Yesterday, we had some kiwis a little too ripe for just eating, but hadn’t gone bad yet, so we made smoothies again. I have strawberries in the freezer, so we used those, along with some frozen yogurt. The girls were happy!
Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie
What you need:
1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
4 kiwis
10 strawberries, approximately
How to make it:
Put all ingredients in blender, and puree until smooth.
I guess I should really call this just a Turkey Wreath since I don’t normally add in cranberry. I saw this demonstrated at a Pampered Chef party, and I believe it is from one of their cookbooks. This is perfect to make with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, but I didn’t get to make it this year because I used my leftovers in other ways. This would also be good with chicken in place of the turkey. The pictures I have are from when I first made it 3 years ago so that I would remember how to make it the next time. Unfortunately, I thought to take the pictures a little too late, but it at least helps some visually.
Turkey Cranberry Wreath
What you need:
2 packages of refrigerated crescent rolls
2 cups cooked turkey, chopped
1/2 cup celery, sliced
1/2 cup dried cranberries (I usually leave these out)
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded (I sometimes use shredded mozzarella)
1/4 C. walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons honey Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, snipped
1 egg, separated
How to make it:
Preheat oven to 375 F.
In a medium bowl, mix together turkey, celery, cranberries, cheese, walnuts, mayonnaise, mustard, black pepper and parsley. Scoop filling over seams of dough, forming a circle.
Separate crescent roll dough into 16 triangles. Arrange 8 triangles in a circle with wide ends of triangles toward the center on a large round baking stone. The corners of wide ends should overlap and points will extend 1 inch beyond baking stone. Arrange the remaining 8 triangles in center, matching the wide ends together. Seal the wide end seams using a roller. The points of these 8 triangles will overlap in the center, do not seal them together.
Lift the inner dough triangles across the filling and tuck under other side of filling. They should go over on a diagonal, however, in my picture below, they look folded straight over.
Continue with the outer triangles, lifting them over the filling and at the opposite diagonal direction from the inner triangles.
Beat egg white of the separated egg lightly; brush over dough. Discard the yoke.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cut and serve.
I was first introduced to wreaths at a Pampered Chef Party, a Turkey Cranberry Wreath (I will share the recipe soon!). I’ve also made a Taco Wreath. So, when I saw a Breakfast Wreath on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to give it a try! It’s really easy, and I added in some of the Roasted Corn Salsa I had in the fridge. It was delicious, and I will be making this again! There are many possibilities with this one, I used eggs, bacon, cheese, and the salsa, but you could do any combination of eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, vegetables, and cheese, based on your breakfast favorites. Also, there are 2 ways to make wreaths, this one I used 1 can of 8 crescent rolls, and when I share the Turkey Cranberry Wreath, it uses 2 cans of 8 crescent rolls. You could make this Breakfast Wreath using the 2 can method instead, the 2 can method covers the filling more, but with 1 can, you still get good coverage too.
Breakfast Wreath
What you need:
1 can refrigerated crescent rolls
8 slices bacon, cooked, but not too crispy (I used turkey bacon)
5 eggs
Any other veggies you want to add to the eggs
1 cup shredded cheese, I used Mexican blend, but you could use cheddar, colby jack, pepper jack, etc.
How to make it:
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Scramble the eggs and add in any other veggies you want to use.
Unroll crescent dough; separate into 8 triangles. With wide ends of triangles toward the center, arrange the 8 triangles in a circle on large round baking stone or on a greased baking sheet. The corners of wide ends should overlap and points will extend 1 inch beyond baking stone. Lay a piece of cooked bacon on each triangle.
Spread 1/3 cup of the shredded cheese around the inner circle of the wreath. Scoop egg filling onto the dough on top of the cheese. Top the filling with another 1/3 cup of cheese.
Lift the ends of the crescent rolls over the filling and tuck under the middle of the ring.
Brush the dough with a beaten egg or olive oil. Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup cheese over the dough.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 – 17 minutes, or until crescent rolls are golden brown. Cut into 8 pieces and serve.
This week I got the conventional basket for $15, no extras, so $16.50 was my total.
I got Mandarin oranges, kiwi, bananas, Lady Alice apples, pineapple, Roma tomatoes, Altaulfo mangoes, Yukon gold potatoes, green bell peppers, green chiles, butter lettuce, Brussels sprouts, and cucumbers.
Now, the fun of deciding what all to make! I think I will roast and dice the green chiles for the freezer. The cucumbers I will most likely make more Refrigerator Pickles. I will probably make some kind of tomato sauce with the Roma tomatoes and green bell peppers.
Note: The type and amount of food may vary from another basket because of geographic location and because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly. I also volunteered this week and got 1 extra item for volunteering.
We have a had time eating mangoes just on their own. So, what do we do with fruit that we don’t get eaten? Make smoothies!
Mango Banana Smoothie
What you need:
1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
2 mangoes
1/2 banana
How to make it:
Put all ingredients in blender and puree until smooth.
Well, I never got around to getting up my weekly meal plan for last week. I’ve had a bad migraine all week, so I have been limited in the amount of time I can take looking at the computer screen. I’m feeling somewhat better today, so hopefully next week’s meal plan will be posted before the week is over! So, here is what we did have:
Sunday: Shrimp and Broccoli Alfredo
Monday: Lemon Herb Chicken, Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup
Tuesday: Salmon, Yellow Squash Casserole
Wednesday: Leftovers/On Your Own Night
Thursday: Classic Margherita Pizza with Sausage
Friday: Garlic Butter Shrimp over rice, Broccoli, Cheddar Garlic Biscuits
Saturday: Italian Crescent Zucchini Pie
I made these tonight to go with the Garlic Butter Shrimp we had tonight. These taste a lot like the biscuits they serve at Red Lobster, and aren’t very hard to make.
Cheddar Garlic Biscuits
Based on recipe here
What you need:
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon dried parsley
How to make it:
Preheat oven to 450 F.
Mix together the Bisquick, milk, cheese, and 1/4 tsp garlic powder in a bowl. Drop biscuits by spoonful onto an ungreased baking sheet, you should have dough to make 12 biscuits.
Melt butter, and stir in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and the parsley. Brush half of the mixture over all the biscuits.
Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and brush the remaining butter mixture over all the biscuits.
This meal is so easy. Sometimes, I add some fresh or dried parsley, but decided to skip it this time. I served this over white rice, but it would be good over wild or brown rice too. Or, you could serve it over pasta of your choice. I’ve served it over angel hair pasta, and they went really well together. A vegetable like broccoli, asparagus, or green beans goes well with this.
Garlic Butter Shrimp
Recipe found here
What you need:
1 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed
2 cloves garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup butter
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon dried parsley, optional (or 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped)
Hot cooked rice, about 2 cups
How to make it:
In a large skillet, saute the shrimp and garlic in butter for 5 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Add the lemon juice and parsley, if using; heat through. Serve with rice.
Back in January, I talked about a Johnsonville Pizza Possibilities House Party I had won a while back. This pizza recipe is another recipe from the book that came in the party box. I used some fresh spices, red onion, and tomatoes I had gotten from Bountiful Baskets to make this. It was very good, a lot of sausage, but I think it’s one of those recipes you can add more or less sausage to.
Classic Pizza Margherita with Sausage
Original recipe found here
What you need:
1 package (19 oz.) Johnsonville Mild Italian Sausage Links
1 package pizza dough crust mix, prepared according to package instructions for the dough
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon parsley, minced
1 tablespoon oregano
Sea salt and pepper
8 Roma tomatoes, sliced (divided-save 10 slices for the top)
1/2 medium red onion, minced
2 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup Fontina cheese, shredded (I didn’t have these cheese, so I didn’t use it)
10 fresh basil leaves, divided
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
How to make it:
Our local farmer’s market runs twice a week, Thursdays and Saturdays, from 10am to 2pm. You can find more information on their website: Sierra Vista Farmer’s Market. When I actually remember to go, I always love walking around to see what they have. For being a fairly small city, the market does have quite a bit to offer. Natural, grass fed beef, lamb, and chicken, lots of fruits and vegetables, fresh roasted chiles, honey, olives, breads, salsa, eggs, tortillas, tamales, and more. Plus, handmade wood art, jewelry, and today I saw wooden bowls. They also usually have a food cart so you can eat lunch there. Today, our main goal was to inquire about buying a 1/2 or whole side of beef to share with some friends and to get honey sticks (little straw sized tubes of flavored honey). Here is what we ended up with:
Here is what we got:
Whole leg of lamb, 4.29 lbs at $7.75/pound, $33.25 total, from San Ysidro Farm. We will use this for our Easter dinner.
Top Sirloin Steaks, 2 steaks, 1.535 lbs at $10/pound, $15.35 total, from Sky Island Brand. I got this to try out their meat since they do whole and 1/2 sides of beef.
2 cucumbers and 2 zucchini, $3.50 total. Cucumbers are currently being made into Refrigerator Pickles, and the zucchini will be made into Italian Crescent Zucchini Pie
5 honey sticks, 2 pink lemonade, 1 lemon honey are shown, 1 root beer and 1 lemon honey were eaten at the market.
I like supporting local growers, even though I might not get a great price savings compared to the grocery store. I’m excited to try out the steaks, but it will probably be a few days before I get to it. Both the steaks and leg of lamb were already frozen, so I just put them in the freezer here when we got home.
What do you like about your farmer’s market?
My Gems of Parenting 