Foodie Friday - Dill Potato Salad

It is BBQ season! Here is a great egg-less potato salad that goes great with your burgers and keeps well in the fridge a few days since it does not have eggs in it.

Dill Potato Salad

2.5 lbs Potatos - peeled, chopped and boiled until soft

1 Cup mayo
2/3 Cup finely chopped dill pickle
3 Tbsp Dill Pickle Juice
3 Chopped Green Onions
1 tbsp Mustard
1/2 tsp of dill weed OR 2 tsp chopped fresh dill
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

2 tsp chopped parsley for garnish ontop

Mix it all together and put it in the fridge to cool.

Foodie Friday - Banana Bread

Ok, summer is here, enough crockpot recipes, it is getting too hot for that. On colder days when my bananas are going bad I like to make a few loaves of banana bread and put them i the freezer, they make for an easy picnic with fruit and cheese sticks on summer adventures.The gilrls love to help with these and mash the bananas.

Banana Bread

1 3/4 C Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt

1/3 Cup Butter
1/3 Cup Suger
2 Eggs
1 Cup mashed banana (about 2)

I like to add 1/4-1/2 cup of hemp hearts as well as sprinkle a few on the top.

Bake 350 for 1 hour. Presto.

Good Food Box

I don't know about you but we go through so many fruits and veggies here. I was naturally pretty excited when I discovered the 'Good Food Box.'  About once a month you can order a small/medium or large box of fresh produce, you pay in advance for whichever size you want then pick it up on a designated day. When I added it up I figured I was getting things for about half price and it was making me experiment with new things I never buy like eggplant and beets. You can find more info for Calgary locations where you too can get cheap produce here.There are no pick-ups through the summer but it will be back up and running in the fall.

Foodie Friday - Scones

These scones are one of my favourite things to put in my baking jars, when we have soup it is so easy to throw together a batch and have some fresh scones. mmmmm. The recipe is really simple but lately I have been adding things like basil or chopped up spinach to make them even more tastey. Without further adieu.

SCONES

4 Cups Flour - I use at least half whole wheat
4 Tbsp Suger
1 tsp Salt
6 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda

1 Cup Butter (you can cut this down if you feel so inclined, just add a little more milk or water)
1 1/2 Cup Milk (you can substitute half of it with water if you feel like it)

Bake 450 for 12-15 minutes.

Slather with butter and enjoy.

Foodie Friday- Crockpot Chicken Chowder

Ever since you read this post about me putting crockpot meal sin ziplocks I bet you are dieing to know what the other recipe was, well your wait is over! Here it is!

Chicken Chowder

1/4 Butter
1/4 C Flour
1 Tbsp Garlic Salt
1 Tbsp Thyme
1 Tbsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Pepper
2-4 Chicken Breasts (depending how chicken-y you are feeling)
2 Cans (14.5oz) cream corn (typing this out I realize I only put one in last time I made it, it worked out fine)
1 Can Condensed Chicken Broth
1 1/2C Diced Onion
1 cup Diced red pepper
1 cup diced green pepper

Put all that in the crockpot and cook on HIGH for 3 hours, or until the meat is cooked 
Pull your meat out and rip it apart into bite size pieces and return to crockpot
Add:

1 Pound chopped mushrooms
 1 can (14.5 oz) Diced Tomatos

Cook on HIGH for 30 minutes
Add:

1 1/2 Cups Heavy Cream
1.2 cup chopped cilantro or parsley

Cook about 15 minutes to reheat and add salt and pepper if needed.

Enjoy!

Sorry, I generally am too excited to eat to take pictures of my food so I guess you will have to make it to see how creamy and delicious it looks!

Playing With Their Food

My twins are all about family structure and pretending lately. This especially comes out at meal time and it quite amusing to watch. Here is a sampling of what goes down at meal time at our house;

'This is my mommy raisin, and my daddy raisin and my baby raisin, and my mommy raisins ladybug (also a raisin) and my daddy raisins ladybug'

'My owl (slice of apple) is hungry, he is going to eat my daddy perogie, nom nom nom'

'These are my guys (popcorn) walk, walk, walk, jump into the bowl!' 'My guys are in quiet time'

Food becomes daddys, mommys, babys, guys, owls, porcupines, deer, bunnies, etc etc etc. The best part is when they eat them, 'I am going to eat my mommy now'

Foodie Friday - Mango Chicken

This is one of my favourite GF-DF Crock-Pot meals, typing it out makes me want to go make it right now!

 6 Boneless, skinnless chicken thighs or breasts
1 bag (8 oz) frozen mango chunks
2 Red bell peppers, diced
1/3 cup raisins
1 shallot (I use an onion)

3/4 Cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 thin slices of fresh ginger (when I don't have any I use the powder)
1 tsp cumin (I at least douple this, I love cumin)
1/2 tsp curry powder (again add to taste)
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/4 tsp group red pepper 
Salt & Pepper to taste

The recipe says to brown the chicken and mix the broth and spices first before adding them but I just throw it all in the crockpot, mix it up and turn it on. I usually shred the chicken when it is cooked and serve over rice or quinoa. Cook on low 6-8 hours or High 3-4 hours. Garnish with cilantro if you are into that.

This is one of the recipes I put in a zip-lock for a even easier meal prep later!


Enjoy!

Even Easier Crock-Pot

You know that day I put baking in jars? Well my efficiency did not stop there, my Mom had sent me a blog post last summer about pre-making crock pot meals and I thought it was brilliant, so I donned my goggles (because onions make me cry) and started chopping.

I chose two crock-pot recipes I love and, like the jars of baking, wrote out all the ingredients I won't be freezing on a card. I chopped and measured out everything that can freeze and put it in a zip-lock bag, labeled and stapled the remaining ingredient list to it. Four crock-pot meals prepped in one afternoon, yes, please. Now, when I need an easy supper I just need to dump the bag in the crockpot in the morning and turn it on.

Two Things and Jars of Baking

Remember a few years ago when everyone was posting `25 random facts about me`on Facebook? Well here are two random facts about me:

1. I love recycling

2. I love efficiency (but need to use spell check to spell it right every time) 

Recycling really makes me happy, I throw every little piece of paper and plastic in the blue bin. When I lived at home I put a second bin beside the garbage in the kitchen so it would be just as easy to recycle as throw things in the garbage. When I drive around on garbage day and people have their black bins out and no blue bins in makes me sad. RECYCLE PEOPLE! It is really easy, especially if you live in Calgary and have curbside pickup. Here is a cheezy video to show you just how easy it is.





Even more exciting than recycling however is efficiency. Assembly lines. Stack of paper to get through. Speed without sacrificing quality. Baskets to organize. Checklists. I get happier just writing about it all. Honestly working on an assembly line would be up there in my list of jobs I would love to do.

Last week I was feeling particularly ambitious and home-maker-like so I put my love for efficiency to work.

I had recently picked up an assortment of canning jars from the thrift store and I had lids for most of them in my stash of jars for baby food. I chose three recipes, Scones, Raisin Muffins and Brownies and measured out all the dry ingradients into jars, I wrote out what I need to add and how long to bake them on a card and put it on top in the jar and PRESTO! Easy peasy baking, when I need to make something I just dump my jar in and add the wet ingredients and I love it! I decided to make scones the other day to go with soup that was almost ready to eat and it was so quick, the slowest part was waiting for the oven to heat up. Efficiency people, so good.

Foodie Friday - Best Brownies You Will Ever Eat

The best?

Yes, the best.



EASY VESTRUM BROWNIES

3/4 Cup Butter, melted
2 Cups Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 Cup Cocoa
1 1/2 Cups Flour
4 Eggs

Mix it all together. Grease 9x13 Pan. Bake 350 for 35 min. Cool then cut. Easy Peasy.

They taste best the next day.

Foodie Friday - Sweet Potato Soup

On Friday evenings we host some friends for dinner. Because of some allergies these meals need to be dairy and glutton free (among other things.) So watch for some allergy friendly meals here beginning with this one.

Having supper ready at 10:00 is one of the best feelings ever, I love my Crock-pot. I make this soup often on Friday nights and whenever someone is feeling a little sick. I'll give you the amounts the recipe states but I never measure my veggies, I just fill my crockpot but this will give you an idea of where to start.

CURRIED SWEET POTATO AND CARROT SOUP

2 Medium-to-large sweet potatoes, peels and cut into chunks
2 cups baby carrots (or peeled/chopped carrots)
1 small onion, chopped
1 apple, chopped

3/4tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger (or a few slices of fresh ginger)
4 cups of veggie broth

1 Tbsp Maple syrup
3/4 cup half-and-half (optional)

Throw everything except the maple syrup and half-and-half in the crockpot, stir. Cover; cook on low 7-8 hours

Puree soup with a blender or immersion blender. I usually mash mine first to make sure I don't miss any chunk then take some out and blend it in batches, returning soup to the crockpot after each batch.

Once it is all blended add Maple syrup and cream (if you are not worried about dairy) Add salt and pepper if desired. Cook on high for 15 minutes to re-heat.

As usual I don't measure my spices (or anything in this recipe really) and I use more then they call for on almost all the spices.

ps. Throw all your peels and clippings in a pot with water and simmer for awhile to make veggie stock. I usually make mine and freeze it and/or keep some in the fridge then I always have some for making soup or adding water to any recipe.

Enjoy.

Foodie Friday - Raisin Muffins

Welcome to my first Foodie Friday, don't count on a post every Friday but when there is a Food related post it will be posted on a Friday!

These muffins are a thorwback ot my sugar-free days, I still make them all the time because they are easy, sugar-free and delicious, espescially if you love raisins as much as I do. Without further ado...

RAISIN MUFFINS

1 1/2 Cups Raisins
1 Cup Water
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/2 Cup Butter
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla

2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt

1. Bring Raisins, Water and spices to a boil and let simmer for a few minutes.(I don't actually measure my spices, just throw some in there and I often add some allspice as well)
2. While your raisin water is making your house smell so good put butter, egg and vanilla in bowl. No need to melt your butter, the raisins will take care of it.
3. Add raisins and raisin water to the bowl, mix to melt the butter
4. Add flour (I use half whole wheat and half white), soda, powder and salt

For regular sized muffins bake 20min @ 375
For mini-muffins (the best option by far) bake 10 min @ 350

Note these are very raisin-y so if you are not a huge raisin fan perhaps cut the raisins down a bit. Enjoy!

Meal Planning

I used to be scared of meal planning. I would tell Mike I should plan some meals but the thought of it was intimidating to me and I never got around to it. Supper time would swing around and I would have two needy, hungry toddlers (do everyones kids lose it around supper time) and I would have to come up with something to eat and make it, it stressed me out. One day I hunkered down and made a meal plan and now I don't know how I lived without it, it is so easy and makes my life so much easier. It makes supper time easier, groceries easier and making better food easier. So here is how I do it.

I plan about 2 weeks ahead, 1-2 weeks at a time. I use a calendar and I only plan suppers and often don't plan weekends. When I started I made a list of all the suppers I could think of that we usually eat, so if I am planning and run out of ideas I look at my list. To get me started I make Monday crock pot day, Wednesday pasta day and Thursday rice day, I punch things into those days and put something else on Tuesday night. Friday nights we have a Bible Study/Games night at our house and eat supper together, it needs to be allergy friendly. If I dont feel like making what I planned I make something else, if it is hot out and I dont want a crock pot running all day I will make something else ect. I am pretty flexible.

Here is a sample of two weeks of meals!

Monday  - Beggars Chowder in the Crock Pot
Tuesday - Sweet Potato Soup from the Freezer
Wednesday - Pasta w/ cream sauce
Thursday - Beef Stirfry w/ rice
Friday - Burgers and Oven Fries
Monday  - Potato Cheddar Soup in the Crock Pot
Tuesday - Chicken Fingers, Fries and Salad
Wednesday - Spagetti w/ Tomato Meat Sauce from the freezer
Thursday - Sweet and Sour Meatballs on Rice w/ steamed vegs
Friday -Tacos

 Do you meal plan? Does is scare you? You should give it a try.