Just like the rat made

Ratatouille!

I had this back in the spring at Disney (get it... the movie ratatouille and they MADE ratatouille?!) I had it at the Crystal Palace which had excellent food. My husband had it and didn't even believe me that eggplant was in it - it was that good. I wanted to find the Disney recipe, but never did. Since all the ingredients are in season, I decided it was time to make it.

I selected a fairly easy recipe - Rachael Rays. You can find it here - Ratatouille. It's actually very, very easy to make - even without a chefs hat and a rat hidden underneath. The only think I would do different is to make more sauce and perhaps a little thinner - perhaps adding more EVOO to the sauce.

Theorietically my garden should be able to produce all these veggies, with the exception of garlic. So, this really could be a home grown dish. Sadly, my garden has been somewhat angry at me and hasn't given me squash yet. Perhaps soon though... perhaps soon.

In the meantime, eat your veggies and make some ratatouille!

Pass it On

Tonight I made what I call a "Food Revolution" dinner. We got Jamie Olivers latest cookbook from the library and decided to make a meal from it. The reason this entry is called "pass it on" is that in the introduction of the book he talks about the various statistics - health related/food related - that he talks about on the show. About how people eat in, but they buy take out to eat in  and that he wants people to learn how to cook and then -- pass it on -- share the love and ability to cook with others. So that's what I am doing. I am passing it on.

I will admit that I have been an avid follower of the show ever since I saw his TED Talk. I do think he's on to something. His "Food Revolution" even came at a perfect time for me -- when I was also in the middle of this personally. So....anyway, I sat down with the cook book and my husband and my daughter  (I don't know where the boy was) and decided on what we would have. Better yet, my daughter would help me cook it!

We decided on 3 things

Mediterranean Chopped Salad (Page 123)
Broccoli with Asian Dressing (Page 220)
Crunchy Garlic Chicken (Page 241)

I will go over the recipes in order that I made them so that the pictures are in order! I -- of course -- always cook the things that take the longest 1st so that ideally, the whole meal is ready at the same time.


Crunch Garlic Chicken 

1 clove of garlic
1 lemon
6 crackers (probably more -- I used saltines because he referenced a british brand that I was unfamiliar with)
2 tbsp butter
4 sprigs of parsley
sea salt & black pepper
2 tablespoons heaped all purpose flour
1 large egg
2 skinless chicken breasts
olive oil

To Prepare the chicken - peel the garlic and zest the lemon. Put the crackers into a food processor with the butter, garlic, parsley, lemon zest and a pinch of salt & pepper. Mix until it is very fine and poor onto a plate. Sprinkle the flour on a 2nd plate. Crack the egg into a bowl and beat with a fork. Lightly score the undersides of the chicken. Put a piece of plastic wrap over each and "bash" a few times with the bottom of a pan (or something hard!) until they flatten out. Dip the chicken into the flour until coated, then dip into the egg and finally into the crumbs. Make sure the entire chicken breast is coated.

Bake or pan fry. For baking - heat the oven to 475' and bake for about 15 mins.










 Broccoli with Asian Dressing

Steam about 1 1/4 lbs of broccoli. While it is cooking prepare the dressing. Grate a thumb size piece of ginger and finely chop a clove of garlic and place in a bowl. Add one fresh red chile. Stir in 1 tbsp sesame oil, 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce, juice from one lime and drizzle in a teaspoon of balsamic. Whisk together. Serve over broccoli just before serving.








Chopped Mediterranean Salad

Handful of black olives
1/2 red onion
1 red chile
3 firm ripe tomatoes
1 romaine lettuce
fresh basil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
sea salt & fresh black pepper

Get a large chopping board and a large sharp knife. Take out the olive pits if they were not already pitted by pressing down on the olives with the knife.

Start chopping the harder crunchier veggies first -- peel and slice your onion, chop the chile. Chope the olives and tomatoes and bring it all to the center of the cutting bard. Continue chopping and mixing together. Add the lettuce and basic and chop well. Once everything is well chopped you'll have a big mound of salad on the board. Make a well in the middle and add 6 tbsp olive oil (I only added 4, 6 seemed like a lot!), 2tbsp balsamic and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Mix it all up and serve straight from the board or put in a bowl.



As you can see, I had my daughter helping me. She did a great job. She zested lemons and "bashed" the chicken. It was great fun. Best of all, she ate like ALL her broccoli  - and I think it's because she had a hand in making it. Sadly, the meal did not go over well with the boy. I tried to choose veggies that he'd like, instead he wouldn't try it. Oh well... next time I will cook with him and see how it goes.

So... how was everything? My favorite was the salad. I could have eaten it all. Loved it. I see more chopped salads in our future. The broccoli was pretty darn good too. My least favorite was the chicken. I wasn't overly impressed with it. It was ok, but nothing spectacular by any means. So now, go cook one of these things yourself!

Time Management

This month, I finally started working relatively "normal" hours (this means during the day). Up until now, I was working evenings and weekends and it really wasn't working for me. While this is great to have a real life - it's really messed my time management up.  I was used to getting my errands done during the day and spending the weekends having fun. Now that my days are occupied (which is a GREAT thing!), I am having trouble getting used to 'normal' family life. This means getting laundry done in a timely manner and the biggie - planning ahead for my meals. Don't worry. We didn't escape to dine out, but I have been struggling to make good decent food all while getting everyone from point A to point B and of course work. I realize to some of you this sounds silly, but after 10 years of being an "at home parent" and only working evenings and weekends, it's hard. Especially when doing it for 3 other people.

This week, I reverted to an old stand by. Something my mom used to make me when I was little. It's simple, it's easy and it's so so good.

Chicken & Yellow Rice.

Knowing that I needed enough for some leftovers and some to feed my vegetarian, I made 2 batches - one with chicken and one with yellow rice only. I use a package (one day I will make it from scratch with saffron!) from Vigo which is the very same thing my mom used. I make it a little different from the package - basically about 50% more water plus LOTS of garlic and a little olive oil. Cook for about 45 mins. For the chicken, I usually use skinless chicken thighs. Breasts will dry out too much in the oven for 45 min. I also like to finish with some peas, preferably LeSueur.

I had enough leftovers for lunch the next day, which was perfect.

Next week, I am hoping to plan things out a little bit better.

Quiche!

Quiche is something I probably don't make often enough. It's so yummy & customizable and actually really easy.

Tonight I used half of a pie crust I had made about 2 weeks ago. I rarely made pie crust before making it for a chicken pot pie earlier in the month. I was amazed at how easy and GREAT it came out. I will probably never buy pie crust again. My pie crust of choice --- The Pioneer Woman's. You will see her recipes frequently on here. They are so homey and easy. Granted, some of them will give you a heart attack with the amount of cream or butter she uses, but.... all in moderation, right?

So... one pie crust.

Then, for the quiche I took a recipe from the Betty Crocker cook book. You know... the classic red and white book. I made the "Create your own" or something like that. Tonight I used carmelized red onions (I LOVE carmelized onions), green & red peppers and garlic as well as some Sargento Fiesta Blend cheese.

I mixed 3 eggs and 1 1/2 cups milk (I have to tell you the name of the creamery I got it from -- a local creamery -- Sassy Cow Creamery. I love the name. I also love the Sentry has tons of local foods to choose from.) Anyway, after beating the eggs and mixing in the milk I added the filling to the mix. After baking the super awesome pie crust I put the filling in and baked for 30-40 mins. It was so good. I will share some pictures tomorrow.

The bonus of quiche is that I have leftovers. It can be breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's versatile.

Garlic Parmesean Risotto, Herb Roasted Carrots & Kebobs!

Sounds expensive right? Nope. Hard? Nope. Risotto is one of my most favorite dishes and it's very easy. Many people seem to think it's hard - because you to have to stir it a lot - or some excuse like that. Typically, I am in the kitchen doing something else - whether cooking doing the dishes or cleaning, so I am there and it's not that hard to stir every once in a while. The risotto recipe is heavily modified from the recipe on the back of the bag.

Herb Roasted Carrots :

About 6-7 carrots, sliced
Olive Oil
Dried Thyme
Kosher Salt

Preheat the oven to about 400 degrees. Slice up the carrots. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with dried thyme. Sprinkle salt over carrots too. Roast for about 35-45 mins. Done! Cost ~$1. I already had the olive oil and thyme, but if I broke down the cost for it -- maybe 25 cents.


Garlic Parmesan Risotto

chopped onion
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cup Arborio rice (rice for risotto)
5 cups of vegetable stock
4-5 cloves of garlic
grated parm

Melt the butter over low heat, add the olive oil and onion. Brown until the onions are golden brown. Add the risotto. Stir for a min or 2. Add just enough vegetable stock until it covers the rice. As the rice absorbs the stock, continue stirring and adding stock little by little, just covering the rice. This will take about 20 mins or so. Add the garlic as you add the vegetable stock - little by little. Add the cheese towards the end of cooking and stir in. Once all the liquid has been absorbed, the risotto should be done and ready to serve!

This cost a little more. I had the risotto already. The bag originally cost about $3 and each bag is good for 3 batches - so about $1. The stock did cost about $3.50. All of the other little thing would probably be about 50 cents - so $5 for the risotto. It does make a TON. Plenty for dinner and enough for left overs. My son loves this.

Now, a note about the ingredients. Most recipes include chicken stock. Since my son is a vegetarian, I have been making it with vegetable stock. I will admit it's much richer with chicken stock, but he really likes risotto!

The last thing we had were kebobs from a store here in Madison called My Menu. I went there around the holidays to pick up some appetizers for the visiting family ($5.99 chicken wings, if you must know!) and I was given a total of 8 kebobs - for free! So, even though they were free with a purchase, I do consider them free because it was like 40 chicken wings, so $6 was a great deal even without the free kebobs. My son had a veggie burger (~$1) as his "protein" instead of kebobs.

So.... the meal was about $7.25 total for all 4 of us. Provided lots of leftovers and was DELICIOUS!