Pinwheel FAIL

I had this idea to make pinwheel style items for dinner. Turns out we totally didn't have the right kind of ingredients.

So I rolled up some cheddar cheese, corn salsa, regular salsa, black olives and ranch dressing in a tortilla shell. These were my daughter's favorite.

I cooked fresh broccoli and added it to ranch dressing and tomato in a second one and that became too thick to roll so it became a quesadilla. This was my favorite.

The final one was broccoli, cheddar and American cheese. Again, too thick too roll. Became a quesadilla. This was husband's favorite.

Baked at 350 for ten minutes.

The broccoli tomato blend is in the foreground. 

Yummy but not pinwheels. If only I had a soft cheese...

Broccoli olive pasta

Nothing more soothing than hot pasta after shoveling a blizzard...

My husband made this whole wheat rotini with red sauce, black olives, green olives, ground beef and broccoli. Topped with shredded Parmesan. All kinds of yum.

Baked omelet

Since our chicken sitting adventure began, we have received 31 eggs (I think)    from our feathered friends. 

We've had a round of fried egg sandwiches and then last night husband made chocolate chip cookies.

Tonight we got home from a long day at work and I had dinner all planned. Preheat oven to 400.

We toasted the last six slices of Pepperidge Farm rye bread and put some sweet potato fries on the cookie sheet.

We whisked about eight eggs (we lost count), added a little cold water and whisked some more. I got a 11x7 Pyrex pan and swiped it with some oil. 

In the bottom of the pan I poured the remaining bruschetta we made a few days ago. I sprinkled lots of local broccoli    on top. Poured the egg mix on top of that. Added some of last night's roasted peppers here and there. 

Put it in the oven.

The fries needed to be flipped after 12 minutes. About five minutes after that, I pulled the omelet out of the oven and sprinkled some tiny pieces of extra sharp cheddar on the top and seasoned it all with fresh ground four-color pepper, a touch of garlic powder and some Italian seasoning. I returned it to the oven for five more minutes.

I ate my portion on the rye bread like a sandwich, complete with horseradish sauce.

The bruschetta really made the vegetables zesty and juicy. This was incredible.

Chicken-sitting

A friend of a friend is heading to a conference in Pittsburgh and needs someone to care for her chickens. I thought it'd be a great lesson for my nine-year-old.

We headed out to the farm this morning for our chicken care primer and the chickens had laid 4 eggs since their owner had gathered eggs earlier in the day. So my daughter collected them-- still warm! 

We brought them home, washed them and made a big broccoli-tomato omelet. The tomato came from our garden.

Chicken française pasta

My husband came up with the suggestion of "chicken française pasta" when I first got some boneless, skinless chicken on clearance at Target.

Today we pulled it out of the freezer and gave it a shot.

Ingredients:

- chicken, boneless, skinless and cut into smaller pieces

- lemon juice, about half a cup (two fresh lemons?) 

- one stick butter

- peas

- broccoli

- pasta of choice

- 1/2 cup fresh dill from the garden

- 1/2 cup fresh parsley from the garden

- about six chives fresh from the garden

- 1 teaspoon garlic powder 

- about 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper (plus another 1/2 teaspoon)

- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 

- your favorite olive oil 

Heat about one tablespoon butter over low heat in cast iron skillet. Add equal parts lemon juice. Add the garlic powder and the Italian seasoning.

Stir until nicely combined. Add chicken. Increase heat to medium. 

Cook pasta to desired doneness. Drain and set aside. 

When chicken is done, push the meat to one side of skillet. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper. Arrange skillet so empty side is over the heating element.

Add about 1/2 stick butter to empty side of skillet, add fresh herbs and cook while trying to push the sauce around the empty side of the skillet to minimize how much sauce the chicken absorbs. 

Add vegetables to empty side of skillet. Combine both sides of skillet until everything is evenly mixed and evenly heated.

Pour olive oil (cold pressed extra virgin imported from the Middle East is my fav) over the pasta and mix so they are just a tiny bit wet and kind of glistening.

Put pasta in bottom of serving bowl. Top with desired amount of chicken-vegetable mix.

This was incredible!

Buffalo broccoli pizza

Yesterday I bought Archer Farms buffalo pizza sauce for $1.47 a jar, normally $3.29.

I made a mixed flour pizza crust (rye, sourgum flour, wheat, flax, white corn meal and coconut flour). Then topped with broccoli and about six different cheeses in addition to the sauce.

I enjoyed it.

Hot broccoli sandwiches

Sorry for the hiatus. Cupboards were bare. Schedules frenzied. Not much worth sharing.

But tonight I made these open faced almost like pizza broccoli sandwiches.

I took six slices of some grocery store bakery bread.

I preheated the broiler to high.

I spread each slice with the black olive tapenade from Wegmans. I layered pepperoni on next and sprinkled garlic pepper. I heated them just enough to toast the edges.

Meanwhile my husband chopped and cooled until crisp-tender some broccoli.

I added that to the sandwiches, sprinkled with Italian blend cheese and placed them back under the broiler until the cheese melted.

And the most awesome touch?

Drizzling then with cold pressed extra virgin olive oil when they emerged from the oven.

The whole family laments that I didn't make more.

Thai broccoli mix

Total cop out dinner. Somehow I keep ending up with empty cupboards...

So tonight I took a head of fresh broccoli and sautéed it in sesame and coconut oil. I then added, directly to the skillet, a carton of Archer Farms Thai curry soup.

I served this over brown rice, with a handful of raw cashews on each portion. Very delightful.

Fat Tuesday

I had no idea what to make for dinner so I swung through Target after a long shift...

I grabbed steaks, vegetables, strawberries and creme brûlée for my Fat Tuesday celebration.

My total bill came to $25.92.

- 4 small Angus steaks, $10, regularly $15.98
- fresh express iceberg garden salad, $1.47
- Green Giant fresh asparagus $2.49, regularly $3.49 (and was not in as good of condition as I thought when I bought it... Sad face)
- fresh strawberries, 1 quart, on sale for $2.49
- archer farm steam-in-bag broccoli, on sale for $1.89
- 2 boxes of Archer Farm creme brûlée (each with two servings), $5.99 each

Subtotal: $30.32
Team member discount: - 3.04
REDcard savings: - 1.36

What did I do with it?

When I got home, I touched off my enormous pépé mug with chai, and washed the asparagus. While my husband cooked the steaks with just a little garlic pepper and Italian seasoning, I cut some slits into the asparagus and spread some extra virgin olive oil and garlic pepper on them on the cookie sheet. I preheated the oven to 450 and really roasted that asparagus to a golden brown.

Then I split two raspberry Chobani "bites" with dark chocolate into three bowls and garnished with fresh strawberry slices.

That was the first course. The second course was a big old plate of salad. Third course was the asparagus.

Husband prepared the fourth course, the steam-in-bag broccoli drizzled with sesame oil and the steaks.

Dessert is the creme brûlée prepared by the child.

The wine is local apple wine from Stroudsburg.

Ravioli with bacon sauce

My husband had to work late unexpectedly and child has her dance lessons tonight so I whipped up this ravioli (spinach-portabello mushroom-cheese) with bacon sauce and broccoli.

I dropped the ravioli into boiling water, started a big bag of premium broccoli in the steam in bag and started the sauce in a small pot.

The sauce was two tablespoons butter, melted on low, with three strips bacon broken into bits. I added about a teaspoon of garlic pepper and a teaspoon of Italian herb seasoning.

When the ravioli finished, I placed them in a big bowl and poured the bacon sauce on them and stirred to mix. Next I topped with the broccoli and drizzled the broccoli with extra virgin olive oil.

I stirred everything heartily together and sprinkled some Parmesan cheese. I added sliced calamata olives and served.

Delightful. Really delightful.

Puff pastry wheels

My husband has a Christmas party in his office tomorrow. He wanted to make little broccoli pot pies, but I didn't have store bought pie crust and Target didn't have any. So I bought Pepperidge Farm puff pastry.

The first sheet was a cup of berries and some strawberry syrup ground in the food processor.

I used the leftovers and added sliced banana for the second batch.

The third batch was Green Giant broccoli and cheese sauce, Frank's Red Hot buffalo sauce, and crushed red pepper. (In the food processor)

The final batch was another pack of the broccoli, shredded Parmesan and a sprinkle of Romano.

Brussel sprout broccoli dish

I wanted to make this:

http://www.katiekdid.com/2012/03/05/pistachio-cranberry-and-bacon-brussel-sprout-salad/

But ran out of Brussel sprouts, didn't have tarragon or pistachios and doubled the bacon.

I used 3 tablespoons of coconut oil since broccoli loves to suck up cooking fats...

But here we go:

In my cast iron skillet, sauté 12 ounces broccoli and about six ounces Brussel sprouts in 2 tablespoons coconut oil.

Sprinkle with generous garlic pepper, fresh ground black pepper and parsley. Add bacon broken into bits and another tablespoon coconut oil. Toss to coat.

Bake about 30 minutes at 375 adding cranberries in the last five or so minutes.

Crazy bagels

It's cold and rainy. My husband wanted sandwiches. I wanted broccoli.

We made sandwiches and store-bought soup.

The sandwiches were open faced tuna melts on half of a bagel. My daughter and I split halves-- 1/4 each of salt and poppy with tuna, then cooked broccoli and finally extra sharp cheddar melted on top.

Yup, you read that correctly. Cooked broccoli. It was a fabulous addition. I think I may be adding broccoli to my sandwiches all the time...

But next time I'm doubling the amount of broccoli.

Post vacation cop out

My neighbor came to Philadelphia to retrieve my daughter and I to the train station. He wouldn't accept toll, gas or parking money so I took his son to Friendly's for dinner.

Today I used my husband's leftover bologna to make sandwiches with spring mix, extra sharp cheddar and new pickles on hot dog buns.

Dinner was processed stuff. Morningstar spicy black bean burgers, uncle ben's broccoli cheddar rice with extra broccoli and Mott's unsweetened healthy harvest blueberry applesauce.

Soon I must start cooking again. Vacation must end sometime.

Pockets

Not an elaborate dinner by any means... My daughter did most of the preparation on this one.

-2 pie crusts
- one fairly large package broccoli with four cheese sauce
- diced chicken
- buffalo blue cheese dip
- fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 425.

Arrange pie crusts in cookie sheet.

We'll eventually fold over the pie crusts and pinch them closed so we want to fill only one side.

Place chicken, then coat with buffalo blue cheese dip, sprinkle with pepper, smother with broccoli in cheese sauce and pinch closed.

Bake about 20 minutes.

Spring ravioli

While weeding the garden today, I pulled some more of those wild onions/yard scallions/ onion grass. I also had some fresh broccoli that I needed to use.

So I whipped up some store bought cheese ravioli and developed a sauce from the following:

- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 chopped cloves of wild onion
- about 3/4 teaspoon basil
- about 3 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk
- about 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour

Method:
Combine butter and oil and sauté scallion pieces for about the minutes. Reduce heat, add milk and cream. Once combined add flour. Incorporate thoroughly, add basil.

Now once I had the sauce, I cooked about 2.5 cups chopped fresh broccoli briefly in the microwave. About three minutes. Then I drained it, put the sauce to the side, and sautéed the broccoli about five minutes in a teaspoon of olive oil and the sauce sticking in the pan.

I put the sauce in the ravioli pot once I cooked and drained the ravioli and added the ravioli. Stirred until thoroughly mixed (it's a thin coating) and add the broccoli.

I sprinkled about 1/4 cup grated ricotta salata on each dish after scooping out the ravioli

Roasted Asparagus French Bread Pizza

I made homemade bread today, something I've blogged about many times before. AND I roasted the rest of the asparagus just like I did a couple days ago.

Then for dinner, I sliced some bread and prepared garlic bread/white veggie French bread pizzas.

Ingredients:
- French bread
- butter
- minced garlic
- spinach
- broccoli
- roasted asparagus
- black olives
- ranch dressing

Method:
Preheat oven to 450.
Slice bread and arrange on cookie sheet.
Combine butter and minced garlic. Spread evenly over bread. Toast bread about five minutes in oven.
Combine broccoli, spinach and enough ranch to get the veggies wet.
Remove bread from oven. Pile on ranch mixture, top with cheese. Add some asparagus.
Put in oven about five minutes to get cheese melty.
Remove from oven. Add move asparagus, black olives and more cheese.
Return to oven. Cook until hot and melted.

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.

Mighty Green Pork Soup

It's raining and I wanted to make this:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2011/01/pork-soup-part-one.html?m=1
But as usual I don't have the ingredients. So I made a similar soup.

INGREDIENTS (in crock pot)
- about two cups chopped and browned pork

(I browned mine in my Le Creuset cast iron skillet with two parts canola oil to one part walnut oil, adding fresh ground pepper and minced garlic while it fried)
- 32 ounces Kitchen Basics unsalted vegetable stock
- 16 ounces Pacific foods Organic butternut squash soup
- 36 ounces water
- 2 tablespoons parsley
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 1/2 cups frozen greenbeans

- 1 can Great Northern Beans
- 1 crown fresh broccoli
- 1/4 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup frozen corn

Pasta in (Target) vodka sauce

While we were at Target for our big grocery trip last weekend, we decided to try the Archer Farm vodka sauce. Now normally I don't even use jarred pasta sauce because of the cost and the sugar content. Vodka sauce at my favorite italian restaurant has tasted really good the last few visits and with our pledge not to eat out, I thought it might work.

It doesn't.

But more on that later.

We buzzed through Target today for some pet supplies. While there I went to the grocery section for milk.

Prices do not subtract team member or red card discount.

-Silk Pure Almond vanilla was $2.99
- silk unsweetened soy milk was $2.79
- market pantry half and half, one quart, was $2.14

Purdue boneless, skinless, cage and antibiotic free, vegetarian fed chicken breast for $2.49/lb

Since I had plans to make the vodka sauce, chicken would be nice. I bought 1.4 pounds for $3.42.

I brought everything home.

Part of the reason I chose this meal was because I've been super tired in the afternoon. We have been surviving on a plethora of mexican feast leftovers, foccaccia and lunch dates with friends. (their treat, so I didn't break my pledge)

I sliced the chicken into strips and cooked it. Child made frozen peas and broccoli in the microwave. Had water on to cook whole wheat rotini.

Child fed tortoise some veggies and gave me the rest to add to the skillet, with a touch of fresh ground pepper. Then I poured the vodka sauce in. With the meat, its juice, everything.

I served over the pasta, with a sprinkle of Parmesan.

It was mediocre. My cooking was good, but the sauce fell flat. But, as my husband says, can you expect jarred sauce to be good?