I can't understand why so many people seem to hate cauliflower. I think they just don't know what to do with it other than steam and throw a little butter on it, which is really just setting yourself up for a bland, 'eh' kind of side dish. There is so much more you can do with it and I'll show you how.
Here is the first of a handful of great ways to prepare it
Dump a bag of frozen (I hate chopping veggies, don't you?) cauliflower into an 8x8" oven safe dish; you don't want a ton of extra room around the cauliflower since you are throwing in it in there directly from the freezer and you want the seasonings to stick to the food not the dish
drizzle with about 3 Tbsp olive oil
sprinkle with about 2 tsp garlic powder (minced garlic is better if you've got it but usually i take the easy way and just use the powder)
add 1 tsp pepper
1tsp paprika
and 1 Tbsp parsley
Bake at 400 for 30 minutes stirring half way through
If you want to jazz it up a little more throw on a handful of store bought bread crumbs and cheese (cheddar, parmesan or mozzarella will all work great) and broil the last 5 minutes.
February 28, 2011
February 27, 2011
Bigos ... or Hunters Stew, it's polish :)
So, we still had 1/2 a head of cabbage to use up, (aside from the head that was made into coleslaw that is sitting my fridge and will probably be lucky if 1/4 of it gets eaten) and a friend of ours said that we should make 'bigos' out of it. I'd never heard of it but he assured us that they all make it in Poland and it's delish. So I gave it a go. Three bowls later he gave it the official thumbs up.
Here's what i did
1/2 a head of cabbage chopped
1/2 a red onion chopped
1 jar sauerkraut drained and rinsed
1/2 lb Kelbasa
1 cup apple cider
2 large roma tomatos diced
2 beef boulion cubes
2 lbs pork shoulder - bone in
1/2 bag frozen pepper stirfry (green, red, & yellow peppers with onion all cut in strips)
2tsp - ish of garlic powder
Put your pork shoulder in the crock pot and a boulion cube on either side. Add the apple cider(or juice if that's what you have) and then pile everything else in. cook for at least 6 hours.
Traditionally most bigos has mushrooms in it but i wasn't in the mood today so i skipped it. I'll be honest when I opened the jar of sauerkraut my first thought was "I'm going to ruin this dinner if I put this in... Oh well gotta do it right or not at all" I was wrong. So wrong! As everything heated up and the flavors started to mingle I got less worried. Then we served up this stew and I was thrilled with how it tasted! The sweetness of the pork and apple juice mixed with the spice and sourness of the cabbage and sauerkraut blew my mind. I had no idea there was a way to make cabbage taste THAT GOOD. Next time we get cabbage from the co-op I'm totally making this again and next time I'm going to add more than 1/2 the head.
Here's what i did
1/2 a head of cabbage chopped
1/2 a red onion chopped
1 jar sauerkraut drained and rinsed
1/2 lb Kelbasa
1 cup apple cider
2 large roma tomatos diced
2 beef boulion cubes
2 lbs pork shoulder - bone in
1/2 bag frozen pepper stirfry (green, red, & yellow peppers with onion all cut in strips)
2tsp - ish of garlic powder
Put your pork shoulder in the crock pot and a boulion cube on either side. Add the apple cider(or juice if that's what you have) and then pile everything else in. cook for at least 6 hours.
Traditionally most bigos has mushrooms in it but i wasn't in the mood today so i skipped it. I'll be honest when I opened the jar of sauerkraut my first thought was "I'm going to ruin this dinner if I put this in... Oh well gotta do it right or not at all" I was wrong. So wrong! As everything heated up and the flavors started to mingle I got less worried. Then we served up this stew and I was thrilled with how it tasted! The sweetness of the pork and apple juice mixed with the spice and sourness of the cabbage and sauerkraut blew my mind. I had no idea there was a way to make cabbage taste THAT GOOD. Next time we get cabbage from the co-op I'm totally making this again and next time I'm going to add more than 1/2 the head.
Classic Meatloaf
Do you have a dinner that is just comfort food with a side of childhood memories? That's what meatloaf is to me. I have made some improvements on my mothers recipe but I still like to serve it with a nice big baked potato and broccoli. I've tried to "healthy" up the meatloaf, at least as much as you can really expect to. But the biggest difference between now and growing up... I actually eat the potato, skins included! :)
So here's what you need to do,
1 lb 97% lean ground beef
1 lb ground turkey (mama used ground pork but the turkey is SO SO much leaner)
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
1 or 2 slices whole wheat bread ripped into small pieces
1/2 cup dry oats
1/2 cup diced onion
1 Tbsp parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
1 tsp pepper
use your hands to mix together all the ingredients in a bowl
transfer the mixture into a 9 x 5 loaf pan
Bake for 1 hour at 350'
Optional topping,
Mix together
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T brown sugar
2 T Dijon mustard
After the meat loaf has been baking for 45 minutes spread on this topping and put in back in the oven to bake for 15 minutes longer. (it can also be served on the side if you don't want to force everyone to eat it)
So here's what you need to do,
1 lb 97% lean ground beef
1 lb ground turkey (mama used ground pork but the turkey is SO SO much leaner)
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
1 or 2 slices whole wheat bread ripped into small pieces
1/2 cup dry oats
1/2 cup diced onion
1 Tbsp parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
1 tsp pepper
use your hands to mix together all the ingredients in a bowl
transfer the mixture into a 9 x 5 loaf pan
Bake for 1 hour at 350'
Optional topping,
Mix together
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T brown sugar
2 T Dijon mustard
After the meat loaf has been baking for 45 minutes spread on this topping and put in back in the oven to bake for 15 minutes longer. (it can also be served on the side if you don't want to force everyone to eat it)
February 25, 2011
Mango Salsa
And you can to ;)
Dice up two mango's into 1/4 inch cubes
Dice up about 1/4 of a red onion
Add 2 Tbsp lime juice
a couple shakes of hot sauce (I put about 1-1/2 tsp in mine)
1/4 tsp ginger
Optional: add a pinch of salt and pepper
Stir it up and enjoy with tortilla chips or put a big spoonful on your next burger. It's fantastic!
I'm enjoying with my burrito as we speak :)
recipe addapted from Ming Tsai
February 20, 2011
Sausage rice caserole
This dish is super simple to throw together and is a nice change from your run of the mill stuff. So lets get to it...
Stir together in a glass 8x8 casserole dish:
1 cup uncooked rice
1 pkg dry chicken noodle soup (Lipton: the small single serving packet)
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 lb sausage, uncooked
2 cups water
Cover with aluminum foil (or a lid of your cookware is nice like that, but I've got Pyrex so it's aluminum foil for me) and bake for 1-1/2 hours at 350'
there you have it. Did it tell you it was simple or what.
Stir together in a glass 8x8 casserole dish:
1 cup uncooked rice
1 pkg dry chicken noodle soup (Lipton: the small single serving packet)
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 lb sausage, uncooked
2 cups water
Cover with aluminum foil (or a lid of your cookware is nice like that, but I've got Pyrex so it's aluminum foil for me) and bake for 1-1/2 hours at 350'
there you have it. Did it tell you it was simple or what.
Produce Co-op
I decided to finally take advantage of the produce co-op called Bountiful Baskets in my area. Can I just say what a fabulous idea! I looked into it a few years ago and the closest place they had a pick up location was like 20 miles from my house and at 7am on a Saturday, that was just WAY to far to drive. But now it's only about 3 minutes from my house and since i've gotten used to getting up at 630 for work and by about 730 on my days off because of the baby I figured I'd see what it was all about. It's only $15 for a bunch of fruits and veggies. You don't get to pick what you get though so you are bound to get stuff you normally wouldn't think of, which is great for us cuz we love to find new recipes and try new things.
I got strawberries bananas apples mangos, a cantelope, and little pears. Yams (or sweet potatoes, I honestly don't know the difference) carrots, crook neck squash, spinach, asian artichokes (i'm told they are kinda like waterchestnuts but i haven't tried them yet) and the think i never would have bought... cabbage, two heads of it.
Have I ever mentioned that i hate colslaw? Well I do. I'm not sure where I've even had it except maybe KFC but I stopped even trying it years and years ago. So my hubs and I ended up making cabbage soup with the first half a head, and I got to tell ya. It wasn't half bad. Cabbage has a mildly spicy kind of flavor and it's one of those things that you eat lots of if you are trying to loose weight because it's got a lot of good nutrients in it but very few calories. So for those of you who get bountiful baskets and don't know what to do with all that cabage, this one's for you.
Cabbage Soup
1 package low sodium chicken broth I think it said it was 1.5 cups
1/3 red onion roughly chopped
1/2 head cabage roughly chopped
1/2 bag baby carrots cut in half
1tsp garlic powder
1 tsp season all
1 tsp chili powder
Honestly i'm not sure how much water we added, the hubs did it. I'd guess it was about 5 cups. added 1 cup at a time.
Chop all veggies. Sautee onion in the pot for 2-3 minuts then add the rest of the veggies and the chicken stock. Add a cup of water every few minutes until it get as "brothy" as you like. Total cook time is about 20 minutes. We ate ours with some kebler sea salt and olive oil flatbread crackers and that just made it even better.
I got strawberries bananas apples mangos, a cantelope, and little pears. Yams (or sweet potatoes, I honestly don't know the difference) carrots, crook neck squash, spinach, asian artichokes (i'm told they are kinda like waterchestnuts but i haven't tried them yet) and the think i never would have bought... cabbage, two heads of it.
Have I ever mentioned that i hate colslaw? Well I do. I'm not sure where I've even had it except maybe KFC but I stopped even trying it years and years ago. So my hubs and I ended up making cabbage soup with the first half a head, and I got to tell ya. It wasn't half bad. Cabbage has a mildly spicy kind of flavor and it's one of those things that you eat lots of if you are trying to loose weight because it's got a lot of good nutrients in it but very few calories. So for those of you who get bountiful baskets and don't know what to do with all that cabage, this one's for you.
Cabbage Soup
1 package low sodium chicken broth I think it said it was 1.5 cups
1/3 red onion roughly chopped
1/2 head cabage roughly chopped
1/2 bag baby carrots cut in half
1tsp garlic powder
1 tsp season all
1 tsp chili powder
Honestly i'm not sure how much water we added, the hubs did it. I'd guess it was about 5 cups. added 1 cup at a time.
Chop all veggies. Sautee onion in the pot for 2-3 minuts then add the rest of the veggies and the chicken stock. Add a cup of water every few minutes until it get as "brothy" as you like. Total cook time is about 20 minutes. We ate ours with some kebler sea salt and olive oil flatbread crackers and that just made it even better.
February 19, 2011
Banana bread
For those of you who don't know, I have a carb addition obsession. I LUV the stuff. Breads are like my all time favorite things. Toasted, plain, smeared with stuff, bagles, frech bread, whole wheat, love it. And I seriously CAN NOT get enough of this banana bread. Oh it is SO good, my hubs and i polished off a whole loaf between it coming out of the oven at 4pm and going to bed at 10pm. Not those little sissy loaf pans either these are the big pans that I make 2lbs + of meatloaf in. I've made 3 loaves in the past 2 weeks and I am going to stop at the store on my way home from work tonight to get more bananas.
Here's the skinny
soften 1/3 cup butter in one bowl
add 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup flour ( I use whole wheat for this part)
mix well
In another bowl mash up your browning over ripe bananas.
They MUST be browning to get a really nice banana flavor to the bread
if you use yellow bananas that you would actually cut up and eat with your rice crispys it wont be nearly as good.
add about 1/2 cup of the banana mixture to the flour/butter mixture
add another 3/4 cup flour (I use all purpose this time) and mix again
add 1/2 to 3/4 cup banana mush and mix one last time
Pour into 1 nice big (I'm thinking it must be like 9x5 or something size) loaf pan
Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350' until you can insert a knife into the center and have it come out clean.
After you can't bear the wonderful smell any longer pull it out of the oven and run a knife along the sides after it cools for 5-10 minutes dump it out on the counter and slice a big hunk off and slab some butter on there.
Devour it. No, i take it back, savor it because it will be gone way too soon.
Here's the skinny
soften 1/3 cup butter in one bowl
add 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup flour ( I use whole wheat for this part)
mix well
In another bowl mash up your browning over ripe bananas.
They MUST be browning to get a really nice banana flavor to the bread
if you use yellow bananas that you would actually cut up and eat with your rice crispys it wont be nearly as good.
add about 1/2 cup of the banana mixture to the flour/butter mixture
add another 3/4 cup flour (I use all purpose this time) and mix again
add 1/2 to 3/4 cup banana mush and mix one last time
Pour into 1 nice big (I'm thinking it must be like 9x5 or something size) loaf pan
Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350' until you can insert a knife into the center and have it come out clean.
After you can't bear the wonderful smell any longer pull it out of the oven and run a knife along the sides after it cools for 5-10 minutes dump it out on the counter and slice a big hunk off and slab some butter on there.
Devour it. No, i take it back, savor it because it will be gone way too soon.
February 15, 2011
Chicken Stir-Fry
OMG so tasty, simple, easy and quick...and cheap. Just cook a cup of rice per the package suggestions. Grab some precooked chicken if you've got it in the fridge or cut up a couple breasts and cook with some seasonings (I used cajun) for about 10 minutes. Then toss in the whole bag of frozen veggies. Continue cooking until the veggies are warm and tender and chicken is cooked through, about 7 minutes. For the sauce you can either use a jar of stir-fry sauce from the store or use the following ingredients
Stir-fry Sauce:
1 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1tsp ginger
1-1/2 tsp garlic
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
Ingredients needed:
1 cup rice
1 bag frozen asparagus stir fry mix
1 lb chicken (seasoned)
about 1/2 cup stir-fry sauce
February 10, 2011
Granola Bars
Well how about I apologise for my 2 month hiatus with some super yummy granola bars. Forgive me? Whew! (that's the sound of me dodging a bullet) Somewhere in the mix of all the holidays and birthdays and general busyness I managed to still make food.... just not blog about it. But now that my job is coming to an end I forsee just a smidge more time to do some blogging... and baking!
These granola bars are fantastic. So easy to make and change up too.
Heres what you need.
2 cups of oats
1 cup unsalted peanuts
1 cup dried fruit
1 cup seeds
1 cup shredded coconut
and 1 can of sweetened milk (I think the can is like 12 oz or something)
in a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together. Then heat up the sweetened milk in a small sauce pan just til it flows easily. (I set my stove top to the number 4 and it took just a few minutes.) Then pour the milk over the nut mixture and stir well. Dump it all into a 9x13 pan and Lightly press it in, (if you press it in too hard they get super dense and become hard to bite after they cook and sit for a few days.) bake at 200' for about an hour. Let them cool slightly (for like 15 minutes) before cutting them into 16 pieces. Store in an airtight container or zip lock bags. They keep well for about 3 weeks.
Tips: Last time I went to winco's bulk food area and got a really good trail mix that had the seeds and nuts mixed together already and it was super cheap! Just used shy of 3 cups of that with about a cup of dried mixed fruit and about 2 cups of oats and it worked beautifully.
These granola bars are fantastic. So easy to make and change up too.
Heres what you need.
2 cups of oats
1 cup unsalted peanuts
1 cup dried fruit
1 cup seeds
1 cup shredded coconut
and 1 can of sweetened milk (I think the can is like 12 oz or something)
in a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together. Then heat up the sweetened milk in a small sauce pan just til it flows easily. (I set my stove top to the number 4 and it took just a few minutes.) Then pour the milk over the nut mixture and stir well. Dump it all into a 9x13 pan and Lightly press it in, (if you press it in too hard they get super dense and become hard to bite after they cook and sit for a few days.) bake at 200' for about an hour. Let them cool slightly (for like 15 minutes) before cutting them into 16 pieces. Store in an airtight container or zip lock bags. They keep well for about 3 weeks.
Tips: Last time I went to winco's bulk food area and got a really good trail mix that had the seeds and nuts mixed together already and it was super cheap! Just used shy of 3 cups of that with about a cup of dried mixed fruit and about 2 cups of oats and it worked beautifully.
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