Chicken and more chicken

It is so hard to keep up with this type of blog when you are always on the road.  Hawaii was beautiful and I loved the food there.  Then last weekend I was in Troy.  Before I left for Troy, I finally took the roasting chicken out of the freezer to thaw, and today, I roasted it in my crockpot.  I made it as simple as you could imagine.  I rinsed the chicken inside and out, dried it with paper towels, placed it in the crockpot and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.  After covering, I cooked the chicken on HIGH for an hour, then reduced the heat to LOW and let it cook for 9 hours.  Believe me, there is nothing better than returning from home to an apartment that smells like cooking!  Here's how the chicken turned out:

I had a drumstick for dinner and it literally just fell off the bird.  There is definitely something to free-range chickens because this was the tastiest chicken I have had in years despite the limited seasoning!

To use up some of the remaining chicken, I am going to make Pad Thai.

Chicken Pad Thai

2 packages rice noodles
4 cups shredded chicken
1 lg carrot, julliened
1 1/2 cup Pad Thai Sauce

Cook rice noodles according to package directions.  In the meantime, cook the carrots in a microwave steamer for 4 minutes (I cannot have raw carrots due to allergies).  Drain the noodles, return to pan, add chicken and carrots.  Then pour sauce over noodles and mix well.  Serving size 1 1/2 cups.  If available, garnish with chopped peanuts (not included in WW points).

Weight Watchers PlusPoints Value: 11

If I have more chicken leftover, I will just shred it, add some of my leftover BBQ sauce (that I made several weeks ago for the pork shoulder) and make sandwiches.  I am thinking this will make a great lunch!

Back from Hawaii

Hello all!  I am sorry that I disappeared again.  I had to go to Hawaii to accept an award (yeah, I know, rough life!).  My friend Leland Metheny picked up my CSA package last week, so I am still waiting to receive it.  But here is what we expected:

Winter CSA Wk 9 Selection
-  2 lb “hamloaf” (ground, smoked pork)
-  1 lb ground pork
-  1 lb grassfed beef
-  2 lbs Hartzler butter, salted
-  1 pint mild hungarian hot peppers
-  1 lb turnips
-  3 lbs sweet potatoes
-  1 lb organic granola
-  1 lb whole wheat linguini
-  1 dozen eggs

This is an interesting package and now that I am past that trip, I am starting to come up with ideas for the items received.  I think I am going to make pasties or maybe even a tourtiere (Canadian meat pie) with the butter, turnips and pork this month.  I haven't done pasties in forever and have never tried to make tourtiere, but I now have a ton of butter, wheat flour, etc and need to use some of it up. 

We also got notice to sign up for the summer program.  There are three levels available: small, large and full-access.  The small package is basically only produce, the large includes meats, etc and the full-service is the small package (1/2) and you choose the rest (1/2).  After much deliberation, Leland and I decided that we would sign up for and split the full-service package.  Works for all of us:  FreshFork gets the equivelent of 2 small package orders and we get to choose what we want and neither of us will have to figure out how to use so much food every week.  Oh yeah, did I mention that the summer program is weekly, not every two weeks? 

Time to return to work.  More information on recipes, etc once I start cooking again!

Saturday 2/12/11

When we woke up this morning, we were flipping through the few channels I get with my antennae and ran into Rick Bayless's cooking show.  He was making fresh cheese and then made quesadillas with fresh corn tortillas, serreno ham and squash blossoms (and the fresh cheese) that looked so good.  It got me thinking about the cheeses that I have in the refrigerator from my CSA packages and decided that with those, the eggs and the bread that we got last package, I could make a really yummy savory bread pudding.  I did some research to get an idea of proportions and came up with the following recipe:

Savory Breakfast Bread Pudding

Makes 4 servings

·         3 cups day-old bread, cubed*

·         2 eggs*

·         4 egg whites*

·         1 cup half and half

·         ½ cup 1% milk

·         4 oz feta, crumbled*

·         3 slices turkey bacon, diced

·         2 cups mixed greens, chopped*

·         ¼ cup feta or grated parmesan (optional)

1.       Toast bread cubes in 350 oven, about 10 minutes, stirring halfway through the time.  Leave oven at 350. 

2.       In a bowl, mix together eggs, egg whites, half and half and milk until thoroughly blended.

3.       In a 9X9 baking pan, toss together bread cubes, bacon, mixed greens and feta.   

4.   Add bread cubes to greens and bacon.

 5.       Pour egg mixture over bread cubes.

5.       If desired, garnish with additional feta (or parmesan) for brown crust.

6.       Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, or until thermometer inserted in to center reads above 145 degrees.

Makes 4 servings.

Weight Watchers PointsPlus value: 8

*CSA package items

While I was putting all of this together, I looked at how long it would take to bake and decided we needed something to tide us over, so I cut two thin slices of the bread (which is very yummy, by the way) and toasted it.  Then I spread the toast with the fresh cream cheese from the last package and some homemade low-sugar raspberry jam.

This reminds me of the biscuits and clotted cream from high tea.  So yummy!

I made the bread pudding lower fat by using egg whites and half and half instead of whole eggs and cream.  I was a little afraid of the texture, but it came out nice and creamy in the end.  To quote one of my favorite movie lines "I know you aren't supposed to say this about your own food, but YUM!" (Julie & Julia). 

While the bread pudding was baking, I threw together another version of the cabbage soup I made last week.  I don't have regular tomatoes, so I had to use Rotel tomatoes with chiles.  Here's today's recipe:

Southwestern Cabbage Soup

• 5 cups cabbage, coarsly chopped*
• 8 oz kielbasa*
• 3 (14.5-oz) cans Rotel tomatoes w/ chiles
• 2 (16-oz) cans tomato sauce
• 1 can water

Mix all ingredients in crock of slow cooker.  Mix well and cook on HIGH for 2-3 hours.  Switch cooker to LOW and cook another 4-6 hours.  Makes 8 servings.

Half of this will be going home with John this weekend.  I hope I have freezer space for the rest since I leave for Hawaii on Wednesday.  The next package will come when I am in Hawaii.  I will let you know what I am expecting when I get the email from Trevor.

Michigan, Lansing CSA programs

It's the beginning of a busy week for me.  Hard to believe that a week from tomorrow I will be flying out to Hawaii to accept a New Investigator Award.  For today, I wanted to follow up on my sister's request for information on CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs in the Lansing area.  As I started looking I ran across this website: http://www.csafarms.org/.  This is a site that lists the CSA farms/programs available in Northeast Michigan!  What a great resource!!!

Okay, so here are the programs available in the Lansing area:

Michigan State University Student Student Organic Farm (http://www.msuorganicfarm.com/community-supported-agriculture): This program provides members with CSA packages 48 weeks/year.  There are more than one membership available:

• Year-Round: must be a summer member first, however, this membership is broken into 4 16-week sessions for $515 (about $32/week) currently
• Summer-Only: This is the starter package.  Runs 20 weeks, mid-June to October.  Unfortunately, there is a waiting list for this program.  Get on the list as soon as you can; the wait is approximately 18-24 months

Note that this is a vegetarian program.  Unlike the program that I participate in here in Cleveland, you will only get produce on this program.

Titus Farms, Leslie, MI (http://www.titusfarms.com/Become_A_Member.html);
This program is taking membership applications now for the 2011 program.  With this program, you can choose a vegetarian only option or add other shares such as flowers, eggs, chicken or fruit.  The other interesting thing about this program is that there are different size packages for the vegetarian shares.

CBI's Giving Tree Farm (http://cbisgivingtreefarm.wordpress.com/):  Another program taking applications for 2011.  The program this year is $300 for 23 weeks and runs from May 25th to Oct 26. 

Okay, I have to run!  But that's a start, hope it helps.  I should probably take a look at whether my program is taking applications for the summer yet.  I can't wait to start getting all that wonderful fresh produce!

SuperBowl Sunday

Ok, so lets start with the morning.  I started cooking as soon as I got up because I knew it would take all day to cook the soup.  But I was hungry, so here's what I had for breakfast:

Spinach Feta Kielbasa Scrambled Eggs

Makes 1 serving

• 1 lg egg*
• 2 egg whites*
• 2 oz kielbasa, sliced and quartered*
• 1/2 cup baby spinach
• 1/4 cup feta, crumbled*
• garlic powder (to taste)

In a small saucepan, add kielbasa and spinach.  Cook until spinach begins to wilt.  In the meantime, beat egg and egg whites in small bowl with garlic powder.  Pour over spinach, sprinkle with feta cheese and cook, stirring, until eggs are just barely wet.

*CSA items

Weight Watchers PointsPlus Value: 10pts

Now,  for dinner/SuperBowl, I made queso dip (Velveeta and Rotel) and the following soup.  I will admit I am a sucker for the cabbage soup at Big Boy.  So, taking a cue from Lindsay Allen, I attempted to recreate it.  I have to admit, it turned out pretty darn good.  I did add to it by adding kielbasa, which changes the flavor a bit, but it turned out quite good.

Cabbage Soup

Makes 8 servings

• 5 cups cabbage, coarsely chopped*
• 1 med onion, diced
• 1 med green pepper, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 oz kielbasa, sliced and quartered*
• 1 (28-oz) can whole tomatoes, hand crushed
• 2 cups low-sodium tomato juice
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free chicken broth
• 1/2 stick butter*

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add onions and saute about 1 minute.  Add green peppers and garlic and continue sauteeing until onions just become transleuscent.  All all ingredients to crockpot, cover and cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours, or until cabbage is cooked.  Makes about 8 1-cup servings.

Weight Watchers PointsPlus Value (per 1 cup serving): 5 points

Beginning of cooking

Finished

It's always nice to have time to cook for the week.  Just wish I could actually be watching the game. Time to find a good movie to put on!

Making vinaigrette

So, I now have baby spinach and mixed greens in my refrigerator.  I don't normally have a lot of such things so I never buy salad dressings or vinaigrettes.  So, my goal today was to figure out how to make my own vinaigrette.  I looked at various recipes and finally decided to try for a honey mustard balsamic vinaigrette. 

Honey Mustard Balsamic Vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 cup basil infused oil
• 4 Tbsp brown mustard
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.  Store in the refrigerator. 

I have never had some of these greens before as salad greens (beet greens, etc) and I liked the peppery flavor.  I am also thinking the vinaigrette will be very good on my favorite spinach salad (avocado and grapefruit).  It's a nice change from store-bought dressings. 

I have started planning recipes for the rest of the package.  Since I have cabbage and kielbasa, I will be making a Cabbage Kielbasa Stew in the crockpot tomorrow.  I am also trying to come up with snack ideas for the game tomorrow, although currently, I haven't figured out how I am going to get to watch the game.  Unfortunately, I do not pick up FOX with my antennae.  Hopefully I can find a way to watch streaming online.

CSA package 02/05/11

Okay, here it is, this week's CSA package!  This is so exciting.  My husband will be thrilled because there is cabbage and kielbasa in this package.  I am excited about all of it!

Winter CSA Wk 7 Selection-          1 lb kielbasa sausage
-          1 ham steak (approx 1.5 lb)
-          1 pint maple syrup
-          1 loaf whole wheat bread
-          1 lb Krispy Treat granola
-          ½ lb mixed greens
-          1 lb grassfed ground beef
-          Quarter peck Melrose apples
-          1 gallon apple cider
-          8 oz cream cheese
-          1 head cabbage

Here's the irony:  Again, I purchased some cream cheese the other night at the grocery store.  I keep doing that.  Oh well, guess that means I need to use some this weekend for the Super Bowl.  Stay tuned for recipes!

Lunches

So, one of my failings to myself is that I am terrible about feeding myself.  I don't take the time to make things for lunch.  If I don't like what they are serving at the coffee cart, I sometimes will just eat soup or something.  I know that is not good and that is the reason that I cannot seem to lose weight and keep it off.  So, I have to admit I was proud of myself this morning.  Last night when I went to the grocery store, I bought flatbreads.  I admit, I had no intention of using them for sandwiches.  Here's what I did:

Flatbread Pizza

Makes 1 serving

• Whole wheat flat bread
• Italian Meatballs in Tomato Basil Sauce (http://csafoodie.blogspot.com/2011/01/csa-meatballs.html)
• Baby Spinach
• Feta Cheese, crumbled
• Italian Blend Cheese

Preheat oven to 375F.  Place a sheet of aluminum foil on the center rack.  On a flat bread, spread 2 Tbsp sauce.  Cut 2 meatballs into thin slices and arrange on flat bread.  Cover with baby spinach.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup feta cheese and top with 1/4 cup Italian cheese.  Place pizza directly onto foil sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is browned and bubbly.  Remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before cutting.

As you could imagine, you could use so many different toppings: artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, etc.  It makes a nice lunch option when served with fruit and/or salad.