Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

I know it's not the most photogenic food ever, but some of the best stuff just isn't, you know?

I've been craving biscuits and gravy for a while now.  It's not something we eat on a regular basis, for fairly obvious reasons.  I think we'll have it maybe once or twice a year.  Oh, but those days are very happy days for me!  I've always liked biscuits and gravy, ever since I was a kid. When we were very poor, my mom would buy those super cheap tubes of biscuits that were about a dollar and make gravy from shortening, flour, and soy sauce.  You heard me right - SOY SAUCE.  Bless her soul, the woman is not ever going to be on Master Chef, that's for certain.  Of course, we were kids and it was all we knew, so at the time we thought it was pretty good.

When I was a senior in high school, I lived with my best friend and her mom.  Now, her mom could throw down in the kitchen.  She made the absolute best sausage gravy I had ever tried.  Finally one day it occurred to me to ask her how she made it, and I've been making it the same way for the past twenty years.  It's really good, simple comfort food.  Don't let the "hot" sausage scare you.  I can't even eat salsa and this isn't particularly spicy to me. My kids ate it too.  The hot variety just adds a little more flavor to the finished gravy.

Sausage Gravy

1 lb Hot Jimmy Dean sausage
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp (about 75grams) All Purpose flour
3 cups milk (I use 1% or 2%, never skim)
salt and pepper to taste

Crumble and brown the sausage in a large skillet.  Once it's browned, evenly sprinkle the flour over the top.  Stir it into the sausage and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly.  Add the milk.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently and making sure to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Boil one minute, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook until desired consistency.  Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.  Serve over your favorite biscuits.

Not gonna lie - I just make Pillsbury Grands. If you pop them into the oven right before you start to brown the sausage, it will all be done at about the same time.

Summer Macaroni Salad

I know, I know.  The calendar says it's fall.  Unfortunately, I live in the land of perpetual summer.  We're still having 90 degree days over here, folks.  It's gross.

Making me feel better?  This macaroni salad recipe I found on Pinterest last week.

Now, usually I loathe macaroni salad.  Mushy pasta covered in a goopy mayo/mustard mixture with mystery flecks of color added for good measure.  YUCK.

But this?  Let's just say I made it for the second time in less than a week tonight and we all had second helpings.  Even me.

The original recipe can be found here.  I left out the dijon mustard because MUSTARD.  Ew.  I reduced the sugar to 1 tablespoon because I don't like savory dishes to be overly sweet. Using sweet peas instead of plain petite peas made it plenty sweet if you ask me. I also omitted the olive oil, but not on purpose.  I merely forgot it the first time I made this and found it didn't really need it.  Why not save a few calories, especially since this does contain mayonnaise?  I just put all the ingredients for the dressing in the measuring cup that came in my immersion blender and processed them like that.  Made for a really easy clean up, as opposed to using a food processor (which I don't own anyway) as the instructions say.

Seriously though.  Try it.  It's FANTASTIC!

Meal Plan... Thursday?

The first step on my journey to get back to me, I think, should be starting to cook again. There has been way too much takeout happening here in the past year, and let's just say that my husband's cooking skills have really been put to the test as well.  I cook maybe once or twice a month now, which seeing as how I am a stay at home mom and this is sort of part of the job description, is SHAMEFUL.  I suck.

I keep telling myself that I need to start cooking again, but what I'm realizing is that I have failed to make a plan for this.  I'm going to the grocery store and buying staples like bread and milk and bananas, then maybe stuff to throw together a simple meal or two.  There's no plan.  We end up eating the stuff for those thrown together meals and then there's nothing in the house again so we go grab burgers or something.

It's terrible.

So, I got off my behind, went into my Evernote recipe file(on my phone - so handy!), and found some old favorites that we haven't had in a while that weren't too labor intensive.  I don't want to overdo it and get burned out right out of the gate!  

Here's what I came up with:

 (yes, that is a hippo butt magnet and it's AWESOME)

My week starts on Friday but I was too lazy to Photoshop this super cute (dare I say - kawaii???) menu planner page to reflect that.  (Free printable can be found here) Here's the plan, with links to recipes where available:

Friday - Grilled chicken (will send husband to grill because I don't play with propane, despite lusting after a gas stove) with Lemon Orzo and steamed broccoli.

Saturday - Crispy Shrimp Pasta

Sunday - Italian Meatball Soup

Monday - Slow Cooker Beef Stew (I can't remember where I found this!  I'll post it later)

Tuesday - Chicken Noodle Soup

Wednesday - Leftovers (Pizza if there aren't any)

Thursday - Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

As you can probably guess, I'm really really really ready for it to be fall already.  If you've read my blog, or tweets, however, you know that I don't get that privilege until the end of October at least.  This is the time of year where I start drinking the haterade when reading other people's blog posts about how they're buying mums for their front porch (they'd fry in the sun here within days) or going apple picking (apples were ready back in July in my area) or see photos on Facebook and Instagram talking about boots (still living in flip flops!) and scarves. It stinks.

I plan to crank the AC, buy a pumpkin scented candle (or three), and make soup.  Living in denial is okay some of the time, right?

Anyway, after I made my menu plan, I got to work on a proper grocery list.

This is another free printable from Hello Cuteness. I may tweak the categories later after I use it for a few weeks and see where I need the most space.

I added all my staples, stuff for lunches and breakfasts, and all the stuff I need to make dinner for the next week.  I only buy a week of groceries at a time because the idea of "old" food grosses me out, especially produce.  Besides, the produce rarely lasts more than a week anyway, which means I have to go back anyway.  Might as well get "fresh" food!

(I know it's not always truly fresh or even fresher.  But this is how my mind works and it makes me feel better so let's just go with it.  This is also why I can't hang with the diet meal pre-planning.  Leftovers for a week?  NO THANK YOU.)

Tomorrow when I go to run my errands, I'm going to be prepared!  No wandering aimlessly around target just grabbing what looks good at the time.  No looking in the fridge and pantry wondering what we can make out of old celery and rice noodles, only to give up and get a pizza once again.  I have a plan!

Now, let's see if I can stick to it.  That's always the tricky part, isn't it?

Farewell, Fat A$$

Oh yes, you've heard it before.  I get on the wagon, I fall off, I play in the mud for a while, then I have a baby...

LOL!

Well, a month ago I reported I was back on the wagon.  At that time I weighed in at 188 pounds.  I have been seeing a nutritionist along with my physical therapist for the past four weeks.  I get Physical Therapy for my knee and tailbone twice a week, along with some light exercise when I go in to build up my core and relieve tension from those muscles in my affected areas.  The result of four weeks of work?

Not too shabby!

I'm down ten pounds and a total of nine and a half inches total, including one whole inch from my neck (!!!) and two each from my waist and thighs.  My wedding ring fits for the first time in years and when I tried on a bangle at Target that previously would not go over my hand, it fit!  Easily!!!  What impresses me most is that this was accomplished over Christmas and New Years, plus I had a couple of other cheat days in there too.  You know I didn't watch what I ate on those days.  I've had a chimichanga, pizza, ham, cookies...

What I'm saying is that yes, it's been hard, but I haven't had to give up everything I love.  I just had to learn how and when to eat it, and have those times in moderation.

Oh, and these.  These kept this sugar addict sane.

I'm not a big peanut butter fan.  In fact, up until when I was pregnant recently, I couldn't stand the stuff at all! Now it's just okay, but I still don't love it.  My nutritionist/trainer/physical therapist (really, he's awesome) recommended Sun Butter, which is like peanut butter only it's made from sunflower seeds.  Holy heck is this stuff fantastic!  Bubba likes it too, so we're on our third jar.  :)  This is a recipe the nutritionist recommended, that I tweaked a bit.

Chocolate Banana Sun Butter Smoothie

3/4 cup almond milk
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
1 tablespoon Sun Butter
1/2 banana
handful of ice

Place everything in a blender and blend until smooth.

I use the Single Serve blender I posted about when I started this program.  The lid opens up so all I have to to is pop in a straw and I'm good to go - no extra dishes to wash!  I give Bubba the other half of my banana.  Since that's about all he'll eat at a sitting it works out well.

This smoothie has 245 calories, 11 grams of fat (the good kind, mostly from nuts/seeds), 23 grams of carbohydrates, and sixteen grams of protein.  An adult woman needs about 45 grams a day, so right there you're knocking out a huge amount!  I like to have these for my first meal (I have five) of the day, right after I get out of bed.  This gets my metabolism started and it's fast enough I can whip it together and drink it while I pump.  If I leave out the banana, I can have it for my last meal on the days when I don't feel like eating any more but I know I still need to feed my metabolism.

If you have any questions about what I'm eating, feel free to add me on My Fitness Pal.  I'm splendidmissm and I leave my food diary public so you can see what's on there.

Favorite Chicken Noodle Soup

It has FINALLY started to cool off here in the desert.  I made this pot of chicken noodle soup (based on a recipe I found on Pinterest, original here) last week and loved how it came out so much I made it again last night.  It's gone into my permanent file and will be my go-to recipe for chicken noodle soup from now on.

Favorite Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 medium carrots, cut into ¾ inch lengths
3 large stalks celery, cut into ½ inch lengths
3 large boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tsp dried basil
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 whole bay leaf
10-15 cranks cracked pepper
32oz box chicken broth
salt to taste
7 oz. egg noodles

Directions:

1. Cook onion and garlic in a large pot over medium heat with 2 Tbsp of olive oil for a few minutes, until the onions start to turn translucent.

2. Add the carrots and celery to the pot and continue to sauté.

3. Add the chicken thighs to the pot along with the bay leaf, basil, parsley, thyme, and black pepper. Add four cups of water and the chicken broth. Cover, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for one hour. Make sure the pot continues to simmer for the whole hour. If the heat is turned down too low and it is not bubbling, the chicken will not shred easily.

4. After an hour of simmering, remove the chicken from the pot. Using two forks, shred it slightly. Season the broth with salt. I use about two teaspoons, but you may like more or less. Start with one teaspoon and work your way up from there.

5. Add the noodles to the pot, turn the heat up to high, and boil the noodles until tender (about 7 minutes). Return the shredded chicken to the pot. You may add up to two more cups of water if needed to account for evaporation and absorption from the noodles. I didn’t because I like a chunkier soup.

6. Serve hot with slices of French bread or rolls.

Homemade Gnocchi with Browned Butter, Pine Nuts & Spinach

I made this for dinner last week because I was feeling all housewifey and domestic and it left me in the mood to do some fancy work in the kitchen.  Of course, if you find that you're not in the mood to do fancy work in the kitchen you can skip the homemade gnocchi part and just substitute a couple of those vacuum sealed bags of ready made gnocchi from the grocery store.  Those are good too!

First task - make the gnocchi.  You'll need:

2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and boiled until fork tender
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups (188g) all purpose flour
generous pinch of salt

Directions:
1.  Pass boiled potatoes through a potato ricer.  This ensures uniform potatoes with no lumps.
2.  Add remaining ingredients to the potatoes.  Knead with your hands just until dough is combined and forms a ball that will mostly clean the sides of the bowl.
3.  Working with a small piece at a time on a lightly floured surface, gently roll dough out into thin ropes the width of your pinky finger.  Cut ropes into three quarter inch pieces.  Using the tines of a fork, flatten each piece of dough.  Gently pick up the dough, fold it in half lengthwise so the ridges are on the outside, and gently squeeze the ends toward the center so the ridges are up against each other.  Lay each gnocchi on a wax paper or parchment lined baking sheet to rest while you prepare the rest.

(I know that sounds tedious, but once you get the hang of it and into a rhythm it goes pretty fast)

To cook:

Set a large pot of water to boil.  Once it comes to a boil, add 1/4 cup salt.  Working in batches (I ended up doing three) add gnocchi to the boiling water.  Once the gnocchi floats to the surface, allow to cook for one minute more, then remove using a slotted spoon or a spider to another lined baking sheet to cool.

You're going to want to have these all cooked before moving onto the next step.  If you're using the packaged gnocchi, cook it according to package directions before starting the next step.

 Sauce ingredients:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons pine nuts
5 cloves garlic, minced or passed through a garlic press
5 oz baby spinach leaves, torn into bite sized pieces
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano (I may have used a whole cup because I heart cheese)
1. Heat butter in a large pot (I used my 7qt Le Creuset dutch oven) over medium heat.  Add pine nuts and cook, stirring constantly, about three minutes, or until the butter and nuts just start to brown.  Add garlic and cook another minute.  Add spinach and gnocchi, stirring gently but constantly for one minute or until the spinach is wilted.  Sprinkle salt, pepper and parmigiano reggiano over mixture; stir gently until combined.

I did have my husband grill up a large chicken breast, which I sliced up and added in with the seasonings and cheese near the end to make this dish a little heartier, but you could totally leave it out to make this a meatless meal.  This came out incredibly tasty, and it's pretty on the plate too!  I bought the pine nuts in the bulk section of my local market so that I wouldn't have to pay a small fortune for a huge bag I'd probably never finish.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Scotchies

A few weeks ago my friend introduced me to the wonder that is the Oatmeal Scotchie.  It sounds cute, no?  Of course, when she told me what was in the cookie, I hesitated.

Butterscotch chips???

Um, pardon me, but YUCK.  I do not like butterscotch.  The idea of a butterscotch chip made me gag a little.  No way these could be good.  What a waste of an oatmeal cookie!

Then I tried one.  Holy moly, y'all.  These don't taste like you think butterscotch would taste.  Maybe it's the toffee bits in them.  Maybe the oatmeal and butter mask the flavor or change it somehow.  All I know is that she sent me home with almost two dozen and they were gone in a day and a half.  Even worse - I could NOT stop thinking about them and knew I had to make them at home.  

With one teensy change:  I decided that they needed chocolate chips.  Good, dark, 60% cocoa chocolate chips.  Mmm...

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Scotchies

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsps. vanilla extract
3 cups uncooked rolled oats
2/3 cup butterscotch chips
2/3 cup toffee bits (I used these)
2/3 cup chocolate chips (I used these)

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375F
*Combine flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in a small bowl.  Set aside.
*Cream butter and sugars together until well combined.  Add eggs and vanilla; stir until combined.  Gradually add flour mixture.  Stir in oats, butterscotch chips, toffee bits, and chocolate chips just until combined.
*Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets lined with parchment or Silpats.  Bake 8 minutes.  Allow to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

I'm linking to Hooking Up With House of Hepworths and A Night Owl Create and Inspire Party.

Sausage and Vegetable Soup

It's September, and there is a light at the end of this tunnel we call summer!  Of course, it will be stupid hot here until least Halloween, but hey, I can pretend, right?  I'm forcing myself to leave all the fall decor packed away until at least the middle of this month.  We'll see how I do with that.  I love my bin of fake pumpkins though!

Another part of fall that I love?  Big pots of yummy soup in my pretty green dutch oven.  That makes me so happy!  I decided to bust out some old recipes that I haven't made in a long time and revisit them here.  First up - Sausage and Vegetable soup.  It's super easy and tastes really good.

Ingredients:  a large chopped onion, a 1lb chub of sausage, two 32 oz boxes of chicken stock, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, a teaspoon of dried basil, salt and pepper to taste, 1/2 cup small pasta such as stelline, mini shells, orzo, etc, and 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables.

I accidentally grabbed vegetable broth instead of chicken, but to be honest, I wouldn't have known if I hadn't been the one to buy it.  It tasted like I remembered.  Also, I used cancer tomatoes because I used up all my home canned ones and I didn't find a good deal late enough in the summer this year.  The only ones I saw were back in early June and no way I was canning  tomatoes nine months pregnant!!!

Sauté the onion until softened and slightly translucent.  Add the sausage and brown it until it's crumbly and there are brown bits for you to scrape from the bottom of the pot.  Add tomatoes, broth, basil, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning as needed.  Stir in pasta and reduce heat to medium. Simmer 10 minutes.  Add frozen vegetables and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

I only wish I had made some rolls to go with this.

Gnocchi with Corn and Scallions

I don't like chowder.

I don't like corn chowder, I don't like clam chowder, I don't like any kind of chowder.   Just looking at it in a bowl kind of makes my stomach turn.  Part of it is a texture issue - I don't like mushy food.  I don't even like potato soup.  Come to think of it, I don't like any pureed soups.  Also, it just looks gross.  Blech!

I'm a picky eater, I guess.

My mother in law is in town visiting and she was telling me about how she was thinking about taking a class to learn to make gnocchi.  Well, heck, I know how to make gnocchi!  I wanted something kind of summery though, so I didn't want to use the butter sauce or even a tomato one.  Then, as I was going through an ancient copy of Martha Stewart Living I came across a pasta recipe that I knew would be great adapted to go with my gnocchi.

The magazine described it as halfway between a chowder and a pasta salad.  Maybe it's because I didn't use the pasta for which it called, but I think it's definitely more on the chowder side of things.  Still, the flavors were all things I liked so I decided, what the heck, right?

I know it's not much to look at, but holy heck was this good!  We'll definitely be having this again.  Also, I think I've found my new favorite cooking method.  It involves me sitting on the couch holding a baby and calling out instructions to my husband and his mom, who then execute them.  When dinner is done, someone brings me a plate!  Awesome!


Gnocchi with Corn, Bacon and Scallions

 Gnocchi
* 2 lbs potatoes 
* 2 egg yolks
* generous pinch of salt
* 1 1/2 cups (188g) all purpose flour
* 6 quarts water
* 1/4 cup coarse salt

 Sauce
* 4 cups corn (from 5 ears) 
 * 1/2 cup chicken stock OR 1/2 cup water with 1/2 heaping teaspoon chicken bouillon powder 
 * 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 
 * 4 ounces sliced smoked bacon, chopped 
 * 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided 
 * 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 
 * Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper 
 * 3 scallions, thinly sliced 
 * 2 cups baby arugula or mixed greens 
 * Garnish: shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano 


 Directions 
1. Pierce potatoes and bake in 350 degree oven until they are fork tender. Cut into halves or quarters lengthwise so they’ll cool faster. 
2. Set 6 quarts water to boil. When the water comes to a rolling boil, add ¼ cup coarse salt. 
3. When they are cool enough to handle, but still warm, scoop the potatoes from their skins using a large spoon. Use a ricer to mash them finely. 
4. Add egg yolks, salt, and flour to riced potatoes. Gently combine using your hands until dough forms a ball.
5. Working with a small amount at a time, roll the dough out into long thin logs. Cut into pieces about 3/4" long, and make an indentation in each piece with your thumb. 
6. Put them on a baking sheet that has been lined with waxed paper and/or sprinkled with flour while you work. After you've gotten them all made, place them into your pot of salted boiling water. Wait for them to float to the surface, then boil for another minute. Remove cooked gnocchi to baking sheet and set aside. Reserve 2 cups of the salted cooking water. ***The pasta releases starch as it cooks, and the starchy water is essential to the sauce.*** 
7. Puree 1 cup corn, 1/2 cup water, and chicken bouillon powder in a blender. Set aside. 
8. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook bacon until crisp, about 8 minutes. Add corn puree, remaining 3 cups corn kernels, 2 tablespoons butter, and the crushed red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until corn is soft, about 5 minutes. 
9. Toss in gnocchi, 1 cup reserved cooking water, and remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Cook until sauce is creamy, about 3 minutes. Toss in scallions and arugula. Garnish with cheese.

Summer Corn Salad

A couple of years ago, I went to a potluck held by my playgroup.  It was a recipe exchange; everyone brought a dish to share, plus a printout of the recipe. My favorite dish that day was this salad, hands down.  I know - who am I?  Salad?  But seriously, this salad is so good!

Of course, I haven't ever made it.  That's just how I roll.

Last month I got a random craving for this salad that I've only had one time almost three years ago.  I know - random, right?  Of course, I couldn't find the printout with the recipe anywhere and I wanted to cry because I needed this salad.  You know how fetuses (feti?) are.  In desperation, I posted on my playgroup's Facebook page and someone had it!  Hallelujah!!!

I present to you, my version of Summer Corn Salad.  I'm putting it here so I won't lose it again, because that would be tragic.

First, you need to shuck and grill six ears of sweet corn on the cob.  Turn it with tongs and let it char a little bit.  This gives it flavor.

Use a knife to remove the kernels.  Don't be a dummy like me and try this on a cutting board - use a bowl!  Otherwise, you may find yourself with corn flying all over and with a very happy dog.

Set the corn aside.

Cut up about five slices of bacon and cook.  My husband cooked these and was perhaps slightly overzealous in getting them cooked thoroughly.  They still tasted okay though. :)  Drain on paper towels and set aside.

Tear up five ounces of mixed greens into bite sized pieces.  I used a spring mix.

Top with bacon and corn; set aside.

Next you'll need 1/4 cup super finely chopped cilantro, two cloves super finely minced garlic, and 1/4 cup fresh lime juice.

Combine in a small bowl and set aside.

Now, this recipe originally called for two cups of grape tomatoes, but I don't like tomatoes.  You know what I do like?  AVOCADO.  Yum yum!  I diced two avocados and put them into a small bowl.

I then put a spoonful of my Cilantro Lime mixture in there and gently combined them, so the avocado wouldn't brown.  I poured the rest of the dressing into the corn and greens mixture and stirred until it was well combined.

I served the salad topped with the avocado along with some simple grilled chicken thighs and plain steamed rice.  It made a ton too, so I'll be having this for lunch tomorrow as well.  Looking forward to it!

Dan Dan Mein

This was one of my photos for this month's twelve of twelve.

I know it doesn't look like much, but let me tell you, this is one dang yummy bowl of soup! I got the recipe from a blog called Tranquility's Kitchen, which sadly, no longer exists. There were some seriously good recipes on there! The author's father was a chef in China, if I recall correctly, so these were recipes that she got from him. Real authentic stuff.

This soup is called dan dan mein, which according to that blog, meant bland bland noodles. That's pretty funny because these are anything but bland! If you like egg drop soup, you'll probably like this. It's fast and easy for when you want warm food in your belly right away. I took a few liberties with the original recipe (mostly because I don't like runny eggs, and the original recipe called for a poached egg, yuck), but mostly I stayed true.

Combine three cups water, one tablespoon chicken bouillon powder (we buy this brand), 1/4 teaspoon dashi granules and two green onions chopped into 1-inch lengths in a saucepan. My onions are sliced smaller because I forgot to tell my husband to leave them bigger and he was chopping that day.

You can find dashi granules at pretty much any Asian market. It seems to be a staple in broths and soups. Buy the smallest package you can find, because this stuff will last you forever!

While you're waiting for that to come to a boil, roughly chop up three little bunches of baby bok choy. I got mine at the Asian market, but I've seen it at the regular grocery store too.

Toss them in the pot when it comes to a boil and cook for one minute. While that's going on, scramble two eggs in a small bowl.

Using a fork with a long handle, or a chopstick, or something like that, begin to briskly stir your soup in a clockwise motion. Once it's all moving pretty quickly in the pan, slowly begin to drizzle in your scrambled eggs. The finer your drizzle, the nicer your egg flowers are going to look. If you dump it in big globs then you will have big blobby bits of egg in your soup which is fine if you're into that sort of thing I suppose.

Take a bean thread bundle and put it into the pot. Push it under the liquid and loosen it up a bit with your fork/chopstick as it cooks. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes.

Yes, you see two pots on my stove! There are two pots going because the thought of trying to serve this and untangle two batches of noodles while dealing with boiling hot liquid makes me nervous. I just make a pot for me and a pot for my husband at the same time so it's easy to dump each individual serving into a bowl all at once.

The bean threads come in packages that look like this. Our market never seems to have the same brand twice, but they almost always look like this regardless of the name on the package. There are eight little bunches of noodles in there. Sometimes they're individually wrapped, and sometimes they are all in one big bag like this.

After the noodles are done cooking, transfer the soup to a serving bowl. This makes a HUGE restaurant style serving.

Sprinkle a tablespoon of fried red onions on top and stir in. Allow them to soften and flavor your soup while it cools off enough for you to eat.

They sell them - you guessed it! - at the Asian market. They're not the same as the French's we know from green bean casserole, so I wouldn't try substituting those if you're thinking about that. This jar is another one of those things that just lasts forever.

I love this soup, and I'm so thankful that I got to make it and write down the recipe before Wendy pulled her blog! I hope someone else with a craving tries it. It would be a great thing for a Meatless Monday this winter!

Dan Dan Mein

Ingredients

3 cups water
1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
¼ tsp dashi granules
2 green onions, chopped into 1 inch lengths
1 cup (two bunches) baby bok choy, roughly chopped
2 eggs, beaten well
1 serving packaged bean threads
1 tbsp fried red onions

Directions

Place water, bouillon powder, dashi, and green onions in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add baby bok choy and boil for one minute. While stirring, drizzle in beaten eggs. Cook one minute. Add bean threads and cook 2-3 minutes or until noodles are clear and tender. Loosen with a fork as they cook. Pour soup into a serving dish and add fried onions. Allow to sit for a few minutes so onions can soften.

Italian Meatball Soup

Both of my camera memory cards told me that I was out of memory this weekend. I'm usually pretty good about keeping them cleaned out, so it surprised me. As I went back through my photos to see what I could delete, I realized that I had taken a lot of photos intending to do blog posts with them, but those posts never materialized. I'm going to try to get those out this week, so if things seem sort of random, that's why.

First up - The recipe for Italian Meatball Soup.

I have no idea where this recipe came from, but I do know that I've tweaked it over the years. I really have been making it for years.

Italian Meatball Soup

Meatball Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey

1 chub/roll package Jimmy Dean sausage

2 egg whites

3/4 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Soup Ingredients:

2 32ox boxes chicken broth

1 14.5oz can Italian Style diced tomatoes

1 1/2 cup small pasta, like fusilli or shells

5 oz coarsely chopped spinach

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Combine all meatball ingredients. Shape into 1 1/2 inch balls and place in a shallow baking pan that has been sprayed with no-stick cooking spray. Bake 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, combine broth and tomatoes. Cover, bring to a boil. Stir in pasta, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add meatballs. Simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Stir in spinach. Remove from heat and let stand 2-3 minutes. Serve in bowls sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

Notes:

I actually use the Jennie-O Turkey Store packages that are 1.25 lbs. If I were more organized/frugal I'd take that extra quarter pound of meat and save it so I'd be getting a "free" meal every four packages, but I don't. Hmm... maybe I should!

I use homemade stock instead of boxed broth these days, but won't hesitate to use it again if I ever find myself out of the good stuff.

I also use a pint of my home-canned tomatoes instead of the can. This means that mine aren't the Italian Seasoned kind. I just add more seasoning to make up for it. Which leads me to...

I don't buy Italian Seasoning. I have all the different herbs that make it up on my spice rack, so I just add a pinch of this and a little of that until I get to about two teaspoons worth of herbs. Luckily making soup is more of an art than a science, so it's okay to do this.

I never use the same pasta two times in a row. This time, as you can see in the photo, I used a cup of stelline. I've also used the Barilla Piccolini Farfalle. Just any smallish pasta will do.

If you have leftovers, the pasta tends to absorb a lot of liquid, but it reheats just fine!

This time, I doubled the meatball recipe and just froze the extras. Now when I want to make this again in a few weeks, all the hard work will have been done for me! Yay!

Make Your Garden In The Desert Grow!

My friend Sam is a green living reporter for a site called Examiner.com. She called me last week to ask if she could interview me for an article she was writing about being a first time gardener here in the Phoenix area. I said sure, and we chatted on the phone for TWO HOURS!!!

Her article went up today, so I thought I'd share a link. Click here to read it. If you're here visiting from Examiner.com, welcome! You can read my Garden Journal posts by clicking here.

Are you with me for looking for ideas to use up some zucchini?

Chocolate Zucchini Drops

Zucchini Chips

Soupe au Pistou

Muffy Martini's Shrimp Primavera

You can also check out my boards on Pinterest for more gardening ideas and zucchini recipes!

Taco Seasoning

When we own a home, I hope it has NO flourescent light fixtures. You know, the kind on the ceilings of office buildings and grocery store? They have the WORST light for photos, I swear.

My camera cannot white balance with these for anything.

Tonight I made chicken tacos and I used my own taco seasoning mix on them. It's such a waste of money to buy the little packets, and if you buy the big containers of it at Costco it's usually stale and old by the time you get to the end. The shelf life for spices is six months! If you mix your own, you can make small batches and you know the ingredients are fresher. It's a bit more economical too, I bet.

Taco Seasoning

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper

Directions
In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container.

To season 1 lb of ground meat:

Cook one cup chopped onion and one cup chopped bell pepper over medium heat with a couple teaspoons of oil. Add meat and brown. Sprinkle a tablespoon of taco seasoning (more or less to taste) over browned meat; add 1/4-1/2 cup water and allow to simmer a few minutes. I used this on shredded chicken breasts tonight using this method and it was really good!

Check out my Leaning Tower of 'Tillas:

I made 44 flour tortillas today! Five were eaten with dinner and the remaining ones were separated with pieces of parchment paper into stacks of six then frozen for other meals. Tomorrow I'm going to get on making that bread. :)

Meal Plan Monday!

I know you've seen it on other parts of the Interwebs - blog posts written on Monday that have a list (usually with links to recipes if you're lucky!) detailing what the blogger is feeding their family for the week. Generally, I'm not that organized. HOWEVER, I did just make myself that schnazzy Household Organization Notebook, and it does have a nice tab for menu planning. Therefore, I can now do Meal Plan Monday post because the pages I printed start on Monday. This means I have to have my plan done before then so I should be able to blog about it. Before, I just sort of started my week whenever I decided to get around to meal planning, and that was if I even did it.

You all know how much I like to fall back on "winging it," right?

Will this be a regular thing? I dunno. Nothing ever is around here for long. One thing about having been blogging for as long as I have, it's easy to go back and see how my interests have shifted and changed in the past six years. I do love this about journaling!

Here's the plan for this week:

Monday - Chicken Soft Tacos with Mexican Rice

I found some pre-cooked shredded chicken in the freezer when I was cleaning it out in preparation for meal planning/grocery shopping, so I decided to use it up! I will heat this with a little chicken stock, some seasonings (I have homemade taco seasoning in the pantry and it's GOOD), maybe a little onion and cilantro... mmm. I'm going to make a whole mess of tortillas in the early part of the day. Some will get frozen for later use and some will be made into tacos for dinner.

The rice is easy - Soften a half cup of onions with a tablespoon olive oil in a heavy pot. Toss in a cup of long grain white rice and cook until toasted, stirring constantly. Puree a can (or jar, in my case) of tomatoes in a blender. Add water or chicken broth to make 2 1/2 cups. Pour into rice, stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed. Ta da!

A little rice, some chicken in a tortilla with a little lettuce and cheese, and there is dinner.

Tuesday - Beef, Mushroom, & Green Bean Stir-Fry over Rice Noodles.

This recipe was clipped from a magazine. I'll let you know how it is!

Wednesday - Chicken Linguine

I found this recipe on Pinterest. It says it's a Weight Watchers recipe, and since I'm trying to get the skinnies, as Mrs. Monologues says, I figured what the heck.

Thursday - Curry-Spiced Shrimp and Rice

This was also clipped from a magazine. Can I just get a WOO HOO for free magazine subscriptions???

Friday - Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas with Tortillas and Mexican Rice

Confession: Monday's meal was actually supposed to me Sunday's, which would have fallen on last week's meal plan. Unfortunately, Sunday saw us up early for a birthday party, after which no one had any energy and long naps may or may not have been taken. Making of tortillas, which is an important component of tacos, may have been forgotten because of those factors.

This means that Monday's tortilla-less dinner (Grilled Chicken with Asparagus Risotto, from here, made by my sweet husband while I slept) may have had to be eaten on Sunday. Sunday's dinner had to get pushed to Monday which means that I had two "rice and tortilla" dinners scheduled in the same week. ACK.

I'd never make it as a Taco Tuesday, Fish Friday, Meatloaf Monday kind of person, obviously. I need some variety!!! That being said though, I was thinking I should try to have Fridays be Slow Cooker days since I have knitting club at 6pm those days and I hate feeling rushed. I found this pork carnitas recipe on Pinterest (sounding like a broken record here) and it sounded like a winner. This won't be as tasty as real pork carnitas, I'm sure, but it should be okay for tacos.

Saturday - Italian Sausage and Spinach Marinara over Orecchiette

The only reason I'm using orecchiette for this is because when I served it to the boy last week he ate a TON of it. I guess he liked the shape. He kept calling them "pasta chips." If it gets him to eat, I'll take it!

The marinara sauce recipe was clipped from a magazine. It had a basic marinara recipe and then a bunch of stuff you could add to it for five different meals. True; the one I picked did happen to be served over orecchiette, but I feel like most pasta is interchangeable.

Sunday - Chipotle Plum Glazed Pork Tenderloin with quinoa and broccoli

A few months ago I found plums on sale really cheap so I bought a bunch of them to make jam. I ended up with a Chipotle Plum jam that was smoky and reminiscent of the chili-covered Mexican candies we used to eat when I was a kid. I don't know if I'm down with putting this on toast, but it's FANTASTIC on a pork roast. I just dump the little 4 oz jar onto my tenderloin, smoosh it around with a silicone basting brush, and pop it into the oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

I'll serve this with a side of quinoa and some steamed broccoli. That rounds out the week!

I want to make some bread to stick in the freezer in addition to the tortillas I want to stash in there. I keep thinking about grilled cheese sandwiches for some reason lately, and for that I need bread! I read that I can just bake them until they're mostly done, then freeze them so I won't have to worry about the yeast not wanting to work like I would if I froze unbaked dough. Then, when I want a fresh loaf all I have to do is pull one out and pop it into the oven to brown.

I've been making bread using the Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day method for a couple of years now, but I think I'm getting a little tired of the slightly sourdough taste. Don't get me wrong - it's really good bread, but I am ready for something new. There's a recipe for a honey white bread by Ina Garten I want to try, as well as a whole wheat one that Jaimee Rose posted. Good stuff!

I also have plans to make up a bunch of Whole Wheat Waffles this week. They freeze beautifully, and since my waffle iron makes little square waffles, it's super easy to pull them out as I need them and just pop them into the toaster for breakfast. Take that, Eggo!

Needless to say, getting back on the bandwagon for healthy eating with drastically reduced commercially processed food is going to mean more time in the kitchen this week.

Chicken and Veggies over Pasta (and my schnazzy new knife!)

Did you ever find yourself scrambling through your cupboards to pull together a meal when they're almost bare? That's where I found myself when I was planning meals for this week on Sunday night. I knew that our grocery budget was pretty much DONE until payday so I could not fall back on just running to the store like I have been doing. I needed to figure out what we had on hand and then just buy the bare minimum to get us through. I wasn't about to fall back on feeding my family ramen noodles; the straits are not yet that dire! I did want the meals to be good and at least semi healthy.

This is where being a good cook comes into play. Sure, most people can follow a recipe from a book, but not all can take a bunch of random things and figure out what will go together in the best way. Not all of my cobbled together creations are winners, this is true, but this one came out pretty good, and it's pretty healthy too!

I present to you, Chicken and Veggies over Orecchiette. (I swear, NOTHING looks good photographed under fluorescent lights!)

Not fifteen minutes before I was to start dinner, the mailman dropped off this beauty at my front door:

I won it on Kevin and Amanda's blog. Isn't it just lovely? I love my Henckles knives, but I've had them for about 8 years now and have never had them sharpened. I mean, I hone them before every use like I'm supposed to do, but after a while a blade needs a true sharpening! They've gotten so dull, but we don't have it in our budget to have it done right now.

Thankfully, the Lord (and the Internet) provides! When I saw the post for this giveaway, I didn't hesitate one second to throw my name into the ring. Of course, after I did so I realized that I was the very first poster to leave a comment. Aw man! Comment number one NEVER wins! I was so bummed I almost deleted it. Almost. Then I told myself, you know, if it is to be, it will be, and the odds of winning are pretty slight anyway since this is a very popular blog. So I left it... and I won!!! How awesome is that?

So the moral of the story is to never lose hope if you pull a bonehead move and comment first on a giveaway.

I pulled my ingredients all out before I got started and did a little prep work. After months of cutting with dull knives, this one was a DREAM. Thank you, thank you, thank you Amanda for this knife! I love it!

Now, onto the pasta!

First, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy pot or deep skillet. Add chicken slices (I had about five tenderloins, so that was probably just under a pound?) and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the chicken until it just starts to slightly brown, then remove to a plate and set aside.

Heat another tablespoon or two of olive oil in the same pan. Slice up an onion and toss that into the pot. I had half a bag of shredded carrots leftover from a salad I took to a barbecue last weekend so I dumped that in there too. Cook them over medium low heat until they're softened, about five minutes.

Next, dump in two 14 oz cans of tomatoes. I used some of the ones I canned myself - one of heirlooms and one of plain romas. Also add in 1/2 teaspoon each of black pepper, salt, dried basil, garlic powder and a quarter teaspoon each dried thyme and red pepper flakes. Break up the tomatoes as well as you can with the spatula and allow to simmer for ten minutes.

Coarsely chop a bag of baby spinach and toss that into the pot, along with a half cup of chicken broth. I didn't feel like defrosting a bag of stock so I added a half cup of water along with a half teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder. I cheat.

All that spinach will cook down really quickly!

Add the chicken back into the pot. Cover the mixture and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes while you cook your pasta.

Dish it up and enjoy! There are a ton of veggies in each serving along with some lean protein, so I'm guessing that if you served this over just a one cup serving of pasta it would be a pretty healthy meal. I think if you served it over rice or gluten free pasta it might even be gluten free, depending on your chicken stock I guess. Either way it was very good and very filling and all I had to buy was the bag of spinach!

It's easy too - while this was cooking I was also baking Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate Chip cookies and getting ready for bible study, which included flat ironing my hair. Now you know the true secret to how I do so much. It's not because I'm up late every night - I still sleep eight hours like everyone else. Heck, that's probably more than others sleep. The truth is because I am a professional multitasker! HA!