muesli

My Dad served an LDS mission in Germany. Some nights my Dad would whip some of this up and we would have it with a little toast for dinner. My kids are not picky eaters but they snub oatmeal. This though they gobbled right up (anything is better with yogurt, right?). This was a healthy comfort food night for me :)

Muesli

fruit of your choosing (I used banana, plum, nectarine, blueberries, strawberries, and grapes)

Yogurt for a sauce (I use the low sugar yogurt which Keaton doesn't usually like but in this, he was good)

whole rolled oats

Mix and serve soon.

Tomatos!

I just Couldn't wait until my tomato's are in! We ran out of our supply of diced tomato's a couple months ago and the store bought ones just don't do it. When our produce co-op had 20 pounds of tomato's for 7 bucks I grabbed 2! Lee and I processed the 40 pounds of tomato's in about 2 hours. Many people have asked how we do it so....

(sorry this is so BLURRY!)

First I put an x on the bottom of each tomato.

We then drop them in boiling water for about a minute until they start looking like this. The peel then just falls off! I have read other people that then put them in ice water to stop the cooking. I myself hate an extra step. We use the tomato's in soups and sauces so I don't see the big deal if they are partially cooked.

We then dice them up and put them in ziptop bags in the freezer. We LOVE the fresh taste this produces. We also have put them in canning jars and boiled the jars for 15 minutes. They are great that way too!
****My friend Lisa's Mom suggested just throwing the whole tomato in the freezer. When you are ready to go let it defrost a moment then squeeze the pulp out. This works too, just a little more messy and bigger chunks then we prefer.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

The other night I had one of those: what do I make for dinner with all these odds and ends moments. I came up with these Chicken lettuce wraps and they were divine if I do say so myself. This is SUCH a healthy meal for your family. TONS of vegetables (8 were in mine shown above). Here you go:



1 1/2 pounds chicken

1/2 of an onion grated on a box grater (this makes you just have the flavor without the texture problems many kids have)

3 cloves of garlic grated on a box grater (you already have it out, this makes it SO easy!)

2" of fresh ginger (you probably guessed, grate that up too after you peel it)


1 cup thinly sliced celery

1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup (or to taste) Yoshida's or Teriyaki sauce (I highly recommend Yoshidas although it is higher in sugar...I AM trying here)

beansprouts, red pepper, carrot, cucumber for toppings

large leaf lettuce

Slice chicken up pretty thin (if you do not thaw it all the way it is much easier). Heat skillet with about a tsp of olive oil. Give the onion garlic and ginger a little spin in there (maybe a minute or so). Add the chicken and celery and cook until the chicken is no longer pink. Add the mushrooms and stir fry the whole lot of it until the mushrooms start getting soft. Add the Yoshida sauce and let simmer for about 5 minutes while you prepare the toppings. I think it is fun to make "ribbons" to go on top. I use my potato peeler to "peel ribbons" off the red pepper, cucumber and carrots.

Apples, Apples, Apples....

I think I need to start this post by saying all apples are not created equally. Every week we get a set of apples from our produce co-op. Some are lovely ones, perfect for eating (have you had an American Cameo apple?!?!)....others not so good. So, after a couple of weeks we find ourselves with a drawer of the not so good apples.
Tonight I had my drawer pretty full so I went to work. First we made my friend Lori's apple chips. EASY SQUEEZY! I used my handy dandy peeler, corer, slicer (please note it is MY slicer but LEE is always the operator :). I peeled and cored the apples then I boiled them in some white grape juice from last season I had in the freezer (Lori just uses apple juice). I left them in the boiling juice for just a couple minutes until they were tender. Then just spread them out on a cooling rack set over a sheet pan. Her directions said to cook at 250 for 20 minutes until brown and crisp. Mine took 40 minutes, maybe mine were thicker? They also never actually crisped but tasted like a really good dried apple.
*I sprinkled a little cinnamon on before I threw them in the oven.

With the rest of the apples I did a big batch of Apple sauce to throw in the freezer. Last time I did apple sauce it was flavorless and the kids wouldn't eat it (and my kids eat anything). I ended up making it into apple butter. My Mother-in-law suggested adding cinnamon and sugar. I am sure that would work but we are trying to eliminate sugar where we can. This time I sliced, and peeled the apples (Lee again) then boiled them in the white grape juice. I then put them through the food processor with some of the juice. So sweet, so yum! Much better then tree top. I will let it cool then put it in quart ziplocs to freeze ( you can bottle it if you want).

Roasted Butternut Squash

I am not a butternut squash fan. When we were kids my Great Grandma would watch us. We loved her house and had a great time. She served us butternut squash and potato's everytime we came. I loved them there but for some reason not anywhere else (dog on kids) UNTIL NOW! We got 2 butternut squashes in our produce basket last week and I was determined to not let them go to waste. I found a recipe by Ina Garten where she roasts them. EVERYTHING tastes better roasted SO...I gave it a try. Her recipe calls for 1/2 cup brown sugar and a stick of butter. I cut that in 1/2 and it was perfect. I think the full amount would have been sickly sweet (please note I did give up sugar but I still occasionally put a small amount in recipes).

Roasted Butternut Squash

2 large butternut squashes (peel them with a potato peeler and then cube them about 1/2 to 1 inch cubes....OR buy the Costco ones that are already done!).

1/4 cup of butter melted (I think next time I will try Olive Oil, let me know if you do!)

2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp pepper (I used a pretty rough cracked pepper in the photo)

Mix together everything but the squash. Add the squash and coat well. Place on cookie sheet lined with Silpat or foil. Bake for 50-60 minutes turning once at 1/2 hour.

Grill party!

Lee and I have been trying to really up the fruits and veggies we eat. We are also trying to cut out sugar and flour for the most part (me more then Lee on that part). The other night I grilled our whole dinner (I had some frozen cooked brown rice that I warmed in the micro but no one really touched it). Here is what we did:

Lee had caught 21 TROUT with his brothers. I never really knew how to cook it. Lee's brother Andy said he soaks it in teriyaki for a couple of hours. He then cuts it open flat and grills it on foil for about 10 minutes. It was FABULOUS!

We also grilled CORN (my favorite) we used THIS link for great directions. Try it, you won't turn back.

We got TWENTY baby bok choy from THIS produce co-op this week. We used this great grilling recipe. They turned out really yummy.

Lastly, I had some MUSHROOMS that needed to be used. I took about 2 oz of cream cheese, 2 TBSP of chopped green onions, 3 mushroom stems finely diced, and about 2 oz. cheese. I mixed it all up well and stuffed the mushrooms. I then grilled them. Oh, they were good.

As you can plainly see there were tons of extras. Next time we need to invite the neighborhood. Gotta love all the fresh produce of summer!