Spring has sprung!

Well, spring has sprung in our neck of the wood! I didn't cook today--spring fever! Instead I got out the camera for a little creative spree.

We had a doozy of a spring storm this morning, thunder, pouring rain, hail, the works. When it all blew over, I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the flowers that survived the storm.



My husband's favorite flower.



Azaleas are the flower du jour right now. They really are a spectacular sight in their full glory.





I loved the water dripping off the leaves of our sago palm.



Our silver leaf bushes that screen my bedroom window.





A fern on the front porch.



Our loquat tree isn't producing as much as last year, but we're stil getting some nice fruit.

Dinner in 20: Spinach-Alfredo Fettucini

At our local pizza buffet place, my kids absolute favorite pizza is, believe it or not, the Spinach-Alfredo pizza. The pizza is green--white sauce, spinach and cheese. And somehow it manages to cover up the strong taste of the spinach and the kids wolf it down.

So, I experimented at home and discovered I could make a very similar sauce for pasta at home. It is a simple fix and a nice change from spaghetti and tomato sauce.

Spinach Alfredo Sauce

Put your water for the pasta on to boil.

[I do this in a 4 C pyrex measuring cup, but you can use a 1 quart microwave safe dish. ] Measure in a liquid measuring cup, 2 C of frozen spinach. Add milk on top of spinach to make the liquid level up to 2 cups. Pour into dish if not using 4 measuring cup. Add 2 envelopes of powdered alfredo sauce, the margarine called for by the mix and garlic acccording to your tastes.** Mix.

Pop in the microwave and heat 1 minute at a time. Mix after each minute. Stop when the sauce is hot and thick. How lon it will take overall depends on the power of your microwave. Don't try to heat all at once because it will boil over and make an awful mess in the microwave. Guess how I KNOW that...

Cook your pasta while all this is happening.

Serve your sauce over your pasta of choice. We like fetuccini, but anthing you like will work. It looks like a whole lot more work than it actually is.

**If you use an alfredo mix that requires 1 1/2C of milk, increase everything above to 3 C.

Out of the Frying Pan....

This week oone of the local grocery stores had a really really good sale on boneless chicken breast tenders. Usually I don't buy these puppies because they are way to expensive, but they were a great buy, so I had 5 lbs of them sitting in the kitchen! And we weren't about to eat 5 lbs in one week either. So here's what I did with them: (You can use childen breast tender, boneless breasts sliced into tenders or boneless thighs sliced into tenders. You could also use slivers of turkey breast or thighs if you like.)

First, divide the meat into one lb. increments. Then pull out two skillets (with lids if possible) and put them on the stove. (Doing more than 2 at a time is more than I can keep up with! But you can do three or four skillets at once if they'll fit on your stove.) Add a little oil to the skillet and turn the heat up to medium high.

When the pan is hot, add in a pound of chicken. Stir frequently and cook the meat until it begins to brown. Then turn off the heat(if using electric heat, turn it to low if using gas heat) and add one of the following to the pan:

• BBQ sauce
• Sweet and Sour Sauce
• Cream of Mushroom soup, condensed
• Cream of Chicken Soup, condensed
• Sesame-Ginger marinade/sauce
• Honey Dijon salad dressing
• Raspberry Vinegrette Salad dressing
• Lime-garlic marinade/sauce
• Enchillada sauce
• Tomatillo (green enchillada) sauce
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Your favorite sauce, avoid alfredo sauces though, they don't freeze very well
  

Cover the pan and let set 3-5 minutes, the sauce should come to a simmer.

Then, transfer the cooked chicken into a freezer container or a dish for further cooling. Give the skillet a quick rinse and wipe down and put it back on the stove for another round.

I got all five meals done in about half an hour.

When you reheat the chicken, you can add some frozen veggies that fit the sauce if you want. You could also add the veggies into the freezer bag before you put it in the freezer. If you do that though, make sure the chicken is cooled before you add the veggies. Otherwise, the veggies will thaw completely before you freeze the meal and , well, it just makes them yucky on reheating.

These are all good served over your favorite carbs--rice, noodles, tortillas, biscuits, potatoes, what ever you like.

Snack Atttack: Creamy Spinach Garlic Dip

I was 'making it up as I went' in the kitchen the other day. My kids absolute quiver with excitement when I tell them that. They hover around and insist on helping out in the creative process. This was no exception.

I had a hankering for that warm creamy spinach garlic dip you can get as an appetizer at some resturants, but no desire to go out and find some.

So, I hit the fridge and come up with something remarkably like the resturant stuff for a small fraction of the price!

Creamy Spinach Garlic Dip

Start with a 10 oz. bag of fresh, washed spinach. Stuff it into the food processor, a about 1/3 at a time. Pulse the processor to mince the spinach. Add more as what is in the processor gets minced.

When all the spinach is minced add 2 blocks of cream cheese (low fat is fine, but not fat free), as much minced garlic as you like (we like A LOT!, like 1/4C!), 2T of red wine vineagar, onion powder and a generous does of parmesean cheese.

Whirl it all around in the processor until it is all well blended. You may need to scrape down the sides a couple of times. This makes a very generous portion of dip.

You can gently warm this on the stove, over very low heat, stirring frequently, in the microwave or in the oven.

I actually spread this on ciabatta bread, topped it with pepperoni and toasted it all in the oven. The kids fought over the last piece!

Sidelines: Quick Tomato Salad

This is a quick and easy side dish to pull together when you need another veggie on the plate. The kiddos love it and even my hubby who doesn't love tomatoes likes this one!

Quick Tomato Salad
Dice 4 or 5 Roma (plum) tomatoes.
Dice or crumble 4-8 oz of your favorite white cheese (we like queso fresco, a very mild mexican white cheese). Add to tomatoes
Add a generous squirt of your favorite vineagrette salad dressing. (We like raspberry-vineagrette best).

Toss it all well and serve. Or chill then serve. It is pretty and colorful on the plate and mades a refreshing change from green salads.

You can add a couple of slices of finely chopped onions as well if you like. Or some fresh basil, but you don't have to. Toasted almonds would be good too come to think of it.

The Daily Grind

My kids love meatloaf, end of statement. Running out of meatloaf in the freezer is a sort of national emergency around here. The nice things about it is that meatloaf is really easy to make in large quantities and pop into the freezer to stave off such emergencies!

So here’s a set of a variety of meatloaf recipes. None are glazed, that doesn’t freeze well. If you want to glaze them, pour the glaze after they are thawed and you are heating them up for dinner.

Start with 9 lbs of ground beef. I have found that the leaner beef does better in the freezer. Place meat in 1 1/2 lbs increments into mixing bowls. To each bowl add 3/4C of your favoring binder (bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, rolled oats…) and 2 eggs

Then add:

Traditional Meat Loaf
1/4C milk
dollop ketchup
1 can drained mushrooms (4 oz.)
1 envelope onion soup mix

Taco Meat Loaf
1 envelope of taco seasoning
1 can (1 C) corn kernels, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, drained

Ranch Meat Loaf
1 envelope ranch dressing mix
Handful shredded parmesan cheese
Handful dry minced onions

Asian Meat Loaf
Handful of dry minced onions
And either:
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
Or 1/2C sesame ginger salad dressing or marinade

Italian Meat Loaf
1/4 cup ketchup
1 table spoon Italian-style seasoning
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

BBQ Flavor Meat Loaf

1/2C BBQ sauce of your choice
Handful of dry minced onions
A couple of handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese

Mix well. Turn each into a baking dish and bake 30-40 minutes at 350. Do not over load the oven, but usually 4-6 of these will fit comfortably at a time. If you are short on baking dishes, get disposible foil loaf pans while you are at the store. They are worth the investment for the time savings alone. You can wash them out and reuse them a couple of times if you want to boot.

Let the loaves cool, bag or wrap, label and freeze.

Dinner in 20:Honey Dijon Pork Chops

Ever have one of those weeks when you feel like you've just hit a wall? This was one of those for me. I got to a point where the thought of cooking one more meal was more than I could tolerate! So KISS (keep it simple stupid!) has been the ordder of the week.

Tonight for dinner we had: Honey Dijon Pork Chops, Parsleyed Pasta, corn (frozen) and apple sauce. And it came togeher in just 20 minutes.

The corn and applesauce are obvious. The pasta and chops cook at the same time.

Start the water boiling and set out a large skillet for the chops. When the water starts to boil, put the chops in the skillet on medium high heat. Add the pasta to the water. While it cooks, brown both sides of the chops and heat up the corn on the stove or in the microwave.

When the pasta is done, drain it. While it drains, top the chops with a good dollop of Honey-Dijon salad dressing. Turn down the heat to medium low and put a lid on the skillet.

Return the pasta to the pot. Add the butter, parsley and salt to the pasta and toss well. By the time you get everything else to the table, the chops will be done. Give the pan juices and dressing a little stir and you're done.

Start serving and you should have a minute left from your 20!

The nice thing about this meal is that my kids really really like it. My youngest actually had 5 servings of pasta and they all but fought over the extra pork chop. That all makes it a little easier to face dinner again tomorrow night.

Mad Scientist Recipes

My middle son has a start of the school year birthday, so this year, we didn't get to have a party. So instead, we did a half-birthday party for him. With the help of his teacher, we had it on science fair day at school, for the last two hours, since our theme was 'Mad Scientists'.

The kids had a ball. We ran out of time before we ran out of things to do.

So I thought I'd share some of our fun here for you guys:


Super Bubble Juice
Dawn Ultra or Joy Ultra 1 Part
Water 15 Parts
(Distilled Water Works Best)
Glycerine or White Karo Syrup .25 Parts

Click on the second bibble link below to get directions for making a super bubble blowing cone to use with the solution.


Super Bubble Ooze
-this is like the stuff you buy in a tube at the store.

1. In a small bowl pour 3 T glue gel and 1 drop food coloring, mix well.
2. Add 3 T liquid starch and mix well.
3. Let sit for 5 minutes. Remove from dish and knead well.
4. When it is firm, roll into a ball and bounce it or take off a piece, put it on the end of a straw and blow it up like a balloon.

Crystal Paint
1. In a small dish, mix up ? C warm water and 3 t. salt. Keep stirred very well thoughout play.
2. Use a paintbrush to paint a picture on black paper.
3. Watch for crystals as the paint dries, you can use a hair drier to speed up the process

Magic Colors
-make sure you use water soluable markers for this one.

1. Cut along the sealed edges of the coffee filter. Open up the filter so it is a single layer.

2. With the black marker, draw a line across the bottom of the filter on one side, about 1 inch up from the bottom. Do the same with your colored marker on the other half.
3. Put some water in the cup-enough to cover the bottom. Curl the paper circle so it fits inside the cup. Make sure the bottom of the circle is in the water.

4. Watch as the water flows up the paper. When it touches the black line, you'll start to see some different colors.

5. Leave the paper in the water until the colors go all the way to the top edge. How many colors can you see?


Outrageous Ooze
-this was the biggest hit of the day!

1. Put the cornstarch into the bowl. Add a drop or two of food coloring. (Use whatever colors you like.) Add water slowly, mixing the cornstarch and water with your fingers until all the powder is wet.
2. Keep adding water until the Ooze feels like a liquid when you're mixing it slowly. Then try tapping on the surface with your finger or a spoon. When Ooze is just right, it won't splash--it will feel solid. If you Ooze is too powdery, add a little more water. If it's too wet, add more cornstarch.
3. Pick up a handful and squeeze it. Stop squeezing and it will drip through your fingers.
-->Rest your fingers on the surface of the Ooze. Let them sink down to the bottom of the bowl. Then try to pull them out fast. What happens?
--> Take a blob and roll it between your hands to make a ball. Then stop rolling. The Ooze will trickle away between your fingers.



References:
Bubble solutions
Bubble solutions 2
Science for kids
Exploratorium
Kid concoctions

Little League: Marshmallow Banana Bake

I don’t know about you, but we tend to have banana problems around here. We like the bananas rather green and as they tend toward ripe, they are less and less likely to get eaten. So we have a banana pile up. Over the years, I’ve come up with a few things to do to use them up. Here’s one that the kids love to eat and can help out making as well:



Marshmallow Banana Bake
3-4 bananas
Baking chips (chocolate, cinnamon, peanut butter, whatever you like)
Marshmallows

Spray a round pie plate or other baking dish with non-stick spray. Slice the bananas lengthwise and lay them in the dish. Sprinkle the chips over the fruit, about 1/2C of chips, more if you like. Lay marshmallows over the top of everything. Spray marshmallows with nonstick spray.

Bake 350F about 10-15 minutes, until the marshmallows are brown and puffy.

Dinner in 20: Strawberry Spinach Salad

I always find it hard to get my act together to get dinner made when my husband is out of town. The other night while he was gone I asked my oldest son what he'd like for dinner, hoping to find some inspiration to get the job done. My 14 year old said he wanted dinner salad, yeah, really, he did. So I suggested that he make dinner for all of us.

This is what he made (with a little direction from me, but not too much)





Strawberry Spinach Dinner Salad

10 ounces spinach leaves
4 cups strawberries, sliced
8 oz diced ham
8 oz cubed mild white cheese (we use queso fresco, but monterrey jack, provelone or mozzerella, feta or even blue cheese would work too)
1/2 C toasted almonds (or other nuts)
Dressing:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Mix us the dressing. Tear the spinach leaves into bite sized pieces. Slice the berries. Toss everything with the dressing and serve with some nice bread.


The kids love this stuff and it is easy for them to make. My eldest was pretty proud of himself for making dinner that didn't come out of a box.

Drum Roll Please!

Finally, here’s another set of Freeze-n-Serve recipes!

This one is a little different; we are going to focus on a very specific cut of meat, chicken drumsticks.

These little guys are handy little critters. Kids love them. The can be eaten hot or cold. And even better, they are really easy to take along to eat on the run.

I find that we often have to eat on the run these days. But I really really hate picking up a burger on the way. Having something stashed in the freezer that you can nuke on the way out the door is great. They will also store in the fridge for a few days, so you can keep them there and eat them cold on the run when you know that is going to be ‘that’ kind of a week!

So, with no further ado, on to the recipes!

Start with 5 lbs of chicken legs. Preheat the oven to 350F. Set out several large cookies sheets, preferably with a lip to catch any juices that run off.

Lime-Garlic Chicken
Mix the juice of one lime with 1 clove (1t)crushed garlic. Pour over chicken legs and let set while you set up the rest of the chicken. When you are done with the other ones, remove these from the marinade and place on baking sheet.

Soy Garlic Chicken
Mix 1/4C soy sauce, 1/3 C mayo, 4t vinegar (whatever you have on hand, just not balsamic) and 1 t crushed garlic. . Pour over chicken legs and let set while you set up the rest of the chicken. When you are done with the other ones, remove these from the marinade and place on baking sheet.

Spicy Honey Chicken
Mix 1/4C Orange Juice, 2T honey, 1-2t crushed garlic or 1/4t garlic powder, 1/8t red pepper(or to personal taste) . Pour over chicken legs and let set while you set up the rest of the chicken. When you are done with the other ones, remove these from the marinade and place on baking sheet.

Taco Chicken Legs
Open two packages of taco seasoning mix. Roll the drumstick in the seasoning and place on baking sheet.

Parmesan Drumsticks
Mix 1 C parmesan cheese with 1 T Italian seasonings. Brush drumstick with mayo and coat with the cheese. Place on baking sheet.

Place baking sheets in oven for 30 minutes. Check for doneness at this time. Add extra time as needed, but only until just cooked through.

Cook and toss into ziplock bags to store as needed.

You can also just use some of the other chicken recipes I’ve posted on chicken legs in the same way.

Enjoy!

Snack Attack: Peanut butter Honey dip

Here’s a quick and easy snack you can let your kiddos make:

Peanut Butter Honey Dip

Take a large blob of peanut butter (1/4 C or so). Add a big squirt of honey (2-3T) and a small handful of rolled oats (for crunch) and/or chocolate chips and/or raisins. Mix it all together. Add more honey if you like a looser texture.

Use as a dip for crackers, graham crackers, apples, carrots, celery stalks ect. Or use as a spread for sandwiches.

Watch out though, this stuff is good enough to eat with a spoon and pretty addicitive!

What's in your pantry?

Recently I just had to clean out my pantry. Things were falling on me. That's a sure sign that it's time to get to work!

I'm blessed that the builders of this house put it a really big pantry, more like a small closet really. I love it.

But then again, I always keep my pantry stocked. Growing up my family spent three years in New Jersey and they were all bad winter years. I remember blizzards and getting snowed it and the panic at the stores when bad weather was predicted. The remainder of my life has been spent in the gulf coast when hurricanes are a threat a large part of the year. So I just hate the thought of getting caught with the pantry empty. My sister is the opposite, she can't take the clutter, so she keeps her pantry pretty bare.

She does have a lot less issue in keeping her pantry clean and organized, I envy that. But last fall when we were dealing the Katrina and Rita and there were unprecedented runs on the grocery store, she was there fighting the crowds while I stayed home and watch the stories about the grocery stores on TV.

Be that as it may, the pantry got cleaned out this week.

I like to get every possible useful inch of storage space out of my pantry, so I've added a few touches that really help. I have wire baskets that hang under the shelves so I can put short cans on the shelf and something else above it. I have wire shelves to add extra shelving for boxes ect. I have wicker baskets to put bagged items like pasta and chips in so that they don't fall on me. On the floor I have some stacking baskets for canned goods and I've mounted some small wall baskets on the little bit of wall space to squeeze out some extra space.





The wicker baskets came from the craft store, 75% off clearance bin. Some of them are actually pretty and it looks a little like I was trying to decorate in there, but really, they were all bought because they were cheap and the right size and shape.

Oh,and there are labels on everything too. Why? Not because I'm completely compulsive, really. But the kids used to get off putting groceries away with the excuse "I don't know where it goes". Well, now that it is all labeled, they know exactly where it all goes and they now have the job of putting away the groceries!

New Content Navigation links!

I just put in some new content navigation links that will take you directly to particular recipes of interest. I think I have all of them working now. Hope they are helpful and not just the product of a manic need to organize on my part!

Little League: Odds and Ends

I just cleaned out my pantry. Not my favorite job in the world, no surprise huh? Well, when I took everything out, I found a bunch of odds and ends. You know, bags with 3 pretzels or 5 croutons, boxes with half a dozen chips or a can with a handful of nuts. Stuff you didn’t throw away but it’s not enough to o anything with. Here’s something to do with it. Better yet, let the kids do it.

Get a big bowl and put a colander or strainer inside it. Have the kids dump the odds and ends into the strainer. Give it a shake to get rid of the crumbs and dust that accumulate in the bottom of those bags. Then put the mix into something to keep it handy for snaking.

You can use cereal, dried fruit, cookie crumbles and odd bite sized candy to make a sweet mix for desserts too.

Snack Attack!

Quick, easy and relatively healthy snacks are as good as gold. So here’s one that we used for our Super Bowl festivities.

Hummus
Basics: 1 can chick peas (garbanzos), olive oil
Seasonings: sesame oil, garlic, cumin, parsley, salt, pepper, hot pepper

Depending on how ‘loose’ you like your dip to be, drain the chick peas, I usually leave about half the liquid. Pour everything into a food processor or blender. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Vegetable oil will work in a pinch.

Season this according to taste. All of this is optional, but I usually use: 1-2 teaspoons sesame oil, a bunch of chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cumin, salt and pepper. I’m not into hot stuff but you can add it i.f you like.

Whiz it around in the food processor or blender until it is the consistency you like. Store any leftovers in the fridge. It’ll keep a while, in the unlikely event it doesn’t get eaten at first sitting

Superbowl!

We have a little family thing for the superbowl each year. Part of the tradition is that the kids help get the food ready. This year the boys helped me make peanutbutter and jelly cookies, hummus dip, pigs in blankets and refried beans and cheese.

I use nonfat refried beans and only add a little olive oil to the hummus, so that helps with the calories. We also eat tostito baked chips which are really good and have no fat. We we've got complete protiens and low fat. The cookies and pigs in blankets blow it all, but you can't have everything.

This year I actually got into a picture...I actually exist!

Valentine's Dinner in 1 hour

I had a request for a simple valentine’s dinner idea, so here’s an easy one.

Appetizer: Melon with procuitto ham
Main Course: Herbed Chicken Breast, baked potato, broccoli with carrots with garlic Dessert: Chocolate covered Strawberries

You will need:
12 Strawberries
1 C each broccoli, carrots
1/2 cantalope
2 baking potatoes. Fist size
4 slices procuitto ham (at deli)
2chicken breasts
Creamy herbed cheese spread
Garlic, olive oil
Chocolate chips
Your favorite bubbly stuff to drink

1 hour game plan:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wash and dry 12 strawberries, set aside. Wash 2 potatoes no bigger than a woman’s fist.

Place Potatoes on a small tray-and in the oven. Set timer to 30 minutes

Now for the chicken: Take 2 chicken breasts, preferably without bones and with skin. Loosen the skin and spread a coupled of table Spoons herbed creamy cheese spread undo the skin. If you use skinless breasts spread on top of breasts. Place in shallow pan, sprayed with nonstick spray. When timer goes off place in oven. Reset timer for 30 minutes.

On to the veggies: Chop broccoli and carrots(or use whole baby carrots). Toss with it olive oil and minced garlic to taste. Place in small casserole. Put in oven with all the rest.

Now on to dessert: Put 1/3 C of chocolate chips in a microwave safe dish. Nuke for 30 seconds, Stir. Nuke for another 30 seconds and Stir again, it should be smooth r ready to so. If not heat, for another 30 seconds. Make sure the berries-re dry. Dip them and set on waxed paper to setup.

Finally: cut 4 slices of cantaloupe, removing the rind. Wrap each melon slice with a slice of proccuitto ham. Arrange on 2 small plates.

About Now the timer should be going off. Pull everything out of the oven. While it cools. Set out the berries on a pretty plate. Pour your bubbly stuff and dinner is ready to serve.

Kitty litter cake

This is one of those things that you think about, but never quite work up the guts to actually do. It really looks like the real thing, but it totally edible, cake, pudding and tootsie rolls with a little food coloring. Here's a recipe link for it if you dare....

My best friend...

My best friend, her husband and son came over for dinner last weekend.

After dinner she peeked in my freezer and looked crestfallen afterwards.

"You're freezer's full! You won't be need to cook for a while!" She said. "Don't cook anymore and call me when you're freezer's empty!"

Actually I need to cycle the stock in the freezer, so I'll be doning just that.

Cooking a freezer full of food is much more fun with a friend!

Now I've got to clean the pantry....