jasmine rice, and - it's back this week - mixed greed salad. This is Ron's all time favorite meal and actually we all like it a lot. Mia Rose declared today "I love meat". So, there we have it :) and even Alena - the bean lover - loves this meal too. A win-win situation for the entire family...Oh, and guess who helped make it? Mia Rose - she is our little chef. She crushed the garlic, stirred the herbs, tasted the salad dressing, all while her big sister was enjoying an after school bath.
Here it is "Herbed Chicken Thigs, with jasmine rice, and salad" - before I forget here is the link to the recipe http://galactopdx.blogspot.com/2009/01/panko-baked-chicken-thigs.html
Mia Rose cannot wait for her dinner...
and neither can Alena...
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
White Bean, Barley, and Kale Soup
was our dinner last night served together with homemade bread - quick no knead bread. It was delicious especially on a cold night.
I slightly tweaked a recipe I found on Pinterest http://asweetspoonful.com/2012/02/a-certain-rhythm.html - second tried one in a week - by adding zest of half a lemon, as well as a couple of rinds of Paremesiano Reggiano to the soup stock. I squeezed the lemon juice into the soup, and we omitted the extra olive oil on the table. I just did not think that it was necessary.
The soup was fantastic. The next time I will definitively add more lemon juice as it really makes this soup fantastic.
You need
- 1 lb. dried white beans (I used navy beans) soaked overnight
- 1 large onion peeled, and cut in half
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- zest of 1/2 lemon minced
- 5 cloves of garlic - 2 minced
- rind of parmesiano regiano (optional)
- 1/4 of olive oil
- water
- 3-4 teaspoons of kosher salt
- pepper to taste
- 1 bunch of kale chopped without the stems
- 1 cup of barley
1- Add beans, onion, celery stalks, herbs, and aromatics, 3 garlic cloves, rind of paremsiano regiano to a
large pot
2 - Add olive oil and cover with water - water should be about an inch above the beans
3 - Bring to a boil and then leave at a low simmer half way covered. Add more water as needed.
4- When beans are soft - it about 1-1/2 hrs with well soaked beans - remove onion, celery and herbs
5- Separate about 2 cups of the beans and puree - I used a hand blender, return to pot. Add salt, pepper,
and minced garlic
***In a separate pot - you can do this while the beans are cooking***
6- Bring 3 cups of water to a boil - and add barley. Cook until soft and then - after step 5 above, add the
cooked barley to the beans
7- Add the kale to the bean/barley mixture and let it all heat through. Stirring often - you may have to
add a little more water
8 - Add lemon juice, adjust salt and pepper.
9 - Serve with crusty bread and - optional - grated paremsiano regiano
This is a delicious, nutrious meal and can be vegan if leaving the parmesiano regiano out.
I slightly tweaked a recipe I found on Pinterest http://asweetspoonful.com/2012/02/a-certain-rhythm.html - second tried one in a week - by adding zest of half a lemon, as well as a couple of rinds of Paremesiano Reggiano to the soup stock. I squeezed the lemon juice into the soup, and we omitted the extra olive oil on the table. I just did not think that it was necessary.
The soup was fantastic. The next time I will definitively add more lemon juice as it really makes this soup fantastic.
You need
- 1 lb. dried white beans (I used navy beans) soaked overnight
- 1 large onion peeled, and cut in half
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- zest of 1/2 lemon minced
- 5 cloves of garlic - 2 minced
- rind of parmesiano regiano (optional)
- 1/4 of olive oil
- water
- 3-4 teaspoons of kosher salt
- pepper to taste
- 1 bunch of kale chopped without the stems
- 1 cup of barley
1- Add beans, onion, celery stalks, herbs, and aromatics, 3 garlic cloves, rind of paremsiano regiano to a
large pot
2 - Add olive oil and cover with water - water should be about an inch above the beans
3 - Bring to a boil and then leave at a low simmer half way covered. Add more water as needed.
4- When beans are soft - it about 1-1/2 hrs with well soaked beans - remove onion, celery and herbs
5- Separate about 2 cups of the beans and puree - I used a hand blender, return to pot. Add salt, pepper,
and minced garlic
***In a separate pot - you can do this while the beans are cooking***
6- Bring 3 cups of water to a boil - and add barley. Cook until soft and then - after step 5 above, add the
cooked barley to the beans
7- Add the kale to the bean/barley mixture and let it all heat through. Stirring often - you may have to
add a little more water
8 - Add lemon juice, adjust salt and pepper.
9 - Serve with crusty bread and - optional - grated paremsiano regiano
This is a delicious, nutrious meal and can be vegan if leaving the parmesiano regiano out.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday Night leftovers for dinner...
is a rare occasion at our house. Generally there is just enough for the girl's lunches the next day. In any case, remember the pork roast (Schweinebraten) I made on Saturday? -> http://galactopdx.blogspot.com/2012/02/saturday-dinner-roast.html - I had actually planned to make the rest for Monday's dinner. This time with Kartoffelsalat (Swabian potato salad), and mixed free salad. It was perfect - and Kartoffelsalat is always a huge hit with the girlies. Can you guess what they are eating for lunch today?
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday concert fun
After our amazing breakfast - courtesy of Ron :) - we headed downtown Portland for our last concert of this year's Kids Concert Series of the Oregon Symphony at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall . Each concert in this series has a different theme. This ones was "Castles & Wizards" and it was - as all the concerts - wonderful. Here is the link with a brief description http://tickets.orsymphony.org/single/EventDetail.aspx?p=1686
Take a look at the girlies - not quite sure....
...and wearing their crowns.
This one is after the concert together with...
...Princess Orange who by the way performed "Almost there" by Randy Newman from the movie "Princess & the Frog". Both girls were just in awe by the princess a.k.a. Pam Mahon who is also the narrator extraordinaire of the Kids Concert Series.
Now, you just know what comes after the concert, right? Yes, dinner out. We have been going to Pastini's downtown Portland, but we - the parental units - felt like something different. So we headed back to Southeast Portland and went to Hoda's Middle Eastern Restaurant. http://www.hodas.com/ As you probably know, our girls eat all beans, legumes, fruits, veggies including garbanzo beans and both love Hummus. We feasted family style and it was enjoyed by the four of us. One word of caution, if you omit milk do not eat the Baba Ghanjoue as it contains milk.
Here is a picture of the girlies after dinner...
...their smiling faces make my heart sing :)
Take a look at the girlies - not quite sure....
...and wearing their crowns.
This one is after the concert together with...
...Princess Orange who by the way performed "Almost there" by Randy Newman from the movie "Princess & the Frog". Both girls were just in awe by the princess a.k.a. Pam Mahon who is also the narrator extraordinaire of the Kids Concert Series.
Now, you just know what comes after the concert, right? Yes, dinner out. We have been going to Pastini's downtown Portland, but we - the parental units - felt like something different. So we headed back to Southeast Portland and went to Hoda's Middle Eastern Restaurant. http://www.hodas.com/ As you probably know, our girls eat all beans, legumes, fruits, veggies including garbanzo beans and both love Hummus. We feasted family style and it was enjoyed by the four of us. One word of caution, if you omit milk do not eat the Baba Ghanjoue as it contains milk.
Here is a picture of the girlies after dinner...
...their smiling faces make my heart sing :)
Sunday breakfast...
all made for us by Ron. Are we not the luckiest girls around? - The breakfast was complete with bacon - fried to crispy perfection - soft boiled eggs, toast, laugenweckle, and earth balance. And yes, that is "cow" yoghurt right next to the vegan butter. Not to worry, both girls know that it is "cow" and not Galactosemia safe. Yes, we also have Whole Soy vegan yoghurt for the ladies, but neither of them was in a yoghurt kind of mood :)
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Laugenweckle (Pretzelrolls)
All of us love Laugenweckle and it is usually reserved for the times we are in Germany, as this is not an item to try at home. Well, that is until now...here is the result of my first ever homemade Laugenweckle. I first saw the recipe on Pinterest and adapted it to be galactosemia safe. I honestly had very low expectations that thety would not even come close to the ones I know from home but whoo-hoo delicious. Here is the link to the recipe to make it galactosemia safe all you have to do is swap Vegan Butter - I use Earth Balance - for the cow butter. I was doubtful, but it works out great. Here is the recipe http://penniesonaplatter.com/2011/10/14/pretzel-rolls/
Saturday Dinner Roast...
with egg noodles, and red cabbage. Pork roast to be exact or as I like to call it Schweinebraten, Nudeln and Blaukraut...the recipe is out of a Swabian Cookbook "Omas Kuechen" (Grandmas kitchen) and it turned out delicious. It takes about 2-1/2 hours on the stove, but the result is well worth it. Let me know if you would like the recipe :)
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Look who lost a tooth at the Brew Pub...
Yes, it is Mia Rose. Can you see her missing top front tooth? That tooth had been wiggling for at east a couple of weeks. I think she did not want to loose it. Then, one bite out of the pizza dog and plop the tooth was out. This was actually the second tooth in two days. On Thursday she lost a bottom tooth.
As for dinner this picture is at Bridgeport Brewery in the Pearl where we enjoyed our Friday night dinner....
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Birthday party fun...
finally a little post about Mia Rosies' Birthday party. Let me first start and tell you just how excited she was. She had a hard time sleeping for at least a week leading up to her birthday, and the night before her party was no different. She woke up, and was ready to party!
The cake she selected was an ice cream cake - http://galactopdx.blogspot.com/2012/02/ice-cream-cake.html - which everybody loved.
We started out by serving cake
Here she is wearing all smiles and ready to blow out her candle...By the way, the choice of color for the table cloth and cups was all hers. I do however admit, that I also like pink as well as purple - you know, just in case you were wondering :)
After the cake we played a round of "Topfschlagen" - literally translated "hit the pot" which is also the game. Here is a picture of Alena playing
searching for the pot with the wooden spoon and underneath the pot there is a treasure...
Next we painted small terra-cotta pots...
filled them with dirt, and planted Nastrium seeds.
We followed up with a round of "Musical Chairs", a little free play, and opening presents....It turned out fun and everyone was tired at the end...
The cake she selected was an ice cream cake - http://galactopdx.blogspot.com/2012/02/ice-cream-cake.html - which everybody loved.
We started out by serving cake
Here she is wearing all smiles and ready to blow out her candle...By the way, the choice of color for the table cloth and cups was all hers. I do however admit, that I also like pink as well as purple - you know, just in case you were wondering :)
After the cake we played a round of "Topfschlagen" - literally translated "hit the pot" which is also the game. Here is a picture of Alena playing
searching for the pot with the wooden spoon and underneath the pot there is a treasure...
Next we painted small terra-cotta pots...
filled them with dirt, and planted Nastrium seeds.
We followed up with a round of "Musical Chairs", a little free play, and opening presents....It turned out fun and everyone was tired at the end...
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Beef, red peppers, rice, and roasted root vegetable salad is for dinner...
We are working our way through the family meat pack stored in our freezer. We had some beef left - still have a little more - and I took it out in time to defrost. If it 's not ground beef, I am at a loss as what to make. Well, I could always put it in a pan but it is not really my favorite. I asked Ron, and he came up with the idea to marinate the beef, cut it into thin strips and serve it with peppers. So, that is what I did. Marinated the beef this morning in lemon juice, garlic, and peppercorns. I sautéed an onion, and a couple of red peppers. Then I put the meat into the smoking hot pan. Served along rice, and roasted root vegetable - carrot, parsnip, golden beet, turnip - salad this was a dinner success in our little house in Portland. One child ate all her meat, beets, and rice, while the other ate all veggies, rice, and one slice of beef....
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