Onion?

I planted green onions, Walla Walla sweets and some garlic last year.  I never used it all and I never pulled it out of my veggie garden.  Last week I wanted to make room for all my baby veggie plants that are ready for planting and pulled all the onions out.  I set them on the gravel next to my veggie garden and went inside for the next week thanks to rain. 

Today I looked out my kitchen window towards my garden and saw mysterious green things poking up.  Much to my surprise the onions are still growing and happy just laying in a heap on top of the rocks.  I may not move them just to see what happens!

Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

Every Tuesday we have organic produce delivered to our doorstep from Full Circle Farm.  I originally bought this as one of those daily internet deals.  But, we loved the taste and the quality of everything that arrived so we've kept the weekly delivery going for a couple months.

Today there were three rhubarb stalks in our order.  I have never cooked with rhubarb and always turned down offers of strawberry rhubarb pie or similar as a child.  I'm not sure why especially since my grandma was the one making it all.  But, having this in today's box of produce was a sign that I needed to give rhubarb a fair shot.

I found a very basic strawberry rhubarb sauce recipe on Martha Stewart's website.  Martha recommends the sauce be used on vanilla ice cream and I plan t use it over home made shortcakes for tonight's dessert.  Homemade meaning the shortcake recipe on the side of the Bisquick box.  Never tried it?  You are missing out my friends! (recipe is below)

The finished strawberry rhubarb sauce was sweet and you could taste both of the fruits.  I couldn't eat enough of it either which makes me really regret all those years of refusing to try my grandma's homemade rhubarb treats.

Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce, courtesy of Martha Stewart

1 lb strawberries, hulled and quartered

2 rhubarb stalks, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2 c.)
1/2 c. sugar

In a large saucepan, place strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, and 1/4 cup water; bring to a simmer over high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb begins to break down, 6 to 8 minutes.

Refrigerate until cool, at least 1 hour and up to 1 week. Spoon strawberry-rhubarb sauce over scoops of ice cream. (Or with shortcakes as my family did today!)

Bisquick Classic Shortcake Recipe

2 1/3 c. Original Bisquick® mix

1/2 c. milk
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted

Heat oven to 425°F. In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix, milk, sugar and the butter until soft dough forms. On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by 6 big spoonfuls*. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

*I like to sprinkle the tops of each unbaked shortcake with sugar before they're baked.

Yogurt Drops

Easiest snack ever, that your kids will think is an ice cream treat?  Yogurt drops.  Go to your kitchen, grab a plastic bag (resealable sandwich style bags are best), grab a small container of yogurt and a cookie sheet covered with a Silpat.  Oh, and prepare yourself to be blown away by this 'easy peasy' (as my kids would say) idea.

Pour the yogurt in to the plastic bag and seal.  With scissors, snip of  a tiny piece of one bottom corner from bag.  Then gently (gently!) squeeze the bag and make little round yogurt mounds the size of nickels. Place in freezer and let harden for about an hour.  Pop the frozen guys off the cookie sheet and store in a plastic container in freezer.

My kids beg for these things.  They think they're ice cream drops!  Best trick ever.  Next best trick?  Washing and rinsing red seedless grapes and freezing in a container.  They make for a perfect snack on a hot afternoon and taste like mini popsicles.

Ojai Wrap

This weekend we had the pleasure of staying at the gorgeous Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in Ojai, CA.  I loved everything about this resort, aside from the lack of air conditioning (or not understanding how to work the room's thermostat?). 

We had a great lunch post-massage, pre-pool that was both light and filling.  We dined al fresco on a pergola covered terrace, overlooking 200 year old oak trees and the golf course.  I ordered a wrap filled with grilled chicken, arugula, shaved fennel, parmesan, lemon and roasted garlic aioli.  The wrap was very visually pleasing and also a trick on the eye.  While rolled up, the wrap seemed average size. But when one of the wraps fell apart, my entire plate was filled with a giant salad.  Kind of glad I didn't eat all three portions of the roll!  Plus, I had to eat most of the fries.  So good.

The kicker to the meal was my iced tea.  It came with mint infused simple syrup.  I always add sweetener to my tea (I'm a die hard southern sweet tea lover), and the subtle hint of mint was a perfect addition.

Below is my take on my yummy lunch...

Jodi's Grilled Chicken Ojai Wrap

1 large chicken breast, grilled and sliced very thin

4-5 handfuls of arugula

1 small tomato, diced

1/2 c. shaved fennel

Shaved parmesan

1/2 lemon, juiced

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp champagne vinegar

2 large tortillas or wraps

Mix together the lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and vinegar (red wine vinegar would be okay to use too).  Season with salt and pepper.  Add more lemon juice or vinegar depending on your taste (it should have a nice lemon tang to it).

In a bowl, mix together the sliced chicken, arugula, tomato and fennel.  Add the lemon garlic dressing and toss.  Divide the mixture among two large wraps and sprinkle with the parmesan.  Roll up tightly and cut in half on an angle (makes your easy to make wrap look a bit fancier).  Serve with a side seasoned french fries or a bowl of seasonal fruit.

Now imagine you're sitting in 80 degree weather, overlooking beautiful mountains and a golf course. I sat inside looking out my window at the rain as I ate this today...  Ojai, oh how I miss you!

*I used a large flour tortilla, but you could use whole wheat or flavored wraps, pita bread, etc.

Snacks

I feel like I've done something right.  When it was our turn to bring snacks to my son's t-ball game, I asked what he wanted to do.  I gave a few suggestions and B said he wanted water, apples and kettle corn!  No juice.  No gummy fruit, a real apple.  No crazy sugar high, just a little hint of sweet on some popcorn and pure water. 

This may not be shocking, but my kid is like most.  Give him the choice of chocolate or grapes, he will head straight for the dreamy chocolate (so would I).  Some of the previous snacks were peanut butter chocolate candies with gummy fruit and fruit juice.  That was one seriously oversugared Saturday.  Another time it was more juice and frosted animal crackers.  So B's choice of a mostly healthy snack made me very proud.  It also made me very nervous about how the other kids would react.

The team reactions?  They loved it!  One boy did ask if they were getting anything else, which cracked me up.  I  made extra little baggies of kettle corn and passed them out to the team parents.  Everyone deserves a little snack! :)

Grab and Go Snack Ideas for your Team Player:
Goodie Bags - buy some bags in the team's color.  Usually around $4 for 20 bags with ties.

Water:
Our local grocer had mini water bottles for very cheap.  12 mini bottles for under $4. 

Fruit:
Satsumas when in season. 
Small apples, our store had about 10 in a bag for $3. 
Grapes in little plastic baggies.

Sweet or Savory:

Buy a big bag of something and divide in smaller portions with ziploc bags.
Kettle Corn.  Trader Joe's sells an awesome kettle corn and they have a light version!
Pretzels
Pirate's Booty

Trader Joe's light cheese puffs - they taste just like the real thing and are healthier.
Fruit Leather. Stretch Island Fruits are a great brand!

What snack ideas do you like? I'd love suggestions!

Banana Bread Muffins

Tomorrow I am in charge of bringing snacks to C's cooperative preschool.  Last time I brought snacks I made homemade mini banana muffins and dried craisins.  Most kids ate two muffins and one kid even tried to fish one out of the garbage can!  Gross...  Needless to say, it was easy to decide what to make for tomorrow.  Banana muffins!

When B was in coop preschool almost every parent brought homemade treats, or very creative store bought treats.  Now that C is in coop preschool, on the other side of the lake, we've found that no one brings anything homemade.  Treats are usually from a can, crackers, or individual slices of banana.  This may explain why kids were shoving the homemade banana muffins in their mouths or eating them out of the garbage can?  The whole phenomena is shocking to me.  I'm not sure why, but I figured where we live now would be filled with health minded parents and had some 'extra' time, or would want to provide something yummy for their kids at preschool.  Apparently people on 'this' side of the lake have less time?  Don't even get me started on the discussions about food when a nutritionist came to the classroom.

Okay, enough of my rambling.  Back to the bananas!  Today I tried a new banana bread recipe and it was quick, easy, and chock full of banana.  I used mini muffin tins and made three dozen minis with one batch of batter.  And there was enough batter leftover to make five normal sized muffins.  The big guys got a few chocolate chips sprinkled on top!

I pushed the chocolate chips down a bit so they wouldn't get burnt sitting on top of the batter.

The mini muffins were so small, but they are a perfect size for a two year old's hand. And mouth!

If you decide to make mini muffins, spray the tins with a nonstick spray and start checking at 8 minutes.  You may need to add a few more minutes on to cook time depending on your oven.  I tested the cook time by baking one single mini muffin before baking the entire batch.  The larger muffins took closer to 12 minutes, but keep an eye on them!

If you want to make a loaf, use a standard 9x5 pan and grease well.

Banana Banana Bread, courtesy of many random internet searches

2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2 1/3 c. mashed very overripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350° and lightly grease 9 x 5 loaf pan.  In large bowl, combine flour, soda and salt.  In separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.

Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Butternut Squash Quesadilla with Avocado Cream

I am a die hard fan of Cactus Restaurant's butternut squash enchilada.  Its so rich and creamy and very filling.  Plus, it has some goat cheese mixed in which is a bonus!  I stumbled across a quesadilla recipe last week and it looked delicious, fairly basic and a close resemblance to Cactus' specialty enchilada.

I made some tweaks to the recipe to make it my own, and am proud to say I now have an easy homemade version of one of my favorite enchiladas... in quesadilla form!

Cube about two cups of butternut squash and toss with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, two teaspoons ground cumin and a dash of salt and pepper.  Roast in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  As a real time saver, buy a package of frozen butternut squash. Whole Foods sells frozen, cubed butternut squash and the package contains 2 cups! Perfect!  And this is usually less expensive than buying a whole squash that you then have to peel, seed and cube.

While the squash is roasting, combine one small container of plain nonfat Greek yogurt with a mashed avocado and juice from one lime (a couple tablespoons worth).  Mix well and set aside.  

*I used one 6oz container of nonfat, plain Greek yogurt and this made plenty of sauce.

When the squash is ready, heat a pan on the stove to medium.  Add a dash of olive oil to the pan and let warm up.  Take three large tortillas and cover each with about 1/3 cup goat cheese. 

One at a time, place the tortilla in the pan to warm and brown.  On one half of the tortilla, sprinkle with 1/4-1/3 cup of drained and rinsed black beans, a handful of baby spinach, and one third of the squash.  Fold over tortilla and let heat up and brown.  Flip to brown both sides evenly.

Remove from pan and cut in to wedges.  Serve with a dollop of avocado sauce and a sprinkling of chopped cilantro (cilantro is optional).  Enjoy!  And don't be fooled by what seem like a small portion, these are pretty filling and rich. Serve alongside some Mexican rice and slices of watermelon for a more filling and refreshing meal.

Jodi's Butternut Squash Quesadilla with Avocado Cream

3 large tortillas

2 c. cubed butternut squash (can use frozen, cubed squash)

1 c. goat cheese (I buy ours from Costco... two huge logs of it. Heaven...)

1 can black beans, rinsed/drained

3 handfuls of baby spinach

1 avocado

1 6-8oz container of plain nonfat Greek yogurt

1 lime, juiced

2 tsp ground cumin

olive oil

salt and pepper

cilantro, optional

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is such a fun 'holiday'. When else do you get to have an excuse to drink a margarita at any time of day?  Okay, so maybe if you are in Mexico or use the "it's 5 o'clock somewhere" excuse, you already drink margaritas at any hour.  But to me, today means yummy mexican food, drinks and dessert.  Usually we don't do dessert on Cinco de Mayo, but I found a fun idea that is great if you're short on time.

Sopapilla is a traditional Mexican bread, usually fried.  It can be served as a dessert by adding honey to the fried sopapilla. If you visit the Cactus restaurants in the Seattle area, they serve a similar appetizer called "Navajo Fry Bread with Amber Honey" (which tasted more dessert-y than appetizer to me, and was fantastic). 

I found a sopapilla style recipe, but using cream cheese for a more hearty flavor.  It is about as fast to make as any dessert I know, aside from scooping ice cream...  And no frying necessary! Plus, it could be used as a special breakfast treat in addition to dessert item.  I guess we'll call this recipe Creamy Sopapilla? Or Sopapilla Dessert (or Breakfast) Bars? 

Grab a container of Pillsbury (or store brand) crescent roll dough.  Carefully unroll the dough and divide in half (four 'triangles' per half) and pinch any seams together so you end up with two square pieces of raw dough.  Lay one square in an ungreased 8x8" baking dish.  Set the other square aside.  You may need to stretch the dough a bit to get it to cover the bottom of the dish.

Take one 8oz package of cream cheese and soften in the microwave (keep a close eye on it while heating... maybe 1-2 minutes at half power).  Mix in 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp good vanilla.  Spread over the dough in pan.

Carefully set the other square of dough over the cream cheese mixture.

 Melt a couple tablespoons of butter and spread across the dough, then sprinkle with some sugar and cinnamon.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned and slightly firm.

Let it cool slightly before cutting and serving.  I cut in to nine squares and served with a small scoop of chocolate ice cream.  This dessert was a big hit and I plan to make it again for our Mother's Day fiesta next weekend. 

Other ice cream flavors that would be tasty are coconut, mexican chocolate and dulce de leche. Don't skimp on these ice cream flavors... go with a brand that uses fresh ingredients so the flavor isn't flat.

*This recipe can be doubled.  Just use a 9x13" pan, 2 cans of crescent rolls, 2 8oz packages of cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons good vanilla, and about 1/4 c melted butter.

May Day

Every year my grandma would receive a cute little May Day basket at her front door.  The little girls up the street were usually the creative minds behind this delivery, and my grandma loved to talk about her annual floral surprise.  Some years the girls used baby food jars and other years they used decorated paper cones.

To brighten up the day of some of our neighbors and my mom, C spent the morning coloring construction paper and using sparkly stickers.  Once she was done, I rolled up the paper in to a cone shape and adhered it with a glue stick to retain the cone shape.  (I would have used tape if I could find it...) 

Then I poked two holes, opposite of each other at the wide end so I could string through some ribbon to make a 'handle'.  We picked a few rhodie and lilac blossoms from the yard and our May Day cones were complete!

The kids loved trying to ring the recipient's doorbell before they could answer the door.  Unfortunately, they didn't usually get away before the front door was opened! But it was fun to see the recipient's face and my childrens' faces too!  The kids have also received a very nice thank you card from our neighbor which was really special.

Happy May Day!