Lots of recipes, including one of my own

There's been a whole lot of cooking but not a whole lot of picture-taking lately. First I'll share my own recipe from a few nights ago that was super easy and super delicious. To be filed under meals to make after the baby comes! Below that you'll find recipes from various sources with which I have found success. Check them out!

My very own recipe!
Slow Cooker Creamy Tomato Chicken
Ingredients:

• 1/2 jar spaghetti sauce (I used Neuman's Own sausage and peppers)
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 1/3 cup cream cheese
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 4 chicken breasts

Method:
Put everything in the crock pot and set on low for 6-7 hours. Stir at some point to combine the ingredients into the sauce.

The spaghetti sauce and homemade chicken broth brought enough flavoring that I didn't need to add any spices, but make sure you taste it to see if you need any. I'd recommend basil, thyme, oregano, and anything else you think might taste good. Serve with rice to soak up the delicious creamy sauce! I ate the leftovers with pasta and that was also good, so I don't think you can go wrong here.

Recipes from around the web...
Chicken Parmesan Bundles from allrecipes.com - delicious and versatile. Also surprisingly easy. I used half the cream cheese, way less cheese, bread crumbs instead of crackers, and added sun-dried tomatoes.

Cheesy Baked Pumpkin Pasta from skinnytaste.com - definitely does not taste like a lighter recipe. Again, I made some adjustments based on what we had: ham instead of bacon and regular pasta instead of whole wheat. I did take a picture of the final product:

Sweet Potato Basil Soup from paleomg.com - perfect way to use up the remaining leaves of my basil plant and yet another crock pot recipe. This is a simple recipe and it was delicious. No changes needed.

Creamy Lentil Soup from skinnytaste.com - hearty and very tasty. I made a few little changes to this recipe based on what we had in stock and my taste preferences: no scallions, cumin, or cilantro but instead, lots of thyme and oregano.

Keep in mind that you can always see the recipes I have tried along with my comments on Pinterest. For savory recipes, go to this board: http://www.pinterest.com/francocaro/food-savory-tried-and-tasted-recipes/. My comments are after the double slashes (//).

A Frittata... Kind Of

Dinners around here are usually simple affairs using up whatever ingredients we have. Often, we don't have a lot to work with as we let our refrigerator get pretty empty in between grocery shopping trips. One staple we pretty much always have is a huge Costco bag of frozen broccoli. I'm warning you now that you will probably find broccoli sneaking into lots of recipes thanks to this.

One such recipe is a frittata we had for dinner recently. Well, kind of a frittata. I don't think I used enough eggs for it to fully qualify as a frittata and I also ended up scrambling the eggs a bit to get them fully cooked instead of baking the top in the oven. But bear with me here, we'll loosely define it as a frittata.

I started out with a bit of chopped onion and sliced cremini mushrooms. I set that to soften in the pan with a bit of olive oil.

 Meanwhile I cooked some broccoli and chopped up a ham steak.

 In a bowl, I mixed up 4 eggs (because that's how many we had left, I'd probably go with 6 for this amount of veggies and ham), a spoonful of sour cream, salt, and pepper.

 Once the mushrooms and onions were nice and soft, I added the broccoli and ham to the pan. I let them warm up in the pan for 2 minutes then added the egg mixture over top. I also sprinkled a bit of gruyère over that. I let that cook for a few minutes until the bottom was cooked.

This is where, if you were truly making a frittata, you would put it into the oven to cook the top. Instead I tried to flip parts of it over so it ended up being more of a scramble. It couldn't stick together since the ratio of fillings to eggs was so high.

Still delicious though!

This is definitely another one of those recipes where you should use whatever you have on hand. Here is what I used:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 c chopped onion
• 8 oz sliced cremini mushrooms
• 2 cups broccoli, steamed
• 1 ham steak
• 4 eggs (use 6 to make it more like a real frittata)
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• salt & pepper
• spices for additional flavor, such as basil, paprika, red pepper...
• 1 tbsp shredded gruyère

1. Heat up the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the onion and mushrooms. Cook until softened, about 8 minutes. I like to cover the mushrooms at first and remove the cover halfway through to let the liquid evaporate.
2. Chop broccoli and ham into bit size pieces. 
3. Mix together the eggs, sour cream, and salt & pepper. Add any spices you may wish.
4. Once the mushrooms and onions are nice and soft, add the broccoli and ham to the pan and let the flavors meld together for a few minutes.
5. Add the egg mixture and cheese over top and let cook for a few minutes. The bottom will start to cook through and the top will start to set. At this point, if you want to make a real frittata, put your pan in the oven on broil to cook the top. If you're doing it the easy way like me, try to flip over your frittata or just sections at a time. Serve immediately once the egg is cooked through.
6. Feeds 2, including 1 with a hearty appetite.

Pumpkin Bread

Every year I get excited when I see the cans of pumpkin out in the end caps of the supermarket. Every year I yearn to make all the pumpkin things! And so I purchase pumpkin and then... nada. I get uninspired. Or I make pumpkin things that leave me feeling, eh. But I don't learn. This year, I purchased pumpkin at Costco, so that means 3 huge cans of it! Luckily the pumpkin bagels were a great pumpkin recipe and the one I'm sharing today also turned out to be a success. Maybe I will start to like the pumpkin recipes as much as the idea of all pumpkin things!

So Pumpkin Bread from lovegrowswild.com. Yes! So good! Very pumpkin-y, very molasses-y (from all that brown sugar), and very easy. It turned out moist and delicious - I highly recommend it!
Here is the pin: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/264727284322021276/

Follow the recipe as stated and you're bound for success.

first, mix the dry goods

then cream the butter and brown sugar, now add the eggs

 

mmm, looking smooth and delicious

milk and vanilla, and 1 cup of pumpkin purée

after pumpkin addition

adding the flour mixture slowly

ready for the oven!!

perfect loaf 

(about to be frozen in slices or else you know I'll eat the whole thing in a day)

It's fantastic still warm from the oven, cooled off, and even frozen then defrosted in the toaster oven.

As for the pumpkin bagels, there are still a few left, but not many! Pumpkin things for the win this year!

Easy veggies

Remember this veggie dish?

Case in point for how versatile it is and that the possibilities are endless, last night I made it with 1 sweet potato, 1 small red potato, 6 Campari's (bigger than cherry size tomatoes, but smaller than regular), and 1 eggplant. I sprayed the veggies with canola oil spray and drizzled balsamic glaze on top, as well as a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, basil, and thyme.

mid-assembly

assembled and ready for toppings

ready for the oven

after an hour in the oven at 350 degrees

Well that doesn't look so appetizing, but I promise you it was delicious. If I had thought of it before baking it (or had looked back at the recipe I posted), I would have added some garlic powder and just a little bit of gruyère. We ate it with some pasta and it was a satisfying meal. 

All credit goes to my mom for this dish - it's one of her go-to's and I can see why!

Happy birthday to my dad today! <3

Pumpkin Bagels

I'm addicted to Pinterest. The good news is that the time I waste on there actually serves a purpose: I'm more creative with dinner than I would otherwise be and it seems to be giving me a bit more confidence in the kitchen. I'm finding myself less worried about sticking to recipes and more able to improvise with what I already have.

If you're not familiar with Pinterest, it's basically a virtual cork board where you pin images. You can create multiple boards so, for example, I have a board where I pin recipes, one where I pin organization ideas, another where I pin baby-related information, etc. You create your own system that works for you. Most images are linked to a website so when I pin the picture of a dish I want to try, I make sure the pin is linked to the recipe for that dish.

One recipe that I stumbled upon and want to share is for Homemade Pumpkin Spice Bagels.

Here is the pin on my board:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/264727284321945431/

Here is the recipe:
http://www.thelilypadcottage.com/2013/09/pumpkin-spice-bagel-recipe.html

And here is my final result:

They were delicious and not hard to make. My dough was pretty sticky so I had a hard time creating the bagel shapes, but I wrote to the original poster about it and she suggested adding more flour. Next time I'll do that. I had to add flour to handle the dough so it probably ended up soaking some of it up. I only added the topping to 4 of the bagels - I felt that they were sweet enough already. I will definitely make these again. They taste bagel-store worthy and make a big batch so they're worth the effort and mess. If you're intimidated by making bagels, fear not. All it really entails is making the dough, letting it rise, then dividing it up into equal parts and shaping the bagels. Shaping the bagels is the hardest part in my opinion. My later ones looked better than the first ones, so the learning curve is short. Then you let them rise for a bit, boil them in water for one minute, and bake for 10 minutes. The boiling part ensures that you have a nice crust on your bagel. And it works! They were so good that I had to immediately cut them in half and freeze them or I would have been liable to eat 5 in a row. I'm not kidding. That good. 

3 years!

I can't believe it has been 3 years (and one day) since I posted on here. Life happened, and happen it did. Here are the major events in the last 3 years:

In cancer news: My mom's cancer came back in full force in 2012 and had now appeared in her brain, femur, liver, and I can't remember where else. By now it's also in her breast and pancreas. She had radiation therapy for the brain tumors (8 of them) that have now stopped growing, which is the best we can hope for. She's gone through many different chemotherapy treatments and many very rough months when we didn't think she would make it. She could barely eat, keep any food down, or get out of bed. The treatments either weren't stopping the tumor growth or were so harsh on her weakened body that she couldn't continue them. Thanksgiving 2012 was spent in the emergency room with pancreatitis. We got the crushing, but ultimately false, news that the cancer had spread some more and that my mom had weeks to live. After 2 weeks of anguish her oncologist delivered news that weren't as grim as the ER had made them out to be. I don't like to revisit how low 2012 ended. We just weren't sure how for how much longer we'd have my mom there with us. Fast forward to 2013 when my parents moved to Boston and they finally found a treatment that is both working (as in, the tumors have stopped growing) and enabling her to live a somewhat normal life. They have since moved to Pennsylvania, but my mom continues to go up to Boston every two weeks for treatment... for now, anyway. 

In work news: I changed companies, but they were luckily still very flexible with my work location, and I was able to travel to San Francisco a ton in 2012. My boss fully supported the "family first" concept and was beyond understanding. Also luckily, we have amazing extended family who also came to help throughout the year. We couldn't have done it without them, both for the logistical and moral support. 

In love news: About a month after my last post, I went on a first date with Brian thanks to my friend and his wife who set us up knowing we'd be a good match. Amazing insight I'd say, since they're now my brother-in-law and sister-in-law (Brian is his brother, in case that was hard to follow). Brian and I moved in together after 8 months of dating, got engaged 6 months later, and married 3 months after that. Until I met Brian, I never fully understood or believed the "when you know, you know" saying. I thought maybe I was a little denser than most and might never just know. Or I just might never find someone who would be a good match. In the midst of all the cancer craziness, it was nice to have this constant low-grade anxiety relieved by having found him. At least I knew that I wouldn't also have to be lonely in addition to everything that was going on. A life partner is a very nice person to have!

In family news: I got a new niece in September 2012 and she's a joy! And of course, I got a whole new family in May 2013 and my in-laws are wonderful. They're a big family and such a pleasure to be around. I lucked out once again. Brian and I are growing our own family too and expecting a baby boy in February. Earlier this year, we moved and bought a house. Many life events in the last 3 years!

Thanksgiving is a time when a lot of people reflect on what they're thankful for, especially on Facebook. I admit that I sometimes roll my eyes when I see the posts because I think we should be thankful year-round. And yet, I can't help but think back on the last 4 Thanksgivings and feel thankful. In 2010, we were in San Francisco and my mom was in recovery from major lung surgery. We thought we were done dealing with cancer - one doctor said he was 99% sure it wasn't coming back. In 2011, my mom was well and my parents traveled to NJ where we had a lovely Thanksgiving hosted by my sister. In 2012, we were in SF, I was accompanied by my live-in boyfriend, and things were looking very grim after several cancer-battling months and spending most of the day in the ER. In 2013, with my husband by my side, we were at my sister's in-laws in NJ with my mom weak but okay. In 2014, we will be in Pennsylvania, with a baby on the way and things looking a bit brighter than they have in a while. We've had a lot of ups and downs in the last 4 years, but I am so grateful and lucky to have the life I have. I can't help but jump on the thankful bandwagon, even if it's cliché and so predictable for this time of year. But then again, is it really a bad thing to remember what you have to be thankful about? No, I don't think so. Not bad at all.