Penelope Loves Lists » Recipes

Tips for a stress-free Christmas morning: the one day to curb your Penelope ways

Meredith — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:00:40 +0000

Photo Courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

Ah, Christmas morning. That wondrous time, where your home is beautiful, your gifts are perfect and gratefully received, your kids are well behaved and everything goes as it should. Right?

Not at my house. I actually think Christmas morning as a mom can be kinda stressful. Maybe it’s the pressure we put on ourselves to have that glossy, holiday magazine perfection.

Your best tool to ensure that you’re not a stress ball on Christmas morning is a “go with the flow attitude.” I know. Stop laughing.

Ok, two things you can do that really may help:

1) Think ahead about how things will go from the minute the kids wake up (early!):

Who is sitting where to open gifts? Does everyone have a comfortable place with plenty of space to move? Make sure this is decided beforehand, as kids love to argue over this kind of thing.
Where are the bags to collect the gift wrapping as it’s ripped off the presents? Get them out and have them ready.
Where’s your camera? Is it charged up?
Are you and your significant other on the same page about whether or not you’ll allow the kids to get into the gifts they receive? As in, can Little Jill open the new beading set she just received or does she need to wait until a later time? If so, when? Talk this through beforehand, I can’t tell you how many fights I’ve seen start over this very thing.
If the kids get candy in their stockings, are they allowed to eat it right then? Again, get on the same page here.
What are you going to wear? Have you dug out your cutest Christmas PJs? I know you have. You know you want lots of photos, which brings us to:
Are you going to put make up on before you let the kids go see what Santa brought them? You laugh, but I remember several Christmas mornings waiting anxiously for my mom to get her “face” on. I don’t care about this personally, but some people do. It bears planning in advance. Again, another place where fights can ensue. And nothing ruins Christmas morn like fighting between Mom and Dad.

2) Make breakfast ahead of time so you can just pop it into the oven while you’re opening gifts. I love to make gooey cinnamon rolls. My good friend Jennifer makes a delicious apple cake and has graciously shared her recipe:

Apple Cake

2 cups of sugar (try a mix of white and brown sugar)

1 cup of vegetable oil

2 eggs*

3 cups of flour (either white or whole wheat or a mixture of the two works well)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

3 cups diced, peeled apples (more or less…and don’t worry about the kind of apple–this recipe is forgiving)

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Put all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with your hands.(OK, if you can’t stand the thought of gunking up your hands, you can use a spoon. You know who you are. But really, here’s your chance to live a little on the wild side.)

Leave it all lumpy on top in the pan.

Bake at 350 to 375 in an ungreased 9×13 inch pan for about an hour. I give a temperature range because I like to cook more than one thing in my oven at a time, even if the second item is just some potatoes. (If you have pre-baked potatoes on hand, you’ve got an easy basis for a quick lunch.)

Cuts better when it’s cool, but if you serve hot it’s great with vanilla ice cream.

* To make it eggless (and vegan), use 2 tbsp of ground flax + 4 tbsp water as an egg substitute.

Let’s all vow to one another that we’ll try as hard as we can to let the morning unfold as it wants to, rather than the way we think it needs to go. This is hard stuff for us, but necessary. The best family memories happen spontaneously, so let’s take a deep breath, put down our mental lists and let Christmas happen.

Have a great holiday, Penelopes. I’ll see you after the New Year.

Posted originally on Dec 23, 2009.

Skinny jeans be darned, I love a Christmas cookie

Meredith — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:00:08 +0000

I love to bake for the holidays and this year I wanted to find a few more recipes to add to my tried and true family favorites. I thought I’d share my research with you.

The Food Network’s 30 Days of Holiday Baking

Martha Stewart’s Favorite Cookie Swap Recipes

Real Simple Cookie of the Day

Better Homes & Gardens No Bake Cookie Recipes

Allrecipes 20 Best Baking Recipes for the holidays

Allrecipes Candy recipes

Taste of Home gives us over 910 holiday cookie recipes

Christmas Morning Breakfast recipes

So, what’s your take on goodies at Christmas? Do you just say “what the hey” and enjoy whatever you want for the holidays, or do you stay disciplined? I’d say I’m somewhere in between.

Two websites to delight your Penelope eyes

Meredith — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:00:47 +0000

Whew! We’ve had a lot of words in the last two posts, so, today, just a few words and, instead, two websites that specialize in the visual.

First, I’m loving Things Organized Neatly. Really, they had me at the name, but this totally unique Tumblr feed is a daily dose of just that: photos of things organized neatly. For some strange, Penelope reason, it gives me a few seconds of orderly joy.

Second, there’s TasteSpotting, which bills itself as “a community-driven visual potluck”. Isn’t that a great description?

It’s basically fantastic pictures of food. Scroll the photos and click on any that catch your eye. The recipe follows at whatever blog submitted it. It’s simple and so yummy, and a great way to find new food blogs to follow. (Thanks, Denise, for this recommendation!)

Happy viewing, Penelopes!

The perfect summer dinner

Meredith — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:00:29 +0000

On hot summer nights, given that we don’t have air conditioning, I’m always looking for a meal that’s easy to prepare, doesn’t involve the oven and sounds good to me when it’s warm outside. This one is a family favorite that I thought I’d share.

Italian Rice Salad:

2 cups steamed white rice
1 cup frozen peas (thawed)
1 cup frozen corn (thawed)
1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup good quality feta cheese (and you may want more than this, I love mine really cheesy, so I’d add more.)
1 cup ripe, sweet cherry tomatoes
handful of chunked Italian ham (optional) (you could add kidney beans, too, for protein, if you want a veggie salad)
1/2 cup sliced olives (optional)

Dressing:
1/2 cup prepared pesto
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 -1/2 cup red wine vinegar (start slow and add to taste)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix dressing in a small bowl, set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients, then pour the dressing over it. Mix well. You can eat it immediately, but it’s better after an hour or so. Even better late that night!

I love to pair this salad with some warm, fresh rosemary focaccia from Trader Joe’s and a glass of raspberry iced tea. I’ll have some mango sorbet for dessert if I’m feeling like a sweet treat.

Mmmmm. Now I’m hungry. If you make this meal, let me know what you think!

Review: Menu Planning Website Relish

Meredith — Sun, 16 May 2010 16:00:56 +0000

Like you, one of my most time-consuming weekly chores is making my menu for the week and then preparing my shopping list before heading out to the store. For the last three months, I’ve been using the menu-planning service, Relish! to make this task easier.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: the lovely women at Relish offered me a free 3-month trial of the service so that I could blog about it. But, they agreed to my sitewide policy: that I’d blog honestly, and will in no way skew my thoughts because of this free membership.)

How Relish! works:

First, you purchase a membership. They have several different pricing options.

Then, each week you choose from a new list of recipes. You can select meals from several categories, including kid-friendly, quick, simple, slow-cooker and vegetarian options. You can also keep track of your favorite recipes from Relish! and add them into your weekly menu any time.

Sample Menu

Once you’ve made your choices, their List-Making Function automatically generates a list of all the things you’ll need for the menu you’ve chosen.

Sample Grocery List

My thoughts on my experience:

Pros:

There are lots of choices for the meals. I never was at a loss to choose 5 – 6 meals that my family would enjoy.
The menus include side dishes, which I find really helpful. I hate trying to come up with the right side to each meal. Makes my teeth itch.
Their recipes make it easy to incorporate lots of fresh fruits and veggies into each meal.
The recipes are super family friendly – my kids liked everything I made, and so did my semi-picky husband.
The automatic list-making function shaved a ton of time off of the making of my weekly shopping list.
Many of the recipes were really delicious and none were huge failures. That’s more than I can say for most recipe books I own. In fact, there’s one recipe for breakfast for dinner that has changed the way I make scrambled eggs forever.

Cons:

You have to choose the number of people you’re cooking for for the entire week. You can’t specify meals for 5, you have to choose 4 or 6 people. For me, that’s hard because I don’t always have 4 people at every meal. I wish you could choose the number of servings per meal, rather than overall for the entire week.
A couple of times, the list the system created for me included items that I didn’t need for the recipes I’d chosen. It was a weird glitch, but happened only twice.

Is it worth the (roughly) $7/month price? For me, the answer was yes.

Of course there are lots and lots of resources on the internet that enable you to plan your meals for free. But Relish! made my planning much faster and easier than me doing it on my own. That’s worth a lot to me. And I liked opening up the site and wondering what recipes I’d be choosing and making for that week. My menu planning became kind of surprising and fun, rather than a chore.

Hey, that’s always worth the price, right?

If you want to give Relish! a try, they are offering readers of this site a 2-week trial membership. Just go to this link and enter the code “Penelope” in the “voucher #” box and you’re in!

Can Oat Bran Muffins Really Kick Hiney? Yes.

Meredith — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:00:34 +0000

I rarely eat breakfast. I know. That’s bad. It’s the most important meal of the day. I know all the science. It’s just that…I’m busy. My mornings are crazy. I’m not hungry ’til lunch. And…and… I know. Whiny much?

It’s because I know I need to eat something in the morning that I started making these Oat Bran Muffins on Sunday afternoons. My dad gave me the recipe after his doctor told him he needed to lower his cholesterol and recommended these muffins as an easy way to do that.

I love that these little guys pack a fiber punch that I can use. But, what I really love is:

they’re quick to make.
they’re even quicker to eat. I grab one on my way out the door and it keeps me full and focused (where have I heard that phrase?) until lunch time.
they have so many powerhouse ingredients: olive oil, oat bran, walnuts, raisins, honey. All good stuff. (By the way, walnuts can increase your sex drive, in addition to everything else they do for you. For a stressed out Penelope, that’s a God send, right?)
they’re low in fat and sugar.

For all those reasons, I decided to share this not-so-groundbreaking-and-yet-useful recipe with you.

Kick Hiney Oat Bran Muffins

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly spray muffin tin(s) with light cooking spray.

Dry Ingredients:
2 Cups Oat Bran (you can usually find it in the hot cereal section)
1/4 C brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

Wet Ingredients:
3/4 cup lowfat milk
2 egg whites
1/4 C honey OR molasses
2 tbs olive oil

Extras:
1/4 C raisins
1/4 C chopped walnuts
1/8 cup chocolate chips (if you’re trying to trick your kids into eating them)

Combine dry ingredients, mix well with fork. In separate bowl, combine web ingredients, mix with fork. Add dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix just until moistened. Be aware it’s a fairly moist batter. Add in any extras you’re using. (I highly recommend the walnuts and raisins.) Fill muffin tins with batter.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-17 minutes. Allow to cool. Store in refrigerator. Makes 12 muffins.

Penelope Tip #1: this isn’t environmentally conscious, but, I HATE washing muffin tins. So, for ease, for just this recipe, I use disposable muffin tins. Please don’t send me hate letters. I’m trying to save on paper towels and to compost, I promise.

Penelope Tip #2: double the recipe and freeze half. They freeze well and it’s a total time saver. Sort of a “duh” tip, though.

Penelope Tip #3: add in just a few chocolate chips and include a muffin in your kids’ lunches for a morning snack at school. Their long-term energy will keep the kids’ attention from waning as lunchtime nears.

Penelope Challenge: the muffins bake for 15 minutes. See what you can accomplish in that time. I wrote this entire post, including finding images, in the time it took to bake one batch. Nothing like working against a loud, annoying timer.

Image credits: Brook Farm and Foodista Blog’s Flickr Stream

Penelope Loves Her Crock Pot: or closest thing to a clone I’m gonna get

Meredith — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:15:45 +0000

I get such satisfaction out of cooking with my Crock Pot (or, more properly, my “slow cooker”).

I love that I can wake up just 15 minutes earlier than usual and prepare that night’s meal. I love that all day, I can think “I’m here at my office, working like a crazy person, and at home, my Crock Pot is bubbling away, making tonight’s dinner.”

When I get home, it’s a quick salad, some bread, and – poof! – dinner. Such a timesaver and, really, the closest thing I’m going to get to having a clone short of my sister abandoning her family and coming to live with me. (That ain’t gonna happen. I’ve tried.)

Here’s one of my favorite slow cooker recipes, both because it’s delicious and because I can get it going in less than 10 minutes. Let me know if you try it.

Meredith’s Chicken Cacciatore:

Makes 6-8 servings

1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 packages of chicken thighs (about 8 pieces)
2 6-oz cans of tomato paste
4-oz of fresh mushrooms (you can use canned, but I think canned mushrooms are yucky and the fresh come pre-cleaned anyway, so it’s still fast)
1 1/2 tsp salt (you might want more, taste it in it’s final stages and add if desired)
1/2 cup dry white wine (of a quality you’d drink)
2 garlic cloves (or, as I use it, 2 spoons of crushed garlic from the jar)
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp celery seed (if desired)
1 bay leaf
(+ for serving: rice/pasta and 1/2 cup goat cheese)

Put the onion in and cover with chicken. Stir the rest of the ingredients together and pour over the chicken. Cover and cook on low 7-10 hours or high 3-4 hours.

I serve this over rice, but you can serve over spaghetti or any pasta.

Penelope tip: sprinkle with goat cheese and serve. This extra zotch of creamy tanginess is what makes the recipe for me. And, I always make the full recipe and have enough for leftovers the next night. I just change out the salad and bread to make it a bit different. My family never minds.

My favorite slow cooker recipe book isFix-It and Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker" target="_blank"> The Fix It and Forget It Cookbook by Dawn Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good.

Update: one of my favorite Pennies, Kimberly, just recommended we check out A Year of Slow Cooking. Looks great. I can’t wait to dig into those archives.