Major Knitter

I scream. You scream. We all scream for Nice Cream!

Summer is nearly here. That means that ice cream will be everywhere. If that’s too tempting for you, try this trick I like to call Nice Cream. Make your daily dose of dense nutrition with a ton of ice.

2 cups ice – blend before adding other ingredients
1 scoop chocolate Shakeology
½ frozen banana
1 cup fresh zucchini
1 teaspoon peanut butter
1 cup coconut milk or coconut creamer

Optional Toppings: 1-2 tablespoons of your favorite delectable toppings: nuts, granola, coconut, seeds, chocolate chips, cocoa nibs, fresh fruit.  

You might need to blend, scrape, blend, scrape. You want your Nice Cream to be really thick, so avoid adding too much liquid. Put in a big bowl. If you really want to turn it into a special treat – add some optional toppings

NOTE: This has more portions or accessories than your average Shakeology, so still keep it as a treat instead of an everyday occurrence. I find it works to help curb my cravings for a pint of Talenti or Ben & Jerry’s. I feel like I’m enjoying a treat without harming my gut or triggering those sugar addictions.

Mexican Stuffed Pepper Soup

Traditional stuffed pepper soup has Italian seasonings.  I prefer mine with a kick, so I use taco seasonings instead.

 

 

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt & pepper to taste
1-2 teaspoons taco seasoning to taste
2 bell peppers (pick your favorite colored bell pepper)
1 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes or petite diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce can of tomato sauce
2 quarts beef broth (ideally homemade bone broth)
1 teaspoon beef Better than Bouillon (or your favorite bouillon)
1/2 cup black, wild, brown, or white rice, rinsed

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute onions and garlic until translucent.  Add ground beef and brown until cooked through.  Break up into small bits with a wooden spoon as you cook.
2. Season with salt, pepper, and taco seasonings to taste.
3. Add bell peppers and cook for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add beef broth, tomatoes, and tomato sauce.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer.
5. Add rice and simmer for approximately 20 minutes until rice is cooked.

Makes approximately 6-7 servings.  

Great meal prep tip: Fill approximately 7 pint size Mason jars with hot soup. With a damp paper towel, wipe off the rim of the glass jar. Tighten lid on jars. Let cool at room temperature for 1-2 hours. You will hear the jars pop as they seal. Once cooled to room temperature, store in refrigerator. If the jar remains sealed, you can safely store the soup in the refrigerator for several weeks. If you don't seal the jars, you should eat the soup within 3-4 days.

Misfits Market Soup

Does this happen to you with your share from the CSA or Misfits Market?  I'm running behind on my veggies. My CSA veggies share from Stone Gardens Farms has started for the spring. But I'm still getting my Misfits Market box (I did downsize to the smaller box). It's the first time in months that I have wasted produce. I hate doing that. Since I learned the art of meal prep, I rarely waste any food. I think it's less than 5% of the food I purchase gets wasted. This week I had a bounty of root vegetables. I have 3 things I do to quickly use of veggies:

 

1. Make an egg/veggie frittata.

2. Roast veggies to eat as a side dish and on salads.

3. Make soup.

 

 

CSA & Misfits Market Soup

 

Amounts listed are arbitrary because I just threw in what I had...

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic

1 bunch scallions, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

3 quarts homemade chicken stock (or veggie stock)

1 28-ounce can organic crushed tomatoes

Salt and pepper

3-4 beets, peeled and diced

2 rutabagas, peeled and diced

3 turnips, peeled and diced

2 mystery root vegetables, peeled and diced

1 pound carrots, peeled and diced

3 potatoes, peeled and diced

 

 

1. Saute oil oil in a skillet. Add onions, scallions, celery and garlic. Sauté until translucent. Add to large stock pot.

2. Add chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper to onion mixture.

3. Add diced vegetables.

4. Cook over low heat for about 45 minutes or more, until vegetables are tender.

5. Remove from heat and blend with an immersion blender until all ingredients are smooth.

6. I like to can in pint jars so I have one serving of soup ready to go. Follow canning instructions per your pressure canner (for chicken stock) or hot water canner (for veggie stock). I use soup so quickly that I often store it in the pint jars in the refrigerator for one week without fully canning.

 

 

Enjoy! No waste, great taste!

 

 

P.S. If you haven't tried Misfits Market and want to - Use This Code -  to get 25% off your first order of organic produce delivered to your door!

 

 

 

Clean Out The Refrigerator Egg Frittata

Basically, I pull out any veggies that I can chop and saute and then add some fried eggs.  I season with my favorite Trader Joe’s seasoning “Everything But the Bagel”.

1 cup baby kale
1 bell pepper, diced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
¼ cup green onions, diced
½ cup red cabbage, diced
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
2 eggs
Trader Joe’s seasoning “Everything But the Bagel” – to taste
¼ avocado (optional)
½ roasted sweet potato, sliced (optional)

In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the green onions, peppers, kale, red cabbage, and mushrooms.  Cover and saute until everything is tender.  Make a hole in the vegetable mixture for each egg.  Cook eggs covered over medium heat until desired level is achieved. 

I served with ¼ avocado and ½ cup leftover roasted sweet potato slices. 

Enjoy!

 

 

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients:

• 12 cups homemade chicken broth
• Approximately 1 cup diced chicken (either from the chicken carcass when making the soup, or saute 1-2 diced chicken breasts)
• 2 large carrots, sliced
• 1 large parsnip, sliced
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1 stalk celery, sliced
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 cup wild rice
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

In a large stock pan, heat chicken broth. Add carrots, parsnips, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence. Cook over medium heat.

In a skillet, add the olive oil, onions, celery and saute over medium heat until translucent.  Add the mushrooms.  Cover and continue to saute for about 5 minutes.

If you’re using raw diced chicken breasts, add to the onion mixture at this time and saute until cooked through.  Once cooked, add entire chicken/onion mixture to the soup stock.  Continue to cook over medium heat.

Add the wild rice.  Cook for approximately 30 minutes until rice is cooked thoroughly. 

Enjoy!

 

I Was Wondering If I Would Get Anything Hand Knit

My niece is getting married this weekend.  For shower gifts she oohed and aahed over all the hand knit baby gifts her pregnant sister was receiving.  When she finally received a hand knit dishcloth and towel, she exclaimed "I was wondering if I would get anything hand knit."  Fast forward to the wedding.  I realized that I should knit her a set of dish cloths.  I found a pattern by Kris Knits called Wedding Cloths and quickly inquired about my niece's kitchen colors.

I was traveling last weekend and this was the perfect traveling knitting project.

I made three silver cloths - wedding cake, wedding rings and wedding bells.

Two Fiesta Red cloths -  Heart  in a Heart cloths

Three white cloths: husband and wife, champagne and dove cloths

Three ash cloths:  wedding rings, wedding chapel and wedding cake cloths

And the Valentine's Day Cloth patterns in Fiesta Red.

They were fun to make and look cute together.  They add a little happy to the daily chore of doing dishes.

I haven't used dish cloths since I was a child in Iowa.  Since I left for college, I have become a sponge person and have never looked back.  But I might change my own habit and knit a series of dish cloths for myself.  How about you?  Are you a dish cloth or a sponge person?

Can you feel the LOVE tonight?  Congratulations & Best Wishes!

 

 

 

Happy Easter!

I like to prepare brunch for the holidays.  It's easy.  My grown boys can be with me first thing in the morning - then head off to their Dad's for dinner.  I don't have to worry whether they'll be home in time for the meal - or if I'll have an overcooked, cold meal by the time they arrive.  So it's just easier to plan for brunch.  That's what I did on Easter Sunday.  

We had our Overnight Challah French Toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, and fresh berry salad.  

Primogeniture's Easter basket

Ms. L's Easter basket

Secundogeniture's Easter basket

My place setting.

Can you guess who sits here?

However you celebrate, I hope you have a very happy Easter!

 

Memories of Mom

When I was a teenager, my Mom's favorite thing to make for breakfast was Swedish pancakes.  It was one of those recipes that appeared out of nowhere (she must have eaten them somewhere and decided she could make them at home).  After that, she made them once or twice a week.  

I make homemade pancakes nearly every single day.  I don't think Secundogeniture would survive without pancakes.  We even joke that I'll have to move to college with him in the fall to make him his daily ration of pancakes.

Despite all my hours of making pancakes, I've never, ever made Swedish pancakes.  Until today, that is.

After school yesterday, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some food for dinner.  Secundogeniture grabbed this box of Swedish pancake mix.  (*Side note - I always find pancake mix to be a joke.  The ingredients are flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.  I think I can find those in my own pantry.)

This morning I gave it a try for the very first time. As with everything, there's a bit of a learning curve. My pancakes were oblong, not round.  They had a slightly different but somewhat similar consistency to the pancakes I remembered of my youth. 

As they came off the griddle, I rolled them up in a circle.  I put some of my homemade cinnamon apple-pear sauce in the center of the plate.  Secundogeniture scarfed them down before I could even get a picture.  He suggested we have these again tomorrow.

Mom - you'd be so happy to know that your grandson is carrying on the torch.  💕

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Secundogeniture recently acquired a taste for oatmeal raisin cookies.  So today I decided to make some for him at home.  I looked for a soft and chewy recipe online and found Sally's Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Rasin Cookie recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction blog

 

I don't bake much anymore as I was recently diagnosed with an allergy to both wheat and gluten.  While it's disappointing - because I love baking - I already feel so much better than I have in years.  So many problematic issues that had previously been misdiagnosed are resolving themselves.  That's such a relief.  I have the added benefit of having spent so much time in Brazil - so a lot of recipes that I love so dearly are naturally gluten-free (think rice, beans, and farofa).  I miss bread, cakes and cookies - but I can manage that (OK - except at the holidays when I cheat and try some of my favorite holiday cookies).  

So while these are NOT gluten free cookies - I can still bake sporadically for my boys.  I am not a fan of gluten free flours unless absolutely necessary.  The gluten free breads I've tried have been seriously lacking in taste, flavor and consistency - so I simply don't bother anymore.

How about you?  Do you have any favorite gluten free products or recipes?  

A Healthier Version of Mom's Uncooked Cookies

As a child growing up, my Mom always made these chocolate oatmeal cookies that were her signature cookie.  They were quick and easy.  At Easter, she would add jelly beans and have Bird Nest Cookies.  When I think of Mom - I still think of her Uncooked Cookies.  Many of you may have a similar family recipe.  My Mom never put peanut butter in hers, though.  We loved them as kids.

As I have gotten older, though, I can't eat these.  There is a ton of sugar that just doesn't sit well with me. And recently I have been diagnosed with a boatload of allergies.  Of course, I have also been craving chocolate (Cocoa is on my long list of foods I can't eat). I've eliminated everything else that I'm allergic to - eggs, alcohol, wheat, gluten, almonds, cashews, peppers, crab, chickpeas, and black pepper. But cocoa is the hardest one. I also have to moderate other things for other health reasons - soy, grapefruit, sugar (and probably some more that I can't even remember). Sometimes, I just want chocolate.  It's the hardest one to give up.  So I was thrilled to find this healthier (albeit not low calorie) version on MoneySavingMom called Best Ever Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bake Bars - I knew I had to give them a try.

I will tell you - these are delicious!  I used organic natural peanut butter, gluten free oats, walnuts, cranberries, golden raisins, coconut chips as add-ins to my bars.  They are so good and hard to resist that I cut them into itty bitty bars - about 1.25 inch squares.  You need to keep them in the freezer or refrigerator because they melt immediately (with the natural peanut butter and coconut oil) - but they are delicious.

And while I still have to taste them in moderation - they don't upset my stomach the way the sugary original of my childhood did.  They're filled with goodness and are very satisfying.  That's a very good thing!

Yum.

After I cut them up, I store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Quick. Easy. Nutritious. Filling.  And best of all, they're stored out of sight and out of mind.