Sunday, January 4, 2015

Memere's Bran Bread

12 oz bran cereal
5 cups flour (600g)
2.5 cups white sugar (496g)
5 teaspoons baking soda
4 beaten eggs
1 cup of oil
1 quart of buttermilk

  • Preheat over to 350
  • Put cereal in milk in a bowl.Allow to soften
  • In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and baking soda
  • In a separate bowl, mix the beaten eggs with the oil
  • Once cereal is soft, mix 3 bowls together 
  • Grease and flour 4 bread pans
  • Evenly divide mix into the 4 pans
  • Cook for 40/45 minutes, check at 35 minutes
  • Cool completely on cooling rack
* Need to try with adding raisins.

Banana bread

3 very ripe bananas, peeled
1/3 cup melted butter
2/3 cup of sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C), and butter/crisco and flour a loaf pan

In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until smooth. Stir the melted butter into the mashed bananas.

Mix in the baking soda and salt. Stir in the sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes (check at 50 minutes) at 350°F, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool completely on a rack. Remove the banana bread from the pan. Slice and serve.

Original recipe: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Turkey Barley soup

8 cups turkey broth  ** homemade is best
1.5 cups diced celery  ** about 2.5 large celery stalks
3/4 cup medium pearl barley  ** Original recipe said full cup
1 medium onion, diced
3/4 cup diced carrots  ** about 2 medium carrot
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf  ** I used bay leaf flecks
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 cups cubed cooked turkey
1 cup frozen small peas  ** Not in original recipe


Combine everything except turkey in large pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes or until vegetables and barley are tender. 
Add turkey and frozen peas. Turn heat to low for 10 minutes.


Original recipe: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/barley-turkey-soup

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Beef & Barley soup (mom's)

Beef & Barley soup (mom's)

1.5/1.75 chuck steak with bone  (1740/2030 calories)
0.75 lbs turnip (1/4 of a small one) - Cut up into half the size of a cube of sugar  (26 calories)
0.4 lbs onion (~2 small) - Cut up ~ half the size of stir fry size
1/2 cup pearl barley
2 cups cabbage (1/4 a small one) - Shaved then cut in half like making cole slaw
0.5 lbs carrots - Cut up into stew size bites
0.5 lbs green beans - Cut up into stew size bites
2 stalks celery - Cut up a little smaller than stew size bites
16 oz beef broth - low/no sodium. This can be replaced with water + bouillon cubes


- Wash meat and cut into thirds. Add to deep pan, adding water to cover meat
- Put on stove on high. Once boiling, cover and turn to low. Cook for 1-1.5 hrs
- Add turnip. Cook for 0.5-1 hours
- Add onion. Cook for 0.5 hours
- Take out meat and put aside to cool
- Add barley. Put temp back to high
- Add cabbage, carrots, beans.
- Once boiling, turn down temp to med/low
- Cook for 20-25 minutes. Check barley, add time if needed
- Shred beef with hands.
- Once barley is cooked, add celery and meat.
- Add broth enough to cover everything in liquid.
- Turn temp to high, cover.
- Once boiling, turn to medium and cook for 10 minutes.
- Taste. Add more broth or salt if needed

* This recipe is 1/2 of the original recipe, which is approximately 6 servings.
** This can be a time consuming meal, as the cook time is a minimum of 3 hours. All of the food prep can be done while the meat is cooking.

** Made without onion, and quinoa instead of barley. Onion made no difference, slight taste change due to the lack of barley. Needed a little salt instead.
** Calorie count for double ingredients, no onion, and quinoa instead of barley - ~5200. Meat accounted for 76% and the quinoa was 12%. Better cut of meat cuts down on calories but also affects stock.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Chicken and Rice Soup

Chicken and Rice Soup
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices
2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
4 fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
2 quarts chicken stock or broth (we use low sodium)
1 cup of water
1 cup long grain white rice
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Place a soup pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaf. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. Pour in the chicken broth and water- bring the liquid to a boil. Add in the rice and chicken; season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium-low until the rice is tender-about 30 minutes. Serve hot.

*Note-for the shredded chicken I used 2 large chicken breasts. I boiled a pot of water on the stove and added in the chicken-which I cut into large pieces. Boil the chicken until it is cooked all the way through and there is no pink left. This will take about 7 minutes or so. Drain the water and shred the chicken once it is cooled. I use 2 forks to shred the chicken. *

From: http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/easy-chicken-and-rice-soup-recipe/

Friday, August 1, 2014

Guacamole

The ingredients below are per Avocado


1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons salsa
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon lime juice
Small amount chopped red onion

Cut up garlic into smallish pieces.
Add garlic and salt to pestle. Mash up
Cut up avocado, add to bowl
Add salsa and garlic/salt to bowl
Mash together
Taste. If you can't taste the avocado much, add a bit of salt. If it's a little flat, dribble a little juice in. If it's not spicy enough, add a little salsa. Try more garlic to see how that changes it.
Add red onion and mix up


To avoid browning
- Add to a bowl.
- Compress to get out any large air pockets
- Cover with 1/2 inch of water.
- Cover and put in fridge
- Prior to serving, remove from fridge and drain water
- Mix up and serve.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Honey mustard Turkey Tips

Defrost and cut up Turkey tenderloin
Cover in a mixture of olive oil and italian dressing. Not a lot of Italian
Sautee in honey mustard dipping sauce and honey mustard dressing. Cook for short time, until lightly browned
Finish in oven, ~15-20 minutes