Broccoli Salad

Last week we got broccoli in our Bountiful Basket and I thought it would be perfect to use as a salad for out Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner. 

Broccoli Salad

1 head Broccoli chopped into bite size pieces
handful of sunflower seeds
handful of raisins
Small Red Onion chopped (I used a yellow onion and it was a bit strong, glad I only used a part of it)
dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice (I used lemon juice)
2 Tbsp sugar

Mix everything together.  I find it helpful to let it marinate for a while before serving it.  You can also add crumbled up bacon to this, but I didn't want to.

Verdict:  Like I said, the red onion would have been better, mine was a little bit strong, but there was none left.  Here is a tip if you want to stretch the broccoli a bit, peel the outside of the stalk and the chop it up and add it.  I do that when I make stir-fry and broccoli soup. 

This Week's Bounty

 

1 bag Carrots

1 head Romain Lettuce

1 Bunch Spinach

3 Tomatoes on the vine

4 small Yams

4 Zucchini Squash

2 Bunches Asparagus

2 Grapefruit

3 Mangoes

5 Apples

7 Bananas

1 Cantaloup

Looks pretty good to me :)  As a reminder, I make sure to volunteer at my site, that way I can pick an "extra" for helping out.  This week I chose the second bunch of Asparagus.  To volunteer you show up at the volunteer time listed on your check-out sheet, or even a few minutes earlier.  Our truck usually seems to be a little bit early, so it doesn't hurt to be there 5-10 minutes early, just saying.

Celery and Potato Soup

I ended up with quite a bit of celery in our last Bountiful Basket and I like the canned Cream of Celery soup, so I wanted to try and find a soup recipe.  My stand-by cookbooks let me down, I couldn't find in Betty Crocker, Better Home and Gardens, Rachel Ray and a few others.  Sad, so I took to the internet.  I found a yummy sounding one on SparkRecipes. 

Don't you love our Ducky bowl?

Ingredients

1 tbsp Olive Oil 1 small Onion, chopped  

4 stalks Celery, chopped  

2 medium potato, peeled and diced  

4 garlic, minced  

bay leaf, thyme and parsely  (I used a bay leaf and about 1 tsp Italian Seasoning)

7 cups Water or chicken broth (I used about 4 cups water and 3 cups chicken broth)

Directions

Heat oil over medium heat, add onion and celery, and cook gently, stirring often, for about 10 mins, until very tender. Add 1/2 tsp salt after 5 mins. make sure the vegetables do not colour.
Add potatoes, garlic and herbs. Stir together and add water. Bring to simmer, add salt to taste. Cover and simmer 30 -40 mins, until the vegetables are very tender. Remove from heat.
Use a food processor to puree the soup (I only pureed part of the soup so that I would have some chunks in it. After that, return puree to the pot, stir and heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with celery sticks in individual bowl (I forgot to do this, but that is okay, it was still really yummy).

Verdict:  YUMMY!  Supposedly this was supposed to have 10 servings in it, but it barely fed one adult and 4 young children.  My husband only got a tiny bowl of what the kids didn't eat since he came home later.  This was warm, filling, nutritious and really tasty.  We will be making this again.

This Week's Bounty

My Bountiful Basket time was changed a few weeks ago and it is now closer to the evenings, so it's hard for me to get a picture taken and get on here to post it right away.  Oh well, I still love the baskets and I'm still so excited to be getting them.  Here is what we got this last week:

3 Mangoes

3 Apples

7 Bananas

1 Cantaloup

11 Minneola

1 pkg Blueberries

1 bunch on the vine Tomatoes

2 bunches Celery

 1 head Broccoli

1 head Cauliflower

1 bunch Asparagus

I'm really excited for this week.  I introduced my in-laws to parmesan asparagus and found out that a couple of my friends all make this now, too.  I am also going to try making Celery Soup this week.  I've had to search the internet for recipes since I cannot find one in any of my many cookbooks.  I will let you all know how it goes.

Black Bean & Guacamole Tacos

I am not a big meat eater.  In fact, I'm pretty picky about which meats I'll eat and which I won't.  I also like to eat meat free occasionally.  This is one meal where my whole family comes away happy.  I have never measured any of this out, I just kinda eye-ball what I think we are going to need.

 

Black Bean and Guacamole Tacos

Guacamole (either homemade or store bought)

1 tomato chopped

lettuce shredded

black beans

shredded cheese

corn tortillas

oil for frying tortilla (About1/2 cup I think)

Heat oil in a skillet on the stove over medium heat.  When oil is hot cook tortillas one at a time for only a few seconds on each side.  Drain on paper towels (or if you are like me and can never find them, old newspapers work well, too).  Take a tortilla, smear guacamole on half of it, add other toppings, and fold in half.  Eat!

Verdict:  My sweet husband is the only one who hasn't had these since he has been gone everytime I've made them, but the kids will eat multiple tacos, which I see as a good sign.  None of my kids seem to miss having meat on their tacos and they will usually eat them with the lettuce and tomato on them also.  I can barely get them to eat a green salad, but put it in a taco shell and it is all good.  I'm sure you could add salsa or olives or anything else to them, but we like the blend of flavors just like this.

Green Cake Mix Cookies

I needed a quick treat for Story Time today and since it is St. Patrick’s day I wanted something green.  This was super easy, they turned out really yummy and the kids had fun eating their green cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 Yellow Cake mix
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1/3 cup oil ( I actually used applesauce instead)
• food coloring (I used about 3 drops, but would have like a little more color)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Place by teaspoon full onto a cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Place onto a cooling rack shortly after taking them out of the oven so that they don’t end up sticking to the cookie sheet.

Variations:  You are welcome to add chocolate chips, toffee chips, nuts and dried fruit to these.  I didn’t this time because I wanted them all green for the holiday.

Verdict:  My kids totally loved these.  I had to take them away and hide them until story time so that we would have some left.  One mom told me that she has tried to make these before, but they’ve never come out quite so good.  I admit, they are a sweet, light, fluffy cookie and I ate more than I probably should have.

Wheat Chocolate Banana Bread

I'm not a big fan of bananas, but we get them quite often in our Bountiful Basket.  My kids like bananas, but every once in a while they start to get pretty ripe.  We had some really ripe bananas so I decided to try and make bread with them.  I'm not a big fan of banana bread, either, so I thought maybe chocolate would help it taste better.  I found a recipe at Allrecipes.com that I decided to try.  I had a to make a few adjustments, but here is what I came up with.

1/3 cup milk
1 tsp lemon juice
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (I ended up using 1 cup white and 3/4 cup wheat because I ran out of wheat)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed (I used 4 small ones)
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9x5 inch loaf pan or 16 muffin cups with cooking spray. Stir the milk and lemon juice together in a measuring cup; let stand until curdled, about 30 minutes. Whisk together the whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; set aside. 

2.  Beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth. Mix in the mashed bananas, the milk mixture, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture just until all ingredients are moistened. Pour the batter into the prepared pan or muffin cups. 

3.  Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour for a loaf, or 30 minutes for muffins. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. 

Verdict:  As far as banana breads go, this one isn't too bad.  I definitely could have used all whole wheat flour and I don't think anyone in my house would have cared.  I just need to get my grinder out and make me some more wheat flour.

Ginger-Garlic Chicken Stir-Fry with Soy Sesame Noodles

I love stir-fry.  I love the many ways you can prepare it, that you can throw whatever into it and it is good.  I found this recipe in Rachel Ray Just in Time and tweeked it a little for what I had on hand.

Salt
1 lb Spaghetti (we used whole wheat noodles)
3 Tbsp vegetable oil (eyeball it)
3/4 lb chicken cut into thin strips (I used 2 chicken breasts)
2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
6 garlic cloves finely chopped (I just used my garlic press)
10-12 chiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced (I just used white mushrooms)
1 small head or 1/2 head Napa cabbage, shredded
A couple handfuls of snow peas (I added this to the recipe)
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and chopped into 2-inch pieces
1 tsp coarse black pepper
1/3 cup tamari (aged soy sauce), eyeball it (I just used regular soy sauce since that's what I had)
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it.  Add the spaghetti and cook it al dente.

2.  While the pasta cooks, heat the vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat until the oil ripples.  Add the chicken and stir-fry until golden, 3-4 minutes.  Add the ginger, garlic, mushrooms, cabbage, and scallions and stir-fry for another 2-3 minutes.  Season the stir-fry with salt and lots of black pepper and turn off the heat.

3.  Place soy sauce and sesame oil in a bowl and add the hot pasta.  Toss to coat the pasta, the sprinkle with the sesame seeds.  Top pasta with the stir-fry.

Verdict:  I really liked this.  I really like sesame oil and I loved the sesame noodles.  I have never added cabbage when I've done stir-fry and I really liked that, too.  My kids, however, did not care for dinner.  One of them only took stir-fry, and then only ate the chicken.  One only took noodles and then covered them in ranch before decided sesame oil and ranch don't go that well together, and one refused to eat altogether.  Oh well, I enjoyed it quite a bit.