Salad Saturday -- Roasted Beet Salad

I decided I'm going to try to blog lots, lots more because the more I blog, the more I cook.  The more I cook, the better we eat and the better we eat, the better I do with my quest for eating more veggie and hopefully, the more veggies I eat, I might even lose a pound or two. 

A couple of months ago I went to Biaggi's with friends and had a few bites of Todd's salad...who knew I liked beets?  When we walked into the farmer's market on Saturday, I saw beets, remembered that salad and thought I'd give it a try.  Here's my version...

Roasted Beet Salad

1 bunch of beets
1 bunch of arugula
2 oz. goat cheese or other soft cheese
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries (I used cranberries)

Vinegrette
1/2 shallot grated
2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon honey

Peel and chop beets into small bite size pieces.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and wrap in aluminum foil.  Place on baking sheet pan and roast in oven at 425 degrees for 1-1 1/2 hours or until the beets are soft to the touch.

Chop walnuts and toast in a dry saute pan.  Remove from heat and place on plate.  Use a mellon baller or other small scoop to make balls of the goat cheese.  Roll between your palms to soften slightly and roll in the chopped walnuts.  Set the balls of walnut covered cheese on a plate and gently flatten.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Combine all the ingredients for vinegrette in a large salad bowl and whisk together.  Toss the cooled beets, arugula and dried fruit with the vinegrette.  Serve cheese on the side.  Serves 2.

Food Find Friday -- Turnips!

Fabulous Food Find!





The only thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE more than bread and ice cream are potatoes. I like them baked and fried, boiled or broiled. I don’t think there is any way I don’t like a potato except raw. Especially mashed. I love me some mashed potatoes, and for all of you other mashed potato lovers out there…what’s the one thing that could make them better? What if you could make them creamier, sweeter and silkier? How about if you could substantially reduce the calories?

It’s easy to do, substitute half of the potatoes with Turnips! Who knew? Not me, that’s for sure, or I’d have been adding turnips to my potatoes for years! Here is the breakdown of nutritional information from a random internet site.

Potatoes
1 cup diced, raw

Fat 0
Carbs 24g
Fiber 2g
Protein 2g
Calories 106


Turnips
1 cup diced, raw

Fat 0
Carbs 8g
Fiber 2g
Protein 1g
Calories 36

Now that I had my turnips, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. I knew I had to cook them somehow, so I peeled them with my potatoes and chunked them in the pot. The potatoes cooked, but the turnips were still a bit, al dente to say the least. The weird part was that the potatoes sank and the turnips floated. I’m sure there is some scientific reason behind that, but it worked out pretty well because I could just skim those hard little turnips off the top. I put them into a smaller saucepan with fat free half and half and a little butter and cooked them until they were soft, but it took a long time. About 20 minutes or so. Then, since they were a different consistency than the potatoes and I couldn’t find my potato masher, to flatten them, I put the whole mess in my blender and make a turnip smoothie.

I added that to the cooked potatoes in my stand mixer and gave it a whirl. What was left in that bowl was a little piece of silky potato heaven. SO GOOD! Try it, you’ll be surprised. I was.

The Bread Basket -- Parmesan Cheese Bread

I made this bread to go with the Roasted Butternut Squash Soup on Sunday. Big thumbs up from both Big Mama and Little Mouths.

Parmesan Cheese Bread

3 ¾ cup bread flour
½ cup Parmesan Cheese
1 Tablespoon Yeast
½ tsp Salt
1 1/3 Cup Water
Olive Oil to coat

Reserve ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese and place the rest of the ingredients except olive oil in mixer bowl. Stir together until moistened then knead with bread hook for 10-15 minutes. Remove from bowl and knead by hand for 1-2 minutes. Allow to raise for 60-90 minutes, until doubled in size. Divide into 12 rolls, brush with olive oil and sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of grated cheese on top.

Bake at 425 for 5 minutes, then decrease temperature for 350 for an additional 10-15 minutes, until browned and yummy.

Enjoy!

Whiteout Wednesday! Smoothie Breakthrough!

Snow day!  Even for Big Mama.  It's a state of emergency in our town and I didn't have to go to work.  Of course, it practically is work, with all the things the HR person has to do to cancel work in a factory, but I get to do it in my jammies, so that's a plus.

Oh my goodness!  You'll never guess.  I ate spinach.  In my smoothie!  It was fantastic!

I had a comment on my last smoothie recipe that she put kale in her smoothie.  Kale?  Really?I thought to myself, "She's a better woman that me..." and went about my day.

Saturday at the farmers market I purchased some fresh spinach.  I thought I'd make some Sneaky Tomato Soup, but ended up not being in the mood for it.  I hated to see it go to waste, so I thought I'd just cook it up and freeze it to add to something later.  Then I remembered the kale. 

I am a brave woman.  I am!  So I took a deep breath, pulled the leaves off a couple of handfuls or spinach leaves and punched the puree button on my normally luscious orange-banana smoothie.  And guess what?

I was good.  The same.  YUMMY.  And I drank it and so did the little mouths. They even liked it until they saw is was a very bright green.  Howya like that?

Spinach Smoothie (Serves 3-4)

Bunch of spinach
2 Frozen Bananas
1 Cup Orange Juice
1 Cup Vanilla Greek Yogurt

Bend and serve!

Meal Plan Monday

A couple of years ago I asked the Little Mouths what we should have for dinner.  They looked at each other and started to debate the merits of various restaurants and fast food places.  That was the instant I knew I had to learn to cook unless I wanted my beloved babies to grow up to be junk food junkies like me.

If we were going to eat decently during the week I knew I needed to come up with a plan. Because there is one think I know, and that's if I don't have a plan we'll hit McDonald's or Arby's because the mind that has been whirling a mile a minute for the previous twelve hours, can't fathom what to make for dinner if it's not listed on the refrigerator.

When I first started this cooking endeavor, I had Supper Thyme to lean on...one of those places where you made several meals to freeze.  When it closed, I had to come up with a new plan.

I didn't start off cooking as much as I do now.  I kinda worked my way into it.  I started making two meals, having one "freezer" meal, one breakfast meal and a TV dinner night.  Weekends don't count usually because there's plenty of time to plan, although now I usually plan at least one meal.  A freezer meal is when ever I make something that freezes well, like a casserole or taco meat I make two and toss one in the freezer.  That way I know I always have something to eat when we're home late or just as a relief from cooking every single night.  And I don't cook on Fridays.  Ever. Unless there is something terrible, like a blizzard.

Sometimes things don't go as planned, we are pressed for time or a new commitment gets shoved in the schedule, but for the most part we try to sit down as a family every night.  We each list our highs and lows for the day (the Obama's call it Roses and Thorns and the kids have taken to calling it that as well) eat whatever it is I manage to get on the table and catch up with each other. 

The Little Mouths sometimes wish they could eat in front of the TV like a lot of their friends, but I find even if I make an exception as a special treat, they migrate back to the table sooner than later anyway. 

Here's this week's meal plan, full of that great produce I found this weekend from the farmer's market.

Monday:  Make your own pizza on Naan, Caesar Salad
Tuesday:  Freezer Meal--Chicken Noodle Casserole
Wednesday:  Lemon Pasta with Shrimp and Parmesan Bread
Thursday:  Hamburger and Garlic Oven Fries
Friday:  EAT OUT!
Saturday:  Roasted Beet Salad

One cool thing...because I have been blogging more, my blog is getting a lot more traffic.  Thanks everyone!  Come back soon!

Soup-er Sunday

I am not a winter lover.  I really, really hate it and I dream about moving south.  One of the things I love about the south, and about summer in general are the farmer's markets. 

I just found out there is an indoor farmers market here in our city!  I had no idea, but this Saturday, the Little Mouths and I ventured out and make a haul!  There were only a few vendors, but we purchased potatoes, turnips, beets, butternut squash, onions and some arugula. 

So this is now, winter vegetables week!  Today's recipe...Roasted Butternut Squash Soup.  I took the inspiration from Ina, the Barefoot Contessa, but since I didn't have the recipe in front of me, I improvised.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

2 Butternut Squash (squashes?) peeled and cubed
2 Apples (I used Braeburns) peeled, cored and cubed
2 Onions chopped in larger pieces
3 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
4 cups chicken stock
Creme' Fraiche or Sour Cream as garnish


Now let me tell you, it's not easy to peel a butternut squash.  I felt like I'd wrestled a walrus by the time I was done.  They are slippery little suckers, not unlike my ex-husband, but I digress...Be careful!  Next time I might roast the squash, then just scoop it out of the shell instead. 

Combine everything but the chicken stock and roast in the oven for 45 minutes. Puree, but leave some texture in a food processor or with a stick blender. Add to stock pot with 3-4 cups of chicken stock depending on desired thickness. Simmer on Medium-Low for 30 minutes or so. Garnish with a dollop of Creme Fraiche or Sour Cream.


Thumbs up from the Big Mama and the little mouths thought it was okay, but not their favorite.  I was proud of them for even trying, because they wouldn't have done that a year ago, that's for sure!

Gimme' some bread!

I LOVE bread.  There is nothing more basic.  Nor full of preservatives.  The first stop on this journey to eat well, I examined the amount of preprocessed foods in our diet and I made sure we have at least one meal a day that is created by my hands doing more than opening a box.  We are doing well with that, all things considered, with two busy kids and a full time job.  I'm proud of the progress we've made.

This year, we are taking another step in joining a CSA where we will be adding fresh, local, organic fruits and veggies to our meals.  But there is one place where I've had blinders on, and that's bread.

I mean, did we really think anything could be healthy if it could keep without molding for more than a month?  When I was a kid, bread molded.  I just took a partial package of forgotten hot dog buns out of my bread drawer.  We used the first half OVER A MONTH AGO and the rest of the package still looked pretty good.  Amazing, but also, scary. 

What are all of those preservatives doing to my Little Mouths insides?  I'm not sure.  Maybe nothing, and unfortunately, I don't have the time to make sure every morsel that goes into their little mouths is free of everything that may not be good for them.  I'd love to grow and grind the wheat...okay, so I wouldn't but you know what I mean. 

As an alternative I dusted off my bread maker, yes, I still had it from a gazillion years ago in the garage, and made my very first attempt at making my own bread...well rolls.  Aren't they pretty?

Well, okay.  So they're not too pretty.  But they do taste good!
Thumbs up from Big Mama, but the little mouths aren't so sure about the whole wheat part.  They are a little "nuttier" than they are used to.  I think next time I will use only 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and 2 1/2 cups bread flour and work them up to these...

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
(I made 5 into hotdog buns to use with chicken sausages this week)

1 cup water

1 egg
2 cups Bread flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons bread machine (Has to say "Rapid Rise")yeast
1-2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted



1.  Add all ingredients except butter to bread machine per manufacturer's instuctions.
2. Set bread machine to the "dough" setting.
3. Remove from bread machine and knead a bit with some flour on your counter or other clean surface
4. Divide dough into rolls.  I was having trouble getting the sizes to be the same so I used my kitchen scale.  I made the rolls 1 oz and the hotdog buns 2 oz.
5. Place in 9 X 13 baking dish
6. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes or until they have doubled their size.
7.  Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes untill browned.