Murder, Mystery, and Baking - Stress Therapy

...three things I love in a good book.  However, since I haven't been feeling well, I have spent the weekend reading this book.  My weekend included hot tea, ibuprofen, kleenex, vapo-rub, and lots and lots of sea water nasal spray.

Joanne Fluke's books must send out a subliminal message - Bake!  Bake!  Bake!

Spinach Cups

Don't these look like green eggs?  This would be fun to make on St. Patrick's Day too.

This recipe calls for 6 oz. of fresh spinach, chopped up in the food processor.  I tripled the recipe, but did not triple the spinach.  I used organic baby spinach for mine.  The only thing for me making these in winter, was using up all the eggs we had.  With the colder weather, we are not getting as many.  I did not triple the salt either.

By the way, these re-heat nicely too.  Only one of the kids didn't like these - must have been the spinach.  In fact, one daughter ate them for her after school snack.

I'm betting that these could be cooked and frozen individually also.  I did that one school year, but with mini frittatas.  The kids just took one out the night before, and heated it quickly for breakfast, before school. Next summer I plan to make these again using homemade goat's milk ricotta. And of course home grown garlic and spinach.  Yum!

Spinach Cups
(from Tired and Wired? by Marcelle Pick)

6 oz. fresh spinach
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 large eggs, beaten
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Unsalted butter, for greasing muffin cups *

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Finely chop spinach, using a food processor if preferred (this is what I did).  Then in a large bowl, mix ingredients together well.

Lightly grease 4 muffin cups.  Divide mixture among the 4 cups.  Bake 17 to 20 minutes, or until the spinach cups are set.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then loosen cups by running a butter knife along edges.  Serve.

Serving:  2 (2 spinach cups for serving)  

*Tip:  We save butter wrappers and keep them in a container or ziploc bag in the refrigerator.  They are then a quick way to grease pans (or to butter corn on the cob).   

Also, you could probably leave the salt out of this recipe.  I think the ricotta is salty enough for this recipe.

  

Fighting Two Kinds of Colds

I woke up yesterday feeling worse than the day before, and just wanted to rest on the couch, drink hot tea, and warm up with homemade chicken noodle soup.  I'm not sure if it's a cold or possibly trouble with sinuses.

I didn't have the energy to cook chicken, and had leftover turkey.  I made a crock pot of homemade turkey-noodle soup, with homemade noodles.  I think it was the last of the noodles I had in the freezer too. 

With temperatures anywhere from below zero, to the teens, it warmed me up, and will hopefully help my body fight off this sickness that creeped in on me. 

Today, there is another 2 hour school delay.  Again, bone chilling temperatures.  Again, we have frozen pipes.  I hope we have enough in jugs to water the horse, chickens, goats, dogs and cats. 

Vegetable Burgers ~ Using Pinto Beans

I'm sharing another healthy recipe.  Once again, from a library book. 

I think the fact that this recipe includes sunflower seeds, which we do not eat enough of, is what interested me.  We didn't get to grow them last year, but did the previous year.

As you know, I cook many recipes using lentils and beans.  I did use pre-cooked pinto beans for this recipe, and they are a softer than canned beans.  I did add an egg to this recipe to "bind" the burgers a bit better.   Either way, you could also add more organic brown rice too.

 (Just as they went into the pan)

These had excellent flavor, and the family once again, devoured them.  These would be perfect with another vegetable side such as sweet potato fries.  Yum!  However, I kind of think the recipe title is funny - they really don't have a lot of "vegetables" in them.  Maybe they should be called Bean Patties?

These are crispy on the outside, but somewhat soft on the inside.  We did not serve these on buns, like a "burger" but ate them on a plate with a fork.

Hubby topped his with home canned ketchup, but you could top it with anything really - relish, salsa, or pickles etc. 

Veggie Burger
(Source:  Are you Tired and Wired? by Marcelle Pick)
 
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
1 - 15 oz. can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup shelled sunflower seeds
1 tsp. chopped basil
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

In large skillet, saute onion and garlic in 1/2 tsp. olive oil until onions are translucent.  Remove from pan.

In large bowl, mash pinto beans with back of fork.  Add cooked onions and garlic and remaining ingredients, except olive oil and mix well.  Form mixture into 4 patties.

Back in the skillet, heat remaining olive oil over medium heat.  Cook patties 4-6 minutes per side, or until evenly browned on both sides.

Servings:  4
      
   

  

Thrift Store Find

1 (Morgan Jones) double bed sheet and 2 pillow cases - $3.69 total.  1 cotton blanket - $1.00

Lentil Casserole ~ Delicious!

I'll be honest when I tell you that I had my doubts trying this recipe.  Once again, I found it in a library book.

It's a win-win recipe.  My kids devoured this and wanted more.  I'm not exaggerating either.  It's inexpensive, healthy, and delicious.  They were even asking for it the next day.  No kidding.

Downsizing Our Vehicles ~ Smaller Paychecks

"Old Faithful" is finally repaired.   She needed a new water pump and heater core, among other small repairs.  

My son's car is at it's end.  His plan is to junk the entire car for cash.  He can put that cash towards a new one when he gets a job and can purchase one.

But in the meantime, he needs a way to get to work.  We are in the boonies, and a bicycle is in no way, an option.

So, he and and plan to share old "Eunice" until he can do that.

As we put our truck "Old Faithful" up for sale, we are sending the van back over for more repairs (again).  It's not been driven for a year now, and still needs a new battery (the plan is to keep the battery from my son's junked car).

Once those repairs are completed, it will be up for sale too.  We both agreed.

The sale of the truck and van, and eventually the Buick my son and will share, will buy us one new vehicle that I can drive, and be used for all the farm hauling - a truck.  

Or, we sell the van and car, and keep the truck for farm hauling - plan B.

Those are the plans anyway.   I still have another 16 year-old in training, and will need a car, but that will have to be put on the "wish" list for now.  

First things first....

Chicken Succotash with Gingered Sweet Potato Toss

I'm sharing this recipe, that I found in a November/December 2010 issue of Clean Eating (so I am very behind in reading through magazines I bought at a library sale many moons ago.....).  I did look on-line but the recipe was not on Clean Eating's site.  So here you are.

It's a penny pinching recipe too!  

Chicken Succotash
With Gingered Sweet-Potato Toss

4 4-oz boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
8 oz. green beans, trimmed and rinsed
1 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped into 1-inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, sliced into thin rounds
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 tsp. ground ginger
8 oz. frozen corn
Pinch sea Salt
Sweet Paprika, to taste
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste.

One:  Remove any visible fat from chicken, cut breasts into 1-inch cubes, and set aside.

Two: Fill 2 medium pots halfway with water and bring to a boil.  Add beans to 1 pot and turn heat down to medium.  Simmer beans for 5 minutes; drain and set aside.  Add potatoes to second pot, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 8 minutes; drain and set aside.

Three: In a small nonstick pan, saute garlic in 1 Tbsp. oil over medium-low heat for 2 minutes.  Add ginger and cook for 1 more minute, then remove from heat immediately.  In a small bowl, mash garlic-ginger mixture with a fork until it's a smooth paste.  With same fork, stir paste into potatoes.  Chop cooled beans into 1 inch pieces.

Four: Heat remaining 1 Tbsp. oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.  When oil is just beginning to sizzle, add chicken and saute for 3 minutes.  Add green  beans and corn and continue to cook for another 2 minutes (The chicken will finish cooking by method of poaching, thanks to the liquid from the vegetables).

Five: Using a slotted spoon, lift vegetable-chicken mixture from pan, letting liquid drain out, and place 1 cup mixture onto each of 4 plates.  Season with salt, paprika, and pepper.  Serve alongside 1/2 cup potatoes.


NOTE:  I did not slice my garlic.  I simply minced it and it worked fine.  I used organic chicken of course, and corn and beans we blanched over the summer and froze.  

Taste?  Well, we thought the main dish was bland in taste, so I minced garlic into it while it was finished cooking (chicken, bean, corn mixture).  You may want to taste test and season with your favorite spices/herbs. I did not measure my corn, I simply pulled a bag that I froze and used all of it.  Same with the beans.


However, my kids devoured this and ate all of their sweet potatoes!  That's a bonus for budget meal, and being able to provide a very healthy meal too.

It is a lot of stove-top cooking, but worth it.