A Little Anecdote and A Recipe

After telling this little anecdote to my husband last night, and he told me I should share it on my blog. So here we are. :) When I run in the mornings, I listen to Pandora, and the latter half of this week, there was an ad for a free tall House Blend coffee at participating Starbucks on Friday before noon. So, I decided that I could treat myself to a free coffee yesterday, and because I felt bad about not spending any money (and because I've been craving chocolate haha), I'd also buy a brownie. 

I proceeded to carry out my morning routine as per usual, leaving for work a little bit earlier than normal for my Starbucks stop. As I stood by the bakery case looking for the brownies, I glanced at the cold case with sandwiches, parfaits, etc., wondering to myself if I wanted to buy anything else while I was there. Just as I was deciding not to buy anything else, I realized that I had made one big misstep in my morning. While I managed to grab the fixings for my lunch, I hadn't remembered to grab my apple for breakfast. No breakfast=bad plan, especially when drinking coffee. And so, I ended up not only buying my brownie but also buying a protein breakfast pack, therefore spending far more money than I'd planned to. At least the coffee was free!

Moral of the story: don't forget your breakfast when stopping for free coffee!

Earlier this week, I made Baked Oatmeal Squares from this recipe here. I really like them, although don't make them expecting something supper sweet, because while they do have some sugar in them, they don't taste like dessert. The dried cherries really are the best part. The next time I make these, I'll probably put more in than the recipe calls for.

We've lots to do today. Buying plants for my balcony garden, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning around the house, buying a grill.....oh, yes, we're buying a grill. I'm so excited!! Hamburgers on the grill tomorrow for supper! :)

Have a lovely weekend!

English Muffin Bread

On Wednesday, while I was at work, I randomly got a craving for homemade bread. I'm not really sure why haha although it may have had something to do with the blogs I was reading during the day. But I really wanted some homemade bread. So, that night, I pulled out my recipe for English Muffin Bread, and after making sure that I had all the ingredients (thankfully I had a bit of milk left), I whipped up the simple but yummy savory bread. It was actually even easy to make than I had remembered; that was nice to discover lol. As soon as it came out of the oven, D. asked for a slice. I made him wait a few minutes for it to cool first :) 

Now in the plans for the weekend: make more English Muffin Bread. The loaf I baked on Wednesday is almost gone already!

Gather the ingredients:

Cornmeal
3 Cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup milk
1/4 Cup water
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Grease a 8x4x2-inch loaf pan. Lightly sprinkle pans with enough cornmeal to coat bottom and sides; set pans aside.

In a medium mixing bowl combine 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the yeast, and baking soda; set aside. In a saucepan heat and stir milk, water, sugar, and salt until just warm. Using a wooden spoon, stir milk mixture into flour mixture. Stir in remaining flour.

Place dough in prepared pan. Sprinkle top with cornmeal.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 45 minutes. I heated up my oven to 225 degrees and placed the covered pan on top of the stove with the range light on; it doubled perfectly.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove bread from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

This is actually half of the original recipe as I only wanted to make one loaf rather than two. But I mention this as it would be very easy to make more than one loaf at a time. Enjoy!

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

I wasn't planning on writing a blog entry for these Southwestern Stuffed Peppers. It was more of a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing! Since I've started this blog, most of the posts that I've done have been pre-planned and pre-written; doing it this way has (at least when I pre-plan and pre-write haha) helped me stay motivated and a smidge more consistent in my blogging. But as I've been procrastinating on actually doing some of the projects and cooking that I've pre-written.....it's kinda hard to blog about them! So instead, I decided in the middle of my cooking to snap some pictures and write about my newest try-out recipe that turned out to be a smash hit. I know so since D. told me to say that they were "yummy!" Such a sweet, supporting husband I have. :)

Of course, I found this recipe via Pinterest. After scanning the recipe, I thought it looked intriguing enough to try. Good decision! Click here for the recipe. Something that I appreciated about the way this recipe was written is that it can be adapted for your eating preferences: meat, vegetarian, vegan. So while we enjoy the meaty version in our house, adapt as suits you! I also really like the southwestern flare; it adds a fun, different taste compared to what I'm used to in stuffed peppers.

Side note: I somehow managed to make far too much stuffing, plus I think my bell peppers were much smaller than hers due to it still being in the middle of winter here....oops! I added the extra to the bottom of the baking dish before putting it back into the oven. We'll have a lot more leftovers than I had planned for, but I'm not complaining; I can't wait to take them for lunch!

In other news, our family is adapting well to the new addition! Lucy still seems to be getting the balance on when we leave and when we're home, and I'm still getting used to her play time at 3 AM......sigh. But we're having so much fun with our little kitty; she's quite the entertainer!

Isn't she just so cute? :)

Beef and Barley Stew

Recently, my husband has been pestering, er, lovingly suggesting that I find a recipe to cook in the Dutch oven that we received as a Holiday present. Even though I was originally waiting to use it to bake some sort of bread (still planning on that), I decided to do as he asked and peruse the internet for a recipe for dinner this week. So I skipped on over to my trusty friend, Google, and came across a recipe for Beef and Barley Stew. It looked yummy and do-able without a terrible amount of work (always something I look at with new recipes); and since I would be done with work earlier than normal today and have some extra time for cooking, I picked it as our try-out recipe of the week.

It was a good choice! Although I believe that the original recipe was supposed to come out more as a soup, ours turned out as a stew and I'm glad, because it was de-lish! D. and I both agreed that this recipe was definitely going into the repertoire.

If you're inspired by this recipe and would like to make it but don't have a Dutch oven, you could easily whip this up in a large pot.

Gather the ingredients:

     8 oz. sirloin steak, cut into bit-size pieces
     1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided
     4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
     1/2 to 1 whole onion, chopped
     1 large carrot, sliced
     2 tablespoons tomato paste
     1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
     3/4 cup barley
     4 cups (32 oz.) beef broth
     1 cup water
     1/4 teaspoon salt

Sprinkle steak with a 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add steak  and cook, stirring often, until browned on all sides. Transfer to a bowl. 

Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, onion, and carrot to the pot and cook, stirring until beginning to soften. Add tomato paste and thyme and cook, stirring, until the veggies are coated with the tomato paste and beginning to brown.

Add barley, broth, water, salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to maintain simmer; cook until barley is tender, about 40 minutes.  Return beef to pot and heat through. Remove from heat and enjoy!

Side note: my husband doesn't really pester me, but I have to tease him sometimes. ;)

Lasagna Roll-Ups

A while back, I posted about White Veggie Lasagna, and in that post, I mentioned that I don’t really like lasagna all that much. Now I’m blogging about lasagna again, and I don’t think people are going to believe that I don’t like lasagna haha. I suppose that a better statement would be that I don’t prefer traditional lasagna, but rather variations.

I’ve spent some time thinking over the years of making Lasagna Roll-Ups as to why I like them so much, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because they aren’t overly cheesy or saucy but have a good balance of meat and other flavors. Flavor is, to me, my favorite part about eating.

I originally found this recipe in one of my mother’s cookbooks. The first time I made it, I bought the wrong type of tomatoes and didn’t even realize it until the next time I made the recipe and used the right type of tomatoes. However, I liked the way the Lasagna Roll-Ups tasted the first time I made them better, with the “wrong” type of tomatoes, and so I decided to use those from there on out when I made this recipe.

Gather the ingredients:

     6 lasagna noodles, cooked

     1 lb ground beef

     2 tablespoons minced onions

     1 garlic clove, minced

     1 can diced tomatoes

     ½ teaspoon salt

     ½ teaspoon oregano

     1 to 1 ¼ cups small-curd cottage cheese

     1 egg, lightly beaten

     1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes

     ¼ teaspoon onion powder

     ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

In a skillet, cook beef, onion, and garlic until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add tomatoes, salt, oregano; simmer for 10 minutes. Spoon half of the meat sauce into a greased 9-in. square baking dish.

In a small bowl, combine cottage cheese, egg, parsley, and onion powder. Spread ¼ cupful of cheese mixture onto each noodle. Top with remaining meat sauce. Carefully roll up each noodle and place in baking dish.

Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until heated through. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Note: Serving size is approximately 2 roll-ups. This recipe is very easily doubled to make for more people. Enjoy!

Banana Almond Smoothie

Recently, my husband and I have begun to endeavor to eat a little healthier and to work out to lose a bit of weight and get into better shape. Towards this end, I decided to stop eating cereal for breakfast and to start making fruit smoothies. Which also means that I have to be a bit more motivated to get up and get things done in the morning; not a bad thing, even if my bed is incredibly comfy haha!

I have been enjoying my berry fruit smoothies in the morning, but that’s not what I’m going to be sharing in this post. While on Pinterest, I came across a pin for an Almond Energy Shake that looked de-lish! So, I picked up a couple extra ingredients when grocery shopping for the week and whipped it up. I can say that it lived up to expectations grandly! It has a fairly light flavor at first taste, but the more you drink, the better it gets. I think that I’m going to enjoy alternating this smoothie with my berry smoothies in the mornings!

(UPDATED 1/31/2013) Gather the ingredients:

     1 1/4 Cups Almond milk

     1 banana, sliced and frozen

     2 tablespoons almond butter

     ½ teaspoon (approx.) cinnamon
     1 scoop vanilla protein powder

     4 ice cubes

Place all the ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. This updated recipe makes 1 serving; pour it into a large mason jar and enjoy! Note: with the updated recipe, it won't fill a large mason jar to the brim like in the picture below. It's still yummy though!

Baked Chicken With Creamy Mushroom Sauce

A lot of my cooking repertoire comes from my mother’s recipes. There’s just something about a mom’s cooking! But I’d have to say, one of my favorite recipes of my mother’s to make is her Baked Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce. Not only is it an extremely easy dish to prepare, but it’s also extremely yummy!

This recipe has quickly become one of my husband’s and my favorite meals to make. One of the reasons that I love to make it is that every time that I cook it, the chicken always turns out perfectly done and delicious. It’s one of those fail-safe recipes that you can’t go wrong with.

So, grab the ingredients, mix and bake, and enjoy yourself some yummy chicken!

Gather the ingredients:

     4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

     4 pieces uncooked bacon

     1 can cream of mushroom soup

     1 Cup sour cream

     1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

     ½ teaspoon garlic salt

     ½ teaspoon black pepper

Wrap chicken breasts with bacon strips and place in a baking dish. 

In a small mixing bowl, combine cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, and black pepper. 

Spoon sauce over chicken and spread until evenly covered. 

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 1 ½ hours. Enjoy!