Successes and failures

Half of dinner was a success. The other half - er, not so much. I made an albondiga type soup tonight. It wasn't exactly like my mom used to make as I don't remember her putting a lot of veggies or potatoes. But I used to love it when she made albondigas! So, I made my own version.

This was my portion.

When I put my spoon in, I noticed it elevated the ingredients a little.

The pictures don't do it justice. My oldest son is the pickiest eater, so I usually gauge how "friendly" recipes are by him. He loved it! My youngest wanted more salt...

Albondigas

1 lb. lean ground beef

1/2 c. brown rice

2-3 carrots, chopped

2 potatoes chopped into 1-1 1/2 inch cubes

1 cup of fresh green beans

4 mushrooms sliced

1 can beef broth

1 can vegetable broth

4-5 cups water

1. Mix ground beef and rice with your favorite seasonings. I used cumin, garlic powder, onion power, pepper and a little sea salt. Make little meatballs.

2. Meanwhile, heat a dutch oven. Coat with a little cooking spray and start cooking the meatballs. until browned all around. Depending on how lean your meat is, drain any fat.

3. Add your two cans of broth and water. I don't like the rich flavor of using only beef broth so thats why I only used a can of beef and a can of vegetable broth. I usually just put enough water to cover or make enough soup. My family loves the liquidy part of the soup.

4. Chop carrots and potatoes if necessary and add to the soup and let come to a boil. I let it boil for about 10 minutes. Then add the green beans.

5. Lower heat and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Add the mushroms. Season with your favorite spices again. I used cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, dried cilantro, dried Mexican oregano and a little salt. I don't use a lot of salt and figure it is better to let people add it according to their own taste in my house. Once the mushroom look cooked and the rice looks cooked ( a few loose grains will rise to the top), its ready!

All in all it takes about 30- 45 minutes to cook. The one thing I had planned on adding that I didn't was a can of corn. Its a good thing I didn't because that was enough carbs and starch with the rice and potatoes. I will probably interchanged the potatoes and corn in this recipe. I really liked this. It had a healthier twist to a down home favorite from my childhood. Next time I might even try it with turkey instead of beef!

Another Fiasco!

Now for the failure. Dum dum dum dum! I attemped to make kales chips. All was well until I got side tracked with taking the pics of my soup. Then, they burned!

I tried to use Kath's Kale Chips ( http://www.katheats.com/?page_id=2544 ) but it didn't work. I'll have to try again. All I could taste was the burned taste. I was looking forward to them too!

Well, FH wants to use the pc so laters!

Divine Reserve No. 7!

The FH has a beer he likes from St. Arnold's brewery. Every 6 mos or so they come out with a new beer. It doesn't stay the same and they don't continue to reproduce it. They make a certain amount of cases and once its gone its gone. And yes, this one is gone. It usually sells out within a day or so. Every time a new one comes out it goes up a number. So far, he has liked 5, 6 & now 7. This one is a hefeweizen (sp?) bock. Here is the description from their website:


http://www.saintarnold.com/beers/divine.html


Description:
This is a dark, slightly chocolatey weizenbock with an undercurrent of bananas and cloves. There is a slight spiciness from the hops and a balanced malt that hides the strength of the beer. It was brewed with Dark Wheat, Light Wheat, Chocolate Wheat, Pilsner, Munich, Special B and Chocolate malts and Northern Brewer hops. We used a traditional Bavarian hefeweizen yeast which gives the beer its distinctive clove and banana character. It is unfiltered. Enjoy at 45°F or warmer. We are curious to see how this beer will age.


A friend at FH's work has some extras that he sold to him. This is what it looks like:




This was my taste. You can't really tell but it is thick and kind of cloudy. It reminds me a little of the consistency of Guiness just not as thick. It was a little stout for my taste so I only had this little bit.


Well, I'm off to read a little and then go to bed. It looks like we are going out of town tomorrow and are supposed to get an early start!

Acorn Squash experiment

I bought an acorn squash on Wednesday at Whole Foods and could not wait to try it! So I baked it for dinner and filled it with a chicken, rice & bean bake I made for the family. I knew the kids would not like the squash so I didn't make them eat it. I simply baked this at 350 degrees for about 45-50 minutes. I first brushed some EVOO on it and them sprinkled it with light salt and some pepper.

I think it could have used a little more flavor. Maybe some garlic and onion powder. I am going to buy it again and perhaps try it with butter and maple syrup as I saw Martha Stewart do. I did take her suggestion of cutting off a little sliver of the bottom so that it stood perfectly without moving around. Worked like a charm! I'll try to picture it next time. Sorry, didn't get a pic of the whole entree, I was too eager to eat that I forgot to take pics. hehe

Pirate Booty - yummy snack

I saw this at Kroger and figured we'd try it. There are 6 in a bag and they were on sale for 2 for $6. I'm thinking regular price is about $3.99. The bags are pretty big for 1 oz. It is puffed corn and rice with aged white cheddar. Very tasty. The kids really liked them! My oldest said they were absolutely delicious! He is the picky one, so when he says something is yummy and it isn't that bad for him, I run with it. I gave a couple to one of our dog's Cristal and she loved it. She's the picky one too. haha I saw it as a win win situation all around!

Best Rice Blend Ever

I forgot to mention this delicious rice blend we had the other night. (I made it the same night as the butternut fiasco) My oldest son, who is a rice fiend, said it was the best rice I ever made! I was so happy considering it was one of the healthiest wholesome rice I've probably ever made too.

Its Lundberg Wild Blend. I found it at HEB. It was a good blend of wild and brown rice. Very colorful. I was scorned for only making the necessary servings to feed our family. haha

Eggplant lassagna

Last night I made eggplant lassagna. I just kinda took the idea from someone that said they used zucchini instead of lassagna noodles. This was fairly easy with the exception that I made my own sauce so it took a little longer.


Here is the lassagna when it first came out:




Then, once I added the cheese:




This is the final product with some fresh steamed corn:

This was fairly simple to make. I only used about 12 slices of eggplant, but you could always overlap your slices to cover the casserole dish completely and use the whole eggplant. I used about half. Here's the recipe:

Eggplant (12 slices or more to cover casserole)

Pasta sauce ( 1 jar or 1 homeade pasta sauce recipe)

1/2 lb lean ground beef (I don't use a lot of meat these day just enough for the fiance to be happy)

2 cups of mozzarella (Fat free, reduced, part skim or whole milk; I used 1/2 fat free & 1/2 part skim)

15 oz. ricotta cheese

1/4 cup reduced-fat parmesan

1 egg ( I used 1/4 cup breadcrumbs bc I forgot I didn't have an egg)

Cook your groud beef and add the pasta sauce and simmer for a few minutes. Cut your eggplant slices. I had a fat eggplant so I used 6 slices per layer. I did have some open areas, so if you want to cover completely, I would overlap slices until covered. Pour a little sauce in the bottom of the casserole dish; about 1/4 to 1/2 cup to lightly cover the bottom. Arrange eggplant slices next. Mix the ricotta cheese with the parmesan cheese and egg (I used bread crumbs this one time for lack of an egg). I then spread the ricotta next, but I would suggest switching the ricotta cheese layer and the mozzarella layer. So, sprinkle 1 cup mozzarella over eggplant, then half of the meat sauce, then ricotta. Layer eggplant over that and the the remaining meat sauce. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Then, take it out, uncover the foil and sprinkle remaining cheese on top and return to the over for 5-10 more minutes until cheese has melted to your desire. I got 6 servings out of my casserole.

I would definitely layer first:

the sauce, eggplant, mozzarella, meat sauce, ricotta, eggplant, meat sauce, mozzarella

vs.

the sauce, eggplant, ricotta, meat sauce, mozzarella, eggplant, meat sauce, mozzarella

It was still good, but the mozzarella layers were to close together. Also, because I used bread crumbs unstead of egg to keep the ricotta together, it changed the taste of the ricotta a little. Not bad, just different.

The nutrition for the way I prepared it is:

346 calories

14g fat

859g sodium

26g carbs

5g fiber

30g protein

It was a little more fat than I would have liked, but that can be fixed with turkey instead of beef and using all fat free mozzarella next time and fat free ricotta.

Butternut Squash fiasco!

I bought a butternut squash and looked up recipes to try. I found this one I thought would be fun and interesting with the different flavors:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butternut-Squash-Apple-Onion-Au-Gratin/Detail.aspx

Boy, was I wrong. I wish I would have taken a picture. It looked good, it smelled somewhat good, but the melding flavors just was not my family's style. I particularly did not like the onion and apple flavor. The onion specifically I think. What possessed me to think apple and onion would taste good I dont' know. I was trying to be adventurous I guess. It was just a big ole BACKFIRE! However, I do think the butternut squash tasted good. After I prepared it and tasted it, I realized that was what we had at Shogun the previous Friday in the vegetables tempura. I had liked that, but the fiance didn't.