Making a move and my awesome salad

Hello Crushers!

Today is the last day that I had to pack a lunch for my full-time job with the international medical society that I work for. Tomorrow we are all going out to lunch as a treat, so this is it. I'm sure I will pack a million more lunches in my lifetime between traveling, camping, Steve and our kids. That's a lot of PBJ!

This morning I rushed around the kitchen getting last minute things done (yes, I had to touch up my toe-nail polish) and making my lunch. I did not think very hard about doing it. Mostly this was my inner thought process: I should take an apple. And some cantaloupe before the cantaloupe goes bad. Take the last piece of string cheese - hope Steve doesn't mind! Oh, there's that lettuce from the garden. Steve is going to pick more lettuce, so I should eat that up. What to put on the lettuce? Cucumbers from the farmer's market? OK! Ooooh! There's leftover chicken from last night's Asian Ginger Chicken (Wildtree)! Score! Do I have time to slice a tomato? No. Bummer."

My tomato-less salad.

I will be making a career change to stay at home mom (SAHM)/part-time professor/something new that I'll tell you about soon. The last time I changed jobs, I had more of a "See ya! Don't get between me and the door!" feeling. I was burned out and needed something new. Four years later and I am married with a baby and a much healthier me! I can only imagine what the next four years are going to look like!

This is why I have mixed emotions about leaving my job. I enjoy the people I work with and the tasks I do. I have been able to travel to far-off, exciting places and eat incredible foods (kangaroo anyone?). However, I get to be home more as Ellie's mama, and you can't beat that.

For the men and women who have to work or choose to work and can't be home, I am impressed by everything you do for your family. For the full-time and part-time stay-at-home moms and dads, I'm impressed by everything you do for your family. I'm not judging anyone; this is just what works best for our family at this time. I'm sure you're doing the same.

Before the school year starts again and I go back to being Prof. W, we are going to take some time to relax up at our cabin. My dad is getting to build his dream garage up there and we will be there to help (and shop and swim and fish!). It's the perfect place to recharge out batteries. Hopefully, I will have another career move to share with you soon. More on that later. For now, I'm going to enjoy my salad and stop being so contemplative because really, it's a salad. It's not the first and won't be the last. Plus, I got stuff to do!

In the meantime, here is how I made the chicken:
I followed the recipe for Grilled Asian Ginger Chicken and made it into a freezer meal. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the veggies thawed out. They weren't soggy like I thought they would be. Instead of grilling them because we ran out of time, we just cooked them in a frying pan on the stovetop. They were DELICIOUS with some brown rice and frozen sherbert for dessert. Yum!

Faith-filled Friday: Moving Part 1

Good morning, Crushers!

As you may have noticed, the blog has been a little light on recipes lately. Well, as you know, we're moving. That means most of the kitchen is packed up. We've been eating off of paper plates and only using one stock pot and one skillet to cook everything. Between random cookware and trying to eat up what's in the fridge, it's like we're living on the Food Network's show "Chopped".

Source

Here's what we've been eating:

• Skillet-cooked BBQ chicken with mixed veggies
• Delicata Squash Gnocchi and jarred red sauce
• Leftovers (microwave quesadillas using up cheese and mixed veggies. FYI - peas are not quesadilla-friendly)
• Leftovers (reheat squash gnocchi for lunches)
• Soup and leftovers

Overall it hasn't been so bad, but Steve knows that this is starting to annoy me. I want my kitchen back! Anyway, he continues to be the most awesome husband ever and is taking me out to dinner tonight. WHOO! You know, before we finish some more packing...

Fortunately, we have amazing friends and family (Thanks Mom and Dad!) who are willing to take us and our stuff (that won't fit in the POD) in for a month or so. I was am feeling really overwhelmed about this. So, what do you do (besides tell your best girl friends and hubs?), dig in to the Bible. Duh. Facepalm.

Source
Caïn by Henri Vidal, Tuileries Garden, Paris, 1896

Psalm 27 is my go-to chapter when I need a little pick-me-up. Of course it would have an appropriate verse about this!

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Psalm 27: 4-5

No matter where we go, we should always seek to "dwell in the house of the Lord". That's where you're the safest. It reminds me of a little child who knows that wherever mom and dad are, that's the safe spot. Have you ever seen a small child in a store or at a family gathering bump into a set of legs, look up, and then look scared because those legs do not belong to mom or dad?

When we try and walk around thinking that we're on the right path, sometimes we realize that "whoops", those are not the right legs. We are not on the right path. That is not the path that leads us to safety!

Let's always try to seek God and seek the safety and comfort that only He can provide. While I'm doing that, you can also find me and Steve safe and sound at my parents' house for the next month.

Coleslaw: Leftover edition

Hello Crushers!

Back in this post, I mentioned that I had received a co-worker's crop share since she was out of town. We received lots of fun veggies including a cabbage. Since we made slow cooker SoCo Pulled Pork last night, I decided to make some coleslaw. Since I couldn't remember what I had used for the dressing the last time I made slaw and my phone was dead so I couldn't look it up, I made one up using some leftover dill dip. (And a run-on sentence.) The slaw was surprisingly good!

Dill and Dijon Coleslaw
Ingredients:
1 small or medium head of cabbage
4 carrots
2 small onions or one bigger onion
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup dill dip (dill to taste and equal parts mayo and sour cream)
Milk to thin out the dill dip (about 2 Tbsp)
Pepper to taste

Gear you'll need: Something to slice up the veggies like a food processor (that's what I used), a mandolin or a really sharp knife; a big bowl with a lid, a small bowl to mix the dressing and a spoon or fork.

Directions: Slice up all the veggies in thin strips and place in a big bowl. In a separate small bowl, put in the dill dip, mustard and just enough milk to make it runny. Go ahead and give it a few dashes of pepper, too. Whip that up with a fork or spoon until it's smooth. Pour the dressing over the veggies. Now you can either carefully stir that up until the veggies or well-coated or put a tightly-fitting lid on the bowl and shake it up! Shake, shake, shake... Shake, shake, shake...

Tip: Oddly enough, if you shake whatever item you need to to the refrain of "Shake your booty"  by KC and the Sunshine Band, that's almost the perfect amount of time to mix something up. Go ahead and try it with a dressing or when you need to coat something with flour or powdered sugar. Kind of like doing CPR to the beat of "Stayin' Alive" but not really. 

Anyway, once you've got the veggies all coated, they are ready to be served and enjoyed. This would be good on a sandwich or as a side dish.

Enjoy your coleslaw and a dill dip-free fridge!

Another use for leftovers!

Good morning Crushers!

I have talked about using up leftovers in previous posts here, here and here. They can be such a handy thing on a night when you don't have a lot of time to make dinner. Last night was a bit hectic. I worked late, picked up Steve to drive home and then he cut the lawn (that SO needed it) while I did a little boot camp workout and made dinner.

Since we had so much food while up north, we decided to use leftovers from Tuesday night and make a big hearty salad for dinner. A hearty salad? Yes, such a thing is possible.

First, here's what we had on Tuesday night: sweet and sour chicken tenders, broccoli and rice. Then all of the above made it on fresh romaine lettuce with tomatoes, a little cheese (we only had Romano in the house), some olives, onions, and we tossed it all together. We had some leftover garlic bread from last week, that I thought we would chop up into squares to add to the salad too, but I guess Steve ate them when I wasn't paying attention. Anyway, the salad was so good, I really didn't miss the bread.

The best part? I have lunch for today because I made so much salad!

Boo-yah! Lunch time (with yogurt, other veggies and a handful of pretzels)!

The Leftover Question

Hi Crushers!

Wisconsin, like many states in the central part of the country, got snow dumped all over the place. It's not as bad as the East Coast's storms, but it was enough to give lots of happy children (and teachers) snow days! One such teacher is my husband, Steve, who woke up early this morning to shovel and dig out my car. With the help of a neighbor, they pushed my car out of our cul de sac on to the cross street that was plowed! Thankfully, I made it into work on time for an early conference call.

I just wish I had time to finish those pancakes I was going to make him for a thank you for shoveling! No worries though, since he's the pancake master. I just got him started.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I remembered that I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer for dinner, so it was time to get creative. We had delicious pork chops on Monday night, so my first thought was to transform those into a new dish. A few weeks ago, my friend Susan asked me to address the question of what to do with leftovers. Since we rarely have them, I was a bit stumped.

Monday's dinner: Garlic Skillet Pork Chops with broccoli and couscous
What will you be?

After doing a mental search of our cupboards and fridge, I hit the Internet for inspiration. Where do I go first? Over to the Food Network where many of my kitchen crushes have recipes, of course!

Thanks to Emeril Lagasse and his guest Sam Choy, the answer to the leftover question was Sweet and Sour Pineapple Pork. I thought I could use the garlicky (yes, that's a word) cooked pork and reheat it with the sweet and sour sauce without frying it to save a few calories. Serve with some rice and steam some peapods and BAM! You've got an Emeril-approved dinner!

Unfortunately, due to a long drive home in the snow and getting to book club, I did not get a chance to make this before Steve just heated up the leftovers and ate it with some seasoned potatoes. Maybe next time?

Stuffed French Toast

Hi Crushers,


As you may have read here and here, I've started baking bread, but sometimes you just want to do something with the bread that doesn't involve making a sandwich. Since the bread you make at home doesn't have preservatives in it, you either have to freeze what you're not using or use it up before it gets moldy. We had bought some regular wheat bread at the store in case my adventures in bread making didn't work out, but since they did, we found that we had more bread than we knew what to do with.

Time to hit the recipe books! I had two problems to solve:

1. What to feed a hungry guy?
2. How to use up the bread?

The answer is Stuffed French Toast.

I recently had some friends *waves hi to Susan and Erie* ask me to do some posts on what to do with leftovers and offer some meatless meal options. While this might not totally satisfy Susan's question on leftovers, this fun breakfast-for-dinner option answers the above problems and is meatless.

So much bread!

Note: We don't usually have too many leftovers in our house, but when we do, we usually just have a leftover night and eat up what's in the fridge. If we have specific ingredients like ground beef, veggies, or something else, then those can easily be incorporated into another meal. More on that will come later this week.

Stuffed French Toast (loosely based on this Food Network recipe):
Batter Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar
6-8 half inch slices of day old bread
1 tsp butter

Filling Ingredients:
1-8 oz package of cream cheese (the low fat stuff works fine)
1 medium or large banana
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Whisk all of the batter ingredients together except for the bread and the butter. In a shallow dish, soak the bread in the batter for 30 seconds on each side. In a large frying pan, melt half of the butter. When it is hot, fry four slices of bread on each side until it is golden brown. Set those slices aside and repeat with the rest of the bread until it is all cooked. It should take about 2-4 minutes for the slices to cook.

The mix is a little lumpy, but I think it was because the bananas were still a tiny bit green.

In a medium/large bowl (I used the KitchenAid mixer), beat the filling ingredients until they are smooth. Heat the filling in the microwave or in a sauce pan on the stove so it doesn't chill your French toast. Place a piece of French toast on a plate and spoon the filling over the toast. I found it helpful to press down on the middle of the bottom slice of toast to make a little dent or pocket for the filling. Cover with a second piece of toast. If you want (and we did), spoon some more filling over the top. No need for syrup!

I made a dent in the bottom slice on the yellow plate to hold in the filling.
I forgot to do that for one the green plate, so you can see how all of the filling escaped!

 

Variations:

1. If you read the recipe that this is loosely based on, you could put half of the toast slices in the bottom of a baking dish, spoon filling over them, and then cover with the rest of the slices and bake it for about 8 minutes at 350 F. We were too hungry to mess around with baking, so we didn't.
2. I think that the next time we make this, I'm going to use half of the cheese and more banana to cut some calories and fat.