Guest Post: Rebecca from One More Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

We are excited to have an awesome guest blog from Rebecca at One More Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
She has a wonderfully easy sounding recipe for Steak Soup which is a family favorite in her house.

Rebecca is the mother to 2 beautiful little girls, ages 6 months old and 5 years old. She is a stay at home mom right now and new to the blogging world. She enjoys making new recipes and spending time with her family.

Ingredients:1.5-2 lbs ground beef
1 can stewed tomatoes (or I used fire roasted diced tomatoes, whatever you have in the cabinet)
1 can beef broth
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, green beans, corn)
salt and pepper

Prepare:

In a large stock pot brown off ground beef and drain
add can of broth, tomatoes, frozen vegetables, 2 bouillon cubes and a half can of water.
let simmer and stir occasionally until veggies are soft
add salt and pepper to taste

Total cook time was approximately 40 minutes.

* We serve with shredded sharp cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream and crackers for me, tortilla chips for my guy

** In my case the hamburger was still completely frozen, so I added it to the stock pot with a little bit of water covered with a lid on medium high, this only took about 5-7 minutes to ground up. I prefer not to nuke raw meat as it causes it to have a weird texture.
While the soup was simmering I was able to give my daughter a bath and braid her hair.




Tip from 3 Moms:
If not making a soup and you find yourself with frozen meat that needs to be cooked soon submerge it fully in a bowl of lukewarm water.  Place something on top to keep it fully submerged if need be.  You can even use hot water for an even faster thaw.  Depending upon the size and cut of the meat as well as the water temperature it will thaw in about an hour.

Guest Blog-Suchada from Mama Eve-How to make Your Own Pumpkin Puree and Pumpkin Cookies

I am so excited, we have already had 3 awesome guest bloggers and this makes #4.  We want to give a HUGE thank you to Suchada for taking time to blog for us.  I am impressed with her cooking talents.  I have always wanted to make my own pumpkin puree but its one of those big cooking skills that just intimidates me.  Next year I am so going for it.  I hope you enjoy her post (as well as the beautiful pictures) as much as I did when I first read it.

Love,
Christy

P.S. I must say I had to chuckle to myself at the pictures of Suchada wearing a baby, surrounded by kids whipping up some yummy pumpkin cookies.  Looks like a scene straight out of my kitchen.

                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

letting the kids help creates
beautiful life long memories
for everyone

I come from a family of foodies, something I’ve touched on in my blog, Mama Eve. When my relatives and I get together on vacations, we have a tendency to check out the local specialty grocery stores to see how they differ from place to place, and to find new ingredients to cook with. So it was only natural when an old high school friend came to visit from Las Vegas (with her daughter and twin boys!) that we cook together.

With two little ones, I don’t have a ton of time to spend in the kitchen, but I try to make things from scratch as often as I can. I subscribe to a Community Supported Agriculture co-op, and get a box of fresh, local, and seasonal fruits and vegetables every week. I can also order meats, nuts, and other staples. When they have extra of a particular crop, I can add them on to my order. They’re often cosmetically imperfect, but inexpensive and still of very high-quality. At the end of tomato season I ordered boxes of tomatoes for sauce, and in October I took advantage of the good price on pumpkins to get a lot to last for the season.

A few days before my friend arrived, I cooked and pureed all the pumpkins I had. Some were from my CSA, and others I got from a local pumpkin patch. They were all organic and different varieties, and they cooked up beautifully in the oven with just a bit of water to keep them from drying out.

Recipe:

• Pre-heat oven to 350*
• Wash outside of pumpkins
• Cut in half, de-seed (save these for roasting!), and then cut in pieces that will fit easily into roasting pan.
• Add a half-cup of water to the pan, or just enough to cover the bottom.
• Place in oven until flesh is easily pierced with a knife, about an hour.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool until pieces can be handled. Scoop out flesh into blender or food processor, and puree until smooth. (I actually used a stick blender, and it did the job easily and with little mess).
• Pumpkin puree can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week, or frozen for up to six months.

Dulcia is a photographer, so I was pretty excited she would be able to document our pumpkin-cookie adventure. Cooking with children is ALWAYS an adventure because it’s a challenge to get them involved and excited about cooking, but still keep the kitchen somewhat intact. It’s even harder in my tiny space with two who are old enough to measure and stir, and three who wanted to be underfoot, but we got it done. My son (2-yrs-old) and her daughter (almost 4) traded off standing on a chair and a step, and sometimes shared the chair so they could both see what was going on inside the mixer. The little ones were content enough on the floor, but we had to watch out for them every time we moved! Even though all the kids were super-excited, they did really well.

Here’s the recipe for the Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Cake-Cookies we made:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk



The family that cooks together stays together

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Instructions:

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.

3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

To get the kids involved, we counted out the measurement of each ingredient we would need, and then helped them scoop, level, and count. Then they got to stir! They also got to taste and smell each ingredient (yes, even the baking powder). My son will still smile and say something is good, even if it’s awful. And then he’ll turn and spit it out. Both kiddos loved being part of the action until they got some of the chocolate chips to try, and then the decided they’d had enough fun and wanted to run off and eat instead. So I added the chocolate chips myself, formed the cookies, and put it in the oven.

The result was delicious, especially after a day. The cookies are very cake-y, so having a day to rest helped the pumpkin flavor come out a bit more and made them a little more dense and chewy. They’re also REALLY good cooled down in the fridge. Overall, a successful, easy recipe that will definitely be part of my fall cooking from now on. I hope you enjoy them too!

Special thanks to Dulcia for her beautiful photographs, it was so hard to pick and choose which photos to use as they were all so amazing.   Check her out at Roaming Reflections Photography and book a session if you are lucky enough to live in the Las Vegas area.


If you have your own blog and a FB (or Twitter) fan page for that blog and would like to guest blog for us as well contact us at cookinmamas@yahoo.com
`If you email us with a guest blog idea and don't hear back after a few days post on our FB wall.  We found out a few emails have been bouncing into the spam folder.  We are not ignoring you.

Guest Blogger: Jessica from The Leaky B@@b

I am very excited for our 2nd guest blogger, I think she did an amazing job and want to thank her so much for all the amazing recipes that she has shared with us.

Jessica, you and I share a common cooking style as lately when I decide I want to make something I have never made before I will google it, glance over 4-5 recipes and then use those as a starting point to do my own thing.

<3 Christy

Squiggle Bug helping to make bread

I spend a lot of my time talking and writing about breastfeeding over on The Leaky B@@b.  So much time, in fact, that one might think it is the only thing I ever talk about or do.  Seeing as I have 5 little girls I homeschool, am writing for my other blog, and a few other projects and a job to maintain, I do in fact have other activities.  Since I can't breastfeed everyone in my family forever as their primary source of nutrition, I have to actually cook.  Thankfully, most of the time I actually like it.  Which is a good thing because I do a lot of it.  One of the cornerstones of my kitchen is having a batch of Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day basic bread dough ready to go in my fridge so I can pull a handful out to shape into a free-form loaf and hour before meal time and have fresh, warm bread with dinner.
You should know that I'm a bit of a creative spirit.  This greatly effects my cooking.  I read recipes like one would scan a menu from a restaurant to decide if they want to eat there; it's just to get an idea.  To me a recipe is a starting point, a springboard for ideas of culinary creativity.  I can probably count the number of times I've followed a recipe exactly on one hand and the number of times I've made the same recipe exactly the same way more than once without using any digits what-so-ever.  Given the time, resources, education and the people to share it with, I would probably be a foodie.  However, my primary audience to feed all happen to be in various stages of taste bud development and my time is seriously limited.  Selecting menu options that are time saving and flavorful but with options for those that are a little less developed in their taste is a crucial element to my time in the kitchen.  I'll share a day's worth of my favorites.

Artisan Bread


Breakfast

There is a little independent restaurant in the artsy part of the town I live in that makes the most delicious Frittatas.  After having my first taste of one several years ago I determined that I had to learn how to make one.  I did and it was true love.  Except I didn't love the time and attention it required.  Or the fact that my kidlets would rather eat plain scrambled eggs with toast.  Or cereal.  Having the food I make snubbed isn't a new thing, I'm used to it and try not to take it personally.  But I admit my feelings were hurt when the Frittata that I was so proud of and had spend a significant amount of time chopping, watching and seasoning was sneered at by my 5 year old.  Didn't she understand all the work that went into that thing?  Didn't she get that this was a culinary masterpiece being offered up as breakfast?  Nope. 

Slow-Cooker Breakfast Casserole

I had to find a way to get that taste without that time.  That's when I created this slow-cooker breakfast casserole recipe, a mish-mash of recipes and ideas.  Over time it has experienced a variety of incarnations, here I'll share one of my favorites, inspired by a lovely, warm dish I had in France.  This recipe requires a little more than just putting everything in the slow-cooker before bed but seeing as you make it after dinner and the steps aren't that involved it never seemed like a big deal to me.
The Swiss/French Slow-Cooker, Breakfast is ready when I Get-up
2.5-3 quart slow-cooker
8 large eggs
1/2 Cup milk
5-6 pieces of already cooked bacon, crumbled (I cook a bunch and freeze it and just pull out what I need).
1 Cup fresh broccoli (frozen works but defrost and drain first)
3-4 Medium potatoes, scrubbed and sliced an 1/8th of an inch thick (I leave the peel on but it's up to you)
3 green onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp dried thyme (I often use fresh but I'm not sure how much, I just throw some in)
1 tsp dried rosemary (If using fresh I use one full sprig)
1/2 tsp sea salt or kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
3/4 Cup (about 1lb) shredded or thinly sliced Raclette or Gruyere, comte, or beaufort cheese. (Raclette is the best for this recipe but one of the Swiss style cheese is very good too.  This is not your average Swiss cheese, you can use Swiss but the flavor is much better with one of the 3 cheeses listed here)
Layer potatoes, bacon, broccoli and cheese in thin layers in the stoneware of your slow-cooker.  Saute garlic and onions together in just a bit of olive oil in a small skillet on the stove.  Whisk eggs, milk, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper and the onions and garlic together.  Pour egg mixture into the slow-cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  When you get up in the morning, take the lid off to allow some of the moisture that built up over the night to evaporate, you may want to try to drain some of it off.  Cut up some strawberries or other fruit and keep it covered in the fridge for the night and wake up to a balanced breakfast ready to eat.  If you can program your coffee maker even better!

Morning snack

My girls get hungry far more often than I'm willing to make a meal so I'm often coming up with something for a mid-morning snack.  Unfortunately, they often ask for it 20 minutes after breakfast is all cleaned up which makes me a little crazy.  Seriously, I could spend all day in the kitchen and they'd be perfectly fine with it.  I'm not though.

We're not a nut intolerant house so we snack on the high protein treats often.  If nuts aren't a problem for you give these easy treats a try.  I usually make them when I'm doing other meal prep and let the food processor run, checking on it to scrap the sides.  Then I just keep it in the fridge, pulling off what I need to make the truffles.
Almond Truffle Balls
1 Cup raw almonds
1 Tablespoon peanut butter (we use an organic, freshly ground peanut butter but any should work)
honey
In food processor (I use the mini unless I'm making a large batch) whiz the almonds and peanut butter until smooth, stopping to scrape the sides as needed.  When the almonds are completely ground, drizzle in some honey to sweeten and turn it into a paste.  It doesn't need a lot but I never measure, just drizzle it in to taste.  After it is smooth, turn it out onto a small plate and form into one large ball.  It's best if you can chill it for a bit before shaping balls.  Sometimes I just give each girls a globe of the dough on a little plate and let them roll their own balls, other times I shape them myself.  The girls enjoy shaping their own, eating half of their batch before it's ever even rolled.  These are really yummy with apple slices.

Lunch

Healthy Snacks

I love it when I have left overs but that's not always the case and sometimes left overs are the last thing anyone wants.  In the event that I actually have to make lunch it has to be something I can pull off pretty fast.  The food processor and my slow-cooker are good friends of mine, I depend on them a lot in the kitchen.
Carrot Salad
3-4 large carrots
1 Diakon Radish (or other root vegetable like parsnip)
Bottle of Lite Goddess Dressing or your favorite of salad dressing or salad dressing recipe
1/2 Cup walnuts, chopped
Fresh spinach leaves
Shred or julienne the carrots and radish in the food processor after scrubbing them clean.  Transfer mixture to a bowl and add half a bottle of salad dressing or enough to coat it all well and mix.  Serve on a bed of fresh spinach topped with walnuts.
Usually we serve this with a sandwich or wrap.  One of my favorites is a tuna salad sandwich on whole wheat bread with hard boiled eggs, tomato, maybe some thinly slice artichoke hearts and kalamata olives.  Yum.
Afternoon snack

My kids eat a lot of fruit, we go through apples pretty fast and other fruits get consumed almost before I get them unloaded from the shopping bags.  I love that they eat a lot of fruit but I also want to be sure they get a good amount of protein and iron.  Since my kids absolutely love anything you dip a chip into, I looked for healthy options that would be more nutritious than most chip dips.  Black beans and spinach offer such a powerful nutritional punch that they are often in the meals I create but sometimes the girls get tired of them and they have a particular disdain for spinach if it shows up on their plates too often.  Sometimes I have to be a cooking ninja sneaking spinach and other veggies into our food.  I put this recipe on my personal blog ages ago, I'll share the half a batch version here.
Serious Iron On a Chip Dip or Black Bean and Spinach Hummus
- 1 15 oz can of black beans, rinsed (or cooked dried beans- I do a batch once a month in the slow-cooker and keep them in the freezer separated in 16oz bags)
- 2 cups or so of fresh baby spinach 
- 1 garlic clove minced (or 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder)
- 1/4 tbsp chili powder
- 3 tbsp water
- salt and pepper to taste
- half a bunch of fresh parsley or 1 tbsp dried
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1 green onion, chopped
Whiz beans and tahini in food processor gradually adding water. When beans are pretty smooth begin to add spinach one cup at a time. Add garlic, chili powder, parsley and salt and pepper. Serve with toasted bread, toasted tortillas, tortilla chips, carrot and celery sticks or whatever else strikes your fancy.  We put it on just about everything.  I've even used it as the base for sandwiches and wraps, spread the hummus, load on avocado, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and whatever else sounds good.  Partnered with rice it is not only a high iron delight but also a complete protein.

Dinner
The Piano Man, my husband, grew up in France.  In the last 15 years he has greatly educated me in terms of food and I eat things I would never have considered at one point in time.  Oddly enough, our daughters do too.  This humble French country meal is an absolute favorite in our family in spite of the fact that it is loaded with veggies I can't get my girls to eat any other way.  I have never made this meal, it is one of The Piano Man's specialties and I gladly hand over the kitchen for him to make it.
Ratatouille
1 large onion, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
1 yellow pepper, seeded and chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 yellow summer squash (1 large or 2 small), chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
2 eggplants, peeled and cubed
8-10 Roma tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped (can use dried, about a tablespoon)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions, peppers, and garlic in a medium stock pot in olive oil.  When onions are translucent and the peppers are tender add remaining ingredients.  Simmer for at least 45 minutes, until all vegetables are soft.  This is a vegetable stew, it can simmer for quite a while.  This recipe also translates to the slow-cooker after sauteing the onion mixture.  The longer it cooks on low heat the better the flavor will be.

Ratatouille over Whole Wheat Pasta

Serve over rice, quinoa, potatoes, pasta or your choice carb selection.
Usually we serve this with a hearty loaf of French country style bread either store bought or homemade and a very green leafy lettuce salad with slice mushrooms, walnuts, dried blueberries and blue cheese crumbles.  Sometimes we'll add either a simply baked white fish or pan seared thick country sausage.  I like it plenty as a vegetarian meal but it's really good with the sausage too. 
We don't have dessert all the often though we do love some homemade crepes, brownies, or cookies from time to time.  At the end of a long day, for a little treat for myself sometimes The Piano Man and I will melt chocolate chips with a spoonful of peanut butter and dip pretzels, strawberries or graham crackers in it as an easy chocolate fondue type treat.  A little bit goes a long way in satiating that sweet tooth!
I have a few other recipes on my personal blog: Cabbage and Sausage Stew, Coconut Curry Chicken in the Slow-Cooker, and Butternut Squash Lasagna.  There is even a recipe on The Leaky B@@b for lactation cookies that everyone, lactating or not, will enjoy for dessert.
Bon Appetit!

*NOTE: All guest blogs still fall under our Review Challenge so feel free to try any (or all) of these and review them as well.