Tin Foil Dinners

This is traditionally a camping dinner, but it works out in the oven too! We have a lot of hamburger patties, left from grilling season, so I thought I'd use up four of them! And I'm adding this meal here so I don't forget how I assembled it.

First I put out two sheets of foil, criss-crossing incase of leaks.
I sprinkled some dehydrated onion and laid down the hamburger patty.
I added a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and fresh black pepper to the patties.
I peeled and sliced 3 potatoes and split them between the 4 dinners.
Then I dolloped some cream of mushroom soup for moisture and flavor.
I peeled and cut 5 carrots and split those between the meals too!
Then I wrapped it all up and stuck it in the oven on 400* for an hour.
That was all- easy and filling!

before cooking...

 and after!

The best part was that the kids loooved it! haha!

 

*My husband noted that the hamburger patty probably didn't need the soup, but if you were to do a chicken breast instead, it would definitely need it.

Easy Sugar Cookies

Oh look- a post I forgot about.... Oh well, you could do it for St Patricks's Day or Easter instead! haha...
~~~~~
Today we needed a quick treat that could be shared. It would also be good if it was something that could be fun for the kids. I thought a cake mix sugar cookie would be fun and used THIS recipe to get it started.

Since Valentines is this week, and I had a cherry chip cake mix, I thought that was perfect! Then we just whipped up some pink frosting, and added some candies and sprinkles!

evening light stinks...sorry!

We kept some to eat, and we shared the rest with a family who needed their day brightened. Yeay for quick, yummy treats!

Pineapple Green Smoothie: plus tips!

Probably more green in color than in actual nutrition, but this is my current favorite. Very, very favorite.

This particular smoothie is this list, and measurements are approximate!

• chunked fresh pineapple (3/4 cup)
• spinach (1 cup)
• avocado (1 Tbsp)
• fresh ginger (very thin slice)
• coconut oil (1 Tbsp)
• ground almonds (1 Tbsp)
• vanilla yogurt (1/4 cup)
• orange juice concentrate (1/4 cup)
• milk (3/4 cup)

When I first put the smoothie kits together, I started by eyeballing what looked "right" in the blender itself, then dumping all that into a baggie. But now I'm just shoving handfuls into the bags and calling it good. We've learned a few tips since THIS POST.
So I do most of grocery shopping on (or as close as possible) to pay day. I write out a dinner menu, I know what we need for lunches (we're very boring lunch people) and breakfasts usually take care of themselves. Right now, for our smoothies, I'm buying the big container of baby spinach from Costco, and this bag of berries shown below, which is also from Costco. I've been getting a fresh pineapple from wherever it's cheapest, and a couple avocados too. I get a knob of fresh ginger root, which we peel and slice very thinly. We also still have frozen strawberries and peaches. The number of kits I make depends on how far the spinach goes- when I'm out of spinach, I'm done making kits!

We were putting 6-8 whole almonds in the kits, but grinding up the almonds first, in a little food processor or food chopper helps them come out completely smooth. My husband drinks his with a straw and doesn't like the 1/3 whole almond getting stuck... and drinking is easier than chewing, lol... So now I just add a heaping tablespoon of ground up almonds to each kit!

Putting a spoonful of coconut oil in between the spinach leaves guarantees it makes it into each smoothie. I forgot about it often enough that this just makes it easier.

The avocados have been chopped up and I put maybe a tablespoon, maybe more, into each smoothie kit. There is NO avocado taste, it just makes them all a little greener in color and a little creamier. YUM.

I buy either plain or vanilla yogurt for these smoothies. My original recipe was for an Orange Julius, which called for vanilla extract. Sometimes I'll go that route, but I've learned that I do better if I have protein with my breakfast. My morning protein of choice is either peanut butter on toast, or sausage, so I've decided that yogurt is the healthiest route, haha.

The ginger root we peel with a potato peeler, and then slice as thinly as possible. It gives each smoothie a bit of brightness. Its not overpowering at all, but when we leave it out they seem rather plain. Which is funny to me... And any left over ginger is grated or cut up and put into my water for the next few days! Apparently it has a slimming effect- I just like that it flavors my water naturally and that encourages me to drink it!

Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches

Last Sunday's dinner came from here.
My husband (and son!) made buns using the same bread recipe as you find here but this time split into 4oz balls, which made 11 buns, that were about 4 inches in diameter.

Then, he followed the recipe for the meat, other than adding about a Tbsp of red wine vinegar and a Tbsp of Worcestershire sauce.

We ate while the buns were still warm, piling on the meat, a slice of provolone cheese and a side dish of cooked mixed vegetables! It was a yummy meal!

The only changes we would make is let the buns cool, and probably toast them so the meat au jus didn't soak thru quite so quickly.

Harvey Family Bread Recipe

Plain Old Eatin Bread
Makes two medium sized loaves (3"x7" or 5"x9" loaf pans)

3 Cups White Bread Flour
2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour (stone ground from the store is good, home ground in your own wheat grinder or Blendtec blender is better. Home ground is also WAY cheaper than buying stone ground whole wheat flour from the store)
2 Cups warm water (about 110 degrees)
1 tbsp. yeast (instant dry)
1/4 cup sugar
3 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil (I use olive oil)
3 tbsp. powered milk
1 tbsp. dough enhancer
1/4 cup gluten
4 tbsp. honey

Start by getting the water into a 4 cup measuring cup. Add the sugar and yeast and whisk to combine. Set a timer for 10 mins and let the yeast get bubbly/foamy. If using a bread maker, put all of the rest of ingredient into the bread maker and set it to the dough only setting. When the timer goes off, add the water to the breadmaker and let it go though it's mixing and kneading cycle. At the end of the mixing/kneading cycle, spray the top of the dough ball with oil so it won't dry out as it goes though the rise cycle.

If using a regular mixer with a dough hook, put in all of the dry ingredient first, mix to combine for a little bit until they are all incorporated together, then add the oil, honey, and yeast/water last. Turn on the mixer and let it go until the dough forms a smooth ball. It should look like a smooth ball that is only slightly sticky after about 10 to 15 minutes of kneading on the medium speed. Once the kneading is done, put the dough in a really good size glass or plastic punch bowl. Put in a about 2 tbsp. of oil and turn the dough ball over in the oil to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in a 200 degree oven to rise. When you put the bowl in turn off the heat and leave the door closed. Let the dough rise til doubled in size. Should take about 40 to 60 minutes.

Near the end of the rise cycle, take out two loaf pans and spray with oil. When the dough is done rising, punch down and remove from breadmaker or bowl and knead gently on a clean work surface to redistribute the bubbles in the dough. You can flour the work surface if you like, but I have found it unnecessary. Turn on your oven on (or back on) to 200 degrees and get 4 cups of water boiling in microwave safe container in your microwave. Put an empty 8 x 11 casserole dish in the oven on the lowest rack and let it heat up with the oven.

Divide the dough in half. If you have a kitchen scale, each half of the dough should weigh about 12 to 16 ounces each. Form each half of the dough in a loaf looking log and put into each of the oiled loaf pans. If the oven is at temp, put both pans on the middle rack of the oven and pour the boiling water into the empty casserole dish. Close the oven door, TURN OFF THE OVEN, and let the bread proof for 20 minutes for 3x7 loaf pans or 45 minutes for 5x9 loaf pans. (Note: Don't spray the loaves with oil. The crust forms much better if the top of the bread dries out a bit)

At the end of the proofing time, pull the bread out, set on the counter, cover with a clean dish towel and let rise for another 20 minutes on the counter covered with a clean dish towel. Feel free to slash the top of the bread. I like to do three diagonal slashes across the top or one long slash down the middle. You don't have to slash, but if you do, be sure that your cut is no more than 1/2 inch deep.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees for non convection or the equivalent for convection. Leave the pan of water in the oven and let it heat up too. After the final 20 minute rise is done, put the bread in the oven for 12 minutes, turn and cook for another 13 minutes. The crust should be a dark caramel brown when it is done and smell amazing. At the end of the second cook time, take the bread out of the oven and remove from the bread pans immediately. Place them on cooling racks and let cool for about 60 to 90 minutes. Each loaf on the top will seem very hard, but the crust will soften as the bread cools and is bagged up. Bag up and put in the freezer (they freeze fantastically) or keep on the counter. I wouldn't recommended putting them in the fridge as it will dry the loaves out and make them go stale faster. I would also recommend not slicing them until you are ready to eat them. Each loaf should make about 13 1/2 inch slices.

One final note. I have noticed that while a lot of store bought bread will mold if left on the counter too long, I have not had any bread made from this recipe mold ever. It will also take a couple of weeks as least before the bread actually starts to go stale. In our house, it doesn't of course last that long.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dream Bars

I think I found this recipe on Pinterest and have been looking forward to trying it out! Trouble with baking and babysitting is that you overlook steps...like the bake time for the filling.... lol. Oh well- it still turned out very tasty! 

You can find the recipe HERE.
I did not use dark brown sugar, and I used regular oats. Also, I don't have a ton of experience with sweetened condensed milk, but I was surprised to note that it just kept thickening the longer it sat there mixed with the pb. And it was difficult to spread so I just put dollops of it on the crust to get it everywhere. :)
I only had dark choc chips in the house, and couldn't find king size Reese PB Cups so I just chopped up 6 of the regular sized ones like this:

I think next time I might possibly cut the salt in half. And the author is right- chill them first. Don't get me wrong- the gooey mess IS dreamy good, but really messy, haha!

Fried pizza egg rolls!

This post is to let the new readers know the real me, and that health food is not 110% normal around here...giggle...

The other night for dinner we had deep fried pizza, haha! (sort of)

The "recipe" (instructions, really) was found HERE.
It really is just a string cheese, with a few pieces of pepperoni, rolled up in egg roll wrappers!

This time they were fried for 3 minutes each. The cheese was not melty like we hoped, so my husband decided that he would fry them less, and then put them in the oven under high heat to better melt the cheese.
He whipped up some pizza sauce, based on our spaghetti sauce recipe HERE, but with a bit of Worcestershire sauce and maybe a few other changes. He and I dipped our pizza sticks and the kids preferred it without the sauce. Also, with the salads, 3 sticks filled up my husband and I, and the kids could only finish 2 each.
Then we had salads and carrot sticks on the side to help round it out a bit, haha!

ETA: Fried 2 minutes, put in a 300* oven as they come out of the fryer, serve about 10 minutes after the last batch goes in the oven.

Hummus!

I really like hummus, but the cheapest way to get it is at Costco and I get tired of the one flavor over and over. I was excited when I saw this link on pinterest to try making our own! So here's our journey...

After trying 4 local stores, I couldn't find tahini anywhere, but we did finally find a bottle of sesame seeds...and my husband checked google and learned that tahini is just sesame seeds and olive oil!! We used our Blendtec to make it smooth and tada- that step was done!

fresh tahini!

If I can get it frozen or whole, I try not to buy canned foods, believe it or not. So I bought a bag of dry chickpeas for this. Chickpeas soaked for 13 hours, simmered on the stove about an hour, until tender. (can I just say how amusing it was to find myself sorting dry beans, late at night, to soak in my grandmother's pot...when she's the reason I remember sorting dry beans ever)
And then the mixing began! He used the food processor to make the different hummus blends.

Classic Hummus

First my husband made the CLASSIC variety on that link-
16 oz chickpeas
1/3 cup tahini
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 scoop minced garlic
 It came out really thick, so he just drizzled more olive oil while it mixed til it was smooth. Then he still added more lemon and some salt and pepper. Pretty good- but the tahini was really strong, so next time we'll use less. Maybe because it was fresh?

Guaca-Hummus

Next up- the GUACA-HUMMUS!
16 oz chickpeas
1 avocado
1 jalapeno
1/4 cup cilantro
2 tbsp. lime juice
salt
pepper
ok, I absolutely love guac, and this was UH-mazing!! It was like a lighter, clean guac, if that makes any sense at all... it is SO good with tortilla chips or pita chips! YUM!

Southwestern Hummus

Then, he was going to make the tapenade variety, but I was raving about the guaca-hummus so much that he said he could just make that again. Since I only bought one jalapeno, he swapped out that for the roasted red peppers (shown below). So here's a different SOUTHWESTERN HUMMUS and um, it might be the winner!!!
1 avocado
2 cups chickpeas
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 bottle roasted red peppers (about 6oz)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp. lime juice
drizzled olive oil to make it a smooth paste
 It has a kick, but it's a good one!

 

Classic, Southwestern & Guaca-Hummus, ready to be enjoyed!

and incase you have as much "fun" looking for the roasted red peppers as I did- they're by the pickles, (not the vegetables, nor the Mexican, nor the Italian) and this is the bottle I grabbed.

*Hummus, as far as I know, is used in two basic ways- as a dip or as a sandwich spread. I'm allergic to the fresh vegetables I've heard of dipping into it, so I usually eat it with Keebler Townhouse Flatbread crisps, or Keebler Pita crackers. The Bagel Chips are really good with it too, and I am absolutely going to use tortilla chips with the other flavors we made tonight! I'm also considering sandwichy ideas to use it in!

Let me know if you make your own hummus and what you think! :) I am looking forward to meals this week!

**Edited:
1/27: Tonight he made the Tapenade variety in the same link. We were very low on parsley so he threw in some dried oregano, and some onion powder and it too is fantastic! Have you tried these yet??

Shakes for 2014

I haven't posted here in a long time! But actually I have a dozen or so draft posts (41 actually...!), haha, that I should really get back to! We'll see how it goes...

In the meantime, we got a Blendtec blender for Christmas from my parents which means that all smoothies now come out smooth. This makes breakfast easy so we bought a bunch of fresh produce to combine with frozen produce and put together some baggies inspired by this link HERE that keeps showing up on facebook. Once we got it done, I posted this pic on facebook and got some questions, so here's the place to answer them!

What's that? Oh, just 16 bags ready to be thrown into smoothies! Spinach, pomegranate, apple, banana, pineapple, peach, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, ginger just waiting for oj, yogurt, coconut oil and milk! Yeay breakfast!

So! What's our plan?
On a {recent} typical day, I throw in:
- some frozen berries,
- a couple handfuls of spinach,
- two spoonfuls of yogurt (plain or vanilla),
- a tbsp. of coconut oil,
- half a chocolate instant breakfast packet (kills any bitterness or hint of spinach taste),
- pour on some milk and tada- breakfast!

We had frozen strawberries and peaches, and then we bought fresh spinach, a pineapple, a pomegranate, bananas, some gingerroot and some apples, and then more frozen berries (blackberries, blueberries and raspberries). We peeled and chopped and otherwise prepped things, and then just started tossing them into baggies! Every bag got some spinach and a slice of ginger. I made some pineapple/pomegranate bags for the Orange Shake, and some bags were just berry mixes.

Today, for example, I had the updated Orange Shake. I threw in my bag of pineapple, pomegranate and ginger, 1/3 cup frozen oj concentrate and the milk and there it was!
I plan to throw in the yogurt and milk every day and on berry days add the instant breakfast. And yes, I've also been putting about a tbsp. of coconut oil into my smoothies because that's supposed to help with thyroid issues and apparently I need that. With the Blendtec, at least, it comes out totally smooth, and I was concerned about that- I don't want a chunk of oil while I'm sipping my fruit, lol!

Happy healthy mornings to you!

French Toast Muffins - Take 1

Yesterday I found this gem on pinterest: French Toast Muffins! Sounded good to me!! My daughter has been asking for French Toast lately and this sounded quicker than making traditional French Toast for breakfast. I don't know if it was quicker, but it was very tasty!!

So here it is, about to go into the fridge until later when we can eat...

 And here it is, being eaten!

If you paid attention to the title of this post you can probably expect we had some issues...

First of all, I adjusted the recipe from the get-go. I only put in 1/2 TBSP vanilla because that seemed like a ton of vanilla to me!

Secondly, the crumble was not so much crumble as it was...cookie dough consistency? seriously. but it was very yummy as 'dough'! I just put little dollop fork fuls around the muffins.

Finally, the cooking problem... We baked it the 25 minutes and all that egg that seeped out around the muffin cups was still very wet. Hmm... I am notorious for over cooking scrambled eggs to make sure my kids are not eating raw egg...I wasn't excited about eating what was definitely still raw egg... We added I think 10 minutes, and then my husband suggested the broiler. We may have also adjusted it to 375* or 400* for those extra 10 minutes...
When we pulled them out they were at least double in size. By the time the pan made it to the table they had sunk in like little craters....
You can see they didn't all come out very well. The insides were less "done" than I would have liked but! they were soooooo yummy I didn't mind the slightly gooey texture at all! My husband and I didn't add syrup- it was perfectly sweet and very tasty!!

Our plan for Round 2? Decrease the milk by at least half. Maybe one less egg...

...maybe bake the crumble recipe into cookies? *grin 

Summer Meal

Here was dinner a couple weeks ago, to spark your own plan:
Meatballs, Corn on the Cob and Grilled Pineapple! (those who don't like pineapple got a fruit salad of apples, bananas and grapes!)

To grill the pineapple, he cut it into halves and brushed them with a mixture of brown sugar, honey, apple cider vinegar (and considered using Sprite).

And just so you know, its not just me who thinks life is easier with a menu plan. Check THIS POST out! Use it as inspiration and make a plan that works for you!

Dinner was a hit!

So you know I gotta share it here! We made kabobs and flat bread, the kids loved assembling them and they even loved eating it!

We started by thawing two steaks and three chicken breasts.
We marinated the chicken for about three hours, with just:

• 1/4 cup olive oil  
• 1 tbsp granulated garlic
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp lime juice

We quartered and boiled some "new harvest" red potatoes, and sprinkled them with seasoning salt and olive oil. Then we chopped up half a white onion, a package of button mushrooms, one zucchini and one corn cob. Then we set it all out and let everyone assemble their own kabobs. My husband made a few extras to use up stuff including a steak and potato only skewer, and we still ended up with two chicken-only skewers to cook the leftover chicken.

When we were done making the kabobs, and they were lined up on the cookie sheet at the top of this picture, he drizzled them all with olive oil and a sprinkling of seasoning salt. Then they all hung out on the grill til they were done! (the steaks were quite rare....)

While the kabobs were grilling, we also made THIS flatbread recipe. I added about 1/2 tbsp of dried basil to the mix, and since we have a jar of yeast, rather than packets, we used 3 tsp of yeast as our guessed amount. We pinched off blobs of dough and then rolled it very thin. We brushed the electric griddle with olive oil and threw the dough on sort of like a pancake, flipped it once and that was that!

This is my plate, to give you an idea! (a potato fell off from the middle...) My husband pushed the contents of his skewers onto his flatbread, and ate it sort of like a taco, and my kids discovered they could deal with the mushrooms better if it was with the flatbread.

The chicken was amazing! The flatbread was amazing! The potatoes were fabulous! The zucchini was rather bland, and the corn wasn't great, but the meal was a hit! We have leftovers and definitely plan to make it again!