at home with ann

Friday we had our first real snowstorm of the season. About a foot of heavy, wet snow came down, taking down trees and branches all over the place.  We lost power for the day, it came back for an exciting 45 minutes, and then I woke up at 2AM with the hall light blinding me.  We've certainly seen worse.  But then, this morning, another storm.  High winds and frigid temperatures make sledding and snow ball fights impossible, so we're inside for the day.  Again.  Fortunately, it's toasty warm and we have the wonder of the internet to keep us busy when pillow piles, couch forts, knee hockey and car races stop entertaining the crew. No snow day is complete without baking, of course, so we whipped up these carrot cake cookies.  Good thing they are full of healthy ingredients, because I'm pretty sure Colin just polished off the last one. Carrot Cake Cookies Ingredients: 1 cup rolled oats 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour) 1.5 ts...

We're rolling right along with our CSA share at Tangerini's Farm  and I'm happy to report nothing has gone to waste so far.  I usually misplace some bag of pickling cucumbers in the back of the refrigerator and find them again when they look really scary.  I confess that when faced with a bunch of vegetables, I often throw them in a stir fry with a peanut soy sauce and call it a day.  Today, I branched out a bit, and the result was a filling dinner salad that was refreshing in the midst of this hot and sticky weather. The dressing flavors were a bit strong for my tiny taste testers, so I simply portioned out the vegetables and some chicken before topping with sauce to make them mini plates. Thai Cabbage Salad with Chicken and Peanut Sauce recipe modified from My Kitchen Escapades Ingredients: About 4 chicken breasts, cooked (I used boneless skinless, but you could easily pick off a roaster or rotisserie chicken, or use shredded chicken cooked in the crock pot)...

I know, more muffins.  I should probably write a muffin only blog.  But, don't you like muffins? Our Christmas festivities are going to involve a lot of traveling and celebrations, and likely end with overtired kids, one of whom has lived on sugar and present-induced adrenaline for days.  If I feed him something remotely healthy for breakfast, I can overlook the candy cane chasers. Carrot Apple Muffins Modified from Minimalist Baker Ingredients: 1.5 flax eggs (1 1/2 tablespoons flax seed in 5 1/2 tablespoons water) 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted 1/3 cup mashed banana (one small banana) 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey 1 apple, grated 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup milk or milk alternative 1 heaping cup grated carrot 2/3 cup oats 1/2 cup almond meal 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees and prepare muffin tin. In a small bowl, co...

I came down with a cold.  This cold has done a number on my voice, which is seriously impeding my "If You're Happy and You Know It" singing abilities, but not decreasing the requests.  The only plus has been that the middle of the night coughing fits are the closest thing I've gotten to an ab workout in quite some time.  In any case, this is why I made soup when it's 85 degrees outside. Roasted Carrot and Parsnip Soup Makes ~4 cups 3 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks 4-5 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks 1 small onion, cut into chunks 1 clove garlic, chopped 6-8 sprigs fresh thyme olive oil 2-3 cups chicken or vegetable broth Salt and Pepper Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a baking sheet, arrange parsnips, carrots and onion in a single layer.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes. Stir, and add garlic and thyme sprigs.  Roast 10 more minutes. Remove the thyme leaves from the stem...

I make these recipes for Colin, but grown up people might like them too! Colin was never big into baby food purees.  I fed him one jar of food back when he first started eating solids, mostly so that I could have the cute mini jar to use for lotion.  I think those "complete meals in a jar" are kind of creepy.  Chicken dinner puree?  No, thanks.  For the most part he has eaten fruits and vegetables, either raw, steamed, roasted or sauteed.  A few things have been big hits and I use them as staples: broccoli and roasted sweet potatoes.  He's big in picking things up himself.  We can get into ruts, however, one of which resulted in his eating an entire roasted butternut squash over a two week period. He likes to help in the kitchen, which means he wants to see everything that's going on and touch it.  Cooking with one hand while holding him with the other can be a bit of a challenge.  Sometimes I can convince him that the view from his c...

My lack of posting is correlated to the speed at which Colin moves.  Gone are the days when he would bounce in his exersaucer while I cooked.  Gone are the days when he would sit on the floor in the kitchen and play with toys.  Now he toddles around, I'm lucky if he stays in the kitchen, which means he is taking everything out of the recycling bins.  More likely, he is practicing his new climbing skills on the stairs, so that when I say "where's Colin?," he peers his little face around the corner and smiles at me.  Too cute, but not conducive to cooking.  We manage just fine, but I admit the new recipes and photographs have gone by the wayside. I turned on the end of the Rachael Ray show a few weeks ago to see her plating up this mac and cheese.  Baked mac and cheese is a weakness of mine, and I love butternut squash, so I thought I would give it a try.  It was good, but next time I think I would skip the carrots and go with squash only.   ...

Look! I made a smoothie that isn't green!  It does still have vegetables in it, however, so you can count it as healthy. As I've mentioned before, carrot cake is my favorite cake.  I've taken to buying bags of baby carrots for us to snack on throughout the week, and at one point we had three bags (two opened, how does that happen...) in the fridge.  This was the perfect use for a couple carrots. Carrot Cake Smoothie Based on Oh She Glows 1 banana (frozen works best, but fresh is fine) 1/2-1 cup almond milk (any milk will do) 1 carrot, grated (or 4 baby carrots) A few shakes of Cinnamon Dash of Nutmeg A few drops Vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon chia seeds 1 Tablespoon flaked coconut Ice cubes Combine all ingredients in a blend and run until smooth. If you have a fancy, high speed blender like the Vitamix, you could put the carrots in in chunks, but for a regular blender I would recommend grating first. At some point I'll to try adding spinach for ext...

Carrot is my favorite type of cake.   This whole going dairy-free thing has opened up some new doors for baking.  Mostly for how to replace butter.  You'd think since I'm not cooking with butter that I would refrain from watching Paula Deen, but you would be wrong.   There are several vegan bakers out there on the big world of the internet, and one of my favorites is Angela at Oh She Glows .  She uses real ingredients, and her recipes taste great.  Nothing is worse than a healthy cookie that tastes overly healthy. Or one that's full of scary substitute chemical ingredients.  I was having a major sweet craving yesterday, which led me to attempt a strawberry chocolate sorbet in the blender.  The noise of frozen strawberries in the blender scared the baby, so I felt like a terrible mother and still had no dessert.  Today I took a different approach, and the results were much better.   These are like a combination of litt...

I had a bounty of carrots in the fridge.  Four bags of carrots.  Rabbits could not eat that many carrots raw. A whole bunch went into the chicken pot pie I made for dinner last night.  Chicken gravy is good.  It also had 5 tablespoons of butter in it, so this soup is nice to balance a bit. Another pound went into this Carrot Ginger Soup.  Very simple, quick to make, and healthy.  Also, if you use vegetable broth, it's vegan, and I'm fairly certain gluten-free.  All sorts of diets can be fed with this soup.  The ginger adds a little spiciness.  It was an excellent accompaniment to my lunch, along with some sort of dipper.  I went with a mini bagel.  I'll leave it up to you to decide. Carrot Ginger Soup Olive Oil 1 Shallot, minced (or one clove garlic) 1 small onion, chopped 1 Tablespoon grated ginger 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 pound carrots, roughly chopped 2 cups vegetabl...

I thought I had a fridge full of vegetables ready to go into a stir fry.  When I actually took a look, it turned out to be mostly broccoli, but broccoli is good stuff, so broccoli stir fry it is.  As with any stir fry recipe I share with you, all the ingredients and amounts are customizable to your tastes or what you have available. It's all about creating a mixture of vegetables (and meat if you're into that), a savory sauce, and some grain to serve it over. Broccoli Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce Ingredients: 2 bunches broccoli, cut into florets (about 3 cups) 1/4 bell pepper, sliced (I thought I had more, but no) 1 onion, sliced 2-3 carrots, cut into matchstick slices 1-2 teaspoons canola oil any other vegetable you like - celery, mushrooms, bok choy, whatever spaghetti, soba noodles, any kind of noodle or rice Peanut Sauce 1/4 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy) 3 Tablespoons soy sauce 1 Tablespoon each sesame oil, mirin, and rice wine vinegar 1/4-1/2 teaspoon c...

If you've been reading for a few months, a form of this quinoa may look familiar to you from back in February .  For that meal, we had it as a side dish, but today I changed it up a bit, and added some protein in the form of chickpeas to make it a light meal.   Apple and Cranberry Quinoa with Chickpeas adapted from Oh She Glows Ingredients: 1 cup uncooked quinoa, washed well 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 cup chopped onion 1 cup diced carrot 2 cups vegetable broth or water 1/4-1/2 tsp kosher salt, to taste 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 1/2 cups diced Granny Smith apple, not peeled (one large apple) 1/2 cup dried cranberries black pepper, to taste Directions : Rinse your quinoa.  Don't skip this step!  For reasons I can't recall right now, it's very important. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in pan over medium heat.  Add chopped onion and carrots and sauté until the onion is translucent.  Add broth, quinoa, chickpeas, salt, pe...

I apologize for the inconsistency in my blogging lately.  I've been feeling a bit off, and as a result, my cooking isn't very adventurous or interesting.  We still need recipes for off days, though, and this soup has been my go-to all week. Minestrone Soup 1 onion, chopped 2 small zucchini, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 1 stalk celery, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced olive oil 1 teaspoon dried thyme 2 teaspoons dried oregano 1 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon dried parsley 2 cups chickpeas (any bean will do) 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes with liquid 28 oz. water or vegetable broth Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Chop and drop the vegetables into the pot- onion through garlic.  Cook for about 3-5 minutes. Add in the spices and cook one minute more. Add in the chickpeas, diced tomatoes and water or broth. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for 20 minutes. A quick, easy, healthy meal in no time.  If you need extra comfort, pair it with gril...