meals – Peaceful Reader

What to eat during a pandemic?

I’ve made a lot of food during our stay-at-home “vacation” because we don’t eat out much. BP (before pandemic) I generally only cooked a few meals throughout the week to sustain us. Breakfast was usually quick and out the door and lunch were pretty much pb & j or leftovers at work or school for each of us. And most nights we didn’t eat together because of rehearsals and dance. Now I feel like I’m constantly in the kitchen cooking or cleaning it back up. I’ve made some good food though and we’ve enjoyed it together. I follow Jaime Oliver on IG and have several of his cookbooks. I love his videos and his recipes but, I’ll admit, it’s also about the accent! We’ve made this bread recipe twice now and it is truly amazing. So easy, delicious and really just takes an afternoon. Check out Jaime’s post to find many other wonderful recipes.

View this post on Instagram

So sharing my easy bread recipe again from #KeepCookingCarryOn which has already been tried and tested by so many of you already! Who’s already baked a loaf??

A post shared by Jamie Oliver (@jamieoliver) on Apr 22, 2020 at 9:11am PDT

On Monday our senior walked across the stage in a staged version of what will come later; a video of everyone spliced together with speeches and everything. I’m very glad her high school chose to honor the students by hosting this as it took a lot of time and effort from staff. It was surreal to walk with everyone masked up through the school keeping a good distance between families, as we traveled down the hall together for the last time. We returned home after our “5 minute” ceremony to have cake and a little bubbly. I made a buttermilk chocolate cake recipe that was so moist and flavorful. My husband who is not a lover of sweets or chocolate ate two pieces!

{Buns in the Oven}

What are you cooking up?

New York Times Cooking

Cooking and reading seem to be always on my mind. This week I didn’t cook at all until inspiration hit me on Thursday. Sometimes after school I seriously have to take a 20 minute nap to keep going and while I was building up to get up I scrolled through my NYT cooking app to find a recipe for dinner. Lucky me, I found two. And I had all the ingredients – with a little improvisation thrown in.

Roasted Salmon and Brussels Sprouts was a very easy recipe to throw together and the results were very good. I didn’t have any salmon but I did have 4 pieces of frozen tilapia waiting for the right moment. In our vegetable drawer I had a leftover stalk or two of broccoli so I cut that into small pieces and added it to the brussels sprout mixture. While this was roasting I cooked a small portion of brown rice and we mixed it altogether. Quick, easy with a healthy protein. We don’t generally have any red meat here, a little organic chicken and fish now and then and we seem to be staying healthy through this long-ass winter.

Curried Cauliflower Soup from Martha Rose was pretty simple to assembly while I waited for the first meal to cook. This one I had all the right ingredients and I have it for backup meals this week. This soup is spicy and will taste great with some toasted naan bread. This next week will be very busy with our Spring (?) Scholastic book fair and conferences. Having a few meals prepared will help us get through the week and make it to Spring Break.

In the midst of more snowfall we are headed to Chicago for the first few days of Spring Break 2019! Road trips mean lots of uninterrupted time to read. I’m excited to shop on Devon Street – I need to replenish some spice jars and I love looking at the stores in this area.

This week more inspiration hit and I joined Book-of-the-Month Club because as my daughter said “Just what you need! More books” But seriously ~ I liked the idea of trying some new titles/authors and after showing the list to my husband we both agreed on Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I’m halfway through Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward and have to hurry to finish because my adult wine-drinking book club meets the Monday after our Chicago trip and our March read is Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I’ve heard a lot of great things about this story so I’m anxious to get started.

Cheers to a good week!

April Days

Terrible rain storm here tonight, rumbling, with lightning. I enjoyed a walk with friends this afternoon around a large lake and it was cloudy and smelled like rain but lucky for us it held off. It came tonight with lots of rumbling and a light show display.

Groovy Girl and I are dog sitting for a friend and I had to bring the dog back here with me. Her sad yellow lab eyes looked at me through the door and I just couldn’t leave her alone. So we have a doggie sleep over guest who’s had a good time getting to know our house and our two labs.

{Pre and Post-baked shells}

I made one main major meal this week-Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce from Giada on Food Network. My brother made it for GG and I a few months ago and we both liked it. It’s a little labor intensive though so I made it last Sunday afternoon when I had the time. Throughout the week GG was able to eat the leftovers for dinner before dance. Next time I’d leave out the pancetta; I didn’t really enjoy the flavor.

While I was looking through some old blog posts I found this Sweet Potato Black Bean burrito recipe that I love. It is perfect to make and keep extras for lunches as well. Also I found this great recipe for breakfast sandwiches that can be made ahead. I’m trying to make Anton one every morning so he leaves for work with something for breakfast. The recipe says you can freeze these; I’ve just been keeping 3-4 ready to go packaged up in the fridge. It’s easy to take one out, heat in the microwave for 20 seconds, and hand it to him before he heads out the door.

Tomorrow we celebrate Easter with a church service where Groovy Girl will do a celebratory lyrical dance for about the 4th year and after we head to MN to have dinner cooked by my stepmother. I’m very excited to just sit at her table and enjoy the family around me. Blessing abound.

Weekly Recipes; Food for thought

I haven’t posted any weekly recipe posts for quite awhile because I feel like I haven’t been cooking. Of course we’ve still eaten dinner but with my husband gone every night for rehearsals – Rocky Horror Show – right now so dinner is usually something I can quickly pull together before we head to dance. Making pasta, soup, or the occasional grilled cheese for Groovy Girl allows me to eat dinner how I like which is a small plate of crackers, cheese, and some fruit/veggie or blue chips and homemade salsa. I tend to be hungry right after school depending on what I had for lunch and I feel better when I eat mini-meals. My husband, the athlete, always-on-the-go, needs a full meal.

That said this morning I was inspired to whip up some waffles. I have a recipe I’ve used for years but this morning my head was foggy and I could not recall exactly which recipe book it was in. In order to not waste precious time I googled for a recipe. Several links down I spotted Ree Drummond’s signature site and clicked to see what she had to say about waffles. Sometimes I just click there to be amused and then move on to different site for another recipe but today hers seemed doable and interesting. My arm hurts now from whipping up the egg whites but I definitely would make this again and soon with holiday season just a week away.

From Ree’s site:

RECIPE

Waffles

February 18, 2014 554

PREP TIME:: 10 Minutes

DIFFICULTY:: Easy

COOK TIME:: 10 Minutes

SERVINGS:: 8 Servings

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the waffle iron to the regular setting.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, 2 egg yolks, and vanilla. Pour over the dry ingredients and very gently stir until halfway combined. Pour in the melted butter and continue mixing very gently until combined.

In a separate bowl (or using a mixer), beat the egg whites with a whisk until stiff. Slowly fold them into the batter, stopping short of mixing them all the way through.

Scoop the batter into your waffle iron in batches and cook according to its directions (lean toward being a little deep golden and crisp!) Remove and serve immediately with softened butter and warm syrup.

I know it seems labor intensive with the whole egg white thing but I do think it made ours fluffier. The two teenage girls on sleeping on the sofa complained about my kitchen activity until I told them I was making waffles. They wrapped themselves in blankets and moved on over to the table as soon as I plated up pretty waffles. I would have taken a photo before they dug in but I’ve somehow managed to lose my phone somewhere in the house. Enjoy!

P.S. I made this recipe exactly as it says except I used almond milk.

P.P.S. I have one last assignment to turn in for my Google class which has been difficult. I’ll be glad once again to not have to think about homework.

Thanksgiving Delights

I made a sweet potato pie last night. It looks beautiful. I have to wait until tomorrow to taste it. It looks simple in the photo but the flavor will be great. The cool thing is that new stove sitting in my kitchen. Love it.

To make the pie I used the best pie crust recipe I have in my files, given to me by my mother-in-law, Phyllis.

Perfect Pie Crust

For a double crust pie:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cold, cold water

Mix together dry and cut in Crisco with a pastry blender. Pour in cold water and mix only enough to stick together. Roll out one-half of the dough at a time for double crust pie.

I never fail with this recipe. My sweet potato pie is not a two crust pie so I have the second half of the dough in the fridge waiting for inspiration. I didn’t have any Crisco way down in my pantry so I tried a butter/Coconut oil (in solid form) combination and it seems to have worked. The true test will be tomorrow when we eat it.

Sweet potato pie is very easy; a handful of sweet potatoes, baked, then peeled, a little organic sugar, 3 eggs, fresh nutmeg scraped in, and evaporated milk (I used regular after boiling it down). Work it all together, pour it in the pie shell and bake it at 350* for 45 minutes. The middle won’t jiggle when it’s all done. Best served at room temperature with a small dollop of fresh whipped cream seasoned with cinnamon. Can’t wait.

Tomorrow night we are having a friendsgiving and I’m making a big dish of vegetable lasagna with some organic, local ground beef thrown in. I found the veggie lasagna recipe at The Pioneer Woman. Crusty french bread and a large tossed salad will be perfect together. For one guest I’m making homemade mashed potatoes with gravy and some cranberries so it will seem a little more like Thanksgiving. I don’t ever really miss the turkey because the side dishes mean more.

Be grateful for everything in your day; the sweet and the sour.

Weekly recipes 12: Tomato-Basil Soup

The week after Christmas we spent time at my brother’s outside Minneapolis. It was blissful because I was able to sit and relax, chatting, sipping, chatting, and reading while my brother cooked a scrumptious meal for all of us. During the holiday break I did most of the preparing and cooking while others relaxed so this was a great change of pace for me. Also he is a fantastic cook. My sister-in-law is no slouch either; she prepared a quiche and a German pancake for breakfast, starting our day off in a tasteful way.

Getting back into the groove of school this week and the freezing cold weather I started our week with soup. Of course. Tomato soup and grilled cheese. It was delicious.

Tomato-Basil Soup
{from Chris at Shared Appetite}

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 red onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
4 cups good-quality chicken stock
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
¾ – 1 cup heavy cream
1 bunch basil, torn into small bite-size pieces
Parmesan cheese, for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS
Heat olive oil over medium-low heat in a dutch oven or large pot. Once hot, add onions and season generously with Kosher salt. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until soft and starting to turn golden brown, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute, stirring to avoid burning the garlic.
Stir in the tomatoes and chicken stock. Season generously with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. I like to use about ½ tablespoon of black pepper, which gives a little kick to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower heat to maintain a simmer for at least 15 minutes. You can feel free to leave it longer if you forget about it. I have.
Purée mixture using an immersion blender or carefully transfer soup to a blender. If using a blender, return mixture to the pot.
Stir in the cream and basil and let simmer for at least 15 minutes, although I like to leave it for a bit longer so it can reduce down to a thicker consistency.
Serve immediately, topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I highly recommend using Parmigiano-Reggiano for its superior quality), a little sprinkle of black pepper, and a chiffonade of basil.

We had some thick sourdough bread leftover from Christmas and it made perfect grilled cheese with Brie and Muenster mixed and melted between fat slabs of bread.

I poured Groovy Girl’s portions of soup through a strainer because even though I used my immersion blender it still had diced onions and I knew she would “freak” so to speak. She loved it. We had it for several meals and I had enough to take for two lunches at school.

I also created a tofu stir-fry with quartered brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, pea pods, turmeric, a little curry sauce, and coconut milk. Instead of rice I used Israeli couscous. Groovy Girl ate two helpings.

{1/2 a German pancake}

She had the day off today and because our week has been a little busy; I had two nights of meetings in between dance classes so I decided to jump in my freezing cold car and head home for lunch to dine just with her. I prepared German pancake mix and left it in the fridge in a pint jar before I headed out for school while everyone else was still sleeping. Before I left school at noon I asked her to turn the oven on so it would be nice and hot when I walked through the door. Before I even took my coat off I scraped a large pat of butter into my cast iron Lodge skillet and stuck it in the hot oven. When the butter was melted and browning I pulled the pan out and poured the pancake mix in and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes. We took it out, lifted it out of the pan, and ate it all up with jam, syrup, and powdered sugar. It was delicious. Memories made.

It was a great cook week here. Even in the freezing cold temps we survive. How about you?

Weekly Recipes 9 {if this week included T.giving as well}

I’m back. I finished Nation Novel Writing Month 2015-I wrote an entire story and it is longer than the 50,000 word requirement. I plan to edit it and work to get it published. I don’t know how all that words so if you have any tips let me know. At the tale end of the month we celebrated Thanksgiving with the four of us. We missed Kaylee but she always spends this holiday with her mom in St. Louis. I wanted to enjoy the day, not be crazy about writing, and still have good food on the table. So this is what happened.

I planned an easy menu. I decided I wanted U.S. grass-fed steaks (which we bought while in the Twin Cities), and to please all my people I made three different kinds of potatoes; sweet potatoes for me and I made those a day ahead, mashed potatoes with gravy for the men, and roasted red potatoes for Groovy Girl. What can I say, we like potatoes. We had fresh green beans, just sauteed a bit in coconut oil. I always make fresh cranberry sauce that doubles as jam for our bread (this time we bought it from Panera).

The thing I was most concerned about was gravy. I needed gravy for those mashed potatoes and I did not want to get it out of a jar and I didn’t have pan drippings to create my own. So I did a little research (which means I googled it) and found an excellent recipe that I will make again come Christmas dinner.

The gravy recipe is from Chocolate Moosey. I used veggie stock and it was a light color (think biscuit gravy) but the taste was phenomenal. It made enough to fill a quart-jar with leftovers that we used (still using for leftover potatoes). That was the gravy recipe I was searching for the whole time we were vegetarians. Now I’ve got it.

The cranberry recipe is from Epicurious. I love listening to the tart round berries popping as this simmers. Nothing says holiday meal like that sound in my kitchen. That and wine pouring. I still have leftover sauce and I used it just last night on a piece of homemade bread. Yum.

Those are my only two Thanksgiving recipes to share except my husband made an excellent sweet potato cheesecake that deserves it’s own post. Playing catch-up for not cooking much in November I made two fantastic meals over the weekend for my husband and son to enjoy together. Groovy Girl is out of the country and not spending every waking moment hunched over my typewriter has freed me up a bit of extra time.

I literally whipped together a dish the other night using diced butternut squash, a pound of farmer-bought hamburger, a Trader Joe’s curry simmer sauce, and Israeli couscous. It was delicious and I should have snapped a photo. That and a nice big green salad and dinner was on the table in about 40 minutes.

{Serious Eats}

Yesterday I had the pleasure of creating a recipe from start to finish which is truly one of life’s joys. When you can cook unhurried and enjoy the process. I planned the menu, I made a batch of dough in the morning that would be ready to bake by dinner, and I set a time early enough that my son would be able to stop here and have dinner before heading to work.

I made a really unique beef stroganoff that was amazing. The sauce, rich with mushroom flavor and pearl onions, would also pair perfectly with tofu-which would gladly soak up the sauce. The recipe is from Serious Eats and I liked reading all the research that went into making a better stroganoff. I don’t know what possessed me to choose this but it was a fun recipe to try.

Happy cooking.

Weekly Recipes 6 (the vacation files)

We’ve been on vacation for a few weeks in the Baltimore/DC area staying with Greg’s family. Every time we make it out here we try and explore something new in the capital. This time we went to The Building Museum and National Museum of the American Indian; both were fantastic. My husband and I walked through the Hirshhorn by ourselves one afternoon which had a fantastic display by Shirin Neshat, an Iranian artist.

Exploring Takoma Park area with my my husband’s brother and his wife we tried an amazing restaurant, Republic, that we could walk to from their house. Love that accessibility. Our dinner was extremely good. Expensive but worth it. I would eat there again on our next visit. Hopefully it stays put. We shared a mix of delicious appetizers; squash blossoms, oysters, and the crispy shrimp with kimchi. They brought out a basket of crusty bread with a bean dip. I ordered a salmon app for dinner and it was just the right amount. While the dessert menu looked appealing we were too full. Luckily with our bill we received a plate of bite-sized house brownies! Thank you to Matthew for the excellent service that night.

Fish Tacos-my sister-in-law Jayne made this for us one night. They were delicious and I loved all the variety of toppings she had for us. We ate after sitting on their lovely front porch for an hour or so enjoying the weather, the view, and a beverage or two.

Cherry-Apricot Crumble-Jayne served this for dessert and it comes with an interesting story. She keeps a notebook of guests and what she served to them and to her surprise when she flipped back to early entries she found she’d served this exact dessert to our family when our oldest two were young and Groovy Girl had not yet graced us with her presence. She remembered Teenage Boy exclaiming that it was the “best dessert he’d ever had” in his 6-year-old voice so she decided to make it again for us. It was delicious and this time I asked for the recipe.

Stuffed Peppers-recipe from my mother-in-law Phyllis, I prepared it for everyone though as she had Groovy Girl and her cousin off on an adventure. The peppers plus a salad made a great easy dinner. My mother-in-law is an excellent cook and I love to share recipes with her. She made us quite a few great meals including her famous taco salad. I appreciate all the recipes she shared with me over the years.

At this point we are ready to head home with great new memories, a few treasures tucked away, and very full bellies. Hope your weeks have been just as full.

Weekly Recipes

What I cooked this week…

With two kids home again I’m back to that grind of “what can I make that will please everyone…” It’s never easy to please everyone, even when that means only 4 people. I like it when those four/five people eat the food that I prepare with minimal fuss/pickiness. Working full-time to come home and prepare dinner, I want that sit-down affair to be a happy time.

For a year and 1/2 teenage boy was living on his on in Colorado and it was just husband and I with Groovy Girl to attend to and I could cater my meals in her direction. My husband literally will eat most everything set in front of him as long as it’s not peanut butter or shellfish.

We are ecstatically happy that Teenage Boy returned home to go back to school even though he does throw a new twist into my meal plan. If I went way back to early blog posts he is the one who “asked” us to think about eating meat. He played sports and as an active young male he begged, pleaded, and begged some more for me to add meat into our diet.

I don’t mind meat as long as it comes from a healthy and local source, which also makes it expensive. We can’t do meat every night (which is what Teenage Boy would like). He can through a meatless meal if pasta is involved.

The last couple of years I’ve tried to stay away from so much gluten. We’ve ruined wheat and it makes it hard to enjoy bread, pasta, sandwiches, and a nice cold beer. It’s okay; I’ve found many other delicious pleasures like hard cider, but it makes meal planning that much more interesting.

With all our different preferences it makes it difficult to plan the perfect meal. It takes creativity and ingenuity. And sometimes I just have to have a salad and be happy with that. It’s all good.

{source}

1. Calzones: I made these on Monday night when husband was not home and I needed a purely kid-friendly dinner. I mixed two recipes together and Groovy Girl did the calzone part on her own for both. I made a lovely salad for myself and let the kids enjoy the cheesy, steamy calzones. They loved them. I used this pizza dough and filled it with good sausage, marinara, black olives, and cheese. Will make again especially because GG did all the work.

2. Artichoke and spinach pasta: This we enjoyed all together. Love it when we are all at the table as one. We had a salad so I could have just had that but the pasta looked and smelled amazing so I had a small portion. Yum! The family ate it up. Again I combined two recipes from Pinterest: food network and budget savvy diva; I used what I wanted from both recipes making it as natural as possible. I used real spinach, 1 can of artichokes, parmesan shredded, fettuccine noodles, and a little cream cheese to add creaminess. The roux was easy to make and the people at my table had 3-4 helpings. I filled my plate with salad and had a small amount of pasta to try it. (meatless)

3. Bean burritos: I created these one night using quinoa, a can of black beans with sautéed sweet peppers mixed in. The kids ate these with flour tortillas and I had corn, tastier, to me, and a much smaller portion. (meatless)

4. Stir-fry: This cleaned out my vegetable drawer; the last few spears of asparagus, last stalk of broccoli and cauliflower, a few peppers, a jar of Trader Joe’s simmer sauce, a pot of brown rice and we had dinner at the table in record time. I mixed in a little coconut milk for a change of pace and to tame the simmer sauce a bit for Groovy Girl. They didn’t even know they were eating “leftovers”. (meatless)

5. Black bean soup: this is for tomorrow. I cooked down a pound of black beans earlier in the week.

So all-in-all it was a creative week of meals at our house. And the BB soup will be a wonderful way to begin the week because it can be used in a variety of ways. How was your food week?

Tag: meals