Mexican Stew

A friend had pinned this recipe on her Pinterest board; since she is also the friend who made the blueberry oatmeal bake, I looked over the recipe and was intrigued. I’d already decided 2015 would be the year I would master cooking butternut squash and I figured I might as well get an early start.

I have a red enchilada sauce recipe but in this case because I was short on time, I opted for the canned stuff. I used beans I’d cooked, but they didn’t have any extra seasoning in them, and in the interest of convenience, I used the prepackaged taco seasoning—this is box cooking at its finest! Otherwise, it’s an easy dish to make and also cooks up pretty fast in the slow cooker. It’s a stew, not a soup.

Updated to add that I get better results if I cook the quinoa separately from the rest of the stew, then add it in at the end.

Ingredients 

• 1 pound butternut squash, cubed
• 1 can corn
• 2 C cooked black beans
• 1 C uncooked quinoa, rinsed
• 1 large can fire-roasted petite diced tomatoes (29 ounces)
• 1 small jalapeno, optional
• 1 batch enchilada sauce (about 29 ounces)
• 1 cup vegetable or chicken broth, or water (I use water and rinse out the cans)
• 1 packet (1.25 ounces) taco seasoning

Directions

• If your slow cooker isn’t non-stick, consider using some kind of cooking spray.
• Assemble all the ingredients except the quinoa in the slow cooker.
• Stir well.
• Cook on high for about four and a half hours (no clue what the time would be if you did it on low).
• Follow the package directions to cook the quinoa.
• Add to the slow cooker and stir. 
• Enjoy!

Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries

A friend made a vegan version of this for a recent brunch. She substituted almond milk and a flax "egg," and it tasted great. For our normal use, I've gone ahead and made the non-vegan version. It's so good that this morning greedy me had two helpings.

This is a delightful and easy breakfast dish to make when you want something a little more interesting than just oats.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 C old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 t baking powder
• Dash of kosher salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 2 T butter, melted and cooled
• 2 C whole milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 C blueberries, fresh or frozen

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Grease an 8” square baking dish.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the oats, baking powder, salt, zest, and spice. 
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, milk, sugar, and egg.
5. Pour about half the dry mixture into the baking pan, then add half the blueberries. Add the remaining dry ingredients and top with the remaining blueberries.
6. Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and blueberries; make sure the blueberries get covered.  
7. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the mixture is browned along the edges and the center has set up.
8. Enjoy!

Dragon Noodles

We like spicy dishes and generally add more spice than called for just to get that lovely heat. But in this case, we've hardly changed the amount of spice because it's really tasty as is. We're still playing around with the butter combo. As originally written, this recipe calls only for butter but I thought that was too buttery for the dish (coming from a butter slicker like me, that's saying something). So we've subbed in a tablespoon of canola oil for one tablespoon of butter.

This dish also makes a great lunch; as written we get about six generous servings.

Ingredients

• Two 12 ounce packages Udon noodles
• 7 T butter
• 1 T canola oil
• 1 t crushed red pepper 
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 3 T brown sugar
• 3 T soy sauce
• 3 T  sriracha (rooster sauce)
• Diced fresh cilantro for topping

Directions

1. Cook the noodles according to package directions.
2. While the noodles cook, melt the butter and add the oil to the butter when it’s melted.
3. Add in the pepper flakes and cook briefly.
4. Whisk the beaten eggs into the butter/oil mixture on the stove and basically scramble them until firm and in small pieces. If the eggs are done before the noodles have finished cooking, remove the skillet from the heat.
5. Once the noodles are done, drain and add to the skillet with the eggs.
6. Add the siracha sauce and stir until the noodles are fully coated. If there’s a lot of moisture, cook briefly until the extra moisture evaporates.
7. Place in bowls and sprinkle with the diced cilantro.
8. Enjoy!

Smitten Kitchen's One Pan Farro with Tomatoes

[Picture soon]

A friend introduced me to this Smitten Kitchen recipe – in a very unusual twist for me, I’ve made no changes. But because I find the font on the web site horrible to read and because the directions are sort of scatted around and difficult for me to follow, I’ve posted it here. I served this to my folks on a recent visit and the dish was a complete hit.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup semi-pearled farro
• ½ large white onion
• 2 cloves garlic, put through a press
• 9 ounces grape or cherry tomatoes
• 1 ¼ t kosher or coarse sea salt ¼
• About ¼ t red pepper flakes
• 1 T olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• Few basil leaves, cut into thin ribbons
• Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

Directions:

1. Place water and farro in a medium saucepan to pre-soak while prepping the rest of the ingredients – add each to the pan as they are prepped
2. Thinly slice the onion so that it’s in quarter moon slices
3. Add the garlic
4. Halve or quarter the tomatoes
5. Add salt, pepper flakes and olive oil
6. Set a timer for 30 minutes
7. Bring uncovered pan (no lid necessary) up to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally. 
8. When the timer rings, the farro should be perfectly cooked and the cooking water almost entirely absorbed. If necessary, cook longer till the faro is more tender. 
9. Transfer to a wide serving bowl, scatter with basil and Parmesan and enjoy.

Oatmeal Pancakes

Made with blueberries this time

This is another recipe from my mother. She sent it to me not long after my older son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and on my original recipe card, I wrote down all the diabetic exchanges. This was a nice treat to have as we tried to figure out what his disease meant to all our meals.

If you are watching your calories, try this trick with the maple syrup. Put 2 tablespoons on a plate and microwave briefly to heat up the syrup. Put your cooked pancakes on top of the syrup. You’ll have enough and won’t have ruined your calorie budget for the day.  Two tablespoons of maple syrup adds another 104 calories and ¼ cup of blueberries is another 20. Still, it's a reasonable and healthy breakfast.

Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten
1 C buttermilk
¾ C old fashioned oats
¼ C flour
½ t sugar
½ t baking soda
1 T wheat germ (optional)
¼ C chopped pecans (optional)
½ C blueberries (optional)

Directions:

• Heat a large non-stick skillet at medium-low on the stove.
• While the pan is heating, beat the egg and buttermilk together in a bowl. Add the oats and stir so that the oats are in the buttermilk/egg mixture. If you are using wheat germ, add the wheat germ to this mixture too.
• Combine the flour, sugar and baking soda together and mix well. When the pan is heated, spray it with cooking spray (VERY important) and then combine the dry ingredients with the buttermilk mixture in the bowl.
• Using a scant ¼ C, pour four pancakes and cook slowly until bubbles form and burst throughout the pancake. These pancakes need to cook slowly or else the oats won’t be done, so you may need to adjust the heat down a bit.
• Repeat for the second set of four pancakes, including the cooking spray.

Serves two

Cheddar Cheese Ball

Someone made this for me at a baby shower for my second pregnancy. I absolutely loved it, and begged for the recipe. Even though I don’t remember the name of the woman who gave it to me, I still have her orange index card with the recipe typed out. It’s still my favorite cheese ball ever.

Note: I’ve tried making this with already-shredded cheese, and by shredding it with my food processor and it doesn’t turn out as well. Hand shredding is a pain, no doubt about it, but the results are much better. Also, it’s best if made a day or so prior to serving.

Ingredients:
1 pound cheddar cheese
½ t salt
½ t dry mustard
Small onion, very finely diced
2 T melted butter
1 T ketchup
2 to 3 T light mayo
Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

• Grate the cheese into a large mixing bowl
• Thoroughly mix everything except the grated cheese in a small bowl
• Add the mixture to the grated cheese and mix thoroughly
• Either roll the mixture into a ball or place in a serving dish
• Sprinkle paprika over the top
• Set out 30 minutes before serving for easier spreading

Cheater's Candy aka Christmas Crack

A friend of mine posted this recipe on Facebook and I was intrigued. So I made some and (unfortunately) we like it a lot. It’s called Christmas Crack because of the crackers, which is kind of dumb. But I can’t think of a better name unless I call it Cheater’s Candy. Which is also ridiculous but it's what I'm going with anyway.

Ingredients:
1 C butter
¾ C dark brown sugar
A full sleeve of saltine crackers
16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
Optional toppings:
Pretzels, broken into pieces
Heath bar, broken into pieces
Peanuts

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400°.
• Line a large shallow cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray well with something like Pam.
• Put the saltines in a single layer on the cookie sheet, covering the entire sheet – if you need to fill in any gaps, use broken crackers.
• Meanwhile, in a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
• Next add the brown sugar and turn up the heat to medium; stir constantly with a flat wooden spoon until the butter no longer floats on the top of the brown sugar (it should begin to come to a boil).
• Cook for about five minutes, stirring constantly, until the toffee begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
• Carefully pour the toffee over the saltines and, if necessary, use the flat wooden spoon to spread the toffee around gently until all crackers are covered. You may need to rearrange your saltines if they get moved – just use a fork.
• Bake for about five minutes and remove from the oven
• Let cool for about three or four minutes and then sprinkle the chocolate chips on the toffee-covered crackers. Put the pan back in the oven for a minute or so, so that the chips are more melted.
• Remove from the oven again and carefully spread the melting chips over all the crackers. 
• Sprinkle with the crushed pretzels, Heath bars and whatever else you want to use.
• Let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

Spaghetti Pie Casserole

This recipe is also originally from my mother. If it sounds like I have a recipe box full of her recipes, well I do. I’ve only made this one a couple of times and is typical for me, I’ve changed it. It’s quite tasty and a real crowd-pleaser but it’s not exactly what you’d call low fat. Still, when the weather is cold and you need to fill up a lot of people, this dish will get the job done.

Ingredients:

• About 10 ounces spaghetti, broken in thirds, cooked and drained
• 1 pound sausage, crumbled, cooked and drained
• 2 eggs, beaten
• ¼ C shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 T olive oil
• Half a medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or put through a press
• 10 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 1 C light sour cream
• 3 C marinara sauce
• 1 C water
• 4 ounces sliced Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F
• While the spaghetti pieces are still warm, mix in the eggs and Parmesan cheese; put in a greased casserole dish and set aside
• Heat the olive oil in a skillet and sauté the onions till limp
• Add the mushrooms and sauté for a couple of minutes
• Stir in the marinara sauce and the water and heat through
• Add the sour cream to the skillet, and then spoon about half of the mixture over the spaghetti mixture in the pie pan
• Add the cooked and crumbled sausage to the pie pan and top with the rest of the sauce
• Top with the Mozzarella cheese
• Place in the oven and bake until bubbly and the cheese is melted

As made, I served four adults, two children and had another three servings for lunches later in the week.