Mashed Potatoes Gettin' Good

~Probably my favorite food in the whole wide world! But what is in these would surprise you.~

Mashed Potatoes. Ok, not the most shocking of all posts, but my favorite food so I'm writing about it. This particular batch is a little bit different though, even as far as my usual mashed potatoes go. This was one of the key "I'm not sure about this" recipes from my new Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Ok, well, this isn't exactly her recipe .. I make some rocking mashed potatoes on my own, but I did try her add in. So, here we go:

"New" Mashed Potatoes:
the title in the book is just "mashed potatoes" and you can find it on page 80

1) Get yourself some potatoes. I always use organic potatoes, locally grown when possible, grown ourselves is the best. Again, I make enough for seconds and leftovers, so I used a 2lb bag.
~ Wash your potatoes, peel if you'd like. I leave the skins on, more nutrients there (plus I'm allergic to peeling potatoes, no joke). Cut the potatoes into at least quarters, if not a little smaller.
~ From here you can toss them into your pot of water, OR you can add some extra nutrients by using some homemade chicken stock!
~ Boil 10-15 minutes till they're easily pierced with a fork. -- Eco-Note - put a lid on the pot when you set it to boil. You'll save energy that way and your potatoes will cook faster.

2) Add some Goodness. There are several things you can add to your mashed potatoes to increase the goodness but I'll start with the Deceptively Delicious add-in to be fair.
~ When you're ready to get mixin' add 1 cup pureed cauliflower. (The recipe calls for 1/2 c., I doubled the recipe, so there ya go). Like I said earlier, this is one recipe I wasn't sure about. To date, every time I've tried cauliflower I've HATED it!! Yes, like a little kid!! UGH!! But I was curious to try this out ... "let's see if she can make a believer out of me" kinda thing. I steamed the cauliflower like she said and have to admit it smelled pretty good. I was looking forward to making the potatoes!
~ I also LOVE garlic. Again, organic & local are the best. We planted a respectable sized garlic garden this year, yay!! Garlic is really good for you too. Roast a head of garlic and then put the cloves into the mixer. Yummy, and now a must-have with my potatoes.
~ Garbanzo Beans! I cheat here and use a store-bought can. Organic as often as possible. When adding these to mashed potatoes, toss them into the pot to boil with the potatoes!!! <-- NOTE THAT, cook these babies first! They'll soften up and mush into the potatoes perfectly when you get them all into the blender.
~ Some Dairy: You know to add some butter. Use real butter & don't be afraid of it. You also know to add milk, which you can substitute with buttermilk if you'd like. Add the milk last. If you want some "zest" add sour cream. If you like adding sour cream but want it to be a little healthier, add plain yogurt. You can't tell the difference, and you'll be adding B vitamins as well as saving some calories & fat by not using sour cream. This last batch I didn't add sour cream or yogurt to, and I used milk with. My final dairy add-in, which I did put in there was a package of cream cheese. Insanely delicious with mashed potatoes. Don't cheat yourself on flavor here by trying to get reduced or fat-free ... go for the real thing!

Mash It All Up:
~ Drain your potatoes and get them into your mixer. You can also mash by hand if you want and I will give you massive points for doing so!!
~ For these potatoes I added butter, 1 cup pureed cauliflower, 1 roasted garlic bulb (minus the cloves I couldn't resist eating first), and a package of cream cheese.
~ Get the mixin' going on and see how the consistency is. If it is how you like it, you don't need milk. I did decide to add some milk though.

The Result:
Oh MAMA!! These were some GOOD potatoes!! I didn't notice the cauliflower at all, so she convinced me there. Everyone else liked them as well. Definitely try this out. Don't be scared to add some stuff to your mashed potatoes. Make them healthier for you and your family. Comfort food just got even better.

"Burgers 1" ~ a review

I wrote about getting this new cookbook in my last post. Since I've decided to try it out, I thought I would review the recipes as I go. My apologies in not having a photo to match this recipe .. sometimes cooking dinner for a hungry family and taking photos just do not go hand in hand.

~My new cookbook, as I try to sneak more fruit & veggies into my/our diets~

In the interest of space, I'm going to type out how I made the dish, which may or may not follow the recipe in the book to the letter. Sometimes you run out of things, or inspiration calls me elsewhere. I will make sure to note the proper title of the recipe though, as well as the page it can be found on, for those who want to look it up themselves. Here we go.

Burgers 1 - page 111:

*1 lb ground beef (pasture-raised & from Bright Farm in Floyd)
*1 cup breadcrumbs - at the suggestion of my sister-in-law, Gemma, I used fresh, homemade bread & crumbled it up. Our homemade bread is made with a mixture of local unbleached white & whole wheat flour, flax seed meal, and local honey.
*4 TB Ketchup - again, I used my homemade ketchup that was made with our own organically grown heirloom tomatoes.
*1 cup carrot puree - made with organic carrots
*4 cloves garlic, minced

~ Blend all ingredients well, and form into small patties. I tried to keep in mind that a serving size of meat is approximately the size of a deck of cards & made the burgers no larger. I got 9 patties of varying sizes.
~ Heat up your skillet, I used my trusty cast-iron one as it holds heat so well. I heated it up on high, then kept it somewhere around medium, adjusting higher or lower as needed. Pour a little olive oil in, no more than a tablespoon or two. Put your patties in the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes or so per side.
~ We served these with a slice of American cheese for the kids, and then for us a slice of American cheese, homemade zucchini relish, homemade ketchup, and mustard. All of the burgers were served on whole-wheat hamburger buns (store-bought) that I had open-face toasted in our little toaster oven.

The Substitutions & Changes:
*The recipe was actually for 1/2 the amount of meat, but since I had thawed a pound I decided to double the recipe and freeze the leftovers. *A good idea for a quick meal for a night where time is rushed!*
*The recipe also calls for using 1/4 cup (or in my case, 1/2 cup) skim milk. 1) We don't have skim milk and likely never will. 2) I was worried this would make things too moist, so decided to leave out the milk till the end to see if it was needed. Gemma, my Italian sister-in-law, swears that using fresh bread for breadcrumbs will increase the moisture, while using store-bought will make meat dry. I trusted her knowledge here (you gotta try her meatballs!). Our moisture content was fine.
*The recipe also called for using low-sodium soy sauce. We use tamari in place of soy sauce, but happened to be all out. Since I put carrots into my basic tomato sauce I made the decision to use some homemade ketchup in place of the soy sauce. 1) Ketchup & Burgers just go hand in hand. 2) I know the veggies that go into my ketchup and felt it was a healthy decision.

The Review:
These made themselves into patties quite nicely, and we only had minimal problems with crumbling - no more than we would usually have as we test out new burger recipes.
Justin got worried that these really were not cooking as quickly as the cookbook said they would. We decided to try grilling them, but it seems our grill doesn't like cold cold weather and wouldn't work right. The recipe says to finish them off in the oven, at 400 degrees. We were already baking some fries at about that temperature, so we tossed the first round of burgers on a pan and into the oven to finish off. The second round of burgers (can't cook them all at one time on the skillet!) seemed to cook with better timing. Perhaps it's just been a while since we've cooked burgers indoors on the skillet?? One thing we did notice was this: as the carrot cooked it seemed to darken a little, which gave the appearance of the meat not being done. All said and done though, this was only a minor hiccup.
Taste - actually very yummy!! The kids didn't notice that these burgers were any different than ones they've had before. They did have a slightly more "veggie" taste to them that I noticed, however I've also noticed a very intense beef flavor when we've made just straight-up hamburgers. I'm wondering if using the soy sauce wouldn't help give it more of a beefy flavor. However, it didn't taste like a veggie-burger, and was still really good. It was moist and delicious!!

Overall:
I will definitely be making this one again. All four of us liked it, and that's good enough for me. I liked knowing there were extra veggies in my burger. I am eager to try it using soy sauce (or, more accurately, tamari) instead of ketchup. If the results are significantly different I will let you know. Otherwise, if you want to make your burgers a little more healthy for you, then I would definitely recommend making these!


~~A Follow-Up Review: ~~
Like I said, I made a double batch of these for freezing and serving again later. Leftovers rock, plain and simple. I heated the kids each up a burger for lunch one day this past week, zapping it in the microwave. They crumbled. <-- The burgers that is, not the kids.
Perhaps it was some of the substitutions? Would "true" bread crumbs have been better at keeping it a little drier? Was that the problem? Justin blames the carrots. I'm not certain. It wasn't necessarily a end-of-the-world, awful crumbling, but a crumbling none-the-less, which made lunch messy. Shannon didn't have such a hard time (he's almost 6), but it did take Tristan a bit to get the hang of how to eat it without it all falling out of the bun (he's 3 1/2).
Points deducted.
I'll still try the recipe again. But it is really a big thing to be able to have leftovers we can eat again. We'll see, and I'll let you know!

Fuzzy Brain Findings

~Ok, first I want to acknowledge that the title there sounds more like it ought to be for a Halloween recipe than anything else. Just stick with me, I'll get around to making sense eventually~

I've been wondering why it was that, as much as I love to cook and, even more, as much as I love to bake ... why don't I make Christmas cookies? For the holidays I do make fudge, but that is usually only done a day or so before our Christmas Eve Open House Party and more for gifts than anything else. Shoot, I think this is the second year Santa has not gotten cookies from us. (Don't worry, we're pretty certain he just helped himself to some of the fudge instead!) I see friends posting about all the holiday goodies they're baking and wonder ... why am I not doing this?? The only things that become absolute must-haves this time of year for us are: 1)Chex-Mix & 2)Sausage Balls ~ the latter of which we reserve, again, for gatherings.

So, I keep wondering what is up with me, with us, not demanding more sweets. I was pondering this as I snacked on some Sugar Cookies that someone brought as a gift. I ate 4, maybe 5 of those. Then, it began to hit me. My tummy began rumbling ~ I always begin to think of that silly old Pooh Bear when that happens. I felt like I needed to go for a jog ... or into detox or something.

And then, something really magical happened. My fuzzy little brain began adding things up! If you know me, you know how fuzzy my brain gets when it comes to mathematical stuff, so wow ... a Christmas miracle of sorts.

I noticed that, when I'm not feeling well, when my tummy is rumbly, and especially if all of that is caused by a night of too much drinking, I reach to my one tried and true remedy: Dr. Pepper. We each have our things, Dr. Pepper is mine. Then, because I haven't been feeling too good, I start making bad decisions about what to eat. Sipping on soda, snacking on cookies, almost ready to give in and order take-out pizza for dinner. Yikes.

~I finally bought this book when I found it at Big Lots today or $3, down from the cover price of $24.95~

Now, if you know me at all, you know my love for Nina Planck and her book 'Real Food.' I had checked 'Deceptively Delicious' out from the library after hearing lots of raves about it. It was pretty intriguing, but I let it go without too much thought. When we left the house to run a few quick errands today, I was starting to feel the need to detox. So, when I spotted this book on the shelf for $3 I snatched up a copy for myself, then ended up going back and grabbing one for a friend as well.

I have to admit that right now I actually have that Activia commercial running through my head. Thanks Jamie Lee Curtis. You know, you feel like crud so you make bad decisions with your eating, which just makes you keep feeling like crud. Well, Activia isn't what I am needing, but veggies are!

'Deceptively Delicious' is, according to the cover anyway, "simple secrets to get your kids eating good food." Ok, I don't but into trying to sneak healthy food into my kids. We have a pretty darn lush garden, we don't give them lots of sweets (Santa brought always brings apples and oranges and, seriously, I probably have the only kids who would be delighted to be enrolled in the Fruit of the Month Club as a gift), they know about veggies and love them.

But I realized something today -- it isn't exactly OUR kids I'm worried about at the moment. It's my own damn inner child that needs to be tricked!! I was the picky eater growing up, and I am still really, embarrassingly horrible about eating veggies. I want to be better, I really do, but it's a long road ahead of me. I'm working on it.

This is where I would really recommend this book. That, or if your kids are picky eaters like I was. The basic idea she goes with here is using pureed foods (veggies and fruits) in places you really wouldn't expect them. There is a recipe for Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes that includes, among other things, yellow squash puree, blueberry puree, and spinach puree. A recipe for Mozzarella Sticks that uses: whole-wheat bread crumbs, flaxseed meal, & cauliflower puree, along with mozzarella. ~ Now here I will follow the advice of Nina Planck and try finding raw, whole milk mozzarella instead of the skim-milk advised in the recipe. This book has gotten a LOT of hype as well as some seriously rave reviews, so I'm hopeful about the sneaking of extra veggies into our daily routine. If any of these dishes can actually get me to eat cauliflower, something my own inner-kiddo immensely detests, then I'll know it's a real keeper! Here is a link to her website if you wanna check it out: http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com

And, if by New Year's Eve you are starting to make a resolution of hitting the gym because you are feeling funky from all those sweets, I encourage you to pause for a moment. Take a deep, cleansing breathe in. Look at the food around you. Adding more exercise is almost always a fantastic idea, but look at what you're eating on a regular basis. Maybe the answer is right in front of you.