Menu Plan--Crazy Plates Week

My go-to cookbooks are Crazy Plates and Eat, Shrink and Be Merry.  I used Crazy Plates so much it fell apart, so I put the loose pages in page protectors and put them in a three-ring binder.  One of my friends knew my love of these books and found a brand-new copy at the second hand store last week so she gave it to me.  I have awesome friends.

So, this week's menu is from those two books.

The Ladle in Red --basic chili (ESM, 133)

For Pizza Sake! and salad --pizza dip (ESM 34)

Happily Ever After Apple Pork Chops and steamed vegetables (CP 123)

Chicks on Sticks and veg stir-fry (Asian marinated grilled chicken)  (CP 103)

Piled-High Veggie Potpie (CP 76)

carried over from last week: Timbucktuna (ESM 111)

Menu Plan

In no particular order, here is the menu plan for this week.

Farmer Sausage with saurkraut and mashed potatoes.

Buffalo Chicken Salad 

Pizzadillas

Timbucktuna from the Eat Shrink and Be Merry Cookbook

Fiesta Pork Chop and Rice Bake

Turkey Club Super Mashers from Rachel Ray: 365 No Repeats cookbook

Breakfast tacos

This is less of a recipe and more of a framework.  Quantities of toppings will vary based on how many tacos your family will eat at at a time and how full you stuff them.  Use this method for making the taco shells and then go wild filling them! There is no need to get dressed and leave your house for this greasy spoon breakfast.

Fast Food-Style Breakfast tacos

Preheat your oven to 450 F

Take one package of thawed toaster waffles and flatten each one with a rolling pin.  
Carefully drape flattened waffles over your oven racks to shape them into taco shells.  
Bake for around 5 minutes until browned and toasted.


Prepare your filling:  scrambled eggs are a great start.  Add some crumbled breakfast sausage, bacon, shredded cheese.....use your imagination!  I'll bet anything you can stuff into a crepe would taste good in a waffle taco.  Banana and nutella?  Fresh fruit and ricotta cheese? 


Serve with syrup (or ketchup if you are my 10 year old).

Menu Plan Sunday

In no particular order.

Slow Cooker Chinese pulled pork with fried rice or vegetable chop suey

Baked Burritos with Cowboy Caviar

Roasted Chicken drumsticks with potatoes and carrots

Shake and Bake Pork Chops with steamed vegetables

Bacon Corn Cakes from Fresh 20, March 21

Tomato Soup with meatballs

Kathy's Gluten-Free Breadsticks

Without going into too much detail as to why, a week ago, I decided to eliminate wheat/gluten from my diet.  I don't talk about it much as I don't want to become "that person" who only talks about their diet.   Anyhoo, I outed myself on Facebook yesterday and then this recipe showed up in my inbox.  My friend Kathy's boy has celiac disease.  She is being very supportive of my new changes.  This is her bread stick recipe.

The bread sticks are as follows 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese not the powder 1 cup grated cheddar packed 2 tbsp plain yogurt 1 egg 1/4 cup arrowroot flour or 1/4 cup Robin Hood gf flour Pinch of cayenne 1/4 tsp baking powder. Mix together until well blended, press into a baking dish ( I prefer to double this and use a cookie sheet) use parchment paper. Bake 25 minutes in 350 oven. Sometimes I flip mine over and give it another 10. Makes it more like bread. It is good dipped in marinara sauce. Also rosemary and garlic sprinkled on top before baking is good.

Soup Weather!

My friend Cheryl tempted me with talk of a bacon-tomato soup on her Facebook wall today.  With her permission, here is the recipe cut and pasted from a chat window so I don't lose it.
The instructions are pretty general, but hey, it's soup, not rocket science!

Cheryl's Tomato Bacon Soup

2 quarts of canned tomatoes 

 2 carrots 

2 celery stalks

 2 onions 

 2 cloves garlic 

7 cups vege or chicken stock

 6 large tomatoes*

Salt and pepper 

Sauté everything but tomatoes in olive oil. Add tomatoes and seasonings and boil. Blend in a blender.

Cook most of a pack of bacon till almost crisp and crumble into final product and let simmer a while

*The tomatoes are blanched and skin/core removed

 

I think this would be delicious with a grilled cheese sandwich alongside for dipping--I also envision chopped avocado and possibly a swirl of sour cream in your bowl to finish.

You pin some, you lose some, Part 2

You should make these

This makes a great, light-tasting dessert to serve after a barbeque

Well, after the great birdseed debacle I regrouped and went with what I know:  You don't make friends with birdseed.  These recipes are at the opposite end of the nutrition spectrum as the recipe in my previous post--they even go so far as to call for processed fake ingredients like cake mix and cool-whip.  Of course, that stuff makes my kids make faces like this:

The cinnamon roll square keeps really well in the pan so it makes a nice snack to tuck into a bag for day camp or to go to the beach or on a picnic.  I usually avoid buying mixes in boxes, but I really couldn't come up with a substitute in that recipe.

I made the Eclair Cake for dessert after a barbecue.  Due to the delicate nature of the cream-puff crust and the creamy filling, the cake does not keep as well, but that really isn't a problem as we didn't have any left at all after our dinner!  I did not use instant pudding and Cool-Whip as the recipe calls for.  I made vanilla pudding from scratch and cooled it all the way down in the fridge before mixing in the whipped cream cheese.  I also used real whipped cream for the topping and home made chocolate sauce.  I don't think my filling came out as thick as the filling in the picture due to the fact the custard was only thickened with cornstarch instead of  tetrasodium pyrophosphate, but no one seemed to mind.

Have you had a winning Pin lately?

You pin some, you lose some.

Do you ever cruise Pinterest and find some of the descriptions under the pins to be rather heavy on the hyperbole?  Do you become instantly sceptical about how fantastic said pin really is?

Me too.

Of course, sometimes that just makes me curious so I have to try the pin to see if is anywhere close to the promises made in the description.

This brings me to today's post.

If you follow people who go on random health kicks you might have seen this pin show up on your home page:

Life Changing Loaf

 If you click through to the blog post, you will find out this blogger thinks this is the best loaf of bread ever.  It takes any spread.  It makes the best toast ever.  You will feel so healthy and full of life if you eat this bread. 

I am always trying to find new and healthy and fibre-rich foods to feed my kids and I just happened to have all of the ingredients on hand, so I braced myself for a life-changing food experience. 

The instructions are pretty straight-forward.  Blend a mixture of nuts, seeds, oats, honey and coconut oil with some psyllium and water.  Let it sit until the moisture is absorbed.   Bake in the oven, tipping the loaf out onto the oven rack halfway through the cooking time (yeah, right--not in my brand new oven!) and finish baking.

My first problem came when it was time to tip the loaf out onto the rack.  I improvised with a wire rack on a baking pan so I wouldn't have to clean burnt seeds out of the bottom of my oven later--that was a good decision.  The loaf is really damp.  It didn't want to come out of the baking pan, even though my pan is flexible and nothing really sticks to it.  The bits that did come free easily crumbled to the bottom of the tray.  I kinda lumped the rest together into a blob and hoped for the best.

Problem #1. It is damp and sticky.

It maintained it's damp yet crumbly texture even after baking.

 After baking, I let it cool overnight, per instructions so it would be easy to slice.  Ha.  This stuff just fell apart when the knife touched it.  There was no way I would be getting any jam or peanut butter or hummus or anything else spread on it.

I popped a morsel in my mouth.  And then I started chewing.  And chewing. And chewing. And chewing.  This "bread" will give your jaw a SERIOUS workout.  It is very filling and takes a long time to chew so I suppose it would be good for a person who is trying to cut calories.  If you can choke it down.  To me, it sort of tasted the way I imagine damp bird seed would taste.

I gave some to Matthew.  Here was his reaction:

 With great regret, I threw that brick of birdseed in the garbage.  There was no way I could convince anyone in this house it was something good to eat.

Life changing?  Not so much.

Tomorrow I will share with you a winning pin.  I won't promise that it will change your life, but it might help you make friends on a coffee date.

Choco Banana Buzz Smoothie

I like to go running.  I find before a run if I eat the wrong things my stomach gets upset on the road, but if I don't eat I don't have the physical or mental stamina to have a good workout.  Smoothies help. It turns out if I don't have to CHEW my breakfast I can get the fuel I need to have a good workout without upsetting my stomach.  I threw this together and it was really good.  Do you need to shake up your smoothie?

Choco Banana Buzz Smoothie
Serves 1
In the bowl of your blender (or a jug if you use a stick blender like I do) toss:

1 banana, broken up
1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup plain almond milk
1 scoop Chia Seeds (1 tablespoon)
1 scoop plain protein powder
1 shot espresso (you can make it with instant espresso powder if you don't have a machine)
1 heaped teaspoon cocoa powder
1 dash cinnamon

Blend until smooth, pour into a large glass and drink.  (It  makes more than a demitasse full, I just did that for the picture!)  If you want a really thick smoothie, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to allow the chia seeds to soften and thicken the mixture.


 According to My Fitness Pal the nutrition information is as follows (I used Blue Diamond plain almond milk and Astro French Vanilla Yogurt in this recipe)

Per serving: 375 calories, 53 gm carbs, 9 gm fat, 33 gm protein, 9 gm fiber, 28 gm sugar.

Carrot and Ginger Soup

Alas, it is still soup weather here.  My friend shared this recipe with me and I can't wait to try it.

Carrot and Ginger Soup

1 shallot
1 piece of ginger
20 g of butter to saute
500 g carrots
1/2-1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 L broth
100 ml cream plus 100 g creme fraiche
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon curry
salt and pepper to taste

Peel shallot and ginger and cut into small pieces.  Melt butter in a pot and gently saute  the shallot and ginger for approx 10-15 minutes--do not brown!  Wash and peel carrots. Chop.  Add carrots and saute for   a bit, then add sugar and about 2/3 of the broth.  Cook for 10-15 minutes, until carrots are tender.  Puree soup and add broth until you are happy with the consistency of the soup.
Add cream, creme fraiche and let the soup warm through.  Add tomato paste, curry and salt and pepper. Serve.

*If you want to freeze the soup, add tomato paste and spices before freezing, but do not add the diary as it will curdle when you re-heat.*

Handy Housewife Hints

Source: askannamoseley.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

For the most part, I roll my eyes pretty hard at the housekeeping tips I find on Pinterest.  I am not interested in hoarding my orange peels to make enzyme cleanser, and I got on the home made laundry detergent bandwagon once, but quickly got off as I found commercial stuff just works better for me. (That and I found out grated soap doesn't always dissolve in hard water and can cause some nasty plumbing clogs.) Daily housecleaning schedules never, ever stick with me.

This pin, however? This pin is pure Pinterest gold.  If you have boys in your house, you need this pin.

Be warned: The first time you try this, the baking soda foam will loosen up all manner of unholy disgustingness that has been lurking under your toilet. It will be gross.  You will be revolted.  You will lobby hard for your own personal bathroom in the house if you don't already have one.

You will be so happy when that strange lingering pee smell that is always there, even after you clean is finally gone.

You will do this again and again. 

Gord's Lemon Shrimp Pasta

I complained on Facebook this afternoon that I had no idea what to make for dinner tonight.  My buddy Gord popped this message into my inbox:

Run to the grocery store and get a $8 bag of shrimp. With kids peeled is best. I do uncooked, but cooked works too. Grab a couple lemons while you're there, and some garlic, but I suspect you have that in the house.

Defrost the shrimp in the bag in a bowl of cold water. Won't take long at all -- less than an hour. You just want them not total blocks of ice.

Put water on for pasta. Once it boils and the pasta is in, do the following:

Take a pan. Add a couple or three tablespoons of oil. Any works -- canola, olive, even butter. Actually probably butter best of all, but it's sort of gilding the lily. Cook the shrimp until they're that pink colour that says they're cooked. Add a teaspoon or so of crushed garlic. If you have whole cloves, you can take four or five of them, smash them with a knife, then before you add the shrimp cook them really well in the oil, to infuse the flavour into it, then take them out -- they'll look burnt almost. Once the shrimp and garlic is cooked, turn it to low just enough to keep it hot.

Once the pasta is cooked and drained,

Now squeeze the lemon juice into the pan and use it to deglaze, then throw the pasta in and mix the whole lot up (or put the shrimp and stuff in the pasta pot, since there's usually more room). Serve with parm cheese.

I guess it is pretty tasty since this was the post script to the recipe:

I once had a lesbian girl offer to marry me, because she thought this was so good.
LOL

Choose who you make this for wisely!!

Swedish Waffles

My friend Christiane is the breakfast Queen.  First, it was Pfannenkuchen.  Now it is Swedish Waffles.  She shared this recipe with me on a scrap of paper, written by hand.  I made them for brunch today.  They are rich and buttery with a flaky interior and crisp exterior.  If you don't make them for breakfast, they would make a fantastic base for a strawberry shortcake or as a garnish with an ice cream sundae.

Swedish Waffles

2 eggs
100 ml /approx 3 oz water
10 ml /2 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
180 gm/approx 6 oz flour
5 ml/1 tsp baking powder
125 gm/1 half cup melted butter
200 ml/approx 6 oz 35% cream

Mix eggs, water, sugar, salt, baking powder and flour in a large bowl.  Add melted butter and cream.  Mix well.  Bake in a pre-heated waffle iron per manufacturer's directions. Serve with fruit and your favourite waffle toppings!

Makes about 4 large waffles.

According to MyFitnessPal here is a nutritional breakdown:

per waffle: 590 calories, 35 gms carbs, 44 gm fat, 10 gm protein.

Weekly Ritual

We like bread.  We like really good bread.  Really good bread is really expensive around here. I go through fits and spurts where I like to bake bread from scratch when we get tired of the 10 loaves for 12 Dollars rack at the bread store.  I recently found a really great bread recipe that I keep going back to every week.  It makes 5-6 loaves, freezes well and has extra ingredients that help maintain freshness for longer than a day. You can find the recipe here, at the Home Joys blog.  I change it slightly by adding about a cup of Red River Cereal to each batch to add some texture and crunch to my loaves.  This bread rises beautifully despite my addition of extra whole grains.

EDITED TO ADD: If you click over to the recipe above you will find the dough is mixed and proofed in a giant stand mixer.  I do not own a mixer large enough to do that so I use the ingredients in the above recipe and follow the instructions below to mix and proof the dough by hand.

The following is another favourite bread recipe of mine. It makes around four loaves. This recipe has been in my binder for at least 10 years. I have no idea which website I got this from and Google was no help. 


 Christine's Multi-Grain Bread
3 cups water
6 tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp yeast
1/4 cup sesame seeds*
1/4 cup millet seeds*
1/4 cup raw, unsalted sunflower seeds*
1/4 cup flax*
6 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Measure 1 cup of warm water into a very large bowl.  Stir in 1 tsp of sugar and the yeast.  Let stand for 10 minutes, until frothy.
2. While yeast mixture is standing, combine three cups water, butter or margarine, salt and honey in a saucepan. Heat until the liquids are warm and the margarine has melted (make it about the temperature of a hot bath.)  Add to yeast .
3. Add seeds to bowl, then flour, one cup at a time, starting with the whole wheat flour. Stir after each addition of flour. Begin kneading when dough becomes impossible to stir. (This is a messy step! Stick with it! It gets better!)
4. Continue kneading dough on a floured surface, adding small amounts of white flour until the dough is smooth and not sticky.  This could take up to 10 minutes. Your triceps will thank you.
5. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise in a warm place until dough has doubled in bulk.  If it is cold where you are, turn your oven on to about 200F for one minute, then turn it off and then put your bread in there to rise. This could take an hour or so, depending on how warm it is.
6. If you have no five year old boy handy to do this step, go ahead and punch down the dough yourself.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide dough into loaves.   Place dough into greased pans and let rise again until doubled. 45 minutes to an hour. While the dough is rising this time, preheat your oven to 350F.
7. Place loaves in the oven (unless they are already in there rising, then just leave them!) Bake for 30-35 minutes, until nicely browned and if tapped, make a hollow sound.
8. Remove from pans and allow to cool on wire racks.

*If you don't want to stock up on seeds, 1 cup of Red River cereal is a good substitution for the seeds and grains in the recipe. 3/4 cup of Red River cereal + 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds would be really good too. If you are American Cooks info dot com says a good substitute for Red River Cereal is as follows:  1 cup steel cut oats, 1 cup bulghur wheat and 4 tablespoons flax seeds

1 cup steel cut oats, 1 cup bulghur wheat, 4 tablespoons flax seed.

Read more: http://www.cooksinfo.com/red-river-cereal#ixzz2D53EiM3Z

  Mixing up a batch of Homemade Dough Enhancer will make any of your favourite bread recipes last longer and taste a bit better. It works in your bread machine too.

Have you never stuck your hands into a gorgeous mound of bread dough? Here is a video that shows proper kneading technique and how to tell when your workout is finished.

Menu Plan Monday--Forgotten Pin Edition

We are still on the 5:2 plan.  It is working well for us and my body is adjusting to being a bit hungry on fast days.  You will notice on Fast Days dinner will either be a soup or something with lots of lean protein and vegetables.

Four of this week's meals comes from my Pinterest board Recipes to Try.  If they work and everyone likes them, they will get moved to my Proven Winners board.  The Recipes to Try board is getting rather unruly.  Time to test some of these dishes out!

One thing we have started doing recently that is helping IMMENSELY with menu planning is ordering our meat from a proper butcher.  Once a month I order one of their freezer packs with a mixture of different kinds of meats.  I then have a freezer full of good, local protein that I can grab at a moment's notice.  At the moment I am down to the dregs, so this menu plan also reflects what I have left in the bottom of my freezer with one little cheat: I bought ground beef when I made my new meat order this morning. 

Monday (Fast Day): Chicken Pot Pie Soup
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef and rice
Wednesday: White Trash Casserole
Thursday (Fast Day): Salmon Squares  with steamed carrots and broccoli
Friday:  Saucy Italian Pork Chops (with noodles, maybe?)
Saturday: Pot roast with all the fixings.

Menu Plan Monday 5:2 Eating, Week 2

We are in to our second week of 5:2 eating and so far, so good. 

This week's meals are inspired by two magazines I had laying around my house:
Everyday with Rachel Ray, October 2011 and Food Network Magazine, October 2012

Monday: (fast day) Hungry Girl Chicken Fajita Lettuce Cups (the kids get their filling in home made corn tortillas)
Tuesday: Corn Chowder Mac and Cheese --Rachel Ray magazine
Wednesday: Pot Roast with Yorkshire puddings
Thursday: (fast day) Broccoli and Mushroom Quiche--Eat, Shrink and Be Merry Cookbook
Friday: Bratwurst with Potato cakes--Food Network Magazine

For lunch this week: Tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons--Food Network Magazine

Menu Plan Saturday 5:2 Diet Week 1

Richard and I have recently started following the 5:2 Diet plan.  This means that two days of the week I will live on 500 calories in a day and Richard will live on 600.  The rest of the week we will eat normal, healthy meals.  My menu is going to stay family-friendly, but I will make sure that I have something very low-cal to go with whatever the kids are eating on fast days.


Sunday: Smothered Pork Chops and mashed potatoes
Monday (Fast Day): Sausages and Tomato Chickpea Spinach simmer
Tuesday: Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken and Fried Rice
Wednesday:Pasta Fagioli Soup and Cheese toast or this one
Thursday:  (Fast Day): Beef and Broccoli stir fry with noodles
Friday: Pizza rolls
Saturday: Buffet

Breakfast treat this week: Crock pot apple cinnamon oatmeal
Special treat this week:  Anniversary cake

On fast days I won't be eating the sides with dinner (so no sausages or noodles for me on those days).

Once I am a couple of weeks in to my new diet plan I will blog some more about it and the results I am seeing.  Until then, if you have any questions, leave a comment!

Pulled Pork Pot Pie

Today is Wednesday. It is going to be this year's Hell Day.  Why? I lead a playgroup in the morning, have kids come home for lunch, and then have to take a little girl to her violin lesson after school.  This means I am going to aim to do my lunch prep after breakfast and my dinner prep after lunch.  This will mean the crock pot gets called in to action on many Wednesdays.

Today I was chatting online with my friend Ashlee and between the two of us we came up with a way to use up some leftover pork roast  I had in my fridge.  This pie looks so good I am jotting some notes down here so I can remember what I did.

This is a "by the seat of your pants" casserole so the measurements here are very big guesses--eyeball it. It's casserole, not souffle!

Pulled Pork Pot Pie

Peel and cube 4-5 potatoes.  Simmer on the stove or microwave until tender. Mash with buttermilk, some grated cheddar cheese and some no-salt garlic herb mix.  Set aside.

While potatoes are cooking, in a large skillet fry 1/2 of a large onion in a couple of tablespoons of butter.  When golden, sprinkle over a couple of big spoonfuls of flour.  Add in a couple of cups of chicken broth (or do what I did and add in a couple of spoonfuls of vegetable bouillon and pour water over from the kettle to cover the bottom of the skillet) Add in one grated carrot, the kernels of one ear of leftover corn, 1/4 red pepper diced and about 1 pound of leftover cooked roast pork.  Simmer, stirring constantly, until gravy thickens.  Add in a big squirt of your favourite barbecue sauce (I love President's Choice Beer and Chipotle flavour).  Pour filling into a large casserole dish.  Top with mashed potatoes. 

Heat in a 375 degree oven until filling is bubbly and topping is browned a bit.

Eat.

Pfannenkuchen

This is my friend Christiane's recipe for pancakes.  They are delicious.  They taste like an eggier version of a crepe.  I love mine with butter and jam, but applesauce is good too.

German Pancakes (Pfannenkuchen):

200g flour

5 eggs

400ml milk (or 200ml sparkling water like Perrier and 200ml milk)

a pinch of salt

a bit of sugar if you like (depends if you eat sweet or salty things with it)

Sift flour into a bowl and mix with the milk (or milk and water mixture) until smooth. Beat eggs with an whisk and add with salt and sugar to the four/milk mixture. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Depending what kind of flour you use you might have to add some more liquids to the dough. The dough should be really runny so you get nice and thin pancakes. Bake pancakes in a pan with a little bit of butter. Stack the pancakes and keep warm in the oven.

Most people eat the pancakes with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and applesauce (unsweetened or else it will be too sweet). Jam or maple syrup is also nice. If you like salty, try a hamburger sauce, ham and cheese.....or anything that you can think of. If you have pancakes left over, you can cut them up in very thin strips and put them into a broth the next day...hmmmmm....

Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday

I love Pinterest.  My boards are all pretty reality-based (except for the Covet board) and I love being able to sort and store recipes for  menu planning there.  I have several food boards and divided my main courses into "Recipes to try" and "Proven Winners".  These ones are all out of my "To Try" board.  Let's see if they make the cut!

Here is what I am cooking this week:
Hamburgers and Oven-fried Pickles
Pizza
Chicken curry (no one will eat this, but I love curry and it has been too long since I have had some)
Garlic-herb dijon salmon with cauli-tato mash
Quick Lasagna casserole

What have you tried lately and liked?