Rosco is pokey. He has a real inability to move his ass whenever he knows that we have to leave the house at a prescribed time. This makes getting breakfast into him a problem. I don’t want to dump cereal down his gullet every morning because he really needs a bit more protein to get him to snack time (and since he sometimes skips his snack at school because he was “too busy” [ahem] breakfast needs to be a bit heavier.).

Okay, look – you may know this about me already: I’m not a morning person. (That made college so hard. So, so hard.) I don’t want to get up and cook anything. I don’t even feel like making coffee. You see the problem here?

Well, I put on my thinking cap last week and thought, “Hey – you’re up at night. Why not cook breakfast at night?”

So, I did.

You’ve got a favorite sausage and egg casserole recipe, right? (Let me know if you don’t. I’ll give you mine.) Well, if you put individual portions of it into a muffin tin, cook them, and then store them in a plastic zippy bag all you have to do is nuke them in the morning. Two of them is a Rosco-sized portion…one if he’s dragging his feet.

*turns back so you can pat it*

The quickie tutorial:

-Preheat the oven to something-or-other. (I dunno. 400? 375? Depends on how dark your pan is. Darker pans get hotter and cook more quickly, just so you know. Just watch the stuff. Normally, I’d bake an egg casserole on 325 for an hour, but the volume is different and there’s different surface ratio, here. Higher heat for a shorter time worked fine.)

-Spray your muffin pan with non-stick spray. Alternately, you can use cupcake liners but bear in mind they may stick to the cheesy eggy cylinders and seriously piss your child off.

-Use a biscuit cutter to cut out rounds from the loaf of bread you weren’t going to eat anyway. Put a round into each compartment.


-Drop some cheese on it.

-Distribute the sausage equally amongst the 12 holes. (I like using hot sausage, but it makes Rosco cough and I don’t know what it’d do to Em’s little digestive system, so I’m using mild temporarily. If you’re going to use turkey sausage or tofu crumbles don’t tell me about it.)

-Spoon your egg casserole mixture into each compartment (more neatly than I did).

-Bake until set. You can put some foil over the top of the pan to keep them from browning too much, but NOT IN THE BEGINNING or you’ll lose delicious egg bits to your foil. Like I did.

-Pop them out of the pan and store them in a baggie. Heat one or two per person in the microwave for, like, 30 seconds in the morning.

My recipe makes exactly 12. Your mileage may vary.

I like meatloaf. My granny used to make it when I was a kid and I would enjoy it more the second day. She’d fry the slices in a pan, put some barbecue sauce on them, and put them between sliced white bread. Oh, heaven.

Scott will only eat meatloaf if the texture isn’t like pate, so that has made me experiment a lot. There’s a fine line – you don’t want your loaf to be as dense as hamburger, but at the same time too much bread will make it slimy.

I figured out a way around that. Oh, yes I did. I present to you the Meatroll. It’s bulked up with ground up tortilla chips and its airier texture is due to rolling it rather than patting it into shape. Cheese in the middle adds a little something-something for the kiddos. I liked it a lot. It fell apart because I sliced into it too early (which is why there’s no final picture here), but I’m going to repeat this one with a couple of technical improvements.

You’ll need:
-2 lb lean ground beef (I used 93%. Or something.)
-1 egg
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp garlic powder
-1 tsp onion powder
-1 tsp mustard powder
-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
-1/2 tsp ground black pepper
-1 c shredded cheddar
-3 c crushed corn tortilla chips
-1/4 c mild salsa

Do this:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F
2. Mix the meat, egg, and seasoning in a bowl.
3. On a piece of waxed or parchment paper, pat the meat mixture into a rectangle as wide as your loaf pan (or slightly less wide than the width of your paper if you’re using a cookie sheet to bake on).
   
4. Cover the surface of the beef with the tortilla chips. Just eyeball it. You don’t need to use the full three cups – just make sure you have good coverage. Next, give it some cheese. Pretend you’re building a pizza.
   
5. Grab one end of the wax paper and start rolling the meat up like you’re making sushi.
   
6. Gently tease the roll to the end and carefully transfer it to a greased pan.
   
   
7. Pat the ends so they’re rounded and the stuff inside doesn’t fall out. Gentle, gentle.
   
8. Brush the top of the loaf with salsa. You can water it down a bit if that makes it easier to spread.
9. Now, this is a “DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO” type thing – use a piece of foil to cover the roll. Actually mold it against the roll a bit so that the damned thing HOLDS TOGETHER WHILE IT COOKS. You can take it off after the meat firms up.
10. About 45 minutes in, take off the foil and give the meatroll some more salsa love.
11. Bake until a thermometer stuck into the meatroll reads 160°F.
12. Let the meatroll stand for at least five minutes before cutting.

Pretend there’s a lovely picture of the finished loaf here. Ooooh, it’s so pretty. Wow, it looks great!

Enjoy.

My meal planning has become a bit stagnant lately since having to start cooking again with with a baby in mind. I love trying new food products because they make me add fresh recipes to my sloppy little clip binder. Last night’s experiment was with Knorr’s new Homestyle Stock pods.

Hello, nachos. Err…actually, they’re “not yo’s” ’cause they’re not what you’re used to.

My nachos have slow cooked white meat chicken and black beans for protein and are topped with a homemade cheese sauce. I’ll cook it – you bring the beer. Let’s go.

You’ll Need:
For Chicken-
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 Knorr Homestyle Stock (chicken) tub
1 tbsp taco seasoning*
1 c salsa**
Salt & Pepper

For Black Beans-
1 c dried black beans
1 tsp minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp taco seasoning*
1 Knorr Homestyle Stock (chicken) tub

Do This:

Now there’s room for customization. Serve the flavored beans and chicken on a bed of tortilla chips and ladle hot cheese sauce on top. I modified this recipe from Serious Eats. I used half-and-half instead of evaporated milk and used a mix of sharp cheddar and Monterrey jack cheeses.

On top I sprinkled some chopped tomatoes and added dollops of sour cream and guacamole, but you can add toppings as you see fit. Like black olives? Go for it. (I hate them.)

The chicken is even more flavorful the next day. The added bonus to this dish that I can serve each individual layer of this to the one-year-old (minus the chips) so she gets a meal, too.

Boom.

Disclosure: I received a 4-pack of Knorr’s Homestyle Stock tubs for free to develop this recipe. I received no additional compensation.

*I use a SALT-FREE seasoning blend that I buy by the bottle.
**You can use hot. My 1-year-old just wouldn’t appreciate it.

**Note: I plucked the recipe from my short-lived food blog. The kid below and the lovely set of hands are mine.**

I’m always looking for ways to speed up meal preparation. At the same time, I want to use wholesome ingredients and eat the same sorts of foods I ate before having kids. It’s a hard balancing act.

For instance, I love egg rolls. I eat them hot out of the fry oil and burn my mouth on them more than I care to admit. I usually like to add a bit of protein to them: shrimp if it’s in season, but more often chicken. Having to cook the chicken adds a lot of time to the preparation process if I don’t remember to do it the day before. Enter Tyson Grilled & Ready chicken breast strips.

They’re already cooked and portioned. I just needed to warm them through since they’d been waiting in the freezer. Yesterday I got a bunch of egg rolls prepared in about half an hour while Em napped and for dinner all I had to do was pull them out of the fridge and fry them.

These egg rolls take advantage of the zucchinis that are becoming more and more plentiful this time of year: no need to shred up a bunch of cabbage and the filling doesn’t need to be cooked before rolling. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

-1 pack of egg roll wrappers (20)
-5 green onions
-5 carrots
-2 small zucchini
-1/2 bag Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Breast Strips
-1 tbsp roasted sesame oil
-1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
-1/4 tsp ground black pepper
-Canola oil for frying

Cut the zucchinis in half widthwise, and then each half in thirds by slicing them horizontally while placed on a cutting board. Then cut each zucchini slice into three sticks.

Refrigerate until ready to use.

Wash the green onions and slice them thinly into a bowl. Peel the outer layer of each carrot and then use the peeler to shave long ribbons of carrot into the same bowl (shave them until you can’t hold the carrot any longer). Salt the carrots and onions and add pepper. Spoon in the sesame oil. Toss gently to distribute. Set bowl in refrigerator until ready to use: the salt will draw water out of the carrots and help the cooking process.

Place a egg roll wrapper onto a work surface and put a couple of tablespoons of carrot in the middle.

Place two of the zucchini sticks on top of the nest of carrots.

Put a chicken strip on top of the vegetables. (Use a single long one or two smaller ones.)

Roll the wrappers over the filling.

Place uncooked egg rolls onto a dish covered with plastic wrap until ready to fry (do not allow them to touch or they’ll stick.). Continue until you run out of zucchini.

Heat the oil over medium and fry the egg rolls until golden brown.

Transfer the egg rolls to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

You can keep them warm by putting them on a cooling rack set over a cooking sheet and letting them sit in a warm oven.

Eat!

***Disclosure: As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a free bag of Tyson Grilled & Ready chicken to develop this recipe.***

Last night’s budget dinner came in at about $4.38 plus negligible flour and oil which are staples I always have on hand. I could probably calculate their cost down to the cent, but I don’t think you’re particularly interested in the price of four teaspoons of flour. I included the cost of butter because I used more than half a stick and…well, I don’t buy no-name butter.

The meal was white bean cakes, barley rice and sauteed corn.

I had two hamburger patty-sized cakes, the huz had two, and the boy “ate” one. The sixth fell apart in the pan :(. Then we each had about a cup each of barley rice and maybe half a cup of corn.

Here’s what you need to feed three:

-8 ounces dry great northern beans
-1 cup pearled barley
-1/2 cup jasmine rice
-10 oz frozen sweet corn
-all-purpose flour (couple of tablespoons)
-canola oil (maybe 3 tablespoons)
-5 tablespoons butter

1. Soak the dry beans in water for at least eight hours. Then drain them, rinse them, and boil them in fresh water until tender with the seasonings of your choice. You can do that in the morning and keep them in the fridge until you’re ready.
2. Place the cooked beans in a food processor and pulse them until they start to bind together, but large chunks are still present. Don’t process them too much or they’ll become gluey. Remove from processor and sprinkle in enough flour to finish binding the beans (test it by pinching it between two fingers and seeing if it holds). Use a spoon to work the flour through. If it’s too dry trickle in a small amount of milk or water to get the right consistency. Spray a plate with cooking oil. Make six patties from the bean mixture and place them on the plate. Refrigerate them until they’re ready to fry.
3. Bring about a cup of water to a boil in a saucepan and stir in the barley. Lower heat and cook until almost tender (about 20 minutes).
4. Add more water and stir in rice. Cover and let cook until tender. (You can add butter here, but I don’t think it’s necessary. The barley keeps the rice from getting too clumpy and the jasmine rice is naturally flavorful.)
5. Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of oil and 3 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat.
6. Heat remaining butter in a second frying pan over medium-high heat and saute corn seasoned with kosher salt and pepper to taste until tender.
7. Fry the bean cakes until brown and slightly crisp on both sides, about five minutes total. Drain them on paper towels and serve while hot.

Each bean cake has 10 grams of protein, so eating two gets you 20 grams. There are a couple of protein points in the barley-rice and corn, too. Have a glass of low-fat milk with dinner and you’re right on track for the day. (A person my size needs 45 grams of protein/day. My son is about 40 pounds so really doesn’t need much protein yet (he gets way more than he needs from dairy). My husband needs about 93 grams of protein, so the next time we go meatless I have to make sure part of the meal doesn’t fall apart before making it onto his plate. He probably needed that third bean cake. :-\