Homemade Alfredo Sauce

I will be posting some recipes that I made for my daughter's graduation party. The delicious marinara sauce in the above photo is from Planner Perfect Meals.

I used penne for the pasta, keeping it warm by turning a slow cooker into a double boiler. I put about an inch to an inch and a half of water in the bottom of the slow cooker and set a foil pan inside to hold the pasta. My pan was too large to fit all the way inside, so I covered it with foil instead of the slow cooker lid. I kept the temperature on high the entire time, but I probably would have turned it to low if I had a pan that fit. I would recommend finding a pan that fits and raising it from the bottom of the crockpot by using foil balls or a shallow heat-safe container. I tossed the cooked pasta in a little olive oil to keep it from drying out.

Below is the alfredo sauce recipe I made for the party.

Homemade Alfredo Sauce

makes about 2 quarts 

Ingredients

• 2 egg yolks
• 2 cups half & half
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 TB arrowroot, flour, or cornstarch
• 1 quart heavy cream
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white or black pepper
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 lb parmesan, grated (about 2 cups, I think)

Instructions

1. Whisk egg yolks and half & half in a small bowl.
2. Melt butter on medium heat, add garlic, and cook until fragrant (a minute or two).
3. Whisk in arrowroot, flour or cornstarch.
4. Whisk in egg yolk/half & half mixture. Heat up a bit.
5. Add cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
6. Heat on medium or medium hight heat until thickened, whisking  frequently (constantly as it gets warmer). Don't let it boil.
7. Melt in cream cheese.
8. Add parmesan a little at a time, making sure it is melted in thoroughly.

Notes

• Egg yolks may be omitted, but they add to the creamy texture.
• You could use all half & half or a mix of cream and whole milk or half & half and whole milk. Just make sure you use something with fat or it will take forever to thicken.
• Can be made ahead of time and refrigerated. Will probably last up to 5 days in refrigerator. I think it would freeze well as long as you whisk it really well when reheating and reheat it slowly. Don't let it boil.

Two Homemade Popcorn Seasoning Recipes

We served popcorn with a couple of homemade seasonings at our daughter's recent graduation party, and I thought I would share the recipes here.

Nacho Taco Popcorn Seasoning

adapted from Whole New Mom's "Dorito"-Flavored Popcorn

Ingredients

• 5 TB nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder or granules
• 1 teaspoon onion powder or granules
• 1 tsp paprika (smoked paprika is amazing)
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3/4 tsp sea salt

Instructions

1. Combine ingredients in a blender or coffee grinder and blend to make a fine powder.
2. Store in a cool, dry place.

Spicy Ranch Popcorn Seasoning

adapted from Natural Chow's Cool Ranch Flavored Popcorn

Ingredients

• 5 TB nutritional yeast
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder or granules
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chives (or add extra onion powder)
• 1/4 tsp dill

Instructions

1. Combine ingredients in a blender or coffee grinder and blend to make a fine powder.
2. Store in a cool, dry place.

Two Simple Cookie Recipes for Cut-out Cookies

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
granulated sugar

Directions:
Mix powdered sugar, margarine, egg, vanilla and almond extract. Mix in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Heat oven to 375 F. Divide dough into halves. Roll each half 3/16 inch thick on lightly floured cloth-covered board. Cut into shapes.

Sprinkle with granulated sugar (I don't do this); place on lightly greased sheet. Bake until edges are light brown, 7 to 8 minutes. Makes about 5  dozen 2-inch cookies.

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Christmas Molding Dough
This recipe is from my mom, and it's great for children! You can keep working the dough and the cookies still turn out.

Ingredients:
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well blended.Cover and refrigerate for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Heat oven to 350 F. Roll out 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into shapes. Place on an ungreased sheet. Bake until edges are light brown, 10-15 minutes.

White and Green Chili

I was going to make salmon melts today, but I don't have any salmon! So much for efficient menu planning!

Since Katie at Kitchen Stewardship is holding an October Fest Carnival of Super Foods, I decided to try to throw together something quick, tasty, and nutritious for tonight's dinner. This is an even more nutrition-packed twist on your basic White Chili, and I think it is pretty delicious. It was a really quick meal for me  because I already had cooked chicken and homemade chicken broth in the freezer, and I had just cooked a huge batch of white beans to replenish my freezer stash.

I am entering this recipe in the October Fest Carnival of Super Foods: SUPER FOODS Fest.

White and Green Chili

Servings: about 8

Ingredients:

1 TB coconut oil, palm fruit oil, or butter
1-2 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 to 1 small jalapeno, finely chopped
3-4 cups cooked, cubed turkey or chicken (or about 1 lb ground turkey, browned)
3-4 cups cooked white beans
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp white pepper (you can use black)
3-4 cups homemade chicken broth
1-2 medium tomatoes, chopped (you can substitute canned)
1 tsp sea salt
2 cups Swiss chard, kale or spinach (or more - I just keep adding it until it looks "right")

Directions:

1.  Heat oil on medium and add onions, garlic, and jalapeno. Sauté until onion is translucent.
2.  Add meat, beans, and spices, and cook until fragrant.
3.  Add chicken broth and tomatoes and simmer until heated through, then salt to taste.
4.  Add Swiss chard (or dark green of your choice) and cook until wilted.
5.  Serve with optional plain yogurt, shredded cheese, and mashed avocado.

Super Foods: 6-7 (6 if you use chicken, 7 if you use turkey)
Honorable Mentions: 1-2 (2 if you serve with avocado)

This is a pretty forgiving recipe: If you don't have some of the vegetables, you can easily leave them out and still have a yummy soup. You could also add other vegetables.

Red Beans and Rice

This recipe calls for precooked and frozen items. Please see the notes below for alternate ways to prepare this recipe as well as some informational/recipe links.

Red Beans & Rice
Servings: at least 6

Ingredients:

1 TB palm fruit oil, coconut oil or olive oil (the first 2 options are better, IMO)
1 onion, chopped ($0.15)
1 cup celery, diced ($0.33 to $0.83)
1/2 cup green peppers, diced ($0.50? - depends on season)
2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.04)
1 lb homemade turkey sausage, breakfast sausage or smoked sausage (about $2 for the homemade turkey sausage)
1 t oregano
1 t thyme
1/2 t basil
1/2 t black pepper
1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, optional
2 cups homemade chicken stock (about $0.10?)
2 bay leaves
2 cups cooked red beans ($0.34 to 0.66)
2 cups cooked brown rice ($0.47 to 0.85)

(cost of spices: $0.25?)

1. Heat oil in a large skillet or pot while you chop your onion and celery.

2. Add onion and celery and saute on medium heat until fragrant.

3. Add garlic and saute for a few seconds, then add sausage IF using breakfast sausage (if you are using smoked sausage you will add it later). Break up sausage while it cooks.

4. When sausage is cooked through, add oregano, thyme, basil and black pepper and mix in.

5. Add chicken broth, bay leaves, red beans and rice (and sausage if using smoked sausage). Stir, bring to a boil, turn heat down to medium or medium-low and cook until the chicken broth is evaporated (you will have to stir it so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan).

6. Serve and enjoy! A green salad or raw vegetables are great sides for this dish.

Approximate Cost: $4.18 to $5.38 for at least 6 servings, depending on where you live and the types of vegetables, beans, rice, and meat used; the higher price is for organic beans, rice and veggies in my area.


Options

• Cook your rice separately (preferably in broth) and serve the beans over the rice - I prefer to make this a one-skillet meal.
• Skip the chicken broth if you are using cooked beans and rice. You won't want to use the bay leaf if you do this. The chicken broth does add nutrients and flavor!
• Skip the sausage and use vegetable broth to make this a vegetarian meal. The sausage adds a ton of flavor, though. You may want to up the spices to taste if you do this.
• Cut the amount of meat in half to reduce the cost of this meal by $1.
  
• Partially cook your rice in 3/4 the recommended amount of broth or water and add it partially cooked. It will absorb most of the chicken stock.
• Substitute 1-2 cans of red beans for cooked dried beans. This will increase the cost.
  

Don't have cooked beans and rice?

Cooking Beans
The day before, pick through and rinse 1 pound of red beans. Put beans in your cooking pot (or you can use a glass bowl if you prefer), fill pot with water, covering beans with at least 2 inches of water. Add 2-4 TB of whey, lemon juice or vinegar. Soak overnight. In the morning, drain your soaking water (supposed to help with digestibility of beans). Cover your beans with at least 2 inches of water again, add 2-3 tsp of sea salt, bring to a boil, turn heat down to simmer and cook for 1-2 hours, until beans are soft. Drain beans, use 2 cups for the red beans & rice, cool, and freeze the rest in 2-cup (or preferred amount) portions.

If you don't mind freezing your beans and rice together, then add 3 cups of rice to the beans at the beginning of the soaking process and follow the rest of the directions, but freeze in 4-cup portions.

Cooking Brown Rice
Soaking is optional, but I soak 2 cups of brown rice with 2 1/4 cups of water with 1 TB of whey, lemon juice, or vinegar in the morning in the same pot I will cook the rice in. When it is time to cook, I add 2 1/4 cups of chicken broth or water and 1 tsp of salt; stir, bring to a boil, turn heat to low, and cook covered for about 45 minutes. You can use 1 cup of rice and 2 1/4 cups of liquid for this recipe, but why not make extra and freeze the extra? You can cook 3 cups of brown in 6 3/4 cups of liquid if you want about 4 extra cups to freeze.

From the Freezer

I cook 1 to 2 pounds of beans at a time when I need them and freeze leftovers in 2-cup portions. I also cook extra brown rice when I am using brown rice for a recipe and freeze that in 2-cup portions. Look for directions at the bottom of the page for cooking the beans and/or rice.

I also freeze onions, green peppers, and celery ahead of time. Onions and green peppers do not have to be blanched before freezing. I have also read that blanching celery is not necessary as long as you are going to use it within about 3 months, but I cannot find the source. Download the University of Georgia's Freezing Vegetables guide (pdf) for a lot of information on freezing vegetables.

I buy a lot of ground turkey at one time, make it into homemade turkey sausage, and freeze it in 1-pound portions. You can also use breakfast sausage, smoked sausage or kielbasa for this recipe.

I make 4 to 8 quarts of homemade chicken stock (scroll down the linked page for recipe) at one time. I freeze this in various sized containers (ice cubes, 1-cup, 2-cup, and 4-cup sizes).

This recipe has been entered in the October Fest Carnival of Super Foods: Beans and Legumes Recipes, hosted by Kitchen Stewardship.

Freezing Tomatoes

We have had a fairy cool summer in Michigan this year, and the garden definitely reflected the temperatures. I had planned to can my tomatoes, but I really haven't been able to harvest enough at one time. I decided that I would freeze them. It is so easy! The National Center for Home Food Preservation has tons of information on preserving foods, including freezing. The section on freezing tomatoes is here. However, I don't like to remove the skins from my tomatoes because of the nutritional benefits of retaining the skins. I also decided it would save me time and grind the skins better if I used a blender.

Here are the choices for freezing your tomatoes with the skins intact:

• just stick them in a container and freeze (yes, you can do this!)
  
• quarter them, put them in a container, and freeze
  
• blend them, put them in a container, and freeze
  
• quarter or eighth them, then cook & cool them, put them in a container, and freeze
• blend, cook, cool, put in a container, and freeze (my choice)

If you want to remove the skins, you can put the tomatoes in already boiling water for 30 seconds, cool them, and slide the skins off; or you can cook the tomatoes first and push the cooked tomatoes through a sieve or use a food mill after cooking. Pushing the tomatoes through a sieve after cooking will also remove the seeds.

Here is what you need for my method:

• a blender or food processor (a stick blender would work, but I think a regular blender is better at grinding the skins)
  
• a knife
• a large pot (unless you want to freeze them uncooked)
  
• freezer containers or bags
  
• tomatoes

Pick the tomatoes (or buy them at great deals when they are in season). Aren't they pretty?

Wash, core, and quarter or halve the tomatoes. If you have a powerful blender, then you can probably skip the quartering or halving. Note: I wash all of my tomatoes and put the first couple in the blender while I core the rest of them. I have to start with a couple of quarters, but as the blender gets full I can halve them and sometimes even leave them whole.

Blend the tomatoes thoroughly; this is especially important if you are retaining the skins. I add my blended tomatoes to the pot as I go and keep blending in batches until they're done. If you are not going to cook your tomatoes, then you can pour them directly into freezer containers at this point. Don't forget to leave headspace in your containers!

Add the blended tomatoes to your pot, heat them up on medium for about 10-15 minutes and then turn them to low or medium-low until they are cooked down to a tomato sauce consistency. This takes a while depending on the temperature you choose. You really don't have to cook them at all, but I like to cook mine down because I don't have a ton of freezer space.

This is what it looked like after I cooked it down:

I cooked it a little longer than usual and ended up with something between tomato sauce and tomato paste. That works well for me, though, because I have tons of chicken broth and produce in my freezer right now and this will take up a bit less space. This batch of tomatoes gave me 2 3/4 quarts of thick sauce.

It took me under 20 minutes to prep the tomatoes from picking them to clean-up. I cooked them on low for a couple of hours, let the pan cool while we ate dinner and cleaned up the kitchen, then put the whole pot in the refrigerator to cool the rest of the way. I transferred the tomato sauce to freezer containers the next morning, making sure I left enough headspace.

Interested in saving some of your tomato seeds before preserving? Go here for directions.

Now I want to work on a lacto-fermented tomato-vegetable drink. Has anyone done this before?

Menu Plan Monday - April 6

We ended up having leftovers a couple of times last week (almost unheard of in this house), so I didn't make everything on my menus. I love it when that happens! Because of that, I have some duplicates.

The breakfasts look large with whole grains and smoothies or a protein, but I am using smaller servings. I am trying to get a nice variety of nutrients in first thing every day. Ideas are appreciated!

Monday

Breakfast: oatmeal, green kefir smoothie
Lunch: quesadillas, carrot sticks
Dinner: Tuna Noodle Casserole, green beans

Tuesday

Breakfast: Leftover Oatmeal Muffins, scrambled eggs, fruit
Lunch: PB & J, celery sticks

Dinner: Lentils & Rice Casserole, salad

Wednesday

Breakfast: cooked millet, green kefir smoothie
Lunch: Crockpot Spaghetti, salad
Dinner: Red Beans & Rice, green beans


Thursday

Breakfast: sourdough toast, fried eggs, fruit
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: Sloppy Joes, Baked Fries, salad

Friday

Breakfast: Fruit & Yogurt Delight with homemade granole
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches, carrot sticks

Dinner: Homemade Pizza, salad

Saturday

I'm going to try a large brunch and see if I can get away with two meals, as I do a lot of cooking & baking for the week on Saturdays.

Brunch: Blender Batter Pancakes, Homemade Turkey Sausage, fruit
Dinner: spaghetti with meat sauce or homemade pizza, salad

Sunday

We usually eat a late lunch/early dinner after church and graze if we're hungry later. :-)

Breakfast: toast, hard-boiled eggs, fruit
Lunch/Dinner: Easter meal


My menu plan calendar is available here if you are interested in seeing it. I keep that current each day when meals change (as they often do). It also includes daily cooking notes. I have it set up to send me an agenda via e-mail every day, which is very helpful.

For more menu plans, go to orgjunkie.com.

Regarding Amish Friendship Bread

Yummy stuff, but it is quite an endeavor to keep up with Amish Friendship Bread! As my aunt said when I told her I was baking some of this bread a few weeks ago, "Ah... it's a mixed blessing." I've never been successful at keeping up with this for long. In fact, it has been years since I have had some starter. I was wondering if you could freeze the starter or adapt the recipe at all, so I did a trusty Google search and quickly found some recipes and information, at allrecipes.com. Here are the recipes I found:

• Amish Friendship Bread Starter (guess it's not much of a secret anymore, thanks to the Internet)
• Amish Friendship Bread I
• Amish Friendship Bread II
• Amish Friendship Bread III
• Amish Friendship Chocolate Bread (I didn't see this one before!)

The editor's note for the starter recipe states that you can freeze the starter in 1-cup portions. You have to thaw it for at least 3 hours before using it. The comments for these recipes are very helpful too. I was able to play around with the recipe that I was given and use up all of the starter. I did make four new bags of starter that I froze. BTW, my instructions didn't say not to freeze it! Please, no negative comments on this controversial topic!

HomeschoolBlogger Comments
(use scrollbar on right to read)

Mar. 29, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by lahbluebonnet

Oh I LOVE amish friendship bread. I got my starter when I taught public school. Then my supply just grew and grew. So I took bread and lots of batches to Sunday School class to share. lol I don't have that recipe anymore.
Blessings,
Laurie

Mar. 29, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Sawickis

Andrea~

I have to tell you that my dogs love Amish bread starter because not more than 2 hours after you gave me some I found the bag on the floor in the family room completely empty.

I'd love more when you have some.

*Kristie*

Baked Oatmeal

We LOVE baked oatmeal at our house, so I am linking to my favorite recipe at Kristie's request.

Urban Homemaker has the recipe that we use:
Hot Whole Grain Cereals for Breakfast

She uses the two-stage method, so you soak the oats overnight in buttermilk, kefir, or yogurt (I use buttermilk). You can use sugar instead of Sucanat if that's what you have available - I only use 1/2 cup of either. I only use one egg. Yummy! It's sooo good!

Here's another one to try that uses precooked oatmeal if you have leftovers. It's from Large Family Logistics, so it's a big recipe:
Baked Oatmeal

Here's another one with "normal" ingredients:
Amish Baked Oatmeal

I wonder how this would work in a crockpot. Has anyone tried it?

Enjoy!

~Andrea