Eet Smakelijk with Jen

Crock Pot Jerk Chicken (the good one!)

2012-07-18T16:28:00.001-07:00

I've been busy unpacking and working on projects in our new house, so my posts have been more frequent on our other blog. But, I always get requests for this crock pot jerk chicken, which is a gazillion times better than the recipe I posted on here ages ago.

This recipe, served with Island rice and curry broccoli, is one of my favorite go-to recipes. Best of all, it doesn't take a lot of time or energy to prepare.

Crock Pot Jerk Chicken
Adapted from: The Whole Gang

Ingredients:

1 large onion, cut into chunks 1.5 pounds chicken
½ cup water
¼ cup apple cider (optional)
1 T ground allspice
1 T ground nutmeg
1 T thyme
1 T Sea Salt or kosher salt
1 T black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp minced garlic
½ – 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1 TB whole allspice
2-4 bay leaves

Instructions:

Chop your onion and mix together your spices.
Layer half of the onion on the bottom of the crockpot.
Rub down the chicken with the seasonings and place in the crockpot.
Place a couple of bay leaves and remaining onions and spices on top.
Very carefully pour in the liquid along the side so it doesn't wash off the rub on the chicken.
Put the lid on and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours.

The curry broccoli recipe I follow is based on this recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, simply substituting broccoli for cauliflower. Although, I must admit that the curry cauliflower popcorn is quite tasty, too!

Eet smakelijk!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

2012-01-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago and made plans to make it, but then everyone got sick and I did not feel like doing any extra baking. Now that we are starting to all feel better, it's cookie day!

The recipe comes from LDS Living, which sponsored a cookie contest, and this little gem is the winner.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
from LDS Living
Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:

½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut a lemon in half. Squeeze juice into a small bowl. You should get about a Tablespoon. I used a little more. Zest the peel with a grater to until you have a teaspoon.
Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. (Or place your new Silmat in the baking sheet!)
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again.
Stir in all dry ingredients--excluding the powdered sugar--slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly.
Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate.
Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}.
Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Banana Snowman

2012-01-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy few months, between my intense three month headache, selling our house, packing up all our worldly possessions and moving into a small, furnished apartment until our new house (and kitchen!) is done.

Hopefully, in the downtime, I can catch up a bit with my cooking here. I've been using Pinterest for a lot of my meal plans lately. But with most of my cooking gear packed away, meals have been simple.

In honor of our first big snow, I made my son a snowmen snack:

Parmesan Couscous with Roasted Garlic, Toasted Pine Nuts and Caramelized Onions

2011-09-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

So The Hubs sends me an email last week telling me that we've been invited to dinner with some friends, and can I make a salad. This was about 3, just before I was about to start making the dinner I had planned. Generally, The Hubs is better about checking with me first, but it turns out it was our friend's birthday, so I was happy to punt.

Since I didn't have any unaccounted for produce, I decided to make this side I found, of course, on Pinterest. I was super easy and quick to make and best of all, I had everything I needed on hand. Pine nuts are crazy expensive these days, so you can always substitute another nut to keep costs down.

Parmesan Couscous with Roasted Garlic, Toasted Pine Nuts and Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

1 box of plain couscous (about 6 oz)
1-2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1 tsp olive oil 1/4 yellow sweet onion, diced
3-5 cloves of roasted garlic, chopped
1-2 tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped

Instructions:

1. Prepare couscous per instructions.

2. In dry skillet, add pine nuts and cook until lightly golden brown, about 2 minutes (stirring frequently).

In addition to sight, you can also tell when nuts are roasted because they'll be quite fragrant!

3. Remove from heat. In same skillet, add oil, once hot, add onions and cook until caramelized & tender. I had raw garlic, so I threw that in at the same time.

4. Once the couscous is done, stir in the onions, pine nuts, roasted garlic, cheese and parsley. Enjoy.

Quick & Crusty French Baguettes

2011-09-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Quick and Crusty French Baguettes

We started off the year this year in Europe vising The Hub's family. We took a day trip to Paris (where we were engaged 4.5 years ago!). We stopped a local grocery store for breakfast one morning and bought a huge baguette for about 75 euros (a little less than a dollar). I realize that a grocery store isn't as romantic as a bakery, but we were walking, hungry, with a toddler and the grocery store was the first food establishment we found! A few weeks later, back at home, we found a baguette at our local grocery store for almost $3. Ever since then, I have wanted to make my own.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this really easy (only slightly modified) recipe, originally posted on Babble.com.

Ingredients:
• 2 cups very warm water
• 1 packet yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 cups flour

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Yeast can be a little tricky. Here's my secret:

I am guilty of killing many a yeast particle...until I learned to use water that was exactly 95 degrees.

3. Set the bowl on top of your preheating oven for ten minutes.

The heat from the stove will help activate the yeast.

Your yeast should look nice and frothy, like this. If you still see cloudy water, give it another 5 minutes. If it doesn't look like this, you've killed the yeast and need to try again.

4. Stir in the salt and add the flour a half-cup at a time, until the dough becomes soft but not sticky. Knead the dough until elastic. Texture is more important that measurements because the amount of flour you need will be based on the humidity and altitude of your home.

While I aspire to owning a Kitchen Aid mixer, for now I do everything by hand. Keep adding flour until you can knead the dough without it sticking to your fingers.

5. Cut the dough into four even pieces.

6. Roll each of them into four long, thin ropes.

Clearly I need more practice with play dough.

7. Twist together two of the ropes to form one loaf. Twist the other two ropes together to form a second loaf.

Close up of the part of my twist that looks impressive.

8. Transfer both onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

As I rolled my dough, I ended up having to make a third twist because of the size of my oven sheet.

6. You can now bake the loaf right away (if you’re in a hurry) or allow it to rise for an additional 15-30 minutes on top of your warm oven.

This is only 15 minutes of rising.

7. Now for the other secret: Place 3-4 cups of ice on a cookie sheet. Open your hot oven and place the baking sheet with the baguettes on the top rack, then place the tray with the ice cubes on the bottom rack of the oven and quickly shut the door. Do NOT open your oven for 15 minutes. Bake until golden brown, about 15-18 minutes.

Be careful removing the water tray when you're done!

8. Serve fresh and hot with your favorite olive oil for dipping.

Eet Smakelijk! Or, in this case, bon appetit!

Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

2011-09-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Every time I've started a post recently, my first thought is, "I found this on Pinterest." Really, once I'm not potty training/selling a house/building a house/feeling better, I will do a sappy love letter post to tell those of you who aren't yet addicted to the site all about it.

So, I found this recipe on Pinterest :-) We aren't big fans of Mexican food, so we don't do tacos pretty ever, but I was intrigued. This was fantastic. I LOVED the cilantro lime pesto, so I'm sure we'll make it again, but maybe serve with rice or something.

Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

Ingredients:

cooking spray for sauteeing
2-3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in bite sized pieces
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup cilantro lime pesto (recipe follows)
flour or corn tortillas
preferred taco garnishes (salsa, sour cream, cheese, etc)

Cilantro Lime Pesto
recipe adapted from Food Network

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves--do not include stems. (I used 1/2 cup dried cilantro, because that's what I had on hand)
2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sliced, toasted almonds
3 tablespoons chopped, fresh garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon lime juice (I used 1 lime)
1/2 cup shredded asiago (I used Parmesan, but Romano can be substituted too)
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup chicken broth (I used Better Than Bullion)

Instructions:
1. Season chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

We buy all our meat locally. We buy about 40# of chicken at a time, then spend an afternoon packaging it up. Recently, I started cubing several pounds before freezing it. It makes my life so much easier.

2. In a skillet sprayed with cooking spray, saute chicken over medium high heat and cooked through.

3. While chicken is cooking, make the awesome pesto, by mix together the cilantro, olive oil, almonds, garlic, lime juice, cheese, salt and chicken broth in a blender or food processor on low speed for 2 minutes.

I used the large bowl of my food processor, which is why my pesto is chunkier, which I like. If I would have used the small bowl, I'm sure it would have been smoother, especially if I let it go the full two minutes.

4. Toss cooked, seasoned chicken with the pesto.

5. Fill tortillas with chicken and top with preferred garnishes.

Eet smakelijk!

Joelen, who created this recipe, offer this advice for making this recipe ahead as a freezer meal:
Cook chicken as directed as above and cool. Place chicken in freezer bag. Prepare cilantro lime pesto as directed below. Place a 1/2 cup of pesto in a small storage bag then place inside the freezer bag with the chicken. Freeze. When ready to prepare, defrost and heat chicken. Toss chicken with defrosted pesto. If desired, heat chicken and pesto together before filling tacos.

Jello Fishbowl

2011-09-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend we attended a friend's open house party. Our friend bought a mid-century ranch, and did a fabulous job updating it. As I was trying to figure out what I could do for a practical housewarming gift, I found this cute jello fish bowl recipe on Pinterest:

Source: marthastewart.com via Jen on Pinterest

I found a cute glass jar with cover at Target, and since you can never have too many glass jars, I decided to make the jello fishbowl in the jar for housewarming centerpiece.

Montana Anchor Mini Glass Jar with Lid from Target

One word of warning about this recipe. It's not something you can throw together. Between the need for flat soda and the fact that the gelatin needs to set, you'll need at least two days to assemble this.

Ingredients

1 two-liter bottle lemon-lime soda, flat (I left the cap loose over night)
4 1/4-ounce packages unflavored gelatin (or 1 box blue jello, if you can find it)
2 drops blue food coloring (if you don't use blue jello)
2 ounces gummy fish

Instructions:

1. Unscrew cap of soda and leave it overnight so that it becomes flat. Unless, of course, you have some flat soda laying around, in which case, you are good to go!

2. Place 1 cup soda in a large bowl. Sprinkle gelatin evenly over soda, and let stand to soften, about 5 minutes. I thought it made a crazy face, what do you think?

3. Place 2 cups soda in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat until just before a boil.

4. Add the softened gelatin, stirring to dissolve the gelatin completely over the heat, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

5. Pour the liquid into the fish bowl. Add the remaining soda and food coloring, and stir to combine. Martha suggests adding the food coloring and soda to the sauce pan, but I put it in the glass bowl first so I could see the coloring.

I used 3 drops of blue food coloring.

6. Using a damp paper towel, carefully remove any bubbles that have formed on the surface. If you give it a minute, most of the bubbles will disappear on their own, then use the paper towel to get the last stragglers.

7. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill overnight.

8. When ready to serve, use a sharp knife to make vertical slits in the gelatin; insert the fish in a random pattern to make it look as though they are swimming in the bowl. Keep refrigerated until serving. Serve within 6 hours.

Eet smakelijk!

Crockpot Hutspot

2011-09-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

I am so excited! Last night, I successfully converted one of my husband's favorite (time-consuming!) recipes into a crockpot recipe. Hello, crockpot hutspot! If you don't have a crockpot, you can still make this traditional Dutch dish the old-fashioned way).

I've written about hutspot before, but I'm so happy to be able to make it without standing in the kitchen for an hour and a half.

Ingredients:

6 onions (3 cups)
6 carrots (2 cups)
8 potatoes (5 cups)
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter
salt to taste (I actually like to use garlic salt)
pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Dice onions, carrots and potatoes and place in crockpot. This is still the most time-consuming part. If you really like this recipe, you could chop twice the amount and freeze the extra in a bag for the future.

2. Add butter, condensed milk, salt and pepper.

3. Cook on low for 3.5 - 4 hours.

4. Vegetables should be very soft, and mashable with a fork when done.

5. Use a potato masher to mash the vegetables. If you have an immersion blender, that would give your hutspot a smoother texture.

6. Serve in bowl.

Many people like to enjoy hutspot with sausage. The Hubs doesn't care for it as much, so we often eat it plain. If you do want to include sausage, just puncture it with a fork and then place it on top of the vegetables before starting the crockpot.

Eet smakelijk!

Zucchini Chips

2011-09-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

Meal planning has gotten to be even more fun now that Pinterest allows me to have basically a visual cookbook. This is one of the first recipes I tried: zucchini chips.

Ingredients:

4 small zucchini or 1-2 large zucchini
olive oil/cooking spray
salt (or garlic salt, or dill weed, however you want to season your chips)

Instructions:

1. Clean and trim the zucchini.

2. Use a food processor (or very steady hand) to slice zucchini in thin even slices. I'd definitely recommend the smaller zucchini so you don't have to worry about seeds or trimming the sides to fit your food processor.

3. Brush olive oil on parchment paper (spray with cooking spray. Then place the zucchini slices very close together. They should touch, but not overlap.

4. Spray or brush with oil again and then lightly season with the flavor of your choice. I liked dill week the best. Hubs like the garlic ones. Season lightly because the flavor will intensify as the chips dehydrate.

5. Cook at 170 degrees F (as low as my oven goes) for 3-3.5 hours. The chips should be crunchy when ready. If they are still a little soft, keep checking them every 15 minutes.

6. Enjoy!

Garlic zucchini chips

Dill zucchini chips.

This week's menu in pictures

2011-09-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Life is finally settling down. We're still trying to sell our house, but we've got showing-readiness down to a science. We're still building our new house, but now that we're under roof, things have slowed down quite a bit. Best of all, I seem to be on an upswing with my health, so I'm going to attempt to start up this blog again. I'll do another post of the fabulous-ness of Pinterest, but for now, I'll use the lovely pictures from there to show what's on the menu this week.

Sunday: Broccoli Salad with Bacon, Red Onions, Cranberries and Cashews (We're getting together with our small group, so I volunteered to bring my favorite salad.

Source: meetthedubiens.blogspot.com via Sheryl on Pinterest

Monday: Hutspot, specially requested by the Hubs. Mine isn't nearly as pretty, so I'm using this picture from Kayotic Kitchen, who has taught me to make all sorts of yummy Dutch dishes.

Source: kayotic.nl via Nicole on Pinterest

Tuesday: Cilantro Limo Pesto Chicken Tacos

Source: joelens.blogspot.com via Jen on Pinterest

Wednesday: Crock Pot Orange Chicken

Source: team-t-adventures.blogspot.com via Jen on Pinterest

Thursday: In honor of my fiesty 90-years-young Gramma, who is struggling a bit after heart surgery, I'm going to attempt my first Shepherd's Pie.

Source: marthastewart.com via JaNae on Pinterest

Friday: Chicken Avocado Pizza

Source: None via Jen on Pinterest

Saturday: Crockpot Pineapple Chicken

Source: sixsistersstuff.blogspot.com via Chelsea on Pinterest

***Just for fun, I had to add this fish bowl I made for a friend's housewarming party today.***

Greek Tacos

2011-08-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

Still here, but testing out new recipes has taken a back seat to making decisions on our new house, which we broke ground on three weeks ago. Between that and lasting vision issues from my latest thunk o' the head, it's been pretty quiet around here.

I do want to share this new favorite, Greek Tacos. I found the recipe at one of my favorite recipe sites, Taste of Home. The only changes I made were to use soft shells, because that's what we had on hand, and sun dried tomatoes instead of diced, because my toddler loves them.

Eet Smakelijk!

Technical Difficulties...

2011-05-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, I haven't been blogging much lately. I hope it's a temporary break. Between the showings on the house (usually during dinner time), a bit of travel, and an ongoing relapse of some brain injury symptoms (extreme fatigue, vertigo, blurry vision, fogginess, and a killer headache), our meals have been pretty simple as of late.

Since my "good brain" time is pretty limited these days, I've been spending them with my family and medical team. Hopefully I'll be back in the kitchen soon!

Menu Monday: Week of April 11, 2011

2011-04-13T06:12:00.000-07:00

So, it's actually more like Menu Wednesday. It's been that kind of week!

The construction in our kitchen will be completed tomorrow! Our new hood is in, the drywall has been replaced and smoothed, and tomorrow the ceiling will be repainted. It will be so nice to have that done...especially because we listed our house for sale on Monday, and we have our third showing tonight (Tuesday), with another to be scheduled on Friday or Saturday, and an open house on Sunday! It's hard enough to keep a house in show condition with a toddler, let alone daily construction dust! God help me!

In case things weren't crazy enough, The Hubs is having his wisdom taken out tomorrow (Thursday), so I've been trying to make lots of soup this week.

So here's what's cooking this week, soup edition.

Sunday:

Cream of Peanut Soup. We had our first taste of spring on Sunday. It's was almost 80 out. Gorgeous and sunny. So what was I doing? Slaving over a hot stove making soup for The Hubs. Yep, I love him.

I found this recipe on the Colonial Williamsburg website, after reading about it in The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American by Jeff Smith. (Yes, I'm now the kind of person who reads cookbooks). This particular book is both cookbook and a history of American cuisine, so I highly recommend it. You can read a bit about the history of the soup here. Peanut soup sounds a bit unusual, but it was really, really good, especially with crushed roasted peanuts as garnish!

I also decided to finally make the rest of our Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups since I've had the noodles thawing in the frig for a few days and didn't want to waste the ingredients. I'll have to play with the ratios a bit so I can make one batch that uses all the ingredients. I did add some Italian sausage this time around, and it was a really addition! The only challenge I had was that the noodles were a little wily after been heated, then frozen, then thawed, then warmed up in a pot of hot water. They had a tendency to tear, so I used the good ones for roll-ups, and used the rest of a more traditional lasagna. Still tasted great!

Monday:

Spicy Tomato Soup. I discovered this recipe when I was getting ready for my surgery last year. I love the rosemary, basil, and dill. The Hubs loves the chili flakes I add in, along with the chili powder. Everyone's happy. After learning how to chop herbs at my knife skills last week, I bought fresh rosemary for this week. It smells SO good. I'm already dreaming of a little herb garden in my new house!

Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles. I was quite pleasantly surprised when we got a call for our first showing just 33 minutes after our listing went live. My mom, a former realtor, suggested I make snickerdoodles just before the showing so the kitchen smells all cinnamony...and the potential buyers would have a warm snack. Snickerdoodles were the cookie of choice in our home growing up, and I had JUST packed my old Betty Crocker cook book a few hours earlier. I looked up the recipe online and realized I didn't have any shortening, so I started searching for plan B. The recipe I made instead has no shortening and used whole wheat flour so I can try to convince myself that they are healthy. I wish they were because I had about six...and of course, some dough!

Tuesday:

Chicken Stew with Dumplings. Well, that was the idea anyway. Our first showing got moved up an hour, and then another showing was added. We ended up using an old Applebee's gift card instead.

We scheduled a third showing for Wednesday, so I made a big double patch of cookies. I now have a big container full of pre-rolled cookies for future showings.

Wednesday:

Rustic Tortellini Soup. Speaking of double batches, that's what I'm doing with this soup at naptime today and we'll have it after the showing tonight.

Thursday:

Slow Cooker Dill Potato Soup. We need to be at the dentist's office at 7am, so it seemed like a good day for a crockpot meal! My kitchen will also be a construction zone for the last time, so there's another good reason for the crockpot. The Hubs might not be up for a thicker soup like this, but he'll have plenty of other options, and I know he'll like it when he starts to feel his jaw again! (Thankfully, I put the kibosh on any potential showings for this day).

Friday:

Cauliflower Soup. Like any good Dutchie, The Hubs loves cauliflower. When I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. We found some really pretty purple cauliflower, so the soup will have some nice color, too.

Saturday:

Italian Wedding Soup. One last day of soup. This is another one The Hubs' raved about when I've made it in the past. Of course, as I type this, I realize that we have a second showing to one of the buyers from Monday night, so this one might not happen either.

I may need to research some meals that can be quickly packed and eaten in a car as we drive around. Any ideas?

Eet Smakelijk!

Week in Pictures: April 4, 2011

2011-04-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a bit of a crazy week. We've had construction guys in my kitchen almost every day, which has made cooking a challenge at times. The good news is...my new hood is in!

Here's what I made this week:

Sunday:

We had a lazy day on Sunday and the boys slept most of the afternoon. So, I didn't make anything fancy for dinner. I did make Crockpot Apple Coffee Cake for our small group, although I forgot to add the sugar. It was that kind of day. There's no picture of that mistake!

We did snack on these yummy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles that I made last week instead.

Monday:

Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken. After a busy weekend with guests for dinner on Friday and Saturday, and company on Sunday, plus all the running around and staging, I knew I needed to keep it simple. Love this meal. It's something I've made many times, so...no picture again.

Tuesday:

Ovenschotel met gehaktballetjes en winterpeen. This is officially my new favorite Dutch recipe. WOW!!! So SO good. It translates to Casserole with Meatballs and Carrots, and the secret ingredient is Ketjap Manis, which is a sweet Indonesian soy sauce. You should be able to find it in an Asian or Dutch store. You can also make it yourself. YUM!

Wednesday:

Such a fun night! My Valentines Day gift from The Hubs was a knife skills class with a friend. We had a blast, and totally rocked our Greek Panzanella Salad. There was lots of cutting and lots of learning.

Thursday: I was wiped. We had leftovers.

Friday:

Crockpot Coconut Beef. This one was a total experiment, and The Hubs actually liked it more than I did. I forgot to start the rice, so I made couscous instead and added a big handful of flaked coconut (unsweetened). I thought it had a bite, but The Hubs thought it was just right.

Saturday:

BBQ Chicken Pizza. I was a little afraid, but I made my first homemade pizza dough to go with this recipe. It took a little time, because the dough needed to rise, but WOW, so, so good. I'll definitely make this again. Maybe next week because my dough recipe made enough for two pizzas.

I'll have to make a separate post about the dough because I found the recipe in a book, but here's a sneak peak: 4.5 cups flour (I used 1 c. whole wheat, the rest AP), 2 t. yeast, 2 t. salt, 2 T. sugar, 2 T olive oil and 1 3/4 cup COLD water (I thought it was odd that it wasn't warm, but it worked). Combine all dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Stir together until mixture becomes dough. Knead 10 minutes (a great workout if you don't have a mixer!). Form into 2 balls, place in lightly oiled bowls. Cover and let rise for 1-2 hours. When doubled in size, punch down. Let rest 20 min. Roll or pull dough to size of your pizza pan. Add toppings and bake. (Dough lasts in frig for 6 days).

Eet Smakelijk!

Casserole with Meatballs & Carrots

2011-04-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

Ovenschotel met gehaktballetjes en winterpeen

(English: Casserole with Meatballs & Carrots)

translated from the Albert Heijn website

When we were in the Netherlands over the holidays, I was happy to notice that most of the groceries stores provided free magazines filled with recipes. I brought about four of these home and dog-earred all sorts of possibilities. Even though my Dutch has improved quite a bit since meeting my husband, I still needed a little help translating the recipes.

I've had my eye on this one for awhile and WOW! It's is SO good. It has quickly become my favorite Dutch meal. It's not complicated, though you will save a LOT of time if you have a food processor. It's basically (turkey) burger, carrots and potatoes seasoned with thyme, salt and pepper.

The secret ingredient is...
...ketjap mantis, which would I would describe as a thick, Indonesian sweet soy sauce. It's a bit tricky to find here in the States, so we brought some home with us. I would think you could maybe find it in an Asian grocery store, otherwise you can find a good homemade recipe here or here.

Ingredients:
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1lb (2 cups)meatballs ( used ground turkey)
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 2 Tablespoons ketjap mantis or soy sauce (I think if I used soy sauce, I might add 1/2 Tablespoon brown sugar and a pinch of coriander).
• 700g carrots, sliced.
• 700g potatoes (about 5), sliced
• Pepper and salt to taste
• 5oz cold water or broth

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Use a food processor to chop up your veggies.

Use big fat carrots so you don't have to peel this many carrots.

Heat up the oil in a frying pan and sauté the onions in about 3 minutes.

Add the meat balls/burger and cook until the meat balls are nice and brown.

Add the garlic, thyme, soy sauce, pepper and salt.

Add 150 ml water (or broth) while stirring and deglazing the pan.

Bring to a boil.

Add the mix from the pan into the oven dish using a slotted spoon, so the juice remains in the pan.

Add the carrots.

Then the potato slices.

Spread the frying liquid over top.

Cover and bake for 40 minutes, until golden brown.

Eet Smakelijk!

Menu Monday: Week of April 4, 2011

2011-04-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

The crockpot is my friend. Busy day? Dinner in the crockpot. Not feeling well? Dinner in the crockpot. Kitchen getting torn up? Dinner in the crockpot. Are you sensing a theme?

Last week, I wrote that we're getting an island hood installed in our kitchen. Slight hiccup in that our hood was back ordered, so we cancelled that order and ordered another one from a different vendor. THAT one is scheduled to arrive either Wednesday or Thursday, and we're planning for it to be installed on Thursday afternoon. With a little bit of luck, the drywall guys and painters can be back on Friday. Friday night, our realtor is coming over with the paperwork, and hopefully Saturday we'll hang the ol' For Sale sign out in the yard. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, it's a bit of challenge planning meals when I'm not sure how much access I'll have to my kitchen on any given day. In other news, I'm SO excited that my knife skills class in on Wednesday night. The hubs will have leftovers, and I will learn to chop chop!

Here's what's cooking this week:

Sunday:

We were supposed to have the rest of our Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups, but the boys were sleeping all afternoon after a crazy weekend of staging and I was pretty tired, too. We ended up snacking and making sandwiches.

Crockpot Apple Coffee Cake. I did manage to get this coffee cake going in the afternoon for our small group. We ended snacking on the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles instead, which turned out to be a good thing because I forgo the sugar in the coffee cake. Some days you wonder why you get out bed.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Ovenschotel met gehaktballetjes en winterpeen. Casserole with Meatballs and Carrots. When we were in the Netherlands over Christmas and New Years, I noticed that the major grocery stores produce really nice cooking magazines. Think Taste of Home or Cooking Light. I brought several of these home so I could practice my Dutch as well as make Dutch meals from The Hubs. This casserole is one I've been wanting to make for awhile, but needed a little help with the translation. I'll post the directions in English a little later.

Wednesday:

Leftovers. I have knife skills class!!! The Hubs can have Dutch leftovers. Everybody's happy!

Thursday:

BBQ Chicken Pizza. I haven't made pizza for awhile and this one sounds really good. I'm going to look for a homemade pizza dough recipe as well. Hopefully. If I have a kitchen on Thursday.

Friday:

Crockpot Coconut Beef. No idea how this one is going to go over with The Hubs, but I have some coconut milk I need to use up, and it's made in the crock pot.

Saturday:

Rustic Tortellini Soup. I can't get enough of this soup. It's SO good. I was really excited to find six 8-oz. packages of tortelli at Sam's for $7.50. I'll be making double batches of this from now on.

Eet Smakelijk!

The Week In Pictures

2011-04-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try something new: a weekly review of the recipes I made each week, possibly with commentary.

Sunday:

Frittata. I didn't actually take a photo of my frittata this time since I've made it before, although I did take some cute pictures with boys during dinner. Like this one.

I think this recipe will become one of those great catch-all recipes. Got some eggs, some greens, some cheese, some veggies? How about a frittata!? As a bonus, frittata is really fun to say. Frittata, frittata, frittatata...

Monday:

Chicken Stew with Dumplings. This was really, REALLY good. I have been looking for a good crockpot-chicken-and-dumplings recipe and found this one for the stove. But it has the perfect comfort food flavor and texture so I forgive it. Only think I'll change is to add a little extra broth, because the leftovers were a little low on liquid. Actually, next time I'll double the recipe so I have more leftovers.

Paasbrood. I'm quite proud of my first attempt at making this Dutch Easter bread. It's very similar to the cinnamon raisin bread I've been making every week, but it has almond paste and orange peel instead.

Rolling up the paasbrood.

Tuesday:

Indian Spiced Oats with Coconut Milk. I have steel cut oats most every morning. Usually I make a big batch early in the week and then portion it out. I had a little extra coconut milk so I made this version. It was quite good, so I'll definitely keep it in the rotation.

Indonesian Pilaf. Big Day! We signed the contract for our new house. While our builders were here, I was able to introduce them to one of my favorite new meals.

Mint Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies. I was intrigued by the oat flour in this recipe. I have some in my pantry from something I made before, so I'm always looking for other oat flour recipes. I also had some leftover cream cheese so this seemed like a good use-thing-up recipe. I didn't have mint chips so I added about 1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract instead. I thought the cookies turned out well, but I still like this recipe for mint chocolate chip cookies better.

Wednesday:

The first shuffle of the week came on Wednesday. I forgot we had a play date/pizza party with our small group. I scrapped the Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups.

Thursday:

Broccoli Brunch Braid. This recipe has been in the binder for awhile and never disappoints. Best of all, even though it looks complicated, it's quite easy and very tasty.
Chocolate Cookie Dough Truffles. There's a local coffee shop that makes these amazing healthy-ish cookie dough things called Morsi. I was trying to find the recipe (still am) when I found these not-at-all healthy cookie concoctions. There were really fun to make--although I really need to get a candy fork to make my life easier--and even more fun to eat!

Friday:

Greek Chicken Pasta. I switched this meal around too because we had some new friends in town over for dinner, and this looked like it made the most of anything I was making. It was a new recipe to me, which made me a little nervous, but either they liked it or are very polite! I used regular cubed chicken, which I seasoned with rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper before cooking separately. Other than that, the only other change I would make is too cook the pasta a little less.

Saturday:

Pasties. This classic UP recipe was a big hit last time I made them. I had some leftover veggies all cubed and ready to go, so this will be an easy meal. I put a little garlic salt in the dough for a bit of a bunch. I consulted the FB universe to learn what I should serve with them, and based on the collective wisdom I gleaned, offered them up with dill sauce, ketchup, BBQ sauce, gravy and mashed potatoes.

No picture this time since it was leftovers.

Eet Smakelijk!

Paasbrood (Dutch Almond Raisin Bread)

2011-03-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, my friend Jen made a special trip for us to one of the Dutch stores in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I used to live. She picked up a new "NL" sticker for The Hubs, and asked if there was anything else we'd like. The Hubs requested some almond paste because it's hard to find around here. When it arrived, I asked him what he wanted me to make with it. The verdict: Paasbrood.

Paasbrood, which means "Easter Bread" is a very popular Dutch raisin (or currant) bread that includes a large log of almond paste in the center. The authentic Dutch almond paste is a little less refined that what you find in the states, but it tastes the same. The bread also often includes bits of fruit. Think of it as the Dutch version of fruit cake, only much, MUCH better!

I've been looking for a good recipe for quite some time, but haven't been able to find one that wasn't too complicated or intimidating. Since I've been having so much luck with BudgetByte's Cinnamon Raisin Bread, I thought I'd use her recipe as a starting point, and then improvise.

That said, here is my version of Paasbrood.

Paasbrood

inspired by Budget Byte's Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
2.25 cups bread flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1.25 tsp salt
.75 Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup raisins
1 Tbsp orange peel
handful of slivered almonds (optional)
approximately 1/3 pound almond paste
1.25 cups warm water

Instructions:

In a large pot or bowl, combine the flours, brown sugar, salt, yeast, orange peel and raisins.

Stir everything until evenly mixed (break up any raisin clumps).

Add the warm water and stir. If the dough does not come into one cohesive ball (with no dry bits left at the bottom of the bowl) add a little more water, one tablespoon at a time, until it all comes together.

This is my secret to not killing the yeast.

Loosely cover the bowl and let it rest for 2 hours at room temperature. (Jen says: I'm not sure why the dough is supposed to be covered and I've read that the towel should be wet, dry, hot and cold. I usually use a warm, wet cloth.)

Let the dough rise for two hours. After two hours, it should be roughly double in size.

Turn it out onto a floured surface. Give it maybe one or two turns or "kneads" in the flour just to work in enough flour to keep it from sticking to your hands. Flatten and stretch the dough into a long rectangle. The short side of the rectangle should be the same length as your bread pan, the long side double that.
I sprinkled the dough with slivered almonds. This is the not traditional, just my own improvisation.
Next, roll your almond paste into a log the same width as your dough, and place it close to one end. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Roll the rectangle up and place it in a bread pan coated with non-stick spray.

Let the bread rise for 1.5 hours or until it has risen up and out of the pan.

I love how the sun shines on my pretty loaf!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Brush the top of the bread with water to give it a nice crunchy top.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
After baking, turn it out of the bread pan onto a wire cooling rack. Let cool completely before slicing.

Eet Smakelijk!

Menu Monday: Week of March 28

2011-03-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my pretty kitchen. I love that a have a nice big kitchen with lots of counter space. What I don't love about my kitchen, is that the stove was never properly vented. Shortly after we moved in, I made something for The Hubs and was blown away by the piercing sound of the smoke alarms. I opened the windows and they still screamed. I got a chair and yanked out the batteries. Sweet silence.

That was my solution for about four years. Then we started getting our house ready to sell. Apparently, dangling smoke detectors do not impress potential buyers. Back in they went. And back to their uber-sensitive ways they went....terrifying my toddler in the process. We had the smoke detector nearest the kitchen moved to the front door. Still went off anytime I touched my oven. I used my crock pot and sulked.

Finally, we gave in and decided to install an over-the-island hood. Last week, the drywall guys tore up my beautiful flat ceiling. Then the duct guy came, drilled a hole in the wall and put in the ductwork for the new hood. This Friday, my new hood is due to arrive and shortly thereafter, I look forward to cooking in silence.

Here's what's cooking this week:

Sunday:

Frittata. I totally improvised on this one this week. I used kale and spinach instead of chard. I used ham instead of sausage. And I added sundried tomato, oregano and basil. YUM!

Monday:

Chicken Stew with Dumplings. Hmmm....I was thinking this was a crockpot recipe, but looking over it right now, I see it's now. It looks delicious though, and Megan hasn't steered me wrong yet, so I'll battle the stove for it!

I didn't make my Almond Raisin bread last week because I've been really dragging, so I need to make some bread this week.

Tuesday:

Indonesian Pilaf. Just can't get enough of this!

Wednesday:

Broccoli Brunch Braid. I deep cleaned my frig this week and noticed that I have a few Pillsbury doughs that need to be used up. This is a really easy recipe, but looks impressive. Love those.

Thursday:

Greek Chicken Pasta. I also deep cleaned the freezer this week and realized that our leftovers (aka lunch for The Hubs) are running low. This looks like a good meal with leftover potential. I love Greek food!

Friday:

Pasties. This classic UP recipe was a big hit last time I made them. I had some leftover veggies all cubed and ready to go, so this will be an easy meal.

Saturday:

Spinach Lasagna Roll Up. I have lots of leftover ingredients from the last time I made this, so I look forward to making it again.

Eet Smakelijk!

My Staple List

2011-03-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

One of the best ideas I've come across as we've tried to get a handle on our spending is the idea of a staple list. I've also heard them called stock lists. The basic idea is that you made a note of how much you spend for items you buy often. If you shop at a couple of different places, it's quite eye-opening to learn how prices vary from store to store.

My actual list is five pages long. A bit overboard, I realize know, but part of my process. I have every item I stock (or have stocked in the last year or so) in my pantry, frig, freezer or chest freezer on the list.

How I Got Started:

I made a spread sheet with my week's shopping list and made columns for the stores we tended to visit. In our case, that means Giant Eagle (a local chain), Acme (another local chain), Beillers (a farmer's market-meets-Horrocks store for my Michigan friends), Target and Sam's Club. We originally had a few other local stores, but it became clear very quickly that their prices were way more than we wanted to spend, so we stopped going to those places.
As I shopped, I noted the cost of each item. Usually I go with a price per pound for veggies or bulk items, and price for average jar size (with weight noted) on other things.
We spent maybe 3-4 months doing this. Not doing anything different, just adding to our list and shopping wherever it was convenient to shop that week, and noting prices.
As the list grew, I started grouping items in categories: Produce, Dairy, Meat and Bulk first (because those are the items I buy every week), as well as Frozen, Packaged, and Home Goods.
After several months, we started to see where it made sense to shop.

What I Learned:

Produce and bulk items are MUCH cheaper (and fresher...and local) at Beiller, so we always start there. In fact, making that little switch cut our weekly bill almost in half!
Even with coupons, Target tends to be cheaper for cereal and bread, so we usually get those when we get our household items, which are also cheapest there.
Giant Eagle and Acme have the best loss leader prices on the few packaged items we still buy, so we usually make a quick trip there most weeks as well. If we run out of time, that's the first place we drop.
After I had a general idea of the regular price of an item, I started tracking the lowest sale price I found
It took probably 6-8 months to build up my pantry to the point where I have pretty much anything I need to make any meal I want...with the exception of fresh produce or dairy.
Once my pantry was filled to satisfaction, I've made it my goal to only stock up when an item is on sale.
We're very fortunate to live close to Amish country, where it's easy to buy locally grown food. We found a place to buy meat in bulk, so now we have locally grown, hormone-free meat for the price of that stuff you buy in the grocery store.
A chest freezer (or even a separate freezer) is a great help in lowering your grocery bill.
Meal planning is the single best way to make sure I buy what I need when I need it.

Does anyone else keep track of prices? Any tips you'd like to share?

Crockpot Jerk Chicken

2011-03-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

One of the easiest recipes in my arsenal is Money Saving Mom's Crockpot Italian Chicken. When I'm under the weather, or busy, or don't really feel like cooking, this is the recipe I use. A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out my frig and looking at all the marinades and dressings we have, and got the idea to experiment. And so, Crock Pot Jerk Chicken was born.

Crock Pot Jerk Chicken

Ingredients:

5-6 chicken breasts (enough to fill up the bottom of your crockpot)
1 bottle of your favorite jerk chicken marinade (in the future, I have aspirations to learn how to make the marinade myself. (I found a recipe here).

Instructions:

Place chicken breasts in crock pot.
Cover with marinade.
Cook on high for 4-6 hours.

That's all, folks!

Now, it's not really a balanced meal, but you can easily shred the chicken when it's done and serve on buns with some veggies.

Or, after a little websurfing, I might try this recipe for Island Rice next time.

***Update**

I found a new recipe for Jerk Chicken, that's a million times better. Check it out here.

Menu Monday: Week of March 21

2011-03-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

I'll be taking it easy this week. I have a little surgery on Tuesday. Historically, I'm pretty slow to come out of anesthesia, so I don't imagine I'll be hoping right back into the kitchen.

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Sunday:
Beef Stew. This is still my favorite beef stew recipe. We were out running errands all day. When we got home we were famished and the house smelled amazing. YUM!

Monday:
Rustic Tortellini Soup. Have to make some soup before my surgery tomorrow. If I wasreally thinking, I would have planned to make a double batch!. Love, love, love this recipe.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. Not quite the souffle on my challenge list, but when I read about this simplified recipe on one of the boards I follow, I had add it to my list. Especially now that I picked up some cute green ramekins at Homegoods last week!

Tuesday:
Surgery day. I'm thinking dinner will be 7 up and saltines. The boys will have leftovers.

Wednesday:
Leftovers.

Thursday:
Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken. I'm going to make it easy on myself this week, and this is a super easy way to get a tasty dinner on the table.

Friday:
Kale Frittata. Can't go wrong with a little protein as you recover from surgery, right?

Almond Raisin Bread. One of my best friends sent me some almond paste from one of the Dutch stores in Grand Rapids, MI, where I used to live. I asked The Hubs what he wanted me to make with it, and he suggested that I try to make paasstol (a traditional Dutch Easter bread with raisins and almond paste) using BudgetByte's cinnamon raisin bread recipe. Sounds like a fabulous idea!

Saturday:
Leftovers.

Eet Smakelijk!

Cut the Grocery Bill Challenge - week 4

2011-03-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday night, the end of an expensive week. We're in the process of getting our house ready to put on the market. Seven years ago, when I put my townhouse on the market after a crazy staging frenzy with my mom, I vowed that NEXT time, I wouldn't wait until I wanted to sell my house to my make it all pretty. Yeah, well, NEXT next time... We actually started working on the house last summer and have done all sorts of things like landscaping, finishing the deck, painting, etc. Now we're in the final stages with getting a few new pieces of furniture, as well as pretty pricey renovation to our kitchen (putting in a hood over the range so the smoke alarm doesn't go off every time I cook, aka, every day!) and new carpet in the bedrooms. I hate spending the money, but love the way our house has come together.

One area where we are NOT spending obscene (to me) amounts of money is our grocery budget. I'm thrilled that we just bought our fourth week of groceries and are still under my goal of $400!

To recap:
Week 1: spent $6.02 $393.98 remaining
Week 2: spent $151.30 total spent: $188.57 $242.68 remaining
Week 3: spent $53.80 total spent: $242.37 $157.63 remaining

Week 4: spent $74.85 total spent: $317.22 $82.78 remaining

I'm not exactly sure why I still have another week left in March when I thought I started this challenge at the beginning, but I'll go with it, and add next week's groceries to this challenge.

I was reading on another blog that someone had a goal of $25 per person per week. For us, that would be $75/week, although one of those persons is only 2, so I think $60 is a better ultimate goal.

As I was tallying up the receipts tonight, I was thinking about how I could have saved more. I spent $5.00 in chicken broth this weekend. I know I should have been able to get it for no more than $4.00 if I had waited for a sale, and even less if I had coupon, but I had run out and since I'm having surgery on Tuesday, I knew I'd want soup. So, not smart shopping, but logical.

Another big expense this week was pine nuts. I LOVE pine nuts, they are a staple in several of our favorite recipes. But they are pricey. A few weeks ago I happily discovered that the organic section of one of our grocery stores sells them for $15.79/pound, which is decidedly less than the $26.95/pound we've been paying at our local farmer's markety place. Yeah, we loaded up today.

Cut the Grocery Bill Challenge - week 3

2011-03-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

We're in the home stretch! We kicked off the month with a "Cut the Grocery Bill Challenge." To review, here are the rules for our new Cut the Grocery Bill Challenge.

Our goal is $100/week ($400/month) for groceries only. We'll move on to household goods another time.
We will start using cash to pay for groceries. It will be a little awkward, but we'll pay for the food items first, with cash, then any other items with our debit card.
At the beginning of the month we'll take the full $400 a month out of our bank account, in order to take advantage of any surprise deals on our staple items.
When the money is gone, we stop spending. This means that if we do find some great deal and spend ahead, we need to make sure to reserve money for our son's milk.
Whatever money we have left at the end of the month gets deposited into our savings account.

We're doing great on the budget part, even though we haven't been doing well about the spend with cash part. I keep forgetting to go to the bank.

One discovery we made this week was Aldi's! We aren't bound to brands, so we were quite pleasantly surprised by what we found at our local store, and were able to spread out budget out a little farther.

Three weeks in, here's where we are:
Week 1: spent $6.02 $393.98 remaining
Week 2: spent $151.30 $242.68 remaining
Week 3: spent $53.80 $$157.63 remaining

I'm feeling pretty good about this, and think maybe our eventual goal of $300 a month is do-able.

Menu Monday: Week of March 14

2011-03-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

So March 2011 will not go down as my favorite month. This week, the flu struck our house. First our son, the The Hubs, then me. Bleh.

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Sunday:
Ice chips, 7Up and Pedilyte. The Hubs had leftover Indonesian Pilaf.

Monday:
Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup. I'm bummed I didn't get to make this last week, and I'm thinking soup is a great re-introduction to solid foods!

Tuesday:

Spaghetti di Pesto alla Genovese. I didn't to make this "Pesto Pasta" a few weeks ago, so I'm going to give it go this week. Really!

Wednesday:
Hachee met Hutspot. I've been slacking on the Dutch dishes, so I was happy to find this recipe for Hachee (pronounced "ha SHEE"). Hachee is a thick beef stew often served with mashed potatoes, or huspot. The Hubs bought me some Hachee seasoning for Christmas and I've been wanting to find a good recipe. In truth, the Hutspot (glorified mashed potatoes) part of the recipe seems a little sparse, so I'll follow it for the hachee, and use this recipe for the hutspot...OOH! I just found a recipe for it on my favorite Dutch food blog, so I may try this one instead.

Thursday:
Leftovers.

I know, I know, it's St. Patrick's day and all so I should be making Irish stew or something, but well, I didn't think about it when I was making the menu. I will try to redeem myself to my Irish mom by making Irish Soda Bread.

I'm also going to try an experiment with my crockpot. We are about to put our house for sale, so I was trying to think of something we could make that would make the house smell all nice and homey without the risk of burning down said house. I found this recipe for Apple Coffee Cake--made in the crock pot. I'm so excited to see how it smells...and tastes!

Friday:
Crock Pot Marinade Chicken. After the success of my Jerk Chicken based on this recipe, I'm going to experiment with yet another marinade in our frig. Not sure which one yet. It'll be a game time decision. I'll throw some veggies in for the last hour, and serve on rice.

Saturday:

We're being treated to dinner on Saturday by the Tech/Worship team at church.

Eet Smakelijk!