Quick Bread and Mexitalian Meatball Stew!

Happy Sunday!!!




I'm a big supporter of local bookstores, so yesterday I went to our local shop with my friend! Among the pile of great books that I purchased was a new cookbook! It's 470 pages of soups, chilies, dumplings, and stews! Each is easy and practical. I looked at another soup cookbook that had a bunch of random recipes that I knew I'd never try. I wanted "every-day" type recipes with plenty of pictures... I'm super excited that I found exactly what I was looking for! The cold weather is hitting harder and is here to stay for a few more months. I can't wait to eat this new variety of hot comfort foods! ...And we're finally almost finished with my last batch of soups, so the freezer is ready to be filled with a new batch of meals!

Today is a football playoff game, and it's COLD outside, so my husband and I are having some guests over--the perfect opportunity to try a new recipe! I decided on a meatball stew and some bread. I woke up late and didn't have enough time to set up the bread maker before leaving for church, but my bread maker is awesome, so I set it to "express bake" when I got home. The express bake setting bakes the bread in less than an hour! Have I mentioned that my bread maker is awesome??? After church we bought our ingredients, headed home, and a few moments later everything was in the pot waiting to boil!

While the ingredients warmed to a boil, I heated some oil in a separate pan to brown the meatballs and give them a little crunch. After adding the meatballs to the stew, I spent a couple of minutes prepping the bread maker. Total prep time (soup and bread combined) was about 15 minutes. Total cook time was about an hour. I made sure to check on the stew and stir it every so often.

Steamy, hot stew!

The soup came out flavorful and filling! The bread was extremely fluffy! This was the perfect meal for watching the playoffs on a cold Sunday afternoon!

View Recipe

 

BREAD RECIPE:
For the bread I used my bread maker's "express bake" setting, which prepares the bread in 58 minutes! I used an "express bake" recipe for white bread that I found in the recipe book that came with the maker. I love making homemade bread because not only is it delicious, and not only does it make my house smell delightful, but I also like knowing exactly what's going into my bread. This recipe included six simple ingredients: hot water, olive oil, sugar (3 Tablespoons for a 2LB loaf), salt, bread flour, and fast-rising yeast. No additives or preservatives.
The bread was fluffy, warm, and tasted delicious with butter*! 

 

*I use the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spread.

Up and Coming:

- Favorite afternoon snacks!

- Requests??? On the left side of my site you'll see a survey where you can vote for the types of recipes you'd like to see more of! I want to post what you want to read, so please take a moment to vote! 

Homemade Granola Bars!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I'm a big fan of clipping recipes off the back of packages. The way I see it is that they're going to put their best recipes on the box/bag so that when you use their product you'll be wowed and will want to keep buying it.

That being said, I recently got an amazing recipe for homemade granola bars from the King Arthur's Whole Wheat Flour bag! I eat granola bars in my lunch on a regular basis, and am a believer in homemade being a better option than store-bought, so I thought I'd attempt to make my own. After making them, I don't quite know if these are "healthier" than store bought granola bars. They contain a generous amount of butter and sugar. But I can confirm that they're delicious! I'll continue my search for a healthier option, but in the meanwhile, I'm definitely going to add this recipe to my binder!

The finished product: Was not the traditional granola bar texture (chewy or crunchy), however, they were magnificent! They were both fluffy and crunchy at the same time, and the flavor was cinnamon and spice with a hint of walnut! They'd make the perfect breakfast or snack paired with coffee, tea, or hot chocolate!

VIEW MY VERSION OF THE RECIPE

Here's what I did to make them my own:

- The recipe calls for 1.5 to 2 cups brown sugar. I added the lesser amount to give them a subtle sweetness, which was perfect!

- I had my sous chef (aka my hubby) helping me with mixing and adding ingredients as we went, but when making them on my own I'll pre-mix the groups of ingredients into their own bowls so that I can combine them with ease (I've adjusted the instructions accordingly).

- I added cinnamon to the flour mixture and chia seeds to the granola mixture.

- I used 1/2 cup walnuts and 2 & 1/2 cups of granola (Cinnamon flavored granola containing dried cranberries, cinnamon, and granola), but I'm up for changing it according to what I feel like adding (and what I have available in the pantry).

My mix-ins: Walnuts, Chia, and Cinnamon flavored granola (containing dried cranberries, cinnamon, and granola). Yum!

Up and coming:
- Favorite afternoon snacks!
- Requests??? On the left side of my site you'll see a survey where you can vote for the types of recipes you'd like to see more of! I want to post what you want to read, so please take a moment to vote! 

Homemade Pizza!

And now for the moment we've all been waiting for...

HOMEMADE PIZZA!!!

My friends came over and we had a "girl night" making pizza! It was a blast! It was also super easy!

Here's what you do:

1. Make the dough. Have I mentioned that you should get a bread maker??? Well, you should! They. are. awesome!!! You just measure and pour the ingredients into the bread maker, set it to the "dough" setting, and then find something to do for about an hour and a half while it does all of the work! 

Ingredients:

- 3/4 teaspoon salt

- 4 cups all-purposed flour (I like to sub wheat flour for half of it)

- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

- 1 and 3/8 cups water (the bread maker comes with a special measuring cup)

- 3 Tablespoons olive oil

Dough Prep Time: 1.5 hours

Add the ingredients, set your preferences, and press "start".

2. After the dough is ready, spread it out onto a greased pan or pizza stone, depending on your preferences. My husband worked at a pizza place in college, so he hand-tosses ours. I have a friend who rolls it with a rolling pin (be sure to have extra flour on hand to keep the dough from sticking to the roller). I stretch mine by hand. Any of these methods work. Try them all out and see which one(s) work(s) best for you.  Remember that the dough contains yeast, so it will rise. If you want a thinner crust, be sure to spread it out quite thin.

3. Aerate the dough with a "dough docker". This keeps the dough from bubbling. If you want a traditional crust around the edge of your pizza be sure to leave a half inch-1 inch around the perimeter when aerating it. 

4. Brush on the sauce according to your preferences. This comes with trial and error because you don't want it too dry or soggy. You can try all types of sauces: Tomato, BBQ, Buffalo, Alfredo, or even just plain Olive Oil.

5. Add the cheese. Start by placing a mound in the center and spread it outward. Add more as needed.

6. Add toppings. Be careful because certain toppings (ex. pineapple) can make the pizza soggy. Don't let this stop you from using them! Instead, practice blotting them with a paper towel to help remove excess juices before/after baking the pizza.

7. Sprinkle a dab more cheese over the top. The point of this isn't to get crazy with the cheese. It's supposed to help keep the toppings in place when the cheese melts.

8. Bake @ 425 degrees for 8 minutes. Check it. Rotate it. Bake another 8 minutes. Be careful to check it during the last 8 minutes. TIP: You can always add more time, but once it's overcooked you can't undo it. Because of this, if you have to add more time, add small increments (a minute or so at a time) and check it frequently.

Making homemade pizza might take a little bit of practice, but it's worth it!
Give it at least two tries: the first one to get your feet wet and to figure out what you could improve on, and the second to try it out with all of those adjustments.

ENJOY!

Up and coming:
- Homemade granola bars!
- Favorite afternoon snacks!
- Requests??? On the left side of my site you'll see a survey where you can vote for the types of recipes you'd like to see more of! I want to post what you want to read, so please take a moment to vote! 

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I apologize for taking so long to post this! November and December are busy months that tend to zip by!!!

Thanksgiving went well! My mother-in-law showed me how to cook a turkey... I'm not going vegetarian, but I must say that dressing a turkey made me consider it. Emptying out the guts and rubbing butter all over its skin was pretty gross--even with wearing gloves! I'll still be eating turkey next year, but I'll stick to preparing unforgettable sides and leave the turkey to somebody else!

Something funny from my turkey adventure is that my in-laws bought a roaster: We did the math, set the timer, and let it cook. Apparently roasters require less time than ovens... TWO HOURS before everyone arrived, the turkey was COMPLETELY DONE!!! If it were going to be just the four of us, it would have been fine to drop everything and eat right then and there. But we had more guests coming! We had to find a way to keep it hot--without overcooking and drying it out! We decided to set the roaster to "warm" and I made sure to baste it. I was almost certain it'd turn out like the one on Christmas Vacation! But it didn't. It was slightly dry but was not near as bad as it could have been, especially given that it was my first time cooking a turkey--and was in the roaster for two hours longer than it should have been!

So what else did I make??? Here are a few family favorites that I made this year:

1. Green Salad. The title sounds redundant, but it's not actually salad, which nullifies the redundancy (the color refers to the main ingredient--green gelatin). My husband's grandpa makes two batches of this delicious side every year: one with nuts and one without.
I made the green salad this year, and I only made the version with nuts. I did, however, crush the nuts really small so that even those who don't like nuts ended up liking the dish. This is because the fineness of the nuts adds more texture and crunch than flavor.

This side is everything you could want in a side: sweet, creamy, and fruity--with a bit of crunch.

VIEW RECIPE

After adding the mallows, let it cool until it forms a jelly-like texture.

TIP: I suggest buying an extra package of gelatin, at least for your first time preparing this recipe. This way if you accidentally let it cool too long--and it turns into full-fledged gelatin-- you can whip up a new batch of gelatin and try again. 

Crush the nuts so that they are more subtle.

Fold in the whipping cream, pineapples, and nuts.

It will look a bit soupy but will thicken in the fridge. 

TIP: I suggest preparing this dish a day before your event so that it has time to thicken.


2. Sweet Potato Casserole. This is a recipe that my vegan sister gave me. She was vegetarian at the time, so it includes eggs. Meat lovers and vegetarians alike--I have yet to find someone who doesn't absolutely love this side, which is almost more of a dessert because it's so sweet! I personally prefer it over traditional "yams with marshmallows". Taste it and you'll know why. The texture and flavor are both unforgettable!

VIEW RECIPE

I prefer using baked sweet potatoes, but canned sweet potatoes can be substituted for part or all of the potatoes in the recipe.

Baking fresh potatoes doesn't add much prep time, yet it adds better flavor and texture to the recipe.

Sweet Potato Mixture

Topping Mixture

Topping Mixture

Cover the sweet potato mixture completely with the topping mixture.

TIP: Even if you use freshly baked sweet potatoes for half of the potatoes in the recipe, it will improve the flavor and texture immensely (vs. using only canned potatoes).

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I also made a green bean casserole and some fresh bread. Everyone else brought sides and desserts. It was a wonderful, low-key Thanksgiving with family and friends! I am looking forward to next year!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Up and coming:

- Homemade granola bars!

- Favorite afternoon snacks!

- Requests??? On the left side of my site you'll see a survey where you can vote for the types of recipes you'd like to see more of! I want to post what you want to read, so please take a moment to vote!