Category: Recipes

Kitchen Sink Granola

3/27/2012

What gets you up in the morning? For me, it's breakfast (and also tiny hands pinching me)! Not in the mood for hot anything last week, I made super delicious granola- yum!
I started with Delia's recipe on Made, but decided to make it from whatever I already had in the house (and use up a bunch of tiny remnant bulk bags....)
Here's what I did, but I encourage you to do the same thing with your own cupboards- the tastiest Spring cleaning!

2 Cups rye flakes
2 Cups barley flakes
1 Cup quick oats
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
approx 1 Cup total of sprouted, sliced, chopped almonds, hazelnuts, and sunflower seeds
2 Tbsp flax seeds
1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Mix these all together in a big big bowl. Then add:

1/2 Cup brown sugar
1/2 Cup unrefined cane sugar
1/2 Cup maple syrup

And stir to combine- make sure there are no clumps!
Finally, add-

1/2 Cup hot water
1/3 Cup coconut oil (melted)

Mix it all up and spread it evenly onto a lightly greased rimmed cookie sheet and pop it in a 325 degree oven.
Stir every 15 minutes or so, it'll take 45 min to an hour to get golden toasty brown. Let cool and enjoy!

2 Comments

Springtime Dinner

3/20/2012

1 Comment

All this warm weather has given my family a desire for Springtime foods that aren't really ready yet. We won't have much in the way of local produce for a while yet, but I think I did find a solution for this week anyway.
I paired Joy the Baker's Baked Lemon Risotto with huge portions of a simple green salad- just red leaf lettuce, marinated grated beet, and a few bleu cheese crumbles. Yum!
Starch girl that I am, I love risotto, but rarely have the hour to spend stirring broth into rice. Joy's oven baked variety worked great and was so easy and delicious.
I got the beet recipe from a naturopath I used to see and it's always great to have something both tasty and super good for you to throw on top of nearly anything. I grate one big beet and cover it with 2 Tbsp olive oil (the good kind, no messing around!) and the juice of 1 lemon. I let it hang out in a glass jar in the fridge and just take what I need each night.

5 totally digs lemony starch and red stainy beet goodness. I think you will too!

1 Comment

A Sunday Kind of Monday

2/13/2012

3 Comments

5 and I went to a dance party today. Yeah, we're pretty cool. We were at the hip-happenest lunchtime potluck family dance party in the world. It was awesome. 5 danced. I danced. We ate lunch. 5 ate markers with another little dude. He gave high-fives to big kids. I talked to grownups (!). In fact, it was so awesome that 5 fell asleep 2 blocks away from our friend's house. And slept. for. four. hours. Woah.
So instead of doing anything else of note today, we are going to enjoy the big big batch of vegetarian pho I made yesterday. I got the recipe here. Her photography is better. The pho is delicious. I can't compare it to anything though because I've never had pho before. The broth is definitely the most complicated flavor I have ever created.
It's a lovely thing to eat in this grey and gloomy not-quite-homestretch of winter time- it's comforting because it's soup, but it's also fresh and vegetable-y and green. Yum!

3 Comments

Quick Lunch

1/31/2012

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More Soup Please!

This stuff is so tasty yummo good! I threw caution to the wind this weekend and made a new dal recipe! It's super easy, so fast (under an hour!) and really different from my dal. Ghee, cumin seeds, cayenne, and a chile pepper combine deliciously to make a slightly spicy and totally comfort-food-worthy snowy day soup.
Get the recipe on GirlsGoneChild here.
I ate mine with Fred's home made rye sourdough slathered with butter and toaster-ovened parmesan cheese. Yum!

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A Little Snack

1/24/2012

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Hi folks! I know this space is usually quiet here on Tuesdays, but I've been toying with the idea of putting up some snack-sized posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Feel free to let me know what you think!
Today's is actually a snack. A big snack, and not healthy, but delicious and excellent for sharing!

I think we're all probably familiar with the occasional need for cake. Especially chocolate cake with salty caramel goodness! And who could turn down such a cake that can be made in single servings in under 10 minutes? Not me, that's who.
I've tried a number of these microwaveable mug cake recipes and this one is by far the best in terms of flavor, texture, and overall cake-iness.
You can find the recipe here. Top with whipped cream at your own risk.

For bonus points, make the caramels from scratch with this recipe from a pretty cool life. Also made in the microwave in under 10 minutes!

See you tomorrow for something a little more balanced (maybe)!

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Comfort Food Friday

1/13/2012

1 Comment

Psst! Guess what- it's Friday!

Green Power Lasagna

This lasagna is super good for when you need to eat more vegetables than you really want to. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE me some veggies, but these post holiday weeks have needed some serious greenage. There's still lots of gooey cheese and starchy noodle, but there's also zucchini, carrot, garlic, onion, mushroom, parsley, and arugula! Also, I don't cook my noodles beforehand, because that's how I roll. It works, I promise.

Ingredients

lasagna noodles
2 cups tomato or untomato sauce
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, chopped very small
olive oil
3/4 - 1 pound mozzarella or chihuahua cheese, grated
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 big bunch Italian parsley
2 cups arugula
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 large-ish carrot, grated
3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper

Directions

Cook onion in a skillet (cast iron, preferably) over medium heat.
When starting to brown, add mushrooms and garlic.
Once mushrooms have sweat a bit, add (un)tomato sauce and Italian seasoning.
Let it get all delicious-smelling, then stir in water and turn off heat.

Throw the parsley and the arugula in the food processor until it's in small bits, but before it looks like pesto. You might have to do this in a few batches.
In a pretty big mixing bowl, mix together ricotta, zucchini, carrot, half of the parmesan, and the greens you just processed. Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350.
In a lightly oiled 9 x 13 pan, spread a little of the tomato sauce before laying down the first layer of uncooked noodles.
Alternate between layers of the ricotta mixture and sauce w/ cheese until the pan is nearly full. End with a layer of sauce and top with the rest of the grated cheese and parmesan.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 min.
Then remove the foil and bake uncovered for an additional 20-30 min or until the cheese is beautifully browned.

Let cool a bit, or eat right away and burn your mouth (I usually choose the latter).

Time to Woop it Up!

Have a Great Weekend!

1 Comment

Dal-icious Wednesday

1/11/2012

2 Comments

Would You Care for Some Soup, Dal-ing?

Ok, two bad puns in a row, please forgive me!
This is probably my favorite soup, I really don't know why I haven't posted this recipe before.
Maybe 3 or 4 years ago, I decided that over the winter I would become an expert soup-maker. I tried to make a new soup each week. I mostly did, but I repeated this one a few (a bunch!) of times.
A couple of important notes-
I like to mix up my lentils, I often use a combination of brown and red. The different sizes cook at different rates, so if you're on a schedule, use some smaller ones.
The lentils should be soaked overnight (or just for several hours) before you make this soup.
Feel free to throw other veggies in here, the more the better (probably).
If your curry powder is already super turmeric-y, omit the additional turmeric.

Ingredients

4 tbsp oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 cups lentils
8-12 cups water (or broth/stock)
1 can coconut milk
juice of 1 lemon
a bunch of spinach or arugula

Directions

Heat oil in a large soup pot.
Stir in onions and cook until brownish.
Add in garlic, ginger, carrots, and spices. Cook for about a minute.
Add lentils and water, bring to a boil and simmer until lentils are soft (time will vary greatly depending on type of lentil)
Stir in lemon juice, coconut milk, and greens.
Salt to taste.

Serve over basmati rice if you wish.
Enjoy!

This is 5's portion. A lot of it still ends up on the floor...

Singing to the Blocks

Lately 5 and I have been all about the singing and dancing at home. I have yet to capture his sweet sweet moves on camera, but my favorite is a downward-dog-like move with 1 shaking/kicking leg. Such good stuff.
This series above shows 5 singing to his blocks (and a little bit to me). I'm not sure, but he may have been singing them to sleep- he tucked them all under the rug when he was done...

2 Comments

Let's Talk Butter

1/9/2012

1 Comment

Dutch Baby Goodness

This is the pancake of all pancakes. When you need a breakfast, and I mean Breakfast, this is what you want. I call it a Dutch Baby, and that may be what it is, but mostly it's delicious.
This is what I ate on the morning of my wedding. 1) because your wedding day is kind of like your birthday, in that you should get to do and eat whatever you want, and 2) because I wasn't at all sure if I was going to get a chance to eat again that day.

This is also a cast iron only recipe. I guess there are other things that can go from stove top to oven, and I guess you could use them, but this pancake was made for a nice cast iron skillet.

I have experimented with switching out almost all of the 4 ingredients with varying success. You cannot mess with the eggs. Heavier/grainier flours work okay, but give it less loft (and fewer tasty bubbles, the bubbles always taste better, right?). Using non-dairy milk is ok, but it doesn't brown as nicely and you must then use a wheat flour. Nondairy milk + non wheat flour = not a good Dutch Baby pancake. Lastly, you could use margarine, but then really, what is the point?

Ingredients
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk (I use goat)
1/2 cup flour
2 Tbsp butter (I like it salted)
pinch nutmeg if you are so inclined

Preheat oven to 425
Heat cast iron skillet over medium heat
Beat eggs and milk together
Add flour, stir to combine (a few lumps are okay)
Put butter in skillet, allow to melt, but not to brown or smoke
Pour batter into buttery skillet and put the whole shebang in the oven on the bottom rack
Cook for 17 minutes
Serve!

This morning I covered this pancake with applesauce, but most of the time I like it with lemon juice and powdered sugar.
You could share, but I don't recommend it.

5 approves

This week is going to be all about the cooking!
(The rest of them will have vegetables, I promise)

1 Comment

Coziness

1/4/2012

5 Comments

Look Ma, No Socks!

We're doing our very best to be snuggly and cozy this week, although 5 DEFINITELY does not understand the link between wearing socks and NOT having icicles for feet...
In the spirit of coziness, I have a few things to share with you-

Mmmmm Quilty Goodness

You may be thinking that this looks kind of familiar. Yeah, I *nearly* finished this quilt top way back when and it took me until Christmas to finally finish it! But! It is done now and just in time for a windy spell.
It is cold where I live. Not SO cold, but our house was (seemingly) insulated by a bunch of teenage boys with ADD so when it's cold and windy there are rooms where you can feel the breeze.... so new quilt=good.
A side note: you can see that we have a pretty serious brass bedframe in this picture. When my in-laws found themselves with some extra beds they asked us if we'd like one. I REALLY wanted this one just so I can sing that Bob Dylan song about laying ladies on his big brass bed. Ha, it never gets old, I'm chuckling right now.

This is the quilt of all fiber dorkiness. It was my BIG Christmas prezzie for my Mom this year. I started work on it in September-
1. Dyeing the fabric
2. Screen printing the pieces
3. THEN making a queen-sized quilt out of it
Pretty awesome, it turned out almost exactly how I imagined. Thanks to Mom for taking a much better shot of her quilt than I did of mine...

Hot Drink With a Dumb Name

I'm going to share the recipe for a drink I apparently didn't "invent" but more "discovered" as my husband claims to have invented the same drink 10 years ago. But I will point out that I'm the one who made up a dumb punny name for it.

Nocha (it's like a mocha, but with NOT coffee)
ingredients (to make 1 cup)

1 bag Roastaroma by Celestial Seasonings tea
2 Tbsp sipping chocolate mix OR
1 Tbsp cocoa and
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 mugfull boiling water
1/2 mugfull milk of choice (I've been using full fat goat, yum!)

I don't drink coffee and I'm not always in the mood for something as sweet as hot chocolate. The Roastaroma tea is great because it smell kind of like coffee, but is definitely not! This drink is hot, a little chocolatey, and not very sweet.

I boil some water in the tea kettle and then fill my mug with teabag up half way. I let it steep 5 minutes and then pull the teabag out.
Now it's time to add the sipping chocolate or cocoa/sugar mix. Make sure to stir in any lumps.
Add milk and drink! (Feel free to add whipped cream if you're feeling fancy...)

5 Comments

Holiday Making

12/21/2011

0 Comments

Butter and Sugar and Chocolate, Oh MY!

This is but a small sampling of the holiday treats I made last week. Partly because I ate a lot of them.... but also partly because I have to keep some secret from some certain people who might see this post. If you have any last minute gifts to be made, any of these three would be lovely (to receive, but also to make!) The best part? All of these recipes are available on the internet! With more pictures than I ever would have been able to take while boiling sugar!

Peppermint Bark

I made this one first. It was really pretty easy- I actually did it all in the microwave. I only heated the various chocolates for 30 seconds at a time and always stirred very well to prevent scorching. You can find the recipe here on Orangette.

English Toffee

I will tell you that I LOVE to eat toffee, but did not EVER think that I would make toffee. Ever. But, I found a recipe that didn't require a candy thermometer, so I thought I MIGHT be able to do it. It is sooooo delicious! It has whole almonds and cashews in the candy part, plus toasty almond bits on top. It turned out perfectly. The recipe is here on GirlsGoneChild.

Lavender Caramels

Sounds fancy, right? Right. This was by far the fanciest recipe I made- I saved it for last. I DID go out and get a candy thermometer, and I did wrap each one in wax paper. At just over an hour to make, this was way the longest recipe to make.. but totally worth it. The lavender is steeped in the cream and then removed, leaving such a fancy pants lavender flavor I feel like I should wear a hat when I eat them.
I got the recipe from the digital 2011 Winter Gift Guide Edition of Anthology- I think it's page 27 or so, but the whole thing is worth a read (or at least check out the pictures).

I will be taking a week off from blogging to accommodate lots of driving, followed by fantastic family gatherings. Wishing you a cozy holiday week full of camaraderie of the best kind!

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<<Previous

Kitchen Sink Granola

Springtime Dinner

A Sunday Kind of Monday

Quick Lunch

More Soup Please!

A Little Snack

Comfort Food Friday

Green Power Lasagna

Time to Woop it Up!

Have a Great Weekend!

Dal-icious Wednesday

Would You Care for Some Soup, Dal-ing?

Singing to the Blocks

Let's Talk Butter

Dutch Baby Goodness

This week is going to be all about the cooking!
(The rest of them will have vegetables, I promise)

Coziness

Look Ma, No Socks!

Mmmmm Quilty Goodness

Hot Drink With a Dumb Name

Holiday Making

Butter and Sugar and Chocolate, Oh MY!

Peppermint Bark

English Toffee

Lavender Caramels

Author

Archives

Categories

More Soup Please!

Green Power Lasagna

Time to Woop it Up!

Have a Great Weekend!

Would You Care for Some Soup, Dal-ing?

Singing to the Blocks

Dutch Baby Goodness

This week is going to be all about the cooking! (The rest of them will have vegetables, I promise)

Look Ma, No Socks!

Mmmmm Quilty Goodness

Hot Drink With a Dumb Name

Butter and Sugar and Chocolate, Oh MY!

Peppermint Bark

English Toffee

Lavender Caramels

Author

Archives

Categories

This week is going to be all about the cooking!
(The rest of them will have vegetables, I promise)