Guest Post: Michelle on Home Cooking Fast!

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I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Michelle Dudley.  You may have noticed her button on the side bar:  5 Dinners in one Hour.    It’s an amazing idea perfect for those of us who’d like to try once a month cooking but don’t have a day to set aside for just cooking, and who never remember to thaw anything out. Read as she tells the story of how it all began and be sure to follow her link at the end for 10 school lunches in 15 minutes! Here’s Michelle: 
 
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Do you find yourself stressing out daily over “what’s for dinner” or feed your family fast food more than you would like to admit?   I used to be the same way until I created a plan to make 5 dinners in 1 hour!  You read that right, 5 family dinners in just 1 hour! 
My name is Michelle and I have 3 busy kids and a husband that works crazy hours.  We were always eating fast food or frozen dinners that are just not healthy.  I finally came up with a plan to make 5 dinners all at  once (in just one hour) for our busy weekdays of hockey practice, volleyball games and other various after school functions.  All the menu plans have family friendly meals that feed 4-6 people and no, they are not all casseroles. 🙂
Enjoy meals like:
Kid Friendly Coconut Chicken Strips
Breakfast for Dinner Quiche
The meals are fresh, not frozen. They keep in your refrigerator until ready to heat and eat.  I am able to fit all of mine on just one shelf.
The menus are easy to follow and include a detailed grocery list and kitchen tool list.
Along with making cooking much easier, this plan can help you save time & money!
A monthly subscription is only $1.25 per week!  You can read more about my plan on my blog which also includes a post on how to make 10 school lunches in 15 minutes.  While you are there,  you can sign up for a free trial menu and try it out for yourself! 
Slow cooked Beef & Broccoli

Light Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes

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Asian Honey Sesame Dressing

(Adapted from Todd Wilbur’s Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad Recipe)

3 Tablespoons Honey

1 1/2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup plain lowfat yogurt

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/8 teaspoon sesame oil

Wisk together and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Makes 4- 2 Tablespoon servings.  1 serving= 60 calories; .4 grams of fat; 41 mg sodium; 14 carbs and less than 1 g of protein

Southwest Ranch Dressing

1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt

1/2 cup light mayonnaise (or more yogurt)

1/4 cup finely minced fresh cilantro

2 Tablespoons lime juice

1 packet Truvia or Pure via (stevia based sweetener)

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Mix in a shaker cup or blender.  For the best flavor chill for 2 hours before serving.  Keeps up to 2 weeks if cilantro is very fresh.

Makes approximately 10, 2 Tablespoon servings.

1 serving = 48 calories; 4 g fat; 2.2 grams of carbs; .7 grams of protein

Creamy House Dressing

1/2 cup light mayonnaise

1/3 cup plain lowfat yogurt

1-2 Tablespoons skim milk (to thin to desired texture)

1 teaspoon dried parsely

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt

Mix well and chill for an hour before serving.

Makes approximately 8–2 Tablespoon servings

1 serving=57.8 calories; 5 g fat; 2.2 grams of carbs and .8 grams of protein

Note:  Most of these recipes are yogurt based and my favorite brand is the plain lowfat yogurt from Mountain High available at Costco.  Or you can use your own strained homemade yogurt too!

101 Soups

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I love how versatile omelets and stir-fries are.  It’s easy to go months and not eat the exact same one twice.  But we can add even more variety into our diet with soups, salads, and low-carb sandwiches.  Soups today, salads tomorrow and sandwich ideas to follow.

I’m not going to give you 101 soup recipes, but I’ll start you off with plenty of ideas and their variations will get you there!  I plan soup once a week at my house.  It is low cost, requires no side dishes except for a lovely bread to help fill the children longer, and the warm broth is very filling with few calories.

For the lowest calorie soups start with tomato juice or low-fat broths.  I make my own broths from boiling whole chickens or beef bones with celery, onions, salt and pepper, straining it through a wire strainer and placing it in the fridge.  After it has cooled the fat hardens to the top and can easily be removed with a spoon or my fingers.  You can save the fat for making soap or bird feeders if you like.  You can also make a vegetable base broth by boiling carrots, celery, onions and garlic with your desired seasonings.

Cream based soups are higher in calories,  but you can reduce the fat by using skim milk and plain yogurt in place of cream and sour cream.

For the soups I’ve listed, If they are underlined, they are clickable to the recipe.  I tried to find high rated recipes that were already low in fat, but I personally haven’t tried them yet.  They are on my to do list.  I will be substituting 2 cups of homemade broth for every can of broth in the recipes, and will used chopped chicken from whole boiled chickens instead of higher priced chicken breasts.

Chicken Base Soups:

Egg drop soup

Italian wedding soup (use ground turkey for your meatballs)

Tortilla soup (use baked tortillas for the topping)  This one calls for milk and cheese in it.  We’ve always had ours without either and loved it.

Chicken and brown rice soup

Italian Tortellini Soup

Beef Based Soup

Vegetable Beef Soup (In the Grocery Shrink Ebook)

Calico bean soup (In the Grocery Shrink ebook)

French onion soup (you can leave out the wine if you wish and it will still be yummy)

(Any more ideas friends?  Leave them in the comments)

Tomato Based Soup

Tomato Bisque

Chili

Taco Soup

Pizza Soup

Molasses cookie cutouts

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This is my favorite Christmas cookie!  It’s chock full of iron rich molasses, uses healthy oil (and less of it) and has half the sugar of traditional cookies.  We went simple on the frosting and drizzled a thick glaze in random patterns over them.  So pretty!  This recipe is also included in the Grocery Shrink Christmas ebook.  We used the same recipe to cut out pieces for a gingerbread train that we will put together tomorrow at grandma’s house.  You can get the free pattern here.

Molasses Cookie Cutouts

1 cup blackstrap molasses (you can use light molasses, but it has less nutrition)

2/3 cup oil (The healthiest one you prefer)

Simmer these 2 ingredients together for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile…

Cream 1 egg, 1 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla

Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, and 1 teaspoon salt.

Dissolve 1 teaspoon baking soda into 1/2 cup hot water and blend into the creamed mixture.

Add simmered molasses mixture, pouring it right in the center of the bowl.  (If it touches anything cold like a metal bowl or mixer, it will instantly harden into hard candy and make a mess!)

Gradually stir in 6 cups of flour.  (I used whole wheat, but you can use whatever you like.)

Roll out about 1/4 inch thick.  Cut with cookie cutters and place 1 inch apart on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool on a wire rack.

Mix 2 cups of powdered sugar with 2 teaspoons of milk.  Gradually adding milk and powdered sugar until you have a glaze that will drip from a spoon but hold it’s shape on the cookie.  Drizzle the cookies with glaze and leave out to dry for 2-3 hours or until glaze is hardened.  Package in air tight containers.

If your cookies get hard, add a piece of soft bread to the container.  The cookies will soften and the bread will get hard.

Homemade Raspberry Ice Cream

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My oldest son is working on his cooking badge in cub scouts and we are having a blast. He made easy raspberry icecream and it was such a treat! Light and fluffy, but lower in sugar and fat than traditional recipes. You’ll never guess it’s a healthy treat.

12 oz frozen raspberries, thawed (we are thinking cherries, strawberries or blueberries would work too.)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup plain lowfat yogurt
1 container cool whip, thawed (or 2 cups of homemade whipped cream)

Put the raspberries in a 2 quart bowl and smash with a potato masher. Sprinkle the sugar over the top and stir in. Stir in yogurt until it is evenly distributed. Fold in the whipped topping or whipped cream being careful not to smash the air out of it. Cover the bowl tightly and freeze for at least 4 hours before serving. No ice cream maker required! This makes 8–3/4 cup servings.

One serving (made with cool whip lite) is 101 calories; 3 g fat; 16.7 g carbs, and 2.4 g protein.

Reduced Fat Molasses Cake–Betcha can’t tell

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Happy December! Tomorrow we go for our sonogram and hope to find out whether baby Coffman #6 is a boy or a girl.  I can’t tell who is more excited, the kids or me!  We’ve haven’t even cracked the baby name book.  We’ve used a lot of our favorites already, so are hoping a more focused direction will help us generate ideas.

Last night for supper we had homemade vegetable beef soup from scratch made with soup bones. We ate it with pumpkin dinner rolls and warm Molasses cake with whipped cream.  Yum!  It’s a blustery 26 degrees around here, very unseasonably cold and warm liquids are welcome. 

I had 1.25 gallons of soup left and since it was a little bland I dumped a bunch more garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and parsely in it.  Kind of a spray and pray method and poured it into glass canning jars for the freezer. Now we have 5 jars waiting for desperate lunches.  When I remove the 2 piece lid I can quickly thaw the whole thing in the microwave.  If you try this method, leave plenty of head space or your jar will break in the freezer from the pressure of the expanding soup.

Here’s our Molasses Cake Recipe.  It is modified from my newest e-book:  How to Have a Grocery Shrink Christmas.  I used black-strap molasses for the vitamins and the cake turned out looking like dark chocolate.  The recipe only has 2 Tablespoons of sugar in the entire cake!  The rest of the sweetening comes from Molasses, which gives a good dose of vitamins.

Molasses Cake

1/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup softened butter

1 egg

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 cup molasses

1 cup hot water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 1/2 cups pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)

Cream the butter, pumpkin, egg and sugar.  Add the molasses and water.  Blend the rest of the engredients and mix into the molasses mixture.  Pour into a greased 9 x 9 square pan, or 9″ round cake pan.  Bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes.  Eat warm with ice cream or whipped cream.  Yum!

Mystery Mix

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My mom has had this mix in her basement for awhile.  It sounded so tasty but the instructions, or lack thereof left her a little confused.  She brought it to me.

I figured there was flour, sugar, levening and spices in it.  I wasn’t positive if there was any fat yet.  Sometimes they add it and sometimes they tell you to.  So I decided the safe thing to make was pancakes!  We added a little pumpkin, a few eggs and some sour milk (with baking soda to counteract the acid in the milk.)

Wow!  These were the best pancakes ever!

More Make Ahead Meals

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I found a fun site with lots of make ahead recipes and have tried several and have a long list of new recipes to try.  We loved the biscuits, but I made the mistake of blending the butter into too small pieces and letting the biscuits sit too long before baking.  It meant the biscuits had a round shape and weren’t flakey but they still had great flavor.  I baked them before I froze them and the kids like to grab them out of the freezer to warm up for snacks or breakfast.  I changed the recipe slightly by using 100% whole wheat flour and butter instead of shortening. 

I tried the baked ziti recipe too and was so sure we’d love it that I quadrupled it.  One to eat right away and 3 to freeze.  It had great flavor but my kids were not impressed with all the zucchini and refused to eat it.  I chopped it small, but not small enough for their taste.  I have lots of pictures too.  Lesson learned:  Test a recipe before quadrupling it.

What’s in Your Chimmichanga?

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This week, we made Shredded beef sandwiches from the Slow and Savory Cookbook and had leftovers.  A few days later I put on a pot of Slow Cooker Refried beans.  I also found some hot poblano pepper turkey sausage ($.75 a package, short date sale) in the freezer that needed to be used.  Chimmichangas  seemed like the perfect tie up loose leftovers plan.

I thawed a package of burrito size tortillas.  Then combined the shredded beef, refried beans and cooked and crumbled sausage in a saucepan on medium high heat.  I topped each tortilla with a slap of meat mixture and a sprinkling of cheese and folded it burrito style.  Then baked them at 375 for 30 minutes until the shells were crunchy.  It had the effect of a fried chimmichanga without the expense and extra calories of a bottle of oil.

We topped ours with ranch dressing, salsa, and fresh cilantro.

Chimmichangas can be stuffed with other things too.  Shredded chicken and pork are other traditional fillings.  Rice and corn or black beans would add an interesting twist too.  If you try it, let me know what you put in yours and how you liked it.