Blueberry Whole Grain Pancakes

Looking for a healthy and yummy way to start the new year off right? Try these. You can omit the fruit, or add a little cinnamon if you like to spice them up a bit. The batter is pretty thick, so you will want to spoon it onto your griddle as thin as possible so they cook evenly. If you want to add some ground flax seed, feel free. Just add a splash of milk per 1/4 cup of flaxseed and you should be fine. Also, I only serve them with real maple syrup (except for my husband, who likes to make them into peanut butter and honey sandwiches), which has some antioxidant benefit, particularly compared to something like Log Cabin or everyone's favorite pancake wench, Aunt Jemima.

Blueberry Whole Grain Pancakes

Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten
2 c. dry oatmeal
1 c. whole wheat flour (everyone has a favorite, and mine is Bob's Red Mill Organic. If it's not on sale, I like the white whole what variety).
2 c. buttermilk
1 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 T. canola oil
about 1 c. frozen blueberries

Combine all ingredients except blueberries, stir until just mixed. If you are using old fashioned oats (instead of quick oats), let the batter sit a couple minutes while you turn your griddle on to 350. Mix the berries until just combined (if you are using fresh berries, be very gentle with the stirring so you don't have purple pancakes. Frozen really work best here). Pam or brush your hot griddle with some canola oil. Plop batter down into pancake-shaped forms (see above as far as getting the chunky batter relatively thin). When it starts to bubble, flip. Cook until they are just done inside. Serve warm.

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Meal ideas?

Anybody else stuffed to the gills and Christmas'd out? I sure am. I am totally not feeling inspired for dinner ideas this week. Any suggestions?

Cookies for Santa

My kid and I made some cookies for Santa last night. They turned out pretty good--nice and soft, not too sweet, fairly spicy. I can't wait to eat them after he goes to bed tonight. Who am I kidding--I can't wait to eat the rest of these after he goes to bed tonight.

Big and Soft Ginger Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 

Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. 

Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. 

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. 

This is from allrecipes.com (actually, it's from their iPad app which is pretty nice, especially for the cool price of free).

Buffalo Chicken Salad

This is a salad for when you are really craving Buffalo wings but maybe don't want to down 1,000 calories in a sitting. Is it exactly like eating hot wings? Of course not. But it's still pretty good, pretty easy and pretty cheap.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
1-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces
salad greens
chopped celery*
crumbled blue cheese*

blue cheese dressing
buffalo wing sauce (We like the Frank's brand)

Fill big plates or bowls with the veggies. Top with warm chicken and blue cheese if using. Drizzle with a mixture of the dressing and wing sauce (we mix about half-and-half, which is pretty spicy. Use less wing sauce if you don't like it hot).

Caramels--Arrghh!

Please, somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong with caramel making. If you read last week, you found out my fancy Christmas cookie-making skills are lacking. Well, my candy-making skills are apparently non-existent.

I love caramel. Caramel turtles, caramel cookies, caramel barbecue chicken ... ok, maybe not on chicken, but I wouldn't rule it out. What"s not to love--sugar, butter, and cream. The ultimate trifecta, right? Not if you can't make a caramel (or any other candy) to save your life.

First, I made this recipe: Vanilla Sea-Salted Caramels. Sounds good, right? I used a candy thermometer and pulled the caramel right as directed by the recipe. And the caramel tastes really good, but cooled to room temperature they stayed soft. What did I do wrong? I did end up with a big batch of salted vanilla caramel sauce for ice cream though.

Next I tried this one: Caramel Shortbread. It claimed it was super easy--it was even cooked in the microwave. Turns out, my microwave must be a little more powerful than hers, as my caramel ended up a caramel brick. Boo.

So, please--can somebody share their candy-making tips so that I, too, can enjoy homemade holiday candy? Otherwise I will be forced to murder the next person bragging on facebook about how wonderful their caramels turned out.

Tomato Leek Tart

Full Circle sent us another leek in this week's box. Up to now, I did not know anything to do with a leek besides potato leek soup (which I did with last week's leek). Yikes, what to do with this one? A quick internet search yielded that most people also made potato leek soup out of leeks. But I found a tomato leek tart recipe on allrecipes.com that sounded really good. I tweaked it a bit, but it is VERY good. Also, I thought the tomato-leek combination would be really good in a quiche if you are a quiche fan. Try it, and comment with your results.

Tomato Leek Tart

Ingredients:
1 refrigerated pie crust
1 leek (white/light green parts only), sliced thin
2 large roma tomatoes, sliced thin
4 slices provolone cheese
1/2 c. or so shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 c. or so shredded parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
garlic powder

Preheat oven to 425. Put a pizza stone in the oven to preheat (if you don't have one, you can substitute a cookie sheet sprayed with pam). Thinly slice the leek and tomatoes. Pull the stone from the oven and put the pie crust on it flat. In the middle portion of the crust, evenly spread the slices of provolone. Then evenly distribute the leeks and then the tomatoes (leave the outer 1.5-2 inches uncovered). Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Spread the mozzarella and then the parmesan over the veggies. Fold up the edges of the crust (if you used a preheated stone, the fats in the crust will have made the crust pretty melty; use a thin spatula to help you with this if needed). Bake for 20 minutes, until crust and cheese are lightly browned.

Here's the finished product. Let 'er sit a couple minutes before you cut it to let the juices reabsorb.

This is what a leek looks like--green onion BEEFCAKE!

The top part went into the tart; the bottom part, the trash (or compost pile).

Tomatoes! Slice them up thin; I like a small serrated knife for this job.

Potato Soup--It's CHUNKY!

OK, this isn't just potato soup. It's not just potato leek soup. It's a mish-mash of potato leek and the yummy Zuppa Toscana from the Olive Garden. Yes, I will admit that I, too, am pretty excited that we are getting our first Olive Garden here in my town, mostly because of the soup-salad-breadstick lunch with the Zuppa Toscana soup. I came up with the idea when our CSA box from Full Circle this week had a leek and kale in it. So try it, let me know how it goes. I found it very tasty, pretty easy, and VERY filling.

CHUNKY Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:
1 leek, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/4 stick butter
1 pound ground pork (I use this instead of sausage because it lacks those naughty nitrates/nitrites)
24 oz. chicken stock or broth
5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
8-10 oz half and half
1 packed c. chopped kale (optional)
salt and pepper

In a big soup pot or dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. When it's melted, add the leek and onion and cook, stirring frequently, until the veggies are a little brown on the edges. Salt and pepper them.

While they are cooking, brown the ground pork (or ground sausage if you prefer) with salt and pepper (and any other seasonings you like--since I use ground pork, I also add garlic powder, dried sage, and a little cayenne) in a fry pan.

When the veggies are done (see picture below), deglaze the pan with the stock. Add the potatoes and a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and cover. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, until potatoes are soft. At this point, if you like a chunkier soup (CHUNKY!), you can mash by hand with a potato masher or whatever floats your boat. If you want something very smooth, run it through your food processor or use a stick/immersion blender. I did it chunky. Add the sausage, stir, then add the half and half. I would add the half-and-half until you reach a consistency that  you like. Add the chopped kale. Heat the mixture through, until the kale begins to wilt, then serve.

We served this with a nice, crusty loaf of sourdough bread. It was pretty darned good. But I'm still going to Olive Garden when they open.

Here are the browned bits from the cooked veggies that you will work off by adding chicken stock. YUM. If you use a non-stick pot, you will not get all of this color.

Here's the final product. The kale this week was a purple variety, hence the dark specks (I promise, I didn't burn it!).

Pizzelle (Christmas Cookies!)

We are headed to a cookie party tomorrow; we were instructed to bring sugar cookies to decorate and other cookies to exchange (this is a family-friendly party if you noticed the lack of dancing ladies). PANIC! My patience level is less-than-optimal when it comes to making Christmas cookies. My talent level is even more pathetic. My husband, baffled by my sweaty palms and pacing, suggested we bring chocolate chip cookies. What?! You can't bring something so plain, so common, to a Christmas Cookie Party! My husband, nonplussed, responded that I need not worry: we had white chocolate chips in the pantry. Oh well, in that case.


Anyway, I have no idea why Christmas cookies have to be different than the cookies you eat the rest of the year, but they are. I used Martha's sugar cookie recipe this time. And for the exchange cookies? Well, after thumbing through cookbooks and surfing the internet, I settled on pizzelle. You need a special little appliance for these, a pizzelle maker (similar to a waffle iron, but thinner), but perhaps you could borrow one? They are pretty darn good, very similar to waffle cones, and really, really good with ice cream. Or coffee. Or Nutella. I mashed this recipe together from a couple different ones, but there are tons out there. And if you buy a pizzelle maker, it will probably come with a recipe.

Pizzelle

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. canola oil
3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
1/4 c. amaretto


Whisk the eggs, sugar, and oil together. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Let mixture sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, turn on your pizzelle maker (I like a medium-low setting). Place about 2 T. of batter on the iron and cook. Repeat. And repeat.

Sloppy Joes

We are pretty fancy around here. Like most families, we enjoy gourmet offerings like pizza, spaghetti, tacos ... Try not to be too impressed, especially when my kid uses his sleeve or the tablecloth as a napkin. Winter makes me hungry for rich comfort fare, and my selections on pinterest lately have reflected that. I saw a pin of a veggie-heavy sloppy joe recipe from an Australian blog, and the picture looked so good I decided to make my own. I had some leftover canned spaghetti sauce from a crock pot recipe earlier this week, so I used that instead of tomato paste and water. 

Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 1/2 c. mushrooms, diced
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound extra lean ground beef
1 packed cup raw spinach, chopped
2 c. prepared spaghetti sauce (I used a spicier one, use any brand you like)
black pepper to taste
1/2 packet sloppy joe seasoning (I just used half since the sauce was already seasoned)
1 T. rooster sauce*
Whole wheat hamburger buns

Heat a large pan on medium until hot, add olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and carrot. While it cooks, chop the mushrooms. Add the garlic and mushrooms to the pan and stir. While the mixture cooks, chop the spinach, set aside. When the onions are translucent, add the ground beef and brown, stirring fairly often to break up the burger. Add the spaghetti sauce, spinach, 1/2 the seasoning packet, black pepper, and rooster (sriracha) sauce. Stir another few minutes, until sauce is warm and flavors blend a bit. Spoon onto toasted hamburger buns and serve.

*optional

Pizza!

Pizza and movie night! Here's my crust recipe. I have a one-pound loaf Zojirushi bread machine (this recipe will work in larger machines too, of course). If you don't have a bread machine or don't have an hour forty-five to wait for dough to be made, your local pizza joint would probably sell you some. Ours sells dough for $2-$3, depending on size.

This dough is pretty dense, so you will want to stretch it as thin as you can. After it's stretched, I put it on a pre-warmed pizza stone that I sprinkled cornmeal on. Drizzle with olive oil and dried basil, then add sauce and toppings. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Pizza Dough
In bread machine, add the following in this order:
3/4 c. Water
1 T. Olive oil
2 1/4 c. Whole wheat flour
1 t. Dried rosemary
2 T. Sugar
1 T. Dried milk powder
1/2 T. Sea salt (place the salt in the corner of the pan so it doesn't come in contact with the yeast.
1 heaping t. Yeast.

Set machine to dough setting.

Pinterest Week!

I have decided that this week shall be Pinterest Week at our house. I have been a pinning fool the past few weeks, so I figured I might as well actually try to make some of the pins. There's a bit of a twist though to this week's meal planning; I have a Full Circle CSA box to pick up on Thursday, with as-yet-unknown veggies in it. Here's the game plan for the week, or at least a starting point. I'll post the results as they come through, and how I actually made the recipes.

Monday: Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili

Wednesday: Beef and Veggie Sloppy Joes, green salad

Thursday: Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas, green salad, mystery veggie from CSA box

Friday: BBQ Salmon, Roasted Parmesan Green Beans, another mystery veggie from CSA box

And for dessert, these Rolo Chocolate Cookies.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

These were pretty tasty and very filling. In the future my husband and I agreed we would use less honey and the whole big can of green enchilada sauce.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

Marinade -

6 tablespoons honey

5 tablespoons lime juice (1 large lime)

1 tablespoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded

8-10 flour tortillas (I used whole wheat tortillas)

1 pound monterey jack cheese, shredded

16 ounces green enchilada sauce

1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Whisk the first four ingredients and toss with shredded chicken in a Zip-loc bag.

2. Let it marinate for at least a 1/2 hour, but preferably a half day or so.

3. Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9X13 baking pan.

4. Fill the tortillas with chicken, saving marinade, and shredded cheese, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of enchiladas.

5. Put tortillas in 9x13 pan as you go.

6. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade (if there is any).

7. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas.

8. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

9. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.

Thanks to this blog and Pinterest!

Caramel Bite Cookies

This recipe turned out pretty good. It's obviously pretty easy. I did not get too much help from my preschooler with these as he was too mesmerized by the bag of Rolo candies.

Caramel Bite Cookies 

Ingredients
1 pkg. Rolo candies
1 box Devils Food Cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 c. oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the Rolo. (Only use enough dough to cover the Rolo so it can spread through the cookie.)

Place on cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

 Yields about 3 dozen.

Thank you to Pinterest and the Six Sisters blog for this recipe.

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans and Dry Rub Salmon

We are nearing the end of pinterest week. The last recipe I wanted to try was these roasted parmesan green beans. I made them, and I've included the recipe, but to be honest they were pretty chewy. The flavor was excellent, but I don't think green beans are the best veggie for roasting. In the future, I think I would either boil or steam the beans until they are tender, then rub them with the oil, season and 'cheese' them, and broil for a couple minutes. What do you think, have you oven-roasted green beans with success before?

I did a very basic spice rub on the salmon I served it with, and it turned out very tasty. The recipe is also included here. 

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans

Ingredients:

12 oz dry green beans, trimmed
olive oil
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
garlic powder
shredded parmesan


Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum for easy clean-up.

Lay green beans out on the baking sheet and drizzle oil over them. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder and toss to evenly coat. Spread them out on the sheet so that they all lay flat and place on the lower third section of your oven. Bake 10 minutes, shake the pan to turn; bake 7-10 additional minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Dry-Rub Seasoned Salmon

Ingredients:
wild salmon filet
paprika
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
garlic powder
cayenne pepper*
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray pam on it. Place salmon pieces, skin side down, on the foil. Sprinkle the seasonings on the salmon, going easy on the cayenne (if you don't like spicy foods, simply omit this). Drizze the salmon with the oil, then rub the oil into the fish. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the fish is flaky and opaque in the center.

*optional

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

This is another Pinterest recipe, tweaked to my family's taste buds. It was pretty good and very filling, lots of protein and fiber and very little fat. The first couple bites I found to be a bit mild to my taste and I was wishing I had added some Rooster sauce, but the heat got stronger as I motored through the bowl and by the end, I would describe it as gringo medium. Pretty tasty, I would make this again. Also, note in the picture the ginormous chunks of onion. I would normally NOT do onions this chunky, but they were crazy-strong and I felt like I was watching Steel Magnolias before I was even halfway through a rough chop.


Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili
 

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 16-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 16-oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes
1/4 c. taco seasoning (we buy in bulk at Costco; you can also use 1 packet)
1 t. cumin
1 t. chili powder 

1/4 t cayenne pepper

1T. vinegar
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
   
Combine everything but the chicken in a slow cooker. Place chicken on top and cover. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in.

Thank you to Pinterest and this blog for the inspiration.

Veggie & Goat Cheese Fettucine

So, we were going to do individual pizzas tonight. I set up the bread maker in the afternoon to make the dough. Turns out, 1 2/3 c. flour is not the same as 2/3 c. Oops. I needed to come up with something on the fly, and this is what I did. At risk of tooting my own horn, it was pretty yummy.  So yummy, I kind of want to go make another bowl of it.

Veggie and Goat Cheese Fettucine

Ingredients:
1/2 package fettucine
3 smallish zucchini, chopped
1/2 can black olives, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
4 T. olive oil, divided
garlic salt
pepper
1/2 log goat cheese

Cook the fettucine per package instructions. While it cooks, saute the zucchini in 1 T. olive oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat. When the zucchini begins to brown (but isn't tender yet), add the garlic salt and pepper to taste, plus the olives and remaining oil.

When the zucchini is tender, drain most of the liquid from the tomatoes and add to the pan. Give the pan a stir and heat to a simmer. Turn the heat to low. When the pasta has about a minute left to cook, add the goat cheese (break it into chunks by hand so it melts evenly). Stir until the cheese is melted and distributed in the sauce.

When the noodles are done, strain and toss with the sauce. Serve immediately.

Makes about 4 good-size portions.