Ham and Broccoli Quiche by Steph

Easy and Mostly Free for us since we are over loaded in eggs.

I usually buy a frozen pie crust. But it would be even better if I made a homemade wholewheat crust.

1-1/2 cubed ham or any meat Salami is sooo good
1-1/2 shredded swiss cheese
1 cup broccoli
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix ingredients in bowl. Pour into shell and bake for 35-45 minutes.

Posted by Steph

Chicken a la Jovan by Bob

I thought I would post one of my favorite Jovan recipes. It is very delicious. It's kind of a chicken stew, but the sauce made with white wine and heavy cream. Very delicious.



Ingredients:

chicken (we use thighs, with or without bone)
3 small potatoes
3 carrots
fresh green beans (cut in half)
3 cloves garlic
1 small onions
1 jalapeno
cooking wine (white) 1 small bottle
1/2 pint of heavy creamer or 1 cup of milk
add 1 small bottle of cooking wine and milk to a large cooking pot.
add onion, garlic, jalapeno and simmer
season according to your taste (salt, pepper, herbs, etc. - jovan puts a smidgen of curry as well)
cook chicken and season in a separate pot with olive oil and seasonings
add carrots, green beans and potatoes and let simmer until potatoes are cooked well.
slow simmer will taste better, but 1 hour will do.

Posted by Bob

Pizza Dough by Stace

Friday night is the perfect night for pizza and movies.

Nothing beats a handmade pizza for bringing the family together around a project. One person rolls out dough while the others chop and grate. Then everyone gets to sit down together to watch a movie.

I started pizza / movie night originally as a way to limit tv time during the week. Whenever Boddhi asked me if he could watch a movie, I would just say "on movie night you can." Then watching movies became something special (and rare) and not just a way to get him out of my hair.

I have tried a few different dough recipes, but my favorite for flavor and texture comes from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. I usually double this recipe for my family -- then we make half the pizzas and freeze the rest of the dough for the next week (then I don't have to make dough every week).

Pizza Dough

Stir together

• 2 tsp dry yeast

• 1/2 cup lukewarm water

Add and mix well

• 1/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/4 cup rye flour

Allow this to sit until bubbly (about 30 min)
Mix together in another bowl:

• 3 1/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

Stir this into the yeast and flour mixture with

• 3/4 cup cold water
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Mix by hand or in electric mixer with dough hook. Dough should be soft and elastic -- soft and slightly sticky. Put the dough in a large bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until it doubles in size (about 2 hours).

Divide dough into 2 (or 3 if you like think like me) and form into nice smooth balls. Allow the dough balls to rest wrapped loosely in plastic for an hour or so. Flatten each ball into a disk about 5 or 6 inches, flour lightly, cover and let rest for another 15 min. Place a baking stone on the lowest rack i the oven(remove other racks for easy access) Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Gently stretch one of the disks into a round about 10 inches across. Put on a floured peel or an inverted baking sheet. Brush dough with olive oil and, leaving a 1/2 inch border uncovered, top with your choice of ingredients.

We like hamburger pizza (grass fed ground meat cooked with habanero peppers from the garden) and also veggie pizza with spinach, purple onion, tomato, olives and feta cheese. Boddhi prefers plain cheese, and the girls eat just pepperoni.

Enjoy your pizza :)

Posted by Stace

Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas by Bob

Inspired by Stacey's recent veggie post I decided to try something veggie myself. Since we are broke, and I also want to buy meats from local farmers I have been trying to convince Jovan we should cut back on meat. This hasn't been easy, but the best way to do it is just cook the meal!! He really liked it but did say "just a little chicken added and it would be perfect." With a sly grin on his face.

Here it goes:

1 pkg dry black beans (seasoned to taste)
1 can of corn (or fresh/frozen corn)
1 block cheddar cheese (i only used half but the more cheese the better)
1 onion
1 green pepper
1 jalapeno
1 tomato
2 cloves garlic
corn tortillas
enchillada sauce

Cook the black beans early, and season them to taste. I added salt, pepper, cumin, bean seasoning and taco seasoning. Also threw in a couple of whole garlic cloves crushed. When black beans are about done add the corn. In a separate pan saute onion, green pepper, jalapeno, tomato and garlic in a pan. Add this to your black beans.
Begin cooking corn tortillas (as Steph says in a previous post it helps to but a couple of drops of water on them). Fill each tortilla with cheese and them bean mixture and line the bottom of a pan. Sprinkle cheese on top and add enchilada sauce. I used a green enchilada sauce from a jar. It had fewer unidentifiable ingredients in it that the canned ones. Bake on 350 until cheese is melted.
It was yummy :) Jovan clearly liked it since he at about 8 enchiladas. I had two and was stuffed!

Grilled Chicken Salad - by Mama Katie

Food Memories: Not many yet. This is a new dish that I first made in the summer of 09. I just started putting things together that sounded good to me. I am sure you could change it up with other ingredients. I think the grilled chicken (Papa Leo's special) makes a big difference in the taste.

The measurements below are just a guesstimate. I usually don't measure anything.

Ingredients:

2 very large chicken breast (seasoned with Tony's Creole Seas. & grilled prev. - adds a hint of spice to the chicken)
2 Fuji or any sweet apples chopped with peelings on
Grapes (small sweet)
Dried Cranberries
Walnuts (chopped chunky)

Dressing is just mayonaise or miracle whip (light coating). Just until it kind of sticks together. Add grapes, cranberries & walnuts to taste.

When Leo grills, he usually grills extra and we freeze it and take it out as we want.

Posted by Mama Katie

Shepherd's Pie -- by Stace

There was no special occasion, holiday or memory attached to this recipe (yet). I just had about 8lbs of potatoes growing impatient in my pantry, so I needed a recipe that would use a lot of potatoes.

I searched the Internet for potatoes and meat and found some great recipes. I took a few and changed them according to the ingredients I had at the house (because I was too lazy to go to the store).

Here is what I came up with:

Pototoes:
I used about 5 lbs of potatoes for this.
Chop potatoes into cubes and boil until tender
Drain potatoes
add 2-4 egg yolks (depending on how many potatoes you use), milk, butter, plain yogurt, salt, pepper and nutmeg to the potatoes and mash.
Some of the recipes called for sour cream or cream cheese or heavy cream -- but I used what I had, and I liked the result.


Meat mixture:
1.5 lbs ground meat
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 bag frozen peas
1/2 bag mixed veggies (carrots, green beans, peas and corn is what I had)
chicken broth
roux (4 T butter 4T flour)

pour 2 T olive oil into skillet and cook chopped onion and garlic until onion is translucent.
add ground meat and brown
add salt and your preferred seasonings to taste (I used a bit of Tony Chachere's).
add vegetables and 2-3 cups (about) chicken broth
let cook until veggies are somewhat tender
add roux until mixture thickens

Pour meat mixture into a casserole dish
Cover the meat mixture with the potatoes
Place in preheated oven (350 degrees) and bake for 15-20 minutes (until potatoes begin to brown on top).

Everyone loved this dish (except Boddhi who called it yucky). We ate over half the pan, and still put away 4 servings for lunches (which we finished off today).

This is a hearty dish (so filling) that uses meat, potatoes and veggies. This will definitely be a comfort food recipe that I use from now on. I intended to take a picture, but we ate it so quickly that it was not pretty anymore. Here is a picture I found while searching for recipes though (I wanted you to see what it looks like when done).


Enjoy!

-posted by Stace

Fried Chicken Dinner -- by Stace

I have been perfecting this recipe off and on since Michaela was born. I made my first fried chicken dinner for a family friend when Michaela was a tiny baby. When I was pregnant with Boddhi, we started making this recipe often, and even though we have not made it in awhile, Michaela had been requesting it regularly for her birthday dinners. She LOVES it, and can eat a ton. I made it this year for her birthday, and we sat down and ate it on my grandmother's fancy china. It was fun, and I have a picture I will share at the end of the post.

Double Battered Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

chicken tenders (we like boneless, skinless chicken)
flour (fill a gallon ziploc bag 1/4 of the way full with flour)
seasonings (season the flour to your taste -- we use Slap Ya Mama or Tony Chachere's seasoning -- and I add a lot to the flour).
milk -- pour some into a bowl
add eggs (about 2 -- add to milk and beat)
oil (we use organic sunflower or organic canola) -- pour oil into iron skillet (covering bottom of pan --about 1/2 inch high) and heat on medium heat (test it with some batter and see if it sizzles)
jalapenos -- chop jalapenos and add to oil (seeds and all) -- this adds a nice flavor to the chicken (it does not make it too spicy though)

I dip the chicken tenders into the milk and egg mixture once then throw them into the bag of flour and seasonings. I shake them around and then put the chicken back into the milk and egg mixture and then back into the flour mixture. After they are coated in flour, I place them gently into the hot oil (you do not want the oil too high or too low -- the chicken should fry gently and steadily). Turn the chicken over when it is crisp and lightly brown on one side. Fry it until golden brown on both sides -- then place gently on a plate covered in a paper towel.

Cream Gravy -- After you fry all the chicken, turn your oil down to low heat and add some flour to the oil, stir slowly while the flour absorbs the oil and browns a bit. Add milk to the mixture until it is the right consistency (we like ours a little thick -- but keep adding milk to thin the gravy according to your taste). I add salt and a little seasoning.

Mashed Potatoes:
wash and cut organic potatoes (we have used organic red, but recently we used organic russet-- we leave the skin on ours, but you can remove them if you prefer). Organic is important for potatoes as they tend to absorb a great deal of the chemicals and pesticides used on them.
put them in a pan to boil
boil until tender (falling apart)
mash with butter and milk
add salt to taste

We also make yeast rolls and broccoli with this meal.
Enjoy!


Posted by Stace