Fresh Artistry Meal Delivery Service Launches in Indy

As a working parent, I love convenience at dinner. But more importantly I want to feed my family freshly prepared food.

That's why I was excited to preview the Fresh Artistry service and the new family plan that is launching in Indianapolis tomorrow (Dec. 5).

Did the food look good? Absolutely. Was it tasty? Yes. But the most impressive part? It was ready to go and directions written in a way my 9 year old could make - and plate - a "fancy meal" for our family. I'm sharing with you the chef's own words and some insights on the program this week at Mom Hats & More.

Roasted Garlic Three Ways

Roasted garlic may be one of my favorite smells of all. Sure, it may not make me a fan of vampires or co-workers, but roasting garlic makes the flavor sweeter and is a yummy addition to a meal.

When I worked at a newspaper in Kansas City, the writers and I would enjoy roasted garlic as an appetizer at a local Italian restaurant. We loved to squeeze the golden garlic onto bread, or even just eat the cloves as-is.

How to Roast Garlic

If you have not roasted garlic, you are in for a treat. The hardest part is the wait!

Simply cut off the pointed end of the garlic and set into a pan, cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with cracked pepper. Bake at 425 for about 40 minutes. When cooked, the cloves will squeeze out of their papers like a gooey, amazing mess.

I prefer to roast an 8x8 pan of garlic at once (I know...) so any leftover garlic is covered in olive oil and stored in the refrigerator. I should note we use it quickly, as you do run the slight risk of developing botulism if it sits too long. As a whole, if you finish it in a matter of days, you should be ok.

If you haven't tried roasted garlic on Italian bread, do it. Tonight. If you're interested in some other ways to prepare it, read on. 

Roasted Garlic Butter

This may be the easiest thing to do. Take some softened butter (please use the real thing). Mix in roasted garlic to taste. Enjoy.

Roasted Garlic Rolls

These rolls, made and hand-shaped by my nine-year-old, were incredible as buns for turkey burgers and turned into garlic cheese bread!


Ingredients

2 packages Rapid-rise Yeast

2 cups Warm Water

¼ cup Sugar

½ cup Oil

1 Tablespoon Salt 

2 teaspoons Garlic Powder

5-½ cups Flour

2 heads Roasted Garlic, Peeled

2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted

2 pinches Kosher Salt

Instructions
Mix water and yeast, stir until yeast dissolves. Add sugar, oil, salt and garlic powder. Stir in flour and let rise once. Knead the dough and fold garlic cloves into it.

Spray a pan with cooking spray, and shape dough into equal-sized balls and place them on the pan, leaving equal space between them. Let rise again (cover with a moist towel if you’d like, to prevent the dough from drying out). Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

After rising, brush rolls with melted butter. Sprinkle on a little kosher salt and brush with additional butter. Sprinkle more garlic powder on top and bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Roasted Garlic & Green Beans

Ingredients

1 pound green beans
Leftover roasted garlic in olive oil
Salt and pepper

Instructions
This recipe is a deceptively simple one, but absolutely amazing. Drain the oil into a skillet and warm over medium heat. Sautee the green beans. When the green beans are close to completely cooked, add the leftover roasted garlic, stirring, until garlic is warmed. Toss with salt and pepper.

Use Up Your Granola: Chocolate Chunk Granola Cookies

I had granola to use up, and was not interested in yet another yogurt granola parfait.

Instead we added a little sweetness to our day with this Chocolate Chunk Granola Cookie recipe. I based this off a recipe for Copycat  Kashi Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies I had found on Pinterest, and it was a great way to use up not only the stale granola I had on hand but the chocolate bunnies from Easter. (Yes, it's the same chocolate as those prebagged chocolate chunks you'll buy the rest of the year - just much cheaper after Easter in that packaging!)

Even better, this was portion-controlled, only making two dozen. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chunk Granola Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup vanilla almond granola
2/3 cup chocolate chunks (or chopped chocolate bunnies or bars)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375.

Mix flour, baking soda, salt, butter, egg and vanilla extract together. Add egg and mix until batter is smooth. Mix in granola and chocolate. Drop by heaping tablespoons on greased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes. Makes about two dozen.

Find more ideas at Fabulously Frugal Thursday, Recipe Writers and Party in Your PJs Linkups.

Brownie Snacks Badge: Campout Menu

Cooking with 14 Girl Scouts is a challenge, especially in a meeting format. If you're ready to take on the challenge of a campout or day camp setting, this is the perfect way for Brownies to earn their Snacks badge!

Sample Menu:
Lunch:
- brown bag

Dinner: 
- hot dogs
- veggie faces and homemade vegetable dip (savory snack)
- foil-grilled or baked cinnamon apples
- patriotic punch (slurp a snack)
- S'mores (sweet snack)

Breakfast:
- Make your own trail mix bar (eat for energy!)
- juice boxes or milk

Follow Robbie @ Going Green Mama's board Girl Scout Camp on Pinterest.

Looking for more Girl Scout ideas? Visit my new scout leader resource site, Use Resources Wisely. 

Patriotic Punch Recipe (kid-friendly)

This was a great Pinterest find that I adapted for our Brownie troop campout. The Camporee had an honoring the military theme, so the Patriotic Punch was a great tie-in with that and the Brownie Snacks badge. The girls absolutely loved doing this activity!

(Note for leaders: Yes, we went sugar-free for our survival!)

Patriotic Punch (per person)
Ingredients
ice
3 oz. 7-up or Sprite
3 oz. fruit punch
3 oz. blue Gatorade
12 oz. clear plastic cup

Instructions
Fill cup 1/3 full with ice. Pour in fruit punch to the top of the ice.
Add another layer of ice. Pour in blue Gatoriade.
Fill to top with ice. Pour in 7-up.

Making refrigerator pickles

This morning we took the dive and for the first time attempted to make our own refrigerator pickles. Finding a recipe that had ingredients we had on hand was a bit tough though. We settled on a "kid-friendly" recipe -- which was great until I realized I yanked most of my random dill the night before!

So we are attempting this recipe by substituting the 1 cup fresh oil with six drops dill essential oil that I had gotten from a summer pack and hadn't yet determined what to do with it. While my 8 year old has already declared we are on the way to Flavortown with this recipe, I think I'll wait until the cucumbers at least get into the fridge first! :)

Rock star party cookies

Blinged-out buttery cookies for a rock star party are a must-have! It's also a great way to rid yourself of holiday sprinkles.

Rock star party cookies
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
5 cups flour
1 package Hershey Hugs
red decorator sugar (or any other decorator sprinkles)

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs until evenly mixed, then add vanilla and salt.

Stir in flour, about a third at a time, until blended.

Refrigerate dough if desired for easier handling.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll dough into balls, then roll balls into the red decorator sugar. Place on parchment paper on cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven, then lightly press an unwrapped Hershey's Hug in the middle of the cookie. Cool before eating.

Edible Fire Safety Tutorial for Kids and Scouts

With the recent drought and wildfires in this country, teaching kids fire safety is even more important than ever. 

I loved this lesson we had during Girl Scout camp, which taught the girls how to safely start and put out a campfire for cooking.

Edible fire safety lesson for Scouts

What you'll need:

• mini marshmallows and/or cheerios
• pretzels
• potato sticks
• red hots, hot tamales or other candy
• candy corn
• cups
• plates

Directions:

1. Pull back your hair.
2. Create a safety circle outside your "fire circle." (Make sure the area is clear around your plate.)
3. Fill a "water bucket" (a cup) and keep nearby.
4. Make your fire circle ring with cheerios or mini marshmallows.
5. Create an A-frame of "logs" with your pretzels.
6. Make a teepee of "tinder" (potato sticks).
7. Light with a match (red hots or hot tamales).
8. Add your "kindling" (short pretzels or Chinese noodles).
9. Candy corn will show it's burning brighter. (optional)

The girls loved this activity, and we were sure to plan an active activity soon after!

Follow Robbie @'s board Girl Scout Camp on Pinterest.

Quick homemade ice cream

Hand-cranked ice cream made by my mother-in-law is one of my favorite memories of summer. But, being a diabetic and aiming to reduce clutter in my home, I don't have the desire to buy and store an ice cream maker for the occasional summer treat for my kids.

Instead, I stumbled on a simple recipe for homemade ice cream that's portion-controlled and quick to make! The kids loved the process, and in 10 minutes - just a few quick songs on our playlist - they had a cool treat on a hot summer day.

Easy vanilla ice cream
1/2 c. half and half or whipping cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. sugar
Put in a small plastic bag and seal.

In a gallon bag, add 6 tbsp. ice cream salt or kosher salt, then fill halfway with ice. Add the small baggie; seal the large bag. Shake 10 minutes for a soft-serve consistency.

Jayhawk Smoothie

In honor of our basketball team, a smoothie for the Kansas Jayhawks!

This morning while making smoothies, I quickly realized the blackberries I'd grabbed were actually dark raspberries instead. I threw in blueberries in a blender and declared it a "Jayhawk Smoothie."

My 4-year-old quickly corrected me. It's not enough that it was red and blue. We also needed yellow for a beak! A banana quickly pacified him.

Here's the final recipe. Rock chalk Jayhawk!

Jayhawk Smoothie
2 cups raspberries
2 cups blueberries
1 large banana
2 1/2 cups almond milk (vanilla)

Blend. Enjoy!

Great Girl Scout Cookie Experiment

Girl Scout cookies - as if we didn't have enough in our home - were on our to-do list yet again this weekend.

Our challenge? To recreate an early Girl Scout cookie recipe as found on the Girl Scout national website as part of our council's 100th anniversary patch our troop is working on. We did our batch a bit early so we could donate it to the church bake sale. That is, if little brother can stay out:

The cookies have good flavor, but I learned three things in the process: It's tricky to roll out, so you'll need a lot of flour on hand. You'll want to err towards 10-11 minutes on the baking, not the 8-10 as in the original recipe. And today's cookie cutters mean that you'll wind up with about 3 dozen cookies, not the 6-7 dozen as promised on the site. Enjoy!

An Early Girl Scout Cookie^® Recipe

from Girl Scout national offices, circa 1920s-1930s

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar plus additional amount for topping (optional)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream butter and the cup of sugar; add well-beaten eggs, then milk, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Roll dough, cut into shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top, if desired. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until the edges begin to brown.

Lunchbox Love: Chocolate-covered banana chips

Chocolate-covered banana chips were one of those happy accidents, and an easy treat for my daughter's lunchbox. Not the fanciest, nor possibly the prettiest dish, but a great addition for her to munch on!

We had purchased some banana chips from a natural food vendor, which didn't fare so well for my children. These weren't the usual fried and salted variety, so they were a bit bland for their liking.

Instead, we shook things up by melting some chocolate chips in the microwave and letting them dip the banana chips into it. (An easy enough task that even my 3 year old could happily help.) We let them cool overnight before packing. It's the fastest those banana chips have ever been eaten!

Talking school lunches

Coupons littered my living room floor this weekend, spurred on by my husband's insistence that we actually do something with them rather than just collect them from the Sunday paper.

Trying to enlist my soon-to-be first-grader to help me sort just brought on new challenges as she created her own shopping list.

Sponge Bob yogurt.
Dora yogurt.
Granola bars.
Disney princess fruit chews (though the fruit part is questionable.)

I could have simply said no. Instead, we spent a good part of the afternoon having a conversation about what makes a healthy lunch for school. We talked about the need to add fruit or vegetable. To drink milk (hopefully the white variety). To enjoy things like chocolate pudding cups in moderation. That there are healthy foods and sometimes foods.

After last year's concern with not eating enough, I've been hesitant to put on too much pressure when it comes to what she eats - quantity, that is. But she certainly can be enlisted to make healthy choices along the way.

I'm thrilled that she wants to take on packing her own lunch each day, though I wonder how long that will in fact last. She'll be happy to make peanut butter sandwiches...but for how long? Just to prepare, I'm expanding her options by buying a stainless steel thermos (hot pink trim, of course) for her to pack hot lunches on cold winter days and stocking up on a few more reusable containers for her to pack berries in.

Needless to say, I'm still on the lookout for some fun, easy-to-assemble ideas for making lunches. Have a great idea? Share them below!

Not my cooking disaster

I snuck outside this evening to drop in a few quick pea seeds before the next batch of rain. What I didn't realize was my garden helpers had once again abandoned me.

I found them at our kitchen table, eagerly working on their "dinner." Having talked their babysitter into ponying up a tomato before they left, they had sliced it in half and squeezed it like an orange to juice it - as a dressing for her fruit salad of apples and ground cherries. Apparently it was an epic fail.

"I washed it out," my six year old confessed. "It got badder and badder; it was disgusting."

Instead, they opted to make a second dressing of orange juice and water, "and then we stopped. By our 15th bite, it got badder and badder with every bite."

I suppose I could have talked her out of her fruit salad idea in the first place. But to succceed at anything, sometimes you need a few stumbling blocks, too!

Bear-Bear's Banana Berry Smoothie

Invented by my 3 year old, this smoothie was simple and turned out great!

1 large banana
4 large strawberries
1 tbsp. local honey
1 c. milk

Blend and enjoy!

Hot cross buns and other Easter plans

We're radically trying to change how we handle our holiday seasons, moving them more in line with what we'd initially hoped for our kids (more memories, less stuff). This is applying to Easter as well.

Instead of big baskets (which we'd never quite gotten to), the kids are each getting a bug box and magnifying glass. The in-laws have sent over candies from Russell Stovers in KC, and the Easter Bunny is largely sneaking in a few small candies and goldfish crackers for tomorrow's (likely indoors) hunt.

We're kicking up our Easter traditions in the kitchen, too. This year will be our first to dye eggs, and I have finally convinced my 5 year old that does not mean watercoloring broken eggshells after we've cooked! We also made for the first time Hot Cross Buns last night, a time-consuming project, though not as bad as making homemade cinnamon rolls. We deviated a bit from the original recipe, swapping dried cranberries for the currants. You could likely swap for raisins or any other dried fruit as well. You'd think my youngest had gone to heaven this morning at breakfast. Tomorrow, we're planning to make Resurrection Rolls, which hopefully can engage even the 3 year old for a few minutes.

But the biggest memory of this season? The grandparents are driving up. And that is the best thing any kid can wish for. Happy Easter!

Chinese Corn and Egg

Cleaning out my freezer the other day, I found a package of corn frozen from the peak of summer. The kids couldn't get enough of it, grabbing the cobs as quickly as I'd removed most of the kernels. This recipe, adapted from a Chinese cookbook of mine, went quickly too. It's a simple dish for a Meatless Monday or for a quick dinner after a busy day. Quick and Easy Corn and Egg 4-5 ears corn, kernels removed 5 eggs, lightly beaten 1 tsp. sesame oil pinch of salt 1 tbsp. butter 2 tsp. peanut oil 1 tsp. finely chopped garlic salt and pepper to taste Combine eggs, sesame oil and salt and set aside. Heat skillet until it is hot, and heat the butter and peanut oil until melted. Toss in garlic, stir-fry briefly, then toss in corn and stir-fry another 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add eggs, scramble and cook until eggs are set. Serve at once.

Clover 'cookies' for St. Patrick's Day

Four-leaf clover "cookies" made the cut for our menu for our St. Patrick's Day celebration in 2010.

Being strapped for time, it was a simple treat: Breadstick dough rolled into clovers and baked according to the package directions.

Powdered sugar, green sugar and milk formed a glaze that went on top. And sticky green smiles went all around.

My daughter declared, "These are the best cookies ever!" And thankfully, they didn't have the sugar or the calorie count of a batch of traditional sugar cookies for the celebration.

More snow on the menu

Snow is once again on the forecast for Indianapolis, and I'm grateful the temperatures this time are warm enough to send the kids outdoors!

But I'm sure they'll want to enjoy a winter treat as well.

I found a few interesting recipes that you can make with fresh snow! We may be trying this for an afternoon snack today:

• Snow ice cream with powdered sugar
• Snow ice cream (from Paula Deen)
• Snow candy (Please note: You will want to use real maple syrup, not the cheap kind, and warm it over the stove, not the microwave. Seriously. There are no 21st-century shortcuts on this.)
• Molasses snow candy

On second thought, maybe I don't want to sugar them up again...

Apple Priss

On the way home from the apple orchard Saturday, my daughter announced that we would make Apple Priss on the way home.

"You mean Apple Crisp," I said.

"No, Priss. With a P."

So I asked her how to make Apple Priss. Here's her advice:

"First you make the priss. You use whippped cream, and if you don't have whipped cream, you use milk. And then you use brown sugar and flour. That's how you make the priss.

"And then you put apples in it. You've got to bake the priss in the microwave for half an hour. After you're done making the priss in the microwave, put it in the bown and put apples on top of it."

Here's how it really played out:

We cored and cooked four apples, unpeeled, in the microwave for six minutes, then chopped them after they cooled. We added a random can of cherry pie filling.

For the "priss" we mixed 1/4 cup melted butter, about 1/3 cup of oatmeal and four tablespoons of brown sugar (I knocked her down from "10 scoops.")

The reality is it's an approximation. Why? I let her do her own thing, which meant that both of my kids got busted by their dad for eating the "priss" topping.

Anyway, if you're still following, we mixed the topping, put it over the pie filling, and microwaved for another five or six minutes. And for a completely made up kid recipe, it turned out great!