25 posts tagged “food”
Ok, I've completely intended to link from here to my food posts, in case anyone who reads this is interested in the food stuff, but I've been a blog slacker lately. On my food blob, I've included recipes, directions, and ww point totals if I can figure them out.
Here are my most recent food posts:
I hit the grocery store the other day, and bought a whole cart full of produce and other healthy ingredients. I actually made a menu before I made my grocery list!! I started out by making some tomato soup for Simon's lunch this morning, and then I actually had soup for breakfast because it is so good!
You try this tomato soup, and you'll never want the stuff in the red and white can ever again!
You'll find the recipe here on my food blog!
I recently decided that I would like to have a food blog that is just food and also food.
I'm going to keep this Vox blog, and post about my food with links to the food blog, but I decided not to use Vox for the food blog because so many of my friends tell me that they hate the fact that you have to join Vox to comment.
I'm finally getting caught up on sleep and housework after working in the school cafeteria on Wednesday through Monday. You'd think I would have done that over the weekend, but on Saturday I had a really good training seminar at church from 9:30 to noon. After that, we went back over to Simon's school for a chili cookoff; and then we went to the birthday party of one of Simon's classmates from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.
Sunday we had church, and then I got started cleaning stuff, but I woke up with a headache so I didn't get a lot done Sunday afternoon. After working in the cafeteria on Monday I send Simon with Steve to play practice at the high school, then managed to fall asleep in the bathtub at 7:00 pm. I realized that I was dozing off, so I got out of the tub and was actually in bed by 7:15 last night.
I woke up fairly chipper this morning, and got a few things tidied over the course of the day. I also spent a lot of time today trying to get my mom's taxes ready to send out. A gigantic thanks goes out to my sister Susan who printed forms and brought them over once I realized that our home is currently toner-free, and an even more gigantic thanks goes out to my niece (the birthday girl) who actually crunched the numbers and told me over the phone what to write in each blank. A decent sized thanks also goes to Steve, who stopped by my sister's house on the way home to pick up the forms we didn't realize we'd need when she dropped off the original forms. He also ran the completed envelopes to the post office, where the postal worker was just emptying the mailbox as Steve was driving up. WHEW!!
Just as a little tease, I'll tell you that I have ice cream base cooling in my fridge right now. I'm going to make the ice cream later on tonight, and I'll try to post the recipe and pictures tomorrow!
I kept seeing ads for Kraft's "new" salad dressing. They make it sounds like they're 100% natural because they don't have any artificial preservatives. (I'm not sure what "real" preservatives they've been replaced with, but ok.)
I googled to try to find out exactly what the ingredients are, but couldn't find them listed anywhere online.
So yesterday, I was at the grocery and noticed them on the shelf. I picked up almost every flavor, and all but one had high fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient listed. (I think the ranch flavor had hfcs listed as the second ingredient.)
Essentially, Kraft "Pure" dressings are high fructose corn syrup with a few other chemicals added to make it resemble actual salad dressing.
Just for you, here is a recipe for a quick and tasty ranch dressing.
(Adapted from the book
Eat, Drink & Weigh Less.)
Ranch Dressing (1 WW point for a 2 tbs serving)
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 to 3 Tbs mayo (The canola kind has no hfcs, but has fewer calories than the regular version w/the same taste.)
1 tsp cider vinegar (I've also used white balsamic with good results.)
1/2 tsp onion powder (or to taste)
1/4 tsp garlic powder (or to taste)
1/8 tsp salt (or to taste)
a twist or two of fresh ground pepper
- Combine ingredients, taste and adjust seasonings.
- Refrigerate until you're ready to use. (It gets better after letting the flavors meld for at least 14-20 minutes.)
- Shake it before you use it.
- It'll stay fresh for a week or more if you keep it tightly sealed in the fridge.
I have this newfound love of old kitchen gadgets. You know how much I adore Steve's Grandma's yogurt maker, and today I pulled out the Veg-o-matic that I got from my Grandma years ago.
(In the back ground, you can also see my Grandma's cannisters that I got at the same time.)
Chicago Diner Burgers (2 points for 1 burger if you make 12 out of the mixture)
Vegetarian Times Issue: July 1, 2007 p.69
3 stalks celery, diced (about 1 1/4 cups)
1 small onion, diced (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce (I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos because I didn't have a lot of soy sauce.)
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
12 oz. mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
(I also threw a couple of dashes of liquid smoke into the water with the veggies.)
Directions
1. Bring
4 cups water, celery, onion, soy sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper and liquid smoke
to a boil in pot over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes.
Stir in oats, mushrooms and flour, and cook 5 minutes more. Transfer to bowl,
and chill. (I put mine in the fridge overnight.)
2. Preheat
oven to 350F. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Shape mixture into patties,
and bake on prepared baking sheet 15 minutes. Flip, and bake 10 minutes more.
Cool. (At first I put these on parchment. That was a mistake because it kept the bottoms soggy. The next batch I put on sprayed foil, and that worked much better.)
3. Heat
grill to medium-high. Place foil on grill, and coat with cooking spray. Grill
burgers on foil 7 minutes per side.
(I re-used the same foil that I baked them on.)
Burger Buns (3.858 points for 1 bun if you make 10 / 3.215 points if you make 12)
1 cup water
2 Tbs butter or margarine
1 egg
2 1/4 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp instant yeast
1. Place all ingredients in your bread machine. Select dough. Allow to run cycle
2. Dump out onto lightly floured surface. Divide into 8 pieces. Slap each piece into a bun shape. (Usually 4 or 5 slaps will do it.) Place on greased cookie sheets or your bun pans, cover; rise about 30 to 40 minutes.
(I used my muffin top pan, and it worked really well—except that it only has 6 holes.)
3. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes until golden. Cool on wire racks
(Someone told me that they sometimes add 1 tsp onion powder and 1/2 tsp dehydrated minced onion. I did that this time, and it added a light onion-y flavor that was really good.)
Servings: 10
Unfortunately, I forgot about the buns and they got a little more brown than I prefer, but they were still soft and very tasty. I'd made the burgers before, and we love them. I try to keep some of the burger patties in the freezer for quick lunches.
Vanilla-Scented Granola (11 ww points per 1 cup serving)
I don't remember adding the crack to these, but I swear I had to go back and look at the recipe this morning because Simon and I couldn't stop eating it. I know it has a lot of sugar, but I figure at least it's not hfcs, and I know exactly what all of the ingredients are!
45 min | 15 min prep | 8 cups
vegetable oil cooking spray
4 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup sliced almonds (I used chopped pecans because that’s what I had.)
1/2 cup golden brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey (I used some honey and some agave nectar because I ran out of honey.)
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
(I also threw in one
cup of dried fruit right before I put it in the
oven. It was a mix of
blueberries, cherries, cranberries, and plums.)
- Position rack to
middle of oven and preheat to 300°.
- Lightly spray large baking sheet with nonstick spray. (I put down a sheet of parchment and sprayed that.)
- Mix oats, nuts, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon in large bowl.
- In a small saucepan, combine oil, honey and sugar, and bring to simmer over medium heat.
- Remove from heat; then stir in vanilla.
- Pour hot liquid over oat mixture; stir well.
- Using hands, toss mixture until thoroughly mixed. (I used a rubber spatula and it worked fine.)
- (I added the cup of dried fruit right after I mixed the liquid into the oats, by the way.)
- Spread granola on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake until golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes (Check after 20 because the sugar burns easily).
- Transfer sheet to rack; cool granola completely.
- Store in airtight container at room temperature. It will keep for about two weeks.
Let me tell you, we've had some less than delicious meat alternatives. I can honestly say that any fake meat that comes in a can, won't be good. (Come to think of it, that should also apply to real meat that comes in a can. Vienna sausages--yuck. Spam--yuck. Deviled ham--yuck. Fish might be the only exception to this new rule, but I will admit that we like salmon and tuna out of a pouch much more than canned.) We've had fake canned scallops, fake diced chicken, fake hot dogs, and fake pork chops out of a can. None are very good. (I can also tell you from unfortunate experience that you can't roast soy hot dogs over a campfire. They just singe. Not good.)
Anyway, out of all of the canned meat alternatives that we tried, there was only one that we actually liked. It's made by a division of the Kellogg corporation called Worthington, and the actual product is called "Choplets". When you open the can, it smells remarkably like dog food, but if you take the individual pieces of "meat" out of the can, dip them in seasoned breadcrumbs, and pay fry them; they're actually pretty good. I couldn't believe it, but they became a favorite of Simon's. I liked them because it was so handy to keep cans of them in the pantry for those times that I didn't feel like spending a lot of time cooking. (Most vegetarian options that we like take a lot of advanced prep.) They used to carry Choplets at our local Kroger, but a few months ago they stopped carrying them. We miss them.
Here is the recipe I used, followed by my notes:
Seitan Nuggets
1 cup vital wheat gluten (I got mine from the bulk bin at Wild Oats)
(You can also add up to 1/4 cup of spices or other ingredients so I added about 1/8 cup nutritional yeast--also found in the bulk bin at Wild Oats)
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons olive
oil
2 tablespoons red miso
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon Braggs liquid aminos or soy sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 cup port wine or madeira wine
4 cups vegetable stock (I used boxed)
6 cups water
seasoned breadcrumbs
beaten egg and flour (if you want to use them for breading)
- Put the vital wheat gluten in the bowl of a stand mixer and add 3/4 cup water. (This is also when I added the nutritional yeast.)
- Mix until the water is absorbed. (It will come together almost immediately and become very rubbery.)
- Use the dough hook attachment on the stand mixer, and knead for a few minutes. (Or you can knead it by hand for about five minutes if you don't have a stand mixer.)
- Cover with a cloth and let sit for about 20 minutes.
- In a different bowl, combine the olive oil, miso, molasses, tomato paste, aminos or soy sauce, vinegar, and cloves until it becomes a paste.
- Add the seasonings from basil down to the onion powder and combine well.
- In a pot, combine wine, stock and water and bring to a boil.
- Stir about a cup of the hot liquid into the paste until it dissolves, then add the watery paste back into the pot and bring it all back up to a boil.
- Go back to your dough, and pull or cut it into two portions. Stretch, pull, and roll the dough into 2 logs. (They'll seem small, but it'll puff up while it cooks.)
- Put your logs of seitan into the pot, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for about an hour—turning occasionally so the whole thing gets seasoned. (The longer you cook, the firmer it will be.)
- Store it overnight submerged in the cooking liquid. (The seitan will expand to about three times
the size that you start out with, but will shrink as it cools overnight.)
- It will keep in the fridge for about three days.
- If you're making nuggets, slice the logs into about 3/4 inch pieces.
- You can either just dip them in breadcrumbs or dip them in bread then egg and then breadcrumbs.
- Pan fry them in a little canola oil until they're golden and serve. (I used my electric skillet set on 350)
Simon liked them, but I was doing other things on Thursday and simmered the logs longer than an hour so they were a little firmer than I would have liked. I think I might try the basic idea again, but with a less complicated simmering sauce. I would also like them more if the pieces were bigger across like the Choplets. It was kind of a pain to bread all of those individual nuggets. Next time, I might try making it one big log and see how that turns out.
Today is a school holiday for Steve and Simon. I like having them home to keep me company, but I'm really glad that Simon is home because he woke up not feeling well. He had a cough this morning, and has been listless all day. We've been watching "The Presidents" on The History Channel, and Simon is sound asleep on the sofa. Actually, Linus is asleep on his doggy sofa, and the cats are sound asleep on our bed. I've been a lazy bum all day, but I haven't actually gotten in any shuteye.
We went to Costco last night, and I picked up a cookbook and a book on organic gardening. I flipped through the gardening book, but it's mostly a reference of organic solutions for gardening problems I'm not currently experiencing. It's actually a compilation of Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening and The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control. I think it'll come in handy later, but for now I'm all engrossed in my new cookbook.
The cookbook I got was How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. They also had his older (omnivorous) How to Cook Everything, so I had decide which one I wanted. Since my ultimate goal is to eat less meat, I decided to get the veggie version. I haven't looked at the non-veggie version, but I'm not at all disappointed with the one I got.
I spent a good portion of my lazy day coming up with a menu and grocery list to get us through to next Tuesday.
So far I've got the following:
- chicken and dumplings (I still have the stuff from the other day.)
- stir fried leek dumpling with miso carrot sauce with ginger and salad greens
- stir fried tofu with fried rice
- white bean and mushroom ragu with polenta
- homemade pizza
- either salmon or scallops with risotto and sauteed spinach & mushrooms
- edamame stew with couscous
- Chicago Diner burgers with sweet potato fries and salad
- seitan "chops" with sides of some sort
We'll see if that's what we wind up having.
I hit the grocery store the other night and got some great buys that I was going to use the past couple of days, but then yesterday I realized that it was Simon's half birthday so I switched gears and made his favorite Veggie Pasta Alfredo instead. Today I have two pounds of sausage and a whole chicken that I need to use before they go south. (I never trust meat in my fridge. I always think it's going to go bad and poison us all.)
I think on this snowy day, I'm going to throw some long simmering stuff like pasta sauce and chicken broth together so I can use them later in lasagna and chicken and dumplings.
Here's what I'm working on:
Red Sauce for Lasagna (or Spaghetti)
2 lbs Italian sausage (or ground beef if you prefer)
1 onion, chopped
1 tbs minced garlic
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
2 cups water (Use more or less depending on how long you plan to simmer your sauce.)
3 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I always go on the low end for my non-spicy family.)
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup red wine (Don't skip the wine, it makes the recipe!)
- In large, heavy stockpot, brown Italian sausage, breaking up as you stir. (Drain off at least part of the grease.)
- Add onions and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent.
- Add garlic, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and water.
- Add basil, parsley, brown sugar, salt, crushed red pepper, and black pepper.
- Stir well and barely bring to a simmer.
- Stir in red wine. (Put the wine in after it starts to simmer so the alcohol can burn off faster.)
- Simmer on low, stirring frequently for at least an hour—longer is better.
Yield: 4 quarts
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1+ hour(s)
Lasagna
1 recipe sauce
16 oz box lasagna noodles
15 oz ricotta cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated
parmesan cheese
- Cook lasagna as directed and drain. (I usually drain the noodles and lay them out in layers on waxed paper so they don’t tear or stick together while I’m putting everything together. When you're done you'll have a few extra noodles, but I like having insurance noodles in case some get ripped and Simon always volunteers to eat the extra noodles when I'm done.)
- In 13x9x2" baking pan, spread about 1 cup sauce across the bottom.
- Put 4 noodles across the bottom of the pan over the sauce—overlapping slightly.
- Spread about 1/4 of the remaining sauce over the noodles.
- Measure 5 oz. of ricotta and drop in little blobs around on top of the sauce.
- Spread one cup of mozzarella over the top of that, and then sprinkle 1/4 cup parm on top of that.
- Repeat those ingredients two more times to make three
ricotta layers total. (Put the ricotta blobs in different places on each layer so you get some in each bite.)
- On top of the third ricotta layer, put a fourth layer of noodles topped by the last 1/4th of the sauce, the last of the parm, and the last of the mozzarella. (I’ve seen people sprinkle dried basil or Italian seasoning on top of that for decoration if you like that look.)
- Bake at 350 for 40 to 50 minutes until lightly browned and bubbling.
- Let it sit for 15 minutes to solidify a little, then cut into squares to serve.
Copycat Cracker Barrel Chicken & Dumplings (6 servings)
-- Chicken and Broth --
3 quarts water
4 1/2-4 lb chicken (cut up or not, your choice as long as it's covered by the water)
2 1/4 tsp salt (divided use)
1 1/2 small sliced onion
3 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 1/2 clove garlic, peeled and quartered
2 small bay leaves
2 Tbs dried parsley
1/2 Tbs freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 Tbs fresh lemon juice (bottled is yucky in this)
-- Dumplings --
3 cup flour (White Lily or other soft wheat flour makes awesome biscuits and really good dumplings.)
1 1/2 Tbs baking powder
1 7/8 tsp salt
1 11/16 cup milk
- Boil 3 quarts water in a large pot.
- Add chicken, 1 1/2 t salt, onion, celery, garlic, bay leaf and parsley and simmer uncovered for 2 hours. The liquid should reduce by about 1/3.
- When chicken is cooked, remove it and set aside.
- Strain stock and throw away everything but the stock.
- Put the stock back into the pot and add the pepper, 3/4 t salt and lemon juice and reheat while you mix dumplings.
- For dumplings, mix flour, baking powder, 1-1/4 t salt and milk in a medium bowl.
- Stir until smooth, then let dough rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Pat dough onto a floured surface to about 1/2 inch thickness.
- (Handle the dough as little as possible for good, fluffy dumplings.)
- Cut the dough into 1/2 inch squares (I use a floured pizza cutter) and drop each square into the simmering stock.
- Use all of the dough.
- The dumplings will first swell and then slowly shrink as they partially dissolve to thicken the stock into a white gravy.
- Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until thick, stirring often.
- While the stock is thickening, the chicken will have cooled.
- Tear all the meat from the bones and remove the skin.
- Cut chicken into bite sized pieces, and drop them into the
pot.
- Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, but stir carefully so you
don't break up the chicken.
- When the gravy has reached the desired consistency, ladle four portions onto plates and serve hot.
I was just thinking about what treat I would make Steve and Simon for Valentine's Day. I'm thinking seriously about trying my hand at homemade marshmallows this year. (I might talk myself out of it, but right now it seems like a good idea.)
Last year I made Reece's Squares, and they were a big hit. I was telling a friend about them earlier, so I thought I'd post the recipe.
Reece's Squares
1 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs
16 oz confectioners sugar
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup butter, melted
1 (12 oz) bag chocolate chips
- Combine sugar, peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs. Mix well.
- Stir in melted butter until well combined.
- Press mixture evenly into a 9x13 pan.
- Melt chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double boiler.
- Spread over peanut butter layer.
- Chill until firm and cut into bars.
