Considering it was warm and sunny when I left to go to the lab this morning, it was rather disappointingly cold and rainy when I got out, especially considering I had a decent walk to the nearest campus bus stop and no umbrella. It was comforting though to know while soggy and shivering in the car that I had a big pot of soup waiting for me when I got home. It was quite good w/ a loaf of crusty bread on the side. Good thing too since we now have like 6 quarts of soup leftover. I hope it freezes well...
The original recipe from Wegmans uses a convenient bag of cleaned pre-cut veggies. The prep took longer for me as I found myself chopping vegetables this morning since I didn't have the convenient bag, and I did have a pile of veggies to try to use up. It needs a minimum of a 6 qt slow cooker. Ours was filled to the brim.
Beef Minestrone
2 lbs of beef chuck cut into 1" pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion diced
2 ribs of celery diced
3 carrots peeled and diced
1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 leek chopped
1 zucchini diced
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained
1 8 oz can garbanzo beans, drained
1 qt beef broth
1/2 cup dried ditalini pasta
In a large preheated pan, brown the in olive oil and set aside. Add veggies to the pan and sweat until softened and lightly browned, deglazing the bottom of the pan.
Add to the crock pot the meat, vegetables, beans, tomatoes, and broth. Cook on low for 8 hrs. Add the pasta and cook on low for another 45 minutes.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Old-fashioned sunday dinner minus dairy
Pot roast
2 lb of beef chuck roast
1 can condensed cream of mushroom
1/4 brown gravy mix (powder)
1 onion, sliced
Season the roast w/ salt and brown the roast on all sides. Mix the gravy mix and soup together. Put the onions and the roast into crock pot, and pour soup mix on top. Cook on low for 6 hours.
The sodium content of this roast is probably astronomical but it's fork tender, easy, and yummy!
Mashed potatoes
3 large yukon gold potatoes
3 russet potatoes
Rice milk
Margarine/spread
Peel the potatoes and dice in 1" chunks. Boil and simmer until soft. Drain. Add enough rice milk while mashing to desired consistency. Season w/ spread, salt and pepper.
This one was a bit of a challenge in trying to figure out the best combo of ingredients to achieve a creamy buttery mashed potato w/ neither cream nor butter. Rice milk was chosen as the dairy substitute since it was assumed to have a neutral flavor. As it turns out, it's slightly sweet, almost nutty in flavor but that was still a better choice than vanilla soy which is the only other milk sub I have in the house. Using the mix of potatoes was a good call since the yukon golds have a buttery texture in contrast to the fluffy but starchy russets. I think the lack of creamy dairy would have been more noticible in a russet-only mash.
And for the vegetables, baby got to try pureed real (frozen) peas tonight as opposed to the jarred babyfood variety. They were a rather bright green as opposed to the army green of gerber. He seemed to approve although in general he's getting a little upset w/ being spoonfed purees. I think I'm going to try a bit more baby-led foray into solids w/ some puree and choke-hazard-free finger food to see if he prefers that.
And as a final review from tonight's dinner, tofutti in a root beer float is vile. It doesn't actually blend w/ the root beer as it melts so you have a nasty foam of artificial vanilla flavor sitting atop the soda.
2 lb of beef chuck roast
1 can condensed cream of mushroom
1/4 brown gravy mix (powder)
1 onion, sliced
Season the roast w/ salt and brown the roast on all sides. Mix the gravy mix and soup together. Put the onions and the roast into crock pot, and pour soup mix on top. Cook on low for 6 hours.
The sodium content of this roast is probably astronomical but it's fork tender, easy, and yummy!
Mashed potatoes
3 large yukon gold potatoes
3 russet potatoes
Rice milk
Margarine/spread
Peel the potatoes and dice in 1" chunks. Boil and simmer until soft. Drain. Add enough rice milk while mashing to desired consistency. Season w/ spread, salt and pepper.
This one was a bit of a challenge in trying to figure out the best combo of ingredients to achieve a creamy buttery mashed potato w/ neither cream nor butter. Rice milk was chosen as the dairy substitute since it was assumed to have a neutral flavor. As it turns out, it's slightly sweet, almost nutty in flavor but that was still a better choice than vanilla soy which is the only other milk sub I have in the house. Using the mix of potatoes was a good call since the yukon golds have a buttery texture in contrast to the fluffy but starchy russets. I think the lack of creamy dairy would have been more noticible in a russet-only mash.
And for the vegetables, baby got to try pureed real (frozen) peas tonight as opposed to the jarred babyfood variety. They were a rather bright green as opposed to the army green of gerber. He seemed to approve although in general he's getting a little upset w/ being spoonfed purees. I think I'm going to try a bit more baby-led foray into solids w/ some puree and choke-hazard-free finger food to see if he prefers that.
And as a final review from tonight's dinner, tofutti in a root beer float is vile. It doesn't actually blend w/ the root beer as it melts so you have a nasty foam of artificial vanilla flavor sitting atop the soda.
Sunday brunch
Quick French toast for 2
2 eggs
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon to taste
4 slices of bread
1/2 tsp margarine/spread of choice
Whisk together first 6 ingredients until well mixed to form a thin batter. Soak the bread in the egg mixture. Heat a nonstick griddle over medium heat and grease the griddle w/ margarine. Panfry the bread until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes/side. Serve w/ powdered sugar and maple syrup. Sliced fruit is a nice topping too.
Soy milk subbed pretty well here in terms of flavor - no off flavors, the vanilla soy was fine. The only thing I noticed texturally was that the batter got a little tough when cooked - the outside of the french toast has a bit of chew. Not sure if that's from overmixing the batter, or if it has something to do w/ the soymilk. I noticed similar results when I substituted soy milk in other baking so it may be something in how the soy mixes w/ flour. May have to check the protein content in soy vs regular milk. Will have to explore further.
Tonight, I try mashed potatoes w/o dairy....
2 eggs
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon to taste
4 slices of bread
1/2 tsp margarine/spread of choice
Whisk together first 6 ingredients until well mixed to form a thin batter. Soak the bread in the egg mixture. Heat a nonstick griddle over medium heat and grease the griddle w/ margarine. Panfry the bread until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes/side. Serve w/ powdered sugar and maple syrup. Sliced fruit is a nice topping too.
Soy milk subbed pretty well here in terms of flavor - no off flavors, the vanilla soy was fine. The only thing I noticed texturally was that the batter got a little tough when cooked - the outside of the french toast has a bit of chew. Not sure if that's from overmixing the batter, or if it has something to do w/ the soymilk. I noticed similar results when I substituted soy milk in other baking so it may be something in how the soy mixes w/ flour. May have to check the protein content in soy vs regular milk. Will have to explore further.
Tonight, I try mashed potatoes w/o dairy....
Saturday, September 26, 2009
taste test
Non-dairy frozen desserts -
So far, I have tried a few brands to try to quell the cravings for ice cream. It's not even that I normally want a lot of ice cream, but we discovered the dairy allergy in the middle of the summer shortly after stocking the house w/ heavily discounted ben and jerry's that I now couldn't eat. Well, technically I could eat it, but both my son and I would suffer for it - him by being itchy and uncomfortable, me because he would never let me forget that he's itchy and uncomfortable, especially at 3am.
Tofutti vanilla ice cream - thumbs down. The texture is actually ok but the vanilla flavor is very artificial and tastes more like chemicals than vanilla. Being a soy product, it doesn't have the tofu aftertaste, but that may be masked by the funky vanilla flavor.
So Delicious Chocolate Peanut butter - thumbs up. Overall, it was decent and I would eat it again. This product is soy-based which probably accounts for a number of its characteristics. It's texture is on par w/ light ice cream, though one complaint was that it freezes rock hard which is difficult to scoop, but then melts quickly once scooped. While frozen solid, I have to admit it visually resembles peanut butter playdoh. The flavors were decent though and the soy aftertaste wasn't strong.
Coconut bliss Cherry Amaretto - two thumbs up! Made w/ coconut milk, the texture and mouthfeel were much richer than their soy counterparts. Of course it was also calorically on par w/ the forbidden Ben and jerry's. The amaretto flavor was good but a little weak and there was a coconut undertone to the flavor but I happen to like coconut.
There are still more brands to try so I'll have to decide if I test out some others or stick to the Coconut Bliss.
So far, I have tried a few brands to try to quell the cravings for ice cream. It's not even that I normally want a lot of ice cream, but we discovered the dairy allergy in the middle of the summer shortly after stocking the house w/ heavily discounted ben and jerry's that I now couldn't eat. Well, technically I could eat it, but both my son and I would suffer for it - him by being itchy and uncomfortable, me because he would never let me forget that he's itchy and uncomfortable, especially at 3am.
Tofutti vanilla ice cream - thumbs down. The texture is actually ok but the vanilla flavor is very artificial and tastes more like chemicals than vanilla. Being a soy product, it doesn't have the tofu aftertaste, but that may be masked by the funky vanilla flavor.
So Delicious Chocolate Peanut butter - thumbs up. Overall, it was decent and I would eat it again. This product is soy-based which probably accounts for a number of its characteristics. It's texture is on par w/ light ice cream, though one complaint was that it freezes rock hard which is difficult to scoop, but then melts quickly once scooped. While frozen solid, I have to admit it visually resembles peanut butter playdoh. The flavors were decent though and the soy aftertaste wasn't strong.
Coconut bliss Cherry Amaretto - two thumbs up! Made w/ coconut milk, the texture and mouthfeel were much richer than their soy counterparts. Of course it was also calorically on par w/ the forbidden Ben and jerry's. The amaretto flavor was good but a little weak and there was a coconut undertone to the flavor but I happen to like coconut.
There are still more brands to try so I'll have to decide if I test out some others or stick to the Coconut Bliss.
Starting out
As the laws of Murphy are prevailing in my household and I have committed to a rather masochistic schedule for the next couple months, I realize I can't be the only person in this boat. I've got a few too many full-time jobs between looking for a job, hopefully eventually working at a new job, being in school w/ a full-time schedule this semester in the lab, and of course, being the mom of a 6 month old baby. After a fairly dry summer, now that I've committed to the lab for a while, the phone is finally ringing off the hook w/ job prospects. Feast or famine huh? Speaking of feast, how do I deal with all this stress? I eat. Here's the catch though, while all this is going on, I need to find time to cook. Just to make things even more complicated, I am nursing a baby w/ a cow's milk allergy so no cow's milk product for me. Despite a habit of eating when stressed, and usually craving deep fried goodies, I also would like to come out of this semester not looking like I'm still incubating my son and ready to deliver any day now nor should I find myself in dire need of a cardiologist. So if I can manage to keep the ship from sinking over the next few months, I'm hoping to log the stuff I've cooked, recipes I've tried/invented, convenience and non-dairy products I've tested, and maybe eventually throw in some restaurant reviews once we can graduate again from going to baby-friendly chain establishments. It'll be here down the road when I need to decide the answer to the age-old question - what's for dinner?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)