WiP Wednesday- Playing Catch Up

I just got back from Texas yesterday and today I had a lot of works in progress!
Starting with a big fight with our wireless internet router and then the customer service woman. I know it's not her fault but gosh I think it stinks when you have to purchase an extended warranty on something you already bought just to make it work! It's working now, no thanks to LinkSys or Cisco.
Today began round one of seed planting. I'm using lots of variables for starting my seeds so that MAYBE one of them will work! The one I tried today was a seed starting kit.

Each cell came with this condensed "dirt" and I added water to them and they puffed up! Pretty cool! And not too messy. The only issue I came across was when some of the dirt pods turned sideways when I poured the water in and then expanded and got stuck. (Don't let your kids and husbands flush these down the drains folks they didn't budge!)

I made a 72 square grid on the computer with colored dots that correlated with the dots I put on the plastic planting containers and then wrote which seeds I put in which cell!

 Then I made some granola! Luke LOVES to eat granola with Greek Yogurt every morning. I can be in the bedroom and hear him crunching away while he watches ESPN. Normally, I buy granola from Costco in giant bags but we have no Costco and I don't know when I'll get there next. I considered buying it from the regular grocery store but they just don't carry cost effective Luke size bags.

 Luke doesn't care for all the expensive nuts so its not too pricey to make myself. Plus, I still have giant bags of oats from my last Costco trip!

 I worked a little on machine quilting this quilt! I got a new walking foot at the Dallas quilt show, so I'm back in business!

 I made 9 more freezer breakfast burritos for Luke as he completely depleted my stash while I was gone!

Lastly, I worked a couple more rows of my latest knitting project! It's a Magrathea scarf for ME! I'm already in love with it. As my family in Texas saw, after every row I hold it up and admire it for a bit.
Whew! I cant believe I got all that done today plus a little more! I think I'll put my feet up and do a little blog reading.

I'm linking up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced!

Empanadas

Remember back here I made these things I called pulled pork and black bean goodness. My friend Jamie reminded me that they're empanadas. She also gave me a couple other dough recipes to try out. The first one was a LOT easier to work with than swiebach dough and kind of acted more like a tortilla when being baked. (I'm opting for the lower cal baking route.) I'm able to roll the dough very thin and they're very crisp when done. One drawback when using them as freezer lunches is that they do produce more crumbs. (Said the messy eater.)


Here is that dough recipe:

2 cups flour, 1/3 cup
shortening or butter, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2-2/3 cup water (just enough for the
dough to come together and be soft and pliable). Wrap the dough in plastic wrap
and refrigerate an hour or two before using. You could also freeze the dough.
Should make 10 2-inch circles, or 5 bigger ones!

Then, yesterday I tried a different recipe to see if I could get the same pliability but maybe a little softer. The recipe can be found here. The ingredients are 

• 3 cups flour (plus a little more for kneading)


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 cup cold water


• 1 egg


• 1 egg white


• 1 teaspoon vinegar


• 3 tablespoons shortening

This recipe was a bit softer when baked, but didn't look as nice or roll out as easily. 

All of the picture credits go to Luke in this post. He took all the process pictures over my shoulder and it went so much more quickly than if I had taken them all myself. With the photos I even got a bit of commentary on how my dough isn't very round when I roll it out. He says it's because I don't have enough of the culture. Punk.

Freezer Breakfast Burritos

I have done it. I have caved to the freezer breakfast burrito. We had two convenient snow days, and I used them as an opportunity to fill the freezer. I read Iowa Girl Eats' Tutorial and followed it loosely. I differed in that 3 of them have cooked diced potatoes, and 3 of them have a black beans that I cooked with taco seasoning for empenadas. I'll hold off on posting until I get the review from Luke.
Review from Luke:

"Those are pretty good!"

Matty's Mac n Cheese

This is the recipe my brother in law Matt uses. (At the time he introduced us to this recipe, one of their friends persistently called him Matty much to his dismay. It may have been catching.) This recipe is so good it needs publishing and to be preserved online in case of tragedy.
Please note: Substitutions cannot be made. I have tried, it does not work. This recipe can, however, be trippled.
1 3/4 cups small elbow macaroni
1 1/4 cups EXTRA sharp cheddar and White Cheddar (about 5 oz) cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper (black pepper makes suspicious black flakes)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/3 cups half and half
1 1/3 cups whipping cream
2/3 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/4 cups packed grated extra sharp cheddar
Preheat oven to 350* F. Lightly butter 9x13 glass baking dish. Cook macaroni al dente, drain, put into baking dish, and add cubed cheese. Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients gradually while whisking. Pour over macaroni noodles and cubed cheese. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.
Bake for 25 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes. (Resist the urge to sneak even just a bite. The sauce needs to thicken as it cools. If you take an early bite there is sauce that cannot claim noodles. (The voice of experience.)
Because we're lactose intolerant (and bad ones at that) I portion this delicacy into 1/2 cup Tupperware and freeze it for those snack time cravings...when I haven't had too much dairy that day.

Because Italian is Always Romantic

About two weeks ago, Luke mentioned to me that he'd like us to cook something together. I was a bit surprised but I sure wasn't going to turn down a cooking buddy! I went out and got the ingredients to make lasagna roll-ups and stuffed shells. It was really fun! Because there were two of us it was pretty easy and quick to make enough extra to put in the freezer for later meals, and have dinner that night! 

Here are our stuffed shells.

We put about six in containers and froze them to heat up for a light dinner or lunch.

 And seriously...is there anything more handsome than this beautiful man in the kitchen?

Luke is holding the lasagna rolls. They make for nice easy portioning, but they were a little tricky to eat. Maybe if I had put more egg in the filling to help it set up nice and sturdy.
We finished up the night watching Timothy Green.
This little date night has stayed with us as we have enjoyed the deliciousness in later nights too! We're pretty proud of ourselves!

Freezer Food- Pulled Pork and Black Bean Goodness

These sandwiches are a perfect freezer lunch, snack or dinner. I just microwave them for about a minute  and if I'm able I toast it to crisp up the outside. Home made goodness with freezer aisle convenience.

Prep: Start some pulled pork cooking in the crock pot with some water and diced onion, for flavoring I put some fennel, rosemary  chili flakes, and large ground pepper in a tea ball.) Make up some dough (pizza, zwieback  whatever your fancy) and let it rise, then cook some black beans with all the seasoning you would put in taco meat. Onion, pepper, cumin, garlic, chili powder, etc. mine were not getting soft so per the bean council I added just a bit of baking soda. That did the trick. Then mash them a bit so they're kind of spreadable.

 Take a small piece of dough (smaller than a baseball, bigger than a golf ball) and roll it out as thin as you dare. Spoon the beans onto one side. I didn't want mine centered because I wanted to fold the dough in half and roll the sides closed.

 Add a slice of cheese. My cheese is kind of dinky because technically speaking we're both lactose intolerant but we love cheese. If you can eat it, I suggest a couple more slices.

 Next add some of the shredded pork and salsa. (Luke's only regret on this recipe was that I didn't put enough salsa, or could have added some green sauce. I thought this was just the right amount. I'm a weenie when it comes to spicy.)

 Fold the dough over the filling.

 Press the top edges into the bottom half of the dough.

 Then roll the bottom half of the dough up over the top edge.

 I wanted the outer edges to crisp up so I put a good layer of olive oil in the bottom of the pan. When placing these on the pan I would first put them top down, coat them in the oil and then flip them.

 I think I baked them around 375. No time sorry. Keep an eye on them.

 Half way through baking them, carefully turn them over.

 Some of the seams held, and some didn't, leaking moisture onto the pan and causing the bottom to stick when taking them off the pan.

 Some of them stayed closed and some kind of rolled open as they baked. I don't know what would make the difference. Any ideas?

Last problem...what do I name them?  Taco Pockets?

Freezer Food- One Potato, Two

Luke's new job encompasses food and beverage as well so his weird hours just got weirder. It's made life interesting when he comes home hungry at the crack of midnight. I've been working on coming up with some semi healthy, microwaveable midnight snacks or quick lunches.
One of the first I tried was twice baked potatoes.
I scooped the insides out and mashed them up with some ranch dip mix, milk and a dallop of sour cream. Then I gently stirred in some chopped up green onion.


Before scooping the mixture back into the potato skins I cooked some broccoli (al dente)


And put two or three in the bottom of the potato skin.


Then I scooped some of the mashed potato mixture on top.
Add a light sprinkle of cheese and green onions. Then I began to experiment. I baked half of them before freezing and then froze half to see if it made a difference when reheating them to eat later.


It didn't. So if your re-creating this, my suggestion is to freeze these goodie on a tray or plate


and then put them into ziplock baggies for more stackable storage. I do two at a time to help the consumers with portion control otherwise we'd eat them all in one go!
When you're ready to eat them, take them out, microwave in one minute increments til hot. (We got a weak microwave because I wanted to hide it in a cupboard, so ours takes about 3 min.)

I hope you enjoy as much as we do!

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