Homemade Tater Tots

This is the recipe for crispy potato tots from the October/November 2011 issue of Cook's Country magazine. I'm posting it in this blog because it was amazing. These are our new go-to potato. (Big T asked me, "Does everyone have a go-to potato?" I'm not sure, but if they do, this should be it).  

Scroll to the bottom of the post for a printable recipe card.

It wasn't as easy as baking up a bag of tater tots from the freezer, but they were insanely better. Super crispy and golden on the outside, deliciously fluffy and chewy on the inside... Mmmmmm.

The recipe basically involves chopping about 3 potatoes (the recipe calls for russet, but I used 2 russets and one yukon gold) in the food processor with a salt water solution, then microwaving them until they are dry and sticky.

Then, you spread them out on aluminum foil on a cookie sheet for ten minutes.

After 10 minutes, gather the potatoes in the center of the foil, transfer the foil to an 8" x 8" baking pan, freeze for 30 minutes, then remove from the pan and cut into small rectangles. Fry until golden and drain on a wire rack.

Enjoy with a juicy steak. Or whatever.

Click the image below for a printable recipe card. Use the muffins along the edge to rate the recipe for your reference.

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Pork and Beef: Chops with Mustard Sauce and Philly Cheese Steak Egg Rolls

I posted in yesterday's menu plan about making some fabulous pork chops with mustard sauce and artichokes and philly cheese steak egg rolls. Even Baby T liked the pork chops--that's how you know they are good! Here are the recipes.

Print out the recipes for Philly Cheese Steak Egg Rolls and Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce and Artichokes by clicking on the images below.

Philly Cheese Steak Egg Rolls Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce and Artichokes

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Menu Plan Monday: Oops.

Scroll to the end of the post for new, printable recipe cards! 

 
Ok, so last week wasn't a total bomb, but I was a little lazy when it came to meal planning. I didn't sit down to plan my menu until well into Monday afternoon. Then, Big T told me he wanted pizza and totally threw me off. And we spent 5 hours in the ER with Little M on Monday night. That didn't help. But Big T was off from work from Monday to Wednesday, so he helped out a lot when it came to dinners.

The Plan:
Monday: Order pizza
Tuesday: Taco Salad Cups
Wednesday: Hamburger Helper
Thursday: Chicken with stuffing and mashed potatoes
Saturday: ?? (I couldn't put it together and think this far ahead.)

The Reality:
Monday: We forgot about dinner (see below)
Tuesday: Homemade Pizza
Wednesday: Soft tacos
Thursday: Salmon burgers with mashed potato croquettes (basically mashed potato finger food)
Friday: Hamburger helper
Saturday: Chicken with kale, beets, and salad

The Method:
Monday: This was a bad decision-making day for me, apparently. I couldn't decide what to have for dinner, and when Big T suggested pizza, he totally threw me off. There aren't any good pizza places near us, and I didn't really feel like making it. We finally decided to order pizza. I was on the computer, about to order online when Big T picked up Little M by the wrists, just to move him away from the bedroom door so he could close it. Little M started whimpering and didn't stop. Not even while nursing. We knew something was wrong. He wasn't moving his arm, and if we touched it, he would whimper. We spent 5 hours in the ER, just to have a doctor re-set his dislocated elbow in about 2 seconds. Little M is completely fine--he had "nursemaid's elbow," which is pretty common if you pick up your child by the wrists and not under the armpits. Luckily, he wasn't screaming in pain and he slept in the Ergo most of the time at the ER. So obviously, we weren't concerned with dinner by the time we arrived home at 1:30 A.M.

Tuesday: Today, we were going for our pizza. We picked up fresh dough from the deli at our local grocery store and got pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. We made 2 different kinds of pizza: pan pizza in the dutch oven with ham and pineapple (leftover) and a regular-crust pizza on the pizza stone.

Wednesday: I was going to make taco salad in cute little homemade tortilla cups, but I didn't do any prep work and I had a rough day. So while I went to pick Baby T up from daycare, Big T sauteed some chicken, peppers and onion in a cast iron pan with taco seasoning and wrapped them in soft flour tortillas. I also had a few small corn tortillas, which I fried in some oil until crisp to make open-faced tacos.

Thursday: I have a ton of canned salmon that I get from WIC, and I picked up a recipe card for salmon burgers the last time I was in the office. They were easy to make and I had all of the ingredients. We had also brought home leftover mashed potatoes from Mom-Mom's the Sunday before, so I transformed them into potato croquettes. Amazing. They were like mozzarella sticks, but creamier and not as rubbery. They were a huge hit.

Friday: Little M had another incident today when I was holding him and tripped over the dog. Little M hit the floor hard and bit his tongue. He also hit his head on the corner of a wall, and his head and ear were cut. Thankfully, my in-laws live in town, or I would have lost it when I noticed the blood. Mom-mom came over and checked him out, and we figured he was ok. Once Little M started dancing to the "Curious George" music, we knew for sure he was fine. By the time Big T came home from work, the kids were fine but my nerves were shot. I cooked up some breakfast sausage that I had in my freezer, added it to the hamburger helper, and called it a day.

Saturday: Can I just say that the first week of 2012 sucked? As Big T was trying to clean the kitchen before he left for work, the sink stopped draining, then proceeded to leak out of the pipe all over the kitchen. By the time Big T left, the pipes under the sink were undone, there was a bucket of murky water under the sink, and there were sopping wet towels all over the floor. (Add two cranky kids and a very cranky mom to that equation). We were saved by the in-laws once again! Plumber Joe (disguised as Pop Pop) came over and thankfully fixed it while Mom Mom helped me distract the boys.

Also quite thankfully, one of my friends replied to my pleas for company and came over for an impromptu barbecue that afternoon. Dinner was easy. We grilled chicken, sauteed some kale and beets (I used to hate beets until I had them the way my friend makes them--sauteed with olive oil, maple syrup, and balsamic vinegar...a delicious beet recipe!), and had fresh salad from the garden.

The week is over. Thankfully. It can only get better from here, right?

Print out the recipes for Easy Homemade Pizza and Salmon Burgers (with homemade sauce) by clicking on the images below.

Easy Homemade Pizza Salmon Burgers

For more meal planning obsessiveness inspiration, check out orgjunkie.com!

10 Things to do With Baby Food

If you bought baby food by the case or stocked your freezer with homemade baby food only to find that your baby graduated to finger foods faster than you could use it up, what did you do with all that extra baby food? You can donate the unopened jars of baby food--that's what I do with a lot of the meats--or you can get creative in your day-to-day cooking. Baby food isn't just for babies... it's great for toddlers or for mixing into your own meals!

Below are 10 tried-and-true ways to use up those jars of mixed veggies, bananas, squash, and carrots.

1. Add a jar or two of carrots, squash, or sweet potatoes to powdered macaroni and cheese instead of butter.
2. Smear squash, sweet potatoes, or fruit puree on the bread before adding the peanut butter and jelly.
3. Make banana bread or replace the banana in a baked good with a few jars of banana puree.
4. Feed your toddler the pureed fruit. It's the same as applesauce, but it has fewer preservatives and less sugar in many instances.
5. Spread it on crackers or a rice cake.
6. Add pureed green beans to guacamole - it will reduce the fat content, and you won't even notice it.
7. Add a jar of banana and a jar of sweet potato in place of the butter or oil in your pancake recipe.
8. Mix pureed tropical fruit into a smoothie.
9. Mix sweet potato with brown sugar and swirl it with plain yogurt. Top with cinnamon. (Or swirl any fruit-flavored baby food into your yogurt.)
10. Add any of the orange veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, or mixed veggies) to a curry dish. It will thicken the sauce and give it great flavor.

Jeanie Rose over at Traditional Foods wrote a great post about making your own baby food from butternut squash. That would be perfect to use in lots of the ways I described above. Check out her video!

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Making Homemade Irish Cream

I was going to post one of the yummy recipes I have made in the past few weeks, but last Friday, I got together with some friends to make Irish Cream. And that took precedence over any other recipe. It was delicious! Plus, we all need a little something to make it through the holidays. Let this be your treat this holiday season. It also makes a great gift. Just cut a circle of fabric and put it on the top of a mason jar, threaded under the ring. We're giving this to Baby T's daycare providers. I'm sure they need it!

Homemade Yogurt from Lactaid Milk

Back in the day when I had nothing better to do than to sit home and make cultured food, I made homemade cheese, yogurt, and kefir. I did this often. There were usually a few kinds of science experiments hanging out on top of our fridge or inside it.

Menu Plan Monday: Cooking for Health, Simplicity, and on a Budget

After pigging out over Thanksgiving and leaving my sister's house feeling bloated, gassy, and pretty awful, I decided something had to give. I have done some menu planning in the past, but I often get overwhelmed and can't even decide on what to make on a given day, much less all week. I don't stick to my plan, or I get so caught up in finding new recipes that the actual prep and cooking becomes a kind of olympics of its own.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever - America's Test Kitchen Recipe

In addition to the healthy baby food banana cookies I made recently, I also made chocolate chip cookies last week. I used my favorite recipe. It's not at all healthy, but it is indulgent, amazing, and delicious. It's the America's Test Kitchen chocolate chip cookie recipe, and it makes huge, chewy, melty, gooey cookies that are perfect with milk.




The trick is to brown the butter and give the brown sugar time to dissolve fully into the eggs and butter, creating a toffee-like flavor that is so rich and almost candy-like.

Here is the recipe:

HOMEMADE GRANOLA RECIPE WITH CLUSTERS

This post is part of a blog party showcasing delicious dishes. Visit It's a Blog Party for more yummy recipes or to add yours!

One of the hardest parts about trying to lose weight is my sweet tooth. Even after I have a rich, filling meal, I need something sweet. Just to tease my palate. Or add to my muffin top. (If I could only snack on that…)

I love granola. It’s crunchy, chewy, sweet, and salty at the same time. But it’s usually expensive to buy and has quite a bit of fat. So I decided to make some homemade granola myself. I scoured the internet for granola recipes—and there are quite a few—but I finally settled on this one because of the clusters.

If you have ever made granola from scratch, you know how it doesn’t usually form clusters. And those clusters are usually the best part of granola. So I found this recipe for How to Make Homemade Granola on The Prepared Pantry. I changed it up a little, and I still have to play with the clusters—my granola still didn’t really get good clusters—but it was amazing. Toasty and nutty tasting, crunchy and chewy, just the way I like it.