Recipe Links by Stace

Here are some great links I have been using lately:

Raspberry Ricotta Scones by Smitten Kitchen - I made these yesterday morning. OH SO YUMMY! I had mine with a cup of hot raspberry tea (great for pregnant women!).

Homemade Naan - Bobbie and I made this to take to the beach while on vacation. We whipped up some homemade hummus and made hummus sandwiches -- soooo good. We added greens and tomatoes to the hummus and rolled them up -- great beach food.

Fry Bread - I made this bread a few months ago because I had a craving for something savory. I cooked up some grass fed beef, homemade black beans and we made fry bread tacos ( I could only eat half of mine). We topped them with lettuce, tomato, cheese, salsa and whole milk yogurt.

Pita Bread - I am always on the look out for bread recipes. I hate store bought pita bread, naan and tortillas, so I love to experiment with new recipes at home. Saves money and tastes soooo much better than the processed kind. I used this recipe when I made hummus sandwiches for the family a while back. We stuffed the pita with hummus, added spinach, tomato, olive and topped with whole milk yogurt (with some dill mixed in).

posted by stace

Vegetarian Recipe Links -- by Stace

We have been eating vegetarian meals on weekdays for about two weeks. We tend to eat a lot of our meat on the weekends, so it has made sense to try and find new ways to prepare veggies and beans for during the week.

We only order 5 lbs of local grassfed beef per month, but lately it seems like we buy other easy things like hot dogs if we are too busy to cook. We do not want to spend money on bad meat from the grocery store, so we are trying to find inexpensive, healthy veggie meals for weeknight dinner.

Here are the recipes I am using this week:

Monday: Egyptian Edamame Stew (went over well -- Boddhi did not eat it, but I saved him some brown rice and edamame without the other stuff, and he gobbled it up)
Tuesday: Bean Bolognese (yummy! I was pleasantly surprised with this recipe. It really tastes like a rich pasta dish, and it has no meat - I was full all night -- did not even need a midnight snack. I gave Boddhi some pasta with plain beans, and he enjoyed that).
Wednesday: Creamy Avacado and White Bean Wrap (I will let you know how it turns out, but I am really looking forward to this one!)
Thursday: Eggplant, Mushroom Tomato Casserole (not so excited about this, but I have been wanting to try an eggplant recipe - will let you know).
Friday: Homemade pizza (this one is always a hit with everyone. We use the pizza dough recipe from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters and the kids have fun rolling out the dough and creating their own individual pizza. We do use some of our grassfed beef for the pizzas on occasion, cooked with habanero peppers from the garden --so yummy).

I have also found that if I force myself to commit to a menu plan, I spend so much less at the grocery store. I just buy what I need for my recipes (plus fruit, bread etc.), and I am all set for the week. Weekends are usually casual and unplanned -- I am trying to let Dude and the girls take over on cooking and cleaning during the weekend since they really do not have a lot of time to help during the week, and I end up cleaning up after them all (which is not my job just because I am at home!).

What works for your family?

--posted by Stace

Recipe link: Potato Soup - by Stace

I have been searching for a good potato soup recipe, and I think I am going to try this one tonight -- the smoked Gouda hooked me. It is so cold, and we need a hearty, warm soup. We are putting up our Christmas lights today, trying to get our house in order, preparing for some serious holiday baking this weekend.



Here are the notes I took from the video (in case it gets deleted)

Ingredients:
1 T dried basil
½ stick of butter
2 cups shredded smoked Gouda
6 small diced potatoes
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 cups heavy cream
6 cups ck broth
roux (4 T butter 4T flour)

in a stock pot on med high melt butter down
add celery onion and carrot
cook until onions are translucent
add basil
add garlic
stir for 3 minutes
add potatoes
stir for 3 minutes
pour in ck broth
boil for 20 min
add roux and whisk (1 T at a time and whisk)
let it cook until thickened
then whisk in half and half
simmer 20 min
stir in cheese
melt it down, slowly stirring cheese in
sprinkle with cracked pepper when served

edited to add:
We made this for our Christmas movie marathon night -- it was so much fun. Lydia chopped celery, Michaela chopped onions, and I chopped carrots; we sat at the table chopping and talking -- enjoying each others company. Then we all sat down to a DELICIOUS and filling soup (with rosemary sourdough bread). Afterward we watched Charlie Brown Christmas, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town and The Cricket on the Hearth -- with a warm cup of hot cocoa. This is one of my favorite Christmas memories from this year.

posted by Stace

Recipe Links - by Stace

Here are links to some recipes I have used recently.

It is the season for soup, and I love soup for many reasons.

1- it is a good way to make a little meat go further
2-it can be yummy even when you have no meat
3-it is cheap (usually)
4-it warms the house and makes everyone feel cozy and at home

Today I made Wesley's 15-bean-soup (check out her Soup Sunday posts). I soaked the beans overnight, and then put everything in the crock-pot before we left for church, and it is ready now. We will have it tonight with whatever hard bread I can find at the grocery. This recipe made a lot of soup, and we will be eating it all week (yum!).

My sister is coming to town, and I am in the mood to make some banana bread, so I am headed to get some too-ripe bananas from the store.

Wesley's 15-bean soup

Southern Plate's Chicken Stew
This stew lasted a week, and we loved it. I made it on a Sunday, and we ate it with crackers. I ate it all week for lunch, and the five of us still made two more dinners out of it, one with some delicious garlic breadsticks.

I made our Chicken Tortilla Soup for friends on Friday night, and we still have a little of this left over. I will make up some dishes for the girls to take to school and freeze the rest tonight.

What are you cooking?