Bad Food Blog

Tag: breakfast

• My Menu Plan – December 2020

  Posted at 3:14 pm by Rachel, on November 19, 2020

  My postpartum freezer stash is dwindling but we still need to eat every day, so I wrote another meal plan. I literally cannot remember the last time I wasn’t exhausted, so most of these recipes are tried-and-true without too much fussing. I’m going to be missing all of my freezer meals!

  As always, this is a printable menu – if you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.

  

  Sundays – Meats

  • Kalua pork – One of our neighbors made this for us recently, and not only did my kids eat it (multiple days in a row), but they also keep asking for it. We might have to freeze some leftovers, and I’m 100% okay with that. Since I am planning on serving rice with this meal and a couple others this month, I will probably make a giant pot of rice and then freeze the leftovers. Rice takes forever to cook and I would rather not have to do it more than once.
  • Huli huli chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker – One of my husband’s favorites, and the kids like it too. We’ll probably finish it on the grill instead of under the broiler.
  • Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat – I made this recipe and used the chicken carcasses for broth a few months ago. The skin was nice and crispy (if you’re one who likes to eat the skin), the meat was tender, it was very easy to double in a standard American oven.
  • Sweet & sour chicken – We accidentally made four of these instead of two during baby freezer prep, but that just means I have one less meal to make this month, right?

  Mondays – Soups

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup – My kids call this “vegetable soup” because of the carrots, celery, and onions. This soup and the tomato soup we are having this month are their two favorite soups. I’ll be using the chicken carcass from the day before to make the broth – last time I got a good gel broth for the first time in a while and I am excited to see if I can do it again.
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – My kids love making little “volcanoes” with biscuits and tomato soup “lava”.
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup – I’m probably going to try to prep this earlier in the day and just reheat it at dinner time – less stressful during the dinner time rush and it gives the soup plenty of time to cool for my younger eaters.

  Tuesdays – Leftovers

  Wednesdays – Eggs

  I always used to make roasted sweet potatoes with our eggs, and while I still love them so much, it has been more time than I have wanted or been able to spend lately. A few weeks ago, I started making “baked” sweet potatoes in my slow cooker, and they have been a nice substitute and really just a nice way to freshen up our eggs night. Wrap the sweet potatoes in tin foil and then cook them for 8 hours on low. Giant sweet potatoes will not be as soft so either cook them for longer or cut them into smaller pieces before cooking.

  Thursdays – 

  • Tacos & guacamole
  • Hamburgers & hot dogs
  • Pasta with roasted vegetables/buttered pasta – Another meal from my small freezer stash.

  Fridays – Pizza

  Saturdays – Bowls/Salads

  I love bowl meals and salads, but my kids do not. They hate most foods that touch other foods. If your kids are like mine, just put a portion of each element on their plates before mixing everything together and enjoy your dinner.

  • Beets/sweet potatoes/apple/chickpea/farro/nut bowls – There used to be a great recipe on Budget Bytes for an Autumn Harvest Salad with butternut squash, quinoa, apples, and probably some other things that I cannot remember. I can’t find it anymore, but that is the recipe I had in mind when I added this bowl meal to my dinner menu. I’m going to roast the beets (in foil) and diced sweet potatoes earlier in the day, and toss them with diced apple, chickpeas, farro, and either walnuts or pecans. Dressing TBD.
  • Polenta/pesto/roasted veggie bowls – Make some cheesy polenta (I like parmesan with this – keep an eye on it because mine is usually done in about 25 minutes), and top it with roasted vegetables (I like a mix of at least 3 with this, such as sweet onions, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes) and good store bought pesto.
  • Mashed potato/sausage/brussels sprouts bowls
  • Kale/apple/walnut/chicken salad – The original recipe is for a side salad that doesn’t include chicken; I am going to throw some chicken thighs in the slow cooker to make it a meal.

  ~Holidays~

  • Christmas Eve – Snack dinner

  I think most parents have done some version of “snack dinner” at some point. Ours includes cheese & crackers, raw veggies such as cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, & olives, hummus, pepperoni, and salami – basically kid-friendly charcuterie. It is always a hit and pretty easy to get my kids to eat it, plus it is super simple to prepare, making it perfect for an exciting and busy night like Christmas Eve. In the past we have frequently made waffles for Christmas Eve, and we might do that instead, but right now I am leaning towards snack dinner.

  • Christmas – Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken, farro, vegetables

  Yes, I’m pulling out the slow cooker for Christmas. I’ve made this chicken recipe before and it really is worthy of a Christmas dinner as it turns out so beautifully. And really, it gives me more time to spend with my kids and enjoy the holiday.

  • New Year’s Eve – Turkey & stuffing meatballs, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, something green

  We are rounding out the year with some of our favorite foods, maybe I will make a special dessert too. I don’t plan on being awake at midnight but with three little kids plus a newborn baby anything is possible.

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad/greens” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
  • Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.

  Lunches

  • Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
  • Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac & cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies

  Breakfasts

  I’ve been taking the kids out on a walk first thing in the morning, so I bring a smoothie for me to sip along the way, and things like bananas and Larabars for the kids. Most days the kids have a bigger second breakfast when we get back, with oatmeal, cereal, or whatever else.

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, pasta, pizza, slow cooker, soup, vegetarian

• My Menu Plan – May 2020

  Posted at 10:52 pm by Rachel, on May 3, 2020

  Okay, I am giving monthly menu planning yet another try. Fingers crossed that no one gets sick this month and we can eat the whole thing!

  My Perdue Farms order was finally delivered a week or two ago, so it did take the full 5-6 weeks to arrive. Based on my one data point, I would say their current estimate of 2-3 weeks is probably accurate despite the upcoming meat shortage, although the package I ordered and several other products are not currently available. But talk about good timing! One of the reasons I ordered this meat in the first place was in anticipation of a meat shortage, and here we are. All of the meat we will be eating this month is already in my freezer – even the chicken from the cheesy farro, broccoli, and chicken that we had on Saturday was from a big batch of chicken breasts I baked a few weeks ago.

  Speaking of the meat shortage, you might notice that there isn’t a lot of meat in this menu plan. Not that that is atypical around here, personally I feel that the meat and three menu gets pretty boring pretty quickly. Of course no meat can get kind of boring too! So my categories this month are soup, pasta, vegetarian, eggs, pizza, and a meat night. My Monday and Tuesday nights switch between two categories because of some scheduling conflicts – just makin’ it work.

  May means Cinco de Mayo, and also… Cinco de Cuatro! Just in time too, because my kids have been asking if we can make chocolate covered bananas again.

  I made the menu printable again this month – if you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.

  

  Soups

  (Our 1-year-old eats what we eat, and she really likes soup. Feeding her with the spoon is hit or miss, because she likes to feed herself. Right now, one of my favorite ways to feed her soup is by dipping chunks of bread in the soup and letting her feed herself the soupy bread.)

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup – requested by my kids
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is still my kids’ favorite soup
  • Slow Cooker French Onion Soup – This probably isn’t the best French onion soup recipe ever, but it is pretty easy
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup

  Pasta

  • Tortellini with pears and prosciutto (adapted from this recipe)
  • Eggplant parmesan with pasta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – I’ve never made this recipe for myself, but my favorite vegetarian friend – the one who recommended this book to me in the first place – made it for me a while ago so I thought I would give it a whirl.
  • Spaghetti aglio e olio
  • Pasta alfredo

  Vegetarian

  • BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa from Thug Kitchen / veggie tacos for my kids – I made this sometime last year and it was sooo good. Hands-down the most flavorful burritos I have made at home. They were pretty labor intensive, which is why I haven’t made them since, but Cinco de Mayo seems like the perfect occasion for a repeat. Unfortunately the burritos were pretty spicy, and my kids genuinely hate spicy foods right now, so I’ll cut up some veggies for them to make their own little vegetable tacos.
  • Yeasted waffles à la King Arthur Flour
  • Weeknight enchiladas (bean and cheese enchiladas) / veggie tacos for my kids – Again, these enchiladas are really not very spicy, but I have tried and failed many times to get my kids to eat them. I’m going to make them on the super-mild side (with Monterey jack cheese instead of pepper jack, for instance), and also plan on some simple veggie tacos for them.
  • Polenta with roasted vegetables and pesto

  Eggs

  We’ve been alternating scrambled eggs and eggs-in-a-basket lately; it’s been a nice change of pace!

  Pizza

  I’m back to making pizza – this is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Meat

  • Cheesy farro with chicken and broccoli – like a deconstructed chicken-broccoli-rice casserole, but with farro
  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker – save some extra meat for chicken noodle soup
  • Potato kielbasa sheet pan – I’ve never made this recipe, but it looks simple, a.k.a. just my style
  • Easy orange chicken – Why yes, you *can* make that sauce ahead and stick it in the fridge for later in the day
  • Slow cooker honey soy drumettes – This recipe has been in my mental bookmarks for YEARS. Literally, at least five years. Of course, basically every time I think to make it I have a baby under a year old doing baby led weaning, and the one food they are really not supposed to eat before they turn one is honey (thanks, botulism!). Hopefully five years of anticipation do not leave me disappointed.

   

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad/greens” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
  • Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.

  Lunches

  • Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
  • Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac & cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies

  Breakfasts

  Cereal, yogurt, smoothies, fruit, oatmeal

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, Covid-19, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, pasta, pizza, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• Easter Recap 2020 and Menu Plan 4/19-5/2

  Posted at 11:06 pm by Rachel, on April 19, 2020

  Happy Easter! I hope you all had a peaceful holiday – it was definitely a different feeling this year with a stay-at-home order in effect, and while we all missed getting out to church in the morning, we still enjoyed lots of family time and plentiful food. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I planned to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Easter Dinner on 2 Sheet Pans, and a lamb cake for dessert.

  

  Guys, don’t make homemade cinnamon rolls unless you want to ruin the canned stuff for the rest of your life. I grew up eating a lot of cinnamon rolls – my dad made the canned ones for breakfast every Sunday morning and we made pretty frequent trips to the mall Cinnabon – but I never tried homemade until I made this same recipe about 7 years ago. While I haven’t taken the time to make them since then, I haven’t been able to bring myself to buy the alternatives either. This time I did most of the work the night before, and just popped the pan into the fridge after letting the rolls rise in the pan. I let the butter and cream cheese for the frosting soften overnight on the counter, so everything was ready to go in the morning. If you are like me and don’t want to spend an hour or longer making an extra special breakfast in the morning, this is the way to do it!

  

  I started making our Easter dinner on the early side. Maybe it is the houseful of kids, or maybe I am just a particularly slow cook, but recipes almost always take me longer than they say they will. Yet in some sort of Easter miracle, this recipe took me the exact amount of time it said it would. Amazing. The potatoes au gratin were the star at our house, and even my sauce-hating 5-year-old really enjoyed them. I don’t have a mandolin, but my food processor’s 2mm slicing disc worked just as well. One thing I would change about this recipe is the cook time on the asparagus and carrots – it was just too long.

  

  

  This year’s lamb cake started out dramatically the day before Easter when I lost the lamb pan. My kids really looked forward to this cake – they had spent the whole week divvying up the cake, and I had spent the whole week listening to them chime, “I get the head!” and, “I get the tush!” So it was a frantic and sad 30 minutes as I searched and imagined telling them that there would be no lamb cake this year. Of course I did eventually find it tucked away inside my stock pot. It is not the first thing I have stored in the stock pot and then lost, and sadly will probably not be the last. So after all that, I did get the lamb cake made. It was kind of sloppy this year, which is what happens when you forget to take it out of the pan for almost 24 hours and don’t pipe frosting until your kids are asking to eat the cake. The recipe does only call for 3 cups of cake batter, so if you use the The Cake Bible’s recipe for Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake (find the recipe online here), you will have enough leftover batter for seven cupcakes. This year I paired it with Sally’s Favorite Vanilla Buttercream. I think I still prefer the flavor of the coconut frosting from last year, but this one was a lot faster to make and still quite tasty.

  This week we are back to simpler, more standard fare. This will be my first time making the ham and Swiss sliders. We had them at a friend’s house a few months ago and my husband and I both liked them, so they seem like a good way to use up the leftover Swiss cheese from Easter (I subbed Swiss for Gruyere in the potatoes au gratin). The kids will most likely eat a deconstructed version of the sandwiches. I have high hopes for the chicken parm meatballs, which is the other new recipe we will be trying in the next couple of weeks. At least one of my kids is SUPER into meatballs right now and one is moderately interested in them, so my fingers are crossed on that one.

  I hope to make a menu plan for the entire month of May, but our grocery store continues to have shortages of random things, so we might stay more week-to-week for a bit longer. We’ve just gotta stay flexible right now!

  S 4/19 Pasta with burst cherry tomato sauce, green vegetables
  M 4/20 Ham and Swiss cheese sliders, broccoli
  T 4/21 Slow cooker tomato soup (from The Complete Slow Cooker), biscuits, spinach
  W 4/22 Leftovers
  R 4/23 Eggs, vegetables
  F 4/24 Pizza (crust, sauce), vegetables
  S 4/25 Chicken and snap pea stir fry, rice

  S 4/26 Pasta with chicken parm meatballs, vegetables
  M 4/27 Mayo-free chicken salad sandwiches, carrots, fruit
  T 4/28 Potato cauliflower soup, vegetables, bread
  W 4/29 Leftovers
  R 4/30 Eggs, vegetables
  F 5/1 Pizza (crust, sauce), vegetables
  S 5/2 Cheesy farro with chicken and broccoli

  Posted in Menu Plans | 2 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, dessert, Dinner, Easter, food flops, holiday, Menu plan, menu recap, pasta, soup

• My Menu Plan – January 2020

  Posted at 9:37 pm by Rachel, on December 31, 2019

  Happy New Year! I’ve been listening to fireworks all day today – no one does New Year’s Eve fireworks like Hawaii! After six long months, I am happy to announce the return of my monthly menu plan. My nights have switched around a bit since I last shared a monthly menu plan. It feels less festive than Fridays deserve to be, but since Fridays look like they are going to be the busiest night of the week for a while, I decided to make them leftovers night for the quickest, easiest possible dinner. I rounded out the weekdays with other meals that I can prepare with a bunch of kids underfoot – some less than fussy salads, eggs, meats, and soups, many of which can be made ahead. I stuck new-to-me recipes on Sundays, when my husband will be home to wrangle our kids in case things go terribly wrong. Pizza, which is easy to scale up and share with visitors, got Saturdays, the day we would be most likely to have other people over.

  I decided to try out a new program to make the printable menu this month. If you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.

  

   

  New Recipes

  • Black Bean Veggie Burgers from You Have It Made – We got some take out from Down to Earth, and one of the stand-out items was the Black Bean & Roasted Beets Burger. My 5-year-old, who is really into the idea of burgers right now, said she would eat it again, so I’m trying this homemade variety, which also contains beets and can be made ahead.
  • Barley Stuffed Peppers from Thug Kitchen – These kind of remind me of the pepperoni pizza quinoa stuffed peppers that I love, but you know, vegan.  I will probably set some of the filling aside to increase the chances of my kids trying it.
  • Roasted Brussels Sprouts Bowls – This recipe has been on my “to make” list for a while. I will probably use some chicken sausage instead of veggie sausage, we will see what the store has in stock.
  • Roasted Chickpea and Broccoli Burritos – Six months ago, I made Thug Kitchen’s BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa and they were phenomenal. Like, hands down the best burritos I have ever made at home and probably the best burritos I’ve had outside of little burrito shops when I was in college. These chickpea and broccoli burritos look like a lot less work, but the authors say they are a fan favorite. Fingers crossed that they are just as tasty!

  Salads

  • Kale and Apple Salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts – We’ve eaten this salad several times in the last few weeks because it is so fast to throw together. I like to add some baked chicken breast to make it a meal (note that the recipe is for a “side salad”) and I swap goat cheese for blue cheese because that is my preference.
  • Asian chicken salad – Prepare the chicken breasts ahead of time and this is a super fast dinner
  • Farro Salad with Kale and Grapes from You Have It Made – I was asking my family what they want to eat this month, and one of my kids said, “I like farro!” We’ve been eating farro a lot lately, but I decided to throw in this salad for her.
  • Southwestern Salad from You Have It Made – I’m feeling inspired to up my southwestern salad game after trying so many salads this summer. Ellie Krieger’s salad calls for jicama, an ingredient that I haven’t used since 2011! It wasn’t a great experience, which is why I haven’t really used it since then – hopefully this goes better.

  Meats

  • Ginger Peach Chicken – My tips for this recipe are 1) slice the onions very thin – I use my food processor’s slicing disc and 2) cook the chicken WITHOUT the peaches, then add the peaches in for the last 30 minutes
  • Pot Roast – Prep for this always takes me a while so I will probably start it the night before
  • Chicken Parmesan Burgers – I made these for the first time since 2016ish a few weeks ago when my burger-lover started asking for burgers. She liked it (with no sauce and cheese on the side) and asked to have them again. If you’ve never used ground chicken, these are worth a try!
  • Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker – save some extra meat for chicken noodle soup
  • Spaghetti and Meatballs – As I have previously described, I make this sauce with these meatballs in my 7.25 quart Dutch oven. Basically, I start the sauce, then start the meatballs, and pop them into the pot after I broil them. I use all of the meat to make meatballs, instead of using some to make the sauce a meat sauce (doing this yields me about 32 meatballs instead of 16). It is time consuming but oh so good. I’ll be working on this on a weekend and then freezing the meatballs and sauce to use on a week night.

  Soups

  (Our 1-year-old eats what we eat, and she really likes soup. Feeding her with the spoon is hit or miss, because she likes to feed herself. Right now, one of my favorite ways to feed her soup is by dipping chunks of bread in the soup and letting her feed herself the soupy bread.)

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is still my kids’ favorite soup
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup
  • Winter Lentil Soup from Easy, Delicious Meals

  Pizza

  I haven’t made pizza in the longest time, not because I have stopped eating pizza, but because there is actually a really great pizza place nearby (Boston’s Pizza, if you are on Oahu). I think there is a 50/50 chance I will make pizza versus ordering some take out, we will see where the weeks take me. This is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
  • Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.

  Lunches

  • Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
  • Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac&cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies

  Breakfasts

  Cereal, yogurt, smoothies, fruit, oatmeal

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged beef, breakfast, burgers, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, salad, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• Menu Plan 10/13-10/19

  Posted at 1:52 pm by Rachel, on October 12, 2019

  You might notice a couple of repeats from last week on this week’s menu – I ended up with a cold last week and had to shuffle some things around. Last week I began planning my breakfasts and lunches in more detail. I did not do a great job sticking to the plan because I just wasn’t eating much. I only just prepped the farro for lunch salads last night, and the grapes were moldy 😦 so I will be trying this salad with some apples or maybe cucumbers instead. Breakfast went better than lunch – I made a big batch of steel cut oats one morning and then ate that for several days. This week I am going to set an alarm on my phone to make overnight steel cut oats (less active cooking time). I also picked up a bunch of sweet potatoes; I will be “baking” them all in the slow cooker for dinner on Monday and then have leftovers for breakfasts and maybe lunches as well.

  Dinner Plan:

  S 10/13 – Maple mustard chicken thighs (slow cooker – make extra for chicken salad sandwiches), mashed potatoes, green vegetable

  M 10/14 – Eggs, sweet potatoes (slow cooker), green vegetable

  T 10/15 – Pasta with blistered cherry tomato sauce, salad

  W 10/16 – Creamy tomato soup (slow cooker from The Complete Slow Cooker), bread, salad

  R 10/17 – Leftovers

  F 10/18 – Greek salad, bread

  S 10/19 – Whole chicken (slow cooker), carrots, green vegetable

   

  Breakfast Plan: Steel cut oatmeal with almond butter and fruit, “baked” sweet potatoes

  Lunch Plan: Layered feta salad with kale, feta, and apples (adapted from You Have it Made), Mayonnaise-Free Chicken Salad Sandwiches

  Posted in Menu Plans | 1 Comment | Tagged breakfast, Dinner, hotel living, lunch, Menu plan, slow cooker

• Freezer Cooking for Baby #3 and My Postpartum Menu Plan (Part 4)

  Posted at 2:00 pm by Rachel, on March 15, 2019

  This is the last part of a four post series on filling your freezer before adding a new baby to the family. Revisit Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

  Well we have made it to the last post in my series, and this one is about all of the “extras.” Side dishes, breakfasts, and desserts may not cross your mind when you start planning a freezer menu but oh, they should!

  A lot of these foods are quick to get going. I made many of them, such as rice, quinoa, breads, and pancakes, while I was waiting on a main dish to cook. Use what may otherwise be dead time to get stuff done!

  Side Dishes

  

  • Cornbread (double batch, wrapped in foil)

  Breads freeze very well. I’ve been freezing the cornbread from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything since 2014 and it has never failed me!

  • Sweet Potato Casserole (single recipe, 2 8×8 foil pans)

  Let me start by saying that while this froze well, I would tweak this recipe more if I made it again because I found it to be sweeter than I generally care to eat for dinner. I froze mine without the topping because I was afraid it would get mushy when it defrosted. The first time we ate it, I did a half batch of the topping (since the pan was half the original recipe) and it was way too sweet. The second time, I halved the sugar and it was a lot better. Both times the topping was pretty scant – I guess that’s what happens with a “lighter” recipe.

  • Buttermilk Loaf (double recipe, wrapped in plastic wrap and foil)

  Wow that was good! I just made the basic recipe, but this was so tender and delicious, even after freezing, that I feel like I need to try all of the variations. Overall this was very easy to make and very easy to double so long as you have two loaf pans.

  • Mashed White Beans (quadruple recipe, 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  I always double this recipe when I make it because it is never enough. I did the quadruple batch this time to get it all cooked at once, but I think next time I will do two double batches. There was just so much liquid and reducing it took a very long time. They do freeze very well.

  • Rice (multiple batches, 4 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  I had heard about freezing rice before but this is the first time I actually tried it. I watched the rice closely and turned off the heat when there was still the slightest bit of moisture in the pot so that it wouldn’t be dry after reheating.

  • Quinoa (multiple batches, 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  Reading that rice freezes well inspired me to freeze some quinoa too. I made mine with chicken broth and – just like with the rice – watched carefully to make sure it did not dry out. This came out so well; it did not taste like it had been frozen.

   

  Other Stuff

  

  • Buttermilk Pancakes and Pumpkin Pancakes (store in gallon-sized freezer bags)

  These are great for a quick breakfast. My kids love when I make pancakes, and sticking them in the freezer makes this a doable breakfast any day of the week. It actually took me a few times to get as many pancakes into the freezer as I wanted to because my kids and husband kept eating them! 😄 I prefer using buttermilk in my pancakes, especially for freezer pancakes, because the texture is far and away superior. To freeze pancakes, cook as normal, cool completely, and store in a large freezer bag.

  • Breakfast Burritos (single recipe, gallon-sized freezer bags)

  This is my husband’s favorite breakfast item for the freezer. I love having a savory fast breakfast option in the mix, especially in the early nursing-around-the-clock days. We make them with bacon instead of ham.

  • Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (3 or 4 dozen, gallon-sized freezer bags)

  I am not one to say no to chocolate for breakfast. I honestly do not remember how many banana muffins ended up in my freezer as I made more than one double batch, and I know I have made more since the baby was born. I do know that they freeze like a dream. I use the banana bread recipe from How to Cook Everything – one loaf pan translates to one dozen muffins.

  

  

  • Pumpkin Muffins (double recipe, gallon-sized freezer bags)

  Sometimes I do half whole wheat flour so I can feel a little better about my breakfast (I also make them without the icing). My kids ate these faster than anything else we put in the freezer, and I have actually made them several times since the baby was born because my big kids love them so much.

  

  • Brownies (store in gallon-sized freezer bags)

  New moms like chocolate, or at least this one does, so these were a must-have on my cook list. After baking the brownies, let them cool and cut them into squares. Freeze them in a gallon-sized freezer bag. We generally microwaved these and ate them warm, but the fudgey interior pieces are pretty delicious straight from the freezer.

  • Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (double recipe, 5 dozen dough balls)

  This was my first time freezing cookie dough. We are a big sweets family, and warm cookies are my husband’s favorite dessert, so it was bound to happen sometime. It was so easy! I’ve been suggesting it to everyone I know! Mix the cookie dough and shape it into balls as usual, then flash freeze on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet for one hour. Once the dough is frozen, transfer to a gallon-sized freezer bag. You don’t defrost the dough before baking – put it into the oven straight from the freezer, just add a minute or two to the normal bake time.

  Finally, if you are still looking for something else to stick in your freezer, here are a few things that I planned to make but I ran out of time and energy before I got there:

  • Veggie Packed Freezer Ready Breakfast Sandwiches
  • Blueberry muffins
  • Pumpkin pie and apple pie
  • Hearty Black Bean Quesadillas (for lunch/snacks)
  • Easy Calzones (for lunch/snacks… I like the pepperoni ones)

  This concludes my series on freezer cooking for a new baby. What are your favorite freezer foods? Tell me in the comments!

  Posted in Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, dessert, freezer friendly, kid-friendly, Menu plan, side dish

• Food Journal #5: Boston

  Posted at 12:47 am by Rachel, on August 19, 2018

  Earlier this summer we got to spend a few days in Boston. It was not nearly long enough (it never is!) but we did pack in a ton of our favorite things, including lots of good food! I probably would have gained 10 pounds here if we hadn’t balanced it out with a bunch of walking.

  Our AirBnB host left some oranges so we could make freshly squeezed orange juice. Oh man, this was so good! I don’t think I’ve had fresh orange juice before this trip. I’ll say that while I’m not usually an orange juice drinker, this had me considering getting my own juicer. It took 2 large oranges to fill this glass:

  

  Tatte was on our must-eat list for this trip; I have been dreaming of their Balakani sandwich (literally) since the last time I ate it in 2016. While Tatte has several locations, I’ve only ever been to the one in Brookline. It is such a cute little place! It was hard to appreciate the last time we were there because it was so packed (brunch on a holiday weekend is not a good time if you’re looking for a quiet spot!).

  

  

  

  The Balakani did not disappoint this trip either. The eggplant was so perfect – roasted to creamy perfection – and really wonderfully complemented by the salty feta. If you want something salty, this is a satisfyingly salty sandwich.

  

  

  We were there about an hour before closing but they still had a few grab-and-go style sandwiches. This one that my husband picked up wasn’t on the regular menu – it’s open-faced with prosciutto, arugula, and pear.

  Of course we picked out a few pastry items as well:

  

  

  

  

  Honestly, the top 2 pastries with the chocolate crusts are not something I would order again. They are so pretty to look at, and I love the fresh berries, but they are just not as chocolatey as I was hoping for. They were kind of dry too for my taste too. I know that we picked them up at the end of the day, but we usually buy a few items and do not eat them all immediately – if they’re dry after just a few hours, buying for a couple of days isn’t really good idea. The cheesecake cup was better – not dry and no disappointment in the intensity of its flavors. I would get this one again. Fortunately there are a lot of options here, so the next time I am craving a Balakani I can just try a different pastry.

  Next up was Eataly in the Prudential Center. We were headed to the Skywalk Observatory and planned to eat breakfast somewhere in the Prudential. Apparently the food court closed since the last time we visited, and I am the only person left from the Northeast who does not like Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, so we gave Eataly a try. This place is HUGE – so huge that you can grab a map on your way in. It was pretty early when we showed up, so most of the stations inside were closed. We still walked around the whole upper level just to see what there was, and I was impressed. I loved The Italian Store in Arlington, but I always thought that it should have been bigger or carried a wider variety of products. Eataly is more what I imagined the Italian Store would be like.

  

  

  

  The coffee was solid, albeit small. We also ordered a variety of pastries from the cafe next to the front entrance to share. We chose one with almonds, a cream-filled brioche, a chocolate pastry, and a ricotta and jam turnover. My absolute favorite was the cream-filled brioche, followed by the chocolate pastry. I enjoyed the flavor of the jam in the ricotta and jam turnover, and the pastry had a great crunch, but I wasn’t quite sold on the texture of the ricotta. It was kind of crumbly. Really it was not bad – none of it was – but I don’t know that I would order it again when there is brioche and chocolate pastry to eat.

  After breakfast we took the elevator up to the Skywalk. It was such a clear, beautiful day to be up there. You get free admission with a military or dependent ID, although these views are worth buying a ticket to see. My cell phone picture does not do them justice.

  

  After the Skywalk, we walked over to the Public Garden before heading back to the Prudential to pick up our car. It was almost nap time, so we grabbed some quick sandwiches from Eataly to go. By the way, if you do drive in and park at the Prudential, Eataly will validate your parking.

  My husband ordered a PLT (prosciutto, lettuce, and tomato) and I got the Cavolino, which had pesto, cheese, and caramelized onions. These are BIG sandwiches, and you could probably split one between two people depending on how hungry you are. I think I ended up saving part of mine to eat later. The Cavolino was very fresh tasting – I think there was some lemon in the pesto – great for an early summer sandwich. It was also very oily. It wasn’t oily in a gross way, but it was messy, so if you choose this sandwich, keep some napkins nearby.

  

  

  

  

  That night we picked up a few slices from Regina Pizzeria and took them to DeFilippo Playground around the corner. There were a couple of picnic tables and a great selection of toys in addition to the playground equipment. I was too hungry to wait to snap a picture, so if you’ve never been, it’s a perfect, delicious, thin crust pizza. I think I could eat it every day and not get sick of it.

  My husband walked down the street to Mike’s Pastry to pick up some cannoli. We got one plain ricotta, one strawberry, one Florentine, and one chocolate chip. The strawberry was for our 3-year-old, but I did try some – I can’t say I recommend this one unless you are buying it for someone who cares more about the color than the flavor. The others were all great. I always get the Florentine, which has nuts (I believe they are almonds) and honey in the shell, and chocolate chips on the ends. My husband tried a bite and he found the shell to be a bit *too* crunchy. If that’s something that would bother you, then the chocolate chip might be a better match. I really enjoy the extra flavor the nuts bring to the table though.

  

  On the way back, someone commented that we looked super touristy with our Mike’s box. Maybe it is a tourist staple, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t tasty. We’ve been getting cannoli from Mike’s for years and we love them, which is all that matters.

  I was sad to discover that Finale, a fixture of our college days and past trips, closed a couple of years ago. Apparently it was already closed the last time we were in Boston and we didn’t notice it! Whoops! Anyway, we obviously had more than enough food to fill our bellies this time around, and I am sure we will find some new places to visit in the future. In the meantime, I will miss their dessert-centric restaurant in general and their molten chocolate cake in particular.

  Until next time, Boston!

  Posted in dessert, Dinner, Food Journal | 0 Comments | Tagged balakani, Boston, breakfast, cannoli, coffee, dessert, Dinner, Eataly, Finale, juice, lunch, Mike's Pastry, pastry, pizza, Prudential Center, Regina Pizzeria, restaurant review, sandwich, Skywalk, take out, Tatte

• Food Journal #3

  Posted at 12:00 am by Rachel, on March 15, 2018

  Welcome back to my Food Journal, where I share the more memorable things we’ve been eating, what we liked, and what we didn’t. Let’s get started…

  2/7 Sweet Potato Chickpea Buddha Bowl

  

  This recipe was a mixed bag. My husband loved it (as usual), but I was frustrated by how long it took to make and how the sweet potatoes ended up super crunchy. My #1 pet peeve with recipes is probably when the actual cooking time does not match up with how long the recipe says it will take. In the case of these Buddha bowls, the recipe states (many times) that this will take 30 minutes, and it ended up taking me about an hour. I often wonder if I am just a slow cook, and that may still be the case, however my prep speed would not affect the cooking times once food is in the oven. I did side-eye the recipe saying that a sweet potato half would cook through in like 25 minutes (because I usually dice mine and they take about 40 minutes to cook through), but I tried it anyway; as I have already said, the results were not good.

  I would be open to trying this again with diced sweet potatoes – it would be a little bit more prep work but at least they would cook through before everything else burned. I would also line the baking sheet with aluminum foil to make cleanup a bit easier. Overall the flavors were really good; I love the variety of vegetables this recipe incorporated, the chickpeas were outstanding, and the tahini sauce was something new for me. By the way, if you have never used tahini before (I hadn’t!), it is super runny when you open it, kind of similar to natural peanut butter in its consistency. I wish that I paid the extra dollar for the jar with a twist-on lid instead of one that needed to be opened with a can opener – that was a mess!

  2/13 Brunch at Founding Farmers

  For our wedding anniversary we decided to celebrate with our favorite meal of the day and took the kids out for brunch at Founding Farmers. This restaurant has a few locations and all of them are owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union. From what I understand, a lot of the ingredients they use are sourced from North Dakota farms – neat! We went at about 9 AM on a weekday morning, so it was not crowded – most of the other patrons looked like they were having working breakfasts.

  We were hungry when we arrived, so we ordered a Jefferson Donut, coffee, and a New York Egg Cream while we looked at the rest of the menu. Our waiter explained that the Jefferson Donut is Founding Farmers’s take on a cronut. It was fairly light and filled with a pastry cream. We all really liked the donut – if I could get a box of these instead of whatever Dunkin’ Donuts is offering, I would.

  

  

  I would not say I’m a coffee snob, but I don’t drink bad coffee anymore. If I order a coffee and it tastes old and watery, I throw it out. This happens more often than I like, so I didn’t have high hopes for Founding Farmers. I was pleasantly surprised, though, because the coffee was really good. I just got regular drip coffee; it was very smooth and delicious and when the waiter offered me a refill I gladly accepted. And how cute is that little milk carton?

  

  The egg cream was the most interesting item we ordered – I know that this is not unique to Founding Farmers, but it is the only time I have seen one on a restaurant menu. The best way I can describe it is watery, fizzy chocolate milk. We probably would not order it again – personally I would prefer regular chocolate milk – but it was fun to try it!

  There is no children’s menu here, so for our kids we ordered the Vanilla Cream Filled French Toast to share. This was a huge dish! My husband ended up eating some too because it was just so much (this was his favorite item we ordered, by the way). It was more like french toast sticks than french toast you would make at home, which is fine because my 3-year-old was all about dunking them in the syrup.

  

  I ordered the Roasted Vegetable Pan Scramble which comes with a biscuit (and butter & blueberry compote) and one side – I chose fruit. The sweet offerings on the menu were very tempting but we were going to have waffles for dinner so I went savory. This is an egg white scramble with a ton of veggies. Like most restaurant offerings, it was a large, filling dish. I found it a bit too salty, but overall still pretty good. I liked that I didn’t feel gross after eating it. The fruit was nice and fresh, and a good size for sharing with my kids. I really enjoyed the biscuit; if there was still room in my belly after eating everything else, I would have ordered more of them.

  

  My husband ordered the Traditional Ham Eggs Benedict with a side of Leek Hash Browns. If you are a fan of eggs benedict, this one was a well-executed classic that you may enjoy.

  

  We really liked Founding Farmers and are hoping to go back before we leave the area. The time that we went was pretty low-key, and we even saw some other people with kids towards the end of our meal.

  2/15 Dijon-Pecan 2-Step Chicken

  This is one of those rare recipes that is fast and easy to prep, inexpensive, and tasty. It took me about 5 minutes to put this together in the baking dish:

  

  I used Harris Teeter’s fresh chicken breasts (from the meat counter) – they are the best price in the store and they are massive. I used 4 of them since the recipe calls for 4 chicken breasts, but really 2 of these cut in half is probably the portion size the author had in mind. Mine took a little longer in the oven because the chicken breasts were so enormous.

  The fastest way to crush the pecans is to toss them in a plastic bag and roll a rolling pin over them a few times. If you want to be a bit greener, chopping them with a knife would probably not take that much longer.

  I served them with egg noodles (quick and in my pantry) and roasted broccoli and cauliflower. I took the lazy way out and used a bag of the already-prepped veggies from the produce section.

  

  

  2/20 Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup

  

  This soup is pure comfort. It is buttery and rich but not too heavy. If you are craving soup and don’t want to do a lot of work, then this is a recipe to try. I use Better than Bouillon to make my chicken broth; it has a great flavor that adds a lot to the depth of this soup. For recipes like this, I used to boil water and prepare the broth before adding it to the recipe, but lately I have just been adding water and the Better than Bouillon to the pot at the same time. I’m about to bring the water to a boil anyway, so why dirty another dish? Using the immersion blender to puree the soup cuts down on dishes too.

  I’ve heard that cream-based soups don’t freeze well, but I have frozen this one with a lot of success. Just give it a stir after reheating and it is as good as fresh. This is an easy recipe to double, it just takes a little longer to bring the soup to a simmer. I actually made a double batch this time because both of my kids slurp it up and I love the leftovers.

  2/21 Chipotle Portobello Oven Fajitas, Sweet Potato Cornbread

  We had company over this night and I completely forgot to take any pictures! These fajitas are great; all the deliciousness of Tex-Mex but without the heaviness of something loaded down with cheese. Now I am not always a mushroom person – I think it is a texture issue – but the mushrooms really shrivel up in the oven. Once they get mixed in with the other veggies I cannot usually tell that they are there. My kids have not eaten these yet because they do not really like spicy food, so I set aside some of the cut up veggies for them to eat raw with tortillas.

  The cornbread was interesting. The “basic” cornbread that I usually make is a lot denser and more savory. This recipe was very light and fluffy. It was also a lot sweeter (to be expected with that much added sugar). Honestly it kind of reminded me of cake… not that that is a bad thing! It was definitely more “dressed up” and I could see myself making this again if I find myself with some extra sour cream lying around, especially since it was not a big undertaking.

  2/22 Rosemary Chicken Thighs, Butternut Squash Gratin with Onions and Sage (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone)

  

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  In case you missed the recipe for my rosemary chicken thighs, you can find that here. This is one of my family’s favorite recipes. It is so flavorful, tender, and easy. My 1-year-old gobbles it up!

  I took advantage of this super easy main dish to experiment with a new side: butternut squash gratin with onions from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. While it was time-consuming to make, it was not labor intensive. I cut down on my prep work by using pre-diced butternut squash. I did a cost comparison a few months ago and found that a whole fresh butternut squash cost about the same as the package of cubed squash – really I think my dollar goes further with more squash from the package because I am not paying for the seeds and skin. Plus it just takes way less time. My food processor made the rest of the prep very fast. I used it to slice onions, shred cheese, and make bread crumbs. Like I said though, it is a time-consuming dish – 15 minutes to cook onions, then 8 minutes to brown the squash, and 50 minutes total in the oven. I like the idea of this dish, and it has piqued my interest in other gratins. My one complaint with it is that I
  found it too thyme-heavy. I decided to use dried thyme instead of fresh because I already had it on hand, and I think I miscalculated the conversion between fresh and dried thyme, so the thyme ended up overpowering the other flavors.

  

   

  Posted in Food Journal | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, Dinner, Founding Farmers, freezer friendly, kid-friendly, restaurant review, side dish, soup, vegetarian

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