Meatless Mondays: Buttermilk Waffles

To celebrate Valentine's Day I thought that something red needed to be made. I also wanted to keep with the theme of Meatless Mondays and if you aren't going out with your husband then I thought something different for the kids would be waffles with strawberries. What kid really doesn't love to have breakfast for dinner every once in awhile?

A quick sideline - I had the most hectic, busy weekend and didn't even have time to get my posts together like I should have on Saturday or Sunday - ergghh... So on the agenda for this week recipe wise:

Wednesday: Minced Chicken Curry
Friday: Biscuits & Gravy
Saturday: Spinach Bow-tie Pasta

Today's recipe is Buttermilk Waffles. Not from a mix, no way! These may take a little bit more time but the effort is well worth it. You know what I really like about waffle Saturdays (only done once in awhile) our kids eat really well especially when we have strawberries. I also love that if you have leftover waffles just pop them into a freezer bag and throw them in the freezer. Throw them in a toaster on a crazy morning and breakfast is ready! Your kids will think they are better than frozen waffles from the store and they don't have any of those nasty preservatives.

Doesn't it look delish? If you haven't ever made your own whipped cream it is sooo easy, way better than freezer whip cream and so delicious!




Today's Ingredients:
For the Waffles
2 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup margarine, melted

For the Strawberries
Sliced strawberries
Sugar

For the Whipped Cream
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla


I have to be honest here. My husband usually makes these. He lets me sleep in on Saturdays and sometimes gets these going before I get downstairs. Isn't he grand? Anyways, he wanted me to for sure tell you to SPRAY your waffle iron before heating up, not after. I did make these on Saturday though.



Separate your egg yolks from your whites. You'll be using the yolks in the batter and the whites get whipped up nice and fluffy with your mixer.



Put your egg whites in your mixer and if it's a Kitchen Aid I put on a 3 and let them mix until they were nice and stiff and fluffy. You can do this with a hand held mixer, but it will just take a little longer. If you don't have either of those you can whip by hand with a whisk. I've never done that and don't really know how long it will take!



Mix your yolks and buttermilk together in a separate bowl.



The egg whites are getting fluffy. It does look yummy, but don't taste it. I had a brain fart for a moment and thought it was the whipped cream and I can attest fluffy egg whites taste gross!


Now take all of your dry ingredients and sift into another separate bowl. This way everything gets nice and mixed together. I've also used a regular sifter/strainer before and it works just fine too.

Now take your dry ingredients and mix into your buttermilk mixture and beat until smooth (not too long - just until incorporated and smooth). Add your melted margarine or butter and mix again.

Please excuse this horrible lighting. I was trying different settings and this DID NOT work. Now take the fluffy egg whites and add them to the waffle batter.

Fold into the mixture very gently trying to mix it all together but don't kill all the fluffiness of the waffles. Now start cooking them. We have two waffle makers as I like the traditional 4 squares ones and my husband likes the deep crevice Belgian waffles.

Sliced Strawberries

So I learned this little trick from my sister. Layer some sliced strawberries in a bowl. Sprinkle with just a little sugar.

Layer some more strawberries and sprinkle with sugar, and keep repeating until you get done.

A big bowl of yumminess! If you have the time I would set in your fridge for 30 min. - 1 hour. Our kids were too hungry so we just promptly ate them all up! They were still super delicious though.

Whipped Cream

Whipped cream is super easy especially if you have a stand mixer. You can do it with a hand mixer, but it will just take longer. I am sure a whisk would work too, but I have no idea how long it would take.

Place the cream, sugar and vanilla in your stand mixer. I put mine on a level 3 and watched the clock and it took 5 min. to look like this.

It needs to be pretty thick and should heavily cling to your beater(s) when you lift them up.

Lately I've been layering mine and it's soooo good!

Buttermilk Waffles printable recipe

Creamy Chicken-Broccoli Bake

There are several reasons why I love this recipe. It has creaminess, broccoli (my favorite vege), noodles, it makes a great freezer meal and/or you can make it the night before/morning of and keep in the fridge all day and pop into the oven right before dinner.

Please beware this makes a really full 9x13 pan. If you need to stretch this for a big family then go ahead and add more mushrooms and broccoli. I also love that this recipe is a perfect freezer meal. You can double it the whole recipe and freeze a 9x13 pan of it or do what I did and take half of this recipe and cook it and freeze the other half. Last time we ate as much as we could between dinner and leftovers, but you can only do so many leftovers right? We probably threw away at least 1/3. This time I cooked it in an 8x8 pan and it was perfect, plus now I have a meal in the freezer for a crazy hectic day.

Kids Verdict: Isabelle loved the noodles and ate some of the chicken and broccoli. Matthew wouldn't touch it - his latest excuse is that he hates green things except for grapes.


Today's Ingredients:
10 oz. dried medium noodles (fettucine)
1 ½ lbs skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
8 green onions, sliced
1 medium red sweet pepper, seeded and chopped*
2 10.75 oz. cans condensed cream of broccoli soup
2 8-oz. cartons sour cream - I used light and it worked great
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons dry mustard
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 16-oz. package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained
½ cup fine dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

*I did use a red pepper last time I made this, but did not use this time. You can go either way and it works well.


Dice your chicken and get your water going for your noodles.

Now use your imagination and pretend I have a picture of chicken cooking. Apparently I forgot to take a picture of that step. Cook on medium heat for about 3 min. I just used Pam and didn't even cook them in olive oil. Once they are cooked through and no longer pink then transfer them to a big bowl.


Dice your green onions (they are hiding under the mushrooms) and mushrooms.

Cook the mushrooms, green onions and red pepper if you are using. Cook until softened.

Once the vege's are cooked add the vege's, broccoli, broccoli soups, sour cream, chicken stock, mustard and black pepper to the bowl and mix all together.

Once the noodles are done drain them, rinse them and then drain again. Mix the noodles into the chicken mixture.

I know you aren't supposed to rinse noodles, but for this casserole you really don't want all the noodles sticking together.

Once I mixed everything together I transferred as much as I could to my foil pan which was slightly smaller than my to cook 8x8 pan. Do not put any bread crumbs on your dish that you'll be freezing.

I covered tightly with foil. Labeled what it was and then also wrote what temperature to cook it at and for how long. Perfect for a crazy, busy day or when I just don't want to cook.

If you do freeze part of this, then when you want to cook it - do the following: Take from freezer and put in 400 degree oven for 50 min. (covered). Mix together the crumb mixture and sprinkle over the top. Cook for another 10-15 min (uncovered), or until crumbs are golden brown.


Mix the melted butter and the bread crumbs together for a nice topping.

Sprinkle over the top of your chicken mixture and cover with foil. Even though I had halved the recipe to actually cook, I did use the full amount of butter and bread crumbs for the topping.

Cook for 30 min. covered and then another 20-25 min. uncovered.

Yumminess!

I love one-pan meals/casseroles. I have my protein, vege's and calcium all in 1 fell swoop.

Creamy Chicken-Broccoli Bake Printable Recipe

Chicken Tangine

I got this recipe over 8 years ago from a co-worker of mine in London. She had brought in some that her mom had made and shared it with me. I asked for the recipe which she shared with me, but I had never made it. Every time I saw that recipe in my recipe collection I kept telling myself to make it and finally this blog gave me an excuse to make it. Why did I wait to long??? This is a question I ask myself when I've had good things sitting in front of me for awhile and then I finally take action and kick myself for not making it/tasting it/buying it sooner. This is like Indian and Thai food - why didn't I try them way before I did? What was I scared of? What took me so long to get me out my comfort zone?

I don't know why I haven't made it until now. It was really good and Jordan kept raving about it. Beware - IT IS SPICY!!! You can definitely turn down the heat. I put in the full teaspoon of cayenne pepper and my mouth was on fire...the kids didn't even get to try it, not that Matthew would have touched it with a ten foot pole anyways. I'll definitely be making this again, but turning down the spice level just a bit. It's perfect accompainment is couscous (see at the bottom how to make it)- yum!

Don't be scared of the ingredients. Most of them go into a food processor to make a paste/marinade for the chicken. Beware this is a time-consuming recipe but not a HARD recipe. You marinade the chicken for 4-8 hours, simmer for 1 hour and then reduce down the liquid for another 30 min. The pot and stove do all the work, you just have to make sure you work your timetable backwards!



Today's Ingredients:
1 head of garlic, peeled and separated into cloves
1 onion grated
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon rock salt or ½ teaspoon regular salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (cut down to 1/8-1/4 teaspoon for just a hint of heat)
4 tablespoons olive oil
12 boneless chicken thighs, skinned or 3-4 chicken breasts, diced into chunks
7 ounces dried apricots
8 ounces tomato juice
16 ounces chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes
¾ cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons honey
2 ounces chopped fresh cilantro


Place the garlic, grated onion, ginger, turmeric, paprika, salt, pepper, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and half the olive oil in a food processor.


Blend into a smooth paste. This seriously smells sooooo good! Yum!

Next coat the chicken in the marinade and let sit overnight or at least for 4 hours. Longer won't hurt these puppies. I am a chicken breast fan and really don't like dark meat. Next time I'm going to try chicken thighs as the breast meat was just a bit dry for my liking. Chicken thighs definitely are moister.

Please excuse my pictures, there were some definite shadows going on and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my camera settings or lighting to fix it - not that I'm a photography expert anyways. The lighting is usually really good in my kitchen and it was horrible the day I made this.

Dice your apricots. I bought just a regular package of Mediterranean apricots. Technically it was under 7 oz., but I was not about to buy more. If they are super dry (mine were a moist dry) then rehydrate them before chopping.

Once your chicken is done marinating, heat your other 2 tablespoons of oil and add the chicken and marinade to a heavy pan on medium heat and cook until the chicken is lightly brown all over.

Add the tomato juice, chicken stock, diced tomatoes, apricots, almonds and the honey.

Bring to a boil, and then lower to a simmer for 1 hour.

Remove your solids and place in a bowl and keep warm.

Boil your liquid until it has thickened up and reduced - I let mine cook for about 30 min. This will help intensify the flavor even more.

Return the chicken and fruits to the pan and sprinkle with the cilantro leaves. Serve with steamed couscous.

If you haven't made couscous before it's super easy. Bring to a boil 1 cup of water or chicken stock. Take off the stove and stir in 1 cup of couscous. Cover and let stand for 5 min. Easy and the perfect addition to this meal.

Chicken Tangine Printable Recipe

Meatless Monday: Curried Sweet Potato Soup - Chicken Optional

I've decided to streamline my weekly postings so you know what to expect and when I'll be posting.

Sundays: I'll blog the names and a little info about all the recipes I'll be posting that week.

Mondays: I'm going to start posting vege recipes or recipes that can easily be modified to be vegetarian and am naming them Meatless Mondays - thanks for the idea Sara!

Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays-The other 3 days will be a good variety of crockpot meals, soups/stoups/stews (brrr...it's cold outside), casseroles, breakfasts, desserts, curries, Mexican, Italian, etc...

I'm striving for a good balance and variety every week (just like in my own life). I already have the next three weeks planned out so stay tuned for some real yumminess! I'll probably pop in posts here and there focusing on single ingredients and continue my favorite tools posts. I really do love cooking and am excited to share my recipes here.

What's for dinner this week?

Meatless Monday: Curried Sweet Potato Soup that can easily be made with or without chicken. It is packed full of veggies you won't even know are there and is perfect for all of these cold nights we are facing right now.

Wednesday: Chicken Tangine - I got this recipe over 8 years ago from a friend of mine in London. I don't know why I haven't made it until now. It was really good and Jordan kept raving about it. It is spicy, but I'll let you know how to turn down the heat level if you need to. I'll definitely be making this again.

Friday: Creamy Chicken Broccoli Bake - This is a really good casserole dish. It makes a huge 9x13 pan full and I'll only be cooking half the portion and freezing the other. It would make a perfect freezer meal for one of those harried days.

Saturday: Minced Chicken Curry - I really can't believe this is curry. It is so mild and perfect for the whole family. We have made this easily a dozen times over the past couple of years and it feels like comfort food.

Just around the corner is Valentine's Day so next Monday I'll be making some waffles with strawberries and homemade whipped cream. A perfect fun dinner to end the day!

See you this week for my latest and greatest meals!!

Curried Sweet Potato Soup
This is a Rachael Ray recipe that I got from her magazine. This soup can easily be made vegetarian. It is perfect with a nice toasted, crunchy piece of french bread to dip into the soup.

The recipe calls for apple cider and I couldn't find anything less than a 2 gallon jug that cost $5 so I opted to use apple juice instead. It probably was a little sweeter but it worked great so feel free to substitute it if you don't have apple cider or can't find a reasonable quantity.


The Ingredients:
1 tablespoon EVOO
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated
S&P
2 teaspoons curry powder*
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup apple cider (or juice)
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
½ head cauliflower, coarsely chopped
½ rotisserie chicken, meat shredded - optional

*I used a sweet curry powder from Penzey's that is really delicious!


Prep the following: Dice your onion


Peel and cube your sweet potato (a real sweet potato not the reddish yam that can also be mistakenly called a sweet potato).


Chop your cauliflower


Heat the EVOO over medium heat. Add the onion, ginger and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened - about 5 min. Add the curry powder and cumin and cook, stirring for 3 min. Stir in the cider, scraping the bottom of the pan.


Add 4 cups water and the sweet potato and bring to a boil. Add the cauliflower, lower the heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 10 min.

You can either take your soup and do the following:
-Take it in batches and run through a food processor
-Use an immersion blender and blend until smooth
-Add into a blender and blend until smooth - you might have to work in batches.

We got a refurbished Vita-mix for Christmas and I just dumped the whole thing in there at once and it blended it up beautifully.


If you are making Vegetarian just skip this step. Now add your shredded chicken to the pot and cook until heated through. I had leftover shredded chicken from something else I cooked so I added meat from 2 chicken breasts.

If you don't have leftover chicken or a rotisserie chicken then bring to a boil chicken stock/broth and add 2 chicken breasts and then lower to a simmer for about 10-20 min. This will make great chicken to use.

If you are going vegetarian and need something chunky in your soup, you could finely dice up either an additional sweet potato and a few red potatoes and add to your soup at the end. Simmer until they are cooked through. Depending on the size of your dice 15-20 min.


Yum-o!

Enjoy!

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

Turkey & Tomato Stoup

I had the rest of this HUGE can of tomato juice in my fridge needing to be used and went on the search for a soup recipe to use it. I came across a couple of recipes and combined them and added my own twist to make it work. It came out really good! I know there are similar recipes out there, but here's my version.


Turkey & Tomato Stoup
(stoup is thinner than stew, but thicker than soup - Rachael Ray made the word up)


The Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey*
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 -1 head cauliflower
32 oz. tomato juice
2 cups water
1 small or medium onion, chopped
3 stalks celery finely sliced
2 carrots peeled and diced
1 ½ teaspoons oregano
1 tsp beef soup base or 1 cube beef bouillon
½ cup macaroni

*You could also use sausage, ground chicken, or ground beef instead


If you don't have cauliflower feel free to leave this out. Bring to a boil 4-6 cups of water. Add your cauliflower and lower to a simmer. Simmer for 5-10 min. until soft.


Drain, reserving 1-2 tablespoons and add to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. I liked adding the cauliflower to the soup to boost up the vege level without affecting the taste and it thickened the soup as well. Another big plus is that I used up more leftovers from my fridge.



Cook your turkey until almost cooked through. Add your garlic and finish cooking.

Add your tomato juice, tomato sauce (if using), water, and beef bouillion to a pot and bring to a boil.

Add your cauliflower puree, onions, celery, carrots and oregano and bring back to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 min.

Add your ground turkey and simmer for another 20 min. Season with S&P.

About 5 min. before you are ready to serve then add your macaroni.


This turned out really great and used up a LOT of leftovers from my fridge.

Leftovers Used:

1/2 cauliflower head
1/2 can tomato sauce

1/2 small onion (I used a total of 1.5 small onions)

Optional Ingredients:
This soup is pretty versatile and I think you could add a lot of things and it would still work.

Meat-You could use ground beef, sausage or even some shredded chicken in place of the ground turkey. If it is shredded chicken just add at the same time as the vege's.

Tomato Sauce - Add the tomato sauce at the same time as the juice
Potatoes - Add red potatoes into the tomato juice along with the onion, celery and carrots.
Mushrooms - Add the mushrooms into the pot at the same time as the macaroni.
Broccolini or spinach - boil until just done and then add to the pot at the end with the macaroni.

Beans-You could add your beans (white or black would be good) along with your vege's or at the end with the macaroni.

Experiment and Enjoy!

Turkey & Tomato Soup

Vegetarian: Black Bean Burritos

We've had discussions at our house about trying to eat more Vegetarian meals and I decided when we moved to Oregon that I wanted to do that. I have weeks that are better than others, but I'm going to start blogging once a week a Vegetarian meal or a vegetarian option for a meal.

For me a vegetarian day lets my body have a day of rest from trying to digest meat, it's healthier for our budget and it helps us focus on getting more veggies or beans, etc. around here which is sorely needed. I think a lot of people think vegetarian and think ewww...but give it a try and my first recipe is really simple and delicious!

I got this recipe from a cookbook I've had from years called Desperation Dinners that you can get here. They have some easy and good recipes. I used to cook a lot from it, but haven't as much lately as I've discovered other recipes and more complicated things I want to try. Their skillet Lasagna is so good and I'll be featuring it here soon.


Today's Ingredients:
2 teapsoons of EVOO
1 small onion
2 cans (15 oz.) of black beans, rinsed
1 can (4.5 oz.) of mild green chilies, drained
1 bottle (16 oz.) mild salsa - or spice this recipe up and make it medium or hot salsa

Optional Ingredients:
Minced garlic
Green pepper
Diced or shredded cooked chicken - about 2

Optional Toppings:
Guacamole or sliced avocados
Light Sour Cream
Cheddar or Mexican cheese - shredded
Fresh diced tomatoes
Cilantro


First get your oil heating in a big and deep skillet. Chop your onion.



Add your onion to your pan and cook until it's soft. I had a green pepper in my fridge that was already diced from a recipe I thought I was going to use it in and didn't and needed to get used up so I added it here. You can do the same!

Once the onion and green pepper (if using) are softened, add in your drained chilies and rinsed black beans.


Add your salsa and let it cook and thicken up for about 5 min.


We served ours with light sour cream and sliced avocados. You could also make some guacamole which would be yummy too!

This recipe is really versatile and I think you could add all sorts of things to it. Sliced olives, a little green onion, garlic (cooked with the onion) would all be good things to add. If you really need some meat you could add some leftover shredded chicken, grill or cube and saute 1-2 chicken breasts. Add them at the end and heat through. We've done that before and it's really good.

I definitely used this recipe when I was doing my weight loss challenge. If you are worried about calories then watch the tortilla or forgo it all together. We usually have wheat ones, but had some white ones that needed to get used up. There are some pretty good low calorie options out there. If I wanted a second helping I would usually just forgo the tortilla the second time around and eat the bean mixture with a little avocado. I also like light sour cream - 2 T are only 40 calories. It adds a nice creaminess and coolness to the wrap.

Enjoy and let me know how it is!!

Black Bean Burritos