Curry for the Whole Family

I never thought I would find myself preparing dinner for my family with a recipe I found in a cookbook for babies but that's exactly what I did tonight. And guess what... it was a huge success!
Last year my aunt sent me a copy of Cooking for Baby as a birthday gift while I was expecting my first baby. The first chapters are full of what you'd expect in a baby cookbook: lots of mush and recommendations for adding new foods to baby's diet. Don't get me wrong, those early chapters we very helpful in guiding our food choices as Genevieve began trying solids. Now that she's gotten a little older, however, the meal ideas in the book have gotten much more exciting and include dishes I never would have thought to feed a baby. I've been letting Genevieve sample portions of our meals, usually fairly plain vegetables and chicken, the occasional noodle, but tonight was the first meal from which she received a complete portion.
Enough talk though, right? On with the recipe! My version makes about 3 times what the original makes and has a variety of veggies. It originally called for a cup of diced zucchini but since I only had one small zucchini to work with I had to add some other ingredients to triple the final product.
The cookbook's authors recommend this recipe for babies ages 9 months and up but check with your doctor before introducing new foods to babies especially if there's a history of allergies.

Baby! Oh Baby, It's Curry!Ingredients
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 can (about 13 oz) coconut milk
1 1/2 cubes of chicken bouillon
1 tbsp red curry paste (make sure it doesn't contain shellfish or shrimp. This makes a very mild curry, I think you could safely increase the amount to 1.5-2 tbsps or more depending on your tastes and the age of your baby)
1 zucchini, diced
1 head of broccoli, florets trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
2 large carrot sticks, diced
Basil to taste

1. Put broccoli and carrot into a steamer basket over about 2 cups of boiling water. Meanwhile cut chicken into thin strips. 
2. Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat, then stir-fry chicken for 3-4 minutes. Remove chicken from pan then set aside. 
3. Add zucchini, broccoli, carrots, coconut milk, curry paste, bouillon and 1 1/2 cups of water used to steam the veggies to the wok. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce to a simmer for 6-7 minutes.
4. Add chicken back to the wok along with basil and continue cooking until chicken is completely cooked and the vegetables are tender. Serve over rice.For baby's portion, cut the chicken into small pieces. 

Chocolate Hazelnut Granola

Now that I'm a mom, breastfeeding takes a lot out of me. As in I'm hungry ALL THE TIME! I love granola because you can pack a lot of energy and nutrition into a small snack. Plus, oats are great for improving your milk supply if you're breastfeeding. For a while I was just having my husband buy me granola cereal at the grocery store. Then on our last shopping trip, as I looked glumly at the comparatively large price tags and small box sizes of the granola-y cereals I decided my money would be much better spend on some oats and nuts to make my own granola. I was also motivated by the ingredient lists on many of the mixed grain cereals available. Sure the Post Great Grains cereal I'd been eating before was delicious and healthier than say Coco Puffs, but sugar was still listed higher on the label than oats were.
So on to the granola making! Yesterday morning after I let the dog out, I whipped up a batch of granola, popped it in the oven, and by the time I'd finished my pre-breakfast morning chores, the granola was ready. Awesome!
Making your own granola is seriously easy and not a huge money investment for a kitchen stocked with some basics. Rolled oats can be bought in a large can for about the same price as those expensive store bought granolas; you'll get enough to make serveral batches of granola, or change it up and make oatmeal, cookies, bread... yum! Nuts are a little pricier depending on what kind you get but worth the investment I think and you only need about a cup for every 3 cups of oats. I have lots of walnuts and almonds on hand anyway because I use them in my baking all the time.
I found a great mix and match granola recipe here and came up with a chocolate hazelnut recipe.

Dry:

• 3 cups of rolled oats
• 1 cup of choppped hazelnuts
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Wet::

• 2/3 cup honey
• 2 tbsp canola oil

Instructions:

Easy peasy! Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 13x9 in cake pan with foil. Use a spatula to mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the wet and mix that in too. Dump the oat mixture into your baking pan and bake for 50 minutes, stirring once about half way through. For optimum crunchy goodness, let cool and store in an airtight container.
Enjoy!

A Good Granola Bar is Hard to Find

Last night I made my first ever batch of homemade granola bars and they turned out pretty good!
I love all the potential health benefits of a good granola bar but it's hard to find everything I'm hoping for in one granola bar. Bars I've bought in stores seem to range from glorified rice crispy treats (Special K bar anyone?) to teeth-breaking sawdust bricks. Well I want a lot in the perfect granola bar; it's a balancing act of chewy and crunch, sweet but not toothache sweet, and of course ingredients that pack a healthy punch and taste great.
So I decided to make my own granola bars. How hard could it be right? I did a quick internet search of granola bar recipes and found that the basic ingredients and process are mostly the same so I decided to make up my own recipe with what I had available. What I ended up with wasn't exactly what I planned (I was aiming for chocolate chip but I added the chips too soon and they melted) but they are no doubt yummy, solid granola bars!

Chocolaty Granola Bars: Makes ~16

2 1/2 cups oat fashioned oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tbs vanilla
1/3 c honey
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c butter
1 c chocolate chips

Toss together oats, nuts, and vanilla on a rimmed cookie sheet. Toast in the oven at 350 F for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile measure out honey, sugar, and butter into a small sauce pan. Melt over low-medium heat, stirring to combine. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Press the combined mixture into a greased glass baking dish. I used 2 8x8 dishes and got 16 bars. Chill in the refrigerator before cutting.

I'll definitely continue experimenting with more granola recipes. They make a great, fast, healthy snack on the go making them perfect for this breastfeeding new mama!

Making Christmas!

We've been busy making lots of sweet treats for the holidays! In an attempt to save some money this holdiday season in preparation for the arrival of our little one, we decided to make tubs of homemade goodies.
You might remember the marshmallows we made last year. They were so good & easy that we made two batches this year. The first batch was mint like last year but we scaled back from 1 1/2 tbsp of peppermint extract to just 3/4 tbsp. The results were a huge improvement! The second batch was vanilla for which I kept the original recommended 1 1/2 tbsp and, again, I think this is a little too much.
Paula Deen's Marshmallow Recipe

Next I made caramels. First and LAST time! They were delicious but a pain in the butt! I used this recipe from Taste of Home. Here's why I won't be making them again even though they were heavenly:

1. They took FOREVER! My aching preggo back stood at the stove for 2 hours before the caramel finally reached hard ball stage. It seemed the more I stirred, the more the molten sugar refused to get any hotter but if I paused in stirring it threatened to boil over and/or burn to the bottom. Maybe my stove just stinks. 
2. They took forever! Then I foolishly thought they would be firm enough to hold their own shape once cut. No such luck.After the caramel cooled I cut it up and piled it into my gift tubs. The next day I returned to find a giant gooey blob. So... cut again and the Mr and I spent the better part of an hour cutting little wax paper squares and individually wrapping each little caramel. 
3. They are pricey. Obviously this is also true of the marshmallows we made but the marshmallows have the virtues of being quick, easy, and infinitely better than store bought. Of these qualities, the caramels were only marginally better than store bought and so in my opinion, not worth the time and expense. 

The last item in our holiday goody bins were gingersnaps made with Mr's grandmother's recipe. They rock! Everyone we watched open a bin immediately went for one of the cookies first. 

Cranberry Sauce

Growing up I hated cranberry sauce. Why? Because we always had that canned jelly stuff, gross. Now that I'm older I love cranberry! Cranberry juice, dried cranberries alone as a snack or baked into granola, bread, cookies, cereal... you name it! Two years ago I made cranberry sauce for the first time using Paula Deen's cranberry-clementine sauce recipe. It was so much better than the canned stuff but super powerful, I could only eat a little. My mom loved it though so I've made it every holiday since.
This year I branched out and I think I've perfected my own recipe. It has a much more mild taste than Paula's recipe which I found way too tart.


Orange Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
1 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
2 large oranges
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp anise seed
Directions:
In a small sauce pan add cranberries, the juice of one orange including pulp (at least 1/2 cup) plus water to equal 1 cup of liquid, sugar, anise, and 1/2 tsp orange zest. Bring to a boil at medium heat then reduce heat to low. Let simmer until the berries have burst and the sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, peel the other orange and cut segments into 1" pieces. Remove sauce from heat, stir in the orange chunks and allow to chill before serving.

That's all! Easy, right? I don't know why more people don't make their own cranberry sauce, especially since its best made at least a day ahead of time to allow it to chill.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and enjoy!

Lunch

Jealous? Don't be! Just make your own!

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe time! Mr. & I finally have a weekend to ourselves and we are preparing in case we need to bunker down for the upcoming "Frankenstorm" (the weather folks are saying that a cold front from the west is going to collide with hurricane Sandy from the east to bring us snow all next week). So of course cookies are a must. Hey, oatmeal and dried fruit are healthy right???
Here's the recipe based on Food Network Magazine's Mix & Match chocolate chip cookies.

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients: 1/2 c softened butter or margarine
1/3 c white sugar
1/3 c light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I was going to try 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 almond extract but didn't have the almond on hand)
1 c flour
1 c oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix ins: 3/4 c chocolate chips
1/3 c chopped dried cherries

Directions 
Beat butter and sugars until fluffy, beat in egg and vanilla.
In a separate bowl stir together remaining ingredients up to mix ins then beat this dry mixture into the wet.
Stir in mix ins until combined.
Refrigerate batter for about 30 minutes until it's cold and a little more firm.
Scoop onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.

Mix & Match Meatloaf

Tonight I made meatloaf using this recipe from Food Network Magazine. It was so good!

Apple vs. Pumpkin: October update

Apple vs Pumpkin Fall 2012 is under way.

So far it's a close battle: 

Team Apple has 8 Pinners, 99 followers, and 29 Pins. 

Team Pumpkin has  10 Pinners, 105 followers, and 25 Pins.

Take sides:

• Check out the Boards on Pinterest. 
• Comment here to: share links, tell me about projects you tried on the boards
• And now add to the Linky below!

Add to Team Apple!

Add to Team Pumpkin!

Apple vs. Pumpkin: Choose your side!

I don't know about all of you, but my Facebook and Pinterest feeds are being overwhelmed with pumpkin everything at the first sniffs of fall. Where are the apples?!?!
Don't get me wrong, you all know I can enjoy some pumpkin and tis the season, but Johnny Appleseed doesn't have his own holiday for nothing!
So I propose a friendly competition of sorts between the top two classic tastes of fall; Apple vs. Pumpkin!
How to participate:

1. Comment below with a link to your favorite pumpkin or apple recipe or craft.
2. If you Pin, follow me on Pinterest (if you don't already) and comment with a request to be added as a Pinner to one or both of my Pinterest boards. 
3. Share as many recipes/crafts as you like. Pick a team or support both sides! 
4. Share this blog post with as many people as you want. The more participants, the merrier! 

Happy Fall and let the competition begin!

Team Apple! Ham & Apple Pie

  

Team Pumpkin! Pumpkin Bottom Cupcakes

Rustic Pizza

Remember all that rosemary dough from this weekend? Tonight I made some into crust for a couple of delicious pizzas.

Sunday Night Baking

Tonight we've been baking up a storm! I found a recipe for Chai Spiced Sugar Cookies on Thurday that I've been dying to try ever since. Tonight I finally got around to making them and they are as yummy as I'd hoped!

Pork Chops With Caramelized Onion and Apples

This is one of my favorite dinners especially on a chilly night. It's not a heavy meal but the smells of the onion, apple and rosemary  cooking together warm up the whole house!

I originally found this recipe in an issue of Cooking with Paula Deen but over time I've tweaked it a bit.

Holiday Goodies!

Hello again! Sorry to go on such a long hiatus but I finally found my first job after graduation! Anyway, this post is about all the fun holiday goodies I've been making. We tried some new things this year that I'm really excited to share.

Cookbook Reviews

Ham & Apple Pie (A work in progress)

Here's my take on a recipe for Pork Apple Pie from Old Sturbridge Village Cookbook.
It tasted pretty good but aesthetically, there are a few kinks I need to work out for next time.

Pumpkin-Bottom Cupcakes

My husband and I spent the afternoon trying out an experimental fall treat.
What I wanted:

• Pumpkin for fall flavor
• Cream cheese, what goes better with pumpkin?

What I didn't want:

• Mess
• Something too heavy

My solution was to attempt to combine a pumpkin bar recipe with black-bottom cupcakes. So is "Pumpkin-Bottom Cupcakes" a good name?

Vegetarian French Onion Soup

Yum! This was my first attempt at making French Onion Soup and it was pretty great if I say so myself!

Tangy Raspberry Ice Cream

1 cup Raspberries
1/2 cup sliced Strawberries
1/2 cup and 1 tbs Sugar
2 tbs Lemon juice
3/4 cup Sour cream
1 cup Heavy whipping cream

Combine berries, sugar and lemon juice in a sauce pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat stirring for about 3 minutes. Puree in a blender until smooth then pulse in the cream. Chill then follow instructions for your ice cream machine.

Easter

This Easter was our first holiday spent with just the two of us and I gotta say it was nice. Quiet and full of great food! Everything was too yummy to stick around long enough for pictures but here's a few recipes.

Easter Menu:
Deviled Eggs
Cucumbers in cider vinegar
Polish Sausage (boiled then fried with olive oil and onion