Baking and Freezing Bread
3 days ago
I made this Dutch Baby for breakfast a few Saturdays ago. I loved how much it puffed up during baking so I took a few in-process photos..
It's supposed to have the dip in the middle. The edges are fluffy and the middle is kind of egg-y like the description says. I did cut the eggs own to 3 like the other reviewers suggested and that was plenty to me. I do think there was too much butter so I'll cut that down next time so I don't have to soak up a pile of butter from the middle after it bakes.
Topped with fried apples (just sliced apples, brown sugar, a squeeze of lemon and some cinnamon sauteed with butter):
Looks good enough to eat:
Fried Plantains. I didn't use a recipe, but it's similar to this one, only I don't use nearly that much oil (as you can see in this photo):
Broiled Grapefruit.. again ,no recipe. Just cut the grapefruit in half, sprinkle with sugar and put under the broiler until it starts to bubble:
Broiled Mango.. made with the same method as the grapefruit but unfortunately I let it burn. I scraped off the top after taking the photo and it tasted just fine:
Tofu and Broccoli Stir Fry, made this for dinner tonight (thanks Martha!):
Baked Apple Cinnamon Wontons for dessert:
Everything was yummy!
Tonight I made Cashew Vegetable Korma for dinner and it was DELICIOUS! The recipe is from Post Punk Kitchen (link here). I've made a few things from her site already this week, but this one is the bomb! You're uspposed to mix the sauce in with the vegetables, but I kept them separate because DH wants to see later on if it's good over some chicken (it will be, but I'm not going there right now). Here's a photo (again, sorry for the crappy iPhone pics. Promise I'll dig out my other camera soon):
I served it with Trader Joe's Garlic Na'an, which you toss in a 400 degree oven for a couple minutes just to warm it up. Just sooo. goood. The recipe makes 16 servings, so I'm really glad it turned out well because I'm going to freeze individual portions which I'll have for lunch whenever I want.
The other food I've been eating has been leftover Snobby Joes on toast, veggies, fruit, etc. Nothing new or noteworthy I suppose, though nice and healthy and pretty good.
..or that how it seems anyway. Besides working (from home for now), doing some housework and preparing to redo the house and backyard, planning healthy meals (well- healthy-ish; I know I'm missing green leafy veggies, but they just don't appeal to me right now) is the only thing I seem to be accomplishing lately. Which is totally fine since that's pretty important :)
Breakfast yesterday. Sauteed (why won't the accent work for me?- pretend it's there above the first e) nectarine and leftover polenta with a little maple syrup:
Lunch yesterday. Baked sweet potato, grapes and a Morningstar Farms Hickory Riblet (really good!):
Dinner yesterday. Snobby Joes (recipe here) on jalapeño (the accent worked here!) focaccia (Safeway), homemade guacamole (a friends super-secret recipe) with pita chips and strawberries:
Breakfast this morning. A toasted crumpet (Trader Joe's) with preserves, strawberries, grapes and mini heirloom tomatoes:
Lunch was leftovers from dinner yesterday, so I didn't take any photos. Dinner tonight was Chickpea (aka Garbonzo Bean) Cutlets (recipe here), baked red potato and mushroom gravy (recipe here).
Everything turned out pretty tasty and there's nothing I wouldn't make again, though maybe with a couple tweaks here and there. I froze the leftover Snobby Joe filling by scooping them onto a cookie sheet with an ice cream scoop, flash freezing and putting the scoops in a freezer bag. The leftover individual Chickpea Cutlets are freezing right now and I will put them in a freezer bag before I go to bed. I want to get some ready-made meals in the freezer that weren't mass produced by big companies.
That's it for now.. explore the blog I linked to (with the recipes), she has some other recipes I'm going to try eventually.
I hadn't been to Trader Joe's in months and months before I decided to make the trip this afternoon. What a dope I've been- they have so many great products and actually have pretty decent prices! I bought a 1 liter bottle of olive oil for $5.50- I was expecting to pay $18.00 at Safeway later this week, d'oh! So anyway, I came home with quite a few items and I managed to use six of them in my dinner tonight.
I didn't take step-by-step photos since this is pretty easy and I didn't use a recipe.
Ingredients:
Polenta (I purchased the kind in a roll, but you can use the mix if you want), sliced to 1/2 inch rounds
1/4 of a small yellow onion, sliced
A handful or so of white mushrooms, chopped roughly
4 cloves garlic (more or less to your own taste), crushed and minced
Thyme
Oregano
Salt
Pepper
Sage
Olive oil
Heat the olive oil in your pan. Add the mushrooms, onions, garlic and spices and keep this to one side of the pan. Add the polenta rounds to the other side of the pan. Saute everything, keeping the polenta more or less separate from the rest so you can flip it over without trapping a mushroom or something underneath. Heat until browned and yummy :)
Then I made a simple caprese salad with the mini heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella balls that I purchased, topped off with just sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. So good!
Besides the spices, the only thing on my plate I didn't purchase today are the grapes. This turned out to be a great dinner, light (non-greasy or heavy) but still filling.
Here's a quick pic from my crappy iPhone and horribly lighted kitchen:
I make these jalapeño "poppers" pretty often. They're so fast, they have 3 ingredients (unless you decide to tweak them a little) and most important- they're SOOO yummy!
I was texting with my sister, describing these awesome morsels and decided to whip up a batch (I had just purchased the ingredients earlier today anyway). I took pictures along the way.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees (mine is convection so it adjusts down 25 degrees automatically).
Assemble the ingredients: fresh jalapeños (try to get uniform size and avoid really thick ones), Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (or regular cream cheese or another cheese you like), and Turkey bacon. I accidentally bought the regular instead of extra lean like I normally do (or use real bacon or vegetarian bacon). You can tweak the kinds of cheese and add seasonings if you want (ranch dressing mix powder works well), but I mostly like to keep it simple. The Tofutti tastes just like cream cheese in my opinion and has far fewer calories and fat. The turkey bacon of course has fewer calories and fat as well- which means I can eat more of these haha!
Cut jalapenos in half lengthwise (wear disposable gloves from this point on if you're like me and can't keep from touching your eyes after cutting peppers):
Use a smallish spoon to remove the seeds and ribs.
Use the spoon to spread some cream cheese into each half. I don't fill all the way to the edge, but feel free if you'd like:
Using one slice of bacon per whole jalapeño, cut the bacon in half like so:
Place on baking sheet with some foil and bake for 30 mins or until bacon is crispy:
That photo turned out a little too blurry and I already plated up, so here's a photo of my plate with half a Morningstar Farm Riblet (so good!):
I took all these photos with my iPhone. I have a camera but it is so slow and difficult to adjust with lighting I just went the easy route. I'm currently putting money aside for a new camera, so my photos will look much better soon. Also, I wasn't being too artistic about displaying the food.. If you want that, check out Pioneer Woman (which is where I got the original recipe)!
Dinner's served :)
Today seems like it's been all about food.
At 7am this morning, my neighbor R and I picked up our order from Bountiful Baskets. We both bought the organic fruit and veggie basket. We received: apples, pear, blueberries, strawberries, 2 heads of lettuce, avocados, celery, beets (yay!), rainbow chard and, gosh- just a whole bunch of fresh produce. I also bought the Asian pack, which had bok choy, napa cabbage, a coconut, cilantro... and yeah, a bunch of other stuff. I love when we get the co-op baskets; you never know what you're going to get, but you know it's going to be good so it's like the best kind of Christmas. When I got home, researched some recipes I wanted to use some of these items with (more on that below).
Around 10am, DH and I headed for the Downtown Phoenix Coffeebar Potluck which I had read about on Arizona Coffee yesterday. The event was only about 1/4 mile from my office and Daniel hasn't spent much time in downtown Phoenix, so this seemed like a great opportunity to show his the neighborhood where I work. I was surprised to see that the coffee shops were offering full-size "samples" of their desserts and treats. Here's a picture of some of things we got:
Now, I have to say I showed great restraint with these sweets- I only had a bite each of the oatmeal cookie sandwich and the Hostess-looking cupcake from Lux (the filling of the sandwich was similar to Cannoli filling) and a brownie from Lola. Three bites is pretty good considering what is sitting on that table. DH didn't each much of it either, so most of it is in our kitchen right now.
We went to Matt's Big Breakfast to have our "real" breakfast. This is a TINY building on 1st Street & McKinley downtown that either makes everything on site or buys it from local sellers, including the bacon and homemade preserves for the made-from-scratch sourdough bread. If you haven't been there, I recommend it although I can't say for sure why there is always such a long wait (we got ours to go and ate in my office a couple blocks away).
The Downtown Phoenix Public Market is within walking distance of Matt's Big Breakfast so we went there while the restaurant was making our order. We purchased some cheese and raw honey and plan to go back next week to check it out a little more thoroughly. I definitely will purchase some heirloom tomato seedlings for my garden!
Once home, I started making DH's favorite meal: Chicken Tikka Masala. I always make at least a quadruple recipe of this (once I octupled the recipe-never again, that was too much work at once!) and freeze the many leftovers in vacuum-seal bags for later. At the same time, I made Naan and two new dishes I've never tried (I'm trying to get a good stock of frozen lunches to take to work): Spicy Lentil & Chickpea Stew and Rainbow Chard & Roasted Beet Fettuccine.
Here is the Chicken Tikka Masala:
So yummy! I didn't chop up cilantro for a topping this time like I usually do because I just got a quick small bowl for myself and DH hates cilantro. When you make this, definitely top with the cilantro!
And the Rainbow Chard & Roasted Beet Fettuccine:
This was pretty good, though I think it would have been better with the red onion and Dijon mustard the recipe called for rather than the white onion and yellow mustard I substituted since that's what I had on hand. I think it's hilarious that it's pink because of the beets! I feel like I'm eating Barbie doll food, haha!
The Spicy Lentil & Chickpea Stew:
This recipe was kind..eh. Really not spicy at all, so I'm going to add some jalapeno to it before I freeze it. Hmmm... maybe some of the jalapeno tomato salsa I made the other day, that'll spice things up!
DH has requested peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so I'll be making that tomorrow.
I'm barefoot.
I'm in the kitchen a lot.
BUT I'm not pregnant, lol!
Who knew you could blow up a potato? Ok, well probably everyone. Me included really, but yeah.. I forgot to poke vent holes in my potatoes when I was baking them for dinner today. Good thing only one of them went atomic:
It made a really loud bang, too. I thought DH had come home- it sounded like the door to the garage banging shut.
Guess what I'll be doing soon??
Please consider making a micro loan to change a life
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July 11, 2010
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