Polenta with White-Bean and Roasted Pepper Ragout

I hate going to the doctor. Not just a little bit, I dread the whole experience. During my twenties I was horrible about going, I pretty much didn't go other than when I was pregnant. Then I had pneumonia and I go at least twice a year now. However, I still hate it. Growing up my mother had diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure in addition to being over weight and having horrible anxiety. I have been lucky to have only inherited the horrible anxiety, especially when it comes to doctors. A large part of it stems from having kidney problems growing up and spending a lot of time in the hospital. It made me avoid going to the doctor unless I was sick. Since my mother had so many problems I always have to have a lot of blood tests, which come out normal every time, but I still hate the whole process. Yuck.

One way I try to stay healthy is by cooking meals that are either vegetarian or use meat as an ingredient rather than the main part of a meal. My kids have grown to love beans as much as meat, which is a win in my book. Last week I tried a new recipe for Polenta with White-Bean and Roasted-Pepper Ragout from Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time. 30 minutes of which is active, and makes 4 servings. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First, I used homemade chicken broth, the taste is better and you can control the amount of sodium. Second, I used quick-cooking polenta, I prefer it since it's quick and easy. I doubled the amount of polenta since my family loves polenta.

I liked that this recipe was simple and easy to prepare. My husband and I enjoyed the combination of the beans and polenta, it was a nice change from having pasta or rice. I wasn't sure what my two boys would think, but they loved the beans and ate their whole servings. This would be a nice summer meal since it's light and doesn't take much time to cook.

For the recipe go to Polenta with White Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Ragout.

Pickle Brined Chicken

Pickle Brined Chicken

When most people think of cooking from scratch they think of breads, soups etc. However, there many kitchen ingredients that can be made from scratch, saving not only time, but money. Spice mixes can be expensive at the store, but easy and inexpensive to make at home. Plus the taste of homemade spice mixes is fresher and can be the difference between a good and great dish. Later in the week I will share a recipe for homemade chili powder. The amount of heat can be adjusted for families with kids or increased if you like things with a little kick. I also make homemade Greek seasoning and various Indian spice mixes (since it can be hard to find some of them in my area). Homemade spices can last up to 6 months when stored in an airtight container and make throwing together a great meal that much easier. Plus since there are so many recipes available on the internet now making spices from scratch is beyond simple.

On to the recipe! My family is obsessed with pickles. The males in my house could eat pickles three times a day if they had their way. Last week I tried a new recipe for Pickle Brined Chicken from the January 2014 issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. 

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 8 hours and 40 minutes of total time (including brining), 25 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First, I used two jars of 32 ounce pickles. My store does not stock 64 ounce jars of pickles so I bought two smaller jar instead. I found that the thighs took longer than the suggest oven time to fully cook. The thighs that I bought were on the larger side and took closer to 25 minutes to fully cook. Most of the time I make my recipes gluten free (so that I can enjoy them). However, I did not eat this meal so I used regular all-purpose flour to dredge the chicken. I chose to pour the pan sauce over each serving instead of pouring it over the entire dish as suggest by the original recipe. I prefer serving sauces at the table so each person can chose the amount of sauce they want to eat and it helps to keep the meat tender on the plate. 

Everyone in my house loved this recipe. My oldest son said this was the best chicken recipe I had ever made and eat four pieces of chicken in two days. The leftovers didn't last very long at all since my kids kept going back for more servings over and over again. My husband thought the chicken tasted like a popular chicken restaurant's chicken sandwiches (which is a compliment coming from him). All-in-all a great recipe. 

For the recipe go to Pickle Brined Chicken. 

Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce

Christmas seems to bring out the nasty in people. I try to keep my wits and attitude in check myself, but I oftentimes find myself sliding into a bit of the nasties as well. I think it's a combination of stress, stress, and more stress. As women and mothers we tend to put everyone else's needs above our own. The presents have to be perfectly picked out, the Christmas dinner fabulous. We stay up late making sure that our holiday cards are addressed, signed and out on time. Don't forgot the letters to Santa, outfits for dinner, photos, tree decorating, the list goes on and on. The more television, social media and general holiday overload works its way into our lives the more crazy we drive ourselves. I think all of us needs to just sit back and take a breath. If you are the woman that snapped at me because I was in front of you at the milk case, you might need another coffee or possibly a nap. My holiday wish for all of us is that we can all sleep in until noon, let somehow else take care of the kids and bask in our own awesomeness (even if most of us forgot to leave milk and cookies for Santa). Since we all know that won't happen I hope that each and every one of us can take a moment to look at our family and realize, it's okay if the turkey is still frozen at Christmas dinner, the presents can go into a bag, and most of all it's okay to have that 4th cup of coffee. The Christmas season is only another week and a half of chaos. We all will somehow make it through, hopefully without going crazy at people in the mall parking lot (myself included-why are there never enough spots!!).

I have been short on recipe posts in the last week thanks to offline responsibilities. However, I have still been baking and cooking new dishes so my readers will have posts to enjoy in the next couple of weeks. A couple of weeks back I tried a great new recipe for Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce from the November 2013 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine.

Snow in Huntington, WV

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I substituted spaghetti for the bucatini. My kids prefer spaghetti and I wanted to minimize dinner time food battles. I used 3 anchovies since the fillets that I had were small. Finally, I allowed the sauce and pasta to cook approximately 6 minutes in order for all the liquid to absorb.

Snow in Huntington, WV

This was a very popular recipe in my house. My husband and two boys were big fans of the sauce. I ate my sauce over fried polenta, which was also delicious. The nice thing about the sauce portion of the recipe is that it could be used with another pasta, over polenta or even over rice or chicken. It has a variety of uses, making it a nice recipe to have in your recipe collection.

For the recipe go to Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce.

http://www.foodieinwv.com/2013/12/bucatini-with-butter-roasted-tomato.html

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A simple recipe for pasta with a butter roasted tomato sauce. The sauce would also be delicious over polenta or with chicken. A versatile recipe!

Preparation Time: 0h, 20m

Total Time: 1h, 0m

Yield: Serves 4

Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburgers

Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburgers

I am a bad mommy. My oldest son is 7 and doesn't know how to tie his shoes. It isn't for a lack of trying, I have tried many, many times. I blame my husband mostly and his genetics. According to my mother-in-law he was the last kid in his class to tie his shoes. I also blame how kids are taught in school these days. Apparently learning simple skills like tying your shoes is no longer something that public schools teach. Okay. In 1st grade we spent a great deal of time learning to tie our shoes until every kid could do it by the end of the year. The school district that my son is in does not see this as an important skill. They even went so far as to state in a take home note that if my child does not know how to tie his own shoes that the teachers don't have the time to take to tie his shoes for him. I completely understand that teachers are over worked, both of my in-laws were teachers for almost 40 years each. I just wish that some of the skills that used to be emphasized at school such as tying your shoes and cursive would still be viewed as valuable. So I continue to fail miserably at home. I know that a big part of it is that he is left handed. It took working with him for almost a year for him to understand how to hold a pencil and begin to write. I never knew how much harder being left handed makes everything. Hopefully I am not the only bad mommy in the world and that my son turns out to be a normally functioning adult. If not there are always slip on shoes that require no tying what-so-ever. Today's recipe is something that my whole family loves, cheeseburgers. This week I tried a new recipe for Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburgers from the June/July issue of Taste of Home magazine.

Sugar Grove Christian Church Near Owingville, Kentucky

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 8 servings. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First I make my buns from scratch. It saves money and they taste so much better than store bought. Secondly, I thought that I had steak sauce in the fridge, I was wrong. When I got ready to make the recipe I discovered my fault and decided rather than running to the store in the middle of dinner to leave out the steak sauce all together. My husband is still refusing to clean the rust off of our outdoor grill so I used my indoor electric grill to grill the burgers. The cheeseburgers had a problem with slitting open during grilling. Don't feel bad if this also happens to you, they still tasted fine after they were finished cooking.

Mt Sterling, Kentucky

These burgers turned into a mess on the grill. The amount of filling was just too much for the burgers to stay together. The burgers still tasted delicious, they just oozed out their insides a lot on the grill. If you would rather that your burgers stayed intact I would suggest adding only a small amount of the filling to each burger and make sure to form the patties very flat with a good inch or more of space between the filling and the burger edge. The problem was only aesthetic though so if you aren't worried about the way the burger looks, the recipe was fine.

For the recipe go to Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburgers.

Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburger

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A stuffed cheeseburger recipe with mushrooms, provolone, and red and green peppers. Uses lean beef to cut down on the total fat.

Preparation Time: 0h, 30m

Cooking Time: 0h, 10m

Total Time: 0h, 40m

Yield: Serves 8

Healthy and Low-Fat Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup

I have a horrible habit of trying to eat healthy and then falling off the wagon. Don't get me wrong the majority of the time I eat very healthy, but making big changes in my diet always seem to take a number of failures before they are successful. In college I ate a ton of restaurant food. There were always cheap places to eat and I rarely made food at home. Eventually it caught up with me when I realized that I never seemed to have any energy and I generally felt run down. I vowed to change my habits and I did until I started graduate school and then I was back to my old habits. After getting married I vowed again to start eating healthier, then I got pregnant and the smell of meat made me sick. To compensate I ate a ton of ice cream and peanut butter. After my first son was born I reformed and gave up pretty much any bad food while I breastfed. Then I became pregnant again and my bad food habits quickly came back. So over the years I have started and stopped a lot of healthy eating plans. Luckily since having my youngest and starting this blog my eating habits have leveled off. 99 percent of the time I eat healthy and the other 1 percent I remind myself that I'm human. Since my husband's dad had heart surgery last year I have been determined to make my husband healthier. He has lost 30 pounds in the last year and a lot of it has had to do with dietary changes. This week I made a new healthy recipe for Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup from the February 2013 issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 16 ingredients. It takes 1 1/2 hours of total time, 1 hour of which is active and makes 8 servings. I did make a few changes to the recipe. First I made my own chicken stock from scratch. It really does taste better and is a great way to save money. Second, instead of diced canned tomatoes I used one fresh tomato. I am trying to use more fresh ingredients and rely less on canned goods. Plus the price of fresh tomatoes is lower than canned currently. Finally, I also used fresh spinach and I cooked my own beans.

I love that this recipe is high in vitamin C and only has 5 grams of fat and 199 calories. It has great flavor and the lime juice makes the soup delicious. I tasted the soup before adding the lime and the lime makes a tremendous difference. Make sure to salt at the end, especially if you are making your own stock or using low sodium store bought. This recipe could easily be modified to being vegetarian by omitting the chicken and using vegetable stock instead of chickens stock.

For the recipe go to Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup.

35 Minute Stewed Chicken Breast, Red Bell Pepper and Chickpeas

Today was an experimental baking day. I ran out of eggs the other day and my oldest is always very hungry when he gets home from school. Knowing that I had to think of something fast I made vegan oatmeal cookies. I knew that they were good when my youngest tried to eat the batter before it went into the oven. Needless to say the cookies have all been eaten and I think that I may have convinced my husband that vegan cooking can be delicious when done properly. Of course after all of the cookies were eaten none of my family was hungry for dinner. I decided that since the cookies were almost all oatmeal and brown rice flour, it was pretty close to a healthy breakfast food and I didn't argue too much. Making healthier baked goods has been one of my goals for the last month. I have also been trying to incorporate more chicken into my family's diet. My husband prefers pork, so I have been trying to find chicken recipes with a lot of flavor in order to trick my husband into eating them. This week I tried a new recipe for Stewed Chicken and Chickpeas from the January/February 2013 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes a total of 35 minutes, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few modifications to this recipe. First I was unable to find 6 ounce breasts. The meat selection at our grocery store is always limited so I had to use slightly larger chicken breasts. I do think that the recipe would work better with the smaller breasts if you can find them. For the red pepper flakes I used a full teaspoon and I used 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala. I chose to leave off the fresh parsley since my local grocery store refuses to stock flat leaf and I just can't get a taste for curly parsley, the texture gets to me. Since I eat gluten free I left out the pita and served the dish over quinoa which I had cooked with butter and minced garlic. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The red pepper and chickpeas are the star of this dish. The chicken cooked well and was tender, especially given that my family prefers chicken thighs. However, the best part of the dish was definitely the sauce. I thickened the sauce at the end with a small amount of cornstarch and it was great over the quinoa. Additionally, it re-heated very well the next day.

For the recipe go to Stewed Chicken and Chickpeas.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Red Pepper Pesto

As I talked about earlier in the week I have been making an effort to eat everything out of my fridge and cupboard. I really want to reduce the amount of garbage and food waste that my family accumulates. We have never been really bad, I have always cooked from scratch and I even grind my own meat, but we still had some habits that could be better. One of them was my bad habit of buying vegetables and then forgetting to use them. I know that you are probably wondering how I can forgot a vegetable that I bought, but they go into the vegetable drawer in the fridge and it sometimes takes them weeks to make another appearance. Since fresh vegetables are expensive and they are only good for you if you actually eat them I have been cutting down both the number of things that I buy at the grocery store and using every last thing that I purchase. So far it has worked well. Today I made quinoa oatmeal cookies since my cupboards are packed with oatmeal and quinoa that I bought last month for a recipe. The cookies were delicious and a great way to use items that I already own. So today I decided to make dinner with the last of the veggies I had before going grocery shopping tomorrow. I tried a new recipe for Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Red Pepper Pesto from the January 2013 issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients and made no ingredient substitutions. Instead of snipping my oregano I loosely chopped it since I was making it for my two boys. Make sure to rub in the spices and oregano. The more the mixture is rubbed in the better the flavor of the tenderloin will be. I pulled out my pork at exactly 25 minutes. I normally pull out my pork at 145 degrees and let it rest to reach 150. The worst thing you can do with pork is overcook it, it becomes tough and not nearly as delicious. The recipe photo in the magazine shows the pesto on the side. I chose to serve my pesto as a sauce over the tenderloin. I thought this would lend better to the flavor and add extra tenderness to the pork. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written. 

The red pepper pesto was the star of this dish. Make sure to add adequate salt, it will need it and I added an extra clove of garlic for flavor. I preferred the pesto as a sauce rather than on the side. Additionally, I think it could be even better with roasted pine nuts on top. The pork was very tender and the roasted peppers made a nice side to the dish. Best of all it only takes slightly over a half an hour start to finish, so great for a week night meal.

For the recipe go to Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Red Pepper Pesto. (registration required)

Thai Chicken Curry

I hope everyone is having a great New Year's Eve. In my twenties I loved going to friend's parties and ringing in the New Year. Now that I have two kids and am in my mid-thirties (we aren't talking about what age I am turning this year :) I prefer to stay at home and enjoy the beginning of the New Year with my family. 2012 had a lot of ups and downs for my family. My health for the first 6 months was all over the place with pneumonia, low potassium levels and a high heart rate. Luckily everything seems to be better now, but I am definitely ready for 2013 to be rung in. I will be surprised if my two kids make it much past 10 pm, but they might surprise me and stay up until midnight. I think I will make it to midnight and not much farther. When I was in college I could stay up all night and still be at work the next morning at 7 am, now I need my beauty sleep. My cooking this week has been easy. I haven't been motivated to spend a lot of time in the kitchen since my oldest is home for winter break until Thursday. This weekend I tried a new recipe for Thai Chicken Curry from the January issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes a total of 45 minutes, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did have to make a few modifications based on ingredient availability. First I have never seen yellow curry paste at any of my local grocery stores so I substituted green curry instead. Additionally, instead of regular Yukon gold potatoes I used baby Yukon potatoes. I prefer the baby Yukon potatoes when cooking since they are smaller and cook much quicker than their larger counterparts. I had no problems finding any of the other ingredients and made no further ingredient modifications. The recipe states to cook the curry on a simmer for a total of 20 minutes. I let my curry cook for closer to 30 minutes to ensure that it had thickened adequately. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I wasn't sure what my kids would think of this curry. They can be hit or miss with ethnic foods. Sometimes they love them and other times they won't even try a bite before they decide that they don't like the dish. However, I am happy to report that they loved this recipe. My oldest was especially fond of the chicken. The chicken turned out very tender and the potatoes were a nice addition. I chose not to serve the dish with fresh herbs since my kids were eating it, but it would be delicious either way.

For the recipe go to Thai Chicken Curry.

Stewed Beans

As I have talked about before we eat a lot of beans in our house. I love that beans can be used in so many different ways and that they are a great source of protein. It doesn't hurt that they are also inexpensive and make for numerous leftovers. When I first met my husband he had really only eaten pinto and black beans. Pinto beans are very popular in West Virginia and almost any home cook has a recipe. Having grown-up in Seattle I had never really made anything other than chickpeas and kidney beans in vegetarian chili. Luckily after we got married I learned that there are a vast array of beans that can be used in so many different recipes. One of my favorite ways to prepare beans is stewed, it is easy and delicious. Last week I tried a new recipe for Stewed Beans from issue Number 152 of Saveur magazine, which looked like a great vegetarian meal option.

This recipe has 17 ingredients. It takes 2 hours of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 10-12 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I did adjust some of the cooking times on the recipe. I cooked the onion mixture for a full twenty minutes to ensure that the onions fully caramelized before adding the spices. Additionally, my total cooking time was 1/2 hour longer than suggested. I tasted the beans as the recipe was written and I felt that the chickpeas needed a longer cooking time so I put them back on the stove for an additional 30 minutes. Finally, this recipe will need a lot of salt added once it is completed. The flavor is delicious, but it definitely needs salt to bring out the flavors fully. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

While this recipe takes a bit of planning and cooking time the results were worth the time spent. The beans were very flavorful and my whole family, including my two boys enjoyed them. My husband added hot sauce to his serving and it really did make the beans taste even better. I would suggest this addition if you like spicier foods as it really did bring out the taste of the beans. Overall a great vegan recipe full of protein and makes enough for multiple meals. 

For the recipe go to Stewed Beans.

Gluten Free Confetti Cornbread

Baking is one of my favorite past times. Even when everything else in my life is in chaos, baking is my outlet. I have talked before about how I deal with my stress by going into the kitchen and baking or cooking something for my family. It seems the older that I get the more that this trait seems to be appearing. My kids are both at stages where they fight all the time. Literally today it really did seem that the entire day they were fighting. I would love to say that I am one of those perfect mothers that never seems to be phased by their children's behavior. I'm not. When my kids get into these moods, I deal with the situation, give time-outs etc. and then turn to the kitchen and I bake. My kids have even begun to realize how mad I am based on the type of thing that I'm baking. Cookies means that I will only be angry for a little while. However, if mommy starts making a complicated pie or new recipe than they had better let me breath for a while. The hardest thing since going gluten free has been to re-adjust all my baking to no longer using wheat flour as a base. I have had a number of misses, but slowly I have become more confident in my gluten free baking skills. Recently, I tried a new recipe for Confetti Cornbread from All You magazine, which looked like a perfect baking recipe to make gluten free.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of baking, 25 minutes of prep and makes 24 pieces. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Obviously since I made this recipe gluten free I made some significant changes. First instead of using all-purpose wheat flour I used a combination of brown rice and sorghum flours. I am happy to report that my local super store now has a large selection of gluten free flours and I am very thankful that even in my city I am able to find everything without having to pay a ton. I decided to keep part of the seeds from the jalapeno and add them to the cornbread. The extra bit of spice helped to enhance the flavor. In order to prevent my cornbread from burning I tented the pan the last 10 minutes of cooking. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I have tried a lot of gluten free recipes in the last couple of months. Some have turned out spectacular. Other recipes have had to literally be thrown in the trash. This recipe modified well to being gluten free. Since there was fat from the butter and 3 eggs the cornbread didn't end up dry. I would recommend adding a small amount of milk to the batter if it is too dry due to the gluten free flour. A lot of recipes require additional liquid when being converted to gluten free.

For the recipe go to Gluten Free Confetti Cornbread.

Asian Ginger Beef

I spend most of my early twenties drinking lots of coffee and not eating all that healthy. I blame the combination of running, working and taking a full course load at University of Washington. Add to that I had the brilliant (not) idea of double majoring and a commute that took at least 1 1/2 half and food always seemed to take a back seat. I literally had very little time to prepare pretty much anything so I relied on large amounts of caffeine and the occasional meal out. Luckily for me Seattle is full of great restaurants that when planned well can be reasonable on a limited budget. One dish that I loved throughout college was stir-fry. Whether made at home or restaurant bought it was always full of flavor and delicious. Most importantly it contained a large amount of vegetables, which with my food habits was probably the largest amount of vegetables I consumed every month. Luckily after I moved and met my husband I also discovered that vegetables are delicious and should be eaten daily. My two boys have grown-up with a very different relationship with food and eat more fruits and vegetables that I think I ever did. Last week I tried a new recipe for Asian Ginger Beef from All You magazine, which looked very simple and full of vegetables.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 14 minutes of cooking time, 10 minutes of prep, and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Since I can no longer eat gluten I use gluten-free soy sauce. I also make my own beef broth, since I believe that it tastes better than store bought. Instead of serving this recipe over white rice, I used brown rice. I stopped serving white rice approximately 6 months ago and after an adjustment period my two boys prefer it over white rice. The recipe suggests to allow the mixture to cook for 1 minute after adding the sauce. I did things a little bit differently. My veggie mixture was a little watery from the frozen veggies so I increased the cornstarch to a full tablespoon and let the mixture cook until almost all the liquid was absorbed. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two kids really enjoyed the beef in this recipe and ate all the beef out of their serving. My husband and I thought that the dish was a decent beef stir-fry recipe, but neither of us thought the title ginger beef was accurate. The flavor of the ginger was not overly noticeable. In order for this recipe to be ginger beef I would suggest increasing the amount of ginger to suit your taste. As written, the dish was a nice beef stir-fry, but was light on the ginger. With an increase in the amount of ginger I think that it could be a quick and child friendly ginger beef recipe.

For the recipe go to Asian Ginger Beef.

Slow Cooker Corn Chowder with Shrimp

My family enjoyed the last of our Thanksgiving leftovers tonight. Right now I am eating the remainder of the sweet potato pie with a big helping of whipped cream. I survived all the chaos of the Thanksgiving cooking and was able to get a few great deals shopping this weekend. Now the craziness of December starts with my youngest son's birthday next weekend. I can't believe that my youngest is turning four! Since the holidays always mean crazy schedules and a press for time, I love using my slow-cooker to make dinner just a little bit easier. Eventually I will also learn to use the pressure cooker that I have in my pantry. So far I have used it to can veggies and soups, but I seem to never use it as an actual pressure cooker. Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution this year. Then again I am horrible at keeping resolutions, so maybe not. Either way I fall back on my crock-pot extensively during the holidays. Last week before the massive cooking endeavor of Thanksgiving I tried a new recipe for Slow Cooker Corn Chowder with Shrimp from All You magazine, which looked perfect for the full house of company I had for the week.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes a total time of 6 hours and 15 minutes, 15 minutes of which is active and makes six servings. I always have to go to multiple stores in my area when making seafood recipes. For whatever reason my local superstore insists on only carrying farm raised fish and shrimp. Having grown-up in the Northwest I shudder at the idea of eating farm raised seafood. I had too many friends that worked in the fisheries dept. and instilled in my head never to eat anything farm raised. So in order to find wild caught U.S. shrimp I have to drive to the grocery store in the suburbs. I had no problem finding any of the ingredients. I made my own chicken stock and as I always do I bought Italian flat leaf parsley. I am not a fan of curly parsley, the texture isn't something that either my husband or I enjoy. Make sure to fully salt this dish. I had to add a decent amount of salt after this recipe was done since the potatoes had soaked up any of the salt added to the soup in the slow-cooker. Finally I did add the heavy cream, without this step it is more of a soup than a chowder. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I served this recipe while my in-laws were at my house and everyone enjoyed it. My oldest son thought the shrimp was the best part, but he always eats more shrimp than anyone else in the house. Make sure that your potatoes are diced small or they won't fully cook in the slow-cooker. My potatoes were a little larger than I would prefer so I would change it if I made this recipe again. For an extra flavor I would suggest adding crushed red pepper. It really would make this dish better since the spices weren't noticeable the way that the recipe is written.

For the recipe go to Slow Cooker Corn Chowder with Shrimp.

Kung Pao Chicken

I can't believe how quickly my kids are growing-up! My youngest is turning four in just a couple of weeks and is definitely starting to assert his independence. Right now he is having a long debate with me about the reasons that he needs to have jam with a piece of gluten free bread. I must admit that the kid has a lot of willpower. With my children growing older I seem to have less and less time to spend on pretty much anything. Instead of getting my shower first thing in the morning like I used to, I am lucky to have one before going to bed. My time is more and more limited which means that I am relying on recipes that take little prep and cook time, especially on busy weekdays. That doesn't mean that I don't still love involving and delicious recipes, it just means that they are once a week instead of everyday. It also doesn't imply that I have given-up on big flavors and great food. There are some great recipes that take little time to make, but turn out as well as recipes that take three times as long. Recently, I tried a new recipe for Kung Pao Chicken from the October issue of the Food Network Magazine, which with 25 minutes of total time looked perfect for my active and busy household.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes a total of 25 minutes, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Instead of using frozen stir-fry vegetables I chose to use fresh vegetables. The flavor of fresh vegetables is much better and I could control the exact type used. Since I don't eat gluten and most cheaper soy sauce has gluten as a main ingredient I used gluten free soy sauce instead. When I first stopped eating gluten I had no idea how many things use wheat as an ingredient, I've learned to be very vigilant with my label reading. Instead of chicken breast, I used chicken thighs. I prefer chicken thighs for flavor, they really are worth the extra amount of fat. Since I used fresh vegetables my total cooking time was increased. I let my dish cook for an additional 5 minutes after adding the sauce. Finally, I added a pinch of crushed red pepper to enhance the flavors. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys really loved this recipe. I like that it took less than a half an hour start to finish. The fact that the recipe has 41 grams of protein is another great selling point. My two boys are both in growth spurts so high protein meals are essential. This recipe doesn't have traditional Kung Pao Chicken flavors, but would be a good dish for people that want a more mellow stir-fry. I would suggest increasing the ginger slightly if you want to add a larger flavor punch in addition to the addition of crushed red pepper. If you are expecting leftovers I would double this recipe. The dish made exactly enough for my family of four. If I made this recipe again I would double it to have lunch the next day.

For the recipe go to Kung Pao Chicken.

Hearty Quinoa and Corn Chowder

For the last couple of weeks it seemed that fall had by-passed my area. Trick-or-treat was postponed due to snow and power outages, which I never remember having happened before. My oldest son remarked that it looked like Christmas outside....in October. Luckily this weekend the weather was in the 60's and it actually felt like fall. I am someone that absolutely loves fall. The leaves changing and the start of the holidays puts me in a great mood. All the baking and cooking remind me of growing-up in a very large family (my mom was the oldest of twelve). There is something so relaxing about baking an apple or pumpkin pie and a meal with lots of sides. One of my favorite fall dishes is soup. I love pretty much any type of soup that can be thought up and I make soup or stew at least once a week in the colder months. Recently, I tried a new recipe for Hearty Quinoa and Corn Chowder from the October/November issue of Taste of Home magazine, which looked perfect for the crisp fall weather.

This recipe has 15 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of prep and 15 minutes of cooking and makes 14 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store, even the super store in my area now stocks quinoa, which is a welcome change. Since I am now eating gluten-free I substituted the all-purpose flour used in the recipe for gluten-free cornstarch. I use cornstarch in recipes frequently, especially soups and stews, it thickens just as well as flour and can be found gluten-free. Since corn isn't in season I used frozen corn and as I normally do I made my own vegetable stock. If you have never made your own veggie stock, you really should try it. Vegetable stock can literally be made with any leftover fridge veggies, onions, carrots and a few bay leaves and let it simmer for a couple of hours. I do not salt my homemade stock since I like to add salt to the recipe directly instead. The recipe stirs in the last ingredients and serves the chowder immediately. I let my chowder cook for another 15 minutes on a low temp in order for all the flavors to blend. With soup I prefer a little longer on the cook time in order for the soup to be just right. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

If you are looking for a recipe to feed a crowd this is the one to pick. This recipe made enough for two meals for my family of four plus a bunch of freezer leftovers. My two boys really like this soup. They both thought that it was corn soup and didn't notice the quinoa at all. I liked that it has quinoa and pinto beans for protein with the traditional chowder consistency and feel. If you are trying to watch your calories and fat the heavy whipping cream could be substituted for milk. I do this frequently in recipes. Just make sure that you add enough flour for the chowder to thicken adequetely. Overall, a great fall recipe that is very kid friendly.

For the link go to Hearty Quinoa and Corn Chowder. (registration required)

Pesto Calabrese

This has been a long week, sorry for the lack of posts. I promise I will be back to regular blogging next week. So without further ado, pesto. Growing up there was one food that my mother absolutely adored, eggplant. My father and I however, we not fans in the least. I would literally groan with my mother would come in from the farmer's market with a big bag full of eggplant. She was a good sport and tried recipe after recipe to no avail. When I was in college I survived on coffee and pancakes (really I did, it was cheap for a whole box and I paid my own way through school). I didn't think about or eat eggplant for many years after moving out of my parents house. Then I met my husband and wouldn't you know he loved eggplant as much as my mother had. So what to do. Well, I decided that instead of fighting against the eggplant I would surrender. That didn't mean that I wouldn't find some great recipes to try and hope that maybe, just maybe eggplant could be redeemed. It turned out that as an adult I love eggplant, when cooked the right way. One of the ways that I have found that my whole family loves eggplant is in pasta, so I was quick to want to try the new Pesto Calabrese recipe in a recent issue of Saveur magazine.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes to prep and cook and makes 1 1/2 cups of pesto. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients and made no ingredient modifications. My onions took slightly longer than the 10 minutes suggested by the recipe. I really don't watch the clock when caramelizing onions, I just watch until they are adequately browned. After all the ingredients were combined I cooked them an additional couple of minutes to ensure all the flavor was released. Most important of all make sure to salt. This pesto requires a decent amount of salt in the finished dish, so don't be afraid of the salt shaker. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I like the idea of this dish. Eggplant is delicious in pasta dishes, but this pesto needs a few changes. I found the pesto to be to sweet with not enough flavor to compensate for the sweetness. I would suggest adding crushed red pepper flakes. This would give the pesto a much needed kick and the amount can be adjusted to suit your tastes. Alternatively chili oil might also work if you have it. With the addition of a little heat I think this pesto would be a great way to use eggplant.

For the recipe go to Pesto Calabrese.

Kung Pao Chicken

 

My oldest son loves chicken. Don't get me wrong he devours bacon and can eat a far larger portion that I ever can, but most days his meat of choice is chicken. It has been this way as far back as I can remember. When he started table foods I would cut up whatever food we were eating into very small bites and serve it to him. Most foods he wanted nothing to do with, until he discovered chicken. I thought that he would never stop breastfeeding and start table foods and then chicken became center stage (he still breastfed until I was halfway through my pregnancy with my youngest, but that is another long story). To this day if I mention dinner will contain chicken he gets very excited. He is also at the stage where he is wanting to help me more and more in the kitchen. I welcome this curiosity and enthusiasm, it's a great way to teach math without him knowing. Currently, he is still too young to handle the raw meat, but he has become quite good at measuring out ingredients and peeling vegetables. This week my oldest and I made a recipe for Kung Pao Chicken from the September issue of All You magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cook time and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients and made no ingredient modifications. As always I made my own chicken stock. Additionally since I don't salt my stock I used regular soy sauce instead of reduced-sodium. I used a whole head of broccoli, which was slightly more than the four cups suggested by the recipe. For my serving I decided to leave off the chopped peanuts, but my husband served it this way and thought it was delicious. Finally I let my chicken and vegetables cook together closer to 10 minutes to ensure that my chicken thighs were fully cooked. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My husband was disappointed that this recipe didn't taste like Kung Pao chicken. Kung Pao chicken is one of his favorite dishes, so he was expecting something different from this dish. He still thought that this recipe had a great flavor, but was in no way traditional Kung Pao. My two boys on the other hand loved this recipe and ate all the leftovers. I would agree that it doesn't taste like traditional Kung Pao. To me it had a taste similar to garlic chicken, if the name of the recipe had been changed to garlic chicken it would have been more accurate. Regardless of the name it is a very easy and inexpensive chicken recipe.

For the recipe go to Kung Pao Chicken.

Taste of Home Satay-Style Pork Stew

With all my posts on slowcooker recipes one would think that I grew up with a mother that constantly used her crock-pot. However, I wasn't. My mom could never get the hang of her slowcooker, but loved her pressure cooker. I'm sorry to admit that I have a pressure cooker/canner which I use to can every year, but the thought of preparing meat or other foods in it scares me! I know that I should learn, my mother-in-law makes the best pasta sauce using her pressure cooker and she assures me that the pressure valve won't actually fly off and kill me. However, all that I can remember is the very old pressure cooker that my mom owned and how I was told to never go in the kitchen when it was on. Doesn't make for a high level of comfort when using one as an adult. Needless to say, while my pressure cooker is rarely used, I love my slowcooker. If you've read my blog for any amount of time you already know that I normally make a slowcooker recipe approximately once a week. One of my favorite things to cook in the crock-pot is pork and I was excited when I saw a new recipe for Satay-Style Pork Stew in the April/May issue of Taste of Home magazine.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of prep and 8 hours of cooking time and makes 8 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I did change a few things in regard to the specific type of ingredient. For the teriyaki sauce there were only two types at my local grocery store, neither of which was low-sodium so I used regular. Since I make my own chicken broth and don't add salt I wasn't worried about the dish being overly salty. For the peanut butter I used natural organic peanut butter, I prefer the taste and texture. Finally, I left out the green onions and peanuts for the topping. Honestly, I forget to add them at dinner time and the dish was fine without them added. Make sure to take off most of the fat from the butt roast or you will be left with a lot of fat to skim off the finished dish. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was skeptical about the use of parsnips in this recipe. I bought and added them worried that the taste would be less than appetizing. The finished dish was delicious. I had nothing to worry about with the parsnips, they blended perfectly with the pork and peanut taste. This is one of the better slowcooker recipes I have tried in the last couple of months and the taste was good enough that my two kids didn't notice that I served the dish with brown rice. Overall, a delicious peanut taste that was well received by everyone in my house.

For the recipe go to Satay-Style Pork Stew. (registration required)

Family Circle Chicken and Rice Casserole

Recently, I haven't been as active as I used to be and I'm sorry. Between being sick for over two months and my two boys being so full of energy my blog seems to be the thing that has been put on the back burner. This weekend I decided to do spring cleaning on my house and what I thought would take at the most 5 hours turned into 3 trips to the store and an entire weekends worth of work. By the time Sunday rolled around I realized I had forgotten about my blog all weekend, oops! So I figured I better get back to cooking and reviewing and what better way to do it, then with a recipe using my family's favorite meat, chicken. The December issue of Family Circle magazine had a recipe for Chicken and Basmati Rice Casserole, that promised to only use one pot and have 32 grams of protein.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of baking time and makes 6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and I made no ingredient modifications. I recently bought a new dutch oven and I am so happy that I did, it makes cooking so easy and flavorful. Plus it's great when everything is done in one pot since we don't have a dish washer anything that saves me from doing more dishes is great. I actually decided to use regular long grain rice instead of basmati rice. My local grocery store only has one brand of basmati rice and the taste is less than stellar, so I decided to use regular long grain rice instead. Finally, make sure to cut off any of the large fat deposits on the chicken thighs or the casserole will taste too rich.

Any recipe that only uses one dish always gets my attention. I love to cook, but with two kids I am always short on time during dinner prep and anything that can save me time and effort I grab onto. This recipe makes six very large servings and was more than enough for a dinner for my family of four and leftovers for lunches the next day. The rice is flavorful, but not spicy and was very family friendly. Overall, an easy one pot meal.

For the recipe go to Chicken and Rice Casserole.

Taste of Home Spinach Mushroom Enchiladas

My oldest son is on a serious mushroom kick. I have made more mushroom recipes in the last couple of months than I have in years. I'm lucky that my five-year-old is a great helper and has become my kitchen side kick during dinner prep. I love spending time with my two sons in the kitchen and it provides a great way to teach them fractions, math and general science lessons. My five-year-old now is able to dump in ingredients and is beginning to understand how to read recipes. In order to help him appreciate the food that he eats, I have been preparing recipes involving ingredients that he loves, such as mushrooms. The November issue of Taste of Home magazine had a recipe for Spinach Mushroom Enchiladas using lime juice and mushrooms, which looked delicious and a great recipe to have my son help to prepare.

This recipe has 16 ingredients. It takes approximately 35 minutes of prep and 14 minutes of baking, and makes 6 total servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I do wish that my store had baby portobello mushrooms by the pound, they are a great deal more expensive when sold pre-packaged. I did make one modification, I only had beef bouillon granules, so I substituted it for the chicken bouillon granules called for in the recipe. Finally, I chose to add the red pepper flakes, my family likes a little kick in our food. Make sure to adequately cook the spinach in order for all the water to be cooked out. I let my spinach cook a good 15-20 minutes. Letting the water cook off is essential to avoid soggy enchiladas. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The lime in this recipe gives the enchiladas a great citrus taste. Everyone in my family enjoyed this dish and the leftovers re-heated great for lunch the next day. The serving size is large and I was able to make two meals, making it very economical at only 4 dollars a serving. Overall, a great inexpensive enchilada recipe.

For the recipe go to Spinach Mushroom Enchiladas.

Everyday Food Cheese Crackers

I have a slight obsession with cheese. Growing up I wouldn't go for chocolate, or candy, but instead I was fascinated by the fancy cheese section of our local grocery store. I loved going out to restaurants to try new types of cheeses and recipes, and would spend hours in the local Italian grocery store which had a huge fresh cheese section. I wasn't surprised when my youngest son started taking blocks of Parmesan out of the fridge and eating it like an apple. He doesn't seem to understand that blocked cheese isn't a snack that most children would request before candy. As I was looking through the November issue of Everyday Food magazine I came across a recipe for Cheese Crackers, which looked perfect for my cheese loving family.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 4 and a half hours of prep, chilling, and baking time and makes 24 crackers. All the ingredients are very simple and I either already had in my pantry or they were easy to find at my local grocery store. Make sure to watch the crackers, they burn easy, I took mine out at exactly 15 minutes of baking time. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These are best eaten the day they are made. After sitting for a day they become far less crisp. My two boys really like these crackers and ate the majority of the recipe by themselves. The best part of this recipe is that it could easily be modified to include other types of cheeses, bacon, or fresh herbs. I think when I try it again I will add cooked chopped bacon, a crowd pleaser with the men in my family.

This recipe is currently unavailable online. However, it can be found in the November issue of Everyday Food magazine. I did find some other cracker recipes on the Martha Stewart website, which are Peppery Cheese Crackers and Mushroom and Blue Cheese Crackers. They look just as delicious and I plan to try them in the future. Tell me if you have/or do try them!