I loved reading all your comments about food memories growing up or with your own families now. That is the one common denominator that everyone has to eat, and I love how many family memories are created around the dinner table.
Without further ado, the winner of the ChopChop Magazine subscription and the $25 cheese box from Cabot Cheese is . . .
True Random Number GeneratorMin: 1 Max: 65 Result: 44
Kathy
Fried dough on meatless Fridays growing up. Sometimes with sauce and cheese like mini pizzas or with jam or powdered sugar.
Congrats Kathy! Send me your mailing information to mybizzykitchen@gmail.com
+++++++
With temps in the 70s, it hasn’t felt like full on comfort food weather, but I had a taste for pumpkin pancakes. Not kidding I started this recipe 30 minutes before I had to leave the house for work, and it was just fine. I cooked off two pancakes and stuck the rest of the batter in the fridge for later. I am loving Silk Unsweetened Cashew milk lately. 25 calories per cup and it’s super tasty and I’ve been subbing it for heavy cream or milk in recipes.
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
2 medium eggs
3/4 cup Cashew Milk
Mix the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar. Add in the pumpkin, eggs and cashew milk and stir just until the eggs and the batter are combined. Cook over medium/low heat for about 2 minutes per side. These are super thick and dense pancakes and so filling I ended up eating only 1 1/2 instead of two.
Even though it was nice outside, I decided that I wanted to run at lunch. I decided to see how long it would take me to run 2 miles without stopping, and my time wasn’t too bad, considering I haven’t run that much in the last couple months.
Lunch was more lasagna soup! Although this time with fusilli pasta instead of the baby cheese ravioli. I need to get a better knife for the office – the knife skills on my spinach is awful!
My blog friend Louise has been using Blue Apron for a few weeks and has been loving the diversity and new dishes that she normally wouldn’t have tried on her own. Now Louise enjoys cooking just as much as I do, and I thought that having Blue Apron would kind of be cheating at cooking. I don’t know why. Mostly because I, like most food bloggers, love going to the grocery store. Tony used to make so much fun of me when we went grocery shopping because I would literally touch just about everything in the produce section.
The box came while I was at work. When I got home both Hannah and Jacob were out, but Hannah left me a note telling me where to find the food in the fridge from Blue Apron.
On the menu this week was jerk chicken, pork meatballs and a pasta casserole. I hadn’t had pork in a while, and noticing that the recipe called for pea shoots and fresh mint, I decided to do that recipe first so that the fresh herbs wouldn’t go bad.
Yes, you are looking correctly and see that I do have an onion on my shitty ass kitchen counter. While the recipe called for HALF of that onion, um, I used about a tablespoon super finely chopped in the recipe. Baby steps guys, baby steps! I also added garlic because I love garlic in balls. Don’t you?! While the sushi rice cooked, I chopped up the onion and garlic and sauteed that with the “pork meatball spice blend.” Not sure exactly what’s in it, but it smelled like lemongrass and coriander. Then I added the ground pork with the panko bread crumbs, and added the cooked onion/garlic/spice blend and formed my balls. The recipe called for making 16 mini meatballs (this feeds two people by the way) and I ended up with 18. Sauté the meatballs to get a crust, then add water, some of the soy glaze and rice vinegar to the pan to form a sauce while the balls finished cooking.
I chopped up fresh mint, took pea shoots off the stem for a garnish while the meatballs cooked. Then it was just a matter of putting things together! Lettuce cup, some of the sticky rice, I ended up with three meatballs per cup, then topped with the pea shoots and chopped mint. There was leftover glaze for dipping, but I ended up drizzling just a bit of the glaze over the meatballs. And I did add sriracha for a bit of heat.
I left off the pickled red onion, but other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe as written. It took me 24 minutes from beginning to end – faster than take out or ordering a pizza!
But here’s the thing. These meals feed two people. When I looked at what I was being sent I said “Hannah wouldn’t eat any of these” so I planned on making her macaroni and cheese or pepperoni pizza, you know, kind of like a picky 5 year old. 
She got home just as I was finishing taking pictures and she said “Wow, those look good.” I told her she could have one of my lettuce cups and guess what? She loved them! Seriously, she didn’t mind the pork at all!! #winning
Tonight I am making a baked pasta dish that calls for kale. Not the hugest fan of kale, but who knows, maybe I’ll be like Hannah and actually love it tonight!
Time to get this show on the road – make it a great day!
The meal looks good. We have several here in Holland. I don’t want it, I want to decide what I eat by myself. Besides that it’s expensive too. I didn’t even like the veggies box I had after a while because I had to use that during the week, even if I didn’t like it.
Using my cook books more and read several Dutch blogs gives me enough inspiration for cooking.
I feel like those meatballs would be a huge hit in my home!! Nice fall recipe.
Happy Friday Biz!!! Stay warm out there today. I fear we just had our last 70+ degree day. 🙁 🙁
It was still so nice out last night Courtney that I had all my front windows opened – the breeze was amazing. Glad I shut them before I went to bed though! Happy Friday!
Glad you are enjoying Blue Apron. I do love using different ingredients and different ways of cooking with their recipes. It’s only $60 a week, I have been doing once or twice a month, budgeted in with what I usually spend, it’s not a whole long more. What is nice is that I don’t have to go shopping for all the ingred. and they come right to my door. So that saves in gas and time looking for the items needed to make the recipe. I feel like a chef in my own kitchen…lol…it’s been fun trying new things.
The balls do look good Biz, and also your pancakes too.
Happy with it so far Louise! Tonight is jerk chicken 😀
Blue Apron looks interesting, but maybe too spendy for me. It might be fun to try, though!
You can choose vegetarian options too – but since that’s $60 for three meals for two people, you could probably spend less at the store since there is no meat.
Ah, missed it by one! Which is fine, because I won the cheese last time, and it was amazing. And it came with ice packs which are super great. We use them all the time.
Those balls look amazing. I saw them on FB and IG and went mmmm….
I saw that, but then realized you won the last time – and I save those ice packs too!
I’ve tried Hello Fresh and Julie would not eat anything. LOL. I tried it for free and they gave me some free meals to give away. I’ll go back thru my email and see if I can find it to give to you. I think Plated looks amazing!! I see their pics on IG.
I haven’t seen dishes from those other places – I’ll check it out. Julie was probably looking for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches 😛
That Blue Apron meal looks amazing. I haven’t checked it out for myself yet, but everyone raves. Did you find that it was affordable?
It’s $60 bucks a week, so yes and no. It takes care of three dinners, but only for two people, but Hannah wouldn’t eat much of the meals anyway since she’s picky, although she did like this pork dish!
I spend $100 a week on groceries so the weeks I do it, I could easily fit it into my weekly budget 😀
I have wanted to try Blue Apron but have not found a week of recipes I thought my family would eat. I keep looking and will hopefully give them a try someday soon. Your comment about touching everything in the produce department made me giggle. I too can be found fondling, squeezing and smelling all the produce. Never does an item go into the cart without a little “man handling”. The people in the produce department know me way too well 🙂
Ha, that’s why we are such great friends – if we lived closer you and I could share the Blue Apron meals! 😀
Hey Beth, if you’re looking for a really good knife that won’t break the bank, Chris and I bought some of these knives for his kitchen and one for our house. They sharpen easily and hold an edge for a long time, and they feel good in your hand. Just thought I’d share the love: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000638D32?keywords=victorinox%20knife&qid=1446731881&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
Awesome sauce! Thanks for the link Lisa 😀
LOVE Blue Apron! Mine comes today and we also go the pork meatballs, and then the jerk chicken and salmon pastrami. I was always a little wary of fish, but this has really helped me find seafood recipes I really like.
You can look online (and I think on the recipe card) for what is in the seasoning mix. If I find a recipe I really like, I’ll make again using spices in my kitchen for the seasoning mix. Hope you enjoy tonight’s meal!
I opted out of fish because I am not a huge fan, which is probably why I got the pasta as a substitution – going to try the jerk chicken with plantains for dinner tonight 😀
I’d been wanting pancakes for a few weeks and finally made my pumpkin pancakes on Saturday. But I cooked the whole batch and frozen them in bags of two. Future breakfast for the win!
Sometimes I think I’d like to try one of those food delivery services just so I don’t have to think about what I’m going to make! Cost is what stops me.
I got this first set of meals for free, but it normally would cost $60 for three meals serving two people. I probably won’t do it every week, but it’s nice to try out new things and since I normally spend about $100 a week on groceries usually, I could easily fit the $60 into my weekly budget.
And it is nice not to have to think of three dinners for the week!
Those pancakes look delicious!!! How many were you able to make from that recipe?!
I got six – I used my ice cream scoop so probably each pancake was 1/3 cup. ?