Lucky Irish Oatmeal

Lucky Baked Irish Oatmeal
(serves 4)

I'm calling this one Lucky Irish Oatmeal because I literally threw some stuff together and got lucky when it turned out delicious...like, very, very delicious!

Ingredients:
1/2 c. steel cut Irish oats
2c. milk
1/4 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. coconut
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 egg, beaten
1 small orange
1/4 walnuts, chopped
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1. In a medium bowl, soak the oats in the milk and melted butter for 30 minutes.
2. While the oats are soaking, toast the coconut. Put the coconut on a metal baking sheet and put in a 400 degree oven. Open frequently to stir the coconut. Bake until coconut is golden brown. In my case this took about 5 minutes. Set aside.
3. Stir coconut, egg, brown sugar, juice and grated rind from orange, walnuts and nutmeg into oatmeal mixture.
4. Spray a loaf pan with baking spray. Pour mixture into pan.
5. Bake in a 375 degree oven for an hour. Serve warm!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Peanut Butter Chicken Fingers

Abby loves chicken nuggets, so it's not exactly a triumph that she polished off her entire plate of these. They were tasty and had a nice accent of peanut butter flavor.

Peanut Butter Chicken Fingers

Prep: 10 minutes
Bake: 15-20 minutes

2 chicken breasts
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup milk
2-3 cups fresh bread crumbs (for extra wow, make your bread crumbs from Peanut Butter Bread)
salt

Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a wire rack with non-stick spray and set over a cookie sheet.

Cut chicken breasts into 1 inch-thick strips. In a shallow bowl, microwave the peanut butter and milk together for about 20 seconds, then whisk together. Add more milk as needed (you want the mixture to have a pudding-like consistency). Pour the bread crumbs into another shallow bowl and toss with a few dashes of salt.

Dredge chicken strips through the peanut butter mixture, and then pat in the crumbs to coat. Set strips on the wire rack and bake for 15-20 minutes, until completely cooked through.

I attempted to make a dip to go with them, but Abby and I didn't like it. She had hers with ketchup; I had mine plain. I should have made the peanut sauce from Celeste's Tofu Skewers with Peanut Sauce - that would have been perfect!

St. Patrick's Day Dinner Date!!

I realize St. Patrick's Day isn't until next week but I thought it wise to put something up this week in case you would actually like to make this FOR St. Patrick's day. ;o) This meal was scrumptious and even both toddlers devoured their meals!

Crockpot Corned Beef with Potatoes and Carrots
(serves 4)

Ingredients:
Approx. 1-1/2 lb. corned beef brisket cut into stew meat sized chunks (I left the fat on for flavor)
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 med/lg. carrots, peeled and cut in big chunks
1 can beef broth
2 cloves garlic, chopped

1. Don't let this confuse you. I know it sounds complicated. Add all ingredients to crockpot, cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Serve! ;o)

**warning** Do NOT add salt. Corned beef is salty on its own. You definitely don't need to add any.

Irish Soda Bread
(serves 8)

Ingredients:
3/4 c. light sour cream
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. golden raisins
3 tsp. caraway seeds
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and olive oil until well combined.
3. In a larger bowl combine all of the dry ingredients.
4. Stir the raisins into the dry mixture.
5. Stir in the sour cream/oil mixture until dough comes together.
6. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 1 minute.
7. Shape into a 6" round loaf. Score an "X" into the top of the loaf with a sharp knife.
8. Bake on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray for 40 minutes or until the crust starts to turn golden brown.
9. cool on a wire rack. Serve with Irish butter!

Potato Candy
(makes 12 pieces)

Are these not the cutest things you've ever seen?? These little potatoes are not potatoes at all. They are sugary balls of deliciousness! However, they are NOT very good for toddlers as it turns out. :o(

Ingredients:
4 oz. of cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick (1/4 c.) butter, softened
2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-1/2 c. flaked coconut
2 tbsp. ground cinnamon

1. Using a mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese.
2. With the mixer on med. speed, add the vanilla and powdered sugar until well combined.
3. Stir in the coconut until well combined.
4. Using your hands, shape little potato shapes out of the mixture. Mine were about 2" in length.
5. Put the cinnamon in a small bowl. One at a time, add the "potatoes" and shake the bowl to roll the potato around and coat it in the cinnamon. Repeat with remaining potatoes.
6. Using a small, blunt tipped object (I used the end of one of my daughters watercolor brushes) make"eyes" in the potatoes.
7. Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Serve!

**Notes***The plain cinnamon was way too spicy for toddlers. I should have known. Kara had the idea of cutting the cinnamon with dry cocoa mix next time. Great idea Kara!

So since the planned dessert didn't work out I ended up throwing some refrigerated cookie dough (a gift from my FIL) into the oven. It was a toddler approved substitute!

Soft Granola Bars

For some reason, my pantry is always littered with half-empty bags of granola. I buy it thinking I will like it, but granola is just not my thing. Well, Abby is on a granola bar kick, so I decided to put all those forgotten bags to use! These are a softer, cakier version of a granola bar than what you'll get pre-packaged but Abby and I are addicted. They are also a snap to make!

Soft Granola Bars

Prep time: 5 minutes Bake time: 10-15 minutes

2 cups prepared granola (store-bought or homemade)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup milled flax seed
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp agave nectar (or sub in maple syrup or honey)
1 Tbsp water
1 egg

Preheat oven to 325F. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl (this is a great recipe to have your child help with!) until well-combined. Press the mixture evenly into an 8x8" baking dish (either use damp hands, or spray the bottom of a glass with non-stick spray to help you pack the mixture down). Bake until the edges are turning golden, 10-15 minutes.

Score the pan into 10 bars, but do not remove from pan until completely cooled (otherwise they'll fall apart... trust me ;-).

Pumpkin Penne with Rosemary

My husband and I are having beef stew tonight - I knew Lizzy would like to eat bits of the carrots and potato, but I also knew that Abby was unlikely to try the big hunks of beef. So I made the girls some yummy vitamin-A packed pasta, instead - Pumpkin Penne with Rosemary courtesy of The Toby Show.

(Jonah Lisa's picture is waaaay better. But here is a Lizzy bowl and an Abby bowl, waiting to be devoured.)

This was a hit, as most pasta dishes are around here. I used dried rosemary, because I'm a punk who didn't read the recipe carefully before going to the grocery store. So, I only used about a teaspoon, and I kept it in the sauce, rather than serving it as a garnish. I skipped the red pepper flakes since I was primarily serving it to the girls, but I added some to my tasting portion. This household gives the pumpkin penne a variety of baby- and toddler-sized thumbs up!

The Toby Show is part-mommy blog, part crafty-blog, part foodie-blog, and an overall good read. Right now, Jonah Lisa has posted a tortilla soup recipe that looks pretty darned delish, too! Go check it out!

Boston Baked Franks and Beans

Boston Baked Franks and Beans

(serves 6)

I thought a nod to Boston was in order after my Minnesota tribute. Nothing says Boston like Boston baked beans, right? To make them a meal I added some non-nitrate beef hot dogs and rounded the dinner out with Kara's Boston brown bread. My toddler gobbled up this sweet and salty dish!

Ingredients:
1 package (1lb?) dry pinto beans
1 can organic tomato sauce
1/4 c. blackstrap molasses
1/2 lg. onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. dry mustard
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
5 non-nitrate beef hot dogs

1. Soak the beans overnight in a large bowl of water.
2. In the morning, drain the beans and rinse well.
3. Bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove. Add the beans. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 hour.
4. Drain and rinse.
5. Combine all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
6. Cut the hot dogs lengthwise and then into bite sized chunks. Add to the crockpot for the last 30 minutes of cooking time. Serve!

Tea Party!

Abby and I hosted a tea party for Neko and Celeste last night! This dinner date was a big hit, if for no other reason than the toddlers loved using the tea set. The food went over pretty well, too! We rounded this menu out with cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, but I'm not including a recipe - they're pretty self-explanatory! (neither girl really liked them, anyway)

Scones and Finger Sandwiches

Roasted Vegetable Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter (cold and cut into pieces)
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk (skim worked fine)
3/4 cup diced roasted vegetables
(I diced up some peppers, onions, carrots, and squash - tossed them in a little olive oil and roasted at 400F for about 20 minutes. What I didn't need for these scones, I scrambled into eggs for breakfast. Yum!)

Preheat oven to 425F. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Sprinkle the pieces of butter on top and pulse about 20 times, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Pour the flour-butter mixture into a large bowl. Stir in the egg, milk, and vegetables until a dough comes together. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until a smoother dough forms.

Split the dough in half; shape each half into a 6-inch disk. Cut each disk into 6 wedges and place each wedge on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, until scones are beginning to turn golden.


Peanut Butter Bread
(for making the ultimate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!)

7 oz milk, slightly warmed
2 oz water, at room temperature
1 1/4 tsp rapid rise yeast
1/4 cup natural-style peanut butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour

In a large bowl, stir together the milk, water, and yeast. Whisk in the peanut butter and brown sugar until the peanut butter is fully mixed in. Stir in the salt and flour with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough comes together.

Turn the dough onto a work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding tiny amounts of water or flour as needed (if your dough is too sticky, knead in flour, about one teaspoon at a time. If your dough is too dry and stiff, wet the palms of your hands to knead in a tiny amount of water. A little goes a long way!).

Grease a large bowl with non-stick spray. Put the kneaded dough ball inside, rolling it around to grease the dough lightly. Set aside in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours. Punch down and shape the dough into a loaf. Set inside a loaf pan and let rise for about 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375F. Bake the bread for about 30 minutes, until it sounds slightly hollow when tapped and is nicely browned on top. Add peanut butter and jelly for the yummiest pb&j in town!

Banoffee Bars

(these couldn't be easier or more delicious!! No sugar needed in the crust or whipped cream - the toffee center is sweet enough!)

14 oz can condensed sweetened milk (fat free worked great!)
5 sheets of graham crackers
1/2 cup rolled oats
4 Tbsp butter, melted
bananas
1 cup heavy cream

Caramelize your condensed sweetened milk: Preheat oven to 425F. Pour the milk into an pie pan and cover tightly with foil. Set the pan inside a larger baking dish, and fill the larger dish about halfway with hot water (creating a water bath). Bake for about 45 minutes, until the milk has caramelized and turned thick. Let cool a little.

Lower the oven to 325F. In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers and oats together until finely ground. Pour crumbs into an 8-inch square baking dish. Drizzle with the melted butter and stir together, then press the crust evenly across the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust for about 5 minutes, until golden.

Pour the toffee filling over the hot crust. Top the toffee with thinly sliced bananas. Refrigerate until chilled. Whip the heavy cream and top each bar with a little whipped cream.

Guest Post at Kid Appeal!

Abby and I made turkey-rosemary meatballs in white whole wheat pitas and blogged about it for Kid Appeal. The sandwiches were tasty, but my main focus was finding ways to have Abby help me with every step of the dinner prep - even with the meatballs!

Kid Appeal is a great blog of recipes, ideas on getting kids eating, and tons of great information! If you're in the Houston, TX area, check out the information on Jenna's "Kid's Nutrition Class"!

Annie's Homegrown!

I LOVE a good bargain and am always so inspired by Mom's who are able to feed their family's on a low budget. Unfortunately (for my budget) I buy a lot of organic stuff. Its rare to find coupons or even a good deal on a lot of this stuff which means that my family of 3 regularly spends $150+ a week on groceries. I hope to find ways to get this down as much as I can.



I did, however, come across this GREAT deal online today on Annie's Homegrown organic whole wheat mac and cheese so how could I not share?



I got 12 - 6oz. boxes for $14.36! You have to sign up for Amazon's "Subscribe and Save" program but you can cancel anytime. I signed up for a "once every 6 months" subscription but plan to cancel as soon as I get my first shipment.


Subtotal of Items:
$26.12
Shipping & Handling:
$8.18
Shipping Discount:
-$8.18
Promotion Applied:
-$3.92
Promotion Applied:
-$7.84

------
Total for this Order:
$14.36



There are other Annie's items that fall under this same promotion including cheddar bunnies! If you're an Annie's buyer go save yourself some money!

Minnesota Dinner Date!!

I grew up in northern Minnesota but am raising my daughter in Massachusetts. While MA has great local food favorites (which I'm sure we'll explore here someday), many of the foods I was raised on just don't exist in good ol' New England. If I were to make the quintessential Minnesotan meal I would make shore lunch style walleye fillets with a side of wild rice and rhubarb pie for dessert. I have yet to find any walleye here, the wild rice is exorbitantly expensive and rhubarb is very out of season. I digress.

Of course these are not the only foods that represent the land of 10,000 lakes. If you live or have lived in Minnesota you have eaten or at least been around pierogies, lefse, venison (that you or someone you know shot, killed, skinned and butchered), pickled herring and lutefisk to name a few. I hope to share recipes for a couple of these things with you soon. Don't worry, even I know that no toddler is going anywhere near herring or lutefisk.

There is, however, one Minnesotan classic that is VERY toddler friendly...the hotdish.

Wikipedia describes hotdish as: "any of a variety of baked casserole popular in the Midwestern United States, and especially in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, northern Iowa, and western Wisconsin. It consists of a starch, a meat, and a canned vegetable, mixed together with canned soup. The soup is often cream of mushroom which serves as a binding ingredient. The history of the hotdish goes back to when "budget-minded farm wives needed to feed their own families, as well as congregations in the basements of the first Minnesota churches."

Some people refer to the canned cream of mushroom soup as "lutheran binder" because it seems to show up in everything from hotdish to sloppy joes in many a church function.

The hotdish I am most familiar with is:

Tater Tot Hotdish
(serves 6)

Ingredients:
Celeste's "Lutheran Binder" alternative (see below)
1 lb. ground turkey (or beef/chicken/meat substitute)
1 lb. frozen french style green beans
1 lb. frozen tater tots (I used the Ian's organic...I think this might go against MN code but I have to admit it here)
1 small yellow onion
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste
seasoning salt (like Lawry's)

1. In a large skillet brown the ground turkey. When it is almost brown drain off any juice and then add the onions and garlic to the skillet with the turkey. Finish cooking until meat is cooked through. Season with a little salt and pepper.
2. Stir in the "lutheran binder" and green beans.
3. Pour mixture into a 9x13 baking dish (or 2 small square baking dishes like I did).
4. Top mixture with tater tots and sprinkle the tots with the seasoning salt.
5. Bake according to the package direction on your tater tots. The meat is already cooked and the beans will cook quickly so whats important is that the tater tots cook to golden brown and crispy. In general this will be approximately 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Serve (with a little ketchup on the side for dipping the tots!)

Celeste's "Lutheran Binder" Alternative

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. salted butter

3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. chicken stock

1/2 c. milk (I used 1%)

2 c. white mushrooms, sliced salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large saute pan melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter. When melted, add the mushrooms and saute over medium heat until cooked. Transfer to a separate bowl and set aside.

2. In the same saute pan melt the other Tbsp. of butter.

3. Gradually add the flour stirring constantly creating a roux of sorts.

4. Whisk in the stock and milk and continue to whisk over med heat until a thickened sauce forms. You are going for the consistency of condensed cream of mushroom soup.

5. Stir in the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Voila!

I thought long and hard about what would be the most Minnesotan dessert I could make to round out this Minnesota dinner date and have to admit was a little stumped. Like I said before, if I could make the perfect MN meal the dessert would be rhubarb pie (or any rhubarb dessert really) because most people I know back home have rhubarb growing in their backyard. When I was little I used to walk outside, hack off a piece and dip in in some sugar for a treat. My Grandma does a lot of canning and one of the things she cans is "rhubarb sauce" which I guess is like apple sauce only made out of rhubarb. We eat it over ice cream. Yum!

Since I can't make anything rhubarb I decided I should probably make something with blueberries--another MN staple. My Mom and Grandma would go blueberry picking and come back with gallon sized ice cream buckets filled with wild blueberries. We always had blueberries in our freezer.

If Minnesota had a 'state dessert' it would be bars (pronounced barrrs in Minnesotan). I realize 'bars' is a category of dessert and not very specific but I cannot tell you how much Minnesotans love bars. We take the recipe off the back of toll house morsels for chocolate chip cookies and throw all the dough into a 13x9 cake pan and make them into bars. Rice Krispie treats are Rice Krispie Bars (not treats) and you can bet that they will have a half inch layer of chocolate on top. If you are asked to bring something to a potluck, chances are (if you aren't bringing hotdish) you are bringing barrrs.

I decided to make some blueberry crumble bars for dessert but at the last minute had a stroke of cleverness and threw in a handfull of frozen cranberries I had in the freezer. Since cranberries are very New England I thought this was a nice MN/MA combo and decided to call them:

Blueberry Cranberry Barrs/Bahs (nod to the Boston accent)
(makes 20ish barrrs)

Ingredients:

Crust
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. softened butter
1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar

Blueberry Cranberry Filling
1/2 c. sugar (I used and reccomend turbanino sugar)
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1-1/2 c. blueberries
1 c. cranberries

Crumb Topping
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp. butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a small bowl combine the flour and salt for the crust.
3. Using a mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until creamed together.
4. With the mixer on a low speed add the flour/salt mixture a little at a time until mixture is just crumbly.
5. Press the dough into a greased (I use Pam for baking) 9x13 pan.
6. In another small bowl, combine all of the filling ingredients and layer on top of crust.
7. In another small bowl (use the first one from the crust as this is starting to sound like a lot of dishes...ha) combine all the ingredients for the topping (except the melted butter)
8. Add the melted butter and stir until mixture is moistened. Crumble on top of blueberry/cranberry mixture
9. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.
10. Cool on a wire rack and cut into barrrs. Enjoy!

Honestly these were some of the best bars I've ever made. (Toot toot goes my own horn.) I really think only using dark sugars gave these such a nice flavor. Yummmm.

If there are any fellow Minnesota natives or Mom's out there I would love to hear your Minnesota food stories! Oh yeah, you betcha!