Patriotic Candy Bark

Let me just be real for a second when I say I do NOT know how to work with meltable chocolate of any kind. Almond bark, candy wafers, chocolate chips (unless they are in cookies), you name it -- I don't know how to use it. So it came as no surprise that I didn't know how to work with the white almond bark I picked up to use in my Patriotic Candy Bark.

Luckily, with the help of some coconut oil, I got it figured out and my 12 year-old cousin and I successfully made a batch of the yummy deliciousness that is candy bark.

Inspired by this recipe, I set out to recreate my own.

We were out of Joe Joe's (Trader Joe's version of Oreo's) and I have to admit I wasn't sure how I liked the idea of them in the bark, so we left those out and added peanuts. I also left out sprinkles because I'm not a fan (and to be honest we don't own any!). The result was AH-mazing.

The Recipe: Patriotic Candy Bark

What you need:
1 pkg of white almond bark (or white chocolate wafers)
1.5 cups Red, White and Blue M&M's
3 cups pretzel sticks
1/2 c peanuts (halved)

Crunch pretzel sticks by hand and sprinkle on a cookie sheet along with the peanuts and 1 cup of M&M's.

Heat chocolate according to directions.

*If for some reason you happen to heat the chocolate bark longer than necessary, you'll get chocolate that is unpourable and think "Hmm, what did I do wrong?" Then you'll try to figure out how to thin it because it'd end up clumpy otherwise. You'll have an aha! moment when you realize coconut oil will do the trick and run to find it. Add 1 tbsp. and stir, stir, stir. Success!

I did this with the first 1/2 of the bark, but we had a better outcome with the 2nd half by heating it for less time.

Pour chocolate evenly on top of peanuts, pretzels and M&M's. Sprinkle remaining M&M's on top.

Place in the freezer until hardened. Break into pieces and store in a freezer safe container in the freezer until ready to eat. (Or eat it right away!)

The perfect snack or dessert for a Patriotic Party!

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Easy Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

I've been craving homemade mac and cheese lately and this recipe is super duper simple! Easy to make and only takes 20 minutes to prep and 30 to cook.

The Recipe: Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

What you need:

4 tbsp butter

4 tbsp whole wheat flour

4 cups organic whole milk (you can use skim or 2% or soy)

4 cups shredded cheese (any type)

16 oz. of cooked pasta (macaroni, rotini, penne)

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic salt

Topping:

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a sauce pan on medium heat, then add flour. Cook for 3 minutes, whisking often. Stir in milk and spices and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir often. You can boil the pasta on another burner while you do this and they finish around the same time.

Add 3 cups of cheese to milk mixture and stir until melted. Pour in cooked pasta and stir. Dump contents into greased 9x13 inch pan. Mix butter and bread crumbs until well coated and sprinkle on top with remaining cup of cheese.

Bake for 30 or minutes or until slightly browned.

I used rotini the first and second time I made this and penne the third. It tastes great with both. If you aren't into spicy foods, omit the red pepper flakes (but they make it taste amazing). I also created a Sweet P friendly version with soy milk and she loved it.

PS. That picture doesn't do it justice.

Potato Leek Soup

As I was looking through recent posts, I realized I never posted this recipe. Whoopsadaisy. I don't have any pictures because as I think back, I only started it and the Farmer finished it up while I went to class. I also didn't eat much of it, but the Farmer really enjoyed it and I think with a bit more tweaking, it'd be fabulous.

I wanted a recipe without heavy cream, so I found a vegan recipe online and we went from there. We only had 1 leek and what they did with the potatoes didn't work for us, so I'm fixing this to tell you what you should do instead. This recipe is adapted from the recipe posted here, but this is what we did:

The Recipe: Potato Leek Soup

What you need:

1 leek, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 tsp sea salt

3 tbsp minced garlic or 3 cloves

2 large potatoes or 4 small ones (we used small), boiled and cubed

4 cups vegetable stock

3 tsp fresh rosemary

Heat a pot over med-heat and add olive oil. Saute leeks and onion (add sea salt) for 5 minutes (or until onion is translucent), tossing often. Add garlic and cook for another few minutes. Add cooked potatoes and vegetable stock. Simmer for 10 minutes. Take soup off the heat and ladle into a blender a cup or so at a time. Add the fresh rosemary and blend until smooth. Transfer soup into another pot or bowl until all soup has been blended. Once complete, pour soup back into original pot or place new pot on the stove. Warm on low until heated. Serve.

When we made this our potatoes never really cooked. The Farmer blended it before we knew they weren't cooked and we ended up having to cook the soup for another hour before we could eat it because the potatoes weren't done. SO! We suggest you boil (or bake) the potatoes first. It would make the whole process much easier (and the soup much creamier).

Serve with a few rosemary leaves sprinkled on top and a big chunk of crusty bread. So fabulous on a cold fall night!

Veggie Kabobs

Since we're starting to get more vegetables from the garden, I decided it was time to up the ante in the meal department. I thought and thought about what to make and kept going back to veggie kabobs, so WA-LA! veggie kabobs.

First, I had to locate and dust off our indoor grill. We got it as a wedding gift and I'm embarrassed to say we've never used it (but, hey! we've only been married 2 years. Not bad, right?). I then had to locate the directions (because you know they are NEVER with the item, at least not in my world) and we got it going.

I made a marinade for the veggies to soak in for an hour beforehand. Looking back I wish I'd let them soak longer, like overnight, but they were still fab (because if they weren't I wouldn't be sharing them with you).

Recipe: Veggie Kabobs

What you need (serves 2 peeps):

12 mushrooms

6 shallots (chopped in large chunks)

1 medium zucchini (chopped in chunks)

1 medium summer squash (chopped in chunks)

3 yellow pear tomatoes

3 brown berry cherry tomatoes

1 small eggplant (peel and chopped)

Marinade:

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp teriyaki soy sauce

2 tbsp Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame dressing/marinade

1 tsp Tastefully Simple garlic pepper seasoning

1 tsp Weber Kick'n Chik'n seasoning

Soak 6 wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes. Prepare marinade in a large, shallow dish with a lid (Pyrex glass cake pans with lids work well). Place vegetables in marinade and toss until well coated.

Place in fridge, for 1-2 hours (or overnight), tossing the veggies every 15 minutes (don't worry about tossing if left overnight). After 1-2 hours, place veggies on a wooden skewer, alternating vegetables so that each skewers has several of each veggie. Place skewers on preheated grill. Cook for 10 minutes, turning skewers every so often and lightly brushing with leftover marinade.

You can also grill any leftover vegetables you have. Remove skewers with tongs and serve with rice (BROWN!).

Yum. Despite waiting for the marinade to soak in, this was really a quick and easy meal. Remember that we used an indoor grill, though. It takes about 10 minutes to preheat.

What I learned: Chop the shallots! As you can see from the pictures, I did not. And they were not done enough to be the kind of onion I eat. I don't eat raw onions, and those were still pretty raw. So chop them! To ensure they get cooked. Ours got thrown back on the grill (chopped) and we gobbled them up later. Make sure to peel your eggplant, if not sometimes the skin gets tough when it's grilled (depending on the type of eggplant).

Play with the marinade. I made mine out of things I had on hand. I was out of lemon juice or would have thrown that in, too.

Serve it with brown rice or whatever other carb you have on hand. We eat a lot of stir fry around here so rice seemed like the obvious choice (and I had it in the leftover section of the fridge).

Since we don't eat meat, we often forget we have a grill. After these, I'll remember and with an indoor grill, you don't have to wait for nice weather to do it!

Unbelievable

You're not gonna believe this...but I made something healthy today! Tada!

I love (LOVE) Israeli cous cous. Something about it is so flippin' good. On our trip to Seattle, I bought some from the bulk section of Whole Foods (because everyone knows we don't have one, but we are getting a Trader Joe's) for Sweet P and brought it home. I was craving cold pasta salad yesterday, so out came the cous cous. Here is what we had.

Cous Cous Pasta Salad

1 cup dry Israeli cous cous

1/2 small onion

1 cup broccoli (fresh or frozen)

1 cup spinach (fresh or frozen)

10 black olives (chopped)

1 heaping tbsp garlic

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp pesto (I use Classico)

2 mozzarella cheese sticks

Prepare cous cous in a rice cooker or in a pot on the stove. Bring 1.5 to 2 cups of water to a boil, add cous cous and cook 10 to 12 minutes until desired texture. Drain cous cous (there won't be a ton of water left), put in a large bowl and chill for 30 minutes. Saute garlic and onions in 2 tbsp olive oil. Add broccoli and spinach (our was fresh from the garden!). Remove from heat and add to chilled cous cous, mix in remaining olive oil and pesto. Chill for another 30 mins to an hour. When you are ready to eat, add olives and mozzarella.

So good. SO good. But I love cous cous so I may be biased. Israeli cous cous is more like pasta than a grain (like rice or quinoa) so it takes longer to prepare than traditional cous cous. This can be made a day ahead of time for a cold pasta or eaten right away if you want a warm pasta. To make it even healthier, eliminate the cheese and add less pesto and olive oil. But remember that good fats like olive oil are good for you!

I filed this under quick meals because the preparation is pretty quick. It's the waiting that's the long (and hard) part.

PS. Just so you know, I make healthy stuff every day, it just doesn't always make it into the blog.

Easy Cheesy Rice Casserole

So, I have to admit we in the Farmer household are not healthy eaters 100% of the time. In fact, the Farmer and I both have a massive sweet tooth and definitely love some greasy french fries every once in awhile. We usually save most of our unhealthy eating habits for holiday meals. Because we all know how those can be. Especially when you're a vegetarian so all you eat are carbs! Well, and a few veggie dishes here and there. All this to say that I have a casserole for you. It's nice and healthy right up until I tell you to dump in a heap of Cheez Whiz. Yep, good old fashioned Cheez Whiz...or you can use Velveeta (which is not any better...and to be honest, if it's cheese and it's not refrigerated, that scares me a little).

Next time you're asked to bring a side dish, try this. It's easy. It's cheesy. And it's pretty darn good.

The Recipe:

Broccoli Rice Casserole (doesn't the name sound healthy?)

What you need:

2 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

15 oz. cooked broccoli, chopped (one frozen bag)

1 cup Cheez Whiz (or store brand which is what we did)

2 tbsp butter

1 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp garlic salt

Heat 1 tbsp of butter in sauce pan. Add rice, broccoli, garlic salt and cheese and stir until combined. Pour into 7x11 dish (2 qt dish). Heat remaining butter in sauce pan, add bread crumbs and toss until coated. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of rice mixture. Heat oven and bake for 30 minutes or until crumbs are golden brown.

Happy Easter!

Going Green Tip of the Day: Don't Preheat the Oven

Going Green Tip of the Day: Don't Preheat the Oven

I know that at one point ovens probably took a long time to heat. Such is not the case anymore (and may not have been for the past 30 years if you take a look at my oven). When you are ready to bake or cook your food, simply turn on the oven and put the food in. Set it for the time needed and then when that time comes check to see if it's ready. Chances are it will be! Half of the time I forget to preheat it anyway and turn it on when I put the food in.

If you have a light in your oven, check your food without opening the oven. This will keep all the heat in and checking the food won't mean a longer cooking time.

So what are you waiting for?! Go make something and try it out. You'll save energy, time and money!

Going Green Tip of the Day: DIY Baby Food

Going Green Tip of the Day: DIY Baby Food

I know it might seem like a daunting task to make your own baby food, but it's really not! Think of the money, resources and plastic bags (from grocery shopping) you'll save by making it yourself. Not only will you know exactly what is going into your baby's food, you'll also get to regulate the packaging as well.

While it does save money and resources, it does take time. But you don't have to spend your life making food for your baby. Simply buy the same vegetables that you would purchase in baby food form. These vegetables can then be steamed, boiled, pureed, chopped...you name it! If you are overwhelmed by doing it every day, carve out a time each week that you can devote to making food for baby. Most homemade baby food can then be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can freeze it in ice cube trays or chopped and put into containers (make sure they are freezer safe).

Try it, your baby will like it.