A Valentine Tradition

I love traditions. Some families have more, some have less, and sometimes the traditions we build taper off as years pass and circumstances change. One of my favorite traditions growing up was baking Christmas cookies with my mom. As far back as I can remember, I was perched on top of a little, plastic, yellow chair pouring, mixing, rolling and baking.

As the years passed, one cookie often found itself not getting made in time for Christmas, the Sugar Cookie. Due to needing to roll out the dough, cut the shapes and add sprinkles, it was much more time consuming than it's drop cookie cousins. Most people aren't big sugar cookie fans, and I can understand why. But this isn't any sugar cookie. It's my Grandma Betty's Sour Cream Sugar Cookie. Not only does it taste like happy Christmas memories to me, but I think it's objectively the best sugar cookie I've ever eaten in both taste and texture.

After Christmas passed I'd usually keep asking for this cookie, and my mom would assure me we'd make it for Valentine's Day instead. And we did (by we, I of course mean my mom did 95% of the work and I added sprinkles). The recipe makes enough to share with an entire classroom (or 3) and red sprinkle hearts are just as yummy as green sprinkle trees.

I made these cookies by myself for the first time when David and I were engaged. My friend Stacey and I had driven up to PA to visit him while we were on our winter break. We spent our week baking and enjoying the snow before driving back to Florida to visit family.

The first Christmas we were married, I had terrible morning sickness and wasn't feeling up to baking much of anything. The next Christmas we were living in an apartment in Florida temporarily for David's job and I was finally getting to sleep in 2-3 hour stretches for the first time since our 5-month-old was born. Again, no cookies.

This Christmas, I had every intention of finally baking at least 5 types of cookies, including sour-cream sugar cookies. I ended up baking 3 types of cookies and learning what my mother and grandmother before me already knew- baking is fun, but it takes a lot of time! So I took another page out of their play-book and have now, officially, decided Sour Cream Sugar Cookies are going to be a Valentine (not Christmas) tradition.

Although Caleb often helps me with my baking projects, I did this one solo, after his bed time.

Rolled and Cut hearts

Extracting X's and O's from the dough was a challenge

Finally ready for the oven. No wonder my mom says it used to make her want to cry to see me feed these to the dogs because I wanted to "share" : )

Finished Product! Kudos to my husband for capturing this cool shot.

Caleb enjoying the fruits of my labor at play date today. Happy Valentine's Day Buddy!

I wasn't the only one who was thinking dessert today. We had an unplanned mini-Valentine's party.

The boys had a blast as usual

A Week Full of New (Simple) Recipes: Lemon Oregano Chicken

For weeks the farmers market has been promising free range chickens and I've checked eagerly each week waiting for them to arrive. In the meantime, we've eaten lots of vegetarian as well as most of our supply of meat in the freezer. This week, the promised free-range birds were finally available. I must admit, I was a little sad to see they were all about 2.5-3lbs, but I eagerly took home two and decided I'd find something special to do with them.

While trying to find something for dinner Saturday night, I found this incredible recipe for Roasted Lemon Oregano Chicken. I followed the recipe almost exactly, but I did substitute dried oregano for fresh.

I felt like such a chef rubbing the marinade underneath the skin of the chicken. David didn't share my enthusiasm when I called him in to take a look. I believe a direct quote would be, "Gross honey, it looks like you're wearing a chicken glove." Ah well, I knew he'd appreciate it when it was all cooked!

The Finished Product

To say we both devoured the 2.5lb chicken might be an understatement. The skin was so crispy, the meat so juicy and flavorful. I sauteed up some local asparagus to go with it and it was perfect.

When I went to pick the bones for soup pieces I was only able to get a small handful of chicken. So today, I processed it up with some peas and fed it to Caleb for lunch. He loved it!

Yum

Caleb Signing "More"

This was such a big hit, I think it will be a while before I make chicken any other way. Tonight I'm boiling the bones to make broth. Yum!

A Week Full of New (Simple) Recipes: Tex Mex Mac and Cheese

Although I make it my goal to attempt a new recipe each week, there are seasons of life where we eat a lot of the same things over and over. I can always tell when we've been doing this because suddenly, making a grocery list is hard. Nothing I've been eating sounds good any more. I don't feel like cooking. In short, I'm in a rut.

It's easy to blame these ruts on sticking to the budget or having too little time. However, if I were to be honest, there are plenty of frugal and simple meals beyond tacos and spaghetti...they just involve me getting out of my comfort zone. And I dearly love my comfort zone, especially in the kitchen. Which is why I typically only try one new recipe each week. It's enough to inspire me, without overwhelming me. This week however, I plan to try 3 new recipes, which I thought I'd share.

Saturday night, realizing I hadn't planned for dinner, I found a delicious sounding recipe for Lemon Oregano Roasted Chicken. However, it required marinating time, so I decided to try the recipe the following day and take my time with our first free-range chicken of the season.

That left me with nothing for dinner however so it was back to the drawing board. I needed something quick, vegetarian (since I had no meat defrosted) and requiring only the ingredients I had on hand. A quick look at food.com led me to a tex-mex mac and cheese recipe that looked intriguing but used Velveta. I decided to adapt it to my usual mac and cheese recipe and it was a big hit with David. Here's what I did:

Tex Mex Mac and Cheese

Boil ½ box of macaroni noodles, drain and pour into 1.5qt. casserole dish

Combine over med. heat, stirring until mixture is melted and bubbling slightly
2 tblspn corn starch
2 tblspn butter
1 tspn taco seasoning

then add
2.5cups milk

Bring to boil over med/high heat stirring constantly. Let boil 1 min.

Stir in
1.5 cup cheddar cheese
.5 cup pepper jack

Stir until cheese is melted
then add .5 cup of salsa

Stir until combined

Pour cheese mixture over noodles, stir until all noodles are coated.

Sprinkle top with cheddar cheese and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

I served it with a side of oven-baked sweet potato wedges and we were both stuffed! Next time, I plan to cook up some taco meat and add that to the mix as well. As usual, I forgot to get a photo and we devoured the left-overs at lunch today.

The Lemon Oregano chicken is marinating in the fridge as I type...but that's another post.

Growing Bacteria in My Kitchen...On Purpose.

Doesn't that title just make your mouth water in anticipation of a dinner invite from our family?

Yesterday, I decided to try my hand at a new kitchen adventure: home made yogurt. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Why would someone want to make yogurt, when there is perfectly good yogurt you can buy at the store?" I know there are people asking themselves this, because those were the exact words that ran through my head when a friend offered me a yogurt maker 4 years ago. I ended up passing it on to my mom because, "she does weird things like that" and never gave it a second thought...Until I had a 10 month old who is consuming yogurt at the rate of 2 quarts/week. You read that correctly: 2, $3.50 quarts of yogurt per week. That would be $28 dollars in yogurt/month, $336 in just yogurt/year. Ouch.

Milk however, is $4.00/gallon from a local dairy here. So yesterday, with the aid of my favorite kitchen appliance the crock pot, I turned 2 quarts of milk into 2 quarts of yogurt. Each quart of yogurt now costs ~1.00, a savings of $240/year. Not too shabby.

Without further ado, here's how I grew bacteria in my kitchen on purpose:

First, I poured 2 quarts of milk into the crock pot and set in on low for 2.5 hours. The milk is heated for sterilization purposes, since you will be leaving it at room temp for quite a while, you only want the right kind of bacteria growing.

Next, I unplugged the crock pot and let it sit (lid on) for 3 hours. The milk must cool to a good incubation temp for the bacteria, somewhere between 90 and 110 degrees.

Then, I wisked in 1/2 cup of plain yogurt with active bacteria (I just used the bottom of the tub from the store) and let it sit, wrapped in a towel for 8 hours.

Honestly, I was a little skeptical. Could it really be that easy? At 10pm last night, I unwrapped the crockpot and found...yogurt. It tastes like and has the same consistency of the store bought yogurt for a fraction of the cost.

It's probably not something I'd bother with if I didn't have such a voracious yogurt eater, but I have a feeling I'll be making quite a few batches during this season of our lives.

Caleb wasn't so sure about his first bite of yogurt way back in March, but now, it's a breakfast staple

Friday Favorites Return: Make Your Own Ranch

A few weeks ago I got a big craving for oven baked chicken fingers dipped in creamy ranch dressing. Healthy, I know...

Anyway, I bought this expensive bottle of ranch dressing from the refrigerated section that boasted is was made with only a few ingredients. On closer inspection, it still had ingredients I've been avoiding. Still, better than nothing right? So I took it home, made my chicken fingers and was thankful I had the dressing because frankly, they were bland.

Last night, I tried my hand at chicken tenders again. This time I tried to directly emulate my mother-in-law's method. Apparently I need to watch her more closely because again: bland. This time, I had no ranch dressing, and you can bet with gas prices at one arm and two legs I was not going to take a jaunt out to get some.

I'd seen a recipe for buttermilk ranch on one of my favorite blogs, but assumed it was be too difficult to be worth the effort, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

To my (and David's) surprise, not only was the ranch easy to make, it was the best ranch dressing I've ever had. It would actually be perfect as a veggie dip since it's so thick and creamy. Best of all, it far out-shined the expensive bottle of store dressing at a fraction of the cost.

So, without further ado, here's the link to making your own amazing buttermilk ranch dressing. Oh, and if you're like me and never have buttermilk on hand, here are a couple substitutions:

1/2 plain yogurt, 1/2 milk (this is the one I use all the time)

1 tblspn white vinegar or lemon juice and enough milk to equal one cup

I also omitted the fresh parsley, as I had none.

The work station

The finished product

Friday Favorite: Crock Pot Roasted Chicken

Despite how wonderfully inexpensive they are, I've always been intimated by whole chicken. Until my mom gave me a simple recipe that showed me how simple cooking one in the crock pot is.

Here is the basic recipe, adjust as you wish:

Place 1 whole chicken (~4-5lbs) in the crockpot. Make sure to remove the bag of giblets from the inside. I throw these away personally, but that's entirely up to you!

Squeeze the juice from 1/2 a lemon over the chicken. Tip: to get more juice from the lemon (or any other citrus) roll it on the counter a few times, applying pressure with your hand.

Sprinkle some Italian Seasoning over the top. I love McCormick's Italian Seasoning Grinder.

Add 2-4 optional ingredients:
Chopped: onion, carrots, celary, and/or potatoes are all wonderful additions. If you're going to serve the veggies from the crock pot, slice them more thinly (1/4 inch is best), if you're just going to use them for flavor, feel free to leave them in large pieces.

Cook on low for 7-8 hours. My crock pot will cook a 4lb bird in 4-6 hours on low, and while I have done it this way, I prefer the flavor and tenderness that comes with longer cooking.

This week I cooked up one of the chickens I bought during Whole Food's 1 day chicken sale. At 1.69/lb for organic chicken it was a great deal. My 4.25lb bird yielded 6 generous cups of meat that I bagged up in portion sizes to use in casseroles, soups, fajitas and stir frys. I'll be honest with you, picking all that meat off the bones is not worlds most attractive job, but the flavor and tenderness make it totally worth it!

Last night I made chicken 3 quesadillas from 1 cup of meat. They were so filling, David and I couldn't finish them. Although the recipe I used was super simple, they tasted better than anything I've eaten at a restaurant! So here's your bonus recipe, if something so simple can be called a recipe : )

Chicken Quesadilla's
1 cup shredded white meat chicken
3 tortilla's
2 cups shred cheese (cheddar, mexican blend, etc.)
~1 tblspn butter

Heat a frying pan to medium high. Melt a sliver of butter and place tortilla in pan. Sprinkle cheese and chicken over tortilla, fold over and continue flipping until golden brown spots appear and cheese melts. Place on pan in oven set on warm, repeat with the following 2 tortillas. Serve with sour cream, salsa and guacamole to complete the experience.

Sadly, I keep forgetting to take pictures of my Friday Favorites. Maybe next time!

I almost forgot to mention my very favorite part of cooking a whole chicken: home made broth! If you're time crunched, you can strain and freeze the juice the chicken makes while cooking as a thick broth (I thin mine with about a cup of water when I turn it into soup) and stop there. However, I like to make my bones do double duty. I put them back in a pot on the stove, add carrots, onion and celery, cover with water and let it simmer for at least an hour. More broth! It makes the best soup you've ever tasted : )

Friday Favorite: Cheesy Beef Bake

Today Caleb is 8 months old, so it's no surprise I'm reminiscing about those early weeks after we brought him home from the hospital. During her visit to meet her new grandson, my mother-in-law threw this dish together from my (woefully) understocked pantry. Since then, it's become a household favorite. It's also a good opportunity for everyone to see that despite my high ideals, I still use some convenience foods!

Cheesy Beef Bake

Ingredients:
1lb(ish) ground beef
1 green bell pepper
½ of a medium/large red onion
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 ½ cups of shred cheddar
1 ½ cups of brown rice
2 cups of water
breadcrumbs

Directions:
Dice pepper and onion
Brown beef in skillet until halfway cooked, drain.
add pepper and onion until beef is fully browned, set aside
In a seperate bowl mix water, rice, soup, and cheese
Add beef/veggie mixture and stir
pour into 13x9 pan and bake at 375 for 45 mins
remove from oven, sprinkle bread crumbs over the top
bake an additional 10 minutes

There are two swaps that would make this a much healthier dish. If you are feeling adventurous you could try making your own cream of mushroom soup. Basic recipe here and/or for a less time consuming substitute you could make your own bread crumbs. Recipe here.

I haven't tried either yet, but I'm really excited about the bread crumb recipe- finally a use for the butt-end of the bread!

I love this recipe because it takes no time to throw together, it really stretches a pound of meat and it sneaks a decent number of veggies in there. If presentation is important to you, I wouldn't recommend serving this to company since it kind of comes out looking tan colored and uninteresting, but it's a great comfort-food dish.

Friday Favorites

I get tired of cooking and eating the same things over and over and am always excited to find a new recipe, especially if it's tasty, frugal and healthy. Bonus points if it does all those things while remaining vegetarian. Finding meatless recipes my husband gets excited about is one of my most challenging goals- fortunately he's a good sport about my sometimes less-than-stellar attempts : )

I can't guarantee my Friday recipes will live up to such a high calling, but I will try. In return, if you read this, I'd love for you to leave a comment with a favorite of yours or a link up to a recipe on your blog (again, don't feel like it has to fit all the categories above.)

I look forward to reading your recipes!

This week's favorite comes from a website I turn to for inspiration quite often:

black bean burritos

This recipe can be put together in less than 20 minutes and is frugal, healthy and vegetarian. Oh, and did I mention it tastes so good my husband looks forward to it?

My tweaks:

I use frozen corn and saute it up with the zucchini. This recipe is really flexible about what you can add/omit. I rarely have red peppers on hand so I've never used them in the recipe. I also don't take the time to fry the tortilla's, but I bet that would be yummy.

I also recently learned that making my own beans is as simple adding 1 cup of dry beans to 4 cups of water and putting it all in the crock pot on high for 3 hours. I tried it this week and it worked great. Next time I will double the batch so I have some left to freeze.

And in the interest of full disclosure, we add sour cream to ours. It makes them even more delicious, if slightly less healthy!

From Scratch

One of my goals for this year is to eat more whole foods and fewer "food like substances" (for more on this topic, I highly recommend Michael Pollan's book: In Defense of Food). This means there will be more cooking from scratch.

I love to make food from scratch. It always tastes better and I enjoy the process of cooking it more. However, like everyone else, my time is finite so sometimes I compromise. I've often wondered how difficult it would really be to eat whole foods for an entire month. When we get back to PA and I have access to a good farmers market again, I plan to take that challenge.

For now, small changes. This week I tried two new things (new things intimidate me, so two in one week is a big deal!)

I've been making my own chicken broth for a while (aka freezing what's left in the crockpot after cooking a whole chicken) but I'd yet to do anything with it. There were weird floating bits of carrot and potato that I didn't necessarily want flavoring my tortilla soup!

Recently, however, I purchased a very sophisticated, expensive piece of kitchen equipment that allows me to deal with this: a strainer (also known as a metal colander). It was about $3. I originally purchased it to strain Caleb's baby food (which it does nicely in combination with a rubber spatula and some pressure. But I'm also finding lots of other little uses for it like steaming veggies and of course, straining weird bits out of my broth! I love multi-purpose items.

So this week, I used my nicely strained broth to make a big pot of tortilla soup. Since I have a nice case of the sore throat/ sniffles right now (hence the increased couch time and # of blog posts) it really hit the spot.

My next adventure was one I've also been meaning to try for sometime: making my own salad dressing. Most store dressings are full of things I don't really want to be eating, but what actually drove me to make my own was the fact I couldn't stand the idea of buying a special flavor of dressing for one salad (being cheap frugal often drives my efforts to eat healthier...)

Strawberries are in season here in Florida so I decided to make strawberry salad (spinach, red onions, strawberries and feta). I usually pour a poppy seed dressing or balsamic vinaigrette over this. Since I wasn't feeling creative enough to try the poppy seed, I went with the balsamic dressing.

My basic recipe was:

1/2 cup Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Honey

Adjust measurements to taste
Shake well in tupperware

It turned our great. Even David thought it was a winner. I'm looking forward to trying other combinations!