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Bountiful Baskets – 10/15/2011

15 Oct

This week I ordered a conventional basket, a Mexican veggie pack, tortilla pack, and 9 grain bread.  I was very pleased with this week’s basket, I have a lot of ideas of what to make.

Here is what was in the conventional basket, the 9 grain bread, and the tortilla pack.

Here is the Mexican veggie pack.

I’m thinking of Broccoli Cheese Cornbread, Roasted Cauliflower, Fish Tacos, and Pear Cake as a start.  I used one bag of carrots already for egg rolls.  I will probably make salsa verde with the tomatillos, to use for enchiladas or quesadillas.  The large tortillas I will use to make some breakfast burritos because eggs were buy one, get one free at Fry’s this week.  The burritos will probably be scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, poblano peppers, possibly potatoes too.  I will probably also be making salsa and guacamole.  And we’ll see what else as the week goes on!

Note: The amount of food may vary from another basket because of volunteering and because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly.

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Slow Cooker Sour Cream Salsa Chicken

14 Oct

I can’t remember where I first got this recipe, but I used to make it quite often.  I hadn’t made it in quite a while, so my husband suggested it for dinner this week.   It is a short ingredient list, and once you make it, there are a variety of things you can do with it.  I make a package of Spanish rice to mix in with it, then make burritos.  You could make tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas.

Slow Cooker Sour Cream Salsa Chicken

1.5-2 lbs boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
1 packet taco seasoning mix
1 16 oz jar salsa
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 8 oz package sour cream

Spray slow cooker with cooking spray. Add chicken breasts. Sprinkle chicken with taco seasoning, top with salsa. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4 hours. When ready to serve, remove chicken and shred. Put the cornstarch into the salsa mix in the slow cooker and stir well. Stir in sour cream and mix well. Place chicken back in slow cooker and blend in with salsa mixture.  Serve as desired.

How I use this:

Prepare 1 package of Spanish rice according to package directions.  Stir in with chicken.  Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat.  Add a large tortilla (I use the 12 in flour tortillas from Bountiful Baskets).   Place about 1 cup of the chicken/rice mixture toward one side of the tortilla.  Sprinkle Mexican blend shredded cheese over the mixture.

Fold the side, top and bottom over the mixture, then fold it all over on the remaining flap. Cook for a few minutes, then flip and cook for a few more minutes, until both sides are golden brown.

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Fennel Carrot Soup & 7-Up Biscuits

12 Oct

When I picked up my Bountiful Basket from my friend’s house last weekend, she gave me her fennel.  I’ve seen it before, and I think even had gotten in a basket before, but didn’t get a chance to figure out what to do with it until it had gone bad.  I went in search of a recipe and found this Fennel Carrot Soup, plus I had carrots, sweet potatoes, and apples already on hand to make this.  The recipe only calls for fennel seeds, but I added in the fennel bulb I had as well as the seeds.  If you have never used a fennel bulb, there is an informative video here on different ways to cut the bulb.  I chose to dice mine.

Then, I had found an interesting biscuit recipe on Pinterest called 7-Up biscuits.  I had attempted to make them a couple of nights ago, but didn’t pay attention to the amount of 7-Up to add and put in too much.  Tonight went much better.

Overall, the soup was ok and the biscuits were excellent.  I’m not sure what it was about the soup, it was good, but not fantastic.  I think it was too much carrot or maybe too bland.  I chose not to use curry as called for in the original recipe, putting in garlic instead.   Or maybe I was tasting more fennel and didn’t like it.  I also think I might have added too much lemon juice.  I don’t know.  The biscuits were very good, very light and fluffy.  Mine didn’t turn out as pretty as the Pinterest picture, but the taste was great.

So, here is how I made the soup and the biscuits.

Fennel Carrot Soup

What you need:

1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1 fennel bulb, diced
1 pound carrots, sliced
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 medium apple, peeled and cubed
5 1/2 cups water
5 chicken bouillon cubes
2 tablespoons uncooked long grain rice
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

How to make it:

In a large saucepan, saute fennel seed and garlic in butter for 2-3 minutes or until lightly toasted. Add the fennel bulb, carrots, sweet potato and apple; saute for 5 minutes. Stir in the water, bouillon cubes, rice, and bay leaf; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until rice and vegetables are very tender.

Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Discard bay leaf. In a blender or food processor, process soup in batches until pureed. Return to saucepan. Stir in the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes or until heated through.

7-Up Biscuits

What you need:

2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup 7-up
1/4 cup melted butter

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Cut sour cream into biscuit mix.  If you have never cut dough, there is a handy tool called a pastry cutter or dough blender.  I do not have one of these, so I did the best I could with a fork.

Add 7-Up and mix in well.  You may find the dough to be sticky, if so, add more Bisquick or flour (about 1 tablespoon) until you can better work with it.  Don’t worry, even if the dough is sticky, they still bake fine.

Sprinkle flour on board or table and pat dough out to the shape of an 8×8 pan.  Cut dough into 9 squares.  Pour all but 1 Tbsp of the melted butter in an 8×8 pan.  Place cut biscuits in pan.

7-Up Biscuits in pan before baking

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Brush the remaining 1 Tbsp of butter over hot biscuits.

Finished 7-Up biscuits

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Garlic Butter Shrimp

10 Oct

A while back I was in search of a new recipe using shrimp.  I had been using a shrimp alfredo recipe, but wanted something different.  That’s when I came across  this recipe for Garlic Butter Shrimp.  It’s really straightforward and fairly quick to put together.  For this meal, I only had 1/2 pound of small shrimp, so I halved the recipe.

Garlic Butter Shrimp

What you need:

1/4 cup butter
1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley, or 1 Tbsp dried parsley
Cooked rice or pasta

How you make it:

Melt butter in a large skillet.  Saute garlic and shrimp in butter until shrimp turns pink.  Add in lemon juice and parsley and heat for a few minutes more.   Serve over rice or pasta.

For this meal, I served it over angel hair pasta.

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Bountiful Baskets – 10/8/2011

9 Oct

Well, I didn’t get time to go through the produce section to get prices for last week’s basket.  Last week just got away from me.  I will try to get this week’s basket priced out, but we’ll see.

This week I got the conventional basket for $15.  Here is what we got.

Red, seedless grapes – 1.90 lbs
Pineapple – 4.35 lbs
Gala apples – 2.08 lbs
Apple pears – 1.36 lbs
Plums – 2.25 lbs
Limes  – .77 lbs
Bananas – 2.68 lbs
Strawberries – 1 lb
Broccoli – 1.58 lbs
Carrots – 1.13 lbs
Yellow squash – .78 lbs
Cucumbers – 3.23 lbs
Romaine lettuce – .64 lbs

My friend that picked up my basket for me gave me a few things that she knew she wouldn’t use: acorn squash, fennel, Poblano peppers, and jalapeno peppers.

 

Note: The weight of food may vary from another basket because of volunteering and because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly.

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Slow Cooker Potato Soup

8 Oct

Sorry for the short hiatus in posting, it’s been a weird week, so I haven’t gotten as much cooking in and haven’t been in our normal routine.  Anyway, it really cooled off here today (finally), so it was a soup for dinner kind of night.  My husband loves potato soup, I had potatoes I needed to get used up, so potato soup is was.  I originally was going along with this recipe, but forgot to get cream cheese while I was out, plus, my husband isn’t big on bacon in his soup, so I ended up with something a little different.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup

8 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup diced onion
6 cups water and 6 chicken bouillon cubes (or use 6 cups chicken broth)
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 tsp dried dill weed

Mix water and soup in the slow cooker.  Add in bouillon cubes, potatoes, onion, and dill weed and stir.  Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours.  If you want a thicker soup, slightly mash the potatoes before serving.

I mashed the potatoes just a little to make it still chunky.  One time I completely mashed the potatoes and it was more like mashed potatoes than soup, so to keep it more soup-like, I like the potatoes less mashed.

*As an alternative to the can of cream of chicken soup, you can use 2 Tbsp melted butter, 2 Tbsp flour, 1/4 tsp salt, and 2 cups of milk, half and half, or light cream.  Be sure to stir that well with the water/broth before adding the other ingredients.

**If you want to keep the chicken out completely, use the above substitute for the cream of chicken soup and use vegetable bouillon instead of chicken bouillon, or six cups of vegetable broth instead of the bouillon and water.

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Lemon Herb Chicken

4 Oct

When I got lemons this week, I knew I would make Lemon Herb Chicken.  It’s nothing real fancy, but it’s easy and the chicken is so moist, we love it.  Here is how to do it.

Lemon Herb Chicken

1-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 lemons, cut into fourths
Italian blend seasoning

Spray a 9 x 13 dish with cooking spray.  Arrange chicken breasts in dish.  Squeeze lemon quarters over the chicken, then added the lemon quarters in around the chicken breasts.  Sprinkle chicken breasts with Italian blend seasoning.  Bake at 450 F for 30-40 minutes, or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 F.

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Pear Cake

3 Oct

The pears that came with Bountiful Baskets this week were very ripe and almost mushy.  So, I knew they would be best used in baking instead of eating them.  And honestly, my household doesn’t really eat fresh pears, so baking was probably going to be what I did with them anyway.  So, I found a recipe for Pear Cake, and with a couple of modifications, I got started.

Pear Cake

What you need:

  • 4 cups peeled, cored and chopped pears
  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
How to make it:
In a medium bowl, combine the pears and the sugar and let stand for one hour.  After one hour, it will look like this:
Preheat your oven to 325 F. Spray a 10 inch bundt pan or 2 9 in round pans with non-stick cooking spray  Stir the eggs and oil into the pear mixture.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Slowly add to the pear mixture.  Stir well.  Pour batter into prepared pan(s).Bake at 325 F for 50-60 minutes if using a bundt pan, 30-35 minutes if using 2 9 in round pans, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
I have to say, I was very pleased with the results.  I was worried how it would be with larger pieces of pear, but the cake is so moist and the pear is so soft, I didn’t even notice the pear pieces, and neither did my kids or my friend’s kids that the second cake went to.  I do think a little bit of the pear taste gets lost with the spices, but it’s still really good.

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Bountiful Baskets – 10/1/2011

2 Oct

Here is a picture of what I got in this week’s basket.

I weighed everything, although I know a few things are priced individually and not by the pound.

Red seedless grapes – 2.21 lbs
Cantaloupe (it’s not part of any recalls, don’t worry) – 3.18 lbs
Nectarines – 1.96 lbs
Bartlett pears – 1.73 lbs
Lemons – 1.39 lbs
Kiwi – 1.27 lbs
Bananas – 3.10 lbs
Celery -2.77 lbs
Corn – 4.33 lbs
Red peppers – 1.29 lbs
Tomatoes -1.86 lbs
Iceberg lettuce – 1.81 lbs

I am hoping to get to the store in the next couple days to get the prices to compare again this week.

Note: I volunteered this week and did get 1 extra item, which was 1 bunch of celery.  The weight of food may vary from another basket because of volunteering and because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly.

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Pepperoni Bread

2 Oct

I haven’t made pepperoni bread in quite a while, so when K asked for spaghetti for dinner, I knew I wanted to make this instead of garlic bread to go with it.

Pepperoni Bread

What you need:

  • Bread dough or pizza crust dough.  For this time, I used two 6.5 oz pouches of pizza crust mix, but I have also used the Pillsbury french loaf and pizza crust from the refrigerated section.
  • Olive oil
  • Italian seasoning
  • Grated Parmesan cheese
  • Shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Pepperoni

How to make it:

Spray a baking sheet with olive oil or cooking spray.  Spread dough into a rectangle on baking sheet.  Brush with olive oil, then sprinkle with Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese, leaving an inch border around the outside.

Lay out the pepperoni.  If you like a lot of pepperoni, use more pepperoni.  If you like less pepperoni, use less pepperoni.

Then, roll up the dough lengthwise.  Place seam side down on the baking sheet and seal the ends.

Again, brush with olive oil, then sprinkle with Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese.  Bake at 450 for 10-15, or according to the directions for the dough that you bought, until golden brown.  Serve with marinara sauce for dipping.

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