No time and no bread lunchmeat broccoli bowl

I moved back to school this week, which means I haven’t done much cooking. I have been living off of turkey sandwiches and skinny pop.

However, today, I went to make my turkey sandwich, and realized I had no bread. I also realized I really wanted something hot for dinner. Last night, I griddled my sandwich, but without cheese or mayo, it didn’t stay hot for long and was really just dry. So, I wanted a hot meal take two.

I had some frozen veggies in the freezer, some ranch dressing I needed to use up before it spoiled, and a stolen packet of hot sauce from taco bell. This idea came to mind, and after eating it, I realized it was actually pretty yummy and pretty clever!

It’s also way healthier than most college sophomores are able to eat, took 2 minutes to make, and it’s so easy I’m not even going to list it as a recipe, more like a prose of instructions. So, if you’re back to school and have no time and no food in the pantry, here you go!

Simply take a bowl and fill it halfway with COOKED VEGGIES OF CHOICE, then shred some LUNCH MEAT and put on top. Top it with a handful of CHEESE, shredded or a slice, then microwave for 45 seconds. Drizzle the top with RANCH, TACO SAUCE, and some salt and pepper. It’s not exactly gourmet, but it worked for me. It’s kind of like a healthy nacho recipe.

Well, kind of.

Happy back to school, everyone.

Cheesy Ritzy Squash Casserole

My little Episcopal Church did a really cool fundraiser a few years ago: everyone sent in their favorite home recipes, and turned them into a compilation cookbook! It is full of the really easy meals that people actually make every day.

This recipe came straight from that cookbook, but it was my own mother who submitted it, so it’s been part of my family for years before the book came out.

Squash casserole happens to be my boyfriend’s favorite food, so, after he spent 3 hours loading my dad’s truck for my moving back to college, I knew it was just the thing for a reward dinner. It can totally be an entree, but on the side of steak, it’s unbeatable!

It’s cheesy, buttery, and covered in crumbled ritz crackers. It’s a winner, and it’s so easy, there’s no reason not to try it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 summer squash, sliced to about 1/2 inch thickness
• 2 cups of Velveeta cheese loaf (that’s right- you know you love it, don’t act like you’re above this stuff)
• 2 cups ritz crackers, crushed
• 1 stick margarine

Preheat the oven to 375 and grease a 9×13 casserole dish

Layer the squash and cheese, one on top of the other, until the dish is full.
Melt the margarine in the microwave and stir in the ritz crackers. Top the casserole!

Bake 35-45 minutes! Go ahead- indulge.

Coconut Peanut Butter Balls

My darling grandmother is mostly bedridden, so cooking for herself is usually out of the question. During the week, she gets meals on wheels, but on the weekends, my mother and I like to keep her fed!

She has a sensitive tummy, so rich things like meat and cheese don’t really work for her. She also only eats a few bites at once, so taking her something like a scrambled egg would go to waste. So, I wrote this recipe to get her some protein in just a couple bites, without making her sick. She can just grab one of these out of the fridge every couple hours, and we know she’s getting something that will keep her strong.

But, these are not designed just for elderly people with sensitive tummies! These are a delicious treat, perfect for a no-cook snack or dessert, or even breakfast! Kids will gobble them down by the handful, and you can just make a big batch and keep them in the fridge all week for lunchboxes/ after school!

The best part? They’re the perfect cross between candy and energy bites. They’re sweet and creamy, but also full of nutrition. Just eating one makes me feel like a kid with my peanut butter sandwich at school.

You may want to double or triple this quantities 🙂

Ingredients (makes approx. 8 balls)

• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut, plus more for rolling

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and stir until combined. Using a tablespoon, scoop out the dough and roll into small balls. Roll in the additional coconut until coated, and serve!

 

Cheap and Easy Chinese Chicken Salad

My love for this salad is very out of character. I love salad, but usually I want one with a million ingredients. I want cheese, nuts, fruits, several greens, meat, croutons, herbs, etc.

This salad does not have many of those things, and yet, for some strange reason, my family and myself can never get enough of it! It’s made with the cheapest lettuce in the store and like 3 other things, yet is so flavorful we never have leftovers!

The secret must be in the dressing. It’s all simple ingredients, it’s no-cook, but the way it hits your tongue is always surprising. Like, I’m looking at this brown dressing and this bowl of iceberg, wondering why I chose this salad, and then I take a bite and end up wondering why I don’t make this every day!

Try it yourself! It’ll shock you.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 head iceberg lettuce
• 6 green onions
• 4 cooked, shredded chicken breasts
• 10-15 refrigerated wontons
• peanut oil, for frying

The dressing:

• 6 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of accent
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 6 tablespoons rice vinegar

To prepare, heat a few inches of peanut oil in a cast iron skillet. Throw in a tiny chunk of wonton to check if the oil is hot enough. It should turn brown within a minute, but not black. Once ready, fry the wontons in batches, removing them when they hit a deep golden brown. Drain on a paper towel while you do the rest!

Combine all the other salad ingredients in a bowl and toss. Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Dress the salad to your liking, then crumble up the fried wonton strips right on top.

I know it looks boring, but once you taste it, you’ll never go back!

Pumpkin Soup with popcorn!

Ahhh fall is in the air, here in Arkansas, and it is a glorious thing indeed.

Fall is by far my favorite season of the year. It’s cool, but not freezing outside. There are no snow storms or spring showers. The leaves turn to beautiful colors, but don’t die. Pumpkins, corn, and apples come in season, and everyone starts to prepare for the upcoming holiday months.

Yes, nothing quite gets me like a crisp fall breeze hitting my cardigan while I smell Oak in the air and drink my favorite beverage of all time, apple cider.

Because I love fall so, so much, I stretch it out as long as possible and do every possible fall activity in the book. Halloween parties, pumpkin patches, apple picking, corn mazes, trunk or treats, trick or treating, fall movies, hikes, camping trips, the works!

And, of course, LOTS of fall cooking! Pumpkin cookies, bread pudding, apple crisp, caramel apples, bratwurst, corn, and LOTS of hot drinks.

So, this pumpkin soup is a great part of my fall menus. It absolutely tastes like October, it’s a gorgeous color, and it’s a very light, healthy meal to have before a rich fall dessert, or as a side dish to a big hunk of fall pot roast.

It’s also optionally vegetarian (depending on what stock you use) and super low fat and low carb. It’s a guilt free meal that feels like a warm, fall comfort food.
Here you go:

Ingredients (4 large bowls):

• 4 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 very large white onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 2 cups popped plain popcorn
• 4 cups chicken stock or veggie stock
• 4 tablespoons plain greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup (really just a good splash) of milk
• popcorn, pumpkin seeds, hot sauce for garnish

Heat the butter in a large soup pot, then add the onion. Saute until very tender, almost caramelized. Add the garlic, ginger, curry, and cumin, and cook until smelly, like 2 minutes.

Add the popcorn and toss around to coat it in the butter and seasonings. It’ll start to turn to mush, and that’s great.

Add the chicken stock, pumpkin, yogurt, and milk. Stir until the yogurt dissolves. Simmer for 10 minutes, until the popcorn is pretty much gone and the soup is nice and hot.

In batches, puree it all in a food processor! Remember, hot liquids expand, so only fill it like halfway. Combine all the pureed batches in a big bowl, and taste it for seasoning. You may want a hit of salt, if the pumpkin is too sweet for you.

Garnish with the popcorn, seeds, and hot sauce. Fall in a bowl! What’s for dessert?

Cloud Bread that actually works

Lately, Pinterest has been totally blowing up with recipes for “cloud bread.” This is a grain free bread substitute made from baked meringue and cream cheese.

To be honest, I was skeptical. For one, while I do pay attention to carbs, I am a big proponent of the idea that your body NEEDS grain to function. Carbs are energy. Americans just tend to eat more than their body needs. But, in general, I do not much care for bread substitutes when a whole grain bread is very GOOD FOR YOU and NOT SOMETHING TO CONSIDER A SPLURGE!

However, when I have already had my daily carb requirement, then it makes sense to find a substitute, and that’s where I feel justified doing zoodles, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, etc.

However, I was still skeptical. I have baked meringues many times, and the texture is not at all like bread. Spreading butter on it would not only be gross, it would probably break. Could a couple ounces of cream cheese really stabilize it that much?

Well, I decided to try it. I figured if it failed, I could pull out the whole grain bread instead.
Turns out: THIS RECIPE WORKS! CLOUD BREAD IS DELICIOUS!

That’s right! It has a very light, biscuit-like texture, that is delicious spread with butter, but so rich you don’t even need it. It holds its shape, it makes a great bread for a lunch meat sandwich, and it doesn’t even taste like eggs! It tastes like a light, flaky bread.

I won’t pretend to understand why it works, but it does. It actually works, and I will never be skeptical again!

You HAVE to try it

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 eggs, seperated
• 1/2 tsp cream of tarter
• 2 oz cream cheese
• parchment paper is essential, so I’m listing it here for your grocery list, just in case.

Preheat the oven to 300′.
Beat the egg whites with the cream of tarter until super firm and fluffy. Like, when you take out the beater, it should totally hold its shape.

Beat the egg yolks and the cream cheese until totally combined. No white streaks here. At this point, you could add garlic powder, Italian seasoning, some sugar, etc, if you want it to be flavored. I did not, because I want to be able to use it for sweet and savory things.

Using a large spatula, gently fold the whites into the yolk mixture. Go super slow here. You just want it to have very few yellow streaks, but still be super fluffy.

Use a 1/4 cup measure to make rounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes until gold on top. It should not jiggle. Let cool for a few minutes, then remove from the baking sheet. You can eat these hot or let them sit out. They get slightly denser and more bread-like at room temp, so that’s my recommendation.

Surprise surprise! Cloud bread works!

Caramel Apple Bar

I love fall. I know it’s only August, but I like to stretch the season as long as possible. Additionally, I go to college out-of-state, so I do not get to spend most of fall with my loved ones at home.

Therefore, I decided it was time to celebrate fall with no fear of judgement.

So, fall flavors consist of what? Pumpkin, caramel apple, toasted pumpkin seeds, and savory spices like sage and thyme. I did not necessarily have time to pull off a sage roasted chicken, so I stuck with the sweet things.

I made a batch of pumpkin milk (recipe in another post), and toasted some pumpkin seeds at 375′ for 7 minutes after tossing in oil and garlic salt.

For the caramel apples, I set up a full toppings bar.

HOW TO:

First, I sliced up several different kinds of apples. I used tart granny smith, gala, and honey crisp.

Then, you need caramel fruit dip. I just bought mine in the produce section at the grocery.

Toppings time! I used, though you don’t have to be like me:
Apple Pie spice mixed with Sugar
Crushed graham cracker
Peanut butter ice cream topping
Crushed butterfinger
crushed heath toffee
white chocolate chips
crushed cookies & cream bar
raisins (sounds weird, but actually ended up my favorite!)
crushed pretzels
salted roasted peanuts
mini marshmallows
diced candy corn (that’s right! You’ll need to use a pairing knife)

I displayed everything in a cupcake pan! We all ate WAY too much, and it was glorious.

This would also be fun as an ice cream sundae toppings bar or pancake/waffle toppings bar. Make some pumpkin waffles or buy cinnamon ice cream and it’s an even richer fall party!

Eat up!

Pumpkin Milk (NOT milkshake)

Pumpkin Pie is a must-have in my house every thanksgiving. However, we make so many kinds of pies, we usually only make a small 8 inch of each flavor. Which means, we are left with leftover pie filling after loading up the crust!

All my life, the extra pie filling ended up in a blender and turned into a lovely smoothie-like treat. This was made with homemade pie filling, and therefore seemed like too much work to justify making a batch just to put in a blender. So, alas, I only ever had it when we were already making a pie.

For some strange reason, it never occurred to me that I can make pretty much the same thing without having to make a pie. What’s great about this drink, is that it’s much healthier than a pumpkin milkshake or latte, and you can make it vegan by using almond milk. Pumpkin is also SO GOOD for you.

The other thing? As we all know, recipes that involve pumpkin never use the whole can. So, anytime you have leftover pumpkin, you can adjust the quantities of this recipe and make a batch of pumpkin milk with whatever pumpkin you have left.

In the picture, I’d served pumpkin milk with a caramel apple toppings bar for a fall-themed treat. More on that in another post 🙂

And it tastes like the holidays in a cup. Did I mention that?

INGREDIENTS (for two large drinks):

• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 2 1/2 cups milk of choice
• 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (okay, that’s not so healthy. I did use the fat-free version though. You can substitute maple syrup or honey, but it won’t taste the same)
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamin
• Fat free whipped cream and sprinkles, if you want to be like me

To make it, throw everything but the whipped cream and sprinkles in a blender. Blend until smooth! Give it a taste and see if it’s spicy enough for you. Feel free to through in more cinnamon, some nutmeg, clove, etc, if you like a heavily spiced pumpkin flavor.

Top with the whipped cream and sprinkles, and thank me later!

 

Garlic spaghetti squash with spinach and ham

You may have noticed I am constantly experimenting with veggie-starch alternatives. Zoodles, cauliflower, turnips, and spaghetti squash are on my menu every week. While they all have their attributes, I find that spaghetti squash has always been my favorite. It was the first veggie-noodle I ever had, and it never fails me.

If you’ve never had it, here’s what you need to know: the texture is more like hash browns than pasta. In my experience, zucchini noodles have a more pasta-like texture than spaghetti squash, but can get quite mushy and release a lot of water into whatever sauce you’re working with. Spaghetti squash stays nice and firm, and does not water-down my flavor! And, unlike cauliflower and zucchini, you don’t have to squeeze it with a kitchen towel to get out the excess water.

This is a totally guilt-free meal, and absolutely delicious. It’s packed with veggies, low-carb, low-fat, and can be vegetarian if you leave out the ham. Feel free to add more vegetables to the mix! Tomatoes, mushrooms, corn, even black olives would be yummy! This has a nice, light sauce, so you can really taste the squash. It’s also good at room temperature or chilled, so it’s nice for potlucks or a make-ahead meal.

So, here you go!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large spaghetti squash (always feeds my family of four, often with leftovers)
• 2-3 tablespoons light margarine (if you’re healthy today. Butter and olive oil are great too)
• 4 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 red onion
• salt & pepper
• 2 cups diced ham
• 4 cups baby spinach
• 1 cup grated parm

Preheat the oven to 375′. Cut the squash in half and seed it, then drizzle with oil and salt and pepper it. Bake for 35-45 minutes. I like mine pretty firm, so 35 did it for me. Alternatively, you can boil it for about 18 minutes, halved and seeded.

Once it’s cooked, let it cool while you start the sauce!

Heat margarine and add the garlic, onion, and salt & pepper it. Once the onion is nice a tender, stir in the spinach until wilted.

Let that chill out while you shred the squash. Use a fork and scrape down the middle. It’ll turn into long shreds, and you have veggie noodles!

Into the skillet, add the shredded squash and ham, and toss everything together and get it hot.

Doesn’t it look like pasta? It’s so good, and you’re gonna love it.