The only thing missing from this is bacon.

So I stumbled on this idea on pinterest (yeah yeah. I know) and knew immediately that I had to try it.

Cinnamon rolls on the grocery list. STAT!

These are the ones that come with orange frosting, which I love.  I was pleasantly surprised how well this worked!  The kidling is already asking for me to make them again.

Just stick the cinnamon rolls in the waffle maker, close the lid, and the machine does the rest.  And it is faster and easier than waiting for the oven to preheat. Brilliant!

Hubby had his drizzled with real maple syrup. The kidling and I had ours with the ooey gooey frosting.

YUM!

What’s in your fridge?

So there’s this thread over on the backpacking forums that I visit about what is in your fridge. I love seeing what people have. 

Mine usually isn’t this bare, but we are in the process of re-stocking after getting the new fridge. The freezer’s crammed full though!

Lots and lots of condiments, yeast, salad dressing, pickles…

Top shelf has a tray with syrups and jelly (no more sticky fridge!), milk, creamer, some bento supplies.  Second shelf has CAKE and salad. Bottom shelf has meats. Drawers contain veggies and cheese.

And the freezer… I need a new system.   Anyone got some good suggestions for organizing a small freezer? 

Bottom trays have veggies. The ziplocks are ready-to-eat meals, soups and cooked turkey/chicken. In the tupperware is meats in marinade and twice baked potatoes (waiting for their 2nd baking).

And in the door… more frozen veggies, bananas, bento stash, ginger.

Dinner and a Leftovers Idea

I found this recipe on Pinterest (shut up. I do not have a problem.) the other day and realized I had most of the ingredients to make it. I omitted the pastry sheet didn’t really follow the recipe at all. The idea is a good one though, and there are lots of different things you could put in the mix.

Chicken stuffed with Cream Cheese, Bacon and Green Onions.  YUM!!!!

 

I served it with Hasselback Taters and a green salad. For the taters I just used olive oil and Johnny’s Seasoning salt.

There’s leftover chicken.  I think it will be awesome cut up and tossed with some hot pasta for dinner tonight. The gooey cheese will make a nice sauce.  I also had a little extra of the cheese mix that didn’t fit into the chicken breasts. I am saving this to serve on bruschetta.

I am now out of bacon.  Sad, right?

Revamped Leftovers. SOUP!

I had made a delicious sausage-onion-sundried tomato pizza the other night and had a bit of sausage and onion leftover (there’s only so much sausage you can cram on a pizza).  Then yesterday, I was reading up on all the bento blogs I follow and found the perfect recipe to revamp my leftovers.

Zuppa Toscana from Bentobloggy. 

I didn’t follow her recipe exactly, since I was starting with already cooked meat, but here’s what I did…

Sauteed one onion, two carrots and two celery sticks in olive oil. I added about 1/4 (maybe a little less?) pound of bacon, chopped coarsely. When the bacon was almost done, I added the leftover sausage, 2 russet potatoes (peeled and diced in 1/2 inch cubes) and a can of chicken broth and some water.  I let this simmer until the potatoes were tender and the broth had reduced down to a thick soup.  I omitted the greens since I didn’t have any handy. I was winging the recipe afterall, doncha know.  I also didn’t have the heavy cream she calls for in her recipe, so I used 2% milk. It worked just fine.

Dinner took about 40 minutes, start to finish. I served the hearty soup with cheesey breadsticks and a mixed green salad. Nom nom nom!  Perfect comfort food for cold winter days.

Sorry, I was so hungry I forgot to take a photo!

The NEW Challenge! Welcome to 2012

I had a lot of fun with Project 365 in 2011, so I decided that I would like to do another food related challenge in 2012.  365 recipes was really just too many, so this year I am focusing on our budget.

The goal for 2012 is to spend $100 or less on groceries each week.  This is breakfast-lunch-dinner for me and the kidling and dinner-snacks for the hubby.

This first week, the budget is slightly skewed because the refrigerator and freezer are bulging from Project 365 leftovers. This week is leftovers and clean out the refrigerator/freezer week, but I still put together a delicious sounding menu.  I can’t seem to get out of the (new?) habit of looking through my cookbooks for recipes, so most of the planned dinners are from my 1001 More Low Fat Recipes book. This is a fantastic book, btw. I have four from this series and intend to add at least two more. What? I don’t have a problem… I just need more bookshelves.

I spent $60.81 for this week’s groceries.   This will not likely be the norm
 
I found juice boxes on clearance, so I stocked up. I only need two slices of bacon for this week’s menu, but the deli didn’t have bacon. I had to buy a full pound, but when I went to go get it, I discovered that one brand was on sale for buy one get one free! The second will go in the freezer and the extras will be served for breakfasts.

The grocery store didn’t have large pasta shells, so I substituted manicotti shells. I’m hoping this works okay with the recipe I have saved.

The small packages of chicken were wicked expensive and there wasn’t much to choose from. I found a HUGE package of chicken in the clearance bin for less than half the price of the small packages. The extras will be frozen in marinade.

My big splurge this week was prepared meatballs at $5.99 for one bag. Hubby and the kidling requested spaghetti and meatballs on the menu this week.  Normally this is something I make myself (when meat is on sale! And I sneak extra veggies into them too) and keep in the freezer.

Okay, enough babbling… Here’s the menu!  As usual, in no particular order.

Mon 2: Ricotta Stuffed Shells with Pesto

Tues 3: Chicken Fajitas

Wed 4: New England Clam Chowder, salad, crescent rolls

Thur 5: Chicken (leftover turkey in freezer) and Fettuccini Alfredo, salad

Fri 6: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Sat 7: Ham and Potato Casserole Au Gratin

Sun 8: CORN/Leftovers night

Lunches: cheese and crackers, salami, leftovers, boiled eggs, celery black pepper kinpira

And So It Ends…

Last night I made the final dish of Project 365.  It has been quite an adventure and I almost didn’t make it.  I had a bit of a crunch at the end… Now my refrigerator and freezer are overflowing!

My friend, Jennifer, asked me to do a blog on my thoughts about doing a project such as this, so here we are.

First of all, I could never have done this without the encouragement from my friends. Face Book and other social media (the blog, flickr) let me share the recipes and photos will all of you.  And since so many people knew about the project and asked me throughout the year how it was going (and what I was making!), it kept me on track. I couldn’t let my friends down, right?

It is weird now that the project is over. I should feel no anticipation or pressure to pick recipes out of  my cookbooks when making up our menus, but that feeling is still there. Only time will tell how long that will last. My huge collection of cookbooks are finally getting the love the deserve.

We discovered a lot of new favorites. I’ve already made the Zydeco Green Beans  twice and I only have a few jars left!  The kidling asks for the “lemon fish”; Lemon Herb Swordfish Steaks, which is wicked easy to make and can be made in advance. The Country Lentil Soup both freezes and dehydrates beautifully. I’ve made that one twice too. So good!

I learned how to make risotto this year, and did a lot of canning.  The bento cookbooks were heavily used and will continue to be used. I love the celery kinpira recipe! That was a pleasant surprise. I did NOT like the miso eggs, which was a not so pleasant surprise.

I’ve missed making homemade pizzas. (Pizza dough from Trader Joes)  There’s only so many real recipes for pizza in my books and I’ve made all of the ones I know the hubby will eat. I’m looking forward to putting our homemade pizzas back on the regular rotation.  Hubby likes ham, pineapple, red onion and olives on our pizza.

Most of the recipes were a success, but I also had a few disasters.  The Daikon Kimchee Cubes (and I like kimchee!) were inedible. The Cinnamon Rolls, from my Freezer Cooking book, was a huge mess!

One other negative thing about the project was that I feel like I spent too much money on food and wasted a lot of food last year.  Recipes “had” to be made to get 365 recipes for the year, so I made more food than we really needed. In 2012 we will be eating a lot more leftovers. In the next blog post I’ll talk about the new challenge.

I acquired MORE cookbooks this year, and I have a few new favorites.  What’s worse is that there are at least four or five more books that I will be adding to the collection. They will be ones I know I will use though.

All in all, it was fun. And I will continue to track what recipes I’ve tried.  Having a weekly menu with the recipe names and books listed was a huge help in both grocery shopping and deciding what is for dinner. I will continue to do this.

Thanks again, everyone, for the encouragement and being willing food testers! I look forward to feeding you all again in 2012.

More on 365

Since we are talking about my (ahem, extensive) cookbook collection I thought I’d share one more with y’all.

Food Fest 365 – The Officially Fun Food Holiday Cookbook By Yvoun D. Lemoine © 2010

I got this fun book as a surprise present from a friend. So far, for Project 365, I have only made one recipe. Blueberry Popovers.

Delicious!

This book lists national food holidays with a corresponding recipe for each day. They are listed in chronological order, starting with January 1st. Each calendar date and recipe has a little food fact or history note to go along with it. This appeals greatly to my nerdy side. The author obviously has a quirky sense of humor. She includes food origins and political history relating to various dishes.

It is such a fun book. I started looking at specific personal dates to see what foods were listed for them. My birthday is Apple Dumpling Day. My daughter’s is Chocolate Cake Day. Our wedding anniversary is Raspberry Tart Day.

Then I skimmed to find some of my favorite foods. June 19th is Dry Martini Day, but she uses gin, not vodka. Okay, just use the stuff in the blue bottle!

Some other fun examples: January 19th is Popcorn Day. It is one of the oldest snacks. It became the official movie snack during the depression. The recipe she includes is for Salted Caramel Popcorn.

February 6th is Nutella Day – Nutella and Banana Crepes (yoooo hooo! Spindle, this one’s for you!)

April 30th is Raisin Day – Carrot Raisin Salad The book is interspersed with gorgeous photos of yummy food. Some of the recipes are the author’s family recipes, some are very simple and some are classic dishes with a new twist.

Who knew we needed an Escargot Day. May 24th. The recipe is for Escargot Hush Puppies and Pesto Mayo. I don’t know that I’ll be trying that any time soon, but it’s still fun.

May 27th is Grape Popsicle Day. I can’t think of a better excuse to turn my tongue purple, can you?

If you can’t decide what to cook today, check the date in the book and see what the theme of the day is. Fun!

Just for the record, today, October 30th is Buy a Doughnut Day and the Recipe is for Classic Cake Doughnuts with Maple Bacon Glaze. (Hey Pickle Gulch friends! Think LameBeaver would make this for us next year to go with the Bacon Martinis? I think he needs to. Yes, yes he does.)

Eat Well Stay Well

Eat Well Stay Well

Let me tell you about one of the books I am using for Project 365. One of my favorites.

The Project 365 recipes I have made from this book so far are Lentil Pear and Goat Cheese Salad, Swordfish Kabobs with Lemon and Garlic, Maple Pork Chops, Old Fashioned Mushroom Barley Soup, Orange Banana Breakfast Smoothie, Teriyaki Salmon,

Greek Style Romaine Salad

Strawberry Ricotta Crepes

Pork Piccata

Chunky Beef Chili

Other recipes I have tried include Cauliflower with Deviled Cheese Sauce, Fresh Fennel Salad with Lemon, Scalloped Potatoes with Smoked Turkey, Baked Rolled Sole with Lemon and Oregano, Ricotta Stuffed Turkey Breast, Chicken Normandy and Blueberry Scones.

The book starts out with nutritional information on a wide variety of foods, nutrients and food components. It talks about minerals and vitamins and why each is important. 

The chapters are organized by type of food, not the type of dish; Vegetables, Dairy & Eggs, Fish & Shellfish, Lean Meats, Fruits & Berries. Then each of the chapters is organized alphabetically by ingredient. Artichokes and asparagus begin the vegetable chapter for example.  This is good if you “read” cookbooks compulsively like I do, but it may be a bit frustrating if you are simply looking something to make for dinner. The index in the back, however, is very useful.

That said, I really like this book. It is one of the first books I added to my collection. We won’t talk about how many years ago that has been.  The recipes are simple, creative and healthy. This book is so loved that it is beginning to fall apart. A good sign for a cookbook!

About half the pages have super quick recipes down the side of the page with gorgeous photos. Unlike the full page recipes, these have the ingredients incorporated right into the directions.  Not every recipe has a photo, but every page does. The photos are beautiful!

Menu – October 29th – November 4th, 2011

Project 365 marches on. I’m currently at 279/365. Only 96 recipes left to go! I have a few weeks left, right? RIGHT?

My menu isn’t 100% finished yet. I still need to figure out what I’ll be doing (extra) for lunches, but I may decide that after I see what fruits and veggies look good at the store. I still have quite a bit of unused produce from this week, so I need to use that up. We don’t need a dessert on the menu this week. There is still leftover (storebought) coffee cake and chocolate rice crispy treats. What? I had marshmallows that weren’t being eaten. *grins*

Grocery List for the week: ham steaks, spinach, lettuce, leeks, rice cakes, chicken broth, ground beef, cucumbers (and a reminder to self to not let them get slimy!), orange chocolate candies

Everything else I will need is either in the freezer or pantry. Looking good here.

I had picked out a bunch of recipes from my Bento cookbooks for this last week and many of them did not get made, so I might just recycle them into this week. There are also some veggies sitting on my kitchen table that I haven’t cooked yet. Delicata squash (oh how I love thee!) and some zucchini that I have no idea what recipe it was supposed to go with. I think the zucchini might get snuck into the spaghetti sauce. Muwahaha….

This week is a tight budget week (damn those day care costs!) but I never let that stop us from eating yummy food… And thank goodness for dollar stores, where I can find chicken broth and ham steaks.  Anyway, on to the menu.

As usual, these are in no particular order. I just write it out this way so that I make sure I have all my bases covered… And like for Monday, which is Halloween, we won’t have a lot of time for preparing dinner, so I’ve planned leftovers.  Add salad and/or a vegetable and bread and the dinners are pretty much complete

Saturday: Fish from Trader Joes? – depends on what they have. OR Navy Bean Soup with Ham (1001 Slow Cooker )and corn bread

Sunday: Scalloped Ham, Potatoes and Leeks (365 One Dish)

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Chicken Drummettes Valencia (365 BBQ) – I have legs in the freezer

Wednesday: Fettuccini with Greens and Caramelized Onion (1001 Low Fat Vegetarian) – put whatever leftover meat we have into hubby’s portion

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Tomato Sauce with Ground Beef (365 Pasta)

Lunches: Tuna and Cucumber on Rice Rounds (365 Low Cal)
Three Mushroom Rice (Bento)
Baked Delicata Squash

Other: Chocolate Cream Muffins (1 Mix 100 Muffins) – with orange chocolates

Feeding the Dragon – Review

Feeding the Dragon – A culinary travelogue through China with recipes

By Mary Kate Tate and Nate Tate. © 2011  A (western, not Chinese) sister and brother team.

The first thing I do when looking at a book such as this is to look at the photographs. This one does not disappoint. The beautiful photos are a mix of both history and modernity.

Chapters are divided by region – Beijing, Hong Kong, Yunnan, Tibet etc. Each begins with a description of the area and personal stories from the authors. There is lots of history included. I particularly liked the piece on “dog on and off the menu”. Dog meat = gou rou. It is believed to be medicinal. Contrary to what westerners might believe, it is truly not that common in China. There are no recipes for dog in the book.

A lot of the recipes would be good for bentos. I have several that I have bookmarked to try, either for dinners or in smaller portions for my lunches.

Stir-fry spinach with Oyster Sauce (Beijing)
Stir-fried Potatoes and Peppers (Beijing)
Radish and Baby Corn Quick Pickles (Fujan)
Corn and Pine Nut Stir Fry (Fujan)
Lemongrass Chicken Wings (Yunnan)
Pineapple Rice (Yunnan)
Chicken Spring Rolls (Hong Kong)
Tibetian Curry Potatoes (Tibet)

In additional to traditional recipes, such as Won Ton Soup and various stir fries, there are also creative recipes that use traditional ingredients in new ways, such as the Lychee Martini. I must try that!

There are a lot of descriptions and how-to methods in the back of the book. There are also sample menus. The glossary of ingredients is extensive.

The book is a great mix of recipes, stories and photos. There are two little things I would change about the book. I would have liked captions to the photos. Also, in addition to the Chinese characters in the recipe titles, I would have liked to know the phonetic, English pronunciations of each as well.