Daikon Alfredo

In all of my looking around I found two different recipes where they used daikon as pasta.  I was quite intrigued.  My kids love pasta, but I'm not such a huge fan.  The recipe I really wanted to try had yummy tomatoes in it, but again, kids.  They don't like tomatoes in their pasta.  So I decided we would try it with alfredo sauce.  One word, yummy!

Daikon Alfredo

Ingredients:
Daikon
Salted water
2 pieces Bacon, chopped
1/2 onion chopped
2 Tbsp flour
2-3 cups milk
1/2 cup cream cheese (I used that new Philadelphia cooking cream, origional and it was good)
1/2 cup parmesan (I just used the powdered stuff)

Directions:
First, peel daikon.  Then, using the potato peeler cut off slices of daikon into wide "noodles" and put in the salted water.  I watched a chef use his knife and cut around the daikon to make really long noodles, but it didn't work so good for me, use the vegetable peeler.

While the "noodles" are soaking make your alfredo sauce.  First fry your chopped bacon pieces.  I did add some olive oil because I needed enough fats to add the flour to.  I think I used about 1-2 Tbsp oil.  It kinda depends on how fatty your bacon is.  When bacon is almost crispy, add onion and fry until onions are soft.  Add flour and cook for 1 minute more.  Add milk and stir.  I'm not really sure how much milk I added but I think it was 2-3 cups.  Mixture will thicken pretty quickly.  If too thick, add more milk, too thin, well, you added too much.  Once thickened, I added the cream cheese and parmesan cheese.  Stir to melt and blend in.

Take daikon out of water and squeeze extra water out.  Add to Alfredo sauce and stir to coat.  Cook on the stove for only about 1 minute more.  You want your noodles to still be kinda crunchy.  Serve and enjoy.

Verdict:  Okay, I loved this.  I didn't think the daikon was too strong and I liked the texture.  I also served this with some steamed asparagus and the sauce was really good on the asparagus, too.  I mean, how can you go wrong with bacon and cream cheese?  The kids, however, had a difference of opinion.  They liked the sauce, one daughter would suck it off the noodles and then pile the noodles on the side of her plate.  Another just picked out the bacon.  Oh well, I thought it was super good and was glad to eat the leftovers all on my own.

Ants on a Log

 

I don't know how she did it, but my mom instilled in me a love for vegetables.  Not all vegetables, mind you, but most of them.  I remember having to write a poem in grade school about our favorite food and I wrote one about Celery.  I really do like celery.  This is one of my favorite ways to eat it, and my kids love to help, too.

Ingredients:

Celery stalks
Peanut butter
raisins

Directions:

Wash and dry celery stalks.  Cut into thirds, or halves is smaller.  Fill with peanut butter and top with raisins to look like ants.

Verdict:  Yummy!  We all ate these for a snack.

This Weeks Bounty

I don’t have a picture for this week.  Saturday was a crazy day and as soon as I got home from picking up my basket I had to head off to a meeting and a picture did not get taken.  Here is what I got, though:

• 1 3lb bag Fuji apples, plus 2
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 2 bananas
• 1 clamshell strawberries
• 1 yellow squash
• 2 bunches broccoli
• 3 cucumbers
• 3 grapefruit
• 1 honeydew
• 1 pineapple
• 1 Daikon

This is a daikon.  I think I might try this Pan-Fried Daikon Cake, or maybe Pickled Daikon and Carrots, or perhaps Daikon Fettuccine.  I love that it is an adventure in trying new foods!

This Week's Bounty

What a haul this week!  I love my Bountiful Basket!

2 clamshell strawberries

4 cameo apples

4 minneola Tangelos

4 mangoes

1 honeydew

2 bags radishes

6 yellow onions

1 bag carrots

2 celery

1 bunch broccoli

1 head romaine lettuce

10 persian cucumbers

Now to come up with a menu for all of this.  I'm thinking maybe some beef and broccoli or some fajitas?

Fried Zucchini

Okay, so it’s not the greatest picture, but I almost forgot to take one before they were all gone!  A couple of weeks ago we got Italian Squash (zucchini) in our Bountiful Basket.  My family isn’t all that big on zucchini, but I remembered the super good recipe that a friend used to make for us and I knew I had to make it again.  First I had to get a hold of my friend to get the recipe, but as soon as I did I made this.

Batter:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Heat deep fryer up to 400 degrees.  Mix batter together.  Cut zucchini into about 1/4 in slices.  Dip in batter and deep fry.  Work in small batches because you will need to turn them about half way through.  Take out of oil and drain on paper towels.  Dip in ranch.  We prefer the Hidden Valley Original Buttermilk dressing that comes in a little packet and you mix up yourself.

Verdict:  YUMMY!!!  We had my brother and his family over for dinner tonight and we served this alongside Celery and Potato Soup.  I know, they don’t really go together, but I had celery I needed to use and zucchini I needed to use and so it all worked.  Everyone seemed to really like dinner, though, and now I have the recipe for the batter for this summer when all of my zucchini is ripe and I can’t make any more zucchini bread.

Lots of Veggie Taco Soup

We’ve had some gloomy weather lately and soup just sounds good.  Taco soup is one of my favorites.  Since my kids don’t really care for squash I found found that if I hide it in soups or tomato based dishes they gobble it up.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 cans of beans (I used about 3-4 cups of black beans that had previously been cooked and frozen
• 1 can tomatoes (I used lime and cilantro flavored)
• 1 can corn (again, I used some I canned last summer)
• 1 cup pureed squash
• 1 zucchini shredded
• ground beef (or chicken, or turkey, or whatever, I used leftover taco meat)
• 2 Tbsp taco seasoning (more or less depending on taste)
• 1 small onion chopped

Directions:

Cook meat and onion, drain off grease.  Add all other ingredients and heat until warm through.  Don’t drain beans, corn and tomatoes, add juices and all.  Add extra water if necessary.  Serve topped with sour cream and cheese.  Can also serve with tortilla chips.

Verdict:  This went over really well.  The baby and the oldest both had seconds.  I wasn’t sure how the zucchini would do, but nobody seemed to mind them except #2 and she mainly sopped up the soup with her piece of bread.  I love that since I had all of this in my fridge or freezer it took me only the time to dump it all in the pot and heat it through.  I’ve also made this a veggie version by omitting the meat and just using a lot of beans and veggies.

This Week's Bounty

1 Cantaloup

1 clamshell strawberries

1 clamshell blueberries

5 cameo apples

5 oranges

5 bananas

1 vine cherry tomatoes

3 chayote squash

1 bunch celery

1 head lettuce

7 ears corn

I'm not quite sure what to do with the Chayote squash yet, but I'm going to be finding some recipes and we get to try something new this week!  I love Saturdays.  Picking up my Bountiful Basket is almost like Christmas every week. 

Asparagus Popover

I read a comment on another blog where someone was getting tired of receiving asparagus in their Bountiful Basket and was in need of some new recipes.  I haven’t had that problem, but thought I would branch out in case anyone else wants to try something new also.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb asparagus
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
• salt and pepper
• pinch sugar
• 3 oz cheese (called for gruyere, but all I had was a shredded mix.  I think gruyere would be fabulous

Directions:

1.Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees.  In a medium saucepan, add enough salted water to reach a depth of 2 inches; bring to a boil.  Add the asparagus and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.  Drain and rinse with cold water, then pat dry with paper towels.  Cut the spears crosswise into thirds

2. In a medium cast-iron skillet (I used my stainless steal that can be put in the oven), add the butter.  Place the skillet in the oven to melt the butter.

3. In a medium bowl, microwave the milk on high for 30 seconds.  Whisk in the eggs, then the flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and the sugar.

4. Add the asparagus pieces and bacon to the hot cast-iron skillet and pour the batter on top.  Sprinkle with half of the cheese and bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18-20 minutes.  Top with the remaining cheese.

Verdict:  I found the batter a little bland.  I think some kind of sauce or spice to kick it up would have been nice, but my kids loved this!  I had roasted some cauliflower for the side just in case they didn’t like it as well.  I tried saving some for my sweet husband when he got home, but the kids ate it all.  Some would pick out the asparagus first and then eat the batter, other ate the asparagus last, but they all ate and many had seconds.  The only downside is that this stuck to the pan for me.  Cast-Iron may have been better.

Lettuce Wraps

A friend told me about how she makes lettuce wraps, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I tweeked her recipe just a bit to use what I had on hand.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (why is it almost always 1 lb?  I actually used less, so do what you like)
1 Bell pepper diced
1 small onion diced (I only used about half because my kids really don't like onions)
2 Tbsp olive oil
couple drops sesame oil
1/2 tsp ginger
2 cloves garlic minced (I used dried, it's what I had on hand)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 cups dry rice
4 cups water
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
Lettuce leaves

Directions:

1.  Put 4 cups salted water in a pot and bring to a boil.  Add rice, put heat on low, cover and cook about 20 minutes.

2.  While rice is cooking heat olive oil ans sesame oil in a frying pan.  Add hamburger with onion, bell pepper, ginger, and garlic.  Cook until hamburger is cooked and the onion and bell pepper are soft.  Add soy sauce.

3.  Once rice is cooked add vinegar and sugar, stir to combine.

4.  Now the fun part.  Make sure your lettuce leaves are washed and dried.  I used iceberg but any lettuce and work.  Put some rice in the middle of the leaf, top with meat mixture, fold lettuce over the filling, and eat!

Verdict:  The hamburger I used was really taco meat from the other night, but it was still really good.  I'm sure you could make this with just about any  meat, though.  I loved how the vinegar and sugar flavored the rice!  Unfortunately, this meal seemed to be everything my kids did not like.  Oh well, more for me.  I would love to make this again and again, only adding more veggies and less meat since that is what I like.

Sausage Stuff

I know, I know, it's not that great of a name, but it's what we always called it growing up.  This recipe is so easy to make and can be adjusted so many different ways.  It is a quick go-to dinner for me.

Ingredients:
1 Keilbasa sausage (I'm not a big meat eater, so I only use 1/2 and then I can stretch it into 2 meals)
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I just used canned tomatoes and add some italian seasoning)
1/2 cup italian salad dressing

Directions:
Put everything in a pan and heat through.  You can also add olives if you want, I just didn't have any this day.  Once it's heated, serve over rice, pasta, couscous, whatever you like.

Verdict:  This time I used olive oil and garlic tomatoes and they weren't the best.  I've done this before with plain diced tomatoes and instead of italian dressing I used sesame ginger, that was a total asian spin and it was super good that way too.  This recipe is so versatile you can do just about anything with it.  My kids mostly like the sausage out of it and the rice separate.  Their loss.

This Week's Bounty

2 heads lettuce

1 bag green beans

4 tomatoes

2 bell peppers

2 zucchini

2 bunches asparagus

7 oranges

4 mangoes

7 bananas

1 container strawberries

1 mini watermelon

I'm so excited to eat this week!  A friend just told me about how she makes lettuce wraps and I am seriously going to try them out this week.  I'll let you know how it goes.