Broccoli Bread - Trust me!

At this point I'm not going to go back and post all the recipes that we used in the last baking day. Most of them are one's I'll make again so I'll just wait till then and post them. Sorry!

However, the Broccoli Bread is totally worth sharing right now. When you go do your shopping today grab a crown of broccoli and a few carrots and just trust me. (Even Anthony eats this - that's HUGE!)

For all those with out a bread machine, I did this one with out mine to show how easy it is to make!

Broccoli Bread

1 crown of broccoli
2-3 large carrots
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup warm watter
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup butter
3 3/4 cup flour (I used 2 1/4 unbleached white and 1 1/2 whole wheat)
3 tsp yeast

Boil a pot of hot watter and cook the carrots and broccoli until both are soft. The carrots take a bit longer sometimes. This can also be done in the microwave if you want. Once soft, puree the carrots and broccoli until smooth, add some of the boiling water if you need to for a smooth consistency.

In you mixing bowl, add all ingredients.

 Using your dough hook, mix until it starts to pull away from the bowl.

Because the broccoli mix is wet, I needed to add about an extra 1/2 cup of flour just to get the consistency right. You're looking for  it to start to form a dough ball in your mixer, not sticking to the sides.

Once that's achieved, plop it out onto a floured surface and kneed for 3-5 min's until it is smooth and elastic.

Transfer to an oiled bowl and let rise in a warm place, covered, until double in size.

Punch it down, kneed it back into a ball shape and rise again.

Take the dough of  the bowl, pull into two semi-equal halves. Form into a log shape and place into oiled loaf pans.

Rise again until doubled then carefully transfer into a preheated 350 degree oven for 20-30 min's or maybe a bit longer until golden brown (or more like golden green) and internal temperature is 180.

This bread is phenomenal cut into thick slices, trenched out a bit and filled with either tuna or ham, topped with cheese and broiled in the oven until crunchy and bubbly.

You can barley taste the broccoli but it certainly adds a good flavor to go with the meats. I wouldn't recommend this for a PB&J but then again, wouldn't judge anyone for trying it out, especially if it means your kids are eating broccoli!

Valentines Day and meal

Happy Valentines Day to all! I hope you and your loved ones take the day to declare your love, maybe thru some pretty flowers or a special meal. (Poetic huh!?!)

Brad and I rarely celebrate valentines as a couple, more often than not, we volunteer to babysit or have others over for dinner. This year is no exception. We have our nephew, my grandmothers, my brother, and our best friend and her daughters all coming for dinner. That’s not to say that we don’t try to make it special. The little girls, particularly Hailey, are really into holiday celebrations right now so I try to make the most of it. My house has little foam hearts all around, some of the picture frames have been adorned with cute valentines wrapping paper and we will be making tomorrow as special as we can, on a budget. I bought some valentines for the girls to make for their family. I also have some construction paper to make place mats for dinner. We picked out some single flower vases for the grandma’s, a dollar picture frame and we will all be helping to make a yummy dinner. Hailey asked to play restaurant for tonight so we will make up menu’s for her to pass out as well.

Mommas Valentines Café Appetizers Sliced Apples with cinnamon peanut butter dip Or Apricot Chipotle cream cheese spread with crackers Main Course House Salad with choice of dressing (Blue cheese, Ranch, Italian, Creamy Cesar) Roasted tomato bread grilled cheese sandwiches Or Whole wheat bread grilled cheese And Tomato soup Or Chicken noodle soup Desert Spice cake with peanut butter marshmallow frosting And/Or Homemade chocolate chip ice cream Drinks Root beer Sprite Chocolate milk with whipped cream Hazelnut Coffee Rose wine White Wine Spritzer

The Apricot Chipotle recipe idea came from the Kraft foods website here. I made it for the Super Bowl and aside from the chicken wings my brother made, it was the only dish completely polished off. I even saw a few finger swipes across the plate to get the last few smears.

1 pkg cream cheese

½ cup apricot preserves (I used sugar free)

1-3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce finely chopped

Smear the softened cream cheese out on a small serving plate or butterfly the brick of cream cheese and lay flat. In a separate bowl combine the preserves with the diced up peppers and some of the adobo sauce. I started out following the Kraft recipe and only used one pepper but decided that it needed more heat to cut the sweet. (I’m a poet and didn’t know it!) So, I added two more, bringing the total to 3 diced peppers and a few teaspoons of the adobo sauce. Spread over the cream cheese and serve with sturdy crackers, like Wheat Thins.

Here's Hailey working on her Tinker Bell Valentines

Here's Dinner: Tomato soup with heart shaped grilled cheese on roasted tomato bread.

 And finally, desert, heart shaped spice cake with peanut butter marshmallo frosting (my hubby's favorite)

I have to say, the roasted tomato bread made the meal. Everyone was sneeking into the kitchen for the scraps left from the heart cookie cutter. Here's the recipe:

2-3 roasted tomatoes

5 roasted garlic bulbs

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 cup warm milk

1 egg

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp itallian seasoning

3 3/4 cup flour

2 1/2 tsp yeast

Roast 2-3 tomatoes, sliced, coated in olive oil, at 375 for one hour.

Before Roast:

After roast:

I also like to roast a bulb of garlic if I have it on hand. Just cut the top off, drizzle some oil over it and close it up in foil.

Before roast

 After roast::

Just squeeze the garlic and the bulbs slide right out.

In your bread machine, add the ingreedients in the order listed. I combine the milk and water into a glass measuring cup, add the butter stick then microwave for 1 min, then add it all in. Set your machine to the dough setting and watch the mixture combine. Depending on the type and ripeness of the tomato the dough often needs either more water or more flour.

When the dough cycle is done, turn out onto the counter, kneed out the air and shape into a loaf. Coat your pan with olive oil and set your dough in to rise, covered, again until doubled. Cook at 375 until internal tempature is 180.

Yum!

I hope everyone had a great valentines! I'm ready to pass out!

Friday

Ahh Fridays, how I love thee!

No, I've never found my motivation, maybe I should check in the dryer?
I spent yesterday at home spending time with my youngest brother who's in from out of town. We played games, watched movies with the kids and caught up on all those conversations that are so much better face to face than via long distance phone call. One of his favorite meals is fettuccini alfredo so I switched up the meal plan last night and thawed the chicken broccoli alfredo I made last Friday. It thawed perfectly and didn't separate at all. It was just as creamy as the day we made it. We served it over pasta with a small side salad and some easy breadsticks. It was delish! I can't imagine eating the chicken broccoli as a casserole though; it would be like just eating alfredo sauce with a spoon. Ok, well, maybe on the right day I could divulge into a spoon or two, but you get the point. The breadstick recipe comes from another blog I follow mostly for coupons and conversations but she has some great recipes now and then. The recipe is intended as pizza dough but I modified it a bit for breadsticks.

1 1\2 cup warm water
2 tsp yeast
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp garlic salt
3\4 cup butter
3 cups flour

Proof the yeast in the warm water for 1-2 min's. In the mixing bowl add all the ingredients and, using your dough hook on low, mix until dough pulls away from bowl then increase to medium for 2 min's. If you don't have mixer just get your hands in there and kneed until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let the dough rest for 10 min's. then roll out to about 1\8 thickness. Using a pizza cutter or other sharp knife, cut into strips width wise about 1 inch wide. Fold the strip in half and twist. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 10 min's. Baste with melted butter and garlic salt and bake for 2 min's. more. Remove and serve warm or, cool and freeze for later.

Thanks MyLitter for the great recipe idea


Today I'm headed to the park with the kids and hopefully do some clean up so we start the weekend with fresh house. We're ordering out from Buffalo Wild Wings tonight for dinner and plan on watching a movie together. Ahh how I love Fridays!

At some point this weekend I need to get to the asparagus from Bountiful Baskets. I found this recipe for asparagus pesto when looking for more to do with the asparagus other than blanching it and freezing it. I'm going to make up a batch this weekend and hopefully the family will like it. If so, then I'll probably make up one or two more batches to freeze.

Have a great weekend!