Strawberry Muffin says it all...

all that's missing is the butter.

Ingredients: 

1-3/4 c all purpose flour (I used half white/half whole wheat)

1/2 c sugar (the original recipe calls for 3/4 c, but we are making attempts to cut back on sugar around here and no one seemed to mind too much. After all, butter covers a multitude of sins, if removing sugar is counted as such.)

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 c plain yogurt

1/4 c butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-1/4 c coarsely chopped strawberries

To do:

• Melt your butter. Set it aside to cool.
• While your butter cools, chop the strawberries, prepare your pan, preheat the oven, and check something off your to do list. 
• Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then add the yogurt, vanilla, and cooled butter. 
• Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just moistened, and fold in the strawberries
• Fill muffin cups about two-thirds full
• Bake the muffins at 375 degrees for 15-18 minutes, or until a fork or toothpick comes out clean. 

Servings: 12 beautiful muffins!

Adapted from Taste of Home

Summer Pasta with Chicken

Lest you think I'm a vegetarian...there is chicken in this dish. I promise.

1 small box cherry tomatoes
1 large cucumber
6 carrots
2 boxes whole wheat pasta
3 chicken breasts, cooked (I boiled the chicken with salt and pepper the night before)
1 green pepper
1 8 oz. block mozzarella, cubed
1 bottle Italian dressing + 1 Good Seasons Italian dressing packet (prepared)... so basically, Italian dressing to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

Prepare the pasta according to package directions. Chop all the veggies, cheese, and your chicken into bite-sized pieces. Combine pasta, chicken, and veggies in a large bowl and marinate in the bottle of Italian dressing for at least an hour or two.

Add the cheese just before serving.

Serves: 10-ish

When I pulled this out of the fridge to taste it again before serving, it definitely needed more pop, and I was out of bottled dressing. I did, however, have seasoning packets for Italian seasonings dressing in the pantry.

A Very Veggie Sandwich

A perfect marriage.

Voila!

In an effort to begin the tradition of "Meatless Mondays," I am attempting to convince Sam that he really does love vegetarian meals. And you know what? So far, thanks to meals like Chickpea Spaghetti and this sandwich...it's working.  I never thought I'd see the day! 

1/3 c mayo

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 TBSP lemon or lime juice

1/4 to 1/2 c balsamic vinegar

1/8 c olive oil

2 green peppers, chopped (or red, yellow, or orange!)

2 zucchini (and/or squash)

1 purple onion

feta cheese (1/2 to 1 c)

pesto (about 2 TBSP-- really, it just depends how much you like it). 

6 burger buns  

Slice the veggies and soak in the balsamic vinegar for at least 30 minutes. While the veggies are soaking, whip up your garlicky (is that a word?) lemon mayo by combining the lemon/lime juice, minced garlic, and mayo in a small bowl. 

Slice your buns in half and spread the garlic lemon mayo on each side. On one side add a layer of feta and on the other spread as much pesto as you please. Leave the buns open-faced, and place under the broiler for 3-5 minutes until good and toasty. Layer the sautéed vegetables atop and assemble your sandwich. The leftovers are every bit as good! 

Tip: If making your own pesto and buns, make the pesto the evening before as it keeps very well in the fridge.  With a food processor, it took me about 10 minutes total. Jack and I made the buns during the morning, so by the afternoon, all we had left to do was chop veggies and marinate them while Randy approved from his bouncy seat.

Serves 6 (or 3 if you live in our house:)

Adapted from a Passionate Homemaking recipe

Buns for busy days...

Or Busy Buns for short. ha! And yes, it looks like a roll, but it's a bun. I promise.

Whole wheat is more the norm at our house, so these were a special treat for Sam, who routinely declares that he really does love "white" pancakes, waffles, etc.

2 TBSP dry active yeast
1 cup plus 2 TBSP warm water that is approximately 110-ish degrees (here's just one more reason that I love and adore my meat thermometer...I don't kill you by serving you salmonella, and I don't kill the yeast by burning it to death)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
3 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus some for your work surface (here I subbed in some whole wheat flour)

In a medium sized bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warmed water. Then add the oil and sugar and let sit for five minutes. When time is up, go ahead and add your egg, salt, and flour and form a ball of dough with your hands, adding more flour as necessary.

On a floured surface, knead the dough for 3-5 minutes until smooth. Do NOT let rise, but divide into 12 pieces. Roll each of these into a ball and place about 3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Cover and let the rolls rest for 10 minutes. And magic happens.

Bake at 425 for 8-12 minutes until golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

40 minutes have now passed, and you have homemade busy buns. not bad. in fact, quite excellent.

Adapted from Taste of Home

Pesto.

Summer = pesto. 


Here's the first batch this year thanks to the tried and true Joy of Cooking! I wish I could say that the basil was home grown, but at least it's fresh. This pesto looks a little "blonde" if you ask me, so I may have too "loosely" packed the basil? Fortunately, it still tasted great despite its pale complexion. 


Combine the following in the food processor:
2 c fresh basil leaves, loosely packed
1/3 c pine nuts
2 medium cloves garlic, peeled
While processing, add approximately 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil. 


Season with salt and pepper to taste.


Our favorite uses of pesto: as a sandwich spread, on pasta, on pizza, and smeared on toasted bread with melted feta or goat cheese...


Stores for about a week in an airtight container in the fridge, or so they say. It's never lasted that long at our house. 


Maybe, just maybe this took me 10 minutes?

Chickpea Spaghetti

My sister-in-law, Logan, made this dish for me while our husbands were off at the Hall of Men drinking beer and eating who knows what. Now it's a regular at our kitchen table, and I keep the ingredients on hand for nights like tonight, when the my original meal plan goes out the window. Why? Because it's so very easy and healthy to boot, and I was just ready to call it a day.

Ingredients:
whole wheat spaghetti
1 yellow onion
4 cloves garlic
1 can chickpeas
a few handfuls of fresh spinach
heavy whipping cream
parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
red pepper flakes

While your water is heating up for your spaghetti noodles, heat about a TBSP of olive oil and some butter in a large skillet. Add to this:
1 onion, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or hot dogs, as Jack lovingly refers to them! Ah, the creativity of a two year old!)

When you drain the pasta, be sure to reserve a little bit of the pasta water to add moisture back into the dish (I forgot, of course!).  Since I failed to remember the "reserve the pasta water step," I grabbed the whipping cream out of the fridge, and this turned out to be a very popular choice that I will repeat.

Combine the noodles with the sautéed chickpeas, onion, and garlic. Add a couple handfuls of spinach and a little bit of reserved pasta water, or in my case, heavy whipping cream to just get a good coating on the noodles. Add grated parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, to taste.

And serve.

Strawberry Shortcake with 1/4 mile high biscuits...

one good morning.

many, many good berries! 

... a post dinner surprise for my honey.

Inspiration for the dish: Sam's "not-so-subtle" hints about his love for strawberry shortcake, a sudden burst of energy, and a minute to myself.

Here's my adaptation on the berries...

The Doctored Berries:
Strawberries
1/3 c sugar
1 TBSP lemon juice
and then, more sugar to taste!

Allow the berries to just sit in the juices for a good little while, so you can get the biscuits going and tend to the whipped cream.

Biscuits:
In Look and Cook, these biscuits are referred to as "Mile-High." However, as you can see in the picture, my poor pitiful biscuits don't quite measure up. I cut the recipe in half and then rolled out my dough far, far too thin to make enough biscuits. Stroke of genius on my part, especially when I realized that I only needed half an egg. yikes!

3 cups flour
1 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1/2 c milk

Preheat oven to 450. Sift the dry ingredients into a big bowl. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, mix the butter in until the combination of ingredients is thoroughly incorporated. In a separate bowl, combine the egg and milk before adding it to the dry ingredients. Mix only until the contents will hold together well enough to form a ball.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough lightly 15 times. Here's where I went wrong. The original recipe directs you to roll the dough out to 3/4 inches before cutting biscuits. So take your pick. Mile-High or 1/4 mile-high biscuits! Place the cut biscuits (I used a drinking glass) onto an un-greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Whipped Cream:
1 c whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 TBSP powdered sugar

I found the homemade whipped cream recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/whipped-cream/, though I must confess that I may have been a little heavy-handed with the powdered sugar. Let's just say that no one minded.

The Recipe Source:

 http://www.amazon.com/Look-Cook-A-Cookbook-Children/dp/1584793589