Friday April 25, 2014

We almost had two keepers this week!  Almost!  But as I was typing up the chicken dish I thought of a way to really put it over the top, so we just may try it again this week!  I'll let you know how it turns out!

In any case, we did have one absolute keeper!  Creamy garlic shells was an instant keeper side dish.  While not quite as easy as the packaged pasta side dishes from the grocery store, this certainly was more flavorful and every ingredient was known and pronounceable.  You should have seen the kids devouring these noodles.  They were a great accompaniment to the main chicken dish, and it was a quiet few minutes at the table while everyone was happily chewing away.  I do love those dinners when all 5 of us really enjoy all the pieces to the dinner-time puzzle. 

One more week to go in my semester, though it just rolls right into the next. No rest for the weary, but at least I shouldn't have winter weather to contend with during my twice weekly commute to class.  I do wish I had one week between classes but then I suppose the summer class would push one week further into the heart of summer.

I wonder what keepers we'll discover this week!

Happy Cooking!

New Recipe
Creamy Garlic Shells

Creamy Garlic Shells

Ingredients
* 8 oz pasta
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* 1 tbsp butter
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 tbsp flour
* 3/4 cup chicken broth
* 3/4 cup milk
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
* 1/2 tsp garlic powder
* 2 tsp dried parsley flakes

Directions
1. Cook the pasta as directed on the package.  Drain and then set aside in a serving bowl.  Cover to keep warm.
2. Using the same pot, melt the butter in the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Sprinkle in the flour and whisk for one minute.
3. Slowly pour in the chicken broth, then the milk, whisking constantly until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Stir the sauce continuously for 4-5 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
5. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese, garlic powder and parsley flakes.  Pour this over the pasta and stir to combine.  Serve and enjoy!

Notes
Garlic shells - yum!  This is a fabulous replacement for those convenience pasta side dishes that you can pick up at the grocery store.  It was easy - the hardest part was prepping the ingredients and that wasn't hard.  :)  I used skim milk and it worked well; you can use whatever kind of milk or cream you have in your fridge when you try this (which you should!).

April 18, 2014

It is Easter weekend!  Wow!  We are looking forward to a traditional Easter meal, though it will be just the 5 of us.  We'll be making ham, GG rolls, asparagus, twice baked potatoes.  When we were trying to decide what to make for dessert we settled on carrot cake since that seemed perfectly appropriate for the holiday.  And the kids LOVE it - so all in all it was an easy choice.

This week was full of the usual hecticness of grad class, the kids' scheduled activities, meetings at church, and the typical household chores and duties.  As a result, we didn't try too many new things.  The two things we did make, spaghetti sauce and meatballs, were both an instant hit and earned keeper status! And I got a new bread pan, called a pullman pan.  It makes a long loaf and you primarily bake it with the top on so the resulting loaf is square with a dense crumb.  This type of bread is called Pain de Mie.  You can use any recipe you like in it.  Ryan and the kids loved it - the sandwich bread was fantastic and held up great in lunchboxes!  I made some quick peanut butter (peanuts, peanut oil, salt - no real recipe), and we had the ultimate homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Choice of white or wheat bread, smooth peanut butter and raspberry jam.  Pretty delicious if I do say so myself!  :)

Have an amazing weekend and happy cooking!

New Recipes
Leah's Meatballs
Spaghetti Sauce

Leah's Meatballs

Ingredients
* 1 lb ground beef or turkey
* 1 egg, beaten
* 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
* 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 3 gloves garlic, minced
* 1 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
* 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
* 1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
* 1/4 tsp salt

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Mix together all the ingredients.  Form golf ball-sized meatballs and place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and fitted with a rack previously sprayed with cooking spray.
3. Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes and then drain on a plate lined with paper towels.  Toss back into simmering spaghetti sauce if desired, or serve however you like.

Notes
I used ground beef since we had it on hand.  And I used our croutons, run through the small food processor, for the bread crumbs.  They turned out fabulously well in this recipe.  I got 29 meatballs from this recipe, and everyone absolutely loved them. 

Spaghetti Sauce (based on Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients
* 1 tbsp oil
* 1 yellow onion, diced
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
* 1 28 ox can petite diced tomatoes
* splash of red wine (optional)
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp sugar
* freshly ground black pepper, to taste
* 2 tsp dried parsley

Directions
1.  Heat the oil over medium in a large skillet or saute pan.  Add the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes or until translucent.  Pour in the tomatoes and wine (if using).    Mix until combined.
2. Add the salt, pepper, sugar and parsley.  Stir to combine, and cook over medium low for 20 minutes. If desired add meatballs into the sauce and simmer another 20 minutes or until the meatballs are heated through.  Occasionally stir gently.  Serve with pasta.

Notes
We added meatballs and loved this over noodles!  We had a mix of noodle types in our pantry (a little of this, a little of that) and cleared them out all at once with this sauce and meatballs.  Yum!  The original recipe called for 1/4 cup fresh parsley but I didn't have any on hand so I used dried and it worked well.

April 11, 2014

We had success in the kitchen especially related the breakfast!  One keeper pancake recipe, and one keeper waffle recipe.  The kids love to eat a hot breakfast before heading off to school, and since I currently have the time in the morning to do that, I occasionally make them pancakes or waffles during the school week.  The pancake recipe is really versatile - you can add any flavor yogurt you want!  We love blueberries around here, so that is what we added, though I anticipate trying a variety of flavors in the future!  And the waffle recipe called for a mix of AP and whole wheat flour as well as a mashed banana.  We thought they were great - not overly banana-y flavored and super yummy!

I hadn't done a taste test in a while, and one night I had a little time on my hands (a rarity these days) so I whipped up three (yes, three) batches of blondies.  At my sister's birthday celebration a few weeks back I tried some that were outstanding!  I haven't yet gotten that recipe, but with bookclub this past week I knew it was the perfect opportunity to try a few different recipes.  All three had basically the same ingredients but in varying amounts. One had 1 tsp of vanilla while a second had 4!  That is a big difference!  My family took the taste test and voted, and the ladies in bookclub voted, and there was a clear winner.  Two of the three options each earned a single vote while all the rest of the votes went to a recipe from the Joy of Cooking.  I would still love to get a copy of the recipe that I had at the party as it was a thick and moist bar, but these thin blondies were fantastic!  And the bonus - we've got enough blondies in the freezer to get packed into school lunches to last us quite a while!

Happy Cooking!

New Recipes
Blondies
Yogurt Pancakes
Banana Waffles

Blondies

Ingredients
* 1/4 cup butter
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1/2 cup AP flour
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2/3 - 3/4 cup choc chips, finely chopped nuts or grated coconut

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add the brown sugar.  Stir the brown sugar into the butter until fully incorporated and stir on the heat for about 2 minutes.  Transfer this to a bowl and let it cool for about 5 minutes.
3. Add in one egg and beat well for 3 minutes.  Add the vanilla and beat until that is combined.
4. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Mix this into the butter mixture.  Add in the chocolate chips, nuts or coconut.
5. Pour the batter into a greased 9 x 9 pan.  Bake 20-25 minutes.  Let it cool, and cut this into bars when cool.

Notes
Of all three blondie versions this was the run away winner.  All three were delicious, but there was something about these that the taste testers (my family and my friends in bookclub) loved.  You can cut the pan into 16 thin squares, and they will probably be gone in no time!  For the cook time, 22 minutes was perfect in my oven.