Does it "pay" to make baby food?

According to Consumer Reports, certain fruits and vegetables have been found to retain pesticides even after cleaning and washing. These fruits and veggies are important to buy organic.

At the regular grocery, Gerber or Earth's Best Organic fruits and veggies run 1.29-1.79 per 2 4 oz containers.

I made organic sweet potatoes, squash, carrots and portioned out some canned organic pumpkin puree - in total I got 25 4 oz containers.

If you do the math, this results in at least 5 dollars savings over Gerber Organic at the lowest sale price. This savings might be even better if I hadn't bought the vegetables at Whole Foods - they are notoriously expensive!

Sunday - cooking day!

I purposely planned a light pre-prep week for myself and it sure did pay off. After only an hour or two in the kitchen, the husband and I had made 1 and a half Chicken Tamale Casseroles and 1 and a half Canadian Living's Macaroni and Cheese with Ham and Cauliflower (recipes below). I am making the lasagnas tonight, one to freeze and one to cook in a few days. The chili will be put together in the crockpot the morning that we plan to eat it.

Using Sunday as cooking/prep day works out REALLY WELL for our family because the baby crawls around getting into things (this time it was the poor dog who was chased around the kitchen nonstop) and making trouble (I left a bag of cans from the grocery store on the floor, nuff said!). She tires herself out completely and then gets a bath, bottle and bed by 7:00PM. Mommy and Daddy are able to collapse on the couch by 7:30PM. Ahhhh, that relaxation time is so important! We are watching Willy Wonka right now.

Chicken Tamale Casserole
This is a Cooking Light recipe, image borrowed from the linked site. Yields 8 servings, my modifications are in [ ]. We made 1 as the recipe suggests, and another 1/2 recipe in an 8x8 pan.
*****This was excellent. It will go on regular rotation. The sweetness of the corn, the spiciness of the chicken with salsa and taco seasoning, everything about it was good. The only "problem" was that we wanted to eat more of it than we should have.

Ingredients:
1 cup pre-shredded 4 cheese mexican blend
1/3 cup skim milk
1/4 cup egg substitute [I used 1 real egg, didn't have substitute on hand]
1 tsp cumin [we love cumin, I added a tbl]
1/8 tsp ground red pepper [I added a tbl of smoked paprika]
1 can creamed corn
1 (8.5 oz) package corn bread mix [I used JIFFY]

1 (4 oz) can green chilies
1 can red enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded chicken breast
1/2 cup FF sour cream [we omitted this because we forgot and it was still great]
[I added 1/2 cup medium salsa, 2 tbl taco seasoning and 1/2 sauteed onion to the chicken because I've found plain shredded chicken to be bland in the past!]

Instructions:
Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

Combine 1/4 cup of the cheese and the first 7 ingredients in a medium bowl, whisk to combine. Pour mixture into a 9x13 pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until set.

Pierce the cake surface with a fork repeatedly and pour over the can of enchilada sauce.

Top with the chicken mixture, sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake for 15-20 mins or until brown and bubbly.


Canadian Living's Macaroni and Cheese with Ham and Cauliflower
Taken from Recipe Zaar (recipe # 92795)
Yields a large casserole dish with 4 big servings and another smaller side-dish portion for freezing.
*****We have made this twice now and both times it was awesome! Freezes and thaws well, too. Freeze without the bread crumbs.

2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 cup diced cooked ham
1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/16 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 1/2 cups shredded old cheddar cheese
3 cups uncooked macaroni
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

• 
  

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; saute onion and ham until onion is soft. Simultaneously, steam the cauliflower until fork tender. Add flour and cook, stirring until well mixed. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly, until mixture starts to thicken. Add mustard, salt, pepper and cayenne. Stir in cheddar cheese until just melted. While making sauce, cook macaroni in a separate pot, until tender but firm. Drain and put back into pot. Combine with sauce, then pour into a 2 litre baking dish or casserole dish. In a small bowl combine parmesan and bread crumbs. Sprinkle over macaroni mixture. Broil for about 3 minutes, until brown.

Planning and Lists Day!

We are all out of homemade baby food. And the fridge and freezer are empty (we ate the last frozen "Deep Dish Pizza Casserole" on Thursday)! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!

This weekend I will make:

Sweet potato and raisin muffins using the nice organic steamed sweet potatoes that I made for the baby - she hated them! They are a special variety of WHITE sweet potatoes and are a bit more starchy than the orange sweet potatoes and I guess that was not acceptable to her!

Orange-colored sweet potato puree (I did 2 large sweet potatoes and got an absolute TON of food!)
Butternut squash and carrot Puree
Carrot puree
Mango puree (already have cubed frozen mangoes, just need to puree)

Traditional Italian Lasagna with spinach (with an extra to freeze)
Ham and Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
Tofu Stir Fry
Hard Times Cincinnati Chili
Chicken Tamale Casserole

I'm back! Let's talk Turkey.

I took last week off from Once A Week Cooking because of Thanksgiving - I had so much preparation to do! I had the in laws over for the holiday meal and now I have a big bowl of leftover turkey in the refrigerator. Since I have a weird thing about poultry - it takes gross to me as a leftover - I have to spice it up good to eat it again. This week we will make the following Turkey dishes:

For Monday and Tuesday:
Rachel Ray's Turkey Corn Chili (I use the crockpot here)
Bombay Turkey Curry with garbanzo beans and potatoes

For Wednesday and Thursday:
Pastitio - this is a recipe I've already used, see it here
Salad with chicken nuggets

Rachel Ray's Turkey Corn Chili
Taken from The Food Network
I make this in the crockpot - basically throw all of the ingredients in! But I've provided the original recipe here.
***This is really nothing special. We are kinda bored with it but it is a good way to use leftover chicken or turkey.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon (1 turn around the pan in a slow stream) extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 large bell pepper, red or green, chopped (use up leftover pepper strips from crudite tray if you have them)
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
• 1 1/2 pounds light and dark meat cooked turkey meat, diced
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons (a palm full) chili powder
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons (a palm full) ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon to 2 teaspoons (several drops) cayenne pepper sauce
• Coarse salt
• 2 cups frozen corn kernels or leftover prepared corn
• 1 (32-ounce) can chunky style crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups prepared chicken stock or broth, paper container or canned
• 2 scallions, white and greens, chopped

Directions

Heat a deep pot over medium high heat. Work close to the stove for your chopping. Add oil to your pot, 1 turn of the pan, and add vegetables as you chop them.

Add bay leaf and cook vegetables 5 minutes, stirring frequently, reducing heat if veggies start to stick. Stir in diced turkey meat and season with chili powder, cumin, and cayenne sauce. Season with a little salt, to taste. Add corn, tomatoes, and broth. Combine your chili well, adjust seasonings, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for 7 to 10 minutes. Garnish chili with chopped scallions.

Bombay Turkey Curry

Taken from recipe zaar recipe 123104

*****This marinade is incredible and we have now used it on both chicken breasts and leftover turkey with flawless results. YUM.

* 1/4 cup EVOO
* 2tbl mustard
* 1/4 cup honey
* 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
* 1 teaspoon chili powder
* 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
* 1 tbl curry powder
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 1 tbl garam masala
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* Leftover turkey, 2 cups

Marinate the turkey in all of the above.

Cook with potatoes, chick peas, serve over brown rice.

A great recipe I have rediscovered

Right before my baby was born, we saw this recipe on Giada DiLaurentiis's show "Everyday Italian." We tried it - it is FABULOUS. It's not awful for you and it is such a yummy breakfast. We made it a few times while I was on maternity leave and have made it a few times since. I hope you enjoy it as we do! I stole the photo from the Food Network Website, I hope they don't mind.



Berry Strata
from: The Food Network
Serves 4
*****We make this quite regularly. The tartness of the berries combined with the creamy ricotta and bread is wonderful.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons honey
4 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup orange juice
4 slices of bread, torn into 1-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
1 (10-ounce) bag frozen mixed berries, thawed and drained

Directions

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Turn off the heat, add the honey, and stir to combine.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine the eggs, ricotta, and sugar. Using a fork, mix to combine and beat the eggs. Add the milk, orange juice, butter and honey mixture, and bread. Stir to combine. Gently fold in the berries. Place the ingredients in a 10-inch round (2-quart) baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 12 hours. [I make this the night before we will eat it]

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the strata until golden on top and baked through, about 40 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon into dishes and serve.

Tuesday: Chili and Mac and Cheese

They don't seem to go together, do they? You're right. That's because I had White Chicken Chili for lunch and Mac and Cheese with chicken burgers for dinner.

The white chicken chili was great this time - I used chicken thighs instead of breasts. It adds a flavor that is hard to describe but is yum. I had to cook it for many hours in the crock, because I did not pre-cook the beans at all. I highly recommend using dried beans in this recipe as I think it would be way too wet otherwise. Don't forget to rehydrate overnight before use. I made my changes to the recipe linked above.

Jaime's Grandmother's Mac and Cheese

Taken from and linked to Jaime's Kitchen.
*****This could easily be beefed up with some veggies to make it even better. As is, it is tasty and not as bad for you as you might expect. I got 7 servings out of it. I can honestly say that I will never eat boxed mac n cheese again.

Ingredients: 2 cups elbow macaroni (regular or whole wheat) 2 Tb reduced-fat butter or margarine 1 Tb flour 2 cups skim milk ½ lb (2 cups or 8 oz) shredded Kraft 2% Sharp Cheddar or Sargento Reduced-Fat Mild Cheddar ½ of a small onion, grated or finely chopped 1 tsp salt 1/3 cup breadcrumbs

Directions:
Cook macaroni, drain, and set aside.

Jaime's instructions:
Melt butter or margarine in saucepan. Add onion, flour and then milk. Add salt. (Don't forget the salt!) Heat on medium-high while stirring constantly. When mixture is at a rolling boil, add ¾ of the cheese. (save the other ¼ for the top.) I recommend adding the cheese a little bit at a time so it melts nice and soft. Also be sure to keep mixture at rolling boil while adding cheese or it may not melt correctly.

How I did it:

I basically made a Roux. I cooked the onion in butter until it became soft and translucent. Then added the flour and browned a bit before adding the milk, SLOWLY in about 1/2 cup increments. Bring to a boil between additions of milk. The mixture thickened on it's own while stirring, and then I added the cheese in 1/3 cup increments or so until fully melted.

Jaime's instructions to finish up:
Put macaroni in large bowl or casserole dish. (I use a 2L round glass dish.) Pour cheese sauce over mixture; stir. Top with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake uncovered in 400º oven for 35-40 minutes.

Sunday - prep day again. .

It's Sunday so you all know what I did today. Grocery shopping and cooking! (and cleaning and playing with my baby, etc, etc)

Today I made the White Chicken Chili (still cooking because the beans take forever to cook when you use dry beans), Southwestern Pinto Beans, Deep Dish Pizza Casserole (see below, this is just a variation on Bubble Up Pizza Casserole which I had planned) and RF Macaroni and Cheese.

I realized I have plans tomorrow night for dinner so I didn't need one of the recipes. The Greek Goulash got the ax, but I still have all of the ingredients so maybe I will make it later in the week for Friday or Saturday.

I'm exhausted.


Deep Dish Pizza Casserole
This recipe is supposed to be made in a 9x13 pan and cut into 6 servings (7 WW pts each). I bought a pizza crust that had "10% more for free" so it was larger than I needed. I decided to make it into two meals. I used two 8x8 pans and froze one, and cut the one we ate tonight into 4 pieces, leaving some for lunch.
**** This was good - the husband gave mad props. ha ha.

For both meals:
3/4lb ground turkey
3/4lb TVP (search this blog for TVP for more info)
2 packages button mushrooms, sliced
32 slices pepperoni (I used regular because I couldn't find turkey), sliced
16oz Classico tomato sauce;
1 (10 oz) can refrigerated pizza crust dough - mine was "10% more free" so a bit larger
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese;
Cooking Spray
3 cloves garlic
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 tsp basil
1 tsp italian seasoning

1. Preheat over to 425.
2. Cook meat with onion, mushrooms, garlic, spices in nonstick skillet on med-high heat until browned. Stir until crumbled. Drain, return to skillet, add tomato sauce & cook until heated.
3. While meat cooks, coat a 13 x 9 baking dish with cooking spray. unroll pizza dough into it & press halfway up sides. Top bottom of crust with meat mixture. [Since I used two pans, I just cut the crust in half]
4. Stir in the TVP and pepperoni.
5. Bake uncovered at 425 for 12-15 min. Cool 5 min. before serving.