@CoffeeQueen wrote:

Focaccia bread is something I usually pick up in the bakery. Well, I haven't been in the bakery for awhile so I found this recipe. It's easy and delicious, better than the bakery. [www.inspiredtaste.net]

Just don't make it too greasy.
We've had ciabatta (white and wheat), challah, focaccia, cinnamon raisin, pretzels and deep dish pizza dough the last two weeks. DH is getting rid of his stress by baking and eating all day. I have lost 5 pounds though.
I think that he was going to do bagels this weekend too? I'm just going to add them to my online order.

You lost 5 lbs eating breads? That's a great diet!

Yeah the recipe called for more olive oil than I actually used. I just put the leftover in a small jar to use for something else. I'm with Jas. I want to know the details of the bread diet.

This is not a recipe, per se, but a tip for using a large chuck roast. (A recipe will follow soon.)
Grab a 3-6 lb chuck roast whenever you find one. (They seem to be MIA for weeks at a time, even before the pandemic.) If you are in price shock, remember that a good, tender 4 oz serving of pot roast with gravy, plus a stach of choice and a steamed veg, will go a lot farther than you think.
Tram away all of the fat. Cut the meat into 1 1.5 lb chucks (1-2 person household) or larger for larger households. Wrap each chunk tightly in plastic wrap and then place into Ziplock bag(s), expelling all of the air before freezing. Because this wrapping method basically amounts to expelling all of the air, the packets will be good in your freezer for at least 6 months.

I always estimate just 4 ounces of red meat per serving, since that is the recommended daily maximum. So, because I am cooking for one, when I defrost and cok a 1lb chuck roast I am planning on 2 meals to eat within 5 days and a package of meat, mushrooms and gravy of 2 portion, to freeze for "planned overs." YMMV.

Umami Rich Pot Roast with its own gravy.
That's right; this makes its own gravy.
This recipe is for using one lb of trimmed chuck roast. If you scale it up, just remember not to double or triple the Dehydrated Instant Onion soup amount. More like 1.5 generous TBSP for 2 lbs, etc.

Ingredients
1 lb well trimmed beef chuck roast
1 can low sodium condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 generous tablespoon of dehydrated onion soup mix (I use Lipton)
using the empty soup can, 1-1.5 cans of additional liquid of your choice (see below).
finely diced dehydrated shiitake mushrooms that have first been soaked as instructed below.

Instructions
Rehydrate the dried mushrooms, making mushroom tea, as follows:
Take a generous handful of dehydrated mushrooms and rinse well under running water, in case they came with the inevitable small amount of sand.
Bring 1-1.5 cups of water to a low boil, remove from heat.
Add the rinsed mushrooms and stir.
Let this steep for about an hour.
Remove the mushrooms and chop or dice them. (I use a small food processor.)

In a slow cooker of oven proof pan/casserole with a tight cover, place the mushroom soup, the finely diced mushrooms, and the onion soup mix.
Thoroughly stir in 1-1.5 cups of liquid consisting of any combination of 2 or 3 of these:
water
red wine
the liquid "tea" from the mushrooms
Place the meat into this mix and spoon some of it over the meat.
For slow cooker, start with 1 hour on high, then 6 hours on low.
For oven set the oven to 250. Check it periodically to see if it is boiling and lower the oven temp to 225. The oven method will take 7-8 hours)

The meat should be fork tender when done. Remove it and tear of slice it into serving size pieces.

Serve with steamed carrots and your choice of starch. I use mashed potatoes.


MY NOTES
When stored, carrots convert sme of their starch to sugar. Therefore, if you have fresh-from-the-garden carrots, they will taste much sweeter if you store them in a cool dark refrigerated space for at least 2 weeks. .
If you greatly prefer to have the carrots simmer in the pot, go for it. Just use largish chunks so that the carrots do not overcook.
Choice of liquids to add:
I favor half red wine and half "mushroom tea." The reason to include that tea follows.

UMAMI The desiccated shiitake mushrooms undergo a chemical transformation that permits you to bring forth a pungent umami flavoring by soaking them as directed. What follows is a quote from a recent Washington Post article, by a biochemist, explaining this in terms that any lab tech would love:
"Dried shiitake adds a very important umami or savoriness by contributing two molecules: glutamate and a nucleotide called GMP that’s present in the cells’ RNA. In fresh shiitake, these two substances are present in very low amounts, but during drying, the glutamate is concentrated and GMP is released through an enzyme reaction. The two molecules amplify each other’s umami. To extract the most flavor, I first prepare a “mushroom tea,” steeping chopped dried shiitakes in water..."



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2020 01:56PM by walesmaven.

Thanks, wales, I just drooled all over my keyboard.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

You lost 5 lbs eating breads? That's a great diet!

No more El Pollo Loco and Panda Express has helped. In the course of a month, I probably ate there 8-10 times. I guess like most people, I eat what's in front of me. Fast food has big portions and loads of calories. Probably far too much salt as well. So, no more bar audits either, where generally the only thing that I can eat is hummus and pita or chips and guacamole, or bar mix. I have called my boss (small MSC owner) and hollered more than once, that I just need a damn impossible burger on every hotel menu or avocado toast. I'll pay $25 all day long for that.

Since coronavirus, I never stop for fries or a mini-bean burrito before my 1+ hour drive home anymore either. No more Starbucks dopio extra ice, heavy splash of almond milk at break or for the ride home either.

So, I still work my regular job (standing 9 hours a day) and can eat plenty of bread and lose weight. Go figure.

ETA: I can eat just a slice of it. DH will eat the rest of the loaf, hence his morbid obesity. Since switching to a plant based diet, I am not really hungry anymore. I think that it balanced my sugar levels. I eat all the time and never limit what I eat, and I lose about a pound a week on average. A pint of non-dairy ice cream will last me a month. Nobody else eats it, so I always have it on hand. Usually breakfast is a vegan burrito (Sweet Earth brand) or an English muffin and a Morningstar Farms patty with mustard and vegan cheese slice and a travelers mug of coffee eaten at 80 MPH on the I-5.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2020 08:00PM by SoCalMama.

Today (and tomorrow) I'm making this no-knead cinnamon raisin bread. Well, if I have raisins, I haven't checked but who cares. The bread looks divine. Apparently it rises overnight with no help or kneading from me. Sounds like a plan. [www.youtube.com]

Made this last night using my Insta Pot pressure cooker. So easy and delicious. I used dried parsley. Used my new mandoline toy for the carrots, LOL. [natashaskitchen.com]

That looks like a nice dish. I probably would not sacrifice a head of garlic but rather julienne a couple of nice fat cloves while I had my glove on and was julienning the carrots. They should cook down and virtually disappear into the dish so you have the flavor but no garlic bombs.

Oh, Flash! My garlic is precious now. I decided to sacrifice a whole clove. You are right, next time I will use 4 cloves, sliced or smashed! It was sooooo good.

Yes, I have been having problems finding Gilroy CA garlic that isn't dry and shriveled and the Chinese stuff is pretty awful so yes, my garlic has become precious as well.

I have had to resort to bottled chopped garlic in olive oil. No recent fresh US garlic found recently.

Surprisingly, the garlic that I bought from the Asian market that seems like eons ago were delicious fresh and smashed easily. I bought 2 sleeves of 3 from our local but expensive supermarket recently that were fresh. I don't know fresh garlic brands. I buy whatever is available, LOL. Aspiring to be kitchen goddesses like you all. It's been real. Uggh.

Walesmaven, I am going to try your roast recipe. I have what I think is a London broil in the freezer? Can I use that cut? My DH bought it in Feb. and is the only one who will eat it. He will be in all his glory. I have carrots,too, glory be.

I have never cooked with London Broil. How thick is the piece? The recipe will work best with a hefty chunk of lean meat. Chuck roast is usually 2-3, or more, inches thick. The cooking method works best with cuts that are meant to be slow cooked in moist conditions. Something that is often broiled probably is not a good candidate for the moist cooking method.

I hope that others, more familiar with London broil, will chime in here.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

Today (and tomorrow) I'm making this no-knead cinnamon raisin bread. Well, if I have raisins, I haven't checked but who cares. The bread looks divine. Apparently it rises overnight with no help or kneading from me. Sounds like a plan. [www.youtube.com]

MMM That sounds really good. I don't like raisins but I would love cinnamon bread made without raisins.

Madeto shop...
I looked up Landon Broil and here is what I have found. It seems that anything labeled that is meant to be cooked with dry, high heat for a short time.

Quote follows:
What type of meat do you use for London broil?

Top-round steak, sometimes sold as "London broil" or flank steak is the traditional cut of beef used for London broil since they take well to marinades.

How do you cook London broil?

You make a marinade for the meat—ours is olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and Worcestershire—and let it soak up the flavor for at least an hour and up to overnight. When ready to cook, preheat broiler and scrape off garlic from the steak (it'll burn under the high heat). Broil on a sheet pan for 12 to 15 minutes per side, then let rest 10 minutes before slicing AGAINST THE GRAIN. Very important.

Thank you! We will defrost it and grill on BBQ!

Glad to help !

[www.foodandwine.com] I hope this link works. OMG, pasta was so good. Used my pressure cooker. Omitted the tomatoes as had none. I used 5 cloves of garlic minced, a box of drained frozen spinach, mushrooms and linguine fini pasta. Reserve at least 2 cups of the pasta water. I used about 1.5 cups. So easy and yummy.

Doesn't look like my link worked. Google pasta with goat cheese and spinach recipe from food and wine.

Mix and Match Pasta Alfredo (or Pesto)

This is less a recipe and more of a menu plan.
Cook some of your favorite pasta, enough for 2-3 meals, drain pasta.
Day one: drench a meal's worth of drained pasta in bottled Alfredo sauce, place on low heat.
Place remaining Alfredo sauce in refrigerator.

Add one of the following:
steamed or sauteed (shelled) shrimp;
Canned clams and some of the clam juice in which they are canned;
chopped, cooked chicken.

Steam an equal number of days worth of a green veg. (I favor broccoli, but green bean or well drained spinach will be nice)

Add a meal's worth of the green veg to the pasta and sauce. Bring to" very warm" but do not boil.

Serve with garlic bread.

On the next round, reheat a meal's worth of that pasta Alfredo, adding a little milk or reserved sauce, if seems too thick.

Add a different protein, add the green veg. Enjoy.

rinse and repeat with a third protein, etc.

Hint: this also works very well with pasta with pesto sauce. And either version is good cold, as well. The addition of sauteed mushrooms, or even canned mushroom pieces, also works very well.

I found a recipe that I love.

Cut open an avocado and remove the pit. Make a "boat" with aluminum foil and place the bottom of the avocado in the "boat". Crack open an egg and place it inside the avocado where the pit was. Add salt and pepper. While it's cooking, cook a couple of pieces of bacon. Once the avocado is cooked, put the bacon on the avocado. Then put it on toast. It is SO good! It takes about 20 minutes.

[whiteonricecouple.com]

I feel like an old dog learning new tricks:

Take fresh corn still in the husk. Wet down the husks (I just run them quickly under the faucet) and put the ears in the microwave. Without opening the husks, microwave on full power. I find that 3 min works for a single ear, 4 min for two ears. Move to the cutting board and cut off stalk end just above the hump of the bottom of the cob. With a dishtowel or pot holder, squeeze the tassel end down like squeezing a tube of toothpaste. The ear should come out from the cut end without the hairs. Splay out the leaves of the husk by the base if needed to get the ear to squeeze out. Season and serve.

Pop the tough ends off fresh asparagus spears, Make a strip of paper towels wider than the length of your longest spears. Wet the paper towel and lay the spears across the width in a single layer. Carefully roll up your asparagus so that each spear is sandwiched between the wet towel. Microwave at full power. I found that 3 minutes for a pound of spears was not as soft as we like asparagus so gave them 2 more minutes and they were just as I like them.

Does anyone have recipes for green tomatoes? I will have quite a few but I have diverticulosis so don't eat chow chow or salsa. I will definitely do fried green tomatoes but have to remove the seeds!

I guess I will have to do fried green tomatoes. LOL...is aok.

Just a thought, since I don'y know anything about this but... how about doing a search in "green tomato recopies"/? If nothing else, you might turn up some variations of the fried GT recipes.

I did but I never tried looking for fried green tomato recipes.

Wow right away I saw a recipe for Food network (of course lol) saying to add garlic powder with a sprinkle of paprika >> but get this a buttermilk dipping sauce. again WOW