Now I dont know what to do

So as I started to finally start getting us on track I have a new obstacle to overcome. My youngest daughter who is 4 1/2 months old was having some bowel movement issues that we got figured out today. She has a protien intolerance, which means for me(since she is breastfeeding) that I have to eliminate Dairy of all kinds, Soy, wheat and egg whites. Not a whole lot left after you take all that out. It is going  to be hard, but I want the healthiest option for my daughter and to me that means breastmilk. So if anyone has any help I would love to hear it all.

Some more recipes I might try.

http://wholegrainscouncil.org/recipes/main-dishes/quinoa-crusted-chicken-fingers

I am thinking about trying this tomorrow for dinner. Maybe :-)

http://wholegrainscouncil.org/recipes/soups-starters/hearty-chicken-rice-soup

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/turkey-and-quinoa-meatloaf/detail.aspx

Calzones

So I made these last night and I would not choose to use the dough recipe again. http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-calzones-378119
It was way too sticky to work with, and it turned out to be too much bread on the calzones because I couldn't get it thinner without it tearing. So dont use it. The taste itself wasnt great either.

Traditional Irish Shepherd's Pie

Traditional Irish Shepherd's Pie

• • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 lb ground beef or 1 lb lamb
  • 1 large onion , finely diced
  • 3 -4 large carrots , finely diced
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 3 -4 sprigs fresh thyme , finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 glass red wine
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 cup stock
  • 1 large quantity mashed potatoes (estimating 1L or 6 cups, fresh or leftover)
  • 1 egg , beaten
  • grated parmesan cheese (optional)

  Directions:

  
  

  1. 1
     Pre-heat oven to 200C/400°F.
  2. 2
     Saute carrots in the olive oil until starting to get tender.
  3. 3
     Add in the onions and saute for a minute or two then add the meat.
  4. 4
     Season with black pepper and thyme.
  5. 5
     Cook until browned then drain fat.
  6. 6
     Add the butter and peas.
  7. 7
     Sprinkle with flour and stir through.
  8. 8
     Add tomato paste, wine and Worcestershire sauce.
  9. 9
     Let this reduce slightly then add the chicken stock. Allow to reduce down until you have a thick meaty gravy. Season to your taste.
  10. 10
      Remove from heat. Grease an oven proof dish** (9x13 works for me, as does an oval baker) with butter and add the sauce.
  11. 11
      Spoon or pipe the mashed potatoes over top. Brush with egg and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if using.
  12. 12
      Bake for about 20 minutes or until the potato is nice and browned on top.
  13. 13
      Serve as is or with some crusty bread to mop up that yummy sauce!
  
  
  Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/traditional-irish-shepherds-pie-302120#ixzz1kiOK65s8

So we tried this tonight, didnt take any pictures because it doesnt turn out very pretty. I also chose to make mine with ground turkey instead which turned out good. Hubby gave it his seal of approval. I would definitely make it again. I do suggest having a veggie as a side. My 2 year old daughter chose brocolli for us. It was yummy and I would suggest it.

Savory Chicken Pocket Pie

Savory Chicken Pocket Pies

Yield Makes 10 pocket pies

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Ingredients

• 1 3-pound chicken (to get 1 heaping cup of shredded meat; you can freeze remainder for other recipes)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup chopped celery (1 large stalk)
• 1/3 cup chopped carrot (1 carrot)
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth (from the reduced poaching liquid)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Cream Cheese Pastry Dough
• 1 large egg, for egg wash

Directions

1. Place the chicken in a pot and add water to barely cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 50 minutes. Skim and discard any foam as it rises on the surface. Remove the chicken to cool continue to boil the broth to reduce and concentrate to about 1 quart. Remove the meat from the chicken and shred.
2. To make the filling, melt the butter in a medium-sized hot skillet and add the onion, celery, and carrot. Saute over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the salt and flour and cook for 1 minute more. Add the chicken broth and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1 heaping cup shredded chicken and the Parmesan cheese. Cool in the fridge.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter or line a baking sheet.
4. To form the pocket pies, work with half of a disk of dough at a time, rolling it out on a floured surface. Using an overturned bowl (about 5 inches across), cut out circles about 3 at a time from each piece of dough. After cutting out all your circles, gather all dough scraps, reroll, and cut out a final time. Place 1/4 cup filling on one side of a dough circle. Wet the edges of the dough with the water. Fold the dough over to form a half circle. Pinch the edge of the dough together. Crimp the edge with a fork. Repeat the process until all the filling is used. The pocket pies can be frozen at this point.
5. Place the pocket pies on the prepared baking sheet and chill for a few minutes. Prick each pie on top twice with a fork. When ready to bake, beat the egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush the egg wash over each pocket pie. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. The pies can be cooled and frozen to reheat in the microwave.

Here is the link : http://www.marthastewart.com/344205/savory-chicken-pocket-pies

Okay, so I tried these and doubled the ingredients. It says it is suppose to yield 10 pocket pies, but I was only able to get 8 (so 16 total). But still, these were delicious. The whole family loved them. I will definitely be making them again and highly recommend you try them for yourself.

Homemade BLT's and Fries.

So here are my super yummy BLT's made with my homemade bread which by the way was  very yummy. Best recipe I have tried yet. And also my french fries which tasted great but for some reason made my mouth slightlly burned like an acidic type burn. I will try with different potatoes to see if they are any better but I am not too sure about these just yet. Heres a pic, see I am getting better.

My daughter wanter her plate in a picture also so I thought I would add it here too.

My day.

So today was very busy. It was the first day I have had the opportunity to get out of the house since last sunday. Yes I have been stuck in the house for a whole week. So my day was filled with grocery shopping. Yay. I went to Trader Joes, I happen to be in love with that store now. But I cant do ALL my shopping there so I went to QFC also. After that I came home and started my 5 lb chicken in the boiling water to shred:

Once I had that going I started my butter, which by the way is not as cheap or cheaper then just buying it. It cost me $6 for just a cup and a half. I can buy 2 cups for at least $3. But lesson learned and i am excited to try it.

Once I had that going I started my chopping for my pizza sauce.

And then finished my pizza sauce which turned out super yummy.

Oh and I forgot to add that I started my bread in the bread machine on dough setting and then baked in oven after my machine did all the hard work.

And I let my bread rise a little too much. It turned out huge. But Hopefully it tastes good for our BLT's. We shall see maybe tomorrow.

I also chopped all my veggies so that tomorrow I can just make up my chicken hand pies tomorrow. I did a double batch of everything so I can freeze my left overs.

It was long, but satisfying day. I am so excited about all my scratch cooking this week that I am doing. I really hope someone out there is enjoying this blog. I know that I am enjoying doing it and it helps me keep track of everything.

Here are some recipes I plan on trying. Not sure when because I have been stuck at the house due to the fun snow and ice we have been dealing with.

Here are the links to the yummy looking hand chicken pot pies. Yumm
http://www.marthastewart.com/344205/savory-chicken-pocket-pies
http://www.marthastewart.com/341164/cream-cheese-pastry-dough


Still looking for more recipes. I also plan on making my own butter here soon. I am loving to be able to use my kitchenaid mixer more.

I think I may also try this Shepards pie, it looks yummy.
http://www.food.com/recipe/traditional-irish-shepherds-pie-302120

I am also going to try to make some calzones with this recipe for my dough:
http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-calzones-378119
and this recipe for my sauce:
http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-pizza-sauce-22280 I will add my own toppings to it also.
I am also going to make some BLT's and was planning on buying frozen fries, but instead I am going to make my own and this recipe looks soo yummy.
http://zestycook.com/healthy-homemade-french-fries/

I am definitely trying this bread recipe, maybe to go with my BLT's:
http://www.food.com/recipe/country-white-bread-or-dinner-rolls-bread-machine-71373

Homemade Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup shortening, melted

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the egg, milk and shortening; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
2. Pour batter by 1/4 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes; cook until the second side is golden brown.

Here are some pancakes I made. They turned out great and my 2 1/2 yr old daughter loved them.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fluffy-Pancakes/Detail.aspx I just plopped some blueberries in the batter and cooked them as usual. They were also pretty yummy, but I might try a different recipe next time.
I also made some cookies today but have yet to take a picture but I will add the recipe cause they have turned out yummy

.http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lots-o-Cookies/Detail.aspx

My last week.

So I got a little off track this last week. It was kind of crazy for me. We all took an hour and a 1/2 drive to go get a new car. I am officially a wagon mom. AHhhhh

Very big picture, sorry about that. And we went to my inlaws one night and one night we did a very quick unhealthy dinner of Carls Jr. So I havent cooked a lot this last week. But I thought I would share my one picture of my yummy delicious fajitas I made so here it is.

This weeks Menu

Wednesday - Baked Chicken, Suddenly Salad(goal is to find a recipe I like as much as this, but that's in the near future), and Peas. Nothing too fancy but tomorrow is busy for me so I don't want to do a lot.

Thursday-Chicken Fajitas. I do my own seasoning and it is just chili powder, dried onions, and garlic salt with some butter. I do it to taste so I don't have measurements for it. But it is closest to some of my favorite restaurant versions of it.

Friday- Fried Rice. So far I use the Sun Bird fried rice seasoning packet and add whatever I want in terms of veggies to it. In my fried rice I have chicken (cut into small pieces), bacon(also cut into small pieces), onion, frozen bag of peas and carrots, egg and green onion. It is super yummy. My MIL(mother in law) initially turned me onto this.

Saturday- Taco Salad. I need to also find a way to make my own taco seasoning to truly call it cooking from scratch but I just use whatever seasoning packet I have on hand and cook it with ground turkey(not big ground beef fans here yet, but our goal is to buy a 1/2 cow someday and use it) Toppings are ground turkey, tortilla shells, lettuce, avocado, tomato, olives, salsa(one day when I get ambitious will make my own to go along with it) and I use ranch dressing while my husband uses thousand island.

Sunday: Nantucket Cod (http://www.food.com/recipe/red-lobster-nantucket-baked-cod-221240) looked delicious and I happen to have some cod in the freezer, rice and asparagus.

So this week isn't so ambitious with my cooking from scratch journey but as I said I am trying to slowly add it to my weekly meals, I am not trying to go all crazy all at once because it just wont happen. Thanks for those of you keeping up with my blog I am enjoying my journey I hope you are too and find some interesting meals to try and maybe start your own journey. Please feel free to add ideas for me to cook. My next big plan is to find a 4 ingredient cookbook and try a new recipe everyday for a year. Kind of like in Julie and Julia. But she did some YUMMY looking recipes. I am not trying to go as intensely as she did. Ta ta for now

So Sorry.

So I would like to apologize to anyone who is following this. And I am trying to get better at adding pictures with my food so I thought I would add some really quick.

Here are the homemade noodles I made for the Chicken Noodle soup. MMMMmmm. I love homemade noodles. I think I may have talked hubby into buying me the attatchment to make noodles that goes with my kitchenaid mixer.

Here is the homemade pesto I made to go on my pizza and oh my goodness it was the best pizza EVER. I will definitely make it again. My inlaws were over also and thought it was super yummy.

And lastly my homemade fish sticks. Made with cod. I originally made it for my fish tacos, which by the way were very delicious I would recommend them for sure. But I had so much fish leftover it was rediculous.

My day of making pizza.

So I started my pizza dough this morning in the bread machine. This specific recipe isnt for the bread maker, so I am hoping it turns out ok. I just added all ingredients in the order they were listed and put it on dough cycle. So we will see. I have a lot of cleaning to do this morning but as soon as the girls are down for nap I am planning on cutting up all the toppings and cooking the chicken and making the pesto. The pesto will be a new thing but I am so excited to try out my new attatchment. If I get really ambitious I might also make some cookies but thats a big maybe. So yay to the first day. I will update how the pesto goes and how the pizza turns out.

So I made the pizza and it turned out delicious. Very yummy, I highly recommend it. The pizza dough turned out perfect even though I used the breadmachine. We had the inlaws over and they loved the pizza too. I did end up making cookies and yummm. I will add the recipe later. Its very good.

My first week of cooking from scratch.

So, as I start this journey I want to let you all know that I am not trying to conquer this all at once. I am going to try and pick a few meals a week or parts of meals to cook from scratch and work up from there. Here is this weeks menu:


Tuesday-Homemade Pizza with homemade pesto as the sauce(this recipe is coming from my kitchenaide mixer pamphlet). My pizza will have fresh mozzarella, tomatos, chicken, onions and some yummy cheeses. with a salad. The pizza dough will be made from scratch also from the Money Saving Moms website http://moneysavingmom.com/2009/02/homemade-pizza-in-less-than-30-minutes.html.
Wednesday- I am just doing a chicken stirfry with rice. Nothing special here.
Thursday-Homemade chicken noodle soup with the noodles being made by myself(I will be finding a recipe online for the noodles) and some homemade rolls(http://www.food.com/recipe/buttery-bread-machine-rolls-65340)


Friday-steak, twice baked potatos(http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/twice_baked_potatoes/)
, and broccolli
Saturday-Fish tacos( http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/40-a-day/baja-fish-tacos-recipe/index.html)
with black beans and spanish rice.
If anyone has some great recipes they want to share I would love to hear them.