Grits

The grits were good served with a vegetable medley.

What do you think of when you think of grits? Me? I think of Grandma Terrell. Not because she made them for us that I can remember but because I seem to remember her talking about grits and milk. I may be remembering wrong but that is what comes to mind. I don't know that I ever had them growing up at all.

However, not long ago, my wonderful mother-in-law brought me a whole bunch of different grains from a gristmill they had visited. One of the things she brought was grits. I had no idea how to make grits so I just followed the directions on the bag.

It took 10 minutes in the microwave. The measurements were 1 C grits to 2 1/2 C water. I also added salt to taste and a couple of tablespoons of margarine when they came out of the microwave. I really like them. They can be cooked on the stove top or in the microwave. I served them with some veggies that I cooked on the stove top. I will give you that concoction in another post.

All in all, I would certainly recommend trying these. You should know that there are some rather large pieces of corn hull or husk or something in the grits that I had. Just be aware of how coarsely ground your grits are if you are serving them to small children. Also, if you have a corn allergy, these are not for you since most grits are ground up corn. But, this is allergy free otherwise.

At any rate, something new that the girls ate - a positive dinner.

Not Your Normal Bean Dip

For dinner the other evening, I cut up some fresh veggies. The girls normally balk at just plain old veggies so I thought I would whip out some kind of a dip. What came to mind is hummus. Now, I don't know if I can technically call this hummus or not since it is not made of chickpeas so bean dip it is.

I just mentally ran through what I had around, including the freezer, and in the freezer I had great northern beans. When I cook beans, I take the whole bag of dried beans and cook them all at once. Then I freeze whatever I didn't use in 2 cup portions, which is about the same amount as 1 can of beans from the store. So, white beans it was.

I pulled them out and threw them in the microwave to thaw, along with a bunch of red bell peppers that I had already cut up. After they were thawed, I dumped them in the blender with some sunflower butter (again, what I had), lemon juice, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper. I pureed it all up and served it.

Once again, the girls wouldn't eat it even though 2 of them said it was good. I don't know. I will just keep trying, I guess. The next "try" will be to see if hummus freezes and thaws since I can't eat all of this by myself and I don't think my husband will help.

Oh, here's the actual recipe!

Not Your Normal Bean Dip -

• 2 cups OR 1 15oz can any kind of white bean
• 1/2 sliced red bell pepper
• 1/2 lemon, juice only OR about 2 T lemon juice
• 2 T sunflower butter (you could probably do peanut butter or tahini instead, but have not tried that)
• 1 - 2 tsp cumin, to taste
• 1 - 2 tsp paprika, to taste
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Blend it all up and use as a dip or spread. Eat up!

Dinner Menu

Dinner the other evening was a success. Of course, when I choose sausage, it is seldom anything else. The girls all love sausage. Usually, I just cut up the smoked sausage links and brown the pieces in a skillet. I needed something different though.

I took the turkey sausage, about 14 ounces, and boiled it with the juice from a large can of pineapple chunks. It turned out sweet, with a nice citrus flavor, without being overwhelmingly pineapple-y. I just simmered it until the rest of the dinner was ready and the sausage was heated through.

So our menu was this:

• turkey smoked sausage boiled in pineapple juice
• canned pineapple
• sliced red bell peppers and cucumbers
• black beans (prepared ahead and frozen, then thawed for this dinner)
• carrots and broccoli (from a bag of frozen veggies)

That's all. It was simple and easy because much of the prep work had been done ahead of time. I seem to get bogged down in side dishes a lot of the time but these ended up being quick. I will have to remember this menu.

Yummy but no takers...plus a recipe

A week or so ago, I bought two large fresh beets at the store intending to roast them for dinner one night. I didn't get around to it until I saw this recipe from the Weelicious site for a hummus dip. I thought it would be perfect. Bright pink!! What more could these 3 girls want? Pink food would fit right in. Boy, was I wrong about the girls.

But let me put this all in order. I made the beets Monday night for dinner. If you are going to make this, let me give you a tip...beets do not microwave cleanly! I thought that since it was 105 yesterday evening, I would do them in the microwave instead of roasting the beets in the oven. Big mistake, kind of.

Here's the recipe and what I did: I cut each one (I did two so we could eat one for dinner) into about 8 pieces and put them in a microwave safe dish. I added a couple of tablespoons of water, some diced garlic, and a few dashes of dried rosemary. I popped that into the microwave for 10 minutes, planning to check it but expecting it to need about 10 more minutes (for a total of about 20). Well, when I checked it, the water was a beautiful pink and boiling out all over the microwave. I decided that since it was already messy, I might was well finish. So I did. When I took them out, the pink water was everywhere but wiped up nicely and I now have a very clean microwave.


Anyway, at that point, I let the beets cool a bit and then peeled them with a knife and fork. I cut them into bite-sized pieces and reserved half for the hummus recipe (it ended up being right at a cup). I thought these were super yummy but the girls would not eat them.

Tueday for lunch I figured we would have a Pinkalicious lunch, since they love those books, the beet hummus being the pink part.  I followed the recipe from Weelicious, except that I had done the beets the night before. The food was a beautiful dark pink.

And it was so yummy! But, alas, they would not like it.

You know what that means... I had to eat it. I did not eat it all in one sitting, though that was VERY tempting. I will probably finish it up in two, though. I had bite-sized wheat crackers and bell pepper strips to dip with. So good!

I think this one will have to come back a few times and if they don't ever like it, more for me!!

 Oh well... on to the next attempt.
Enjoy!