Do-It-Your-Self Salads

This is one of my kids' favorite meals. It's simple, easy, healthy, and doesn't require you to heat anything up.

This is the idea.

Fill up a large salad bowl with a mix of your favorite salad greens, washed and dried. I use romaine and spinach.



Wash, chop, and prep your family's favorite salad toppers, ie: avacado, tomatoes, carrots, edamame, olives, or whatever you like.



Scour the fridge for whatever else would be nice as a topping, like lunch meat (chopped), leftover meat, hard boiled eggs, shredded cheddar cheese, feta, frozen peas, ...?





Scour the pantry for croutons, nuts, or dried fruit like craisins

Put each topping on a plate and set the salad, toppings, and any salad dressings you have on the table.

Make sure the kids wash their hands first.

Then, let them make their own salad on their plate and allow them to use their hands to create it. This is so much fun for little ones!

Enjoy!

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

I got this recipe from the More With Less Cookbook. This is sweet, hearty bread, that's pretty easy to make, even if you're not good at making bread.

First, combine in a mixer bowl:
3c. whole wheat flour (King Arthur's is best)
1/2c. nonfat dry milk
1T. salt
2 pkg. dry yeast (about 2T.)

Then, heat in a saucepan until warm (at or close to 100 degrees):
3c. water or potato water
1/2c. honey
2T. oil (olive is the best)

Pour warm (not hot) liquid over flour mixture. Beat with electric mixer for 3 minutes. Don't skimp on this. Watch the clock.

Stir in:
1 additional c. whole wheat flour
*4-4 1/2c. white flour (unbleached bread flour is best)

Knead 5 minutes, using additional white flour if necessary. *I usually add a 3 1/2c. of white flour initially and save 1c. to knead in during the kneading phase. This makes kneading easier and keeps the dough from getting stiff.

Place in a greased bowl, turn, cover the bowl with a cloth, and let rise until double in bulk. Dough will rise best in a sunny window or in an oven that has been warmed. Turn the oven off, before placing dough inside to rise.

After dough has doubled, punch down center. Divide dough in half and shape into loaves. Place each loaf into 9x5" loaf pans. In my experience, it's best to gently pick up each half and place it carefully into the pan, disturbing it as little as possible. I've rolled it up to make it pretty and that's how I get air pockets in the middle of the loaf.







Cover and let rise 40-45 minutes. Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes.




Immediately remove from the pan and let cool before slicing. We usually cut it warm, because we can't wait to eat it :).

Keilbasa Skillet Supper

This is a little bit of a last minute, emergency invention, based on my family's German roots. This is super inexpensive and really easy to make. Our kids like it too, so it's a great family dinner. Now that Aldi sells all-beef kielbasa for 2.29, it's become a staple at our house. I had high hopes to get a picture posted, but last night I was worn thin and multi-tasking the whole way. I'll try to post a picture soon.

This feeds a family of 6 with enough for Daddy to take to work for lunch the next day.

1 large onion, halved and sliced into wedges
1/2 5lb. bag of potatoes, peeled and cut into medium sized chunks
1 lb. kielbasa sausage (smoked sausage ring), sliced
3 T. olive oil (or more)
salt and pepper to taste
1 c. water (if needed)
1 can bavarian style sauerkraut (opt.)

Peel and cut all veggies. Heat oil in large skillet or comparably sized pot. Sautee the onions and potatoes until the potatoes are mostly tender. Season with salt and pepper. Don't overdo the salt as the sausage is salty. Add water (if dry and sticking to the pan) and add the sausage. Cover the pot and let simmer until potatoes are tender. Serve with warm sauerkraut and a tossed salad.



Okay, so here's A picture. Of course, it's me making dinner and there isn't a picture of the actual dinner... I think it's enough to say that I was able to make dinner while managing a 6 month old and three other children. Notice Jonathan's head? I strapped him on my back with my new Mei Tai Baby sling and he passed out while watching the light on the ceiling. He loves to crane his neck back. Poor thing. Anyway, here's to more posts and more fun with this blog! :)