French bread Surprise (with chicken and Vegetables)

We'll call this French Bread Surprise because we often make this French Bread without the dinner hidden inside, so this is a surprise for our little ones.

All measures are approximate because I'm mostly using leftovers and didn't measure!

1 12oz bag frozen broccoli and cauliflower florettes
1 tube Pillsbury French bread
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1/3 (?) cup mayonaise (we used an egg/dairy free variety)
1 Tbsp + mustard
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Defrost broccoli/cauliflower in the microwave and dice. Mix with diced cooked chicken, mayo, mustard, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Take the French bread out of the tube and try to unroll it. Lay it on an oiled baking sheet. Place the chicken/veggie mixture down the center and bring the sides of the dough up and over it, sealing on the top (pinching with your fingers). Bake in 350 oven 15-20 minutes, until dough is golden brown and mixture is heated through. This is egg free if you use safe mayo.

ETA: We tried this using some frozen onion/green pepper in addition to the other vegetables, and it was even better. (and I'm sorry Judy, I only saw your comment today, in January 2010!! LOL Feel free to use any recipes here)

Fruit Juice Gummies

I'm wondering if I can make these with our candy molds. Oh, the possibilities!

Wacky Cake

A version of wacky cake (a.k.a "vinegar cake") that I'd like to try.

Secret Ingredient No-Egg Brownies

My mom found this recipe in a local newspaper. We changed it around a bit and came up with:

Secret Ingredient No-Egg Brownies

1 Box brownie mix (for our case, free of nuts, eggs, dairy)
1 TBSP Cinnamon (I added less, about 1/2, and it was fine, but bet it would have been fine with the whole TBSP)
1 15 oz can black beans (the secret ingredient!)
(this was the original recipe)
I tossed in a big handful of Enjoy Life Foods mini-chocolate chips :)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Puree the black beans in blender. You'll see skins, that's OK, you can't tell later. Mix bean puree with brownie mix (don't add the oil, egg, etc that the brownie box calls for - just use the powder mix). Throw in the chocolate chips and stir. Pour all into a greased 8x8 cake pan (although we used a similar sized pie plate.

Cook at 350 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. The chips made it pretty gooey, but we liked it that way. :)

Enjoy!

(Thanks Lisa for noticing I didn't say what size can of beans - I responded in my comment section) :)

"Wonder" Bread

from Mitten Strings for God by Katrina Kenison

Combine in a very large bowl:
4 Tbsp canola oil
4 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp salt

Add:
8 C warm water
2 Tbsp yeast

Stir and wait 5 minutes, until yeast is dissolved

Stir in:
7 C white flour
7 C whole wheat flour
2 C rolled oats (or any combination of soy four, rice flour, wheat germ, oats, or bran)

When dough is well mixed (use wooden spoon or hands), scoop half into another large, well oiled bowl. Cover both bowls with a cloth and let rise until doubled (about 1 1/2 hours. You can punch it down and let it rise again at this point, or punch it down, divide it into 7 loaves, and let rise again in pans. (Allow a 3rd rise in pans if you gave it the second rise in the bowls still). Bake at 400* F for about 40 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Rotate the pans midway through baking for even browning.

Ground Turkey Stir Fry

This one was a hit:

3/4 pound of ground turkey, browned (could sub. any other kind of cooked, chopped poultry)

1 can chicken broth (or 1 3/4 cup stock - this may vary if using instant rice, cook according to pkg directions for amts)

2 cups instant brown rice

3 cups sliced carrots

1 cup sliced celery

2 scallions, chopped up

2 Tbsp coconut oil

1/2 tsp garlic powder (or to taste)

1/2 tsp ground ginger (or to taste)

large pinch of salt



Brown the ground turkey and or chop up other cooked meat. Set aside to keep warm unless you can multitask and then brown this while some of the other things are cooking. ;-) Cook instant brown rice in the chicken broth, according to package directions, and set aside (alternately, cook *real* brown rice in broth!). Melt 2 Tbsp coconut oil in wok or large frying pan, and toss in all the veggies - cooking on med/high heat. Stir constantly. Sprinkle garlic powder, ground ginger, and salt on veggies as you are stirring/cooking. Cook until crisp-tender (or tender-tender if you have picky kids like I do, LOL). Mix cooked rice, cooked meat, and cooked veggies together and serve (or keep them apart for those picky toddlers).

Mixed Vegetable Soup

Mixed Vegetable Soup


2 T olive oil
1 leek chopped
2 medium sized potato, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 large parsnip, diced
2 tbs split red lentils
1 pint of vegetable stock (or chicken broth)
Additional water
Salt & Pepper to taste

Over a medium heat sauté the leek with the oil for approximately 5 minutes.
Add the potato, carrot and parsnip.
Cook for a further 5 minutes.
Add the stock and lentils.
Bring to the boil, turn down heat, cover and then simmer for 30 minutes.
Liquidize, return to saucepan, and add water until required consistency.
Heat, season and serve immediately.