Oh, Herro Monday.

Today is GORGEOUS!!!!
The sun is shining, birds and bees, flowers and all that jazz!

I decided to make something special for my husband, cause- well- he's pretty much amazing 24/7.
He's been bugging me for about 2 years to make "pasties". They are an Eastern European dish, consisting of a pie crust pocket filled with a meat and potatoes/veg mixture. Essentially a potpie in a hand held version.
I've made them quite a few times in the past, but I'm never very pleased with the results. They taste great, but break easily, you can never get a "right" amount of gravy to please everyone. It's a days worth of work for not as many "ooos" and "awwws" as you would expect.
But like a good wife, I made sure to buy all the ingredients for the dish.
Though, like I usually do, I upgraded a few things. Gone is pie crust, puff pastry squares in their place. I made a cheese and herb gravy, to coat everything, and made separate filling add ons for my husband.
Now that I've got everything ready, I'm also ditching the "pocket' idea. For today's version (though they can still be made as pockets) I'm using my giant cupcake pans to create a mini potpie mold.

Either way you choose to make the final version- I'm sure everyone will love the final results. Enjoy!

Pasty Filling

Makes 10 servings
Prep: 40 minutes
Bake time: 20

Ingredients:

1 large cube steak- diced to 1/4" cubes
3 medium russet potatoes- cut into 1" cubes
1 packet of brown gravy mix
3 Tbls of olive oil
1 Tbls crushed garlic
1/4 C Philadelphia Cooking Creme Italian Cheese & Herb flavor
Salt & pepper to taste

Various Veggie add-ons:
Caramelized onions & mushrooms
Peas & carrots

1. In a medium pan, cover cubed potatoes in salted water and boil until fork tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet, preferably one with tall sides. Add crushed garlic, then the diced cube steak. Cook over med-high heat until steak is browned, add pepper to taste.
3. Lower heat to med, add your boiled potatoes and fold gently to incorporate without getting "mashed potatoes".
4. Mix gravy packet in 1C water, then pour into your skillet. Again stir everything gently, once mixture has come up to a simmer, add your Philly cooking cream and remove from heat.
5. Let mixture cool before you use it as filling.

Once filling is cool, you can use it "as is", or add extras to personalise each pasty. I'm making a onion and mushroom mixture for my husband, and making a more traditional pea and carrot mix for mine. You could add shredded cheeses, and pureed veggies to make them more healthy for kids too!

Remember to get creative! Make them as pockets, pies or as a casserole. It's up to you!

Shopping with purpose.

As much as I would love to post daily, because quite frankly I cook EVERYday, I seem to get caught up in life and would much rather spend a day in the sun than in front of my PC!
( just 3 years ago, that would have been the very opposite)

After reviewing our household budgeting, we allotted more for weekday homemade meals in order to eat better, smarter, and more cost efficiently.
What does that mean in the long run? More protein, less starch, less sugars, more greens and vegetables!
What does that mean in the short term? I will be clipping coupons, and running to 4 different stores to make my money stretch as far a possible!

To make this work, I try to shop in bulk once a month, then only pick up essentials the rest of the month if needed.
Since my husband is half Korean, I try to make it out to our local Asian market to pick up some of his favorite things: Korean Pears, Gyoza wrappers, various speciality items like curry's and I love to go to the bakery for a few treats!
Shopping at the market keeps the overhead on those items low, and I pay half the cost of buying them at one of my regular stores for the very same groceries!

Being military, we tend to do the majority of our shopping at the base commissary. Though most of what we buy every trip is not on sale, we are always surprised with how much we get and for very little.
This week I was very lucky to find Gold Medal Flour (5lb bags) on sale for 1.69 down from $3.96, even better was a coupon I found on the chocolate chips I was buying giving me a $1.00 off the purchase of 2 (5lb) bags of flour.
End result, I bought 6 (5lb) bags for $1.19 a bag! That is a HUGE savings of $16.62 for 30 lbs of flour.
If I had the storage space I would go buy another 30lbs, as I will easily use that much flour in a month.

Costco is my other staple for shopping. Items like water bottles, milk, butter, eggs, bananas, sugar, various proteins (pork & beef, sometimes lamb or salmon), the best baby wipes I've every used for my son, and as of yesterday- 5 Hour Energy Shots for my husband.
The big find there was the energy shots, as my husband has started using those in place of Red Bull each work night.
My husband spent $5.00 every two days last month on energy shots (they come in two packs), at the price of $2.50 a shot. The total cost of last months drinks was about $60.00 for 20 days worth of work nights.
When I looked at Costco, I found a box of 24 shots for $39.99! That brings the cost of each energy shot down to $1.66. That's a big savings for us, and that savings nearly pays for our Costco membership for a year.

Per request, I'm making a Lemon Blueberry Cake with vanilla Glaze for my husband to bring in to work tonight. It's a creamy moist cake with a nice bite from the lemon, with bright sweet blueberries throughout. It's a wonderful spring time treat, that's sure to make your family's day! Enjoy!!

Lemon Blueberry Cake with vanilla Glaze

Serves 12
Prep: 15minutes
Cook time: 45

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 6 tablespoons cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup Half & Half
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs

Vanilla Glaze or fresh Whipped cream to accompany.

1: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 10cup bunt pan with Bakers Secret.
2: Sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl.
3: Transfer 1 tablespoon flour mixture to large bowl. Add fresh blueberries and
toss to coat. Set remaining flour mixture and blueberries aside.
4: Stir whole milk, vanilla extract, and grated lemon peel in small bowl.
5: Using electric mixer, beat butter in another large bowl until light and creamy.
6: Gradually add sugar, beating until mixture is light and fluffy.
7: Beat in eggs 1 at a time, mix until eggs are completely incorporated.
8: Beat in flour mixture alternately with milk mixture in 3 additions each, just
until blended.
9: Gently fold in blueberries, and pour batter into pan.

10: Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
11: Cool cake in pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn out cake onto rack to
completely cool.
12: If desired, pour glaze over cake and garnish cake with lemon peel strips, or serve sliced cake warm with whipped cream.

Easy does it.

In light of all the hoopla going on in WA DC today, I've decided it's most important to carry on as normal as possible until we hear news either way.

Today I'm making One Skillet Chicken & Ravioli for dinner and a Best Oatmeal Cake to be taken to work with my husband tonight.

Nothing says easy like one skillet meals.

One Skillet Chicken & Ravioli

Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 40 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
1 jar/can favorite tomato sauce
1 cup water
2T olive oil
* hot sauce/ or chrushed red pepper to taste
1 package frozen cheese ravioli
6 oz cream cheese


1: Thinly slice chicken breasts into bite size peices, then transfer to a mixing bowl and toss with garlic and hot sauce/ crushed pepper and 1T olive oil.
2: Cover and refrigerate chicken for ten minutes (or longer, up to over night if you wish).
3: Heat large skillet on stovetop over med-high heat, adding other 1T olive oil to pan.
4: Add marinated chicken to pan and sautee until cooked thourghly.
5: Lower heat on the stove top to a med-low setting and add sauce and water, cook for 30 minutes.
6: Add cream cheese and stir until completely melted. Return to med-high heat and add ravioli, cook the remaining 10 minutes covered to bring ravioli up to tempature.

Pretty easy right?!? Now on to the Cake.

Best Oatmeal Cake

Ingredients
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
3/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Confectioners' sugar, optional

Directions
Place oats in a small bowl; add boiling water. Let stand for 20 minutes.
In a small bowl, cream shortening and sugars. Add oat mixture and egg; mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; add to creamed mixture and beat until combined.
Pour into an 8-in. fluted tube pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 22-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired, or use a valnilla glaze to garnish.
Enjoy!

Getting in the groove of things.

I've been having a blast using my new KA, rightly named "Beastly", as much as possible without burning through every single baking supply in my pantry.
So today I'm making a Carmel Coconut Cake for my husband to bring to work.

Being a military wife means a few things for me in the kitchen:

1: I have a budget for food, meaning I have to plan for a month of food.
2: Since my husband works the graveyard shift, I need to send treats for the guys 3 days a week.
3: My husband needs a diet that promotes weight/muscle gain, I need the opposite.
4: Our son is a soon to be toddler, needing a wide range of healthy baby friendly options.

While it sounds like it is a lot to juggle, it's become very easy to maintain a healthy yet gourmet style dinner 7 days a week.

We eat protein and vegetable heavy meals with a small portion of starch. We have made the transition from things that we processed (white rice, bread etc) t0 whole grain laden foods.
I have cut back on portions to cut waste (dreaded 3 day old left-overs!), and make available more fresh food to be prepared thoughout the week.

Example: tonight I made Beef Stir fry in a lemon & apple sauce, with green beans, snap peas, celery, zucinni, and water chestnuts over brown rice.
I used a mix of fresh and frozen veggies, 10 minute rice, and only 1/2 a pound of beef strips.
Total cost of the meal was $6.00 for three large portions!!
(yes, I know this is where you think I'm going to tell you the recipe.....but I'm not, just the cake)

For tonight's dessert, I'm making:



Carmel Coconut Cake
Time: 15 min. prep + 40 minutes to bake
Yield: 12-15 servings
Recipe from Taste Of Home


Cake:
4 eggs
2 C sugar
2 t vanilla
2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 C milk
1/4 C butter


Frosting:
1 1/2 C packed brown sugar
3/4 C butter, melted
1/2 C half and half
2 C flaked coconut

1. In a medium sized mixing bowl, or in your stand mixer beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla for 4 minutes. It will thicken up a bit while you mix.
2. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add it to the buttery egg combo and mix just until combined.
3. In a sauce pan bring the milk and butter to a boil, stirring constantly.
4. Pour it into your batter. Beat until well combined.
5. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan.
6. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.
7. While the cake bakes, mix all frosting ingredients together.
8. When the cake is done remove it from the oven and turn the oven to broil. Pour the frosting over the top of the warm cake. Spread it around carefully with a knife.
9. Return the cake to the oven and let the frosting become browned. Watch cake carefully!!!It can burn very quickly. It only needs to broil for about 3-4 minutes.

If you wish, let cake cool for about 30 minutes then cut and enjoy it warm!
Hope you enjoy this cake as much as my husbands co-workers do!

Slow Start.

Per a promise to my husband, I have been refraining (for almost two weeks now) from baking.
Though I hate it, it is the result of his purchasing a ProLine KitchenAid Stand Mixer for me as a gift.

Pretty sweet gift, huh?

So I've been also trying to abstain from looking at food blogs, mine or otherwise, until it arrives.
Thankfully it should be delivered tomorrow!!!

To celebrate I will be making:

Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake

Yield: 10 servings
Time: 25 minutes prep + 60 minutes to bake
Recipe from: My Baking Addiction



2 t ground cinnamon
1 C white sugar


2 1/2 C flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 C butter, softened
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
3 eggs at room temperature
2 t vanilla
1 C full-fat sour cream at room temperature


1. In a small bowl, combine 1 C sugar and 2 t cinnamon. Mix it together well.
2. Generously grease the inside of your bundt pan with shortening, or spray heavily with Pam Cooking Spray With Added Flour.
3. Gently dust the entire inside of your pan with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Be sure you get inside all the little nooks. You will most likely only use about 1/3 C of the mixture. Set aside the leftovers to use in the middle of the cake.
4. In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set the good little mixture aside for later.
5. In a Kitchen Aid mixer or using hand held beaters beat the softened butter on medium speed for 1 minute.
6. Add the white sugar and mix for 3 minutes.
7. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and add the brown sugar. Mix for 2 minutes.
8. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing for a full minute after each one.
9. Stir in the vanilla.
10. Grab your good little dry mixture and add it alternately with the sour cream. When both sour cream and all of the dry mixture are added continue to mix for 2 minutes.
11. Spread 1/2 the batter into your pan. Pour the leftover cinnamon and sugar over the top. Spread the rest of your batter over the top.
12. Bake at 325 degrees for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
13. Cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I'm sure the boys at my husbands shop will LOVE this!!! Enjoy!