Eating out.. of the pantry- DAY 1

I am conducing a little experiment this week, how long can we eat dinner's consisting only from the food that is presently in our home.

Day 1- Monday night... Tonight we had homemade pizza from dough that I bought on Saturday. My other daughter had asked for ramen soup for breakfast this morning, I told her she could have it for dinner. We also had leftover pureed cauliflower and some raw veggies.

I will say that I did not begin this experiment with a fully stocked house. I did a very small shopping on Saturday night, consisting of jello, chicken, carrots, pizza dough and potatoes.

I am looking forward to this challenge and will post our dinners for the remainder of the week.

Pureed cauliflower with leeks and Parmesan cheese

My friend has been making a lot of pureed cauliflower recently; I had a head of cauliflower in the house and decided to make my own version. It's delicious and very flavorful, my daughter's even ate it!

Boil 3 cups of water and add 1 heaping Tablespoon of Better than Bouillon to the water. Add in 1 head of cauliflower that has been cut into florets. Don't worry about cutting the florets the same size as it is going to be pureed. Boil until cauliflower is soft, about 10 minutes.

While the cauliflower boils, slice 1 leek in 1/2 lengthwise and thinly chop. Rinse in a bowl of water to remove any sand. Heat 1 Tbs. of olive oil in a pan and add the rinsed leeks. Saute for 4-5 minutes on medium high heat until the leeks are soft and goldenish. They will still retain much of their green color. Add a good pinch of kosher salt and pepper. Drain the cauliflower and add to a bowl. Add the leeks and puree with a hand blender until smooth. Add another pinch of black pepper and a about 1/4 C. of grated Parmesan cheese. Serve.

15 Minute Meal for $15 on WTNH

Here is tomorrow's recipe that I will be making on WTNH, Good Morning Weekend Connecticut. It comes from my new "recession buster" series of classes that are beginning in April. The new schedule of classes will be up on my website by early next week.

Enjoy!

Egg noodles with chicken sausage and Parmesan

1 C. wide egg noodles
2-4 sliced chicken sausages
1 C. chicken stock
1 C. frozen peas
1 tbs. olive oil
1/4 C. grated Parmesan cheese
pinch of kosher salt and pepper


Boil water in a medium pan. When water boils, add noodles and cook 6 minutes. While noodles cook, thinly slice chicken sausage and add to a large nonstick pan on medium high heat. Add ½ C. chicken stock to sausage and cook for 4-5 minutes. Add frozen peas and continue cooking. Drain noodles and add to pan with olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Add a pinch of kosher salt and pepper before serving.
*Optional- sliced mushrooms, quartered canned artichoke hearts, and cherry tomatoes are a delicious addition to this meal.

Sauteed rainbow chard

Tonight I made a staple in our house, panko crusted pork chops and couscous. I decided to throw a new veggie into the mix, rainbow Swiss chard. I've made it for the kids before, but not in ages.

I bought a bag of fresh, prewashed, chopped rainbow Swiss chard at Trader Joe's today. I heated a large nonstick pan on high heat, added in a Tbs. of olive oil and 2 cubes of frozen garlic. Next I added in the bag of chard. Don't get worried if the chard seems to form a small mountain, it will cook down a lot. I then added in about 3/4 of a cup of chicken stock. If you don't have it, you can use water, but the stock adds a lot of flavor.

Saute the chard for about 8 minutes until the stems become soft and most of the liquid has evaporated. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The kids were a little unsure of the chard, but I assured them they should only eat a little as it is a Super Food and they might become uncontrollably strong. The elder (who usually makes the bigger fuss) ate it quickly but didn't fuss. She then jumped off her chair and began doing push ups on the floor! Abby began to laugh and quickly polished off her serving, promptly asking for more.

They both ended up having 2 servings of chard and we enjoyed a dinner and a laugh together. I love when we can get though a dinner without fusses!

Sweet and sour shrimp

We had a giant snowstorm in NE today and I didn't get to the market, fortunately I had bags of frozen shrimp and couscous handy for a dinner in a pinch.

While perusing through my (too) large selection of spices and seasonings, I came across a jar of sweet and sour sauce and thought that would be perfect for tonight.

Here's my recipe for sweet and sour shrimp. I would have added fresh pineapple, but we didn't have any, if you have some, add it!

Defrost 1 bag of large peeled, cleaned and deveined uncooked shrimp in a bowl of warm water. This usually takes about 3 minutes. I like to pinch the tails off, but this is certainly optional.

Combine 1/2 C. sweet and sour sauce with 1 Tbs. of soy sauce in a bowl. Add shrimp to bowl and let marinate for a few minutes. Heat a large pan on high heat and add 1 Tbs. of either sesame or peanut oil. When the oil is shimmering, add the shrimp and sauce and cook for 2 minutes. Remove and serve hot.

I served the shrimp with the Trader Joe's harvest blend couscous that I love and a salad.

* You could also throw in some cooked shelled edamame, red peppers or even snow peas when cooking the shrimp. *

Guest chef on Connecticut Style, WTNH Ch 8, tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.

Tune in tomorrow, I will be the guest chef on WTNH Channel 8's new show Connecticut Style at 12:30 p.m..

I'll be sharing ideas for how to make a snack drawer for your kids, how to stock your pantry, fridge and freezer and a perennial favorite, 15 Minute Turkey Scaloppini.

Hoping to post the segment after it airs tomorrow.

Bean and ham soup

I normally use canned beans because they are so easy, however I soaked a bag of beans and they were really easy. They took a little forethought as I had to do them a day in advance, but they were much less expensive than canned beans and really delicious.

To prepare beans (the easy way) for soup: I used a mix of white beans and roman beans.

Boil 3 cups of water in a soup pot, add 1-2 cups of beans and let cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let soak overnight. Drain before using.

To make soup:
Saute 1 onion, 2 diced carrots and 2 stalks of diced celery (you can also buy this fresh Mire Au Poix already prepped from Trader Joe's) in 1 Tbs. of olive oil.

While the veggies saute, dice 1 C. of ham and add to the pot. You can either use a ham steak or shank of ham (this looks like the end piece of a large cut of ham). All of these hams are already smoked and cooked.

Add in soaked beans and stir to combine. Add in 2 bay leaves, 4-5 C. of chicken stock, a tsp. of celery salt and a good pinch of black pepper. If you don't have chicken stock on hand, you can also add water and 2 Tsp. of the Better than Bouillon concentrate.

Cover and let simmer for a minimum of 1 hour, preferably longer. Season to taste before serving.

Note- You can also add any kind of greens (kale, collard or even mustard greens) to this soup. Simply rinse the kale, chop and add to the soup when you add the beans in.