Slow cooking

I have a feeling that this is going to be my sanity this Fall.

Our week nights are being taken up with soccer and I'm not happy about it. True, it's my own doing signing up the kids for this, and honestly, I'm doing it for Wyatt. He's finally old enough and has been begging to play. In hindsight, I should have just signed him up, waiting to put Ethan in baseball in the spring. One kid, one sport a season. I think that will be our plan in the future. I'm so adamant about us having a decent family meal together at our kitchen table. It's so important. With soccer practice and makeup games happening right at the dinner hour (6pm) on the weeknights, we are either stuck grabbing a quick bite out after or eating an early dinner just before. I'm opting for the early dinner as much as possible. To make this happen I need my crock pot.

I have a feeling this website will be my new BFF. I saw it posted on Jen's blog awhile back, but after giving it a closer look, I'm really impressed. This girl is into healthy eating! I've shied away from many crock pot recipes because so many of them out there are full of fat, sodium and processed ingredients. She's really put some thought into her recipes and most of them are gluten free. I'm starting this week with her Pesto Chicken and Sweet Potatoes, Orange Chicken and Sweet Potato Chili (Vegan). I'm thinking the chili would be amazing with some sweet cornbread on top!

Pasta with Chicken Sausage

Do you know how often I come to my own food blog for meal ideas? It's a lot. I like to know what works for us. And this next recipe is one that works!

With our weeks being very busy now with school, soccer, AWANA, and other various activities, often the first thing to go is eating at home. I'm determined to make it happen as much as possible. I'm passionate about my little family sitting around our table as often as possible eating a homecooked meal.

Tonight's one of those nights it would have been very easy to let that go. With Wyatt having soccer practice at 6-7pm, you'd think we'd just run out for a bite to eat after. And I just can't seem to get organized enough to have dinner ready at 5. Maybe that's something I need to work on for the future. But for tonight, I needed something easy to throw together while David took the boys to the soccer field.

This is a recipe that was inspired by a Real Simple recipe. It's quick, easy, and versatile. And most importantly, it passes the kid test. I'm making enough so we'll have leftovers for tomorrow.

Pasta with Chicken Sausage

12 ounces rigatoni (or other desired pasta)
2 tbs. Olive Oil
1 onion, sliced
6 ounces fully cooked chicken sausage links sliced (I prefer the chicken with apple kind)
Broccoli florets or peas if you have them
Parmesan cheese, grated

Optional:
White Wine
Half & Half (Or whole milk or heavy cream if you really want to go for it)
grated fresh nutmeg

Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Cook the onion, stirring often. Let it get nice and brown, about 5 minutes or so. Add the sausage and cook, stirring occasionally until browned. While that's going on, cook pasta according to package directions. For a light, no-heavy sauce pasta, add the broccoli/peas and 1 1/4 cups water and simmer, uncovered, until the broccoli or peas are tender. Toss with the pasta and top with cheese.

Or...if you want a more saucy (and yes, fattening) version, after the sausage is browned, add a few good glugs of white wine and deglaze the pan. Once the wine has almost all been absorbed, add a good amount of your half and half (or milk or cream, or a combo). This is where I'm going to throw all you "exact measurements" people off. Just add as much as you'd like for the amount of sauce you'd like. Keep in mind the more you add the more runny it will be. I'd estimate I add about 1 1/2 -2 cups combo of half and half and 2% milk. Let it simmer a bit to thicken. Add some grated nutmeg. Add the veggies (if you want them) and simmer until tender. Another idea is to add about 1/2 to 1 cup of pumpkin for a wonderful Autumn dish.

Toss with the cooked pasta and top with cheese.

Skip lighting a scented candle that night because your house will smell amazing just from the cooking.

Fresh Vegetable Soup...or as I call it: CSA box soup

I'm doing a soup swap with some friends this week. We're each making a huge batch of soup then dividing it into 5 large portions. We keep one batch for ourselves then when we meet up this week, we all trade our other 4 batches. The idea is that you cook once, but end up with 5 different types of soup for the freezer. As I type I've got two large pots simmering away on the stove.

I love soup. Love all different types. Ever heard of Apple and Parsnip soup? It's amazing. So is Curried Butternut Squash soup.
For me, part of the joy of soup is the making of it. I love the process of taking a bunch of fresh vegetables, chopping them up, sauteing garlic and onions in EVOO, tossing the veggies in, along with some broth, and letting it simmer away.
By far, my favorite soup to make is Fresh Vegetable Soup. I found a great recipe in Cooking Light years ago and I've been making it ever since. Of course, I've added my own little changes. Whenever I make vegetable soup, this is always the version I make. Although I pretty much know how to make it from memory, I still rely on the recipe just to make sure. When I went to find the recipe a few days ago, it was nowhere to be found. I looked high and low to no avail. Did tons of internet searches to find it, but still couldn't come up with the exact one. I was all prepared to just wing it and do it from memory, but decided to make one last attempt and finding it and thankfully it was found, just stuck in between some random cookbooks.

I'm now posing it here so I'll forever have it. No more searching high and low.
The recipe is more of a guide, as all the vegetables listed can be substituted with whatever you have fresh on hand. Thanks to my CSA box, I had a lot of nice goodies to work with. If you have no potatoes on hand, substitute some dried macaroni. To make it even more hearty, add some shredded cooked chicken or ground beef.

Fresh Vegetable Soup

2 Tbs. Olive Oil
2 C. Chopped Onion
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 C. Chopped Celery (about 4 stalks)
2 C. cut green beans
1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels
1 C thinly sliced carrot
1 cup. frozen baby lima beans
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 1/2 cup. peeled and chopped potato
3 teaspoons dried Italian seasonings
4 (14 1/4 ounce) cans organic beef broth or vegetable broth for a vegetarian version
1 (15 oz.) can kidney beans, drained
2 cups chopped seeded tomato
2 cups crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes
2 cups shredded green cabbage
salt to taste
pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese for topping

1. Heat oil in a large pot over med. heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté for 2 min. Stir in celery and next ingredients through tomatoes. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 min.
Add cabbage salt and pepper, cook 5 min. or until cabbage wilts. Serve with cheese.

Mmm...Summer

This is what I LOVE about Summer...all the fresh vegetables.
Being a southern girl, that's what I grew up on in the warmer months. My family reunions are filled with vegetables. Granted, a lot of them are fried, but many are just sliced up as they are.

Our table tonight:
Smashed potatoes
Corn - cut off the cobb with melted butter, salt and pepper
Fried okra (thank you Kara for advising me on how to make it your way, which is the best!)
Sliced tomatoes w/ torn basil, salt and pepper
fresh cantaloupe
Blueberry cornbread






Nothing fancy with the pictures here...just a true to us snapshot of our little family's dinner table. The cantaloupe didn't make it into the shot.

With the exception of the blueberry cornbread, everything came right out of my CSA box. Even right down to the basil. So, not only was everything delish, it was a good feeling to know that our meal tonight didn't have to travel far and by us purchasing it directly from the farmer, we're helping his family out. We explained the concept of buying local to our kids tonight around the dinner table.

And who out there is turning up their noses at the idea of blueberry cornbread? Don't knock it till you try it. It's a recipe from Hans Rueffert's book Eat Like There's No Tomorrow. Haven't heard of him? Check him out. Amazing chef, cancer survivor, and man. I've had the pleasure of meeting him on a few occasions and I really respect the man. I'm not giving you the recipe for the cornbread because I want you to buy his book!
There's some great recipes in there, especially for those who love to make the most of Summer's bounty. And I love the title! For someone who lives to eat, rather than eats to live, it's right up my alley.

Roast Beef Salad with Goat Cheese and Balsamic Vinaigrette

Here's something super easy and requires no cooking for the hot Summer. It's one I adapted from Real Simple Magazine (put my own twist on it). It saved me from serving my family cereal for dinner tonight...not that there's anything wrong with that.

Roast Beef Salad with Goat Cheese and Balsamic Vinaigrette

Toss the following into a salad, or use whatever you have on hand:
good quality mixed greens and romaine lettuce (Boston lettuce works nicely)
sliced tomatoes
cucumbers
carrots
sliced red onion
marinated artichoke hearts
sliced heart of palm

Top with crumbled goat cheese, sliced deli roast beef (warmed up a bit), and a good balsamic vinaigrette or TJ's Tuscan Italian dressing.
Or...make your own dressing of 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, and 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard.

Morning glory muffins

When life gets busy (when is it not??), I need something quick, healthy, and delicious for breakfast. Something that doesn't take long to prepare and something packed with fiber. When I was losing weight a couple of years ago, one thing I was doing was really paying attention to my fiber intake. I didn't watch calories or fat grams so much, but I did aim to eat foods high in rich fiber. It fills me up and evens out my blood sugar keeping me from getting super hungry. I adapted a recipe for "morning glory muffins" from cooking light, making it more of my own creation. These babies have some great ingredients in them such as flax seed, wheat germ, wheat bran and oats. I make a big batch of them and keep them in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag so all I have to do in the morning is heat one up and throw a little Smart Balance on and I'm good to go. I usually try to have a fresh fruit, such as a banana, blueberries, or a peach along with a 8oz. glass of 1% milk. Sometime around 11am I'll also have some string cheese and an apple and I usually hold off on lunch until 1pm. I've heard it said that you have to eat to lose weight. I think that is so true, especially in the morning. I have to eat several times in the morning hours or else I'll be totally famished by 12 and will head for whatever is fast, easy and usually not so healthy. If I start the day off right I'm much more likely to keep it up and eat well throughout the day and not fall prey to sugar cravings.

Oh, and they make a great nighttime snack as well!

So, without further adieu, here's my adapted Morning Glory Muffin recipe:

Tip: Store wheat germ, wheat bran flaxseed and Scottish oats in the refrigerator or freezer in a ziplock bag. I'm able to fit them all into one bag and just grab the whole thing when I need to make the recipe. Keep them in their own individual bags in the larger ziplock bag.

Yield
18 servings (serving size: 1 muffin)

Ingredients
Cooking spray
1 cup whole wheat flour (about 4 3/4 ounces)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (about 2 1/4 ounces) (I use King Arthur's White Wheat)
1 cup regular oats
2/3 cup packed brown sugar (can use less if desired)
1 tablespoon wheat bran
Good pinch of each: ground flax seed, wheat germ, and Scottish oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt (I use 2% Greek Yogurt but you may use fat free plain)
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2)
1 large egg
1 1/2 cup chopped dried fruits (mix and match raisins, blueberries, apples, cranberries, cherries...whatever you have on hand)
3/4 cup chopped nuts (I prefer pecans. Walnuts are nice as well)
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed (about 2 tablespoons whole)
3 tablespoons wheat germ
3 tablespoons Scottish oats

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.

Place 18 muffin cups liners in muffin cups; coat liners with cooking spray.

Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flours and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine yogurt, banana, and egg; add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in dried fruits and nuts. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle evenly with a mixture of the flaxseed, wheat germ and Scottish oats. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pans immediately; cool on a wire rack.

Turnips

I got a lot of goodies from Farmer Chad today, but my favorite was the turnips. Yes, I said was. Eventhough I was starving by the time I returned home after running errands, I waited to eat until I could boil those babies until tender, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and dig right in.

I sure do love turnips.
Why do people turn their little noses up at them?

I don't get picky eaters.