Burrito Bowl

I've been making several dishes that are similar, and I finally combined them into one awesome dish.  It combines the best of them all. :)

Ingredients:

1/2 lb ground beef

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 jalapeno, minced

1/4 cup of diced onion (I used Pictsweet seasoning blend, of course)

1/2 cup of uncooked extra-long grain rice 

1/2 cup quinoa 

1 (14.5 oz) can of fire roasted tomatoes

1 (15oz) can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15.25 oz) can corn, drained

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 teaspoon of chili powder

1 teaspoon of cumin

2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth 

salt & pepper

cilantro

feta cheese

any other toppings you want

1. Brown meat.
2. Sauté onions, garlic, and jalapeno in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  I use my Dutch oven and do the meat at the same time.
3. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
4. Move to one side of pan.  In the other side of the pan add an additional tablespoon of olive oil and sauté uncooked rice and quinoa for about 2 minutes or just until some grains start to turn golden brown.
5. Stir in remainder of ingredients except for cheese and optional toppings.
6. Bring to a simmer, cover. and reduce heat to low.
7. Cook about 20 minutes or until rice and quinoa is cooked and all of the liquid is absorbed.  You may need to stir it a little, then let it cook for a couple more minutes.
8. Serve in a tortilla or in bowls. Top with feta cheese (not optional) and cilantro and other toppings as desired (lettuce, salsa, avocado, etc).
9. Enjoy!!

 

Homemade Bread

This is the recipe that I use to bake our bread.  I am mainly posting it because the original recipe is for four loaves, and I only bake two at a time.  So I inevitably forget to halve an ingredient and end up scrambling to correct my mistake.  Now I won't have to worry about that!  I am posting it how I bake it so I won't have to think so much next time I bake it.  I am so glad I found it though because it is sooo good!

100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:

• 6 cups whole wheat flour, divided in 2
• 3/4 cups chia seed/flaxseed mix
• 4 tsp. yeast
• 1/4 c. honey plus 1 tbsp.
• 3 tbsp. butter, melted, at room temperature
• 1 tsp. salt

Directions:

1.   Soak for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours:

•       3 cups flour in 2.5 cups warm water
•       3/4 cups chia seeds/flaxseed mix
•       Cover with damp tea towel

Flour/water mixture shouldn’t be watery.  Water should just mix into flour without any excess.
Make sure there is no dry flour.  Add by the tbsp. if needed.

2.   Start sponge (half hour before starting):

•       in 1/4 c. warm water, gently mix 4 tsp. yeast and 1 tbsp. honey until just mixed. Set aside.  Do not over-mix.

Sponge should be visibly active: bubbles forming etc. before adding to recipe.

3.   Melt 3 tbsp. butter.  Cool to room temperature.

4.   After flour is soaked and sponge is bubbly add to soaked flour/seed mixture:

•       melted butter at room temperature
•       sponge
•       1/4 cup  honey
•       1 tsp. salt  

5.   Mix/ knead in 3 cups of flour to right consistency.  Knead for 8 minutes in stand mixer.

6.   Cover with a damp tea towel.  Place in warm spot.  Allow to rise until double: up to 2 hours.

7.   Remove from bowl, punch down and knead for 2 minutes.  Divide into 2 even sizes.

8.   Knead each individual loaf. Roll dough to roughly size of pan.  Pinch to make a loaf shape.  Place in greased loaf pan.  Repeat for next loaf.  Cover loaves with damp tea towel.

9.   Allow to rise until double: up to 2 hours.

10. Bake at 350F (325 for dark pan) for 30-40 minutes or until loaves are lightly brown.

Life Lately

Here's what we've been up to lately:

Cooper kisses Daddy bye bye in the morning

A trip to Kentucky so J could play in a golf tournament.

Playing with Dub Dub's sunglasses while mommy is furniture shopping

Splash Pad at Dub Dub and OG's

I made the leap and finally got a food processor.  My first thing to make: Black Bean Brownies.  And they were seriously good!!!!  I will be making them again.

Yummy goodness.  Poor J didn't get to eat many...

The weather has been amazing lately- especially for July!  So we have spent plenty of time outside this week.

Blue sky and white clouds

My first cantaloupe was finally ripe!

Apparently, the crack indicates that it's ready to eat!

Juicy and Sweet!

I also made another loaf of bread this week.  I tried a new recipe, as we were wanting something more sandwich like.  I modified this recipe, and it turned out great!  (I added flaxmeal and chia seeds, which I think gave it good texture.)  It still wasn't as airy as store bought bread, but this recipe is definitely a keeper!  I will have to get some more loaf pans so I can bake more than one loaf at a time.

Ready for rise #1

Ready for rise #2

Ready for the oven

Ready for consumption!

Since the weather was so great, I took Cooper to the zoo.  A friend and her little boy met us there.  We fed the giraffes!  It was so much fun.  One of them came out of nowhere and just started taking the lettuce out of our hands.  It took Coop a few minutes to warm up to the idea, but he fed the giraffe a couple of pieces.

Giraffes coming for us (and the lettuce!)

Not a carousel fan

Making friends with the sleeping panda

Watching the penguins (his favorite)

It licked me!

Cooper found a stick and would.not.let.go.

Mommy's little gardener

Homemade Bread

So over a month ago, I made homemade bread.  And I'm just posting about it.  But it is really good!  I used this recipe, but I have a couple more to try out before committing to it for good.  I need to figure out how to make it more sandwich bread like, then I won't have to buy bread anymore.  J isn't sold on the idea as this homemade bread doesn't have the sugar that we're used to in store bought.  It will take some getting used to for sure.  It does make really good toast and french toast though!

Ready to rise

It rose!  I had never used yeast before, so I was scared it wouldn't work.

Read for a second rising

Read y to go in the oven

Fresh out of the oven

It did take a good bit of time to make, but it was kind of enjoyable.  Although if I start making it more often, I might knead (ha!) to invest in something that will knead for me.  It was a good workout though.  I will probably be baking another loaf soon.  Maybe next time I won't take a month to post about it!

dairy free

I haven't been too good at taking pictures of the new foods we have been cooking, but we have been trying several new recipes since I am dairy free.  Our moms have been lucky enough to try many of them out with us.  None of them have been horrible, and we have found many that we REALLY like.

Thanks to Pinterest, we aren't starving.  Here are some of the things we have been cooking...

White Wine Chicken
Baked Chicken and Veggies (we used dry onion dressing)
Stroganoff (we did beef)
Honey Garlic Pork Chops
Shrimp Scampi (by far our favorite!)
Chicken Penne Pesto (probably our least favorite, but not horrible)
Black Bean Fajitas (SOO good!)
Cilantro Lime Chicken
White Chicken Chili

As you can see, chicken seems to be a reoccurring theme... I gotta find some more beef recipes!  The tomato thing has been limiting too... no spaghetti or chili for me! :(

Awesome Potato Soup!

A few weekends ago when we went over to our friends' house for football, she had crockpot potato soup. It was so good, so I asked for the recipe.  I made it tonight, and it was just as good. So I thought I would share it here. It is super easy! I got it ready last night, put it in the fridge, then just moved it to the base and turned it on!

1 lb Sliced Bacon
2 pkgs Diced Hash Browns (32 oz each)
3 cans Chicken Broth
3 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
2 pkgs Cream Cheese,softened and cut up
1/2 cup Minced Onion
1 tbsp. Parsley

1. Cook all bacon and crumble.
2. In crockpot, combine the rest of ingredients. Stir in bacon. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours or HIGH for 4-5 hours. Stir before serving.

That's it! Hope you try it and like it.


P.S. It makes a TON! We froze half to eat later.