Pop-Tarts - The Real Thing Homemade Style

After making the felt Pop-Tarts and also watching Miss K eat the real ones, I decided that making Pop-Tarts should not be that hard. A friend and I were talking and she challenged me to make them. I poked around online and found lots of recipes but tried this one. I made a half recipe because I wasn't sure how they would taste. I also skipped the egg wash mainly because I didn't have that many eggs. I did try 2 jam but they were just spreading the jam on.

They were good and my husband said, I could make them again. My friend who challenged me and her children ate them. The children wanted to make sure that she got the recipe.

Wheat Thins

I made Wheat Thins the other day. I wanted to make them since that is a cracker that we like but cannot always find here. Of course, the day I make them I find them in the supermarket. I found the recipe in the More-with-Less cookbook and decided to try them. It was easy and things that I have on hand. They taste like Wheat Thins. My dough was a bit sticky so next time I will add a bit more flour so it is not as sticky and roll a bit thinner.

2 c whole wheat flour
2T wheat germ
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
2T brown sugar
2 T dry milk solids

Cut in with pastry blender:
6T butter

Combine separately and stir in
1/2 c water
1 T molasses

Knead a little until smooth. Grease two cookie sheets and sprinkle each with cornmeal. Divide dough in half. Roll out half of dough directly onto cookie sheet with floured rolling pin, rolling dime-thin. Sprinkle lightly with paprika, garlic, onion, or seasoned salt. Run rolling pin over once more. Prick with fork. Cut in squares or triangles. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

More-with-less p. 310

My Latest DIY

Here in Asia DIY is the big there. It is one of those English phrases that I don't hear in the English speaking world but hear here. Do it yourself which is a big thing here. People are beginning to do it yourself. Instead of calling an electrician to change the light bulb you do it yourself. Yes, that was something you called an electrician. Okay, I have DIY that for a long time or I ask my husband to do it.

Well, my latest project was making instant stove top stuffing. You know like they sell in the red box in the grocery store except here they don't sell it in the grocery store so it is a DIY project. I made cranberry chicken in the crock pot and we decided that stuffing would taste good. I dug around and found a recipe I had gotten from a magazine. I think it was Taste of Home. Anyway, it was very easy. You make a seasoning mix -- I had all the ingredients on hand for that. Okay, I used up my celery flakes and I don't think they sell those here so I might have to make my own for the next time. It said to cube the bread but I was afraid to do enough for 4 batches which is how much the seasoning mix makes. I feared I would have moldy cubes. I did enough for 1 batch. I cubed it and put it on a tray to dry.

I came home from Little Gym, boiled water, added some butter and the seasoning and then mixed the bread cubes, put the lid on after 5 minutes fluffed it with a fork. It was so easy and tasted good. No preservatives. The bread was homemade and I mixed the seasoning myself.

What other meals can I make and have stuffing as a side dish?

Here is the recipe:

Instant Stuffing Mix

½ cups plus 1 tablespoon dried celery flakes

3 tablespoons dried minced onion

3 tablespoons dried parsley flakes

2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules

1 ½ teaspoons poultry seasoning

¾ teaspoons rubbed sage

10-1/2 cups dried bread cubes (about 24 slices) or unseasoned croutons

Additional Ingredients

1 cup water

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

In a small resealable plastic bag, combine the first six ingredients; mix well. Place the bread cubes in a large resealable plastic bag; add the small seasoning bag. Store in a cool dry place for up to 1 year.

Yield 3 batches.

To prepare stuffing: In a large saucepan, combine water, butter and 1/3 cup seasoning mix. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add 3-1/2 cups bread cubes; stir just to moisten. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Yield 2-4 servings per batch.

Pass the ketchup

I made ketchup the other day. I found the recipe on Hillbilly Housewife. We can buy ketchup here but I wanted to try to make it just because I could and also because I do think it is cheaper. I don't eat ketchup. I put it in a few things that I made. My husband eats it on his scrambled eggs. I think that must be a man thing. Anyway, we had meatloaf the other night so that was a test to see how it fares against the stuff you buy.

His first remark was he could taste the vinegar. I wasn't sure if that was good or not. He did say it was good and even better than store bought. So that is a recipe to keep.

It uses tomato paste which is cheap and spices that you have around the house except I had whole allspice and not ground so I skipped that. I might add a bit of garlic powder or onion powder but it has no high fructose corn syrup.

Here is a fun ketchup fact. Do you know that the word is based on a Chinese word. Ketchup is from Cantonese and Catsup is from a bit of a Malay Chinese word. So I think it is fitting that living here I would make ketchup.

East Indian Spinach and Lentils

In a large saucepan, brown in 3T oil over medium-low heat:
1 large onion, chopped

Add and brown lightly:
4 cloves garlic, minced
2T ginger root, finely chopped

Stir in, being careful not to burn:
2t whole cumin seed
2t curry powder
2t salt
1 fresh hot chili pepper, seeded, chopped (I skip that)

Stir in, coating with spice mixture:
2c red lentils, rinsed (have used brown lentils)
Add
5 1/2-6c water
5 large potatoes, peeled and slice (optional)
1 bunch spinach, chopped (may use frozen)
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until lentils and potatoes are tender. Place in serving dish and sprinkle over top:
2T cilantro, chopped

Serve with hot rice, tomato and cucumber slices.

This recipe is from Extending the Table . . .A World Community Cookbook

Edited to add amount of water.

Pasta with pesto

This is one of our favorite quick meals. It is a combination of a recipe from a missionary friend in Italy and a restaurant entree in Asia.

Cook pasta. After a few minutes of cooking add green beans and cauliflower. Cook until done.
Drain. Mix pesto according to taste preference. Serve. If it is lunch, we just serve ourselves out of the pan.

Crustless Quiche

Yesterday, I tried a new quiche recipe and this is a winner in my book.

Ingredients

4 oz	Bacon
1/2	Yellow onion
6	Eggs
3/4 cup	Cream
2 boxes (10 oz	Each) frozen broccoli or spinach
1/2 pound	Shredded cheese
1/2 t	Salt
1/4 t	Pepper

Preparation

heat oven to 350

Butter a 10" tart pan or 9" deep pie plate, or muffin tin

in large skillet over medium heat cook bacon until crisp. drain on paper towels; coarcely chop.

Remove all but 1 T bacon dripping from skillet. Add onion and cook minutes until softened but not brown.

In large bowl combine eggs, cream, broccoli, cheese, salt and pepper. Stir in bacon and onion.

Pour mixture in prepare pan. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes (tenting with foil if necessary to prevent over browning) or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes before cutting or removing from pan.

I found it here.

As usual, I made some modifications to the recipe. I didn't have any bacon and so I skipped that and fried my onion in a bit of butter. I used spinach and honestly just added some cheddar and Emmental cheese (it is some French cheese with holes).

Carrot Soup

The inspiration for this soup came from a can of Marks & Spencer Carrot and Corriander Soup. Years ago I bought a can and loved the soup. I cut the ingredients off the label and kept that for years in my recipe box. Last year I had leftover chopped carrots. I decided to try to make carrot soup. I went online and looked at a few recipes but didn't find one that reminded me of the Marks & Spencer. But I was able to combine a number of things and come up with a recipe that maybe even tastes better than the Marks & Spencer.

Here is my recipe:

Saute onion in butter

Add chicken broth & chopped up carrots and cilantro

Cook until the carrots are well cooked

Put everything in the blender and puree

Add some whipping cream

Pepper to taste

Here is lunch. It was yummy. Now I am living in a Marks & Spencer city but have decided that I like my own soup better than a can. I do have a can on my shelf that I will need to eat.

Black-eyed Pea Soup w/ miso

Someone asked for the miso recipe. I have not yet made this so you are spared any of my comments about this recipe.

This also comes from The Quick & Easy Vegetarian cookbook.

1 cup dried black-eyed peas
Rinse until clean
4 good-sized carrots, cut in 1/2 inch slices
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, cut in 1/8 inch slices
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 cups water
Place above ingredients in pot with black-eyed peas. Cook uncovered at fast simmer until peas start to become soft, about 50 minutes. Cover at this point so no more water evaporates
1/2 cup red, white and green pasta spirals
Add to pot and simmer until tender. Then remove pot from heat.
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)
1 teaspoon miso, softened in a few tablesppons of cooking liquid
1 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
Put in pot and stir until well mixed. May be reheated, but do not boil.

If you make this, please let me know. I bought the black-eyed peas and want to try it but I am not sure if it will happen this week as we have plenty of leftovers.

Borscht

Here is the recipe that I used. This comes from Extending the Table.

In Dutch oven or large pot, cook until tender:
1 lb beef or soup bone (500 g)
3 qt water

Chop meat or remove from bone and return to broth.
Add
6 potatoes, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
10 oz cabbage, chopped (300 g)

Cook until potatoes are almost tender, then add:
1 onion, chopped
1 small red beet, shredded
5 tomatoes, chopped or 3 c canned tomatoes, or tomato juice (750 ml)
dill and parsley to taste
2 t salt or to taste
1/4 t pepper
1 bay leaf (optional)

Just before serving, stir in:
1/2 c heavy cream, sour cream, or yogurt

There is the recipe. Would I make it again? Probably not. The contributor is from Russia so I am assuming that this is a real Borscht recipe. I didn't ask Bo if it tasted like what he had when he was there. For me the tomatoes made it a bit like a beef soup. We used yogurt. Oh, I didn't add it to the pan but rather we added it to each bowl. Oh, the fresh beets were too expensive so I added a can of beets and included the juice. Another thing I didn't add as many potatoes. This makes lots of soup. We ate it for dinner, lunch, lunch and lunch again.

What I will make is this:

Beet Soup

2 cups canned beets (I always chop a bit because I buy sliced beets)
2 carrots
1 medium onion
1 cup shredded cabbage
3 cups vegetable broth or water
1/2 tsp salt
few turns of pepper grinder
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Light sour cream or nonfat yogurt (optional)

Cut up vegetables coarsely and, except for the beets, put them in a pressure cooker along with the broth, salt, pepper, butter and lemon juice. Cook for 3 minutes. Put half of the cooked vegetables and beets in food processor with 1 cup of broth from the pressure cooker. Blend for 30 seconds. return to pressure cooker and keep on low heat. Serve with topping of light sour cream or nonfat yogurt.

This recipe is from The Quick & Easy Vegetarian Cookbook. "this soup may not have the authenticity of the steppes of Russia, but it evokes crusty black bread and other sturdy, nutritious, peasant fare. I usually make this when Bo is out of town because I didn't think he liked beets. Now he says he does.

My changes I don't have a pressure cooker and so I just do everything in a regular pan on the stove. I don't put it in the food processor. Oh, and in the following of my Eat Fat lose fat we have regular sour cream or yogurt.
Serves 4 to 6.

Spanokopita

Spanokopita is one of Bo's favorite things. It was one of those things that we thought you had to buy in a restaurant until today. I was flipping through Extending the Table . . . A World Community Cookbook looking for some lentil recipes when I found Spinach Pie aka Spanokopita. I can buy phyllo here so I decided to try this. It wasn't really that much work and it was a blessing to my husband. Miss K loved them. She ate 4. I figured it would be something that she would like as vegetable dumplings are one of her favorite things to eat.
Cook in a little water until tender, about 3 minutes:
6 c fresh spinach, chopped or 10-oz package frozen spinach
Draing
Mix with
1 c feta, Gruyere or cheddar cheese crumbled or shredded
1 c cottage cheese
3 eggs, beaten
1 oinion minched
2T fresh parsley, choped or 2 t dried parsley
1 t dried dill
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t salt
dash of ground nutmeg (optional)
Melt 1/2 c margarine or butter

The recipe gives directions to make one big pie but I decided to make individual ones. Cut 12 sheets of phyllo into 3-inch stripes, place a teaspoon of filling at one end of stripe and fold corner over to make a triangle, continue folding strip from side to side in shape of triangle. I did use butter to glue them closed.

You can freeze those and bake as needed.

Bake covered, 25 minutes at 350. Unocver and bake 5-10 minutes until golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes. Since I made small ones, I baked them for 20 minutes and then uncovered. You really do need 10 minutes to get them brown.

Our favorite Greek restaurant has Grandma's recipe and it includes a bit of spearmint. I thought I had spearmint but discovered it was peppermint. I did add a bit of that and would have added more if it were spearmint.

Broccoli Pizza

One of my favorite little pizza shops makes a yummy white pizza. I used to go there most days for lunch when I was working in that town. Well, now I am a long way from there and have created my own recipe for broccoli pizza.


Saute broccoli, onion, and garlic.
Put a bit of olive oil on the dough, add some Italian spices and some Parmesan cheese. Add the broccoli mixture and top with cheese and bake.

As you can tell, we had already eaten half of this by the time I remember I wanted a picture.

Granola Bars

My husband, Bo, wanted me to buy granola bars. I am cheap at times and so instead of paying $26 for a imported box of granola bars I paid $26 for 1kg of oatmeal. I also bought honey. I came home and tried a recipe. We decided they were a bit too sweet. I made another full recipe today which was declared just right and Bo said I could sell it. I told him I would charge him.

Here is the recipe I started with

Chewy Granola Bars
1/2 to 1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup or honey
1/2 cup margarine, melted
2 tsp vanilla
Mix together until well blended
Stir in
3 cups quick oatmeal
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup sunflower nuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup wheat germ
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 cup chocolate or butterscotch chips

Press Mixture in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes, or until lightly borwned. Cool complete. Cut in 24 bars. This is from Mennonite Country-style recipes.

Okay, so here are the changes I made - a bit less than 1/2 cup of sugar, less honey. I used butter instead of margarine due to my preference of butter and also the fact that you can't buy margarine here. Skip the coconut because that is something I don't really like. Skip the sunflower nuts because I didn't have any. Add salted peanuts because I had them. Put the raisin in half because I am not a big raisin fan. Skip the sesame seeds. Keep the chocolate chips though I added less than a cup. I just broke it into pieces.

It does make a great snack and much less than the hard to chew granola bars that you buy in the store which for us are imported.