Tag Archives: carrot

Coleslaw

7 Feb

 

I had 2 heads of cabbage in my fridge, waiting for me to make something with them.  I had originally thought of making Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with them, but my husband said he wouldn’t eat them.  So, since I was thinking of making the fish and Oven Baked Potato Chips, I thought Coleslaw would be a nice addition.  I doubled the recipe below, so we have a lot of coleslaw.  The picture above is just a small part of all we have.  But it’s going fast since it turned out so yummy!  I didn’t cut mine very fine, I was too lazy to pull out the food processor to finely chop it, so I left it in larger pieces.

 

Coleslaw
Based on recipe here

What you need:

1 head cabbage, shredded
3 medium carrots, shredded (or in may case, 1 large carrot from Bountiful Baskets)
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar

How to make it:

In a large bowl, combine cabbage and carrots.  In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients.  Mix well and pour over cabbage and carrots; toss to coat evenly.  Serve.

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Lemon Chicken and Vegetables over Rice

1 Feb

Looks a lot like the Orange Chicken from last week doesn’t it?  That’s because that sauce is the same, except for the Orange Chicken uses a can of frozen orange juice concentrate and this Lemon Chicken uses a can of frozen lemonade concentrate.   I did not use the slow cooker to cook the chicken this time, I just cooked it on the stove top in my wok.  This was fantastic, I think I might prefer it a little more than the Orange Chicken, but both are very good.  Tonight, the stir fry veggies were carrots, bok choy, green onion, asparagus, water chestnuts and snow peas, all from Bountiful Baskets from this past weekend.  And I really meant to add in some grated ginger, but I forgot, so maybe next time!

 

Lemon Chicken and Vegetables over Rice
Based on recipes here

What you need:

Lemon Sauce: (I made this twice, once for the chicken, once for the vegetables)
– 3/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed (this is 1/2 can)
– 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
– 1 Tbsp soy sauce
– 1 Tbsp ketchup
– 2 Tbsp brown sugar (use 3 Tbsp sugar if you want it to be sweeter)
– 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup flour
Vegetable oil
Vegetables to stir fry (I used carrots, water chestnuts, green onion, bok choy stems and leaves, snow peas, and asparagus)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
Cooked rice

How to make it:

Dredge chicken in flour.  Heat some vegetable oil in a wok, and cook chicken until no longer pink.

Meanwhile, combine all ingredients for the lemon sauce in a bowl.  Pour over chicken in the wok and stir.  Cook on medium heat for 15 – 20 minutes to allow sauce to thicken and chicken to absorb the sauce.

Once sauce has thickened, add veggies that take longer to cook (in my case, the carrots, asparagus, water chestnuts, and bok choy stems), let them cook for a few minutes, then add the veggies that take shorter to cook (in my case, green onions, snow peas and bok choy leaves).

Meanwhile, again, combine all ingredients for the lemon sauce and the 1 Tbsp cornstarch in a bowl.  Once veggies are all tender, pour in the second batch of lemon sauce and stir to coat evenly.  Cook for a few more minutes to allow sauce to thicken.  Serve over the cooked rice.

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Slow Cooker Chicken and Noodles

29 Jan

This is something I haven’t made in quite a while.  Since I got celery and carrots this week with Bountiful Baskets, I decided to make it.  I made it a little differently than I have in the past, and I was very pleased with the results.  I made it with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but you could also use 2 pounds of chicken breasts with bones or 2 pounds of thigh and drumstick pieces with bones.  You just need to make sure that you get all the bones out since the chicken will be very tender after cooking in the slow cooker.   Also, I made this with egg noodles, but you could use homemade noodles, or some other kind of pasta, or even rice.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Noodles
Serves 6

What you need:

2 cups sliced carrots
1 1/2 cups diced onions
1 cup celery
1.5 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or 2 lbs chicken with bones, skins removed
1 tsp poultry seasoning
5 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
2 cups cooked egg noodles, pasta, or rice

How to make it:

Place carrots, onions, and celery in the slow cooker.  Place chicken on top of vegetables, sprinkle with poultry seasoning.  Pour in chicken broth and water.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours.

After finished cooking, remove chicken.  If using boneless chicken, cut or shred chicken into bite size pieces.  If using chicken with bones, remove chicken from bones and cut or shred into bite size pieces.  Discard bones.  Return chicken pieces to slow cooker.  Stir in cooked noodles, pasta, or rice.  Serve.

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Orange Chicken

26 Jan

 

While I was working on my meal plan for this week, I posted on Facebook that I was having trouble deciding what to make.  A friend of mine, CrunchyMetroMom, said she was working on a dish with chicken and orange juice.  Since I am getting a little burned out on making Sesame Chicken, Orange Chicken popped into my mind, like the Orange Chicken at Panda Express.  So, I went in search of recipes online and then ended up doing something in between 2 recipes.  Then, since I got part of my friend’s Asian themed veggie pack, I had vegetables to stir fry to go along with the chicken.  The chicken I did in the slow cooker, but I think next time, I might do it like I do Sesame Chicken, cook the chicken, mix the sauce, then add the chicken and vegetables.  One advantage to using the slow cooker is that the chicken really absorbs the sauce well, but with my slow cooker, it didn’t leave a lot leftover for the vegetables.  I could have added the vegetables to the slow cooker, but I was worried about them being too mushy, but would have saved me some time.  Anyway, I’ll walk you through how I did it, and you can decide if you want to the same, do all in the slow cooker, or all in a wok.  Also, if you would like to add some heat to this, add some crushed red pepper flakes.

 

Orange Chicken and Vegetables over Rice
Based on recipes here and here

What you need:

Orange Sauce: (I made this twice, once for the chicken, once for the vegetables)
– 3/4 cup pulp free frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (this is 1/2 can)
– 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
– 1 Tbsp soy sauce
– 1 Tbsp ketchup
– 3 Tbsp brown sugar
– 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup flour
Vegetable oil
Vegetables to stir fry (I used carrots, water chestnuts, green onion, bok choy stems and leaves, and broccoli)
Cooked rice

How to make it:

Dredge chicken in flour.  Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet, and brown chicken just enough to get the flour to stay on the chicken.  Place chicken in slow cooker.

Meanwhile, combine all ingredients for the orange sauce in a bowl.  Pour over chicken in the slow cooker to evenly coat.  Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

Once you are ready to serve, heat some vegetable oil in a wok.  Start with veggies that take longer to cook (in my case, the carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, and bok choy stems), then add the veggies that take shorter to cook (in my case, green onions and bok choy leaves).

Meanwhile, again, combine all ingredients for the orange sauce in a bowl.  Once veggies are all tender, pour in orange sauce and stir to coat evenly.  Add in the chicken from the slow cooker.  Cook until all heated through.  Serve over the cooked rice.

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Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup

3 Dec

When I saw the broccoli in my Bountiful Baskets this morning, I knew exactly what I wanted to make, Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup.  We’ve had a cold snap in the weather here, and it’s been cloudy and gloomy.  Perfect weather for making soup!  This recipe I got from Lori at My Kinda Rain, which she had gotten from CDKitchen.com.  I did it slightly different, I did not put mine through the blender because I like chunky soup.  I just made sure that I chopped the onion, carrots, and broccoli to smaller sizes.  It’s a nice thick soup, enough that it can be a meal on its own.  It was perfect and well liked by everyone except my oldest daughter, but that’s because she’s not a fan of cheese.  I wish we had some bread bowls to serve this in, but I made some crescent rolls to eat with it instead.

Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup
Serves 4 

What you need:

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 medium onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
3 cups (approx 1/2 lb) fresh broccoli, chopped finely
1 cup carrots, julienned (I cut baby carrots into fourths lengthwise)
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups (8 oz) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

How to make it:

Saute onion in the 1 tablespoon of butter.  Set aside.

In a large stock pot, melt 1/4 cup butter.  Mix in the flour using a whisk, forming a thick paste, and cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes (this is called making a roux, for future reference).  Slowly add the milk , stirring constantly with the whisk.  Add the broth, still whisking the whole time.  Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the onions, broccoli, carrots, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat until the veggies are tender, about 20-25 minutes.  The soup should be thickened by now.  (If desired, pour into the blender in batches and puree. Return to pot.)

Add the shredded cheese; stir until well blended while cooking over low heat.  Stir in the nutmeg and serve.

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Creamy Turkey Vegetable Pasta Casserole

25 Nov

I always buy a much bigger turkey than I need for Thanksgiving.  There are usually some good deals to be found on them, so it’s a good opportunity to get a larger one than needed and use the leftovers for other dishes or to freeze for another time.  With mine, I was envisioning some kind of casserole bake with turkey, pasta, and vegetables, namely, California blend vegetables, which are broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.  Of course, I couldn’t find an exact recipe of what I wanted, so I read a bunch of similar recipes and came up with this.  Experimenting is a tough thing to do, you never know how it will turn out.  But, if you know what kind of things you like to eat, and do some reading about how you would like to approach a dish, your results will most likely come out good.  If not, there is always pizza delivery!

Creamy Turkey Vegetable Pasta Casserole

What you need:

1 pound pasta, like rotini or fusilli
1 16 oz package frozen California blend vegetables, thawed
2 cups cooked turkey, shredded (could also use cooked chicken)
2 10 3/4 oz cans of cream of chicken soup (could also use cream of mushroom)
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp Italian seasoning blend
1/2 cup bread crumbs

How to make it:

Cook pasta al dente according to the directions on the box.  Meanwhile, in another large pot, add vegetables, turkey, soup, milk, and Italian seasoning blend.  Heat on medium-low heat until well blended.  Pour over pasta and mix well.  Grease a 13×9 casserole dish and pour in pasta mixture.  Spread evenly.  Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top.  Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes.  Remove foil and cook for 5 minutes longer, or until casserole is bubbling.

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Slow Cooker Spinach, Lentil & Tortellini Soup

22 Nov

 

This is one of my favorite soups to make.  I got the recipe from the Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes, a cookbook I bought when I first got my slow cooker a few years ago.  I was secretly wishing for spinach from Bountiful Baskets, and this week, that wish was fulfilled!  And it’s pretty chilly here today, so perfect weather for eating and making soup.  The original recipe calls for ham and for chicken broth, but I make it without the ham and you can switch to vegetable broth to make this a meatless meal!  I think it tastes great without the ham, but you may choose to add it in.  Mine also looks less soup-like in the picture above because I used a larger family size package of tortellini, because that’s what my girls like the most.

Slow Cooker Spinach, Lentil, and Tortellini Soup

1/2 cup dry lentils
2 cups coarsely shredded carrots (I used the julienne blades on my mandolin slicer)
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 ounces chopped cooked ham or Canadian style bacon, optional
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp snipped fresh basil or 2 tsp dried basil, crushed
1 1/2 Tbsp snipped fresh thyme or 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme, crushed
1/4 tsp pepper
5 cups reduced sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 9-oz pkg refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini
1 bunch fresh spinach, slightly torn

1. Rinse lentils and drain. Place lentils in a slow cooker. Add the carrots, onion, ham or bacon (if using), garlic, dried basil and thyme (if using), and pepper. Pour broth and water over all.

2. Cover; cook on low heat setting for 6 1/2 – 7 hours or on high heat setting for 3 1/4 – 3 1/2 hours. If using the low heat setting, turn to high heat setting. Stir in tortellini. Cover and cook 30 minutes more. To serve, stir in spinach and, if using, the fresh basil and thyme.

I also like to put some shredded mozzarella cheese on my serving.

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Slow Cooker Italian Chicken

19 Nov

This meal was a bit of an experiment, and luckily it turned out good!  It was very easy to put together and not very many ingredients.  You don’t have to use carrots, you could use another vegetables, like broccoli or cauliflower, maybe even green beans.  I thought about adding potatoes to this too, but decided I would serve it over angel hair pasta, that way, I would have the pasta for the kids if they didn’t want much of the chicken or carrots.  They ate some chicken, only tried the carrots.  My husband thought it was great.  Parmesan Garlic Pull Apart Bread would be a great addition to this meal too, but my oven was already taken with Persimmon Cookies (recipe coming soon), so no bread for us tonight.

Slow Cooker Italian Chicken

What you need:

1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 lb carrots, sliced, or a vegetable of your choice
1 cup Italian dressing
1/2 box angel hair pasta, cooked

How to make it:

Spray your slow cooker with cooking spray.  Add chicken to slow cooker, and fill in around chicken with the vegetable.  Pour the Italian dressing over all of it.  Cover, and cook for 6-8 hours on low, 3-4 hours on high.  Remove from slow cooker and serve over the cooked pasta.

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Ground Beef & Cabbage Stew

6 Nov


Ok, I know at first glance, this doesn’t really look appetizing.  In fact, my good friend that I got this recipe from jokes that this dish should be called “Pig Food”.  I promise though, that it does taste good even though it doesn’t look very good.  And both of my girls eat it with no argument, so that says something if the kids will eat it.  It’s really easy to throw together, most of the time is spent on chopping vegetables to put in it.

Ground Beef  & Cabbage Stew

What you need:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 of a yellow onion, diced
1/2 lb of carrots, sliced
4 1/2 cups water
5 beef or chicken bouillon cubes
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 cups shredded cabbage
1 can peas, or 2 cups frozen or fresh peas

How to make it:

Brown ground beef in a large pot.  Add in carrots and onions, and cook until onions are translucent and carrots have started to soften.  Add the water, bouillon cubes and potatoes.  Make sure there is enough water to cover all of the meat and vegetables, add more if necessary.  Bring to a boil, then turn down heat to let it simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes and carrots are both soft.  Add in cabbage, and cook until it begins to wilt.  Add in peas and cook for a few minutes longer to allow peas to cook.  Serve immediately.

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Baked Egg Rolls

16 Oct

A few weeks back, I made egg rolls for the first time.  I had another package of egg roll wrappers still, so I decided I wanted to try baking them instead of frying them.  For the filling, I julienne cut one of the 1 pound bags of carrots I got from Bountiful Baskets this week.  Next, I diced up the stems and leaves of the bok choy, then removed the meat from the bones of the rotisserie chicken.  I put a little vegetable oil in my wok, then added the carrots and the bok choy stems.  I cooked them until they were tender, then added the bok choy leaves and the chicken.  I added in soy sauce, and cooked for a few minutes.  Then, I assembled the egg rolls.

To bake them, I lined a baking sheet with aluminum foil and sprayed it with non-stick cooking spray.  I arranged the egg rolls on the baking sheet, then brushed them with olive oil  I put them in the oven at 400 F for about 15 minutes, when they became golden brown.

They turned out well.  I think I prefer them fried, but have no problem with the baked ones.  After I used up the filling, I still had 4 egg roll wrappers left, so I filled them with shredded mozzarella cheese, and baked them the same way.  They turned out pretty tasty too.

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