Waste Not, Want Not...

Have you ever been at the grocery store, looking for shredded cabbage, and not being able to find it? It's not just me, right? I didn't need a whole head, just a couple of cups, and my usual grocery store didn't have any pre-shredded, even though I KNOW that they usually carry it. Anyway, I was annoyed, but not annoyed enough (or desperate enough) to buy a whole head of cabbage, so I searched the packaged salads, and there it was: napa cabbage salad kit. The only problem was that I didn't need the "extras": the salad dressing and the crispy chow mein noodles and almonds, but I'd figure something out. I ran home, happy that I found at least a substitute for what I was looking for, Is it weird that I get this worked up over grocery items? Don't answer that...I know the answer already! :-)












I can't even remember the recipe I was making that required the cabbage, but I do remember those stupid chow mein noodles and how they hung out in the kitchen for an annoyingly long time, but I couldn't just throw them away. I was raised to not waste food. You know, being made to sit at the table until all of your food was gone and all that. Our family knew what leftovers were and ate them regularly. As a matter of fact, my mom made big pots of soup, COUNTING on the fact that we would eat it over three days. Planned leftovers before it was a thing, people.

The offending chow mein noodles, just sitting there,mocking me:

So, I had these chow mein noodles, really just a cupful, but I couldn't just toss them out. One night, I had a craving for sweets (who am I kidding, I crave sweets every night), and remembered my friend's haystacks candies. It's really just melted butterscotch chips, stirred with chow mein noodles. I think she puts mini marshmallows in there, too...or maybe that was my grandma, but either way, they are good! I happened to have about 1/4 cup of butterscotch chips, and it wasn't enough to mix with the chow mein noodles, but it got me started on a bit of a Frankenstein experiment to make chocolate-butterscotch-dried fruit-chow mein noodle haystacks. Sounds monstrous, but they were really good! I really just melted the chips together, then started adding stuff until it looked like everything would hold together.

I melted the chocolate and butterscotch chips using the microwave (low power, a couple of minutes, stirring and heating until everything is melted and smooth). I think I had about 2/3 cup melted all together. And yes, some of those golden raisins made it in the mix, too.

In go the noodles, but there was too much chocolate, so I started adding more stuff...

Peanuts:

Cornflakes (Don't mock. Nigella Lawson does it):

Keep stirring until everything has a good chocolate coating on it so that it will stick together into little mounds. I used two spoons to scoop and shape everything. The hardest part was waiting until the chocolate hardened, but it didn't take too long, maybe 20 minutes or so.

 This particular "recipe" made about 9 good-sized mounds,so adjust accordingly if you want to make more or less. If you are inspired to experiment with this, let me know what combinations you come up with!

Comfort Food and Snow Days

The Washington, DC area is in the grip of a huge snowstorm...or at least huge for us. Our town got about 3 feet over two days. This area is not used to getting large amounts of snow, especially in just one snow event, so things are pretty much shut down. Even the snow plows gave up at one point. Some of the private contractors, who plow many of the neighborhoods' private streets, reportedly ran out of gas and gas stations were either not open or out of gas. Things have come to a standstill.

So here we are, stuck inside (not really, since we've gone out to shovel and we have lots of neighbors to visit if we wanted), but during really cold weather, people turn to comfort food.  This time, I kind of made up my own thing with grits, cheese, eggs and bacon. It might be a thing somewhere, but I haven't heard of it, so I'm going with it.  :-) The boys were outside playing, and I wanted to give them something that would warm their insides physically and emotionally.

It was super simple to make. I baked the bacon, cooked instant grits (I'm sure Southerners are rolling their eyes, but I'm not a Southerner so I have no real reference for grits, so these are fine with me), stirred some cheese into them, topped with a fried egg and put a little hot sauce on for good measure. Easy, peasy!  We all liked it, and we don't have to worry so much about the calories, since we have a boatload of snow to move. :-)

Give it a try and let me know what you think!


Cheesy Grits with Eggs


4 slices of bacon
1 cup instant grits
approximately 3/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
4 eggs
salt and pepper (to taste)
hot sauce (optional)

Fry up the bacon (I baked mine: 375 degree oven, put bacon on parchment-lined pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until cooked). Make grits according to package directions. After the grits have cooked, stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese and stir until melted. Set aside.
























Heat non-stick frying pan and add a little oil or butter. Crack 4 eggs into pan and fry, keeping the yolk soft, but the white cooked through and opaque. Crack some pepper and sprinkle salt over them if you like.

To serve: spoon grits into 4 shallow bowls. Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top of the grits, then add one egg to each serving bowl. Top with crumbled bacon and hot sauce, if desired. We didn't have any (our fresh veggies are starting to dwindle), but a handful of baby spinach or kale would be good on top of the grits as well.

Serves 4

New Year, New Resolutions

Every year, I make resolutions, and pretty much every year I stop following through after a month or two. And, of course, I resolve the next year to be better at the follow through. Yup. I am pretty much delusional, but I keep doing it, because I am always the optimist.

This year, my resolution, at least food-wise, is to cut down on my sugar intake. I have a horrible sweet tooth, and if there is candy in the house, I will almost always eat it, especially if it's chocolate. This year, though, I have a strategy, and hopefully posting it up on my blog will help me be accountable to you all! That's not to say I won't make some yummy sweets and post them, but the day-to-day sugar consumption is going to go down.

Here is my plan to keep on track this year:

1) Drink more water  - I figure if I'm swallowing water, I can't be swallowing sugar. To help me do this, I bought some shrubs from Spiker's (http://spikersshrubs.com/). Even though it has a little sugar, it helps when water is just too blah (although I like drinking water, every once in a while you want a little flavor). I add a little bit to my water, and it gives it a little zing. Plus, apparently the cider vinegar acts as a sort of "detoxifier" if you ascribe to that sort of thing. Also, there's Sassy Water, which I have posted about before.

2) Have other, healthier snacks available -- That means slicing up some red pepper, cucumbers, etc and having them in the fridge. The easier it is to have those snacks, the less I'll grab the sweet stuff.

3) Put away the sweets -- I have boys who are very active, and while they generally eat well and make healthy choices, I also don't want to be that house that doesn't have tasty treats available. I grew up in a house that didn't have a lot of sugary stuff, so I craved it when it was offered to me somewhere else. I want the kids to have the option now and again, because, sweets are not evil. Moderation is key. Besides, what kids are going to want to come to the house that has kale chips to munch on? Although, Elliot actually really likes kale chips, so maybe that's not the greatest example, but you know what I'm getting at. However, often, "out of sight, out of mind" works for me. So, if I put away the sweets, I won't think about it. We have a "snack box" in the pantry so the kids can easily grab a snack from there (it usually has granola bars and such), but I will also put baked goods in the freezer. The more effort it takes to get to the treats, the less likely I am to eat them, plus I don't have to worry about them going stale after a couple of days on the counter.

4) Eat more veggies. They fill you up, and the fiber means it takes your body longer to process it, which means you'll feel full longer and not feel the need to snack as much over all. One of the recipes I'm eager to try out it this one: Sheet Pan Spaghetti Squash Puttanesca.

 5) Stop buying myself treats. I know this seems like a "duh" thing to add to the list, but I need to be firm on this and not even have it as an option anymore. I am the worst if there's a candy bar on sale (especially the really good ones with interesting flavors), and I'll justify buying it, telling myself that I'll share it with my husband or the kids (I rarely do). So I need to be firm with myself and just draw that line in the sand that I will not cross.

So, there's my plan. I'm off to a good start already, I think. Well, sort of. I made cupcakes for our New Year's celebration, and we have a few left. Even though I've given some away, they are too good to just toss, so they are still around. BUT, I am also focusing on the water thing, which means I need to sign off and re-fill my glass! Do you have any food resolutions for the new year? Tell me about it!

Chicken and Quinoa Hot Dish (Casserole)

I don't know if Minnesotans are famous for hot dishes, but I do know that they are kind of famous for calling casseroles (how pretty much everyone else in America calls them) "hot dishes", which I like because it's more homey and descriptive. But then, I grew up in Minnesota. :-)

Hot dishes are usually full of cheese and creamy goodness (with maybe a can of creamed soup thrown in for good measure), so I thought I'd try to lighten things up a little. True to form, this recipe is a little of this and a little of that, since I needed to use up a few things after we'd been gone for a couple of days and I hadn't gotten to the grocery store before I had to think about dinner. That being said, it's easy enough to switch things up a little. Don't like arugula (which can be too bitter for some)? Substitute kale or spinach. Don't have quinoa? You could substitute pasta, millet, farro or some other grain. I think this would be great with leftover wild rice as well! Just be sure to adjust liquids accordingly (or cook the grain before adding it to the mix).

Also, don't worry about drying the greens before adding them to the bowl. The extra moisture will get absorbed by the quinoa as it cooks. Letting the hot dish "rest" for 10 minutes is also important to help set everything.


But really, this hot dish couldn't be easier to make; just throw everything in a large bowl, stir to combine, then put in the dish and bake.

This is definitely comfort-food worthy, but a little healthier than the typical hot dish. Enjoy!

Chicken and Quinoa Hot Dish

2 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cooked and cut into bite-sized cubes (or cooked, leftover chicken), about 2 cups
1 cup quinoa
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons Pampered Chef Parmesan Garlic seasoning
15 oz ricotta cheese (I used part skim)
about 10 fresh basil leaves
1 bunch arugula, cleaned and chopped (thick stems removed) (you can substitute spinach or kale or chard - any combination of greens, really)
zest and juice from 1 lemon
1/2 c grated Parmesan, plus more for top


Stir everything together and put in an 8x8 in baking dish. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes, stirring everything about halfway through. Remove the foil, grate additional Parm on top, increase the oven temp to 400 and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Note: If you want to cut the baking time in half, pre-cook the quinoa, but I like the slight crunch of the quinoa when it's baked like this.

Makes 4-5 servings

So. Much. Squash!

It was our first year planting a real vegetable garden (as opposed to just herbs), and to be honest, it's been a mixed bag. For some reason, the beans I planted never came up, but the peas were great. I also was late getting tomatoes in, but our yellow squash produced like crazy. Even at this late date, I'm still getting green peppers, so I kept the plant, even though I've cleared out everything else. I started a late fall/winter crop of collard greens, kale, spinach and brussels sprouts, but I think the rabbits are getting to those, despite our attempts to keep them away. Stupid rabbits.

I know it's kind of late in the season for a "summer" squash recipe, but because this would make a great appetizer, I thought I would post it now. Plus, I know you can still get summer squash in some areas, so it is still useful. :-) We had these for a light dinner, but they would be impressive as an appetizer as well (just make them smaller, more bite-sized).

 Because my squashes had such knobby skin, I peeled them a little before I grated them, but I doubt you'll have that problem. Turns out, I left them on the vine too long. Live and learn, I guess.



Summer Squash Fritters with Herbed Cream and Smoked Trout


For the fritters:

1 lb of summer squash, grated (to get about 3 cups)
3 scallions, chopped fine
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl until fully-incorporated. Heat a skillet over medium heat, add about 1 tbsp of oil to pan and let that heat up for about 30 seconds. Drop about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake on the skillet and cook about 2 minutes, then flip. Cook another 2 minutes (each side of the pancake should be golden brown).

Herbed Cream:

1 cup sour cream of plain Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Chill until ready to use.

To serve:

8 oz smoked trout
2 radishes, julienned
Herbed cream

On top of each fritter, dollop about 2 teaspoons of the herbed cream, then flake some of the smoked trout on top, followed by a few of the julienned radishes.



As a light entree, this recipe served 4, with about 2-3 pancakes per person. To make as an appetizer, just make smaller fritters (say, 1 tbsp of batter versus the 1/4 cup for "full-sized).

Chocolate Raspberry Ice Box Cake

September has taken this household by storm. Between sports practices, PTA meetings and events, Bible study and school (I was subbing on the first day of school, go figure), it's been a crazy month. This is my way of apologizing for not posting this sooner.

Remember how I was going to experiment with ice box cakes this summer? And remember how I've only posted one so far? Yeah, that's exactly how it goes with my summer plans. I was also going to knock out a couple more chapters in my novel, and that didn't happen, either. And have the kids to a little bit of school work (at least some reading) every day, too. Never happened.

Anyway, I did manage to make another ice box cake. This flavor combination was at my older son's request. He really likes the chocolate-berry flavor combination. The marshmallow topping in the whipped cream may sound a little random, and that's because it is. I'm STILL trying to use that stuff up (FYI, it can be used for fluffernutter sandwiches in a pinch)! Anyway, if you don't happen to have it on hand, you could probably skip it and just add a little powdered sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla to flavor the whipped cream before folding in the raspberries.

But this is what we ended up with, and it tasted really yummy!

Here are the ingredients (most of them, anyway - I just realized that I didn't get the fresh raspberries in there):

I used seedless raspberry jam, because I thought there would be plenty of seeds with the fresh raspberries. The cookie thins were really good, but if you can't find them, you could probably use the Nabisco Chocolate wafers. Also, if you smash a few of the raspberries before folding them into the whipped cream, it makes the cream a little easier to smooth out.

We really enjoyed this cake! We served it with a few extra fresh raspberries scattered over the top and a drizzle of chocolate sauce, just for effect. :-) Let me know what you think!



Chocolate Raspberry Ice Box Cake

2 cups whipping cream
6 Tbsp Marshmallow topping
1/8 cup of seedless raspberry jam
1 pint fresh raspberries, rinsed
2 - 4 oz packages of Mrs. Thinster's Cookie Thins (Brownie Batter)

Make sure the whipping cream is really cold. You can also put your bowl and whisk (or whisk or beaters of your mixer) into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. Pour cream into bowl and whip with mixer until it holds its shape (about 1-2 minutes). Add marshmallow topping and raspberry jam to whipped cream. Whip again until topping and jam are incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Add 1 cup raspberries to whipped cream, fold the berries to incorporate.

Spread 1/4 cup of cream onto serving platter. Place a single layer of cookies on top of the cream.

Spread about a cup of whipped cream on top of cookies, but leaving a border so you can still see edges of cookies. Top with more cookies. You can put broken cookies in the middle, since you won't see those anyway.

Continue with the layering, ending with whipped cream. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (and up to 24). Use extra raspberries for garnish and top it off with an extra cookie.
 

This serves about 6, but you could easily double the ingredients, using more cookies for each layer.

What I did on my summer vacation: Indiana Road Trip!

It's hard to believe that summer is already coming to a close and the kids are back in school! I'm not sure if any of their teachers will assign them a "What I did this summer" essay, but you never know. To commiserate with their going back to school, I am going to share with you our summer trip. Enjoy.

Not to brag or anything, but our big family trip this summer was a road trip to Indiana. Yep. I know you are all super jealous. I have to admit, though, I love taking road trips with the kids. They are awesome travelers, and no one really gets car sick anymore (we hedge our bets with Dramamine for E). Plus, I love road food. Seriously. Planning the snacks, mapping out (literally) food places to stop at along the way, those are the things that I like when it comes to road-tripping. I am all about the journey. Unfortunately, my husband is more about the "let's just get there as quickly as possible" kind of road-tripper. We manage to peacefully coexist, as long as we plan the route ahead of time. :-)

So, "Why Indiana?" you might be asking yourself. And that is a great question, since Indiana, unless you have friends/family there, seems like an unlikely destination state.  Here's how it went down:
my son has a good friend, with whom he plays soccer. This friend's dad used to play soccer for Indiana University and still has connections to the IU soccer staff. So, he asked us if our son would like to go to the IU soccer camp this summer, and he (our son) said "Heck yeah!" That is not exactly what he said, but he was excited. The camp was 5 days, so one of us could take him, but it's a long enough drive that it wouldn't be worth it to go out and back then out and back again to pick him up, so as long as one person was driving him out and staying, we figured all of us could go. And that, my friends, is how we ended up going to Indiana for our summer trip.

This is M, on the day we dropped him off at camp.

Now, my husband also went to Indiana University, but at a different time than our friend, but he was excited to take a look at the campus and see how things have changed. A lot, apparently, because my main task when we actually got to Bloomington was to make sure we didn't get into a wreck, since Jonathan kept looking this way and that, saying, "Wow! I can't believe how much everything has changed!" and "See that [bar/restaurant/store]? When I was in school, it was half that size [or in a different location, or in the basement]." It was fun to see him get excited about being back, though.

Of course, we spent some time hanging around the IU campus and shopping in the book store. Hence, this photo:




 The kid has never met a hat he didn't like. I think it should be used on their next catalog cover, personally. :-)

Also, as a middle-aged woman trying to buy a t-shirt in a college book store, let me just tell you how depressing it was. Most designs were cut for young, thin girls who don't have boobs or hips, or a waist. I ended up in the "unisex" section hoping to find something that worked. I never did find anything but a sweatshirt. You can hardly go wrong with that, I guess.

A lot of my friends teased me that my Facebook posts all centered around food, but I was really just posting our meals, of which we eat three each day, but apparently it was a lot. :-)


 Anyway, we dropped our oldest son off on campus, got his room organized, then took off, because he was going to start a training session almost right away. It was a pretty serious camp.

The night before, we went to a place called Nick's, which is as divey a place as you can get, and I've been to dives. Again, we went more for nostalgia than actual decent food, but their fries were really good. :-)

Because my husband went to IU, there was a lot of nostalgia eating (see above photo). Our next stop on the nostalgia tour was Mother Bear's, a pizza place. Apparently, they moved their location, but the pizza was as good as Jonathan remembered. For some reason, I didn't get a picture of the pizza (we probably ate it too fast), but I did get a pic of my youngest goofing off (imagine that).

Our next full day was spent hiking over in Brown County, adjacent to Bloomington.  It is a beautiful area, and I could just imagine how gorgeous it is in the fall, with all the leaves changing colors. We did an easy hike though Brown County State Park, which was about a 45 minute drive from Bloomington. They have a number of different trails, but we took one of the easier ones, since it was quite hot out.

I wanted to keep going to the end of the trail, but when part of the trail crossed over the road that led back to our car, the boys decided they had had enough. Babies.

 After our hike, though, we were all pretty hungry and hot, so we drove a little further over to Columbus, IN, a pretty little town with a lot of cute shops and restaurants along its main street. We had lunch at Zaharakos, an authentic soda fountain that's been in operation since 1909. They make their own ice cream right there in the basement, as well as their own syrups for fresh-made sodas. This place was really cool!

There are the counter servers, making our sodas that we had with lunch. The main event, though, is the ice cream. I had a chocolate malt, Elliot just got ice cream in a waffle cone (that they made fresh while we were watching, NBD), and Jonathan had a sundae. All of the ice creams were outstanding, although I had a taste of the butter pecan, which was amazing!! We also really liked the dreamsicle and the cookies and cream.






We liked it so much, we stopped there a second time on our way home so that M would have a chance to experience it.

 The next day we spent walking around Bloomington, which has a really lovely town square. We discovered WonderLab, a really neat science museum for kids. They had a bubble room (yes, dedicated to all types of bubble creation), including this big contraption that made huge bubbles!

They also had a bed of nails and cool climbing structure that E loved.

While we were walking around downtown, we also discovered Square Donuts, just a block away from the hotel.  Holy cow! Were they good! Even though there was breakfast included in our hotel price, it was totally worth going to Square Donuts for breakfast one of those days!















Also near our hotel in the downtown area of Bloomington was Bub's Burgers. Our first time there we had ice cream, but we eventually ate there.They have this thing called the Big Ugly, a burger challenge. We did not get that. Instead, we got the sweet potato waffle fries (with marshmallow creme, natch), which were really good!

I also got the portobello mushroom burger. So good! I was so excited to eat it, I forgot to take a picture until it was half gone! So, this really doesn't do it justice. The mushroom cap was so flavorful and juicy, though. I highly recommend it if you go to Bub's.













Sweet Grass Restaurant  was another place we tried out. We were really happy with the salads. At this point, our bodies were rebelling against all things fried, grilled and fatty, so we stuck with salads. Really delish!

We also spent a full day in Indianapolis, about an hour from Bloomington. Personally, I thought at trip to the Indianapolis Speedway would be waste (I am not a race car gal), but I found it really interesting. We didn't spring for the full tour, opting to just walk around the museum part, but it was still fun.

Next, we spent some time at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Can we say Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Hot Wheels? Mommy totally wins an award for this one!

There was also this really cool exhibit sponsored by National Geographic about ancient cultures and archaeology. They had actual artifacts from 1200 B.C. Egypt (and older) on display! Really amazing for a kids' museum, if you ask me. Here's E pretending to dive into submerged ruins to discover pirate's booty.

Back in Bloomington, we spent another day wandering around the town. We discovered that near the Chocolate Moose, food trucks set up shop every Friday. Although it was pretty hot outside, we still enjoyed the arepas from Juancho's Munchies, and the BBQ from Great White Smoke. Of course, E got ice cream (at this point, we have given up all parental guidelines for what constitutes "healthy" and "meals").

I have to admit, I didn't have huge hopes for our road trip, but was pleasantly surprised by Bloomington, Indiana. Nice people, really good food, and fun things to do. If you find yourself going through there (or making a special trip) you will find yourself well fed and definitely not bored!  Hope you had a fun summer, too!