Tidbits

It has been almost two weeks since I last posted here. Sorry, things have been a little crazy around here. I have been having drama with my eye which culminated in me wearing an eye patch (ARRRGH Matey) for the last 24 hours, so, needless to say that staring at a computer screen for any amount of time was not fun. Just because I haven't been blogging does not mean that I haven't been cooking. 'Cause I have and LOTS.

This past weekend my husband was out of town and my mom came to visit which was a huge help in getting re-stocked on some of my sneaky supplies that I was getting low on. I made whole wheat bread crumbs out of all my old, leftover loaves of bread; ground almonds and made bags of better breading to keep in the freezer; SAM's had fresh chicken breasts and chicken tenders for an incredible price this weekend, $1.97/pound and $2.17/pound, so I stocked up and made lots of chicken tenders to freeze; I also got tons of fruit at SAM's including cherries which my wonderful mother pitted and I then turned into cherry puree, individual bags of frozen cherries and Seth finished off the rest. Monday night, my friend Ashley came over and we made puree, TONS of puree. In case you are curious how much a ton of puree is, about 168 1/4 cup bags of white, orange, purple and green puree. We had a some good girl time, made healthy stuff for our families and got to know each other better.













MODIFICATIONS: I have a couple of modifications that I will include here as I discovered during my cooking craze this past week. In making the blueberry oatmeal bars I discovered (*gasp*) that I was out of purple puree (thus sparking the fire for the puree party). But, I did have some spinach and made a quick puree out of that to use in the bars. It was actually better with the plain spinach puree. So, my next mission is to make some plain spinach puree to use for this favorite recipe. After that, I want to try it with blackberry preserves.

Also, I have had great success in making the Grab-n-Go Granola Bars stick together for my last two batches. So, here is what I did different. I used a 9x7 inch pan lined with foil. One attempt, I added a smidge more honey and the other I did not and it did not affect the outcome. So, add a little more honey if your tastes allow. I did make sure that I thoroughly mixed the dry ingredients with the wet before placing (smooshing them really good) in pan. Once I baked the bars, I let them cool completely (as in I covered them with foil and left them overnight on the kitchen counter). The next morning I was able to cut the bars beautifully. What a feeling of accomplishment!!!!

Finally, I am going to include a new recipe. It is for bolognese sauce. I have experimented with several sneaky recipes for a pasta sauce and had a hard time finding the right combination of sneaky ingredients and spices to get good flavor. But, this recipe passed the test. It even passed the picky husband test. It has lots and lots and lots of sneaky ingredients which is even more exciting. I used it over pasta and then froze some. Later, I used it to create a baked pasta dish. Hope you enjoy and modify as you and your family will enjoy.

Any red sauce is a great place to hide purees. Just start with a small amount and gradually add more for the health of your unsuspecting family. Orange, green or white purees hide especially well. I also sneak in some purees when I make chili in the winter.

I have been spinning a lot of sneaky ideas around lately including hosting a puree party to help other moms stock their kitchen with purees and have a good time while doing it.

Anyone interested?