Tempura

My Mister decided to make sushi for dinner on Sunday, and we thought it would be fun to invite friends over.  With company coming, we needed something besides sushi to fill everyone up, so I decided to try something new.  Tempura veggies.  

Image Credit: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-tempura-fried-vege-138702

I've never made them before, so I started googling and found a couple of recipes that looked promising, and combined them a bit and came up with this:

The key to good tempura is the batter. You want it to be light and runny you aren't making fish sticks.

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2/3 cup ice cold seltzer water or gingerale

Put the egg in Ice Water and mix with chopsticks. Don't mix it perfectly. Dump all of the dry ingredients in. Give it a few choppy mixes with chop sticks. Don't attempt to blend all of the items together. It has to be lumpy for a true tempura texture. Dip and then fry until golden brown.

Enjoy!

I doubled the recipe so we'd have plenty, and it was just barely enough to fry a good sized zucchini, an onion, a sweet potato and several mushrooms.

Once I had the recipe I needed a little more understanding of the How To, and found this website that walked me through all the steps (it's also where the picture came from since we ate ours up too fast to take a picture):

1. Prepare Vegetables
You can tempura fry just about any vegetable you have in the kitchen. In this case we used mushrooms (halved), onions (peeled and sliced), sweet potato (peeled and sliced into rounds), and broccoli florets (from the freezer, no preparation required!).

Other suggestions might include: Bell peppers, carrots, cabbage, green beans, snap peas, cauliflower, baby corn.

2. Heat Your Oil
Bring the oil in your deep fryer or Dutch oven/cast iron pot to 360°F. Some electric fryers only allow you to increase the temperature in specific increments, so if that's the case, go for less temperature and longer frying time for root vegetables and a higher time for things like broccoli that won't require as long of cooking.

3. Prepare the Batter
In a medium to large size mixing bowl, add the rice flour and seasonings (if you wish). Next add the club soda, ensuring that it is cold before mixing. You're looking for the consistency of pancake batter. It should be loose enough to coat things easily, but not drip off completely on the way to the fryer. If the batter is too thick, add club soda or ice water 1 tablespoon at a time until mixture loosens. If too thin, add rice flour 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together. Bubbles are good, lumps are bad, make sure to mix thoroughly!

4. Coat the Vegetables
Most vegetables can be tossed in the batter bowl ahead of time and allowed to sink a little to coat each one. It's far easier than hand dipping, which means of course that you have one batter covered hand the entire time (not always awesome). Toss items in and help them sink or roll to be coated with the batter. A flat whisk works wonders for this.

5. Fry the Vegetables
Next, lift vegetables out of the batter with your whisk (a fish spatula or large slotted spoon can also work out with success) and allow them to drain slightly, scraping the back of your whisk on the side of the bowl to remove excess. Drop vegetable pieces into the oil one at a time, ensuring that they don't touch. Most everything will immediately sink to the bottom (although mushrooms float). Use a spider strainer or long handled utensil (like a metal skewer) to loosen them and keep them moving. This will allow them to cook evenly on all sides. Cook root vegetables for 4 minutes and all others for 3 This time might differ if your oil is at a different temperature.

6. Remove From Oil
Remove your freshly fried pieces from the oil with a spider or the basket the unit comes with (though truth be told, we like to use the spider no matter what we're cooking in). Place them on a few layers of paper towels to allow remaining oil to drain. Give them a light sprinkling of salt and allow to cool slightly.

7. Return Oil to Temperature
Before dropping in your next load of veggies, make sure your oil comes back up to temperature. If it doesn't, things can get a little soggy and although they'll still be tasty once removed from the fryer, they will be a little greasy instead of crispy and chewy.

8. Repeat
Continue repeating steps 4 through 7 above until all of your vegetables have been coated, fried and hopefully enjoyed! This is a great way to entertain — simply tell people you'll provide the oil and ask them to bring a few of their favorite vegetables and gather round the table! Fry, nibble and chat away and let the good times roll!

Additional Notes:
• On Club Soda: Try tossing your club soda into the freezer while your oil heats up. It will be enough time for things to chill without freezing, allowing you to have perfect tempura pieces coming out of your fryer for longer! The colder the batter, the crispier your crust and less soggy your veggies will be!

Grilled Flatbread Pizza

I planned on making pizza for dinner tonight, and since zucchini week(s) is in full bloom, I thought I'd recreate this delicious zucchini parmesan pizza.  Then I saw a link on another blog to flatbread with creamy red pepper scallion spread.  I wasn't interested in the spread or the salad (I wanted pizza!), but the flatbread and the grilling sounded amazing.  And it was.

I followed the instructions from the blog on the flat bread (except I doubled it):

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the bowl
• 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
• 2 cups bread flour (or a little less, see directions)
• 1/2 cup medium grind cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon salt

Add water and sugar to the bowl of a standing mixer fit with a dough hook. Sprinkle in the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes to bloom.

Mix in the olive oil then Add one cup of the flour along with the salt. Mix on low until well incorporated, and then turn the speed up to medium and mix for 3 minutes.

Add another 1/2 cup of flour and the 1/2 cup of cornmeal, and mix well, starting on low and then switching to medium speed. Then add another 1/2 cup of flour, again starting on low and switching to medium. Knead on medium for about 5 minutes. You may occasionally have to get in there with your hands if the dough starts climbing up the hook. It should become smooth and elastic and slightly tacky. At this point, incorporate flour by the tablespoon, with the mixer running. When it starts to seem dry, stop adding flour. This could be anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup. Knead again on medium until it is elastic easy to stretch, about 8 more minutes.

Meanwhile, drizzle about two tablespoons of olive oil into a large mixing bowl. The dough will double in size, so make sure you have enough room. Form the dough into a ball and place in the bowl, tossing it around to coat with oil. Cover the top in plastic wrap and put in a warm place. Let dough rise for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

When dough has doubled, fire up your grill. Keep the flame high and close the lid. If you have a thermometer, it should be at about 500 F.

Somewhere around this point I gathered all my toppings and sliced the veggies (thinly!) I also discovered as I was cooking that since my zucchini was a little on the big side, the slices weren't cooking much, so I took them off and grilled them directly on the grill- do this on a cooler part of your grill while the first side is cooking.  It helps to have all the toppings on a tray so they can be easily and quickly transported to the grill.

Punch the dough down, give it a quick knead and tear it into 4 equal-ish pieces. On a large cutting board, form each piece into an oval that is about 8 inches long and 5 inches across. I just use my hands for this, but you can use a rolling pin if you prefer.

Place the dough on the grill. It should take about 3 to 4 minutes for the bottoms to get grill marks and become firm. If it takes a little longer that’s cool, but definitely check one after 3 minutes.

Here is where I diverged from the original recipe.  When the first side of the flatbread is cooked (I burned mine a tiny bit on the first round) flip it over, turn down the heat a little and add pizza sauce and any toppings.  My favorite combo was the zucchini, eggplant, mushroom, tomato, parmesan cheese and bacon bits.  Make sure to put the grilled veggies on at this point and put a little more cheese over the top to hold everything on.  Close the grill and cook for a minute or two until the cheese is melted and toppings are as cooked as you'd like them.

Remove pizzas from the grill and cut them into manageable pieces and enjoy.  These were incredible.  My Mister even commented on how amazing they were after his first bite, and he doesn't dole out praise like that unless he really means it.  

I think we'll be using the flatbread recipe instead of pizza dough from now on.  The original blog post gives the following instructions for oven baking: 

~ If you prefer to bake the breads, you can do so in a 450 F oven, for 12 to 15 minutes. Place directly on a baking stone for the crispiest results, but a large baking sheet will work, too!

I think I might try it sometime when it's not so hot outside, and just roll it out regular pizza style.

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Balsamic Browned Butter Sauce

I've been craving butternut squash ravioli for awhile now, and since we have church at 9am this year, it gives us plenty of time to make fancier dinners (if we feel like making them).

I had some leftover butternut soup but no eggs...

I found a recipe for eggless pasta that I thought would work for ravioli here, the recipe made a lot of pasta, we got tired of making ravioli and turned the last few pieces into thin noodles, which we'll use for dinner tomorrow maybe*.  

My Mister ran the pasta roller while I took the leftover butternut squash soup, which had thickened quite a bit during it's week as leftovers, and added a bunch of parmesan cheese.  My 4-year old wanted to help too, so I set him up cutting the strips of pasta into little rectangles.  I spooned teaspoonish amounts onto the little rectangles of pasta, wet the edges, and crimped around the edges with a fork (on both sides).  

When we were about ready to eat, I boiled the ravioli for 3-4 minutes, until they looked cooked, and as my mister was setting the table and draining the ravioli, I made the best part of the dinner.  

Online, the suggested sauce to serve with butternut squash ravioli is sage browned butter sauce.  I don't like sage, so I looked around a bit and decided to go with a balsamic browned butter sauce instead.  I figured I've made a butternut squash dish that had balsamic vinegar in it before, so how could I go wrong? (Usually, when I say that to myself it doesn't end well, but this time it worked out.)  

Balsamic Browned Butter Sauce

6 TBSP unsalted butter

2 TBSP balsamic vinegar

The complete recipe can be found here, but I decided I wasn't in the mood for nuts, so I called it good.  I melted the butter, and watched and stirred.  Of course the second you look away, it will turn brown, so don't get distracted.  As soon as it turns brown, remove from heat and stir in the vinegar- be careful it shoots little sparks of hot liquid at you when you do that.  

Immediately spoon over your ravioli, add a little salt and pepper and parmesan cheese, and you're good to eat. 

*The pasta turned out more like wonton wrapper than pasta.  Next time I think I'll need to get the right kind of flour, or make our regular egg noodle pasta, or maybe we rolled it too thin.  I'm not a pasta expert, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to ideas.

Over all, it turned out really good.  I've thought about what I would use for filling if I didn't have the butternut squash soup, and I think it would be fine (or even better- mine was pretty soft consistency, and I think a little texture would be nice) to just bake a squash and mash it up with some butter and salt and parmesan cheese (and brown sugar if you want it sweet).  It would just be one more step that you'd have to do before you could fill the pasta.  I loved the browned butter sauce- I didn't measure, and I don't think I put enough balsamic vinegar into the butter, but the flavor was wonderful.  Next time I'll make sure to pre measure the vinegar so I don't miss out on the full flavor.   With a better pasta recipe, this would really be an amazing make-it-yourself dinner.  If you wanted to make it even easier, you could buy the ravioli and just make the sauce- it was really good.

Butternut Squash Soup

The other day I remembered the shelf full of squash that is out in the garage and decided we'd better start eating more squash so none of them end up wasted.  I've been wanting to try butternut squash soup for awhile, and since we didn't have any other ideas for Sunday dinner, butternut squash soup it was.

My Mister was skeptical, but once he tasted it, he was converted.  It wasn't quite as good as the carrot soup we had at The Farm in Park City, but it wasn't too far behind in taste.  I may try the recipe with less squash and more carrots sometime...

I used this recipe from AllRecipes.com with a few alterations based on what I had and the reviews which suggested adding some things to make it not-so-bland.  Not-bland soup seems like a good thing.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
• 1 (32 fluid ounce) container chicken stock
• 
  

Melt butter in soup pot.  Add chopped onion and celery (unless you're using dried onions and celery, in which case, you can just add them at the same time as all the other vegetables.  Also, my addition- add 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced.  Chop and peel carrot, potatoes, and squash (it would probably be easier to cook the squash first, but you have to cook the carrot and potatoes anyway, and peeling the squash with the potato peeler wasn't that bad).  Add chopped veggies to pot, cook on high stirring constantly until the veggies are browned slightly (I didn't cook mine that long- I waited until they started sticking to the pot, then decided to just go ahead and add the chicken stock- which in my case was chicken base and water).  The recipe says to add just enough broth to cover the veggies, but it took all of it for me- I guess my squash was bigger than "medium".  I also sprinkled a shake or two of curry powder.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer on low for 40 minutes.  (after 25-30 the veggies looked soft enough to me, so I didn't keep cooking them).  Next, you blend portions in the blender (or a stick blender would work, right in the pot) until it's all blended.  

Serve with salt and pepper, and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, and crunch bread.   You could use vegetable broth if you want to make it vegetarian.  My kids actually ate it without complaining- too much.  I was surprised.  It turned out to be a very nice consistency and the curry wasn't overpowering- I didn't add much, but I could just taste a hint of it.  I like butternut squash when it's not covered in brown sugar (I like it sweet too, but this was a nice savory change).

Ratatouille (AKA More Things to do with Zucchini)

My sister gave me an eggplant, and some unusual-type tomatoes, so I thought I'd try making ratatouille.  Turns out it's pretty similar to my italian summer stew.  I've just never added eggplant before, because I think it's disgusting, and don't ever buy/grow it.

Turns out it was pretty good.  The kids even sort of ate it.  Baby E LOVED it, and I had a hard time scooping it onto his tray fast enough.  I started out just giving him slices of zucchini, since he's had that before, but before too long, I was just scooping piles of everything and letting him have at it.

I sort of got my recipe from the Joy of Cooking and a recipe a friend posted on facebook awhile back, but I don't follow recipes very well, and also thought that instead of chopping the veggies, everything should be sliced thin like in the movie.

Ratatouille

Thinly slice onions, and sautee them in a pan with lots of olive oil and garlic until they're almost carmelized.  Remove from pan and set aside.  Layer thinly sliced eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes (tomatoes don't really slice thinly, but do what you can), and some of the onions, some chopped bell pepper (red would be pretty, I only had green anaheims, so I used those), and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Repeat until your pan is full or you've run out of veggies.  Top with a liberal splash of olive oil.  Cover and cook on very low heat for 20-30 minutes.  Add a little water if necessary- if things dry out, the bottom will burn...  Remove lid and simmer for 10 more minutes if there's a lot of liquid in it still.

I served mine over pasta (with parmesan cheese, of course), because I knew the kids wouldn't eat it as the only thing for dinner.  It worked out great.  The best thing is that a large portion of dinner came out of the garden right before I cooked it.

(I'm thinking I should relabel my blog, "things to do with zucchini".  We tend to eat it just about every night at this time of year...)

Another thing to do with zucchini

Slice it thin, and lay it on top of a pizza.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top (because zucchini is so good with parmesan).  This pizza was about my favorite one we've ever made (My Mister made it- he's getting to be quite the pizza chef).  It had sauce, mozzarella cheese, bacon, green peppers, zucchini and parmesan cheese.  The other pizza (the one that the kids ate) had bacon and pineapple.  (Obviously this is not a vegetarian dinner like the label says, but leave the bacon off and you're good (maybe slightly less good)).

Photo To Do (or I did) list:

Today I fed the little chickens, they're still in the garage and will be until we think they're big enough to safely mix with the older chickens, if that time ever comes.

 CP "helped" me mow the little area of lawn just outside the door.  Even the small area was a lot of work, but it felt good.  I love my reel mower.

I checked on the older chickens, they don't want to come outside, even though it is such a nice day.  I picked a few up and pushed them out the pop door, but they looked around and went back in.  Silly birds.

I put the cage over the peas.  Something (and by something I mean quail) has been chewing them to stubs.  Hopefully the cage protects the peas and they recover from their munching.  CP didn't think I could move the cage, but I told him I was pretty strong.  Afterward, he thought I was pretty strong too.

Here are the chewed on peas.  Kind of sad looking.

I uncovered the asparagus, and found several coming up.  I love spring.

I uncovered the artichokes, and I'm not sure any of the plants survived.  I'll give them a few weeks and see if there's any sign of life, then I'll plant something else in that spot.  The onions look good though.  

I had lunch.  Leftover stir fry on brown rice.  I didn't post about it at the time, but it was really good.  It was just olive oil, garlic, (would have had onions but I was out), carrots, broccoli, canned tomatoes, cashews, edamame, teriyake sauce, and a little curry.

I made bread.  

While the bread was baking CP and I went back outside and worked on mowing a little soccer field in the top half of the big field.  We're going to let the grass grow high around the edges to keep the ball from rolling where we don't want it, and also mow a maze into the bottom half. 

Another Vegetarian Dinner Recipe

Feminist Mormon Housewives has a post up announcing a presentation about meat and the word of wisdom at Utah Valley University (it's really hard for me to think of the school as UVU, not UVSC...) the comments following the post talk about whether Mormon's ought to eat meat or not, based off of various scriptures, some which say we shouldn't eat meat, except for times of winter and famine, and some say not at all, and some say we shouldn't tell other people not to eat meat.

I think regardless of which scripture you're going off of, it's probably pretty safe to say, that, as a whole, we members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (Elder Packer said we should use the whole name, but it really is easier to just type "mormon") eat way too much meat.  I like meat.  Every once in awhile a quality hamburger really sounds good, and every once in awhile i actually want a steak.  I'm also kind of a lazy cook, so making vegetarian meals is actually less work.  No killing and plucking the chicken first... (or defrosting the package of ground buffalo).  Whatever your view on the amounts of meat we should be eating, or your reasons for eating it, or not, a nice quick vegetarian dinner recipe is handy (plus it's good for your budget to skip the meat now and then).

my 9-year-old took this picture

Tonight's dinner was a variation of one of my summer stew recipes, but it turned out really good.

Saute a small, chopped onion, and one or two cloves of garlic, minced, in some olive oil.  Add sliced yellow squash, two cans of diced tomatoes, a couple shakes of dry oregano.  Cook over med. high heat.

Bring pot of water to boil, and add pasta (we had linguine).

While linguine is cooking, stir sauce, and add salt and pepper to taste.  As a last minute addition I threw in some pine nuts and a splash of balsamic vinegar.  OH MY, did that balsamic vinegar make a difference.  Yum.

Drain pasta, add sauce, and top with liberal amounts of parmesan cheese.  I think it would also be good with some red pepper flakes added to give it a little kick.  My kids are not so appreciative of the kick yet so we skipped that.

J and A reported that it was not terrible (they didn't want to taste it at first, because they thought it looked terrible), but not great either, just okay.  I thought it was so good, that even though I'm full, I'm salivating and thinking about having another plate.

how come my 9-year-old can take pictures that are clear, and then 1 minute later my picture, using the same camera is all blurry?

Using Kale

My produce coop included kale in the last basket, and after doing some googling on what to do with it, I decided to make a variation on my Moroccan summer stew.  It turned out really good.  The kids ate it okay, just minor complaining.  They're allowed to pick out one item from any stir-fry type meal which they don't like- but they do have to taste at least one of that item, in case they've started liking it since last time.  They all picked the green peppers not the kale, which surprised me.  

Blurry, but delicious.

(amounts depend on how many people you're feeding)

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil.

Add a liberal amount of cumin.

Add green peppers, and pine nuts, continue to saute.

Add chopped tomatoes, and drained garbanzo beans.

Turn down heat to low.

Prepare kale by rinsing well in a bowl of water, draining, then cutting the leaves off the stem, and chopping into smaller pieces.  Add kale to the saute pan, and a little water if it's dry.  At this point if you can't smell the cumin, add some more (I'm not sure it's possible to add too much cumin...).  Cover and allow kale to steam for 15-30 minutes (depending on how cooked you like it, and how tender the kale was to start with).  

Serve over quinoa, and salt to taste.  

Doing the best we can- the hummingbird challenge

So often I feel overwhelmed with what I see as unfixable problems.  There are a lot of things that I, on my own will never be able to fix.  But, like the hummingbird, I can do the best that I can.



This clip was from the documentary Dirt.  It was really interesting, and I think I could (and will) watch it over and over again.  It talks about what dirt is, and our relationship with it.  As we forget its importance, and allow it to become damaged, it stops nourishing us with healthy food.  I was talking to my aunt and she mentioned how her stepson wouldn't eat carrots for a long time after seeing our grandmother pull them out of the garden.  We've become so accustomed to seeing our food in neat little packages at the store that we've forgotten where food comes from.  In an effort to produce more to meet the endless demands of cheaper food, the quality of our soil has decreased as we pump pesticides and herbicides into it.  Our way of life is not sustainable, and eventually we will be forced to make changes.

I believe that God put us on the earth to learn and to grow.  Part of that growth and learning, is learning to be good stewards of the life around us.  That includes the dirt.

It's not practical for everyone to stop buying corn fed beed, or switch to organic foods.  However, like the hummingbird, even if we can't completely change how we eat, we can do what we can.  If that means growing our own garden, great!  If it means buying locally produced meats (Christensen's Family Farm in my side link sells grass fed beef and pork!), then do it!  If it means you switch one meal, or one meal more, each week from a meat based meal to a vegetarian one, it can make a difference (plus vegetarian meals are often cheaper).  If it means you find organic gardening and yard care solutions, great!

So my challenge to all five of you who read my blog, is be a hummingbird.  Find something you can do to put out the fire.  How will you respond to the hummingbird challenge?

Food Storage Alfredo (sounds yummy doesn't it?)

(This isn't really called food storage alfredo- I just happened to have everything to make it in my fridge or pantry.  The name sounds mormony and maybe a little disgusting though doesn't it?)

  Lacking inspiration for dinner several weeks ago, I scanned the list of frugal dinner ideas at my friend Jessica's blog.

Here's what I found:


Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 TBSP butter
• 1 1/2 -2 TBSP flour
• 2 cups whole milk (I used 1%)
• Half a block of cream cheese {cut into chunks. Low-fat varieties work just as well!}
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese {can use fresh or Kraft}
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (I used minced garlic)
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Melt butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat. Once melted, whisk in the flour. Gradually add milk, whisking to combine as you go. I generally add it about 1/2 cup at a time, whisk, then wait for the milk to heat up and thicken a bit before adding more.

Once all the milk has been added and it's hot {do not boil!} add the cream cheese. Whisk to combine. Heat the sauce back up before adding the Parmesan cheese. Simmer this until all is melted, and mixed well. Add salt, garlic powder and pepper to taste. Serve over noodles, with chicken, in a pizza, or however you like it! Tips: I normally double this recipe, so that I can use the whole block of cream cheese. I freeze about a cup in small containers, for future dinners. I love this sauce and use it in a variety of ways, however my favorite is in the pasta dish described below. It's so easy and versatile! If it's summer, add zucchini, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil. In the winter, I add eggplant, collard greens and frozen bell pepper. Really, I use whatever vegetables I can get inexpensively! I don't actually have a recipe for this, I just toss things in and call it good! 


I mixed the sauce with some green beans and tomatoes from the garden, and some frozen broccoli, and tossed that with the pasta.  A little sauce can go a long way, and makes for a light summer dinner.  Next time I'd put about 40 times the amount of vegetables in it that I used this time.  Other than that, It was a big hit!

Rice and Beans

The kids asked what we were having for dinner tonight, and for lack of a better name, I said, "rice and beans".  If I had used white rice, the entire meal could have been ready to eat in 20 minutes.  I used brown rice so it took a little longer.

In saucepan, saute onions and garlic in olive oil.  Add a can of chopped tomatoes (hopefully by next month, I'll be using fresh tomatoes), a can of kidney beans and a can of black beans.  I drained the beans, but left the liquid from the tomatoes in to make a sauce.

Add plenty of cumin, and a little salt.  Serve over rice.  Fast, easy, tasty dinner.
(The picture is my 8-year-old's second helping.  He gave the meal a 9 out of 10, claiming it lost a point because it had onions.)

Vegetarian Stir Fry with Noodles

I know I've been posting a lot of recipes lately, everything else in my life right now feels like I'm just keeping up with running the kids to and from school, and keeping the house clean so people can come see it. Hopefully we sell it soon, and then we can have a different kind of crazy with moving.

Tonight for dinner, I made stir fry. Every time I make it it turns out a little different. I like to use teriyaki or peanut sauce, along with a little soy sauce, but in a pinch, just soy sauce will work. When I use peanut sauce, I also like to add cashews.

Start boiling water for noodles.

Cook onion, garlic in olive oil, add carrots, broccoli and any other vegetables that take longer to cook,and a little water and soy sauce or whatever sauce you're using (too much soy sauce makes the flavor too strong).

Add the faster cooking vegetables, I used peas (in the pod), tomatoes, mushrooms, and spinach. Along with a dash or two of curry powder, and if you're only using soy sauce, a TBSP of brown sugar, otherwise a tsp is plenty.

Add cooked and drained spaghetti noodles and mix thoroughly.

Two of my kids ate it just fine, the middle one had a major tantrum about it. I did let them all pick one type of vegetable that they could pick out and not eat. One picked tomatoes (which is weird because he normally loves them), and the other two picked the spinach. I'm sure they would have all picked the mushrooms, but I chopped them up small enough that they didn't realize what they were.

Dinner without photos and gross negligence on following a recipe

I was really in the mood for split pea soup, but when I pulled out my jar that holds split peas, I discovered it was empty. I really dislike having to come up with two dinner ideas in one day, especially when the first idea seemed like such a good one.

The lentil jar was next to the split pea jar, so I thought I'd make lentil soup instead. I couldn't remember what recipe I've used for lentil soup in the past, so I started looking through my cookbooks, and found this one.

Mediterranean Lentil Vegetable Soup

2 Tbsp olive oil
6 carrots peeled and sliced
4 ribs celery, with leaves, chopped (I didn't have celery, so I dumped in some celery salt- I really need to dehydrate celery so I always have some on hand...)
2 medium onions, chopped (I used dried onions)
4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped (again, I used dried minced garlic)
8 cups chicken broth (I cut it down to 6 since I was using the crock pot. I probably could have gone with 5, but it was good)
1 can plum tomatoes (I used my home canned tomatoes, chopped up) with juice
1 cup dry red wine (I didn't have any on hand, so I left this out) :)
3/4 C lentils (I put in 1 cup because 3/4 seemed like not very much)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp allspice (I didn't have allspice, so I left it out)
2 cinnamon sticks (I was nervous about cinnamon in soup, so I only put in one stick- which turned out perfectly)
salt and pepper

Cook carrots, celery and onions in olive oil until onions are wilted. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Add everything else and cook until lentils are tender. (I actually just dumped everything in the crock pot and let it cook)

I adjusted amounts, mostly of water and lentils, since I was cooking this in a crock pot instead of on the stove, but it turned out really well. The kids were skeptical at first, but once they tried it, they finished without complaint. We also made chapathis (3 C flour, 2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 C water- mix, rest for several hours, shape into 12 balls, roll out, and bake like tortillas (although they puff up better if you use a dishtowel wadded up to push down on them while they're baking.)), and what was REALLY good was to break off a piece of the bread and use it to scoop up the lentils.

I wish it were Summer stew

I'm tired of winter. So for dinner I fixed Moroccan Summer Stew. (although I forgot that I usually put potatoes in it)

Technically this would have to be called "I wish it were summer, stew", since only the canned tomatoes were from the garden. It's better with fresh food, but the zucchini called to me from across the produce section, and dinner was born.

The kids are not in love with it. They actually eat it, but only with much coercing. Their main objection is the zucchini. I reminded them of zucchini season when we eat zucchini nearly every day, and told them that they should consider this a warm up (they didn't appreciate that). After all, if you eat something enough times, you'll probably start to like it (especially if it's actually very good).

Book Review and Zucchini recipes

Several months ago I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I think I've probably posted about it before, but my Mister has also read it recently, so we've been talking a lot more about being self sufficient and commenting on what we'd give up if we were to live that way. (We both recognize that we couldn't do it where we live now, and we'd have to move to the country somewhere.) For example, as I bite into a twix bar, my Mister says, "you couldn't eat those anymore", or as he mixes up a glass of gatorade after a run, I say, "that would have to be one of our exceptions to the "no food we don't grow ourselves or buy from a local source". It's a fun game, really. 

It's a fascinating book, and I really recommend it especially if you have any interest in gardening or self-sufficiency. It really makes you think about where your food comes from. It will also make you want to make your own cheese and grow asparagus.

One other thing it has made me think a lot about is eating foods during their season. Right now is the season for zucchini and tomatoes, so we've been eating those things a lot. Here are a few "recipes" we've been using a lot. I don't want to let anything go to waste, and these dishes are easy (I love one-pot meals) and different enough that I'm not gagging thinking about eating zucchini again tonight. Feel free to post your own zucchini recipes as well.

Summer Stew refers to anything thrown together with ingredients right out of the garden.  (2013 update: I'm going back through old posts to add pictures, so as I remake these meals, I'll add photos)

Moroccan Summer Stew

Saute olive oil, garlic and onions in a pan.  Add chopped potatoes, tomatoes and zucchini.  Add enough water to steam the potatoes and cover (you may want to let the potatoes steam for a bit before you add the zucchini and tomatoes so they aren't total mush).  Add a can of garbanzo beans, and several good shakes of cumin (add enough that you can smell it) and some salt and pepper to taste.  If it's too dry, add a little more water so that there's enough "sauce" to moisten the couscous you serve it over.  (I recommend couscous, but quinoa is good too, rice might be okay.)

Italian Summer Stew

Saute olive oil, garlic and onions in a pan (do you sense a theme yet?).  Add sliced zucchini, and tomatoes.  Add water if there isn't enough from the tomatoes to make it saucy.  Add oregano or basil (fresh basil from the garden is wonderful), and salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and simmer until zucchini are softened.  Add a couple of handfuls of pine nuts and two or three splashes of balsamic vinegar.  Serve over pasta.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Un-Stuffed Zucchini

(you can also stuff them, in which case you cut a huge zucchini in half, scrape out seeds, fill with the following mixture, top with cheese, and bake in oven for however long it takes for the zucchini to cook all the way- I'm helpful, I know- my mom can comment and tell everyone how long this takes- but my experience is that the kids eat the stuffing part and leave the zucchini part, so I've started making my stuffed zucchini un-stuffed)

Cook however much ground burger you want.  I think I usually use 1/2 pound, but it really doesn't matter.  Add garlic, and onions.  I like to add a little beef bouillon too. Saute, then add chopped zucchini, tomatoes and a cup or two of rice (depending on how many people you are feeding and how big your pan is).  Add enough water to cook the rice.  Cover, and cook on low for 20 minutes or so (until the water is gone and the rice is cooked).  Salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle with cheese (I like mozzarella), and serve.

Grilled Flatbread Pizza with zucchini: Recipe here.
Ratatouille: Recipe here.
Pizza: topping idea here.

Split Pea Soup

As a child, it seemed like every halloween, we were forced to eat split pea soup for dinner before going out to trick-or-treat. (Actually I think my mom fed it to us one year, and then we actually LIKED it, so we made it our own tradition- at least for a couple of years after that.)

I saw the bags of split peas were on sale at the grocery store, and in a fit of reminiscing, I bought a few. I went off a recipe in my Fix it and Forget it cookbook, although, I don't like following recipes much, so I altered it a smidge.

Split Pea Soup

2 Cups dry split peas (the bag was just a little over 2 cups, so I put the whole bag in)
8 Cups water (it seemed like too much, so I only used 6, but it is now getting really thick, so I added a little more water, so 8 is probably not too much after all)
2 Tbsp chicken bullion (or 2 cubes) (with only 6 cups of water, it tasted too salty to me, which is another reason why I added more water back in, next time I might only use 1 tbsp, but I like less salt than normal- according to my mister.)
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp cumin powder
a handful of bacon pieces (I was going to use the rest of the ham bits that I had cut up and frozen from the ham we bought last year, but I apparently have used it all, so I used some of the real-bacon-bits things that I keep in the freezer (I bought the bag at costco). You could also use bits of real bacon if you happen to have leftovers, or you could leave the meat out, but it sure tastes good in.

Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours, or high if you start it late and don't have 8 hours until dinner. If it looks done before dinner, turn it to low. (You have to love crock pots.)

Serve with crusty bread and butter if you plan ahead that well. Otherwise serve it with whatever you have available.

Post Dinner Update: J and A thought I was poisoning them. We heard over and over how awful this dinner was. They will probably be extra hungry in the morning. Surprisingly, CP LOVED it, and ate it like it was one of the two foods he loves: cereal or chocolate. My Mister said it was a do-over (but in light of the reaction our oldest two kids had to it, maybe not a frequent do-over).

Edible (Delicious) Asparagus

I've never been a huge fan of asparagus, I thought it was okay, but never sought it out to cook it myself. Recently, I've been buying one "unusual" fruit or vegetable each week or so to help my kids appreciate a wider range of foods. I don't want them growing up thinking that peas, corn, and broccoli are the main sources of vegetables, or that the only way to eat them is out of a can or a freezer bag.

We've tried pomegranates (big hit), artichokes (bigger hit, which makes me happy because I love them but my Mister is lukewarm about them, now I have two more fans), kiwi, and last week, asparagus.

My mother loves asparagus, and would feed it to us at least a couple of times a year. The best I ever ate as a child was fresh picked and uncooked from my great-grandparents' ranch.

This asparagus was nice and slender (the best way to get it).

Here's the recipe (as much as you can call this a recipe):

Melt a chunk of butter in a sautee pan. Add sliced mushrooms and onions (this is essential, I tried again without the shrooms or onions and it was not the same) and garlic. Saute until mushrooms shrink a bit and onions have turned translucent. Remove from pan (keep the butter). Add more butter if necessary, add asparagus (with the bendy parts snapped off the bottom) and saute lightly, add a little water, cover and steam for a few minutes until the asparagus starts to darken a bit. Salt to taste.

Enjoy.

You can either put the mushrooms and onions back on top of the asparagus, or you can use them in something else. I was making stroganoff that evening which was why I just happened to have a pan of buttery mushroom and onion juice that I thought, hey, I could cook the asparagus in that.

Happy accident.

We'll be planting asparagus in our garden next spring.

(photo credit),

Recipe

Yesterday my sister in law called wanting my vegetarian lasagna recipe. She and her husband are trying to cut down on the amount of meat they eat.

Last night it was 5pm and I hadn't figured out what to make for dinner yet, and I had to leave at 6:30. It was time for a throw-it-together dinner using things from my food storage, and it just happens to sort of be vegetarian- you can make it totally vegetarian by using vegetable soup base. But if you're just looking to cut down on the amount of meat you are eating, then this is pretty tasty.

All canned foods should be added with their liquid- don't drain them first.

1 can tomatoes (chopped or just mush them up with a wooden spoon)
1 can corn
1 can green beans
1 can kidney beans
3/4 C or so lentils
1 TBSP or so of Beef Base (I think it's the same as using bullion- but I use the kind from costco that you keep in the fridge once it's open, because it's MSG free and I think it tastes better.
Garlic, salt and pepper to taste
Water if it cooks down too thick

Simmer until lentils are soft.

The lentils would probably be better if they were soaked overnight first- I simmered my soup for 45 minutes or so, and the lentils were a little on the crunchy side.

I think it would also be good with a little fresh spinach tossed in at the end.

Feeds 1 Mister, one me, three small kids who thought I was trying to poison them so they didn't eat much (I wasn't here when they were eating but I'm guessing that quite a bit was left in their bowls), and enough leftover for my lunch today. I recommend serving with some warm bread or rolls (if you plan ahead).

Variation: Tonight I am making the lentil soup again (maybe if I feed it to them often enough, my kids will start to like it?). I ran out of beef base, and instead added cumin. I also added garbanzo beans. I'll have to report back on how it compares to the previous soup.

Tonight I planned ahead and made rolls (and I soaked the lentils overnight). The rolls are a recipe I got from Becca. They're fast and easy, and you can put garlic salt and cheese on top and shape them like breadsticks to go with a pasta dish.

Sixty Minute Rolls
1 C Milk
1/2 C Water
1/4 C Margarine
4-5 C Flour
3 T Sugar
1 tsp Salt
4 1/2 tsp Yeast

Combine milk, water and margarine & heat to warm (butter does not need to be totally melted). Add 3 C flour, sugar and yeast. Mix. Add salt and remaining flour until you have a good texture. Knead lightly. Cover and raise for 15 minutes. Shape as desired, raise for 15 minutes (on greased bun pan). Bake for 12 minutes at 425 F.

(Photo Source Germes-online)

Here are some recipes for some fancy gourmet baby foods (and you can say you made them yourself!)

Making homemade baby food is difficult...

Peach Pie

Combine the following: Baby cereal, a scoop of formula (used as a weight gainer), mashed peaches (home canned), and water or breast milk.

Green Bean Casserole

Baby cereal, a scoop of formula (used as a weight gainer), mashed beans (home canned), and water or breast milk.

Banana Bread Pudding

Baby cereal, a scoop of formula (used as a weight gainer), mashed bananas, and water or breast milk.

You get the idea.

Next week we're trying a sweet potato dish. (steamed sweet potatoes, peeled, mashed, and thinned with a bit of water or breast milk (with some formula as a weight gainer).

(My baby wasn't gaining weight fast enough if you were wondering. He's fine though.)