Sweet potato biscuit ham and cheese sandwiches

Sweet potato biscuit ham and cheese sandwichBella eats had these delicious sweet potato biscuits, and one of the photos featured some ham and cheese, which made me think that that would be a yummy dinner. The biscuits were fairly easy to make and were delicious…though having a stick of butter in them may have helped with that! I am sure you could cut the butter in half and still have a darned good biscuit. The ham and cheese sandwich idea was also a good idea, especially with everything warm and the cheese melting…

Zucchini and Ricotta Galette

This recipe from Smitten Kitchen was really good. Even though I cut the butter in the dough recipe by half (the full 1/2 cup seemed a bit too decadent), with the sour cream it turned out wonderfully. I also skipped freezing the flour and it was probably only in the fridge for 30 minutes. The only problem with the recipe is that our family of 4 finished it all off with no leftovers for lunch–make 2 next time!

Rustic Oatmeal Cornbread

We were running low on flour this morning, so I was looking for a cornmeal recipe that didn’t use much wheat flour. I stumbled across this at southern.food.com, and thought it looked like a good start. Here’s our breakfast version with some blueberries for good measure:

 

Rustic Oatmeal Blueberry Cornbread (adapted from Susie D @ southern.food.com)

  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 Tbs Baking powder
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1/4 cup melted butter, plus about 2 Tbs for pan
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 1/2-3/4 cup milk
  • 2 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 450˚.

Mix dry ingredients together. Put about 2 Tbs of butter in a cast iron skillet and put in the heated oven to get the pan nice and hot. Add the melted butter, eggs, cream, 1/2 cup milk and blueberries to the dry ingredients and mix. The batter should be wet enough to pour, if it seems too dry, add some more milk. Take the pan out of the oven, tilt to spread the melter butter around, and pour in the batter.

Cook 15-20 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Slice and enjoy!

 

Spicy Sunflower Seed Noodles with Veggies and Chicken

Pink Parsley had this yummy sounding recipe with peanuts, to which our son is allergic. So we substituted SunButter in the recipe. I also had imagined this more like a stir fry than a salad, so we stir fried the veggies a bit and added the dressing and put it on top of soba noodles. It turned out great!
Spicy Sunflower Seed Noodles with Veggies and Chicken
adapted from Pink Parsley, adapted from Pinch of Yum, originally from Food Nouveau

For the dressing:

  • 3 Tbs soy sauce
  • 2 Tbs water
  • 2 Tbs Crunchy SunButter
  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 Tbs rice wine vinegar
  • 1 Tbs minced fresh ginger
  • 1/2 Tbs honey
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp sugar

For the stir fry (or don’t cook it and make it a salad…)

  • 1 cup julienne yellow pepper
  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 1 medium shredded zucchini
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onions
  • 1 cup chopped or shredded cooked chicken breast
  • 8 oz. cooked soba noodles or linguine
  • 2-3 Tbs minced fresh basil
  • 2-3 Tbs minced fresh cilantro
  • crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

Mix all the dressing ingredients. Stir fry the veggies. Add the dressing and serve on top of the soba noodles.

Portabella and Cheese “Burgers” on focaccia

Portabella, tomato and basil focaccia burgerThese Portabella and Halloumi “Burgers” looked really good, but I wasn’t able to find Halloumi cheese, which is apparently a cheese that can be grilled on its own…Plus I had a craving for some focaccia. I made the focaccia recipe many years ago when it came out in Fine Cooking, and it is really good…though I had forgotten how long it takes. I was able to squeeze it into a day in the fridge, and one evening after work letting it warm up, rest a bit and cook, but it probably could have used more time to rest (the recipe calls for about 5hrs between taking it out of the fridge and cooking it!). But, it was still really good.

 

For the burgers we used:

  • 4 Portabella mushrooms
  • 3 1/2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • Tomato slices
  • Basil leaves
  • We topped it with either some smoked gouda or feta cheese (didn’t have enough gouda for everyone)

Bee-Bim Bop

Bee-Bim-Bop, Bip Bim Bap, Bibimbap…Maybe there is a difference, but they all seem to be a tasty mix of veggies, especially cabbage, meat and eggs. I had originally planned on using this which more a guideline than a recipe, but we also had the recipe from the Bee-Bim Bop book our youngest read in class. We also couldn’t find any safe Hoisin sauce, so we made something with soy sauce, molasses, sugar and corn starch…

As we tend to do, we made a bit of a mashup and came up with a yummy meal.

B.B.B.

  • ~1 lb Skirt steak
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 3 Tbs soy sauce
  • 2 Tbs molasses
  • 1 Tbs sugar
  • 1 Tbs corn starch
  • rice wine vinegar
  • 2 Tbs Olive oil
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • 2-3 green onions sliced
  • 1/2 cabbage sliced
  • 2 carrots sliced
  • 2 cups bean sprouts
  • Handfull or two of spinach
  • rice cooked
  • sriracha sauce

In a large bowl mix the ingredients from garlic through vinegar. Grill the steak a few minutes on each side until cooked as desired. Slice across the grain into bite sized pieces. Add the steak to the sauce in the bowl while it is still warm and set aside.

Add 1 Tbs oil to a pan and heat over medium heat. Cook the egg like an omelet. When it’s cooked through remove from the pan and slice into strips.

Add the other Tbs oil to a pan and heat over med-high heat. Add the green onions and then cabbage and stir fry. Add the carrots and cook for a bit. Add the bean sprouts and cook stirring. Add the meat with the sauce and cook until the sauce has thickened a bit.

Serve over rice with sriracha sauce.