Category: Cooking Class

Slice Cream

3/12/2015

It's not quite ice cream and it's not quite a smoothie, so somehow my boy and I came up with name Slice Cream.

It's what happens when to you take frozen fruit and a few other things and you put them in the new Ninja Blender. :)

So what did we toss into the Ninja blender?

Strawberries (Frozen)
Mango (frozen)
2 cups of almond milk
a good dollop or two of greek yogurt
a handful of spinach leaves (my boy was SO shocked)
a scoop of Splenda... though next time we'll do honey
A scoop of protein powder

We blended it.
BOY it went fast.
We expected a thick smoothie but got almost ice cream instead.

My boy was so shocked. He enjoyed it for lunch.
Who can say they've ever made slice cream for lunch eh?

It was good.
Try it today! :)

Making supper... with the help of a lad

2/27/2015

My son, darling lad that he is, is a touch of a picky eater.   He is GETTING better, but it seems that getting him to eat new things is always a long process. I've also been wanting to teach him some cooking skills so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone. ALMOST every week (most likely on Wednesdays) I plan to make one entire meal with the lad's help.   We will discuss it together and make something as a unit that we might ALL enjoy.. or at least have the fun of learning how to make it. The rule will be everyone has to try everything that we make.

This week the menu was
Bacon, Buns, Mashed Potatoes and Spaghetti Squash.

My hubby's response was BACON??? That's not meat.   I said for this week bacon is meat. :) It's a start at least.

So here we are working on making our supper.

We started the buns right after lunch as rising time takes well.... TIME.   We used this recipe for sweet rolls off all-recipes. It was a bit fussy to make but that's a good thing for my creative lad.   We used it as an opportunity to do some fractions.   He needed to do all the reading as well.

Here's the recipe for those interested.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45degrees C)
1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions:
1. Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.
2. When cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread 1/4 cup softened butter over entire round. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased cookie sheet. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.

can you see my smiling face?

We made the spaghetti squash. The lad started to help me cut it in half but found it too hard to do so I assisted him with it. He did a good job of cleaning out his half but disliked touching the slimy bits so asked if he could scoop and I could collect the seeds.   We feed them to the rabbits as they are a natural anti-coccidiant. :)

Put in a 400 oven for 1/2 hour it was pretty near done.   Another five minutes gave us time to heat up the water for the potatoes.   We did mashed potatoes from a bag (yes I know it's cheating) but they are easy and the lad really really likes them.

The bacon started to cook while the squash was in the oven (we cook raw bacon in the oven when we have it as it means it doesn't burn on me). Normally we get the precooked stuff for exactly the same reason. I am FAR to distractable to cook bacon well. Normally hubby cooks it when we camp. He pays attention. :)

The end result of our meal?
"Yum!   We can make this again right mom?"

"Yup.. but not next week. Then we have to do something different." I have to admit that got me a sad face but next week he'll be ready for something new. :)