them to the skillet. Stir in the remaining salt and pepper. Spoon onto individual plates and serve with the chicken.

My notes: Most of the problems with this recipe were my fault. My chicken breasts were definitely larger than 6 ounces, but I'm kind of limited to what I can find and afford at my small grocery store. So, I had to bake them for longer than 8 minutes. Much longer. Which then threw off the onion mixture. Also, I can never, ever get bacon to cook crisply in a skillet. After 6 minutes I had 3 soft pieces of cooked bacon. I threw it in the oven with the chicken, and it got a bit crisper. I tore it into bits, which allowed me to only use the meaty portions of the bacon, eliminating at least some of the fat. From now on I refuse to cook bacon any way other than in an oven. Also, since my chicken breasts were really big, I just cut them into big chunks and mixed them in with the bacon and veggie/bean mixture. This meal was pretty good, actually, but not worth the amount of time and effort it took me to complete it. Josh for some reason, despite being a man, didn't like the smokiness of the bacon with everything else. Real Simple mentions you could go sans bacon to cut the fat, and apparently Josh would support that suggestion. Another note- try to remember when you've just taken a dish out of a 400 degree oven. Luckily I let go of it quickly enough that I barely burned my fingers.

Simple Salad

I was going to make something else for dinner last night, but as my chicken was still mostly frozen I decided to do some menu shuffling. This is something I just sort of threw together, not taking too much thought or effort. I guess that makes it a great summer salad, since the heat around here can often fry any brain waves by noon. It's not even really hot here yet, but work can have the same effect on me. :)

Spinach & Cheese Tortellini Salad
Recipe by me; Serves 2.5
1 small package Buitoni Spinach & Cheese Tortellini
1 bag Dole Field Greens prepared salad
1 roma tomato
1 yellow bell pepper
1/4 large cucumber
1 celery stalk
Kraft Roasted Red Pepper & Parmesan Dressing
Parmesan Cheese, if desired.

• Prepare tortellini according to package instructions. While tortellini are cooking chop your vegetables to your desired size.
• Drain tortellini; toss with small amount of dressing. Put chopped vegetables and pasta in refrigerator for 30 minutes to cool/chill.
• Plate salad mix, top with veggies, then pasta. Top with dressing, as you like. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if you are so inclined.

My notes: We each had a good sized salad, as you might be able to tell from the above picture. There was approximately a half portion of salad and pasta leftover, which will be great for lunch today.

Browniebabe of the Month 2!

Okay, I probably should have gotten this post up in the month of May, but I'm still under the entry deadline by a few days. This week wasn't all that pleasant, so at least I got to end it on a chocolaty note. For this round of Browniebabe of the Month hosted by Myriam at Once Upon A Tart I decided to use a little regional flavor. I've named these Tex-Mex Brownies. I combined the flavor of Mexican chocolate with the fruits of the Texas state tree- pecans. These brownies were also the first thing I've baked with the incredibly fragrant and delicious Mexican vanilla extract that my lovely in-laws brought back from their recent vacation.

Tex-Mex Brownies
Recipe from me, adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe; Makes 16
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
1 disc (3.15 oz.) Mexican Chocolate
5 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon Mexican pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pecan topping

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan or glass dish. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on two sides. Set aside. Place butter and all chocolates in large heatproof bowl set over pan of simmering water; stir frequently until butter and chocolates have melted. Remove bowl from heat and let cool to room temperature.
• Stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture until combined. Whisk in eggs one at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition. Whisk in vanilla. Gently fold in flour and salt.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until cake tester inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs, about 50 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack to cool completely. Apply pecan topping (see below) to brownies while the cool.
• Remove brownies from pan using parchment paper once brownies have cooled and topping has set. Cut and serve.

Sugar & Spice Pecan Topping

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup pecans, whole, halves, or chopped

Melt butter in bowl in microwave. Stir in sugar and cinnamon and microwave on high 1 1/2 minutes. Stir pecans into mixture and microwave on high for 3 minutes, stirring twice throughout cooking time. Remove from microwave and spread across brownies.

Inspiration?

Our good friend Diggy will be in town this week visiting from California. He'll be coming over to hang out tomorrow night and I haven't completely decided if we will go out to eat or if I'll pull something together here. I've settled on Mexican, but I can't decide if we should just go to one of our old haunts, Fuzzy's Taco Shop, or if I should put something together here. If I do put something together here, I'm thinking chips with salsa and guacamole, shrimp & corn tacos, spicy black bean, and then maybe some brownies if I get around to making those tomorrow afternoon. Hmm, even if I do cook I think I'm gonna have to get some Fuzzy's soon.