Salsa

Last year we had an amazing garden, and we got a TON of romas. We decided to save them all for late fall, when my friend was planning to have a salsa-making party. Let me tell you what, that was the best salsa we've ever had. Richard dreamed about it for 10 months until this fall, and we planted over 20 tomato plants in preparation. Unfortunately that didn't work out so well, but Winco was having a really good sale on romas, so we lucked out.

Our first batch made about 12 pints, and that went WAY too fast. Off I went to Winco to get more veggies, and we made a second batch. We had a slight mishap with the seasonings, but Richard was able to work his magic and make it super tasty. We brought 4 quarts to Thanksgiving, and they all disappeared. And then everyone wanted the recipe, so here it is!

This is my friend's uncle's recipe, but I'm sure he doesn't mind sharing.

12 c tomatoes
1 1/2 c white vinegar
1/2 c sugar
3 onions, chopped
4-6 chopped green peppers
3-6 chopped Anaheim peppers (or whatever you want to add for spicy)
3 T salt
1 T black pepper
1 T or more garlic powder
cilantro (optional)

Peel tomatoes by blanching in boiling water and removing skins. Simmer all ingredients for 2ish hours or until it's as thick as you want it to be. (You can also add 1/2 c dried onion toward the end of the simmering to make it thicker if you want.)

Put in jars, leave about 1/4 inch at top, water bath for 15 minutes to sterilize and seal.

Variation: Use only 1 c vinegar and add 1/4 c lime juice.

Makes about 6-8 pints.

Southwest Sweet Potato and Quinoa Casserole

This is so yummy. Sweet potatoes are SO good for you, but not everyone likes them as much as white potatoes. I'm trying to find more ways to incorporate them into meals my family enjoys without losing the flavor, and this recipe is great for that. It's also very simple. I threw it together in less than half an hour yesterday, and Richard approved. Reuben liked it too, but it was a little too spicy for Rachel.

This recipe will easily feed 4 people.

Here's what I did:
1. Shred 1 medium sweet potato.

 You can skin it if you want, but remember that a lot of the nutrients are packed into the skin, and no one's going to notice it since it's shredded anyway.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the shredded sweet potato, 1 can of drained and rinsed black beans, 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa*, and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese, along with dashes of salt, pepper, and cumin (technically it calls for 1/2 Tbsp, but that's a lot for my sensitive 3 yr old) and mix well.

 3. In a separate bowl, mix 1/2 cup salsa with 1 egg. 

 4. Pour into greased baking dish.

 Pour the salsa mixture on top,

 and top with another 1/2 cup or so of shredded cheese.










 
5. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Enjoy!

*Quinoa is fun to experiment with, but this is my absolute favorite recipe for it. It cooks just like rice, but you do need to rinse or soak it before you cook it. I usually put it in a pot of water for 15 minutes, then rins it in my mesh strainer. Then return it to the pot with a 2:1 ration of water to quinoa, bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. 1 cup uncooked yields 3 cups cooked, so for this recipe you can easily cook up 1/3 cup and do the rest of your preparation (mostly shredding) while it's cooking.

And if you end up with extra beans or quinoa from making this recipe, here's another yummy thing I made for lunch the other day.

Whole Wheat and Hot Cereal Cinnamon Buns

This is NOT my typical, easy-to-make healthy meal idea post. This is a guilty pleasure with a hint of goodness that makes you feel slightly less guilty about eating it :)

I pinned a recipe for Multi-Grain Bread that starts with hot cereal a while back, and this week decided it was time to try it. Then, lo and behold, a neighborhood party was announced, and our name fell under the "dessert" category. So...being on a limited budget this month, I had to come up with something to make using only what I have, which isn't much. Basically I can make bread. I figured I'd make zucchini bread, but the recipe I pinned for yeast zucchini bread looks like it would be more healthy than sugary :) Richard said I should make cinnamon rolls, and then later that idea evolved into making cinnamon rolls from this bread recipe. Genius!

I found a recipe for Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls, which I figured I would be able to combine with my Multi-Grain Bread recipe to come up with something yummy. Turns out experimenting with bread is pretty easy, as long as you get the important parts right :)

Here's what I did:
1. Combine 1 1/4 c hot cereal (7-grain was suggested, but I ended up using Red River for its sheer awesomeness. I think anything that has to cook down for at least 15 minutes would work.) with 2 1/2 c boiling water, and let sit for about an hour, until all the liquid has soaked into the cereal, making a porridge.

2. Combine 1/2 c milk with 1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter in a saucepan, and heat until the butter melts.
3. Sponge up 2 1/2 tsp yeast (I found out this week that you can use rapid-rise and regular yeast interchangeably, so use whatever you have) in the milk mixture, once it's between 110-115 degrees F. Add 1/4 c honey to make the sponge so the yeast has some yummy food to make it happy. Let it sponge for about 10 minutes.

4. Combine 1 1/2 c whole wheat flour (which you may or may not have ground yourself in your Blendtec) with 1 egg and 2 egg yolks, plus 1/2 Tbsp salt. Then add this to your porridge that's been sitting, along with the sponge. Mix it all up into a wet dough.

5. Slowly add all-purpose white flour to your dough until it reaches bread dough consistency. If you are wise and are using a Kitchenaid, just keep mixing it until the dough pulls completely away from the sides. You can check its consistency by stopping and poking it from time to time. If it's sticky, keep adding the flour. I added about 3-4 c of white flour (but I wasn't really counting).

6. Once the dough is no longer sticky, dump it on the counter and knead it for about 10-15 minutes. You can check the elasticity by poking it again, and watching the dent your finger makes bounce back. When it reforms its shape after being poked, it's glutenized and you can let it rise.
7. Put your dough in a bowl with some oil, and roll it around in the bowl a bit to coat the entire ball.

Cover, and let rise for 1 1/2 - 2 hrs. It should at least double in size.

8. Once the dough has risen, roll it out onto a BIG cookie sheet so it's about 1/4 inch thick and fills the whole sheet.

Then top it with your filling: 3/4 c brown sugar combined with 3 Tbsp cinnamon.

Spread out the filling so it evenly coats the dough.

9. Roll it up! This is probably the trickiest part, but do your best. Try to keep it super tight as you go so your rolls don't fall apart as you're slicing them.

10. When you get to the end, you can seal the dough to itself by wetting the last 1/4 inch before it's rolled shut.
11. Slice your huge roll into 1/4 - 1/2 inch rolls. I'd recommend closer to 1/2 inch, but you'll get fewer rolls that way. Separate the rolls AS YOU SLICE THEM or they'll just stick back together. Pack them onto the cookie sheet so they'll rise up instead of out, and let them rise for another 1 - 1 1/2 hrs.

12. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.
13. Top with your frosting. This is what I used, but I added cinnamon to it :) (scroll down to the cream cheese frosting recipe).

Enjoy!

Simple Protein Lunch: Quinoa and Blackbean Taquito

I just got home from a 3 mile run with the kids (and as anyone will tell you, 3 miles with a stroller is like 5 miles without) and I am HUNGRY! I want some protein, but substance as well. I usually make a Peanut Butter Smoothie, but I didn't think that would cut it today.

Last night I made a Southwest Sweet Potato and Quinoa Casserole, and ended up with some leftover quinoa and black beans. In my adventurousosity yesterday, I also made some Tomato Almond Spread, which is DELICIOUS. Richard doesn't like tomatoes unless they're cooked, but he likes this spread, so that's saying something. Anyway he came home for lunch and put together some ham and cheese sandwiches topped with the paste, and it gave me an idea.

So here's what I did:
1. Toast one side of a whole wheat tortilla. Not enough that it's crispy, just so it's a little golden brown.
2. Spread Tomato Almond Paste on the toasted side of the tortilla.

3. Heat a little bit of cooked quinoa with a little bit of drained and rinsed black beans. I probably did about 1/4 c of each. You could do this in the microwave, but I already had a hot frying pan so that's what I used.

4. Spoon your protein mixture onto your pasted-up tortilla, and wrap tight into a taquito.

5. Toast each side of the taquito in the frying pan.

Enjoy!

Quinoa is a great source of protein. I'm not a huge fan of the flavor, but it's growing on me. I like it mixed in with other foods so it's not the dominating flavor, but you still get the texture. It's a lot of tiny balls, and when you pop them between your teeth...I don't know. It's just fun, and I like it :) Whenever I make something with quinoa, I always make too much so that I can throw it into other recipes later on without having to worry about rinsing it and cooking it first. I made 1 cup uncooked, which makes about 3 cups cooked, and each recipe usually calls for 1 cup cooked, so it will last the week at least :)

Post-Run Protein Smoothie

I know those protein powders are all the rage at fitness stores, but I'm just not interested. I prefer natural foods, and the idea of extracting part of a food just to get one benefit from it is kind of weird to me. But that's just me. If that's what you like, go ahead and keep drinking them. I've tried them several times, and they are definitely yummy :)

Here's what I love after a run. Honestly some days I go for a run just as an excuse to come home and make this smoothie before bed :) I ran my first 10k this past March, kind of last-minute and a little under-trained, and my husband met me at the finish line with a Peanut Butter Mood smoothie from Jamba Juice. I. Fell. In. Love. I've become a bit of a peanut butter addict in the past few years, and MAN was that smoothie ecstatically perfect after my 6-mile run. The drawback, of course, is that it costs over $4 at Jamba Juice. But heck, I get peanut butter, milk, and bananas for free from WIC, so why not improvise?

So here's what I do:
1. Put 1 cup of milk (doesn't matter the fat content, it all has the same amount of protein), 2 GENEROUS Tbsp of peanut butter, and 1 frozen banana into your Blendtec (because, come on, who has anything inferior?) and press "Smoothie".
Enjoy!

I actually did a comparison between the protein content of this smoothie and my dad's protein powder, and mine has a little bit more. Plus all the yumminess of peanut butter, and the health benefits of bananas :)

Salmon Taquitos

I love WIC. I don't know what we'll do when we don't have it anymore. I guess that will mean that we're wealthy enough to just buy all that food they give us, right?

One thing we get A LOT of is whole wheat whatever. I alternate between rice and tortillas, but lately I haven't been that into rice. So I've been getting more wheat tortillas than any person can eat in a month. Another thing is salmon or tuna fish, which I got a lot of when I was breastfeeding, but couldn't come up with enough amazingly tasty recipes to eat it all at that time. So during our low-budget month that's what we're working on: Making stuff out of salmon and tortillas.

Salmon quesadillas? Pretty good, but not more than once a week. Plus we're almost out of cheese.
Salmon burgers? I'm leaving that one up to Richard. Maybe on Saturday.

...

That's about as creative as I can get.

But then I had a fish taco a few weeks ago and it was SO YUMMY! so I thought I'd try salmon tacos. Looked some up on Pinterest, and found this:

Salmon Taquitos

I didn't do anything to change them, except that some of the salmon I had in the fridge had chopped spinach mixed in, and I didn't have celery on hand, so I used celery salt instead. They were SO GOOD! And the best part is, my picky child who doesn't like spicy food actually ate them!

I thought I needed to post this on my blog because one of my goals here is to have quick access to quick, easy meals to make, and this is exactly that. I put it together in less than 20 minutes, and was able to grill up some zucchini to go with it while it was baking. Also, I cut the recipe in half to make 8 taquitos, and that was perfect for our little family. Which means if I were to make the full recipe, I could freeze half. Then one day down the road I wouldn't have to cook! I'm all for that :)

The Best Green Smoothie (the one my kids drink before I get any!(=)

I've posted a few green smoothie recipes on here, and I've given this one out to people on facebook or in person in the past, but I felt like it needed to be in here in its own post because it is so awesome.

I've found the secret to a yummy green smoothie. If you don't mind the taste of spinach (like me),  you can just throw whatever you have together and it will be fine. But to get your kids to drink it without loading it up with sugar you have to mask that flavor, and the best way is with juicy flavorful fruits. Red grapes and oranges have become my secret weapon. At the same time, though, I made one yesterday and forgot the banana and tasted the spinach. So this combination, to me, is the best. It ends up making more than 32 oz of smoothie, which is enough for me to have two good-sized glasses and my kids still have as much as they want.

So here's the recipe:
1 1/2 c water
1 apple (doesn't really matter what kind)
1 orange (sometimes I do 1 c mandarin oranges instead)
1 (frozen) banana
1 1/2 c red grapes (I want to try it with green, but haven't yet)
2 c spinach