SC&O: The Frigidaire Is Clean, Ya'll

Craig went grocery shopping on Friday night at about 9:30 p.m. for this week's meals. (He prefers to go when the store is empty.) So I didn't have most of the things I needed to prep meals until he got home at 11 p.m.! Instead, I decided to tackle the fridge cleaning task while he was gone and I managed to get it all done in just that amount of time. YEAH!!!

Thankfully, the fridge wasn't overflowing when I started:

Mainly, there were some things that needed tossing, shelves and walls that needed cleaning, and a little organization that needed to happen.
Craig is a BIG fan of sauces and condiments. :(

Aaaand, the freezer got a face lift and wipe down too!

All of the above pictures are "before".

I worked in shifts so the fridge door was open as little as possible, removing food, washing shelves and drawers in hot, soapy water, and wiping down the fridge walls.

I just threw a beach towel on the counter to let shelves dry.

Ah... much better.

We were in dire need of fruit by this time - we go through SO MUCH flippin' produce each week! - and my produce drawers were prepared for our first CSA bag.

No more streaky shelves. No more milk residue. No more opened cans/jars that appear a little "iffy".

Look at those super clean shelves! If that were a sliding glass door, you might walk right into it. (Cough... Casey!... cough.) ;)

I purged and cleaned the freezer as well.

Don't know why this task always looms so large. It's really not that bad and it feels so good to get it done.

Can't Forget Breakfast!

I am definitely a "sweets person" in the morning for breakfast. But nobody likes to finish breakfast and regret how heavy/sweet the meal was so early in the day. I prefer things like fresh or dried fruit and nuts incorporated into baked goods, pancakes or oatmeals. (And the nice thing about "jazzed up" pancakes is that I never feel like I need much syrup. Win win.)

I know I've mentioned the Smitten Kitchen blog to you before. She has TONS of foodie followers and I've made a couple of her recipes and loved them. Her pictures are amazing, she's mommy to a toddler and she supposedly cooks in her own tiny kitchen at home... which is reassuring for me and my lack of counter space. ;) Some of her recipes are a little time consuming or "fancy"... but hey, everybody needs a little fancy in their lives and I love taking time out to cook whenever I can. Oh, and she's got a cookbook coming out in 2012, which will be on my wish list! (Along with the Weelicious cookbook that I've heard is in the works!)

Anyway, I've had an obsession with rhubarb this spring and was sad to hear I'm too late in the game to add it to my garden this year. Craig's uncle tells me I should plant it in the fall (or early spring) and not directly IN my garden, but somewhere just outside of it. When I saw this recipe for Rhubarb Streusel Muffins on the SK blog, I was nearly drooling on my keyboard. I love that it uses whole wheat flour and not too much sugar. The streusel topping is half mixed in and half sprinkled on top to create just the right amount of sweetness throughout, without being over the top. And the rhubarb is such a perfect compliment to it's light flavor! Delicious, I tell you!

I'm not a coffee or tea drinker, but this seems like it would be perfect with a morning cup. Or, in my case, a glass of milk and some sliced strawberries on the side. Will and I ate these with a banana on our way to Riehm Farm a week ago. And I loved taking one for breakfast on work mornings too. I still have some leftover rhubarb from Craig's Aunt Cathy after making TWO pies... so these are definitely going to show up on our breakfast table again soon. They disappeared very quickly last time.
One more new breakfast recipe that I tried recently was the Weelicious Apple Oat Cereal. It's everything I described above in a desirable breakfast for me!

From the time my kids were beginner finger food eaters, we seemed to always have a box of Cheerios on hand for easy snacking/breakfast. Will continued to eat a bowl of them with blueberries on top as a staple breakfast while I was home on maternity leave with Sophie. And then sometime that fall, we just started making our breakfasts and not using boxed cereals anymore. It's pretty rare now that we ever eat boxed cereal. Craig likes to keep a box of freezer waffles on hand in case we're out of whatever I made and he's up with the kids on a weekend. But that's very rare too.

The kids have different preferences regarding cereal. Will really only cares for cold cereal. Sophie likes either but seems to really enjoy hot oatmeal when I make it. So this combines the the typical flavors and ingredients of a hot oatmeal, but there's no cooking involved and it's served cold with milk or yogurt. So the recipe calls for dried apple rings, dates, walnuts and cinnamon (I used raisins in place of half the dates) ground in a food processor till it forms a sticky, clumpy, sort of ground consistency. Then you just break apart the clumps and stir it together with the oats and that's it! I'm storing it in a container at room temp and just serving it with milk like regular cold cereal. Here's what the mixture looks like. The oats soften in the milk and the apple cinnamon combo smells and tastes so good.

As usual, I made this the night before I planned to serve it, but it smelled so good I had to taste a little bit that night for a snack.

The kids ate this okaaay... not great, but okay. I'm going to keep offering and pairing it with different things. But in the mean time, I'm loving it for breakfast for myself.

Healthy Treats

Found a new popsicle recipe that is probably the best we've had so far:

Blackberry, Honey and Yogurt Pops from Bon Appetit magazine!

A co-worker subscribes to Bon Appetit and passes the magazines along when she's finished. I've copied a handful of appealing recipes, but most are tailored to a more gourmet palate... which my family does not fancy. ;)

These little pops, however, seemed right up our alley. They have a little more sugar in them than our typical popsicle recipes (maybe that's why we like them so much?), but are also loaded with antioxidants in those oh-so-good-for-you berries. The added yogurt make them slightly creamy and an easy choice for a healthy treat post- (or even pre-!) meal. The kids get so excited when I ask if they'd like dessert first. And I have no problem doing it when the treat is this popsicle!

Good news! You can forgo your arm workout after working this berry puree through a fine sieve to strain the seeds. It definitely requires a little elbow grease!

The sweet and creamy blend ready to pour into molds.

I was able to fill this mold up a second time after we finished these, so the recipe makes quite a bit.

And they were VERY well received! Yum!

On another weeknight, Sophie and I were able to quickly whip up some homemade Graham Crackers from Weelicious using my food processor.

I'd been so anxious to try this recipe! And I've also wanted to invite my little lady into the kitchen with me more often. This was a great recipe for us to tackle on a weeknight because it was super simple. Just dump everything into the food processor in increments, give it a whirl each time (p.s. - buttons and machines are SUPER fun for kids), and then roll it out like cookie dough and cut out shapes for baking!

She loved starting and stopping the food processor.

Adding butter.

Right out of the food processor, the dough is perfectly uniform and easy to manipulate. I LOVE my food processor!!! I shaped the dough into a disc...

...and placed it between two layers (one half at a time) of parchment paper to roll out for cutting.

I had to help her quite a bit with this. She doesn't have quite the arm strength yet.

We just used mini star and heart cutters to make our graham crackers. Don't be mislead... graham "crackers" are actually more of a cookie. This recipe uses part whole wheat flour and isn't super heavy on sugar, but the honey and butter give it a really yummy flavor.

We re-rolled several times to cut out all the dough and then froze half of the cut-outs on parchment lined cookie sheets. After twenty minutes in the freezer, I was able to transfer the frozen shapes to a quart sized freezer bag and now I can just pull them out and bake when we want some more.

Aren't they cute?

I sent some with Will and Craig for their "last day of school picnic" and they ended up sharing a couple with teachers and parents that wanted to try them. Those taste testers thought they resembled gingerbread or some sort of ginger flavor, but there is no ginger at all! And I was pleasantly surprised that Craig LOVES these! He made a point to compliment them several times.

Since I typically have all these ingredients on hand, these will definitely be a staple treat for our house.

It's always fun to try new recipes. And I love including the kids in the preparation. It's not always practical with time, but they sure do love being involved.

Yummy Snacks

I've been trying a bunch of new recipes this week and enjoying a little variety in our snacking.

The Weelicious recipe for Sweet Potato Mini Muffins was suggested to me by a coworker because they were a hit with her daughter. So I've been using them as an easy (and healthy) mid-afternoon snack and also as a "grain" with meals.

I baked a large sweet potato and pureed the pulp just like I used to for baby food.

These muffins have oats in them, which I love, and they have been very well accepted by both kids. I set a bunch out for a few days and froze the rest. Now we just pull them out as needed and pop in the microwave for 30 seconds or so.

Another super easy snack food are these crunchy, sweet "chickpeas". With only four ingredients and a SUPER quick assembly, this is one of the easiest snack recipes ever. The directions say to peel the outer skin of the beans, but I just skipped that (per a suggested comment on the Weelicious blog) and they turned out just fine that way. I rinsed the garbanzo beans right out of the can and patted them dry between paper towels. Some of the skins came off on their own, but I didn't actually try to peel any others.

This was all I needed.

Tossed in oil and cinnamon... roasted... tossed in honey... roasted again. I might decrease the first roasting time to 30-35 minutes and just watch them very closely. Mine weren't burned but they tasted a little too "done". The beans turn crunchy after this long roasting time and they're pleasantly sweet! Yum!

I'm going to try making them again and just watching the time a little more closely. This would be an excellent protein/iron source on those no-meat days for the kids.

What's For Dinner? Week 4

I got an e-mail from Diane Riehm (one of our CSA farmers) that our first vegetable pick up bag will be ready on May 31st - next Tuesday!

This is what the rest of the e-mail said:

We think of you as royalty and want to give you the season's first pick. Asparagus and lettuce will be ready along with summer squashes and others too early to tell. A light harvest is forecasting for the month of June [because of the crazy weather we've had]. If this happens, we will catch up the difference as the summer goes on.

Now is the time to empty out some of your refrigerator.

Allrighty then! It's settled. I will be cleaning and purging my refrigerator this weekend! It's overdue and it's been on my list.

I also got a message from the Toledo Farmers Market e-mail chain I signed up for that the Flower and Plant Weekend will be held this weekend (Sat-Mon). So I'm hoping I can get some manure (never thought I'd say that in a sentence) and top soil for our garden put in Saturday morning and then get to the Market for some vegetable plants to finally get our garden started! Our weekend to-do list is kind of insane... again.

Last week our meals seemed kind of heavy with lots of leftovers. So by Friday, I was feeling burned out on the tomato-based, meaty, main dishes. I wanted something light for dinner instead. My mother in law brought over some asparagus from her garden recently and I just steamed it with some red pepper strips and topped it with a homemade dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, thyme, Dijon mustard, garlic, s&p. Will and I also had big green salads with strawberries, pecans, red onion and a berry vinegarette. I know the two vinegarettes seem kind of weird together, but this dinner was sooooo good.

On Saturday morning, we had the most wonderful Rhubarb Struesel Muffins (recipe coming soon) with some fruit and yogurt for breakfast. Delicious!

I'm not sure marinating chicken breasts are the most appetizing looking thing, but I just wanted to show you how well the Balsamic Chicken marinade actually sticks to the meat for grilling! This is what it looked like when I took it out of the marinating bag and put it on the plate for Craig to grill. The flavor is so good and you don't really have to baste it at all. Can you tell I've got a thing for balsamic and Dijon mustard pairings? This is one of my favorite easy recipes from Weelicious and the kids ate it pretty well too! So I think this will be another frequent menu item along with hamburgers (which actually weren't as popular this week when we served them). Hmm.

Here are our dinner plates awaiting the grilled chicken on Sunday night.

Sophie isn't a big salad/raw veggie eater so far, but I keep offering them to her. Will loves them. So I tailored their plates just a little.

{More on these mini-muffins in another post, too.}

I forgot to take a picture of the grilled chicken on our plates, but here is the leftover piece that the kids were splitting. Such good flavor!

I also never remember to take pictures on cheeseburger night. Not sure why the kids were being funny about them this night, but whatever. I often just put out a big plate of raw veggies when we do burgers. We also frequently have sliced cheese or some kind of fruit as a side.

Another dinner this week was Weelicious sloppy joes. These are loaded with veggies and we have veggies on the side, too.

On Wednesday night, I made a rhubarb pie for a co-worker's birthday using Craig's Aunt Cathy's amazing recipe... as well as rhubarb from her garden. I called Cathy to ask for the recipe on Monday and she delivered a copy of the recipe and a bag of fresh rhubarb to me on Tuesday! Wasn't that nice? I just love their family.

I'm not normally a big fan of pie, myself. But rhubarb pie is an exception - especially Cathy's recipe. I don't make it often, but Craig saw me making this and was disappointed to hear it wasn't for us, so I'll be making another very soon. I just love using my food processor to make the crust. Since having one, I can't imagine going back to the ole' pastry blender. These are so fast and uniform and easy! Anyway, here's the pie before I added the crumb topping and baked it.

This pie earned me lots of compliments among co-workers on Thursday. :)

We had a breakfast night for the kids last night (scrambled eggs, grapefruit, sweet potato muffins) while Craig and I ordered pizza after they went to bed. That's our splurgy treat to ourselves from time to time... and it's been awhile. Dinner in peace with Vito's and a movie. Ahh... so nice. We watched Analyze This, which is old but I'd never seen. Very funny.

I've got a bunch of other new recipes to share that I tried this week, too. Some treats, some snacks and some breakfast foods! So look for those coming soon.

Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend! The weather is looking fantastic. Hooray! If you're cooking out, enjoy!