cooking

Weekly Meal Plan!

Abby H.

stemarie_1650skitchen

The kids and I are going camping this weekend, so I’m only meal planning through Thursday! We’ll be going to a Society for Creative Anachronism Event, Potrero War. The kids are looking forward to playing with friends, making s’mores, doing crafts, and the big kid is really looking forward to participating in Thrown Weapons with his Grandpa.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

This weeks meal planning goal is to eat up what we’ve got on hand that will spoil first. I’m not going to the grocery store to buy anything but milk and butter (oh no, we’re almost out!).

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids.  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.

  • Monday: Leftover homemade pizza and strawberries
  • Tuesday: Spaghetti (I’ve been buying this kind because it’s high in protein) with red sauce loaded with veggies
  • Wednesday: Madras Lentils, white rice, and steamed veggies
  • Thursday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup (I’ve got a couple batches of soup in the freezer, so I’ll grab one and defrost it the night before. It’ll probably be Veggie Tuscan Soup).

Recipe: Maple Bacon Peanut Butter Cookies!

Abby H.

DUDE!! These cookies were specially requested and made for a potluck and man, did they evaporate.

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Now, these cookies didn’t get really brown, but I think that may be because of the maple syrup used instead of white sugar, which causes cookies to brown while baking.

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Maple Bacon Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1/4C. Coconut oil
  • 1/4C. Peanut Butter
  • 1/4c. Brown Sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 T. Maple extract
  • 1.5 C Kodiak Flapjack Mix
  • 1 C. Oats
  • 8 pieces of bacon, cooked, drained, and chopped

 

Directions:

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. Set aside.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
  3. Slowly combine the dry ingredients with wet ingredients until incorporated.
  4. Add chopped bacon pieces, and stir to combine.
  5. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet (or use silicone baking pad.)
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
  7. Allow to rest on the cookie sheets for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

 

 

 

 

Recipe: Veggie Tuscan Soup

Abby H.
IMG_5072.jpg
It’s not a filter, it’s steam!

This is my vegetarian version of the Zuppa Tuscana Recipe found here. This recipe is vegetarian, but not vegan.

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 T. Olive Oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced (about 10 ounces)
  • 1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
  • 1 cup celery, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 6 cups water
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 potatoes, cleaned, peeled, and chopped
  • 4 cups kale, cleaned and chopped
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • Salt and Pepper

Directions:

  1. In a large stock pot, heat olive oil.
  2. Add onions, carrots, and celery, cook on medium/low until onions are soft and clear.
  3. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
  4. Add water, broth, bay leaves, and potatoes.
  5. Cook on medium low for 45 minutes to an hour, or until potatoes are soft.
  6. Add Milk, Kale and salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low for about 10 minutes, until Kale is cooked, but not soggy.

Serve with breadsticks or cheese toast. This soup makes great leftovers and tastes even better the next day!

 

Weekly Meal Plan!

Abby H.

stemarie_1650skitchen

Bitty and I hit up grocery Outlet and Food4Less yesterday and picked up everything we might need for this week. Has anyone noticed how expensive celery is lately?

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids.  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.

  • Monday: Cheese enchiladas, beans, steamed broccoli
  • Tuesday: Kids had pizza- Their last two Book-it certificates expire tomorrow. I’ve got a pot of chicken soup on the stove. I’ll either toss in fusilli pasta or Rana cheese and uncured bacon ravioli.
  • Wednesday: Rollup sandwiches and kale salad (Kale, apples, chopped almonds, and apple cider vinaigrette)
  • Thursday: Leftovers
  • Friday:  Dinner out
  • Saturday:  Grilled Cheese and soup (It’s definitely soup weather!)
  • Sunday:  Meatless night! The kids will have Morningstar Farms nuggets, and the grownups will have black bean burgers. Sides will include fruit salad, carrot sticks and some sort of dip.

 

Talk Back: What will you be cooking this week?

Family Recipe: Abasitas

Abby H.

I haven’t done a family recipe in a while. My mom made a batch of these recently and sent me home with a few.

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na na na na na na na na na- Bat Plate!

Turnovers, hand pies, pasties, kolaches, whatever you call them, I love them. Eating with your hands is done in almost every other culture on earth, but us westerners tend to frown on it.

 

My mom invented these rich, savory turnovers based on the flavors that I loved as a kid (and still love). It’s a pastry or yeast dough exterior, filled with cheese, chicken, breakfast sausage, and green chilis.

The batch she made last week used crescent dough that was rolled out. You may be able to see the remaining perforation in one of the photos.

In the past, I’ve used my pizza crust recipe (found here). It’s really up to you what kind of dough you use for exterior. Crescent dough is rich and buttery, and I think it works well for this recipe, so it’s what I’m going with. You can get the crescent dough in one large sheet if you want and cut it up, or, we used the regular rolls, and just did 2 crescents per hand pie.

Abasitas 

(Makes 16-20 depending on type of dough used)

Ingredients:

  • 2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped up (You can also use 1.5 cups of chopped up rotisserie chicken meat)
  • 1/2 lb of Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage, cooked, crumbled, and drained of fat
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 4 oz. can Ortega Chilis, chopped 
  • 1 batch pizza dough (recipe linked above), or 4 tubes crescent roll dough

Directions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Mix first five ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.
  3. Roll out/unroll dough; Separate into 4 rectangles. Pinch together perforations to seal up.  If you are using another type of dough, roll out on a floured surface and use a sharp knife to cut the dough into approx. 8×5 rectangles.
  4. Place approx. 1/4c of filling in the middle of each piece of dough. Fold over, and seal edges of the dough by pinching edges together, you can also crimp the edges with a fork.
  5. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet (I always use parchment paper– it makes clean up easier) for approx 12-15 minutes until the dough is golden brown.
  6. Remove cookie sheets from the oven and allow hand pies to rest for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Allow to rest a few more minutes before devouring.
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Yummy cheesy filling!

I serve these with a green salad. They are good cold the next day too. They make a great picnic addition.

After they have cooled completely, store them in the fridge or the freezer. You can reheat them in the toaster oven!

They are a great food to batch cook.

Weekly Meal Plan!

Abby H.

stemarie_1650skitchen

Mondays are crazy around here, between my college classes, and Big Kid’s weekly social skills class, we don’t get home until late. So publishing our weekly meal plan is not a high priority after a busy day. I did write it out yesterday while I was at the Y!

This week we are focusing a lot of eating up what we’ve got on hand. There are a lot of changes afoot in my household (there will be an upcoming post, I promise). I’m focusing a lot on the kids, and trying to return to my frugal roots.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

You may notice a lot of plant based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids.  I also keep sandwich ziploc bags of  other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.

  • Monday: Ramen- I’ll post pics on Instagram today. Our local Grocery Outlet had bone broth, and I used Brown Rice and Millet Ramen noodles. poached eggs, and spinach
  • Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner- Waffles made with Kodiak Flapjack Mix and Fruit Salad
  • Wednesday: I’m going to the grocery store, so I’ll probably pick up a rotisserie chicken and a salad
  • Thursday: Leftovers
  • Friday:  I’m going out with the girls, so the kids will have Pizza!
  • Saturday: Chicken enchiladas (made from the rotisserie chicken leftovers), beans, rice, and brocolli
  • Sunday: Chicken Soup (made from the carcass of the rotisserie chicken and the remaining meat).

 

Talk Back: What will you be cooking this week?

Host a Frontera Whole Foods Party!

Abby H.
House Party by Ripple Street Frontera™ Whole Foods Party House Party

Houseparty by Ripplestreet has a great party coming up, and they are accepting applications right now!

Show your friends how they can make authentic, delicious dishes for their Cinco de Mayo parties and how Frontera™ products will help them make it quick AND simple. Available at your local Whole Foods Market® for Cinco de Mayo.

This event is only open to residents of the contiguous US.

If you’re selected and confirmed as a host, your exclusive Party Pack will contain:

  • Whole Foods Market® gift card
  • Frontera discount coupons for your guests
  • And more

If you’ve never heard of Houseparty by Ripplestreet, you can learn more here. I’ve already applied!

Hearty French Beef Stew Recipe!

Abby H.
Screen Shot 2019-03-17 at 9.11.47 AM.png
Who needs a filter when you’ve got steam?

Earlier in the week I made beef stew. It was so good that I had a hard time waiting the full 10 hours until dinner  to dish myself up a bowl! I cooked it on the stove, but it can definitely  be cooked in a crockpot after the initial browning of the meat.

I based my recipe on my mom’s boeuf bourguignon recipe, but I omitted the bacon, as we didn’t have any in the house.

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 cups white onions, diced
  • 3/4 cup each carrots and celery, diced
  • 1 cup white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (tops only, stems may be discarded or saved for a later use)
  • 2 T. Air Dried Shallots
  • 1 T. Minced Garlic
  • 4 T. Butter or Olive Oil (your choice), divided
  • 2 lbs. Stew Beef, cut into bite sized pieces (chuck roast works great)
  • 1/2 c. AP Flour
  • 6 cups beef stock
  • 1 Bottle Red Wine (approx. 4 cups), your choice.
  • Spices: 1 Bay leaf, 1 T. French Tarragon, Pinch Rubbed Sage, 1 T. Thyme, Salt, Pepper

Directions:

  1. In a Large Stock pot, melt 2 T. butter/heat olive oil over medium heat.
  2. Add onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms. Cook on medium/low heat, stirring occasionally until onions are clear and veggies have sweated.
  3. While veggies are cooking, rinse meat and toss gently in AP Flour to coat.
  4. After veggies are cooked, scoop out of pot and set aside, add remaining butter/oil, and brown beef over medium heat.
  5. Add cooked veggies back in and stir/scrape browned bits off the bottom and sides of pot.
  6. Turn heat up to medium/high and add in about half the wine. Scrape off as much of the browned bits off the bottom and sides as you can as the wine cooks.
  7. Add remaining wine, stock, and herbs. Cover pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. If you wish, you can transfer everything to a crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
  8. Serve with hot, buttered bread, and a green salad. It is soooooo good. If you have leftovers (hahahaha), it is great re-heated and served over rice or buttered noodles.

 

Recipe: Protein Peanut Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Abby H.

Screen Shot 2019-03-08 at 7.56.56 AM.pngIt can be hard to get the big kid to eat enough protein. He doesn’t eat meat, and a lot of the non-meat protein sources are foods that don’t appeal to him (or have “gross” textures- So is the life of a kid with ASD).

Like moms who have been trying to sneak in healthy foods for ages, I’ve been trying to find ways to add protein to foods he already enjoys without making the textures or flavors “weird”.

I really love the Kodiak Cakes Power Cakes Flapjack & Waffle Mix– You can substitute it 1 for 1 with AP flour in baking to ramp up the protein in your baked goods without sacrificing flavor or texture.

Screen Shot 2019-03-08 at 7.57.18 AM.pngI am also a huge fan of peanut flour, like PBFit. I add it to shakes and baked goods all the time. I decided to play around with it in our favorite cookie recipe, to see if we could add some protein and flavor without making the cookies “weird” in texture or flavor. Luckily everyone in the house LOVES peanut butter cookies.

I entered all the ingredients into to Spark Recipes Nutrition Calculator to get the information on the amount of protein per serving. If you make more or less cookies with cookie dough, your nutritional info will vary slightly.

Protein Peanut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 18 servings or 2 cookies each (approx 3 dozen cookies)

Ingredients:

  • 1 Cup softened butter or butter flavored crisco (NO NOT USE SPREAD OR MARGARINE)
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 Tbsp. Vanilla
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 1/2 cups Kodiak Cakes Power Cakes Flapjack & Waffle Mix
  • 1/2 cup PBFit
  • 12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter/shortening
  3. add sugars one at a time and mix until fluffy.
  4. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated fully.
  5. Mix in soda, salt, flour and PBFit. Once all are blended into dough, add chocolate chips.
  6. drop tablespoon sized dough balls on cookie sheets that have been greased, or are lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking pad.  I prefer the silicone baking pads.
  7. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cookies may not be golden or as brown as you are used to- but they are done. Let cookies rest 1-2 minutes before transferring to the cooling rack.

Notes: Cookies contain less sugar than most traditional cookie recipes, which means they do not get as brown in the oven as they cook. This recipe makes approx. 3 dozen cookies and each serving of two cookies contains 275 calories and 7 grams of protein.

 

Weekly Meal Plan

Abby H.

stemarie_1650skitchen

Sooo, I wrote this post yesterday, and forgot to hit PUBLISH.. So a day late, but I’ve got all kinds of tasty stuff planned for this week, and some recipes will be added later this week as well.

I did a bunch of prep work on Sunday for a few hours- I made 3 batches of pizza dough, cooked a tri-tip, and I was going to start turkey chili, but instead, I made cookies (which are excellent, and I’ll post  the recipe tomorrow). You can see the pics on my Instagram feed.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

You may notice a lot of plant based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Protein shakes for grown ups, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. We have plenty of protein shake fixins’- I buy the over ripe bananas, peel and slice them pop them into ziploc bags, and freeze them for smoothies and protein shakes. I also keep sandwich ziploc bags of  other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or a protein shake for me and the Mister, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently). Bitty Bird eats whatever I’ll feed her.

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.

  • Monday: We Chinese food. Mr. Husband stopped on the way home and picked it up!
  • Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner: Hash browns with cheese, bacon or leftover tri-tip, and guacamole, topped with a poached egg.
  • Wednesday: Pizza Night!
  • Thursday: Turkey Chili and cornbread
  • Friday:  Date Night (dinner out, but I’m not sure where)
  • Saturday: Chicken Divan (it’s a one pan meal)
  • Sunday:  Leftovers

 

Talk Back: What will you be cooking this week?