On the "Going to Cook" List

I saw this recipe for Chicken Pot Pie With Rice on the Whole Foods website:

I'm totally going to make this. When, I don't know. But it looks amazing.

Homemade French Toast Sticks

I found a recipe for Homemade French Toast Sticks from Once A Month Mom. These can be frozen and pulled out from the freezer as needed. I modified the quantities in the recipe a bit because I didn't want to make that much. I also didn't have the butternut squash puree, so I left that out, although I like the idea.

My kids loved them and they are portable for those mornings when you're running around like a maniac trying to get ou the door and it's necessary for the kids to eat breakfast in the car.

I mixed all of the ingredients in a shallow bowl and sliced this Whole Wheat Batard Bread from Wholle Foods into strips. (This bread was great since I could pronounce all of the ingredients: organic untreated whole wheat flour, water, sea salted and malted barley flour.)

• 2 tablespoons of melted butter

• 1 egg

• 1/8 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup milk

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

I dipped all of the strips in the liquid and laid them out on a VERY coated cookie sheet. These babies stick, so be generous with the spray or oil.

I then baked them in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, flipped them, then baked them for another 15 minutes.

In the mornings, I heat them in the microwave for about 30 seconds and serve them with a small dipping bowl of maple syrup. The first morning my son, the picky eater, ate 7 strips. I would call that a resounding success!

Homemade Organic Egg Noodles and My Version of Fettucine Alfredo, Mellman Style

As I've mentioned before, I'm on a pretty strict diet, so the things I can eat are limited. I really wanted some pasta and wondered if I could make it myself using ingredients I knew I could eat. Turns out, if you're willing to experiment in the kitchen, you can pretty much make anything you want.

Off I went to Cooks.com on a noodle reconnaissance mission and found this recipe for Easy Homemade Egg Noodles. It called for 1 cup of flour, 1 egg and 1/2 egg shell of milk. I can have oat flour and soy flour, eggs and soy milk. Woo-hoo! I chose oat flour, because it's not as dense as the soy flour.

I doubled the recipe and my daughter and I went to work. First, we put all three of the ingredients in the bowl.

This is the part she really likes, mixing it all up:

It was still a little dry, so we added three caps of soy milk (we used the cap on the soy milk container). She was off to the shower, so I made it into a ball and put in on the floured cutting board. This is after I'd flattened it out a bit.

Listening to the background music of a six year old and almost eight year old making an unholy mess in the bathroom, I rolled the bad boy out. It wasn't very sticky, which was sort of surprising. I was able to use the rolling pin no problem.

Pay attention, you'll want to write this down: (a) I had a rolling pin; and (b) I was able to find it. It's a miracle. November 2010.

As I was rolling strips with the pizza cutter, two very wet kids were suddenly at my side. Ooh, kitchen tools. They wanted in.

Mostly, my son wanted to know why he had to hold the pizza cutter so I could take a picture.

Umm, helloooo. Look at that picture. What day job? Just kidding.

Once the dough was all cut up into strips, I put them in a pot of salted boiling water along with some olive oil so they wouldn't stick to each other. I added them one at a time and made sure to stir frequently. They cooked for about 30 minutes on a low boil.

The recipe calls for chicken or vegetable broth to cook them in, which would be great, except I can't eat those. So, for now it's water.

When they were done, I strained them and put them in a big bowl.

I wasn't done, though. Oh, no. I didn't want to eat plain noodles. So I added a little bit of olive oil, goat cheese, salt, pepper and some fresh chopped parsley. My own version of fettucine alfredo. My kids didn't care for the noodles, which are a far cry from the processed bleached semolina noodles they're used to. That's okay. I liked them and I'll keep introducing them to the kids until their tastes evolve.

Right now I'm just excited to have a pasta that works for me. And one that's easy to make and tasty. Can't go wrong with that combo.