Free Recipe Friday - Healthy Breakfast Bars

I have been playing with recipes again.  I made these for a friend who was looking for a quick, portable healthy breakfast that she could throw into her purse for when she was running out the door.  She really liked them and thought it was fantastic that she could keep them individually wrapped in her freezer and then just toss it in her purse.  Since that time I have made some more adjustments to the recipe to lessen their sugar content and now my kids think that they are great.

HEALTHY BREAKFAST BARS

Makes 16 bars

2 Tablespoons of Peanut Oil (you could probably use another nut oil just as well)
2 1/2 cups Organic Pantry 9 Grain Cereal
1 cup dried Apricots chopped
1/2 cup of ground flax seed
1/2 cup of pecans coarsely chopped
1/4 Almonds (slivered or chopped and toasted)
3/4 cup of Organic Agave Syrup (you could also use honey)
3/4 cup of natural creamy peanut butter
1 Teaspoon of pure Vanilla extract


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Use a 13 x 9 in baking dish.  Line the bottom and two of the sides with parchment paper.  Leave a 2 inch overhang on each side.  This will help later when you want to cut the bars.  Brush the paper with a little nut oil.  
2. In a medium bowl, combine the cereal, apricots, flaxseed, pecans, almonds and set aside.
3.  In a small saucepan, combine the agave nectar, peanut butter, the nut oil and the vanilla.  Cook over medium heat until melted.  
4. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Transfer the mixture to the baking dish, spread out mixture and smooth and press down with the back of a spoon.

5.  Bake until golden brown and the edges are pulling away from the pan.  Allow to cool.
6. Once cool cut into squares and then individually wrap and keep in your freezer or refrigerator.  Also good at room temperature for up to 5 days.

**Note if you are having trouble finding the 9 Grain cereal and the Agave Syrup we find ours at The Supercentre or other health food sections of a grocery store.  

Free Recipe Friday - Homemade Pizza with Whole Wheat & Multi-Grain Crust

We have started a new tradition in our house.  We have declared Friday night homemade pizza and movie night.  We make the pizza together and everyone gets to pick their own toppings. This allows for some healthier choices than store bought pizza and homemade is a better choice for the budget.  

Whole Wheat and Multi-Grain Pizza Dough

1 teaspoon honey

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups multi-grain flour

 

In a large bowl or in the bowl of your heavy duty mixer, dissolve the honey in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.

Stir the olive oil into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and the multi-grain flour until dough starts to come together. If you don't have a large mixer, tip dough out onto a surface floured with more multi-grain flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. If you have a mixer put in your dough hook and knead on speed 2 for 9-10 minutes.  Once finished place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes to an hour.

When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crusts, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball(s). Let rise for another 45 minutes, until doubled.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Mine stretches to cover an oiled cookie sheet.  I am able to make two large cookie baking sheet pizzas out of this recipe. 

I pre-bake my crusts for about 5 minutes before I put any pizza sauce or toppings on it.

Once you have your pizzas dressed as you would like them Bake for 10 minutes ( for 2 thin pizzas or 15 minutes (for 1 thick crust) in the preheated oven, or until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

Note:  We have been trying to cut the salt and sugar in our diet and so I make the following homemade pizza sauce.

Healthy Pizza Sauce

1 can of Tomato Paste (5.5 fl oz with no salt added)
2 teaspoons of minced dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 teaspoon of dried basil
1 tablespoon of ground flax seed (great source of Omega-3)
1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese

approx 1/8 - 1/4 cup warm water (you add until desired consistency for sauce)

In a bowl add all ingredients except water.  Mix well.  Then add water until you reach your desired consistency.  We like ours a bit thick but this recipe makes enough pizza sauce for our two baking sheet size pizza crusts from above.

Note #2:  Since we have been trying to make healthy changes to our diet.  I have been cutting up fresh baby spinach and putting it on top of the sauce BEFORE I put the cheese on.  The kids have not complained yet!  They get to choose what they would like on their pizza but I intentionally put out more veggies than meat and I have only been offering ham the last couple of weeks.  Every little bit helps!  Enjoy!

Free Recipe Friday - For the Birds!

Just before Christmas, little Miss Trinity Joy came to me worried about her bird friends in our backyard and how they would find food with it covered in snow.  So we decided to make them a fun little treat of edible garland.

All you need for this one is:
Bird Seed
Peanut Butter
Bread
An orange
An apple
String or yarn
a cookie cutter

Trinity cut shapes out of bread with our cookie cutter, coated the shapes with peanut butter and then pressed them in a bowl of bird seed until they were covered.  Then I sliced the orange and the apple into thick slices and she strung our yarn through the shapes and slices.  This is super activity for young kids because they can do quite a bit themselves.  We then took our garland and hung it in our backyard and waited for our feather friends to find it. 

Tip:  As Trinity made the bird seed shapes I stuck them in the freezer.  They are easier to string if they are a little hard.

This garland works best in cold weather.  We did have a little problem a week after we hung our garland because the weather warmed up and it rained really hard on Christmas.  It soaked our bread and made it too heavy and the shapes fell off the string but our dogs liked the treat so at least someone was happy.  The good news is that these are really easy to make so it is no problem to make another garland if unexpected rain hits your area when you should have snow!

Enjoy!

Free Recipe Friday - Herb & Parmesean Cheese Whole Wheat Bread

I got something very exciting for Christmas.  It was a heavy duty mixer and I am in love  (Thanks mom and dad!).  I have always wanted to make our own bread and so since Christmas, I have been trying out different recipes on our family.  I have to say my first couple of attempts were not the best.  We actually could have used the loafs as weapons because they we so hard but they were not much use as bread!   Since then I have learned that yeast has an expiry date (who knew?!?) so make sure you check yours before you use it.   I  also learned that whole wheat bread likes warm but not hot places to rise.  So now that I have figured all that out, I thought I would share what I have learned with you.  As I often do I tried this bread recipe out last night on our worship team.  There where lots of good comments as soon as people walked in the door as the bread had just come out of the oven and it made our house smell great!  It was still warm when we served it with some homemade soups. 

I highly recommend sharing this bread with others.  We do this every week and then we all study scripture together.  Honestly, even though there are lots of people in our house and at times it can get a bit crazy I love that we share a meal together.  Hospitality doesn't have to be fancy or perfect.  You don't have to Martha.  The point is spending time and sharing your life with others.  So I challenge you to make a date with some friends this week.  Have them over, don't spend your time in the kitchen making a gourmet meal, spend it with them and share about your life.  You may be surprised at the wonderful and spiritually important conversations that you have.  
   

Herb & Parmesan Cheese Whole Wheat Bread


1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/3 cup of honey
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 Tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon fresh parsley
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour or multigrain flour
2 1/2 cups of white flour
2 1/2 cups of warm water
1 1/2 Tablespoons of instant (quick rise) yeast

1 cup additional whole wheat flour,  to add as needed
extra Parmesan cheese and herbs for top of bread

Place the first 13 ingredients into your heavy duty mixer in the order listed.  Knead with your dough hook.  My machine recommends on speed 2.  Quickly add the additional flour in until the dough pulls away from the sides of the dough.  Knead for 9 minutes.  Remove your dough out of your mixer bowl and divide into two loaves.  Oil 2 loaf pans and then place your dough in each pan to rise.  Let rise about 40-45 minutes or until they double in size.  I place plastic wrap over each of my loaf pans and put them under the light that is over my stove.  My mom says you can place them in your oven and turn on your oven light.  Any warm (but not hot) place will do. 

When your bread has finished rising, turn oven on to 350 degrees.  Add additional Parmesan cheese and herbs on the top of each loaf.   Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops of your bread are brown and sound hollow when tapped.  Remove from pans and let cool completely before storing.  Since there are no preservatives in this bread you will probably need to eat it the same day or the next day.  It doesn't last long in my house so I never have to worry.  It freezes well if you want to make it ahead.

Notes: In making this recipe I have used both whole wheat flour and a multigrain bread flour.  This picture of the herb bread has the multigrain flour.  The loaf is also a little small as I did not divide them evenly and we ate the large one before I could get a photo!   The first photo is just plain whole wheat bread which is also very yummy.  If you would like to make just plain whole wheat bread then omit the parmesan cheese, herbs and garlic.  If you don't have honey you can use sugar and I used fresh herbs but if you don't have any I am sure that you can use dried.

Enjoy!  Check back next week as I introduce some new posts!

Free Recipe Friday - Gift Recipe for Holiday Potpourri

I can't believe that Christmas is only one week away!  This year we decided to make about 80% of our gifts.  It has been a challenge as I wanted gifts that were unique but also that I could actually accomplish with our already hectic schedule.  You have probably seen lots of easy recipes on the internet for cookies or soup in a jar but I was surprised when I came across this idea.  The original recipe was a lot more complicated.  I don't do complicated well, so I simplified it and this is what I came up with.  If you need a last minute hostess, neighbour or friend/family gift these can be made really quickly.





Holiday Potpourri

You will need:

A Mason or recycled Spaghetti Jar
Oranges
Lemons
Limes
Fresh Cranberries
Water
Cinnamon Sticks
Gift tags
Raffia, and/or Twine

Slice oranges, lemons and limes.  Stack oranges first, then lemons and then limes in the jar.  they should be about 3/4 of the jar height.  Add cranberries on top.  Fill with water to the neck of the jar.  Secure the lid on tightly and tie on two cinnamon sticks with your raffia or twine to the outside of the jar.  Attach on your gift tag and you are ready to go!

Gift tags - We made ours out of scraps of card stock that we had in our craft desk.  On one side we decorated and addressed our gift and on the other we wrote out these simple directions for our recipient.

Holiday Potpourri Directions:
Empty entire contents into a saucepan.  Add the cinnamon sticks and simmer over low heat.  The potpourri will make your house smell terrific!  Add more water as needed throughout the day.

Enjoy!

Free Recipe Friday - Coconut Joys and Easy Sweet & Spicy Ornaments

Well, it is that time of the week again.  Free Recipe Friday.  Christmas is just around the corner so if your life is anything like mine it is getting pretty busy.  Today, I thought I would help you out with this super quick cookie recipe and a very easy ornament recipe that will keep the kids busy so you can get some extra Christmas prep done in peace.  I adapted these from ideas that I found on the internet.   Another bonus is that these do not require the oven!

Sweet & Spicy Ornaments
This recipe is great.  I left it with my kids and they worked together to do it all by themselves with some friends that they had over.  I bought my cinnamon and the sparkle stars at the dollar store to make them very cost effective.  these would be a great addition to your gift tags on presents.

1cup cinnamon
1 tablespoon cloves
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1/2 cup applesauce
2-3 tablespoons sparkle stars
3 tablespoons white glue

Combine ingredients, roll out as a dough and cut with cookie cutters.  Use a straw to make a hole for the ribbon to hang.  Dry for three to four days, turning regularly.  Use a ribbon or string to hang on the tree.  They make the whole room smell like Christmas!

Coconut Joys

This cookie recipe is so fast that I was finished and cleaned up all within 20 minutes yesterday.  The best part is that our company loved them.  Actually, as you can see my husband loved them the most.  This recipe made two dozen cookies.  You could stretch it to make more as I used a generous teaspoon of the mixture when I shaped them into balls.


1/2 cup Butter
2 cups of Confectioner's Sugar
3 1/2 cups of Flaked Coconut
1 Tablespoon Milk
1/3 cup of Milk chocolate Chips, melted ( I used the microwave for 45 sec to melt them, be careful not to put them on for too long as chocolate burns easily)

Melt butter in suacepan.  Remove from heat.  Add sugar, coconut and milk.  Mix well.  Shape rounded teaspoon of mixture into balls.  Make a dent in the centre.  Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Fill the centre with the melted chocolate.  Chill until firm.  Store in the refrigerator.

Free Recipe Friday - Need a cookie recipe?

I know it is Monday but I must admit that I forgot to post a free recipe last week.  So better late than never!  This is a great free e-book with 50 Christmas cookie recipes on the Recipe Lion Website.  So if you need a recipe idea for Christmas cookies this is a great find.  You can download this e-book (it will come in PDF format) and save it for when you need an idea or just can't find your traditional sugar cookie recipe.   The link is below.

50 Favourite Christmas Cookie Recipe E-book

You may be asked to sign up for the recipe lion's newsletter but you don't have to sign up to get the book.  Just close the pop-up.

Happy baking!

Free Recipe Friday - Make Ahead Dishes

Now that the Christmas Season is upon us time is often short for everyone.  In order to help keep the stress down in our house I spend a couple of afternoons making extra meals and freezing them.  This way when I come home late and I don't have time to cook my family can enjoy a delicious homemade meal and I am not pulling out my hair!    Another way to accomplish this is to double your favourite dinner recipe and freeze half of it for another time.  Believe me you will be so relieved when you are able to just pull something healthy and delicious out of your freezer.   Sorry I don't have a photo for this.  My family ate it all up before I had a chance to get out the camera!

Cheesy Chicken Packets
This recipe makes 12 servings.
 
Ingredients:
2 cups Bread Crumbs
1 cup Grated Chedder Cheese
2 tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Pepper
12 Boneless Chicken Breasts
1 cup melted Butter

Serving Day:
4 Tbsp Butter
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese

Assembly Directions:
Mix together bread crumbs, cheeses, salt and pepper.  Dip chicken pieces in melted butter, then in cheese mixture.  Tuck sides of chicken breasts under to form individual bundles.

Freezing Directions:
Wrap each bundle in plastic wrap then place in freezer bags.

Serving Directions:
Remove each chicken packet from the plastic.  Thaw and place chicken in large, shallow baking dish.  Melt remaining T of butter and pour over the bundles.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees approximately 1 hour until chicken is crispy.  Goes great with a side dish of rice and a salad. 

Free Recipe Friday - Roasted Root Vegetables

The weather today is finally feeling more like November.  Today's recipe is a great side dish on these cool and crisp fall evenings.

Roasted Root Vegetables

    •    1 T olive oil
    •    1 red onion, sliced
    •    4 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
    •    2 carrots, peeled and diced
    •    1 turnip, peeled and diced
    •    1 yam or sweet potato, peeled and diced
    •    2 parsnips, peeled and diced
    •    1 t dried rosemary
    •    1 t dried thyme
    •    1 pinch salt
    •    1/2 t black pepper
    •    1 T balsamic vinegar, optional


Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl; toss to combine. Place mixture on a sheet pan. Bake 30 minutes, turning vegetables every 10 minutes until vegetables are tender and slightly browned. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar before serving.
Makes approximately 8 servings.

Free Recipe Friday - Kid Sushi for Lunch Twist

Last week Trinity Joy and I surprised the kids with a fun lunch. This was really easy and I think it would travel well in a reusable container if you were packing a lunch for school. Trinity was able to help me with almost all of prep work so she loved this recipe. At four years of age she loves to help in the kitchen and to be able to try anything that mommy is doing. Her favourite part of this particular recipe was flattening the bread with the rolling pin. We made Peanut Butter and Jam, Salmon and lettuce and Pizza Sushi. Really the possibilities for fillings are endless. If you have a peanut allergy substitute cream cheese for the peanut butter.

KID SUSHI

2 pieces of bread per person
Peanut Butter and Jam
or
Canned Salmon and Lettuce
or
Pepperoni, Pizza Sauce and Mozzarella cheese
(really any filling will work, hummus, deli turkey, thinly sliced veggies - use your imagination or try different combinations)

Lay a slice of bread on your cutting board and let your child roll over it with your rolling pin. Lots of smashing noises by your child is encouraged! Spread a thin layer of whatever filling you have decided over 3/4 of the bread. We used peanut butter in our photo below. Roll it up starting at the filling edge working towards the plain bread edge. Press to seal the edge. Slice with a sharp knife into sushi bite pieces and serve. This part is best for the adult to do! We served our sushi with chopsticks for the kids and they had a great time. This was a really fun surprise for lunch to shake things up and Trinity was very excited to be able to help me serve a meal.

Free Recipe Friday - Cream Soup Base Mix

Yikes it has been so crazy that I am just getting this post up now! I have seen several of these recipes on the Internet and in different cook books. I know that mine originally came from somewhere but over the last year I have tweaked and changed it so that I now can't remember where I found it. I find this more economical to use in casseroles than canned soups and for me it easy to keep on hand in the cupboard. Most of the recipes I have seen use the powdered bouillon right in the mix (about 1/4 cup) but I like adding my bouillon after so I can decide then if I want to use chicken, veggie or beef depending on what I am making and who is coming to dinner.

CREAM SOUP BASE MIX

2 cups of powdered milk
3/4 cups of cornstarch
2 tsp dried onion flakes
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil

Mix and store in an airtight container.

To Use:

Combine 1/3 Cup of dry mix with 1 1/4 cup of chicken or beef stock. (I use the liquid bullion concentrate to make the stock) Cook over medium heat until the base begins to thicken. Now you can use this as your soup base for any soup or use it as you would a creamed can of soup in casseroles. Try some different dried spices if you want to change it up or if you have a specific casserole in mind that you would like to use it for.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Free Recipe Friday - Apple Cranberry Amish Bread

At some point you have probably had someone give you some Amish Friendship Bread Starter. I often have some of this in my house because there are so many different recipes that you can make from it. I make biscuits, muffins, bread etc. Did you know that you can make the starter yourself ? You don't have to wait for someone to give you some because you can make your own. If I ever don't feel like keeping it up I just throw it in the freezer and label it with what day it was on. Then when I take it out again I thaw it and just pick up where I left off. So today I decided to share one of the recipes that I have developed that uses the starter. Once you have the starter it is very easy to make and it is also a great gift to share. In the recipe I have put a link to another website where you can not only find the starter but lots of other yummy recipes. Have Fun!

Apple Cranberry Amish Bread

Preheat oven to 325 F.

1 cup Amish friendship bread Starter
1 cup oil
½ cup cold milk
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. vanilla
1 ½ tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding mix
1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1 large apple peeled and chopped

Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a greased bunt pan.
Bake 1 hour. Test with a cake tester to make sure it is done.

Free Recipe Friday - BBQ your Thanksgiving Turkey

In honour of our Thanksgiving holiday on Monday, I thought I would share something that we do with our turkey that maybe some of you have never tried. We BBQ our Thanksgiving turkey. I think it was my mom and dad who started doing it years ago. Maybe it is because we are crazy canucks who like to BBQ all winter and we deem the turkey dinner a challenge. Probably though it was because as our families grew my mom could not fit the turkey in with all the potatoes, other yummy veggies and pies that are made for this special event. So since putting another oven in their house seemed too expensive they decided to BBQ the bird. Well, we all loved it and now our family has been cooking turkey's this way ever since. You might think that cooking a turkey on the BBQ would be hard but it is really a lot like roasting it in the oven. Prepare your turkey was you normally would if you were going to put it in your oven. We have a propane BBQ and use an indirect grilling method. We always use a fresh or thawed turkey that we have stuffed ourselves. Heat your gas BBQ on high until it reaches 400 degrees and then turn off one side of your BBQ. Place your turkey in a roasting pan and place your roasting pan on the side of your BBQ that is not turned on. This is the indirect grilling method. Your turkey will take 15-20 minutes per pound. We always check ours with a digital meat thermometer in several different spots just to be sure it is done. Baste your turkey as you would if it was in your oven. The other thing we do is we try to time it to take our turkey out a half hour before we want to carve it. We leave it in the roasting pan with the lid on and we cover it with blankets or towels to keep it warm. I think my mom always said that this allows all the juices to rest in the turkey. I have no idea what that means other than we get a juicy turkey when we do this! So hopefully I have helped to free up some space in your oven. Check back tomorrow and I will have another post about a great holiday craft that we did with our kids and our friends to get us thinking about being thankful! Have a Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Free Recipe Friday - Zippy Artichoke and Red Pepper Dip

It is that time of the week again.  Free recipe Friday.  I thought for this week I would post an appetizer recipe.   With the fall season comes the start of the hockey season - Go Leafs!  I know, I know some of you are avid football fans but in this house hockey rules!  One thing that I think we can all agree on is that a good game needs a good snack.  This easy dip fits the bill.  Even if you aren't into watching sports try this appetizer out the next time you have friends over or use it as an excuse to have friends over.  I usually try to keep the ingredients on hand as it is fast to make in a pinch if someone stops by.  My good friend Cheri thinks I should bottle this dip and she often reminds me that I haven't made it for her lately (hence no photo sorry).  So Cheri this recipe is for you!  I promise to make it soon.

Zippy Artichoke and Red Pepper Dip

8 oz (250 g) Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
½ Cup (125 ml) Mayonnaise
6 oz Jar of Marinated Artichoke hearts, Drained & Chopped
6 oz Jar of Sweet Roasted Red Peppers (or use homemade roasted peppers)
2 Green Onions, chopped
1 Tsp Lemon juice
2 Tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tsp Franks Red Hot Sauce
2 Tbsp of Black Olives Sliced (optional)

Beat the cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth.  Add Mayo, and beat again until well blended.  Fold in the remaining ingredients.  Serve with your favourite crackers, toasted baguette or pita crisps.

Have a super weekend and check back soon for my final post of our Thirty Days of Nothing challenge.

Free Recipe Friday - Vegetarian Harvest Soup

The weather got a bit cooler last night and I was reminded that we are into my favourite season, the fall. I love cool crisp breezes, warm sweaters, fuzzy socks and yummy soup. Last night, we had our worship team for dinner before our bible study and practice. Some of our band members are vegetarian so this soup made it's way onto the menu and both our meat and veggie eaters were equally impressed.

I was making up this recipe as I went so I think the quantities are about right. The great thing about soup is that you can't go too wrong. Maybe that is why I like it so much. I happened to have carrots and butternut squash in my fridge but you could substitute other squashes and root veggies if you happened to have them instead. So invite some friends over. Meals don't have to be fancy or expensive. Use what you have in your fridge. Make some soup and share some fellowship. As always if you have questions or comments I would love to hear them!

Vegetarian Harvest Soup

3 Tablespoons Butter
1 Med Onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
2-3 tablespoons curry powder (you can add more or less for your taste buds)
2 teaspoons ground Cumin
Dash of red pepper flakes (to taste)
1 tablespoon of Vegeta food seasoning
8 Large Carrots
1 Large or 2 Medium Butternut Squash
12 cups of Vegetarian Broth
¼ cup of Honey
1 Cup of 2% Milk
1 Cup of 10% Cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel carrots and cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Arrange both the squash and the carrots on cookie sheet (s). Once your oven is preheated roast the veggies for 30 minutes. Remember to check halfway through to turn your carrots. In your stockpot melt the butter on med heat. Add the finely chopped onion and minced garlic cook until soft about 3-4 minutes. Add the curry powder, cumin, Vegeta and pepper flakes cook 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.

The next step is to add half the veggie broth to the stock pot. I use vegetarian bouillon concentrate and just follow the directions to make the broth. Once the broth is added to your stockpot add the honey and stir until blended. After 30 minutes your roasted veggies should be ready.  At this point you need to scoop out the squash and cut up your carrots. I mashed them with a potato masher but if you think you would like a smoother soup I would recommend putting both the squash pulp and the the carrots through your food processor until it is smooth. Slowly add the mashed or purred carrots and squash stirring until it is well blended with the broth. Cook over med heat for 10-15 minutes. Lower the heat and slowly add the Milk and then the cream until well blended. Heat for another 5 minutes on low, don't let the soup boil once you have added the cream. Serve.

Free Recipe Friday - Laundry Soap

We have a lot of people in this house and that means those people make a lot of dirty clothes. Laundry is a big chore. I do between twelve and thirteen loads of laundry a week. As you can imagine we also go through a lot of laundry soap and laundry soap is expensive. This summer I started looking around to see if I could make an easy, environmentally friendly laundry soap that worked on messy kids clothes for less than I could buy one. Well, after some research and some trial runs I have something that I am happy with so I thought I would share. To set the parameters we have a regular washing machine, it is a top loader and I like to wash all our clothes in cold water except for my boys white socks which I often have to wash in hot. I pretreat any stains with a bar of Sunlight soap. This recipe takes me about 15 minutes of actual prep time. It is really easy and anyone can do it. My kids love to grate the soap. This recipe costs me about $2.13 to make about 5 gallons (80 cups) of concentrate.

Even if you don't want to make your own laundry soap try to use a natural detergent and make sure you use the smallest amount of detergent that will get your laundry clean. The fill lines on the inside of the dispensing cup of your laundry soap is often hard to see so make sure you check! Excess detergent can be difficult for machines to rinse out and may make your laundry dingy and gray because the alkaline residue left behind tends to attract dirt. Many consumer studies have shown that you can often use half the detergent that is recommended on most commercial laundry soaps and still get your clothes clean. Remember if you use more, you buy more so it is in a company's best interest for you use more than you actually need.

McGibbon Laundry Soap

2 Sunlight Soap Bars

1 ½ Cup Washing Soda

1 Cup Borax
12 Cups Hot Water

Large Pot
Box Grater
Long handled Wooden Spoon
Measuring cups
5 gallon bucket with lid

Fill your pot with 12 cups of water. I fill it with hot so it heats faster. Put your burner on high. Grate your sunlight soap directly into the water using the fine grating side. (When my kids help I get them to grate it onto a plate and then I pour it in.) Stir your grated soap until it is dissolved into the hot water. In your bucket measure your washing soda and your borax. Once the water/soap mixture has boiled and the soap is dissolved pour very carefully into your bucket. Stir until completely dissolved. Carry your bucket to a place where you can get hot water. I use my kitchen attachment but if you don’t have one a laundry tub or bathtub will work. Fill your bucket nearly full with hot water (about 80 cups). Make sure you fill slowly or you will make too many bubbles and you won’t see where the water line is. Put your lid on the bucket. Then lift it to where it can sit for 24 hours. PLEASE NOTE: This will be very heavy. Be careful not to hurt your back. If in doubt, get someone to help you. 24 hours later your mixture will look like a gooey gel. This is your concentrate. Fill your laundry soap jug (I use a funnel to help with this process) just over half full with your homemade soap concentrate and then add half full of water and shake until dissolved. I don't add any fragrances as some make me sneeze but you could easily add some drops of essential oil if you like a particular fragrance. Use 1 cup for a large dirty load. This soap is not as thick as commercial variety and it does not sud a lot in the washer but it cleans our clothes really well and is just pennies a load!

Free Recipe Friday

Today is Friday and that means it is free recipe day! The recipe that I have chosen to share today is not really mine. I learned it from a very special friend who I have been missing tons lately because she lives on the other side of the world. So I was thinking of her today and thought I would share this with all of you. We make this soup quite a bit as it goes long way and it is a great way to use up leftover chicken. (If I have less chicken I just use more rice.)

Now in all fairness to April I am not sure that I do her soup justice as she makes great authentic homemade Pho soup which she learned to do in Cambodia where she used to live. I loved watching her make it here in her kitchen but I am not sure I ever wrote it down when she lived here. So it may not be quite the same as hers but my family loves it! Thanks April I named the soup after you!

April's Chicken Vietnamese Pho

8 cups homemade chicken broth (or you can use 2 boxes of the ready made broth)
3 cups cooked shredded chicken (I often use leftovers from a roasted chicken)
¾ Cup Uncooked Jasmine or Basmati Rice
2 Tablespoons of Oyster or Fish Sauce
Salt to taste (I don’t usually use any)

Soup Garnishes (you can make some or all of these – Jason and I like them all but the kids like a few)
2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
8 Cloves of Minced garlic
Cabbage thinly sliced
Cilantro finely chopped
Chopped Limes
Bean sprouts
Lime wedges

Heat fry pan to medium heat. Pour the uncooked rice into the fry pan. Cook rice until it just starts to turn a light brown. You will have to watch it as it can burn easily. This gives a great flavour to the rice once you put in the soup. Once the rice is a nice light brown colour remove it from the heat. Transfer the chicken to a large soup pot and add the chicken broth, chicken, rice and the fish sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiled reduce heat and continue to simmer until the rice starts to break apart at the ends. I think this takes about 40 minutes.

While the soup is simmering get the soup garnishes ready. In the fry pan heat the remaining oil and add the minced garlic. Sauté the minced garlic until browned. Once browned drain oil on a paper towel and set browned garlic apart in a bowl. Pour the soup in each soup bowl. You can top each bowl with a little cabbage, cilantro, bean sprouts and garlic. Squeeze the lime over top. Serve. My kids like to be able to add what they like so you can make any of the garnishes optional allowing people to add more or less according to their taste. They also like to add fried noodles on top which is definitely not authentic but they love them.

Enjoy!

Roasted or Unroasted Corn Salad

It is Day # 4 of our "Thirty Days of Almost Nothing" experiment and as we head into the long weekend I find it freeing that we are taking a break from consumerism. It is an odd and yet great feeling to not have the pressure of so many options. I will post more about my thoughts on that later once I have had a chance to process them more.

I have been out all day today for a fabulous family gathering at my parents house. We were visiting with my Aunt Nellie who is vacationing from Ireland and my Great Aunt Ag who is 104 years young! They both look wonderful and it was so great to see them and to be able to hug their necks! We really had a wonderful afternoon. I volunteered to bring a salad which is the same salad for which I promised yesterday that I would post the recipe.

I originally made this salad last week for a church gathering and so many people asked me for the recipe I wrote it down when I got home. Last week I didn't have a lot of time (what else is new?) and I needed to use what I had in my house as we had used up our budget for the week. So I looked up some recipes and of course I did not have all of the ingredients that each of them required. Therefore, in my usual fashion I made something up that fit what I had on hand. When I was making the recipe today I decided to do something a bit different and thus the recipe morphed again. So if you use this great budget friendly recipe feel free to try something different with it. It is kind of fun!

ROASTED OR UNROASTED CORN SALAD

Ingredients for the salad:

4 cups (500 mL) corn kernels (frozen kernels thawed & drained or cooked fresh)
2 cups (250 mL) red and/ or orange and/or yellow peppers, diced
2 green onion, finely chopped
½ cup (60 mL) chopped cilantro (use more or less depending on if you like it)

Ingredients for Roasting Option:

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 clove garlic

Ingredients for the dressing:

2 clove garlic, minced
Juice of 1 lime (or more if you love lime)
2 tbsp (30 mL) vegetable oil
2 tbsp (15 mL) ground cumin
½ tsp (2 mL) salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp Lime Cordial (optional, I used the second time I made recipe)

Directions:

For the roasted corn option: heat a frying pan over med to high heat with the vegetable oil. Once heated add the minced garlic. Cook until fragrant about two minutes. Add your corn and cook until some of the corn gets brown or roasted. (See photo). Once roasted turn off the heat and set the corn aside. You can let the corn cool on its own if you have time. I didn’t so I stuck it in the freezer for five minutes. Once your corn is cool or if you are not roasting it, toss it together with the peppers and the green onion in a salad bowl. Mix together the dressing ingredients. Pour dressing over corn mixture just before serving, add cilantro and toss to coat evenly. (See photo)

Note: When I first did this recipe I did not roast the corn or add the Lime cordial. The salad tasted great and only took me about 10 minutes to make from start to finish. Today when I made the recipe I roasted the corn and it gave the salad a nuttier taste. The lime cordial also gave a bit sweetness to the dressing.

So there you have it. I great salad recipe that is super for lunches, dinners, and potlucks. This recipe feed my family of six, and six other adults today as a side dish. If you are feeding a larger crowd just double the recipe. Enjoy and check back soon for more thoughts on our family's experiment.