egg roll bowls

I'm pretty sure it's 100% cheating to post recipes for the write31 challenge. . . I can wing through this month with no sweat and no problems if I just write about food and books, two of my favorite things.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, read it, and then lost it, and scouring the internet for it did NOT turn anything up.  So I invented my own, loosely following what I remembered reading.  It is DELICIOUS and nutritious and the smell is just amazing as you throw it together.

Egg Roll Bowls

hot cooked rice 

[I bake rice @ 350 for an hour in a covered dutch oven, 1 part basmati rice to 2 parts water + 1 chicken boullion cube for each cup of water.]

1 pound ground pork
1 head shredded cabbage
4 grated carrots
1 grated granny smith apple
4 green onions, sliced diagonally, white separated from green
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons brown sugar
soy sauce
fresh ground salt and pepper

chow mein noodles 

Brown the ground pork in a large cast iron skillet. Add the shredded cabbage, and slowly, carefully saute the cabbage in the leftover pork drippings.  It will be dry at first and you will have to stir a lot, scraping the bottom to make sure nothing sticks, but all of a sudden it kind of melts down and all becomes very easy. Add the carrots, the white part of the onions, the apple and the garlic.  Saute for another 2-3 minutes.  Add the soy sauce (to taste), sugar, salt and pepper and the green onions and mix together.

Serve with chow mein noodles over hot rice. 

crescent roll egg bake

This is a great super easy recipe from my friend Phoebe:

 

it's the go-to dinner on a super hectic night

 

or we suddenly have overnight company breakfast

 

or let's just have a special brunch

 

kind of yummy treat

 

and with crescent rolls it's hard to go wrong.

 

1 tube crescent rolls

 

2 cups  shredded cheese

 

12 eggs, beaten, salt and pepper to taste

 

*see variations

 

 

Unroll crescent rolls in greased 9 x 13 pan, sprinkle with cheese, pour eggs over.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until eggs are puffy and done.

 

 

 

*Phoebe sprinkled sausage as the base, then crescents, then cheese.

 

*I made it all summer with crescents, cheese, and then precooked bacon strips lined up on top

 

*pictured below: fresh veggies, fried potatoes, sausage, cheese, bacon, then crescents + eggs = perfect quick dinner with a big green salad!

 

enjoy!!

 

 

end-of-summer pasta

Tonight: 


1 red onion sliced in rounds
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 ears of fresh corn, cut off the cob
Sauteed in
olive oil
fresh ground salt and pepper

Tossed with

1 pkg w/w angel hair (boil and drain)
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
1 yellow summer squash/ yellow zucchini thinly sliced
3 cups of spinach, cut in ribbons
3 cocktail tomatoes, thinly sliced
3 shredded chicken breasts (I baked them with a lil italian dressing)
1 small container of feta cheese

Mmmm. . . . served with crusty artisan bread. . . sooo good.

Rice Nights

Sitting at a wedding last fall, I listened as friends described a mission conference their church had just finished hosting.  One of the nights a meal was going to be served, and there were many different ethnic foods displayed, but when it came time to eat, the only thing served was. . . rice. 

One bowl.

Our friends described the shock and underlying surprise of the attendees who didn't expect to be served rice;  and the impact that this rice meal had was great as the leaders went on to explain the reality of hunger and poverty that Americans just don't comprehend.

Can you imagine your daily meal being a bowl of rice?

This idea, of serving rice and thinking about how the other half lives, stayed with me and in January we implemented our very first rice night.

We served rice and water, that's all, googled some world hunger facts [that were frankly, staggering], and then each week we've followed our own little youtube video trail searching relief, World Vision, Compassion, children and poverty.

Did you know that every five seconds a child dies from hunger related causes?

It has been eye opening for our kids.  I love that they're seeing another side of compassion;  our family has focused on grief so much that sometimes its easy to forget that there are many more needs out there in the wild cruel world. 

On a teaching note, the geography absorbed is phenomenal, because the kids like to see where the stories are coming from.  Last week we were watching something about a little boy in Niger and Jacob piped up oh, yeah, that's right below Algeria.  I, of course, had no idea if that's true cuz my world geography is pathetic, so I snuck over to the globe to see if he was right. . . yeah, he was.  ;)

And it keeps reality in view.

We've been given so much.  Most of us have no idea what hunger truly is, what famine and poverty and water shortage really look like. 

This was a rice + lentils night. :)

Then we ran across this great organization when our friend Rachel married Jonathan, the operations director for Live58.  We were intrigued by the line Live 58. . . a challenge to believers to live Isaiah 58.  Daniel looked it up via YouVersion and read aloud from the NLT to me:

“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.
Shout aloud! Don’t be timid.
Tell my people Israel of their sins!
Yet they act so pious!
They come to the Temple every day
and seem delighted to learn all about me.
They act like a righteous nation
that would never abandon the laws of its God.
They ask me to take action on their behalf,
pretending they want to be near me.
‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
and you don’t even notice it!’

“I will tell you why!” I respond.
“It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
you keep oppressing your workers.
What good is fasting
when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
will never get you anywhere with me.
You humble yourselves
by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
Do you really think this will please the Lord?

“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
Feed the hungry,
and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
The Lord will guide you continually,
giving you water when you are dry
and restoring your strength.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like an ever-flowing spring.
Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.
Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls
and a restorer of homes.

“Keep the Sabbath day holy.
Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath
and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.
Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,
and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.
Then the Lord will be your delight.
I will give you great honor
and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”

 

 

We were both a bit stunned by the directness clarity of these words, humbled to realize that often our lights as believers are clouded because of our selfishness and the modern day equivalents of fasting to please ourselves can mysteriously look like

 

squabbling over sunday school room placements

 

righteous indignation over music preferences

 

endless critiques of public Christian leaders

 

proving that my philosophy of ministry/outreach is better than yours

 

how this must grieve the heart of God.

 

 

For us, these little rice nights have been a tiny step in a direction of opening our children's eyes to the real, physical needs of little ones around the world. 

 

I pray that God breaks my children's hearts for a world in need of Him, the living Water and Bread of Life.

 

 

the artisan bread post

I know, I've been heavy on the food posts lately (get it?) 

I promise. . . I'll slow them down. . .

but this whole artisan bread thing is too good not to share.

It is so so easy.

I checked out the exhaustive how-to-do-it book at the library over Christmas vacation and found the instructions to be intimidating, even though I feel quite adept at kitchen-ese. It is so much easier than the book, blog, and website show.  That's the motivation for sharing this post with my usual less than stellar photography; an attempt to convince you that you really can have bread in five minutes a day.


You start with a container that is not airtight.  (Apparently this stalls the yeast action or something.)  Think ice cream bucket, jar with loose lid, bowl with large plate on top. 

Mix, in the jar,

3 cups warm water

1 tablespoon yeast

1 tablespoon salt

6  1/2 cups white flour.

Stir until moist.  It is very wet and sticky dough. Don't knead, don't worry, don't fret.

Let your jar sit on the counter for 2 hours.  Then cover it with your loose cover/lid, and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.  This is enough dough for 4 round loaves

That's it!

When you are ready for hot fresh bread, sprinkle a little flour on the counter, using floured hands, grab a 1/4 portion of your dough,  (should be about softball sized) and smooth it the best you can, quickly.  It will be sticky.  That's okay.  Set on your floured counter or cutting board.

If you have used your dough up, like I did when I was taking these pictures, mix up some more in your jar.  You don't have to wash it.  The leftover bits of dough add to the artisan quality.

Allow to rise for 20 minutes.  When your timer buzzes, then put a pizza stone in your oven and begin preheating the oven and stone to 450.  Set timer again for 20 minutes.

At the end of 20 minutes, slash the top of your loaf two or three times to create  stripes or  a criss cross pattern.  Using a wide knife, spatula, or just your hands, slide loaf onto pizza stone.  (You may sprinkle flour or cornmeal on stone at this point to create texture for the bottom of your loaf.) Be quick about it, you want the oven to stay hot.

Then- (this is the only complicated part.  bear with me.)  slide a shallow broiler pan under your baking bread rack, quickly pour about 2 cups of hot water into the pan.  Shut the oven as fast as you can.  This process is to create steam, which in turn will make an unbelievably crisp-yet-chewy-yet-crunchy crust. 

Bake for about 30 minutes. 

You know it's done when it looks nice and crusty brown.

That's it! 

Notice that there is not a bit of fat added to this dough. 

That justifies the olive oil dipping plate you can make to go with the steaming bread and you can pretend you're in Italy or France or some country with amazing bread.  (Really, America?  White sliced bread?  That's the best we can do?)

olive oil + italian seasoning + little garlic + little fresh ground salt & pepper  = who needs butter?

lunch yesterday; build your own sandwiches.  we had 4 grape tomatoes left at the end.  ;) 

oh I just remembered. . . I was going to post homemade tortillas. . .

okay, there might be a few more food posts. 

cookin' at home: (easy bread edition)

The other day when our Chinese feast came to a grand total of $24,I found myself wondering once again. . . why do I cook?  Twenty four dollars isn't that much and even though we didn't have any conversation  (because a violent sci-fi was distracting everyone on the humongo big screen)

I wonder again

is this cookin' at home thing worth it?

It is, it is, it is.

Here are just a couple reasons why:

Home is a safe place.

It is a great time to gather the family together in one place and catch up. 

The dinner table is one of the very best places to learn manners

prayer

patience

please and thank you

pleasant conversation

You have the ability to teach children a balanced diet, something that is sadly lacking in our society.

And even though our Chinese was de.lish and only cost $24, that was for lunch.  *math time* $168 per week is a bit steep.  For lunches.  For anything.  That's well over our whole weekly grocery expenses. 

So. . . it is cheaper. . . to eat at home.  That's another good reason.

Way back last fall I had a huge frustration meeting with my grocery budget and my slush funds [ha ha]  and facebook.  I got a ton of sympathy but a lot more advice on how to stretch the ol' grocery budget.

I didn't grow up stretching much.  If we wanted it. . . well. . . we pretty much went to Wal-Mart and bought it.  :)  We didn't take a yearly vacation (camping is not a vacation) but we didn't view life through budget lenses, either.  If you wanted to have a big party, well, you had a big party, and if you wanted to order pizza for your big party, you ordered pizza for your big party (and we'll have a side of wings with that). 

My background is hardworking crazy fun loving family life, emphasis on fun.  This thought process contributed to a definite carelessness toward finances on my part; we clashed a lot over money issues during the early years of our marriage.

What I didn't realize about budgeting [or, telling your dollars where to go] was the fact that it would revolutionize our finance arguments.  At one time we fought over money issues constantly. After we began drawing up a monthly budget, calculating what there was to spend and the places the money had to go, needed to go and the places we wanted it to go, those frustrating misunderstandings just plain ceased. 

Of course, we still argue.  [You knew that.]  But we both look back at that point five-ish years ago as the place our money arguments really disintegrated.

So we tell our grocery dollars where to go. We tell them to go buy groceries.  Ha ha.

The only problem is that it is so stinkin expensive to buy fresh things, to eat healthy, to feed your children balanced meals and not spend hours cooking either. 

One of the best tips I received via my facebook plea was to serve breads  at a meal.  Initially we all react a little to serving carbs, but breads can be healthy and the important thing is to be serving well rounded meals.

As I started incorporating breads and more side dishes my grocery $$ have practically stood up and saluted.  In other words, they are actually buying more food.

So I thought I'd give you some of our very favorite bread selections.  Hopefully your grocery budget will stand up and salute you too.

I took the Carbonara away.  You would cry, too. It's yummy.

This is a batter bread that does not require kneading.  It's very easy, and usually called Idiot Bread but we think that's a nasty name and after a lot of discussion the kids came up with Anybody Bread. (Since anybody can make it.)

Buttery, herb-y, parmesan-y, the perfect accompaniment to a lighter meal such as a broth-based soup or a chef salad.  We make it almost once a week, usually serving it cut like breadsticks with some marinara sauce on the side.

Anybody Bread

serve with tossed chef's salad, carbonara, spaghetti squash & marinara, any italian soup

2 c. warm water
1 T. yeast
1 T. sugar
1 t. salt
1 c. whole wheat flour
3 c. white flour
1 stick butter, melted
garlic powder
italian seasoning
parmesan cheese

Soften yeast and sugar in warm water. Add salt and flour and beat well. Spread into a lightly greased 9 x 13 pan and cover loosely. Let rise for 1 hour, then pour melted butter over the top, sprinkle with the seasonings and bake at 400 for 30 - 35 minutes.

It's the bomb!

Anybody Bread

 

 

And who doesn't love a good cornbread?

 

I know I blogged this at one time, but I'm going to put it in here again.  It's just so yummy.  We make this about once a week, too.  It's perfect crumbled for a cornbread salad, it's good with soup, chili or any meal that just needs a lil extra "somethin'. "

 

Sweet Cream Cornbread

 

serve with chili, corn chowder, chicken taco salad

 

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/3 cup oil
1 cup half and half

Mix dry ingredients; add wet ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Pour into greased, round 9" pan. Bake 18 - 20 minutes at 400.

 

*For every day, I replace the 1/2 & 1/2 with skim milk and the white flour with w/w.  I also use a stoneware round pan.

 

While we're on the subject of cornbread,  just in case you aren't aware of the South's great secret-with-a-boring-name, you may want to try baked corn.  My very first introduction to this was from my very Southern friend, Jodi. It sounded a bit weird to my small midwestern mind, but I tried it out and life has never been the same. ha ha ha.  Imagine a very rich, dense corn bread that almost has a custard like crumb. 

 

(Really I want to be a food writer when I grow up.)

 

 

Baked Corn

 

serve with taco salad, roast beef sandwiches, anything spicy that needs some sweet balance

 

1 box Jiffy cornbread mix

1 egg

1/4 c. butter

1 cup sour cream

1 can creamed corn

1 can whole corn, undrained

 

Mix all ingredients together, pour into greased 9 x 9 pan and bake @ 350 for about 30 minutes. 

 

*I usually double this, and bake it in the crock pot for 4 hours on low, convenient for Sunday dinner.

 

 

 

There's just no way to make biscuits healthy unless you look at it this way: you're caring for your mental health. 

 

And there's really no better warm fuzzy comfort food.

 

Here's my favorite dinner biscuit recipe, similar to the ones Red Lobster serves;  I usually mix up all the ingredients except the milk and store in the fridge until I'm ready to bake them.

 

Red Lobster Copycat Biscuits

 

serve with seafood (tilapia & steamed broccoli) or chicken wild rice soup. or anything that needs a cheesy biscuit.  :)

 

2 cups flour

1/2 t. garlic salt

4 1/2 t. baking powder

2 T. sugar

1/2 c. shortening

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 t. italian seasoning

1 cup milk

 

Drop by large spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.  (You should have enough for 12 biscuits.) Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes.  Brush with garlic butter and serve immediately. 

 

 

And our newest craze,

 

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

 

This bread is great dipped in a little olive oil, salt, pepper & parmesan. I have been keeping the dough in an apothecary style jar ($7 at Walmart) and it's worked fine.  The recipe directions can seem a bit intimidating, but it's really quite easy. It's truly a five minute project to make a loaf of bread using this method, and there's great artisanal texture and holes and crustiness.  It's fun. 

Creamy Chicken Soup

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup italian dressing
6 small red skinned potatoes, scrubbed and diced
6 carrots, scrubbed and sliced
3 celery stalks, sliced
1 bunch green onions, minced
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups milk
1 8 ounce package neufchatel cheese
2 cups frozen peas
fresh ground salt and pepper

Cook the chicken and dressing in Crock Pot on High for 4-5 hours; cut into small pieces, reserving liquid for soup. Combine the chicken, broth, onions, potatoes, carrots, celery and liquid from chicken in a large saucepan. Simmer until tender. Add milk, neufchatel, and peas. Stir until cheese is melted and peas are cooked. Season to taste.

Ranch Hand Chili

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can black beans, including liquid
1 can kidney beans, including liquid
1 can whole corn, including liquid
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 envelope ranch dressing powder

Brown beef and saute onions and garlic with beef until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Add beef mixture and remaining ingredients to slow cooker, turn on low and cook for 6-7 hours. Serve with sour cream, cheese, cilantro, and corn chips.