steel-cut oats with apples and pecans

This is from Jillian Michaels' Master Your Metabolism Cookbook. I've been eating it for breakfast every morning this week and I LOVE it. I included a link to this recipe in the previous menu plan monday, but I want it here for future reference.

steel-cut oats with apples and pecans
1 cup almond milk
1 cup quick-cooking steel-cut oats
2 apples, cored and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 1/2 teaspoons organic maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar
1/3 cup chopped pecns or walnuts, toasted*

In a medium saucepan, combine the almond milk, 1 cup water, and the oats. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed, 10 to 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.

While the oatmeal is cooking, in a small saucepan, place the apples, cinnamon, 1./2 teaspoon of the maple syrup, and 1 tablespoon water. Cook over medium heat until the apples are softened and the liquid has reduced to a syrupy consistency, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the pecans and cover to keep warm.

Stir the apples and nuts into the cooked and rested oatmeal. Divude among four bowls. Drizzle 1 teaspoon maple syrup over each bowl and serve. 

*to toast pecans: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the nuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in the oven until fragrant and lightly golden., 2 5 to 6 minutes.                                                                                                                                                                       

bento #62

This is in a new bento box called Snapware. It's kind of like a lock & lock but a little deeper I think. It works great! This bento is pepperoni and tomato thin crust pizza cut into pieces, carrot coins, apple slices with lemon juice to keep color, and 1/2 of a blueberry muffin and 1/2 of a banana muffin. I've  been making lots of muffins lately. The kids love them for any meal or any snack.

spring rolls

I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the entire package so you know what it looks like, but this is rice paper, or spring roll wrappers. You can purchase at any Asian market most likely.

They are thin and hard, but very delicate. Once you wet them in water for 2-3 seconds, they become almost transparent, soft, and filmy. This makes it easier to roll up burrito style.

These are the ingredients I used: green bell pepper, chopped lettuce, chopped mint (mixed with lettuce), bean sprouts, shredded carrots, fresh basil, and bean thread (a kind of noodle).

chicken with a teriyaki marinade.

This is all on top of a rice wrapper, but you can't really see it. Pretty, huh.

A close up of the spring roll all wrapped up. I'm still working on my wrapping technique.

You can get really fancy and put leaves of cilantro, basil, and/or mint so that when you roll it up you see pretty, whole green leaves showing through. That was too hard for me. . .

There are endless possibilites what to put in these, but here are the basics:

Rice wrappers for spring rolls

1 pound chicken breast, cooked and diced

2 ounces rice noodles (vermicelli)

1 cup chopped lettuce

2 Tablespoons Thai Basil, chopped

2 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped

1 Tablespoon mint, chopped

1 cup bean sprouts

1 cup shredded carrots

Boil vermicelli for just 3-5 minutes, or let soak for 20 minutes. Drain. Chop and prepare all ingredients and place in rows on a tray. Fill a pie pan with water. Soak a rice wrapper for 3-5 seconds (the package will tell you how) and place in front of you on a clean work surface. Place a small amount of chiken on lower half of rice wrapper. Then place equal small amounts of the remaining ingredients on top of chicken. Fold like a burrito (package will also show folding instructions). Let rest a few minutes under damp cloth while you continue to roll the others. These are best eaten right away and do not make for good leftovers. Eat with your favorite peanut dipping sauce. I like this one: Peanut Love Sauce.

menu plan monday :: week of May 24th

I am planning all 3 meals this week. For more menu inspiration go to mpm at orgjunkie.

MONDAY 

B:  oatmeal and apple muffins
L:  take and bake pizza from Costco ($6.99 right now) :: apricots :: veggie chips
D:  weekend leftovers

TUESDAY 
B:  steel-cut oats with apples and pecans (Jillian Michaels recipe. Love this!)
L:  a variation of pioneer woman's vegie sandwiches :: yogurt :: apple slices
D:  Fajitas

WEDNESDAY 
B:  chocolate muffins
L:  rosemary cracker bread :: swiss cheese :: apples :: yogurt
D:  cool taco salad

THURSDAY
B:  avocado on toast :: grapefruit
L:  BLTs with avocado on wheat
D:  breakfast for dinner :: pancakes with apricot preserves :: fresh-squeezed orange juice

FRIDAY
B:  Greek Yogurt Cup with Quinoa Crunch and Berries (another Jillian Michaels recipe)
L:  barbecue at the park :: spinach and pasta salad with grilled chicken :: watermelon :: hamburgers/hotdogs
D:  pizza night (individual pita pizzas :: everyone creates their own with assorted toppings)

SATURDAY 
B:  cold cereal :: oranges (going to farmer's market)
L:  smorgasbord of leftovers
D:  eating out with BIL & SIL

SUNDAY
B:  french toast :: fresh-squeezed orange juice
L:  smorgasbord of leftovers (Whatever is in the fridge and cupboards thrown together)
D:  Chipotle Chicken with Avocado Sandwiches (our favorite sandwich)

bento #61

Sometimes I like to keep things traditional, you know? This is breaded teriyaki chicken, noodles with green beans, cabbage, and carrots, and 2 little onigiri (no filling and no seaweed, just a little basting of teriyaki on the outside. They are triangle shaped). A little apricot in the upper right for dessert. Daisy loved this bento. I was amazed at how much food I could fit in this thing by the way. I'm using the red dragonfly box seen here. This is the first bento book I ever bought. I love it. It is very traditional and simple. And Daisy doens't mind eating things room temperature.

KD you wanted to know how to keep the yogurt and applesauce from leaking in the laptop lunchbox post I did. Well, that set comes with 2 lids for 2 of the containers. In the other boxes, you can put a little bento accessory on top which is like a credit card sized piece of plastic that rests on top to contain it (Sorry can't think of what they are called at the moment). But, mostly I find that the lids press down right on top of the food and it only gets on the lid of the container and not anywhere else.

bentos #58-60

bean and cheese burrito cut in half, strawberry whipped yogurt, cucumber slices, and assorted cut up fruit

bento at home: yogurt, fruit, a "natural" hotdog, piece of lemon cake

whole wheat crakers, carrot sticks, apple half with checkered pattern cut out, cheese stick cut into 1/4s, golden raisins sprinkled all over.

free rice

Want to improve your vocabulary? Play Free Rice and feed a hungry person at the same time. From the website:

FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. Our partner is the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

FreeRice has two goals:

1.Provide education to everyone for free.
2.Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

For every word you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice. This game is addicting! At least to me it is. And if you are already a smarty pants know it all, they also have math, science, geography, art history, other languages and more. You can also put a button on your blog for easy access and to get others in on the fun.

easy fruit compote

I got this super easy and delicious recipe from my friend Jenny. When she told me there was basil in it I was not interested in trying it at all. Why would I add basil to fruit?! Well, after I tried it, I was hooked. It was all I could do not to finish off the entire bowl.

Here's what you do:

1.  Take your favorite fruits and dice it up. For our family of 5 I diced up about 1/2 cup of each fruit. The one pictured above has red grapes, strawberries, honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, bananas, and pineapple. Any fruit will do. I ended up with 5 cups of fruit. Place in serving dish.

2.  Chop a bunch of fresh sweet basil and sprinkle if all over the chopped fruit.

3.  Drizzle with honey. For 5 cups of fruit, I probably drizzled 2-3 Tablespoons. Mix all together and serve. I was nervous how my family would react to an herb in their fruit, but they loved it! You should give it a try. This is now one of our favorite desserts. This can accompany any meal, be a great breakfast along with toast and yogurt, or a great dessert.

menu plan monday :: week of May 10th

for more menu ideas see here

MONDAY  Breakfast for dinner: Sour Cream Pancakes :: fruit compote (recipe to come)

TUESDAY  cool taco salad

WEDNESDAY  Spring Rolls with Peanut Love Sauce (I am addicted to this stuff)

THURSDAY  Grilled Seasoned Chicken Drummies

FRIDAY  Pizza night :: homemade pizzas on pitas

SATURDAY  leftovers

SUNDAY  dinner at a "colleague's" of HF's.  ; )

pizza quesadillas

Every Friday is pizza night here at the Fuzz household. We love pizza. We either make it at home or we order out from a different mom and pop type place, or papa murphy's. Recently, our daughter said, "I know mommy! How 'bout we make it like a quesadilla but we put pizza toppings inside instead! We can call it a pizza quesadilla!" She's not the first one to think of this, but in her mind she is. I love how creative she is. I remember my mom making us personal pizzas on tortillas when I was little. I loved when she did that. I know this doesn't fall in the super healthy category, but this is how we made ours.

pizza quesadillas
tortillas (any kind)
tomato sauce, pizza sauce, etc.
mozzarella cheese or other lowfat shredded blend
toppings (pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, olives, peppers, pineapple, etc.)
seasonings

Heat a large frying pan on medium heat. Spray with PAM or other cooking spray of your choice. Spread tomato sauce on half of a tortilla. Top with desired toppings, seasonings, and cheese on top. Fold in half. Place in frying pan and cook on one side until golden. Flip and do the same on other side. Transfer to a plate and cut into triangles with pizza cutter. Easy. And the kids loved these.

cutest finds EVER

Peter Rabbit's Garden Snack at Gourmet Mom on the Go.

Also at Gourmet Mom on the Go, these Apple Surprise Mini Pies. Yum!

These adorable Flower Pot Desserts from Pioneer Woman a couple of years ago. Great for Mother's Day.

Monster Stepping Stool for Kids at Indie Tutes.

I've never been able to let a peeps pass my (or my kids') lips, but I don't have a problem buying them up for this purpose. Peeps Sword Fighting! I think this is by far a better use than eating them. Yuck!

bentos #s 56 & 57

dino bento: seed crackers, weird cheese meatballs, boursin cheese in the dinosaur head, cucumbers, Newman's Own fig newtons, grapefruit chunks, and shelled edamame in the dinosaur body.

boring bento: pb & j in whole wheat squares, pretzels, half banana, monterey jack cheese cubes, and rolled up turkey cut into thirds.

bento #55

in a new snapware container:
-white grapefruit chunks with little blue bento fork with a penguin on it.
-strawberry jam on whole wheat, cut into squares
-rolled up turkey bits
-carrot sticks
-homemade choco-oatmeal cookies

bento #54

This is in the laptop lunchbox.

-veggie chips with sea salt

-vanilla yogurt

-pb and honey sandwich

-homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (cut in half to fit)

menu plan monday: week of may 3rd

see other menu plans here at orgjunkie

MONDAY cheesy stuffed shells (with fresh spinach instead of frozen)

TUESDAY  white chili (I use a combination of black eyed peas and white beans, vegeatable broth, and  I am leaving the chicken out. Instead of the cheese as a topping, I will be making guacamole to garnish it. I'm taking it to a vegetarian lunch club. The theme is soup. I hope everyone will like it. It's also our 8th anniversary. We will be going out for dinner.

WEDNESDAY  Falafel pitas. Man, I hope the kids will eat this. . .

THURSDAY  Crab Cakes :: salad with veggies

FRIDAY  pizza night (ordering from a local mom and pop pizza place)

SATURDAY  Confetti Salad :: crusty bread :: mixed fresh fruit

SUNDAY  Mother's Day :: Grilled Pork Tenderloin & Asparagus with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Niño Envuelto (wrapped baby)

I am lucky to live where I live. Lots of people from all over the world. For someone like me that loves food, i get to try a lot of things. One of my neighbors is from the Dominican Republic. She is in the process of learning English. She practices with me, and I practice my Spanish on her. From her broken English, you would never guess that in her previous life, she has a law degree and worked as a natural disaster specialist and then for the last decade or two, she worked as a private I (eye?). When she gets talking about that, she gets very excited. I learned she is a good shoot, and in her opinion, women are just as bad as the men when it comes to cheating. Most of her cases were following suspected cheating spouses. Now she's a feisty old granny trying to learn English. Anyway, she taught me how to make these babies. Apparently, there are very similar recipes from Poland and other places.

Niño Envuelto is essentially a cabbage wrapped rice cake.

3 cups cooked rice
1 cabbage (leaves separated, and gently boiled in water and a little salt until tender)
1/2 pound ground beef
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1 small red onion
1 green pepper
pinch of oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Tabasco
ground black pepper

1.  Halve the green pepper and remove the seends. Chop into tiny pieces. Do the same with the onion. Combine peppers, onion, ground beef, oregano, black pepper, and salt.
2.  In a pan, heat a little oil. Cook, while stirring, the beef mixture. Add the tomato paste and 2 Tablespoons of water. Simmer at medium heat until water evaporates. Take off heat. Mix in rice.
3.  Put 2-4 Tablespoons of mixture in center of leaf. Wrap tightly. Secure with toothpick if necessary.
4.  At this point you can cover with a tomato sauce of your choosing and bake in oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. These were sauteed in a little oil and served as is without any sauce.

Cabbage

kitchen wish list IV

grapefruit spoons (Crate & Barrel)

reusable shopping bags by envirosax

Total Blender Countertop Blender by blendtec (only $379 at Costco) Only? Ha!

orange rolls

We make these every Easter.

Orange Rolls
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 orange peel, grated
18 frozen dinner rolls (like Rhodes)
1 recipe Orange Glaze

Combine melted butter, sugar, and grated peel in a bowl. Dip rolls in mixture and place in muffin tins. Allow to rise for three hours. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Frost wtih Orange Glaze while still warm. Makes 18 rolls.

Orange Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 Tbsp. orange juice

Mix ingredients together until smooth.

your basic spaghetti bake

This is something I will make when I don't know what else to make and I usually always have the ingredients on hand. Here's what you do.

1 pound lean ground beef or turkey

1 small yellow onion

1 large jar of spaghetti sauce (I like to use Newman's Own Marinara)

1 pound spaghetti

2 cups shredded cheese (can use one kind or mix and match)

desired herbs and spices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Finely chop onion and brown in pan with ground meat until thoroughly cooked through. While it is cooking, boil the spaghetti until al dente (usually 8-10 minutes). Drain grease from pan. Stir in jar of spaghetti sauce and 1 cup of cheese. (I used cheddar and parmesan for the one pictured above). Add any desired herbs and spices to taste. Combine meat and spaghetti mixture with noodles. Pour into 9 X 13 casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. This is a very versatile dish so you can make a lot of changes to fit your preferences.

menu plan monday: week of March 19th

for more menu ideas see here

MONDAY  leftovers. we have a lot of leftovers from last week. So really all I have to do is make a pot of rice

TUESDAY  crockpot orange chicken :: rice :: steamed broccoli

WEDNESDAY  Falafel in Pita with Yogurt Sauce

THURSDAY  Pioneer Woman's Veggie Bagel Sandwich

FRIDAY  pizza night :: homemade dough :: kids choose toppings

SATURDAY  Brinner :: whole wheat muffins :: fruit compote :: apple and cheese sausage

SUNDAY Just had to try this once: Ina Garten's Grown up Mac and Cheese :: steamed veggies

an actual week of bentos! (#'s 47-53)

Alright, let's get this party started with one whole week of bentos. I know, it's an actual miracle!

grownup bento: chicken salad sandwich with lettuce and tomato on croissant, fortune cookie, 3 red cinnamon bears, asparagus, and strawberries.

Nino Envuelto (recipe to come)-it's essentially a rice cake wrapped in cabbage leaves, apple quartered, babybel chese, and sweet and salty trail mix.

Dannon drinkable yogurt, cucumber slices, 3 pieces of rolled up ham, apple quartered, and Breton crackers

Oatmeal squares cereal, cucumbers, apple chunks, natural cheese

Danimals drinkable yogurt, mini rice cakes, venta crackers, carrot sticks, cucumber coins, and quartered apple. The stuff in the top right container is Boursin cheese spread. It's a Gournay cheese (kind of like cream cheese). This one is flavored with shallot and green onions. It's strong, but pretty delicious. The kids liked it on crackers and veggies.

This is a new bento box! I'll try to get a picture of the whole thing with the lid sometime. It's called Dyno Dips because of the dinosaur dip dividers in the center. I thought it would be good for a bento and it was pretty good. It's cute. And I got it at ROSS for $2. Can't beat that. Also, our ROSS had a bunch of those lock and lock containers but they didn't have any of the divider containers so I wasn't completely sold on it even thought they were just over $2 a piece. Maybe one of you can tell me if you can buy the little divider containers seperately. Anyway, this one has grainsfirst crackers (brand is Dare. These crackers have 10 kinds of seeds on them. I wasn't sure if the kids would eat them, but they loved them.), strawberries, Boursin cheese, "dinosaur eggs" (leftover easter candy), apple slices, carrot sticks, and 2 chocolate covered pretzels.

carrot sticks, half an apple with skin off, "dinosaur eggs", 2 chocolate covered pretzels, a chunk of mozzarella cheese, and 4 of those seed crackers.