My favorite bread machine recipes

Posted on March 27, 2012 by All About Eats

I received a bread machine for Christmas this year.  I was a little hesitant to ask for one for fear that once the novelty of bread making wore off, the machine would slowly start collecting dust in my basement and I’d go back to spending way too much money on store bought specialty breads.  This hasn’t been the case at all!  Using the bread machine requires such little prep work, clean up, and monitoring so I use it at least 1 to 2 times per week.  I thought it would be helpful (mostly for me) to list a few of my favorite bread machine recipes that I’ve found so far:

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread

We use this bread as our everyday sandwich bread.  I make this bread at least once a week.  I’ve tweeked the recipe slightly by using only 1 cup bread flour and 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour.  This bread is great toasted and topped with peanut butter!

Italian Bread

I originally used this recipe to make meatball subs but this bread is excellent to eat alone with cheese or dipped in olive oil.

French Bread

Another great bread to serve with olive oil or cheese.  This bread makes great french bread pizzas too!

Rolls

The recipe is intended for dinner rolls but I make the rolls a little bigger to serve as hamburger rolls.  Delicious.

Challah

Instead of baking the bread in the machine as the recipe suggests, I only use the bread machine to prepare the dough.  Once the dough cycle is complete, I braid the dough, let it rise for one hour, brush with egg, and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Make this bread on a Saturday, leave it to sit out overnight, and then use the loaf to make the most delicious french toast ever.  Ever.  Enough said.

Focaccia

This recipe is great for sandwiches.  I think it would also make a great pizza!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Need I say more?  Cinnamon raisin bread is amazing.  You know how to serve it and eat it.

 

Those are my favorites for now.  Of course, this list is growing so I’ll be sure to post  any new and post-worthy recipes that I discover.

 

 

 

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Menu Plan Week of 3/25

Posted on March 25, 2012 by All About Eats

Here’s what’s on the menu for the week:

Sunday

Italian Wedding Soup Supper (I’ll be making some minor changes to a recipe I found here.  This dish is perfect for a chilly day like today.)

Roasted broccoli

Monday

Quinoa Pizza Bites (found these through Pinterest)

Salad

Tuesday

Chicken Gyros

Greek Salad

Wednesday

Tomato Basil Soup

Grilled cheese sandwiches

Vegetable

Thursday

Black Bean Burgers

Oven Fries

Salad or vegetable

Friday

Pizza

Salad or vegetable

Saturday

Pork Chops

Brown Rice and Barley Bake

Vegetable

 

If you ever feel like you’re running out of ideas for dinner, just spend a couple minutes on Pinterest.  A word a caution: minutes will turn into an hour.  And don’t browse all the sweet treats on Pinterest when your sweet tooth is in full force.  You’ll find yourself searching your pantry for the necessary ingredients to make slutty brownies or Peanut Butter Fudge Brownie Trifle.

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Menu Plan Week of 3/18

Posted on March 20, 2012 by All About Eats

Here’s what’s been had and what’s to come:

Sunday

Burgers (one of the only meats that doesn’t make my stomach flip) on these amazing homemade rolls

Oven Fries

Salad

Monday

Grilled Eggplant Sandwiches with sun-dried tomato spread and mozzarella

Grilled peppers, onions, and tomatoes served over greens

Tuesday

Healthier Macaroni and Cheese

Broccoli

Wednesday

Three Bean and Barley Soup

Salad

Thursday

Tuna Burgers

Salad

Friday

Pizza

A vegetable side of some sort

Saturday

Shrimp Scampi

Brown Rice

Sauteed Spinach

 

I wish I had planned and bought all foods that could be grilled this week.  The weather is beautiful and little man and I have been soaking up every ray of sunshine like it’s the last that we’ll see.

Enjoy your day.

 

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Quick and Easy Snack Idea: Peanut Butter Granola

Posted on March 16, 2012 by All About Eats

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, we’ve been going through a lot of peanut butter in this house.  It’s spread on toast, it’s added to oatmeal, it’s eaten from the spoon, and it’s used in this quick and easy granola recipe.

Peanut Butter Granola

4 Tablespoons Peanut Butter

3 Tablespoons Honey

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup Multi-Grain Cheerios

1 cup oats

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a large bowl, microwave the peanut butter and honey until soft (30-40 seconds).  Add cinnamon and vanilla to the peanut butter mixture and then stir in the Cheerios and oats.  Spread the granola mixture onto a greased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until granola is browned.  Let cool on baking sheet before devouring.

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Menu Plan week of 3/11

Posted on March 13, 2012 by All About Eats

I really need to start posting my menu plan earlier in the week.  Or perhaps change the weekly post to “Dinner:  How it’s going this week”.  Here’s what’s gone down and what is to come:

Sunday

Grilled Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi

Oven baked brown rice and barley with asparagus and swiss cheese

Salad with feta, cranberries, and pine nuts

Monday

Taco Salads (to use up leftovers)

Tuesday

Loaded baked potatoes

Salad

Wednesday

Asparagus soup

Veggie sandwiches on homemade focaccia bread

Thursday

Grilled pork chops

Spinach salad with potatoes and green beans with a dijon dressing

Friday

Pizza

Some form of a vegetable (but wait, isn’t pizza officially considered a vegetable now?)

Saturday

Shepard’s Pie (I considered cooking corned beef but just the thought of a big slab of that beef made my stomach flip.  Silly pregnancy.)

Lots of Guinness (joking, but a girl can dream)

 

Between this beautiful weather and all of my favorite bloggers writing spring cleaning posts, I’m motivated to clean and declutter to bring in the spring.  There’s a difference between being motivated to do something and actually doing it though.  Maybe today.  Does incorporating spring foods into your menu plan count?

 

 

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Slow Cooker Baked Beans

Posted on March 9, 2012 by All About Eats

I had been craving baked beans for several days last week so when it came time to plan this week’s menu, I knew this tasty side dish had to find it’s place somewhere in the week.  It’s been awhile since I’ve made them and I forgot just how good they are and how easy they are to make.  By making my own baked beans, I can also control the sodium and sugar content.

Slow Cooker Baked Beans

1 lb navy beans, soaked overnight and rinsed

2 cups chicken broth

2 teaspoons salt

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup molasses

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon dried mustard

1/2 onion, chopped

Combine all ingredients in your crockpot and cook on high 8 to 9 hours.  Add water to the beans if more liquid is needed.

The beans were served with sandwiches.  I found an awesome recipe for focaccia bread here.  Sliced in half, this bread was the perfect sandwich bread.

My sandwich had balsamic braised red onion, honey mustard, melted swiss, spring greens, and a pickle.  Yum.  Hubby had the same but added some salami as well.  I’ll definitely be making this bread again but I may try using 1/2 whole wheat flour in place of the bread flour. 

 

 

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Baked Chicken, Brown Rice, and Barley

Posted on March 8, 2012 by All About Eats

There are some days at 5:00 in the afternoon that I don’t want to cook dinner.  Ok, there are ALOT of days when I just don’t want to cook dinner.  Tuesday was one of those days.  I was already planning on making chicken and rice but I wasn’t sure how I was going to prepare it.  So I took the lazy smart approach.  I put all the ingredients together in a baking dish and I threw it in the oven.  I was pleased with the outcome.

Baked Chicken, Brown Rice, and Barley

1 lb boneless chicken breast, cut into cubes

3/4 cup brown rice

1/4 cup barley

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup salsa

1 cup corn, frozen or canned

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Arrange rice and barley on the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.

Arrange the chicken pieces over the rice.  Add the chicken broth, salsa, corn, chili powder, cumin, and oregano.

Cover with foil.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Remove foil and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes.  Optional:  during the last five minutes of baking, sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese over the casserole.

Because cheese just makes everything taste better.

So does sour cream.

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Menu Plan week of 3/4 (a little late, I know)

Posted on March 6, 2012 by All About Eats

Here’s what’s gone down so far and what’s on the menu for the rest of the week.

Sunday

Baked Chicken thighs with panko breading

Green salad

Brown Rice with cheese and broccoli

Monday

Spinach stuffed shells

Steamed broccoli and carrots

Tuesday

Baked chicken and rice

Leftover broccoli and carrots and peas

Wednesday

Veggie sandwiches on focaccia bread (never made these last week)

Slow cooker baked beans (I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for these!!!!!)

Thursday

Slow cooker Lima Bean Soup

Homemade french bread

Friday

Pizza

Greek salad

Saturday

Undecided.  I don’t know why I haven’t been planning dinners on Saturdays.  This lack of planning ends up costing us extra money because we order food.  Blah.

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Whole Wheat Bagels

Posted on March 2, 2012 by All About Eats

One of the Christmas presents I received this year was a bread machine.  This machine is quickly becoming one of my top 5 favorite kitchen gadgets.  I use it at least once a week to make everyday sandwich bread but I also love trying out new bread recipes.

I found a recipe for whole wheat bagels here and decided to give it a try.  One of the benefits of making your own bagels is that you can control the size of each bagel.  They don’t have to be the size of the monstrous bagels you find in the bakeries (although they are delicious, aren’t they?).  One drawback is that these aren’t something you can just whip up in jiffy.  The use of the bread machine does save some time but there are still additional steps you must take to make them.  Am I going to make bagels weekly?  No.  Are they  nice to make and enjoy on a rainy afternoon?  Absolutely.

Whole Wheat Bagels

1 cup warm water
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Add the ingredients to your bread machine in the order recommended by your bread machine manufacturer.

Select the dough setting.  Once the dough setting is complete, remove the dough from the bread machine and divide it into 8 pieces.  Form each piece into a ball and push your thumb through the center to make a whole.

Cover the the dough and allow to rise for an additional 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add 2 Tablespoons of sugar to the water.  Boil the bagels, two at a time, in the boiling water for 30 seconds per side.

Remove the bagels from water and place on a baking rack to dry.  Once all bagels have been boiled, place them on a baking stone or baking sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

These bagels are great with peanut butter…

or make amazing sandwiches!

I've made this sandwich for lunch two days in a row. Avocado, sliced tomato, spring leaf lettuce, extra sharp cheddar cheese (melted, of course), and dijon mustard. YUM!

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Bean Enchiladas

Posted on February 29, 2012 by All About Eats

I love Mexican food.  I especially love Mexican food when I’m pregnant.  Maybe it’s the cheese.  Maybe it’s the combination of cheese, tortillas, sauce, sour cream, and beans.  This bean enchiladas recipe is quick to prepare and easy on the wallet.  Little man even took more than one bite which translates into success.

Bean Enchiliadas

1 batch of these homemade refried beans (I made these in the crock pot the day before.  This recipe makes a lot of refried beans but the leftovers freeze very well in freezer bags.)

1- 8 count package of whole wheat tortillas

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

For the enchilada sauce (recipe adapted from here)

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon Flour

6 oz tomato paste

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup to 1 cup of water

4 Tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium saucepan, heat the vegetable oil.  Wisk in flour until a paste is formed.  Add the tomato paste, chicken broth, 1/2 cup of water, chili powder, oregano, cumin, and salt.  Stir.  Add more water to reach the desired consistency.  Bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Cover the bottom of a greased 9×13 baking pan with a thin layer of enchilada sauce.  To assemble the enchiliadas, spoon a layer of beans across the center of the tortilla.  Sprinkle cheese across the beans.  Roll the tortilla around the bean stuffing and place the rolled enchilada back side up in the baking pan.  Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the assembled enchiladas.  Top with remaining cheese (use more cheese if necessary!).  Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

 

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