Some for now. Some for later.

Sometimes it is nice to channel your roots. My family’s history can be traced back to Poland. I’m the 4th or 5th generation to be born in the US. I don’t even really consider myself Polish. I’m a mutt. 

This is one of those recipes that should have been handed down from my grandmother or great grandmother… Total comfort food.

If you are going to make them to freeze. Freeze them individually on a tray or baking sheet before boiling them. Then package them in zip lock bags. Don’t forget to lable and date the bags.  You can drop them into the boiling water right from the freezer. No need to thaw. I love that.

I always seem to have WAY more filling so I double the amount of dough. Freeze half and eat the other half for dinner. Delicious!

Potato Cheese Pierogies

3 1/2 quarts water
2 cups chopped unpeeled potatoes (I peel mine)
1 cup ricotta cheese (Jack works too)
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (I use more)
1 teaspoon dill (I used more here too)
1 dash black pepper
1 1/2 cups white flour (do NOT try and use whole wheat.  It won’t work. Ask me how I know.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg  (use more if you like this flavor – I love it)
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs , beaten
butter
sour cream
paprika

Bring water to boil and cook the potatoes until they are tender. Drain and mash in a medium bowl.

Add the cheeses and lemon juice, mustard, dill and pepper. Mix well and set aside.

Combine flour, salt and nutmeg in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into the flour until well blended.

Add eggs and knead until smooth. Divide into 16 balls. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil.

Roll out each ball into a circle. Place 1 ½ tablespoons filling on one side, leaving a ¼ “ border.

Fold in half and press edges with a fork to seal. Cook in the boiling water until they rise to the top. Serve with sour cream, butter and paprika.

The Menu this Week. April 16-22 2011

The Menu this Week. April 16-22 2011

As usual, these are not in the order that I will make them. Fruit/dessert on the menu this week is pineapple, bananas, pears and oranges.  Do you see a theme with this week’s menu? Hubby brought the barbecue back from our property. It is one way I can get him to help me cook dinner. Shhh… don’t tell him I said that!

I’m super excited because the farmer’s market near my house is now open. You can expect to see lots of fresh fruit and veggies in the upcoming menus. I have asparagus to use but I haven’t decided what I want to make yet. Maybe a white bean and asparagus salad?

I bought half a ham for the kebabs, and only need a small portion of it, so I will make a ham and bean soup in the crock pot to freeze. I will also freeze a portion of diced ham for quick omelets or quiches. I love having a well-stocked freezer!

Sat – CORN/Leftovers Night

Sun – Olympic Burgers #   from 365 Grilling Recipes

Mon – Ham and Pineapple Kebabs #445833 from 365 Grilling Recipes

Tues – Chicken Sandwich with Lemon Basil Mayo #451586 from Eat Well Stay Well

Wed – Pork chops (TBD),  Dijon Parsley Potatoes from George Foreman

Thurs – Grilled Chicken Fajitas from 365 20 Minutes Meals (make double and freeze half), Salsa Fresca Mexicana from 365 Mexican Recipes, Rice

Fri – Watercress and Cucumber Salad with Fresh Tuna from George Foreman, sliced tomatoes

Breakfasts – Sunday, unless we go out to breakfast. Almond Pancakes from Beyond the Moon (didn’t get made last week) and fresh fruit
Muffins (TBD)

Lunches – (smaller portions of the recipes) Grilled Pear Salad with Parmesan from 365 Grilling Recipes
Shredded Carrot Salad # from 365 Grilling Recipes
 
Dessert – Applesauce Cake #451271 from Spices of the World (didn’t get made last week)

Lunch from the Freezer and Pantry

No time to pack a pretty bento lunch this morning, I just grabbed something from the well stocked freezer.

Butternut Squash and Pear Soup. I rounded out the rest of my lunch with some cheese and crackers. Easy peasy. And very tasty!

This soup has a nice little zing to it from the curry powder and just a hint of sweetness from the pears. Just the thing for a gray day like today.

Menu for the week of 19th through 25th

The Menu this Week. March 19-25 2011

It’s official! I am ¼ of the way through Project 365. I have made 92 recipes. Only 273 left to go! I am about 2 weeks ahead of schedule, but I’m anticipating a lot of days in April and later this summer when I will not be cooking at all.

Dinners this week are mostly from the pantry. Pretty much the only things I need from the store this week is a pound of hamburger and a large package of chicken.

As usual, these are most likely not in the order that I will make them. I’ve been trying to get the husband and kidling to eat more fruits and vegetables so I will also serve melon, grapes, pineapple and/or oranges with dinner. And bread. Always with the bread.

Sat – Canton Chicken and Rice  from 1001 Low Fat

Sun – Chicken Stew with Parsley Dumplings (my own stew from the freezer) from 1001 Low Fat

Mon – Pork Schnitzel from Rachael Ray’s 365 No Repeats and Rice Pilaf with Shallots and Parmesan from Cooking Light 2004

Tues – Pasta Shells with Tuscan Tuna from Cooking Light 2004

Wed – Beef and Been Burritos from 1001 Low Fat and Zucchini with Oregano and Sun dried tomatoes from Asparagus to Zucchini and Herbed Polenta from 1001 More Low Fat

Thurs – Knit night. Hubby and kidling to eat leftovers or order pizza.

Fri – Fettuccini with Chicken Piccata from 1001 More Low Fat

Breakfasts – Almond Pancakes from Beyond the Moon and Muffins (undecided. Strawberry?)

Lunches – (also doubles as side dishes) Potato Salad with Parsley and Chives from Cooking Light 2004, Macaroni Salad from 1001 More Low Fat, Armenian Bean Salad from Asparagus to Zucchini and Egg Salad with Sun Dried Tomatoes from Beyond the Moon.

Dessert – Double Crust Blueberry Pie from 1001 Low Fat (made with home-canned blueberries)

Lunch and Dinner from the Freezer

Lentils – Make ahead and freeze.

Lentils are cheap and easy. For a little more than a dollar, I can get a whole pound of dried brown lentils.

They are also good for you. They are low in fat and high in fiber, protein and folate. They are a good source of iron and potassium. One cup of cooked lentils has 230 calories, almost no fat, 7mg of iron and 16 grams of protein. Plus they are delicious!

I cook the entire bag of lentils, either in water or broth, then freeze the cooked lentils in 1-2 cup portions. A vacuum sealer works wonders for this. Try to freeze the packages as flat as possible so that you can stack them in your freezer like library books.  Don’t forget to label and date the bags. This same method also works for barley and rice. It is nice to be able to make soups, salads and pilafs almost instantly because you have done much of the work ahead of time.

When you are ready to make a lentil dish, just thaw and add the lentils.

Some lentil recipes I’ve tried recently: (recipe titles are links to the recipes)

Lentil Pear and Goat Cheese Salad – from Eat Well Stay Well

Lentil and Fennel Salad – from Cooking Light (holey smokes batman! This is fantastic!)

Lentil Salad with Spinach, Cheddar and Pecans  – from Food & Wine

Country Lentil Soup

– from 1001 Low Fat

 

 

And some old favorites:

Bacon and Lentil Soup

Lentil Soup with Cauliflower and Bacon – from Food & Wine (this freezes well)

Tomato Lentil Salad

Mushroom and Lentil Soup – from Super Foods (this soup also freezes well)

Green Lentil and Mixed Vegetable Pan Fry

– from What’s Cooking Vegetarian

 

 

 

Still need more ideas? These are on my to-be-tried list:

Lentil Soup with Chard – from Cooking Light

Bay Scented Lentil Salad with Pancetta – from Cooking Light

Barley-Lentil Salad – from Beyond the Moon

Lentil Vegetable Soup – from Horn of the Moon

Lentil and Pancetta Soup – from Cooking Light

Bulgur and Lentil Pilaf – from 1000 Great Recipes

Sweet and Sour Lentils – from Moosewood Low Fat Favorites

Quickie Dinner – Pizza

Just a quick and easy dinner last night.

Trader Joes has ready-made pizza dough in a couple of different flavors – for a little over $1/each. When it’s that cheap, I don’t feel bad about being too lazy to make my own!

I usually have some dough stashed in the freezer. I just restocked for more pizzas in the near future.  Last night’s pizza was made with their herb crust, homemade tomato sauce, diced onions, proscuitto, fresh basil and 4 kinds of cheese.

I’m getting pretty good at stretching out the dough. I’ve found that if you let it sit and rise for a good 15 minutes, it makes it easier to form the crust. I’d love to be able to do the tossing/shaping thing, but I’m just not that coordinated. I pulled the dough out into a more-or-less pizza shape and put it on my Pampered Chef pizza stone. I let the crust bake for about 5 minutes before adding the sauce and toppings. This makes a non-soggy pizza.

Of course, we can’t have pizza and movie night without a good bottle of wine to go with it! Last night’s wine was a bottle of Rex Goliath Pinot Noir aka 47 Pound Rooster. One of our favorites. Very affordable and very drinkable. Under $10 for a Pinot. Awesome!  Great night. The movie, however was terrible! It was the 70’s cartoon version of Lord of the Rings. Awful. Just awful. We didn’t even finish watching it.

Simple but Delicious – Dinner and Dessert

Broccoli, cheese and noodles are my daughter’s favorite foods, so when I found the “Pasta, Cheese and Trees” recipe via Every Day with Rachael Ray, I knew I was going to have to make it for her.Brunch Peach Parfait originally comes from my 365 Easy Low Calorie Recipes book. I love this series of books! The recipes in them are alway excellent and often very adaptable. This one was no exception.

This is a super easy and versitile recipe. The ingredients are basically pasta (I used farfalle), broccoli and two cheeses; ricotta and Parmesan. I sauteed some onions for just a little more flavor. Great comfort food dinner! You could easily add leftover ham, turkey or chicken to this.

I had some leftover peaches from a peach-glazed pork recipe I had made a couple of nights ago. Hubby apparently “doen’t like cooked peaches” so it was up to me to eat them. RecipeZaar to the rescue again! This recipe for

It calls for fresh peaches, vanilla yogut and crushed graham crackers. I used cooked peaches, but canned or another fruit would be just as good. And it is a very healthy dessert too!

btw – the glass isn’t dirty. It looks that way because I smeared yogurt on the inside as I was making the parfait. I tried to wipe it off for the photo, but I think I made it worse. lol.

Thanksgiving Appetizers – Chevre and Chutney

It does not get any easier than this! I took a roll of chevre and topped it with mango-ginger chutney (both from Trader Joes). Served with triskets and wheat thins. Easy peasy. And a huge hit!

The chutney is just a little sweet with a kick from the ginger. Paired with the creamy cheese and crunchy crackers it was perfect!I also put together an olive plate. Another super easy appetizer. Also all found at Trader Joes. I used three kinds of olives; kalamata, green pimiento stuffed and canned black (for hubby). I love my funky olive plate so I’ll take any excuse to use it.

Bacon Cheddar Bread

We ran out of bread yesterday and hubby needed some for sandwiches for work. Time to pull out the bread machine! I love the bread machine. Just dump and let it do its thing.

Every time I make bread, I try a different recipe. I had limited ingredients this time around, so I raided the fridge to see what I could find – leftover bacon! And a small hunk of cheddar cheese. Perfect!

 

The bread was done before dinner was ready, so of course Hubby had to have a steaming hot loaf drowned in butter. You could smell the bacon and see the little flecks of red/brown throughout the loaf. The outside of the loaf was nice and crusty, but the inside was soft and moist. Perfect for sandwiches for this week.

If it lasts that long.