Grilled Cheese and Squash

The other day we had soup and sandwiches.  My kids loved Grilled Cheese and I thought I'd make it just a little healthier.  I've mentioned before that they aren't big fans of squash so I will roast it, puree it, freeze it, and then I pull it out and then add it to other dishes.  Usually things like soup or macaroni and cheese.  Well, it also works well for grilled cheese.  I adapted this from the book Deceptively Delicious

doesn't that look good!

Ingredients:
butter
bread
cheese, shredded
squash

Directions:
Heat a skillet on the stove on medium low heat  If your bread is already sliced, good for you, otherwise slice it.  I was using some bread I had just made, so I had to slice it myself.  Mix your cheese and squash together.  I didn't measure anything, I just knew about how much cheese I needed and added some squash to the mixture.  Butter one side of a piece of bread.  On the other side spread some of the cheese/squash mixture on.  Top with another piece of buttered bread, butter side out.  Brown in skillet.  Turning once to brown both sides. 

Verdict:  My kids didn't even know the difference.  My husband said he thought there was a slight texture change, but it was still good.  I think he was just really happy to have homemade bread that he didn't care I put squash in the grilled cheese.  We personally like to have grilled cheese with soup so that we can dip our sandwiches in the soup.

Menu for the Week

I have come to the conclusion that life goes much better and I use more of my basket if I come up with some kind of a menu.  This may interest you, or it may not, but for it's a lifesaver.

Monday

Macaroni & Cheese w/ Broccoli

Tuesday

Stir-Fry over Rice

Wednesday

Beef enchiladas

Corn on the cob

Thursday

Crock Pot Scallop Chicken

Roasted Cauliflower

Friday

Pizza

Salad

I also have snacks planned out for my kids after they get home from school.  Things like veggie sticks and ranch, and smoothies.  Sometimes it's cut up fruit or muffins.  I just didn't think you needed to know all of that, unless you want to... Let me know.

This Week's Bounty

So excited for this week's basket.  One of the watermelons kinda broke so we cut it up and shared it with the volunteers.  They said it tasted really good.  I'm not a watermelon fan, so I will take their word for it.  My kids were really excited for the watermelon and the strawberries, though.

1 Watermelon

1 Pineapple

5 Bananas

2 clamshell strawberries

7 apples

2 grapefruit

6 ears corn

1 cucumber

4 yams

1 cauliflower

1 broccoli

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?