Category: Food

Lately Ajax has become a waffle monster.  I’m not sure when it happened.  Our general morning routine has evolved into Ajax proclaiming loudly (from his bed) that he is done sleeping and ready to get up.  He will sit in his bed until either Dave or myself go in to get him.  We then change his diaper and get him dressed before he tears off into the living room and throws himself onto the couch, the whole time yelling- bring my milk to me and I want a waffle, too.  He generally phrases this request in some type of command.  Dave or I then yell back – what do you say!  Ajax will then scream – please!  WAFFLE! MILK! PLEASE!  What a polite little boy.

Well, my son’s waffle kick has gotten quite out of control. Not only are Eggos expensive, but they are also loaded with sugar and poor ingredients.  With Dave, myself, and Ajax eating them in the morning, I couldn’t reasonably keep my family in Eggos.   So today Dave stopped at the store and bought us a waffle maker.  I am now making a double batch of whole wheat waffles.  Ajax may go into shock in the morning and decide he no longer wants waffles, lol.   We shall see.

I’ve wanted to make my own granola for a while now, but all the recipes I came across contained about 12 to 15 ingredients.  Not only were there a ton of ingredients, but they were things that I never kept in my house.  When I found this recipe I was instantly won over by its simplicity, as it only contains 8 ingredients!   I got this recipe from Kitchenstewardship.com and highly recommend it.  Dave and I have been using it in our yogurt and it is wonderful.  Ajax helped me make it and kept sneaking almonds.  He’s my little kitchen helper.  I wonder if he’ll enjoy cooking as he gets older?

On a side note: I was also able to put up over a dozen jars of diced tomatoes and about seven jars of homemade red sauce – all from my garden!  I even put up three jars of jam with some fruit that was ripening a little too quick for us to eat it.

Onto the recipe!

Ingredients:

Mix well:

• 3 c oats
• 1/2 c sunflower seeds (I omitted these because I didn’t have them)
• 1/2 c nuts (I used sliced almonds)
• 1/2 c coconut
• I added a healthy dose of wheat germ!

Mix well:

• 1/4 c oil (melted coconut oil)
• 1/4 c honey
• 1/6 c water
• 1 tsp vanilla

Method:

Combine already mixed wet and dry ingredients together and stir well.  Pour into 9×13 pan or a cookie sheet.    Toast in a 350 degree oven.  Stir after 10 minutes, then more frequently until browned (every 5 minutes). Make sure to mix it well and evenly.  Store in an airtight container.

Add ins:  ground flax , wheat germ , sesame seeds , dried fruit (after baking) , cinnamon.

I was able to do a lot of cooking this past weekend and wanted to share a new favorite: Pizza Pockets (from Heavenly Homemakers).   I really like this recipe because it is incredibly simple.  I would recommend this for anyone who has never made pizza pockets or the like, as the dough is very easy to use and manipulate.  I was able to put together over a dozen of these and clean up the kitchen while Ajax napped!

Crust

• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used 1 1/2 cup white flour and 2 cups whole wheat)
  1 teaspoon sea salt
  1 cup melted butter
  1 cup plain yogurt
• Stir ingredients together until thoroughly mixed.  You can make these pockets right away.  (The dough will be difficult to mix with a spoon, I started with a spoon then just used my hands).

Pizza Sauce

• 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
  1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  1 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  1 1/2 teaspoon basil
• Stir together and simmer for a few minutes.   I just used canned sauce 🙂

Pizza Pocket Fillings

• Grated mozzarella or white cheddar cheese, cooked hamburger, pepperoni, olives, peppers, mushrooms

To form a Pizza Pocket

• Roll a small ball of dough into a circle (about the size of a golf ball or ping pong ball).  Place one tablespoon of pizza sauce in the center.  Put in a small amount of your choice of toppings.  Fold the dough in half.  Use a fork to pinch the edges together.
• Lay Pizza Pockets on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (I didn’t have parchment paper and just put them right on the cookie sheet and they came off fine).  Freeze for about one hour.  Pop them off the cookie sheet and put them into a freezer bag…and back into the freezer.

Bake your Pizza Pockets

• For frozen Pizza Pockets, bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.  If the Pizza Pockets are thawed, bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I was also able to pick two buckets of tomatoes and made my own tomato sauce!  I have never peeled tomatoes before and it did take a bit of trial and error for me to get the hang of it… oh and I inadvertently ruined one of my pots.  Apparently you shouldn’t work with high acid items and Teflon.   Anywho, I was able to make four jars of the sauce and freeze it.  I’m super pumped and pretty proud!   For some reason though I was surprised that it didn’t taste like Ragu or something… but it was very good.

I wasn’t sure what to make for dinner.  I didn’t feel like beef or chicken, and I was tired.  I was so tired that I narrowed my dinner choice to anything that would involve my trusty crockpot.   I remembered that I had lentils in the pantry and immediately thought of this recipe.

This is an excellent soup that totally works for the crockpot.   My friend Erica initially gave me the recipe and then I also found one on Allrecipe.com – this variation is a combination of the two with my two cents thrown in.   It is excellent and makes a ton.  Dave and my parents loved it, as well as Ajax, who even enjoyed the lentils.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage (use 1 lb of sausage)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped (I omitted this, only because I didn’t have it on hand)
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic (I have chopped garlic and just tossed in a bit, no where near 1 tbl)
• 1 lb dry lentils, rinsed (one bag)
• 1 cup shredded carrot (I let Ajax toss in a dozen or so baby carrots, he helped)
• 8 cups water (I only added about 3 cups of water)
• 2 cans chicken broth (I used veggie as I was out of chicken)
• 1 can diced tomatoes (I used seasoned Italian tomatoes w/ basil, oregano, etc)
• 1 can of RoTel tomatoes with green chilies
• 2 bay leaves (I actually forgot to add the bay leaves, opps)
• Seasonings to taste- salt, black pepper, cumin, paprika, basil, powdered mustard, red pepper flakes… whatever
• Fresh spinach (washed, cut up), about three big handfuls, I didn’t measure
  

Directions

1. Place sausage in a large pot. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Add onion, celery and chopped garlic, and sauté until tender and translucent. Stir in lentils, carrot, water, chicken broth and tomatoes. Season with garlic powder, parsley, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover, and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until lentils are tender.
2. Stir in pasta, and cook 15 to 20 minutes, or until pasta is tender. (The original recipe called for pasta, I didn’t add pasta).
3. Basically – I threw everything into the crockpot and stirred it up.  I mashed up the sausage, breaking it up a bit.   I cooked it on low for about 6 hours, maybe a little less.  Toward the end of the cook time I threw in the can of tomatoes with green chilies for some zing.  Although this is a crockpot meal, I found you have to kind of watch this soup so that it doesn’t get too dry.   This, however, may just be a quirk of my crockpot which runs super hot even on low.  I served this with tostitos.
   

I found this recipe on one of my coupon blogs (A Few Shortcuts) and decided to make it for dinner tonight.  It seemed like the right amount of comfort needed on a cold Sunday.   Dave and I, however, are renaming this – Hilly billy Goulash – because by all accounts it was basically goulash, delicious, but goulash nonetheless.

Ajax pushed it around his plate and screamed throughout the majority of dinner for some reason.  We had to keep bargaining with him.  One bite of bread, two bites of dinner, so on and so forth.  Luckily Ajax can’t count and ended up eating about half his meal on this system (I served it with home made butterhorns and mixed veggies).

Ingredients

• 1 box macaroni
• 2 cans diced tomatoes (One of my cans of tomatoes had Italian seasonings in it, which worked out fine)
• 1 Small can tomato sauce
• 1 can chili beans (I used mild chili beans which gave it a nice zing)
• ½ cup diced onion
• ½ cup diced bell pepper ( or just by the frozen pepper onion mix)
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tsp. (+-) chili powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• Dash pepper
• Shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
• Ended up adding more spices.

Directions

• Boil macaroni until al dente (about 5 min). You want it to finish cooking in the chili!
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• In skillet cook and crumble ground beef, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Until done.
• Add seasonings, tomatoes, and chili beans. Bring to a simmer.
• In large casserole dish, layer macaroni and Chili. It is easier to mix together this way.
• Top with shredded cheddar cheese if desired.
• Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and serve!
• Serves at least 6! (I actually made two complete casseroles with this and froze one for later).

No picture.  Taking food pictures is really hard.  Dave said the photo was so bad and unappetizing that it could not be published.  So, trust me, this was pretty darn good.

My recipe box was beginning to look dreadful.  It had gotten so bad that I couldn’t find my favorite recipes, things were misfiled, and whenever I needed to think of what to make for dinner the box didn’t lend itself to pursing the various meal categories.  Over the last two nights I set upon the task of organizing my recipes into a more accessible book and am pretty proud of the results.  Ajax helped by tossing all the little scrapes of paper and found this game to be quite enjoyable.  What a little helper.  On a side note although I know the Doctor said his ear was improving, he’s still been in a mood and a bit frustrated.  I’m hoping that he starts to feel better soon and hope he’s not coming down with a cold or anything.

Ajax and I made homemade cinnamon buns.   This was my first time making cinnabuns, I always thought they were too fancy and complicated to make, but they were really quite easy!  I of course got the recipe from Family Circle and you can find it here.  It’s way to long to copy but I didn’t change a thing in making it.  It even made enough  for me to freeze a batch for later.

You know when you have to think of something for dinner and your tank is just on empty and you’re all out of ideas?  You kind of stare blankly at your pantry and wonder if you can get away with feeding your family cereal… Well that’s how I felt last night when I stumbled across this magical recipe.   I found it in Family Circle and at first I must admit I was not immediately won over.  In fact, I thought- well, that doesn’t look terribly appealing, but I do seem to have all the ingredients…

Now I know I’m not really selling this meal, so let me throw this out there – it was awesome, easy and foolproof.   I kept thinking – this is better than it has any right to be.  And you know what?  It was even better today for lunch.  Dave fully agreed and seconded the “better than it had any right to be” thought.  Ajax also thought it was tasty and ate quite well.

I must admit of all the magazines I get Family Circle is the one that consistently has the best recipes that work for my family. So here I am sharing!  I put my changes in italics to do with as you please!

Ingredients

• 1 tbs unsalted butter
• 1 small onion chopped
• 8 ounces mushrooms (cleaned, chopped)(I didn’t add mushrooms as Dave isn’t a fan)
  
• 2 lb boneless beef chunk, cut into pieces (be sure to cut them into really small pieces, they’ll be more tender)
• 4 tbs all-purpose flour
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 can beef broth
• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbs country-style Dijon mustard
• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into pieces
• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• Cooked egg noodles

Directions

• Heat butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion and mushroom and cook 5 min. Transfer to a bowl.
• Meanwhile, toss beef w/ 3 tbl spoon flour (I also added a dash of garlic salt, powdered mustard, and black pepper).   Add 1 tbl oil to the pot and increase heat to medium-high.   Add half the beef and cook 2 min, browning on all sides.  Transfer to bowl w/ onions and mushrooms.  Add remaining tbl oil and second half of beef to the pot.   Cook 2 min, browning on all sides.  Transfer to bowl; reduce heat to medium.
• Add ¾ cup of beef broth to the pot.  Whisk in Worcestershire and mustard (I substituted spicy brown mustard for Dijon and added another squirt of yellow mustard), scraping up any brown bits on bottom of the pan.   Add mixture from bowl back to the pot along w/ remaining broth.   Cover and simmer on low for 15 min.
• Uncover and stir in carrots.   Cover and cook an add’l 45 min.
• In small bowl, sitr together 2 tbl water, the remaining tbl flour, rosemary (I used basil), salt, and pepper.  Stir into stew and cook 3 min, until thickened.  I also added about 1/2 – 1 cup of frozen corn. Serve w/ noodles (I used long grain rice instead of noodles and it was great!).

Here’s my advice.  Run, don’t walk to your kitchen and make this right now.  Go.

I found this recipe in The Family Circle, December 2010 issue and it is incredible.  Dave and I were almost fighting over who would get the leftovers for lunch the next day (Dave was a true sport and let me have it).  I made a few changes in italics.  This was an incredibly easy meal, ready in minutes!

Ingredients-

• 4 slices thick bacon
• 1 package Kraft Homestlye Deluxe Old World Italian Mac and Cheese dinner w/ Parmesan and Romano Cheese Sauce (this must be new I’d never seen it before, but when I sent Dave to the store for it, he came home with it… so there you go)
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 cups frozen sliced carrots
• 1 and 1/2 cups diced rotisserie chicken
• 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbl butter, melted

Directions-

• Heat oven to 375.  Remove bread crumb topping from Mac and Cheese dinner; save for another time.
• I didn’t have a rotisserie chicken on hand, so I cooked 4 pieces of bacon in a pan on the stove.  I made them pretty crispy.  Once done I removed and placed on a plate lined with paper towel.  I then took about 2 cups of diced chicken and cooked them in the bacon oil over medium-high heat; set aside.
  
• In a large pan boil 6 cups of water, stir in macaroni and cook for about 7 minutes.  Drain.
• In a medium bowl, combine contents of cheese sauce pouch, cream cheese, milk, garlic salt, and pepper.  Microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring every 20 seconds or so, till sauce is smooth.
• In large bowl, combine macaroni, carrots (I didn’t have frozen carrots so I omitted these), and chicken.  Crumble up the bacon into little bits and add that too.  Fold in the sauce, stir well.  Transfer to 2 quart casserole dish.
• In a small bowl, stir together bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and melted butter; sprinkle over top.  I also added some Panko bread crumbs because they make it better.
• Bake for 20 – 25 min. or till golden and bubbling.

Sunday night Dave requested homemade chicken pot pie for dinner.  The weather is getting cold and they are predicting snow by Wednesday, so yes, a comfy meal was certainly in order.   I made pot pie and a salad, with a helper.   Ajax loves to help make salad and then he actually ate the salad!   He had a small serving, along with sweet potatoes, peas, and a few bites of chicken.  Dave’s contribution to dinner was mashed potatoes with bacon and horseradish.   What a feast!

From Allrecipes.com here’s the greatest recipe you should try –

I won’t lie.  I don’t know what a “butterhorn” is.  It’s a silly word really, but oh so delicious.  I found the recipe on Money Saving Mom and thought why am I spending all this money on Pillsbury biscuits and crescent rolls when I could make and freeze my own (except for the obvious reason of saving time, lol)?

I came to this conclusion because honestly I eat a lot of bread.  I just don’t feel a meal is complete without some sort of bread situation.  I’m Italian.  Ajax also appears to feel this way.  He loved the butterhorns!  He crammed so much into his mouth that every time he tried to ask for “more ” – little bits kept falling out!  Dave does not feel the need to complete every meal with bread, but he too agreed that these things were excellent!

In addition to butterhorns, we also had a mini-freezer cooking day on Sunday- making 17 rice and bean burritos for lunches and 4 meals of gringo enchiladas!  Yum!

Make-Ahead Butterhorns (makes 32 rolls)
2 Tablespoons dry yeast, heaping
1/3 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
9 cups flour, divided (you can use any mixture of white or whole-wheat flour you’d like)
2 cups warm milk (110-115 degrees)
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar (we substituted sucanat)
6 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
3-4 Tablespoons butter, melted

Dissolve yeast in water. Add 4 C. flour, milk, butter, sugar, eggs, and salt.  Beat till smooth.  Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.   Turn onto floured surface and knead lightly.  Place in a grease bowl, turn once.  Place in warm place, cover and let rise – 1 – 3 hours.   Punch down.  Divide into 4 equal parts.  Roll each part into a 12-inch circle, brush with melted butter, and cut into 8 pieces (like a pie!).  Roll up and pinch closed.  Place onto a baking sheet – either to freeze or cook right away!

To cook- bake at 375 degrees for 9 – 11 minutes (till brown).  When you remove them from the oven, brush with butter.