Category Archives: Food

Monday Menu: Vacation at the cottage

Posted by Melissa in Food, Monday Menu and tagged with , , , , , ,

We don’t have a cozy little lake cottage, but maybe you do? We have a couple weeks free in August if you need someone to make it look lived in…

But seriously, sometimes the most frugal (and relaxing) family summer vacation option is renting or borrowing a cottage, cabin or condo for a week. It’s not an all-inclusive resort, but it does have a kitchen. With a little planning ahead, you can have easy, budget-friendly meals and not break the bank by eating out every night. Here are my top five tips for an easy week of home cooked meals on vacation:

1. Make a menu. Keep it simple. What are your family’s favorite–but easy–meals? Make ingredients work double duty whenever possible.

2. Make a couple of freezer meals ahead of time and bring them your cooler. If you have the space, bring your slow cooker.

3. Find out whether there’s a grill at your destination. Burgers, hotdogs, brats…and s’mores for dessert!

4. Don’t forget to stock supplies for easy breakfasts and lunches: cereal, muffins, sandwiches, yogurt, fruit.

5. Do plan a meal out if you can!

Monday: Arrival day…something quick for dinner! Pasta with cheese and pepper, salad.

Tuesday: Marinate some chicken in the morning…grill it in the evening. Make sure there are leftovers. Asian Cabbage Salad (make the dressing at home and bring it in a jar), maybe some oven fries.

Wednesday: Crockpot pulled pork sandwiches (make ahead, freeze, and reheat in the crockpot while you’re at the beach).

Thursday: No work: Leftover Asian Cabbage Salad with grilled chicken strips. If that’s too healthy, open a bag of chips. Maybe take 10 minutes and make some Fruit Crumble.

Friday: Grill again! Steak, hotdogs, maybe some fish? Potato salad would be nice (bring small new potatoes that don’t need peeling, add a mustardy vinaigrette). S’mores!

Last week on Home Baked

Empty the basket!

Hummus

Monday Menu: The Grilling Edition

 

Do you like to cook when you’re on vacation?

Hummus

Posted by Melissa in Food, Recipe and tagged with , , , , ,

We’re watching the first season of Mad Men these days (don’t spoil it, friends), and just saw the episode where Pete Campbell exchanges a wedding gift–a ceramic  lettuce leaf and red pepper atrocity of a “chip and dip”–for a shotgun. Now how will they serve the sour cream and onion dip?

While it’s hard to beat a good sour cream and onion dip (with a bag of Ruffles), it’s not exactly a snack I’d feel good about offering on a regular basis. Enter the bowl of hummus. I’m sure hummus was unheard of by most people in the Mad Men days, but now it’s everywhere, and every grocery store has competing brands and multiple flavors. Roasted garlic! Red pepper! Mild! Spicy!

Hummus, pita chips and baby carrots was standard fare at playgroup gatherings when my kids were toddlers. My kids still love hummus, and we do, too. I like to make my own, because it’s easy and significantly cheaper, especially when I start with dried chickpeas instead of canned (though canned work perfectly fine). I also know exactly what’s in it, and can season it to our taste.

I usually cook beans in the slow cooker, preferably overnight. It takes about one minute of prep, and the next morning you can let it cool and divide the cooked beans into containers to freeze or use right away. It takes half of a one-pound bag of dried chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) for a single batch of hummus. No need to soak ahead of time, either–10 hours on low and they are just right.

Some people prefer to remove the skins, but I find it an unnecessary step.

Rinse 1 lb. dried chickpeas, and put them in a slow cooker with 8 cups of cold water and 1 Tbsp. kosher salt. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, until the chickpeas are tender. Use about half of the cooked chickpeas for the following recipe. Freeze the rest or make falafel to go with the hummus!

Hummus

3 cups cooked chickpeas

3/4 cup-1 cup cooking liquid or water

juice of one lemon

1/2 cup tahini

2 garlic cloves warmed in 2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 cup fresh parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to the bowl of a food processor (start with the smaller amount of liquid and add more if necessary) and process until smooth (or leave it a little chunky if you prefer). Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Monday Menu: the grilling edition

Posted by Melissa in Food, Monday Menu and tagged with , , , , , ,

Summertime was made for grilling. Keep the heat out of the kitchen and outside where it belongs, right? I’ve been trying to grill as often as possible, so I decided to center this week’s menu around the grill. I like how quickly things cook and how few pots and pans there are left to wash!

It’s taken me a few years to gain confidence at the grill. I’m certainly no Grill Master yet, but I’ve learned a few tricks (if only where the hot spots are on our gas grill). I have two pieces of advice to anyone hesitant about their grilling skills. 1) Don’t walk away from the grill! It’s easy to get distracted by other kitchen tasks, and before you know it, your burgers are hockey pucks. 2) Get a grill basket! Now you can cook all sorts of things (especially vegetables) alongside your meat.

Monday: Southwest turkey burgers (add crushed tortilla chips, salsa, cumin, etc. to ground turkey–serve with cheese, avocado slices and more salsa), corn on the cob (grill that, too!), green salad

Tuesday: Grilled salmon, Asian cabbage salad, grilled pineapple slices

Wednesday: Yogurt-marinated grilled chicken, grilled veggies (asparagus, fennel, onions, zucchini…toss with olive oil, salt & pepper and toss them in a grill basket)

Thursday: Take a break! Leftover cabbage salad with strips of leftover grilled chicken. Grill up some toast! (Or just bask in the A/C.)

Friday: Pizza on the grill (leftover grilled veggies make a wonderful pizza topping)

 

Last week on Home Baked

Cleaning carseats

Kids’ travel neck pillows

TGIF (Or, Happy Hour at Home)

 

What’s your favorite grilling standby?

TGIF

Posted by Melissa in Food, Recipe and tagged with , , , , ,

Maybe it’s just the second glass of wine talking, but Friday night is the best night of the week. Bedtime isn’t so urgent. My husband is bathing the recalcitrant four-year-old, whose defiant attitude seems to have washed away with a liberal application of bubble bath and plastic mermaids. We’re going to the farmer’s market in the morning, and our dinner tonight (along with that bottle of wine) was just an assortment of appetizers pulled together from leftovers from the past week: Brie and crackers, smoked trout dip (leftover from Sunday’s bagels), hummus and carrots, a bowl of blackberries, rosemary focaccia from that last bit of dough in the refrigerator, cantaloupe and prosciutto (unused from a recipe gone wrong). Who says you can’t have happy hour for dinner?

You can! Snip some flowers from the garden for the table, raid the refrigerator and serve your spread on the patio. Turn up the music. Mix some Shirley Temples for the kids. Light a few candles, play some cards in the dusk, and watch the fireflies come out.

A few favorite family Happy Hour ideas:

Fresh Herb Focaccia

Smoked Whitefish (or Trout) Dip

Hummus

Fresh Fruit with Honey-Yogurt Dip

Crackers, cheese, cold cuts (fan them out on a platter or fold them up and skewer them on toothpicks)

Garlic, Herb and Parmesan Popcorn

Canned sardines in tomato sauce (I may be the only one who thinks this is a good idea)

What are your favorite Happy Hour munchies?

Monday Menu…and last week’s links

Posted by Melissa in Food, Monday Menu and tagged with , ,

I keep saying I’m going to clean out the freezer, but it never seems to happen. Just wishing doesn’t make it so, apparently. But this week I’m planning meals around what I find in the freezer: a couple of lonely steaks, several pounds of stale bread, sausage, bits and bags of frozen fruit. In the fridge, I’ve got eggs and a bunch of vegetables to play with. By the end of the week, I should be one step closer to the Great Freezer Purge of 2012. (Sounds fun, doesn’t it?)

Monday: T-bone steaks (for the adults), meatballs (for the kids), baked potatoes, green beans

Tuesday: Spinach and cheese strata, green salad, fruit smoothies

Wednesday: Pasta with cheese and Italian sausage, kale (salad or cooked?)

Thursday: Sandwiches (the perfect summer, no-prep meal)

Friday: Leftovers!

 

Last week on Home Baked

Food processor mango sorbet

Rotating seasonal clothing

Food processor mango sorbet

Posted by Melissa in Food, Recipe and tagged with , , ,

Did you know you can make fruit sorbet without an ice cream maker? We do have an ice cream maker, and I was ready to use it yesterday to make mango sorbet, but stumbled upon this easy method because I began with frozen mango (an impulse buy at Aldi) instead of fresh. If you have a food processor in your kitchen, but no ice cream maker, this recipe is for you.

The texture of the mango lends a creaminess to the sorbet, and the lime juice is a tangy contrast to the sweetness. Miss Six doesn’t like mango (she’s not a big fruit eater), but she asked for an extra scoop of sorbet. I’m not sure the food processor method would work with just any frozen fruit, but it might be worth experimenting. And if you want a sugar-free fruit “ice cream,” try this one made with frozen bananas. That’s next on my list!

Into the bowl of the food processor, put 1 lb. frozen mango chunks, 1 cup of simple syrup, and 2 Tbsp. lime juice. Purée until smooth. Serve immediately (it will be like soft serve ice cream), or transfer to a covered container and freeze until ready to serve. Best served within a few days.

Monday Menu…and your weekly link round up!

Posted by Melissa in Food, Monday Menu and tagged with , , , , , ,

This week’s menu is brought to you by my Number One Husband, who enjoys dreaming up menus in his spare time. As I come from a family that sits down to one meal and ends up discussing what to make for the next meal, you can see why I keep him around. He also did all the grocery shopping on Sunday with Little Four in tow, made dinner, and put a big pot of vegetable broth on to simmer. I will probably cook most of these meals, but it’s a relief not to be responsible for the plan. With so much of my usual Monday routine already complete, I might find the time to dig into a good project this week! (There’s always trim to paint…)

Sunday: Tuscan chicken with grilled fennel and onions, grilled potato wedges, brownies

Monday: Pad Thai

Tuesday: Picnic Supper–Big Sandwich, deviled eggs, watermelon

Wednesday: Quesadillas with leftover chicken, guacamole, salsa, refried beans and rice

Thursday: Grilled salmon, broccoli, rice

Friday: Homemade pizza (toppings: shaved asparagus, leftover roasted fennel/onion/tomato)

 

Last week on Home Baked

In case you missed them, here’s a round up of Home Baked posts from the last couple of weeks:

Recipes: 

Applesauce Bran Muffins

Stone Fruit Pie with Streusel

Projects:

Moving the dishes to kid-height

PVC Bike Rack

 

Which do like better, planning a meal or cooking it?

Applesauce Bran Muffins

Posted by Melissa in Baking, Food, Kids, Recipe and tagged with , ,

I love getting out of bed before the kids. It doesn’t happen very often. In fact, if I plan to get up before they do, someone inevitably hears and pops out of bed ready to start the day. So much for a quiet half hour with my coffee.

But yesterday morning I hauled myself out of bed in a desperate attempt to silence the cat, who was going door to door, loudly trying to rouse someone to fill his empty dish.

So. I was up, and my husband had already filled my coffee cup. A good time for some muffins, before the children started caterwauling, too. They came out of the oven just as the first riser stumbled down the stairs for her dose of morning television.

Applesauce Bran Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 cup wheat bran

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup olive oil (or any vegetable oil or melted butter)

1 cup applesauce (I used unsweetened)

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 eggs

Heat the oven to 500 degrees F. Grease 12 large muffin cups and set aside.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk the liquid ingredients together well (I add them to a 2-cup glass measuring cup and whisk them right in the cup). Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir together no more than 20 seconds. I like to use a large spatula to make sure I scrape everything off the bottom of the bowl.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Put the tin in the oven and immediately reset the temperature to 400 degrees F. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and a skewer or toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve warm.

Stone fruit pie, chocolate cream pie and a crust discovery

Posted by Melissa in Baking, Food, Recipe and tagged with , , , ,

My husband is on a pie baking kick. He’s decided he needs to develop his pastry skills (everybody needs a goal), and who am I to discourage him? For Memorial Day he made this beauty:

Mmmmm…Stone Fruit Pie with Almond Streusel from Food & Wine. This one has peaches, apricots, plums and cherries. While he was at it, I asked him to double the crust recipe so I could make a Chocolate Cream Pie. Why have one pie when you can have two? WELL. The crust was a revelation! A REVELATION, I tell you! Flaky, tender, but also crisp and not a bit soggy under all that fruit and pudding. What was different?

Baking powder.

I did a little research. Rose Levy Berenbaum, trusted author of The Cake Bible and The Pie and Pastry Bible, writes in her own Basic Flaky Pie Crust Recipe that “baking powder lifts and aerates the dough slightly without weakening it, but it makes it seem more tender.” Whatever–it worked. That, and baking the pie in the lower third of the oven.

The crust I blind-baked for the chocolate pie turned out well, too. I’ve had problems with the last couple crusts I’ve blind-baked–all sorts of shrinking and tough pastry horror stories. This time we remembered to refrigerate the dough overnight before rolling it out, and then froze the unbaked crust in the pan for 30 minutes before baking (with foil and pie weights). Cue the singing angels!

Monday Menu on Tuesday…plus recipes and projects you may have missed!

Posted by Melissa in Food, Monday Menu and tagged with

I hope all of you who celebrated Memorial Day had a wonderful weekend. Between cleaning out the garage, lounging on the patio with a book, visiting with family and friends, and participating in the Memorial Day ceremonies at our local cemetery, I had the perfect combination of productivity, relaxation, celebration and remembrance. This week I’ll have some fun projects and recipes to share with you to kickstart your summer!

Before I get to our delayed installment of Monday Menu, I want to address a little blog housekeeping. If you’re a mysuburbanlife.com reader, there have been some technical issues with the blog feed and you may have missed some posts in the past few weeks. So here’s a round up of projects and recipes that you might want to check out!

Recipes: Coconut Banana Popsicles, Best Yellow Layer Cake with Fresh Fruit and Pastry Cream

Home projects (The William Morris Project): Recipe Binder, Painting Lampshades, Repairing a Bamboo Roman Shade, The Garden Project

Monday Menus: May 21st, May 14th, May 7th, April 30th

After any holiday weekend, we usually have a fridge full of goodies just waiting to be transformed into meals for the week. I packed cold chicken and watermelon in everyone’s lunch today, and there is a bounty of cheeses and delicious dips that my husband made for our cocktail party on the porch last night. This artichoke dip, thinned with some pasta cooking water, is going to make a lovely pasta sauce. The roasted cherry tomatoes will be a perfect pizza topping, and we have plenty of watermelon left for ice pops. Alas, we polished off all the pie, but I’ll be sharing the recipes with you tomorrow!

Tuesday: Pasta with artichoke olive pesto, Fennel and Parmesan Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette, Nutella Pizza

Wednesday: Pizza and Strawberry-Watermelon Ice Pops

Thursday: Potage Saint-Germain (French Pea Soup),

Friday: I’m leaving the planning to the rest of my family, as it’s my early birthday dinner!

Saturday: Steaks and hotdogs on the grill…sides to be determined…

Sunday: Dinner out with friends!

 

As always, thanks for stopping by Home Baked! Feel free to share your menu plans/thoughts/suggestions in the comments! I read every single one!