More of What We Are Eating

Sprouted Kitchen’s Edamame Dumplings. These seem like they are going to be hard but actually they were not difficult and didn’t take too much time! But I was worried…I wasn’t sure about the flavor. I thought they might be weird – BUT they were not! They were awesome! The more I ate them the more I liked them and I even thought they were better the second day! So I didn’t use the lemongrass because I couldn’t find it at my grocery store. I also couldn’t find mirin so I just used rice wine vinegar. I also skipped the microgreens/pea shoot garnish because I don’t have a lot of extra cash right now. I took the suggestion to sear them on each side first. I just used olive oil since I thought that much sesame oil might be strong for us. I love what it added to both the texture and flavor and none of mine came apart while steaming as a result. We gave these 5 stars! So good!

Sprouted Kitchen’s Ranchero Breakfast Tostadas. This is what we made for our family (including my parents) on mother’s day. I love breakfast but I tend to go heavy on the carbs and I wanted something that would taste somewhat healthy and fresh but that my dad would also think was awesome. Of course I turned to my Sprouted Kitchen cookbook because clearly I have some sort of obsession! These were sooooo good! They were everything that I wanted them to be! The only change I made was to leave out the cumin because Jeremy can’t eat it but otherwise we followed the recipe. Sometimes with a recipe after I make it I wish they would instruct on how to eat it because we were a little unsure. My first attempt I cut it with a knife…the 2nd one I made I went ahead and crushed my tostada up first and then piled on all of the toppings. It wasn’t pretty but I didn’t care! We liked it so much that the next day when we were make regular breakfast tacos we decided to make the beans that way again – mashing and mixing in a little sour cream with salt and pepper. 5 stars!

Sprouted Kitchen’s Pumpkin Pecan Granola. Have you ever been making a recipe and realize it uses way less of an ingredient than you thought it did so you decide to just double, triple, or whatever the recipe so that you use it all up? Well, that’s what I did with this recipe. I opened my can of pumpkin and then realized I only needed 1/3 a cup so I decided to…wait for it…quintuple the recipe! This was going swimmingly until I realized that I was going to end up using my entire bottle of (new) organic maple syrup (plus what was left in my Mrs. Buttersworth bottle), use all the oats left in my house plus a cup of steel-cut oats, and not have enough pecans or raisins…It’s all good though! I made Jeremy a batch without nuts anyway and have just been adding the raisins in as I eat it. I love pumpkin and I love granola so there really was no way I wasn’t going to like this recipe. I do like it. Although, not gonna lie, I’m still partial to the granola I grew up eating…Capri, however, couldn’t probably eat this day and night with a little yogurt to go with it – she absolutely loves it! 4 stars!

Sprouted Kitchen’s Toasted Millet Salad with Arugula (Spinach), Quick Pickled Onions, and Goat Cheese (with roasted chicken). So I was nervous about this one too…I wasn’t sure I would like it. I LOVED it! I used spinach in place of arugula because sometimes I don’t really like arugula. I also added some shredded roasted chicken that I had left over from the night before (it was a good call). This was so great. We ate it warm the first night because I was not going to wait for the millet to cool down and I actually preferred it that way even though I had it cold as leftovers later. I also used regular balsamic vinegar instead of white because that’s what I had on hand and thought it worked out just fine. I think this may become one of my go to sides to bring places! And those pickled onions – so good! I can’t wait to try them on some fish tacos! 5 stars!

Look forward to more reviews for The Sprouted Kitchen as I plan on trying the Moroccan Stuffed Squash and the Roasted Cauliflower Capellini this next week!

What We Are Eating

Sprouted Kitchen’s (Smoky) Red Lentil Soup. “Smoky” is in parenthesis because I didn’t use liquid smoke – it gives Jeremy terrible heartburn. I also couldn’t find red lentils at my grocery store, so mine were green or brown I’m not sure. I also didn’t use cumin…again Jeremy. However, this was a tasty little soup. It reminded me of split pea soup but without such a harsh ”pea’ taste so it was good. It’s nothing super exciting but healthy and hearty. I will be making it again. 4 stars!

Sprouted Kitchen’s Lemon and Herb Hummus. So a couple of weeks ago I tried Smitten Kitchen’s hummus and wasn’t in love. This week I tried Sara’s hummus. I feel like the jury is still out on this one. For starters I went to add the dill and my dill had gone bad so I definitely think I’ll try it again with the dill. I substituted some sage and I added quite a bit extra lemon juice. It definitely was better the 2nd day. Capri loves it and asks for it whenever I offer her a snack (and sometimes when I don’t offer). I think the reality is that I just like my hummus kind of plain. Beth makes a great hummus…I’m going to try her recipe next and then another day I will make this one again with dill and maybe the feta and cucumber topping too! 4 stars.

Shauna Niequist’s Magical White Bean Soup. Wow. Just Wow. And Yumm! This was so much better than I thought it would. I mean I like white bean soup. I’ve made some before, but this was so much richer! I was out of celery and only had a couple of carrots left and I used bacon instead of prosciutto. It was so good! And don’t skip the vinaigrette  It was so good! And I don’t generally love fennel but I couldn’t taste in here or at least I didn’t taste anything I didn’t like! This recipe is from her new book, Bread & Wine. You should get it and read it and make everything in it! 5 stars!

Look forward to more reviews for The Sprouted Kitchen as I plan on trying the Edamame Dumplings and Ranchero Breakfast Tostadas this next week!

 

Wonderful Wonton Soup

Another winner from the 25 soups on this list! I made the Wonderful Wonton Soup. Wow! So great! Jeremy claimed it was one of the best things I’ve ever made and could be sold in a restaurant! So clearly we’re giving it 5 stars! I felt pretty awesome too make my own wontons and all! Obviously it wasn’t a super easy recipe, but it was well worth it. Unfortunately it doesn’t save very well…The only really change that I made was to use turkey instead of pork. Such a fabulous soup!

Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce

I took this recipe with me to Hamilton as well, however I went to make it and realized I needed a blender…the guest house didn’t have one. So we had sandwiches that night! On our way back from Hamilton we made a last minute decision to head to Marble Falls for the night to visit my parents instead of going home. We were already packed up and it was actually 10 minutes closer than our house! Since it was a weekday both my parents were working so I offered to make this since I had everything with me!

These Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce were really quite good and not too difficult considering you make your own sauce! I personally prefer green enchiladas but I still gobbled these up! I give them 3.5 stars.

Cooking Light’s Classic Meatloaf

Wow! Life has really gotten away from me! It has been a busy couple of weeks. Jeremy’s Granny passed away just two weeks ago. The girls and I went with him to Hamilton, Texas for a few days to be with family and help with the funeral. When we returned there were preparations for my grandmother to come visit and then Thanksgiving at our house! Needless to say, I didn’t find a lot of time to sit and blog. However, I did manage to cook a lot of food and even get some reading and crafting done! I’m looking forward to sharing.

For now, here’s a recipe I tried while we were in Hamilton. we stayed at a little ‘vacation’ house rental so I brought all my groceries for that week and cooked while there. The first night I made this Classic Meatloaf. Very easy and it was pretty good. I think it’s hard to mess up meatloaf. I actually made a killer batch of mashed potatoes to go with it but no recipe since I just winged it! I give this recipe 4 stars, however I think there are a lot of good meatloaf recipes out there. This one is on the healthier side though!

 

Best-ever Beef Stew

If you want to make beef stew this is the way to do it! It is sooooo easy! Just throw it all in the crock pot and then near the end add the thickening agent and you are done! For real, it was so easy! Anyway, I made this last Thursday night and it turned out great! The only change I made was that I couldn’t find a rutabaga at the store so I just added some extra potatoes and carrots. Jeremy added more salt after it finished cooking too.

5 out of 5 stars!

Easy Chicken Parmesan

This picture has nothing to do with this post, but she is just so cute that I couldn’t help it! (and I don’t have a picture for this post so it works out well). Our local grocery store was having a deal this last week and with it I got a jar of spaghetti sauce, spaghetti, and some Parmesan cheese so at the suggestion of the saleslady I decided to make this recipe for Easy Chicken Parmesan. Now I love eggplant parmesan, well, let’s be honest pretty much any oven baked Italian dish is a favorite of mine so I was pretty excited to make an easy version of Chicken Parmesan!

It was super easy and it was soooo good! Very tasty and cozy. I used the HEB brand spaghetti sauce and I think it was the Four Cheese flavor. I didn’t have seasoned breadcrumbs so I used plain panko and just sprinkled the chicken with salt, pepper, and dried basil. I think this simple recipe will become a regular at our house!

Beer-Braised Brisket

Last week I made Cooking Light’s recipe for Beer-Braised Brisket. I give this recipe 3 out of 5 stars. It was fine, not super exciting. I had hoped that after cooking for 5 hours that it would be a little more tender. It was falling apart but it was kind of stringy. It tasted good, homey but mostly just like your typical run of the mill pot roast with gravy. I guess I just had high expectations for this. It was pretty simple to make if you don’t mind your oven being on most of the day. And it is a one-pot meal which is always nice. Good but not as good as I had hoped it would be.

Toddler Knife Skills and Creamy Mushroom and Chicken Soup

Last week when meal planning I turned to pinterst and clicked on a link entitled 25 soups perfect for fall. I made the first one on the list, Creamy Mushroom and Chicken Soup and enlisted a bit of help from my fabulous sous chef! This recipe is super easy and fast to make. If there is anything that is slightly time consuming it’s the chopping of the ingredients (beware: if you ask a 20 month old to help you it might take longer and there might be a bigger mess, you’ve been warned!).

I gave Capri a butter knife, a cutting board, and some mushrooms and Jeremy showed her how to cut the mushrooms. Of course in this picture seems to be sampling the mushrooms It is both super fulfilling to have my daughter in the kitchen and super frustrating and inconvenient! I think when I invite her to help me I just have to adjust my expectations. It is a great way to have her come alongside me to do an activity that is both fun and productive (even if it takes longer than it would have if I had done it by myself).

The only change I made to this recipe is that I used whole milk instead of cream. We give this recipe 5 out of 5 stars! It was very yummy! In fact that day we ate it for lunch and for dinner! We highly recommend it and and it just so happened that it felt slightly like fall that day (of course, today the high is 90 again

Summer Squash, Bacon, and Mozzarella Quiche

You may have wondered if I even cook anymore (well, let’s be honest, that’s a little self-centered your life is probably way too busy to be wondering about my cooking habits!). Well, our wonderful friends brought us meals for 6 weeks! after we had Capri. It was awesome not only because it’s hard to handle things like dinner when you have a newborn and a toddler but it was also great because Jeremy has been out of work and it saved us a lot of money. It really was a huge blessing. Then we were in the process of moving and with money being tight we were eating really simply. And Jeremy has been shopping and cooking for us a lot. Finally we are moved. We still have a lot of unpacking and organizing to to do but I am beginning to feel a little more settled. Last night I was relaxing in my new (and wonderful!) bathtub trying to catch up on my magazine reading (I’m like a year behind it’s ridiculous) and I ran across this recipe for Summer Squash, Bacon, and Mozzarella Quiche in Cooking Light and really wanted to try it. I figured it still feels like summer in Texas so it would probably be alright.

I give this recipe 5 out of 5 stars! So yummy! I love quiche but I never make it because Jeremy has been telling me for years that he doesn’t like it. However for my mom’s birthday this last year we threw her a brunch and there was quiche and he had it and liked it so I thought I’d give it a shot. He also doesn’t really like zucchini but I took a chance on that too. It was a success – he went back for seconds! I used Colby Jack instead of Mozzarella and I used dried thyme instead of fresh for money saving purposes.

The crust was super easy to make (and it helps to have a food processor), however it would be easier to make the crust beforehand (maybe make a couple batches and freeze them so it’s easy to throw a quiche together with whatever veggies you have available). I guess that was the downside to this recipe. It was a little time consuming. If I had to make this after work then I wouldn’t have had time so probably not a great weeknight meal for most people. I thought it was worth the effort though.

I hadn’t cooked an actual recipe in such a long time. It was therapeutic being in kitchen again. Thinly slicing veggies (this recipe would take less time if you have a mandolin), shredding cheese, smelling the sizzling bacon. The experience was enjoyable and the end result was excellent! I love it when a recipe goes off without a hitch! And we are looking forward to heating up the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow morning!