Meatless Monday 1/3/11

It has been AGES! Life's been crazy. Hopefully now I can restart this and keep it up :) Meatless Monday, almost 3 hours late! This is for people who have a hard time getting their kids (and/or husbands!) to eat veggies.

Baked Kale Chips!

Ingredients
-1 bunch kale
-1 tbsp olive oil
-1 tsp seasoned salt
-Parmesan (optional)

Directions
-Preheat oven to 375* F and line non-insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper
-With knife or kitchen shears remove leaves from thick stems and tear into bite sized pieces
-Wash and dry leaves thoroughly
-Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoned salt
-Bake until the edges are brown but not black, 10-15 minutes
-Sprinkle with grated parm if desired

Tot Thursday (yes i know its been almost a month...mea culpa!!)

Wow, so I got out of the blogging world for a while...my world was overrun by, well, things! Awful, I know. This is something Bella and I did today. One of her favorite shows has a place called the Groovy Smoothie in it and she's been begging me to make her a smoothie so I finally gave in :) the names for all the smoothies in the show are Wiggly Giggly Watermelon, Honeydew, Banana, Chilly Cherry, Blueberry, Raspberry, and Sour Lemon, and Outrageous Orange (ok so not ALL are names, some are just flavors haha) feel free to subtract the milk and yogurt and add some juice for extra flavor! If you use frozen fruit you don't need ice, but with fresh fruit you will.


Ingredients
-1 cup frozen berries (or fruit)
-1 to 2 cups milk
-optional 1/4 c yogurt

Directions
-Blend, serve immediately

Tomorrow I'll post for the hidden veggie smoothie recipe I found today. I'll have to make this for my dear dear husband who avoids them like the plague...cheese and butter and flavorings will not help...GAH!

Healthy Humpday

This looked so good I had to put this up before I tried it...mmmmmm!! However I can't find a picture :( this would be cute for kids and do like a green egg and ham kind of thing! or turn it into a pie, like a quiche or something

TIP! Look for prewashed baby spinach, that way you don't have to wash or chop the leaves. AND to assure the eggs turn out soft and fluffy, wait until the very end to add the spinach ricotta mixture.

Spinach Ricotta Scramble

Ingreients
-3 tsp olive oil, divided
-4 oz spinach leaves, cleaned, drained and chopped
-2 tbsp part skim ricotta cheese
-2 lg eggs
-3 tbsp skim or lowfat milk
-Salt and pepper (s&p)
-2 tbsp parmesan cheese

Directions
-Warm 1 tsp olive oil in med nonstick skillet over med heat. Add spinach and saute until wilted and most liquid is absorbed, stirring. Transfer to med bowl; stir in ricotta. wipe out skillet
-Whisk eggs, milk, and s&p. Add remaining tsp oil to pan still over med heat. cook eggs 2 to 3 min until eggs just begin to set into large curds yet are still moist, stirring gently and constantly. remove from heat, stir in spinach/cheese mixture
-Return skillet to med heat and cook about 30 seconds until warmed through and of desired consistancy. Season with s&p, sprinkle with parmesan and serve immediately

Tasty Tuesday

Easy, Simple, Delicious. I make this for dessert alot! Its great for holidays, summer, spring, fall, winter...in general any time :)

Pound Cake with Amaretto Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients

-Sara Lee Pound Cake in freezer section

-Blueberries fresh or frozen

-White Granulated Sugar

-Amaretto

-Cool whip/redi whip/homemade whipped cream

Directions

-Defrost pound cake

-In small pot put about a cup of blueberries, about 1/2 c of sugar, and a couple splashes of amaretto (really as much as you'd like)

-Stir while the blueberries get warm and sugar melts and alcohol starts to cook off. When it starts to simmer mush some of the blueberries. To make thicker add more blueberries, to adjust sweetness adjust sugar, and to make thinner add more sugar or amaretto :)

Meatless Monday

Hmmm I know I'm late on this one but meatless monday...I'm actually kind of stumped with this one :) OH

Caprese Salad Pasta (I know, like last monday...bear with me)

Ingredients
-Box of spaghetti
-Can of diced tomatos (basil, etc added into it)
-Package of the teeny mozzerella balls
-Fresh basil (optional)
-Balsamic vinegar (optional)

Directions
-prepare spaghetti as normal
-drain and put back in pot, add mozzerella (drained) then toss
-in seperate pot heat tomatos to hot
-pour in with spaghetti, toss, let mozz melt a little
-you can top with basil (chiffonade, or torn or however you'd like) and balsamic if you'd like
-EAT!

This is also fantastic with italian sausage (mild) cut up, or shrimp. My normal is with the sausage but its meatless monday! Its a great side dish for fish or any number of light entrees. Also sorry for no mouthwatering picture...I couldn't find one that did this justice!

Sweet Sunday

Thank you to my seester, Julia, who has been on the phone with me for like an hour trying to find it in my mom's cookbook, since I lost my copy :( I was 98% sure it was in my mom's old Betty Crocker cookbook...well turns out it was the other 2% haha it was in her step by step cookbook! Sorry baby seester you're the best!! These aren't hard all the way through like the ones you buy in the store. These are light and airy and kind of gooey in the middle and it melts in your mouth! If you want them dry all the way through just cook them longer. Feel free to swap out different extracts for the peppermint. You can find everything from butter nut to raspberry to lemon. Fun for holidays and special occasions especially when you add food coloring. Christmas we make red/pink and green. Other times we'll make purple...blue...anything :)

Meringue Cookies

Ingredients
-3 egg whites
-1 tsp vanilla
-1/4 tsp cream of tartar
-1/4 tsp peppermint extract (optional)
-pinch of salt
-1 c white sugar

Directions
-Preheat oven to 275 degrees F
-In small bowl beat eggs whites, vanilla, cream of tartar, whatever extract you are using (if any) and salt until soft peaks form
-Gradually add sugar about 1 tbsp at a time and beat until very stiff peaks form. Drop or pipe by about an inch, inch and a half apart. (they can be as big or small as you want them. if you don't have a piping bag do what I do, take a big freezer bag and load the mixture in, seal closed, snip an end off and squeeze out! so easy and much neater than using a spoon)
-Bake for 30 minutes

Speedy Saturday

Short post, like last night! Sorry I've been super busy all weekend :) I haven't even had time to update my other blog...bad Rachel! However...here is one of my go-to recipes when I'm tired. I realize there is no veg in here except the dried onion, feel free to add celery or carrots. In my house it wont get ate. Also super easy to double or triple! This recipe is for 2-3 people though. When there are 4+ I normally double the broth, soup, and biscuits. I'm sorry it looks so rough, this was one that I accidentally cooked and this is literally how I tell people to cook it. Goulash next Saturday care of my mother in law :)

Chicken N Dumplings

Ingredients

-1 chicken breast per person or a couple (2-3) tenderloins, boneless and skinless

-1 box of chicken broth, 32 oz

-1 can condensed cream of chicken soup, (the smaller cans not family size)

-1 can buttermilk biscuits (not the flake layer ones, just normal biscuits I use walmart brand small tube)

-Salt and pepper

-Dehydrated chopped onion (in spice section)

Directions

-Empty broth into pot and put chicken in, if broth doesn't cover chicken add more broth OR water

-Bring to boil

-Cook chicken thru

-Remove chicken from pot, shred/chop/or leave whole

-Whisk in cream of chicken soup and the onion

-Bring back to simmer or boil

-Open biscuits, tear into small pieces and roll into dime/nickel sized balls, throw into pot

-Continue till all biscuits are gone

-Cook until the dumplins are to your liking (this completely depends on the texture you like)

-Add chicken back in, cook together a couple min

-Salt and pepper to your liking