Tag: Food Network

Monday Munchies
Gardening · Recipe Roundup

Monday Munchies

LSiehLeave a comment

Sorry for missing Simple Sunday. I had a very bad migraine and screens were making my vision double, so I couldn’t concentrate enough to pick a topic or see to find quotes. I’ll do a Wordy Wednesday post with some pictures and quotes later this week.

I was going through my food pictures though and realized that we have been having a lot of delicious meals. The featured picture is Fancy at our dinner tonight. She was very hopeful that she would get some and was very sad to only get her own dinner. We both seem to be out of our food funk, so even though meal planning has been haphazard, we have made it work.

Tonight, for example, we were supposed to eat yesterday, but the Husband had to go into work. Apparently bad things happen to electronics if the power goes out? 😉 He had to go make sure everything turned on okay. I knew there was no way I was going to make this just for me, so we had a very fancy dinner on a Monday. May I present Garlic and Rosemary Crusted Rack of Lamb?

Rosemary from the garden, olive oil, and garlic made up the crust. I completely forgot salt and pepper and neither of us noticed. Here is the recipe I used. https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/garlic-crusted-roast-rack-lamb

It was very good. Sometimes I don’t enjoy lamb, but this one was much milder than normal and tasted more of herbs than the gamey taste it can get. I think I cooked it just to done, not overly done too, so that was good. We had cheddar biscuits from the Red Lobster mix and I had asparagus as well. I also tried mango sprinkled with Pico De Fruita from Penzey’s.

It’s a spicy seasoning for fresh juicy fruits like mango and peaches. It has a surprising bite, but did give another layer of flavor. I might try this in a fruit salad with mangos and strawberries and see how it is. I think it would be good on grilled pineapple too, which I do plan on making this summer.

Side note, how is it suddenly summer? I still haven’t managed to completely switch my heavier clothes out of my drawers and have realized how many tank tops I need, but don’t have! Luckily, I have a couple of patterns to try, but that’s another story. Back to food!

We have grilled again this last week, on the one day it didn’t rain! Now that I’m home earlier on Monday and Tuesday, dinner can be a little more fun. We had grilled steak kebabs!

I would say I followed a recipe, but my parents told me never to lie. 😉 I did use the cook time in a Food Network magazine, but used our own ingredients and spices. They were seasoned with Sandwich Sprinkle from Penzey’s, which I have used on approximately 10 things, none of which are sandwiches… It’s basically Italian Seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper, if you wanted to try to recreate it. My kebabs were the ones with tomatoes and peppers. The Husband had manly kebabs- no veggies allowed, just meat and starch. They were delicious! We will definitely be making them again. Kebab all the things!

We have had a couple of fancier breakfasts too, not just dinners! I made the sour cream muffins from a couple of weeks ago with blueberries instead of chocolate chips.

They were good, but I think I liked the chocolate chip ones better. The Husband tried the blueberry ones and did like them. He’s not a huge breakfast eater.

I made these egg cups this morning in an effort to eat more protein to ward off migraines. Newsflash, it didn’t work, but they were a good breakfast. They would be a good lunch too.

They are filled with chicken breakfast sausage, red peppers, green onions, mushrooms, and fresh parsley, oregano, and basil. I forgot to add cheese and any spices, including salt and pepper. My brain was having fits this morning. They’re still pretty tasty though. The Husband will hopefully help me eat them. I had them with cinnamon toast, but had eaten in stages this morning, so no pictures.

We had a few standbys: Shells and Cheese with veggies and chicken sausage, Creamy Shrimp Pasta, and Instant Pot Korean Beef.

The Husband had the Korean beef sauce on country style pork ribs in the crockpot, but they messed with his stomach, so I don’t think he ate them all. Too fatty, I think. We haven’t had them in forever, since it seemed like too much for him to eat on his own. He said they tasted good though, just regretted it in the morning.

We did enjoy lettuce wraps too and I had the leftover meat on a salad the next day, which was pretty delicious.

We discovered that the Husband likes Boston lettuce better that romaine, so we might switch to that. Chef’s salad is more appealing in the summer sometimes.

Another really fun new thing I tried was Pineapple Sage Lemonade!

My pineapple sage is growing like crazy and I know you can make it into tea, but the hot tea wasn’t sounding appealing in 80 degree weather, so I made lemonade instead. I looked at a recipe, which I cannot find, but in the end, just made something up. I didn’t think to grab fresh lemons at the store, so I mixed about an 1/8 th cup of lemonade concentrate with water and then added sugar to taste. I bruised and ripped up five or six pineapple sage leaves and threw them in and let it sit for a while. It turned out to be very good! There was a subtle taste of the pineapple sage and it went really well with the lemons. I am planning on trying some cocktails too. Here’s some websites if you’re interested!

https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/pineapple-sage-tea-hot-or-iced-386388

https://punchdrink.com/recipes/pineapple-and-sage-martini/

https://www.fakefoodfree.com/pineapple-sage-bourbon-lemonade/

And some food recipes too!

http://theessentialherbal.blogspot.com/2009/05/pining-for-pineapple-sage-recipes.html

I have used the lemon thyme in my water too, which gives it a lovely flavor. I’m excited to investigate other ways to use the herbs this year, since they are all growing so well!

Fancy is being super weird about the windows. We think there’s a small animal out there taunting her, but we haven’t smelled skunk yet. I’d better go distract her before she attempts to exit the house through the window. Have a lovely (non-smelly) night!

Foodie Friday
Recipe Roundup

Foodie Friday

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Featured picture: Panko breaded shrimp with Asian sautéed veggies and berries.

Hello! We haven’t been very good about meal planning lately, so our meals have been kind of hit and miss. I tried to get pictures of most of them! My schedule at work is slowly changing for the summer and I’m going to be keeping it for the fall. I’m planning to work 10:30 – 6 on Monday and Tuesday and then 12 – 9 on Wednesday and Thursday. I’ve started scheduling actual dinner breaks at work, which has been helpful.

I brought this pasta salad for one of those dinner breaks this week. I bought sea creature and dinosaur themed pasta last week. Definitely not a reaction to the Husband getting a new used car and car payment at all… Obviously we need the sharks for Shark Week. Plus, they were on sale and we did need pasta.

I thought it was dino-mite! Ha! I made up my own recipe for it, which is basically chop whatever veggies you want, along with some cheese (gouda and mozzarella in this case,) cubed ham (but you could use sliced lunch meat,) and add a bunch of Italian dressing. I currently have Ken’s Steakhouse Italian Vinegarette in the fridge, but I will generally just use whatever I have that’s oil based. It made a very good and quick dinner.

Another quick dinner was my mushroom cream sauce pasta with fresh herbs from the garden. I used all the basils (sweet, purple, and cinnamon) and parsley. It was delicious as usual.

We’ve had steak a couple of times. Once in the broiler because it decided to pour that day, luckily after we had finished yard work, and one on the grill.

For the broiler steak we used a marinade Recipe from Food Network Magazine, July/August 2017, by Bobby Flay. It was the Rib-eye Marinated in Garlic, Oregano, and Chilis. We left out the chilis as my stomach was not having a good time at all and I thought spicy would be way too much for it. It looked super pretty while it was marinating with all the fresh herbs. Of course, I used our own oregano for it. 🙂

We had mashed red potatoes with garlic as a side and some fruit.

The grilled steak is from the same issue of Food Network as the Rib-eye. They had a whole section on grilling different cuts of meat in that issue. The recipe was Guy Fieri’s Grilled Tequila Garlic Lime Flank Steak.

It was pretty good! Sometimes steak and I do not get along, but this one worked out well. It was fun to try grilling it too. We had grilled bok choy and grilled/roasted red potatoes. We did not eat these back to back, there was about a week in between. It’s hard to remember when exactly we ate things sometimes, so I tend to just group them as they fit.

The grilled potatoes recipe was adapted from a Grilled Potatoes and Olives recipe from the same issue. I left out the olives and lemon juice. They were just on the edge of being done when we took them off, so I did finish them in the microwave. We used our own fresh rosemary. 🙂 We’ll definitely be making these again. They were very tasty.

The Grilled Sesame Bok Choy recipe was from another Food Network Magazine, the June 2017 issue. The picture was for baby bok choy and I used regular, as that was what I had. We didn’t really like this very much. The flavor was good, but I think there were execution flaws that brought the dish down. I don’t know if I would try this again, even with the baby ones.

For dessert with our grilled steak, we had strawberry shortcake with store bought angel food cake and ice cream. The Husband really likes berries this way and it turned out well.

Our other grilling experiment was burgers with fancy toppings. I used a burger recipe from the same Food Network- June 2017, because it had a whole booklet with burger toppings in it. The Husband had gouda topped caramelized onions and mushrooms and I had homemade bbq sauce, gouda, lettuce, and french fried onions.

They were both delicious! The burgers weren’t overcooked either, still nice and juicy. I had grilled asparagus too.

I forget how much I like grilled foods, especially since it generally means that the Husband does most of the actual cooking part. 🙂 He does do an excellent job grilling. I’m hoping to do some more of it this summer.

So that’s been our food lately. We’ve had a couple of freezer meals too. The Husband had pork wontons last night. I’ve also been eating Caprese salad for lunch because in the summer I can’t get enough of it with the fresh basil. The herbs from the garden are growing really well and I need to find some recipes for the pineapple sage. I should try some as a tea, since that’s the main purpose I bought it for. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ve got some sewing projects to do today. I had originally planned canning, but haven’t been able to sort out my canning equipment yet, so will do it next weekend instead. It seems a little early to start, but I have some fruit in the freezer that I’m going to use up. The husband has a work thing next weekend and has to be on call all weekend, so we can’t do much anyway. It’s the perfect time to take over the kitchen!

Have a lovely weekend!

The Almost Forgotten Food
Recipe Roundup

The Almost Forgotten Food

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I keep making food and then forgetting to post it! The Bad Birthday Fairy brought me a “wicked bad cold” – according to the hipster PA I saw at urgent care. I haven’t been cooking this week much, other than the chicken sausage pasta dish yesterday. Tomorrow it will be crockpot chicken soup.

I did make fresh bao last week. They were big dinner sized buns this time. The Husband was quite impressed. I had Brussels sprouts on the side. They had olive oil and “Sandwich Sprinkle” on them.

This was Fancy’s reaction to not getting to eat the Chicken Bao.

Poor thing… So neglected!

I tried Giada’s House Soup from Food Network, which was pretty good. Not our favorite, but we would eat it again.

With the soup, we had Cheese Twists from “Small Breads.” They tasted okay and were fun to make, but there were too many and the Husband didn’t like them.

We had Antelope Meatballs Stroganoff. It was weird and we’re not sure we like antelope. We’ll probably not eat more antelope. It had a strange aftertaste.

Another miss was this Crockpot Chicken Curry, also from Food Network. The Husband has decided he likes curry spice, but not by itself. It was too much for me to eat by myself. The Husband didn’t really comment on the coconut milk in it, so I think it wasn’t a strong enough taste. I wouldn’t make this again.

We had Ricotta Cheesecake with a Warm Berry Sauce from “The Home Cook” by Alex Guarnachelli. The Husband didn’t like it at all, he thought there were too many textures. There was a not sweet cookie crust. There was candied citron in it and it freaked him right out. My work people loved it though, so it didn’t go to waste.

I think it was too soft, but the flavor was delicious. I like the firmer cheesecakes though, so I don’t know that I would make this again.

We had Nancy Fuller’s Stovetop Mac and Cheese, which had cream cheese in it to make it extra creamy. It was pretty good, not too rich. Quick recipe too. I would use this again.

I attempted to have a Girl’s Night when the Husband was going to be gone, but ended up with a nasty migraine and a ridiculous amount of mini cupcakes with no one to eat them.

They were from the Cupcakes and Cocktails cookbook that I found in a secondhand book store. It has recipes for both and I used three of the cupcake recipes.

Margarita Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream (not the meringue frosting in the book,) Pomegranate Orange Cupcakes, and Chocolate Chili Cupcakes. The Pomegranate ones originally had green tea powder, but I have thrown it out apparently, so I used orange instead.

All three of them were tasty. The chocolate ones were never frosted and the Pomegranate ones had a glaze and were sprinkled with edible glitter. I would definitely make all of them again, but especially the lime buttercream.

I have been trying out some new ideas and will have another cookbook review coming up soon. I want to try one or two more recipes to get a good overall review first. My garden sprouts are coming along well, so I’ll share my gardening plans. For now though, I’m going to go nurse my throat and hope I can actually talk tomorrow. Otherwise, I may be holding sessions via whiteboard!

The Spice Must Flow
Recipe Roundup

The Spice Must Flow

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I’m such a dork. In other news, we’ve been using a lot of spice mixes lately and I thought you might be interested in hearing more about them. Most of them have been from Penzey’s. They have excellent spices and had a super good sale and now my spice cupboard is full of Penzey’s.

I’m using them though and it’s helped me get over my food funk. This isn’t a sponsored post, by the way. I’m just discovering new things to try and cook.

A couple of them have been good enough that the Husband has requested them “on everything.” 😁 The Galena Street rub was one of them. We had that on the chicken drumsticks. The chili powder was in the veggie chili that I made while the Husband was gone.

We had Mural of Flavor on the turkey pot pie for Pi Day. It had a stuffing crust on the bottom and top.

I knew it was a winner when the Husband said, when I walked in the door “We have a problem. You have to stop making such delicious food.”

We also had Cookies and Cream Pie for Pi Day from Icebox Pies by Lauren Chattman.

It was kind of a cheater pie. I mixed vanilla ice cream with crushed Oreos and used a store bought Oreo crust! But it was still delicious!

The Husband suggested this steak seasoning over the weekend. He had tried some as a sample at Costco and it was very good. I didn’t ruin the steak! It was actually very tender and juicy.

There were also roasted potatoes with paprika, garlic, seasoned salt, and pepper and a roasted carrot recipe from the Guarnaschelli book. (Pretty sure you could play a nice drinking game with how much I’ve been referencing that cookbook…) I was surprised the Husband liked the carrots. They had honey, cumin, coriander, and s+p on them. They were pretty good, although I forgot the finish of red wine vinegar, which would have cut through the sweetness nicely.

Fancy was mad that she couldn’t have the steak or the carrots. She drooled on my foot the whole time.

I made some things for our game night too, but of course, forgot to take pictures. We had chocolate covered strawberries, almond flour brownies, and chocolate chip cookies for sweets. Savory things included crab stuffed mushrooms, cheeses and sausage, and Firebreather salsa.

We’ve decided we’re done with winter, so last night had panko crusted shrimp with cilantro rice and homemade peach salsa. I also had a Moscow Mule and some tropical fruit.

I made lemon strawberry muffins (with lemon peel from Penzey’s) this morning too, since I was still craving spring.

I have been doing some sewing too, but not necessarily things I can post. I finally tried a bra pattern, but am quite sure my Dad doesn’t want to see it. 😂 So I’ll figure out a way to update the sewing posts soon.

The latest issue of Food Network included 100 Recipes for Butter Lovers and I got all starry eyed with a pitted patter heartbeat. Possibly from the thought of ingesting all the butter recipes! I can feel it calling my name too, so am going to go pick out some recipes.

Fancy is quite content at the moment, being adorable in her blanket. Any time she gets up, it gets stuck on her tail and she walks it all over the house.

We discovered tonight that she lives up to her name. She will not eat regular oranges or apples, but happily accepts blood oranges and Honeycrisp. Fancy, indeed!

Well, bad jokes aside, I hope this post gave you some ideas to spice up your cooking!

Food Review
Recipe Roundup

Food Review

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It’s a little weird to be writing about food while I am sick and don’t actually want to eat food, but a blogger’s got to do what a blogger’s got to do, I guess. I picked up the cold that everyone seems to have and am not happy about it at all. Before I was sick, we did have some good food, so I’ll give hou a rundown of that.

I had this delicious pumpkin bread from the Pilsbury cookbook. The tea is a black tea from Tea Runners and the tea cup is from a sale at my dance place. It was only $5! It’s so brilliant and pretty with the color. It inspired me to want to try a tea cup photo shoot. I bought a pretty piece of tea themed fabric to be a backdrop or table cloth, so maybe you’ll see that on a future Wordless Wednesday. The bread was a cider pumpkin bread and it was very moist. It fell apart a little, but it tasted delicious!

These were double chocolate muffins for a day when I didn’t want to get out of bed. The Husband had one too, despite not being a chocolate for breakfast kind of person. He also enjoyed them. I used my TNT muffin recipe.

I made these Eggnog Snowballs for our game night, along with brownie cookies and garam masala chocolate gingerbread cookies and they were all excellent. All the recipes were from Food Network. The brownie cookies were a huge hit. I got the tin on Monday to take them into work and discovered that there were only three left! I don’t have pictures of the other two. We were too busy eating them!

The Snowballs were very creamy, definitely tasted of eggnogg, despite having no eggnog in them, just nutmeg. The chocolate gingerbread were also delicious and I made snowflake shapes and then got my friends to finish frosting them for me. I was quite sneaky, if I do say so myself! 🙂 I have half the dough in the freezer for our Epiphany party, so that will be good. The royal icing recipe from Food Network was surprisingly easy.

I made fancy Chicken Milanese from Pioneer Woman on Food Network for a weekend dinner. It was fun to try a new thing. The Husband had buttered carrots for his veggie side and we both had mashed potatoes. What you can’t see in this picture is Fancy sitting at the bottom of the picture drooling over chicken. Poor girl!

I did make chocolate peppermint cookies, however, I only have a very unappetizing picture that makes them look like poo. Literally. I decided no one wanted to see that! 😂 They were a very soft cookie, from the back of the Ghiradelli peppermint chunk bag. The recipe said to cook them for 9 minites, but they were just an underdone mess at that point, so I baked the rest of the batch for 11 minites. They got rave reviews at work.

We’ve also had shrimp stirfry using the same lettuce wrap sauce ingredients. It turned out to be a delicious plan. I’ve been at work for a lot of dinner times too, so the Husband has had pork and various other things. It’s hard to tell what else I’ve missed, since I lost pictures.

One cool thing we have finally tried out was our Pixar character popcorn maker. It has an arm and is an oil popper. It didn’t come with instructions, so I had to Youtube it and guess. It seeemed to work out though.

It was cool to watch how the arm scooped up the popcorn when they had popped so it wouldn’t burn. We’re still experiementing with it. It’s fun to use. Our previous air popper started getting deformed and the plastic was bubbling, so we thought maybe we should stop using it.

That’s all the pictures I have of our recent food adventures. This post should probably have been sponsored by Food Network, considering how many of their recipes I’ve used so far. 🙂 The featured picture is all my Costco ingredients. I’m particularly fod of my butter tower. 🙂

I hope your weekend up to the holiday is fun and not too stressful. We’re going on an adventure so my Dad can tell me all his blog comments in person this time. 🙂

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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My coworkers got me an assortment of tea infusers and a huge tumbler, as well as a Joann’s gift card for my birthday. They know me so well. 🙂 I’m excited to use all of them, but especially the shark one.

One of the books we found at the library book sale was this gem: The Gallery of Regrettable Food by James Lileke. 

It has pictures and commentary on old foods and recipes from the late 50’s – 70s. The author wrote the book after finding some of the old cookbooks that had been given to his mom after they moved into their new neighborhood. The chapters are titled things like “It’s 10 P.M. – Do You Know Where Your Wieners Are?, Moldorama, Glop in a Pot!, Dreck from Foreign Shores, and So You’re Going to Serve…a Salad.” Also, my absolute favorite “Eat Brains and Whip Hitler!” Not surprisingly, that last one has wartime recipes for offal and rarely eaten parts of animals. It’s fairly horrifying.

This description is from one of the party sections.

The pictures of hotdogs in jello do not seem appropriate for a family blog… They are also black and white, so seem vaguely sinister. The writing is excellent. At some points, I was laughing too hard to share with the Husband. I would highly recommend reading this if you get the chance. It’s too funny to pass up.

Now, on to serious food talk. 🙂 I made crockpot beef stew, and homemade mushroom alfredo this week, in addition to some new recipes.

I tried another muffin recipe from the Food Network Jan/Feb 2018 issue. This one was definitely pretty much a cupcake, although it was a little less sweet. It was a Double-Chocolate Salted Caramel muffin.

They were delicious. Since I had leftover dulche de leche, I made Dulche De Leche ice cream from Laylita.

Homemade dulce de leche ice cream

This was also delicious and has received the Mom seal of approval. 🙂 She stayed with us overnight while waiting to fly to visit my sister in law. Fancy was ridiculously excited for someone else to pet her.

It’s a little less sweet than I expected, but it’s lovely and smooth. I was surprised that it didn’t turn icy, since it doesn’t have eggs in it. It does have three cups of cream and a cup of whole milk. I used half and half instead, which may have helped. 🙂 I’m planning to eat it with my coconut cake from my birthday. 🙂

I made one of the husband’s recipe picks. Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken from Food Network May 2016. 

I made homemade pasta and sautéed chard, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, and garlic in olive oil. The Husband tried the veggies and did eat them, although they were not his favorite. He likes the chard better in things than by itself.

So those were our dinners. This week starts my week with more late evenings, so it will be interesting. We did go to Costco and stocked up on a huge pile of meat, so we do have a lot for slow cooker and freezer meals as needed.

Now, I need to go sew something. Fancy kept me from doing that by laying on my lap all day. Pets were more important. 🙂 Have a great night!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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The weather here cannot make up its mind about what to do. All our snow melted in a day after getting several inches and now it’s freezing again. We’re supposed to get 4-6 inches by tomorrow. Fancy has spent most of the last couple of days curled up on the bed, or by the heating vent. She’s currently keeping my feet warm with occasional breaks to bark at the neighbors.

We had a good amount of variety in our meals this week. For dinner tonight, it will be “clean out the fridge.” I think all we have left is the chicken divan though, so that will be easy to finish off.

We had a pre-seasoned boneless lamb leg on Sunday, with mashed potatoes and fancy carrots from a Food Network magazine.

I consulted a couple of different recipes for the lamb, mainly just for tempature. It turned out really good. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/herb-roasted-lamb-recipe-1943577.html?soc=itksocialsharedefault%7Cios%7Ct Herb-Roasted Lamb By Ina Garten

I think this is the one I finally settled on. The link is being weird and linking back to the app instead of the webpage, so if it gives you trouble, search the Food Network site.

The lamb was delicious! We will definitely be doing this again. The Husband was super happy with it. I liked it. It masked the lamb gameyness and had a bit of a kick to it.

The carrots were from Food Network April 2015, Herbed Green Beans and Carrots. I only used carrots and I used a cranberry-pear white balsamic vinegar. I did reduce the sugar a little in the recipe. I julienned the carrots, feeling very fancy while cutting them.

We also had chicken divan. I accidentally mixed the cheese in and forgot the bread crumbs, so it was a little bit different. I also didn’t measure and under seasoned it. It still tasted alright though.

I made another muffin recipe. Blood Orange Pomegranate Muffins from Food Network, Jan/Feb 2018. 

They browned up a bit more than I was expecting. They have two full sticks of butter in them… The pomegranate arils were supposed to go on top, but I accidentally mixed them in. I didn’t make the glaze. I typically don’t like it. These were good. Slightly over baked, I think. They also made a full 24, when the recipe only said it would make 18. I’m not sure what size muffins they thought I was making…

I had chocolate chip banana waffles for breakfast one night. It had been a rough day, so they were a nice treat. https://hilahcooking.com/chocolate-chip-waffles/

I had them with butter and lingonberry jam. Mmm… I would make these again. The Husband was out for the night, so I didn’t have to share. I would make these again. I reduced the sugar a little and would do so again. The chocolate chips and jam made these sweet enough.

Last night I used the lamb to make a lamb stew, loosely based off a recipe in A Taste of Lebanon by Mary Salloum.

It was spicy from the lamb seasoning and warming from the cinnamon. We had cheese biscuits with it. We ate most of it last night. I would make this again if we have leftover lamb.

In other news, I started an Instagram account for the blog, with the same name- Notso50shousewife. If you have an account, feel free to follow along.

Stay tuned on Monday for my monthly review! I’m starting pretty strong on sewing projects this year.

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup · Uncategorized

Recipe Roundup

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Fancy was very excited this week, she got two new dog treat recipes made for her! Sadly, the vet thinks she may be allergic to chicken and if that’s the case, she can’t have one of them. We’re keeping her off chicken for a few weeks to see if it helps her ears and feet heal. I’m finding other recipes for her though.

1- Apple Crunch Pupcakes by Lola Bakes. http://blog.candiquik.com/apple-crunch-pupcakes/#more-6534

The pupcakes ended up being a trip. I used coconut flour and had to call a friend in a panic because the mixture wouldn’t stop expanding. I think I will not use coconut flour again. Fancy loves them, she won’t even let me get the paper off of them normally before she starts licking them. This is good because with the expansion of the flour it made 24 big cupcakes and two pans of minis. I froze them, as they started condensing a lot in the containers.

Here’s what the flour looked like in the bowl:

And a mini pupcake:

2- Mushroom Stroganoff Tortellini from Food Network Magazine, Oct. 2017, V. 10, N. 8

I saw this recipe when I got the magazine and the picture made me say “yum!” I used cheese tortellini instead of beef, since it was what we had. We always have the Kirkland/Costco brand tortellini on hand for quick dinner. One set will generally get us four separate meals and it keeps very well.

It was a little rich for me, but it tasted good. The Husband liked it a lot and said we could definitely make it again.

3- Vegetarian Chili, loosely based on this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/72508/the-best-vegetarian-chili-in-the-world/

I read the recipe, sort of, and then threw everything into a pot and cooked it for a few hours before work. Meat has been causing me issues lately. I haven’t wanted to cook or eat it, so this was a good option for lunch. I am the only one eating it too, so I am going to freeze it for lunches later. I used pinto beans instead of garbanzo beans. I also used a home-grown jalepeno. It was lovely and had just the right hint of spice.

4- Chicken Sausage with Spaetzle from Food Network Magazine, Oct. 2016, V.9, N.8. 

First off, this was in the weekday dinners section and I have no idea how they thought making spaetzle was a weekday thing. We didn’t eat until 8:30 the night I made this. Second thing, if I am going to make spaetzle again, I need a different colander with bigger holes. Also, three more arms, so I can rotate when they get tired. I have actually always wanted to try making spaetzle, so I was excited to do it, but man were my arms tired.

It tasted good though and I had a craving for chicken sausage, so was happy with it. It was relatively easy too, just awkward when trying to hold the colander and smoosh it through.

5-Freezer Cafe Rio Chicken from Freezer Meals by Juliana Sweeney. 

I don’t have a picture, as we ate this on different days. This meal saved my behind this week when I forgot to take anything out for dinner. It thaws for an hour before cooking and that’s it. It was surprisingly good. I thought it might be weird as it had Italian dressing and ranch seasoning, but it was actually good. We had it with rice.

My friend, Kayla, got us this book and it has been great! I have had a much easier time prepping dinners and using the crockpot more because of it. Tomorrow, I will be prepping more of them to freeze as I am almost out.

I’m pleased with my meal prep and execution this week. Sometimes it’s hard to feel like cooking after work, but I do get a lot of benefits out of it.

Any suggestions on techniques or recipes I should try? I’m trying to be more adventurous lately. I have to top the duck!

Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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We never did end up having sausage tortellini soup because the Fancy showed us where the skunk poop is by rolling in it while we were attempting to figure out the garden. By the time we got her cleaned off, it was 8 pm, too late to make the soup. At least now we know what to start clearing out first, I guess, but it was still pretty horrible. We had just washed her too and she is now extra soft. This is a picture of her face anytime she finds something horrible to roll in.

We had chicken wonton soup instead that night, made with thin sliced carrots, celery, and fresh cilantro in the chicken broth. We had the homemade wontons in the freezer, so we just boiled them for about 12- 13 minutes. No real recipe, I just threw a bunch of Asian spices in the broth. I also added red chili flakes and it was very, very spicy at the bottom of the pan when the Husband tasted it. I felt bad. He was coughing for the longest time. He recovered though and we had ice cream to help his sore throat.

He also had pork yesterday. I was working late and had store-bought grape leaves and hummus. The pork was marinated in soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, and Thai sweet chili sauce. He said it was good.

So now for the new recipes that I actually followed! Well, mostly followed…

1- Banana Bread from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, edited by Dorothy B. Marsh. Section: Favorite Quick Breads. 

Modifications: I added butterscotch chips because it sounded good. The recipe was pretty simple and it turned out good. I was happy to use up my bananas. The Husband doesn’t like bananas, but I think my in-laws do, so I am planning on sharing with them. I’ll send any leftovers in with The Husband on Tuesday too.

2- Italian Chicken Meatballs from Fresh April Flours. http://freshaprilflours.com/2016/01/11/slow-cooker-turkey-meatballs-gluten-free/

Modifications: I used chicken and regular bread crumbs. It called for almond flour and I didn’t have enough time to grind them, as I would have ended up late for work. Also, I used diced tomatoes and a can of tomato sauce. They looked like they would be dry without the extra sauce. There were no directions on seasoning the sauce, just the meatballs, so I added the normal oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and basil on both layers of tomatoes. We had it over noodles, but at separate times of the night. I also forgot to take pictures. Both times that I was eating it, I was in a rush. Next time I will add more spices to the meatballs and sauce. Some of the flavor cooked off in the crockpot.

3- Rosemary Flank Steak from Food Network Magazine, March 2017, V.10, N.2

Modifications: I did not make the arugula salad or use the beans. It would have been just me eating it and I didn’t have either of those things. I’m sure they would have both been delicious. We were a little disappointed in the steak. It lacked a lot of seasoning. The recipe called for you to poke the steak with a fork and marinate it for 10 minutes. That wasn’t long enough. It was pretty bland, unless you happened to get a piece of garlic. If we use this recipe again, I’ll increase the marinating time. We had it with fancy mashed potatoes and a salad. I think I need to work on plating. I don’t like mixing foods though, especially meat, so it’s a struggle. The plate looks a little bare. The Husband volunteered his plate and tried a fancier plating style.

4- Roasted Garlic-Parmesan Mashed Potatoes from Food Network Magazine, November 2016, V.9, N.9

Modifications: I cut back the butter. Shocking, I know, but we did have less potatoes than the recipe called for. It also had shaved Parmesan, milk, and marscapone cheese in it. I thought we might not want to harden our arteries quite that much yet. I bet when we were eating them a cardiologist somewhere got really excited for no reason…

I was excited to roast a whole head of garlic. It felt so fancy and decadent. I smelled like garlic for the rest of the day, of course, but it was so worth it. After roasting it, you add it to the milk to infuse. You were supposed to drain them out, but I didn’t do it. The garlic mashed up just fine. They turned out very rich and creamy. Definitely special occasion potatoes only. We might make them again for Thanksgiving if we host this year.

Here is my separated plate.

I didn’t end up making gelato this week. The bowl still needs to be frozen. I am planning on getting that done tonight at least and we can try it in the next few days.

I was proud that I was able to try four new recipes this week. It reminded me that it just takes a little extra planning to make it work, but that I can do it, even when my week is crazy busy. I am going to try to keep this streak going and do some meal planning this weekend. I will also try to take more pictures!

Speaking of pictures, if Fancy will stop trying to eat her life jacket, I may be able to get a picture of her in it. She now has a lime green one which all the store employees told her she looked wonderful in. Apparently lime green is her color. There could be a boat ride in her future now that she can be safe on the boat. We’re not sure if she can swim, so figured better safe than sorry.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day, no matter what your plans are!