Cooking Baking Eating

I’ve now started the journey to eating better and trying to eat homemade rather than store bought junk, because even if you make junk at home it’s still usually better for you than mass produced.

At least that’s my opinion.

One of those things is chips. I love crunchy and salty, and while I’ve found other root chips at the store before (sweet potato, carrot, beet, ect), they were still deep fried and greasy. Not to mention that I could polish off a whole bag in one sitting and then feel completely gross afterwards. Highly addicting.

I tried making my own baked chips at home after I got a mandolin. I ended up with soggy chips and a gnarly slice on my hand from the mandolin. Needless to say I decided the mandolin was for the professionals and took it back.

I rather like my hand where it is.

So I found this recipe on how to make your own baked chips out of kale. I was skeptical because I’ve never eaten kale before, plus it sounded like a bitter leafy green. I decided to take the plunge and try it anyways.
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I got more tomatoes! This time they came from another coworker and he gave me quite the bag of them!

There seems to be such a difference in people’s gardening styles. The first tomatoes I got from my friend were soft, fully ripened and ready to eat. This second batch I got from another coworker is more on the unripened side, a little more orange inside and not quite there yet. But I can understand the reasoning for them to ripen on the counter and last a little longer.

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Its tomato season! It seems everyone is having the same problem of tomatoes or other produce just running wild in their gardens. Which means I benefit by having everyone give me bags and containers of tomatoes!

Tomato season now makes me so excited, ever since my coworker brought me home grown tomatoes for the first time.

Last year I decided I was going to make something I had never actually tried, let alone try to make. Tomato soup. That’s right I had never eaten tomato soup and grilled cheese as a kid. Not sure why, I had a weird culinary upbringing.

I love her. And her tomato growing dad.

So when she brought me my first round of yummy, lovely tomatoes I proceeded to give myself heartburn before I had to stop eating the cherry tomatoes and I knew I just HAD to make more tomato soup this year.

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Now I have my pasta attachments for the KitchenAid mixer, I can make the pasta a heck of a lot easier than before with that stupid manual machine. I would relegate it to the craft area of my life but without the crank handle its just a door stop.

But now on to the pasta.

This was actually the inspiration for making the pasta. I bought this a few years ago with a friend when we were going to thrift stores. The thing I really love about it is the recipe and instructions that line the outside of the bowl.

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This really has to be one of my husbands favorite dishes. He LOVES mac and cheese when we get it at restaurants or fast food.

Honestly? I don’t think I had ever eaten mac and cheese growing up.

Yes, I was a weird one.
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I love my dehydrator. I find it one of the most useful tools for preserving my fruits that are just past peak.

I’ve had some apples living in the bottom drawer of my fridge for a few weeks, but had no urge to eat them at all since they seemed rather squishy. I HATE squishy apples. They have to be almost under-ripe and super crunchy for me to eat them.

So I went to town and sliced up all my apples. There were about 5 large ones, and it made quite a bit of apple chips…

But sadly enough these were all that survived. I made them the same day that my friend helped me to make some ice cream sandwiches, and in between steps we kept munching on them. I have to say I was REALLY full by the time we were done making those sandwiches.

Imagine eating 2.5 apples worth of fiber! That’s a whole lot of fiber!

Most of the time when you find dried apples in the stores, they are thick and chewy and covered in chemicals so they don’t turn brown. My versions are generally thinly sliced and almost over dried, making them slightly crunchy chips. And who cares if they are slightly brown! Yum!

I also like using tart apples for this, it gives it a little more flavor and not too sweet. A friend of my husband mentioned in passing that he always had too many apples due to the trees on his property, hopefully I can get some of those this year and make an arsenal of apple chips!

I just have to remember not to eat them all in one day…

I don’t know why exactly, but I suddenly got the idea to make pancakes. Not just any pancakes, but banana pancakes! I’ve never had or made banana pancakes but it seemed like a great way to have a sweet pancake without adding a whole lot of sugar to them. The natural sugars from the bananas really come out when you cook them, and you really don’t need syrup.

So off I went into the internet and came upon a very simple recipe for banana pancakes on All Recipes. Lovely. I also had JUST enough flour to make one batch of the pancakes.

I have to say they taste pretty darn good. The texture is SO different from regular pancake. Because of the banana bits it’s rather gooey on the inside, which is not really a bad thing texture wise. I also now have pancakes in the fridge to warm up for breakfast tomorrow!

I want to make them again, but possibly use half whole wheat flour instead of only all-purpose flour. I think that will give them a nice and nutty flavor along with the sweet banana. Not to mention it will give it some extra fiber. I also am thinking of using applesauce instead of the vegetable oil, more fiber and less fat.

This could be one of my favorite sweet breakfasts, paired with some fresh strawberries and powdered sugar.
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It’s the breakfast of champions! Well maybe not, but it’s what I had for breakfast this morning after craving it for weeks. What I call the Italian Grilled Cheese, others would probably call a Panini. To me that’s just a super fancy grilled cheese. Call it what it is people, a grilled cheese!

I have started having a love of tomatoes when I was given tomatoes from a friend’s garden. They taste nothing like the tomatoes from the store, but more flavorful and sweeter. It’s sometimes hard now to buy tomatoes from the store, but sometimes you just have to buy them and make your favorite dish.

I first started making these using fresh garden tomatoes, along with some super fresh artisan bread. I first used fresh basil, but found that unless it’s chopped very small, it tends to get pulled out of the sandwich when you bite into it so I ended up using dried basil instead.

I love how the cheese melts, and you get the kick of spice from the basil, garlic and pepper. I know there probably should be a proper recipe for this one, but it’s more of a “soul food” type of dish. A little of this, a pinch of that. I don’t follow a recipe but more of a method and I know what I like. Much of this is just to taste, and I can be very heavy handed on the garlic and basil, but its personal preference.

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