Frozen Lemonade

Recipe Summary
Total Time: mins
Servings:16oz
Source: Culinary Camp

Ingredients

1/2 cup freshly sqeezed lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup ice
1 pint vanilla ice cream

Directions

1. combine lemon juice and sugar in a pitcher and stir until sugar is dissolved.
2. add water and stir until well mixed.Chill for 1 hr in frige.
3. add the lemonade ice and ice cream to a blender.Blend until smooth.
4. Pour or scoop into serving glass and serve with straw.

Traditional Green Bean Casserole

LSO is a purist. Despite all my efforts to bring him to a healthier and more current choice he has been steadfast in his desire for the traditional Campbell's green bean casserole. My mom recently clipped the recipe so now instead of winging it I can actually have the real maccoy. Here it is in all its glory just in time for the holidays.

Recipe Summary
Total Time: 40 mins
Servings:12
Source: Campbell's

Ingredients

Campbell's Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup, 2 cans 10 3/4 oz
Milk, 1 cup
Soy sauce, 2 tsp
Ground black pepper, 1/4 tsp
Cut green beans, 4 cans 14.5 oz, drained
French's french fried onions, 2 2/3 cups

Directions

1. Stir soup, milk, soy sauce, black pepper, beans, and 1 1/3 cups onions in 3 qt casserole.
2. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until bean mixture is hot and bubbling.
3. Stir bean mixture. Sprinkle with remaining onions.
4. Bake for 5 minutes or until onions are golden brown.

Notes

1. Reduced calorie soup may be used. I prefer Healthy Request over fat-free.

Fresh Peach Cobbler

Cook's Illustrated is one of my favorite resources for recipes because each recipe is educational, giving explanations for the methods. Clearly the authors appeal to my inner food scientist. This cobbler, unlike some of their recipes, is very easy and requires less preparation time than many of their other "from scratch" baked goods. So go ahead and pick up a couple pounds of those fresh peaches from the road-side produce stand. Warm fresh cobbler is only an hour away.

Recipe Summary
Total Time: 1 hour
Servings:6
Source: Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients

Filling
Peaches, peeled, halved, pitted, and cut into 3/4 inch wedges, 2 1/2 pounds
Sugar, 1/4 cup
Lemon juice, 1 Tbs
Cornstarch, 1 tsp
Salt, pinch

Biscuit Topping
All-purpose flour, 1 cup
Sugar, 3 Tbs plus 1 tsp
Baking powder, 3/4 tsp
Baking soda, 1/4 tsp
Salt, 1/4 tsp
Butter, unsalted, cut into 1/4 inch pieces and chilled, 5 Tbs
Yogurt, plain whole milk, 1/3 cup

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Gently toss peaches and sugar together in large bowl and let sit for 30 minutes, gently stirring several times. Drain peaches in colander set over large bowl and reserve 1/4 cup juice (discard remaining juice). Whisk reserved juice, lemon juice, cornstarch, and salt together in small bowl. Combine peaches and juice mixture in bowl and transfer to 8-inch square baking dish; place on prepared sheet. Bake until peaches begin to bubble around edges, about 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, pulse flour, 3 Tbs sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in food processor until combined, about 5 pulses. Scatter butter over top and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Transfer to medium bowl, add yogurt, and toss with rubber spatula until cohesive dough forms (don't overmix dough). Divide dough into 6 equal pieces.
3. After removing peaches from oven, place dough mounds on top, spacing them at least 1/2 inch apart (they should not touch). Sprinkle remaining 1 tsp sugar evenly over mounds. Bake until filling is bubbling and biscuits are golden brown, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating sheet haltway through baking. Transfer baking dish to wire rack and let cool until warm, about 20 minutes;serve.

Notes

1. I used two knives instead of a food processor.
2. If you don't have a food scale use the one in the grocery store. I vastly underestimated the amount of peaches the first time I made this. It doesn't taste as good.
3. Frozen peaches can be used. Just defrost them 2 hours before assembling and baking the cobbler. Use 2 pounds and reserve 2 Tbs juice. Proceed as directed increasing baking time in step 1 to 15 to 20 mins.

Garlic Bread

In my laziness I used to buy prepackaged freezer garlic bread. So when I say this recipe is delicious you must understand how low the bar was initially set. I think though, unless you are accustomed to making your own bread or buying it fresh daily, you will find this recipe to be pretty good.

Recipe Summary
Total Time: 20 minutes
Servings:4-6
Source: Kitty

Ingredients

Italian bread
Kosher style flake salt
Garlic powder
Butter

Directions

1. Slice Italian loaf into desired thickness
2. Butter bread slices liberally
3. Pour salt into hand. Pinch salt between thumb and pointer finger. Sprinkle over bread until lightly covered.
4. Shake garlic powder over bread.
5. Toast until lightly brown. About 3 minutes.

Notes

1. I use Kosher style flake salt from the gourmet spice shop Penzeys but any salt will do. Over the years I have a preference for coarse salts. Use whatever your budget allows.
2. I use the Italian bread from Walmart. It is the best of all the box grocery stores in my area.
3. Slice the rest of the loaf and put it in the freezer to keep bread fresh for an extra couple days.

Walmart Savings Catcher - For lazy budget shoppers

Walmart is the devil. But it is a necessary evil for those on a tight budget because it has the cheapest average prices around. So if you want to cut costs without spending two hours a week comparing circulars and clipping coupons Walmart will give you the best deal. But if that isn't cutting enough of your cost I have found the next best thing.

I discovered Walmart Saving's Catcher (here) last week. It is basically retroactive comparison shopping. Forget your coupon? No problem! All you do is create a Walmart account and save your store receipts. Login in to the site with receipt in hand and enter the code and date of purchase from the receipt. The website does the rest. Soon you will get points and those points can be turned into cash in the form of a Walmart gift card.

Walmart does honor prices of competitors and will match prices if you bring the circulars and show the cashier at check-out. I saved $10 on my last trip. But that turned into $2 more savings from the Savings Catcher website. Walmart allows 7 receipt submissions per week. I have submitted 5 so far and have gotten some cash back on each one (the most being $3.10 and the least being $0.89).

Shop and save with Walmart!

Mushu's Moo Shu

As promised here is a recipe from the Princess cookbook that has already made it to our regular dinner line-up.

Recipe Summary
Total Time: 20 minutes
Servings:4-6
Source: The Disney Princess Cookbook

Ingredients

Vegetable oil, 3 Tbs
Ginger powder, 1 tsp
Broccoli slaw, 4 cups
Pork tenderloin, 1 lb cooked and sliced
Hoisin sauce, 1/4 cup
Salt, to taste
Flour tortillas, warmed

Directions

1. Ask an adult to help you at the stove. Heat the oil in a large, non-stick frying pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add the ginger powder and stir for 1 minute.
2. Add the broccoli slaw to the pan, and turn up the heat a little. Stir-fry the vegetables for 4 to 5 minutes. Cook them just long enough to darken in color without losing their crunchiness.
3. ATurn the heat down to medium, and stir in the pork and hoisin sauce. Continue cooking the moo shu for another 2 minutes to heat it through. Salt to taste.
4. When you're ready to eat, spoon some of the moo shu onto the center of a warm tortilla. Then roll or wrap up the tortilla and enjoy.

Notes

1. I used SoyVay Veri Veri Teriyaki marinade and sauce instead of hoisin because it is what we always have on hand. It was delicious.
2. I used pork cutlets as a cheap alternative. And I found 1 pound to be too much meat. I used 1/2 pound.
3. Because moo shu and burritos are some of my favorite dishes serving the moo shu in a tortilla didn't work. I stopped by my local Asian grocery and picked up a freezer package of moo shu shells. I used them the second time and found it much more to my liking
4. One Walmart package of slaw fed my family of 3 with no leftovers- one of those being a 3 year-old child. Plan to serve side-dishes if you want to stick with the right portion.

Portion Princess; Praise for the "mini" trend

My first introduction to mini's came with the birth of my daughter and the staples of her diet; namely goldfish and teddy grahams. A serving of regular graham crackers is two cracker sheets. But a serving of teddy grahams is 24 pieces. I am rarely satisfied after two sheets but with the teddy grahams I hardly ever make it to the full serving size. To my delight the same is often the case for other mini indulgences.

I love Oreo cookies. But I rarely buy the package because I can never stop at just two cookies. And my craving is usually satisfied in a week with the remainder of the cookies going stale. Now when I get a craving for "milk's favorite cookie" I pick up a go-pack of oreo mini's in the check-out line. Ordinarily I would advise against this impulse buy. But if the pantry is bare of items to satisfy my occasional sweet tooth, the nutritionist in me gives you permission to bend that rule.

Another discovery is mini club crackers. These delightful snacks have nearly half of their calories from fat. And with only 2 crackers as a serving the calories can quickly add up. But Keebler Club Mini's come to the rescue with 17 crackers as a serving size. I buy the multi-grain crackers to justify the nutritionist in me but the gain isn't even a full gram of fiber. So go for original buttery deliciousness!

The only bad thing about this is that with the mini's I have picked up the bad habit of eating candy. Never outside of Halloween do I usually eat candy. So be mindful that there is always too much of a good thing. The mini's at the checkout line usually are at least 3 servings per package. Remember these are "sometime" foods and are not meant to replace proper nutrient dense foods.

So as not to end on a bad note I will share one last tale of this portion princess. I love ice cream. It is the sweet I have the most trouble with portions until now. The Joy mini ice cream cones (at Walmart) combined with pint size ice cream products are a dream come true. I can have three cones. It is the perfect solution to my portion control. And the best part once again is that I rarely need all three!

Hallelujah to mini's! Can I get an Amen!?!

The Disney Princess Cookbook: Review

I checked out The Disney Princess Cookbook from the library as a creative way to introduce Hime to Disney princesses before she starts pre-school in the fall. I had no expectation other than brand recognition so my daughter wouldn't feel left out among her peers. And since I refuse to watch Disney movies this seemed like a nice alternative. So it was a wonderful surprise that Disney actually got this right.

Most cookbooks tell a tale of travel or lofty ambitions and sit on a shelf or coffee table largely unused.  I am singing praise for this cookbook because it is so practical; meeting all my requirements for a cheap, fast, and easy recipe. Most recipes have ingredients that are staples in my kitchen and have less than 5 ingredients. If a trip to the store is needed, the shopping list is short and the ingredients are cheap and easy to find; no store hopping for that obscure ingredient.

My only complaint is that the book is stereotypical in that the black princess recipe is "soul food" and the mermaid princess is sea turtle cupcakes. But isn't that the Disney way? Culturing kids in 90 minutes or less with an upbeat message. So instead of getting my tail feathers ruffled I am choosing to see this as a celebration of cultural differences.

This cookbook has opened up a new resource; cookbooks written for children. My repertoire of simple meals is sorely in need of an overhaul. Expect some good recipes on the horizon.

Time Travel With Tea

Thanks to a recent trip to California I have re-discovered chai tea. The magnificent masala chai blend from Tea Time transports me back to my first cup of chai at a roadside shop in the middle of the desert between Dubai and Muscat where a short bespectacled man served it in a dixie cup. Add milk and a little honey and I am back to my college holidays with the family overseas. Good times! Thanks Tea Time!

Cookies - now AND later

I spent the weekend at a friends house last spring. She shares my love of gardening and food and she is a great cook. One morning we were having tea and she asked if I'd like a cookie. As I replied she pulled a bag out of the freezer. Her household apparently enjoys eating frozen cookies.

I remembered this last night as I was baking choc chip cookies and told LSO. Our collective decision was to put the cookies that didn't fit in the cookie jar into the freezer. I usually end up giving half of the batch away. Not this time. Now I have the "burden" of eating them all. Life can be so challenging sometimes.