EZ Cheezee Hashbrowns
From Michelle

32 oz frozen (shredded) potatoes
2 cans cream of potato soup
16 oz sour cream
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese

* Preheat oven 375 degrees and grease the 9x 13 pan you won’t be using for your chicken. 

* Mix potatoes, soup, sour cream, and cheddar in a large bowl, then spread into pan.

* Sprinkle with parmesan.

* Bake 1 hour

From Sue G.

1/2 c uncooked rice
1 tbl butter
1 can Campbell’s French Onion soup
1/2 can water

(This recipe calls for 4 oz of fresh or jarred mushrooms, but since my daughter hates mushrooms, I stopped putting them in. Doesn’t affect the “goodness” at all.  Also, recipe calls for 3 tbl butter and that is so not necessary. So I would use the one tbl  and adjust accordingly if you double or triple the recipe. For the five of us, I would double the recipe. Leftovers are good.)

Take the butter, melt, add raw rice. Recipe says to brown rice but I have never gotten to a stage where the rice browns. So I just let the butter absorb. Turn the heat down to low, add the soup and the water. Cover and cooke 25-30 minutes on low on stovetop. Enjoy!

 

EXTRA HEALTHY RECIPES

The next five recipes are from M. Brooke Robertshaw

Favorite Things To Do With Fruit

Apple, Strawberry, Carrot Juice

Using a juicer, juice:
1 part apples
1 part carrots
1 parts strawberries.

Sometimes I will peel the apples, sometimes not. I cut the tops off the carrots, and the leaves off the strawberries. I have a Champion Juicer, so I have to cut the apples. Greens could also be added to this mixture, though I would recommend using sweeter greens rather than bitter greens.

This is my favorite juice I’ve made. Why? The apples are too sweet and the strawberries are too tart (unless using Oregon strawberries) and they balance each other out. The carrots are very complimentary to the apples and strawberries.

 

Sorbet

Ingredients:
Favorite fruit (s), frozen.
Put in food processor and process fruit. Eat.
I also add liquid vanilla coffee creamer sometime, which makes it taste a little more ice cream-ish.

 

Yumm! sauce

This is an (pretty good) attempt to make Yumm! sauce that is made by Cafe Yumm! of Eugene, Oregon. The recipe isn’t published, and Yumm! sauce can’t be gotten outside of the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

Ingredients
1/2 cup canola oil (preferably cold pressed)
1/2 cup almonds (for a creamier sauce, use almond flour)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup chickpeas or garbanzo beans, cooked
1/4 cup soybeans, cooked (not green edamame beans)
1/2 cup water (important for flavor)
1/2 cup silken tofu
1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh is best)
1-2 garlic cloves (small to medium size)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried cilantro

How to use the ingredients:
In a blender: blend oil, beans, almonds, and tofu together. then blend everything else in.

By the way – I used 3 cloves of garlic, because I subscribe to the feeling that it’s hard to get too much garlic. Next time I may use 4 cloves of garlic. 

Freezing:

I put the Yumm! sauce into 3 8oz yogurt containers and put 2 in the freezer for later use. It freezes and thaws pretty well, so I recommend that if you are wanting to make it in bulk and have it as you need it.

 

Kmaj, a pita like bread, a bread recipe from Palestine

from Gaza Mom (http://www.gazamom.com/2009/08/ramadan-recipe-1-palestinian-kmajbread/)

Gaza Mom is Laila El-Haddad, who lives part time in the US with her Palestinian husband who was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon, and part time in Gaza (when she can get there). Her husband cannot get into Gaza.

Measure and whisk together in a bowl either:

5 cups whole white wheat flour or spring wheat (the softer wheat grain traditionally used in the Middle East, which you can find sold as a 5lb package by Arthur’s or in the bulk section of natural food stores, which label it “organic spring flour” or “organic bread flour”; look for the “spring wheat” in the ingredients list).

Have a bowl of wheat bran (also found in said natural food stores bulk sections) ready handy and set aside for now.

Add:
1 T. yeast
1 T. sugar
1 T. salt
3 T. Olive oil

Gradually mix in, a little bit at a time and starting with just 1 cup and adding more only if necessary:

2-3 cups warm water

Start by mixing dough by hand, then kneading with the palm of your hand or your knuckle, turning the dough over, and kneading again.
Continue kneading until the dough forms a ball (i.e. does not stick to the sides of the bowl anymore). Do not over-knead. Pat top of dough with some olive oil.

Leave to rise in draft-free place for one hour or until doubled in volume. Punch dough down, knead gently for one minute and form into a ball; let rest for twenty minutes.

Form palm sized balls from the dough and pinch ends; place on well-floured surface-or a surface sprinkled with a generous layer of wheat bran*- and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Roll dough balls out to about 1/2 cm thickness.

Cover and let rest for at least 20 minutes and up to overnight (this is the way they traditionally do it in Palestine-they let the flattened dough at this stage to rest overnight to allow a more complex flavor to develop).

Pre-heat conventional oven to 500 degrees or highest available setting. At the same time, preheat an electric or stove-top griddle to medium-high heat.

Prepare baking sheets (baking stones if you have them!) by sprinkling them with bran to prevent sticking.

Begin baking by placing rolled doughs on top of griddle.

Wait a few minutes-or until small sore-like “craters” begin to form, then quickly remove half-baked breads and move to baking sheets.

Quickly place in pre-heated oven and bake for a few minutes or until bread puffs up.

Take bread out and cover with a towel or sheet to prevent the moisture from building up. Tip : nothing like warm kmaj with olive oil and zaatar! (zaatar: middle eastern herb mix that is said to be good for the brain!)

*Note from Brooke: In cooking the bread I’ve simply placed my small cast-iron pan in the stove with flour on the bottom. When I am ready to bake the kmaj I put the kmaj in the cast-iron skillet and cook it in the oven in that. I keep a close eye on the bread and it is ready when it puffs up.   I suspect a pizza stone would work similarly.

 

Tomato Juice & Herb Whole Wheat Bread
Yields: Two 9 x 5 x 3 loaves

Measure	Ingredient
2 cups	Tomato Juice (or Tepid Water if you don’t want the Tomato)
2 cups	Tepid water
¼ cup	Active Dry Yeast
4 teaspoons	Salt
1 tablespoon	Rosemary leaves (or other favorite herb)
1 tablespoon	Fresh pressed or granulated garlic (or other favorite herb)
	*you can leave the herbs out and have a lovely loaf of no herb bread as well
6 tablespoons	Sugar
¼ cup	Butter or Margarine, melted
½ cup	Powdered milk
9-11 cups	Whole wheat flour, a mix of white and whole wheat flour can be used as well
* Note about the sugar	If you use tomato juice you can leave the sugar out and the bread should still rise (it did for me), the yeast feeds off the sugar in the juice.

Step 1. Mix with a whisk: tomato juice, yeast, salt, rosemary, garlic, sugar, butter, powdered milk and butter

Step 2. Allow yeast to activate until mixture becomes bubbly, approximately 10-15 minutes.

Step 3. Add flour to yeast mixture

Step 4. Beat by hand until well mixed.  Turn dough onto floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.  If you have a dough hook and mixer, beat for 5 minutes on low speed.

Step 5. Allow mixture to rise until doubled in size, approximately 45 minutes.

Step 6. After dough rises, place on lightly floured surface and knead well.

Step 7. Shape into loaves and place in greased baking pans.

Step 8. Bake loaves at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes.

Step 9. Allow loaves to cool in pans briefly, and then remove from pans and continue cooling.

Step 10.  While loaves are still warm, brush tops with butter.