We got fed

Sweet potato chili…….again

Posted on October 14, 2011 by ben

Date: 10/12/2011

Recipe:

28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
1 cup dried black beans (or one 15 oz can)
1 medium sweet potato, cubed
1 onion, diced
1/2 chipotle pepper in adobo sauced, seeded and diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 small bell peppers, diced
1 packet of chili seasoning (or make your own)

Soak the beans overnight (if you’re using dried beans)

In the morning, chop up all the veggies.

Put the tomatoes and water into the crockpot with the seasoning and mix it in well

Add all of the ingredients

Cook on high for 6-8 hours.

Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream if that’s your thing (and it is most definitely OUR thing). I also love having my chili over pasta, ever since my friend Scott introduced me to that concept a couple years ago.

Time to table: 45 minutes prep, 6 hours cook time

Servings: 4 adult dinners, 2 toddler dinners

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: I totally screwed up the beans here. I let the soak overnight and then put it all in the crock pot in the morning, but the beans didn’t finish cooking by the time we ate it, so the beans were hard on the outside still. Certainly edible and it was still delicious, but it would be even better with fully cooked beans. I partly blame our crockpot because it doesn’t seem to get as hot as other crock pots. We served this with leftover frozen cornbread muffins. Annie devoured all of this with reckless abandon.

Posted in black beans, cheese, csa, garlic, one dish meal, onion, red pepper, sweet potato, tomatoes, triple love, vegetarian | 3 Comments

Corn bread skillet

Posted on October 4, 2011 by ben

Date: 9/27/2011

Recipe: This recipe was from our CSA newsletter and it was great because it used a ton of the veggies from our box:

2 T oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
1 medium bell pepper, diced
juice & zest of 1 lime
5 tomatillos, cored and chopped
1 large tomato, cored and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 can pinto or black beans
3 T cilantro, minced
1 c cornmeal
1/3 c all purpose flour
1 T sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 c plain yogurt
1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese

Heat oil in oven proof skillet and saute onions for a couple minutes and then add the leeks. After another minute add the garlic, cumin, coriander, potatoes, and peppers. Saute for a couple minutes and add the lime juice/zest, tomatillos, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Continue to cook, stirring periodically, for about 8-10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 and prepare the cornbread topping: sift together the dry ingredients. Whisk together egg and yogurt and mix into dry ingredients and set aside. Stir beans and cilantro into skillet and top with cornbread batter. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Add shredded cheese and return to oven for 3-5 more minutes, until golden and browning on the edges.

Time to table: 75 minutes

Modifications: I didn’t use any tomatoes because we didn’t have any, and we had also just used the all the leeks in the soup the night before, so we didn’t include that.

Servings: 2 adult dinners, 3 adult lunches, 1 toddler dinner

Ben: Dislike

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: This was kind of blah. Definitely should use more cheese than is called for. I think the cornbread is a little too dry and crumbly for this kind of dish, it would have been better with a fluffier dough I think. Oh well, we got some lunches out of it and it used up a lot of veggies.

Looks like scrambled eggs with cheese!

Posted in black beans, cheese, cilantro, cornmeal, csa, eggs, garlic, leeks, lime, one dish meal, onion, poblano pepper, potato, red pepper, tomatillos, tomatoes, vegetarian | Comments Off

Potato leek soup

Posted on October 3, 2011 by ben

It doesn’t show well, but this was delicious!

Date: 9/26/2011

Recipe: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/ham_potato_and_leek_soup/

Time to table: 40 minutes

Modifications: We used the leeks, but had some other stuff to use up so I threw in celery, onion, and sour cream since we didn’t have any cream/half & half. We didn’t use ham because we didn’t have any and I knew it wouldn’t need it. We also didn’t use any of the fresh herbs, but just threw in some dried stuff we had.

Servings: 2 adult dinners, 2 adult lunches, 1 toddler dinner

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: We used the immersion blender to blend the soup up, but we took some out for Annie before that as it’s easier for her to eat larger chunks. She surprised us and ate all of her serving and then we had no more to give her because it was all blended! This soup was awesome and I’m very much looking forward to making this and other soups this fall/winter.

Posted in celery, leeks, onion, soup, sour cream, triple love, vegetarian | Comments Off

Fried rice

Posted on September 29, 2011 by ben

Date: 9/20/2011

Recipe:

1.5 cups dry rice (cooked a day ahead and refrigerated)
3 T oil
1 T toasted sesame oil
1 T soy sauce
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 lb shredded chicken or pork
1 c. frozen carrots/peas mix
3 cloves garlic, diced

Heat the oil in a skillet and dump in the cold rice. Cook the rice for a few minutes in the oil, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, peas/carrots mix, shredded meat and stir to combine. Drizzle the tablespoon of toasted sesame oil and soy sauce over the rice mixture and stir to combine. Let the rice cook for a few more minutes to cook the peas/carrots and garlic.

Meanwhile, scramble the eggs as you like them in a separate pan. When the eggs are done and the rice mix is hot, stir the eggs into the rice mix.

Time to table: 20 minutes

Servings: 2 adult dinners, 2 adult lunches, 1 toddler dinner

Ben: Love

Erin: Like

Annie: Dislike

Notes: For some reason, Annie wouldn’t even LOOK at this dish tonight. She was excited to get into her chair, as usual, took one look at the food and looked away in disgust. Ok then, kid. [Note from Erin: Ben seems to forget that the culprit of Annie not liking this MAY have been her puking the day prior and still being a bit wary around food. She’s eaten this before just fine – not devouring it but she’ll eat it] I like making fried rice because it’s another dish where you can use whatever you happen to have on hand, we’ve used onions, green onions, celery, and sweet potato as some examples. I also used to add some spice to give it some flavor, but since Erin doesn’t like any, I’ve just taken to doctoring mine with sriracha after the fact.

Posted in carrot, eggs, garlic, peas, pork, rice | Comments Off

Mexican lasagna

Posted on September 28, 2011 by ben

Date: 9/14/2011

Recipe: http://weelicious.com/2011/05/02/mexican-lasagna/

Time to table: 75 minutes

Servings: 2 adult dinners, 2 adult lunches, 1 toddler

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: This ended up being a very chicken heavy dish. If we make it again I would for sure cut back on that. We also didn’t have a 7×11 dish (never even heard of that size) so we used an 8×8 pan instead and just made it work. The recipe says it feeds 6-8, but we seemed to get a little less out of it.

Posted in cheese, chicken, cilantro, cream cheese, eggs, green onions, milk, salsa | 1 Comment

Pizza balls

Posted on September 9, 2011 by ben

Date: 9/8/2011

Recipe: http://weelicious.com/2011/06/27/pizza-ball-program-2/

Modifications: We used chopped up spinach instead of broccoli, and we added chopped up pepperoni as well.

Time to table: 1 hour

Servings: We approximately doubled this recipe and made two cake pans of rolls – 32 rolls.

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: The pizza balls were pretty good, I liked the inside balls better than the edge pieces. Erin’s sister and parents came over for dinner and we nearly ate both pans, I think there were three leftover. We used pizza sauce that we had frozen several months ago, and Erin made the pizza dough from Annie’s Eats the night before. A fairly healthy meal and Annie seemed to enjoy it! She also enjoyed mooching pieces of key lime pie from everyone for dessert. 🙂

Posted in bread, cheese, greens, pizza, spinach | Comments Off

Mexican vermicelli

Posted on September 8, 2011 by ben

Date: September 6th, 2011

Recipe: http://weelicious.com/2011/06/06/mexican-vermicelli/

Modifications: I swapped the chicken for sweet potatoes, and used more than 2 cups, maybe closer to 3. I also added some garlic, cause why not?

Servings: 2 adult dinners, 1 toddler dinner, 4 adult lunches

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Love

Notes: This was a great recipe, and we got to use our recently made salsa! Annie absolutely loved this dish; it’s always so relieving to see her eat something you’ve made that’s actually healthy. If I make this again I would use even more sweet potatoes as it still seemed kind of pasta heavy. I also considered adding some spinach to it, which would have been a good addition.

Learn some manners kid.

Posted in cheese, pasta, salsa, sweet potato | 1 Comment

Homemade salsa

Posted on September 7, 2011 by ben

Date: 9/4/2011

Recipe: The recipe we used was modified from a recipe that Brian sent us:

Original recipe:

1 ice cream pail of tomatoes, blanched and peeled
3 medium onions, chopped
3 green bell peppers, chopped
1/2 cup lemon juice
12 oz. tomato paste
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon oregano
2 cups vinegar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
3 jalapeno peppers

Simmer all ingredients together for 1/2 hour, over low to medium heat,
stirring it frequently. Process in pint jars (remember if the jars
and lids are super hot from being sterilized and salsa is boiling when
you fill the jars they may seal without the boiling water bath).

Modifications: We made a couple changes to this recipe. I don’t think we had an entire ice cream bucket of tomatoes, but it was close. We added several other ingredients that we had from our box: tomatillos (sauteed and pureed), diced garlic, and cilantro.

Time to table: 2 hours total

Servings: We got a little over a half gallon of salsa.

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: Our neighbors had just given us a bag of tomatoes from their garden and then we got two more bags from our CSA this week, so we were inundated with tomatoes. Salsa was the perfect solution as it used all the tomatoes as well as several other veggies we had from the CSA box (tomatillos, garlic, cilantro, bell peppers, jalapenos). I don’t believe canning salsa to be worth the effort in general, but this was a great way to relieve the pressure of all the veggies we’ve had for the past two weeks.

Cooking the tomatillos

Tomatoes ready for blanching and peeling.

Peeling garlic WHILE holding a child.

Annie helped by throwing the garlic into the food processor.

Peeled.

Getting the seeds and juice out of the tomatoes makes a mess.

Ready to start cooking.

The finished product.

Posted in cilantro, csa, garlic, green onions, green pepper, jalapeno, Mexican, onion, tomatillos, tomatoes, vegetarian | 5 Comments

Chicken pasta with poblano cream sauce

Posted on September 6, 2011 by ben

Date: August 27th, 2011

Recipe: The recipe for the cream sauce came on our CSA newsletter with this week’s box:

2-3 poblano peppers (we had 5 and used them all)
1 Tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
black pepper to taste
1 cup white wine
1 cup heavy cream
salt to taste

Roast the peppers on your preferred device (grill, stovetop, oven) and let them sweat for 10 minutes after roasting. Remove the skin and seeds, and chop the peppers up, and set aside. Saute the garlic in the butter for a minute. Add black pepper and white wine and bring to a simmer and let it reduce down a bit. Add chopped peppers, heavy cream, and salt and let it simmer for 6-8 until thickened. Serve over pasta.

Modifications: We also grilled a couple chicken breasts while we were roasting the peppers and put some chicken into our sauce as well to give it a little protein.

Time to table: 40 minutes

Servings: 2 adult dinners, 1 toddler dinner, 1 lunch

Ben: Dislike

Erin: Dislike

Annie: Dislike

Notes: I was disappointed in this recipe. The sauce had decent taste, but it didn’t thicken up at all so it didn’t really stick to the pasta well. I’m going to have it for lunch tomorrow, we’ll see if cooling down thickens the sauce any. Not a bad way to use up five poblano peppers, but I think I would add some thickening agent next time. Annie didn’t seem interested at all in this, but with her you never know if it’s the food or her particular mood that night 🙂

Posted in chicken, cream, garlic, pasta, poblano pepper, white wine | Comments Off

Baked Rotini with Ricotta and Collard Greens

Posted on August 23, 2011 by ben

Date: August 20th, 2011

Recipe: http://foodallaputtanesca.blogspot.com/2009/04/baked-rotini-with-ricotta-and-collard.html

Modifications: The recipe is confusing a bit because the title says rotini and the picture is of rotini, but the recipe says to use rigatoni or penne. We prefer the rotini and this time (we’ve made it several times) I used less than a pound of pasta because it has always seemed a little too pasta-heavy and it turned out better, in my opinion.

Time to table: 30 minutes

Servings: 4 adult dinner, 2 toddler dinners

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Love

Notes: This is a great meal to use up our collard greens from the CSA as well as a lot of cheese 🙂 Very tasty and has enough for an entire meal of leftovers, perfect!

Finished product

Pre-baking

Posted in cheese, collard greens, csa, garlic, greens, milk, onion, pasta, ricotta cheese | Comments Off

Sweet potato chili…….again

Corn bread skillet

Potato leek soup

Fried rice

Mexican lasagna

Pizza balls

Mexican vermicelli

Homemade salsa

Chicken pasta with poblano cream sauce

Baked Rotini with Ricotta and Collard Greens

Archives

Tags