In my quest to figure out what to do with all the daikon I got, I came across this recipe for Pan Fried Daikon Cakes. Since I had oil hot for frying my egg rolls the other night, I decided to make these as well. I left them in a little too long, I was trying to do too much at the same time. However, they actually turned out pretty tasty, a little hot for my taste buds with the Sriracha sauce, but good enough to make some more to use up the daikon, which I still have a LOT left.
I have been working all week on a way to use the daikon radish I received in the Asian themed veggie pack that I bought with my Bountiful Baskets this week. I decided I would try egg rolls, which I love, but have never made. For the filling, I julienne cut some daikon and some carrots. Then, I chopped 1 bunch of green onions and some leaves of bok choy. I had bought a rotisserie chicken at Fry’s since I had a $2 eCoupon, so I removed the chicken from the bones and shredded it. I added some vegetable oil to my wok, and put the daikon, carrots, and green onion in first. Once they started to get tender, I added in the bok choy and chicken. Once the bok choy started to wilt, I grated fresh ginger into the wok and poured in about 2 Tbsp of soy sauce. It looked like this.
Next comes the egg roll wrappers. I found mine in the produce section of the grocery store, they may also be in your freezer section. You take a wrapper and lay it out, then add some filling. For this size wrapper, it was about 2 Tbsp of filling.
To fold the egg rolls, my previous experience as an employee at Subway wrapping sandwiches in paper came in handy. It’s also how I roll my stuffed grape leaves (that recipe will be coming hopefully in the next week). Notice in the picture above how I placed the filling closer to one corner. The first fold is to bring that corner up over the filling.
Next, you fold over both sides.
Then, you roll it and brush the tip with a little water to make it hold shut.
Then, you deep fry or add about 1/2″ of oil to a pan. If your oil doesn’t completely cover the rolls, then you need to flip them when one side is golden.
Remove rolls from oil to a baking sheet lined with paper towels.
This made 11 egg rolls. I still had wrappers in that package, so I made more filling. The second filling was all veggies, bok choy leaves and stems, julienne cut carrots, julienne cut daikon, and chopped yellow onion, then grated ginger and soy sauce. This made 7 more egg rolls. They turned out great, both my girls ate 2 each!
I had been intending to make egg rolls, but still hadn’t had a chance to get everything I needed. So, I needed a quick dinner using something else I had on hand. I had bought Italian sausage and some zucchini that was on sale over the weekend, so I decided to make a dinner I haven’t made in a long time, sausage, zucchini, and tomatoes over rice. My good friend and former neighbor introduced me to this dinner and we love it! Plus, it really is quite easy.
Note: This is 2 packages of sausage since I have 3 adults and 2 kids in the house to feed.
What you need:
1 package of Italian sausage, mild or hot, depending on your taste
1-2 zucchini, diced
1 can flavored tomatoes, I use basil, garlic, and oregano diced tomatoes
Cooked rice
Remove the casings from sausage and break up. Cook until all the sausage is browned. Add in zucchini, cook about 5 minutes, or until it becomes tender. Add in the can of diced tomatoes, and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Serve over cooked rice.
I got a lot of peppers this week in my basket. We aren’t big pepper fans in this house, but I wanted to do something else besides just chopping them and adding them to stir fry. So, I decided to try stuffed peppers. I got a recipe from a friend of mine, then looked up a couple other recipes, and came up with this.
Stuffed Peppers
4-6 peppers, tops and seeds removed
1 cup cooked rice
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano (Or any flavored tomatoes. If you use plain tomatoes, you will want to add some kind of seasoning)
1 egg
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups tomato sauce (I used Ragu Traditional sauce)
1 cup water
Mix the rice, ground beef, onion, tomatoes, egg, and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Fill the peppers with the stuffing, making it level with the top of the pepper. Add filled peppers to a large saucepan. In a separate bowl, combine tomato sauce and water. Pour over the peppers in the saucepan.
Bring the liquid to a boil, then turn heat down to a simmer. Cover, and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until meat is fully cooked and peppers have softened.
I cut open a pepper to make sure mine were done, and they were!
Note: This can be done in your slow cooker instead. Place the peppers in your slow cooker and cook on low 6-8 hours.
As soon as I saw the Asian themed veggie pack was available from Bountiful Baskets, I was seriously hoping that Napa cabbage would be included. I was craving Chinese Napa Cabbage Salad, and once I found out it was in there, I got the rest of the ingredients I needed ready.
What you need:
In a large bowl, add cabbage, green onion, chicken (if using) and the cooled noodle and sesame seed mixture and mix. Set aside. Mix together the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour this over the cabbage mix and toss. Serve immediately.
Each week, Bountiful Baskets usually offers some kind of bread. 9 grain bread is available pretty much every week, then sometimes other weeks there are various other types of bread that have been available, honey whole wheat, organic multi-grain, organic whole wheat, Italian olive oil, sourdough, rye, foccacia, and ciabatta. I have bought every kind and have never been disappointed. Best part, they freeze great. In fact, in my freezer right now, I have 4 9 grain loaves, 1 sourdough loaf, and 2 ciabatta loaves. Since I got iceberg lettuce and tomatoes in Bountiful Baskets over the weekend, plus turkey bacon was on sale at the commissary ($1.37 package!), so I decided it was time to use a ciabatta bread from the freezer. BLTs. Perfect lunch for Sunday!
What I used:
1 package turkey bacon, cooked according to package directions
1 loaf ciabatta bread, cut into 3 sections, each section cut in half lengthwise
Butter
Garlic powder
1 tomato, sliced
3 sections of iceberg lettuce, sandwich sized
Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken Breast deli meat
Miracle Whip
First, I started cooking the bacon. While that was going, I buttered the ciabatta bread and sprinkled garlic powder on it. I placed it butter sides down on a griddle on medium-low heat to toast it. Once it was toasted, I put it on a plate, then put the chicken deli meat, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, and Miracle Whip on, making the perfect sandwich. If I’d had it, I would have put sliced swiss cheese on as well, but it was still good as it was.
This is a great recipe I got from Lori over at My Kinda Rain. Since I get tortillas and the Mexican themed veggie pack regularly from Bountiful Baskets, this has become a regular in our house when avocados are available and cheap. I have played around with this recipe a bit, I don’t think I’ve made it the same way twice, but every time it has turned out great. So, I will go through the recipe and talk about some of the alternatives I have done.
First, you make an avocado cream sauce. For this you need:
1 avocado
1/2 cup sour cream
Lime juice
Onion (I’ve used yellow, red, or green, I think my favorite is red onion)
I now also on occasion add:
Garlic, minced or garlic salt, usually 1/4 to 1/2 tsp
Cilantro
Tomato, diced
This time, I used all of the above when making the sauce because I had cilantro and tomato on hand that needed to be used before it went bad.
Next, you cook the fish. You need 1 lb of white fish, I use either cod or tilapia, depending on what I can get on sale. You add 1-2 Tbsp of oil, I use olive oil, to a skillet. Season the fish with lemon pepper seasoning and pan fry fish.
Cook until fish is no longer translucent and easily flakes with a fork. Flake fish apart with a fork.
Next, you put together the tacos. I usually use small flour tortillas, but have used small corn tortillas as well. I add a tortilla to a small skillet, then put the fish, avocado cream sauce, and cabbage or lettuce.
I fold the tortilla over the topping, cook it for a few minutes, then flip and cook for a few minutes, until both sides are just starting to brown.
I usually serve this with Spanish rice and black beans. I was worried that my girls wouldn’t eat these because it has fish, but they both eat these up!
I have been meaning to try this for a while, but hadn’t gotten around to it. So, when I needed to find sides for the teriyaki chicken I had marinading to grill, I remembered the broccoli in the fridge I needed to use. Add in some brown rice, and it was a perfect meal. How do I know? Both girls ate some of everything, mostly the broccoli!
Roasted Broccoli
1 bunch broccoli (about 1.5 lbs)
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
Garlic salt
Cut broccoli into bite-size florets. Add to a bowl, toss with the olive oil and season with garlic salt to your taste. Line a baking sheet with foil and add seasoned broccoli to the baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes, or until the broccoli is tender and starting to brown.
I was impressed with this week’s basket. Lots of good things. I got the conventional basket for $15, the Asian themed veggie add-on for $8.50, and 5 loaves of 9 grain bread for $10, plus the $1.50 handling fee, so $35 total. Here is what we got, first picture shows the conventional basket and 9 grain bread, second picture shows the Asian themed veggie add-on.
9 grain bread, pineapple, green grapes, bananas, nectarines, Gala apples, apple pears, black plums, iceberg lettuce, green peppers, red peppers, cucumbers, yellow onions, and Roma tomatoes
Daikon, Napa cabbage, bok choy, lemongrass, green onion, Japanese eggplant, garlic, ginger root, basil
I was able to get out to Walmart and Fry’s to get some price comparisons, at least for the things I could find. I did not price the bread, but I know to get bread comparable to this 9 grain would be $3-$4 a loaf, and I’m only paying $2 a loaf. I was able to get prices for everything in the conventional basket, but the veggie pack was a little bit tougher. The price for the Japanese eggplant is the price for a regular eggplant, I figured they would be about the same. The lemongrass price was from a tube of lemongrass I found at Walmart, I found a price per pound based on the price and size of the tube. Daikon, I did not find at either store.
| Item |
Qty |
WM Price |
WM Total |
Fry’s Price |
Fry’s Total |
| Pineapple (ea) |
1.00 |
$2.98 |
$2.98 |
$3.99 |
$3.99 |
| Bananas (lb) |
3.06 |
$0.56 |
$1.71 |
$0.57 |
$1.74 |
| Gala Apples (lb) |
1.67 |
$1.57 |
$2.62 |
$1.29 |
$2.15 |
| Nectarines (lb) |
2.88 |
$1.03 |
$2.97 |
$1.88 |
$5.41 |
| Apple Pears (ea) |
4.00 |
$1.47 |
$5.88 |
$1.49 |
$5.96 |
| Plums (lb) |
2.57 |
$1.48 |
$3.80 |
$1.88 |
$4.83 |
| Grapes (lb) |
2.65 |
$1.88 |
$4.98 |
$1.98 |
$5.25 |
| Iceberg lettuce (ea) |
1.00 |
$1.14 |
$1.14 |
$1.18 |
$1.18 |
| Cucumbers (ea) |
2.00 |
$0.50 |
$1.00 |
$0.59 |
$1.18 |
| Red peppers (ea) |
4.00 |
$1.78 |
$7.12 |
$0.88 |
$3.52 |
| Green peppers (ea) |
3.00 |
$0.50 |
$1.50 |
$0.59 |
$1.77 |
| Yellow Onion (lb) |
2.20 |
$1.23 |
$2.70 |
$0.78 |
$1.72 |
| Roma tomatoes (lb) |
1.58 |
$0.98 |
$1.55 |
$0.90 |
$1.42 |
|
$39.95 |
$40.13 |
||||
| Item |
Qty |
WM Price |
WM Total |
Fry’s Price |
Fry’s Total |
| Green onion (ea) |
3.00 |
$0.56 |
$1.68 |
$0.50 |
$1.50 |
| Garlic |
0.12 |
$3.48 |
$0.42 |
$0.59 |
$0.59 |
| Napa cabbage (lb) |
2.21 |
$0.94 |
$2.08 |
$0.99 |
$2.19 |
| Bok choy (lb) |
2.05 |
$0.94 |
$1.93 |
$0.99 |
$2.03 |
| Japanese eggplant |
1.00 |
$1.98 |
$1.98 |
$1.49 |
$1.49 |
| Basil |
0.11 |
$24.83 |
$2.73 |
$0.00 |
|
| Ginger |
0.08 |
$2.80 |
$0.22 |
$0.00 |
|
| Lemongrass |
0.13 |
$15.12 |
$1.97 |
$0.00 |
|
| Daikon |
4.76 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
||
|
$13.00 |
$7.80 |
Again this week, I am impressed with the savings. I paid $15 for $40 in produce in my conventional basket. While I wasn’t able to get all the prices for the veggie add-on pack, I’m at $13 before the daikon, so I would estimate that overall it would be $15-$16 total. Then, with the savings on bread I mentioned, I’m estimating I’m at about 50% savings again, which I am very happy with since produce savings is so difficult.
Note: Prices are from stores in southeastern AZ, prices may vary in other locations. The weight of food may vary from another basket because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly.
My Gems of Parenting 