Monday, April 28, 2008

Buttercream Frosting For Lazy Cheaters

... like me, of course.
You'll need:
- one 7 1/2 ounce jar of Marshmallow Fluff, and I realize that I've posted a lot of recipes using it, which is embarrassing, in a way.
- one cup softened butter.
- one cup of icing sugar. So obviously we're talking about a VERY HEALTHY recipe, right?
- some vanilla - about 1/2 tsp. - and food colouring, if you don't want ivory icing.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until it's fluffy and creamy and then add the whole jar of Marshmallow Fluff, which will be a sticky pain in the butt. Reduce speed and add the icing sugar, vanilla and food colouring and mix it all together. Now turn your mixer back up (and why do you do it this way? So you don't send icing sugar flying all over your kitchen. Learn from my mistakes.) and beat everything briskly until it's fluffy and gorgeous. There you go.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Carrot Cake recipe...

.... is right here. Remember that icing sugar in Ontario is not gluten-free - my icing was made from regular white sugar, vanilla and cream cheese and it was GOOD.
I have a few more gluten-free recipes up here.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

This Week's Menu Plan

Apparently this blog has just turned into a place where I keep my menu plans for the week. So be it, I guess - I have some big plans for posting recipes soon, having recently come out of a prolonged time where I was unenthusiastic about everything I was cooking, winter and its stodgy foods lasting for just a bit too long. Now, however, the sandhill cranes are back and the snow is melting and I feel like cooking again, spring's foods lasting for just a moment.

(so if you HAVE been asking me for recipes and I haven't been posting them, you can expect them this week. Likely.)

Saturday - It's always hard to strike the right note on Saturday nights, since we've generally a) eaten junk food for lunch and b) are exhausted from running errands all day.
Supper - Tex-Mex Turkey Wraps. This recipe came from a VERY frequently used book - Better Food For Kids. I've had it for years and still refer to it all the time, since it's such a handy collection of kid-friendly, healthy recipes.

Sunday - I like making a special breakfast on Sunday morning, but we also go to church before lunchtime, so it's a bit of a rush as I get up early to make breakfast AND gussy up. And then I like to make a nice, Grandma+Grandpa style dinner for Sunday night, which means that I spend Sunday cooking. But that's okay - I like cooking.

Breakfast - Brown Sugar French Toast. I'll be putting this together tonight and then throwing it into the oven as I head off to do my eye makeup, probably. And a fruit salad made of grapes (because I have grapes that need using up), banana and orange wedges. "Don't think that you need to have a different kinds (of fruit) in one salad, either," wrote Peg Bracken. "This isn't the Waldorf-Astoria. Three is quite all right." I've wanted to use that quote for AGES and NOW I HAVE.

Lunch - Tuscan Bean Soup, from the same Better Food For Kids book that I mentioned earlier. My kids, for the record, cheerfully eat all sorts of things that apparently other people's children refuse, even though I think of my kids as being monstrously picky. They've eaten lentils and beans from the time they were wee babies shoving handfuls of glop into their mouths, and so they just aren't weird to them. Don't ask me about mushrooms, though.

Supper - Oven Barbecued Chicken and Roasted Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese - both recipes from that free magazine that Kraft puts out, and a very handy magazine it is, too.
Deluxe Coleslaw and Glazed Carrot Coins, from that Better Food cookbook AGAIN. Handy!
A Chocolate Meringue Pie from April's copy of Everyday Food magazine, which I go through phases of really enjoying.

Monday.
Breakfast - Mango Slices, Scrambled Eggs and Bacon and some toast and then off to school with most of my kids.

Snack - My kids have that annoying, divided-in-half school day, which means that I have to pack two small meals instead of one jumbo lunch. Gosh, that's fun. Thank you SO MUCH, school board. And their snack will be, thrillingly enough, red grapes, Mini Oreos (since they have demanded them for weeks, poor bubs, and The Girl finally thought to write them down on the shopping list.) and cheese strings.

Lunch - Chicken Wraps - using last night's chicken - and coleslaw.

Supper - Ratatouille, homemade French bread, fruit salad and a Glazed Lemon Cake. These recipes come from the Silver Palate cookbook.

Tuesday.
Breakfast - Individual Baked Custards, Orange Slices.
Let me put in a good word for baked custards, a largely - and unfairly - forgotten breakfast food. They're very easy and nutritionally dense, which makes them nice for scrawny children or people recovering from an illness, and they're nicely gentle to eat. My recipe comes from The Breakfast Book, which I LOVE.

Snack - Glazed Lemon Cake, Apple Slices (dipped in lemon so they don't brown)

Lunch - Ratatouille Calzones, using last night's leftover ratatouille and packaged pizza dough.

Supper - Honey-Garlic Baked Salmon (the Better Food cookbook AGAIN!), Brown Rice and Chinese Vegetables.

Wednesday.
Breakfast - Baked Apples and Toast.

Snack - Baby Carrots and Green Beans with Ranch Dip, and a banana.

Lunch - Pizza from the pizza people. I will probably throw in a few mini Oreos, too.

Supper - Pasta Primavera Gregory - a nice, spring-y sounding recipe from the Silver Palate cookbook - and a Minty Cucumber Salad. I'm making Lemon Squares from the new Martha Stewart Cookie book, too. Mmm, lemon squares.

Thursday.
Breakfast - Muesli, which just requires me remembering to put it together before bed on Wednesday night.

Snack - A Lemon Square and a sliced kiwi. They're FULL of vitamin C!

Lunch -Rice and Lentil Salad, which I'll assemble on Tuesday night, a cheese string, and some whole grain crackers.

Supper - Tangy Pork Ribs in the crockpot - from the February/March issue of Taste of Home - mashed potatoes, oven-roasted asparagus, a spinach-strawberry salad with homemade poppyseed dressing, and a jello dessert that The Girl wants to make.

Friday.
Breakfast - Boxed Cereal. We have it on hand, but it's a bedtime snack most days. I'll throw some frozen blueberries in it to assuage my guilt.

Snack/Lunch - Green Sliced Veggie Salad, Refried Bean and Salsa Roll-Up, and Chocolate pudding with sliced banana.

And Friday night's supper can take care of itself.