Tomato Jam

A few weeks ago I had some friends over. I made a collection of bruchettas for them. The menu was inspired by Postino's Wine Cafe in Phoenix. They will be opening in just a few weeks a MILE from my house! So I figure if I walk there, I can have a few glasses of wine! Oh and all glasses are $5 until 5pm!!!

http://postinowinecafe.com/

So they have a list of 13 bruchettas that they offer. I cut the menu down to 3 of my favorites. This one did not make the cut UNTIL my sisters and I had lunch there one afternoon.

This is A recipe for tomato jam, it is where I started.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-tomato-jam/detail.aspx

I read the reviews, I made a few changes and this is what I came up with.
So the changes I made include:
Apple sauce, I didn't have any apple juice.
Cinnamon instead of Cayenne
Nutmeg instead of Cumin
Canned tomatoes instead of Fresh tomatoes.
I made this in a non-stick pot.

Tomato Jam

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup apple sauce
3/4 cup tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 lemon, quartered and sliced thin
1. Combine vinegar, apple juice, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, mustard, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large non-reactive pan over medium heat; cook and stir until sugar
dissolves completely; stir in the chopped tomatoes. Bring the mixture to a
boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until liquid has reduced by
half, 30 to 45 minutes. Add the lemon slices and cook another 15 minutes.
2. Refrigerate until ready to eat. Will last for 4 weeks in an air tight container.

For Bruchetta, toast a few slices of chewy bread. Spread with goat or sheep's milk cheese. Top with cold tomato jam. Serve.

Today I made it for a friend; we did not have goat or sheep's milk so we made it with cream cheese.
I will not see her until Monday, I wonder how it tasted???

Day two, walking

I wore my pedometer to work today. I did not take time to make sure it was working correctly but I put it on my sock. Weird place for it but that is the only place the made it work. I put it on my pants and it didn't move a step even after I walked to the end of the street and back.
Anyway, I walked 18,296 steps from the time I got to work to when I got home from picking up the kids.
If you figure 2000 steps per mile, I walked 9 miles today just at work. I wonder why my knees hurt. I think I need to get some better shoes.

Now the eating thing is going to drive me crazy. I am only supposed to eat when I am hungry. Not a breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Just when I feel like it.
I do not know who thought that this would be a good program for people who work in restuarants. I got hungy around 11 am today. Sounds like a good time to have some lunch! That would be fine if I worked in an office. I can not take 25 minutes, per the plan, to eat lunch at 11 am. My boss is funny that she would like me to be working when it is busy and not on break.

Since my hunger was gone by the time I got off work, I chose not to eat anything, (I think this is how people loose weight on this plan) I waited to eat until dinner.

I made a ground turkey enchilada casserole. I ate all I wanted to. It was yummy.
I hope to eat somthing tomorrow before I head to work but that may not happen so tomorrow I will also be eating one meal and it will be a spaghetti dinner at church, prepared by a bunch of tweens and teens!
Yummy! Maybe I will skip dinner too!

The new eating habits start tomorrow

So Dale's work is paying for a weight loss program. I was very excited about it. Now that it has started I don't know how well it will work with our lives. It is "eat when your hungry" Cool, what if it is the middle of my lunch shift and I am just getting hungry? Then I have to wait 2 more hours to eat. Oh and I have kids who I need to feed. What do I do with them? Cook dinner 4 times? I am not sure how this will work for us but I am going to try it. Who knows, I may come back next Monday and say I lost more than 2 pounds. That is my goal. 2 pounds a week. I am also ready to give you my stats...
We went to have some blood work done, my bad cholesterol level is on the borderline of high. My good cholesterol is "good" and my good to bad ratio is good, better than Dale's. His cholesterol levels are both good.
My glucose and triglycerides and blood pressure are all good as well.

I went on a diet a few years ago, I went on a diet, I lost 20+ pounds. I have gained it all back and 12 more! I am so lucky! Now I have a starting point of 264 pounds. I don't think I have ever been this heavy. My clothes are too tight, I need to loose this weight and keep it off.

I will be lacing up my sneakers and taking a walk every day. Daisy our dog will get to tag along.

I am heading to the store to get some groceries tomorrow. The neat thing about this new eating plan is that I can eat what I want. I will keep the stuff that I like that is good for me in the fridge along with the stuff I like that is not so good for me :)

I have no meal planned for the week, but I will cook something every night, just not sure what it will be yet. I do want to make enchilada casserole, but I have posted that on here before. It may be a night that I post one of my breakfast recipes!

Tomato sauce

I am attending a wine and chocolate party tonight so dinner will be pizza for the kids. Since I am beginning my new diet today, I will be eating pasta and home made tomato sauce.

I found this recipe about 8 years ago. I make it in double, I don't even use the actual recipe any longer, I just toss a bit of this and a bit of that in to the pot and see what come out!
Since I double it, it makes about 16 cups, a bit more but about that.
I have four 1 quart containers that I pour it into. I put it in the freezer and we have tomato sauce for a month or so.
It originaly had meatballs that went into it but I don't make those very often. I prefer ground meats in my sauce.
I am a pasta addict. I am switching to whole wheat. It is not as yummy as the regular stuff but it has more fiber and that is what I need.

So here is the recipe, I don't have a photo since I have not made dinner yet :)

I watched an old episode of "Good Eats" and he canned jam. I was thinking that I might try to can this tomato sauce. The size of the continer will not change, it will just not take up room in my freezer, and not require pre-planning on my part. I almost always have pasta in the cupboard so this would make for an even easier dinner!


Tomato Sauce (Julia)
1 28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes
1 28 oz can Tomato Puree
1/4 of a 28 oz can filled with water, I use 1 whole can of water that way it can simmer longer!
1/4 cup Olive Oil
4-6 cloves minced garlic(depending on palate)
1tsp dried basil
1Tbsp sugar
2 tsp Salt(preferably Kosher)
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Saute garlic and olive oil in a large saucepan(with cover for later) over
medium/low heat. Do not brown garlic. Takes approximately 2-3 minutes.
Add both cans of tomatoes and water, turn up heat to medium/high and cook for
2-3 minutes.
Add basil,sugar,salt and pepperr. Cook uncovered until the sauce begins to
bubble.
After the sauce bubbles, turn down to low. Cover pot and let simmer.

Yummy summer salad...in February

We went out to dinner to night. It was yummy.

So as promised I will share my thoughts on Ashlyn’s new favorite side dish.
I found this on allrecipes.com.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-and-orzo-salad/detail.aspx

You will see that I get many of my recipes from there. I will make them once and then tweak them if they are not to our liking.
I cut the recipe in half. I am glad I did since we all ate it with enough for Dale to have leftovers for lunch on Monday. I forgot to ask him if it was still good or if it lost flavor and texture.

Ashlyn LOVED it! And by LOVED it I mean she asked me if she could “take it in her lunch box EVERY day!”

I am not sure that she would like it every day but once a week could be fun. I made it as written with one exception, the kids are not fans of red onion so I did thin slices of onion not finely chopped. It was enough to give it flavor and still easy for them to pick out.

I think it would be a great summer dish, add some leftover cold chicken and you have a quick entrée!

Spinach and Orzo Salad

Makes 4 servings with leftovers

1/2 (16 ounce) package uncooked orzo pasta

1/2 (10 ounce) package baby spinach leaves, finely chopped

1/4 pound crumbled feta cheese

1/4 red onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup pine nuts (it should have been 3/8 of a cup so I did an over filled cup, I also lightly toasted them.)

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add orzo and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and rinse with cold water.

Transfer to a large bowl and stir in spinach, feta, onion, pine nuts, basil and white pepper. Toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Refrigerate and serve cold.

Weirdest thing I ever cooked!

I went to Sprouts to get ground beef to make meatloaf. They had a foil loaf pan full of Meatloaf! It was $2.99 a pound and the ground beef was $3.49 a pound. No brainer RIGHT?
WRONG! It is Pink. Not undercooked, PINK! There is so much in this meatloaf that I am not sure there is beef in it. I took a chance on it since I have used the Turkey loaf and it was very good!
I will need to figure something out for Dale when he gets home!?!?
Now I have made things that are not tasty, ask Dale about the Chicken Keiv I made when we first got married.
I remember I once bought a "turkey breast in gravy" and I thought it was a great price, $2.50 for a whole turkey breast. I followed the directions on the package, put it in the oven, did not remove the foil cover and waited for my AMAZING dinner to cook in the oven! Pulled it out, and it was a processed turkey loaf in yellow water.

I think I will put this item on the top of the list of weird things I have made.

I made mashed potatoes too, just a few potatoes, chopped, covered with water and a few sprinkles of salt, cooked for 20 minutes, drained, back in cooking pot with 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup butter and a potato masher. Yummy!
There it is, my 'recipe' for the day!
I will do better tomorrow, I am taking the kids out to dinner and I will give you the recipe for my Orzo and Spinach Salad. DELISH!!!

My weeky meal plan!

Dale is off to a week of LONG drives to and from Casa Grande
for work each night. We decided to do a “light” dinner and a bigger lunch, just for the weekend. It has been yummy and I even tried a new recipe this week. Most of the stuff I make is the same thing week after week.
I saw on Pinterest a cute meal planning board, thanks Lauren for “Pining” it!
Look at it here:
http://thecreativemama.com/the-end-of-reinventing-the-meal-menu-planning-and-the-ultimate-menu-board/
I don’t think that I need something this elaborate! But I am going to work on a way to keep track
of what we had and if we liked it and then I will have a selection of meals to pull from and a way to rotate them.
So here is my meal plan:
Friday: Homemade pizza, salad
Saturday: Grilled Chicken with Orzo & Spinach Salad for Lunch and French Toast for Dinner
Sunday: Bowties with Sausage cream sauce, added veggies
Monday: Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes and Carrots
Tuesday: Dinner out at Fuddruckers!
Wednesday: Spaghetti with Sausage and fresh baked garlic knots, new recipe
Thursday: Country Fried cube Steaks with Mashed pots and Cream Corn

I'll start with my recipe from today, don't worry, I will get back to the other recipes this week too!

This is a recipe that I first made when I was pregnant with Ashlyn. It was yummy. I have made some modifications to it since we (Dale & Brian) do not like tomatoes.
I sub sliced grape tomatoes, Ashlyn sliced them for me today, for the canned tomatoes.
Today I added a BUNCH of veggies to it too. I put them on the side since my kids (Brian) are picky about what veggies they will eat.
After cooking the sausage, I removed it from the pan, I added the veggies to the pan and cooked them.
I then removed the veggies and did the same with the tomatoes. I then added the sausage and continued from there.

Oh, I didn't use the fresh basil since I was not willing to spend $3 on a package of it for one dish. I think I will try and grow some herbs for cooking!

Here is my grocery breakdown:
(~means about, I am not sure how much it cost for sure but it sounds like a reasonable cost!)

5 sausage links $3.57, Wal-mart, box of 12 sausages for $8.58
~Cream, left-over from another recipe,~ $1.50
~Garlic~ $0.30
Red Onion $0.40
~Olive Oil ~$0.25
Bow-tie pasta $0.88, stock-up sale at Fry's 3 weeks ago.
My 99cent store finds:
Grape tomatoes, 1 zucchini (2/$1), asparagus, 1 red bell pepper (2/$1)
~Total~ $9.65!!!


Bowties with Sausage Cream Sauce
~by Cherie (dnvrmama)
Ingredients
1 pkg bowtie pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb sweet or hot (your choice) Italian sausage, casings removed and crumbled
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced onion
1 (28 oz) can Italian-style plum tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (I've also used half & half)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons minced fresh basil

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta in
boiling water for 8 to
10 minutes, or until al dente; drain and set aside.
Heat oil in a large, skillet over medium heat. Cook sausage and
pepper flakes until sausage is evenly brown. Stir in onion and garlic, cook
until onion is tender.
Add
tomatoes, half & half, and salt. Simmer until sauce thickens, about 10
minutes. Stir cooked pasta into sauce, and heat through. Sprinkle with basil
and serve.

Why am I such a slacker?

I told myself, you can do this blog thing. But I am not so good at doing it every day. Dale made dinner tonight. It was yummy, salad, grill roasted chicken and oven potato wedges. I stopped at the store and bought a new salad dressing. Light house "family" blue cheese dressing. Too much vinegar. Not impressed with it. I will make my own tomorrow.
I have the day off, to spend it with Dale before he starts his 7 days of driving to Casa Grande. Fun for him, stinks for me! He will be taking my car and I get to drive his but only Monday and Tuesday, I am off til then.

I WILL make a meal plan this week, we are going out to dinner tomorrow night and taking the kids to see Star Wars Episode I in 3-D!

I WILL list my plan, shopping list and budget (need to follow that more often!)

I WILL cook every day next week but Tuesday, It is a Dining for Dollar$ at Fuddruckers! Here is a link to the flier so that the 8th graders can get some money for their class trip!
http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102722494069-910/Fuddruckers+02-21-12-1.pdf

I WILL have a protein, starch, and veggie at every meal!

I WILL have healthy lunches planned for the kids!

Dale has been on a “beef” kick. Every night I ask him what he wants for dinner, he says, not chicken!
Ok, so tonight I made beef and black bean enchiladas. They were very yummy. Here is my break down:

1# Ground Beef $1.98
12 Corn
tortillas $0.99
Enchilada Sauce
$1.99
Black Beans, 10
oz can $1.00
Mexican Cheese
$0.50
Beef Rice-a-Roni
$0.88
Fat Free Refried
Beans, big can $1.49
Total : $8.83
I made enough for in plate of leftovers. It will be a fight to who gets them first! I have made enchilada before and this is what I did, not really a recipe, I don’t use them that often…
I browned the ground beef in a skillet. There was very little fat in the pan so I added a can of Rosita’s Seasoned Black beans. I stirred it all together until the beans were warm. I removed from heat. I opened the enchilada sauce and poured some in to an 8x11 pan to coat the bottom.
In the microwave I warmed up the corn tortillas until softened. I put ¼ cup of the meat &
bean mixture in a tortilla and rolled it up and placed it seam side down in the pan. I used all the tortillas and had about 1 cup of meat/bean left over.
I covered it with foil and baked for 45 minutes. I took the foil off and added about 1/2 to 2/3 cups of cheese. I placed it back in the oven uncovered for about 15 minutes.
For the Rice I followed the package directions but used 1 tablespoon of butter.
I added 1 tablespoon of butter to the can of Fat free beans, (I know, it’s no longer Fat free but it
tastes better) to give them some flavor. I also added about 1 teaspoon of Onion powder to them as well.
To serve I topped my enchilada with a small spoon full of sour cream.
The kids ate it up, Dale got his Beef and I got a lighter version since I added the beans and
not so much meat!
One more thing! I LOVE Wholly Guacamole! They have it on sale at Fry’s for just $1 a package.
That could by why my trip to the store this morning cost me $45. Oh, and the soda I bought! I hate making small trips to the store. I plan on meal planning next week and I will
do a single shopping trip and post what I am making so that I have to stick to
it!