Stealth Spaghetti

  What do you do when your kids don't like vegetables? Well, if you're a parent, you present an assortment of vegetables served various ways on a regular basis in hopes your child's palate will develop and he'll find at least a few vegetables he can enjoy. If you're a grandparent you can be excused for leaving this battle to their parents.
~ But if you are a "Special Ops" parent or grandparent you'll use stealth technology. I am a member of an elite team of Special Ops moms who earned promotion to Seal Team Grandma. One of my skills is getting kids to eat their veggies. Let me show you one of my favorite ways...

I start with the following rations: ground beef, shredded vegetable salad blend, garden style spaghetti sauce, and spaghetti noodles.

 (usually I choose SmartTaste pasta blend for its nutritional advantage, but this day I didn't have any on hand.)

I put 2 pounds of lean ground beef and 2 cups of shredded salad mix in a fry pan and browned the meat over medium heat, stirring to break up the meat and to make sure the veggies cooked thoroughly. The salad mix I used this time is called "Rainbow Salad Mix". It has a mixture of carrots, broccoli, and cabbage. Sometimes I use a package called "Broccoli Slaw" which is very similar. The main idea is to have finely shredded assorted veggies. When my garden is ready to harvest I use zucchini, onions, peppers, carrots, beans, and/or broccoli. When I use fresh veggies I usually run them through the food processor to get the pieces as small as possible. 

I continue to cook this mixture, stirring occasionally, until the meat is browned and the veggies are very tender. The day I made this batch  I used a big fork to "mash" up the veggies until the pieces were almost undetectable. When I use the food processor method of cutting the veggies that step is unnecessary. When everything is browned and the veggies are very tender it is time to drain off the fat. 

After the mixture has been drained. It is time to add the garden style spaghetti sauce. We like Ragu Chunky Garden Style. Oddly enough, after all that hiding of the veggies the spaghetti sauce has chunks of veggies too. I like to let the sauce simmer for about 1/2 hour or even more. That breaks down some of the veggies.  

This is what it looked like just before I put it on the table to serve my little veggie malcontents.

This is an up-close view of the sauce. Only the most experienced veggie rebel would even look twice. And if they like Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top...well, all the better...nah-ah-ah

This is the official Stealth Spaghetti Recipe:
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 cups finely shredded vegetables (carrots, onions, broccoli, zucchini, cabbage, etc)
2 small jars, or 1 large jar Ragu Chunky Garden Style pasta sauce
1 pound spaghetti noodles
Shredded Parmesan cheese

Brown ground beef and cook shredded vegetables in a large fry pan over medium heat until beef is brown and the vegetables are very tender. Break up the vegetables until they are hard to see. Drain fat. Add the pasta sauce and simmer for additional 30 minutes to allow the vegetables to continue to break down in the sauce. Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles and top with shredded Parmesan cheese. 

What was the taste tester's bottom line?

These little tester's mom told me they won't eat ANY vegetables. This spaghetti earned 2-thumbs-up (actually Jordan gave it a thumbs-up, Brayden gave it an index-finger-up...that whole thumb/finger thing is hard to figure out when you're 3). Jordan had three helpings, but to be totally honest although Brayden told me "this is the best sketty ever", he changed his mind and decided he didn't like it when he was told he had to finish his dinner before he could have a second glass of chocolate milk. He never did finish his plate of "sketty" ~ but Seal Team Grandma didn't cave in and give him any more chocolate milk...sometimes you have to remember you want all parties to live to fight another day.

The bottom line: This has been a long-fought war. I have many many "wins" on my side. Every once in a while a veggie insurgent will get past me, but I just take that as a challenge. I've hidden veggies in chili - regular chili and chili for hot dogs, in sloppy joes, in muffins and cakes, in soups, and in gravies. I even made "zucchini crisp" that tasted just like apple crisp, and one time a friend and I canned zucchini chunks with pineapple flavor that my son liked better than canned pineapple! These days you can buy juice that has a serving of veggies. Sometimes a grandma's gotta do what a grandma's gotta do.

What ideas have you used to get your veggie rebels to eat their veggies? 

Garlic Chicken Linguine with Prosciutto

  GoodMan and I have an indentured servant...it's true!

GoodMan signed a 2-year cell phone contract for our 15-year-old granddaughter, Kaila. In exchange, she has agreed to work one Saturday per month at our house to pay for her unlimited mobile-to-mobile and unlimited text plan. The work around our house and yard are a nice benefit, but I think the thing I like best is being able to spend one full day per month with my teenage granddaughter.

  This past weekend Kaila was over to do her once-a-month cell-phone work. She helped me inside by vacuuming and making up the guest rooms for me. She also helped her grandpa outside with some yard work and car cleaning. I wanted to make something Kaila would like for dinner, and pasta is almost always a winner. This week I chose to make Garlic Chicken Linguine with Prosciutto. I saw a similar recipe on the Food Network website and decided to use ingredients I had in the house and adapt it to fit our tastes. Let me show you how I did it.

 These are some of the ingredients I gathered; 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 4 ounces of prosciutto (kind of like Italian bacon ~ but not as smoky), linguine pasta, fresh basil, roma tomatoes, leftover pico de gallo (which is mostly chopped tomatoes, but I needed to use it up. Next time I'll just use more tomatoes), fresh basil, and shredded Parmesan cheese.

I cut the prosciutto into bite size pieces.

I cut the chicken into bite size pieces and cooked it on top of the stove in a little olive oil ~ just until it had a little color. Then I took it off the stove and set it aside.

I got out 1/4 cup of minced garlic. Yep, that's right, 1/4 cup. You notice I got it out of a jar...the thought of peeling and mincing a quarter of a cup's worth of garlic did not appeal to me.

I put the garlic in the fry pan with a little olive oil. I made sure the garlic didn't burn (because it will taste really bitter if it gets too brown).

 See the pico de gallo I had left over? It is almost all chopped tomatoes. I decided to use the rest of that up and also chopped about 3 roma tomatoes. In the future, if I don't have pico de gallo to use up I'll just chop more tomatoes and maybe put a couple of drops of Tabasco or a pinch of cayenne pepper in.

I put the chicken back into the pan with the garlic and added the tomatoes and prosciutto. I let it cook for a couple of minutes until the tomatoes broke down and began making a sauce. It didn't seem saucy enough for me so I added about 1/4 cup of half and half. Meanwhile I had the linguine noodles cooking. When they were al dente, I drained them (reserving some of the hot pasta water) and put them in a pasta serving bowl.

 I cut the fresh basil by a chiffenade method, which means cutting them in long thin strips. I do this by laying the leaves together, rolling them up together and then slicing through them.

I added the basil and cooked everything together for just a few minutes. I still wanted more sauce so I took some of the pasta water I'd saved and mixed that in.  This recipe doesn't make a traditional tomato sauce, but the sauce was garlic-y, fresh tomato-y, and tasted really good. 

 I poured the garlic chicken sauce over the linguine and sprinkled shredded Parmesan cheese over the top and added a little fresh basil. When I put this on the table I put out more shredded Parmesan cheese for anyone who wanted more.

 I served this with a big piece of garlic cheese bread, and I had one happy little indentured servant!...She deserved it...She'd worked hard all day!

This my recipe for Garlic Chicken Linguine with Prosciutto

Adapted from the Food Network's recipe for Garlic Chicken Pasta

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped in bite sized pieces

4 ounces prosciutto, chopped in bite sized pieces

1/4 cup minced garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

5 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped (or use 3 tomatoes and 1 cup of pico de gallo)

pinch of cayenne pepper or two shakes of Tabasco sauce (omit if using pico de gallo)

1/4 cup fresh basil, chiffenade chop, divided

1/4 cup half and half

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 pound linguine noodles, cooked al dente 

1/2 cup pasta water

Put olive oil in a large fry pan heated over medium high heat. Cook chicken until lightly golden brown. Remove from pan and reserve.

Put garlic in the fry pan and warm, but do not burn.

Add the chicken back in, along with the prosciutto, tomatoes, cayenne pepper, and all but 1 tablespoon of the basil.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until everything is heated through and the tomatoes begin to break down. Add half and half and turn down to simmer.

Cook about 5 minutes. Add enough pasta water to make it "saucy" enough.

Pour chicken mixture over the cooked and drained linguine noodles in a large pasta bowl. Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan and remainder of the fresh basil. 

Serve with additional Parmesan cheese on the side. 

What was the taste tester's bottom line? 

We really liked it! We enjoyed the prosciutto and the fresh tomatoes. In fact, I liked those flavors so much I think I would like this dish even without the chicken. Surprisingly, it was not super garlicy. I was concerned the garlic would be overpowering because the recipe called for 1/4 cup of garlic. Perhaps it was less strong because I used jar garlic instead of fresh? The next day we had it as leftovers for lunch and I noticed the garlic much more the second day. It is really nice to have a pasta dish without the traditional tomato sauce and without a heavy alfredo-style sauce. 

The bottom line: I want to make this again in the near future. I want to try it without the chicken and with even more garlic. We should have no fear of vampires with all that garlic! I think that will appeal to even my "indentured servant".

Chopped Steak Sandwiches

  I've been trying to find a good recipe for a steak sandwich. I've tried the frozen "Steak'Um" product found at my local grocery store. It is okay, but not what I'm looking for. If you've ever been to Ypsilanti, Michigan, you probably heard of "Gabriel's Cheese steak Hoagies". They are absolutely the best cheese steak sandwiches I've ever had. When I was pregnant with my kids I could use "cravings" as my excuse for taking a drive out to Ypsilanti. These days I just have to plan a trip down to see my mother, because a new Gabriel's location has opened a couple of miles from her house. 
  Recently, I watched a program on the Food Network with a lady who has a food blog titled "The Pioneer Woman". On that program the lady made a steak sandwich for her husband. Watching that program got me craving a good cheese steak sandwich. I decided to try her recipe. Let me show you how I did it.

 I gathered some ingredients; cube steaks, onion, butter, Worcestershire sauce, and hoagie rolls. I was making a double batch, but for a single batch I would have used one onion and about 1/3 pound of cube steak per person.

I began by chopping the onions.

I heated a large fry pan with olive oil and about 2 tablespoons of butter.

I sliced the cube steaks into bite size strips and sprinkled salt and pepper over it.

When the pan was hot I sauteed the onions until they were lightly golden, and then I removed them from the pan and set them aside.

I put the meat in the pan and cooked it until it was no longer pink.

I added Worcestershire sauce ~ I meant to buy the regular kind, but when I got it home I realized I had purchased THICK Worcestershire sauce ~ who knew they even made that! Oh well! I decided to use it. 

I let the mixture simmer as I toasted the hoagie rolls and melted provolone cheese.

It only took a few minutes in the oven at 450 degrees ~ but be careful! They burn easily.

I scooped some of the steak onto the roll and spooned some of the sauce from the pan on top.

This is how it looked when it was all put together.


This is the recipe for Chopped Steak Sandwiches
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman
Serves 4


1 onion, cut in half and sliced
olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/3 pound cube steak, sliced in bite sized strips (oh heck, go for 1 1/2 pounds)
salt 
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 hoagie buns 
4 slices provolone cheese

In a large fry pan set to medium high heat, saute onions in about 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter until light golden. Remove from the pan and set aside. Reserve the butter/olive oil in the pan.
Put meat in the pan and cook until no longer pink.
Add Worcestershire sauce and put onions back in the pan. Simmer while toasting hoagie buns
Toast hoagie buns in a 450 degree oven for about 5 minutes - watch carefully!
If you plan to use cheese add the cheese to the buns before toasting.
When rolls are toasted, add meat mixture and spoon additional sauce over the top, if desired.

What was the taste tester's bottom line?  
This sandwich is not as good as Gabriel's...bummer...but it does taste good, just not AS GOOD. I was surprised how spicy it tasted considering the ingredients. The only thing I can think is the Worcestershire sauce must have been spicy. GoodMan did not like the extra sauce I spooned over the sandwich because he felt he needed to use a knife and fork ~ I, on the other hand, managed to eat it with my fingers just fine!

The bottom line: What would I change next time? I would use regular Worcestershire sauce, and I would try a not-so-crusty hoagie roll...I don't want it to be gummy-soft, but probably not toasted. And I would not spoon the extra sauce over GoodMan's.

Snickerdoodle Bars

 

  GoodMan looooooves Snickerdoodles...I like them too...but not nearly as much as GoodMan. Luckily for him, a group at our church makes homemade cookies every week for people to have with coffee while chatting between services. About once every 4 weeks or so the Sunday morning cookie flavor is Snickerdoodle. GoodMan usually restrains himself and has only one cookie on a Sunday morning, but on Snickerdoodle Sunday it's hard to keep him out of there!
  I've made Snickerdoodles more often than I care to admit, but it never occurred to me to make them into a bar cookie. I saw someone post Snickerdoodle Bars on Pinterest and I slapped my forehead with a "duh!" That looked so much easier than making individual cookies. I get tired of rolling the dough in balls and then rolling the balls in a cinnamon sugar mixture (I really just get bored).  I followed the Pinterest link to the Betty Crocker website and after reading their recipe I realized I could adapt their recipe and my Snickerdoodle cookie recipe and come up with a Snickerdoodle bar that would make GoodMan very happy. Let me show you how I did it.

I gathered the ingredients; butter, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Then I remembered the ingredient that I think makes it a Snickerdoodle ~ cream of tartar.

 I creamed the butter and the sugars, then added the eggs and vanilla.

I mixed the flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar together in another container, and then I slowly incorporated the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and mixed them together until just combined.

At this point I preheated my oven to 350 degrees and prepared a 9x13 pan by spraying it with PAM. Then I took half of the dough and patted it down into the pan. I found it was easier if I got my hands wet first ~ not dripping, but wet.

Then I mixed two tablespoons of granulated sugar and one tablespoon of cinnamon in a small bowl.

I sprinkled the cinnamon sugar mixture over the dough in the pan. I didn't need to use all of the sugar mixture, so I saved a couple of teaspoons out to use in the glaze. Then I spooned the remaining dough over the top in "dollops". When all the remaining dough was on top, I put it in the oven and baked it for 28 minutes (I started checking on it at 22 minutes ~ I felt it was done when the edges were golden brown and the center didn't look wet.)

This is how it looked when I pulled it out of the oven. I let it cool on the counter top...and GoodMan's nose drew him in to check out what I was cooking. I convinced him to wait until after dinner...just barely...

When I cut the bars I drizzled them with a mixture of powdered sugar, the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture, and milk...and then I brought one to GoodMan, because treating him to something special was the whole point!


This is my official recipe for Snickerdoodle Bars
(adapted from Betty Crocker's recipe)


Dough:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
remainder of cinnamon sugar mixture
approximately 2 tablespoons milk (to get glazing consistency)
pinch of salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 9x13 pan by spraying with PAM.
In large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamed. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix until all ingredients are combined.
In a medium size bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. 
Add dry mixture to wet mixture a little at a time and mix just to combine.
Pat half of the dough into the pan.
In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon for the filling. Sprinkle over the dough in the pan to cover completely. Reserve about 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Dollop the remaining dough over the top of the mixture by teaspoons until all dough is used.
Bake for 22-30 minutes until sides are golden brown and center doesn't look wet.
Cool Completely.
In a small bowl, mix all glaze ingredients until smooth.
Drizzle glaze over the cooled bars. Cut into pieces and serve.


What was the taste tester's bottom line?
GoodMan LOVED them! He says they're better than any brownie he's ever eaten!! I liked them too. They remind me of a Cinnabon roll. We took some to the neighbors across the street so we didn't eat the whole pan by ourselves!


The bottom line:  I'll add this recipe to my "Snickerdoodle's For GoodMan" collection.

Roadhouse Rolls

You know those rolls you get when you go to the steak houses? The hostess shows you to your table and drops off a basket with about 4 rolls and a little container of cinnamon butter for you to munch on while you wait for your server to take your order.  And if you're anything like me you come in to the restaurant so hungry you gobble up the rolls and when the server comes to take your order you ask for another basket of rolls, then when your steak arrives you take a few bites and ask for a box to take the steak home, along with any rolls that happen to be left in the basket.

The steak house rolls are always warm, soft, and buttery, and they don't taste like something that comes out of a restaurant supply package. They are not all identical like they've been pressed out of a machine. The steak house may have a packaged mix, but the rolls look and taste like they've been baked on the premises. 

One day I saw a recipe for Texas Roadhouse Copycat Rolls on a blog called Eat Cake For Dinner. That blogger said although she was trying to copy Texas Roadhouse rolls, her recipe "did NOT taste anything like Texas Roadhouse's." But. her rolls were gorgeous, and she said they were soft, light and fluffy, so I decided to try them myself. You should hop over to her site and take a peek. I adapted her recipe just slightly, and my rolls intentionally don't look perfect. I wanted mine to seem more like the ones at my favorite steak house. Let me show you how I made mine. 

I mixed 1/4 cup of yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, and 1 teaspoon of sugar in my mixing bowl and let it sit for about 5 minutes until it got foamy. While the yeast was doing its thing, I warmed 2 cups of milk in the microwave until it was just a little warmer than lukewarm (not hot), and melted a half a stick of butter. Then I mixed the warm milk and melted butter, 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons of salt and enough flour in with the yeast mixture to make a batter about as thick as pancake batter. I started with my dough hook, but decided to change to my paddle so I could mix the batter enough to remove the lumps. When the lumps were gone I changed back to the dough hook and started adding flour.

I added flour about 1/2 cup at a time until the dough pulled away from the sides of the bowl. That took a total of about 8 1/2 cups of flour. Then I left my mixer kneading on low for about 5 minutes. 


I didn't take pictures of this, but when the kneading was done I put the dough in a greased bowl and covered it with a towel and set it aside for an hour to rise. 

When the dough had doubled in size I divided it into two pieces and put one piece on a floured counter and rolled it out to a large rectangle. 

I used my pizza cutter to cut the dough into uneven pieces...that's easy! Making each piece perfectly squared would have been much harder, and I wanted this to be easy and imperfect.

I put my uniquely uneven pieces on a silicone lined baking sheet. If you don't have silicone you can spray it with PAM. Then I covered the tray with a towel and set it aside for about another hour to rise again. I did the same thing with the other half of the dough so I ended up with two baking sheets full of funky shaped rolls.

When the rolls had raised for a second time I baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. As soon as they came out of the oven I brushed them with melted butter. Aren't these funky? And kinda cute? I really like the way they don't look like I pressed them out of a machine.

This recipe made 24 large rolls. I served them with whipped cinnamon honey spread. 


This is the official recipe
(adapted from the one on Eat Cake For Dinner)
1/4 cup yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar, divided
2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
8 - 9 cups all-purpose flour


Combine yeast, warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar in mixing bowl. Leave for about 5 minutes, until foamy.
Warm milk in microwave until approximately 110 degrees. Warmer than lukewarm, but not hot. Melt butter.
Add warm milk, melted butter, remaining sugar, eggs, salt, and about 3 cups of flour to the yeast mixture. Beat until all lumps are gone.
Begin adding remaining flour about 1/2 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl 
Knead with dough hook for about 5 minutes.
Put dough in a greased bowl and cover until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Punch down dough, divide dough in half, roll out one half on a floured circle making a large rectangle.
Cut dough into 12 or more pieces. Put the pieces on a greased (or silicone lined) baking sheet. Do the same thing with the remaining half of the dough. Cover baking sheets of dough and set aside for dough to rise a second time - about 1 hour.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.
Brush with melted butter immediately after removing from the oven.




What was the taste tester's bottom line?
We really loved these rolls! They are different than the garlic breadsticks I make ~ we like them both, but they are very different from each other. These rolls are soft and fluffy with a delicate sweetness. The breadsticks are chewy and a little salty. My littlest taste testers liked these rolls so much it was hard to get them to eat anything else for dinner...I guess they take after me! I had to send them home with doggy bags for their remaining dinner...kinda like me at the steak house!


The bottom line: These may not be a true copy of Texas Roadhouse Dinner Rolls, but they taste good enough for me to avoid roadhouse cravings.