In the Kitchen – Page 3 – The Creative Salad

Meal Planning Success and Failures

In our quest to economize we’ve been making an effort to meal plan. I like the idea of using everything in our fridge (sending less to the compost bin) and reducing the amount of time we spend each day trying to figure out what to cook. (Every minute counts in our busy lives!)

Week one was a resounding success. David and I made (and loved):

1. Grilled shrimp with cilantro, lime, and peanuts (pin)
2. Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut & Ginger (pin)
3. Yam, tofu, pea, and carrot coconut curry (aka use up whatever veggies are in the fridge)
4. Tuna fish and spinach salad with hard boiled eggs, apple, and dried cranberries
5. Make your own sushi with smoked salmon and avocado

Week two didn’t go so well. I made the mistake of picking a number of new recipes instead of sticking to old favorites with just one or two new recipes thrown in for the week. When push came to shove, I didn’t feel like even looking up the ingredient proportions yet alone tackle a new recipe. MAJOR MEAL PLAN FAIL.

Plus I really need to make one dish for everyone to eat. Our daughter tends to grab her own meal from the fridge or wants something super simple to prepare. (Bonus points if it’s white and room temperature.) The girl is trying to live off of cubed tofu and rice (with nutritional yeast), rice pasta (with butter and cheese), hard boiled eggs, and frozen bread. (Thank goodness she also eats frozen peas, edamame, miso soup, avocado, smoked salmon, (all-natural) hot dogs, beans, salmon, and fruits or I’d really start to worry.)

This week I hope to do better, although with a house full of guests I may have to cut myself some slack.

What sorts of things have you been cooking lately? Please remind me of easy and cheap recipes to share. I have over seven hundred (!!!) recipes pinned but now I’m only allowed to try one a week. ;)

Gluten-Free Muesli

This fall I won a giveaway at Shauna James Ahern’s delightful website, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef. The prize? Bob’s Red Mill Muesli, a new product containing gluten-free rolled oats, brown rice crisps, raisins, dried apples and cranberries, sunflower seeds, almonds, roasted soy beans, pumpkin seeds and coconut flakes.

Oh, boy, it’s delicious.

And gluten-free.

I follow the recipe straight off the box:
simmer an equal ratio of muesli and milk for five minutes on the stove.
(I’m particularly fond of using goat milk.)
Then I add a dash of maple syrup and indulge.

I find myself full all morning long.

I’ve had some trouble locating this product in stores, so I finally ordered a bunch online via soap.com (with a generous coupon code and free two-day shipping to boot) and have been LOVING this morning ritual of muesli and (decaf) English breakfast tea.

I love starting the day off with delectable things, don’t you?

Vitamix Love

I frequently say that once you drive a car that gets 45 mpg (like our Prius) you cannot go back to a car with average fuel efficiency. The same holds true for Vitamix blenders. The other blenders just don’t compare.

We love and use our Vitamix 5200 every single day.

We grind our own almond and coconut flours (using the BPA-free dry grains container):

We make smoothies:

We blend dressings and grind nut butters.

When we are done, we fill the container halfway with water and a drop of dish soap, turn it on and it becomes it’s own dishwasher:

We don’t even need to scrub it!

Hands down: best kitchen purchase EVER.

Gluten-free Garlic Cheese Biscuits

Our family was thrilled to see that Pamela’s now makes a gluten-free Biscuit and Scone Mix! One of our favorite locally owned companies, their gluten-free brownies, cake and cookie mixes are consistently delicious. In fact they are so good that we make their fudgiest brownie recipe for our daughter’s birthday every year to rave reviews.

Now the drop biscuit recipe straight off the box is pretty yummy, but my cousin Julia has one-upped it, transforming the biscuits from tasty to downright heavenly. Here’s her take:

Gluten-free Garlic Cheese Biscuits
adapted from the Pamela’s Drop Biscuits recipe

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Add one bag of Pamela’s Biscuit Mix into a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or pastry blender. Mix 8 TBSP well-chilled butter (cut into 1/2″ cubes) into the dry mix until pea-sized crumbs are formed. Add 1 1/4 cups milk and 1 cup grated full-fat Monterrey Jack cheese and stir until just incorporated. Scoop large dallops onto a greased or parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes until just starting to brown. After removing the biscuits from the oven, brush the tops with a mixture of melted butter and garlic powder. Serve and enjoy!

Watch out, you may find yourself eating the whole batch. Of course, I’m pregnant so I have a great excuse to over-indulge. Ahem.

Blackberry Sweet Treats

We’ve been loving blackberry season. This year we’ve had more blackberries than ever, thanks in part to warmer weather and how our landlords pruned the blackberry bushes this past year. Oh, it’s been such fun.

Oh, it’s so sad the season it almost over!

We’re been pureeing up berry sauce (and LOVING our new OXO Food Mill):

And making crumbles:

We simmer blackberries with strawberries or raspberries and maple syrup on the stove until the fruit begins to fall apart. For the topping, we like to mix almond flour, coconut flour, and rolled oats with coconut oil. We add nutmeg and vanilla extract, then stir in a touch of maple syrup for sweetness. Then bake it in the oven until the top is browned. Delicious!

And eating a pint (or two!) of blackberries each day:

We even ate blackberries for dinner the other day, just because we could!

It’s been delicious.