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BBQ Chicken and Cornbread

11 Sep

I had some broccoli left from 8/27 Bountiful Baskets that I had chopped and frozen.  I love making Broccoli Cheese Cornbread with it, so I needed to decide on a main dish.  I have a lot of barbecue sauce that I got free with coupons, plus we had some buns that we needed to use up. So, I decided I would make shredded BBQ chicken in my slow cooker, which was perfect because I was going to be gone all afternoon co-hosting a baby shower and needed a low maintenance dinner.

To make the BBQ chicken, I first sprayed my slow cooker with cooking spray.  Next, I took frozen chicken out of the freezer and ran it under cold water to remove some of the ice.  I didn’t defrost it first, I put it in the slow cooker still frozen.  I have found that it still cooks thoroughly, so I skip the step of defrosting if I forget to get it out of the freezer or decide last minute what I’m making.  I then poured a whole 18oz bottle of barbecue sauce over the chicken.  I set it to low and set my timer for 6 hours (my slow cooker is a programmable one that cooks for the set time, then switched to the Keep Warm setting until you are ready to serve).  Once I was ready to finish up dinner, I shredded all the chicken and stirred well in the sauce.  This was then served on hamburger buns.

For the broccoli cheese cornbread, the broccoli was already chopped, so I just had to mix the ingredients.  This recipe calls for cottage cheese, which I thought seemed strange  at first, but it helps keep the cornbread really moist.  Here is how it is made:

 

Broccoli Cheese Cornbread

What you Need:

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup cottage cheese
  • 1/2 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1 (8.5 ounce) package dry cornbread muffin mix (I use Martha White, but Jiffy makes a mix as well)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1  1/2 cups chopped broccoli

How to Make it:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease an 11×7 inch baking pan.  (You can use a 13×9 pan, but the cornbread will be pretty thin and you may need to adjust your cooking time.)
  2. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs.  Mix in cottage cheese, shredded cheddar cheese and butter. Stir in the cornbread muffin mix and salt. Fold in the broccoli. Pour batter into prepared pan.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean.
Here is how it all turned out.  Both girls ate it!

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Basket Breakdown 9/10/2011

10 Sep

This week I contributed $15 for the conventional basket, plus the $1.50 handling fee, so $16.50 total.  Here is what I got at Bountiful Baskets this morning.

I got a head of lettuce, spinach, green beans, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, table grapes, peaches, pears, bananas, figs, and plums.

The lettuce and spinach I washed and dried, so wish I had a salad spinner to help with drying.  Then, I wrap it in paper towels and put it in gallon size zipper bags, making sure to let as much air out as I can.  It really helps keep it fresh longer.  Cauliflower, I might try making roasted cauliflower as a side to salmon and rice.  The sweet potatoes, I will probably make sweet potato fries as a side to cheesy spinach burgers.  Green beans, I might blanch and freeze.  I’m still working on ideas for the figs, possibly a fig cake or cookies.  We’ll see how the week goes for cooking!

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Mashed Potatoes

10 Sep

We are still trying to get through all the potatoes we have, so with last night’s dinner, I made mashed potatoes.  I used to just make them from a box or a package because I thought making them from scratch took too long.  And, it really is a time-consuming process, so I usually have to plan ahead and start them before anything else.  My favorite potatoes for mashed potatoes are Yukon Gold.  I also really like red potatoes and leave the skins on with those.  But, we have russet potatoes, which make pretty good mashed potatoes too.

What You Need:
– 2 pounds potato of your choice
– 1/2 cup milk
– 1/2 stick of butter

How to Make it:
Wash, peel, and dice the potatoes.  Add them to a large pot and add water to about 1 inch above the potatoes.  Bring to a boil, then turn heat to medium-high and keep at a rolling boil.  It’s important to find the right amount of heat or you will find the water boiling over the sides of your pot.  Continue to boil until potatoes soften, about 20-30 minutes.  Drain water.  Mash the potatoes, then add in the milk and butter.  Stir thoroughly until well blended together.

If you like, you can add in some parsley, and/or salt and pepper.  I try not to go overboard on spices though, I don’t want to over-season things.  I figure salt and pepper can be added after serving to a certain person’s taste.  I serve mashed potatoes with a variety of dishes, and do it this way more often since I am trying to use less pre-packaged foods.

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Strawberry, Blueberry, and Banana Smoothies

10 Sep

Last night was one of those nights where I was lost on what to cook.  I had ideas, but needed to run to the store if I wanted to be able to make any of them.  K was whiny after school, and it’s probably better that we didn’t go because it has been raining all evening.  My girls were both getting hungry, so I decided to make them smoothies.  I still have plenty of strawberries and blueberries in my freezer, I bought them back in June/July when both were really cheap.

I added about 1 1/2 cups of frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, and 1 banana to my blender.  I poured in milk until it came up to about the 2 cup line on my blender.  If you use fresh berries instead of frozen, you will need to add in 1/2 cup of ice.

I then turned it on and pureed until well blended.  Both girls were very happy!

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Steak, Egg, & Potato Burritos

9 Sep

For last night’s dinner, I decided that I would make burritos.  I had large flour tortillas in my freezer from 8/27 Bountiful Baskets.  I also had steak leftover from a couple of nights ago, plus the roasted corn salsa I made.  I had roasted Poblano peppers on the grill last week that had been in my 8/27 Bountiful Baskets Mexican pack.  And, we need to work through the 15 pounds of potatoes we still have.

First, my brother-in-law helped by washing, peeling, and dicing the potatoes, about 2 pounds of russets.  I put some olive oil in a large skillet and started cooking half of the potatoes.  After cooking for a few minutes, I added some diced onion and the Poblano pepper.  I cooked until the potatoes started to soften and brown, then added in the cut pieces of steak.  Meanwhile, in a separate skillet, I scrambled 6 eggs.  I mixed this all together in a bowl and started the process again to use up the other half of the potatoes.  I had to do it in 2 parts because my pans weren’t big enough for all of it at once.

Once the filling was complete, I cleaned the large skillet and added it to medium-low heat.  I placed a tortilla in the pan, added some of the filling toward one side of the tortilla, and sprinkled on Mexican blend cheese.

Fold over the side of the tortilla closest to the filling over the filling.

Next, fold over the top and bottom of the tortilla.

Finally, fold the section with the filling over to complete the burrito.

Brown on that side for a few minutes, then flip the burrito over and brown on the other side for a few minutes.  Remove from pan and serve.  I served mine with roasted corn salsa over it.

Yum!  Since I get 3 dozen of the large tortillas in the tortilla pack from Bountiful Baskets, I’m always playing around with fillings for burritos.

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Dehydrating fruit

7 Sep

Each week in Bountiful Baskets, I get a nice assortment of fruit.  It mostly gets eaten outright, but lately it’s been tough for us to get through it before it goes bad.  Or, it’s just something we don’t particularly like a lot.  This week and last week, I got pears and nectarines that have sat, and the plums I got last week were starting to not look great anymore.  While trying to decide what to do with the pears, my friend D got a new fruit dehydrator to make raisins with the grapes we got.  I decided to ask to borrow it to at least dehydrate my pears and I picked it up yesterday.  Since you need the base and at least 4 trays, I decided I would try doing the nectarines, plums, and a couple bananas, plus we ended up putting a Granny Smith apple in too.

For the pears and the apple, I got out our peeler/corer/slicer.  Seriously, one of the best inventions for prepping pears and apples.  My girls love helping me use it.

Next, the pears, apples, and nectarines all need to be pre-treated to prevent them from browning.  There are a variety of options to do this, but I chose soaking them in lemon juice.  D had dehydrated her pears and dipped them in lemon juice, but felt like the lemon taste stayed with them, so I diluted my lemon juice with water, 50/50 ratio.  I left it in there about 5 minutes.

The plums I cut in half and removed the pits, the bananas I cut into 3/8″ slices.

I arranged it all on the trays, stacked the trays, plugged it in, and flipped the switch.

I let it run overnight, approximately 10 hours and here is what I woke up to.

It’s a browner than I wanted it to be, but it’s still sweet and full of flavor.  I think I may have left it in the dehydrator too long, probably should have started it later in the evening.  Also, I wonder if some of it was not in the lemon juice long enough or if my diluting the lemon juice had some effect.  Still a good experiment and thanks to D for letting me borrow the dehydrator!

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Steak, Potatoes, and Roasted Corn Salsa

6 Sep

Busy night of cooking for me!  We had a ton of meat in the fridge.  I had thawed out steak and had hot dogs on hand to grill out for Labor Day.  Then, hubby had invited over some friends to cookout on Tuesday, so I decided to not grill on Monday and wait until Tuesday.  Hubby went to the store and bought 2 more packages of steaks and 2 packages of brats.  Then, the friends ended up not being able to come over, so 1 package of brats went to the freezer and I decided to go ahead and grill a package of hot dogs and a package of brats, plus all the steaks.  I also had a few potatoes left from Bountiful Baskets, so I decided to grill those as well.  (Don’t get me started on potatoes, hubby also bought a 10 pound bag of them when he bought the steaks, not knowing that I already had close to 10 pounds at home.  This is why only I should do the shopping!)

Anyway, we had plenty of steak left, so we cut it into pieces, and hubby has requested that I make steak and egg burritos, to which I will add roasted Poblano peppers and onion.  More about that tomorrow, back to tonight’s meal.

The day before, I put all the steak into a 9 x 13 glass pan and marinated them with Dale’s Seasoning.  No, it is not made by my hubby.  We recently discovered this at the Commissary and laughed because it has his name, but seriously, this stuff is really good.  Then, I prepped the potatoes. I washed them really good, then mixed together olive oil and Italian seasoning to brush on them, and rolled them up in aluminum foil.  Then, it was time to put it all on the grill!

As that was cooking, I worked on finishing up roasted corn salsa.  I had already roasted the 7 ears of sweet corn that I received from Bountiful Baskets on 9/3 because I didn’t want it to go bad before I got the chance to use it.  To roast it, I take off some of the outer husks, then pull back the husks to remove the silk.  I put the husks back around the corn and put it on the grill.  I leave it out there 20-30 minutes, turning every so often, and get nice, roasted corn.  If you don’t have a grill, you can roast the corn in your oven’s broiler.  Turn the broiler on low, and line a baking sheet with foil.  You can leave the husks on or remove them.  Place about 6 inches from the broiler and turn the corn every so often until it is roasted.

Next, you cut the kernels off the cob.  Now, the tricky part is what else to add.  I will give you a rough approximation of what I add, but salsa is really about making it to your taste.

  • 4 ears of corn, roasted, removed from cob
  • 1/2 yellow or red onion, or 1 bunch green onion, chopped (I use whatever I have on hand or what is cheapest)
  • 2-3 jalapenos, seeded and diced
  • 1 can black beans, drained
  • 2-3 Roma tomatoes, diced
  • 2 tsp garlic salt
  • Juice of 2-3 key limes or 1 large lime

Here is the final result to serve with your favorite tortilla chips.  We usually get the scoop type tortilla chips, it’s easier with this chunky salsa to be able to scoop it up.  Note that this is a double batch of the recipe above since I had 7 ears of corn.

After this was all finished and cleaned up, I went to work on some fruit that is currently in the food dehydrator.  I will have a full (hopefully good) report on that tomorrow!

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Time to Order Bountiful Baskets!

5 Sep

Even though it’s a holiday, it’s still contribution time for Bountiful Baskets!  Here are the extra offerings this week:

  • 9 Grain Bread – 5 loaves – Contains Wheat. Baked in a facility with nuts – $10.00 ea
  • Bountiful Baskets Granola – 2 lbs, Oats, Honey, canola oil, roasted & salted cashews, dates, diced pineapple, sunflower seeds – $10.00 ea
  • ORGANIC Nectarines – Approx 18 Lb place pack – California – $21.00 ea
  • Fruit Lovers Pack – Add an additional pack of fruit to your regular basket! – $10.00 ea
  • ORGANIC 100% Honey Whole Wheat Bread – 5 pack -$12.00 ea
  • Thompson Naturals Grapes (seedless) – Approx 19 Lb – Good for eating or raisins! This grape has a very high sugar content! – $20.00 ea
I decided to order just a regular basket this week.  I’m excited to see what I’ll get!
If you want to participate, go here to find the site closest to you: https://contributions2.bountifulbaskets.org/

Shepherd’s Pie

5 Sep

A good friend of mine told me about a great shepherd’s pie that she made last week and sent me the link to the recipe.  As I was deciding what to make for dinner and thinking about what I had on hand, I remembered the recipe for the shepherd’s pie.  I looked through, had everything but the mushrooms, decided they weren’t really necessary, and decided to try it out.  Turns out it was pretty easy, a little time consuming, and totally delicious!  For this dish, I used the potatoes and celery I got in 9/3 Bountiful Baskets, and carrots and onion from 8/27 Bountiful Baskets.

Recipe can be found here: Beef Shepherd’s Pie

I recommend using leftover mashed potatoes or making the mashed potatoes first so they are ready to go.

The meat mixture goes in the baking dish first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, you spread the mashed potatoes on top, leaving 1/4″ border.  I opted to sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ended up baking mine at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes to shave off some of the baking time since I was running late.  It turned out perfect and was mostly gone before I could even take a picture of the finished product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is a keeper and I will be making again sometime!

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Banana Muffins

5 Sep

I had some bananas from either 8/20 or 8/27 Bountiful Baskets that didn’t get eaten, so I left them out to over-ripen to make either bread or muffins.  Today, I decided we would make muffins.  The recipe I use is Banana Banana Bread from allrecipes.com.  It is really tasty and very moist, something that can be tough for banana bread.  In order to make muffins, I just changed the baking time to 20-25 minutes.

K was a good helper with stirring

 

 

 

 

 

 

A trick I learned when making muffins or cookies is to use a scoop to get the perfect amount.  We used our Oxo ice cream scoop, which gave us the perfect amount for each muffin cup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, we got delicious muffins to have on hand for breakfast this week.

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