Kaylea Cooks!

Pantry-friendly North African Peanut Stew

2012-01-20T18:25:00.000-08:00

This is a nice stew for a cold evening and full of protein. Most recipes call for broth rather than the water and tomato soup I suggest, and typically use diced sweet potato instead of the mix. This version is silky in texture without requiring the blender that some recipes call for, and is my new favorite variation on the overall theme.

Ingredients:

1.25 lb ground turkey breast
3 big scoops of peanut butter or to taste -- creamy or chunky works fine, but creamy does go nicely with the generally smooth base
1 can of tomato soup
candied ginger
sliced onion
olive oil
North African spice blend (cumin, oregano, garlic if you don't have it)
hot pepper (I used mozambique peri peri but cayenne works just as nicely)
powdered mashed sweet potato mix (the stuff I bought was sweet potato/potato flakes from BC, on deep discount post-T-Day)

Prep:

In a nice-sized dutch oven, brown your turkey, breaking it into bits as it cooks, and sautee your onion in some olive oil.
Add the soup, four cans of water, and sweet potato flakes.
Depending on your preferences, add as much or as little ginger, spice blend, and hot pepper as you like. The pepper and ginger add nice depth to the flavor and help cut through the peanutty taste (which can be a little cloying if you went crazy with your scoops), but won't actually make the stew hot unless you really work at it.
Simmer for 20 minutes or however long it takes for people to be ready to eat dinner, adding more water if it starts to stick. Great the second day, if you have any left.

Meal Plan for 1/20/2012 - 1/28/2012

2012-01-20T18:10:00.000-08:00

mac and cheese
tomato soup and grilled cheese
chicken tacos w/peppers and onions
Prep: soak more beans
Prep: rest of peppers
Roasted Turkey
Sweet potato casserole
Freeze:cook then freeze beans
Pot roast
Chili made from leftover pot roast
Lamb curry in crockpot
Pork chops
Steak
Leftovers

Mealplanning for the Family Holiday Cookathon

2011-12-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

Some multi-day leftover conversion combinations that have worked for me this year:

Meal 1:
Holiday Turkey
Mashed potatoes

Meal 2:
Turkey tacos (lime juice helps counter some of the 'heaviness' of the roasted meat)
Corn chowder (2 cans corn, leftover mashed potatoes)

Meal 1:
Oven-roasted sweet potatoes
Homemade bread

Meal 2:
Homemade stuffing w/sweet potato & toasted homemade bread crumbs (sherry, diced sauteed onions)

Every Christmas, I get a chance to practice my "cooking for a crowd" skills – when I go to visit my brother in Texas, I get to cook for six or so more people than I usually do. I'm not a particularly fast cook, and there are a wide range of tastes (conservative, semi-vegetarian, exotic) and 4-6 children (4 of whom have decidedly "preschool" tastes). The challenge I set for myself is to cook balanced meals with something for everyone without spending too long in the kitchen, or spending excessively. Plus, it's Christmas, which means there are a range of traditional foods that everyone likes to have this time of year.

Cherry-Coconut Pie

2011-11-27T16:39:00.001-08:00

Cherry-Coconut Pie

Most of what you see here is the "Amazing Coconut Pie" recipe from the back of the coconut bag, but the addition of cherry filling and the blendering and then post-baking sprinkling of the coconut is my variation.

Ingredients:

pre-made pie crust -- graham cracker was tastier than flour in my opinion, but oreo might be even better
1 can cherry pie filling
2 C milk
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C flour
1 t baking powder
6 T butter
1 t vanilla
4 eggs
1.3 C flake coconut

Directions:

Spread filling in bottom of pie crust.
Blender up the milk, sugar, flour, baking powder, butter, vanilla, eggs, and coconut.
Pour into pie crust over the cherries.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes until top is golden.
Cover pie with remaining coconut.
Store in fridge.

Thanksgiving: Mission Complete

2011-11-26T20:33:00.001-08:00

This year's Thanksgiving Menu:

Traditional appetizers: carrot sticks and pickles. Whether they get eaten or not, these are necessary.
Salad
Turkey: from Wallace Farms. Brined, stuffed, roasted....perfect. Definitely the most moist & flavorful turkey I've made.
Ham Steak: (flop! Didn't defrost it, then burned it...tossed it out. Gotta have one flop/holiday, and this was it.)
In-bird stuffing
Baked stuffing
Gravy
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes & pineapple
Green bean casserole
Roasted Carrots
Wild Rice
Stella's cornbread
Homemade Cloverleaf Rolls
Cranberry Orange Sauce
2 pumpkin pies
1 pecan pie
1 coconut cherry pie (the experiment...recipe coming soon)

Mission for next year includes:

All above criteria
Don't forget olives
Another pie or dessert
Another vegetable
New sweet potato dish
Home made stuffing both in-bird and out-of-bird
An experiment
Wheat or multigrain rolls

Tricky Baked Potato Wedges

2011-11-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

I read something in Cook's Illustrated about microwaving potatoes then finishing them up on the stove or in the oven to cut cooking time without losing the flavor you get from baking potatoes. It really does make a big difference in speed and the flavor is great! Here's what I made tonight:

some medium potatoes cut into quarters
pepper, salt, etc
olive oil

In my au gratin pan, I stirred around the potatoes and seasonings and oil a bit.

Microwave for 12 minutes

Bake at 375 or so for 20 minutes

Eat. Delicious!

Garage Sales and Farmer's Market

2011-09-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

My Saturday winnings this week were a Little People zoo set and two kid's lawn chairs for a grand total of $7. We did our usual morning cookie run and hit the farmer's market, stocking up on a whole pile of favorites since the market is ending soon and we won't be able to go next week. Sunday we hit Office Depot for Pre-School Supplies and CVS for a stack of household supplies. We are pretty stocked except for paper products and milk.

I Got My Life Back

2011-09-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'll actually have time to blog again now that circumstances at work are no longer hell and my home is gradually starting to look less like a disaster depot.

Accomplishments Today:
- free dinner from office bbq
- rescued a bunch of food from the office bbq that was going to go to waste, socked it away in the fridge and freezer
- 20-min kitchen cleanup and 20-min living room/dining room clean up with all 3 of my wonderful helpers

Home Finances Work:
- updated our budget status with mint.com and reviewed progress against goals (evaluation: pretty darn good, except that the economy is dragging against our net worth goal, and our dinners-out, SBUX habits from the past few months has put us way over in the "entertainment" category
- reviewed various deal sites, decided to subscribe to the zootles animal magazine for the girls for two years -- referrer link if you must know :) -- make sure you dig up a coupon code from RetailMeNot if you go for the deal, save an extra 15%. Also, make sure you pick a school to send a bonus 5% of your purchase. Parent Coop for Early Learning in Chicago, IL is a good choice ;)
- convinced myself that since we're not really out of anything and have a jam-packed-full fridge and freezers, plus fruit & vegetable boxes to pick up today, we don't need to do any shopping this weekend and we can stay home.

Next tasks:
- meal plan for the next week
- clean up back entry and front entry
- make some homemade tortillas, because they're yummy

Meal Plan for 2/14/2011

2011-02-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

Resuming the weekly householding struggle...besides having almost no time to cook or clean, I've got a broken dryer, a broken oven, a broken washing machine, and my freezer won't make ice. I think there's got to be a country song about that.

Providing I have a successful grocery shopping trip in a few hours, here's the plan....

To prep:
- freezer-friendly mac & cheese - cook's country
- sour cherry scones
- rum raisin scones
- Lasagna
- apple cider muffins
- healthified carrot cake - cook's country
- victoria sponge cake - how to eat

Category A: 30 minutes
- Frozen taquitos + salad, rice
- Lasagna from prep list + breadsticks & salad
- chicken tortilla soup + salad w/almond cilantro dressing - RR p 35
- chicken marvalasala - RR p 42

Category B: 60 minutes
- Ravioli with spinach & sauce

Category C: 30 minutes
- basic roast chicken from How to Eat
- steak bearnaise from How to Eat, sauteed mushrooms & mashed potatoes

Weekend Breakfast:
Eggs

Snacks/Breakfasts:
Cereal
Yogurt
Peaches

Drinks:
OJ
Milk
Chai
Sodas

Meal plan update - 2/3/2011

2011-02-03T18:53:00.000-08:00

To prep:
- freezer-friendly mac & cheese in cook's country magazine
- cinnamon orange scones
- sour cherry scones
- rum raisin scones

Category A: 30 minutes
Frozen taquitos + salad, rice

Category B: 60 minutes
Ravioli with spinach & sauce
Lamb Rogan Josh
Pork cutlets applesauce something

Category C: 90 minutes
- basic roast chicken from How to Eat
- steak bearnaise from How to Eat, sauteed mushrooms & mashed potatoes
- Lasagna

Weekend Breakfast:
Eggs

Snacks/Breakfasts:
Cereal
Yogurt
Oranges
Peaches

Drinks:
OJ
Milk
Chai
Sodas

Recipe Review + Meal plan update - 1/30/2011

2011-01-30T12:39:00.000-08:00

Chocolate chip espresso scones. They are in fact as delicious as they sound. I am love-love-loving The Craft of Baking. The flavor is great as you'd expect, but what's fun about these is that they have an incredibly tender crumb. The key technique in the first recipe in the book (aforementioned scones) seems to be keeping the bits of butter quite cold, including sticking the bowl into the freezer in the middle of making them. I ended up having to use some extra water after putting them in the freezer for longer than the recommended 15 minutes, but they don't seem to have suffered from that at all. The recipe says they will keep in the freezer a while, so I put them into baggies for later baking. I wonder how many of the recipes in this book will be freezer-friendly. I have this fantasy now about the perpetual freezer of bakable goodies...

To prep:
- stock from How to Eat
- freezer-friendly mac & cheese in cook's country magazine
- cinnamon orange scones
- sour cherry scones
- rum raisin scones

Category A: 30 minutes
Frozen taquitos + salad, rice
Frozen shrimp + stirfried veggies + instant rice pouch
Orange chicken

Category B: 60 minutes
Ravioli with spinach & sauce
Lamb Rogan Josh
Homemade pizza
Pork cutlets something

Category C: 90 minutes
- basic roast chicken from How to Eat
- steak bearnaise from How to Eat, sauteed mushrooms & mashed potatoes
- Lasagna

Weekend Breakfast:
Cinnamon rolls
Eggs
Scones

Snacks/Breakfasts:
Cereal
Yogurt
Oranges
Peaches

Drinks:
OJ
Milk
Chai
Sodas

Meal plan update!

2011-01-22T16:15:00.000-08:00

A total lack of wine led us to Trader Joe's this weekend, so we are beyond stocked for a while now. Here's how we stand for meals:

To prep:
- scones from The Craft of Baking (chocolate chip espresso, cinnamon orange, and sour cherry...yes, I have a scone habit)
- stock from How to Eat
- freezer-friendly mac & cheese in cook's country magazine

Category A: 30 minutes
Frozen taquitos + salad, rice
Frozen shrimp + stirfried veggies + instant rice pouch
Orange chicken
sweet & sour chicken

Category B: 60 minutes
Ravioli with spinach & sauce
Chicken Rogan Josh
Lamb Korma
Chicken Jalfrezi
Homemade pizza
Turkey nachos + refried beans
Pork cutlets something

Category C: 90 minutes
- basic roast chicken from How to Eat
- steak bearnaise from How to Eat, sauteed mushrooms & mashed potatoes
- Lasagna

Weekend Breakfast:
Hashbrowns
Cinnamon rolls
Orange rolls
Eggs
Scones

Snacks/Breakfasts:
Poptarts
Cereal
Yogurt
Oranges
Bananas
Peaches

Drinks:
OJ
Milk
Chai
Sodas

Cookbooks To Work Through

2011-01-17T20:20:00.000-08:00

I got some new cookbooks for Christmas this year, and I want to work through them cover to cover over the course of the year, skipping the things that don't sound good at all, but actually cooking the rest.

My books:

The Craft of Baking (Karen DeMasco & Mindy Fox)
How To Eat (Nigella Lawson)
Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris (Clotilde Dusoulier)
A Homemade Life (Molly Wizenberg)

In queue so far:
- scones from The Craft of Baking (chocolate chip espresso, cinnamon orange, and sour cherry...yes, I have a scone habit)
- basic roast chicken from How to Eat
- stock from How to Eat
- steak bearnaise from How to Eat

Meals Again, Post Grocery Shopping

2011-01-17T19:56:00.000-08:00

We hit the grocery store tonight....no more shopping for this month, I hope!

Category A: 30 minutes
Frozen taquitos + salad, rice
Frozen shrimp + stirfried veggies + instant rice pouch
Turkey Meatballs w/noodles & sauce

Category B: 60 minutes
Turkey meatloaf (ready to pop in oven)
Ravioli with spinach & sauce
Chicken Rogan Josh
Lamb Korma
Chicken Jalfrezi
Homemade pizza
Turkey nachos + refried beans
Steak, mushrooms & mashed potatoes

Category C: 90 minutes
Roast chicken & sauteed veggies
Lasagna

Weekend Breakfast:
Hashbrowns
Cinnamon rolls
Orange rolls
Eggs
Scones

Snacks/Breakfasts:
Poptarts
Cereal
Yogurt
Oranges
Bananas
Peaches

Drinks:
OJ
Milk
Chai
Sodas

Vaguely Gyros

2011-01-16T21:59:00.000-08:00

Dinner tonight (straight from the meal plan, ta-daa) was a little slower to prep than the 30 minute section I pulled it from -- more like 45 minutes. But that was because I had to defrost the meat, giggle at a hilarious little 9-month-old, and prep everything myself because my favorite dinner partner was still attempting some napping with the napless wonder. David's favorite meat is lamb -- turkey gets second place -- but most lamb dishes I know are either time consuming (stewed lamb shanks in the crockpot) or a little risky. Lamb is so fatty and bony, I never know how much real meat I will have at the end of the cooking process. But these are almost always a success because although ground lamb is fatty, you are at least guaranteed some meat in the end.

Kaylea's Gyros

- 2 lb ground lamb
- something acidic but tasty
- 2 onions
- 1 or 2 bell peppers
- various middle eastern seasonings
- hummus
- tomatoes
- goat cheese
- pita

Cook the lamb in a frying pan (you won't need any oil) until it is almost brown all the way through, leaving the meat in bite-sized chunks rather than breaking it up into tiny bits. Drain well. Add something acidic but tasty. Vinegar, greek salad dressing, some sort of alcohol, whatever. This last time around I had red pepper vinagrette on hand, that worked great. I'm not a food scientist, but I've found that adding acids like this will cut down on some of the woolly/gamey flavor of the lamb. Cook until thoroughly brown, draining again if it needs it.

Meanwhile, dice up your onions and peppers and cook them in a bit of olive oil, but not too much. You want just a little bit of browning to creep into the vegetables. Once the onions are quite soft but not translucent, add some diced tomatoes and turn down to simmer.

Meanwhile, the pita bread should be in your toaster oven getting a little bit warm and soft. Don't let it dry out, or you'll have pita chips instead of pita bread.

Add your spices. I put urban accents ras el casablanca blend into the meat and sumac from penzey's into the veggies. Cumin, coriander, oregano, that kind of stuff would do just as well.

Arrange your other toppings. Hummus, goat cheese, lettuce, plain (greek-style or plain flavor, not vanilla flavor) yogurt if you have it. Everyone makes up their own pita, taco-bar style. I like to smear my bread with hummus or cheese before adding toppings, to help it all stick together. Mmm.

New Meal Plan Strategy

2011-01-15T16:19:00.000-08:00

I've been struggling to adapt my preferred home-making, home-cooking, home-everything'ing style to the pace my new job is enforcing. So here's my new approach....instead of trying to write out a week or two of meals by thinking about my schedule, I'm going to start maintaining at least two weeks of possibilities, categorized by the kind of day we're having. Heh. I don't want to sound pitiful. I don't need pity, but I am actually having a hard time.

Category A: 30 minutes
Frozen taquitos + salad, chips & salsa
Frozen shrimp + stirfried veggies + instant rice pouch
Ground lamb + hummos on pita w/onions and leftover spinach dal

Category B: 60 minutes
Turkey meatloaf (ready to pop in oven)
Ravioli with whatever sauce
Homemade pizza
Turkey nachos
Steak, mushrooms & whatever

Category C: 90 minutes
Roast chicken & sauteed veggies

New Year's Resolutions: Kitchen, Home, and Me

2010-12-30T21:36:00.000-08:00

I admit it, I like the whole resolution thing. Here's how I did compared to what I set out to do.

Goal 1:

Maintain a healthy, half-budget grocery bill. According to Mint, I spent 92.5% of my grocery budget for the year. I had actually forgotten about this as a goal, updated my budget in Mint, and stuck to it. We did a meat CSA, veggie CSA, and split a cow from a wonderful ethical farmer.

Assessment: SUCCESS.

Follow-up for 2011: Drop another 10% from the monthly grocery budget, skip the meat CSA while the freezer is so full, plant a better garden.

Goal 2:

Target the top 3 food stress days. I think I did a moderately good job with this goal -- but toward the end of the year, I really fell off the meal-planning wagon and this goal suffered for it. I think having a few more meals in the freezer stockpile would help me keep on track here, but I'm also going to need to rethink my overall meal planning cycle in the face of the new job.

Assessment: Mixed Success and Failure.

Follow-up for 2011: Increase my thinking to a sliding two week window so that my plans are more resilient against busy weekends.

Goal 3:

Observe Kitchen Wednesdays. This one really fell apart by mid-year. My work-at-home day fell by the wayside with the new job, and that was the end of the goal.

Assessment: Pretty much a failure.

Follow-up for 2011: I still want to have special meal days. It seems like the only way to work this into our new lifestyle is to either spread the prep out over a couple of days or to target the weekend.

Oh...and no snowbound cookie challenge in 2010. So, January.

Yellow Curry Tofu & Pineapple Rice

2010-12-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

Yellow Curry Tofu

2 carrots, diced
2 onions, cut into wedges
peas (I used frozen)
tofu (one block, cut into chunks)
yellow curry sauce (maybe 2/3 of a bottle from trader joe's)
sesame oil

I cooked the onions in a very small amount of oil until they were softening and browning in places, then added carrots, then peas, then the tofu. All this simmered while I played on the floor with my kids and let it cook.

Meanwhile, I also had a pan of pineapple rice going.

Pineapple Rice

leftover rice from takeout, a couple days old and dried out is kinda perfect
can of crushed pineapple
sesame oil

I cooked the rice in the oil until I started to worry it would stick to the pan, then poured in the pineapple. All the juice soaked up into the rice and the whole thing simmered happily while the curry heated.

The kids liked the rice, but have yet to show much interest in tofu, even without the curry. Oh well, more for me ;). Lazy delicious dinner, and the nice thing here is that by having two quick and easy dishes instead of a single-pot meal (not that there is anything wrong with going single-pot) is that you can always grab an extra bite of rice if the curry gets to be too hot.

Meal Plan for 12/5/2010-12/12/2010

2010-12-05T21:11:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to make this week's plans fairly low-impact and drawn from ingredients I have on hand -- not only is it a freezer-cooking month around here, it's almost time for the twelve days of cookies. You heard that right... it's almost time for the twelve days of cookies!!! More about that in another post, however. This is the plan I have for the next week plus:

12/5
-----
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: pot roast with french bread
Prep: chicken/spinach pies

12/6
-----
Grocery shopping day: freezer cooking month version (i.e. buy only items that are either practically free or on the absolute essentials list)
Dinner: chicken/spinach pies, pita chips & hummos

12/7
------
First day of the twelve days of cookies!
Dinner: crock pot shepherd's pie: ground beef, carrots, peas

12/8
------
Dinner: Yellow curry tofu w/chickpeas & naan

12/9
------
Dinner: crock-pot chicken cordon bleu

12/10
------
Dinner: turkey nachos

12/11
------
Lunch:
Dinner:

12/12
------
Lunch:
Dinner:

Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

2010-11-27T21:12:00.000-08:00

Fill a cookie sheet with halved tomatillos and hot peppers to taste. Roast in a 300-degree oven for an hour. Puree in blender with a few tomatoes and a little olive oil. Store in fridge in a container with a tight lid. This seems to keep well for several weeks. Add generously to whatever you're cooking -- simmer with half a cup of water, leftover rice and pinto beans.

Orange-Chipotle Turkey Nachos

2010-11-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Quick & easy Thanksgiving leftover recipe:

- shredded cooked turkey
- sliced onion
- orange
- chipotle powder
- cumin
- olive oil

Saute onions in olive oil (I used leftover from Thanksgiving prep) until they start to soften. Add shredded turkey and spices. Squeeze all the juice from the orange and simmer until absorbed.

Meal Plan for 9/6-9/13

2010-09-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

Last month was pretty much a big Fail in the menu planning department. Maybe September will be better. Then again, since it's traditionally the busiest and craziest month at work, I'm doubtful... Eh, I guess we'll see.

Dinners

roasted chicken with oranges
ground pork burritos
curry tofu, split pea dal, paratha bread
big pot of chili
homemade pizza
frozen stockpile chicken crockpot thingys (x2)

Make-Aheads

meatloaf

Mealplan for 8/8/2010-8/15/2010

2010-08-07T21:10:00.000-07:00

This month we are lucky to have my mom staying with us -- work has been super busy, but I want to take advantage of the fact that I have another adult to feed and use it as an excuse to try some new recipes. She does not eat red meat, so having her here is also an interesting challenge for my meal planning. We don't eat that much red meat (although the 350 lb of beef which just arrived in my freezer suggests that our future may shift our habits in this regard...) but we do mix it in to keep things interesting. We hit the farmer's market, Whole Foods, Jewel, and our CSA dropsite today, so our fridge is stuffed with food. I suppose it's a little late to make a meal plan, but better late than never!

chicken w/pesto butter -- portland palate p176
shrimp sesame salad -- portland palate 49 and spicy peanut slaw summer cook's 35
tofu stirfry
tofu something else?
leftovers
ground turkey
roasted pork --NC style -- summer cook's 23

Food and Fun for Next Week

2010-07-12T21:08:00.001-07:00

My girls' babysitter is taking a vacation next week, so I took Monday and Tuesday as vacation days. I want to spend the time primarily on relaxing and enjoying time with my girls, but I also want to schedule my cook-a-thon and maybe get some sewing done during nap time. Fortunately they seem to take synchronous afternoon naps, so that means I'll have at least a few hours when both of my number-one priorities are asleep.

This week's dinners:

breaded chicken & salad
brats & buns
~~slowcooker shredded pork nachos~~
Indian curry tofu with potatoes
pork chops something something?
leftovers

Sides:

kale, kielbasa, and brown rice
rice
smashed potatoes
roasted cauliflower
sauteed broccoli
kohlrabi something something?

Prep:

Cook-a-thon items
- pineapple muffins
- strawberry bread
- black bean burgers
- sw eggrolls -- use pork filling??
- chicken cordon bleu
- slowcooker chicken in mushroom sherry sauce

New Month, New Plan

2010-07-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

Work has really been work this last month, and I think I'll leave it at that. It's a gorgeous weekend, my cupboards are full of food, and I need to make a meal plan to catch up. We hadn't been to the store in so long we just needed a general stock-up run, and I didn't have time to make a plan beforehand. We'll see what sorts of budgetary disasters ensue...we fronted a bunch of cash for half a cow and a summer's worth of organic veggies, and we're still paying that back to ourselves. I'd like to get far enough ahead that those investments don't send us into make-believe arrears, but we're not there yet.

This week's dinners:

breaded chicken & salad
~~lamb & pita (cucumber)~~
brats & buns
tropical shrimp teriyaki stirfry (mango, pineapple)
~~ground pork tacos (double batch)~~
leftovers

Sides:

kale, kielbasa, and brown rice
rice
smashed potatoes
roasted cauliflower
sauteed broccoli

Prep:

bread
~~banana bread~~
~~turkey meatballs~~
~~blueberry coffeecake~~
~~black beans~~
Cook-a-thon items
- pineapple muffins
- breakfast burritos
- strawberry bread
- black bean burgers
- sw eggrolls -- use pork filling??
- chicken cordon bleu
- slowcooker chicken in mushroom sherry sauce

Next week's dinners

brats & buns