Simple Mushroom Sauce

The other night Forrest made wild rice with mushroom sauce. It was delicious and so simple! The recipe he used for the sauce came from http://www.helpwithcooking.com/sauces/mushroom-sauce.html. He didn't use any olive oil (who uses warm fat to melt other fat?). Next time, he says, he will adapt the recipe with spices and/or other additions.

Simple mushroom sauce

Ingredients

• 6 oz (170 g) of thinly sliced mushrooms
• ½ pint of milk
• ½ oz (15 g) of butter
• 1 heaped tbsp of flour
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat a little olive oil and melt the butter in it.
2. Add the mushrooms and sauté until the mushrooms are soft and dark in colour.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
4. Add the flour and pour in the milk.
5. Mix the ingredients together, stirring continuously.
6. Return the pan to a medium heat and cook the sauce, stirring constantly until it thickens.
7. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 5 - 8 minutes.
8. Serve hot.

Peach Gingerbread

This is a recipe that I made over Christmas weekend. It was a big hit! :) I made it in mini bread loaves, but the recipe is for muffins. I think that it is delicious either way! Mindi

Peach Gingerbread

2 cups All Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup of sugar
½ cup of applesauce
¼ cup of apple juice
¼ cup of Molasses
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 can of peaches in juice, drained and chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line cupcake pan with liners.
2. In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, ginger, salt and spices.
3. In small bowl, combine sugar, apple sauce, apple juice, molasses, egg and oil.
4. Stir in apple sauce mixture into flour mixture until moistened. Fold in peaches.
5. Spoon into muffin cups.
6. Bake 20 minutes.

Easy low-fat white sauce

So this was pretty good for what I was going for. Wanted a flavorful sauce for pasta without a lot of calories. I've made similar sauces, but this was my favorite combination. I was using flour for thickener, but it tended to burn on the bottom.

4 cups milk
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp minced dried onions
pinch dried peppers (for just a very little kick
enough corn starch to thicken it.
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the corn starch with a cup of milk and then combine all the milk together in a medium sauce pan. Slowly heat the milk to a simmer. While it is heating you can add the other ingredients. Make sure to stir constantly until at desired consistency. Add to pasta and toss to coat evenly.

edit: Originally wrote 2 tbsp minced garlic. Wow! That would be something! I like garlic, but that is too much. :)

Enchilada Hash Browns

Made this the other night and it worked well. Everyone liked it except Kendra, our potato and cheese hater. Definitely want to keep this in mind for future really easy meals.

Enchilada Hash Browns

1 Tbsp of vegitable oil
grated potatos (or a bag of frozen hash browns)
1 lb browned ground beef with the fat drained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can red enchilada sauce
a cup or two grated cheddar cheese

Heat oil in a large deep skillet, and tilt the pan so the oil covers the bottom. Add the hash browns and cook until golden, then flip them. Spread the ground beef evenly on top the hash browns, same with the beans, then pour the sauce evenly over them. Top with the cheese and cover. Cook until the cheese is melted and then serve.

Latkes!

Tomorrow is the last day of Hanukkah. We made latkes today! This recipe is for a small batch, because then they all cook before the oil burns. This amount made 10 small latkes (about the size of coasters).

We used:

3 potatoes
1 onion
1 egg
1 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp salt
a dash of black pepper

enough canola oil to put 3/4 inch in the bottom of a deep skillet/frying pan

Shred the potatoes and onions. You can use a food processor, as I did, or a potato peeler, which takes hours and hours.

Put the shredded potatoes and onions into a clean tea towel and squeeze as much liquid as possible out of them. The best latkes start with the driest potato and onion shreds. Don't skip this step like I did a couple years ago; it will make the whole process easier, safer, and tastier.

Put your drier potato and onion shreds into a mixing bowl. Stir in the egg, flour, salt, and pepper. Mix it well.

Heat your skillet. Pour canola oil in to a level of about 3/4 inch. Turn the burner to about the lowest possible on a gas stove, or maybe a low medium on an electric stove. Wait a couple minutes for the oil to get hot.

Use about a handful of the mixture to form each flattish, roundish latke. Use a metal or wooden slotted spoon to carefully lower each latke into the pan. You can put a few latkes in at once, as long as there is room between them. Let them cook in the oil for a couple of minutes until the bottoms are brown. Carefully flip each latke over to cook the other side. When both sides are cooked, carefully remove the latke from the oil and set to cool on butcher paper (or a brown paper bag, or newspaper, whatever you have).

Let the latkes cool for at least 5 minutes, but then eat them pretty soon because they are best fresh. Eat them plain or serve with applesauce, sour cream, or jam.

Happy Hannukah!

Flatbread Pizza!

Okay, this is the easiest recipe ever, and so intuitive that you've all probably made a variation at one point or another. It's especially good for kids and folks who like to eat different things, because everyone gets to make their own. Mostly I just wanted to post about how AWESOME this version tasted tonight. WOW. Forrest rated it a 9, and only 9 rather than 10 because he wanted more when he had finished his!

You will need:

flatbread pitas (softer and more wonderful than pocket pitas)
tomato paste (about 1 oz per pita. Try to get the unadulterated kind; the ingredients on the can should say "Tomatoes" and nothing else)
water
oregano
basil
thyme
garlic powder
onion powder
mozzarella cheese, between one and two ounces per pita.

toppings! (this evening for two pita pizzas we used about 1.5 cups of frozen kale, 1 finely diced medium spicy jalapeno, 1 tomato, and about 1.5 ounces lower-sodium salami)

Mix the tomato paste with a little bit of water, until it is easy to stir without being at all runny or soupy. Mix in oregano, basil, thyme, garlic powder and onion powder to taste.

Use a soup spoon to plop just one big spoonful onto the center of each pita. Spread it around with the back of the spoon. If you think you need more, add a little at a time. Don't go overboard or the final result will be sticky and mushy.

Top each pita with shredded mozzarella cheese and your other toppings. I always put a little bit more cheese on top at the end.

Place the pita pizzas onto a cookie sheet (or right onto the oven rack if you want extra crispy crust). Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15-20 minutes. There is no need to preheat the oven.

Eat and enjoy!!!

Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast

I love cinnamon french toast, but I hate how the cinnamon clumps in the egg batter. I've tried various solutions (btw, adding it to the milk and stirring it up just makes cinnamon-milk foam) but this is the one that actually works.

8 eggs
1/2 cup cinnamon-sugar mix (nice and blended)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk
16 slices bread

The only thing I actually measure are the eggs :P. Put the cinnamon-sugar in the dipping bowl. Add the eggs and the milk and the vanilla. Let sit for a couple minutes while the egg/milk soaks into the sugar. Mix well. Dip the bread as usual. Stir the eggs every time they sit for more than a minute or so, or the sugar accumulates on the bottom.