Your Salad is a Jar

What is with all these jars??

 I have another confession. I have become addicted to Pinterest. It is such a quick way to share and browse ideas and let me tell you, I have found some very neat things on Pinterest and these include ideas for the garden, the kitchen, and even ideas for work. One of these neat ideas, Hubby and I put together tonight for lunches this week! There have been some pins about using mason jars to layers salad ingredients for a quick and tasty lunch. Once assembled, the jars of salads are supposed to keep all week so you can make one for each day on Sunday, then all you have to do is grab a jar, some fruit and yogurt to go with it and you are set! We are trying this out for the week, even though I am going to camp with the grade 8s, Hubby will test the jar theory out for the week.

Wash out your jars so they are ready to go!

We splurged and bought new jars for this one!

 Once you get everything organized, washed, and chopped assembly goes fairly quickly.

We made both a lemon vinaigrette and a balsamic vinaigrette so we didn't have the same dressing the entire week.

Hubby seems to be having fun making his salads!

 After putting a couple tablespoons of vinaigrette in the bottom of the jar it is time to let the layering begin!!

 It is important to put the heavier/more sturdy items in the bottom of the jar so the dressing won't wilt the more fragile items.

 Keep the layers coming!

  Wrap an elastic band around the jar and tuck a fork underneath it (even a napkin!).

Store in the fridge for your grab 'n go lunches!! Remember to leave room so you can shake your salad up at lunch time.

Other things I've been up to (and may or may not have been found on Pinterest):

Growing celery from the end of the stalks.

Once the leaves are up, plant the entire bottom into the soil!

Freezing chicken with marinade in the sealer bag so it can flavour up while it thaws! (I also did this with a large pork loin which I was able to cut into 12 generous chops and 2 fair sizes loin roasts!) We are getting the freezer filled!

This is a ginger honey lime mixture....kind of looking forward to it!

I will get back to you and let you know how the mason jar salad experiment turned out.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Cilantro Lime Rice: Dinner on The Road

Baseball season is in full swing in the Little Kitchen and this means that at some point during each week there is a need to play away games.  I have been quite on the ball (pardon the pun) with dinners on these nights.  (*pats self on back*)  Tuesday night I even was ahead of the game (groan) and got our 'travel dinners' ready so all we I had to do was heat and go Wednesday evening!!  The boy and his team are to report to the diamond an hour before the game starts to get themselves ready.  This means he has to be there for 5:30 if the game starts at 6:30.  At times, the away games are pretty far from home and require a bit of a drive.  For home games this is no problem as we can even drop him off, come back home and then go back for game time.

A bevy of veggies

For the last couple of away games I have had a travel meal ready for Hubby and I to eat at the game.  The game plan is to assemble and store in the fridge, heat up the meals before leaving, arrive at the diamond on time for the Boy to meet the team, Hubby and I enjoy a meal together at the diamond!  You may be thinking at this time "Hey genius, why not just eat at home before you leave?" I will tell you, when leaving at 4:30 for a game, it is too early to eat.  Yet when you realize that the average ball game can easily last over 2 hours....sigh....too early to eat before we go but too long to wait for dinner.  The solution is here.  Planning and prep work are needed! The effort is so worth it and keeps us from having to stop at drive throughs and gas stations to eat.  (BTW, the Boy eats at home right after school, then again in the car, then again when we get home, then again......you get the idea!)

I even chopped up some veggies to have with hummus as a snack for the ride home.  Of course I had to pack the beautifully different coloured peppers separately so the Boy would still eat the green peppers.  Pack it all together and store in the fridge waiting to be added to the cooler.

Cilantro Lime Rice with Beans
For the rice:

• 1 small onion, chopped (I used 1/4 of a large white onion)
• 1 cup bell peppers, chopped (I like using a little bit of each colour, this one was green, orange, red)
• 1 (or two) jalapeno peppers
• Zest of 1 lime
• juice of 1 lime
• handful of cilantro, rinsed and chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil (or butter, or canola oil, or whatever you want to use)
• 1 cup rice (of your choice)
• liquid as per rice directions (I use water but stock or broth would be tasty)

Heat a pot over medium heat and add the oil.

Saute the onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno until fragrant (NOTE: if you are using a long grain rice, don't over cook the veggies here.  They will cook with in the liquid with the rice and you don't want mushy veggies! If you are using minute rice (because your lovely Hubby did the shopping and the giant box of minute rice was on sale and that is all yo have) then cook the veggies longer as minute rice only takes, well a few minutes to cook.

Add the rice to the veggies and stir it all up.  Now add the water.  Slap on a cover and allow to cook as per any rice package directions and let the rice cook.

Squeeze the lime juice and toss in the lime zest and stir it all in.

Add the chopped cilantro, stir again and enjoy....or spoon into your travel containers.

This rice is just plain yummy.  A bit of heat, lots of lime, and a bit of cilantro...yummy!!!
The beans....now I like just plain old baked beans with this but this time I made some re fried bean type dish to go with it.  These beans were darn tasty (and a bit spicy!) but as the rice was also spicy, I opted to have plain old baked beans with my rice and Hubby had the spicy beans.

Re friedish beans

• 1/2 small onion, diced fine
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 3 or 4 chipotle peppers, chopped fine
• 1 can navy beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup water ( or stock)
• 1 tbsp oil

Heat a pot over medium heat and add the oil.

Saute the onion until soft and stir in the cumin and the chipotle peppers.
 
Add the rinsed and drained navy beans, stir it all together.  Let the beans get heated through.

Grab a potato masher and start mashing the beans to your desired consistency.

Serve with the rice. (Or spoon into your travel container with the rice)

Once your containers are full (and everything in the container is piping hot) place the covers on, wrap in a towel and place in a bag. Add another towel if needed to help keep the food hot until eating time!

Note: When making this the night before, make sure you heat up the beans and rice hotter than you think, especially if you are wrapping this up to go.  This way it will stay warm until you eat.

Double up the towel and fold around the hot containers

Tuck a couple of drinks in the bag, some seeds, and you are ready!

Remember to wrap some cutlery in a napkin so you can eat!

 Now as luck would have it, we I packed everything up to go, we even started driving, got on the perimeter highway.  My phone buzzed with an incoming email...the game out in rural Manitoba was cancelled and they would be having a practice at the home field.  The diamond out in Sanford Manitoba is still under water....sigh.  We turned around and came home.
.
We ate our travel dinners at home, then got into the yard (and the glorious sunshine) to get some work done, the boy went to practice....sigh...

With the weather being nothing but rain and wind, (and the baseball schedule) it has been darn near impossible to tend to the lawn so it did look a little like this:

 Oops.....

Cinco De Mayo Fiesta

I have been looking up recipes, reading through recipes, and coming up with my own ideas about what to make for Cinco de Mayo this week.  Excitement has been rising yet the other day while planning and shopping for my Cinco de Mayo dinner I became so frustrated.  First I was happy to find tomatillos in the produce section but then I was ticked that they were all soft and as I peeled back some of the paper husks I found mould and bruises (ewwwwww).  Needless to say, I did not get any fresh tomatillos for dinner.  It is kind of hit or miss at my grocery store when it comes to tomatillos.  If they have them, there's never too many and you have to get there early to get the good ones.  I also couldn't find poblano peppers to save my life!!  Lucky there is a small section of Mexican products in the 'international' aisle, if you can call it that.  I did manage to find a bottle of green enchilada sauce and a bottle of red sauce there.  I will have to wait and see how they both taste but I really did want to make my own.

Wednesday evening I spent some time prepping for Cinco de Mayo.
I put together my tortilla soup so it was a quick re heat and serve item for dinner.

Tortilla soup (adapted from Food Network)
Printable versions of both recipes

1 large white onion
2 jalapenos
1 28 oz jar whole tomatoes (roast the tomatoes but save the liquid for the soup)
3 or 4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin
4 cups chicken stock (or more, depends on how thick you like your soup)
1/2 cup ancho chile pepper puree (3 or 4 dried anchos softened with hot water to cover and purred: freeze   the leftover)
2 bay leaves
First I pre heated the oven to 400F and chopped some onions, 2 jalapenos, 3 cloves garlic, and some whole canned tomatoes and put them on a baking sheet.  These tasty tidbits were then coated with olive oil, kosher salt, and fresh ground black pepper.

Then whole works then went into the pre heated oven for 10 minutes.

Pull the whole works out and sprinkle with 1 tbsp coriander seeds and 1 tsp cumin.

Pop it back into the oven for another 10 minutes or until everything is nice and toasty!

I let the roasted veggies cool while I made dinner for Wednesday (scrambled egg night). After the Boy washed the dinner dishes, I plunked everything into my blender and whirred it up until smooth.

(I have made this recipe before but without the roasting and I made a huge mess blending the hot soup so I thought I would try it this way.)

The last time I made a tortilla soup, I had tons of left over ancho chili puree so I froze it.  Wednesday evening I thawed it and tossed 1/2 cup of it into the blender with the cooled roasted veggies. The whole works then goes into a pot and heats up with 2 bay leaves, 1 28 0z can of crushed tomatoes and 4 cups of chicken stock....mmmmm.....

Serve topped with things such as:

• dollop of sour cream
• cilantro
• chicken
• avocado
• cheese
• green onions, onions, tomato

The other item I prepped ahead was the shredded chicken for the enchiladas!!

Chicken Enchiladas

6 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
1 large white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, smashed and roughly chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
red or green enchilada sauce of your choice ( I REALLY wanted to make my own green tomatillo sauce and red poblano sauce but I couldn't find either item....sigh)

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add some olive oil to coat the pan.  Toss in the onions, garlic, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper.  saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Salt and pepper the chicken breasts and lay them on the top of the onions in the pan.  Clamp the lid on and cook for 18 - 20 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool until the chicken is cool enough to shred.

I just used my clean hands to pull the chicken apart.  Add the onion mixture and the juices and plunk it all in the fridge until you are ready to fill your enchiladas.

Yet another item difficult to find was corn tortillas...I did find some multi grain and some flaxseed tortillas that had a similar texture to corn tortillas and they worked wonderfully!

Mix the shredded chicken with some shredded monterey jack cheese, fresh chopped cilantro, and some chopped green chiles (optional).

Spray a 9 x 13 pan (or similar size) with cooking spray and pour a layer of your choice of either green tomatillo sauce or red poblano sauce over the bottom of the pan, just enough to cover.

Spoon about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of filling onto the centre of a tortilla, roll the tortilla up and place seam side down in the pan.

Lay each enchilada seam side down in the saucy pan.

Spoon some more sauce over the enchiladas and top with the rest of the cheese.

Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes or until hot, bubbly and the cheese is all melty/gooey.

Serve with re fried beans, rice, chips, guacamole, tortilla soup.....enjoy!!!

 Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

A Week's Worth of Brekkies

A great way to get going on these cold winter mornings in is a hot bowl of oatmeal! I don't have time every morning to make a pot of good old fashioned oatmeal but I am not a fan of the prepackaged instant oatmeals, they just aren't the same. The oats have been so over rolled there isn't nearly as much fibre left in them as there should be and I can make my own flavours with natural ingredients.  If I want maple flavoured oatmeal, I will just add maple syrup!

My breakfast is happy to see me!

 I generally buy the generic brand of steel cut oats or multigrain oats and cook up a week's worth of oatmeal on Sunday afternoon or evening.  Follow the instructions on the box to cook up the oatmeal and divy the oatmeal out into single serve portions into bowls (with plastic wrap) or containers with lids if you have.  All you have to do in the morning is pop it into the microwave for a minute or two and you are ready for the day! (Or grab it to take to work, use the  microwave in the classroom/staffroom and let the kids watch you enjoy your oatmeal!)

Cook the oatmeal according to package instructions.





Here's where you can adjust the flavours to suit your mood:

• Switch out the water for another liquid such as juice, coconut milk, soy milk, milk....even tea

 
While cooking add to the pot the flavours of your choice:

• 1 chopped apple (keep the peel), handful of raisins, 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• handful of chopped dates (sweetness), shredded coconut,
• pumkin pie spices and smow pureed pumpkin
• chopped pineapple, coconut, and some rum extract (Do you like pina colodas?)
• a handful of chopped dried apricots, some chopped walnuts...
• dried blueberries

The possiblities really are endless, just use your imagination.
Today I felt like apples, dates, and cinnamon!

Lately I have been adding some frozen strawberries and a gulp of maple syrup before popping it into the microwave for 2 minutes.

Being prepared for the week ahead helps keep morning mayhem to a minimum.  Get up, get ready, have breakfast, and go.

One for each day of the week!! This batch has apples, dates, and cinnamon in it but I will most likely add some maple syrup and strawberries in the morning!  This really does save so much time in the mornings.