Author: HungryDad

Pear bismarck

Pear BismarckI’ve seen lots of names for these oven baked pancakes–bismarck, flapjack, popover…Some recipes cook the pancake and put the fruit on top after cooking (usually berries of various sorts), others put the fruit in the pan and cook with the batter (mostly apples). A neighbor has a pear tree that produced a super-sized crop this year and the kids picked a bunch of pears. I combined a few recipes to come up with this. I think most recipes are geared for a smaller (9in) pie pan sized dish, so this is doubled for a larger 12in pan.

Pear Bismarck

  • 2 pears, sliced
  • 2 T butter
  • 2 T brown sugar
  • 1-2 tsp cinnamon
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup milk

Pear bismarck in panPreheat the oven to 450F. Slice the pear. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, add milk and flour and mix. Heat an oven proof 12in pan on medium high heat and melt the butter. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon in the pan. Spread the pear slices on the bottom of the pan. Top with the batter and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Loosen the edges and turn upside down onto a plate or cutting board. Slice and serve.

Some recipes call for sprinkling with powdered sugar and/or adding maple syrup, but neither is needed really.

 

Wild rice with chicken, oranges and cranberries

This ended up not being a salad as originally planned, since we had already eaten up the salad mix. But I can see how it would be god served over a bed of lettuce…Two Fat Als had an interesting recipe for Wild Rice Salad with Chicken, Fruit and Cashews. We aren’t big fans of dates, and cashews are out due to allergies, but it seemed like a good idea. So here’s my version

Wild Rice with Chicken, Oranges and Dried Cranberries

  • 2 chicken breast, grilled and dicedWild rice and chicken with oranges and cranberries
  • 2 cups Lundberg Wild Rice Blend
  • 2  oranges, peeled and cut into small pieces
  • 3 Tbs olive oil
  • 3 Tbs lemon juice
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/4 cup torn fresh mint

Cook the chicken, or use leftovers. Cook the rice as directed. Combine the oil, lemon juice, vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. In a large bowl, mix the rice, chicken, dressing, oranges, cranberries and mint. The original called for serving this over a be of lettuce, which would be nice, but we ate it straight, which was good too.

Sweet potato pizza with onion

Sweet potato pizzaWe make pizzas at home quite a bit, though tend to stick with the standard toppings–pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, etc. I was looking for something a bit different and ran across this recipe at Real Simple for sweet potato pizza with onions. We added a few dollops of ricotta cheese since we had some left over from the quiche we made earlier in the week. For the crust we used a recipe from TFMCB: No-work mostly whole wheat pizza dough. We did make a backup pizza for the kids, but the sweet potato one was eaten up!

Blueberry chicken salad

Blueberry chicken saladThis recipe for blueberry chicken salad from Allrecipes.com was fast, easy and really good. The dressing is lemon yogurt (6oz) and mayonnaise (3 Tbs), which sounded odd, but is really good, especially with the sweetness of the blueberries. Throw in some diced cooked chicken breast (we grilled a bunch earlier in the week and used it in several recipes), red pepper, celery and the blueberries. This was one of the only times the kids eat up a salad, including the lettuce!

Pasta with Pea Pesto and Bacon

SmittenKitchen has this great recipe for Linguine with pea pesto. Partially because I love bacon (so do you really need an excuse to add it to a recipe?), and partially because we left out the pine nuts due to allergies, I added 8oz bacon cooked an crumble. We used a 10oz package of frozen peas and penne since that’s what we had on hand. The result was an amazingly tasty dish that the kids fought us for for the leftovers for lunch the next day! Definitely a keeper.

Adapted from SmittenKitchenPea Pesto with Bacon

Linguine with Pea Pesto

  • 10-ounce package frozen peas
  • 1 small garlic clove, minced–it’s raw, so be careful about adding too much! I used a small one and could definitely taste it, I had been tempted to use more and was glad I didn’t
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 8oz bacon cooked and crumbled
  • Package pasta of your choice

Cook the pasta as directed, reserving 2 cups of the water when you drain. Meanwhile, microwave the peas until warm. Place peas, garlic, Parmesan cheese and olive oil in a food processor and blend until smooth (Now I see that the original recipe called for setting aside some peas…we didn’t, could be good though). Cook the bacon and crumble. Mix the pasta, pea pesto and bacon. Add enough of the reserved pasta water for a nice consistency–we used about 1 cup.

Chicken, Oatmeal, Mushroom and Spinach Quiche

Chicken, oatmeal, mushroom and spinach quicheThis recipe from the Food Doctor was a little hard to follow but turned out quite good. The recipe is spread out over a long post and a bit more complicated than we normally do, but it made a good weekend dish and really only took about an hour to make. We added some thawed and drained spinach to the oatmeal and mushroom layer. The balsamic tomatoes turned out well too.Chicken, oatmeal, mushroom and spinach quiche with tomatoes