Sarah's Recipe Blog

All right ya'll (did you know I'm a native Texan?)...my accent is mostly gone but ya'll is such a good word...I'm back...mostly. William is sleeping all night...mostly and so my energy levels are returning to almost normal...and I feel like recipe blogging.

Breakfast: Oats, milk, blackberries and pumpkin flax granola...for most everyone. I actually put a spoon of PB and carob powder in mine with some yummy agave for sweetning....it was almost like dessert.

 Lunch: Lentil and Rice Enchilada Casserole

lemme explain. Enchiladas are hard to make but enchilada casserole is super easy. I make the lentils and rice the day before and we eat that with salsa and veggies in a haystack type manner. Then the next day it is sooooo easy to make this casserole. I call it smart meal planning and leftover use.

I simply put the leftover lentils and rice in an oven safe dish and add:

2 cans of tomato sauce (i think it's an 10 oz but not sure..the little ones)

1 cup of frozen corn

2 whole wheat tortillas torn up

1 tsp cumin powder

1/4-1/2 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

a little bit of diced green pepper (my kids don't like it so I use maybe 1/5 of a pepper)

You can be creative with this and add anything that sounds good, onion, cilantro, chili powder....cheese, sour cream....you get the drift.  Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes

I usually also cover it so the tortillas won't get dry...I think they taste better soft and warm.

Dinner: Grilled cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread 

sides: fresh cinnamon applesauce blended up in my K-Tec.  

Breakfast: Oats, milk, pb and carob powder (1 T Peanut Butter and 1/8 tsp carob powder)

Lunch: Freedom Fries (see Healthy Recipes for recipe)

sides: Bunny Money (carrots sliced in the usual carrot slicing fashion and I tell my kids it's bunny money...famous Mommy quote "The more you eat, the richer you'll be" and then we talk about how carrots can make you rich.  

Dinner: Creamy Vegetable Soup

I just kind of made this up and put in one large russet potato, 1 large yam, 3 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, salt and pepper to taste, dash of thyme and garlic salt.

I boil this up in a medium sauce pan filled with water and then blend it in the K-tec until the desired texture....less blending for chunkier. I usually put the veggies in and then add water to reach the consistency I want.

sides; organic saltine crackers

Brk: oats w an assortment of yummy things to choose from: (we all made up our own combo) blackberries, walnuts, peanut butter, granola or coconut. 

Lunch: wow...what a fun meal we had today..I took the kids to the latest restuarant craze....Mommy Burger!!

I made Turkey burgers on homemade whole wheat hamburger buns, freedom fries and milkshakes (carob, banana and a little soymilk).  We pretended we had gone out for burgers and the kids had a fun time ordering their food from me.  

For the turkey burgers I used 1 pound ground turkey and added about 3/4 cup raw rolled oats, salt and pepper to taste, 1 t dried onion, 1/2 t garlic powder and a bit of thyme.

Dinner: Cereal (i think it's called toasted cinnamon squares from Good Earth)..was tired from all the cooking for lunch so I opted for a dinner from our 72 hour kit..you know for emergencies. Our church counsels us to have a 72 hour kit on hand with items and food to help us get through 72 hours of emergency needs. We also our supposed to rotate these items. So I buy some convenience type foods like boxed cereals or canned things and use these for nights I need something really fast.  

Breakfast: Homemade whole wheat pancakes w an assortment of all fruit jam.

The best part was that Benjamin actually made these pancakes himself on his own initiative!!

Lunch: Tuna Salad on homemade whole wheat buns (leftover from mommy burger yesterday)

Dinner: Buckwheat w various toppings...corn, salsa, cheese, lettuce, onions.

sides: green beans

so...I slacked a couple of days..with new baby it will be hit and miss on this blog

Breakfast: Cereal from Good Earth as a distracting treat with Daddy gone

Lunch: (I made cinnamon rolls last night and decided to just eat them up for a brunch type lunch today)...

sides: yummy fruit salad with the help of some fancy fruit from Maurine..grapes, apples, blueberries, blackberries, coconut and a dash of fructose.

 Dinner: Lentil Soup....it has lentils, rice, yams, and chicken sausage with a dash of salt and pepper for taste...yummy and easy.

I think I'm just going to make entries in here when I've done something different. If anyone wants to see my same-o same-o stuff they can check out blog entries from last year.

So last night Sasha went shopping and came home with four bunches of radishes and says that he wants to eat lots of radishes...okay..I've got a challenge...what can I make with radishes.

So I came up with this casserole, we'll call it  Radish Delight for lack of a better name....

10-12 medium potatoes

1 small purple onion

1 clove garlic 

4 radishes

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup  small pieces of turkey meat  (chicken is okay this is just what I actually used last night)

4 T cornstarch

4 T olive oil 

Pre-heat oven to 350 

dice onion, radishes and garlic and saute them in the olive oil until soft

while onion mix is sauting peel and slice potatoes ..the thinner the quicker they cook

Spread onions in 9 by 13 baking dish. Mix in onion, garlic and radishes.

Pour broth in seperate bowl and mix in cornstarch.

Add to casserole.

salt and pepper to taste...can add a bit of cheese on top too.

If you have more radishes you can slice some up and put them on top to make it look pretty.

Bake for 1 hr and 45 min covered with foil.

yes..I know you are all excited. It's a recipe entry!! yay!!

Actually this is a going to be a really beautiful entry about the wonderful breakfast bars I've made twice this week. Have any of you ever tried a mazurka at Great Harvest Bread?

Well I did one day a few months ago and I think I've had about 20 since then. Every time I take a kid on a date or have some reason to celebrate I go and get one. Mostly it's because they taste awesome..but I've had an ulterior motive. With every bite I've schemed and dreamed of some day making my own version. I woke up Tuesday morning and had a few extra minutes to finally make that dream come true. There is only one slight problem for this post..I'm don't have time to make it again right now and  figure out the proportions that I put in. I've gotten to the point where I can tell by the dough if it's got the right balance of moisture and flour and so I didn't measure...sorry.

so this is the general idea...The Great Harvest Mazurka is a big bar cookie with the ingredients of oats, coconut, flour, butter, eggs, brown sugar and baking powder. Then they put a cream cheese frosting that I'm assuming has cream cheese, powdered sugar, maybe a little milk and a tri berry mixture of raspberries, blueberries and boysenberries. Some of the berries seep down into the bread mixture but it looks like they didn't mix it into the actual dough. Okay...so every time I've eaten it I've dreamed
of making it so I could eat as much as I want and share the whole thing with all of my  kiddos instead of just sneaking away for my own.

Here's the way I made it.  I decided to add less sugar (I don't like things too sweet for breakfast), use olive oil and omit the eggs. I used about 2 cups of brown sugar and 2 cups of olive oil for 6-7 cups of flour. I added about 2 cups of water to replace some of the moisture lost for the eggs and less fat. (note - this method makes for a little bit less rich but still holds together fine and has plenty of richness for a breakfast food)

Then I added about a cup of coconut, some vanilla and almond flavoring. about 1 tsp each. I dumped in about 1 T plus 2 tsp of baking powder.  I then added the flour and water alternating making sure the dough looked somewhere in between muffin and cookie dough. (muffin dough would be more wet and cookie dough would be less wet) 

too wet? more flour

too dry? a little more water or oil if you want it richer

note: I always use light tasting olive oil.

Then I mixed in a triple berry mix(frozen from costco) about a cup of these into the dough.

I baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the top looked dry.

now you can laugh at this sad excuse for a recipe but I am feeling very very cool that I cracked the mazurka code all by my pretty little self. I didn't put the cream cheese frosting on top so Sasha would eat it too..and because I didnt' have any crystallized fructose to make into powdered sugar by blending it (that powders it for frostings)

Result....yum!!

I made some crazy stuff today...here goes:

first Imade a veggie dip that my raw friends like to eat: I just made up the recipe from what I tasted in theirs but I could get a real recipe if anyone is interested. It had a couple cups of cashews 1/2 cup olive oil 1 green pepper 1 cup nutritional yeast 1/2 cup lemon juice and seasonings to taste....I used real salt season salt. I blended it all up in my K-tec and ate it with radishes (I told you it was crazy)

next I roasted some agave cinnamon almonds..yummy and easy

For dinner we had Yucca Root...it's like eating a chewy, waxy potato. I made some cheese toast on the side for the kids because I knew that they wouldn't eat chewy waxy potatoes...they didn't :) 

I threw a surpise b-day party for Sasha yesterday...some of our friends brought some yummy treats that I had to share.

Michelle Lowry shared this recipe. Thanks Michelle!! 

Pineapple, Allspice and Lime

1 ripe pineapple
1 lime
1 tbsp brown sugar or honey
1 tsp allspice

1.  Cut the pineapple lengthwise into quarters and remove the core.
2.  Loosen the pineapple by sliding a knife between it and the skin.  Cut the pineapple flesh into thick slices.
3.  Remove a few shreds of rind from the lime and set aside, then squeeze out the juice.
4.  Combine the allspice and brown sugar or honey.
5.  Sprinkle the pineapple with the lime juice and rind, sugar and allspice.
6.  Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 hours.

Adapted from The Ultimate Fat-Free Cook Book, 1997

Red Hot Marion brought some delicious watermelon

Here's how she made it:

Cut up 1 watermelon into medium size chunks ( seedless probably works better)

Chop up one bunch cilantro

Mix together and squeeze the juice or 5 limes over the mixture.

I would NEVER have thought of this combo but it was soooo delicious

Luz Lewis brought a delicious salad also. She makes it by combining equal portions of avocado, cilantro and celery...and a few dashes of lime juice. Very good!! It was so fun to see everyone yesterday and the food was great!!

I made a yummy ground turkey chili

First I soaked 4-5 cups of kidney beans overnight.

I cooked the kidney beans for several hours and made a yummy bean broth while I cooked them that I used in soup today. To the broth I added 1 onion (I just threw the whole thing in) a bunch of parsley, several cloves of garlic, 1-2 T of chili powder, salt and pepper to taste.

While the beans were cooking I cooked ground turkey with onions, orange pepper and garlic which I spiced up with more chili pepper, salt, black pepper. Then I added 3 cans of tomato sauce. When the beans were done cooking I added the meat mixture to the drained beans (I also took out the parsley and onion). I heated them up together and served them with rice, cheese and other toppings...tomatoes, avocado etc. :) 

Salsa de Sorpresas

That means surprise in Spanish....And the surprise is the rhubarb from my backyard that adds a tangy kick to this suprinsingly colorful and fun salsa....

1 diced yellow pepper

1 diced orange pepper

1 bunch cilantro chopped

6 tomatoes diced

2 stalks rhubarb chopped

1/2 medium purple onion diced

3 cloves garlic minced

salt and chili pepper to taste

I made this up in my food processor...so colorful..we are having it on spanish rice and refried beans tonight!!  

I have to post this delicious soup I came up with today. 

Sugar Snap Chicken Soup 

To make the stock:

6 cups water

1 stalk fresh parsley

15 sugar snap peas

salt to taste

5 medium potatoes in chunks..whatever size you prefer

bring water to boil and add all above ingredients..simmer until potatoes are tender. Remove parsley stalk and discard.

To make Chicken:

Cut up 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts and saute them in a pan on medium high heat.  I added about 1/2 tsp of a  Mesquite spice combo that I bought at Costco to the chicken. If you don't have anything like this any spice you chose will be fine..majoram, coriander, oregano, cumin..garlic..pick your favorite..or a spice combo you have and make whatever flavor you want.

When the chicken is cooked through add to soup and serve with bread, salad or whatever you chose.