Our St Patrick's Day in Pictures

Swedish Meatballs

Can you believe I moved to this country without asking either of my parents for their meatball recipe? How can a Swedish girl survive without Swedish meatballs? I guess I could've just emailed them, but for some reason I didn't. Maybe I was really hungry and needed the recipe ASAP. Anyways, I brought a bunch of cook books with me from home and one of them was a cook book I got in 7th grade that's all about meat. So that's the recipe I've been using for 8½ years now. (Mamma,or pappa, there's room in my inbox if you ever find yourselves wondering what to fill your time with.)

Here is the recipe from the Meat Book:

(The recipe is in metric but I'll try to convert it the best I can without giving you measurements like 3.87562973465i47 cups of whatever. Yes, because lower case i's normally appear when converting.) 

SWEDISH MEATBALLS

(4 servings)

1 lbs ground beef (or chuck, or something like that)

1/3 cup rolled oats + 1 tbsp potato flour (or 1/3 cup plain bread crumbs)  

I use bread crumbs. I think you could use leftover potatoes too.

2/3 cup water, milk or beef stock basically some form of liquid. Some people use heavy cream.

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/5 tsp black pepper  

measure that one without metric cups, ha! (I do have a tiny little thing for that, but does anyone ever use it, I wonder?)

1 tbsp grated raw onion

(If you're making these for Christmas add a little bit of ground allspice. But not too much.)

 1. Mix rolled oats, potato flour and liquid, or bread crumbs and liquid. Let sit for 10 min.

 2. Add egg, salt, black pepper and onion.

3. Add ground meat. Work it all together, but not  too long or it will turn all "thread-y" on you. Well, it is my blog. I can translate how ever I want. Believe me, you do not want your meat thread-y. That would result in dry meatballs.

4. Fry a little piece of meat to make sure it tastes right. You don't want to roll all of your meatballs and fry 'em up just to realize you were way low on the salt. Been there, done that. If you're brave enough you could taste it raw. I'm not!

5. Wet your hands in cold water and roll little meatballs. Don't make them Italian meatball big. Think tootsie pop. Well, maybe not that small. 

 6. Fry the meatballs in a frying pan until evenly browned.

 7. My book says to put them in a pot once they are beautifully browned and keep frying them without added liquid for about 5-10 minutes on low. I put mine in the oven.

If you want gravy, and who doesn't, rinse the frying pan with some water after every turn. 

 Make sure not to use burnt grease. Pour the drippings in a pan and add beef stock until you have about 1 2/3 cups of liquid. Mix 2 tbsp flour with some cold water. Add to pan and stir. Bring to a boil and let boil for 3-5 minutes. Add a little bit of cream or half and half. You might need some more salt and pepper. And here is the secret to a good gravy. Sugar! A little bit of sugar or jam and it will be delicious. Lingonberry jam is da bomb with this!

I love my meatballs with boiled potatoes, gravy and lingonberry jam. How do you like yours?

The only thing missing is the lingon berries.

I also want to let you know that you don't have to roll the meat into meatballs. This meat is also great for little patties. Try making patties with a small piece of cheese in the center. That is delish!

Breakfast Bar

A few weeks ago we were in the mood to make these, my girls and I. We didn't have all of the ingredients, but we weren't going to let that stop us. We went pantry shopping and found some other yummy things to throw in the mix and came up with something delish! I'm not sure they would make it back on the Eating Well web site, but they sure made it into our family cook book. Here we go:

 

• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon flaxseeds,we used the regular dark ones but I would love to try the golden ones soon.
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 cup Reeses puffs
• 1/3 cup craisins
• 1/3 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/3 cup chopped raisins
• 1/4 cup organic creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup organic sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Follow the directions in the provided link above. These are great to have for the mornings on the go.

Yummy for my Tummy - Snack Time

I was looking through the pictures I took with my phone in January to see which ones to save and which ones could go and found a picture of my snack. Kind of random, you might think, but I find myself taking pictures of my food all the time. And this one made me hungry so I'm definitely on my way over to the pantry and fridge to dig out a couple of plain, unsalted rice cakes, some roasted red pepper Tribe hummus and some cucumber. And sprinkle with a tiny pinch of kosher salt and some freshly ground black pepper. My mouth is watering as I'm writing. Just look at the picture and you will understand why. Yum! Or Mums! (See, I snuck in a little Swedish lesson for you there.)

Ok, so I'm drooling. Gotta go!

Yummy for my Tummy - Lime-y Black Bean Soup

Maybe the correct way of spelling lime-y would be limy...
but it looks funny so we won't do that.

Anyway... this is such a simple, quick, healthy, cheap meal
that it's a staple here at our house. 

Ingredients:

1 cup Newmans Own Tequila Lime Salsa

2 cans drained, rinsed, organic black beans

  (please, use organic so your ingredient list isn't a mile long. 

beans should be beans, don't ya think?)

2 cups low sodium chicken stock/broth 

(10 points to anyone who can tell me the difference between stock and broth.)

½ lime

chopped parsley

sour cream

Heat the salsa for a few minutes, stirring often. 

Add beans and stock. Or broth. 

Bring to a boil, lower heat, simmer, covered,  for about 15 minutes.

Let the soup cool down for a little bit then ladle about half of it into a magic bullet. Just because you don't have a food processor just yet. Or a blender.

 Puree and return to the rest of the soup.

Squeeze the lime into the soup. Now we like it pretty lime-y. Or limy. Add as much or as little as you like here. 

Add parsley, save some for garnish.

Serve warm with a do do a dollop of sour cream and sprinkled parsley. 

Did you sing that last line too?

Enjoy!

Yummy for my Tummy - Menu

I'm about to head out to the grocery store, but waiting for E to be ready for bed so we can pray first. So while I wait I will share my menu with you.

Fish in white mustard sauce (the sauce is white, not the mustard) with potatoes and peas. This is somewhat of a tradition for me from home. It's so good, especially after filling up on Christmas food for a few days. And I always serve peas with my fish. Not sure why. C always pics on me.

English Muffin Pizza What can I say? It's easy. E can make most of them. We have some English muffins in the freezer from a BOG2 sale recently. We make them on whole wheat.

Roast or Roullader (Not sure what you call them here.) I have the meat already in the freezer from a meat sale a couple of weeks ago. Time and energy will determine what I'll be making.

Beef Stew in the crock pot. Someone from C's work killed a cow or something so we got some meat. Love free meat! Thanks someone!

Broccoli Soup with Arnold circle sandwiches. The circles are on sale right now I think. And the broc is cheap too. And E loves soup. And I have a really yummy recipe.

Tuna Noodle casserole My MIL gave me a recipe I've been using for a long time. We really enjoy it, but it calls for a can of cream of chicken soup and since I try not to use canned soups (or anything half made from a box or can) I started making it all from scratch. (Well, I don't go fishing for the tuna, but I do whisk my own butter, flour and milk together.)

Leftover Three bean Chili Cornbread Casserole Again, in the freezer. I made A LOT the last time.

Texmex Soup. I found a recipe on Tasteline. It calls for a package of taco seasoning. I think I'll be able to make my own. Don't care for all that salt they use.

Usually I plan 11 meals and go shopping every other week. Not really sure why I only planned 8 this time. Hoping for leftovers!

Maybe some day I'll have time to share a recipe or two with you.

Yummy for my Tummy - Butternut Squash Soup

I have been blessed with a child who eats most everything you put in front of her. In fact, almost every night at the dinner table she tells me that she loves the food, that it's delicious and that it is her favorite food. It sure makes me a happy mamma! But there's one type of food that she loves more than anything. In fact, if you were to ask her what her absolute favorite food is she would answer:

SOUP

 So here is one of our favorite soups, enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp EVOO
• 2 small onions, sliced (I normally only use one onion and I have no idea what size category it falls into.)
• 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced (really, there's garlic in it? I think I've missed that every time I cooked it. I guess you could put in some garlic.)
• 3 cups peeled, chopped butternut squash (just wait for my comments on this one...)
• 3 cups water
• 2 cups apple cider
• kosher salt 
• freshly ground black pepper

 

 Before I give you the instructions I want to tell you 3 things...

1. This was  Rachael Ray recipe but I can no longer find the link. Just wanted to give credit where credit is due.

2. 3 cups of peeled butternut squash normally means two whole ones. Last time I only needed one. 

See what I mean?

3. Be careful when you peel the squash. Don't use a cheese slicer.

Cook onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add everything else and bring to a boil. Then let it simmer for about half an hour until the squash is soft. (I have roasted the squash a couple of times and then scooped it out and added it to the liquids, instead of peeling and chopping. Considering my cheese slicer incident maybe I should stick to that.) Puree the soup with an immersion blender until it's smooth.  Serve with your favorite croutons.

I wish I had a picture of the finished product, but I stopped taking pictures when I sliced off part of my knuckle. I actually stopped cooking that night and didn't finish it until the next night and had no thought then of bringing out the camera. Sorry!

I hope you try this soup. It is absolutely delish!

Yummy for my Tummy - Cinnamon Spice

The best tea ever, what to do when the supplies are limited:

Use one tea bag for a small tea pot. Steep for a long, long time. Get 3½ cups from only one bag. 

Thanks mamma for sending it to me. Love you!

Yummy for my Tummy - Granola

The aroma of granola baking in the oven is spreading throughout my kitchen. I love granola! Especially in plain Kefir. Almond milk or Greek Yogurt works too. Here is my go to recipe that I do not follow very well. Don't we all tweak recipes to make them fit us better? Here is what I do differently:

• First of all I don't like doing dishes so I don't mix the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. I mix the wet once in the big bowl then I just add the dry ones in one by one. Call me lazy. (I call it smart!)
• We have nut allergies in the family so I don't add any nuts. Well, almonds are fine.
• Some of my additional add ins are flax seeds, coconut flakes and dried fruits like raisins, craisins, chopped apricots, dates...
• Since I add dried fruit I cut down on the honey a bit. Once I was out of honey but had some leftover pure maple syrup from a previous cooking project so I used that instead. I really want to try agave nectar but I have no idea where to find it. I've been looking around but I must search in all the wrong places. Please help me find it!
• I also cut down on the cinnamon. A tablespoon is a lot! In my opinion.
• I also want to add that I use the old fashioned oats, not the quick ones.

I DO follow the baking directions and it turns out SO yummy for my tummy.

Yummy for my Tummy - Croutons

So you bought this delicious bread and now you're throwing away the end pieces...? Why not cut them up and make some croutons. Drizzle over some EVOO, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, maybe even some Parmesan cheese. Put it in the oven and DON'T forget them. I do that all the time and they get either too crunchy or even burnt. But last time they came out great. Don't you think?Now we're only missing the butternut squash soup... Yum!

Yummy for my Tummy - Kladdkaka

Kladdkaka - you might not be able to pronounce it, but you do want to make it. At least if you like gooey chocolate. And who doesn't?


Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup flour


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.





Use the stick of butter to butter this thing. (Translating from Swedish apparently makes me lose American words.) I prefer one with removable sides.





Melt the rest of the butter, set aside to cool a bit.






Beat eggs and sugar till the batter looks this fluffy.




Add vanilla and cocoa powder. (Now, the recipe calls for 1 tbsp of vanilla sugar. Not sure if that equals 1 tbsp of liquid vanilla or not. And as far as the cocoa powder goes, I would add a little bit more than 3 tbsp, but I love chocolate so...)


Add flour. (Some people also add a pinch of baking powder here. You don't really need it. It's not suppose to rise. It's suppose to be GOOEY.) Don't beat the batter too long after this. You want to just mix the flour in there.






Lick! (Oh, my... you let your child lick a batter with raw eggs. What kind of mother are you?)





Remember, just in time, to add that butter.






Look at that shiny batter!







Pour batter into this thing.






Bake for about 20 minutes. (Don't insert a toothpick, it's suppose to be GOOEY.) You might have to experiment with the time here to come up with the perfect gooeyness for your taste.




This is what it looks like when you take it out of the oven...







... and this is what it looks like 5 minutes later. It does sink a bit in the middle. Let it cool before you serve.




Last time I made it I served it with raspberry flavored whipped cream. Yum!