Elementary Chef

I have been using my bread machine at least once a week and love it. After trying a few of the recipes that came with the bread maker, I found a few more in a leaflet. One recipe was for banana/chocolate chip bread. It sounded really good so I gave it a try.

I wasn’t that impressed with it as the chocolate was semi-sweet and just seemed a little bitter. It definitely needed more banana. So I thought I would try the recipe again but with more banana and to substitute the chocolate chips with peanut butter chips - hence why I named it Elvis bread. Elvis Presley loved banana and peanut butter sandwiches.

When I went to make the bread, my husband had eaten some of my bananas so I had only one - the same amount I added to the first loaf. But I did flavor the milk with banana flavoring and hoped that would help give it more banana taste.

This bread turned out really well. The peanut butter chips all melted into the bread. It still could use more banana taste and maybe more peanut butter chips.

It’s definitely better to me than the banana/chocolate chip bread. I cooked the bread on a white bread cycle. If there was a way to make this a sweet bread, then I think it would be divine.

Hopefully next time I will have more bananas to give it a richer taste. It can’t be Elvis bread without the distinct taste of bananas and peanut butter. I will just have to buy more bananas and hope they ripen before they are all eaten.

One of my favorite breakfast foods is pancakes. We don’t have them that often but when we do they are so good. Usually we go out to eat pancakes, but I’ve had made them at home.

The easiest way to make them at home is to buy a pancake mix. They are less than $1 and all you have to do is add water. Mix is together but don’t mix it too much because your pancakes will be dry.

I use my cast iron skillet to cook the pancakes. I spray it with a non-stick cooking spray and heat up the pan. Then I place about 1/4 cup of mix in the skillet.

I then turn the pancake usually about 1-2 minutes time. When you see a lot of bubbles coming up, that means it is cooked on the other side.

Pancakes don’t take that long to cook. Since I like a stack of pancakes, I put the cooked pancakes on a plate and set it on top of the stove. I add the butter to let it melt while I continue to make the other pancakes.

This is where my griddle came in really handy since I could make six pancakes at one time. The griddle also cooked them more evenly than the stove top. The griddle just took too much room in my cabinet to justify keeping it since I only used it about once a month.

Pancakes are an easy breakfast to make and are quite filling. They are so easy especially from pre-made mixes that only need water. Add some chocolate chips, pecans, and other pancake favorites to make your pancakes a real breakfast treat.

This weekend we have family visiting. My sister-in-law brought me a starting kit for Amish Friendship bread along with the recipe. Apparently this Amish bread is making the rounds in her hometown. I’m vaguely familiar with it but knew that you split your batter and then gave it to your friends. She did bring two loaves that she had made and I have to admit that it is really good bread. It’s a sweet bread that would make a great dessert to be served with coffee.

I recently bought a bread maker, so spending 10 days making one loaf of bread when I can do it in three hours is unappealing. But since I did taste the bread I know that it is worth the trouble. On the 10th day, you add the rest of the ingredients to make your bread. You can find variations on the recipe.

My instructions say that the only way to get a starter is to have one given to you. Well I’m too much of an Internet geek to believe that and found the Amish started recipe online.

You can’t use metal mixing bowls with the recipe and you shouldn’t refrigerate the mixture. There are several days that all you have to do is stir or mash(in a Ziploc bag) the starter. A good idea is to mark on your giveaway starters the date. That way it will be easy for your friends to remember which day they are on in case they lose track.

I can’t wait to break the bread and am tempted to save the other starters to do some bread experiments. I might give a few away but since I’ve been on a bread making kick lately, don’t hold me to it.

One of my favorite kitchen accessories is a silicone bundt baking pan. Not only can I use this in the oven but it’s microwave safe. I have made two cakes in the microwave using the silicone bundt.

The latest one I made was this week using a Jiffy yellow cake mix. I couldn’t pass up the 58 cent mix. I added a little extra water since my last cake dried out really fast. I set the microwave for 10 minutes and then waited.

The cake tasted OK at first but then was a little spongy. I think that since it was a smaller mix that I should have cooked it less. Since the yellow cake wasn’t that tasty, I probably will stick with the full sized cake mixes.

Baking a cake in microwave is a fast way to whip up a cake for any occasion. Plus it doesn’t heat up the house and the silicone pans are really easy to clean.

This week I made manicotti. It has been a while since I made any but my husband loves it. I’m not sure how authentic my recipe is to other manicotti recipes. I just kind of put in what we like and leave it at that.

For my filling, I use 1 pound lean ground beef and 1/2 pound of turkey sausage. Once it has browned, I drain it and then add some spaghetti sauce and about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese.

I cook the manicotti for 9 minutes. I let the water boil and then add the pasta. I always wind up with at least two spilt manicotti. I just stuff and roll it up. I place more sauce on the bottom of my casserole dish and then place my stuffed manicotti into the pan. If I have some meat left, I just add it to the top with the rest of the sauce. I cover with cheese and then bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

It’s probably missing some other ingredients you might find in other recipes but this works for us.

A very quick and hearty meal is taco soup. While spring is nearly here, there are still plenty of cool nights to enjoy a bowl of soup. Taco soup is fairly easy to make. All you need is to gather your favorite foods and begin. Here is how I make taco soup.

1 pound lean ground beef
1 can corn
1 cup salsa
1 can black beans
1/2 can green chilies
1/2 chopped tomato
1 packet ranch dressing
1 packet taco seasoning

Brown the ground beef and add all ingredients into a big sauce pan. Then add a couple of cups of water or more if desired. Then let soup cook for twenty minutes until it begins to thicken. Serve with tortilla chips in lieu of crackers. Also add grated cheddar cheese and sour cream on top of individual servings if desired.

Some may think that gardening is too big of a task for them to tackle. But the truth is that even with a small space, you can garden. While it will cost money, you can grow you own food. In fact, by rotating crops you can plant something year round.

A small tiller will help to break up the ground easily. You don’t need to buy one as you can usually rent it. A raised bed can make it super easy to garden without having to break up the soil.

Even if you have no planting experience, there is plenty of free help available. Check with your local cooperative extension service(or at least that’s what it is called in our state) as it is a wonderful resource to learn about planting and getting seeds. Also invest in a copy of the Farmer’s Almanac for more great planting tips. It will list the best times to plant based on the phase of the moon. There is also the handy, dandy, Internet that is full of great websites that deal with gardening.

Gardening is not only a good way to put food on the table but can be therapeutic. Working with your hands in the soil can help ease tension and make you just feel good. Imagine providing great tasting organic foods for your family. Best of all it’s food that you grew - nurturing it from a seed to cooking it for your family.

So even if you have a small backyard, you can have a garden that can provide delicious, fresh vegetables for your family.

This past weekend I bought a breadmaker at a rummage sale. I was very excited because it is something I’ve wanted for a while. I was glad to get one cheaper than they retail since I wasn’t sure just how much I will use it. I’ve had it less than a week and have already made three loaves and will make my fourth one today.

The Sunbeam breadmaker came with a manual/recipe book. There are several bread, jams, and dough recipes. There is even instructions on how to make pasta using your breadmaker.

The first loaf of bread I made was from a mix, so it was pretty easy. The others were from recipes in the manual. They have all turned out really well. I enjoy the sweet breads more, of course that isn’t surprising to me since I have a huge sweet tooth. In fact, I think the whole set is sweet.

This weekend I will try to make some cinnamon rolls since the manual also includes glazes. It all sounds so delicious. I want to make some dough to use to bake our own hot dog buns. I may never buy bread again. If that does become the case, then this $15 purchase will be well worth it.

The loaves are pretty tall and this breadmaker is about 10 years old. I’m not sure how they have improved over the years. Some breadmakers I believe have a way to make longer loaves instead of tall loaves.

I’m really enjoying my breadmaker so much that if something happens to my current one I will buy one at full price.

There are some dishes that I think about making but never have some ingredients. It’s made me realize that there are some items that I need to have on hand at all times. After Hurricane Katrina, I really saw the benefits of having a well stocked kitchen with stores closed for a few days and supplies limited even after they reopened.

So now I like to keep a few things on hand. I should probably keep more but there just isn’t room right now. I always keep can goods on hand like corn, favorite beans, tomato soup, and pasta. Basically I keep on hand what we eat fairly often.

To start stocking up on food, I just buy an extra can each week. Or sometimes I will buy more if there happens to be a sale. Sometimes I go through our cabinets to take an inventory of what we have since it is easy for items to get pushed around. I hate it when I buy something I already have just because it was pushed out of sight.

In my dream kitchen, I will have a pantry that is basically a closet for food. But until then, I will just have to make due with having a smaller stocked kitchen that includes basically food we eat practically every week.

Today is grocery day as well as meal planning day. I guess I should do the meal planning before heading to the grocery store to make things easier on myself. Since we are dieting, I have been trying to cook at least three dinners a week. Here is a rough schedule of my meal planning:

Monday

Breakfast - Biscuits/Turkey Sausage (same all week)

Lunch - Eat at Mom’s and husband eats out (same all week)

Dinner - Frozen meal(going to grocery store late in the day)

Tuesday

Dinner - home cooked meal (Taco Soup)

Wednesday

Dinner - frozen meal(hubby usually hangs out with friends)

Thursday

Dinner - frozen meal(hubby has evening class)

Friday

Dinner - eat out(this week it’s fish on Fridays during Lent)

Saturday

Lunch - something quick like hot dogs, chicken salad, sandwiches.
Dinner - home cooked meal (manicotti)

Sunday

Lunch - eat at Mom’s
Dinner - leftovers at Mom’s (or meatloaf)

This week I will probably buy another 2 pounds of lean ground beef and hopefully get three meals out of it. I might do a meatloaf one day with potatoes and vegetables. Another recipe that I haven’t done in a while is taco soup. Now is the time to eat soup before it gets too hot to enjoy it. Another dish that I think I will do is manicotti as my husband loves it. So besides my two pounds of lean ground beef I will also need some turkey sausage. That will keep the calories down in the manicotti.

Now to gather my recipes for the week and make the grocery list. For some recipes I already have at least a few of the items, so hopefully this week’s grocery trip won’t break the bank.

One kitchen appliance I’ve been wanting for a while is a breadmaker. This weekend I happened upon one at a rummage sale for $15. It was still in the box and had written on it used 1 time. When breadmakers first hit the market, they were pretty expensive. Now they have come down in price. I thought $15 was a good deal especially on an appliance I may or may not use.

There is a lot you can do with a breadmaker. There’s the obivous - making bread - but you can also make dough, jams, and pizza crust. There are breadmaker mixes that make making bread very easy. The manual also has several bread recipes. We tried one today for a bread mix. Tomorrow I may try a plain white bread to start off with something simple.

There are apparently two cardinal rules when making bread in a breadmaker. First, use room temperature water and second, measure your dry and wet ingredients very carefully. Remove any excess off the top of dry measurements and sit the measuring cup on the counter to check liquids.

If I had known how versatile a breadmaker was, I would have probably bought one sooner.

Mashed potatoes are one of our favorite foods. My husband loves them and so do I. Even the girl loves them and will eat them when she won’t eat anything else. My husband loves the instant mashed potatoes that I’m not a fan of. I didn’t grow up eating them so it’s taken 14 years of being together for me to finally come around to actually serving them every now and then.

But to me mashed potatoes are made from scratch. One of my favorite variations of mashed potatoes is garlic mashed potatoes. Oh they are so yummy. I could eat them and nothing else for a meal.

When I make garlic mashed potatoes, I start by making mashed potatoes but with a slight difference. I leave the skin on the potatoes. So after washing the potatoes, I cut them up in cubes so they will cook faster.

Once the potatoes are done, I mash them up and add butter, sour cream, and garlic. I have garlic in a jar instead of the garlic cloves since I don’t often cook with garlic. Sometimes I even use garlic butter. I melt butter and add some garlic powder. Then I add it to the potatoes. Garlic powder is cheap if you get the generic store brand. It’s good to have around to add the garlic flavoring but don’t have any garlic on hand.

Garlic mashed potatoes give plain ole mashed potatoes a culinary makeover. It’s also very simple to pull off garlic mashed potatoes. Just add a touch of garlic flavoring(or more if you really love garlic) to really spice up those dull mashed potatoes.

We are eating healthier and trying to lose weight. One way to cut back on calories is to eat lean ground beef instead of ground beef.

Lean ground beef has less fat and calories than ground beef. I bought two pounds of lean ground beef at the grocery store this week. Although part of me balked at the $8 it cost(twice the cost of ground beef), I knew that it was better for us. I hate when I dismiss more expensive items at the grocery store but won’t think twice about spending nearly $20 eating fast food. I just need to prioritize our spending. Eating at home is always more affordable and healthy.

I used the two pounds of lean ground beef in spaghetti and hamburgers. The hamburgers were huge. I made big, thick patties - knowing that they would shrink some. They really didn’t shrink at all like ground beef so we had some really thick burgers. Next time I can use about half a pound for burgers and then use the other half pound for another dish. So that’s three meals for $8 meat. That’s not bad at all.

I enjoy ground turkey but it is so dry that you really need to add a lot of flavor to it. At least with lean ground beef, you still have lots of flavor, just less fat. Also clean up from the hamburgers was so easy. There was hardly any grease in the skillet.

Lean ground beef can help with dieting because it will cut your fat and calories of some of your favorite dishes. It also is easy to clean up since there isn’t a lot of grease.

Spaghetti makes a wonderful meal for several reasons. It’s easy to cook. It takes about 20 minutes. And it can be really cheap. My mom always made spaghetti on grocery day since she was always pressed for time. Here is how I make my spaghetti.

1 box of thin spaghetti(I use about half a small box or 1/3 or a big box)
1 lb lean ground beef (you can use ground beef, turkey, chicken..)
1 can Hunt’s meat spaghetti sauce

Get a sauce pan and fill with water. Bring water to a boil. At the same time brown beef in a skillet. When water comes to a boil, add spaghetti. Let cook until spaghetti is at the tenderness you like. When beef has browned, drain off any grease. Once you have drained your spaghetti, add it to the beef in the skillet. Next add spaghetti sauce.

Let spaghetti simmer on low for 5 minutes before serving.

I like to use thin spaghetti since it cooks faster than regular spaghetti. Sometimes I even use Angel Hair pasta since it cooks up really fast.

We always have Parmesan on hand to put on top of the spaghetti. When I was a kid, I would always use good ole American cheese. I would place it on the bottom of my plate and then add the spaghetti,. The spaghetti would then melt the cheese and boy was it delicious.

Add some garlic bread and you have a great meal that was fast and easy. You can make spaghetti for under $7 - probably even cheaper than that depending on the ground meat.