Baby's Breakfast

Served in a Hello Kitty bento side container, with apple slices.

 

That WTH is this face.

Today I discovered two things. 1. You can feed babies Cream of Wheat! and 2. My son hates it. 
Which, in hindsight, were both kind of obvious things. Then, I got smart and added a little Strawberry Jam and he couldn't get enough! 
Here is a simple, microwave method to make this yummy cereal, including add in's suggested by my friends.

Ingredients:

(baby-sized serving)

2 tablespoons Cream of Wheat (found in the cereal asile)

3/4 cup milk

Directions: Combine ingredients in a (baby sized) microwavable bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, microwave 30 more seconds, stir... until it gets as solid as you like. I like mine the consistency of oatmeal, but some prefer it more liquidy, like porridge.

Add-ins:

Try one or a combination of these

1-2 teaspoons of sugar

1-2 teaspoons of butter

1-2 teaspoons of your favorite jam or jelly

dash of vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tablespoon cream (or your favorite flavored coffee creamer)

1 tablespoon of hot cocoa

1 squirt of chocolate syrup

Whiskey Spiked Banana Bread

What to do with super ripe bananas? Well obviously banana bread.
Tastes better every day. And it makes amazing French toast.

I tried to find a good recipe where I can use what I had on hand. I usually do something with sour cream, to make that lovely creamy, tenderness. To my surprise, I found this recipe just as good, if not better. And I didnt have to go to the store!

This one is based off of Jacked-up Banana Bread from Smitten Kitchen but I used whiskey instead of rum.

Whiskey Spiked Banana Bread

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
1/3 cup salted, sweetcream butter, room temperature (or microwave 10 seconds)
3/4 cupbrown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon mexican vanilla
1 tablespoon (ish) Jameson Whiskey
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
In a stand mixer (or in a bowl), quickly beat together banana and butter until mixed but chunky.
Add in remaining ingredients, except flour, mix.
Fold in flour.
Batter should have chunks of banana and butter and other ooey goodness.
Pour batter into prepared pan (I line mine with parchment for easy removal), bake for 1 hour or until knife or toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Tips:
Add in toasted walnuts and/or chocolate chips.

Yummy Ramen

There's so many ways to make ramen dishes. This is the one I use pretty often at home, though sometimes I'll change it up and add kimchee or do a fried egg instead of soft boiled or whatever seems good at the time. Oh, and bacon. 

Ingredients: 

1 package dried ramen, chicken flavor 
2 eggs 
furikake (japanese rice seasoning) 
sriracha (rooster sauce, or chili sauce) 
1 slice american sandwich cheese (dont knock it till ya try it!) 


 Directions:
 Bring water to boil in a small pot, add in noodles and crack in eggs.
 Gently stir the noodles to avoid popping the egg yolks. 
Let cook until noodles are soft and eggs are softboiled. Alternately, pop the yolks and stir gently to scramble it into the noodles. 
In a bowl, sprinkle in the chicken flavor seasoning.
 Add noodles and egg. 
Add in as much water as you like in your ramen.
 Top with furikake, sriracha and a slice of cheese (in that order, so the cheese melts on top). Eat!

Simple cucumber salad

There are probably millions of different combinations of pickle type recipes. It's all up to personal taste and what you have on hand.
This one is so simple and refreshing. It's tangy and spicy with a hint of sweet.  I like to add jalapeño peppers. You could use onion and garlic for a more savory flavor.

Ingredients:
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced
1 small jalapeño, chopped
(Remove pith and seeds for less heat, optional)
4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon sugar

Mix everything together in a small container with lid. Shake. Refrigerate at least an hour. Keeps for weeks.

Serve as a side dish or in a sandwich or as topping for a salad.

Carrot Noodles

Thats right! Embrace the weirdness, this is happening. 

Most everyone i know enjoys carrots cooked in honey. A wonderful side dish! This is pretty much the same, only you shave the carrot in strips with a vegetable peeler. (Or be fancy and use a mandolin)

Pile the strips into a saucepan, add 2-3 tablespoons of honey and 2-3 tablespoons of water.

Cook on low, stirring occasionally to coat, until carrots are limp and noodly, 3-5 min. Add a pinch of salt (or two-three turns of the salt grinder). 

Serve warm.

Gorgeous! 

-———————

There are probably loads of different ways to use strips of carrot. Two come to mind:

Use as "noodles". Cook them in milk instead of honey (gets rid of the bitter carrotty flavor), drain. Pour a tomato or cream based sauce over. Yum! Vegan/vegetarian.

Alternately, you could spray oil on (sprinkle a little salt) and roast them in the oven to make carrot "chips" or "fries". 

Buffalo Chicken!!!

This one's easy. Just toss the chicken pieces (drumsticks, here; great with any cut of chicken) with 2-3 tablespoons of the seasoning in a gallon size ziplock baggie. Shake to thoroughly coat. 

Bake in 350 degree F oven for 30-45 min till nicely browned and done in the middle.

 OR let "marinate" in the baggie in your fridge up to 24 hours, until ready to cook. Sure, you could freeze them too, just make sure to thaw before cooking.

Whip up some sides and you got dinner!

I used Buffalo Wild Wings' Buffalo Rub (pictured above) It was about $5, bought at the restaurant. 

Single-Serving Packets of Joy

Freezer cooking. Its all the rage these days with home cooks. Something restaurants have been doing instinctively for years. Nonetheless, its a fantastic way to eat cheaply, healthy and most importantly EASY.

This post is about tonights venture with freezer cooking. I made two simple types of meals: marinated meat and steam packets. 

For the meat- i literally poured half a bottle of salad dressing (italian or soy sesame vinegarettes) in a gallon size ziplock freezer bag along with a couple of  chicken thigh quarters. Thaw and Bake these at 350 in the oven for 40-45 minutes. Or dump frozen in a slow cooker for 4-6 hours on low. Add some sides and you got dinner for two.

Each of these is two portions of chicken.

I also did some good-ol steam packets. Not a new concept but one that doesn't seem to be used by the home chef all that much. Don't know why, it's super simple! 

Step 1: Make a square of foil big enough for your ingredients. I did about a 12x10piece  of foil, for one serving. Place on 1 serving of chicken. My coupon friend and i went shopping today and she introduced me to an insanely good deal on chicken breast. Its thin cut, but the price per pound was cheaper then even buying whole breast! I'm in awe of this lady's money saving skills!

Anyway...uhhh tangent. Do this with fish too! Its marvelous! 

Step 2: Add frozen veg and seasoning. U can use fresh veg too, here, its all getting frozen anyway. I used a big handful of frozen California Blend that i got at walmart for like 7-8$. I had a Mediterranean seasoning blend that i sprinkled over all. Whatever you have is good though any kind of seasoning blend or, if you want to be fancy, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, parsley, basil, thyme, oregano, mustard powder... I think thats whats all in the one I used. 

Two 1/2" ish pieces of butter... Because.. Butter! Yeesss you can use olive oil too, you yuppies!! 

Step 3: Fold... Freeze. I fold mine like a (badly) wrapped present. Doesn't matter how you fold it, so long as you make sure the juices stay in the packet. Placing in a gallon size ziplock baggie makes em last longer jn the freezer, keeps it from getting burn. Highly advise doing this unless you know youre using it in the next day or two.

Step 4: Cook.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. 

If youre doing fish, pop it in the 350 degree oven for 25-30 min till fish is opaque and flakes easily with fork.

Serve with rice or garlic bread, or try slicing it and serving with pasta+some fancy cheese. Nom.