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S’Waffled Toast and More!

Nibbles

Gooooooood morning! What’s so good about it? Um…. it’s here and we’re here to see it! (And that’s far better than the alternative!)

Direct link for the feed readers: View From the Counter Top, Episode 3)

I have no specific reason for being so chipper today, but I am, so I’m just going to roll with it. Join me?

Meals at home for 4/4-4/10

Meals at home for 4/4-4/10

Looking back on the past week’s menu, I think it was one of my more enjoyable weeks, food-wise. There’s always room for improvement, but I feel like it was well-balanced (both in time spent preparing the food as well as the variety of dishes). Here’s how it broke down:

Monday: Chicken & Chickpea Chopped Salad
This recipe from Ambitious Kitchen was a good start to the week. Quick and easy to prepare and it tasted so good! The winning flavor combo was the goat cheese + barbecue sauce. It pretty much made the salad. I can see us making this again.

Tuesday: Night out with friends!
First Tuesday’s mean a meet-up and we were once again at Northside Pies. I was in the mood for appetizers but messed up my order and was “that girl” who orders one gluten-free item and one gluten-full one. D’oh! I meant to order the Caprese Salad to go with my cheese bread on a gluten-free base, but there was some sort of short circuit between my brain and my mouth and I ordered the Feta Bruschetta instead. Oh, well! The good thing about the whole Low-FODMAP thing is that the effects are cumulative, and by reducing the amount of wheat (and therefore fructans) by having the one gluten-free item I could indulge in the accidental order and enjoy it as long as I didn’t eat the whole thing myself. (I shared some, ate some, and took the rest home for later.) I neglected to get a picture, though–oops!

Wednesday: Braised Tilapia with Artichoke Hearts + Steamed Kale
This recipe came from an old Menu Mailer subscription (but is available in this post on Saving Dinner). It’s a good, simple, but not boring fish dinner recipe and the only real change I made was to sub green onions for yellow and my arrowroot slurry for the wheat flour she suggests to thicken the pan drippings into a sauce. Forgo the lumps and use a slurry, it’ll make meal prep so much simpler.

Thursday: Chicken & Sweet Potato Stew + Brown Rice
Ah, freezer meals, they make our lives so much easier. This one needs something, but I’m not 100% sure what just yet. The recipe is from Stock Piling Moms, though mine looks a lot more tomatoey than hers does. I think a can of coconut milk might have been a good addition instead of the cup of broth added just before crocking. Or maybe just a bit more seasonings overall as once it was combined with the rice it lost some of it oomph. Not bad, just needs a little tweaking.

Friday: S’Waffled Toast + Sausage
Todd was a little late getting home so I had time to ponder what I was going to do with the French toast for dinner. Not that French toast on its own is anything but delicious, but I felt like playing a bit. Waffled French toast is nothing new around the ‘net, and a quick search turns up stuffed versions, too, so this isn’t exactly an earth-shattering invention on my part. But I do like my name for it (stuffed and waffled French toast is a bit of a mouthfull, you know? pun intended). My version of this recipe is at the bottom of this post.

Saturday: Sushi Bowls + Spring Rolls
I could eat sushi almost any or every night of the week and be blissfully happy. My wallet might not agree, nor do I always have time to make it at home. But sushi bowls are another thing entirely. Sometimes I’ll use it as a side dish but often it can stand on its own with no problem–it just depends on what you add to it! This version had the usual sweet potato, green onions, avocado, and nori plus little green peas, carrots, and sliced fried egg. And if you want to make your own Yummy sauce (aka Yum Yum Sauce, aka Japanese Steakhouse White Sauce, etc.) here’s a recipe from AllRecipes.

Sunday: (Crock) Pot Roast + Carrots + Mashed Potatoes
Sometimes you just want a good, old-fashioned Sunday dinner and this was one of those times. My best pot roast is always one done in the slow-cooker, and this one was simply seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic olive oil, and Worcestershire sauce. I propped it up on a bed of whole carrots (peeled but otherwise intact) and only added the barest amount of water to the crock pot so I wouldn’t come home to stew. There was still plently of pan juices to turn into gravy, and because the carrots were cooking in it more than the roast it was almost like a carrot jus and made for a slightly sweet gravy.

S'Waffled Toast

S’Waffled Toast

S’Waffled Toast

For the Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup fresh or frozen strawberries, mashed
2 Tbsp sugar

For the Toast:
3 eggs
2 cups milk
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp vanilla (or more, to taste)
10 slices bread

Preheat your waffle iron to the crispy settling and spray it with non-stick spray. (Most irons advise against this but I always ignore that–this is a messy recipe and this will make it much easier to clean up later.)

Combine the filling ingredients and adjust the sweetness to taste. If you don’t have fresh or frozen berries, I’d bet that you could stir preserves into the cream cheese and omit the sugar and be just fine.

Mix together in a medium-sized bowl the eggs, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Spread the filling mixture generously on one side of a piece of bread and place a second slice on top. Depending on the size and configuration of your waffle iron and the shape of your bread, you may want to cut the sandwiches in half.

Dunk the sandwiched bread into the liquid, covering on all sides.

Place onto the waffle iron and close the lid securely. My waffle iron always needs two rounds of cooking to get anything done, these s’waffled toasts were no exception. Your mileage may vary depending on your waffle iron, use your best judgement.

Carefully remove the finished toasts from the waffle iron, serve with powdered sugar or syrup, as is the custom, and enjoy!

Have a tasty week!

 

Seafood Chowder & Cooking with a Counter’s-Eye View

Nibbles

To complement this week’s post about last week’s menu, I thought I’d try something different and set up my point-and-shoot camera on the counter while I made dinner. It was also a way to test out the camera as a vlogging alternative for my larger camcorder and, despite needing a larger memory card and more frequent charging, I think it’ll do just fine for casual vlogging.

View from the Countertop #1: https://youtu.be/u-26_0wQdnE

Obviously I’ve edited it down significantly as I spend, on average, half an hour making dinner each night, but what did you think? Want me to do this again? Would you like more commentary or is the music background alone cool? Feedback is always welcome. Like I said, this is an experiment.

On the Menu

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Monday: Seafood Chowder (recipe at the end of this post)
Chowder is less a recipe and more a method, at least the way I make it. Usually you start with bacon but I didn’t have any defrosted so I used the more easily divided local-made Italian sausage–it worked just as well. The thing about seafood anything is that you have to be careful not to overcook it or the shellfish will become tough and rubbery–not exactly appetizing. So you wait to add it once everything else is pretty much done and, in this case, I turned off the heat once I added the seafood mix and let the heat of the soup cook the seafood gently–once the shrimp was pink we were good to go.

Tuesday: Coconut Curry Chicken with Basmati Rice
One of the better freezer meals from that first batch I put together, I did forget that the sauce tended to be a bit thin by the end and didn’t thicken it this time. I’ve noted it on my freezer meal master list so the next time I put some up I can note it on the bag. Sometimes I’ll make a version of naan with this, but opted not to because I had a call to be on at 8 and needed to make sure dinner was done and dusted well before then.

Wednesday: Beef Quesadillas and Mexican Corn
A surprisingly good supper, I was just looking for something a little different to do and this came up in a Pinterest search, though I didn’t use any particular recipe. Seasoned beef with tomatoes and green chilies, my sweet potato refried-bean substitute, and plenty of shredded cheese. The Mexican Corn was just as simple: corn, a little diced tomato, a little diced green chilies, salt, pepper, and cumin for flavor. Top with salsa and sour cream (or Greek yogurt, in our case).

Thursday: Breaded Pork Chops, Quinoa, and Green Beans
I almost didn’t cook this night, I was so tired when I got home. But, at the same time, I was in the mood for some home cooking and the pork chops were defrosted so… Three step breading with coconut flour followed by beaten egg and then seasoned gluten-free breadcrumbs. Baked because it was too hot to even consider pan-frying them (plus a touch healthier, I suppose) and I could at least leave the room once the food was in the oven. The quinoa is cooked in our rice cooker with chicken broth, celery, carrots, and a splash of garlic olive oil. Todd’s turns out better (turns out he adds butter at the end) but mine wasn’t too bad.

Friday: “Brown Foods” Night
Otherwise known as appetizers for dinner. Not something we do often (thank goodness) but sometimes you just want to indulge in snacks and not eat a “real” dinner. So that’s what we did. Originally I’d planned to do breakfast for dinner so it wasn’t like this was any worse than the corned beef hash that we would have had. I regret nothing.

Saturday: Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta with Goat Cheese and a Side Salad
Making up for Friday, a bit, this was a meatless meal that started with making the red pepper pesto (super quick and very tasty) and then boiling pasta. Can’t beat simple! Pesto sauces are generally not my favorite as a stand-alone pasta topping but the goat cheese helped smooth it out and even the leftovers were amazing. And the extra pesto came in handy the next night when I was putting together another batch of freezer meals. (Recipe from Table for Two)

Sunday: Greek Lemon Chicken with Tzatziki Sauce and Seasoned Potato Wedges
This was the dinner that almost wasn’t! We got home from the Sam’s/Publix run around 6pm and I got started on the freezer meal prep while Todd went to lay down–he was exhausted! Around 8 something I put the marinade on the chicken and started the potatoes in the oven (seasoned with garlic olive oil, rosemary, oregano, salt, and pepper, like the patates we get at the Greek Festival) and kept going with the freezer meals for another hour. Todd wasn’t interested in getting up for supper–he was out for the night–but I forced myself to sit down and eat something before finishing meal prep. (Recipe from Recipe Runner)

It was after 11pm when I finished the 18 freezer meals. None of these needed any pre-cooking (thank goodness) but they still needed to be put together one by one. In addition to the freezer meals we also added another 7 meals worth of protein to the chest freezer and picked up some of the larger items we needed for the party this coming weekend. All in all a productive, if tiring, day. (And the time change didn’t help matters, but that’s an old rant.)

Seafood Sausage Chowder

Serves 6

2 T Garlic Olive Oil
2 Bell Peppers, Diced
4 Green Onions, Chopped
1/2 lb Italian Sausage, Diced
2 t Salt
1/2 t Black Pepper
1/4 c Flour
6 c Chicken Broth (or 2 T bullion powder and 6 c water)
6 Yukon Gold Potatoes, Peeled and Diced
1 can Coconut Milk
2 lb Seafood Mix

Heat olive oil in a large pot and saute peppers and onions until the peppers start to soften. Add sausage and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the flour over the vegetable and sausage mixture, stirring to combine the flour with the oil in the pot, forming a roux. Add the potatoes and broth and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender (about 10 minutes). Stir in coconut milk and return to a boil.

Turn off heat (or reduce to low if your seafood mix is still slightly icy) and stir in seafood mix. Cook only as long as it takes for the seafood to cook (judge by the shrimp or squid’s opacity). Adjust seasoning to taste and serve hot.

Enjoy!

Weekly Menu 2/22-2/28

Nibbles

You know what sounds good when you have the flu? Almost nothing. And yet, a body can’t fight without fuel, so I stuck it out and put together a pretty decent menu for last week.

Weekly menu for the last week in February

Going clockwise from upper left corner:

Monday: Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches and Soup
Soup and sandwiches are usually a pretty safe bet for any night you need a quick and easy meal. The soup was some gumbo we had in the freezer and the sandwiches used up some of the spiral-sliced ham I’d frozen from our New Year’s Day meal.

Tuesday: Carne Asada-style Quinoa Bowls
Thank you slow-cooker and rice cooker–my one-two punch. This was my first day back at work after 4 days out sick and I figured I’d be pretty tired when I got home. I figured right. The recipe from How Sweet It Is was intended for nachos, but I thought a bowl would be easier to eat. Making quinoa in my rice cooker, with chicken broth instead of water, is my new favorite thing, especially on nights like this one.

Wednesday: Classic Chicken and Rice with Green Beans
On Wednesdays Todd works late, so an oven dish with a long lead time always fits in well, here. Super simple to put together and very good comfort food. Which we needed as we were both bone-weary by the end of each day. We struggled through work this week out of necessity, alone.

Thursday & Friday (not pictured) Take Out
That exhaustion was a big part of why Thursday and Friday ended up no-cook nights. I’d allowed for one this week, knowing the likelihood was high of needing a night off, but two? Oh, well. Thursday we got Jimmy John’s (our just opened! and while I have some philosophical issues with the owner’s recent big game hunter kerfuffle, being able to get a decent lettuce wrap won out) and Friday I got a salad from Zaxby’s. And a milkshake. I earned it, trust me!

Saturday: Garlic-Parmesan Pork Chops with Roasted Carrots and Red Potatoes
If I hadn’t earned that milkshake before, the fact that I spent all afternoon and part of the evening fussing with the bathroom tile on Saturday then cooked supper made up for any former lack. That was a long day, folks! The pork had been defrosting the last couple of days so, really, all I had to do was slice and dice the carrots and potatoes and toss them in the oven for an hour. Not exactly neurosurgery. But I did spice things up by adding some garam masala and ground mustard to the olive oil, salt, pepper, parsley, and paprika that I usually season them with.

Sunday: Sweet-Potato and Kale Turkey Burgers with Coleslaw
These turned out a lot better than I was expecting–you just never know with turkey burgers. The sweet potato and kale were really good with the ground turkey and I’m glad we have two more batches of these in the freezer. The recipe came from Multiply Delicious.

So here’s a question: What’s your favorite “sick” food? The one you always turn to when you’re feeling under the weather. Is it the classic chicken noodle soup? I’m partial to egg drop soup when I’m feeling icky, but we’d just had that the previous week, and then Todd made us chicken noodle soup a few days later.

Something Mom used to make when I was little was milktoast (milquetoast?). Has anyone else had that before? It’s milk, just barely scalded (the point just before boiling where the little bubbles form around the edge of the pan), sweetened with a bit of sugar, with torn up pieces of white bread stirred in. It was comfort food when I was sick and a treat on occasional cold winter’s nights. I haven’t made it for myself in ages, but when it’s cold and I’ve got the flu, I do think about it sometimes.

The other fun food thing we did this weekend was turn the leftover King Cake (which I’d stashed in the fridge so it wouldn’t go bad) into bread pudding. Since it’s a brioche loaf to begin with, it seemed like it would work okay. The banana filling and sugar on top did make for a slightly sweeter pudding than usual, but I was relieved to see that the colored sugar didn’t turn the mix technicolor. Just a little hint here or there.

Have a tasty week!

Flavor vs Taste and When One is Lost

Nibbles

Taste is one of the five sense, what we pick up through the taste buds on our tongue, often simplified to the basics of sweet, bitter, salty, sour, and umami. Flavor, on the other hand, is the combination of the senses taste and smell. If you’ve ever had a head cold with a stuffed up nose you might notice that things don’t “taste” quite right–a bit of a misnomer since, really, all you’re doing is tasting, not, um, flavoring.

This was my predicament last week. It started on Monday afternoon when I grabbed a mini-Reese’s cup and couldn’t taste the chocolate at all, and barely the peanut butter. I still had some of my coffee from the morning, so I took a sip, paying attention this time, and found that I could only describe it as sweet; no particular flavor, and certainly not the vanilla that I’d used when I made it. Hmmm.

The strange thing was, even though I wasn’t feeling fabulous and I did stay home on Tuesday to try and sleep away whatever it was in its early stages, I didn’t have a stuffy nose. I could breathe just fine, etc. It was really strange. And this small bout of anosmia (the technical term for the lack of a sense of smell) lasted through Friday–longer than I’ve ever dealt with, even that time I had 3 cases of bronchitis & sinusitis in 3 months (more like the first cases never went away, but it was still the reason I didn’t even try to see the ball drop back in 2003).

Cooking supper this week was a series of ‘honey, I hope this tastes right!’

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Monday: Broiled Tilapia and Roasted Sweet Potato Risotto

Tuesday: Cranberry BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Corn on the Cob

Wednesday: Orange Chicken with Rice Noodles and Green Beans

Thursday: Eggs, Grits, Turkey Bacon & Links

Friday: Corn Chowder with Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuits

Saturday: Beef Negimaki with Not-Fried Brown Rice

Sunday: Chinese Take-out

Todd assured me everything was tasty this week. What I took away from the week’s experience was a renewed respect for the basic tastes (sweet was the easiest to detect, sour the next best) and the importance texture plays in our enjoyment of food.

Take, for instance, our BBQ pork night. I always use a bit of mayo and sweet relish on my barbecue sandwiches. While the flavors definitely play a part, the creamy texture of the mayo and the crisp cuts of pickle are a great counterpoint to the sauced pork. Another texture highlight were the rice noodles with the orange chicken–they were perfectly chewy without being too crunchy or too gummy.

I’m more than happy that my nose is working again and food has regained its flavor. Still, being without one sense, while frustrating, gave me a different perspective. And perspective is always good!

Have a tasty week!

On the Plate October 5-11 + 5 Meal Planning Tips

Nibbles

We interrupt the Halloween merriment to get a handle on menu planning. After all, how can you get decorations up and costumes made if you’re floundering with the “what’s for dinner” question every night?!

A varied menu makes the week go by!

A varied menu makes the week go by!

Monday: Herbed chicken breast, savory mashed sweet potatoes, green beans
So, the sweet potatoes were supposed to the Garlic-Herb Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Parmesan from Cooking Classy. Instead, I was scrambling to finish the outdoor decorating before I lost the light (hah! didn’t exactly happen that way, but it got done), so I didn’t start dinner until almost 8pm. Not wanting to wait on roasting the sweet potatoes, I popped them into the microwave on the magical “potato” setting (seriously, best thing about our new microwave) and whipped them up with the herbs and Parmesan that the original recipe called for. Just as tasty in half the time.

Tuesday: Dinner out @ Northside Pies in Tallahassee, FL
I’ll do a proper write-up of Northside Pies one of these days, but our monthly meet-up there with friends was fun as always. Even though their menu doesn’t mention it, they do carry a gluten-free pizza crust in the 10″ size, though their salads aren’t bad at all if you’d rather not. I opted for the Figure 4, this week, and a Black Julep (copycat recipe to come on that one, it was so good!) cocktail. Since the fresh garlic was very large and in charge, along with the figs (both High-FODMAP ingredients), I only ate half while there and was fine. (It was only after I scarfed the other half after getting home that there were issues. Oh, well, it was worth it!)

Figure 4 on gluten-free crust and a Black Julep at Northside Pies

Figure 4 on gluten-free crust and a Black Julep at Northside Pies

Wednesday: Bang Bang Shrimp, coconut rice, and garlic spinach
If you have ever been to Bonefish Grill and tasted their signature shrimp dish, yes, this is virtually the same thing and so worth the effort, even the deep frying, on a weekday night. I used the copycat recipe from Fake Ginger and substituted gf flour and breadcrumbs where applicable. Point one: No recipe ever seems to allow enough breading material–I had to triple it, in the end, to do a pound of medium shrimp (enough for four servings). Point two: though it seems odd to do a back-and-forth breading like this, it actually worked really well, so I’m glad I harnessed my natural inclination to switch to a more traditional 3-step breading.

Thursday: Pepperoni Pizza Pasta and a green salad
Based on A Night Owl’s One Pot Pizza Rigatoni, this seemed like a quick and easy option, even if mine was more of a two-pot, slightly more involved version. First, I don’t trust gluten free pastas in a toss it all together and cook situation–there’s just way too high a chance for error. Second, I was going for a more budget-friendly meal so used the ground beef we already had in the freezer and a quick sauce made in the pan (rather than purchasing a $9 jar of Rao’s Sensitive Formula Marinara). I also didn’t put it under the broiler to finish, just put the lid on after combining the sauce and pasta and topping it with the mozzarella and reserved (turkey) pepperoni. Still excellent!

Friday: Fish Taco Nachos
Nacho night! I’s been thinking of doing fish tacos at some point, but the fiddliness of it all just made me not want to, but fish taco nachos–why not?! I seasoned some rice flour with cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne, salt, and black pepper and dredged the tuna steaks in it before searing in garlic olive oil, crumbling the tuna steaks once they’d cooled enough to handle. Then I built the pan of nachos with my sweet potato refried bean substitute, shredded fiesta cheese blend, and green onions; topping with shredded cabbage and an avocado crema once they were out of the oven. We like to just take the whole pan to the coffee table and munch while catching up with our shows on Hulu.

Saturday: Waffles, Eggs & Bacon
I kept putting off trying the whipped egg white waffles I’ve seen in several places, but that’s also what the Pamela’s mix called for so I gave it a shot. Dude… such amazing gluten-free waffles we’ve never made or tasted elsewhere. The egg whites were so worth it! I don’t see us going back to the old way any time soon!

Sunday: Pot Roast, Potatoes and Carrots
One-pot slow-cooker perfection for a Sunday supper. And, no, I don’t fool with the canned soup or dry soup mixes, I just add salt, pepper, garlic oil, Worcestershire sauce and a little parsley and it’s good to go. We have a few pieces of the roast leftover after making up the lunches and I’d be lying if I said debris fries weren’t a distinct possibility.

# # #

Two weeks ago, when I posted my last On the Plate, several readers remarked about needing to meal plan more often or otherwise not being able to make the time to do it. So here’s my process for putting together a week’s menu, in the hopes that it’ll help those of you still on the fence or wondering where to start.

  1. Inspiration sources. I “save for later” anything I find possibly interesting while going through my blog feeds in Feedly. This way, when I sit down to menu plan, I can click on the sidebar link and scroll through easily. If something sounds good, I decide what day it’ll be best on and plug it into my Google Drive document. Pinterest is another good inspiration source, naturally, so if I know I’ve pinned something over the last couple of weeks, I go check there to refresh my memory. And, then, there’s always grabbing a cookbook off the shelf at random and thumbing through until something catches my eye (or going straight to the post-it notes if I’ve already flagged things in the book). Checking your store’s sale paper online is also a good way to dream up dinner ideas.
  2. Inventory. “Shopping” the pantry and freezer to see what we have on hand not only reduces the chances of over-buying but also tells me if something needs to be used up before it goes bad. We stock up on meats every couple of months at Sam’s club, so looking to see what we have left usually grants a certain amount of direction.
  3. Routine. We don’t tend to follow a prescribed schedule on what to eat on what days, but if that helps you, use it! Meatless Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, etc. can make things a lot easier and it helps set expectations among the family. Our routine is more along the lines of knowing that we’ll cycle through the main proteins of any given week (pork chops, chicken breasts or thighs, beef, fish or shrimp) plus a breakfast for dinner night and maybe a meatless meal. So if I’m planning and I have a few spots to fill, I run through the list and see what’s “missing.”
  4. Favorites. We don’t eat the same thing each week, but we do have certain favorites that we fall back on to fill menu gaps. For me, it’s most often Sushi bowls, for Todd it’s Jambalaya or a Shrimp and Orzo dish we both loved from our Menu Mailer days.
  5. Balance. Don’t plan multiple ingredient or technique-heavy items in the same meal. Just don’t do that to yourself! Take, for instance, Bang Bang Shrimp. That requires a sauce, breading, and deep frying. No way was I going to, say, make handmade spring rolls on top of that! Instead, I made coconut rice (1 can of coconut milk, 1 can of water, 1 1/2 cups white rice) in the rice cooker and put some frozen spinach in a pot on the stove with some water and garlic oil to simmer until done. Keep in mind what preparation each item needs, and swap out something if you’ve got two heavy hitters in one meal.

I hope these tips helped you get a handle on weekly meal planning. If you’re still feeling a bit overwhelmed at the process but want more organization to your dinners, there are services out there to help! Three we’ve used in the past (yes, even a former chef doesn’t always want to think about what to make every night) are Menu Mailer ($21/quarter and up), eMeals ($39/quarter), and Paleo Plan ($9.99/month). Menu Mailer and eMeals also offer shopping lists as part of the weekly planning service, I don’t think Paleo Plan does, but it’s been a while since I’ve used any of them.