Category Archives: recipes

recipes

Basil Pesto

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The other day, I made pesto from the last bits of basil in the garden.  I do it a little differently than some others do.  This recipe started from Taste of Home’s Basil Salmon Recipe, but I’ve changed it up quite a bit.  For one thing, we don’t use pine nuts.   We like more parmesan cheese.  I’ve even tried cutting down the amount of oil used, but that one did not work.  It takes it all.

Here’s what I do:

4-1/2 cups basil leaves

10 Tablespoons olive oil

5 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons lemon juice

6 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Place all ingredients in food processor.  Pulse until it is all incorporated together.  Taste.  Add more salt, pepper, cheese, etc. that you want, to taste.  Freeze in an ice cube tray.  Once frozen, pop the frozen cubes into a zip-top bag and keep in freezer until ready to use.  Makes 1 ice cube tray full.

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We use it on fish and chicken, in salad dressings and dips, and pasta the most.  Ja’Ana and I love it!

 

recipes, Saving Money

Enchiladas

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The camper fridge gets full extremely fast.  Even so, I lose leftovers in there sometimes!  I don’t want to waste food, though, so today I searched out several bits and pieces and made enchiladas.  I usually use a tomato base with my enchiladas, but today I was focused on using some things up.

Here’s what I did:

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I made a filling:

–1 cup (approximate) lite sour cream mixed with 1 small can of green chilies (I used 1/2 in the filling and 1/2 on top)

–Pork leftover from a few days ago, cooked in crockpot with salsa verde

–pinto beans I cooked yesterday with jalepenos and onions in the crockpot

I put a little bit of each of these things into 10 warmed corn tortillas, rolled them up, and placed into a pan sprayed with non-stick spray.

I made sure to finish off the pork, but have lots of beans left for another day.

On top I put:

–the rest of the sour cream/chile mixture

–the last of 2 small bags of cheese–1 cheddar and 1 Mexican blend

–5 green onions, chopped up with kitchen scissors

I covered with foil and baked in 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes-1 hour, until warmed through.

Makes 10 enchiladas.

It would be so easy to use chicken, hamburger, or whatever meat you have left over.  Any cooked beans would work.  There could be more cheese, or less cheese.  Olives could be added on top, too.  It is a great way to use lots of little bits of meat that are leftover.  Everyone will feel as if they got a whole new meal.  I’m sure looking forward to dinner tonight!

 

recipes

Basil-Parmesan Veggie Stir Fry

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This stir-fry turned out to be extremely tasty.  I thought I’d share the recipe.

1 zucchini, sliced

4 oz. mushrooms, sliced (1/2 carton)

1/4 onion, chopped

garlic salt in a grinder bottle

several basil leaves, sliced thinly ( I used about 10)

butter and/or oil, as needed for stir-frying (2-4 Tablespoons)

3 Tablespoons-1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, or to taste

salt and pepper to taste

Put butter or oil in a pan and heat to medium-high heat.  Add the prepared veggies and stir-fry the zucchini, mushrooms and onion.  Sprinkle on some salt and pepper and grind several turns of the garlic-salt grinder.  I used a non-stick pan, so was able to get away with less than if I had used a stainless steel pan.  I probably used 1 Tablespoon.

When the vegetables are crisp-tender (about 4-5 minutes for mine), add an additional 1 Tablespoon of butter, Parmesan cheese and basil.

Makes 4 servings

This tasted a lot like pizza or garlic bread from a pizza parlor.  We seriously gobbled it down, it was so good.  Of course, you could easily adjust it to have more/less butter, parmesan, etc., but I think the butter as well as the garlic/salt grinder gave it that pizza parlor flavor.  I’m looking forward to making it more as the garden ripens and the zucchini produces.

Gluten free, Holidays, recipes

No Bake Mountain Bars

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These are so easy to make.  Patsy and I whipped out a batch early Friday morning.  When I packaged them up for gift giving, I put a layer of waxed paper in-between the layers.

1-1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cups cocoa

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter

3 cups quick oats

1/4 cup chunky peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Boil sugar, cocoa, milk and butter in a large pan for 1 minute.  Add remaining ingredients.  Drop by teaspoon onto a cookie sheet that has been lined with waxed paper. Decorate with sprinkles or mini M and M’s according to the holiday it is, or the color scheme you want to match.  We often leave them plain if it is not a holiday.  Refrigerate until set.  Makes 1 cookie sheet full of cookies, if you put them pretty close together.

The amount you get actually varies according to how big you make them.  I’ve had the recipe for years.  It came from a home-school math book a long time ago.  They are gluten-free as long as you are sure to use gluten-free oats.  Some people cannot handle oats, anyway, no matter what, but I can, so enjoy these occasionally.  I’d check with the recipient if you are unsure if they tolerate oats.

 

Gluten free, recipes, Slow Cooker

Slow Cooker Taco Soup

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Yesterday, I decided to make taco soup in the slow cooker.  It is heavy on the pinto beans, as my husband got a 50 pound bag last summer for only $22.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to burn a slash pile with the family, and we were all glad for a hot meal at the end of a long afternoon.  Sadly, it did not burn all the way up.  We got some of it burned, but not all.  Bummer.  The soup was still excellent.  This turned out quite thick and some family members chose to fish out the beans and turn it into nachos instead.

Taco Soup

2 quart-sized bags of cooked pinto beans (soaked, cooked and frozen previously)  Probably 4-15 ounce cans would work

1 onion, chopped

2 Anaheim peppers, diced

1 Jalepeno pepper, diced

1 quart home-canned tomatoes (a 32 ounce can would work)

2 cups beef broth (I had frozen I had made, but you could use 1 15-oz. can)

1/2 pound cooked, leftover turkey taco meat, seasoned with taco seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

Extra taco seasoning, or cumin, if desired

Sour cream, cheese, and olives to garnish (optional)

Put all ingredients in crock pot.  Turn on “low” and leave for 6-8 hours. My slow cooker will automatically turn to “keep warm” when the time is up, and I left this on all day long, probably about 10 hours, until we were ready to eat.  Since everything is cooked, except the vegetables, there would be no danger if you needed to eat it sooner.  It also holds a long time  if your dinner time gets pushed off.  Makes 10-12 servings.  (Actually the 5 of us didn’t have much left last night, but we had been outside working hard for several hours and ate more than 1 serving each, I’m pretty sure!)

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This is what it looked like as a nacho.  They did drain out the liquid from the beans before they dumped it on the chips.  We get the mega-bag of chips from Costco, divide into zip-topped bags, and can enjoy corn chips for a reasonable price, without them getting stale, for several weeks.

Gluten free, Holidays, recipes

Gluten-Free Stuffing With Apples and Water Chestnuts

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I wanted to make stuffing for Thanksgiving.  I needed it to be gluten-free, but I didn’t want to pay the price for packages of gluten-free stuffing mix (I would have needed several boxes at around $5/package) and I didn’t want it to be either too dry or gummy.

I decided to take a loaf of gluten-free bread I had in the freezer.  My daughter made multiple loaves during the summer because she was practicing for the fair, and we just froze them all.  It was unsliced, so I sliced and cubed it.  I divided the cubes between 2 cookie trays, drizzled a little butter over them and sprinkled on some seasoning.  I used poultry seasoning on one tray and Bragg’s mixed seasoning on the other.  My plan was to use one batch for croutons if it made more than I needed, but I ended up using it all.  Then, I baked those trays at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

The bread cubes were definitely dried out and crisp, but a little chewy in the middle.  I had 1/2 pan left of the gluten-free cornbread my mom had brought over.  I had some frozen broth from a time when Rob had cooked a chicken with apples and onions, so it was apple-flavored chicken broth.  Regular chicken broth would work well, also.

Thursday morning, I made the stuffing.

2 quarts homemade stuffing cubes

1/2 of a 9″ x 13″ pan of gluten free cornbread, crumbled

2 onions, diced

4 stalks celery, diced

1 can sliced water chestnuts

2 large apples, cubed

2 cups broth

2 Tablespoons poultry seasoning

1/4 cup melted butter

salt and pepper to taste

Salute the celery and onions until soft in a little vegetable oil.  Pour bread cubes, cornbread, the vegetables, apples and water chestnuts into a very large bowl.  Sprinkle with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper.  Mix thoroughly.  Drizzle with the melted butter.  Pour  1/2 of the broth over the mixture and stir.  Check to see how moist it is.  If it is still very dry, add the rest of the broth.  Check again.  Add more broth if needed.  Mine took about 2 cups of broth.  The cornbread I had was quite moist but the cubes were quite dry.  I did not want the cornbread to be gummy so I stopped adding broth when there was still some definition to the cubes–the stuffing was not all stuck together into 1 big ball when I mounded it on a spoon, but it did not just fall apart, either.    The cornbread broke down into little bits that kind of held the cubes together.  I poured it into a flat pan–mine is larger than 9″ x 13″ and baked it for about 1 hour at 350 degrees.  IMG_1755.JPG

It turned out amazing!  It had wonderful flavor from the apples, onions and celery and a nice crunch from the water chestnuts.  It was not gooey or too dry.  It was economical, too, when I used the homemade croutons.  I was very pleased with the results.