Chopped.

I don't know if you have ever seen the show on the Food Network channel, "Chopped".

I found myself engrossed in another episode the other day.  Because, let's face it, what on earth can you do with mystery basket ingredients of mustard, strawberries, and beets in 30 minutes?  I mean, really?  It would take me that long to look through my cookbooks and google it, to find a satisfactory recipe to try, and that wouldn't include any cooking or baking yet!

But those chefs are on it.  And they almost always come up with something presentable and tasty.  Some chefs come up with better dishes than others, but the fact they hit the ground running with their mystery basket ingredients is always fascinating to me.

Partly because I spent the last week pulling myself...or I suppose I should say cooking myself,  out of a vegetable mountain that had developed in our refrigerator.  We are still doing our veggie share every week which has been great but it sure does stretch the imagination!  My mystery basket ingredients are full of vegetables every time.  Some I've heard of, some I haven't.  But almost all are vegetables I don't normally cook with.

And I am definitely not at a skill level to just start whipping things up in the kitchen.  So my cookbooks have been the books I've been reading the most.  And when you get on my computer, just about every tab in my browser has some recipe pulled up that I've been reading through.

This last week we went to work and started using up those mystery veggies.

We ate several different cabbage dishes.
An onion and squash casserole.
I made fried zucchini for the first time (thanks to the suggestion of my sister-in-law).
Another variation of a swiss chard saute.
But Nate found the winning recipe from the last few weeks for a bok choy salad that knocked my socks off.

So I will pass this along for anyone who is interested:

Ingredients

• 2 (3-ounce) packages ramen noodle soup mix
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 3 tablespoons slivered almonds, chopped
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 bok choy, shredded
• 6 green onions, chopped

• Preparation

  • Remove flavor packets from soup mix; reserve for another use. Crumble noodles.
  • Combine noodles, sunflower seeds, and almonds. Spread on a 15- x 10-inch jellyroll pan.
  • Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown; set aside.
  • Bring sugar and next 3 ingredients to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat; cool.
  • Place bok choy and green onions in a large bowl. Drizzle with sugar mixture. Add ramen noodle mixture, tossing well. Serve immediately.

And now we have finally eaten our way through the veggies.  Hooray!  You can be impressed.  I know I was.

But we have now begun a new game.  The I-don't-want-to-buy-food-before-vacation-because-it-will-just-spoil-in-the-frig Game.  So now we are making meals from what we already have in the fridge and cabinets.  I secretly really enjoy this one.  I used to play this even when I wasn't going on vacation when I was single, because I hated going to the store.  And I still do.  Which is why I still like this game.

So another thing I tried recently was making baking mix, instead of buying it.  Not that baking mix really spoils, but it's just a pricey thing to buy at the store.  So I made this up a few weeks ago and then we had pancakes one night this week and used our substitute baking mix instead of Bisquick and I thought the result was quite tasty!

Of course now that I try to find the recipe again, I can't.  But it was super easy and this one is really close to what I ended up doing.  The recipe I did use called for 1 cup of shortening instead of the butter but otherwise exactly the same.  And if you want to do something more complex there are tons of homemade baking mix recipes with more ingredients too.  But I was looking for fast and easy.

Homemade Bisquick Mix

• 6 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
• 3 T. baking powder
• 1 T. salt
• 1/2 c. cold butter
• Measure the sifted flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Use a wire whisk to blend thoroughly.
• Cut in cold butter using a pastry cutter until thoroughly incorporated.

Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 months.

I hope my adventures in the kitchen have resulted in something you might enjoy too!