CEiMB: Aromatic Beef Stew with Butternut Squash

Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is Aromatic Beef Stew with Butternut Squash, hosted by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.

I had to make just a few subs to make this dish vegetarian. I used a meat substitue that I haven't used before, from a company in NY that I order all sorts of un-meat stuff from. I wasn't crazy about it, which is a drag because I LOVED this stew. And I used veggie broth instead of beef, and forgot to add the sliced almonds, but other than that I made the recipe as written. Oh, and I didn't bother with the parsley. And I didn't have pepper flakes so I added a bit of cayenne. So, um, I guess not quite exactly as written. I will most definitely try it again with a different meat substitute that we like more -- I can see this one becoming a regular winter meal.

I did not take a picture because I made this in a frenzy after work last night and we were a little late getting dinner on the table, so it just got dished out (to Josh and me) and gobbled in a flash. Delma has gotten very good about trying new things, and actually asked me to give her some of this to try. She liked it, but not enough to ask for more than a taste. But still, good girl!

This was a great pick, thanks Kayte! Please visit Kayte's blog for the recipe.

CEiMB: Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce

Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce, hosted by Jessica of Learning to Love Vegetables.



This was so insanely simple and so yummy. I loved it. Definitely one of my favorite Ellie recipes. It makes a lot of sauce, and I knew the kids wouldn't try it, so I only mixed 2 servings of pasta with the sauce for our dinner last night and put the rest of the sauce in the freezer. I hope it will freeze well. Thanks for a really great pick, Jessica!

CEIMB: Mushroom Barley Soup

Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is Mushroom Barley Soup, hosted by Jennifer of The Rookie Baker.

The recipe as written is actually Beef Mushroom Barley Soup, but since we're veg I left out the beef. If I were going to make this again I'd replace the beef with a meat alternative or with beans, but this time around I just left it out altogether. It was good, it was hearty and satisfying. It was also super-easy to throw together. But it wasn't particularly exciting, probably because it was missing so much flavor that the beef would have provided.

I didn't take any pitures, because I made it so late the other night that it wasn't ready in time for dinner. So I just packed it up for lunches, and soup in a take-out container on my office desk does not make for an appealing photo.

Check out Jennifer's blog for the recipe.

CEIMB: White (Turkey) Chili

Today's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is White Turkey Chili, hosted by Leslie of Lethally Delicious.

As we're vegetarian, I replaced the turkey with TVP. I couldn't find poblano peppers, so since I wasn't sure what a good replacement would be, I just skipped the peppers altogether. And then when I was dishing it up tonight I forgot the sour cream. I liked this chili, and Josh liked it a lot. I think I'll like it more when I have it for lunch tomorrow and remember the sour cream.

For me, "real" chili is and always will be red with tomatos, since that's what I grew up on. But this really is a nice change from the norm, and came together quickly and easily (I chopped the onion and celery this morning so I could just throw it all together tonight). It would make a good winter weekend lunch, served up with some crusty bread. And hominy, hello? This was my first foray into the world of hominy and I would rate it a success.

Check out Leslie's blog for the recipe. In the timeless words of Yo Gabba Gabba, "Try it, you'll like it!" Thanks, for a great pick, Leslie!

CEIMB: Blueberry Almond French Toast Bake

Good grief, what a crazy week. I almost forgot to submit this post! Oh well, better late than really late!


My turn! So, my recipe choice for hosting Craving Ellie in my Belly this week was the Blueberry Almond French Toast Bake. Last time I hosted, I chose the Broccoli Cheddar Breakfast Bake. Both recipes are basically a strata-type recipe, tons of eggs over a hacked-up baguette, assemble the night before, soak overnight, bake in the morning. Are you noticing a trend? Hello, lazy breakfast lady.

I liked this recipe a lot. I don't know that I would make it just for our household, just for the hell of it, but it's a great brunch recipe for either hosting or for taking along as a guest. I made this a couple weeks ago for the Hattonette Birthday Brunch we had here with some of our family. I made the Broccoli Cheddar one again for the brunch too. It was great having them both, one sweet, one savory, both delicious. And please imagine, if you will, all the egg madness the night before, as I separated 8 eggs for EACH DISH. That is a LOT of disgusting gooey egg white nonsense (and a lot of wasted yolks, as I had no energy whatsoever to do anything with them). Blech. But as the (cough) transcendent homemaker that I am, I did it without complaint. Sort of. The point is, I did it.

So, did you Ellie groupies enjoy it?

Blueberry Almond French Toast Bake, from So Easy by Ellie Krieger

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
1 whole-wheat baguette (about 18 inches long, 8 ounces), cut into 1-inch cubes
8 large eggs
8 large egg whites
2 cups 1 percent lowfat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/3 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

Directions:
Spray a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Arrange the bread in a single layer in the baking pan. Whisk together the eggs, egg whites, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup. Pour the egg mixture over the bread in the pan, spreading it around so the liquid saturates the bread. Scatter the blueberries evenly on top and sprinkle with the almonds and brown sugar. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Uncover the baking pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature.

Broccoli-Cheddar Breakfast Bake Recipe

Hey CEIMB-ers! I'm hosting on February 25, and my recipe is from So Easy and is not posted on the Food Network site, so for those of you in need, here it is:

Broccoli-Cheddar Breakfast Bake

2 tsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced (abt 2 cups)
Cooking spray
1 whole-wheat baguette (abt 18 inches long, 8 oz.), cut into 1-inch cubes
8 large eggs
8 large egg whites
2 cups low-fat milk
1 10-oz package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
1 1/2 cups shredded extra-sharp cheddar (6 oz)
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until translucent and beginning to brown, abt 4 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange the bread cubes in the dish. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, egg whites and milk until incorporated. Add the onions, broccoli, cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper and stir to incorporate. Pour the egg mixture over the bread, spreading it around so the liquid saturates the bread. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Remove the plastic wrap and bake until the top forms a light brown crust, 50 to 60 minutes. Serve hot.

Makes 8 servings

CEIMB: Triple Chocolate Cookies

I had to cheat a bit on this weeks Craving Ellie in my Belly, because it's not a dish that can be easily vegetarianized, so I hit the archives and decided to bake up the Triple Chocolate Cookies. Um, hello? Yum.




I did add the optional salt, and am wondering if I accidentally added more than the 1/4 tsp called for, because the one I ate actually tasted salty. I thought it was great, though, like salted chocolate. So good. Also, as usual for me, so not photogenic. Piles of poo on a plate. Dig in!

CEiMB: Aromatic Noodles with Lime-Peanut Sauce

I didn't think I'd be able to cook along with the Craving Ellie in My Belly crew this week. We've had a heck of a week. But this recipe was so quick to throw together that even I, with my sinus infection causing throbbing pain in my head and neck, and with my needy baby with her ear infection, and with my crazy toddler and her I WANT TO COLOR WITH CHALK I NEED WATER THE BABY IS TOUCHING MY PUPPY PAPER, and with my husband stumbling around like he's about to keel over because our house has been consumed by like one huge atomic germ, could manage to pull it off. It's that easy.

I didn't have fresh ginger, so I used this ginger/garlic paste sort of stuff that I had in the fridge. When I blended up the sauce I thought I had totally blown it with that uncalled-for garlic, but once it was on the spaghetti it tasted just fine. And I didn't have red pepper flakes so I used cayenne pepper, but I used a little less than the recipe called for because Josh said that cayenne is hotter than the red pepper flakes. What else... Oh, I used broccoli, green beans and baby peas. Some people have talked about adding edamame or other things to get some protein into this dish, but peas actually have quite a bit of protein. I think. Or did I just unintentionally make that up? I really do think I've read that in some reliable source somewhere. Also I didn't think I was going to dig the whole wheat pasta, but I used some by Bionaturae from the overpriced health food joint and it was GREAT.

All in all, a fast and very tasty meal. I will definitely make this again. You can see the recipe here or at the blog of our host this week, Supplicious.

CEimB

For this week's Craving Ellie in my Belly, Lonely Sidecar picked the Lobster or Shrimp Roll. They look so freakin good. I am a huge fan of lobster, despite being a mostly vegetarian. I do eat seafood outside the house but never prepare it at home. So I had to skip this week's recipe.

But I really wanted to try the gazpacho that everyone made a few weeks ago, so I whipped up the White Gazpacho with Grapes and Toasted Almonds.

Good God. It flew together in no time and was absolutely delish. I didn't get it entirely smooth so it still had some nice texture. I will definitely use this recipe again, it would be great when having dinner guests because it is so stupidly easy but seems very unusual and fancy. I'm a big fan of fancy deception.

Also please admire that rad trifle bowl that rarely sees any action. We got these from Crate and Barrel with a wedding gift certificate, it's a set of nice heavy Polish glass bowls, a big mama one and I think four of these smaller ones. They're lovely and I've never used them as actual serving bowls for some reason. Add that to my to-do list: Use pretty bowls for something either than staging food photos or storing dead batteries.

CEimB: Breakfast Cookies

This is my first week participating in Craving Ellie in my Belly. Hi, gang! What's for Supper? is hosting this week, serving up the Breakfast Cookies. I'm so happy this was my first recipe, because I've actually been looking for a good breakfast cookie recipe. Delma eats her breakfast at daycare every morning, so we try to send her easy-to-pack stuff that's relatively healthy. Packing 2 meals plus snacks every day is a lot, especially since we try to keep it pretty simple and we don't want her to get bored with all the repeats of meals. Like when we make a box of Annie's, and then she has mac 'n cheese (with lots of frozen wee peas tossed in to make us feel like she's eating something healthy!) for lunch for 3 days...

So, breakfast cookies. Easy to pack, chock full of stuff I feel good about her eating. I didn't have time to try to stage a photo that would make some big lumpy cookies look lovely. They taste great, though -- not very sweet at all, lots of good stuff that will have you picking at your teeth for ages after eating one of these bad boys.



We only had a sad bag of basically walnut crumbs left, so I used half walnut and half pecan, toasted and then chopped into oblivion. I usually leave nuts in cookies or muffins sort of chunky, but I wasn't even paying attention tonight when I was pounding on that chopper (that sounds dirty), and they ended up practically powder. That's fine, though. And we also didn't have any bran or other flake cereal in the house, so I used Grape Nuts. Oh, and I didn't have pastry flour, so I just used regular whole wheat and all-purpose. I have no clue how that may have changed the final outcome.

This is a great, super-easy recipe and lends itself to countless variations. I'll definitely try with dried cranberries, and with some fruit-sweetened chocolate chips. Yum!