Sandwich Rolls

(Upfront apology:  I dutifully took pictures of every step of these sandwiches, but my camera was on a scout camp out and my phone did not do such a good job.  I could post them here, but they would make you wish you had a new prescription in your glasses- or that you had glasses if you don't already.  I got a headache looking at them as I tried to insert them today.  Maybe I'll try again and use the real camera, but probably not.  Sorry.)

Last week I read about an very ingenious idea on Everydayfoodstorage.net- make sandwiches cinnamon roll style, bake and freeze them.  The kids just grab one (or two if they are teenage boys!), throw them frozen in their lunches, and they're ready to eat by lunch.  I don't know why I have never thought or heard of this before, but I tried them for dinner on both Friday and Saturday and my family loved them.  We had them 2 nights in a row because the first night I tried ham and cheese.  The second night I tried pizza.  Both were good and both were gone.

The members of my family are not huge mustard fans, so I did make a couple of changes from the recipe at Everydayfoodstorage.net.

First, I used the basic bread recipe from Fasteasybread.com because I'd used it before and it was familiar to me. I also knew I could substitute some of the white flour with wheat and it would work fine.  It makes 2 loaves worth of dough which I made into 24-30 sandwiches, depending on how thick I cut them.  I rolled one half on the dough at a time into about a 13" or 14" x 9" or 10" rectangle.

Second, instead of a honey mustard sauce, which no one would eat, I improvised a ranch flavored sauce from a chicken recipe I use.  First, I mixed up one can's worth of a food storage Cream of Chicken soup mix recipe that I have.  It makes 2 or 3 cups of powder.  I mixed 1/3 of a cup of powder with one cup of water, brought it to a boil and turned it off.

Cream of Chicken soup mix
2 c. non-instant powdered milk
3/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. chicken bouillon (about 12 cubes smashed)
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp basil (optional)
1 tsp thyme (optional)

Mix 1/3 c powder with 1 1/2 c. water, bring to a boil while stirring.

For these sandwiches I only used 1 cup of water because I wanted it a bit thicker to spread.  You could probably use a can of cream of chicken soup, but I only had large ones on hand and didn't want to open one.

I mixed the soup with 4 oz. of cream cheese (reduced fat) and a teaspoon or so of ranch dressing powder for flavor and spread it on the dough.  This ended up making enough "sauce" for 3 batches of sandwiches (about 36 rolls).

Next I covered the dough with a single layer of ham lunch meat and covered it with shredded cheddar cheese.

Rolling like a cinnamon roll was easier than I expected and cutting them into 1 inch slices was WAY easier than cinnamon rolls.  Usually with cinnamon rolls I use dental floss.  These cut really well with a sharp knife.  When I made the pizza rolls I used cheese only, no meat.  Those were easier to cut with dental floss.

The recipe from everydayfoodstorage says to bake at 400 for 10 minutes on a greased cookie sheet or in greased muffin tins for more a more "gourmet" look.  I tried both ways and found the muffin tins made rolls that stuck together better and were a more uniform size.

I let the sandwiches cool for a little bit in the pans, then all the way on a cooling rack, wrapped each in plastic wrap, and tossed them in the freezer.  The boys all took them for lunch yesterday and I thawed one for several hours on the counter at home to see what it would be like.  Obviously, they are much better right out of the oven, but they tasted pretty good thawed from the freezer.  The boys all took them again today, so that's a good sign.

This gives us something easy and different for lunches, at least for a while.  Plus, they have less fat than mayo on sandwiches, use less meat and cheese than a regular sandwich, I can get some wholewheat into the lunch bag, and there's less cleanup from lunch-making in the morning.  Wonder what other combinations we could try.  Roast beef and mozzarella?  Maybe with a little pepper and onion in there?  Turkey?  We ought to have a few weeks worth of experimentation ahead of us!

Treats and Sacrifices

The boys opted to get ice cream and have hot fudge sundaes at home last night after the Priesthood Session of General Conference instead of going out for ice cream.  There are two bonuses for that.

1) Ryan and I got to have ice cream last night with them and listen to their recap of the evening.
2) The left over ice cream allowed for some After Conference P'zookies today.  Steven and Ryan even made them.  All Greg and I had to do was show up.  Sweet!

Thanks for teaching my kids all about these, Christie.  Thinking of you this evening.  Sisters are awesome!

Basic P'zookie recipe: Make a batch of the chocolate chip cookie dough of your choice.  Bake in a pan until half done.  Remove from oven and top with ice cream.  Eat right out of the pan while hot.  Enjoy.  (Tip: Let your kids eat part of your share or you'll be asking yourself what you could have possibly been thinking as you run or walk about 20 miles a day for the next several weeks to counteract all the calories.)

Tomorrow we're having popcorn and apple slices dipped in caramel sauce for Family Home Evening treats while we talk about what we learned this weekend.  Good thing Conference only comes around every 6 months.  It's going to take me until October Conference to calorically recover from April Conference! 

(I guess we all have to make sacrifices sometimes!)

Sausage and Pumpkin Pasta

If you're like me you read that title and had two thoughts. 1) "Sausage and pumpkin together? Gross." 2) "There is no way my family would eat that, especially if I told them what it was called. Who eats that stuff?" I stand corrected, because, apparently, my family does. The amazing part was that everyone liked it- even after I told them the name. Most had seconds. Steven took his first bite and declared it "disgusting". I chose to ignore him and was surprised a few minutes later to hear him declare it "delicious" and go back for more. In fact, he just came back in for another serving and we finished dinner 2-1/2 hours ago. Thinking that was just about as miraculous as it could get, I thought I'd share the recipe. I did make a few changes for tonight and I'll put those at the end.

Sausage and Pumpkin Pasta
Healthy Cooking Magazine Dec/Jan 2010 p. 61

Prep: 20 min.
Cook: 15 min.
Yield: 4 servings

2 cups uncooked multigrain bow tie pasta
1/2 lb. Italian turkey sausage links, casings removed
1/2 lb. sliced, fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup white wine or additional reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 tsp. rubbed sage
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. dried parsley flakes

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, in a large non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook the sausage, mushrooms, onion, and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the chicken broth, pumpkin, wine (extra broth), sage, salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until slightly thickened.

3. Drain pasta; add to the skillet and heat through. Just before serving, sprinkle with cheese and parsley.

Nutrition Facts: 1-3/4 cups equals 348 calories, 9 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 38 mg cholesterol, 733 mg sodium, 42 g carbohydrate, 7 g fiber, 23 g protein.
Diabetic Exchanges: 2-1/2 starch, 2 lean meat, 1 vegetable, 1/2 fat.


Now, for the changes:
1) I hope it goes without saying that I used chicken broth and not white wine.

2) I'm fresh out of pumpkin, but I have a TON of zucchini from the garden this summer. It's even already pureed because I hide it in lots of dishes. I made a double recipe tonight, so I used 2 cups of pureed zucchini, but did not add the extra 1/2 cup (1 cup for a doubled recipe) of chicken broth because the zucchini was pretty runny.

3) I used a 1 lb. chub of mild sausage that I had in the freezer. I'm not a sausage aficionado (or how ever you spell it), so I don't know if that changes the taste at all.

4) Most of our family doesn't like mushrooms, so I added the same amount of TVP instead to keep up the bulk. (Don't know what TVP is? Click here for an introduction.)

There you have it. A miracle in a cook book. Hope it's as big a hit at your house as it was at ours.

Repellent

Trublu asked about the homemade repellent. My sister, Meri, gave the recipe to me over the phone. I've made it twice- once with the recipe and once without because I can't find where I wrote it down. It's probably a good idea to have it written down somewhere, though, so I can find it so next time I want it. So, here it is off the top of my head. Mer, if I got it wrong, leave a comment and let everyone know!

Insect Repellent (for plants, unless "salsa" is your fragrance of choice and you like a little tingle in your day!)

1 small onion
1 jalapeno pepper
2 cloves of garlic (I think, last time I made it I put in 4)
1 tsp. Murphy's Oil Soap
1 tsp. vegetable oil

Pulse the onion, jalapeno, and garlic in the blender. You don't want to liquify it, just make it into a pulp. Pour the pulp into a quart jar and fill with hot water. Let steep at least 2 hours. Mix the liquid from the pulp and water in a 3:1 ratio (water:pulp liquid). (I bought a spray bottle at Wal-Mart that has the amounts marked on the side.) Add the oil soap and oil. Shake and mist your plants several times a week.

Lessons from my massive one week of experience:

1) The first time I made it, I kept the pulp, adding fresh water every day, for a week. The potency lessened over the week, so I up-ed the concentration to 2:1 towards the end.

2) I did not keep it in the fridge, no real good reason why.

3) I spray every morning, except Sunday.

4) One spray bottle will do my entire garden- heavy misting on the zucchini and pumpkins, medium on the tomatoes, light on the corn, whatever's left on the strawberries and raspberry plant.

5) I do the tops and bottoms of each leaf of the zucchini and pumpkin, just the tops pf everything else.

5) At a 3:1 ratio, I can get at least 2, and pretty close to 3 spray bottles of mixture. At a 2:1 I get 2.

6) Doesn't seem to bother snails (drat!) outright but insects will take off if you mist them. Though, maybe they just don't like getting wet.

7) It's a great child repellent, at least at our house. The kids do NOT like the smell and complain and move away whenever I open the jar. (If that helps you have a quiet moment on any given boring summer afternoon!)

As I said before, I don't know if it really works or not, but I don't see the miniscule red bugs on the zucchini and pumpkin plants any more and they are growing new leaves that are pretty much chew-free. The corn hasn't had a bug problem at all and neither have the tomatoes that I know of, but I spray everything at least a little when I'm outside. Hope this helps!

Applesuace Cake

We did make the applesauce cake and we did take it over to Wally. I woke up in the middle of the night terrified that it tasted smoky. Oh well. Too late, now.

Doreen asked about the recipe for applesauce cake. I got the recipe from my friend, Sarah R., who used to live in our ward in NH. We love it because it tastes great. It reminds me of fall. I love it because you mix and bake in the same pan, there-by reducing the number of dishes. Also, this cake has no eggs (Sarah had allergic children), if that's something you're trying to avoid. I've never made it cutting the amount of oil involved, so I don't know how that would go. It would need at least a little to have the right texture, I think. I must also say that the recipe calls for baking in an 8 x 8 inch pan. I tried doubling it once and baking in a 9 x 13 inch pan and it did not turn out very well. I don't know if it's the size or if I did something wrong, just be aware that it may not work out if you try that. It tastes great alone or with the cream cheese frosting recipe on the back of the powdered sugar bags. We've had it both ways.


Applesauce Cake

1 cup whole white wheat flour
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. (generous) cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. applesauce
1/2 c. water
1/3 c. canola oil
1 tsp. vinegar (apple-cider or white)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flours, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt with a fork in an ungreased 8-in. x 8-in. square pan or Pyrex glass pie pan. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bake 35-40 minutes until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool before cutting.

Garbanzo Beans

Ok, Jenny. This one's for you.

Canned Garbanzo Beans
Wash dry beans. For the number of pint jars used, measure 1/2 c. (slightly rounded) beans into a large pot. Cover beans with water and cook until beans are tender (1 to 1-1/2 hours). Fill jars with beans, 1" from the top. Add 1/2 tsp. salt to each pint and fill with boiling water up to neck of jars. Adjust lids and pressure at 10 lbs. for 60 minutes.

Not quite as easy as regular beans, but not too bad. Good luck!

Canning Beans

Today is Monday, which means I should be blessing my house (cleaning it) and returning it to its' regular, somewhat clean, state after a weekend. Guess what, I really don't feel like it today and I've been really good at coming up with other, hopefully somewhat productive, things to do. For instance, right now I have the pressure canner going with 9 pints of beans- 4 white, 4 red, a 1 black. I've been meaning to can beans for awhile, but I keep putting it off. Today, it ranks higher than cleaning the house so it's getting done. After I'm done here, I'm going to make some oatmeal bread because I've been putting that off, too, and I thought it sounded good today.

There are two things I like about canning beans. The first is that it can be done in the winter time. That means I can heat up my house when I really want it hot, not when the A/C has to run majorly over-time to compete with the stove. Second, dry beans are so cheap, but take forever to cook on their own. Not to mention the fact that cooking them all day also heats up the house in the summer. Pressure canning them takes them from dry and hard to soft and ready-to-eat in less than 90 minutes total, if everything runs like it should. They're also sealed in a jar and can sit on my shelf looking pretty until I'm ready to use them.

This post has two purposes. The first is it gives me something to do besides pushing the vacuum or the duster or cleaning the downstairs bathroom. The second is that I have misplaced my recipe to can beans on several occasions before. Since I currently have it right in front of me, I'm going to post it here where I can always find it again. I guess a bonus for the readers of this post is that they, too, now have access to the recipe should they ever want it, and I know you've always wished you had it! So, enjoy!


Canning Pinto Beans (or whatever kind you like)
Prewash dry beans. Measure 1-1/3 c. beans into each of 7 quart jars or enough to fill your cooker. Add 1-1/4 tsp. salt to each quart and fill with boiling water up to the neck of jars. Adjust lids and pressure at 10 lbs. for 75 minutes.


See how easy that is?! I'm doing pints because I use that size more often, so I just put in 2/3 c. beans into a pint jar instead. My canner held 9 pint jars easily. It probably could have done 10 if I squeezed. I also don't like all the salt, so I just added 1/4 tsp. You could leave it out completely if you wanted. The only beans I think you can't do this way are garbanzo beans (chick peas). At least this paper has a different recipe for canning them. I've never used it because I don't use garbanzo beans enough. Let me know if you want it though, and I'll post it. Double bonus for you!

1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Pumpkin Seeds...Yum!

Tonight we are carving our jack-o-lantern and I got to thinking about pumpkin seeds. I remember eating them at school once and thought it was cool you could toast them and make a treat out of them. I was always told to just spread them in a pan, sprinkle on a little salt, and toast them. Thing is, they never tasted very good to me. I'm not one to do a whole lot of cooking without a recipe (in fact, I've been asked on occasion to please not experiment!), so I just gave up the idea of pumpkin seeds as a snack.

Thankfully, there ARE creative people who DO experiment with foods, and other people like the results. One of them was kind enough to submit a couple of recipes to Light & Tasty Magazine a few of years ago. It changed my pumpkin seed life. I now anxiously await them every year. So, in honor of Halloween and this wonderful fall season, I share this recipe with you. I like the original recipe so much, I've never tried the others. You're on your own there.

This may have been more helpful earlier in the week, if you've already done your carving. Sorry. Buy a pumpkin on clearance on Saturday or beg seeds off your neighbor and try it out. Enjoy!


Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Light & Tasty Magazine Oct/Nov 2006
Prep: 10 Min., Bake:45 min. + cooling

2 cups pumpkin seeds
5 tsp. butter, melted
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

In a bowl, toss pumpkin seeds with butter and Worcestershire sauce. Combine the sugar, salt, garlic powder, and cayenne; sprinkle over seeds and toss to coat.

Line a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan with foil; coat the foil with nonstick cooking spray. Spread seeds in pan. Bake at 250 degrees for 45-60 minutes or until the seeds are dry and lightly browned, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Nutrition Facts: 1/4 cup equals 95 calories, 5 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 6 mg cholesterol, 181 mg sodium, 9 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 3 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1 fat, 1/2 starch.

Optional Recipes:
1) Sweet- Combine 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon and 1/8 tsp. each ground nutmeg and ground cloves.

2) Savory- Combine 1/2 tsp. each salt and paprika, 1/4 tsp. each onion powder, oregano, and dried thyme, and 1/8 tsp. pepper.

3) BBQ- Toss the seeds with 1 tsp. barbeque seasoning (in the spice section of the grocery store).

4) Mexican- Combine 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp each onion powder, dried oregano, ground cumin, and chili powder, and 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper.