Breakfast Stuffed Shells

I feel like I have to apologize for my absence. Sometimes I just feel like I can't get my feet under me. Then I have a wonderful day like today...both kids with me all day, had my annual physical (which had the girls waiting an hour and a half total), lunch at a restaurant (at their request), hair cuts for both of them (I had them cut 6 inches off the littlest's hair and worried that the hubby wouldn't let me back in the house), a shopping trip to Wegmans (where the biggest asked me to make stuffed shells, who am I to argue), then back home to do some batch cooking. And we all had a great time!  Ooh, and in the middle of cooking, the littlest decided that she wanted to swim with just the kick board and no life jacket, so I jumped in the pool with her and she took off.  Just two weeks ago she wouldn't let go of the ladder!  When I get done here, I'll be looking for some swim lessons and a swim team for her--she's a natural.

Knowing that I need to stock up the freezer for my mom, who is having shoulder surgery in a few weeks (if anyone has any ideas on good foods to freeze that can be heated and eaten one handed...please let me know), I cooked the whole box of shells. I made some traditional stuffed shells. Then ran out of ricotta cheese. So I had these left.

I didn't want to throw them out, but I couldn't find inspiration in my kitchen, so I turned to Pinterest.  Know what's not on Pinterest? Breakfast stuffed shells. There should be breakfast stuffed shells on Pinterest. Ahem. Somebody needs to pin this recipe. Had to send the hubby to the store for cream cheese, but I had the bacon, mushrooms, peppers (from my first garden ever!) eggs and cheese in the fridge. I'm sure anything you'd eat in an omelette will work.  Our friends make "crack dip" with breakfast sausage and cream cheese, that would be delicious.

Chop up your veggies and have them on-deck while you cook the bacon.  

Pull the bacon out of the pan and cook your veggies in the bacon grease.

After the veggies are softened, throw a brick of cream cheese in the pan and stir until everything is melty goodness. Then stir in the cooked bacon and pour into a bowl and set aside. 

In the same pan, soft-scramble some eggs. Then mix the cream cheese goop back in to the pan and lightly mix with the eggs.

Stuff into the already cooked shells.

Oops, no pictures, but make some cheese sauce while the bacon and veg are cooking. Pour the cheese sauce over the shells and bake at 350 til bubbly, about 20 minutes.

This is a great brunch dish, but it is a bit rich and needs something acidic. We ate it with a spoon, standing in front of the stove. If I was serving it to someone, I'd top it with something tomato-y (like a tomato and roasted red pepper sauce) or on the side of an arugula or frisee salad with a really lemony vinaigrette. 

Breakfast Stuffed Shells

For the shells:

12-16 jumbo shells, cooked according to package directions

8 oz bacon, chopped

8 oz mushrooms, chopped

1 cup green pepper, chopped

8 oz cream cheese

Olive oil to coat pan

6 eggs, beaten and seasoned with salt and hot sauce to taste

For the cheese sauce:

2 Tbs butter

2 Tbs flour

1 cup milk

4 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 tsp ground mustard

hot sauce to taste

Preheat oven to 350. 

Cook bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat until crispy. Remove bacon to paper towels to drain, leaving the grease in the pan.  (Meanwhile, make cheese sauce--directions below) Add veggies to bacon grease and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add cream cheese and the cooked bacon to the skillet and stir until combined. Remove from the pan to a bowl and set aside.  Wipe out skillet and add olive oil.  Over medium heat, cook eggs just until soft-set.  Add cream cheese mixture back to pan and fold into eggs lightly.  Stuff the egg mixture into shells and line up in a 9x9 greased casserole dish.  Pour cheese sauce over shells and bake 20 minutes til bubbly and golden.  Serve with something acidic (like a tomato sauce or a salad with lemony vinaigrette).

Cheese sauce

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-high heat.  Whisk in flour and cook for about 2 minutes.  Whisk in milk, mustard and hot sauce and add cheese.  Stir frequently until thickened and cheese is melted.  Set aside until you are ready for it.

What I have learned so far...this week

Here is what I've learned so far this week (and it's only Tuesday)...

1.  Corned beef is pretty easy to make, it just takes a loooong time.
2.  When you prepare dinners ahead for the week, you get to do things like go to a free jazz concert at the library on a school night and still make it almost make it to bed on time.
3.  At a jazz concert at the library, when the adults have finished laughing at the wise-cracking guitar player, your 4-year-old will most likely say "That's HILarious" in her perfect little outside voice.
4.  Umbrellas do not make good toys on windy days.
5.  I am able to run (when my child is heart-broken...see #4), I just choose not to.
6.  When you haven't run for, well, ever, some part of your body will hurt at some point in the hours following the running event.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Paleo-style...

Reuben in a Bowl


This was my first corned beef brisket ever.  I was sharing with a friend (as I sat in her kitchen watching some ribs in her oven) that meat intimidates me.  It's getting better since I have introduced a thermometer to my kitchen, and with practice I can now tell by touch when a steak or porkchop is done to my liking.  But I am still a bit intimidated--part of it is that meat is expensive and you don't want to mess it up.  This was a pretty big gamble on my part with this $10 brisket.

I cooked the corned beef for about 4 hours on Sunday while I prepped some other dishes for this week. I baked it in the oven at 350, covered with foil for about 2 1/2 hours then uncovered for about 1 hour more.  It still wasn't tender enough so I covered it again and baked it for 30 more minutes or so.  Then I packed a layer of brown sugar on top and broiled it until the sugar got crusty.  Whew, it worked--it's tender and moist.  It is pretty salty (but okay with the dressing and cabbage, it's not overpowering).  The next time I cook corned beef, I may boil it or soak it to get some of the salt out before roasting.

In case you are curious, here is what else is on the agenda this week...
Double Pork Stuffed Apples
Sweet Pepper Poppers
Baked Chicken with Spinach and Artichokes
Whisky Glazed Carrots (this is my absolute favorite recipe right now...you HAVE to try it!)

Oh, and a few more things we've learned...
7.  My children like raw carrots, not cooked (or over-cooked as the biggest insists on telling me. Repeatedly.)
8.  We learned that there is no answer but the truth when your super-smart-and-very-literal-six-year-old asks "Well, how do the baby rabbits get out of the mother's stomach if the doctor doesn't cut them out?"

What have you learned this week?

Picnic Soup

Spring is definitely in the air, you can smell it!  And what do you do in Maryland when you feel spring in the air?  Why, you eat soup...outside...of course! What, you don't? So it's just us, then?

It's been a terribly cold February and a snowy start to March.  It was still kind of cold this weekend when I prepped some meals for the week.  I baked a handful of sweet potatoes (great for lunch with some almond butter or goat cheese and those roasted grapes I made on Friday), some Butter Chicken (I cheated and used a jarred sauce with chicken, peppers and onions.  And by the way, if you are eating Indian and don't have any Major Grey's chutney, peach jam plus a cinnamon spice blend makes a pretty good substitute!) and this soup...

Creamy Pumpkin, Sausage and Kale Soup

which reheats extremely well.  Sausage, onions, peppers, pumpkin, kale and some cream.  I made it the first time a few weeks ago and I had been jonesing for it again. Only I couldn't find baby kale again so I got spinach this time...still tasty but a bit slimy--stick with the kale.

We were a bit late leaving school tonight as I was conferencing with a parent, so I'm very glad I had prepped for the week.  And I am loovvving the time change and our new back yard!! The kids came through the house and straight out back when we got home.  While I was heating dinner, hubby and I did that eerie thing married couples do...he said "where are the lawn chairs" at just about the same time I said "grab a blanket, we should have a picnic."

This picture sums up our evening...

And because I prepped, even though we got home late, the kids got to play with chalk outside, we had dinner, the biggest girl got two nights of homework and reading done, the littlest got a bath and I actually cleaned the kitchen all before bedtime!  What a wonderful evening--we even got a cosmic high-five!!

Rock on!!

I'm Back!!!

So I've taken a bit of a hiatus for almost a year...it wasn't on purpose, it started because I was letting myself get bogged down in the minutiae of life and some really bad time management.  When I began to get my feet under me, things happened like an emergency appendectomy, the biggest girl starting Kindergarten, and moving to a new house (and into a smaller, poorly designed kitchen).  Meanwhile, we dove headfirst into the paleo lifestyle.  If you don't know what that is, in it's simplest terms, it is eating like a caveman--lean meats and vegetables mostly. After my appendectomy, we ate strict paleo for about a month in an attempt to heal my gut.  As a result, hubby and I both dropped some weight and felt enormously better (turns out carbs make me verrrry sleepy!)  We aren't so strict all the time now, but "paleo" dictates alot of our food decisions.  I'm not going to take this blog in a paleo direction intentionally, we are not strict enough for that.  I'm still going to stick to what works for us and what works for our kids, and what I am doing in my tiny kitchen.

Let's get to it...we've had two snow days in a row this week.  Snow days are meant to be spent in the kitchen.  Baby Girl wanted crepes for breakfast. No problem, but usually I stuff them with a sherry spiked cream cheese or nutella.  (BTW, we've tried paleo crepe recipes and none have worked so far...this is an instance where we are not strict paleo.  I'm not eating pancakes or french toast but an egg-heavy, flour-light crepe is okay by me)  So I started thinking about other things besides sugar laden yummy stuff to eat with my crepes, and what did I already have in the fridge, since it is a snow day.

Side-bar: If you like my "soft-focus" pictures and want to recreate them on your own, give your cell phone to your grubby pawed children for a bit, they'll smudge up the camera lens so that every picture looks like a close-up of Cybill Shepherd on Moonlighting.

Creamy mushrooms with thyme was up first, then when the kids started eating grapes, roasted grapes with thyme was born (and yes, I ate some of that too for second breakfast).  The grape recipe comes from here:

http://www.alexandracooks.com/2011/09/07/lunch-roasted-grapes-with-thyme-fresh-ricotta-grilled-bread/

and I've made it about a half dozen times--love it on bread but try the grapes on pork, on a sweet potato with goat cheese or just drink the elixir from the bowl, it's delicious!  Not wanting bread, I thought that rolling the ricotta in the crepe and serving the grapes on top might be pretty good...I was right!

Crepes Two Ways
Crepes (makes about 8 8-inch crepes)
3 eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
pinch salt
pinch sugar (optional)
2 Tbs melted butter

Mix all ingredients in a blender.  Let batter stand for about 15 minutes.  Cook in a very thin layer in a nonstick skillet or fancy crepe pan if you happen to have a mom who gives the best Christmas gifts ever!

Creamy Mushrooms with Thyme
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs butter
8 oz mushrooms, sliced (white or crimini)
3-4 stalks of thyme (no need to strip leaves)
salt and pepper
2 Tbs white wine
2 Tbs heavy cream

Heat the oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the mushrooms and thyme and saute for 5-7 minutes.  Season mushrooms with salt and pepper.  Add wine to the pan (on a snow day when you have white grape juice in the house and you don't feel right about opening a bottle of wine at 8:15 in the morning, you can sub the juice for the wine...it works although I'm sure it's much better with the wine).  Reduce almost completely.  Remove the thyme from the pan and add the cream and stir. Pour over folded crepes and serve immediately.

Roasted Grapes with Thyme
About 1 lb of red grapes, removed from stem, washed and dried (of the water, not made into raisins)
5-6 stalks of thyme (no need to strip the leaves)
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbs honey, divided
sprinkle of kosher salt
1 cup ricotta cheese

Preheat oven to 425.  Toss grapes, thyme, oil and 1 Tbs honey on a sheet pan and roast in oven, stirring occasionally, until the grapes burst and give off juice, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix ricotta with remaining honey and spread on crepes and roll up.  When the grapes are done, spoon over rolled crepes and serve immediately.

I added some whipped cream on the grapes for the picture...what do you do with the leftover whipped cream? Give it to the littlest...

Mini Spinach Pies

In our house, we have a two "no-thank-you-bites" rule.  When we have a new food, the children must take at least two bites before they are allowed to say a polite "no thank you" and move on to something else.  With the littlest, sometimes it goes like this "just take this bite and I'll leave you alone."  Sometimes, with the biggest, it goes like this "I didn't see you take two bites, take another one--SQUIRREL--oh, sorry honey, didn't see that one either, take another one..." and so on.  The next time we have that particular food, they have to eat it if that is what we are having for dinner.

That being said, you have to know your children.  We have learned that Charleigh's favorite food is asparagus and that she really doesn't like meat (I keep telling her that she can be a vegetarian when she is 12, but until she will eat the right foods to get enough protein, she has to eat her meat).  We have also learned that Dani is the only one in our family that doesn't like asparagus, so we don't make her eat it.  Charleigh likes spinach raw, Dani likes it cooked.  Each of them will not eat it the other way.

So I stock the freezer with these little spinach pies for Dani and when we have asparagus for dinner, we just defrost a couple ("Five, because I am five years old, Mommy!") for Dani to eat.

Just a little background for you...Dani was borderline anemic when she was a baby and even feeding her beef five times a week wasn't correcting it, so we were trying all iron-filled food.  We started with spinach filled things, like quiche (check out that blog post here).  Each time, she would say "I don't want the crust...I don't want the egg...I don't want the ham..." Then we tried spanakopita but she didn't want the crust.  So we ended up with making these little spinach pies--kind of the filling of spanakopita but without the pastry (or the fuss, thank you baby girl for making my life a little easier here).  Oh, and here is the cutest thing--she still calls feta cheese "marshmallow cheese," as she did when she was a toddler.  Well, it does look like marshmallows!

My little photobomber...I can't get her out of pictures when I'm cooking.  When photographer Daddy wants to take pictures, she will not cooperate--Yay 3-year-olds!

Chop and saute onion.  In the past, I have tried to hide this step from the biggest.  She thinks she doesn't line onions.  This time, she saw me and I told her that I was making some spinach pies for me and I like onions.  Then I took a HUGE risk...I asked her "can I tell you a secret?  I've been making yours with onions for a long time now.  I just cut them up really small so you don't see them.  Can I make yours with onions this time?"  I held my breath for a beat or two...then she shrugged an okay and left the kitchen.  Phew!

Squeeze the water out of the spinach and set aside in a bowl.  I used to do this with a towel.  Now I just do it by the handful, it is actually less messy that way.

To get the rest of the water out of the spinach, toss with the onions in the skillet for a few minutes.  Place back in bowl to cool and add oregano, lemon zest, parsley and a pinch of nutmeg.

Stir in feta, parmasen, and eggs, stir to combine.

Remind your husband that there is raw egg in there as he tries to eat the feta out of the bowl.

Scoop into a greased mini muffin tin.

Bake 20 minutes at 350.

Mini Spinach Pies

4 boxes frozen chopped spinach (9-10 oz each)
1 medium onion, diced
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs dried oregano
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
zest of one lemon
8 oz crumbled feta cheese
2 oz shredded Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350.  Squeeze the water out of the spinach and set aside in a large bowl.  Saute the onion in the olive oil until softened.  Use your fingers to separate the spinach a bit and add to skillet for a minute or two (just to dry it out a little more). Add oregeno, nutmeg, salt, pepper, parsley and lemon zest to the spinach and toss to combine.  Place back in the bowl and let it cool a bit.  Add feta, parmesan, and eggs and stir.
Spray a mini muffin tin with non-stick spray.  (This recipe makes 36 pies, stuffing the tins full.  You can easily stretch it out into 48 pies)  Fill each tin to the top with the spinach mixture.  Bake 15-20 minutes til golden brown on the edges.  Serve warm or let cool completely and freeze.  To defrost when frozen, heat 5 pies on a plate for 1 minute at 50% power.

Snow day, round 3...my Momma's vegetable beef soup

As I write this, my children are being forced to enjoy my mother's vegetable beef soup.  Mother Nature saw fit to dump yet another winter storm on us...8 inches this time.  So in between shoveling and playing in the snow, I was working on this soup.  It is super simple and remarkably delicious.  And if you pour off all of the broth, a three year old will eat it.  Only if you feed it to her like a baby.  And she will chew the beef for five minutes like it is a piece of bubble gum, even though it is possibly the tenderest piece of meat I've made in awhile.

 FYI--this recipe is also featured in my book Only the Good Kids Get Broccoli.  Check it out here

Gather ingredients...let the meat stand at room temperature for a bit before cooking so it warms up.

Get the oil rippling hot.  Salt the beef and sear...

About 5 minutes each side--you are looking for a good crust on it.  Add beef broth, bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.  Simmer until the meat is fall-apart tender, 2-3 hours.

I like to slice the cabbage into thin strips.  It ends up being like noodles in the finished soup.

Remove meat to a plate and cool until you can handle it.  Pour vegetable juice into pot.  Add tomatoes, soup mix and cabbage.  Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer at least 20 minutes.  Shred the meat or cut into bite sized pieces and add back to the pot.

Nannie Norma's Vegetable Beef Soup
2-3 lb boneless beef chuck roast
3-4 cups beef broth
32 oz vegetable juice (like V-8)
15 oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies
16 oz package of "soup mix" vegetables
1/3 head cabbage, sliced into thin ribbons

Season the beef on both sides with salt.  In a heavy bottomed pot (dutch oven) sear the beef in 3 Tbs vegetable oil over medium-high heat, about 5 minutes per side.  Add beef broth to pot, enough to come up about 3/4 the way up the side of the beef.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.  Simmer until beef is fall-apart tender.  (My 2.8 lb piece took 2 hours, 45 minutes)  Remove beef to a plate and allow to cool enough to handle.  Meanwhile, add to pot the vegetable juice, tomatoes, soup mix and cabbage.  Bring to a boil and reduce to low.  Simmer at least 20 minutes until the cabbage is softened, but you can let it go longer if you wish.  Shred or cut the beef into bite sized pieces.  At some point during the simmering, add the beef back to the pot.  Serve while hot, or it's even better the next day.  After the soup has refrigerated a bit, you can remove the hardened fat.  This soup freezes beautifully, so don't be overwhelmed by the vat of soup on your stove right now.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, Mini-sized

Tomorrow is our "just because" ice cream party.  While shopping for sprinkles, magic shell and other various project materials (we are making ice cream playdough and painting with shaving cream mixed with glue--it stays fluffy), I found these adorable little babies...

We have ice cream and chocolate dipped sugar cones covered, but what about cupcakes?  I've made full size ice cream cone cupcakes...small ones--even better, especially when the kids will be eating ice cream too.

So preheat your oven to 350, mix up a cake mix, line up the cones on a cookie sheet (the little ones actually stand up better than the big ones do), fill the cups 2/3 with batter and bake 15 minutes.  Easy-peasy.  They are so small that from turning the oven on to icing and sprinkles was a few minutes shy of an hour.

To show how little and cute these are, I tried to find something that everyone knows the size of to compare.  The bananas were hanging next to the stove...

Well, that's better, they are about the size of a shot glass.

Cute. Cute. Cute.  All ready for tomorrow.