March 26, 2015
by Ashley
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Quiche Biscuit Bread Balls

I really love coming up with different breakfast options. I know this is not something that is fun for everyone, but there is something really rewarding to me. I also really like to eat something different everyday, even if it has majority of the same ingredients in it. I use up a lot of leftovers in this way.

I started working on new bread ball ideas for not only our lunches, but breakfasts as well. The kids didn’t seem to love these, but Paul & I did. A great grab and go breakfast. These could be made into muffins as well.

Quiche Biscuit Bread Balls

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup parmesan, shredded
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup diced deli ham
1/2 cup fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 tsp granulated garlic

Mix everything together. Preheat cakeball maker and put about 1 tbsp of batter into each hole. Let cook about 4 minutes until finished. I froze half and kept half ready for breakfast.

Can be baked as muffins as well. I didn’t try it, but I would put them in at 350°F for at least 15 – 20 minutes. Check to make sure the centers are done before you pull them out.

March 24, 2015
by Ashley
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Butternut Squash Soup

This winter has seemed to have lasted forever. I know it is spring now, but we just got 7 inches of snow and feel a little trapped. It would be great to take a walk, but it is only 11°F and I have four kids here today that would be REALLY cold. Oh well, kinetic sand and pretend ice cream cones for us!

I love soups while it is still cold out. Soup is comforting and so warming. A good combination for a cold winter day. This is the perfect start to a dinner or a great lunch option.

Butternut Squash Soup

2 tbsp butter
1 cup onion, diced
1 large butternut squash, about 6 cups
3 cups water
4 tsp chicken (or vegetable) stock, could use 4 cubes instead
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp cracked pepper
2 oz cream cheese

Cut butternut squash in half, length-wise. Microwave on a plate, cut side down for 10 minutes. Let sit until cool. Peel off skin, discard. Set peeled squash aside. In a large sauce pan, add diced onion and fry in butter, about 1 minute. Add butternut squash and let saute another minute. Add in water, stock and seasonings. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Transfer, carefully, into a blender (or use an immersion blender). Blend until smooth. Pour back into the pan and add cream cheese. Simmer about 5 more minutes stirring carefully to blend in cream cheese.

Based off of a recipe found on AllRecipes.

March 23, 2015
by Ashley
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Eggplant Patties with Creamy Polenta

I love these eggplant patties. I really do. Sometimes I will make these along with a pizza for my family and just top the eggplant with a little sauce, pepperoni and cheese. They turn into a little eggplant pizza. These turn out crispy and really delicious. Oh, and super this is really easy to make. Seriously, so easy.

Eggplant Patties

1 small eggplant
kosher salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Wash and cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch thick slices. Sprinkle with kosher salt and let sit for 15 – 20 minutes. Wash off the eggplant and pat dry. Dip in the milk and then breadcrumbs. Set on a oiled baking sheet. Continue with the rest of the eggplant slices. Drizzle a little olive oil on the top of the eggplant and bake for about 10 minutes. Flip and bake another 5 minutes. The eggplant should be golden brown and tender.

Serve with polenta. Paul loves polenta as an alternative to pasta and rice. I make this usually with these eggplant patties and it compliments them well. We did not make this recipe up, but this is how we like to make our polenta.

Creamy Polenta

2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup corn meal
2 tbsp butter
2 oz cream cheese

Add salt to water and bring to a boil in a large sauce pan, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the corn meal making sure there aren’t any lumps. Add in butter and turn stove down to low. Let simmer for about 10 minutes or so. Whisk in cream cheese and serve warm.

To put this dinner together, put polenta on the bottom of the plate. Arrange eggplant patties over it and cover with spaghetti sauce or cooked tomatoes. We preserve our tomatoes from our garden each year and freeze them. This is what we used that is pictured above, but sauce is great too.

March 22, 2015
by Ashley
Comments Off on Scotch Eggs

Scotch Eggs

Weekends usually mean more extravagant breakfasts. I try a little harder and we can sit a little longer to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Scotch Eggs are not a quick breakfast…but they are worth the work.

Scotch Eggs are something you don’t find everywhere. These are usually for breakfast for us, but can be served as an appetizer with different mustards. On wikipedia, they suggest that Scotch Eggs are a perfect picnic food. I hadn’t thought of this as an option before, but these will be served as a picnic item now!

We have made these quite a few times over the years. They are quite delicious. These were particularly wonderful because Paul made the breakfast sausage for them the night before, but any good breakfast sausage would work.

Edit – Dec. 2024 – I have updated our recipe according to how I make this now. Finn asks for them regularly and I typically use the pork sausage from Aldi rather than homemade. I also make more eggs and we have less sausage around them. See below for updates.

Scotch Eggs

1lb pork sausage
6 hard boiled eggs, shells removed
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Break the sausage into sixths. Pat down each sausage into a patty. Roll the hard boiled egg in flour then cover with the sausage. Try to make sure the sausage covers the entire egg evenly. Roll ball into breadcrumbs. Place on a foil or silpat lined baking sheet and repeat with the remaining eggs.

Place eggs into the preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Serve with a salad greens (spinach or Arugula) and good mustard.

March 21, 2015
by Ashley
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Broccoli & Pea Bread Balls

Having a healthy lunch is something I try to have available at all times for my kids. It is hard to get away from the regulars, and these little bread balls (or mini muffins) are perfect. I was able to incorporate greens into my kids lunches and having it be a little different than just the usual raw or cooked veggie. Both of my children seem to really like these bread balls and they are really easy to pack in a school lunch. Adding a dipping component to these with spaghetti sauce or ketchup will make them a lot more fun to eat as well. You could even spice it up a little more (crushed red pepper, paprika, pressed garlic etc) and serve them as an appetizer at your next party.

Broccoli & Pea Bread Balls

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded
1 cup broccoli, cooked and diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
1 cup milk
1 egg
3 tbsp olive oil

Mix all of the dry ingredients with the vegetables. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix everything together. Heat up cake ball maker. Spray with cooking spray and add about 1 tbsp of batter to each hole. Let cook about 4 minutes before checking to see if they are done. I usually freeze them almost immediately and take out just what I need for lunches.

If baking mini muffins, bake in a 350°F preheated oven for about 15 – 20 minutes.

March 20, 2015
by Ashley
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Homemade Pasta

Having homemade pasta is quite a treat. The kids love to help with the process and if I am not in a hurry, I like the help. Pasta is a lot easier to make than I ever thought. I started making pasta after a Cooking School class I put together for Carr Valley Cheese. I used to work as a manager and organized a couple years of their cooking school classes. Two separate chefs we hosted in the school made pasta one year and inspired me to do the same at home. I have used different recipes on occasion, but this one is our favorite.

Here is a picture of our pasta dough resting.

Homemade Pasta

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup water
2 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil

Level flour with a knife and put into a food processor. Combine the water, eggs and olive oil and slowly add to processor while pulsing. Once dough comes together, turn out onto a floured surface. Knead 5 times, wrap dough in syran wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

Start to boil salted water in a deep stock pot. While the water is heating up, you can start cutting your pasta. Decide on what you want your pasta to look like or different shapes you want to create. We like Orecchiette the best, or “little ears”. They are really easy to make and you don’t need a pasta machine to roll them out. Cut a fourth out of the dough and wrap the rest while you work so it doesn’t dry out. Roll out into a long snake of dough about 3/4 inch thick. Use a dough cutter, and cut little bits off. (Each bit should be small, a little large then dime. Each little piece you need to roll on your thumb or finger in to create the “ear” look. See below.

You will need quite a bit of flour to make sure your orecchiette doesn’t stick to each other. Once you have finished cutting all of the pasta, you are ready to cook.

Boil half of the pasta in the water and let cook until they float. About 4 minutes. Remove from boiling water with a slotted spoon and drain. Add remaining pasta to boiling water and cook.

This can be served with a variety of sauces. What is your favorite way to serve pasta?

Serves 4 people for 9 points per serving.

March 19, 2015
by Ashley
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Carrot Cake Scones

Scones are one of my families favorite breakfasts. The kids love to not only help make them, but eat them as well. I make them on the weekend, so I can serve the left overs all week for breakfast. I don’t usually frost them, because we do like to use lemon curd or jams as a topping.

I came up with this version based off of my favorite scone recipe found on the Cooking Light website. I have made many different versions and find everyone equally wonderful. I will share them all, but it may take some time. Finnegan actually suggested using carrots one morning and I went with it. What could it hurt, right? More carrots for breakfast doesn’t seem to be a bad thing. So here it is, my newest version of scones.

Carrot Cake Scones

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
6 tbsp cold butter
1 cup shredded carrots, about 2 large carrots
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup 2% milk
3 tbsp Grade B Maple Syrup

Prehead oven to 400°F.

Mix together all of dry ingredients. Slice the cold butter thinly and mix into the flour mixture. Cut butter in with a pastry cutter until butter is in small pea sized bits. Add in carrots and mix. Mix wet ingredients together before adding to the flour mixture. Stir everything really well until the batter comes together. If the batter is too dry, add a little more milk and mix using your hands to incorporate. Move quickly so you don’t melt the butter.

Cut with biscuit cutters. We like the smaller cutters to make scones that are manageable for the kids as well. You could also just cut these into a triangle shape if you don’t have biscuit cutters.

Put scones on a lined baking sheet (we use a silpat but parchment should work well too) and place into the preheated oven for 16 minutes. Check to make sure the scones don’t look wet in the middle. Bake a little longer if you need to. See above for a picture of the baked scones.

March 18, 2015
by Ashley
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Cuban Pork & Black Beans

I love my slow cooker. I know it isn’t the best way to cook things, but it is really convenient. I found this recipe in my Cooking Light last year, and have made it several times. The kids seem to really enjoy it as well, which is a bonus. I leave out the spicy component so they will eat it and Paul & I spice ours after it is cooked. I usually make this exactly as is seen here, but this time I took some shortcuts to make things go a little quicker. Both are delicious and easy.

Cuban Pork & Beans

4 lb pork shoulder, trimmed off fat
4 slices bacon, chopped
2 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 cup orange juice, from concentrate
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (stems & leaves)
1 medium orange, quartered
1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 pound dried black beans
1 1/2 cups chopped onion, divided
6 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 bay leaf

1 1/2 cups chopped tomato
1/2 cup onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat up a large saute pan on high with high sides. Cook the chopped bacon until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and reserve. Swirl the bacon fat and add in trimmed pork shoulder to brown on every side. This should take about 6 – 8 minutes.

While the meat is browning, add chicken broth, orange juice, cilantro, orange and 3/4 tsp salt & 3/4 tsp pepper to a blender and blend well. Pour liquid through a sieve and throw away the solids. Reserve the liquid.

Once meat is done browning, add into the slow cooker. Pour dried black beans around meat (you don’t need to soak or precook the beans). Check to make sure the black beans don’t have any rocks or pebbles in them. I tend to find one per bag.

Saute chopped onions and garlic for 1 minutes in the saute pan that pork shoulder was removed from. Add in oregano, paprika, cumin and bay leaf and let cook for 1 minute. Pour in the reserved orange juice mixture and bring to a boil. Pour over pork shoulder and cover. Let cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Serve with chop tomatoes, onions and cilantro. I leave these in separate serving dishes so they can be sprinkled on the top according to taste. Serve with white basmati rice.

March 17, 2015
by Ashley
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patricks Day is a holiday I really don’t know much about. Isla had a celebration in her school yesterday…or more like tricky little leprechauns visited her classroom and left it a complete mess. They turned the toilet water green, left little foot prints all over the class, turned the rice in the sencory table green, hung toilet paper from everywhere. They also dumped some toy bins all over the floor. For fun, the kids were asked to bring in a leprechaun catcher to see if they can catch one during the days celebrations.

We used a shoe box and a lot of glitter glue. Instead of just throwing the box away, I decided to leave it out last night to see if we could catch tricky little leprechauns at home too.

It didn’t work, but the leprechans did seem to find all of the green necklaces in the house. All of the green legos were built into a green rainbow (although Finnegan thought that it looked like a leprechans pants) and our crepes were turned green.

All in good fun! Isla was a little hesitant about eating the crepes, but finally tried them. Finnegan told me that he knows it was me that did everything. I just smiled and said “Isn’t this fun?” He decided it was fun, and went along with it.

Have a great St. Patricks Day! Is there anything special you do or have done when you were a kid?

March 16, 2015
by Ashley
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Homemade Yogurt

Homemade yogurt is something we started to do in 2009. I actually bought this yogurt maker for Paul as a Christmas gift, and I don’t think he has touched it. But I sure have made a lot of yogurt for us!

Above I have cleaned and sanitized the jars. This is an easy and necessary step to get a good, clean yogurt.

This is not our own recipe, but this is how we make our yogurt.

Homemade Yogurt

42oz 2% milk
1 tbsp store bought yogurt

Pour the milk into a sauce pan and heat up until bubbling on the sides, right before it boils. It should be 180°F if you check the temperature. Let the milk sit until it comes down to 100°F – 110°F. Whisk in 1 tbsp store bought yogurt. I like LaYogurt lowfat plain yogurt and it seems to work well for me. Once whisked well, pour into a container that has a spout for easy pouring. I like the plastic mixing bowl seen above. Pour the yogurt mixture into cleaned yogurt jars and cover with the top. Let sit in machine for 9 – 12 hours. I make mine over night a lot of times. Put plastic tops on them and put into the fridge for at least 3 hours to cool before eating.

Great will some jams or jellies. Also wonderful with some honey drizzled over the top.

If you like greek yogurt, you can easily do this with this yogurt as well.