Ramen Noodle Salad

One of my mom's friends gave me this recipe.

Salad:
1 sm head of cabbage, shredded
1 c celery (finely chopped)
1 bunch, including tops, of green onion (I used chives instead)
1 c toasted, slivered almonds
1 T sesame seeds, toasted lightly
1 bag ramen noodles, crushed, not cooked

Dressing:
5 T fresh lemon juice
3 T sugar
1/2 c grapeseed oil (I didn't have enough, so I used I mix of grapeseed and olive oil)
2 t Braggs Liquid Aminos (like soy sauce)

Mix the dressing the night before, put in jar and refrigerate.

When ready to serve, put dressing on vegetables. Add noodles, almonds and sesame seeds. Mix well.

Next time I think I'll use a little less oil and less sugar, but overall this was really good! Kids both ate it and asked for more!

Blueberry Oat Muffins

These are adapted from this recipe (because we didn't have oat bran).

2 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 c oatmeal ground into coarse flour (in blender)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c Sucanat
1/2 c butter, melted
1 1/2 c milk, yogurt, kefir or buttermilk
2 eggs
2 Tbsp molasses
3 c blueberries

Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients, add wet ingredients, mix well. Fold in blueberries. Bake for 20-25 min.

Makes 24 muffins

Ranch Dressing

I adapted this from Pioneer Woman's recipe but made it more of a dip rather than a dressing. The girls declared it "too herb-y, but I think it's yummy!

I didn't measure the herbs, so will include the amounts in the original recipe, I just picked some that I thought were about right.

1 clove garlic, chopped
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 c mayo (approx)
1 c sour cream (approx)
1/4 c chopped flat leaf parsley
1 to 2 Tbsp chopped chives
1 to 2 tsp chopped dill
2 sprigs oregano, chopped

mash galrlic and salt together with fork. Stir everything together, adjust to taste as needed.

It occured to me as I was finished chopping everything and stirring it together, that the mini bowl of my food processor would probably work great for this. So next time I think I'll just put all the herbs, including the garlic & salt, in the minibowl of the food processor and chop everything up, then add the sour cream & mayo and let it stir everything together.

I really like the flavor of this & it's easy and healthier too! (and cheap when all the herbs but the parsley grow in my garden LOL).

Blueberry Clafoutis

I found this recipe on the Nourished Kitchen website:

This can be served as a dessert or for breakfast/brunch.

1 to 1 1/2 c blueberries
3 eggs
1 c cream
2 heaping teaspoons flour
3 heaping teaspoons sucanat (or sugar)

Rinse & drain blueberries and layer on bottom of a pie plate. Whik together rest of ingredients & pour over blueberries, making sure to completely cover blueberries. Bake at 375 for 40 min or until clafoutis is brown on top & knife in center comes out clean. This is an easy, tasty, not too sweet dessert. My girls each ate a serving but didn't ask for seconds, so I'll be saving this recipe to serve when we have company to help me eat it.

Five Minute Bread

There are various versions of this floating around right now (and I have my name on the waiting list for the book at the library) but this one came through one a yahoo group I'm on & it seemed easiest and worth a try. I made a half recipe, baked one yesterday and the other today, and each day the girls & I polished off the whole loaf warm from the oven, YUM! When I asked hte girls if I was supposed to make more they gave a resounding YES!!!

3 c lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
6 1/2 c flour (I used whole wheat, it was pretty dense bread, good flavor though, and worked fine since we were eating it all fresh, but for sandwiches or to keep longer, might do better w/ at least a blend, or adding gluten flour or something . . . )
Cornmeal (to sprinkle on baking stone)

Stir all but cornmeal together in a large bowl. Cover w/ plastic wrap (I used a towel instead) and let rise at room temperature for 2-5 hrs.

At this point you can bake some/all of it or put it in the fridge to use later (most recipes say to put it in a plastic bowl w/ a lid, this one didn't specify, I'm not a fan of plastic for food storage, so I put it in a glass bowl & set a plate over top as a lid).

When you want to bake some, take one grapefruit size bundle of dough and form into a ball, using extra flour if needed. Place on a baking stone sprinkled with cornmeal. Allow to rise about 45 min (mine didn't rise much, but our house is pretty cool right now, and I would guess using at least some white flour would mean it would rise more? Or maybe I should've let it sit longer?). Form an X slash on the top of the loaf. Bake for 20 min at 450 degrees.

This recipe makes 4 (1 lb) loaves (so rather than trying to figure out how big a grapefruit is, I'd just divide the dough in 4ths LOL)

Crockpot Spinach Lasagna

This recipe was posted on Menus 4 Moms a couple weeks ago & today was a good day to try it since dh wasn't coming home for lunch (he doesn't eat tomato sauce):

cooking spray
1 box lasagna noodles
1 jar spaghetti sauce
4 c mozzarella cheese
8 oz ricotta cheese
4 c fresh spinach
1/2 c water

Spray bottom & sides of crockpot. Place a few spoonfuls of sauce in crockpot to keep noodles from sticking. Break uncooked lasagna noodles into pieces & place 1/3 in a layer in crockpot. Pour 1/3 sauce evenly over noodles. Layer 1/2 the ricotta, 1/3 the mozarella, 1/2 of the spinach. Place a few spoonfuls of sauce lightly over spinach. Repeat layers: broken noodles, sauce, cheeses, spinach, a little more sauce. Layer rest of noodle pieces. Cover with rest of sauce, sprinkle rest of mozarella on top. Pour water around edges. Cover & cook on low for about 3 hours, until noodles are soft.

I don't know if it was because I was using lasagna noodles that had been in the cupboard forever, or just my crockpot, but I should've let it cook longer, will probably try 3 1/2 hrs next time. The recipe didn't say what size jar of speghetti sauce to use. I use Aldi's spaghetti sauce (read the ingredients, their chunky marinara doesn't have sugar/corn syrup, most of their others do), which may be a smaller jar than some brands? Anyway I felt like I needed more sauce, so used probably closer to 1 1/2 jars (had an open jar in the fridge so just used more out of it as needed). And it could've used a little salt (again, probably varies depending on the spaghetti sauce?). But all in all, it was super easy & all 3 of us liked it. The girls declared it "the best lasagna ever" so I have a feeling this will be a regular "treat" on days that we know in advance that Daddy's not coming home for lunch (or supper).

Garden Chowder

This is my adaptation of this recipe.

1 med to lg onion, chopped
1/4 c butter
1 c ea diced potatoes, celery, cauliflower, carrot & broccoli (or adapt to what you have/like, I skippe the carrots & cauliflower & doubled the potatoes & broccoli)
3 c water
3 tsp McKay's chicken seasoning
1 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 c flour
2 c milk
1 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
1/8 - 1/4 tsp ea paprika & coriander
2-3 c shredded cheddar cheese

In lg stockpot saute onion in butter (will probably add the garlic at that point next time too) until tender. Add vegetables, water, chicken seasoning & salt. Reduce heat, cover, simmer 20 min. Combine flour & milk till smooth, add to soup. Allow to thicken at low temperature. Add parsley & spices. Just before serving, stir in cheese till melted.

Lindsey says this freezes well, we only have one kid-size serving left (I made it for lunch yesterday) so I won't find out this time around LOL.