Béchamel Sauce

This is one of the simplest Béchamel sauce recipes that I have ever seen! Yes, I still screwed it up. Lots of lumpy flour lumps. However, don't throw it out! Putting it in a blender rescues this sauce and made it just as lovely and creamy.


Béchamel Sauce Recipe

Save those vitamins!

When cooking a pasta meal with veggies, if you are using a vegetable like turnips or kale (or any vegetable that requires a bit of time cooking), cut them into ribbons and put them into the boiling water at the same time that you put your pasta! They cook at the same time, and those vitamins in your veggies are resoaked into the pasta!

Drain, add the sauce of your choice and you're done!

Yellow squash pasta sauce

I'll think of a better name later. This recipe was created on the fly because I am doing that Eat a Rainbow thing. Today was yellow.

Ingredients:

1         Yellow summer squash
2T       Sauvignon Blanc or other dry white wine like, such as Chardonnay
1/4 c   Chicken broth
1tsp    Olive oil
2T      Grated Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to broil at 400 degrees. Chop squash into 1-inch cubes and saturate with cooking spray. Salt and pepper as desired. Place on baking sheet in oven. Leave in stove 5-7 minutes. It will burn, so watch them! Mash or puree roasted squash. Add wine, broth, olive oil and Parmesan. Mash or puree until smooth. Serve over cooked pasta. 

Bourbon Collard Greens

I finally found a way to combine bourbon and collard greens, which is great, because they were in my veggie bag this week. True, there were other recipes, but this recipe is considerably healthier. I like my bourbon, so this recipe has a full cup. The alcohol cooks out of the greens because of the heat, but if you would rather make a less colorful dish, you can trim the bourbon down to 1/2 or 1/4 a cup. 

Ingredients:

3            turkey bacon slices

¼ tsp      butter

1 c          sliced onions

1             garlic clove

¼ tsp      balsamic vinegar

2T          apple cider vinegar

1 c          bourbon

10c         fresh collards, sliced into ribbons

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat large saucepan on medium high heat. Coat with non-stick spray. Cook turkey bacon slices until crisp, then remove slices. Do not clean turkey bacon drippings out the pan…it will hardly be any bacon oils anyway. Drop the butter and onion slices into pan. Sauté until onions are tender then place garlic clove in pan. Cook 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients. Stir the collards until they wilt. Crumble bacon into collards. Reduce heat to medium and cook 20-25 more minutes. 

Enjoy!

Final meal (Restaurant-style steak, turnip root gratin and my Bourbon greens!):

Surprise from a French cookbook

I have a French cookbook that I rarely use. A bit ago, I decided to dust it off and make one of its seasonal recipes. It was wonderful! And who would have thought that broiling lamb on a bed of thyme and rosemary would make it more moist and tender?

Vive le cookbook de français!

BHG Banana Oat Breakfast Cookie

This cookie is healthy and tastes like a better version of a Clif bar. I used raisins and loved it!

Ingredients:

Nonstick cooking spray
1 large banana, mashed (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup chunky natural peanut butter (unsalted and unsweetened) or regular chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat two cookie sheets with cooking spray; set aside. In a large bowl, stir together banana, peanut butter, honey, and vanilla. In a small bowl, combine oats, flour, milk powder, cinnamon, and baking soda. Stir the oat mixture into the banana mixture until combined. Stir in dried cranberries.

2. Using a 1/4-cup measure, drop mounds of dough 3 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. With a thin metal or small plastic spatula dipped in water, flatten and spread each mound of dough to a 2 3/4-inch round, about 1/2-inch thick. Once baked, each cookie will be about 3-1/2 to 4 inches in diameter.

3. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 14 to 16 minutes or until browned. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container or resealable plastic bag for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months; thaw before serving.



Nutrition Facts (Banana Oat Breakfast Cookie) Calories 227,
Protein (gm) 6,
Carbohydrate (gm) 37,
Fat, total (gm) 6,
Saturated fat (gm) 1,
Dietary Fiber, total (gm) 4,
Sodium (mg) 77,
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Source: Better Homes and Gardens The Ultimate Low-Calorie Book

KitchenAid Mixer Attachments - Meat Grinder

I love this thing.

I hate this thing.

I love it because when all of the brouhaha came out about pink slime in beef, I realized that I had a meat grinder. I'll grind my own beef so up yours, ammonia-loving parts of the beef industry.

I hate this thing because it is a b**** to clean. Sorry but there is no nice way to say it. Getting into all those grooves is murder, and if you have OCD tendencies like me, cleaning that attachment can easily become a battle of the titans.

But it is functional. It's small and very affective.

But I still hate cleaning it.

Happy Flower Egg Breakfast

2 eggs

1/4 c fat free milk (1 or 2% is also OK)

3 T cheddar

1 bell pepper (any color will do)

1 turkey sausage link


I got this idea from the Bonnie Bell Facebook page, and they got it from Pinterest. I tweaked the recipe a bit.

Preheat skillet on medium. Spray skillet with non-stick spray. Cook sausage and allow to slightly cool. Slice sausage link into 1-inch slices. Slice bell pepper into 1-inch slices. Place bell pepper slices in pan. Place one turkey sausage cut into the middle of each bell pepper slice (there may be leftover sausage, save it for a later recipe). Pour egg around sausage inside bell pepper slice. Cook until egg is done. Plate it and enjoy!

Edited to add: I tried this baked and the egg is fluffier!

Apple "Streusel" Oatmeal!

1 small apple (I used a Braeburn)

1/4 c Fiber One Cereal

1/2 T Butter

1 T Peach Jam

1/4 c Uncooked Oatmeal

2/3 c Water

Salt to taste


Bring water to simmer in small pot. Add salt then add oatmeal. Heat skillet on med-high. Spray pan if not a non-stick pan. Cut apple into small square bites (three bites should fit on a standard spoon). Put butter in pan. Add apples, fiber cereal and stir for 2-3 minutes until cereal is toasted. Add jam. Cook 1-2 minutes until caramelization begins. Put cooked oatmeal in bowl, top with apple streusel. Enjoy!

Hello..?

Alright, I know I've been AWOL. Hopefully this will make up for it.

I've decided to give extreme couponing a go. Makes sense, right? Cooking is not cheap, especially if you cook from scratch or semi-scratch. So I've decided to document my journey to becoming an extreme couponer. This journey will be documented on my Extreme Coupon Queen blog.

And yes, I realize this is blog #5 when I can barely keep up with one. What can I say? I have the attention span of a gnat.