Happy Tea

I am a coffee drinker. I don't like iced tea, and I really only drink tea when I am sick. The only kind I will drink is organic green tea because of it's many wonderful properties (see HERE for a list that I am fond of). Anyhoo, a friend of mine and I were talking, and she gave me a great recipe for tea using the green tea as a base. I love this recipe so much I am not having a mug of tea every day!

the best shot I could get of my ingredients before I dropped in the pouch and water

my delicious tea, ready to drink after 15 minutes (still needed an ice cube lol)

As always, I modified the tea a bit. I don't put the ingredients into the pot because 1. It's a pain in the but to clean it out of the pot and I only drink 1 cup at a time 2. I occasionally make my little one herbal tea so I like to just have the boiled water and let the tea steep in their mugs.
And as you may have caught on, I do not measure, so use your best judgement!

I like to add a packet of splenda to the tea, this is clearly optional. I just like a bit of sweetness that one of my ingredients doesn't fully give me.
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon (I grate my cinnamon from sticks, but you can use the already grated kind
1-2 tsp honey
1 clove
1 pouch organic green tea, your choice of brand.

Steep for 10-15 minutes. I pull the clove out before I drink it, sometimes the clove melts because my water is crazy hot. That isn't a big deal for me. This tea is amazing and each of the ingredients have so many healing properties, that I have done my best to link each ingredient to a website to tell you about it's healing properties.(I do NOT send you to spam sites) So, even if you are a coffee drinker, I really think you are going to love this tea!

Apple Raisin Bread Pudding

I have a recipe!!!!
So my brother in law mentioned that he missed his mother's bread pudding. I had to admit I had never made it before so I would look into it. Still having apples left over from my applesauce (see previous post), I decided I would make it an apple bread pudding. I looked online for recipes, this one is modeled after Betty Crockers Old Fashioned, and as is my way, I tend to pull ingredients in from other recipes to make them my own. It came out AMAZING!!

2 C. milk
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
3/4 C. sugar (I used 1/2 C. white sugar and 1/4 C. brown sugar)
1 tsp. Cinnamon (you can use any kind of cinnamon, I grated a cinnamon stick)
a dash of nutmeg (I am not a huge fan of nutmeg, so I go light on it)
1 tsp. vanilla
6 cups of cubed bread. I used everyday white bread, recipes often say use stale bread, french bread or italian bread because of their hardness, so you don't get slimy or runny bread pudding. We didn't get either of this, so I am going to say: go with any kind of bread you want.
1/2 cup of raisins
1 apple diced

The next time I make this I will add:
1/2 cup of walnuts and pecans

Heat oven to 350. Heat milk and butter over medium heat until hot (don't scold the milk!). Meanwhile, in large mixing bowl mix eggs, sugar, cinnamon. Stir in the bread, raisins and apples, then stir in the milk. Pour into any shaped baking pan and bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes. You should see the pudding pulling away from the sides when it is done.
Enjoy!!

Homemade Apple-Pie Tasting Applesauce

I wish I could give you measurements on this one, but if you know my style of cooking, you know it's pretty hard to do, it's trial, error, taste...and as for apples, you just can't be sure that one is going to taste like the others.

Before I even cut my apples, I get my largest stainless steel pot going on the oven so I am able to properly can my applesauce.*
So as I am cutting my apples and throwing them into my dutch oven, I put a little lemon juice into the bottom of it to keep the apples from browning, which I realize is unnecessary because its applesauce, but I do that with my apple pie, so it's just what I do. I like my applesauce to taste like apple pie, with a little bit of chunks in it. I buy a bushel of Cortlands and go to town! I have an all-in-one apple peeler, corer, slicer and it makes the job get done so much faster! After they come off that, I cut the already slim loops in half and it makes my cooking time so much faster. I do cut out any huge chunks of peel that may be left behind, but small pieces just add flavor and aren't worth wasting.
When my dutch oven is full, (approx 15-18 good size apples), I start off with 1 cup of sugar and I am going to say 2 tbsp of cinnamon because I really just sprinkle until it looks good. I know you are thinking, where is the nutmeg?? Not in this batch because I didn't have it on hand and it tastes just as good without it. If you are using nutmeg I would go a lot easier then with the cinnamon.

Then I throw it on top of the oven, give it a good stir, put the lid on it and let it cook for about 10 minutes. By now my apples are getting soft so I am able to take a spoon and give some of the mush a taste. This is when I readjust my sugar or cinnamon. When the apples are really soft, I get out my potato masher, throw on a hand-cover pot holder because steam burn is NOT fun and I start smashing. You could use an immersion blender, I have one, it's doing a good job holding its own next to my seal-a-meal in the pantry ;) There are going to be little chunks left behind and that's the best part. I then give it another taste (with a clean spoon, these are not only going to get eaten throughout the winter but passed out to friends and family), and see if it needs any more sugar or cinnamon. Sometimes I need to do another round of mashing, sometimes it's just fine. If you are using my "recipe" you are going to end up tasting it about 4 times, the total cook time is about 22-25 minutes. When it looks and tastes like a nice, mildly chunky, apple-pie tasting applesauce: you know you are ready to fill your jars and get them ready to last the winter. This part I like to have a partner with because filling the jars and then wiping off the tops so there isn't going to be anything sticky around the lid takes a while. If my sister is around, she is the jar top wiper, otherwise it's my significant other. (if you make a mess on the lid, clean it, if it dribbles down the jar, don't fuss about it, that will just wash away in your canning water). I usually do two batches in a day because by then I'm exhausted and that yields about 14, 8 oz canning jars. I use the 8 oz jars only because I make homemade jelly and those are the size that are left over. Although this round, as you can see, I ran out of the 8 oz and used some 16 oz jars that I had left over from homemade spaghetti sauce.

Now get to your local orchard (or grocery store if you don't have 10 of them within a 20 minute drive like I do) and get to making some applesauce!


*I can using the boiling method. I take a stainless steel pot, fill it with enough water to cover the tops of my jars by about an inch and get it boiling. I let my jars boil in there for 10 minutes. 5 minutes will do, but I have always done 10. There are recommendations on the internet on how long you should boil based off what you are canning, but this topic is about applesauce. Presto! You have canned applesauce that you can snack on all throughout the winter with plenty to pass out to your friends and neighbors.

Healthy Strawberry Smoothie

Okay, So I admit, I cheated and took a sip before this picture (and it was Oh...sooo Yum!)
3 ingredient strawberry smoothie.
1 C. Organic Frozen Strawberries, this time of year its hard to find fresh strawberries, but frozen works best because they act as the ice!
1- 1 1/2 Strawberry Yogurt (we use Stonyfield Organic)
2 C. No-Fat Milk (we use Garelick Farms here, no GMO's, local) (or soy, you could do almond, whatever you drink works, you may need to play around with the milk portions).
chia seeds, just throw in the amount you want...they will sink in your glass fyi
AND BLEND!
That's it! We do this with peaches and raspberries as well. You could use plain yogurt if you wanted. We DON'T use greek yogurt for 2 reasons. 1. It's gross and 2. Have you researched Greek Yogurt and the problems they are having with the whey disposal? If not, google or go here: GREEK CLICK ME, and then STOP GOING GREEK!

Mini Muffins: The Perfect School Day Breakfast

My daughter loves mini muffins, if I can find or create the flavor, she eats it
. They sell them in the stores, over priced and full of preservatives. While I don't yet have a food sealer, freezer bags work great in the mean time.
Depending on how I am feeling (today I cheated and used Jiffy Blueberry Muffin mix), I make mini muffins, bag them in 6 and freeze them. Pull a bag out the night before and you're good to go for the morning!
You can find mini muffin tins and cups anywhere. I make 48 at a time so I do go through a LOT of cups, but it's completely worth it because I know exactly what is in the muffins and I know it's good for my daughter. They keep in the freezer for 3-6 months but in our house, they usually don't last that long. I used my phone camera which doesn't have a flash, so the pic isn't the best, you get the idea.
Happy Eats!

Apple Cider Vinegar

While I watch the cactus role by on this blog, I still realize I have a great love for it because I built it from scratch. So today, I'm finally getting around to working on it. This isn't my recipe, its simply a pic of something a lot of us have known and worked with for years. Psst: You can click on the picture to make it bigger.

To your health!

Feeling Sick?

I don't have a picture because thankfully no one is sick! Having asthma, when we get sick, we have to limit what we can take as far as medication. I'm not a doctor, I just know what works for us, and hopefully you can find some help here.

Now I am not a tea drinker, hot or cold, but when we're sick, its a must. For us grown ups, some hot green tea with a bit of lemon and honey clears out your lungs. (I add a packet of my favorite sweetener because like I said, I'm not a fan of tea).  The good news is most teas are caffeine free, so it's great for kids (double check just in case!). My daughters favorite is Raspberry Zinger. Celestial Seasonings makes great variety packs to try and see which ones your kids might favor most.
Honey has great healing properties as seen here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/039963_cinnamon_honey_healing.html
This site talks about cinnamon too, because that is included in my next home remedy.

Sore throats (and Coughing.)
We all get them, and why waste money on a store remedy (although Ludens are oh so yummy). Again, I don't measure so the best way to make sure you have it right, is to taste it. We make a small dose that will last 3x a day for 3 days.
3tbs honey
4 tbs white vinegar
a healthy sprinkle of cinnamon
stir together (taste to make sure its good, the consistency should be mildly runny)
As seen in the link above, the honey and cinnamon are great for healing and the combo soothes your throat and helps ease your coughing.

Stuffed Sinuses
There is always the tried and true netty pots. But when my nose gets crazy stuffed, I self drown. So I boil Apple Cider Vinegar and breathe it in. Another tried and true remedy handed down from our grandmothers is boiling water, putting it in a plugged sink and hovering over it with a towel. It clears up your sinuses and lungs.

Coughing keeping you up?
I throw a hefty pillow under my daughters mattress. It elevates the mattress (not just her head), so it makes it easier for her to sleep comfier and being propped up helps her with her night time coughing.

Stay Hydrated!!
Water, tea, ginger ale, anything! Just make sure you are drinking. I lost a friend to dehydration while sick, and maybe that's why this part of staying healthy is so important to me. The more hydrated you are, the more prepared your body is to fight off infection.

We always make sure to have air purifiers going, cleaning them once a week, and replacing the filters as needed. We run humidifiers (especially with it being winter). I don't add anything to the water I put in it, but I imagine a few drops of lavender oil would help aid in sleeping, as lavender is a tried and true sleep aid.

Got any ideas we should try? Send them along

Food Dehydrating

So last month I bought a food dehydrator from Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Nesco-FD-37A-American-Dehydrator-400-watt/dp/B00CS5ZI6G
Since then I have been dehydrating up a storm. I didn't buy the extenders because we are a house of 2, and didn't think I needed the extra space...yet.  I haven't done meat, I am not a huge meat fan, and I have yet to dip into the fruit roll up aspects of the dehydrator, but I've been doing fruits. Banana's (as seen above), strawberries and apples (so far). To me, my electric bill hasn't shot up from the use, it's much cheaper then buying it in the store, I know exactly what is going into my food and the fruits go great in our home made granola (see previous post) or just for healthy snacking. The dehydrator comes with instructions, drying times etc. There are some recipes and tips out there on the web too.
So how do I prepare my fruit?
I take a gallon zip lock bag and put it in my 4 cup measuring cup, this holds the bag easier, clearly you can come up with your own way.
I melt 1 packet of my favorite sweetner (splenda) in a tbsp of warm water and then add that with
1/4 cup of cool water, 1/4 cup honey to the bag and stir! I drop the fruits into my bag as I am chopping and then shake them all up when I'm done and place them on my racks. When I did apples, I added a squirt of lemon juice (to stop browning) and approx. 1tsp of cinnamon to give it the apple pie flavor in my marinade. (SOO YUMMY!) I usually coat my racks with vegetable oil to avoid over stickiness but if I am feeling lazy I just use a butter spray. Both works fine. Dehydrate according to the times in your book or online.
Some tips I enjoy:
-You don't have to marinate the bananas like the ones above. I was going for a "caramelized" aspect and think I got it. The first time we did bananas there was no marinade, they came out good, but needed a little something extra. I think I got it this time ;)
-I shut the machine off every 2 hours for about 10 minutes just to let the process kickstart again.
-You don't have to rotate the trays, but I do, especially because of the marinade.
-If its looking done, try one! Your mouth knows best.

Enjoy :)

Homemade Granola

Granola is a great treat! It's healthy, its a great source of energy, and its much cheaper when you make it yourself.
If you know me, you know I don't measure. So I'm going to give some rough estimations, and you can always google similar recipes and add or subtract ingredients according to your tastes.
300 degree oven
3-4 cups of oats
1/4 cups of almonds, pecans and walnuts each
1/4-1/2 cup raisins
tsp of cinnamon
1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4-1/2 cup of any dried fruits. Strawberries, bananas, apples (I dry my own fruits, I have a simple recipe I'm adding after this post).
1/4 honey1/4 vegetable oil
tsp of vanilla
Mix together, spread out evenly on a cookie sheet. Throw it in the oven and check and stir it approx. every 10 minutes. Cook for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown, don't over cook it because you are going to let it cool in the sheet and it will continue to crisp there.  When it is cool, put it in a air tight container. I stir in some chocolate chips at this process for a little treat. You can also choose to add your dried fruits at this stage if you want. It comes out great adding it before or after.
Enjoy!

Flavoring the Pasta?

If all these great chefs, and I do mean all of them, believe in "flavor pasta as it cooks", with a pound of salt, why do these garlic lovers forget that.

I can put a tbsp.of salt into my pasta as it cooks, but NOTHING flavors it like grating a clove of garlic or two into the water as it boils. Who needs all the sodium when every chef, cook, baker I have met, has yet to do this?

You don't need all that salt, for some good pasta, just some good flavoring...Use a microplane, grate some garlic into the water, a clove or two, depending on taste, spare the salt, and enjoy some GREAT pasta...

Raviolli Take Two

I recently posted a ravioli with a red sauce. This ravioli (which I use premade wonton wrappers for), uses an alfredo sauce.
I mixed cheddar, mozzarella and cottage cheese (as I have said before, you can use ricotta, I just don't love it), and stuffed my wontons, boiled them until they rose.
My alfredo sauce is mentioned in the last article.

Gnocchi!!!!

This was a super fun recipe!! Olive garden makes a delicious gnocchi. I searched for gnocchi recipes and honestly, it seemed too much work. (Giadda's recipes stand out, but again, when you want a quick dish, it seemed too much). I tried to model this gnocchi after Olive Gardens Recipe.
I bought premade potato gnocchi from the store and cooked it per the box. Mean while, I cooked zucchini (peel on) red, green, and yellow peppers, with some onion and garlic, on the stove with a hint of olive oil and water, to cook it tender. Just a hint of water, to save draining.
In another pot, I cooked chicken tenders, in a few tbsp. of olive oil, cut bite size with onion, garlic and salt. (you could use chicken breast, but the tenders cut up super fast and result in size proportionate) .
In my final pot I made a cream sauce, similar to alfredo. There are a few ways I make a cream sauce, some call it a bechamel sauce.
Sauce: Always start with 2 tbs melted butter, 2 tbs flour. Let the flour cook out a bit, 1-2 mins. (you can up the butter and flour, if feeding more, but KEEP it proportionate), this is your thickener.
Variations:
Then add 3-4 cups cream OR
add 2 Cups Chicken Stock (or favorite stock) with 2 cups 1% milk. (I haven't tried it with other milk variances).
I added kosher salt and garlic (3-4 cloves) (grated over a plane, to avoid chunks of garlic).
And then tossed it all together.

Variations on cooking, and the cream sauce:
Some people don't have fresh onion and garlic on hand as I do. You can use onion salt or garlic salt, remember the "salts" have a more potent flavor then the "powders"
When I am making an alfredo sauce, I do as I explained, but only with a light cream or heavy cream. I add 1/4-1/2 cup of parmasean to the mixture. Some people prefer freshly grated, some prefer the typical store bought Parmesan.
I personal find, that while fresh grated is great over the top at the end, the mince store bought, meshes better in the sauce. Again, its trial and error and what each prefers best.

I hope everyone tries this recipe, or uses the alfredo sauce recipe in their cooking! Enjoy!!

Simply Put-Meat Roll

Growing up this was done with ground beef. But switching to ground turkey (or chicken) is an easy substitute. Brown the meat with some salt, garlic and onion. Roll out biscuit dough, (you can easily use bisquick or jiffy, to save time) and then roll the meat in the dough, like a jelly roll. Bake at 375 for 45mins to 1 hour, or until crust looks crispy. You can top with a canned or homemade gravy.

Chips

In my eyes, it's okay to have some junkfood if you make it yourself!! Potatoes sliced with a mandolin for even sizes. (We didn't peal the potatoes). Fried (in vegetable oil, for a neutral flavor) then salted, (kosher salt or sea salt is best) and well dried afterward's. This would work baking the chips for a healthier choice, I still recommend drizzling some extra virgin olive oil (healthy route) or vegetable oil over the top before baking, to ensure crispness. It would work great with sweet potatoes as we have done this too.

Meatless Stuffed Shells

Often times, people will use meat in this dish, I would recommend ground turkey cooked with kosher salt, garlic and onion if you want to add meat. I opted not to use meat, and precooked jumbo shells, then mixed it with sauce (spaghetti sauce works good, I make my own) cheddar, mozzarella, Parmesan and cottage cheese. The cottage cheese is a choice. Some people really prefer ricotta cheese, but I am not a fan of its grit. Baked at 350 for 30-45 mins.

Simple Pasta Salad

I was asked for this, because some people just don't understand how to make a simple pasta salad.




Any shaped pasta you like, cooked and cooled. Cucumber, cheese, tomato, and deli turkey, sliced thick. I had to shop around for a "kosher" slicer, because some place slice turkey where they do pork or roast beef, oi. Add some italian dressing and chill, and you have an easy pasta salad.

Easy Bruschetta

We have a stove top grill that you place right over two burners. Was a bit pricy to buy, but is one of my most favorite kitchen additions. We make a variation of bruschetta's a few times a month.

This is a garlic brushetta. Made with garlic butter (butter, with garlic salt and fresh parsley), grilled on one side, flipped, then topped with fresh mozzarella and finished with tomato.

Feed 6-8 for Less Then $10

My parents, but mostly my mother, raised 3 girls ( a best friend, and more often then not, 6-10 of the neighborhood kids) on a single income until I was about 12. Fresh herbs and spices were unheard of back then, you cooked and baked on a budget and became pleased that the next day brought just as many people to dinner.
Thanksgivings were never sparse, dessert brought anywhere from 8-10 variety of pies for us, our cousins, aunts, uncles and neighbors to chose from.
Christmas, brought forth dozens of varieties of cookies, and dozens of each flavor, passed out to 20+ people in platters, again, all on one income.
I rarely cooked with my mother, she did it all alone. But on the Christmas before she died, we were blessed with a recipe book, painstakingly hand scribed, and photocopied for each of us girls, with her "best recipes". Often the recipes are just a way to feed an army on a tight budget. Sometimes us girls stumble over a recipe as to what this or that means without our mother to fill in the details as I am sure she planned.

Now, with my daughter, she helps me cook most of our meals, and often times, I go back to Moms recipe book, pages tucked in a torn folder, stained and splattered, to relive a recipe I cherished growing up.

While food is just the tip of the iceberg of things my mother did for people, it's the glue that binds all good families and friends together. I have no training to be a chef, baker, or otherwise. I cook from moms recipes, life experience, and the occasional mash up of recipes on the web, combining 3-4 recipes into my own. I enjoy watching some cooking shows like Giada and Paula Dean, and am inspired by some of their recipes. But mostly, though my food seems simple to some,
it has come a long way from what I grew up with, and I think my mother would enjoy sitting at my table, as I often enjoyed sitting in Gramma's rocker, in moms kitchen, next to the old kerosene stove, rocking away to something baking.

I am proud and delighted to post this recipe, which feeds so many people on such a cheap budget, with a few tweaks of my own, in parenthesis. If you want simple, no fuss, disregard my comments in parenthesis.

Chicken and Corn Casserole






(This recipe is a trial and error of "what looks like it's right" measurements cannot be exact, use judgment)
3-4 C. cooked rice (this is usually 2 cups of dried rice boiled in 4 c. water. I boil my rice in chicken or vegetable stock for added flavor and I usually do 1.5C. rice to 3 C. stock)
1-2 C. chopped cooked chicken (I am not a fan of bone in chicken, or dark meat, but around here, it's very cheap to buy bulk thighs or drums, so I boil the chicken in goya sazon, garlic, onion and sea salt, right off the bone. Not only do you have a wonderful chicken stock after, but once the chicken is in the recipe, you don't realize it's not breast meat, you could also use a deli rotisserie chicken, chop it and save a step)
1 to 1 and 1/2 Can Corn or approx 2 C. frozen corn (don't ask me on fresh, my daughter won't eat it lol. If you are in a pinch, you can use cream corn, just remember that when you are adding the soup)
2. tbsp minced onion (here, I like to use fresh onion, and garlic, and boil it with the rice as it cooks, unless you cooked your chicken as I described above)
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup (I use cream of mushroom, it's cheaper, and adds another depth of flavor, have a 2nd can around in case, because this recipe is mostly "cook it how it looks" not measurements)
"A Little Milk" (Love mom, but I never add milk, hence the 2nd can of soup back up)
Crackers or Bread Crumbs (both work great, in the pics I smashed up "Townhouse Crackers" which are buttery in flavor)

(After rice and chicken are done) Stir rice, chicken, onion (if you didn't cook it in as I do), and soup together, stir in enough milk until it is good and moist, but not soupy. (again, with enough soup and stock, this step isn't needed).Pour into casserole dish, sprinkle crumbs over top. Bake at 350 for 30-45 mins until hot and top is crispy.

I know my added comments make the recipe look harder then it is, and again, if you only cook with the bold items, you are good to go. But I rely on this recipe a lot, and I think through the years, I have made it a great, affordable recipe that can feed many.

Matzo Mix 3/1/10

Matzo Ball Soup With a Twist
(yes, that's steam)



We really enjoy Matzo Ball Soup (you can pick it up at most grocers). But I decided to make it a bit heartier by adding celery, onion, carrots and egg noodles half way through the cooking process.

Say That 3 Times Fast 2-28-10

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Raisin Nut Bread



I was looking all over the web for an oatmeal raisin bread recipe. Everything I found wanted to give me a bread loaf, sandwich style, with yeast, which wasn't what I wanted. I found an apple bread recipe of my mothers and made some great tweaks to it, and ta-da, one of the best breads I have eaten.

Here's the recipe:
Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Raisin Nut Bread
makes 2 loaves

1/4 C. Shortening
1 C. Sugar (or do what I did 1/2 c. white sugar, 1/2 c. light brown sugar)
1 Well beaten egg
1/2 c. milk
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
2 c. Flour
dash of salt (love my moms recipes)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. applesauce (I used homemade applesauce, which is a little chunky, you could also use a peeled, cored, and chopped apple instead)
1/2 c. nuts (I used walnuts, I am particular to them)
1/2 c. raisins
(you can add more raisins or nuts to suit your taste, I didn't really measure the raisins and nuts I just poured until it looked like it was enough) :)

Cream shortening and sugar. Add egg and stir. Blend in milk. Add dry ingredients, then apple, raisins and nuts. Pour into greased bread pans and bake at 350 for about 50 minutes.