Life has been hectic

My grandmother was in the hospital for a week and has now been home resting and trying to regain some strength for a few days.  She was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure which was a shock to all of us.  After a week in the hospital, lots of test, talking to several doctors we were happy to have her back home, but she needs help at her house.  A bunch of us have been taking turns staying the night with her, cooking for her, and making sure she doesn’t over do it.  It’s a terribly hard job..the last part..since she has lived alone for 15+ years and is used to doing everything for herself.  We don’t know what the prognosis is, so we are taking it day by day.

In my research for her sodium restrictive diet I came across a recipe for homemade ketchup.

A while ago I bought the book Deceptively Delicious but have never really made anything from it…until now.  I made ketchup.  It was low sodium…good for Grandma…low sugar…good for Allyson the household ketchup eater…and easy to make…good for me  I like simple.  For low sodium make sure your tomato paste doesn’t have any added salt.  At first I kept the salt the recipe calls for out, but after tasting it and realizing it really needed the salt, I put it in.  The carrot puree called for is really easy to make. Peel, slice and steam about 4 carrots.  After the carrots have cooled run them through a blender/food processor and the measure for the ketchup recipe.

This ketchup was quite thick so next time I will increase the water to 1/2 cup.  But other than that I thought it was a pretty good recipe.

Homemade Ketchup (from Deceptively Delicious)

• 1 6oz can tomato paste (no salt added)
• ½ cup carrot puree (peel, slice, steam carrots, puree in blender/food processor)
• ¼ cup water
• 2 Tablespoons Apple-Cider Vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used one)
• 1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon dry mustard
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder (no salt, I made my own)

Stir all ingredients together in a big saucepan and bring to boil over med-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer about 15-20 minutes. Keeps in fridge about 5 days or freeze and thaw as needed.

Fried Rice

Now that we are back into our school schedule and each of the girls has evening activities a few nights a week, I need to start thinking ahead for dinner.  Last night I made a tofu dish from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook I borrowed from the library and it turned out wonderful.  I wanted some rice with my tofu and decided to make an entire pot so I could have left over rice for another night.  Fried rice is a super quick dinner that both the girls will eat…ok so Allyson will only eat it if she has sweet and sour sauce to pour over the top, but at least she will still eat it.  The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook has a recipe for fried rice that I adapted to fit our family tastes and the ingredients I had on hand. If you don’t have fish sauce you can just increase the soy sauce, but be careful you don’t get it too salty. The soy sauce, fish sauce, and chicken broth all contain a bunch of salt unless you have the low sodium versions.  With the left over rice this dish came together in a few minutes. It took longer to dice up the ham steak than cook the meal.  Allyson who is our pickiest eater gave this a thumbs up, she even said she didn’t mind the peas in the meal.

Fried Rice

Adapted from The Steamy Kitchen cookbook

• 1 t oil
• 3 eggs, beaten (I used egg beaters)
• 1 ham, diced
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 4 c cold rice
• 1 t soy sauce
• 2 t chicken broth
• 2 t fish sauce

Heat large skillet (or wok) over medium high heat. Add oil to skillet and scramble eggs until just set. Remove from pan. Put diced ham in skillet and heat thoroughly. Remove from pan and add to eggs. Dump frozen peas in skillet and cook for 30 seconds then add the cold rice. Leave rice and peas alone for about a minute or two until rice begins to brown a bit. Stir rice and let sit for another minute. Add soy sauce, broth and fish sauce to rice/peas. Quickly stir, and then add eggs/ham back to skillet. Continue stirring until thoroughly incorporated.

Salmon Recipe

No the salmon isn’t burned in Mondays picture.  Even though it doesn’t present well, the balsamic glaze is quiet tasty.  I got the recipe from here, but again I’ve made some changes to the original.  I left out the wine (I didn’t have any white wine in the house), reduced the garlic, and increased the honey.  I love that the fish goes skin side down on a foil lined baking sheet.  This makes the skin stick to the foil so serving is easy and clean up is even easier.  When I make this I leave half the fish without the glaze so Allyson will eat it.  Depending on the price of salmon, I have substituted steelhead for salmon.

Balsamic-Glazed Salmon Fillets

• 6 (5 ounce) salmon fillets
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoon honey
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Coat a small saucepan with non-stick cooking spray. Over medium heat, cook and stir garlic until soft, about 3 minutes. Mix in white wine, honey, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, for about 3 minutes, or until slightly thickened.

Arrange salmon fillets on foil-lined baking sheet. Brush fillets with balsamic glaze, and sprinkle with oregano.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 14 minutes or until flesh flakes easily with a fork. Brush fillets with remaining glaze, and season with salt and pepper. Use a spatula to transfer fillets to serving platter, leaving the skin behind on the foil.

Toe Surgery photo

updated to add the before photo
This is the before surgery photo.  See how the tip of the toe nail is white, it’s actually lifted off the toe.  At first we thought it was an ingrown toe nail, but it never healed.  Our pediatrician referred us to a podiatrist who knew almost immediately what the problem was.  The dr took an x-ray and could see a little bone growth on the tip of the toe bone.  The surgery entailed cutting half the nail off, making an incision and removing the growth.  Hopefully the nail will grow back normally (sometimes the nails grow back wavy or thicker than normal) and she will forget all about this.

So here is the photo of Ashley’s surgery site. I have placed a pretty little flower over the incision. If you want to see the toe, just put your mouse over the picture and the flower will disappear. If you don’t want to see the grossness, keep your mouse away from the picture.  Good luck.

Super busy week

We have had a super busy week and I seem to be neglecting the blog.  Ashley had to have surgery on her toe Wednesday, so our lives were a little consumed by her this week.  She had what was called an Osteochondroma growth the tip of her big toe.  It was a minor surgical procedure and she is doing great after the procedure.  I will post some pictures later this week after we have her follow up surgery.

When I knew she was doing fine after her surgery, I got to work in the kitchen.  Hopefully this week I will get some recipes posted of the delicious baked things I made, but for today I will give you a recipe for risotto. I love risotto, but it’s not something I had ever made at home. I was a bit intimidated by the cooking process. You really have to baby sit the pan and NOT WALK AWAY, which is something I’m not good at when cooking. There seems to always be fifty things going on when I’m trying to make dinner.  I got the original recipe from the food network site, but did make some changes to it.  The original recipe calls for dried mushrooms in the chicken broth and also an addition of wine with the rice.  The risotto was wonderful even without these things.  I also made Balsamic glazed salmon with the risotto and will post that recipe later.

Mushroom Risotto with Peas

• 8 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups finely chopped onions
• 10 ounces white mushrooms, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice or short-grain white rice
• 3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, optional

Directions

Bring the broth to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan. Keep the broth warm over very low heat.

Melt the butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add the onions and sauté until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the white mushrooms and garlic. Sauté until the mushrooms are tender and the juices evaporate, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and let it toast for a few minutes. Add 1 cup of hot broth; simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Continue to cook until the rice is just tender and the mixture is creamy, adding more broth by cupfuls and stirring often, about 28 minutes (the rice will absorb 6 to 8 cups of broth). Stir in the peas. Mix in the Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Reptile day

Fruit cup at the park

We had an A Mazing weekend.  It seems that we are actually able to enjoy all three days Mark has off lately.  Mark has some time for new tattoos this weekend and that gave me and the girls some time to explore a few of the festivities going on at parks near us.  Saturday morning I took the girls to Lowes for the Build and Grow Clinic.  I forgot the camera this week, but we built these cute dog leash holders. 

Then we made a quick stop at our local farmers market, again without camera, for lunch.  On the way to the fruit stand to check on the peaches we stopped at a park to check out the Music Festival for Hopes Door.  We were a bit early for most of the activities, but we enjoyed walking through the park and looking at the different craft booths.  As expected there were a variety of food vendors that gave off wonderful smells.  I hadn’t eaten lunch yet and was happily surprised to see a fresh fruit cup vendor.  I was more surprised when the lady sprinkled Chili Powder on the fruit and gave it a squeeze of lime juice.  But nothing prepared me for the explosion I tasted.  What an amazing way to enjoy a cup of fresh fruit.  The sweetness of the fruit, spice of the chili powder and tart juice of the lime all came together in perfect harmony.  I couldn’t wait to recreate this home.

This made the perfect breakfast with a nice toasted English muffin. 

At home I used cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple, mango, grapes, chili powder and lime.  My grocery store didn’t have any good fresh mangos, so I bough the ones in the jar.  They were a little softer than fresh and didn’t hold up very well under the weight of the other fruit. 

I diced up all the fruit and put it in a large bowl so I could toss it all together.  Then I moved it to a plastic storage container and keep in the fridge just like that until I want a bowl.  This is how my kids eat it. They just scoop out a serving when they want a snack.

But when I want a snack, I put some chili powder on top.

Squeeze on some fresh lime juice and

enjoy.  I found that I like a lot of chili powder on mine.  The spicy sweet tartness of this fruit really hit the spot.

Spicy Fruit Cup

• 2 C Watermelon, cubed
• 2 C Cantaloupe, cubed
• 2 mangos, cubed
• 1 C Pineapple, cubed
• 2 c grapes, halved
• 2 limes cut in half
• Chili powder, to taste

Place watermelon, cantaloupe, mangos, pineapple and grapes in large bowl. Toss to combine. Place serving of fruit in bowl, sprinkle with chili powder to taste and squeeze lime half on fruit. Enjoy.