Biscuits and gravy

The kids (mine and her playmate) made biscuits and gravy. The kids made the multi-grain biscuits (adapted from a Betty Crocker recipe) and I believe I've posted that recipe before.

The gravy was also a Betty Crocker recipe:
- 2 tablespoons meat drippings
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup liquid (broth, water or milk)
- pinch salt and pepper

Mix and heat until bubbly

I used frozen beef drippings and soy milk.

Mini burgers and canned goods

I made cinnamon raisin bread and multigrain bisquits today.

So for dinner my husband made little slider burgers while I made a side of fresh steamed broccoli.

We opened bread and butter pickles and firecracker carrots from our canning session with Gayle at the end of July.

Vegan packed lunch for school

The falafel last night was very good, though chunky since I was too lazy to get out the food processor. I will be trying that again.

Daughter wants to pack today and my typical leftovers approach won't work since pizza and falafel needs to be hot to please the little one's palette.

So, today's lunch involves raiding the freezer. I gave her one dairy slight slide-- a commercially produced rice krispie treat that I no longer have the package/ingredients. Yesterday I poured some apple juice into ice cube trays so her juice could stay cold without getting diluted. The main sandwich is a Morningstar breakfast pattie (sausage) on a homemade multigrain biscuit. And a side of canned mandarin oranges.

Our meals lately have not contained many green vegetables, but every time I buy some they disappear instantly and we're badly in need of a trip to the grocery store. Considering how empty the cupboards are, I think our meals look good.

Breakfast sandwich

I took:
- one Morningstar breakfast patty
- one homemade biscuit
- one squirt ketchup
- hearty thick smear of roasted red pepper dip (mouhammara)

Incredible!

Biscuits and munchees

Tonight's dinner is a strange one. I made a double batch of my yeast multigrain biscuits and ended up with about 40 rather than 24. My plan is to share some with my dad and his wife, so it's not a big deal. Since I had so many, I lightly brushed a dozen of them with olive oil and sprinkled with asiago and Parmesan cheese.

Dinner tonight is:
- two multigrain biscuits, one with maple syrup and Morningstar breakfast patty and the other is a cheese biscuit with butter
- our vegetable is health is wealth spinach munchees
- our beverage is apple juice

(the meal is intentionally light because child has girl scouts and they always feed her a snack. At 4:30)

Quick and hearty

Breakfast today was fruit juice and biscuits with peanut butter and blackberry jam.

For lunch, our daughter has chicken and dumpling soup in her thermos (canned variety), grapes, the big carrot from our garden, and goldfish crackers. With a juice box.

Biscuits and corn

Made skillet biscuits and vegetarian sausage sandwiches for dinner, a request from the family.  I haven't made biscuits in a while... and the child especially asked for them. I like them made in the Le Creuset skillet.

For a side, I made a mix of white and yellow corn. Then, I sliced some green pepper from the garden very tiny. I melted in a small skillet two tablespoons of butter, added a pinch of four color peppercorn and a pinch of garlic salt. Heated that on low and added the pepper. Used that as sauce for the corn.

Progresso Dinner

Ah, tonight we had Progresso reduced sodium pot roast/beef vegetable soup with more biscuits from lunch. So no recipes. It's chilly, gloomy and I'm wounded.

Veg BLT

My in-laws left at 11:45 which left me 22 minutes to whip up lunch, when we're low on groceries and I strained my back.

I had my daughter help me whip up a batch of skillet biscuits, all with unbleached white flour as I'm out of my specialty flours of wheat and rye.

When my husband got home, he sliced a tomato from the garden for me and got the spring mix ready. My daughter got the mayo. I put a drop of olive oil in the small frying pan and dropped our last four slices of Morningstar Vegetarian bacon in the pan and covered them with a pinch of organic four color pepper.

We assembled the little sandwiches and they were yummy. For dessert we had warm biscuits with blackberry jam, and my daughter-- so enamored with these fluffy biscuits-- requested a THIRD, this one with peanut butter and jelly.

Garlic Multigrain Biscuits

This afternoon I made my multigrain yeast biscuits that I invented a couple weeks ago. They are in the oven now. I changed the liquid from 1.5 cups warm milk to 1+ cup warm soy milk, one container papa john's garlic sauce and 1/2 cup warm water.

I hope to serve them tonight with a meat and cheese platter, dates, and organic spring mix with bacon dressing (I got out of the freezer).

A friend stopped by today with various meats, some cheese and some vegetables so any shopping I do in July will be skewed if you're tracking how much I spend.

Killer turkey sandwiches

I made killer turkey sandwiches for lunch today.

On my homemade multigrain biscuits I lathered the homemade pesto mayonnaise, stacked green leaf lettuce on top, added cucumber and roast turkey. On the "lid," I sliced Jarlsberg cheese and melted it.

Served with a side of Italian vegetables (steam-in-bag from Aldi) and more cucumbers with dippings. Apparently, the cucumbers are a hit with my daughter. She's devouring them today.

I'm trying to make up for some vegetable deficiency while I haven't felt well.

Experimental Yeast Multigrain Biscuits

I have a batch of skillet biscuits, one of my first attempts at really cooking in a while. I greased the skillet with butter, more for flavor than need and topped the butter with some cornmeal.

This experiment is based on some of my other biscuits.

I started with:
- 2 cups unbleached white flour
- 1 cup wheat flour
- 1/2 cup rye flour
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1/4 cup flax seed
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1 heaping tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon iodized sea salt

Mix just until incorporated. Then I mixed in a separate container:
- 1 1/2 cup warm soy milk
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 1 teaspoon honey

I let that rest until bubbly and combined the two mixtures. Then I kneaded briefly, rolled about 3/4 inch thick, cut with a glass, and put in skillet. I let the skillet rest with a towel over it on the oven for 15 minutes while it preheated to 400 degrees. Put the skillet it for 13 minutes.

12 biscuits (I think) that we hope to have for breakfast with Jarslberg cheese and Morningstar vegetarian sausages.

Makeshift Chili Feast

Using the recipe from the last time as a guide (without pineapple as I had none and substituted a can of corn instead), I made chili.
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/03/another-batch-of-chili.html

I served a side of greens (daughter selected raw broccoli and carrots instead) and a multigrain biscuit (from the freezer) drizzled with real maple syrup. And, of course, I shot of juice so that vitamin C can help my iron absorption.

I suggested making more biscuits after dinner and my daughter announces that she wants chili and fresh biscuits for breakfast tomorrow and biscuits with butter and jelly for dessert tonight. Sounds backwards to me, but that sounds fine.

I was just thinking about it, and everything in our meal tonight, down to the salad dressing was vegan.

Veg Sausage Biscuits

My daughter slept late today and so my husband did not make us cream of wheat as he does most days.

My daughter had a small bowl of cocoa pebbles with whole milk when she woke. (A gift from her mimi, I didn't buy them.)

Then at nine a.m., I got two of my multigrain biscuits out of the freezer and two Morningstar breakfast patties (vegetarian sausage) and made little sausage biscuits with ketchup, served with a serving of 100% fruit juice and one of my oatmeal-dried fruit cookies from yesterday.

Tea Party

We had raisin bran and soy milk for breakfast and a 9:30 a.m. tea party with Celestial Seasonings sugar plum spice tea, homemade multigrain biscuits with Wegmans raspberry jelly, fresh dates, and dark chocolate (powder) coated almonds.

Life is good.

Multigrain Biscuits (experiment)

• almost one cup unbleached Wegmans all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup rye flour
• 1/4 cup flax seed

(for a total of about three cups "flour")

• 1 generous tablespoon baking powder

mix thoroughly. Add:

• a tad more than 1/2 teaspoon iodized sea salt

fold in:

• 6 tablespoons butter

Add:

• one cup soy milk

Knead. Cut with bottom of glass once pressed thin. Mine made 19 biscuits. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
based on:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/brown-biscuits.html

Midmorning Tea Party

I normally eat my breakfast around 9:30 a.m. This morning, another rainy day, I whipped out the tea set and made a tea party for my little girl.

I diluted my usual homebrewed iced tea for the teapot, prepared a platter of yesterday's homemade biscuits, and scrambled some eggs. I also peeled a pear.

And voilà... One happy little girl who ate two biscuits, a scrambled egg and a pear.

Brown Biscuits

I decided to experiment with Brenda's biscuit recipe that I found the other day:

http://oldfashionedliving.com/biscuits.html
Brenda Hyde's Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients:

2 cups sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

4 tablespoons butter or shortening

1/2 tsp. salt

about 3/4 cup milk Sift Flour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Cut in shortening or butter. (this is where I use my hands by rubbing the butter into the flour). Add milk gradually, stirring until soft dough is formed. Turn out on slightly floured board and lightly "knead" for 30 seconds, enough to shape. Roll 1/2 inch thick and cut with 2 inch floured biscuit cutter. Bake on ungreased sheet in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Makes 12 biscuits. You can also make tiny tea biscuits that are only 1 1/2 inches wide with a small cutter or glass bottom. These are great served with tea, jam or honey. Makes 24.

I wanted to double it, and somehow my efforts went crazy. So I decided to make brown biscuits.

Angel's Brown (Wheat) Biscuits
(Which once we made them we ate with maple syrup or with peanut butter and raspberry organic fruit spread)
Ingredients:
2 cups white flour
3 cups wheat flour
1.5 cups dehydrated milk
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
4-5 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
@1.5 cups water

I mixed the flours, the baking powder and the dry milk. Then I added the salt. Then I added the butter. Then I whisked together the soy milk and molasses and diluted with about a half cup of water. I worked the dough with my hands, adding additional water as needed. I think I ended up using 3/4 of the cup. So my estimate on how much water is 1.25 cups total.

For lunch, we made broccoli/mozzerella biscuit pizzas.

Sausage and biscuits

We were watching the Waltons today when it suddenly started to rain. In the episode, Olivia said something about hot biscuits. That got me thinking I wanted biscuits for dinner. My first stop was my Betty Crocker cookbook, but it called for shortening and I don't have any so I did a quick internet search to find an alternative or to verify that I could substitute another fat.

Butter works just fine, it seems.

Among several other recipes I found this one, which is just what I had in mind, an old-fashioned biscuit recipe from 1933.

http://oldfashionedliving.com/biscuits.html
Brenda Hyde's Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients:

2 cups sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

4 tablespoons butter or shortening

1/2 tsp. salt

about 3/4 cup milk

Sift Flour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Cut in shortening or butter. (this is where I use my hands by rubbing the butter into the flour). Add milk gradually, stirring until soft dough is formed. Turn out on slightly floured board and lightly "knead" for 30 seconds, enough to shape. Roll 1/2 inch thick and cut with 2 inch floured biscuit cutter. Bake on ungreased sheet in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Makes 12 biscuits. You can also make tiny tea biscuits that are only 1 1/2 inches wide with a small cutter or glass bottom. These are great served with tea, jam or honey. Makes 24.

My daughter and I tried the recipe. It proved quick and easy. We even used a gingerbread cookie cutter for some of them. I didn't have any milk so I mixed powdered milk in with the flour and used water as the liquid.

Believe it or not, other than that I didn't deviate from the recipe.

I'm going to serve with Morningstar vegetarian sausages, the only remotely meat-like substance in the house right now. And I keep thinking maybe green beans, but I don't know if I have any.

But now, I have to go taste the biscuits while they're hot, with a touch of raspberry jam.

And the verdict is: yum! and with a touch of raspberry jam: FABULOUS!

The final meal is pictured: Homebrewed unsweetened iced tea, Mott's unsweetened blueberry applesauce, vegetarian sausage on a biscuit with no salt added ketchup and a gingerbread man shaped biscuit with organic raspberry fruit spread.