24 Weeks & Counting: Nesting & Baby Prep (Recipe: Freezer Egg FeauxMuffins

So we're in Month 5 at the FeauxHousehold.  I've been blessed with a pretty easy pregnancy so far, but I also know I'm only going to get bigger, more tired, and as the summer creeps closer, less wanton to do absolutely anything.  So I've been trying to kick the whole "nesting" thing into overdrive while the weather is still reasonable and I don't have a B.O.B. (big ol' belly) in the way.

Last weekend, we rearranged rooms in our house--previously, we had an office, and a guest room, in addition to our master bedroom.  Now, the office & guest room are combined into the larger of the two rooms and the baby stuff has been somewhat unceremoniously tossed into the now-nursery.

Guest room before, with too big king size bed, and guest room/office after, with air mattress to be blown up for guests as needed--we also have a queen airbed for multiple guests/grandparents.

Former Office before, and Now-Nursery catchall, to be organized soon (hopefully).

More on the nursery later, as it starts to come together.

I also was feeling a little crafty, so I busted out the sewing machine and made these little cuties from some patterns I found on Pinterest (links below):

Seahorse Pattern

Starfish Pattern

Dino Pattern

There's also a whale coming soon, as soon as I can figure out how to piece him together.

And then, to round things out, I spent some time putting together some more freezer meals to fill our chest freezer.  This time, I made a shepherd's pie casserole, a Crockpot "throw & go" beef stroganoff (FYI, the recipe seemed like it might be a little bland, so I added about a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and a couple cloves of garlic)...and some homemade Egg "FeauxMuffins" (lest I get sued by McD's).

INGREDIENTS: (makes 6)

6 (1 package) whole wheat English muffins (purchased at our local Sara Lee Discount Outlet store for $1)

6 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

3 pieces bacon, cooked & chopped

1 tsp Cajun seasoning

1 Tbsp dried or fresh chives

6 thick slices of lean ham (or 1 large ham steak)

6 slices 2% American cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Have your husband start toasting the English muffins & cook the bacon slices (if he feels so inclined).

Spray a 7"x11" baking dish with olive oil, and then crack 6 eggs into the dish.  Add the milk, seasoning, chives, and chopped bacon, and then whisk with a fork until well combined.  Place the baking dish in the oven and let cook until eggs are firm (it was about 15 minutes for us).

While that's baking, finish toasting your muffins and start cutting out your ham.  We had round ham slices, but they were a bit too big for the muffin, so I found a cup that was about the size of the muffin & used that to trim the ham down.  (Save extra ham bits for a nice egg scramble later in the week.)  When your eggs are fully cooked, remove, let cool, and then cut into 6 relatively equal pieces.

To assemble, place ham down first, then egg, then cheese, then top with the other half of the muffin.  Wrap each individually with plastic wrap, and then re-use the bag the muffins came in for storage.

When it's time to eat, zap in the microwave (or toaster oven if you prefer) until warmed through.  I find doing about 1 minute to help thaw, and then going in 30 second intervals until fully done seems to work well.

Cost per breakfast sandwich: About 85 cents

Nutritionally, this sandwich has about 25 more calories than the *cough* other ham & egg breakfast sandwich, but it also has 7 grams more protein, slightly fewer carbs and less cholesterol, and a LOT more flavor.

NUTRIFACTS:

Calories		326.0
Total Fat		13.0 g
	Saturated Fat	5.1 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.5 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	3.0 g
Cholesterol		217.9 mg
Sodium		1,342.2 mg
Potassium		348.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate		28.7 g
	Dietary Fiber	4.4 g
	Sugars	6.3 g
Protein		24.1 g

The Grilled Club (An Inside Scoop recipe)

This was probably the most popular sandwich we had on our menu--which is understandable since it was super-tasty. I still make them at home on occasion.  We initially introduced it as a "Special of the Month" early in Year Two, and it sold so well that we made it a permanent addition.

This is easiest to make if you have a George Foreman grill, panini press, or similar.  If you don't, you can still make it in a skillet or on a flat top like a traditional grilled cheese, but with all the fillings it can be tough to flip.  It will also cook faster in a grill/press, which is nice if you're in a rush or have several to make.

INGREDIENTS: (per sandwich)

• 2 slices good bread (we like Orowheat 12-Grain, but anything more substantial than typical thin sandwich bread will work)
• 1 Tbsp Herb Mayo
• 2 slices provolone cheese
• 4 slices Black Forest ham
• 2-3 slices tomato
• small handful fresh baby spinach
• 2 small slices bacon, or crumbled bacon 

DIRECTIONS:

Heat up your grill/press/skillet/flat top; then spread half the herb mayo on the OUTSIDE of the first piece of bread.  Yes, you read that right.  You're using it to "butter" your bread.  Just trust me. (Sciency bit--the smoke point of mayo is higher than butter, so it's less likely to burn the bread before the guts of the sandwich get melty & hot.  And the oil & egg in mayo make for crispier, more evenly grilled bread.  And the fact that we're using the herb mayo gives a HUGE wallop of flavor.)

Lay that piece down, then begin assembly: 1 piece of cheese, ham, spinach, tomato, bacon, other piece of cheese, and then the last piece of bread, with the rest of the herb mayo facing OUT.

Grill until golden and the cheese is melty.  Serve warm with chips.

NutriFacts:

Calories		423.7
Total Fat		17.5 g
	Saturated Fat	7.5 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.0 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	2.0 g
Cholesterol		70.0 mg
Sodium		1,230.9 mg
Potassium		41.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate		38.3 g
	Dietary Fiber	6.2 g
	Sugars	7.0 g
Protein		28.2 g

Louisiana White Beans w/Ham & Sausage

GREETINGS FROM COLORADO!

(The hubs & I, taken yesterday, at the spot where he proposed back in 2011. [Whistlestop Run at Winter Park])

We’re out here on a family vacation, and after two days of skiing my knee has proclaimed “NO MAS!” so I’m catching up on blogging while enjoying the nice view of Winter Park Village from our balcony.

---

Back around the holidays, one of the local grocers was running a really great sale on Cook’s bone-in hams…something like 69 cents a pound?  But you had to buy the big gigantor 20-pound hams to get that price.  So we had the butcher cut it in half for us, cooked one half for Christmas, and then froze the other half.

So it was finally time to do some cooking with ham (not surprisingly, 10 pounds of ham takes up quite a bit of freezer space)…and I don’t know about you, but the first thing that comes to mind when I think of ham is ham & beans.

My mom, who grew up in the rural farmland of Missouri, has been cooking ham & beans for as long as I can recall.  She has a big cast iron pot, and I always know when I come home to visit if that pot’s on the stove, good stuff is sure to be in it…any of her favorites are possible: vegetable beef soup, chicken & egg noodles, chili, ham & beans… I learned from her, as a mom with a full time job aside from mom-ing, that sometimes it’s best to just make a big batch of something delicious & then enjoy it all week long.

We won’t be using her recipe though—since I don’t already have it in my possession.  Rather, we’re cracking open the big Chef John Folse cooking bible again.  Chef Folse has never steered me wrong, so I figure it’s time to get started.

Ingredients:

1 pound dried white great northern beans
1 smoked ham hocks
½ cup bacon drippings
1 cup diced onions
1 cup diced celery
½ cup diced bell peppers
¼ cup minced garlic
2 cups sliced green onions
2 cups diced ham steak
3 (6-inch) links spicy smoked turkey sausage
½ cup chopped parsley
salt, cajun seasoning, and Louisiana hot sauce to taste

 

Directions:

First off, I need to point out—this is a stove top recipe, not a slow cooker recipe.  I HAVE slow cooker versions, however, they take 3-6 hours to cook, whereas this method takes a little under two hours from start to finish.  We still have plenty of ham left, so maybe I’ll do a Crockpot version soon.

1. Soak beans overnight in cold water, then drain & rinse in cold water.

 

2. Dice ham & sausage & set aside.

3. In a large stockpot, melt bacon drippings over medium-high heat. Sauté onions, celery, bell peppers, garlic, 1 cup green onions and ham for 5-10 minutes or until vegetables are wilted.  Then add the sausage & beans, and cook an additional 2 minutes.

 

4. Add enough water to cover the beans by two inches.  Bring to a rolling boil and allow to cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning or sticking.  Then lower the temp to a simmer, add the ham hock, and allow to cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Then stir in the remaining green onions & parsley, and season to taste.

Louisianans might likely serve this with rice, however, I prefer it with cornbread.

Or, well…. ON cornbread, to be exact.

(My lunch, for about a week after we made this dish.  YUM.)

If you follow this recipe, you’ll get about 12-16 servings (depending on how much you eat in a sitting), so we actually made a half-batch & got about 8 servings.

 

NutriFacts:

Calories 212.5

  Total Fat 9.3 g

  Saturated Fat 3.6 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.8 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 2.6 g

  Cholesterol 32.9 mg

  Sodium 775.3 mg

  Potassium 337.5 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 18.1 g

  Dietary Fiber 5.0 g

  Sugars 1.5 g

  Protein 14.5 g

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesday

Crockpot Red Beans & Rice.

I seem to have a love-hate relationship with red beans & rice…I love to eat them, but have a devil of a time trying to make them, as evidenced by my first ever entry in this blog, when I attempted to make “quick” red beans & rice in my microwave (which ended up taking still about 30 minutes in the microwave and a lot of *DING!* *open microwave door & stir* “nope, still not done…”).  Red beans is a “low & slow” type dish, so I figured, what better than the Crockpot?

Sadly, perfect red beans eluded me again, but thanks to some quick thinking, I was able to salvage the dish.  I will give you the amended version here, to save you the heartache that I went through.

Ingredients

2 cans seasoned red kidney beans
1-2 cups water
2 links smoked sausage, sliced and cut in half
1 cup, cubed ham (I bought a ham shank for cheap, cut the ham off the bone & then threw the bone into the pot for extra flavor)
1 cup, each, chopped onion and bell pepper
2 stalks celery, sliced thin
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 tbs. or more Cajun seasoning
2 bay leaves
1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced
3 cups hot cooked brown rice (we like to use Minute Brown Rice)

Combine the first 12 ingredients in your Crockpot, & mix well.

(Photo taken before the water was added in.)

Cover & heat for 5 hours on high, or 8 hours on low. (We started it in the morning before work around 8am, set on Low, and I got home at 6pm.)  Then discard bay leaves and mash some of the beans (also, if you used a ham bone, remove it now & give it to your dog--he will love you FOREVER); add green onions and additional Cajun seasoning or some Tabasco to your taste, and cook for 15 more minutes. Add a little water, if necessary.

At this point, you have options—you can either serve your red beans poured over rice, or you can integrate your rice into the crockpot.  If the beans are still a little soupy, I recommend the latter—good red beans have a nice, thick, creamy texture—thus the smashing of the beans to really get the starches out.

Serve with french bread, some extra green onions, and a nice salad.

NOTE: The original recipe called for MUCH more water, so I’m assuming that chef intended the recipe to be made with dry beans, not canned/precooked, although it wasn’t specified. So when I came home, it was too soupy & hadn’t cooked down nearly enough. To salvage it, I (thankfully) had extra cans of beans in the house, so I smashed two extra cans of beans & tossed them in, & let it cook down for another 20-30 minutes on High without the lid on.  It was still thinner than I wanted, so I also mixed our rice in to help soak up some of the juices.  This got it to a thick enough texture for us to eat  without it feeling like soup (and serve to my in-laws, who I originally hadn’t been expecting for dinner), and then we let the rest continue cooking on Low until that evening when it really thickened up. 

And it worked out well in the end, because I had all the more servings to accommodate our unexpected guests, and still more than enough to take to work the following day for a potluck, while still saving back a few servings for my husband & I.

Serves 8.

Amount Per Serving

Calories 316.1

Total Fat 7.0 g

Saturated Fat 2.5 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.6 g

Monounsaturated Fat 0.7 g

Cholesterol 42.9 mg

Sodium  1,235.2 mg

Potassium  530.8 mg

Total Carbohydrate  42.1 g

Dietary Fiber  10.2 g

Sugars 2.3 g

Protein 20.3 g

Linked to: 33 Shades of Green