Mom's Center piece was so cute I had to post it.

 Hope you all had a great day!

 Enjoy!

Easter Center piece

Chicken Sandwich

LUNCH!

LUNCH!

I went to Costco this weekend and they started to carry a new chicken lunch meat. Let me just say, this is real chicken! It is Aidell’s Apple-Smoked Chicken breast and it is so yummy that even my 10 year old liked it.

So, back to my lunch, this could also be a quick weeknight dinner.

Using a pastry brush, I brushed 1 tsp of olive oil on one side of two slices of bread. Then, place one slice of bread, oil side down, in a warm iron skillet. Next, add about ½ oz of white cheddar cheese and two slices of the chicken, which is a serving. Finally, add a ¼ of an avocado and a little cilantro. Cover it with the other slice of bread, oil side up.

Brown both sides to your liking and enjoy!

Best Pizza Crust

I have tried many recipes for pizza crust, but this one is my favorite! Of course you can buy a bag of dough at Trader Joe’s and there’s no shame, we have all done it. This dough can be put together before you get to the store and back, and for a fraction of the cost. Here is where the original recipe is from: california-pizza-kitchen-pizza-dough

I altered this recipe a bit to make it as simple as possible, which means the least amount of dishes! So here goes.

Ingredients:

1½ tsp active dry yeast

¾ cup warm water (110F)

2 - 2 ¼ cups bread flour

3 tsp sugar

3 tsp salt

3 tsp olive oil plus a little more to coat the dough

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the water and let it proof (which means put the yeast and water in the same bowl and let them hang out for 5-10 minutes). This process is to see if the yeast activated, if it is it will have little bubbles form on top. If it didn’t activate you need to try again. If the water is to hot it will kill the yeast and if it is to cold nothing will happen. I buy my yeast in bulk at Costco and store it in the fridge. It lasts a long time and I always have extra to try again.

Yeast and water having a party with bubbles

Add the sugar and salt to the yeast bowl and mix. Then, slowly add the flour and the oil. After adding the second cup of flour, I get my hands in it and mix, then knead it for about 5 min on a lightly floured surface.

Some nights I get help and my 10 year old will knead the dough. The more you get you kids involved in cooking the more they are willing to try new foods and it’s just plain productive fun!

If the dough is too wet add a little flour. Too dry add a little warm water. This just takes practice but the dough should feel smooth but still a little tacky. Some days, I think, “man this dough feels great” and other days I think, “what happened?” but either way, the end results are always tasty.

Dough with one cup of flour

Lightly coat the dough with oil, cover it (I use a damp dish towel) and let it rise. Rise time I like it to rise for two hours but I have let it rise for only an hour and it was okay. The best is when I am organized and make the dough that morning or the night before. If I have the time, I let it rise at room temp covered for 2 hours, punch it down, then I put it in an airtight container and stick it in the fridge. About 2 hours before you are going to eat take it out of the fridge punch it down and let it come to room temp.

This is the dough before it did its rising. Not the best picture I know.

I like to bake it on my pizza stone at 450 degrees. It cooks very quickly and time will vary depending on the thickness of your crust. I always tell people, if it looks like you want to eat it it’s probably done. Very scientific I know, but it works.

Make sure to check out my bread science post. It is a very basic explanation of what does what in bread.

Simple Bread Science

Simple Bread Science

Getting your kidos to help you cook is the best! One way to engage them is to turn it into a science experiment. My favorite “experiment” is to make bread, since everything that goes into the dough has a purpose. To help get you started, I’ve outlined “what does what” in bread, in its simplest form.

Yeast – Yeast is actually thousands of tiny plant-life microorganisms! When we warm them up, give them moisture, and food, they grow and give off a gas called carbon dioxide. The gas is what makes the dough rise. Pretty cool right?

Flour – Flour has something called gluten in it. The gluten gives the bread its structure by trapping the gas produced by the yeast.

Liquids – Liquids give us different crusts. Water creates a harder crust and milk will make a softer crust.

Sugar – Sugar is what the yeast eats so it can grow and produce carbon dioxide. It also helps the crust brown and adds flavor.

Salt – Salt controls the growth of the yeast. We need just the right amount!

Fats – Fats, like butter, make the bread soft.

There you have it! Share this simple chemical reaction with your kids its fun! They might not even realize they are learning a bit of chemistry, which is the best way to teach them.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We are lucky i got a picture they were going fast!

When my son first woke up this morning he asked, “It looks like rain does that mean you are going to bake cookies?” Living in Southern California it doesn’t often look like rain, so when it does, we bake. Today I am making my chocolate chip cookies. I wrote out the recipe in the order I throw the ingredients together in the mixer. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and let’s get going!

Ingredients:

·         2 sticks of butter

·        ¾ cup sugar

o   Turn the mixer on low to start creaming the butter and sugar. Once it looks well incorporated, keep adding the rest of the ingredients.

·         ¾ cup packed brown sugar

·         1 tsp vanilla extract (life is too short to use imitation – get the real stuff)

·         2 eggs

·         1 tsp baking soda

·         1 tsp salt

·         2 Tbls ground flaxseed (this gives the cookies a nice nutty taste)

·         2 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour

o   Add the flour slowly so it doesn’t go all over the kitchen, think half a cup at a time

·         12 oz of semi -sweet chocolate chips

I use a small ice cream scoop with a spring release, it holds about a tablespoon of cookie dough. Scoop them onto an ungreased cookies sheet and pop them into the oven. Sorry there are not more pictures but I had 4 kids helping me. Bake for about 10 minutes or until they look like you want to eat them. Enjoy!

Cracker Fish

Well, it is 5 p.m. and the day has gotten away from me. As I was rummaging through the freezer, I was happy to see three pieces of frozen tilapia. I love having Costco’s fish on-hand for moments like this. It is all individually vacuum sealed and perfectly portioned. I pulled out the frozen fish, and to quick thaw it, submerged it in some cool water for about 15 min.

So while my fish is thawing, I prepared the breading. I used eight saltine crackers. Now, these crackers were not normal crackers! I had made what I call crazy good crackers a couple weeks ago. crazy-goodcrackers Crush the crackers with 2 tbls of parmesan cheese. I let my 10 year old do this part, he crushed them with the potato masher - worked great!

 Cracker Crumbs

In another bowl get an egg wash ready by mixing one egg with a splash of water.

Ok so my fish is thawed, egg wash is ready, and crackers are crushed – time to get cooking. Heat up an iron skillet with a tbls of olive oil. You are going to notice I use my iron skillets for almost everything! I like a low med heat for this dish. Dip the fish in the egg then, gently press the fish into the crackers and coat as well as possible. Then, it is into the frying pan.

 Let them cook about 5-8 minutes on each side. I like to turn them when they look like this.

Looking good

I served the fish with some asparagus I just sautéed in the skillet.

A quick yummy weeknight dinner! I got so excited to eat I forgot to take a picture of my plate - next time .

Crazy Good Crackers

Crazy Good Crackers

I found these crackers on Pintrest and knew I had to try them! The original recipe is here (these-put-the-crack-in-crackers/)  

 They were crazy good! I am warning you though, everyone who has tried them could not eat just one!

      1 cup canola oil

       1 packet ranch dressing mix

         2 tbs. red pepper flakes

        4 sleeves of Saltine crackers

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl get the crackers really coated. And then lay them out on a cookie sheet and drizzle whatever is left in the bottom of the bowl, over the top of the crackers.  Bake at 250 degrees for 15-20 minutes, stirring them around about halfway through. Let them cool and store in a airtight container.

I used them to make my cracker fish.

Stewing Beef with Egg Noodles and a side dish of veggies and Alfredo Suace

Welcome! So, I decided to write a food blog just for kicks and now that I’m committed, I realized that I haven’t thought about it all the way through. Shesh, this is going to be a big commitment…Oh well, I’m here, going to give it my best shot, and feel free to leave me comments on how I can improve.

I try to plan my meals for the week but that just does not always happen, and well, now it is 3 p.m. and I have no idea what to do for dinner. At least this blog gives you a very real look at my life.  Tonight, I am using stuff I already have in the freezer and a few fresh veggies to whip up something hot and filling for the fam. The results were pretty tasty! So with that being said, tonight’s meal is stewing beef over pasta and an alfredo veggie side dish.

Stewing Beef with Egg Noodles

Finished plate, not too bad for a week night dinner, right?

Yields: 4 Servings

Heat the oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

·         12 oz. of stewing beef (thawed if you are pulling from your freezer like me)

·         1 small onion chopped

·         1 clove of garlic finely chopped

·         2 Tbls. of flour

·         1 tomato

·         ½ cup of tomato sauce (more or less is fine this is just what I had in the freezer from another night)

·         1 cup of water (or beef stock if you have some)

 Brown the meat in an iron skillet or any other pan that can go from the stove top to the oven. It does not need to cook all the way though because we will be finishing it in the oven.While that’s doing its thing, chop up the onion and garlic, drop them into small bowl, and toss with the flour.

                                          Onions and garlic getting a nice blanket of flour

Add them to the meat and let them cook a little. The flour will act as a thickener to the dish as it bakes.  Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.  At this point my son said, “What’s for dinner it smells good?”

 While the meat is continuing to brown with the onions, cut up a fresh tomato. Once the meat is browned add the tomato, tomato sauce (more or less is fine 1/2 cup is just what I had in the freezer from another night), and a cup or so of water or beef stock if you have some.

And put the whole skillet in the oven. I have a home daycare, and so while I was running around with the kids I just let this cook by itself in the oven while I am off working. I let it cook for about 45 minutes. Now, it is time for the side dish.

This veggie side dish is so yummy, that you will not want anything else. Trust me it can be a meal in itself, but my kido would say, “Really mom veggies, that’s it?” So, it’s a side dish tonight and lunch for me tomorrow.  I got this recipe from Trader Joe’s and of course, I changed it up a bit tonight because I was using up what I had in the freezer. Tonight, I had a half a jar of alfredo sauce I had stuck in the freezer and a package of frozen veggies. Here is my version.

Alferdo Veggies

The crunchy topping really makes this dish

Yields: 4 Large Servings

Ingredients:

·         One package of frozen Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Romanesco Basilic with bits of garlic butter

·         Half a jar of Trader Joe’s alfredo sauce

·         2 Tbls of milk

·         3 oz. of grated cheese (tonight I have some white cheddar, and romano)

·         2 oz. of fried onion pieces (or crackers, bread crumbs, potato chips anything crunchy)

The directions are really easy. Mix everything, but the fried onion pieces, together in a casserole dish. Top with the fried onion pieces and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 min, or until everything is hot.

As the veggies are almost done, cook up some pasta. Prepare the pasta of your choice according to the directions on the package. I had egg noodles, so that is what we had. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and toss it with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve the pasta with the stewing beef on top and some veggies on the side.

Just enough left over for me to have for lunch the next day, which to me is a perfect dinner! Hope you enjoy.