sleep-over

ok, I don't know what I got myself into.. Carissa sleep-over b-day party is tomorrow night and I have to make cupcakes for school, and a cake for the party, plus another cake for Sunday ( the family party ). I'm painting my kitchen ( Paul will be mad at me. he hates it when I do things around the house with out him) I trying to fix dinner at the same time, plus spend some time with the girls. I still need to pick a few thing at the store, but we are down to one car, so I have to wait till Paul comes home...stressful and on top of everything eles. I am having a total of 14 kids (that includes my two girl) and only 4 are not sleeping over. we'll see if I make it to Saturday we'll see.

Greek Omlet Cups

Ok, so I go and have a baby and noone has a new recipe to post, what's going on ladies? This recipe came off another StrollerFit blog and it sounded good, so I copied it and am posting it, let me know if anyone tries it before me.

Great recipe -- Greek Omelet Cups

Strollerfit it about a well-rounded lifestyle. That includes nutrition too. here is a recipe from Strollerfriends

Ingredients:
Eggbeaters (I would probably use egg whites and 1 egg), Spinach, Red Peppers, Fat-free-Feta cheese

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350

Combine 2-2.5 cups of eggbeaters (1/4 cup egg beater = 1 egg), diced spinach, diced red peppers and several tablespoons of fat-free feta cheese. Stir well to combine all ingredients.

Spray a 6 muffin tin with Pam Cooking Spray.

Pour Eggbeater combo into tin.

Place in oven and cook for approximately 20-25 minutes or until the eggs are no longer runny on top.

They will rise like muffins and makes 6 muffins, great for fast on the go breakfast in the morning. Stores well in Tupperware

Broccoli and Cheese Soup

Here is my soup swap recipe:

Broccoli and Cheese Soup
From myrecipes.com

• Cooking Spray
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth (I used vegetable)
• 1 16oz package broccoli florets
• 2 1/2 cups 2% milk
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 8 oz light processed cheese

Heat a large nonstick saucepan coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; saute 3 minutes or until tender. Add broth and broccoli. Bring broccoli mixture to a boil over miedum-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; cook 10 minutes.

Combine milk and flour, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add milk mixture to broccoli mixture. Cook 5 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Stir in pepper. Remove from heat; add cheese, stirring until cheese melts.

Place 1/3 soup in a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. Return pureed soup mixture to pan. (I used my hand blender and probably "over blended" a little, but it should still be good)

Looking forward to Strollerfit class tomorrow to work off some of the soup :)

StrollerFit Soup Swap

No response to my question from yesterday, how did our moms so it all....

Here is my soup recipe from the soup swap later today.

Creamy Artichoke Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 leeks, white part only, washed well and chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 (8-ounce) package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/3 cup mascarpone cheese or ricotta cheese
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives, for garnish

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a heavy, large pot over medium heat. Add the leeks and the garlic and stir. Add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the artichokes, stock, salt, and pepper and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.

2. Using a handheld immersion blender, or in a blender in batches*, puree the soup. Add the 2 tablespoons mascarpone and blend again to combine. In a small bowl, stir the remaining 1/3 cup mascarpone to soften.

4. Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Dollop the top of each of the soups with a spoonful of the softened mascarpone cheese and top the cheese with chives.

* When blending hot liquids: Remove liquid from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. Transfer liquid to a blender or food processor and fill it no more than halfway. If using a blender, release one corner of the lid. This prevents the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions. Place a towel over the top of the machine, pulse a few times then process on high speed until smooth.

Enjoy!!!

Working or Staying at Home - How did they do it?

So I know this is to be our recipe exchange site, I want to pose a question to all the StrollerFit moms.....How did our moms do it?

Do what you ask? Cook meals from scratch, soups, sauces, etc.......

Today the conversation was from one SF mom to another, Don't tell my husband you make homemade sauce, and when number two comes you won't have time. So I began to wonder, my mom was home during the day and worked part-time nights and weekends and she sold homemade name ribbons, chocolates, birthday/wedding cakes and we always had a home cooked meal. Then when I started school she went to work 20 hours a week and when my brother went to school she went back full time, while helping to run my dad's restaurant and still doing cakes and chocolate lollipops. She was the girl scout leader, sat on the local GS board and the temple sisterhood while driving Keith and I to all sorts of activities, but still we always had a home cooked meal.

This is what I realized, she made sauces, soups and stews on the weekends in large pots that spent a lot of time on the stove but did not require a lot of work once in the pot (I do the same, sometimes in the crock pot) and then she froze lots of containers to defrost when needed. She also broiled a lot of chicken and fish that she would then turn the leftovers into something else the next night. None of the meals were extravagant, expensive or required a lot of ingredients or her time.

So, this makes me spoiled, I do not do canned soup (but I will cheat and use canned broth if the homemade broth has run out and I have not made more as the beginning of soups and other dishes) nor do I do jarred sauces (though I will occasionally buy jarred tomato sauce and doctor it, when that is cheaper than canned tomatoes). But I promise my family and those I share recipes with, even with too I will continue to cook, but thank good the spring is coming, marinades take 2 minutes to make and I will once again be grilling a lot, quick and easy, another trick learned from my mom.

I would love input form the SF moms on what they do and how they think there moms made it look so easy!!!!

StrollerFit Recipe Redo

My stress reliever is cooking and sometimes that leaves my house a mess, between the mess I make cooking and the things Joey gets into while I am cooking (ex. taking all the magnets off the fridge and putting them anywhere and everywhere he can.)

Anyway, I love to cook and do not love baking as much. As I have said before, with cooking you can eyeball ingredients, baking must be exact - 1/2 cup of flour is 1/2 a cup, not a palm full or the recipe won't come out right.

Danielle's Lasagna on Thursday was a hit, but I have so much pasta, I was not going to buy lasagna noodles, I decided to improvise. Joey loves curly noodles so I made a 1 pound box, figured this is enough for him to have a bowl full and the remaining will b e used in the dish. Then while he napped I roasted the veggies, grated all the cheese and made the sauce.

Now When I make lasagna or baked ziti I do not use no boil noodles, I use regular noodles and many times I do not boil them, because I use a lot of tomato sauce and the noodles soak it in and soften while baking. If I had not made noodles for Joey to eat, that was my plan, with this dish. Glad I cooked the noodles, but boiling and using noodles over boiling and using lasagna noodles is definitely a different animal to it self.

As I looked at the sauce it was a thick white sauce and I thought to my self, this will not soft noodles that were not cooked nor will it get into all the cracks in the curly noodles. SO I threw the noodles into the sauce first, making a mac and cheese mix. This made sure the noodles were good and covered in the sauce. Then I layered noodles, veggies, cheese, and repeated these layers, ending with a thick layer of cheese.

This was much easier than the lasagna recipe and a few less steps. I baked it and it came out ooey and gooey. Joey and I ate it for dinner and Scott had some later. Scott who hates with a capital H loved it as much as Danielle's lasagna. We have hit.

So this is my quick redo of a great recipe that I am sharing with you my StrollerFit Moms. Enjoy. Off to make Artichoke Soup for the soup swap wed and preparing for StrollerFit this week. Hoping this is the last week before the baby, I love my SF moms but I am more than ready for baby to come into this world!!!

StrollerFit Pot Luck Recipes from 2/5/09

I was asked for two recipes from Pot luck today, if you want any others, email me for them and I will have them posted.

1. Cari's Vietnamese Spring rolls

ingredients:
1/2 package (8 oz) package dry rice vermicelli
1 pound of shrimp, peeled, deveined and cooked or 1 large boneless chicken breast browned or grilled
16 (8-inch) round sheet rice paper
2 cups lettuce leaves (i used romaine)
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
2 cups bean sprouts
2 cups shredded carrots

instructions:
1. bring 2 quarts of eater to a boil in a sauce pan, add vermicelli, cook 3-4 minutes, drain and rinse under cool water, set aside. halve shrimp length wise and chill until ready to use.

2. soak 1 sheet of rice paper at a time as you work with it, in cool water until pliable. place on a dry surface and blot excess water away

3. place 4 shrimp halves (or a small slice of chicken breast) in lower center of rice paper. top with 1/4 cup noodles, some lettuce, 3-4 mint leaves, 2 tbs bean sprouts and carrots

4. roll over filling once, fold insides and finish rolling, lay seam down to seal

dipping sauce
ingredients:
1 tsp canola oil
1/3 tsp chopped garlic (about 1/2 clove)
2 tsp Chile paste
2/3 cup water
2 tbs hoisin sauce
2 tbs rice wine vinegar
3 tbs low sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter


directions:

heat oil in a sauce pan over medium heat, add garlic. Saute 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth. Reduce heat to low and cook for 2-3 minutes. remove from heat and set aside until ready to serve.

Danielle's Root Vegetable Lasagna (this recipe is in our heart healthy cook book)
ingredients:
6 cups (1/2 inch cubed) butternut squash (about 2 1/2 pounds)
2 1/4 cups (1/2 inch cubed) peeled sweet potato (about 1 pound)
2 coarsely chopped onions, divided
1 tbs olive oil
cooking spray
4 cups low fat milk
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1.5 ounces all purpose flour (about 1/3 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups (about 5 ounces) Parmesan-reggiano cheese, grated
9 no boil lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups grated low fat mozzarella

directions:
1. preheat oven to 2350 degrees
2. combine, squash, potato, 1 cup onion, in a roasting pan coated with cooking spray, bake for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stir once and set aside

3. Combine remaining onion, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon and bay leaf in a sauce pan, over medium heat, bring to a simmer. remove from the heat and let stand for 15 minutes. Strain milk over a bowl Thur a fine sieve, discard the remaining solids. clean the pan well before cooking the strained milk to have a silkie sauce. Return milk mixture to the pan. lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup, level with a knife. add flour, salt and pepper to milk, stir with a whisk, cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until thick, stirring frequently with a whisk. remove from heat, add Parmesan-reggiano cheese.

4. drop oven to 375 degrees.

5. spread 1/2 cup milk mix over bottom of 13 x 9 inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. arrange 3 noodles over milk mix, top with half squash mix, 1/2 cup mozzarella, 1 cup milk, repeat layers of noodles, squash, cheese, spread remaining milk, noodles and cheese. cover with foil coated with cooking spray. Bake for 30 minutes covered, 20 minutes uncovered. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Hope your families enjoy these great recipes and check back for many other delicious recipes. see you all in class tomorrow for health hear items, prizes from the last challenge and many other surprises, including some new moves to work off today's pot luck!!!

Coucous and other info

This is not a recipe but more of an idea combining a few things: The Fishers love Coucous and it is a quick and easy side and I am trying to do a salad and another vegetable with dinner. I use to buy ti couscous mixes, but they get to be expensive and some are very high in salt. So, I started buying the bulk whole grain couscous and using chicken stock and olive oil instead of water and butter. I have toasted pine nuts and added them. Tonight I sauted onions and peppers with some italian seasoning. Then I added two cups of chicken stock and let it boil, added one cup of couscos and turned the burner off and let it go to work. When the liquid evaported I fluffed it. It was a hit, even Joey ate it, with his hands, of course, but he and Scott polished it off.

I thought I would share this idea for a quick and healthy side dish with My StrollerFit Moms. Tomorrow we have StrollerFit and then the last pot luck I am hosting before the baby. I will post any pot luck recipes that get emailed to me. Enjoy the Couscous.

Parmesan Corn Chowder

I made this tonight and it was fantastic.... although I didn't have any shredded parmesan cheese so I used cheddar... I guess then it would be Cheddar Corn Chowder :)

Parmesan Corn Chowder
Ready in 45 minutes or less
from Quick Cooking September/October 2002

2 cups water
2 cups diced peeled potatoes
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups milk
1 can (14 3/4 ounces) cream-style corn
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded Parmesan cheese

In a large saucepan, combine the first five ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 12 - 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender (do not drain).
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until smooth; gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir into the vegetable mixture. Add corn and Parmesan cheese. Cook 10 minutes longer or until heated through.

Yield: 7 servings

Let's Exchange our Favorite Recipes!

This is a place for us to post and exchange our favorite recipes :) Enjoy!